PSALMS FOR KIDS!--Psalm 91, Part 4!--Verses 5-12
DO 2393
10/86
--Dad's Brother and How the Lord Takes Care of His Own!
1. (David: Amen, thank You Jesus for this time that You provided to have a good Bible class with Grandpa! We pray, Lord, that You'll please bless & anoint it. Please help us to know the answers & to be good students of Your Word & really learn a lot in this half-hour class, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen!)
2. We're on the 91st Psalm, the shadow of the Almighty, & we've been through the third verse about "the snare of the fowler" & the "noisome pestilence," the 4th verse, "He covers us with His feathers & wings, shield & buckler," & now we're on the 5th verse! TYL!
3. "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night." What's a terror by night? (Techi: Bad dreams!) That's one of the most common terrors by night, what else? (David: Bad sleep.) Well, that's not exactly a terror, but it's not good. What else is sometimes bad at night? Do you hear strange noises sometimes? It might only be a little mouse gnawing a hole in the woodwork, but it's scary, right? It can be terrifying if you don't know what it is, something scratching, knocking, strange noises outside. Sometimes those will wake Grandpa up & I wonder, "What is it? Who is it?" You know? So there are a lot of things that frighten you at night, strange noises, & some people have problems with ghosts, even ghostly noises, "terror by night"!
4. Well, what does the Lord say about it? (Techi: To not be afraid!) Don't be afraid! Why? How come we don't need to be afraid? (David: Because the Lord's taking care of us!)--Right! "Nor for the arrow that flieth by day!" That's an open attack by the Enemy when the arrow flies in the daytime, right? Don't worry, the Lord can make it miss!
5. (Verse 6:) "Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness." What is a pestilence? (David: A disease?) Yes, exactly. The first part of it says "pest," right? "Pestilence that walketh in darkness." Most diseases are carried by what? (David: Rats & mice?) Yes, but what is the actual disease itself? Rats & mice & even birds carry the diseases, but what is the disease? (Maria: Do you mean germs?)--Germs, viruses & bacteria.
GERMS!
6. The general term for all these microscopic creatures you can't even see is "germ." There are different types of diseases, some are bacteria, some are fungus, some are virus, but they're all caused by little tiny tiny living things called germs. (Maria: And they breed in darkness!) They breed in darkness & they work in darkness! And even in broad daylight they might as well be in darkness because you can't see them! Why can't you see them? (David: Because they're so small.) They're so small you can't see them without a microscope. You sure can't go hunting around the room with a microscope trying to find them, can you? Well, actually they're everywhere & on everything! You just can't touch anything that hasn't got germs!
7. But the main thing is, don't let them do what? (David: Get to you!)--Yes, don't let them get to you! It's bad enough to let'm get to you on the surface of your skin, but what's worse? (David: If they get inside of you.)--Yes! And how can they get inside of you? (David: By sticking your fingers in your mouth.) Just in your mouth? Is that the only place you can get'm? Is that the only hole in your head? (David: You can get them in your ears.) Yes, you can sometimes get an infection by sticking your fingers in your ears. (Maria: And even from germs in water when you swim.) What other holes have you got in your head that you could get them into? (David: Your eyes.)
8. (Maria prays for pain in Grandpa's head: In Jesus' name, rebuke the Enemy, in the name of Jesus! We resist you, Satan, in Jesus' name! Get out of here, you Enemy, you Devil, & give him release from this! Damn your evil devices & machinations in Jesus' name! You're the God that heals us, Lord, "who healeth all our diseases," in Jesus' name! Rebuke the Enemy! We bind you, Satan, in Jesus' name! Take this away, Lord, right now! "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the World!" In Jesus' name! Grandpa is doing Thy work, Lord, he's giving Thy Words, now You protect him! In the Name of Jesus take this pain away right now! In Jesus' name protect Your Own, Lord! He's Your Servant & Your Prophet! In Jesus' precious name, You do it, Lord! In Jesus' name, raise up a standard against it! When the Enemy comes in like a flood, You promised to do that, Lord, in Jesus' name!)
9. It's better! (Maria: TYJ!) That's another way that "the pestilence worketh in darkness." It's dark inside your head, isn't it? But you can still get a pain there, can't you? (Maria: In Jesus' name, take it all away, Lord, completely, Lord, in the Name of Jesus! Make him every whit whole! TYL! In Jesus' name! The Enemy doesn't like the Word!) That's for sure!
10. Where else can you stick your fingers in your head? (David: Can they go into your eyes?) Yes, of course they can go into your eyes! If you rub your eyes with your dirty finger that's got germs on it, then the germs get in your eye & give you a sore eye! They used to have a thing called "pink eye," I had it once. It's a very sore eye. Your eye gets all red & swells up & even gets infected, so that in the night pus accumulates & hardens & you can't even get your eye open in the morning! (David: Does it go away after that?) If you pray for it, & you have to give your eyes eyewashes & things like that. They had it a lot in the poor South where there were lots of dirty people and unwashed people and people who didn't know how to keep clean, in the South of the United States, & also the South of the World where bugs love to live where it's nice & warm. They like the climate too!
11. What other hole have you got in your head that you can get germs into from your dirty hands or fingers? (David: Your nose.)--Yes! You can get a sore nose by sticking a dirty finger in your nose, so watch out about that! They love all those dark places, like the inside of your mouth or your ears or your eyes or your nose! So those are the evil things that work in darkness--pestilence, diseases, germs!
VERSE 6b, 7 & 8
12. "Nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday." For all these things He's saying, "thou shalt not be afraid." Don't be afraid about the destruction that wasteth at noonday. What big destruction can happen right in the middle of the day? (Children: War, earthquake, fires, floods.) Explosions. (Techi: Avalanches.) All kinds of destructions that can happen in the daytime. They happen at night too, but even in broad daylight. We're not to fear anything that works in either darkness or in the day, in the light!
13. (Verse 7:) "A thousand shall fall at thy side, & ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." How many? A thousand on one side & how many on the other side? (David: Ten thousand!) What does that mean, "shall fall"? (David: Shall get destroyed.) A thousand what? (David: People!)--Yes! A thousand people could get killed on one hand & ten thousand on the other, & you can escape if you're protected by the Lord!
14. (Verse 8:) "Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold & see the reward of the wicked." It may not hit you & they may be dying all around you, but you'll only see it. It's pretty bad to have to see it sometimes, but thank God it doesn't hit you. You can be thankful & praising the Lord that with all these people dying all around you the Lord protects you, amen?
ALREADY LIVING IN HEAVEN!
15. (Verse 9:) "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation." David is saying to you, "Because thou hast made the Lord, which is also my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation." What's a habitation? (David: A place where you live, a home.) Right, a home. What have you made your habitation? (David: The Lord!) And where does He dwell? (David: In your heart.) Yes, but He's also called here in this verse the what? "Even the blank blank, thy habitation." (David: The Most High.) What does that mean? (David: He dwells up in Heaven.) He dwells very high, all-powerful, over all! Jesus by His Spirit dwells in your heart, & of course that's part of God, but God Himself is Ruler Most High over all!
16. So if you're living in the Lord & He's your habitation, where are you dwelling? (David: In Heaven.) You're dwelling in the Lord, right? In a sense you're dwelling in Heaven because He lives in Heaven & His headquarters is in Heaven, so where are you? Think of the verse, all the answers are right in the verse! (Techi: In Jesus.) It doesn't say in Jesus, but the same thing in a way. The Lord is your refuge, the Most High thy habitation, the place you live. So where is He? (David: Up in Heaven.) Most High! He's very high! So if you're living in the Lord, where are you? (Children: In Heaven.)
17. In a sense you're already in Heaven, you're part of the Kingdom of God. Your life is hidden by the Lord Most High & is almost as good & as safe as being already in Heaven, think of that! If you're living in the Lord & the Most High & He's your refuge & your habitation, you're just as safe as if you were already in Heaven because the Lord will take care of you! That doesn't mean you're not going to have any attacks by the Enemy, but the Lord's going to take care of you.
"NO EVIL BEFALL THEE!"
18. (Verse 10:) "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." What does "There shall no evil befall thee" mean? Does it mean nothing bad will ever happen to you?--That's right! You say, "But Grandpa, how could you say that? A lot of bad things happen to us, we get hurts & bumps & cuts & scratches & sicknesses & all kinds of things! How could you say that no evil shall befall thee?" Well, what is evil? (David: Bad things.) What are bad things? (David: Evil.) Now let's not see-saw back & forth between the two words! Why are they bad & evil? (Maria: Because they're bad for you!)
19. Anything that is bad for you, not good for you, is evil, right? But if you get little nicks & cuts & scratches & bumps, what causes them? (David: You're not being careful enough.) You're not being careful enough, you're being foolish, you're in too big a hurry, you're not prayerful enough, cautious enough, so the Lord lets you get a little scratch or bump or fever or something. So what does that do? What does the Lord call it when He gives you a spanking? What does He call it in Hebrews the 12th Chapter? (Maria: Chastening.)--Chastening, a spanking!
20. Is a spanking good for you or bad for you? (David: Good!) It's good for you! So if you're not prayerful & you get hurt & you're not careful & you get bumped & you're not real cautious about sticking your fingers in your mouth, etc., & you get a fever, what is that? What are all these not-very-serious things? All these little bumps & scratches & small brief diseases & things like that which we sometimes get, sore throats & sniffles & back aches & a lot of other little things, what are they? (David: They're sicknesses.) But they usually happen because of what? (David: Because you're not being careful.) You're not being careful or prayerful, & the Lord is trying to do what? (David: Teach you.)--Teach you something! So is that good or bad? (David: That's good!)
21. What little the Lord lets happen to you is usually a spanking or a chastening, and therefore, are spankings & chastenings good for you or bad for you? Are they good or evil? (Children: Good!) Even if it's sickness? Even if it's a high fever? Even if it's a pimple or a bump or a scratch or a cut or even a broken bone? I had lots of broken bones! Well, I was always doing crazy, daring, dangerous things & the Lord was trying to teach me not to take those chances. He finally had to give me some pretty hard spankings!
22. So when He says He'll not let any evil befall you, anything really evil would have to be bad for you, right? But His little chastenings & bumps & scratches & bruises because of our own haste & carelessness, etc., are little spankings for being naughty, so are they good or bad for you? (Techi: Good!) So they're not evil! He won't let anything evil befall you! (Maria: It says "all things work together for good!"--Rom.8:28.)
PLAGUES, MOSQUITOES, MALARIA!
23. "Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling." You say, "But Grandpa, we've had a lot of little sicknesses!" Yes, but we haven't had any big plagues! Plagues kill you! Plagues, real serious diseases, kill you! We haven't had the Black Plague or Bubonic Plague, have we? That's a disease carried by rat fleas. They bite the rat & they get it from the rat & then they bite you & you get it! So you don't ever want to have anything to do with rats! There's another disease that little animals like that carry, they used to call it "mad dog fever" or hydrophobia, now they call it rabies. Small animals of the forest or even your pets can carry those things. Thank God we pray over our pets that they won't get any of those things.
24. (Techi: Mosquitoes can carry typhoid & yellow fever.) Mosquitoes, yes! And what are some other things they carry? They carry dengue fever, the one where your bones ache & feel like they're breaking! They used to call it "breakbone fever," I had it once. And there's another even more common one that is very common all over the World, especially in warm countries, especially in the backwoods of the warm countries where there are lots of swamps where mosquitoes breed, & especially carried by that big black-&-yellow striped anopheles mosquito. What is that terrible disease which they thought they had conquered for awhile but now it's spreading again? Come on, not even you adults can remember? (Maria: Malaria?) My goodness yes, malaria!
25. It comes from the Latin word "mal," also Spanish, meaning bad, a bad disease! "Mal" means bad. When somebody "mauls" you they treat you badly, only that's really another word! Well anyhow, it probably came from the same word! To maul you means to beat you up! Some of those diseases can sure beat you up, & beat you down too, & almost beat you out! But malaria is a lingering fever, & once you get it, sometimes it will go on & off, up & down for years. My brother had it, he got it in the South Pacific during the War.
26. (Techi: I think David Livingstone died of malaria.) Well, he might have died of malaria, but he was an old man, it was about time for him to quit his hard fight & hard work & go Home to Heaven. He was sick, that's true, but as you get older sometimes you have more sicknesses. (Maria: And every mosquito that bites you doesn't carry a disease.) No, don't worry about that! Grandpa's had probably thousands of mosquito bites & never necessarily got sick from any of them. But it just happens that some mosquitoes would happen to carry the disease, because they got it from somebody else. Don't blame it on the mosquito, he got it from somebody he bit, or she bit!
27. Actually it's not a he, it's a she, & they don't bite, they sting! (David: They need the blood for their babies.) Yes, they have to have that blood in order to reproduce, to feed their babies. They're bloodsuckers, & if you let'm bite you, you're a sucker! (Techi: But why?) Well, it just so happens that's the way the Lord made'm. I have a feeling that's His natural method of inoculation, of giving you just a little tiny bit of the disease so you won't get a real bad case of it. (David: No overdoses!) Yes, sometimes those mosquitoes give us an overdose! So malaria is a fever that can be pretty bad sometimes, & some people who are weak & get it too bad can die of it. (Editor: Mosquitoes can also cause encephalitis, a brain fever.) Thank God He doesn't let us get most of these diseases!
28. (Techi: What was that about your brother?) Good for you, you're always reminding me of the stories! She doesn't forget! She's my little reminder to remind me of the stories I was telling. She has a yen for stories!
DAD'S BROTHER DURING WW2!
29. Well, during World War 2, about 40 years ago, my brother was a Commander in the Armed Guard of the Navy. They called it the Armed Guard because their duty was to guard the Merchant Marine, that means the great big passenger boats that carried thousands of soldiers to the scene of the battles. They were having a lot of battles in the South Seas. So his duty was the on-board protection of all these soldiers & marines, etc., that were being sent to the battlefront in the Pacific, & he was a Commander in the Armed Guard. That was a pretty high officer position. He was in command, actually, of the whole ship, like a captain, sometimes carrying as many as 3,000 men on one ship. He was in charge of all the naval officers & men who manned the guns.
30. Even the Merchant Marine had guns put on them, especially anti-aircraft guns, & also depth bombs to drop on the submarines below, & anti-aircraft guns to shoot down the Japanese "Zero" planes that flew overhead. (Techi: What bombs?) The anti-submarine bombs. They called them depth charges because they were charged with a bomb & dropped to a depth & then they exploded way down under the water to try to destroy the Japanese submarines that were cruising around shooting torpedoes at the boats from underwater. A torpedo is a big long missile that was fired underwater.
31. The submarines would sneak up on the boats carrying all these soldiers, & they'd just stick up their little periscope & see the boat & "Ready...Aim...Fire!" They'd pull the trigger & a big long torpedo, from 10 to 20 feet long & more than a foot wide, would be fired out of a hole in the nose of the submarine. It had a little propeller on the back end that made it go, & it would go underwater right into the side of the ship, & with a big boom it would just blow up the ship!
32. So the submarines sneak up on them underwater, & when they're maybe a few hundred feet away they fire on them. Sometimes they can do it from even a thousand yards away, that's 3,000 feet, over half-a-mile. Torpedoes were really the first missiles that carried big bombs. They were so big & had such big bombs that if they hit the boat in the side they'd usually blow the boat in two or blow huge big holes in the side of the boat so it would sink right away & a lot of soldiers would drown, a lot of officers would get killed.
33. But to show you how the Lord protected my brother because he did know & love the Lord & was saved, he had three different ships shot out from under him, & he still didn't die or get captured! Isn't that wonderful? He had three different ships that he was naval Armed Guard commander of. He was in charge of all the guns on the ship that were to try to bomb the submarines or shoot down the airplanes. Savvy? The ship also had a captain who was usually merely a civilian officer. All ships have captains to direct them & to govern over the ship & make sure it runs right & lands in the right place & all that sort of thing, the one who is over the steering of the ship, etc. They have captains & they have all kinds of different officers. They mostly have navigators & that sort of thing. But my brother was in charge of the protection of the ship, the guns, in other words, & the naval officers & men who fired those guns & dropped the bombs, the depth charges.
34. And because there were so many subs around, Japanese subs & Japanese planes, the ships would travel in what were called "convoys" for self-protection. Do you know what a convoy is? We used to travel like that with all of our hippies! (David: It's a whole fleet of either cars or ships or airplanes.)--Yes, it's a whole group of them. Back on the road in '69, our vehicles would travel in big long lines. In the old covered wagon days, the settlers travelled in convoys too, & they'd all park in a circle at night to protect themselves from the Indians. Well, likewise the ships would sort of travel in a double line, & sometimes they would have naval escort ships, like little destroyers & submarines & whatnot around them to try to protect them. But a lot of times they didn't have enough Navy, so they had to try to depend on their own protection, their own guns on board.
35. Most of these mercantile ships or Merchant Marines were formerly passenger ships. They took some of the biggest, fanciest passenger ships & turned them into merchant marine ships to carry the soldiers. They called them "merchant marine" because they're merchant ships carrying marines & soldiers, etc. And they'd just put guns on them, they never had guns before. They put what they call "gun emplacements" on board the ships & on the decks of the ships to shoot the planes down & to try to bomb the submarines.
36. But because the ships were so poorly prepared & so poorly defended & it was so easy to pick them off by submarines & planes, they sank a lot of them, hundreds of them, & thousands of boys were drowned in the early days of the War before the U.S. got command of the air & the sea, meaning they got the superiority. But during those early days of the War after Pearl Harbor, the Zeros, that's a Japanese fighter plane, & the Japanese submarines sank a lot of ships, hundreds of them! I think it was 800-&-some in the South Pacific alone, with thousands of boys! Well, lots of the boys survived because they wore what they called Mae West lifejackets*, or they got into little inflatable rafts, little rubber rafts full of air, & they were saved, including my brother. He was on 3 different ships that got sunk! They call that "getting shot out from under you." The ship was shot out from under him, hit by subs or air bombs from above. *(Mae West was a famous actress who had big bosoms, & so the lifejackets were named after her.)
37. So he said the common motto of the naval Armed Guard unit which manned these ships & defended them was: "Sighted sub... Blub, blub!"--Because they usually got sunk! What does he mean by "sighted sub"? They saw a submarine, but too late!--It had already fired & its torpedo was comin' toward'm! Where does "blub blub" come from? Where did all the sailors & marines & soldiers & armed guard & the captain & everybody land when their ship got sunk? (David: In the water!) And if you don't know how to swim, what do you do?--Blub, blub ... you go underwater! (Techi: What does "sighted" mean?) It means we saw a sub. (Techi: Oh, sighted!) Yes, we saw a submarine. "Sighted sub...blub, blub!"
38. (Techi: But how did he get protected?)--The Lord! The Lord just did it, it's a miracle! (Techi: What did he do, jump off?) Yes, he had to jump in the sea, in a life jacket, & he had to get onto a life raft & that sort of thing. Then by & by friendly ships would pick'm up. See?--Or the other ships that didn't get sunk would pick'm up, because they usually didn't sink'm all. So the others, nearby destroyers or battleships, would come to their assistance & fish'm out of the "blub blub"!
39. But when they'd get to the end of their journey & disembark--that means unload all these soldiers & marines, etc., near the battlefront where they could go & fight the Japanese--the Naval Units, usually the sailors, would have a little time off to rest on that little island or something at some little hotel or barracks. And oh my, there were so many mosquitoes, & he got bit apparently by an anopheles mosquito that had malaria! The poor mosquito was already sick & bit my brother, stung him actually, & she unloaded a big dose of malarial germs & he got malaria! He had a high fever. And it hung on for several years. Malaria goes up & down. It gets in your blood & then when you get weak or rundown or tired or overworked & your resistance is down, the malaria goes up! The germs multiplied & made him get down sick again with a fever.
DAD'S BROTHER FIGHTS PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION!
40. Thank the Lord, he finally got over it, survived it, the Lord healed him, & he's now lived to the ripe old age of about 75! He's still alive & loves the Lord. I know he's sorry now that he didn't serve the Lord fulltime, but went into teaching instead. He graduated from college with a bunch of degrees & a Ph.D., which is the highest degree you can get. He first got his Bachelors degrees & Masters degree & then Ph.D. degree & went into work in education as the Vice President of three different colleges. It's funny how he got three ships shot out from under him & he got three colleges shot out from under him too--San Francisco State, Oakland State & San Jose State--because they had so much trouble with radicals in those days, in the sixties.
41. He was called the Vice President, & if you want to know the difference between a Vice President & the President, the President raises all the money & gets the biggest pay & the greatest glory while the Vice President does all the work & actually runs the college!
42. Anyway, my brother has lived a long time because he loved the Lord, so he's been protected by the Lord & lived through all those things, through the War & getting ships shot out from under him three times! He even went over & walked through the ruins of Nagasaki in the days when they knew nothing about radiation or nuclear contamination or anything! He & his guys went to the port of Nagasaki after the terrible atomic bombing & they were allowed to go ashore & walk through the ruins. It's a miracle of God that he was protected & didn't get radiation just from the ruins. In fact, he picked up one of the stones & sent it home to us as a souvenir! I don't know what ever happened to it, we must have lost it. I guess the Lord was in that because it probably had radiation!
43. So anyway, look how the Lord protected him! He's a good example of all this protection we're talking about. Even though he didn't go ahead & preach the Gospel & become a preacher or an evangelist like his Mother wanted him to be, he was a good influence in education. He was always trying to get them to do the right thing & fighting against modern education, so-called progressive education, in which the kids are just allowed to do as they please & never learn anything, never even learn to read or write!
44. A lot of kids that came to my school in the 7th & 8th grades, junior high school, couldn't even read or write yet! Think of that!--Because they went to public school where they didn't teach them anything! The teachers just sat around at a desk & read a book while the kids played around & did as they pleased.--Or the teacher would write the assignment on the board & wouldn't even talk to them! I couldn't blame them too much, they just gave up because the kids were so wild & unruly. They couldn't control'm so they just let'm horse around & play & do nothing & not read & not study, not write & not learn! So when they got to high school they didn't know anything yet!
45. My brother fought all that & he formed a committee of educators in California to fight it, Reform Educators, but they were way outnumbered by all the Columbia University grads & all the University of California grads who were radicals & a bunch of liberals & whatnot who didn't believe in the old-fashioned 3 R's--Reading, 'Riting & 'Rithmetic--so they never put the reforms into place.
46. So he finally got fed up with them! They wouldn't do the right things, the kids weren't learning, the teachers were no good, so he finally quit education. Well, he quit public education, government education, at least in the public schools & colleges, & he went into educational work in one of the biggest industries, the War industry, called the aerojet industry, that made rocket fuel for rockets & things like that.
47. He was an educational administrator, a supervisor over about 30 teachers who were teaching the 3,000 workers at Aerojet General near Sacramento. He got paid about four times as much teaching them, just a handful of teachers to teach those 3,000 workers, as he had gotten as a Vice President of colleges that had just as many students! So he made a lot more money that way.
48. The trouble was, he never knew how to take care of it! He spent more too. He always spent more than he could make till he finally went bankrupt & lost his house. (David: What did he spend it on?) Oh, he just liked to live high & have fancy cars & throw big parties & stuff like that. His wife was that way, she really led him astray. But he was that way too, he always liked to be popular & have a lot of friends, & he'd be too generous & pay too much for things. Although the house--a beautiful big home, a mansion in Oakland--was given to him by his rich aunt, my Father's sister, he frittered that away too by getting loans & mortgages on it, until finally he went bankrupt & lost his home, family, car, job, everything, because he was out of the Lord's Will, see?
AUNT ELLEN!
49. (Techi: Was that Aunt Ellen?)--Yes! It's amazing how Techi never forgets! She keeps her train of thought & she doesn't forget. Yes, Aunt Ellen, my rich Aunt, your Grandfather's sister, your Great Aunt. (Techi: Your brother was her little darling.) Yes, he was Aunt Ellen's pet because she raised him from when he was a baby till he was six years old, till after my Mother was healed. He was born just before your Grandmother had her accident & became an invalid, so she couldn't take care of him, so my Father gave him to my Aunt Ellen, his sister, & she raised him from the time he was a babe in arms till he was six years old. So how could you overcome that kind of a background? She was worldly, modernistic, a member of a modernistic, unbelieving church, a skeptic. She was one of the charter members of the biggest, richest Protestant church in Oakland, the First Methodist church. Talk about churchy, it's about as churchy as you can get, Systemite churchy, a big rich church run by a bunch of rich people!
50. So my poor brother didn't get very good training that way. He lived in a worldly home of Systemites who didn't pay any attention to the Bible, never read it, usually only went to church Sunday mornings just to hear the preacher, just to pretend they were good people. She was what the World would call a "good" person & did "good" things & all that, but she was a Systemite.
51. So what do you think you'd be like now if you were raised by a rich Systemite like my Aunt till you were six years old? It would be very hard to change you, right? So my brother became a Systemite. She pampered him & spoiled him & sent him off to boarding school*, high school, & then she sent him off to college & paid for his way through college. *(boarding school: an expensive private school where students live while they study, & only come home for holidays.) When they sent me there, she wouldn't pay for my way, because she considered me to be a member of the underworld of religion, the underground of religion. She called us "Gospel bums," "Gospel Gypsies," & said, "Why don't you join the mainstream of religion & join a church!" She knows better now since she's gone to be with Jesus. Because I think she did have faith in the Lord & I think my Mother or Dad even led her to the Lord. So we trust the Lord she's in Heaven, we hope. She died when she was about 93, when I was young. That was a long time ago! She died just before WW2 or during the War, something like that.
DYING OF OLD AGE!
52. (Techi: Did she just die of old age?)--Yes! I mean, what do you say somebody dies of when they're already 93? The doctors are all trying to say, "What did they die of?" My Mother was 86 when she died & the doctor said to me, "What should we put on the death certificate? What would you say the cause of her death was?" I said, "The cause of her death?! She was 86! She died of old age!" He said, "Oh no, the law won't allow us to put down old age, we have to put down some physical cause. I'll put down massive cardiac arrest."--That means a big heart attack. I said, "What's the matter, a person doesn't have a right to die of old age any more? You've got to put down some particular disease?" If I'd have said it wasn't just old age but the Lord took her, he would have really laughed then! So the System is really crazy! They're the nuts, not us! They call us nuts, but they're the nuts! We're sane!
53. (David: And they have to have a guard there until they figure out what they died of.) Yes. When I phoned for the doctor & told them that I thought she was dead--it was pretty evident she was dead--he came in a police car & the policeman came in & stood guard at the door until he made sure that we hadn't killed her or murdered her or poisoned her or shot her or something! They have to do that according to law because a lot of times people have "done in" their relatives to get their money or something!
DAD'S SISTER STEALS GRANDMA'S FURNITURE!
54. Well, my dear Mama, she didn't have any money, not much anyhow! I think maybe she had about $300 in the bank, just barely enough to cover her bills, & I had a terrible time getting that out. I was appointed executor of the estate. Thank God she left a will, & I was the executor of her will, & that's what my sister was furious about. My brother didn't much care, he was way up in Northern California, but my sister wanted to get all of her furniture & every little scrap of her things. She was very covetous & very jealous of me. But Mother in her will made me executor, that means the one who carries it out, the one who takes care of it, so I was supposed to handle the disposition of her furniture & give my sister her share. But my sister came & crawled through a window, broke open the door & came with a truck & hauled it all off & never left us a stick! We came home one day & the carpets, the pictures, the furniture, everything, was gone, it was just a bare house!
55. Well, then I went to her & begged her to please return at least my share, because we were living in the house then. Grandmother was gone & we were starting the Family & we needed the furniture, we needed beds, at least. I said, "Well, let us at least have the beds, we need beds & linens!" I asked her for it one evening & her husband said, "Get off the property or we're going to call the sheriff & have you arrested for trespassing!" I said, "OK, if you force me, I'll have to report you to the law that you broke in & stole the furniture, because I'm legally in charge of the things Grandma left!"
56. Well, I went home & thought about it & I gave her a little time. I said, "If you don't return that furniture within the next few days, I'm going to report you to the law!" Breaking & entering is a felony, you can go to prison for several years for it. (Techi: Did you?) I didn't have to. The next day or so while we were gone--she must have had her spies somewhere--she & her husband brought the truck back loaded with furniture & put all the furniture back in the house. She didn't keep a thing, because she was really afraid that I was going to report that she'd stolen all the furniture. So she went to the opposite extreme & put it all back to make sure that I couldn't complain. Well, she did keep a few pictures.--A picture of my Grandmother, Mormor, & Grandfather Farfar. I guess they figured they could get away with that. They were the only ones we had. But that's just to show you how bad my sister was, & how jealous & mean she was.
57. But my brother was never like that. That's one thing he wasn't, he wasn't covetous.--If anything, he was too generous! He was a very good boy. (Techi: But he did do a lot of bad things.) Oh, he was just a typical young naughty boy, typical American boy. A lot of times he didn't like me because I was my Mother's pet. My sister hated me for it, but my brother was just sort of aggravated about it, so once in awhile he'd play tricks on me & do things. Mostly he'd get me in fights with my sister. He'd tell my sister things about me because he knew my sister would carry out the dirty work & she'd beat me up & whatnot!
SELLING HOUSE-TO-HOUSE, 25-CENT-A-WEEK ALLOWANCE!
58. But later on he really always kept on the good side of me because he always needed money & I always had money! He never could keep a job because he wasn't diligent enough & he was always playing around with the girls & not really doing his work right. But I always was working somehow selling things & making money, even when I was David's age (11 years old). Think of that! I was out on the street going house-to-house selling magazines, newspapers, Cloverine salve, "Evening in Paris" perfume, amongst a few other things. In those days it was the Depression & if I wanted things that my Mother couldn't afford to get for us I had to earn the money myself!
59. I only had a 25-cent-a-week allowance, & I usually spent that on candy or cold drinks! Can you imagine Grandpa eating junk like that?--Candy, cold drinks or an extra piece of pie at the school cafeteria! The pie was only five cents, a nice big slice.--And a nice great big bar of candy 6 inches long for five cents!--And a great big "Nehi" bottle of chocolate! I didn't really like the cold drinks with the fizz or the carbonated water, I hated Coke & all that stuff, but I liked this chocolate drink called "Nehi" chocolate. (Techi: What is carbonated water?) They put carbon gas into the water. I told you about that gas in our class the other day, carbon dioxide gas is what it really is. (David: Mineral water?) That's carbonated too. Ugh, I hated it, it made me sick!
60. But "Nehi" was a new drink that was taller than the rest, chocolate milk! Actually, they couldn't even claim it was chocolate milk, they just called it chocolate drink, because it was made out of water & sugar & chocolate, but it sure tasted good when you were thirsty & hungry! And you could buy one for only a nickel! So I used to buy one of those usually almost every day after school before I went home. At 3 o'clock after school we'd always go across to the little corner grocery store & buy either a great big bar of candy or a great big "Nehi" chocolate! Sometimes when I felt very affluent or very rich, I would buy both a bar of candy & a "Nehi" chocolate! It's a wonder I've got any teeth left at all!
61. So I was always earning money because that 25 cents didn't go anywhere! But that's all they could afford to give us because our family income was only about ten Dollars a week, & that barely bought us enough food. Thank God the house was paid for, we didn't have to pay rent. We did have to pay utilities & electricity, & that ran about ten Dollars a month, a lot of money, & sometimes it got cut off because we couldn't pay it! (Tape alarm goes off!) Oh, don't tell me we've already gone another half hour! Oh no!
END OF STORY ABOUT HJALMER!
62. Well, I've got to finish telling you this story because it's a good illustration of how the Lord takes care of His Own! Because even though my brother wasn't the very best guy in the World, he loved the Lord & he tried to do the right thing, & he tried to help education. And especially during his last years--these are undoubtedly his last years, he's about 75 now--he has been in favour of us & loves us & approves of what we're doing in trying to help youth, because he was a teacher of youth for years too & he knew how much they needed. And although we send him money to help him because he's so poor, he even tithes out of that & sends us back money, think of that, to help our work. Isn't that sweet? Even though he's so poor.
63. After he lost his job with Aerojet & all of that, he tried several other business ventures & they all failed. He never had any business success, he never knew how to raise money. If he did make any, he didn't know how to hang onto it. So he always went broke, & finally bankrupt, which means you've got more debts than you have income & you can't meet your payments, & they come around & pick up your car & your furniture & finally take over your house & all the rest.
64. But the Lord kept him through all that & he's still alive, & even though he became so poor, guess what he did then? He went to running a little bookstore & selling books, new books, used books, trinkets, antiques & things like that.--And he's still doing it! He's got a little bookstore in a little town way up in Northern California. He runs this little bookstore on Main Street up there where he tries to sell books, & he's managed to make a living & the Lord has kept him all this time. He's also the curator of the local museum, & he has a little column in the newspaper called "Meditation Moments," always about the Lord. So now in his late years he's trying to do something for the Lord. He's a member of the local church & helps the church & helps the city & helps the poor & he's trying to kind of undo some of the damage he did when he was young. (Techi: What damage?) Well, he was pretty wild for awhile in Miami, that's why he got sent off to school.
65. But the point is, God's Word says, "Rear up a child in the way he should go" & what does it say? (David: "When he is old he will not depart therefrom."--Pro.22:6.) So he had to kind of wait till he got old before he didn't depart any more! But the Lord kept him through the War & all the shooting & everything! Think of it!
66. When he was a Commander of the Armed Guard, he said it was pitiful because the ships would be travelling side by side, & these enemy aircraft gunners would be flying along & trying to bomb'm. But then they did a very dirty thing sometimes, deliberately, it was almost a suicide mission. The Japanese bomber would fly down between the American ships & the anti-aircraft gunners were so busy keeping the gun aimed on the airplane that before they knew it, they were shooting at each other! Because the airplane would fly right along between the ships at ship level. He said, "We shot almost as many of our own men as we shot Japanese!" See, the American gunners would be shooting at the enemy airplanes as they were flying down, & pretty soon they were shooting each other while the plane was flying between the ships!
67. When the Japanese pilot did that, he was usually trying to drop a torpedo that would sink the ship. If they could fly down low like that, they could get the torpedo right in close. But the gunners on the ships would aim their guns down following the plane & pretty soon they were shooting right at each other & didn't realise they were doing it! Whether they managed to hit or miss the plane, either way, all their bullets were shooting at each other! See, they can't shoot the bullets into the plane all the time; most of the time, in fact, they missed the plane. But when they were missing the plane they were shooting at each other & they killed a lot of guys on board their own ships that way!
68. But my brother lived through it all, I don't think he ever got wounded. And he walked through Nagasaki right after the bombing & never got radiation poisoning that I know of. (Techi: Right after the atomic bomb?) Well, not too long after the bombing, it was some months later when the U.S. finally conquered Japan. My brother's ship tied up in Nagasaki as their port for shore leave & he walked through Nagasaki. (Techi: Because right after the bombing it was still in flames.)--Yes, & very very bad radiation. Thank God he wasn't there till several months later after they won the War. (Techi: But still months later...) Yes, it's radioactive for a long time.
69. (David: Well, if they made the bomb, wouldn't they know about radiation?) Well, Honey, the scientists & the guys on the inside knew, but the U.S. government deliberately hid the radiation aspects of the bomb. They hid it from the public for literally months or even years! They didn't want the general public to know what a bad bomb they were making, that it not only blew up people, but that it also poisoned them for years & years & years! They didn't want the public to know what a bad bomb it was, because they'd get a bad reputation like they have now.
70. So they didn't warn the public like they should have of radiation, & apparently those officers didn't know a thing about it! It wasn't publicised or anything yet & they just went out there & walked right through the ruins of Nagasaki, & he sent us a little rock from there. He said, "This is supposed to have radioactive properties" or something like that. They thought it was like having a piece of radium, they didn't know there was anything harmful about it! Thank God we didn't keep it around, we left it behind in one of our moves. When I was young we used to move often just like you do. We had to do a lot of forsaking & leaving things behind. Thank God! Look how much you get in return.
71. Anyway, that is to illustrate how the Lord can take care of us! "There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling. For He shall give His Angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways!" That's obvious, we know about our Guardian Angels! So my brother must have had an extra battalion of Guardian Angels to protect him through all he went through, maybe at least one extra one, because he sure was in lots of trouble!--And they kept him. And verse 12, "They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."
72. (Techi: Was he on one of the ships that were shooting at each other?) Oh yes! That's how he knew about it! He said, "It's terrible how many of my men were getting shot by our own people on the other ships!"--As well as getting bombed & strafed with machine guns from the Japanese planes. They sank three different ships from under him & he never died, isn't that wonderful? He never even got shot & always got picked up out of the sea afterward. "Sighted sub... blub blub!"--And apparently then he came up for air! He was a good swimmer, he was quite an athlete. And I think we can leave the rest of this Psalm for later.
73. So the Lord gave His Angels charge over my brother, & me too, that's for sure! I didn't have to be in the shooting war or anything, although we had a lot of close calls during the War. I did a lot of crazy things & daring things & dangerous things & climbs as a boy, I could have gotten killed hundreds of times, but I didn't, thank the Lord! I had all kinds of accidents, but the Lord took care of me!
WARTIME BLACK-OUTS!
74. (Techi: How did you have close calls during the War?) Boy, she sure picks up on things! During the War we had to ride around with our lights out at night in our cars, what they called "black-out." In those days they called black-out complete darkness, no lights. And right after Pearl Harbor they thought Los Angeles was going to get bombed right away, so everybody had to keep their lights out at night & keep their curtains drawn, & if you went out to drive at all you had to drive around without any lights. Can you imagine how dangerous that would be at night? Well, actually the traffic just crawled because they could hardly see each other. The cars just crawled along slowly because they couldn't have any lights! Can you imagine driving a car without any lights on at night in the dark?! You're apt to bump into anything, or other cars!
75. Later they let us have our parking lights on, but you had to have the tops of them covered so they couldn't be seen from the air. They were afraid the Japanese would come & follow the lights of the city to bomb it, so they had all the lights turned off, no street lights, no lights, nothing! The city was totally black! (David: What are parking lights?) Little tiny lights on the back & on the front of a car. Not the headlights, just a little tiny light so that when you've stopped & parked, or somewhere out where you have to stop by the side of the road, you won't be in total darkness so that somebody runs into you, but you have a few little lights on.
76. (Techi: How did you keep the tops covered?) You put masking tape over them. See, there's a little globe & you put the tape over the top of it so there was only light coming out down this way. And later on they even got liberal enough they let us drive with our dim headlights on. But again, the headlight had to have the tape completely over the top half. Then the light only shone out the bottom half which couldn't be seen from the air by the planes that came to bomb. (Techi: But couldn't they look down on the street & see?) Well, Honey, in pitch black dark you can't see very well from a plane high up! You can't see the town at all if all the lights are out, unless it's a moonlit night.
77. Anyway, PTL! My brother & I lived through all those things & all those days & he's 75 & the Lord has kept us & we're both in pretty good health! I'm in a lot better health than he is, of course. PTL! So our Guardian Angels have been taking care of us because we love the Lord, & he loves the Lord now a lot more than he used to. But he always did have faith in the Lord & tried to be a good boy. So that's a good illustration of how the Lord takes care of you! But He's taken even better care of me because I took better care of His business. Okay, let's pray! Techi, it's your turn.
CLOSING PRAYER!
78. (Techi: Thank You Lord for this good class, & for the good illustration Grandpa got to tell us about his brother & all that he lived through, even though he wasn't as careful as Grandpa or didn't do the things that You wanted him to do, but he still tried to be a good boy, Lord. So please bless him & thank You for saving Grandpa & him out of all their troubles that they went through. Please help us to have a good day, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen!) Amen, thank You Lord!
79. Pray for your Uncle Hjalmer because he's had a stroke. He's now partially paralysed & he's in a wheelchair. But even that has made him sweeter, more humble & closer to the Lord. See, all these things that the Lord allows to happen to us are not really evil, because they're good for us! TTL!
80. So let's pray the Millennial Prayer together! This is really a prayer for the Millennium! (Techi: In the Millennium we won't be praying "Thy Kingdom come.") We won't be praying like that any more because the Kingdom of God will already be come! It's come in our hearts already! PTL! TYJ! Amen, Lord, thank You Jesus for keeping us all these years, & keeping us in Thy Work most of all, to do a lot of good work for You, Lord, & win lots of souls for Thy Kingdom! So we thank Thee for this prayer that You taught us to pray: (Prays the Lord's Prayer) Do bless & keep us today now & make us a blessing! PTL! God bless you all! Goodbye! Let me kiss you! You can do whatever you want to today, children, because it's free day & we trust you. (David: It's still raining, my oh my!) Well, into each life some rain must fall! TYL!