Be a Living Epistle

What I'd like to talk to you about today is a subject that kind of became resurrected in my mind after I was invited to Oklahoma City in January, my wife and I, for a special Ladies Night Weekend for their leadership club. And they had a theme for the Sabbath and also for the club meeting and for just a plain whole weekend. The subject was, Be a Living Epistle. Mr. Dowd is the one who invited us and sent us information about that and said, would you like to perhaps give a sermon that touches on Be a Living Epistle?

Well I looked it up to see where that was in the Bible. It's in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 1, and I found the subject to be fascinating of all implications of being a living epistle or being a living letter. The context for this was that the Apostle Paul established a church and it turned out to be a very, very larger church, a lot of churches, a lot of buzz and noise and able people and so forth in Corinth, and a church that quickly ran into some difficulties.

People started gathering in cliques, I am of Paul, I am of Apollo, I am of Christ and so forth. Some people took each other to court. It was a very advanced church. There were a lot of real progressive people there, but were too progressive for their own good. And they were really becoming very carnal in the things they did. They even got drunk, had passed overnight, they turned it into a sham, and the Apostle Paul was horrified by what he saw. And at the top of the list of their indiscretions was allowing a person who was committing, who had an affair with his stepmother.

And the people in church knew about it and did nothing about it. In fact, they were very proud of being forgiving, understanding, and advanced in their thinking, like in our society today. Well, the Apostle Paul wrote a corrective letter, which he was holding his breath of whether he should really say these things or not. But he did say them and sent them, 1 Corinthians, the most corrective book or letter in the Bible. He sent Titus to go there and to see how the people would react to what happened.

And when Titus returned, he brought back good news. The people were horrified at themselves for what they allowed. And the people, most of them came to repentance. Most of the people changed. They excluded from fellowship the person who was committing immorality. The Apostle Paul was so moved by this, he said, well, okay, maybe we should bring him back. He's repented. Don't overburden him with his punishment. Bring him back. He's repented. He's changed. And it appears that they had also changed some of their other habits that were just really unacceptable. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 3, though, not all was fully there together because the people still were critical of certain aspects of Paul.

They claimed that he was fickle. He was proud. He was unimpressive in his appearance, which comes from a number of places in the New Testament from the writings of Paul in the book of Acts that he was not a very macho type of person. Perhaps some type of impediment was there. He was a very wise person, a very knowing person, had a very deep heart and love for people, but he was not a person who was just the kind of impressive person that you would think of.

Some thought he was dishonest, and some thought he was unqualified to be an apostle of Jesus Christ. Well, the apostle Paul makes mention of this because some people are actually asking the question, Paul, what makes you qualified to be a minister? What makes you qualified to be the apostle who set this church up here? Show us your credentials. Show us your degree. The apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 1, Are we beginning to praise ourselves again?

Are we like others who need to bring you letters of recommendation or who ask you to write such letters on their behalf? He says, surely not. I said, I can't believe you're even asking this. Now, for the most part, the church was fine. The church had repented, but there were certain people who still had these questions.

Okay, Paul, show us your qualifications. Paul didn't need letters of recommendation to introduce himself because he did start the church, after all, in Corinth. He was already very well known. In 2 Corinthians, he said he was different than other people were. In fact, already, just by what he writes in the last verse of chapter 2, it's evident that there were already other people who were beginning to infiltrate the church and take advantage of the brethren.

2 Corinthians, chapter 2, verse 17, he says, you see, we are not—this is from the New Living Translation, which I like the way it's translated—you see, 2 Corinthians 2, 17, we are not like the many hucksters who preach for personal profit.

We preach the word of God with sincerity and with God's authority, knowing that God is watching. And nobody can take away the sincerity that Paul exuded in his writings. He was the first one out there to teach Christian values and Christian principles. All these, as he calls them, hucksters, were people who followed, who wanted to basically bleed off of his success, or the success of the churches. Verse 2 of 2 Corinthians 3, the only letter of recommendation we need is you yourselves.

You're our credentials. It's not going to be a piece of paper that really makes us what we are. It's what happens in your life, you yourselves. Your lives are a letter written in our hearts. Everyone can read it and recognize our good work among you. So you want to find out if a minister is qualified, what his qualifications are, take a look at the congregation, take a look at the fruits of his labors, take a look at the outcomes of his preaching, his visiting, his counseling, his care, his sacrifice for the brethren. Verse 3, clearly you are a letter from Christ showing the result of our ministry among you.

One thing about Paul, he really had a way of just really saying things very, very straight. He did it in his first letter, and he's doing it again here in the second letter about his ministry, his qualifications, and defending his role and position.

This letter, you're looking for a letter, you're looking for some certificate, is written not with pen and ink, but with the spirit of the living God. It is not carved on tablets of stone, but on human hearts. So he's saying that the letter that you really need, the certificate that you really need, is something that's written with the Holy Spirit. It's the word of God that's the ink, and it's written on your hearts. It is something that's really deep down inside of you. This is actually what God is looking for in all of us, and he tests his church, he tests his people time and time again. He's testing you and me, and he will continue to test us. As he tested Abraham for his faithfulness, and the things that he demanded of him, and the things that's demanded of the church to see how faithful we are, and what's down deep in our hearts, of whether we will follow him when we are wronged, whether we are we will follow him, whether we can't understand life when life doesn't make sense. Oftentimes, the biggest lesson of when life doesn't make sense is are you going to still follow God? Are you going to obey him and still live a life of righteous conduct and behavior? Or are you going to fold and collapse, as many have? This actually is the agreement that God has always intended to have with human beings, of people who have come to repentance, of a choice and volition of their own voluntarily, to obey and follow God from the heart. Jeremiah 31. This was back in the Old Testament, back in the Old Testament, where this was expressed. Jeremiah 31. The basis of the new covenant. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, the day that I took them by their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. My covenant, which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord. Back in Deuteronomy, God said they didn't have the heart to do it. There's a missing dimension. They didn't have the Holy Spirit of God. But this, verse 33 of Jeremiah 31, is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel. After those days, says the Lord, I will put my law in their minds and write it in their hearts.

Paul said that you who are converted, what's in your hearts, you are my qualification.

You are my license to operate. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Paul said in other places, in the first book of Corinthians, too, every minister has a responsibility to build.

Some ministers build with gold, silver, and precious stones.

Others build with wood, hay, and stubble. This is in 1 Corinthians 3, verse 12.

A fire comes, and believe me, fires come through our lives, trials come through our lives, and it's a test. What's been built with wood, hay, and stubble burns up.

What's been built with quality materials. What's been built with counseling, care, and love, and a pastor who's not a hireling, not just one who's just sent there to do a job, but knows that his responsibility, his job, and more important, his calling, is to be a servant of God to the people that he serves. And that work will be preserved.

What church would you recommend for people to go to? You would want people to go to a church that really shows a lot of love and interest and genuineness one to another, not people who are fake Christians, like there's fake news. We have also fake Christians, but people who are true Christians, not those that just talk and even know the Bible, but down deep their lives are far from being converted. Jesus told his disciples in John 13 and 35, these were among his last words to his disciples before he was crucified, very important words that were recorded, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. And can we say that the church in Phoenix or the church in New York or Cincinnati is God's church, is Jesus Christ's church, because of the love that people show one for another. That's their evidence. That's the truth. That's the proof of the pudding of what people are like. But if they come and see people quarreling, people being snobbish, people immodestly dressed, whatever, they'll say, well, I don't know. I don't know about these people. They say one thing, but they do something else. No, they see people who live that life, talk that life, and practice that life. And that's the best advertisement of all.

Now, I would like to see our church be able to expand out into the community. I know that this is impossible because of the size of the world that we have to deal with, the size of our churches, and so forth. But you do have a world around you of people that you know. You have people who are very, very close to you at your workplace. They see how you conduct yourselves, how you react, how you counter challenges at work. And they're judging you all the time, maybe not in a conscious way, but they see how you conduct yourself, the wisdom that you use. And believe me, that goes a long way to being a persuader and one who convinces people of the truth. I'd like to talk to you about this type of disciple, more about this person who is a living letter. First of all, did you know that Christian, the term Christian, is used only three times in the New Testament?

We call ourselves Christians, but it's only used three times, and two of those times it's a label that's affixed by those who are not Christians. The first time Christian is used is in Acts 11, where the followers of Jesus Christ dispersed. Stephen was martyred. People were frightened, and God allowed that to happen, in a sense to kind of get the people out to different areas. And there was quite a number of people that headed for Antioch, a city north. Antioch was a very, very important city at that time. It was the third most important city in the Roman Empire.

Number one was Rome, number two was Alexandria, and number three was Antioch. Antioch was a crossroads, a trading center, and so forth. And when you read in Acts 11, there were many converts. Many people became converted in the city of Antioch based upon all these people that had dispersed up there. Obviously, they were very persuasive, and there were people who became converted. And the locals, the Antioch citizens, called these people Christians, the ones who followed this Christ. They're Christians. The next time that Christian is used is in Acts 26.

Verse 28, where Agrippa, in his dialogue with the apostle Paul, said, you have almost persuaded me to become a Christian. You've almost persuaded me to become a Christian. Again, used by Paul. The only time that the term Christian is actually owned by a Christian, that's used by a Christian, is Peter, when he says we are to suffer as a Christian. In 1 Peter 4, verse 16. But what are those who follow Christ called?

Three times as Christians, 299 times as disciples, 100 times more. Those of us who follow after Jesus Christ are called disciples in the New Testament. That's very interesting. Actually, by calling him a Christian, it's the only one who is a follower of Christ. Okay, but what does that mean?

Many people actually wanted to follow Christ. Lots of people came to his campaigns. Thousands of people came to his campaigns. You know, they came without food. They came without providing for themselves because they wanted to hear this man speak. Christ had to perform miracles to supply the food that they needed at these outdoor gatherings up near the Sea of Galilee.

And, evidently, a number of people said, I love what this man has to say.

I want to be one of his followers. I would like to be one of his disciples.

And Christ responds to this particular request in Luke chapter 14. I'd like you to turn to Luke chapter 14. This is a very important bellwether chapter or section of passage that explains what a Christian really is, what a disciple is, because Christ is the one who defines what a disciple is. Not a dictionary or our own thinking, but Jesus Christ himself. Luke chapter 14 and verse 25.

Great multitudes went with him, and he turned to them and said to these thousands of people, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. We've heard this many, many times. I read this to everyone who I have counseled for baptism. Now, the term and the language is pretty harsh, that you have to hate your mother and father. Well, this is hyperbole. This is an exaggeration. I don't think Christ really meant that you have to hate your mother and father, but he's made the point that you've got to love Jesus Christ far more than any other close relationship.

You've got to put him above every relationship that you possibly have, ahead of your mate, ahead of your children, ahead of your parents, all the close relationships. Hyperbole. It's like me saying, I've told you a million times not to do this. Was that true? No, you only said it five or six times, but it sounds like a million times. It's just an exaggeration. And Christ said, how often must you forgive somebody? Seventy times seven? Do you have to forgive somebody 490 times? No, it just means a lot. And that's what Christ is trying to emphasize, the volume and the intensity of that statement. So, first of all, to be a disciple of Christ, you've got to be one who has put him ahead of every other relationship. You look to him, you look to what he teaches, you put him ahead of any minister, any slick talker, any huckster, as Paul called them, somebody who can talk somebody into believing certain things and be persuasive that way.

And those people have always been around, and they've always been very successful.

They pull away people with talk, with negativity, with twisted facts and so forth for their own purposes. But we have our eyes strictly set upon Jesus Christ and what he taught.

And that's where our salvation comes. No slick minister, no slick operator can give you eternal life. Remember that. Only Jesus Christ can grant us eternal life.

Next, in verse 27 of Luke 14, And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

There are people that have crosses, some crosses that are heavier than others.

But if you've been in a church for any length of time, 40, 50 years, you've had crosses that you have had to bear. We've had to endure death, loss of relationships, sometimes financial reversal, sometimes, why me, God? He said that to become a disciple, you have to be one who can bear his cross. He won't take the cross, the trial, away. He'll help you to bear it. But as a disciple of Jesus Christ, you are expected to bear your cross. I'm already working on my sermon for the feast next year. Because I really want to explain it as best I can. I've been in so much thinking about this, making sense out of suffering. Why do we have to suffer? Why do we have to suffer in the church? Why do we have to suffer, period? Why couldn't God just make it easier for us to take that away? I could talk about that subject a long time now, but I'm tempted to, but I won't.

Thirdly, verse 28, for which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it?

Believe me, starting a Christian life, you've got to think of it as a type of building project.

It's oftentimes hard for someone who's moved with a lot of emotion because others are baptized, and so forth. I want to be part of this, and not thinking about all that they get through.

One of the first ministers that I worked for made a big point of this in baptismal counseling.

He told people what they would be getting into, and what some of the caveats, some of the challenges would be ahead.

Some of the loss of relationships, some of the economic impact that this decision could make on their lives. Are you ready to count the cost and say it's worth it?

The cost is your life. The cost is a total commitment to Jesus Christ, to God the Father.

To receive the Holy Spirit of God.

So, are you going to weigh all the things that you are going to experience, even though you don't fully understand them, but at least you're sort of given a notice that you will be having these things that happen in your life? You will have things that you will not understand about yourself, about your children, about relationships, about authority, about the church, about life, overall. But will you still be faithful to Jesus Christ? Because he who cannot do that cannot be my disciple. Count the cost. And one of the ministers that I worked for, even when his fire is saying, if I can talk you out of this, I'd like to. I really want you to know so much that this is what you want to do. That you're going to say, I don't care, I'm going to go with this, I know what it involves. And you'll remember me having this conversation with you when that day does come in your life. When I was baptized, there was a very nice girl who was baptized kind of in our group.

She was a Jewish girl from New York. She looked like a happy ambassador college student. She was baptized very happy. And the day after her baptism, her beloved grandmother died. And she left, never saw her again. We tried to write to her, we tried to encourage her, we tried to in any way try to reach her. I felt so badly for her because she looked like she had so much going for her, but this trial came. And it sure was painful. It was unexpected. It was her beloved grandmother dying. And she took a detour. I'm sure God is working with her in some way.

Hope so. Hope that she will come around to understanding. But she quit. God is looking for commitment on our part. Verse 33, likewise, whoever of you who does not forsake all that he has, cannot be by disciple, be willing to do that, that the truth is so important that nothing will deter you from it. We're not mercenaries. We're not hirelings. We're called upon to a life of sacrifice. To become a disciple is not something that we blithely enter into. And there's no such thing as a nominal Christian. That's an oxymoron. A Christian is totally committed. It's not a hobby or a pastime. It's your whole being. And that's what Christ said, that enter into the narrow gate.

In Matthew 7, verse 13 and 14, enter into the narrow gate, for wide is the gate, and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And there are many that go by it. Because narrow is the gate, and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. And that's why we are the numbers that we're at. There are very few who find it. Sometimes I get very, very frustrated, very frustrated in my work. In 1990, we had 100,000 people attending Sabbath services on any given Sabbath in the U.S. 100,000. Now it's 7,200. That's been that way for some time. Very few who find it. We're 7.2 percent of what we were. I don't want to give negative numbers. But there are very few who find it. There are very few who have really counted the cost. There are very few who are willing to do what you have done here as a way of life. There are times in history when God has turned up the volume.

He's called more people. It's probably not a single day that I don't want to ask God some form of show us what we need to be doing. What type of media can we produce that will be more convincing? Do we need to get a blimp? What do we need to do to preach the gospel more effectively?

I realize that we are doing what we are to be doing with advertising, everything from Google AdWords, to public appearance campaigns, to magazines, to internet, to fairs, to all these types of methods.

I do believe that the day will come when people will wake up. They will see the things that Jim Tuck writes about in the prophetic times. They will put things together and they will get their life in order. Our job as a Christian is to be one who is a light to the world, a letter to the world.

You know, from the very beginnings of God working with His people, which included ancient Israel, He wanted these people to be different, not like the people where either they came from or where they were going. The people of Israel, and we are spiritual Israelites, were to be different and to be noted as being different and be thankful for being different.

We are to stand out in Leviticus chapter 18 and go back to the Pentateuch. The very first books of the Bible, God had already intended for us, for people from the very beginning, to show His way of life. Leviticus chapter 18 verse 1. The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, Speak to the children of Israel and say to them, I am the Lord your God. According to the doings of the land of Egypt, where you dwelt, you shall not do. The people are here, they're sort of in limbo now, in the desert.

They had left Egypt. He said, Where you left, don't do the things that they did.

They had a whole structure and a whole society. They were the world.

And according to the doings of the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you, don't be like the people where I'm sending you. Don't be what you came from, and don't be where you're going to. He made that very, very clear to them from the get-go. Where I am bringing you, you shall not do, nor shall you walk in their ordinances.

You shall observe my judgments and keep my ordinances to walk in them. I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. I am the Lord. There was some mention here, too, of social media. What type of projection do we have to the outside world? What projection do you have on your job? I've been getting more and more requests saying, Please comment about Facebook postings or other types of posting on other social media. I feel like we're getting too much going back into the world and arguing things with a world that we can't argue ourselves out of at all. I can argue with my family about how bad Donald Trump is. I have my family, oh, they just think he's a devil.

They think that we in some way support him. I don't. I didn't vote for Donald Trump.

I have no idea what he's going to do. Is he an instrument of God? I'm sure that God had some purpose for him being there, just as he had a purpose for allowing Barack Obama. But we're not involved in politics. We're not. We don't argue it. We don't uphold it. I make it very clear to my Rotary Club, where I stand on political points. In fact, people ask me what my political views are.

I say, thy kingdom come. And most people understand what that is. That's the number two thing I pray for every day. First of all, praise God, and the next thing, thy kingdom come. That's our politics.

That's where it's at. It's not, well, can God somehow work through Donald Trump and whatever? He's allowed him to be here to produce and to allow certain things to happen the way they do.

Whether he's called upon to be some type of secret admirer of Putin, all these guys have big egos. They support each other anyway, just on the ego level.

Just a bunch of big bullies. We don't involve ourselves with them. We don't involve ourselves with the ways and the politics of this world. In fact, we should be thankful that we live in a country where we are not persecuted for what happens to us. Nero, and that's the time when Christianity had its growth period in the New Testament, the days of Paul and so forth. There was horrible persecution, and it wasn't just somebody who wrote an op-ed in a magazine about this group we call the Christians. They'd be hauled off and taken to the circus maximus and burned alive. That's the kind of trouble that you got from the government. What we have now is nothing in comparison. So let's be thankful, but let us shine our lights of truth, the scriptures that point out who we are, what we pray for, what we look to, what our future is. I'm not afraid to talk about this to people that are around me who ask. I'm very, very clear about where I stand politically in this world. I also make it very clear that I'm an immigrant. I grew up in a refugee camp, and I am very thankful to be in this country and to enjoy the benefits that it has.

I'm thankful to God for being here. I met my cousins in Ukraine at a family reunion. Just seeing them, I'm so thankful I'm not there. They all look 10 years older than their age that my age are. I'm thankful for what I have. Romans 12 in the New Testament. Romans 12 in verse 1, I beseech you therefore, brethren, talking about not being conformed to this world. I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.

And that's following along with what Christ said in Luke chapter 14. And do not be conformed to the world on Facebook or on Twitter or on Snapchat. Don't look like them. Don't blend in so much.

Use their language, use their arguments to where they can't distinguish you from being somebody different. You know the greatest compliment that God gave to Caleb, who came, one of the spies out of the Promised Land. Caleb is a first-after-mount heart. He thinks differently. Do you think differently from people around you? You should. When we see all the things, you know, we are so close. My wife, she only has one or two channels that she's hanging on to right now. I'm going to cut cable so badly. And it really happened during the last campaign. You know, you're tired at night, you want to watch some news, and you turn it on, it's arguing, arguing, arguing. I said, I'm tired.

Church people are Fox News people, you know, so we're supposed to. So I go to MSNBC just to get another view of it. Oh, that's awful. I can't stand it, you know. So I'm so close to cutting. Bev still has one or two channels that we're still hanging on to. But the world does not have anything really for us, because it's the world. It's really the world. Their arguments, their rationale, their thinking. And I just don't want to get poisoned with that. I want to go to bed with some good thoughts in mind. And actually what we've been doing, we've been playing sermons as we go to bed. They're so helpful, so wonderful. We listen to sermons from new ministers, from ministerial trainees, and so forth. It is so refreshing. I'm tired of Bill. I'm tired of all those other people on Fox News and all the other channels. Verse 2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And this is about the only place where you can really get renewal from your mind. Right here. Scrubbing, cleansing, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. That's our job. Paul mentions in other places in the New Testament as well about becoming like Jesus Christ. And when we are trapped in this world and thinking like it, we can't become like Christ because the two are so different. They're fighting each other. Romans 8 and verse 29. Romans 8 and verse 29. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, which would be conformed to Christ, not conformed to this world. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 18. I'm just giving you a listing of scriptures to look at. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

We are being transformed and being formed into something which is wonderful and godly. That way, we can be shining as a letter of presenting a point of view that really is way different from the rest of the world. And then one of my favorite passages, Philippians 2 and verse 5. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Do we know the mind of Christ? Do we know how he acted, reacted? It explains fully more. One thing that Jesus said when he was speaking at the Feast of Tabernacles last day, period, in John chapter 7. He said the following.

John chapter 7 and verse 38. He said, He who believes in me, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. And in the New Living Translation, we have a further clarification. I think a better focus on this. Anyone who believes in me may come and drink. Verse 38. For the Scriptures declare, rivers of living water will flow from his heart, from those who believe in Christ, those who are his disciples.

Verse 39. When he said, living water, he was speaking of the Spirit. So from our heart, from this living letter, we should have a flow of the Holy Spirit, of water. Not something that's passive, but something which is flowing. What is the work of water and stream?

There's a couple of interesting things about every single drop of water that falls on this earth.

Here, it comes down the Colorado River. It comes from snow mountain caps that melt into streams and flow down the river. They go into the Gulf of California, that goes into the ocean. Water takes the ocean. Water takes its course, and then it recirculates and comes back.

A stream that flows, water that has amazing power as it flows down, tries to get around every obstacle and do its work.

Jesus said this in Acts chapter 1 and verse 8. A river reaches places where its source never knows. Jesus said that if we have received the fullness of the rivers of living water reaching out, it reaches out to the ends of the earth, regardless of how small the visible effects in our life may be.

Christ said that the Spirit that would flow from us in Acts chapter 1 verse 8 would flow out from us and reach the ends of the earth with their goodness and life-giving help. Every single one of us who's in this audience right here is the result of the work and the spirit of somebody else.

Whether it's the work of a broadcaster, whether it's the work of some person, it's the goodness that's flowed from that person to you that's made you the person that you are. The goodness in the rivers of living water flows to the end of the earth. A river is persistent. A river will continue doing its work. There are people that you affect that you don't realize right now, positively.

It may not be something which happens immediately, but it is something which may have effects down the road. I had a person come to me a couple years back, and he made a large donation to a cause that we had. I said, really? Why did you do this? I said, I really appreciate what you've done. He says, well, X number of years back, 20-some years ago, you patiently listened to me and answered some of my questions. You don't know how much that meant to me to have you patiently take an afternoon off and talk through a difficult situation that led to some very important decisions that I made as a result of talking to you. I could hardly remember that time.

I know he came. I know he talked, but I didn't realize the effect that I had on him. Well, who do you affect, by the way you talk? With your patience, with your understanding, with your kindness. All these are functions of the Holy Spirit working as they work in the lives of others.

Water has a quality of healing as well, and nourishing. As waters go down a stream, as waters irrigate, land, life comes forth. We are to be a source of that ourselves, of doing things that we don't even realize. And things that you do that our kindness is right now, you'll never even know about them. You'll never even know the effects of that. Where a stream begins and what ultimate good downstream is done, people don't even realize all the good that's done. Rivers overcome obstacles, rivers heal, and that's what a Christian and that's what a disciple of Jesus Christ does.

So let's be a living letter. Not just a letter, but a living epistle, one which is alive, dynamic, and active. People think sometimes that they have to do great deeds and wonderful things and stand up and be orators and do great public things. But there are needs for the anodeprofituses who pray day and night for the work of God. I'd like you to pray for the success of our council meetings, which I feel are extremely important, because I believe that if we make bold decisions to act very, very proactively in the work of developing a new ministry, of preaching the gospel through the ways that we have, plus reaching people through public appearance campaigns, or asking God to show us a new way to do it, I ask us to have the courage and to understand the will of God, and not to be foolish in not understanding it. That's why I ask you to pray for those things.

All right. Well, I have thoroughly enjoyed being with you today. I guess we're going to get together afterwards and socialize and look forward to that. Continue to pray for those of us at the home office and doing your work. We pray for you continually as well. As the Apostle Paul said, he prayed for the churches and prayed for the people in those churches. And one thing I failed to mention here at the very beginning, I was going to say that we had extra calendars for life nets here that we brought. We had extra ones, and so my wife put them on the table. It shows the different types of projects that are done around the world, from Kenya to the Philippines to Latin America. We have 100 young adults on scholarship programs around the world, and you can have a calendar. We left 20 or 30 of them out there for you to take one as you have. May God bless you.