IN THE CITIES!            7/85
--Where You Can Do Some Good!
--City Catacomb Witnessing!
--Not Refuges!            DO 2042

         1. IN VOLUME 2 OF HEAVEN'S GIRL I THINK ONE OF THE REFUGEES' PROBLEMS WAS THAT THEY WERE BUNCHING UP TOO MUCH. They need to get scattered out & more underground & hidden. It's hard to hide hundreds of people! Dispersion is a lot better protection than being in such large groups!
         2. THE LORD CALLS US THE SALT OF THE EARTH! (Mt.5:13-16) Well, you don't put your salt all on one spot. I've had that sad occurrence while salting my food, where it all came out in one big bunch. It kind of ruins your food, unless you can stir it up & spread it out more.
         3. I THINK IT'S ABOUT TIME TO STIR UP THIS SALT & SPREAD IT OUT MORE WHERE IT'LL DO MORE GOOD. They can even hide out in some of the places where the Antichrist has complete control, even in some of the cities, if they're small enough & scattered enough.
         4. I'VE ALWAYS SAID YOU CAN GET MORE LOST IN THE CITY, WHEREAS IF YOU'RE TOO ISOLATED OUT IN THE COUNTRY, YOU STICK OUT LIKE A SORE THUMB! No matter how isolated, if there's any place in this World where everybody knows everything that's going on, it's out in farm country! The people are so few & far between that if there's the slightest ripple of any stranger that arrives out there, everybody knows it in no time! So rural areas are not the best places in the World to hide.
         5. WHEN WE WERE IN THE STATES WE USED TO SORT OF ADVOCATE THE RURAL REFUGE IDEA. In those days we couldn't think of anywhere else to flee, until the Lord finally showed us that we were supposed to scatter out through the whole World!--Not out in the country, but in the big cities where we could do some good & where we could hide out a lot easier.
         6. DO YOU KNOW WHERE THE CHRISTIANS THRIVED IN THE DAYS OF THE GREATEST ROMAN PERSECUTIONS? It wasn't out in the mountains or the hills where there wasn't anybody, they lived in the caves & the catacombs right under the capital city of the whole Roman Empire where they could be handy to do some good & some witnessing & bring down their converts & hide.
         7. IMAGINE, THEY HID RIGHT IN THE CELLARS & THE SEWERS & THE CATACOMBS OF ROME! That way they were in constant close touch with their above-ground representatives, such as all the servants in the whole House of Caesar who got saved! Those were their above-ground representatives who were sort of undercover witnessing although it was above ground. But they were being backed up by the main bigshots like Peter & Paul & some of them who were living underground in the Catacombs, where they could come for fellowship, inspiration & teaching, & then go back up & do the job again!
         8. SO IF THAT'S ANY EXAMPLE--& ROME IS SUPPOSED TO BE A PRIME EXAMPLE OF WHAT THE FINAL AC KINGDOM IS GOING TO BE LIKE, in fact a revival of it--maybe we ought to take a few lessons from how they did it! Let's get those folks back in the cities where they can do some good & do some witnessing, scattered out in small groups, small units, small homes, cellars, sewers & caves under the city, not in the mountains! They can be fed in the wilderness of the cities maybe even more than out in the wilderness of the mountains!
         9. THE LORD'S RAVENS CAN FEED THEM RIGHT IN THE CITIES, THEIR CONVERTS & FRIENDS WHO SHARE THEIR FOOD ETC. WITH THEM.--Whereas out in the mountains they obviously had to go out & forage & shift for themselves. We don't do that today, do we? We've abandoned this mountain refuge idea.
         10. WHEN WE'RE TALKING ABOUT THE CHURCH HIDING IN THE WILDERNESS, MY IDEA OF WILDERNESS ISN'T OUT IN THE WOODS OR THE MOUNTAINS! It's in the wilderness of the World just like those places we have gone, on the wings of great eagles, out to the biggest cities of the World where we're hiding out underground in the cities & doing a lot of good! The early Christians did it! Jesus said "Go to him that is worthy", meaning somebody they could trust, & stay with them there, "go not from house to house", & they would feed'm & hide'm & take care of'm. (Mt.10:11;Lk.10:7)