26/7/75 DFO 131O

1. DO YOU WANT TO HEAR ABOUT BODY CLOCKS? Does anybody know what body clocks are? Science has been proving lately that every kind of creature—animals, human beings, even insects—have body clocks.

2. DO YOU REMEMBER HOW ROACHES ALWAYS SEEM TO COME OUT AT DARK? When the lights are off in the kitchen after dark and you happen to come into the kitchen and switch on the light you find the place is alive‚ and you wonder how the roaches know when the light is on or off or when to come. (Exterminate'm!)

3. WELL, IT TURNS OUT IT'S NOT THAT THEY KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LIGHT AND DARK, but their body clock, regulated by the sun, tells them when it's supposed to be dark and when it's not. When they do something to their brain to fritz up the clock, they don't know the difference between night and day or when it's supposed to be dark or light, and then they run all over the kitchen all day long! It's very interesting and a lot of scientists are making experiments to find out more.

4. THEY CALL THEM BIOLOGICAL CLOCKS. They're some kind of timing mechanism the Lord built into you and the insects and the flies and everything. I used to think it was because of the cool of the evening that the flies wanted to roost on the ceiling, because they like it where it's warm, but it all has to do with these biological clocks that are built into their brain.

5. THEY'VE EXPERIMENTED WITH PEOPLE BY PUTTING THEM DOWN IN CAVES where it's totally dark, and with the people living up in the Arctic Circle where it's completely dark for four months a year and that sort of thing. They'd take away their clocks so they wouldn't know what time it was, to see if they were actually going by the clock, eating by the clock, going to bed by the clock, etc., or because they really felt like it.

6. THEY FOUND OUT IF YOU TAKE THE CLOCKS AWAY most people still follow almost identically the same eating and sleeping pattern, etc., even if they don't know what time it is. They get hungry at the same time‚ sleep at the same time, wake up at the same time.

7. THEY TESTED SOME GROUPS WAY DOWN DEEP IN CAVES where they didn't know what time of day it was or anything. Some of them they tested with the lights on all the time and some they tested with the lights off nearly all the time to see if it had anything to do with the lights‚ but they found out it made very little difference.

8. THEY SAID THEY FOUND IF YOU MAKE A TRANSOCEANIC FLIGHT, it takes from at least five to nine days to readjust to the new time schedule. Otherwise, you continue to get hungry at the same time you got hungry back where you came from‚ and sleep at the same time and wake up at the same time.

9. I THINK THAT'S WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH MARIA AND ME‚ we never changed our schedule after we left the States. We're still living hours behind everybody else. Ha! They say it takes five to nine days to completely recover and adjust to the new schedule, and that you're kind of grumpy and low during that time because your body's all mixed up.

10. THEY SAID THE BEST THING TO DO ON THESE LONG FLIGHTS IS TO EAT LESS AND DRINK MORE.—They didn't say what to drink, but more liquids. For some reason your body needs less food and more liquid. They think it's because of the dryness of the atmosphere in the plane, because flying at that high altitude the air that is oxygenized and pumped through the plane, although it's got the right proportions and all for oxygen‚ is very dry and it takes a lot of liquid out of the people that are riding.

11. (MARIA: WHAT HAPPENS TO THE PILOTS AND STEWARDESSES that are always going back and forth?) This is one reason the study has been made and why now a lot of world travelers who travel as diplomats or on business‚ etc.‚ are refusing to sign contracts unless they have at least two or three days to adjust when they get to a new place before they do any business. A lot of those guys apparently don't have that much time; they just do it, so they are probably operating at a disadvantage.

12. A LOT OF THIS IS DONE TO SEE WHAT EFFECT IT'S HAVING ON PILOTS and how much rest they should have between flights before they return, etc. This is why the Pilots Association has written a lot of rules that they have to have so many hours rest before they can take another flight. I think now what they're supposed to do is get at least a day's rest or 24 hours.

13. CHANGING FOOD AND WATER AFFECTS YOU TOO; I've found that out a lot of times. Almost always when I get to a new country, my stomach and bowels are upset. Every country I've ever been in I've tried to eat the same foods; that's one reason I eat at home, besides the fact that I like the fellowship.

14. THEY'VE FOUND THAT YOU HAVE THREE TYPES OF THESE TIME CYCLES and that it's in a certain area of the brain too. You have three cycles, one is physical, one is intellectual and one is emotional.

15. THERE IS A TIME OF DAY‚ FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN YOU ARE AT YOUR PHYSICAL PEAK; there's a time of day you're at your physical low. There's a time when you have natural happy highs and natural unhappy lows. And there's a time when you're most intellectually alert and when you're most intellectually slow and lethargic and can't think too well. It all depends on the individual.

16. THERE ARE THREE CLASSIFICATIONS: MORNING, AFTERNOON AND NIGHT PEOPLE. The curves of highs and lows usually pretty much follow the same pattern. When you're most intellectually alert is usually when your physical high is at its best as a rule, and it also affects your emotional high, but not always exactly. Sometimes they vary and sometimes they'll vary from day to day.

17. THE PEOPLE THEY CALL "MORNING PEOPLE" ARE THESE BRIGHT AND EARLY RISERS, all alert and bright and happy in the morning and dead in the afternoon. You have three different levels, a high, a medium and a low, and usually these morning people either have their low in the afternoon or in the evening when it's time to go to bed.

18. MOST PEOPLE ARE AT THEIR BEST AROUND TWO O'CLOCK IN THE AFTERNOON and are at their deadest in the morning, believe it or not. Their highest peak of intellectual alertness, emotional good feeling and physical strength is the afternoon. The largest group of people have their high in the afternoon, second largest group of people have their high in the morning, and the third largest group have their high at night.

19. ANOTHER REASON THEY'VE CONDUCTED ALL THESE STUDIES IS FOR THE MILITARY AND BIG CORPORATIONS so that they can recommend certain schedules for them to take advantage of the high times. In other words, there's no point in a corporation putting a guy who has a morning high on a night shift or a swing shift, because he won't be working at his best.

20. SO THEY TRY TO ASCERTAIN BY TESTS WHAT PEOPLE'S HIGHS AND LOWS ARE and then try to avoid the lows and use the highs. In other words, they're just trying to get more work out of them‚ trying to get more out of their slaves.

21. THERE'S A NEW WORK SCHEDULE BEING EXPERIMENTED WITH IN WESTERN EUROPE. As long as you punch the time clock you can even break your shift if you want to, as long as you work so much a day. Some companies even allow employees to work more on one day than on another if they want to‚ as long as they do their full 40 hours in a week.

22. THESE BODY CLOCKS ARE AMAZING, AND OF COURSE YOU AND I KNOW IT'S THE MARVELOUS WAY IN WHICH THE LORD CREATED US. These habit and thought patterns are not hereditary and can be influenced by environment and you will adapt to it. I suppose the evolutionists are going to say that's another proof of evolution, adaptation.

23. OF COURSE, FOOD CAN AFFECT YOU A LOT if you're not getting enough vitamins and so on, but that's got nothing to do with the body clocks. That just will naturally affect your physical condition.

24. THE NIGHT PEOPLE USUALLY HAVE THEIR LOW IN THE MORNING. They are night owls. They go great after dark, like the witches and the wizards and the elves and the fairies, and in the morning they're absolutely buried back in the graveyard! I'm afraid my family's kind of like that. But all the best farmers and all, of course, have their highs in the mornings usually.

25. SCIENTISTS ARE ACTUALLY HAVING TO CONFESS FINALLY that apparently these cycles are regulated by the astral bodies such as the sun, moon, planets and stars. They said, "Of course‚ we have nothing whatsoever to do with unorthodox astrology‚ but we have found to our amazement that the body is apparently greatly affected by the sun."

26. YOUR DAILY CYCLE IS APPARENTLY REGULATED IN SOME WAY BY THE SUN. The people who were buried way down in the depths of the earth or were up in the Arctic Circle where it was dark for four months were on a daily cycle for some reason or other‚ perhaps because of the rotation of the Earth, etc.

27. THE USUAL CYCLE IS CLOSER TO 25 HOURS THAN 24 HOURS. They don't know why that is, but maybe there's something wrong with the way they've got the days measured. But anyhow, you're on what they call daily cycles.

28. OF COURSE, YOU WOMEN KNOW YOU'RE ALSO ON MONTHLY CYCLES, but the monthly cycles not only affect the women but the men too. And strangely enough, there are definite weekly cycles. Of course they couldn't go into detail on everything.

29. WE DO KNOW DEFINITELY THAT THE MENSTRUAL PERIOD IS DIVIDED UP INTO SEVEN-DAY PERIODS ACTUALLY. The natural period normally lasts seven days, then there are 14 days of ovulation‚ and then there's a seven-day free period. So apparently the month is divided into seven-day segments and there are definitely seven-day cycles which are somehow affected by the moon. They think it's the moon that causes weekly cycles.

30. THERE ARE ALSO HALF-YEARLY CYCLES‚ YEARLY CYCLES AND SEVEN-YEAR CYCLES, what they call the biological clock cycles. They've been experimenting both with plants and animals to see how these are affected. They found out for one thing that if they took plants off of their regular cycle that they didn't grow nearly as well.

31. YOU'VE HEARD BEFORE THAT THE BODY IS COMPLETELY NEW EVERY SEVEN YEARS, every cell and blood cell in the body. You're no longer your old self after seven years; you're a totally new person, because during that seven-year cycle every cell has been renewed.

32. THEY FOUND OUT EMOTIONALLY AND PSYCHOLOGICALLY DISTURBED PEOPLE HAVE TOTALLY DIFFERENT CYCLES, not at all according to normal human cycles. They frequently will stay awake from 24 to 37 hours. So apparently they are being affected by some strange evil influence other than the norm. They're under some other kind of influence that has upset their cycle entirely.

33. THE MOST SKEPTICAL OF ALL THE SCIENTISTS WAS THE AMERICAN: "You must understand that this does not confirm anything about the so-called science of astrology. But we have come to the conclusion that apparently these cycles are regulated by the various parts of the solar system and the stars, etc."

34. SO PRAISE THE LORD, ANOTHER PROOF OF THE DIVINE PLAN! Orderly mechanism and astrology is really another proof to me, and there's plenty of proof of that.

35. WE FOUND THAT ASTROLOGY IS ONE OF THE BEST WAYS TO WITNESS. You can't witness from Creation so much anymore because teaching evolution has so replaced Creation. They're so mentally conditioned against Creation for evolution that you might as well forget it. They think you're some kind of a screw-loose nut if you believe in Creation, so you can hardly talk about that.

36. BUT WE HAD ONE FELLOW THAT DIDN'T BELIEVE IN GOD or anything, a strong evolutionist‚ and when we first mentioned astrology to him he practically flipped! He blew his lid and got so upset, "I don't believe in that bunk!"

37. WE SAID, "ALL RIGHT, ALL WE ASK YOU TO DO IS TAKE THIS LITTLE BOOK (Linda Goodman's "Sun Signs") and you read about yourselves, you and your wife. And then think of your various family members and friends that you know real well and read about them in the book. If it doesn't fit, then okay, we're all wrong."

38. HE CAME BACK A CONVERT! They stayed up all night reading the book and he just flipped. He said it scared him, he'd never seen anything like it.

39. THE REASON ASTROLOGY IS SUCH A GOOD THING TO USE IS BECAUSE IT PROVES THE DESIGN OF A WELL-ORDERED UNIVERSE and balanced society, and that personalities are apportioned around the world just like other balances in nature.

40. THEY TALK ABOUT UPSETTING THE BALANCE OF NATURE between man and his environment and all this sort of thing, well, one of the balances of so-called nature is personality distribution. What if we were all like me or all like you? God help us! So the Lord has twelve major personality areas with a whole lot of variations besides.

41. SO WE'VE USED ASTROLOGY AS A WITNESS WITH A LOT OF PEOPLE, and that is one of the ways to do it, loan them a book. Say, "Well, if you don't believe it, read it!"—And it's one of the most convincing things you can do. That's one of the things that convinced me about astrology.

42. I USED TO POOH-POOH ASTROLOGY‚ especially these hucksters running booths at fairs and so on: "Step right up and I'll tell you, blah, blah, blah‚ blah, blah!" Or this stuff in the newspaper. I've read some funny daily horoscopes in the newspaper sometimes that fitted amazingly to the events of the day for my sign; maybe it was coincidence and maybe it wasn't.

43. BUT IT'S OBVIOUSLY NO COINCIDENCE WHEN YOU READ ABOUT PEOPLE IN THESE VARIOUS SIGNS. You'll find people here and there who don't fit, but most people fit so amazingly. Maria and I have spotted people lots of times and she'll say, "I'll bet he's a Scorpio, I'll bet he's a Cancer, I'll bet he's so–and-so," and she's been right! So it's a good witnessing tool, and some people are really persuaded.

44. I WOULDN'T BE SURPRISED IF THE LORD HAD LINDA WRITE THAT BOOK FOR OUR BENEFIT. You can see yourself as others see you. And it's a good opener and you can always turn around and say‚ "Well, there's hope for you. God can change your personality."

45. I WAS ASKING THE LORD ABOUT IT LAST NIGHT and the Lord said that these astral bodies were given first of all for light and for times and seasons. Well‚ the first thing you think about is just day and night, or you think about winter, fall, spring and summer. But seasons also means these cycles‚ in other words. They regulate all of these various seasons and there's a season for everything.

46. THE MOON HAS A BIG INFLUENCE, and whenever you look at that moon you're certainly being affected by it, just like the tides. You know, the moon causes the tides and all, two high tides a day and two low tides a day.

47. THEY ALSO FOUND OUT THAT THERE WERE DAYS TO AVOID FOR ANYTHING IMPORTANT. In certain cases with some people all cycles hit bottom at the same time‚ emotional, intellectual and physical, when they could be subject to both extreme fatigue‚ lack of mental alertness and depression. When that happened all at the same time, that was the time to avoid making any major decisions or doing anything important. It varies with the individual.

48. THIS SKEPTICAL AMERICAN WAS ABSOLUTELY AN UNBELIEVER when it came to thinking that there were cycles of accidents, accident frequency amongst the men, until they began to make the charts of the accident cycles and it turned out they came in regular cycles.

49. THERE ARE SPECIFIC TIMES WHEN CERTAIN PEOPLE ARE MORE ACCIDENT-PRONE THAN OTHERS. Some people are always accident-prone! Some people are just an accident going around looking for a place to happen! They've found there is a definite accident-prone cycle pattern and they said it was unbelievable with what regularities the pattern came along. It was definite, very definite.

50. WELL NOW, IF THEY CAN CHART THESE CYCLES PHYSICALLY, INTELLECTUALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, which is in a sense spiritually, and if we have definite astrologically affected cycles, some on a daily basis, some on a weekly basis, some on a monthly basis, six-monthly basis, yearly basis, seven-yearly basis, etc., then why isn't it logical to believe that according to astrology your highs and lows and good and bad days could be charted as well through the year?

51. I NEVER BELIEVED MUCH IN THIS ASTROLOGICAL HOROSCOPE FORECAST STUFF‚ but after all, if astrology is as accurate as it is about personality—and I'm convinced of the personality profile based on what month you're born in, your month sign. That's so sure now that I don't doubt it a bit. Some people are freaks‚ but most people fit.

52.—BUT IF THINGS ARE SO WELL ORDERED THAT IF YOU'RE BORN UNDER A PARTICULAR SIGN and at a certain time of day in a certain part of the month when the planets were in a certain position and all this, that things affect you enough to change your personality or at least to set your personality and therefore sort of start you off on a planned course, then why couldn't God have in some ways your whole life somewhat planned along at least a general course?

53. WELL, OF COURSE THE BIBLE TEACHES THAT THESE THINGS ARE ALL FOREORDAINED, uses the word foreordination‚ predestination‚ etc. But then if you take that to the extreme you wind up with fatalism or that there's no choice, you can't change it.

54. I THINK NEARLY ALL OF YOUR SENSIBLE ASTROLOGERS SAY THAT YOU'RE BORN WITH THESE CERTAIN STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES and possible patterns for your life, but the choice of how you react and how you use it and your responses and decisions you make can change the course of things. So I believe in both predestination and choice.

55. IT'S SORT OF LIKE AN AUTOMOBILE: An automobile is built along a pretty pre-set pattern‚ right? There's a difference between cars, like people. There are fast cars, slow cars, big cars, little cars‚ maneuverable cars and cumbersome cars, safe cars and dangerous cars, cars that run on gasoline, cars that run on diesel, cars that run on chicken dung, alcohol, electricity, and all kinds of stuff!

56. THERE'S THAT MUCH VARIATION, BUT A VEHICLE IS A VEHICLE NEVERTHELESS. In other words, the way the vehicle's originally made is a pretty set pattern‚ just like your personality pattern is set by the signs you're born under.

57. THEN A LOT DEPENDS ON HOW THE VEHICLE IS CARED FOR, just like how your body, mind and spirit are cared for. The proper or improper care you take of that vehicle has a lot to do with how it operates or doesn't operate and how long it lasts. That is dependent on the choice of the owner, the driver.

58. ALSO, A CERTAIN SET VEHICLE, LIKE YOUR CAR, HAS ITS LIMITATIONS, RIGHT? How fast it can go, how slow it can go, how powerful it is climbing hills and all this. But where it goes is pretty much up to the driver, your personal choice. You can't very well change the vehicle itself much or how it operates, but you can pretty much steer where you want it to go.

59. NOW IF IT'S A CERTAIN TYPE OF VEHICLE, THERE ARE CERTAIN CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH IT CANNOT POSSIBLY OPERATE. It can't climb hills over boulders, or start putting out through the water or something like that; it's not built to do that. Likewise, you know you can't do some things, so you shouldn't try things you're not built for.

60. BUT KNOWING HOW YOU'RE MADE AND YOUR OWN PERSONALITY, your possibilities and your limitations, your weaknesses and your strengths, you should try to gear yourself pretty much according to your capabilities and your limitations within this range of highs and lows and how far right you can go, how far left you go, how small a circle you can turn around in and a few other things.

61. IT'S LIKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN LITTLE EUROPEAN CARS AND BIG AMERICAN TRUCKS. They can turn those little cars around, like we say, on a dime. But the big trucks are like the song of the trucker in America: "Gimme 40 acres and I'll turn this rig around!"

62. SO YOU GOTTA KNOW WHAT KIND OF A RIG YOU'VE GOT whether you can turn around on a dime or in 40 acres. It may take you 40 acres to get it headed the other direction. Some people can change quick but other people it takes years to change. So within your limitations and your capabilities‚ your sign and all that, you have a certain range where you can operate.

63. IT'S LIKE THE EUROPEAN MONETARY SNAKE TUNNEL THEORY. Here's a snake crawling through a tunnel and he can wiggle back and forth this way, but he can only go so far side to side and only so far up and down. I thought that was kind of interesting that they compared their money to a serpent, the Devil himself.

64. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY PUT IT WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITATIONS so that it can only go so high and it can only go so low, and so far in either direction within the tunnel. That's how much they control it. Within the tunnel it can vary, but it must stay within the outside limits. I think in a way that's what God has done with you and me in our signs and the general direction of our lives, etc. We can change things here and there by choice.

65. THERE'S ONLY ONE MAJOR CHANGE YOU CAN MAKE IN YOUR GENERAL DIRECTION or travel within the tunnel, and that we've talked about before—that's the U-turn. You can turn slightly from side to side in the tunnel or you can go in the reverse direction in the tunnel. This turning around is what we call metanoia or the repentance.

66. IF YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG DIRECTION TOWARD DESTRUCTION, GOD DOES GIVE YOU A CHANCE TO TURN AROUND and go the right direction, toward salvation. In other words, we may be born in a tunnel but you still can go a lot of different directions, up or down, sideways, right or left, but all within certain limitations God has given us. it's the same thing in the spirit world.

67. THERE ARE DIFFERENT SPIRITS AND DIFFERENT LEVELS OF SPIRITS, BUT THEY ARE ALL REGULATED WITHIN CERTAIN LIMITATIONS and certain spheres of influence. Some are confined to even certain houses, like the ghosts that haunt houses, probably as a punishment. Sometimes a punishment on the spirit himself or even a punishment on the family or people that occupy that house that caused the trouble or something. Just like visiting the sins of the fathers on third and fourth generations, because of sin they've suffered on down the line.

68. SOME SPIRITS ARE CONFINED TO CERTAIN LEVELS UNDERGROUND BENEATH THE EARTH‚ believe it or not. Some spirits aren't even allowed to come aboveground. Did you ever notice how many hell holes are underground in basements and places like that‚ all kinds of dives and beer joints and stuff like that are in basements? Some of the worst places I was ever in were underground nightclubs, bars and real hell dives!

69. THERE ARE CERTAIN SPIRITS WHO CAN ONLY OPERATE BELOW THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, certain spirits that can operate on the earth, confined to the earth, other spirits are free to operate in the atmospheric heavens and other heavens.

70. PAUL HIMSELF TALKED ABOUT THREE HEAVENS and it indicates in the Bible that there are seven different heavens, seven different levels of heavens. And in Heaven itself, Space City, there are twelve levels‚ that you'll find in Revelation (Rev.21:14).

71. SO EVEN THE SPIRITS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD ARE EACH OPERATING, IN A SENSE, IN A TUNNEL. They can only go in the right direction or the wrong direction, and even if they're going in the wrong direction‚ if they're evil spirits‚ they can only operate within a certain range to which they're confined and under control.

72. EVEN THE GOOD SPIRITS HAVE CERTAIN RESTRICTIONS ON THEM, how much they can do for you and how much they can operate. It says that even the angels of God durst not bring railing accusation against Satan but said, "The Lord rebuke thee!" so they have their limitations (Jude 9).

73. THERE'S A LOT IN THE BIBLE THAT YOU NEVER EVEN HEARD OF‚ NEVER LEARNED AT ALL after all the years of preaching and churches, but it's all right there. It's pitiful! If I could ever get time to get around to it … but you learn a little now and then, like about the animals in "Naming the Baby" (see No.338).—There's a little reincarnation in it.

74. THE ORIENTAL IDEA OF REINCARNATION IS THAT YOU KEEP COMING BACK AND COMING BACK into this life, which God's Word does not say. See, that's the main difference‚ God's Word says "There's a time appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment" (Heb.9:27). You don't come back here and live many lives on this Earth—usually only one.

75. YOU DIE AND AFTER THAT THE JUDGMENT, THEN YOU'RE ASSIGNED TO YOUR PUNISHMENT or your chastisement or your purgatory or whatever it may be. With some, obviously it is to be in the spirit world as dogs, swine, serpents and all kinds of things. All these were outside the Heavenly City, but they're there‚ and that's better than being in the Lake of Fire, at least!

76. APPARENTLY THEY HAVE TO SERVE OUT THEIR TIME IN THE SPIRIT WORLD, which of course is more real than this one. They've got to serve out their time in whatever form is their punishment. And that's probably why so many people have had horrible nightmares and dreams and LSD trips where they saw these horrible monsters and evil creatures and devils and demons! This has been a very standard thing with LSD.

77. I BELIEVE HONESTLY THAT PROBABLY LSD HAS HAD MUCH TO DO WITH THE YOUTH OF AMERICA TURNING TO SPIRITUAL THINGS because it opened up their spiritual consciousness to the reality and existence of the spirit world. I found this true in asking people, especially our own folks upon whom God already had His hand even long before they were ever saved.

78. THEY WERE A CHILD OF GOD IN THE MIND OF GOD BEFORE THE CREATION of the Earth, so they had more good trips than bad trips and they usually saw God because they were already His children and he was already protecting them and keeping them. He may have just given them a bad trip or two just as a warning.

79. IT'S NEVERTHELESS WHAT IS CONSIDERED A SPIRITUAL DRUG. And they also had spiritual trips on peyote, or mescaline as they also call it, which the Indians used in their religious ceremonies because it got them into spiritual trips. Of course, you can have all this with out drugs.

80. I'VE HAD A LOT OF THESE EXPERIENCES WITHOUT DRUGS, THANK GOD! One of the most common things they talk about in peyote is where you can leave your body and look back at yourself sitting there. In other words, really separate your spirit from your body. Your body will stay in sort of a state of suspended animation while your spirit actually departs from your body.

81. I'M SURE THE LORD IS TAKING CARE OF HIS CHILDREN EVEN BEFORE THEY EVER FIND HIM, before they're born. They're still in the womb, in a sense, and they haven't been born yet in the spirit, but they're His children just the same and He takes care of them and only lets them have experiences within a certain range and it's usually in the right direction.

82. SO EVERYTHING WE'VE BEEN TALKING ABOUT SHOWS THE PATTERN THAT GOD HAS LAID DOWN, and it's like the weaving of the pattern of your life. Someone once compared it to the weaving of the tapestry on the wall, these tapestries are woven from one end to the other. If you miss a stitch or you miss the pattern clear back at the beginning of the rug, it may not show up right at once, but it shows up very much as you get towards the end. But you notice it can't get clear off the rug!

83. THE PATTERN IS CONFINED TO THE SPACE IN WHICH THE LIFE IS BEING WOVEN‚ and the direction in which it's being woven. There are boundaries on each side and it's being woven from one end to the other, so it proceeds in one direction and it cannot go further than the end nor the sides.

84. SO YOU CAN VARY THE PATTERN BY CHOICE. You might say God is like the manufacturer or the One who supplies you with all the materials and the pattern. You're the individual weaver that is supposed to follow this particular pattern.

85. IF YOU GET OFF THE PATTERN‚ YOU CAN MAKE A MESS OF IT, but you still can't go beyond the limitations of the pattern‚ because that's all the materials you've got, and that's all the loom you've got, and that's the only direction you can go. So to me what they're finding out about body clocks‚ astrology and everything else just proves the design of God and that He is in control.

86. BUT YOU SEE, I DON'T BELIEVE IN TOTAL FREE WILL EITHER. Total free will is really the doctrine of the Devil, saying that you can do anything and have anything and do whatever you want, like the poem "Invictus": "My head is bloody but unbowed," etc. Well, that's somewhat true; you can go ahead and go to Hell if you want to‚ if you insist on it.

87. BUT NEITHER CAN WE CHRISTIANS BELIEVE IN TOTAL PREDESTINATION or total fatalism where we have absolutely no choice at all and nothing to do with what happens. Total free will says that it's all your choice what happens and God has nothing to do with it. God teaches both‚ and we believe in a balance between the two.

88. GOD WILL LET YOU OPERATE WITHIN CERTAIN BOUNDS. You can make choices to go so far this way and so far that way, and in which direction you want to go, but God sets the bounds. The boundaries are set, predestined or foreordained, but the direction you take and the variations within the boundaries can be chosen by you.

89. OF COURSE, WHEN YOU YIELD TO THE LORD AND LET YOUR CHOICES BE HIS CHOICES, pleasing the Lord, delighting yourself in Him‚ letting Him give you the desires of your heart, then you go His direction and follow His pattern pretty closely. Even there He often lets you decide on what kind of a picture you want to paint of your life, and what kind of a pattern you want. He may give you a choice of several different patterns, why not?

90. BECAUSE YOU DELIGHT YOURSELF IN HIM, HE'LL GIVE YOU THE DESIRES OF YOUR HEART. God gives me everything I want‚ really. I really believe it. I mean, everything I want within reason; there are certain boundaries to that too. I have everything I need and a lot more that are just plain pure luxuries.

91. WE ALL HAVE ALL THAT WE NEED PLUS A LOT MORE. We don't just have our bare necessities; we are all pretty much living in comfort with more than enough to eat and wonderful beds to sleep in and good health, most of us. We have everything to be thankful for! So God is more than good to us and He will give us a lot of things that we want, sometimes even if they're not good for us, just to teach us a lesson.

92. SO THANK THE LORD EVERYTHING'S UNDER CONTROL, EITHER YOURS OR THE LORD'S OR BOTH. It's in the Lord's control to a certain extent, and then within the tunnel or within the pattern it's under your control. God just sees the future, that's all. He knows the choices that people are going to make.

93. THE SCRIPTURE BEARS IT OUT. IT SAYS THAT "MANY ARE CALLED BUT FEW ARE CHOSEN" (Mat.20:16). The reason you are foreordained to be saved, "before the foundation of the Earth," is because God knows ahead of time what choice you're going to make and how you're going to choose.

94. THEREFORE HE HAS ORDAINED YOUR SALVATION BECAUSE HE KNOWS THE CHOICE YOU'RE GOING TO MAKE, not because He forces what you choose or forces you into that choice. Adam and Eve were not forced to make that choice; they could have avoided it if they had chosen to, but they didn't. It's simple, and I think any child could understand.

95. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN SEE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE DOES NOT DETERMINE THE FUTURE. I used to use this illustration of how God sees the past, present, and the future: He's like a fellow flying an airplane. Looking down on the highway he can see where it came from, where it is right underneath him and where it's going.

96. OR LIKE SOMEBODY LOOKING AT A MAP: You can see by the map that the road ends in New York City and the other end is in Los Angeles, etc. But the guy who's right there traveling along the road can only see what's around him at that moment.

97. NOW IF HE BELIEVES THE MAP, THEN HE KNOWS WHERE THE ROAD CAME FROM regardless of where he started out. Also, if he believes the map as to where the road's supposed to end, then he knows it's going to New York City even if he's never been there and never followed the road before. If he keeps on going the direction the map shows, that's where he's going to arrive.

98. THAT'S THE WAY WE BELIEVE ABOUT THE BIBLE: If we follow the Map Book we can know where we're going. But God can see it all from above, and He not only knows where you are right now, and where you came from, your past, but He knows where you're going!—Do you?—You can!—By receiving Jesus you can be sure you're going to Heaven!—Have you?—I hope so!—GBAKY!—In Jesus' name, amen.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family