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“YOUR GIFTS…ARE A SWEET SMELLING SACRIFICE THAT PLEASES GOD WELL…
BUT THOUGH I APPRECIATE YOUR GIFTS, WHAT MAKES ME HAPPIEST IS THE WELL
EARNED REWARD YOU WILL HAVE BECAUSE OF YOUR KINDNESS.” PHIL. 4:17, 18 TLB
YES, YES, YES, we have pleased our Lord
well this past year of 2006. In fact, it may
very well go down in history as the greatest year of
growth and expansion for the Kingdom of God!
I could bore you until your eyes glazed over
with page after page of statistics on every new station,
as well as pages for every new cable station
(over 700), and new satellite footprints (now 61)
covering every square inch of inhabited earth!
The two big bombshells were full power stations
in Orlando, Florida and Virginia Beach,
Virginia — hello Pat Robertson! Our staff has
worked long and hard to come up with 15,923 stations,
counting all broadcast and cable stations
worldwide! But how do we count the millions
watching on the 61 satellite footprints covering
Europe, Russia, Africa, the Middle East, Australia,
and New Zealand? And, don’t forget the islands of
the sea: Fiji, Samoa, Indonesia, Vanuatu, Solomon
Islands, Jamaica, Bahamas, Grand Cayman and on
and on!
Ah, dear Lord — here I go doing what I
promised not to do — no boring statistics, but some
are so exciting I just had to tell!
Of course, the bottom line is SOULS, yes the
eternal souls of people worldwide. They pour in
every day by phone, mail, and email confessing the
model prayer we post on our Internet site, or by
speaking direct to a prayer partner.
Ah, dear Partners, the reason God is pleased
with our love, prayers, and gifts is because the
time of Harvest is closing soon! Read it again in
Matthew 24. When have we seen such terror and
horror in the Middle East? Nation rising against
nation — by the way, the Greek word for nation is “ethnos,” which actually means ethnic group
against ethnic group! Wow — there are so many
different ethnic groups just within the Arab and
Islamic world, not to mention the hundreds of
smaller regional wars! We could go on and on right
here, but let’s hear what Jesus said and saw 2,000
years ago —
“AND THEN SHALL APPEAR THE SIGN
OF THE SON OF MAN IN HEAVEN…AND
THEY SHALL SEE THE SON OF MAN
COMING IN THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN
WITH POWER AND GREAT GLORY.”
Matt. 24:30
Yes, praise God, we know He is coming, but the
reason our work has pleased the Lord so greatly is the
TIME! Jesus goes on to give us a vital clue as to the
time of His coming:
“SO LIKEWISE WHEN YE SHALL SEE
ALL THESE THINGS, KNOW THAT IT IS
NEAR, EVEN AT THE DOORS.” Matt. 24:33
Dear Lord, when we see “these things”…just read
the front page of any major newspaper or listen to any
network newscast and it sounds like they are reading
from Matthew 24!
So, dear, dear Partners do you see now why God
has placed in our hands nine major networks all fed
by satellite to the ends of the earth? Do you see now
why we have “pleased the Lord” and why our gifts are
like a “sweet smelling sacrifice”?
The prophet Joel cries the same word of Jesus
even from hundreds of years ago to our time:
“PUT YE IN THE SICKLE, FOR THE HARVEST
IS RIPE: COME, GET YOU DOWN;
FOR THE PRESS IS FULL, THE VATS
OVERFLOW; FOR THEIR WICKEDNESS IS
GREAT.” Joel 3:13
But here is the direct word of the Lord to TBN — to
YOU AND ME:
“MULTITUDES, MULTITUDES IN THE
VALLEY OF DECISION, FOR THE DAY OF
THE LORD IS NEAR IN THE VALLEY OF
DECISION.” Joel 3:14
Precious Partners — we have built or rebuilt for
digital TV hundreds of stations — we have bought
transponder time on nearly every communications
satellite in the sky. We have grown from one TBN network
to a total of 9 networks — five are foreign language…
here I go again, so I will end with a simple
question:
Have you pleased the Lord? Is your gift a
“sweet smelling sacrifice that pleases God well?”
Jan and I love you and honor you for your love.
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