Over 25,000 Hours
Back to The Work of God
This incredible process spanned a period of approximately 25,000 hours, between my late wife and me. Because she was a very fast typist (and I am sure that God provided her wonderful support in part for this service), I was able to move sometimes at great speed through a task that shortness of time would not permit to again occur over a period of 52 years, as could happen with Mr. Armstrong. God knew the age was short—and that a ;short work was His purpose—as well as that He had to intervene in a most powerful way to help me complete the task. This included giving both my wife and me an unbelievable strength of endurance to carry on day after day—and for years!
And yet our enemies scoff.
If the reader will think about this, really deeply ponder it, it will become obvious there could have been no other way for it to have been accomplished. And it stands as its own towering MIRACLE, declaring that God leads this Work!
And yet our enemies scoff.
Early on, my wife and I developed a sophisticated system whereby she could know, through a series of physical signals and spoken one-word terms, when I had a complex thought train in mind that she must type without interruption. Many were the times I knew God’s Spirit was placing one thought after another in my mind, often arranged like many boxcars following in a train. The thoughts would come and come and come, for hours and hours and hours, over days, weeks, months—and eventually years—until all the publications were completed. Of course, as with every writer, it was necessary to clarify, strengthen, tighten and generally improve the text afterwards through edits before each was finished and ready for printing.
Nothing could explain what occurred as happening solely on the human level—on human power or ;steam. No physical pile of clay could do what I had to do—and that certainly includes me! (And my wife.) The recognition that one is being used directly by God to do something that he or she simply could not do on human strength—and for a task so SUPREMELY IMPORTANT!—is what made this experience so humbling, and at the same time so inspiring. When truly understood, all room for any kind of bragging is removed.
A note to accusers and persecutors that they might consider their attacks in a new perspective: While you may be trying to discredit me, you in fact greatly overcredit me. When you suggest that either I or my wife could have done this on our own, even a fraction of it, you have unwittingly assumed a human being is capable of what no man could do. Not for a moment would all of this have been possible without CONTINUOUS MIRACULOUS HELP from Almighty God. None could ever be so arrogant as to believe this could be done through ;brainpower.
Attackers—reread Matthew 12:31-32 and Acts 5:34-39 —and be careful what you speak against!
To all others, if you are anointing your eyes, you have much to consider in which organization you attend. Ponder this account as you look for the hand of God at work today.
Be sure to look for the right things!
Let’s Talk About You
This chapter was originally written to the members of The Restored Church of God. But it has application to everyone with the Spirit of God.
It takes less than an hour to read one of our booklets, depending on its size. Books would be more. If I or our staff can spend many hours researching, writing, editing, proofreading, formatting, printing and mailing them, those who profess to love God’s teachings can certainly find the time to read them—as every member did (or should have) when first learning God’s Way. The value for those who do this has been enormous. (New RCG members may request any or all of our materials—15 at a time—and these are all listed in a beautiful literature catalog sent automatically with our Splinter Packet.)
Look at the apostasy from a final perspective. If brethren had taken time to periodically review Mr. Armstrong’s literature, more would have held to the truth when the apostates threw it out—and done so again as their current leaders selectively threw away many of the same doctrines. Tragically, now regretting their action, many people can remember throwing away all of Mr. Armstrong’s literature at the request of the apostates.
Have you considered how important carefully rereading God’s many truths is to ;holding fast (Rev. 3:11)?—or that God deems it vital for you to regularly do this?
Should there remain any question in your mind about this?
Also, taking time to reread relevant verses will help you to much better ;endure sound doctrine—while many around you turn to an endless variety of ;fables (II Tim. 4:1-4).
I have explained to RCG members that it will be easy to fall into the pattern of not reading each book, booklet, article or other publication (magazines, bible lessons, etc.) that arrives, and that they should fight this temptation with all their might! For example, several years ago, a man left The Restored Church of God because he wanted to observe New Moons. At the same time, he suddenly decided ;Mr. Armstrong was wrong on at least twelve separate doctrines. We found out he had never proven Mr. Armstrong was the final Elijah beforejoining us, or that truth only enters the Church through apostles. (He had led us to believe he had.) Upon learning he should do this, after some thought, he decided (quickly) that he had no interest in proving these things. Since he ;knew Mr. Armstrong was ;wrong on so many points—his own human reasoning andfeelings were the sole source of this conviction—he concluded that he could not possibly have been the Elijah. This allowed, and actually paved the way for, him to fall into wrong ideas after coming with us.
Had this man taken the time to thoroughly PROVE why he should be here, and why he should continuallyREPROVE God’s truth, he would have had a greater chance of surviving the test that swept him away into error!
Books, booklets, articles, Bible lessons and magazines have poured from RCG headquarters. Determine to read them!They have been produced by an extremely zealous staff working many thousands of hours to feed you ;to the full. A loving God is offering you a SECOND OPPORTUNITY to cherish what you may have taken for granted.
Grave Disservice
You saw proven that Mr. Armstrong talked constantly about how our hearts must be in the truth and in the Work of God. Surely he said and wrote this hundreds of times. It was his continual theme in virtually every one of his co-worker letters—and it was the theme that gave his life meaning. Ours, too.
Let’s rephrase Deuteronomy 17 ALL from the perspective of the Work. You do yourself a terrible disservice if you neglect taking time to ;[re]copy the words of the law—the literature bringing back to your remembrance and to your thinking all that you were taught about the importance of God’s Work—and thereby allow your heart to be ;lifted up among your brethren in Laodicean smugness.
If this happens, God can not work with you because He resists the proud and can only give grace to the humble (James 4:6). As with the kings of Israel and Judah, you will soon cease to fear God, and will drift away from serving Him ;all the days of your life—AND this means you will lose interest in the Great Commission of helping take the announcement of the kingdom of God and the rest of God’s truth to the world, as well as helping to issue the final, greatest warning of all history to the nations of Israel and the brethren of the last era!
Believe these things—and ACT on them!
More than just with reproducing the Church’s literature, we strive to do everything with a master plan in mind…
Back to The Work of God