SECURITY UNDER PERSECUTION!--By Father David DO 953-2 13 December 1980
--How to [DELETED] Carry On!--Are You Safe? Is Your Home a Safe Home?
1. OF COURSE THE FIRST MOST IMPORTANT THING TO PROTECT IS THE WORK & THE FAMILY. [DELETED]
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5. HE'S PROMISED, THOUGH, NOT TO GIVE YOU ANYTHING MORE THAN YOU ARE ABLE TO BEAR, but with every temptation He will offer a way of escape. (1Cor.10:13.) So if you ever get anything more than you're able to bear, it's probably because you made a mistake & you didn't do what the Lord told you to do--either you didn't hide, you didn't flee, you didn't protect yourself in some way, & somehow or another you got into something you shouldn't have gotten into.
6. JESUS HIMSELF SAID, MY YOKE IS EASY & MY BURDEN IS LIGHT! "Come unto Me all ye that are weary & heavy laden & I will give you rest! Take My yoke upon you & learn of Me, for I am meek & lowly in heart & ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy & My burden is light!" (Mt.11:28-30.)
7. AND IF YOUR YOKE IS TOO HARD & THE BURDEN TOO HEAVY, then either you or somebody else is making it too hard & heavy--either you, or even friends & family sometimes, or the Enemy--& you should correct the situation in such a way that you get out from under unnecessary burdens & break unnecessary yokes & ties & set yourself free so that these are not hassling you & harassing & worrying you & dragging you down & becoming unbearable, burdens that are unbearable & yokes that are unwearable. You should try your best to get out from under those things, & not get into them if you can help it.
8. I HAVE ALWAYS ADVISED LEADERSHIP FROM THE EARLIEST DAYS OF THE FAMILY NOT TO SIT RIGHT ON TOP OF THE BOMB! That's one of the first things I told Faithy & Josh about their great big huge gigantic Colony there in Los Angeles! They were living right there in the building with all the rest of the hundreds of disciples, living right on top of the bomb with all its worries & problems & local confusion with every Tom, Dick & Harry running to them for all the answers. [DELETED]
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17. I REMEMBER THIS HAPPENED TO DEAR OLD DOCTOR MARTIN who was sort of a militant Protestant in Canada & let us use his big camp there at Laurentide in our early days. He told the story of how the Catholics inspired the police to come & attack his school & they took these huge filing cabinets packed with papers, all of his records, student records, financial records, everything!--Confiscated them all, & he never got them back!
18. THE CASE WAS STILL IN COURT & DRAGGED ON FOR YEARS, & here were all of his confidential papers, financial accounts, student records & everything in the hands of the Enemy so that he couldn't prove anything even in court because they had all his defense evidence.
19. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, KEEP YOUR PAPERS TO AN ABSOLUTE ESSENTIAL NECESSARY MINIMUM! Try to keep your stats & facts & figures in your head, if you can, & not on paper. Memorise telephone numbers & names & addresses, the most vital ones, & don't keep them sitting around on paper, not even in your pocket. Or at least keep them in some very safe place, a bank deposit vault or safety deposit box or someplace like that--& even those are not completely safe if you get into court. The judge can order your box opened if he thinks it pertains to the case.
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25. THEN OF COURSE YOU SHOULD ALWAYS HAVE DEFINITE CONTINGENCY PLANS & PREPARATIONS MADE. [DELETED]
26. NORMALLY I USUALLY WORK RIGHT OUT OF MY BRIEFCASE. It's my desk, it's my office & I usually lock it up at night. [DELETED]
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38. IF YOU'RE A FOREIGNER WITHIN A FOREIGN LAND & YOUR HOME IS FAR AWAY UPON A GOLDEN STRAND, an ambassador to be of realms beyond the sea & you're just here on business for your King, then you've got to be prepared to move, & frequently! Most countries only allow you to stay for about three months, some only one, some six depending on your nationality & the country, so you can only continue there as a tourist with no purposeful business other than vacation, at least observable or obvious, & therefore this is quite a normal frequency of moving.
39. THREE MONTHS IS ABOUT THE NORM THAT YOU CAN SAFELY STAY AT ONE TIME IN ONE PLACE [DELETED] & we are very careful about it. [DELETED]
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42. Rachel stole [EDITED: "one of our houses"] from us because we had put it in her name for security, & so when she defected she simply confiscated it, kicked the local Family out & sold it, or tried to sell it. But the last I heard it's virtually in ruins because she kicked the local Family out who were taking care of it, & then found out somehow or other she wasn't able to sell it. So it's just gone to rack & ruin & is a shambles now, that beautiful beautiful little Heavenly Home of "Days of Heaven on Earth" which the Lord gave us there to enjoy for two or three years. (See No.395.)
43. THANK THE LORD FOR THE TIME WE GET TO ENJOY EACH PLACE! I'm thankful for every day that we are able to remain in one place in peace, security, harmony, happiness & busy working for the Lord. But we have to be ready to go at a moment's notice if situations look threatening. So therefore you leaders in particular should always be ready to do the same.
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46. SO I SUGGEST YOU ALWAYS BE READY TO BE A REAL SUITCASE MISSIONARY. [DELETED] Praise God! [DELETED]
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61. THIS IS EVEN TRUE IF YOU'RE GOING HOME BY BUS FROM DOWNTOWN LITNESSING OR A CAFE SING, make sure somebody is not following you. We've had homes physically attacked & disfigured, rocks thrown through the windows, etc., because their litnessers led the Enemy from their downtown litnessing points directly home to their front door, & they were beaten up, etc., all because they allowed people to know where they lived or they led'm straight home & they were followed. In which cases the Family had to immediately move & lost their happy home because of their lack of security-mindedness & safety-consciousness.
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84. THIS ONE PARTICULAR OCCASION I'M THINKING OF, BY THE WAY, THAT HAPPENED WAS IN MADRID where the family had just gotten into a very lovely home, comfortably settled, beautiful place, good rental, nice neighbourhood, convenient to the city by bus & train, but had allowed some of their folks to go downtown--or a neighbouring home, either one--go downtown & publicly litness & witness on the street, & then allowed themselves to be followed directly home back to the house so that their location was identified.
85. AND THEY WOKE UP THE NEXT MORNING TO FIND BIG SIGNS PRINTED ON THEIR GATES: "Yankee go home" & signed by the FNL or whatever it was, one of the most radical Rightist groups in Spain, known to be radical rightist terrorists who had frequently used violence. They also threw rocks through the windows & threatened violence, & the leaders there had to immediately flee that very day with the security materials, & the rest of the home had to be moved out completely within just a day or two to avoid any further violence.
86. WE TOOK THEIR WARNING & HEEDED IT BECAUSE WE KNEW THAT OUTFIT MEANT BUSINESS! They were called something like, "Soldiers of the King" or something, supposedly meaning Jesus. What they really were was a militant youth group, Catholic Defence group supposedly, who were accustomed to violence & terrorism in defence of the church & attacking its supposed enemies.
87. SO WE KNEW WHAT THEY WERE FAMOUS FOR & WE DON'T WANT TO BE SUBJECTS OF IT, & our Home there vacated immediately, lost money, caused a lot of difficulty, trouble, hard work, expense, etc., because they were foolish enough to lead the Enemy right to their door.
96. [DELETED] COOKS' TRAVEL AGENCY OR THE AMERICAN EXPRESS TRAVEL AGENCIES [DELETED] will hold mail for you in your name. The price at American Express used to be 25˘ per piece. American Express also offers another service: They will forward your mail for you. They will hold it & then if you phone them or write them they will forward your mail to another American Express Office where you can pick it up for a price.
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109. SUCH IT IS & SUCH AS IT IS, TO THINK THAT WE AS CHRISTIANS ARE STILL IN THIS MODERN DAY & AGE HOUNDED & searched & sought after & followed & persecuted [DELETED] because we have such bitter enemies! But we're not the only ones!
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111. SO WE'RE NOT THE ONLY ONES WHO HAVE TO LIVE AS PILGRIMS & STRANGERS & have no place really to call home, except Heaven, & no place where we can really settle down safely & securely for any great length of time. We have heard, & you've heard I'm sure, of many others who have been persecuted, other religions, other faiths, other missionaries who jeopardise their lives constantly by serving the Lord in dangerous places.
112. SUCH AS THE FOUR MARYKNOLL SISTERS WHO WERE JUST MURDERED IN EL SALVADOR THE OTHER DAY & buried in a common grave but were discovered. It's not known just who did do the murdering, which side, but it's pretty well believed who it is because the church in that particular area was somewhat anti-government & sympathising with the other side.
113. THE WOMEN WERE NOT ONLY SHOT BUT RAPED, & THEY WERE OBVIOUSLY BEING VERY CAREFULLY WATCHED, because when the two of them who drove the car went to the airport to pick up the other two, they drove off then & apparently were being followed & were never seen again until found dead 48 hours later.
114. SO IT'S NOT TOO WISE TO GO AROUND IN SOME KIND OF A RELIGIOUS UNIFORM NOWADAYS to let people know who you are & what you are & what you stand for, because nearly everybody has some kind of enemies. [DELETED]
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126. [DELETED] Be very extremely careful & conscious & prayerful about your personal security [DELETED] & your personal family & associates, co-workers, staff members. [DELETED] So please be careful about those things.
127. AND PLEASE HAVE YOUR CONTINGENCY PLANS MADE AS TO WHERE YOU PLAN TO GO. [DELETED]
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129. ALWAYS BE PREPARED WITH ENOUGH CASH OR TRAVELLERS CHEQUES. [DELETED] These are some of things that you must remember & must know.
130. THESE ARE PRETTY GENERAL & APPLY REALLY TO ALMOST ALL OF US & ALL LEADERS & FAMILIES & HOMES, but particularly to those who are the most critical & crucial & important, such as heads of the work, such as some of those to whom I'm talking right now.
131. SO I HOPE YOU ARE PREPARED & YOUR FLEEBAG IS READY & your briefcase & your cash & travellers cheques & papers & everything is in order & you have your [DELETED] route fairly well-planned & your destination pretty well decided on & so can know where to go & where you're going & be fairly sure of having someplace to stay when you get there until you can make further plans.
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133. WE'RE NOT SURPRISED AT THE DEFECTOR WHO HAS JUST GONE HOME. We were all expecting it, of course, because of his years of instability & doubting & murmuring & schizophrenia & double-mindedness & unreliability, & we expected him to do exactly what he did & he did it. (No.954.)
134. SO I GUESS ACCORDING TO OUR FAITH IT WAS UNTO US, & no matter how peacefully he left & claims that there are no hard feelings, that doesn't always work out that way. You're either for us or against us, there's no neutral ground, & he cannot go back & continue to really actually be friendly.
135. HE'S BOUND TO, LIKE ALL BACKSLIDERS, EVENTUALLY TURN AGAINST US, & only hopefully that he may take no further action against us. He got what he wanted, the children, & I trust that Sal will now be content without him & them & be free to serve the Lord. Praise the Lord! So that's a problem solved. It's better to have a defector, a spy, an unreliable traitor out of our midst than living with us!
136. HOW RELIABLE, DEPENDABLE & TRUSTWORTHY ARE YOU?--Are you a potential Judas?--You are if you're doubtful, unhappy, discontented, disobedient & unbelieving! How strong are you?--Could you stand a test of faith & loyalty?
137. ARE YOU LIVING IN THE WORD & WORK & LOVE OF THE LORD & FAMILY so deep you could never think of leaving? Are you so busy for Him & others that you've no time to hear or ponder the Devil's doubts, lies & temptations?
138. OR HAVE YOU TOO LET THE ENEMY IN through some stubborn resistance to Truth or disobedience such as he did with his drunkenness, evil music, slothful laziness & bitter jealousy? He probably never dreamed it would come to this!--Rebelliousness, defiance, defection, desertion, backsliding, forsaking his wife, God & Family--& even kidnapping! GHU!
139. STOP NOW! DON'T EVEN LOOK BACK! Jesus said that, "He that having put his hand to the plow & looketh back is not worthy of Me." (Lk.9:62.)--Or the Family or His Work, Word or Reward!--Or maybe even your life!--How about you?! Will you be on the run from God?!--From Him there is no escape! Repent TODAY!--Tomorrow may be too late!--GHU!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family