<TITLE>01. Par 1-5</TITLE>63-1214, Why Little Bethlehem, Ramada Inn, Phoenix, AZ, 104 min
L-1      Nice to be here this morning. And now I believe we're going to have a special, Brother Williams was telling me, by someone from his church. [A sister sings, "Fill My Cup, Lord."--Ed.] That's what we're here for this morning, raising up our cups, "Fill it, Lord." This is the only time that we'll have the opportunity to ask this. There'll come a time where we'll be on the other side and then we won't have that opportunity. So while we do have it, and in our right mind, I think one of the most sensible things that anyone can do while God has given us the opportunity to do so, is to do it, get our cups filled now with His love and mercy.

L-2   There is one who set with us long ago, not too long ago, neither, and he's passed on. And it's a great sorrow in our hearts for Brother Williams. It's Brother Williams, our chapter president here, his father. How old was your father, Brother Williams? Eighty-eight. That'd be about eighteen years, I guess, past the--the... no, it'd be, yeah, eighteen years past the promised time. A gallant man. It hasn't been too long ago since, sitting in the meeting, I said to him, and no disregards to Brother Williams, I said, "You look younger than your son, Carl." It just goes to show that we're here today and tomorrow we're not here. We don't know when that time comes, when it is coming, but we know it's coming. I was thinking, but life is a great thing, it's, life is an opportunity.

L-3   We just had a great tragedy, of one that come to our church so long, from Chicago, was killed the other day coming home, a mother. She was close, I guess close to seventy, and she and her husband riding along and up Kansas, Missouri, one, a blizzard going through. A man driving, car out of control, her neck was broke instantly. And we just don't know when this is coming. When I... they called me to tell me about it and I called up all the children around across the nation, telling them. Course, being their pastor, like, I was the one to notify them. Thinking of how quick we can go, and then there set a box of candy setting before me that she made me about a week ago, and gave to me. Just to see how quickly we can be snapped out. But, if that, if this life only was where we had our hopes, we'd be a miserable people. Job said, in the 14th chapter, "Oh, that Thou would hide me in the grave and keep me in the secret place."

L-4   Have you ever noticed how nature testifies of God? We find the trees, the leaves go off the trees, and the life in the tree goes down into the ground, like the grave, and stays there until the wrath of the winter is past, then comes back again, bringing forth new life. It's a testimony that we live again. The sun rises of a morning, just a little baby, it's weak; after a while it's this time it's in school, high school; then at noon it's in its strength; then the afternoon it begins to turn to the other side; then in the evening it gets weak again and dies. But, that's not the end of the sun, it comes up again the next morning to testify to another generation, that there is a life, death, burial, and resurrection.

L-5 Even nature everywhere speaks of Him. And nature is a great testimony in another way, that is, that we cannot have this resurrection Life unless it serves God's purpose. Now, if a seed is planted, and that seed is germitized, it brings forth a new flower. But if it isn't germitized, it will not bring forth a new flower, if it doesn't serve God's purpose. Yet, not just because it's a flower it rises, because it serves God's purpose. That's the reason the sun rises, is because it serves God's purpose. And we rise when we serve God's purpose.


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