ABIDE IN YOUR CALLING!--By Father David DO960 3 August 1980
1. RADIO BROADCASTING IS AN ART! I know, because my mother was on in Miami about 14 years, & a lot of other places to. You've got to have a special talent for it like Simon has. You've got to have the voice for it, the feeling for it, almost passion for it--a passion for souls! You've got to really feel those people out there like you're really getting through to them. You can't except to learn radio in one little tiny broadcast & two announcements, it's a lifetime thing!
2. YOU HAVE TO HAVE THE VOICE FOR IT, THE PASSION FOR IT & THE FEELING FOR IT! You've got to really know how to project both your voice & your personality over the airwaves. It's a special talent, just like acting, being a musician or anything else. It's a special talent & you have to work on it & develop it & you have to have training for it, too. When my mother was young she went to dramatic school & elocution school that taught all the things that had to do with speaking & talking, acting etc., & it helps.
3. SIMON WAS A SHAKESPEAREAN ACTOR!--He's got the voice, the diction, the English, the dramatics for it. He's got the feeling for it! He can project that feeling & that melodrama, whereas this other voice we tried is pretty flat, it doesn't have the punch or the verve to it that Simon's has. It would never make it on the English show.
4. HE JUST HASN'T GOT THE VOICE OR THE FEELING OR THE TALENT FOR IT, that's all. He just hasn't got that punch, he just doesn't get through to you like Simon does. (Maria: Is it conceivable that he could put the shows together, write the words & let someone else speak them?) I doubt it. It has to be almost ad-libbed, it's almost got to be spontaneous the way it's given, & he hasn't got that real spontaneity.
5. (MARIA: WELL, SIMON NEVER DOES ANYTHING SPONTANEOUSLY, HE ALWAYS WRITES OUT EVERY WORD.) Yes, but he has a spontaneous way of saying it. It sounds extemporaneous, it sounds like he's ad-libbing, it's so natural with such verve & spirit & fervour & real drive to his voice. The other fellow is great on paper, so you'd better let him stick to paper. He just hasn't got the voice for radio.
6. IT'S JUST KIND OF A PERSONALITY YOU HAVE TO HAVE, it's a real dramatic performer's or actor's personality that you've got to have. (Maria: He's a Libra & Simon's Sagittarian & that makes a big difference too.) Uh huh. You've just got to have a vibrant personality & actor's talent that Simon has--he knows how to get across his act.
7. THE OTHER FELLOW HAS A SMALL VOICE THAT JUST DOESN'T PACK THE WALLOP WITH A PUNCH THAT SIMON HAS! It's almost a shy, timid little voice, & that's probably why he comes across so good on paper. There he can really unfold & unroll & sock away, but otherwise he hasn't got it for radio.
8. I THINK IF HE WERE IN HIS OWN LANGUAGE HE'D DO BETTER. He knows he has an accent & he stumbles a little bit sometimes on words, but I think if he were working on an all-Latin show in his own language in Spanish, I think he would possibly be tolerably effective. They could try it to see how he is. (Maria: May we could find somebody with a real burden for it.) Well yes, you've got to have somebody alive.
9. IT TAKES SOMEBODY WITH A LOT OF VERVE & FIRE & DRAMATIC PERSONALITY. I've never known whether he has a dramatic personality, he can write pretty dramatically, but I think he only comes across on paper really. You've got to have somebody like Faithy--she's a dramatic public personality & she really comes across! Whether it's just on tape or radio or whether in person, she's got that flair for it!
10. IT'S A CERTAIN TALENT, A GIFT, & IT'S JUST THERE, THAT'S IT! She's always had it. Ever since she was two years old, she's ways wanted to be something like that & do something like that. You've got to have a real talent for it, you've just got to know you can do it, that's all.
11. YOU KNOW YOU'VE GOT IT, YOU KNOW YOU CAN DO IT, YOU KNOW YOU CAN PUT IT ACROSS, & all you have to do is work on it & polish it. It's just something that's in you that God gives you, that's all! "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called." (ICo.7:20.) That's just not his calling, that's all, it's not his talent. He's great on paper, let him stick to his papers!
12. (MARIA: WELL, NOW THAT WE'VE FOUND THAT OUT, HOW DO WE TELL HIM OR SHOW HIM?) I think he knows. You don't have to say anything about it. The best thing to do is just drop it & forget it. (Maria: Well, he's continued to do a lot of work on it to polish it up.) Just tell him to work on the Spanish Show, maybe with a little bit of Portuguese mixed in. (Maria: Yes, I think he'd be better on that, but like you say, because of those other reasons, I don't think he would be...) No, I don't think he's the best for it by any means.
13. THE SPANISH SHOW NEEDS SOMEBODY WITH A LOT OF REAL SPANISH FIRE & DRIVE! If a staid Britisher can put that much fervour & fire & verve & drive into a radio show that dear Simon can, imagine how much more fiery a Spanish announcer is going to have to be! The Spanish are really fiery & dramatic, & it's going to have to be somebody who's already got proven talent along that line.
14. YOU JUST CAN'T TAKE SOMEBODY RIGHT COLD RIGHT OFF THE SHELF & PUT THEM INTO THAT KIND OF THING any more than you could grab a guy & hand him a violin & say, "Here, play the violin!" It's impossible! It's a talent! In the first place, it's a gift for music, & then you've got to have years of training & experience. You just can't come right off the shelf & bang bang away!
15. LET'S FACE IT, I WAS IN A SENSE IN DRAMATICS NEARLY ALL MY LIFE, on the stage & part of the show--whether I liked it or not, I was. I was forced to get out there lots of times when I didn't like it, but when I did, I came across! It was born in me, I had the talent, it was a gift of God!--I'd had years of training under my mother & it just came across.
16. EVEN MY FATHER HAD YEARS OF DRAMATICS & TRAINING & PERFORMANCE ON STAGE before he got into the ministry. God just used the talent & turned it for His own use. You've got to have a dramatic personality to be able to put that sort of thing across.
17. LET'S FACE IT, RADIO IS SHOW BUSINESS! You've got to be an actor or actress or performer or singer or musician or something, you can't just come cold right out of the literary field & expect somebody to have the voice or the talent or the projection or personality for it. It's just not his line, that's all, it's not his talent & he needs to stick to paperwork. (Maria: Well, I guess we had to try him to find it out.)
18. I DON'T THINK I EVER HEARD HIS VOICE BEFORE, HOW COME? (Maria: Well yes, but we didn't remember it. He was with us for that one meal but that was all.) Well, he never said a word, I did all the talking! I was on stage, I was performing.
19. JUST BECAUSE I SAY THAT I WAS PERFORMING DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT'S NOT TRUE or that you're just putting on an act. You can be performing & putting on an act of the Truth, but giving it drama & melodrama & force & fire & conviction can really get it across, like Simon does.
20. WELL, IT SHOULDN'T BE TOO HARD TO TELL PEOPLE, IT JUST ISN'T YOUR BAG, it's just not your particular field, it's not your calling. God's Word says, "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called!" God knows what He's called everybody for, what their talent is for, what they're best at, & he's best with words on paper! He's excellent!
21. HE HAS GOT A BRILLIANT MIND! He'll do what you tell him to & do this research & find out the information & get it down, & he has done excellently well on researching this information & making those charts. (Maria: And translations.) Excellent! He'd be wasting his time on radio. I don't think he can even do, as you say, a Spanish Show, because he's not an actor, he hasn't got the fire that an actor has to have.
22. IF YOU'RE ON RADIO, YOU HAVE TO BE AN ACTOR, A SINGER, A MUSICIAN, DRAMATIC! It's dramatics, let's face it, it's stage, drama! It's theatricals, it's an art! You have to be born with the talent to begin with, & then you have to develop it as an art. You have to have the experience or you'll never make it.
23. IT'S LIKE ASKING SOMEBODY TO SUDDENLY STEP OUT ON STAGE & START ACTING WITHOUT ANY EXPERIENCE, training or even the talent or even the voice!--It's ridiculous! If you haven't got it, you haven't got it! That doesn't mean that it's a heartbreaking thing. I'm not heartbroken because somebody hands me a violin & I can't play you some concerto, it's not my calling.
24. I'D LOVE TO BE ABLE TO PLAY CONCERTOS, BUT IT TAKES A LIFETIME TO LEARN HOW, a lifetime of training, & it takes a musical talent for it. I might have the music in me & the ear for it, but you've got to learn how to do it, & you don't just learn overnight! If you haven't got the born talent & feeling for it, forget it!
25. "LET EVERY MAN ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN HE IS CALLED!" God knows what He called you for. He knows your talent & He knows your special assets; He knows your liabilities too, & you'd better stay out of them! You need to do what you're best suited for.
26. WE'VE GOT TOO MANY THUMBS TRYING TO DO THE WORK OF FINGERS, & fingers trying to do the work of thumbs, then we get to be all thumbs! Everybody wants to be a thumb instead of a finger because thumbs are bigger & more important & scarcer, but not everybody can be a thumb! Like the Lord once said about Aaron, you can't bend the thumb around & make a finger out of him just like everybody else, they're just different!
27. EVERYBODY HAS GOT THEIR TALENTS, THEIR CALLING, THEIR GIFT, & if they're going to be useful to God's Kingdom they've already had their training & their experience. You can't just stick'm suddenly into anything. Nearly everybody we've got that's doing some particular, highly refined, highly technical or highly experienced job had some kind of experience in either that kind of work or something very similar, or has a real talent & knack for it & had already learned it.
28. WE'VE GOT BOOKKEEPERS WHO WERE BOOKKEEPERS, musicians who were musicians, announcers who were announcers, performers & actors which were performers & actors! God didn't just pick somebody raw & stick the bookkeeper on the stage & tell him to start acting, or grab an actor & say, "Here's the books, keep the books!" (Maria: We used to do that in the Family all the time! Not us personally, but that's what they did constantly.) That's ridiculous!--But that's the Chain for You!
29. I EVEN WROTE SOMETHING ON THAT A LONG TIME AGO, I REMEMBER. In the early days when Jeth was in charge of business I told him, "You can't just grab any raw guy & have him keep the books! Find a bookkeeper! Find somebody that's got business talent! You can't just grab anybody to keep the books, you've got to find somebody who knows how!
30. YOU CAN'T JUST GRAB ANYBODY & GO INTO CYBERNETICS & COMPUTERS & BUSINESS MACHINES OR TYPING! What do you do, just grab some girl off the stage & stick her behind the typewriter & tell her to start typing? It's ridiculous! It's impossible! Neither do you grab some typist & stick her on the radio or stage, just boom like that, unless she already has the gift or the talent & some training & experience.
31. I'M NOT SAYING IT'S NOT POSSIBLE FOR AN ACTRESS TO BE A TYPIST OR A TYPIST TO BE AN ACTRESS, but you usually have one strong talent & God will use that. I'm a singer, at least I was, & God used that talent for years, but He knew that wasn't my best talent. I'm a speaker, at least I was, & God used it for years. I was more or less on stage, on platform, I spoke, I sang, I directed the crowd, so to speak, led the music etc.
32. I NEVER DREAMED I'D BE A WRITER, & I'M STILL NOT REALLY A WRITER IN A WAY. (Maria: You're a speaker!) He knew I had a talent & He had already given it to me. After all, He ought to know, He gave me the talent in the first place & He knew I was going to use it in the long run.
33. I WAS BORN FOR THE JOB! The Lord knew what He was going to do with me before I was ever born! I was designed like a vessel or a machine or a special part. I was made for the job. God made me, He designed me for it. He gave me the talent & everything I would need for it, & then He gave me the years of training for it & experience & spiritual training & then spiritual gifts--tools--or His gifts so He could use me as His tool.
34. HE BEGAN TO POUR IT ON & I BEGAN TO POUR IT OUT! I'm just a vessel, a pipe, but I'm a good pipe, praise the Lord! (Maria: Amen!) He pours it in one end & I pour it out the other! So you just can't grab somebody out of one kind of an occupation & stick him in another without any gift or talent for it or preparation or training. It's just ridiculous!
35. THE LORD CREATED SIMON TO BEGIN WITH, HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS GOING TO DO WITH HIM! He made him, He designed him for the job, He gave him the talent & the gifts. He gave him the knack & the know-how & the desire for it, & he was already in acting & Shakespearean acting & a disc jockey! He'd been both before we ever got ahold of him!
36. NOW GOD'S USING ALL OF HIS ABILITIES: His acting talent, his dramatic talent & his disc jockey know-how, He's using the whole thing on the show. He was made for the job, he's God's man for the job, & I don't see how we could have anybody better! I like him! I love his work on the radio. He's just perfect for the job, TTL! It had better not go to his head, but if he sticks close to the Lord & keeps being inspired & led of the Lord, he'll make it!
37. IF YOU DON'T LET THE LORD LEAD & LET THE LORD DO IT THROUGH YOU with the instrument that He has made & gifted & talented & experienced & trained for the job, no matter how good you are, even God-made, if you don't let God lead you'll still flunk!
38. YOU'VE GOT TO BE INSPIRED, THAT'S ALL! It's just a certain spark that you've gotta have! I said the same thing about VSs: You've gotta be inspired to be a VS, it's a special calling, it's like an evangelist. You have to be just about as dramatic as an evangelist & as much of a show person as an evangelist to go around & visit like that & inspire people & have inspirations & stir'm up, wake'm up, break'm up & shake'm up!--Just like Faithy!
39. FAITHY'S JUST A BORN EVANGELIST & INSPIRATIONALIST, SHE'S EXCELLENT AT IT! She's in her glory when she's on stage & she's performing & she's the center of the show, because that's what God made her for. That's her talent, that's her gift, that's her calling, that's what she's supposed to do, & when she stays in her calling she does great! (Maria: And she's in it now, right?)
40. THANK GOD, I BELIEVE SHE'S IN IT, SHE'S ON STAGE!--Both on radio, recording, singing, speaking, whatever--& also the spiritual leader of the flock there. Those are her talents, praise God! "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called!"
41. IF YOU'RE A BUSINESSMAN, IT DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE AN ACTOR. And if you're an actor, it doesn't mean you're a good bookkeeper! We've got top-notch bookkeepers, but they were in bookkeeping & they had years of training at it & education & experience in it long before they came to us! At least they had the talent for it if nothing else.--And secretaries & stenographers the same: It takes preparation!
42. LOOK HOW GOD PREPARED MARIA FOR HER JOB!--Years of spiritual background & training that she needed, knowledge of the Lord & His Word & spiritual things & gifts that God gave her, the Holy Spirit & gifts of the Spirit.
43. GOD MADE HER, HE FITTED HER FOR THE JOB & HE GIFTED HER FOR THE JOB & talented her & gave her the years of training & experience for it that she needed in the Lord's work as a poor preacher's daughter, in church work & even music, singing, playing the piano. She knows music, she knows a little bit of everything!
44. THEN SHE WAS A SECRETARY, a legal stenographer, shorthand, typing, working as a lawyer's secretary. That's all very important work & it was all very highly specialised work & had to be accurate & had to be good & she had to be able to do it well, fast & exactly!
45. GOD FITTED HER FOR THE JOB! He gifted her & talented her for the job, He prepared her for it, He made her for it, He trained her for it, He even gave her the experience for it, & then when He was ready to use her--BOOM!--He put her in it overnight, just like that!
46. I AM A GREAT ONE FOR HEREDITY, FOR ONE THING. If you're born in a Christian family & have lived in it all your life with the knowledge of God & His Word & spiritual things & life in the Spirit and spiritual experiences, experience in God's work, you've got a headstart on everybody else! Of course God'll use you if you let Him, because He prepared you for the job & that's what He made you for & that's what He put you in our kind of a family for.
47. GOD'S HAD TO ROB THE DEVIL OF A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT WE HAVE. He's had to take them out of what was almost the Devil's business, other lines of business & work. The Lord made them & designed them & prepared them & gifted them for the work, but the Devil got ahold of them & kept them busy in his field, like Simon in acting or disc jockeying, for years before they found the Lord. Then the Lord jerked them out of it & took all that talent, experience & training to use it for the Lord!
48. IT JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN OVERNIGHT! There's no such thing as a star that just becomes a star overnight, stars are born. Like my school superintendent told me, "Teachers are born, not made!" He said, "You've got the talent for it, the knack for it!"--& he was right!
49. I AM A TEACHER & I'VE HAD YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AT IT & YEARS OF TRAINING & IT'S MY GIFT. That's what I spend most of my time doing, just teaching the Family. But then God also added to that, prophecy, praise God, & other talents that were necessary for leadership & for guidance & knowing the mind of God & finding out what God wanted us to do.
50. SO HE TOOK IT ALL, ROLLED IT ALL TOGETHER & GAVE ME A GOOD SECRETARY to dictate it to & type it up & even write the Word in the middle of the night in the dark in shorthand, & He fitted both of us ahead of time & made us a team when ready!
51. FINALLY WHEN HIS TIME CAME HE PUT US TOGETHER & WE EXPLODED BECAUSE WE WERE GOD'S EXPLOSION. We were just like a time bomb made by the Lord with all the intricate parts & special power of the Spirit, explosive, but with special important mechanical/electronic parts that had to be designed & made & put together right in order to explode at the right time--& we did! TG!
52. IT'S ALL IN THE HANDS OF THE LORD, & if God hasn't actually created you & made you & trained you & given you the experience for the job & the talent for it, the gift for it & it's not your calling, you might as well forget it! You might be able to handle it, & if you had to you might be able to do it in a pinch & try to & maybe fill in the gap if there's nobody else or nothing else.
53. BUT IF IT'S NOT YOUR CALLING & IT'S NOT YOUR BEST, YOU'RE NOT GOING TO DO YOUR BEST AT IT because it's not your field. It's not the thing you're prepared for, made for, trained for, experienced for, & you just can't expect a square peg to fit a round hole! It just won't work, that's all! A round hole is made for a round peg & it's gotta be made to fit the hole!
54. NEITHER WILL A ROUND PEG FIT A SQUARE HOLE, IT JUST WON'T! You may get it in the hole, but it won't fill it up right, it won't be the right kind of a dowel. If you know anything about what dowels are, they use wooden dowel pegs to fit furniture together & the dowel has got to be exactly the right size. The holes have got to be exactly the right size in the right place & the right length & everything, & if not, it just won't work!
55. SIMON'S GOT THE GIFT OF GOD FOR IT! I don't doubt that he was made for it, created for it, born for it, born to it! I don't know anything about his background or family, but I wouldn't be surprised there might be some of that in his family heredity.
56. I CAME FROM A LONG LINE OF PREACHERS & ACTORS, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! My mother was a great preacher, an actress really, & she was an actress, performer & singer before she ever started preaching. Her father was an actor for years before he started preaching, & then he was a preacher.
57. MY FATHER WAS ON STAGE FOR YEARS AS A SINGER & A PERFORMER, AN ACTOR, BEFORE HE EVER STARTED PREACHING & TEACHING. His father before him & his father's brother were actors, singers, minstrels & gymnasts who toured Sweden putting on performances & making money at it. It's born in me! I'm the third generation of both actors & preachers & singers, it's hereditary!
58. I THINK MAYBE YOU CAN'T EVEN MAKE THE TOPS UNLESS YOU HAVE TWO OR THREE GENERATIONS OF IT BEHIND YOU ALREADY! Fred used to say, "You guys might as well forget ever trying to catch up with me & Dave--we've got three generations ahead of you! We were born to it & we've got 3 generations of it in us already! We're so far ahead of you you'll never catch up! Forget it! Don't try to be a Dave or a Fred or somebody you can't be, it's impossible!"
59. "ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN YE ARE CALLED!" Do what God called you to do. Find the job that God fitted you for, He made you for, He gifted you for, He talented you for, He designed you for, He created you for & He gave for the training in & the experience in, do that job. And the fact is, if you're doing well, it's probably the one you're already in, or you wouldn't even be here!
60. EVERYBODY WE'VE GOT ON OUR LITTLE TEAM THAT'S LIVING WITH US RIGHT NOW HAS HAD BACKGROUND & EXPERIENCE IN THE JOB THAT THEY'RE DOING, believe it or not--some at least. And it's rarely that God just shoves you into a job that's totally foreign & unnatural for you & that you've got absolutely no talent & no gift for, no training for, no experience in, & that you're just totally unsuited & unfitted for, & yet makes a success out of you in that job! I just don't believe it!
61. IT WOULD BE THE RAREST KIND OF A MIRACLE! I'm not saying it can't happen, I'm not saying God couldn't do it, but God's got a lot of common sense besides a lot of uncommon sense. He's not stupid enough to just take tools that aren't suited for the job, or make tools that aren't suited for the job.
62. HE MAKES'M! HE DESIGNS THE TOOLS & HE MAKES'M FOR THE JOB! Why would He use some other tool that's not suited for the job, that's suited for some other job? If you don't already know it, you need to find the calling wherein you are called. Find out what your calling is, & it shouldn't be too hard to do--just look back:
63. WHAT WERE YOUR PARENTS? WHAT WERE YOUR GRANDPARENTS? What special talents or gifts or training or callings or occupations or professions did they have? You'll probably see some back there in them somewhere. And look at yourself, what kind of talent do you have? What kind of gifts do you have?
64. WHAT PARTICULAR PROCLIVITIES & SPECIAL TALENTS DO YOU HAVE? What kind of training did you have? What were you trained for, educated in? What kind of experience have you had? What experience did God see to it that you had?--In what kind of a job or a performance or dramatics or theater or music or business or mechanics were you trained for or best at? These are all vital essential jobs.
65. A MECHANIC CAN BE JUST AS INSPIRED AS A MUSICIAN! In fact, a musician is a mechanic in a way! Some people are just gifted mechanically--I am! I have an unusual array of talents, heredity, background, experience & gifts, because I had to know just about a little bit of everything!
66. I'M A JACK OF ALL TRADES! I MAY BE A MASTER OF NONE OR MAYBE ONLY MASTER OF ONE--& THAT'S TALKIN'--BUT GOD INSPIRED ME TO TALK! When I was little I was very shy & wasn't talkative at all, I didn't know I had such talent, but it was born in me & inherited from my mother & grandfather & my father & his father & on down the line from both directions, & I sat & heard it all my life.
67. I HEARD PEOPLE TALKING & I READ & READ & READ & I built a vocabulary in my little computer of words & expressions & ways to speak. I don't have to stop & think about it! With the inspiration of the Holy Spirit it just flows like it's flowin' right this minute! It just comes out of my heart! "Out of the fulness of the heart, the mouth speaketh!" (Lk.6:45.)
68. BUT I HAVE A TRAINED MOUTH & I'VE GOT A STORED HEART, & IT'S BEEN STORING UP IN MY HEART FOR YEARS, & my mouth has been getting experience in saying it for years. Don't forget I was a teacher for years, learned to use my mouth publicly & out loud. You can spend your whole life storing it up in your heart, but if you can't get it out your mouth it'll never do anybody any good!--Or if you can't get it out your pen, write it or dictate it or something, it'll never make it!
69. I'VE BEEN STORING IT FOR YEARS & HAD THE TRAINING & THE BACKGROUND, THE TALENT, THE GIFTS, EVERYTHING FOR IT, & FINALLY GOD OPENED MY MOUTH! He said, "Open your mouth & I'll fill it"--& He sure did!--But He'd been filling it for years already! He'd been storing it in my little computer, storing it in my heart for years before it ever came out my mouth in any abundance. Well, it had been there a long time, after all--I'd been on stage & singing & preaching & teaching for years!
70. SO IT WAS ALL THERE: THE TALENT, THE TRAINING, THE EXPERIENCE, THE KNACK FOR THE JOB! I was already in the calling wherein I was called, & God just finally promoted me to where I could reach the World & reach millions instead of just a few hundred.
71. SO YOU NEED TO FIND THE CALLING WHEREIN YOU'RE CALLED & STICK TO IT! That's one thing I had to lecture Simon on before, "Shtick" (see No.703.) "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called!" I think I even put this in that Letter, didn't I? I should have if I didn't! Well, this is it, anyhow, if it's not.
72. WELL, YOU'D BETTER ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN YOU ARE CALLED, OR YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN TROUBLE! I left my calling several times & I had nothing but trouble every single time. God had me on one road, He had me on the main highway to where He wanted me to go, & every time I took a side road or one of my shortcuts, I didn't do anything but get lost & lose time & had to get back on the main highway again.
73. (MARIA: WELL, WHAT IF A PERSON DOESN'T SHTICK?) Then God will raise up a man to stand in the gap! The Lord will do it when the time comes. I wouldn't be surprised it would be somebody right there on the spot. I think if anybody, maybe Faithy could do it! Somebody that's got that verve, drive, dramatic personality!--Like Topaz! Of course, she'd need to be trained for the job & get some experience in it.
74. (MARIA: BUT THEN WE AREN'T SUPPOSE TO WORRY ABOUT LOOKING AHEAD IN THE FUTURE?) Any employer, any general of an army, any political leader, any spiritual leader should always be looking around for talent & preparing it & using it all he can use it, always! Faithy might not be able to do it Simon's way, but she would do it Faithy's way & she comes across on tape. She comes across on radio, we've heard her!--& so does Topaz!
75. WHEN FAITH GETS TURNED ON, YOU LIGHT HER FIRE, SHE BURNS! I mean, she goes!--And people know it & they listen & they're fascinated to watch her flame burn! She's on fire! She may not do it like Simon does it, but she'll do it like Faithy does it! God will prepare & raise up somebody, & it'll probably be somebody that's right there.
76. BUT AS DEAR & AS TALENTED AS THE OTHER IS ON PAPER, & brilliant mind & analytical & good for research & all kinds of other things, I don't consider that public performance is necessarily his talent. He's probably never had any experience in it & probably never done much of it because it's just not what he was made for!--But Simon was! Faithy was! Jeremy was! Topaz was!--& others were!
77. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THE LORD COULD MAKE JEREMY FOR THE JOB IF HE HAD TO! If he could put on those performances & those imitations & things like that, God can pull him out of his shell where he wouldn't be so quiet and shy! If he can come out on a guitar the way he does, God can make him speak if He had to! He wouldn't be Simon, he'd be Jeremy! He wouldn't be Faithy, he'd be Jeremy!--And so would Faith be Faith & Jeremy, Jeremy & Topaz, Topaz!
78. "ABIDE IN THE CALLING WHEREIN YOU ARE CALLED!" DO THE THING THAT GOD DESIGNED YOU FOR & made you for & gifted & talented you for & hereditaried you for & trained you for for years & educated you for & really borned you for & then gave you years of experience besides!--Or maybe it was only months of experience, who knows?
79. YOU SAY, "WELL, I'M NOT DOING WHAT I WAS DOING IN THE WORLD BEFORE" or "this isn't what I got my education for & my training for, & this isn't what my parents did.--I'm doing something totally different!" Well, maybe you were trained in the wrong profession to begin with! Maybe you were a square peg in a round hole to start with, & God just got you out of the wrong place & put you in the right place.
80. MAYBE THEY WERE TRAINING YOU TO BE A BUSINESSMAN WHEN YOU WERE AN ACTOR, or a musician when you were a businessman! Or maybe they were trying to train you to be a scientist when you're a musician. But in God's work you finally found your calling, you found your place, your proper hole, your proper niche where God can really use you & which He made you for to begin with & talented you for & the whole works. So praise the Lord!
81. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, SEEK THE LORD & FIND HIS WILL, like I've said so many times before. God's will for you is what He made you for. He probably even gave you the right parents & grandparents for it & has sowed the seed in you to bring to full flower today, now, when it's needed. So why on the Earth should you be trying to do something else that you're not fitted for, trained for, educated for, experienced in & is just not your calling?
82. DON'T TRY TO DO SOMETHING THAT YOU JUST CAN'T DO--something you just weren't fitted for, trained & gifted for & you have no experience in. That's nothing to be ashamed of! I'm not ashamed of the fact I'm not a politician. Well, I don't know, maybe I am! I'm supposed to be a king! I've got to try to think of something I'm not ashamed I'm not. I'm having a little hard time thinking of anything I'm not. I started to say I'm not ashamed I'm not a musician, but I am a musician!
83. I'M NOT ASHAMED I'M NOT A VIOLINIST, IT'S NOT MY CALLING! I didn't have years of training, experience & the knack for it. I never could see how anybody could push that thing across those squeaky strings & make any kind of music at all, especially when you have no frets & no keys & you just have to guess at where it's supposed to land & where you're supposed to put your fingers!
84. THAT'S THE MOST DIFFICULT INSTRUMENT I EVER SAW! How could anybody ever play a violin? I never had any desire for it, never had any talent for it, never even cared to try to play the violin!--Especially the squeaky squeaky violin that my little boyfriend had to play everyday & had lessons on! That thing would drive you out of your mind!: Squeak! Squeak! Squeal! Squeal! I mean, it was horrible! But he was just learning, he was just a kid & just getting started. Well, obviously he never did have the talent for it--he wound up as a major in the Air Force where he was a hero in WWII!
85. (MARIA: WELL, WE HAVE TOW PROFESSIONAL VIOLINISTS AT MWM NOW!) They're gorgeous! I love violins, I love violin music! It's one of my favourite kinds of instruments, but I never had a desire to try to play one. My few little experiences trying to play my friend's violin cured me of that in a hurry! All I heard was horrible shrieking, screaking, squeaking, squealing noises & I thought, "My God, I'll never learn to play this thing!" But I grabbed my saxophone & went right to it & made music!
86. AND I COULD SING!--I DIDN'T EVEN HAVE TO HAVE HARDLY ANY TRAINING FOR THAT, I WAS GIFTED IN IT! My father was a singer, my mother was a singer, & I was born in music & a musical family. It's just kind of born in you & you hear it all your life, train in it all your life. Maria & I know hymns & tunes that we learned in church, & the words & everything come back to us so that we can sing them together! There's nobody in this whole Family here that can do the same thing, because nobody else was raised in church but one Baptist--she knows a few of them.
87. IT'S JUST IMPOSSIBLE TO TRY TO DO A JOB YOU JUST WERE NOT FITTED OR TRAINED FOR & that you haven't got the talent, the gift & the personality for! Just quit trying to fit your square peg into some round hole! Pray! Look back on your life--what have you always done best?
88. WHAT WAS I ALWAYS BEST AT? I was a student, I was a reader, I loved school, I made top grades--perfect preparation for being a teacher. If you're a good student you'll make a good teacher, very likely, because you like knowledge. You like to read, you like to study, & that's what a teacher needs to learn to teach others.
89. SO YOU NEED TO REALLY PRAY & ASK GOD WHAT YOUR CALLING IS & what you're best suited for, & stick to it & not try to go shifting around from pillar to post to hole to hole & square hole to round hole & back to hexagon holes & whatnot!
90. YOU REALLY NEED TO ASK THE LORD WHAT ARE YOU BEST AT? What can you do best? What can He inspire you in? What really inspires you? Well, maybe you're a mechanic & you think you'd be inspired to be an actor & a singer & a musician. Like this guy who was trying to play the accordion without even having a lesson or a book or gift of music--he sounded awful!
91. ONE THING I SURE WAS NEVER DESIGNED FOR WAS MAKING RADIO PROGRAMS!--I NEVER KNEW HOW TO TALK THAT BRIEFLY! I mean what can I say in five or ten minutes? It's impossible! I just start getting warmed up in five & ten minutes! I have to be able to talk by the hour, & there's just no place for guys like me on radio!
92. IT TAKES HOURS TO ORGANISE A HALF HOUR PROGRAM WITH MAYBE TEN MINUTES OF TALK, whereas I can speak for hours with like ten minutes of preparations! You didn't laugh! (Maria: Yes I did! Ha!) I can speak at the drop of a hat about anything, anywhere anytime for hours, but it drove me crazy trying to prepare a ten minute radio speech, trying to figure out how to say all that in ten minutes!
93. HOW CAN YOU COVER A SUBJECT IN TEN MINUTES? You might give the chapter titles or you might be able to just hit a few high spots, but you're not going to get very far in ten minutes. You're not going to even hardly convince people in ten minutes! Most of our kids witness to people for hours before they really persuade'm! Paul preached long sermons, hours, big long testimonies & everything, before he began to persuade people.
94. I'M JUST NOT CUT OUT FOR RADIO, & NOBODY SHOULD FEEL BAD IF THEY'RE NOT CUT OUT FOR RADIO EITHER! That'll make some of you guys feel good who are cut out for radio! When I had to go on radio & talk for only ten minutes, it just nearly drove me crazy!--And ten minutes is about all folks can usually stand in the way of talk on a radio show, whether it's 15 minutes or a half-hour show.
95. I JUST WAS PRACTICALLY AT A LOSS FOR WORDS! If I couldn't say everything & all I wanted to say, I didn't know how to say anything! I couldn't hardly even get started in ten minutes! I'm not one little firecracker, I'm a whole series of bombs! Good night, I'm a teacher! What can you teach in ten minutes? They'd cut me off just about the time I was just gettin' started!
96. SO DON'T FEEL BAD IF YOU'RE NOT DESIGNED FOR RADIO--NEITHER WAS I! If they could give me a two-hour show, all talk, I might have gotten some place. I'm just gettin' rollin' by the time I get to the end of a half-hour tape, & Maria has to flip it over in a hurry! Then just about the time I think, "Well, I've finished the subject, end of one hour"--here I am starting another one! But I thought it would be encouraging to you guys to know that I'm not suited for radio either.
97. MY STYLE OF MINISTRY JUST DOESN'T FIT THE LIMITATIONS OF RADIO. I just haven't got enough time to talk. Radio is too brief an interlude & too limited a stroke for my kind of teaching & rambling; but when I'm through, I've pretty well covered the subject! As dear Mama Eve used to say, "Why do you always have to start at Genesis & go all the way through to Revelation on everything? Why can't you just hit the high spots or cover one phase or one part? Why do you have to cover the whole thing so clearly from A to Z?" Well, now you know why!
98. I HAD TO TEACH A WHOLE NEW GENERATION EVERYTHING FROM A TO Z, GENESIS TO REVELATION, & THAT TAKES TIME!--& on radio you haven't got time! I think Simon does great! I marvel at how little he can talk! He can probably talk a whole lot more, but I marvel at how little he is able to talk, how short he is able to speak! It just amazes me how he manages to cut it off!
99. THAT'S ONE OF THE HEADACHES & TRIALS OF MAKING RADIO SHOWS--TIMING!--And boy, when you get to timing me, it just drives me wild! When they had those timed exams in college--one or two hour exams--I just practically fell apart! I just nearly went to pieces when I knew I was on a limited time & I only had so much time to do it in. I just was nearly a nervous wreck by the end of it, as I was always so slow!
100. I WAS VERY THOROUGH BUT VERY SLOW, & I HARDLY EVER DID VERY WELL ON THOSE TIMED EXAMS, they just didn't give me enough time to think. I'm a slow thinker in a way, & I just didn't have enough time. I just got so nervous I'd forget everything & go to pieces. I don't see how Simon does it, he is just amazing! It's really amazing how he can time things & everything exact, & then make it just flow together like he wasn't even thinking about it.
101. HE SOUNDS LIKE HE'S AD-LIBBING, HE SOUNDS LIKE IT'S EXTEMPORANEOUS & wasn't really prepared at all, that just suddenly under the inspiration of the moment he called these people in & talked to them & everything else. That's an amazing talent to make a radio show sound so natural & so easy & so smooth-flowing just like it was just happening, just ad-libbing, extemporaneous, just temporarily inspired & just suddenly happened, to have it all prepared to the split-second timings, & then make it all sound so natural!
102. THAT IS SOMETHING! THAT IS REAL TALENT!--AND I'LL TELL YOU, IT TAKES NOT ONLY TALENT BUT IT TAKES TRAINING & EXPERIENCE & TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW to do it! It's not fun, although if you like it I guess it is fun! But whenever they started timing me, it just nearly drove me wild!--And the split-second timing of radio, the way you've got to time every word, practically every second, just drove me crazy! I couldn't take it.
103. I COULDN'T BE LIMITED ON TIME & IT'S JUST NOT MY MINISTRY, you know that. But if you give me all day & all night I'll cover the subject from A to Z & East & West & North to South & up, down, backwards & sideways & everything else!--And by the time I'm through with it, I'm through with it, & there's practically nothing else to learn about it or know! But that's what you kids need, you need a whole education, you don't need just a few minutes of entertainment.
104. THAT'S ABOUT ALL THE WORLD WILL TAKE--A FEW MINUTES OF ENTERTAINMENT! That's the purpose of the MWM Show--to give them a few minutes quick shot-in-the-arm or shot-in-the-heart entertainment, a little shot-in-the-heart of inspiration, spiritual inspiration, with music as the bait. So I can't do that, but Simon can & you MWM guys can, & you're doing great!
105. THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS, THAT'S ALL THEY'LL TAKE! They'd be doing well to take fifteen minutes of any kind of spiritual inspiration, & thank God MWM sugar-coats the pill & disguises the hook so much with the bait folks can hardly tell they're getting in until it's too late!--Got'm hooked! Praise God! It's wonderful!
106. THAT'S HIS TALENT, NOT MINE! I'M NOT TRYING TO BE ON HIS SHOW! Don't ever ask me to be on it! I'd chase'm all away! He'd lose his whole audience, because the kind of audience you're going to have for this kind of show isn't going to take much preachin' or teachin' either one. All they want is entertainment, music, to tickle their ears!
107. SO WE'RE WILLING TO TICKLE THEIR EARS & MAKE MUSIC THE BAIT TO HIDE THE HOOK as long as we can try to get a chance to hook'm & get that hook in there! If we can't even get it in the show, we can get it in the follow-up, the Mail Ministry--or we might as well forget it! So praise the Lord, that's their talent.
108. ALL YOU MWM GUYS HAVE HAD EXPERIENCE IN MAKING SHOWS & ALBUMS & RECORDING & you musicians know how important timing is, you time those things to the split second! You've got to coordinate by the beat, & it's a science! (Maria: Isn't it good they've all had experience? Even their biggest failures & defeats the Lord has taken & used them!) Yes, thank God!
109. IT'S A SCIENCE AS WELL AS A TALENT & AN ART, & both Simon & Jeremy & several of you folks there not only have the talent, but you know the art & you've got the gifts! Of course you've got to work on your gifts & polish'm up, & you have, but you also know the science of recording, which is real split-second science, on-the-beat science!--Exact!
110. ANYHOW, GOD FINALLY GOT YOU GUYS! Who knows, maybe the Lord let you go into all that commercial & Worldly recording for awhile in order to learn the science & the art of how to record music, how to time it & how to synchronise it & all the rest, so that now you can make God's recordings. After all, you should get to the peak & pinnacle of your training, talent, gifts & experience, & graduate!--Now you're ready to do a professional job for the Lord! You were just amateurs & beginners before. So, PTL!
111. YOU'VE BEEN IN THAT MONKEY BUSINESS TOO LONG, NOW YOU'RE READY FOR GOD'S BUSINESS. You've been stripped & fleeced & cheated & herded around & beat & everything else & enslaved for years with those professional recording studios & big producers of records & albums & hits & blah blah! I think you finally got it worked out of your system & found out it doesn't satisfy--& it doesn't really even pay either.
112. YOU NEVER REALLY MADE IT IN THAT BUSINESS, so I guess you had to find that out. You weren't going to become stars with golden records before you were willing to give it up. You made a few good records & some of them were hits for awhile, & a few of them got a little bit famous & maybe that helped satisfy you.
113. LET'S FACE IT, YOU DIDN'T REALLY MAKE THE TOP & THE BIG TIME, or that might have been too big a temptation--you might have stayed in it like our dear friend Jeane Manson. Success is a great defeat when it's a success in the World & takes you out of God's Work! The Devil's success is a defeat for the Lord.
114. THANK GOD YOU GOT OUT OF IT!--BUT THANK GOD YOU GOT THE TRAINING & EXPERIENCE & the talent & the equipment & everything else! Now you're ready to roll for the Lord in a really great show for His Gospel for the World! I think it's great! Praise God! And then the Lord just almost by a miracle got you all together in the same place where you can have the inspiration & the fellowship you need.
115. YOU MUSICIANS ARE SOME OF THE WEAKEST CHARACTERS THERE ARE! You're so emotional & temperamental--90% temper & 10% mental--& some of you are really hot potatoes to handle because you're so emotional. You're actors & musicians & you run on your emotions--& your emotions often run in the wrong direction! So you're not easy to handle, & you need strong spiritual leadership like Faithy. Praise God! But emotions make your music!
116. (MARIA: WELL, NEITHER SHOULD THEY USE THAT AS AN EXCUSE, LIKE USING YOUR SUN SIGN AS AN EXCUSE for bringing out all your bad side.) No, no, no! Just because you're a Cancer or a Scorpio doesn't mean you can't get the victory over it, or even a Libra! (Maria: Or even a musician!) Or a Sagittarian! (Maria: Or a Leo! Ha!)
117. HONEY, GOD HAS USED YOUR LEO DRIVE & TALENTS & MANAGERIAL ABILITY FOR HIS BENEFIT & FOR THE GOOD OF HIS WORK & HIS CHILDREN! You're a Queen, & that's what the job needed was a Queen, even to help manage the King! (Maria: It's a good thing, or I probably wouldn't have made it down in the little Colonies somewhere!)
118. YOU PROBABLY NEVER WOULD HAVE MADE IT IN THE RANKS! (Maria: No!) You would have been a backslider. (Maria: That's why I have the highest admiration for all our Leos that have stuck, 'cause I think they've really made it!)
119. MARIA ADMIRES THE PEONS! RACHEL DESPISED THEM! That's why she lost her job, because she didn't appreciate'm & wasn't grateful for them & didn't admire them, & mistreated them. But let met tell you, this Queen marvels at you peons & lowly workers, & is grateful & thankful for you, & it's amazing to her how you ever do it! (Maria: Oh Honey, I don't like to use that word peon!) You've got a job she feels she could never even hold, she was afraid she was going to flunk it! (Maria: I nearly did! But they're so humble!)
120. SHE WAS AFRAID SHE WAS GOING TO WASH OUT AT THE CLUB, she couldn't even hold her eyes open, she was so sleepy! She tried to scotch out & skip out & cut classes & cut meetings, & got caught & nearly got canned! (Maria: Oh Honey, I really did have a headache!) Well, you were weak & sleepy & tired & did have a headache, so you just didn't see how you were going to make it. But the peons were makin' it, praise God! God bless'm! (Maria: But I don't like to call them that, Honey!) Rachel called'm peasants!--Ha! But
121. WHERE WOULD THE KINGDOM BE WITHOUT THE PEONS & THE PEASANTS & THE LOWLY HUMBLE WORKERS IN THE LOWEST OF JOBS? Where would we be right now without somebody to shop for things & cook our food or clean? I could do it, but it's not very good security for me to do it! I don't really have the time & I don't really have the strength much anymore. (Maria: But I don't like to call them peons & peasants, Honey!) I know you don't, you're so sweet!--
122. BUT EVERY KINGDOM & NATION HAS GOT TO HAVE PEONS, THAT'S THE FOUNDATION, THAT'S THE ROCK BOTTOM, THAT'S THE GRASS ROOTS! Where would they be without the grass? And where would the grass be without the roots? And where would the fields be without the peons & the peasants, & where would the food be? Without food, where would the people be? Without people, where would the kingdom be? And without the kingdom, where would the king be? So don't belittle the peons! (Maria: I don't belittle them, & I just don't like to call them that!)
123. PEONS & PEASANTS OUGHT TO BE A COMPLIMENTARY TITLE FOR PEOPLE IN OUR KINGDOM! They're the most numerous & the most needed! We've got oodles of people who have leadership talents & want to be leaders & want to be big shots & want to be somebody, but we don't have too many people who want to do the hard lowly menial peon tasks.
124. WE DON'T HAVE TOO MANY PEOPLE WHO REALLY WANT TO BE PEASANTS & ARE HAPPY BEING PEASANTS & DOING THE PICK-&-SHOVEL WORK & the dirty work & the dirty jobs & the hard manual labour, sad to say. (Maria: Like the little Litnessers!) Yes, & good mechanics & good maintenance men are scarce & hard to find, yet they're two of the most valuable & the most important & the most absolutely essential people you can have!--Plus cooks & housekeepers, etc.!
125. HOW MANY PEOPLE LIKE TO SIT AT A TYPEWRITER ALL DAY? Yet we've got some dear girls who just love it, thank God! Where would we be without it? Here I go again, fillin' up another tape! Grindin' out the grist! I wonder how many people want to be like me & have to talk all day! I'm married to a tape recorder!
126. I STAY IN ONE SPOT NEARLY ALL DAY JUST TALKIN' & READIN' & WRITIN' & EVEN DOIN' ARITHMETIC! I have to keep track of the finances too, to make sure they don't goof off or gum up the works somehow! "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called!" I leave most of that business to somebody else because I don't think it's really my talent or my place; besides, I don't have time for it.
127. I'VE EVEN QUIT TRYING TO READ EVERYTHING WE PUT IN THE MAGAZINE, & LET MARIA READ IT. (Maria: Well, strike that from the record! Ha!) I read my own stuff & I read as much as I can & I read the FN & all that, but some of this latest material Maria's put in, all this stuff on South America & everything, I haven't had time to read it. I just haven't got time to read it or the eyes to read it. My eyes get tired & worn out!
128. I DON'T THINK THEY MIND MY SAYING THAT, I THINK THEY'D WANT ME TO STICK TO MY OWN MATERIAL & MY OWN WORDS! (Maria: No, because our enemies & people like Mom are always accusing you of not seeing what's going on, & as a result they say it's not right, it's not what it should be.) Up to this point, this S. America edition, I have read every single word that goes in every single Magazine, FNs, Komix, everything! (Maria: Yes, every word!)
129. THIS SOUTH AMERICAN EDITION IS THE FIRST TIME I HAVEN'T READ IT ALL, it's just this stuff you got out of these books. It's just factual material that you have read & I trust you, but I don't have to read it. I don't want to take another course in Spanish--I had mine! I don't care to read another whole long history of South America--I've read it!
130. BUT IF YOU'VE READ IT & YOU'VE OK'D IT, IT'S OK WITH ME, because I know you know what they need & you know what they want & you know what's good for'm & what isn't. You're their Queen, you love'm, you're the Shepherdess, so why not? I can't read everything! We could put it this way, you & I read everything that's in the Magazine!--That should be enough!
131. "WELL, IF I HAVEN'T READ IT, THAT'S ONE THING MY BROTHER KNOWS!" The kids said, "Me & my brother, we know everything!" One said, "Yeah? What's electricity?" He said, "Well, that's one thing my brother knows!" Well, Maria & I read the whole Magazine! "Yeah, but did you read that article about South America?" No, that's one thing Maria read!
132. BUT LET ME TELL YA, I READ MY OWN STUFF & I go over it & edit it & smooth it out & paragraph it & punctuate it & misspell it & organise it & cut it & expand it & try to polish it up to where it's edible, readable & I hope digestible--& that takes time! By the time we publish one of my Letters I've gone over it about seven times! Well, quite a few anyhow.
133. I'VE GONE OVER IT IN MY MIND FIRST, & THEN I RECORDED IT ON TAPE usually & sometimes played it back, that's three; then read & edited the rough draft, that's four; then I read the final tying, that's five; then I correct the final type six; then often I read it over again when I see it in the Magazine to just see what it looks like & how it feels if I was reading the Magazine--& that's seven!
134. SO BY THE TIME I'VE FINISHED MY STUFF, I'VE READ IT ABOUT SIX OR SEVEN TIMES. I know what it says & it says what I want it to say, & I believe that it says what God wants me to say & what you need! And you're a good Queen, a good Shepherdess, & you know what they need & you know what they need to hear & what you want to say & what you think God wants'm to know, so they certainly ought to be able to trust you to feed'm!
135. IN THAT ONE THING IN "THE SHEPHERDESS" IT SOUNDED LIKE YOU WERE A BIT STINGY, BUT I'M BEGINNING TO THINK YOU'RE TOO GENEROUS! (Maria: Maybe I learned my lesson after that!) You're packin' that Magazine with so much stuff now, even the Family hasn't got time to read it all! Maybe it's gettin' too big!
136. BUT WE'VE HAD SEVERAL EMERGENCY ISSUES: We had to have the Mobile Handbook before you kill yourselves, & we had to have the South American Handbook before you go there when you don't belong there & if you don't need to go there. There's lots of other places to go besides South America.
137. WE WERE JUST RECOMMENDING IT AS A GOOD FIELD & we should have saturated that field a long time ago, & it's handy for most of you Americans who won't go anyplace else! Or you're washed out in some other field like the South Seas or Asia or Africa, & you're discouraged & think maybe you can't go anywhere else anymore. Well, at least you can go to Latin America & Mexico & Central America!
138. THERE'S LOTS OF ROOM IN MEXICO & CENTRAL AMERICA & YOU CAN FILL IT UP WITH CARAVANS & TRUCKS & VANS & CAMPERS! There's oodles of room there! You don't have to worry about leaving your caravan behind if you're driving down to Mexico & Central America. There's lots of good roads & places to go & camps & places to park. So praise God, there's a place for everybody--but everybody oughtta find it!
139. THERE'S A PLACE FOR EVERYBODY, & EVERYBODY OUGHT TO BE IN THEIR PLACE! A place for everything, & everything in its place! That's the only way you can have decency & order & any organisation in your life or God's work or the World in general. It's when things start gettin' out of place, they start messin' up the works.
140. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, FIND YOUR PLACE & FIND YOUR CALLING! Find what God wants you to do, what God made you for, what you were born for, what you were given the heredity for & the environment for & the education & training & experience for & the talent & the gifts & the knowledge for. You ought to know by this time!
141. FOR GOD'S SAKE, IF YOU HAVEN'T FOUND IT, FIND IT!--AND FOR GOD'S SAKE, IF YOU HAVE FOUND IT, STICK TO IT! Don't go flittin' around from here to yon, hit & miss & just makin' a mess! The Lord Himself says in His Word, "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called! Art thou called being a servant?"--Then you're supposed to be a good servant! "Art thou called being free?"--Then use that freedom for His glory.
142. WHATEVER YOUR TALENT, OCCUPATION PROFESSION OR CALLING MAY BE, FOR GOD'S SAKE SHTICK! Stick to it! Simon, your calling is a disc jockey, God bless you & you've got the tremendous talent for it to be an actor for God's stage & put across that Show! Terrific! You've got inspiration for it & the burden for it & the backing--we're trying to give you the backing--& you've got the burden for the people to give them the Gospel! It's an evangelical outreach, & you've got the burden for the Mail Ministry.--So shtick!
143. YOU'D ALREADY FOUND YOUR CALLING & PROVEN SUCCESSFUL IN IT LONG BEFORE WE GAVE YOU OUR SUPPORT. You made it on your own by faith, your own faith, your own show, your own talent, your own mail ministry, it's your baby! Thank God! GBY! We're just trying to feed it & educate it & help pay for it & train it to be a huge success! Praise God! GBY all! Find your calling & stay in it, in Jesus' name! "Let every man abide in the calling wherein he is called"--Shtick to it! (See "Shtick!", No.703.)--Have you?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family