IAUA End Time Ministry
Preparing for the End of Time
The Lord is Coming! Are you ready?
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IAUA End Time Ministry |
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Preparing for the End of Time | |
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The Lord is Coming! Are you ready? | |
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Dear Brethren,
Greetings on this day of preparation for the weekly sabbath. It has been a very hectic week for me. I thank the Lord that He provides strength for our need. I can't help but be suspicious that the Devil is attacking me. My life has been mostly smooth these last few months but lately it has been trying. The most recent trial is a round of doctor's, X-rays, casts, cat-scan for my grandson's fractured hand. I am not skilled at being Mr. Mom. There have also been severe technological glitches with my websites and email. I have lost a lot of email which is very distressing because of the many people I communicate with by email. All email for the last week was lost because of an error in the spam filter on my website. I am developing an extreme distaste for technology.Oh well enough about my troubles. :-) I have a concern about commercialism and the merchandising of the Gospel message. I resolved from the start to never be engaged in selling truth on the internet. I provide everything I know without charge. I have encouraged those I work with to do the same. Some have agreed, some have not. I have also refused to copyright anything I write on the internet. I do not believe it is proper to copyright truth. I also find it so much more effective to hand someone a card with a web address rather than try to sell them a book or video. The only thing as easy and maybe more effective is to give them a free tract or book. The cost of producing these items can be an expensive problem. A web address can be shared exponentially without any additional cost to anyone. I have recently read some interesting quotes from Ellen White about merchandising which got me to doing some additional thinking. Please do read them further in context and with further study. A great mistake has been made by some who profess present truth, by introducing merchandise in the course of a series of meetings and by their traffic diverting minds from the object of the meetings. {1T 471.2} {PaM 66.3} Ministers have stood in the desk and preached a most solemn discourse, and then by introducing merchandise, and acting the part of a salesman, even in the house of God, they have diverted the minds of their hearers from the impressions received, and destroyed the fruit of their labor. {1T 472.1} {PaM 271.1} Ministers and people frequently bring their merchandise to these large gatherings, and the truths spoken from the desk fail to impress the heart. {1T 469.2} Ministers should have no separate interest aside from the great work of leading souls to the truth. Their energies are all needed here. They should not engage in merchandise, in peddling, or in any business aside from this one great work. {1T 470.1} We cannot afford to use the few enfeebled, crippled energies which we possess, in serving tables, or mingling merchandise with the work God has committed to us. {GW92 196.1} {PaM 65.3} {1T 470.2} As a people we stand reproved of God because so much talent is absorbed in mere commercial interests, while the all-important work of soul-saving is left to languish. Such an intensity of effort should not be given to the manufacture and merchandise of food products, while souls are left to starve for the bread of life. {HFM 74.1} Will men make merchandise of God's ordained plan for reaching the dark parts of the earth with a manifestation of His benevolence? {MM 131.2} {SpTB01 19.1} Shabbat Shalom
Frank T. Clark
Next: 2004-11-26 Thanksgiving |
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Revised 2004-12-19 |