Speaker Introduction – Mark B, OB E, Tom G, Jerry W

This transcript was generated automatically. Its accuracy may vary

Short Summary
The Albuquerque Ecclesia symposium featured testimonies from four elders reflecting on Matthew 11:28-30 and how the scripture has influenced their consecrated lives. Each elder shared personal experiences of spiritual searching, the burdens of religious law, and the rest found in Christ’s gentle yoke, emphasizing faith, grace, and the importance of fellowship among brethren despite doctrinal differences. The meeting highlighted themes of resting in God’s promises, serving with purpose, and maintaining unity within the Christian community.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Albuquerque Ecclesia Symposium on Matthew 11:28-30

Format and Purpose of Meeting
– This meeting is a tradition at the Albuquerque Ecclesia, where elders reflect on a scripture and share testimonies about how it has influenced their consecrated lives.
– Four serving elders were scheduled to speak, each given 15 minutes, followed by 2-3 minutes for additional thoughts.
– The scripture focus was Matthew 11:28-30:
> “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Brother Obi Albert (Los Angeles Ecclesia, residing Nevada)
– Emphasized the blessing of in-person fellowship despite many meetings being on Zoom.
– Shared involvement with the Dawn family (publishing the Gospel Message of the Kingdom) and participation in the General Convention Planning Committee.
– Personal testimony:
– Always religiously inclined, aware of God and Jesus but searching for a meaningful Christian life.
– Felt “heavy laden” due to personal imperfections and life burdens.
– Encountered Bible students in Louisville, Kentucky; despite initial resistance due to widespread cults, he was deeply impacted by teachings about the ransom, restitution, resurrection, and God’s plan.
– Found “real Jesus” and “real God” through scripture, yoked with Christ and bearing a purposeful burden leading to eternal life.
– Highlighted how words and encouragement can powerfully impact lives.
– Quoted the scripture and testified to finding its truth personally.

Brother Tom Gilbert (Southern Wisconsin Bible Students)
– Described their scattered group meeting via Zoom, including brethren from Michigan and Kenya, with some attending from India.
– Leads online meetings with Kenyan brethren; values the expanded fellowship Zoom allows.
– Involved with the Bible Student Retirement Center, managing membership.
– Shared his religious upbringing and early faith, including church choir and youth group leadership.
– Recalled essays he wrote in youth:
– At 15, wished for world peace through knowing Jesus.
– At 20, wrote of an intense inner compulsion to seek deeper meaning and rest, eventually finding peace upon recognizing the Creator.
– Reflected on meeting Larry McClellan and learning God’s plan to restore life and bring peace through Christ, which brought him mental rest.
– Struggled with low self-image and clinical depression but found joy and rest through understanding God’s grace.
– Quoted Hebrews 4:8-11 emphasizing the “Sabbath rest” for God’s people.
– Jotted five key elements to entering rest:
1. Belief in Jesus’s atoning death freeing from condemnation.
2. Faith in God’s promises to restore mankind.
3. Refusal to be anxious about life’s uncertainties.
4. Intimate relationship with God through prayer and meditation.
5. Confidence God will never forsake His children.

Brother Jerry Wessel (Orlando Ecclesia, Florida)
– Expressed gratitude for hospitality and fellowship.
– Noted involvement with the Dawn family and ecclesial studies that include brethren from Australia and Africa.
– Shared experiences with brethren from varied backgrounds and doctrinal differences but emphasized unity and fellowship.
– Reflected on the scripture’s context: Jesus calling away from the heavy burdens of the law and Pharisaic additions.
– Shared personal efforts and struggles to serve the Lord, including learning to fly to better serve brethren and dealing with unmet plans.
– Emphasized the importance of settling one’s heart, dedicating time and effort to the Lord’s work, and trusting Him to remove unnecessary burdens like pride or fear.
– Encouraged prayer as the most powerful tool to align with God’s will daily.
– Shared a personal motto and approach: “Not my will but thine be done,” and the ongoing process of spiritual growth through successes and failures.
– Quoted the promise that God will finish the work and that the yoke of Christ is easy and light.
– Encouraged listeners to see their consecration as faithful stewardship rather than worldly success.

Brother Ken (Moderator and Participant)
– Shared personal reflections on family history and spiritual heritage, referencing Romans 8:28:
> “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
– Expressed appreciation for the fellowship and the tradition of this meeting.
– Recalled his grandmother’s reassuring words about God’s providence.
– Supported points about the lightness of Christ’s yoke and the importance of prayer to combat anxiety.

Closing Reflections
– Brother Obi highlighted the power of words—both hurtful and helpful—and how encouragement can have long-lasting impact.
– He shared a story of a Jewish friend teaching him about the Messianic hope, which planted a seed that later flourished when he learned the Gospel truth.
– Brother Tom reiterated Hebrews 4:8-11 about God’s rest and shared a personal reminder about God’s trust in believers.
– Brother Jared (another participant) reflected on unity among brethren despite differences, quoting Paul’s exhortation to be “of one accord” and Jesus’s teaching:
> “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:35)

Key Bible Verses Cited:

Matthew 11:28-30
> “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 23:1-4 (Jesus on Pharisees’ heavy burdens)
> “…They tie up heavy burdens and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with their finger.”

Hebrews 4:8-11
> “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day. There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God’s rest rests from their own works, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.”

Romans 8:28
> “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

John 13:35
> “By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

—

Summary Reflection:

This symposium deeply explored the invitation of Christ in Matthew 11:28-30 to find rest by taking His yoke—meaning to live in submission to and fellowship with Him. The elders shared personal stories of spiritual searching, burden-bearing, and ultimate peace found in God’s grace and promises. They highlighted the reality of life’s burdens and the old law’s heavy yoke contrasted with Christ’s gentle and light yoke. The role of prayer, fellowship, faith in God’s restoration plan, and trust in His grace were emphasized as keys to finding true rest. The discussion also reflected on unity among believers despite doctrinal differences, encouraging love and mutual support as hallmarks of discipleship. The overall tone was one of hopeful encouragement to embrace the yoke of Christ and find peace amid life’s challenges.

Transcript

This meeting that we’re doing tonight is sort of a tradition with the Albuquerque Ecclesia. What we’ve done, what we do is we give the elders of scripture to consider, and then what they do is they will give a testimony and how this scripture has affected their consecration and their thoughts on this scripture according to their consecration. Each of these speakers, one thing. We have four serving elders.

Brother Mike, Mark Blitcher will not be here, we’re thinking, until 9:00 o’clock tomorrow evening. So we’re going to change the schedule up a little bit for that. The airplanes having mechanical troubles. But what we’re going to do, each speaker will be given 15 minutes to speak. I know you were going to be given 10 minutes, but you get an extra five now.

So, and, and like we said, it is how this scripture has played out in their consecrated lives, and then after all four members of the panel have spoken, they’ll each be given another two to three minutes to share any thoughts that brought up by the other elders speaking, and we’re going to go in alphabetical order.

So, Brother Obi, we’re going, and the script all. Forgive me. Forgive me. The scripture is Matthew 11, 28:30.

Come to me, all of you are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, and you will find rest for your souls. Excuse me. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.

For I am gentle and humble in heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my load is light.

And at this time, we’re going to ask Brother Obi Albert, are you with the Los Angeles Convention? Right. I am, and residing in Nevada? Yes.

Well, welcome. You said the name of the state properly. Yeah. Well, that’s my old stomping ground.

Hello, can you hear me over the microphone? All right, good. Yes, I’m Obie Albert and it’s a delight to be here at the Albuquerque Convention. Sister Janet and I love the Sister Ecclesias in the American Southwest and really strive to make sure that we attend all of them and support the Sister Ecclesias in the area. I think in time past at the Albuquerque convention, during this session, the elders would identify who they are.

And I think I’ve done that, where they meet and what Bible student activities they’re involved with, and so I will do that and then get into our text. In Matthew 11, we meet currently with the Los Angeles Bible students. Ecclesia. The Ecclesia, like many Ecclesias now has primarily Zoom meetings.

But you all know that zoom is not the same as being together in person, and that’s why we make those efforts to get out and be together with our brethren face to face, and we’re looking forward to those blessings at this convention. There are about 20 of us who meet in Los Angeles. We do have a convention coming up.

Speaking of Sister Ecclesiast, the first weekend in October, and you are all invited. Even if you didn’t get an invitation in the mail, you are definitely invited to come to our convention. We do have in person meetings once a month, and those are a real blessing to come together with those dear brethren and have fellowship and a meal together and just see each other face to face.

One of the scriptures that just really impresses me so much lately is when I read the first epistle of the Apostle John, and I’d like to read just a little bit of that, if I may. Who’s going to stop me, right?

But first, John, this is just so impressive to me.

2000 years ago, this epistle was written, and it was written and preserved in the Lord’s providence, and now I am able to have it in front of me and you have it in front of you. But I’m thrilled to realize that there was a real person who really did write this letter to the church.

And that person is so special to me because he says this.

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands concerning the word of life and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. What we have seen and heard, we proclaim to you so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete.

And the thing that thrills me is that the one writing this letter that we read today was someone who heard Jesus words at the time he spoke them from Jesus own mouth. His own eyes saw Jesus. His hands touched Jesus.

He was beloved of Jesus, and at the Last Supper reclined upon Jesus breast, and this is the one who wrote this letter, and that just adds such power to that to me.

So in time past, we’ve also in these sessions spoken of what our Bible student activities are. It’s our privilege, of course, anytime we get together with the brethren, it’s. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing for us, and that includes all ecclesia meetings and fellowship. Anytime we spend with the Brethren is wonderful, but our privileges extend beyond that.

We currently work together with the Brethren at the dawn, making sure that each month a an addition of the Gospel Message of the Kingdom is published and sent out to our subscribers, and that’s a real privilege. Both I and Sister Janet work very diligently in that regard, and we are thankful for the privilege of the Brethren at the Dawn. We call them the Dawn Family do send their love to the convention here today.

In addition to that, I’m a member of the General Convention Planning Committee, and that’s coming up July 11 through 16 this year. Not in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. So if you make arrangements to go there, enjoy yourself. We’ll be in Olympia, Washington for the convention July 11 through 16.

And that’s a real privilege. Also trying to think of those subjects for our special sessions. That would be edifying to the Brethren. That would be helpful and healing and just a blessing. So we’ve tried to do that this year.

We hope we’re successful. Come and see for yourself whether we are or not.

Now to the text.

I’ve always been of a religious bent of mind since I was a small child.

I always knew that there was a God out there. I always knew that Jesus was His Son. But I could never find what would actuate my Christian life and lead me to pursue a vibrant, meaningful Christian life.

It always grieved me when I heard people take the Lord’s name in vain. There was just something mentally and emotionally about my makeup that had a deep seated reverence, and I was searching. I was searching for the truth.

And as I was searching, I felt more and more that I was heavy laden in life.

I was burdened. I realized my imperfections. I realized my life was not going in a direction that I wanted it to go. I realized my great lack, but I didn’t realize completely what I did lack.

And then in the Lord’s providence, I met brethren in the Louisville, Kentucky area and they began to witness to me.

At the time, I was working as a stock clerk in a grocery store, and I spent an evening with them, actually the first evening, when the truth was being laid out in depth, and I was trying to act like I was not interested at all. Because, you know, that period of time was one of those eras when there were so many cults who were out trying to gain as many people as they could, and nobody was going to lasso Obi Albert and haul him in under their influence.

And so I tried to act disinterested but I was listening more and more intensely with every word that was spoken, hearing about the ransom, hearing about the restitution of all things, the resurrection, the great plan of God, and I smile because I went back to work the next day and started telling everybody about there’s. There’s going to be a kingdom on earth and, and there’s going to be a resurrection of the dead, and everybody’s going to come back from the dead, and they all looked at each other like, wow, he’s finally snapped.

And, you know, they weren’t really incorrect because that was a breaking point in my life.

And I came to Jesus, and I did find the real Jesus, and I see him every day as I read the Scriptures. I found the real God, and I see him every day when I read the Scriptures, and I am yoked together with Christ, and I bear his burden. It’s much lighter than the burden I was bearing on my own.

It’s a burden with a purpose, and it leads to eternal life. So come unto me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. I found it so. I found it so. Thank you.

Thank you, Brother Obi. That was touching, and I think about. You talked about how the Lord’s name, it’s taken in vain in so many areas and so many people and just the blasphemies that are put on that Jehovah would. Things that he would never think to do.

Yeah. You know, are put out there and what are to hear the kingdom and say and say, guess what? God’s got a kingdom for all the bully. What a blessing. Thank you, brother.

Our next elder that will share is Brother Tom Gilbert from Wisconsin, and we’ll turn it over to you, Brother Tom. Thank you, Brother Ken. Can you hear okay? So, yes, Janice and I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and our local gathering, we.

We are scattered in a number of cities, and so we didn’t want to pick one city. So we call ourselves the Southern Wisconsin Bible Students, and when the pandemic came along and we couldn’t meet in person, and fortunately Zoom had come along and we started meeting on Zoom. We.

We. Janice and I are really close friends with Mark and Karen Beers in Jackson, Michigan, and they asked if they could start attending our meeting since we were meeting on Zoom, and we said, of course. So they’ve been there now since what, 2020, and, and then a year or two after that they said would it be okay if we invited a friend that we attend a local Bible study with? And said well sure.

And he said well, she’s a retired Methodist pastor. What a, what a blessed addition to our, to our studies.

Mark. Mark said she, she calls herself a Bible geek. She just loves in depth analytical Bible study, and the thing is she knows it’s our meeting so she’s not trying to, and, and she agrees with us on hellfire and things like that. So anyway, she’s been a real wonderful addition.

And, and so there are what about 12 of us gathering together. So it’d be Jan and I, Eric and Tasha, our son and daughter in law come Neil and Dixie Hamilton and their son Alan Paul and Gene Mezra and we meet in their home and my brother Ray are the ones that attend in person, and, and then Mark and Karen Beers and Dawn Gelner, the, the lady from near Mark and Karen. In the last year I got a request from two groups of brethren in Kenya if I would start leading online meetings.

I said okay, and so since about this time last year I have been leading a weekly meeting with one group and every other week meeting with another small group of brethren, and, and I don’t see where he’s sitting, but brother David Rice has the other every other week.

And it has been a real blessing to get to know brethren in Africa in that way and they’ve asked us to send them the link to our Sunday message. Sunday meeting. So some of them have been coming to our Sunday meeting and a couple, a sister and a brother, not brother, not related from India have been attending, and so it’s been, things have changed as far as the complexion of our meetings. Both of the meetings in Kenya, they wanted them at nine o’ clock in the morning during the standard time hours.

That means it starts at midnight for me, and now that we’re on daylight savings time it starts at 1am Anyway, it’s been a great blessing and, and I’ll tell you brethren, of course I would have, Janice would have to agree but if I had not committed to this convention, I would like to be in, on my way to Ghana for the convention in Ghana to meet some of those brethren. Really, really blessed to get to know them, and so that, that’s, that’s been a real blessing. Other activities.

For the last three years I have been on the board of directors of the Bible Student Retirement center, and we, those of you who are members, we just the, the votes in the balloting of for the directors were just counted this morning and I can’t tell you what the results are yet. But, but at any rate. So that’s, that’s. I’ve been in charge of membership.

And speaking of that, there are membership brochures and applications on the back table, as well as a few copies of the most recent newsletter. We’d be very pleased to have you join as a member. I think the membership fee has not changed in like 25 years. It’s still $25 for single person or $35 for a couple living at the same address.

And you don’t have to live there or want to live there. It’s just your support that community by through your membership.

I think that’s about it for activities. How long have I been talking? Okay, about six minutes. So I’ll, I’ll just make a few comments on As I was looking at the text that we were given and many, many of the commentators make the point that really the what, what Jesus main point was talking about the heavy burdens of the law covenant that Israel bore and the requirements, and more than that, they say the, the, the additional requirements that the scribes and Pharisees loaded on people.

And Jesus said in Matthew 23:1 4, he said to the crowds and to his disciples, the teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses seat, so they must be care. So you must be careful to do everything they tell you, but do not do as they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them, and if, you know, you’ve studied any of this, they, they have all these additions to what the law said and how you must behave, and they themselves are always figuring out ways to skirt around doing it themselves.

So that’s why Jesus says don’t do what they do because they don’t. They don’t follow what they preach.

There’s more that could be said on that, but I’d like to transition into a little of personal testimony and, and I can kind of relate a little bit to what Brother Obi said, and maybe some of this will seem similar.

I was raised in a very religious Christian family. We attended church every week and sometimes more than that. For a number of years my father was in charge of the entire Sunday school program at our church. I sang in the church choir, and for one year I was president of our high school youth group, and I am very thankful for the religious training I received from my parents and through my church.

And I think that the degree of faith that I had in my young life is why I was able to write a short essay. When we were given this text, it reminded me of an essay I wrote in college, and as I went looking for it, I ran across another one. I’m going to share a couple of essays. This one’s very short.

I wrote this when I was 15 years old in 10th grade, and our English teacher assigned us all to write an essay on entitled what Would Make Me Happy, and this is what I wrote. Three paragraphs. I think the one thing that would make me happy would be to have the whole world come to know Jesus Christ and to follow his way of life.

I hope that someday this will happen. I believe that this would solve most of the world’s problems. If each man loved the other as a brother, there would be no conflict between nations. There would be no need for weapons. With all of the money not spent on weapons, millions of people could be saved from starvation.

If each man loved the other, he would not kill or injure him, and he would not steal from him. If we did not have to send men to fight wars, they would be home to work for the betterment of man and the world. So that was my understanding at 15 years old, and what. What I would like to see.

I. I hadn’t laid eyes on that for a long, long, long time. But a few years back, had occasion to dig out this essay that I wrote five years later when I was 20 years old. I was a student at Michigan State University, and I’ll tell you, I wrote this just a few weeks before I met Larry McClellan, and.

And I thought of this because of what our text is, of getting rest and. Listen to the last sentence. Maybe I’ll repeat the last sentence. It just was such a tie in. So this was kind of a, I don’t know, interesting essay.

And I. I kind of wrote it kind of weirdly, I don’t know. But I said, what force is this that drives me to leave all that I have? What is there that compels me to leave friends, my home, the humdrum of daily life? What could I want more than these? Could there be something more satisfying?

I tried to fight this inner compulsion. I told myself it would pass, but it did not. It only grew stronger, more intense. It persisted. Finally, I gave in.

I yielded to the powerful force within me. I gathered a few things and set out on a journey. As I traveled, I thought on the nature of this drive, I was searching for something that I was sure of. But what? Perhaps it was beauty, I thought.

No, that wasn’t it. Perhaps it is freedom. Yes, that is it, I was sure n. But no, that was not it. What was it then? I asked myself.

Deep within myself I searched for the answer. But it was all so dark in there that I could not find one. In my travels, I came to a large body of water. In the distance I could see land, and spanning the distance was a mighty bridge.

A great tribute to man’s technical ability. I marveled at the sight of it. But it was not what I was searching for. On I went searching, seeking, pursuing the horizon. Was I searching for new meaning to life?

I did not know. I passed through great forests and across great rivers. I felt that each seemed to say something about the object of my search. But none of them painted a complete picture.

Next I saw mighty mountains. The peaks captain veils of whiteness. I was awed by their sight. The picture was forming, but I still could not make out what was in it. I turned around to continue on, but I stopped dead.

There in the green valley below me was a great choir, robed in white. I was very much shocked at the sight. But as my shock went away, I could hear them singing. It was a song of praise. Their anthem shook the mighty mountains.

What was it they were singing about? I tried to understand the words. It was something about a creator. Creator of what? I asked myself.

Praise God, sang the choir. Then I realized what was in the picture that had been forming.

I had been searching for a new life, one with more meaning. I had been led past signs of the Creator on my journey, and now the choir had drowned them all together. A quietness fell upon my life and I was given rest.

So the scripture brought that to mind. Thank you for indulging me to read that.

And so I will say that check my time here.

You know, meeting brother Larry McClellan and learning about God’s plan to restore life to everyone and bring peace to the world all through Christ fulfilled what I think I was referring to in that. In that essay, and knowing God’s plan brought a. A certain degree of rest to my mind, and I dedicated my life to God.

But my heart was not completely at rest because of my awareness of my many imperfections and failures. I had a very low self image. I struggled to understand how God and Jesus could possibly love me. In 1975, I was blessed to have a wonderful woman named Jan marry me and her acceptance of me as a person was very important. But you’ve heard me speak about my.

At that point in our marriage, point in our marriage where we real came to realize I was dealing with undiagnosed, untreated clinical depression. I’ve spoken about that openly. So, and once that was diagnosed and treated, my heart became a little bit more joyful, and about that time, God was leading me to understand understanding of his grace.

And sister Helene Crawford, if you know her from the Chicago area, I was talking with her about what I was contemplating, and she referred me to a book on God’s grace, and that. That opened up a whole new understanding of how God looks at me and treats me with grace, with undeserved kindness, and my father recommended another book to me on grace, which probably has had more impact on me than any other book except the Bible and brother Russell’s writings, and it has such an intriguing title.

What’s so amazing about grace anyway? That has. Has really had a big impact on me, who I am as a person. You’ve heard me speak on the subject many times, and I can say that now, coming to understand God’s grace, my heart is now enjoying rest, confident that God and Jesus love me beyond my understanding despite my continuing imperfections, and that they will never forsake, forsake me as long as I do not forsake them. I have no fear of their judgment at the end of my life.

My mind and heart now enjoy a lot of rest based upon the promises in God’s word and the communion that I experience with them every day, and I’m thankful for that rest. Thank you. Thank you, Brother Tom. That’s very beautiful.

Thank you for that testimony and for the thoughts that you brought up, and when you were talking, I thought about, you know, what Joseph said to his brothers. He said, you meant it for evil, but the Lord meant it for good, and you brought up the point about Zoom and how the Africa commit. The.

The work in Africa is going on, and you know, Zoom has brought so many of us together in so many ways and know the COVID was such a terrible thing and, and. But look what, look what happened, and how, how, how, now we’re all together. I apologize for that.

And so thank you for that, brother, and our next elder that will share is brother Jerry Wessel from Florida. Oh, brother, it’s so wonderful to be with you here. I. I really appreciate the privilege to come and serve and come out and visit my brother and be with him and Tammy and Nathaniel. Boy, they’re treating me like royalty.

They gave up their bed for me. So I. I’m. I’m well rested and well taken care of. So Lord will, and we’ll do our best for you in the next few days with the Lord’s help.

I. I’m an elder in Orlando, an ecclesia, and as Brother Obi said, you know, the. About the dawn family, many of our. Our brethren there are members or trustees and work diligently, and our.

Is very involved in. In a lot of the work. That’s the mailings and different things that are going on there. I listening to my two brethren and, and I’m privileged to be on the same stage and because I will tell you the words that Brother Tom has.

You know, he can. He can make these scriptures come alive to you and Brother Obi very similar, and I remember, you know, in my particular case, and when I start to talk about the scripture, there was something that really stood out for me. So the truth.

Even though I was raised in the truth, it came. The love of it came to me much later in my life, and when I had moved up to the Northeast, you know, I had a real opportunity. Brother Obi was always very open to me and I could talk to him almost about everything. That’s when I’ve discovered.

Because growing up, I think I might have mentioned this a few years ago when I was here. Everybody came to Miami, everybody from the North. It doesn’t matter who you were. You know, it’s just like a lot of the brethren going to New York. They stopped into Luke’s home.

Well, it was like that when you come down to Florida, you go to Miami and you stayed in the West Hole Home, and we had brethren, you know, who were dawn were Divine Plan, who were believed in the Presence, who didn’t. Who believed that, you know, restitution started restitutionism. We got all the different things, and you know what?

I knew nothing about any of the differences because they were all in our home, and I know they had to. I knew where my parents stood, but I know the brethren must have loved them because the same ones kept coming back every year, and I don’t think it was just because they stayed at our home for free, and my grandmother’s wonderful Italian cooking. They loved the fellowship.

And so. But I moved up to the Northeast and I was consecrated. I was digging into the truth and all these differences, and I remember coming to Brother Obi and talking to Brother Obi and he was saying, you know, we can. We can get along with our brethren.

We can fellowship with them. There’s Nothing wrong with it. We’re going to have differences and it was a wonderful appreciation to have that confidence to talk with him about that. I don’t know if I ever told you that, Brother Obi.

So, but, and, and anyway, a lot of changes in life that happen but is I have nothing to report about any studies that we’re on or late night, one o’ clock in the morning, going to India, going to Africa, planning the General Convention, and I’m, I’m probably going to take a sign up on the back. Maybe we can get part of the retirement community and be a help to them. But we have, we’re busy in our ecclesia. We, we have a lot of studies.

We have a lot of brethren that come in from Australia on our studies and, and even from Africa that are on our studies, and it’s wonderful, and we’re getting brethren that, you know, Sister Nanette, she comes on Nakora, she comes on our meeting and then she attends her class meeting. So via Zoom she can be on and that’s an effort because our meeting starts at 9:45. So it’s 6:45 in the morning for her.

And so it’s wonderful. We’ve had recently Sister Rachel join us, Grace, and it’s an hour difference for her. But it’s wonderful, and we get so, and we have a blended ecclesia.

We’ve officially have an elder brother, Brad Sweeney, who is in Canada and he is an elder in our class. He comes to, he tries to be there as often as he can in the conventions. But so we have brethren that actually are voting members our class on, on Zoom. So it’s been a wonderful privilege and the brethren there have been wonderful mentors to me and, and guiding me. So I’m very thankful.

I, you know, when I looked at the scripture, we know Jesus came to the Jews and he was telling them, remember Paul said the law was to bring them, it was supposed to be a school master to bring him to Christ to recognize when he was there, and they were all in expectation. Even the women were thinking, well, am I going to be the one that’s going to give birth to the Messiah around that time? But we know they rejected him. They didn’t see him.

And these leaders, a lot of responsibility for that. But he was saying, come to me. So he’s giving the invitation, and I think that when we, we look beyond to this. Taking up your yoke, take up my yoke.

I think that’s the consecration and that’s the making the commitment, and he says My, my yoke is easy, and when I look back at myself, I, I was, as I said, raising the truth. But it wasn’t till I went out after I got my education and I sought my fortune and tried to make my way in the world, and when you get to a certain place and you realize it’s empty, it’s, this is, this is emptiness, this is, there’s nothing.

Is this all it is? And I really, at that point, I had some wonderful brethren that were, I was living in Tampa at the time, and I had some wonderful brethren in Clearwater. You know, we had the, the Mitchkas, we had the Hummels that were there, we had the Winces, we had Sister Rupp and Brother Glenn, we had the Maliks. So a lot of seasoned brethren. I remember when I first was attending, they were going through the volume studies.

I made a comment and Brother Herman, you know, he was, he was a loving brother. It’s like an uncle, and he says, you know, that has nothing to do with this. You need to study before you make a comment, and that was a, that was, you know, and I, I and, and I think the other brethren were, were worried.

But I showed up and I never stopped coming, and, and I really appreciated that, and, you know, because we want to do well for the Lord and brethren, I will tell you that if I say something that that is contrary, I want to be corrected because I, I want to make sure we’re, it’s the Lord’s words and that we’re properly speaking His Word and not our own thoughts. But the thing that came across to my mind in this text was my restlessness, and, and I think that the, the key point is we have to get to that point to where we’re not restless, that we’re not fighting, trying to do our will.

And you know, I remember I, I, I thought, you know, if I learned to fly, I can cut the distances and get to see brethren and go to conventions and serve brethren. You know, like when I go up to Maine from Albany, it was a five hour drive. I said, boy, I can go over the mountain. It takes me an hour, hour and a half. So I wanted to learn to fly.

So I got my pilot’s license and I started flying all around, but I never was getting opportunities, and then during the winter months up north, the kind of plane I had, you can’t really fly in the winter because you get icing and all that kind of stuff. So that was one of my schemes and plans that I had that really didn’t work. Out and there were some other things that I wanted to try to do with a podcasts and different things, and you know, there were others that were succeeding and doing extremely well, but we were failing miserably.

And so we, once we learn to settle down and let the Lord’s will work, he’ll put us where he needs us to be, and you know, even if I’m, all my brethren around me are serving and I’m their sub for the meetings that they’re going to miss, no problem. That’s what the Lord has for me to do and we’re glad to do it. So I think that when, when I looked at this text, you know, to, to figure out what is the most important things and, and I think as we stop to take a look at our, our, our day, what, what’s happening each day, and I think that’s what he’s looking at us for us to do and where is our time being spent? So once we’ve made that commitment, we’ve taken his yoke on us, Are we devoting our time?

Are we spending that time in his service? You know, where’s, where, what are we doing? We’re making, we need to make money.

But how much do you have to make? How much time do you have to spend in doing that? The mana text, I think it was this morning or yesterday, was that we need to realize what business are we in. Is it something that would be pleasing to the Lord? Is it something, since we’re children of the kingdom, we should be doing the things that would be acceptable in the kingdom.

And if we’re not, we really should be looking at moving away from that. But the, every, every day we’re going to have different experiences. The adversary is going to be pressing down upon us and there’s always going to be anxiety and we have to put that away from us, and so if we were able to just be quiet, learn to, to settle our system down and that was the biggest thing for me, having to make the decision as to where, where is my time going to be spent? What am I doing right now?

Am I, I want to acknowledge the Lord. If I’m, if I’m at my breaking point of where, what am I supposed to do next? I have to make money. I have pullings here. I have a service to the brethren.

We have to, we have to say, lord, this is your work, and it’s the work and our yoke carry what I cannot, and he will check whether you have added extra loads, like people pleasing perfectionism, unnecessary obligations. But he did not. He didn’t put it there.

We’re putting those things there. Trust that he will not suffer you to be burdened beyond what is profitable and that every permitted strain is shaping you for glory, and it’s going to happen. Things are going to happen during your day, and where is our power?

The most powerful thing we have is prayer.

You know, we can map out our day, we can map out our tasks. We do that anyway, right when we’re making our business calls. We’re doing content creation. But you have to lay out your planner or your to do list before the Lord and say, these hours are yours, Lord, and I bind my time, my influence, my means and my opportunities to your service. Show me what is truly my responsibility under your yoke and what is just my pride or fear talking.

When you see tasks that are purely about image or chasing status, you can question them. Is this something Jesus would put in the harness with me? Or is it the old yoke of pleasing men? You may delete or downgrade some of these here you’re trading the yoke of ambition and human approval for the yoke of obedience and stewardship. You’re still working, but you’re now consciously co laboring with Christ, not chasing an image of success.

And throughout your day, you’re going to have various experiences, and as we have to continue, he says, learn of me in that scripture.

He says, every success and failure becomes a lesson in his school instead of a verdict on your worth, and that’s when you’re becoming more seasoned. We have to realize, you know, the Lord is not covenanted with the old man and the old mind. You know, Brother Russell, it was a manatext not too long ago and I thought it was very powerful that it’s the new mind, it’s the new creature. It’s not the evolution of the old mind.

The old man is need to be put down and put under and be controlled. But I had to recognize my restlessness, the old yoke trying to slip back on my own neck in so many different ways.

So we say a prayer. Lord, you’ve shown me the emptiness and fleeting nature of those past things. They did not satisfy and they will not now. My life is not about building a tower of my own name, about being faithful in the field you’ve assigned me, and maybe take this, take a walk, take a short pause to reset your heart repeating a verse, and occasionally or casually re choosing the Lord’s will over your own. Not my will, but thine be done in this business, in this ministry, in My reputation.

This is the fixedness of purpose that makes the yoke sit comfortably. Instead of chafing and pulling against it, you settle your heart again. I want you, your will, even if it’s smaller in man’s eyes. So I didn’t set my timer, Brother Ken. Just tell me when.

I have to stop. But at the end of each day, you know, we have to give an account. We have to think about it, and before you go to sleep, the old images of what you could have been in worldly terms may still surface. You meet them with a new identity.

I am not primarily a success seeker. I’m a disciple yoked with Christ. My wealth is in the knowledge of God and in the kingdom to come. My name doesn’t need to be great on earth. It only needs to be written in heaven.

This quiet, repeated re. Anchoring is how the spirit slowly rewires your affections. Over time, you will find that your guidance, your genuine joy is less and less in metrics and applause and more and more in being faithful, useful, and near to your master. So that’s what the scripture meant to me, and it got to be personal. I appreciate the brethren for selecting it and, you know, following along.

This is very difficult, I know, because it’s very hard to talk. I’m pretty boring. I read the lives of these brethren here. But I will tell you, it’s difficult in any case to talk about yourself and give a testimony. But I.

When as I. As I really wanted to honor Brother Tim’s tradition that he set up for this convention, let’s get to know these elders, you know, put us in the hot seat, as it were. But, you know, we’re all a family and we should realize when I come up, I want to do the best for you. But I know as my family, you’re going to forgive me and you’re going to help me. You want the best for me.

So that takes away a lot of the anxiety. Plus, we’re here to do the Lord’s will.

But I. But I really wanted to. As I really looked into this, I found that. That one of the biggest pullings for me was, was we have to realize that the Heavenly Father knows everything that’s going on with us. He’s given us this wonderful master, and Christ is our example to follow.

He’s. He’s already conquered and he’s going to give us these experiences. If we can just figure that and realize that every single experience, every single failure. Don’t. Don’t beat yourself up.

The Lord has given us this Experience to help us. He’s. He’s chiseling away at this. Paul calls it the dross, you know that the useless things that are not going to make us fit for the kingdom, and he’s going to get us ready.

The Lord promised. He said, I’m going to finish the work. So with that, we would say that his yoke is easy from the standpoint that really we’ve got a pattern set up for us, and if we just do his will and we line everything up according to that, you know, there’s going to be some trouble. We’re going to do in our study.

We’re going to. This weekend. We’re going to talk about those hot coals that that high priest brought with him. So if you’re about the Lord’s business, you’re going to bring trouble with you. It’s going to create trouble, but it also gives you that opportunity to burn that wonderful, sweet incense to him with your consecrated life.

So with that, we’ll stop. Thank you, Brother Ken. Thank you, Brother Jerry, and he brought up about brother Tim Thomason and how this is a tradition that the Albuquerque class has. Has done for a while.

And it’s. It’s an honor to be up here with these brethren. You know, when we think about those that have gone before us, and I’ve learned so much from each one of these and from so many that are here. I, and while you’re talking, I.

It brings up, you know, for me, when. When we get to know each other better, it brings up the way it was when I was raised, and, you know, I was. I had my grandmother and her three daughters were in the truth, and they used to sit around the table and talk about the truth all the time, and when I was little, my family got splitting up.

My dad got sick and we had to go to different homes, and I was blessed to go to my grandmother’s home in Dwarde, California, and we would meet with the Pasadena brother. Brother Julian Gray was the elder there in. In Pasadena at that time, and.

And I just loved. I loved being there, and it was, you know, it was such a blessing at that I would just sit and listen. I. I understood very little. You know, Brother Julian was very deep in the pyramids and that, but I just like, there was so much love there.

And then my. My mother and, and, and her sisters would sit around and talk about the Scriptures, and she’d always say to me, she says, it’s all right, Kenny. All things work for good to those that love the Lord and are called across according to his purpose. You’ll be fine, honey.

And you know, my, my grandmother’s name is Merchant Little. She was a little French woman. Merchant means merchant, and she was. My family was descended from Huguenots.

There’s a French Huguenot named Henry Merchand who came to the Americas in the 1600s because his father didn’t want him to be taken and raised in a Catholic home, and I always think about that old Huguenot, and that’s how I think about you guys. Not old Huguenots, but as the standing on the shoulders of giants and being on the shoulders of giants. How many have been before us?

And, and Paul talks about the affliction which is so light that is put upon us, and brother Jerry brought out the fact that. That being in that yoke, that’s being in our covenant with the Lord, and you know what? We don’t need to be anxious about every.

Anything. I mean, you know, we all were going to be anxious at times. But it says to bring everything to him through prayer and supplication. So that’s, that’s what is so good about this meeting to me that we do at the first is that we get to know these brethren more personally. You know what, what a beautiful family we have.

And we’re going to let them have their closing statements. Two or three men, we. You did real well with your times. We’ve got a little bit of time left to anything that was brought up for you. Brother Obi.

Much as I listened to the content of my brothers reflections tonight, I will mention one thing that Jerry said, and that is, I don’t recall the conversation I had with him, but it reinforces in my mind the importance of what we say to people.

There have been occasions in my life when I made a brief but encouraging statement to a person to have them come back to me years later and say, you know, when you said this, it was just life changing, and I thought me changing someone’s life.

The phrase sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me is one of the greatest falsehoods on the planet. Words are some of the most hurtful things. They can also be very powerfully helpful.

And I talked about always being of a religious bent of mind. When I was in high school, there was one Jewish student and I was very good friends with her, and her mother wanted to promote the arts in our little town in Kentucky, and so she got a group of high school students to act out scenes from various Shakespearean dramas, and she drove us around.

She would chat us up. She was a wonderful person, just lovely, brilliant, one of the best people I’ve ever known, and one time as we were driving along, she said, what do you think is going to happen in the year 2000?

And I, being young and altruistic, said, I think that the world is going to come to its senses and wars will stop and people will try to get along with each other, and then she took opportunity to tell me about the Jewish tradition of the last days, the golden age, when Messiah will reign over the earth and bring peace to the nations, and that just resonated with me, and it stuck with me and it still sticks with me, and I think the Lord planted that little seed in my brain on that day, at that time, and prepared me for the moment when I heard about ransom, restitution, and resurrection, and it just went boom.

Thank God. Thank you, Billy. Obi, Brother Tom. Well, when I was thinking about the, the text and the idea of rest, one of the scriptures that always comes to my mind about rest is, is in Hebrews the fourth chapter, you know, the rest, and I’d just like to read verses 8 through 11 of Hebrews 4, which says, for if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.

There remains then a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For anyone who enters God’s rest rests from their own works, just as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest so that no one of you will perish by following their example of disobedience, and so God does want us to enter that state of peace and rest within our lives, and, you know, I, I, it’s, it’s a struggle and with the different things that come about in our lives.

I’ve mentioned it before, but Janice and I have this little sign that we bought in a shop. It’s over, over the entrance to the, the study and library in our house, and it says, I know God won’t give me anything I can’t handle. I just wish he didn’t trust me so much.

And, and, and that is a powerful reminder. When these things come along in our lives, he trusts us to deal with it. So I was thinking of things to go along with this idea of rest. I just started jotting. I jotted down five things that we can come to this rest and refreshment.

When the first one I said, we can come to understand and believe that Jesus’s atoning death frees us from the condemnation of death due to our sins and our Sinful, fallen nature, and I’ve got scriptures cited with each of these, but I’m not going to read them. Two, we believe and have faith that God will do all that he has promised in his word to restore and heal mankind everyone who has ever lived. Three, we refuse to become anxious over the uncertain circumstances of life, and four, we enter into an intimate relationship with his Father, communing with him through prayer and meditation and gaining a deep sense of security and peace.

And five, we have confidence that God will never forsake his children and will continue working in our lives until we are victorious, and those are the things that have become present in, in my life. Doesn’t mean I don’t have anxiety at times or whatever, but that rest is out there and, and we’re, we’re asked to enter into it because God wants us to have that, that sense of rest and peace in our lives, and with all that’s promised and the assurances there, there’s a good foundation for entering that rest. Thank you.

Thank you, Brother Tom. Brother Jared.

I just, I was listening so intently to Brother Taub. I, I, I forgot what I was going to say. Well, I, I do say this just, but I might not have finished the story correctly that I had said that everybody had come to our home and I had no idea. All the different, I don’t know, different groups, we, we had different divisions or differences of thought because my parents had everybody in the home. That was the legacy that was given to me.

And I thought, wow, and, and, you know, well, this is so different, and when I was start, when it, when I started to discover it, that’s about when I was, you know, I had a nice, understanding, helpful ear there, and Brother Obi, as, as I chatted about some of these doctrinal differences, and he says, yeah, they’re, they’re there, but we can, we can still be with our brethren, and I, I thought about that scripture from Paul when he says, finally, not, not like right at the beginning, but finally near the end, let us all be of one accord.

So, you know, as long as our, these, everyone’s striving, our brethren are striving. They love our Lord Jesus. They love this opportunity, the high calling that we have to be part of this sin, offering I the picture, and so we need to, we need to remember that, and, and then, of course, I’ll just leave this.

My father used to call it Formula 8 28, Romans 8 28. All things work together for good to them that are of the call according to his purpose, and so if we can keep that in mind, and, you know, there’s. There’s a lot of things that happen, but Jesus told his disciples, they’ll know you are my disciples because you love one another, and that’s what we should be striving for.

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