LOVE SLAVES!              DO 2134                  1/85

         1. THE MOSAIC LAW HAD NO IMPRISONMENT, IT HAD WHAT THEY CALLED SERVITUDE. They even had slavery & indentured servants. If a person stole something from somebody & didn't have the money or whatever it took to pay back four times as much--because usually that was the penalty, that they had to make restitution four times as much as they stole--then they had to go to work for that person until they worked it off & earned it. As soon as it was worked off they were free to go, & on the Years of Jubilee they were all let go, every 50 years, regardless. Think of that! The only kind of bondage they had was slavery!
         2. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE BIBLE IS NOT AGAINST SLAVERY! The Bible not only condones slavery, but encourages you to be a slave of Jesus Christ! Everywhere the New Testament uses the word "servant", the original Greek word is "servus", which has no other meaning in the Greek except slave, an absolute owned slave, body & soul! So Paul says, "Art thou called being a servant? Seek not to be loosed!" (1Cor.7:21)--Some difference from so-called Western democracy & so-called U.S. freedom!
         3. EVEN MOST OF THE SLAVE MASTERS OF THE U.S. SOUTH WERE GOOD MASTERS who were good to the slaves & gave them more than they ever had before in Africa--homes, goods, food--& took care of them from the cradle to the grave! It was the best social security system you could possibly get into & didn't cost them a penny except their life! Their masters loved them, cared for them when they were sick, fed them & helped them bear their babies.
         4. SO THE BIBLE'S NOT AGAINST SLAVERY, THE JEWS WERE ALLOWED TO HAVE SLAVES AS LONG AS THEY TREATED'M RIGHT. But even the Mosaic Law forbade them to be cruel to their slaves & they had to liberate'm in the long run on Jubilee years, the Year of Jubilee. (Lev.25) And if a slave loved his master & wanted to stay in his house, they could, & a lot of them lived well! You take a lot of those slaves during the time of the Romans, the Greek slaves & the Christian slaves, they lived in palaces, mansions, castles & had good quarters & were treated well! They lived almost like the children of the rich man himself! They were teachers & scientists & artisans, artists! They weren't paid, but who gets paid around here? We're all slaves! But who needs pay? Who needs salary if all your needs are taken care of & even your wants are showered upon you? Who cares about being a slave when you live better than those slaves out in the System who think they're free, working for a salary that never lasts all month, working with their nose to some grindstone they hate & a job they despise! It's terrible! They do it for a little pittance of money that doesn't even pay for their needs.
         5. LET ME TELL YOU, WE ARE BOND SLAVES OF JESUS, WE ARE SERVANTS OF JESUS CHRIST, & IF WE SERVE HIM WITH LOVE HE WILL GIVE US ANYTHING WE WANT, OUR HEARTS' DESIRES! It's a promise, you can claim it! If you delight yourself in Him, He will give you the desires of your heart! (Psa.37:4)--Because the desires of your heart will be for Him & His glory & all you want is what's for the Lord & what's going to help His cause & what's good for you & others & the Family & even good for the World! He heaps on us blessings & luxuries more than our heart could desire, pressed down, shaken together, running over! More than you can contain! (Luk.6:38)
         6. THERE ARE LOTS OF THE WORLD & WICKED PEOPLE THAT DON'T LIVE AS WELL AS WE DO, WHO ARE OUT FOR NOTHING BUT SERVING THE DEVIL & MAMMON & BABYLON & MONEY & ARE MISERABLE! Not only that, even when they get the money it doesn't make'm happy & they're not satisfied.
         7. THE LEGAL CODE OF THE BIBLE WAS THAT THEY HAD SLAVES, BUT THEY DIDN'T HAVE PRISONERS. And even the indentured slaves who sometimes had to work off loans or debts or fines had to work them off actually under really very good conditions. They lived as servants, as slaves in the homes of the rich person they robbed or stole from until they worked it off, & then they were free.
         8. BUT IF A SLAVE WAS WORKING FOR A MASTER THAT HE LOVED & HE WANTED TO SERVE & HE WANTED TO STAY IN THAT HOUSE, THE MOSAIC LAW HAD A SPECIAL RITUAL THAT THE SLAVE & THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE HAD TO PERFORM to prove that he was no longer a bond servant, but he was there of his own free will & choice, out of love, a literal love slave of that lord & master. They took him to a door post. They'd say, now put your ear up against the post. They used a door post because you've got to get at a corner usually to do this sort of thing. They stuck the corner of the doorpost in behind his ear & then they took an awl & they pierced his ear. (Exo.21:5,6) I think it was the left ear, next to the heart, & it was a sign of love.
         9. THEN THE MASTER WAS TO TAKE A GOLD EARRING NO LESS!--And they weren't these little flimsy things you women wear nowadays. Gold earrings were a great big round gold thing that everybody could see plainly! It was the love earring. And they were to pierce that ear, put the gold earring on there, & the love slave would wear that earring proudly, showing that he was actually a free man, but he was serving that lord or that master voluntarily out of love because he was a good man & he loved him & he wanted to serve him the rest of his life.
         10. THE LORD EVEN TOLD US TO DO THAT ONCE, & SOME OF US DID. Some of the folks pierced their own ears or had somebody pierce'm for'm. I'll never forget back at Laurentide, that's the same time He told us to wear the red sackcloth & carry the staves & wear the yokes. But when He told us about piercing the ear, I thought that was going a little too far, Lord forgive me. I said, "Well, we're not going to compel you to pierce your ears, but if you want to do it, the Lord has suggested it to show that you're a love slave." In the early days, lots of our guys had pierced ears & golden earrings, although I wouldn't recommend it nowadays. We used to have a very popular old song about the golden earring.
         11. SO THAT WAS A SIGN OF BEING A LOVE SLAVE & SHOWED THAT THE MAN COULD HAVE BEEN FREE IF HE WANTED TO BE, but he was serving voluntarily of his own free will, out of love for his master. He had chosen to be a slave for the rest of his life. So the Lord even told us to wear those. PTL! ILY!

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