—By Dad

DO 2826

1. This is what the Family almost always does, we send out some kind of a warning about security & they take it too far & go to the extreme. We just cannot always be secure, we have to do certain things by faith, especially in the case of witnessing to important people & good friends. We just can't hide out all the time. We have to learn to trust some people & trust the Lord.(Mama: And pray for discernment.) We have to trust some people‚ otherwise we'll not make any friends, because sooner or later they want to get closer to you, to at least have your phone number & perhaps come visit you & fellowship. (Mama: And the sample is what wins a lot of people in the first place. Sometimes they're not even won at all if you don't give them the sample.) Yes, it's all right in that letter we read, so I don't have to say any more.

2. As David brought out‚ you don't want to be so afraid of wildfire that you don't have any fire, so afraid of enemies that you don't have any friends. So our Homes need to be a little more flexible on the matter of security & friends & who they should give their phone number or address to & who they shouldn't. They've got to have a little more discernment! They might not have any enemies by being so security-minded‚ but they also aren't going to have any friends. (Mama: Evidently this is the key to why, although we've been stressing to them to win kings & supporters for several years now, they haven't been able to do so!) They can't do it if they're going to be so secure they're even afraid of having friends. (Mama: It's true that we're getting worse & worse persecution all the time. But I guess we just have to trust the Lord & really pray desperately for the Lord's guidance.)

3. They need to read the Book of Acts & see when to hold back from making any moves & when to go ahead by faith just trusting the Lord that He would work everything out, no matter how dangerous the situation. (Mama: They risked a lot of things in the Book of Acts to preach the Gospel.) They really did, they certainly did‚ & of course they got persecution. But of course if you don't do any witnessing, you won't have any persecution. The Devil doesn't mind at all if he scares you out of witnessing entirely or making any friends. You won't have any income either. (Mama: They're not going to be very strong Christians & the Lord will probably have to let them go through persecution to strengthen them. Our people are now so scared of having their children taken away or putting their children in jeopardy that they've virtually stopped everything risky. They don't take any chances or risks because they're so afraid of that. They think‚ "We've got to save our children at all costs, period.")

4. "Nothing ventured, nothing gained," is the old saying, & that's certainly true. If you're so afraid of everything, you won't have anything! (Mama: Do you think it's more important to try to save our children than to witness?) The best way in the World to save your children is to witness, because if you hide & run you can't witness, & if you don't witness the Lord can't do great things for you, nor can He raise up friends & supporters who love you & appreciate you for the true spiritual riches you have given them. They need to read the Book of Acts again, we've just been studying it here. Maybe we can publish those lessons. (Mama: Yes, that would be wonderful, God willing.) "And daily in the temple, & in every house, they ceased not to teach & preach Jesus Christ!"—Acts 5:42. PTL!