fyi…
****************************************************************************
********
For the January 1983 INKHORN JOURNAL I wrote the following editorial.
By Bob Petry

This editorial was written for the folks who are always complaining,
moaning, being pessimistic, run down, in the doldrums, always having
“health” problems, and having NOTHING go right in their lives.

It also applies to all those on the Internet and elsewhere who believe they
are doing something wonderful by exposing everyone else’s sins and
mistakes, and pretending they are the only ones on the planet who know
better.

So, for all those complainers, and all those who can never get their lives
in order, who can’t do anything without the crutch of someone else doing it
for them, and for those “great” experts in exposing other’s sins, that the
Bible says should be hidden, or covered by a multitude of love, try this on
for reality.

Why don’t YOU just DROP DEAD!!!

That’s right, dear reader, why don’t you drop dead?

If you think that I am kidding you, well, think again.
I am not kidding with you at all! In fact, those are probably some of the
most important words that you have ever read in your life.

EVERY problem, conflict, emotional upset, or stress situation you have ever
had, or will ever have, is solved in the above lead sentence: Why don’t YOU
just DROP DEAD!!! And, they are “permanently” solved!!

Before you read any further, I would like for you to please reread that
sentence over and over again. Then, stop and think about it for awhile
before reading further.

I heard a sermon once given by a man that was an instructor at the college
I attended. He was also an Elder. One of his duties, besides teaching, was
the counseling of students.

He mentioned how so many came to him with seeming insurmountable problems.
At least, in their own eyes. And, no matter what the counseling, they kept
returning with the same insurmountable problems.

Finally, one day, he said, the solution to all these problems came to him.
How close he came to the real answer to the problems of life. He decided
that from then on, when someone came to him with a problem that was so
“unbearable”, he would just tell them to “DROP DEAD”. Simple solution — do
it, A N D — no more problems!! Of course, he never really told them that,
except in his sermon to all of us. But, he was right.

Another point I want to make is this: Please think about this one also.

While you (YOU, not someone else, YOU) are ALIVE, YOU are not worth a plug
nickel!! You are only worth something if you are DEAD.

By the time you receive this issue of The INKHORN Journal it will be
Passover time. This, in its own way, is one of the most important times of
the year for those who claim to be a follower of the True MESSIAH.

Well, this year, we want you to think of this time in proper perspective.
All of us have let the admonition to examine ourselves during this time
slide by. If we had been doing what we were told to do in the Scriptures,
then the Invisible Body of the Messiah would be a much more UNIFIED body
than it is today. What we told you at the beginning of this editorial has a
great deal to do with the Passover season, and the Days of Unleavened
Bread.

As we have mentioned before, the purpose of The INKHORN Journal is to give
you the warning cry that the Bridegroom is coming. But, we also, want to
help you to be able to answer that warning cry. We want you to be among
the WISE virgins who enter the door to salvation at His return. Won’t you
listen, take heed, and ACT UPON some advice that may help YOU attain to
IMMORTAL LIFE??

As we mentioned in the last Journal, there has been a great deal of schism,
arguing, and back-biting among the Peoples of YHWH during the past several
years. Think about the cause of this turmoil, and maybe, just maybe, this
editorial will offer a solution to this continuation within the Body. At
least, for YOU the individual.

Arguments are caused by LIVING people. DEAD MEN don’t argue.
Hatred is felt by the LIVING. DEAD MEN don’t hate.
Only a LIVING human being can refuse to forgive another of their sins or
mistakes. DEAND MEN have nothing to forgive, for they cannot be insulted or
injured.
Strike a LIVING person on the cheek, and the odds are, he will hit back.
DEAD MEN feel no pain. They can’t strike back. They don’t even have to turn
the other cheek.
Only a LIVING husband can revile or mistreat a wife. A DEAD HUSBAND cannot.
Only a LIVING wife can berate a husband. A DEAD WIFE cannot.

Only LIVING Elders argue over authority and money. Only LIVING Elders
divide and split, and misuse the Sheep. DEAD ELDERS cannot.

All kinds of differing religious bodies, filled with LIVING people, can
persecute others. Only religious bodies with LIVING people can divide,
split, argue, slander, sue, and connive to gain disciples and their tithes.
Religious bodies filled to the brim with DEAD PEOPLE cannot do these
things.

Are you beginning to see what I’m driving at, friends? Friends, who I
really hope are DEAD Friends. If you don’t understand by now, I’m sure you
will before the end of this editorial.

Since those who follow the Messiah are actually an Army doing spiritual
warfare, we need to think like a Warrior. We even have a full set of armor
described in Scripture. All a warrior knows is the fear of DEATH. It is all
around him. Here then, is a short excerpt from a book about one of the most
fanatical of warriors the world has ever known, and most feared — The
Samurai.

The title of this is, “The WAY of the Warrior.”

“By the way of the Warrior is meant DEATH. The way of the Warrior IS DEATH.
This means choosing death whenever there is a choice between life and
death. It means nothing more than this. It means to see things through,
being resolved. Sayings like, ‘To die with your intention unrealized is to
die uselessly,’ and so on, are from the weak Kyoto, Osaka Bushido. They are
unresolved as to whether to keep to their original plan when faced with the
choice of life and death. Every man wants to live. They theorize with
staying alive kept in mind. ‘The man who lives on when he has failed in his
intention is a coward’ is a heartless definition. That to die having failed
is to die uselessly is a mad point of view. This is not a shameful thing.
It is the most important thing in the Way of the Warrior. If you keep your
spirit correct from morning to night, accustomed to the idea of DEATH and
resolved on DEATH, AND CONSIDER YOURSELF AS A DEAD BODY, thus becoming one
with the Way of the Warrior, you can pass through life with no possibility
of failure and perform your office properly.” (p. 39, A Book of Five Rings,
by Musashi)

How, then, you say, if we are DEAD men, how can we live in this spiritual
life? Well YOU can’t!!!!!

Believe it or not, the Messiah did not come that YOU could LIVE. No, He
came so that you DIE, so that HE COULD LIVE IN YOU!!!!!

Let’s see.

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Yahshua Messiah were
baptized into His DEATH. Therefore WE are BURIED with Him by baptism into
DEATH: that like as Messiah was raised up from the dead by the glory of the
Father, even so, WE SHOULD ALSO WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE. For if we have
been planted together in the likeness of His DEATH, we shall also be in the
likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that OUR OLD MAN is IMPALED
WITH HIM, that the body of sin might be DESTROYED, that henceforth we
should NOT serve sin. For he that IS DEAD IS FREE FROM SIN. (And, I might
say, from passions of hatred, schism, fighting, etc. etc.)” Romans 6:3-7

Friend, IF you have been baptized, then YOU are a DEAD MAN. Or, are
you?????? Read all of Romans 6, and try to understand the meaning of what
you did when you accepted baptism. If you haven’t been baptized yet, then
think about what you are claiming to GIVE UP when you do.

Where does one begin this journey of accepting the life of being a ‘walking
DEAD man’? You must first learn that you are a sinner, that you ALIVE are
absolutely worth less than filthy rags. You must begin to realize that YOU,
not someone else, caused the DEATH of the Creator of everything, and of all
mankind. You must learn that YOU, the LIVING human being are filled with
the works of the flesh, and that if any of these things, i.e., “adultery,
fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murder,
drunkenness, revellings, and such like,…” (Gal. 5:19-21), are part and
parcel actively in your thought, or actions, then you are NOT dead. And,
because of those things, YOU must die.

Here is where it begins:

“I have heard of you (i.e. Yahweh) by the hearing of the ear: but now mine
eye seeth You. WHEREFORE I ABHOR MYSELF, AND REPENT IN DUST AND ASHES.”
(Job. 42:5-6)

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing:…
But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O
WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM! WHO SHALL DELIVER ME FROM THIS BODY OF DEATH?”
(Rom. 7:18-24)

Once the above happens to you, you will gladly accept DEATH, the Way of the
Warrior. When you DIE, you will begin to manifest these things, “Love, joy,
peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against
such there is no law.” (Gal. 5:22)

Ï am slaughtered with Messiah: neverthe less I LIVE; YET NOT I, BUT MESSIAH
LIVETH IN ME: and the LIFE which I now LIVE in the flesh I live by the
FAITH OF the Son of Yahweh, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” (Gal.
2:20)

Have you repented? Have you been baptized? Have you received the Father’s
Spirit? You have?

WELL, why are YOU still bickering? Why do you still get offended? Why do
you still hate someone? Why won’t you forgive others? Why are you still
arguing with people of like faith?

Why are you posting such trash and drivel on your Internet sites when the
Scriptures say not to do this?

DEAD men don’t, and CAN’T do these things.

Do you get it? I pray so!!

Friends, “Why don’t YOU just DROP DEAD?”

May Yahweh bless YOU, and YOURS, always,
Love to you all,
Bob Petry