—A Children's Story of Kings and their Kingdom!

—MOOctober, 1974NO.319—GP

Copyrighted October, 1974 by The Children of God

P.O. Box 31 London WC2E 7LX. England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936

1. THIS MORNING I HAD A DREAM ABOUT A TREE, and when I asked God what it meant I got a picture of one of our kingly leaders standing talking to somebody, and the general idea of what he was saying was this: "There's too much emphasis put on what MO is saying and not enough on what the kids are doing!—Too many MO Letters and not enough NNNs!"—And then again he was speaking, and I got more the impression than the words, but all of a sudden he was king Saul and he was saying "Too much faith is being put in the words of the Prophet, and not enough in the work of the people‚ of us the people!"

2. HE WAS IDENTIFYING HIMSELF, LIKE KING SAUL DID, WITH THE PEOPLE, AND THE PEOPLE, HE WAS SAYING, DESERVE MORE CREDIT! "You take too much upon yourself, Moses," in other words‚ "when we too are prophets, and look what we have done!" He was standing there very nice and very persuasive and very convincing, speaking very softly but convincingly: "After all we the people are doing quite a bit ourselves!—We deserve a little more credit! All you guys talk about is MO and his words and how great he is, and you even forget I'm a king, too‚ and don't even give me any credit!

3. "IF IT WEREN'T FOR ME THE KING, MO THE PROPHET WOULDN'T EVEN EXIST!"

4. THAT'S EXACTLY THE WAY KINGS THINK: they always feel in the long run, "The Prophet is more dependent on me than I am on him, and I deserve a lot more credit for making his work possible! You people need to give me a little more credit and glory! You people also deserve a little more credit for your work. You shouldn't be giving all the glory to the prophet!"

5. BUT YOU SEE, HIS ONE BIG MISTAKE IS—AND THIS IS ALWAYS THE MISTAKE OF KINGS—THAT HE LITERALLY FORGETS GOD IN THE PICTURE AND HE GETS HIS EYES ON THE PROPHET AND THE PEOPLE, and to him the Prophet really no longer represents the Word of the Lord! He gets his eyes on the man instead of the mouth, and he no longer sees God in the Prophet, and so he no longer feels compelled to obey or submit: "This is just a man anyway!—Why should I obey him?—He's just a man!"—Which is true: The Prophet is nobody without the Lord.

6. BUT IN THIS THE KING HIMSELF IS GIVING MORE GLORY TO THE MAN THAN TO GOD!—BUT WHAT HE REALLY MEANS TO DO IS BLAME IT ON MAN INSTEAD OF GOD! He's not really trying to give the Prophet any more credit. He feels the Prophet deserves less, because he's only a man. But in the process of doing it‚ he ignores God and God's authority and the fact that the Prophet is nothing but the emissary of the King of kings: the Mouthpiece, the Messenger.

7. WHEN HE GETS IN THIS MOOD IT'S THE ENEMY OF COURSE, who makes the kings very, very clever for us. Then he tries to remind the people: Who is this Moses anyhow?—He's only a man!—I can remember this and that very human about him!"

8. HE TRIES TO REMIND THE PEOPLE OF THE PROPHET'S HUMANITY, HIS FRAILTIES. When what he's trying to do is undermine the Prophet's credibility. He's only a man and therefore makes mistakes! Therefore, he's not really always the Voice of God!—He admits this himself!—And this could be one of his mistakes, this thing I don't like and don't want to do. This could be one time when MO was wrong."

9. THE KING ALWAYS TRIES TO GET THE PEOPLE ON HIS SIDE BECAUSE IT'S THE PEOPLE HE WANTS and likes and before whom he wants to be honored, and he always figures if he can get the people‚ then he'll have the kingdom. But these kings always, whether consciously or unconsciously, when they get in that bad spirit of pride and jealousy, they become proud just like the Devil did before his fall:

10. AFTER ALL, I'M THE ONE WHO MAKES GOD POSSIBLE! I'M HIS RIGHTHAND MAN‚ LUCIFER HIS LIGHT BEARER! There wouldn't be any light without me, and after all, I'm a very beautiful candlestick and very useful I can keep my place even without the Flame! I'm still here and still beautiful and big and strong and we don't always need the Flame. After all, part of the time it's daytime and we'll put a little more emphasis on the daytime so we won't always need the light!"

11. THIS IS ALWAYS THE WAY THE KINGS TRY TO PERSUADE THE PEOPLE!—This Prophet has become a nuisance to us! He's created more problems than he's solving!"—And of course kings always have plenty of instances of that they can cite because the Word of God is always quick and sharp and powerful and divides asunder! Jesus said'" I have come not to bring peace but a sword!"

12. BUT KINGS ARE SALESMEN: THEY ALWAYS SEEK TO PLEASE THE PEOPLE, because it is the people they want! They can be very convincing and very persuasive, especially when it comes to persuading, them that the Prophet is more of a troublemaker than a helper. There are so many examples of this in the Bible and history, because prophets are blunt and straightforward and usually pretty tactless and undiplomatic: They just speak the Words of the Lord and let the chips fall where they may!

13. BUT THE KINGS ARE NEARLY ALWAYS MORE INTERESTED IN PRESERVING THE TREE AND ALL THE BRANCHES, than the unseen Sap! So when it comes to something they don't like, then they begin to argue about it. When God says‚ "Chop it down!—it's become unfruitful" the kings always try to step in and say, "Now wait, Lord!—Give us another chance. Let me take it and dung it and try to talk to it a little bit. After all, it gives good shade and protection to the people even if it hasn't borne much fruit!"

14. WHEN OFTEN IT'S THE FAULT OF THE KING HIMSELF THAT THE FRUIT HAS BEEN CHOKED—the fault of his own neglect and his own wrong priorities—putting the tree first instead of God‚ when God has withdrawn His inspiration and the life of His Spirit or the Sap from the tree! God rules the spirit: When the tree no longer bears fruit He withdraws its life. The tree is only there to bear the fruit and if it refuses or fails to bear the fruit it should, it loses its reason for existence!

15. WHAT THE KINGS ALWAYS TEND TO FORGET AND TRY TO DEEMPHASISE IS THAT WHAT THE PEOPLE ARE DOING IS THE FRUIT OF THE WORDS OF THE PROPHET, the word of the Lord. The people are the fruit of God, the fruit of His Prophet. His Spirit, His life, His inspiration, His Sap—without which he, the king, would be nothing but a dead trunk and all the branches would die!

16. BUT KINGS ALWAYS SAY, "LOOK! BEHOLD, I'M A STRONG TRUNK AND TOGETHER WE'RE MIGHTY! LOOK UPON ME! HONOUR ME! We don't really have to have this hidden Sap, this unseen quantity, this unknown and unreliable and doubtful "inspiration" that flows beneath the surface! We can do without it, because it keeps doing new and unexpected things and bursting into new blossoms and new branches and new kinds of fruit! We just can't have this going on all the time because it creates problems!

17. "WE'VE GOT OUR TREE AND OUR BRANCHES AND ALL THE FRUIT WE NEED. Now we've got to stop this life-giving flow that creates so many problems, and it's very simple. Here we stand‚ we stand together. We'll just cut a little circle around the tree just beneath the bark, just under the surface to choke off the Sap, it'll hardly even be noticed. We're great and mighty and powerful and strong and here we stand! We're a tower to the sky! We rise to the heavens like Babel!"

18. SO THEY CUT OFF THE FLOW OF THE SAP. DID YOU KNOW THAT'S ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO A TREE TO KILL IT? You just cut through the cambium layer just under the bark (ha!) completely around the tree, and you just strip off a little bit of that bark around the tree and you just cut a little tiny groove through the cambium layer that carries the life-giving Sap and the tree dies!

19. AND THAT'S WHAT KINGS DON'T LIKE: THE PROPHET'S BARK, AND PARTICULARLY HIS BITE! They'd not only like to get rid of the Prophet's bark but they'd like to get rid of his bite as well!—"That really hurts my real authority, the fact that the Prophet can wield the ax!" That's what kings always resent that God and the Prophet always have the final authority. They want to get out from under it.

20. THEY FIGURE IF THEY GET RID OF THE BARK MAYBE THEY CAN CUT OFF SOME OF THAT BITTER SAP THAT REALLY BITES and stings sometimes, just like turpentine!—That's where they get turpentine you know—from pine trees.—It's the Sap! So they cut the groove around the trunk because the trunk says, "I have no need of thee, O thou Sap, you Sap!—I can do without you! I'm already great and strong and powerful and it is I who bear all these branches!—It is I who have borne all this fruit!"

21. BUT THE MINUTE THAT LIFE-GIVING FLOW IS CUT OFF, THE ENTIRE TREE BEGINS TO DIE AND IT'LL BE DEAD WITHIN A FEW DAYS! "The Sap"—it's funny that word should be the way kings look at prophets—"Poor Sap!" Now this is the way farmers do who want to get rid of old trees that have become unfruitful or are somehow in the way, and then within a few days they're dead. If you leave them long enough they're so old and dry and rotten they'll even fall over in the first little stormy wind! They're lots easier to chop down, because when they become that old and rotten they become dangerous because they're apt to fall unexpectedly and without notice on somebody or some building or some animal.

22. SO THE FARMER USUALLY HAS TO CHOP IT DOWN, AND HE BRINGS OUT HIS AX LIKE THE WORD OF GOD AND WIELDS HIS AX AND CHOPS IT OFF! If it has become totally dead and unfruitful, then he just chops it down!

23. OF COURSE, IF IT IS A TREE HE'S TRYING TO SAVE, HE DOESN'T CUT A CIRCLE AROUND THE CAMBIUM LAYER TO KILL IT‚ BUT HE PRUNES IT. IF IT'S GOT A SPOT OF rot he doctors it‚ and if it has a disease he sprays it and tries to save it somehow. But if he can't save it, if it's too far gone—then he has to kill the old tree and make way for the planting of new trees that will be young and fruitful and undiseased and beautiful and alive instead of dead and dangerous!

24. BUT IT'S A PRETTY STUPID TREE AND TRUNK THAT DECIDES TO KILL ITSELF BY CUTTING OFF THE FLOW BECAUSE IT WANTS TO BE INDEPENDENT! No tree in its right mind ever cuts off its own life!—Yet nearly every king it seems eventually comes to that point: "Behold we indeed are the people!—Here we are! We've arrived! We've already grown and borne fruit, and behold we have arrived and no longer need the Sap! Let's get rid of it! It's now oozing out places where we don't want it, all sticky, a sticky problem causing sticky troubles. "In other words, the king says:

25. "IT IS ENOUGH!—WE'VE HAD ENOUGH! Now let's put the emphasis on what we have got. We don't need any more sap or fruit. We just need to try to preserve and take care of what we've got. If this sap keeps up at this rate we don't know what kind of a tree we're going to grow into! We don't know where we're going!"

26. BUT GOD KNOWS, BECAUSE HE MADE THE TREE—NOT THE TRUNK!—THE TRUNK DIDN'T MAKE THE TREE. But it gets to thinking that it did and it really gets to thinking that it really is obviously the most important part of the tree. "Why, look at me!—I bear all the branches!—I bear all the fruit! Without me the tree would be nothing! You need me a lot more than this Sap!"

27. SO THE TREE SOMEHOW OR ANOTHER PERSUADES THE UNDERCHOPPERS TO COME CUT THE GROOVE AROUND HIS BASE SO HE'LL NO LONGER HAVE TO BE BOTHERED WITH THE SAP!—Certainly no farmer or forester in his right mind would do it—but the tree can probably always find some ignorant wood-chopper that doesn't know any better to come and do it for him! Nearly all kings seem to do it sooner or later saying: "That's enough of this Sap!"

28. THE KINGS THEMSELVES ARE THE ONES THAT ARE IGNORANT, NOT REALISING THAT THE SAP IS THEIR OWN LIFE! By cutting off the Sap and killing His prophets they destroy their own life!—And their whole kingdom falls, like the tree! They cut off the life-giving flow, the Sap's words that give life and health and beauty and nourishment and cause the branches to bear fruit. So that when the king finally persuades some stupid idiot to cut off that flow, he literally kills himself, the tree, the branches, the fruit, the people, the kingdom and all and then they've lost their excuse for existence!

29. BECAUSE WITHOUT THE SAP THERE IS NO LIFE, WITHOUT THE FLOW OF THE SPIRIT THERE IS NO LIFE. But the king always looks on the outward appearance and forgets what is at the heart, and he forgets that thin little growing layer just beneath the surface which gives the whole tree life and causes it to grow year by year, layer by layer.

30. THIS IS HOW YOU CAN TELL THE AGE AND GROWTH OF TREES‚ YOU KNOW‚ BY THE NUMBER OF THESE NEW LIVING LAYERS, because it adds a whole new layer every year! If you see the stump of the tree you can see these rings of layers, one for each year of the life of the tree, Each ring or new layer of growth of the living cambium layer denotes the passage of another year—another Spring, another period of growth, another Summer of flourishing greenery and glory, another Autumn of rich ripe fruit and then another sad dreary weary Winter of a seeming period of return to death and cold, leafless, lifeless fruitlessness!

31. BUT DURING THE COLD DEAD WINTER THE TREE IS ONLY SLEEPING FOR A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME. It's lost its leaves lest the weary weight of the Winter snows breaks its branches.

32. COME SPRING, THE SAP WILL BEGIN TO FLOW AGAIN and the buds begin to blossom and the tree will come alive again! It grows new leaves and new branches and new blossoms and new fruit and is bigger and stronger and more glorious and fruitful than ever!

33. IT'S ONLY BEEN HYBERNATING, SLEEPING: THE SAP HAS GONE UNDERGROUND TO PREVENT ITS BEING FROZEN TO DEATH! The tree itself is only frozen temporarily in this seemingly lifeless form in order to survive the storms of the cold Winter period. The Sap, the very life of the tree, is gone far underground into the roots of the tree below the freezing line to preserve its life lest it be killed by the raging storms of the vicious Winter Winds!

34. BUT WHEN THE TIME FOR SPRING COMES AGAIN, THE SAP BEGINS TO FLOW BACK UP FROM THE ROOTS BELOW! Even if the tree has been so pruned down that all the branches are cut off so that it seems like nothing but a stump is left‚ in the Spring it springs to life again!—This is particularly true of grape vines, by the way: In California in the Winter‚ you'll see miles and miles of what seem like nothing but gnarled old dead stumps—no branches, no leaves, nearly nothing!

35. BUT COME SPRING, THE LIFE BEGINS TO FLOW BACK FROM THE ROOTS AGAIN—to come up from underground and into the warmth of God's sun which draws it back up through the stump! Even if there is nothing left but what looks like a dead stump‚ it will suddenly begin to sprout buds and branches and blossoms and finally fruit again!

36. ISN'T THIS STRANGE THAT EVEN REALLY FRUITFUL TREES GO THROUGH THIS CYCLE OF THE SEASONS! The Sap comes back up in the Spring in an absolute explosion of life, like the old song: "Spring is bustin' out all over!"—Then it grows again and bears beautiful leaves and blossoms and the fruitful crop of that year till its yearly job is done and again another harvest is reaped! Then the branches are pruned again, and the living, life-giving Sap goes underground again! (What a Sap most prophets are!) The tree then again seems to return to lifelessness and what looks like nothing but a dead stump sticking up above ground!

37. BUT ITS LIFE HAS ONLY GONE UNDERGROUND IN ORDER TO SURVIVE THE STORMY COLD WINTRY WINDY BLASTS AND THE RAGING TEMPESTS OF ITS WINDY ENEMIES that only serve to break off any truly dead or rotten branches! Any weak parts of the tree go down with the storms of Winter‚ so that even the storms are good for it and get rid of its weak and rotten branches! If they're too old and diseased and rotten to bear fruit next Spring, they're only a weight and drag on the tree.

38. THE OLD ROTTEN BRANCHES HAVE TO BE BLOWN AWAY TO MAKE ROOM FOR NEW BRANCHES so that new leaves can see the sunlight! The Sap pushes them up and out into the light and fresh air of God where they can produce more chlorophyll, the sugary food of the tree, which in turn produces more branches and leaves and blossoms to beautify the tree, and to bear more fruit for another harvest!

39. THE BEES, LIKE THE ANGLES OF GOD, AND HIS BUSY BUZZING CHILDREN PARTICULARLY WITH SOME TREES, HELP TO POLLINATE THE BLOSSOMS, OR LITERALLY SOW THE SEEDS IN THE HEARTS OF THE FLOWERS—the flowering blossomy bosoms of His "flower Children"—so they'll bear more fruit! The swarms of little busily buzzing bees flying through the air and sowing seeds in the hearts of the flowers are like God's good angels and Children—His good spirits who are all a part of His great Kingdom in this wonderful mysterious process of life, growth, budding, branching‚ leafing, blossoming pollinating, and fruit-bearing, all of which helps the harvest to be great and fruitful!

40. EVERYONE AND EVERYTHING CONTRIBUTES ITS PART. The tree also has to stand on good solid ground‚ fertile ground, and be watered with the Lord's rains of refreshing, washed and watered again, and nourished from the nutrients in the soil which it drinks and soaks up through its great underground root system, that is even unseen and unknown unless the tree is in some way uprooted, but even then not all the roots can be found!

41. SOME WILL EVEN SPRING TO LIFE AGAIN COME NEXT SPRING AND PRODUCE NEW LITTLE TREES, young saplings who still bear the life of the Sap, like his Children, even though the parent tree itself may have been swept away in the storms! For this underground root system still has life and with some trees can reproduce new young tender little plants even if the original tree has been destroyed.

42. HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A BRIGHT NEW GREEN BRANCH GROWING OUT OF A STUMP IN THE SPRING?—A stump of some old tree that either the Farmer himself has cut down or pruned to little more than a stump or been blown down by the storms of Winter! It's amazing what life God can put back into it and create a whole new tree from what looks like nothing but a stump!

43. ITS UNSEEN UNDERGROUND, HIDDEN BUT VITALLY–LINKING ROOT SYSTEM GOES OUT IN ALL DIRECTIONS, sometimes for great distances and some very deep down to seek water and nourishment. But all are joined together at the stump of the tree, the base or the foundation of the tree, resting on firm solid ground! All are linked together and made one at the root of the tree‚ which is really the beginning Foundation of the trunk, the Stump who is really the Lord Jesus Himself, not the king!

44. JESUS SAID, "I AM THE VINE," OR THE STUMP: "YE ARE THE BRANCHES."—And the king and his high ones are only the trunk and loftiest, showiest and most exalted branches which can easily be brought low if they begin to think they're the Stump Himself!

45. IT'S LIKE THE KING IS THE LOFTY TRUNK WHO BEGINS TO THINK HE'S THE FOUNDATION STUMP and that he can dominate and uphold the whole tree by himself! But he himself is borne by the real Stump, the Foundation of the tree, Christ Jesus, and if the king becomes too top heavy or unfruitful or rotten, he'll be lopped off by God the Farmer Himself or blown off by the winds of enemies and adversities so that new younger stronger branches with more of the life-giving Sap can take his place!

46. "BEWARE, O BRANCH, LEST THOU THINK TOO HIGHLY OF THYSELF! It is I that have borne thee and not thou Me! For in the day that thou exaltest thyself instead of Me, thou shalt be brought low, and in the day that thou yieldest not to My life–giving flow of My Spirit, thou shalt die and be destroyed!

47. "BEWARE, THOU EXALTED BRANCHES‚ LEST THOU TAKE TOO MUCH UPON THYSELVES and too great a load without My Life, lest thou fall from thy place and be no more and another replace thee which shall be more yielded to My Spirit and bear Me more fruit for My Kingdom!" Hallelujah! Thank You, Lord! I see it so much more clearly now as I look at the picture!

48. YOU KNOW, THE TOPMOST BRANCH USUALLY STICKS STRAIGHT UP AND IS THE HIGHEST OF ALL AND IN THE MIDDLE OF EVERYTHING and it is like a continuation of the trunk itself, but it is really not the Stump‚ but it is still only one of the branches like a part of the trunk but not the Stump!—That has got to be the Lord!

49. THE TRUNK AND THOSE HIGHEST BRANCHES ONLY GET TO THINKING THEY'RE THE STUMP sometimes because they're so lofty and so near the top and centre and sometimes in the very centre! But they're still all only standing on top of the Stump, and if they don't behave they'll fall especially if they think they can get along without the lower parts, the Foundation Base, the Stump, the hidden roots, or the Sap itself, with its flow of life-giving Spirit or its under branches which are older but still bear fruit!

50. BUT JESUS SAYS, "I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without Me ye can do nothing! If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered: and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned!" (John 15:5,6)

51. WELL‚ PRAISE GOD, THERE'S HOPE FOR THE TREE EVEN THROUGH SOMETIMES IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S DEAD OR DYING OR EVEN BLOWN DOWN OR BLOWN AWAY! When I was a little kid I used to play in a tree in Florida that had been blown down in a hurricane and was lying flat on its side with most of the roots broken off and sticking up out of the ground into the air!

52. BUT BECAUSE SOME OF THE ROOTS WERE STILL INTACT AND HEALTHY AND STILL DEEP UNDERGROUND, THE TREE ITSELF WAS STILL VERY MUCH ALIVE! Even though it had fallen over on some of its branches and crushed them with its weight, they still supported it, and the upper branches on top were still green and growing! We kids used to run along the trunk between the branches and could now climb the tree without even going straight up!

53. THE TREE HAD NOW COME DOWN TO PLAY WITH US, and though it was more humble now, it was really more fun that way and a lot less lofty and therefore less dangerous for us to climb! I guess that means that some trees can still be useful and alive even if they've been blown over or fallen down and even if only useful to children for their play!

54. SO I GUESS IF EVEN SOMETIMES YOU FEEL BROKEN DOWN AND UPROOTED AND NO LONGER AS LOFTY AS YOU ONCE WERE, YOU CAN STILL BE USEFUL TO THE LORD'S CHILDREN, although you may not be as great and glorious and haughty as you were before! Are you a hidden root or a branch or a bark or a bite or a Sap or a bud or a twig or a leaf or a blossom or a fruit or the loftiest branch or branches, or just a tender little seedling or a tiny young sapling just beginning to grow out of the ground that will form a new tree some day?

55. WHATEVER YOUR PLACES IS, YOU'RE ALL A VERY NECESSARY PART OF GOD'S KINGDOM, and we'd be damaged without you and handicapped without your help! We're all needed and none can really do without the other!

56. "SO LET NOT THE BRANCH SAY TO THE ROOT, I HAVE NO NEED OF THEE: nor the fruit to the fruit to the leaf, I have no need of thee; nor the topmost branches to the trunk and Sap beneath, we have no need of thee; lest thou be found to fail in thy own usefulness and weighed in the balances of God's winds and found wanting and lacking the strength to stand in time of storm!"—Amen! Praise the Lord! Thank You, Jesus!

57. THE UNSEEN HIDDEN ROOTS ARE REALLY THE SAFEST PART OF THE TREE, although they too are attacked by some varmints and bugs and diseases sometimes and can even become drowned if there is too much flooding‚ because they need air as well as water!

58. OR ARE YOU ONE OF THE LORD'S OLDER BRANCHES that helped the tree get its start and bore its first fruit!—"Fear not, you have served your usefulness and borne good fruit! The tree would not still be here if it had not been for you! So you, too, shall have your reward!"—Hallelujah!

59. OR ARE YOU JUST A LITTLE BUDDING BRANCH on the same old tree? Or are you one of the tiny seedlings or brave young saplings which will some day grow into a whole new tree? God bless you!

60. "YEA, THOU SHALT BE A VERY FOREST OF TREES THAT SHALL COVER THE EARTH!"—Amen! Or are you just a tiny blossom and seem only a beautiful decoration?" Fear thou not for thou shall soon bear the fruit of thy bosom!" Hallelujah! Did you know the fruit comes from blossoms?—The bosoms of the whole tree!

61. "AND YE SHALL BEAR FRUIT, YEA‚ INDEED, MUCH FINE FRUIT IN THE TIME OF HARVEST WHICH SHALL FEED MY KINGDOM! For it is My Father's Will that ye shall bear much fruit!—For herein is My Father glorified! Be fruitful therefore and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it"—That's a verse from Genesis! We're back to the beginning again! And we can start all over again if we have to!

62. GOD CAN CREATE A WHOLE NEW TREE, A WHOLE NEW WORLD FROM A BRAND NEW BEGINNING IF YOU BECOME OLD AND UNFRUITFUL AND UNYIELDED TO HIS SAP so that you grow no more and bear fruit no more but are dead and dying! If so, He'll lay the ax to the root of the old dead tree, for it encumbereth the ground; and He'll remove it and make room for a new young tree till it be healthy and sturdy and grow green and blossom to bear new young fruit for His Kingdom—as you once were!

63. WHICH ARE YOU—A PART OF THE OLD OR A PART OF THE NEW? Have you grown old and dying or are you still young and growing? Or are you diseased and rotten and weak and undependable and unfruitful so that you have to be pruned off to make room for others?—Or are you still new and fresh and green and growing and blossoming and bearing fruit that's useful!

64. THOUGH YOUR OUTWARD MAN, LIKE THE BARK OF THE TREE, PERISHETH‚ IS YOUR INWARD MAN STILL GREEN AND GROWING‚ like the living cambium layer, and renewed every day with the life-giving flow of the Sap of His Spirit with the nourishment of His Words? A lot is up to you and how you grow by how much nourishment you receive!

65. DON'T BE A FOOL AND CUT YOURSELF OFF AND THINK YOU CAN DO WITHOUT THE REST OF US, or you may become just a fallen dead leaf or branch or rotten fruit on the forest floor, and your history merely food for future generations! Keep young and green and budding and blossoming and bearing fruit for His Kingdom! Praise God!

66. GOD BLESS YOU AND MAKE YOU A BLESSING! Or if you need a blessing and you need another shot of this Sap, write to us for more of these words and we'll send some up from the roots right away!

67. SO YOU CAN THANK GOD FOR EVERY PART OF THE TREE that made it all possible to make you what you are today!—Or what you can be if you'll join us! Don't delay! Join today!—Lest you fall to the forest floor and be trampled under the feel of cruel man! Stand on the Stump of God's Son and grow with us!

68. WE'RE SEEDING A FOREST THAT IS COVERING THE EARTH! There are already thousands of us in hundreds of small groves or Colonies in scores of countries of many varieties bearing much precious fruit for His Kingdom!—Are you one of us?

69. ARE YOU PART OF US?—HAVE YOU SPRUNG FROM GOD'S VINE, His Stump, His Foundation, Christ Jesus? Are you part of His tree or a seed or a fruit of His Kingdom?—Perhaps you're a tiny seedling‚ sapling or transplant that will grow with us into the great forest of His worldwide soon–coming Kingdom of Heaven on Earth!

70. GET IN ON THE FOREST GROUND FLOOR AND GROW UP WITH US NOW AND HELP US REFOREST THE EARTH WITH HIS LIFE-GIVING TREES!—Amen? Then you can sing with us: "I'm a tree! I'm a tree! I'm a tree!"—Hallelujah! Keep green and growing and bearing fruit that will feed the world from the life-giving flow of His Spirit of love, joy and peace and happiness now and live happily ever after forever!

71. WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?—THEN START LIVING TODAY! There's only One way!—Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth and the Life!—Have you found the Way, heard the Truth and do you have His revolutionary New Life now?—If not, come and see us or write us today and we'll share it with you so you too can live and grow with us, —God's Tree!—For "The fruit of the righteous is a Tree of Life, and he that winneth souls is wise!"—Prov.11:30.

(Now if you want a real thrill, look up Bible verses on trees!—Wow—Are you a tree?)

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family