New Moon 1/4/29/120
Dear Friends
This is the New Moon of the Fourth month. It is a double Sabbath weekend and so we can all take the time to reflect on where we are and what we are doing.
The Fourth month, or the month of Tammuz, or Dumuzi marked the crisis in the children of Israel. It was from this point that they commenced to make and worship the Golden Calf (see the paper Ascents of Moses (No. 70)). Aaron said, “I don’t know what happened: I just put it in the fire and out came this calf.” How often are we like that? Is that a responsible attitude?
It is often our own problems that manifest themselves in the way we deal with others in our progress in the faith. We have all been quite intrigued by the activities of those who would attack and criticise us thinking they do God a favour. It is always our leaders that take the brunt of it, but so too do the members in their daily trials. Each of the members of the Church has to stand for the faith in his/her own way and face the hard decisions, often without the presence and support of their brethren.
Recently, one of the new people coming to us was faced with the fact that a parent was an officer in a Trinitarian Church, and when faced with what we believed, was hostile about it. However, he began testing our doctrines against the Bible and found he was faced with some uncomfortable facts regarding what he believed and what the Bible said. Pray for the brethren who have relatives in other and hostile faiths.
People who are reading and studying the faith and the papers approach us all the time. Many are keeping what we teach in spite of having not formally joined us. We have some fourteen churches in the Sub-Continent seeking affiliation at present, and some in South America and others in Africa. There are also churches using our doctrines and growing in places of which we were unaware. God nourishes groups or congregations everywhere, and reserves those to Him who have not bowed the knee to Baal. We do not seek everyone to join us, but we do ask that those who do are honest and loyal and work together in the faith. When they no longer agree then they should depart in peace and be at peace.
A spirit of accusation is not the spirit of God. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and those that accuse do his work. The attacks against the faith have always had the same thrust for two thousand years. We have not changed since the First century. We merely wax and wane in our knowledge among groups of the Churches of God. Satan uses and develops the false systems in order to corrupt the faith and attacks the Church with that system. That is why the false system is called the whore and has many harlot daughters. She is called Mystery, Babylon the Great, and Mother of Harlots (see the works Mysticism (B7_A)).
Many people are tested in the trials they face. Some people face trails through their disabilities. Others are faced with trials through the disabilities their family has to deal with and sometimes it is manifested in associates of your social or church structure.
Sometimes we see parents distressed at the problems suffered by children with mental or behavioural disorders. Sometimes mental disorders manifest themselves in families and are passed on by chemical imbalances and sometimes by learned behaviour. Often people accuse others of having the very problems they possess in their families and themselves.
The Church is to help those with such problems and if a person has instability then he/she should be given expert help and guidance. Mental disorders are often the simple process of a chemical imbalance, and the people suffering them need diagnosis and proper medication. Even the ravings of the mentally disabled in accusation and hysteria are more to be pitied than taken as the source of offence.
Satan is a roaring lion that goes up and down in the world seeking whom he might devour. The problem is that he often gets to us through the ones we love. Some people who are disturbed by the behaviour of their children do not recognise the fact of their own aberrant behaviour. Often they accuse others of having what they themselves suffer.
In each of our relationships we should be looking at the way in which we can help others. Many people think themselves righteous and make comments about others, and think they do God a favour in so doing. Many do not understand the power of the tongue and its insidious effect on the morale and attitudes of others. This aspect of the tongue has been examined in the paper The Epistle of James (No. 279). Over the last twelve months we have probably seen more false statements made about those of the faith than in many years previously. Our task is to get on with our job. We have to make strength productive and weakness irrelevant.
When people are a danger they should be given the help they need. That help is sometimes against their wishes. Often people do not want to take medication, but it may be the only way they can be assisted. If a family member needs help you have an obligation to get it for them. Do not leave others of the family at risk of violence through mental instability.
We can choose our friends but we cannot choose our relatives. That is so also in the Church of God. We understand that God gives us those of the faith. We are all predestined and chosen to be called. We are called in our turn and then justified and glorified. Those called are our brothers and sisters. That means Jesus Christ is not to lose one of those chosen by God to be called to the faith. That also means we are not to be the cause of offence either, and we have to help others in prayer and by works.
Each of us has to be a source of love and guidance for the brethren. However, those who are hostile to us are not to be permitted to disrupt the peace and order of the Church. Love and support are not to be confused with licence.
It is now three months to Trumpets, and the New Moon of the Seventh Month. Each of us can prepare for the Feast and work on how we can make the lives of those around us more enjoyable. Many people need the Feast to be a source of peace and quiet for the problems they face in their daily lives. For others it is the only holiday they get. Make their Feast enjoyable. Take your mind off yourselves. It is amazing how wonderful the Feast is when you concentrate on making other people’s lives a joy and a blessing. God seems to bless you when you bless others.
Love others and they just might love you.
Wade Cox
Coordinator General
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