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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTERS 1-2
DFO 501 4/76
Chapter 1: The Night Crawlers!
1. Maria and I had just finished a long day's work at her typewriter in the little house in the big city and had gone for a walk in the cool of the evening to get some fresh air and a little exercise and dinner out for a change and relief from our writing. We had just finished a delightful meal at a cozy little neighborhood dining room and were starting home again somewhat reluctantly, as we were strongly feeling the need for some relaxation and recreation to refresh our weary minds and bodies and lift our spirits after a hard day's work.
2. After sitting all day at our desk in our tiny room, the prospect of sitting another two or three hours in some movie or at some other entertainment did not exactly appeal to us, which is why we so often take long walks together in the evening. But this night it was already dark, and the idea of a long walk through the dark and dangerous streets of the big city did not particularly interest us.
3. What to do in a big city at night after a long day's work at a sedentary job is a problem which often confronts many of us. You feel the desperate need of a change from sitting or standing all day in some office or clerical task, and an urgent desire to get out and away from it all and forget your work and your problems for a while with some form of exercise, sport‚ or recreational amusement.
4. But what has any big city to offer? If sitting even longer at some show or theater or movie and being burdened or frightened nearly to death with other people's problems and troubles, usually fictitious, does not appeal to you‚ what are you going to do?
5. What could you possibly do late at night to both get your desperately needed physical exercise and recreation and at the same time have adequate opportunity to share the love of Jesus with others?
6. Or what can you do if living as a family in a secret Colony unknown even to your brethren, much more your neighbors, where you're not allowed to assemble more than a few people in one place nor conduct any type of normal or organized religious activities‚ and you do not dare reveal your identity or even hand one person one piece of literature or it could mean jail for you?
[Note: Dad and Maria were living in London in the early '70s when they first began FFing. They later moved to Tenerife, Spain. During this period Spain was governed by General Francisco Franco, who had imposed strict and repressive laws in the wake of the Spanish Civil War: Gatherings of more than a few people (other than direct relatives) were illegal, and the distribution of any sort of literature could result in a warning from the authorities or even deportation in the case of foreigners.]
7. What could you possibly do to nevertheless obey Jesus' outright commandment to “go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” regardless of such difficult conditions?
8. Well, praise God, we have found the answer at last! For we have been living now for years under just such or similar conditions in many countries and cities of this world and we have discovered a method which, although one of the most difficult, has proven to be one of the most effective and fruitful!
9. As always, we have been pioneering this new field for you first ourselves to experiment with the various ways and means and do's and don'ts in a field of witnessing which can be dangerous but thrilling and extremely rewarding! After three years of experience in this field ourselves personally, and hinting to you in a number of Letters about its methods and results, we feel we are now ready to openly declare them to you as a desperately needed method of witnessing under the most extremely difficult conditions where no other form of witnessing could possibly be tolerated.
10. You will now be able to enter countries hitherto forbidden and spread the Word in cities where it was thought impossible and reach a new and important class of people with whom we have heretofore only scratched the surface! We are no longer all hippies, neither are we all so young anymore, and in many places we can no longer run down the street in robes shouting “Jesus loves you” and distributing literature to all who pass by.
11. Neither can our message of His love be confined to only the youth of the world. We must reach their older brothers and sisters as well, young couples with families, mothers and fathers and even grandmothers and grandfathers. Our message can no longer be limited to merely the poor young hippies but must also be spread amongst their rich elders and influential businessmen‚ politicians and government leaders if we are to obtain their favor and protection and to continue to have opportunities to reach their young.
12. To some of you the revelation of this method will be a shock, if not actually horrifying and even offensive! Others of you already know what I'm talking about or have gotten the hint about what we've been up to through a number of our past Letters, and maybe some of you have even already tried it or are attempting to use it as a part of your ministry.
13. But to prove its effectiveness and its extreme fruitfulness we are now going to tell you the story of one whom we shall choose to call “King Arthur,” who was won by this method and has now become one of our most promising, prominent and faithful leaders in only three years time! It begins with that fateful night we have already begun to describe earlier.
14. While wondering and praying about what to do next about this perpetual and daily problem, we rounded a corner and suddenly came face to face with a signboard advertising “Beginners' Dance Lessons at Special Low Rates,” followed by the name of a well-known champion dancer. We then looked up and noted for the first time we were standing at the entrance to a popular local ballroom‚ and I had a sudden fateful inspiration which was to change our lives!
15. I turned to Maria and asked her, “Would you like to really learn how to dance? It can be lots of fun and good exercise‚ and a way to get our recreation when nothing else is available!” I was really excited about it. But she, always shy and timid out in public, was a little reluctant and hesitant. The fact is, as she just now quipped, “I was scared to death!” Like a couple of excited little kids‚ we entered this terrifying new world with fear and trembling as we signed up and took our places in the class and began our first lessons in the very simplest of the basic internationally known steps and rhythms.
16. But it was fun, and there were lots of other embarrassed beginners to share our mistakes with us. So we were “off to the races” as we began our entirely new dancing career, which was to grow into one of our most amazing and surprising ministries!
Chapter 2: The Cost of Flirty Fishing!
17. We were soon to call it “Flirty Fishing” after a revelation and prophecy from the Lord described in our Letter “Little Flirty Fishy,” and enlarged on in other Letters such as “Lord Byron's Surrender,” “Aries--The Ram,” “Look of Love,” “The Dancer,” “Mountin' Maid,” “Revolutionary Women,” “The All Things Tree,” “Law of Love,” “Beauty and the Beasts,” etc.
18. Flirty Fishing has already won us many friends and supporters and kings and queens and the favorable influence and protection of powerful personalities, as well as many new disciples, some of whom married into the Kingdom and have now become mighty friends and strong leaders of our Revolution for Jesus!
19. Who knows? When all other avenues of influence and witnessing are closed to us, this may be our only remaining means of spreading the Word and supporting the work, as well as gaining new disciples and workers for the Kingdom of God. What better way to show them the love of God than to do your best to supply their desperately hungry needs for love, fellowship, companionship‚ mental and spiritual communication and physical needs such as food‚ clothing, shelter, warmth, affection‚ a tender loving kiss‚ a soft warm embrace, the healing touch of your loving hands, the comforting feeling of your body next to theirs-–and yes, even sex if need be!
20. Do you really believe that “to the pure all things are pure” (Tit.1:15), and that “all things are lawful unto you” (1Cor.6:12), and you “can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth you” (Phil.4:13), and “all things are yours in Christ Jesus” (1Cor.3:21)?
21. If you are not willing to go all the way with your catch, not merely to bed but into a possible lifetime of loving service for the Lord together, don't even start Flirty Fishing, for this is what has happened to some with wonderful results! They wound up as husbands and wives and full–time leaders in His Kingdom!
22. Are you willing to go that far? How far are you willing to go? Well, in Flirty Fishing the answer has got to be “all the way” from the very beginning if necessary, even if God never requires it of you, because He may, and you must be prepared for it.
23. Jesus didn't go halfway to the cross for you, or almost all the way, but He went all the way and gave all His life for you! How much are you willing to give for others?
24. Jesus fulfilled John 3:16. Have you fulfilled 1John 3:16? “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me!” (Mat.25:40).
25. Would you do it for Jesus? Then why not for others? “If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food (including sex?), and one of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled!'--notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body (sex?)–-what doth it profit?” (James 2:15,16).
26. Can you truly love others “without partiality” (James 3:17), or do you only give selfishly to those from whom you only selfishly wish to receive? If you're going to enter a Flirty Fishing ministry, I warn you that you had better be prepared to trust God for “all things,” including dancing with the ugly, loving the unlovely, kissing the slobbery, dressing--or undressing--for the devouring‚ or even going to bed with the insistent!
27. Can you trust God you won't catch anything, including a germ or a sperm, and that even if you do He'll keep or heal and help you to “bear all things,” including a love child for His glory?--Or possibly getting stuck with the guy for the rest of your life!
28. Now do you still want to be a Flirty Fish? If not, forget it! Don't even bother to read the rest of this, because you won't like it! But if you still want to be one of God's little Flirty Fishes for His glory so that “from henceforth ye shall catch men‚” then proceed. Here we go! Go, go, go! Hallelujah!
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTERS 3-4
DFO 502 5/76
Chapter 3: King Meets King!
1. In the general mixed dancing sessions which followed each night's dancing lessons, we were each encouraged to mingle freely with the opposite sex or dance together as we chose. We soon became acquainted with most of the regulars as well as the students who frequented this homey neighborhood ballroom seeking recreation, entertainment, social life, friendship‚ love, and just plain relief from gnawing loneliness.
2. From pretty young shop girls and waitresses and secretaries to elderly widows and rich old dowagers; from handsome young clerks, bookkeepers, technicians, white collar workers and engineers to wealthy businessmen, retired widowers, single shopkeepers and even bachelor farmers, we found them all the same:
3. Hungry, lonely, empty, unhappy, dissatisfied and spiritually destitute--all longing for love of all kinds, but especially for a love they had never known before, true love, sincere love, genuine love, the truly great love of their life‚ the Love of all loves‚ of the Lover of all lovers, Who alone can satisfy that deepest yearning of every human soul for total love and complete understanding.
4. Some were finding momentary relief in a night of affectionate dancing closely together in each other's arms with an occasional tender caress and gentle kiss. Others carried it further-–from the floor to the bed afterward each night in a casual sexual relationship which temporarily satisfied their bodies but left leanness in their souls, wondering why no one and no love ever truly satisfied or brought that lasting happiness of which they dreamed and is so deceptively and romantically portrayed by the media and tellers of tales.
5. Why could they never find this happiness for themselves? Why did even a prolonged physically satisfying sexual relationship still leave them feeling empty, incomplete and unfulfilled? Even those with seemingly naturally well-rounded physically full lives of plenty, security, families‚ mates and children were still feeling so dissatisfied and unhappy and discontented that under the cover of darkness and the dimly lit ballrooms of the big city they clandestinely sought new relationships outside the usual circle of their family and friends‚ always seeking something new.
6. As God's Word says, “The people seek a new thing” (Acts 17:21), having found the last grown old and boring. So they go from haunt to haunt and club to club and dance to dance and love to love and bed to bed and body to body until they are sick of it all, finding nothing that ever satisfies, no love that ever lasts, no happiness that is forever theirs.
7. They are miserable, brokenhearted, wounded, bound‚ captives of their own passions and prisoners of their own shattered hopes, desires and limited human frailties. For although the body is of this Earth and is satisfied with the things of this Earth, the human spirit, that intangible personality of the real you that dwells in that body, can never be completely satisfied with anything but utter union with the great and loving Spirit that created it.
8. He's the power and life of the universe that some people call God but that the Bible itself calls Love, for “God is Love,” the very Spirit of love itself--true love, everlasting love, real love, genuine love that never ends from a Lover Who never leaves, the Lover of all lovers, God Himself.
9. He's pictured in His Son Christ Jesus, a Man Who loved everybody‚ even the poorest and the worst of all, even His self-righteous, hypocritical religious enemies. He was a Man Who went about all His life trying to do good and help others, even the drunks and the harlots, the publicans and the sinners‚ and sometimes even the Scribes and the Pharisees who finally crucified Him for His dangerous doctrine of love. But His death brings life, forgiveness, and eternal joy to those who love Him in return.
10. He is the Lover of all lovers, who came for love and lived in love, and died for love that we might live and love forever! He even loves the unlovely and the least likely to be lovable, brute beasts who blossom into beauty at His loving touch!
11. But He has no hands but your hands and He has no lips but yours and He has no eyes but your eyes and no body but your own, for you are His body, His Bride for whom He died that you might live and love others as He did with your hands, your lips, your mouth, your tongue, your eyes and your body broken for them as He was for you‚ your blood shed for them as His was for you, your life given for them as His was for you, to even die for them as He did for you!
12. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved” (Jn.3:16-17).
13. Are you willing to be sent like Jesus into the deepest and darkest places of this Earth amongst the lowest of the low, not to condemn them as the churches have but to love them into His Kingdom of Love--God's Kingdom, God's love? Then, “Because He laid down His life for us‚ we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren!” (1John 3:16).
14. We found out we could not enter these places for purely personal selfish recreation, exercise and entertainment. We could not come face to face and body to body with those who clung so desperately to us with such a yearning for us to meet their needs. We could not withhold bread from the hungry--the Bread of Life, Christ Jesus, nor drink from the thirsty–-the water of His Word, which satisfies the most ultimate longings of the human soul.
15. Flesh can satisfy flesh, but only spirit can satisfy spirit‚ and we soon found that we had to give of both to satisfy “all their needs according to His riches in glory” (Phil.4:19). We could not withhold any need from the love-starved as long as we had it by us and within our power to meet it and to give our all for their healing and His glory.
16. We sometimes passed through the agonies of Gethsemane‚ but once having begun the life of love‚ we found there was no stopping place, no limit and no end. We had to give and to give and to give again until it hurt.
17. It hurt our pride, crucified our flesh, killed our selfishness and ruined our reputation or made us “of no reputation” like Jesus Himself (Phil.2:7). They called Him a devil, a winebibber, a glutton, a friend of publicans and sinners, drunks and harlots, but He kept on giving and giving and giving again until the day He died for love, to give us His eternal love and life and happiness for ever after.
18. Are you willing to give that much to satisfy the needs of others and bring them eternal joy and happiness through the salvation of their immortal spirit by the power of the love of the God of love Himself? We did!
19. We soon found there was no stopping place, no limit to which God would not go to save a poor lost soul with His infinite love and unlimited mercy! We soon found our hearts irresistibly drawn into the vacuum of their hearts to satisfy their spirits, even as our bodies were irresistibly drawn together to satisfy their flesh!
20. There was nowhere to draw the line between the two, flesh and spirit. There was no halfway, there was no “almost.” It had to be “all or nothing at all” or they could not believe it was real love. They could not understand how you could offer to fill their heart but not their body, to satisfy their soul but not their hungry flesh.
21. The two were inseparable. The one could not go without the other, and we had to feed them both together. As the Apostle James so clearly states: “If a brother or sister be naked and destitute of daily food (a necessary physical need like sex) and one of you say unto them, 'Depart in peace! Be ye warmed and filled!'--Notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body--what doth it profit?
22. “Even so faith, if it hath not works‚ is dead!” (Jam.2:15-17). In other words, if in the faith of God you really love them, they cannot understand it or believe it unless you really show them by some visible tangible work or action that puts your words into action and puts your faith into effect and makes it fact and not fiction, a sample, not just a sermon!
23. As Jesus Himself said, “How can ye say that ye love Me, and do not the things that I ask?” (Luk.6:46). So here I found myself, as Jesus did, casting my little lamb to the wolves to satisfy their hunger and make of them meek and docile sheep eating out of our hands and hearts!
24. Suddenly I found myself the fisherman Jesus called me to be when He said‚ “Come follow Me and I will make you fishers of men. From henceforth ye shall catch men” (Mat.4:19; Luk.5:10). So I was compelled by “the love of Christ that constraineth me” to cast my beautiful bait like “bread upon the waters” that in due season it might return unto me with its captured quarry on the hook of His Spirit‚ the “Sword” of His Word from the line of my mouth. (2Cor.5:14, Ecc.11:1).
25. I found myself sitting warily on the bank watching every movement, every fish, to search out the best where I might cast my line along with its irresistible bait and unconquerable hook! They sought to conquer her, but she graciously stooped to conquer them, and her conquests were many until God's creel was filled with “those that were His!” (2Tim.2:19).
26. And there it was that we first confronted one of the greatest and most beloved of all our catches. His name was Arthur, and like his kingly prototype, he was a king amongst men, not only in stature and mien but also in almost indomitable spirit. Hauling him in was a fight to the finish, and there were times when we thought we had lost him and would never land him! But we finally made it, and this is the story we are telling you now about our nights with our kingly Arthur and what it took to land him--our absolute all!
27. Like the noble Lochinvar, he appeared suddenly like a stranger in the night from nowhere, tall, handsome, strong and accustomed to sweeping women off their feet with his charm, excellent dancing and suave polished manner of the courtly gentleman.
28. Unconquered came the proud ram, the invincible Aries, and was suddenly swept off his feet by my plain little lamb with her innocent shy naiveté, her big beautiful bewitching eyes‚ her sweet soft voice, irrepressible smile, warm tender body, loving arms and absolutely irresistibly enchanting spirit!
29. He didn't have a chance! He was hooked from the start! And as the fisherman gradually reeled him in night after night, he completely swallowed our line, hook and sinker‚ including my delicious bait, until he was even enchanted by the fisherman and his uncanny powers of God's love!
Chapter 4: The Odd Couple!
From overseas these strangers came,
The new Odd Couple with no name.
Their natures were so true and clean;
Well‚ first impressions so would seem.
She so young and gay, so bright,
He so old and gray--but still, in spite
Of years and years between their age,
They were tuned in at every stage.
He held the key to young girls' hearts;
She loved for love he did impart.
She was so free, relaxed yet true,
It seemed he was the first she knew.
They cared for others more than most,
Deriving pleasure from the host
Of common people that they met.
They shared a face none could forget.
The smiles, the touch, the time to talk,
No rush‚ just rest and slowly walk.
No wasted breath on sharp retorts.
They spent no time on vain reports,
Just listened close to your heartache.
To pour love's balm their words could make.
From overseas these strangers came,
So odd this couple with no name!
–-By Arthur to MO and Maria, Christmas, 1973.
30. This was Arthur's first impression of us, although we did not know it at the time. He went home that night and wrote this poem of us and gave it to us later as a belated Christmas present of his love. Immediately we were inspired to write a reply, a parallel parody paraphrased on his–-our answer to his own in almost his own words and with the same rhythm:
February 18, 1974
31. Our dear Arthur! Greetings in His love! We thank you more than words can tell for your deeply moving and beautifully poetic expressions of the tender sentiments of your innermost heart which melted ours in tears! It inspired us to respond to your own heartcry with the following paraphrasing of your own incomparable words as our reply of thanksgiving for your confidence, and the only answer we have to give you for such love. May God bless and keep you and give you the joy He's given us to share with you in Jesus' name! Thank you again!–-Your friends in His love‚ David and Maria
P.S. Here is our
“Answer to 'The Odd Couple!'“
From o'er the years my Lover came;
The lowly Jesus was His name.
His nature was so true and clean,
He first impressed me like a dream.
I was so young and gay and bright,
But He so old, and yet, in spite
Of years and years between our age,
We were tuned in at every stage.
He held the key to my young heart;
I loved His love right from the start.
He was so free, relaxed, yet true,
It was the first love that I knew.
He cared for others more than most,
Deriving pleasure from the host
Of common people that He met,
Who shared His face, could not forget
His smiles, His touch, His time to talk‚
No rush, just rest, and slowly walk.
Why should you think that it's so odd
He'd make me too a child of God?
32. And so did the romance begin that was soon to whisk away the Lion's little lamb with the bold proud ram for “King Arthur's Nights!”
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 5
How to Charm a Fish with a Flame!
DFO 503 1/74
(From a character reading which led into the revelation of “Aries--The Ram,” ML #302B:)
1. Arthur--big, handsome, charming! He has a good job, and as great a surplus of girls as there are in this big city area, he can probably have as many as he wants. Female flesh is not what he's after. You'll appeal to him much more through his intellect, and especially through his spirit.
2. It's not even the intellectuality. He's not that intellectual or that interested in scholarly things. There's a definite spiritual need there, and he is sensitive enough to know that his need is not physical or purely mental‚ but it is spiritual.
3. He has a much, much deeper need. There's a very, very deep-seated fear in his eyes, and all the rest is just sort of a suave cover-up. He really senses we have something. He's trying to find out what it is.
4. I don't think he's that interested in material things. He likes to be comfortable, but I don't think he's the climber, trying to make big money hand over fist.
5. I sat there and really studied him tonight, from a distance, and he's kind of tired of all this. He comes dancing and it's sort of an amusing little pastime. But he's psychic enough to sense there's something fascinating and different about us‚ and I believe he really may be ripe for the answers.
6. He's hungry. He's not really happy. There's that aching void that only God can fill, but he doesn't know how. The man who has everything figures he has everything, so he must be happy--what can he possibly need? He needs the Lord, and you have Him! He doesn't like to admit to himself or others that he has needs or hasn't got all the answers, but he knows he's fearful.
7. Sometimes there is something almost terrifying in his fear, but he sort of overcomes it intellectually with a scientific pragmatism, “Well, this is foolishness! I shouldn't be so superstitious!” But it's there‚ lurking in the background. No wonder he doesn't want a weekend off. He's afraid to be alone.
8. He also has an innate curiosity. He likes people and is interested in them, and particularly in us. He knows there's something different about us. We're not everything we seem to be on the surface, and he's very curious to try to find out about me.
9. He's so open and frank himself, he's a little bit suspicious of our own mysteriousness‚ and he'd like to probe it, because it annoys him a little bit. Mysterious people bother him a little.
10. That poem he wrote about us is so beautiful! (See “The Odd Couple,” Chapter 4.) Can you imagine? He hardly even knew us then! How sensitive he must be! A beautiful spirit! The poem is so comprehensive. He didn't miss a thing!
11. I was asking, “What could I give him, Lord? What can I give him more than You?” That's all I have--Jesus. All he needs is Jesus. The Lord said, “What more kisses of love can I give him than the words of your father?”
12. Arthur is searching. He is determined to find the answer, and he is not the kind that will give up until he finds it. He's been searching all his life. Lately he has been searching me. From the beginning he's felt an attraction to our spirit.
13. He's fascinated by the Flame. He keeps watching it as it moves back and forth before his eyes and he's almost hypnotized by it! He wants to follow the Flame. He wants to know the secret behind the Flame.
14. He is very, very lonely, but he is trying to convince himself he is happy. He has been trying to use psychology on himself, because he has to, because he has been hurt so bad.
15. (Maria: Compared to our happiness that he sees, he doesn't have much.) The Lord shows him in my spirit that his is only husks, empty and hollow! Like the old song:
16. “He has found no satisfaction in the fleeting joys of Earth.
Every shrine his soul has tested
Has later mocked him by its dearth.
He has built him broken cisterns
That failed to meet his deepest need.
Christ alone can fill his longing‚
He can satisfy indeed!”
17. “Christ is not a disappointment!
Every longing in my breast
Finds in Him complete fulfillment!
He has brought me into rest!
I have tested Him and proved Him
More than all I dreamed He'd be!
Christ is not a disappointment,
He is all in all to me!”
18. He's searching for reality, so hungry deep down, but he doesn't like to admit it. He doesn't wear his feelings on his sleeve. He's very deep and sincere. He puts up a bold front, but he's very sad. He's trying to convince himself he's happy, but you know he's not.
19. He's looking for faith. Satisfaction of the flesh is not enough. He's looking for something to satisfy his very hungry soul.
20. And I'm like a bait. Jesus said, “He that hungereth and thirsteth after righteousness shall be filled” (Mat.5:6). He's looking at a fountain--me--and he wants to taste and see if this fountain will slake his thirst.
21. He has never satisfied his thirst. He's been seeking until he has almost given up. He's trying to make himself happy by telling himself there is no satisfaction and fulfillment is impossible, and he should just be happy with what he has. But he still hopes and longs, because he knows there is more. Somehow he senses that we have something to do with it. We have much more than meets the eye.
22. Sex and physical comfort he can get from almost anybody. What he really needs is the Spirit. He's fascinated with the Flame! It's a spiritual thing so far beyond the flesh. (Sings:)
“Deep abiding joy fills all my life today!
There's a secret reason why I love to pray!
There's an inner Wellspring deep within my soul:
Jesus‚ precious Jesus, has at last complete control!”
23. Deep abiding joy, that's what he wants, sees and is seeking for-–not fleeting joys of Earth, but deep abiding joy. (Sings again:)
24. “Oh, love that will not let me go.
I give my weary soul to Thee,
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be!
Oh‚ Cross that liftest up my head,
I rest my weary soul on Thee,
I lay in dust life's glory dead‚
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall fuller be!”
25. (Tongues and weeping with prophecy:) “Thou canst never find such joy until thou hast found such heartache and thou hast found such deep, deep sorrow! Only from such deep sorrow can spring forth such light, such satisfaction! Only from such pain can suddenly come forth such surcease and relief! Only from such death can life be born anew!”
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 6
He Tells His Own Story!--By Arthur Newlove
DFO 504 4/75
1. I had never seen two people as happy all the time as they were! They always seemed to be happy. They always seemed to have something secret to be happy about. It was the love of God shining through their faces to the miserable world outside for all to see. That's what it was with these two strangers I had met the previous Christmas.
2. I used to frequent a ballroom dancing studio in a big city. It was an enjoyable place to go to meet people as well as get pleasurable exercise. I was frequently down in the dumps in my personal life. I was approaching 30 years old and unmarried.
3. I tended to be a very reserved sort of person before that time and had relied a lot upon my personal family (three sisters and two brothers and a lovable mother and father) for my personal contact and friendly chats.
4. Even though I lived alone and had all the modern comforts, including a fancy car and clothes‚ there was an emptiness in my life which had caused me much pain and heartache and left my life very empty in a lot of ways, the cure for which I had never been able to discover.
5. Even the dance studio had lost its attraction and I used to seek solace mainly at work, which had by this time taken the place of wife, family and home and had become all these things to me in its own way. I used to really love my work, designing plastic machinery and allied equipment.
6. My six–and-a-half-day working week was the only thing that stopped me going off the rails. I had worked my way up from shop-boy to general manager over 12 years with the same firm and was due to become a partner. Over the last four years of working there I had not had a holiday‚ and just as many days off as you could count on your fingers; so as you can see, my work was my life. How miserable I felt, how low, how lonely!
7. Yet I had everything I was supposed to have deserved. I was fancy-free, could do as I pleased, had plenty of money, and time on my hands if I had wanted it.
8. I wondered often, what was life all about? Why were we on this Earth? Was there a God? Why were the peoples of the Earth all different in their choice of gods? The questions were endless, and eventually after frightening myself with the possibility of what was the truth, I used to again roll back into my dull routine life.
9. I loved female company and enjoyed sex, but for me there had to be a deeper bond between man and woman than just a night or two in bed learning about each other and enjoying each other's bodies.
10. There had to be something deeper‚ a spiritual bond, an understanding‚ but in my restlessness I would never allow anyone to get close enough to me to find out how I really was, deep down inside. Was I happy alone? No! I was the most unhappy person around underneath.
11. What was the truth? I had been a churchgoer from the age of seven when I was a choirboy in the Church of England‚ and I had never been again since the age of 15 or 16, apart from a couple of weddings. But even when I went I had never been aware of the God I was worshipping‚ our Lord Who had sent His Son to Earth to save the peoples of the Earth from a fate worse than death.
12. What was the Bible? Who had written it? What was it really all about? I had never really looked into the Bible, never studied it at great length. I had undergone a renewed interest when, at about the same time as I started at the dance studio‚ my dear sister gave me a New Testament and Psalms, because at about that time she had been saved and accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior.
13. She spoke of having three demons driven from her body and knowing that Jesus was in her heart and was her strength and salvation. “What is a spirit?” I wondered. Surely this was nonsense! How could they have an effect on one's life? One's life was one's own, and one could control it if you had the self-discipline and the strong control that I had. I managed quite nicely. I was healthy, I had a good job, plenty of money, my life was complete, I was happy …
14. No, I damned well wasn't happy! I was one of the most miserable sods around inside. Sure, I joked with people and made fun of myself and lived life to its full in my own way. But happy? No, I damned well wasn't!
15. Not one person I knew in my circle of friends and acquaintances was totally happy. They were involved in the hustle and bustle of trying to make a living, dress better than their neighbors, have fancier furniture, color TV before their friends‚ and new cars that took their financial toll on their income at the expense of their bellies and their peace of mind. Everyone I knew was accepted by other normal people as being happy and pleased with their lot, but not one of them could really say they were happy or normal.--No!
16. Wait–-those two strange people from the dance studio! They were foreigners and were always smiling. They always looked happy.
17. Goodness, what a flurry they had caused at that quiet little studio! They were a very odd couple. They broke all the unspoken rules of the studio and looked as though they didn't give a hoot either. She kept sitting on his lap and running her long, slim fingers through his hair, kissing him whenever the chance presented itself, much to the jealousy and frustrations of the rest of us there who would just love to have had her sitting on our laps and running her fingers through our hair!
18. He enjoyed every minute of it. He looked old enough to be her father‚ with a few years to spare, his hair brushed carefully back. He used to wear the same tweed jacket and trousers every time I saw him, his well-worn shoes as ever highly polished. His whole presence was of calmness and unhurried humor, his face constantly creased with a smile.
19. She was my English idea of a typical nice American girl, her long hair usually combed in a natural way hanging down her back, her clothes always set off with simple shoes and very leg-flattering dark tights or stockings. Her whole bearing was clean and simple, but, as with him also, she had something about her that was different.
20. It took me some weeks to quite understand what it was, and then I understood: It was in the eyes! Those windows to the soul, the telltale witness to the inner thoughts. These two people had these really soft, warm eyes. They melted as you looked at them. They invited you to look into them. Their eyes spoke to you. They seemed to say, “We love you!”
21. I could relate to these eyes so well because when I was with her on the dance floor and she looked up at me and stroked the back of my hand instead of gripping it with icy clamminess as is the usual thing and as the stiff ballroom dancing protocol usually demands, it made me purr with inner delight and joy to be with a warm-hearted person who was pressed against my body and with whom I felt completely at ease.
22. As we moved around the dance floor, her smile looking up at me made me glow with inner pleasure and excitement. I fell in love with her! She was simple and happy, clean and bright, and a constant joy to be with.
23. The thin-haired old man was so happy to see her enjoying herself with all the men. I think I would have gone green with envy if all these different men were dancing with my girl, but he didn't seem to mind, and in fact he seemed to encourage her to leave his lap and to mix with the other men.
24. He was so kind. He was in great demand himself from the older women, but it was common knowledge that he had a heart condition and could not move around too quickly or dance with too much exertion because of it. But nonetheless he had a really good time himself and enjoyed a closely embraced shuffle around the floor with a great variety of women, making them really happy with his deep-voiced murmuring and chuckling in their receptive, hungry ears.
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 8
Maria's Nights!--By Arthur Newlove
DFO 506 4/75
1. Maria was a joy to be with! The warmth exuding from her very presence‚ her vibrations, could be felt so easily in all corners of the room.
2. What a joy it was to have people like them in that dance studio! They brought a new life to the place and really put the proud self-assured dancers in their rightful place, for even though these two were not extra good dancers‚ they were in demand more than most people there.
3. They were fascinating! I tried everything I could to get more information out of them. David was an expert at answering my questions with a much better question of his own. And all the time he was gentle and smiling‚ his deep sonorous voice reassuringly truthful in its ambiguity. Ha! Met my match at last‚ I thought.
4. They were at the same time open‚ frank, truthful‚ and secretive, deep, and not at all forthcoming. I learned that he was a retired onetime school teacher who did some writing in his spare time. When I asked what he wrote, he was so truthfully evasive it was very frustrating.
5. He said he had had some things published but would not say who by or what format or section of the market he wrote for. I asked him if he considered himself to be successful, and he said moderately so.
6. Dear sweet Maria was explained as being his wife and stenographer whose expertise at her job he remarked on several occasions.
7. I had done some writing in my school days, and even though I was an engineer, the written word held a fascination for me still. My humble early life in a family of six had really given me an all–round ability in most fields.
8. So with this information about these fascinating people in the back of my mind, I returned to my lonely flat and something inside me made me sit down and write a poem that came into my head.
9. It amazed me that I had absorbed so much about them in so short a time as to be able to write a poem about them as my scribbling turned out to be. These two had really had an effect on my life. They were different in many ways from other people. They were certainly odd, even out at that dance studio! (See “The Odd Couple,” Chapter 4.)
10. The next week I again cornered them and started my relentless prying into their background. We had a really pleasant evening, and as usual I had some very happy dances with dear Maria and had an interesting chat with David, and I was determined to find out more about them!
11. I told them that I had written a poem about them the previous week and they immediately pounced on me. “Can we see it, can we see it?” I promised to bring it the next week. I told them I don't know why I wrote it and how it just came, but I think I was trying to impress him as to my ability with words. Ha! Humble Ram!
12. At the end of the evening I offered them a lift home in my fancy car. I asked David if he drove and he said they had not taken their usual limousine. He said with all seriousness that they normally came in their 20-foot bright red limousine which came complete with chauffeur and liveried footman.… I thought for a second or two and then realized that of course he meant the city bus, ha!
13. We got to within a few hundred yards of where they lived and I was told that just here would be fine, at the end of their street. It seemed that dear Maria did not want me to know the whereabouts of their house. But David said, “See if you can guess the house we live in.”
14. We drove slowly along the road and then‚ something told me this was the house. It was so plain and simple compared to all the rest of them, and I stopped. They were amazed and so was I. It seemed that I had been told to stop there, but not a word had passed their lips! What a funny feeling it was!
15. We stayed there for a chat and I learned a little more about them. I learned that David had been in musical comedy as a younger man and was always playing the villain parts because of his deep voice.
16. They were fascinating people and I was hooked on them. They were very interested in astrology and asked me all about myself. Every facet of my nature was touched on expertly and in a nice innocent way by dear David. They gave me a “Sun Signs” book by Linda Goodman. They wrote a little note in the back of it. I really treasure that book today.
17. We parted and I drove sadly home. Someone had turned my light out for the day! Alone again with my endless thoughts and meanderings into self-pity. I was really no wiser about those two and still hadn't found out what David wrote about. They both became more interesting to me each time I met them.
18. I invited them to dinner. It so happened that we could not arrange a dinner date that week, and so it was ten days before we met. They suggested we eat at a little place they knew close to their home. I was invited into their sitting room to wait while they put on their coats.
19. There I was introduced to a really pretty girl a few years older than Maria whose name was Becky. She was all glistening eyes and white teeth with a smile from ear to ear. She had that same warmth in her eyes and exuded love with just a look and a handshake. She was a friend of theirs and also American.
20. I never thought Americans were like these people. The Yanks I knew were all shallow, noisy, loudmouthed people, with flashy dresses and crew cuts. But these people were friendly and warm. It was an atmosphere which rubbed off and was contagious. I was relaxed and chatting in no time, feeling as if I had known them for years.
21. The house was very plain, almost dingy, but it mattered not, because with people like those the surroundings did not even enter into the picture.
22. We drove to a little Turkish restaurant where the owner and his son knew them. We had a simple meal exchanging pleasantries and chat, and then we took some photographs, which struck me as being strange at the time. These people were so unconcerned with what other people thought of them. They were just free and happy, not offending anybody at all but simply happy! What a privilege to get to know them.
23. We had finished our meal and drifted into a conversation about faith and religion. I had been in a formal church most of my life, being a choirboy and attending church faithfully on Sundays but not really understanding why.
24. David asked me in a roundabout way about my beliefs and where they stemmed from, and I told him my philosophy of life was to do unto others as you would have others do unto you. But religion and a belief in God were something I could not quite handle because of the different ways of peoples' beliefs and carrying out their worship.
25. “Show me a god and I will believe it,” I said. “I need to see something in the physical before I believe it!” A gentle smile came to his mouth and his eyes glistened.
26. He sat across the table with his sleeves rolled up, baring solidly built arms. His spectacles were on the table and his eyes were searching deep inside me. He looked much younger then than he had before. The usual middle-aged wrinkles around the eyes and mouth did not seem to be there.
27. He talked about God and what God was to him, then he said to me the words that were the start of my changed life: “God is a Spirit!” I was amazed! I had heard of spirits and ghosts and that sort of thing, but I had never associated God with being a Spirit.
28. God was a Spirit! These four words allowed my inner thoughts to burst into a new field. It was like someone had opened the gate and let the restless cattle rush in to eat the lush green grass of the untrodden pastures of my mind.
29. All the thoughts I'd had of church, the Bible, Jesus and God, which were bunched up together in a corner of my brain and had no real outlet or related position, seemed to now jostle one another and align themselves into a full picture of my Bible knowledge and a true history as I knew it of Jesus Christ!
30. The key had turned: God is a Spirit! He is not physical or touchable, but His presence is here with us right now! He is a Spirit, just as much here as you and I! I must admit a lot of David's words were lost to me for a while. This realization had shocked me, and I could feel a sort of fear of the presence of this Spirit God right there in the same room with us!
31. No wonder these two had inner peace and outward calm and love. They knew their God was right there with them! I really don't recall much more of that conversation, but I know that the few questions I had were answered completely and fully.
32. Without knowing it, I had been witnessed to about God's love with hardly a verse being quoted! It certainly left its mark on my mind! We chatted for a little while longer and then they invited me to accompany them to a dance to which they had been invited.
33. We climbed into the car and drove a few miles to a dance hall I had never been to before. They were welcomed at the doorway like old friends, and as I was with them I received the same hospitality. I knew quite a few faces there--which was a little embarrassing for me, to be seen with a man and his wife. I was so obviously latching on to this very attractive young girl while her husband sat and watched contentedly from the sidelines.
34. We had a ball! This gorgeous little dark-haired beauty cavorted on the floor with me in a passable modern dance motion lending itself very strongly to a blatant love dance! I only just survived! This slinky halter-neck–dressed beauty had my system in action!
35. The passion arose within me to the extent of it becoming embarrassing to hold her close to me! She could not help but be aware of the sap rising within me as a result of her dancing and the touching of her fingertips.
36. I really felt like a heel as I looked toward David sitting quietly on the sidelines smiling at everybody, his activities on the floor curtailed as a safeguard against the straining of his heart. He waved to us and seemed so happy that dear sweet Maria was enjoying herself.
37. My stiff European nature did not allow me to show my true feelings. How I wanted to take her to bed! She was the most important person in my life right then and I really wanted to tell her so, but … she was married! The evening rolled on into the morning and we left. Dear David was so happy to see Maria and I enjoying ourselves. He had had a good time himself fellowshipping with the people around him.
38. It was really a good evening! I was sorry to see it draw to a close. When I drove them home, I thanked them for such a lovely evening. I drove like a maniac home to my lonely flat. I think “crestfallen” was a good description for my feelings then.
39. What did she have that I had not seen in any other woman? The secret was in her eyes! She could make love with her eyes! And, thinking back‚ so could David. They had an inner love that came through as he spoke to and looked at you.
40. A week later we went out again. When I arrived this time, Maria was ready with a large shopping bag‚ which seemed strange, as we were only going out for dinner.
41. It seems that David could not come with us this time and I would have dear Maria all to myself! We went back to the same little Turkish restaurant and I felt really self-conscious about being there without David, all alone with Maria! But it did not seem to worry her, so I just tried to relax.
42. She seemed in a hurry to get dinner over with, but I never understood why until we had paid the bill, left and got into the car. There for the first time I could not help myself: I held her tight and kissed her softly right on the lips! I could tell from her soft marshmallow kiss that she felt the same way I did!
43. So we de-clinched and drove toward my flat. I must say, I really felt bad about taking her there without David, but she was not worried‚ and assured me that he knew and had told her to have a good time! I could not understand it! I know I would never share my wife with anybody. But her peaceful attitude set me at ease.
44. I asked her what David was doing and she said, “Becky is looking after him!” I thought, I wish I had two gorgeous-looking girls to look after me like that! Then I began to wonder if they were married! But with her hand softly caressing my right ear, I must admit my natural inclination did not include considerations as to her marital state!
45. What a night! It was the first time they had been parted for over three years, and that I should have the privilege of dear Maria's love for the night I could not understand. How close I felt to dear David! A very unique experience for me--real heartfelt love and no strings!
46. What pure love these people had! They asked for nothing in return, but just gave themselves as Jesus Christ had given Himself. They sacrificed for love, the love of God.
47. I worked all weekend, and during Sunday when at work I was moved to make a little love token for dear sweet Maria. I had money, but I felt it meant more if I made it myself. It was just a simple little wooden paperweight with the words “Love” and “Peace” carved on it. I dropped by to see them on my way from work and she was so happy to receive it.
48. I then invited them around so that I could cook a meal for them at my flat. It was a shame that again David could not come, but dear Maria came and stayed the night again! Ah, what happy memories!
49. What love! All through the evening Maria phoned David and told him she loved him and missed him, and he even spoke to me on the phone to tell me, “Have a good time, Son! Look after her for me!” It was unnerving! I had never before spoken on the phone to a friendly husband while I shared a bed with his wife! She told me that David said she was an angel‚ and it is only now some months later that I realize what he said was true. After taking her home. I was in a daze. Something had happened to me, but I didn't know what!
50. Then only two days later she went away with David, but for the life of me I could not find out where! To drop right out of my life like that without knowing where! How could she? What a selfish pig I was! I missed her a lot. I had never known a love like that.
51. Her last words to me were, “We love you! Don't forget to phone Becky–-she'll take care of you!” I wasn't interested, though Becky had had that same look in her eyes and her big wide smile and I really fancied her when I first saw her.
52. I read the Daily Light dear Maria and David had given me faithfully as I promised, and I also dug up a New Testament my sister had given me three years before and started reading it again. Then I got madly back into my work and tried to forget this whole wild dream! I had no address to write to apart from Becky's, so I decided not to bother. I was so damn stinking selfish!
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 9
Becky's Nights!--By Arthur Newlove
DFO 507 4/75
1. What a pain in the neck I was! It was coming up to my birthday‚ and Becky phoned to say she had something for me from Maria for my birthday, so I ventured 'round to see her.
2. Dear Becky invited me inside and we had a cup of coffee and talked for a couple of hours. She had an envelope for me from Maria which had a beautiful love letter, little notes and a typed letter with an ink sketch of a ram on a mountain.
3. The letter was called “The Ram,” and Becky said they got it from a friend for me. The letter was an observation of my nature and the tendencies of Aries people, and I couldn't believe how accurate it was! It was me to a T! What a birthday present!
4. The outcome of that visit was that I asked Becky if I could take her out for dinner one night. She said yes, but I had to wait for a week before she could manage it.
5. Becky was older than Maria and seemed very intelligent and kind, and was really good looking. She had reddish-brown hair hanging over her shoulders and gorgeous slim ankles! She was what I had had in mind‚ strangely enough, for years--my ideal woman.
6. I had found out from Maria previously that Becky had two children but was separated from her husband. I had told my family and friends, after disastrous relationships with younger women or women who were older than myself and equally selfish, that I was looking for a divorcee or a widow with a couple of kids who would really appreciate me!
7. Poor me! But that is how I really felt. I felt that with any other kind I would be too jealous. I was extremely jealous over my women to the point of insanity, and figured that a woman with a family would really appreciate me and not mess around with other men. I was so insecure. If I found my girlfriends even talking with other men, I used to go crazy with jealousy!
8. Becky was just what I was looking for. She was bright, had a sense of humor, and she needed it with me-–Ha! And she was interested in me. Something inside me told me this was the one.
9. I spent a long time sprucing myself up and went to her house to pick her up. She looked beautiful! Her eyes made love to me as I stood in the doorway waiting as she put on her coat.
10. We went to the restaurant that I had wanted to take David and Maria to, and we had a really enjoyable evening. We walked around after our meal and drove to the park to look at the lake in the moonlight. We walked for a while and then linked arms and walked slowly beneath the trees around the lakes, our lazy chatter smothered in my head by the thumping of my heart.
11. Women really excite me! Just to be near women excites me. Becky was very feminine; she smelled really good and looked good too. I wanted to kiss her‚ but I couldn't pluck up the courage. So we stood and watched the ducks and swans as they glided effortlessly across the water into the deep shadows of the trees and out into the moonlight again.
12. We walked back to the car and drove home to Becky's house after having a really good evening. Oh, how I liked her! She was a real beauty both in looks and spirit! She was so warm and friendly.
13. We stopped outside the little house and we started chatting. I soon gave in to my animal instincts and leaned over and kissed her lightly on the mouth‚ thanking her for a wonderful evening. I could feel her lips were soft and loving, so we kissed some more.
14. Driving to my flat later that evening she was really concerned about the house and whether she should have left it or not, but she came anyway. We spent a most wonderful night in each other's arms. She was so beautiful!
15. These two American girls both had something. They were loving and kind and thoughtful and gentle, and‚ and ... words failed me. I was so incredibly happy! I rose at 6 a.m. and made breakfast and we sat in bed as we ate, chatting with each other.
16. Oh, it was beautiful! The morning sun made her hair glisten like copper and gold and her eyes twinkled like sparkling diamonds! I was so happy! We left at 7 a.m. and I drove her home, then left for work wishing I could crawl back into bed, this time to get some shuteye.
17. I phoned her that night and arranged to meet her again. This time we went for a Sunday trip to the country. We went to a small town and walked around that beautiful old town hand in hand, feeling like two starry-eyed teenagers! I surprised her with a picnic I'd prepared and we ate it on a grassy hillside overlooking the lovely countryside.
18. We dated regularly and she started talking about her philosophy for life and why she was happy. This was really strange to me, because if she was so God-fearing, how come she slept with me and went out with me when she was married? But I didn't complain or argue. I was having a good time.
19. I wondered why she never would go out with me on Saturdays, and she said that she helped at a youth organization disco and club in the City [London] on Saturdays. This really got me thinking how I would like to help with that sort of thing and do something with my life, so I asked her if she would take me along. All this time she had never spoken about her life or David and Maria, but I had met her children when it was Gabriel's fourth birthday and we had had a real good time.
20. I went with her to this youth club disco‚ and it was different from any place I'd been to before. We went through the door and were greeted by yet another beautiful American girl collecting door money. Then into the disco.
21. I really enjoyed the dancing and the music. I could not understand why people kept coming up to Becky and giving her a kiss on the cheek. Then I saw lots of people kissing and hugging each other, including men! Most strange, I thought. Just what are these people? But it was a very enjoyable evening, and on the way out Becky showed me some pamphlets at a little desk.
22. She gave me a leaflet called “Don Quixote,” and on the front cover was the name “Moses David”! I stared in amazement and then studied the poem: It was the same technique and rhyming that David had put into a religious paraphrase of a poem I'd written for them earlier.
23. Moses David! David! The whole thing fit! “Wow,” I thought‚ “so that's what he writes!” Then I looked at the other pamphlets on the display board and every one had that same name on them: “Moses David, copyrighted by the Children of God.”
24. I asked Becky, “Is this Maria's David?” She just smiled. I said, “Are you in the Children of God?” She still smiled. I could see the whole picture a lot more clearly now.
25. So Moses David was with the Children of God! Wow! I asked Becky what it was all about, and she said, “Why don't we go home and talk about it.” So we went home and I bombarded her with questions about Moses David. Was this the same man that I knew? This time she just nodded yes, still smiling.
26. “Who are the Children of God,” I asked. I had never heard of them. As we sat on the couch in my flat she told me all her beliefs and about her love of God, and she was so serious that I felt the same way.
27. David had gotten me to admit in a way that I did believe in God. Maria had told me much the same about the love of God, but it had never really registered before, mainly because they had gone away so quickly. So Becky and I talked and talked. It seemed I had been prepared a long time previously for this and accepted it with an open mind.
28. The next week we went to the disco again and I got some more MO Letters and read them. We had a good time dancing and then went home again. This time I persuaded Becky‚ after she made some phone calls, to stay for the weekend.
29. What a time that was! It was the first Sunday I'd had off work for months and months. We went to a park and had a ball. We romped in the grassy woodlands and ate ice cream. The sun was shining and I was in heaven! The more time I spent with her, the more I became attached to her.
30. We had been meeting during the week, and because I could not see her when I wanted to, I started to get jealous and I told her so. So she made me promise to learn a Scripture and ask the Lord to help me by quoting it and claiming it. “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee” (Isa.26:3).
31. A few weeks later, Becky invited me to a Sunday night meeting in the City where the visitors from the park and all the members of the region got together and prayed.
32. Becky had told me about Joshua and I'd heard that he was going to be there, and he was. He read a MO Letter called “Que Sera Sera!” which I did not really latch onto immediately, but it had the crowd in suspense and listening carefully. It was very well written, and I could see that David knew what he was up to. These people seemed to hang on every word.
33. When it was over everybody started shouting and making strange noises, waving their hands in the air. It was really frightening! I just shut my eyes and hoped it would finish quickly. People started quoting Scriptures while everybody still had their eyes closed‚ and then the noises started again. I could see Becky in front of me doing the same thing.
34. I had discovered that these people lived in Colonies. I found that Becky lived in a Colony with the older members of the group, and Joshua lived in the same house with her. I was so jealous!
35. On the way home I was really mean to Becky. She was not going to stay that night, and I asked her why. Was she sleeping with someone else tonight? “Did all the men in her Colony share her,” I asked? She was really upset. I was really upset. I was still shaking from the effect the meeting had on me.
36. I told Becky I didn't want her to come that night, but she insisted that I invite her, as I was so upset. I went into the flat, forgetting all my manners, and jumped into bed and covered my head with the sheets. She jumped in with me and I told her to go away-–I didn't want a whore in my bed! I hate to think back now, but it's true. She started crying and I was crying already.
37. After about 15 minutes she started to tell me how the Lord loved me and how I could feel that love just by praying with her. I squeezed my eyes really tight and started to pray after her‚ asking the Lord to come into my heart and to help me to get rid of this jealousy.
38. Just then I had two really clear visions in my mind. One was a long tunnel with a flat bottom and what seemed like doughnuts one behind the other a long way. The light from the far end was bright yellow just like the daylight from inside a cave. I had never had a vision like that before.
39. The next morning I awoke and distinctly remember another vision: It was a gauntlet-gloved hand pointing skyward, buried just below the elbow in a dried and cracked hollow like an enormous dried-out water hole. The forefinger was pointing into the blue sky with the sun shining off the leaves of armor on the arm. I remember it so well. I couldn't wait to tell Becky, and she was so excited. We talked and ate breakfast. It was five weeks from our first date.
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS‚ CHAPTER 12
“The Tunnel” and “The Call to Arms.” The New Birth Canal and God's Call to Service!--By David and Maria
DFO 510 6/74
Dear Arthur and Becky,
1. Greetings in Jesus' dear name! Thank you for the poem you sent us, Arthur! It was like your declaration of independence from doubt and fear, confusion and frustration, as you take your new stand on the firm foundation of renewed affirmation of faith in Christ!
2. For it is He and the Father that you must love most of all, however much you may love me and my loved ones. It is Jesus with Whom you must fall in love above all of us. Then you will have the same love and Lover that we all have and Whose love it is you find appealing in all of us.
3. As the newborn babe, who knows and understands very little about the whole new world around him, except that he is loved and needs those who love him and is comforted and cared for by them‚ so it is with the newborn child of God when entering for the first time into the whole new world of a whole new life in the incredible spiritual Kingdom of God!
4. As the new babe must believe and trust the loved ones about him for his every need and his instructions in how to survive in this newfound happy land as he grows in strength, knowledge and skill until he is able to care for himself and finally matures to care for others as well, so must the newborn babe in Christ trust his spiritual family of loved ones and their leadership as his brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers in the Family of God.
5. “For except ye become as a little child, ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of God” (Mat.18:3). Therefore “ye must be born again” in spirit: First, by believing the Words of God; then, recognizing your need of a Savior from your sins‚ by receiving Jesus Christ Himself into your heart personally in a definite individual decision; forever thereafter proclaiming Him as the Son of God and your Savior, as well as the Savior of all those who will believe and receive Him and His Words as you have.
6. This is what it means to be “born again” in the Spirit and “become a new creature in Christ Jesus: Old things shall pass away and all things shall become new!” (2Cor.5:17). His coming into your life not only renews and purifies and regenerates your spirit, but it also renews your mind, literally breaking old connections and reflexes and gradually rebuilding it and rewiring it into a whole new computer system with an utterly different outlook on life, a new way of looking at the world, and with new reactions to nearly everything around you.
7. You're born again, a new man, God's new child! Usually when this happens‚ the new man frequently testifies that he even feels better physically. He now likes to face life and finds a thrill in his newfound tasks and the greatest of pleasure in the fellowship of his newfound family and the greatest of satisfactions in his newfound faith.
8. His whole life, nature, mind, heart and all is changed! His outlook, desires and aims in life are usually much different than before. I have heard some even claiming that the grass actually looked greener, the skies bluer, the trees more beautiful, the sunshine more glorious and golden, and they feel like they've entered a whole new world of Heaven on Earth compared to the Hell that they were living in before! It's just that wonderful!
9. As we've said before, don't try to figure Him out--just let Him in! The newborn babe doesn't try to rationalize his mother and father and brothers and sisters and the new world and life around him. He just accepts and enjoys them and starts learning how to live and enjoy life and loved ones. He couldn't possibly understand it all, as he hasn't gained enough knowledge to be able to reason it all out or comprehend how it all works and why. That takes a lifetime, and even then some do not find all the answers.
10. The little child simply walks by faith, trusting the love and wisdom of the loved ones around him, walking in obedience to their greater knowledge and experience in childlike trust until he himself begins to understand in the continuous and never-ending process of learning.
11. A great deal of the incentive in living is learning‚ and the curiosity of the child is almost insatiable, but cannot be totally satisfied in a moment or he might lose interest in life. We must always be curious about the future or what's around the next corner or over the hill or on the other side of the fence or the ocean or the vastness of space or the realms of the spirit.
12. If we knew everything all at once we would miss the joys and the thrills of the exciting learning process‚ and might even lose our interest in going on living! So many suicides are those who have had everything, seen everything, known everything, tried everything, and sometimes have lost everything, including their desire to live, because they've lost the things they lived for.
13. The new child of God has so much to live for and love for and work for! There's so much to learn, that, like every little child, he's always asking questions. He's always searching, investigating, exploring, experimenting, discovering and trying new things, new ideas, tasting new foods, starting new steps, learning new tasks, acquiring new habits‚ learning new skills, loving new friends, finding new places‚ having new feelings, seeing new sights, making new journeys, experiencing new thrills, understanding new concepts‚ and meeting new people.
14. Learning‚ learning, learning––it never ends! I love it! I always want more! Every new person I talk to fascinates me! Every new land I live in intrigues me! Every new language I learn greatly interests me, and every new task I begin totally absorbs me! I love this life, both in the flesh and in the spirit!
15. I wouldn't change it for all the Devil has to offer! And I'll tell you, he hasn't got much to offer but lies and deceits and counterfeits and imitations and disillusionments, disappointments, discouragements, doubts, fears, confusions and monotonous frustration and final destruction and total death! Living the life the Enemy has to offer is nothing but agony, death, and constant dying for that which is not worth dying for!
16. He just loves to get people in a rut with their nose to the grindstone so they can't see anything else, never learn anything else, never love anything else, never do anything else and never live anything else! What a bore, what a chore! Thank God for delivering us from the carnal life of constant materialism and the failures of the flesh!
17. When Jesus walked by the shore He called to the fishermen who had just caught the biggest haul of their lives: “Come, follow Me and I will make you fishers of men! And immediately they forsook all and followed Him!” (Mat.4:19,20). They left the fish‚ their nets, their boat, their livelihood, their old life and their poor old father! How could they do such a thing?
18. How could they forsake their very living and their own family and friends without notice to follow this strange Stranger and His motley crew? Because He offered them a better life, a better job‚ in a better place with a better Boss for a better Family and greater rewards! Why “labor for the meat which perisheth” when you can earn immortal souls that will be your friends forever (John 6:27)!
19. But some hesitate. “First let me say farewell to my father.” But Jesus answered, “He that puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not worthy of Me!” (Luke 9:61,62). “But let me at least bury my father!” (He probably wasn't even dead yet, and this might have taken months or even years!) But Jesus firmly said, “Let the dead bury the dead! Come thou and follow Me!” (Mat.8:21,22).
20. Once you have chosen God and His way, He refuses to take second place to anything or anybody, and will not let you put any other gods before Him--not your old job nor your old boss nor even your old friends and family!
21. God is now your Boss and He has a new job for you and He will not wait, now that He has called you and you know it. This is God's first test for every disciple--to see if he loves Him enough to put Him first by forsaking all immediately to follow Him now!
22. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things shall be added unto you!” (Mat.6:33). God will not tolerate your putting anything else first before Him and His work and human souls and their eternal salvation! Jobs and businesses and bosses and other families can come to Him or go to Hell where God is concerned, for He is only concerned about you and His work of saving others like you.
23. If you can bring the family, friends, boss and business with you, fine! But quite obviously the disciples' father was unwilling to leave his boat and the business and all those nice new fish and follow Jesus along with them, and we never really hear of him again! The father who stuck by the business and the rest of their family vanished into obscurity and oblivion, whereas those stinking filthy fishermen sons of his wandered off with a perfect stranger and made history that has helped save millions of souls for eternity!
24. Isn't it ridiculous now to compare those few fish, a boat, a business and even one father and family, which all soon perished‚ with the millions of immortal souls who have been saved for eternity through the decision of those simple fishermen to put God first that day, drop everything, forsake all and follow Jesus? Now that we can see the results, it's easy to know they made the right choice‚ despite their father's objections and the wrecking of his business!
25. Businesses and bosses can go to Hell, as far as God's concerned and where His work of saving souls is concerned‚ if businesses and bosses stand in the way! Nothing is more important than God and His work of love to save the youth of today, and all the ungodly businesses and bosses can go to Hell, where they're probably going anyway, if it means the salvation of just one poor young lost soul--maybe even yours!
26. So there's no choice as far as I'm concerned. God's a tough Commanding Officer when it comes to obedience in His army, where nothing is more important than His war against death to save lives! God's only time is NOW, or forget it! The guys who stalled Him off never came back! And their list is much longer than the list of followers!
27. “Many are called, but few are chosen!” (Mat.22:14).--Because they've chosen to follow Him above all! Which are you? Who and what are you going to put first? Why not ask the boss and the family to come along with you? They could follow just as well! Why not? If they're not willing, they don't deserve you or your support! Which is more important--saving them or the world? The time is NOW! Tomorrow is too late!
28. He says, “My people are a peculiar people!” (Tit.2:14). But He says also, “Beware when all men think well of you!” (Luke 6:26). If you're too popular and have no enemies, something must be wrong with you. He also says, “Ye shall be hated for My name's sake” (Mat.24:9). The world was always down on all His prophets‚ particularly the religionists! Jesus and His disciples were always more popular amongst the drunks and the harlots, the publicans and sinners, and He was crucified with thieves--by the religionists!
29. So don't expect much approval for joining us from anybody but us, and some of us may not even approve! We're a rough bunch, and it's a rough and a rugged road, but read “Did God Make a Mistake?” and it may help you to understand if you're really one of us or want to be one of us.
30. If so, I am sure we can find a place of service for you‚ “for the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few! Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that He will send forth laborers into His harvest!” (Mat.9:37,38). And the first one He will send will be you for others to follow!
31. With God, it's usually all or nothing at all! There's no halfway with the Lord! He abhors the halfhearted, the lukewarm, the indecisive, the compromisers, the “so-far-and-no-farther folks”! When you join God's army, it's got to be a total commitment just like in anyone else's army‚ if not more so! And why not?
32. God likes wholehearted, stout-hearted men! Have you got the guts to be one of these? If so, God has a place for you in His army.
33. The meaning of your dreams is obvious. You are passing through the tunnel of decision (the new birth canal) from darkness to light‚ even though you cannot see what's around the bend. And to the thirsty parched ground of the earth, the hungry thirsty hearts of the world who are appealing to you for help, as a Christian soldier you are pointing the way to God!
34. We hope you'll not fail to follow! Let us know your desires and decisions, and we're praying God's will be done!
Love, Dad and Maria
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 15
Freed!--By Moses David and Arthur Newlove
DFO 513 7/74
(From Arthur) July 14‚ 1974
My Dear David and Maria,
1. Greetings on this first day of my new life! Yesterday I finally quit my job amidst a tirade of abuse, which I didn't rate as much of a reward after twelve years of diligent servitude as a slave to my own selfish desires!
2. I thank you both so much for your wonderful letter (“The Tunnel and Call to Arms”). Becky gave me your letter to read a few weeks ago with the warning that, in her own words, it was really heavy! Wow! She wasn't joking!
3. I must admit to being shocked when I first read it, but nonetheless I braved the storm and took the body blows! Ha! I now cherish it, along with all our correspondence, as a really precious declaration of your love for me and faith in me, and find in it real encouragement to my new life in serving our Lord.
4. I hope I can help His Family in their work and really help to spread the true Word and love of God to people around the world who are as hungry as I am for it. I pray for strength to do His bidding, and I can assure you both I mean to succeed to the best of my ability with His guidance.
5. I will work in God's name wherever He thinks and with whomsoever He thinks I am most able. Even though I love dear Becky with all my heart, it is true that without ultimate love for and faith in our Lord I might just as well not bother! She has been such a pillar of strength to me these past weeks. Her faith has been my guide, and God's love for her has been my real encouragement. We have become very close.
6. I was reading in the Bible about working for God, and as you point out, my boot-camp training is now essential because I am already feeling an inability to back up my faith with the words of God. Reading the passages which your letter referred to, it became clear to me that I had to show my faith.
7. So after spending an evening with Becky and Joshua (the same evening as your letter arrived) and following this with a sleepless night praying for guidance to our own unfailing Savior, I told my boss that I was leaving two weeks from that day. He was sure then of my emotional instability and he's now absolutely convinced I am mentally sick, but the feeling I underwent was simply euphoric as I cleared through those chains of bondage!
8. I am for the first time in my life free! I think that for too long I have been coasting along on someone else's faith, but when it came to the crunch He really helped me do it. Tomorrow I start planning for the Lord.
9. I must admit I'm scared of what I'm heading for--well, not scared; maybe uncertain--but fortunately, as you know, I have blind faith in God and I know He will help me if I ask Him enough!
10. I love you both so much! A love such as yours I had never known before. I thank the Lord that you were the people He guided me to that night at the ballroom. My, it seems so long ago! So much has happened since then. My new life has already started.
11. Thank you, Dad, for sharing both of your wonderful queens with me, though I still don't understand why! You have helped me receive Jesus in my heart, and now I mean to repay Him with undying love. Thank you all so much and bless you in His name!
Love, Arthur
(From Dad to Becky, responding to her report that Arthur later became very indecisive and wavering, and had asked his former boss about returning to his job:)
12. When I'm telling people to forsake all, I can be pretty hard on them sometimes, for as you well know, I have never had any stomach for people who have no guts and are wishy-washy! The lukewarm make both God and me sick to our stomachs‚ and I have very little patience with the double–minded, the divided-hearted and double-eyed waverers who can't make up their minds, but‚ as God says, “are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest!” (Isa.57:20). There is no rest for the wayward!
13. I am a fanatic, an extremist‚ drastic and totally revolutionary‚ and I cannot even understand people who are not! I cannot comprehend people's hesitation in serving the Lord all the way! If He's worth serving at all‚ He's worth serving full-time and all the way! That's just the way I feel about it and that's the way I am, and that's why we're where we are and why we have a Revolution at all!
14. As you so well know, I do everything like mad! Whatever I do, right or wrong, I do it furiously! I love like mad, kiss like mad, fuck like mad‚ walk like mad and talk like mad--and Maria says I work and dance like mad, too! And sometimes when I talk, I talk like I am mad at somebody-–and sometimes I am!
15. Because God gets mad too with some people, especially backsliders, waverers and the lukewarm! I'm sorry, but I just don't have much patience with such people! God hates to see people's backsides, and when He does, He usually gives them a good quick hard stiff kick in the butt that sends them sprawling back into the slime pit from which they came for another good bellyful of it, hoping they'll get so sick of it this time they'll never look back at it again!
16. One reason why God gets so angry with backsliders is that they're such a terrible testimony and seldom ever backslide alone; they always take others with them! The backslider's a real soul winner for the Devil! He's always got the most convincing arguments to justify himself and to persuade others to do the same so he can defend his own backsliding. And always tries to get others converted to his cause, since‚ of course, it's the right one!
17. They always loudly murmur, complain and criticize and proclaim their doubts and fears to all who will listen, especially the already weak and wavering, particularly babes and beginners! Backsliders are the greatest proselytizers in the religious business! As Jesus Himself said: “They'll compass the world to convert one person to their cause‚ and then make him more of a child of Hell than they are themselves!” (Mat.23:15). Like the hypocritical Scribes and Pharisees who crucified Him!
18. They become your very worst enemies and the most diabolical traitors to your cause! Like Judas, they not only backslide, but they also have to fight and betray you to prove they're no longer one of you. To try to get reaccepted by the System, they now lead the fight against you, because they're now so ashamed they were once fool enough to be one of you! They become your most dangerous enemies because they know you and your operation so well!
19. This is why God goes after them with such severe chastening to try to get them to repent and come back to Him before they've done too much damage. He sometimes wields the heaviest rod on the backs of His Own children when they backslide, because they know better and are without excuse! Then if they will not soon repent, He usually destroys them so they can do no further harm! I've seen it happen so many times! Almost the worst things I've ever seen happen to Christians I've seen happen to backsliders in the hands of an angry God! And I've seen it happen so often and in so many cases, more than I can possibly number!
20. So backslider beware! You'll never make it unless you return to the Lord and His service! And if you do repent and return, He'll expect more of you than He did before to undo the damage you've done, make restitution for the losses you've caused, and work harder and more faithfully than ever before to prove your loyalty, which has become somewhat doubtful and untrustworthy from past experience. The trust that was once placed in you by grace will now have to be earned by works to the utmost to prove you are no longer a traitor and will no longer backslide. You'll find it very hard to restore people's confidence in you, once you've lost it. They're afraid to trust you again unless you prove to the utmost that you're worthy of it! It's a hard road back for the backslider--which is another reason why they so seldom come back. It's so easy to backslide, but so hard to return!
21. Yet the Lord says He's married to the backslider, and begs the wicked to forsake his wicked way. He promises to forgive him if he'll only turn from his sins, which He promises to wash away and make him whiter than snow! So if the backslider does make it and does return to the Lord and His service, he'll usually make one of the best men you've ever had, because he'll do his best to prove that he can make it, and work harder at it than almost anyone else, for which God will sometimes even seem to bless him more than others. The bird whose pinion was once broken, by the grace of God will fly even higher than before, and the straying sheep whose leg had to be broken will have to remain in the Shepherd's bosom so long he will never stray again!
22. He knows the price! He's been through that hell of backsliding and he wants no more of it ever again! He'll work harder than he ever did before and he'll hate backsliding more than ever and will have less patience with the backslider than ever before! I oughtta know; I was one! And who hasn't been at some time or other? Maybe this is why I've overreacted and gone so far in the opposite direction in my fight against the System and all the Devil's tricks, especially backsliding!
23. I'm sorry, I haven't much mercy for the backslider while he's still backsliding. Like the Lord‚ I really sock it to him to try to get him to repent fast before he does himself and others and the Lord's cause too much damage, because that's the first thing he tries to do to vindicate himself. That's why I've always said to get rid of them quick, because they often want to stay right there with you to do as much damage as possible from the inside and take others with them when they go.
24. This is why I've always insisted on a period of probation of a few weeks before taking new disciples in, to make sure they can make it. The first few weeks are usually the hardest and you'll usually know by then whether they can make it or not. It's better for them to backslide before joining than afterwards. It'll be easier on you and them both‚ and God won't hold them quite as responsible, since they don't yet know too much and are still pretty ignorant.
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS‚ CHAPTER 17
Victory!–-By Arthur Newlove
DFO 515 8/74
(From Arthur:) Sept. 29, 1974
Dearest David and Maria,
1. God bless you both! How can I ever thank you enough for saving me as you have done by giving me Jesus our Savior! I still cannot believe that I am here, in a totally different world from that hectic hustle and bustle and never-slowing treadmill that I knew as life in the System as a Systemite! Wow, there goes another revolutionary word!
2. My Aries pride won't allow me to use the word “heavy” as much as some people because I feel, or rather felt, it was an American slang word. But lo and behold, just today I read it in the Bible, so now it's okay to use it‚ ha! It really is the best word to aptly describe a happening or the degree of emotional involvement that an event brings about in an individual. So as you can imagine when I let it carelessly slip out, dear Becky gives a wry smile and I can see her thinking, “Ha, ha! I knew it would eventually get to him after having said he would never use it!” Well‚ it's a Revolution! Praise the Lord!
3. I've been in the Revolution for two months and I am so involved in it now that I forget what used to be my life working for my own self-righteous self and materialistic glorification of the same. It is a real privilege to be working with such people as I do, for the Boss that I do and for the vision and results that we seek.
4. There are so many new things to discover every day, and of late, the power of prayer--the very positive things that are miracles of God in answer to prayer, and putting the whole problem in God's hands for His guidance. The trials that I underwent trying to produce a simple little yoke‚ the frustration and the impatience that got to me, really played on my mind until I put the whole problem into His hands daily and asked His help and guidance, and now we have proof that we have produced something together, the details of which He worked out!
5. The more I get into the Bible the more it moves into my life a storehouse from which to draw and feed. Everyone is so inspiring, especially Becky! I love her so much! Yourselves, she and her beautiful children‚ along with and especially my spiritual food in God's love‚ have made my life so worth living and complete! I will never be able to describe my joy!
6. Becky is taming the Ram with God's help! She is a hard taskmaster, and I must admit it hurts sometimes, but only in the flesh and that damned pride which is of no account whatsoever! What a relief to hand over one's life to Someone else and know He will work it out--not that it's one's life to start with!
7. I was getting to the stage where I could not handle myself when I met you both the first time. So Josh, Becky, and our Lord have their work cut out for them, as you already probably know! It's all happening to me so much that I don't even want to go dancing anymore, except to the Poorboy Club!
8. How I think back to that night when you replied you were “moderately successful in having work printed and published”–-ha! I've never been kept guessing for so long about so much by so few as I have by you three beautiful Children of God!
9. I can never thank you enough for digging me out of the quagmire and doing so much for me! I love you both SO much, and one day I pray that I see you again‚ and then you will see that “the deep-seated fear in his eyes” has disappeared and been replaced by a “Look of Love”! How I love your Letters! They inspire me so much! They have been a revelation and changed my thoughts altogether!
10. How thrilled I am about Becky being pregnant! What an honor! I do hope I can justify God bestowing it on me, and work with true diligence for His glory! Pray for us and Becky's lump! May the Lord bless and keep you safe! We always pray for you night and day without fail.
All my love, Arthur
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 18!
Progress!--By Arthur Newlove
DFO 516 11/74
(From Arthur:) November 2, 1974
Dear David and Maria, Greetings from afar!
1. I really feel very close to you both. I know you are both well and enjoying good health, from your recent letters. God bless you both!
2. Last Saturday, on returning from the mail collection, I was quite surprised when, instead of disappearing up the stairs as usual, Becky asked me to sit down for a minute whilst she read to me parts of the letter that she had collected that day.
3. Never before has the danger in which you live become so real to me, nor did I realize just what a responsibility I have been entrusted with--and what a penalty ignoring security warnings carry! What damage could be done and what danger you could both be placed in by carelessness! The faith you have in me has sharpened my whole nature, and my security consciousness, which was by pure faith up to this point, is now a full-time job worked at constantly.
4. How God has hammered at my pride! How many times the hidden frustrations at not knowing, not having my inquisitiveness satiated, has caused an implosion within my depths! A few weeks ago my pride really reached bottom. At last I asked God to do with me as He willed and meant it, knowing I had little pride left, and I had reached the stage of usefulness for God's work. Until I had reached this point I knew I could be of no use to God, and really feared rejection because of my stubborn pride.
5. So just two weeks ago after this momentous low, my job and my life started to take on a whole new meaning. I prayed for usefulness and WHAM! Last Saturday gave me a whole new vision! How important I felt--temporarily! (Although radically modified, my Aries pride is still present, ha!)
6. My relationship with Becky is getting stronger as I learn to keep my eyes on the goal ahead and off my selfish carnal desires. This Libra of David has been a master match for me! She pokes at my very foundations and I feel the ground shake as she enlarges the holes in my pride with her love of God and her natural gentleness. Thank You Lord for Becky!
7. Thank you for everything! How I count my blessings daily! I love you and think of you constantly. Take good care of yourselves. God and the world need you both so badly!
Forever yours‚ in the love of God‚ Arthur
(From Arthur:) November 13, 1974
Dearest David and Maria,
8. Greetings in His name! The time is passing so quickly I can hardly believe it! It seems that for three months I have been in a different world! No longer with my head full of earthly things, but in the clouds with God's Spirit!
9. Becky gave me a copy of the portion of your letter today. How privileged I am that you should take your precious time to write to me like that! I would love to do whatever is necessary to encourage other people to taste the love of God as I have.
10. The countryside around here is taking on a typically late autumn look‚ with the trees almost denuded of their leaves and the winter winds blustering around the house with frequent rain squalls. It really is nice to see the year progress by the changing faces of God's natural time clock, this beautiful world around us! The long hot summer has given way to the cold dark evenings of winter. Soon the snowdrops will be pushing their delicate heads through the cold earth to face the future entirely in God's hands, as we are.
11. The Wild Wind department is making progress, albeit slow. It seems that each part of every project‚ even down to crossing t's and dotting i's, really has to be prayed about, otherwise the System frustrations tend to warp and even completely destroy one's vision with seeming ease. My useless fleshly body could not do this job without the help of God to spur me on and help me to keep pressing in, I can assure you!
12. How exciting my life is now--living at last! I am really looking forward to getting my story down on paper and sharing it with others. I can scarcely believe how things have changed! Thank you! I love you! Thank You Jesus!
13. P.S. Maria, my love, this just flowed from my tongue: How I love the little‚ loving, lively, liberal, laughing, lily with the lasting love, the Leo of the Lord, the lamb lent lovingly in love to lam this lackey with the love of God! God bless you!
Love, Arthur
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 19
The Wizard of Ahs!
DFO 517 12/74
1. (Maria: Dearest Elaine, this is a loving prayer David prayed for you in the middle of the night when he was asleep, and I wrote it down for you. Hope it helps you see how much we both love you--and especially how much Jesus loves you! God bless and keep you with His love. We love you!) [Note: Elaine was our English housekeeper in Tenerife.]
2. I've been working so hard to love Elaine-–every day, even when I was tired and sick. She's a little hard to love 'cause she's had so many hard trials.
3. She has to get rid of that shell–-that hard critical shell she's built up because she's been hurt so much. She's got to know she's still young and beautiful, that the wonderful little girl is still there!
4. So many people hurt her and disappointed her that she had to get tough to take it. She's tried to help so many people, but she didn't know enough of Jesus to know it was Jesus they needed.
5. Jesus, help me to show her You love her, to do something for her to show her You love her even when nobody else loves her. We bring her back to life. Thank You, Jesus, for touching her with Your magic love to bring back the little girl of Wonderland, to make her to believe again in miracles and to wonder in Wonderland!
6. Thank You, Lord Jesus, that she loves Your old Father David. Help me to show her Your love. Why are you sniffling, Honey? (Maria: It's my tears.) She cries too. She's so lost in Wonderland! She's trying to find the way.
7. I have to take her by the hand, Honey, 'cause I'm the wizard of ahs!--and ahs!--and ahs!--and all the ahs there ever was, and I have to lead her back. That “ah” is a strange expression‚ like one of awe--or also that you comprehend something. That's what I do for the kids. It's really almost an expression of satisfaction‚ like the light dawns at last! I show them the way so they can understand.
8. I have to ask her, “What can I do to make you happy? What can I do to love you?” You know what? If I give her everything I have, she's worth it! One immortal soul is worth all my love-–my body, my money, everything!
9. I'd give her my life if I could just win her to Jesus and help her know how much Jesus loves her! If she could just know Jesus!
10. Sometimes she's been awful hard and mean and cruel because she was hurt so bad she wanted to hurt people. She even wanted to kill 'em! But I don't care–-I love her! If she wants to kill me, she can kill me! I love her so much, like Jesus loved people, Who fed them and helped them and tried to save them, but they killed Him.
11. Oh, David loves the lost and would give them his life that he might save the children of his Father!
12. O Jesus, help her to believe in You, Jesus, through me! Help me to love her with Your love! Help her to know how much You love her! Help her, Jesus!
13. You made me, Jesus‚ to pour out the waters of Your love to Your children. Help them to receive it. Please, please, help Elaine to receive my love, to know my love! I love You‚ Jesus! I love you, Ellie!
14. Help her to need You‚ Jesus. Help her to know nobody else loves her as much as You do. Help her to know how much You love her, Lord.
15. She's a little bit hard to love, because she's been a little bit hard. But the little girl is still there; my little Ellie that Jesus loves is still there. Sometimes she's an old hard woman that's been hurt and who hates, but I think I can help resurrect the real Ellie, the little pretty little girl in the white veil and with the little book. (He saw a vision of her confirmation.)
16. Is that all right with you, Honey? Want me to save Ellie? Do you love her? Would you give your life for her like Jesus did and like I've been doing, when I'm so tired and so sick and nigh unto death?
17. I give myself for her! I don't know if she loves me that much, but at least she's been loved by someone who really loved her and gave his life for her.
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KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 21
King Arthur's Knight--The Birth of a Baby!
DFO 519 3/75
(From Arthur:)
Dearest David and Maria. God bless you and hi!
1. I just cannot believe that time flies so quickly! I looked at the date the other day and could hardly believe that it had been a little over a year since we began to get to know each other so well! Wow!
2. How my life has changed since those days! It seems like a lifetime ago! As I recall, you left on the 13th of March, exactly a year ago! How upset I was then! My life seemed at an end! My insurmountable pride was so dented! My first American conquest eased from my grip to I knew not where! I was so hurt that you would not tell me where you were going.
3. Ha! Proud, selfish ram! How odd, I thought, that they wouldn't tell me! I mean, I was supposed to know whatever I wanted. But no, not this time. No matter who I asked I just could not find out! Nobody knew! It really seemed ironic that at last someone had given me, as I thought at the time, a dose of my own medicine and left me in the lurch!
4. I really was hooked on you, Maria, even though I thought you a little strange in some ways! I remember one evening you said you were an angel! Now I know you were!
5. I often wondered how a retired writer, sometime schoolteacher like David could afford to keep a mistress (as I thought you were) and find enough to do in retirement to keep his obviously sharp and fertile mind occupied, and his sense of humor well-oiled, as it obviously was. Boy oh boy, if only I had known! Ha!
6. I really appreciated his generosity in sharing his beautiful friend with me, but I must say it played on my conscience. I just could not understand the setup at all. I would never have believed then that I could be so happy as I am now!
7. Becky is my dream come true! She has given me everything in her life that it is possible to give--her world, her love, her family‚ her fellowship, her counsel, and her support so willingly, so unreservedly that it makes me weep in secret sometimes to see someone with so much faith in me as to drag me from the edge of the pit and save me through the love of Jesus! How I love her, and you both--a love so true that I hate to be away from her for a minute! We are all so happy! Love is the sweetest thing! Thank you!
8. At this moment dear Becky is lying in bed with that beautiful creation of God, little Knight chewing and sucking at her beautifully rounded breasts‚ relieving her of her precious milk‚ and contentedly massaging her soft skin with his big hands.
9. Oh Lord, how can I be deserving of such a blessing! I am so happy! My life is so full now! What a picture! I wish my words could do it justice‚ but words fail me. Thank You Lord!
===================
KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 22
The Big Fish Becomes the Big Fisherman
DFO 521 7/75
(From Arthur:) June 6‚ 1975
Dearest David and Maria,
1. God bless you both! How can I apologize for not having written sooner than this to you? I have no excuses--I have been guilty of procrastination of the highest degree. Please forgive me.
2. It was so good to hear about your adventures. We are praying for you all. You really do see the world! It seems that my horizons have burst into all parts of the world in just 12 months!
3. Do you know, I feel so much a part of this Family it's hard to believe I have just met you all! The Lord has really worked a miracle in my life. My whole mental structure has a different Nucleus now. My reason for being here and breathing this life's air is now so clear to me, I wonder why I never understood before. I thank you all so much for loving me and indulging me.
4. Thank you for giving me Jesus! As you said, that was all you had to give and all I needed. Now I know that was the truth. Thank God for MO and Maria and multitudes of missionaries with minds and motives of the same manner! I love you!!
5. Everything is fine here. The baby is growing daily and is a constant reminder of God's love for us. Becky and I are getting closer every day, especially when we have to make decisions and counsel together on various personal problems. We realize how much it is the Lord in our relationship, and when our flesh gets in the way it just does not work as it should.
6. How we love the Lord! He has been so good to us and continues to be so! We really love you and thank you for everything you have done for us, and want you to know that our thoughts and prayers are with you constantly.
Love forever, Arthur
(From Arthur:) June 13, 1975
Dear David and Maria,
7. What an inspiration you are to us all! Your letters are so encouraging and at the same time are a constant reminder to keep our eyes on the Lord for His guidance and His perfect will in all decisions that have to be made.
8. I am really learning what it is to counsel together before making decisions. If any one person is in danger of making an out-of-the spirit decision or a careless or hurried decision, then counseling together shortcuts so many terrible consequences.
9. I draw and feed so much on your Letters involving situations that we are trusted to share in, and I am learning more about myself by reading them and putting myself in these situations. I want to do my best for Jesus and you, dear David and Maria! What a blessing it is to be able to work in this way!
10. Work?––What a misnomer! It's just day after day of pleasure! Praise the Lord! I never have been so happy! I find it hard to believe my new life started only 12 months ago! How things have changed inside my head!
Love as ever, forever--Arthur
(From Arthur:) July 18, 1975
Dearest David and Maria,
11. God bless you! We love you! Wow, what a life! I am so happy! I did not think it possible that I could feel like this for such lengths of time! Do you know I have not had a fit of depression for almost a year? It is a sheer miracle of God! Now I see what you were always smiling about when I knew you not so well as I do now.
12. As you said, David and Maria, all you could give me was Jesus, and you did. God bless you for all your kindness and the love that you gave so generously, and so heartfelt and freely.
13. What love stories--Jesus' love for us, your love for me, and my love for you! Love‚ ahhh! What a different meaning it holds for me now! Becky's love for me, her love for the Lord, for David and Maria, my love for her, her children--oh, there is so much love around this Family I can't write it down! We are so happy!
14. My God, how good You are to me! I have a beautiful‚ sweet, intelligent, spiritual, strong, loving woman for a wife, and I know so many other women just the same, so intimately, it is sometimes too much for me! I have a personal flesh family‚ a spiritual family, a unity of spirit with thousands of people in my bigger Family, a Shepherd who guides by leading and showing the ultimate sample of love and is ever faithful to feed his flock with words that flow so free from his heart and are like water to a thirsty soul living in the Systemite deserts of man.
15. My God, I thank You for David and his! Lord, please use me in any way You can. Thank you, David and Maria and Becky and all your–-now my–-big Family, and most of all dear sweet Jesus, Who died for us all that we might be saved! What a commission we have! I love you!
Arthur
KING ARTHUR'S NIGHTS, CHAPTER 23
The Odd Couple Return!
DFO 522 5/76
(From Arthur:) September 26, 1975
Dearest David and Maria,
1. I love you both so much! God bless you! I would like to thank you for making my short visit with you so exciting and inspiring. I loved every minute of meeting with you. How refreshing to see a dream, a figment of the depths of the imagination‚ come to reality!
2. How you have helped to change my life! How can I ever thank you! How I value the time we spent together, and I look back and savor those few precious hours! Thank you for the daily blessing of having Becky here to remind me of your love and your kindness.
3. What a life! My dreams of travel fulfilled--in fact‚ beyond my dreams! My idea of happiness surpassed tenfold! My peace of mind now complete. I love you!--And thank you!
As ever, yours forever‚ Arthur
(From Arthur:) May 16, 1976
Dearest sweetest Dad and Maria,
4. Thank you so much for your love and your wonderful, selfless, sacrificial sample! My heart bled for you this morning and last night, and I feel it's really a turning point in my life, or rather it's a new life! I feel totally renewed in spirit‚ thanks to the Lord, your love, and your sample.
5. I woke up this morning as Becky came in at 5:30 [after an FF date], and on my lips was the Scripture you gave me yesterday, “Freely ye have received, freely give” (Mat.10:8). I greeted her with a smile, and it hurt so good to have my precious honey lips back home! I bleed, but it feels good.
6. God bless all the dear sweet loving girls and their sacrifice for our wonderful brothers in Christ Jesus!
7. I got a poem on the beach today:
THE BEACH
I sat and watched the waves roll up
upon the sandy shore,
My mind was in a turmoil
as I'd never known before!
I closed my eyes and cried out
to our dear and loving Lord
And poured my troubles out to Him
and claimed His every word!
My mind flashed back to two dear souls
who'd taught me how to share.
Yes, these two folks had shown me
how and why and when and where!
I'd always been possessive
and so selfish to the core‚
They gave to me a thing so dear,
a hoard of gold to store!
I'd never met such wondrous love
and such a Godly pair
As those two souls two years ago
who taught me how to share!
His light shone through their faces there
and opened up my heart
And helped me climb from that damned
pit that claimed me from the start!
They did it by the love of God
and followed where He leads,
They showed me love I'd never known
and proved it by their deeds!
I thank the Lord; Oh, thank You, Lord‚
for all those who helped me!
My desperate, futile, loveless life
You changed for all to see!
They cared for me, they tended me
and gave so selflessly,
They gave me life and my sweet wife
–-Lord, how can I pay Thee!
She showed me how to live it
and so few with her compare‚
My dear and wondrous precious wife,
so kind, so free‚ so fair!
She gave her all just for the Lord
and gave me family,
She had my child, our precious Knight
and shared her kids with me.
It cost her dearly and she knew,
but did it willingly,
She never balked, she never cried,
but showed His love so free!
I heard her murmur ne'er a word,
and when I was a bear,
She shared a verse, a smile, a kiss,
and helped me just get there.
She loved me with His golden love,
just like that twain before,
A love so sacrificial that they
didn't count the score!
She loved for Him and for His love
and for the love shown her.
By God above and by our Dad
who taught us all to share.
His sample is of God, I know,
no man can ever compare!
Oh Dad, dear Dad, I love you so!
His love through me I'll share!
God help me please to be like Dad,
and love and lift the sad,
The world needs love so much, you know,
because they are so bad.
Go preach the love of God to them
just like it was to you--
With love like His, how can we fail?
'cause He'll come shining through!
We've got so much to give, you know,
and if we do as bid,
From poor and hungering souls out there
starvation we will rid.
You ask me why I'm down here now
upon the beach and praying?
For God to give me grace and peace,
help keep His love and sharing.
My sweet devoted precious wife
is resting on our pillow.
She's being bait for others now,
and proving love's not hollow.
O God, You know I love her so,
and she well knows I do.
Without my love to spur her on
it's hard to see it through.
Dear Dad loved me and loved his
wife‚ but didn't hesitate
To lay her down for me to love
to save me from my state.
O God, You gave Your Son for us,
how can we have such trials?
We know Your love for us, O Lord,
yet pause to jump those stiles.
Thank God I left it up to Him
and cried out for His help!
He broke me on the beach this morn,
yet raised me with a yelp!
O glorious, wondrous breaking sure,
O Lord, I feel so good!
How selfish, greedy, mean I've been!
O God, I knew You could!
Forgive me please and cleanse me through
and give her strength anew
To give and give and give again,
just like they did, those two!
Oh, see those empty eyes light up
just like mine did before!
They feel Your love so close, so warm,
and can't believe the score!
I ran back home and told the news
and kissed those honey lips!
How much my love for her increased
after that spirit trip!
We've got to boost each other now
and help our precious girls
To love the lost with His sweet love,
help weary minds in whirls.
I waited around for years for love
to land right in my hands,
And never found it till that day
I met them at that dance,
Those warm and tender, loving souls,
Odd Couple with no name,
Who showed His love through them
could save and help the WORLD the same!
I dearly love you both! God bless and keep you strong for His glory!
Love‚ Arthur, your son and debtor!
Postscript to “King Arthur's Nights!”
Personal words from Arthur‚ Becky, Sharon and Knight after they had read the preceding condensations in June 2002, nearly 30 years after these events took place.
From Arthur:
Dear ones,
Thank you for such treasured memories. It's hard to believe they were so long ago, going on 30 years. It's so hard to believe–-I feel like I've been living in a warm and exhilarating dream world, surrounded by love and living love. The Lord has been so very good to me.
I am so thankful and forever indebted to dearest Dad and Mama, and dear Becky, for their truly sacrificial giving. I know from my own experience how much it hurts to give the one you love to bring His love to someone else, to know deep inside that the tears and the knotted stomach, the agony that I know Dad felt with me, was real but very worth it.
Dear Dad comes to mind so often, and his love lives on in my life. His love and faith and yours too, Mama, has kept me in the Family serving Jesus! You brought me Jesus, but introduced me to a whole new world of warmth and love and spirit. I am so thankful He has kept me all these years. Your tears have kept me, Dad and Mama. I love you and always will. You are very precious to me. Words fail me!
Thank you too‚ Peter. You are very special to me and always have been–-a real friend, a brother, and I admire and love you as my anointed king. God bless you! Thank you too for all your sacrifices for us!
Without the Lord's love in Dad, Mama, Becky‚ and so many more, I would be nothing and have nothing. I have riches beyond compare. Thank you all!
From Becky:
Dearest Mama and Peter,
I love you both very dearly. I am so thankful for you‚ Mama, and Dad and the Lord's love you showed to me. I'm thankful for the great privilege of having been in your Home at the time FFing first took place, and being a very small part of it.
I am thankful for dear Art. He is very, very precious to me‚ a real treasure from the Lord. Our lives are a living testimony of the miracles of love that we experienced together through FFing. At the beginning it was a real test of faith, but having seen Dad's love for souls, his passion for souls, I knew that without a shadow of a doubt this was the Lord's doing. I'm so thankful for Dad and you, Mama, and your willingness to go all the way‚ and lay down your lives for not only Art, but many others, so they could know the Lord's love.
Dad's life was a living sermon! His and your love‚ Mama‚ your faith and sample of laying down your lives for your friends has made an eternal impact on my life.
The Lord gave me not only seven beautiful children‚ but the answer to my heart's desire in giving me such a wonderful soul mate. Art is a wonderful, loving, and caring husband and the best father I could have ever asked for
Your love for the lost, your love for us, and the sacrifices you have made so many, many times because of your love for Jesus and others and your desire to please Him most of all, has been such a sample to me always, and I pray that my life might reflect that sample in all I do.
From Sharon:
Thank God for the FFing revolution. If it weren't for FFing I wouldn't have had the wonderful father that I have, Art‚ who took care of us seven kids and who traveled with us to over 23 countries, showing us that it was possible to live by faith for the Lord‚ which I've continued to do the full 29 years of my life. (By the way, I also have close contact with my biological father, Miguel, who is no longer in The Family. But it was Art who raised me from 2 years of age.)
Also, without the Lord bringing Art into my mother's life, I wouldn't have had the 5 best brothers and sisters in the world, since the five kids that came after me were the fruit of that union.-–All 5 of which are still serving the Lord, I might add.
Art is someone who loved and admired Dad and Maria always, in word and in spirit, without a doubt, and knew that what we were doing was the truth. Even as a small child, I did see his trials that came with FFing, but I saw that he was able to push beyond that for the sake of souls, who were getting saved just like him. All this gave me great love and respect for my dad.
I am not in a position to say that every single FF situation that some may have experienced was as fruitful as my parents', but I can say from this SGA's point of view it did everyone who my parents' lives touched a lot of good! These very people whose lives were touched through FFing were many of the same ones who protected and provided for us through times of persecution and helped us survive on the field when we needed it.
Actually, I wonder if many of our younger generation could even handle the challenges of FFing. Was it a different and radical tool that the Lord used, which kept us separate from the churches? Yes! Do I wish that we'd never done FFing because it was so unusual, or because of the trials it caused! No! Never! Why? Well, if for no other reason, I never would have had a father like I did.
Let me close with a testimony of this one Englishman who mom met and witnessed to while serving the Lord in India, when I was a young teen. This Brit was so impressed that mom was there in India as a missionary, and with 6 kids, and most of all, that her husband knew she was out with him! Mom invited this man over to meet dad and us kids. He had never experienced anything like this before, and was overwhelmed by the love.
Meeting Jesus and getting to know the Lord in this way totally changed his life. He went back to England and shared with his wife, after 10 years of not having anything to do with each other physically. She cried and was so thrilled at how her husband had changed that she too prayed and was saved. They started reading the Bible together, along with their children, who also got saved.
So did FFing save souls? It sure did! So, mom and dad, hats off to you for being willing to follow the Lord! It worked! I love you and thank God for you daily! I could never repay the love for the Lord and His prophet that you instilled in me! And I'm proud of you that you have never given up the oftentimes-hard fight of a CM disciple!
From Knight:
My admiration and respect for Dad, Mama, my parents and all of our Family around the world was rekindled after reading the condensed “King Arthur” series. Their obedience to and love for the Lord which inspired them to give of their time, spirit and bodies to help the lost find God's love in a very tangible way is a hard record to beat. The accounts and correspondence in this series give hard proof to what Dad said about it being the “first generation who fought, bled and died” to themselves for our freedom and place.
To all of our FGAs who engaged in FFing, my hat is off to you. I feel the Lord has yet to require of us younger generation a physical manifestation of our devotion to the Lord and the Family as intense and demanding as that of FFing. Though times and methods have changed, I pray that the same spirit of revolution which rocked the world through FFing will also burn deep and hot within us “youngsters,” and that we, like our parents‚ will readily present our bodies a living sacrifice in the way He requires when the time comes.
Dad said that a personal testimony is the best witness that can be given. I have that personal testimony because the people I call my parents and the wonderful young folks I call my brothers and sisters are living fruit of that controversial method of witnessing. I don't claim to be the best exhibit of FFing, but when I look at my dad, my brother and sisters serving the Lord on the mission field, giving their lives daily to bring others to Jesus, the scripture comes to mind that “by their fruits, ye shall know them.”
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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MO' LI'L JEWELS! CM 536 9/76
1. Keep moving when litnessing if your customers are stationary, such as in a park, etc. Then follow up with witnessing. Come back and look for the same people sitting there on the benches reading. If they're interested in what they just got, they'll be sitting there reading it‚ and there is your opportunity. Start talking to them: "How do you like it? What do you think about it?"
2. No farmer in his right mind sows just one seed and then sits down waiting for it to grow! He plows the whole field, then he sows the whole field and then he waits for the harvest. We believe in quick harvests, but if you spend two or three hours on one seed you'll never get anywhere! Some people are nothing but the Devil's decoys to lure you away from what you're supposed to be doing, to keep you from getting out there and reaching all the people that could accept Jesus.
3. But the Word really gets through to people. Just begin to read the Word to them‚ and if they're not interested, pretty soon they'll all scatter. But leave them with the seed. They sought Jesus out, and if you keep getting out the Word, the people will seek you out too!
4. Of course, there are always exceptions: Sometimes you may feel particularly and immediately led to talk with some hungry sheep on the spot. Do as God leads, then keep moving!
* * *
5. Every great world leader, every great man‚ was a fanatic that some people hated and some people adored.
* * *
6. When I was a child I could think like a man. It's taken me years to think like a child! Picasso once said: "When I was a child I could paint like Rafael, but it's taken me many years to learn to paint like children."
* * *
7. (Tongues:) "Go forth in the power of the arm of the Words the Lord gives to David!" It was like we shot up our arm in a fistlike salute, and the power of our punch was the Words!
* * *
8. If it's all a bed of roses without any thorns‚ then they must not be roses!
* * *
9. When I was a kid in a school I was sitting on the toilet one day after the first bell had already rung, but I had constipation. So the captain of the ball team yelled to me, "Bell's rung!" And I said, "I know it, I'm doing my best!" And he said‚ "Well, when I come and sit down, if it come it come, and if it don't come, it don't come!" So "If it come it come, and if it don't come‚ it don't come!" Don't worry about it!
* * *
10. My mother used to say, "I'll go to the doctor or the hospital to find out what's wrong with me so I'll know what God healed me from. Then after I'm healed I'll go back for an examination to prove that God healed me!"
* * *
11. After reading some news stories about us, I exploded in tongues with this exclamation: "All the world is burgeoning with the stories of the children of David!" I never used that word before! I must have an English helper. (Then came:) "Some of the greatest literary lights of the English world are helping David!" We have lots of helpers! Praise the Lord! "Effectual are the faithful prayers of David's children!"
* * *
12. Other movements didn't have the right cement. With ours God had to create a close-knit family for the hierarchy so the leaders wouldn't get out of hand. Then our kids are so cemented in the spirit personally and doctrinally. When the leader's gone, if their cement was only his personality, the thing falls apart. But if the cement was strong teaching and doctrine to perpetuate the message and the method, then the work carries on pretty much as he founded it and led it.
13. If a movement eventually cools off, that primarily happens because they haven't really broken with the System, and so they melt back into the churches. The Protestant churches only broke loose from the pope; they didn't really break with Catholicism or System Christianity. They all still have a priesthood and their rituals and temples and "go-to–church-on-Sunday" religion!
* * *
14. Love gives some pain, and yet love also gives surcease from pain.
* * *
15. The basis of virtually all sin is pride!
* * *
16. I had a sudden impression that a certain king of ours could change overnight and switch to our enemies if he got the chance. It's a choice we always have to make: Would we rather have an enemy on the inside or on the outside?
17. Leaders have to face their fears and think about the worst things that could happen. Inside he can be a false shepherd that leads the sheep astray. Outside he can only be a wolf that will obviously attack them. The sheep are much more wary of wolves than they are of their shepherds!
* * *
18. If you're not willing to pay the price God requires for healing, He won't heal you! Only the obedient get healing. It's a reward for the obedient. Health is a special blessing of God. You can only demand it if you're obedient. But if you're disobedient you can't demand anything!
19. "The prayer of faith shall save the sick" (James 5:14,15). If you're not being healed, either He's testing your faith or there's something wrong in your life and God's not going to heal you because you're not right with Him. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Rest doesn't really strengthen you. If you get too much, it makes you weak!
20. The requirements of good health are good exercise, good food, good sleep and good living! Nose and throat diseases and diseases of the respiratory system need a great deal of fresh air and exercise. This is an absolute essential! And you have to let your body know you want to live! "The spirit of a man sustaineth him, but a wounded spirit who can bear!" (Pro.18:14).
* * *
21. The Great Pyramid and King Tut's tomb and all of these mysteries of ancient Egypt are being opened up to this generation because they're going to be significantly fulfilled in this time!
22. The spiritual seeds planted thousands of years ago are going to blossom in this generation--both good and evil--as though this generation were their flowering. Although I didn't express the explanation I had in tongues, I got the picture and the meaning of the picture:
23. Egypt has much to do with what is happening today and what is going to happen, and the ancient spirits are anything but dead! God is going to permit them to crop up in this last day.
24. Because people have rejected God and His truth, He's going to let the occult and the Satanic take over, like Pandora's Box! They're again going to take over the rulership of the world just like they did before. No wonder the Antichrist is going to come out of Egypt!
* * *
25. There was a sign up in a restaurant window in which we used to eat in London. In big letters it said "MORNING TEA." But the first word "Morning" was divided into two parts: On the first window pane were the big letters "MO‚" and it was divided from the rest by the frame between the panes of glass, so it really stood out prominently. We felt it was another indication that the Lord was trying to remind people of His Words and His prophet and His children! The funny thing about it was, I discovered I was sitting just inside that window directly under those letters "MO"! Ha!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
(End of File)
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JEWELS GALORE! CM 539 9/76
1. We're like a rock that has been thrown into a pool of water, and the big splash the rock makes is like the primary effect of our Colonies. The ripples that go out from the splash in varying degrees and touch the shore are like the many other people that we influence. More and more now we're going to be concentrating on these ripples.
2. The people in our Colonies are our full-time shock troops, but most people are not going to be able to live with us in our Colonies. Nevertheless, we can give them the Lord, fellowship‚ love, a place to come for counsel, a place for spiritual feeding‚ a place where they can get our literature and where we'll be able to help guide their lives. They may not live in Shangri-La, but it gives them hope just to know there is a Shangri-La--like knowing you have a home somewhere to go to when you need it!
* * *
3. On communion: The weaker you get in the flesh, the stronger you are in the spirit. When you're so weak you don't feel capable or sufficient‚ then God has a chance to take over and do things to suit Himself.
4. The Christian spiritual life is divided primarily into praise, prayer and performance! So the first phase of your meeting should be praise. Praise includes not only your music, but also testimonies.
5. Next is prayer or supplication. What are you asking God to help you with? Tell God! He's got the answers! Follow praise with both your suggestions and requests.
6. You go into the presence of the King to bow down and make obeisance, praising Him. Then you make your request, and then the King tells you what to do--and then you go out and obey!
7. You simply follow this same pattern in your meeting: What is your praise? What is your prayer? And what do you think God wants you to do to carry out the plan!
8. The next part is your communion--getting your heart right with the Lord and others before you take communion. Have real prayer songs.
9. At communion read 1Cor.11. If there is ever to be a confession session, that is the time to have it, when people should get up and confess and make things right with others.
10. There are three types of confessions:
(a) First of all‚ you confess to the Lord if it's only the Lord you've offended, and that's perfectly private. You can do that right on the spot before you take communion.
(b) If there's an individual whom you've offended, if only they know about it, just go to them privately and confess and have a little love feast together.
(c) Finally, there are sins which have been open before the whole congregation. For those you have to give an open and public confession before all!
11. Your job as the leader of the meeting is hardly any more than master of ceremonies unless you personally have some special message you want to give them. At a meeting, the most important thing is to get everybody to share their prayers and plans and desires.
12. At the end of communion you should have a love feast, but you may have to tell them they need to particularly kiss the people they don't usually get along with and people they don't usually go out of their way to kiss.
13. The Lord uses the leader to guide and show them the way, what they're to do. In other words, you don't pick up the whole flock of sheep and carry them up the mountain yourself. You just show them the way to go, and then they have to move along under their own steam.
14. During such a prayer session you may also have manifestations of the Spirit. "Forbid not to speak in tongues. … Despise not prophesying" (1Cor.14:39; 1Thes.5:20). If they don't volunteer it, say, "Lord‚ is there anything You want to say to us?" It's a very moving time. After communion there should be happy rejoicing! You can even have dancing!
* * *
15. On going back: You say you're not going back on God, just the form of service. So what are you going to substitute in its place? You'll think, "But if I go back there, I might as well just do my own thing because I'd be out of the will of God anyway." This is the conclusion most people come to: "Well, I failed God. I'm out of tune, I'm out of touch with God, so I might as well be doing my own thing!"
16. You're thinking, "It's in my heart to go back, so I'm guilty. So I might as well do it!" But you could also have murder in your heart, yet you could still fight off the actual urge to kill! Of course, that murder in your heart could bear that kind of fruit, but that would be much worse than just having it in your heart.
17. It is the degree of sin that is dangerous! Although it may not seem like it, the best way to get it out of your heart is to just slam the door and throw the key away! Or like Elisha (1Ki.19:21)‚ sacrifice the oxen and burn the plow! But if you can't do it that way, just cool it, taper it off.
18. It's usually not God's will for you to go home permanently, because this is God's will and that is not! When we want to go back to try to get it out of our hearts‚ we're saying, "Lord, lead me into temptation so I can get the victory over it!" Proverbs 4:14,15 says: "Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away."
19. There isn't always an alternative to the exact will of God, as in the case of the young prophet eaten by lions (1Kings 13). Naaman, after getting healed of leprosy, wasn't planning on going all the way back: "I won't actually offer the burnt offering myself but will only escort the king into the idol's temple." He was the best friend of the king of Syria‚ and he could have changed the course of the whole country if he hadn't compromised. But it wasn't long until the Syrians were at the throats of the Israelites again! Daniel was just the opposite: He influenced the Babylonian king to convert the whole nation!
20. When you go back, your own disobedience will hush your mouth as far as witnessing goes. If even the thought of going back is hurting your testimony here, then what will it do when you actually go back?
21. We don't solve our problems by running away from them. Blessings are sort of like healing: Healings are not necessarily permanent unless you obey. It's almost like a reward for obeying. If we don't obey, God is likely to take away our blessings and privileges.
22. You have to have a constant battle to have constant victory! You'll keep the victory as long as you're having a battle. It's when they surrender and stop fighting that an army loses the victory! Constant battle is like swimming: You're always fighting to keep your head above the water!
* * *
23. Abrahim or someone said: "He will not fail in one of all His good promises He has given unto David!"
* * *
24. (Dream:) Somehow or another I think the gas inspector saw a piece of literature lying around and said‚ "Oh, you know them?" Maria made some kind of excuse, so he said, "You know, it's a funny thing: They say there's some old man living here in disguise who's their leader!" Then he gave Maria a kind of knowing smile and wink like‚ "Don't worry, I won't tell anybody!" (Maybe this is a good warning to you not to leave lit lying around in a selah situation! It sure was to us!)
* * *
25. God likes us to choose, but He only lets us choose within certain limitations.
* * *
26. Get a decision! Nail'm down, put a hook in everything! Test them on everything. Draw the net! Give the invitation! Express the need. You've got to make people answer. You've got to do something to cause them to move. You've got to ask them and make them give an answer. You've got to draw it out of them!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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MORE PRECIOUS PEARLS! CM 540 9/76
1. According to an old Indian tale, they showed four blind men an elephant and asked them to describe it. One of them felt the tail and said‚ "Behold, I perceive the elephant is like a rope!" Another one felt the trunk and said, "No, he is like a serpent!" The third felt the leg and said, "Oh nay, but he is like a tree!" And the fourth felt his side and said, "No, he's like a wall!"
2. Well, they were all right, but only the guy that's got his eyes open can put it all together and see what it's really like! I've explained the Bible's application to our folks' lives today‚ but used direct quotes to do it and show them what it meant to them. I was concerned that whatever I said in my own words was from the Bible.
3. There's nothing on Earth more powerful than the Word of God--inspired, beautiful and poetic, just the naked Word of God! The only reason I have to write anything at all is to help people understand it and relate to it. Besides‚ we're organizing a new nation and how to run it. Since we're not living like Moses in tents, I can't tell you to just read how they did it. I can't hand you a Bible and say, "Here's how to build your Colony" or, "Here, understand all the prophecy!" It would take you a whole lifetime to study it, and you don't have time!
4. Nothing will ever take the place of the Bible as far as I'm concerned! I would say that the business Letters and teaching Letters are not on the level of the Bible. But I will take those inspired and supernatural and divinely inspired Letters and put them on the same level as the rest of the Word of God--because that's exactly what the writers of the Bible did!
5. The Bible writers didn't say that all the things they said were necessarily the direct voice of God! But as Peter and Paul said, they were inspired by God to write them! After all, it's all given by inspiration. If I didn't think these things the Lord gives me were inspired, I'd quit! The Letters are merely a supplement to the Bible to tell people things the Bible didn't tell them--like how to fix a flat tire!
6. There are a whole lot of people who know about Jesus and the Bible, but we had to relate it and translate it and interpret it and give them a sample in our own lives: "Look at me and the way we live! This is really what Jesus is like!" This is what we're telling the world with our Colonies and our life in them! This is what we're showing them with our samples of love! It's really nothing new. We're just bringing the Bible and Jesus down to their level where they can see them and understand them!
* * *
7. I have very little vision for big Colonies, but a big, big vision for the big, big world! I'm concerned about getting out a little shepherd's voice to his little sheep all around the big, big world!
* * *
8. Prayer letters: You owe it to outsiders to get them under conviction to help you do God's work--and because we need it! "Ask and ye shall receive! Ye have not because ye ask not!" (John 16:24; James 4:2).
* * *
9. When are you through training a new disciple–-when you have taught him how to teach others and he's actually winning souls? No! Our job isn't done until we've taught him where and how to establish a fold for those sheep and how far to go with that fold until it's able to stand by itself!
10. We personally trained 100 to 150 leaders at TSC and Los Angeles, and a year later that was still all the leaders we had-–shepherds of about 100 to 150 Colonies! We were then stopped because of lack of leadership. There's only one way we're going to be able to get any further than we've now gotten: Get out the literature which can make disciples and make leaders of these disciples! Start printing that kind of literature by the millions and start getting that literature out to all our kids! (We did, and that's why we're still rolling! The Letters make leaders! Amen? Read'm!)
You Never Lose by Giving!
11. I was tipping a waitress one day and I said, "Oh, Lord, I wish I had enough money to give these dear people what I know they need! I know this poor waitress isn't making much and she needs it. She's been so good to us and waits on us so well, and is always so sweet to us!"
12. We always ate at this same place when we were in town. The waitress was practically in love with me, and she was just lovely! She was telling us about her family and how she had to work because her husband was sick. So I was feeling very sorry for her and wanted to tip her real generously.
13. I thought, "Lord, You know I always wished I was a millionaire so I could really give as I'd like, to people wherever I see a need‚ wherever people need help." The Lord said, "You've got it! What are you waiting for? Give what you've got and I'll give you more!"
14. I was trying to decide whether to give her 25 pence or 50 pence‚ or something like that. We were pinching the pennies and trying to decide on whether I should give her the bare minimum ten percent of the bill or I should give double that, what I'd like to give her. It was Christmas and I even wanted to give her a pound! I knew she needed it, because from our conversation we found out she was in need.
15. The Lord said, "Well, you've got a pound. Why not give it to her? You don't have to be a millionaire to give what you've got!" And I got the Scriptures, "Give and it shall be given unto you, pressed down, shaken together and running over!" (Luke 6:38). And "he that scattereth abroad, it increaseth!" (Pro.11:24).
16. The Lord's finances work the opposite of the world's! The world says, "Well now, when I see it and when I've got my million, then I'll start giving!" But the Lord says, "You start giving what you've got now, and then I'll give you whatever you need to give. I'll give you even more!"
17. He wants to see if He can trust you with what you already have! Will you give sacrificially and faithfully of what you've got now? He wants to find out how you use the nickels before He gives you the dollars.
18. I felt so great after I gave her that pound, and she thanked me so sweet! She worked so hard and she was so nearsighted she could hardly see. She was about 55 or 60, and she was rushing around working as hard as any young person. I knew she probably did that to try to keep her job for fear they might hire somebody younger instead.
19. So it did me a lot of good to give her that pound, and it was a real liberation! I began passing out money right and left! It's easy to be a giver in some areas of London because everybody's so poor! I began to give double tips to the waitresses, the bus drivers and the poor little newspaper girls on the street–-just really handing it out--and I felt great!
20. And soon we were receiving more money for our living expenses! We were beginning to reap the benefits of giving! I started doubling my giving to others, and so the Lord started doubling His giving to me, and the more He gives me double, the more I can keep on giving double!
21. You never lose by giving! How much have you given lately? Are you having a hard time because people are being stingy with you? Maybe it's because you're being stingy with them-–or with God!
22. Let go and let God give through you and you'll soon find He'll give more to you through others! "Freely ye have received, also freely give!" (Mat.10:8). Try it! You'll like it! "Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal.3:10). Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! Amen?
Millions of God's Children!
23. As I was praying the Lord's prayer, I thought it's wonderful we can pray that prayer together! It's not only a wonderful prayer the Lord taught us to pray that covers everything, but it is a sign of our own personal fellowship. And it's not only been our custom, but as I pray it I always think about the millions of God's children around the world who pray it! We're not the only Children of God, Beloved!
24. There are millions of believers around the world who love the Lord and are doing the best they can, in spite of some churches. In spite of how little they get fed, in spite of how little they've been taught, they love the Lord!
25. God's got lots of children! There are millions around the world who love Jesus and who are doing the best they can‚ really witnessing and trying to win souls, in and out of the churches! We've got a big Family!
26. I believe a lot of them love us too! I'm sure many of those that have heard about us know we're doing what's right and we're teaching what's right in spite of our critics‚ and I think they're going to admire you for being examples to the believers.
27. We're like the top, the apex, the shining examples of what all Christians ought to be like, what the whole Church ought to be like, and what all of them ought to be doing!
28. We are the ones who are leading the way. I remember my mother once said that it's not just your primary effect that's important‚ what you yourselves are actually doing. But we are having a tremendous secondary impact upon the churches! We've put the spotlight of God's truth on the churches‚ so they have got to either do it themselves or do some tall explaining why they aren't doing it!
29. I believe we've had a tremendous impact on Christians worldwide--inspiring them to do what they ought to be doing and be what they ought to be!
Give It Away!
30. God is so merciful He's even trying to warn the world! He's put His Word right on the streets for them! He's not only giving us a chance, but everybody a chance to believe that things are definitely going to get worse; they are not going to get better!
31. But they're hardening their hearts just like Pharaoh, and the result is going to be to bring down the government. It's going to bring down the capitalistic system, and the poor are going to have to take over like they always do.
32. Most governments almost always finally fall from the inside. The collapse came from within, brought about by their own people through revolution and civil war‚ and then the conqueror walked in and took over. They were weakened from the inside. Greece finally collapsed from the inside; ultimately Rome did too.
33. Meanwhile, the rich people move out and secretly move their riches out of the country. They escape when they see their house tumbling down around their ears! And it's not only the paper money they escape with, for the paper money's no good when the government collapses! They get out with real valuables like art treasures, gold‚ jewels, and things like that!
34. If you have any riches, you'd better be ready to escape! But where are you gonna fly when the poor take over the whole Earth? When "the meek shall inherit the Earth" (Mat.5:5), there'll be no place else to go!
35. So what should you do? Give away your riches to the poor now and become one of them so you'll be on the winning right side when they take over! Amen?
36. Accept Jesus now. "Sell all that thou hast and give to the poor, and come follow Me‚" Jesus said to the rich young ruler (Mat.19:21). "And thou shalt have riches in Heaven!"--True, everlasting spiritual riches, the souls you help win to the Lord and save from Hell, and who'll therefore be your friends forever in Heaven! That's the only kind of riches you can take with you!
37. Instead of a mere breadwinner, why not be a soul winner? Souls, not diamonds, are forever! Amen? Okay, get with it! Today! Now! Tomorrow may be too late. God bless you! And He will--with everlasting riches of immortal souls forever! Praise God!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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DON'T DROP OUT--DROP IN! CM 542 8/76
1. In some of the closed countries where we are now, we're either officially prohibited or greatly restricted in litnessing or open witnessing by governmental regulations, pressure or persecution. In these closed countries we have a different situation from almost anything we have ever run across before.
2. We are living under conditions similar to the Early Church and the Roman Empire--a dictatorship. In fact, they probably had more freedom there and then than we have here and now! [Note: Dad lived in Tenerife at this time‚ and Spain was emerging from more than 30 years of authoritarian rule by General Francisco Franco. Religious freedom was severely limited, and many Family members who helped pioneer Spain in the early '70s were arrested for witnessing, and entire Homes were sometimes deported by the authorities.]
3. Many of us are living under circumstances very similar to what the Antichrist dictatorship is going to be like! There's government control, whether you work directly for the government, or you work for a big company, or you're going to a government college, or just living in a family under social control, the control of custom.
4. We are virtually illegal! It's not only illegal for us to distribute literature as an unregistered religious organization‚ it's even illegal for us to meet, teach, talk, win souls or anything like that!
5. You can't drop out here even if you want to! If you quit your job without a good reason, it's apt to cause you all kinds of problems, not counting church and family problems. You may not be able to get another one, or you may not be able to do it at all without angering the authorities.
6. If a student should drop out of the government school‚ he'd cause problems there as well. Certainly if they drop out of the church, that's apt to cause problems. And if they try to drop out of the family, even if they're of age, social pressure and family customs and ties are so strong that this could definitely cause very serious problems.
7. We're guests of this country, and most of us are only tourists. We're not supposed to have any kind of work, business or religious activity here. We're certainly not supposed to be conducting any kind of a church or religious work or organization or classes or meetings or anything like that.
8. We are virtually underground here! I think this is why God has allowed us to be here and to pioneer the type of ministry that we have here--because it is preparing us for the future. Future conditions like this include the coming Antichrist government, when everything will be regulated and controlled just like it is here‚ and more so.
9. You can't teach dropping out here! Neither can you teach forsake-all--not if you don't want to land these folks in jail, and maybe us too!
10. It's impossible for them to forsake all and drop out here-–the government won't allow it! The economic system, which is virtually all government owned and operated, will not allow them to do it. Since everything is under government control, they would even find great difficulty in dropping out of school. They would find that they'd get in trouble somehow or another or forfeit certain things or have certain problems. Without very special family permission, they find it virtually impossible even to leave home!
11. You're only a tourist, so you're not supposed to be having religious classes and gatherings and talking to them about what to do. So every time you do that, you're breaking the law, and we must not break any laws except those that forbid faith or witnessing! If the government wanted to really get tough and hard about it, they could forbid you to have these classes, or arrest you and fine you and jail you and kick you out of the country!
12. You're preaching the old message of forsake all and drop out, which is the message we were founded on and lived on‚ which I lived by and I have preached nearly all my life in free countries where they could do it and get away with it. But preaching that now in this country is virtually against the law! This is a totally new kind of operation, a pioneer effort, different than anything we ever had before. You cannot do it the way we used to do it.
13. Here you can't preach "drop out," "forsake all" and "join"–-not unless you want to get us all thrown out, as well as bring tremendous hardship and unnecessary persecution on these poor folks!
14. When there was a choice between cutting off the amps at ten o'clock at the Light Club and keeping the Club, or losing the amps and Club and all, which did we do? We cut off the amplifiers and kept the Club, right? Isn't that just plain common sense?
15. Oh, of course we had people there who said‚ "The Bible says we ought to obey God rather than man!" Well, we didn't have to keep the amps on to obey God! You say the Bible says, "He that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be My disciple"! But in a country where they're forbidden to forsake all that they have, maybe they can't be a disciple--at least not a full-time one! They can give all they have to give, but some things are not theirs to give and they have no choice in the matter.
16. What you're going to have to teach them is how to be a disciple on the job and in the schools and at home! In the first place, they're forbidden to drop out. In the second place, we're forbidden to tell them so. It's against the law! Even if it weren't, it would still get us in a hell of a lot of trouble if they did it!
17. All we can do here is tell them about the love of God and give them salvation through Jesus! That we have to do no matter what happens to us! But even in that we have to be cautious because it is proselytizing as far as they're concerned.
18. You are in a country which until just recently was totally closed to the Gospel. No religious group of any kind was tolerated in any way, shape or form except the state church. You are operating in a country where the Gospel was forbidden just a few years ago! You would probably have been thrown in jail for just talking about Jesus to somebody! Now you're trying to come here and tell them to quit their jobs, quit the army, leave home, quit school, forsake all, drop out and follow Jesus!
19. I don't think you realize how dangerous it is, what we're doing here! It's a miracle of God that we are able to be here in the first place, to even live here-–even if it were without all this witnessing we're doing!
20. So we just can't preach the drop-out message here! You ask, "What are we going to do then?" Well, you're going to have to treat these folks here as a genuine full-fledged, 100-percent catacomb situation.
21. All we can tell these people to do is go back to work, back to school, back to family, back to the army and their daily enforced routine and witness! That they have to do; that is a requirement of God! We must confess with our mouths. It we're ashamed of Him before this world, He will be ashamed of us. If we deny Him‚ He will deny us (Rom.10:9; Luke 9:26; Mat.10:33). That can cause us enough trouble without any other kind of trouble!
22. What you can do is teach them to witness, teach them the Bible, teach them the truth‚ teach them the life of faith and living for God. I don't mean dropping out and living by faith that way, but trusting God for everything. Teach them to witness on the job‚ at school, at home, at play‚ wherever, and just trust God to take care of the results. Because in this country you cannot even suggest that you think they're disobeying God and failing God if they don't quit their job or school or family or army!
23. You're going to have to explain, "That's what we'd like to do and you'd like to do and that's what God would like you to be able to do. But if you're not allowed and it's impossible to do it, and if you do it it's going to cause you so much more trouble and almost completely end your ministry and your effectiveness at all, then it's just not smart to do it!"
24. It's better to be able to stay alive a little longer and keep witnessing and at least be free enough to witness than to get thrown in jail or in prison.
25. Tell them to stay on the job, do a better job than ever, so they'll "see your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven!" (Mat.5:16). That's the verse the Lord gave me when I was firing a furnace in the army and peeling spuds in the kitchen!
26. You couldn't have told me to drop out, forsake all and follow Jesus, and that if I didn't I was disobeying God! If I'd done that, I'd have landed in the guard house, and what good would that have done? I did refuse to go kill people and shoot people‚ and that caused me enough trouble!
27. Please, folks, don't force these friendly police to have to arrest you because you push them too far! Don't force the local politicians to have to force you out because you caused too much trouble and inspired too many complaints! Lord help us to have wisdom, to "be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves"!
28. You've already converted a few of them, but as long as you don't convert too many and as long as they keep on acting like Systemites even if they're not, and as long as they keep their Systemite job and go to their Systemite school and stay in their Systemite home‚ then it won't cause the System too much trouble and they won't be forced to cause you trouble!
29. We could preach the drop-out message in our sleep! And we practice it too-–but we can't here! All we can teach here is God's love, Jesus and salvation, and we're even running a risk to do that!
30. You say, "But the Bible teaches it! The Bible says so! I just gave them Bible! All I did was quote them Scriptures!" Well, maybe you quoted them the wrong Scriptures in this particular situation! There are exceptions to almost every rule!
31. It's still a revolution. We still have to change and be willing to change! We've got to get convinced that the old methods that we used to use are not going to be possible under these new conditions. We've got to do something entirely different if we're going to survive and be able to carry on!
32. Our converts here are going to be able to carry on long after we get thrown out, just like folks did after we got driven out of Huntington Beach. After we left, the Jesus People carried on. They stayed in church and at home and on their jobs, but they made quite a sensation there even after we left. Thousands of them were going to that guy's little church in Costa Mesa [Chuck Smith's Calvary Chapel]. They had 5,000 people at a time attending his church!
33. That was a result of what we started there! They were the people that weren't the all-outers. The prophets left‚ but in a way they were our disciples and they went back to church because there was no place else to go. There was no longer us and the Club and so on. But we really were responsible--that was our secondary impact. We had a share in that fruit that he reaped because we had sowed the seed.
34. Not everybody can be the avant-garde. As I've often said before, not everybody can forsake all and leave home. Somebody's got to be our friends and kings and supporters and protectors! God's got to use somebody who still "stays by the stuff" in the System (1Sam.30:24). They can do better than you when it comes to talking to the people. In the first place, they know the language better. In the second place, they understand the people better, and they know what to say and what not to say better than we do! They've got a lot more wisdom about their own situation; this is their home, their country, their people.
35. Thank God that we've led so many to the Lord who can carry on the work and witness to others--on the job, in the army, in the schools, at home or wherever they are! Be thankful for that, that we have gotten away with that much. Count your blessings!
36. But don't push it! As they say‚ don't press your luck; don't push it too far to where it's all nullified and they get thrown in jail and we get thrown out!
37. This is a catacomb situation! They cannot quit, they cannot drop out, they cannot leave; it's impossible! They've got to be like Christian spies in the System, infiltrators, fifth columnists. That's what God is doing with us right now throughout the world: infiltrating the whole world, saturating it with our doctrine, converting as many of its members as possible to Christ, so that we will have a ready-made organization for running the world when Jesus comes!
38. It is you that God's going to use to run the world, and He's getting you ready for it right now! But you had better keep your head underground now or it's going to get lopped off! The Devil and his System don't like you, so you'd better keep out of sight as much as possible and work secretly without causing the Devil and his System too much trouble or being too obvious‚ or he's going to get rid of you!
39. You can do a lot more from the inside than from the outside. You can reach a lot more if we manage to stay here and survive under the Lord's protection and stay free enough to keep witnessing.
40. Lord, bless us and give us great wisdom in a very touchy, ticklish, dangerous situation like this! Help us to be harmless as doves! Harmless to whom?–-Harmless to others and to the System, so the System doesn't consider us any great danger.
41. Give us the wisdom to be harmless enough that they won't feel like harming us! Give us the wisdom, Lord‚ to be patient. Give us the wisdom to just have love and depend by faith upon Your power to do the job by Your Spirit. It is our job to witness, to bring the truth and to love.
42. Help us, Lord, to do it in such a way that we do not offend and draw the enmity of the System and make them feel threatened or harmed, which is not wisdom. Bless and keep us safely. Give us wisdom, lots of love and patience, above all.
43. Do help these folks, Lord--they're in a difficult situation. Help us to give them good teaching and the truth and salvation and fellowship and food and comfort and strength and courage to have to live in the System and face it every day. Help us to try to make it easier for them. Help us to do the best we can to help them all we can and love them all we can and to make it easier for them, not harder, in Jesus' name! Amen. Praise the Lord!
44. That's a very important principle that we must operate on here. We're not going to be able to ask these guys to quit their jobs and join our Colonies. Here, you may even have to quit the Colony and join their jobs and go to live with them and help them on their job to be a good Christian and a good witness and help pull them through. If we can't bring them into our Colony to live, then we're going to have to go into their Colony and live with them!
45. We have finally come to the conclusion, after much prayer and experience, that the best thing to do is: "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, but unto God the things that are God's!"--as Jesus Himself said (Mat.22:21). What do they owe "Caesar," the government, the System, society?--Their job‚ school‚ military service, family responsibilities, etc. But what don't they owe "Caesar"?--Their free time, their nights, the place they live, etc.!
46. They can go to work or school, etc., in the days and live with us at night! After being tried and proven and tested as to their faith‚ motives‚ desires and loyalty--like any other live-in disciple-–let 'em move in, not out! Amen?
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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FIGHTERS! DFO 551 9/76
1. (Maria: Sometimes people think that when they receive Jesus they're never going to have any more problems.) My mother always used to say, "The Devil doesn't start shooting till you go over the top!" That's an illustration of the old WWI trench warfare. Not until you come out of your trench and start attacking his territory does the Enemy really let you have it with all his big guns! So getting saved doesn't automatically bring complete relief from all problems and battles.
2. Another illustration is the story about old black Sam. The servant of this wealthy plantation owner in the South was asked by his master one day, "Sam, how come you're a Christian and yet you have all these troubles and trials and tribulations? Here I don't even believe in God and yet I don't have as much trouble as you do!" Sam said, "Well, boss, I guess I'll have to think for a little while before I can answer that one."
3. A few days later they were out duck hunting. In bird hunting, some birds are killed and some are just wounded. Sometimes they'll even get up and fly off again if you don't grab them quick. So Sam's master yelled at him after he'd been shooting at several ducks and said, "Bag the live ones! Bag the live ones! Leave the dead ones lay!"
4. And old Sam came back and said, "I think I got the answer, boss." He said‚ "I'm a live one! The Devil is afraid I'm going to get away, so he tries to bag me first. You's a dead one. He's already got you, and he's not a bit worried about you!"
5. (Maria: The Devil can't get you back once you're saved--you're the Lord's forever!) Yes, but he tries hard to keep you from serving God‚ so he gives you a lot of trouble. He tries to keep you from winning others into the Kingdom and to keep you from being a good or effective witness or testimony. And he tries to destroy you too, even physically. He can't destroy your spirit any longer, but he can sure give you a lot of trouble in the flesh!
6. The Lord allows it to test new Christians to see if they've really got what it takes, so that you don't have to waste time on them if they can't make it. That's why the army always make the first training the toughest-–boot camp.
7. (Maria: Then people want to know, "What did getting saved do for me anyway? I'm just having these horrible trials now!") Well, you've got eternal life, you're not going to Hell, you don't have to worry about death anymore, you don't have to worry about life anymore and you've got the Lord on your side, or you're on His side.
8. So you know you're going to win in the long run, no matter what happens. No matter how heavy the fighting or how hot the battle, you're going to win the war! And though "Many are the afflictions of the righteous," the Lord is going to deliver you out of them all, no matter how many or what! (Psa.34:19).
9. Even though there's war and turmoil and confusion and chaos on the outside, at last you've gotten rid of it on the inside. You should have peace of mind‚ contentment of heart and a feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment, fulfillment. You know you're doing something good‚ something worthwhile with eternal values.
10. There are all kinds of benefits! You've got all the promises in the whole Bible on your side now! Even whatever you give up, the Lord's going to repay you a "hundredfold in this life--and in the world to come, life eternal!" (Mark 10:30).
11. So there are battles‚ but boy, the rewards are high! It's worth fighting the battles for such high stakes! You couldn't have bigger rewards than we have! They're worth paying a price for, worth sacrificing for‚ even worth dying for!
12. We belong to the greatest family in the world, the family of God's love, with the truest and most loving brothers and sisters in the whole world‚ who will help you, do anything for you, even die for you! The benefits are innumerable!
13. They need to count their blessings and start thinking on the positive things. Quit looking at all the negative things and trials of the Devil and doubts and fears and woes and troubles and tribulations and afflictions!
14. They're saved! They have the Lord, they have the Holy Spirit, they have the greatest power in the world! God's going to take care of them no matter what happens.
15. They need to get their minds on their blessings and be thankful for all God's goodness! If they don't, He'll give them something to cry about! (Maria: Even though the battles seem heavier now than before, it's a different kind of battle and it's one that doesn't take so much of a toll on their mind or their spirit.)
16. At least they have some victories now! What did they have before? They were living in nothing but defeat before! Of course they didn't have any battles and didn't have to do any fighting; they hadn't joined the army!
17. Now they've joined the army, so of course they're going to have some battles and have to do some fighting! But that also means they're going to have some victories! It's an army worth joining! There are victories worth fighting for!
18. They need to learn to resist the Enemy and pray for the Spirit of God to raise a standard against him. They need to learn that they didn't join the Peace Corps. They've joined the army‚ and we're in a battle! It's a fight, but we like it! We like to fight the Devil, and we like to defeat him!
19. A real soldier likes the battle like an athlete likes the athletic trial. He likes the fight, the excitement, the exhilarating thrill of victory!
20. We're wielding the most powerful weapon the world has ever known! Phooey on the atom bomb! This little tiny pill bomb of love is enough to blow this country apart! God's love is the ultimate weapon! It's an absolutely irresistible power! Thank You Lord!
21. We can't lose! It's impossible for us to lose‚ for "love never fails!" Even when it looks like we lose, we still win! So thank God for the Family, thank God for the love, thank God for salvation, thank God for His protection‚ thank God for His provision, thank God for everything--whatever God sends or lets the Devil bring!
22. "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord" (Rom.8:28). I don't know how they could complain about having a few little tests and trials and battles. Like I've always said, there's no testimony without a test, no triumph without a trial and no victory without a battle! They sound like some athlete who says, "Now that I've joined the Olympic team, what do I have to run for? Why do I have to go through these tests and trials? I thought I was appointed a champion!" It's like some soldier saying, "I've joined the army, now why do I have to fight?" Isn't that ridiculous! That's what you joined the army for, to fight!
23. When we get saved, we've joined God's army and we've become soldiers, and we're expected to go into battle and fight! And there's no discharge in this war. It's a fight to the finish, every inch, till death do us part! Forget the guys who don't think it's worth fighting and dying for! Goodness, if they don't think it's worth fighting and dying for, what the hell did they join for?
24. It's a die-daily fight! There's a war going on--a war of the worlds between the world of evil and the Kingdom of God! They're on God's side, the winning side that cannot lose! But they've still got to fight! But when they get to be veterans they'll enjoy the fighting!
25. I love the battle, because I know I'm on the right side, the winning side, and I've got the right Commander I'm proud of and happy to live or die for! But we're going to win‚ and it's worth winning! The fruits are worth fighting for.
26. We're going to enjoy all the spoils of war, triumph over our enemies, and get all the blessings of God and all the rewards, and a hundredfold of everything we've ever given up! We're going to run the world! But if people haven't got the guts to fight a little battle to win it, how in the world do they think they're going to ever be able to run it!
27. If you don't realize what you're fighting for, why there is a fight, if you don't look forward to the goal, the fact that we're going to win, and if you can't see what we're going to win and what's in it for you and what victory's going to mean, then of course you're going to think the trials and tribulations and battles are too much and too hard and aren't worth it!
28. You've got to keep your eyes ahead on the goal, like Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. By faith they looked ahead, they looked forward. They weren't satisfied with being a citizen of this world; they looked for a country made by God‚ a Heavenly Country, a Heavenly City!
29. They were willing to go through all the trials and tribulations and be strangers and pilgrims and people without a country because they knew they had one coming! And they knew it was worth fighting for‚ living and dying for!
30. Even the benefits on the way are worth it! What soldier gets paid that well? Who gets a hundred times everything he gives up or forsakes to join the army? He's going to get a hundred times here and now in this life! What more could he ask than that!
31. A hundred times the salary he got before, a hundred times the family he had before, a hundred times the houses he had before‚ a hundred times the health‚ the blessings, the love--one hundred times as much as everything he had before! What more could he ask than that! Plus Heaven! All this and Heaven too!
32. Don't they think that's worth fighting for? Don't they think even the love of our Savior‚ the love of our Commander in Chief, and just because you love Him is worth fighting for?
33. They'll never have to worry about whether they're going to go to Heaven or not. That ought to be worth the whole thing, just having that battle off your hands! You should be grateful enough for that to be willing to now fight the Lord's battles.
34. He fought and bled and died for you on the cross to save you and won the battle for you. If you're not willing now to turn around and lay down your life for Him, to live and fight and die for Jesus after the way He suffered for you, for your salvation, then you're no soldier!
35. You should be willing to fight just in gratitude for the fact that He saved you--to go through a few little battles with the Devil to fight for the cause of Christ and for His Kingdom and His Family and His love and to try to save others!
36. My Lord, you should be willing to die for somebody who saves your life! Jesus saved your souls‚ saved your lives for eternity. You should be willing to do anything for Him now, whatever He tells you to do, any kind of a battle, any kind of a fight, no matter whether you understand it or not or why! All you have to do is read the Bible to find out why!
37. My God, if you're not willing to die for Christ, it looks to me like you weren't worth dying for when He died for you! Jesus died for you, but you're not willing to suffer a little bit for Him? Look what Jesus did for you; look how He suffered for us! We ought to be willing to do anything for Him, suffer anything, go through anything for Him to save others like He saved us!
38. God help us to be soldiers and willing to do anything for Him, in just plain thanks for His salvation! He bought and paid for us; we belong to Him now. He can do whatever He wants to with us. He can send us into any battle He wants to, whether we understand it or not or whether we think it's worth it or not! It's His battle, not ours!
39. You don't always have to know why you're fighting or what you're fighting for! All you have to know is that Jesus gave the order and you obey it no matter how it comes out-–even if it kills you! "Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him!" (Job 13:15). Amen?
40. Of course it's a battle! What the hell do you think you joined the army for? An army is to fight battles, and we've got plenty of them to fight! But I love to fight because I know I'm fighting for the One that's worth fighting for and the souls that are worth winning and the goals that are worth attaining!
41. Why question why you have these trials, tribulations, fights and battles? You're in an army! Of course you're going to fight and have battles! Maybe you thought you were entering an old folks' home or something, retiring or going on a permanent vacation!
42. Jesus was willing to die for us to save us, and He wants us to be willing to die for Him to save others! "No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends!" (John 15:13). Even as Christ died for us, He expects us to lay down our lives for the brethren.
43. How could anybody complain? We've got so many more blessings and benefits and pleasures and wonderful things to enjoy, so much more than our sufferings! (Maria: "We know that our sufferings are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be!" [Romans 8:18].) Our sufferings aren't even worthy to be compared with the blessings that we already have, much less the glory we're going to enjoy!
44. Some people complain and murmur and gripe and bellyache about everything--not only their sufferings but even their blessings! "They didn't fix the meal right," or "My bed isn't good enough," or "I don't have enough privacy," or blah blah blah! People like that make me sick! They make God sick too!
45. God got so sick of Israel's murmuring that He let millions of them die out in the desert because of their bellyaching about everything He did for them! He saved their lives, provided every need, and did everything He could for them. But then they constantly griped because they had to walk a few miles through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land! Then they complained when they got there that it was already occupied by somebody else that they were going to have to throw out. Some people find something to murmur about no matter what happens!
46. They didn't want to die for the Promised Land, so they wound up in the wilderness for 40 years, dying anyhow for the desert, until they were all gone! The entire older generation passed away with their bones bleaching on the desert sands because of their unbelief and their murmuring and their complaining and their bellyaching and their whining!
47. They suffered so many things in vain! (Gal.3:4). The people that complain about the battle and then quit just before the victory's won never get to enjoy it! They go through so much and then miss the victory! They lose the whole thing because they griped and complained all the way through the battle. They never made it to the victory because they quit too soon‚ just because there was a little battle! You talk about losers, the guys that fight almost to victory and then quit are the losers!
48. It reminds me of a story that was supposed to have happened in Russia during the days when the communists were persecuting the Christians so badly. They put this bunch of Christians out on the ice to die, naked, because they wouldn't renounce their faith. The guards told them that if any of them wanted to save themselves‚ all they had to do was run back to the guards and renounce their faith.
49. So they all froze and dropped one by one‚ till this last fellow finally couldn't take it. He saw all these other people dying and he was left alone, the last one. He ran screaming across the ice toward the guards and said he couldn't stand it any longer; he'd deny his faith.
50. But suddenly one soldier said, "Here, quick, take my uniform, take my gun! I'm going out there to die in your place! I was standing here watching, and as each one dropped I saw a crown placed on his head! But just as the hand was coming down from Heaven to place a crown on your head, you ran! So here, take my uniform‚ my gun! I want to take your place–-I want that crown!" So praise the Lord! Do you want a crown?
51. There's no crown without a cross, no testimony without a test, no triumph without a trial, no victory without a battle, and no rose without a thorn! Praise God, that's what you joined the army for--to fight and to win! Let's get on with the battle! We can't lose!
52. It's worth every fight, every battle, every test, every trial! It's worth it all! It's worth it all for the testimonies and the triumphs and the victories! It's worth the winning‚ thank the Lord!
53. So now go back to the battle and start fighting! Quit giving up so damn easy and getting scared off by the Devil! If you fight you cannot lose and he cannot win and he can't get the victory. So he tries to scare you into giving up, to frighten you into surrendering. He tries to persuade you to quit and wave the white flag of sickening surrender!
54. Keep resisting the Enemy, keep raising the standard of the Spirit, keep wielding the weapon of the Word, and you cannot lose!
55. "Fight the good fight of faith," "contend earnestly for the faith," "endure hardness," "keep the faith!" (1Tim.6:12; Jude 3; 2Tim.2:3‚ 4:7). Just don't forget it's a fight! Keep fighting the Enemy with the Word of God and your faith. "Put on the whole armor of God--the helmet of salvation, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, sword of the Spirit (the Word), having your loins girt with truth, and your feet shod with the Gospel of peace!" (Eph.6:13-17). You're in a battle and that's the armor!
56. You're a soldier called to fight for God and the faith! For God's sake, don't give up just because of a little tiny skirmish here and there! Be like John Paul Jones, who screamed, "Surrender? Hell no! We haven't even begun to fight yet!" His ship was sinking and half of his men were killed and he was wounded, yet he still refused to surrender! Instead, he captured the enemy's boat and kept on fighting until he won!
57. That's the kind of soldiers that win victories, the ones who refuse to quit fighting! No soldier that quit ever won a battle! No soldier that surrendered ever won a victory! No soldier that waved the white flag of surrender ever got to wave his own flag over the enemy's battlements!
58. My God, give us fighters who like to fight for the Lord with the weapon of His Word and who enjoy defeating the Devil, those who know they can't lose and who like to win victories, conquering heroes that like to live and fight and die for Jesus and their brethren and the truth!
59. Soldiers like that can't be conquered. They can't lose, even if they die fighting‚ because they'll get a crown of glory! Paul said, "I fought the good fight of faith, I kept the faith, I finished the course, and henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness!" (2Tim.4:7-8). Thank You Lord!
60. So stay in there and sock it to'm! Amen? You can't lose if you keep on fighting the good fight of faith to the finish! God bless you! I love you!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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THE CATCH! CM 555 10/76
1. If you really love the Lord, He gives you work you enjoy and lets you enjoy it! You ought to love your work, praise God? Thank You Lord!
* * *
2. Somehow always slip in the witness. With the taxi drivers, people I meet on the street, everybody, I always at least say "Thank God" or something to give God the glory! Even a "Thank You Jesus" is a witness, when you give God the credit.
* * *
3. One thing I find some of you doing is saying yes when people ask you, "Are you a Catholic?" Then later‚ to their way of thinking, they find out you're not Catholic the way they mean it, so they figure you lied to them!
4. It's not going to do your testimony any good to have the person find this out later and think you lied‚ because you don't believe in the church the way they do.
5. I got so tired of being asked this question, so when a taxi driver asked me again one night‚ I fired back, "What do you mean by 'a Catholic'?" He said, "You know, somebody that believes in the Catholic Church." I said, "I'm sorry, then I'm not a Catholic."
6. Now if you use the word "Catholic" in the original sense of the word, which means the Universal Church to which every Christian belongs, the universal body of Christ‚ the Bride of Christ, then you're a Catholic because you're a Christian. You belong to the total church or body of Christ.
7. But when they mean Roman Catholic, belonging to the Roman Church, that's a different story. We're all Catholics because we're Christians, but we're not Roman Catholics because frankly, if you were, you'd be in church, wouldn't you?
8. If you ask me, if you're a Roman Catholic, you're sure not a very good one! That's an important point‚ because once they catch you in a lie, it's going to discredit your whole testimony.
9. I am against lying, folks! I don't like it! I don't think lying ever pays. You don't have to lie. When they ask you a question you don't want to answer‚ just don't answer! Or evade it or give them some other kind of answer. But for God's sake, don't lie!
10. These people hate lying, especially the police. They're so used to liars and cheaters and stealers and deceivers that they hate it. They'd rather you be honest with them and tell them the truth, even if they don't like it.
11. So for God's sake‚ please tell the truth! But you don't always have to tell all the truth.
* * *
12. Cleanliness is not next to Godliness, it is Godliness! Most of your health problems would be eliminated if people would just keep clean, not only your body but your clothes. Change your underwear frequently; keep clean.
13. (In lovemaking:) Make sure the man is clean, if possible. Both for your and his sake, try to encourage him to take a shower or a swim or a bath both before and immediately after sex. Did you know that everybody has some of the bacteria of the venereal diseases always present in their body? And if your sexual organs become weakened through misuse, abuse or overuse, you're apt to have trouble if your resistance is down.
14. Germs are always present, waiting for a chance to attack, and if you let them accumulate and you're dirty and you don't wash and you don't keep clean, then you're going to have problems.
15. And for God's sake, folks, if you do discover you've got a problem, report it immediately so we can send you straight to the doctor for treatment! If you're not concerned about yourself, at least be concerned for the sake of others so you don't spread it to somebody else.
16. If you've got something and you don't report it, you can not only spread it to your husband or your wife but to your friends and everybody else they come in contact with! It's an absolute crime not to report it to us!
17. It may be nothing. You may just have abused and overused, or you may have some other ordinary little infection that's not even a contagious venereal disease. But you must find out before it becomes more serious or you take any chances on spreading it to somebody else.
18. You don't have to be ashamed of it. These things can happen to anybody. Husbands and wives who never had anything to do with others sometimes get these things just through physical weakness, overuse, intemperance, lack of proper lubrication, etc. The germs are always there, just looking for a scratch or something to get into.
19. It's just like when you cut your finger. If you don't disinfect it thoroughly, it could get infected. Always disinfect your cuts or scratches. First wash your hands or the injury thoroughly with soap and water. Then, if you haven't got iodine or alcohol‚ put cologne on it. Cologne has a lot of alcohol in it, so it's a disinfectant.
20. And for God's sake‚ after sex don't use your dirty hands to wipe your eyes and stick your fingers in your ears or stroke his hair, spreading it all over! Always immediately wash thoroughly with soap and water--both your hands and your organs--every single time!
21. When I make love‚ I get up almost immediately every time and wash. That's probably why I've lived this long without catching anything, thank God! But I'm very careful to pray, trust God, obey and keep clean!
22. So don't forget to pray and keep clean every single time. Wash immediately‚ if possible. You girls must especially immerse the lower half of your body in the tub, and this will take care of most of the internal washing.
23. But if you do have any trouble, please report it immediately and we'll send you to the doctor. Doctors are for that purpose–-purely mechanical things, like setting a bone or washing out a wound and bandaging it and knowing how to take care of those things.
24. If you have an internal disease, then you've got to use internal medicines to kill it. Thank God they've invented enough medicines nowadays that they can kill almost anything--including you!
* * *
25. If you do anything with your mouth, girls, please wash it out thoroughly with a strong alcoholic beverage or a strong mouthwash immediately afterwards--always!
* * *
26. You should always have a wrap with you! Never go anywhere without a shawl or a sweater or a wrap just in case it's cold or gets cold‚ or you get cold!
27. We carry our wraps with us all summer long in the hottest kind of weather just in case there's a sudden change, sudden breeze, air conditioning or a draft. It's a nuisance sometimes, but it may save your life, or at least your health!
* * *
28. Once you've won people to the Lord, be sure you give them something to do. Our strongest converts are those who are strong in the Word. Our strongest witnesses amongst you folks are also those who are strong in the Word, and the weakest witnesses amongst you are those who are not strong in the Word.
29. These folks will never become strong in the spirit unless you get them into the Word. First of all, make sure they've got a little Gospel or New Testament to read, and assign them certain chapters to read before you see them next time. Or if you've got some unidentifying Letters or tapes, loan them those. Start them with the milder Letters first.
30. Pray and ask the Lord‚ talk with your superiors, and counsel with those who've had experience in follow-up, and think of the specific converts you're working with. Would this or that be good for him? You've got to think about it; it's very important.
31. Where you can't litness, tapes are a real answer to prayer! These who need to be fed can ride along in their cars listening to the tapes as they go, even if you have to give them a tape recorder as a present or a loan.
32. If you don't feed them, they're going to starve to death spiritually and fall away like some of them already have, because they didn't get into the Word.
33. Two of our best friends, who could have become some of our best witnesses‚ are still weak spiritually because they can't read! Every time they're asked to read, they make the excuse, "Oh, I forgot my glasses!" This is a common stall with people who don't know how to read, or who read poorly. So these tapes are a godsend for people like that.
34. I saw a series on TV in Britain about this problem. Such people don't want others to find out that they can't read. Their typical excuse is, "Oh, I'm sorry, but I left my glasses" or some such thing. You'll find they're always leaving their glasses behind because they can't read. So please be considerate of them and give them tapes.
35. Loan them the tapes and the little books--seldom give them away. That's how you can get a person to read a book--only loan it to him. Then they know they've got to give it back someday, and they're ashamed to return it and have to say they didn't read it!
36. That's the best way to get people to read a book and the surest way to get them to listen to a tape--just loan it to them. Then say, "Now when you're finished with this one and you want another one, return this one and we'll loan you another one."--One at a time‚ like a lending library.
37. Make someone in your Colony the librarian, who keeps track of who has the books and the tapes, and which ones they have. Keep a little notebook and enter the names of the people, the dates, the items, etc.
38. That's the surest way to get them to listen to the tape and the surest way they will return the tape, because you're not going to give them another one until they give the previous one back. We have to try our best to feed our sheep! Amen?
* * *
39. Contact lenses. Frankly, I don't really like contact lenses. I don't think they're good for your eyes. There are all kinds of possibilities of getting eye infections and irritations.
* * *
40. Glasses. I know these big glasses are sort of stylish, but if you have a small face, they make your face look too small. I think the medium–sized oval shape kind of fits girls' eyes better and are more delicate and feminine‚ especially with gold or wire frames.
* * *
41. The human body is a glory to God. It is perfection; it's His creation. It's just like hearing beautiful music and knowing‚ because of that‚ there's God. It's like knowing the perfection of mathematics and thereby proving there's God.
42. Observing His beautiful creations is knowing there is God! Every time a man looks and admires a beautiful woman, he is really glorifying God, whether he knows it or not. Every time he praises a beautiful woman he's glorifying God indirectly by glorifying His handiwork.
43. So let them "see your good works that they may glorify your Father which is in Heaven!" When you know you're the creation of God and a wonder of His handiwork, you ought to really give God the glory and the credit and display His creations! Praise the Lord!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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A MISSIONARY'S PRAYER DFO 556 5/75
1. I'm sure the Lord must love him [Godahfi] and have a great deal of compassion for him or He wouldn't have sent us here in the first place. I think he's sincerely sought the Lord, and God is trying to answer and get through to him.
2. Of course, the sad part about it is that in the end he'll turn away because I think he feels he's got to stick with his religion. But in the meantime God's giving him his chance and an opportunity and some help‚ showing him love and mercy, even if he turns away.
3. (Prays:) Lord, thank You for this sweet time of fellowship. Thank You for bringing us safely here by a series of miracles. We've come here for one reason alone‚ and that is to try and help this dear man and his precious people and show them how much You love them, and we're samples of Your love.
4. We're sure that some of these people are very sincere. They're really crying out to You for help, so You've sent them help, Lord. Some of them are not going to receive it any more than the Jews received You, Jesus. But the poor hungry sinners and the humble ones are going to see and know that there has been a prophet here, and those who have prophesied Your love and shown them. So we're a witness, Lord, here for those who receive it and against those who reject it.
5. Give us grace and wisdom, as sheep amidst the wolves in some respects. Help us to be wise as serpents, harmless as doves, loving and helpful and humble, trying to do all we can to help. Thy will be done, Jesus.
6. Give us great love, great wisdom, patience, and the knowledge of how to go out and come in wisely before all the people‚ and that we will have a good testimony and will be witnesses of Your love every moment of every day.
7. Protect us‚ Lord, as You have. We're in Your hands. "Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman watcheth but in vain." So we know that only You can keep us, Lord.
8. We're just here to witness and to do what we can to try to help if they will. However, even if they will not, Thy will be done. At least You will have done Your best and we will have tried and we will have felt satisfied that we have obeyed and delivered our souls by being faithful witnesses.
9. Give us Your wisdom from on high to know how to help him. Guard our tongues, every one of us, so we'll know what to say. Help us to seek Your face, Your Holy Spirit, Your Words for the right things to speak about, comments, even the slightest suggestions, Lord, so that we're not speaking from our own understanding and our own mouth but by Your wisdom.
10. Help us to follow You and do what You want us to do and say what You want us to say, because we don't know any other thing, Lord. We don't even know what to do except to follow Your leadings.
11. Help us to show that we're really here to serve and help. We have come not to be ministered unto but to minister, although they have certainly ministered unto our physical needs. Help us to be just as considerate of their spiritual needs, Lord, just as thoughtful and mindful of their every need in You, so we may not miss a single cue or opportunity to do and say what we can to show we really love them!
12. Even if only a handful ever hear, just those who have already heard, it would have been worth the trip for us to be a witness in this land to show them Your love. We're here, we've obeyed and come, and now show us what to do, Lord, step by step. Have Thy way.
13. Give us real rest and strength tonight and keep us resting and trusting in You. Help all of us to be quiet and considerate of the neighbors. Give us the strength to minister tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow, whatever You want us to do as long as you want us to do it, Lord.
14. Give each of these here the grace, strength of body, mind and spirit‚ all the love and wisdom they need for each task, the humblest task of service here in the housework to the ministration of these kings and leaders who come.
15. Bless our loved ones, Lord. Keep them safely and encourage them, all of our children everywhere. The sun never sets on them around the world. Sometime every day‚ every night‚ every hour, every minute, Your children are busy somewhere serving You, Lord, spreading Your message, showing Your love, reaping Your harvest. Bless them and keep them, strengthen them, and provide for them. Amen.
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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IDOLSMASHERS! DFO 568 Summer 1968
An explosion blasted away during one of our beginning sessions with the hippies at the Huntington Beach Light Club, the first year of the Revolution for Jesus!
1. How many have found it easy to have your idols smashed? If you have, you're unusual! For most people it's pretty hard to take!
2. "Now listen‚ Lord, can't we just keep this little idol here? I worshipped this idol for many years and it was very dear to me, and I thought this was where it's at! Now that I've found out it isn't, can't I just keep it in one little back corner of the house someplace?"
3. Don't you find this true in your own heart? "Lord, why do I have to give this up? It's not so bad. After all‚ it may not be useful, but at least maybe it's harmless! I spent a lot of time and money on it in past years, and I thought it was the best once upon a time! Can't I just at least keep it back in the corner someplace?"
4. Wham! Just like that, God comes along and smashes that idol! "I will have no other gods before Me!" Nothing short of right is right! And when you find out that it isn't just right and somebody comes along and smashes that idol, it hurts and it's not easy to take!
5. Think of all the time you wasted in just such affairs! Think of all the time you wasted in just such education! Think of all the time you wasted in just such pretty church services and Christian social functions!-–"Pin the tail on the donkey!"
6. An iconoclast is an idol-smasher, and I hate idols! I don't care what they are! An iconoclast loves to smash idols!
7. Do you think it's right to smash idols? Well‚ let me tell you, you should read the Bible about how they went around smashing idols! What did the Lord say about the kings who didn't destroy the idols and cast down the altars? "This thing displeased the Lord," and He caused war and He sent scourges upon them!
8. Though they had a real revival and they got back to the true worship, they didn't get rid of the old way! They didn't smash the false System! They didn't root out, tear down, destroy, and get rid of it entirely so the people could never go back to it again! They didn't burn their bridges behind them!
9. As long as that's in the back of your heart and you think it's pretty nice and you wouldn't mind going back to it, you will go back sooner or later and you don't belong here!
10. I'm an iconoclast, and I love to smash idols! That's the way God made me! And I want to tell you right now, unless you're willing to be an iconoclast and ready to destroy the old idols and the old way that is false, fictitious, misleading, deceptive, ineffective and useless, you'll not do a bit of good! Otherwise, as soon as you're gone they'll go right back to their idols. They'll turn right back to the old System‚ the old rut and the old way!
11. Just like that famous story about the eagle that had been chained to a stake for so long that he'd worn a rut in the ground going round and round and round. Finally the eagle was getting old and his master felt sorry for him and wanted to set him free. So he took the metal ring off his foot, took the eagle in his hand and tossed it into the air. And what do you suppose happened? The eagle could barely fly, and he flip-flopped right back down to the ground. Then he walked back over to the old rut and he started walking around it again! No chain, no birdband, just the habit! Smash the habit! Smash the opportunity to get back to the habit! Abolish it and get rid of it like they did in the Old Testament! Damn the idols! Get rid of them!
12. Burn your bridges behind you! Forsake your job! Quit school in the middle of the year so you can't even go back! Get thrown out of your house so your folks don't even want you anymore! Spend all your money so you're broke and you can't leave! As long as you've got any idea there's some place to go back to, you'd better go! And I don't mean perhaps!
13. As long as you think it's still okay and it's still good and all right, then you don't belong here! Because I am against it! I hate that whorish System with every ounce of blood in me!
14. As Martin Luther said to his wife once: "You know I'm not gentle!" Well, it takes that kind of a man to be a revolutionary! He tried to reform the System. He tried his best to purify the Catholic Church. And he poured new wine in the old bottle and the old bottle split wide open! Like Jesus said, you just try to put a new piece of cloth on an old garment and see what happens! It'll rip the garment wide open!
15. I don't want peace with the System! I want war! I'd rather smash their idols, and you don't get peace that way! "I came not to send peace but a sword, to the dividing asunder of families"-–and churches and Christians, believe it or not! (Mat.10:34-36). Because if they can't take it and don't receive it, it's bound to split them wide open! We tried it in a lot of churches.
16. Man, we split nearly every church we went to wide open! In fact, this little denomination we belonged to called me and practically cursed me out on the phone. They said, "We hear you're going through all our churches splitting every one of them wide open!" I said, "I didn't realize I was having that much effect!" "Why, you tore up that church back there!" When I gave it to them‚ they sat there like a bunch of wooden Indians and bumps on a log with almost no reaction at all! I didn't know that it was a kind of atomic bomb time-fuse reaction: They waited till I got out of the way and then they exploded!
17. Some of them didn't wait that long! One pastor's wife got up and began to bang on the piano, singing at the top of her voice, trying to drown me out! Boy, I'll tell you, I know now why the Lord put that verse in the Bible! I turned around and I said, "Let the woman keep silence in the church!" (1Cor.14:34). Wow! It really worked!
18. Idol-smashing! Just read the Bible and see what happened to Israel every time they didn't destroy the idols after an evil king had erected altars and idols and groves where they had all kinds of hanky-panky going on. Every time they left them and didn't destroy them so the people had nothing to go back to, what happened?
19. The minute that king was gone and the next king came along, they reverted right back to the old ways! The only ones who had any type of revival that lasted for any length of time were the guys that just obliterated the old religion so far out of sight that they forgot what it was all about! Of course, then they concocted a few new ones!
20. You can't be a revolutionary if you've got any idols that you like and you don't want to destroy. You want to save them, and you don't think they're too bad. "After all, we ought to be able to get along with them." Not if you're going to be a revolutionary instead of a reformer!
21. Luther tried to reform the Catholic Church, and he found he couldn't do it. But the people got the point of what Luther was teaching and they became iconoclasts. They began going around to those gorgeous cathedrals and temples that the Catholics had built and started smashing the idols and destroying the pictures. They had worshipped those things, and they were angry when they found out they were false! So they smashed them instead of just trying to live with them! They even began to burn down a few of the temples!
22. I don't like violence toward people, but I don't hesitate in trying to smash the System! I even love the Christians! "Wow, MO, you love Christians? You sure don't sound like it!" I just hate what they're doing! I'd like to clobber'm a little bit to wake'm up-–with the truth! I haven't hit anybody here over the top of the head yet, have I?–-Except with a Bible! If I hit your head with this one, boy, you'll know it! Ha!
23. What a Christian is--and what a disciple or an apostle or a missionary or a prophet is--is an iconoclast! Amen? God bless you! I love you!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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AFFLICTIONS CM 569 11/76
1. I was fed up with some of the girls getting afflictions‚ and was thinking, "It's just too big a sacrifice, too much!" I said, "Lord, I can't take it anymore! I'm going to forget all about Flirty Fishing and call in all the Letters and cancel the whole deal." I'm not afraid to change my doctrine if it's not right, like I did with my doctrine about Israel.
2. But it kept coming to me, "How could it be wrong when it has such good fruit? How could it be wrong when so many guys are getting saved? How could it be wrong when it's accomplishing so much good and we get so many marvelous testimonies?"
3. I said, "Lord, it's working but it's costing too much!" And instantly I got the answer. I was about to drop off to sleep when I got a Scripture! "He bore our diseases!" In other words, to save us Jesus was willing to even bear our diseases!
4. I knew there was a Scripture something like that, but I couldn't remember where. I looked it up in Isaiah and it said, "Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows" (Isa.53:4). But Maria was Spirit-led and inspired. She said, "Well, what about infirmities? Look that up." And there it was, one of my mother's favorite Scriptures she used to use for healing.
5. "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses!" (Mat.8:17). A shocking thought came to me when I heard that. I think it's a direct revelation of God, and I believe the Scriptures confirm it from one end to the other.
6. If Jesus was tempted in all points like as we are in order that He could sympathize with us, "we have not an high priest who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb.4:15), with the feeling of our sicknesses‚ our diseases‚ do you realize what that means? Christ also suffered disease. "He Himself bore our sins in His Own body on the tree" (1Pet.2:24). In His Own body He bore it! So at sometime or other Jesus knew what it was like to be sick.
7. It says that He suffered that He might learn obedience through the things which He suffered. (Heb.5:8). It says also that He suffered that He might become perfect-–Jesus! You mean He wasn't perfect? Well, He wasn't in a sense complete yet. His work was not yet complete or finished until He died on the cross, so He wasn't perfect until it was all done.
8. All I can see is that some time in His life Jesus Himself suffered sickness to know what it was like to be sick, so that He could be a perfect High Priest "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" because He Himself went through it! But not only that, He "Himself bore our sins in His Own body on the tree" that we might be saved! He took upon Himself our sins that we might be saved.
9. He took upon Himself our diseases that we might be healed. I'd been saying it was too great a price to pay, but there it was! "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses."
10. It's amazing I should get this, because we have compared this FF ministry so closely to that of Christ Himself, His crucifixion and all the rest. Well, that was one thing He did, to take our infirmities and bear our sicknesses.
11. (Maria: You were asking if we have to love them enough even to have their diseases.) I said, "Lord‚ that's too much!" And immediately the Scripture came to me--"He bore our diseases."
12. And there are many more verses on it. "The strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak" (Rom.15:1). "I glory not but in my infirmities" (2Cor.12:5). "I take pleasure in my infirmities" (2Cor.12:10). "We have not an High Priest who is not touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Heb.4:15). (Maria: You said we're like their priestesses of love!) "High priests which have infirmity" (Heb.7:28).
13. "For we have not an High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." Now how could He possibly have been tempted in all points like as we are unless at some time He suffered diseases?
14. I never thought about Jesus ever having suffered disease! He suffered everything else physical-–weariness, hunger, thirst, pain, sexual desire, etc. But there it is--it's in the Bible! At some time or other He must have suffered diseases of some kind or been sick in order to have been tempted in all points like as we are! Just to have been hungry, thirsty‚ tired or even suffer pain and crucifixion is not really suffering in all points like we are. He must have been tempted in sexual points as well, and he must have been tested by diseases!
15. He may have even contracted a disease from Mary Magdalene, who had been a prostitute, and several other women that were prostitutes that followed Him, or Mary and Martha. If so‚ then He was certainly tempted in all points like as we are, and He bore it for their sakes because they needed His love!
16. That's a shocking doctrine, isn't it! One of these days they're probably going to say of us, "They even believe that Jesus had venereal disease!" Well, if He suffered every other human frailty‚ illness, sickness, sorrow, hunger, thirst, pain‚ that the Bible very clearly speaks of, why not?
17. If He'd never suffered their sexual diseases He could never really have full compassion on their sufferings, could He? If Christ was tempted in all points like we are, He must have been tempted with every type of human weakness and disease, or at least some diseases.
18. "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." It says, "Yet we did esteem Him stricken of God and afflicted" (Isa.53:4). In other words‚ He was accused of being judged by God, stricken of God, because He had such a disease or sorrow. His accusers said that He was sick because of His sins, but instead He was sick because of our sins!
19. You girls are not sick because of your own sins but because of the sins of these men you're trying to save. You're bearing their sins, their iniquities, their griefs‚ their sorrows, their diseases, and you're suffering for their sins, not for your own!
20. You are not the ones who did evil. They're the ones who did evil and contracted those diseases! You're simply bearing them because of their sins in order to try to save them! Boy, I think this is one of the most shocking answers I ever got! Some people may find it too hard to believe. But that's what I got, that's all I know.
21. If you contract their diseases, in a way you're bearing their sins, the consequences of their sins. I never dreamed that that sort of thing would be possible! But God allowed Christ to bear our sins and our iniquities. If we are to be vicarious with others the same way He was with us, then we sometimes have to suffer for their sins too!
22. We say we love them, but are we willing to pay any price for their salvation to save them? We say we're willing to die for them. Well, being sick and having their diseases because of it is dying for them!
23. I was just saying, "Why doesn't the Lord protect us from these diseases? Why do we have to get them?" And I got, "He saved others but Himself he could not save!" (Mark 15:31). God didn't protect Jesus from suffering for our sins, so if we have a ministry like Jesus, which you girls certainly do, then just like Jesus dying on the cross you cannot save yourselves!
24. That answer came to me just as clear as anything--"Himself bore our diseases!" Isn't that something how the translation I got by the Holy Spirit was diseases? Matthew uses the words "infirmities" and "sickness" (Mat.8:17)--the same thing‚ of course--and Isaiah uses "griefs" and "sorrows" (Isa.53:4). But apparently the Holy Spirit translates it even more specifically as "diseases."
25. How could it be possible? That's just what Jesus did for us! "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses!" "Surely He hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows!" "He bore our sins in His Own body on the tree" (1Pet.2:24).
26. We bear their sorrows, carry their griefs, bear their iniquities, just like "Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses." If He did that for us, that's what we have to do for them in order to reach them, to love them, to save them! How could God expect that of us? Well, that's what He expected of Jesus, so that's what He expects of us.
27. Here's another Scripture: "Who comforteth us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
28. "And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation‚ which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. Or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation" (2Cor.1:4–7).
29. There's another one in Philippians. "Yea doubtless‚ and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ! And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.
30. "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death!" (Phil.3:8-10). "We see Jesus‚ Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man!" (Heb.2:9).
31. Jesus tasted death for us! And in a way when you suffer a disease or a sickness, you're tasting death for these men! "For it became Him, for Whom are all things, and by Whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory‚ to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings!" (Heb.2:10).
32. Think of that, Jesus was made perfect through suffering! Until Christ actually suffered for us, He still didn't really understand our sufferings and He still didn't really bear our sufferings, our sorrows‚ our griefs, our agonies, our pain, our infirmities, our sicknesses. He was without sin, but He was not yet perfect--in other words, complete-–until He'd had all these experiences and sufferings for us.
33. "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh," just like you girls are suffering for these men in the flesh, "arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin" (1Peter 4:1). In other words, when you know what it's like to suffer for someone else, that's real righteousness, that's real love, that's a real ceasing from sin!
34. "Beloved‚ think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you. But rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy! If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye‚ for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified!" (1Peter 4:12–14).
35. It says, "We are counted worthy to suffer shame" (Acts 5:41) and "How great things ye must suffer" (Acts 9:16). "That no man should be moved by these afflictions" (1Thes.3:3).
36. "Many are the afflictions of the righteous‚ but the Lord delivereth him out of them all! (Psa.34:19). "For yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto. For verily when we were with you‚ we told you before that we should suffer tribulation, even as it came to pass and ye know" (1Thes.3:3,4). "If we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him" (2Tim.2:12). It says that Moses "chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season" (Heb.11:25).
37. Hebrews 13:12 says that Jesus also suffered without the gate. And it continues in the 13th verse, "Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp (like a leper!), bearing His reproach." We certainly live without the camp in our work, outside the camp of the System, out amongst the despised and the rejected and neglected and the publicans and the sinners and the drunks and the harlots and the hippies and whatnot.
38. Here's another good one: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God" (2Tim.1:7-8).
39. You girls have certainly suffered affliction for the Gospel, because by preaching the Gospel to these men and showing His love to them even in bed, some of you've had to suffer afflictions as a result! We're not suffering for our sins, because we're not going to bed with these men for our own selfish sexual pleasure, but we're going to bed with them sacrificially in love in order to try to save them. We are suffering for their sins as Jesus did for ours in order that we and they might be saved. Hallelujah!
40. Thank God for that verse‚ "Many are the afflictions of the righteous‚ but the Lord delivereth him out of them all" (Psa.34:19). Afflictions of whom? Not of the wicked but the righteous! "But the Lord delivereth him out of them all!"
41. So we can expect God to also deliver us, even though we have been afflicted for their sins, suffered their diseases, borne their iniquities, taken their infirmities, and borne their sicknesses and diseases in our own bodies on the cross of crucifixion of the flesh for their sakes.
42. (Prays:) Lord, bless our dear girls. Keep them and protect them in whatever way You can, and save them from too much suffering for the sins of these men. But if they should have to suffer, not for their own sins but for the sins of others, we know that You will deliver them according to Your Word.
43. "No greater love hath any man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13). These girls have certainly been laying down their bodies and their lives for their friends! So bless and keep them now and deliver them, in Jesus' name. Amen.
44. This is undoubtedly the most difficult and dangerous ministry we have ever been engaged in, but it is also undoubtedly the most fruitful and dynamic and productive and effective ministry we have ever engaged in! So I'm sure the Devil is plenty angry and attacking us! I'm sure the Lord allowed it and allows us to suffer for their sins in order to show us what it cost Jesus suffering for us and our sins.
45. Are you willing to suffer for others as much as Jesus suffered for you? Are you willing to be crucified for others as He was for you, suffering for their sins and their iniquities and their diseases, so they can be saved by your love? What a parallel!
46. If the Lord wants us to love them that much, He's going to have to deliver us and protect us so we can continue such a ministry to such an extreme. "But if not," we'll still love them for Jesus' sake. But we're going to have to pray more desperately and have more faith in each individual case, that God will protect and keep us and not let us contract anything that would hinder and prevent us from having this effective FF ministry.
47. Lord, You are able. You promised that You "deliver out of them all," so please deliver us out of them all so that we may continue to minister, to love and to save.
48. (Maria: Through this attack, the Devil's not only trying to discourage us spiritually but physically! He's trying to stop some of us physically from being able to make love with anyone, and also spiritually, by discouraging our faith and making us give up!)
49. We've been willing to bear their children as the blessings of God‚ but we had never thought of being willing to bear their diseases--that seemed almost too much to expect! But the Lord Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses in His Own body on the tree!
50. I never dreamed that the Lord could have borne our diseases by actually having them! My mother used to use those verses. But to me it was kind of a spiritual thing, a sort of vicarious atonement, and not that He actually had those things.
51. But He must have suffered them at sometime or another in order to really have the sympathy that He needed to have for us, because the Bible says so! God bless you all! I love you! Keep on loving for Jesus, amen? Even if it means some suffering, it's worth it for the saving.
52. You really risk your life to save some people! Well, even the world does this! Doctors and scientists do it! They risk their lives and disease to save people's bodies! How much more we should be willing to risk our lives and disease in order to save their souls!
53. I was saying the cost is too great, and Jesus was telling me, "Well, I was willing to do it for you. I was willing to suffer your diseases." So if we are to be like Christ, partakers of His sufferings, then we are going to have to risk their diseases to save them, to love them enough to save them.
54. If Jesus laid down His life for us, therefore we have to lay down our lives for the brethren! Every time you go to bed with one of those guys, you are laying down your life for him!
55. Missionaries have done it lots of times, like those who went and worked in leper colonies and got leprosy and whatnot. You're working with "lepers" too, and to try to save them you're apt to catch it too-–and you are!
56. Missionaries go to hellholes where diseases of all kinds are rampant‚ and never know what they're going to catch from the water or from flies or mosquitoes or whatnot! They risk disease and their lives to save souls! You're doing the same thing!
57. God bless and keep us all and continue to make us a blessing to many--even at the risk of afflictions!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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THE MOTHERS OF GOD! CM 572 10/76
(Good advice for both women and men regarding follow–up:)
1. I've seen an attitude developing among some of you of getting fed up with your fish and wanting to somehow get rid of him. One minute you're treating him with such tender loving care, being so sweet and nice to him. The next you're getting bored and fed up with him. People are very sensitive in the spirit. They can tell when your attitude suddenly gets cold and you don't want them around and you wish they'd go away.
2. We men are kind of romantic and sentimental. I think we're more so than women, really. Women are more fickle; they can easily go from man to man. But men have a certain romantic idealism, and they're inclined to worship a woman.
3. So when the woman says, "I'm through with you‚ I've got a new boyfriend now," it hurts! Even though he knew she probably didn't really fall madly in love with him, he likes to dream it and imagine it. So if you don't slap him in the face with it, he can keep on living in his dream world. But when you slap him in the face with it, that makes it a little hard for him to imagine that you ever loved him at all.
4. We're in a marvelous business that pays off faster than anything I've ever seen in the way of winning souls and effectively reaching them. But it's also a very dangerous business. When you tamper with the affairs of the heart you can make men mad enough to kill!
5. You women who can so lightly give men the brushoff and flit so flippantly from flower to flower are going to find out that men don't take that very easily. If you shattered their dreams while maybe at the same time they've ruined their reputation for you and risked their neck and their job and everything else, and then you give them the cold-shoulder brushoff, they can take it pretty hard!
6. It's not right‚ it's not Scriptural, it's not Godly, it's not Christian, it's not love! Then the man will think it was nothing but some kind of a passing affair, an infatuation, a little fling you had; it wasn't really God's love at all, because God's love never ends!
7. You must keep loving him whether you're still madly in love with him anymore or not! You can't mistreat him, give him the cold shoulder, or hurt him.
8. If they're your baby, your spiritual child, you must keep on loving them, no matter how many times they come back. They still need your love, more comforting, more babying‚ more feeding.
9. The job of a mother is one of the most difficult and patient jobs there is! It just goes on and on, and it can get to be an awful nuisance if you don't really love that child, because he keeps having needs and wants more.
10. So the mother just has to be patient and keep giving him whatever he needs, as long as he needs it. Of course in our case it's his spiritual needs, feeding him spiritually and all that.
11. You can't suddenly shove your baby off on some foster mother and say, "I know you loved me, but now love her instead. Sorry, but I'm busy. Go with her and she'll give you a Bible class," when the guy's totally flipped out over you!
12. Men can be explosive if you tamper with their emotions like that and you treat their hearts lightly. So don't try to give him the brushoff, no matter how much of a nuisance he is.
13. You have to fall in love with them to some extent in order to help them that much. But if it wears off so suddenly, it's not God's love! We are not in this business just to try to show our love‚ much less temporary love. We're in this to show God's great eternal everlasting love.
14. Your love is supposed to represent God's, but then all of a sudden God stops loving them through you! So they figure, "Well, she and God didn't really love me after all! It was all phony! It wasn't real love, so it really wasn't God's love, because she quit loving me." They can be very angry and frustrated and think that you were deceiving them and leading them on, and merely seducing them for your own selfish whims!
15. If they find out it wasn't God after all‚ they could get pretty mad! So you girls who sometimes don't have the right attitude or motive and can suddenly carelessly fling one man aside for another and not continue to show them the love of God could make somebody pretty mad and cause trouble!
16. It can be very dangerous for you to suddenly cool off! Instead of a nice warm breast, they get a cold shoulder! Any man is going to feel pretty sad and brokenhearted about that and think that you don't even love him anymore. You're no longer even courteous or kind to him and you let him know that you wish he'd go away, that you're busy and you wish he'd stop hanging around.
17. This is a serious thing, beloved, a very serious problem, and I don't like it! We men are terribly sensitive. We're the biggest babies there are! You can hurt us so easily it's pitiful!
18. Women can be the most wonderful creatures God ever made--or you can be absolutely the worst that God ever made! When you're good, you're very very good, but when you're bad, you're horrid!
19. Do you still write the men you've FFed and let them know you still love them and encourage them? As long as they're still receiving you‚ still on the line, it is your responsibility to keep at it until the matter's decided one way or the other.
20. But if you forsake him and throw him aside just like any other lover‚ that's exactly the way all the worldly women have treated him and that's exactly what he was expecting!
21. You have convinced him that you're just like all the rest! "There's no difference between your love and the other worldly selfish women. They all leave me too; they don't really love me. You don't really love me, so you're no different from the rest of them!"
22. If you are supposed to be loving them with the love of God‚ you will always love them, even if the time comes when you're not with them as much anymore and you're busy with someone else, and they seem to realize it.
23. It hurts when a man has really loved a woman, to think that she no longer loves him! It hurts because you no longer love them. But it also hurts in the case of these men because they figure, "Well, it wasn't God's love after all, or He no longer loves me-–it was all a phony!" And if you stop loving them, they're right!
24. I believe that in spite of their philandering, in the long run men are much more constant, much more faithful, much more idealistic, much more romantic‚ and are much more inclined to stick to one woman, even than a woman is to one man.
25. If we take the Scriptural example of Christ the Bridegroom and His Bride, who does all the philandering--Jesus or His Bride, the Church? The Church has made a scandalous spectacle of herself with her philandering, showing that her emotions and her feelings are not nearly as deep as His. The Church seems to find it very easy to drift away from the Lord and go to other loves and other idols.
26. Beloved, don't play around with these hearts! You're apt to break a few and suffer the consequences, like making him want to break yours! If you don't continue to show them the same love, the love of God, the kindness‚ the sweetness, the gentleness, the concern and the care that you used to, they're not going to believe that you ever loved them.
27. They're going to believe it was all a phony and a fake and a sham. "It was just a big act you were putting on, and there's no God because there's no love! You never loved me, and therefore I'm going back!" And "the last estate of the man is worse than it was in the beginning" (2 Peter 2:20). You will have insulated him from ever being drawn out of his shell again. He'll draw back to where he'll never let himself be hurt again.
28. "Let love be without dissimulation" (Rom.12:9). In other words, let it not be an affectation or let it not be a false love or a pretense to love somebody when you don't.
29. If you're going to love them, give them real love. You cannot say, "I lost the burden"--you cannot lose the burden! You need to keep after the man or all your previous labors were in vain--not only in vain, but they were worse than in vain! Instead of having been a testimony for the Lord, you have become a testimony against Him.
30. From the first days of our first school in Miami, I've always had to go to bat for the underdogs. I guess the Lord has just given me a special sympathy and love and compassion for the underdogs‚ the people everybody else can't stand and who they want to get rid of. I was an underdog for a good many years, and I know how it feels to feel unloved and alone and that nobody cares.
31. The Lord let me go through those years of loneliness and being an underdog to let me know how it feels, so I could have a great love and compassion for the unlovely and the beasts, the guys who with just a little touch of love could really be made to blossom!
32. But I don't understand why you can't love them. You've got to keep on loving them that way. Once God has put us on the trail of somebody‚ it seems to me we should never give up. I figure God lays them on our hearts for some reason, and I think we should not give up until they totally turn their backs on us and leave. You cannot quit simply because you're tired of it.
33. So don't give up so easily. Keep after them till they themselves don't want to be around you anymore. As long as they keep coming back, as long as they even want you to keep coming back, there's still hope.
34. But when they let you know that they're fed up, they don't want to hear anymore, then your job is done. But you can still smile and still show them you love them. Keep sweet and show that the love of God is still there even if they reject it.
35. It reminds me of that guy across the street. He said, "I like you, Dave. I like you as a neighbor and as a friend and don't mind having a little chit–chat now and then. But don't ever talk to me about God anymore! I never want to hear any more about this religious crap!" A week later he put his double-barreled shotgun against his head and shot himself!
36. We are not playing games. We're not talking about little affairs and infatuations. We're talking about the permanent everlasting love of God, like the love of a father and a mother for their child. You've got to stick to them and see them through until they themselves voluntarily leave home.
37. When they turn their backs on the message and the messengers and on fellowship, then you can no longer help them and it's no longer your responsibility.
38. But if you give them the brushoff‚ the cold shoulder, then you're responsible for the consequences, whatever they may be, and they could be pretty serious.
39. (Prays:) Lord‚ help these never to forget what we've said. We're not in the temporary here-today, gone-tomorrow, loving business with a little shallow infatuation or a little shallow sex. We are to show Your love forever and to never give up till they themselves are either won or go the other way.
40. Help us‚ Lord, to keep on loving and never stop loving‚ never give up, never lose the burden, no matter what they do, unless they really reject us and turn their backs on us and permanently leave our fellowship.
41. We know it's sometimes a real chore and even a bore, and we get tired of it. But if we're ever going to catch anything, we have to keep at it‚ keep trying, and have patience.
42. Jesus, help us to have real love, everlasting love, love that never fails. Protect us from ourselves. Help us to keep learning and sometimes come to a little knowledge of how to prevent some of these things. Keep us all close to You, Jesus. Make us a blessing to many.
43. Thank You for how You have blessed, Lord, and the marvelous way You have reaped and won so many souls, and lives and hearts have been saved, and the wonderful testimonies of the changes. We just marvel at these stories and testimonies! Hallelujah!
44. Help us not to fail or give up just as we're reaching the goal! Help us to see it through. Help all these dear girls, God's little mothers! And help all these dear babies to make it! In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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COMMUNICATE! DFO 580 4/77
A Personal Letter to Some of the Family--But a Lesson for ALL! "Forget not to communicate" (Heb.13:16).
Dear Children: Greetings in Jesus' precious name! Praise the Lord! God bless you all! I love you all!
1. I wish we could be there again with you, and I hope that we will be again before long, God willing. I believe that we will be as soon as God is finished judging our enemies.
2. I believe that God's judgments have already begun there, with the worst air crash in history. It's going to hurt Tenerife almost more than an earthquake or volcanic explosion if people feel they can't trust the airport and the planes there!
3. It's already reduced the tourist business by 40%, along with the floods and other things that God has been sending. And from that horrible air crash in which nearly 600 people were killed and the rest horribly injured and maimed‚ there will be court cases for years.
4. The crash suits will give those judges there enough business to keep them busy for quite a few years! Since they wanted court cases, they are going to get them, but we hope not with us, thank God! As we told you in our message via Timothy, we felt it was impossible to fight the System on its own grounds with its own weapons when their mind was already made up.
5. They didn't want to be confused with the facts, and we had finished our part of the job there and accomplished what we set out to do, proving that FFing can be done almost anywhere, even in a very tight and closed country such as that has been.
6. So that having proved the point and spread the message, sowed the seeds and reaped the harvest, as usual then comes the time for the opposition of the enemy to sift the harvest that has been reaped, to thresh the harvest and winnow away the chaff and find out what is really good grain that's going to last.
7. When that time comes, when the persecution gets too rough to be able to carry on what you're doing, as Jesus said, it is time, "When they persecute you in one city, flee ye to another" (Mat.10:23).
8. So that time came and we saw we had accomplished what we came to do and we could not do anything further, and if we wanted to continue to minister to you through the Letters and to the rest of the world as well, it was time to go-–so we did, praise the Lord!
9. Since we left, we've been getting a great deal of work done, as you will soon see by the Letters. We've been putting out almost one a day the past few days, many of which I'm sure you'll enjoy and will be a help and comfort to you.
10. One we got just fresh today from the Lord is a dream which I think we'll call "God's Bosoms!" I don't know why so many of the things the Lord gives me are so sexy, but we have a sexy God and we're a sexy people, praise God! He's the One that made it and He made me your sexy leader, so I guess you'll just have to accept it that way! So come on, ma, burn your bra!
11. We trust you foreigners are keeping an accurate check on your visa status. Most of you there are already Spanish citizens and don't have to worry about visas, thank God!
12. They can't very well throw out the natives, but they would like to throw you in, I'm sure‚ so watch your step! Walk circumspectly and wisely and "be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves" (Eph.5:15; Mat.10:16).
13. I'm so sorry we had to leave, but I trust the Lord is taking good care of you. If you want to write us, we would certainly love to hear from all of you. In fact‚ we want to hear from all of you, since some of you are sometimes a little lax about reporting. We don't think it's very thoughtful or considerate or kind of you after all of our hard work and our concern for you that you're not concerned to report to us and let us know what you're doing or what's going on.
14. I have been very faithfully writing you Letters and you should have been getting them. They're my Letters that go to the whole world and are to you as well. I've even sent some of you personal special messages. But we have yet to hear anything from some of you.
15. We've also been very faithful in writing to the fish we left behind‚ but we'd like to have some idea of what is going on or how they are reacting, so we surely wish you'd continue to let us know. We are very disappointed in the failure of some to report more fully and faithfully. We don't understand why some of you haven't written us. But we love you very much and we believe that you love us.
16. Perhaps some feel that we deserted you. Maybe you are mad at us; we don't know. But we had to leave–-we couldn't help that. We couldn't have continued to minister to you and the rest of the world if we hadn't left. I think we accomplished a great deal there on our part and fulfilled our obligation and responsibility.
17. Because some of you children have not even been writing to your parents, some parents are getting together and forming an association against us because of your failure and your neglect of your responsibility of honoring your fathers and mothers and writing home!
18. Just remember, although you may be doing great, you may be doing wonderful, marvelous things for all we know, if you don't tell us, we won't know, will we? We won't know what you're doing if you don't report.
19. If you don't report, then you won't receive the Letters any longer either, because how do we know you're even still there if you're not reporting? How do we know you even deserve to get the Letters if you're not reporting? We don't know what you're doing!
20. So please, children‚ please, please write to us! We're very grieved that some of you have failed to communicate. It shows a very great lack of love and consideration for us--and for your fathers and mothers too! After our loving care for you there for so long, for us to be suddenly torn out of your midst and away from our precious family there makes us miss you a great deal, so please let us know what's happening.
21. We hope you're following up on the sheep and feeding them and caring for them, nursing them and really taking care of them. Because if you don't, instead of the grand successful experiment of the great original pioneer FFing push, it could turn out to be a grand failure and a testimony against FFing!
22. If you don't carry through and follow up on the sheep and feed them and take care of them, if we do not have fruit which really remains, that grows and also bears fruit itself, then all of our labors are in vain. If we neglect our sheep‚ then God help us!
23. God bless you! We love you all and hope you'll be doing even better, and our prayers are with you! God bless and keep you all, in Jesus' name! We love you! We hope you still love us and we do hope you'll write us.
24. Don't let a little persecution stop you! Just keep on moving until you've covered the Earth! That's what the first Christians did! They even tossed them to the lions and burned them at the stake, but they still kept going till they'd won the world! (Acts 17:6; 19:10; 24:5; Romans 1:8).
25. Even their witness under persecution and martyrdom saved many! It was not only the way they lived but also the way they died that convinced many that, "Surely this was the Son of God!" (Mat.27:54).
26. He'll give you power for the hour and grace for the case! He will never leave nor forsake you, even unto the end of the world! Though Heaven and Earth pass away, His Word shall never pass away! Jesus never fails! Love never fails! (Heb.13:5; Mat.28:20; 24:35; 1Cor.13:8).
27. So fight the good fight, keep the faith, contend earnestly for the faith‚ be not disobedient to the Heavenly vision, nor be not weary in well doing, for in due season ye shall reap a mighty harvest if ye faint not! (1Tim.6:12; 2Tim.4:7; Jude 3; Acts 26:19; Gal.6:9).
28. God bless and keep you every one and continue to make you a very great blessing till you've finished your course. For henceforth there is laid up for you a crown of righteousness. Those that continue to the end, to them He will give a crown of life! (Acts 20:24; 2Tim.4:8; Rev.2:10).
29. We love you! And please "forget not to communicate!" Thanks! (P.S. These Colonies did faithfully communicate, as we learned later, but their reports were held up for two months in the slow mails through some slow countries during some strikes and holiday seasons! But aren't you glad we got a good lesson out of it? I love you!--Dad.)
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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GOD'S BOSOMS! CM 581 4/77
(I wasn't feeling very well, so I lay down to rest and fell asleep and dreamed this dream:)
1. We were looking for a place to live, and some of the Family had been asked to move out of this little cottage to make a place for us. So they'd moved out, but they had left the place in a terrible mess–-just absolute chaos, confusion, trash all over the place, a pigpen!
2. I was so discouraged about what a horrible mess it was, and it was even worse to think that any of our kids could possibly have left any place in such a mess, especially when they knew we were coming to occupy it.
3. I always believed in leaving a house cleaner than when you found it, and when I leave a hotel room I usually leave it so clean that the cleaning lady doesn't even have to clean it! I believe that cleanliness is part of godliness and that it's a good testimony, a good witness.
4. I also lost my suitcase in the confusion and was looking all around for it, and found it sitting on a pile of junk. The people had carelessly sort of dumped all our stuff in the middle of this muddle, and we were very busy trying to clean it up.
5. The little cottage stood at the end of a road on a bluff above an old dry riverbed. Suddenly down through this riverbed came a hot black stream! At first it looked like hot oil or liquid tar pouring toward us. Then I realized that it must have been lava.
6. We were afraid it was going to strike the house which we were trying to clean up. So we ran down the road away from the riverbed and we found a little chapel about a block away. We went in looking for somebody to tell about the lava flow, trying to warn people.
7. This little chapel turned out to be an indoor swimming pool! There were a few people already in, playing in the pool. But there were three sort of bad boys who were antagonistic and didn't seem to like us.
8. But the minute they saw us coming they either jumped or fell into the pool. And then it seemed that I jumped in too and discovered to my pleasant surprise that the water was nice and warm; it was a heated pool! I thought, "It's a lovely place to swim!"
9. But then I remembered we needed to warn people about the lava flow that was coming. So we jumped out of the pool and ran outside‚ and oddly enough we found out that the lava had stopped right at the chapel door!
10. I remember I took my knuckles and rapped on it and it had now cooled off and was just as hard as a rock! So we were praising the Lord that it hadn't come any further and hadn't done us any damage, that it hadn't hurt the little cottage or the chapel.
11. So we were encouraged and things seemed to be looking up a little, as the Lord had miraculously taken care of us and protected us, and now we had this nice pool down the street to swim in. It also seemed like their fall or dive into the pool had cured these antagonistic boys who were bothering us.
12. So we walked back to the little cottage and continued our cleanup. But oh, it was such an awful mess! It was a two-story cottage, and I went upstairs to throw stuff out of the windows‚ there was so much junk and mess and trash! I was really upset and so discouraged to think that those kids would have left it in such a condition for us!
13. I was calling and calling Maria to come‚ because I didn't know where she was and I was worried about her because of the lava flow. But she didn't come. That was the thing that finally really made me so discouraged.
14. I guess it was a combination of the weariness and the overwork and the worry and the excitement about the lava flow, as well as disappointment in our kids, that I sat down in the living room on a chair in the middle of all the mess and began to cry!
15. Then dear Sara walked up to me. She and Alfred and the rest of the Family had been busy cleaning the house, but she felt sorry for me. For some reason or another she was topless, and she stuck her nipple in my mouth! Immediately that seemed to calm me down and soothe my ruffled spirits and comfort me, just like a little crying baby!
16. I thought, "How nice! At least somebody loves me and comforts me amidst all this confusion and emergency and losing Maria and everything." I sucked on her bosom and stopped crying, just like a baby! I remember I also put my hand on her other bosom like it was a comfort to me.
17. Then I looked and she had a whole lot of bosoms! She had one on top of each shoulder and some on her arms and on her stomach and even some on her back! She had bosoms all over her! I thought, "Wow! She could really comfort a lot of people!"
18. But then I was thinking again about Maria being gone, and I felt so sad and it bothered me so much that it woke me up! Oh, I was so thankful to reach over and feel that she was still beside me!
19. That dream certainly couldn't have a literal meaning, so it had to be symbolic. The fact that the kids had left this little cottage in such terrible disorder for us, such a cluttered mess, must show that they didn't have the consideration they should have had for us. Maybe it was to warn the kids to behave and take good care of things and let everything be done in decency and order, as they should be everywhere in the world.
20. The house also could represent God's house, God's Family. You'd better be taking good care of His Family or you're going to be sorry, and we'll be sorry too!
21. The terrible lava flow must represent the judgments of God. Because we prayed so desperately, it missed our house and it finally stopped right at the door of that little chapel, which is sort of symbolic of the mercy of God. When His judgments fall on the wicked, they usually miss His children or His children are spared from them.
22. The little chapel which was a swimming pool seems to symbolize the cleansing of the Word by His Spirit, sort of like repentance‚ because those bad boys who fell or jumped in seemed to come out much better.
23. After diving in and swimming in the pool, even I seemed to be refreshed and comforted! That could symbolize the comfort of God's Word and His cleansing, which, in that hour of real trial about the house and the lava‚ was a great comfort to me.
24. His Word is always a comfort, and the voice of His Spirit is always an encouragement in the hour of greatest trial, even when everything seems to have gone wrong and you're in danger from your enemies and so on.
25. Why did the lava stop? Why is it that when I went out and felt it‚ it seemed so hard? I guess that symbolizes that God's judgments can be pretty hard sometimes, and they're just absolutely invincible! Only God Himself can stop them, and He stopped it just in time! But it still lay there and stayed there as a reminder, a warning of the judgments of God on the misdeeds of the people.
26. Maria was there part of the time, but why she wasn't there at the last moment when I got so discouraged and so tired, I don't know. Maybe this was to show how much I need her!
27. But Sara was such a comfort! I guess that's a simple little symbol God gave--breasts all over-–to show how comforting she could be, not only to me‚ but to a lot of big babies, as she has been many times before.
28. She had to comfort a whole lot of men, so to have that many babies to comfort, you have to have a lot of bosoms to lean on! I was using two of them and was very thankful for them, and she was very sweet and loving and comforting and understanding.
29. It must be a warning to keep our house in order, for you never know when the judgments of God are going to fall! If you're not ready, everything happens at once and it gets to be almost too much for you.
30. Thank God for the comfort of His cleansing Word, that warm pool, the encouragement of His Word-–and then for the loving encouragement of the members of our Family on which we can lean when we need help.
31. The whole idea at the end of the dream was the comfort that we receive from each other and the Lord. We need a lot of bosoms to comfort the many who need help, lots of love‚ and lots of the water of the Word! God give us lots of Your bosoms to comfort others! Are you one of "God's Bosoms"?
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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THE WOMEN WITH MORE MERCY THAN GOD!
CM 583 7/76
(A discussion between Dad and Mama on the difference between men and women in FFing:)
1. You women have more love and mercy than us men. You're probably more like the Holy Spirit because you're symbolic of the Holy Spirit. God is the Father and the Holy Spirit is like the Mother--like you women.
2. Mothers always have more mercy and patience with the children than the fathers do. I was trying to think of a Scriptural example of that. The first example that came to me was Moses. When God was so angry with Israel that He wanted to destroy them all, Moses pled for them and stood in God's way (Exo.32:10–14). When Moses appealed‚ the Bible says that "God repented of the evil that He would do unto Israel!" Think of it!
3. You know what Moses said to God? "All right, God, if You're going to wipe them out, then wipe me out too! If You won't save them‚ Your Own children, then blot me out of Your Book!" (Exo.32:32). The man with more mercy than God!
4. How could we mere mortals have more mercy than God Himself? Instantly, another example came to me: This is why He sent Jesus, so that Jesus could be a man and know how men feel. He could be human and know how it is to be human, and therefore could understand us better and have more mercy on us, and could be our Intercessor and Mediator with God Himself (1Tim.2:5). So if Jesus is in our heart, He's on our side. He's our Intercessor, our High Priest.
5. This shows that Jesus Himself was more merciful than God the Father, in a sense, because having been human‚ He can understand us better and have more compassion on us, more patience with us and more mercy on us than God Himself!
6. There were a number of instances in the Bible where men were even more merciful than God, because men were human and understood humans‚ and being imperfect themselves could understand others that weren't perfect (Exo.32:10-14; Jer.26:19, etc.)
7. You girls' love is like a mother's love for her little children. These men are babies spiritually, and you love them just like mothers. You forgive them and are patient with them even when they act exactly like naughty little boys sometimes.
8. The mother is always the intercessor in the family. The man stands for the discipline and the justice and righteousness and the chastisement and the punishment, and is always a sterner disciplinarian than the mother. The father also spanks the child harder than the mother would. The father simply hasn't got the same patience or mercy.
9. The mother is always pleading for the child, has more mercy, and is almost always the intercessor. (Maria: A woman sort of runs by her feelings, her God-given intuition. I guess the Lord puts these feelings there to be reliable.)
10. A woman is instinctive. She has that intuition that God gives a woman, that sixth sense. I've always said that women were made to be receptive, responsive, sensitive in the spirit, much more so than men.
11. Most of the great mediums are women. They're like radio sets that are in tune with the spiritual. And they go more on their emotions and feelings and these inexplicable hunches and urges, these unexplainable ESP communications and so on.
12. The Holy Spirit runs after us, just like the mother runs after the child. The father is apt to say, "Let him go ahead and stick his finger in the fire and get a good taste of it and get burned; then he'll learn his lesson!" But the mother is more defensive, protective and intercessory and pleads the child's part.
13. (Maria: In other words, we need to keep being humble and running after these men and showing them love.) It's the utmost love, just like a mother running after a wayward child. These men are like children and you women are like their mothers.
14. You women have a mother's love for these men, even when we fathers are fed up with them! It's usually been the fathers that have thrown the children out of the house when they're fed up with them. The mothers run after them. God made you women with the utmost of mercy and love.
15. That's why you women are so powerful in this ministry--you have so much love and so much patience and so much mercy! You don't give up! And do you notice how the men keep coming back? They keep running back to mother! They know where they can get mercy when they need it.
16. You women have more mercy and more patience than God‚ think of that! How could that be? The Lord has shown me that it's because you're human like they are and you understand them better that way. Jesus is the same way.
17. That's why God sent Jesus to become a human being--so He could understand man from man's standpoint, and could love man and have more mercy and patience with us than God Himself! That's why Jesus is our Defense Lawyer, because God is the Judge. Jesus is our Advocate, our Intercessor, our High Priest, our Mediator. He defends us. He intercedes for us and He begs God for mercy. That's the way you women are. Really, you women are much more like Jesus than us men.
18. Prophets being the voice of God, the mouthpiece of God, they tend to be a little more severe and harsh, a little more like God. When people complain of God being a little harsh and severe and question why, sometimes in a way maybe they have some cause for saying some of those things. It's really Jesus through the Holy Spirit Who has in a way the greater mercy and love for us‚ because they understand us better.
19. The prophets are really more like God as His voice and mouthpiece, representing God Himself, and usually predicting doom and judgment and punishment and the lowering of the rod, the chopping of the axe!
20. Look at the difference between John the Baptist and Jesus! The whole message of John the Baptist was one of doom and thunder and judgment, and "repent of your sins or God is going to do you in" and all that, which was true. The along came Jesus, just before God was going to wipe them out, and He still had mercy, love and patience with them, and even died for them. Think of it!
21. I was just trying to figure out how you can be so merciful when I can sometimes be so fed up with the men that I want to throw them out! (Maria: I sometimes feel like throwing them overboard, but I know I should still try to pull them through. I know that I'm human and I have all kinds of trials, but the Lord has never deserted me. So how can I abandon them?)
22. Maybe that's why the Lord has you preach them the Gospel-–because He knows in a way you can love them even better than we can. You can go further with them and have more love and more patience with them.
23. (Maria: I know what a mess I am and how many trials I've had, but you haven't thrown me out. When people have trials it's just a trial, so how can you throw them out? I too have said and done a lot of terrible things, so when one of our little disciples says something like that, we certainly can't just pitch him overboard!)
24. King David has always been my favorite hero because he was so bad and did so many terrible things, and yet he loved the Lord so much and was so sorry and repentant and did such great things for God. Because he was forgiven so much, he had a greater love for the Lord.
25. He certainly fulfills that Scripture, "To whom much hath been forgiven, the same loveth much" (Luke 7:47). The Lord was as good as saying that such people love God more than other people because they have been forgiven so much. I guess that's one reason why I love the Lord so much, because I've been so bad and the Lord has forgiven me for so much.
26. I'm absolutely amazed at the love you girls have for these men and how much mercy and patience you have! I would never be able to be that patient and have so much mercy and so much love! My policy is one chance and out! (Maria: That's not how the Lord is with us. He gives us so many chances every day.) Amen!
27. If God had the angels preaching the Gospel, if people hadn't accepted it right on the spot, they probably would have struck them dead or something--give'm what they deserve! But instead God uses us fallible, sinful human beings just like them to reach them, because He knows we have more patience, more love, more mercy on them than even the angels could have!
28. Jesus said‚ "I will have mercy and not sacrifice" (Mat.9:13). In other words, mercy and love are even greater than justice and righteousness. To have mercy and to forgive is better than being perfect and being right.
29. No wonder these women do so well in this kind of work--they're mothers! They have mothers' hearts. They have such pity and compassion for the boys! They see all the good in the men, the best.
30. It's just instinctive for a woman to see the best in a man. They want to bring out the best, whereas we men see the worst in each other. And we don't have much patience and sympathy for each other either.
31. There's only one kind of case that I seem to have a lot of sympathy for, a lot of mercy and patience for‚ and that's the real underdog or those who are real handicapped--the kind of people everybody else gives up on, the kind of people who are hard to love.
32. God gives me a lot of sympathy‚ pity‚ mercy and compassion for certain people. There were times at TSC and in other Colonies when there were people they wanted to throw out, and I interceded for them. (Maria: You realized what they could be in the future if you could just pull them through.)
33. Moses was a type of Christ, and he prayed for the people, so God repented of the evil He would do to Israel. No wonder those Jews worship Moses–-he was more merciful to them than God! They didn't care much for God, but they sure loved Moses. He sure pled for them.
34. That would be a good title: "The Man Who Changed God's Mind"--or, "The Women with More Mercy Than God!" That must be why Jesus said, "Whosoever's sins ye remit‚ they are remitted unto them (Jn.20:23). If you can forgive them, God will forgive them!
35. He gives you this priceless privilege of choice, as He does with so many other things--"the desires of your heart (Psa.37:4). God bless you! Love never fails! For God is love!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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THE ANTI-GOD WAR! GP 585R 6/77
1. Our enemies have lied about us a great deal during our history. Various periodicals have done everything from praise us to the skies to assign us to the depths of hell, depending usually upon which side of the political spectrum or religious fence they were on.
2. The communists accuse us of being fascists in some articles, and the fascists accuse us of being communists in other articles. The atheists accuse us of being religious fanatics, and the churches accuse us of not being religious enough.
3. Some of these outrageous articles have gone further than anything we have ever seen in accusing us of almost every crime in the book! It's almost incredible that any reputable magazine could have even thought of publishing such trash--which clearly shows that such periodicals are not reputable periodicals, certainly not reliable periodicals if you want the truth!
4. They have told so many outright lies in these articles, not counting all of the subtle insinuations, horrible exaggerations, wrestings of the truth, twistings of quotes out of context, sinister innuendoes‚ false inferences and even more!
5. If they will lie as much as they have in these articles about us, an innocent and very small religious group which is only trying to help young people and others‚ what faith can you have in any of their other articles as to their veracity or reliability‚ or the credibility of their statements on any subject, person or persons whatsoever?
6. When the communists call you fascists and the fascists call you communists, it's quite obvious that the truth must lie somewhere in between. When the atheists call you religious fanatics and the churches call you sinners, it must also be true that the truth still lies somewhere nearer the middle.
7. Why such people hate us so is not difficult to understand. Jesus said, "Ye shall be hated for My name's sake"--simply because we are Christians! (Matthew 10:22). Why our enemies would go to so much trouble, expense and time to concoct such a fabrication of total untruths is sometimes difficult for some people to understand.
8. But remember what Hitler said in his book Mein Kampf. In his attempts to deceive the people, the public and the world‚ he said to his propagandists: "Remember, if you are going to lie about our enemies, tell big ones, because the bigger the lie the more the people are apt to believe it, because the public will think that you would not have dared to tell such a great lie unless it were actually true!"
9. They've told such big lies and so many lies in these recent articles that some people are going to be tempted to actually believe them! Frankly‚ however, it's my opinion that any intelligent‚ fair-minded individual is going to smell a rat somewhere upon reading these awful articles.
10. Honestly, it's a little difficult to believe that any one man or any group of religious people could possibly be guilty of so many vices and crimes as we were accused of in the stinking sensationalism of this vicious campaign!
11. Why do our enemies go to such lengths to lie about us? Why do they so obviously hate us with such vitriolic venom and vicious invective? Most people and most periodicals at least give us some credit for some good, even if they don't like some of our messages or methods.
12. But some are so biased and so prejudiced and so far from the truth that they have not one good thing to say about us, except to claim that the poor kids are merely innocent victims of the master monster at the head who is the horrible beast, and they certainly have nothing good to say about him!
13. When people are face to face with our followers‚ they can't help but admit that they are good kids trying to help the world, happy, living together in cooperative homes, sharing what they have with others‚ visiting hospitals, jails, schools, orphanages, old folks homes, singing on radio and television stations in order to share their joy with others and to encourage and cheer as many as they can.
14. So our critics can't deny that our fruit is good, the young people themselves are good and doing good. It's just that old monster who leads them, he's the bad one!
15. Well, Jesus Christ Himself was accused by His lying enemies of being a drunk, a glutton, a blasphemer, demon-possessed, a companion of harlots and a friend of publicans and sinners! They weren't blaming His disciples; they were accusing Him of being the big bad impostor. (See Luke 7:29-35, Mark 2:15-16.)
16. He gave a very simple illustration to show how ridiculous this was. He likened Himself to a tree and His disciples to the fruit of the tree and asked a simple question: If the tree be evil, then how can the fruit be good? "A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit" (Matthew 7). "A tree is known by its fruits!"
17. He turned it back upon their own heads, His critics and enemies, the Scribes and the Pharisees, the self-righteous religious hypocrites and religious leaders of His day, and said, "By their fruits ye shall know them!" And their fruits were to finally murder Him because He had exposed their sins!
18. That's why our enemies hate us--because we have exposed them and their sins and their lies. For it is the hit dog that howls! Our writings have been hitting the mark and the mark is howling loudly and painfully! Some of our literature and writings must have hurt and stung them very sharply in exposing these anti-Christ enemies of God!
19. There's hardly an iota or atom of truth in any one of these lies contained in these articles in these lying periodicals by their lying reporters. Now, my dear public, it's up to you to decide who is lying and who are the liars!
20. I suggest before you make your decision you come to see us personally or read some of our writings for yourself, which are available on many streets of the world, distributed at the rate of over six million copies a month.
21. Don't believe the awful lies of the enemies of the cross, the enemies of Christ, the enemies of God, the enemies of the true Church‚ the enemies of truth, the enemies of true Christianity, the enemies of God's love!
22. Long live love and her friends, her true friends, of whom I am one! May God cause her enemies to go down to total and utter defeat in the coming days of the judgments of God against His enemies!
23. God bless all you who are of good will and faith in God and His love and His Word and His Son Jesus Christ! And God help all of you who do not know the truth to find it. We love you and God loves you!
24. Why not come and visit one of our homes and find out for yourself? Don't take the word of these liars who hate us because we are true Christians and they are therefore trying to defame us and smear us and attack us because they are very angry that we are having such a good Christ–centered impact upon the world's youth!
25. Let our six million readers around the world every month tell you! Let our nearly 100,000 converts every month and our over 800 Colonies and nearly 8,000 full-time workers in 72 countries tell you the truth!
26. I wouldn't advise you to buy periodicals which have so many lies! How are you going to trust anything that they have to say? What's true and what are lies?--Such as their articles about us! Who knows, maybe it's all lies! After their lying articles about us, I wouldn't believe or trust anything they had to say!
27. Read the Words of God rather than the lies of truth's enemies! Long live truth! God bless the truth! The lies of man shall come to nought, but the truth of God shall stand forever! Praise God!
28. God bless all of you who read our little papers with good will! If you're one of our friends, you belong to a great loving Family that is now nearly two million strong throughout the world with nearly 8‚000 full–time workers living in over 800 loving Homes in over 70 countries speaking more than 50 languages! Surely some of us are near you!
29. Come and see us or write us! God bless you! Help us if you can. We need it! We love you! Long live love! Love never fails--for God is love! "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16).
30. Do you have love? If not, we have lots for you! Come and see and feel it today! We're waiting for you!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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"IT'S A BOY!"--THE BIRTH OF BABY DAVID!
From a tape made for the Tenerife pubs staff only two days after he was born! DFO 587 1/75
1. Dear Maria is so shy! I told her to please try to tell you about the birth of the baby, but she said, "Oh, I can't! I'm too shy! I want you to tell it please!"
2. So first I'll tell you my story! Maria woke me up about 4 o'clock Saturday morning, January 25‚ 1975, by making a quick dash for the bathroom without her bathrobe. I thought, "That's funny! She's sure going fast!" It turned out her water bag had just broken and she was trying to make it to the toilet!
3. She was the cutest little thing sitting there on the toilet with her notebook, no robe, cold, trying to be so brave and jot down everything that was happening. So I ran back and grabbed my robe for her and came in and threw it around her, and then I went to the girls' room and stuck my head in the door and I told Rachel and Lydia (Serena)‚ "Good morning!" I said, "Maria's water bag has broken and she may need a little help." So they scrambled around and the furor began.
4. Then they were trying to get me back in bed, for I was running around in my undershirt because I didn't have my robe, as Maria had it. Lydia finally persuaded me to go back to bed, as it would be quite a while yet, since she wasn't having hardly any contractions--I started to say contortions!
5. She hardly had any strong contractions until much later. And of course she never did have any contortions at all, ha! So I decided, "Well, okay, the girls can handle the situation‚ and if this is going to be the big day I might as well try to get a little more sleep." So I went back to bed.
6. About 7 o'clock or so, I woke up again and I thought, "Oh my Lord! It's been three hours! I'd better see how she's doing!" So I ran out to see how she was doing and by this time she was lying on the living room couch in my robe, and Lydia was sitting beside her talking to her or reading to her, and they looked perfectly calm and collected and there was nothing important happening at all.
7. Maria just smiled at me and looked cheerful and bright and said‚ "What are you doing here?" and I said, "What are you doing?" Her contractions were about half-an-hour apart or something like that, but the doctor had said not to worry about coming until they were about 15 minutes apart.
8. So Maria said, "I'm fine." She finally persuaded me to go back to bed. She said, "You'll need your rest and strength for later." So I said, "All right, if you're okay." And I made sure the girls kept an eye on her.
9. So I went back to bed‚ and I was so dead tired I slept like a log for another three hours until 10 o'clock! Then I heard this horn outside faintly in my sleep, and I heard a car door slam and it sounded like a taxi drove off!
10. I jumped out of bed and thought‚ "That little rascal! If she's trying to pull a fast one on me and go to the hospital without me, I'm going to be so upset! It's just like something she'd do to not want to worry me and get off and have it without any bother!" So I jumped up again and ran out into the living room, and there she was lying peacefully on the couch still smiling and Lydia was sitting behind her reading to her!
11. The first thing I said was, "How far are the pains apart?" and Lydia tried to calmly say, "Oh, just five minutes." I said, "My Lord, she's about to have the baby!" (Maria: They'd been five minutes apart for a long time, but the book said that in the first stage of labor they come at intervals of five to twenty minutes, so I thought that was fine.)
12. I said, "Hurry up and get her ready! Get her suitcase and I'll call the taxi! Goodness gracious, she's going to have it right here!" Maria said, "Well, why can't I have it right here? It's so much more comfortable and convenient. Why can't I stay here and have it?" I think she was really deliberately trying to wait as long as she could to keep from having to go to the hospital!
13. I said, "Listen‚ hospitals are much better equipped for this than we are! Besides, what would your doctor say? He expects you there and he told you to come, and we paid him all that money, so what good is it if we don't go? We've got to go to the hospital!" I ran and got dressed quick and phoned the taxi while the girls were getting her ready, and she was having pains faster and faster.
14. The taxi came, and we rushed her out to the taxi and helped her in. We supported her on both sides taking her out there, and she was laughing like it was all a big joke and said‚ "What are you making such a big fuss about? Quit holding on to me! You don't have to carry me!" She's a stubborn independent little rascal! So she was waddling out to the taxi in between pains. But she never seemed to have enough pain to hardly even groan or grunt.
15. She just kept going‚ "Whew, whew, whew!" like a steam engine, and never made any complaints or groans, laughing and smiling all the time between blows. But once in a while I'd notice that her blows got a little more energetic and she'd concentrate a little more on them.
16. So we managed to get her loaded into the taxi with her head in my lap and dear Lydia holding up her feet on the other end. Rachel got in front with the driver and away we went!
17. I'd been running around like a chicken with its head off while we were trying to get the taxi, and when it came I ran out to tell the taxi man‚ "Momentito, por favor! Momentito! Mi bambino viene!" and he looked at me and kind of smiled in the slow calm way of the Tenerifans: "Tranquilo, tranquilo! No hay prisa." "Don't worry, don't worry! There's no hurry." I thought‚ "Man, if you knew what a hurry there is you wouldn't be so calm! She may mess up your taxi!" But he didn't seem to worry about that.
18. So we got her in and the driver casually glanced back as though it wouldn't be anything new to him to have a baby born in his cab! Then he drove calmly down to the hospital. We drove first to the Bellevue Clinic because it was so late, as I thought, "We don't have time to go clear downtown!"
19. All the way down I was praying for Maria like mad in tongues, and I kept hearing this name in Abrahim's tongue, "David!" But I was too busy to even think about interpreting, I was so desperate and concerned about her not having the baby right there in that taxi.
20. I was praying, "Oh Lord, please help her wait until we get down there!" And you said that you hardly had any pains or contractions while in the taxi, didn't you? (Maria: Yes, they almost ceased entirely while I was in the taxi!)
21. By the time we got to Bellevue it was about 11 o'clock, and we ran around looking for a doctor, a nurse, or where we should take this emergency case that's about to have a baby in the taxi cab! I was fretting and fuming, trying to get her out of the taxi, but Maria said, "No, wait till we find out." I was going to rush her in if I had to carry her in. But the nurse said, "You can't bring her here! You've got to take her down to Maternidad."
22. I said‚ "Where's the doctor?" She said, "The doctor's gone to Santa Cruz." And, oh, my heart sank. I thought, "She's about to have the baby and the doctor's in Santa Cruz. He can't possibly make it!" So she said, "You'll have to take her down to Maternidad where the midwife is, and they'll take care of her down there." So we climbed back into the taxi and the taxi driver, like it didn't matter if he had babies born in his taxi every day, calmly drove us slowly down to Maternidad, to the little emergency clinic where the local poor go too.
23. In the meantime Maria seemed to be getting along great! She was just laughing and smiling during all the confusion and thinking it was really funny the way we were acting. She was the calmest one in the bunch and was hardly having any pains at all!
24. We managed to get to Maternidad about 11:25 a.m. and Rachel ran in to try to find out where she was supposed to go. There was some little girl mopping the floor and Rachel asked her, "Where's the doctor? Where's the nurse?" She said, "They're not here." And Rachel said, "But we've got a woman out here about to have a baby in the taxi. What do we do?" The girl said‚ "Bring her in."
25. So Rachel came out and said, "There's no one here but a little nurse's aide, but she says to bring you in." So we helped her up the steps and they helped her into the maternity room and laid her out on the table‚ and this girl didn't get excited in the least.
26. She had been mopping the floor, and she just laid down her mop and began to take care of Maria. She situated her on the table and began washing her hands and getting a few instruments collected. It turned out she was the midwife. And it was cold in there! The windows were wide open and Maria suffered more from the cold than she did anything else. She was just freezing!
27. She was suffering more from the cold than she was from contractions, but they began to come more and more. Meanwhile I was standing right there, but they didn't act like they were too enthusiastic about me being in the delivery room, so I went into the instrument room.
28. Right above the top of her head there was a little square hole in the door that you could look through, kind of like the dream about the "City of Buried Treasure" (ML #324). She was my treasure buried in the delivery room, and the baby was buried in her and we were trying to get it out through a hole. Ha!
29. The hole in the door was about a foot long and about six inches high, right above her head. Her head was lying just on the other side of it, so she'd lift her chin up and look at me over the top of her forehead and I'd talk to her through that hole and try to encourage her.
30. Maria said, "Lydia, take care of David. Get him out of here and take him into the waiting room." She was afraid I was cold too and she was more worried about me than she was about herself! So we went just one room away to the waiting room and it was cold too, and I had to shut the window.
31. Apparently they were cleaning up before lunch and opening everything up and airing everything out. They'd already had some babies that morning, and the doctor had waited until 11 o'clock and then he'd gone to Santa Cruz for his day off! He'd said, "Nobody will have any more babies now--they either have them in the morning or at night."
32. So I went and sat down like a nervous fidget on the couch beside Lydia in the waiting room. Meanwhile this little girl was fiddling around with Maria and pushing on her tummy with her ice-cold hands. The nurse looked like she was half-sick, and maybe she should have been in the hospital herself!
33. (Maria: When she finally took my clothes off Rachel saw the baby's head coming out and the girl still hadn't shaved me, so Rachel started getting out her gloves and said‚ "Well, if this girl doesn't do something soon‚ I'm going to have to deliver it!") So that was what was going on in the delivery room while I was trying to sit there and keep my peace in the waiting room.
34. I finally got fed up with that and said, "Lydia, I can't just wait here!" And I dashed back to the instrument room and talked to Maria through the hole again, and everything was going fine. I think I was more upset than anybody. Everybody else was so calm--at least Rachel was trying to keep calm, trying to pretend she was calm.
35. (Maria: As Rachel saw the baby's head sticking out, she said, "He's got real black curly hair! Come and look, come and look!"–-to you.) I said‚ "I'll see it when it's born!" I thought, "This is no time for me to faint," as I'd never seen a birth before‚ and I didn't know whether I better start with this one because I might be too affected. As it turned out, I finally took it better than the girls did!
36. All of a sudden Rachel began to get woozy and dizzy and thought she was going to keel over right there on the floor, she was having such sympathetic birth pains, so she came running out of the delivery room pale as a ghost! At that moment I happened to be sitting in the waiting room talking to the secretary with Lydia, and Rachel came in and sat down real quick and put her head down between her knees.
37. She said, "I'm sorry, but I feel a little faint and I didn't want to faint right there on the delivery room floor!" By now Lydia was quite chipper, so I told Lydia to rush in and watch Maria while I was taking care of Rachel, and Rachel seemed to improve in just a few moments, and then she got up and went back in again‚ God bless her!
38. It was all a general confusion! I can't tell you everything that happened, but it was funny: I kept going into the waiting room and would sit down for about a minute, then I'd run back in and talk to Maria for a minute, then run back into the waiting room and sit down a minute, then run back. Rachel said every time she needed a translator I'd pop into the instrument room again so she could ask me how do you say this or that, and on it went.
39. Maria was lying there so calmly. Every once in a while she'd start puffing a little bit and Rachel would tell her, "Blow, blow, blow," and so on. The baby had almost come by the time the doctor got there! And he wasn't even our doctor! Ours was in Santa Cruz, so it was another doctor we didn't know.
40. (Maria: He didn't speak English either‚ and both the midwife and the doctor kept saying, "Venga‚ venga! Mas, mas! Venga, venga!"--Or, "Come, come! More, more!" So I had to take a big breath and just push as hard as I could, and it was pretty hard work!)
41. The only noise Maria really made during the whole thing was when I had just run back to the waiting room one more time to sit down and try to stay for a minute, when she let out a giant grunt, "Uuuuuuuuuuuah," like she had constipation and a hard time having a BM, and boom, out popped the baby! When I heard that big grunt, I dashed in just in time to see them pull the baby out!
42. Rachel said that the baby's head was already out and they were starting to pull the rest of it out when Maria said, "I don't think I can push any more." Rachel laughed and said‚ "You don't have to‚ it's already born!"
43. Oh, I forgot! Just before he was born I had gone back into the waiting room again--I just kept wearing a groove between the waiting room and the instrument room--and I sat down there when I heard the church bells chime 12 o'clock! I felt like there was something significant about it, and I thought, "Wow, Lord! That would be something if he was born at noon on the seventh day of the week!" And a few minutes later at 12:10 p.m. exactly he was born!
44. Lydia came rushing out the minute it was born and said‚ "It's a girl‚ it's a girl! It's David‚ it's gotta be David!" And I said, "If it's a girl, how can it be David?" Poor Lydia was so excited and all mixed up and she couldn't say boy for the life of her! So I dashed in there, and sure enough it was a boy! We had a little black-haired, curly-haired boy as pretty as a girl and as big as could be--7.7 lbs.! Rachel had taken the baby into another little anteroom where she was bathing and dressing him and he was letting it be known he had arrived.
45. But as Rachel began to dress him and talk to him, he stopped crying and rolled his eyes around, looking all around. And it's the funniest thing! He's so black-headed and he looks so Spanish that I immediately started talking to him in Spanish. I said, "This is your Papa, your father. Are you a little cold?" and so on--all in Spanish! And he stopped and listened and he turned his head and looked at me!
46. They moved us all into another room after getting Maria cleaned up and sewed up. She said the hardest part of the whole thing was not having the baby but the way they pushed on her stomach and sewed her up so roughly! Rachel was kind of mad because the doctor let her tear a little bit, didn't lubricate her properly or stretch her--and it was probably partly Maria's fault for wanting to make it come so quick that she gave one mighty push and shoved it out!
47. (Maria: We prayed that I wouldn't tear‚ but it happened, but I feel so good otherwise that I guess the Lord let it happen to keep me from overdoing and keep reminding me of my condition.) Yes, she'd have been up running the whole house and typing letters the minute we got home if she hadn't had a little extra affliction to keep her humble!
48. Then they wheeled her into this nice little private room; the sun was shining through the window, and it was just beautiful. Everything was so pretty, just like the Lord was really blessing us and encouraging us that day! And she was lying there on the bed so radiant and smiling, and her eyes glowing!
49. They immediately brought the baby in and laid it down in the cutest little crib right beside her! All of us were standing in there‚ me and the girls, but nobody seemed to mind the least little bit that we were still hanging around and butting into everything.
50. It was just all kind of a family affair and very informal, nothing like those horrible American hospitals where they won't even let you get near and you don't know what's going on and you worry more. Fathers and mothers both worry more when separated like that, not knowing what's happening, than when you're right there to watch everything.
51. We spent until nearly three o'clock just sitting with Maria while she was talking as excitedly as anybody about everything that happened. Maria was strong and chipper and talking away, but finally I could tell she was getting a little tired‚ so I said, "If we don't go she won't stop talking and she won't sleep." So we left Lydia there to take care of Maria and the baby. And they said the baby never did go to sleep until after we left!
52. Oh, I forgot to tell you! I was telling you how I was praying for Maria all the way down in the taxi and Abrahim kept saying "David"–-and I thought he was praying for me! I remember thinking, "It's funny he's talking about me so much when he ought to be talking about Maria and praying for her."
53. Well, now we know! Abrahim was praying for the baby! I thought for sure we were going to have a girl because of something I saw some time ago, but I guess that's going to come next.
54. So we left to go home and get a little rest. While we were gone the doctor finally came, and what happened? (Maria: The doctor was amazed! He said, "This is fantastic! We haven't had a first delivery that quickly in a year–and-a-half here!")
55. We came home and rested and came back that night. I couldn't believe it when I came in. Maria was sitting up and just glowing. Her color had all come back and she looked better than she'd looked for two weeks! Her eyes were sparkling and little David was snoozing away in his crib. He looks so cute, he's just a doll!
56. Later that night we came home, the night of the birth, and Rachel said, "I'm going down first thing in the morning to see her." I said, "Now listen, she's talking about coming home tomorrow, Sunday, but don't you dare let her out of that bed if you have to hold her down!" Well, of course you know what happened!
57. Next day, Sunday, I got a phone call from Rachel about 12 or 1 o'clock and she said, "She's just insisting on coming home. I can't hold her down. She says the doctors said she could come home, so she wants to come home!" Then Rachel gave me a nice sales talk and said‚ "Well, it is kind of difficult here. It's awful noisy, and the trash truck comes by at 4 o'clock in the morning, so I think she'd rest better at home. We've got her all packed and the doctor said she can go, and the bill's paid and she's ready to walk out the door!"
58. The bill was only about $100! It's about twice that much at the Bellevue Clinic. There was no room in the inn, so we had to go down to the stable! Bellevue wouldn't take us in, the rich hospital, so she landed down at the little old poor folks' clinic and had her baby there!
59. Maria was insisting on coming home. So I said, "All right, pack her in a taxi and bring her home!" We had about 20 minutes to rush around the house like mad to try to get her room in shape, as we'd thought we had another whole day to get things ready. We were trying to get the baby's bed made and everything cleaned and ready, and we just barely made it when they came walking in the door! So that's the story, and here we are today!
60. (Maria: The Lord said the baby was a love gift to his father.) Praise the Lord! Amen! I don't think I ever enjoyed a baby as much as I've enjoyed this one. I don't think I had time to pay as much attention to any of the others--I was too young and too busy and too scared or something.
61. But with this one, we felt every move and every bulge‚ and every time he would stir inside I'd put my hand on him to see what he was doing. We really enjoyed every minute of it, and the birth was even easier.
62. We prayed for a short labor and a quick delivery, and it was certainly a miracle! God really answered prayer! It was a very short labor, almost no labor at all as far as intense pains or severe contractions. We got the verse: "Before she travailed she shall bring forth," and He'd "not let her suffer more than she would be able to bear" (Isa.66:7; 1Cor.10:13). And before she really travailed hard at all‚ the baby was born!
63. Maria is kind of weak and small and I was a little worried about how she could take such a big exercise, but she came through with flying colors! She was the bravest one in the bunch! She was cheerful and laughing and smiling and talking, with her little bright eyes shining all the way through the whole thing! She really did great! I'm so proud of her!
64. After all, she's had the biggest baby in the world for a long time‚ which is her biggest problem and a lot more trouble than any little babies--me! Ha! So she was well prepared! She took this little one in easy stride. She's lying here kissing her big one--me!
65. I wanted a girl and the Lord made us think we were going to have a girl, but it didn't happen to be this one! I think I'm going to have to buy a drink for every waiter in town, because all of them were betting me that it was going to be a boy. But I kept saying, "No, no. It'll be a girl." Ha! Some prophet!
66. It's a boy! And whatta boy! Praise the Lord!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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OPEN THE DOOR FOR THE CHILDREN!
DFO 588 5/77
1. In my dream, our catacombers were having Sunday school for the neighborhood kids. They had them organized into tribes and they were making all kinds of projects and things. Each tribe had a little flag or symbol above their camp that they had chosen.
2. And I kept singing that song‚ "Open the door for the children." It must be something the Lord wants them to do, huh? (Sings:) "Open the door for the children, tenderly gather them in." I used to sing that in Sunday school.
3. The catacombers were having something like Daily Vacation Bible School for all these little neighborhood kids! Did you hear me singing? I kept thinking, "I must sing this song over and over so I'll remember it and be able to tell Maria about it. It's our theme song for the little children!" (Maria: I heard it.) "And I must take a picture of this so I'll be sure to remember to tell Maria about it." I was trying to take a picture‚ but the camera got jammed. That must be what woke me up. (Maria: Isn't that funny how I heard you whistling the song in your sleep!)
4. The Lord must want our catacombers to do something for the little children in their neighborhood. Miguel's catacombers had these little kids from the neighborhood in their house, and they had them divided up into little tribes of Israel: Zebulon‚ Gad‚ Asher, Judah‚ Issachar, etc.
5. Each little group had a teacher in different parts of the room and the house, and each little group had a sign stuck up over their little Sunday school class with the name of their tribe on it and some kind of symbol representing their tribe, like those banners we used to have in Sunday school. They were pretending they were camping out like the children of Israel in the wilderness.
6. They had all kinds of models on the floor, cut-out pictures and stuff representing all the different things that they had, like tents and cows and sheep and goats and horses--all in miniature! The little kids were just eating it up! What a great thing that would be for the children--and for our young people too! That would really give them something to do!
7. There were only a few teenagers, catacombers‚ and they were busy helping as teachers and taking care of the little kids. The catacombers just seemed to be really enjoying it, showing the younger generation genuine love! It was bedlam with all those little kids, but they were having a good time. That's such a wonderful work for catacombers to reach the children of their neighborhoods!
8. I think that's the best work that the churches do--to have Sunday school, child evangelism classes‚ Vacation Bible School and stuff like that. Many of our kids testify to this day that they were saved in their Vacation Bible School or Sunday school, even though their parents didn't know the Lord and didn't go to church or anything.
9. It was such a pretty picture, so sweet! The catacombers were all busy bustling around taking care of the little kids. Miguel was directing all these teenage girls taking care of the little kids. And then I had three cameras and I was trying to illustrate it to them. The teachers were all at this long table sitting around after the children were gone and I was showing them, "See, my generation is like this camera, and your generation is like this camera on top of it, and their generation is like this third camera on top of you.
10. "We each have to reach the next generation: I reached you, now you've got to reach them. It's all so simple!"
11. So this is the Lord's message: "Open the door for the children, tenderly gather them in, in from the highways and byways, in from the fields of sin." I kept thinking, "I've got to remember to tell Maria about all this. This is beautiful!--How the catacombers could have Sunday schools for the little kids, or Vacation Bible School or something."
12. It looked like fun! Amen, thank You Jesus! Praise the Lord! Lord give us wisdom. Help the young people, Lord. Help our young people to get the vision to reach the children in their neighborhoods with child evangelism.
13. "Open the door for the children,
Tenderly gather them in,
In from the highways and byways,
In from the field of sin.
Open the door, gather them in,
Open the door for the children‚
Tenderly gather them in."
14. I kept singing that song so I'd remember it and wouldn't forget to tell you. That song was sort of like God's message, "This is what you're supposed to do: Open the door for the children, tenderly gather them in." Hallelujah! Thank You Lord!
15. Maybe that Sunday school method wasn't lost after all! We really can use it! We ought to give them to the neighborhood children now, give them the advantage of it too. I mean it was just as loud and clear as could be, that we were supposed to do this, and that was the message, the song.
16. What a ministry for the catacombers--all those teenage girls and boys! I remember that used to be one of the attractions of going to Sunday school--to see all those pretty girls! At least it was for me when I was a little kid!
17. Let's roll 'em! start now! Who'll be the first to reach the kids in your neighborhood--you or those ridiculous churches? For God's sake, let's save the poor little kids from that deadly churchianity! Start today! Amen? God bless you!
18. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me and forbid them not, for of such is the Kingdom of Heaven!" (Mat.19:14). Amen? Praise the Lord for His guidance and direction! It's His commandment!: "Open the door for the children!"
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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OUR ANSWERS--To Interviu's 202 Lies About the Children of God and Family of Love!
GP 589 6/77
1. We are going to take these articles [by Interviu] apart for your benefit and pick them to pieces, word by word, phrase by phrase‚ item by item‚ and show you how they have lied about us and how many times they have lied about us and what great lies they have told! [Note: To save space in this DB condensation‚ we're only listing some of the 202 lies which Dad detailed in the original Letter.]
2. Even their front cover was a lie, because they call us "A Religion in Mortal Sin." It's odd, isn't it, that the Devil should talk about mortal sin when he's such a sinner himself! But it is quite common for liars to accuse others of the same sins of which they themselves are the most guilty.
3. Next they accuse us of "white slave trade." We have never had any slaves of any color, and I challenge them to try to prove it! They can't prove it, because it just simply is not so, and it never has been and never will be!
4. Third, they accuse us of "prostitution." We have denied this so many times we have become weary of it. Even our enemies have admitted that we "are not guilty of prostitution," and if we had been, it could have been easily proved long ago and we would have been in court for it before this.
5. After police investigation, all of these charges have been thoroughly disproved and we have been given a clean bill of health by one police organization after another.
6. Number 5, "baby traffic." Now if that isn't the silliest thing I ever heard of, to accuse us of wanting to sell our own children! That is just about as low as you can get!
7. We have over 1,300 children in our Family, but we keep every single one of them, love them, tenderly, gently care for and educate them, and we have every single one of them with us, praise God‚ and we can prove it by the records!
8. These liars of Interviu say that they "have proof." Well, that's an outright lie, because if they had the proof‚ I'm sure such "proof" would now be in the hands of the police and we would be charged with these crimes. But of course they have absolutely no proof because it doesn't exist!
9. Number 17, they say we have "enormous economic power." Where do we have this great economic power and who wields it? A visit to almost any of our Homes would easily disprove this, as the vast majority are anything but rich and live frugally just like normal people do, like most of you. And a visit to our administrative bank accounts would show that we operate on amazingly low funds used mostly for our publications.
10. Lie number 19, they say we "enjoy free love." We have condemned "free love" in any of our Homes and have forbidden any kind of what is normally known as free love, meaning total promiscuity, in which we do not believe. We have marriages‚ husbands, wives and children, just like any other normal families. And in most cases we believe in permanent mates without divorce.
11. Number 21, "brutal brainwashing." Well, I must say that the Bible does say we need brainwashing, and that we must have our formerly filthy minds "washed by the pure water of the Word of God" (Hebrews 10:22; Romans 12:2). If you have a dirty mind‚ it certainly needs washing with the truth and with God's Word. But to say that it was "brutal" brainwashing is another vicious lie!
12. We have never been brutal about anything. We do not even believe in violence. The insinuation is that there's something physically violent about our training, which is absolutely a lie! If you want to call reading the Bible and my Letters "brutal brainwashing," you have a distorted mind!
13. Dear friend, if a magazine could get so many facts twisted and come out with so many lies and obvious misrepresentations, how can you believe anything it has to say? Since so many of its statements are wrong and incorrect and totally untrue, how can you rely on any of the rest of it?
14. How can you know when you're reading the truth and when you're reading a lie? If I were you, I would toss it in the nearest wastebasket, just as they toss out the total testimony of any witness in any court who has proven to have perjured himself by lying about any single thing in his testimony. They then toss out all of his testimony as being unreliable, as he could have lied other places too. He's tossed out as a liar‚ like this magazine should be!
15. Lie 33 says "brainwashed by sex." I'd like to know who is being brainwashed by sex and how is that done? We are brainwashing sex itself by insisting that it is the creation and gift of God, given to us to enjoy, and not prohibited as it is by so many of the puritanical!
16. Most people seem to think that sex is something dirty and evil, so how could we be brainwashing people with it? We think it is very clean and good as God's own creation, and we enjoy it. Don't you? How in the world could you brainwash anybody with sex, when you brainwash with ideas, not with physical acts?
17. In lie 43 the headline says "the business of good faith." It is common amongst anti–Christ, anti-God unbelievers to call a faith a business, with the inference always being that it's just a money–making racket. Some faiths or religions or pseudo-religions may be money–making rackets, but not ours, thank God! We're in the business of winning souls‚ not making money. God does pay the expenses, but we have no great sums of money piled up anywhere.
18. God always takes care of His servants. As He says‚ "the laborer is worthy of his hire," and "muzzle not the ox that treadeth out the corn" (1Timothy 5:18). We've got a lot of "oxen" treading out my "corn," but they don't get too much for it from the little gifts on the street--just usually enough to live on. How much did you give them? If you remember, then that's about what most people give them, which probably wasn't very much! Most of our members live very frugally in very humble circumstances and work very hard trying to distribute the Word of God for very little or almost nothing!
19. Next begins a criminal violation of copyright infringement by the magazine by quoting from the private letters circulated only to the Family. As any father would write to his children, these letters were not intended to be read in public, much less published in a dirty magazine like Interviu with all the insinuations attached out of context!
20. This is not only an infringement of copyright and an invasion of privacy, but it also involves the theft of materials which are never supposed to leave our Homes. Either this magazine stole them or they are the receivers of stolen property, having gotten them from some ex-disciple who stole them! So this magazine is obviously a criminal magazine engaged in criminal activities itself!
21. Lie number 47 says "they never go alone." This is a total lie‚ because our disciples often go various places by themselves. They are not in any kind of prison. But we usually do like to have them go two-by–two for safety's sake, because they obviously have quite a few enemies.
22. In lie 53 we are accused of "economic extortion," which is totally untrue! We're in the work of saving people's souls, not extorting their money! Many of our disciples who have moved in with us had nothing at all! They were poor, destitute, drug-ridden hippies who were delivered from their drugs by the power of Jesus Christ, and had nothing to offer us but a hungry mouth that needed to be fed, a dirty body that needed to be washed and clothed, and a heart that needed to be given to Christ!
23. I must say this magazine did make one rare true statement: "Nevertheless, nothing has been proven." Wow! This is exactly contrary and the opposite of what they stated in the opening of the article, that they have "proofs" and these are "facts" and they have "documents" to support them!
24. Lie 56, "Contraceptives are forbidden or prohibited." This is absolutely not true! We do not "forbid" or "prohibit" any of our people from using contraceptives if they want to. We don't believe in using contraceptives and we think that it's against the will of God and against the teachings of the Bible, and therefore that is our personal conviction. But we have never prohibited or forbidden any of our disciples from using contraceptives if they want to, if they don't have the faith to trust God.
25. Lie 75 says that I am "at the root of some scandals." Well, if you mean some type of criminal or illegal scandal, that is certainly not so. But if you simply mean that because someone becomes famous because of a lot of long-tongued gossips and lies on the part of our enemies, this magazine is certainly scandalizing us right now!
26. Lie 89 indicates that we are guilty of "crimes." We're not guilty, but certainly this magazine is guilty of a lot of crimes against us and God both‚ in this one article alone, not to speak of the next one! The pitiful part of it is, it's guilty of crimes against the public for publishing such lies as this to try to deceive them!
27. Lie number 95 says there was a "Virginia" among our girls, but there never was as far as I know. He must have gotten the wrong girl! Maybe that's why the writer is so mad, because she wouldn't go to bed with him! Well, if so, it wasn't any of our girls, because we didn't have any called Virginia.
28. Aha, now we see a bit of the possible motive behind the hatred in his next statement: "In vain we ourselves wanted to be chosen"--but he wasn't! So what did he do? He went out and got mad and wrote this article against us, because he didn't get any--poor fellow!
29. He also criticizes us for having taxis going up and down from the clubs to our Homes. Well, if you haven't got a car, a taxi is a pretty convenient way to travel, and thank God for the reasonable taxis of Tenerife! Otherwise we'd have had to walk two or three miles.
30. I don't know what's wrong with taking taxis myself, but he seems to think there is something sinister about them! Personally, I don't own an automobile or a house or any property except the clothes on my back and the few necessities that I have on my bedside table.
31. I've found I can travel with all my earthly belongings in one little bag and a small briefcase and be perfectly happy! And it's a good thing, too, I guess, as I'm apparently going to have to travel quite a bit with evil magazines like this one around telling such lies about me! I already had to leave Tenerife for the sake of having a little peace and rest from all the reporters and the curious and governmental harassment.
32. So thank God I don't own very much and I travel light. I'm what you might call a suitcase missionary–-here today, gone tomorrow--like Saints Peter and Paul! And it's probably a good thing‚ because with lying magazines like this around, if I hadn't been on the move they might have gotten me killed!
33. Lie 121 says that these "idealistic youth of good faith were manipulated." If they are being manipulated I don't know by whom. Maybe you ought to ask them, because nobody's manipulating them--certainly not me. They're free moral agents, able to go and come as they please and do as they please. If anybody's manipulating them, it's the Lord, because they usually do what He pleases, and what pleases them is to please Him.
34. The writer of this article, Carlos Bosch, was certainly fitly named, a lot of bosh--meaning tommyrot, lies! There was hardly a paragraph in the whole article that didn't contain some lie or lies.
35. Interviu is not reliable in its information-–unless you want to call it relie-able, or able to tell the same lies over and over and over again--in other words, to re-lie quite a few times--124 lies in only one article!
36. Why waste time reading another 78 lies in article two, making a sordid total of 202 lies in both articles! It's just more of the same old lies! If you want to know why they lie about us, why not read our own little reply that you can get from one of our own dear children on almost any important street. Or come visit us and see the truth for yourself!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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OUR REPLIES!--To the 62 lies of the Las Palmas Daily
DFO 590 7/77
1. Here is an exposure of the 62 lies of El Diario de Las Palmas, the Las Palmas Daily, in their edition of Friday, July 8, 1977. This time our enemies have gone entirely too far in accusing us of the most sordid, heinous and cruel crimes imaginable and unimaginable!
2. On page 1 they dare to print a picture of two of our precious nurses and our children with a title of "Market of children‚" lie number 1, accusing us of conducting some kind of market for the sale of children, which is the most ridiculous, heinous, vicious, malicious lie they could possibly have told‚ and is totally untrue! We have never sold one of our children in this entire world!
3. Lie number 2 says that "The Family of Love is dedicated to the sale of children," which is an absolute lie! We are dedicated to the love of God and the love of fellow man, the love of each other and the love of our children and our friends and Family, and we exist for no other purpose.
4. Lie number 3 says that "David Brandt‚ the spiritual father, has been thrown out of Tenerife." I have not been thrown out of Tenerife by anyone or any authorities! I left Tenerife of my own free will and accord to take a rest for my health‚ free from the harassment of vicious, lying enemies like this newspaper, and reporters like theirs who have never once interviewed me or personally asked me any of these questions, and therefore know nothing about me nor my family except lying hearsay from our enemies‚ which they publish as the supposed truth.
5. Lie number 4 says that I was "hunted by the American police," which is an outright lie! I have never been hunted by the American police that I know of. In fact, in America our organization has been investigated by the local police, state police and the FBI and been given a clear bill of health by every one of them, in spite of all the lying accusations of our enemies. Even the enemy-inspired (and paid) District Attorney of New York could find nothing wherewith he could legally charge us, because all of these charges were simply untrue!
6. Lie number 11, to say that we "squander money" is ridiculous in that, according to the number of our Family in Tenerife, we spend our money on nothing more than our actual expenses, which amount to only about 7,000 pesetas ($100) per month each!
7. This is a great deal less than the average Canarian himself earns per month, and is considered virtually the minimum wage in Spain, and would be considered poverty level in the United States! So I would hardly say that we are squandering money. This is much less than the average tourist spends.
8. Lie number 14 says that these investigations have produced "proof." Their investigations have produced no proof whatsoever of any of these lying accusations! If they have "proof," why don't they produce it? Why don't they bring it forth and give it to the police? They cannot, because it does not exist, and they know it! They are simply lying as they try to smear us and our good work for the Lord.
9. Lie number 20 says that "your feelings don't count anymore once you've joined the Family." If anything, if you'll ask any member of our Family you will find that feelings count more than ever and we are much more sensitive to each other's needs, much more loving toward each other, much more concerned about each other's wants, and much more considerate of each other's feelings than we have ever been before!
10. Lie number 21 says that it's one of our theme sayings that "It doesn't matter who your husband is‚ you need to love all the same." It does matter who your husband is, and we expect our wives to stick to their husbands and our marriage relationships to last permanently even without divorce, except in rare cases.
11. So it does matter who our husbands are! But it's certainly true that we do believe we should love everyone--although I must confess it's a little difficult to love a newspaper and its reporters who tell such big horrible lies about us!
12. Lie 23 says that "nobody knows if these girls really know who's behind this organization." Well, every one of our girls in the Family know exactly who is behind our organization‚ and it's God and His Son Jesus Christ! Every one of them knows it because they know Him personally, thank God!
13. Lie 24 says that in order to join the Family you must "blindly believe" in me, which is an outright lie! To join the Family you must not blindly, but simply as a little child, believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ and His Word‚ the Bible, and all of this by faith. Faith is not blind but sees much more than the writers of this lying article! Neither do they have to "blindly believe" in me. They come into the Family with their minds open to truth, their hearts open to love, and their eyes wide open to reality.
14. In lie number 30 it's said that the girls were "forbidden to use contraceptives‚" which any one of them will tell you they are not forbidden to do. This is entirely up to them and according to their own free will, faith and personal choice.
15. Lie 35 says there is "a lack of attachment of the mothers to their children." This is an absolutely heinous, awful, diabolical, outright total lie! Our mothers are particularly attached to their children‚ much more so than I have seen among many worldly parents and children.
16. We have a much greater interest in our children in many respects. We are concerned not only for their physical welfare, but their spiritual welfare as well. Anyone visiting one of our Homes can easily see that our mothers are very much attached to their children.
17. Lie 57 says that "nobody has been able to discover where the money comes from," and this is not true for the plain and simple reason we have told many people many times, including the police, exactly where our money comes from. Nevertheless, I don't think it's this newspaper's business where our money comes from, do you? But it seems to me it should be pretty obvious that it comes from the businesses and work of our Family throughout the world and their gifts to us.
18. Lie 58 again mentions "big sums of money." I don't think that 7,000 pesetas (or before the recent devaluation, about $100 per month per person) is very big money, do you? It's barely enough to pay our mere living expenses‚ and even lower than the expenses of most families because we share all things and we live cooperatively in a very economical way, which helps us to save a great deal.
19. Lie 59 calls us "a perfect commercial chain." Well, we may be a chain–-a chain of communities, a chain of cooperation, a Family chain of love throughout the world--but we are certainly not commercial! We are a religious, philanthropic, educational and charitable Family, but certainly not commercial‚ so this is a lie!
20. Dearly beloved reader, I trust that this article will put an end to the lies of this newspaper, and that they will never again print such ridiculous falsehoods, prevarications‚ untruths, outright lies and criminally libelous false statements against us! We are not the guilty ones, but this newspaper is certainly guilty, and they had better repent and make it right or they are going to be very sorry and suffer for their sins! Our Family is doing nothing wrong, committing no crimes, and only trying to love one another, love God and help others.
21. If you want to know why we have such enemies and why they lie about us, just think about Jesus! All He preached was love and all He tried to do was help people‚ yet did He have enemies? Yes, He surely did! And who were they? They were the enemies of love!
22. And who are these enemies of love? Well‚ just look in the Gospels and see who Jesus' enemies were! They were the leaders of the established religion of His day who hated Him because He had exposed them and their hypocrisy by His Own simple living and life of love!
23. Therefore they went about to try to kill Him‚ their Messiah, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, the Prophet of Love, because He had revealed they had no love themselves! And the people knew their hypocritical leaders had no love, and therefore the leaders were exposed and they were furious because of it!
24. So if you want to know why we have enemies and why they lie about us and persecute us and try to smear us in this heinous, horrible, diabolical way, it's because it is the hit dog that howls. They're furious because we have exposed them for the hypocrites that they are! Pretending to be religious, they are without God or His love, "having the form of godliness without the power thereof" (2Timothy 3:5). They're surely without the power of His love, or they wouldn't tell such lies against the innocent!
25. Long live love and the lovers of love! May God help you to believe the truth‚ in Jesus' name and the love of God and man. Amen.
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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THE 51 ERRORS OF DAILY NOTICES!
DFO 591 7/77
1. These are the 51 errors of Daily Notices in their series of three articles on us. This three-part series was much more fair and more honest and accurate than most which have been appearing lately, so we feel that the articles of Daily Notices were done in a much more friendly and sincere manner by our dear friend the reporter and writer of these articles, Mr. Ricardo Peytavi.
2. But nevertheless they raised some questions regarding certain things which have been misunderstood about us, and also repeated some of the lies which have been told about us by other members of the press. So to set the record straight and to endeavor to stop this constant repetition of the same untruths, we feel it is necessary to correct some of these misapprehensions, mistakes, exaggerations and outright errors.
3. Detailing the errors which we found in these articles, error number 2 says that I "fled from the United States," the implication being that I fled from the authorities or from prosecution for some crime, which is utterly untrue. But I did flee from the same kind of tyrannical harassment by some of the press and our enemies who insisted that we believe and behave as they do‚ even as I fled from Tenerife because of the same type of narrow-minded opposition and annoyance.
4. Error number 3, neither was I considered as "undesirable in Sweden" for the plain and simple reason that I have never been to Sweden in my entire life.
5. Error number 16 is really funny, saying that "90% of our girls get pregnant every year!" This is utterly ridiculous, because this is hardly even possible according to the law of averages of pregnancy! According to our actual records only about 10% of our girls get pregnant every year, which I would say is about normal for the general public and no different in the Family.
6. To say, as in error number 17‚ that all of these children born to us are "claimed by one father and registered in his passport" is ridiculous and easy to disprove by simply going down to the Office of the Registry right there on the island, where you'll find that each of our children was registered in the names of its own parents, and the only two that were registered in the name of the same father were twins!
7. Error number 27 is really almost laughable when it says, "It was necessary to invent a magic word–-love!" It's really something to give us the credit for inventing the word love! I wish I had been the happy party to invent love, but I'm sorry to say love was not my original idea. It was God's in the first place, and this is why He created man to begin with.
8. It was God Who created love and gave man the need to love and be loved. So I'm afraid you can't give me the credit for creating love or inventing this magic word. And I'm sure that love had been heard of in Tenerife before the Family of Love arrived!
9. Error number 28 says that we said that "meetings of religious denominations are just dirty menstrual rags." We have never made such a statement in our entire lives, either in our writings or anywhere! God Himself made a similar statement, but not exactly as dear Ricardo portrays it here.
10. Speaking of the self-righteous religious hypocrites of religion, in Isaiah 64:6 He says that "your own self-righteousness is as filthy rags." The original Hebrew literally says that your own self-righteousness "is as filthy menstruous rags in God's sight"! That is the Word of God. It was not ever said by us about religious denominations or their meetings; but of course if the shoe fits, they can wear it!
11. Error 38 says once you have gotten so far in the Family it's "impossible for you to come back." This is silly and ridiculous, because as every member of our Family knows, they're free to leave at any time they wish and can go home or wherever they want to go, as a number have. So this is simply not true.
12. Error 41 says that "the ideals of the youth are confused by them." If anything, we help youths who are already very confused in their ideals, and some who are without ideals. We have been able, thanks to the love of God and the truth of His Word, to unconfuse them. We get their heads straightened out and give them higher ideals than they've ever had before. So therefore our ministry has been to clarify their minds and their hearts rather than confuse them.
13. We believe we have led people in the right path‚ the straight and narrow way through the gate of God's salvation in Jesus. Finding many stray sheep already astray, we've rescued them and brought them home and set them on God's straight and narrow way after the rest of the world had certainly led them astray!
14. In error 43 it says "drugs or contraceptives are forbidden." The misuse of drugs is absolutely forbidden in our Family. We rarely even take an aspirin! But the use of normal physician-prescribed drugs for some occasional ailments are permitted and even encouraged if necessary.
15. Contraceptives are never forbidden, but merely discouraged and disapproved of, as we have already said. Any girl who so desires is perfectly free to use a contraceptive if it is legal and she so wishes.
16. Error 45 says that we are in some way "underhanded"-–in other words, that somehow we deceive or conceal our motives and purposes from the girls. This is entirely untrue, because our Family members have read everything that I have ever written and they know exactly what our motives and purposes are and exactly what our beliefs are and exactly what our goals are, and nothing is concealed from them.
17. Error 47 is an outright lie, stating that "adultery, fornication and everything is allowed." This is absolutely untrue. We do not believe in adultery or fornication, and we do not allow everything. We merely believe in love, that God's only law is love, as Jesus Christ Himself stated in the Gospel (Mat.22:37-40) when asked what was the greatest law.
18. He said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God … and thy neighbor as thyself!" In other words, love is God's greatest law, His only law now since the coming of Christ. For Jesus said‚ "In this (love) is all the law and all the prophets."
19. Jesus said this is all the law, the only law--love! Therefore whatever is done in pure love, the love of God, unselfish love‚ sacrificial love, for God or another, is lawful, according to God's Word and Law of Love! Therefore as long as it is in love with mutual consent and hurts no innocent party, it is lawful, according to God's Own Word and His Own Son, Jesus Christ!
20. The Apostle Paul also says, "against such (love) there is no law" (Gal.5:22-23). Against this pure kind of love, the unselfish, sacrificial love of God and your fellow man‚ there is no law of God! In some places man may have some laws against it or some of the churches may have some rules against it. But God has no law against love, if it is true love, the unselfish sacrificial love of God!
21. We have written a very interesting little pamphlet on this, if you'd like to read it sometime. It's called "God's Only Law is Love," and you may be amazed at its liberating truths!
22. Error 48 is an absolute untruth, stating that "the Family keeps denying everything." We do not deny everything, otherwise we'd be denying our faith and our God and His love. But we certainly do deny the false statements which we have been dealing with here––the lies, the untruths, the misrepresentations, the distortions, the misstatements and exaggerations, and all of these errors!
23. In error 51 of the last paragraph of the third article he says, "The members don't know anything." Personally I consider this an insult, as our members know quite a bit! They know nearly everything about the Family and our beliefs and religion and the Word of God and God's love and their life of love in the Family of Love. So it is certainly an error to say that we don't know anything!
24. We must know something or we would not be where we are today,* with 22 million of our converts spread throughout the world, as well as over 13‚000 full- and part-time workers in 100 countries! So we must know something! *[stats from 2001]
25. It is true that the Family does not know where I am because I always keep my whereabouts strictly confidential and unknown to any except the members of my immediate family and staff who live with me.
26. It should be easy to see why, considering the attacks of the press and our enemies who have sometimes harassed us almost more than we could bear, annoying us to the point that we have had to go into seclusion to have rest and peace and retain our health.
27. So there you have it, the 51 errors of these three articles written by young Ricardo Peytavi. We hope that you will learn to recognize the difference between truth and falsehood when someone is speaking to you of the Family of Love. The best thing to do is to come meet us for yourself and get to know us personally so that "You may know the truth and the truth shall set you free!" As Jesus said, "If ye shall continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed.
28. "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!" (John 8:31-32). If you want to know the truth about my writings, why don't you read them for yourself? You can find them on almost any important street for only a small token of your love! Read them for yourself, and may God bless you with the truth!
29. I will surely heartily agree with Ricardo's final statement: "Certainly what we are sure of is that the Family of Love has been brought out into the open in Spain forever." Hallelujah! Thank God! And we hope you'll like and love us and even join us if you wish! I'm sure that some of us must be near you, so please come and see us! We'll welcome you with lots of love!
Very sincerely yours in God's love,
Father David and his Family of Love
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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WHEN IS "SIN" NOT SIN? DFO 594 8/77
A Question of Adultery
1. Maria just asked me a question. She said she understood from the Letter "God's Only Law Is Love" that we now, as Christians, are no longer under the laws of Moses but under the love-law of Christ. "But," she said, "What about the fellows we make love with? Aren't they still under the Mosaic law and committing a sin when they make love with us? Aren't they committing adultery?"
2. The first thing that came to me was--and I'm sure it must be from the Lord--is that, like Christ was our atonement and He bore our sins for us, we are their atonement before they find the Lord, and in a sense we bear their sins for them, which are already forgiven in Christ and therefore by us.
3. Jesus Himself said, "Whose soever sins ye shall remit, they shall be remitted unto them" (John 20:23). Now that is a tremendous statement and very little understood by anyone but the Catholics, who apply it to their priests. They believe that if their priests forgive them‚ they have the authority and the power to do so given them by God as His personal representatives, and that they can therefore forgive sin.
4. Of course‚ they have really stretched it to the limit or beyond the limits in forgiving anybody and everybody's sins. Whereas, what I believe the Lord really meant by this statement was that if someone has offended you, for example‚ if you forgive them, then God will forgive them also. If you don't forgive them, then God won't forgive them either. He says so in John 20:23‚ "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained."
5. Naturally, you would have to have a very good reason for not forgiving them. (See also Matthew 6:14‚15.) It would almost have to be their rejection of Christ or blasphemy against the Holy Spirit--in other words, rejecting Jesus. This is the only sin which the Lord refuses to forgive, and you can't forgive them for that.
6. But sins which they are committing against you, these you can forgive. Since you are freely and willingly, unselfishly‚ even sacrificially giving of your love to such a man, you are certainly not going to hold it against him. It's not his fault--you're the one who is willingly giving your love. Because it is your free gift and given in love, then how could this be a sin, even on the man's part? He is not sinning against you nor hurting you in any way.
7. What's the idea and purpose of the old Mosaic law against adultery? Even behind the old Mosaic laws there was the love of God and His desire to keep people from hurting each other. The idea of this law was to prevent the hurting of a mate or hurting someone else by having sex with their mate.
8. It's like a vicarious atonement. You take upon yourself their sins, or this so-called sin, and you take it upon yourself to forgive them. They are not stealing anything from you; they're not raping you and taking it by force. You are gladly and willingly in love giving it to them.
9. Maria also brought up another question: "Well, what about his wife, if he's married? Isn't he committing adultery against his wife?"
10. You are not trying to steal the woman's husband or to take her place. You are not trying to steal his love. You are in no way whatsoever trying to come between him and his wife, which would be adultery, and in which case it would be a sin for you to be stealing another woman's husband.
11. But instead‚ you are trying to do him good by giving him the love of God, to actually make a better husband of him and a better father for her children, and so to give her a better home. You are doing her a favor!
12. We've found this to be true in numerous cases in actual practice. Some of the men we led to the Lord this way went home new and better persons, much changed for the better. Some of their wives hardly recognized them, they were so good! They brought them flowers‚ started pulling out the Bible and wanting to read it to the family, etc.
13. The men were more gentle and loving with their wives and better to their children, more concerned about their welfare, more faithful to the home, actually spending even more time at home with their wives and families than they used to. They were much more loving, tender‚ gentle, merciful, kind, considerate‚ thoughtful, and manifested much more love--the love of God-–than they ever had before!
14. So how could this be a sin? Everything must be judged from the standpoint of love. Is it doing good or is it doing evil? Are you helping him or hindering him?
15. Of course‚ if a man does not receive Jesus and he goes back to his family and/or wife as evil as ever‚ although now having had the opportunity with God offering His love face to face, but having rejected Christ‚ closed his heart's door and spurned God's love, then that's different.
16. Then surely God will hold this act to his charge as a sin, because "according to his faith be it done unto him" (Mat.9:29). If he believes he has committed a sin, if he believes himself that it was wrong and it was sinful and he did evil, then so be it! "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin" (Rom.14:23), and it is a sin unto him then because he felt that it was a sin and he believed that it was sinful and wicked. Therefore, as far as he's concerned he is committing sin!
17. If he does not receive it in the right spirit as a gift from God, God's love, freely, willingly, unselfishly and even sacrificially given, then perhaps God will hold it to his charge and hold him accountable for it. It's just one more sin added to a long list of unforgiven sins because he rejected God's forgiveness.
18. It's exactly in the same category as witnessing--it is witnessing, of course. The Apostle said regarding our witness to others: "To some we are the ministers of salvation, to others we are the ministers of damnation," depending on how they receive it.
19. If we preach Christ and God's love to them and they receive it as such, then of course they are saved. But if they reject it, "The last estate of the man is worse than the first" (2Pet.2:20). Because by bringing him the truth and the light, he is now more greatly condemned than ever because he has rejected Christ and His salvation (John 3:18).
20. It's as Jesus said in John 1:1-5 and 3:18-19. It was as though it was not the world's fault that they were in darkness, but their sin was that they rejected His light. It's not man's fault that he is born a sinner. This was the fault of the ones who brought sin into the world through their sin, Adam and Eve, whereby all were made sinners (Rom.5:12-21).
21. But it is our own personal rejection of Jesus Christ which is our fault! This is what we receive a greater condemnation for than for inbred sin. God will hold them extremely accountable now because they had the truth and they rejected it. They were given the Word of God and the love of Christ and they rejected it, so now they are going to be more responsible than ever.
22. So "the last estate of the man (the rejecter) is worse than the first" (2Pet.2:20-22). In fact, in one place He says, "it were better for that man that he had never been born" than to have heard the truth and rejected it! (Mat.26:24).
23. It's just like in any other form of witnessing. Our FFing is witnessing, trying to give God's love to people. If they reject it or they don't receive it in the right spirit as from God by faith in God as a gift from God, but they simply think that somehow they duped you into being a fool and took advantage of you with no love‚ no faith, no receptivity and so on, then to them it is the greater sin.
24. Whoever gives the world the Gospel makes of some better people and of others worse because they reject it. When we preach the Gospel and give God's love to people, we save some but damn others. It's not our fault, of course. It's their fault‚ because they're the ones that make the decision to reject it. But nevertheless it makes some better and some worse.
25. Before we came, the islands were drifting along peacefully, more or less, and "they had no sin," in a sense. They did not know how great sin could be and how great their sin was going to be until we came and gave them the truth.
26. But after we have come and given them the light and love of God and the truth of His Word and offered them Christ's salvation, now they are as guilty as can be, those who have rejected it--particularly those who have fought against it, as the leaders of established religions always do, the false religions of this world.
27. The established religion and its leaders fought Jesus and His message and finally killed Him for it! So their guilt is tremendous! But this we cannot help because it is our duty to God and our duty to man to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mk.16:15). It's not our business but theirs what they do about it!
28. It's not our fault that they rejected the Gospel--it's their fault! In fact‚ if we did not tell them, then their blood would be upon our hands. But He says in Ezekiel 3:18-19 that if you warn the wicked of his wicked way and yet he repents not of his sins and he dies in his sins, then his blood is on his own hands‚ for "thou hast delivered thy soul."
29. So if we didn't tell them, it would be a sin for us. But having told them, then it is their sin for not having received it. So that's the way I look at that, and I feel that is probably the way that God looks at it as well, as that is the immediate answer that came to me–-"vicarious atonement"–-when I shot a little prayer to the Lord to ask for a reply to your question.
30. In a sense you are atoning for their sins. In a sense you are remitting unto them their sins and forgiving them for something which might otherwise be a sin unto them.
31. But they must be willing to believe what you say. They must be willing to believe the Word‚ the truth, and have faith that what you say is true and right, and that it is not a sin for you or them in so doing, because you both do it in faith and love, God's love‚ in unselfishness.
32. They not only have to receive the sermon in faith, but they also have to receive the sample by faith and believe that both are true and right and good and not bad and not wrong. If they receive both by faith, then it is no sin unto them. But if they reject your word and they refuse to believe what you say, then in a sense they have also rejected your act as an act of love. They believe it's a sin and therefore they are refusing to believe that it was good, and therefore they will be accountable for it!
33. It's all in their own spiritual and mental attitude. It's how they approach it and whether they receive it by faith in love--"faith which worketh by love," as the Scripture says (Gal.5:6). If they receive it by faith in love, your love and God's love, then it's no sin to them. But if after having gone away, they still do not believe you and they still consider that they committed a sin, then it is a sin unto them!
34. Those islands are now without excuse, as well as a good deal of Spain and the rest of the world, since they've heard about it--they know our message and why we do it, unselfishly in the love of God, and that we're not trying to do anybody any harm‚ but good, we're not trying to steal anybody's mates, but to help them be better mates.
35. But of course, if they don't believe our sermon, they're not going to believe that the sample was good. If they believe the sermon was a lie, they're going to believe that the sample was a sin. So it's all in how they receive it or reject it. It's again all by faith. It all depends on their personal decision to either believe and receive or doubt and damn!
36. But are you going to stop preaching the Gospel just because some men are going to reject it and therefore receive unto themselves the greater damnation? Are we going to stop preaching the Gospel just because we are damning the majority of the people to hell that hear it?--Because the majority always reject it, the majority are always wrong (Mat.7:13-14). No! We're commanded to obey God, the commandment of Jesus Christ Himself, to "go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature," and we've got to do it!
37. Whether you or they like it or not, God likes it! And they'll like it if they receive it. Of course they certainly don't like it if they don't receive it, and some hate it and hate us for it.
38. By preaching the Gospel we make greater sinners out of a lot of people because they reject it. But we can't help that. That's not our fault; that's their fault! So, that's what I would say would be my answer to that question--a question of adultery, or can love be sin!
39. To him that believeth, it is no sin. It is no sin to the one who receives it by faith. "All things are possible to him that believeth" and "with God nothing shall be impossible," as Jesus Himself said (Mk.9:23; Luk.1:37). He can take away the guilt of adultery, or what otherwise would be adultery. He takes it away by faith, faith in the sermon and the sample, and the man receives it by faith in the sermon and the sample‚ so to him it is no sin! (Maria: That same answer came to me. Somehow our faith is for them too; they're covered by our faith.)
40. It's similar to the Catholic doctrine of the grace of Mary or the saints, for example. They're supposed to have so much grace that they have more than they need personally, so they share some of it with us! Well, in a sense that's true. Your pardon and your atonement and your forgiveness, your love, in a sense also atones for them-–if they receive it in faith. But it doesn't do them a bit of good if they don't receive it in faith.
41. It's just like a pardon: God has offered pardon to the guilty, but if they don't receive it they'll never get out of condemnation, at least not for a long time, until they do believe it.
42. True love cannot be sin, for God is love and love never fails! So how can sex be adultery when given for the love of God! Love is God, so true love can never be a sin! "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these My brethren‚ ye have done it unto Me! (Mat.25:40). "Whatsoever ye do in word or in deed, do all to the glory of God!" (Col.3:17).
43. The church made God-created sex a sin. We have made it a virtue--as He Himself intended! Praise God! God bless you with lots of His love!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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LATE NEWS! DFO 596 8/77
Trade Deficits, Oil and War
1. The U.S. had a huge trade deficit this year. In simple terms, that means they're living beyond their income. They're buying more than they're selling; they're importing more than they're exporting. So instead of a trade balance they have a trade deficit.
2. Countries like Japan and Germany produce like mad and sell like mad and have huge trade balances‚ because they export more than they import. In other words, they're selling more than they're buying. But in the U.S., they're such gluttons they guzzle down everything and consume everything--especially oil.
3. Oil consumption in the U.S. has not gone down the slightest bit. The president let companies raise the prices, even put more taxes on oil, and the people still buy more!
4. Raising prices is not going to slow those people down one iota! They're just going to gripe and grumble and cuss and pay it!
5. The only thing that'll ever stop them is rationing. However, I have an idea that rather than have their gasoline rationed and their vacations shortened and their big cars cut down, the Americans would much prefer to go to war and steal it--grab off a few countries that have oil--and they can do it under the excuse of saving Israel.
Cyprus
6. What's going to happen now in Cyprus? Well, now that Makarios is out of the way they might be able to settle it, we hope. He's a stubborn old cuss, or was. Maybe he still is! I'm sure the Lord's got some job for him.
7. The only solution is to divide it up‚ because the minority Turks, one out of five people there, are never going to get their rights as long as the Greek majority rules over them. They tried it for years and never did!
8. We were there. We knew what it was like. There was massacre after massacre of the Turks by the Greeks. They were trying to wipe the Turks out‚ get rid of them entirely.
9. The Turks got the best part of the island as far as tourism is concerned. The Greeks, who are predominantly agricultural anyhow, got the best part of the island for agriculture.
10. If they want a square deal they should keep it just like it is, about one-third Turk and two-thirds Greek. Of course, they were kind of mixed before, so naturally the Greeks who lost their homes in the Turkish section are griping, and a lot of the Turks who lost everything they had in the Greek sector are griping.
11. What they all ought to be doing is thanking God that they've got anything at all! Now they've got two separate states and the Greeks will get whatever they deserve and the Turks will get their rights and their own little country.
Begin the Terrorist!
12. When the British were in charge of Palestine, Menachem Begin was a Jewish terrorist belonging to the Irgun Gang, who shot British policemen in the back just because they had a uniform on. It's the same thing these madmen in Ireland are doing--terrorists who shoot police in cold blood just because they represent authority!
13. They went around blowing up police barracks and shooting the British as well as the Arabs, and did some of the most dastardly deeds you could possibly imagine, horrible atrocities!
14. We had a Jewish fellow who came to join the Soul Clinic, and he said‚ "Oh my God‚ I don't know how many men I killed!" He was having nightmares and going through hell. Then he got saved‚ thank the Lord! He said he did some horrible things. He belonged to the same outfit as Begin--Irgun, Jewish terrorists!
15. Now Begin is the president of the Jewish terrorists and they will have nothing to do with any peace settlements which involve those PLO "terrorists," and will not talk to them or sit at the same table with them. The pot calling the kettle black!
Lebanon
16. I was just hearing about the latest outbreak of violence in Lebanon. I was wondering why they've always had so much trouble when I remembered the prophecy regarding its old capital which was to suffer total destruction and be completely wiped out.
17. "Behold, I am against thee, O Sidon, and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.
18. "For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord" (Eze.28:22-23).
19. Sidon was the ancient capital, not far south of Beirut, now called Saida, to which the Lord had promised perpetual desolations and wars and that the sword would not depart from her streets. They must have really sinned against the Lord, I'll tell you!
20. Bible prophecy promised Sidon would always have trouble. It's obviously because they didn't receive the Lord like they should have. When I was sitting here wondering why Lebanon has so much trouble, that prophecy came back to me.
21. Poor Lebanon has really suffered. It's so divided. It always seems to me that when two factions can't get along together in one country, particularly religions or nationalities, they ought to divide it, especially if one's in the minority, because they always get the worst of it. The majority, even if it's a democracy, will always vote against them, so they hardly ever get any rights.
22. About the only fair way is to divide it, like they did with Cyprus and a lot of other places. I don't think they'll ever settle the question till the country is divided and the Muslims are given a share of the land and the Christians theirs--and the same with Israel, unless the Antichrist has a better solution. We know the Lord has!
Wars and Rumors of Wars
23. War always makes news. Bad news is always the best news in the world's newspapers, or at least it's the most highly advertised.
24. Did you know that since the days of the Roman Empire there's hardly been a day of peace when there wasn't some kind of a war going on somewhere in the world?--And sometimes several at the same time!
The Muslim Wall
25. I've been outlining the Arab Wall recently on my map, and to my great interest I discovered it's even bigger than I thought it was, engulfing all of North Africa and nearly half of all Africa, the Mideast, the Arabian Peninsula, and a good part of Asia.
26. We should really call it the Muslim Wall. They're not all Arabs, but are all united by the common religious bond of Islam. As I outlined all the countries which are Muslim or half Muslim I found the wall is roughly a thousand miles wide and extends about 7,000 miles--all the way from the West African coast to the border of China!
27. In fact, if you would outline all these Muslim countries as I did on my world map, you'd discover that they have a very strange shape. It looks like an angel flying in the direction of China, going toward the East with his feet at the West Coast of Africa and his head at the border of China, his left arm being Turkey and his right arm being Somalia and part of Ethiopia and Eastern Africa.
28. This eastward pointing angel is significant because that's the direction that Islam is moving, more and more toward the East, and it seems even toward friendship with China as one of the leaders of the Third World, of which they are a part.
29. At the same time, there is a large oval area of strong Islamic domination in the East, comprised mostly of Indonesia, part of the Philippines and Malaysia. So if we skip across the seas from the main part of the Arab wall, we find this other strange-shaped area of Muslim influence that I have outlined on my map around Indonesia, which looks a little like Casper the Ghost--another angel!
30. So the wide Muslim wall is very long, about twice as long as the mainland African and Asian Muslim Wall! This extends the Muslim Wall to the astounding length of about 15,000 miles--three-fifths of the way around the world--dividing the bulk of Asia and Europe from the bulk of southern Africa and Australia.
31. Therefore the Muslim wall is composed both of the Kings of the South and the Kings of the East, which according to the Bible are eventually going to join with the King of the North as he comes down and virtually conquers them to fight with the Kings of the West in that final all-out war for the conquest of Israel.
32. As one great militarist once said, "He who rules Israel rules the world!" This has always been true throughout history. Whoever was the dominant power of the world was the one who ruled Israel.
Love Is News!
33. The world's in a hell of a mess, but everything is beautiful for us! Everything is going our way! The worse it gets for the world, the quicker it's going to get better! Thank You Lord!
34. In spite of all the attacks of the Enemy and his knavish tricks, the cursing has been turned to blessing by the Lord, and He has caused the wrath of man to praise Him in spite of the very bad lying attacks of the Enemy in a number of AC-controlled publications. The uproar caused by these lies of our enemies has only resulted in greater publicity for the Family, praise His Name!
35. When all the good news is over and all the lush gushing articles about us have kind of petered out, God has to arouse the public's interest in us somehow. So He raises up some bad news and controversy to make us news again, so that along with the bad news He can put in a whole lot more good news!
36. The result has been several times as many pages of good news and rebuttals and testimonials and praises even by the reporters, several times as many as our attackers rated, and even a page in the international news magazine Time!
37. The FF Explosion has caused all this uproar and given the newspapers something new to write about us, which they've got to have to make news and which the Lord uses to get us in the papers, using their evil to bring us good.
38. You boys and girls are making world news, all over a little love, think of that! Well, a lot of love, praise God! So love is still news!
39. I think we're the newsiest religion on Earth, as well as being the sexiest and the most controversial! We have stirred up a row that the churches will never be able to put down, praise God! His truth goes marching on!
40. We have made God news again, when He hasn't been getting too much out of these Godless and anti-Christ periodicals for quite some time!
41. All you've gotta do for more souls and more news is "Let that Lovin' Man In!" In fact, all those lovin' men! Ha! GB'M! And God bless you! Love is news!
Copyright © 2002 by The Family
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