—Got Yours Straight?11/82DFO 1316

1. AMEN, LORD, HELP US AND STRENGTHEN US! You said, "When we're weak, then we're strong, for Thy strength is made perfect in weakness." "As thy days, so shall thy strength be" (2Cor.12:9,10; Deut.33:25). PYL! TYJ! Lead us and guide us, Lord! Help us to feed Thy sheep, to lead Thy sheep aright, Lord, in the paths that you know are best, in Jesus' name. TYL! Have Thy way. Amen. TYL!

2. WE'VE BEEN DISCUSSING THE FINANCIAL SITUATION OF WORLD SERVICES between us in correspondence‚ particularly the 15% drop in our income, 15% below our running expenses, which now seems to have pretty well settled down to that steadily, most likely due to the migration of the Family to Southern and Eastern poorer countries. The more missionaries we have and the fewer home field families and bases, the more Pauls we have and the fewer Peters to support them.

3. ALTHOUGH I'M CONVINCED THAT GOD IS ABLE TO SUPPORT HIS MISSIONARIES NO MATTER WHAT, IF HE HAS TO DROP IT OUT OF THE SKY! And I'm also convinced that many have not done their best to raise home support before going to the field; or if anything, now that they are on the field doing the job‚ if they were writing good letters and doing good promoting and good pulling for finances from home, their support should be even better!

4. THEY'RE OBEYING. THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ALL AND LEFT HOME TO GO TO THE FIELD IN OBEDIENCE TO GOD'S COMMANDMENT. THEY ARE NOW DOING THE JOB! If anything, the home supporters should be more eager to help them than ever, Knowing they are on the field and writing good reports of what they are actually accomplishing, fruit, results! Any investor wants to know if he's getting dividends on his investment.

5. SO I STILL SAY THE FACT THAT THEY HAVE OBEYED GOD AND MOVED TO POORER FIELDS IS NO EXCUSE FOR POORER SUPPORT! If anything, their support from both God and home support should be better now that they're obeying and on the field and getting results!—If they are praying as they should, desperately trusting God as they should, really expecting God to take care of them and expecting the home folks to do their part and telling them so!—Amen?

6. SO AS I SEE IT, THERE'S NO EXCUSE FOR THE DROP IN OUR WORLDWIDE INCOME OF THE FAMILY AS A WHOLE. I won't even give the credit to the worldwide recession; famine‚ they used to call it in the Bible. It's still a long way from famine nowadays! Just because people can't buy a new car every year or a new $100,000 home or have a color TV set in every bedroom, I wouldn't exactly call that famine!—Even if they're out of a job, Social Security is good and sufficient to support most families, pay their rent, utility bills, feed them and all, which people did not have during the times of Bible famines!

7. IN BIBLE FAMINES THEY ACTUALLY DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO EAT and they literally starved, often to death! There were even famines in the days of the Early Church‚ during which time the richer churches in areas which were not affected by the famine had to send help to the famine-stricken churches.

8. I'VE BEEN GREATLY BURDENED ABOUT THIS SITUATION and praying about it much during the night. I got up early to pray and study about it, so I'm tired. Maybe you might say it's a bad time to have a conference when I'm tired and weary and worn and my voice is weak. God knows what's the best time to have a conference, when I can be the most utterly dependent on Him, and if you get anything out of it, it'll be the Lord!—When I'm fighting for survival and when I stick close to the Lord and am utterly dependent on Him. "For when I'm weak, then I'm strong, for then His strength is made perfect in my weakness."

9. AND THIS IS WHAT OUR MISSIONARIES SHOULD CONSIDER AND THE ATTITUDE THEY SHOULD TAKE. If they're having a tough time, they need to get desperate in prayer and lean more desperately on the Lord and ask God for help, and the more we depend on Him, the more we will have in every way.

10. WE MAY LACK IN SOME AREAS OF PHYSICAL STRENGTH OR EVEN FINANCIAL STRENGTH, but the weaker we are in both respects, the stronger God can manifest His power and show what He can do and do miracles! The more dependent we are on Him the more He likes it and the more He likes to do for us and likes to help us‚ for then He will get the glory and not us. We will thank Him and not ourselves. We will even thank Him more than the home folks if they fail us.

11. I'M CONVINCED THAT IF WE OBEY THE LORD AND DO HIS WILL AND OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS, HE WILL SUPPLY! I'm firmly convinced of that saying: "Where God guides, He provides!" When we face any kind of a crisis or dilemma, test, trial‚ tribulation, privation, persecution, whatever the trouble or problem may be for which we don't yet have the answer or all the answers, what is the first thing we should do?—Although I think we have some of the answers and you've already given me some, and I'll supply you with a few more, or God will! I hope I've gotten them from the Lord!

12. WHEN ANY OF US ANYWHERE FACE SUCH A CRISIS SITUATION—us here at the pinnacle of administration, leadership, guidance and feeding, or the missionaries out in the frontline trenches, so to speak‚ the lowliest litnesser, whoever it may be—if we are faced at any time with any kind of a sincere problem, what is the first thing we should do? (Peter: Pray!) Pray, of course! Pray what? (Peter: Pray for the answer.) Maybe first of all you need to pray for the question! And what's the first question you should ask yourself and the Lord? Number one? (Peter: What you've been doing wrong that you're not getting the blessing.)

13. MOST PEOPLE SAY, "WHAT'S THE MATTER‚ LORD?"—And when some people say that, they mean, "What's the matter with You, God? How come You failed me?" Whereas most of us should sit down or kneel down or stand down or stand up or stand on our heads or whatever we're doing, lie down and ask God: "What's the matter with me, Lord? Is there something wrong with what I'm doing? Am I displeasing You in any way? Am I failing or disobeying You in any way? Am I out of Your will in any way? First of all, what's the matter with me, Lord, or my situation? What's wrong?"

14. CONTRARY TO WHAT A LOT OF PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK‚ THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOD! There's nothing the matter with Him, nor His love, nor His dealings‚ nor His ability to supply! "Our God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory"—which are absolutely unlimited! (Ph.4:19). So why is our supply limited? Why is what He's giving us seemingly limited when His source is unlimited? Why are we short if God is not short and His ear is not deafened, neither is His arm shortened that it cannot save? (Isa.59:1). But as it says in one place: "Your iniquities have separated you, between you and your God‚ and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear" (Isa.59:2).

15. HE SAYS, "I'M NOT DEAF THAT I CAN'T HEAR YOUR PRAYERS. I'M LISTENING! And My arm isn't short or weak that it can't answer. The trouble is not up Here, it's down there with you!"—With us, not God! Don't blame God for your troubles and your problems and your crises and your shortages and your difficulties—financial, physical‚ spiritual, workwise or whatever! It's not God's fault! There's nothing wrong with God! "Let every man be found a liar, but God be found true!" (Rom.3:4). "Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but God!" (Mat.19:17).

16. SO THERE'S NOTHING WRONG WITH GOD, THERE'S NOTHING THE MATTER WITH HIM OR HIS HEARING OR HIS ABILITY TO SAVE. So if something is wrong, where is it?—It's with us somehow, somewhere. So when we face such a situation, what's the first thing we need to do? (Peter: Ask the Lord what's wrong with us.) Right! And one of the ways of finding out is to simply sit down like any businessman would, any warrior, any politician‚ anybody in any kind of business or work. In manual labor, building a house, if things don't come out the right measurement, where did I make my mistake? Weaving a tapestry, if things don't come out right, where did it start? Go back and see what's wrong; where did the problem begin?

17. SO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS NOT WHINE AND COMPLAIN AND MURMUR AND GRIPE AND GRUMBLE AND BELLYACHE AT GOD for His failures and His mistreatment and His neglect and His abuse and His cruelty and His deafness and His unconcern, because none of those things are true! You need to do what the children of Israel did not do out in the wilderness, and that is‚ you need to sit down and think the situation over and ask yourself:

18. "GOD, WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME? What's wrong with what I'm doing or the way I'm doing it? What am I doing that's displeasing You so that You're withholding Your blessings? In what way am I disobeying, either deliberately, willfully, or unknowingly, unwittingly, or simply falling short, maybe just not doing enough? Or maybe I'm not listening enough, maybe I'm not following Your voice and guidance enough."

19. THE SHEEP NEED TO DO WHAT?—THEY NEED TO FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD! But if they're so busy bleating "Baaaa! Baaaa! Baaaaad times! Baaaaad situation! Baaaaad everybody else! Baaaaad God! Everything's baad!"—that they can't even hear God tell them what's wrong, then they need to shut up and listen and hear the voice of the Shepherd! They may discover that He's gone on someplace else, and they were so busy with their own problems and troubles and going their own way that they even lost track of Him or where He's going or where He's headed! They've let Him get so far away that they can't even hear His voice anymore!—Or they have strayed so far away from Him, they can't even hear Him any more!

20. SO THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO DO IS GET DOWN TO BUSINESS WITH THE LORD AND SEEK THE LORD! Where is He? Where is He going? Where am I? We know that nothing can separate us from the Lord except our sins, mistakes, failures, disobedience, strayings, backslidings. God doesn't leave us, we leave Him! He never leaves us behind unless we don't follow; it's just that simple!

21. ALMOST A LITTLE CHILD CAN UNDERSTAND THAT ABOUT A SHEPHERD AND SHEEP! That's why the Lord used such a simple illustration of His relationship with us, as His sheep. Of course this is not quite as obvious nowadays except by stories and hearsay, because most children today don't live in an agrarian pastoral economy and society in which this sort of thing is all around them and they can see how dumb sheep are and how stupid they are and what horrible troubles they get into if they don't follow the shepherd. Because farm children have to help the shepherd to round up the sheep along with the sheepdogs who nip at the sheep if they get too far away, sort of a type of the Devil.

22. AND BOY ARE THOSE SHEEPDOGS FAST AND CLEVER! Ooof! It's uncanny!—Like the Devil himself, they are so smart! They can round up any little stray sheep in a hurry, bark at it first‚ and if it won't listen, then they snap at its heels! And if they still won't listen, they will grab ahold of a leg and give it a nice chomp! And boy, I'll tell you, that sheep skedaddles back to the flock in a hurry! And the flock is usually somewhere near the shepherd. So even Satan has his purpose, and even more so the wolves beyond. The sheepdog is pretty friendly, he's really working for the shepherd for sure.

23. SOMETIMES I THINK I'M A SHEEPDOG BECAUSE I KEEP SNAPPIN' AND YAPPIN' AT YOUR HEELS TO KEEP YOU IN LINE! So maybe we'll blame Satan for being the wolves. But the problem is there, if you get that far afield out amongst the wolves, that's too late! If you get not only away from the shepherd‚ but beyond the flock and even out of range of the sheepdogs and amongst the wolves, they're God's angels of death and judgment and you're a sure goner! Contrary to the old adage, I never heard of any little sheep that ran with wolves and learned to howl! It may not have gotten out even one bleat before it bled!

24. SO THE FIRST THING WE NEED TO DO IS SEEK THE LORD! Get down to business with God! Sit down, lie down, kneel down, whatever! Get alone with the Lord, alone with leadership. I usually get alone with the Lord first, because then I get the answers and I'm able to tell you. And I don't always just right out tell you! I could probably have already told you by this time, but because I'm trying to teach you and lead you, I'm asking you the questions to see if you know the answers and know what's wrong!

25. WE NEED TO SEEK THE LORD AND ASK GOD: "WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH ME? What's the matter with my situation? What's wrong that I have done or not done?" You need to sit down, as Jesus said, and count the cost! (Luk.14:28). You need to take stock‚ take inventory, have an audit of the books to find out what went wrong. You need to sit down and assess the problems and the assets and the liabilities and face the problem. You need to assay the values.

26. AND ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS YOU HAVE TO ASK YOURSELF AND YOURSELVES IS: "HAVE WE GOT OUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT? Are we doing what we're supposed to do? And are we doing our best to do the most we possibly can of the biggest job we have to do, the most important job?" That's why the church is in such a hell of a mess today!

27. LISTEN, LITTLE FELLOW, YOU LITTLE EMISSARY OF SATAN, GET OUT OF THIS CONFERENCE! I'm talking to a little spider coming down from the ceiling to sit down beside me. The Devil can't do very much unless you let him, but he does try to pester a little bit and interrupt and all kinds of things. So don't be surprised if when you're doing something extremely important that the Devil hovers around on the fringes and yaps at your heels! But normally the Lord doesn't allow him to really bite unless you persist in your waywardness and your straying.

28. AND OF COURSE IF YOU GET OUT AMONGST THE WOLVES, WELL, THAT'S YOUR OWN FAULT AND YOU DESERVE TO BE DEVOURED! That's the end. In spite of all the Shepherd's warnings and in spite of the sheepdog's yappin' at your heels and nippin' them, if you still wander away‚ well, you'll land out in the woods amongst the wolves! If you run with wolves, you're not going to learn to howl, you may not have time to howl! You may not even have time to bleat, only bleed, and that's usually the end! Because in this present age before the Millennium‚ the only time the lion lies down with the lamb is when the lamb is inside his stomach! So PTL! TYJ! Help us, Lord, in Jesus' name.

29. WE NEED TO SIT DOWN AND CONFER AND COUNSEL TOGETHER. "In a multitude of counselors there lacketh not wisdom. Let it be established in the mouth of two or three witnesses" (Pr.11:14; 24:6; Mt.18:16). Counsel together, counsel mostly together with the Lord, pray together, pray separately, but especially pray together and confer together as we were doing this morning. And I'm sure from the blast I sent you on paper yesterday, Peter‚ that you've been doing some praying since! Maybe you as well, Maria, I don't know. I didn't blast you this time. I bypassed you and went straight to the financial management.—Ha!

30. AND YOU CAME UP WITH NEARLY ALL THE RIGHT ANSWERS THAT I'D ALREADY COME TO, BUT I LIKE TO SEE YOU GET THEM! Just like any father does with his children, the father usually knows the answers‚ but he asks the questions because he wants to know if you learned anything, if you can figure out the answers. That really pleases the father when he sees that you have learned something and that you're using your noggin and that you're really manipulating your noodle so that you know what's goin' on and you've already found out some answers, because you asked yourself the questions!

31. YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO GET ANY ANSWERS UNLESS YOU ASK YOURSELF SOME QUESTIONS! You can ask God the questions, but probably the first thing He'll tell you to do is ask yourself the questions! It's like Fred used to say: If you say‚ "Lord here am I, send me! Lord, what can I do about the problems of evangelizing the world and going into all the world and preaching the Gospel? Lord, I'd like to see the Gospel preached in all the world!"—Probably the first person He's going to send is you!

32. SO USUALLY HE'S GOING TO ASK THE QUESTIONS. You might ask Him: "How come?" Well, He'll probably turn around and ask you how come! "How come you didn't do this? How come you didn't do that? How come you did so–and-so? Why didn't you do what I told you? Why can't you see the difference in your priorities? You're over-emphasizing something minor and under-emphasizing the major thing!"

33. SO WHAT ARE OUR MAJORS AND MINORS? Maybe we need to go back to the root of the matter and make it as simple as possible. My Letters always grow too long, I don't know how to shorten them! I've got to cover the whole subject from A to Z‚ Genesis to Revelation, including a lot of ancient history and church history and everything else thrown in! But usually when I've finished, I have exhausted the subject and exhausted the subjects as well!—As well as the listeners and myself, and the readers too! But I've covered it and I've analyzed it and I've gone over it thoroughly, and by the time I get done, you usually know what's wrong or what I'm talking about! At least you know something about the subject!

34. SIT DOWN, COUNT THE COST, TAKE STOCK, CHECK THE BOOKS, CHECK THE PATTERN, CHECK THE WORD! It's all right there already and the answer's already there. If something is haywire, it's because we have usually neglected the Word, neglected the Lord‚ ignored His voice, just been too busy to listen or got too interested in something else! We went up some side field picking daisies, and no matter how pretty the daisies and how plentiful, if it's not the path the Shepherd is walking, you'd better watch out! There may be vipers in the daisies or wolves in the woods or whatever!

35. I GUESS THE BEST THING TO DO IF I'M TIRED IS JUST REST A MINUTE. If I run out of inspiration, if I run out of steam, I'd better wait a minute until the boiler gets hot again, until the Lord shovels on a little more fuel! PTL! Because when the fire is burning and the boiler is hot and the steam is generating, you don't even have any problem listening—or hearing me, at least. I hope you're listening! Amen, Jesus, help us‚ give us wisdom. Lead us and guide us‚ Lord. Help us to say what needs to be said.

36.OKAY, WHAT ARE THE PRIORITIES? WHAT'S OUR MAIN JOB? Now think! Make it simple. Answer me in as few words as possible. What does the Bible say? What is the whole duty of man? Solomon says it in Ecclesiastes, and you can start with that one if you want to. (Peter: The whole duty of man is to fear God and keep His commandments.) Right! (Ecc.12:13).

37. BUT SINCE THAT LEGALISTIC MOSAIC ERA, GOD HAS BOILED IT DOWN TO SOMETHING EVEN SIMPLER THAN THAT AFTER JESUS CAME ALONG. Maria? (Maria: "Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself.") Exactly! (Mat.22:37–39). He changed it a little bit. It was there in the "fear God," but He made it a more personal loving relationship between Him and you and me, and instead of fear God, He said love the Lord! And instead of just "keep the commandments," He said, "Love thy neighbor as thyself. In these are all the law and all the prophets"—everything in the Bible! To love the Lord and to love others.

38. SO THAT NOW AS WE SAY, GOD'S ONLY LAW IS LOVE! It's not exactly a Biblical quote, but it certainly is Biblical and Scriptural! Say it again, Class, we've gotta hear you! (Maria and Peter: "God's only Law is Love!") Love whom? (Peter: The Lord and your neighbor.) Who's my neighbor? Obviously from the story the Lord then told, everybody in the world, even a stranger in another country, like the Samaritan.

39. AND INSTEAD OF MAKING THE JEW A SAMPLE OF GOD'S LOVE FOR THE SAMARITAN, JESUS MADE THE SAMARITAN THE EXAMPLE—a heathen, a foreigner, a half-breed who was of another religion and whom they hated. Jesus made him the example of love for his neighbor! … (Lk.10:30–37).

40. DEAR BEGIN BETTER TAKE A CUE FROM SOME OF THOSE SAMARITANS of that part of Israel he always wants to claim, Judaea and Samaria, the occupied West Bank‚ because in those two you have some of the worst and some of the best! Judaea was the heart and soul of Judaism and temple worship and the worship of Jehovah! Samaria was a mixed breed, half-breed mixture of idolatry and Jehovah and all kinds of a mess! A bunch of foreigners had come in from Babylonia and Assyria and mixed with the Jews, so they mixed up their religion of both Jehovah worship and idolatry, and they were a mess!

41. THEN HOW COME GOD DIDN'T USE THE JEWS, the Scribes, the Pharisees‚ the authoritarians, the orthodox religion and religionists and one of their members as being a prime example of love? They should have been the example of love for the poor mixed-up, muddled, confused Samaritans! They should have evangelized them!

42. IN FACT, THEIR KING, THE KING OF ASSYRIA, INVITED THE JEWS TO COME UP THERE AND PREACH TO'M and tell'm about the true God, because they were having such a scourge, at that particular time a scourge of lions! God sent a bunch of lions amongst them because they were pagan idolaters and wicked sinners!

43. THE HEATHEN KING RECOGNIZED THE FACT THAT THEY WERE DOING SOMETHING WRONG, they must not be worshipping the God of the Jews or the God of that country‚ and they needed to know. So they said, "Send us teachers that we may know to worship the Lord." So they did! (2Kg.17:24-28).

44. BUT THE JEWS APPARENTLY DIDN'T DO TOO GOOD A JOB OF IT, LIKE THE CHURCHES TODAY‚ and it left the poor Samaritans with a real mixture of religion and a real muddle and a mix-up! The first part of the muddle is the mud, and they were stuck in the mud with a mixture of religion: The worship of Jehovah, the true religion‚ and a worship of idols from their old background.

45. SO WHY IN THE WORLD DID GOD USE ONE OF THEM‚ OF ALL PEOPLE, AS A PRIME EXAMPLE OF LOVE FOR YOUR NEIGHBOR? Well, the Jews might have said: "He should have used a Jew! The Jew ought to have been loving the Samaritan, not the Samaritan the Jew! The Jew should have been the example!" Yes, he should have been, like the Church today! They should have been!

46. BUT WHO DID GOD HAVE TO TAKE TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD TODAY?—NOT THE CHURCHES! God went outside the churches and took the poor, mixed-up‚ muddled, confused Samaritans, the hippies, the youth, and got them straightened out and on the ball and loving God and loving their neighbor, and they turned out to have a lot more zeal and love for the lost than all the churches put together, and all the old-fashioned Christians!

47. SO CERTAINLY THE MODERN SAMARITANS OF TODAY HAVE SHOWN MORE LOVE FOR THE LOST THAN THE ORTHODOX JEWS and the Christians of today. I would say the hippies are doing a better job of it than the church people, and that we have done a better job of it than any church I know. "Love thy neighbor!"—Who's thy neighbor? Well, I think our Family has shown it's anybody anywhere in the world‚ in all the world, every creature, and we're preaching the Gospel to them as best we can!

48. OF COURSE, IT'S OBVIOUS THAT FIRST OF ALL WE HAVE TO LOVE GOD IN ORDER TO HAVE LOVE FOR OUR NEIGHBOR. You can't love the lost or the heathen or the foreigners nor the unsaved nor your enemies nor anybody else unless you've got the supernatural miraculous miracle working power of the Love of God in your heart!

49. ONLY THAT CAN GIVE YOU ENOUGH LOVE FOR OTHERS to be willing to forsake all and forsake yourself and your family and home and homeland and to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature!—People you've never seen before, you don't know their language or their religion and their different kinds and races and colors and peculiarities! That takes the Love of God! So you've got to start with that; nothing short of that will do it.

50. THE JEWS HAD THE FORM OF RELIGION, BUT WITHOUT THE POWER THEREOF, WITHOUT THE LOVE THEREOF (2Tim.3:5). That's why they didn't finish the job on the Samaritans and couldn't get them really straightened out and converted, because they didn't love God enough. It took Jesus to give them an example of a Samaritan that had more religion than they had‚ more love. Apparently he must have loved God more than they did, because the Jew didn't save the Samaritan, the Samaritan saved the Jew, and it looks like we've got a similar situation today!—Ha! Both Jews and Christians are about in the same category. They're the lost and strayed sheep on the road to Jericho who gets beat up by the wolves, and they're going to get beat up, and they are getting beat up!

51. ALL THE COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD THAT ARE THE FIRST TO GO COMMUNIST TODAY ARE THE MOST CHURCHY COUNTRIES OF ALL, the most Catholic countries of all where the church has been a dictatorial unloving hierarchy—hard, cold, unsympathetic, unconcerned, selfish, greedy and rich—until the poor lost sinners and the poor in general didn't see any answer there, or any love there! In fact, they saw that was part of the problem.

52. YOU HAVE TO LOVE THE LORD TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR, SO MAYBE THAT'S THE FIRST THING YOU OUGHT TO ASK YOURSELF: "DO I LOVE THE LORD ENOUGH? Do I love You enough, Lord‚ that I'm really sticking close to You, the Shepherd, in Your will, right at Your heels‚ right on the right path, just the way You know is best to go and I don't even have to question or anything? All I have to know is I'm right close to You, Lord, and I'm doing what You want me to do. I'm following right in Your path, right in Your footsteps."

53. WELL, IF YOU DO THAT AND YOU STAY CLOSE TO THE SHEPHERD, WHAT DOES HE DO? He leads you into green pastures and beside the still waters, restores your soul; He takes care of you. Even in the valley of the shadow of death, you will fear no evil. He'll even prepare a table before you in the presence of your enemies, anoint your head with oil. Even His rod and staff will comfort you with a few whacks now and then if you get out of line! It doesn't sound very comfortable, but sometimes the rod is a comfort. It's certainly better than getting over on the Devil's territory! (Psalm 23).

54. SO IF YOU STICK CLOSE TO THE SHEPHERD, YOU'RE BOUND TO BE WELL FED, WELL CARED FOR AND WELL PROTECTED. But what do shepherds have sheep for‚ just for fun? Just to have the fun of leading them around and climbing through all those pretty valleys and mountains and all that sort of thing? Just kind of a hike of some kind and it looks pretty and makes a nice pastoral scene for a painting or something? What's the purpose? (Peter: For the wool?)

55. WELL, THE WOOL IS ONE THING. If you've ever had any stock or sheep or cattle of any kind‚ the wool‚ the milk and that sort of thing is something that helps meet current expenses all the time, that's fine—support, income, constant income.

56. BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT THING TO THE SHEPHERD IS MORE SHEEP, MORE CATTLE. INCREASE, BEARING FRUIT! "Here in is God glorified‚ that ye bear much fruit!" (Jn.15:8). What's the fruit of sheep?—More sheep! The wool is not their fruit. Well, it's a part of their produce in a way and helps keep expenses paid. And once in a while a sheep even has to be sacrificed and its life sacrificed and his blood shed to feed the shepherd and his family‚ where meat is needed even more than milk.

57. BUT THE MAIN THING THE SHEPHERD IS AFTER IS MORE SHEEP! "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit!" So how are we going to bear fruit? First of all, we love God. Well, we say that's taken for granted. We hope so. The question is, how much do we love God? Are we obeying Him? Are we following Him closely? Are we loving our neighbor enough to bear much fruit? Are we giving enough wool, for one thing, and milk for another, these daily sustenances for the shepherd's daily bread, for the shepherd and his family to be able to take care of us? Giving has a lot to do with it!

58. AND THE SHEEP NEED TO ASK THEMSELVES THE QUESTION: "AM I STAYING CLOSE ENOUGH TO THE SHEPHERD? Do I love Him enough? Am I giving enough wool? Am I giving enough milk? Would I even be willing to give my meat for his life and his work, and am I bearing enough fruit?"

59. NOW WHAT DO WE HAVE TO DO TO BEAR FRUIT? Maria? (Maria: We have to publish the Word and have some results from it.) We have to stay very close to the Shepherd‚ and like a wife to a husband, receive His seed so that we can conceive and bear children in the Lord. We need to mate with the Seed-giver and be a good wife and a good mother and bear fruit, bear children for the Lord.

60. I'M TALKING IN GENERAL TERMS ABOUT THE FAMILY IN GENERAL‚ THAT IS THE JOB OF ALL OF US: TO LOVE GOD ENOUGH, TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR, EVERYWHERE AND EVERYBODY! That's making it as simple as possible. And those are the questions you need to ask yourself first of all if something goes wrong: "Do I love the Lord enough? Am I close enough to the Lord? Am I following Him, obeying Him, following right in His footsteps‚ right on His heels, right by His side and not straying off on the fringes someplace or clear out in the woods?"

61. GET YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT! We need to sit down and count the cost, even count the figures! That's why I like to keep stats and keep books, stats on the people and their results, and stats on the books and the finances, so I'll know where we're at! Any merchant that doesn't take an inventory every once in a while to see where he's at is apt to go out of business! He could be losing and going bankrupt and not even know it!

62. YOU NEED TO KEEP BOOKS—FINANCIALLY AND WITH YOURSELF AND WITH GOD—and keep stats on the produce and the results and the fruit to see if you're ahead or behind or where you're at! With nary a stat, you don't know where you're at! This is why I insisted on keeping stats from the very beginning! And of course any bookkeeper knows we've got to keep track of the finances or we wouldn't know if we were losing or gaining or what! And as a result of our keeping stats, we know we're gaining tremendously in fruit and numbers and members and converts and witness and litness and everything! In that field I don't think we lack, we are getting results!

63. BUT WE ARE RUNNING NOW A CONSTANT 15% BELOW NORMAL FINANCIALLY, WE'VE BEEN LOSING FINANCIALLY. I knew that we probably would, due to the fact of the Family moving to poor southern and Eastern fields, but I knew it because I knew the laziness and the lethargy and the disobedience and the carelessness and the negligence of the average Family Member‚ as well as other Christians‚ in not really being diligent and working hard to keep up their correspondence with their supporters and the home field‚ and their correspondence with God, to realize that without Him we can do nothing! (Jn.15:5). And let me tell you, without some folks back home praying for you and helping to support you—somebody at home or the field or wherever—you can't do much either!

64. BECAUSE THAT'S PROBABLY THE FIRST THING GOD WILL ASK YOU: "Did you get out your prayer letter this month? Did you thank all of your donors faithfully and lovingly with a real personal note or letter? Did you let'm know how much you appreciate it and how much you needed it and what you spent it for? Did you get out good promotional literature‚ prayer letters, PR brochures to provisioners? Are you keeping in good relationship with your kings and queens and people on the field? Are you working hard on all seven supporters, and maybe you found an eight and a nine and a ten besides?"—Some people have! Are you doing all you possibly can to raise your support and asking God, "What else can I do? What more can I do?" Because I think if the Family were, income would not be down! If anything, it ought to be better now than it was before you got to the field! So that's not God's fault‚ that's your fault!

65. WELL, SO MUCH FOR GENERALITIES AND THE OVERALL PICTURE of all of us and all Christians and all mankind and their relationship to God and the duty of man and the duty of Christians and the duty of the church and the duty of the Family! Now let's get down to basics regarding zeroing in on our personal duty as far as World Services is concerned.

66. WHAT IS WORLD SERVICES? If you want to boil it down real simple and short, World Services is me!—Ha! In the strictest sense of the Word, that's what it is!—And every World Service unit and every World Service unit member is one of my arms or legs or fingers or toes‚ of which I am the head! The Lord is really the head, but I'm the earthly head.

67. HOW DID WORLD SERVICES GET STARTED IN THE FIRST PLACE?—The Lord asked me to be your shepherd, the king of the beggars, of all these lost strayed sheep wandering about and having no shepherd. And He gave me a love for them. Because I loved the Lord, He gave me the love I needed for them, the hippies that I hated and thought there was nothing good about'm, a bunch of drug–infested, crime-ridden, vice-ridden commies! That was our Texas opinion of'm! I wouldn't have touched'm with a ten-foot pole! And I wound up sleepin' with'm and getting their bugs and everything else! Praise God! Hallelujah! TYJ!

68. THAT'S THE KIND OF LOVE THE LORD GAVE ME FOR THEM, BECAUSE I LOVED THE LORD. And if He told me to love them, then I loved them! And when He told me to love them, He gave me the love‚ so it wasn't hard to do! Because He loved'm, I loved'm! "We love Him because He first loved us!" (1Jn.4:19). we love others because He first loved them, and us.

69. SO BEING MY OVERSHEPHERD, HOW DID HE LEAD ME TO LEAD THEM? If I am their Shepherd, what are my duties? We're getting our priorities straight, remember? What's a priority?—First things first, second things second, and don't get'm mixed up! And what is the most important thing I have to do that I must do, even if I drop everything else?—"Feed My sheep," Jesus said three times to Peter after He rose from the dead!

70. "PETER, LOVEST THOU ME?" "Sure, Lord‚ I love You!" "Feed My sheep!" "Peter, lovest thou Me?" "Lord, You know I love You!" "Okay, prove it‚ Peter, feed My sheep!" Peter must have really gotten a little bit upset on that last one because he said, "Lord, You know I love You!" Third time! "How come You're asking me, Lord‚ You shouldn't have to even ask me! You know I love You!" "Okay, Peter, you say you love Me, but now get out there and prove it and lead and feed My sheep!" (Jn.21:15–17).

71. THE ONE WHO HAD DENIED THE LORD THRICE ON THE NIGHT OF HIS ORDEAL SPENT TEN DAYS GETTING STRAIGHTENED OUT WITH THE LORD in the upper room in Jerusalem, praying with the whole mob of men, women, children and all. There must have been hundreds, 120 men alone, and they weren't alone!—All their women and their kids were there too! So there must have been hundreds of them! The upper room wasn't any little garret or little closet, it must have been a big hayloft or something as big as a barn to hold hundreds of people! It must have been a real meeting room, some kind of a big Family Fellowship!

72. THEY WERE HAVING THEIR NAF, THEIR NATIONAL FELLOWSHIP! All the Christians that amounted to anything in the whole area were gathered together to watch and pray! They really sought the Lord with one mind and one heart in unity, they were obeying! Jesus said‚ "Tarry at Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high, and after the Holy Ghost is come upon you, ye shall be witnesses unto Me!"—Here and there and everywhere is what He was saying! (Luk.24:49; Acts 1:8).

73. SO THEY TARRIED, THEY OBEYED, THEY WERE TOGETHER, UNITED‚ IN PRAYER, NO DOUBT SOME FASTING AND REALLY SEEKING THE LORD FOR HIS WILL! So how did He show them? He poured out the Holy Spirit on them, gave them power from on high! And if anything, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of Love! What is the power we have?—Love most of all—Love power!

74. HE POURED OUT THE LOVE ON'M FOR EVEN THOSE … JEWS, their fellow Jews … and murderers and the ones that had slain their own Messiah, crucified their own Christ! Well, they had love for those that were receptive, at least. Even in his first speech after being filled with the Spirit, Peter pretty well ripped up and down the Jews that had killed Jesus! He said, "Whom ye crucified!" (Acts 2:36). …

75. SO THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS A BAPTISM OF LOVE‚ MOST OF ALL, FOR GOD AND ALSO FOR OTHERS. For that reason they spoke in all these different tongues, glorifying God so that others could believe. And how many souls got saved the first day of that revival? (Peter: 3,000!) And a few days later in the Temple, how many? (Peter: 5‚000!) Boy, they were really reapin', really harvesting, because they sought the Lord first. (Acts 2:41; 4:4).

76. THEY WERE UNITED, THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE AFTER, THEY KNEW WHAT THEY WERE DOING! They didn't know what was going to happen, but God knew what was going to happen! They knew they were obeying and being where God told them to be‚ doing what God told them to do, and the results were up to God. Did He get results? He did! He poured out the Spirit‚ power‚ love and a tremendous harvest of conversions!—And that's what we have had, thank God!

77. SO WE'RE HAVING A LITTLE FINANCIAL PROBLEM. Income is off, we're not able to pay quite as much for publications‚ not able to give everybody their full support, we've had to cut checks 10-15% each month to live within our income so that our outgo doesn't outstrip our income, which I think is wise. But I also gave in "Seven Cures for Financial Ills" (No.1271) a lot of other things to do.

78. AND ONE OF THE FIRST OF THOSE THINGS WAS: TRIM THE FAT! How do you go about trimming the fat? You look at a piece of meat and you have to make a decision. You've got to have enough sense, enough perception and enough knowledge of meat to know which is which. You have to know the difference between the fat and the lean meat‚ the real muscle.

79. THAT'S A GOOD THING TO REMEMBER: LEAN MEAT IS MUSCLE. IT'S GOT MUSCLE-POWER, IT WORKS AND IT ACCOMPLISHES SOMETHING! About all fat is good for is to burn. It helps to grease, it helps to flavor, it helps to cook, but if you get too much fat‚ you might get it in the fire and burn up the whole works!—As some people have! You have to know how much to cut off and how much to leave on. Because as my mother used to say about cooking steaks, etc.‚ you've got to leave a little fat on for flavor, and you have to cook it in its fat to have a little flavor.

80. YOU'VE GOTTA KNOW THE DIFFERENCE between muscle meat, lean meat, meat that is really good for strength and accomplishes something, and just plain fat. Fat has its place and is useful‚ but not too much. And if you have to make a choice between the two, you don't save the fat and eat that and throw the meat away, you save the meat and throw the fat away!

81. YOU CAN TRY TO USE THE FAT IF YOU CAN. We used to boil it down for lard and sell it. First of all we used to sell it, then they required you to give one pound of fat for fat during the war. If you didn't bring in a one-pound can of fat, lard or grease—which they used, incidentally, in making explosives, etc.—it didn't matter if you did have two coupons for butter, you wouldn't get any butter‚ or oleo or whatever! Pound for pound, like old Shylock!

82. YOU HAD TO GIVE A POUND OF FAT FOR A POUND OF FAT‚ a pound of grease for a pound of butter!—As well as your ration coupon and pay for it on top of it! Because the government said they needed the grease to grease the ammunition, so to speak. There's something about grease that they needed in making explosives. So grease does have its uses.

83. BUT IF THERE'S A CHOICE IN EATING BETWEEN EATING THE FAT AND EATING THE MEAT, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO EAT? Well, people who are crazy and already too fat and digging their graves with their teeth‚ probably are choosing fat things to eat, and fats and greases and lards and greasy foods and fattening things, instead of sticking to the bare essentials of the lean meat and things that are really for strength and for building and protein and muscle meat, meat with muscle that accomplishes something!

84. SO WHAT'S THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE HAVE IN THE FAMILY RIGHT NOW? (Peter: You!) Ha! Imagine that, he said "you"! Well, the funny part about it is, he's right!—Ha! That's just the way God made it‚ that's all, and that's the way God made me.

85. AND WHAT'S MY MOST IMPORTANT JOB, THE THING I HAVE TO DO MOST OF ALL? (Peter: To feed the sheep.) Be careful! I can't feed the sheep unless I've got something to feed'm! Maria? You know. (Maria: Getting it in the first place!) Right! Being led of the Lord into green pastures, knowing where to find the food and being given the food by the Lord. One sows, another waters, but it is God that giveth the increase! Only God can make the grass grow, and He does! (1Cor.3:6,7).

86. THE WORLD SAYS, "GRASS DOESN'T GROW ON A BUSY STREET!" Well, you can't eat bricks either! That's what the guy said when they asked him about his bald head. He said, "Well, you know‚ grass doesn't grow on a busy street!" He was trying to compliment his intelligence, his busy brain. But this just shows you man's perverted sense of values, he values his streets more than the grass! Yet if there weren't that grass out there in the country to feed the animals that he feasts on, he wouldn't have the strength to walk down the street and there wouldn't be any need for the streets of his cities! We're going to get back to that one of these days.

87. MY MAJOR JOB IS TO GET IT FROM GOD, AND MY NEXT MAJOR JOB IS TO PASS IT ON TO YOU! I SERVE IT TO YOU, AND YOUR BIGGEST JOB IS TO GET IT OUT! Once I said to you, "It's more important to get it right than to get it out!"—When you found how slow I was. On the other hand, sometimes it's more important to get it out even than get it right!—Exactly right as far as little infinitesimal unimportant minor mistakes and typographical errors are concerned, particularly in the Family's FNs and things like that. I like to have mine as perfect as possible! I don't like to have a single mistake if I can help it. I get it right from God, I try to get it right on paper, and then I try to get it out right to you.

88. HOW DID I START DOING THIS? Before I started the Family and the Lord started the Family through me, I hadn't written a word—Not a word except a few little correspondence letters with relatives and a few love letters to sweethearts! I never even wrote a poem, never wrote anything! I wrote a few papers in school because I had to, but I hated to and it was a real trial and a chore for me. I just was not that fluent‚ I wasn't that inspired. There's not very much about school that inspires you anyhow, to write about all the ridiculous subjects they ask you to write about!

89. ONE OF THE MOST INSPIRING SUBJECTS I WAS EVER GIVEN TO WRITE ABOUT WAS THE SEMINOLE INDIANS, AND ANOTHER WAS ABOUT THE 200-AND-SOME SMALLER SECTS IN AMERICA. I really learned something from that! I learned what the White man had done to the poor Indians, and how the Church had neglected to evangelize them and take care of them. And on the smaller sects I learned what a mess the church was in and how many ideas it had gotten and busted up in so many different splinters! But I also learned how some succeeded and some didn't, and I have tried to profit from their mistakes so that we don't make the same mistakes that made some of them just die out in a hurry. We try to profit just by observing others, what were their strengths and what helped them to succeed? All these little things are important.

90. I LEARNED UNDER A VERY GOOD TEACHER ALSO, A GOOD KING, HOW TO BE A KING—FRED JORDAN! I learned a lot of what I know from him. Before that I learned a lot from my mother and my father and my grandparents and my forebears. You can hardly give any one the credit‚ you'd have to give so many people the credit! I'm an end result, the product, and I'm not even the end! You're my products and your fruit is the rest of them‚ and their fruit is the souls they're getting out yonder in the mission field, and I hope there will never be any end until Jesus comes! And even afterward there's going to be some more reaping! I believe it!

91. HOW DID I GET STARTED? Well, I'd almost say how I first got started, I never wrote anything, but I taught my children. I did get out a couple little leaflets to my first pastorate, and you've seen some of them. The first thing I ever wrote, I was so afraid of writing anything myself, I made sure it was all scripture! It was a little thing on Bible Prophecy, a little chart of the various kingdoms and the beasts and all that stuff. You've seen that.

92. I HAD ALL OF DANIEL AND REVELATION INTERPRETED AND SUMMARIZED IN ONE LITTLE FOUR-PAGE TRACT about the size of two pages of the FN, the whole thing in a nutshell! I was determined to keep it short, believe it or not, and keep it simple, believe it or not, and not write any of it myself, have it all Scripture. I sure have changed!—Perhaps to your sorrow! But without the Lord making some changes in me, we'd have never gotten any further than a four–page leaflet and a Bible prophecy chart, and probably never had a Family!

93. SO I HAD TO TRUST THE LORD‚ RIGHT AFTER I TOOK OVER THE SHEPHERDING OF THE SHEEP IN HUNTINGTON BEACH, THAT HE WAS SPEAKING TO ME, and I just did the same thing with those kids as I'd been doing with my own kids for years—teaching—and mostly something they were very interested in and they needed to know—Bible prophecy! If they didn't know that God had something better to offer and a better future to offer, what was the use of learning about the present? so I socked it to'm with God's message!

94. A FEW PEOPLE RECORDED A FEW OF THOSE LESSONS AND WE STILL HAVE A FEW TAPES LYING AROUND, BUT WE NEVER PRINTED THEM THEN. Many years later we have printed a few, and it might be worthwhile. Dear Beriah was supposed to go over them and find the things that are worth it, but I don't know, maybe that's passed and passé and too late now. We've got to get our priorities straight, what's the most important thing we have to do now!

95. THEN I BEGAN TO HEAR FROM THE LORD, AND I REALIZED, OF COURSE‚ I'D BEEN HEARING FROM THE LORD ALL MY LIFE! But I began to hear from Him very specifically and definitely, literally, verbally, orally, audio as well as video! In the club in Huntington Beach the kids got prophecies, I didn't. They got tongues, I didn't. They got interpretations‚ I didn't. I didn't yet have those gifts. Well, I had some that I didn't yet realize. I did understand some of the things, but I didn't have the faith to launch out and say so!

96. BUT WHEN DEAR MARIA PUT ME ON THE SPOT WITH HER LITTLE PRAYERS IN TONGUES AND MESSAGES, I COULDN'T FAIL THAT LITTLE CHILD, I HAD TO GET IT—SO I DID! And as I launched out by faith and obeyed the Lord and gave it, He gave more—and more and more and more and more till now I'm sure most people think it's too much! It's a flood! Well, that's what the Lord promised! He said He'd pour out more than we were able to hold or receive! (See "Birthday Warning‚" No.215.)

97. SO YOU NEVER HAVE TO BLAME GOD FOR NOT GIVING US ENOUGH! Most people might blame Him for giving us too much! Well, He never said He wouldn't give you too much. He has to do like the army: They make sure they give you too much food to be sure you get enough! Some people's capacity is more than others. Some people can lap it all up, gobble it all up, like some of those chowhounds in the army! Those great big giants, they needed it!

98. BUT LITTLE SKINNY RUNT ME, I WAS LUCKY IF I GOT ANYTHING after they cinched the dishes and scooped up all the food! While I was running back standing in line trying to get enough for me to eat, the damn sergeant would blow the whistle and we had to quit!—And I had to live on candy bars out of a machine!—Ha! Because they never gave slow little skinny runt me enough time to eat!

99. SO DIFFERENT PEOPLE HAVE DIFFERENT CAPACITIES! Some are voracious, and some are very picky and slow, so God just has to give enough for everybody, the chowhounds as well as the nitpickers. So just because you can't read it all, doesn't mean that you're necessarily failing God. He knows your capacity and you just read as much as you can! God pours it on, He pours it out, but not everybody can receive it all!

100. HE EVEN SAID, "I HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY UNTO YOU, BUT YOU CANNOT BEAR THEM NOW!" (Jn.16:12). But I think he's saying them to us now when we're able to receive it! I think today we're getting it and we're more able to receive it. Even the Church is not able to receive it, they reject it. They say it's heresy, he's a heretic and a false prophet and a profligate as well and all the rest—because they're old bottles and they're not able to take the new wine! (Mt.9:17).

101. SO MY JOB IS TO FIRST OF ALL GET IT FROM GOD AND GET IT OUT TO YOU! I started by giving it to the hippies, then to Maria, and then through her. And she was a diligent, faithful, good handmaiden who wanted to make sure she didn't lose any of it and caught it all, so she jotted down every word and recorded it for the first time anybody ever did that!

102. I HAD LIVED WITH ANOTHER WOMAN FOR 25 YEARS WHO NEVER DID IT, WHO DIDN'T EVEN THINK IT WAS IMPORTANT‚ MY SERMONS OR ANYTHING ELSE! The only times she ever started jotting down things is when she knew it was God speaking straight through my mother in prophecy and interpretation, etc, and she realized how important it was for our guidance. In fact‚ my mother even admonished her that she'd better write it down! She said, "You know shorthand‚ why don't you write it down? I can't remember it afterward!"—Any more than I can after I've had a prophecy.

103. I CAN REMEMBER THE VISIONS AND THE DREAMS; THE PICTURES ARE EASIEST TO REMEMBER! But the prophecies and interpretations, unless there's somebody there to record it and write it down, I hardly ever remember it! Sometimes I remember some outstanding statement in a dream, or something that's said, or some sign or some word I see‚ but if some faithful scribe and recorder had not faithfully recorded it, we'd have lost it all!

104. —JUST AS MY DEAR FAMILY AND MY FIRST WIFE LOST IT ALL ALL THOSE YEARS. I was teaching for years, probably all the same stuff I'm teaching you now. it could have been recorded then but there was no faithful recorder who had the faith in me or what I was saying or what God was saying until Maria came along.

105. AH ME‚ TYJ! SEE‚ I'VE GOT TO COVER IT ALL TO SHOW YOU WHY! Here we've got to figure out how to save 15% on our expenses, but I have to give you the whole history of the whole Family in order to get your priorities straight! We probably won't even have time to record the answer, I don't know, but I'm recording the basic principles. And from that, if you've got your questions right, you'll have the answers. And I'm asking you the questions.

106. SO I GOT IT, I GAVE IT‚ SHE WROTE IT! And then we began to realize, "This is good for the whole Family! This is Word for the Family, the Lord is talking to us all! We've got to pass it on!" So what did you do, Maria? (Maria: I typed it!) She sat down at her little Brother typewriter, the tiny portable that the [Israelis] made us pay about three times as much as it was worth!—$100 second-hand in those days! Good night, you can almost buy a second-hand Royal electric nowadays for $100! …

107. SO SHE BEGAN TO TYPE IT! She'd first of all write it down in shorthand, laboriously as it was being given to make sure she didn't lose a word; then she began to type it. Then we realized, "This is good for the Family! We'll include it in our Letters of instruction to the Family and our counsel and advice, etc., we're giving our leaders"—and that's all we gave it to at first was just the leaders! Then we decided we'd broaden the scope of leaders to Leadership Trainees—LT Letters! Finally we told them there were certain Letters they could read to the whole Colony, the whole Family.

108. WE STARTED OUT BY SENDING ONE LETTER AND KEEPING A CARBON COPY. Before we left Israel we were sending out the original and six carbons and keeping the seventh carbon for ourselves! And from there on it multiplied. "The Lord gave the increase!" (1Cor.3:6). So don't blame it all on me because it's so plentiful and such a flood; God giveth the increase!—Ha! There's a good Scripture for me to excuse me for saying so much and writing so much and giving so much, more than you can even read!

109. THE LORD SAID HE'D GIVE YOU MORE THAN YOU'RE ABLE TO HOLD, WHAT ARE YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT! Just because you can't read it all? If you can't read it all‚ God doesn't expect you to read it all, just read what you can! He said He'd give you more than you can hold! PTL! Thank God for it! It means there's always more there, you'll never run out! Right? OK! So my most important job is to get it and give it, and Maria's most important job, along with yours, is to write it and publish it and see that the Family gets it!

110. SO AFTER WE GOT BEYOND JUST A FEW CARBON COPIES, WHAT DID WE START DOING THEN?—I started encouraging the Colony shepherds to make Xeroxes and carbon copies of their own, or mimeograph'm and pass'm out, finally, to everybody. And we got along that way for just about the first five years! We never really lacked for anything, God supplied our needs and He supplied the leadership for the Family and we got out and we were doing the job and evangelizing the world the best we could with the numbers we had. I'm working up to something, and I'm sure you're getting the hint.

111. FINALLY AS LATE AS THE '70s WE WERE STILL JUST PRINTING A LITTLE 12–PAGE LEAFLET OR SO OF VARIOUS LETTERS, four-page GPers and up to 10 or 12, sometimes 16-pagers at the most, of Family Letters, D.O. Letters, and sending them out, just whatever we happened to have on hand. As fast as we got it done we'd mail it off to Mordy, and he'd run it off on his little hand press and mail it out to the whole world in just a little envelope. And that was it, that was all there was!

112. BUT WE GREW AND WE MULTIPLIED AND WE PRODUCED AND WE HAD FRUIT AND WE GOT RESULTS AND WE DID THE JOB!—Even when all we had were little individual Letters from me! That's all they had! No Family News! The closest we came to Family News was when I started getting out the Royal Family Newsletters‚ and then broadened it to my Family Newsletter, trying to give a little news from here and there all over the world, and called'm newsletters. That was the first FNs, really.

113. AND THEN WE TRIED TO ENCOURAGE THE VARIOUS AREAS WHERE WE HAD LEADERSHIP TO PLEASE MAKE UP SOME PAGES OF THEIR LOCAL NEWS AND SEND'M IN—without too much success. (See "Local Pubs‚" No.318B.) Some of them did, who wanted to promote their fields and themselves, but they never stayed very faithful and they soon kind of petered out and we just had a difficult time trying to get the news from them, especially Jeth and Deb and some of them. Some of them did and some of them didn't.

114. A LOT OF THEM WERE EVEN PUBLISHING THEIR LOCAL FAMILY NEWSLETTERS AND LITTLE LOCAL FAMILY NEWS LEAFLETS AND NEVER EVEN SENT THEM TO US! Never even shared them with us! We were amazed later on when one of their members or somebody sent us things. Apparently they didn't want us to know what was going on, or they were afraid we'd find out that they were doing too well! I don't know what the score was, but they just didn't seem to want to share the news with us! We would have certainly known they must have quite a mailing list and be doing pretty good, and I guess they were afraid we might ask them for it so we could send our Newsletter to them too, which we did! Some of them did, some of them didn't.

115. BUT ANYHOW GOD BLESS DEAR LITTLE HO, he had the vision even from as far back as TSC to get out a little paper called the New Nation News‚ the NNN, and publish all the reports and the stats and various interesting reports and summations and news items, etc. And that was very good, very encouraging‚ and I think it was great! It still is! It's grown to the Family News Magazine. It even grew to a book with BOTM 2‚ and that was the limit—I hope! Although it looks like the next three FNs combined are going to be as bad, if not worse, in size, but much better in content, TTL!

116. SO, PTL! THE LORD IS BLESSING! He has poured out the news and the Family is pouring it in! God's pouring it on, the Family's pouring it in, we're pouring it out and it's terrific, wonderful to hear the news from the field! There was a time when we didn't have any and we still did God's work, we still got disciples, we still had converts, we still grew, we still had more and more colonies and Homes, we still got out to the mission fields and evangelized the world and preached the Gospel to every creature with nothing but little personal Letters from me! No magazine‚ no GN, no FN, no books, no nothing' but just little tiny leaflets!—And they got down so small for a while you could hardly read'm they were so microscopic! We were so afraid they'd be noticed in the mail during the persecution!

117. DO YOU REALIZE AT THE TIME WHEN THEY GOT SO SMALL DURING THAT SCARE BACK ABOUT '79 WAS JUST BEFORE THEY BEGAN TO GET SO BIG!—Ha! They went to their smallest, their lowest low, smallest print‚ a little square about so big, where you could stick a few of them in an envelope and you'd never know it wasn't a personal letter, Just before they began to grow like mad! The Lord must have seen we were faithful with a few things and some very small Letters, so He made us ruler over many things and some awful big Letters! (Mat.25:21).—And now we have published books and books!

118. I'VE FIGURED WE HAVE SO FAR PUBLISHED ABOUT 70 BOOKS AND BOOK-SIZED MAGAZINES, THINK OF THAT! I've still got to study that list and somebody still has to make me a picture of all those books! Is anybody working on it? I said if they couldn't even find all the books and take a photograph, for God's sake, let Jac draw a picture! He could get them figured out to about the right proportion and size if he knows the page numbers, etc.‚ how big they were from the beginning of the first actual magazine, the little tiny Family News magazine about so big. Remember? It wasn't any bigger than what the LIN is today, and it grew to about what the KIDz is, from about 16, and it went up to about 32 and kept growing, with MO Letters and Family News both, all the eggs in one basket!

119. UNTIL RECENTLY WHEN THE FNs GOT SO BIG I WAS WORRYING ABOUT WHETHER WE'D EVER BE ABLE TO EVEN PUBLISH THEM, and we didn't and couldn't because we had so much! So I said, "Well‚ I'm going to get out the Letters anyway! These big books are too slow and too expensive and even if they never get out, I'm going to get the Letters out!" So I kind of went back to my old ministry of just getting out the Letters in the GN! I don't know whether you're getting what I'm driving at or not.

120. THERE'RE ONLY A FEW THINGS THAT WE REALLY HAVE TO DO: I have to hear from the Lord, I have to give it to you, you have to write it down, and you have to get it out, and the Family's got to read it, and then they've got to do it! And when we follow that chain reaction, it gets results and we're exploding all over the world!

121. WE'RE NOW ABOUT 13,000 MEMBERS, INCLUDING ALL THE MUSIC CLUB MEMBERS, WHICH I THINK WE OUGHT TO INCLUDE. After all, they're writing in and considering themselves members of the Club, why not?—Including all their Homes and all the addresses to which we send literature. I consider those our Homes or they wouldn't be asking for it, getting it, reading it and responding! They're friends, to say the least, and I count them as Family members, even if they haven't yet forsaken all and joined a Home or begun serving fulltime.

122. WE COUNT OTHER PART-TIME MEMBERS, WE COUNT TRFers AND TITHERS THAT ARE WORKING AT FULL-TIME SECULAR JOBS, WHY SHOULDN'T WE COUNT THESE OTHERS?—Even if they're not yet TRFing or tithing or maybe not even yet doing too much in the way of witnessing or litnessing. They're babes! Just because a little baby is born fresh into the Home, it doesn't mean you don't count him a member yet until he gets to be an adult and can work and take care of himself! He's still a member‚ right? So I count these babes as members now! And we've got'm in about 5,000 Homes! Praise God!

123. BUT OUR DUTIES WENT BEYOND THAT TO WHERE EVEN MY LETTERS AND FAMILY NEWS WERE NOT ENOUGH! And what else did we do besides all the books and all the printed publications?—Music and various kinds of tapes! Dear Beriah had the burden for that first, God bless him; too bad he didn't keep it and do a better job of it! But who knows, maybe that phase is past. Maybe we've got enough of that kind of junk on the market, so to speak, especially when it was such poor quality.

124. IF YOU DON'T DO A GOOD JOB OF THINGS‚ THE LORD MAY JUST DISCONTINUE IT. I guess he did the best he could‚ but when the quality got so poor the Family couldn't even understand'm, I decided it was time to quit! But they served their purpose in their day‚ and as a result, although we only started out with Beriah's Wild Wind tapes, we've now got MWM, MCV and a whole bunch of others as well! We are now publishing tapes in about 15 languages, and it'll probably soon be 20!—music tapes, Gospel tapes, audio tapes and now even videotapes!

125. BUT THERE WAS A DAY WHEN WE DIDN'T HAVE VIDEOS, we didn't have tape recorders or audio tapes, we didn't have magazines, books‚ Family News, all we had was Letters!—And we survived! In fact, we grew! As long as we had the Word of the Lord and published it, it got results! Amen? So will that shock you to tell you that if worse comes to worst, there's only one thing we have to do, and that's publish Glad Tidings, publish the Letters! And all the glad tidings from the Family too if we can. But let's get our priorities straight.

126. I'M JUST DROPPING A BOMB TO SHOCK YOU, TO REMIND YOU THAT WE DON'T NECESSARILY HAVE TO PUBLISH ALL THESE SCORES OF LAVISH PUBLICATIONS and books and Family News Magazines and Family News books and BOTMs and tapes by the tens of thousands! The Family's already got enough music to last'm till the Lord comes! They've already got enough talks on tape to keep'm busy until Kingdom Come, and through Kingdom Come and the whole Millennium!

127. SO WE'RE GOING TO START CUTTING THINGS WE DON'T ACTUALLY HAVE TO HAVE! Where are we going to start cutting? With the Letters and the GNs? You've gotten so accustomed to all of these things now, you think they're absolutely essential and we couldn't get along without'm. But there was a day when we did, and we did just fine! Of course‚ we're doing a lot finer and a lot more now with'm, and I hope to be able to continue them all if we can. But if we're going to start cutting anywhere, where are we going to start cutting?

128. "BUT ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, AND MARY HATH CHOSEN THAT GOOD PART WHICH SHALL NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HER!" (Luk.10:42). And what was that, Mary? (Maria: The word!) She sat at Jesus' feet and listened to the Lord. That's the only thing that's really necessary, is to listen to the Lord, to sit at His feet and hear of Him and hear His Word. So that's the only thing we're absolutely obligated to get out, and that is the Word of God, what God has to say.—The dreams, visions, prophecies, interpretations, teachings, revelations‚ whatever!

129. YOU GUYS OUGHT TO LEARN BY THIS TIME YOU NEED TO EAT AND GO TO THE BATHROOM AND GET ENOUGH SLEEP BEFORE YOU COME TO THIS CLASS! Well, I'm almost done. I'm just getting down to the nitty-gritty now of the details and the effects, you've got the message! That's the main message we all need to hear and the Family needs to hear. Now to get down to the business part, as well as making it clear to you what is really necessary! If we have to get back down to where we can't publish anything but Letters‚ we'll do it!

130. WE DIDN'T HAVE A BUNCH OF WORLD SERVICE UNITS THEN! The only World Service unit in the beginning was me and Maria! That's all! We were it! And we just lived by faith on whatever kind of a handout Jeth and Josh and some of them were willing to send us. We never knew how much we were going to get or when or why or how come or whatever! We just knew the Lord was going to supply somehow from somewhere, and it came from different sources.

131. THE FIRST REGULAR INCOME WE EVER GOT WAS when I saw how much Jeth was rakin' in and I finally told him he'd better give us so much a month minimum to live on, something like $75 a week or something‚ and it finally went up and up because the cost of living went up and we began to have children and helpers and secretaries and things just grew.

132. INCOME, THAT'S A GOOD PLACE TO BEGIN. Our income at first was very uncertain except for the Lord, and it came from different leaders, Colonies, various gifts and individuals who just helped us. We never knew where it was coming from or how much, till finally we specified we had to have a minimum from dear Jethro. And he could hardly refuse since he himself was living in a mansion and riding in a Mercedes—and so were Rachel and Emanuele—and buying themselves new ones besides and all kinds of things! So I thought it was time for us to make sure we at least could pay the rent and have enough to eat!

133. AND WHEN WE FINALLY GOT TO TENERIFE it grew to where I said we had to have at least 300 pounds a month to live on, and it kept going up with the cost of living and the size of our Family, and you know the end result now! We have a lot of helpers in World Services and a lot of necessary Creations units‚ one Home in one place and another in another place and another somewhere else, and still others for printing and publishing, etc., etc., etc.!—Until we've got many World Service units all over the world busily engaged in the various forms of publications, etc..—plus all the scores of missionaries and missionary efforts that we support!

134. WE WEREN'T ABLE TO SUPPORT ANYBODY WHEN WE FIRST STARTED. WE WERE DOING WELL TO GET SUPPORTED OURSELVES! We were doing well to pay for our room rent and our meager little food that we ate! Do you remember, dear Maria? And it was quite some time before we had a regular stipulated amount we could count on. Finally we got things a little better organized to where we required a certain amount and percentage, etc. Of course‚ I never asked for as much as the Chain was asking for! I told them they could ask for 10%, but they went to 25 and 35 and then 50 and God knows how much more! This is a finance meeting and I'm talking about finances. That's what we're here for, to solve a financial problem.

135. AND THEN WHEN THE CHAIN AND THEIR LEADERSHIP FAILED—although they were making plenty of money and spending it mostly on themselves and their stupid friends and other wasteful things—I abolished it when I found out they were being tyrants and gougers and extortionists, abusing the people and oppressing the poor! I abolished'm‚ fired'm all and started over—the RNR! (No.650.)

136. AND THE MEMBERSHIP AND THE INCOME AND THE STATS AND EVERYTHING ELSE TOOK A NOSEDIVE and almost hit bottom and bottomed out at you know what! And what was our salvation then? Our salvation was to do the job and get out the Word, which we did, and get rid of the evil leaders, which we did, and try to find new good, dedicated, consecrated leadership that followed the Letters and the Lord and their leader, which we did!

137. AND WHAT DID WE DO ABOUT FINANCES? What saved us there? We established WIM, one central office for the receiving of reports‚ stats and finances. And they got along, believe it or not, in one of the most expensive places in the world to live, Zurich‚ Switzerland, money capital, business center and high-price center of the world! WIM, with a huge big house and a large staff got along at the beginning on 5,000 Swiss francs a month, $2,500 a month, our only Reporting Center, our only CRO, if you want to call it, our only collection agency, if you want to call it, our only receiving center for TRFs!

138. AND THEN WE REALLY BORE DOWN ON THE FAMILY ABOUT TITHING! I didn't collect 50% or 35%, not even 25%‚ but I said the Scriptural example of 10% is the minimum, that's the least you can do! If you're not willing to forsake all and give 100% and serve the Lord fulltime, then the least you can do is contribute 10%! And those who want to forsake all and serve the Lord fulltime 100% and give 10% on top of it, they're 110%ers! (No.928.)

139. AND THE FAMILY RESPONDED, GOD BLESS'M. THEY GAVE, and as a result, God blessed'm with fruit and numbers and disciples and mission fields and more Homes‚ more population, more babies, more converts, more disciples, more publications, more Word of God—a flood! Praise God!

140. I'M SORRY THIS TAKES ME SO LONG‚ but I just have to do it to cover the whole field and the whole territory, explain the whole works, because I want you to see the background. I'm a lawyer making my case, and I hope by the time I'm done there won't be a single loophole in it to crawl through or squeeze out of, if you know what I mean!

141. YOU WILL BE WITHOUT EXCUSE for some of these extravagances which we have come to think are necessities, but are fat which we never had before and we may not ever need again! Your recommendations were good, that's where we'll start. That was a good beginning‚ but while you were working on that, I was working on something even more drastic!

142. SO LET ME WIND IT UP JUST WITH THAT THOUGHT‚ AND THAT WAS IT: A lot of things we have gotten to think are lean meat and muscle and we couldn't possibly do without, there were days of years of yore that we never even dreamed of them and never even thought of them and got along fine without'm!—And survived and thrived and grew and bore fruit! Not that these other things were not good, not that a little fat is not good; it helps give it flavor‚ helps to cook it, helps the whole overall process.

143. BUT TOO MUCH FAT CAN CHOKE YOU AND GAG YOU AND KILL YOU, SO WE'VE GOT TO KNOW HOW TO TELL THE DIFFERENCE! We've got to go back and reassess our priorities and remember the day of small things, don't forget it! Remember! And don't neglect those small things (Zech.4:10). Remember from whence thou art come and how good we got along then without all these extras and luxuries!

144. SOME OF THESE PEOPLE AND UNITS AND MINISTRIES HAVE DONE SO WELL and worked so hard and accomplished so much and borne such good fruit, we have come to think of them as absolute necessities and we don't see how we could get along without them! But I can! I can remember when we did! And I can even dream of a future when we can again if we have to!

145. THERE'S ONLY ONE THING I HAVE TO DO, AND THAT IS HEAR FROM THE LORD AND GIVE IT TO YOU AND YOU GIVE IT TO THEM, AND THAT'S IT, PERIOD! What they do with it is their business. I discharge my obligation‚ you discharge yours, and that's the Word of God! And if you get it to them‚ and we have, and they've obeyed it, they'll get the job done whether we have any big books or beautiful music tapes or radio shows or Family News Magazines or not! Think of that! Is that a shocker?

146. NOW DON'T GET SCARED. I'M NOT PLANNING TO CUT ALL THESE PEOPLE OFF RIGHT NOW! As long as we can still afford'm and pay for'm and as long as the Family still gives and wants'm enough to give enough to pay for'm, OK! But if they're not willing to work hard enough to raise enough funds and trust God enough to have Him give'm enough that they can give enough to pay for'm, then we're going to have to start cutting down on'm!

147. IN OTHER WORDS, JUST TO BE REAL FLAT-OUT AND PLAIN AND BLUNT, IF THEY DON'T WANT OR NEED THESE THINGS ENOUGH TO PAY FOR'M‚ THEN WE'LL HAVE TO CUT'M OUT! Because if we can't publish'm, and we can't pay for'm, we can't have'm!—And we'll start loppin off pubs, tapes, personnel, units‚ magazines, books and whatever is necessary to preserve the Word of God in its purity and its distribution, if that's all we've got left! And I'm sure we'll never be without that‚ God will see to it. But He may let us go without a few of these extras and some luxuries, and certainly without extravagances and non-necessities. Amen?

148. WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO NOW?—I GUESS WE'LL JUST HAVE TO TRUST THE LORD! My God! Has it come to that?! It's come to that!—Or it is coming to that, and we may come to that even sooner than we realize! In the event of a world emergency, calamity, war or whatever, it will come to that real quick and we'll be thankful if we can get out the Letters! Right?

149. BY THE WAY, I DON'T THINK THIS IS VERY SMART IN THAT STUDY HELPS BOOK, I never really realized that! It shows you how many things I neglect, I'm so busy. When I had nothing but the Letters to take care of, I went over them with a fine–tooth comb and made sure they were letter-perfect—titles‚ pictures‚ everything! Now we've got so many books, I can't even read them all myself!

150. WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS STUDY HELPS BOOK? You open the first page and what does it say in letters almost an inch high: "MO Letters!" Of all the stupid idiotic [things]! MO Letters! "MO Letter Study Helps" on that page, and the next page too, and all over the place! It's nice on the outside, it just says "Study Helps," that's fine‚ but if [anyone] wants to at least just open the cover and see what it is, the first thing that socks him between the eyes and in both eyes or right in the head is "MO Letters," as big as life! For God's sake, I thought we'd gotten away from that a long time ago! What the hell happened?

151. WELL, THAT'S SOME OF THE KIND OF FOOLISHNESS WE WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ANY MORE IF WE DON'T HAVE THE MONEY TO PUBLISH IT! It's a very good book, thank God, and God bless Maria for her idea. It's very important and very good, I use it and everybody uses it‚ but if we haven't got the money—if God doesn't bless it and God doesn't supply it and they can't give it—it must mean that we're supposed to cut down!

152. MAYBE GOD WOULD BE WILLING TO GIVE IT IF THEY'D WORK HARD ENOUGH TO RAISE IT AND SACRIFICIALLY GIVE IT! He'd still bless it and the Lord would pour out so much there would not be room enough to hold it! But I'll tell you, when He was pouring out so little that they had to read over what little Letter or two they got a month time and time and time again, at least they really got it in those days, they memorized them! Now we've got so much to read, they can't even read it all!—Much less memorize it or hardly even let it sink in! We're even pouring out the MO Letters so voluminously now that you're doing well if you have time to read all of them, much less study'm!

153. I'M JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU THE PRIORITIES, BELOVED! You think‚ "Oh, look where we are, we can't do without all this!" Well‚ I'll tell you something else, that's the trouble with governments today, they've gotten so big and unwieldy with so much bureaucracy and so much personnel and so many bureaus and agencies, they don't even know what they've got! They can't even keep track of'm all or their personnel or employees or anything else—except when they have a tight spot and they have to tighten their belts and make a cut across the board and say: "You've got to trim your fat and trim the personnel and trim your budgets!" Then everybody screams and squalls and complains they can't do without it‚ they can't cut it, they don't know where to cut, blah blah! If they don't have the money, they will!—So!—

154. INSTEAD OF THAT, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT AND A LOT OF THE GOVERNMENTS JUST PRINT MORE WORTHLESS PAPER MONEY TO PAY FOR IT!—Till finally one of these days the whole thing's going to go crash! They went beyond their income, they spent beyond their income, they lived beyond their income and they're living on borrowed money and borrowed time and the whole thing is about to crash! Well, I don't want that to happen to us!

155. IF OUR INCOME STARTS GOING DOWN, AS IT IS‚ I'M GOING TO CUT OUR EXPENSES AND CUT THEM DOWN TO GO ALONG WITH IT! I'm going to keep our expenses within our income whatever I have to cut and whatever it takes!—Whatever or whoever I have to cut! If I wind up with nobody but me, thee, thou and no other but the Letters, that's what we'll do if we have to!

156. SO SOME OF THESE PEOPLE IN SOME OF THESE UNITS AND SOME OF THESE JOBS WHO THINK THEY'RE INDISPENSABLE ARE GOING TO GET A SAD SURPRISE ONE OF THESE DAYS WHEN WE FIND OUT WE CAN DO WITHOUT'M! And some are going to find that out real soon, sad to say. Some have given us many years of faithful service, but when their service gets poor and inefficient and unproductive and of poor quality and they're unprofitable servants, we're going to have to fire'm!

157. IF WE'VE GOT NOBODY ELSE TO DO IT‚ WE'LL JUST HAVE TO ABANDON THAT MINISTRY. If there's nobody that's got the burden for it and can do a good job of it‚ a good profitable servant who can be a good and faithful servant and do it well and do it profitably, then we'll just have to drop the whole ministry if nobody's got the burden for it to do it well! So that's what we'll do.

158. SOME OF YOU WORLD SERVICE SERVANTS AND EMPLOYEES, whatever you want to call yourselves‚ members of World Service units, need to really begin to question your own work and your priorities and its quality and its quantity and its necessities and rethink some of the things you're doing: Is it really necessary? Is it really profitable? Is it really essential? Am I doing a good job at it, the very best?

159. (MARIA: THE FAMILY WORLDWIDE ON THE FIELD MAY NEED TO QUESTION THEIR PRIORITIES TOO, because I think a lot of them have really gotten tripped off in a lot of ways instead of really putting the push on getting out the Word. They've really slacked up‚ just singing and doing things that are really more for support than getting out the Word.) Yes!

160. IF ON THE OTHER END OF THE STICK THEY PUT THE EMPHASIS ON THE WRONG PRIORITIES and they start putting money first or men first or even mamas first or babies first or singing first or puppets first or slides first or FFing or ESing first or anything that does not glorify God or the Word first, they're failing God!—Or even if it glorifies God, but if it doesn't get out the Word!

161. I'D SAY THE PUPPETS AND THE SLIDES AND LOTS OF THESE THINGS, INCLUDING MAMAS AND BABIES, DO GET OUT THE WORD! But if they're just standing up there putting on a little show and singing songs and not really delivering the message, the Word of God, then they're unfaithful messengers! And the Lord speaks of unfaithful messengers as being a very sad case! (Pr.25:19). They're failing God if they don't deliver the message, and then God won't deliver them!

162. SO WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT ARE THEY DOING? Are you good and faithful servants, faithfully delivering the message‚ delivering the Words of God, litnessing, delivering the Word and giving out the Word faithfully that bears fruit? If so, I believe God will take care of you, all of us, all of them! I know He will! The good and faithful servants enter into the joy of their Lord here and then! Here and now and there and then!

163. BUT THE SLOTHFUL AND UNFAITHFUL SERVANTS WHO DON'T DELIVER THE MESSAGE, don't really deliver the Word, don't really get out the lit and get the fruit and converts, God's not going to deliver them. They're not going to make it! They'll go down the drain as another failure, another failed missionary, because they didn't do the job the way God wanted them to do it‚ and therefore God refused to support it and they might as well go home!

164. ANYTIME I DON'T DO MY JOB TO THE POINT WERE GOD DOESN'T WANT TO SUPPORT ME, THEN I MIGHT AS WELL GO HOME, AND MY HOME IS OVER THERE!—Not in the U.S., not here on this Earth, but over There! That doesn't mean that when I do go Home I've failed; it may mean that I've accomplished my job and finished it! I'd lots rather go Home because I finished the job than go Home because I failed the job!

165. WHICH IS IT GOING TO BE WITH US? WITH YOU? WITH THEM? Are we going to go Home to meet the Lord and hear Him say: "Well done, thou good and faithful servants; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord!"? Or are we going to go Home because we failed and He had to take us Home to get us out of the way and to save money‚ time, strength, effort and a bad example, and enter into everlasting shame and contempt? (Mt.25:23; Dan.12:2).

166. AMEN, LORD, WE'VE DELIVERED OUR SOUL, WE'VE WASHED OUR HANDS OF THIS MATTER! (Eze.3:18,19). We've delivered our soul, delivered the message, delivered Thy Word! That is the truth‚ and we know it, and they know it, and they'd better show it, Lord, or they're going to go it and give up and quit and go home and be a failure in everlasting shame and contempt because they disobeyed and failed and got their priorities screwed up and twisted and out of line and out of proper order!

167. HELP US TO REMEMBER, LORD‚ THAT THY WORD COMES FIRST, that Thy love comes first, and Thy love is manifested in Thy Word, Thy loving Word from Thee and Thy loving Word to others, on which this work stands‚ Thy whole work stands. This is our whole duty and our whole obligation and our whole job, to love Thee and to love others, to love Thy Word and love them with Thy Word, and anything else is not really essential, not really necessary, and can even be dispensed with if necessary in a pinch, in Jesus' name, amen!—Amen?

168. HAVE YOU GOT YOUR PRIORITIES STRAIGHT?

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family