"I speak that which I have seen with My Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father...." John 8:38-39,41

"If ye love Me, keep My commandments." John 14:15

"And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.
And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:25-28

Good Morning, friends! Do you know that this can not only be a good morning to you, but also a good and wonderfully joyous day to all who are the true children of God? And should you say to yourself, "Well, I'm not too sure that I am a true child of God," then I reply: it is a simple process to become so, and a very happy experience...because the true teachings of the Bible show us that we are the true children of him whose works we do. That is, if we do evil, we are the children of the author of evil, that is, of Lucifer (Jn. 8:38-42,44). While if our heart is set on doing good, which originates in and through God, then are we His children (Lk. 6:35; Matt. 5:44-45).

When I was young, stupid and very foolish, occasionally I did things which could not be labeled entirely good. I never did anything very serious, and I was never in jail, but such foolish things as I did, which were not entirely good, certainly never brought me any joy or lasting happiness. But I have found since that time (after I came to understanding), that spending my time in doing good constitutes a great source of true happiness and of lasting joy. Therefore, I counsel you who may still be filled with the foolish notion that pulling sharp deals or lording yourself over someone else, thinking that is to your advantage and happiness – I repeat: I counsel you to get rid of such crazy ideas. Such conduct constitutes a person the child of Lucifer, even though he may kid himself that he's just as good as the next person. You cannot say a word or do a deed without it constituting a cause which brings about a chain of effects. Therefore, just so surely as the seed from a thorn bush brings about another thorn bush, so certain is it that unkind and evil deeds and words, bring about a chain of evil and unhappy consequences. Therefore, today start saying the kind and happy words and doing the good and compassionate deeds, that tomorrow God Almighty may recognize you as a child of His, and lift up His hands to bless you. And so sure as you do, you are preparing your tomorrow's bed of roses.

Lately I have been talking to you about the signs of the times in which we live – and again I want to come back to them this morning. I have shown you how the word in the Authorized Version, which we read as "signs" in the moon, in the sun, and in the stars, comes from the Greek sameia, which actually means signals of a message – not what we call an omen, but rather an intelligent signal, or series of signals. which conveys a complete and important message. That is what we have been receiving, sent back to our scientists by the electronic instruments on board rockets we have sent to the moon and to Mars and other planets. Therefore, have we now seen these signs, or sameia, fulfilled to the Nth degree in these very days.

Now, since God is a Spirit, and humans are flesh and blood and bone (that is, earth in contrast to spirit), then manifestly, God as Spirit is not signaling to man who is a being of earth. Fish signal to other fish, birds signal to other birds, while man signals to man. And I think that we may safely assume that God, Who is a Spirit, signals only to other spirits. Therefore, the signals that Christ forecast we were to receive from the sun and the moon and from the stars, must of necessity be signals sent by man, or contrived through and by man. Rangers No. 6 and 7 were built by man and sent to the moon, and they sent back signals to the earth. And Mariner No. 4, which we sent to Mars, was built by man and sent back unto man on earth a multitude of signals conveying an immense amount of information, even pictures of the surface of Mars. Yet may I remind you that those pictures were not what we might call TV pictures, but rather signals which had to be processed, which processing in turn resulted in the pictures we have seen published. Therefore I say to you: these very days are the most important and tremendously exciting since Resurrection morning over 19 centuries ago. For, the Son of God foretold that when these signals we are receiving, know, then, that the end of your era is upon you, and that the return of the Son of God to earth will then be at your very door.

That is why I sing in my heart from morning unto night, and frequently shout with joy, because I know that soon the distress of nations is going to come to a close, and a government of absolute righteousness to be set up, and that whosoever will may become a partaker in the conditions under that government. Again I sing and rejoice, for the simple reason that I know that the very Creator of heaven and earth is my Keeper; since God Almighty is my Keeper, and Preserver, what remains for me to worry about? Therefore, I know a deep peace and joy unutterable.

May I remind you that the word in our Bible rendered "God" has a meaning, and its closest equivalent in the English language is "Keeper," that is, He Who looks after, preserves, and sees to that all conditions are just right. I know that God Almighty is my Keeper, therefore, my peace of mind and happiness know no bounds. If you are not already a citizen of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is a spiritual kingdom for people on earth here and now, then why not join today and become one of the chronically happy people who are perpetually singing in their hearts, and often when conditions allow, shout aloud? You will find it a simple process, and the happiest experience of your life. It is a simple matter and easy of achievement for any normal person with average intelligence who wishes to apply one's self accordingly.

That is why God has spoken to me, saying in the clearest of words, "Call My people together," and with emphasis He repeated, "CALL My people together." He wants all people to be His true children, for, like a normal father on earth, He wants His children to be happy children. What normal father wants to see his children cry, or to be in pain? Neither does God our Father in Heaven. But if children on earth pay no attention to what they are told, and will not listen to warnings given them, and will do nothing of that which the parent requests, then unfortunately, such children soon become unhappy children, because a right father knows that pressures must be brought to bear on such foolish children, in order to bring them into harmony with the way of a well-ordered society and into habits of conduct that will enable them to become successful and happy. It is the same with our Father in Heaven; when He sees we are full of foolishness, He must bring corrective measures to bear upon us. And so, foolish people are knocked from pillar to post (as we say) in one continuous round of trouble, grief and disillusionment. To make all of that unnecessary, the very Son of God came out of the heavenly glory to incarnate in human flesh and go all the way to Calvary's Cross to accomplish a work of absolute redemption for everyone who will receive Him. That you may better understand this, you should order the booklet entitled Port of Entry.

Again I want to speak to you briefly about the world conditions which Christ our Lord said would indicate that His return to earth would be almost upon us. Aside from the signals which were to be sent back to us from the sun, from the moon and from the stars, He said that there was to be "...distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken" (Lk. 21:25-26).

Has such "distress of nations" ever been recorded in previous history? To be sure, nations have always had their troubles, but nothing like the present era has ever been known before. We need not go abroad to look for trouble – let us look upon the conditions existing right here at home. Here we have had the most wonderful continent on the face of the earth, and a government predicated on principles of liberty and justice. Technology has made fantastic progress, and the earth yields us her abundance. But what do we see? An unending series of what we term "strikes" by dissatisfied groups within our land; we see an unending series of demonstrations by groups which are protesting certain conditions which exist. Some of these demonstrations lead to grave problems, such as the obstruction of traffic, or the prevention of workers and business carrying on as usual. And every now and then we see great violence between the races, such as was seen in Los Angeles years ago, and to a lesser extent in many other places.

That comes under the caption of "distress of nations" of which our Lord Jesus spoke upon the Mount of Olives. None of our leaders, whether we think of them as good or bad, want to see these conditions of violence or terrorism within our own land. They are well aware that their own positions in power can only be maintained under conditions of law and order. At that moment when lawlessness takes control, no person in power can figure his position safe for a single minute. Therefore, I state with emphasis that none of our leaders, regardless of how we think of them, want to see these conditions, for they know that they constitute a threat to their own positions.

Why then do such conditions carry on? For the simple reason that the underlying causes are so great and so complex that our leaders are baffled, and they are driven to their wits' end to cope with the conditions. That is what the Lord meant when He said, "...distress of nations, with perplexity...." Our leaders are perplexed; our best thinkers are often in deep conference, trying their utmost to solve these problems. Humans have always had their problems, but when the internal conditions of distress grow so grave that our leaders are profoundly perplexed as to how to cope with these conditions, and after years of trying find that they have only grown worse, then we know that the forecast by the Lord Jesus has seen an astounding fulfillment in our very days.

Then the Lord went on to say that because of these things we should experience and see taking place on earth, that the hearts of men should fail them for fear (that is, for stark terror)! I ask you, are not the hearts of thousands fainting today for very fear? – Not knowing when the forces of lawlessness or terrorism are going to strike down into their own very lives! And ever since 1945, we have had the atom turn loose its titanic power upon man. Today the great powers are stockpiling these bombs. And our best scientists keep telling us that if world conditions precipitate the loosing of these bombs upon us, then all life on the face of the earth will become extinct. And because of that very fact, millions of people today live in fear, knowing that at any time the leader of some one nation may through an act of madness precipitate these conditions upon the whole world overnight, or at any split moment.

Now let me jump one verse ahead and read to you what the Lord said about these things:

"And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh." Luke 21:28

His saying that we were to lift up our heads, is a symbolic way of telling us that we should become less concerned over the things of the earth, and look to the heavenly or spiritual verities; that we should come to the understanding that conditions of the earth come and pass away, while the truth of God and His goodness and spiritual values continue forever.

We should also look up, that is, anticipate the return of the Lord Jesus, for He said, "And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory" (Lk. 21:27). That is the great and glorious event which is to take place soon. It could be that the chronology of events by historians is sufficiently jumbled up to throw us off several years in our computations, but I say, not too many years. Even allowing several years of error in chronologies, the prophecies concur that the bodily return of the Lord Jesus to earth will take place soon. Therefore has He spoken to me out of the heavens, saying, "Call My people together, that they may know what is immediately in store for the world, and that their individual hearts may become prepared to receive Me." But this is a titanic task, far beyond the capacity of any one individual – assuredly much beyond my own capacity. Therefore, I ask everyone who hears my word, and who names the Name of Jesus Christ, to write in for more information and to learn how you can personally help to fulfill this great commission given man in these last days of our era (please refer to pages 306-308).

THESE very years are the most momentous days in which man has ever lived – outside of Calvary's grim Passover day and joyous Resurrection Sunday. But unless YOU have been born into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, you should make haste – to be prepared for our tomorrow.

To help you better understand the gravity of these times, order the two booklets entitled Port of Entry and Signs in the Moon and Mars.