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Notes & Quotes of George Walker:

Sermon on August 25, 1918 Schenectady, NY - The TWO WAYS - The Right and True Way, and The False Way

Newry, Pennsylvania Convention, U.S. 1974 or 1975 (G. Walker Testimony)

Testimony of George Walker at McCordsville, Indiana, September 6, 1975

Philadelphia Pennsylvania Special Meeting, April 22, 1979

Hector, Minnesota Oct. 3, 1970

Lowell Special Meetings, 1968

Brooklyn Special Meeting - March 18, 1973

Colorado Springs, Colorado, 1956

Picton Convention, June, 1950

Additional Information about George Walker

George Walkers Letter to the U.S. Selective Service, 1942   (Click Here for Photo)

Letter from Major Neal M. Wherry, Selective Service System to Olga Hawkins re: George Walker (Click Here for Photo)

Walker Family Tree

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Notes of George Walker
South Schenectady , New York
August 25, 1918

The TWO WAYS – The Right and True Way and The False Way

You hear some people who try to talk about being one. That is a great thing today and they try to make people believe they are one. But how different it is from this message. It was at a place in the West where they tried to carry on a little Sunday school and they had 10 members who tried to help in the work. They were 10 people professing to be Christians and professing to serve God and love Him, and these 10 persons meeting there in the Union Sunday school represented 5 different forms of belief. One man was a Presbyterian, one a Methodist, another a Campbellite and I think another a Holiness person. These people would teach children and were supposed to be interpreting the Bible. The superintendent of the Sunday School didn’t believe a person could go to Heaven unless they were baptized in water. He was a Campbellite and according to their teachings if you were not baptized, you were not a child of God. The secretary was a Quaker and they believe it was a sin to be baptized in water. That was one of the old forms God had delivered us from, and we were supposed to do away with that. How do you think they could teach a child the True Way of God when they went in two different ways or opposite directions? They represented two different ways; two different beliefs.

Now Friend, the churches in the Bible were not like these denominations or sects. The Bible says the sects are of the world or of the flesh. It simply means men following after their own fleshly thoughts and their fleshly ambitions of their own ideas and getting few followers after themselves. That is the meaning of the so-called religions of today. But the true child of God turns against and walks a different path from that.

This morning before coming to the meeting, I was wondering if in the short time we have together here it would be possible to point out the difference between God's True Way of service and the FALSE WAY that the Devil and men have always followed from the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation. We read of two different ways, two different roads which are supposed to lead to Heaven. We know that Cain and Able represented two different ways. We know that Cain is typical of the FALSE WAY all through t he Bible. We know that the New Testament speaks of those who are walking in the way of Cain, and we know that even in our day people are going in the way of Cain. Then we know that Abel is typical of the Right Way. It says in Hebrews, “He being dead yet speaketh.” He is mentioned as one of the first who walked the Way of Faith.

Now for instance you might almost put it this way, that is the way that leads to Heaven and it is the Way of faith; the way that Abel walked, the way that E noch walked and Abraham and Moses walked, and that the Way of Faith means believing what God has said and never question it. That is how Abel got saved and the ones get to Heaven as Abel did and serve God as he did and will be with the Lord in Heaven, are those who are willing to believe what God has said. When they have done that, then that is the end of the whole matter to them. That does away with tradition. It does away with their own thoughts, with past teachings. It cleans up everything. Is it enough that God has said it? I believe it and I do it? That is what it means to walk in the Way of Faith. You are willing to forfeit ever in doing it.

Now the other Way is a wide way, a way that looks very good and that seems right in the eyes of the world. But it is not the Way of Faith or the Way of God. It is walking in your own way. It is doing what looks good in your own eyes, in other words. It is like the tree of knowledge which was a tree of good and evil. It is a mixture of the two. You know sometimes people go to the meetings and listen and think to themselves, “It is true,” yet in their hearts they will say “'What is the difference?” What is the difference in this Way of serving God and any other Way? I have known people to sit all through the meetings and after they were over, when asked what they thought about them, would say they were very good and have nothing against them but they could not see where they were very different from a lot of other Ways. Well, Friend, if you get to look into the inner part of it, if you are one of those who have God's understanding and perception, you will recognize that there is a mighty gulf between the TWO WAYS.

Now God's TRUE CHURCH is all the churches you read about here. I might say that this is the beginning of the Church of God. We have Scripture for this. The number of epistles where it says the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Himself being the Chief Cornerstone. There are a great many people today who say they are building on the right foundation and they can go to church and go their own way and think their own thoughts, but the scripture says that the True Foundation we are building upon is the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles, Jesus himself being the Chief Cornerstone and all the other stones are knit together. That means that Jesus is the one that is the rule for the building. The others are those who go out and live their lives in the Way Jesus sent his disciples.

Now do you believe, Friend, that there is any likeness between the modern preachers that preach for a sect or denomination and the Apostles that we read about in the New Testament. Is there any similarity in them? Could you believe that Friend? Did you ever try to look up in the Scripture and see the description that is given us of a FALSE PREACHER, and the description of a TRUE PREACHER and then did you ever try to think which of these is the manner I believe in? Or wonder if any of you could tell what chapter in the four Gospels describes for us very plainly the outstanding characteristics of a FALSE PREACHER? Some of you have heard that often and maybe you are very familiar with it.

Can anyone of you tell me what chapter in the gospels most clearly describes the characteristics of a FALSE PREACHER? One that does not walk in God's True Way yet preaches? (Matt. 23) Can you tell a chapter in the gospels that describes a TRUE PREACHER? The 10th chapter of Matthew; 10 th Chapter of Luke and the 10th chapter of John. There are quite a number of other places also that describe a TRUE PREACHER. I wonder if any of you ever took the trouble to look up to see which of these you belong to, and say to yourself. “Which does the one I believe in come nearest to?” Matt.10 tells about people going out to preach. It says they went out not having any worldy goods or possessions. They went as sheep among wolves. They went out to be misunderstood by the world. They went out to give their lives, and give it freely and gladly. Jesus told them, “If any of you lose your life for my sake and the Gospel's you will keep it unto life Eternal.”

I have told you often before that when I was a boy I had a notion of being a preacher and I started in that way. If I had kept on I believe I would have been one. But I am very glad I did not. I got the notion of being a preacher when I was in my teens. I started to study that line and got some encouragement in it and the ones that encouraged me were the leaders of the denomination I belonged to and all of a sudden I began to draw out. Something began to trouble me and to tell me it wasn't all right. I did not know why I was drawing out, but I thought I could not go on.

Then they began to appeal to me, and wanted to know what was the matter and I ought not to stop. But not one of them appealed to me as Jesus appealed to the men that He wanted to become preachers. Some tried to show me what a nice job it would be, what honor I would receive. Some showed me that even though there might not be as much money in it as in business, it was a high position in the world and everyone would look up to me. But none of them said the words that Jesus said, “Go and preach the Gospel - lose your life, get nothing, have no money, have no place in the world, have no honor, have nothing but to be disappointed and rejected and then you will inherit in Eternity. They could not say that to me because they were not doing it themselves, they were in it for what they could get out of it; the high offer and high place in the world. Read on in those other chapters we spoke about. Take for instance the 10th chapter of Johns Gospel. It shows you that one of the special things that is mentioned about a TRUE PREACHER is that He gives His life for the sheep. He never holds any thing back.

Jesus said of Himself, "I am the Good shepherd. The Good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. The hireling fleeth because he is a hireling and careth not for the sheep.” He is in it for his own gain, for his own interest, but Jesus said, “I gave my life for the sheep.” I don't seek anything for myself. You might say, “'Did anyone except Jesus lay down his life?” If you don't believe it read the record of Peter, Paul, John, James and others and you will find that those men could say, “I don't seek yours but I seek you.” They could say to their converts, “I was not only willing to preach the Gospel to you, but I was willing to give you my own life because you were dear unto me.”

A TRUE PREACHER of the Gospel is one who goes out walking in that lonely way, willing to be nothing, willing to be misunderstood, having no place in the world, glad to live their lives as Jesus did, glad to make their lives of no account down here, with the sure and certain hope in their hearts that they will receive the reward “on that great day.” If I lose my life now I will preserve it unto Life Eternal and get the reward in Heaven. But when you come to Matt. 23 you get a picture of the marks of a FALSE PREACHER. You can read it yourselves. It says they love the salutations in the market places; they love to have the chief seats in the synagogues. It says they like to have the prominent place when they go to the feasts. They are after what they can get for themselves and only put burdens upon others when God meant them to be burden bearers. Instead of relieving people of their sorrows they only make them worse. Now you can see Friend, the marks of the two and these two are as far apart as the two poles are to each other.

You might put it this way. Look at the man who fills the highest place in Christ’s Kingdom today. You know what his name is and you don't have to speculate in any way to know where he sits. You know he has his home in Rome. He sits there in a palace and he has windows in his palace for every day in the year. He sits in a golden chair. You know he has honor and glory and power over the kingdoms of the world. You know how they all more or less have to submit to him. He makes them believe that that is the Right and True Way.

Well, Friend, if you want to know if it is the Right and True Way or not, I ask you to look at Calvary. Look at that lowly humble man that was born in a manger. I ask you to look at Him who walked this way despised and rejected, who bore the cross and died there and was nothing and nobody. Well you say that was just for Him. He did not mean for His followers to be like that. Did He not say, "If any man will serve me let him follow me?” Let him be the same as I am. Didn't He say it was enough for His servants to be like their Master? Didn't He say you must live your life as I have lived mine? Didn't He say if ye were of the world the world would love its own, but because ye are not of the world and I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. You will have no place and be nothing in the world.

I wonder if it is clear in your minds what is really in these two foundations. To begin with the preachers are far apart. The one seeks for honor and recognition in this world and some do it very honestly and sincerely perhaps; and sincerely as Saul of Tarsus did. They think that is the way to do God' s work. They are filling a high place and getting honor and recognition in this world at the expense of God and people think that is the way to get to Heaven today. The other preacher takes Jesus as his pattern. I want to be in this world like my Master was. I don't want to own a home as the clergy does. I don't want any of this worlds goods, I only want to live my life like Jesus did and suffer for Him.

Now as there is a difference in the preachers, there is a difference in those who profess to believe in the preaching because after all what we believe in is a very particular thing and anybody who puts very much stock in what you talk about and believe in, if that belief does not work some change in their hearts and lives and manner of living there is not much sincerity in their hearts. No honest person can believe a certain thing without it making a radical difference or change in their lives. It alters their whole life. Jesus puts that very clear too. He said that the tree is known by its fruits and if we make a tree good the fruit will be good also. But if the tree is bad so also is the fruit. As those who follow Jesus so are those also that believe on Him, likewise. Those who believe on the preacher of the world will be like him, because a good thee cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Jesus said, “ Ye shall know them by their fruits.”

They say, “What is the difference in THIS WAY of worshipping God and the world’s way? What is the difference between having a building put up to worship God in and you worshipping in the home? What is the difference in having a preacher who is paid to say what he does by some organization made by man, and you meeting together in the home as a family? Well I will tell you the difference. One is God's revealed Way and the other is a way made by man to suit his own selfish desires. That is the difference in the two.

You have often noticed in reading the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, how it speaks about high places in the world. You remember how they always sought to get into those high places in the world. You remember also how it tells of Balaam whom Balak the king of Moab sent to curse the Children of Israel because he heard whom Balaam blessed was blessed and whom he cursed was cursed. When Balaam refused to go the first time he sent unto him princes more honorable than before, with a promise to promote him (Balaam}to great honor in his kingdom. Then when Balaam went, Balak took him up to a high mountain to offer up sacrifices and curse the children of Israel. But something kind of moved Balaam and he could not say what he wanted to and instead of cursing the Children of Israel, he could only bless them. God was angry with Balaam because he bought the high place and went against His will. It tells afterwards that he was killed when his country was at war.

The FALSE WAYS of worshipping God have always filled a high and prominent place in the world, and it is the same today as it was in New Testament times. Matt. 23 tells about the FALSE PREACHERS who always filled a high place. They always had an honorable place. They were always trying to make money and working to get recognition in the world, but those in the True Way of God, it can be said, “The world knows us not because it knew Him not. They don't recognize them or take any stock in them because they do not understand it. The Children of God in this world mind their own business. They are always loyal citizens of whatever country they live in. They are never law breakers or disturbers of the peace and they are never outwardly bad. They are always obedient to the rulers and governors of the country but at the same time they are never very much taken stock of as a people and never fill a very prominent place in the world. They do not fill because they look for honor from God; they look for eternal things.

What is the TRUE WAY preached in the world today for? Well it is preached in the hope that when the devil has done his worst for this world, he will only have prepared the way for Jesus the Son of God to come again, to reign in this earth and bring His people with Him. He will reign here according to the way the Bible says. That is why the Children of God do not have the same interest in politics as those in the world and other things of the world. They do not take the interest in the things of the world or have the enthusiasm that others have because their hope is not in these things. Their hope is in the world to come.

A great many people hope for great things from this war (1918) in the world and it would be a very sad thing to think that so much blood was shed and so many lives lost and so much suffering born, and no good come of it. I believe myself that there will be an improvement along certain lines. I believe there will be some wrongs righted and on some respects it will be a blessing but it makes no matter what the outcome is if it will not bring about what God has His heart set on, because that can never come about until Jesus Christ himself reigns upon this earth. That is what the True Christians look forward to.

It is a sad thing to see many people when we speak about that, who are filled with curiosity which leads them to specu­late as to when He coming and in what year He is coming. Whenever you see that man­ifested in people, you know they are not of God's building. They have lost the plans of God on the subject. It tells in the Bible that it was never God's plan to reveal to people the details of when He would come, and of all the exact facts. Way back in the book of Daniel it tells of Daniel having the desire of looking in and to learn a little more than what God showed him; and the Lord said that He would shut up the words and seal the book even to the time of the end. These things would happen in the appointed time. You will stand in your lot at the end of days and get your reward.

Then in New Testament times we have evidence stronger t han this because Jesus said, “It is not given to you to know the time and season.” It is not God's will that you should pry into that. Your part here is to know how to live faithful and to bear the true testimony and to have the hope in your heart. He may come when you live, but if he does not, it makes no difference. If I do have to live my life here and die before He comes, I know from the Scriptures that when He does come I will be raised, for it says, those who are dead in Christ shall be raised first, then those who live and remain unto His coming. There are TWO WAYS in which we can show our folly. The worst way is of the folly of morbid curiosity to try to find out things that God did not mean you to know. The other is that you ignore and forget it altogether and miss the encouragement.

We have been speaking, each one of us, in the meetings about how needful it is to keep before us what we are living for and what is ahead of us. It is an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away, reserved in Heaven for us. How sad it is when we get down to think we are just serving God because we want to escape Hell. My Friend, there is something more than that. When Jesus wanted to encourage His disciples, He did not give them great promises of what they would get in this world. When Peter one day said, “Lord, we have left all and followed thee,

What shall we receive?” Jesus said, “Ye that have left all [TYPIST NOTE: “that have left all” is not in the KJV verse Matt 19:29 G.W. is quoting] and followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” That is what is before them. It says over and over again in another parable. You remember He said that when He comes back and finds that faithful servant who gave the portion of meat in due season, “Blessed is that Servant whom His Lord when He cometh shall find so doing. He will make him ruler over all that he hath.” The servant who also had received five talents and earned five more was told, “I will make you ruler over many things because thou hast been faithful over a few things. Enter into the joy of thy Lord.” He encouraged them in this way. There is a day coming when you will get the fullness of your reward, when you will live and reign with Jesus.

Do you think it is strange that some of us today do not take stock in acquiring property in this world? Do you think it strange we don't even fill any political position or other high positions in the world? Do you think we are trouble because we are despised and rejected and looked down upon and as nobody in this world? No we are not, for like Moses we have respect unto the recompense of the reward. One day the tables will be turned. Now it is the high places the others fill. The high places of the world. THE LORD’S WAY is the low way, a low down and despised place.

But this Book teaches us that there is a day coming when Jesus will come to reign and those who have suffered with Him will reign with Him. They will fill the high places and those who took their own way, who followed their pride and folly will have no part in it at all. We sometimes say that God is working in us to perfect that character that would make us fit to be useful in His Kingdom. What use do you think God would have in His kingdom for a proud, selfish, greedy, scornful, worldy, headstrong person? Do you think He would have any use for him? Do you think He could put him on a throne to reign with Him? Do you think He would have any use for someone like Paul was before he got saved? Or a preacher who loves honor and pleasure and a big name for himself in this world? Do you think He would have any use for that kind of a person?

The two Angels told the Disciples, “Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into Heaven? This same Jesus which was taken up into Heaven shall He come in like manner as ye have seen Him?” He will come back the same as He went away and will be the lowly one, the humble one, the meek one. Then the ones who have none of these great places in the world are the ones who will reign with Him. They are the ones who let Him rule and reign in their hearts and lives, were willing to be nobody in this world. If you want to have a place in the Millennium get your hearts set for the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus and seek to be like Him.

Now I say that there is a great difference between the TWO WAYS, and there is also a difference between the ones who walk in the TWO WAYS. One keeps Jesus as their pattern in this world and the other keeps the high places of the world, the fame and glory of men for their pattern. The great men of the world are also different in their manner of worshipping God. One seeks recognition in the world and a worldy building and the other one gladly meets in the lowly place.

Did you ever notice, Friend, that after you got saved you were tempted at times to be ashamed of the way you are walking? Perhaps they will ask you where you are going Sunday. What are you going to say? What kind of a church do you belong to? Then you kind of stumble around trying to explain what church you belong to, or are with, what kind of way you are worshipping in and you kind of feel ashamed and don't know what to say. They say you must be an odd one; you must be mighty lonesome in that church meeting. What kind of a preacher do you have, they ask. What do you do? I have seen people, after they got saved, have a hard time introducing a preacher to their high up relatives. It took much courage on their part. It was not so hard to introduce the good looking preachers, but some of the more common looking ones it was hard to introduce.

I have seen them turn and you could see the blood begin to come up. When you see that, you realize they are trying to cover something over. Why is it that man so big and brave and bold as he goes around telling I believe in this sect or that sect or why should he feel so ashamed of the True Way? Why should he be so weak and why should it be that those who walk in the Lord's True Way sometimes feel a reproach when they are laughed at and mocked by the world. It should be, Friend, because the Bible says it should be.

What does it mean when it says, for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despised the shame and set down at the right hand of the throne of God? He says that he bore the reproach for the joy that was set before Him. He was willing to stand the reproach for He knew that He would set down at the right hand of the throne of God for doing it. You should be glad to be in something where you are not in a high place in the world, but where you are being despised for God. That is part of the reproach that belongs to the cross, and if we don't have the reproach of the cross, we will not have the power of it in our lives. I hope we will be glad when we feel that dirty, mean feeling coming over us that makes us feel like backing out some way. You can say, “It is the test of my faith, I will not yield to it. I will confess His name.” That is the way to overcome it.

Now in speaking about the difference in the Saints, there is a great difference in the way you start in the TWO WAYS. It has been spoken in the meetings already and it is hardly necessary to repeat it. In starting in the FALSE WAY it is a very easy thing. One brother here was telling this week of some of his unsaved friends; that when he began to walk in God's TRUE WAY did not like it. They were not very religious, he said, but they did not like it anyway and said, “If you had gone and joined some of the other sects we would not have said a thing. Nobody would have thought a thing about it, but to be identified with and go in with people of that sort, you have made a fool of yourself. They did not like that and could not understand it.

There is a great difference in the way you begin. You can join THE WRONG WAY SECT and there is no reproach connected with it, there is no strong opposition and no battle in your heart. But to begin in God's TRUE WAY, Friend, there is ­awful strong opposition; sometimes on behalf of your choice, from your own people. There is an awful fight that has to be fought in getting the victory over your own old pride and selfish human nature, bringing into subjection your members unto God. When you start to walk in it , there is a great difference because as has been said already in the meetings, THE WAY OF THE LORD, THE TRUE WAY OF THE LORD is always a way of sacrifice; and the FALSE WAY is a way of pleasure and of pleasing oneself. THE WAY OF THE LORD is the Way of sacrifice. It begins by sacrifice and ends with sacrifice. You have to present your bodies a living sacrifice, begins by taking up the cross and continue taking it up right up to the end of the journey and to continue to sacrifice. When you cease to sacrifice then there will be nothing in your life.

We heard about a woman who once professed in the True Way. She went to the meetings for a while. She used to come to the Sunday morning meetings and give her testimony. The principle thing she emphasized was that she was so glad she had found God's True Way and came into it. Because she said when she belonged to the Methodist church she had to pay one dollar a month and in God's True Way it didn't cost a cent. She was delighted over that. Well if it don't cost you in dollars and cents it will cost you in something more than dollars and cents. It will be a very expensive way. Don't you be led to believe it is an easy way or a cheap way. You will find it is a very expensive way if you are true to God in THE WAY THE GOSPEL TEACHES. It goes down to the very root of life. You put yourself on God's altar, you and all yours every day. Keep giving yourself to God.

We spoke the other day about the different sacrifices and what they meant. You will notice when the Children of Israel honestly and truly offered their sacrifices they had joy and gladness in their hearts and the blessing of God. I used to wonder some times why it was that there was a difference in the different sacrifices. Some times they are spoken of as an offering and sometime as a sacrifice. They say that the word sacrifice is only correctly used when blood was shed and animals were killed and that offerings while they included, blood referred more to when they offered it as a meal offering or a fruit offering.

Now you remember that the burnt offering was the one that went up in smoke to God. The Priests did not spare any of it. Most of the other offerings were to be divided with those who officiated. But the burnt offering went up entirely to God. It all went in smoke to God. Now that has a great many lessons in it for us. It may speak of the fact that He offered His life wholly to God. One way it speaks to me is that it means that the first of all offerings, the first of all relationship, the first of all claims are Gods. My attitude toward God my Father.

In the world today there is a great deal of talk of service to more fellowmen as if you were excused from giving service to God. I was talking to a fellow last winter and he was very bitter against the Truth. He was trying to be a Camp­bellite preacher. He would not trace anything up in the Bible, but one thing he would use to try to prove he was right was that he did a great deal for the Red Cross and other good works of humanity and that that was proof that he was serving God. Don't you know that if you are of ordinary human nature that it is right to support the Red Cross, and it is right to support any thing that relieves the suffering of humanity? You will know now to do that without being a Christian. Any ordinary human being with any human feeling at all would be willing to help who is starving or suffering. When a man would talk about being a Christian and not do that he surely would be a poor type of man. He would not be worthy of the name of human or citizen of a country, much less a Christian; but this man was trying to make that an excuse for not obeying God.

Now the whole burnt offering means I give the first place, I give the best place and I give myself to God. I also seek to live in fellowship and communion with God, and lose my life for God. That is the first offering. After that comes the meal offering - then the peace offering that you have read about and others. These offerings were supposed to be divided among the Levite priests. They got a share. That means to say that when a person is offering themselves to God, it is manifested in itself; it expresses itself in their dealings with their fellowmen. If a man says that he loves God and does not love his brother he is a liar. If a man tells you, I have given the whole burnt offering and I love God but I have no interest in my brethren; if anyone of them were sick I would not take the trouble to visit them, I would not pray for them--it is just a lie. That is what the Bib1e says. “He that loveth not his brother who he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not only that but you could not live for God and not have a heart for the unsaved. It says “Do good to all men,” Do anything you can to help them. The first thing to do is to give yourself as a sacrifice to God in yielding all to Him. Then you are beginning to serve Him.

It speaks of some of the offerings as heave offerings and some as wave offerings. They took it and waved it back and forth before the altar. That was symbolical, that meant to say that in this thing that I am giving to the priests I recognize the claim of God's altar first and then I will give it to them. When they took it they recognized the same things. D o you know Friend that all that would do in helping others, in helping the servants of God and the Saints of God that do not have the marks of being waved back and forth before the altar, will never bring blessing to yourself or reward from God. If you don't ha­ve in mind, “I do unto God, or I will do it unto God,” you will not find much of a r eward. Every servant of God that that you read about had in his mind, “What I receive of you, I don’t receive it as if you were giving it to me personally. It is done unto God and you do it to honor and glorify His name.”

It might be well to emphasize and I would like you to all understand this before we go on because, a great many people start in God's True Way and make a terrible mistake along this line. The result is that after awhile they give it up in discouragement and disgust and they become worse than before. We recognize today, Friend, that nothing that you give to God' s servants through a servant or a saint which is not given as unto the Lord means nothing for you. While you do a great deal to some whom you like or flatter you or please you, it only feeds your own selfish nature. Instead of bring blessing, it brings cursing to you. When you get slack in these things you will find that you fail to have God in your life. It is possible for us to start out all right and start making the offering and all that but it is another thing to keep it up. I would not hesitate to say that all the trials that have come into our lives during the past year have been the result of us not every morning putting ourselves afresh on God's altar, yielding ourselves fully to Him again. I would not hesitate to say that because we have not been willing to give this offering and yield all we have to God and keep yielding to Him is why that other things have crept into our lives and we have failed to hear the testimony that we might have borne.

When you read the history of the Children of Israel it is awful to see how slack most of them became, even in the wilderness. Remember when Moses went up in to the mountain to get the Commandments and had been there nearly 40 days and he got the tables of stone written by the finger of God. God had to tell him to go off the mount for the people had corrupted themselves. When he went down he found that they had made a golden calf and danced around it amusing themselves. He broke the tables of stone and ground the golden calf and made them drink the water he had mixed it with.

You remember how Paul referred to that instance. He says that the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Now I wonder if we could get home to our hearts what that means to us? Is it possible that any of us in this room today can look back at the time when we were all right. We offered the whole burnt offering. We look back at the time when we kept nothing back from God, nothing in our lives, in everything we recognized His claim, and is it possible that then as we went on for awhile and got into the wilderness we drifted into the "sitting down to eat and drink and rising up to play?" We began to indulge our own selfishness; we began to amuse ourselves in it. We went to meeting and there was nothing in it. There was no real sacrifice in it; it cost us nothing. We gave our testimony but it cost us nothing; it had not the mark of the cross upon it; it did not mean anything to us at all. We were only running along to please ourselves.

One of the brothers told that one of the things that helped him after he started out in the Lord's way was he had been told that a very good way to measure whether things were pleasing God or not, was to go across your own flesh, to ask what was pleasing your own flesh. And I am just as sure as I am alive today that a child of God that wanders around now, led, you might say, by their nose or by their appetite or human desires and just please themselves, it is nothing in the sight of God but idolatry. And some of us become idolators, and that is why our hearts become as they do. That is why God has to say, "You have a name you live, and are dead." You go to meetings as it pleases you and give your testimony as it pleases you, and it drops down to be nothing more than pure selfishness.

How sad it is when you see those who should have given an example of God's true way, and to think they have nothing but their own selfish desires, their own pleasures in their hearts, and never think of saying, "I will keep putting myself upon God’s altar and gladly sacrifice until I have nothing more left, until death takes all." But they keep on going in their own way until they get into the condition the children of Israel were in, where God in His mercy caused the calf to be ground up, and mixed in the water, and I expect it was pretty bitter drinking. And God in his mercy might wake you up and make you drink some of the fruits of your own doings, but if you keep on trifling he will not do that.

You read in the Bible that in the wilderness, the earth opened her mouth and s wallowed them up, they were buried in the pit, which meant a grave of lust, a grave of lust means I have become a prey to my appetite, my natural desire for pleasing my self. You know Paul talked about people who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, and some people think they can make God's service a kind of pleasure to the flesh, where they c ome to have a conversation together, a little amusement and pleasure, and they mix things in like that, and it eats up all the sacrifice that is ever made for God, and it has a bad ending. I tell you friend, don't trifle with this matter. If you have started in the way, you will find there is a reward, if you just keep along the line of sacrifice, if you will deny your own flesh. But if you get in the way of running around as it suits you best and making a little holiday and picnic out of it, God’s judgment will fall on you and it will be an awful thing when it does fall on you. We have known a lot of people who trifled like that, and were only serving their own flesh, but the devil soon had them where they belonged.

I knew a man who went out to preach and seemed to be a very, very hearty fellow for a time. He thought of nothing but serving God, and then by and by, the man began to wriggle off the altar, and something else came across his path, and he began to trifle and the devil had a good offer for him. I tell you the devil knows most people's price, whether they know it or not. He knows just how much he has to give to get you. And I remember at that time he gave up preaching and wrote how he could earn $12.00 per day. Previous to the time he went preaching, I suppose he had never earned a dollar a day in his life. Now he could earn $12.00 a day. He thought it was wonderful, the money he was making, and he was getting on well. There is what you can have if you take your own way.

A few years after, I saw another letter he wrote, and it was along a very different line. He said , "Now I have seen what it means. Now I have begun to pay the price. When I went on whole-hearted for the Lord, I had some suffering .at times, and did not always have a comfortable bed. I did not always have enough to eat, but I received joy from the Lord. I had delight in his service; but now I suffer with the convictions of what I have done in leaving God's way. I have thrown away the things of God for the things of the world." Don’t think it is an easy way to get off at all.

All the way down through the scriptures you can see this same thing happening. You read about it in the 1 st chapter of Isaiah. And one of the worst conditions we stand exposed to today, is people who have come into God's testimony who may be hearty at first, but by and by, they allow this dirty selfishness or covetousness or other kind of thing to come in, they lose control of themselves, and they run in that way, and not only destroy themselves, but they damn others, too.

Paul said to Timothy, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." Others will be saved. Did not Paul say to the others, "They corrupt whole houses." They cause them to run and gad about, you might say. He said, "For of this sort are they which c reep into houses and lead captive silly women, laden with sins, led a way with divers lusts." They are not under the control of God at all.

A dog may be a very useful animal when it is controlled by his master, when he is a good watch dog. Dogs have been man's friends, it is said. There are different kinds of dogs. Some of them will take and follow up a trail by scent, and keep on it for days, and there are others that go by sight. There are some very useful kinds of dogs, but what is worse than a dog that is running around and of no use to anyone?

I heard a man out in the West tell of a way to wipe out hog cholera. He said there was just one way to stop that. He said the dogs were the ones that carried the disease around; they get the germs on their feet, and run here and there, and carry it to another place, and spread it. He said there is a way to cure a dog so he won't carry it around anymore. If you cut his tail off, that will stop him, providing you cut it off close behind the ears.

I tell you, when you become a kind of a stray dog that is under no control of his master. and you go around that way, you hinder and destroy others, a nd deny others their privilege, and upset every little church that you go among. Friends, do you think of keeping in the way of sacrifice? Are you as whole-hearted as in the beginning? If you have five years or ten years in God's way.

Are you as whole- hearted, and willing to say, "I want more than ever in my life this coming year to be always on God's altar, offering myself a burnt offering to Him, doing His will; then I want that to be expressed in my s ervice to my fellowman, the children of God, and the world, that I will have something to give them, and be of use to them." If that is your desire, you are saved; if it is not, you a re on the road to destruction. It is not what you are saying today, it is what the deepest purpose in your heart is. Are you going away with that kind of a thought, that "I don't care what is preached, I know my own mind."

I have known people who sat in the meetings, and when people asked them what they thought about it, say, "Oh, I didn’t take much notice. They are about the same as others." My friend, you can sit in the meetings and sit all through the meetings where God manifests His spirit through the lives of others, but you cannot expect deliverance or salvation, if you go forth and wait to see what a few years will bring forth. The Lord told Ezekiel, "Son of man , I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel, therefore hear the word a t my mouth and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked ways to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul."

He said, You’re not responsible for their blood, their blood is off your hands. You have warned them, and they heeded it not. Where do you stand in this matter today? Ha ve you begun in God's true way ? Yes, you say. I met the preachers that I believe correspond to the Bible. I have heard their message. I got baptized in God’s true way. But where do you s tand today in this matter? Are you beginning to wriggle off the altar and let other things creep into your life?

Another thing you will notice if you read the history of the children of Israel was they got careless regarding some of the very things that God had planned to b e their greatest help. You know God planned to have three feasts every year: a F east of the Passover in the first month; Pentecost in the beginning of summer or the end of spring, and then a feast in the month of October when they reaped their crops and gathered in their harvest.

All these had a deep meaning, and when they joyfully and whole-heartedly kept the feasts they got blessed and they were useful to God. But you read the record how they got awfully careless about it, and even the Feast of the Passover, which was typical of coming together on the first day of the week, they were careless about. It was on the night when they commenced the Passover that Jesus broke the bread. That Feast of the Passover, you might say, was typical of when you meet on the first day of the week, and when you examine your heart, when you put away all that is wrong, when you break the bread, and take the wine in remembrance of what the Lord has done for you.

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Notes of George Walker
Colorado Springs, Colorado
December 5, 1956

I thought of speaking a little from some of the things Jesus mentioned in the last meeting he was in with his disciples. It has been very helpful to me to let my mind dwell often on the last night Jesus was with the disciples. It was a dark night for the disciples, and a dark time for Jesus as well. There is much strife and confusion in the religious world as well today. Even God’s children are subjected to many things to test them. This world has never been a safe place for God’s people. Jesus is praying the same for us tonight, as he prayed for those disciples. He is raying that we might be kept from the evil.

When I was young in God’s way I did not have the right appreciation for these disciples. I had the feeling I would have done better than Peter, and the others who forsook him and fled. Now I see it differently. They had not fully understood what it was going to mean to follow Jesus. They had followed on with him through years or so, but now they could not understand what Jesus was saying to them. He was going to die, but they could not understand it.

A very natural thing for them to feel he was a deceiver. What was it that held those men and women? For a little while they were shaken and upset. Those men and women, through the words he had spoken to them their soul’s deep need was filled. This is what held them. Peter expressed it better than I could “Lord to whom shall we go, Thou hast the words of eternal life.” When honest hearted people come in contact with Jesus they cannot be shaken loose from it. “The gates of hell cannot prevail against it.” The devil will make terrible attempts to shake it.

There are five chapters here in connection with the meeting Jesus had with his disciples. A long text you might say. They mean a lot more to me now than when I first when out in the Harvest Field. Think of Jesus in the closing hours of his life. Words of advice spoken to his disciples and words spoken to his father. As we take them right along we can see the truth of what Jesus was expressing at that time.

John Chapter 13. In the upper room. Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of the world unto the Father having loved his own which were in the world he love them to the end. The feast of the Passover was coming. Jesus knew that his hour was coming. Verse 3. Jesus knew that the Father had given all things into his hands. He knew that he came from God and was going back to God. The greatest of all knowledge is this kind of knowledge. The kind that Jesus had. He knew that he came from God and was going back to God.

How much money would people pay to know that they were going to God? One of our friends was working for the family of rich people. This man liked our friend, because he was making the business pay, no doubt; and the wealthy man often visited and talked with our friend. One time he said to him, “I had a dream the other night and dreamt that I was dead. I got up to the pearly gates and I got no welcome there. I was waved on past them. I could see in the distance and what I could see was terrible. He was shedding bitter tears as he told that story to our friend. He said “I know it was only a dream, but I know the next time it will not be a dream. All the things in this world are no attraction to me.” The next time I visited our friend he told us that this wealthy man had died.

If we measure life by eternity think of how much better it will be. We sometimes dwell on the sufferings of the cross. The joy of that was set before him enabled him to endure the cross. If we knew what is ahead of us and what is at the end it would help us to suffer.

As I listened to that man telling the story it caused me to see the need of looking into life in such a way that we would not come to the end of it with uncertainty.

The people in the world cannot say “I know”. They resent seeing us do this. Jesus knew God had put all things into his hands. 15 th chapter emphasized the cleansing. 14 th chapter would speak of the chapter that tells us “We are God’s to dwell in.” I have heard this chapter spoken of in funerals. “I go to prepare a place for you”. This is not what Jesus meant. The place that you and I have has been prepared from the foundation of the world. Jesus himself had been a mansion for God. God worked through Him. “As the Father has lived in me, so will I live in you.” “Greater works than these will ye do, because I go to the Father.” He had reached a few people, but they would reach many people. He was telling them of the one who would come and take his place. Very conscious of their helplessness and weakness. The Comforter and others would be more to them than He had been.

Every servant of God is greatly concerned about those they labor for. Paul knew what the people at Ephesus would be exposed to as he left them. Jesus had concern too. He loved them and they loved Him. The joy he had in His heart as He thought of it was this ‘Another would come that would be more to them than He had been’, The Comforter.

I have received the most help by reading these verses in these three chapters and putting them all together. Chapters 14, 15, 16. We read of the Holy7 Spirit as being a witness. It will leas us into all Truth. Helpful for me to think of the part that the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit have in our salvation. We have this three fold one that is working for our salvation. We think of Jesus as we hear of Him mentioned in the Gospel Meetings. He lived, He died, He was resurrected from the dead. We think of the three things that Jesus does for us. He lived to give us the example. He died to pay the debt we could not pay, and He intercedes at God’s right hand for us.

In our unsaved days it was the Holy Spirit that was pleading for us. All that we can say can do nothing to make people feel their need. As we go forth and preach Jesus and live Jesus, the Holy Spirit is bearing witness. The Holy Spirit was working even before we met Servants of God. God’s Holy Spirit is working and we are working together. The two are working together. We may not feel capable, but if the Holy Spirit is with us, there is power. If the Holy Spirit has softened us, then the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts. The true love of God comes when the Holy Spirit is shed abroad in our lives. Learn how to let the Holy Spirit control. As we learn of God’s way we learn it is us letting the Holy Spirit guide us that is going to make us successful.

We can blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. The one sin that can never be forgiven. Some people ask us about that, fearing they have committed this sin. Those who have this fear have not committed this sin. The ones who sinned against the Holy Spirit were sure they were right. Refusing to believe in Jesus, is the sin, of sinning against the Holy Spirit.

We can also resist the Holy Spirit. When we read the contest to that, the feeling we have toward our brothers and sisters can grieve the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us and we let in envy, jealousy, pride, stubbornness, etc, it is a sure way to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Then remember it says “Quench not the spirit.” Do not put water on the fire. “The Holy Spirit will bring to remembrance the words I have told you.” I have been in a human body and could only be one place at a time, but now the Holy Spirit can bring to your remembrance what I have told you, and meet your needs daily. When things look dark, think on this.

When the war was on and so many of our friends were cut off, one day I was thinking of that, and these words came into my mind. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” The Holy Spirit can lead and guide those who are cut off from fellowship with others.

17 th chapter. A place where Jesus spoke to His Father. Might be called a prayer. A good deal of Jesus requests were for his disciples. He is giving in the report of his life’s work to His Father. Previous chapter He had been talking to his disciples. These things he could say of Himself. “I have done.” He had done what the Father had given Him to do. Fourth verse “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.” None of us could say this in the fullest extent. A wonderful thing to have this ambition in our hearts. “I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do.” “I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me: and they have received them, and have known surely that I have come out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.” In these words we have two things that the disciples did and one thing that Jesus did. “I have manifested thy name.” Some think the preaching of the Gospel is only words. Some try to prove they hear the voice of God over the radio, some think it is written on tracts. Paul did not think that. “It came not in words only, but in power.” The manifestation of the life of the preacher gave the words weight. He could say “Two things give me confidence about your salvation.” When we preached unto you the words were not in words only.” Words and power together. The way we lived amongst you speaks of power of God. The manifestation of Christ is what put power into our lives. Jesus said “I manifested.” The world needs to know a demonstration.

I once had to lay in a hospital on Sunday morning. Another man in the room with me, and he was a Catholic man, and he tuned in to all the preachers in that city. That is, samples of them, a number of denominations in that city. I remember lying in that bed that morning and the thought came to me, “We may not be able to present the case as well as they, but we have something more effective than that.”

When I first went out to preach, I was only out a few weeks when I got a bit of discouragement. It seeded no one was coming to the meetings, etc. A man said to me “You have got the rarest thing in this world, and that is love.” Love for God, love for souls. Honest hearts are seeking for what is real. Jesus could say “The words that I have come from God.”

Then we read of what He desired the Father to do for them in the world. Chapter 17 verse 15. “I pray not that thou should take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil”. God does not want us to be taken out of the world but Jesus said “Give them something that will keep them from the evil that is in the world.” We might think we could live holy lives if we shut ourselves away from evil. We would still have our worst enemies, ourselves and the devil.

The difference between clean fish and unclean is the clean have something that enables them to swim through the water and the water will not come in on them. The unclean fish do not have it. “I do not pray for the world. I can ask this for the disciples but not for the world. Jesus is greatly interested in the world also, but he could not ask for them what he asked for the disciples. It is only for those who have received Him. We can be kept from the evil while we live in the world. He wants that we be kept as One, even as He and the Father are one. The surest was we can be one is that both of us are exercised to be one with the Father and with the Son.

In the world today they are trying to join denominations, but not trying to do what Jesus taught. Only on way that we can be brought into true harmony with each other and that is that both of us be brought into harmony with Him.

These are a few of the thought I have enjoyed.

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Notes of George Walker
Lowell Special Meeting - 1968

One word expresses what you and I are to be to the world; what God is expecting us to be to the world, and the other word expresses what we are to the Lord and our relationship with the Lord. We might say that this just sums up our whole life. You remember when Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment He said, these two - thou shalt love the Lord thy God, and thy neighbor as thyself. First our relationship with God, then all else will fall in line.

Now, the one word that has been on my mind is the word "City". One of the first places we have that word in the New Testament was used by Jesus Himself and we have a great deal in connection with when He used that word. When He was up on the mount, and His disciples came to Him, He spoke the words that are recorded in those 3 chapters that some call the Sermon on the Mount. After He told them what God wanted to see in them, He used that word - "A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Then He spoke to them about a candle. Two thoughts, a city that is set on a high place would be seen by everybody, and then He said when a person lights a candle, it is not lit to put under a bushel, but it isto give light to all that is in the house. He says let your light so shine before men that other's seeing your good works will glorify your father which is in Heaven.

He had been telling them before that what would make them the salt of the earth and what would make them the light of the world. It is something that will not be naturally in us. It is something that God can put in us, that will make us the salt of the earth, the light of the world. That is what God expects His people to be. Jesus said there wouldn't be many. Few will find the true Way, but those who find it were to be like salt, something that will have a preserving effect on others.

We have much in the exhortations that Paul, Peter, James and John wrote teaching us how we could be like this. We are to be a light to the world. The light is the part of our lives that the world looks on. Recently I have enjoyed the thought that the little companies here and there throughout the earth could be compared to the "City set on a hill". A city is made up of separate houses. This would be typical of individuals who are in that city. There are two parts to that. There is the part that the world sees. The world will take its thought of the city from the individual houses of the city. If you go to a city and go through some of the streets, you see the houses as they are, how they are kept, and you will measure the whole city by the individual houses. This is like the individuals that meet together on Sunday morning. They are like the houses and their lives they are living during the week give to the whole world an impression of the whole city. We have heard of people who say, "I would like to be in that fellowship". The world does take notice.

Our numbers are very few in comparison to the population. I don’t know how many Christians there are, how many thousands there are in these homes who are meeting together on Sunday mornings, but still they would be very small in comparison to the whole population, but there influence can be far-reaching. It can be a light to any honest heart that was seeking truth and seeking to know the right way to worship God and serve Him.

The last book of the Old Testament gives us a picture. It tells us there in that chapter in Malachi, "The people that feared the Lord spoke often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard" He says they will be mine and they will be like the jewels. I'll spare them as a father will spare his own son. They will be like God's jewels. This prophecy of Malachi is the last message. It is a picture of what God's people were in the Old Testament. They had been carried away into captivity because of their own untrueness. God had brought them into that promised land. He had meant them as a nation to be a pattern to other nations in their trueness to Him, in their worship in the daily worship and in the way they treated one another. But here they were carried away into captivity, because they were not true to God, nor true to one another. They oppressed each other and God let them be carried away. They were not true in their worship and failed to keep up the pattern that God gave Moses in the mountain. They rather copied the heathens around them.

All that is written about them is written as warnings to us. Instead of them keeping true to the pattern God gave them of worship in the tabernacle, they rather copy the nations around them and that suited the human nature better. That suited pride better and they copied any nation around, any false god. This provoked God and He let them be carried away into captivity. The lesson we learn from that is that in the New Testament, God's own Son came. He gave us the teaching and that true pattern of how to serve God. When we turn away from Jesus and this pattern, then we can expect to just end up as they did; be carried into bondage and into captivity. God then permitted a few of them to come back to that land - a few that had come through the sufferings. When they came back, they were very zealous to set up the true way of worshipping. They never went back to that form of worship when they came back from Babylon. They were very much against that, but still they were not what God wanted. If you read that book of Malachi, instead of being those that were being controlled by love and by fear, God could say where is my fear and where is my love? They were going through a form of worship, but it was only a form. It was only a way that suited themselves. They were changing God's way of worship into a way that had no sacrifice. When they brought the animal to sacrifice, they brought a blemished one. They brought the one that was lame. You don't read much either of the mark of love. But then it says that they that did really fear the Lord, those that were controlled by the reverential, wholesome fear of God, they got together. Not too many of them got together, but it says that they thought on His name. When we come together on Sunday mornings, we should think on His name, His nature. They spoke often one with another. All of them that met together spoke often one with another. This is a true type of the Sunday morning meeting or when God's people come together to speak on His name, His nature and encourage each other to love and serve Him.

It says God hearkened. God who is ruling this universe is listening attentively. He is interested in what those who love His name are saying to one another. It says it pleased Him so much that He said a book of remembrance would be written of them. He said they'll be mine and I'll spare them as a man spares his own son. I have often been encouraged by the thought that in every Sunday morning meeting where there are true honest people that love the Lord met together, there are two results of that meeting. One result is what goes up to Heaven. There is a sweet savour that goes up to Heaven from that meeting because He is looking on sincere people who have true honest love for HimA love that has been put in their hearts by the holy spirit and they are speaking one with another. They are encouraging one another, stirring each other up in love.

God is hearkening. God looked down before the flood and He saw that men's hearts were evil continually. What was going up from the human family was like a stink in the nostrils of God. The selfishness, the pride, the violence that was on the earth when God looked at, He was so grieved at heart. He decided to destroy it with a flood. After that flood, God again looked down, and it says that Noah offered that burnt offering, an acceptable sacrifice and God smelled a sweet savour. God said He would never destroy the world with a flood again. He put a rainbow in the Heaven. God smelled a sweet savour. Whenever God's people, human beings, meet together and offer that acceptable sacrifice, that whole burnt offering is a sweet savour to God. He sees that they are not living for self and they are not pleasing each other in that selfish way. When they have genuine love, He smells a sweet savour. What Malachi was speaking of here were a few people and when they met and they talked of His name, thought on His name, God was so pleased with them. This is our privilege today. We are glad that although we don't accomplish big things in the eyes of the world, we don't put up big buildings called cathedrals, we are glad there can be a few people meeting together, people who have those marks. They are like the city and they are showing forth the praise in their hearts unto God. They are a testimony unto others.

The other word that has been a lot on my mind, is the word "elect". You have this word in Peter's Epistle. He speaks about the elect according to the foreknowledge of God. I have enjoyed this word elect because it suggests our relationship with Christ. There are two human relationships used in the Bible to show how close we could be to the Lord. We speak about the fact that we can become God's Children. All the human family in one sense are God's children. Then it speaks about that we have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we can cry Abba Father. When we yield to Christ and believe on Him, God puts into us the spirit of adoption, and the spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. This means born of the Holy Spirit.

The first experience is when we listen to God's trust and we are willing to obey it, we are willing to give ourselves to it and Christ comes into our hearts, we become children of God. We receive the spirit of adoption. I was brought up to a prayer in my early childhood. I said prayer-& night and morning but when I got to understand what it was to give myself to Christ, to yield myself to Him, that relationship was different. We speak of the relationship of parents and children, and so is our relationship with God. We are His children. It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we shall be like Him because we are children of God. Oh, what manner of love that we should be called the children of God. Then there is another human relationship that is even a closer relationship. In Genesis, God told them that a man should leave father and mother and cleave to his wife. Jesus confirmed the same truth. This is the closest relationship, the relation- ship of husband and wife. There is something about that relationship that is even more than parents and children, more than brothers and sisters.

This word elect used in the Bible is a word that would suggest that because they themselves have chosen. Not only a child of God, but I am espoused as Paul used the word. I have espoused you as a chaste virgin unto the Lord. If I have given myself to Christ, I am espoused. I am a chaste virgin to the Lord and one that is true to the bridegroom. God is the example in the human to show us what we could be to Him. In Matthew's Gospel, we have the signs of the end and the signs of Jesus coming again and what they would be. Read them over again because we might be nearer to the end than we think for. Matthew 24, there will not be one stone in the temple left upon another. It will all be destroyed. The disciples said how will we know, what will be the signs. Jesus used that word "elect" three times in this chapter-elect sake. Many deceivers in those days, and would be claiming to be the Christ and He says if it would be possible they would deceive the very elect. Then further it says God will send His angels and gather His own elect. Elect means that who are set to be part of His bride. Those that are espoused to Him as a chaste virgin and they have kept true to Him. Gather His own from the four corners of the earth - a world wide fellowship. God will gather them out from all races and all nations--Gather His own elect and they'll be saved.

History tells us that when the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, the Roman army surrounded it and were determined to bring suffering on all. History says there was an unexplained thing happened. Those that believed the teachings of Jesus escaped and escaped the terrible sufferings that came upon that city. History says that was the most awful suffering that had been up to that time. But it says God was considering His own elect. We are not a very important people in the world, not many of us, we don't fill a very big place in the world, but though we are few in number and in the world's eyes of not much account, we could have an effect on God's dealings with the world.

Abraham believed that. When he was talking to God about Sodom and Gomorra, he says Lord now if there was so many righteous people, bringing the number down to ten, would not you save that city for the sake of those ten righteous people. God says I would. If there were ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorra, I would not let the fire and brimstone come down. Did it ever dawn on you that if you are one of God's elect, part of that bride we read about, that God would be considering you. "God will gather His own elect". He will never suffer His people to be tempted above what they are able to bear. Parents know what they feel if their child were in danger. They would feel very bad if they knew they were suffering. This is how God feels. They are dear to the heart of God.

Rev. 21 tells us about the elect and we can get a lot of lessons from that. In Rev. 17, God took John into the wilderness and he showed him a great city. He showed him a beast and then he showed him a woman riding beast. She is a city and she is the great city of Babylon. She represents the city of violence. She is riding that beast and that beast represents the kings and rulers of the world. She is riding that she is controlling that. This picture shows what is wrong today. City of Babylon represents the great organized false religions - names of blasphemy. Taking the name of God and no desire to obey Him or serve Him or recognize Him as their Kingtheir Master, That woman represents the great city Babylon. It takes the two illustrations to get the right and full picture. One is what we are to the world. They see us as a city and the other is what we are to the Lord - His elect, His bride. That woman was riding the beast and controlling the beast. She was adorned with purple, with scarlet and all the signs of reigning. She was adorned with all the glory of the world, the gold and the jewelry. Their whole idea is just grandeur, show and style. They put up the grand buildings for grandeur, the great organizations, the great name, the great false churches of the world today. The beast represents the secular governments, the rulers. It says that beast had ten horns. The ten horns were ten kings. There are many rulers in the world and the woman was riding and controlling that. That is what their great ambition and glory is. The name given the woman is very suggestive. It says she was a harlot, the mother of harlots. The word harlot means untrueness, unfaithfulness. It's a very ugly word, but it is used in the Bible more to show what we can be to the Lord. If we aren't true to the Heavenly Bridegroom, aren't putting Him first, and are keeping more to the world, we would be more like harlots. I have often reminded myself that if I didn't keep true to Him, I might be in danger of having what is called the harlot spirit. We can often be more concerned with pleasing other people than we are to please Him. More concerned about doing the will of other people than to please God. This would be like being untrue to the Heavenly Bridegroom.

One man up in Washington, who I believe is a very faithful saint. He wasn't the religious type. Hetold me of some of his early experiences. He was in the second World War. They were in Europe and his part of the army was ordered up to the front. None of the boys were very religious, but when they knew that they were going up to the front and possible death, he and some of the others decided to consult the chaplain. They told him how they were troubled, had to go to the front and the possibility of death. He asked him how to get ready for death. The chaplain asked him a few questions. He asked him if he went to Sunday school, but he hadn't gone much to Sunday school. He asked him if he had learned the catechism. Well he hardly knew what the catechism was. Well, the chaplain says, now I'll tell you, if you had learned that catechism, I could help you. I could help you to be ready to die, but if you don't know the catechism, I cannot do a thing for you. This was a person who was supposed to help others but he had to answer him this way. Well, he came back from the army, maybe God spared him for a purpose. He married and the girl he married knew the truth. She had professed when she was young, but she had drifted away. Her mother was a very true woman. After she was married she got seriously troubled and she talked to her husband. She wanted to be right, and she got right. Her husband went to convention with her. It wasn't the preaching so much that he took stock of, but he says when he got there on the Saturday night, he was shown where to sleep. When he went down to where most of the men were sleeping, he said, I saw those men down on their knees. He said he never saw anything like that before. When I was in the army, I heard the boys praying when they thought they were going up to the front, meeting death. I had never seen anybody not facing death on their knees praying. This spoke to him. It spoke more than the sermons be heard on the Sunday. It led to him deciding. He is a faithful man now. Also his wife and children are all professing.

We don't want to belong to some of these things that just preach the hireling doctrine . We want to be God's lamb, God's elect. Paul had this idea in his mind. When he preached he didn't think of just pleasing the Christians. He also said he didn't want to offend you either. He was thinking all the time of pleasing the Father. It was like the Bride there. He was thinking of the Heavenly Bridegroom. Like you could say, overtime I stood up to speak to you, I was thinking what would God want me to say to you.

One woman was telling me not long ago, about what her husband had said to her. He didn't profess. I had known him since he was a little boy. Convention has been at h--- parent's home for over 40 years. I asked his wife if he had any serious thoughts about getting saved. She said she hardly knew, but she had noticed he would be quite serious when he saw me upon my knees. He wouldn't tell me not to pray but it seems to upset him when he sees me on my knees. He wouldn't tell me not to go to the meeting, but it worries him because it kind of condemns him. But she was telling me another thing about him, which I thought was to be admired. Something had happened in the home and she was making some apologies to him. She hadn't done as well as she could about something. He said to her, I don't need any apologies from you, you don't have to make any apologies to me, but what I want to know of you is that I have the first place in your heart. I want to know that you have a true love for me. That is what I am only concerned about. All the other things are not of much account. I am not worrying if the biscuits aren't baked exactly right, if things aren't cooked so well. You don't need to make apologies on that. I am concerned about that I have the first place. That you have a love for me that a wife should have for her husband, and he says I believe you have this. He was not mistaken either. They have one child and that child has spoken to me about going out in the harvest field. The father is not wanting to hinder either. He has that much about him. I thought it was a very nice way for a husband to speak to his wife. Even for an unsaved man to do that.

I thought in couples how nice if when some little thing goes wrong, that they could say the same thing. I am not concerned about the mistake, I am concerned about one thing--that you still love Me. I believe that our Heavenly Bridegroom feels the same--that what He is most concerned with that we love him. Our first ambition is to have His approval. I believe that is what Paul had as a servant of God. I believe that is why he was such a faithful servant to God.

You know that makes you a little independent of other things you might be tempted to worry about. One of our brothers has an expression he often uses when he is preaching. He says the servants of God are the most independent people in the world because they are the most dependent in the world. He explains it like this that they are independent of other people. They are not worrying whether they like our preaching or don't like it, or whether they are taken up with us or not taken up with us. We are wholly dependent on God and they recognize that if I make it my ambition to please Him, to be like the faithful bride espoused to him, then I'll not need to worry. Not need to worry about my future in this world. Not need to worry about the hereafter. I'll hear His well done. That will be greatest reward of all.

If God's children in the home could say I am not too much concerned whether people like me or whether people flatter, I am taken up with the Heavenly Bridegroom. This woman you read about in Revelations 17, it says it was Babylon. It was a city - a woman in a city and that city is ruler over the kings of the earth. You read this is true in the 18th chapter - that city is ruler over the kings of the earth.

I once was in Rome and visited the Vatican. There is a great long hall in the Vatican, which has a great number of showcases. Glass filled showcases full of presents, expensive presents - gold and very expensive tapestry. You would just think of this when you were reading Revelations 18 in looking at these showcases. These presents were sent by different rulers of the world and they were taking great pride that we are ruling over all. We are having great control. Then when you read Rev. 17 and 18, you can see the end of that. The 17th Chapter finishes up by telling you that before the end comes and that may come soon, God is going to put it into the hearts of those Kings that represent the beasts, those 10 horns those rulers of the world, whatever they are, God is going to put it into their hearts to turn against her, this great city of Babylon. When they turn against this woman, they are going to throw her down and tramp and burn her and destroy her. That has to happen before Jesus comes again. We don't need to be impressed when we read of the President going to the Pope, for the Pope to do so much, their great glory, their great power, the ruler of all the people of the world as it speaks about. Don't worry about that. Faith tells us that there is an end of that. The end is described in the 18th chapter. There will be a terrible time of suffering upon the world.

The false religions that have been up in glory in their wealth, pride, and power over the rulers of the earth and all the great things they could do well, they will fall out between themselves and they have been doing it in some parts already. Then they will be trampled and destroyed, but our interest is in Rev. 21. In this chapter, we read about John seeing another city and it was coming down from Heaven. It was the New Jerusalem, and it was a Holy City. It was a woman too, because it was adorned as a Bride to be married. The woman who was riding the beast had great adornment and the adornment she had spoke of great power, purple, scarlet and wealth. The other city was represented by a woman and she was a different woman. It was given to her to be adorned too. She was arrayed in fine, white linen, pure and clean, white linen. It wasn't scarlet, it wasn't purple. It wasn't the great ruling colors of the world. It was fine, white linen, pure and clean, and it says that fine, white linen was the righteousness of the saints. The margin says the righteousness acts of the saints. Having inward righteousness and doing righteousness acts go together. You have it inside first and then it moves you to do it. Like the trees that have the right thing in them, bears the right kind of fruit. The tree is known by its fruit. Some religious people today think that it is just believing in something. Believing something about Jesus, going through some form. Some people have that kind of teaching, but the illustrations Jesus used is different.

When we give ourselves to Him, it is more like a branch in a vine and if we continue and abide then there will be fruit. When we give ourselves to Christ, that is the first step. Then after that there is the abiding. Abiding in His word and He abiding in us. Abiding in His teachings. Jesus said if you don't abide, even though you are grafted in, you will die, and you will be destroyed. It was given to this woman to be adorned too. The 19th chapter said the bride had made herself ready for the marriage. That shows our responsibility, we are making ourselves ready, cooperating with Him. That would be like what Peter said when he used the words make your election sure. You are elected according to the foreknowledge of God.

Make it sure. Peter tells you how to make it sure. You would be growing. There would be something growing in you. that is the proof of it. You would be keeping on obeying His truth. You can never separate Jesus from His words. He said if you are ashamed of my words, ashamed of me and of my words. Not many today taking heed to the words of Jesus. Even if you just take those words when He mentioned about you being a city set on a hill. Just take those words. Read them over and meditate upon them. Not many people in the world thinking about obeying those words. I wonder do we obey them fully as the Lord meant. Do we get out a little with one an- other and not put it right. Do not offer sacrifice to God until you put it right with each other. Do we obey those words fully when He says you are a city set on a hill. You can't separate Jesus from His words. His words. My word will be forever. We'll be judged by His words. I like to think of -----; woman as the true Bride of Christ. She had on the fine, white linen.

Some of us grew up in the country where they make that linen and have seen the process. It is not a very nice process. A man was working where they handle the flax, of which they make linen. He couldn't very well change his clothes but had to come in to have dinner where we were as he was. They had an awful odor about them. The flax had to be pulled by hand. Then it was put under water and left there until it is almost rotten and the odor is almost like the odor of rotten cabbage. Then it is taken out and dried, brought to a mill and that is where you would get that which makes the fine linen. This is what the bride would he arrayed with.

You know this thought about the righteousness and-- then - it says" the righteous acts. It means that I am righteous inside, and he that is righteous doeth righteousness cause I am righteous, I do righteous acts. That is why Jesus said let your light shine that men will glorify your Father. If we have love in our hearts we won't need to be talking about it for He'll be seeing me do things and he'll see manifestations of that. He is not supposed to read my heart, but He is to see what I am doing and what kind of fruit I'll bear. It is the righteousness and righteous acts, He wants to see. We read that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Not imputing our iniquity, but He is imputing the righteousness of Christ to us. It is a comfort to an honest child of God to realize that although I have come short, God is giving me credit for the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness He commanded when He obeyed the Father and went to Calvary's cross and gave His last drop of blood. In doing that He made it possible for God to put things where I come short. Transgressions are forgiven and sins are covered by His blood.

I have sometimes given the illustration. I know it is not a perfect one, but it occurred to me. We could use it, you and I in our relationship with God. It could be compared to a bride, a wife. She has in her early days gone into debt for her foolishness in buying or whatever it was. But some wealthy person wants to make her his bride in spite of her debts. She becomes his wife and that wealthy man makes an announcement to all that and debts that my wife owes, I am responsible for all. Do you think that is an exaggerated picture? That is what our Heavenly Bridegroom has done for us.

One woman said to me I understand all that, how He has forgiven all that I did before I decided; but what if I fail now, if do something that I shouldn't do. I said to her, taking our little illustration. He went a little further and said, as long as she is a true wife to me and I know the place I have in her heart, as long as we are living together, if she should incur any more debts through some foolish step, buy something that she shouldn't be buying, I’ll pay them too. If she should be untrue, and we would have to divorce I won't be responsible any longer. John in his epistles says, if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another.

We have fellowship with Him, that true fellowship and His blood cleanse us from all sins. That verse backs this up that He paid the debt where we come short now and then we'll he arrayed in the righteousness of Christ. It is the righteousness that has come into my life because Christ is living in me. In Rev. 21, we read of a great marriage. If you will take the illustration of a city as what the world will see in our lives that we are bear in a clean testimony for Him. It is a great study and one that should profit us.

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Notes of George Walker
Bessemer, Alabama Special Meeting - 1971

GEORGE WALKER - I am glad to be here today, I am glad for what I see. I am glad for what I have heard because I believe it is sound doctrine. I am sure that everybody that gives place in their hearts to the Truth will bring something into their lives to make them a blessing to others. I am glad so many can be here to hear these truths.

61 years ago this week, I made my first visit to Birmingham and had a little meeting and there were only about a dozen there. I think of two there and they kept true – they stood fast and faced tests and others by keeping true themselves. That is most important - to live for others. When I made my decision to go into this Work, I went to see a friend of mine whom I thought would be pleased with my decision, but he quickly told me I would be a failure as a “soul winner”, and would never be able to get hold on people’s minds. I felt that this was another's voice - the voice of the serpent. I believe in God's people; I believe thefts are angels who take great interest in those who love the Lord. The angels of the Lord can't be encompassed about. The angels of the Lord behold the face of the Lord. The angels of the Lord bring thoughts to our minds as well as the evil angel.

When I started out in this way to preach the gospel, I had a lot of religious friends and they assured me it would be a great disaster. A false preacher who used to take me with him and was kind to me - I told him I was going to preach the way Jesus sent his disciples. He had been brought up to believe in an organization and when I told him what was in my mind to do he said ”I am very sorry you have that in your mind. It will be starvation and is without a salary and organization.” Many others had the same advice for me. That day as I walked along that road in Scotland I thought, ”if you can do for others whatever years in this work that you have begun, you might not be able to count many converts, but it will not be in vain. You will have helped some few people to have faith in God’s word."

Faith is the most valuable thing people can have. That is why the devil is so against faith. The root to all sin is unbelief. That is why the devil is anxious to put unbelief in our hearts. He has always succeeded and he will in our day. He has gotten into the minds of some preaching. How could I help others to have faith that God will give us salvation if I didn't show you that I have faith that God promises to meet my temporal needs?

I have sometimes said to my brothers that if they should be around when I leave this body and have the responsibility to say something at the funeral, I don’t desire them to say anything about my perfections or my sacrifice, or anything about me because it might contradict what is in heaven. The only thing I would like them to say is that the one whose body is in this casket believed in God and proved it by going out into this work and spending his years with no organization no guaranteed salary and no collection and proved God could provide his temporal needs.

William Lewis told me of speaking at the funeral of Jim Hamilton. Jim had been a policeman before he went to preach and had spent 50 years in the harvest field. William said while he spoke at the funeral it came to his mind that the Lord had fulfilled every promise to him and others who have gone out to preach. The following two verses of a poem were quoted:

"Father, I know that all my life
Is portioned out for me,
And the changes that are sure to come
I do not fear to see;

But I ask Thee for a present mind
Intent on pleasing Thee.
I ask Thee for a thoughtful love
Thru constant watching wise,

To meet the glad with joyful smile
And to wipe the weeping eyes,
And a heart at leisure from itself
To soothe and sympathize."

If you do according to my teachings, your temporal needs will be met in this world and in the world to come - eternal life. It is good to keep this goal in view. I am very grateful to the Lord that my fondest memory is that there is another world after leaving this world.

At 11 years of age I looked at my mother's face in death. I had gone to Sunday school and when I came home she was gone and I looked at her face still in death. I wondered where I would be if I had died. I knew there was a heaven and a hell. I thought I was not fit for heaven and some changes had to come.

I am glad for impressions made about the truth of God. I had serious doubts about coming on this trip. Some feel that because a person has been preaching many years, it becomes easier for them to stand and speak in the meetings, but I don't find it so. When we are older our memory fails us and it is not easy to put thoughts together. The thought came to me and encouraged me to try to come along as long as strength would last. Not preaching any great sermon, but maybe I could help to strengthen someone's faith by giving my own testimony and mentioning some scriptures that have helped me to continue in God's way.

Most of us here this morning didn't come just to pass the day; we are here to fulfill God’s purpose. We believe in a purpose in life and in eternity and are anxious to get help. We feel our responsibility is greater and we in the meetings giving some real good fruit. Not that we are preaching some sermon, but giving something that perfects our love and strengthens our faith. Are we helping God's children to get something provoking them to love? So many things in this world are provoking to other things. What we will be taking in will teach us how to live for others and not be a discouragement.

I Peter l. There was something came to me that perhaps I could say things in the meetings that would help some who had not decided and it brought back to mind the last chapter of John's gospel. The words of Jesus when he spoke to Peter in that chapter is one of the most outstanding parts of the Bible because the night I made my decision it helped me to get victory and God gave me grace to go out into the world and live like Peter did. I have never forgotten it. II Peter 1. v. 13-14 read. It is a great thing to have experiences in your early days that you will never forget because it affects the spirit. This is something that changed my course in life.

We do not know how many times Jesus [was seen?] in those 40 days he spent in his resurrected body, but we do know it was flesh and bones, but no blood. They were afraid when he came into the room, fearing they had seen a spirit. Jesus was showing us in those 40 days the kind of body we will have in heaven. Those two women in the garden didn't recognize him in his new body. He said, "this body I have now is flesh and bone; flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven." He shed his last drop of blood on the cross, fulfilling his father's will and finished the work the Father had him to do. That is why it is possible for us to be here today. His precious blood made atonement for our sins, (Hebrews 10: 22-26) It is a great comfort today to know that the very same Jesus that spoke to those people, comforted and encouraged them, also understands us to the fullest extent today. Nobody can have Christ living in their hearts without love. The most homely person living in the world, when they let Christ control them, there is beauty that God sees. Love is the beginning of salvation. Peter encouraged the elders of the church to feed the younger in the way by having the love of God in their hearts. The name Peter means "rock”. Jack Jackson once said that three words had done much to help him be a servant of God - ”I die daily". We need to daily put to death the things in human nature that would hinder God’s will. We often let petty things take up too much of our time. I would like for Christ to be magnified in my heart wherever I am. In John 21, Jesus revealed himself to the disciples the third time after he was risen from the dead.

It is not good to talk about the failures of others and then try to use them as an excuse. All were encouraged to make their calling and election sure even though nearer the end the elect will have more and more temptations. God will come and claim His own elect in the end. I John 1 we can see in the light there is true fellowship. One woman once asked if the Lord would bring up all the bad things she had done before she knew the Truth. It was explained that the past was wiped away. This was illustrated in this way - a man married a woman who had a lot of debts. Yet because he loved her and she was his wife, he paid the debts and also agreed to pay any future debts for her. We need to have the right relationship with our creator - this is the secret to life here and through all eternity. It is only as we abide in the vine that we can be fruitful branches. The Bible begins with a human marriage and ends with a heavenly marriage. You will make no mistake if you make full surrender to Him, and you will have no regrets now and none in the end.

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Notes of George Walker – Age 102 years
Philadelphia Pennsylvania Special Meeting
April 22, 1979

The last two weeks I've had pictures in my mind of what was said to his disciples that last night. They have been like a guideline to me through the years. When I was in school we had a copy book with every letter written perfectly. We were to look at the perfect letters and copy them. The first line would be a pretty bad imitation. After copying it several times, the last line would be looking more like the perfect line. Keep our eyes on the light.

One woman asked, "Will the sins of the past, the time be­fore I heard the truth, all be brought up on that day when I stand before the Lord?" I could give her a Bible answer for that. When we turned to God, he forgave us and the past he remembers no more. Then she asked, "What: about the sins since I began to serve the Lord?" I had a Bible answer for that. His blood cleanses from all sin. He is the propitiation for our sins. He made atonement to God and God loves to forgive.

John 13 tells what was in the mind of Jesus - knowing he came from God and knowing he would soon return to God. No way to get a bride out of the human family but to go to the cross. Knowing this He got ready to wash his disciples feet -- made himself the servant instead of the master. Other great leaders have taken swords. Jesus took a towel. What we do can add weight to our words. They that have taken a bath don't need to wash the body again but the feet are in touch with the earth. There was a little of this defilement human nature brings--who shall be the greatest? The spirit of the whole world is - I want to get. The spirit of Jesus- I want to give. Give yourself, give love, give kindness. God has put some­thing good in human beings - if I'm given something, I want to give. If I’m loved, I want to love. He first loved us. Love begets love. Give to those who can't give back to you.

"The most we have in the Bible of Jesus is his example as preacher. Over one hundred years ago a Mr. Shelton, a preacher, wrote a book, "In His steps or What Would Jesus Do.” In this book he wrote about; what Jesus would do if he was in different positions in this world. One was, what Jesus would do if he was the newspaper editor. The editor said, "Mr. Shelton, you write of all that Jesus wouldn't do. It wouldn’t be out of line for a newspaper editor to write about what Jesus would do if he was a preacher".

Jesus said, "Ye are not all clean", meaning Judas was not clean. Judas harbored something in his heart from the beginning. When the eye is not single the whole body is dark. Afterwards Judas saw and when he realized he had betrayed innocent blood he couldn't live. In ch. 14, three of the apostles asked questions. Thomas asked, " How can we know the way?" The answer - I am a living example, living manifestation. Philip said, "…shew us the Father". Jesus answered, "Have I been so long time with you and yet" hast thou not known me". Jesus gave a living manifestation of the Father. Judas, not Iscariot, asked, "How is it that thou wilt manifest thy­self unto us and not unto the world?" Maybe Judas had the thought this would be a great time to show the world something. Jesus manifested himself to those who loved him. You can "t open your heart to those who do not love you. Jesus could open his heart to those who loved him. Abide in the vine. "Without me ye can do nothing"". "If I cease to abide now, all my efforts to help others will be in vain". You will wither up like that branch. Twice he commanded - "love one another". Jesus told them, "Ask of my Father", I don't need to pray to the Father for you. The Father himself loves you.

Our hearts and minds is God's dwelling place. We don't need to worry about the coming generations. Live right in our generation.

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PICTON CONVENTION June 23-25, 1950

George Walker - 1 Corinthians:

Paul had joy in writing to many of the people of the different churches, but in this book he had great sorrow. The people in God’s true way are not all perfect. The worst man that ever lived on earth was in God’s way (Judas). The most important thing is what we are in ourselves before God. God’s way is right because we seek to follow after Jesus, not because everyone in the way is perfect – they’re not. It is a great help to us to look to the goodness, mercy, grace and kindness of God, but it is also good to look on ourselves. What would produce the worst thing of all in us is when we start looking on the failures and faults of others. If our mind is looking on the word of God, it will be well for us and will have a good effect on us. We make no progress if we take an unhealthy interest in the way.

In these two letters that Paul wrote, we see a picture of Paul himself. He makes strong statements about himself in order to stir up the people to whom he was writing.

It is not in human nature to keep on loving those that don’t love us. “The more I love you the less I will be loved.” It is not a good thing to measure ourselves by how many people love us, but by how much we have loved.

1 Corinthians 8 and 9 - “This I do for the gospel’s sake.” “For His names sake.” Look up the phrases in the Bible that mention this. It is a great thing to value the name of God. How many things have I done for the gospel’s sake? How many things have I not done for the gospel’s sake? What did I not do because I was thinking of the gospel? Paul said that if I knew that something I was doing would stumble someone else, I would never do it again. Are we like this?

Men that are in training for sports (racing, boxing, wrestling, etc.) have to do without many things - many kinds of food - in order to win in the race and to gain the crown. Do we eat things that would hinder us from winning the race in which we are running? Do we keep the desires and appetites of human nature under? “Whatsoever you do, do to the glory of God.” The learning to say “No” is what gives strength.

“If any man boast, let him boast in the Lord.” All that we have comes from the Lord. We shouldn’t tell others what they have to do without taking the piece that we have to do ourselves. Do we see someone that fails and use them to make excuses for our failures? Those that talk about the failures of others are not in a very healthy condition themselves.

No one will ever be a loser for what they suffer “for the gospels sake.” The world today wants to see something lived and something manifested – very practical. Don’t worry about whether anyone should tell the workers about any of us, but make sure that there is nothing for anyone to tell.

We can be in God’s way, but have a mind that is more carnal than spiritual (more like the minds of those of the outside world).

The world can say that they got saved by reading the Bible, or got something direct from heaven, but just ask them to show you someone in the New Testament that got saved like that. This is the worst form of spiritual pride that has ever been known.

1 Corinthians 3:21 – Paul wanted to be looked on as a channel, not to be gloried in as a man. All the servants of God are ours to be a channel for us and to be a help to us regardless of how they preach to us.

It is the love of God that makes us value the truth today.

Hymns 190, 326, 298, 162

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National Headquarters
SELECTIVE SERVICE SYSTEM
21st and C Streets NW
Washington 25, D.C.
November 22, 1946
File No. 3-164

Mrs. O. D. Hawkins
14967 Freeland Avenue
Detroit 27, Michigan

Subject: Status of Christian Conventions

Dear Mrs. Hawkins,

Receipt is acknowledged of your letter of November 13, 1946, regarding the “Christian Convention people or Assemblies of Christians.” It is noted that you requested information regarding this organization with specific reference to the question of the expression of any views regarding conscientious objection.

This Headquarters has issued a predetermination that Christian Conventions is a recognized church, religious sect, or a religious organization, within the meaning of Section 622.44 of the Selective Service Regulations. This predetermination was based upon information procured directly from officials of the church; namely George Walker (overseer), 2350 East Susquahanna Avenue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and others. This necessity came out of the fact that the organization was not included by the Bureau of Census, United States Department of Commerce, in its publication, Religious Bodies-1936.

A photostatic copy of a memorandum submitted under date of March 24, 1942, by Mr. Walker is enclosed for your information.

Under date of February 16, 1942, Jesse R. Bond, 3309 Holmes Street, Kansas City, Missouri, who represented himself to be a minister of this organization, addressed a letter to the Director of Selective Service which stated in part: “We have no doctrine which in any way disables our converts to enter into the armed forces of our Nation and many hundreds of our converts to enter into the armed forces of our Nation, and many hundreds of our people are now in our armed forces of their own volition.”

In this connection attention is invited to the fact that the provision of the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940, relating to conscientious objection provides that such must be “by reason of religious training and belief” (see Section 5 (g) of the Act). The claim is to be established as a personal belief and membership or lack of membership in any church body is not a controlling factor.

For the Director,

NEAL M. WHERRY
Major, APS
Chief, Legal and Classification Section
Camp Operations

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George Walker
Hector, Minnesota Convention
Saturday, October 3, 1970

It was with a fear I came here lest I would not be the encouragement to my brethren and old friends, whom I have known for years and value highly and who have put trust in me. I know my inability physically and I had a dread lest I would not be to them all I should be.

One experience I had a good many years ago in South Africa, when 45 or more were on the pier to wave goodbye to me, I shall never forget. On deck, one could look down into
their faces—some white and some black—waiting for the boat to pull out. As the boat pulled out and I couldn't see them anymore, walking over the deck of that boat the thought came to me, it would be a terrible thing if I would do something that would make their battle harder, that the devil could use to discourage them. I asked the Lord, rather than I be a castaway and disappoint those people, I should be buried in the ocean and not see land again. One would prefer to die than be a disappointment to those who trust one.

When troubled with the thought I cannot preach as in past days, I concluded, you can at least mention some of those Scriptures that helped me all through my days. You can preach them stronger now because of the experiences I have had that confirm them. In the first days one preached about them because one believed them and had confidence in them; but now one has proved the Truths contained in them. One has had experiences that proved their Truth.

If I could mention some of those Scriptures that were a help to me it would be a help to others. We do not have to take back anything we have ever preached. We are glad that what we preached the first day we can preach again, maybe not with as strong a voice physically but with the same confidence. Truth never contradicts itself. President Eisenhower told a young officer who didn't feel capable of his position–fearing others would tangle him up, "always tell the truth and you need not remember what you told them." It will never contradict itself or change. If you tell a lie, you must remember what you said, then tell another lie to fix that one up. Jesus is our Truth. He was the embodiment of all Truth. He has never changed. Heb. 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever." He is ever the same.

I used to preach a lot from the Psalms. That is true. I have often enjoyed speaking from the Psalms because many times they were a light to me in making decisions. I found balm in them when the heart was wounded. I got a lot from the New Testament too, help in making the decision to go into the work. I was deceived by the false. I spent the teen years of my life working in a store. The man I worked for was very religious but his whole idea of a successful life was making money. Anyone that didn't make money he called a "straw" man. It was a contemptible expression. He would emphasize, money would give one importance. I am glad for words Jesus spoke and Truths in the New Testament which helped me not to be swallowed by the other. Jesus said, "What profittith a man if he gain the whole world and lost his own soul." Then the parable: A man asked Jesus to divide the inheritance with him, or that his brother should do so, said, "Beware of Covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of things he possesseth." He finished by saying, "So is everyone that manages to accumulate lots in this world and is not rich toward God. Then the rich man to whom was said, "Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee, then whose shall all those things be." What greater folly than making provision for the future, a future which one will never see.

I am glad for the Truths in the New Testament that kept me from being satisfied with the kind of religion I had. I put forth an honest effort to get right with God and I felt some change had come to me. I tried to read and pray and they considered me a model but soon I began to get terribly troubled. I saw, this is a popular religion and they were aiming it be popular but it was different from the New Testament and the Apostles.

A good religious friend of mine said, if you become a preacher, you may not make quite as such money as in business but look at the high social standing you will have. You will have reverend added to your name and a lovely home. But I thought, I would not be like the Apostles. That made me dissatisfied and I was seeking, hoping that some day I would meet some who would be like the New Testament. In Sunday School we sang: "I have given up all for Jesus–I remember Calvary–I have a friend that will stand by me when the pearly gates unfold." That corresponds with the New Testament teaching but the religions we have do not. It was the craving of my heart to meet such today.

The first person that ever did speak to me about being a preacher like the New Testament told about the experiences ahead. He had the ambition to make money but his mother, though she did not know the true way was a sincere woman and she said, you will never be satisfied with that, for the more you make the more you will want. You will never be satisfied until you understand what it means to be born again. That troubled him for he was religious.

He went to the clergyman and asked him, what does it mean to be born again? He answered, don't worry yourself about that. When you were a babe a man sprinkled water on you and you became a child of God. Do the best you can now. I wasn't satisfied with his explanation. I am glad for the words Jesus spoke that kept me from being satisfied with success in the world. I was thinking of the end, also the false way and I knew I hadn't gotten my feet on the right track.

We have the record of Peter and Paul and what they had at the end of their lives, also the warnings they gave. We have heard a great many encouraging truths spoken to encourage us to have confidence in God and to be wholehearted. It is possible, though we know God's Truth and the right Way, we would let something rob us. Paul talks about things in the flesh we should mortify: "Covetousness, which is idolatry." What is this covetousness? Craving to get something I don't really need, and to have more and more of it. I Tim. 6 might give us a little idea of what it is. It is kind of a sad chapter. The Holy Spirit put it there and it would be a good thing for God's children to read. Not just pick out the nice things but take the two together.

There were people professing God's Way to whom was said, "Withdraw from them," so they must have been in it. "They think, gain is godliness; but, godliness with contentment is great gain." Why? "Because we brought nothing into this world and it is certain we can take nothing out—having food and raiment, let us therewith be content." Because they were not contented, some desiring to be rich, pierced themselves through with many sorrows, have fallen into the snare of the devil, into temptation, into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition." Is it a sin to be rich? Warn them, if they have it not to be highminded. God is expecting them to distribute and be ready to communicate to those who are in need. If their hearts are set on it, it is the most deceitful thing in the world. "If riches increase, set not your heart on it, for they grow wings and fly away." Haven't we seen that in the world today. Some, with a great desire for riches, lose the good things they might have in this world.

A millionaire, at the close of his life, was telling a friend of ours about his awful disappointment. With tears rolling down his cheeks, said, it cost his family, his children, it brought destruction to the home, and then he said, "it is all my own fault. When my children were small, they liked their father, and when they asked for stories, I would say, "Don't bother me...don't you see I am busy?" I would give them money and send them to the movies. Now, dying, riches are no comfort to me." A tragedy worse than this is when it happens amongst those who know the Truth.