HomeARC ML 0953 3
"SHOVE OFF!"--By Father David DO 953-3 18 December 1980
--When it's time to go--Go!--Don't wait for the worst!
(The third & last in the series on persecution in Spain & what to do about it!)
1. I KNOW THAT "ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD TO THEM THAT LOVE THE LORD, called according to His purpose" (Rom.8:28), & His purpose is to preach the Gospel & to love & win souls! So if He kicks us out of Spain, it's because Spain has had its chance & he wants us someplace else, amen? It's been almost a year since I wrote "Americans Abroad" (No.905), 6 months at least!
2. I'VE FOUND THAT IT SEEMS LIKE THE LORD ALMOST HAS TO GIVE US A SHOVE TO GET US TO DO WHAT HE'S REVEALED TO US a long time ago that we're supposed to do. I've been a little bit that way myself. I think my Mother was kind of that way. She taught me to be so sure of the will of God that you can't possibly be mistaken!
3. AND ALTHOUGH I GET REVELATIONS, DREAMS, VISIONS & PREMONITIONS ABOUT THINGS, & forewarnings & forebodings, & although I've been talking for a long time, ever since "802 South" years ago (No.187), about the necessity of leaving Europe if you can & the possibility of going to Latin America if you can as one of the last great harvest fields.
4. STILL, IT DOESN'T SEEM LIKE WE WILL GET ON THE MOVE UNTIL THE LORD GIVES US A SHOVE OR A PUSH! It's kind of like the little girl I told you the story about who was late to school & praying as she ran to try to get to school on time. All of a sudden she tripped & fell flat on her face & got up crying & said, "Well, You didn't have to shove me, Lord!"--But He does!
5. I HAVE FOUND HE FREQUENTLY HAS TO GIVE US A GOOD SHOVE TO GET US MOVING THE WAY HE WANTS US TO GO! And it's just possible that a lot of you people have comfortably settled down in Spain where the Americans get six months & just make a little trip out of the country, come back & get another six months, & it's so easy & the people are so nice & the support is so good & the climate is delightful & it seems like everything about it is wonderful!
6. WHO WOULD WANT TO LEAVE SPAIN UNLESS THEY WERE DRIVEN OUT?--Just like I was! If we hadn't been driven out, we probably never would have left! In order to stay in the house we were forced to buy the house--we got it at a tremendous bargain, & it was Heaven on Earth! Why should we have ever left?
7. FFing WAS ROLLING FULL BLAST & WE WERE PRACTICALLY TAKING OVER THE ISLAND!--That's what the Bishop was afraid of! I think we would have, too, if they'd have let us stay there, & that's just what he was afraid of, so they drove us out. Well, we had finished our ministry there. We'd started what the Lord sent us there for, & it was done. The big explosion had occurred, the little tiny pill had popped & had just practically blown that place apart!
8. AND HERE WE WERE LIVING IN THIS DELIGHTFUL LITTLE HEAVENLY HOME, Heaven on Earth there with our own little swimming pool--it wasn't a big pool--beautiful view, delightful climate, wonderful people, FFing every night, clubs every night, dancing, music, lots of fun! Why should you ever want to leave? I didn't want to leave! I really didn't want to leave. The Lord kicked me out, He gave me a shove! Ha! He let them give me a shove! So He does have to shove you once in a while!
9. MY MOTHER STAYED TOO LONG IN MIAMI. She had a tremendous campaign there, a great glorious evangelistic campaign & tremendous success & thousands of people & big tent, so then she decided to settle down & build a tabernacle. Well, a temporary tabernacle wasn't too bad, old wooden thing, sawdust floor & everything, & things boomed!--5,000 people every night, hundreds of people saved & healed!
10. BUT THEN WHEN MIAMI HAD HAD ITS CHANCE & SHE'D BEEN THERE ALMOST TWO YEARS, THE JOB WAS DONE. Everybody that was going to come & get saved or healed had done so, & the rest of the town & its [EDITED: "ACs"] had rejected her. But who'd want to leave Miami, Florida?--Tropical paradise, Heaven on Earth, beautiful home we had there, $10,000 in the bank--which was like $100,000 today! Think of it!
11. WHY SHOULD WE EVER WANT TO LEAVE? Thousands of people coming out every night, marvellous ministry, hundreds getting saved & healed, why should we ever want to leave? We'd probably be there yet if the Lord hadn't seen to it that we got practically, in this case, not kicked out but blown out!
12. THE HURRICANE CAME ALONG & BLEW DOWN THE TABERNACLE, BUT MY MOTHER STILL DIDN'T GET THE POINT--SHE REBUILT IT! So then the Lord let this guy steal it from her, take it away completely, & she still didn't get the point. So she moved into a downtown building & called it the Church of the Open Door, & we stayed there several years & she still wouldn't leave. So the Lord sent along another hurricane & blew off the roof of that building!
13. SHE WAS AN EVANGELIST, SHE WAS SUPPOSED TO STAY IN EVANGELISTIC WORK! She wasn't supposed to settle down & be a pastor, especially after God had finished with her in Miami & the message was preached & everybody heard. She was as famous in Miami as Amiee Semple McPherson was in California!
14. SHE WAS THE WOMAN PREACHER OF THE EASTERN U.S., whereas Amiee was on the West Coast, & Mom had just as big crowds. She didn't build as gorgeous a temple as Amiee did, but all that wasn't necessary. In fact, the Lord really dealt with Amiee too about settling down in her fancy building because she was really an evangelist, too. She had all kinds of trouble.
15. YOU'RE GOING TO SEE ONE OF THESE VIDEOS ON "THE DISAPPEARANCE OF AMIEE"--Amiee Semple McPherson, the World's most famous woman evangelist that ever lived, the builder of the Angeles Temple, Los Angeles, & the founder of the Church of the Foursquare Gospel with over 800 churches throughout the World today. She was the World's most famous woman evangelist, & my mother was the next most famous, believe it or not! And Uldine Utley was the next most famous, a girl evangelist.
16. SO AMIEE HAD A LOT OF TROUBLE AFTER SHE SETTLED DOWN THERE AT THE TEMPLE, & you'll see it in a movie we have, called "The Disappearance of Amiee."
17. WELL, SHE SETTLED DOWN IN LOS ANGELES & I THINK AFTER SHE'D REALLY STAYED TOO LONG her crowds began to peter out down to about a thousand, when the temple held about 5,000. Some nights she'd come & there'd be only four or five hundred there. Of course that's a big crowd for most churches, especially in the middle of the week.
18. BUT THEN SHE BUILT THIS BIG LIFE BIBLE COLLEGE, Los Angeles Institute of Foursquare Evangelism, LIFE, & she had a lot of students & trained them & founded a big denomination that has 800 churches all over the World to this very day. So she did a great work & it carries on today with lots of missionaries & everything.
19. WHAT'S 800 CHURCHES, MAN?--WE'VE GOT 2,000! We have 2,000 congregations. Every one of our Homes is a church! PTL! We go a whole lot further than she ever did. But you'll find this movie very interesting about her love affair--if it was a love affair.
20. THE MOVIE LEAVES YOU GUESSING AS TO WHO WAS TELLING THE TRUTH, whether she was really kidnapped & suffered what she claimed to, or whether she was just off in a lovenest with her lover. Well, one way or the other, I don't care. If she was kidnapped, she was kidnapped, I believe her. But if that was the only way she could get away with her lover for a rest, well, I wouldn't blame her!
21. BUT IT CAUSED A TREMENDOUS SENSATION & A LOT OF THE PAPERS ACCUSED HER OF JUST WANTING PUBLICITY BY IT, & she got it! The disappearance of Amiee Semple McPherson was World news for several weeks. Then she staggered out of the Mexican desert all torn & dishevelled & whatnot & said they'd been holding her prisoner for ransom--& they had got several ransom notes. And of course she had lots of enemies, just like we do.
22. AND THEN THEY WEREN'T SATISFIED, THEY SAID SHE WAS LYING, IT NEVER HAPPENED, & they took her to court for it! I don't know what the charge was, that she had deceived the public or it was fraud or something else. I think it was supposed to be fraud. They tried to hit'm on the money.--The enemies always do!
23. I THINK THEY SAID HER CHURCH HAD RAISED THE MONEY UNDER FALSE PRETENCES for this mausoleum or shrine that was going to be dedicated to her where she was going to be buried. It was quite a fancy tomb, this tomb in Forest Lawn, & I think they tried to accuse her of that then.--Not her congregation of people who gave the money, but the bitter [EDITED: "AC"] lawyers that were attacking her!
24. THE [EDITED: "ACS"] HATED HER & THE CATHOLICS HATED HER, & most of the churches hated her because she was so popular & she stole their crowd! So these [EDITED: "AC"] lawyers tried to attack her & said the money had been raised under false pretences, that was one thing; & the other was that lives had been lost searching for her dead body--she was supposed to have drowned. Oh, they had a lot of different trumped-up charges against her & tried to prove that she was lying & was never even kidnapped. You'll find it a very interesting film.
25. I WANT TO TELL YOU THIS, WHEN YOU WATCH IT, I KNEW AMIEE & I HEARD AMIEE PREACH, & I saw the fruits of her ministry, & she knew the Lord & she had the goods & had the gifts & was one of the most powerful preachers of Gospel I ever heard! She was genuine, she was sincere, she was God-empowered of the Spirit, & she had tremendous genuine lasting fruit!
26. SO I KNOW SHE WAS GENUINE & I BELIEVE HER STORY, & I think all the rest of it was lies trumped up against her to scandalise her to try to discredit her ministry. In fact, it was proven in court finally that it was all lies--at least everybody testified that it wasn't true. Even the guy that she was supposed to be shacked up with said it wasn't so, in court, & they never could prove it. But boy, it was headlines in the papers for a long time!
27. WELL, I THINK MAYBE THE LORD ALLOWED HER TO HAVE SOME OF THOSE PROBLEMS BECAUSE SHE STAYED TOO LONG. Whereas she could have had a ministry around the World if she'd have gone places like Billy Graham did in other countries & everything. And she did, some, to Canada, etc.
28. BUT MOTHER JUST STAYED TOO LONG, & when the hurricane didn't do it, our church practically went broke! The Depression hit so bad we were living on $10 a week, a dozen in our household with three little children & all the various helpers. The $10,000 in the bank was wiped out by Roosevelt's bank moratorium just overnight, over one weekend, boom, he closed all the banks. Then he only opened up the banks that could prove they were solvent, that weren't broke, so ours never opened.
29. SO WE WENT BROKE & SHE STILL DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE & tried to struggle on, struggle on. Finally when the Lord blew off the roof of the Church of the Open Door downtown we didn't have anyplace to meet then at all, so we rented a school auditorium.
30. THEY USED TO HIRE OUT THESE SCHOOL AUDITORIUMS AT VARIOUS SCHOOLS TO NEW CHURCH GROUPS or religious groups that were building their own churches but didn't have anyplace to meet temporarily. Nearly every school auditorium in town had some kind of church group meeting in their school auditorium. They rented them so the County made money on them, a perfectly legitimate deal for Sundays.
31. BUT THEN SHE MADE THE MISTAKE OF HAVING [EDITED: "SOMEONE"] THERE who helped to first open our eyes--if we hadn't already seen it after all the trouble we had with the [EDITED: "ACs"] there--to the fact of what villains the [EDITED: "ACs"] were & how it was a World conspiracy & how they were running the World & trying to conquer it! And everything he predicted has come true! It's happened now!--Fulfilled prophecies!
32. WELL, THEY APPARENTLY KNEW ABOUT HIM TOO, because he spoke I think only one night, Friday night or something like that, & Sunday morning--as much as people like their day off--[EDITED: "they"] were [DELETED] picketing our auditorium on Sunday morning before church!
33. THEY'D HAD THE SCHOOL DOOR LOCKED BY THE COUNTY SUPERVISOR. [DELETED] Said [DELETED] that we should be banned from the use of a public school auditorium. So we lost our final place to meet. I'm just telling you how the Lord dealt with us & pushed us out of Miami, literally finally had to drive us out of town!
34. HE FINALLY USED THE SAME THING HE DID ON THE CHRISTIANS OF JERUSALEM--THE JEWS! That's why they finally left Jerusalem & only a handful of them stayed behind with James. They got driven out by persecution, or they probably never would have left. They'd be there to this day, & the Early Church would have dried up & blown away!
35. BUT AS IT WAS THE LORD DREW OUT A SWORD AFTER THEM, the sword of Herod & their persecutors & the Jews, & the Jewish leaders, & they were driven out of town! And that's exactly what happened to us. We tried one more last stand, like Custer's last stand, & it just about did us in like it did Custer too!
36. CUSTER WAS A LEADER OF AN ARMY IN THE WEST THAT WAS SLAUGHTERING THE INDIANS, & they finally slaughtered him, massacred his entire unit in one night! [DELETED] It's a long story & I told some of you guys some of this before. They kidnapped my mother & she had all kinds of persecution! They cut off her hair, she was held at gunpoint, she was stoned & nearly killed!
37. GOD DID EVERYTHING HE COULD & LET THEM DO ALL KINDS OF THINGS TO TRY TO DRIVE HER OUT OF MIAMI, but she still wouldn't leave! How many of you have ever been to Miami? Well, then you know what a tropical paradise it is, how beautiful it is. It's a pretty hard place to leave. And when you've got a beautiful home there & a nice church & all, it's home.
38. WELL, FINALLY WE PETERED DOWN TO NOTHING BUT THIS LITTLE STORE BUILDING! Imagine, here she'd been this great woman evangelist famous as Amiee with this huge tabernacle & thousands of people, & here she was meeting in a little hole-in-the-wall store building with about two dozen people. Think of that! I was about 17 or 18 years of age by that time, & we'd bought a nice little home out in South Miami.
39. I FINALLY JUST TOLD HER, "MOTHER, IT'S JUST NOT GOD'S WILL FOR US TO STAY HERE, THAT'S ALL!" I'd been out in evangelistic work with her now for a couple of years & I knew how God blessed her ministry out of town & all over the country, hundreds of people saved & healed, & what a blessing her ministry was in evangelistic work.
40. SHE'D GO INTO A TOWN FOR TWO, THREE OR FOUR WEEKS & THE LORD REALLY MIGHTILY BLESSED & USED HER OUT IN THE FIELD & in other churches, etc., to inspire the Christians. But she'd go back home to her own little church & hardly anybody would come out at all! It was horrible! Miami's a hard city, wicked city, especially now. [DELETED]
[DELETED]
42. SO WE FINALLY WERE JUST LITERALLY DRIVEN OUT OF MIAMI! The last straw was this supposedly converted Catholic priest that came along. I finally convinced Mother that we really ought to go, so she said, "Well, if we can find a pastor to take over the little church, the little flock I leave behind--I don't want to desert them." So they shopped around & invited this preacher & that preacher & the other preacher, & finally this kind of a mulatto supposedly converted ex-Jesuit priest came from Jamaica.
43. HE WAS BRILLIANT, HE WAS AN ORATOR & A TERRIFIC PREACHER, I didn't doubt about that, & he just swept the people off their feet! What he was doing preaching in a little rinky-dink church like ours, I don't know, except we pretty well found out later that he was already in disrepute.
44. AND WE DISCOVERED LATER WE WEREN'T TOO SURE HE'D EVER LEFT THE JESUITS, that he had gone around wrecking Protestant churches one after the other. He wormed his way in as a supposed converted Catholic, & then would wreck the church! You know Christians nowadays, especially American Christians, will listen to anything, as long as it's something or somebody new, a new story, a new testimony, new evangelist, new preacher; & he came along with his wild tales of Catholicism & what he'd been through & how he was converted & all that stuff.
45. UNTIL ONE DAY DR. KOGER WAS SITTING SOMEWHERE UP FRONT taking care of the offering or something & happened to see out of the corner of his eye that he had turned around behind the pulpit & he was crossing himself just like he was back at the Catholic altar again! There's nothing wrong with that, but it just proved that he wasn't exactly completely converted from his Catholicism.
46. NOT THAT CROSSING YOURSELF IS ANY GREAT SIN, but you know what Protestants think about that--that's almost the unpardonable sin! I've crossed myself lots of times, I still do sometimes. When it suits the purpose, you go in a Catholic Church & when you're in Rome, do as the Romans!--And that sure is Roman, a Roman Catholic Church!
47. I'M JUST EXPLAINING TO YOU HOW IF YOU DON'T OBEY, DON'T TAKE THE HINT, "do you want the books or don't you," sometimes God will finally throw you out & down the stairs to give you the point! And that's about what He did with us! We went down, down, down, down, down those stairs & we were battered & bruised & broken & beat up, literally beat up.
48. WE WENT THROUGH HELL IN THAT TOWN, BECAUSE MOTHER JUST LOVED MIAMI! She used to say, "I say of Miami what Queen Elisabeth I said about Calais--'If you'd scratch my heart you'd find Calais written there!'" Liz loved Calais. You know where Calais is? It's not England--it's the North Coast of France! And she loved that part of the country which England had occupied several times & lost, & she risked almost everything to try to recapture it time after time.
49. AND MY MOTHER SAID, "THAT'S THE WAY I FEEL ABOUT MIAMI, IF YOU'D SCRATCH MY HEART YOU'D FIND MIAMI WRITTEN THERE!" She loved it, loved it! I loved it too, it was my home for longer than any place I've ever lived, & we had a beautiful home there. We had gotten along well there, but it just went down, down, down. God kept kicking us downstairs, & we still didn't get the point until finally we had all this [DELETED] trouble.
50. AND THEN DEAR HERNANDO FERNANDEZ COMMACHO CAME ALONG, & HE WAS THE LAST STRAW! He was really Come-macho! The people decided they wanted him for the pastor, & so we were ready to go & leave him behind there. You know what a lot of churches do, they candidate. Pastors candidate the churches. Baptists & Protestants do it, but I don't suppose Catholics do it because they've got a nice setup where they can dictate from the top--kind of like we used to do!--Ha!--But not anymore!
51. BUT PROTESTANT CHURCHES, THEY HAVE CANDIDATE PASTORS. If they want a new pastor, the denomination nominates several different preachers, sends them new preachers, & they have a new preacher every Sunday to preach morning & evening, until they find one they like & then they vote him in. They vote & decide whether they want this guy for their pastor, strictly democratic dictatorship of the Proletariat!
52. THE CATHOLICS & THE EPISCOPALIANS DON'T DO THAT, they do it from the top. They just assign a guy there whether they like it or not, & it's hard to get rid of him! But the Protestant preachers candidate, so these guys were all candidating, several different evangelists & finally Commacho.
53. WE HAD HIM ALL SET UP TO BE PASTOR & WE WERE READY TO GO. We had sold our nice little car that I had towed all the way from California behind our big limousine. We had a big limousine & we had a nice little Ford runabout when we were in town to run around in that wasn't a gas guzzler & was just like brand new & looked beautiful. I had towed it with a tow bar all the way from California, 3,000 miles clear to Miami.
54. HE NEEDED A CAR, DIDN'T HAVE A CAR, SO WE SOLD IT TO HIM DIRT CHEAP, $200, & he said he'd pay us in payments, etc. We thought we had everything settled, this guy chosen for the pastor & we were about to leave Miami. Of course it was breaking dear Dr. Koger's heart because we were leaving, & it finally did--he died of a broken heart, really, a couple years later.
55. SO WE TURNED THE CHURCH OVER TO THIS FELLOW. He was terrific, he was brilliant, he was fascinating to listen to & had so many interesting stories to tell. He was born in Jamaica & was a mulatto--half-Spanish, half-Negro--& he'd been educated, however, by the Jesuits in London. He had a Jesuit education, which means a good education, & he was a brilliant orator & I loved to listen to him preach. He could really preach, he was terrific, kind of an orator like my grandfather.
56. BUT JUST BEFORE WE WERE TO LEAVE TOWN, HAD EVERYTHING ARRANGED, had turned over our nice little cottage to him & the car & the church, installed him, sworn him in as the pastor & we were ready to take off, Mother & I, kissing Dr. Koger goodbye & everything, & had rented our house out that we had bought, all of a sudden the guy disappeared!--With our car, the church secretary & all the money from the church treasury, the whole works!
57. THERE'S A LOT OF MONKEY BUSINESS THAT GOES ON IN CHURCH BUSINESS, LET ME TELL YOU! I could tell you tales that would make your hair stand on end about how the churches operate! No wonder I was soured on the churches! Well, it was bad enough for him to forsake the church & run off with all the money & our car, but the church secretary, that was almost the last straw!
58. AT FIRST THE WORD GOT OUT THAT HE'D KIDNAPPED HER OR SOMETHING, & HE VIRTUALLY DID. It turned out later he had put her under the influence of drugs. He was giving her shots & drugs & that's the way he had captured her, more or less. She was the wife of one of the dearest, sweetest men you'd ever want to know, his dear sweetheart.
59. SO BECAUSE HE'D STOLEN THE CAR & THE MONEY AS WELL AS THE WOMAN, the church decided to have the FBI out after him. First of all the local police, & when he didn't show up anywhere in Florida, they sicced the FBI on him & they found him with the woman in a hotel in Los Angeles.
60. THE FBI TOLD US, "WELL, WE CAN BRING HIM BACK, he's stolen the money & car & all this, but you'll have to make definite criminal charges against him to bring him back & take him to court to get your money back." Of course by that time I guess he'd spent it all.
61. I'M JUST TELLING YOU THE HORRORS WE WENT THROUGH BECAUSE WE DIDN'T TAKE THE HINT & GET OUT OF TOWN WHEN WE SHOULD HAVE! But that was really the last straw, because when they brought him back & we went to court, he got up before the jury--mind you, it was proven, we had all the evidence, he stole the car, he took the money & even kidnapped the girl--but he got up before that jury & he was such a powerful fluent orator, I think he was virtually demon-possessed! He was just too clever & too terrific!
62. HE PERSUADED THAT JURY THAT HE WAS NOT GUILTY! And though he confessed, "I have done these things, but I did them because I had to as this church owed me this money, they owed it to me for my salary." He wasn't promised any salary, he was only supposed to get the Sunday offering! And "I didn't steal the car, I plan to pay for it! After all, I was going to send them monthly payments & I'd only been gone a month!"
63. THEY NEVER REALLY BROUGHT THE WOMAN INTO IT BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO LEAVE HER OUT OF IT. My mother wanted to leave her out of it for her own sake, because she was completely scandalised & disgraced, & it was pitiful. But that's the one thing the FBI said, "Well, we can still get him on the Mann Act."
64. IT'S A CRAZY LAW THEY'VE GOT IN THE STATES that you can be put in prison for taking any woman, no matter what age or anything, across a State border for what is known as "immoral purposes." They can put you in Federal prison for it! It's a good thing they don't enforce it much nowadays or they'd be putting everybody in prison!
65. THE FBI SAID, "WE CAN DEFINITELY GET HIM ON THAT, because that was obvious. We caught him in this hotel room there & he'd taken the girl all the way from Florida to California." But my Mother said, "No, no, I don't want to pursue it any further." He & his defence attorney--he pled mostly his own case--got up & virtually made fools out of us & the church.
66. AND THESE [EDITED: "AC"] NEWSPAPERS BY THIS TIME WHO HAD ALREADY BEEN BLASTING & HOUNDING & PERSECUTING US, JUST SMEARED US & scandalised & were totally against us & defended him. We were the criminals, we were the villains, he was the poor persecuted preacher! Well, that's what we get for taking some guy like that to court, & I think the church finally realised they had lost the case.
67. HE HAD THE JURY IN TEARS! He got up like he'd had legal training & walked over to that jury & leaned on the jury rail & stared'm eyeball to eyeball, pled his case & got himself off the hook! Scot-free! We were just totally villified & scandalised & smeared by the newspapers until the whole town was virtually laughing at us!
68. THE DEVIL WAS LAUGHING, THE [EDITED: "ACS"] WERE LAUGHING & the World was laughing & scoffing & scorning: "Here was this once great woman preacher, & now look what a fool she is!" So we literally left Miami in disgrace, driven out by these damnable [EDITED: "ACs"] & these Worldly enemies.
69. EVEN JUST BEFORE THAT HAPPENED WAS WHEN MY MOTHER & I WERE IN THAT ACCIDENT TOO. We'd borrowed this friend's car to go on a little weekend getaway. She liked to go someplace to study & be quiet & for a rest, & I didn't know the thing didn't have any brakes or that the brake fluid leaked or something.
70. WE GOT IN IT THAT MORNING & STARTED DRIVING OFF TO WEST PALM BEACH, driving along the highway, & all of a sudden a big city bus pulled right out in front of us broadside, right across in front of us! Well, if I would have had good brakes I could have slammed them on & stopped, but I slammed on the brakes, all right, & there weren't any! We just went sailing on pell mell, head on right into the side of that bus! Crashed head on!
71. THE CAR WAS A TOTAL LOSS! I was driving, my mother was sitting in the backseat, she wound up under the dashboard & I didn't know what happened because I was knocked unconscious. Her foot was mashed, I was all battered & bleeding & they rushed us to the hospital. It's a miracle we lived! Great big immovable bus, can you imagine, with a little old Ford car hitting the thing broadside like that! It even knocked passengers out of their seats that were on the bus!
72. I WASN'T DRIVING VERY FAST, I was going about 40 which was about the limit on this highway, Coconut Grove Highway, & this big Dunn City bus pulled out--Mr. Dunn of Dunn Bus Company. Dr. Koger wanted us to sue'm & really sock it to'm, but you know, you can't beat City Hall! But at least Mr. Dunn paid our hospital expenses.
73. WELL, I WAS IN THERE FOR A FEW HOURS & GOT PATCHED UP, but my mother was in there for two or three weeks because her foot was all mashed up. God just did more things, I couldn't start telling you all the things, to try to get us out of Miami! And between that accident & Commacho & [EDITED: "AC"] persecution, they finally drove us out!
74. IT WAS I, REALLY, WHO WAS INSTRUMENTAL, I can remember it yet in that little house in Miami, persuading & arguing with my mother for hours that the reason we were having all these troubles & the reason we were having all these problems, & the reason we were having all this persecution, & the reason that the church had gone down, down, down, down, down wasn't just the fault of the [EDITED: "ACs"] or the Depression or the hurricane or whatever, but it was because the Lord wanted my mother out on the evangelistic field where she belonged!
75. BUT SHE DIDN'T WANT TO GO, SHE LOVED HOME! You think women preachers are dramatic stars & they want the glamour & the glory & all that--not my mother! She loved home, she was very domestic, she loved to cook--loved to eat, too! It takes somebody who likes to eat to be a good cook. I never could have too much confidence in skinny people for cooks, so it's amazing how well Sue does! Ha!
76. BUT SHE LOVED FLOWERS & POTTED PLANTS, her house & her little things, her decorations, & she loved home! I never knew anybody that loved home more than she did, & loved domestic life & cooking & everything, & she hated to travel. And she didn't like churches, she was fed up with churches too.
77. BUT TO GO IN CHURCH EVANGELISTIC WORK YOU'VE GOT TO GO TO CHURCHES!--Unless you're something big, then get all the churches in town together & rent the City Hall or something, & even then you've got to have all the churches to back you, like Billy Graham did. Billy Graham wouldn't go to a town for an evangelistic meeting unless nearly every church in town would promise to back his revival & dismiss their services to go to his. So that he had a guaranteed crowd before he ever began!
78. FOR EXAMPLE, THAT GREATEST MEETING THAT REALLY MADE HIM FAMOUS IN LOS ANGELES, 800 churches went together, which assured him 5,000 people every night from the beginning to have that meeting. And the promise of the famous newspapers man out there, William Randolph Hearst to back him. Hearst's papers made Billy Graham! They publicised him like mad! He had two or three big pages in the paper everyday with photos & converts & crowds! Big time evangelism takes publicity, let me tell you!
79. BUT THAT'S WHAT GOD DID TO US TO GET US OUT OF MIAMI. And look what God did to even Maria & me to get us out of Tenerife! And we were serving the Lord faithfully & doing the Lord's Work! But God was just fed up with us there & through with us there & He was done & He wanted us to go someplace else & do something else & do what we're doing now.
80. WE NEVER HAD ANY IDEA OF A MAGAZINE IN THOSE DAYS!--Hardly even any idea of such a big Family! I think we only had about three or four thousand folks in the Family then, maybe only two thousand, I don't remember. I'd have to look back in the records, but it was pretty low. We didn't have but a few hundred homes & we were just getting out MO Letters haphazard as they came, that's all. You saw'm, little tiny leaflets, & that's all there was.
81. LOOK WHAT'S HAPPENED BECAUSE WE TOOK THE HINT from the dear judge & we got out of town & left--& never went back either! So that's the way it goes sometimes. If you don't obey the Lord & take the hint, & then hint after hint & direction after direction & revelation after revelation & dreams & visions & everything that you ought to get out & go, or go someplace or do something or do whatever you're supposed to do,
82. IF YOU DON'T, & YOU KEEP DRAGGING YOUR FEET & HANGING BACK because you don't want to leave tropical-paradise Miami or Heaven-on-Earth Tenerife, then pretty soon God has to give you a little encouragement--BOOM!--a swift kick in the pants to get you out! And you can be thankful that He gets you out before it costs you your life!
83. THERE ARE SOME PEOPLE IN THE BIBLE WHO KEPT DISOBEYING THE LORD UNTIL IT COST THEM THEIR LIVES! They never got the point, they never got out, like Saul. He never repented, he never reformed, he never quit, he never got the point, he never turned things over to David like he should have.
84. WHAT A NICE PEACEFUL TRANSITION IT WOULD HAVE BEEN IF HE'D HAVE YIELDED & said, "My son, my son David, come on back with me & I'll install you in the kingdom as king, rightful heir, peacefully & without any trouble or problems!" He even confessed, "I know God has chosen you, I know thou shalt be the king, I know it's the Lord" & all that, but he never helped him to get in power. David had to fight his way there every step of the way, & Saul had to fight God every step of the way to try to stop David!
85. HE WOULDN'T GET OUT, HE WOULDN'T QUIT, HE WOULDN'T TAKE THE HINT, HE WOULDN'T LEAVE, he wouldn't turn things over to David. He was like that fat bird we put in one of our cartoons once, "I don't want to get out of the nest! I want to stay here & be a problem child!"--That was Saul all over! He just didn't want to quit, he wouldn't get out.
86. I THINK CARTER'S ALMOST TO THAT POINT NOW! He doesn't even want to get out of the White House! It was reported or rumoured that the Reagans requested that since the Carters were going to have to leave anyhow, could they please leave a little earlier so they could begin to get it ready for the inauguration & the inaugural party that follows & all that sort of thing. "No, we're not going to get out, I'm still president!" Can you imagine?--Ha! They're really a scream!
87. AFTER HE LOST THE ELECTION HE KEPT REMINDING PEOPLE THAT HE WAS STILL PRESIDENT. "I'm still the boss, I'm still running things! You just remember that now! I'm president for 2 1/2 more months!" Ha! I don't think I'd want to be a lame-duck president. I think I'd want to resign & quit & get the Hell out of there as fast as I could, than to face all those people & the embarrassment of facing my own staff & government & Congress & Senate & Cabinet & everything else as a loser!--As a king who's already rejected. Saul was rejected for years but he just wouldn't quit, refused to quit.
88. SO THAT'S THE SAD STORY OF WHAT HAPPENED TO US IN MIAMI. You've heard some of the nice parts about the story, but that's the bad side, how God finally got us out of Miami. He just literally had us driven out.
89. LOOK AT OUR FAMILY IN THE UNITED STATES: We never would have left there if we didn't have to! Now honestly, let's face it. The U.S. was a fertile field, it was a prosperous field, & we had a lot of glory & glamour & publicity & we were reaping souls by the scores & our Colonies were booming! We had 50 Colonies all over the U.S. before we were willing to send one missionary abroad--& that was me!
90. AND WE WOULDN'T HAVE LEFT IF IT HADN'T GOTTEN SO HOT FOR US THAT WE VIRTUALLY HAD TO LEAVE! They were after us, they were out to get us, they were determined they were going to get us, & they probably would have if we hadn't left. They were out hammer & tongs, some of these 10:36ers & parents & stuff, they were after us! They were going to get us one way or the other!
91. JUST LIKE BEFORE WE LEFT HUNTINGTON BEACH. The District Attorney there was conspiring with some of the parents to slap all kinds of charges on us--corrupting minors, causing juvenile delinquency, encouraging truancy & all kinds of things! [DELETED]
92. WE GOT INSIDE INFORMATION FROM THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE THROUGH FRIENDS that they were lining up witnesses & all kinds of things to slap formal criminal charges against us. And let me tell you, the parents & the System hated us there! It was Orange County, dear Nixon's own county, the richest county in the richest State in the richest country in the World, & we had [EDITED: "made full-time Christian disciples of"] their kids for the Lord--all these rich, smart, educated kids--& they were determined to get us!
93. IF THEY HAD BROUGHT US INTO COURT, IF WE'D WAITED FOR THAT, THEY COULD HAVE PROVED ANYTHING! You know what I mean? The judge would have believed anything & they could have proved anything & would have slapped us in prison God knows how long! So the smart thing to do is go!
94. SO ALL THAT TO SAY THIS, THAT WHEN IT COMES GOD'S TIME FOR YOU TO LEAVE OR TO QUIT OR GET OUT OR GO, leave the field that He's had you in! It may have been the field God gave you, He may have led you there by miraculous circumstances like He did us to Tenerife. It may be that He supported & kept you & blessed you there by miracles & tremendous signs & wonders & everything else like the Apostles did in Jerusalem!--But nevertheless, He finally drove them out because they wouldn't get out!
95. HE SAID, "GO INTO ALL THE WORLD & PREACH THE GOSPEL TO EVERY CREATURE!" (Mk.16:15.) They wouldn't even go into all Judea, or all Samaria, or all Israel! They were bound & determined they had really arrived, right there in Jerusalem, & they'd taken over the Temple & the temple area & practically taken over the town, to where the scribes & Pharisees & Jews, although they'd killed Jesus, now they didn't dare touch them!
96. THEY WERE SO NUMEROUS & SO POWERFUL, THEY DIDN'T DARE TOUCH'M! To get any help they had to go outside of Jerusalem & hire Herod to come down & start killing the Christians--& he was an Arab, he wasn't even king of that part of Israel. He was at that time only king of the Northern part of the country, think of that!
97. THE CHRISTIANS HAD TAKEN OVER JERUSALEM & NEARLY EVERYBODY GOT SAVED, & ALL JEWS! Think of it! And Judaism was dead, the temple veil was rent, the Ark was gone, the whole System was dead! The Lord had wrecked their religion & their temple, the whole works, & finally the only way they were able to get the Christians was to go out & hire a foreigner to come in with his soldiers & start slaughtering'm. That's the only way [EDITED: "they"] were able to do it.
98. WELL, [EDITED: "OUR PERSECUTORS"] DO THE SAME THING AGAIN, they're doing it in a lot of countries. They've hired the foreigners to kick us out & persecute us. Themselves strangers in a strange land, they hire foreigners where they live, foreign governments, to get rid of us.
99. BUT AS A RESULT, THEY WENT EVERYWHERE PREACHING! Thomas went to India & this one went here & that one there, & they went & established a missionary base in Antioch & Paul & Barnabas & Silas & different missionaries began going out from Antioch. They didn't dare go back to Jerusalem or they'd have slit their throats, & they almost did Paul's!
100. THEY WENT UP TO ANTIOCH AMONGST THE GENTILES, the Greeks that received them, & began to go all over the World preaching the Gospel. They never started evangelising the World, they never started being missionaries, they never started doing what Jesus told them to do until the Lord let the Devil drive them out! Literally! By the sword! By the sword, think of it, through threat of death, & even killed some of them to get them out!
101. AS I SAID, I DON'T THINK THE LORD REALLY LIKES YOU TO HAVE TO DIE FOR YOUR FAITH, necessarily, although "no greater love hath any man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (Jn.15:13), & there's no greater way of showing your faith, & you can certainly have no greater witness than to die for it.
102. BUT I'M A LITTLE BIT CONVINCED TO BE OF THE OPINION OF GENERAL PATTON who said, "I don't want you damned bastards to die for your country--I want you to go out & help the other God-damned bastards to die for their country!" If you have to go die for your country, well, fine, but it's better to get out there & live for your country & conquer the World!--Unless the Lord has some specific special individual purpose or something like He did in certain of the martyrdoms, even Paul's.
103. THE LORD EVEN LET PAUL LIVE ON & ON & ON TILL GOODNESS, HE WAS UP IN HIS 60s OR SOMETHING! And living in his own hired house in practically luxury right in the city of Rome with his own personal bodyguard.--Of course he was chained to his bodyguard, but nevertheless! He had all that comfort & freedom & everything else, & all kinds of important people coming to see him like he was the Ambassador from God Himself, which he was!--
104. AND CONVERTING PEOPLE RIGHT IN CAESAR'S HOUSE & got all Caesar's household converted & the whole town practically converted & becoming Christians!--Until Caesar, that mad dog, finally saw that the only way he was going to be able to stop this business of getting the whole Roman Empire converted was to kill him! So he finally beheaded him.
105. WELL, HE'D FINISHED HIS WORK! He said, "I fought a good fight, finished my course, from henceforth there's nothing left for me but a crown laid up!" (2Tim.4:7,8.) PTL! Well, if you finished your course, finished your job in a place, then it's time to move on to another place--whether it be in this World or the next. So that's my opinion about Spain. All that to say this:
106. THAT I HAVE A FEELING WE HAVE FINISHED OUR COURSE IN SPAIN! We have done a good work, we have fought a good fight there, & I don't see any point in staying on any longer & suffering any more & getting loss of life, limb or liberty by just insisting that they take "the books"! They've already had the books, lots of'm! And they took'm, God bless'm! But now their rulers don't want'm anymore.
107. MAYBE THAT'S THE MESSAGE GOD WANTS US ALL TO GET. Like the guy said, "God help me to change the things that I can change & not try to change the things I can't change; & for God's sake, most of all help me to know the difference!" God has helped us to change Spain for years, but God help us not to try to change the situation now if we can't change it, & to know the difference!
108. THERE'S NO USE BEING A MARTYR & DYING FOR YOUR COUNTRY, THE KINGDOM OF GOD, IF YOU CAN GO SOMEWHERE ELSE & CONTINUE to be a faithful witness & get out the Word & win souls & preach the Gospel & evangelise the rest of the World! Why should we die for Spain? Let's go die for the Kingdom if we must, & let the Spanish die for their own country, so to speak, especially the persecutors & the responsible government officials that are persecuting us!
109. WHY SHOULD US DUMB STUPID IDIOTS DIE FOR'M WHEN THEY DON'T DESERVE IT!--Let them die for their own sins! Amen? And let me tell you, they will! And once you're done & finished & you've accomplished the job & He's through with you there, He's got to get you out before He can judge your persecutors & your enemies. He's got to get you out, otherwise you'll die with'm! He can't leave you there with them.
110. IT'S A LITTLE BIT DIFFICULT TO DIFFERENTIATE WHEN YOU'RE SENDING BIG SO CALLED NATURAL DISASTERS & wars & bombs, & God knows what's going to happen to Spain! We've warned them to get those American bases out of there but they never have. In fact, they're even wanting more, they want more cooperation with the U.S.A., blah blah. And everybody that works with the U.S. & cooperates with the U.S. & fights with the U.S. is going to go down with the U.S.!
111. FOR GOD'S SAKE, I DON'T WANT TO BE IN ANY OF THOSE COUNTRIES THAT ARE WORKING WITH THE U.S.A., DO YOU? Not if we can help it! So for God's sake, may God help us to get the hint when the time comes & not try to stay & fight it out or try to force the situation or try to insist on bucking the will of God if He wants us to go!
112. MAYBE HE WANTS US TO GET CLEAR OUT OF EUROPE BEFORE HE ALMOST WIPES IT OUT for their sins! So maybe Spain is the beginning. We've had a lot of persecution & tough times in some other places like Germany, & I warned the people there. I said God showed me that country's going to be an atomic desert when the war's over. Those people are going to get what they deserve for the way they treated us.
113. WE'VE HAD PLENTY OF PERSECUTORS THERE & THE GOVERNMENT HAS VIRTUALLY OFFICIALLY CONDONED OUR PERSECUTION & told the parents that they cannot legally do anything about it, but if the parents decide to do something about it, Government'll look the other way! Think of that! An official of the government said that!--So they did.
114. WELL, IN SPITE OF THAT, OUR KIDS LAID LOW FOR AWHILE, suffered persecution & laid low, & finally they came out back on the streets again, & Germany's booming again! But I'm wondering if they deserve it? It's one of the most prosperous fields that we have, but I wouldn't say it's one of the most fruitful.
115. THE GERMAN COMMON PEOPLE ON THE STREET ARE RECEIVING THE WORD, receiving the literature & are giving well for it, God bless'm, but we're not getting all that many converts there. I think our harvest time there is past. You read the Letters, you heard me, I feel like it's better for'm to go some other places where they get more fruit.
116. WE HAVE DELIVERED OUR SOULS IN GERMANY, LET ME TELL YOU! We have saturated that country with our doctrine & our Gospel & our literature & our kids, & they're without excuse! We washed our hands, we're not guilty of their blood when it comes! But why should some of you poor kids still be there when it comes? Savvy?
117. WELL, IT'S COMFORTABLE, YOU'VE GOT NICE HOMES, YOU'RE WELL-SUPPORTED, the Germans are rich, the country is prosperous & you get good gifts for your lit, almost higher than anyplace else in the World. So you're tempted to stay beyond your time, after you've finished your job! And if you do, you're going to be like the people in the U.S.A.
118. YOU'RE GOING TO GET CAUGHT IN THE MAELSTROM & THE HOLOCAUST that God has to wreak upon your enemies & persecutors & the wicked, & you'll have to go down in it, with it, if you don't heed God's warnings & get out! We never would have left the U.S.A. if it hadn't been for the persecution, really. Really!
119. SO WHEN IT COMES THAT TIME & THE PERSECUTION IS HOT & HEAVY, I've always said that, haven't I?--That it usually means that your job is done. You've done a good job, that's why the Devil is so mad! You've done a good job, a thorough job, & he's furious & he's ready to get rid of you!
120. GOD HAD HELD HIM BACK, RESTRAINED HIM, UNTIL GOD IS THROUGH WITH YOU THERE & through with those people. Then He turns the Devil loose & lets him go & lets him do his dirtywork & stir up persecution & opposition & all kinds of trouble for you. Because you didn't take the hint that you were finished, you were done, & you didn't leave, you didn't get out, you didn't go to the rest of the World & preach the Gospel to all the World & every creature!
121. I'M SORRY TO KEEP YOU SO LONG TONIGHT, BUT THAT'S ON MY HEART, & I REALLY THINK YOU KIDS NEED TO GET THAT POINT! I don't think some of you have gotten the point, that once God is through with a country & we have delivered our souls, we've turned the World upside-down there with our doctrine & we have saturated it & we have reaped it & we're doing nothing but a little tiny little bit of gleaning now--then it's time to go!
122. LOOK AT THE MOB WE'VE GOT IN SPAIN!--And the hundreds of thousands of pieces of lit we've gotten out! I daresay probably everybody in Spain has received a piece of our lit at some time or other. They're without excuse! Once they've got the message, why should they keep on hearing it over & over & over & over again?
123. WHY SHOULD THEY DESERVE TO HEAR IT MANY TIMES when there are people in Latin America & South America & some of those places that have never even heard it once! They've never gotten a piece of lit, have never had the sample of God's Love & that we have never preached to & never witnessed to & never litnessed to & never FFed & never given the message to, millions of'm!
124. THERE ARE AS MANY PEOPLE IN SOUTH AMERICA, AS I RECALL THE STATS, AS ARE IN ALL EUROPE--& Europe's one of the most densely populated places in the World! Of course South America's a lot bigger, but the approximate population of Europe is about 300 million & so is Latin America. But we've got half the Family in Europe, about a fourth of you in North America, & the rest of you just a thin scattering all around the rest of the World including Latin America. Is that fair?
125. IS THAT FAIR THAT ANYBODY SHOULD EVER HEAR THE GOSPEL TWICE WHEN THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE NEVER EVEN HEARD IT ONCE? And yet in places like Spain & Europe there are people who've heard our Gospel scores of times! Maybe some of them hundreds of times! Whereas there are people in other places around the World that have never seen us once, never heard us once, never gotten a piece of lit & know little or nothing about the Lord & His Love or gotten a modern sample of it, through us or anybody else.
126. I KNOW WHAT THE CATHOLICS & EVEN THE PROTESTANTS SAY, "WELL, SOUTH AMERICA'S GOT THE CHURCH. They've got the Catholic Church & they've heard the Gospel, they've heard about Jesus. Everybody in Latin America knows about Jesus, believes in God, believes in the Bible, believes in the Holy Spirit, believes in Jesus & Mary & everything else. So even if they're not Protestants & even if they're not saved our way, well, maybe the Lord will somehow or another be good to them, etc."
127. WELL, IF THEY HAVEN'T REALLY BELIEVED THE WAY THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO, if they don't really know He's their only salvation, if they haven't really received Jesus Himself in their heart, they're not saved! And I'm not going to say like the rest of these preachers they're going to Hell, necessarily, although some of them probably will & deserve it.
128. BUT THEY'LL CERTAINLY NEVER HAVE THE JOY OF OUR SALVATION & the pleasure of the love of Jesus & the privilege of the happiness & the joy & the salvation & the eternal salvation & eternal special rights that we will have in Heaven & the Heavenly City & the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth & all the rest! They'll never have that, maybe not for a thousand years or more, at least.
129. THEY WILL BE DEPRIVED OF ALL THAT WE COULD GIVE THEM IF WE DON'T REACH THEM, if we don't get to them, like the Lord has said, & do it! So why should we still keep hammering away at Spain & some of these places in Europe & these people that have heard it over & over & over & over again, when there are people out there that have never heard it? Now honestly, is it fair?
130. SO I REALLY BELIEVE GOD IS STARTING TO PUSH US OUT OF EUROPE, & I think He's been at it for quite awhile. He pushed us plumb out of the British Isles for awhile, & we just gave those people the Gospel over & over & over again! But I think we left the British Isles almost prematurely.
131. SOME FREAKED OUT & WE GOT PRETTY SCARED BECAUSE WE WERE STARTING TO GET DISCUSSED IN PARLIAMENT & persecution from the highest levels, but no actual action yet. We weren't forbidden & they didn't take any action against us, although there were enemies there who wanted them to & tried to get them to.
132. SO I THINK WE KIND OF LEFT THERE A LITTLE PREMATURELY, & that's why the Lord had to let us go back. Because we are being fruitful there now in the British Isles. We didn't really quite finish the harvest there, & I think that's why the Lord let us go back to the British Isles.
133. BUT I WOULD SAY GERMANY HAS HAD IT! I'D SAY THE LOW COUNTRIES HAVE HAD IT, TOO! I WOULD SAY FRANCE HAS HAD IT. We were on television there for how long? Guy Lux & all the rest, & then special appearances & shows all over the country! I'd say that 50 million French people must know about us & have heard about us & even seen us on television or got our lit in the streets. I'd say France has heard!
134. FRANCE HAS HAD IT, I REALLY BELIEVE IT! We have saturated that country with lit & the Gospel & television! They've heard about us & they've heard our message. I wouldn't say that necessarily everybody there has met us or seen us, but I wouldn't be surprised if they've all seen us on television sometime if they had a TV, & got the point of the message somehow.
135. BUT I THINK WE'RE DOING THE FINAL REAPING NOW IN THE BRITISH ISLES. Because let me tell you, they've got missile bases so saturated all over that country I don't think one inch of it is going to escape, it's going to be almost wiped out if they resist! Anybody that resists in a war like this I think is really stupid!
136. GOD KNOWS AMERICA DOESN'T DESERVE US ANY LONGER, & yet, good night, there must be a quarter of us back there now! Well, only 25% of the total Family now are Americans, but there are about 25% of us back there. We've got nearly 2,000 Homes now, & there are over 400 in the U.S. Why should that many of you be in the U.S. when they've had it?
137. THE BRITISH ISLES ARE HAVING IT, Germany's had it, the low countries have had it, France has had it. I'm talking about the message. By "it" I mean us & the message, & they have either heard, seen us or received the lit & gotten the message somehow, wouldn't you say?
138. AND ITALY, LOOK WHAT GOD DID TO US IN ITALY! I'm amazed that we still have people there! We've got lots of Italians & Homes & they've revived again. You [EDITED: "laid low"] for awhile because [EDITED: "of"] official persecution [DELETED], but you're still there! A lot of you didn't get the point & you're still there!
139. THAT COUNTRY'S GOING TO BE PRACTICALLY WIPED OFF THE MAP TOO! It's already an anarchy, it's virtually ungovernable & with crime rampant. The Italians are so unscrupulous, nearly all of them are criminals, one way or the other. Who ever heard of an honest Italian?--Or an Italian who wasn't a crook or a thief or crooked or something! They're even stealing the relief supplies for the earthquake victims, think of that!
140. SO THE ITALIANS REALLY ARE A MESS! I don't want to hurt our poor Italians' feelings. That is, all Italians are a mess except us Christians, & some of us are a mess too! Like the old Dutchman said, "Vell, Honey, zomtimes I think the whole vorld is a mess & everybody's crazy but me & thee--& sometimes I vonder about thee!"
141. I THINK THE LORD'S TRYING TO GIVE US THE HINT! He's trying to push us out of those countries, but we won't go! So you people that stay there in Italy under that severe persecution that you've encountered there are going to have to go down with the ship!
142. SPAIN OF ALL COUNTRIES IN ALL EUROPE HAS PROBABLY HAD MORE OF US & MORE OF OUR GOSPEL, where we've had more publicity & distributed more literature & really had more fruit, good fruit, lasting fruit, & where we probably have more Family, I think, maybe than any country in Europe! I think it's got the largest number of the Family there, somewhere between two & three hundred or something like that. I'll have to check my stats.
143. THESE COUNTRIES OF EUROPE HAVE HAD IT!--THEY'VE HAD US!--Some of them up to here!--And our message, and our lit. And I believe that God had already before in some of these countries tried to push us out & tried to get us out, but you won't go! Now I think He's really going to make it really hot for us in Spain & Portugal, because you people there are the ideal choice for missionaries to Latin America. You're Spanish or Portuguese & you speak the languages.
144. YOU'RE READY-MADE MISSIONARIES, you've had the experience, you know the tongues, you know the methods, you know the whole works! You've had years of experience in Spain, I think it's time for you to go. I think God is trying to get you out--because He has a more fertile field & a less overworked field for you in Latin America.
145. ALL THAT TO SAY THIS: I THINK PROBABLY GOD IS TRYING TO TELL YOU FOLKS IN SPAIN IT'S TIME TO GO TO LATIN AMERICA! We told you months ago, the Europeans & the Americans, especially the Americans, that we thought that the war is near, things are going to start closing down, closing up, & you'd better start moving out & making your plans to go.
146. --WITH A FEW RARE EXCEPTIONS OF PEOPLE WHO ARE STILL BEING VERY FRUITFUL & THE HARVEST IS STILL VERY GOOD & they're pretty well in a pretty stable situation, or they've got their caravans & their mobile rigs & they're being blessed & fruitful & still going strong. Well, PTL! I wouldn't get out of a fruitful field where I'm getting a real harvest, golden opportunities. I think that there are exceptions.
147. BUT I THINK GOD, GENERALLY SPEAKING, IS LEADING US OUT OF EUROPE. We have done our job in Europe, we have delivered our souls in Europe, we have washed our hands of their blood, we have delivered the message, & we will not be responsible now for what happens to Europe--because they didn't obey & they didn't receive it--& for those we leave behind.
148. AND I THINK THOSE THAT WE LEAVE BEHIND & REJECTED US & THE MESSAGE & even responsible for persecution who are enemies--they're either for us or against us, Jesus said--& it's obviously the vast majority, since they're not for us, they must be against us. They haven't received it, they certainly haven't obeyed it, they surely haven't joined us, so God must be ready to judge them.
149. OUR JOB IS DONE IN EUROPE! OUR JOB IS DONE IN THE U.S.A. & NORTH AMERICA! Really! Considering what little time we have left before the night falls & no man can work, we have done enough! I really believe that with all my heart. We have done enough, as much as we probably should, in both North America & Europe, the two richest parts of the World. We've delivered our souls, we've given them the message, we've saturated them with the Gospel & our literature & everything.
150. AND YET THERE ARE STILL HUNGRY FIELDS JUST CRYING FOR THE HARVEST, "white unto harvest," & yet in those fields the labourers are few. In Europe the harvest has already been reaped & there's nothing but a little grain left in the corners of the fields to glean, grain by grain, stalk by stalk, yet we've still got most of our labourers there & in North America. Think of it!
151. NO WONDER HE SAID, "LIFT UP YOUR EYES & BEHOLD THE FIELDS THAT ARE WHITE UNTO HARVEST!" (Jn.4:35.) In other words, this field you're in is finished, it's reaped & even gleaned, so why waste your time here any longer? It's time to go! (You kind of help me to get inspired just looking at me, you kind of suck it out of me, GBY! I've found lots of times when I discuss things with you, I know then the Lord has to give me the truth & show me the way, because I'm trying to lead you. And lots of times He shows me the picture clearer as we talk it over, of what's wrong & what's happening & what we're supposed to do about it.)
152. AND THAT'S MY CONVICTION THE MORE I THINK ABOUT IT, the more I talk about it, the more we discuss it, the more I look at the situation, is that God is now starting to crack the whip to drive us out of Europe, because we have not left voluntarily, & to drive us into the fields where He needs us more. You can always keep witnessing--up until they stop you & drive you out--there's always a few more people, maybe a few that haven't heard or a few that you might do some good, a few.
153. BUT WHEN YOU'VE ALREADY WITNESSED TO MILLIONS & REACHED MILLIONS THERE, WHY STICK AROUND FOR THE FEW THAT ARE LEFT when there are millions that have never heard & never met you & never gotten your lit & who are waiting hungrily "white unto harvest" in the fields that you have to lift up your eyes to see in the distance. So I think that's what's happening, & I'm just kind of delivering my heart to you tonight, & my soul.
154. WE LEADERS HAVE TO DISCUSS THIS & WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT, & for this reason I think that we need urgently for Spain to make immediate plans to start moving on. The shepherds shouldn't be following the sheep. The shepherds ought to be going & pioneering & getting ready for the sheep to follow--& that means the Spanish/Portuguese LIM where they produce the Spanish/Portuguese literature, for a fourth of all our Homes.
155. I WAS THINKING & REALLY PRAYING ABOUT IT BEFORE I LEFT HOME WHEN I WAS READING THAT LETTER & as we were on our walk. I began asking Maria & Peter, "Where does the LIM send most of this Spanish & Portuguese literature? Do they send most of it to Spain & Portugal, or do they send most of it to Latin America?" I said, "Do you know, Peter?" He said he didn't know exactly, but it was his guess that most of it goes to Latin America!
156. THEN WHAT THE HELL ARE WE PRODUCING IT IS SPAIN FOR? Why don't we move it to Latin America where the people are & the need is & the largest number of Homes are? (Peter: 395 Mags go to Latin America & only 149 go to Iberia!) They mail out almost 400 Magazines to Latin America!
157. ALMOST 400 SPANISH & PORTUGUESE MAGS GO TO LATIN AMERICA & ONLY 150 TO IBERIA. And how many to the rest of the World? (Peter: That's it.) That's about it. I thought they might have some in Melilla or a few of the former Spanish colonies.
158. WE DON'T HAVE MUCH IN AFRICA, AFRICA'S A PRETTY HOPELESS CASE, LOST CAUSE. I don't think God even wants us to go there, frankly. I've told you, Africa had its chance. God told us this after I was first married & we had our first child & Mama Eve was pregnant with the second one, Aaron.
159. WE WERE IN A RED-HOT REVIVAL MEETING UP IN NORTHERN CALIFORNIA & God was pouring out His Spirit on this Christian Missionary Alliance Church. It was like a Pentecostal church, they were baptised in the Spirit, receiving the gifts, tongues, interpretation, everything, it was tremendous! I hadn't seen anything like that for years.
160. WE HAD A RETREAT WITH THE LEADERS, the pastor & his wife & leaders of the congregation, up in the mountains in this cabin by this little stream. They wanted to find out God's will for their lives, & this one young couple had been volunteers for the mission field in Africa, had wanted to go to Africa for years, since they were first saved, etc., & be missionaries, but they'd never gone. And God was dealing with them about serving Him, etc.
161. AND YOU KNOW AFRICA WAS CALLED THE DARK CONTINENT FOR YEARS, AFRICA THE DARK CONTINENT, not only because of the colour of the people but the spiritual darkness there. And the Lord said to them, "Why call ye that land dark which I call light, & this land light which I call dark?"--Because Africa had received so much Gospel! It's much worse now that it was then.
162. AT THAT TIME THE BRITISH EMPIRE WAS STILL IN CONTROL & British colonies & European colonies were still there & still under control of the European colonial empires, all Christians, or at least nominally. Virtually all the Africans from the northern tier on down at least--northern tier being Mohammedans or Muslims--almost everybody south of the Sahara Desert was a Christian, Catholic or Protestant.--At least churched & preached & nominally Christian.
163. SO THAT DURING THE EARLY PART OF THIS CENTURY THERE WERE MORE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN AFRICA THAN PRIESTS & PASTORS IN EUROPE!--That was an actual stat they told us about when I was in the Christian Missionary Alliance--there were more Christian missionaries, counting all the Catholics & Protestants, etc., that there were Christian ministers in Europe!--At one time, early in the century, during the height of the great World missionary drive, mostly backed by Northern Europe & North America.
164. THERE WERE MORE CHRISTIAN MISSIONARIES IN AFRICA THAN THERE WERE CHRISTIAN MINISTERS, BOTH CATHOLIC & PROTESTANT, IN EUROPE! Think of it! More Christian missionaries, meaning more Christian churches in Africa than in Europe! Now that's saying something! No wonder Europe was suffering two World Wars! God was trying to get them out to get out & try to reach the rest of the World. They'd reached Africa--I mean Africa's had it!
165. WHY IS AFRICA IN SUCH A MESS NOW? Why did they drive'm out, drive out the colonial powers & the Whites & all?--For the same reason probably we're being driven out of Spain! Africa's had it! They got the Gospel! They were Christianised, so to speak, & all those that were going to become Christians, became Christians. And those that weren't became Communists & devils & have practically taken over the place now.
166. DO WE WANT TO STAY IN THE U.S. UNTIL THAT HAPPENS? Do we want to stay in Spain & Europe till that happens? Africa has had it. It had it before.--Even some from us, not an awful lot, but some. But I'll tell you, we've sure delivered our souls in Europe, & I would say most of all in Spain, wouldn't you say? Wouldn't you say of all the countries in all Europe we have given Spain more of our people & our lit & our message & our love & everything than anywhere else in Europe?--Yes!
167. NOW THE LORD NEEDS YOU PEOPLE IN LATIN AMERICA! We're going to be forced out of Europe sooner or later anyhow, so you might as well be the vanguard. What more ideal group of people would be better suited for going there first & pioneering the land & getting it ready for the rest, than the ones who can already speak the languages & are familiar with the customs & everything--the Iberians!
168. CAN'T YOU SEE THE LOGIC OF IT? CAN'T YOU SEE THE WISDOM OF GOD IN IT? God shows us something, He often gives it by direct revelation, dreams, visions, etc., but then afterwards He confirms it, & we say, "Oh yes, of course, why not? I can see why He's doing that, I can see why He's leading us that way, I can understand!" He'll confirm it, establish it in the mouths of two or three witnesses, or a lot more, of why He's leading that direction, why He's told us to do that thing, why He's asked us to go there or whatever it is. You understand?
169. I REALLY THINK THIS IS A TURNING POINT RIGHT NOW, that what's happening in Spain is a major turning point for the Family in Europe. That God is trying to get us out of Europe!--Particularly the Spanish & Portuguese, because Latin America is composed of Spanish & Portuguese & that's what they speak.
170. NOW, WE HAVE BEEN IN EVERY COUNTRY OF LATIN AMERICA. We were very popular on television even in Brazil, & we have had quite a witness down there in all those countries. Some of them have almost been saturated with our Gospel via TV at least, or radio, but there are still millions of them & lots of places that we haven't really effectively thoroughly reached.
171. I WOULD SAY FOR ONE, POSSIBLY ARGENTINA, because it was such a hard closed country like Franco Spain, the Family never made much progress there & didn't even try hardly. And yet it is the most European, the most civilised, the most modern, the most progressive part & the strongest nation in all Latin America.
172. BRAZIL IS THE BIGGEST & SUPPOSEDLY THE RICHEST IN NATURAL RESOURCES, & they have been the recipient of more U.S. aid than any nation in Latin America. The U.S. was trying to counterbalance Argentina, who are anti-American, with Brazil whom they paid to be pro-American, & to play off against Argentina. So the U.S. had made almost a colony out of Brazil, but it's only recently now that Brazil is beginning to balk.
173. AND FINALLY VENEZUELA FOUND SOME OIL & GOT SO RICH IT COULD THUMB ITS NOSE AT THE U.S.: "Who needs you? We've got our own!" So these countries are beginning to rise up against the U.S. & against U.S. domination & being their flunkies & their servile servants & slaves & puppets, & they're getting fed up with the U.S. down there.
174. BUT THE U.S. IS STILL BACKING LOSING GOVERNMENTS DOWN THERE, paying them, pouring not millions but billions into Latin America to try to buy'm off to be pro-American. I'll give Jimmy Carter credit for maybe one thing, maybe amongst a few things, that's one thing he tried to quit, but it's almost impossible. But Reagan is a militant rightist who is going to back those regimes again. I mean, they're betting on losing horses!
175. THE U.S. SUPPORTED SOMOZA FOR 50 YEARS IN LATIN AMERICA! They supported that horrible regime, because they were anti-Communist & pro-American. In spite of the more money & millions the U.S. poured into Nicaragua, the people finally won. You just can't keep that going forever when you're just paying the rulers to make slaves of the people. Sooner or later the people are going to rise up.
176. WELL, WE COULD GO ON ABOUT LATIN AMERICA, but I can see all kinds of reasons why this is the hour for us to go to Latin America! And for all these ready-made teams, ready-made workers, trained employees of God, trained missionaries, speaking the languages & everything, familiar with the customs & the personalities of the Latins.
177. THERE'S A READY-MADE MANPOWER POOL THAT'S TREMENDOUS that could absolutely saturate South America, Latin America, & set that place on fire!--If you'd ever get out of Spain! And I think the Lord's going to have to drive you out, that's all!
178. LORD FORGIVE ME IF I'VE KEPT YOU TOO LATE, BUT THAT'S ON MY HEART & I'VE GOT TO TELL SOMEBODY, & you're just sitting here. You didn't leave, that's your fault! You were getting up to go out the door, you should have gone! Like Mike there in the army driving that truck. You heard me tell that story, didn't you?
179. MIKE GOT DRAFTED IN THE ARMY & HE DECIDED HE WANTED AN EASY JOB that probably would be behind the lines, so he put down on his papers that he was a truck driver--he didn't even know how to drive! So they assigned him to driving a truck, one of these big army trucks. And the sergeant told him first day of duty, "Mike, get over there in that truck & drive into that garage over there!" So Mike jumped into the truck & didn't even know how to drive, but he tried.
180. HE FINALLY GOT THE TRUCK GOING ANYWAY, & of course he knew enough from watching people drive automobiles, you steer with the wheel, etc., & he got it into the garage. But then he got scared & he thought he was going to drive right through the back wall, so he slammed it in reverse & it shot out of the garage again! He did that about three times & he kept coming back out of the garage. And the sergeant said, "What the hell's the matter with you, boy! Why don't you keep that truck in that garage?!" Mike said,
181. "I HAD IT IN THERE THREE TIMES, WHY DIDN'T YOU SHUT THE DOOR?" Ha! You never heard that one? (Maria: There's always somebody else!) Honey, I'm sorry! You are the most patient woman in the whole World. She's the most patient woman in the whole World, otherwise she'd never live with me. GBY! ILY! She loves the Words, even if they kill her! Well, what did I say that connects with it? It had something to do with Latin America.
182. GOD'S TRIED TO GET US DOWN THERE, HEAD US DOWN THERE, & TRYING TO GIVE US THE POINT. He said it several times. What's He going to have to do? Shut the door in Europe so we'll go? So, PTL. Almost 400 Mags in Latin America, & only 150 in Iberia!
183. THINK OF THE POSTAGE WE'RE WASTING! We send everything airmail because we think it's important enough for the kids to get the Magazine as soon as possible. And as it is, to those countries in South America where the mail service is not too good in some of them & slow, some of them don't get the Magazine until two of three weeks after they're posted.
184. WHY SHOULD THE IBERIANS GET THEIR PALTRY LITTLE 150 MAGAZINES ALMOST IMMEDIATELY the next day or two after they're mailed, & it takes the other 400 Latin Americans two or three weeks to get theirs? So why the hell shouldn't we have the Spanish/Portuguese LIM where the people are, where the field is?
185. THAT'S JUST NOT GOOD MILITARY LOGISTICS! It's not good simple military tactics. It's not even common business sense to have the production center in Spain where there are only 150 customers, 3,000 miles across an ocean from the other 400! Why didn't we think of that sooner? How dumb can we get?
186. I DIDN'T EVEN DREAM THAT THE SPANISH/PORTUGUESE LIM HAD GOTTEN SO BIG! I never dreamed that they were handling one-fourth of all our Homes! No wonder it's important! No wonder God's trying to get us out of Spain & to get us to move to Latin America. That's where the field is, that's where the people are, that's where they want us & need us, that's where they're begging for the Magazines! And here we are, still sitting in Spain mailing out 150 Magazines to Iberia but 400 clear across 3,000 miles of ocean to Latin America!
187. LORD, YOU KNOW, WE'RE BEGINNING TO GET THE PICTURE, LORD, WE'RE BEGINNING TO GET THE POINT! Forgive us for being so slow & so dumb & dragging our feet so long when You told us long ago to go South, & months now that You told us it's time to make plans to get out of Europe.
188. LORD, FORGIVE US FOR DRAGGIN' OUR FEET & BEING SLOW just because things were booming in Spain, because we have so many people there & we've had such a tremendous witness there & distribute so much lit there & prosper there, Lord, we've been tempted to drag our feet & settle down & let the roots grow down & get established in Spain & Portugal when You need us in Latin America.
189. SO NOW YOU'VE HAD TO DRAW OUT THE SWORD AFTER US! You've had to draw out the persecution, official governmental opposition to drive us out now in order to get us again on the move & moving to fields that are more fertile & more fruitful & whiter unto harvest. Forgive us, Lord, for not seeing these things sooner.
190. WE HAVE RECEIVED THE MESSAGE, LORD, & WE HAVE, WE BELIEVE, BEEN FAITHFUL IN POINTING THE DIRECTION that You have been leading, trying to guide Thy children in the right direction, Lord. We have said that we felt it was time for at least some of them to start leaving Europe & to eventually go to Latin America, probably, many of them or most of them who do go, as being the best place to go which is not overworked & not completely harvested & a safer place to be when the war comes.
191. AND YET VERY FEW HAVE GONE, REALLY, LORD. Most people are still settled down & don't want to go, don't want to leave their stable situation, their good jobs or good income or good home or even good mobile equipment & countries where they're doing well financially, even if not reaping much fruit. Forgive them, Lord.
192. FORGIVE US IF WE'VE IN SOME WAYS GOTTEN LIKE THE CHURCHES. They settled down & quit evangelising & quit missionarising & they got too established & built buildings instead of evangelising the World. Help us, Lord, not to let the same thing happen to us.
193. WE TRIED TO GET THE KIDS MOBILE, LORD. We've been spending a year at it, ever since last summer, harping on the subject, & we've gotten a lot of them mobile, Lord, to try to keep those even that go back home on the road so they can be of some good to You & some use & of some service, even back in their home countries. Even if they have found it too hard on the field or unable for some reason or other to stay on the field, at least they can stay on the road & still try to evangelise & get out the Word.
194. NOW LORD IT LOOKS TO US LIKE YOU'RE DEFINITELY LEADING US OUT OF EUROPE, of course we've known that You wanted us to go other places for a long time. We've saturated Europe with our Gospel & our literature & our Family. We have more Family in Europe than in North America, even, & we have too much Family in North America, and so few, Lord, in so many other places, hungry fields around the World.
195. YOU'RE TRYING NOW, LORD, TO GENTLY PUSH US & EVEN SHOVE US A LITTLE HARDER HERE & THERE TO GET US OUT. We hope You don't have to do anything more drastic, Lord, & cause us any real genuine suffering or severe persecution, harsh persecution, actual physical suffering in some way, Lord, in order to teach us & persuade us & chastise us & drive us out of these over-worked fields into those that have hardly been worked at all. Jesus, help us, Lord, in Jesus' name! Lead & guide us, Lord.
196. HELP US TO GUIDE THOSE WHO ARE NOW INVESTIGATING THE POSSIBILITIES & RESEARCHING & trying to make a decision on what they should do. We hardly feel, Lord, that just a move as far as Portugal is even sufficient, still in Europe sitting right on top of NATO headquarters & could be one of the first to go in war.
197. WE FEEL THAT IF WE'RE GOING TO SURVIVE & WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO REAP MORE NEEDY FIELDS, we're going to have to go further than that & clear out of Europe & as far as we can go, Lord, "into all the World to preach the Gospel to every creature," Lord, as much as we can. Help us, Lord.
198. BLESS THESE DEAR ONES THAT HAVE STAYED UP SO LATE & ARE SO WEARY. Forgive me, Lord for being selfish & wanting to talk to them tonight, unburden my own heart & share this burden with them & ask them to pray for guidance to know what to do. Lord, they have prayed & we believe we've gotten the guidance. We believe we're beginning to see the picture & get the point of what we're supposed to do. Hallelujah! Thank You Lord!
199. THANK YOU FOR MAKING IT CLEAR EVEN WHILE WE TALKED TO THEM. Thy Holy Spirit is always faithful, Lord, & You'll not let us be deceived. If we ask for bread You'll not give us a stone. If we ask for fish You'll not give us a serpent. (Mt.7:9-11.) And we've asked tonight for prayer & guidance & we believe You've given it, & this is it. TYL! PYJ! Hallelujah!
200. SO BLESS THESE THAT HAVE SACRIFICED THEIR TIME & THEIR SLEEP & THEIR STRENGTH TONIGHT TO "WATCH WITH US ANOTHER HOUR" (Mt.26:40) while we go through this trial & somewhat of a garden, Lord, in which we're suffering with those who are suffering there in Spain & worried & fearful & dreading the unknown, not knowing what is going to happen under this new situation & looking to us for guidance, Lord. We thank You for showing us the picture & the reasons why. TYL! And what to do about it, Lord! Praise You Jesus! Hallelujah!
201. AMEN, I THINK IT'S PRETTY OBVIOUS THEY OUGHT TO GO STRAIGHT TO SOME COUNTRY IN LATIN AMERICA that receives Spanish citizens hospitably & generously where they can stay. There are countries in Latin America where citizens of Spain are welcome & can stay as long as they want, just like Spain welcomes some of them & they can stay in Spain as long as they want. It's considered their Mother country.
202. IT WAS THEIR COLONIAL POWER & THEY REMAIN TODAY LIKE THE BRITISH EMPIRE COMMONWEALTH. Commonwealth citizens can go almost anywhere in the Commonwealth & are received & not considered just tourists, but can stay & live as long as they want. There are lots of places you can go if you're a British citizen or you're a Commonwealth citizen, a citizen of almost any one of those parts of the former British Empire.
203. SO SPAIN APPARENTLY HAS THAT SAME ATTITUDE TOWARD ITS FORMER COLONIES IN LATIN AMERICA, & they have the same attitude toward her. So that they travel freely & can stay in either country as long as they desire. And I've heard that most of the Spanish/Iberian LIM are Spanish nationals. So they've got to go to some country where they'll receive Spanish nationals & they can stay awhile. They can't just be running in & out of the country every few weeks, even two or three months.
204. AND ALSO, MOST OF THE LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES WILL RECEIVE AMERICAN CITIZENS ABOUT LIKE SPAIN DOES, six months at a time. You only have to go out a few days & come right back & stay another six months! You can practically live there forever! Spain's very good to Americans, or has been. So that looks to me like the solution, that's the guidance. I'm sorry we're so slow & so dense & so thick-witted & dumb & dull & slow to perceive. I feel like the guys on the road to Emmaus. (Lk.24:13-31.) I can't understand why we didn't see this sooner!
205. ALTHOUGH I BEGAN TO REALLY PRAY SERIOUSLY ABOUT IT TODAY & IT BEGAN TO COME TO ME, "I'll bet most of their people are in Latin America! What're they doing in Iberia?" It'll even save postage! And best of all, most of all, save time! And I might say most of all maybe save them! Because if the government's going to start clamping down on'm now & officially calling them illegal, if you're illegal that means against the law. And if that's true, they could give them all kinds of trouble--fines, imprisonment, harassment & whatnot! So PTL, amen?
206. WE'VE SAID ENOUGH BY THIS TIME I think everybody knows we think it would be safer to be over there when the war hits. Europe is really not going to be a very nice place to be if you'll watch some of these videos about all these new weapons & bombs & poisons & everything else they're cookin' up for you in Europe! I certainly wouldn't want to be there when it happens if we can help it!
207. SO I THINK IT'S THE BEGINNING OF THE END--OR TO THAT END! PTL! I think that God is beginning to shove us off, & He's going to move Spain out first. And where they lead, I believe the others will follow. And I wouldn't be surprised when the rest of Europe & maybe even N. America hears that the Spanish/Portuguese LIM & the WS Units have all left Europe, I wouldn't be surprised if there will be a lot of Europeans who follow too, & a lot of Americans. They're going to be on their way!
208. GOD WILL FIND US A PLACE WHERE GOD WILLING WE'LL BE ABLE TO SURVIVE A LITTLE LONGER, even through & after the war, we trust, so we can carry on, because things look pretty bad with Reagan coming into office now. He's pretty tough, he's a rightist reactionary, & I agree with Ted Kennedy on this, it worries me to see that he's got so many military men appointed to his cabinet, including the Secretary of State, of all things, General Haig, who was one of Nixon's hogs!
209. HOW CAN A MILITARY MAN BE A DIPLOMAT? If there is anything a diplomat is supposed to be, & a Secretary of State, he's supposed to be a keeper of the peace & try to handle people gently & speak softly & try to keep the peace & keep from going to war! Whereas a military man wouldn't be in the military if he wasn't convinced that war is the ultimate solution!
210. A DIPLOMAT, THE SECRETARY OF STATE OR THE FOREIGN MINISTER, is supposed to be convinced that there's got to be a political solution, there must be a diplomatic solution, & that war is not a solution. But the military man, how could he be a good soldier unless he was convinced that war is the solution?
211. REAGAN HAS APPOINTED A GENERAL, A MILITARY MAN, TO BE THE SECRETARY OF STATE, the leading diplomat of the U.S.! And that guy, I have never known him to be diplomatic, & he doesn't even look diplomatic. He's a tough egg! The whole scene looks to me like it's getting set up for the next war very rapidly. I sure as hell don't want to be there when it happens, do you? God help us to be out!
212. AMEN, SO THAT'S A LOT OF PROBLEMS SOLVED ALL IN ONE NIGHT through a little discussion with you. I like to bring you guys into it, I like you to see how decisions are made & how they happen--not by me, but by the Lord! Because I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know what to do, but the more we prayed & the more we worked at it, the more we talked to them & the more we talked to you, the more we thought about it, the clearer it got! PTL?
213. I'M NOT OMNISCIENT, OMNIPRESENT & OMNIPOTENT--BUT GOD IS! Maybe you think I know everything, but I don't! PTL? I didn't even know the stats! Maybe you thought I should have concentrated & God would have showed it to me. Well, if we didn't have a telephone & I had to know, He probably would have!
214. BUT I'M PRACTICAL ENOUGH TO FIGURE THAT GOD EXPECTS YOU TO USE THE EASY WAY & NOT BOTHER HIM IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO! I've usually felt like you ought to do all you can do, & God helps those that help themselves. And I never agreed with that method of buying an accordion & expecting God to teach you to play it without doing any studying or practicing or learning music. I don't think God works that way.
215. IF YOU CAN WORK AT IT & HELP YOURSELF, I THINK GOD THEN CAN DO MIRACLES in helping to teach you & giving you the gift, & I think He's done that a lot with a lot of you kids on guitar, etc., really amazingly helped you! But I think you had to work at it & you had to try, & try to learn chords & try to learn how to play, & God did what you couldn't do. You did what you could--"she hath done what she could" (Mk.14:8)--& the Lord did the rest. PTL?
216. SO GOD HELPS THOSE THAT HELP THEMSELVES AS FAR AS THEY CAN, & my motto is that mostly He helps those who can't help themselves with what they can't do. So I think both mottos are true: God helps both those who help themselves & those who can't help themselves. He helps those that help themselves with what they can't do, & helps those that can't help themselves with what they can't do. Amen? PTL.
217. WELL, I THINK WE MADE SOME PROGRESS TONIGHT, PTL? You'd better get to bed, it's almost two o'clock. God bless you & thanks for your patience & thanks for bearing with me in the garden, watching with me, not one hour, but two or three! We've got to get this off to the Family, because right now I think God's trying to get a lot of people out of a lot of places into places of greater usefulness & greater safety so that they can survive & continue to serve the Lord.
218. SO WHY SHOULD THEY DIE FOR THIS COUNTRY WHEN THEY CAN LIVE IN ANOTHER? PTL! Don't be a God-damned bastard dying for your country when you can help a lot of those guys die for their country! Dear old Patton, I believe he was really a genius! I think he was inspired! And I'm also convinced he was a Jew! Ha! Nobody but a Jew could pull off some of the stuff he did & get away with it! So PTL! TYL! Amen. Enough said.
219. THY WILL BE DONE, LORD, YOU KNOW WHAT'S BEST, IN JESUS' NAME. Lead us & guide us & help us to know what You want us to do. Help these of Thy children who must now go first because they're in the hottest situation, help them to find the places to go & to prepare the way for others to follow.
220. EVEN AS YOU SENT FORERUNNERS AHEAD OF YOURSELF, LORD, before You entered this World & began Your ministry. You had those that went ahead to prepare the way. Even as You have gone ahead of us, Lord, to Heaven, to prepare a place for us, that where You are, there we may be also! (Jn.14:3.)
221. WE THANK THEE FOR THY GUIDANCE & THY LEADERSHIP & THE OPEN DOORS THOU HAST GIVEN. We thank Thee, Lord, for all we've accomplished in Europe. We thank You for what we did accomplish in North America & some are still accomplishing. We thank You, Lord, that we have really felt that we have fought a good fight, we have kept the faith, & it now looks like we've just about finished our course in Europe, & that it's now time for us to go on to whatever crown You have waiting for us in Latin America or wherever You lead us to go.
222. HALLELUJAH! GOD IS LEADING, AMEN? I think we're beginning to get the picture, get the point. And I think Spain is now beginning to be the beginning of the end for us in Europe. The Lord has been leading us that direction, but I never saw it so clearly--until I had to! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
223. ARE YOU READY TO GO?--SHOVE OFF!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
