THE PHILIPPINES HAS HEARD IT! DO 2312 4/87
--All Things Work Together for Good!
1. THANK YOU, LORD, FOR HOW WONDERFULLY YOU'VE WORKED & GIVEN REAL VICTORIES & REALLY PUBLISHED THE WORD! All things truly do work together for good for us who love You! You knew all about it & You designed it & it was for Thy glory, Lord, to get out Thy Word & to publish Thy Message! "Great was the company of those that published it!"--Lots of companies.--Psalm 68:11. TYL!
2. WELL, DID YOU READ ALL THOSE NEWS CLIPPINGS ON US FROM THE PHILIPPINES?--WE'RE GETTING TO BE KNOWN AS THE "SEX MISSIONARIES" NOW!--Not just the "sex cult." Missionaries means they really go out & proclaim it! So I guess that's really part of our calling, to proclaim freedom of sex! PTL! I thought all those articles were fair. They always have to repeat the charges, of course, otherwise there would have been no publicity. And some of them really did well on publishing the message again of sexual freedom!
3. AS I'VE SAID BEFORE, I'M SURE THE LORD ALLOWED US TO HAVE SUCH A SEXUAL FREEDOM MESSAGE IN THE FIRST PLACE TO DISTINCTLY SET US APART FROM THE ESTABLISHED CHURCHES, that's obvious, so that we could never be tempted to join them nor them us! Well, they might be tempted to join us, ha, ha, but their morality would prevent it!
4. AND NOW I'M BEGINNING TO REALISE MORE & MORE THAT APPARENTLY THE LORD WANTS THAT MESSAGE PUBLISHED! I can see for a number of different reasons why, because its basic element is Salvation by grace & freedom from the Law! That's the whole basic doctrine. And although sex is a mere minor part of it, I'm sure the reason the Lord let us come out strong on that is because that really gets the publicity! They really like us to talk about sex & they really like to talk about sex. Let's face it, they all like sex!--Except maybe Cardinal Pig!--Maybe!
5. SO IT CERTAINLY HAS GIVEN THE FAMILY A GOOD WAY TO GET OUT THE MESSAGE, & the newspapers a good reason to publish it, & the Family sure has socked it to their enemies there & blasted them! Nearly all those articles contained our charges against them, as well as their charges against us, & identified who's after us! So thank God our enemies are well-pegged & identified & everybody knows who's fighting us now!
6. SO JUST REMEMBER, THE LORD ALLOWED IT ALL! With all those articles in the newspaper, the Family got more publicity for the message than they would have ever gotten no matter how much they went house-to-house or door-to-door or office-to-office or person-to-person or camp-to-camp! They could never have gotten such good coverage as they've gotten through this whole thing! I mean, the Philippines has heard it!
7. I THINK LAST TIME I TALKED TO YOU ABOUT "THE PHILIPPINES HAS HAD IT." I COULD SAY THIS TIME, "THE PHILIPPINES HAS HEARD IT!" They have really heard it! They've had to confront the issue & they've had to make their decisions for or against the Message, as well as us.
8. BUT I CAN CERTAINLY SEE WHY THE LORD LET US BE SEXY & HAVE A SEX MESSAGE, because it sure does get the publicity more than anything else would have! It wouldn't have mattered what other doctrine we had picked, not even the doctrine of the Holy Spirit being a woman or Heaven in the Moon or whatever, it wouldn't have attracted as much attention as sex! After all, let's face it, not the rigid churchy people, but most of the rest of the World likes to hear it! I think they really like to hear about it & that there're at least some Christians that are sexy & believe in freedom of sex!
9. PROBABLY A LOT OF THEM ARE NOW BEING VINDICATED & BRAGGING, "YOU SEE? SEX IS NOT SO BAD AFTER ALL!" (Maria: It'll keep them from feeling so guilty!) Yes, they've all been practising sex, of course, as much as possible, but now they've gotten vindication for it. So I'm sure a lot of people are very happy & rejoicing over our Message! (Maria: It makes them feel closer to the Lord if they don't have to feel so guilty, & feel that God is condemning them for it.)
10. THAT'S ONE REASON THE CHURCH PEOPLE ARE FIGHTING IT SO, BECAUSE THEY KNOW WE HAVE A VERY APPEALING MESSAGE, a very tempting message that people really go for, because they've been so bound by churchianity for so many years.
11. SO I CONSIDER THEY'VE HAD A REAL VICTORY &, IN SPITE OF THE SACRIFICES & THE PERSECUTION, ETC., IT'S BEEN WORTH IT! They haven't really been harmed physically yet, nobody's gotten beaten up or hauled into court--not yet! So I think it's been a tremendous victory & a tremendous victory for the Message & even resulted in great vindication for our Message!
12. YOU CAN CERTAINLY SEE WHY THE LORD ALLOWED IT TO HAPPEN! And we've learned a lot through it too. I've been reminded that long long ago when we were having a lot of publicity in the States, some friend or lawyer or somebody said, "You folks ought to get out regular press releases!" Well, we hardly even knew what a press release was then, we were getting plenty anyhow without it! But he did say, "You ought to get out press releases telling your side of the story." But I don't think we ever really took advantage of that much. We were pretty much on the run from bad publicity, so we never stayed long enough or very often to fight it very much. We just didn't feel like it was worth the trouble. And as we've always said, you can't lick city hall! But at least the Family stayed there in the Philippines long enough to really tell'm off!
13. WELL, I HOPE THEY'RE NOT RUSHING OFF TOO SOON! As Mama said, the Family managed to survive in Peru by laying low for about a month, then they came right back out again in spite of a whole month of bad publicity with articles in the paper every day!
14. WELL, AS I SAID, EACH ONE IS GOING TO HAVE TO OPERATE ACCORDING TO HIS OWN FAITH, "according to their faith be it done unto them."--Matthew 9:29. If any one feels led to stay there & can stay & wants to & feels they've still got a ministry, if they've got the faith they can survive it, then praise the Lord! We're not commanding or ordering everybody to go.
15. WELL, ALL IN ALL I FEEL THEY FOUGHT A VERY SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN & WON A VICTORY! We got out our message in our defence, & our enemies were very highly identified. There are plenty of people already that don't like them, so I'm sure there are plenty of people sympathising with the Family right now.--Not only the ones they know of, but probably lots of others. They say the media men were particularly sympathetic, at least personally to us. Of course, they had to write to please their bosses, we found that out before. I remember in one of our bad publicity sieges back in the States there was some guy who worked with the paper who liked us a lot & he wrote a very favourable article in our favour & nearly got fired for it! His boss demanded that he write it over again & not say all those good things, but say nothing but bad about us!
16. SO FROM THE ARTICLES I'VE READ, I THINK THEY GAVE THE FAMILY A PRETTY FAIR COVERAGE, A FAIR SHAKE, & they certainly publicised the Message & I'm just tickled over the whole thing! I'm really well-pleased with how the Message was really published there! Even though they emphasised the sex angle, there were other things also & it was pointed out that we preach Christ & we are Christians. At least now they call us sex missionaries! Don't you think that's some improvement instead of just plain sex cult? A sex cult might just keep it to themselves, but we're preaching it abroad!
17. SO THEY SURE GOT OUT THE MESSAGE, THANK THE LORD! Even though it has caused some hardship among our families, the Lord knows what He's doing, I'm sure, & if things start getting rough there it would be a lot easier to get out one or two Homes than a whole countryful of them. And after the way the officialdom & the church people have now treated them, I don't doubt that God's judgements are going to begin to fall! That country's on the rocks already.
18. I JUST FIGURE THAT THE FAMILY CAN BE WELL SATISFIED THAT THEY HAVE DELIVERED THEIR SOULS & that country's blood won't be on their hands! They've warned them & given them the Message & more! PTL! The whole thing was just designed by the Lord! And I'm sure He wouldn't be getting them out of there now unless He felt it was time. I'm sure the Lord knows the future, you know He knows the future, & the way that country's going, it is going downhill all the time! Things have gone from bad to worse.
19. I JUST SAY THE SAME THING OVER AGAIN: THEY'VE HAD IT & NOW THEY'VE HEARD IT! The Family has delivered their souls & apparently the Lord thinks their job is done!--Especially with all the pressure being put on the government departments, etc., to get rid of us, & the whole might of the Catholic Church & the Evangelicals fighting us! Some people who are smart enough & wise enough may be able to carry on, at least for awhile. Let'm try it, it's up to them. As long as they have the faith for it & want to stay, fine. But I don't think anybody should stay there unless they do want to, & recognise the risks. PTL!
20. THEY'LL HAVE A SKELETON CREW, SO TO SPEAK, TO TRY TO CARRY ON AS LONG AS POSSIBLE. At least, then if there's sudden trouble where people have got to get out fast, there won't be so many people to move. The Lord knows what that country's coming to, & as some news commentators have even said, of all the countries in Southeast Asia, the Philippines is the only one who has not conquered their insurgency problem. Marcos was their last chance! They dumped him & a pro-Communist government took over.
21. SO, PRAISE THE LORD! I THINK THE WHOLE THING WAS A HUGE SUCCESS! You can see now it was just all designed by the Lord, the whole thing--the campaign against us, the persecution, the whole works--& it just all worked out for His glory & the benefit of His work! So PTL! They may say, "Well, why then can't we just go on since we won such a big victory publicity-wise & all that?" Well, I'm sure the Lord knows that was their last blast & they've probably done all they can.--That people have made up their minds now, one way or the other, & I don't think they would allow them much more liberty or freedom to continue, especially with foreigners.
22. THE LORD KNOWS WHICH WAY THAT COUNTRY IS GOING & I DON'T THINK THE FAMILY ARE GOING TO WANT TO BE THERE WHEN WORSE COMES TO WORST! The brave volunteers who want to stay, that's entirely up to them & their faith, & I'm sure God will get them out when the time comes if necessary.
23. SO THE LORD KNOWS WHEN WE'VE DONE ABOUT ALL WE CAN DO & WE'RE JUST WASTING OUR TIME, beating the air & repeating & repeating, & that it's safer for us to get out & go someplace where we're more needed! I think because it was so easy there & so cheap & so lenient, they had gotten a little too comfortable & let the roots grow down too much, so I think the change is good for them to really get out on a tough field again where things are really tougher & where they're more needed!
(Amen! Nearly 600 of our missionaries have now left the sinking ship of the Philippines & gone to other needier countries where they are still free to witness the Love of the Lord!--And the Lord has supplied all their needs! PTL! He never fails! TYJ! GBYAMYAB!--And all those who helped you! TTL!)
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family