Remember those days of spending seven days in Mt Pocono, Lake of the Ozarks, The Dells, or Squaw Valley?
Remember driving down the freeway to your assigned Feast site and being passed up by other cars with FT stickers on them?
Remember seeing the pavement through the floor boards of your twenty year old car as you headed up the freeway? You knew angels were going to get you to the Feast site safely so you made a game out of counting road kill as you saw it pass underneath.
Remember the pride and excitement you felt as you got closer to the Feast site and started seeing all the signs on the hotels saying, :"Welcome Worldwide Church of God!"
Remember the hurricanes that turned back from Jekyll Island and pounded Cuba and caused myriads of deaths while you basked in the safety of a bouncing, rain soaked tent?
Remember how on the Last Great Day you breathed a sigh of relief. An end to the mind numbingly boring sermons was in sight!
No more long distance walks from the parking lot to the convention center in the rain. Oh the rain! You had never seen so much rain! Surely it was Satan trying to put a damper on the Feast.
No more picnic lunches between three services on holy days. No more standing in line at snack food stands in the parking lots for a cup of coffee or hot chocolate.
No more listening to other church members in restaurants asking the waitress if there was pork or shellfish in their food.
You would soon be heading home after gorging and drinking yourself into oblivion for seven days. Oh, sorry! You were not ministers so you could not afford to do that. You could not stay in Mt Airy Lodge, so you had to rent an efficiency cabin where you had to cook and prepare all your food. But that's another story.
Back to the Last Great Day.
Before you headed off to the final service you went and paid your hotel/motel bill. You had the kids look under all the furniture and beds for lost toys and clothing. You cleaned your unit as best as you could remembering that TRUE Christan's left things better than they found it. You packed your bags and loaded you kids into the car and headed off to the convention center (or tent.)
Then you sat there listening to a minister tell you to dump all of your access second tithe into the offering baskets since you would not be needing it anymore. You wondered how you would be able to pay for the gas and overnight stay on your way home, so you did not put a lot of money in the basket as waves of guilt swept over you.
You had a lump in your throat as the final hymn was sung, "God Be With You Till We Meet Again." then it was over.
But not quite yet though. An announcement had been made for all able bodied men and boys to help stack up and store all 10,000 folding chairs. A sweeping crew was to sweep the building. A restroom crew cleaned up the restrooms, and select men helped the ministers load their Lincolns and Buick Rivieras for their trip back home.
But little did you know you were pawns in Satan deceiving the Church by 'working' on The Last Great Day! How dare you pay your hotel bill, pack your clothes, clean up the convention center all before the sun went down!!! Grievous sinners! Reprobates! You are headed straight to the Lake of Fire! The Apostle has this to say about you:
To the Groups making up the Church of God
The Last Great Day, The Eighth Day of the Feast: Is a High Holy Day, Lev 23:36. It is a Holy Convocation. You shall do no servile work (work of any kind) therein.
For generations now, The Church of God has made it a practice to hold services early, on the Eighth Day; to facilitate the travel plans of their members. People claiming to be converted Godly people: have paid bills, packed belongings, cleaned their temporary dwellings and traveled on this High Holy Day. And their ministers have encouraged this in word and deed.
FOR SHAME: This is a DISGRACE and a blot on your garments. The Eternal will not hold you guiltless for defiling His Holy Time. Repent quickly and turn from this wickedness; lest ye be corrected.
