HomeARC ML 1769
THE RESURRECTION STORY! DO 1769 4/84
1. WELL, THIS IS SO-CALLED HOLY WEEK, & as far as we're concerned, every week is holy, sacred, cleansed & set apart to serve the Lord, amen? We have no special holy day, every day is holy as unto the Lord. Amen? Some esteem one day above another, we esteem all days the same. (Rom.14:5) They all are the Lord's day, they all are holy days, amen?--Not mere holidays, but holy days!
2. LAST NIGHT WE WERE THINKING ABOUT HOW THE WHOLE WORLD IS REMEMBERING THE PASSION OF CHRIST & HIS DEATH & WHAT IT MEANT, but tonight is sort of an in-between that most people don't even understand. They're sort of left in limbo on Saturday & I don't think it's even been given a special name, has it? They've got Mound Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, but what do they call Saturday? (Alf: Black Saturday.)--Of all the horrible names for it!
3. THE CHRISTIAN WORLD IN GENERAL CELEBRATES THE DEATH OF CHRIST ON FRIDAY & HIS RESURRECTION ON SUNDAY, because according to the Scripture, His death was followed by a Sabbath. But as I have told you before (No.972), this was a particular High Sabbath, it was the Passover Sabbath, a special day which was determined by certain phases of the moon etc. & did not even necessarily fall on Saturday. In fact, that particular week of that particular month, that year, the Sabbath was not a Saturday.
4. THE USUAL WEEKLY JEWISH SABBATH WAS A SATURDAY, BUT THIS WAS A VERY HIGH & HOLY "SABBAT", WHICH WAS THE PASSOVER SABBATH, & it obviously could not possibly have fallen on Saturday. I hope you don't feel bad if I destroy some of your superstitions, traditions & holdovers from the Catholic Church & even Protestantism! The only day in this series of events which we can definitely ascertain as far as days of the week were concerned is which day? Do you know? It doesn't say in the Bible that He was crucified on Friday. (Fam: The day that the two Mary's went to the tomb?) Yes, the day of His Resurrection! And that is specifically specified as the first day of the week, which according to the Jewish week, of course, was the day after the seventh, the usual Sabbath or Saturday--which would then make Sunday the day of His Resurrection.
5. BECAUSE OF THE PAGANS' INFLUENCE ON THE CALENDAR, MOST OF OUR WEEKLY DAYS TODAY ARE NAMED NOT AFTER ANY SPECIAL HOLY DAYS, NEITHER JEWISH NOR CHRISTIAN, BUT NEARLY ALL OF THEM ARE NAMED AFTER PAGAN GODS, the various gods that they worshipped, & they threw in a few extras. Sunday was named after the Sun--S-U-N Sun, not the Son of God, sad to say. Monday was named after the Moon. The heathen worshipped all kinds of things, the Sun & the Moon etc. Tuesday was named after a little lesser known deity, Tiw's day, the day of Mars, god of Battle.
6. WITH WEDNESDAY THE ANGLO-SAXONS GOT IN A LITTLE INFLUENCE BECAUSE THE ROMANS HAD BEEN WITH THEM. They really tried to spread out their deities throughout the week in honour of all of them. I always thought that was funny in school that Wednesday has a "d" in it, & do you know why that is?--Because it's named after the pagan Norsemen's god Woden--Woden's Day, Wednesday. And Thursday, of course, was named after another one of their gods, the supreme god to them, Thor's Day! Friday was also another one of the Norse deities, Frigg, wife of Odin, another pagan god. And then Saturday, of course, was named after a planet, Saturn, Saturn's Day.--Not one of them named after our God or Jesus, but all pagan names after pagan gods!
7. BUT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT WE ARE TOLD SPECIFICALLY THAT JESUS ROSE ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK (MAT.28:1), & according to both Roman & Jewish calendars, the first day of the week followed the Sabbath, the seventh day. And therefore, since the week only has seven days, the first day of the week was Sunday. And it has been the normal custom of the Christian church, of course, to observe Easter on a Sunday, the first day of the week, to observe the Resurrection of Jesus & to commemorate His being raised from the dead on the first day of the week, which we know today as Sunday.--Which is fine, very well & good, & that's correct.
8. --WHICH IS WHY LATER ON SUNDAY BECAME KNOWN AS THE CHRISTIAN SABBATH OR DAY OF WORSHIP, & you'll find many references to the first day of the week throughout the New Testament, that Christians were meeting on the first day of the week together. Because many of them still went to Synagogue on Saturday, they were Jews! Many of them were secret believers & therefore remained faithful to go to Synagogue on the Sabbath, but they had their own special little private meetings, home meetings etc. as Christians, believers in Jesus as the Messiah, Yeshuah ha Messiah, on Sunday, having their special Christian fellowship on the first day of the week. And this became a rather common day of fellowship for Christians, Sunday.
9. THIS WAS VERY CONVENIENT BECAUSE THEY COULD BRING ALL THE LATEST NEWS FROM THE SYNAGOGUE, all the latest gossip, scandal, scuttlebutt & what the Jews were up to regarding the Christians, & how many Jews & Priests were now secret believers. And they tried to squeeze in little messages about the Messiah, reminding them of various passages & prophecies, Isaiah 53 & all the rest. They'd get up & read it as Jesus once did, in fact did several times probably, to remind them of the prophecies which showed very clearly that Jesus was the Messiah.
10. SO THEY WERE STILL TRYING TO BE AN INFLUENCE IN THE SYNAGOGUES ON THE JEWS WHO WERE STILL A LITTLE SLOW IN BELIEVING, & then going together as Christians on the first day of the week, Sunday, to have fellowship & to exchange all the latest news & what progress they were making & what dangers they faced & what persecution was possible & all of these things. So many of them were sort of living a double life, particularly some of the older ones who were members of what became known as the Concision or the Circumcision, those who firmly believed that they should continue to keep the Law of Moses & the Sabbath & the Ten Commandments & all the rest, as well as receiving Jesus as the Messiah. So they continued to attend Synagogue on Saturday, but then they would also fellowship on Sunday with Christians who believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
11. THESE DID NOT ABANDON THEIR OLD JUDAISM & THEIR LEGALISM & THEIR MOSAIC LAW NOR THEIR JEWISH CUSTOMS. In fact, a lot of them you probably couldn't have told from the Orthodox Jews that they had been, that they had become Christians!--Except they sort of tacked Christ onto their already existing religion & they sort of condescended to receive Jesus as the Messiah & to meet together with other Christians on Sunday, the first day of the week, in recognition of their faith in Jesus as Messiah, but not letting go of their old Orthodox Judaism & Law observance, Sabbath-keeping, nor even their fellowship with other Jews.
12. IN A SENSE THEY WERE COMPROMISERS TRYING TO STRADDLE THE FENCE, & that's a kind of an uncomfortable place if you've ever tried to straddle a fence, trying to have one foot in one World & the other foot in the other World & trying to enjoy both Worlds & please both Worlds & be still respected by the Jews of the Synagogues who had not yet received Jesus, in fact, were even beginning to preach & speak against Jesus & to fight Christianity.--They were still trying to influence them, still trying to fellowship with them & meet with them & have their Synagogue ceremonies together, still observing all of the old Holy Days, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah & a good many others--they've got lots of'm--so that you could hardly tell the difference between what they had been & what they were supposed to be now as Christians.
13. SO THEY WERE A LITTLE DANGEROUS TO HAVE AROUND IN THE NEW CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIPS, as Paul & other Apostles indicated in later letters, because in a sense they were almost like spies. (Phil.3:2; Gal.2:4) You couldn't really tell exactly where they stood. They claimed to believe in Jesus, but they were still hanging on to the past, all the old customs & traditions & friends & fellowships & days & all the rest. But that's not what we're observing tonight, that's merely by way of passing to give you the setting & explain to you the sequence of events.
14. SOME CHRISTIANS WERE STILL SO HOT ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS & THE MOSAIC LAW that they had to insist that the day they were observing, even though it was the first day of the week, was still one in seven & they perfunctorily made it the seventh day of the week, which it was not. In fact, oddly enough in formerly very Catholic countries such as Spain, you will find their calendars showing Sunday as the seventh day of the week! I was surprised when I got my first calendar in Tenerife for the New Year 1975, & to my amazement Sunday was the last day of the week!--Monday was number one & Sunday was number seven!
15. SO YOU CAN SEE THE JEWISH INFLUENCE THERE, CAN'T YOU? All these Jews who had become Christians or been forced to become Christians & Catholics, if they must be Christians & they must keep one day of the week & they must make it Sunday the Catholic Christian way, they cooked up a calendar which could prove to them & their folks & others that they were still worshipping on the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, the Holy Sabbath. But as anybody knows, Sunday is not the seventh day of the week, Saturday is, & nearly all Orthodox & tradition-observing Jews in all other countries not so bound by Catholicism continue to observe Saturday as the seventh day of the week, & on American, British & most European calendars, it is. The strip of days begins with Sunday & ends with Saturday. I don't know about Italy, do you? (Fam: I think it's the same thing.)--With Sunday as the seventh day of the week in very stringent Catholic countries.
16. DO YOU KNOW HOW IT IS IN LATIN AMERICAN COUNTRIES, FAITHY? What are your countries like down there? (Faithy: I don't remember!) All those years you spent there you never looked at a calendar? Well, time doesn't mean anything to Faithy, God bless her. She's already entered into that realm where time is no more, God bless her! (Faithy: Sunday is the first day on the calendar.) Then they fall under the American influence, no doubt, because of the Americas. But as far as I've been able to see, Spain still has Sunday as the last day of the week on their calendars.
17. WELL, BE THAT AS IT MAY, WHETHER IT'S SATURDAY, SUNDAY OR WHATEVER, WE KNOW ACCORDING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT THAT JESUS WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK. Now I have mentioned this to some of you before & I think it's in one of the Letters somewhere (No.972), but it's a matter of interest to show you how screwed-up the churches can get, both Catholic & Protestant. If you take Scripture with Scripture & you try to coordinate them & reconcile them, you're going to have to take the Scripture which says specifically that Jesus spent three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth after His crucifixion. (Mat.12:40) All right, let's count'm, shall we?
18. GOOD FRIDAY IS OBSERVED BY ALL THE CHRISTIAN WORLD, BOTH CATHOLICS & PROTESTANTS, & I DON'T KNOW OF ANY CRAZY OFF-BEAT GROUP LIKE US WHO WOULD SAY DIFFERENTLY, but let's see if you wind up with Jesus' Resurrection on Sunday if He died on Friday night. Friday night would be the first night, & then Saturday would be the first day, right? And Saturday night would be the second night, right? And Sunday would be the third night & Monday then would be the third day. And if you counted your days & nights like that, three full days & three full nights, you'd have to have Jesus being resurrected sometime Monday evening before the fourth night! But we know He was resurrected in the morning, the first day of the week, so where are you going to begin your count?
19. WELL, WE KNOW HE DIED IN THE AFTERNOON, BECAUSE AS I RECALL, IT WAS THE NINTH HOUR OF THE DAY, OR THREE IN THE AFTERNOON. (Mat.27:46) They were already preparing the Passover etc., & He died about the time they were killing the Passover lambs for their Passover feasts.--Not on a Friday, but on a Passover evening. And as you know about all Jewish days & their Sabbaths, it's in the very first chapter of the Bible, Biblical days, Jewish days did not begin in the morning, but at sundown. In Genesis it says, "The evening & the morning were the first day." (Gen.1:5)
20. GOD COUNTED THE 24-HOUR DAYS BY PUTTING THE NIGHT FIRST, FOLLOWED BY THE DAY. That's even significant regarding times & ages & the way God looks at today, in the sense of this Night followed by the Day of the Millennium & Heaven & the glory that's to come! This, in a sense, is Nighttime to the Lord, this Age of the World, & it's to be followed by the Morning & the Day. Anyhow, that was the Jewish custom & it was Biblical & it's right there in the Bible. "The evening & the morning"--in other words the night & the day--"were the first day." God put the night first.
21. SO IF JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED IN THE AFTERNOON, & He thereby went to Hades or the Netherworld or "heart of the Earth" as it says specifically, & spent three days & three nights there, it doesn't necessarily mean He spent a full 24 hours of each day & each night, but that He arrived there on the first day. In fact, I think you'll find in that Scripture that oddly enough, contrary to Jewish custom, it puts the word "days" first: "For the Son of Man shall be three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth." (Mat.12:40)--Thereby beginning with the day. So the day He was crucified was the first day that He spent in the heart of the Earth, He arrived there on the first day & He spent that night.--Not counting days as the Jews did, but just flat-out daylight hours & night hours, day & night.
22. SO LET'S SAY, THEREBY, THAT JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED ON THE FIRST DAY, He spent the first night also in the heart of the Earth, & then the second day & the second night. Crucified on the first one, there that night, there the next day, there the next night, there the next day. How many have we got now? Day, night, day, night--two days & two nights. Then another day, a third day, & a third night, & on the morning of the first day of the week He rose from the dead, literally on the fourth day! All right, now work back from Sunday: If Sunday was the fourth day, therefore Saturday night was His third night in the heart of the Earth, Saturday was His third day, Friday night His second night & Friday His second day, therefore Thursday night was His first day in the heart of the Earth & Thursday was the day He arrived there when crucified!
23. AND BIBLE SCHOLARS WHO WERE HONEST ENOUGH TO WORK IT OUT HAVE WORKED BACK & DISCOVERED THAT THAT WAS WHEN JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED, ON THURSDAY, & IT WAS THE SABBATH EVE! Their Sabbath began that night when Jesus had the Last Supper, Thursday night, because the following day, according to the moon & the way they figured out the Passover, Friday was the Passover Sabbath.--Not the normal weekly Saturday Sabbath, but it was a High Sabbath, a special high holy day, it says so, & it says specifically it was the Passover. This was the Passover Feast that they were observing on Thursday night, which was the beginning of the Passover day. (Luke 22:1,8,15)
24. SO THE POOR CATHOLIC CHURCH & THE POOR PROTESTANTS--THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF HOW MANY THINGS THEY'RE SCREWED-UP ON--SHOULD BE OBSERVING THURSDAY AS THE DAY OF CRUCIFIXION in order to make that specific reference fit, so that He is raised from the dead on Sunday morning. Therefore He was three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth: Thursday & Thursday night, Friday & Friday night, Saturday & Saturday night, & raised from the dead on Sunday morning! PTL! Hallelujah!
25. SO AS IF WE DIDN'T HAVE ENOUGH TO DIFFER WITH THE CHURCHES ON ALREADY, TAKE THAT ONE & DECIDE ON WHAT YOU WANT TO DO WITH IT! Of course, since we don't worry about observing days etc., it's not really all that important. But after all, if you are going to observe days & observe Easter, then you ought to be observing Good Thursday as the day of Jesus' crucifixion!--Just another little proof that the churches really can get screwed up & are really off the beam on a lot of their traditions.
26. SOMEBODY WHO DIDN'T QUITE UNDERSTAND WHAT THEY WERE DOING MUST HAVE FIRST ORDAINED THAT FRIDAY TO BE SO-CALLED GOOD FRIDAY AS THE DAY WHEN JESUS WAS CRUCIFIED. They didn't know their Bible very well & didn't know their Scriptures very well somehow to overlook that Scripture that He was three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth before He was resurrected: Thursday, Friday & Saturday days & nights, & resurrected on the fourth day, Sunday, therefore He had to be crucified on Thursday night. So the poor Catholics really sort of came in a little bit late.
27. WELL, YOU MAY HAVE SOME IDEAS ON THAT OTHERWISE, BUT IT'S PRETTY HARD TO GET AROUND THAT PARTICULAR SCRIPTURE, if you're going to believe that that Scripture is true, that He spent three days & three nights in the heart of the Earth. The way it's given, some have tried to say, "Well, if you count Sunday as the third day, then you're going to have to count Friday as the first day, Saturday the second day, Sunday the third day." But by no means of mathematical calculation or wild stretch of your imagination can you squeeze three nights into Friday & Saturday nights! Well, there's a little puzzle for you to think about anyway.
28. AS I SAY, WE'RE NOT PARTICULARLY SABBATH-OBSERVERS. In fact, we're supposed to take a day off on Sunday, but we don't even observe the Christian Sabbath! Most of us work & I even forget what day of the week it is usually. I have to consult my calculator to make sure I know what day of the week it is, because I do the same things every day. I esteem no day above another, they're all the Lord's day to me.--Not that I mean that you shouldn't take a day off, we try to get you to take a day off. I practically order you to take a day off on Sundays, but you just won't! You're all workaholics! A lot of times, of course, we do have a special project to finish that we've got to get off in the mail maybe on a Monday or Tuesday & you've got to work a little overtime, but I'm hoping you take a little extra time off some other time in-between to make up for it.
29. WE HAVE OUR RUSH TIMES & WE HAVE OUR SLOW TIMES, SO I DON'T THINK ANYBODY SHOULD BE PUSHED TOO HARD ALL THE TIME. Sometimes I push, sometimes I just relax & lope along like I am now. I just do what I can each day, & as the Lord said of one woman, "She hath done what she could." (Mark 14:8) She couldn't do any more. I just do what I can. We don't expect you to do any more than that, but do what you can. Don't try to kill yourself & wear yourself out & overdo & not get enough rest & not get enough recreation or enough free time & time off & inspiration, so that you just wear yourself down & wear yourself out & therefore you don't do a really good job for the Lord. Because unless you take good care of your body & not abuse it & do take your rest & relaxation, you're not going to be a very good happy efficient worker for the Lord. So if you don't always get Sunday off, you can always take a little time off some other day or a little time off every day.
30. I JUST WORK AS LONG AS I CAN EVERY DAY, & THEN USUALLY WHEN THE DAYLIGHT FADES OR I GET TOO TIRED OR MY EYES ARE TIRED, I QUIT! Of course, I usually start about daylight so I get a lot done, almost get a day's work done by noon! I just finished 50 pages today that you're going to get in the new GN! But I'm not pushing, I'm just taking it easy & reading as I feel led & as I feel comfortable, & when the daylight fades or my eyes get tired, I just quit. I go out & have my get-out, come back & eat lunch, maybe take a nap & maybe work a little while longer before it's dark, & then I listen to the news like you do, or are supposed to, & come down here & enjoy a little music & a good dinner & we usually have dancing etc.
31. SO DON'T PUSH YOURSELF! YOU DON'T HAVE TO NECESSARILY OBSERVE DAYS IN ORDER TO GET ENOUGH REST. If you can't get your Sabbath rest one day in seven, then take off a little bit of every day like I do. Just don't work so long & hard every day. When you get sleepy, take a nap. When you get tired of sitting, walk around or take your get-out. When you feel sexy, take a little time off for a quickie. But thank the Lord you have work to keep you busy. If you didn't, you wouldn't know what to do the rest of the time. I'd be lost! If I didn't do my work or my job, I wouldn't know what to do either. We can't play all the time or have sex all the time, so it would be kind of hard to find enough activities to fill up our time. You certainly don't want to sleep all the time or eat all the time!
32. BUT IF YOU'RE GOING TO SAY, "WELL, I SHOULD BE WORKING EIGHT HOURS A DAY, SIX DAYS A WEEK, 48 HOURS A WEEK & HAVE A DAY OFF", well, what if you decide to spread those 48 hours over seven days, what would that come out to? Divide 48 by 7 & what do you get?--You've got about a 7-hour day. So if you didn't get your day off Sunday, why don't you just knock off an hour early every night? If you start about 9, which I think most of you do, & you just put in 7 hours, you can knock off about 4, not counting lunch. Maybe you can count lunch as one of your work hours, because eating is hard work!--Certainly hard work for the cooks & the dishwashers, GB'm!
33. BUT SEE, YOU CAN STILL PUT IN YOUR 48 HOURS & GET YOUR TIME OFF without even necessarily taking a whole day off all in one big long stretch. The way I do it is, I usually work about six hours a day, & after six hours of reading & editing & correcting & all of that sort of thing, my eyes get pretty tired & I'm ready to quit. But if I do that seven days a week I've got a 42-hour week anyhow. Even if I only work five hours a day I'd still have 35 hours. 7 x 5 is 35.
34. WELL ANYWAY, THE POINT IS, IF YOU DON'T GET YOUR DAY OFF, JUST TAKE IT OFF WHEN YOU'RE NOT BUSY, OKAY? I don't want you to overdo & overwork when there's no rush on some of these things. We've got all the time in the World! We've got the rest of our lives--which may be tomorrow, we don't know--but anyhow, whatever it is, you've got it! You can't do more than you can, just do what you can, that's all! PTL?
35. SO WE DON'T PARTICULARLY OBSERVE DAYS, WE'RE NOT SABBATH-KEEPERS & DAY-OBSERVERS & HOLY DAY-OBSERVERS ETC., WE JUST SORT OF LOPE ALONG & TAKE IT EASY EVERY DAY.--At least I do, I don't know about you. Some of you workaholics that slave away in the goldmine, maybe you work longer hours than I do & don't take much time off, I don't know. Well, if you like your work that much, God bless you! I peek in at you every day when you're working & blow you a few kisses & I can see you're working, but for all I know, maybe that's the only few minutes of every day you work!--Ha!--If it were not for the fact that I see the products & I know you must have been doing something & working or I wouldn't be seeing the results! But that really wasn't what I was going to talk to you about tonight.
36. ANYHOW, EVEN THOUGH THERE'S A LITTLE MIX-UP AMONGST THE CHURCH PEOPLE ABOUT THE DAY CHRIST WAS CRUCIFIED, THERE'S NO MIX-UP ABOUT THE DAY HE WAS RESURRECTED, IT WAS ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK WHICH WE CALL SUNDAY. So tomorrow when you have your Fellowship Meeting you can joyously celebrate & commemorate the day of the Lord's Resurrection. That is the day! You can do that with confidence, faith & assurance that you're celebrating the right day! And I hope tomorrow in your Fellowship Meeting you'll sing some good old Resurrection hymns etc. & praise the Lord & rejoice over His Resurrection!
37. WHEN I WAS YOUNG THEY USED TO HAVE SUNRISE SERVICES SOMEWHERE AROUND FIVE O'CLOCK, & YOU HAD TO GET UP ABOUT FOUR TO MAKE IT! In Miami we had to drive about five or six miles all the way to the beach. They had the Sunrise Service on the beach because the sun rose out of the sea there, out of the Atlantic, & you had to get up early enough to get there & all. A lot of people went there without breakfast & ate breakfast after they got back & then caught a little sleep before Sunday School.
38. BUT IF MY RELIGION HAD DEPENDED ON MY GETTING UP AT FIVE O'CLOCK EVERY MORNING LIKE THE MUSLIMS, I'M AFRAID I'D NEVER MAKE IT! Even if it only depended on once a year getting up at five o'clock for Sunrise Service I don't think I'd have made it, because I missed a lot of them. Frankly, a little later I became a little fanatical & I used to call them "sun-worshippers"! I couldn't really see any point in them getting up at sunrise. Just because the Lord rose on Sunday morning, I didn't see why they had to get out there & worship the sun at five o'clock on Sunday morning. So I've abandoned that tradition & that custom also.
39. ABANDONING SOME OF THESE TRADITIONS REALLY HAS BEEN QUITE A RELIEF & TIME-SAVER & BODY-SAVER & HAS BEEN A LOT EASIER IN MANY WAYS than trying to keep all these things & keep these laws & these legalisms & these traditions of the church.--By which, as Jesus Himself said, "Ye by your traditions do make the Law of God"--Love--"of none effect!" (Mat.15:3,6) In the muddle & the mess of all these law observances, day observances, time observances, holy days, Sabbath days, legalistic practices & traditions, the real meaning & purpose of it all is lost. The Love of God is lost in their legalism!
40. SO RIGHT NOW WHILE THE CHURCH IS OBSERVING ALL THESE HIGH & HOLY DAYS, we are reminding you of it & reminding you that other Christians, hundreds of millions around the World are observing these things at this particular time, & it's a good time to remember them, it's a good time to have the Lord's Supper. "As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance of Me." (1Cor.11:24-26)--To remember that night, to remember that Last Supper--on a Thursday night, not Friday--to remember what the Lord told us to remember. There are not too many things He told us to remember, but a few, & that's one of them, so we have! PTL!
41. WE HAD OUR LORD'S SUPPER ON THE TRADITIONAL FRIDAY NIGHT BECAUSE I DIDN'T WANT TO SHAKE YOU UP TOO MUCH, BREAK YOU UP TOO MUCH & test your frame of reference this particular time, but maybe next year if we want to observe it at all we can have it on Thursday night if you want to. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter. The Lord didn't say when, He just said "as often as ye do it". You could do it every day, ten times a day, once a year, whatever! "As oft as ye do it, ye do it in remembrance of Him!" PTL? But there's one thing that I have been thinking about, & all that wee word of introduction to say this!
42. AS ALF SAID, THEY CALL THIS "BLACK SATURDAY", THAT IT SHOULD BE BLACK BECAUSE JESUS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE IN THE HEART OF THE EARTH AT THAT TIME, BUT I DON'T THINK IT WAS BLACK FOR THE LORD! He had to go there for our sakes in order to see & experience what it was like, in a sense, to be a sinner, but it's quite obvious from what the Scripture says that He took advantage of the time. It seems to indicate that He was there amongst them, in a sense, as a fellow-prisoner. (1Pet.3:19,4:6) How else could He experience & sympathise with those who are having to remain for the time being in Hell or Purgatory or Hades or wherever, whatever, unless He spent some time there & saw what it was like?
43. I'M SURE, SINCE HE HAD DONE NO WRONG & NO EVIL & NO SIN, HE WAS NOT SUFFERING ANY KIND OF PUNISHMENT OR HELLFIRE OR TORTURE OR SUFFERING OF ANY KIND LIKE THAT, although there are some who actually believe that He suffered flames of Purgatory.--Since He was supposedly suffering for our sins, that therefore He was going all the way & suffering a little bit of Hell for us too. Well, the Scripture does not seem to indicate that as far as I'm concerned. He went far enough in dying for us, He thereby saved us, & that was as far as He had to go. And if He went to Hell, which He apparently did, or at least in the bowels of the Earth--"heart of the Earth" it says specifically--& preached to the spirits in prison, then I believe He did it voluntarily!--Not as a punishment, not as being forced to go there. He told the thief it'd be Paradise! (Luke 23:43)
44. WHEN HE DIED ON THE CROSS HIS WORK WAS DONE, & THE SCRIPTURE SAYS SO, YOUR SALVATION WAS WON! How do you know? He said what?--"It is finished!" (John 19:30) Finished! He didn't have to go to Hell too to finish it. I think He went there voluntarily, since it was going to be a few days before He was raised again, & I think He went there for the same reason that we might if you & I had to do something like that, I believe He went there voluntarily to preach the Gospel to them!--God's Word says, "To the spirits in prison." And if there hadn't been hopes for them to be saved through the hearing of the Word & believing in the Word, receiving the Word, then why would He have wasted His time going there?
45. BUT ANYHOW, WHEN JESUS PASSED AWAY, IN HIS CASE HE DID NOT GO UP, BUT DOWN! HE WENT THE EXTRA MILE TO VISIT THOSE IN PRISON TO GIVE THEM THE MESSAGE OF SALVATION. Isn't that wonderful? Think of the Love!--Not only dying on the cross for us, but having such compassion on those who had already gone to that prison that He went there to give them the Message, the wonderful Good News of the Gospel, that it was done, it was finished, that if they would now believe they could still be saved! Think of that! And why else would He have gone unless He expected results? So I believe that on His same Resurrection morning at the same time He was resurrected, that He had the joy of seeing multitudes of those to whom He had preached in prison over those past few days resurrected to go up together with Him to meet the Father! HAL! TYJ! (Mt.27:52-53)
46. REMEMBER WHEN MARY MAGDALENE STARTED TO TOUCH HIM?--And I'm sure she was going to do more than touch Him, she was probably used to embracing Him & kissing Him & loving Him!--But He said, "Don't touch Me yet, I have not yet been to My Father." (John 20:17) Which meant that He went from the bowels of the Earth back through the grave where He'd been buried. He didn't have to, necessarily, but this was to prove that He was really resurrected, because His body had to disappear.
47. ACTUALLY HE DIDN'T HAVE TO ROLL THE STONE AWAY TO GET OUT, BECAUSE HE NOW HAD A BODY WHICH COULD HAVE WALKED RIGHT THROUGH THE STONE! Why then did the angel have to roll away the stone? (Mat.28:2)--So that His Disciples & the whole World could see that He was no longer there! The stone wasn't rolled away so Jesus could get out, He could have walked right through the mountain or the cliff or the stone or whatever!--But it was rolled away so that others could see that He was gone & He was really resurrected.
48. AND KNOWING HOW MUCH SHE LOVED HIM, WASN'T IT SWEET TO THINK THAT HE WAS THEN WILLING TO HANG AROUND A LITTLE WHILE UNTIL HE SAW MARY MAGDALENE? The other Mary apparently went on, but Mary Magdalene just couldn't tear herself away. She stayed there & wept! And when she saw this man she thought was the gardener she said, "Please tell me where they've taken Him! They've taken away my Lord & I know not where they have laid Him!" And He said, "Woman, why weepest thou?" And then after she gave Him a good look, she realised it was Jesus! Isn't that wonderful? And she started to embrace Him but He said, "Wait, I haven't gone to the Father." (John 20:11-17)
49. FOR SOME REASON OR OTHER HE WAS TO GO TO THE FATHER FIRST, perhaps because the Father wanted to be the first to embrace Him, the first to receive Him, the first to touch Him, the first to honour Him! We don't know exactly why that was, but He was to go there first. It certainly was a matter of honouring the Father, the Son returning to the Father in the Heavenlies from whence He had come. But I'm sure when He came back then, which He did very shortly, that He embraced them all, praise the Lord, & there's the record! He ate with them, drank with them, read the Scriptures with them, talked with them, cooked for them, walked on the water, did all kinds of things for 40 days. (Acts 1:3) For 40 days He was seen by over 500 different people after that. Just think! (1Cor.15:6)
50. IMAGINE AGAIN THE LOVE OF CHRIST, THE COMPASSION OF CHRIST! He could have gone up with the Father & stayed there, but He wanted to come back & encourage them to prove that He really was still alive & that He had really risen from the dead! So He appeared to His Disciples numbers of times, & a total of over 500 people saw Jesus after His Resurrection!--So that it would be firmly confirmed that He really was no longer dead & had really been resurrected, so that the people would really know it & believe it. Besides, He had quite a few little special things that He had to wind up & a few loose ends to tie up.
51. ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS HE SAID WAS, "GO TELL MY DISCIPLES & PETER." (Mark 16:7) Now why do you suppose He said that? You know, Peter was undoubtedly feeling pretty glum, because the last thing He'd done was deny Christ three times! He got so discouraged he just about gave up & said, "I go afishing" (John 21:3). I guess he figured, "Well, I might as well quit, I might as well go back to fishing again. I'm no more a disciple, I'm a failure & I denied Him & I must be lost & He must not love me any more & I might as well forget the whole thing!" So one of the first things Jesus said was, "Go tell My disciples & Peter, don't forget to tell Peter." In other words, "I still love him. Tell Peter to be there, he's still one of My Disciples."
52. AND HE WAS WILLING TO TRY TO HELP CONVINCE SOME OF THE REASONERS WHO WERE WALKING DOWN THE ROAD TO EMMAUS still wondering about the Scriptures & discussing, & show them that He was really the Messiah. He reasoned the Scriptures with them as they walked along. He was able to conceal His identity through some means & convince them that Jesus really was the Messiah, although they didn't even realise that it was Jesus walking with them! Then they invited Him in to have supper with them, & as it was the custom to invite the visitor to break the bread & pray, He did so, & at that time revealed Himself to them & they were astonished! (Lk.24:13-31)
53. SO HE WENT AROUND DOING SOME WITNESSING & SOME ENCOURAGING & DOING A LOT OF LITTLE THINGS THAT HE WANTED TO DO BEFORE HE WENT UP, IN ORDER TO SEND THE HOLY SPIRIT BACK AGAIN. He said, "I must needs go away that I might send unto you another Comforter." (John 16:7) But He spent 40 days & 40 nights here! Think of it!--Personally going around encouraging & comforting & preaching, even the three days & nights He spent in Hell preaching to the poor people down there! I don't know what kind of system He used, but it apparently didn't take very long for Him to preach the Gospel to them, & there must have been quite a few down there. I'm sure the Lord must have gotten around & preached to everybody who deserved to hear it. And then He spent 40 days encouraging His Disciples & teaching them & encouraging the faith of this one & that one, like doubting Thomas, proving that He had risen from the dead for sure, so there would be no doubt about it. Isn't that wonderful?
54. HE WALKED THROUGH DOORS, HE APPEARED & DISAPPEARED, HE TIME-TRAVELLED OR SPACE-TRAVELLED, HE DID A LOT OF MIRACLES WHILE HE WAS BACK HERE FROM THE DEAD IN HIS RESURRECTION BODY! He did some very amazing things, but He also showed Himself to still be quite human! He ate with them, He drank with them, He even cooked for them! He did a few odd, peculiar things too such as walking on the water, walking through solid locked doors & a few other things that they couldn't do yet, to prove that He was really a resurrected Lord & had a supernatural, miraculous Resurrection body!--And also, I believe, to show us & demonstrate to us, literally, what we are going to be like, to encourage us! (Lk.24:30-43; Jn.20:19,26,30; 21:6-13).
55. HIS ENEMIES COULDN'T LAY A FINGER ON HIM THEN! Nobody could do anything to Him then, He did as He pleased. He could appear or disappear, pass through air, crowds, doors, walk on water--or be perfectly normal & eat & drink & cook! And I believe He very likely made love to His favourite lovers that had been faithful to Him so many years! I believe we're going to have babies in Heaven! Amen? (No.1560) And how are you going to have babies in Heaven unless you make love? You say, "Well, maybe it's just all the pregnant women who are going to finish their term in Heaven." Well, I think that Thousand Years even on Earth here in the Millennium would get a little bit dull without some sweet, wonderful children around like our precious children! TTL! And they are sweet, wonderful children & I kept them awfully late last night so I don't want to keep them so late tonight.
56. SO WITH THAT BIT OF ENCOURAGING WORD FOR YOU & AS THE WHOLE WORLD IS REMEMBERING THESE DAYS RIGHT NOW, I thought we might as well talk a little bit about them & remind you of them & what actually happened, what it was all about & what it was for, how it happened & how much the Lord manifested His Love through it all for you & me.--Not only for the whole World, but for those under the Earth & those still on the Earth when He came back, & then ascended once again to the Heavenlies so that He could send back His Spirit Who could in a sense be everywhere.--And undoubtedly His multitudes & multitudes of ministering spirits. TYL! Hallelujah!
57. WE WOULDN'T BE WHERE WE ARE TODAY IF IT WEREN'T FOR HIS ANGELS & HIS MINISTERING SPIRITS & OUR GUARDIAN ANGELS & OUR HUMAN ANGELS, those who have gone on before, departed saints who are now helping us from the Spirit World, & one of these nights I'd like to discuss our life after death with you. I started to do it one night & I was thinking about doing it again tonight, but we got into a few other things with a wee word of introduction about these events. I was going to do it when we were thinking about the death of such a great World leader as Andropov, but we got off into Russian history. (No.1767) I was reading that today & it's not bad, it's got good things you ought to know, at least the minimum you ought to know about those things to appreciate World events today.
58. AND WE WERE THINKING ABOUT DEATH AGAIN TODAY, THE DEATH OF OUR OWN LORD & SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST & the time that He spent during those days that He was supposedly dead--obviously quite alive down below--but His body dead & laid in a grave before He came back & picked it up in a new model form, completely changed, regenerated, rejuvenated & resurrected! It's such a marvellous miracle & such a mystery, really, that nobody can understand it, how our bodies are still going to be related to that dust that goes back to the dust, & some way that they are going to be raised again!
59. PAUL SAYS IT'S SUCH A MYSTERY YOU CAN HARDLY UNDERSTAND IT ANY MORE THAN YOU CAN UNDERSTAND HOW A SEED BURIED IN THE GROUND COMES TO LIFE & SPRINGS UP & BECOMES A WHOLE NEW PLANT & FLOWERS ETC.! That's how much more wonderful your new body's going to be, that much different! He says there's one kind of this & one kind of that, & if you bury a grain of wheat in the ground you're not going to get apples. What comes out & the final end product is going to look like the grain of wheat you buried. (1Cor.15:37,38) And if you get buried before that time instead of going straight up with the Lord, what's going to be resurrected out of that grave is going to look like what was buried, & you're going to be recognisable. You're going to look like yourself but with a marvellous new body!
60. I ONLY HAD ONE EXPERIENCE IN WHICH I REALLY BELIEVE I WAS DEAD, & IT IS A MARVELLOUS EXPERIENCE! In many life after death experiences people have said that it is a marvellous feeling, that weightless feeling! That's one reason I've always liked to swim underwater, it's like flying! That's the one place on Earth you can be weightless. They train the astronauts in water in order to get them accustomed to that weightless feeling, because that's the one place you can have a little sample or touch of weightlessness & flying. Perhaps some of you have seen me dive, & I haven't done it to show off to you by any means, I've done it because I enjoyed it & it gave me a thrill to dive down in the water & hold my hands out & feel like Superman! You know how he flies with his hands like that? Sometimes I've put one hand out & one hand behind me! I just enjoyed the experience of flying the way it's going to be!
61. OFTEN IN MY DREAMS I'VE FLOWN, HAVEN'T YOU? And I've found in my dreams if I'd sort of flap my arms, I can fly like a bird! Now I don't know whether it's going to be like that in Heaven or not, it seemed more like people were just floating along, but I must confess, it was sort of slow motion like it is when you swim. Nobody's in a hurry, people just seem to sort of float along in slow motion, talking together, their feet hardly touching the ground just like they're weightless.--But nevertheless there's a motion etc.
62. IF I DON'T BE CAREFUL I'LL GET INTO THE OTHER DISCUSSION!--And one of these nights I do want to discuss it with you & I want you to give me what you remember & your ideas too of what is it going to be like? How much can you remember of what we've said & written & what you've heard & read in the Bible? How many wonderful things can you think of & what is marvellous to you? What is it going to be like when we pass on?--Whether you die now or you go up to be with the Lord when He comes. That's wonderful if you live until the Coming of the Lord--you won't have to die, you won't have to be buried, you'll be translated! You won't even have to be resurrected, think of that!
63. BUT THE LORD'S NOT GOING TO LET YOU BEAT THE REST OF THEM THERE! He's got special sympathy for those that had to die & be buried, & He's going to resurrect them first! He says so! We won't go before, we'll not "prevent"--an old word that actually meant to go before--those that are already asleep in the Lord, dead in Christ.--Their bodies, at least, but their spirits very much alive with the Lord. He said, "The dead in Christ shall rise first!" That's a special honour, a special privilege, because they had to go through the pain & the rather difficult experience for some of dying & perhaps watching their body be buried while they actually were looking on from a higher plane! The Lord is going to give them the special honour of being resurrected first. "Then we which are alive & remain shall be caught up together with them in the air." (1Thes.4:13-17)
64. SO WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE LIKE? Well, if you're as old as I am, you often think about that & some night I want to discuss with you, what you think I'm going to do when I go. What do you think will happen to me? You don't have to think much about that yet, you're young, & it looks like most of you are probably going to live till the Lord comes if you manage to survive the persecutions & the attacks of the Enemy. There'll be a few martyrs, but I think most of us are going to make it, because the Lord needs you! He needs you as witnesses in these last trying hours of the dying Earth of this generation!
65. SO PROBABLY MOST OF YOU WILL NOT HAVE TO GO THROUGH THAT EXPERIENCE OF DEATH, but from what I've received from the Lord, it sounds like I will, one of these days when my job is done & I've accomplished all that I can. Perhaps to avoid the things that are coming, the Lord will spare me by taking me first.
66. MY MOTHER HAD A CONVERSATION WITH ANGELS BEFORE SHE PASSED AWAY, & SHE TOLD US ABOUT IT! They were sort of reasoning, not arguing but reasoning with her. She told us about how they thought it was a good time for her to go, but she was still hanging on & saying, "But I want to do this & I want to do that & I have this & that to do." They said, "But wouldn't you rather go, though, & escape a lot of these things that are going to come to pass afterward?" And she was probably thinking about the War or Tribulation or the Antichrist or persecution or suffering some debilitating disabling disease where she'd have to be cared for like my Father was, something awful like that.
67. BUT I THINK THEY WERE TALKING TO HER ABOUT SOMETHING EVEN WORSE WHICH SHE WOULD HAVE FOUND EVEN HARDER TO TAKE, & THAT WAS THE BIRTH OF OUR FAMILY! That would have been just a little bit too much for her! As radical & as fanatical as we became, & as fiery & as revolutionary, I mean we shocked & virtually drove away her friends! They couldn't take it, it was too much for them! And in those last days even before my Mother died we had some pretty revolutionary doctrines already. We were doing some pretty radical things which she didn't necessarily agree with & which were a little hard for her to take.
68. I'M SURE IF SHE HAD HAD TO CONTINUE TO LIVE IN HER LITTLE CUBBYHOLE BEDROOM WHILE WE FILLED UP OUR HOUSE WITH HIPPIES & the next house with hippies & the Club with hippies & had all these strange creatures around, she might not have loved the hippies quite as much as she used to when all she had to do was make peanut-butter-&-jelly sandwiches for'm & take'm out on the pier & give'm to'm! She could always go home to her nice clean spotless little home with nobody but herself & some visiting members of the family & retreat to that refuge from the horrors of the World outside, the hippie World of the day!
69. SO I THINK THE LORD WAS SAVING HER FROM A LOT OF THINGS, INCLUDING US! I don't think she could have stomached us unless she was on the Other Side! The Lord took her so she could understand what was going on!--And it was very quickly after her death that I had that "Drugstore Dream" (No. 266--Summer '68), where Mother was showing me around as my spirit guide in the subterranean chambers. And she wasn't a bit shocked by nudity then, or by the hippies or our radical underground activities, which was not at all like my Mother!
70. I REALLY BELIEVE THE LORD HAD TO TAKE HER TO THE OTHER SIDE TO PREPARE HER & GET HER CONVINCED & PERSUADED & IN SOME WAY HELP HER TO UNDERSTAND WHAT WAS COMING TO PASS, WHAT WAS GOING ON. I'm sure she wouldn't have liked the way I burst through the door of the Club every night & screamed at the top of my voice: "Revolution!" And they all yelled at the top of their voices back: "For Jesus!"--Whew! They nearly raised not just the roof but the hotel on top! They had a few rooms of a little downtown hotel on top of the store buildings where we had our Club, & the poor lady there, some nights if we made too much noise & it was too late she'd dump water on us as we came out the door!--Ha! Poor lady, she'd complained a few times so I told them, "Disconnect all the electronic instruments at 10 o'clock, that's the deadline! If you're going to stay after 10 o'clock you've got to be quiet!"
71. WELL, I WASN'T ALWAYS THERE TO KEEP THEM QUIET, so sometimes they didn't remember those admonitions & they kept on a little noisy till 11 or 12 o'clock at night, I'm sorry to say sometimes even later than that. So I don't blame the poor landlady upstairs for complaining that we were driving her guests away & keeping them awake & bothering her etc., & after a few friendly complaints she finally got pretty mad, like that night she tried to dump water on us. I think it did baptise a few, a bucket of water out of the second story window, & we realised she really meant business!
72. SHE SAID SHE WAS GOING TO COMPLAIN TO THE POLICE IF WE DIDN'T KEEP QUIET, & after that, boy, I really clamped down & I really cut'm off & we dismissed at ten o'clock & cleared out of there & that was it! From then on it was only wall-to-wall sleeping hippies, that's all! We carpeted the floor with bodies, 50, 75, 100 kids sleeping on that floor all night! We weren't supposed to, weren't even allowed to, but you talk about marvellous protection how the Lord took care of us! The fire department complained, the police complained, all kinds of things! They even put up a sign: "Only 75 people allowed in this room at once."
73. WELL, WHO COULD WE TURN AWAY? We couldn't stand at the door counting, "Oh, you're number 75, sorry, the rest of you can't come in." We just usually kept it so dark in there they couldn't count how many were in there anyhow!--And most of them were so scared stiff of hippies, they wouldn't have walked in there! They were afraid of catching lice or fleas or crabs. Like the Scribes & the Pharisees, they'd pull aside their costly cleanly robes & wouldn't have thought of mingling with those dirty filthy hippies! So they were afraid to come in anyhow.
74. THE ONLY SYSTEMITES THAT EVER CAME IN AFTER I DROVE MY MOTHER'S FRIENDS AWAY WERE A COUPLE OF NARCS THAT USED TO VISIT US FREQUENTLY, & THEY WERE THE CRAZIEST THINGS! They looked like superannuated beatniks! You could tell they were about 35 or 40 years of age & nobody else in there was hardly over 20. And everybody in there knew'm. They were supposed to be plainclothesmen & came dressed in these weird outfits like beatniks of 20 years before. They'd come in there & sprawl on the floor & the kids would just snicker & grin & laugh because everybody knew what they were! And of course they could never find a blade of grass on us, but they were always convinced that we were nothing but a drug center peddling drugs & that all kinds of deals were going on there on the floor & blah blah. But they were wrong & never were able to catch anybody. Well, they planted some on one guy out on the street, poor guy, but he convinced the Judge that it was a frame-up. He really preached to the Judge, it was wonderful!
75. OH, I'LL TELL YOU, WE OUGHT TO WRITE UP SOME OF THOSE STORIES SOMETIME, WE HAD SOME MARVELLOUS THINGS HAPPEN! It would be a tale to tell! Maybe the Lord will let you see it on 3-D TV or whatever, really see those events when you get Up There, & we won't have to spend time or GNs or FNs printing it. That's a kind of long, drawn-out process. But anyway, PTL! How did I get onto the Club, anyway? (Fam: Your Mother.) Oh my Mother, yes. Praise God! I don't think she could have understood it unless the Lord had taken her on the Other Side. But I'm sure she was helping us then with all her spiritual might! PTL!
76. (TO TECHI:) OKAY, SWEETHEART, I'LL BET YOU'RE TIRED. Are you ready to rest now? Do you want to come rest on your Father's throne? (Loud feedback from tape recorder.) Oh my! You must be full of power, you really zinged it! You really really made it zing! She is a live one, I'll tell you! PTL! Well, that's enough for tonight, God bless you all & thank the Lord!
77. I JUST WANTED TO REMIND YOU THAT THE LORD SAID, "AS OFTEN AS YE DO THESE THINGS YE REMEMBER ME", & we're just sort of remembering some of the things the Lord did during this season when the rest of the World is remembering. It's an appropriate time for us to remember too, to have some little bit of relationship & some link with the rest of the Christian World. You don't want to be such oddballs that you won't understand them at all! You're going to have to live with them for the rest of your eternal life, so you'd better know a little something about them & what they do & what they believe.
78. SO I THOUGHT IT WAS AN APPROPRIATE TIME FOR US TO REMEMBER SOME OF THESE THINGS & I hope you have benefitted from these little discussions & perhaps learned something, & most of all learned to appreciate the Lord's Love even more, to think how much He did for us & for them & is still doing for the whole World. It's a big job! PTL! It's not finished yet so we need to get to bed & get some rest so we can do another good job tomorrow. PTL? Oh I'm sorry, I forgot it was Sunday, tomorrow you don't get up. That's your sleep-in day.
79. (TO TECHI:) BOY, YOU REALLY PUT OUT SOME VIBRATIONS! She just leans her cheek over towards this mike & it starts whining! You've really got some electricity going through you, just radiating electricity that makes that mike vibrate! Well, God bless you all! Shall we pray? Amen! PTL! Hallelujah! TYJ!
80. THANK YOU FOR THIS TIME TOGETHER, LORD, IN REMEMBRANCE OF THEE & WHAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR US & HOW MUCH YOU LOVED US & THEM! PYJ! TYL! Hallelujah! So once again, Lord, we pray & commit ourselves to Thee & pray the prayer that You so beautifully taught us to pray, the prayer that covers everything: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) And Lord, do let the words of my mouth & the meditations of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, Lord, my Strength & my Redeemer! (Psa.19:14) In other words, may we please Thee, Lord. "And now I lay me down to sleep, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray Thee, Lord, my soul to take. And Lord, whatever, it would be certainly for sure to realms of Glory, so we have nothing to fear, any one of us. TYJ! And we know that You're going to use us wherever we are, here or there! PTL!
81. SO THE LORD BLESS THEE & KEEP THEE, THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON THEE & BE GRACIOUS UNTO THEE. The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee & give thee peace, in Jesus' name! (Num.6:24-26) And He already has, hasn't He? Amen?--And He does, doesn't He? PTL! Shalom Aleichem! (Fam: Aleichem Shalom!) Well, we've had our Sabbath, we're kind of into the Christian Sabbath now, but anyway, PTL! TYL! (Sings:)
82. "UP FROM THE GRAVE HE AROSE,
WITH A MIGHTY TRIUMPH O'ER HIS FOES!
He arose a Victor o'er the dark domain
And He lives forever with His Saints to reign!
He arose! He arose! Hallelujah, Christ arose!"
So now you arise! "Up from your seats you arise!" PTL? GBY all! And go to bed & get a good night's rest & safekeeping, in Jesus' name. I love you all! Goodnight! Have a good meeting tomorrow!--And always remember His Love!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family
