DON'T SAY "NO" TO GOD!--Be Willing to Witness!
DO 1938
6/85
1. BESIDES THE TIME I ALMOST DIED OF PNEUMONIA IN THE ARMY, THERE'S ONLY ONE OTHER TIME THAT I CAN EVER REMEMBER THAT I SAID "NO" TO GOD. You heard the story about how I was in that little trailer & the Lord showed me what a marvellous ministry I could have in Miami, Florida, by setting up a Soul Clinic there & a mission station for the Caribbean. But I'd never done anything like that in my life. Yes, I taught Sunday School, I taught high school, but I'd never run a Soul Clinic or a Bible school.--Besides, that required buildings & money & students & advertising. I could think of all kinds of things I didn't have.
2. I THOUGHT IT WAS A GREAT IDEA! "Yes, Lord, that's a great idea, Miami's just the place for a missionary headquarters & border base for the Caribbean, tremendous, Lord! I'll write Fred Jordan & I'll tell him to get Gordon Swanson to do it!--Because he is that flashy kind of personality, tremendous on the platform, good-looking & strong, let him do it, Lord, not me! I haven't got the faith for it, I haven't got the personality for it, I'm not a very good speaker, my wife has already convinced me that I can't preach & I can't do much to serve the Lord, so I'm just letting her & the kids serve the Lord & I just drive'm." That's about all it amounted to. I just quit preachin' & went to teachin' my children.--But as a result, look what happened!
3. ALL THOSE YEARS I THOUGHT I WAS A FAILURE & I WAS DEFEATED & I HAD MISSED MY CALLING, whatever it was, I didn't know, because it hadn't even started yet! For one thing, there weren't any hippies yet! So I virtually gave up. I got kicked out of my church, I tried everything to serve the Lord & everything seemed to be a failure. I was no good as a Pastor, it seemed like I wasn't much good as a teacher, although I did last in that almost longer than anything. And I didn't have the flair & the talent of an evangelist. I could lead the singing, that was about all, but I hadn't even begun preaching yet. My Mother did all the preaching, & when I did try to preach I always was too long-winded & blasted them too hard & nobody liked it, all those stuffy old church people, because I just told them off, I told them what I really thought!
4. I'D GET UP BEFORE A HUNDRED PEOPLE & SAY, "I KNOW YOU GUYS ARE NOT WITNESSES FOR THE LORD, I know you're not soul-winners, I know you're not obeying God! I'll bet there aren't two or three people in this whole congregation that really love the Lord & love sinners enough to get out & witness & win souls! I can prove it to you right now! I've got the goods on you!" And they'd sit there thinking, "Huh! He doesn't know anything about me, how can he tell? This wise guy thinks he knows me, he's never even been here before, never saw me before, how can he tell?" Some of you remember how I found out, the test that I gave.
5. I SAID, "ANYBODY WHO LOVES THE LORD & LOVES SOULS ENOUGH TO WANT TO WITNESS & WIN SOULS, HAS RIGHT THIS MINUTE SITTING HERE GOT SOME GOSPEL TRACTS IN YOUR POCKET OR YOUR PURSE, & WHOEVER HAS, STAND UP!"--And about two or three little old ladies or old men would stand up, some of them shabby, some of them a little crazy, & of which the congregation was almost ashamed because they went down to bars on Saturday night & passed out tracts, or to Skid Row & passed out tracts to the whores & the bums, & the church was actually ashamed of them!
6. AND THEN I'D BEGIN TO SOCK IT TO'M! I'd walk right out of that pulpit & point my finger in their face & say, "You ought to do the same thing, it's wonderful! You ought to always have some tracts in your pocket or your purse!" I know you folks in Selah Homes can't do that, so you of course don't have tracts in your pockets or purses. We can't because we're a Selah Home. I'm talking about the people that can. In our regular witnessing Homes there shouldn't be a person there that doesn't always have a tract on'm!--Maybe not when they're in the house but certainly when they put on their System clothes to go outside, they should never go without lit.--Do they? Did you ever?
7. YOU WOULDN'T HAVE THOUGHT OF GOING OUT YOUR DOOR WITHOUT LIT, RIGHT? For years I thought I was an awful downright dirty sinner if I walked out the door without tracts in my pocket & my wife without tracts in her purse, & we always gave tracts to everybody--the elevator boy, the bell boy, the waiter, everybody, & talked to them about the Lord. That was our main job, our main pleasure, & our vocation, to witness & talk to people about Jesus & love'm for the Lord. It was wonderful, we loved it! Thank God my Mother loved it too, she was a wonderful personal witness, not just a pulpit evangelist! She always talked to everybody about the Lord wherever she went. She wasn't always much on tracts, she just was great on personal soul-winning. She'd nail'm right on the spot, talk to'm & get'm saved! We didn't always have a chance or time, but we'd always carry tracts.
8. AND EVEN AFTER WE STARTED THE FAMILY, WHEN I WAS IN LONDON I WOULD GIVE OUT TRACTS. Maria wouldn't let me openly witness to most people because we were beginning to have bitter enemies even in Parliament & whatnot who were trying to eradicate us, so we had to be a little more sort of underground & anonymous & be a little quieter about it. But I figured, "Well, I'll slip a tract under the dish & they won't see it until I'm out & gone & away. I'll be free & safe at some distance before the waiter comes & picks it up & finds it, & by that time I'm gone & they can't catch up with me in case they don't like me or figure out who I am." We were still doing that even in France where Techi was born, but Maria finally convinced me that even that was dangerous, especially in some communities where we might get away for the moment, but they might see us again & identify us.
9. SO NOW WHEN WE SELAH PEOPLE GO OUT IN PUBLIC--usually only on business or shopping--we don't dare even act like anything but a pure Systemite! But I've told even Selah people that they can act like a Systemite Christian, they're pretty generally accepted. They won't be surprised to hear you say "God bless you" or maybe quote a Bible verse to them or tell them "Jesus saves! God bless you!"
10. BUT WE HAVE TO BE VERY CAREFUL TO PROTECT THE HEAD & THE LIGHT SO THAT YOUR LIGHTS CAN KEEP SHINING & you can keep getting the lit with the Light so you can shine it for me, & as a result we've got thousands of people shining for me, although I have to kind of hide my own light under a bushel. Well, when you consider all these Posters & the millions of pieces of lit that have gone out, I wouldn't exactly call that hiding my light under a bushel, would you?--Only you have to shine it for me. Praise God?
11. BUT SO OFTEN IN THE CHURCHES I USED TO VISIT, THE PREACHER WOULD GET UP & EXPLAIN AWAY EVERYTHING I TOLD THE PEOPLE, & why they didn't have to witness & why they shouldn't do it & why they should let him do it. Can you beat that? Sometimes I'd look around at him sitting in his pulpit-throne there for encouragement, thinking he's going to say, "Sic'm, that's what they need!"--Instead of that, he was sliding further down in his chair & practically hiding behind his hymnbook, almost ashamed to see the people because he knew he didn't do it either! He didn't carry tracts, he didn't witness, he didn't litness on the street.
12. OH, THAT WAS BENEATH HIS DIGNITY AS A MINISTER & AS A PREACHER! "Preachers don't do that sort of thing, they confine their preaching to the place where you should preach the Gospel, in the church! That's the place for preaching, not out on the dirty streets with those dirty people! Confine the Holy Gospel to the nice clean church & the holy people!" That's their attitude & that's what they preach & teach & practice. But Jesus went out where the people were, where the sinners were, & consorted with the drunks & the harlots, the publicans & the sinners, where He was needed, & He loved them, healed them & saved them! Praise God? Amen?--GBAKY winning souls for Jesus!--In Jesus' name, amen!--ILY!--D.