—And the Churches' Failures!DO 182615/2/84

1. WHAT AGE WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE IN THE MILLENNIUM? (Children: 18 or 17! 20! 15 or 14! 19 or 20!) Right away, no hesitancy! How about that! This is interesting, the children are the first to answer, isn't that something? They're always wanting to grow up, you know! Well, what age would the rest of you like to be in the next life? Have you thought about it? Maybe you'll need a little time to think it over.

2. WE KNOW THAT CHILDREN CONTINUE TO GROW UP AFTER THEY GO TO HEAVEN, we've got that definite because of that dream that my Mother had about Crystal. (See No.818.) She was already just about the age she should have been in the length of time that she had gone on to be with the Lord. And there have been other—I wouldn't say proofs—but indications that children certainly grow & develop in Heaven just as they would here, only better. You say, "Well, when do they stop getting older & what about us old folks who are already old?"

3. WHAT AGE DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO BE IN HEAVEN? A lot of folks like my parents & Dr. Koger, etc., who were quite old when they passed away‚ when I saw them there they looked like they were in their prime, middle-aged. Dr. Koger looked as I remembered him when he must have been about 50, & I think my Mother & Father too. They were quite handsome & good-looking at 50, they looked mature & had grey hair. The Doctor never had grey hair, he had a sort of an iron grey, almost jet–black hair with just little touches of grey, beautiful!

4. I THINK MY PARENTS WERE REALLY THE MOST BEAUTIFUL AT THAT AGE, & if you have already matured & come to that age before you go to be with the Lord, I think you'd almost look a little odd if when people met you in Heaven you were 20 or 30 years younger! I think if I'd seen Dr. Koger as a young man I might not have even recognised him!

5. SOME OF YOU MAY WANT TO BE FOREVER YOUNG, BUT OF COURSE OUR GIRLS NEVER GET OLD, OUR WOMEN FOLK STAY YOUNG! They're going to be forever teenagers from the looks of things, they're not growing any older. To me, Maria doesn't look any older than she was when I first met her. She's still got that teenage look & all the rest, & maybe all the rest of you as well. Look at Sara, she's a teenager! (Whistles!)—After two children, & Maria too. Our women keep their beauty the best of any women I have ever seen! Just absolutely gorgeous!

6. SO PRAISE THE LORD, WHAT AGE DO YOU THINK YOU OUGHT TO BE IN HEAVEN? The children have expressed their preference, they want to be at least 14‚ 15, 17, 18‚ 19 or 20, & probably by the time they get there that's the age they'll be! You'll keep growing here for about the next 8, 9 or 10 years, whatever it's going to be, so you just tack on about 8 or 9 years to your age right now & if you live right on through till the Lord comes, that's what age you'll be! So you'll get your heart's desire probably even before you leave this Earth! How about that?

7. I WAS TELLING TECHI THE OTHER NIGHT, "JUST THINK‚ YOU'RE GOING TO BE FIVE YEARS OLD NEXT MONTH, BUT I'M GOING TO BE 65 THIS MONTH!—13 TIMES AS OLD AS YOU ARE! I'VE LIVED 13 TIMES AS LONG!" My oh my, she's lived a long time, hasn't she? All these years we've been living with Techi & she's been living with us & we've been having lots of fun, & yet just think how ancient I am! My goodness, I never expected to live this long, really I never did, especially considering all the daredevil stunts I used to do! I thought surely the Lord was going to come very soon & I'd either go up with Him or I'd go to be with the Lord before that. Even then the World seemed to be getting so bad I didn't see how we could possibly last much longer, but here we are! I guess the Lord knew we hadn't gotten the job done so He's given us a lot more time. PTL?

8. SO HOW OLD DO YOU WANT TO BE IN HEAVEN? (Fam: 33.) Ah! I don't think you're going to look a day older at 33 than you do right now. 33 was the age the Lord was when He was crucified & resurrected & went to be with His Father‚ that was the age He was according to this Earth time. Of course, in some ways we're not actually affected by time & the aging process there the way we are here, I don't believe you could even call it aging. Here it's a gradual dying, but there it's more growing & maturing. If you're not fully grown, you'll grow up. If you're not fully mature, you've got a lot to learn.

9. MY GRANDFATHER IS ANOTHER ONE, HE LOOKED ABOUT LIKE HE DID IN HIS PRIME, like in some of those pictures you saw in the BOR—I hope you weren't bored with it—that older picture of him. That profile that he used to use for publicity, that was when he was about 50 or 55, something like that. Up to that point you're not really getting old in the sense of becoming decrepit & aged & deteriorating & gradually sort of decaying & really really looking old, up to that time you look pretty good!

10. I WAS JUST DISCUSSING WITH MARIA THE OTHER NIGHT THAT I WAS STILL GOING STRONG … EVEN AT 60! I've slowed down a little bit now as some of you know. … I'm not as well now as I used to be‚ but I still have lots of fun. …

11. SO HOW OLD DO YOU WANT TO BE? MAYBE YOU DON'T REALLY KNOW NOW. AFTER ALL, YOU DON'T KNOW HOW IT FEELS TO BE AS OLD AS I AM! Of course, there will be no pain, no sickness, no death, no sorrow, no suffering, no ill health, so even if you're older it wouldn't bother you. You'll still be strong & healthy & feeling fine, fit as a fiddle, better than you ever felt on Earth, even if you're in that prime of life that some people call middle-age. Some people call 50 getting old‚ but I was just beginning to hit my stride at 50! … So I'd say I was almost in my prime in those early years of the Family, & I think those were almost the best years of my life, 50 to 60.

12. WELL, I'M ENJOYING THESE YEARS EVEN MORE BECAUSE OF YOU & THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE FAMILY & BEING ABLE TO FINISH MY WORK & ALL THESE MAJOR PROJECTS THAT I'VE WANTED TO DO FOR YEARS. I have a greater feeling of accomplishment & satisfaction & fulfilment‚ having seen you grow & the Family grow & our work Worldwide spread out in 100 nations & 100 nationalities all over the World, winning millions of souls! That's a great feeling of real accomplishment & satisfaction, that the Lord is really getting the job done through us!

13. SO I DON'T THINK I'D HAVE BEEN REALLY SATISFIED UNTIL WE GOT AT LEAST THIS FAR, & IT LOOKS LIKE I'M GOING TO MAKE IT TO 65 IF I CAN JUST LAST TILL SATURDAY! … I still enjoy lovemaking, I still have a good time. … I enjoy my work & I enjoy the Family & I still enjoy teaching you & pumping the Words & training the Family & giving you what the Lord has given me. So I'm really, truly enjoying life!—At 65!

14. BUT I THINK I WAS PROBABLY IN THE PEAK OF HEALTH, THE BEST HEALTH & GOING STRONGER IN EVERY WAY—PHYSICALLY, SEXUALLY, MENTALLY‚ EVERYTHING—FROM 50 TO 60, BELIEVE IT OR NOT! I'm slowing down a little now & my health isn't always perfect, I have my ups & downs, but I'm still in good health. (Maria: Personally, I think you're in better health because of your heart.) I'm in better health now than I was when I was young. (Maria: Even better than when I first met you! His heart was very weak for quite a few years, but now it's completely healed, the Lord really healed his heart, it's a real miracle!) PTL! It very seldom bothers me unless I overdo & don't get enough sleep.

15. WELL FRANKLY, I WAS THINKING ABOUT THAT‚ BECAUSE AS YOU GET TO BE MY AGE YOU BEGIN TO THINK ABOUT GOING TO BE WITH THE LORD & WONDERING WHAT IT'S GOING TO BE LIKE, so I got to thinking the other day‚ "Well now, what age will I be?" And it came to me, "Well‚ what age would you like to be?" And I finally had to confess to Maria, "I think I'd feel a little bit funny even Over There if I were any younger & didn't look like I look now!" How about that? (Maria: We would too!) I'm perfectly happy the way I am. I hope you don't mind it.

16. FRANKLY, I THINK I LOOK BETTER NOW THAN I DID WHEN I WAS YOUNG & I WAS A SKINNY BEANPOLE! As Fred used to say, "This poor guy, he doesn't look like he weighs 80 pounds soakin' wet!" I looked like a clothes-pole in a gunnysack the way my clothes hung on me. I really was pitifully thin & I thought I was very homely. Well, you've seen pictures of me in the BOR. (Fam: You're handsome!) Oh, come on! How come all those girls in those days didn't think I was handsome, huh? They shied away from me like I was poison! Well, there were a few girls, maybe a dozen or two that liked me, but what about all the rest of'm?

17. AND OF COURSE IN SCHOOL I THINK THE REASON THEY DIDN'T LIKE ME WAS BECAUSE I WAS A PREACHER'S KID & I WAS SUPPOSED TO BE GOODY-GOOD—ALSO I WAS A LOT SMARTER THAN MOST OF THEM! I don't know why‚ but good, smart kids are not very popular in the World's schools. "If you were of the World, the World would love his own, but because you are not of the World‚ therefore the World hateth you!" Jesus Himself said that. (John 15:19) So I was pretty well hated in school & it was almost mutual, I didn't like them either! Most of them weren't very likeable.

18. SO FRANKLY, I DON'T KNOW THAT I WOULD WANT TO BE ANY YOUNGER IN HEAVEN! How about that? What do you think? Would you want me to look younger in Heaven? (Fam: No, we like you the way you are!) Are you satisfied with the way I look now? (Fam: Yes‚ Sir!) You poor people! GBY! Well, Doc Koger looked like he'd always looked & as I remember him best, in his prime of life, in his 50s‚ & my Mother & Father too. All those that I have seen Over There that have gone on just look the age that I really liked them best. By the time they got to be 70 & 80 they were beginning to shrivel & shrink & wrinkle & were pretty weak & doddering & really decaying, showing the effects of old age. I often kid about myself being old, but honestly‚ I don't really feel old. I used to tell Maria that I used to look in the mirror & be surprised that I looked as old as I did! I feel pretty good, & I started to say I don't look so bad, but I sure don't look as bad as I did when I was young!

19. SOME OF THOSE PICTURES YOU'VE SEEN OF ME WERE TAKEN WHEN I WAS AT MY BEST, like the high school picture when I was living with my brother & very well–fed by my sister-in-law & wasn't on the evangelistic road for about seven months, so I really fattened-up & looked better, felt better & got a lot more rest in spite of all the school work. If you've read those Diaries you know why I was so skinny & had heart trouble & everything else! My dear Mother—God bless you, Mother—nearly ran me ragged! Well, she never pushed us any harder than she pushed herself, she just was a woman with a lot of drive, extremely active, & she worked as hard, if not harder, than all the rest of us! So what could we do but try to run around after her & try to keep up with her? She was a typical hard-driving aggressive Jewess with a lot of spizerinktum & pizzazz & what else do you call it nowadays? She could out–work all of us put together‚ so it really kept us on the run just trying to keep up with her—& my Grandfather was the same.

20. THE WAY I REMEMBER MY GRANDFATHER BEST IS AT THE AGE OF THOSE OLDER PICTURES THAT YOU SAW OF HIM IN THE BOR, WHEN HE WAS IN HIS PRIME. He was at the height of his career & just going strong! Of course, a little later when he got in his 70s I could see that he was getting old & sort of a little shakey, & by the time he was 86 he'd slowed down quite a bit. By that time he had to take a ten-minute nap every afternoon but was still climbing up on the roof nailing on shingles! But I could tell he was quite a bit older & not quite as active & as hard-driving, not quite as fine-looking & with as fine health as 10 or 20 years before in his 50s or even 60s. In his early 60s he was still looking good‚ still going strong. So I don't know if I would want to be any younger.

21. JESUS ONLY GOT TO BE 33 & I REMEMBER HEARING MY MOTHER SAY: "DON'T WORRY, YOU HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST IN YOU & YOU HAVE THE LIFE OF CHRIST IN YOU, OF A YOUNG MAN, 33!" But when we were working on this Heaven poster & discussing what Jesus should look like, it came to me right away, "What about that description of Jesus in Heaven in the Book of Revelation? Why not go by the Bible & what it says?" And what did it say?—He had white hair! (Rev.1:14) I don't think it mentioned the beard, but we put that on there anyhow. The beard is part of your hair, really, & I think He'd look kind of funny without His beard. It's perfectly natural for men to have a beard, I don't even know why they always make the male angels beardless. But anyhow, He had hair as white as snow!

22. A LOT OF THOSE PAINTINGS PICTURE HIM AS A BLOND, BUT THE ONLY TIME I EVER SAW JESUS THAT I CAN REMEMBER AT ALL WAS THAT TIME WHEN MARY & MARTHA WERE BOTH [WITH] HIM‚ & HE WAS QUITE SWARTHY, OLIVE-SKINNED WITH DARK HAIR!—As some of the paintings of Him have Him, although many of them look a little too effeminate & make Him look like some kind of weak character.—Especially some of those old Italian paintings, you'd almost think He was a woman! Sometimes I wonder about some of those painters. But a few of the great artists have painted Him as He probably looked—Jewish, Jewish nose‚ olive skin. The native Jews of Israel are fairly dark-skinned & look like the Arabs. The Ashkenazic Jews of Europe have gotten very much lighter-skinned because they're so mixed with the Europeans‚ but the native Jews of Israel are as dark-skinned as the Arabs, not black but sort of olive-skinned with dark hair, & that's the way Jesus was when I saw Him. But of course, whoever was picturing Him to me was picturing Him to me at a time when He looked like that‚ when He was with Mary & Martha.

23. THAT'S WHAT'S GOING TO BE ONE OF THE MARVELLOUS THINGS ABOUT HEAVEN, that you'll be able to go back & see how things really were! I can hardly wait! Won't that be thrilling to go back & watch Christ's ministry & watch Him in reality the way it really was? That's going to be one of the thrills of Heaven to be able to watch those 3-D movies or even travel back in time & actually see it! Think of that! Isn't that amazing?

24. SO HOW OLD WOULD I WANT TO BE?—I DON'T REALLY WANT TO BE ANY YOUNGER. I'm perfectly happy the way I am right now, in fact, the happiest I've been in my whole life except for a few days I've been a little sick. But there will be no sickness there, no pain, no disease, no death or sorrow or dying, so at this age I should be doing great Up There! So how old would you like to be? I know what some of you are going to say: "Well, as old as the Lord wants me to be‚ whatever the Lord wants me to be." Well, He says, "If you delight yourself in Me I'll give you the desires of your heart." (Psa.37:4) So He wants you to be what you want to be! Think about that. He loves His children & He likes to please you & make you happy & give you what you want.

25. WHAT WOULD YOU LIKE TO LOOK LIKE‚ GIRLS? I suppose some of you might think you could be more beautiful, but I don't see how you could be! I've never liked these beauty contests—I don't see how in the World any judge in the World could pick between them! About the only thing I could pick out in some of those beauty contests is maybe one or two girls who weren't quite as beautiful as the rest, but nearly all of them were absolutely gorgeous & beautiful, very few ugly ducklings. So how can they have a contest when they're all beautiful?

26. I THINK THOSE BEAUTY CONTESTS ARE ABOUT THE MOST UNFAIR THINGS! HOW COULD YOU CHOOSE? They certainly don't pick the one that I thought was the most beautiful—or the dozen or two that I thought were most beautiful—they'll pick some odd character instead! And of course they say it's usually for political reasons & commercial reasons & other reasons‚ maybe her father paid more to put up the contest or something. After all, they've gotta be rich girls to be able to afford such a wardrobe & to take such a long trip to get there & all the rest. So it's usually rich girls who come from wealthy families who are sent halfway around the World to some of these contests.

27. I WAS CERTAINLY GLAD TO SEE THEY WERE STARTING TO HAVE ASIAN BEAUTY CONTESTS WHERE THE ASIANS COULD AT LAST GET A SQUARE DEAL‚ because they hardly ever got it in those Western & European contests. In the old days you never saw an Asian or a Black in any of those contests. The earliest contests were American & they were all Americans, then it began to broaden out to Europeans, but all White as they could be & all looking washed-out & blond & all the rest. Now they're beginning to get a little nice natural rich colour in there, really gorgeous, like one or two of you here! God bless you! We love you that way, praise the Lord?

28. SOME OF YOU ARE A LITTLE TOO BROWN & HAVE HAD TOO MUCH SUN, BUT YOU'RE BEGINNING TO MELLOW OUT NOW A LITTLE BIT. Take a look at me when I'm swimming some time. You'll notice I never lie out & take sunbaths, I don't need to. So you don't have to get out there & burn & bake & broil to get a tan that gets you old before your time. If you ever lived in Arizona & the Southwestern United States‚ a lot of those old ladies we saw there got too much sun in those sunny States, & by the time they're about 50 their skin is leathery & wrinkled & over-aged from too much sun, & they look like real old ladies!

29. LET ME TELL YOU, GIRLS, IF YOU WANT TO STAY PRETTY, STAY OUT OF THE SUN!—ESPECIALLY THE HOT TROPICAL SUN, IT'LL AGE YOU FAST! That is scientific, that is doctoral, that is the truth, the sun will age you faster than anything!—And look how the Devil has them deceived! They all go on their vacation & the first thing they want to do is lie out in the sun & bake & broil & cook! I used to go by them lying out there by the hundreds on those wooden cots in Tenerife & I'd say, "Look at all the meat on the meat racks broiling in the sun, they'll be cooked!" And some of those poor people that weren't used to it, the hospital was usually full of them! They'd get out there the first day, especially those English with their red hair & freckled faces & red complexions that can't stand sun & shouldn't have any sun, heliophobic, they'd get out there & broil the first day & land right in the hospital!

30. WELL ANYWAY, I DON'T KNOW ABOUT YOU, BUT I'M SATISFIED JUST LIKE I AM!—Except it would be nice if I never had any more afflictions. That'll be nice about Heaven, no more attacks of the Enemy & not having to fight off some of the aging process. But what about you? Remember, when Crystal died she was only 12 years of age & was not full–grown, but when my Mother saw her in this dream or vision about Heaven, she was full-grown! So apparently you're not expected to stay a child forever, you grow up! And I don't know if you go beyond that stage or not‚ if you mature any more than being full-grown, fully-developed physically & mentally. I did see an awful lot of young people in Heaven, that's for sure, & there were some children there. I didn't remember the children so well, I was so busy watching everything else, I guess.—Or maybe I wasn't in the Nursery part or something, but I remember some there. Who knows?—Maybe they were born there or maybe they had just passed on recently. But did you ever stop to think about that?

31. OF COURSE THE OLDER YOU GET & THE NEARER YOU GET TO GOING THERE, THE MORE YOU THINK ABOUT IT‚ & I'VE DECIDED I'M QUITE CONTENT TO LOOK LIKE I AM & BE THE AGE I AM WHEN I GO THERE. If I was suddenly reverted to my 20s you probably wouldn't even recognise me! So I have a feeling that you're going to sort of stay the way you are if you're full-grown, & at approximately the same age that you go there.—Not looking old & weak & doddery & on your last pegs, like in your 70s & 80s, but I mean in your prime!—What you looked like in the prime of life, the peak & the pink of life, which to me, having lived that long, I believe was really 50 to 60 years of age. I still feel fine now & I don't look so bad—I look a lot better than I did when I was young—so I wouldn't mind looking like I do right now!

32. HOW DID JESUS GET THAT WHITE HAIR? Jesus had a human body just like us, that's why He came to us, to be like one of us, He became one. And He, "the only begotten Son of God," the unique Son of God, born of a woman with a physical body just like us, was killed, died just like everyone does—except of course He died in a terrible way & for a better purpose than most people—at 33. They've pretty well narrowed it down, even proving by history now & by astronomy that that was the year He died! How about that? Science is proving more & more the facts of the Bible. (See WND16‚ pg.55.) But He was pretty young then‚ dark, swarthy, almost burly & muscular after working hard 30 years of His life as a carpenter. You develop some muscles if you do carpentry work & building, etc. And He was dark-haired. So in Heaven, where did He get the white hair? Hmm?

33. MAYBE HIS FATHER JUST ALLOWED HIM TO CONTINUE TO MATURE UNTIL HE WAS OF A NICE‚ RIPE PRIME-OF-LIFE AGE WITH WHITE HAIR! I realise in our picture we didn't make Him look very old, but you notice He has white hair. I think He might have felt a little bit uncomfortable or odd around some of the old white-haired Saints, the ancient Patriarchs & the Prophets & the different ones that are up there, if He looked like a young sprout & they were all matured in age!

34. MAYBE YOU NEVER THOUGHT ABOUT THAT BEFORE & maybe I shouldn't even be thinking about it, I don't know, but you think about a lot of funny things like that when you get as old as I am & you think about going on to be with the Lord: "What's this going to be like? What's that going to be like? What am I going to be like? What am I going to be doing?" I believe in that place! I'm expecting to go there, not very long from now either‚ & I think the Lord's preparing my heart & letting me think about these things to sort of get me mentally adjusted & accustomed & prepared for that life I'm going to be living soon. PTL? So why shouldn't I think about it? I mean, I'm going to live there forever—it's time I started thinking about it!

35. I USED TO SAY ABOUT THE CHURCH PEOPLE THAT THEY PREPARE FOR HEAVEN AS THOUGH THEY WERE NEVER GOING THERE, & THEY BUILD CHURCHES FOR THIS EARTH AS THOUGH THEY WERE GOING TO LIVE HERE FOREVER! Really! Most Christians live their lives on this Earth building homes & churches & jobs & families & whatnot like they expected to live here forever, & seem to make very little preparation for Heaven. They don't build the Body of God, the True Church of God, the Living Stones by witnessing & winning souls & going to the mission field, they're not preparing hardly anything for Heaven. They just build a church building & hire a preacher & put their little $10 in the offering every Sunday—or $5 or whatever it is, & some people a lot less! A lot of folks thought they were doing well to put in a dollar‚ they used to wave it around in the breeze to show everybody how much they were putting in when they put a dollar in the offering plate!—Living for this life just as though they expected to live here forever, making almost no preparations for the future, laying hardly anything in store Up There.

36. I SUPPOSE A LOT OF THEM THINK THEY'RE BUILDING THEMSELVES A MANSION OVER THERE BY GOING TO CHURCH EVERY SUNDAY & LISTENING TO THOSE BORING SERMONS! Well, I don't blame them for feeling like they deserve some kind of merit or a medal for going to church & listening to those sermons‚ but I don't think it's going to cut any ice with the Lord Up There!—In fact, they may get a pretty icy-cool reception, considering how little they've really done for the Lord. The Lord's not going to count a dime they gave to building church buildings or a dime they gave to preachers just to preach'm pretty sermons so they could be comfortable & not feel obligated to witness or win souls or be missionaries! I don't think the Lord's going to give them any credit for paying for sermons like that or building buildings like that!

37. SO WHAT IS HE GOING TO GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO GET A CROWN FOR? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO GET A REWARD FOR? About all you can say about them is that at least they accepted Christ & got saved, but that's Salvation, that's not reward. Most're not going to have any stars in their crown, they never won anybody to the Lord! They never hardly even witnessed! They thought they were witnessing if they just went to church every Sunday‚ boldly carrying their Bible!

38. SOME PREACHERS USED TO SAY IN THE DAYS WHEN PEOPLE USED TO WALK TO CHURCH: "EVERY TIME YOU CARRY YOUR BIBLE TO CHURCH YOU PREACH A SERMON A MILE LONG FOR EVERY MILE YOU WALK!" That was their way of witnessing, showing off that they were going to church, showing off that they were carrying their Bibles!—Or in school or on the job, showing off that they were goody-goods & better than the rest of'm & they didn't do those things & they didn't say those things & their religion consisted entirely of all the things they didn't do!—Including not witnessing, not winning souls & not being missionaries! That's the religion of the vast majority of the church people!

39. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT THE RARE EXCEPTIONS‚ SOME CHURCHES THAT WERE REALLY MISSIONARY-MINDED, really sacrificed & really sent missionaries to the field, many of them going as missionaries themselves, & a few churches like ours who actually did believe in witnessing & passing tracts & winning souls, but they were few & far between, weren't they? Even the spiritual churches like Maria & I went to didn't do very much of it.

40. SO WHAT'S GOD GOING TO GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR? IS HE GOING TO GIVE THEM CREDIT FOR BUILDING THOSE CHURCH BUILDINGS? I think He's going to subtract a little, or maybe a lot! It's going to be a part of their shame & their contempt that they're going to have to bear for Eternity, for having wasted money on those fancy buildings which could have gone to the mission field & won souls—the true Church of God that'll last forever—but they wasted it on buildings!

41. I HAVE SAID IT BEFORE & I'LL SAY IT AGAIN: GOD'S GOING TO HOLD THE CHURCH RESPONSIBLE FOR THE GREATEST CURSE THAT EVER HIT THE CHURCH, & THAT'S CHURCH-BUILDING!—Because church-building has damned more souls to Hell than any other activity the church ever did! Church-building has damned souls to Hell! "How could you say that, Dad, about all those lovely church buildings? The people go to church & they do win a few souls & they're good Christians, & at least it's some testimony just to see the church standing on the corner as a witness & a testimony!"—To what? Most sinners pass by & sneer, maybe spit‚ considering the kind of Christians they know who draw their skirts aside from them when they pass'm on the street!

42. WHY DO I CALL CHURCH BUILDINGS THE CURSE OF THE CHURCH?—BECAUSE THEY HAVE ROBBED THE MISSION FIELDS OF MILLIONS OF NOT ONLY DOLLARS‚ NOT ONLY MONEY, BUT MANPOWER‚ MISSIONARIES! They have instituted an institution which makes Christians satisfied & contented & feeling like they've accomplished their purpose in staying at home & sitting in church instead of doing what they're supposed to do! How could they expect any reward? They're certainly not going to get it for building churches! They're not going to get it for going to church on Sunday, sitting there just hearing pretty things they want to hear, & they chuck the preacher out if he doesn't preach what they like to hear that makes'm feel comfortable & contented not to witness, not to win souls, not to be a missionary & not feel obligated to even help them in many churches.

43. AT LEAST MY DENOMINATION WAS FAMOUS FOR HAVING THE HIGHEST RATIO OF GIVING TO MISSIONS OF ANY DENOMINATION IN AMERICA!—THEY GAVE 25% OF THEIR TOTAL INCOME TO MISSIONS. Do you know what the largest Protestant denomination in America is‚ & what its proportion of giving is out of its total income? How many of you know what the largest Protestant denomination is? Well, the Baptists may try to claim it but they can't quite make it, it's the Methodists. It's easier to be a Methodist than a Baptist so of course they have more members. They don't have to get dunked, they can just sprinkle you there, so a lot of people went that way, the dry way. Of course, as far as the Baptists are concerned, a lot of them go down a dry sinner & come up a wet one!

44. BUT ANYWAY‚ THE METHODIST DENOMINATION, THE WORLD'S LARGEST PROTESTANT DENOMINATION, HAS AN AVERAGE GIVING TO MISSIONS OF ONLY 5 CENTS OUT OF THE DOLLAR, OR 5% OF THEIR TOTAL INCOME. What do they spend the other 95% for?—Buildings & preachers & programs & furniture & rot like that that'll go down in the fire when this World is destroyed, & may go down before that from the looks of things!—5% to missions‚ & very few of those missions & missionaries are even preaching the Gospel of Salvation! So it's doubtful they'll find any reward in Heaven! They're not going to get rewarded for buildings nor for their fancy preachers nor for their Bible Colleges.

45. ONLY 3% OF THE TOTAL GRADUATES OF BIBLE COLLEGES & THEOLOGICAL SCHOOLS IN AMERICA ALONE EVER GO INTO FULLTIME ACTIVE RELIGIOUS SERVICE!—3 OUT OF 100 GRADUATES!—And that's being pretty generous at that when they say "fulltime active religious service." You could be a nun in a hospital—I think they do a lot of good—or you could be a monk or a priest or in some kind of charitable work & still call it fulltime active religious service, not even necessarily a missionary on the mission field winning souls, not even necessarily an evangelist winning souls. That's a pretty broad range that they even include in the 3%.

46. MOST CHURCHES HAVE GIVEN THE BIGGEST JOB THAT THE LORD EVER GAVE HIS CHURCH TO DO TO THE WOMEN! There are more women missionaries than men, did you know that? On the mission fields of the World there are about three times as many women as there are men. The biggest, toughest job of all‚ the men have given to the women: "Here am I, Lord, send my sister!" Well, maybe I shouldn't have gotten on that subject, I couldn't do it justice!

47. SO WHAT KIND OF A REWARD ARE THEY GOING TO GET IN HEAVEN? I mean, they can't look forward to much, if anything, but shame & contempt if they weren't one of the few rare missionaries or the very few even rarer real genuine soul–winners! Amen? I think the only ones the Lord's going to really reward are those who really won souls & helped others, & there are many ways to help other people. I think our FFers are certainly going to get some rewards, even for the souls they didn't win‚ because at least they tried.—Including missionaries that may have a struggle & not be very successful, at least if they try.—Even a little tiny handful of church people.

48. I USED TO SAY OUT OF THE AVERAGE CHURCH OF ABOUT 100 PEOPLE THERE ARE USUALLY ONLY FROM ONE TO THREE PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE CHURCH THAT ACTUALLY EVER ACTIVELY WITNESS, MUCH LESS WIN SOULS! But of course if you're an active witness you're probably going to win some souls. And I used to prove it! Boy, did I embarrass them! I'd say‚ "I can prove to you right now how many of you people here in this great audience"—sometimes an audience of two or three hundred people—"are faithful witnesses for the Lord!" And they'd all sit there thinking‚ "Oh, he doesn't know, he can't spot me! Ha, ha, ha! He can't tell who's a faithful witness, he can't tell I'm not a witness!"

49. I'D SAY, "THOSE OF YOU WHO HAVE GOSPEL TRACTS IN YOUR PURSE OR POCKET RIGHT NOW, STAND UP!"—And maybe one, two or three people out of the whole congregation would stand up! Because any good Christian church person who knows he should witness & knows he should try to win souls will almost always without exception be carrying tracts in their pocket or purse all the time. I realise you folks here are an exception‚ I've got you on that one! You might have a GN in your pocket, you don't have any purses, but you're not allowed to do that sort of thing much because of security. We used to try to get by with it in cafes & I'd fold it up & stick it under the plate! I figured whoever cleared the table would find it & maybe they wouldn't know who left it or something. Well, there were lots of times I just couldn't resist, I just had to do it.

50. —LIKE WITH THESE POOR PEOPLE WHOM WE RUN INTO SOMETIMES, I JUST HAVE TO HELP THEM! I can't help it. When you think how poor they are & how little they have ... I mean, how can you turn them away when even the few crumbs that you have are like a full meal to them? It's pitiful! I just can't do it! I'm just claiming the promise that if I do have trouble, "He that considereth the poor in his affliction, him will the Lord save in his day of trouble." Something like that. (Psa.41:1) "All right‚ I'm helping them in their trouble, so Lord, You've got to help me in mine!" PTL? So if I have any trouble, the Lord's going to have to pull me out of it. Hallelujah! Amen?

51. BUT THOSE CHURCH PEOPLE, SOMETIMES THEY'D WALK DOWN SKID ROW & BUMS WOULD COME UP PAN-HANDLING & THEY'D TURN THE OTHER WAY & HOLD THEIR NOSE, they couldn't stand the smell of the alcohol! "Go into a bar & witness?—Never! Nightclubs?—Worse yet! Even down Skid Row?—Oh, we don't want to go down there & get dirty!" What kind of a reward are church people going to have?—Church people who don't witness, don't pass Gospel tracts & don't try to win souls‚ but spend most of their money on church buildings, fancy preachers, comfortable pews & programs. What kind of reward are the Methodists going to get for their 5% giving to missions that don't even preach the Gospel?

52. AT LEAST THE ALLIANCE GAVE 25% TO MISSIONS, ONE-FOURTH OF THEIR WHOLE INCOME, THAT WAS PRETTY GOOD. Considering some of those poor preachers & poor churches & poor people we lived with, that was a real sacrifice. But they really believed in giving to missions & sending some of their children there as well. Of course the Christian Missionary Alliance sent more faith missionaries to the field in the first ten years of their history under A.B. Simpson—by faith, without an education—than they've sent to the mission field in any ten years of the 150 years since!—And I used to throw it up to them! More missionaries in that first ten years than in any equivalent ten-year period in the 150 years after that! Think of that! So you can see what happened to them. They had to get more & more education, have fewer & fewer children, more & more equipment, more & more support, less & less faith, until they just dwindled down & petered-out to where the Alliance is ... well, it's still going & God bless them for what little they still do.

53. BUT I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANY MISSIONARY OUTFIT ON EARTH LIKE OURS! I don't think there's any church on Earth where they're all missionaries! We even expect you folks back in home countries to be missionaries, don't we?—Soul-winners & witnesses! You folks back in the North & back in the West & back in home countries where you've got lots of money & good jobs, you ought to spend it on literature & support missionaries & witness in your spare time‚ if you have any, be out witnessing & winning souls! Of course you don't have much spare time when you're working for a living, but we expect even our home folks to be missionaries. Amen?

54. IN THE CHURCHES WE WERE REARED IN—EVEN THE GOSPEL CHURCHES & MISSIONARY-MINDED CHURCHES WITH AS MANY MISSIONARIES AS THEY HAD—IT WAS THE EXCEPTION, IT WAS THE VERY FEW WHO BECAME MISSIONARIES, BUT IN OUR CHURCH THE EXCEPTIONS ARE THE ONES THAT STAY HOME! Our church has virtually all gone to the mission field, most of us. Amen? I remember Fred Jordan saying once to the congregation: "Don't give me these excuses about why you had to stay home, tell me why you're not on the mission field! Try to give me a good excuse for that! What's your excuse for being at home? What's your excuse for not being on the mission field?"

55. WELL, EVEN SOME OF OUR FOLKS WHO ARE STILL AT HOME IN THE HOME FIELD—WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE? It's pitiful! Most of them are pretty miserable & have all kinds of trouble. We get more letters from people back in their home field with all kinds of trouble & sicknesses & calamities & catastrophes & disasters & more trouble with their children & schools & everything than all of the rest of our missionaries all over the World put together!—Because God doesn't bless them for staying home if they could possibly be on the field. Right? Well, I was talking about rewards & ages & things in Heaven.

56. MOTHER EVE HAD A DREAM ONCE WHEN SHE WAS THINKING & PRAYING ABOUT ALL THE DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS THEY HAD AT THE PROTESTANT BUILDING, THE PROTESTANT CENTER, THEY CALLED IT, AT THE WORLD'S FAIR IN NEW YORK. I think there were 27 different denominations represented, including us, & we, incidentally, had the smallest exhibit of all! I just picked a blank wall & put a little stall up there & you've seen it in pictures. (See BOR Vol.1, pg.179.) That was the smallest, most miserable little exhibit in the whole place, but everybody used to rave over it!

57. THE COLOURS OF THE FAIR WERE BLUE & ORANGE & THERE WAS THIS BEAUTIFUL ORANGE WALL, SO I THOUGHT, "WOW, I'LL HAVE A NICE BLUE BOOTH!"—And it really stuck out! And everybody came in‚ thought we were the information desk & came straight to us first!—Until some of the other exhibitors complained that we were getting at them first. All the demographic engineers had sworn that when the people came in the front door they were going to go to the left, so Billy Graham had the biggest & most expensive exhibit of all on the left, expecting everybody to come his way first. Instead of that, they invariably went to the right & came to our little old booth first!

58. AND OUR KIDS WEREN'T JUST HANGING BEHIND THE DESK LIKE SOME OF THOSE DODDERING OLD FOLKS—the only people they could get to serve there, old retirees & half-dead, all dead spiritually—sitting there behind the desk with stacks of this fancy colourful literature about all the buildings they had & all the schools & orphanages & hospitals & this‚ that & the other‚ all slick-finish, colour, stacks of real expensive literature & their books & all that stuff!

59. AND HERE WE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING BUT A FEW LITTLE OLD GOSPEL TRACTS THAT LOOKED LIKE THEY WERE PRINTED ON TOILET PAPER, but we were passing them out by the thousands, tens of thousands! We had tens & tens of thousands of people stop at our booth & get Gospel tracts, & we even got thousands of their names & addresses. They thought that was where they were supposed to register, & we had this nice big registry book right out there for them to come by & register first thing‚ name & address: "Would you mind signing our guest book?"—They thought it was for the whole Protestant Center!—Ha!

60. AND SOME OF THE OTHER EXHIBITORS BEGAN TO COMPLAIN BECAUSE WE WERE GETTING ALL THE CUSTOMERS! And besides, they said, "Those kids of yours get out there & nail'm like high-pressure salesmen! They don't stay in their booth where they belong‚ they get out there & stand with the people & talk to them, & they talk to them so long they don't have time to come around & see our exhibits!" Oh, they had a big row about it in the Executive Committee Meeting upstairs, that we were getting all the business & contacting all the people & getting all the names & addresses & having the biggest effect. By the time people got finished with us they'd turn around & go back out the front door, they'd had enough, they got saved! They didn't have time to see the rest.—Or they spent so long there they just walked past through the whole rest of the thing & never stopped.

61. DEAR OLD BROTHER POTTER WAS HEAD OF THE CENTER, A REAL NICE OLD METHODIST, GOD BLESS HIM, KIND OF EVANGELICAL, & I THINK HE REALLY KNEW THE LORD. He had enough patience for those other outfits & he would come & sweetly kind of chide us & advise & counsel us & try to tell us that he was standing a lot of gaff upstairs because of the way we were doing it. Well after all‚ those poor church people, they didn't know what to do. They weren't used to witnessing to all those tens of thousands! I think they figured that something like 25, 30 & on the biggest day 50,000 people came through that building!

62. THEY WEREN'T USED TO WITNESSING TO PEOPLE THAT NORMALLY NEVER CAME TO CHURCH, THEY DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO! They just sat there with their books & pamphlets bragging about what their denomination was & what they did & what they believed & blah blah! Most of the people already had enough junk to carry around without picking up pamphlets at every single booth, especially those big fancy heavy glossy-paper brochures. But our nice little tracts, my, they didn't weigh anything! They could stick'm in a shirt pocket or have a handful & wouldn't have known the difference!

63. AND OUR KIDS WERE OUT THERE REALLY PREACHING AWAY & TALKING TO THEM & GIVING THEM THE GOSPEL & STANDING THERE PRAYING WITH THEM & GETTING THEM SAVED! Oh, some objected to that too! They raised a howl! "They get in the way of the traffic standing out there in the middle of the hall‚ standing there praying with people right in public! Prayin'! This is no place to pray—prayin's for the church! Standing out there blockin' traffic, people can't get by! They've got such a crowd there, they can't get by to get to my booth!" Ooooh, they were raising a howl! Whew!

64. FINALLY BILLY GRAHAM DECIDED THE EXHIBIT HE HAD THERE WASN'T BIG ENOUGH, SO HE MOVED OVER ACROSS THE ROAD & HAD HIS OWN BUILDING, & THERE HE DID GET SOME GOSPEL ACROSS. There was never anybody at his booth‚ they just had some literature stacked out front, because all his workers were over at the building across the road, so the whole time it just looked dark & nobody ever did a thing there, they just passed by.

65. THERE WERE ONLY TWO OTHER BOOTHS IN THAT WHOLE BUILDING OF 27 DENOMINATIONS, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WHO PREACHED WHAT I WOULD CONSIDER THE GOSPEL! I would say the Salvation Army did preach a little Gospel, I mean they did pass some tracts, but they bragged most of all about their social service work. They thought that would appeal to people more, about all the people they fed & all the people they clothed & all the hospitals & orphanages they had, all that sort of thing. So they weren't as busy preaching the Gospel.

66. BUT THE ONLY OTHER BOOTH BESIDES OURS THAT I WOULD SAY WAS A REAL WITNESS‚ PREACHED THE GOSPEL & PROCLAIMED THE SECOND COMING OF THE LORD, WAS GUESS WHO?—One that a lot of the rest of them shunned! (Fam: The Seventh-day Adventists?) Exactly! Oh, Jehovah's Witnesses, they wouldn't have let them near that place with a ten-foot pole! They were anathema, the curse of the churches! They weren't allowed in the place! They wouldn't allow them in there because all the churches hated them, & I think if they'd have known who we were when we first came in, they wouldn't have allowed us in either! Most of the churches hated us too. But we had a signed contract & it was too late by the time they finally found out who we were‚ the Soul Clinic!

67. BUT THERE WERE THE DEAR SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS JUST ABOUT HALFWAY DOWN THE BUILDING ON OUR SIDE. We'd get'm stirred up about getting saved & they'd get'm down there watching their beautiful slide show exhibit. It was a gorgeous video sort of thing with a beautiful dawning & a coming of the Lord‚ a visual! It lasted just a few minutes & they always had a crowd there. We had a crowd & they had a crowd—nobody else had a crowd, just us & the Seventh-day Adventists! TTL!—The only two who were really preaching the Gospel, preaching Jesus, Salvation & the Second Coming.

68. SO WHAT ARE THE OTHER CHURCHES GOING TO GET? WHAT'S THEIR REWARD GOING TO BE? What have they done for Jesus? What have they done for souls? What have they done for the mission field? What have they done to get the heathen saved?—Very little!—Even the big rich denominations who build schools, orphanages & hospitals on the mission field. Do you know where most of the African & Asian Communist leaders got their training?—In those very missionary schools & colleges & universities on the mission field! They gave them education but they never gave them Jesus! They gave them science but they never gave'm faith! Think of it! So if you want to blame somebody for the intelligence & the education & the cleverness & know-how of many of the Communist leaders of the World‚ blame it on the churches, they educated them!

69. I'M THANKFUL OUR CHILDREN WERE REARED ON THE MISSION FIELD, AMEN? One dear girl spent most of her life on the mission field with her parents. She said the only miserable times in her life were when she went home. They were more at home on the mission field, amen? They dreaded having to go home for those furloughs, they were so happy to get back on the field. But then again the same old problem arose‚ even her parents, as sincere & as missionary-minded as they were & as much as they loved the natives & sacrificed their life & their health for them, got scared that their children were going to marry those natives, & so they moved back to the home field to make sure they didn't become one with the wrong race!

70. I'M SO THANKFUL OUR FAMILY IS NOT RACE-CONSCIOUS! …

71. BUT IN OUR FAMILY, LET ME TELL YOU, THERE IS NO RACE-CONSCIOUSNESS, THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE, THERE IS NO BLACK OR WHITE‚ JEW OR GREEK, MALE OR FEMALE, NOTHING, NO DIFFERENCE, WE'RE "ALL ONE IN CHRIST JESUS!" (Gal.3:28) Amen? Praise God! And boy, I never saw such a mixed bunch in my life in any church, have you? I never saw so much integration & so many mixed marriages in any religious body I have ever known, & we've been in a lot of churches!—Nor amongst their missionaries. I mean, the missionaries just didn't do it! In fact if they did, they were kind of looked down on.

72. AND OH, HORROR OF HORRORS, TO LET THEIR CHILDREN MARRY THE NATIVES‚ THAT WAS THE WORST THING OF ALL! As soon as their kids got interested in natives & got to be teenagers & marriageable age & interested in sex, those missionary families hot-tailed it, high-tailed it, bee-lined for home as fast as they could go!—Or sent their kids home to get them away from those "savages," sent'm home to mingle with the more savage Americans where they got into worse rot & more corruption & pollution in the United States than they had on the mission field!

73. IT WASN'T UNTIL MOM & DADDY CAME HOME TOO THAT THEY FOUND OUT THEY'D MADE A BIG MISTAKE & A LOT OF THEM WERE SORRY FOR IT! I think maybe even their parents kind of realised they'd made a mistake coming home. When they saw that it was doing their children more harm than good, then they finally realised they'd made a mistake in bringing their children back from the field. And one of the main reasons they came home was to protect'm from marrying the natives!

74. WELL, I KNOW THAT HAPPENED IN OUR DENOMINATION, THEY STARTED OUT BY TRYING TO SEPARATE THE TEENAGERS FROM THE NATIVES BY HAVING THEIR OWN SCHOOLS, central schools like we tried for a little bit‚ & that didn't work too well either. We had'm for about a year or so & then we sent all of them to the mission field, praise God, with their parents. But we weren't trying to separate them from the natives, we were just trying to get them into fellowship with each other where they could get a little more education. But the minute those church kids got old enough to get interested in sex & marriage they tried to separate them in schools, & when that didn't do it, they still were near the natives, so they finally shipped'm off home.—Frequently sent'm home to grandmother & grandfather & let them take care of them, & sent'm to "a nice American school" blah blah!

75. WELL, NOW YOU CAN SEE, THE AMERICANS HAVE BECOME THE WORST SAVAGES OF ALL! I used to eat in these restaurants when we were in Europe, & when they'd put on that horrible savage hard–rock music, I believed in making my convictions known, I'd protest! I'd say, "Haven't you got any better music than that?" Right, Maria? (Maria: Yes, Sir!) Almost every time. If it just got unbearable I'd say, "Listen, we don't like that music, at least while we're here, can't you play something a little nicer? We'd like to hear your native music, Spanish music, French music! We like your music, why don't you play that music? Why do you play those rotten American savage jungle rhythms? We'd rather hear your native music, we don't like those American savages!"—And they'd usually laugh, they thought it was funny calling those hard-rock musicians savages & savage music! They're the worst savages in the World today! They've savaged the whole World, violently with war & their pollution & their horrible—I can't even call it music—their horrible noise & all the rest!

76. MISSIONARIES WHO REALLY KNOW & LOVE THE LORD, IF THEY REALLY KNOW THE U.S. & SOME OF THOSE HOME FIELDS‚ NORTH AMERICA & EUROPE TOO‚ HOW COULD THEY WANT TO REAR THEIR CHILDREN THERE? How could any of our people want to stay there & rear their children there, when you have found out how much better it is on the mission field! In spite of all the tropical diseases & hazards of the Tropix, etc.‚ I don't think there are near as many or it's near as dangerous as rearing a Family in Europe or North America where there is so much spiritual pollution & demonic danger!—Even worse than on the mission field!

77. THOSE SIMPLE CHILDLIKE PEOPLE ARE NOT HALF AS WICKED AS THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY POLLUTED THEM!—And virtually all the wickedness in the Third World they learned from the Americans or the Europeans! Most of the wickedness a lot of these countries have learned, they have learned from the so-called "civilised" World, the so-called "industrialised developed" World!—They're developed all right, they're developed in all the fine points of iniquity! Well, I was going to talk to you about Heaven, but I'm sorry, I got a little bit on Hell—from Church Hell to European & American Hell! Well, praise the Lord anyhow.

78. THANK YOU JESUS THAT WE KNOW THE TRUTH, AMEN? THANK THE LORD YOU'VE GOT YOUR EYES OPEN! Have you been taking good care of the kitties, Techi? (Techi: Yes.) For the first ten days, what was the matter with their eyes? (Techi: They were closed.) For ten days to two weeks little kittens have their eyes closed, they can't open them. We don't know just exactly why‚ maybe it's to prevent them from getting infected or something, but they have their eyes closed & after ten days they open.

79. WELL, I TOLD YOU THAT JOKE THE PROTESTANTS USED TO TELL ABOUT THE CATHOLICS. Some joker asked the little boy‚ "Well, what religion do you think your kittens are?"—during the first ten days. He said, "Well, I think they're Catholics because they have their eyes shut!" And one day he came yelling happily to mama, "Mama, mama! I guess my kittens got converted! They're Protestants now, they've got their eyes open!" Well, our kittens are Christians of course, aren't they?—Because they're ours & Jesus sent them & had them born in our house! Right? They were born here! You didn't know the mama cat had them right out there under the ledge in our yard? The ledge is part of our house! They were born here at our house, how about that!

80. —JUST LIKE THAT LITTLE BIRD THE LORD SENT US THAT ONE TIME!—I FIGURED IF THE LORD SENT IT, IT MUST BE ALL RIGHT! So we kept the bird & we kept the kitties. Remember the parakeet the Lord blew into our yard one day? And then we had to get another one because we didn't want him to be lonesome. (Techi: And also we've got those cute little sparrows!) Oh, we've had lots of cute little sparrows, so many! (Techi: And the one who died.) Oh yes‚ there was one who came & passed away, was buried in the front yard & had a gravestone. But we've got lots of live ones!

81. OH MY, THEY GET OUT ON MY WINDOW SILL & CHATTER SO NOISY & SO LOUD AT SUNRISE IN THE MORNING! They keep telling me to "Get up‚ get up, get up! The sun's rising, it's time to get up! It's daylight!" And they only do that one time a day, at sunrise in the morning! And finally after they've got me wide awake, then they quit. And that's the truth! They used to do that same thing in London! Remember I wrote that "Bye Bye Birdie" about the sparrows? (No.231) They've got my number, I'll tell you! They know I'm a sleepyhead & I like to sleep in, but they won't let me. "It's another day, you've got to get to work, it's daylight, come on! Time to get up!" They chatter so loud! They never make so much noise all day long as they do first thing in the morning out there on our window sill right outside our open windows.

82. I TOLD MARIA I WAS THREATENING TO STICK SOME PADDING IN OUR WINDOWS EVERY NIGHT TO QUIET DOWN THOSE SPARROWS, THEY MAKE SO MUCH NOISE! Even if the windows are shut, they make so much noise we can still hear'm loudly chattering away & pecking away right out on the window sill outside the window, so if nothing else woke me up, that would! But anyhow‚ I wake up pretty early, 5 or 6 usually anyhow.

83. SO GOD BLESS THE SPARROWS!—HE SENT US MORE SPARROWS THAN ANYTHING ELSE. And we don't even have to bother to feed them, the Lord feeds them out there in the yard. I don't know where in the World He gets so much to eat to feed so many sparrows, they have so many babies, but He must feed them good! I think we have more now than when we first moved in here. The Lord has just multiplied them! I know the Lord knows I love'm & I think maybe the sparrows know I love'm!

84. (TECHI: HOW MANY SPARROWS DO YOU THINK THERE ARE IN THE WORLD?)—I DON'T KNOW, BUT GOD KNOWS, RIGHT? Not even one of them falls—not even that little sparrow that you had that fell—but God knew about it! Did you know that? Jesus said so! "Not a sparrow falleth but what Your Heavenly Father knoweth it!" (Mat.10:29) Think of that! I know the Lord must have said that & ordained that & ordered it that way, & because of that, every time I look at one of those sparrows I can't help but think of the Lord & His thoughtfulness & His love for the sparrows & how He feeds the sparrows, & I know He'll care for me. Like that old song: "His eye is on the sparrow & I know He cares for me!"

85. MY‚ HE TAKES SUCH GOOD CARE OF THESE SPARROWS OUT HERE, THEY'RE MULTIPLYING LIKE MAD! I don't know, maybe the other neighbours chase them away or maybe they give them poison grain or something to try to get rid of'm, but they're just multiplying out here until the window boxes are full of'm! They've even got nests inside the eaves & sometimes they get in our porch. They really make themselves at home around here, I guess they know they're welcome!

86. (TECHI: DID YOU SAY THE SPARROWS GOT SQUISHED BY THE DOOR ON THE PORCH?) No, the sparrows never got squished, not by the door or anything. Every time the sparrow flew onto my porch I used to go out there & open the door & shoo him out. I don't know how they got in but they couldn't seem to find their way out. They must have learned better now‚ because they hardly ever come in there any more. I guess they finally learned that wasn't the way to go, or I was going to shoo'm out anyhow. I didn't want them to go banging up against the windows like they were doing—they'd fly along & couldn't see the window & would bang into it. But they didn't hurt themselves very bad because as soon as I opened the door they flew right out‚ so they were okay.

87. I GUESS THEY FINALLY DECIDED WE MUST LIKE'M & LOVE'M, SO THEY LIKE TO LIVE WITH US, & I LIKE'M TO LIVE WITH US TOO! To me, birds are always a sign of the blessing of the Lord, & you know it's not too unhealthful & gaseous if the birds are still alive! The reactions of birds are one of the first signs of disaster, catastrophe & calamity‚ you'll first find the birds leaving! During WW1 & WW2 too they used to keep birds in places where they were up near the front lines, for fear of poison gas, because the birds are the first to get it. They're very sensitive to bad air or gases & they keel over first of all before the humans even notice it, so they used them as gas-detectors.

88. SO AS LONG AS THOSE SPARROWS ARE THRIVING OUT THERE I GUESS THE AIR IS NOT GOING TO KILL US, THANK THE LORD, & we can be thankful that we're still alive & we're still thriving & the birds are still alive & they're doing great! So PTL! I'm just glad that the rats & the roaches are not thriving or surviving, because those we don't like. So TTL! Amen?

89. YOU TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOUR KITTIES & THE LORD TAKES CARE OF THEM & YOU TOO! The Lord will be good to you if you take care of those who need your help‚ even the animals & the birds, etc. Well, I don't know what the application was to that, what I was talking about, but anyhow, what was it? (Maria: About the church people.) Yes! I don't see how the church people could be so blind, but thank God you've got your eyes open! Aren't you glad you know the Truth? Aren't you glad the Lord's given you so much Word & so much freedom & so much knowledge of things?—Both of His Word & the Future & the World! The Lord's been so good to us! I mean, He has been really good to us! We have lots to be thankful for!

90. WELL, I DIDN'T EXPECT TO GET OFF ON SOME OF THOSE OTHER TRACKS TONIGHT BUT MAYBE SOMEBODY NEEDED IT! Maybe somebody who's going to read it needs it, somebody who's going back home & getting churchy again. How can they stand it? How can they stand to be in those churches doing nothing with those do–nothing people & do-nothing churches! No matter how good they seem to be & how much they talk about the Lord amongst themselves inside the church walls, & how much they sing about the Lord, if they're not witnessing & winning souls & going to the mission field & being missionaries‚ what good does it do? "Me, thee, thou & no other! Our nice little holy society in which we enjoy ourselves!" Isn't that pitiful?—Absolutely no good to the rest of the World whatsoever!

91. AS FAR AS I'M CONCERNED, MOST OF THE CHURCH PEOPLE I EVER KNEW, I DON'T KNOW WHY THE LORD LEFT THEM HERE‚ HE MIGHT AS WELL HAVE TAKEN THEM HOME TO HEAVEN! Maybe He left them here to help support us when we were in evangelistic work, otherwise they didn't seem to be doing any good at all!—Not witnessing, not passing tracts, not winning souls, not going to the mission field, not helping the missionaries, nothing! So God help us!

92. I STARTED OFF TALKING ABOUT HEAVEN & REWARDS & I WAS GOING TO GIVE YOU A NICE PRETTY TALK ON HOW WONDERFUL HEAVEN MUST BE & HOW THINGS ARE GOING TO BE THERE. I asked you to make me up a list of all the things you could think of concerning Heaven‚ what you will be like & the things you can do & the things you can't do, etc., & said we'd discuss it some night, & I thought maybe we'd get around to it tonight, but we didn't. I was going to talk a little bit more about it, but I got to thinking about the church people & the rewards they're not going to get because of what they're not doing & I couldn't get off the subject! So praise the Lord anyhow!

93. OUR CHILDREN ARE SO BRAVE & SO GOOD! Even Techi's sitting up at the table now listening instead of just playing around with the baby. She sat here almost the whole time listening to Daddy talk! I think David was sort of tired out & tuckered out & he was sort of sad too. He got in trouble for not doing something he was supposed to do‚ so he was sort of brokenhearted. I think Sara's about the only one that can really break his heart. He's been in love with Sara ever since he was a baby, so when she scolds him, that's it, he's heartbroken, but he hadn't been keeping up his Diary like he should.—So you'd better keep yours up or I may break your heart!

94. IF I ASKED TO SEE YOUR DIARY TODAY, WOULD IT BE UP–TO-DATE?—I HOPE SO! Oh, I hit a sore spot then! I'll tell you, if you don't keep it up practically hour–by-hour you'll have trouble remembering what happened. That's the worst thing, to even wait till the end of the day to do it, because you can hardly remember what happened that day! The best thing to do is keep it right beside you all day wherever you're working‚ whatever you're doing, & jot down what you did that hour. If you've got one of those little chime watches that goes off every hour, set it to go off every hour, & every time it goes off, grab your Diary & jot down what you did the past hour. That's one of the best ways to remember & the easiest way to keep your Diary.

95. BUT IF YOU WAIT TILL THE END OF THE DAY WHEN YOU'RE TIRED & HALF-ASLEEP & WANT TO GO TO BED, & TRY TO WRITE YOUR DIARY THEN, I FEEL SORRY FOR YOU! It's a bad time. If you say, "Oh, I'm too tired tonight, I'll do it tomorrow morning," you've forgotten what happened the day before.—Or right away you've got to jump out of bed & get busy at something & you forget all about it & comes that night & there's two days you've forgotten! And pretty soon you've forgotten so much & missed so many days you just figure, "Well, what's the use? I might as well give up! I've missed too many days already, so why try?" I know how you feel about it, I did it! Look at all the years I missed!—But not any more! I began to realise the importance of the Diary a few years back.

96. I HADN'T KEPT A DIARY SINCE '67, BUT IN '74 WHEN WE WENT TO TENERIFE I RESUMED KEEPING A DIARY. … And along with it I began to add a few details of other things that happened that day, a few of my own, & that inspired me to start keeping a Diary again & I've kept one pretty faithfully ever since. So you'll be thankful you did!

97. WHO KNOWS? YOU MIGHT EVEN HAVE TO REFER TO IT IN THE MILLENNIUM! How do you know you won't? You might be able to come back & pick it up wherever you left it. Why not? You've gotta come back & teach some other people how to use some of their skills & how to run the World. PTL? So all is not lost for both here & now or for There & Then! TTL! Okay, GBY! We've gotta quit! I'm sorry I always talk so long, but when I see you out there I just can hardly stop, I just want to fill you up! Just be thankful I don't do this very often, you've hardly got time to read what you've got. Okay, shall we pray? Who wants to lead us in prayer? Who can pray the shortest prayer? (Techi: I can!) Good girl! I knew she'd volunteer, bless her heart! That's great!

98. (TECHI: THANK YOU LORD FOR THIS NICE TIME & PLEASE HELP US TO HAVE A REAL GOOD NIGHT'S REST & SWEET DREAMS! Thank You Lord that we got to have a nice day & a nice time with Grandpa. Thank You Lord that he could come to dinner, in Jesus' name.) TYL! Her whole prayer was thank you's! TYJ! Amen! As we pray together the prayer You taught us to pray, Lord: (Prays the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 19:14 & "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.")

99. AMEN‚ LORD, BLESS & KEEP THEM ALL & GIVE THEM A GOOD NIGHT'S SLEEP, STRENGTH FOR TOMORROW & PROTECT US. We thank Thee for how You HAVE protected us & provided every need that we might get the job done, in Jesus' name! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen! PTL! (Sings: "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest Name I know!") I see you learned some of those good old church hymns! There were a lot of good ones, let me tell you‚ apparently written & inspired by people who really knew & loved the Lord! So TTL! God bless you all & keep you & give you a good night. If you didn't get to kiss me before supper, you're welcome to come now! I'll wait right here for you! GBY all! Good night!—ILY!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family