God's Limit's Will Be Sorely Tested If You Buy Lunch On Pentecost!

Pentecost is fast approaching for those in the Churches of God.  This Pentecost is a little different than last years "high" day.  This one is different in what the legalists and Pharisees love to refer to as a "double" sabbath.  The food nazi's are out in force posting warnings before Pentecost.  To them it is  ok to hop in your car and drive 50-150 miles behind some smog belching truck for a combined church service somewhere but it is a grievous sin to stop and get a soda or ice cream cone for the kids.

The Pharisees are making demands of the true believers to do the following. Notice that if you do not follow these expectations and go out to lunch between services then you are severely TESTING God. His mercy only extends so far!  The chances of dying in a car crash on the way home, choking on your food during lunch or having a heart attack during services increase dramatically.  God will NOT be tested by your lunch!

If you don’t already have one, buy a cooler into which you can pack enough food to feed your family and to share if the opportunity arises.
Get acquainted with your local supermarket.
The deli section has cheese, meats, and such things as potato or pasta salad, coleslaw, iced tea, lemonade, and other food that is already prepared and easily consumed.
The produce section has lettuce, cucumbers, and tomatoes for those who like to decorate their sandwiches or salads with such.
Fresh bread or other baked goods from the bakery and what more do you need for a delicious and nourishing meal? [All of which you can buy BEFORE Sabbath or prepare your own BEFORE Sabbath]

Of course remember to pack a bag to stow your trash before putting it in an appropriate receptacle for that purpose.

One more thing to remember, next weekend will be a double Sabbath, so plan accordingly.

Expect some stares and quizzical looks from other brethren as you set up your very own Sabbath meal (once a deacon offered to treat me to lunch and when I told him, “no, this is a Sabbath you know?”, the clueless look on his face made the entire encounter worthwhile). 

There may be many who reason, “I have been buying meals on annual holy days for (fill in the blank) years now and nothing serious ever occurred because of it that I can tell). 

God’s mercy is vast but it does have its limits.

The legalistic mind of the extreme legalists and Pharisees in the Church of God is comical in their justifications.   These chief bastardizers of the law have never kept the law in its entirety and will never be able to. It is an IMPOSSIBILITY!

These men fail to notice that Jesus constantly was in a fight with the legalists and Pharisees but never with the tax collectors, prostitutes, and sinners that were around him.  In fact he sat down to eat with them on many occasions. Almost all of the things he did were done to deliberately provoke the legalists and Pharisees.

On Pentecost as you take out a widow or a family that is struggling financially for lunch, know that what you are doing is good and just and don't let any angry Pharisee wag their fingers in your face.

The people who killed Jesus for disobeying THEIR rules were the legalists and Pharisees.

The legalists and Pharisees are puffed up with pride.  They do the law better than anyone else.  They have set themselves right with God.  External rules are more important than the heart.  Being seen obeying the rules exalts them above the filthy sinners in their midst who are eating lunch in a restaurant while they sit outside on the grass with their styrofoam coolers.  In spite of the external pomposity they portray, deep inside, their hearts are filled with anger, malice and corruption.

Rod Meredith FINALLY Speaks Out and Claims Suicide and Other Deaths are "Tests by God" Against the Faithful

Stung by complete silence after the death of Karl Beyersdorpher and over-the-top public accolades for Bruce Tyler on the front page of his web site, Rod Meredith has finally spoken.  He claims all  of the recent tragedies in the Living Church of God are actually "tests" by his god in a most unusual way.  After a year of many blessings by his god over the year, his god pulled a complete 180 and swiftly started testing the church.  What a cruel god it must be that has to strike down three people that were loved by many and  then lead a man to kill himself just to see how strong the members of LCG are in their faith.

Rod Meredith has never taken any responsibility for anything down through the decades. Everything that happened in his life was a direct result of everyone else around him and never a result of his own dark actions.  It was Garner Ted's fault he was removed as President of two colleges. It was not his fault that he was exiled to Hawaii.  It was all Stan Rader and others. It was not his faulty that he lied on the stage in Tuscon about Leona McNair and then had no problem at all in letting the church  spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend his vile, vindictive mouth.  It was not his sermon that drove Terry Ratzmann over the brink, leading him to murder numerous people in an LCG service.

As usual, Meredith seems to place the burden of these envious upon ht members of LCG's shoulders. Members should be in their knees appealing to God as to what they are doing wrong.

Yet, this year, God is “testing” our Church in an unusual way. We have been blessed and the Work is going forward. But we have had three or four terrible tragedies all take place in the last week or two. These events should drive us to our knees even more powerfully and cause us to “cry out” for God’s Spirit as never before! First, one of our fine local members in Paris, France, Mrs. Monique Dalle, was one of those who perished in the well-publicized “mysterious” downing of the EgyptAir airplane in the eastern Mediterranean a couple of weeks ago. She had a family and many brethren who miss her terribly. God allowed this, as He does not protect us from every tragedy—as we all know—yet He does protect most of us most of the time which we have also experienced. We are very sorry for her death and the sorrow that her family must feel. Then, we have recently heard about the deaths of three of our fine ministers—Mr. Bruce Tyler in Australia, Mr. Gideon Benitez in the Philippines and Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer here in the USA. All of these men were very dedicated men who gave of themselves to serve God’s people in many places around the world. Mr. Tyler was an outstanding servant of God who served—often in dangerous situations—in many parts of Australasia. He ably built and held together and helped “grow” the churches all over the Australasian region. Mr. Gideon Benitez was a fine and dedicated minister serving many brethren in the Philippines. And Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer—for many years living in my own hometown, Joplin, MO—was noted as “Mr. B” around the whole region and made himself beloved by constantly serving and giving of himself to the people in that area as Christ’s minister.

The church knew that Beyersdopher had serious bouts of depression and yet I can almost guarantee the they never encouraged him to get professional help.  Therapy has always tended to be looked upon as a tool of Satan.  I certainly hope he went outside the boundaries of the church for help.  He was seeking medical treatment and I hope it included counseling.

However, in Mr. Beyersdorfer’s case, it was a double tragedy in the sense that he took his own life. Hundreds of brethren in that area know that Mr. Beyersdorfer had had quite a number of serious physical ailments—leading to deep depression at times—and finally, about two years ago, completely of his own volition, asked to be removed as the Pastor. He asked that Mr. Gene Hilgenberg carry on and he would just “assist” him as best he could. He was under a great deal of stress and was sometimes not “himself” according to his wife and many others. He was under medical treatment and at the time he took his life was undoubtedly in one of the “spells” under deep depression.

Brethren, Almighty God our Father understands all this. He is called:  “The Father of mercies” (2 Corinthians 1:3). Our Father in heaven knows that all of us have moments of great weakness. We who really understand the Bible are fully aware that God does not judge just according to what we do in some moment of weakness. Although we want all our young people to be fully aware of the awful consequences of suicide, we feel that Mr. Beyersdorfer will eventually be resurrected and be honored for what he did do in the decades of faithful service to God’s people when his physical and mental condition were normal. But we certainly need to pray for Mrs. Beyersdorfer and her whole family in this situation. And she has let me know that she has no problem with me telling you about the nature of his death. It is better that it gets “all out there” now rather than having it come up and be asked of her and others over the months and years to come.

LCG members need to be prepared for more tragedies like this in the coming years.  Satan is on the warpath and hates the LCG.

For this is a time when the attacks of Satan the Devil—the “murderer” and the “liar” (John 8:44)—are going to intensify as never before. So we all need to be ready! The next few years will be the prophesied time when Satan comes down to this earth “having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time. Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child” (Revelation 12:12-13). 

LCG members need to be shaken awake because of the sins in their lives that lead to these tragedies.  They need to be shaken up so that they see what THEY are doing wrong

I urge all of you at this Pentecost time to truly “cry out,” as I have said, and beseech God to pour out His Holy Spirit upon the Church as never before, to inspire us, to empower us with the gifts of His Spirit. May God grant that these events—in the right way—“shake us” and bring us closer to God than we have ever been before. For we cannot and must not take all these terrible events coming on the world for granted. We must use them as events to drive us to our knees and draw us closer to our Creator and to His Son Jesus Christ. 

 You can read Meredith's entire Co-worker letter here.

Dennis offers a balance...Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer Born---Lived---Died

Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer

Born---Lived---Died

The Philistines overtook Saul and his sons; and the Philistines killed Jonathan and Abinadab and Malchi-shua the sons of Saul. 3The battle went heavily against Saul, and the archers hit him; and he was badly wounded by the archers. 4Then Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me." But his armor bearer would not, for he was greatly afraid. So Saul took his sword and fell on it.

I Samuel 31:3

(If The Living Church of God won't honor one of its own because they judge him unworthy of their praise, I will)

To Paraphrase Roderick C Meredith...

It is with great sadness that I have to report the death of Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer—one of the earliest ministers to come with this Work way back (when I started yet another version of the Church under me). He was ordained (as a young man back in the 1960's which is good enough, ) in the Church of God and continued his faithful service (as best he could  being conflicted, tired of the drama, controversey , change and foolishness) until the day of his death. Mr. Beyersdorfer was always completely loyal to (himself, perhaps standing far too often on the outside while sitting on the inside which can lead to self conflict and depression.  

Mr. Beyersdorfer, for better or worse, went along , as do we all far too often, to get along as best he could while struggling with depression which was his anger turned inward not feeling he had the right to express it, or the cost of doing so would be too high in the Living Church of God. He was only a man just like all others.) and feed the flock in the idealism and naivete' of his his youth as best he could as did we all. 

As a pioneer minister in the (World Wide Church of  God) Global Church of God—now Living Church of God—he helped build this Work with all ( the crazy places he was transferred to with little or no say about it.) He was a faithful human being as best he knew how under (leadership that was far less than ideal). He was a brave man.   So he set an example of faith and courage (just as good and sometimes better , and sometimes worse than any man).

Sadly, in time the battle went hard against him and the archers wounded him grievously in ways and  for reasons only he would have known and emotions only he would have felt.  Sadly, Karl felt no hope in sharing his heart, mind and soul with his peers and certainly not with the Presiding Evangelist or his Board of the Brain Dead .  

Karl lived his life the best he could as at any one time in all our lives, IS the best one can do even if less than perfect or we'd do something else.  Karl understood that the "shoulds" and "musts" of religion don't always match and can conflict with our "can'ts " and "won'ts" often and with power we might not understand ourselves.

Suicide is a taboo subject in most churches.  Meanings and judgments are assigned to such events that make their long term solution to relatively short term problems even harder on surviving family.  When on commits suicide they fail to realize in the emotions and despair of the moment that they will be transferring all their inner pain and turmoil from themselves to their friends and family.  They also fail to realize that it won't solve the problems they feel, the despair they experience and the depression or anxiety they suffer through.  They won't feel anything.    

Let us take heart in the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 7:

 15I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 16And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. 17As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature.^c For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

21So I find this law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me. 22For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; 23but I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. 24What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!

The Apostle Paul  conveniently did not share with us just what exactly it was specifically he did that he hated and he could not do what he thought he should, but we can appreciate his candid humanity on how life really works even among the righteous or at least with those who can admit it.  Admitting shortcomings and conflict of mind and heart to one's peers or pastor can be fatal to many of one's actual intentions and hopes. 

Let us take heart in knowing that in some way , Jesus himself , in despair, sweating blood and left to his fear and despair by sleeping disciples, chose to take his own life in the form of suicide by Romans or "cop" as we might say today.  When Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers, whose presence was actually required to turn filthy Roman coin into Temple coin with which to properly purchase Temple sacrifices, he sealed his fate.  And while John says Jesus did this at the beginning of his ministry, other Gospel writers moved it to the end of the story as a good reason for Jesus to put the final touches on his sure suicide by Romans. Jesus is said to have died for our sins. Karl died , in part, to illustrate the sins and shortcomings of the Church.  Karl endured many more decades of cognitive dissonance under the Armstrongs, Tkaches and Merediths than Jesus did with the religionists of his day  in his mere one year or three year ministry depending on which Gospel one read. We all put up with a lot...way too much because we still thought it was the church in spite of the near yearly scandals.   Fifty years endeavoring to figure out the Bible and those who believe they know what it all means and how it all is , is an amazing and sincere example of patience and endurance under fire. Well done Karl.

Karl had and lived his own story, as do we all.  No two stories are alike no can or should they be.  No two people view their life events, successes and failures in quite the same way.  Some environments offer hope and safety in times of trouble and some offer more trouble in times of trouble for sharing and caring. Karl lived his life in a toxic religious  environment full of hope for the future dictated by men who actually knew little or nothing about it. And so it still is today.

Our deepest condolences and non-judgement of a life well lived to the family and friends of Mr. Karl Beyersdorfer.  

The battle went hard against him and for not being there to love, console and offer compassionate encouragement , and perhaps even physical help, we are all deeply sorry.  Like many who suffer in silence, we simply did not know you needed it to get through the fears and disappointments we all suffer in this life .  We are also so very sorry to the family that "The Living Church of God" does not, in the reality of such events,  have the love of Christ they so often speak about with fine words and scripture. 

Note:  Please do not make all or any donations to The Living Church of God. Karl would probably be displeased. And with regards to eternity...Karl is just fine.

And please take a moment to remind LCG they should be absolutely ashamed of themselves and successfully have served as a terrible example in not honoring one of their own no matter how they passed from this life.