HomeARC ML 1781
OBEDIENCE IN LITTLE THINGS! DO 1781 1984
--After a Talk on Saving Water & Taking Care of Pets!
1. YOU SAY, "DAD, YOU SURE DO TALK ABOUT A LOT OF SILLY THINGS THAT AREN'T IMPORTANT TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD & Heaven & our great task of evangelising the World!" Let me tell you, if you're not faithful in that which is least, you're not going to be faithful in that which in much! (Luke 16:10) And maybe that's what you're learning from these little lessons we teach you around the house.
2. AS YOU'VE HEARD, WE'VE RECENTLY HAD SOME TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE IN ONE OF OUR TOP UNITS, & if you haven't heard it, you'll soon read it in "Tighten the Family!" (No.1730) They're the kind of people who won't take suggestions & who won't listen to instructions about little things. They think as long as they're big shots & do the big things, they don't have to listen about the little things. Nobody can tell them anything, they're too independent & too smart & know it all & they do it their own way. Sorry, we don't have room for people like that--people who know it all & can't learn & can't change & can't take advice & counsel & instruction & even orders from top leaders bigger than they are! There isn't room for that kind of people in this Family who don't care about the little things!
3. SO LITTLE THINGS ARE IMPORTANT, EVEN LITTLE KITTENS, EVEN A LITTLE WATER. If it's important enough for me to go out there & work on the plumbing & to teach the kids how to take care of kittens, it must be important! If you can teach them to be faithful in the little things, they can learn to be faithful in the big things. If they know they've got to be faithful in the little things, they certainly know they've got to be faithful in the big things. So that's the situation, Beloved.
4. IF I CAN STOOP TO TAKING CARE OF YOUR WATER & YOUR POOL HEAT & YOUR PLUMBING & make sure you've got a nice warm pool to swim in & nice warm water to wash the dishes in & nice clean water to drink, then I don't think any job around here is too low for you! If I can get out here with the boys & help clean the dirt out of the pool & try to make it warm & try to make sure you've got plenty of water I don't think there are any jobs around here that are too little or too small for you big shots!
5. SO THOSE BIG SHOTS WHO ARE TOO BIG TO DO THESE LITTLE THINGS & were lax on the orders & the rules that we set down regarding the TRFs, they caused big trouble, & they're soon going to be very little shots if they're any shots at all! That's their situation. We've put up with those rascals for ten years now & time & again they have caused the same kind of trouble over & over again--from Paris to Zurich to where they are now--& I'm finally fed-up, that's all there is to it!
6. AND WHEN WE SENT PEOPLE TO SEE THEM, IT REMINDS ME OF THE WAY THE LORD SENT THE SERVANTS TO THE UNJUST STEWARDS OF HIS PROPERTY WHEN HE WAS GONE: "SOME THEY BEAT & SOME THEY STONED!" And finally He sent His Son, thinking they'd certainly respect Him, & they said, "Let's kill Him!" (Mat.21:33-40) That's just about what we did with them & their Unit & their house, & they literally mistreated the people we sent to help them! It just is unbelievable that people could be like that, they're certainly not our kind of people!--In fact, I don't want them working in one of our most important Units! I'm sick & fed up with them & I don't care for people like them! They don't know it yet, but they're on their way out of it!
7. WE'RE GOING TO PROTECT THE WORK & SECURE THINGS & PUT GOD & HIS WORK & THE REST OF THE FAMILY & THEIR SECURITY FIRST, & IF YOU'RE THE TROUBLEMAKER, YOU'LL BE THE LAST ONE TO KNOW IT! If you're incorrigible & you've been the first one to know it time & time again & didn't pay any attention to it, when it comes your time to go you'll probably be the last one we tell, & we'll have it all fixed up ready for your departure by the time we tell you! We've found it's safer that way, safer for the Family, safer for the Work, safer for our security materials & all the rest.
8. SO WE'RE MAKING THE TRANSITION GRADUALLY & when it's over they're going to find out that their happy little home is no more. They're going to have to get out & hoof it & work for it just like the rest of the Family. That's the trouble with them, they've had it too soft, too long, too easy--a fully-paid office job for the last ten years--now they're going to find out what it's like to be a missionary for a change! I'd better not get on that subject, I can't do the subject justice! They've done us too much injustice.
9. WELL, "ALL THINGS WORK TOGETHER FOR GOOD," THANK THE LORD! (Rom.8:28) It caused us to really jerk up our pants & tighten our belts & tighten our security & tighten the tithes & tighten the Family & tighten up everything all the way around! We may lose a third of the Family if they don't like it, but if so, we're prepared for it. That particular third that we're apt to lose only give 10% of our income! They're the ones who are the least helping & helpful. It's possible, of course, that some of them can't, so we're simply suggesting that if they can't meet these new tithe levels they should get it together & form a Co-op so they can!
10. MAYBE IT'LL GET RID OF SOME OF THESE INDEPENDENTS & THESE LONE WOLVES who think they're so smart & they don't need us & don't need anybody, they can hoof it alone! Well, let'm try it this time! They may have to get it together if they still want to get the lit & still want to be in the Family & not be excommunicated. I think it's going to do us a lot of good. I think we're suddenly going to have a lot of new Co-ops, Combos & people cooperating on the mission field where they ought to be cooperating.
11. LET ME TELL YOU, BLOBS ARE GOOD ON THE MISSION FIELD where there's lots of talent & lots of different incomes from lots of different ministries, etc. Missionary compounds have been famous for centuries, where a lot of different people serve the Lord in one little settlement or compound. You've heard of mission compounds before, haven't you?--Some of them were almost like forts for self-defense! You have all kinds of people working in all kinds of ministries & talents & you have a well-rounded Unit!
12. SO WE DON'T MIND BLOBS ON THE MISSION FIELD, THEY'RE GOOD!--They're good for ministries, they're good for income, they're good for self-defense & security, they're good in a lot of ways. So thank God for'm! I hope we're going to have a few more blobs instead of some of these selfish, independent, stubborn singles that are floating around with no attachments, thinking they can get along by themselves & doing nobody any good. Amen?--Like these people who want to be independent & stubborn & disobedient & wilful & insisting on their own way & never taking any suggestions & never taking advice, even when top leaders tell them to do this or tell them to do that or suggest this or that.
13. LET ME TELL YOU, AT A MERE SUGGESTION FROM A TOP LEADER, YOU SHOULD SAY, "THY WISH IS MY COMMAND!" I don't like to give orders. I don't like to say, "Here, you do this, do that!" You who work with me know how I work: I'll say, "How about this? Don't you think we ought to do that? How about doing so-&-so?" I suggest things. When I get to where I point my finger & start yelling at you & say, "You'd better or else!" it's getting pretty late & your time's about up! If you can't take a hint, you don't belong here! Amen?
14. WHEN ANY OF THE TOP LEADERS MAKE A SUGGESTION TO YOU, YOU JUST COUNT THAT AS AN ORDER! Amen? Are you getting the point? I'm not getting much feedback. It's a pretty sobering subject. But we put up with those people for ten years & now we're just about to throw them out on their own because we just can't stand any more of that kind of an attitude, that high-&-mighty Old-Chain attitude that can't even take orders from leaders, won't take orders from anybody.
15. THEY'RE LIKE THE GUY WHO TOLD ME, "I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE ORDERS FROM YOU OR YOUR WIFE OR ANYBODY BUT GOD!" I said, "Okay, buddy, get out of my trailer & out of my yard & get out there where all you have to do is serve God, & that's fine with me! Vamoose! But as long as you're living in my yard & my trailer & eating my food, you're going to take orders from me! Period!"--And that's the last I saw of him & his wife & his nine children, they went mooching off some other preacher--one of our rival Pentecostals--who got fed-up with him in about 2 or 3 days, whereas we'd put up with him for several weeks!--Although at first he was so sorry for them, saying, "How could they mistreat this poor guy & his poor wife & nine children?--Kick'm out, with no place to go, no place to stay, nothing to eat, blah blah!"--When all the time he had a farm back in Oregon that he was renting, living off the money! He wasn't poor by any means! He was supposed to sell it & give it to the Lord but he never forsook all.
16. WHEN HE FINALLY QUIT & LEFT WITH A CAR & A TRAILER PACKED FULL OF KIDS & ALL KINDS OF STUFF THAT PEOPLE HAD GIVEN HIM, HE LAUGHED IN OUR FACES! He said, "Well, it was a nice six-month vacation in Florida & the Bahamas!" That's the way some people appreciate it, after we'd sacrificed & sweat through the nose to try to take care of him & his family & gave them a mission station in the Bahamas free & a free car & a free refrigerator & furniture & clothing & income, everything! He made himself to stink so bad over there even the Governor kicked him out & confiscated our car! And he came back & stunk so bad in our yard I finally kicked him out!
17. LET ME TELL YOU, PEOPLE THAT THINK THEY DON'T HAVE TO TAKE ORDERS FROM ANYBODY BUT GOD DON'T BELONG IN THIS FAMILY!--They don't belong in that office or in the kitchen out here or in the yard or anywhere! I don't like to give orders, & normally most people here know I don't usually get tough & give orders, I don't have to. The minute you find out I want something this way or that way, you're happy to try to please & do it!--Right? Amen? GBY! In fact, you fall all over yourselves trying to please & keep us happy & well-fed & comfortable, God bless you all! But I'll tell you, people like that who are so selfish that they think the Letters are not for them & the orders are not for them & the rules for TRFs are not for them & they don't have to obey, they're going to find out real quick!
18. WE PUT UP WITH THEM FOR TEN YEARS BECAUSE THEY WERE VALUABLE PEOPLE, talented people, good people & could be trusted with some jobs--we thought--or at least we tried. But I don't give a damn how good you are at your job if you can't obey & you can't do what you're told to do the way you're told to do it! You're not a God-damned bit of good to us or anybody else & you won't be a damn bit of good to God either if you can't obey & keep the rules!--And they have defied the rules so many years it's pitiful!
19. IT REMINDS ME OF WHAT THE LORD SAID ABOUT THE JEWS: "MY PEOPLE HAVE FORGOTTEN ME DAYS WITHOUT NUMBER!" (Jer.2:32) They have forgotten us & the rules & you'd think they didn't even belong in the Family! (Maria: And they can't get along with their co-workers.)--Because their co-workers read the Letters & they know how things are supposed to be! Whew! My God, how we managed to put up with them for ten years, I don't know! They eventually cause trouble everywhere they go.
20. SO GOD HELP YOU TO LEARN HOW TO TAKE SUGGESTIONS! If you can't even take a suggestion, you're probably not going to be willing to take an order. And if you can't take an order, you're not going to be obedient; & if you can't be obedient, let me tell you, you're not going to be in the Family very long!--Because this is an Army run on basic army principles, & that is you've got to follow orders & take commands!--And if you're real smart, you'll even take suggestions.
21. WE SENT ONE OF OUR TOP OFFICERS THERE TO TAKE THE THING OVER & REPLACE THEM WITH A GOOD STAFF THAT WE HAVE KNOWN PERSONALLY FOR YEARS & WHO KNOW HOW TO OBEY & DO WHAT THEY'RE TOLD, & they treated them like the servants did on the piece of property that the king went away & left them in charge of! They just treated them like dirt! They should have been rolling out the red carpet & treating them with kid gloves, but instead of that they just as good as said, "Oh, get your own, do your own, take care of yourself!" Imagine! They must have thought they were pretty well "in," that they were going to survive anything!
22. SOME PEOPLE SEEM TO THINK THEY'RE INDISPENSABLE, BUT LET ME TELL YOU RIGHT NOW, NOBODY IS INDISPENSABLE!--ESPECIALLY IF THEY CAN'T OBEY & FOLLOW ORDERS! These people have blown our security & are to blame for a worldwide wave of bad publicity & persecution because of their laxness & their leniency where it really hurt, on the lit! We sent investigators there to clean up the situation & mop up the dirt, & found that only one-third of their Homes were sending in halfway decent TRFs! Two-thirds of their Homes were not sending in the right kind of TRFs!--A third of them I wouldn't have sent the time of day, but they've been sending them lit, squandering lit on them for years now! Just as long as they sent some money, that seems to be the only thing they cared about!--And a lot of times they didn't care about that either, they let them get away with not even sending their tithe!
23. SEE, PEOPLE WHO ARE EASY ON THEMSELVES, THEY THINK IT'S MERCY, THEY THINK IT'S KINDNESS & LOVE TO GO AROUND BEING VERY VERY EASY ON EVERYBODY ELSE BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT ANYBODY TO BE HARD ON THEM. Well, that's not my idea of "doing unto others as you'd have them do unto you." If you go around letting everybody else sin & everybody else do wrong just so you can get away with the same, that's not what the Lord meant by that Scripture. He was talking about love, loving others, helping others, doing for them what you would like people to do for you if you were in the same position. Well, that's what they did, all right, they forgave'm for everything, like the unjust steward! (Luke 16:1-8) And I'll tell you right now, that's not the way we run this Army!
24. I'M GOING TO RISK LOSING ONE-THIRD OF THE FAMILY TO TIGHTEN IT UP, & I'M STILL NOT DOING A GIDEON BY A LONGSHOT!--He lost about 99% of his when he had a purge & a purifying & got rid of all the lazy & the fearful & the half-hearted! I think we only stand to lose about a third. You say, "Dad, how could you do such a thing? Here we've worked so hard to build up the Family & now we've grown! We used to be just a handful, now we're 10,000 TRFers strong & 20-some-thousand Homes & Clubbers & all that, & you're going to toss out a third of the Family?"--Yes! If they won't obey, if they won't fill out their TRFs & if they won't give the proper tithe, I'm going to toss'm out!
25. WE CAN'T HAVE DISOBEDIENT, REBELLIOUS, WILFUL, STUBBORN SOLDIERS WHO CAN'T TAKE ORDERS & FOLLOW COMMANDS & EVEN FOLLOW SUGGESTIONS, NOT IN THIS MAN'S ARMY! And that's one reason we're still here, Beloved, because we believe God expects us to obey & we expect you to obey! PTL? I'm talking to you but I'm not preaching at you, thank God, because you're not the guilty ones. You're the obedient kind & the kind we like or you wouldn't be here. But let that be a warning to you & you can pass that onto others when you get to be an important leader somewhere else.
26. A LOT OF OUR PEOPLE HAVE GONE OUT FROM HERE & BECOME VERY IMPORTANT LEADERS OF WHOLE COUNTRIES & CONTINENTS! This is part of your training, if you can learn to take suggestions here & cooperate willingly, cheerfully & do whatever you're asked to do, dishes or whatever. We've got somebody at another Unit who's doing dishes for the first time in years. She thought she was too important, her job was too big, she was too big a shot to do dishes, but she's doing them now! Praise God! Hallelujah! Everybody who comes here does dishes! Amen? Even the Jews are that smart, they found in the kibbutzim it was good for everybody, including the leaders, to do dishes! Dear Maria & I are about the only ones that have escaped. Well, we used to do them. I did them at the Soul Clinic & we did them at home & we've done them, I know how to do them.
27. THERE'S NOTHING I ASK YOU TO DO THAT I HAVEN'T DONE!--Nothing you have to do here that we haven't done and some of it for years! And I'm still working around the yard & at the plumbing & everything else, trying to help in the things which need my hand & my know-how. PTL! If I need to do it I'm happy to do it! That to me is fun, to get out of that office work & away from my clipboard for awhile in the nice fresh air & sunshine doing manual labour! That for me is fun! That's an avocation, a hobby, a change, even though it's hard work.
28. I WORKED AT ABOUT SEVEN HOURS OF HARD MANUAL LABOUR THE OTHER DAY--well it was hard for me--the most I've worked at manual labour for quite a few years I think. I got up the next morning & I could hardly move, I was so stiff & sore, but it was good for me, I needed it! You work it off right away & you feel better. I'm feeling lots better this week since I've been working outside at physical work for a change instead of just brain power, but that's necessary too. That's one of the sacrifices I have to make, to do confining work a great deal of the time.
29. SO BE THANKFUL YOU CAN DO DISHES & GET A LITTLE EXERCISE! Be thankful you can mop the floor & clean the toilets! Be thankful you can get a little physical activity after all this deskwork & office work & teaching work that you have to do all the time. Be thankful, amen? God bless you for being willing & thankful! But I'll tell you, the people that are such big shots they can't stoop to do things like that, can't even stoop to take care of a very important guest that we sent there but they treat her like dirt on the floor, hardly even pay her any attention, just confine themselves in their room & as good as tell her to take care of herself, can you imagine? We sent person after person & they treated them all the same, different ones that tried to deal with them.
30. AFTER TEN YEARS OF THAT, BELOVED, I BELIEVE PEOPLE ARE UNCHANGEABLE, INCORRIGIBLE! I don't think anything's going to teach them unless they're just thrown out on their ear & have to shift for themselves & have to really hoof it for a change & see what it's like to be a peon & a peasant, the way they treated everybody else. Amen? I think that's what they deserve.
31. BUT THANK GOD WE HAVE SECURED THE WORK & SECURED THE UNIT! It has moved out of their house completely, lock, stock & barrel & baggage & papers & files & everything & they don't know where it's gone. And they think they're going to get away with some other little job that they think is very important. Well, it was, but I don't see how people like that can possibly be trusted with anything.
32. MY LORD, HOW CAN THEY EVEN COMPILE MATERIALS FOR OTHER PEOPLE IF THEY CAN'T OBEY THEMSELVES? How can we even put them on editing when they don't pay any attention to the Letters themselves? How can they preach to others when they don't even listen themselves? Well, we're taking care of that situation, we won't have them on our hands much longer. Maybe we should just send'm to Siberia!
33. YOU GUYS DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, but when I was young in the early days of the Russian Revolution, all the dissidents, malcontents & people who didn't like it, they sent'm off to Siberia, which they were trying to colonise & develop. In case you don't know it, that's about the coldest & most desolate--I shouldn't say God-forsaken, God hasn't forsaken it--part of all Russia!
34. SO MAYBE WE OUGHT TO JUST SEND THEM TO SIBERIA! They like to be alone & independent & live to themselves selfishly, let's send them someplace on the field where they can do it.--Only I don't know that they could make it. They're used to being paid for the job, so now if they have to raise their own support I don't know if they can even manage. I feel sorry for five children in a family like that, but you reap what you sow. They sowed the kids & now they're going to have to reap'm, & they're going to have to reap the kind of kids they've got. I wouldn't trust their kids either, with parents like that! God help us!
35. WELL, I DIDN'T COME DOWN HERE TO RANT & RAVE ABOUT OUR RECENT BIG PROBLEM CASE, BUT IT'S PRETTY SERIOUS, SO PLEASE DO PRAY ABOUT IT, THAT WE'LL BE ABLE TO HANDLE IT & TAKE CARE OF IT. Thank the Lord we have rescued the important parts of the Unit, now we've just got to figure out what to do with them & their five kids. I feel sorry for them but I don't feel that sorry, because they brought it on themselves. We'll take care of them, we'll send them wherever they want to go--except back home--& we'll even try to help them pioneer & get started wherever they want to go.
36. WE'VE ALWAYS BEEN GOOD TO OUR FOLKS THAT DEPART IF THEY DEPART IN PEACE & AS FRIENDS. We've been very good to people that we've had to let go, & we've taken good care of them, at least for awhile till they got started someplace else, & some of them are doing great now, really good! A lot of people we've had to send away because we just didn't need them any more--not because they did wrong, but they were needed someplace else, & they're doing great! But these people are a very sad case, & that's something for you to pray about.
37. HOW COULD I GET FROM CATS & KITTENS TO TOP LEADERS OF A TOP UNIT?--WELL, IT'S PRETTY CLOSE TO THE SAME SITUATION. If you children can't go out there & do what Grandpa tells you to do about feeding the cats & washing their dishes & keeping things clean & obeying orders in these little things, watch out you don't grow up to be like these people we're having all this trouble with, who are handling big things & important things & still disobeying orders & still not doing what they're told! So it's important for you to do those little things, isn't it?--To feed the cats right & wash their dishes. Right, children? So you take good care of the kittens. The Lord sent them & we need to feed them. There's another Scripture about "if you have it by you" you're supposed to help them, not just say "God bless you." (Pro.3:27-28) So as a result we've inherited two birds & three cats! I hope we don't get too many more, but it isn't often they come & attach themselves voluntarily like these did!
38. IT WAS FUNNY HOW SPHINX CAME IN LONDON, THAT HUGE BIG BEAUTIFUL BLACK CAT, HE WAS MAGNIFICENT! He just came & moved in, attached himself to us. I always like to have a cat around to get rid of the mice, etc. And then it was a funny thing, just like he knew we were leaving, all of a sudden at the end there he just disappeared & didn't come back any more. I was glad we didn't have to get rid of him, he just seemed to sense that we were going to go & he left.
39. WE DIDN'T ASK HIM TO COME IN & WE DIDN'T ENCOURAGE IT AT FIRST, in fact I tried to shoo him away, but he just acted like that was home. I don't know, maybe he belonged to the people who lived there before, although we asked about that & they said no, it wasn't theirs, it didn't belong to the people that had lived there before, the neighbours had never seen the cat before! He just came & attached himself & it was kind of nice to have him around!
40. SO YOU'LL FIND THAT CATS & KITTENS CAN BE FUN IF YOU'LL BE FAITHFUL IN THE LITTLE THINGS & take care of them & show responsibility & consideration & love & kindness & faithfulness! Then when it comes to big things you'll be faithful in those things too! PTL! Well, it's time to quit & time to pray.
41. YOU HAD AN HOUR OF DINNER & DANCING FROM 8 TO 9, THAT WAS JUST RIGHT, PLENTY, I think that would be good for you every night if you want to. Why not? It's good for your digestion, your appetite, your body, your health, & then if we have anything to say or you have anything to say, we can do it afterwards. GBY! It seems like my talks always last longer than anything, I don't know why. I never seem to be able to quit. But we had a couple of lessons tonight, all on the same subject really, faithfulness in little things & obedience. So let's pray now. TYL! PYJ! Hallelujah!
42. AMEN, GIVE SWEET SLEEP, LORD, TO ALL OF US TONIGHT & STRENGTH FOR TOMORROW. Thank You for supplying all of our needs & comforts & conveniences & even luxuries to make us happy, because You love us & You like what we're doing. If we're pleasing Thee, Lord, & we're delighting ourselves in Thee, You're giving us the desire of our hearts. (Psa.37:4) Just like a parent, Lord, You just can't do enough for us, because we please Thee. We're helping others & blessing the World, so You're happy with us & we're thankful that You're happy with us, Lord.
43. YOU SHOWER US WITH GIFTS & SHOWER US WITH PLEASURES & SHOWER US WITH BENEFITS, shower us with even luxuries, Lord, because we're doing Thy Work & a good job & what we're supposed to be doing. We're doing well, so You treat us well! Help everyone to realise, Lord, that if they'll treat You right, You'll treat them right.--But Lord, if they treat You wrong, You have no obligation to be extra good to them, You'll even let them suffer for it! So help us Lord to remember these things we learned tonight, in Jesus' name. As we pray Thy prayer together: (Prays the Lord's Prayer, Psalm 19:14 & "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep.")--In Jesus' name, amen. God bless you all & keep you & give you a good night! I love you & thanks a lot for listening! I hope you learned something.--Did you?
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
