From that day to the present I have trusted that God knows what He is doing with everyone on the earth. What He has enabled me to do I have done. I have made many mistakes, but when I understood I was wrong, by God's help I have gotten back on the track and kept doing what He said. This is true today.

When we first came down to Poway, according to the leading of the Lord, the Foursquare denomination handed us a church to pastor. This came about by a miracle, since I was not a pastor and had never set foot inside a Foursquare church. Audrey and I have been pastoring that church for more than twenty-five years.

When we first came, the newspaper sent a reporter to interview the new pastors, as they always do. The reporter asked me, "What are your plans?"

To my astonishment, and hers, I said, "I have no plans."

The reporter exclaimed that pastors had always expressed their plans to her.

But we had become so accustomed to just following the Lord, trusting in Him, that we had no idea what the future would hold.

I say all this in commenting about Isaiah 42:2: "He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets." We know there were times when Jesus spoke in a loud voice. So this verse is not referring to our raising our voice on occasion, it is speaking of our attitude. The Servant of the Lord must not strive. His yoke is easy and His burden light.

It is Babylon that lashes her servants along, exhorting them to "build! build!

build!" But she will not use one finger to help lift the load.

So it was when I was a young person that pastors would exhort me to fast and pray and then go out to win souls for Jesus. But they went to the finest restaurants with their families on Sunday afternoon, dining sumptuously while I was fasting and passing out tracts.

The pastors say: "We are the shepherds. You are the sheep so you are supposed to do the multiplying. Get out there and work! work! work! This is the voice of Babylon."

No commander is worth his salt who does not lead his troops into battle.

The truth is, there is only one Shepherd. His name is Jesus. The rest of us who serve as pastors are only messenger boys.

When we are abiding in Christ we do not have to shout or cry out. We are to rest in Him. He is the Elephant. We are the mouse. Our job is to run about and chirp and keep Him company. His job is to haul the teak log to the river. He enjoys our company but He is the one with the power. Can you say "Amen"?

Christ does not strive. He rests in His Father at all times. We are not to strive. We are to rest in Christ at all times. If we are to bring justice to the nations we must understand thoroughly that we are not to set out to accomplish the Lord's work according to our own wisdom and strength. We are to rest in Christ. He will show us what to do in His time, now and when He appears. If we are not content with this way of operating, we are not qualified to appear with Christ at His return.

To be continued.