Study – How Not To Give Up

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Short Summary
The study explores how Christians can avoid giving up by understanding the spiritual process of being called, chosen, and remaining faithful, emphasizing the sanctification journey marked by trials and the need for perseverance. It highlights practical steps such as adopting Jesus’ teachings, relying on God’s word, putting on spiritual armor, maintaining fellowship, and focusing on the mission, while acknowledging the challenges believers face, including severe trials and temptations. The discussion also stresses the importance of support within the community and the necessity of trusting God through hardships to ultimately attain glorification and eternal rewards.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Study: “How Not to Give Up” by Brother Keith Bellhumer

Introduction and Context:
– Brother Keith Bellhumer from the Washington, D.C. class introduces the topic “How not to give up,” acknowledging this as a challenging and vital subject for many Christians, especially those coming into the truth later in life.
– He emphasizes the importance of practical, actionable guidance to persist in faith despite trials, desert experiences, or spiritual plateaus.
– The study aims to explore God’s selection process, the sanctification process, and practical ways to be “good soldiers for Christ,” encouraging perseverance.

God’s Selection Process:
– The process includes being called, chosen, and faithful, which is sequential and supported by Scripture.
– Scriptures cited:
– Revelation 17:14 – Christ is described as “chosen and faithful.”
– 1 Peter 2:9 – “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood…” showing being called out of darkness into light.
– 1 Timothy 6:12 – “Fight the good fight of faith…” emphasizing faithfulness after being called.
– Romans 8:28 – All things work together for good for those called according to His purpose.
– Matthew 22:14 – “Many are called, but few are chosen.”
– Romans 11:5 – A remnant chosen by grace, implying grace and human response in being chosen.
– 2 Peter 1:3-4 and 1 Corinthians 4:2 – Faithfulness and trustworthiness as stewards of God’s grace.
– Discussion includes the idea that God’s calling often occurs within families—faithfulness and calling can span generations, honoring past saints by being faithful now.

Sanctification Process and Trials:
– Sanctification is a spiritual development process, moving from human nature to spirit nature (spirit begetting).
– The process involves consecration, faithfulness, receiving the Spirit, and enduring trials to achieve glorification and immortality if faithful.
– Biblical warnings against quitting after knowing the truth:
– Hebrews 10:26 – “If we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice remains.”
– The study explains sanctification as a refining process, like fire purifying gold (1 Peter 1:7).
– Trials, temptations, and sufferings are expected and necessary for spiritual growth and testing of faith (1 Peter 4:12-19).
– Encouragement to view trials positively as opportunities for growth rather than reasons to quit.

Practical Advice on How Not to Give Up:
Adopt Jesus’ Teachings:
– Learn and continue in Jesus’ words (John 8:31-32) to know the truth that sets free.
Expect Temptations and Testing:
– Trials are part of Christian life; do not be surprised or disheartened.
Put on the Full Armor of God:
– Ephesians 6:11-17 – Spiritual armor as protection and equipment for battle.
Church Fellowship:
– Importance of support from the ecclesia (church) and not isolating oneself during trials.
Mission Focus:
– Keep the mission first—striving to be like Christ and grow in love.
Nutrition (Spiritual Feeding):
– John 6:35 and John 4:14 – Spiritual nourishment through Jesus, the Bread of Life and Living Water, is essential to sustain the fight and spiritual growth.
Avoid “Garbage In, Garbage Out”:
– Focus on God’s Word and avoid worldly philosophies or distractions that undermine faith (John 8:31-32; Ephesians 4:14-15).
Prayer:
– Active and continual prayer is vital for relying on God rather than self.
Expect Persecution and Adversity:
– Understand that suffering is part of the Christian experience (2 Timothy 2:3).
Recognize the Consequences of Quitting:
– Dereliction of duty as soldiers of Christ can lead to discipline or loss of reward.
– Matthew 7:21 – Only those who do the will of God enter the kingdom.
Focus on Love:
– The greatest commandments: love God and love one another (John 13:34-35 implied).
Persevere Toward the Goal:
– Paul’s encouragement to “press on toward the goal” for the crown of righteousness and life (Philippians 3:14; James 1:12).
Promises for Faithful Soldiers:
– Glorification, immortality, reigning with Christ, riches of wisdom and knowledge, judging the world and angels (Revelation 5:9-10; 2 Timothy 2:5).

Addressing Extreme Trials and Suicidal Thoughts:
– Acknowledgment that some brethren face deep despair, even suicidal thoughts.
– Examples from brethren’s testimonies and historical figures (Brother Fry, Sister Joyce’s mother) show extreme suffering yet faithfulness.
– Emphasis on the importance of intercession, empathetic listening, and serious prayer (“standing in the gap”).
– Recognizes that simply exhorting “don’t quit” or “pray harder” is insufficient for those in deep distress.
– Encourages humility in counsel—often the best help is to listen without judgment or simplistic answers.
– Suggests seeking help from spiritually mature brethren who have overcome similar trials.

Community and Support:
– Encourages sensitivity to others’ struggles and proactive support within the ecclesia.
– Highlights the need for brethren to be open about struggles and to seek counsel and comfort.
– Recognizes the role of experienced brethren as mentors and guides through difficult experiences.

Summary Thought:
– The Christian life is a spiritual battle requiring endurance, faithfulness, and reliance on God’s grace and strength.
– Understanding God’s selection and sanctification process helps believers persevere.
– Practical steps include spiritual nourishment, prayer, studying Jesus’ teachings, putting on God’s armor, and fellowship.
– Trials and sufferings are refining fires, not reasons to give up.
– The reward is a crown of life, eternal glory, and fellowship with Christ in the kingdom.

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Key Bible Verses Mentioned:
– Revelation 17:14
– 1 Peter 2:9
– 1 Timothy 6:12
– Romans 8:28
– Matthew 22:14
– Romans 11:5
– 2 Peter 1:3-4
– 1 Corinthians 4:2
– Hebrews 10:26
– John 8:31-32
– Matthew 3:11
– 1 Peter 1:7
– 1 Peter 4:12-19
– 1 Corinthians 10:13
– Matthew 7:21
– Ephesians 6:11-17
– John 6:35, 51, 53
– John 4:14
– Ephesians 4:14-15
– 2 Timothy 2:3
– Revelation 5:9-10

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Keywords: perseverance, sanctification, calling, chosen, faithful, trials, temptations, spiritual armor, prayer, fellowship, spiritual nutrition, Jesus’ teachings, endurance, crown of life, suffering, suicide, intercession, support, grace, refining fire, spiritual battle, mission focus.

Transcript

Hi, I’m Keith Bellhumer from the Washington, D.C. class. When we were looking at the topics, Brother Brandon said, we’re going to sign how not to give up to you, and I was like, oh, man, that’s the hardest one.

Because, you know, there’s probably many opinions on that, and I wanted to. I wanted to try to provide, whoever would be able to take this, some practical things that you should be doing and practicing so that you don’t give up. Because I think all of us have kind of gone through this, especially if we came into the truth later in life, and I say the truth, the harvest message, because to me, it connected all the dots and I was, like, excited.

Hey, these are answers to my questions. But we go through times where we go through plateaus or desert situations or things. We get overcharged. Things are going on in our lives, and it’s easy to fall away. That’s what Satan wants.

He wants us to fall away, and so there are things that happen, and then there are things we. We do to ourselves, and so what I wanted to do was in this study, first of all, when I’m going to take an endeavor or try to do something, I always want to go look at it and figure out, how does it work, what’s the process? I’m a retired federal employee and military officer and an analyst, and that’s what I did.

I see processes and everything, trends and things like that. So when I read God’s Word, I always like, oh, that’s a process, you know, And I think that’s important because any. Well, besides the men, when you try to open a new piece of equipment or something, you go through the operations manual and figure it out before you go start tinkering. But most people, if they’re going to play a sport or something, they want to go know what the rules are and all that stuff before they start, and that’s.

That’s a good thing to do, and so God has provided us all of that information in his Word, and so I tried to pull some of it out for our purposes, and there will be a lot of opinions on some of the stuff. But, and then at the end, I wanted to.

If you want to go ahead and put up the PowerPoint there, I wanted to spend most of our time on what I called how to be good soldiers for Christ.

Okay? And this is what happens to a lot of Christians. They are trying and they get right to the point, and then they give up and they go, and the diamonds were right there. So I thought this was apropos picture for what we are talking about.

What I’d like to talk about today is next slide. I want to understand how not to give up. I want us to understand God’s selection process, and I also want to cover the sanctification process. Now, obviously, I couldn’t get everything that someone could include in sanctification, but I tried to capture some things I think were important, and then I want to spend most of our time on the last item.

And what I’ve done on the slides is there’s a lot of scripture. We can’t go over every one of them. So I put the ones that I want to focus on in gold, and I’m going to take a mentoring moment from Brother Homer, and instead of trying to point, we’re going to start from right to left, and the scriptures that are in gold on these slides, the next person will read them because I want to make sure that we at least cover the main point.

I think Brother Durant calls them anchor scriptures sometimes, and they’re important points. But all the scriptures, if you get a chance to look at them, I think they support the idea. Obviously, like Brother Brendan said, you know, I was like, oh, that’s easy. Just don’t quit. But like Brother Homer said earlier, how, How.

How do you not quit? Okay, so let’s go to the first slide. One of the things I noticed, I was keyed off of Revelation 17:14, and the last part of that, I was like, oh, there’s a process. It said, with him, meaning Christ is called chosen and faithful.

And I said, well, that sounds like a process. It’s sequential, and each of them has steps, and then I tried to find some scripture to support if that was a thing, and what I found was 1st Peter 2, 9, and it says, but you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of the darkness into the wonderful light.

So there we have two parts of the process. We were chosen and called, and I think these are juxtaposed. We know that you’re first called and then you’re chosen. But.

But this is a scripture that verifies that, yeah, there is a process here. So if you could get one Timothy 6:12, first Timothy 6:12, fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold on eternal life Whereunto thou art also called and has professed a good profession before many witnesses. Okay, so in this, it’s telling us we are called of the Father. How about Romans 8:28?

And we know that all things work together for good and to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose. Okay, so this tells us a couple of things. First of all, there’s some that God calls, and I don’t know personally if there’s some that he doesn’t. But I believe that he looks at the hearts of people and there’s a certain group of people that have a heart condition that are capable, and he has a purpose for us. So he puts out an invitation, and then we must be chosen.

Let’s look at Matthew 22:14.

Oh, still. Is it working? No. Pull it down towards you. Oh, closer to me.

Okay, thank you. Matthew 22:14. For many are called, but few are chosen. Okay, and then Romans 11:5, Romans 11:5. In the same way, then there has also come to be, at the present time, a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.

Okay, and I think the NIV said, at the present time there’s a remnant chosen by grace. I really like that version because it didn’t say chosen by God. It said chosen by grace, and that indicates to me that there’s more than just God making a selection.

It takes some involvement from us as well, and we know that we’re under grace, and that covers a multitude of sin. So therefore we have to be chosen, and I know there’s a lot of opinions about being chosen. Are you chosen when you consecrate?

Are you chosen after? You know, well, you can’t be chosen before you’re faithful. So, you know, so there’s some discussion there that can be made on what that means, and then the last one is, obviously, we all know this, we must be faithful. So second Peter 1, 3, 4.

Excuse me, brother. Yes? Anyone have your windows down in your cars? It’s about to storm outside, so you should go outside and roll your windows up. Okay, thank you.

And then, and then first Corinthians 4:2, when she. She’s done. Second Peter 1, 3:4, seeing that his divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that called us by his own glory and virtue, whereby he hath granted us unto us his precious and exceeding great promises, that through this ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that it is in the world by lust. Okay, and then First Corinthians 4:2.

We’re going to get a storm here. First Corinthians 4:2. In this case, more. Moreover, it is required of stewards that one be found trustworthy. Okay.

So I like this scripture because it says we’ve been given a trust and we must prove faithful of that trust, and I think that grace is part of that trust. So what are your feelings on this? I think being called is pretty much understood, and also being faithful is somewhat understood.

I thought I saw a hand earlier in the back. No. Okay.

Brother Keith, if I may be permitted to just share a little discussion that I had with my dad some years ago. It’s right along this subject, the question that maybe we all ask ourselves at some point, why did God call me? Why me? And most of us are humble enough to say, boy, I can think of a lot of other people that should have been called rather than me, and dad and I were talking about it and we were trying to come up with maybe one component of the reasons why God chooses us.

It probably hasn’t escaped everybody’s notice that truth seems to go in families. Notice that. Gee, what a surprise, right? You’re raising the truth and you continue it on. But that’s the way it’s been in the Scriptures.

Look at the family of Abraham. Look at the family arrangement in ancient Israel. Look at the families in the time of Jesus. There were his relatives that were the apostles and brothers were called and whatnot, and what we concluded is that maybe one of the reasons that we’re called is that someone in our past, some ancestor was called, was chosen, was faithful.

Maybe 10 generations ago, we had a grandfather or grandmother that knew the Lord and served, and the Lord is blessing that one, rewarding that one by calling some progeny, maybe down the line in life. I really like that approach. Assuming it’s true. I don’t have a scripture for it, just sort of evidence, but assuming that that’s true, it really allows us to be very humble.

We don’t have to think about any of our qualities of why we were called, but rather it was God’s love and faithfulness to someone in the past, and going to your theme about not quitting, if this is true, here’s how we can honor those of our family and even our friends in the past.

By living up to the call that we have, by being faithful to it, by honoring our relatives in maybe the deep past, maybe in the centuries past, by being faithful, as faithful as we can be, and not quitting. So I wanted to throw that out there because I haven’t heard this necessarily discussed among the brethren. But both my dad and I felt that we had stumbled on something that may, in fact have some Merit to it over time. Thank you for that. You know, another family was Cornelius.

Family in the gospel age. So that’s a nice point to think about, and when people are trying to think about how not to quit, a lot of times they even question if they’re called, you know, because we’ll see later some of the things they go through. They think, well, maybe I wasn’t even called. What am I doing here?

You know. Yes, Brother Homan.

So I want to give you a different point of view because we’re giving opinions.

And I would say that God has a standard that has to be met by everyone who’s going to be part of the body of Christ.

I’m going to give you a very early standard, a very early illustration. I’m going to talk about Stephen. Sometimes I tell the brethren, you know, depending upon how you view time sequence, I asked the question, and you know, that Stephen died, was martyred before the apostle Paul changed from Saul and Tarsus to the apostle, and I guess most of us think that our Lord’s ministry lasted three and a half years, and so sometimes I ask for a question.

What do you think? How long do you think Stephen tarried in the flesh? Just to think about it. But I might give you something else. Two other points.

One has to do with a parable, and it’s the parable found in Matthew, the 20th chapter, and it’s the parable of the laborers in the vineyard, and I won’t go into all the details because certain things were promised at certain points in time. I’m going to talk about those who were hired at 11th hour, whatever that means. Whatever that means.

However you interpret that parable, you probably could come away with the lesson that no murmurs are going to be part of the body of Christ. If you come away with nothing else you can’t believe, and incidentally, just in terms of interpreting that parable, I don’t think it would suggest that, well, the apostles were first hired, because then that would mean that the apostles are not going to be part of the body of Christ. Last comment or next to the last comment.

So one of the scriptures that I love is found in Revelation 5, 9 and 10, and that in essence tells me that the body of Christ is going to come from every tongue and tribe and kindred nation. I like scriptures because the more scriptures I have that I have less difficulty in saying why I believe what I believe.

So this is 20, 25, and maybe there were expectations that the church would have been completed long, long, long ago. That’s why I Don’t go with dates per se, and I’m going to suggest that, you know, there may have been the possibility that some of whoever the old timers were that they would say, oh, it’s too late for you to consecrate because the kingdom is going to be established at thus and such a point in time. But in fact, in fact we know that Romans 11:25 27 tells us that the body of Christ is still here because it is not. The blindness will not be removed until the fullness of the Gentiles we come in.

So those are just some thoughts for discussion as to how do you get there. I don’t think that the Lord called me because of something else. I think that when I heard. Look, when I was a kid, my father, my father was an old timer. I sharing with someone that my father got the truth in 1923.

1923, over 100 years ago. So, and until I thought that there’d be no hope for me to be consecrate, I just figured I’d be a kid walking up the highway and holiness in the kingdom. So that’s something to think about. Yes.

Well, I have a scripture for brother David. The promise is for you and for your children and for as many as the Lord our God will call unto himself. I fall into the latter category, although I did have a relative who was instrumental in me finding the truth. So the first part applies to me as well.

But I do think that the Lord calls in families first for sure. But I don’t know how we got onto that. Well, I mean, it’s important. One of the things that I heard brought out is important is we don’t know how long it takes to go to your sanctification.

We have examples of someone that was really quick, and then we have our examples or Paul’s example, a lifelong thing. Look at John. Okay, and what I tried to do up here is just put some things that we know in a model because it helps me, you know, pictures help me understand and, and charts and graphs and tables.

Right, and so we had a little snafu. But this was built where I would layer them in, but that crashed. So we’re going to have to look at all together. But we started out with a construct time and condition continuum, you know, from Adam until the kingdom.

And then over here we have something to measure and it’s love. We know God is love, love is divine, and then on the other side we have spiritual development, and what the Abrahamic promise gave us was sands of the sea, stars of the heaven. So we started to understand there’s a human.

There’s a human nature and a spiritual nature, okay? Then later on, we’re given the picture of the tabernacle where we’re shown the court condition that had the altar and the laver, the holy and the most holy, and so that kind of keyed us into the idea that what was going on in the court gave us the desire to understand the holy, and what Jesus has done is given us a path, a way of sanctification in the gospel age, and that’s what the green line is.

And then the process we see shown us is called chosen and faithful, and so what I tried to do is, as we enter the court condition, we start to see Christ’s sacrifice, and I’m looking at it from a perspective. Some of you had this from when you were a child, and some of you, it came later. My process in the human nature was probably most of my lifetime.

I just came to the Truth in 2006. But we reach a window where we’ve seen everything, we understand it. I put it as a consecration window where we wash in the laver, we consecrate, and then the star is getting spirit begetto, and the pastor talked about a new creature that lives in us, and so we’re leaving the human nature behind and we’re seeking a spirit nature.

And then it was revealed to us that the high calling, we can achieve glorification, like Christ did, if we’re faithful. So we continue on this sanctification path and we’ll talk about what’s involved in that next. But if we’re faithful, we’ll receive glorification or immortality. The gold star, we also receive the crown, right? Those are symbols of that.

Now, if we don’t attain, if we’re not faithful, we see this great company, and they’re given palms and they’re before the throne, but they’re not on the throne with Christ, and then obviously in the kingdom, you know, human nature, the human nature, those resurrected to that will have the opportunity to come to human perfection. But what we’re talking about here is what happens after spirit begetto? What happens if we’ve given up our human life rights and we decide that we can’t do it and we quit, the rain has begun.

Hebrews 10:26 tells us, if we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left. Now we have to decide what that means. But for me, it means I don’t want to quit. No matter what happens. That’s a motivating factor for me because if I use my sacrifice opportunity and then I throw it away, then I don’t have it anymore.

And that’s a tough thing to contemplate.

Okay? So I wanted to show that there, because, and that’s not hell. That’s the lake of fire. But we know what happens.

We don’t know when that happens. We know all will be resurrected. So I don’t know the details of that operation, but I just know that Paul was warning us, hey, don’t get into this and then just walk away after. You know, if you have knowledge of the light, you’re purposefully rejecting that, then there’s no sacrifice that remains. I think that speaks for itself.

Okay, so let’s talk about what we should expect in the sanctification process.

And these are some things that I thought about on how not to quit. What do you need to do? Because when you’re. When you’re going through this development process, I had a discussion with Brother Brendan yesterday, and a lot of people go through this. They go through very hard times, even up to the point of thinking about suicide, you know, And I think to myself, you know, I’ve never been there, but they do go through that.

So. So it would be good if, when we help somebody come to the point of consecration, we explain what’s going to, you know, what’s going to be expected of you and explain the process to them so they can understand. So when they start going through it, they say, oh, I remember this. You know, I remember talking about this. These are.

Things are going to happen to me, and, you know, like we were talking about the rules. One of the first things is you have to adopt Jesus teachings. Who’s Next on John 8, 31, 32. Okay, you’ll have to speak loud.

John 8, 31 and 32. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Okay? So learning Jesus teachings will help set you free from those things that are dragging you down. But if you don’t get in there and learn what Jesus said, then how can you not quit?

How can you be set free? So that’s one thing we need to help those that are going through a tough time with, and I’m not talking about studying. I’m talking about reading it and knowing it. Let it sink in, because we study later.

We study topics and all that. But what did Jesus say I know there’s a Bible out there. All it is is the red parts of the Gospel, everything Jesus said, and sometimes people just read that because it’s like, this is what he said, you know, let it sink in. So we need to.

We need to do that. We have to adopt Jesus’s teachings. You know, the Beatitudes will be them. Do them. Okay.

The next thing in that this process is going to involve temptations, trials and testings. Even Jesus went through that. But like Paul reminds us, we’re part of the sin, offering to make up those that are things that are left behind by Christ. It’s not that he was incomplete. He didn’t have all the experiences in life that all of mankind has had, and we’re helping with that.

So we are going to go through trials, temptations, just like he did, and we’re going to go through testing. Because none of you, if you make something or whatever, you bake a cake, you test it. You put the toothpick in there. If you’re an engineer or something, you design something and build it, you test it, you push it to its limits, see if it’s going to do the intended purpose. So let’s look at Matthew 3:11.

Who’s next?

And then beside her, you’re going to have first Peter 4:12, 19, Matthew 3:11. I indeed baptize you with water into repentance. But he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Okay, and can anybody tell me what they think the fire means?

Because it’s not the Holy Spirit. Right. Holy Spirit’s identified what is the fire. Yes.

In this case, we have to look at who was speaking and who he was speaking to. So he was inviting those to come into the baptism of Jesus as individuals, but then he was saying to them as Jews that there will be a baptism of fire, which is the judgment on the nation itself. Okay, and then what, what, what is the baptism of fire that we go through as Israelites? Indeed, because remember the Abrahamic promise, we have the sands of the sea and stars of heaven. So a lot of these things apply to both the Jews literally, and spiritual juice.

Yes. Well, the trial of our faith is to try us as by fire, that we can come forth as gold. That’s a very bad remembrance of the scripture. But you all know what I’m talking about. Yes, yes.

So that. So the important thing is we understand that we’re going to go through some Things just like the Jews went through. We saw their history, and it’s just, you know, we see it come coming to fruition now. Well, we have our own trials by fire that we have to live through. Some of them are as a body and.

And some of them are individual. Right? Okay. Yes. I’m looking at first Peter 1:7.

I’m not going to read that scripture yet. I’m just going to comment that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So it says, we’re going to go through trial, and it says.

I think in the Old Testament it says a refining fire, and that’s a refining process that takes away the dross and leaves the gold. Yes. So that by. When it’s done, that reflection is perfect, a reflection of the person looking into that.

Well, if we’re going through trials and, you know, it seems difficult, and you’re like, what’s going on here? Why is this happening to me? Where’s my easy button? What. What’s going on?

We should look at it with. With a favorable light that God’s taking the time to show us something. Because the whole world goes through trials and tribulations. But we’re. We’re told that ours are ordered for specific purposes.

Do you have the other Scripture in. Yes. Okay, go ahead with it. First Peter 4:12, 19. Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you.

But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy, if ye be reproached for the name of Christ. Happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.

But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men’s matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. For the time has come that judgment must begin at the house of God, and and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be for them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in, well doing, as unto a faithful creator. Okay, and this kind of touches on what brother Homer was saying about when we’re going through this, not. Not complaining about it, but looking at it like, hey, I’m supposed to learn something from this and start looking for that, and it’ll take your mind off of the. Off of the trial.

That’s what it does for me is sometimes when I’m like, why is this happening? My next question is, okay, Lord, what do I need to learn from this? You know, because just complaining about it, you’re not going to learn from it, or the learning will be much more difficult process. Yes.

Well, I actually had a question was based off of this, you kind of mentioned specifically about getting our mind off of it and, you know, kind of looking heavenward and this. I think today’s manna talked about it, you know, looking heavenward and having a heavenly sight. So my question is, when you’re really at the bottom, you know, rock bottom, the phrase, should your goal really be to escape from your trial and, you know, not think about it and just, you know, because that’s a phrase called escapism, and everyone has an escapism, whether it’s social media work, it could be your children, something to get your mind off of something you don’t like, and that’s a natural human tendency. So is that the goal, or is it to be in the moment, present with that suffering?

Because, you know, that’s what I thought was what the Lord was looking for. Don’t run from it. I gave you that trial for a reason. Don’t be like, oh, yeah, you know, I’m just going to read a couple of verses. Obviously, you need the verses for strength, but are you supposed to escape from it or be in it?

I would. I would say you’re. We’re not saying to escape from it. We’re saying to understand what’s happening so you can better cope with it. If you’re escaping from it, then you’re not going to learn a lesson.

Right? But if you deal with it and understand this is a natural part of being a Christian, then you don’t escape. You deal with it. You have to cope with it. Yes.

Paul, did you notice how the rain increased with Vivin’s voice? That was outstanding.

I think. Second Corinthians, the first chapter, answers Brother Vivin’s question. This is a very curious text because the Apostle Paul is saying, I despaired of life itself. He says, we don’t want you to Be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of asia. That’s verse 8 of 2 Corinthians 1.

We were under great pressure, far beyond the ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might, and this is the bottom line of what he’s saying. This happened that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God, who raises the dead.

He has delivered us from such deadly peril, and he will deliver us again, and we all believe that. We believe in the deliverance, the redemption that comes through Christ. On him we set our hope, and he will continue to deliver us, and I think he’s talking about through every experience of life, we should look for the way of escape.

So there is a. There is. We are escaping. There is a scripture that says there is no trial. That’s not common to man, but God provides the way for us to go through that trial.

Okay, yeah, all right. I. Yeah, but there’s. Okay, I agree with that on. As far as temptations go.

But there are some trials that I think God wants us to go through. So we have some lesson learned, and sometimes those overlap you and then you. Yeah, that’s a keen observation by Brother Paul that the weather. That the rain gets loud as soon as I talk.

So maybe adversary doesn’t want to ask questions. But, you know, I appreciate. I agree with what was said, but I guess my follow up question would be, what is a practical step to avoid escapism? Because, you know, I’ll be open. This is what I struggle with, you know, is to run away from the problem.

I mean, not in a Jonah type of sense. I don’t want to be involved because, you know, when you take the how not to Give up, you know, the title, it’s like, what does giving up really look like? And a form of that is escapism, and, you know, the world will go into, you know, substances, you know, drug substances, alcohol or whatever, but, you know, we’re not immune to any, you know, not specifically that, but any other type of drug that we abuse, and I already stated a few.

So what’s the step to. We talked about Brother Randy mentioned the refiner spire and the laundry soap in mica verts. How do you stay in that? And, you know, there’s a horrible, terrible experience, you know, that I’d be XYZ brother would be going through. How do you tell that brother is like, hey, stay in it.

Like, well, that brother’s world is crumbling around him. He wants to escape. You know, if this building were to crumble, the job’s like, yeah, let’s stay in here. So it requires faith to say, okay, God’s actually got the roof under control, and he’s going to take care of us. What do you tell that person?

Well, like I said, I think there’s a distinction between temptation and trials. Some trials are caused by failing. A temptation we’re told to flee temptation, run from it, you know. But there’s some trials you can’t run from. If you get cancer, if a loved one dies, your child is born with a congenital disease, you can’t escape from that, the world can.

They could abort. They could. You know, there’s a lot of things that they do. But on those situations where I want to differentiate, it’s not a temptation I’m talking about, it’s the trials that lead you to think to yourself, you know, I’m just going to give up.

Okay, go ahead.

They want me to go.

So last year, we had a convention in Mexico, and Brother Brendan was leading a study, and one of the men that came to the study, he only came for that study, and on the way there, he said, I was going to kill myself on the way to the study. But then it ended up, his study turned into almost a testimony meeting, and all the brethren that were there all had suicidal thoughts at some time in their life.

And I remember what Brother Homer said. He’s like, I never had those thoughts. I don’t get it. I also have never had those thoughts. I don’t get it.

But I have come to see that there are many brethren who are at that verge, and that’s what we need to how to tell them. Don’t give up. You’re not second death. You’re not at the end.

Don’t give up. So that’s part of my question. Okay, yes, go ahead. Brother David, I want to read this scripture that we’ve been talking about here. First Corinthians, 10:13 from the dialogue.

It says, no trial has assailed you except what belongs to man, and God is faithful who will not permit you to be tried beyond your ability. But with the trial will direct the issue that you may be able to bear it. So Brother Vivin’s question is a very good one. How do we help someone that’s under trial?

And how do we bear the trial that we have now? According to this, he will not permit you to be tried beyond your ability. If you think about that backwards, that means that whatever trial we have is within our ability. Since he promised he wouldn’t give us a trial beyond our ability. So that’s a good starting point to bearing up under it.

But it’s one thing to say, well, you’re in it, so you must be able to bear it, and it’s another thing to bury. I want to address this idea of suicide.

Back in the 1950s, Brother Fry had an eye infection, and the pain from that eye infection was intense and getting worse and worse. Now, those of us that have known Brother Fry, we look up to him as one of the strongest saints that we’ve known.

The pain was so bad, Brother Fry expressed to me he considered suicide.

Now I know how strong a brother Brother Fry was. I can’t imagine the pain that he was bearing to bring those thoughts into his mind, and by the way, just as an aside, my own opinion is that there are those in the church that have committed suicide that made their calling and election. Sure. Why do I say that?

Because they will be able to counsel those that have gone through the same thing and committed suicide. Don’t ask me where the limits are and how God judges that. That’s beyond me, but that’s my opinion. Okay, so the question comes back then. What can we say to those that are doing it?

I think we can ask the Lord that the trial be suspended as long as we append. Not as I will, as thy will. We can go to the Heavenly Father and say, father, I feel this is just getting beyond me. I love you and I trust you, but I can’t stand it anymore. If it be your will, please let this pass.

Jesus said that this cup passed, but not as I will. So I think that we can be comforting, and we can be comforted in such very, very difficult and extreme situations. Over.

I just have to give a very brief personal experience if I can get to it. My mother, who some of you remember and know was a faithful sister for the last seven years of her life, she suffered from a disease that was so awful, I wouldn’t wish it on any other human being. Even the worst one. It’s called scleroderma, or the turning to the stone disease. Inch by inch, her body turned to stone.

And she had open sores on her knuckles and on her cheekbones, and yet she bore under it. Until one night I actually heard her cry out, I can’t do this anymore. She died the next day, Brother, and.

And we all consider that a complete and true answer to prayer and a testimony to her faithfulness.

So I was going to remain silent but since we’re all fighting the rain, your handout, and I think your approach is very information packed. You obviously did a lot of research and put a lot of time and effort and care into this.

So from, I’ll say an informational perspective and a resource of, you know, where to look if you’re going through a difficult time, it’s very valuable. But I think as a whole, and Vivian was kind of touching on it, we’re like. We’re carpet bombing the problem rather than a precision airstrike, if you want to call it that. Sister Karen. I don’t even know if anyone can hear right now.

I can barely hear myself. We’re inside of a snare drum, apparently. But Sister Karen had mentioned our experience last year in Mexico. We called it the first annual, which turned out to not be currently annual, maybe biannual Pan Latin America Convention. But before that, we had also.

And I won’t go into my personal details, I shared with some people and testified.

But when you get to this point of you are worn down, you are crushed, you are flogging yourself with your own guilt and your own shame, and all the scriptures that are in your brain are saying, jesus promised me, me an easy yoke and a light burden. He promised peace with God. He promised joy from within, and I’ve never experienced any of those things at any time.

And when we go to someone that is in a position of. At the point of completely losing hope, their hope is gone by this point. They know all these scriptures. They know the rationale and the arguments, and essentially, and I don’t want to be offensive to anybody, but essentially what we’re saying is, if you boil it down, we’re saying, study more, pray harder, or if you really want to say it, you suck, try harder.

That’s what we’re telling them, essentially, and the reality is they need something different. They need a life preserver. You know, they need to be plucked out of the fire, if you want to call it that, like it says in Jude, they’ve reached a point in their consecration. I’m not talking about nominal this or whether their consecration has been accepted that.

I’m talking about real, genuine brethren, and I think many of us would be surprised. There are some sitting here, no doubt whatsoever, that think there’s something wrong with them because they don’t see it in other brethren. But there are other brethren sitting around them that are going through the very same thing, maybe in different details and at a different level. But there are many, many brethren who need more than we’ll pray for you.

We’ll, you know, study this. Here’s some reasoning, and anything, everything that was said here is completely agreeable. There’s no objection to anything that’s said. But I think it’s also missing the point because when you’re dealing with someone who is at this level who knows everything, who knows the words that are going to come out of your mouth, we’re not helping.

If we want to help, we have the best intentions. So what is it? What is it? Instead of not quitting, I think probably a better thought would be how to regain some hope and some trust and some belief and some, hey, I’m not cast off. God has not forsaken me.

I’m not, and to truly believe it, you can’t just take someone that you can say, well, if you think you’re second death, then you’re not second death. That’s a great old chestnut. A lot of us like to say if you are thinking along those lines, then you’re not it. Don’t worry about it.

But again, it’s just not the right information, I’ll say, to be giving to someone who’s in that particular situation. Because they don’t. They need something to grab a hold of and to stop, you know, to stop the hurt. I’ll say, and I’m not talking about like brother, what Brother David said with Brother Fry and what Sister Joyce said. Those are extreme situations.

I’m sorry, where, you know, it’s an outside influence that’s exerting on them that they have no control over. This is something that’s inside and deep inside that only God can exercise from them. So I’ll stop there. I know I’m talking a little too much. Well, what I would say is the thought was how not to quit, not how to help someone else not to quit.

That would have been a completely different study. In my mind. I was trying to offer some things, things that. For. For a person to be able to look at and understand things that they could do.

This is just the process of sanctification so they understand, look, these things are going to happen. You’re going to go through these, you know, the best. The best of the best go through this. Christ went through it. He had despair.

He had temptations, and that was the purpose that I thought that the topic was to cover. Oh, yeah, by the way, I’m not dogging on your study at all. I’m just saying that just based on what we’ve gone through very recently with many, many brethren, that the information is wonderful, and it’s important, and what you’re doing should be given.

But it also. There needs to be, like, a next step with these, you know, with brethren, and brethren need to feel that they can be open with other brethren. They need to go to brethren. Hopefully some who have been through it and have come out the other side and, you know, through experience.

Yeah, and we’ll cover that. That gets to fellowship. You can’t be an island and be by yourself. You need to support.

Yes, yes. I’m appreciating the comments. One thing I frequently call my dad is I call him Solomon, and the reason why I call him Solomon is because he has a lot of good advice and he’s very, very wise, and I know that there are a lot of brethren, including myself, who come to him, and I don’t know what they’re saying, and I don’t know who they are.

But I know a lot of people speak to my dad privately, and they open up to him, and he gives them solid advice which way to head, and I think that’s part of the issue, because a lot of times we really don’t know what to do. I mean, right now, I’m going through a trial, and I told my dad, I’m going to do this, and he said, no, I don’t think you should do that. I think you should do something else.

And, you know, I said, okay, I’ll do what you suggested, and it was right, because it saved me headaches. Now, if I’d gone my own way, even though I prayed to the Lord for guidance, I don’t have. I have to admit, I don’t have a philosophy in terms of handling difficult situations, and if you know how to handle a difficult situation, I think that’s a blessing.

And I’m amazed that my dad is able to know how to handle difficult situations from a variety of people, both individuals who he’s known for the past and present, and I just don’t have that ability. So sometimes I have to ask him, what. Which way should I go in terms of handling my experience? Thank you.

All right, thank you. One more, and then we need to move on because we only have about a half hour to cover the main meat that I wanted us to get into. Yes.

One of the things I was thinking that it goes back to Brother Ken’s study, that if we. Either we are so despondent as Brendan described, or we know someone who is. This is where intercession comes in, that it’s not like, I’ll pray for you. I’m either it’s a different. The different prayer.

It’s that standing in the gap. It’s that entering into the situation and not a passive prayer, but a very active one on their behalf because they are so despondent that they can’t get past what’s going on in front of them. Over. Okay, thank you for all those comments. I think that the idea that it would be good to have a study on how do we help another brother or sister, that would be a good study in of itself.

And we need to learn that because we have those situations like were described here that we fall into, and most of the time people tend to pull in their shell and not seek help, and we have to be able to discern that and see it and go there. Because like you with your father, you’re in it, you’re not going to see the possibilities. He’s outside, he can see the possibilities.

And that’s one way that we have to help people that are going through that. They may not even ask for it. But are we sensitive enough and are we perceiving those around us going through trials? You know, do we have the sensitivity of heart for that? Maybe we should be praying for that because we’re going to need it in the kingdom, right?

So that said, on your study on question three, what characteristics of good soldiers of Christ? I got this from second Timothy 2, 3. He said, Join with me in suffering like a good soldier in Christ. That was from the niv. What I liked is the Weymouth.

As a good soldier of Jesus Christ, accept your share of suffering. Now that sounds harsh. You can’t tell they’re going through that. Well, you got to accept your share of suffering. But that’s a reality that they need to understand that we are going to go through.

If we’re a sin offering, we’re going to go through the suffering of a sin offering. Maybe not the suffering Christ did, but something that’s commensurate to God’s purpose for us, and we have to be aware of that. So there’s about 10 items that I put in here, and I borrowed these from when I was a military commander. We had to provide guiding principles, you know, a mission statement and guiding principles.

And I had 13. I didn’t know that that was significant, but I had 13.

And some of these are borrowed from that. But the first one, who’s your captain, then serve him. This is the idea of focusing on what you’re supposed to be doing, who you’re serving, because a lot of times we can go through Things, and we think, woe is me, and I’m going through all this. But I find it helpful when I hear stories or I see what happened with Christ, to see, well, they went through that or he went through that.

I can do this. I just need some help. But if you serve something beyond yourself, a lot of times that takes the pain of what you’re going through away because you’re not focused on it. You’re focused on something else. Now, that’s not escapism.

I think that’s putting your attention somewhere else other than yourself. Because anytime we put our attention on ourselves, we’re going to have problems. Yet when we put our attention on things outside of ourselves, I think that that’s where the Gospel and scriptures are very profitable for us because we realize that, you know, like, it’s hard for somebody that’s going through a trial to say, oh, well, I’m learning something I’ll be able to do in the kingdom to help other people. But that’s basically what’s really happening, and you don’t want to give up on that, but you don’t want to go through it alone.

Are there any thoughts on that? There’s some that are more important I’d like to go into. The next one is wear your uniform and don your gear. Now, we know what our uniform is. It’s the.

Our garment of salvation. You know, we see the picture in Revelation where even the great company, they have linen gowns on and they have a palm, the ones on the throne, they have immortality. Here on this side of the veil, we have that garment of salvation. Sometimes we call it grace, and then what is our equipment that we’re supposed to don?

Well, we have Ephesians 6, 11, 17. We’ve read that many times before, I would think. But that’s putting on the full armor of God and the fact that he’s our shield and our buckler. You know, we think about the sword. I looked up the buckler is like a small shield that you have on your other hand so you can block.

And I liked Second Corinthians, it said, have your weapons of righteousness in your right hand and your left hand. So is the person that’s going through these trials and tribulations, are they putting on their full armor? Are these slings and arrows hitting them? Because they’re not doing that. Maybe they need some help to understand that that’s important.

You know, we talk about the prayer. That’s just as important. That’s putting on our armor, and then the next one Was church fall in, and this is where the church gets in formation.

And what I was getting at here is like, what some of you have talked about. We have to be sensitive to what’s going on within our ranks. We have to know, you know, especially at the ecclesia level, we need to know what’s going on and be supportive and helpful. Provide advice like her father does, wisdom. When we’re not dealing with it, but especially those that have dealt with it.

You have a responsibility to help the brethren that are going through something similar because you’ve already come out on the other side and you have experiences they need to be able to understand, and that’s exactly what’s going to happen in the kingdom for all of mankind. So you’re practicing now for that.

Okay, and the next one’s mission first. People always in a military unit. One of the things they always do is focus on mission, mission, mission, because it keeps their mind off of all the other things that you could be worried about. But if you’re focused on your mission, your aim, your focus is to do the things that you’ve endeavored to do, become Christ, like learn his principles, learn God’s will, understand how to develop love.

Moving from, you know, those quarter marks.

And we used to say mission first people always. Meaning you focus on the mission, but you’re always focused on the people around you. So you don’t want to leave anyone behind. You don’t want to.

At the same time, you don’t want to forget what the reason that you’re on this endeavor in this consecration.

I guess I should ask, is there any questions on any of these? I apologize. We kind of ran out of time. Yes.

Did you read number five? No mission without nutrition. Yeah, that was the next one. Yeah. Because I was.

I wanted to hear some thoughts on that. Okay. I wasn’t too sure. The next one. No mission without nutrition.

Let’s read the scriptures there. John 6:35. Let’s see who is next.

It’s okay. I’m sorry. I got you cold turkey, and then the next scripture will be John 4:14, if you want. I can read that.

You want me to go ahead and read that?

Okay, go ahead. I can read John 6, verse 35, and Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

Thirst, and verse 51, living bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever, and the bread that I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world, and verse 53.

Then Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh, flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Okay? And then John 4:14.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him. A well of water, spirit, bringing up into everlasting life. Okay, so the thought here is, you know, if you’re trying to go on your consecration walk and you’re going through these things and you’re not eating on the bread, you’re not drinking the water, you’re not going to have the energy or the ability to even fight it.

And that’s important. You can’t do that. You can’t do that, endeavor without getting that nutrition, that spiritual nutrition for your new creature. So I would endeavor. If you ever deal with someone that’s going through a tough time, sometimes it’s because they have not been in the word, looking for answers or whatever.

And these are all tough questions and to tough issues to deal with. But the focus of this was how, how someone not how to not quit. You got to do some of these things. If you’re not doing them, you’re not equipped. You don’t have the armor on, you’re not getting the nutrition, you don’t have the support structure.

You’re not focusing on the one that you’re serving and, and what your mission is. Yes, this is an interesting aspect about nutrition. You have a very similar lesson in the holy of the Tabernacle, when the priest goes in there, you have on the right the table of showbread, and on the left the golden lampstand, and one of the lessons we get out of that is the function of God’s word. While we’re in our spirit begotten condition, one of the functions is feeding.

There’s the table of showbread. The other function is giving us direction, you know, going back to your soldier parallel here. Soldiers, in order to know their mission, they have to know where to go. There’s the golden lampstand, and the soldiers need food to keep moving. There’s the manna.

So both of these aspects are essential, and if we neglect them, we may end up quitting over. Yes, that’s the point here.

And you can see how an army can’t function if you’re not feeding it. They’re not going to last very long.

The next one was garbage in and garbage Out. That works for us too. You know, that’s usually a computer thing with programming and so forth, but go ahead to the next slide. Okay, let’s look up John 8, 31, 32.

If you’re not ready, let me know. I have it available. I can read it.

Yes. So Jesus was saying to those Jews who have believed him, if you continue in my word, then ye are my disciples. You are disciples of mine, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. Okay, so we read that earlier. What is the implication?

What if you don’t continue in that? Are you going to know truth or freedom? Yes.

Well, the main point here is His Word is what we should be studying and taking it in so it’s available to us when we need it, and so if we’re not focusing on the Word, if we’re bringing other things into our minds that are contrary to the Word of the Lord, we will fail. So we need His Word and not garbage, as is mentioned in this point. Philosophies of men, you know, self help books, those things aren’t going to get you there, and that’s a good segue to Ephesians 4, 14 and 15, I guess.

Okay, I’ll read that then. We will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead speaking the truth in love. We will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is Christ. Okay, so we talked about, you know, a double minded person.

You know, they’re unstable in all their ways. Well, sometimes brethren are going through something because they’re having trouble with it, because they’re not focusing on what’s important and they’re trying to bring other things into the equation that aren’t going to help them. They’re not germane, and it’s our duty to try to help them with scripture and support and to overcome that, to become mature in the Lord. All right, the next one.

We had a whole section on this. If you pray together, you stay together.

Mother Teresa said, prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God. I thought that was a great comment. Because if we’re claiming to trust God and rely on God and we’re not praying and putting ourselves in his hands, then we’re trying to do it ourselves, and that may be the test that you’re going through. The trial is there to teach you, hey, rely on me.

Don’t try to do it yourself.

Okay, well, we’ll move on on that since we had a whole presentation on prayer. Okay. The other one is expect trials and persecutions or adversities, and, you know, a soldier going into the military or battle, they know what they’re going into. They expect that, especially if they sign up for certain types of jobs.

When we become Christians and we consecrate, we need to understand we’re putting ourselves in the crosshairs of the adversary because he doesn’t want you to succeed, and we need to understand that.

So when we go through these trials and tribulations, like we read several scriptures earlier, we understand that’s going to happen. There’s usually something that God wants us to learn from that, and it’s to test us, to make us stronger. We also talked about God is not going to give us more than he knows we can handle. Now, maybe we don’t know it yet, but I wouldn’t try to second guess God’s understanding of things. What I would advise more is seek the assistance of the Father that has wisdom, or the brother or sister that’s gone through a similar thing.

And likewise, we have a responsibility to look for brothers and sisters that are going through things. Be supportive, offer whatever you can, and I’m not talking about slacktivism. I’m talking about being there for them.

Yes, Brother Homan.

So I just want to raise a question because I thought Brother Vivin’s comment a long time ago was a very question, I guess, was very powerful question. I think Sister Joyce’s comment about her mom was very penetrating, and I think what Brother Brendan was saying was also very powerful, and I guess the question. I want to begin by saying that everybody has issues.

Whether you know what they are or not, everybody has issues, and so the question that really comes comes to my mind is, can you be of assistance if your issue is not identical with the one that somebody else is going through? Because you have no frame of reference that you can’t say, well, I know how you feel. As a matter of fact, you really don’t know how they feel, you know, that they’re in pain. So I would simply say that, you know, there are some principles.

I go back to what Sister Joyce said, said, I mean, and it has to do with the fact that, you know, the Heavenly Father knew how much she could bear, and when it came to, I mean, she bore it for all that period of time. I mean, you would not wish that on anyone, and when she cried out, so to speak, Heavenly Father said, it’s Enough. Okay.

And so what I’m saying is that, you know, perhaps rather than thinking that I can give you advice, especially if I’m not going through the same thing, I might want to say, you know, look, I’m not sure what it is I’m available to, to listen to whatever you have to say. I don’t know that I can give you what you’re looking for. Sometimes you just need to know that somebody is listening to you because, you know, there’s the other school of thought that, you know, well, if you had enough of the spirit in you, you wouldn’t be going through these things. You know, you need to do this, and thus and such and such, and I can imagine that that is not a helpful thing at all if you are, you know, if you are burdened.

And so I’m just thinking out loud. I’ll just say one thing that I have found has been very helpful to me and tied in with some of the things I said before. Not having anything to do with this. I have interacted with brethren who are young enough to be my grandchildren who are consecrated, and I think they are consecrated to the bone, and they have had some experiences that I’ve never had.

And because I can acknowledge that in my dialogue with them, a lot of times they come to me and say, well, what would you do? In other words, you have to be available and you have to recognize that as they say, I’m going through stuff and don’t think that you are have. You are in monopoly with having stuff. It’s not so. It’s not so.

So I don’t know. Ain’t that made any sense? But that’s my brief contribution. Yes, I appreciate that. Because I mean, saying I know how you feel sometimes does not is not good.

But saying, hey, I’m here and listening, it gets back into the two cord or three chord concept that we talked about earlier today. Just being there with them can be of a support where you’re letting them know, hey, you’re not alone, but you don’t have to be the person that says, oh, I’ve been there, done that, unless you have and you have something legitimate you can offer. But the first thing I would agree with you is just listen. Because sometimes that opens up the avenue for you to possibly even help. So I agree with that.

That’s wisdom. Thank you.

All right.

The last two elements we kind of talked a little bit about when we look at the chart, about what happens if you quit, but what happens to a soldier when they have dereliction of duty, or they are treasonous, or they fail to do their mission. You know, there’s a possibility of getting discharged or disciplined. So we have to be cognizant of that.

In Matthew 7:21, Jesus said, Not everyone who says to me, lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. So if we are soldiers of Christ, we have to remember that we have to do those things that Christ has asked us to do, and, you know, the biggest three were, love God, love one another, and love others. You know, I got them mixed up. Love God with all your heart, soul and mind, then love one another.

And then the last one was for the brethren to love each other as Christ loved the church and he gave his life to the church. So that’s our primary mission, and if we do those things and understand the process and understand what can happen to us along the way, then it helps us to cope with those things, and then the last slide, you know, leaving as a.

Or the last two, these were some of the promises that we would have honorable services to press on toward the goal.

We go into strict training to win a crown that lasts forever. That’s what Paul told us. If you don’t go into the strict training, then how do you expect to win the crown?

We have a crown of righteousness in store for us. We persevere under trials. We stand the test. We get the crown of life clothed with imperishable immortality. Next slide.

What I appreciate is riches of complete understanding, treasures of wisdom and knowledge, and we would know the mysteries of God. That’s something I want to get, and then we have the right to sit on the throne with Jesus, will be priests of God and will reign with Christ and will righteously judge the world and angels. Thank you.

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