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I recently
became aware of elements in the possible return of Jesus that led me to believe
such event was imminent. I shall outline those elements.
The Urantia Papers, Page 1863: Although Jesus referred one phase of the kingdom
to the future and did, on numerous occasions, intimate that such an event might
appear as a part of a world crisis; and though he did likewise most certainly, on
several occasions, definitely promise sometime to return to Urantia, it should be
recorded that he never positively linked these two ideas together. He promised a
new revelation of the kingdom on earth and at some future time; he also promised
sometime to come back to this world in person; but he did not say that these two
events were synonymous. From all we know these promises may, or may not, refer to
the same event.
I believe
these promises do refer to the same event.
You will
note that two parallel statements are used, with two elements repeated.
The fact
that these two statements are found co-emphasizing one another definitely shows
that
a phase of the kingdom would come as part of a world crisis
with
a new revelation of the kingdom on earth.
The Revelators
would not tie these two events together, repeated twice, unless there was a good
expectation that Jesus would return prior to or during these events.
All knowledgeable
persons today know that we are in a world crisis of unprecedented proportions, and
that the crisis is intensifying with each passing day. This is attested on many
fronts, from deterioration of family life, to degradation of our school systems,
to rampant immorality, to weather and geological catastrophes, to species destruction,
to worldwide strife and warfare, to increasing terror, and to the potential for
total destruction of the human race through nuclear mechanisms. Never before, in
all the history of mankind, has it been possible to destroy ourselves. We now can
do so. We are on the very brink of a total world collapse.
Within this
world crisis a phase of the kingdom will come. But that phase of the kingdom will
not come unless it appears as part of a new revelation.
Note that
this is a phase of the kingdom, and not the full kingdom in all its glory. The new
revelations will demonstrate the unfolding of that phase of the kingdom.
The Urantia
Papers are a tool to be used in the new revealing of the kingdom, but do not
substitute for it. Rather, a group of human beings will become the vehicle for the
new revelation.
My position about the return of Jesus is reinforced by New Testament remarks:
Matt 23:39 – “For I tell you, you will not see me
again, until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.'"
Here Jesus
tells us explicitly the condition for his return. He will not return until these
human agents go forth. And he is predicting the future, not merely addressing remarks
to his contemporaries. Or, we might say that this group of human beings going forth
to proclaim this phase of the kingdom will do so concomitant with his return. If
we are to go out proclaiming the kingdom, do we not come in the name of Jesus? Is
he not the Lord? Since this teaching of the kingdom is new, not appearing in our
traditional religions, then it must mean that it comes at a time when we will see
him again. Indeed, this is reinforced by other remarks:
Matt 24:30 – “Then will appear the sign of the Son
of man in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see
the Son of man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.”
The Son of
Man will come with a sign. While I do not wish to put too much emphasis on this
"sign," we can see that he will appear on the clouds and in great glory. He will
not appear on earth in material form. He will come in a glorious light that will
cover the entire planet. That will be the sign of his return.
Return to Top of Page
The Return of Jesus
The return
of Jesus is emphasized many times within the Urantia Papers; we cannot help
but recognize the significance of these remarks:
Page 227: . .
. Regardless of the misunderstandings about the Urantian sojourn of Michael of Nebadon,
one thing is certainly authentic—his promise to come back to your world.
Page 598:
. . . Again we find Urantia out of step with its sister spheres in that your
Jesus has promised to return. That promise he will certainly fulfill, but no one
knows whether his second coming will precede or follow the appearances of Magisterial
or Teacher Sons on Urantia.
Page 1025:
And all these speculations associated with the certainty of future appearances of
both Magisterial and Trinity Teacher Sons, in conjunction with the explicit promise
of the Creator Son to return . . .
Page 1319:
Urantia is the sentimental shrine of all Nebadon, the chief of ten million inhabited
worlds, the mortal home of Christ Michael, sovereign of all Nebadon, a Melchizedek
minister to the realms, a system savior, an Adamic redeemer, a seraphic fellow,
an associate of ascending spirits, a morontia progressor, a Son of Man in the likeness
of mortal flesh, and the Planetary Prince of Urantia. And your record tells the
truth when it says that this same Jesus has promised some time to return to the
world of his terminal bestowal, the World of the Cross.
Two entire
sections are devoted to The Master's Second Coming, page 1914, and The Return
of Michael, page 1918. I shall consider the information contained in those
remarks. I shall not follow the sequence found in the text. I shall use the text
to illustrate.
Page 1919: We most
positively believe that Michael will again come in person to Urantia, but we have
not the slightest idea as to when or in what manner he may choose to come. Will
his second advent on earth be timed to occur in connection with the terminal judgment
of this present age, either with or without the associated appearance of a Magisterial
Son? Will he come in connection with the termination of some subsequent Urantian
age? Will he come unannounced and as an isolated event? We do not know. Only one
thing we are certain of, that is, when he does return, all the world will likely
know about it, for he must come as the supreme ruler of a universe and not as the
obscure babe of Bethlehem. But if every eye is to behold him, and if only spiritual
eyes are to discern his presence, then must his advent be long deferred.
As I stated
above, my position is that we are in a world crisis, and that this planet will be
subject to terminal judgment by our Creator Son, Jesus. He will come as part of
that judgment.
The reason
for his personal return is that he must directly supervise this grave earthly crisis.
He is the only personality in the universe who has sufficient power, as Creator,
to prevent total world physical destruction.
But his personal
presence is needed for other reasons. He will be the moving spiritual force behind
the new revelations, and the demonstration of the kingdom. And he will supervise
the great contest between good and evil in the grave decisions facing all of us.
Caligastia will be released to do his iniquitous work concomitant with the return
of Jesus.
Only one thing
we are certain of, that is, when he does return, all the world will likely know
about it, for he must come as the supreme ruler of a universe and not as the obscure
babe of Bethlehem.
If he comes
on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, then everyone will certainly
know about it. But many godless minds will not be willing to accept that the phenomenon
associated with his appearance is spiritual; they will give it a natural or scientific
explanation.
If every eye is to behold him, and only spiritual eyes
are to discern his presence, then only those people with spiritual discernment will
recognize this event.
Do we recognize what it
means for him to come as the supreme ruler of a universe? Do we understand the stupendous
earth events that will take place concomitant with that event? Even now we do not
understand.
We are destined for a
rude awakening. His coming will be glorious. And it will precipitate the gravest
spiritual contest of all time.
Page 1919: The second
advent of Michael on earth is an event of tremendous sentimental value to both midwayers
and humans; but otherwise it is of no immediate moment to midwayers and of no more
practical importance to human beings than the common event of natural death, which
so suddenly precipitates mortal man into the immediate grasp of that succession
of universe events which leads directly to the presence of this same Jesus, the
sovereign ruler of our universe. The children of light are all destined to see him,
and it is of no serious concern whether we go to him or whether he should chance
first to come to us. Be you therefore ever ready to welcome him on earth as he stands
ready to welcome you in heaven. We confidently look for his glorious appearing,
even for repeated comings, but we are wholly ignorant as to how, when, or in what
connection he is destined to appear.
This passage is pregnant
with possibilities. Is it really true that the second advent of Michael is of no
more practical importance to us than the common event of natural death? Would not
his second coming be of such grandeur and glory that it would outweigh the lowly
experience of human death? How would our deaths compare with such a glorious event?
We who are his children
are destined to see him. That event will take place if we go to him. But if he first
chances to come to us we, the children of light, will also see him.
Clearly, the children
of light are destined to see him when he comes. They will see and recognize his
glory.
He is ready to welcome
us in heaven. But are we ready to welcome him here on earth?
Page 1919: Jesus
promised to do two things after he had ascended to the Father, and after all power
in heaven and on earth had been placed in his hands. He promised, first, to send
into the world, and in his stead, another teacher, the Spirit of Truth; and this
he did on the day of Pentecost. Second, he most certainly promised his followers
that he would sometime personally return to this world. But he did not say how,
where, or when he would revisit this planet of his bestowal experience in the flesh.
On one occasion he intimated that, whereas the eye of flesh had beheld him when
he lived here in the flesh, on his return (at least on one of his possible visits)
he would be discerned only by the eye of spiritual faith.
Can we grasp
the fact that only his earthly faith children will discern him? Do we understand
what that means? He will appear in glory but only the children of light will see
him in spiritual faith.
Page 1919: Many of
us are inclined to believe that Jesus will return to Urantia many times during the
ages to come. We do not have his specific promise to make these plural visits, but
it seems most probable that he who carries among his universe titles that of Planetary
Prince of Urantia will many times visit the world whose conquest conferred such
a unique title upon him.
Page 1919: You would
do well, therefore, to disassociate the Master’s personal return to earth from any
and all set events or settled epochs. We are sure of only one thing: He has promised
to come back. We have no idea as to when he will fulfill this promise or in what
connection. As far as we know, he may appear on earth any day, and he may not come
until age after age has passed and been duly adjudicated by his associated Sons
of the Paradise corps.
I had puzzled
over this remark for years. We should not associate the Master's personal return
with any settled epoch. In other words, he would come as part of an unsettled epoch.
Similarly, he would not come as part of a planetary set or scheduled event; he would
come as part of an unscheduled, crisis event.
Christianity
has struggled with the return of Jesus for two thousand years. From the apostles
on down to our times they looked forward to his return. But this does not mean that
we should continue in that false expectation. We should now recognize the world
crisis, and why he will return as part of that crisis.
We are in a sufficiently dangerous condition to warrant his return today.
This crisis
is not on the heavenly schedules, and it is not part of a set event.
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The Messengers
of the Kingdom
Out of the
general population on this world will come a group of people to inform their brothers
and sisters of these glorious spiritual events, and the coming of the Kingdom.
Page 1041:
All Urantia is waiting for the proclamation of the ennobling message of Michael,
unencumbered by the accumulated doctrines and dogmas of nineteen centuries of contact
with the religions of evolutionary origin. The hour is striking for presenting to
Buddhism, to Christianity, to Hinduism, even to the peoples of all faiths, not the
gospel about Jesus, but the living, spiritual reality of the gospel of Jesus.
This gives
us some idea of the imminence of the work of the new revelation. All Urantia is
waiting. The hour is striking. Today Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism,
and countless other religions do not have an open ear to a new revelation of Jesus.
They continue in their blind way, assuming that they are each a more proper pathway
to God. But we should understand that our work, the work of you and I, will transform
this new revelation into the ennobling message of Michael. Something so dramatic
is going to happen to our world that all peoples will now open their ears to this
message. We will not bring a message that is burdened with the doctrines and dogmas
of nineteen hundred years of contact with these religions of evolutionary origin.
We will not speak about Jesus; we will speak of the living, spiritual reality of
the true gospel of Jesus. We will bring new revelations.
When Jesus
comes in great spiritual light the more spiritual members of the human race will
eagerly await explanation of that event. They will be from all religions and nations.
Page 1010:
The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of teachers
of religious truth--the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all creatures. But
it is to be hoped that the ardent and sincere efforts of these future prophets will
be directed less toward the strengthening of inter-religious barriers and more toward
the augmentation of the religious brotherhood of spiritual worship among the many
followers of the differing intellectual theologies which so characterize Urantia
of Satania.
As we read
through the many words from the Urantia Papers we begin to get some grasp
of the work of these new revelators. They will work for augmentation of religious
brotherhood of spiritual worship. Can you imagine a planetary crisis of such
proportions that Hindus, and Jews, and Christians will want to come together in
prayerful brotherhood? What would happen to bring such extraordinary sympathetic
and spiritual understanding among such differing people? It certainly is not any
manmade ecumenism!
Page 1914:
. . . The things which you now look down upon are coming to an end, but this will
be a new beginning out of which the gospel of the kingdom will go to all the world
and this salvation will spread to all peoples. And when the kingdom shall have come
to its full fruition, be assured that the Father in heaven will not fail to visit
you with an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness,
. . . . . . I also promise that I will sometime return to this world . . .
for I will sometime return . . .
The things
of this world are coming to an end: all the riches we so dearly love, all the pleasures
of our lives, and all the institutions of learning, religion, and government. All
will come to an end. Out of this world crisis will come a new beginning in which
the true gospel of the kingdom will go to all peoples. Through this climactic period
we will see an enlarged revelation of truth and an enhanced demonstration of righteousness.
Never before in the history of man have such great revelations come through human
beings.
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A Great Religious
Persecution
This effort
will come within the context of the greatest religious persecution this world has
ever seen.
Page
1951: And I am telling you about all this before I leave you in order that you may
be so prepared for what is coming upon you that you will not stumble into serious
error. The authorities will not be content with merely putting you out of the synagogues;
I warn you the hour draws near when they who kill you will think they are doing
a service to God. And all of these things they will do to you and to those whom
you lead into the kingdom of heaven because they do not know the Father. They have
refused to know the Father by refusing to receive me; and they refuse to receive
me when they reject you, provided you have kept my new commandment that you love
one another even as I have loved you. I am telling you in advance about these things
so that, when your hour comes, as mine now has, you may be strengthened in the knowledge
that all was known to me, and that my spirit shall be with you in all your sufferings
for my sake and the gospel’s. It was for this purpose that I have been talking so
plainly to you from the very beginning. I have even warned you that a man’s foes
may be those of his own household. Although this gospel of the kingdom never fails
to bring great peace to the soul of the individual believer, it will not bring peace
on earth until man is willing to believe my teaching wholeheartedly and to establish
the practice of doing the Father’s will as the chief purpose in living the mortal
life.
John 16:1-4
-- I have said all this to you to keep you from falling away. They will put you
out of the synagogues; indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think
he is offering service to God. And they will do this because they have not known
the Father, nor me. But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes
you may remember that I told you of them.
Note the
parallels between these two passages:
-
when
your hour comes
-
when their
hour comes
Clearly, this is an extraordinary period.
Luke 21:12-17 -- But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute
you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before
kings and governors for my name's sake. This will be a time for you to bear testimony.
Settle it therefore in your minds, not to meditate beforehand how to answer; for
I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able
to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers
and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated
by all for my name's sake.
-
a
man’s foes may be those of his own household
-
You will
be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of
you they will put to death
We should
prepare to give our lives in the service of the kingdom. Even our families may be
against us.
I have detailed
this episode on my web site, and given the arguments why this is not the time of
the apostles in early Christianity.
Secular minds
would not believe they are performing murder in service to God. Would government
agencies believe they are killing in service to God? Jews would not kill Gentiles
as a service to God. Would Hindus or other groups?
The great
difficulty facing us is this: Of all the people on the world today, Christian, Jewish,
Hindu, or other, only one group would kill in service to God. That group is the
channelers, those who have given themselves to their "God," and who will fully believe
they are acting in service to God. Caligastia will bring them to those acts.
(I do not
ignore Muslims, who are killing in the name of their God. But those events are political,
not spiritual.)
How will
we react to this persecution?
Page 1438:
"This day, my son, you are to be reborn, re-established as a man of faith, courage,
and devoted service to man, for God's sake. And when you become so readjusted to
life within yourself, you become likewise readjusted to the universe; you have been
born again--born of the spirit--and henceforth will your whole life become one of
victorious accomplishment. Trouble will invigorate you; disappointment will spur
you on; difficulties will challenge you; and obstacles will stimulate you. Arise,
young man! Say farewell to the life of cringing fear and fleeing cowardice. Hasten
back to duty and live your life in the flesh as a son of God, a mortal dedicated
to the ennobling service of man on earth and destined to the superb and eternal
service of God in eternity.
God's Spirit
will be with us. We will say farewell to a life of cringing fear and fleeing cowardice.
We will become dedicated to the ennobling service of our fellow man. Troubles will
invigorate us; disappointment will spur us on; difficulties will challenge us; and
obstacles will stimulate us. We will become true children of light, casting illumination
into the dark corners of a bewildered and fearful world.
Page 2082:
Religion does need new leaders, spiritual men and women who will dare to depend
solely on Jesus and his incomparable teachings. If Christianity persists in neglecting
its spiritual mission while it continues to busy itself with social and material
problems, the spiritual renaissance must await the coming of these new teachers
of Jesus' religion who will be exclusively devoted to the spiritual regeneration
of men. And then will these spirit-born souls quickly supply the leadership and
inspiration requisite for the social, moral, economic, and political reorganization
of the world.
Can you imagine
what it will mean to depend solely upon Jesus and his incomparable teachings? To
place our lives and our work in his hands? Do we not recognize that we will be exclusively
devoted to the spiritual regeneration of men? Out of this work will come a new leadership
that will transform the world. But we should not be excited into believing this
will come in one generation. It will come as the result of our work, but it must
unfold with the generations.
Page 2084: In winning souls for the Master, it is not the
first mile of compulsion, duty, or convention that will transform man and his world,
but rather the second mile of free service and liberty-loving devotion
that betokens the Jesusonian reaching forth to grasp his brother in love and sweep
him on under spiritual guidance toward the higher and divine goal of mortal existence.
Christianity even now willingly goes the first
mile, but mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral darkness because there
are so few genuine second-milers—so few professed followers of Jesus who really
live and love as he taught his disciples to live and love and serve.
Now we will come to know
what is meant by the second mile. Mankind languishes and stumbles along in moral
darkness because there are so few of us. But now mankind will know what it means
to live and love and serve, for our Creator.
Page 2084:
The call to the adventure of building a new and transformed human society by means
of the spiritual rebirth of Jesus’ brotherhood of the kingdom should thrill all
who believe in him as men have not been stirred since the days when they walked
about on earth as his companions in the flesh.
Can you imagine
the thrill to be of service to our Creator in building a new and transformed human
society? Will we not be stirred to the greatest spiritual enterprise ever known?
Page 2086:
The great hope of Urantia lies in the possibility of a new revelation of Jesus with
a new and enlarged presentation of his saving message which would spiritually unite
in loving service the numerous families of his present-day professed followers.
That hope
lies on our shoulders.
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The New Revelation
Episode
Page 2082:
But paganized and socialized Christianity stands in need of new contact with the
uncompromised teachings of Jesus; it languishes for lack of a new vision of the
Master's life on earth. A new and fuller revelation of the religion of Jesus is
destined to conquer an empire of materialistic secularism and to overthrow a world
sway of mechanistic naturalism. Urantia is now quivering on the very brink of one
of its most amazing and enthralling epochs of social readjustment, moral quickening,
and spiritual enlightenment.
We cannot,
from the framework of today's world, understand the transformations that are upon
us. We will experience readjustment that will totally revamp our social order. We
will be forced on to a moral quickening that stirs new depths of religious understanding
within us. We will come to know the might of a God of great power and glory. This
will no longer appear as a dream of the ages, as Christianity has hoped, as Judaism
has expected, or as Hinduism has long awaited. Now we will initiate those new revelations
that will conquer an empire of materialistic secularism, and overthrow the godless
sway of mechanistic naturalism.
Page 2083:
The modern age will refuse to accept a religion which is inconsistent with facts
and out of harmony with its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and goodness.
The hour is striking for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day
distorted and compromised Christianity--the real life and teachings of Jesus.
Again we
are told that the hour is striking. The new revelations will bring a rediscovery
of the true and original life and teachings of Jesus. Can we not grasp this great
wonder that is about to unfold? Do we not see ourselves in this greatest of all
human enterprises, bringing a new light to the world?
Page 2083:
Primitive man lived a life of superstitious bondage to religious fear. Modern, civilized
men dread the thought of falling under the dominance of strong religious convictions.
Thinking man has always feared to be held by a religion. When a strong and moving
religion threatens to dominate him, he invariably tries to rationalize, traditionalize,
and institutionalize it, thereby hoping to gain control of it. By such procedure,
even a revealed religion becomes man-made and man-dominated. Modern men and women
of intelligence evade the religion of Jesus because of their fears of what it will
do to them--and with them. And all such fears are well founded. The religion of
Jesus does, indeed, dominate and transform its believers, demanding that men dedicate
their lives to seeking for a knowledge of the will of the Father in heaven and requiring
that the energies of living be consecrated to the unselfish service of the brotherhood
of man.
How can we
refuse to dedicate our lives to this new revelation? How can we deny the challenge
that God now brings us in unselfish service to the brotherhood of man. Just imagine!
A new brotherhood devoted exclusively to our Creator.
Page 2083:
Selfish men and women simply will not pay such a price for even the greatest spiritual
treasure ever offered mortal man. Only when man has become sufficiently disillusioned
by the sorrowful disappointments attendant upon the foolish and deceptive pursuits
of selfishness, and subsequent to the discovery of the barrenness of formalized
religion, will he be disposed to turn wholeheartedly to the gospel of the kingdom,
the religion of Jesus of Nazareth.
Page 2083:
The world needs more firsthand religion. Even Christianity--the best of the religions
of the twentieth century--is not only a religion about Jesus, but it is so largely
one which men experience secondhand. They take their religion wholly as handed down
by their accepted religious teachers. What an awakening the world would experience
if it could only see Jesus as he really lived on earth and know, firsthand, his
life-giving teachings! Descriptive words of things beautiful cannot thrill like
the sight thereof, neither can creedal words inspire men's souls like the experience
of knowing the presence of God. But expectant faith will ever keep the hope-door
of man's soul open for the entrance of the eternal spiritual realities of the divine
values of the worlds beyond.
Page 2084:
Christianity has indeed done a great service for this world, but what is now most
needed is Jesus. The world needs to see Jesus living again on earth in the experience
of spirit-born mortals who effectively reveal the Master to all men. It is futile
to talk about a revival of primitive Christianity; you must go forward from where
you find yourselves. Modern culture must become spiritually baptized with a new
revelation of Jesus' life and illuminated with a new understanding of his gospel
of eternal salvation. And when Jesus becomes thus lifted up, he will draw all men
to himself. Jesus' disciples should be more than conquerors, even overflowing sources
of inspiration and enhanced living to all men. Religion is only an exalted humanism
until it is made divine by the discovery of the reality of the presence of God in
personal experience.
Page 1857: But mark you! never did Jesus say, "Whoso has heard me has heard
God." But he did say, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." To hear Jesus' teaching
is not equivalent to knowing God, but to see Jesus is an experience which in itself
is a revelation of the Father to the soul. The God of universes rules the far-flung
creation, but it is the Father in heaven who sends forth his spirit to dwell within
your minds.
Page 598: The
brotherhood of man is, after all, predicated on the recognition of the fatherhood
of God. The quickest way to realize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect
the spiritual transformation of present-day humanity. The only technique for accelerating
the natural trend of social evolution is that of applying spiritual pressure from
above, thus augmenting moral insight while enhancing the soul capacity of every
mortal to understand and love every other mortal. Mutual understanding and fraternal
love are transcendent civilizers and mighty factors in the world-wide realization
of the brotherhood of man.
The personal
presence of Jesus will most certainly bring spiritual pressure from above. A great
augmentation of moral insight will take place. Now we will come to a much larger
appreciation of what it means to understand and love every other mortal. Those are
the mighty factors that will bring a world-wide realization of the brotherhood of
man.
Page 380: The dead
theory of even the highest religious doctrines is powerless to transform human character
or to control mortal behavior. What the world of today needs is the truth which
your teacher of old declared: “Not in word only but also in power and in the Holy
Spirit.” The seed of theoretical truth is dead, the highest moral concepts without
effect, unless and until the divine Spirit breathes upon the forms of truth and
quickens the formulas of righteousness.
Those are
the things in store for we teachers and leaders -- the greatest revelation ever
to be known on this planet, not in word only, but also in power and the Holy Spirit.
Page
1575: So often persecution does follow peace. But young people and brave adults
never shun difficulty or danger. “Greater love has no man than to lay down his life
for his friends.” And a fatherly love can freely do all these things—things which
brotherly love can hardly encompass. And progress has always been the final harvest
of persecution.
Now it is
our turn to lay down our lives in loving service to our brothers and sisters, and
to show the world the wonders of Jesus in living glory and beautiful truth.
Ernest
May 19, 2005
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