—MOJanuary 2‚ 1971GP NO.35

1. Did God make a mistake by putting Adam and Eve in the Garden—and they wound up making their own choice—the wrong one! Did God have to confess failure by the Flood, in that He had to wipe out all Mankind for its wickedness? Was the Tower of Babel a total disaster, and was the confusion of tongues a catastrophe?—Or was it necessary to accomplish God's purpose to humble and scatter Man over the face of the Earth?

2. Was it a mistake when Moses killed the Egyptian and had to flee for his life, and lived forty years in the wilderness with the sheep and his father–in-law? Wasn't that a terrible setback to the Cause and the deliverance of his people?—Or was it necessary that Moses had to go into exile to learn the lessons God had to teach him to make him the man he needed to be to deliver his people—totally dependent on God—not himself?

3. And wasn't that a terrible defeat for the Lord's cause when the Children of Israel turned back at Kadesh-barnea and wandered around another forty years until the whole older generation had died in the wilderness? Wasn't that a real setback?—Or was it? What if they had tried to invade Israel with all those unbelievers, or if they had tried to conquer the Promised Land with all those Doubting Thomases? What kind of a disaster would that have been? They might have all gotten wiped out! So wasn't it a good thing that God purged them in the wilderness and wiped out all the rebels, before they went in on what was going to be the biggest and most difficult testing of their whole history, the conquest of the Promised Land?

4. Did God make a mistake when He chose Saul to be king—considering the way Saul turned out? Was Saul a failure?—Or did he accomplish God's purpose in training the king God was really after: David? God gets His greatest victories out of seeming defeats, and He causeth the wrath of Man to praise Him!

5. Did God make a mistake when He let David fall for Bathsheba‚ and fall from grace in the eyes of the Kingdom, fall from the throne at the hand of his own son, and depart in disgrace and scandal to another country with only a handful of his friends? Did David really fall downward—or was this a fall upward? Sometimes God's way up is down—usually, in fact!—Just the opposite of what we think! God loves to do things contrary to natural expectation, because that takes a miracle, and that shows it's God, and not Man! And David was humbled and the whole kingdom was humbled, and they were reminded it was only the Lord that made them what they were! From that squeezing and twisting of David's life came forth the sweet honey of the Psalms and the fragrance of his praises to the Lord for His Mercy! It was all God and all Grace, and none of himself or his own righteousness!—A lesson that's been an encouragement to others and other great sinners like me and you ever since! "That thou mayest know that thine own arm hath not saved thee‚ but that I am the Lord thy God, and that it is I that hath delivered thee‚ and not thyself!"

6. Was Elijah's ministry defeated when he ran from Jezebel, after his great victory on Mt. Carmel? Was his great bravery there completely scuttled by his cowardice in the wilderness? After slaying the hundreds of false prophets‚ here he was running from a mere woman! What a picture! The great, brave, statuesque prophet, towering above all the rest in the might and power of God on top of Mt. Carmel‚ calling down fire from Heaven, proving he was right!—Now running fearfully and ignominiously and disgracefully from that filthy, wicked Queen Jezebel! Didn't this defeat his whole ministry? Didn't this undermine his entire witness? Didn't this prove he wasn't such a great prophet after all? Didn't this cause him to lose his following? Here was the prophet of God afraid of a woman! Or was God trying to show him something that was going to make him a better prophet?—A humbler prophet, who would come back unafraid, even of the king, much less the queen?

7. After Elijah found out that God was not just in the fire, the thunder, and the earthquake—this man of fire and thunder became a meek little man listening to the still small voice of God, at the mercy of the charity of the Widow of Zarephath, with whom he had to live in order to survive, until the faith was born in him to call down a rain from Heaven to refresh and revive the land and feed the people! He'd been great on doom and destruction and judgment! Now he was learning the slow, patient, process of feeding and leading the sheep!

8. It's so much easier to be a prophet of doom, than a healer of wounds and a feeder of sheep‚ and a grower of lambs, and a teacher of babes! There's so much more glory in calling down the fire of God from Heaven and slaying false prophets!—It's so much more dramatic—more cataclysmic—so much more spectacular! And you like to see yourself in the paper!

9. But where's the big news of the teacher who trudges along day after day, feeding the sheep as they gradually grow to be productive and fruitful, in a lasting, permanent, fruit that remains in the everlasting Kingdom of God?—And what farmer makes news plodding along through the furrows, stumbling over the clods, labouring with his hands patiently, tenderly, diligently nurturing little blades of grain that they may grow up, even in a day that he may never see, and bear much fruit! Another whole subject in itself!—the Little People—the nobodies—the unheard ofs—the unsung—those people behind the scenes who make it all possible—who make the drama possible—the Widows of Zarephath, and the Carpenters of Nazareth‚ the Sailors of Galilee—the little people who make it all possible and who make it last—the ones who stay behind and keep the home fires burning, care for the babes, feed the children‚ wash the dishes, cook the food, sweep the floor and clean the toilets! It takes the little people to make the others great—and you have to be "little people" first before you can become great—'cause God only makes great people out of little people—to show His Greatness! "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea‚ and things which are not‚ to bring to nought things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence."—1Cor.1:27–29.—That He might get all the glory!—Because then you know it wasn't Man!

10. Abraham had to learn it wasn't Abraham: It was only God! Moses had to learn it couldn't be Moses! David had to learn by looking at Saul, and becoming a disgrace himself, that he couldn't make it on his own! Elijah had to learn it wasn't Elijah, but God! The list is almost endless again, of all the people God had to humble before He could use them—of all the leaders God had to bring down to the depths before they could stand to be exalted—lest they would have taken credit to themselves and not given God the glory—because, by the time God's ready to make you really great, He makes absolutely nothing out of you, so there's nothing left of you at all—and it's only Jesus! When He can get you out of the way, then He has a chance! When you become nothing but a tool and a channel—nothing but a little diamond of dust, then God can really use you! But He has to break and humble and melt you in the fire, purge you, purify you, sift you, beat out the chaff! He has to beat the hell out of you till there's none of it left—crucify the flesh till it's dead as a doornail—mortify the mind, till it's almost gone—so that Jesus can live and think and move in you! Did God make a mistake?—Or is all this necessary to make us what we ought to be?

11. Wasn't it a disgrace and a terrible blow to His cause for the great leader of the prophets of doom—Jeremiah—to be hung in stocks before the church door‚ so his brethren could spit in his face—or be dropped in the mud to his armpits by his enemies, so that his dear friend, Ebed, had to come secretly and pull him out? And wasn't that finally the most scandalous of all‚ that he should land in jail branded a traitor and a criminal, disloyal to his nation and his own people?

12. Yes, but not to God! It was all a part of God's plan to keep Jeremiah humble and close to the Lord, utterly dependent on God, and not on his family, or his friends, or even his brethren or the king—so God could put him in the safety of the cold storage of prison until he could be delivered by his enemies, and be blessed and protected, and provided for and encouraged, by the ones you would have least expected it from—the cruel, heathen enemies of his people! Was it a mistake? Couldn't there have been a better, more proper way of doing it?

13. To Hell with the proper way!... The proper way is of Man! The unexpected and the improper, the unconventional and untraditional‚ the unorthodox and unceremonious, contrary to man's natural expectation—this is the way God usually works! "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts!"—Isa.55:8,9. Who can know the mind of the Lord, and who can show Him anything?

14. Who the Hell do you think you are, anyway, to tell God what to do and how to do it? God knows His business and it's none of your business how He does it!

15. So quit trying to tell Him how He ought to do it! "Now Lord, You must do it this way or that way‚ so we'll be accepted and people will understand." To hell with the people who don't understand! Your friends don't need an explanation, and your enemies would never believe it anyhow! So why explain? Just trust God that He knows what He's doing! "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart: and lean not unto thy own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."—Prov.3:5,6.

16. The minute you try to figure it out in the flesh, you might as well quit, 'cause it will probably never work out that way anyhow.' "Lest Israel say, 'Mine own arm hath saved me!'"—Jdg.7:2.

17. Whoever heard of winning a battle by digging ditches‚ getting down in the mud and the mire and making holes in the ground?—But that's what God's prophet told Jehoshaphat and his army to do—and God used it in a very strange way to scare the daylights out of their enemies and help him win the battle, almost without firing a shot! Read it! You'll get a kick out of it: 2 Kings 3!

18. God loves to do things contrary to the way we think He ought to do them! Is this a mistake? Is God wrong? Did God fail? Why didn't God take Gideon's 33,000 and let them destroy the army of Midian so they could pat themselves on the back and show what a great people they were, instead of having a ridiculous little band of 300 break up the dishes in the middle of the night and brandish the fireworks and toot and yell their heads off—so they scared the enemy so silly, he slew himself!

19. What an ignominious way to win a battle! What an inglorious way to conquer the enemy: it was stupid, idiotic, ridiculous—but God did it! You could only thank God for the victory, 'cause all you did was something stupid, like breaking dishes, waving torches, and yelling your fool head off, while God did the dirty work! Who could possibly get the credit for that kind of a battle, but the Lord? Certainly not a fool like Gideon, who was crazy enough to believe God and do it! But he was willing to be a fool and be laughed at, as long as he got the job done!

20. And what shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Barak‚ and of a nut like Samson! What a dandy bad example he was—a long hair, always running after the women, getting in fights and drinking it up with the boys! Well‚ he must have gotten pretty drunk at that feast for him to have done such a thing: cracking jokes and betting—a guy who knocked off a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass, acting like an ass himself, sometimes! What a reckless, unconventional‚ crazy way for God to save His people—by using a revolutionary rebel like that! Did God make a mistake?—Or was He trying to show that He can use anything!—Even a fool like you!—By giving us such encouraging examples of His successful failures—His fabulous flops—His daring dropouts—who dared to trust Him in spite of themselves and give Him all the glory because they knew it had to be God!

21. Wouldn't it have been much more respectable and acceptable for the King of kings, Jesus, to have been born in a palace, with illustrious members of the court in attendance, and with all the honour and praise of the System—instead of on the dirty floor of a barn under the cows and asses, and the smell of all that horseshit, wrapped in rags and lying in a feed trough‚ with a motley crew of poor little shepherd boys kneeling on the floor beside Him?

22. The manger has been so glorified by Man since then, that they've forgotten what it was used for!—Nothing but a rough bin for the cows to eat out of!

23. Wouldn't it have been better for his father to have been a prominent potentate, instead of a humble hewer of wood? Wouldn't that have made it easier on Him and His followers, and advanced His work a little more rapidly, to have the approval of the established order? And wasn't that rather humiliating for His humble parents to become fugitives from injustice, and flee the country like common criminals for having given birth to the leader of a rival revolutionary government?

24. And wouldn't it have been better for Him to have lived a little more decently and acceptably, instead of being born in another man's stable, scrounging His food in other men's fields, and sleeping in other people's houses?—Including alone with a couple of lovely young single sisters—and buried in another man's grave? Did He have to be always challenging the churches, defying convention‚ destroying traditions, and threatening the religious system?—So that He had to be executed with common criminals, and leave behind the evil reputation of having been a companion of publicans and sinners, a glutton and a winebibber, found too often in the company of drunks and harlots, a law-breaker, a rabblerouser, a disturber of the peace, a demon-possessed bastard and false prophet of the wrong way! That's what they called Him! Couldn't God have used less controversial tactics than that, and done it more peaceably and respectably and acceptably? Couldn't the King of kings have gotten off to a better start, instead of being hated from the beginning? Didn't God make a mistake?

25. Wasn't it very poor tactics for Him to have Isaiah running around naked, Ezekiel eating dung, and Hosea marrying a harlot—just to prove His point? Why deliberately offend the System? Why deliberately pick a bunch of stinking long-haired fishermen and a hated tax collector for His disciples?

26. Wouldn't You have made easier progress, Jesus, if You'd done it Man's way, and chosen them from the learned Sanhedrin—the local Bible college or cemetery—with the approval of the synagogues, and the permission of the high priests and a license from Rome through the governor? Wouldn't You have gotten off to a better start, Jesus? Don't You think You could have improved Your tactics, Lord? Don't You think that was really making it a little too rough from the beginning, and suffering undue and unnecessary hardship and persecution due to Your Own foolhardy methods and lack of wisdom, Jesus? Did You have to be such a dropout, and pick up such a motley crew of ne'er-do-wells—including some of the town's worst harlots and radicals? There must have been a better way! Surely You didn't have to do so many things in such a horrible fashion! One can understand Your making a few mistakes‚ but going so consistently and stubbornly contrary to all acceptable reason and logic and custom—wasn't that a little foolish, Lord? And You might have known that to have beat up the money changers in the Temple once—they might have overlooked it as the hair-brained eccentricity of some mad man, a little off his rocker, but to whip 'em out, and bust the furniture‚ and spill all the money three times—You know that was too much—somebody was bound to get mad and get You in the end!

27. Couldn't You have toned it down a little bit, Jesus? And did You have to have some of those criminals and harlots following You around all the time, and always be associating with so many questionable and undesirable characters? One might overlook such a mistake once or twice—but You might have known that to have such a mixed group of men and women all sleeping together in one room was bound to bring some kind of criticism! What did You expect people to think, Lord? After all‚ it wasn't easy to overlook these things when You flaunted them right in their faces and lived so unceremoniously on the borders of the law! We're not even sure some of these people were married—and there You were all sleeping together in the same room! How could You have let such a thing happen, Lord? Now, was that "avoiding the appearance of evil"?—1Thes.5:22. And not only drinking wine Yourself, but even making wine! Now what did You expect people to say about that? We've done our best to explain away—that it wasn't really wine, but grape juice, but that's very difficult, especially if they know the real meaning of "vino" in the Greek!

28. You've made it very hard, Lord, for us to explain You to the System, and why You had to be so unconventional and controversial—such an iconoclast! Couldn't You have compromised just a little bit on some of these issues, and not have continued to have to run head-on into the religious authorities with Your revolutionary doctrines? Couldn't You have polished up Your manner and Your message a little bit‚ so it wouldn't have been quite so hard to swallow—such as that one on eating Your flesh and drinking Your blood! Why, they could have thought You were starting to teach cannibalism!

29. Lord, there must have been a better way! And certainly You could have had better living conditions than that!—The idea of You camping out on the grass under the trees! You knew that was bound to raise eyebrows and questions about Your character and morality and that of Your disciples, who were a rather questionable group of characters to begin with! Surely You must have been mistaken‚ Lord‚ about some of these things, and could have done some of them some better way!

30. And on top of it all, You had to pick that fanatic Paul, for one of Your leading apostles! You might have known the Jews wouldn't have liked Your stealing one of their top men and turning him into a radical Christian! You might have known that even Your disciples would have doubted the sincerity of such a move, and found it hard to believe that You'd do such a thing—to take their worst persecutor and expect them to believe he was their bosom buddy, now, after all the damage he'd done them!

31. Really, Lord‚ You do make it all rather difficult! Surely some of this was a mistake! We might have understood Your stupid, uneducated, followers pulling some boners like this—but You, Lord, their leader!—How could You have been guilty of such disgraceful conduct? What did You expect people to think? Of course they would accuse You of being a drunk and a glutton, a libertine, and a radical revolutionary! You really didn't make it very easy for them to accept You, because Your method and message were terribly hard to swallow—for any of us who are accustomed to even the least bit of respectability! Weren't You at all concerned about the opinions of men? Didn't You care what people thought about You and Your followers? Didn't it make any difference to You the stories that were going around about You and those men, and especially those women of Yours?

32. Lord‚ how could You do this to us? Why did You have to make it so hard for us to interpret You to the System? When Your actions were almost inexcusable, what do You expect the System to believe? They can only go by what they see and hear, and that's bad enough! Lord, please let us improve on Your methods, and polish up Your message a little, and eradicate some of these irreconcilable‚ controversial features of Your ministry! Lord, we don't want to make the same kind of mistakes You did! Please help us to be more acceptable in the eyes of the world! Couldn't we classify this amongst the "greater things shall ye do than this"—that we‚ unlike You, manage to be accepted by the System—even recognised and blessed by it?—Even working together with it? And in this case, wouldn't You permit us to be "unequally yoked with the unbelievers"?—2Cor.6:14a. Couldn't You just, in our case, make it a little more equal, so we wouldn't have to suffer the kind of persecution You and Your early followers did? Shouldn't we have learned something from Your dandy bad example‚ of what not to do next time? Surely we could learn something from these mistakes of Yours! Otherwise, Lord, if Your disciples throughout all history are going to follow such a nonconformist example as Yours, they're going to have nothing but trouble from beginning to end—because You know the world isn't going to stand for it, and Christianity is going to be absolutely obliterated!

33. Besides, You should have had much more respect for the temple and their synagogues, because You know buildings are the foundation of every religion, and without them, where would our religion be?—Why, we just couldn't have any ceremonies or a chance to make a collection or make our announcements, or catch a little nap on a Sunday morning, to those lovely organ lullabies—and what would we say we belong to without our denomination? Why, we'd be out in the cold, Lord, with nothing to do but witness, and we'd have no support or backing but Yours, Lord—and You know‚ now, that's not very businesslike, and we'd certainly not last long at that rate! Look what happened to all the rest of Your followers throughout history who insisted on defying the established religious order, and preaching in the streets, and running around half naked with no visible means of support—no jobs, no homes, no governmental recognition! Why‚ almost without exception‚ from Your earliest prophets to Your latest martyrs, they were ridiculed, scoffed at, disbelieved, jailed, fined, beaten, and even killed! But what could You expect, Lord? You might have known the people wouldn't stand for that sort of thing! The System couldn't have people like that running around loose, without some kind of regulation and control! It might undermine their whole set-up, and destroy the people's confidence in their religion, their buildings and their religious leaders. You know You just can't have that‚ Lord! Everything has to be done in decency and order, and we just couldn't have all these religious fanatics running around loose—screaming, "Jesus saves!" "Jesus loves you!" or "The country's going to hell!" They're bound to call it disorderly conduct‚ because it's not according to their order, or the usual order of the day!

34. And for a whole bunch of young boys and girls—half of them hippies—to be living together in one place under such terrible living conditions, what do You expect people to think? Of course they're all thinking you're living in free love and adultery and licentiousness—and that the girls are all harlots and the boys are all whoremongers! And if you keep on buying real wine for Communion at the local liquor store, they're bound to think you're a bunch of drunks, too!

35. And on top of it all, they have no visible means of support—so what do you expect the community to think, but that they're a bunch of lazy loafers?

36. Haven't You made a mistake, Lord? Isn't there some better way You could do this thing?—With a little better class of people, and a little more acceptable methods, and a less offensive message—something that wouldn't disturb people so much and upset them so and make them so angry at You? And besides that‚ I hear some terrible rumours about some of Your leaders, Lord, which would be absolutely scandalous if they were true. Surely You don't have men like this in places of responsibility with all these young lives under their control—ex-gangsters and ex-drugsters for teachers and leaders, and ex-harlots for their wives. This isn't exactly the kind of society most people are looking for‚ now is it, Lord? Most of us want to be of some reputation and to be well-thought of and respected by our communities! Most of us don't care to be a news headline, Lord!—Especially not in this somewhat distasteful fashion. Most people don't care to be considered fanatics and radicals and revolutionaries and drunks and harlots and criminals and publicans and sinners! Don't You think You and Your first followers set them a rather bad example, Lord, which got them off to a rather bad start with the community! I realise, Lord, that they do seem to reach people with the Gospel‚ but what a Gospel!—That you must drop out of a life of respectability and comfort, and live like animals in a pigpen without rhyme or reason, and acting like babbling mad men, stoned out on mysticism and the supernatural and the miraculous! Don't You know the general public doesn't believe this sort of thing any more?

37. And what's the matter with a little formal education? Don't You think You and Your disciples would have been much more readily recognised by the respectable citizenry, if You had been a little more literate and learned and versed in the ways of the world and what it expects of its children?

38. And to actually say that their temple was going to be destroyed!—Wasn't this sacrilege and blasphemy—that what they called the very House of God was doomed to destruction? Where would Your Church be then, Lord and what could it accomplish then, without its buildings and its wealth and its properties, its learned clergy, its formalities, its ceremonies and its tradition? Who would You expect to follow us then, Lord? Nothing but the riffraff of Society like You had, or Jeremiah had, or St. Francis had, or some of those other unconventional, non-conformists of Yours—and this would get us but nowhere with the System and the general public—just as it got them nowhere—but jail and judgment and execution! So I'm sure we must have learned something from all of this, Lord: That we don't care to repeat Your mistakes, that‚ we, in this modern and civilised day‚ must use new and improved and more civilised methods—more consistent with the scientific age of educated men in an affluent society!

39. And last, but not least, Lord—this business of reverting thousands of years to such a primitive cooperative society as that of Your disciples, where people share all things and have all things in common and live together and devote their time to nothing but prayer and praise and Bible Study and cooperative living and witnessing!—This is a thing of the past, and it apparently didn't work well, because the established churches discontinued its practice! And as You can see, it's not attractive to most people—and how many of us want to share our hard–earned cash with others not so blessed—let them get out and earn their own! And why should I let them use my car? They should have to slave for it like I did! And after all, I certainly couldn't be expected to allow them to use my house for a hangout!—One has to have a little privacy! We must sure have to have a few things to call our own, and some place to lay our heads! We can't just be drifters‚ like You and Your disciples, Lord!—And even Your great Apostle, Paul!—Imagine!—having "no certain dwelling place!"—1Cor.4:11b. This is just inconceivable in this modern day! It just isn't done any more‚ Lord! You know that such a lifestyle is bound to draw criticism and be abhorred by a modern society, which believes that our lives consist of the abundance of the things which we possess—and not some mere vague and uncertain spiritual values!

40. And now this latest, Lord, is the last straw—these secret doctrines of Yours which are beginning to leak out—these unorthodox Biblical beliefs—things in the Bible which have always been a little hard to swallow, and which You certainly wouldn't really expect people to practice today! This is too much, Lord! People have been expecting it! This is what they said would happen—that we'd become some kind of false cult or ism‚ led by false prophets and profligates into some kind of fanaticism and false doctrine which would destroy the little good we did do—and surely destroy our reputation, disgrace our leadership, and scandalised our entire movement! You surely don't want stories circulating around about us, and the rumours flying with the kind of things they said about You and Your disciples‚ Lord, and those women that lived with You? Won't this give a very bad impression and destroy the good work we're trying to do? Do we have to be so completely denounced by the System, in order to keep us separate and uncompromising‚ and from drifting back into it? Do they have to reject us entirely, to drive us to You? Must we utterly burn our bridges behind us, so that it's impossible for us to go back?—So we'll be ashamed to ever face our friends and relatives again?

41. Isn't this asking a little too much, Lord, to make us such an offscouring of society as Paul was, as he said the apostles were—such dregs of humanity, as Your early followers were‚ Lord?—Such misfits, odd characters, fanatics and peculiar people, Lord? If we go this far, we'll never be able to go back! The System will never accept us again. It might bring division and betrayal by those who are not loyal—like Judas did to You! It might offend so many weaker brethren, we'd have very few left, and we would be able to persuade very few to follow such extremes of loyalty‚ dedication, and doctrine!—Like happened to You after that "blood and flesh sermon"!

42. Yes, Gideon did lose most of his army through such extremism, but that was a long time ago‚ Lord, and things are different now! You're not supposed to make the tests so hard today, Lord, that You lose most of Your army! Where would the established Church be if she did that today? There wouldn't be much left!

43. Even Your Own disciples forsook You over some of Your hard sayings! What do you expect us to do over these extremes of our leaders? It's just too much‚ Lord; You'll never get a very big army that way! We'll never be very popular, practicing such extremes as this! We'll never be generally accepted if we preach and practice everything in the Bible! You surely wouldn't expect that of us! It's just too much! It must be a mistake! Please don't ask that of us!

44. It's just too much! It must be a mistake! Please don't ask that of us! Do we have to be so different? Aren't You making a mistake, Lord? Isn't there some other way?

45. "I am the way‚ the truth, and the life; and no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me. … Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it. … Many are called, but few are chosen! ... Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and the weak things to confound the things which are mighty. ... And many of His disciples‚ when they had heard this, said, 'This is an hard saying: who can bear it?' ... And from that time many of His disciples went back‚ and walked no more with Him! ... Then said Jesus unto the twelve, 'Will ye also go away?'" and again "All the disciples forsook Him, and fled. … Let us go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach." For He "made himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant. ... He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He was taken from prison and from judgement ... and He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death." ... "And ye shall be hated of all nations for My Name's sake ... and then shall the end come. … Because ye are not of the world‚ but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. … He that receiveth you, receiveth Me, and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me. … The disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord."

46. God doesn't make mistakes, and even the "foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men." There is no other way than God's way: Hear ye Him! "And He saith unto them, Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they immediately left all and followed Him ... even unto the death of the Cross. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My Words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed‚ when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the Holy Angels. … Beware when all men speak well of you!" (Jn.14:6; Mat.7:14; 20:16; 1Cor.1:26,27; Jn.6:60‚66,67; Mat.26:56; Heb.13:13; Phil.2:7; Isa.53; Mat.24:9,14; Jn.15:19‚20; 1Cor.1:25; Mat.4:19; Mk.8:38; Mat.10:40,24).

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family