Archive for category: LivingEd – Charlotte

Author: Thomas White | Student at LivingEd-Charlotte

“Life is tough, and as life gets tough, with bills, and health problems, and problems with children, and neighbors, and bosses, [some] get distracted.” ~ Mr. Kenneth Frank

LivingEd-Charlotte: Student Assembly | March 28, 2019

Mr. Ken Frank packed a lot into his assembly, this week. We heard of how we’ll be leading God’s Church before we know it (no pressure or anything), how crucial it is that we don’t divide our lives into the sacred and the secular, how we might retain a biblical worldview in an era fundamentally opposed to it, and each of those points had something like a half-dozen equally profound sub-points. All of that insight is available in the assembly recording (no cost, no obligation), but one sub-point in particular struck me harder than the others. Mr. Frank alluded to the fact that it can be really tempting to give up sometimes, because living a godly life is hard. It’s hard for everyone, and knowing that suffering is a prerequisite for righteous character can feel like a mean joke. When we know we’ll never be perfect as humans, and that this physical life is never going to get any easier, but is in fact probably only going to get worse as the Great Tribulation creeps closer…yeah, it’s tempting to just go, “You know what, all is vanity,” and stay in bed indefinitely.

“People who start off with a biblical worldview can lose it if they get their eyes off Christ. They’ve got to stay focused on Him.”

As Mr. Frank implied, it’s the temporary nature of this physical life that we need to focus on, and that’s pretty difficult, because this life is all we know. Of course, for those with God’s Spirit, this life is only a womb as we wait to be born into His eternal family. But that metaphor can be a tough sell when you think about how a baby in a womb is warm, comfortable, and completely peaceful, and this life is…not those things. So though it sounds childish, I like to think of this life as the setup process to an incredibly amazing board game. No one likes setting up a board game. You have to find the pieces, you have to shuffle the cards, you have to root around in the box for all the fake money you have to organize… It’s not fun, and it feels like it takes forever. But you need to do it, and you need to do it right, in order to actually play the game. Once you start playing, you’re glad you put in the time and effort to set everything up, because the game is great, and a lot longer than the set up.

“We have to think of the bigger question: Where are we going eternally?”

That’s what I tend to forget, and what Mr. Frank reminded me – that this physical life is the setup, not the game. Suffering might very well feel endless, but the amazing reward for it will literally be endless. Even eternal life can sound like an iffy reward when you’re used to life being something you wouldn’t actually want going on eternally, but what about eternal peace? Eternal joy? Eternally giving others peace and joy? Those are in the reward, too. God promises everlasting happiness and fulfillment at the end of this ever-so-tiny period of setup. If we can keep our focus on what we’re setting up for, nothing will be able to keep us from it.

Thomas White was one of the onsite Living Education students for the 2018-2019 semesters. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree in English. Thomas currently works as an Editorial Assistant for the Living Church of God. According to his wife, he eats pizza in entirely the wrong way.

by Thomas White, student at LivingEd-Charlotte

“…I think of a body of believers, when I think about the Church. …the body of believers is made up of so many different kinds of people, from all different kinds of backgrounds, all different kinds of races, all different kinds of experiences, different cultural backgrounds, and different talents.” ~ Mr. Jerry Ruddlesden

Student Assembly, March 14, 2019.

A novel by Robert Heinlein includes a quote that ends with “Specialization is for insects,” claiming that every human being should be able to do basically everything under the sun. That’s all well and good if you’re a character in a novel with as many inexplicable talents and abilities as the author can write for you, but in real life, no human being can do everything. The Apostle Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 12, where he informs us that God’s Church is a body, and that each member of it makes up a separate and unique, yet unified and integral, part of that body. For this week’s assembly, Mr. Jerry Ruddlesden informed us of the absolutely staggering amount of work that goes into maintaining and operating that body, from the ins and outs of making sure Sabbath Services across the world have halls to be held in, to the intricacies of creating a professional telecast and finding television stations on which to show it. All of this is done by an immense amount of people…and most of these people work almost entirely “behind the curtain.”

“…the body needs a head, the body needs a foot. The body needs an eye, the body needs an ear. We preach the gospel, we feed the flock, and all those little things that happen here, all of us together, we’re a part of that.”

All these unseen—yet hugely important—things, being done by all these unseen—yet absolutely invaluable—people, caused a thought to occur to me. Thanks to Paul’s inspired words, we understand that some members of Christ’s body are eyes, some are ears, some are hands, and some are feet. Obviously, all these parts are on the outside of the body – we don’t need to get X-rayed to see that we have eyes, ears, hands, and feet. But what if you’re none of the above? After all, a body is a lot more than just what the mirror shows. What if you’re a pancreas? A thyroid gland? A spleen? These parts aren’t visible—unless something really, really bad just happened to you—but…well, try spending a day without your thyroid. Actually, please don’t. It will not go well.

“…the members in the Church who are not in charge have their part to play. And it’s not just to ‘pay and pray.’ … It’s way more than that.”

You see where I’m going with this, and Mr. Ruddlesden went there first, as he explained that, for example, though each Tomorrow’s World telecast may only be presented by one man, there are perhaps dozens of people that are never shown, but without whom that telecast would never be produced. Those people aren’t parts of the body’s face; they’re internal organs, and you don’t need to be a doctor to know that a body needs internal organs. The telecast needs more than presenters. The magazine needs more than writers. The Church needs more than people in Charlotte. Preaching the gospel and feeding the flock takes every single one of us. Whether it’s Mr. Weston himself teaching doctrine to the members or the teenager in a tiny congregation being a light and example to everyone they meet, both contribute to the feeding and preaching in their own special ways using their own particular talents. We’ll always need faces, but internal organs are important, too.

Thomas White was one of the onsite Living Education students for the 2018-2019 semesters. He also has a Bachelor’s Degree in English. Thomas currently works as an Editorial Assistant for the Living Church of God. According to his wife, he eats pizza in entirely the wrong way.

An essay on Mr. Richard Ames’ Student Assembly titled, “Expand Your Horizons”

by Thomas White, LivingEd-Charlotte

“There are times for meditation, and of course, for recreation, but…have discipline and…broaden your horizons.” ~ Mr. Richard Ames

Most of us have a Thing. You know the one. That Thing that checks all the boxes – you’re good at it, it’s good for you, and you love doing it. It’s good to have a Thing. After all, without anything to make our individual lives exciting and fulfilling in unique ways, we might as well be automatons. But God made an awful lot of Things, and He made each human being versatile enough to fit a lot more than one. In the assembly this week, Mr. Ames spoke about the importance of expanding our horizons, disciplining ourselves to continuously grow into more multifaceted Ambassadors for Christ.

“How do you expand your horizons? … One of the ways is through various hobbies and various interests.”

Another amazing aspect to us humans is that we can get excited about almost anything, given time and exposure. Now, this has a ton of downsides we have to be aware of, so as to avoid joining those who trick themselves into caring about what a random celebrity wears to a random place. But a major positive aspect to this is that if you think you could never possibly be interested in a potential new hobby, learning more about it will probably fix that. Nothing has to replace your Thing. Just don’t trap yourself into making your Thing your only Thing. Love reading? Maybe you can give mountain climbing a shot, too. Really into sports? You could try learning to draw after you’ve hit the showers. You never know what will give you a sense of unexpected fulfillment, and contrary to popular belief, you’re totally allowed to love doing something that you’re not actually all that naturally talented in. God might not intend for you to have a career in it, but that’s no reason not to do it for fun.

“Why do you [expand your horizons]? To make you a more effective ambassador for Christ, [who] can relate to people.”

The more things we like to do, the more common ground we’ll find with others. And as Mr. Ames said, the more versatile we are, the more effective we can be as Christ’s Ambassadors. God made a lot of people, and almost all of them have passions they love talking about. Being able to talk to many different people, about many different things, can improve the light in which people see you, and improve the light in which they see “that Church you’re in.” It’s good to have a Thing, but as Mr. Ames showed, it’s even better to have many.

By Thomas White, Student at LivingEd – Charlotte

“We do not live, ever, in a godly culture as long as man is in charge here.” ~ Mr. Gerald Weston

It’s not just a classic science fiction novel by H.G Wells, or one of roughly six gazillion alie  n invasion movies. It’s what’s being fought right now, on this earth. Mr. Gerald Weston’s Assembly this week highlighted the cultural warfare all around us, as Republicans battle with Democrats, “liberals” clash with “conservatives,” the “left” dukes it out with the “right,” and we, as God’s people, hopefully stand our ground against the whole lot of them. In a world where cultural warfare and political ideologies seem to infect virtually everything we see, it can be all too easy to get caught up in one agenda vs. another, this party vs. that party, capitalism vs. socialism…and forget that the war we should be fighting is between two trees, between Satan’s world and the coming Kingdom of God.

“The word of God is the foundation of our beliefs, and we need to constantly keep that in mind…we do have to understand what God’s mind is on some of these subjects, and sometimes you have to search a little bit, because it’s not always readily evident in every case.”

Of course, not one of us would ever purposely side with Satan’s world. We do, after all, know that it’s eventually going to lose, and we genuinely want to honor God with all we choose to do and be. But what if we don’t always recognize when we’re on the wrong side? Our enemy is a master manipulator, so as Mr. Weston said, we have to be constantly critiquing what the world presents as favorable. Do we ever catch ourselves thinking of an unborn child as a nigh-inanimate “fetus” instead of a baby? Are we ever tempted to shrug off homosexuality as “just another type of love”? One way that I often find myself sliding into the world’s camp is simply by considering one sin “less bad” than another. That’s exactly what the world wants us to think, while God’s word says, “whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (James 2:10).

 “A culture involves more than one person…it involves a common set of beliefs and standards…and those common beliefs and standards must come from Scripture.”

As Mr. Weston adamantly said, we have to look at everything that’s happening, everything that the world’s culture is hurling at us, from the perspective of God’s revealed plan. The agenda of humanity is always going to be in rebellion against its Creator, so whatever the subject, we have to search God’s word for His perfect perspective on it. It’s important to stay informed, but there’s a big difference between being informed and being invested, and if we find ourselves supporting one ungodly culture over another, it’s probably time to refocus on the culture we really need to spread across the world. As Mr. Weston has said many times before, there can be no compromise; there are only two trees. In the war of the worlds, are we confident and unyielding in the side we claim to be fighting for?

Books Mentioned:

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt

By Thomas White, Student at Living Ed – Charlotte

“We do have a biblical mandate to develop wisdom, to develop understanding, to develop discretion, knowledge. …we should be watching, learning from what happens around us.” ~ Mr. Jonathan McNair

The concept of “News” has been around almost as long as humanity itself. Things have always happened, and people have almost always had to be told, so news isn’t new. But our access to it certainly is. Now we have podcasts, more websites than we can possibly keep track of, scores of television channels, radio stations, that one uncle who always seems to know what’s going on, and newspapers for the traditionalists among us. The vast number of available news sources can ironically make it more overwhelming to keep up with the world’s endless shenanigans, at least for me. Fortunately, Mr. Jonathan McNair’s Assembly this week offered ways to manage the myriad of news sources clamoring for our attention, in order to minimize the risk of being misled and focus our attention upon “good news.”

“…the system is geared to get our attention, to catch our eye, to make scoops, and it’s not from God’s perspective.”

If news is coming from humans, which it pretty often the case, then news is biased. As God’s people, our task is to recognize its biases, and that all sources of worldly news have a slant. This being the case, we should always know the source of the news we keep up on, and consider the perspective of that source. Doing so enables us to read or listen with an awareness of the source’s bias. Even a largely fact-oriented source is based on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as such, it’s going to contain just that: good and evil. Bits of both.  As Mr. McNair pointed out, we should seek the most credible and objective news sources we can find (that one uncle probably isn’t the safest bet), but accept that none of them will give us the unvarnished truth every time. It’s tempting to just trust “conservative” sources and shun “liberal” ones, but is that really exercising discernment? Would Satan let it be that easy?

“We are not involved in politics, so be careful where you stand. Even though you don’t vote, even though you may not go to the ballot box, you can still be political in your perspective if you’re not careful.”

We’re also humans (crazy, right?), so we’re also biased. That’s unavoidable, so Mr. McNair suggested that we need to understand ourselves and recognize what our biases are, and why we have them. The most dangerous sources of “news” are out to manipulate rather than inform, and knowing where we are biased can protect us from having our emotions played with by certain topics. As Mr. McNair pointed out, we all need to be looking for God’s perspective, not remaining content with our own, so it would probably be wise to ask members of God’s ministry where they get their news from, and what they’ve noticed about those sources. Understanding our own perspectives, thinking critically about our sources of news, and keeping God’s greater plan at the forefront of our minds can help us to “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).