Witnessing
These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: '...Do not take along any gold or silver or copper in your belts; take no bag for the journey, or extra tunic, or sandals or a staff.
Matthew 10:5-10
Jesus must have sounded almost crazy when he taught his disciples to go out witnessing without even a penny in their pocket. In other words, he was telling them to go out on the streets like beggars. Why? This is the core spirit of traditional Christianity. It is the most dramatic way to embark on the road of sacrificial service. You have to start at the worst level and serve as beggars. A servant's position is much higher than that of a beggar. Actually, you start the providential course at a position even lower than a beggar. As a beggar's servant, you will be persecuted even by beggars.
Why do we do things this way? Why don't we act a little more wisely? Why does God permit such persecution to continue? It is not to enable you to eventually achieve the level of human authority, which is automatically yours when you pass the criterion of sacrificial service.
The Road of God's Will
May 30, 1982
The greatest error occurs when people think that they can "just believe" in God and Jesus and they will receive more and more blessings from God. Such people feel they can have everything they want without doing anything in return. That is similar to the attitude of a thief, who just takes things without working. Did Jesus believe in God in that way? Did he think that because God sent him as his only begotten Son it meant he had all power? Did he feel that all he had to do was to keep on believing and claiming his faith in God, and then he could subjugate all the Roman Empire automatically? ...
If everything could have come to Jesus automatically, why did he witness? Why did Jesus gather and train the 12 apostles, the 70 disciples, and the 120 elders? Why did he have to do all that and endure so much persecution along the way? Jesus did what he had to do according to Gods dispensation; he had no other way to go. We can clearly see that Jesus had to go the way of persecution and bloodshed. Jesus knew the suffering that lay ahead of him, but he also knew he had to go that way in order to accomplish God's will.
Do you think I am placing unnecessary stress on this, or do you understand that this point is the most crucial one of belief? Jesus had to go the way he did because he knew what God wanted him to do, namely to save the world and all mankind by loving them. Therefore, it stands to reason that everyone else who loves Jesus should also do God's will -- to love the people of the world and save them.
Perfection of Restoration by Indemnity through Human Responsibility
March 1. 1983
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