Are you willing to go all the way for God?
Are you truly supporting God’s work, or do you just think you are? Are you doing something with the knowledge God is giving you through the Trumpet, or are you content to read and listen while doing nothing about it? Are you waiting it out, hanging on and doing your own thing until Jesus Christ returns?
In 1954, Herbert W. Armstrong received a letter from a conflicted 21-year-old girl. She had been exposed to the truth of God from her youth. When she became a young adult, however, she began to fear what people would think if she really committed to the teachings of the true Church. She was afraid that they would see her as a religious fanatic. So she dragged her feet. She didn’t fully commit to God’s work. She didn’t want to do anything—she just wanted to wait it out. Mr. Armstrong wrote her a lengthy letter encouraging her to act. He reprinted it in the Good News as a motivation for others.
Are you in the same position as that 21-year-old? Are you unwilling to go all the way for God? Are you afraid of what people might think? Maybe you think, Well, I’ll just wait it out and see what happens. Or, We probably have a few years left, so I don’t have to act just yet.
We talk a lot in God’s Church about the work God has given us to do. Jesus Christ said in John 5:17, “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.” When God calls someone into His Church, the reason is that there is work to be done.
Mr. Armstrong often explained that the apostle can only do his job successfully when he has supporters. In 1 Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul compares the Church to a human body—made up of many different parts, each important to the function of the whole. In the Body of Christ, every member has an important role to play.
Mr. Armstrong also explained that being a true Christian means doing. It means changing the way you live. We must develop character, and one major way we do that is by supporting the work of God. It’s too easy to sit back and think that someone else will do it, or that you have nothing to contribute. That is shallow, selfish thinking.
Noah labored for a hundred years building the ark. What if he had thought, “Well, I’m just one man. All these people are mocking me. What use is my work, when there’s not even a sign that the Flood is coming?” But because of that one man, his faith and his willingness to work for God, human civilization still exists today.
John 6:44 says that no man can come to Christ except the Father draws Him. The Father is the one who calls and draws. The Bible also tells us that many are called, but few are chosen (Matthew 22:14). Very few people respond to God’s call, and even fewer stick with it and support God’s work.
Ephesians 4:4-6 says there is “one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Matthew 16:18 shows that there is only one true Church. There is only one Body of Christ. If you are not part of that one family, then you are not part of the Body of Christ!
The work behind the magazine you are reading represents the one true way. The fruits are plain if you open your eyes and see what God is doing.
Ask yourself: How much more can I do to help support God’s work? How much more can I put my heart into it? What more can I do?
Do you want to be part of the solution? Do you want to contribute to preparing for a new world based on God’s perfect and righteous laws? Thousands have joined this cause over the years. And you too—whoever you are, wherever you are, no matter how old or young, no matter how serious your problems or what you’re struggling with—can share in this cause. You can join this worldwide work, if you are willing to forsake the ways of this world.
God is not looking for perfect people. He knows we are flawed. God calls the lowly (1 Corinthians 1:27-28). But He calls the lowly to come out of this world, and to come into the Family of God. Christ isn’t going to marry 150 competing religious groups when He returns. The Bible says He will marry one Bride, that is the Church of God. But we must be with Him, in His Church, committed to His cause, in order to be part of that future.
You can be part of that. God will help you. God’s Church will help you. God’s ministers will help you. With God’s help, you can repent and change and come out of this world. Thousands of others have done it, cleaning up their lives with God’s help and getting behind this work.
You should do it too. God needs you.