HomeARC ML 1317
GOD'S PICTURES!--God's Good Gold vs. the Devil's Dirty Poison! DFO1317 5/2/82
1. I WAS JUST FINISHING MY MORNING NAP WHEN I HAD THIS STRANGE DREAM WITH ITS SHOCKING ENDING, after which I remembered it very clearly & could still almost feel it! The startling conclusion of the dream actually woke me up & I could remember every detail very clearly as I do in those significant dreams that it seems are often of the Lord.
2. I STILL DON'T UNDERSTAND THIS ONE, & I don't necessarily even like it, at least the end of it, although the first part was very beautiful! But it was obviously symbolic, & I've found that I do have to tell them when they are so very vivid yet in my mind & heart.
3. I CAN STILL VIVIDLY SEE THE SCENES OF THE DREAM & EVEN FEEL THE SENSATIONS AFTERWARD AS THOUGH IT REALLY HAPPENED & I WAS REALLY THERE, it was so real! And when they're this realistic & this vivid & this clear & this outstanding & usually just before I wake up, they are usually definitely significant dreams which have some important meaning & usually from the Lord!
4. I'VE HAD A FEW NIGHTMARES which I think were certainly not of the Lord but of the Devil. To frighten me & scare me & upset me, but I can usually recognise the difference. There's seldom ever anything good in a nightmare & it usually has no significant meaning or lesson or interpretation that is valuable other than to merely try to frighten me in my sleep & scare me in my slumber, & therefore most apt to be from the Enemy just to worry me & to upset me & startle me!
5. BUT DREAMS FROM THE LORD USUALLY HAVE SOMETHING GOOD & MEANINGFUL IN THEM! They are usually not entirely bad & always have some kind of lesson to be learned from their story, & some of them certainly are stories! They're as exciting as a drama or thriller movie & as interesting as a play or a real life experience! They surely make good narratives, exciting, thrilling stories very vividly portrayed by our inspired artists in our Komix!
6. NOW I CAN UNDERSTAND WHY THE LORD HAS GIVEN ME SO MANY DREAMS LIKE THIS of various kinds & revelations full of so many pictures! He knew that we were going to use a lot of pictures & need a lot of pictures, particularly for our children, & especially for the smaller children to interest them in the tales I have to tell rather than wasting their time & their little minds & hearts on the silly foolish fairy tales & ridiculous unrealistic & totally silly insipid shallow little stories of modern books for children.
7. EVEN THE OLD FAIRY TALES USUALLY HAD SOME KIND OF MORAL & with some possible basis in fact, & of course Aesop's Fables were famous for their wonderful little morals. Aesop was a famous Greek storyteller, & if you've never seen a book of Aesop's Fables, then you've missed something!
8. I REMEMBER WE HAD ONE OF THEM WHEN WAS SMALL, & it was not only full of fables, but full of beautiful little pictures illustrating them! I was quite thrilled & fascinated with it & loved, in the earliest days, for my Mother or nurses to read them to me, and later on I was able to read them for myself.
9. EACH WAS A FASCINATING LITTLE INTERESTING STORY, just little short stories much briefer than most of mine, sorry, & each closed with a little "moral" as it was called. I always particularly was fond of the one about the "Lion & the Thorn"--the lion with the thorn in his foot.
10. I DON'T REMEMBER THAT AESOP HIMSELF WAS ALWAYS THE HERO OF THE STORIES, but I had the feeling that he was, or I imagined him to be. Anyhow, I as a little child of course supposed him to be, since they were his fables. The book was plainly titled Aesop's Fables.
11. BUT AS YOU MAY KNOW, A FABLE IS BY DEFINITION NOT NECESSARILY TRUE & NOT NECESSARILY SO, but could be just a tale to illustrate a point, or an old legend or myth which may have had some basis in fact or history originally, but sometimes had long lost its complete veracity & had become somewhat embellished by further imaginative storytellers until it was hardly the original story any more!
12. THIS IS WHAT SOME UNBELIEVERS THINK OF THE BIBLE: That it's just a bunch of legends, myths, fables & old stories told by some imaginative storytellers! However, we know that they're true & we know that the Bible is God's Word & not just a bunch of fairy tales!
13. HOWEVER, SOME OF THE BIBLE STORIES ARE JUST AS THRILLING & EXCITING & INTERESTING & FASCINATING TO CHILDREN AS SOME OF THE OLD FAIRY TALES of Grimm or Hans Anderson, etc., & if you have never read Grimm's or Hans Anderson's fairy tales, you really have missed something! I really did enjoy them when I was a little lad with my caretakers reading them to me & later reading them for myself. like the Mother Goose rhymes, they always had some kind of meaning or moral or lesson to be learned from them.
14. AND IF YOU HAVE MISSED MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES TOO, YOU'VE REALLY SORT OF MISSED A PART OF ENGLISH CULTURE & EDUCATION, as well as other gems of the English language which have woven themselves into spoken English in their many references & inferences & quotes which we still use at least some old-timers still use--who are familiar with them & were familiar in our youth & which you often hear speakers & writers quoting or making reference to regarding a certain meaning of something they're talking about that that particular story so aptly illustrated.
15. EVEN "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" & "INTO THE LOOKING GLASS" & "OF CABBAGES & KINGS" & many of the other old English classics were designed some for children & some in seemingly childish innocent language for adults but with actual hidden political meanings to spare the writer from vengeance & retaliation from the powers that be!--Such as the Mother Goose Rhymes & "Of Cabbages & Kings."
16. I'M SURE MANY OF AESOP'S FABLES & EVEN SOME OF THE FAIRY TALES WERE INTENDED TO HAVE HIDDEN MEANINGS for the kings & rulers & governments of their day, that at least the people would understand, even if the government did not!--And perhaps they hoped that it would not understand!
17. YOU CAN EVEN FIND SUCH LANGUAGE & STORIES & SIMILES & PARABLES & ANALOGIES IN THE BIBLE ITSELF, in which the Prophet or the author spoke in cryptic, almost coded language to hide the meaning from some of the hearers who were enemies. He did not want them to understand what he was talking about, but he wanted the people to understand, & he felt that they would understand. Jesus did this in many of the parables which He told, little short stories with sometimes hidden meanings but always with a definite point or moral, teaching a lesson which needed to be learned.
18. ONCE HIS DISCIPLES QUESTIONED HIM PRIVATELY AFTER HE'D BEEN TEACHING PUBLICLY WITH HIS ENEMIES LISTENING, the Scribes & the Pharisees who were always trying to catch Him in something whereby they might accuse Him to the government & thereby get rid of Him. He had been teaching in such parables on this one occasion. In fact, on many occasions He taught in parables.
19. BUT AT THIS TIME, AFTERWARD HIS DISCIPLES ASKED HIM: "MASTER, WHY TEACHEST THOU THEM IN PARABLES?" as I recall the quotation. And He said "Because it is given to you"--meaning His Own personal disciples who loved Him, believed Him & understood Him--"to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God: but unto them"--meaning His enemies & the unbelievers--"it is not given." (Lk.8:10.)
20. IN OTHER WORDS, IT I GIVEN TO YOU TO KNOW & UNDERSTAND THE MYSTERIES, the hidden meanings of the Kingdom of God & the things He was talking about, but it is not given to them to understand. First of all, because they were unbelievers & would not believe what He was saying, "blind leaders of the blind," as He called them. (Mt.15:14.)--Children of their father the Devil, as He accused them to their face, & enemies as well, some of them. (Jn.8:44.)
21. THE VAST MAJORITY WERE SIMPLE INDIFFERENT UNBELIEVERS, then there was, of course, the small group of bitter enemies who wanted to kill Him or get rid of Him. And then, of course, there was also the small group of His very dear friends & believers, disciples, fishers of men!
22. SO WHAT JESUS WAS DOING WAS ACTUALLY SPEAKING TO HIS DISCIPLES, intending these remarks to be only for His disciples & understood only by them. He was speaking in a sort of cryptic code, a kind of secret language that only they would understand. But sometimes it was so cryptic & secret & mysterious that even they didn't understand & He had to explain it to them afterward! And a few times the meaning was so obvious that apparently He intended for His enemies to get the point & it made them furious!
23. SO JESUS HIMSELF TOLD MANY OF THESE PARABLES OR LITTLE SHORT STORIES WITH MORALS, & His teachings & His words & the Gospels are full of them! He was quite a teller of tales Himself & they were used very pointedly to illustrate His meanings & to fascinate His audiences with His message, even as we today use our skits & Komix, & as the Lord has used His dreams with me.
24. THEY'RE CALLED PARABLES, MEANING THEY PARALLEL THE TRUTH, or they parallel a certain message He was trying to get across to them. Therefore they are a parable, they're com-parable to the message. The pictures He paints in words, as the great Artist that He is, are comparable to the parables! Or rather the parables were comparable to the Truth He was trying to illustrate by these beautiful little stories, & some not so beautiful. Some are almost ugly & frightening about the man in Hell, etc., but nevertheless telling a very important story and giving a very important warning!
25. IN FACT, THE GREAT MASTERPIECES BY THE GREAT MASTER-ARTISTS OF HISTORY are not only full of scenes depicting the life of Jesus & the various characters of the Bible & the Bible stories, but you will also find in many children's Bible story books, as well as amongst the masterpieces of art, that the artist's interest & imagination has been captured by one of these little short stories that Jesus or some character in the Bible told, & he has actually illustrated it in his beautiful painting to bring it to life in graphic vividness to illustrate it for the viewers!
26. MANY A LITTLE CHILD HAS BEEN FASCINATED BY THESE BEAUTIFUL OLD MASTERPIECES OF RELIGIOUS ART in Bibles & various books & children's Bible story books, Sunday school calendars, Sunday School literature & various kinds of religious literature illustrated with sacred art. I can't verify necessarily, though, that all the art was sacred, & some of the Medieval art was about as ugly as it can get! Some of it was pretty gross & some of it was almost downright Satanic in its fiendishness! Some of these artists were certainly not inspired by God as they depicted devils & Hell & demons & Satan & all the horrors of iniquity!
27. BUT THE GOOD-INSPIRED ARTISTS WHO DEPICTED & DID SUCH A MASTERFUL JOB OF PICTURING THE STORIES, CHARACTERS & PARABLES OF THE BIBLE have been a great asset to Christian families for centuries in being able to hold before their children copies of this great art & its masterpieces of truly sacred art, truly inspired by the Lord to illustrate the characters of the Bible & the stories of the Bible & these parables of the Bible comparable to the truths of the Bible, illustrating those truths, & most of you are very familiar with them.
28. TAKE, FOR EXAMPLE, THE VERY VERY MANY PICTURES YOU HAVE SEEN OF JESUS. Actually, there's no photograph of Jesus in existence, so unless you've seen Him in dreams & visions, you don't really know exactly what He looks like. We have a little description of Him in some of the scriptures, particularly in Revelation where it actually describes what He looks like in Heaven. (Re.1:13-16.) But His appearance in glory that John saw, is considerably more glorified & more striking & astonishing than His Earthly human visage.
29. YET WE HAVE MANY INSPIRED PICTURES OF CHRIST IN HIS VARIOUS MINISTRIES WHILE HERE ON EARTH, everything from Joseph & Mary in the stable at the manger at His birth & the shepherds worshipping, etc., with the cattle standing nearby!--Beautiful pictures of the manger scene & the nativity scene which thrill the hearts of many children, including our own, & we've used many of these to illustrate some of our Letters & Books, etc.
30. SO GOD DOES USE PICTURES & PARABLES & HE CERTAINLY HAS USED PICTURES WITH ME in both dreams & visions of truths that He was trying to illustrate to me to give me some message, to give me a picture of what was going to happen or was happening behind the scenes or to illustrate some truth that He wanted me to bring out.
31. I CAN CERTAINLY UNDERSTAND NOW WHY HE USED SOME OF THESE VERY SEEMINGLY CHILDISH ALMOST FOOLISH LITTLE PICTURES that He has given me in the past to illustrate very childish little stories, because we were going to have many children & they would need childish stories on the level of their understanding, their simple little childish minds. They would need to have the stories & the truths & the message illustrated for them so that they might more easily understand it.
32. AND EVEN FOR SIMPLE-MINDED CHILDLIKE OLDER PEOPLE AS WELL, GROWN-UPS, ADULTS, perhaps particularly of the simpler more backward civilisations or cultures of the world who could not stand--understand--& maybe couldn't stand them either--the great flowery oratory of some great elocutionist or fancy preacher or a highly-educated professor who has educated himself completely out of reach of the common mind!
33. MY MOTHER USED TO TAKE HER DICTIONARY TO CHURCH TO UNDERSTAND THIS ONE PREACHER who was one of the professors of the theology college she was attending!--One of those theological seminaries that I love to call cemeteries because they are the graveyards of faith!--Who only preach a dead God & a dead religion & something which hardly could be called faith, because it's not faith!
34. IT'S UNBELIEF & IT IS SO DEAD THAT IT STINKS & IT OUGHT TO BE BURIED IN SOME GRAVEYARD, so therefore I prefer to call those theological seminaries, theological cemeteries, because they're the burial grounds of the childlike faith of many a student who has gone there with a simple little faith in God & religion taught to him or her by their parents & their upbringing.
35. BUT HAVING NEVER HAD A REAL EXPERIENCE WITH CHRIST & received Jesus & His holy spirit into their hearts & minds, & without being protected by sufficient insulation of God's Word & the pure Truth of God's Word, what little childish faith they may have had was destroyed by those evil ravening wolves of the unbelieving theological professors & preachers & teachers of those theological cemeteries & so-called Bible colleges!
36. MANY A YOUNG PERSON HAS GONE INTO THEM BELIEVING SIMPLY LIKE A LITTLE CHILD in what his mother & father taught him, or what he had heard in church all through his young life, but has come out like my Mother did, with her faith totally destroyed--what little faith they did have or thought they had--an unbelieving sceptical atheist!--Or at the least agnostic, not knowing what they believed or if there was anything they could believe!
37. SOME HAVE EVEN COME OUT DOWNRIGHT AGAINST GOD, ATHEISTS & AGAINST THE BIBLE, after having been taught by these ravening wolves in sheep's clothing, these unbelieving atheists in clerical garb, "men of the cloth!"--And that's about all their religion is, it's about as thin as the cloth they wore, concealing the evil beasts within who were endeavouring to destroy the little lambs whom they taught & what little faith they had! (Mt.7:15; 23:13)
38. MY MOTHER CAME OUT OF SUCH AN INSTITUTION WITH HER CHILDLIKE CHILDISH FAITH COMPLETELY DESTROYED, because she had not had a personal experience with Jesus Himself in real acceptance of Christ as her saviour & been filled with the Holy spirit & the Truth of God to protect her!--Even though her own father was a preacher of the Gospel & a famous minister, an outstanding orator of the church holding huge pastorates with thousands of members, from the largest Christian church in St. Louis, Missouri, to the largest Christian Church in Melbourne, Australia!
39. YES, KEDA & YOU AUSSIES, MY GRANDFATHER LIVED IN AUSTRALIA FOR AWHILE & pastored the largest Christian church in the country, the first Christian Church of Melbourne, Australia! I don't know whether it's still there or not, it'd have to be nearly 100 years old by now as that must've been 70 or 80 years ago.
40. HE HIMSELF DID HAVE SAVING FAITH IN CHRIST, but somehow or another, neither he nor my sweet saintly Grandmother--who led all of those thousands of Chinese to the Lord & learned Cantonese in order to witness to them in St. Louis, Missouri, & also later in China--seemed to have been able to impart a saving knowledge of Jesus to their own daughter, my Mother, nor their other two children. I don't know whether they didn't bring it down & make it simple enough or what.
41.BUT HER FATHER WAS QUITE AN ORATOR WHO USED FLOWERY LANGUAGE! He could preach on & on, I guess something like I do! I was one of his students! I sat under his preaching for some time, & maybe that's where I got some of it! Maybe that's why some of you can't understand me sometimes! It's a little too flowery & a little too oratorical & I use too many of those big words that you learn in college that only the elite college-educated can understand & use deliberately. I mean others use them deliberately, to show off their education!--Big words that the simple man can't even understand & leaves him mystified!
42. THAT WAS THE KIND OF A CHURCH THAT MY MOTHER WENT TO WHEN SHE HAD TO TAKE HER DICTIONARY TO UNDERSTAND THE PREACHER! She said she was sometimes reminded of the story of the old lady who was a simple country woman with very little education who was sitting in such a church on her visit to the city & her relatives, & the preacher kept going on & on in these flowery oratorical flights of big words & mysterious meanings.
43. FINALLY SHE COULDN'T TAKE IT ANY LONGER! She couldn't understand what he was talking about, & she wanted to, so she jumped up!--Apparently she was from the kind of a church where you could jump up, back in the country, & speak your mind if you wanted to, & where there was more audience participation.
44. THE MODERN CHURCHES TODAY DON'T PERMIT AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION, or at least not much except in chanting a few dirges perhaps. The preacher's the dictator & he's the only one allowed to talk. I've found that out in quite a few churches where I tried to get up & correct the preacher & quote him the scripture! They didn't like it & they didn't intend to have anybody else do any talking but them, so they invited me to leave, & if I didn't leave, they carried me out!
45. WELL, THIS OLD LADY JUMPED UP & TOLD THIS FLOWERY BIG--WORDED WORDY PREACHER: "HEY, PREACHER! PUT YOUR COOKIES ON A LOWER SHELF!" In other words, all these wonderful things he was saying may have been very sweet & good, but she couldn't reach'm! Kind of like the two old ladies that came out of the church one day after listening to this famous highly-educated multi-degreed Doctor of Divinity, this D.D., Ph.D, Th.D. whatnot!
46. AFTER MY GRANDFATHER FINALLY BEGAN TO UNDERSTAND THE LORD BETTER & know Him better through my Mother & her marvellous healing & salvation & experience, he got a little bit simpler & more childlike & he began to put his cookies on a lower shelf! He even had a D.D. after his name, Doctor of Divinity!--and a Ph.D. & a Th.D.--Doctor of Philosophy & Doctor of Theology--& LL.D., Doctor of Literature. He had once been the President of Virginia College & an outstanding literary & "Divine Light" as they used to call them, these highly-educated, highly-degreed theological preachers, professors & writers!
47. AND HE SAID TO ME ONE DAY, "DAVE, DO YOU KNOW WHAT D.D. USUALLY STANDS FOR AFTER MOST OF THOSE PREACHERS' NAMES with all those degrees & that education?" Well, at that time I didn't really know for sure, but I think I might have known. I think, I was a high school student then & I should've known. It of course stands for "Doctor of Divinity," meaning a theological degree usually borne by highly-educated, over-educated preachers.
48. WELL, MY GRANDFATHER HAD QUITE A SENSE OF HUMOUR & he said, "Well Dave, to me, with most of them it means something that I found In the Bible which fits them exactly! They are dumb dogs which cannot even bark & warn the people! It doesn't stand for a Doctor of Divinity, but a dumb dog that cannot even bark like a prophet & warn the people!" (Is.56:10.)
49. SO THESE TWO OLD LADIES HAD BEEN LISTENING TO THIS DOCTOR SO-&-SO as they came out of the church the one said, "Ah, wasn't Doctor So-&-so's sermon absolutely divine? wasn't it marvellous? Wasn't it deep!" And the other simple old country lady said: "Huh! He ain't deep, he just ain't clear!" Kind of like muddy water! Just because the water's muddy & you can't see the bottom doesn't mean that it's very deep, as you'll find out in the tale I have to tell today in my dream!
50. WELL ANYHOW, THE LORD HAS CERTAINLY MADE THE TRUTHS OF HIS WORD SIMPLE & CLEAR ENOUGH FOR US, ALTHOUGH IT MAY SEEM TO SOME A BIT SHALLOW. He has made those truths very picturesque & vividly illustrated through the pictures that He has given me in dreams & visions & revelations so that almost any little child could understand some of them!
51. I'M NOW CONVINCED THAT THAT'S WHY HE GAVE MANY OF THEM THAT WAY, in order that I could relate them & their pictures & describe those pictures so that our inspired artists could draw them to illustrate them for our children & even their parents & others of us simple adults who are a bit thick-headed sometimes, & you have to draw'm a picture to help them understand!
52. SO AS I WAS SAYING, MUCH OF THE ENGLISH LITERATURE IS FULL OF THESE STORIES & TALES WHICH DRAW SIMPLE PICTURES OF DEEP TRUTHS & which are very interesting & could be fascinating to your children if the Lord hadn't already given them plenty & more than enough of His own direct truths from His Word & from the dreams & visions & revelations that He has given us in order to make them clear for even our little children.
53. TO GIVE AN EXAMPLE IN POINT OF HOW THESE CAN CREEP INTO YOUR LANGUAGE, many of the quotations from these old stories & quotes & even fairy tales, Aesop's Fables, etc., used to be highly--quoted by orators. Even a few words would illustrate the point & instantly give you a picture that would vividly describe the idea to you, just through remembering that particular picture.
54. SPEAKING IN PICTURES IS SO MUCH MORE STRIKING & VIVIDLY ILLUSTRATING THE POINT THAN MERE WORDS! As the old Chinese saying goes: "One picture is worth a thousand words!" If I could draw you a picture of what I'm telling you today & show you the dream I had, I wouldn't have to be speaking these thousand words to you to try to describe it!
55. FOR EXAMPLE, JUST NOW WHEN I WENT TO THE BATHROOM, I was washing my hands & I turned around to look for my towel that I had just chosen fresh that morning & it wasn't hanging in its accustomed place. So the first thing I did, I yelled, "Who got my towel!"--Like most of us do when something isn't the same place where we usually keep it & when something is missing.
56. I REMEMBER MY CHILDREN WERE ALWAYS SAYING: "WHO GOT MY SO-&-SO?"--& more often than not they would find that it was exactly where they themselves had last misplaced it, not putting it back where it belonged, so that they thought somebody else had gotten it or moved it or taken it, & this is what I thought this morning.
57. MY TOWEL WAS NOT HANGING ON THE BACK OF THE CHAIR WHERE I USUALLY LEAVE IT, because in our bathroom the towel racks are a bit scarce, but I'd finally found room on one of the towel racks & I'd put it there instead. But this I had already forgotten, so that when I went to dry my hands my towel was missing from its favorite position & I immediately yelled out to Maria:
58. "WHERE'S MY TOWEL? WHO TOOK MY TOWEL?" And she said, "Well, I don't know, Honey! I don't know if Hope took it to put it in the wash or what. She might have thought it was soiled linen & due to be washed. She may not have known that she'd already changed it." And then she looked around & said, "Well, whose towel is this hanging over here on this little rack by the window?" "Oh!" I said, & my face fell & my voice fell!
59. MY FORMERLY IRATE INDIGNANT YELL FELL FLAT ALMOST TO THE FLOOR & I REPEATED A FUNNY LITTLE PUNCH LINE from a funny little skit that my Mother used to do ever since she was a child. Well, first perhaps I'd better give you the little skit. It might be a funny one for your children to do in public just to attract attention sometime. I think I can remember my uncle doing this for us as children. It's a silly, funny little thing, but it certainly illustrates the point.
60. HE WOULD STAND THERE LOOKING LIKE A LITTLE IDIOT OR SIMPLETON WITH HIS THUMB IN HIS MOUTH & WITH HIS FEET CROSSED so that the one foot was standing on the toes of the other foot, & he said, "Who's standing on Billie's foot? Somebody's standing on my foot!" And he looks down to his rather dumb amazed surprise & he says, "Oh! Billie's standing on his own foot!"--Ha!
61. SO WHEN MARIA FOUND MY TOWEL HANGING ON THE RACK RIGHT WHERE I PUT IT, I was ashamed & I took her in my arms & kissed her & said I was sorry for accusing her or Hope of removing my towel when I put it there myself, & I made that classic little quote to illustrate the point: "Oh!" I said, "Billie's standing on his own foot!"--Ha!
62. THERE'S ANOTHER TALE WE OFTEN TELL IN OUR FAMILY IN WHICH WE QUOTE THE PUNCH LINE TO ILLUSTRATE THE POINT ABOUT PEOPLE BEING A BIT HARD OF HEARING & not hearing what we say, about the old deaf lady at the banquet table being asked politely by the hostess in her elegant manner: "Have you had an elegant sufficiency?" the old lady didn't quite get it & turned her ear--horn toward the hostess. They used to have these big ear horns before the advent of hearing devices, the only hearing device there was! The small end went in the ear & the flared end was held out toward the person speaking.
63. AND WHEN THE HOSTESS ASKED HER, "HAVE YOU HAD AN ELEGANT SUFFICIENCY?" THE OLD LADY SAID, "WHAT? YOUR ELEPHANT WENT FISHING?" And the hostess, a little bit embarrassed, said, "No, I mean have you had plenty?" "Oh! He caught 20!" And then the hostess saw it was almost an impossible situation & she sort of mumbled to herself, "Poor old soul!" And the old lady said, "Oh, you broke your pole!" So it became a common saying in our Family when somebody didn't seem to hear us, we'd say: "What's that matter? Did you break you pole?"
64. WELL, THOSE MAY SEEM SILLY & FUNNY & MERELY AMUSING LITTLE ILLUSTRATIONS, but sometimes a little illustration like that can very vividly bring back a picture to your mind which very clearly illustrates the subject at hand. And so with many a story, it brings out a moral or a lesson, & so with many a quote from those stories, so that I sometimes still use some of the very quotes that I have been talking about from various classics of English literature. Such as the one quote:
65. "'THE TIME HAS COME,' THE WALRUS SAID,
'TO SPEAK OF MANY THINGS,
OF SHIPS & SHOES & CEILING WAX & CABBAGES & KINGS!'"
Now that may seem totally nonsensical, for what do those various things have to do with each other? But when I'm going to sit down sometimes with the Family or in a conference & talk to them about several different things, sometimes I'm prone to start off with such a quote & it often comes back to me: "The time has come, the Walrus said, to speak of many things"--& right away the Family knows that I'm going to talk to them about several different things that may be of unrelated value, but nevertheless I want to talk to them about some things. So we just quote from an old English classic to illustrate what we're about to talk about.
66. SOMETIMES I'VE EVEN QUOTED FROM MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES & FAIRY TALES TO ILLUSTRATE A POINT, such as when I heard about them fall of some government, led by some government leader who was ousted in a coup, I have said, "Well, all the king's horses & all the king's men, won't be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again!" And in fact, the political writer who was writing those rhymes was actually referring to one of the leaders of England!--One of the political leaders who had fallen from favour.
67. AND AS YOU KNOW. THE FULL RHYME GOES:
"HUMPTY DUMPTY SAT ON A WALL,
HUMPTY DUMPTY HAD A GREAT FALL!
All the king's horses & all the kings men
won't be able to put Humpty Dumpty back together again!"
He must've been some kind of an egghead, because an egg always used to illustrate Humpty Dumpty in the illustrations accompanying the little rhymes. And here he fell off the wall to the pavement below, all broken in pieces & his goo running out all over the pavement & the king & his men sitting on horses not far away, looking down upon him in pity.
68. SO IT'S AMAZING HOW YOU CAN REMEMBER SOME OF THOSE PICTURES that illustrated the simple little stories or the old stories either the Bible or the fairy tales that you used to read, Aesop's fables, "Alice in Wonderland" & many others. The pictures still come back to you vividly & clearly. You can still remember what the Mad Hatter looked like & the Cheshire Cat & the Rabbit & Alice herself more from the actual pictures than even the words. Although you can also paint pictures in words as well, as Jesus & the writers of the Bible often did, & as we have often done, & are doing this very day!
69. WELL, AS I OFTEN SAY, I'VE GONE CLEAR 'ROUND ROBINHOOD'S BARN TO GET TO WHERE I'M GOING!--Now there's another word-picture! In other words, I had to make quite a detour to discuss & illustrate & describe what I'm driving at! Often I take these detours to explain to you why God did things a certain way & what's the historical background of these events or what was the scene at the time this thing transpired & what was the cause of it, what was the root of the matter. There's another word-picture right there!--I was speaking of a root, that's the thing from which it came.
70. WE OFTEN USE WORD PICTURES & ILLUSTRATE OUT STORIES & OUR LANGUAGE WITH PICTURES IN WORDS or quotes from word-pictures of the past & classical literature. Even Shakespeare is a marvellous illustration of that. So many of his quotes are used, or used to be used, when people knew Shakespeare & knew his writings & appreciated good literature like that.
71. THEY WERE REMARKABLY DESCRIPTIVE & ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE THOUGHTS HE WAS TRYING TO BRING OUT, & the plays which he wrote particularly illustrated the truths & messages which he was trying to get across to the people.--Most of which were very good & very needed, in which he quoted so much Bible that someone has said, that even if all the Bibles were burned, you could restore much of the Bible from the writings of Shakespeare himself!--As well as many other of the great men of history who quoted it very often & frequently & sometimes at length when they knew God's word in those days. And much Bible is still being quoted, believe it or not, even in our modern motion pictures, particularly in their titles, such as "Grapes of Wrath," etc.
72. SO WE FIND THAT WORD-PICTURES ARE A VERY VALUABLE INSTRUMENT in describing or explaining what we're talking about. How much more so are these vivid dream-pictures & visions & revelations which God gives His Prophet to describe the Message that God's trying to get across!
73. TAKE THE BOOK OF REVELATION ITSELF OR THE BOOK OF DANIEL, THESE ARE FULL OF WORD-PICTURES DESCRIBING AMAZING SCENES, much of which are not literal at all, but symbolic & significant with meanings to be applied to the literal. For example, illustrating governments with a large Image, an idol, or illustrating governments with various kinds of rapacious beasts!--Illustrating the Devil & his System & his various heads of Empire that he has ruled throughout World history as a great seven government headed monster, a great seven-headed dragon!--A red dragon at that, illustrating his colour & the colour of the coming World Government!
74. THERE ARE MANY OTHER PICTURES THROUGHOUT THOSE PROPHETIC BOOKS IN WHICH GOD WAS HIDING THE TRUTH OF HIS PREDICTIONS & HIS PROPHECIES so that perhaps even the government of the day could not understand them, & therefore could not use them against His Prophet!--When actually they were sometimes often predictions & forecasts against the very government that existed at the time the Prophet was speaking these mysteries of the Kingdom in these prophetic word-pictures, & if they had understood them, they surely would have killed him for sure!--Predicting their doom & their downfall & their final fate in these amazing scenes that God had shown the Prophet & these remarkable pictures He had shown of things past, things present & things to come in their true nature & their future was dangerous!
75. SO THEREFORE WHAT I'M TRYING TO SAY IS THAT THE LORD HIMSELF USES PICTURES! All that to say this, & perhaps it may have inspired your faith in the pictures that God has given, because you're going to have to have a little faith every time you hear one of these new dreams! You're going to have to have a little faith or maybe a lot of faith to believe it!
76. IN FACT, SOMETIMES IT'S STRETCHED MY FAITH A BIT TO EVEN RECOUNT IT TO YOU, not even understanding yet what it meant myself & usually not getting the interpretation until I'm willing to take the step of faith of telling you the dream or the picture or the revelation. I have to be willing to obey & give the message & give the picture, no matter what it is or what it's like or what it's about or whether I like it or not!
77. I OBEY GOD BECAUSE HE HAS GIVEN ME THE MESSAGE OR THE PICTURE OR THE DREAM & I HAVE TO GIVE IT, & as I obey god & am a willing--sometimes not-too-willing--instrument in His hand to give you the picture or give you the message, as I go along He helps me understand it or explains it to me & gives me the interpretation to sometimes accompany it or sometimes to follow it, or I do it so you will understand what I've been talking about even when I didn't understand it myself! So as I say, all that to say this!
78. AS MY LITTLE CHILDREN USED TO SAY WHEN I USED TO GET UP & INTRODUCE SOME MOVIE OR SOME PICTURES that I was going to show & I'd preach'm a sermon first: "This is one of Daddy's two-hour wee words of introduction!" I guess I've preached you the sermon first, now we're going to have to tell you the dream, & may God help us to understand it!
79. WELL ANYHOW, TYJ! I HAD THIS DREAM AT THE END OF MY MORNING NAP. In fact, it's rather odd for me to even take morning naps. I used to sleep all morning because I was up all night & often didn't go to bed until dawn, so I'd frequently sleep till noon. But lately, oddly enough, ever since we went to South Africa for half-a-year & had an apartment on the sea facing the beautiful sunrise, I've been getting up early enough to see it nearly every morning.
80. IT'S REALLY A THRILL TO WATCH GOD'S HUGE, BIG, GORGEOUS, RED, FIERY BALL RISE RIGHT OUT OF THE SEA INTO THE GLORIOUS BLUE HEAVENS! Hallelujah! TYJ! Such a wonderful display of the magnificence of God's gorgeous Creation: Land, sea, & sun!--With quite a few gorgeous creations displayed beautifully on the beaches below as well!
81. FOR SOME REASON OR OTHER WHILE DOWN THERE NEAR THE SOUTH POLE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE EARTH where nearly everything else is reversed, including the phases of the moon & the direction the water runs down the drain, apparently my body clocks got reversed too & I started getting tried & sleepy early in the evening after dinner, & usually got to bed by 11 or 12 o'clock at night!--which is a pretty good time for anybody to go to bed who has a day's work ahead of them! So I'd recommend it for everybody if you can.
82. AND OF COURSE THE RESULT WAS, AS THE OLD SAYING GOES: "EARLY TO BED, EARLY TO RISE MAKES A MAN HEALTHY, WEALTHY & WISE!" Well, the early to bed certainly did mean early to rise, because you've already had a good night's sleep by early in the morning. If you get to bed by 11 or 12 at night you can get up at five or six in the morning!--At least if you're an old man like me you can, because old men don't work real hard physically, at least I don't. Most of mine is mental work & spiritual work & a sedentary occupation where I have to sit at my desk nearly all day.
83. ACTUALLY, I SIT IN MY EASY CHAIR WITH MY DESK ON MY LAP, a small clipboard the size of a piece of typing paper, & my whole office is in front of me opened up bright & early each morning, just a small attaché-type briefcase with everything I have to have in the way of my office materials, books & papers located therein.
84. I UNLOCK IT FIRST THING IN THE MORNING & LOCK IT UP LAST THING AT NIGHT & hide the key & keep it locked all night! In fact, at anytime I am out of the room I always keep it locked & always keep it closed, ready to grab it & flee at a moment's notice! I'd hate to have to try to gather up all my valuable papers, books, rough drafts, mail, etc., & try to stuff it in my briefcase at the last minute!
85. SO I JUST LEAVE IT SITTING HERE IN FRONT OF ME, FULLY--PACKED TO THE BRIM AL THE TIME & just take out each time what I need to work on & leave the rest of it packed, fitted beautifully, prayerfully, carefully & technically together like a Chinese puzzle with each book & paper fitting into its exact proper place so I know exactly where everything is, & everything is right there in its place at my fingertips at a moment's notice! PTL!
86. AND WE NEARLY HAD A MOMENT'S NOTICE DOWN THERE ONE DAY, BY THE WAY! One day I thought I smelled smoke so I went in the next apartment, another family's apartment, & I said, "Do you smell smoke?" And they sniffed around a bit & said, "Well, it does smell like there might be a little smoke somewhere. They're probably having a cookout in front of the restaurant down below or maybe some neighbour's burning trash." So I said, "Yes, maybe so."
87. I WENT OUT ON MY TERRACE & LOOKED DOWN FROM THE BALCONY TO SEE THE COOKOUT & THERE WAS NOBODY THERE, NO COOKOUT! I looked all around & I went out on the back balcony & looked around at the neighbours--no trash burning. But when I got out on the balcony I smelled the smoke even stronger, so I began to be suspicious that it was somewhere in our apartment house! So I walked up & down the gallery & the more I got to a certain location on the gallery above an apartment just below Dora & Techi's apartment I smelled the smoke real strong & it smelled like paper burning, not food! Food cooking has an entirely different smell.
88. EACH THING HAS ITS OWN SMELL, & PLASTICS SMELL THE WORST! Wood has a delightfully fragrant wood-fireplace or campfire smell.--Have you ever noticed? It's not offensive at all unless you get too much of it. And of course cooking food always smells delicious. But this was just plain paper burning, & since these apartments had no fireplaces & no incinerators, there could be no paper burning in one of them unless it shouldn't be burning!
89. SO I IMMEDIATELY CALLED HOPE TO PHONE THE CARETAKER DOWNSTAIRS TO INVESTIGATE! We didn't know how long it'd take her to locate him & sometimes he wasn't even around, so I decided Peter & I had better check things out real quick, because the quicker you catch a fire before it gets a good start, the better off you are to stop it! I said, "I think it's down on the next floor below, run down there quick, would you, Son, & see if you can locate where it's coming from!"
90. BY THAT TIME THE SMOKE WAS BEGINNING TO BILLOW UP FROM THE HALL BELOW FROM JUST UNDER DORA & TECHI'S ROOM, so Peter ran down the steps quickly to the next floor! And sure enough, as soon as he got into the hall he noticed smoke billowing out of the kitchen window of one of the apartments! Well, it happened to be, thank god, the apartment we had just vacated!
91. WE'D BEEN USING IT AS OUR OFFICE, BUT WE HAD JUST VACATED IT THE DAY BEFORE in preparation for moving & leaving, apparently we had no sooner moved out the day before than the management had moved in a new family of vacationers from the North who had decided to go to the beach on their first day there, the following day, & all of them with their two or three children had run off to the beach!
92. BUT PROVIDENTIALLY, DEAR PETER STILL HAD HIS OLD KEY that he had forgotten to turn in, so he ran back & got his key, came down quickly & opened the door, & there was the apartment full of smoke pouring out of the kitchen, where someone had hastily set down a box carelessly on top of the electric stove as they moved in their kitchen things.
93. THEY HAD BROUGHT IN A BOX FULL OF GROCERIES & JUST PLOPPED IT DOWN ON TOP OF THE ELECTRIC BURNERS OF THE ELECTRIC STOVE & apparently had forgotten about them. The little boy was quite a mischief, just old enough to turn the electric knobs of the electric stove which were quite easily in his reach & very unsafe, & must have, on his way out to the beach with the family, clicked on one of the knobs without their knowledge, playfully as little children will do if you don't keep an eye on them & you don't keep things like that out of reach. And they had gone blithefully, ignorantly off to the beach leaving the stove going full-blast under this cardboard box full of groceries!
94. WELL, THANK GOD FOR PETER, HE FOUGHT THE SMOKE, GRABBED THE BOX, THREW IT IN THE SINK & TURNED ON THE WATER, WHICH IMMEDIATELY, OF COURSE, DOUSED THE FIRE! We had caught it just in time & only the bottom of the box was burning, but it was sure smoking & coming out the open window of the kitchen! Thank God the window was open so we caught the smell & saved our lives--at least our apartments, & certainly our things because if we had let it go on much longer there would've been one Hell of a fire!
95. THE APARTMENT KITCHENS WERE BUILT VERY UNSAFELY & the apartment house itself apparently constructed of wood & merely plastered walls. And of all things, directly above the stove, as is so often found in very unsafely built houses, were wooden cupboards with just enough clearance above the stove for your pots & pans & to be able to see what was in them!
96. AND JUST AS SOON AS THAT BOX WOULD'VE GOTTEN WELL ON FIRE & really blazing, those painted wooden cupboards so close above the stove would've surely caught on fire as well! And we'd have not only had a paper fire, but a wood fire & a building fire & we would've had to evacuate very rapidly & might not have even gotten all of our things out in time!
97. I'M SURE IT WAS AN ATTACK OF THE DEVIL, BUT, THANK GOD, IT WAS A VICTORY OF THE LORD THAT WE DISCOVERED HIS DIRTY WORK JUST IN TIME TO PUT A STOP TO IT! Therefore it was a real victory! TYJ! It was right directly under the apartment that Dora & Techi occupied, but who were also out at the time on that beautiful sunny afternoon, down at the beach or somewhere in the lovely South African Winter sun! So thank God they were not frightened by all the excitement.
98. BUT THANK GOD THE CARETAKER FINALLY CAME AFTER WE HAD ALREADY ENTERED THE APARTMENT & put out the fire & everything, & he was very very thankful, & so was the manager & owner who came later in the day, extremely grateful to us for having caught the fire just in time! And I'll certainly have to give the Lord all the credit for giving me a good nose to smell trouble with!
99. I'VE FOUND IT PAYS TO PLAY IT SAFE & whenever you smell smoke anywhere, any time, immediately try to find the source of it & make sure the source is legitimate, either a safe campfire or a safe fireplace burning, or smoke coming from someone's nearby chimney, & that it's not some kind of a fire inside of your own house unless it's safely within the fireplace!
100. WHENEVER I SMELL SMOKE I ALWAYS IMMEDIATELY RUN & TRACE DOWN THE SOURCE to make sure it's not my own house that's on fire, & that has really paid off several times in my lifetime, thank God!--Once in a hotel & once in our school in Miami where dear Mama Eve had gone with a candle into a dark closet that had no light & had caught the clothes on fire & was trying to battle it on her own!--I guess she was ashamed that she had made such a foolish mistake! I smelled smoke & we came running & doused it, thank the Lord, before it burned down the whole place!
101. THANK GOD THE APARTMENT HOUSE THAT WE WERE IN, ALTHOUGH ON THE TOP FLOOR, WAS FAIRLY SAFE IN OTHER RESPECTS. It had an outdoor gallery or hall across the back of the apartments with stairways at each end & two elevators in the middle.
102. ELEVATORS ARE THE MOST DANGEROUS PLACE IN THE WORLD TO BE IF THERE'S AN APARTMENT-HOUSE OR HOTEL FIRE! Don't ever try to use the elevator! Always try to take the steps if you can, & if possible, always hope & pray or definitely select an apartment house or hotel which has more than one set of stairs. This one did have a set of stairs going all the way from the top floor to the ground on each end--that way if the fire is in either end, then you can choose the other end to run down the steps!
103. BUT DON'T TAKE THE ELEVATOR, BECAUSE ELEVATORS HAVE A HABIT OF BEING THE FIRST THING TO BREAK DOWN IN CASE OF FIRE because of the burning electrical circuits. the elevator shaft also acts as an excellent chimney for the fire, drawing all the smoke up the elevator shaft, & this is your greatest danger in a fire. You're not nearly as apt to burn to death as you are to become overcome by smoke & suffocate, particularly in the case of plastic smoke which is very poisonous! Even ordinary smoke of burning wood & plaster & furniture & rugs etc. will suffocate you if you get too big a dose.
104. SO THE BEST THING TO DO IF YOU DO SMELL SMOKE IS QUICKLY INVESTIGATE & FIND THE SOURCE, if you can. And if you can't find the source, if you're living in an apartment or hotel, you'd better notify the manager or caretaker immediately that you smell smoke but you can't find where it's coming from.
105. IN THE CASE WHEN I WAS TRAVELING & I DISCOVERED A FIRE IN MY HOTEL, THEY WERE VERY THANKFUL THAT I RAN AROUND TRYING TO LOCATE IT TOO! Because on of the first things I did before I did that was to immediately phone the desk & say, "I smell smoke!" Sometimes they're quite indifferent & careless about it & say, "Oh well, it's probably just somebody in the next room smoking" or something like that. And I said, "No, it's not tobacco smoke, it is paper smoke! I smell burning paper & cloth! I know the smell!"--And on my insistence they finally sent a bellboy around to take a look.
106. I LOCATED THE FIRE JUST ABOUT THE SAME TIME HE GOT THERE. It was in the room below mine where a drunk woman had carelessly thrown her cigarette butt into the wastebasket, which happened to contain a little trash, which of course, readily caught fire. the wastebasket was very carelessly placed directly beneath flammable window curtains & they had immediately caught fire as well. the bellboy had to wake her out of her drunken stupor & nearly suffocated with the smoke in order to run in & put out the fire!
107. SO REMEMBER, FIRE IS ALWAYS A HAZARD, therefore always try to pick a safe building to live in & be sure that you know where the exits are & your way around & choose some way of escape should there be a fire that you can't stop or can't be controlled & you'll have to evacuate with your things.
108. ABOUT THE BEST THING TO DO IS GRAB YOUR STUFF & DROP IT OUT THE WINDOW IF THERE IS NO OTHER WAY to be sure you get it out quickly. It's not as apt to be as damaged by the fall as it would be if it were burned up in the fire, & then find a way for yourself to escape.
109. IF THE DOOR OF YOUR APARTMENT OR HOTEL ROOM SEEMS TO BE HOT & SMOKE IS COMING IN UNDER THE DOOR, then probably you won't be able to go out the door, the hall must be on fire or full of smoke & the best thing to do then, of course, is put wet towels around the bottom of the door so that smoke won't come in through your room too quickly.
110. THEN TRY TO FIGURE OUT SOME WAY TO CLIMB OUT YOUR WINDOW & either climb down from there or to someplace else along your floor further from the fire. Let's hope this never happens to you, & thank God it didn't happen to us because we caught the fire just in time!
111. THAT'S ANOTHER ONE OF GOD'S LITTLE ILLUSTRATIONS OF HOW TO BE AWARE & BEWARE & on the job, alert & watchful & prayerful lest ye fall into temptation or even a fire! The Devil is always busy & up to his dirty tricks trying to attack in some way, & sometimes the Lord can allow him to come pretty close just as a warning to you to be on the job!--Especially if you're careless & you're not as watchful & as prayerful as you should be.
112. I'LL TELL YOU, THAT LITTLE FIRE IN THE APARTMENT DIRECTLY BENEATH US REALLY SHOOK US UP & got us wide awake & excited & very prayerful & very thankful that the Lord spared us, & at the least, our things in our rooms! Anyhow, I always keep myself packed! I keep my little flee-briefcase packed & closed, as well as locked, so I can snatch it at a fraction of a moment's notice & run with it if I have to, for more reasons than one, maybe not even a fire!
113. I ALSO KEEP MY LITTLE CLOTHES BAG PACKED AND I LIVE OUT OF IT CONTINUALLY! I take the clothes out I need to wear for changes etc., & when they come back from the laundry I put them neatly back into the bag so that my bag is always continually packed. I never unpack it, never take the clothing out completely, but just live out of the bag. I live out of my suitcase, so to speak.
114. I LEAVE MY HANG-UP BAG HANGING IN THE CLOSET IN WHICH I KEEP MY SPARE JACKET & TROUSERS etc. hanging up neatly so they don't get too wrinkled, with the bag zipped up so that I could grab that at a moment's notice as well & either toss it out or run out with it if I had to. I daresay I could be out of this building in five minutes in case of an emergency, with all my most important materials & clothing!
115. SO THAT'S AN ILLUSTRATION TO YOU OF WHAT TO DO IN CASE OF A FIRE & WHAT TO DO BEFORE THERE'S A FIRE: Keep yourself packed, keep your things packed! we're supposed to be suitcase missionaries anyhow! We're not supposed to be settled down too long to where we get so spread out & everything so scattered around & so settled down that we seem to think we're going to live there & stay there forever!
116. THE BEST & SMARTEST THING FOR YOU SUITCASE MISSIONARIES--which we're all supposed to be--is to keep your clothes in your suitcases & stay packed & live out of your suitcases! Don't do like I've seen some people: The moment they get to a hotel or apartment, they immediately empty their suitcase into the drawers of the chest & take all their clothes out & hang them up in the closet etc. They couldn't move within five minutes!--They couldn't even move within half-an-hour if there was an emergency!
117. SO MY ADVICE TO YOU, BELOVED, IS TO STAY PACKED & LIVE OUT OF YOUR SUITCASES LIKE I DO, & then you'll be able to run or flee at a moment's notice no matter what the emergency may be! this could not only save your things, but could even save your lives!--Because many people have been over-come with smoke or not escaped out of the building quick enough in an earthquake, etc. Trying to save their thing they lost their lives! Don't let that happen to you!
118. YOUR THINGS ARE NOT AS VALUABLE AS YOUR LIFE, but they are valuable to you & worth saving if you can possibly save them without risking your life, & the best way to be sure you're going to be able to save them, if possible, is to keep them packed & be able to grab them at a moment's notice & get outside with them quickly in case of fire, earthquake, whatever.
119. OR MAYBE YOU JUST NEED TO FLEE THE SYSTEM IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT or something like dear Apostle Paul did when they let him down in a basket over the wall! (Ac.9:25; 2Co.11:33.) He certainly must not have had very much luggage, & if he did, he must've already had it packed! So my advice to you is to keep it packed, stay packed, stay ready, stay prayerful, stay watchful & be ready to get out at a moment's notice if you have to! PTL! GBAKY!
120. WELL, I'LL TELL YOU, WE WERE SURE GLAD WE WERE READY TO GO! In fact, we were glad we were leaving & moving, with such careless, wicked, sinful, Devil's people living downstairs, through whom the Devil tried to attack us & destroy us, & at the least destroy our things & valuable materials! So don't let it happen to you!
121. IF YOU CAN, TRY NOT TO LIVE IN THE SAME BUILDING WITH THE WICKED! "Better to be a doorkeeper in the house of the Lord than to dwell in the habitations of the wicked!" (Ps.84:10.) But if you have to live in an apartment house or a hotel, just be sure you've got you escape pretty well-planned & you keep your bags packed & ready to go in a split second's notice!
122. THE WICKED ARE ALWAYS GETTING IN TROUBLE BECAUSE THEY'RE OPEN PREY TO THE DEVIL, & you don't want to have to share in their plagues & curses & punishments! As the Lord said of wicked Babylon: "Come out of her, ye My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins" & the plagues that would befall her. (Re.18:4.) Another place He said, "Come out from among them & be ye separate & touch not the unclean thing. For what fellowship have Christ with Belial & light with darkness?" (2Co.6:14-17.)
123. THE LORD HAS A LOT TO SAY ABOUT COMING OUT FROM THE MIDST OF THE WICKED. As He says very clearly in the first Psalm: "Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful." So it's better to steer clear of them as much as you can, except when you have to witness to them, & it's better to even live separately from them if possible.
124. BUT IF YOU MUST LIVE IN THE SAME BUILDING WITH THE UNGODLY, you'd better keep your eyes open & your ears open & your nose open & your heart open in prayer & be prepared for almost any kind of attack the Enemy might make on them for which you might also suffer.
125. THIS WAS THE TROUBLE WITH RIGHTEOUS LOT, ABRAHAM'S NEPHEW. although the Bible calls him a righteous man (2Pe.2:7-9), he wasn't so smart, because he liked to live in the city of Sodom amongst the wicked. He apparently enjoyed its conveniences & pleasures & civilisation & comfort & was even made a judge of the city, believe it or not, a popular politician!
126. BUT THEN HE ALSO SUFFERED THE CITY'S JUDGMENTS when their enemies attacked it & he was carried off along with them as a prisoner far away, so that his poor dear uncle Abraham had to come with an army from hundreds of miles to the South to rescue him! (Ge.14:12-16.) But he still didn't learn his lesson.
127. GOD HAD WARNED HIM TO GET OUT SEVERAL TIMES, until finally when god got so sick of Sodom & its sodomy & all its Sodomites that He wanted to wipe it out completely, He sent angels to warn Lot & his family to get out! But he still wouldn't move! They finally had to literally drag him by the hand & pull him out of the city! Even then he didn't want to go & begged to go to just a little nearby town, if possible. (Genesis Chapter 19.)
128. HE WANTED TO STAY WITH IN CIVILISATION LIKE SOME OF YOU FOLKS UP THERE IN EUROPE & NORTH AMERICA! You don't want to have to go all the way to South America or all the way to India. "Can't we just go to this little place not too far away? Can't we just head up for the hills? Can't we just all stack up in Puerto Rico or Hawaii or maybe down in the Mediterranean is lands somewhere just out of reach of the explosion?"
129. LET ME TELL YOU, WHEN YOU SEE & HEAR & SMELL THOSE BOMBS START TO FALL & the fallout begins to rain down, you're going to be like Lot, you're going to wish you had gotten further away!--And that's exactly what happened to him! He went to this little town not far away from Sodom where he could still enjoy their wicked civilisation, but when he saw the fire begin to rain on Sodom he took off & headed for the hills!
130. HE DIDN'T NEED ANY MORE PERSUASION FROM ANGELS OR ANYBODY TO GET AS FAR AWAY AS HE POSSIBLY COULD! and all he was able to rescue was his two daughters & his reluctant wife, who, having looked back, turned into a pillar of salt! (Ge.19:26.) They had never been able to persuade the daughters' husbands & families to even leave. So they had to leave without their son-in-laws & their grandchildren & his wife & whatever, & all he made his escape with was his two daughters! (Ge.19:30.)
131. THEY FLED TO A CAVE UP IN THE MOUNTAINS OF WHAT IS TODAY JORDAN & WHAT WAS ONCE CALLED MOAB & AMMON, the name of the two sons of his two daughters. Because he not only made it to the cave, but he made them too! Since their husbands were gone & the families & all were gone & they didn't want to be left without progeny, without descendants, God allowed him to fuck his own daughters & have children by them in order that he could perpetuate his line.
132. ALTHOUGH I WOULDN'T ADVISE IT BECAUSE IT HAS ITS RISKS! such inbreeding & incest can produce either geniuses or idiots & sometimes handicapped children unless it's definitely of the Lord! In many countries of the World & in most states of the United states, even the marriage of first cousins is forbidden by law to prevent such risks of deformed or handicapped children.
133. ALTHOUGH IT WAS PERFECTLY LEGAL IN THE EARLY WORLD FROM THE CREATION ON TO THE TIMES OF MOSES. It was not against the law. In fact, all of the early children of Adam, or course, had to intermarry--not only marry their cousins, but they married their brothers & sisters, or we wouldn't have had a continuation of the population of the early World!
134. THERE WAS NOTHING WRONG WITH IT THEN, BECAUSE SIN HAD NOT TAKEN SUCH A GREAT TOLL ON MAN & HIS CONSTITUTION, his physical body, etc., & therefore it seems that there was not the danger in inbreeding that there is today. But there definitely is that danger amongst the wicked & the sinful & the unsaved of today!
135. WELL, NOW HAVING ESCAPED THE FIRE & WARNED YOU, I MUST GO ON & TELL YOU ABOUT MY DREAM! As I was saying, I was not often taking naps in the morning, much less having dreams in the morning, until after we got to South Africa & I started going to bed at night & getting up very early in the morning, frequently at 4, 4:30, 5 o'clock, & nearly always by 6 or 7, in time to see the sunrise.
136. SO NOW THAT MY BODY CLOCKS ARE GEARED TO THAT SCHEDULE IT SEEMS THAT I'M STILL ON IT, even though I'm back up here in the Northern Hemisphere trying to rescue you guys out of it! But don't worry, we're leaving in just a few days & going back down South! So may God help you to get out too!
137. WE JUST CAME BACK HERE TO RESCUE OUR WORLD SERVICE UNITS & MAKE SURE THEY GET OUT SAFELY & IN TIME, praise God! And thank the Lord, they're doing it! All World Service personnel & Units & us will all be cleared out of the North no later than the end of February, or March at the latest, D.V., & I hope you will be too! 'Cause I think God's just waiting for us to get out to let'm start the War! But He can't wait forever, so don't think just because you're staying there He's going to wait for you!
138. SOME OF LOT'S FAMILY GOT LEFT BEHIND & BURNED UP IN THE FIRE BECAUSE THEY DIDN'T LEAVE, & that's been the case in many stories in the Bible & throughout history. The wise & the watchful & the prayerful & the mindful & the spiritual heeded the warning of the prophets & got out in time to save their lives & even their things! Whereas the unbelievers & the scoffers & those who made fun of the Prophet & his crazy predictions & wouldn't believe it, stayed there in their comfort & convenience & their sin & got wiped out!
139. SO ANYHOW, AFTER MY EARLY RISINGS NOWADAYS, SOMETIMES I TAKE AN HOUR OR SO LATE MORNING NAP which refreshes me for the rest of the day. But I seldom ever have dreams during these naps, & therefore it was very unusual that I dreamed this dream just before I woke up!
140. FIRST OF ALL, I WAS LOOKING AT SOME PAGES OF ONE OF OUR BOOKS OR PUBLICATIONS. We try to fill them full of lots of pictures for the sake of you & your children, to make them very well-illustrated & understandable & attractive & interesting even to children.
141. AND ODDLY ENOUGH THE PICTURES IN THE BOOK THAT I WAS LOOKING AT SEEMED TO BE LITTLE GOLDEN PLAQUES, BEAUTIFULLY ETCHED IN BLUE & RED! they were like carvings, almost like golden medals or medallions or some of those beautiful little Russian icons decked with precious stones, precious gems & jewels!
142. I REALISE NOW THE LORD WAS COMPARING HIS WORD & ITS ILLUSTRATIONS IN OUR BEAUTIFUL PUBLICATIONS TO VALUABLE PRECIOUS MEDALS & beautiful art full of precious gems & jewels of His word, & I was busy placing these beautiful little medallions of various shapes & sizes in their respective spots on the pages of this book, busy doing God's work, my job that I'm supposed to do preparing the Word of God for your precious food.
143. AND IT WAS REALLY BEAUTIFUL! It reminded me of all these beautiful publications we've been getting out lately, TTL! But that was more beautiful than any I ever saw! We have yet to publish a book with solid gold pictures etched in red & blue! Ha! That'll be the day! Maybe it'll come in the Millennium.
144. ANYHOW, IN THE NEXT SCENE I WAS SUDDENLY IN A SMALL LAKE OR SHALLOW POND. Why, I don't know, but I was laying on a rubber raft or rubber mattress as we so often do when out swimming, enjoying bathing in this shallow little lake & paddling around as you know you will so often do with your hands & your feet.
145. BUT I KEPT RUNNING INTO THESE MUD-BANKS OR MUD-BARS LIKE SAND-BARS & it would stir up a lot of mud & dirt which would sort of dirty up the water, & I kept trying to avoid these mud banks. But it seemed even as shallow as my little rubber mattress was, I was still bumping into them with my bottom or the bottom of the mattress.
146. MY HEAD & SHOULDERS WERE WELL ABOVE WATER AS WERE MY ARMS & ALSO MY LEGS & KNEES, but my hands & feet were in the water & my bottom was sunk down, as you know it will do on those rubber mattresses, till my bottom was just below water level; in fact' the water covered my lap.
147. I WAS A BIT ANNOYED AT RUNNING INTO THESE STUBBORN MUD--BANKS THAT STIRRED UP SO MUCH DIRT & MUD & TROUBLE! Maybe they represent our enemies that we have bumped into sometimes with our words, & they have sure stirred up a lot of trouble! So I was trying to avoid them & paddle my way around them, but you can't always do that when they're hidden under water.
148. NEITHER CAN YOU ALWAYS AVOID YOUR ENEMIES! Not even Jesus was able to do that, because they insist on getting in your way. Perhaps the water's a type of the Word too, & of course the enemies always try to muddy it up & tell lies that twist the Truth & pollute the Truth with their lies & their dirty propaganda!
149. BUT I'D FINALLY GOTTEN FREE OF THE MUD BANKS & I WAS SAILING HAPPILY ALONG when all of a sudden I saw the loop of part of the body of a huge serpent sticking up out of the water, sort of in front of me & over a bit to the right beyond my feet. Its body was at least as big around as my arm, which is pretty big, & there was a loop or coil of it lifting up out of the water about two feet long--which was obviously only a small part of this huge serpent's body coloured in ugly black & yellow, the witches' & Halloween's favorite colours! that must be the Devil's favourite colours.
150. ALTHOUGH BLUE & GOLD ARE TWO OF MY FAVOURITE COLOURS, THIS GUY WAS NOT BLUE & GOLD, HE WAS A HORRIBLE BLACK & YELLOW!--A mottled ugly-looking pattern, as some snakes will have. It was slithering, obviously swimming through the lake, as the loop of the snake's body was moving. If you've ever seen a snake swim, you know how they go in a sinuous path even across the ground or across the surface of a lake in a sort of a curved winding path. It's almost a thing of beauty & gracefulness if it wasn't so horrifying!
151. WELL, THIS HUNG SERPENT APPARENTLY WAS SWIMMING THROUGH THE LAKE, BUT NOT ALTOGETHER ON THE SURFACE. Only part of him was thrust up in this big loop about two or three feet long maybe, or a whole meter of his body sticking out of the water, & altogether too close to my feet for comfort!
152. SO I BEGAN TO PADDLE RAPIDLY AWAY--BUT TOO LATE! under the cloudy disguise or camouflage of the muddy water, he apparently was swimming angrily toward me & I felt he was going to attack me! I suddenly felt a thud against the bony part of my left hip & I knew he had struck at the part of me buried beneath the water & almost out of sight!
153. I WAS SWIMMING NUDE, BY THE WAY, AS WE OFTEN DO. It's so much more free & more fun, & apparently he could see my light-coloured hip beneath the water & struck at the only part of me that was enough underwater that he thought he could do some damage. I felt the thud of his huge head strike my hip, his snout hitting the bone of my left hip with his big head as big my two fists!
154. I THOUGHT, "MY GOD! I HOPE HE DIDN'T SEE WELL ENOUGH TO SINK HIS FANGS INTO ME!" And I reached down immediately with both hands, grabbed his head in my two hands, slammed his jaws shut & squeezed with all my might till I crushed his head just like an egg shell! I was thinking, "I sure hope he didn't have time to get one of those fangs into me or even scratch me with one!"--which can sometimes give you a dose of that poison or venom.
155. AND JUST AS I WAS THINKING, "I WONDER IF THE TIP OF ONE OF THOSE FANGS DID, BY ANY CHANCE, GRAZE ME OR SCRATCH ME OR EVEN MAKE A PINPRICK?" I felt a sudden tingling numbing sensation in my left hip. I thought, "Oh my Lord! I have actually gotten a scratch or a pinprick from one of those fangs & a little venom & I'm going to have to quick take my knife & make a small cut in my hip to let the blood bleed out the venom!"--As is often done by those who know how, after a serious venomous snakebite!
156. THIS IS OFTEN DONE BY THE COWBOYS OUT IN THE WEST OF THE UNITED STATES SUCH AS IN TEXAS, ETC. If they ever do get a rattlesnake bite, one of the safest things to do is to quickly make a cut right in the vicinity of the fang punctures & let the blood flow for a few moments to bleed the venom out of your bloodstream before it permeates your whole body & reaches your heart or brain & paralyses them & thereby is fatal & kills you.
157. MANY A PERSON WHO IS A TRAPPER, HUNTER, EXPLORER OR COWBOY--one who has to go out into the wilds of the wild & woolly West which is infested with all kinds of vipers & poisonous snakes & reptiles & insects & whatnot--have managed to survive snakebites by immediately making a cut right there at the bite with their with their hunting knife or some kind of instrument & letting it bleed for a few moments to bleed the venom out of the bloodstream before it gets too far, & many have survived what otherwise would've been fatal snakebites.
158. SO I WAS JUST THINKING, "I MUST TAKE MY KNIFE QUICKLY NOW & MAKE A CUT THERE TO LET THE BLOOD FLOW & PURIFY THE BITE so that the venom will not take effect on the rest of my body."--And I woke up! Perhaps that final scene symbolises that only the blood can cleanse you from the venom of the Serpent's poison, the Devil's own poison of his lies or his attacks or whatever it may be, or even from your own sins.
159. ONLY THE SOUL-CLEANSING BLOOD OF THE LAMB CAN CLEANSE & PURIFY YOUR SPIRITUAL BLOODSTREAM from the venom of the Devil & his sin & save you from spiritual paralysis & even death! It was obviously an attack of the Devil in the muddy waters of the enemies' propaganda, & although I was trying to avoid them, our collisions had already stirred up enough mud to have made the water so murky that I couldn't see the serpent in time & he was able to get close enough to me to strike.
160. BUT THANK GOD, "THE BLOOD OF JESUS CHRIST HIS SON"--GOD'S SON--"CLEANSES US FROM ALL SIN!" (1Jn.1:7.) TYJ! And I was about to let the blood flow, in this case, to cleanse me of the serpent's venom. TYJ! PYL! Even if I had to slice away with my knife at the point of infection & it hurt, nevertheless sometimes the only way to cure the evil is to cut it out by force like removing a cancer!
161. SO I WAS ABOUT TO MAKE THE CUT WHEN SUDDENLY I WOKE UP! I guess the anticipation of the pain jolted me out of my sleep into wakefulness & the Lord spared me the agony of having to cut into my own flesh to spare my life!
162. IT REMINDS ME OF HOW WE'VE HAD TO CUT OFF SOME OF MY OWN FLESH-&-BLOOD ALMOST, my own first wife & one of her children--her favourite daughter, Deborah--to spare the Lord's Body, our family, from the poison of their sins & disobedience & rebelliousness! It's hurt & I hated to do it, but it was necessary to cleanse the Body & purify His Church & rid the Family of their disobedient & rebellious influences.
163. OFTEN THE VERY DEVIL HIMSELF TRIES TO POISON YOUR OWN FLESH-&-BLOOD & TURN THEM AGAINST YOU in order to try to kill you or paralyse you or destroy your usefulness for the Lord. But we have refused to allow any of these rebellious leaders to hinder the work of God, & we have not hesitated to cut them off when necessary after giving them many opportunities to repent, as they were beginning to poison the body.
164. WE'VE OFTEN HAD TO SHED A MEMBER HERE OR THERE IN ORDER TO PRESERVE THE LIFE & THE PURITY & THE HEALTH OF THE ENTIRE BODY. Praise God! It hurts & we hate to have to do it, but when all else fails & they refuse to repent & they become infected & the blood poisoning & the gangrene of their rebelliousness & stubbornness & disobedience & their unbelief have corrupted that member of the Body, we have been compelled to cut them off in order to save & spare the rest of the Body, thank God!
165. AND THANK THE LORD WE HAVE BEEN SUCCESSFUL IN SPARING OUR FAMILY & ITS PURITY & ITS UNITY THUS FAR by purging it from these evil poisonous influences. So that was certainly a frightening scary picture from the Lord to illustrate one of His pictures & teach us one of His lessons, amen? Don't let it happen to you!
166. TRY TO AVOID THOSE MUD BANKS OF THE ENEMY! Watch out where you swim around with the Word! Watch out where you do your litnessing that you don't bump into the dogs & the hogs & cast your pearls before swine who will trample them underfoot & then turn again & rend you! (Mt.7.6.)
167. STAY CLEAR OF THE WATERS MUDDIED BY THE LIES OF OUR ENEMIES, the Devil which hides his dirty works & dirty tricks & his evil body, undercover of which he may try to directly attack you, the Body of God! You can only plead for the blood of Jesus to cover you for your protection & to cleanse you from your sins & his lies & poisonous influence. Try not to let it happen to you, amen?
168. GOD BLESS & KEEP YOU FROM THE POISON OF THE DEVIL! But if he does manage to reach you & get through to you & attack you with his poison, let the blood flow to cleanse you from all sin by faith in Jesus! "Rebuke the Enemy & he shall flee from you!" (Ja.4:7.) Resist him & rebuke him in Jesus' name!
169. "FOR WHEN THE ENEMY COMES IN LIKE A FLOOD," & sometimes he comes in, "yet the Spirit of God will raise a standard against him!" (Is.59:19.) Hallelujah! TYJ! The Lord does allow him to attack sometimes in order to teach us lessons & in order to drive us close to Jesus, but He never allows him to overcome us if we'll hold onto the Lord & plead His protection & His purification & His purging of sin & let the blood of Christ wash away the poison of his venom & the sins which do so easily beset us!
170. MAYBE I WAS HAVING A LITTLE BIT TOO MUCH FUN ON THAT RAFT! Apparently it was in a nice pleasant southern climate, I was naked, & maybe I was getting a little careless bumping into those mud banks of the Enemy & didn't keep a wary eye open for that old Serpent the Devil!
171. MAYBE THE LORD GAVE ME THIS AS A WARNING TO WATCH OUT FOR THOSE DIRTY MUD BANKS OF ANY OF THE DEVIL'S PROPAGANDA! don't get careless, keep a wary eye open, keep your guard up, don't allow him to attack you in an unguarded moment, stay out of his territory, if you can, or avoid our enemies if possible.
172. DON'T GET CARELESS BY GETTING TOO DEEP IN THEIR TERRITORY & inviting an attack of the Devil through our enemies. Let's stay out of his mud banks so you don't dirty up the pure water of the Word to the point that it hides his fiendish body & his devilish attack!
173. DON'T LET THE ENEMY ADULTERATE THE PURE WATERS OF THE WORD WITH HIS DIRTY LIES & PROPAGANDA & HIS DOCTRINES OF DEVILS! Don't believe them! Resist them! for his doubts & fears & lies can hide an even more fatal attack on your very life! But if he does mange to scratch you, let the blood of Jesus flow & cleanse you from all sin! Hallelujah! PTL! It may sometimes bruise our heel but we shall crush his head! (Ge.3:15.) Hallelujah! TYJ! Amen! Amen?
174. GOD BLESS & KEEP YOU & THANK GOD FOR HIS WARNING PICTURES! But God help you to heed the warning & to know the remedy if attacked! Pray desperately & let the blood of Jesus flow to cleanse the wound & purify your spiritual body from the venom, washed in the pure Water of the Word! Hallelujah! TYJ! GBAKYA! WLY! And God loves you! The Lord loves you & that's why He gives you these amazing pictures to teach you & His children His ways. In Jesus' name, amen!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
