![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.cogwriter.com\/seven-law-of-success.gif\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
COGwriter<\/a><\/p>\n In his booklet, The Seven Laws of Success<\/a>, the late Herbert W. Armstrong<\/a> listed the following first “six laws of success”:<\/p>\n Here, then, is the first law<\/em> of success:<\/p>\n FIX THE RIGHT GOAL!…<\/p>\n So, the SECOND <\/strong>law of success <\/em>in time sequence, is <\/em>EDUCATION<\/strong>, or PREPARATION<\/strong>…<\/p>\n The all-important law coming next in time order is GOOD HEALTH…<\/strong><\/p>\n Take the FOURTH LAW.<\/strong> If you are motivated by GOD\u2019S WORD, <\/strong>you\u2019ll have <\/em>DRIVE<\/em><\/strong>…<\/em><\/p>\n Law Number 5\u2014for Emergencies…RESOURCEFULNESS!…<\/strong><\/p>\n Law number six, then, is PERSEVERANCE\u2014<\/strong>stick-to-it-iveness<\/em>!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here is what he wrote related to the seventh law of success:<\/p>\n Still We Need Law Number 7!<\/strong><\/p>\n Well now, it would certainly <\/em>seem that if one follows these SIX<\/strong> laws of success, nothing more should be required!<\/p>\n But still, these “successful” men I have described followed these six principles. They gained their goals. They made money. They attained recognized status. They enjoyed the passing pleasures.<\/p>\n Still their lives were empty\u2014they were never satisfied\u2014they were discontented, they never found lasting, permanent, enduring happiness<\/em>\u2014they did not take their acquisitions with them when they died, and their fame died with them!<\/p>\n What they lacked\u2014what ALL <\/strong>lack who fail of REAL <\/strong>success, application of Success Law number 7\u2014the most important law of all! That is the ingredient that would have changed everything?<\/em><\/p>\n The Overlooked SEVENTH Law<\/strong><\/p>\n I have reserved this all-important seventh Law till last to explain. But far from being least, it is first in vital importance!<\/p>\n I have held it till now because 1) it is the very last<\/em> one that people will acknowledge and apply; and 2) being first<\/em> in making possible real<\/em> success, I want to state it last so it will remain stamped in the mind of the reader.<\/p>\n When serious illness strikes, people call the doctor. It is automatic for most to rely on human professional knowledge and skill\u2014on material drugs, medicines and knives. But finally, when the attending physician\u2014perhaps with specialists called in collaboration\u2014gravely shakes his head and says there is no more that medical science can do\u2014it is now in the hands of a higher Power\u2014then, at last people cry out desperately to the Creator God!<\/p>\n Is it possible that the living GOD<\/strong> might be a factor in determining the success or failure of one\u2019s life? Few have thought so.<\/p>\n People will ignore all their lives any idea of divine guidance and help\u2014yet if one should find himself on a foodless and waterless raft after a shipwreck in mid-ocean, it is remarkable how quickly he would begin to believe there really is a living God! In last-resort desperation most people will cry out to Him whom they have ignored, disobeyed, and set at naught all their lives.<\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t it seem axiomatic that, if there is a compassionate beneficent Creator standing ready and willing to give us emergency help as a last resort, it would have been more sensible to have sought His guidance and help all along? Yet some have acquired wealth, lived luxuriously, and then, suddenly losing all, turned finally to God in their economic distress. Others have committed suicide. Few, it seems, will ever rely on their Maker and life-Sustainer until they feel helpless and in desperate need. Even then the motive too often is selfish.<\/p>\n Yet, if we are to enjoy the good things of life\u2014freedom from fears and worries, peace of mind, security, protection, happiness, abundant well-being\u2014the very SOURCE<\/strong> of their supply is the Great God! Since all comes from Him anyway, why not tap the SOURCE<\/strong> from the very beginning?<\/p>\n But in our day of modern science, sophistication and vanity, it has not been fashionable to believe in a Maker. In this deceived world, knowledge of God has found little or no place in modern education.<\/p>\n The ALL-IMPORTANT<\/strong> seventh Law of Success<\/em>, nevertheless, is having contact with, and the guidance and continuous help of <\/em>GOD<\/em><\/strong>!<\/p>\n And the person who does<\/em> put this all-important seventh law last<\/em> is very probably dooming his life to failure at the end.<\/p>\n Why of First Importance<\/strong><\/p>\n Look again at the very first Law, as it has been listed here. It is not merely choosing a goal\u2014any goal. It is setting as one\u2019s life-aim the right<\/em> goal.<\/p>\n The “successful” of this world all had goals. But their goals led to material ends. They sought happiness in vanity, pride of status, material acquisitions, physical activities and pursuits. They sought the approbation of people. But people are human, and their lives are temporary. Material objects, too, are not enduring, but wax old until consigned to disuse.<\/p>\n The main goals of those supposed to be successful in the world usually are two: Vanity<\/em>\u2014desire for status; and money<\/em> with the material things it will buy. But happiness is not material, and money is not its source. Vanity, as Solomon observed is like a striving after wind!<\/p>\n These men I have mentioned made money. Their bank accounts may have been full, but their lives were empty. When they acquired money, it never satisfied, and always they wanted more. These monetary victories, these material acquisitions, gave, of course, a thrill of satisfaction\u2014but it never lasted!<\/p>\n This life-long struggle\u2014this constant striving<\/em> “after wind”\u2014striving after false values\u2014left in its wake a trail of fears and worries, apprehensions, disappointments, heartaches, troubled consciences, discontent, empty lives, frustrations\u2014and finally, DEATH<\/strong>!<\/p>\n Oh yes, of course there were pleasures, moments of excitement, periods of enjoyment. There were occasional thrills, temporary sensations of delight. But always they were followed by periods of depression. Always a gnawing inner soul-hunger returned. This in turn drove them to seek satisfaction in the thousand-and-one events in the world\u2019s whirl of material pleasures and pastimes. Yet these never filled the void. They never satisfied the real inner hunger.<\/p>\n These people probably didn\u2019t realize it, but the hunger was spiritual<\/em>. And spiritual hunger is never satisfied by material food!<\/p>\n The “successful” of this world applied six of the success laws. But they left GOD<\/strong> out of the picture, and the happiness of real success out of their lives.<\/p>\n It seems almost no one, today, realizes HOW<\/strong>\u2014and WHY<\/strong>\u2014we were made. WHAT<\/strong> we humans are, and WHY<\/strong> we are. Why should we live in ignorance of these basics of knowledge?<\/p>\n Two basic and vital facts are overlooked:<\/p>\n 1. While man was made a material being, of the dust of the ground, sustained by eating material food and drinking material water, he was made also to need<\/em> spiritual food, and to drink of the “living water” of God\u2019s Spirit. Without these spiritual needs man cannot be truly and continually happy. Nothing else<\/em> really satisfies.<\/p>\n 2. The Eternal Creator, who made us in His own likeness, is creator of ALL<\/strong> that is. Everything man needs to make life continuously and abundantly satisfying, must come from Him. He is the SOURCE OF SUPPLY<\/strong>. He is the GIVER<\/strong> of everything good. WHY<\/strong> must men ignore the true SOURCE<\/strong>, and try to obtain where there is nothing to be obtained? If I wish to draw clear, sparkling drinking water from a well, I will go to a well filled with such water, not to one that is empty. God says of our people: “For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the FOUNTAIN<\/strong> of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water” (Jeremiah 2:13).<\/p>\n And again He says: “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? And your labour for that which satisfieth not?” (Isaiah 55:1-2.)<\/p>\n Once again, look at the first<\/em> of the Success Laws. Stated another way, it is to DEFINE<\/strong> SUCCESS<\/strong>! And what constitutes real Success? Once you have learned the true meaning<\/em> of Success, then you have found the only right<\/em> goal.<\/p>\n The right goal sets the direction of your life\u2019s journey. Success is the destination of that journey. Success is where you finally arrive<\/em>\u2014and true Success includes<\/em> a happy and enjoyable journey along the way.<\/p>\n PURPOSE to Life?<\/strong><\/p>\n Is there, after all, a PURPOSE<\/strong> to life?<\/p>\n If we were put here by a Creator, would He have put us here without a REASON<\/strong>? And a Creator with Mind and Power that could have designed and produced the human mind and body could have failed to make available for humans every tool, ingredient and facility needed to fulfill His Purpose!<\/p>\n Of course men cut off from God have no knowledge of that Purpose. For that knowledge is not material, but spiritual<\/em> knowledge. And spiritual things cannot be seen\u2014nor heard, felt, smelled or tasted. Spiritual knowledge can be transmitted only by revelation. And this world has rejected revelation. Men cut off from their Creator of necessity are spiritually blind and ignorant, groping in the dark. So they fail to seize the proper tools, ingredients and facilities.<\/p>\n But the Maker has sent an instruction book<\/em> along with the human mechanism He made. It contains all the real answers. It reveals life\u2019s real PURPOSE<\/strong>\u2014the potential destiny of man! That instruction book<\/em>, as Bruce Barton aptly said, is the “book nobody knows.” Almost no one knows that 95% of the contents of that Book is virtually ignored by the professing Christian clergy. Most scientists and educators today suppose, erroneously and in ignorance of the facts, that the Bible is merely the book of an ancient race of Jewish people, striving to devise a concept of a god\u2014in by gone days of ignorance and superstition. They don\u2019t examine the Book, as they examine other data, to see what it says. They ignore it as something beneath their pride of intellect to consider.<\/p>\n The religious Bible-believing fundamentalists generally quote and use not more than some 5% of the Scriptures. Approximately one-third of the entire contents of the Bible is devoted to ADVANCE NEWS REPORTS<\/strong>, called, in religious terminology, prophecy. FEW<\/strong> pay any attention to this third of the writings\u2014and most seem devoid of understanding.<\/p>\n What almost ON ONE<\/strong> realizes is that the ignored 95% of that great volume is the INSTRUCTION BOOK<\/strong> which the Maker sent along with His product\u2014just as any manufacturer of a material commodity does. Yet some scholars today have been surprised and shocked to learn that this ignored, maligned, misrepresented Book contains THE ANSWERS<\/strong> to life itself\u2014reveals the PURPOSE<\/strong> of life\u2014the LAWS <\/strong>that govern it\u2014the ANSWER<\/strong> to what IS<\/strong> Success, and how to achieve it!<\/p>\n It has been like discovering a gold mine of knowledge they did not know existed. They have found that it MAKES SENSE<\/strong>\u2014that, indeed, IT IS THE VERY FOUNDATION<\/em><\/strong> of KNOWLEDGE<\/strong> in just about all areas\u2014that it provides the only right approach<\/em> to the acquisition of further discoverable knowledge.<\/p>\n This ultimate potential destiny is the only<\/em> TRUE<\/strong> goal. It is your reason for being alive! It is the reason you were born!<\/p>\n Those who have worked, striven, fought their way to any other goal have been wasting their lives\u2014living for naught! They have, in true fact, been going nowhere! And how many, since humans were first put here on earth, have really known that PURPOSE<\/strong>\u2014that one right goal of life? Very few, indeed!<\/p>\n The time when we need divine guidance, enlightenment, and help, is at the very <\/em>BEGINNING<\/em><\/strong>\u2014at the time when a young man or woman chooses that RIGHT GOAL<\/strong>. Without divine guidance the wrong goal is always set.<\/p>\n That is why poor people possessing the least<\/em> knowledge and material goods sometimes appear<\/em> to be the happiest. Actually they were not happy. They merely are less discontented<\/em>! They have not progressed as far in the WRONG DIRECTION<\/strong> as those who smugly and vainly supposed themselves to be their more intelligent betters!<\/p>\n Life has a PURPOSE<\/strong>. God has set in actual, inexorable motion definite LAWS<\/strong> to PRODUCE<\/strong> for man every happiness, security, and GOOD<\/strong> thing he desires\u2014THE WAY OF LIFE<\/strong> that will fulfill<\/em> God\u2019s PURPOSE<\/strong> for our being!<\/p>\n LOOK! THINK! An automobile was designed and built by its human makers to transport passengers, and do it more speedily and in more comfort than the old horse and buggy. Would it not be ridiculous if the automobile had a mind and free volition of action, and it would say: “That\u2019s silly! I don\u2019t think I was made to transport people. I think I was made for some other<\/em> purpose. I refuse to transport people. I want to be an instrument for viewing the stars in the heavens.”<\/p>\n Apparently it is only stupid, foolish man\u2014with POTENTIAL<\/strong> mind power and CAPACITY <\/strong>for intelligence beyond any creature God has created\u2014who says “WHY<\/strong> have you made me thus?”<\/p>\n WHAT, then<\/em> is the PURPOSE<\/strong> for which we were put here?<\/p>\n Of this, mankind has totally lost all conception. To people spiritually drunk on the false material concepts of our day, the statement of that purpose would appear strange, absurd, impossible. It SO FAR<\/strong> transcends anything conceived by humanity in this blinded world that the statement of it would prove too great to be grasped and accepted.<\/p>\n Suffice it to say\u2014and I shall leave it to another booklet to explain\u2014man was put here for the PURPOSE<\/strong> of being conformed to, and finally stamped with the exact perfect CHARACTER<\/strong> of Jesus Christ! Write for the free<\/em> booklet Why Were You Born<\/em>?<\/p>\n Christ is now stamped with the identical CHARACTER IMAGE<\/strong> of God, as well as the shining, brilliant, glorified appearance<\/em> of God! For a mortal human to be transformed into that<\/em> perfect spiritual image means that we must be <\/em>CHANGED<\/em><\/strong>!<\/p>\n The Bible pictures God as the Master Potter\u2014us as the clay. Indeed we are, literally clay images of God\u2014composed of the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). As we now bear only the physical image of the “earthy,” we shall when changed<\/em>, bear the spiritual image of the heavenly\u2014of GOD<\/strong> (1 Corinthians 15:47-49). So we are clay images with human minds that are free moral agents. They may submit, or they may rebel. They have power of will, and of decision.<\/p>\n Free to Choose<\/strong><\/p>\n Understand this! You are a free moral agent. God will never “cram” His religion down your throat.” He will never force you to decide His way or go His way. He not only allows<\/em> you to choose the wrong way\u2014He compels<\/em> you to make your own decision. Otherwise His PURPOSE<\/strong> would be thwarted!<\/p>\n The living God has set two ways before us. One, His Way, the cause<\/em> of all the good things you want here and now, plus eternal life in REAL SUCCESS<\/strong> continuously forever. The other the way of self-centeredness, vanity, greed, envy\u2014the way mankind has gone, in rebellion against God and His Law\u2014the way that causes<\/em> all unhappiness, suffering, evils, and ends in death. And God compels<\/em> you to choose<\/em>! Yet He commands<\/em> you to choose the Way that leads to REAL SUCCESS<\/strong> (see Deuteronomy 30:19).<\/p>\n You Need HELP<\/strong><\/p>\n That ultimate TRUE <\/strong>Success is something you cannot attain to by yourself. The ingredient you lack is the GUIDANCE<\/strong>, the POWER<\/strong> and SPIRIT OF GOD.<\/strong><\/p>\n You must make the decision. You<\/em> must set this right GOAL<\/strong>. You<\/em> must set your will. You<\/em> must expend your full effort. You<\/em> must WORK<\/strong> AT<\/strong> overcoming, growing and developing spiritually, and sticking with it. Yet GOD<\/strong> supplies the all-important ingredient\u2014His power, His love, His faith\u2014His guidance\u2014HIS LIFE<\/strong>!<\/p>\n 7th Law Changes Everything<\/strong><\/p>\n Now look how DIFFERENT <\/strong>a whole life becomes when this SEVENTH SUCCESS LAW<\/strong> is utilized.<\/p>\n First, it will completely alter your overall major GOAL<\/strong> as I have just explained. Of course, you will have other minor goals\u2014such as the profession or occupation to provide material needs, and HELP<\/strong> achieve the major goal. And these minor goals always must be compatible with and contributing to the major goal.<\/p>\n Your main goal, now, will be spiritual and not material. It will follow the WAY OF LIFE<\/strong> of the Ten Commandments. You will actually LIVE<\/strong> BY <\/strong>every Word of GOD<\/strong>\u2014that is, the Bible!<\/p>\n Now re-examine the Second Law of SUCCESS.<\/strong><\/p>\n Your EDUCATION<\/strong> and entire preparation will be <\/em>DIFFERENT. <\/em><\/strong>You will seek to learn the TRUE VALUES<\/strong> of life\u2014yes, of this<\/em> life as well as the hereafter! This means your number one textbook will be the BIBLE<\/strong>. It will reveal to you the MIND OF CHRIST<\/strong>. This will provide your mental APPROACH<\/strong> in all education and practice.<\/p>\n Third, you will receive the KNOWLEDGE<\/strong> which God reveals about laws of <\/em>HEALTH<\/em><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n Take the FOURTH LAW.<\/strong> If you are motivated by GOD\u2019S WORD, <\/strong>you\u2019ll have <\/em>DRIVE<\/em><\/strong>. <\/em>God commands that you do what you do with<\/em> your might<\/em>! Apply yourself! Whatever is worth doing is worth doing the very best you can! Nine Biblical passages command that you apply your self with DILIGENCE! <\/strong>Ten other places in the Bible command us to BE DILIGENT<\/strong>. And 36 Scriptures command, or show the example of acting diligently<\/em>! Many of these instruct us diligently to seek<\/em> God\u2019s guidance and help, several diligently<\/em> to keep His commandments.<\/p>\n How about the businessman? “Seest thou a man diligent in his business? He shall stand before kings; he shall not stand before [obscure] men” (Proverbs 22:29).<\/p>\n The Bible does not condone laziness or shiftlessness. It counsels us to consider the ant and be wise. The Bible commands industriousness!<\/p>\n Solving Problems<\/strong><\/p>\n Now,