DON'T GIVE UP, STAND UP! 1/1/93 DO 2843
--The End Has Come!--No Place to Run!
--A Talk to the Family on New Year's Day!
1. Well, praise God, we're fighting back now! We're not just on the run any more, & we're finding out that standing up for Jesus really pays! It has won us a lot of friends, won us a lot of encouragement & enthusiasm, & has been a great witness! Of course, we've always stood up for the Lord, & we've always tried to stay out of trouble. This was our policy for a long time & probably why we managed to evangelise the World & last this long.
2. But now the End has come & there's no more time for running! In fact, we've just about outrun everything we can & run out of all kinds of refuges we used to have. The Family has been to nations all around the World, & there are really not many places we have to run to or run out of any more! There are no more refuges left! Everything's getting tighter! Immigrations procedures are getting tighter, visas are getting tighter, rules are getting tighter. The Enemy's clamping down everywhere.
3. A few years ago I gave the children maps of the World for their birthdays & called them "Lifeline Maps," & on those maps I traced their World travels for their whole lives--how long they stayed here, how long they stayed there--& we figured out that in David's lifetime, he had lived in about 50 different places in 15 years!--Which meant he had to move several times a year. But we've always managed to keep a few jumps ahead of our enemies, & that's why we're still here.
4. They haven't caught me yet! But I wouldn't be surprised if one of these days I'll have to make my last stand. Custer made his, & you know what happened to him. The Americans call it "Custer's Last Stand" & they make a big hero out of him, when actually he was out there slaughtering & massacring Indians--women, children & babies! Horrible! I don't blame the Indians a bit for wiping him out! He deserved it. He was supposed to be such a great brave hero, "Custer's Last Stand!" Thank God it was his last stand & he couldn't kill any more Indians.
5. The Devil has tried to kill me so many times it's almost unbelievable! I had lots of accidents & injuries as a boy. I've got scars from the bottom of my feet to the top of my head, & I'm not kidding! He was out to get me for a long time, & is still out to get me!
6. It's just amazing the lengths they will go to in order to try to get us, to try to hurt us, even grabbing our kids! That's where it hurts most, & our enemies know it. They've built up a whole big worldwide campaign against child abuse. There was never such a thing before, & I wouldn't be a bit surprised that the Devil engineered the whole thing just to try to get us, believe it or not. The more I heard about it, I'd tell Mama, "Do you suppose the Devil's stirring that up worldwide just to get us, & of course other Christians too?" They want to get our kids out from under us where they can make little devils out of them, they think. But thank God for our kids, who are like the little Dauphin of France I told you about. They tried to corrupt him after the Revolution & he said, "I won't do it, I won't say it, I was born to be a king!" I think our kids are like that. They're not going to do it, they're not going to say it, they're born to be kings & queens! Thank the Lord! Praise the Lord!
7. But the End has come! It's not just coming now, it has come as far as I'm concerned. I mean the Endtime when things are really going to get rough. And it doesn't seem like there's much use running any more, because there's no place to run to! Nearly everybody's heard about us & very few like us. Most countries don't like us if they find out who we are. Does that remind you of anything?--Jesus' Own Words, "And ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name's sake ... & then shall the End come!"--Mat.24:9,14. So we've finally just had to stand up & fight, & we've found out it's done a lot of good! It's been a great witness!
8. The Lord said, "I will bring you before kings & magistrates to be a testimony against them!"--Mat.10:18; Mark 13:9. And did you notice how He phrased that? He wants us to be a testimony against them! They're taking testimonies against us, but He's making us a witness & a testimony against them--our enemies--even the judges & the magistrates, some of whom side with our enemies.
9. Just remember this: We're not going to win'm all! Victory doesn't always mean winning. What do you think it was in the case of the martyrs who burned at the stake, & sang & praised the Lord to the very last? Was that a defeat? (Fam: No!) It looked like they lost their lives, but they didn't. They gained their new life & they were a witness! Hallelujah! (Tongues) Thank You Lord! "Hear ye the Words of your Father David & listen to what he has to say!" I don't think ... Lord forgive me, I'm sorry. I started to say I don't think the Lord has to say that, because you are listening, but I guess it's to emphasise what I've said, like punctuation or something. Well, it's encouraging to me. I know that I must be saying the Words of the Lord, & the Lord's telling you to listen.
10. So we've come to the end of our run & there's no place else to go. Like the little talk I gave the other day about how there's no place else to run now, no way out but up! (See ML #2837, coming soon!) Hallelujah! Thank You Jesus! Now that we're going to stand up & fight & buck the System, there's now no way out but up! We're not going to win'm all. Some of us are going to have to pay the price, & the price in some cases is going to be your life, & you may be thankful when you die! Don't fear death, that's the easy part! That's your graduation, that's your release! You can look forward to that. It's just getting there that's a little hard.
Jonestown--A Terrible Testimony!
11. I was thinking today about Jonestown, where they all committed suicide--a horrible, terrible thing to do! I certainly don't think that was of the Lord, to finally just give up & quit & force everybody to die! Of course I can understand why they felt that way about it, with that Congressman leading the fight, persecuting them, following them even to their refuge out in the jungles of Guyana on the north coast of South America. They just wouldn't leave'm alone, they were still pursuing them, trying to turn the authorities against them.
12. Jones & his people were out there minding their own business, having a nice great big colony, raising their own food & going about their own business & not bothering anybody else at all! Well, what else could Jones do? He'd fled from all his enemies in the United States & here & there, & finally clear out into the jungles! He'd just about run out of places to go, places to hide, & they wouldn't even leave him alone there. They were still pursuing him, still trying to get him, even illegally, without any legal permission from governments, except the U.S. government. They couldn't get Guyana to give him up, couldn't extradite him, so they just came out pursuing him! I can almost understand how he must have felt: "Well, what can we do? Where else can we go?"
13. Well, don't do it! You may feel like it sometimes when things get hot, but stick around as long as you can, annoy'm as long as you can. Be a thorn in their flesh as long as you can. Hound them with the Truth, the Spirit of God & the Scriptures & your testimony & your witness, like dear old Martin Luther did. At the Diet of Worms they were trying to get him to deny certain things about his Salvation by grace, & this, that & the other, & he just came out & hit back, & he socked it to all those prelates & bigwigs & high hats with their tapestries & gold & jewels. They thought they were bigshots, but they were nothing! This was the bigshot standing in front of them whom they were accusing of all these sins & going to excommunicate by order of the Pope in Rome & blah blah! And he said, "Here I stand, I can do no other!" (Dad weeps.) Here I stand, I can do no other! What are you going to do?
14. I feel sorry for poor Jones & all those people he took with him. He got to the end & he didn't stand up, he gave up! I would have rather seen him stand up for the Truth & been mowed down with machine guns, proving what bullies his enemies were, what criminals they were! He'd have been a greater testimony that way & better off, instead of such a terrible testimony to the World, to where they use him & his bunch now to accuse us & every New Religious Movement: "Oh, they're apt to do that, you know, you've got to watch out! They're going to take your children down with them & poison them & kill them & all kinds of stuff!"
15. Like that movie the World made about "The Rapture!" (See ML #2852, coming soon!) The first part was going pretty good, but it turned out to be as anti-Christ as it could be! The whole thing was a warning to the World to "Watch out for these crazy people, they're apt to kill their own children!" Well, sometimes you can understand why when people get hounded so badly & so persecuted, they almost give up. But don't you give up! The time has come now to stand your ground! Stand up for Jesus! Die a living testimony!
16. I felt sorry for the Jonestown people. I can kind of understand how Jones felt, "We've got no place else to go, the only way out is up!" But it was sure the wrong way to go up! (See GN 326, pg.1, "The Truth about Jonestown," for another account of the Jonestown tragedy & what could have really happened!) So if you decide you can't make it any more, you can't stand it any more, you can't stand the persecution, it gets too rough--the torture or whatever it might be--just pray that somehow you'll go quick. I was thinking today, what could I do? I could stand up there & denounce my accusers like Mama was afraid I'd do to the [EDITED: "ACs"], & they'd tear me in pieces! Well, at least it's a quick way to go.
This Is Not the Day to Run Away!
17. So what are you going to do? What am I going to do?--Back down like some people want me to do on some of the things I've said about sex? Well, I can honestly say that I'm sorry that those Letters have been published publicly, especially that they have fallen into the hands of our enemies, & that people who are unspiritual, who don't understand the things of God at all, are now reading them & using them against us, & they sound bad to them because of the way the World is conditioned mentally. They talk about us using mind control & mental conditioning, good night, the World is full of it! They're totally mind-boggled, all the time!--Especially by the AC media & the AC press & the AC movies! Their whole mental concepts are shaped & under [DELETED] anti-Christ mind control!
18. So I could say I'm sorry my Letters have fallen into such hands & they've misinterpreted them. We can never expect the World to understand us! Forget it! Don't give up like Jones did, though. You've got to die sometime, why not die for Jesus? Why not die for the Truth? We've got to suffer sometime. The Lord's been almost too good to us, He's almost spoiled us! The Lord's never failed to keep even one of all His good promises! Thank You Lord!
19. All I know is it's true, & that's the way it is & that's the way it's going to be! All I can do is say like Martin Luther, "Here I stand, I can do no other!" And the Lord protected Luther by the princes of Saxony, & kings of Sweden, & his Reformation caught fire & saved Northern Europe from the Catholics. He even lived to a ripe old age. Can you imagine?
20. I sometimes think the Lord has been too good to me, He's spoiled me! Look at all He's given me & all He's done for me, & how He's blessed the Work & kept us going. Every year I think, "Oh, this is going to be it, this is going to be our end!" Instead, every year is a bigger year than the past one. But don't always expect that, because things are going to get rough & tough! I don't think we have that long, I think this is going to be it! This is it! But if they nail you down, now is not the day to flee, as we have before. Now we're just going to have to stand up for the faith & be crucified! That was Jesus' greatest witness of His Love for us!--Are you willing to stand up for Jesus & His Own?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family