PRIORITIES!--Got Yours Straight?         DFO1316          11/82

         1. WE'VE BEEN DISCUSSING THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF WORLD SERVICES, particularly the 15% drop in our income, 15% below our running expenses, which is most likely due to the migration of the Family to Southern & Eastern poorer countries, although I'm convinced that if we obey the Lord & do His will & obey His Commandments, He will supply!--"Where God guides, He provides!"
         2. SO WHEN ANY OF US ANYWHERE FACE ANY KIND OF A CRISIS OR DILEMMA, test, trial, tribulation, privation, persecution, any kind of a sincere problem, what is the first thing we should do? (Peter: Pray!) Pray, of course! Pray what? (Peter: Pray for the answer.) Maybe first of all you need to pray for the question! And what's the first question you should ask yourself & the Lord?--Number one? (Peter: What have you been doing wrong that you're not getting the blessing.)
         3. MOST PEOPLE SAY, "WHAT'S THE MATTER, LORD?"--And when some people say that, they mean, "What's the matter with You, God? How come You failed me?" Whereas most of us should sit down or kneel down & ask God, "What's the matter with me, Lord? Am I displeasing You in any way? Am I failing or disobeying You in any way? Am I out of Your will in any way?"
         4. CONTRARY TO WHAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK, THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOD! There's nothing the matter with Him, nor His Love, nor His dealings, nor His ability to supply! "Our God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory"--which are absolutely unlimited! (Ph.4:19) So why is our supply limited?
         5. ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS GOD WILL PROBABLY ASK YOU IS, "Did you get out your prayer letter this month? Did you thank all of your donors faithfully & lovingly with a real personal note or letter? Did you let'm know how much you appreciate it & how much you needed it & what you spent it for? Are you keeping a good relationship with your kings & queens & people on the field? Are you working hard on all seven supporters?"--Because I think if the Family were, income would not be down! So that's not God's fault!
         6. ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF IS: "HAVE WE GOT OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT? Are we doing what we're supposed to do? And are we doing our best to do the most we possibly can of the biggest job we have to do, the most important job?" You're never going to get any answers unless you ask yourself some questions! And if something is haywire, it's usually because we have neglected the Word, neglected the Lord, ignored His Voice, just been too busy to listen or got too interested in something else!
         7. SO WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES? WHAT'S OUR MAIN JOB? What does the Bible say is the whole duty of man? (Peter: To fear God & keep His commandments.) Right! (Ecc.12:13) But since that legalistic Mosaic era, God has boiled it down to something even simpler than that after Jesus came along. Maria? (Maria: "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart & thy neighbour as thyself.") Exactly! "In these are all the law & all the prophets"--everything in the Bible! (Mt.22:37-40)
         8. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE LORD TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR, SO MAYBE THAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU OUGHT TO ASK YOURSELF: "DO I LOVE THE LORD ENOUGH? Do I love You enough, Lord, that I'm really sticking close to You, the Shepherd, in Your Will, right at Your heels, right on the right path, just the way You know is best to go?"--If you stick close to the Shepherd, you're bound to be well-fed, well-cared-for & well-protected. (Psalm 23)
         9. HOW DID WORLD SERVICES GET STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE?--The Lord asked me to be your Shepherd, the King of the Beggars, of all these lost, strayed & wandering sheep. So being my Overshepherd, how did He lead me to lead them? What are my duties?--We're getting our priorities straight, remember? What's a priority?--First things first, second things second, & don't get'm mixed up! And what is the most important thing I have to do that I must do, even if I drop everything else?--"Feed My sheep!" (Jn.21:15-17)
         10. SO MY MAJOR JOB IS TO GET IT FROM GOD, & MY NEXT MAJOR JOB IS TO PASS IT ON TO YOU! I started by giving it to the hippies, then to Maria, & then through her. I got it, I gave it, she wrote it! Then we realised, "This is Word for the Family!--The Lord is talking to us all! We've got to pass it on! We'll include it in our Letters of instruction, counsel & advice that we're giving our leaders."--And that's all we gave it to at first, just the leaders! Then we decided we'd broaden the scope of leaders to Leadership Trainees--LT Letters!
         11. SO AFTER WE GOT BEYOND JUST A FEW CARBON COPIES, I started encouraging the Colony Shepherds to make xeroxes of their own, or mimeograph'm & pass'm out, finally, to everybody, to the whole Family.--And we got along that way for just about the first five years! God supplied all our needs & we grew & we multiplied & we produced & we had fruit & we got results & we got out & we were doing the job & evangelising the World!--Even when all we had were little individual Letters from me!
         12. SO THERE'RE ONLY A FEW THINGS THAT WE REALLY HAVE TO DO: I have to hear from the Lord, I have to give it to you, you have to write it down, & you have to get it out, & the Family's got to read it, & then they've got to do it! And when we follow that chain reaction it gets results, & we're exploding all over the World!
         13. THERE WAS A DAY WHEN WE DIDN'T HAVE VIDEOS, we didn't have tape recorders or audio tapes, we didn't have magazines, books, Family News--all we had was Letters!--And we survived! In fact, we grew! As long as we had the Word of the Lord & published it, it got results! Amen?
         14. IN "7 CURES FOR FINANCIAL ILLS" (No.1271), I told you that one of the first things to do when having financial problems is to trim the fat! You've got to have enough sense to know the difference between muscle meat, lean meat, & just plain fat. And if you have to make a choice between the two, you save the meat & throw the fat away!
         15. SO WE'RE GOING TO START CUTTING THINGS WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO HAVE! And if we're going to start cutting anywhere, where are we going to start cutting? "But one thing is needful, & Mary hath chosen that good part which shall never be taken away from her!" (Lk.10:42) And what was that, Mary? (Maria: The Word!) That's the only thing that's really necessary. So that's the only thing we're absolutely obligated to get out, the Word of God.--The dreams, visions, prophecies, interpretations, teachings, revelations, whatever!
         16. NOW DON'T GET SCARED, I'M NOT PLANNING TO CUT ALL THESE PEOPLE OFF RIGHT NOW! As long as we can still afford'm & pay for'm & as long as the Family still wants'm enough to give enough to pay for'm, OK! But if they don't want or need these things enough to pay for'm, then we'll have to cut'm out!--And we'll start loppin' off pubs, tapes, personnel, units, magazines, books & whatever is necessary to preserve the Word of God in its purity & its distribution, if that's all we've got left!
         17. SO SOME OF YOU WORLD SERVICE SERVANTS & EMPLOYEES, members of World Service Units, need to really begin to question your own priorities, your work & its quality & its quantity & its necessity: Is it really necessary? Is it really profitable? Is it really essential? Am I doing a good job at it, the very best?
         18. (MARIA: THE FAMILY WORLDWIDE ON THE FIELD MAY NEED TO QUESTION THEIR PRIORITIES TOO, because I think a lot of them have really gotten tripped off in a lot of ways instead of really putting the push on getting out the Word. They've really slacked up, just singing & doing things that are really more for support than getting out the Word.) Yes!
         19. IF, ON THE OTHER END OF THE STICK, THEY PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE WRONG PRIORITIES & start putting anything that does not glorify God or the Word first, they're failing God! If they're just standing there putting on a little show & singing songs & not really delivering the Word of God, then they're failing God!--If they don't deliver the message, then God won't deliver them!
         20. SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING? Are you good & faithful servants, faithfully delivering the message, delivering the Words of God, litnessing & giving out the Word faithfully that bears fruit? If so, I believe God will take care of you & all of us, all of them! I know He will! The good & faithful servants enter into the joy of their Lord here & then! Here & now & there & then!
         21. BUT THE SLOTHFUL & UNFAITHFUL SERVANTS WHO DON'T DELIVER THE MESSAGE, don't really deliver the Word, don't really get out the lit & get the fruit & converts, God's not going to deliver them. They'll go down the drain as another failure, because they didn't do the job the way God wanted them to do it, & therefore God refused to support it, & they might as well go home!
         22. WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE WITH US? WITH YOU? WITH THEM? Are we going to go home to meet the Lord & hear Him say, "Well done thou good & faithful servants, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"? Or are we going to go home because we failed & He had to take us home to get us out of the way & to save money, time, strength, effort & a bad example, & enter into everlasting shame & contempt? (Mt.25:23; Dan.12:2)
         23. AMEN, LORD, HELP US TO REMEMBER THAT THY WORD COMES FIRST, that Thy Love comes first. This is our whole duty & our whole obligation & our whole job, to love Thee & to love others, to love Thy Word & love them with Thy Word, & anything else is not really essential, not really necessary, & can even be dispensed with if necessary in a pinch, in Jesus' name, amen!--Amen?
         24. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT?