WE'VE GOT A LOT TO LEARN! DO 2054 6/85
1. IS EVERYBODY HAPPY & HEALTHY? (Fam: Yes, Sir!) In Tenerife they always looked in your eyes & they could tell you how you felt. It's really true, you know? TYL! Well, I guess we all feel as good as could be expected, thank the Lord, considering everything. ...
2. DOES ANYBODY ELSE NEED A LITTLE PRAYER? It says, "If there are any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church." (Jam.5:13,14) Why does the Lord ask you to call for help?--It's a sign of faith in Him & His Word, & humility. It's not always easy to admit that you're weak & sick & afflicted. Call, "and let them pray over him"--her too, not just him.
3. THE JEWS WERE STRONG ON MALES, ALWAYS SAYING "HIM" & "HE," ETC.--Except in one very rare occasion where they expressly, explicitly, exactly, purposely used the feminine form of Spirit for the Holy Spirit! For such a chauvinistic, male-emphasising culture as Jewry, always saying "he" & "him," etc., to suddenly depart from that & specifically call the Holy Spirit "Rouach," which was a feminine noun for the Holy Spirit, I don't think anything could be any more definite or explicit, & that the Lord intended for the Holy Spirit to be known as Female, the Mother figure of the Godhead! Amen?
PAUL'S THORN IN THE FLESH
4. SOME OF THESE ANSWERS WE'VE BEEN GOING OVER HERE IN CLASS ARE SO EASY, YOU'RE JUST AFRAID OF BEING EMBARRASSED & HUMBLED BY MAKING A MISTAKE! But it's good for you to make a mistake, it keeps you humble! I make lots of'm! If I didn't make some mistakes I'd probably get really proud & think I was very wholly sanctified & couldn't sin! If I didn't make some mistakes, I'd probably get really proud of my sanctimonious holiness! But it seems like the Lord makes me one of the biggest mistake-makers in the World to keep me humble.
5. EVEN ST. PAUL HAD A THORN IN THE FLESH WHICH HE SAID HE FIGURED WAS TO KEEP HIM HUMBLE! He was the kind that had originally been a pretty proud guy to begin with, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, a Rabbi. ... So after his tremendous conversion & all that--which helped to humble him, even being blind for awhile--then he became a Christian & such a powerhouse for the Lord & such an evangelist, such a missionary--he even had revelations, trips to Heaven & whatnot--he might have gotten pretty proud, even over being such an outstanding Christian, undoubtedly the greatest of the Apostles.
6. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH TRIES TO MAKE PETER THE GREATEST, & HE WAS WONDERFUL FOR AWHILE. He gave the church a nice early start, but then he sort of fluked out--do you know why? (Fam: He compromised.)--With whom? (Fam: The Jews.) Well, all the Early Christians were Jews, but what particular Jews? (Fam: The Concision.)--Also called? (Fam: The Circumcision.) And who were they? (Fam: Jewish Christians.)--Yes, but nearly all the first Christians were Jews. (Fam: They believed you had to still keep the law.)--Right, they were legalists! They said, "Yes, yes, we believe Jesus is the Messiah, we accept Him as our Messiah, but you've still got to keep the Mosaic Law!"
7. AND DEAR PETER, POOR PETER, HE'D ALWAYS BEEN A LITTLE BIT MAN-CONSCIOUS. Remember his early days when he was even afraid of the little maid etc., always concerned about saving face? Even in his last days with Jesus on Earth when the Lord kept asking him, "Peter, lovest thou Me?" he was virtually embarrassed by the question! He said, "Lord, You know I love You!" (John 21:15-17) He was always bold, brash, impulsive & impetuous! But I always sort of liked Peter, kind of like I like King David--they were both such bad guys it always gives me a lot of hope for myself! They made so many mistakes, but that's one thing the Lord uses to help keep you humble.
8. SO ST. PAUL SAID HE FIGURED THAT'S WHY HE HAD THAT THORN IN THE FLESH.--AND WHAT WAS IT? Was it actually a sticker in his side? What does he say it was? (Fam: A problem with his eyes?) Well, we're not exactly told that, but we assume that from other Scriptures about, "Behold with what large characters I write unto you" & "Some of you would have given me your own eyes," etc. It sounded like he had very poor eyesight, & that could have been a part of his thorn in the flesh. (Gal.6:11; 4:15)
9. BUT IT'S AMAZING HOW FEW CHRISTIANS, EVEN THE CHURCH PEOPLE THAT HEAR A LOT OF SERMONS, NOTICE WHAT IT REALLY SAYS! (Fam: It says he was buffeted by a messenger of Satan.)--A messenger of Satan, an evil spirit plagued St. Paul! (2Cor.12:7) He wasn't possessed by it, he was just pestered by it, annoyed by it, it just kept bothering him! We've had a few cases like that in our own Family, haven't we? I wouldn't call it demon possession, because in demon possession an evil spirit completely takes over somebody & rules & is the controller & gives them another personality.
10. THE DOCTORS CALL IT SCHIZOPHRENIA, SPLIT PERSONALITY, BUT IT'S NOT A SPLIT PERSONALITY AT ALL! It's another personality, a demon, an evil spirit that possesses the person. But evil spirits cannot possess Christians, because we are the possession of the Lord! We are possessed by Christ & He has promised He would never leave nor forsake us, He would never allow us to fall, we would always be His. All kinds of promises guarantee that you belong to Jesus & the Devil cannot have you.--But he sure as Hell can pester you, tempt you, give you all kinds of trials & tribulations & test you, just like he did Job!
JOB & SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS!
11. LOOK AT ALL THE TROUBLE HE CAUSED POOR OLD SAINT JOB! He destroyed his home, he destroyed his cattle, all his wealth, he killed all his children, & then he made him so sick his wife wished he'd curse God & die! (Job 2:9) Boy, I'll tell you, the Devil can cause you a lot of trouble! But it finally humbled him. He thought he was pretty good up until that time, he thought he was pretty righteous, & he goes on arguing with his so-called "comforters". They weren't very comforting, they were constantly accusing him of some kind of sin, "You must have done something wrong or you wouldn't be in this shape!"--And they were right!
12. I'VE HEARD PREACHERS SAY, "THOSE COMFORTERS WERE TERRIBLE ACCUSING THIS ABSOLUTE SAINT, this man of perfection, of something evil when it really wasn't his fault at all, it was just the Devil!"--Oh yes? Even God was bragging about Job, how good he was! But the Devil, he's the prosecutor, he's the Accuser of the Saints, he's the detective, he is a snoop & he noses around & finds what your weakness is & what your problem is & he does his best to aggravate it. And what was dear Job's problem? (Fam: Self-righteousness.)
13. ONE OF HIS ACCUSERS REALLY HIT THE NAIL ON THE HEAD WHEN HE SAID, "JOB, CAN A MAN BE FOUND TO BE RIGHTEOUS WITH GOD?" (Job 4:17) Job was contending & arguing that he was righteous & saying, "How come? Why me, Lord? Why did You do this to me when I'm so good?" Well, he finally found out why! He had been thinking he was pretty good, pretty righteous, & that in itself was a sin!
14. WHY IS SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS, THINKING YOU'RE GOOD & RIGHTEOUS & HOLY & PERFECT, THE MOST ABHORRENT OF ALL SINS? (Fam: Because you think you know better than God, that you would do things differently!)--Yes, thinking that you're even more righteous than God! That's the way Job seemed to be thinking: "God, if I were You, I wouldn't do this to me! How come You're not as righteous as I am? How come You're doing these things to me when I'm so good?" That's the most abhorrent of all sins!--Self-righteousness!
15. THERE WERE ANOTHER BUNCH OF GUYS THAT HAD THAT SAME SIN ... They're always saying, "Why me? How come?" It was a bunch of guys like that who killed Jesus! They pretended to be so righteous in front of all these people & they stood on the street corners & they would pray big loud prayers & wear big long robes, & when they went to give a big gift to the treasury at the Temple they'd have somebody blow a horn to attract everybody's attention so that they'd all know what a big gift they were giving! They were so righteous, putting on this big false front! I think sometimes that's why the Lord hates clothing, it's such a false front!
NECESSITIES OF LIFE ARE HUMBLING!
16. I WAS THINKING THIS MORNING, BEING NAKED IS SO HUMBLING!--And the peculiar mechanics of sex is so humiliating, it really is! I think it does you a lot of good to be naked in front of each other & have sex, it helps keep you humble! So don't be proud of it! Be thankful for it, but it's nothing to be proud of. It's a necessity!
17. WHY SHOULD YOU BE PROUD OF EATING OR SLEEPING? Eating is a very gruesome operation if you want to really think about it!--Stuffing all that food in your face & slip slop slurp! And to think we get together at one table facing each other for that kind of operation, really, it's very humbling! Most of the necessities of life are very humbling, because it shows you have a need, you're not sufficient in yourself, you need something.
18. I DON'T KNOW OF MANY PEOPLE WHO ARE PROUD OF SLEEPING, MOST PEOPLE ARE A LITTLE BIT ASHAMED IF THEY SLEEP TOO LONG! You sort of have to apologise that you yawn & you're tired & say, "Excuse me, but I've got to go to bed, I'm sleepy." It's nothing you're proud of, it's confessing a need, humbly confessing that you are weak & human & mortal & frail & you need sleep!
19. WHAT OTHER NECESSITY OF LIFE BESIDES THE GRUESOME HABIT OF EATING & THE WEAKNESS OF HAVING TO SLEEP DO YOU HAVE TO CONFESS? What's the next most urgent thing in life? (Fam: Going to the toilet?)--That's a very good point! Did you know even Jesus had to go to the toilet? It's not funny, it's the truth! A lot of people never thought of that. He had to go to the toilet just like we do.
20. JUST THINK, THE LORD OF HEAVEN, KING OF KINGS, MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE, HAD TO COME DOWN TO EARTH & PUT ON THIS RIDICULOUS FLESH, human flesh, corrupt flesh, weak flesh, subject to temptations in all points like as we are, it says so! (Heb.4:15) It was like a King putting on a clown's suit! I like the way they portrayed that in that famous movie, "The Parable". That was a pretty good parable. It was like the great King had come down & put on a clown's suit, ridiculous, to put on human flesh! And they made fun of Him as such, called Him all kinds of names, even jeered at Him when He was on the cross, while they were killing Him! It's pretty humiliating to be a human being, maybe more humiliating to some people than others.
21. BEING NAKED IS VERY HUMILIATING, EVEN TO THE BEST OF YOU, EVEN TO THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE THE NICEST SHAPES. It's more humiliating to some of the rest of us who maybe aren't shaped as well as you are, but it's good for us all, it keeps us humble! And by the way, did you know that self-respect is self-righteousness! It does my pride good! It does your pride good to have to let it all hang out! Of course, some of you beauties may not be ashamed to show it off because you've really got a lot to show off!--Some of us more than others, of course.
22. BUT ALL THESE HUMAN WEAKNESSES & HUMAN FRAILTIES OF THE FLESH SHOW A NEED, show that we're not sufficient in ourselves, & I think sex is one of the most needy confessions of insufficiency, inadequacy, not being sufficient unto yourself, not having everything you need, needing somebody else. Whenever you have sex you're showing that you need somebody else. And no matter how beautiful you may be or how proud you may be, sooner or later you've got to confess to somebody that you need'm. And it's not always easy to do that if you're proud & self-righteous & holier-than-thou & hypocritical.
23. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE THAT AS BAD AS THEY WANT SEX, THEY WON'T CONFESS IT! There have been a few times when I wanted it real bad, but Mama didn't get the hint & I was ashamed to confess it, even to Mama! I figured, "Well if she really loved me, she ought to know that I need it without me having to ask for it! Why does she have to wait till I have to ask for it?" Isn't that terrible? That's pride!--Stinking, dirty, nasty pride! "Why doesn't she approach me for it, why doesn't she come over & pet me? She knows I'm sexy & I like a lot of sex, how come she doesn't offer it, without my having to stoop & lower myself & humble myself & humiliate my pride & ask her for it, confess that I'm a human being who needs sex!" It's all very humiliating, all very humbling. It really helps to humble you!
MORE ON SAINT PAUL
24. SO ST. PAUL HAD TO ADMIT HE WAS BEING PLAGUED BY A DEMON, "BUFFETED ABOUT BY A MESSENGER OF SATAN"! Here he was the greatest Christian in the World at the time, the greatest leader of the Christian faith, greatest missionary, evangelist, teacher & Rabbi, it seemed like he had it all! He'd had all kinds of revelations, he was a lawyer of the Word, he was brilliant, he had everything!--Including revelations & trips to Heaven & whatnot!--And yet he had this devil! Thank God the devil didn't have him! There's a difference, you know, between having a thorn in the flesh, a demon that bothers you, & the demon having you. That's the difference. If you belong to the Lord, the demon can't have you, he can't get you, but he can sure cause you a lot of trouble!
25. SO EVEN THE GREAT ST. PAUL, the great teacher, lawyer of the Word, scholar, revelator--he was a revelator too, he had marvellous spiritual experiences, went to Heaven & all these things--God had to send him some kind of a little devil that kept bothering him to just keep him humble! He confessed that he figured that's what it was for. He said, "Lest I be exalted." Also, he apparently had very poor eyesight, because he said, "Some of you would have given me your eyes if you could have, & behold with what large characters I write unto you"--showing that his eyes were getting pretty poor. (Ga.6:11; 4:15) In those days they didn't have glasses yet.
26. IT'S A GOOD THING THEY HAVE GLASSES NOW OR YOU'D BE HAVING TO READ ME THE BIBLE INSTEAD OF ME READING IT TO YOU! I had perfect eyesight until I was about 45 or 50, but when my arm was not long enough any more to read the newspaper, & when I had to stand outside the telephone booth to see the number on the phone, I began to realise I needed glasses! So I had my cousin Geney test my eyes, he was an eye doctor, an outstanding eye surgeon, & he marvelled that I had such good eyes for my age, especially my width of vision. He said he'd never tested anybody who had as wide-angle vision as I have, about 180 degrees! It works both ways, this way & this way. I don't have tunnel vision, I've got hemispherical vision, thank the Lord! At least I can see half of the World, the part that's in front of me. I sometimes wonder about some of you guys. So that was a thorn in the flesh for Paul too, to have such poor eyesight when he was such a teacher & a student etc. I must confess it's humbling for me every time I have to put on glasses.
SICKNESS & POVERTY!
27. I'VE HAD PEOPLE SAY, "WELL, WHY DON'T YOU JUST PRAY & ASK THE LORD TO HEAL YOUR EYES?" He could give you perfect vision! Why don't you just pray the Lord will give you perfect health & heal you so you'll never get sick!" There's a group in the United States called the Body Ministry led by Oral Roberts & some of those boys, the Latter Rain people, who believe that you should never be poor, you should never be sick, you should never have any troubles, you should always be on top of everything! They preach abundance & affluence--they practice it too--perfect health & perfect wealth! Well, I used to kind of annoy some of those preachers a little bit because I was always asking questions. I'd always think about these new doctrines I heard & think about a Scripture, "Now let's see, Lord, could that be?"
28. I SAID, "IF POVERTY IS A SIN & SICKNESS IS A SIGN OF SIN, HOW COME IT SAYS ABOUT JESUS THAT 'THOUGH HE WAS RICH, YET HE BECAME POOR, that we through His poverty might become rich'? (2Cor.8:9) You mean Jesus was a sinful wicked Man to become poor & take on poverty so we could be rich?--And suffered in all these things like as we do?" He was tired, sometimes it seemed even sick, He needed women, He had to eat, He had to go to the toilet! If you were that perfect you shouldn't even have to go to the toilet, you should be so pure you don't have any waste matters, nothing wasted!
DEPENDENCE ON FOOD & AIR!
29. DON'T BE ASHAMED IF YOU'VE GOT TO EAT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO HIDE IN A CORNER! It's just a sign of your human dependence on everything, your environment, others, & most of all on God! The Lord wants you to confess that need & that necessity.
30. I'LL TELL YOU, IF YOU JUST WANT TO BE HONEST ABOUT IT, BEING A HUMAN BEING IS PRETTY HUMBLING! You're pretty dependent on everything! I haven't found one yet that didn't have to have food. There might have been a few who thought they didn't & been like Mike's cow. He said, "I got'r off of grain, & I'd've got'r off of water too if she hadn't've died!" I never found any human being yet that didn't have to eat & sleep to stay alive.
31. SOME PEOPLE PRIDE THEMSELVES IN HOW LONG THEY CAN FAST. There was quite a craze going in the United States for awhile. "Atomic Power With God Through Fasting" was the name of the book, & the guy who ran around preaching it looked like Mr. Five-by-five, he was about this broad! I thought to myself when I saw him preaching, "No wonder he got so conscious of fasting, he sure looks like he needs it!" You were supposed to earn gifts of the Spirit & power with God by how long you fasted. If you fasted five days you got this & ten days you got that & 30 days you got so-&-so, & 40 days you became a prophet of God! I'll tell you, talk about sects & cults & isms, there are some weird ones going on in the United States!
32. I USED TO PRIDE MYSELF ON HOW LONG I COULD STAY UNDERWATER! They say you can't go without air for more than about 3 or 4 minutes, & most of you can't go that long, you faint & become unconscious before that. I used to be able to swim all the way under water from one end to the other of an Olympic-size pool! Can you imagine that? I used to almost swear I could breathe underwater! It just seemed like somehow or another I was getting oxygen. It must have been the Lord & His mercy to keep me from dying through my own foolishness & the Devil trying to kill me!
33. BUT I NEVER FOUND A HUMAN BEING YET WHO COULD GO WITHOUT AIR! You're dependent every minute on breathing. The New Testament uses the word "pneuma," which we use for air. When you talk about pneumatic tires, pneumatic pumps, you're saying air tires, air pumps. The Greek word is pneuma, & that's the word the New Testament uses for spirit! Just as you can't last very long without air, you wouldn't last very long without your spirit either, & as a Christian, you're not going to last very long without the Holy Spirit! You need air, you need your spirit & you need the Holy Spirit!
34. SOME PEOPLE HAVE BEEN KNOWN TO HAVE THEIR SPIRITS LEAVE THEIR BODIES TEMPORARILY, the body was only dead for a little while & then they came back. But let me tell you, if the spirit hadn't come back, the body would have stayed dead!
LUIGI
35. THAT'S WHAT I REMEMBER SO WELL IN THAT DREAM I HAD ABOUT "X-RAY EYES!" (ML#628), I FIGURED THAT MAYBE LUIGI WAS DEAD! He was our ... friend in Estoril, Portugal, because he came to me in the spirit & wanted me to come with him into the Spirit World!
36. WE'D LED HIM TO THE LORD, BUT HE WAS PRETTY MUCH IN A DESPERATE SPOT BECAUSE HE WAS IN HIDING ... because he'd lost so many poker games! I don't think we ever saw him after that, so I figured that something must have happened to him, they must have finally gotten him, because he was in the spirit & expecting me to come with him.
37. HE WAS ALWAYS KIND OF LONELY & WANTED FELLOWSHIP & WE HAD LED HIM TO THE LORD. God bless him! TYJ! (Tongues) "Thank Thee, O God, for the sure mercies of David!" He really loved us. I think I've still got a handkerchief somewhere with his initial on it that he gave to me. ...
38. HE ALWAYS WANTED FELLOWSHIP, HE REALLY HUNGERED FOR FELLOWSHIP! He was lonely, but the girls were good to him & we were good to him. We first met him in that night club when I sent Kristina over to talk to him & offer to dance with him. That was always a good approach. Why should the men do all the asking just because it's a custom? I used to tell my girls, "Find somebody who looks lonesome & too proud & ashamed to ask a girl to dance with them"--especially maybe one of our girls that had quite a reputation by that time! I said, "You go ask them to dance!"--And they hardly ever had anybody turn them down.
39. DEAR LUIGI, HE WAS SO HAPPY THEN! When I first saw him he was sitting there alone at a table & he looked so sad, but he got so happy!--And he started coming home with us & going out to dinner with us & all kinds of things.
JUDAS--"ONE OF YOU IS THE DEVIL!"
40. EVEN ST. PAUL, AS I SAY, HAD A DEMON, BUT THE DEMON DIDN'T HAVE HIM! Jesus said of one of His disciples, "Have I not chosen you 12, & one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70)--Only it's a slight mistranslation. The King James Bible is the best one you can get, but once in awhile it just doesn't make a few points very clear. Because in the Greek there it says, "is the Devil," Satan himself, & they use the Greek word which is used only for the Devil, & that's "Diablos"! Everywhere else it talks about a demon or an evil spirit it uses "daimonio," from which we get our word demon. But there Jesus said of Judas, "Have I not chosen you & one of you is the Devil?"
41. IT WAS SATAN WHO TOOK OVER THAT JOB OF BETRAYING JESUS! He didn't leave that job to any underling, he didn't leave that job to any little devil or any little demon or even one of his archangel demons. Satan himself took over the job of bedevilling & pestering Christ by being there in the form of Judas, or at least a good deal of the time controlling Judas.
42. I'VE OFTEN SAID JUDAS MUST HAVE BEEN SAVED BECAUSE HE WAS SORRY AFTERWARDS & HE APPARENTLY REPENTED, HE COMMITTED SUICIDE. That's a horrible way to show you're sorry, but obviously he believed. He didn't know they were going to do such terrible things to Jesus. They'd promised him that they weren't going to hurt Jesus, they were just going to get rid of Him, run Him out of town or something, but they lied, of course. The [EDITED: "ACs"] always lie, lying is one of their expert professions! I read their paper every day & it is just loaded with lies & twisting of the truth & contradictions & propaganda, lies, lies, lies! But by reading it, at least I'm not unaware of the Devil's tricks & what he's up to & what he's after.--And besides that, you find out a lot of truth in it too about what the [EDITED: "ACs"] are up to.
WE'RE ALL SINNERS!
43. BUT THAT WAS THE WORST SIN OF ALL, THE SIN OF THE SCRIBES & THE PHARISEES, HYPOCRITICAL SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS! And rather than have themselves continually exposed like that, they finally decided the only thing to do was just kill Him. Some people would almost rather die than confess some things, they'd almost rather be killed than be found out! And some people would rather kill somebody else than be exposed, like the Scribes & the Pharisees did Jesus!
44. BUT HOW DO WE KNOW WE'RE NOT RIGHTEOUS? (Fam: "For all have sinned & come short of the glory of God.") (Rom.3:23)--Very good, Honey, that's the best answer you could have given, that's the very one I wanted. And what's another Verse that goes right with it? (Fam: "There is none righteous, no, not one.") (Rom.3:10) So poor old Job had to finally confess that he wasn't righteous. And he finally confessed that he had to just trust the Lord, not his own righteousness. When his wife told him to just curse God & die, he said, "Though He slay me, even if God slays me, yet will I trust Him!" (Job 13:15) In other words, he was attesting to the righteousness of God! "Even if God kills me, I will trust that He knew best & that He was righteous in so doing," that's what he was saying!
45. I DON'T KNOW WHY I'M GIVING ALL THIS SERMONETTE ON THAT, but it started off with not being ashamed to confess your need for prayer & to have folks pray for you! I had that happen this past week. Thank God you did pray or I probably wouldn't be here this morning, thank the Lord! But maybe the Lord lets it happen to show you what a human I am, & what a sinner I am & how weak & frail I am so that you won't worship me & you'll just remember it's all the Lord! I am nothing & nobody without Jesus!--And neither are you! PTL? You're just as big a sinner as I am, except for Jesus! PTL!
46. WE'RE ALL A MESS! WE'RE ALL WICKED SINNERS! We're all evil in our hearts except for the Lord. "The heart of man is desperately wicked, who can know it?" (Jer.17:9) God's Word says you're even born in sin.--But that doesn't mean it's a sin to be born! It says, "And in sin did my mother conceive me." (Psa.51:5) Oh boy, how the churches like to use that Verse about sex & say, "See, that proves sex is evil!" You mean then conception is also evil?--Because that's what it says. It doesn't say that though, that's the way the churches talk. It says, "In sin did my mother conceive me." It didn't mean that fucking was a sin or sex was a sin or conceiving was a sin or having babies was a sin, it just said that his mother was a sinner, that's all!
47. PROBABLY A LOT OF PEOPLE TRIED TO WORSHIP KING DAVID BECAUSE HE WAS SUCH A GREAT MAN & so wonderful & did such wonderful things, in spite of all his evil. He was a murderer, a wife-stealer, a liar, a cheat, a hypocrite, he was just about everything you could think of that was evil in those early days! I like to think, according to his Psalms, that he vastly improved later, so there's some hope for me too!--Ha! But he just meant that, "I'm a sinner, even my mother was a sinner!"
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, MARY & GABRIEL!
48. THEY HAVE NOT ONLY CANONISED MARY'S MOTHER ANNA, BUT THEY NOW TALK ABOUT MARY AS HAVING BEEN IMMACULATELY CONCEIVED! They talk about the immaculate conception, & I always thought at first they were talking about the immaculate conception of Jesus, but now they've gotten around to the immaculate conception of Mary! They figure if Jesus was so perfect, then His mother must have been perfect! And now they're even talking about Anna, that she must have also been perfect & sinless, because after all, she begat Mary! Well, there's no end to that, they could go all the way back to Adam & Eve, so it's just not so!
49. THEY EVEN TRY TO PRETEND THAT MARY NEVER HAD ANY SEX!--That she not only didn't have it for Jesus, but although she was betrothed to Joseph, she never had any sex any more because she was so holy! Well, I pointed out the fact, "Then how come Jesus had some brothers, & probably some sisters too? She must have done a hell of a lot of fucking to have all those kids!"--And it mentions His brothers & His mother several times! His brothers weren't even good believers in Him, they even mocked Him! So how was Mary so saintly & holy & perfect?
50. IN FACT, THEY WORSHIP MARY MORE THAN THEY DO JESUS, LET'S FACE IT! Maryolatry is the next thing to idolatry, & they do a lot of that too!--The worshipping of images! She was just a woman, just like you gorgeous gals right here, & just like Jesus, she had to eat & she had to go to the toilet & she had to sleep & she had to breathe & she had to fuck, because it was a human necessity, she had to have sex. My God, if the people in the Catholic churches could hear me this morning they would probably crucify me on one of their crosses!--Because they've been taught that she was sinless & perfect or she wouldn't have had Jesus! That had nothing to do with it!
51. SHE MUST HAVE BEEN A WONDERFUL GIRL, that a girl of 16 should have been so precious to God & that holy, at least, probably because she was so humble & loved the Lord so much, & probably because she confessed she wasn't holy & she wasn't perfect & knew she needed God! That's probably one reason the Lord chose her, because He knew she wouldn't get proud about it. That could have been something to really get proud about, knowing you were the mother of the Messiah, but you never have any sign in the Bible anywhere that she ever got proud about it, right?--In fact, she just almost faded out of the picture. But the Lord loved her enough to come down & fuck her & give her His Own Son! I used to think maybe it was the Holy Spirit that did it until I found out that the Holy Spirit was female, so I figured that couldn't very well be possible! We do have a lot of strange doctrines, don't we?
52. BUT WHEN I READ THAT DAY THAT THE ANGEL GABRIEL "CAME IN UNTO HER" (Luk.1:28), the same expression that is used throughout the Bible for sex & for fucking, I figured God must have used him for the instrument.--And why not use that great Archangel, that great spirit, to be the instrument of God, just like God Himself, part of God in a way! You may doubt that, & you can, because I can't prove it, except that Scripture is pretty specific. And of course it talks about the Almighty overshadowing her & the Almighty coming upon her etc. (Luk.1:35) So whether it was the Angel Gabriel or not, it was God!
53. I'M A LITTLE BIT MORMON THERE, BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT GOD TOOK ON A THEOPHANY, A GOD-BODY, & LITERALLY FUCKED MARY!--Why not? God took on bodies on other occasions that had human appearance. He sat down & ate bread with Abraham & did different things all through the Bible. A lot of times I think it was Jesus, but a lot of times it obviously wasn't Jesus, it was God! That one instance where Daniel was shown an appearance of God, you have the two Personalities right there, One in front of the other One: "One like the Son of Man came before the Ancient of Days!" (Dan.7:13) I've shown that to the Jews, & boy, they don't like it!--Whew! I'll tell you, these people whose minds are closed & made up so that they don't want to be confused with the facts or the Scripture are really in a rut!
ANGELS HAVE CHOICE!
54. SO THE QUICKER YOU FIND OUT THAT YOU'RE NOT GOD, THE BETTER!--And you're not even a god as the Devil promised! You're sons of God & we will become like gods, like the lesser gods, so to speak, like Angels, even greater than Angels! Man was made a little lower than the Angels (Psa.8:5), but that doesn't mean we're going to stay there.
55. WE'RE EVEN GOING TO JUDGE ANGELS, THINK OF THAT! (1Cor.6:3) Which Angels do you think we're going to judge? (Fam: The Devil's Angels, the bad Angels?) Well, that's a possibility, but from what I gather, he's cast into Hell & the Pit & all his demons with him & doesn't come out again until the end of the Millennium. But it's possible, it doesn't specify which angels, & that is the usual interpretation.
56. BUT IF A THIRD OF THE ANGELS COULD FALL ALONG WITH SATAN, & HE COULD LEAD A THIRD OF THEM ASTRAY, I therefore disagree with the preachers I've heard saying that Angels are like automatons or robots & have no will of their own, they just do the will of God. I've heard preachers preach like that, that they're not like us, we are the only ones upon whom God conferred the majesty of choice & decision, to choose to serve the Lord! Well, we're the only ones whom God saved this way.
57. BUT IF THE ARCHANGEL OF ALL ANGELS, LUCIFER, THE LIGHTBEARER, THE RIGHT HAND OF GOD, COULD CHOOSE TO GO AGAINST HIM, & then a third of the Angels choose to follow him, don't tell me the rest of the Angels don't have any choice! It wouldn't be to their credit that they stayed with the Lord, would it? About the only thing to your credit for being saved is that you made the choice. You reached out the hand of faith & accepted the gift. That's not much credit, but God will give you credit for it by saving you. PTL!
58. I BELIEVE ANGELS MUST HAVE CHOICE, SO DON'T YOU THINK THAT ANGELS COULD POSSIBLY SOMETIMES MAKE MISTAKES?--And if Angels can even make mistakes, what do you think about holy spirits? I think maybe a good word to call them that a lot of people understand would be the Saints, that's what the Bible calls them. Of course, the Bible calls both Saints, the dead Saints & the living Saints. I don't see how you can have any dead Saints myself, they're all alive, either in this World or the Next, all around us in fact!
CLOUD OF WITNESSES!
59. THE NEXT WORLD IS ALREADY HERE, YOU KNOW, WE'RE IN IT!--WE JUST CAN'T SEE IT! The Other World, the Spirit World, is surrounding us! Someone wrote me a note not long ago saying that they envisioned Angels & Saints lining the stairs here! (Tongues) "O, have I not said that the sages of old & the Saints"--Lord forgive me, help me--"would have longed to see this day that thou dost see in the person of thy Father David, & hear the things that thou dost hear!" Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL! My Lord, how the Lord could ever use me, I don't know! I'm such a poor instrument, such a poor interpreter. Well anyhow, that's the gist of it, that's most of it. I guess that was enough. TYL!
60. DO YOU KNOW WHAT SAGES ARE? The Lord used that word, isn't that funny? I never use that word! Sages are wise old men, Patriarchs, Prophets. And someone was suggesting that at last they're getting to see this day! They're here!--All around us! Have you got a Scripture to confirm that? (Fam: "We are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses.") (Heb.12:1)
61. THERE ARE SO MANY PEOPLE WATCHING US IT'S JUST LIKE A CLOUD! Do you know what a cloud's composed of? (Fam: Lots of molecules of water.)--Right, tiny little bits of water, mist. A cloud is water mist, & that means it's composed of billions of little droplets of water. So this great cloud of witnesses could stack up to more than just fill these stairs! Billions are watching you! They used to sing a song to scare us little kids to be good: "There's an all-seeing Eye watching you, watching you!" Remember that one, Maria? Well, let me tell you, there's not just one all-seeing Eye watching you, there are billions of all-seeing eyes watching you!--Watching all you do, thrilled & encouraged by your victories, a little disappointed & sad when you fail, praying for you.
62. AND JUST THINK, ALL HEAVEN REJOICES WHEN EVEN ONE SINNER IS SAVED! (Lk.15:7,10) Praise God! My, we must have kept them rejoicing for quite awhile now with all the souls that our Family is saving all around the World almost continuously, they must be having a shouting time! But we don't have to say "Up There"--they're Up There too--but they're also here, all around us!--Not only lining the balconies, they're probably sitting on the ceiling & hanging on the light fixtures! Of course, they don't have to hang on to anything, they can just float!--In fact, they don't even have to be inside this building, they can see through it! They can be up there surrounding this building in the sky, beholding everything that's going on in here!
63. THOSE THINGS ARE REAL, BELOVED! I'm not just fantasising, imagining & having fantasies, this is what the Bible teaches! People that read & believe the Bible, like the Christians are supposed to & the church people are supposed to, if they'd read it & believe what they read, they'd know it too! The trouble with them is they can even read it but they don't really believe it.
64. --LIKE THAT GUY WHO SAID, "OH, YOU MEAN THOSE THINGS ALL ACTUALLY HAPPENED? You've got fotos of where they happened! (The Bible in Pictures--BIPs) You mean all those Bible stories are really true!"--And he'd been a church man all his life! It's sort of like a fairy tale to them, Santa Claus & the fairies & all that sort of thing. But even the fairies are more real than that, more real than some of those guys are willing to admit. So they're all around watching us, such a great cloud of witnesses! They rejoice when you have victories & they are sad when you fail.
WE KEEP ON LEARNING!
65. BUT IF YOU DIDN'T HAVE THAT HUMAN FRAILTY, THAT HUMAN WEAKNESS TO MAKE WRONG DECISIONS & TO FAIL, THEN THERE WOULD NOT BE THE FREEDOM OF CHOICE, the majesty of free will that God implanted in every heart, including, apparently, in the hearts of the Angels, to make a choice, to voluntarily love & serve Him. He does call us Love Slaves, Love Servants etc.--He didn't, the Apostles did--but Jesus said, "I have not called you servants, but friends. For the Master doesn't tell everything to His servants, His slaves." (Jn.15:15) He wanted you as friends, He wanted you as His Beloved, not only friends, but His Bride!
66. OH BOY, THE CHURCH WANTS NO PART OF ME! I've talked about, "You're the Bride of Christ, fuck Jesus! Fuck Jesus!" If you're having a hard time going, ask for the Lord's help, or ask for your spirit helper's help! We often ask for Abrahim's help, he really likes to fuck!
67. DO YOU MEAN, THEN, THAT IF ANGELS & HOLY SPIRITS HAVE CHOICES, THAT THEY ALSO MAY HAVE TEMPTATIONS & MAYBE THEY MAKE A MISTAKE ONCE IN AWHILE? You've seen those funny little comic strips about Barnaby & Casper the Ghost. Barnaby is an amateur ghost & Casper is a baby ghost, & then you've seen some other movies about these guys who are ghosts & they were sent on assignments & they made funny mistakes & they didn't always do everything perfectly.
68. BECAUSE THOSE HOLY SPIRITS, THE SAINTS, ARE HUMAN JUST LIKE YOU & ME!--And just because you suddenly get a spirit body in the Next World & you suddenly have some powers you didn't have before, such as appearing & disappearing & walking through walls & flying & a few things like that, sorry to have to tell you this to your great disappointment, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you will never again make a mistake or never again make perhaps the wrong choice!
69. I THINK WE HAVE TRIED TO PROVE TO YOU HERE THAT IN THE NEXT WORLD WE ARE STILL LEARNING, still developing, & we are not yet absolutely perfect. We will be the spirits of just men, in other words good men, made perfect (Heb.12:23)--but when? We're being made perfect. The Greek often uses the continuative tense, which reminds me of another verse which the Holiness people often use about their holy perfection. It says something about being made holy & perfect etc. They say, "See there? We're supposed to be absolutely holy, attain sinless perfection & be made absolutely perfect!" But you see, they don't know the Greek! The Greek uses a tense there which says you keep being made perfect. I'm forgetting some of my Greek, but there's a word for that tense. I've always had to explain it to people because they don't know the Greek either, it's a continuative tense, it means, "I am being made perfect." Ah! I thought of another Verse!
70. THE BAPTISTS & A LOT OF PEOPLE FIGURE THAT ONCE THEY'VE PROFESSED TO BELIEVE IN CHRIST & they've walked down the aisle & shaken the preacher's hand, that it's done once & for all, they never have to do it again, never have to witness, never have to win souls, never have to litness, never have to confess Christ any more, as long as they did it once! But the Greek says literally that you have to keep on confessing Christ, or He'll be ashamed of you!
71. WE USE THIS VERSE FOR SALVATION A LOT, that if you believe in your heart in Jesus, that God's raised Him from the dead, it says to confess Him.--Quote it! (Fam: "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, & shalt believe in thine heart that God that raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; & with the mouth confession is made unto Salvation." (Rom.10:9,10)
72. SO THEY TAKE THAT & SAY, "SEE? I DID CONFESS HIM, I DID BELIEVE! I DON'T HAVE TO CONFESS HIM ANY MORE!" But the Greek literally says, "If thou shalt keep on confessing," if you're saved you'll keep on confessing Christ, you'll continually confess Christ. That tense in the Greek is used many times in the Bible. There's not a verb conjugation for it in English, there's no way of saying it except to use words like I have, you've got to keep on confessing & we're going to keep on learning & keep on being made perfect. We've got a long ways to go before we get perfect, if ever!
73. OH, YOU'RE SO DISAPPOINTED! YOU THOUGHT THE MINUTE YOU DIED & WENT TO HEAVEN YOU WERE GOING TO BE ABSOLUTELY PERFECT! How could you be when you've been so imperfect down here? You're the same person with the same thoughts, the same mind! Some of you are getting really discouraged now!--Ha! That's a part of the marvel & the wonder of this process of being made perfect, that it continues!--And who knows, maybe there's no end to it! It's wonderful to be able to make progress & continue! Even St. Paul said, "I do not count myself to have arrived"--& he probably hasn't arrived yet except in Heaven! And from what I know of Abrahim, he sure hasn't arrived either, he gets me in a peck of trouble every now & then!--Ha! God bless him! Thank you anyhow, Abrahim! He still has some of his old failings & weaknesses.
74. BUT LOOK HOW MUCH GOOD HE DOES ME! You can overlook some of those faults, can't you?--Just like you overlook some of my faults when you think of how much good the Lord has helped me to do. Sometimes if I look at myself & look at my faults I wonder how the Lord could ever use me at all! Mama knows sometimes I get discouraged & I think, "Oh well, what's the use? I never seem to be able to make it, I don't seem to be making any progress." And the Lord made me look at that tree that time, the Tree of Life. (ML#1376) How does that Verse go? (Fam: "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, & he that winneth souls is wise.") (Pro.11:30) I'm not quoting my Scriptures enough lately, I'm beginning to forget'm, but that's it!
75. AND THE OTHER DAY I THOUGHT ABOUT ANOTHER VERSE ABOUT A TREE FROM THE FIRST PSALM. The righteous shall be like a tree! (Fam: "And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season.")--"His leaf also shall not wither!" (Psa.1:3) Hallelujah! TYJ! PTL!
76. DID YOU KNOW YOU CAN TELL A PERSON'S AGE BY THEIR HANDS? They can do face lifts nowadays & what they call cosmetology, & old women 70 years of age, actresses that I can remember when I was young still look young & beautiful! They can fix up the face & do all kinds of things, it's almost like wearing a mask, & they wear wigs & whatnot & still look so young! And I wonder, "My Lord, she's got to be at least 70 years of age, how can she look that young?"--But then you look at the hands. Look at the hands sometimes of some of these very young-looking actresses that you know have been around quite a few years, & that's one place you can see the age. Your hands tell your age more than your face, believe it or not!
METABOLISM--CATABOLISM & ANABOLISM!
77. SO WE'RE ALL MORTAL, WE ALL GROW OLD! Of course, you guys are never going to grow old, you're going to be young forever! But in my day when people still grew old like me, you grow old, you wither, you shrink! I was dumbfounded when I came back & saw my Mother after a few years, how much she had shrunk! She was almost a head shorter than she used to be, she actually had shrunk!
78. DID YOU KNOW THAT EVERY NIGHT YOU GROW & EVERY DAY YOU SHRINK?--That after a day's work & a day of running around on your feet you're about a half-an-inch shorter? Some of you have heard that, haven't you? It's the truth! Poor Techi [EDITED: "may be"] wondering, "How am I ever going to grow up if I lose every day what I gained during the night?" Well, I'll tell you what it is, it's called metabolism. And in case you don't know what metabolism is, it's the difference between anabolism & catabolism! Now you understand it, don't you? (Family laughs!) You don't have to laugh, you probably don't know either!
79. THE THING ABOUT ME IS I REMEMBER ALMOST EVERYTHING I STUDIED IN SCHOOL! God has apparently given me a fantastic memory for some things, but I have a fantastic forgetter for names & other things!--Ha! Sometimes I can't even remember your name when I'm trying to call you!
80. BUT METABOLISM IS LITERALLY THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN LIFE & DEATH. Catabolism is the physical process which is constantly tearing you down, wearing you out, burning up energy & burning up cells & what makes you tired & why you've got to go to bed to get some anabolism, the building-up process. Catabolism comes from the Greek, meaning "to cast down." I'll never forget that time in Arizona when some old lady that never studied Greek, didn't hardly know English, suddenly burst out into fluent Greek, cursing this devil that was in this person & casting it into Hell! She never knew a word of Greek, never studied Greek, but she had the gift of tongues, probably some Greek Saint speaking through her, the marvels & miracles that God does for us!
81. BUT METABOLISM IS A PROCESS WHICH IS LITERALLY THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN LIFE & DEATH! In your sleep your body has time to repair & to grow when you're a child & to build up your strength & replace certain energies & materials etc. While you're sleeping especially, or resting, it has a chance to build up that which you tore down while you were tearing around all over the place all day long. You used up a lot of energy, burned up cells, you even burned up building blocks like proteins & things like that that your body's composed of. All day long you're running around & using up energy & using up your body & in a sense actually tearing it down, wearing yourself out!
82. WHEN YOU EAT YOU GET NOURISHMENT, WHEN YOU BREATHE YOU GET NOURISHMENT FROM THE AIR, oxygen, etc., & all of those processes are called anabolism, that builds up your body. Catabolism tears it down. And this constant conflicting process is called metabolism. And if you go around tearing yourself down more than you take time to build yourself up, you will tear yourself down, you'll get too tired & too sick & finally die!
LIFE IS A LEARNING PROCESS!
83. THE TREE OF LIFE MUST HAVE SOME KIND OF PROCESS. You say, "Why in the World would God have to do things like that even when we get to Heaven, to still have to have some kind of healing for people outside & have to use some kind of a medical aid, in a sense, Leaves from the Tree of Life for the healing of the nations! Why would God have to do things like that? Couldn't He just say, 'Presto-chango hocus-pocus-dominocus, everybody be well in the whole World!'" Well, why didn't He just make you perfect by snapping His fingers, or even when you were saved? (Fam: Then we wouldn't be dependent on Him.) That's one sure reason, it helps you be dependent on the Lord! But there's another good reason that I think we've brought out. (Fam: We learn from it.) That's what I'm trying to get across to you & what the churches don't seem to get the point of!
84. LIFE IS A LEARNING PROCESS!--And you don't learn it by snapping your fingers or suddenly getting an injection!--Or like you've seen in some of these sci-fis where they put a skull cap on one guy & drain his brain & put all of his knowledge in your head, blah blah. Wouldn't that be nice? It would be so easy! But look what you would miss!--This trial-&-error process, this trying-&-learning process!
85. LOOK HOW A BABY LEARNS! Why didn't God just have babies born like some of the animals where they could just get up & walk around right off the bat? Did you know little baby goats & lambs & cows & horses can stand up within a few minutes after they're born & walk around & follow their mothers?--Because they have to! Their mothers are busy wandering all over the pasture eating grass & can't just stay there all the time letting them nurse!
86. HUMAN BABIES ARE ALMOST THE MOST HELPLESS BABIES IN THE WORLD! Lots of other babies are made so they can almost shift for themselves as soon as they're born. Did you see that video yet of the little kangaroos & some of the marsupials? Do you know what a marsupial is? They're not from Mars, believe it or not! They're almost from Mars, they're marvellous! They are born from their mothers like kangaroos, & then they crawl up their mother's tummy, they know right where to go, & crawl into a little pocket right in her tummy here. They said they've got to get in there within a certain length of time or they won't make it.
87. BUT ISN'T IT WONDERFUL TO WATCH A BABY LEARN & GROW? You say, "Well, it doesn't seem to do much the first few months, all it does is eat & sleep." Well, did you know even while he's still in his mother's tummy the baby is learning?--He's hearing sounds, voices, music, recognising voices, even recognising music! When Mama was pregnant with David, carrying him in her tummy, we went dancing almost every single night, right up to the last two weeks I think it was. And we walked & walked, walked way down hills & valleys & dales & walked all over town, walked almost everywhere except sometimes we had to take a taxi for a long trip or something. She kept active & vigorous the whole time, dancing every night, 2 or 3 hours sometimes, dancing & dancing!
88. SO WHAT HAPPENED?--COME TIME FOR DAVID TO GO TO SLEEP AT NIGHT, HE DIDN'T WANT TO DO ANYTHING BUT DANCE! Even when he was a baby & couldn't even stand up, I had to carry him around & dance all over the floor with him to get him to sleep. He was apparently used to going to sleep that way in his mother's tummy & he didn't want to go to sleep unless I danced with him. He was so used to dancing & music that it just didn't seem right without it, he would cry! But the minute they'd turn on that music & I'd start dancing, he was perfectly happy, he shut right up & went to sleep. He'd acquired the habit! After nine months of dancing he didn't want to stop! Techi was a lot like that too, although we hadn't been dancing quite so much. But she loved to be put to sleep dancing when she was a baby.
89. THEY LEARN SO MANY THINGS! IT'S SO MARVELLOUS TO WATCH'M LEARN, & watch'm learn the difference between doing it right & doing it wrong! Did you know you even learn positions of sleep when you're a baby that sometimes stick with you for the rest of your life? I always curl up on my left side, don't I[DELETED]?--And I hold a bunch of sheet up to me like this. The only reason I can think for that is that it's just a life-long habit, I must have learned it when I was a baby, like a security blanket. All my life, no matter how cold it is, I go to sleep stark naked on my left side clutching the sheet in my arms like this. I used to think maybe I was a little bit crazy, but then I read an article that said it was good to do that, to throw the covers off when it's cold for a few minutes before you go to sleep, it helps cool off your body & helps you go to sleep. It does me, I usually go to sleep that way, but then I wake up cold.
90. SO YOU LEARN SLEEPING HABITS & EATING HABITS EVEN AS A BABY!--In fact, I've never gotten out of the habit of wanting to suck a woman's titties! Every time I see one of those exposed I want to kiss it & love it & suck it! I was born with that as my first desire & I knew how to do it without anybody teaching me! There are a few things God puts innately in you as instincts, they're called. An instinct is a talent that is not acquired, you don't have to learn it, it's a knowledge of something that God put in here that you just know how to do it without ever being taught or learned. Instinct--it doesn't stink, but it's inside of you.
91. SOME OF YOU NEED TO HAVE A BETTER INSTINCT FOR KEEPING YOUR CLOTHES ON WHEN IT'S COOL!--Especially Mama, she seems to have no temperature instinct at all. She doesn't know she's cold till she starts coughing & sneezing! She doesn't know she's hot, she'll lie there with a sheet, blanket, everything on. I think something's wrong with her thermostat, God bless her, but she's got a lot of other talents. Just because people have a few peculiarities & oddities--idiosyncracies as my Dad used to call them--it doesn't undo all the good they do. That's not her fault, I guess she was just born that way.
92. DON'T YOU ENJOY WATCHING MARY DEAR LEARN THINGS? Don't you think God enjoys watching you learn things?--Even by mistakes, trial & error? And don't you learn things better that way & for sure that way? Isn't experience really the best teacher? Sometimes it's the hardest, but you know, about the only mistakes I never made again in school--some of the only ones I ever remember--are the ones I made on a test, facts or figures somehow where I made a mistake & got the answer wrong. Boy, I never forgot that again, let me tell you! But some people are "ever learning & never coming to a knowledge!" (2Tim.1:7) As the old Indian used to say, "The difference between White man & Indian is, Indian no make same mistake twice!" I wish I were like that, don't you? I mean don't you wish you were like that? I know you wish I were like that!--Ha!
93. THE LEARNING PROCESS IS A MARVELLOUS THING! Do you realise that's what you're here for? Do you realise that's what Adam & Eve in the Garden was all about? Why didn't God just create them with the knowledge of good & evil & how to be good & not be bad & all that sort of thing? What was the surest way to learn, to really know for sure & never forget?--At least if they would try to learn & not forget. Of course some people never seem to learn & they never seem to even try, they always forget! But we who are really trying to learn, trying to remember to be good, trying to do good, I'd say at least we're good most of the time, right?
94. WE MAY MAKE MISTAKES ONCE IN AWHILE TO REMIND US HOW MUCH BETTER IT IS TO BE GOOD, but we don't want to be like that guy who kept pounding his head against the wall just because it felt so good when he stopped! Grandpa does tell some crazy stories! They came along in the insane asylum & he kept pounding his head against the wall & they asked him why he did it. He said, "Because it feels so good when I stop!" The way some people make mistakes, you wonder if maybe that's their reason! Well, even if you make a mistake once in awhile, it helps you to learn that it feels so good when you don't.--Because we all make'm! We're all sinners! "There's none righteous, no, not one! All have sinned & come short of the glory of God." Nobody's perfect!
95. AND THAT'S WHAT LIFE IS ALL ABOUT!--IT'S ALL ABOUT, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, NOT BEING PERFECT! The Holiness people think life is all about being perfect, & they say that's what Christianity is & Salvation is, it's being perfect. Actually the Christian life is a constant learning process. I don't mean you learn to be saved, you're saved the minute you believe & Jesus comes into your heart! You believe the Word & you receive Christ, you're saved then & there!--Because that's a gift, you had nothing to do with learning it or earning it!--Not like that Presbyterian preacher told my Grandfather after he had that sword duel on stage!
96. MY GRANDFATHER WAS AN ACTOR & THE OTHER GUY GOT DRUNK & NEARLY KILLED HIM, JUST MISSED HIM, so he decided he'd better go out & get saved & get ready to meet the Lord if he was going to have to go back on stage with that guy again! So he went to this Presbyterian preacher to find out how to get saved & the guy said, "Well, you'd better quit the stage & go to cemetery"--I get so used to calling seminary a cemetery I don't even know when I am calling it cemetery--"& after four years of seminary & maybe two more years of graduate work, etc., about six or seven years, then you might learn how to be saved." I think most people would be lost, like those guys in the cemetery, if it's going to take that long & it's that hard to get saved!
97. [EDITED: "I'M"] SAYING A JOKE! A seminary is a school for theological students, kind of like a Bible school, only they don't call them Bible schools because that's too simple, they're not using a big enough word. After all, you're supposed to go to college to learn big words, so they call it a theological seminary. But because it is a place where most guys, what faith they may have had dies--like my Mother's did--& is buried, & their soul more or less is dead & buried, I call them cemeteries instead of seminaries.--Get it?
CONCEPTION & SALVATION!
98. YOU GET SAVED JUST LIKE THAT, IT'S A MIRACLE OF GOD, HE DOES IT ALL FOR YOU, HE'S ALREADY DONE IT, IT'S FINISHED! Praise God? But that is just the beginning of learning how to be a Christian & live a Christian life, to love others, & even how to love God & how to be faithful & how to be loyal, how to be diligent!--Again the baby!
99. THE BABY HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH BEING CONCEIVED OR GROWING IN THE WOMB, RIGHT?--Although they found out now they do learn a few things even in the womb. Conception is virtually instantaneous! They used to use this illustration about being born, but now that they've found out babies are even learning in the womb, we've got to go back to conception to make it an illustration of Salvation.
100. CONCEPTION DOES HAPPEN INSTANTANEOUSLY, DOESN'T IT? The moment that little wiggle-worm, that little sperm, that little wiggle-tail--I shouldn't call it worm because it looks more like a little tadpole--the moment that little tadpole wiggles up Mama's vagina & swims & wiggles up inside of the cervix, & swims & wiggles up inside of the womb or the uterus & finally comes to that egg--which has attached itself to the wall there getting ready just in case one comes along, like most girls do--sure enough, along he comes & he punctures that egg, gets inside of it--kind of like the man gets inside of the woman--& boom, she has conceived & the woman is pregnant!--Even though she doesn't know it! She doesn't really find it out for several months till she's missed a few periods.
101. BUT THIS CONCEPTION IS THE MOMENT THAT WIGGLE-WORM ENTERS THAT EGG! That's conception, that's it! You've had it, Sister!--Ha! But don't be sad about it, don't act like you wish that wiggle-worm had missed the egg! All things come of the Lord, praise the Lord? "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord!"
102. BOOM!--YOU ARE CONCEIVED! The baby didn't do anything, it just happened, bang, like that! But from then on the baby has to grow, & even in the mother's womb it has to learn & the rest of its whole life is a learning process. A lot of kids think, "Oh well, when I'm grown up, then I'll know better! When I'm grown up, then I'll do better! When I'm grown up & I'm full grown & finished learning all these things, then I'll be much better & more perfect!" etc. Well, you'll probably be more perfect than you were, but you won't be perfect enough yet to suit the Lord! Then you've got to live your whole life for years & years & years!
LEARNING IN ETERNITY!
103. AND OH MY, THEN YOU HAVE TO DIE, & THEN YOU'VE GOT A THOUSAND YEARS & ALL ETERNITY TO LEARN ALL THE THINGS YOU DIDN'T LEARN WHILE YOU WERE A FLESH-&-BLOOD HUMAN BEING! I think God has an awful lot of things to teach you, to learn better all the things you didn't learn in this life. And a lot of those church folks are going to learn to do things they failed to do in this life. God will give them another whole Thousand Years to help win the lost!--Praise God? And then after that there's another whole bunch of lost, the billions who died before the Millennium who are going to be raised from the dead, & we've got another whole kettle of fish to work on, another whole fishin' pond, another whole group, all the ones that are resurrected at the Second Resurrection!
104. SO YOU SEE, NOT ONLY LIFE, BUT THE MILLENNIUM & ETERNITY IS A CONSTANT LEARNING PROCESS, another grade, another step, to do what you failed to do before & to learn what you failed to learn before. Aren't you glad you've got Eternity to learn it?--Because some of us are pretty slow! Thank God I've got Eternity to learn it! I'm going to look forward to the Millennium to learn a few things I haven't learned yet. I've got a lot of questions to ask, for one thing, but I've probably got a lot of bad habits to cure & a lot of my failures to make up for. There's so much!
105. HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY THINK YOU COULD JUST SOMEHOW GET A SHOT IN THE HEAD THE MINUTE YOU DIE & GO TO HEAVEN & SUDDENLY YOU KNOW IT ALL? You'd be like God! Suddenly you'd have it all, know it all, be all-powerful! If you were that way you'd be God Himself! He's the only One Who is omniscient, that means He knows it all, He's the only One that's omnipresent, that means everywhere, He's the only One that's omnipotent, that means all-powerful!--Not you, not me.
106. WE'VE GOT LOTS TO LEARN! That might be a good title for this little talk, "We've Got a Lot to Learn!" That sounds like one of our songs! (Fam: "We've Got a Lot to Be Thankful For".) We've got a lot to be thankful for, yes, that's past, but we've got a lot to learn yet!
107. NOW DOESN'T THAT CHALLENGE YOU MORE THAN SITTING ON A CLOUD PLAYING A HARP FOR ETERNITY? What is it all about? What is Eternity for? What is the Millennium for? Why all those years? Why Eternity if you know it all the minute you get There? What's it for? We can call it time, but it's Eternity, what's all that Eternity for? If you've made it, you have arrived, you've got it all, you know it all & you're all-powerful, what's the use of living? Are some of you getting my point? I think some of you are. What's the challenge? What's all that time for? I call it time for lack of a better word, but what's all that Eternity for? What's it all for if you've arrived & got it all & know it all the minute you get there & it's all over, no more problems?
108. WELL, THERE ARE A LOT OF THINGS THERE AREN'T GOING TO BE ANY MORE OF, PAIN, DEATH, SICKNESS AND SORROW. (Rev.21:4) He doesn't say there's not going to be any more tears, but He says He's going to wipe away our tears--our tears--what about their tears? I think there's still going to be some pain & obviously death. It says a child will die in the Millennium & there will be sorrow & tears in this World, but not with us! Thank God, we've got a lot to be thankful for, there are going to be a lot of things done & finished that we'll never have to worry about again. We've got so many new things to do & new things to learn & new problems, that we can't be afflicted with all those things we used to have! (Dad drops his reading glasses.)
109. THANK YOU LORD I DIDN'T BUST'M! See how dumb I am? That's not the worst, I sat down on a pair once. It's amazing what you can do to a pair of glasses when you sit down on them. When I picked them up, the lenses were flat! They folded up real nice that way, but I couldn't use'm any more! It didn't break'm, it just flattened'm.
WE'RE MAKING PROGRESS!
110. SEE HOW DUMB WE ARE? SEE HOW MANY MISTAKES WE STILL MAKE? Well, thank God, when we get to Heaven, as we say, & when we get to the Next Life, as is more apt, we won't have to re-learn a lot of the things we already learned. Just like children, once they're this big they don't have to learn to walk & talk any more, they know how. You don't have to learn how to feed yourself & dress yourself any more, do you? There are some things you've already learned & it's past & thank God it's done! We don't have to stick that spoon in your mouth any more, we don't have to put your clothes on you or wash you or hold you & say, "Take another step, take another step! Say, da-da, pa-pa, ma-ma!" Oh, how wonderful it is when you hear that first word! I think sometimes it's the parents' imagination, they'll say, "Oh, did you hear her say 'Mama'?" They're probably just going "ba-ba", but you get so excited they've learned to say one word, "Mama" or "Da-da." But you don't have to learn that any more, isn't that wonderful?
111. AREN'T THERE SOME THINGS IN YOUR ADULT LIFE, THANK GOD, THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED & THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO LEARN ANY MORE?--That you surely have learned & learned enough & made enough of those mistakes that you're not going to make'm any more? Thank God there are some things that we have learned! So now look back a little bit. There's one good thing about looking back, & about the only good thing about looking back. The Lord says, "Don't look back, look forward to the things that are before, don't look behind you" (Phil.3:13,14)--except for one thing, & what's that? (Fam: To see your progress.)--To see all the progress you've made!
112. I DON'T LIKE WHEN I GET ON A TRAIN OR SOMETHING & I HAVE TO SIT BACKWARDS! There's something about me that I've gotta look forward, I've got to look where I'm going. But once in awhile I get on a train & sit in a seat that's turned the wrong way & I have to sit there because it's the only one there. So I sit there & look out the window & I say, "Well, at least I can see where I've been!"
113. THAT'S ONE ADVANTAGE TO LOOKING BACK, AT LEAST YOU CAN SEE WHERE YOU'VE BEEN! Doesn't that encourage you a little bit? Don't you feel like you've made some progress when you look back & you see how you used to be, things you used to do, what you used to be like, how dumb you used to be? My Dear, if you think you're dumb now, look how dumb you used to be! Can't you see you've made some progress? Come on, confess it! Give God credit for it! You don't have to go back & learn it again! If you don't thank God for His blessings like healing, He may make you go back through it again!
114. THANK GOD FOR THE PROGRESS YOU HAVE MADE! THANK HIM FOR WHERE YOU HAVE BEEN! And thank Him that you're not that dumb any more & you're not that slow any more & you're not that ignorant any more, you're not that bad any more! Aren't you glad? Isn't that a wonderful feeling of satisfaction, of fulfilment, of a certain amount of completion? Didn't you always have a certain feeling of real satisfaction when you graduated from a grade in school or in college? [EDITED: "Doesn't Techi"] have a real satisfaction now, ... every time [EDITED: "she"] learn[EDITED: "s"] a new word? I never saw a child her age read like that, it's amazing! She reads with expression, & if she comes to a word she doesn't know, she sounds it out, even words I don't know, she sounds it out & usually gets it right!
115. ISN'T THAT A TREMENDOUS SATISFACTION FOR YOU TEACHERS? CAN'T YOU SEE THE PROGRESS YOU'VE MADE? Can't you see what a wonderful product you've got, what a marvellous creation that both you & God have created in these children? Look at all they've learned, look at the progress they've made! If you look back where they were, for God's sake, look how wonderful they are now!
116. DON'T SORROW OVER WHAT YOU ARE TODAY! The Lord said not to worry about yesterday & not to worry about tomorrow, right? The trouble with a lot of people is, they're not only worried about yesterday, the past, they're also worried about the future, & worst of all, they're worried about right now, lamenting over the way they are now! They can't even correct the present--they certainly can't correct the past--but you can change the future, your future in a sense, by trying to change your present.
117. AREN'T YOU GLAD? LOOK AT WHAT YOU'VE CREATED, LOOK AT WHAT PROGRESS YOU'VE MADE! Look how marvellous it is that you've come this far! Don't you think the Lord rejoices over it too? Don't you think He gets excited about it just like you do every time the baby takes a new step or learns a new word or makes a little progress or that child learns to read? All those things!
118. THINK OF ALL THE THINGS HE HAS IN STORE FOR YOU TO LEARN! Think of all the things you still don't know! You think you're pretty smart, grown adults, here I am 66 years of age & you think I know everything! I don't know anything compared to what I'm learning & hope to learn!--All the things I still don't know about the Bible, all the things I still don't know about nature & Creation & Heaven & the Future! Praise God, I'm going to be There then & I'll certainly know something about it!
119. THANK GOD FOR THE PAST--THAT IT'S GONE & OVER WITH & DONE & YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT AGAIN! The sad people are the ones who are ever learning & never coming to a knowledge! Some young pretty girl was cutting my hair in a beauty parlour in Tenerife once when we couldn't get in the barber shop, & I said, "I pity you young people! I'm the happiest age there is!"--And I was only in my 50s then! I'm even happier now--except once in awhile when I make a stupid mistake & am a dumb bunny or whatever you want to call me, dumb ox, dumb ass. I still make some mistakes, bad mistakes sometimes, but I hope I'm learning.
120. DON'T YOU HOPE YOU'RE LEARNING? Don't you hope you're not going to make any more of those mistakes again?--That you're going to learn here so that you won't have to learn There because you still hadn't learned? I hope God doesn't have to kill me so He can take me Up There & teach me face-to-face! I think God's going to have to let some people die in this life because they refused to learn here & now. Thank God for the Future, so we'll have a chance to learn it There, amen? Praise God? Do you think you're getting the point?
121. YOU MAY NOT HAVE THOUGHT THIS WAS ON ESCHATOLOGY OR BIBLE PROPHECY OR THE FUTURE, but what I'm telling you is that that's what the Future is all about, to continue the process that you have begun here.--That before you're going to become as gods, not only knowing good & evil, but knowing--hope to God!--more good than evil & knowing what it's all about & the whys & wherefores of everything, so that God can help you understand it all, comprehend it all, we've got a lot not only to be thankful for, the past that's over, but we've got a lot yet to learn!
122. AND IT'S OBVIOUS THAT EVEN THE ANGELS OF GOD MUST STILL BE LEARNING, EVEN THE DEPARTED SAINTS MUST STILL BE LEARNING! They're not perfect yet, they still make a few little mistakes. But we learn by our mistakes as much as almost anything! The mistakes are the bad things that we really usually learn not to do any more. There are some things that I still don't seem to know enough not to do any more, I still make some of the same mistakes over. Maybe I'm going to have to go to Heaven before I learn to overcome some of them. I hope it's not before I get through teaching you this last lesson! Excuse me for keeping you so long, but I got off on another subject today. Are you sorry? (Fam: No!)
UNDOING THE PAST!
123. I THINK IT WAS SOMETHING WE NEEDED TO LEARN, THAT THAT'S OUR JOB, THAT'S WHAT WE'RE HERE FOR, TO LEARN, that's what we'll be There for, to learn, & to do a lot of things we failed to do, maybe even undo a lot of things we did. Would you like to undo some of the things you did in the past but now it's too late, you figure it's impossible, the damage is done? What if God gives you another chance to meet that person Over There & straighten that thing out & undo it & tell'm you're sorry & help them to undo the damage you did? Wouldn't you like to do that?
124. AREN'T THERE SOME THINGS IN YOUR PAST YOU'D LIKE TO UNDO IF GOD GAVE YOU ANOTHER CHANCE?--Well, there it is! I believe God's going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do & make things right with some of the people you hurt! Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't that give you a good feeling, to think God's going to give you a chance to do some of the things you failed to do here & undo some of the things you did?
125. I CAN THINK OF ALL KINDS OF THINGS THAT ETERNITY IS FOR & THE MILLENNIUM! Praise God? TTL! Amen? You're probably thinking, "Well, Dad, I sure wish you'd learn to cut these talks short!"--But it looks like that's one bad habit I don't know if I'll ever get over! Well, maybe in a Thousand Years I might be able to make it! The trouble is, then if I'm teaching you, you'll have glorified bodies & I'll figure, "Well, they're not getting tired, why quit? They're not getting hungry, why quit? They don't have to go to the toilet, why quit?" I'm afraid I might go on for hours Up There!--But think how much you'd learn!
126. HERE WE'RE LIMITED BY TIME & WE'VE GOT TO QUIT IN ONLY ABOUT 2 HOURS, a little old short Class only 2 or 3 hours long! How much do you expect to learn in that little bit of time? Goodness, look how little you've learned in this class! Look how long it's taken me to try to get that point across, that that's what it's all about.--That's what this life is about, that's what the Millennium's about, that's what Eternity is about! That's what it's all about, why God made you & created Adam & Eve & put'm in the Garden & all the rest!--Because you've got a lot of learning to do, & it takes time to really learn.
THE LAZY MAN'S WAY!
127. DESPITE ALL THE SCI-FIS WHERE YOU JUST PUT ON THE CAP OR FEEL THE BOOK & YOU SUDDENLY KNOW IT ALL, IT DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! If it could work that way, God would have done it that way, right? If you could have just taken a pill & done without eating, God would have done it that way! If you could just pass your hand over the book & know everything in the Bible, oh boy, that's the lazy man's way!
128. --LIKE THAT GUY WHO WAS TRYING TO PLAY THE ACCORDION OUT BY OUR TENT! Oh, he was making the most awful racket you ever heard! He didn't know the first thing about music or chords or anything! It was just dissonant, discordant, horrible! I wanted to be kind, but I felt like telling him to shut up & stop it! So I was trying to work up to telling him that it was a little noisy & it was bothering people. I said, "Oh, I see you've got a new accordion!" And he said, "Yes, God's going to teach me how to play it! He's going to give me the gift!" And he kept moving that thing back & forth & making that awful noise, almost worse than the bagpipes!
129. HE'D BEEN OUT THERE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR DOING IT, & I SAID, "HOW LONG DO YOU THINK IT WILL TAKE HIM TO GIVE IT TO YOU?" He said, "I don't know, but I know He's going to do it! He's going to do it!" I said, "While you're waiting for Him to do it, wouldn't it be a good idea to buy yourself a little book & learn a little something about it, while you're waiting for the gift?" Well, you may forget the sermon, but I'll bet you don't forget the stories! He just wanted it the easy way, the lazy man's way!
130. THAT'S WHAT THE WORLD PROMOTES IN THEIR SCI-FIs, THAT YOU LEARN IT ALL JUST BY PASSING YOUR HAND OVER A BOOK OR PUTTING A HELMET ON YOUR HEAD & all of a sudden you've just got the knowledge, it's just a gift! God has given us a few gifts, thank God, the Gift of Salvation is the greatest one of all, & the Gifts of the Spirit. God has given us a lot of things the easy way, you might say the lazy man's way, things we couldn't really have gotten any other way. But the only things He has given us that way are things we really couldn't have gotten any other way without His help.
131. GOD HELPS THOSE WHO HELP THEMSELVES!--OF COURSE, HE ALSO HELPS THOSE WHO CAN'T HELP THEMSELVES, HE DOES BOTH! He helps you if you can't help yourself, & He helps you learn, but He helps you learn to help yourself! He raised Lazarus from the dead, but He made the people roll away the stone! He could have just, whsst, gone like that, & the stone would have rolled away!--Or He could have zapped it & it could have dissolved, but He didn't. He let them do what they could & He was teaching them a lesson. He said, "Roll ye away the stone! You do what you can do & I'll do what you can't do."--Get it? (Jn.11:39)
THANK GOD FOR THE PAST, PRESENT & FUTURE!
132. IT'S ALL A PART OF GOD'S PLAN & PROCESS TO MAKE YOU LEARN FOR YOURSELF WHAT YOU CAN, & HE WILL GIVE YOU WHAT YOU CAN'T!--Got it? How else can I say it to get the point across? That's surely enough! Lord help us! Let's quit! Aren't you thankful that Class is over? You can say "amen" to that! Aren't you glad that Class is over?--Come on! I wouldn't want to have to teach that to you again, you don't want to have to go through that again, do you? You ought to have learned that by now, so I don't have to tell you again! So aren't you glad that Class is over? (Fam: Amen!) Aren't you glad some of those grades are past? (Fam: Amen.) Aren't you glad that some of those years are gone? (Fam: Yes!) You might have been able to do a little better if you lived them over again, but I'd certainly hate to live through all that again just to improve a few odd things that I could have improved. I sure don't want to live my life over again, my Lord!
133. YOU KNOW WHEN I FIRST FOUND OUT I WAS GETTING OLD?--When I was in London & the girls started getting up & giving me their seat on the bus! That girl in the beauty parlour in Tenerife was being real nice to me, you know, like "Be Kind to Old Folks Week"--or weak old folks--so I said, "Listen, this is the happiest time of my life! I'm so glad I've already lived my life & it's behind me! I feel sorry for you young people, you've still got to live it & learn all those lessons & live all those years & go through all those trials!" I'm not talking about you, you're Christians & you love Jesus & He's going to make them happy years for you! But you've got a lot to learn & a lot of trials to go through! See, most of mine is past, I'm about 60 years ahead of most of you, well, 50 or 55 years, that's quite a jump!
134. I'VE MADE A LOT OF PROGRESS ALREADY, THANK GOD! Sometimes it seems like I go forward two & slip back one, forward two & slip back one, but at least I'm progressing a little! TTL! And thank God I won't have to live those years again & I won't have to learn all those lessons again that you still have to learn! But I'm making progress & by the time I'm done I hope I'll be ready for maybe another job where I don't have to do the same things over again! Do you get the point? I hope you do!
135. SO BE THANKFUL FOR THE PAST, THAT IT'S OVER WITH, be thankful for the present, that you're learning, even if you're not always successful, & thank God for the future when you can finish the job, we hope, or at least keep on with the job & do even better!--PTL? Amen! So let's thank Him for it right now! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
136. THANK YOU LORD FOR THE PAST, THE PRESENT & THE FUTURE! PTL! Hallelujah! Praise Him! (Family praises!) Amen, Jesus, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah! TYL! Thank You Jesus for all Thy blessings, both the good & the bad, even the bad that taught us things in the past, & all the good things, & for the present, Lord, the better things, & for the future, Lord, the best things! Hallelujah! TYJ! As we pray Thy Prayer together: (Prays the Lord's Prayer)
137. LORD BLESS & KEEP US ALL TODAY, GIVE US A GOOD DAY TO LEARN WHATEVER WE NEED TO LEARN TODAY, or to lean however we need to lean today on You, & on others.--And Lord, to rest in whatever way we need to rest, to feast in whatever way we need to feast, Lord, & to love in whatever way we need to Love!--In Jesus' name we ask for Thy glory! Amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family