| Dear Friends and Colleagues, |
For the many who encouraged me with their personal response to my Christmas Message, I send my heartfelt “Thank You.” Yes, I read them all, and you all blessed my socks off ! ! !
For those who are curious as to my message, let me clarify the necessary relation to my engineering profession and to the operation of Beckwith Electric.
There are those in this world who believe that the only way to get ahead is to look out for #1 first. God’s Word says – NOT SO! We are to humbly serve others first. We are to treat the other guy like we want to be treated. We’re to consider his welfare above our own. None of us meet these goals to perfection, but if these aren’t our goals, then we don’t meet them at all.
A business, subject to the Lord, based on these goals cannot fail. God won’t let it. In fact, He promises, “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap.”
So, when we regard our customers’ needs more highly than our own and act accordingly, then God blesses the business more abundantly than we could ever imagine. If we look out only for #1, that’s exactly how many we’ve got on our side. When we care for others first to the Glory of God, we have all the creation power of the universe on our side. May we at Beckwith Electric always keep this foremost in our minds.
As an engineer, I am taught to look at the evidence, check the probabilities of the possible outcomes, and come to a conclusion, based on the evidence.
Please look at the evidence below, really look at it and think about it, and maybe you will begin to realize that Easter and Christmas are more than just bunnies and reindeer.
Consider again the dates and what they are describing in great detail, and know that this is just a little taste of the evidence. The account of the Messiah (Christ) is rock solid reality, from the detailed descriptions hundreds of years before His birth to the historical facts of His life and death and disappearance from a sealed tomb guarded by Roman soldiers, the most highly efficient and feared military might of the time.
The prophecies, written 500 to 900 years before Jesus’ birth, are clear. The probability that “any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled” just 8 of the 48 major messianic prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 17th power. The probability that “any man might have lived down to the present time and fulfilled” all 48 major messianic prophecies is 1 in 10 to the 157th power (Science Speaks by Peter W. Stoner, Chapter 3). Yet they, and hundreds of others, were literally and precisely fulfilled in the life of Jesus, the Carpenter from Nazareth. I would NOT bet against these odds. I acknowledge who He is and take Him at His WORD.
I don’t get any gold stars for telling you this, but I do not want any to miss the rock solid reality that will bring you more true peace and joy than you could ever imagine.
Look into it, and if you’re interested, there’s much more evidence in many other areas. Just remember, if you studied to be an engineer, you know that Design Demands a Designer. This universe and the life that is within it did not happen by some random accident. You must know that for a fact. So now it’s incumbent on you to investigate who is this Architect, Engineer, Designer, Creator.
I wish you all a joyful Easter, and may His Peace prevail in your hearts.
Thomas R. Beckwith
Chief Executive Officer
Beckwith Electric Co., Inc.
The Promise
Isaiah 48 (700 B.C.)
3 I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known; then suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.
5 Therefore I told you these things long ago; before they happened I announced them to you so that you could not say, ‘My images brought them about; my wooden image and metal god ordained them.’
Isaiah 9 (700 B.C.)
6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
Isaiah 7 (700 B.C.)
14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel God with us.
Micah 5 (700 B.C.)
2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
4 He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
5 And he will be their peace.
Isaiah 9 (700 B.C.)
1 Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-
2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned.
Isaiah 49 (700 B.C.)
5 And now the LORD says – he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob back to him and gather Israel to himself…
6 he says: “… be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Isaiah 65 (700 B.C.)
1 “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name, I said, ‘Here am I, here am I.’
Daniel 9 (500 B.C.)
25 “Know and understand this: From the issuing of the decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem [444 B.C.] until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’
Zechariah 9 (500 B.C.)
9 Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion! Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem! See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.
10 I will take away the chariots from Ephraim and the war-horses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken. He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the earth.
11 As for you, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.
Zechariah 11 (500 B.C.)
12 I told them, “If you think it best, give me my pay; but if not, keep it.” So they paid me thirty pieces of silver.
13 And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—the handsome price at which they valued me! So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter at the house of the LORD.
Psalm 41:9 (900 B.C.)
9 Even my close friend, someone I trusted, one who shared my bread, has turned against me.
Psalm 55:12-14 (900 B.C.)
12 If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were rising against me, I could hide.
13 But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, 14 with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship at the house of God, as we walked about among the worshipers.
Isaiah 50 (700 B.C.)
4 The Sovereign LORD has given me a well-instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.
5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears; I have not been rebellious, I have not turned away.
6 I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting.
Psalm 22 (900 B.C.)
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish?
6 But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
7 All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
8 “He trusts in the LORD,” they say, “let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him.”
9 Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
10 From birth I was cast on you; from my mother’s womb you have been my God.
11 Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.
12 Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.
13 Roaring lions that tear their prey open their mouths wide against me.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted within me.
15 My mouth is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
16 Dogs surround me, a pack of villains encircles me; they pierce my hands and my feet.
17 All my bones are on display; people stare and gloat over me.
18 They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment.
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him, 28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
Psalm 69 (900 B.C.)
3 I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
4 Those who hate me without reason outnumber the hairs of my head; many are my enemies without cause, those who seek to destroy me. I am forced to restore what I did not steal.
19 You know how I am scorned, disgraced and shamed; all my enemies are before you. 20 Scorn has broken my heart and has left me helpless; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but I found none.
21 They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst.
Isaiah 52 (700 B.C.)
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him— his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness—
15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
Isaiah 53 (700 B.C.)
1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.
9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Zechariah 12 (500 B.C.)
10 “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
Isaiah 44 (700 B.C.)
8 Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.”
The Promise – Paid in Full
The Promise – Forever Warranty
About the Author
