KEYWORDS: sheep, shepherds, jesus, folds, wolves, lambs

Shepherd-Time Story, A

David Berg

—MOFebruary 10, 1971NO.113—GP

—(Dedicated to all you Little Children—Especially the Benjamin Bottle Breakers!)

1. (MO woke up early this morning and was praying for you, when the Lord began to show him a little story in pictures, like a movie—and he began to describe it, saying:)

2. ALL THEY HAVE TO DO IS CALL, AND ALL THE SHEEP COME RUNNING! Nobody ever really called before. All the other shepherds just sang to themselves. They didn't sing to the sheep! Our shepherds, they sing to the sheep. They go out in the fields and hills and mountains where the sheep are and sing to the sheep‚ and they come running—but the other shepherds just sit around in their folds and sing a little tune to each other!—And nobody can hear them, so nobody comes. But our shepherds—they go out and call loudly and the sheep come running, and they gather them tenderly into the fold. They don't have very fancy folds, but they have sweet sheep!

3. THE FAT SHEPHERDS HAVE FAT FOLDS WITH FAT SHEEP too lazy even to bear lambs. But our sheep, they are lively, and bear many lambs! They're lively mountain sheep! They're not these lazy fat city sheep that are sick and asleep and barren! But our mountain sheep are strong and lively and bear many lambs! Our lambs are not lazy from sleeping!—They're just tired from running! They have to run so hard to get away from the wolves and the false shepherds that beat them because they want them to give more wool—so they run out of those robbers' folds! They are cattle rustlers, sheep stealers, and our lambs don't even belong in their folds! They're stealing them!

4. SO AS SOON AS THEY CAN GET AWAY‚ THEY RUN AWAY FROM THOSE ROBBERS! They run to Jesus!—To Jesus' shepherds! They cuddle down together so sweet with such love in Jesus' Fold with Jesus' true shepherds! They know where they belong, even though it's a rough fold‚ but they hear the Shepherd's Voice and they follow, but a stranger's voice will they not follow—never ever!

5. THOSE ROBBERS MAKE BEAUTIFUL FOLDS TO TRY TO ENTICE THE SHEEP, but they don't have anything but lazy fat sheep. The minute the lambs hear the True Shepherd's Voice‚ they run fast!—away from the wolves, and run to their true shepherds! Oh they run sooooo fast! They run so fast when our little shepherd boy and our little shepherd girls call them!—And they sing and play to them and they come running so fast—so glad to be with David's sheep in David's Fold! David rebelled from those false folds and those false shepherds—those robber-wolves in sheep's clothing! He called for his sheep to follow and they all came running so fast!

6. JESUS IS A BIG SHEPHERD, and when the wolves get too close, He socks'em!—with a rod!—He wallops them! He kills them! That's true!—And He saves His little sheep! They better not get near our sheep, or Jesus will clobber them!

7. THEY CAN'T TEAR OUR LITTLE LAMBS UNLESS THEY DISOBEY AND STRAY AWAY! But if they wander away, then they get torn by the false wolves! If they run away and disobey, always then they have to pay! They get wounded and torn by the wolves! But if they stay with the sheep and the Shepherd, Jesus is there with a great big rod—and He hits the big wolves, and protects the sheep of David!

8. OUR LITTLE FOLDS—THEY'RE NOT VERY BIG AND BEAUTIFUL, but they have such a great big Jesus with a great big stick protecting them—and He clobbers the wolves!—Like that!—with His stick! And our sheep are so happy! They laugh and play and sing, like little lambs! They gambol and play and jump! (Maria: What does "gambol" mean?) MO: Skip and dance and leap about playfully—just like our children do!) They jump up in the air and wiggle, like that! Didn't you ever see them? They're dancing—when the shepherd plays them a tune!

9. NO GREATER HAPPINESS THAN IN THE FOLDS OF DAVID! No more happy sheep than the sheep in Jesus' folds in David's care and all of David's men—mighty mighty men of valour that do exploits—shepherds of renown!—that know how to kill wolves and slay lions to protect the true sheep from the false shepherd—those robbers!—They're robbers—you know that? They're cattle rustlers! They're going to be hung!!! Jesus is going to hang them for cattle rustling!

10. BUT THE LITTLE SHEEP—THEY KNOW THEIR SHEPHERDS! They know who really loves them! Those false shepherds—all they do is shear them for their wool, and they don't feed or protect them or care for them‚ and they don't take them out and give them good pastures and they don't help them to bear lambs! They just devour them! If they keeping on devouring the sheep like that, pretty soon they won't have any sheep! They eat up all their sheep—pretty soon they don't have any sheep!

11. BUT OUR SHEPHERDS!—THEY LOVE THE SHEEP! They don't eat them! They just help them grow wool and bear lambs and be happy, and they play and sing to them and feed them and protect them!—'Cause they're true shepherds! They love the sheep! They live with the sheep right in the fold and take care of them!

12. BUT THE FALSE SHEPHERDS!—THEY DON'T CARE FOR THE SHEEP! The false shepherds!—They just try to sing to the sheep once a week! They try to lure them into their folds—but their folds are not folds!—They're traps!—so they can devour them and shear them and fatten them for the kill!

13. BUT OUR LITTLE LAMBS HEAR THE VOICE OF THE TRUE SHEPHERD, and the true shepherds‚ and they run away to us! They don't even go back to those sheep traps any more!—those God-damned traps of the false shepherds! They just run away to the mountains where we live! They live in green pastures and they lie by still waters! We restore their souls! We lead them in paths of righteousness through the mountains for His Name's sake! Yea, though we walk through the Valley of Death, we fear no evil!—For Jesus is with us! His rod and His staff, they comfort us! He even prepares a big Banquet right in front of our enemies, and it makes them so mad—because our cup runs over with joy! Because He has anointed our heads with the oil of His Spirit, so we're smarter than they are with all their education! Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives, and we shall dwell in the true House of the Lord—the fellowship of His Sheep and the folds of His shepherds—His true Shepherds!—forever and ever and ever and ever and ever! Hallelujah! Thank You‚ Jesus!

14. DID WE GET ALL THE SHEEP IN? Not yet! There are still lots more sheep to come in—many many more folds with multitudes of good shepherds! Thank You, Jesus!—Many little folds! So many can't even find them all! So many little sheep‚ those bad wolves and shepherds can't even catch them all!—And Jesus comes sockin' it to those shepherds: Chhhhht! Chhhhht! Chhhhht! His rod goes Whisht! Whisht! Whisht!—lightning fast—like when those guys are fighting with those swords! He socks them and He kills the wolves and smites the bad shepherds, and He tenderly cares for His sheep!—And He gently gathers them in His sweet little folds with His sweet little shepherds who play to them and sing sweet songs to them! And we love them and feed them good with much green grass and good pure water—not that old dry hay and stubble and stinky, muddy, foul water in those false folds! And they become beautiful young strong sheep—so strong and pretty with pure white wool!—And so lively they bear lots of lambs! They're so happy they jump and dance and sing and play! They're the happiest sheep in the whole world, 'cause they dwell in the folds of the Lord forever!

15. BUT THE FALSE SHEPHERDS AND THE WOLVES AND THOSE FAT SHEEP—THEY'RE NOT SHEEP!—They're goats!—will be cast into outer darkness forever, and there will be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth! You wait and see!

16. THE SHEPHERD SLEEPS, BUT WHILE HE SLEEPS, JESUS NEVER SLEEPS! He watches all the time, and all of His angels—and His saints! Those bad wolves can't hurt us!—They can't possibly hurt us unless Jesus lets them! And He only lets them touch us a little bit sometimes to purify us and make us good and teach us a lesson to make us stay closer to Him so we won't stray away any more! And the wolves attack the little sheep that stray away when they're out there by themselves away from the shepherd and away from the fold and the other sheep! When they backslide‚ then the wolves attack them! But if they listen to the shepherd's voice, they come running real fast!—Then the wolves won't get them! But if they don't hear the shepherd's voice, the wolves attack them and tear them and kill them! So the sheep have to stay together in one fold with one Shepherd—Jesus! I know it 'cause Jesus told me, and He showed me and I can see it happen! Sometime if you stop and look up, you can see it, too! (Oops!—I didn't mean to get my finger caught in your wool!)

17. WE HAVE THE ONLY HAPPY SHEEP AND HAPPY SHEPHERDS in the whole world! We have happy folds! We laugh and sing and dance and play and fuck and bear lots of little lambs! And the shepherds like it! And we eat good green grass and drink fresh pure crystal spring water—still water—and we follow nice young handsome good tender loving gentle shepherds who love the sheep, and they even like to play with them!—We have beautiful shepherdesses, too! And everybody's so happy! Nobody ever had so much fun as we have,—loving and living and dancing and playing and singing and fucking and bearing little lambs, and gathering in more sheep!

18. THEY'RE EATING OUT OF OUR SHEPHERDS' HANDS! The sheep that come closest to the shepherd get to eat out of his band—even the little lambs! They like it! Jesus feeds His sheep, and for those that get real close to Him‚ He even feeds them out of His hand. He picks them up and nurses them in His Bosom and Kisses them and loves them! (Isa.49:23)