DO 23143/87

—And the Wind Up!

1. THE PRESS LOVES A FIGHT, IT REALLY SELLS PAPERS!—JUST LIKE THIS BIG FIGHT NOW BETWEEN THOSE PREACHERS IN THE STATES! Look how they're smearing that all over! They're crucifying poor Jim Bakker just because he had a little sex with his secretary seven years ago! Someone accused him of having to pay blackmail, but others say it wasn't blackmail, he just offered it to her as penance or something.—Probably also to help keep her mouth shut even if she didn't ask for it! … I wouldn't be surprised if she was a plant by the [ACs]! … So apparently she tipped them off or ratted on him or something. Maybe she tried to get some money out of his denomination.

2. IF YOU JUST KNEW THE POLITICS THAT GOES ON BEHIND THESE DENOMINATIONS! It's just as bad & as cutthroat as it is in the World. Some of it is even worse because they're so self-righteous & so critical! I'm really sorry to hear about that. I'm sad about poor Jim Bakker, because he's a really sweet guy!

3. JIMMY SWAGGART, HEAD OF THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD, IS THE ONE THAT SPILLED THE BEANS & HAS BEEN CONDUCTING THE INVESTIGATION! He & his denomination are the ones that found out about Bakker's problem & smeared him & brought all his dirty laundry out in the open! They thought by so doing they were going to get to take over his ministry, his "PTL" Show & all his followers, because Bakker is a competitor with Swaggart. So they ruined him through covetousness & jealousy to try to grab his show. But Bakker played a trick on them‚ he turned around & gave it to Jerry Falwell! That was really smart! I don't think Falwell's even Pentecostal, but he's got a big evangelistic ministry & Bakker knew he would be a good manager & all.

4. BUT I THINK BAKKER SHOULD HAVE TRIED TO STICK IT OUT! If people really love you & believe in you, they'll forgive you! Good night, look at what you guys have forgiven me for, because I haven't tried to hide anything. You knew from the beginning I was sexy, I promoted sex, & that's what the church is mad at me for! So I think he's making a mistake to quit. He should have fought it out & kept his followers & I think most of them would have stuck with him! (Maria: Well, maybe Jim Bakker's ripe for discipleship in the Children of God!) Ho, ho, ho! (Maria: His whole ministry is ruined now, he won't be able to do anything.) Well, I think if he'd have stuck by it, they'd have stuck with him!—If he'd fought it out & just said‚ "I'm sorry‚ I made a mistake."

5. THE WHOLE THING ROSE AS A FIGHT BETWEEN HIM & HIS DENOMINATION. Jimmy Swaggart apparently got jealous of Jim Bakker & wanted to take over his "PTL" ministry, so they tried to find something on him. Jimmy Swaggart is not some poor little independent TV evangelist, he is the head of the largest Pentecostal denomination in the World, the Assemblies of God! That's how he gets his power. So they've got millions behind them—millions of people & millions of Dollars!

6. JIMMY SWAGGART THOUGHT HE WAS GOING TO REALLY DISGRACE & EXPOSE & SCANDALISE JIM BAKKER SO HE COULD GET HIS SHOW. Now what he did was he got himself in trouble & got all the TV evangelists smeared! So look what a favour Jimmy Swaggart did for the Gospel. Well, maybe they deserve it. Oral Roberts put millions into his university & medical center, & Pat Robertson is building another university. Isn't this ridiculous? More Bible schools! I'd say Jim Bakker did a better, more generous & a more charitable thing in providing a home for old folks & orphans than those other guys did in building big universities just to train more church kids to be more church preachers!

7. SWAGGART & HIS DENOMINATION HAVE SUCCEEDED IN SMEARING DEAR LITTLE JIM BAKKER, WHO WAS JUST A LITTLE BUG UNDER THEM! Talk about a multi-million-Dollar organisation & schools & mansions & whatnot‚ the Assemblies of God have got'm!—Cathedrals & whatnot all over the World, hundreds of millions of Dollars worth of property! They're one of the richest denominations in the World! And here they're trying to crush this one poor little bug with his TV show & his little Old Folks' home‚ thinking they were going to get it! Well, they got it, all right, they got smeared in return, & they deserve it! And all these other vultures are hopping in on top of it, God help us!

8. AT LEAST DEAR BAPTIST FALWELL WAS NOT GUNNING FOR JIM BAKKER, so Jim Bakker just turned around & offered it to him because he didn't want to give it to the denomination that had scandalised him! I don't blame him!

9. (MARIA: I NOTICED PAT ROBERTSON'S ESTATE WAS WORTH JUST ABOUT A THIRD OR LESS THAN A LOT OF THE OTHERS.) Yes, quite a humble little cottage only worth $350,000! Ha! He's got a big university he's building there too.—Building it brand new! Can you imagine what that costs? At least Fred Jordan took over old buildings & rundown places that he got for a song & didn't waste a lot of money.—Although there were people who criticised Fred for buying a house & about half-an-acre out in the boonies 25 miles out of Los Angeles for $50,000! You can hardly even buy a cottage nowadays for $50,000! And that's all his was, a one-story bungalow with about 4 bedrooms. He could keep horses out there so he kept Shetland ponies‚ of all the stupid things, for his kids. Shetland ponies are the meanest, most dangerous kind of things you can have around, that's why he finally got rid of them & dumped them on us!—And expensive to feed. But Fred Jordan didn't spend money like these guys! These TV evangelists are going up in the World! They really must be making money!

10. WELL, THEY'RE GETTING IT NOW! THE [ACS] FINALLY GOT'M WHERE THEY WANT'M TO REALLY SMEAR'M! They're using this Jim Bakker case as a springboard to smear the bunch of them! So all the vultures criticising poor little Jim are getting their share right now!

11. … JERRY FALWELL … really promotes Israel & the Jews, & that's probably why he's got so much support.—Although he really upset'm not long ago by taking a trip to South Africa & saying good words for South Africa‚ that it's Christian, etc. … Now dear Jerry is trying to save Jim Bakker's establishment, & we shall see!

12. THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW THE CHRISTIANS & CHURCHES FIGHT EACH OTHER, & IN THE PROCESS DESTROY THEIR OWN REPUTATIONS & their own influence & make the whole World disgusted with them! The Church is its own worst enemy, they're destroying themselves by fighting against God!—Just like the [Scribes and Pharisees] did when they fought Christ! … The Scribes & the Pharisees, the Sanhedrin, the Chief Priests, are all samples of the Assemblies of God who condemned Jim Bakker!

13. THEY SAID, "WE GAVE HIM AN OFFER OF REHABILITATION WHICH WE HAVE FOR SOME OF OUR PASTORS WHO GET IN TROUBLE, & HE COULD HAVE ACCEPTED IT." In other words, enter their rehabilitation program, & of course sign over his show & his big property & his big center & everything to them, & let him get out of it quietly. It would be like the sacrificial lamb asking to be rehabilitated by the vultures that destroyed him!—Like the lamb asking the wolves to please forgive him for having fallen due to their smear campaign. "Just eat me slowly! Rehabilitate me!" Boy oh boy!

14. SEX IS THE UNPARDONABLE SIN AS FAR AS CHURCH PEOPLE ARE CONCERNED! (Maria: All the churches have a common denominator that they're willing to fight against & that they're horrified of.) Sex is it! Sex is taboo! Sex is what they cannot stand! (Maria: It doesn't matter what kind of religion they are all over the World, that's what it is!)—Except secretly in their own bedrooms they can go to town, & then come out & pretend to be non–sexy, "holy, holy, holy"! It's sickening! It just shows you how self-righteous their religions are‚ works trips!

15. IT WOULD EXALT THE LORD ALL THE MORE IF JIM BAKKER HAD SAID, "I'M SORRY, THE LORD HAS FORGIVEN ME, WILL YOU FORGIVE ME, AND LET'S CARRY ON!" That's what he should have said. I think he should have stayed there & stuck it out & fought it out! I think there would have been oodles of people, good sinners like you & me that would have stuck with him & said, "What's the difference? We're all sinners, so why should we condemn you? Let's go ahead with all this good work we're doing!" I think he made a mistake in yielding to it. In his case I think he could have stuck it out!

16. (MARIA: NOBODY'S EVER GOING TO WANT TO HAVE HIS SHOW, ESPECIALLY IN THE REST OF THE WORLD.) No, but he could have carried on his Heritage Foundation & his Old Folks' Home & all of that. He's done a big job, he's done a good work‚ he's worked hard for years! He could have retired & said, "I'll just run Heritage‚" or something like that, & get off of TV. In fact, I think more sinners would have listened to him if he'd have gone right ahead & preached the Gospel & said‚ "I'm a sinner too, I fell too! But God forgave me‚ why can't He forgive you?" Wouldn't you have liked him even more & had more sympathy & loved him more? I love him more now since he's fallen, to know he's just like you & me! He was sweet & humble before, but this really humbles him!

17. (MARIA: I WONDER HOW MANY OF THOSE OTHER EVANGELISTS HAVE DONE THE SAME THING!) Yes, how many affairs have they had!—All these self-righteous preachers getting on TV & downing Jim Bakker! (Maria: If I were the [AC] media I'd go after their background to see what they've done!) Oh, they are, they really are! The ACs are at work trying to destroy the Gospel, especially its Gospel preachers.—The same kind of people that attack us! The Lord's going to do to them, one of these days, what they've done to us, probably let the Commies have'm & chew'm up! The real wolves are going to chew up the wolves in sheep's clothing eating each other!

18. WHAT THEY HATE ABOUT US IS THAT WE PROCLAIM SEX & WE SAY THAT GOD CREATED IT TO BE ENJOYED!—Not to be ashamed of & hidden & disgraced by! And that just infuriates them, because we're free & they're not. Just like in "Easy Rider," that's what infuriates them‚ because they all wish they could & wish they could be free & their mouths are practically watering! So they hate us because we've got what they want & we're enjoying it, thank God! (Fam: Amen! Thank you, Dad!) Thank the Lord, Honey, He's the One that did it! All I did was give you the message‚ thank the Lord! But that's not our whole message, that's merely subordinate. But the way they publicise it, you'd think our whole message is just preaching sex, because that's the message that makes them jealous.

19. JIM BAKKER'S MINISTRY WAS NOT A PART OF THE DENOMINATION AT ALL, IT WAS HIS OWN CREATION, SO TO SPEAK, & his own private project. Nevertheless he held his credentials with the Assemblies of God as his denomination. In other words, these preachers have to get their credentials from some recognised denomination or they can't get their tax exemption from the IRS.

20. EVEN THE MISSIONARIES OF THE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARY ALLIANCE & A LOWLY EVANGELIST LIKE MY MOTHER HAD TO FURNISH PROOF TO THE IRS that she was a bona fide ordained minister of the Christian Missionary Alliance‚ & sent in copies to the IRS, along with a letter from the denomination & a copy of her ordination & all this stuff to prove that she was a bona fide minister of the Gospel & therefore could claim tax exemption, particularly for the gifts that came in to her, so that she could offer tax exemptions to the people who made donations to her.

21. THE IRS IS TOUGH ABOUT THAT!—In fact, they've taken away tax exemption from preachers who attacked the government because they say that makes them no longer a religious organisation but a political organisation. Some of the biggest, most powerful anti-American preachers in the U.S. who condemned & criticised the government, the IRS padlocked their church doors & put a lien against all their property, their church & everything else for back taxes, making it retroactive, saying that they've been nothing but a political organisation all the time, & therefore they owe them all these back taxes!

22. SO ALL THESE PREACHERS CARRY CREDENTIALS WITH VARIOUS DENOMINATIONS. Take Jerry Falwell, for example, his main church where he started is a Baptist church, & he carries his credentials from the Baptist Church‚ & that's the only way he can escape taxation & claim exemption. Swaggart, of course, is head of the whole Assemblies of God denomination. Jim Bakker held credentials with them & therefore he could claim his was a non-profit religious organisation exempt from taxation. They all get exempt from taxes that way, but they've got to have definite proof of it with an IRS-recognised denomination. And the IRS sets down a whole list of rules by which they define a recognised religious denomination.

23. THE IRS HAS SET ITSELF UP TO JUDGE GOD'S PEOPLE AS TO WHETHER THEY'RE A CHURCH OR NOT! Can you beat that? They've got an actual list of rules by which they judge whether you are an actual church or religious organisation. Dear poor Jethro, you know, was always trying to cut corners & trying to get tax exemption & all that stuff‚ so I think in Oklahoma he let some of his boys file in the name of some organisation they had for tax exemption as a church organisation. And of course the IRS sent down investigators & blah blah blah‚ & the long & the short of it was, of course, a crazy outfit like ours they absolutely flatly refused! They said, "This isn't a church, it is not a religious organisation & blah blah blah!" Imagine‚ the Devil setting himself up to judge who's a church & who's not!

24. JIMMY BAKKER HAD QUITE A FOLLOWING & QUITE A BIG SHOW & WAS CLEARING SOMETHING LIKE 150 MILLION DOLLARS A YEAR! But it costs money to pay for those shows, just to make them, then they have to buy their time. They don't get that time free! Pat Robertson & the "700 Club" must be absolute billionaires to pay for that time & make those shows! And they are polished shows, as good as anything the World could make. Thank God! Praise God that God can do it just as good as the rest of them! Of course‚ I'm not too fond of him, & he's not too fond of us, so the feeling is mutual!

25. ANYWAY, JIMMY BAKKER'S DENOMINATION HAD BEEN CONDUCTING A SECRET INVESTIGATION OF HIM FOR A LONG TIME, & SOMEHOW IT GOT OUT TO THE MEDIA. It could be that they couldn't persuade him to back out quietly. They wanted to take over his show & all of his followers & that extra $150 million a year! That's what they're after, the money!

26. THAT'S HOW I LOST MY CHURCH! I got it built & everything & they didn't like my preaching, they wanted it, so they came up with silly excuses that the people were complaining about what I was preaching, & they just took it! They were a bunch of real crooks, & that's what soured me on the churches for good!

27. THEY NEVER PAID A DIME TOWARD THE BUILDING OR THE LABOUR OR THE MATERIALS OR ANYTHING! In fact, even the local community didn't do anything. The local community paid me $10 a week‚ that's what the average morning offering was which went to the pastor, & the average nightly offering Sunday night was $5 to pay for the electricity, & that was it! Well‚ we couldn't have possibly lived on that! The only thing the local church board paid was the $25 monthly payment on the property, which was payment back to the organisation.

28. BUT THEY HAD A CLEVER WAY THEY HAD THEIR TITLE DEEDS TO THE PROPERTY LISTED. The title deed was in the name of the local church—the local church supposedly owned the property & it was in their name. But they had in there what they called the "reversion clause," which said in case anything occurs which displeases the denomination or is in contradiction to their policies, etc., the denomination has a right to reclaim the property & it would revert to the denomination.

29. WITH JIMMY BAKKER THEY WERE GOING TO TAKE AWAY HIS DENOMINATION CREDENTIALS, & that would have put him in a bind because he couldn't claim IRS exemption any more. Apparently he was in pretty deep financial trouble. He started this big Heritage Foundation, actually an Old Folks' home, a home for the aged. It's a beautiful complex, what we would call a Colony, sort of a community for the old folks with its own hotel & shopping center. The old folks would give him what money they had or their property & he'd guarantee them a place to live there with food & income for life. I think that's a pretty good deal! It's a common thing a lot of denominations do. Actually it was a charitable project to give these old people a home & to know that they'll be taken care of for the rest of their lives—Christians, members of his church & his program.

30. SO I'D SAY HE WAS INVESTING IN SOMETHING THAT WAS HELPFUL TO PEOPLE! He wasn't just keeping all his money—in fact he was so deep in debt, that's one of his problems. A thing like that was almost like building a town. They say it's a beautiful place, has its own shopping center & cottages for all these people, & a big building like a hotel. I'd say it was good‚ for what it's worth. It's more than most churches do for their people. And yet the self-righteous hypocrites were criticising him & saying, "Oh, isn't this terrible, all these hundreds of millions of Dollars spent on this extravagant thing here!" Well, it's not as bad as some of those useless church buildings & the hundreds of millions of Dollars they spend on those damn things!

31. SO ANYHOW, SWAGGART & HIS ASSEMBLIES OF GOD WANTED BAKKER'S MINISTRY, HIS INCOME, & THEY WANTED TO STOP HIS COMPETITION! They wanted to get that place & take it over to be a feather in their cap‚ so they finally released the scandal on him. They couldn't get him to retire or give it to them or sign it over or whatever way they were trying to do it. They said they were trying to get him to retire & they gave him a chance to get out quietly, but apparently he refused, so they went public with it & scandalised him & now it's a great big controversy!

32. IT WAS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD FOR THOSE ANTI-CHRIST[S]! They're using this now as an excuse to smear all the television Gospel preachers! They constantly cut'm short or smear'm or say insinuating things. They said, "You live in a pretty fancy house, don't you, Pat Robertson?—$350,000!" And, "Oral Roberts, you have a two-million-Dollar home in Beverly Hills!"—And we don't even know if it's even true. It probably was given to him by some dying old lady & he's probably got it mortgaged up to the hilt to pay for his college!

33. THIS IS THE WAY THESE GUYS DO: THEY'RE ALWAYS BUILDING THINGS SO THEY'RE ALWAYS DEEP IN DEBT! It doesn't matter how much money they make, they never can get out of it. And they've got to pay for all these TV shows. I mean, it costs a fortune just to produce them, plus the distribution & all the time they have to buy wherever they put'm on the air. And then they have huge office staffs! The 8-story office building Oral Roberts has in Tulsa, Oklahoma that I visited was full of these great big mainframe computers going full-blast trying to handle his I don't know how many millions of names he has on his mailing list! I mean‚ it's a job! With all these contributions coming in, they've got to send them back IRS tax-exempt receipts & answer them & thank them & pull for more money. It's a big operation! Ours looks like peanuts compared to theirs! But thank God, at least we don't have to invest millions of Dollars in buildings! We don't believe in owning property anywhere! What they do makes us look like dust on the floor!

34. I ATTENDED THE CHURCH THAT ELVIS PRESLEY BUILT FOR THE ASSEMBLIES OF GOD IN MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE, a two-million-Dollar church, which was a lot of money in those days. Well‚ he had the money & they wanted it, so he gave it to them. So if you take all the churches put together, they put millions, trillions of Dollars in buildings, most of them just useless church buildings for nothing but meetings! At least some of these guys like Jim Bakker had an old folks' community. They call them Senior Citizens' communities, they don't call them old folks' homes like they did when I was a kid.

35. WHEN I FIRST KNEW REX HUMBARD, HE WAS NOTHING BUT A COWBOY SINGER‚ & HE HAD NOTHING BUT MUSIC. He trained each member of his family to play & sing, & they were very popular when I was young, even when my kids were young. They were nothing but a musical group who went around singing at different churches, until finally he got so popular he decided, "I'm popular enough to build my own church!" First of all he got on radio for about 20 years, then he got on TV. TV was cut out for that kind of a show! He really puts on a show! So he built this Cathedral of Tomorrow in Akron, Ohio, a multi-million–Dollar building, a grand, huge theatre building with built-in camera platforms & everything so they could make the show there. That thing would be filled with thousands of people every night, or used to be.

36. WELL, AT LEAST HE ALSO STARTED AN OLD FOLKS' HOME‚ it was a kind of a hotel, & I'd say that was a smarter investment than his church building. I'd say where they're doing something for people like that & taking care of people, even missions‚ etc., like Fred's, that's smarter than just having church buildings. God bless Fred for having that hotel for bums & schools, etc. But most of these churches are just totally wasted‚ hundreds of millions, if not billions, of Dollars on just empty buildings that are empty most of the time!

37. IF WE'D WANTED TO BUY PROPERTIES & DO STUFF LIKE THAT WE COULD HAVE DONE IT! But look at the money we would have robbed the missionaries of & the pubs & the literature! We've reached millions more people than these guys have with their TV shows, & reached the people that really need it on all the foreign mission fields! These guys are just always appealing to the Christian people that have got the money. Well, they're finally getting it, poor guys.

38. NOW ALL THESE GUYS ARE SMEARING EACH OTHER & APOLOGISING FOR EACH OTHER & SYMPATHISING WITH JIM BAKKER, blah blah‚ & all the television commentators are just really frying'm on the griddle! They're just really frying'm! But it all started over the covetousness & the greed of the big denomination wanting to gobble up the little guy!

39. DEAR JIM BAKKER REALLY FOOLED JIMMY SWAGGART, & SWAGGART IS FURIOUS! Because instead of being willing to keep quiet & just turn over everything to Swaggart, apparently Jimmy must have told them, "Well, go ahead & smear me, I'm not going to let you have it!"—And he turned around & gave it to Jerry Falwell‚ the Baptist!—Ha! Well brother, I tell you‚ if I could have done it with my church, I would have! I sure wouldn't have given it to my denomination that came down there & stole it, I'd have given it to somebody else! But they were smart, they had it sewed up! So all I could do was just sneak out & leave when they told me to leave.

40. THEY GAVE ME NOTICE‚ "NO MORE, THAT'S IT, OUT YOU GO!"—And sent another preacher there to preach the next Sunday, can you imagine?—Didn't even give me a chance to tell the congregation goodbye or preach a final sermon. I think they were afraid of what I would say, & they should have been afraid of what I'd say, & I would have said it‚ 'cause I said it to quite a few of the members. I was sick in bed with the flu at the time & all I could do was talk to the people who came to visit me, & most of them didn't.

41. IT'S REALLY A DIRTY BUSINESS! This denominational business is just as cutthroat as business & politics, because that's what it amounts to. It's a business to them & it's politics through & through! Why do you think I got out of that mess? I never wanted to be in that again!

42. BUT HERE ALL THESE GUYS SPEND MILLIONS OF DOLLARS ON THESE BUILDINGS FIRST, THEN THESE PROJECTS. Of course, they had to spend millions to pay for their show, & then they always had to have someplace to have meetings with their people, television audience & whatnot, or the studios to make the shows. Then they get into other projects so they've got something to appeal for money for‚ to raise more money for this project, & they hope to raise more than enough for the project so they can pay for the show & a few other expenses. And you can sympathise with them because it costs hundreds of millions, & they're always sweating it out trying to raise enough money to even pay for things. It's terrible! And yet, what have they got when they're done?—A building & maybe a little charitable project or two which cost hundreds of millions of Dollars!

43. WHEREAS WE HAVE BEEN ABLE TO TURN BACK INTO THE ACTUAL MISSION FIELD & MISSIONARIES & WINNING SOULS & WITNESSING & GOSPEL LITERATURE, EVERY SINGLE PENNY EXCEPT ABOUT 3 TO 5% OF OUR INCOME A YEAR! Everything goes right back in! And the 3 to 5% is really going back in‚ it pays for our Administration & Publications Unit expenses. So it's all going back into the Lord's Work, every penny into living creatures, people preaching the Gospel, literature that preaches the Gospel‚ everything, all of it!

44. NOW THESE GUYS ARE REALLY UP A TREE! They thought they were all going to look down on Jim Bakker & say, "So sorry the poor man fell & made this mistake, too bad he stumbled." They're all acting so self-righteously merciful & all that. Instead of that it's backfiring on them, & the commentators are really slamming'm all! It served as their best excuse for putting them all on the griddle, because they're giving them all interviews & saying, "Well‚ now don't you have a nice big home too? Well, don't you get so many million Dollars a year too, huh?" And when they started slamming it to these guys, they all started clamming up & were embarrassed because the Devil through those … anti-Christs are just using it as a means to slam & smear'm all! And they probably deserve it!—God knows they must, in some ways‚ because that's really the way they've been living.

45. THEY SAID TO JERRY FALWELL‚ "NOW DON'T YOU HAVE A NICE MILLION-DOLLAR PRIVATE PLANE, EXECUTIVE JET, THAT YOU FLY AROUND IN TOO?" He said, "Well, no, that belongs to our organisation." "Well, didn't you fly your daughter to Europe the other day?" And he was stammering! It's pitiful. They do live high on the hog, they're multi–millionaires, & their property shows it, their churches show it‚ their business shows it & their TV shows show it!—Which I'm not going to criticise them for, that's their business! At least they're businessmen for the Lord! At least they preach the Gospel & at least they get a lot of people saved, thank God for that!—Although I think it's a horrible waste of money, what they put the money into, like churches, colleges, etc.

46. I'M JUST TRYING TO SHOW YOU HOW WE SPEND OUR MONEY—WHAT LITTLE MONEY WE HAVE WE SPEND IT ON WHAT COUNTS!—And it mounts up! We don't live high on the hog, as you know! We don't waste money, we don't waste a penny! We give most of it away! We literally give it all away, everything that comes in! You know I don't live any better than you do, in fact we live in the smallest quarters here! It's almost like living in a trailer, the bedrooms are so small! But praise the Lord‚ I like it! I chose those rooms. The minute I saw them, I thought, "Oh, that's nice & cozy!"

47. BUT I'LL TELL YOU, WE HAVE GIVEN AWAY WHAT WE'VE GOTTEN ALMOST AS FAST AS IT HAS COME IN! The Lord has sent it in‚ & the more we give away, the more He sends in! I have to keep thinking of more things to do with it! I ask Mama & Peter, "What can we do now? What other thing can we publish or how many more books can we distribute or what can we do? What field needs help? What missionaries need help? Do they need a bigger budget? What can we do to spend this money? We've gotta give it away!" The Lord has just blessed us hand over fist! It's been amazing! The more I give away the more the Lord sends in, & we just cannot outspend God! We cannot give it away faster than He sends it in!—So far at least!

48. WE WENT THROUGH THE WIND-DOWN A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO BECAUSE WE FIGURED THE CRASH WAS GOING TO COME & our income was maybe going to go flat & we had better prepare for it & cut down all unnecessary expenses & all unnecessary pubs & everything else, but we're publishing more stuff now than we ever published! We're spending more money than we ever spent before! And we're getting the most income that we ever got before! The Lord wasn't intending to wind down! We got rid of a lot of unnecessary expenses, it was a good thing, but since then instead of winding down, the Lord is winding up! That would be a good name for this talk: "The Wind Up!"

49. INSTEAD OF LETTING US BE WOUND DOWN‚ THAT WAS OUR IDEA, THE LORD'S IDEA WAS TO WIND UP! And He's been sending us more & more income, & we've been spending more & more for all of these people & pubs & everything we can think of! These big conferences & teen camps cost tens of thousands of Dollars! And sending out the Searchers cost thousands! Those things cost money, brother, all those fares & hotels & conference rooms & all kinds of stuff that they had to do! But the more we did it & the more we spent, the more the Lord poured it in! And now we've helped the whole Philippines to evacuate to the tune of thousands & thousands of Dollars!

50. WHEN I USED TO START TALKING ABOUT GIVING SOMEBODY SOMETHING OR GIVING THIS AWAY OR DOING THIS OR THAT, JETH USED TO SAY‚ "OH DAD, WE CAN'T AFFORD IT!" He was like Judas! Remember I wrote that Letter "Judas"? (No.71) I don't know whether you guys knew it then, but it was about Jeth. I said, "If anybody tries to turn on us or tries to ruin us, it's going to be Jeth!" Well, it was Jeth and his wife. He was always like Judas, complaining about how much we were spending or how much we were giving.

51. IT'S GOTTEN TO WHERE PETER DOESN'T WORRY ABOUT FINANCES! At first he'd sort of wonder if we could afford it‚ but now it's such a proven fact that no matter what we give away or how much we give, the Lord will even give us more, and it keeps pouring in more and more!

52. WE DON'T GET HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS LIKE THEY DO‚ BUT WE DON'T WASTE MONEY LIKE THEY DO EITHER! I'll bet you anything we spend more on missionaries and Gospel literature and witnessing and winning souls than any of them did! They count on their impersonal television show to win souls, you know. Well, at least Pat Robertson has got a telephone system where the people can phone in, and that's good. That's a good way to have personal contact and get them on the phone and witness and win'm, and of course raise money too. They've always gotta have some gimmicks to raise money somehow! Well, what we raise money for is strictly for missionaries and witnessing and soul-winning and soul-winning instructive literature, feeding the sheep!

53. WE DON'T WASTE MONEY ON BUILDINGS OR CHARITABLE PROJECTS OR BUYING PROPERTIES. The only things we bought were cars and trailers, and only then when we had to have them and were living in them there in France.—And when we left we gave'm all away! But praise the Lord, the Lord has helped us to spend every penny we get in for what is really necessary and really valuable, and most of all for Gospel literature and witnesses and missionaries and souls won! So I think that's worthwhile! Over the years it's amounted to a lot, thank the Lord‚ but that money is just a drop in the bucket compared to these guys. Every one of these guys makes more money in a year than we've made in our whole lifetime!—At least more money comes in. But of course they've got big expenses and more money goes out‚ and with most of them, there's more going out than coming in!

54. MOM & PETER HAVE GOT MORE PUBS NOW THAN I EVEN HAVE TIME TO READ, and I think more than most of the Family have time to read. But they wanted to do it and they were good things and good projects and good pubs, so praise the Lord, as long as we've got the money‚ we'll do it. I keep them in check, keep the rein on so we don't spend too much money on something I don't think is worth it, and if it's not worth it I don't spend any on it! But if I think it's worth it or they think it's worth it, I let'm spend it!

55. OUR TOTAL INCOME FOR THE LAST TEN YEARS IS A DROP IN THE BUCKET COMPARED TO THOSE LARGE DENOMINATIONS! And look how much we accomplish with our little drop of water! It goes much further than their bucketfuls and gets more results! TYL! But every penny goes back into the work!

56. THANK YOU LORD THAT YOU'VE HELPED US GET THIS FAR AND THAT YOU CONTINUE TO BLESS US MORE & MORE EVERY YEAR! Instead of things going down‚ they've been going up! Of course, the Crash hasn't completely occurred yet‚ but You're even putting us in a better position to face that. You've given us the preparations and the plans, Lord, of the alternatives, the contingency plans, so we'll have things ready for when it does come and be able to carry on Thy work as long as possible.

57. THANK YOU FOR HEALING ME IN SPITE OF ALL THE TALKING I'VE BEEN DOING IN ALL THESE CONFERENCES, LORD. We use our voice and strength for Thy glory and we believe even this little talk this afternoon is perhaps a needed one to encourage our folks! "All things work together for good, Lord, to us that love Thee and are called according to Thy purpose."—Rom.8:28. So thank You for helping us to abide in the calling wherein we were called, to witness and win souls and preach the Gospel and not waste money on anything else! In Jesus' name, do bless Thy children as they carry on Thy work and save souls and feed Thy sheep‚ in Jesus' name! Amen! PTL! Okay, the sheep are waiting on you to be fed, so you'd better run along to the pasture! TYL!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family