KEYWORDS: god, children, care, lord, work

God's Gift Is God's Work--Part 3

David Berg

August 5‚ 1978MO—DFO 746

—By Father David.

© February 1979 by the Family of Love, CP 748, 00100 Roma, Italia.

1. I'M AMAZED HOW LITTLE PEOPLE STILL KNOW ABOUT PREGNANCY and pregnant girls! Maria was just remarking we still don't have enough information on pregnancy and pregnant girls. I mean it only takes you about two or three years to forget it!

2. WE SENT FOR MAMA EVE WHEN DAVIDITO WAS BORN, EXPECTING HER TO BE SOME HELP. My God, she'd forgotten how to take care of babies! She didn't know as much about it as we did! It had been so many years she had absolutely forgotten how to take care of them!

3. THAT'S WHY THE LORD MAKES IT POSSIBLE, GIRLS, FOR YOU TO HAVE ONE EVERY YEAR, SO YOU WON'T FORGET HOW! Because if you wait two or three years like Maria has, then you've forgotten! Well, she left it up to the Lord, but anyhow I'm sure we'll find out how again soon, PTL!

4. WE WERE TRYING TO REMEMBER HOW MANY POUNDS YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO GAIN the first four months‚ and then how many pounds are you supposed to gain each month afterward, and we'd forgotten! Well, I don't go by all that stuff necessarily anyhow.

5. I DON'T EVEN GO BY ALL THE HEALTH BOOKS and all the vitamins and all the health foods and all that stuff. Everybody's got a multitude of different opinions. I got rid of all my health books, when I found out that they didn't agree with each other, so I didn't know who to believe.

6. I THOUGHT, WELL, I'M JUST GOING TO READ THE BIBLE and do what the Lord gives me in the way of wisdom and common sense. I'll eat what's set before me giving thanks, asking no questions for conscience sake, for every creature of God is good, if it be received with the word of thanksgiving and prayer. (1Cor.10:27; 1Tim.4:4.)

7. (MARIA: ONE OTHER THING, WE'VE TALKED A LOT ABOUT MATES BEING CONCERNED‚ BUT A LOT OF OUR GIRLS DON'T HAVE MATES now. They're either pregnant by their fish or some brother that they met just passing through. So somebody's got to take some responsibility for that mother and child.)

8. AFTER ALL, IF WE'RE ONE FAMILY AT ALL AND WE'RE BROTHERS AND SISTERS IF NOTHING ELSE‚ THEN WE SHOULD ALL BE CONCERNED about our girls who are pregnant‚ even if you're not the one responsible or don't know if you are. I don't know for sure if I am, but I'm just as concerned about that child as if I knew for sure that I'm the father, and I love Maria!

9. (MARIA: SO I'VE GOT TWO MEN CONCERNED AND NEITHER ONE OF THEM KNOW!) It's going to be one of the first babies in the world ever born with two fathers! Talk about test tube babies, they've got nothing on us! We've got the first baby with two fathers! But I love her!

10. DO YOU BOYS LOVE YOUR SISTERS? Do you boys love these girls who've been taking care of your needs and who love you and have been sacrificing and suffering for you and cooking and fucking for you and all the rest?

11. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT HOME YOU LIVE IN. The girls in that Home are bound to be ministering to you in some way even if you don't do anything but eat their cooking. But most likely you're even enjoying their fucking, to put it bluntly, so you're certainly responsible!

12. EVEN IF YOU AREN'T THE FATHER, YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. She's your sister, she's part of your family, and she's your responsibility.

13. WE ARE ALL MARRIED! We are all married together into one Family to one Lord, one wife, one bride, we are all married together. So every girl in the Family, whether you were the one who got her pregnant or not...oh baloney!

14. THE LORD IS THE ONE WHO GOT HER PREGNANT! You can fuck a thousand times a day and never get the girl pregnant! God has to make her pregnant!

15. I DO NOT BELIEVE IN THIS NATURAL THEORY OF ACCIDENTAL PREGNANCY which the world teaches. Some woman in our apartment house after we already had four nearly scared Eve to death. She said, "You're crazy! Do you know what happens every time he fucks you?

16. "DID YOU KNOW THAT YOU CAN GET 200,000 OF THOSE LITTLE SPERM ON THE HEAD OF A PIN? You haven't got a chance! It's worse than playing Russian roulette! You're bound to get pregnant again!"—She was a liar, we never had another baby! Well we did have a couple miscarriages, she did get pregnant two other times but they were two miscarriages.

17. FORGET ABOUT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE! THAT'S SO RIDICULOUS! GOD WAS RESPONSIBLE! God is the One who made her pregnant. It's God's doing, and it makes it your job, no matter who she is‚ what she is, who supposedly got her pregnant or who the hell she's been fucking, you or the fish or whatever!

18. SOME OF THE GIRLS HAVE BEEN SO UPSET THEY EVEN WANT ABORTIONS of all things! Can you imagine any girl in our Family wanting an abortion?! They certainly must not have read all the Letters!

19. WE ARE DIAMETRICALLY OPPOSED TO ABORTION! It is murder! It is a infanticide, it is child-killing, it is horrible! That's one thing the Catholic Church is right about, thank God! Quite a few things they're right about‚ thank the Lord! Just because they're a little off on a few things, you don't throw the whole thing away.

20. YOU SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR SISTERS EVEN IF THEY'RE NOT STEADY MATES or whatever. If they're the sisters in your Home, you're living together, you're bound to be ministering to each other, you're one family, one wife, one bride!

21. YOU'RE ALL MARRIED TOGETHER, AND YOU SHOULD BE VERY MUCH CONCERNED ABOUT EACH OTHER. From the time they're virgins, if they were—not too many of those around anymore‚ there shouldn't be—to the time the children are really getting to be a handful, you should be taking care of the pregnant girls, the mothers, the single girls, virgins, babies and children, helping in every way you can.

22. THE BABIES AND CHILDREN ARE NOT JUST WOMAN'S WORK! They used to have an old song‚ "Let the women do the work, do the work‚ do the work!"—Well that's not supposed to be true in our Family. We're all supposed to have our jobs, that's true, and the old-fashioned idea was that inside work is for the women, outside work is for the men. And some of the old-fashioned people still stick to that sort of thing.

23. IN THE FAMILY WE'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WILLING TO DO WHATEVER NEEDS TO BE DONE, whether it's inside or outside or cooking, washing dishes or taking care of babies or children or whatever needs to be done. If you have real love for the Lord and each other and the children, you will do whatever needs to be done.

24. IF YOU SEE IT NEEDS TO BE DONE, DO IT! We used to have people running around saying‚ "So and so ought to be done and this ought to be done and that ought to be done!" I used to say, "Have you got the burden? You've got the burden‚ do it!"

25. THERE ARE ALWAYS PEOPLE TELLING YOU WHAT OUGHT TO BE DONE‚ BUT NOT MANY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO DO IT! "Now you ought to have so and so done!" "Okay, why don't you do it? You've got the burden, do it!" "Why doesn't somebody clean up this yard better?" Do it yourself!

26. IF ONE OF YOU GUYS ISN'T OUT THERE SOON LOPPING OFF THOSE BRANCHES, I'M GOING TO GET OUT THERE ON A LADDER MYSELF AND DO IT! If you don't do it pretty soon, I'll be out there and I mean it! In fact I was out there today doing it myself. If you don't do it‚ I will!

27. I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANY JOB AROUND THIS PLACE THAT I HAVEN'T DONE somewhere sometime or other. Now I'm not much of a cook, but I can cook breakfast, that's about all I know how to cook. But I can wash dishes, sweep floors‚ mow lawns, trim hedges. I can do carpentry work, plumbing, I'm a mechanic, I know how to fix cars.

28. I CAN DO ALMOST ANYTHING AROUND THE HOUSE THAT NEEDS TO BE DONE. I learned it all when I was a poor man and I couldn't afford to pay somebody else to do it. So there's nothing you're doing or have done or been asked to do that I have not done myself at some time or other.

29. SO IF IT'S WORTH MY DOING IT'S CERTAINLY WORTH YOUR DOING, amen?—Including taking care of the children, and I've had my share of them! I don't have to do all those things today.

30. I'VE GOT SOME MORE IMPORTANT THINGS TO DO NOW, so God has sent you along to do those things for me. Otherwise I wouldn't have time to write letters or anything. But I have been through those grades and I've finished and graduated and passed on, and just because you're doing it now all the time doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to be stuck in that grade for the rest of your life!

31. POOR MOTHER EVE THOUGHT SHE WAS STUCK WITH THOSE FOUR KIDS FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE and that all she was going to be doing for the rest of her life was taking care of children! Well it wasn't long before the children were taking care of her! Amen?

32. THOSE YEARS GO BY SO FAST YOU EVEN GET TO THE POINT WHERE YOU MISS WHEN THEY WERE LITTLE and so much trouble, believe it or not! You'll almost be sorry to see those years go when they've gotten big enough to take care of themselves.

33. I STILL THINK OF WHEN I USED TO HAVE TO TAKE CARE OF HO AND FAITHIE when they were little.—Mostly because by the time they came along Mother Eve's hands were pretty full. So I had a lot to do with taking care of them, and I sometimes think about when they were small and what fun it was and how happy we were. I almost miss those years sometimes.

34. THE DAY WILL COME WHEN YOU'LL ACTUALLY MISS THOSE YEARS WHEN THEY WERE THE MOST TROUBLE and the hardest to take care of. You'll miss it if you really were serious about it and you really worked hard at it and you knew it was your job and you tried to do a good job for God! It was your job, it was God's work

35. CHILDREN ARE THE GIFT OF GOD, BUT THEY'RE ALSO THE WORK OF GOD. So it doesn't stop with the gift—that gift is a lot of hard work. Like the farmer said, "Well you should have seen it when the Lord had it!"

36. GOD MADE THE GARDEN FOR ADAM. God put it there. He made the trees and the fruit and all the rest. But He put Adam in there to take care of it, to tend it and to keep it—read it! (Gen.2)

37. GOD MAKES THE BABY, He makes the mother, He makes the child. He does things you cannot do. Don't ever tell me, "I made a baby."—Baloney! Bullshit!

38. YOU NEVER MADE A BABY, nobody ever made a baby! God makes the babies! He just used you in a process a little bit, that was almost nothing. One little fuck and so what? You've fucked a thousand times without babies!

39. I FIGURED OUT ONE TIME HOW MANY THOUSAND TIMES I MUST HAVE FUCKED MY WIFE! I've forgotten now how many thousand times it was, but anyway, only about five or six times that I know of, maybe there are more, resulted in children.

40. OF COURSE I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY CHILDREN I HAVE REALLY. They used to ask me in Tenerife, "How many children do you have?" I used to say, "I don't know." "What do you mean you don't know?" There may be many many out there I don't even know about!

41. I HOPE I'LL SEE THEM IN HEAVEN ONE OF THESE DAYS. I'M SURE I WILL because God's Word says even if one parent‚ as He puts it, is clean, in other words is a child of God, then are your children clean, or also children of God, believe it or not. (1Cor.7:14.) Praise God? Do you believe that? So you can be thankful.

42. YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT ALL CHILDREN OF COUPLES, IF EVEN ONLY ONE OF THE COUPLE IS SAVED‚ ARE GOING TO BE SAVED? I don't know for sure, but that's the way it's usually been, that's what I've seen in my years of experience. If either even just the mother or the father were saved nearly always the children were all saved and knew the Lord or did eventually before they died. Because that one parent taught them to love the Lord and know the Lord and believe in salvation.

43. I DON'T KNOW, MAYBE THE LORD IS EVEN GOING TO HAVE MERCY ON THE CHILDREN OF THE WICKED and the unclean where both are bad, I don't know. He's certainly going to have mercy on innocent children, but they don't seem to be as well off according to God's Word as children of at least one saved parent, one believing parent. So that should be encouraging to you. Thank the Lord!

44. GOD'S GIFT IS GOD'S WORK! NOW DON'T MISINTERPRET THAT as being‚ "Well if it's God's work then let Him do it." You know what I mean, it's a work of God. It's something that you have to do for the Lord.

45. IT'S GOD'S WORK THAT YOU HAVE TO DO. God hasn't done it all for you. He's given you salvation, but you have to work at being a Christian and witnessing and telling others, right? He has given you the Gospel, but you have to work in getting it to others. He has given you how to make people happy and saved, but you have to work at it to get them saved and make them happy.

46. GOD'S GIFT IS GOD'S WORK! So don't ever tell me a child was an accident, or well, it's of some fish or something fishy. God's gifts are God's works, so get busy!

47. IF HE'S GIVEN YOU SUCH A GIFT YOU BETTER GO TO WORK AT IT and make that gift what He wants it to be, amen? Take care of it. God gives you salvation but you have to work hard at being a Christian and living a Christian life, right? That's the work He's given you to do. He gives you the message of the Gospel, but you have to work hard at getting it out.

48. HE GIVES YOU CHILDREN BUT YOU HAVE TO WORK HARD AT TAKING CARE OF THEM and bringing them up the way they should be reared.—Teaching them, training them, taking care of them until they can take care of themselves, and someday they'll be taking care of you! Think of that! You say‚ well we're not going to live long enough.

49. I SAW DAVIDITO IN VISION PREACHING AWAY. I've seen that several times now. So maybe if he's not going to be taking care of me‚ he's at least going to be taking care of my job‚ my work the Lord's work. Praise the Lord?

50. JUST THINK, THAT'S ONE WAY YOU CAN LIVE ON EVEN AFTER YOU'RE GONE! You can live on in your children. If you've reared them right and done a good job of God's work with God's gift you're going to be so thankful when you get to Heaven, over on the other side in the spirit world.

51. YOU'LL SEE NOT ONLY ALL THE SOULS YOU WON TO THE LORD, BUT ALL THE SOULS YOUR CHILDREN WON to the Lord! Just think of it! I thought I was doing pretty well to try to win my own kids to the Lord.—Pretty hard job with those little rascals! Now look how many children they've won to the Lord! I'll give Mom credit for a lot of that.

52. MAMA EVE NEVER RAN OFF AND LEFT THE CHILDREN until they were full grown and married. She never ran off and left me till then either. At least she waited till they were full grown, married and able to take care of themselves and have children of their own before she left.

53. WHEN THEY'RE LITTLE TINY TOTS IT'S NOT TIME FOR THE MOTHER TO RUN AWAY. I don't care how important a fish is. Your most important fish are those little children! That's your first responsibility.

54. THERE ARE SOME MOTHERS WHO JUST WANT TO DUMP THEIR FAMILIES AND ARE HAPPY TO GET RID OF THEIR KIDS and run off with some fish. We've got one prominent well-known mother who used to live right here in this house who wants to do that right now! She's got five, believe it or not! Well I want to tell you something:

55. WAIT TILL YOU'VE GOT FIVE KIDS AND THEN MAYBE YOU'LL UNDERSTAND HOW HECTIC IT IS and why she's about to crack up and wants to take a vacation!—Especially if her husband isn't much help, or if she doesn't have enough help or brothers and sisters that are helping. Maybe you'll want to run off and leave the kids too!

56. PEOPLE AREN'T SHARING ENOUGH AND HELPING ENOUGH. Five kids are a big job! One child's a big job! Two children here are a big job! Some of you are finding that out, right? It's a big job‚ and that's why you're here.

57. IF IT WEREN'T FOR THAT LITTLE RASCAL DAVIDITO, YOU WOULDN'T BE HERE! Think of that! If it weren't for that little rascal we wouldn't have a childcare ministry with people preparing educational materials for children and all that sort of thing. Think of it! So don't forget that. God's gifts are God's work, and a lot of work!

58. YOU MAY NOT REALISE WHAT A BIG WORK IT WAS AND WHAT AN IMPORTANT WORK IT WAS until maybe one of these days‚ should God be so good to you and me, that we live long enough to watch DAVIDITO preach or prophesy or whatever he's going to do, God willing. Amen?

59. SOME PROPHECIES ARE CONDITIONAL. It depends on how people react and obey and a lot of things, but God willing that's what's going to happen. Then you may be glad you had to take care of that little rascal when he was running around getting in your way when you were trying to do your work. So, think about it: Children are God's work!

60. DON'T LOOK AT JUST THE PRESENT.—What a nuisance they are and how much work they are, how much trouble and what a bother and how much time and trouble and strength it takes! Think about the future, not just the present.

61. THE GREATEST WORKS OF GOD TAKE A LONG TIME. My mother used to say, God doesn't make a flower instantly. It takes God time to grow a flower or even to paint a sunset, and especially to grow a child and to make a whole life. Just look at how old I am and mine isn't even done yet!

62. LOOK HOW MUCH I'VE ACCOMPLISHED FOR THE LORD. DO YOU THINK MY MOTHER THINKS IT'S WORTH IT NOW? All the trouble I was—eleven pounds when I was born‚ my poor mother! and she'd been an invalid for five years! What a miracle of God! And what a trouble I must have been.

63. I'LL NEVER FORGET AFTER I WAS MARRIED AND HAD MY OWN LITTLE KIDS, we went back and visited one of my babysitters who used to take care of me when I was little. I didn't think it was very smart of her to tell my kids this but she said, "You know, everybody at church thought your father was a little angel, but I knew what a little devil he was!" So this little devil's a big devil now, some people think!

64. SOMEDAY YOU'RE PROBABLY GOING TO BE VERY THANKFUL YOU HAD A PART IN THOSE LITTLE RASCALS' CARE and their training. One of these days you're going to be proud of them. I wouldn't be surprised, amen? So take care of the virgins and the mates and the pregnant girls and the sisters and the mothers and the babies and the children, because God's gifts are God's work. Praise God! Thank You Lord!

65. REMEMBER WHAT I ONCE TOLD YOU ABOUT CHILDREN? I said they are the Kingdom of God. So while you're taking care of those children you're helping God's Kingdom come on Earth!—As it is in Heaven, amen?—The Lord's Prayer!

66. THEY ARE HIS KINGDOM, members of His Kingdom. So are you, of course, but you're helping take care of His Kingdom on Earth‚ and you are helping it to come on Earth as it is in Heaven, and as it's going to be in Heaven as you take care of His children.

67. LITTLE ONES ARE ALWAYS A LOT OF TROUBLE. But it's a funny thing about them, they go through stages and year by year certain troubles disappear entirely. You don't have those troubles anymore, you have a whole new set of troubles. Isn't that encouraging? Ha!

68. ONCE YOU GET THEM OUT OF DIAPERS AND OFF THE BOTTLE AND ALL THOSE TROUBLES‚ THEN THEY GET NEW TROUBLES! So they always keep you well supplied with troubles to keep you busy to keep you out of mischief, amen? That's why the Lord had to give Adam and Eve so many curses, so many hard things and hard work to do, to keep them out of trouble and out of mischief!—Keep them so busy they wouldn't have time to get in trouble! Praise the Lord? See, the garden was a gift of God, but Adam had to work at it.

69. CHILDREN ARE LIKE FLOWERS IN YOUR GARDEN. They're a gift of God, but you've got to take care of them! God's Gifts are God's Work!