Basic HTML Version
PASTOR GENERAL'S
REPORT
Vol.l, No.2
TO THE MINISTRY OF THE
WORLDWIDE CHURCH OF GOD
PASADENA,
CALIFORNIA
Greetings, Ministers and Wives:
August 14, 1979
It was just about two years ago that I died, just past my 85th birth
day.
I had completely stopped breathing. There was no pulse--no blood
pressure. But by frantic life-and-death effort, and a "touch-and-go"
battle with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and pounding on my chest, they
started my heart beating once again. Two women did that--but it WAS GOD
who brought me back to life FOR A SERIOUS PURPOSE!
Two years have gone by--as if they were only two weeks. About nine
months were required for convalescing. But since then much has been accom
plished.
I look back and ask, "WHY did God bring me back?" "What has He done
with and through me these past 15 months?" Primarily He has used me in
SETTING HIS CHURCH BACK ON THE TRACK! The Church and entire Work had been
derailed--sidetracked. It had become a non-spiritual, secular organization
like any commercial organization in this world.
Christ was scarcely in it
any more--nor
even
thought of by those at Pasadena any more than officials
of big steel, automobile, and oil corporations think of Christ in connec
tion with their plans and everyday operations.
These past 15 months the living Jesus Christ has been moving swiftly
to set God's Church on the track.
My job is not easy. There can be NO THOUGHT OF RETIRING! Once God
calls one to His ministry, and he "sets his hand to the plow," Jesus said
he must never leave it or turn back into the secular field of occupations.
"No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for
the Kingdom of God" (Luke
9:62).
Paul wrote Timothy that we
in
the
minis
try must stay with it, "in season and out of season" (II Tim.
4:2).
When I receive a letter from a minister who is discouraged and wants
to leave the ministry, I feel very depressed. I want so earnestly to see
ALL of us in God's Kingdom, but the greatest of disappointments is when
one turns back and leaves the ministry of Jesus Christ.
In Luke 17:32 Jesus reminded us of Lot's wife, who turned back. It
is he that ENDURES "UNTO THE END" that shall be saved. Yes, I am dis-:
tressed and discouraged when I have to see some who have "put their hands
to
the
plow" turn back and leave the ministry.
On the other hand, a letter like the one I shall quote here, gives
great inspiration to me--and I believe it will to YOU--so I shall quote it
in full. It came from one of our ministers of many years of faithful ser
vice: I am thankful and inspired that we have so many dedicated, tried
and proven ministers in God's Church. Below is the letter: