PRIORITIES!--Got Yours Straight? 11/82 DFO 1316
1. AMEN LORD, HELP US STRENGTHEN US! You said, "When we're weak, then we're then we're strong, for Thy strength is made perfect in weakness." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be." (2Cor.12:9,10; Deut.33:25.) Pail! TYJ! Lead us & guide us, Lord! Help us to feed Thy sheep, to lead Thy sheep aright, Lord, in the paths that you know are best, in Jesus' name. TYL! Have Thy way. Amen. TYL!
2. WE'VE BEEN DISCUSSING THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF WORLD SERVICES between us in correspondence, particularly the 15% drop in our income, 15% below our running expenses, which now seems to have pretty well settled down to that steadily, most likely due to the migration of the Family to Southern & Eastern poorer countries. The more missionaries we have & the fewer home field families & bases, the more Pauls we have & the fewer Peters to support them.
3. ALTHOUGH I'M CONVINCED THAT GOD IS ABLE TO SUPPORT HIS MISSIONARIES NO MATTER WHAT, IF HE HAS TO DROP IT OUT OF THE SKY! And I'm also convinced that many have not done their best to raise home support before going to the field; or if anything, now that they are on the field doing the job, if they were writing good letters & doing good promoting & good pulling for finances from home, their support should be even better!
4. THEY'RE OBEYING, THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ALL & LEFT HOME TO GO THE FIELD IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S COMMANDMENT, THEY ARE NOW DOING THE JOB! If anything, the home supporters should be more eager to help them than ever, Knowing they are on the field & writing good reports of what they are actually accomplishing, fruit, results! Any investor wants to know if he's getting dividends on his investment.
5. SO I STILL SAY THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE OBEYED GOD & MOVED TO POORER FIELD IS NO EXCUSE FOR POORER SUPPORT! If anything, their support from both God & home support should be better now that they're obeying & on the field & getting results!--If they are praying as they should, desperately trusting God as they should, really expecting god to take care of them & expecting the home folks to do their part & telling them so!--Amen?
6. SO AS I SEE IT, THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR THE DROP IN OUR WORLDWIDE INCOME OF THE FAMILY AS A WHOLE. I won't even give the credit to the worldwide recession, famine they used to call it in the Bible. It's still a long way from famine nowadays! Just because people can't buy a new car every year or a new $100,000 home or have a colour TV set in every bedroom, I wouldn't exactly call that famine!--Even if they're out of a job, Social Security, rent, utility bills, feed them & all, which people did not have during the times of Bible famines!
7. IN BIBLE FAMINES THEY ACTUALLY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT & they literally starved often to death! There were even famines in the days of the Early church, during which time the richer churches in areas which were not affected by the famine-stricken churches.
8. I'VE BEEN GREATLY BURDENED ABOUT THIS SITUATION & praying about it much during the night. I got up early to pray & study about it, so I'm tired. Maybe you might say it's a bad time to have a conference when I'm tired & weary & worn & my voice is weak. God knows what's best time to have a conference, when I can be the most utterly dependent on Him, & if you get anything out of it, it'll be the Lord!--When I'm fighting for survival & when I stick close to the Lord & an utterly dependent on His. "For when I'm weak, then I'm strong, for then His strength is made perfect in my weakness."
9. AND THIS IS WHAT OUR MISSIONARIES SHOULD CONSIDER & THE ATTITUDE THEY SHOULD TAKE. If they're having a tough time, they need to get desperate in prayer & lean more desperately on the Lord & ask God for help, & the more we depend on Him, The more we will have in every way.
10. WE MAY LACK IN SOME AREAS OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH OR EVEN FINANCIAL STRENGTH, but the weaker we are in both respects, the stronger God can manifest His power & show what He can do & do miracles! The more dependent we are on Him the more He likes it & the more He likes to do for us & likes to helps us, for then He will get the glory & not us. We will thank Him & not ourselves. We will even thank Him more than the home folks if they fail us.
11. I'M CONVINCED THAT IF WE OBEY THE LORD & DO HIS WILL & OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS, HE WILL SUPPLY! I'm firmly convinced of that saying: "Where God guides, He provides!" When we face any kind of a crisis or dilemma, test, trial, tribulation, privation, persecution, whatever the trouble or problem may be for which we don't yet have the answer or all the answers, what is the first thing we should do?--although I think we have some of the answers & you've already given me some, & I'll supply you with a few more, or God will! I hope I've gotten them from the Lord!
12. WHEN ANY OF US ANYWHERE FACE SUCH A CRISIS SITUATION--us here at the pinnacle of administration, leadership, guidance & feeling, or the missionaries out in the frontline trenches so to speak, the lowliest litnesser, whoever it may be--if we are faced at any time with 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 you've been doing wrong that you're not getting the blessing.)
13. 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?" Where as most of us should sit down or kneel down or stand down or stand up or stand on our heads or whatever we're doing, lie down & ask God: "What's the matter with me, Lord? Is there something wrong with what I'm doing? Am I displeasing you in any way? Am I falling or disobeying you in any way? Am I out of your will in any way? First of all, what's the matter with me, Lord, or my situation? What's wrong?"
14. 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 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? Why is what He's giving us seemingly limited when His source is unlimited? Why are we short if God is not short & His ear is not deafened, neither is His arm shortened that it cannot save? (Isa.59:1.) But as it says in one place: "Your iniquities have separated you, between you & that He will not hear." (Isa.59:2.)
15. HE SAYS, "I'M NOT DEAF THAT I CAN'T HEAR YOUR PRAYERS, I'M LISTENING! And My arm isn't short or weak that it can't answer. The trouble is not up Here, it's down there with you!"--With us, not God! Don't blame God for your troubles & your problems & your crises & your shortages & your difficulties--financial, physical, spiritual, workwise or whatever! It's not God's fault! There's nothing wrong with God! "Let every man be found a liar, but God be found true!" (Ro.3:4.) "Why callest thou me good? There is none good but God!" (Mt.19:17.)
16. SO THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOD, THERE'S NOTHING THE MATTER WITH HIM OR HIS HEARING OR HIS ABILITY TO SAVE. So if something is wrong, where is it?--It's with us somehow, somewhere. So when we face such a situation, what's the first thing we need to do? (Peter: Ask the Lord what's wrong with us.) Right! And one of the ways of finding out is to simply sit down like any businessman would, any warrior, any politician, anybody in any kind of business or work. In manual labour, building a house, if things don't come out the right measurement, where did I make my mistake? Weaving a tapestry, if things don't come out right, where did it start? Go back & see what's wrong, where did the problem beg in?
17. SO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS NOT WHINE & COMPLAIN & MURMUR & GRIPE & GRUMBLE & BELLYACHE AT GOD for His failures & His mistreatment & His neglect & His abuse & His cruelty & His deafness & His unconcern, because none of those things are true! You need to do what the children of Israel did not do out in the wilderness, & that is you need to sit down & think the situation over & ask yourself:
18. "GOD, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? What's wrong with what I'm doing or the way I'm doing it? What am I doing that's displeasing you so that you're withholding your blessings? In what way am I disobeying, either deliberately, wilfully, or unknowingly, unwittingly, or simply falling short, maybe just not doing enough? Or maybe I'm not listening enough, maybe I'm not following Your voice & guidance enough."
19. THE SHEEP NEED TO DO WHAT?--THEY NEED TO FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD--But if they're so busy bleating "Baaaa! Baaaa! Baaaa! times! Baaaaad situation! Baaaaad everybody else! Baaaaad God!" Everything's wrong, then they can't even hear God tell them what's wrong, then they need to shut up & listen & hear the voice of the shepherd! They may discover that He's gone on someplace else, & they may so busy with their own problems & troubles & going their own way that they even lost track of him or where He's going or where He's headed! They've let Him get so far away that they can't even hear His voice any more!--Or they have strayed so far away from Him, they can't even hear Him any more!
20. SO THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO DO IS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS WITH THE LORD & SEEK THE LORD! Where is He going? Where am I? We know that nothing can separate us from the Lord except our sins, mistakes, failures, disobedience, straying, backslidings. God doesn't leave us, we leave Him! He never leaves us behind unless we don't follow, it's just that simple!
21. ALMOST A LITTLE CHILD CAN UNDERSTAND THAT ABOUT SHEPHERD & SHEEP! That's why the Lord used such a simple simple illustration of His relationship with us, as His sheep. Of course this is not quite as obvious nowadays except by stories & hear say, because most children today don't live in an agrarian pastoral economy & society in which this sort of thing is all around them & they can see how dumb sheep are & how stupid they are & what horrible troubles they get into if they don't follow the shepherd. Because farm children have to help the shepherd to around up the sheep along with the sheepdogs who nip at the sheep if they get too far away, sort of a type of the Devil.
22. AND BOY ARE THOSE SHEEPDOGS FAST & CLEVER! Ooof! It's uncanny!--Like the Devil himself, they are so smart! They can round up any little stray sheep in a hurry, bark at it first, And if they still won't listen, they will grab ahold of a leg & give it a nice chomp! And boy, I'll tell you, that sheep skedaddle back to the flock in a hurry! And the flock is usually somewhere near the shepherd. So even Satan has his purpose, & even more so the wolves beyond. The sheepdog is pretty friendly, he's really working for the shepherd for sure.
23. SOMETIMES I THINK I'M A SHEEPDOG BECAUSE I KEEP SNAPPIN' & YAPPIN" AT YOUR HEELS TO KEEP YOU IN LINE! So maybe we'll blame Satan for being the wolves. But the problem is there, if you get that far afield out amongst the wolves, that's too late! If you get not only away from the shepherd, but beyond the flock & even out of range of the sheepdogs & judgement & you're a sure goner! Contrary to the old adage, I never heard of any little sheep that ran with wolves & learned to howl! it may not have gotten out even one bleat before it bled!
24. SO THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO DO IS SEEK THE LORD! Get down to business with God! Sit down, lie down, kneel down, whatever! Get alone with the lord, alone with leadership. I usually get alone with the Lord first, because then I get the answers & I'm able to tell you. And I don't always just right out tell you! I could probably have already told you by this time, but because I'm trying to teach you & lead you, I'm asking you the questions to see if you know the answers & know what's wrong!
25. WE NEED TO SEEK THE LORD & ASK GOD: "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ME? What's the matter with my situation? What's wrong that I have done or not done?" You need to sit down, as Jesus said, & count the cost! (Lk.14:28.) You need to take stock, take inventory, have an audit of the books to find out what the problem & the assets & the liabilities & face the problem. You need to assay the values.
26. AND ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF & YOURSELVES 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 jib?" That's why the church is in such a hell of a mess today!
27. LISTEN LITTLE FELLOW, YOU LITTLE EMISSARY OF SATAN GET OUT OF THIS CONFERENCE! I'm talking to a little spider coming down from the ceiling to sit down beside me. The Devil can't do very much unless you let him, but he does try to pester a little bit & interrupt & all kinds of things. So don't be surprised if when you're doing something extremely important that the Devil hovers around on the fringes & yaps at your heels! But normally the Lord doesn't allow him to really bite unless you persist in your waywardness & your straying.
28. AND OF COURSE IF YOU GET OUT AMONGST THE WOLVES WELL, THAT'S YOUR OWN FAULT & YOU DESERVE TO BE DEVOURED! That's the end. In spite of all the shepherd's warning & in spite of the sheepdog's yappin' at your heels & nippin' them, if you still wander away, well, you'll land out in the woods amongst the wolves! If you run with wolves, you're not going to learn to howl, you may not have time to howl! You may not even have time to bleat only bleed & that's usually the end! Because in this present age before the Millennium, the only time the lion lies down with the lamb is when the lamb is inside his stomach! So PTL! TYJ! Help us, Lord, in Jesus' name.
29. WE NEED TO SIT DOWN & CONFER & COUNSEL TOGETHER. "In multitude of counsellors there lacketh not wisdom. Let it be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses." (Pr.11:14; 24:6; Mt.18:16.) Counsel together, counsel mostly together with the Lord, pray together, pray separately, but especially pray together & confer together as we were doing this morning. And I'm sure from the blast I sent you on paper yesterday, Peter, that you've been doing some praying since! Maybe you as well, Maria, I don't know. I didn't blast you this time. I bypassed you & went straight to the financial management.--Ha!
30. AND YOU CAME UP WITH NEARLY ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS THAT I'D ALREADY COME TO. BUT IL LIKE TO SEE YOU GET THEM! Just like any father does with his children, the father usually knows the answers, but he asks the questions because he wants to know if you learned anything, if you can figure out the answers. That really pleases the father when he see that you have learned something & that you're using your noggin & that you're really manipulating your noodle so that you know what's goin' on & you've already found out some answers, because you asked yourself the questions!
31. YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO GET ANY ANSWERS UNLESS YOU ASK YOURSELF SOME QUESTIONS! You can ask God the questions, but probably the first thing He'll tell you to do is ask yourself the questions! It's like Fred used to says: if you say, "Lord here am I, send me! Lord what can I do about the problems of evangelising the world & going into all the Gospel preaching the gospel? Lord, I'd like to see the Gospel preached in all the world!"--Probably the first person He's going to send is you!
32. SO USUALLY HE'S GOING TO ASK THE QUESTIONS. You might ask Him: "How come?" Well, He'll probably turn around & ask you how come! "How come you didn't do this? How come you didn't do that? How come you did so & so? Why didn't you do what I told you? Why can't you see the difference in your priorities? you're over-emphasising something minor & under-emphasising the major thing!"
33. SO WHAT ARE OUR MAJORS & MINORS? Maybe we need to go back to the root of the matter & make it as simple as possible. My Letters always grow too long, I don't know how to shorten them! I've got to cover the whole subject from A to Z, Genesis to Revelation, including a lot of ancient history & church history & everything else thrown in! But usually when I've finished, I have exhausted the subject & exhausted the subjects as well!--As well as the listeners & myself, & the readers too! But I've covered it & I've analysed it & I've gone over it thoroughly, & by the time I get done, you usually know what's wrong or what I'm talking about! At least you know something about the subject!
34. SIT DOWN, COUNT THE COST, TAKE STOCK, CHECK THE BOOKS, CHECK THE PATTERN, CHECK THE WORD! It's all right there already & the answer's already there. If something is haywire, it's because we have usually neglected the Word, neglected the Lord, ignored His voice, Just been too busy to listen or got too interested in something else! WE went up some side field picking daisies, & no matter how pretty the daisies & how plentiful, if it's not the path the shepherd is walking, you'd better watch out! There may be vipers in the daisies or wolves in the woods or whatever!
35. I GUESS THE BEST THING TO DO IF I'M TIRED IS JUST REST A MINUTE. If I run out of inspiration, if I run out of steam, I'd better wait a minute until the boiler gets hot again, until the Lord shovels on a little more fuel! PTL! Because when the fire is burning & the boiler is hot & the steam is generating, you don't even have any problem listening--or hearing me, at least. I hope you're listening! Amen, Jesus, help us, give us wisdom. Lead us & guide us, Lord. Help us to say what needs to be said.
36.OKAY, WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES? WHAT'S OUR MAIN JOB? Now think! Make it simple. Answer me in as few words s possible. What does the Bible say? What is the whole duty of man? Solomon says it in Ecclesiastes, & you can start with that one if you want to. (Peter: The whole duty of man is to fear God & keep His commandments.) Right! (Ecc.12:13.)
37. 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 neigbour as thyself.") Exactly! (Mt.22:37-39.) He changed it a little bit. It was there in the "fear God," but He made it a more personal loving relationship between Him & you & me, & instead of fear God, He said love the Lord! And instead of just "keep the commandments," He said, "Love thy neighbour as thyself. In these are all the law & all the prophets"--everything in the Bible! To love the Lord & to love others.
38. SO THAT NOW AS WE SAY, GOD'S ONLY LAW IS LOVE! It's not exactly a Biblical quote, but it certainly is Biblical & Scriptural! Say it again, class; we've gotta hear you! (Maria & Peter: "God's only Law is Love!") Love whom? (Peter: The Lord & your neighbour.) Who's my neighbour? Obviously from the story the Lord then told, everybody in the world, even a stranger in another country, like the Samaritan.
39. AND INSTEAD OF MAKING THE JEW A SAMPLE OF GOD'S LOVE FOR THE SAMARITAN, JESUS MADE THE SAMARITAN THE EXAMPLE--a heathen, a foreigner, a half-breed who was of another religion & whom they hated, Jesus made him the example of love for his neighbour! [DELETED] (Lk.10:30-37.)
40. DEAR BEGIN BETTER TAKE A CUE FROM SOME OF THOSE SAMARITANS of that part of Israel he always wants to claim, Judaea & Samaria, the occupied west Bank, because in those two you have some of the worst & some of the best! Judaea was the heart & soul of Judaism & temple--worship of Jehovah! Samaria was a mixed breed, half-breed mixture of idolatry & Jehovah & all kinds of a mess! A bunch of foreigners had come is from Babylonia & Assyria & mixed with the Jews, so they mixed up their religion of both Jehovah-worship & idolatry, they were a mess!
41. THEN HOW COME GOD DIDN'T USE THE THE JEWS, the scribes, the Pharisees, the authoritarians, the orthodox religion & religionists & one of their member as being a prime example of love? They should have been the example of love for the poor mixed-up, muddled, confused Samaritan! They should have evangelised them!
42. IN FACT, THEIR KING, THE KING OF ASSYRIA INVITED THE JEWS TO COME UP THERE & PREACH TO'M & tell'm about the true God, because they were having such a scourge, at that particular time a scourge they were pagan idolaters & wicked sinners!
43. THE HEATHEN RECOGNISED THE FACT THAT THEY WERE DOING SOMETHING WRONG, they must not be worshipping the God of the Jews or the God of that country, & they needed to know. So they said, "Send us teachers that we may know to worship the Lord." So they did! (2Kg.17:24-28.)
44. BUT THE JEWS APPARENTLY DIDN'T DO TOO GOOD A JOB OF IT, LIKE THE CHURCHES TODAY, & it left the poor Samaritans with a real mixture of religion & a real muddle & a mix-up! The first part of the muddle is the mud, & they were stuck in the mud with a mixture of religion: The worship of Jehovah, the true religion, & a worship of idols from their old background.
45. SO WHY IN THE WORLD DID GOD USE ONE OF THEM OF ALL PEOPLE, AS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF LOVE FOR YOUR NEIGHBOUR? Well, the Jews might have said: "He should have used Jew! The Jew ought to have been loving the Samaritan, not the Samaritan the Jew! The Jew should have been the example!" Yes, he should have been, like the Church today! They should have been!
46. BUT WHO DID GOD HAVE TO TAKE TO EVANGELISE THE WORLD TODAY?--NOT THE CHURCHES! God went outside the churches & took the poor mixed-up muddled confused Samaritans, the hippies, the youth, & got them straightened out & they turned out to have a lot more zeal & love for the lost than all the churches put together, & all the old-fashioned Christians!
47. SO CERTAINLY THE MODERN SAMARITANS OF TODAY HAVE SHOWN MORE LOVE FOR THE LOST THAN THE ORTHODOX JEWS & the Christians of today. I would say the hippies are doing a better job of it than the church people, & that we have done a better job of its than any church I know. "Love thy neighbour!"--Who's thy neighbour? Well, I think our Family has shown it's anybody anywhere in the world in all the world, every creature, & we're preaching the Gospel to them as best we can!
48. OF COURSE, IT'S OBVIOUS THAT FIRST OF ALL WE HAVE TO LOVE GOD IN ORDER TO HAVE LOVE FOR OUR NEIGHBOUR. You can't love the lost or the heathen or the foreigners nor the unsaved nor your enemies nor anybody else unless you've got the supernatural miraculous miracle working power of the Love of God in your heart!
49. ONLY THAT CAN GIVE YOU ENOUGH LOVE FOR OTHERS to be willing to forsake yourself & your family & home & homeland & to go into all the world & preach the Gospel to every creature!--People you've never seen before, you don't know their language or their religion & their different kinds & races & colours & peculiarities! That takes the Love of God! So you've got start with that, nothing short of that will do it.
50. THE JEWS HAD THE FORM OF RELIGION, BUT WITHOUT THE POWER THEREOF, WITHOUT THE LOVE THEREOF. (2Tim.3:5.) That's why they didn't finish the job on the Samaritans & couldn't get them really straightened out & converted, because they didn't love God enough. It took Jesus to give them an example of a Samaritan that had more religion than they had, more love. Apparently he must have loved God more than they did, because the Jew, & it looks like we've got a similar situation today!--Ha! Both Jews & Christians are about in the same category. They're the lost & strayed sheep on the road to Jericho who gets beat-up by the wolves, & they're going to get beat-up, & they are getting beat-up!
51. ALL THE COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD THAT ARE THE FIRST TO GO COMMUNIST TODAY ARE THE MOST CHURCHY COUNTRIES OF ALL the most Catholic countries of all where the church has been a dictatorial unloving hierarchy--hard, cold, unsympathetic, unconcerned, selfish, greedy & rich--until the poor lost sinners & the poor in general didn't see answer there, or any love there! In fact, they saw that was part of the problem.
52. 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 & I don't even have to question or anything? All I have to know is I'm right close to You, Lord, & I'm doing what You want me to do. I'm following right in your path, right in Your footsteps."
53. WELL, IF YOU DO THAT & YOU STAY CLOSE TO THE SHEPHERD, WHAT DOES HE DO? He leads you into green pastures & beside the still waters, restores your soul, He takes care of you. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil. He'll even prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, anoint your head with oil. Even His rod & staff will comfort you with a few whacks now & then if you get out of line! It doesn't sound very comfortable, but sometimes the rod is a comfort. It's certainly better than getting over on the Devil's territory! (Psalm 23.)
54. SO IF YOU STICK CLOSE TO THE SHEPHERD. YOU'RE BOUND TO BE WELL-FED, WELL-CARED-FOR & WELL-PROTECTED. But what do shepherds have sheep for, Just for fun? Just to have the fun of leading them around & climbing through all those pretty valleys & mountains & all that sort of thing? Makes a nice pastoral scene for a painting or something? What's the purpose? (Peter: For the wool?)
55. WELL, THE WOOL IS ONE THING. If you've ever had any stock or sheep or cattle of any kind, the wool, the milk & that sort of thing is something that helps meet current, constant income.
56. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO THE SHEPHERD IS MORE SHEEP, MORE CATTLE. INCREASE. BEARING FRUIT! "Here in is God glorified, that ye bear much fruit!" (Jn.15:8.) What's the fruit of sheep?--More sheep! The wool is not their fruit. Well, it's a part of their produce in a way & helps keep expenses paid. And once in awhile a sheep even has to be sacrificed & its life sacrificed & his blood shed to feed the shepherd & his family, where meat is needed even more than milk.
57. BUT THE MAIN THING THE SHEPHERD IS AFTER IS MORE SHEEP! "Here in is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit!" So how are we going to bear fruit? First of all, we love God. Well, we say that's taken for granted. we hope so. The question is, how much do we love God? Are we obeying Him? Are we following Him closely? Are we loving our neighbour enough to bear much fruit? Are we giving enough wool, for one thing, & milk for another, these daily sustenances for the shepherd's daily bread, for the shepherd & his family to be able to take care of us? Giving has a lot to do with it!
58. AND THE SHEEP NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES THE QUESTION: "AM I STAYING CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE SHEPHERD? Do I love Him enough? Am I giving enough wool? Am I giving enough milk? Would I even be willing to give my meat for his life & his work, & am I bearing enough fruit?"
59. NOW WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO BEAR FRUIT? Maria? (Maria: We have to publish the Word & have some results from it.) We have to publish the Word & have some results like a wife to a husband, receive His seed so that we can conceive & bear children in the Lord. WE need to mate with the seed-giver & be a good wife & a good mother & bear fruit, bear children for the Lord.
60. I'M TALKING IN GENERAL TERMS ABOUT THE FAMILY IN GENERAL, THAT IS THE JOB OF ALL OF US: TO LOVE GOD ENOUGH, TO LOVE NEIGHBOUR, EVERYWHERE & EVERYBODY! That's making it as simple as possible. And those are the questions you need to ask yourself first of all if something goes wrong: "Do I love the Lord enough? Am I close enough to the Lord? Am I following Him; obeying Him, following right in His footsteps, right on His heels, right by His side & not straying off on the fringes someplace or clear out in the woods?"
61. GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT! We need to sit down & count the cost, even count the figures! That's why I like to keep stats & keep books, stats on the people & their results, & stats on the books & the finances, so I'll know where we're at! Any merchant that doesn't take an inventory every once in awhile to see where he's at is apt to go out of business! He could be losing & going bankrupt & not even know it!
62. YOU NEED TO KEEP BOOKS--FINANCIALLY & WITH YOURSELF & WITH GOD--& keep stats on the produce & the results & the fruit to see if you're ahead or behind or where you're at!
With nary a stat,
You don't know where you're at!
This is why I insisted on keeping stats from the very beginning! And of course any bookkeeper knows we've got to keep track of the finances or we wouldn't know if we were losing or gaining or what! And as a result of our keeping stats, we know we're gaining tremendously in fruit & numbers & members & converts & witness & litness & everything! In that field I don't think we lack, we are getting results!
63. BUT WE ARE RUNNING NOW A CONSTANT 15% BELOW NORMAL FINANCIALLY, WE'VE BEEN LOSING FINANCIALLY. I knew that we probably would, due to the fact of the Family moving to poor southern & Eastern fields, but I knew it because I knew the laziness & the negligence of the average Family Member, as well we other Christians, in not really being diligent & working hard to keep up their correspondence with their supporters & the home field, & their correspondence with God, to realise that without Him we can do nothing! (Jn.15:5.) And let me tell you, without some folks back home praying for you & helping to support you--somebody at home or the field or wherever--you can't do much either!
64. BECAUSE THAT'S PROBABLY THE FIRST THING GOD WILL ASK YOU: "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's know how much you appreciate it & how much you needed it & what you spent it for? Did you get out good promotional literature, prayer letters, PR brochures to provisioners? Are you keeping in good relationship with your kings & queens & people on the field? Are you working hard on all seven supporters, & maybe you found an eight & a nine & a ten besides?"--Some people have! Are you doing all you possibly can to raise your support & asking God, "What else can I do? What more can I do?" Because I think if the Family were, income would not be down! If anything, it ought to be better now than it was before you got to the field! So that's not God's fault, that's your fault!
65. WELL, SO MUCH FOR GENERALITIES & THE OVERALL PICTURE of all of us & all Christians & all mankind & their relationship to God & the duty of man & the duty of Christians & the duty of the church & the duty of the Family! Now let's get down to basics regarding zeroing in on our personal duty as far as World Services is concerned.
66. WHAT IS WORLD SERVICES? If you want to boll it down real simple & short, World Services is me!--Ha! In the strictest sense of the Word, that's what it is!--And every World Service Unit & every World Service Unit member is one of my arms or legs or fingers or toes, of which I am the head! The Lord is really the head, but I'm the Earthly head.
67. 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 sheep wandering about & having no shepherd. And He gave me a love for them. Because I loved the Lord, He gave me the love I needed for them, the hippies that I hated & thought there was nothing good about'm, a bunch of drug-infested, crime-ridden, vice-ridden Commies! That was our Texas opinion of'm! I wouldn't have touched'm with a ten-foot pole! And I wound up sleepin' with'm & getting their bugs & everything else! Praise God! Hallelujah! TYJ!
68. THAT'S THE KIND OF LOVE THE LORD GAVE ME FOR THEM, BECAUSE I LOVED THE LORD. And if He told me to love them, then I loved them! And when He told me to love them, He gave me the love, so it wasn't hard to do! Because He loved'm, I loved'm! "We love Him because He first loved us!" (1Jn.4:19.) we love other because He first love them, & us.
69. SO BEING MY OVERSHEPHERD, HOW DID HE LEAD ME TO LEAD THEM? If I am their shepherd, what are my duties? We're getting our priorities straight, remember? what's a priorities?--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," Jesus said three times to Peter after He rose from the dead!
70. "PETER, LOVEST THOU ME?" "Sure, Lord, I love you!" "Feed My sheep!" "Peter, lovest thou Me?" "Lord you know I love you!" "Okay prove it, Peter, feed My sheep!" Peter must have really gotten a little bit upset on that last one because he said, "Lord, You know I love You!" Third time! "How come You're asking me, Lord, You shouldn't have to even ask me! You know I love You!"" Okay, Peter, you say you love Me, but now get out there & prove it & lead & feed My sheep!" (Jn.21:15-17.)
71. THE ONE WHO HAD DENIED THE LORD THRICE ON THE NIGHT OF HIS ORDEAL SPENT TEN DAYS GETTING STRAIGHTENED OUT WITH THE LORD in the upper room in Jerusalem, praying with the whole mob of men, women, children & all. There must have been hundreds, 120 men alone, & they weren't alone!--All their women & their kids were there tool! So there must have been hundreds of them! The upper room wasn't any little garret or little closet, it must have been a big hayloft or something as big as a barn to hold hundreds of people! It must have been a real meeting room, some kind of a big Family Fellowship!
72. THEY WERE HAVING THEIR NAF, THEIR NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP! All the Christians that amounted to anything in the whole area were gathered together to watch & pray! They really sought the Lord with one mind & one heart in unity, they were obeying! Jesus said, "Tarry high, & after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall be witnesses unto Me!"--Here & there & everywhere is what He was saying! (Lk.24:49; Ac.1:8.)
73. SO THEY TARRIED, THEY OBEYED, THEY WERE TOGETHER, UNITED, IN PRAYER, NO DOUBT SOME FASTING & REALLY SEEKING THE LORD FOR HIS WILL! So how did He show them? He poured out the Holy Spirit on them, gave them power from on high! And if anything, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of Love! What is the power we have?--Love most of all--Love power!
74. HE POURED OUT THE LOVE ON'M FOR EVEN THOSE [DELETED] JEWS, their fellow Jews [DELETED] & murderers & the ones that had slain their own Messiah, crucified their own Christ! Well, they had love for those that were receptive, at least. Even in his first speech after being filled with the Spirit, Peter pretty well ripped up & down the Jews that had killed Jesus! He said, "Whom ye crucified!" (Acts2:36.) [DELETED]
75. SO THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A BAPTISM OF LOVE, MOST OF ALL, FOR GOD & ALSO FOR OTHERS. For that reasons they spoke in all these different tongues, glorifying God so that others could believe. And how many souls got saved the first day of that revival? (Peter: 3,000!) And a few days later in the Temple, how many? (Peter: 5,000!) Boy, they were really reapin', really harvesting, because they sought the Lord first. (Acts 2:41; 4:4.)
76. THEY WERE UNITED, THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE AFTER THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING! They didn't know what was going to happen, but God knew what was going to happen! They knew they were obeying & being where God told them to be, doing what God told them to do, & the results were up to God. Did He get results? He did! He poured out the Spirit, power, Love & a tremendous harvest of conversions!--And that's what we have had, thank God!
77. SO WE'RE HAVING A LITTLE FINANCIAL PROBLEM. Income is off, we're not able to pay quite as much for publication, not able to give everybody their full support, we've had to cut cheques 10-15% each month to live within our income, which I think is wise, But I also gave in "Seven Cures for Financial Ills" (No.1271), a lot of other things to do.
78. AND ONE OF THE FIRST OF THOSE THINGS WAS: TRIM THE FAT! How do you go about trimming the fat? You look at a piece of meat & you have to make a decision. You've got to have enough sense, enough perception & enough knowledge of meat to know which is which. You have to know the difference between the fat & the lean meat, the real muscle.
79. THAT'S A GOOD THING TO REMEMBER, LEAN MEAT IS MUSCLE, IT'S GOT MUSCLE-POWER, IT WORKS & IT ACCOMPLISHES SOMETHING! About all fat is good for is to burn. It helps to grease, it helps to flavour, it helps to cook, but if you get too much fat, you might get it in the fire & burn up the whole works!--As some people have! You have to know how much to cut off & how much to leave on. Because as my Mother used to say about cooking steaks, etc., you've got to leave little fat on for flavour, & you have to cook it in its fat to have a little flavor.
80. YOU'VE GOTTA KNOW THE DIFFERENCE between muscle meat, lean meat that is really good for strength & accomplishes something, & Just plain fat. Fat has its place & Is useful, but not too much. And if you have to make a choice between the two, you don't save the fat & eat that & throw the meat away, you save the meat & throw the fat away!
81. YOU CAN TRY TO USE THE FAT IF YOU CAN, we used to boil it down for lard & sell it. First of all we used to sell it, then they required you to give one pound of fat for fat during the war. If you didn't bring in a one-pound can of fat, land or grease--which they used, incidentally, in making explosive, etc.--it didn't matter if you did have two coupons for butter, you wouldn't get any butter, or oleo or whatever! Pound for pound, like old Shylock!
82. YOU HAD TO GIVE A POUND OF FAT FOR A POUND OF FAT, a pound of grease for a pound of butter!--As well as your ration coupon & pay for it on top of it! Because the government said they needed the grease to grease the ammunition, so to speak. There's something about grease that they need in making explosives. So grease does have its uses.
83. BUT IF THERE'S A CHOICE IN EATING BETWEEN EATING THE FAT & EATING THE MEAT,. WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO EAT? Well, people who are crazy & already too fat & digging their graves with their teeth, probably are choosing fat things to eat, & fats & greases & lards & greasy foods & fattening things, instead of sticking to the bare essentials of the lean meat & things that are really for strength & for building & protein & muscle meat, meat with muscle that accomplishes something!
84. SO WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE HAVE IN THE FAMILY RIGHT NOW? (Peter: You!) Ha! Imagine that, he said "you"! Well, the funny part about it is, he's right!--Ha! That's just the way God made it, that's all, & that's the way God made me.
85. AND WHAT'S MY MOST IMPORTANT JOB, THE THING I HAVE TO DO MOST OF ALL? (Peter: To feed the sheep.) Be careful! I can't feed the sheep unless I've got something to feed'm! Maria? You know. (Maria: Getting it in the first place!) Right! Being led of the Lord into green pastures, knowing where to find the food & being given the food by the Lord. One sows, another waters, but it is God that giveth the increase! Only God can make the grass grow, & He does! (1Cor.3:6,7.)
86. THE WORLD SAYS, "GRASS DOESN'T GROW ON A BUSY STREET!" Well, you can't eat bricks either! That's what the guy said when they asked him about his bald head. He said, "Well, you know, grass doesn't grow on a busy street!" He was trying to compliment his intelligence has busy brain. But this just shows you man's perverted sense of values, he values his streets more than the grass! Yet if there weren't that grass out there in the country to feed the strength to walk down the street & there wouldn't be any need for the streets of his cities! We're going to get back to that one of these days.
87. MY MAJOR JOB IS TO GET IT FROM GOD, & MY NEXT MAJOR JOB IS TO PASS IT ON TO YOU! I SERVE IT TO YOU, & YOUR BIGGEST JOB IS TO GET IT OUT! Once I said to you, "It's more important to get it right than to get it out!"--When you found how slow I was. On the other hand, sometimes it's more important to get it out even than get it right!--Exactly right as far as little infinitesimal unimportant minor mistakes & typographical errors are concerned, particularly in the Family's FNs & things like that. I like to have mine as perfect as possible! I don't like to have a single mistake if I can help it. I get it right from God, I try to get it right on paper, & then I try to get it out right to you.
88. HOW DID I START DOING THIS? Before I started the Family & the Lord started the Family through me, I hadn't written a word--Not a word except a few little correspondence letters with relatives & a few love letter to sweethearts! I never even wrote a poem, never wrote anything! I wrote a few papers in school because I had to, but I hated to & it was a real trial & a chore for me. I just was not that fluent, I wasn't that inspired. There's not ver much about school that inspires you anyhow, to write about all the ridiculous subjects they ask you to write about!
89. ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING SUBJECTS I WAS EVER GIVEN TO WRITE ABOUT THE 200-&-SOME SMALLER SECTS IN AMERICA. I really learned something from that! I learned what the white man had done to the poor Indians, & how the church had neglected to evangelise them & take care of them. And on the smaller sects I learned what a mess the church was in & how many ideas it had gotten & busted up in so many different splinters! But I also learned how some succeeded & some didn't, & I have tried to profit from their mistakes so that we don't make the same mistakes that made some of them just die out in a hurry. We try to profit just by observing others, what were their strengths & what helped them to succeed? All these little things are important.
90. I LEARNED UNDER A VERY GOOD TEACHER ALSO, A GOOD KING, HOW TO BE A KING--FRED JORDAN! I learned a lot of what I know from him. Before that I learned a lot from my Mother & my Father & my Grandparents & my forebearers. You can hardly give any one the credit, you'd have to give so many people the credit! I'm an end result, the product, & I'm not even the end! You're my products and your fruit is the rest of them, & their fruit is the souls they're getting out yonder in the mission field until Jesus comes! And even afterward there's going to be some more reaping! I believe it!
91. HOW DID I GET STARTED? Well, I'd almost say how I first got started, I never wrote anything, but I taught my children. I did get out a couple little leaflets to my first pastorate, & you've seen some of them. The first thing I ever wrote, I was so afraid of writing anything myself, I made sure it was all scripture! It was a little thing on Bible Prophecy, a little chart of the various kingdoms & the beasts & all that stuff. You've seen that.
92. I HAD ALL OF DANIEL & REVELATION INTERPRETED & SUMMARISED IN ONE LITTLE FOUR-PAGE TRACT about the size of two pages of the FN, the whole thing in a nutshell! I was determined to keep it short, believe it or not, & keep it simple, believe it or not, & not write any of it myself, have it all scripture. I sure have changed!--Perhaps to your sorrow! But without the Lord making some changes in me, we'd have never gotten any further than a four-page leaflet & a Bible Prophecy chart, & probably never had a Family!
93. SO I HAD TO TRUST THE LORD, RIGHT AFTER I TOOK OVER THE SHEPHERDING OF THE SHEEP IN HUNTINGTON BEACH THAT HE WAS SPEAKING TO ME, & I just did the same thing with those kids as I'd been doing with my own kids for years--teaching--& mostly something they were very interested in & they needed to know--Bible Prophecy! If they didn't know that God had something better to offer & a better future to offer, what was the use of learning about the present? so I socked it to'm with God's message!
94. A FEW PEOPLE RECORDED A FEW OF THOSE LESSONS & WE STILL HAVE A FEW TAPES LYING AROUND, BUT WE NEVER PRINTED THEM THEN. Many years later we have printed a few, & it might be worthwhile. Dear Beriah was supposed to go over them & find the things that are worth it, but I don't know, maybe that's passed & passé & too late now. We've got to get our priorities straight, what's the most important thing we have to do now!
95. THEN I BEGAN TO HEAR FROM THE LORD, & I REALISED OF COURSE, I'D BEEN HEARING FROM THE LORD ALL MY LIFE! But I began to hear from Him very specifically & definitely, literally, verbally, orally, audio as well as video! In the club in Huntington Beach the kids got prophecies, I had some that I didn't yet have those gifts. Well, I had some that I didn't yet realise. I did understand some of the things, but I didn't have the faith to launch out & say so!
96. BUT WHEN DEAR MARIA PUT ME ON THE SPOT WITH HER LITTLE PRAYING IN TONGUES & MESSAGES, I COULDN'T FAIL THAT LITTLE CHILD, I HAD TO GET IT--SO I DID! And as I launched out by faith & obeyed the Lord & gave it, He gave more--& more & more & more & more till now I'm sure most people think it's too much! It's a flood! Well, that's what the Lord promised! He said He'd pour out more than we were able to hold or receive! (See "Birthday Warning!", No.215.)
97. SO YOU NEVER TO BLAME GOD FOR NOT GIVING US ENOUGH! Most people might blame Him for giving us too much! Well, He never said He wouldn't give you too much. He has to do like the army: They make sure they give you too much food to be sure than others. Some people can lap it all up, gobble it all up, like same of those chowhounds in the army! Those great big giants, they needed it!
98. BUT LITTLE SKINNY RUNT ME, I WAS LUCKY IF I GOT ANYTHING after they cinched the dishes & scooped up all the food! While I was running back standing in line trying to get enough for me to eat, the damn sergeant would blow the whistles & we had to quit!--And I had to live on candy bars out of a machine!--Ha! Because they never gave slow little skinny runts me enough time to eat!
99. SO DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT CAPACITIES! Some are voracious, & some are very picky & slow, so God just has to give enough for everybody, the chowhounds as well as the nitpickers. So just because you can't read it all, doesn't mean that you're necessarily failing God. He knows your capacity & you just read as much as you can! God pours it on, He pours it out, but not everybody can receive it all!
100. HE EVEN SAID, "I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY UNTO YOU, BUT YOU CANNOT BEAR THEM NOW!" (Jn.16:12.) But I think he's saying them to us now when we're able to receive it! I think today we're getting it & we're more able to receive it. Even the Church is not able to receive it, they reject it. They say it's heresy, he's a heretic & a false prophet & a profligate as well & all the rest--because they're old bottles & they're not able to take the new wine! (Mt.9:17.)
101. SO MY JOB IS TO FIRST OF ALL GET IT FROM GOD & GET IT OUT TO YOU! I started by giving it to the hippies then to Maria, & then through her. And she was a diligent faithful good handmaiden who wanted to make sure she didn't lose any of it & caught it all, so she jotted down every word & recorded it for the first time anybody ever did that!
102. I HAD LIVED WITH ANOTHER WOMAN FOR 25 YEARS WHO NEVER DID IT. WHO DIDN'T EVEN THINK IT WAS IMPORTANT, MY SERMONS OR ANYTHING ELSE! The only times she ever started jotting down things is when she knew it was God speaking straight through my Mother in prophecy and interpretation, etc, and she realized how important it was for our guidance. In fact, my Mother even admonished her that she' better write it down! She said, "Your know shorthand, why don't you write it down? I can't remember it afterward!"--Any more than I can after I've had a prophecy.
103. I CAN REMEMBER THE VISIONS & THE DREAMS, THE PICTURES ARE EASIEST TO REMEMBER! But the prophecies & interpretations, unless there's somebody there to record it & write it down, I hardly ever remember it sometimes I remember some outstanding statement in a dream, or something that's said, or some sign or some word I see, but if some faithful scribe & recorder had not faithfully recorded it, we'd have lost it all!
104. --JUST AS MY DEAR FAMILY & MY FIRST WIFE LOST IT ALL ALL THOSE YEARS. I was teaching for years, probably all the same stuff I'm teaching you now. it could have been recorded then but there was no faithful recorder who had the faith in a me or what I was saying or what God was saying until Maria come along.
105. AH ME, TYJ! SEE, I'VE GOT TO COVER IT ALL TO SHOW YOU WHY! Here we've got to figure out how to save 15% on our expenses, but I have to give you the whole history of the whole Family in order to get your priorities straight! We probably won't even have time to record the answer, I don't know, but I'm recording the basic principles. And from that, if you've got your questions right, you'll have the answers. And I'm asking you the questions.
106. SO I GOT IT, I GAVE IT, SHE WROTE IT! And then we began to realism, "This is good for the whole Family! This is Word for the Family, the Lord is talking to us all! We've got to pass it on!" So what did you do, Maria? (Maria: I typed it!) She sat down at her little Brother typewriter, the tiny tiny portable that the [EDITED: "Israelis"] made us pay about three times as much as it was worth!--$100 2nd-hand in those days! Good-night, you can almost buy a 2nd-hand Royal electric nowadays for $100! [DELETED]
107. SO SHE BEGAN TO TYPE IT! She'd first of all write it down in shorthand, laboriously as it was being given to make sure she didn't lose a word, then she began to type it. Then we realised, "This is good for the Family!" We'll include it in our Letters of instruction to the Family & our Counsel & advice, etc., we're giving our leader's--& that's all we gave it to at first was just the leaders! Then we decided we'd broaden the scope of leaders to Leadership Trainees--LT letters! Finally we told them there were certain Letters they could read to the whole Colony, the whole Family.
108. WE STARTED OUT BY SENDING ONE LETTER & KEEPING A CARBON COPY. Before we left Israel we were sending out the original & six carbons & keeping the seventh carbon for ourselves! And from there on it multiplied. "The Lord gave the increase!" (1Cor.3:6.) So don't blame it all on me because it's so plentiful & such a flood, God giveth the increase!--Ha! There's a good Scripture for me to excuse me for saying so much & giving so much, more than you can even read!
109. THE LORD SAID HE'D GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU'RE ABLE TO HOLD, WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT! Just because you can't read it all? If you can't read it all, God doesn't expect you to read it all just read what you can! He said He'd give you more than you can hold! PTL! Thank God for it! It means there's always more there's you'll never run out! Right OK! So my most important job is to get it & give it, & Maria's most important job, along with your, is to write it & publish it & see that Family gets it!
110. SO AFTER WE GOT BEYOND JUST A FEW CARBON COPIES WHAT DID WE START DOING THEN?--I started encouraging the Colony shepherds to make Xeroxes & carbon copies of their own, or mimeograph'm & pass'm cut, finally, to everybody. And we got along that way for just about the first five years! We never really lacked for anything, God supplied our needs & He supplied the leadership for the Family and we got out and we were doing the job & evangelising the world the best we could with the numbers we had. I'm working up to something, & I'm sure you're getting the hint.
111. FINALLY AS LATE AS THE '70s WE WERE STILL JUST PRINTING A LITTLE 12-PAGE LEAFLET OR SO OF VARIOUS LETTERS, four-page GPers & up to 10 or 12, sometimes 16-pagers at the most, of Family Letters, DO Letters, & sending them out, just whatever we happened to have on hand. As fast as we got it off on his little hand press & mail it out to the whole world in just a little envelope. And that was it, that was all there was!
112. BUT WE GREW & WE MULTIPLIED & WE PRODUCED & WE HAD FRUIT & WE GOT RESULT & WE DID THE JOB!--Even when all we had were little individual Letters from me! That's all they had! No Family News! The closest we came to Family News was when I started getting out the Royal Family Newsletter, trying to give a little news from here & there all over the world, & called'm Newsletters. That was the first FNs, really.
113. AND THEN WE TRIED TO ENCOURAGE THE VARIOUS AREAS WHERE WE HAD LEADERSHIP TO PLEASE MAKE UP SOME PAGES OF THEIR LOCAL NEWS & SEND'M IN!--without too much success. (See "Local Pubs," No.3188.) Some of them did, who wanted to promote their field & themselves, but they never stayed very faithful & they soon Kind of petered out & we Just had a difficult time trying to get the news from them, especially Jeth & Deb & some of them. Some of them did & some of them didn't.
114. A LOT OF THEM WERE EVEN PUBLISHING THEIR LOCAL FAMILY NEWSLETTERS & LITTLE LOCAL FAMILY NEWS LEAFLETS & NEVER EVEN SENT THEM TO US! Never even shared them with us! We were amazed later on when one of their members or somebody sent us things. Apparently they didn't want us to know what was going too well! I don't know what the score was, but they just didn't seem to want to share the news with us! We would have certainly known they must have quite a mailing list & be doing pretty good, & I guess they were afraid we might ask them for it so we could send our newsletter to them too, which we did! Some of them did, some of them didn't.
115. BUT ANYHOW GOD BLESS DEAR LITTLE HO, he had the vision even from as far back as TSC to get out a little paper called the New Nation News, the NNN, & publish all the reports & the stats & various interesting reports & summations & news items, etc. And that was very good, very encouraging & I think it was great! It still is! It's grown to the Family News Magazine. It even grew to a book with BOTM 2, & that was the limit I hope! Although it locks like the next three FNs combined are going to be as bad, if not worse, inside, but much better in contents, TTL!
116. SO, PTL! THE LORD IS BLESSING! He has poured out the news & the Family is pouring it in! God's pouring it on, the Family's pouring it in, we're pouring it out & it's terrific, wonderful to hear the news from the field! There was a time when we didn't have any & we still did God's work, we still got disciples, we still had converts, we still grew, we still had more & more colonies & Homes, we still got out to the mission field & evangelised the world & preached the Gospel to every creature with nothing but little personal Letters from me! No magazine, on GN, no FN, no books, no nothing' but Just little tiny leaflets!--And they got down so small for awhile you could hardly read'm they were so microscopic! We were so afraid they'd be noticed in the mall during the persecution!
117. DO YOU REALISM AT THE TIME WHEN THEY GOT SO SMALL DURING THAT SCARE BACK ABOUT '79 WAS JUST BEFORE THEY BEGAN TO GET SO BIG!--Ha they went to their smallest, their lowest low, smallest print, a little square about so big, where you could stick a few of them in an envelope & you'd never know it wasn't a personal letter, Just before they began to grow like mad! The Lord must have seen we were faithful with a few things & some very small Letters, so He made us ruler over many things & some awful big Letters! (Mt.25:21.)--And now we have published books & books!
118. I'VE FIGURED WE HAVE SO FAR PUBLISHED ABOUT 70 BOOKS & BOOK-SIZED MAGAZINES, THINK OF THAT! I've still got to study that list & somebody still has to make me a picture of all those books! Is anybody working on it? I said if they couldn't even find all the books & take a photograph, for God's sake, let Jac draw a picture! He could get them figured out to about the right proportion & size if he knows the page numbers, etc., how big they were from the beginning of the first actual magazine, the little tiny Family News magazine about so big. Remember? It wasn't any bigger than what the LIN is today, & it grew to about what the KIDz is, from about 16, & it went up to about 32 & kept growing, with MD Letters & Family News both, all the eggs in one basket!
119. UNTIL RECENTLY WHEN THE FNs GOT SO BIG I WAS WORRYING ABOUT WHETHER WE'D EVER BE ABLE TO EVEN PUBLISH THEM, we didn't & couldn't because we had so much! So I said, "Well, I'm going to get out the Letters anyway! These big books are too slow & too expensive & even if they never get out, I'm going to get the Letters out!" So I kind of went back to my old ministry of just getting out the Letters in the GN! I don't know whether you're getting what I'm driving at or not.
120. 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!
121. WE'RE NOW ABOUT 13,000 MEMBERS INCLUDING ALL THE MUSIC CLUB MEMBERS, WHICH I THINK WE OUGHT TO INCLUDE. After all, they're writing in & considering themselves members of the club, why not?--Including all their Homes & all the addresses to which we send literature. I consider those our Homes or they wouldn't be asking for it, getting it, reading it & responding! They're friends, to say the least, & I count them as Family members, even if they haven't yet forsaken all & joined a Home or begun serving fulltime.
122. WE COUNT OTHER PART-TIME MEMBERS, WE COUNT TRFers & TITHERS THAT ARE WORKING AT FULL-TIME SECULAR JOBS, WHY SHOULDN'T WE COUNT THESE OTHERS?--Even if they're not yet TRFing or tithing or maybe not even yet doing too much in the way of witnessing or litnessing. They're babes! Just because a little baby is born fresh into the Home, it doesn't mean you don't count him a member yet until he gets to be an adult & can work & take care of himself! He's still a member, right? So I count these babes as members now! And we've got'm in about 5,000 Homes! Praise God!
123. BUT OUR DUTIES WENT BEYOND THAT TO WHERE EVEN MY LETTERS & FAMILY NEWS WERE NOT ENOUGH! And what else did we do besides all the books & all the printed publications?--Music & various kinds of tapes! Dear Beria had the burden for that first, God bless him, too bad he didn't keep it and do a better job of it! But who knows, maybe that phase is past. Maybe we've got enough of that kind of junk on the market, so to speak, especially when it was such poor quality.
124. IF YOU DON'T DO A GOOD JOB OF THINGS, THE LORD MAY JUST DISCONTINUE IT. I guess he did the best he could, but when the quality got so poor the Family couldn't even understand'm, I decided it was time to quit! But they served their purpose in their day, & as a result, although we only started out with Beriah's Wild Wind tapes, we've now got MWM, MCV & a whole bunch of others as well! WE are now publishing tapes in about 15 languages, & it'll probably soon be 20!--music tapes, Gospel! Tapes, audio tapes & now even videotapes!
125. BUT 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? So will that shock you to tell you that if worse comes to worst, there's only one thing we have to do, & that's publish Glad Tiding, publish the Letters! And al the glad tiding from the Family to if we can. But let's get our priorities straight.
126. I'M JUST DROPPING A BOMB TO SHOCK YOU' TO REMIND YOU THAT WE DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO PUBLISH ALL THESE SCORES OF LAVISH PUBLICATIONS & Books & Family News books & BOTMs & tapes By the tens of thousand! The Family's already got enough music to last'm till the Lord comes! They've already got enough talks on tape to keep'm busy until Kingdom come, & through Kingdom Come & the whole Millennium!
127. SO WE'RE GOING TO START CUTTING THINGS WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO HAVE! Where are we going to start cutting? With the Letters & the GNs? you've gotten so accustomed to all of these things now, you think they're absolutely essential & we couldn't get along without'm. But there was a day when we did, we did just fine! Of course, we're doing a lot finer & a lot more now with'm, & I hope to be able to continue them all if we can, But if we're going to start cutting anywhere, where are we going to start cutting
128. "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!) She sat at Jesus' feet & listened to the Lord. That's the only thing that's really necessary, is to listen to the Lord, to sit at His feet & hear of Him & hear His word. So that's the only thing we're absolutely obligated to get out, & that is the Word of God what God has to say.--The dreams, visions, prophecies, interpretations, teachings revelation, whatever!
129. YOU GUYS OUGHT TO LEARN BY THIS TIME YOU NEED TO EAT & GO TO THE BATHROOM & GET ENOUGH SLEEP BEFORE YOU COME TO THIS CLASS! Well, I'm almost done. I'm just getting down to the nitty-gritty now of the details & the effects, you've got the message! That Family needs to hear. Now to get down to the business part, as well as making it clear to you what is really necessary! If we have to get back down to where we can't publish anything but Letters, we'll do it!
130. WE DIDN'T HAVE A BUNCH OF WORLD SERVICE UNITS THEN! The only World Service Unit in the beginning was me & Maria! That's all! We were it! And we just lived by faith on whatever Kind of a handout Jeth & Josh & some of them were willing to send us. We never knew how much we were going to get or when or why or how come or whatever! We just knew the Lord was going to supply somehow from somewhere, & it came from different sources.
131. THE FIRST REGULAR INCOME WE EVER GOT WAS when I saw how much Jeth was rakin' in & I finally told him he'd better give us so much a month minimum to live on, something like $75 a week or something, & it finally went up & up because the cost of living went up & we began to have children & helpers & secretaries & things just grew.
132. INCOME, THAT'S A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN. Our income at first was very uncertain except for the Lord, & it came from different leaders, Colonies, various gifts & individuals who just helped us. We never Knew where it was coming from or how much, till finally we specified we had to have a minimum from dear Jethro. And he could hardly refuse since he himself was living in a mansion & riding in a Mercedes--& so were Rachel & Emanuele--& buying themselves new ones besides & all kinds of things! So I thought it was time for us to make sure we at least could pay the rent & have enough to eat!
133. AND WHEN WE FINALLY GOT TO TENERIFE it grew to where I said we had to have at least 300 pounds a month to live on, & it kept going up with the cost of living & the size of our Family, & you know the end result now! We have a lot of helpers in World Services & a lot of necessary Creation Units, one Home in one place & another in another place & another somewhere else, & still other for printing & publishing, etc., etc., etc.!--Until we've got many World Service Units all over the world busily engaged in the various forms of publication, etc., direct World Service Units.--Plus all the scores of missionaries & missionary efforts that we support!
134. WE WEREN'T ABLE TO SUPPORT ANYBODY WHEN WE FIRST STARTED, WE WERE DOING WELL TO GET SUPPORTED OURSELVES! We were doing well to pay for our room rent & our meager little food that we ate! Do you remember, dear Maria? And it was quite some time before we had a regular stipulated amount we could count on. Finally we got things a little better organized to where we required a certain amount & percentage, etc., of course, I never asked for as much as the chain was asking for! I told them they could ask for 10%, but they went to 25 & 35 & then 50 & God knows how much more! This is a finance meeting & I'm talking about finances, That's what we're here for, to solve a financial problem.
135. AND THEN WHEN THE CHAIN & THEIR LEADERSHIP FAILED--although they were making plenty of money & spending it mostly on themselves & their stupid friends & other wasteful things--I abolished it when I found out they were being tyrants & gougers & extortionists, abusing the people & oppression the poor! I abolished'm fired'm all & started over--the RNR! (No.650.)
136. AND THE MEMBERSHIP & THE INCOME & THE STATS & EVERYTHING ELSE TOOK A NOSEDIVE & almost hit bottom & bottomed out at you know what! And what was our salvation then? Our salvation was to do the job & get out the Word, which we did, & get rid of the evil leaders, which we did, & try to find new good dedicated consecrated leadership that followed the Letters & the Lord & their leader, which we did!
137. AND WHAT DID WE DO ABOUT FINANCES? What saved us there? We established WIM, one central office for the receiving of reports, stats & finances. And they got along, believe it or not, in one of the most expensive places in the world to live, Zurich, Switzerland, money capital, business center & high-price center of the world! WIM with a huge big house & a large staff got along at the beginning on 5,000 Swiss francs a month, $2,500 a month, our only collection agency if you want to call it, our only receiving center for TRFs!
138. AND THEN WE REALLY BORE DOWN ON THE FAMILY ABOUT TITHING! I didn't collect 50% or 35%, not even 25% but I said the Scriptural example of 10% Is the minimum, that's the least you can do! If you're not willing to forsake all & give 100% & serve the Lord full-time, then the least you can do is contribute 10%! And those who want to forsake all & serve the Lord full-time 100% & give 10% on top of it, they're 110%ers! (No.928.)
139. AND THE FAMILY RESPONDED, GOD BLESS'M, THEY GAVE, & as a result, God blessed'm with fruit & numbers & disciples & mission fields & more Homes, more population, more babes, more converts, more disciples, more publications, most Word of God--a flood! Praise God!
140. I'M SORRY THIS TAKES ME SO LONG, but I just have to do it to cover the whole field & the whole territory, explain the whole works, because I want you to see the background. I'm lawyer making my case, & I hope by the time I'm done there won't be a single loophole in it to crawl through or squeeze out of, if you know what I mean!
141. YOU WILL BE WITHOUT EXCUSE for some of these extravagances which we have come to think are necessities, but are fat which we never had before & we may not ever need again! Your recommendations were good that's where we'll start, That was a good beginning, but while you wee working on that, I was working on something even more drastic!
142. SO LET ME WIND IT UP JUST WITH THAT THOUGHT, & THAT WAS IT: A lot of things we have gotten to think are lean meat & muscles & we couldn't possibly do without, there were days of years of yore that we never even dreamed of them & never even thought of them & got along fine without'm!--And survived & thrived & grew & bore fruit! Not that these other things were not good, not that a little fat is not good, it helps give it flavour, helps to cook it, helps the whole overall process.
143. BUT TOO MUCH FAT CAN CHOKE YOU & GAG YOU & KILL YOU, WE'VE GOT TO KNOW HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE! We've got to go back & re-assess our priorities & remember the day of small things, don't forget it! Remember! And don't neglect those small things. (Zech.4:10.) Remember from whence thou art come & how good we got along then without all these extras & luxuries!
144. SOME OF THESE PEOPLE & UNITS & MINISTRIES HAVE DONE SO WELL & worked so hard & accomplished so much & borne such good fruit, we have come to think of them as absolute necessities & we don't see how we could get along without them! But I can! I can remember when we did! And I can even dream of a future when we can again if we have to!
145. THERE'S ONLY ONE THINK I HAVE TO DO & THAT IS HEAR FROM THE LORD & GIVE IT TO YOU & YOU GIVE IT TO THEM, & THAT'S IT, PERIOD! What they do with it is their business. I discharge my obligation, you discharge yours & that's the Word of God! And if you get it to them, & we have, & they've obeyed it, they'll get the job done whether we have any big blocks or beautiful music tapes or radio shows or Family News Magazines or not! Think of that! Is that a shocker?
146. NOW DON'T GET SCARED, I'M NOT PLANNING TO OUT ALL THESE PEOPLE OFF RIGHT NOW! As long as we can still afford'm & pay for'm & as long as the Family still gives & wants'm enough to give enough to pay for'm, OK! But if they're not willing to work hard enough to have Him give'm enough that they can give enough to pay for'm, then we're going to have to start cutting down on'm!
147. IN OTHER WORDS, JUST TO BE REAL OUT & PLAIN & BLUNT, IF THEY DON'T WANT OR NEED THESE THINGS ENOUGH TO PAY FOR'M, THEN WE'LL HAVE TO CUT'M OUT! Because if we can't publish'm, & we can't pay for'm, we can't have'm!--And we'll start loppin off pubs, tapes, personal, 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! And I'm sure we'll never be without that, God will see to it. But He may let us go without a few of these extras & some luxuries, & certainly without extravagances & non-necessities. Amen?
148. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NOW?--GUESS WE'LL JUST HAVE TO TRUST THE LORD! My God! Has it come to that?! It's come to that!--Or it is coming to that, & we may come to that even sooner than we realise! In the event of a world emergency, calamity, war or whatever, it will come to that real quick & we'll be thankful if we can get out the Letters! Right?
149. BY THE WAY, I DON'T THINK THIS IS VERY SMART IN THAT STUDY HELPS BOOK, I never really realised that! It shows you how many things I neglect, I'm so busy. When I had nothing but the Letters to take care of, I went over them with a fine-tooth comb & made sure they were letter-perfect--titles, pictures, everything! Now we've got so many books, I can't even read them all myself!
150. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS STUDY HELPS BOOK? You open the first page & what does it say in letters almost an inch high: "MO Letters!" Of all the stupid idiotic [EDITED: "things"]! MO Letters! "MO Letter Study Helps" on that page, & the next page too, & all over the place! It's nice on the outside, it just says "Study Helps," that's fine, but if [EDITED: "anyone"] wants to at least just open the cover & see what it is, the first thing that socks him between the eyes & In both eyes or right in the head is "MO Letters," as big as life! For God's sake, I thought we'd gotten away from that a long time ago! What the Hell happened?
151. WELL, THAT'S SOME OF THE KIND OF FOOLISHNESS WE WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANY MORE IF WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO PUBLISH IT! It's a very good book, thank God, & God bless Maria for her idea. It's very important & very good, I use it & everybody uses it, but if we haven't got the money--if God doesn't give it--it must mean that's we're supposed to cut down!
152. MAYBE GOD WOULD BE WILLING TO GIVE IT IF THEY'D WORK HARD ENOUGH TO RAISE IT & SACRIFICIALLY GIVE IT! He'd still bless it & the Lord would pour out so much there would not be room enough to hold it! But I'll tell you, when He was pouring out so little that they had to read over what little Letter or two they got a month time & time again, at least they really got it in those days, they memorised them! Now we've got so much to read, they can't even read it all!--Much less memorise it or hardly even let it sink in! We're even pouring out the MO Letters so voluminously now that you're doing well if you have time to read all of them, much less study'm!
153. I'M JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU THE PRIORITIES, BELOVED! You think, "Oh, look where we are, we can't do without all this!" Well, I'll tell you something else, that's the trouble with government today, they've gotten so big & unwieldy with so much bureaucracy & so much personnel & so many bureaus & agencies, they don't even know what they've got! They can't even keep track of'm all or their personnel or employees or anything else--except when they have a tight spot & they have to tighten their belts & make a cut across the board & say: "You've got to trim your fat & trim the personnel & trim your budgets!" Then everybody screams & squalls & complains they can't do without it, they can't cut it, they don't know where to cut, blah blah! If they don't have the money, they will!--So!--
154. INSTEAD OF THAT THE U.S. GOVERNMENT & A LOT OF THE GOVERNMENTS JUST PRINT MORE WORTHLESS PAPER MONEY TO PAY FOR IT!--Till finally of these days the whole thing's going to go crash! They went beyond their income, they spent beyond their income, they lived beyond their income, they're living on borrowed money & borrowed time & the whole thing is about to crash! Well, I don't what that to happen to us!
155. IF OUR INCOME STARTS GOING DOWN, AS IT IS, I'M GOING TO OUT OUR EXPENSES & OUT THEM DOWN TO GO ALONG WITH IT! I'm going to keep our expenses within our income whatever I have to cut & whatever it takes!--Whatever or whoever I have to cut! If I wind up with nobody but me, thee, thou & no other but the Letters, that's what we'll do if we have to!
156. SO SOME OF THESE PEOPLE IN SOME OF THESE UNITS & SOME OF THESE JOBS WHO THINK THEY'RE INDISPENSABLE ARE GOING TO GET A SAD SURPRISE ONE OF THESE DAYS WHEN WE FIND OUT WE CAN DO WITHOUT'M! And some are going to find that out real soon, sad to say. Some have given us many years of faithful service, but when their service gets poor & inefficient & unproductive & of poor quality & unprofitable servants, we're going to have to fire'm, get rid of'm!
157. IF WE'VE GOT NOBODY ELSE TO DO IT, WE'LL JUST HAVE TO ABANDON THAT MINISTRY. If there's nobody that's got the burden for it & can do a go job of it, a good profitable servant who can be a good & faithful servant & do it well & do it profitably, then we'll just have to drop the whole ministry if nobody's got the burden for it to do it well! So that's what's we'll do.
158. SOME OF YOU WORLD SERVICE SERVANTS & EMPLOYEES, whatever you want to call yourselves, members of World Service Units, need to really begin to question your own work & your priorities & its quality & its quantity & its necessities & re-think some of the things you're doing: Is it really necessary? Is it really profitable? Is it really essential? Am I doing a good job at it, the very best?
159. (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!
160. IF ON THE OTHER END OF THE STICK THEY PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE WRONG PRIORITIES & they start putting money first or men first or even Mamas first or babies first or singing first or puppets or slides first or FFing or ESing first or anything that does not glorify God or the Word first, they're falling God!--Or even if it glorified God, but if it doesn't get out the Word!
161. I'D SAY THE PUPPETS & THE SLIDES & LOTS OF THESE THINGS, INCLUDING MAMAS & BABIES, DO GET OUT THE WORE! But if they're just standing up there putting on a little show & singing songs & not really delivering the message, the Word of God, then they're unfaithful messengers! And the Lord speaks of unfaithful messengers as being a very sad case! (Pr.25:19.) They're failing God if they don't deliver the message, & then God won't deliver them!
162. SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHAT ARE THEY DOING? Are you good & faithful servants, faithfully delivering the message, delivering the Words of God, litnessing, delivering the Word & 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 job of their Lord here & then! Here & now there & then!
163. 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're not going to make it! They'll go down the drain as another failure another failed missionary, because they didn't do the job the way God wanted them to do it, and therefore God refused to support it & they might as well go home!
164. ANYTIME I DON'T DO MY JOB TO THE POINT WERE GOD DOESN'T WANT TO SUPPORT ME, THEN I MIGHT AS WELL GO HOME, & MY HOME IS OVER THERE!--Not in the U.S., not here on this Earth, but over There! That doesn't mean that when I do go Home I've failed, it may mean that I've accomplished my job and finished it! I'd lots rather go Home because I finished the job, than go Home because I failed the job!
165. 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.)
166. AMEN, LORD WE'VE DELIVERED OUR SOUL, WE'VE WASHED OUR HANDS OF THIS MATTER! (Eze.3:18,19) We've delivered our soul, delivered the message, delivered thy word! That is the truth, & we know it, & they know it, & they'd better show it, Lord, or they're going to go it & give up & quit & go home & be a failure in everlasting shame & contempt because they disobeyed & failed & got their priorities screwed up & twisted & out of line & out of proper order!
167. HELP US TO REMEMBER, LORD, THAT THY WORD COMES FIRST, that Thy Love comes first, & Thy Love is manifested in Thy Word, Thy loving Word from Thee & Thy loving Word to others, on which this work stands, Thy whole work stands. 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?
168. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family -- This file has not been proofread.