In his Personal Mr. Tkach refers to 1 Peter 1:6: "In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials" (1 Peter 1:6).
Most non-Christians and even some Christians are puzzled by this combination of trials and rejoicing, Mr. Tkach writes. How is it possible to be joyful when we suffer? Of course, we are not rejoicing that we have a trial, but we rejoice despite our trials. How can that be?
We rejoice in salvation--that we can be confident that God will give us an eternal inheritance. We have a wonderful future guaranteed for us. This has been demonstrated to us by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Page 1.
Mr. Tkach writes that the theme for the Festival of Tabernacles is "Celebrating the Kingdom of God."
"Simply put, when we celebrate the kingdom, what is it that we are celebrating?" Mr. Tkach asks. "Do we celebrate something in the distant future? Do we celebrate something that is only a hope that things will get better?
"I believe we have much to celebrate right now!" he writes.
"For decades, we viewed the kingdom of God as a future time of great glory and rewards after the return of Christ. This vision of better things to come encouraged us to be faithful to Jesus Christ.
"This belief in a future kingdom of great power and glory is a valid belief. We believe it as fervently as we ever did before.
"But there is more! There are aspects of God's kingdom that we already enjoy. We already have eternal life. We are already experiencing salvation. We already have the life of Christ in us." Page 3.
In Iron Sharpens Iron, two field pastors, Don Mears and Paul Kurts, share insights on how to cope with trials.
Don notes that anxiety is a close companion to many of us. He goes on to explain six steps we can take to deal with anxiety.
Paul Kurts writes that although our trials concern us, he encourages us not to be consumed by them.
Paul encourages us with the help we have in Jesus when we are faced by trials. Page 4.
In this issue we begin regular reports from the international regions of the church.
We start with a report about our brothers and sisters throughout the Caribbean and Latin America. Charles Fleming is regional director there.
The Worldwide Church of God has about 2,800 members in 74 churches in 31 countries in the region.
Of the 31 countries, only 11 have full-time ministers. The remaining are served by nonsalaried personnel.
The church places much emphasis on developing leaders to serve each congregation in the region. Page 10.
Our daily average mail income in August fell substantially below our budgeted yearly daily average to $112,079.
This income dip is disappointing, if not discouraging, especially since we expected a substantial rise from July, and it did not materialize.
Even so, the yearly daily income average stayed slightly above our budgeted amount of $122,000. So, if the anticipated year-end increase in income materializes, we will still receive income within projections. This will be true if income starts to climb again as it often does toward year's end.
While the current slump can be managed if projections hold, our real challenge will be with the 1998 budget. We are already projecting income and planning expenses.
In September, pastors received pledge cards for next year. Please give attention to your giving plans for next year, and, as always, we are grateful for your prayers and financial support. Page 15.
Sept. 16, 1997, WN, page two
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