—MONOVEMBER, 1972NO.189—LTA

Copyrighted November, 1972 by The Children of God, P.O. Box 31 London WC2E 7LX England, or GPO B.P. 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936

1. DEAR CHILDREN: GREETINGS IN JESUS' PRECIOUS NAME! Since some of you have asked for the latest news in brief, and others want answers to a lot of questions, and there are still other things on which you need some suggestions and advice, we've decided it's above time for another top level Newsletter and Advisory from us personally. We're going to try to classify it and headline it so as to simplify it and make it easier to read and understand and find what you need to know right away:

2. THANKS: For all your precious cards, letters, notes, paintings‚ books‚ pictures, special reports, samples of literature and classes, news articles, music and letter tapes, etc. Special thanks for some special items: sent to us personally: The beautiful illustrated calendar from Eman; the lovely drawing from Cereah; the scroll from Lecah Follower and the Selah Farm; the unusual "Father of the Year" Award from you Atlantans; the unique wooden carving of our hand salute and the thoughtful slippers from Sir Robert and Ami in Japan; the rings from Vashti; the "Monster" T-shirt, warm clothes and pictures from Chenaniah, Jeriah and the Skillingsfors Colony; the lovely pressed leaves from the E. Andover Colony; the wine from King Emmanuele; etc.

3. WE COULD NOT POSSIBLY THANK YOU ALL PERSONALLY FOR ALL of the help you have each given us‚ from the encouragement and inspiration of the lowliest babes and local leaders to the vital and indispensable daily assistance of our personal secretaries, office helpers, provisioners, inspirationalists‚ nurses, mechanics, cooks, printers, writers, artists, editors, maintenance men, guards communications officers, video and audio men, photographers, teachers, housekeepers, seamstresses, translators, dramatists, business managers‚ dishwashers, floor sweepers‚ toilet cleaners, laundresses, witnesses, pioneers, musicians, errand boys, Councillors‚ Regional Officers, Bishops, National and International Shepherds and all other helpers, healers, miracle workers, governors, pastors, evangelists, apostles, prophets, priests and kings, etc. You name it—we got it! Hallelujah! We're a New Nation—A whole Kingdom! And special thanks to Abraham and Becky for the nice new shoes, as well as the very useful cash also from them, as well as some from Bart and Rahab and Joanna and Phinneas and others

4. GIVING: You're never heard us say much about money, for money is only a minor part of your donation when you're giving your whole lives, your time, talents, and services and everything you've got to the Lord! However‚ some of these recent small cash donations have reminded us, with deep appreciation for your thoughtfulness, that filthy lucre is one of those necessary evils which we must have!

5. HOWEVER, REALLY, THE MONEY ITSELF IS NOT EVIL but mighty good to have around when you need it, which we usually do!—It's just the love of it that's the root of all evil, according to the Scripture. The money itself seems to be a useful item of exchange in nearly every country of the world in which we work, and we usually need plenty of it, along with other types of donations.

6. OUTSIDE OF THE POWER OF GOD AND HIS WORD and the love of God & our fellow man, our greatest needs are usually "The Big Three"—"The 3M's"!—Manpower, Materials‚ and Money! We need all of these an cannot possibly do without any of them in order to do the job under most circumstances!—You need'em, I need'em we need'em‚ they need'em!—Even God needs'em as tools for the job, or He could have done without us long ago and done the job all by Himself without any help from any of us! But just as God can't get along without you, neither can we!—And along with your help and materials, we do desperately need money!

7. WITH US IT'S NOT "YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!"—BUT BOTH!—everything you've got!—That's what God expects!—That's what He gave!—And that's what He expects of you and all of us!—And for which He gives everything in return, and a whole lot more!—All this and Heaven too!—100-fold in this life, and in the world to come, Life Eternal!—You can't outgive God!—It's impossible to make a sacrifice for Him!—He'll top it in return every time!

8. NOW WHAT I'M MOST CONCERNED ABOUT at the moment in this matter of giving is neither you nor me, but all of us and our work together for God. So far, we have learned and taught you how to live by faith for material needs, how to survive by provisioning, procuring scrounging, asking for donations, writing your parents and friends for help, letting others know your needs, insisting that everyone give all and share all, including new disciples, and asking seeking‚ knocking, and finding it any way you possibly can for God's use and His glory and the salvation of lost souls to help all the poor kids we can possibly help!

9. YOU LOCAL COLONIES ARE THE LABOURERS IN THE FIELDS AND YOU ARE ACTUALLY HARVESTING THE GRAIN AND REAPING THE RESULTS DIRECTLY, including not only the souls and lives but also the material help‚ possessions, gifts and donations of both disciples, loved ones and friends. You not only bear the burdens of your daily labours, but also reap the wages of the benefits and blessings directly from your local labours.

10. HOWEVER, YOUR REGIONAL, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OFFICES DO NOT USUALLY HAVE THESE OPPORTUNITIES. Their major jobs are not always witnessing in and harvesting the benefits of their immediate local fields and getting new disciples and procuring sufficient local help to meet their tremendous material and financial needs in order to serve you well with the communications, information, ideas, guidance, unification, news, materials, supplies and literature you need to do the job.

11. YOUR NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL OFFICES IN PARTICULAR CARRY A TREMENDOUS LOAD ALONG THIS LINE. WE TRY TO SUPPLY YOU LABOURERS in the fields with the knowledge, training, opportunities, direction and tools to do the job, including frequent financial help, as well, to get you started and to tide you over in cases of emergencies.

12. THESE CENTRAL OFFICES ACT AS COMMUNICATION CENTRES‚ information clearing houses, news gathering and distribution agencies, literature publishing houses‚ personnel management labour pools, legal and public relations agencies, and handle all general mail, phone calls, inquiries, problem cases and requests for all sorts of help, information, supplies, etc.

13. THEIR OPERATIONAL EXPENSES ARE TREMENDOUS, including large housing for many offices‚ a multitude of office equipment, a huge number of office personnel, publications personnel, business personnel, legal helpers, etc. Since these are mostly older married leaders with families and children, most of these Central Offices must also have additional housing & personnel, equipment and expenses for the care of many children, nurses, teachers, schools, etc.

14. THEREFORE, YOURS CENTRAL OFFICE, SUCH AS YOUR INTERNATIONAL OFFICES, CARRY ON MANY MAJOR MINISTRIES which could not be handled any other way, and without which you could not operate efficiently in the field or coordinate your efforts, message, personnel, direction‚ and operation in unity and cooperation with all other Colonies as one great united front and one massive, magnificent, and mighty Army if God on the move!—God's great Giant on the move!—God's glorious Kingdom on Earth!—His huge Heavenly Hurricane! Otherwise, each of you would be nothing but one little gentle Breeze, constantly blowing it, or one little lone soldier trying to fight a whole War alone on your own!

15. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, TAKE A LOOK AT THE JESUS PEOPLE, or the general Jesus Movement as a whole, either the churchy kid groups, or the tiny little unchurched and shepherdless individual Colonies of independent Jesus Freaks, and see what's happening!—The world has heard about the you, Beloved Children of God, but who the hell has ever heard about the rest of them? We're the only ones who make the news by name, and our tiny little band of only two or three thousand forsake-all, totally dedicated and whole-heartedly marching together soldiers has made more world news, evangelised more nations, distributed more Gospel literature, gotten out more message, won more souls, recruited more fulltime disciples, and is having a greater impact on the whole world than all the other hundreds of thousands of Jesus People put together!

16. WE CHILDREN OF GOD HAVE MADE MORE NEWS‚ been on more TV shows and radio and in more newspaper and magazines and gotten greater publicity for God's message and have had more influence on modern world history than all the other Jesus People and churches put together in modern times!—In fact, we have probably had more effect on the world than any other Christian movement since the first one of Jesus' first disciples and the Early Church!—Why?

17. BECAUSE GOD GAVE YOU THE LEADERSHIP who were the original founders and pioneers of this great earth-shaking Jesus Revolution which has made world news!—Because God gave us you, the totally dedicated followership of all–out, forsake-all‚ do-or-die disciples who are willing to obey God and follow His God-given leadership anywhere‚ anyhow, anytime in anything to the very ends of the earth—with anybody in order to reach everybody! Hallelujah! Are you still with me?

18. WE PROBABLY HAVE MORE ENEMIES ALSO THAN ANY OTHER JESUS GROUP in the world, because the Devil himself knows, and our enemies even acknowledge, that we are the best led, best organised, best trained, best equipped and most unified Jesus People Army in the entire world of today! They also say that we will probably, therefore continue on as the most lasting and permanent body of the Jesus Movement, long after the others have faded away or melted back into their churches! Amen?

19. WE DIDN'T GET THAT WAY BY EVERY MAN DOING HIS OWN LITTLE THING in his own little way in his own little tent with only me, thee, thou and no other, and to hell with the rest! We became the founders and remain the leaders and the only growing and lasting and spreading body of the Jesus Movement with any semblance of permanency and solid, faithful following that gives any indication of having a lasting effect on the world by continuing as an organised group till the end! Amen?

20. WHY? WHY HAVEN'T THE OTHERS WHO FAR OUTNUMBER US and have the favour and finances of the System, the cooperation of the System's churches, and the patronisation of the System's Governments—why haven't they accomplished as much as we have? Why hasn't the world heard as much about them as they have about us? Why are they fading away and melting back into their churches? Why aren't they lasting and forging ahead and conquering the world with love, like us? Why?

21. DON'T THEY HAVE THE SAME GOD, the same Jesus, the same Salvation, the same power of the Spirit, and do the same witnessing? Don't they too have long hair, wear hip clothing, live together in communes, witness together, even publish papers and tracts, and even make a little news now and then? Aren't a lot of them fed up with the churches and the System's Godless education, cutthroat economy, social injustices and hellish wars just like we are? Aren't they a lot like us, with the same problems, solutions‚ hopes, and ideals? Then, what makes the huge difference?

22. I'LL TELL YOU BROTHERS AND SISTERS WHAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE—this huge, vast‚ insurmountable, incontrovertible, undeniable difference!—It's our unified leadership and total unity! It's our unified message and total cooperation! It's our unified organisation and total coordination! It's your unified obedience and total dedication! We are one Family, one Nation, one Kingdom, one Fold, with one Shepherd! That's why! We are God's one Answer to the total Hell on Earth of today! We have done the one thing which Jesus told His disciples to do to get the job done: forsake all and follow Me!—Without which the rest of them will never get far; but by means of obedience to which we are conquering the world and shall continue to do so till Jesus comes according to His own promises! Hallelujah! Are you with me?

23. BECAUSE YOU ARE WITH ME WE'RE GOING PLACES and doing things for Jesus by the power of God more than the Church has seen for nearly 2000 years! But the only way to stay with me is through your continued following‚ cooperation, communication, coordination and unified action and obedience to the Will of God! And the only way to do this is to follow your leaders and work together for Jesus in helping the millions who yet need our help! Do you follow me?

24. AND THE ONLY WAY TO DO ALL OF THESE IS TO HELP THE LORD AND ME TO MAINTAIN OUR CENTRAL COMMAND POST, WHICH ARE OUR CENTRAL OFFICES, particularly the International Offices through which we work in communicating, publishing and informing you of our every thought and move guided by the very latest word from Heaven! It's the only way, Beloved! There is no other! You must keep in tune and in touch with the Source through God's Voice and His chosen leadership! Amen?

25. THE ONLY WAY WE CAN SHARE THESE WITH YOU AND GET YOUR REACTIONS AND HELP SOLVE YOUR PROBLEMS AND MUTUALLY BENEFIT FROM YOUR VICTORIES IS BY MEANS OF OUR CONSTANT COMMUNICATION THROUGH OUR CENTRAL INTERNATIONAL OFFICES—our CIO!—The Central Agencies which organise our worldwide work together as one Body with one Head—Jesus Christ, God's Son!—And He has always worked through some chosen leader‚ one Shepherd, with one Fold, whenever He could possibly get all of His sheep together to obey and follow Him! Hallelujah! Do you believe that? Well‚ it's so!

26. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IT, LOOK AT WORLD HISTORY: The most powerful, the most far-reaching, the most effective and the longest lasting empires of this world were those with unified leadership and a unified people working in tremendous cooperation together toward a unified goal. This could be said to be true of all the world's seven great world empires, including the coming final one‚ and even the present Communist world!

27. THIS COULD ALSO BE SAID TO BE TRUE OF THE GREATEST ARMIES the world has ever known, following in total unity its greatest single conquerors, whether good or bad‚ from Moses to Alexander, from Caesar to Napoleon, or Lenin to Mao and beyond. Their great conquests were only possible through unified cooperation with unified leadership.

28. THE SAME COULD BE SAID EVEN OF THE CHURCH‚ AND OTHER RELIGIONS: nearly all were founded by either one man or woman, a single prophet of God or the Devil, who demanded total obedience, total unity and total cooperation‚ whether it be Judaism under Moses, Islam under Mohammed, Roman Catholicism under its Popes, or the Revolution for Jesus! Amen? Even the world's greatest business corporations, the new multi-national ones, which are even more powerful than governments‚ would never have been so successful without unified leadership and the loyalty and cooperation of their employees! They are all imitating God's own plan of unified leadership of a cooperative following: one Head—one Body!

29. BUT AGAIN I SAY THIS CANNOT BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT COMPLETE COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE HEAD AND THE BODY and all its members, and through this communication, a complete coordination of effort and movement in order to accomplish any task. There must be a brain and central nervous system to issue signals and carry them out to the tiniest nerve endings wherever needed; and there must be a means of response from each of those tiny nerve endings‚ wherever they may be in order that they may send their replies back through the central nervous system to the brain of leadership so it will know what's going on and what's needed.

30. I AM FRANKLY TRYING TO CONVINCE YOU BY ALL OF THIS THAT NONE OF THIS WOULD BE POSSIBLE WITHOUT OUR CENTRAL OFFICES and none of us could get along without them. You and I both need them desperately, and we need to give them our utmost cooperation and help to make our work possible. And the reason I am telling you all this is that there is a desperate need along this line, a growing need, which must be met and that they can only carry on their absolutely essential ministry through your increased help and cooperation! Do you understand?

31. UNLIKE YOUR COLONIES IN THE FRUITFUL FIELDS, these Central offices are so busy serving you and spending so much supplying your needs that they cannot possibly completely support themselves without your help, although they have tried to, not wanting to be a burden on you who already have plenty of problems of your own.

32. BUT AS GOD'S KINGDOM GROWS AND OUR REVOLUTION FOR JESUS SPREADS, SO DOES THE WORK OF THESE OFFICES AND THEIR VARIED MINISTRIES. Communications have increased in terrific volume: long distance international phone calls, a huge volume of mail and postage, the tremendous expense of multiplied communications and the growing needs of a burgeoning staff with all of their families and children and necessary expenses such as housing, utilities, transportation, food, office supplies‚ school and nursery equipment video, audio, and printing suppliers, etc.

33. THE BUSIER THEY BECOME IN MEETING YOUR NEEDS IN THE FIELD, THE LESS TIME THEY ARE ABLE TO SPEND ON ATTEMPTING TO TAKE CARE OF THEIR OWN NEEDS at home; until, now, the proportion of these needs to meet yours needs has grown to such a state of emergency that we are compelled to appeal to any of you who are able to send us more help!

34. WE'RE NOT GOING TO ENFORCE A TAX on you like the governments of this world in order to help pay for the benefits of your own Government. Neither are we going to demand a ten percent tithe‚ as in the Old Testament and many churches of today. Nor are we going to insist on a big offering once a month for the operation of the Headquarters‚ as in some denominations with which I'm familiar.—And we're certainly not going to extort an outrageous profit from you, as Capitalistic management does from its exploited slave labour!

35. BUT WE ARE GOING TO PLEAD WITH YOU TO PLEASE GIVE WHAT YOU CAN, whenever you can, if you can, toward the expenses accruing at our International Offices in the production and communication of the benefits which you yourselves are receiving there in your local Colonies from our efforts here at our various Central Offices.

36. WE ARE SENDING YOU OUR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES to help you spread the message, and even to raise funds for your local Colony. We are supplying you with audio and video tapes of music, lessons, inspiration‚ our travels, Colonies and special events. We are issuing helpful Advisories, information‚ addresses, and MO Letters for your guidance and publishing literature for your use, answering your questions, handling your problems, supplying your personnel and sharing your reports with all.

37. TOGETHER WE HAVE FORSAKEN ALL TO FOLLOW HIM. Together we are seeking first His Kingdom and His righteousness. Therefore we know we have a right to expect of the Lord that all these things we need to perform the task shall be added unto us. All we are asking of you is that you help us to carry the load if you can, not only the load of the labour in your various fields, but also that of threshing and garnering the grain, gathering and distributing it as each has need.

38. AS THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, MUZZLE NOT THE OX that treads out your corn‚ and‚ The labourer is worthy of his hire, and, The husbandman must be first partaker of the fruits, for, they that preach the Gospel shall live of the Gospel. Freely ye have received, also freely give!

39. AS WE HAVE SAID, WE'RE NOT GOING TO ASK FOR A TAX OR A TITHE or take a collection. All we are asking is that, if you can‚ would you please try to help us pay for these benefits which you are already receiving and have been receiving for some years now. As already suggested in the past, since each of you is perfectly independent and indigenous in each of your individual Colonies, we have absolutely no control over you, nor any hold on you, nor can we demand of you anything that you do not voluntarily wish to give, freely and uncoerced, and only for the sake of love and spiritual fellowship and chosen unity.

40. BUT MAY WE SAY LIKE PAUL THAT, SINCE WE HAVE MINISTERED UNTO YOU your spiritual needs—and in this case, even many of your material needs—have we not a right to ask of you to minister unto us of your material blessings in order that we might continue to minister unto you? Amen?

41. WHEN WE FIRST BEGAN, I AND MY OWN LITTLE FAMILY FORSOOK ALL‚ SOLD ALL THAT WE HAD AND INVESTED IT IN THE EXPENSES OF REACHING YOU with the Good News of His Revolutionary Kingdom! We obeyed, and God did the rest, and it worked, and what we started is still working for you! In fact, until only recently, your own dearly beloved MO has been living almost entirely on his own tiny savings from his small salary of past years when in the business world, along with a few odd gifts from some of you and a very few interested friends.

42. WE HAVE TRIED TO ASK NOTHING PERSONALLY FROM YOU OR THE REVOLUTION in the way of financial help, despite the lies of our enemies who claim we are making millions! If so, where are they?—Unless you Colonies have them!—Ha! All of you I know of struggle along on next to nothing, and the Central Office Colonies have barely managed to meet their bills‚ what little income they have going out as fast or faster than it's coming in right now. We personally, having been ousted from our former free cabin, are now living in as economical quarters as possible for little more than the price of a rented room in an old boarding house, and have until now been paying our own expenses from our nearly extinct savings in order not to be chargeable unto you and refute the lies of the Devil that we have been using you for personal gain or profiting from your labours!

43 BUT WE HAVE NOW ABOUT COME TO THE END OF OUR ROPE, AND ARE GOING TO HAVE TO LET GO AND JUST TRUST THE LORD AND YOU and a little of the small returns from some of our own writings and publications to help make ends meet! But our personal needs are virtually nil compared to the enormous expenses of your International Offices, which exist only to serve you and to help me to serve you as your Leader.

44. SO I'M GOING TO SUGGEST that if‚ after your own personal and Colony needs have been met, you have a small surplus that you could spare to help pay for the goods and services we are rendering you and your Colony in helping you with His work, would you please consider sending it to a needy Colony, region, Office—or even to us?—As some have. Thanks! Love, MO.

45. P.S. SOME OF YOU MAY THINK THAT, BECAUSE YOU'RE SO POOR and don't have a lot of money to send‚ that there's no use in sending any at all! But you'd be surprised how much even one dollar can do! As we've often said, we'd rather have 10,000 poor little folks each sending us only a dollar each and every one of them thereby remembering to pray for us, than just one big rich person giving us the whole 10,000 dollars at once and maybe, because he is rich‚ being almost too busy to pray for us at all! Besides, it's lot easier to lose one friend than 10,000!

46. AS MY MOTHER ALWAYS SAID, THE POOR ARE ALWAYS THE GREATEST AND MOST FAITHFUL SUPPORTERS OF GOD'S WORK!—Whereas the rich, like the Rich Young Ruler who came running to Jesus, but went away sorrowful when Jesus asked him to give up his great possessions and follow Him, often find it very difficult to give or forsake all because it means so much to them! Therefore, He said it would be very hard for the rich to enter the Kingdom!—But it's not impossible for God to help them do so, thank God, so we do have a few such faithful supporters with whom God has blessed us, like our dear Brother Paul, whom God has used to help us to survive! Praise the Lord!

47. HOWEVER EVER SINCE I CAN REMEMBER, MOST OF OUR SUPPORTERS HAVE BEEN POOR LITTLE FOLKS WHO HAD ALMOST NOTHING—poor widows, old pensioners, invalids‚ shut–ins, teenagers, etc. But these, like the widow's mite, have really sacrificed from what little they had, and have given what was really costing them a great deal, sometimes even all their living as she did! So the Lord said that she had given even more than the rich, who had only cast in a little of their abundance!

48. SO YOU WHO ARE GIVING ALL ARE GIVING EVEN MORE THAN THOSE WHO ARE ONLY GIVING PART, NO MATTER HOW MUCH IT IS. As King David once said, "I will not give unto the Lord that which hath cost me nothing!" It doesn't really count until it costs you something to give, and you give until it really hurts‚ you are really sacrificing to give, and when you can say, "The love of Christ constraineth me!" How much has it cost you? Does it hurt? Are you really sacrificing for God?

49. BUT, YOU SAY, WE'VE ALREADY FORSAKEN ALL!—What have we left to give?—Jesus' disciples also had forsaken all, yet still He said unto them: Freely ye have received—also freely give! If you can only slip one little sacrificial dollar into that little envelope with your weekly report, it will mean a great deal to us and to you, and God will bless you for it! Of course‚ if you can give more, please do! We need it!

50. I USED TO RECEIVE MANY PRAYER LETTERS FROM MANY MISSIONARIES telling of their work and asking for help. For awhile I thought, I'm so poor myself and also working so hard for the Lord, how can I afford to give them any when I have so little to give, and it seems like it wouldn't be enough to really help, so why bother at all? I was ashamed to give only a dollar, and if I had more which one would I give it to?

51. THEN THE LORD SPOKE TO MY HEART one day. Maybe if you'd just slip a dollar into that envelope, just one little dollar‚ it would be a little help somewhere!—And if you pray real hard, maybe others will do the same, and all those little dollars put together will all add up to be a real help some day! So I began doing this: I'd just slip at least one dollar into each missionary's envelope that I wrote, and prayed God would use it for His glory and their help‚ and inspire others to give likewise. And He did!—And He blessed me for it, too! Hallelujah!

52. SO WHY DON'T YOU TRY IT AND SEE WHAT A BLESSING YOU CAN BE and how much God will bless you for it! Just slip a dollar or two or a five or a ten into each of those reports and see what God will do! God bless you!—MO.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family