David Berg
—MOAugust, 1976DO NO.530
1. TALKING ABOUT THE PATIENCE OF JOB! Well, in the beginning He didn't have very much patience! He learned patience through the things that he suffered!
2. I'M ENCOURAGED SOMETIMES BY THE WAY PAUL WRITES! He has these long involved sentences and he goes about three verses before he even completes the phrase that he started to. He puts in a big parenthetical "this", "that", "if", "therefore", "so-and-so-and-so"‚ until he finally complete the phrase about three or four verses later!
3. IT'S TERRIBLE TO BE LONG WINDED! It's terrible to be so wordy! But that's what "higher education" does for you! It just nearly ruins you! Whereas children can speak in simple little short sentences‚ thank God, that most of us can understand!
4. EDUCATION STUFFS YOUR HEAD SO CRAM FULL OF ALL THAT SAWDUST that it just keeps coming out and coming out! As one fellow said, "Everything some people hear goes in their ears and runs out their mouth." That's fine if what you hear is good, but not if it's bad!
5. THE PICTURE OF GOD'S JUDGEMENT IS TWO GREAT MILLSTONES GRINDING THE GRAIN: You Know how the millstones work? Usually they're about as big and round as a table and there's one on the bottom and one on the top, both about the same size, shape and all. The one on the bottom is solid, but the one on the top has a hole in its center.
6. THEY POUR THE GRAIN THROUGH THE HOLE IN THE TOP MILLSTONE, and it's usually turned around by either cattle or water or something. The top one turns around and around, and the grain works its way out from the center to the edge of the stone.
7. BY THE TIME THE GRAIN'S OUT TO THE EDGE IT'S LIKE FINE POWER or dust depending on how they grind it. It's caught in a trough out there and you have flour instead of grain.
8. SOME RELIGIONISTS ARE SUCH SELF-RIGHTEOUS HYPOCRITES! Theirs is such a works religion! I know a lot of good ones, some of them can be sweet people and I think some of them know the Lord. But the real ardent ones that really push it are usually really indoctrinated in their works doctrine of the concision that was in Paul's day, "the circumcision". They are those who say‚ "Yeah, we believe and accept Jesus as Messiah, but we still have to keep the law!" They were the compromisers he had the most trouble with!—Even Peter, until God gave peter that vision about the Gentiles! (Acts Chapter 10.)
9. WHEN YOU ARE FLYING IT'S A WONDERFUL OPPORTUNITY TO WITNESS! Sitting side by side with those who are riding along with nothing else to do and they're often thinking about being so high up in the air in a sense close to death‚ and wondering what would happen if they died. It reminds me of the time Josh was boarding a plane in Dallas when he was still in a soldier's uniform.
10. AS HE GOT ON THE PLANE HE WENT DOWN THE AISLE HANDING OUT THESE LITTLE TRACTS, something about, "Are you ready to face God? Are you ready to die?" Six people got up and walked off the plane scared stiff, afraid to take the plane! So they arrested Josh and hauled him into the Superintendent's office and said,
11. "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA?—ARE YOU GOING TO PLANT A BOMB OR SOMETHING? What are you trying to do? Don't you know that people are so scared to fly nowadays because of all these bombs and hijackers they practically freak out anyhow, and then you come along scaring them half to death saying, "Are you ready to die!—Are you ready for the judgement!"
12. AT LEAST A FEW OF THEM WERE HONEST AND GOT UP AND WALKED OFF the plane! Some of them complained to the stewardess, a real tough hard-boiled stewardess who was the one who turned him him. The plane had taxied clear out to the runway awaiting clearance to take off.
13. IMAGINE! THIS PLANE LOADED WITH 150 OR SO PEOPLE CAME TAXIING BACK into the terminal! They put up the chute and everything all over again, and out came all these dear scared people—and out came dear Josh with this guy holding his elbow steering him into the Security Department!—Ha! But at least Josh had done the job!—And they did let him catch the next plane—provided he handed out no more tracts!
14. WE THANK THEE, OH JESUS‚ for these beauties of Thy Creation we see from here! We stand outside every morning and evening and look out across this valley‚ Lord, and we see that which you have made and our hearts glorify Thee and our voice goes up in praise for Thy beautiful creation, in thanks for all You've done for us!
15. THEN WE COME IN THE HOUSE AND WE FIND ALL THESE BEAUTIES THAT SURROUND US and envelop us in such love and such sweetness and in such precious service for our every need, that we're overwhelmed with Thy love, Lord,—all these precious loved ones who are so good to us! bless them Lord, and continue to make them a blessing to others as well as to us, these who make our work possible for them and for Thee!
16. YOU F-F'ERS STAY AWAY FROM MARRIED MEN if you don't want any wives complaining about your causing troubles or division! It's dangerous business! You can comfort them on the dance floor and all that, but watch out how far you go!
17. THEY NEED A LITTLE LOVE AND AFFECTION and a little sympathy or they wouldn't be there. There must be something wrong at home or they'd be home. why do husbands leave home?—That's the big question! Well, let me tell you, if they're getting everything they need at home they don't leave home!
18. THE REASON THEY LEAVE HOME IS BECAUSE THEY'RE NOT GETTING WHAT THEY NEED AT HOME. That's why the old saying, "Most men would like to have their wife be a lady in public and a devil in bed!" If more wives were like that the men wouldn't be leaving home! But when they have to make love to a woman who's like a frozen statue, a log or a dead corpse, who wants to do that?
19. UNRESPONSIVE WIVES HAVE USUALLY BEEN TAUGHT BY THE CHURCH TO BE UNRESPONSIVE—taught by the church it's a sin to enjoy sex, taught by the church it's wicked if enjoyed as a pleasure! The Bibles has something to say about pleasure, but you can't prove that all pleasure is sin!
20. BUT THAT'S WHAT THE CHURCH TEACHES: Anything that's a pleasure is a sin!—And that righteousness has to be suffering! It sure is strange that the Lord made the human body so that it's so enjoyable to eat and you enjoy feeling and smelling and hearing and testing and seeing and loving and a lot of things that are very enjoyable!
21. GOD GAVE YOU ALL THOSE NERVES TO ENJOY IT—all that skin you love to touch and that likes to be touched too! So if God gave you all those nice pleasurable sensations, He must have intended for you to enjoy them, Amen? So praise the Lord! next time you go to bed enjoy them!—Amen! Praise the Lord!
22. I'VE FOUND TWO THINGS ABOUT MOST CHURCH PEOPLE: They believe about the Bible, God‚ Jesus, etc. I mean a good one‚ one who has any faith at all, they believe it. but they have never personally asked Jesus into their hearts, therefore they have never had the personal assurance that Jesus is there and they're saved. So that is something you must do with anybody, everybody!—You must be sure they've not only believed but also received as well as confessed Christ.
23. By church experiences you're given a little bit of the truth so as to make you immune to the whole Truth!—Like inoculation for a disease: They vaccinate you with a few germs so you won't get the whole thing!
24. My delight is to please the Lord, so the Lord lets me do as I please!
25. I'll believe how much you love me when I see how you feed my sheep!
26. If you take along enough clothes to last you a week, they'll probably be enough to last you for a month!
27. The rich everywhere all carry the same spirit as the Americans: It's a lack of concern for the needs of the poor.
28. YOU GUYS NEED TO LEARN, like I have learned through the years to take some people where they're at!: You know their strong points and you use them. You know their weaknesses and you watch out for them. But don't keep trompin, on 'em instead of strengthening them. Accept them as they are and keep working together whether you like each other or not!
29. YOU'VE STILL GOT TO LOVE EACH OTHER EVEN IF YOU DON'T LIKE EACH OTHER! We all work together in spite of our weaknesses, because of our strengths and the Lord! So praise God! Don't anybody worry too much, for the Lord is in control, Amen? "When we are weak, then we're strong, for His strength is made perfect in our weakness!" (2Cor.12:9,10.) And if any of you lack anything the Lord will make it up in some way, praise the Lord? So please try to make it work and do your best to do what's right and fair, amen? God bless you!
30. THANK GOD WE'RE CONSTANTLY INVADING NEW FIELDS ALL OVER THE WORLD! We are spread out as thinly as we are so that no one country can dominate us. We have freedom to go from country to country according to the situation or the persecution.
31. GOD IS HELPING US OPEN UP NEW PLACES EVERYWHERE, and I think our enemies are going to have a very difficult time trying to prove to all these people that we're all undesirable! But we need to keep moving and keep spreading out so that in our multi-nationalism we will not be bound by the restrictions of any one country alone.—Amen?
32. THESE LITTLE COUNTRIES THAT DON'T FIGHT BIG WARS and don't have to pay for them are a lot better off than these big countries—economically and every way! The common joke after World War I and II was that the countries who lost the wars were better off than the countries that won them!
33. THE COUNTRIES THAT WON THE WARS had the responsibility to foot the bills and help the losers to recover. so it got to be a common joke that the best way to get help was to lose a war!—And the losers become your best friends and your allies your worst enemies!
34. WHEN YOU ARE GUESTS IN A COUNTRY you have to tread softly, much more so than in your country. We had more rights but less freedoms in our own country—more supposed rights, that is!
35. ABROAD WE HAVE LESS RIGHTS BUT MORE FREEDOM and we have to be very judicious and cautious how we use these rights and freedoms. Don't put yourself out on a limb and start interfering with their politics or their economics or anything else! Just mind your own business and preach your message of love and serve the Lord, amen? You get the point? So thank the Lord that "all things work together for good to them that love the Lord"! (Romans 8:28.)—Amen? PTL!
36. IT SEEMS THE RULERS OF THIS WORLD ARE SO OFTEN BLIND because of their sin: Oppression of the poor! The rich are so smart about making money, but they are so blind about seeing real value in the future and what it's leading to. They know how to oppress the poor. They know how to keep down the labourer.
37. THEY KNOW HOW TO EXPLOIT THE IMPOVERISHED, but they don't seem to read the signs of the times, as Jesus told the rich of His day: "You know about the weather and everything else, but you still can't even read the signs of the times, you don't even see where it's all leading!" They were already on the edge of doom, which arrived just a few years after they crucified Him for warning them!
38. I HAVE TO KEEP MY FINGERS ON THE PULSE OF WORLD AND NATIONAL AFFAIRS to warn you about the signs and omens of things that are really going to effect you. So when God reveals what's going to happen and I tell you about it but you don't do anything about it, who's to blame?
39. MAO'S TECHNIQUE is to take the big shots and his leaders and stick them out on a farm for the summer for a few weeks to let them live just like the peasants and the poorest people live and do the hard work and see what it's like. Godahfi took all the furniture out of his offices because he said people spend too much time sitting! they're fanatics, but they're getting things done!
40. MOST OF OUR KIDS NEED A BASIC SIMPLE COURSE in pronunciation and a little grammar in the language of the land they're in, and then they can start building their own vocabulary. Even if they don't know how to speak it right because they don't know the grammar, they can at least speak it like the immigrants spoke English when they came to America. They could make themselves understood even if they talked funny. If they laugh at you, at least you're trying‚ at least you're talking their language and you can make yourself understood‚ and you'll be making people happy, giving them something to laugh about!—Ha!
41. I DON'T THINK ANYTHING WILL EVER STRAIGHTEN OUT OUR ENEMIES but the judgements of God! But our friends sometimes do need some explanation and a little encouragement to clear up some mistaken ideas!
42. IT'S AMAZING WHAT FAITH CAN ACCOMPLISH if you're really in tune with the Lord and you've got not only faith but a lot of gumption and get-up-and-go!
43. GOD ALWAYS SEEMS TO BLESS HARMONY, people living at peace with each other and loving each other and helping each other and showing a large measure of love.
44. If you get people in the habit of just taking oral orders they won't even read printed instructions!
45. MOVING IS LIKE DYING and when you're moving off to pioneer a new field, you get the "before-battle blues"! You're just like a soldier before battle: You're feeling homesick and scared. You're happy to go, but it's leaving that hurts. But when you get in there fighting, you really get the victory!
46. "HE THAT IS GREATEST AMONG YOU MUST BE SERVANT OF ALL!" (Mt.23:11.) I'm always leary of people who won't stoop to menial tasks when they need to be done and there's nobody else to do them. sometimes I wash the bowl or scrub the toilet, whatever has to be done. If nobody else has done it, why shouldn't I? If everybody else is busy and I've got the burden, I do it!
47. PEOPLE THAT ARE TOO HIGH AND MIGHTY to do little things that need to be done when there's nobody else to do them had better watch their step! So far I haven't done any cooking, although I did go out and show the girls how to cook my breakfast one morning.— And thank God there're plenty of dishwashers! That's one job I haven't had to do of late! But if it needed doin' and nobody else to do it, I'd do it!—Do you?
48. SELFISHNESS IS ONE OF THE PRIMARY SYMPTOMS OF INSANITY! In fact, selfishness really is insanity. The insane seldom think of other‚ they're usually only thinking of themselves and don't care what happens to other people. Insanity is almost totally selfish and self- centered!
49. INSANE PEOPLE OFTEN TALK TO THEMSELVES and go on talking to themselves for hours at a time, ignoring other people who are right there and listening only to themselves talk, not paying any attention to anybody else. They are often only conscious of themselves and interested only in satisfying themselves and are usually totally unconcerned about the needs of others—How insane are you?
50. THERE'S A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIPPIES.—Some hippies are dropped-out genuine hippies who often come from wealthy families and who have simply forsaken all and are just radical in their dress, not necessarily dirty and disheveled and ragged. And there are other hippies who are just plain juvenile bums who call themselves hippies, but really aren't!—And never had anything to drop out of!
51. MANY LITTLE THINGS MAY SEEM VERY SMALL AND UNIMPORTANT, but I have a letter coming out soon on the importance of "Little Things", in which we deal with the subject of these little departures from the straight and narrow.
52. "HE THAT IS FAITHFUL IN THAT WHICH IS LEAST WILL ALSO BE FAITHFUL IN THAT WHICH IS MOST." (Luke 16:10) But he that is not faithful in that which is least, is not going to be faithful in that which is most! So little things are important‚ Beloved, and little departures, little variation and variances from the straight and narrow‚ little prevarications of the truth‚ little bits of deceitfulness, little bits of dishonest behaviour, little disobediences, little rebelliousnesses and many little things that may seem little things are not so little in God's sight!
53. LITTLE THINGS ARE VERY IMPORTANT and they're usually only the tip of the iceberg, which simply shows that there is something much deeper and much greater below that is very very wrong! So when I see even the slightest symptoms along this line I begin to become concerned that there is trouble below! look out for "Little Things"!
54. YOU MAY THINK THAT STEALING A LITTLE SOMETHING ISN'T IMPORTANT! "Well, it's here and nobody seems to belong to it, nobody seems to need it and I need it and I want it, so I'll take off with it!"
55. BUT THAT'S WHY I GOT SO MAD AT TSC ONCE! This poor preacher moved in with us and they borrowed all of his clothes!—Everybody just had them! He had his clothes all nicely laid out on his bunk, but when he came back they were all gone!
56. "WELL, WE JUST WANTED TO HELP HIM FORSAKE-ALL and we borrowed the things we needed," his roommates said. So I said, "Listen buddy, borrowing without returning is sealing! You better return them real quick! If he voluntarily gives them to you, that's something else, but borrowing things without permission is stealing!"
57. I'LL NEVER FORGET WHEN SOMEONE ONCE GAVE ME 5 CENTS TOO MUCH CHANGE and I walked about half-a–block back to the cashier and handed her back the nickel. She said, "Why did you brother? For five cents it wasn't worth it!" But I said,
58. "DO YOU THINK I WANT TO LOSE MY SOUL FOR A NICKEL?—If I was going to sell my soul I'd sure sell it higher than that!" In those days I didn't realise it wouldn't cost me my soul, or maybe I would have kept it!—Ha!
59. WELL, IT WOULDN'T HAVE COST ME MY SOUL, but it would certainly cost me God's blessing and He would have reprimanded me or chastened me in some way, because God knows that it does matter.
60. IT'S NOT HOW MUCH IT IS—THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! It's just the fact that you did it. And God also knows, as He says in His Word, if you're faithful in a few things then He can trust you with big things: "He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is much," (Lk.16:10) but if he's not faithful in the least little thing‚ when the showdown comes he's not going to be faithful in the most!
61. BELOVED, LET THIS BE A WARNING TO YOU! You think, "Oh, just this one little tiny sin, just this little thing—it's not important!" But that little crack in your armour is where the Devil begins to seep in, and them his gas of deceit begins to poison your mind because you disobeyed, and pretty soon you're totally off the track!
62. EVERY ONE OF US HAS TO HAVE A LITTLE COMEDOWN ONCE IN A WHILE to either make us humble or show we're still humble! We all have to go back to the bottom and the beginning again to start over again in some way once in awhile to see if we are still humble.
63. EVERY SUMMER MAO SENDS HIS TOP MEN OUT TO WORK ALONGSIDE THE PEASANTS and the labourers to see what it's like to be poor and hardworking, to have sympathy for those who are at the bottom and to teach them a little of the dignity if hard labour! It shows them what it is like to have to work very hard under very difficult conditions so they will appreciate and more greatly sympathise with the poor labourers who are working with them and under them. Try it!—You'll like it!
64. I FREQUENTLY SCOLD AND APPLY THE ROD, but I always add the healing balm or healing ointment afterwards. I try to soothe and encourage and comfort after I have applied the rod. I try to give them some hope that there is hope of recovery and hope of redeeming themselves and hope of making a comeback, showing my faith in them and the Lord that there is a possibility of restoration.—Amen? Do you?
65. THE SCRIPTURE IS CERTAINLY TRUE—NOT TO PICK A NOVICE FOR A LEADER! He's apt to become lifted up in pride and fall into the condemnation of the Devil! (1Tim.3:6.) The trouble is‚ you may sometimes have a feeling they're a novice, but you can't really find out for sure until you lift them up‚ and then you find out for sure when they blow it!—Are you a novice?—Or a good experienced leader?
66. I LOVE YOU! (MARIA: I LOVE YOU!) I FEEL LIKE MY HEART IS WASHED and my soul's refreshed—I've had a spiritual bath! I love you, Sweetheart! (I love you!) In Jesus' name, amen. Praise you Lord! You understand, Honey? (Uh huh.) I love you so much! (I love you, Sweetheart!)
67. NOW YOU HOLD THE WORDS CLOSE TO YOUR HEART, Honey, and go to sleep. (Hold the words close to my heart?) Yes, Honey. Try to sleep, like a little girl sleeps with a little dolly clutched in her arms, you know? Your little dolly, Honey, Little Baby—precious little dolly‚ the words of my bosom! (Yes!) You find comfort in my bosom, Honey? (Yes!) Do you find satisfaction for your soul? (Yes!)
68. YOU TWO GIRLS ARE TWO GOOD EXAMPLES: I told B, "I love you!" and she believes it. She would have received me if I could have, but that night I drank too much or something‚ so she has yet to receive the action!
69. BUT LITTLE M, SHE BELIEVED SHE HAD THE FAITH, and she had the words , and that night she would not give up! She was like Maria: She kept working and working and working and that is the one thing that you do.
70. SO M WOULDN'T GIVE UP and finally‚ praise God, I entered in and she has my seed! now she will bear fruit to prove that she's married to me ! of course‚ that was not your fault the other night when you were with me—it was my fault. But you see, that's the nice thing about Jesus: He's always ready!—We can always have His seed!
71. ORAL SEX CAN BE A VERY HELPFUL ALTERNATIVE during menstruation, late pregnancy and difficulty in attaining an erection. Be sure the parts are clean and rinse your mouth with wine or liquor afterward.—Some women like it too!
72. THE SYSTEM TAKES THAT SCRIPTURE ABOUT YOU CAN'T ADD OR SUBTRACT FROM THE BOOK AND APPLIES IT IN THE WRONG SENSE: As for adding to the book—the Bible was composed of many books and was added to and added to! But John was talking about the book he wrote, the Revelation. If we took that verse in the sense the system usually uses it, that would completely rule out all prophecy‚ all interpretation, any messages from God whatsoever, and we'd just have to say God doesn't speak anymore.—Such a God would be a dead God! Thank God He still speaks today!
73. THERE ARE NO NEUTRALS! There are only the ignorant—the people who as yet have not heard‚ have no knowledge, who haven't yet heard the truth. That's true of witnessing, of anything. But the moment they have heard the truth they can no longer be neutral. It's impossible!
74. THEY HAVE TO MAKE A DECISION, and if they reject the truth they're going to believe a lie and go the wrong direction against God! Whenever you confront them with the truth you precipitate a crisis and they have to make a decision!