DO 2320 2/85

GOD LOVES A MYSTERY!

1. Why don't some of you nice inventors put some kind of weight on this boom mike so it's not rocking back and forth! Try to work on these things. I've showed you about inventing things and engineering things and to try to improve things and not just keep fighting with the same old problem every single time. Let's get a weight on the back of this boom. If we're going to have a boom mike, we've got to have weight on the back end of it. It's like a derrick. If you had that kind of a derrick you'd spill everything all the time. That's why they make the back end so heavy, so it doesn't fall over.

2. What was that noise? When I hear clicking noises from electronic equipment I wonder if something's on! The other night we kept waking up to this funny sound that sounded like a dying rat or a bird caught in the ceiling, "Meow!"—And we'd just get back to sleep and again it would go‚ "Meow!" This happened about four times. Mama and I woke up every time, because a strange noise will wake you up. You can hear all kinds of noises, even loud noises, but if it's in the general program of things that you're used to hearing, your ears will not warn you to wake up. But if your ears hear a strange new noise, they're the watchmen on your two side walls and they will immediately wake you up! Old noises, usual noises, customary noises, noises in your usual noise pattern will not wake you up. Your brain and your ears get accustomed to that and get programmed to letting you sleep. But if a new one pops up suddenly, then you pop up!

3. Finally on the fourth "Meow!" I began to really pray about it! At first we were praying against it, "God get rid of that damn rat or bird or whatever it is that keeps waking us up!"—Rebuking the Devil and rebuking the birds and the rats and lizards. Mama thought it was a lizard, but I never heard a lizard before that went, "Meow!" (Kids: What was it?) Wait'll I tell you‚ I've saved the punch-line for last! If I tell you first, you won't be kept in suspense and eager to know the answer!

4. This is what they call teaching, I get you all excited and wanting to know the answer! That's the purpose of these mystery movies and suspense movies, they keep you on edge! They've always got somebody walking through the dark alone or the heavy sound of footsteps and all that sort of thing to keep you suspended in mid-air waiting to see what or who would pop out of the woods or something! It gets your attention and it keeps your attention.—Even though it's frightening‚ I've gotta know what it was! I used to tell Maria, "No, Mama, don't turn it off, I want to see what happens!" I've watched some virtual "horror" movies to the bitter end! It's human nature to be curious, to want to know the answer and to want to see it and hear it, "What was it?" And if you've got the problem, you've got the question, then you've got the mystery‚ and people love a mystery!

5. Even God loves a mystery! He loves to mystify you, and that's why He makes Bible prophecy so mystifying and mysterious! You can't get it from the first reading just like that, this is the kind of stuff you have to dig into and study and really ask questions and pray about it and search the Scriptures, really search out new treasures—treasures new and old! It doesn't come at first reading just off the surface. God didn't make this kind of treasure simple and easy to find. The more rare and precious the treasure, usually the more deeply it's hidden! Isn't that what they do with pirate treasures etc.? The more the trunk is full of jewels and pieces-of-eight (gold coins) and gold and all that, the deeper they bury it so somebody else won't find it that shouldn't find it. They're the only ones that know and they've got to really dig to find it. So that's the way God does in His Word too, and when I'm telling you a story that's the way I do! I get you all het-up to know‚ "What's the answer? What was it‚ Dad?"

6. Well, it must have gone on for at least an hour! After waking us up four times and praying against it and cursing it and rebuking the Devil and everything else—it almost sounded like some kind of a fiend or imp snarling in the background—I finally prayed and asked the Lord what it was. Instead of trying to guess in my own mind what it was and cuss everything else and curse everything else, I really got desperate. I said, "Well now, Lord, what is it? It sounds like it's in this direction toward the corner, what else could be there besides rats, birds and lizards up in the ventilator‚ caught in the ceiling?"

7. And when I really sincerely prayed and asked the Lord, "What is it?", asked Him for the answer‚ it immediately came to me that it had something to do with electronics! I thought, "Did I leave the video recorder on? Is it making that noise because of that new gadget they put on it or something?" And then it just dawned on me, "Oh, it's that new gadget, that voltage regulator!" Everybody had warned me that every now and then that thing goes, "Meow!" when the voltage varies. And sure enough, I looked over there and we'd forgotten and left it on‚ and there it was!—The monster in the night that was giving that demonic snarl every once in awhile! Just after we'd finally get to sleep again and pray the Lord would help us to go to sleep‚ "Meow!" It almost sounded like the cat's meow!

8. Anyway, that's what it was, and how did I get onto that?—Keeping you waiting and mystified! Well, it made a good illustration, anyhow‚ of how the Lord likes to keep you waiting for the answer. I found in years of teaching, from grade school kids and high school kids to adults, that if you create a soil, a ground of curiosity, of question, of mystery, asking a question even that you know they don't know the answer to, you create a desire for the answer! That's what all these mystery stories are based on, you get so embroiled and you wonder who-done-it! "Who is it? Was it the butler? Was it the maid? Was it the host?"

9. Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock in some of those old mysteries always got all the principals and all the suspects and culprits in the same room at the final denouement, the final solution! You still don't know which one it is and each one of you is guessing‚ "Well, I say it's the butler!" "I say it's that girl over there!" "I say it's so-and-so!"—Everybody's got a different theory. Of course it's almost always the one you least suspect of all, the most innocent and sincere-appearing and harmless–looking one of all. They get them all in the living room or the hotel lobby or in the lounge of the boat and the detective goes around and says‚ "So-and-so and so–and-so!" It's an old method‚ literally an old literary tool to arouse your curiosity and to keep you interested in the book or the movie right to almost the last line! They knew you'd get bored and you wouldn't have read the whole book if they hadn't kept that particular thing a secret to the last page!

10. So I deliberately try to arouse your curiosity sometimes so you are just so thirsty, you get so thirsty for the answer! You get so hungry for the answer! It's like they used to dangle food in front of you on television commercials. It made your mouth water and made you hungry when it wasn't even time for supper. Your mouth was just watering and you were smacking your lips and you could just feel that delicious spaghetti going down as the guy swallowed it! Your mouth was practically hanging open and you were wondering, "Why don't they serve more spaghetti in this place, anyhow? Why don't they serve more cheese like that, anyway? How come we don't get some stuff like that in our supper?"—And you were almost tempted to go to the kitchen for some before supper! They just whet your appetite and arouse your thirst for whatever it is!

11. That's a teaching tool, that's a teaching method! In educational psychology they found out that the more you want to know the answer and are thirsty, eager and hungry for the answer, really trying to get the answer, it's like plowing the soil for the seed. It's like getting the girl ready to receive it. You pet her and you stroke her and you caress her and you love her and you kiss her and you suck her breasts and you do all these things that really get her in the mood till she's just gotta have it!—Amen? There'll be no denial, she demands it, she insists on it, she's gotta have it!

PREPARE THE GROUND!

12. It works in all realms of life, that the more you want it‚ the more you're going to be ready to receive it when you get it! In fact, a girl's lower mouth gets all wet and juicy all ready for it! Otherwise, if you don't give her enough preparation you're going to strike a dry hole and it's painful. So if you're one of those dry holes that don't naturally lubricate, you'd better carry along a little vaseline‚ because you can really get sore yourself and make him sore too if you're not ready. So if he insists and you're not in the mood, try a little lubrication. Of course, it's better, first of all, to try a little tenderness, or you're apt to get tender, that's for sure!

13. The first two weeks that Caleb and Lydia were married she was having a terrible time, getting terribly sore, couldn't even stand him, and so was he! He couldn't figure out what was the matter! He couldn't even get it in‚ every time he was striking a dry hole. I said, "Well, how much time do you spend getting her ready? How much do you love her first?" Young fellows like him and like me when I was his age, teenage or 20's, it doesn't take the man any time to get ready. See, no matter what I'm talking about I can get onto sex. Well, you guys like to get on it too, don't worry! So you're apt to strike a dry hole if you don't get her ready.

14. But if you show her some real genuine love and affection and tenderness and caresses and kisses‚ doesn't that help, girls? Don't you like that? In fact, according to a recent poll by Ann Landers, most women would rather have the affection and the cuddles and the kisses than even the sex! In other words, they want evidence of genuine love! Just "Bam bam, thank you, ma'am!" doesn't show much love! And of course dear Caleb would get all excited at even the sight of dear Lydia, as most young men will do! To even look at a picture of a naked woman used to make me go bloop, like that!—Or looking at all those pretty school girls on the school bus used to make me go bloop, boom, boom! I was glad I could carry my school bag in front of me after I wet my pants!

15. With old men, that's a different story! We old men are almost as difficult as some women. We're not frigid, but as you get older and the Lord knows you don't need any more children and you don't need to procreate any more‚ there's not a real necessity for having so much sex and it's not quite as easy. We get to where we like a lot of caressing and more lovin' and kissin' and cuddlin' etc. before it encourages us to do anything too.

16. But young men, one look and bloop!—He's ready to hop on!—Whereas she hasn't even begun to get ready yet! You've got to love and kiss and kiss her all over and love her and caress her and stroke her and squeeze her! Honey, why are you smiling so broadly!—Ha! All the girls are smiling broadly! "Sic'm‚ Dad, sic'm! Tell these boys, these stupid idiots what they need to do to get us ready!" Well, I've said that so many times, I don't know why I have to preach a sermon on it again! Here we are half an hour into Class and I haven't even read the first verse yet, but maybe that was necessary!

17. Anyhow‚ preparation is important! Maybe that's why sometimes I give you an hour of introduction and half an hour of Class! It's important to get you in a receptive mood‚ maybe a happy mood, maybe even a funny mood and laughing where you're enjoying the Class!—To sugar-coat the pill before we dig into the bitter part! Maybe it's a good idea!

HELPFUL PSYCHOLOGY & SPIRITS!

18. Well, I didn't study all that psychology in college, I'll tell you right now, it just comes naturally! I don't plan all these talks‚ I never make any notes, I never carry a prepared speech‚ I have never read a sermon in my life, much less a prayer. The first time I was ever asked to speak and actually get up and make a public talk to a group of people was when I was a teenager about 16 or 17 in Young People's Society. In those days it was not so common in school to do that. The teacher usually did all the yakkin' and all the talkin', you were just supposed to listen and get the answers so you could write'm down silently on the exam.

19. Now schools have learned something, that audience participation counts! The kids will be more receptive and more responsive and more eager to learn if they can participate in the action, if they can share, if they can tell their story, if they can get up and dramatise it in a skit, not just write it. This way they will want to learn, want to participate‚ and thereby learn more and better!—Especially if it's visual, if they can see you do it rather than just hear you tell'm. Savvy?

20. So that's an educational bit of psychology that is very helpful! I didn't study that, I never went through Educational Psychology in college. In fact, the only psychology I took, of all the crazy courses you'd ever want to take, was Abnormal Psychology, a big thick book all about crazy people, all the various kinds of insanity! Well, I guess the Lord knew I needed that because we have had to deal with them, even on occasion in some of our Homes, really insane people, just crazy.—Not always demon–possessed, that's schizophrenia, which occupies more insane asylums than any other form of mental illness. They call it mental illness, but it's straight demon–possession when people have two or three different personalities, split personalities all in the same person.

21. But of course the scientists absolutely reject and refuse to believe in the spiritual and in spirits, either good or bad! The church refuses to believe in good spirits, but the scientists of today refuse to believe in good or bad spirits‚ any kind of spirits. The closest they come to the spiritual is believing in what they call parapsychology or E.S.P., Extra Sensory Perception, the powers of the mind. They have to relate it all to the physical and give it all a natural, physical flesh–and–blood explanation and say they won't believe anything they can't see!

22. Well, I tell them like dear old Dr. Moon did at the Chicago World's Fair when the sceptic came up after the illustration. The sceptic asked, "How do you know there's a God? Have you seen him?"—And Dr. Moon replied, "Do you have any brains?" The sceptic said, "Of course!" So Dr. Moon said, "How do you know? Have you seen'm?" Dr. Moon always wound up with something about the Lord. He gave amazing scientific demonstrations just as a come-on, just as bait, just to get a crowd, and then he would preach them the Gospel at his Moody Bible Institute Exhibit at the Chicago World's Fair in 1936.—That was before you were born.—Ha! They were smart even back then, believe it or not. You're not the only guys who think you know it all!

PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION & OUR NEW CULTURE!

23. The difference between this generation and that generation is this generation thinks they know it all, whereas that generation really did know it all and it didn't know it! They knew more important things then and believed more important things than this generation. This generation doesn't even know how to fix a faucet or a car or hardly a light bulb! It's amazing they can even change light bulbs. I never saw such an impractical generation.

24. It's gotten to be a common scandal in the United States, not only that the kids are failing in school and aren't learning anything practical about geography or anything else, that's bad enough‚ but they're training almost no engineers!—Compared to Russia and China and other great countries that know their future depends on engineering and inventions and science and mechanics and electronics—or they think it does—who are training 10 to 20 times as many engineers as the United States who will understand these sciences and be able to do something about it and invent things and design things!

25. The U.S. is going downhill and they'll never catch up! That's why after World War 2 they established the National Science Foundation with an endowment from the Federal Government of hundreds of millions of Dollars to pay students their tuition in scientific institutions to learn science and engineering‚ because the kids didn't want to, it's too tough! In my high school of seniors of about three thousand students, they only had about a dozen in each geometry class. Can you imagine?—Whereas I ate it up, I loved it! I had the kind of mind that is eager to know how to do things and do them in decency and order and scientifically and organised!

26. There's nothing like mathematics to thrill you with the perfection of numbers and lines and geometric figures, because they're the creation of God! Mathematics is the proof of the absolute and the existence of a perfect God! I ate it up, I loved it! I loved that perfection, I loved for things to work out right and to get the right answers. All that this generation wants to do is get stoned on drugs or hard rock and now the noise videos and they don't want to think‚ they don't want to have to think. They've got to make subjects in school so palatable and so enjoyable and so entertaining and amusing that schools have turned into entertainment palaces instead of educational institutions, trying to entertain and amuse the students, hoping they might learn a little something in the process. They don't want to work, they're lazy, with lazy minds. They don't even want to know, they're on drugs.

27. Drugs are an escapism from reality, they're laziness! Before you joined the Family‚ you took drugs because you didn't want to work and you didn't want to think and you wanted to escape from this World! Well, I don't blame you much, considering what a Hellish World some have made of it, but on the other hand, that wasn't the solution to your problems. That's escapism, escape from thinking, away from thinking, amusement. That's what the Latin word for amusement means, "away from thinking"!—Entertainment, drugs to deaden your brain so it won't even think, and take enough of them where you can't think. Then you did badly in school after you took drugs, your mind began to wander and you couldn't think clearly and you were befuddled. I think some of you had permanent damage to your memories and your thinking processes. It's pitiful!

28. This generation is so God-damned lazy, it doesn't want to work, it doesn't want to think! It doesn't want to do anything but lie around and have everything handed to'm on a silver platter and be fed with a silver spoon! I'm not talking about the poor Third World nations where from the time they're small the kids have to work or the family starves, I'm talking about the rich North American‚ European, Westernised, luxury-laden spoiled brats of the Western Capitalist System who have always had everything handed to them on a silver platter and fed with a silver spoon and never had to do anything for themselves until they got married!

29. All of a sudden the woman says, "My God! You mean I've got to do all this work! You mean I've got to cook and clean house and take care of babies? I've got to have labour pains! My God! Give me anything! Give me drugs! Give me anything to help me escape all this!—Including a divorce!" They never did anything but sit around at home, the parents couldn't get'm to do a lick of work and apparently didn't even try to teach them‚ a lot of you. Certainly your fathers could have taught you boys something about maintenance work and repairs and fixing the simplest little things, toilets and whatnot! But maybe he was just as dumb. Maybe he was one of that generation that didn't know how to do anything.

30. Let me tell you, it was not so with your pioneer forefathers who pioneered and explored and discovered and settled that great new continent of North America! They had to think about everything‚ they had to do everything, they had to fix everything! They not only had to fix it, they had to make it! They had to know everything! That's why I say farmers are the smartest people in the World. To be a farmer you've got to just about know everything, not only about farming and planting and growing crops and fertilising and watering and debugging and deweeding and all the rest, but you've got to know about mechanics and plumbing and all kinds of engineering and improvising and inventing! You had to think‚ and you still have to think to be a farmer.

31. Do you know why the American farm is going to pot, the small family farm!—Because they got to where they thought they could be like some of those poor countries and live on borrowed money. If they weren't smart enough to work hard to make money, they just borrowed it from the local bank, and now they've got to pay the fiddler! Now the local bank's going to go bankrupt if they don't collect, and when they collect, then the farmer goes bankrupt, and then the bank goes bankrupt too! It's a chain of dominoes that's going downhill! The U.S. is going down and it's all a sign of the End.

32. The very same symptoms that the U.S. had before the Great Depression are all holding true right now!—The booming stock market, the booming Dollar, everything booming, ready for the big blast and the tremendous Crash, the collapse! That's the way everything was going just before the '29 Stock Market Crash. All those things are true now of this present World economic situation, especially in the United States. It's now true even more so than it was before the Great Depression of 1929!

33. So this generation really is a sad lot, I'm sorry to say, but look how the Lord took mercy on you! He knew your parents and your grandparents failed‚ so He went to extra trouble to have mercy on you and to try to rescue you and to try to salvage you‚ those who really wanted an answer and wanted something worthwhile to do and to do anything, to do something decent and worthwhile. If you just gave Him a chance, He has done everything He can think of, everything possible to change you, to save you‚ to salvage your mind, your body and even to teach you all these things that you never learned in school or from your parents or at home or at play or anywhere, learning to do so many things that you never had to do at home. I'd say almost most of our time in the Family is spent teaching people things that they should have learned at home or in school.—Which shows you how worthless and good-for-nothing the schools were.

34. So now we have to start a whole new culture just like Moses did with the Children of Israel!—Who'd been in that God-damned useless civilisation of devil–ridden, demon-ridden, idol-ridden soft Egypt and all its luxury and luxury-loving, pleasure-loving culture. Moses had to take the Children of Israel out of there and teach them an entirely new culture, an entirely new way of doing things, a whole new language, a whole new Law, a whole new way of doing things, a whole new everything, and kept them camping out in the wilderness for 40 years to learn it! Let me tell you, you sure learn a lot of things camping out when you have that rug of all those luxuries jerked out from under you and you have to carry your water and you have to cook on an outdoor fire or you've got to live under primitive conditions in a tent or even a camper. You learn then! You learn to live like your forefathers did when they lived in covered wagons and didn't have everything handed to them on a silver platter with a silver spoon!

35. That's why I wanted you all and God wanted you all to get a taste of camping! I'm sorry some of you missed that mobility because you were in offices or something.

36. I think we need more air, or maybe I'm just getting hot! Maybe we're heating up the place! We probably are, there's a lot to body heat! Body heat puts out a lot of heat! Those calories are burning! You're on fire inside‚ believe it or not‚ and your body temperature is much higher than the air temperature. It shows you're burning and you're on fire! That's why you have to breathe oxygen, to fan the flames inside. Some of you think I breathe sex and that fans the flame, but no, I breathe oxygen‚ believe it or not. Praise God!

MODERN SAVAGES!

37. See, I don't just rock along, business as usual, status quo—practically every time you come to my room you'll find things all changed around again! I keep trying to improve things and change things! I'm a World-changer, I'm not satisfied with the way things are! I'm always trying to think of some better way to do it, some easier way, some cheaper way, some faster way, some safer way! But your generation got in a rut‚ you didn't know what to do, where to go or who to follow! They told you, "There are no absolutes, nobody's right, there's no such thing as right and wrong!"—Teaching people that in school! So you figure, "What's the use of anything then? Why strive to do right if there is no right? Who cares if I do wrong if there is no wrong? Man can do no wrong, so can do as he pleases. Follow your compulsion, follow that impulse!" What horrible things to teach people with demonic impulses and horrible compulsions!—So the murder rate starts rising and the crime rate rises and the violence rate rises and they encourage it on the movies and the television and the videos and everything else, even encourage it in schools with their doctrine‚ but try to control it with a few corridor guards.

38. You can't teach people one thing and then try to corral'm and try to keep it down! If you let'm loose and you let the beast out of the cage of morality and law and proper teaching and certain safeguards and limitations and restrictions‚ man will go right back to savagery and cruelty and horrors!—And that's where they're going. Those horror videos are going right back to savagery!—Even the way they look, with crazy hairdos and painting up their faces and all kinds of things. How do you think the savages got started like that? Years ago they had a nice culture, but they let'm loose and they went downhill.

39. I certainly don't believe in Evolution, but as sure as I'm sitting here I certainly believe in Devilution! Man is not evolving, he's devolving! And supposedly the smarter he gets technically, the dumber he gets spiritually and psychologically and socially to where he can't even solve his own problems, much less society's problems. Because they've thrown away the Rulebook and they've cast aside the Ruler until there's nothing left‚ they've been let out of the cage.

40. And don't blame it on the youth and the poor young people and the teenagers! All the parents and grandparents and teachers and authorities are weeping and wailing and wringing their hands and lamenting over the state of youth today, when they did it! It's their fault! They taught you that way, and they didn't teach you what you needed to know! It's their fault! They let you out of the cage! They let the little monster out of the cage and didn't teach and train him to do the right kind of tricks. Did you know you can train even lions and big cats and tigers to obey and do tricks and roll over like dogs?—Small cats not so easy, but the big cats they can train. I suppose they could teach the little cats too if they'd try, but you don't make money out of teaching little cats to do tricks. But you make money and they put you on television and in the circus if you can teach the big cats and the lions and tigers to jump up on stools and raise one paw, jump through a ring and do all these kinds of tricks. So they learn to even teach the big cats how to do tricks.

41. But if you just leave them to their own devices‚ let them out of the cage and let'm go to do as they please, what do they do?—They revert to savagery! They revert to their wild instincts and their wild nature and they'll go about everywhere not doing good, but seeking to destroy and devour! So will these little monsters, all you little monsters, and you did!—Because your parents and your teachers and authorities and governments let you out of your cages and let you do as you please and let you get away with it.

42. Let me tell you, the old Mosaic law didn't have any prisons—they didn't need'm! If anybody was bad enough to have to put behind bars, they killed'm, they got rid of'm! The prison system is horrible! It makes more criminals and destroys even the few good people that land in there by mistake! Well, I won't get onto that any more, I've already had an hour of introduction!—Ha! How'd I get onto that‚ anyway?—You were never taught, you were never shown!

43. God has had to create an entirely new culture in our club. This is a new culture we're learning!—Learning to wash dishes—Your mother never made you—learning to cook—Mother never taught you—learning to fix things—Daddy never taught you—learning to scrub and wash floors and do laundry—Mom sent it out. She might have let you take it down to the laundromat‚ but what's that? You just sat and read a magazine while the machine did the work!

44. You're learning a lot of new things you never had to do before, but they're good for you and you need to know that these things require work, they require knowledge‚ a little grey matter up here to be put to work! You've got the grey matter, make it boil! Make it simmer! Make it work! You had to have a whole new culture! You had to have a new leader‚ a new teacher and many new teachers to teach you a new way of living, God's way, the good old way!

CAPITAL CRIMES & THE MOSAIC LAW!

45. Let me tell you, if you think I'm tough & our rules & regulations are tough, you should try the Mosaic Law some time with its 26 capital crimes! Most states & countries now of the so-called modern civilised World have nullified capital punishment. They don't kill them for murder any more or a lot of horrible crimes.—In fact, they might put'm in jail just for a few years, or maybe even in an insane asylum & just say they were insane. Of course, anybody is insane that does that sort of thing. But then they'll let'm out by & by when they think they've come to their senses & they go out & commit more & worse crimes, horrible! That was not God's way!

46. If you want to do it tough, if you want to do it by law, if you want to legislate righteousness, go back to the Mosaic Law & its 26 sins for which they could kill you!—And the worst kind of death you can possibly imagine, being stoned to death, hit with rocks! Well, that didn't help the person who was dying, but let me tell you‚ when those young scalawags watched other people get stoned to death with rocks & die bleeding & broken & hurt & screaming, they thought twice before they did such a crime! They really thought it over!

47. The same thing exists in some Muslim cultures today! They boast of virtually no crime in some Arab cities & say it's safe to walk the streets at night—which you can't say for hardly any American city! It used to be just bad New York & bad Chicago‚ but now it's bad every small town! You're not safe anywhere at night! I remember years ago the cops almost picked me up one night when I was wandering around looking in jewelry store windows trying to pick out a ring! I figured I had to deal with these TV men & they all wore jewelry, so I'd better buy myself a ring or I looked a little funny. The cops stopped me & wanted to see my ID & everything, they thought I was casing the jewelry stores! American cities aren't even safe any more, they're especially not safe for the good people! They're only safe for the criminals!

48. This guy that shot up the boys who tried to rob him on the subway is now becoming a national hero!—Finally somebody's sticking up for himself! By law they won't allow the good people to carry guns or weapons in New York City, but all the criminals do‚ they all carry'm, so the good people have no way to defend themselves & the criminals know it! So these four guys took a knife to this guy & suddenly, surprise, surprise, he just pulls out a gun & shoots all four of them! He didn't kill'm, he just shot'm. I'll bet they'll think twice before they try to rob another guy! Even the Bible gives you the right of self-defence, & if you have to save your family, your life & your children, the right to kill somebody else if you have to. But the Mosaic Law was tough on the criminals & they had almost no criminals, the criminals all got killed! About the only ones they spared were the guys who owed debts. You can't get blood out of a dead turnip, so the guys who owed debts or had something they could make right, who could make restitution, well, they let them stay alive & go to work for the guy that they owed.

49. But do you know why they don't have robberies & muggings & attacks & knifings on the streets of the real strict fundamentalist Arab cities?—Because if they even steal they'll cut off their hand! I guess you'd think twice about stealing some little thing or even some big thing if you knew you might lose your hand! But the U.S. puts the thieves in jail where they learn even more about robbery & how to rob & how to steal from the real professionals, & then when they get out they can really do the big time! What a crazy society! What a crazy World!

50. See, when they threw away the Rulebook, the Bible, & when they threw away the Ruler, God, then they threw away civilisation & they're reverting to savagery, back to the jungle! It's gotten to where the asphalt jungles are worse than the green jungles of the World! You're safer out with the snakes & the varmints & the beasts & even the savages than you are in the average city. Even the savages have codes of behaviour & ethics, they go by the rules. Even though their rules may somewhat be a little savage sometimes, at least in some ways they've got more civilisation amongst the savages of the green jungles than they have amongst the savages of the asphalt jungles!

51. So there's our one-hour introduction, now we can have a half–an-hour class! How did I get onto all that, anyway? I was just about swearing I wasn't going to do that this time & I opened my Bible & I was going to read you the first verse! I wondered why you started grinning when I started talking about teaching! You were just thinking, "Here he goes again!" Well, maybe you learned something anyhow.

THIS IS YOUR TRAINING PERIOD!

52. So we've had to try to pull you out of that savagery & out of that jungle & get you back on the right track!—Get you cooped up at least within God's cage, & there you've got more liberty & more freedom, really‚ that you can enjoy in these cages we call Homes & Clubs than you had out in the wild woolly World! You were within the cage of your mind out there & you never got away from it! You were in the prison of sin & Satan & the Devil & wickedness & vice & even crime! You were a slave to those things! Whereas now‚ even as a slave to God, a Love Slave, you have more freedom‚ more liberty‚ more enjoyment, more pleasure, more understanding, more peace, more everything than you ever had before! It's a fact!

53. So the Lord had to give you a whole new culture, a whole new set of rules, a new Ruler, a whole new civilisation patterned after His!—In fact it is His!—His Kingdom, His City, His World & the way He originally intended for it to be, where it was safe to run around naked & not have all these System jobs & all this crazy stuff. All Adam & Eve had to do was make love, sleep on the grass & eat off the trees!—No cooking, no dishwashing‚ no mending, no clothes, no washing! Think what a nice easy life that was! Oh‚ there was work! Adam was put into the Garden of Eden to keep it & to tend it. If you don't think a garden is work, just try it sometime. Some of our boys are finding out just a few flowers is work! You've got to water'm, you've gotta tend'm, you've gotta dung'm, you've gotta take off the dead & dying leaves & take good care of them.

54. I've told both the boys & girls that are taking care of my flowers, you're taking care of my flocks! You're a good shepherd & a good shepherdess because you're taking care of the flock—flocks of flowers! Flowers can be flocks too, you know! It's work, but it's nice work, pleasant work. I always thought if I had a job I'd want to be a gardener. The trouble is, I couldn't get any job gardening because I didn't know anything about it! My Mother knew quite a bit about potted plants, but my Dad didn't know anything about gardening, his father was a shoemaker & a carpenter. So I didn't come from farmers from them, I have to go clear back to my grandparents to reach the farmers, & that was too far back. So‚ sad to say, I never learned anything much about growing anything.

55. The only kind of seeds I ever planted were my own & the only thing I ever grew was children!—But I learned a lot about that, thank the Lord! The Lord taught me a lot about that in my first family, & I think I'm doing a better job with this second family than I did with the first family. Of course, I have a lot bigger family now than I had then too. Maybe that's why the Lord could trust me with a bigger family, because I did the best I could with the first one & He knew I could do even better with the next one! PTL!

56. So here we are! We've got a better Family now than ever & a bigger Family than ever! I even forsook some of mine & now I've got thousands! I forsook one wife, or she forsook me, & now I've got hundreds!—Well, maybe if you count'm all, thousands! Of course, I won't get around to them all till I get to Heaven, but I am in spirit, in the Word, in Love! I love those out there just as much as I love you here, the only difference is I can get my hands on you & show you! PTL! But I love them too out there‚ & I get my hands on them through the Word! PTL?—And I visit them in the Spirit! TTL!

57. So we had to have a whole new culture & learn a whole new bag of tricks, a whole new bunch of rules & learn about the Ruler, Jesus, the King of kings! PTL? I may be a king, but I'm just a little king. Jesus is the King of kings! Right now I have a very small kingdom, only about 10,000 people. Good night, that wouldn't even fill up some small towns! I wouldn't hardly be a mayor in the System! But my kingdom is not of this World, & my kingdom is much more important than any in this World! Praise God?

58. It's teaching you to be kings & queens & princes & princesses of kingdoms to come!—Not just the Kingdom to come, but kingdoms to come where you'll be ruling whole nations & countries, not to speak of cities & provinces etc. You'll be the rulers! Maybe you don't think much about it now. Maybe you kind of think‚ "I can't imagine myself ever being head of anything, I can hardly head the kitchen or the house or the maintenance or the office, I don't even feel capable of that!" Well‚ you will be, just wait.

59. This is your training period! Some people are in kindergarten, some people are in grade school, some people are already in high school, some of our leaders. You probably won't get to college till you get Raptured, & in the Millennium you'll really start learning & start exercising what learning you have in supervising the World! You don't have to know how to do all these things, you'll have people under you who can do'm‚ you just have to direct'm‚ tell'm God's Will, tell'm God's rules, tell'm God's way, teach'm the Lord's Love, show'm how they ought to do it & let them do it for you. Amen?

60. All you have to do is know the Lord!—And you'll have thousands of people working under you that know all those little things, how to run cities & sewage plants & this, that & the other. You don't have to know how to do all those things. There isn't a president, mayor or governor in the World that knows how to do all those things, they just have people to do it for'm! They'll be your servants! You'll be their rulers! You will tell them what to do & they will know how to do it! Praise God? So you don't have to worry about that. PTL!

61. But you're in training for it now, & maybe even little talks like this are part of your training to wake you up to your marvellous responsibility!—Your tremendous responsibility & your marvellous opportunities to take advantage of every minute of training you can get now! Whether it's in Class or at your job, washing dishes, cleaning toilets, mopping floors, cooking meals, typing, handling finances, shopping‚ litnessing‚ childcare, teaching classes, whatever it may be, it's all a part of your training, praise God?—And you are going to be greatly used in the coming Kingdom when we finally come into our Kingdom! Praise God!—AMEN?

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family