Sabbath 9/4/34/120

Dear Friends

The Sabbath is a day for peace and quiet and for worshipping the One True God.   It is hard to sometimes get rid of the cares of the world and worship in peace and quiet.

Sometimes we are offended by false ministers who are thieves and wolves in sheep’s clothing. Recently I had to take action against some of the officers of the church for fraud. Some of the aspects of the fraud were despicable. What I found difficult to deal with was the fact that the people defrauded did not know and they assumed because the CCG had not sent a minister to the funeral of one of our ministers that the church was somehow to blame and they became offended.

The fact was that one of our ministers died suddenly and the church sent funds through his senior minister to cater for the funeral and the expenses and to assist his wife. My family sent funds for their feast as well to help them and give them some joy in what was a sad time. I knew the family and I liked them and had great respect for all of them,

The minister was despatched to the funeral with sufficient funds to have the expenses paid. He simply kept the funds and did not turn up and the funeral of our minister and subsequently did not turn up at the funeral of the elderly man I respected and had sent funds to assist. What he did was take the monies of his fellow minister and leave his widow to pay the expenses and had no CCG minister conduct that service or the other relative’s service the year later. The family were offended as though CCG had been at fault. He sent a false report of what transpired. How despicable.

They did not think to contact HQ as if there might have been a problem and they stayed home bitterly offended because of the conduct of the dishonest minister. That was not the only crime committed by the minister and we are now involved with criminal proceedings against the man and an accomplice. 

If each of the members of CCG had been in contact with the CCG system and HQ over such issues then we would have prevented the problem from occurring or prevented other problems from occurring.

It is safe to assume that unless the family requests otherwise the CCG will send a minister to assist and officiate at such matters. Remember, the Two Great Commandments are the guiding lights of the Church of God and the test of the Philadelphian era. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your mind and all your strength and the second is like unto it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets (see the papers The First Great Commandment (No. 252) and The Second Great Commandment (No. 257)).

Never be offended and assume that you have been left behind. No news is not good news and you must follow up any perceived problems. In that way we can identify problems in the ministry and get rid of them.
Remember we do not condone offences in the ministry and we do not leave our people unattended and alone. You might be the only one in your nation in CCG but you will never be alone. Of that you can be sure.

Wade Cox