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"OLD BOTTLES"--Or Your Third Declaration of Independence!--MO       July 1973       NO.242--DO

Copyright © July 1973 by The Children of God P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936

EVERY MOVEMENT MUST HAVE CONSTANT CHANGE TO STAY ALIVE

       1. TO STAY ALIVE, EVERYONE MUST HAVE MOVEMENT! There must be change, movement, motion, and the signs of life are principally manifested by motion, action! There are only two directions in which you can move. There is no standing still. You are either moving forward or backward, which is backsliding. So if you're not progressing, if there's any disciple who is not making progress, he is already backsliding, and any leader who is not making progress is already a backslider, because if he's not going ahead, he's going backward. And that's what is wrong with a lot of our leadership. They are not going ahead. They are settling down.

       2. LIKE THE LITTLE BOY WHO FELL OUT OF BED, when his mother asked him why, he said, "I guess I went to sleep too near where I got in!"--And that's what's wrong with some of our people. They got in and then went to sleep too near where they got in!--And that's why they're having problems of a nature that lead to falling out! And if you do that, you are just apt to be falling out because you went to sleep too near where you got in!

       3. EVERY MOVEMENT HAS TO HAVE CONSTANT CHANGE, REVITALISATION, MOVEMENT, ACTION, to stay alive.--There's plenty to keep us alive and moving till the Lord comes! Just because we have colonies in many countries of the world. some people think we've arrived: "Now we've got colonies in all these countries, there's no place to go.--There are no more worlds to conquer!" They say Alexander the Great died weeping that there were no more worlds to conquer!--The big joke was that he hadn't even begun to conquer this world!--Half of the world hadn't even been discovered yet, and all he had was a little bit from Greece to India, but because he had discovered and conquered all the known world that they considered worth anything or valuable, they figured that was all that was worth conquering. "Why go off and conquer all these barbarians and natives?--We've conquered the major empires and nations, so there's nothing left!--We've come to the end!"

       4. WELL, IT APPEARED HE HADN'T CONQUERED THE EMERGING NATION, ROME, THE RISING WORLD POWER WHICH WAS SOON TO CONQUER HIS WHOLE EMPIRE! So apparently he made a slight mistake. Rome was a bunch of barbarians--why bother with them? How many of our own people have that same attitude. So Rome finally conquered him and established an Empire that went much further than his ever went--England and Spain and places Alexander hardly ever heard of, and yet he wept and died of a broken heart because his world conquest was over, the revolution was over!--It was only because he was so blinded by his own egotism and drunken with power and conquest and glory as well as with liquor! They say he also died drunk somewhere in Persia, I think, revelling in his drunkenness, weeping, and dying because there were no more worlds to conquer! He hadn't even heard of most of the world that has already been conquered, much less the rest of the planets such as the moon and Mars, etc.!

       5. SO THE REASON SOME OF THESE PEOPLE SIT DOWN AND QUIT, AND BEGIN TO SIT BACK AND FALL OUT, IS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE LOST THEIR VISION. And when they lose the vision they lose faith. And when they lose faith they no longer have any initiative to do anything. Backsliding is the reverse of pioneering, and when you stop pioneering you start backsliding. That's where America is today: When she finally reached the limit, she thought, and didn't want anymore, she ceased pioneering and began to backslide. So these people who stop pioneering because they have no longer any faith to take the initiative, to do something different or pioneer a new field, it's because they have lost the vision, and without a vision the people perish. They backslide and sink back into oblivion.

       6. THE HIPPIE MOVEMENT OF AMERICA LOST THE RADICAL VIOLENT REVOLUTION AND WEREN'T WILLING TO FOLLOW US IN THE SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION, SO THEY WERE DEFEATED totally in the realm of the political and economic. For the first time in history since the early days of America the youth had their chance to govern with McGovern--but they lost, and they lost largely because of the violent and crooked tactics used by the Nitlerian dictatorship, which are now being exposed by Watergate, thank God! So youth lost the violent revolution of  '68, and they lost the political revolution of  '72, because they ignored the spiritual revolution of  '70 and '71, because that's when it first became famous. So they were beaten, discouraged, defeated, and they pretty much quit and gave it up, and have either sunk back into the System or departed from America for parts unknown and given up in total disillusionment and despair, because they ceased to make any progress, ceased to really fight when in some ways look how near victory they were!

       7. WATERGATE IS GOING TO DO FOR THEM WHAT THEY COULDN'T DO FOR THEMSELVES. Nitler is defeating himself like Capitalism is defeating itself. It reminds me of what the fellow said about the skunk he'd treed: "Leave him alone and he'll stink himself to death!" Evil defeats itself. If the kids could have hung on and had patience, and if there had been any hope of America repenting--which there wasn't, since God was through with her--they might have had some hope of reviving political and liberal radicalism. But they gave up because they stopped progressing and fighting and going ahead.

WHAT MAKES A PIONEER AND WHAT MAKES A BACKSLIDER!

       8. SO WHEN YOU STOP PIONEERING IT SHOWS YOU HAVE LOST THE INITIATIVE. Any army which ceases to attack loses the initiative and attacking initiative is what wins a war. It's going on initiative, to the attack, that brings victory. The minute an army stops attacking and just settles down it will be defeated because the Enemy will then launch a counterattack.--Or the army's very immobility and it's very lack of vision and progress and initiative will cause it to have a loss of faith in its own cause, and to quit and give up without even losing! This is one of the Devil's favorite tactics. THE DEVIL CAN NEVER WIN. THE ONLY WAY HE CAN GET THE VICTORY IS TO PERSUADE YOU TO QUIT, that you have a hopeless cause, so you might as well as give up and quit and surrender and leave the field to him.--It's no use, he says.

       9. THAT'S THE ONLY WAY WE CAN EVER BE CONQUERED, IF WE STOP ATTACKING AND GIVE UP AND STOP HAVING THE FAITH TO TAKE THE INITIATIVE, stop attacking and winning new publications, new disciples, new tactics, new fields. Then you are doomed to defeat. You've already lost. ANYONE IN OUR RANKS WITH THIS ATTITUDE IS ALREADY LICKED BECAUSE HE HAS LOST THE BATTLE OF THE SPIRIT! He's given up and fainted in his mind, and his body will soon faint with it, and he'll quit and backslide. You'll go back down the chain reaction in reverse from what makes a pioneer, and you'll stop pioneering because you have lost the initiative, the spirit and courage, because you have lost faith; and you've lost faith because you've lost the vision!

       10. WHAT ARE THE FOUR THINGS THAT MAKE A PIONEER?--First of all VISION! Because of the vision you have the FAITH. Because you have the faith, that gives you the COURAGE and therefore with the courage you take the INITIATIVE, and you PIONEER and make PROGRESS! Now if you stop pioneering, it shows you have lost all these things. ... Why have you lost the faith and the courage?--Because you've lost the vision! Without a vision the people perish! If you're defeated, therefore, and your surrender and YOUR BACKSLIDING CAN BE TRACED ALL THE WAY DOWN THE LINE TO YOUR LOSS OF VISION, where did you lose the vision?--How did you lose the vision? Here's a simple illustration: We've just been sitting here watching the news on television, and when it was all over we flipped a little switch which cut off the contact to the power, the source of power, and the vision faded and disappeared, down to a little tiny pinpoint of light, and finally that faded out to total darkness!

       11. HOW DO YOU LOSE THE VISION?--SOMEWHERE THERE'S BEEN A BREAK IN THE CONTACT WITH THE SOURCE of Power. Somehow these backsliders have lost touch with God, direct personal contact, intimate contact with God, that direct personal hotline to God!--They've gotten out of touch with it somewhere. Now in every Bible kingdom God always had a prophet and always used some man, God's man. If the people have lost the vision, just like turning a television off, it's because somehow or another. THEY'VE GOTTEN OUT OF TOUCH WITH GOD, SOME BREAK HAS COME IN THE CONNECTION, OR THEY'VE LOST THE VOICE OF HIS PROPHET. What is the people's connection with God? Well, each can have his individual, personal connection. If he loses that, he's in bad trouble. But he can still have the Prophet His individual TV set can go off and he can personally lose the vision because of his break, but that doesn't mean the station's quit broadcasting. The power's still there and all he has to do is tune in.

       12. WHAT'S OUR CONNECTION WITH GOD? Well, God has so seen fit and chosen to choose for you A VOICE AND A MAN through whom He speaks to give you the MESSAGE, which gives you the VISION, which creates the FAITH, which gives you the COURAGE, to take the INITIATIVE TO ATTACK and press on and PROGRESS and continue to GROW! But I dare say a good many of our BACKSLIDERS ARE PEOPLE WHO LOST TOUCH WITH GOD AND/OR ME! They got out of touch with God's MAN and therefore out of touch with the MESSAGE He had given the man to give them. They were influenced by the Devil's flood of propaganda, and they opened their mouths and swallowed it like the earth (Rev.12) and therefore lost their faith in God's man and his message and the vision all down the line, and their individual situation all collapsed! Of course when a whole movement and the vast majority in it, as has happened to almost every movement, WHEN THEY COOL OFF AND FEEL LIKE THEY HAVE ARRIVED AND GOT ALL THEY WANT, THAT'S THE END!

       13. THAT'S THE TROUBLE WITH SOME OF OUR LEADERS. THEY'VE GONE AS FAR AS THEY WANT TO GO and they're stuck in a rut, not really interested in reaching even the souls near them, much less the rest of the world or any new field. THEY'VE ARRIVED AND HAVE THEIR NICE LITTLE FOLD AND NICE LITTLE FLOCK AND ARE NOT REALLY INTERESTED IN WHETHER THEY BEAR ANY NEW LAMBS OR NOT, or bring in new sheep. They're perfectly satisfied with just what they've got, so they stop.--And there's no such thing as stopping! If you are not progressing, going forward, continuing to have the vision, faith and courage to take the initiative to pioneer and conquer new fields, new territories, new cities, new souls, new disciples, new Colonies, watch out 'cause there's no such thing as standing still or stopping! IF YOU HAVE LOST THE PIONEERING SPIRIT AND YOU'RE NOT GOING FORWARD to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth, and you're content short of that goal, you're satisfied with what you've already got, and you're not interested in progressing until you see the Kingdom of God really established on Earth and righteousness covering the Earth as the waters cover the seas and the coming of Christ, THEN YOU'RE BACKSLIDING!

WHY THE CHURCHES HAVE BACKSLID WHEN THEY THOUGHT THEY'D ARRIVED

       14. YOU SEE, THAT'S THE TROUBLE WITH THE CHURCHES: They want the coming of Christ to do it all for them, so they say, "Why should we do anything?--Jesus will do it all!" Well, the Church is going to get a surprise when the Lord comes--a very big surprise!--What the Church failed to do and has left undone she's still going to have to do! Maybe that's why we have to have the thousand years as Millennium, because they are yet going to have to do the job after the Lord comes! So as much ground as they've lost or failed to conquer now, they are still going to have to do--they'll still have to take over the world! Of course we'll have supernatural bodies and powers and the authority of Christ's Kingdom on Earth which will really facilitate the job, and God knows we'll need it, since THE CHURCH HAS FAILED SO MISERABLY FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS! Adam and Eve failed, Abraham failed, Moses failed, and the Jews certainly failed horribly! Nobody but Jesus and His disciples ever succeeded! The Jews were supposed to be witnesses to win the world, but instead they settled down on one little piece of land and didn't give a damn about the rest of the world and they quit!--And WHEN THEY DID AND FAILED TO WIN THE WORLD, THE WORLD WON THEM!--Just like the churches--or some of you!

       15. THEN JESUS CAME ALONG AND DID THE BEST HE COULD: He died and gave His life and started a New Church. AS LONG AS THEY HAD THE VISION AND KEPT IN THAT HOT CONTACT WITH THE LORD AND HIS LEADERSHIP, THEY WERE SWEEPING THE WORLD, and overthrew the Roman Empire with the Good News of the Gospel! But when they got to the point where they thought they had arrived and overthrown the temporal power of Rome and it now rested in their own hands, they became the Roman Catholic Church and the Church ruled Rome and it became the Holy Roman Empire! The Church had arrived and they were satisfied! They had power, wealth, glory! They had taken over the world, or all that was important in the world. The Church now ruled the world--all of Europe and what they thought was the only advanced, civilised part of the world that was important to them. THEN THEY MORE OR LESS SAT DOWN AND WERE SATISFIED, AND THEY QUIT REALLY PROGRESSING.

       16. WELL, THE FACT WAS, THEY HADN'T YET REALLY COMPLETELY CONQUERED INDIA, NOR CHINA, NOR RUSSIA, NOR AFRICA, NOR ALL OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA, nor the Islands of the Sea, but they slowed virtually to a standstill, and you and I and OUR GENERATION HAVE SEEN THE CHURCH FINALLY ROLLING TO A GRINDING HALT THINKING THEY HAD ARRIVED AT THE TOP! But much to their surprise they suddenly discovered they hadn't reached the top, and what they thought was level land was slightly sloped, AND THEY HAVE BEGUN TO ROLL BACKWARDS! The Church is rolling BACKWARD DOWNHILL picking UP BACKSLIDING speed with every day that passes, WHILE COMMUNISM IS ROLLING UP that spiritual mountain of the conquest of the hearts and minds and values of men, and therefore winning the world!

       17. THE MINUTE ANYBODY IN OUR OUTFIT COMES TO THE CONCLUSION THAT HE HAS ARRIVED and he's satisfied and has come as far as he wants to go, WATCH OUT! I'll tell you, it's not me! I'll NEVER be satisfied until EVERYBODY on Earth is saved which will never happen of course. But I'm looking forward to the day when--maybe another shocking thing for some people--when everybody or at least almost everybody will be saved--at least there won't be many left in Hell if any, and I think that's when God will be satisfied too.--But that's a long way off! Brother, "WE'VE GOTTA LOT TO BE THANKFUL FOR," BUT WE'VE STILL GOTTA LOT TO DO! We haven't just a few years--we've got thousands to go! Some of these church people are sitting down twiddling their thumbs waiting for Jesus to come, when they think He will solve all their problems and they'll just sit around and play their harps all day. I don't know HOW IN THE HEAVEN THEY THINK THEY'RE GOING TO LEARN TO PLAY A HARP, WHEN THEY'RE NOT EVEN WILLING TO LEARN TO PLAY A GUITAR TO WIN SOULS FOR JESUS NOW!

IN ETERNITY OUR RESPONSIBILITIES WILL CARRY ON!

       18. BROTHER, THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO WORK, and they'll be working 24 hours a day to establish the Kingdom of Christ on Earth, and it's going to be a big job, no simple small thing! If you think just because people have gone on to be with the Lord that their job is over, we can prove from the Bible where their job is far from complete! The dear Apostle Paul fought a good fight and finished his course, finished his earthly course. Now whether he's got that crown yet I don't know, but according to all we read in the Bible and we've experienced, WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO, AND THE SPIRIT WORLD IS A HEAVEN OF A LOT BUSIER THAN THIS HELL ON EARTH! We will have rest in a sense, you might say in the Spirit--at least some will, it depends on how much they deserve it!--Some will be tormented day and night! Some like Samuel will say, "How come you disturbed me from my rest and peace?--I did my job well and have been rewarded with perhaps a little less trouble and fighting than I had on Earth. Why bother me with any more of your Earthly problems?" Like the angels, we'll fight on!

       19. WE'RE A LONG WAYS FROM THE END of the road, and all these people who look forward to death as the end are going to get a big surprise! DEATH FROM THIS LIFE IS JUST GRADUATION FROM THIS GRADE, and praise God for that! It's a tremendous blessing to die! I've been through it, and it's wonderful! It's similar, I presume, to what the astronauts feel in their weightlessness. Right now we're burdened by this vile body. But Praise God, in the SPIRIT you don't have this weight!--You're no longer weighted with the flesh and burdened with the problems of the physical life. You've graduated from this grade of this earthly life. But when you graduate from one grade to another, the work in the NEXT grade usually becomes a little MORE difficult with a little more ADDED responsibility, NEW and added duties which you didn't have before, with NEW powers, NEW responsibilities. With new ABILITIES come new RESPONSIBILITIES and you have NEW power to respond to those NEW responsibilities.

       20. YOU'LL BE GIVEN THE POWER TO DO A LOT MORE THAN YOU'RE DOING NOW. And you're going to do it--even more! "Their works do follow them!"--They haven't finished them: They're still going to be working at them! You got good grades in the last grade and have arrived in the next grade. You tell that to some CHURCH PEOPLE and they'll be downright discouraged!--"I'VE DONE AS LITTLE AS I COULD HERE, AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO GETTING TO HEAVEN AND DOING NOTHING!" Well, they'll be surprised to hear GOD say, "Nothing doing, Pal!--GET BUSY! YOU'VE STILL GOT A LOT OF WORK TO DO!" The work is not even over in Heaven, or in the Heavenly City after the Millennium! We'll still be serving God, and quite a few things will not be finished yet: Total redemption, universal reconciliation, cosmic restitution, all of which Paul spoke about and is now recorded in the Book of Revelation, but hasn't even happened completely by the time you arrive in the Heavenly City! There'll still be kings and nations who yet need healing! Read it!--Rev.21:24 through 22:2!

       21. IT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING FOLKS! HEAVEN IS NOT THE END: IT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING! God only knows how much more we'll have to conquer after we've conquered the Earth and all the souls who have ever lived on it and all the problems! Who knows what other worlds we may have to conquer, what other universes we may yet have to learn to rule! MY IDEA OF HEAVEN IS NOT FLOATING AROUND ON A CLOUD STRUMMING A HARP by some gift of God! That would be my idea of death!--Total inactivity, cessation of movement, total rest is total DEATH! And it doesn't seem to be God's idea of Heaven either! HIS UNIVERSE IS FULL OF MOVEMENT, AND HE'LL NEVER STOP!--We'll go right on through the coming of Christ and the Millennium and Space City and right on out to Outer Space, and God only knows how far we all have to go!--AND WE'LL ENJOY EVERY MINUTE OF IT IF WE'RE FAITHFUL SERVANTS!

       22. WELL THAT'S MY IDEA AND I BELIEVE IT'S GOD'S and His Bible's idea, and we're a long way from the end! In fact, according to the Bible, for us there isn't going to be an End!--Eternity has no end! Some of these damn church people would get awful tired of doing nothing, if that's all there was to do! Of course, they are practicing what they believe right here on earth: Doing nothing, or as little as possible!--Except for a few, thank the Lord, like the few St. Francises and Sister Magdeleines, and maybe a few of the Children of God!

PIONEERING--WHEN YOU STOP YOU DIE!

       23. BUT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT CESSATION OF PROGRESS, WHEN PEOPLE STOP PIONEERING NEW FIELDS AND GOALS AND DISCIPLES AND COLONIES. That's nothing!--That's so small a vision! WHEN WE STOP PIONEERING THE WORLD, WE'RE LICKED! We have failed! We're defeated because we defeated ourselves by giving up! Savvy? Therefore these people, these disciples, whether they be babes or leaders, who have ceased to progress and have stopped and are satisfied to enjoy their little bit of this and that daily in their little bitty colony and their little bit of Heaven on Earth, their little me, thee, thou and no other, and their few little sheep, and their little fold--they have a Colony and now they're the Shepherd of it, so where else can I go but to the Lord?--They've totally ceased to move and progress and go on and pioneer! ONCE THEY'VE GOT ONE COLONY OPEN AND ESTABLISHED THEY SHOULD GO ON TO ANOTHER. When you finish giving out the message in one town, you should go to another: Jesus said so!

       24. BUT SOME OF OUR LEADERS QUIT LONG AGO: THEY NO LONGER HAVE ANY DESIRE TO GO ANY FURTHER. They're perfectly satisfied with where they are. They've sat down and quit and lost their love of the Lord and souls and their desire to witness and win and get new disciples and invade new fields--which means they've quit!--And they think when they've quit they are going to keep what they've got. But GOD'S LAW OF PROGRESS IS: IF YOU DON'T KEEP ON GETTING MORE YOU'LL LOSE WHAT YOU'VE GOT!--"To him that hath it shall be given (to have more, make progress!), but to him that hath not, it shall be taken away, even what he thinketh he hath!" (Mat.25:29) The minute you think you have, and you sit down to enjoy it, that's where you lose it! That's why many a great business, many a great nation, many a great civilisation, and many a great religious movement has vanished from the face of the Earth, because they thought they had arrived and had all they wanted, and they sat down to enjoy it and whooosh!--GOD BLEW UPON IT AND IT CAME TO NOUGHT, BECAUSE THEY QUIT ADVANCING AND PROGRESSING, INVADING AND ATTACKING and moving!

       25. WHEN YOU QUIT MOVING, YOU DIE! Try it! Go to bed and never get up again, and how long do you think you'll live if you just lie there stiff as a board and never eat or drink or move or get rid of waste matter anymore?--You might last a few days, some people have lasted a couple of weeks, but without any liquid or elimination whatsoever the usual limit is about four days! FOR IF YOU QUIT DRINKING, EATING, CLEANSING AND MOVING YOU'RE SOON DEAD!--And that's exactly what's wrong with some of our disciples! They've quit drinking the Water of Life--the new water that's always fresh, poured out constantly--and they quit eating the spiritual food, and quit eliminating their daily besetting sins, and therefore they've quit moving and they've died on the vine! THEN THEY WONDER WHY THEY FEEL LIKE GOING BACK INTO THE SYSTEM!--"Oh what a terrible thought!--I'm dreaming of having a house of my own!--My own wife and children, my own car and TV set!--Oh, I'll still want to witness a little and win souls and still get the MO Letters--But I'll never go back all the way!"

       26. BUT THEY'LL WIND UP JUST LIKE THE MAJORITY OF CHURCH PEOPLE WHO HAVE QUIT witnessing and winning and are living selfishly!--Because there's NO IN-BETWEEN! There's either a POSITIVE pole that goes FORWARD, or a NEGATIVE pole that goes BACKWARD!--There's NO NEUTRAL pole! You CANNOT STOP! It's like BREATHING: You don't dare quit or you're dead! You don't dare stop! We can't stop or we're dead! If we don't keep on doing more and more every day and progressing or if we can't sit down at the end of the day and sum things up and keep books with our soul and weigh up the accounts and say, "Now WHAT DID I DO TODAY THAT I WON'T HAVE TO DO TOMORROW?"--In other words, what PROGRESS, what MOVE or accomplishment or new thing or different thing, or what MORE have I done than the USUAL things I always have to do each day? IF YOU COME TO THE POINT WHERE YOU'RE JUST GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS BY HABIT, and you're just coasting along on former momentum once you've gone to sleep and left your engine going, you'll soon run out of gas, and even the engine will go dead for lack of new fuel, and YOU'LL SOON COAST TO A STOP AND LACK OF MOTION!

BY HEEDING THE MO LETTERS NEW BOTTLES CAN SURPASS THE OLD BOTTLES!

       27. I CHALLENGE YOU REGARDING THESE LEADERSHIP AND DISCIPLESHIP PROBLEM CASES, THE PEOPLE WHO ARE BECOMING OLD BOTTLES: I DARE SAY YOU WILL FIND THAT THEY ARE PEOPLE WHO NO LONGER HAVE ANY INTEREST OR FIND MUCH PLEASURE IN READING MO LETTERS--and certainly not OBEYING them! They are no longer interested in drinking in of the water of life, fresh water and food. You'll find they are not reading and studying themselves, and therefore, of course, are not interested in giving them to anybody else either! YOUR PEOPLE, YOUR FLOCK, ARE ONLY GOING TO BE AS INTERESTED IN MO LETTERS AS you are unless they're unusual!--And the flocks will usually be no better than their leadership, sad to say. Although I HAVE MORE HOPE FOR SOME FLOCKS THAN SOME SHEPHERDS, BECAUSE OUR FLOCKS THAT READ THE LORD'S LETTERS KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH OR WITHOUT THEIR LEADERS! They know where to get the nourishment and what to do about it and where to give it out!

       28. THE CHURCHES HAVE NO SUCH RECOURSE: If the preacher doesn't give it to them they don't get it, because they don't even read their Bibles! And if he doesn't preach the Gospel, sure as hell they won't.--And if he doesn't witness, you can be sure they won't! They've nearly all died spiritually! If they didn't get it from the preacher, they didn't get it.

       29. But I have better hopes for us and our disciples: IF YOUR LEADERS FAIL, I HAVE BETTER HOPES FOR THEIR FOLLOWERS' initiative, that they will move out and GO SOMEWHERE ELSE OR JUST STRIKE OUT on their own! Sometimes I can't help but wonder in some of these cases of backsliders and people dissatisfied in a Colony, but who still want the MO Letters and to witness and make progress: Why blame it all on them? How do you know it's their fault? How do you know it's not some leadership old bottles who have got the Colony all bottled up and are not allowing for anything new or different, and the whole thing's gone to seed and they're in a rut! I'D BE MORE INCLINED TO BELIEVE IT'S THE FAULT OF THE LEADERS, the fault of the leadership, that a Colony's in such a rut and hasn't got the power from God's Message, and think they have to live in a Colony or they can't do anything! This kind of people are the PEOPLE WHO THINK THE COLONY IS THE LIVING END!--And the people that think this ARE GOING TO FIND THE COLONY IS THE DEAD END!

       30. BECAUSE JUST ESTABLISHING COLONIES IS NOT OUR END!--OUR END IS GETTING THE MESSAGE TO THE WORLD--the Words that work to the world! So if there are some people who are sick and tired of just sitting around in one Colony, and people who have some initiative and want to go somewhere else, and still want to take the MO Letters with them and distributed them why not? If there are even some people who say, "Well, we have got some of our own set doctrines that some people don't think can be changed"--watch out!--Any army that fails to be mobile and viable and pliable and moveable so it can change its tactics and methods from day to day is a dead or dying army! And if somebody was standing screaming on my porch saying I don't have time to memorise Scriptures right now, and I'm not too sure that I have to right now, or that I even need to right now, because I'm so busy reading MO Letters, and there's so many I need to read and study, and I've had my bit at Scripture memorising, and I know the Scriptures and the foundation of my salvation and can quote many Scriptures on it, I just might agree with 'em!

CLASSES AND COLONIES CAN BE DEAD-ENDS WITHOUT MO LETTERS

       31. IT MAY SHOCK SOME OF OUR OLD BOTTLES TO LEARN THAT I STOPPED MEMORISING SCRIPTURES QUITE A FEW YEARS AGO!--I graduated from that class a long time ago! I'm not saying it wouldn't still do me good it I had the time, and I'm not saying there aren't a lot I could still learn that would be good for me and you if I still had the time. But I have indicated this to you before, that I have passed through those grades. I don't even have time to study the Bible like I used to! I spent years doing it. My God, if I had to do all that now you'd never get another MO Letter! I've been through that grade!--All those grades! MAYBE SOME OF OUR KIDS HAVE HAD ENOUGH BIBLE! I don't think you can ever get too much, but maybe they've had all they can possibly stand if they're going to study the new things God has given! Maybe some of my own children look at me a little wondering, "Ah, maybe Dad just might be getting a little off the track: I knew it might happen some day!"

       32. MAYBE YOU'RE ABOUT GETTING TO WHERE YOU DON'T HAVE TO MEMORISE SCRIPTURES and listen to some dead prophecy teacher and adhere to their terrible schedule anymore!--Maybe you can't stand it any more! Maybe you want action!--Enough talk!--Now let's move! But maybe the reason they keep coming back pounding on the door and screaming on the porch is because they want the one thing the Colony has that they want, and that's the Message, and any Colony who turns away hungry sheep, even if they think they may be hungry dogs, goats or wolves, who want to be fed, something's wrong with that Colony!--Even if they don't want to join the Colony right at the moment or be part of that little fold they could AT LEAST LET'EM HAVE SOME MO LETTERS, couldn't they? WE USED TO BE SO GOD-DAMNED NARROW-MINDED THAT, IF ANYBODY DIDN'T FORSAKE ALL AND JOIN lock, stock and barrel on the spot, he was hardly saved, and we weren't too sure he was even a Christian!--And IF WE DON'T BREAK OUT OF THAT OLD OVERSTRETCHED BOTTLE WE'LL FIND OURSELVES IN A BOTTLENECK where we'll never reach the millions who can never join our Colony! The people who think that joining a Colony is the end, it will be for them, and they'll die spiritually right there!

       33. I'VE GOT MORE FAITH FOR THE GUYS WITH ENOUGH GUMPTION TO BREAK OUT OF THAT OLD-BOTTLE mold of nothing but colony life, AS LONG AS THEY WANT TO TAKE THE LETTERS WITH THEM!--And give them to others everywhere who need them! If they still want the Letters, it must mean they're still going to want to give them out, and I don't give a damn if they belong to any Colony or not!--Does that rock your boat or break your bottle or blow your damned old-bottle doctrine to damnation? I NO LONGER CARE IF THEY JOIN A COLONY, OR SIT DOWN AND TAKE THE COURSE, OR WHETHER THEY EVEN CALL THEMSELVES CHILDREN OF GOD, AS LONG AS THEY WANT THE MESSAGE AND WANT TO GIVE IT OUT TO OTHERS!--How's that suit you? If we're going to tie ourselves down to nothing but these little podunk Colonies with no vision, and some of whom have stopped dead in their tracks and aren't accomplishing much, and where their leaders are satisfied and just going through the motions, if we don't break out of that old-bottle mold we're not going to get any further!

       34. I'M READY TO SEND MO LETTERS TO ANYBODY that wants them and is willing to read them and pass them on to others who need them!--and anybody who wants more of them to pass on to others, I'll send them more! I don't care if they give them out to our enemies!--It'll do them good! SOME OF OUR KIDS HAVE GOTTEN JUST LIKE THE CHURCH PEOPLE: THEY'RE SCRIBES AND PHARISEES, SELF-RIGHTEOUS HYPOCRITICAL OLD BOTTLES: "Yea indeed we are the people, and beside us there are no others!--And if you don't do it our way we won't let you do it at all." I don't care how they read the MO Letters, if they want to do it standing on their heads or while they're doing yoga or holding it with their toes, as long as they want to turn the world right side up when they come down! I don't care whether they belong to a Colony or not, as long as they publish the glad tidings!

       35. COLONIES ARE ONLY A MEANS TO THE END, a drop in the bucket, a way a part of the body, a place to grow and a place to put the babes in a nursery spiritually and bring them up, grow them up! But if that God-damned nursery turns out to be like the churches, where they don't want them ever to grow up, and merely keep them as babies and keep them in that Colony forever, may God help them to get out of such a Colony, because they've landed in a Colony that's just like the churches!--Just existing is all they care about--survival--and they don't give a damn whether they or their disciples ever go anywhere! The leadership doesn't want them to go any further because they'll lose their disciples!--After all, they aren't getting any new disciples, and if any of those old ones wants to get out, why my, who would do the dishes?--"If you go without our approval and permission you'll be breaking fellowship, dissembling!" some say.--That's why I wrote the Independence Letter, because SOME OF THESE POOR KIDS FELT THAT IF THEY LEFT THE COLONY THEY WERE LEAVING GOD!--THAT'S THE SAME AS THE CHURCHES TEACH!

SYMPTOMS OF OLD BOTTLES--LIVING IN THE PAST!

       36. INSTEAD THEY SHOULD SAY: "If you can't take it, here, there's an Associate Colony"; or "HERE, BROTHER, IF YOU WANT TO JUST GO YOUR OWN WAY, HERE'S A FIST-FULL OF LETTERS, SO JUST GO TO IT! Keep in touch or send us your address, and we'll send you more!"--Well, he may wind up starting a whole new Revolution or a new Colony and winning many people to the Lord! But these old bottles, they don't even know what the score is! They're still back there fighting the cowboys when they ought to be taking over the world! They don't even know the civil war's over, fighting amongst themselves! They don't even know we've got a world war to win, in fact, several of them! They're still back there fighting the Pharisees or the Romans the way we did it at Huntington Beach or on the road, or the cowboys at TSC! "Oh, you should have known those good old days at TSC! Ah, those were the days!"--Or, "Dear old Bromley! How glorious was the departed glory of Bromley!"--THESE PEOPLE WHO ARE LIVING IN THE PAST ARE OLD BOTTLES!

       37. You know what my grandfather said to me once?--"David, Son, DO YOU KNOW HOW YOU KNOW WHEN YOU'RE GETTING OLD?--WHEN YOU START LIVING IN THE PAST!" Do you know we know England is getting old and about to die and become just a part of Europe?--Because she's glorying in her past! You know why America is now old and ready to die?--Because most of her movies so popular around the world portray an era of glory that's been dead for 150 years--the cowboy era--and those old-style cowboys are all dead! But America's still living back in the cowboy days, living in the glories or horrors of the past! They need to bring their ranching up to date like a recent modern song:
       "I'm an old cowhand
       From the Rio Grande!--
       And I learnt to ride
       'fore I learnt to stand!
       I know every trail
       In the Lone Star State,
       'Cause I ride the range
       In a Ford-V-Eight!

       --Yippee-yai-yo-kai-yay!
       Yippee-yai-yo-kai-yay!"
--Hallelujah!

       38. IF WE'RE GOT ANY OLD BOTTLES STILL LIVING IN THE PAST, may God have mercy! I DON'T GIVE A DAMN HOW WE USED TO DO IT, IF IT'S NOT THE WAY WE OUGHT TO DO IT NOW! And I don't care how we did it yesterday, if we should do it differently tomorrow! But some of these old-bottle guys are still insisting on a rigid pattern of total conformity to the past, like the Revolutionary Sheet, and living according to the tactics and patterns of the past! Now I'm not saying the revolutionary Sheet isn't pretty much up to date, just like the Bible I took it from!--But some of the parts of the Bible are no longer up to date! (Bang, boom, bust!--There go some more ol'bottles!--Hear'em?) They're the rules God's people used to live by, not the rules they're supposed to live by today! I'm just waking up to the fact that we're no longer even trying to get back to the pristine pattern of the Early Church! We are not the Early Church! We're the Latter Church! The latest Church and the pattern God wants us to live by today is not exactly the pattern they lived by 2,000 years ago!

       39. I'VE GRADUATED FROM THAT DOCTRINE, AND YOU'RE GOING TO FIND SOME OF MY OLDEST CLASSES AND QUOTES MAY BE OUT OF DATE! The Jewish Doctrine for example: We're the people of God, the New Israel, the New Church, the New Jews, and only the new ones are the ones God's going to bless! We're not living by the Early Church and the early disciples' standards alone. We're living a far cry from the way Jesus and his disciples lived, because if we were we'd ditch all these cars that cost us so much trouble and money, and we'd ditch these planes and start trying to swim or sail these oceans; we'd still be fighting the Jews in the temples, when God's told us to leave them alone and let the dead bury the dead! Let's go on to something new! There was a day for that, just like we went through the day when we tried to evangelise the churches. Well, we tried, but we soon had to shake off the dust of our feet and finish the job, and go to a people who would hear it!

       40. ANYBODY IN THIS OUTFIT WHO'S STUCK IN A RUT AND WANTS TO CONTINUE TO DO THINGS THE SAME way we did them on the road or at TSC, or years ago in Huntington Beach, or last year or even yesterday, THEY'RE AN OLD BOTTLE and something's wrong with them! "Well, I used to be with dear old Uncle Dave before he was even called MO!--I, even I! BEHOLD, I AM A VENERABLE OLD BOTTLE! SET ME ON A SHELF AND ADMIRE ME! I'VE LOST MY USEFULNESS AND I'M AN OLD TIMER!--One of the old bottles!"--God help us! (Boom, bang, burst!--There go a few more, thank God!) Some of these old guys would just as soon I wouldn't have gotten some of these new things that make them wonder and question! "Ah, I was afraid maybe one of these days he would get off the track! I ha' me doots about this new doctrine, this new revelation! Goddesses helpers, Spirits, Gadaffi, and Whores and Makarios and Holy Holes and the Arts of Oh!--And my Lord! With 'Mountain' Maid' that guy's gone plum wild, off his rocker! Things aren't like they used to be back in dear old TSC! I can remember the days when...!"--And that's about all they've got: what they can remember! "Why, I can remember the days when we used to have to memorise 5 Scriptures a day!" Some of these old bottles are breaking!--Or they're saying, "I'm still learning 5 a day!"--and they probably haven't read a MO Letter in a month!

       41. OLD BOTTLES LIKE IT LIKE IT WAS: THEY LOVE THE OLD, DISLIKE THE NEW, RESIST CHANGE, and therefore they've solidified, AND THAT WHICH RESISTS CHANGE IS NO LONGER PART OF THE REVOLUTION, BUT HAS BECOME AN OLD BOTTLE, A PART OF AN OLD System! But a Revolution keeps moving and changing and revolving and revoluting! To revolve you have to go clear to this side then to that side, and from one extreme to the other, but you never get any further from the Centre, Jesus, no matter how much you revolve or how far or fast or slow you go! But you're constantly changing positions. Either that, or you're not revoluting, and when you stop revoluting your engine is dead and your vehicle is motionless and your motor's quit and you've quit and you're dead, lifeless, motionless and useless!--And that's what's wrong with some of our people!

       42. SO WHAT WE NEED TO DO WITH THEM IS LEAVE THEM BEHIND IN THEIR UNIQUE LITTLE NEW CHURCHES CALLED COLONIES which they've established, and in which they've settled down, and which are full of people who don't particularly like the new MO Letters and don't like the new schedule, but want the Huntington Beach system, the Road system, the TSC System, the Bromley System, the old system! What they mean is, they don't like the Revolution! It's left them behind and they don't know how to catch up. Scripture memorising is great as long as it doesn't keep you from reading the latest MO Letters! And I want to frankly tell you: If there's a choice between your reading the Bible, I want to tell you you had better read what God said today in preference to what He said 2,000 or 4,000 years ago! Then when you've gotten done reading the latest MO Letters, you can go back to reading the Bible and the old MO Letters!

       43. I'm ready to shake you guys up and give you a shock!--I'M GOING TO START MAILING MO LETTERS AND THE NEW NATION NEWS TO EVERYBODY I can think of including Backsliders! I want to at least offer it to them and send them a few samples. I don't think we've scratched the surface of our own mailing list potential! I don't care if those boys are arguing against Scripture memorising! If they're begging for more MO Letters, I'd give them to them and say, "Here! Take 'em, read 'em 'n' weep and pass 'em on!" 'Cause as long as they're hungry sheep who want the fresh green grass in this beautiful Springtime of Real Revolution, why should you insist they go back into the barn and eat old dead hay that's baled there for endurance in the Winter?--Set'em free!--Let'em run!--Winter's over!--Spring is here! It's time to let'em out!

       44. BUT WE'VE DEVELOPED OUR OWN LITURGY AND TRADITIONS AND OLD SYSTEM! Why some of our leaders attitude is: "If you don't sing 'Thank you Jesus for this food' you have broken our holy tradition and abandoned our sacred liturgy! If you don't wind up the meeting singing the Lord's Prayer, you're a backslider!--My God! MAY BE YOU'RE A PIONEER AND WANT TO STEP OUT AND TRY SOMETHING DIFFERENT!--FOR GOD'S SAKE GO!--JUST TAKE YOUR MO LETTERS AND RUN!-BUT WRITE!--God bless you! I'M NOT SAYING YOU SHOULDN'T DO THESE OLD THINGS, BUT YOU DON'T ALWAYS HAVE TO DO THESE SAME THINGS, as long as you do thank the Lord for the food and pray that God will keep you as you leave! You can't get any further from the centre, if you stay equidistant from the axis, axle, shaft or hub, but an engine can run either forward or backward as long as it's running! It can run in several directions.--A wheel can go round an axis in several directions and not necessarily be backsliding. Some can run in either directions. Certain electrical motors can run in either direction. As long as it runs so what!--As long as it's getting the job done! (Mat.25:29)

       45. BUT IF YOU'RE AN OLD BOTTLE stretched as far as you can go, and you can't bulge one more bulge, THE NEXT TIME I COME ALONG AND DROP ONE MORE DROP OF NEW WINE INTO YOU, IT'LL BREAK YOUR BOTTLE, AND EVEN WHAT YOU'VE GOT WILL BE LOST, and you'll lose even what you thought you had! "To him that hath it shall be given."--To him that hath what?--Him that hath a new bottle with lots more room! But him that hath not a new bottle, it will be taken from him even that which he thinks he hath!

RECEIVE GOD'S WORDS NEW AND OLD!

       46. SOME PEOPLE STILL CAN'T UNDERSTAND HOW WE COULD WORK WITH THE CATHOLICS, OR THE COMMUNISTS, and often both at the same time! I'd work with the Devil himself if I thought it would win more people to the Lord! In fact, you are working with the Devil himself!--He's an indispensable part of God's plan, and he's working with you just by working against you! We need enemies and we need the Devil!--they're good for us! if they weren't God will have eliminated them a long time ago! "All things work together for good to them that love the Lord!"--Even the Devil!--(UH, OH!--There go some more old bottles crashing out the gate!) (Rom.8:28)

       47. I WAS SHOCKED WHEN I FIRST HEARD THAT CERTAIN PEOPLE WERE MEMORISING MO LETTERS, and it almost gave me the shudders because of my old bottle!--And as for each new truth, they'll say: "It's something different, it's weird!--That scares me! Sounds like man worship! Departing from the Faith, the Bible, the Scriptures! Ah, that's building a new Scripture!" Well let me tell you, THERE WAS A TIME WHEN MOSES AND DAVID'S WRITING AND THE PROPHETS WERE NEW SCRIPTURES, AND THE APOSTLE'S WRITINGS WERE NEW SCRIPTURES, and yet today the Church condemns any new scriptures, any new messages from God's new man! I don't doubt that maybe there was a day when people were criticised for memorising the Mosaic Law!

       48. --"DID YOU KNOW THIS MOSES--HE'S ADDING TO WRITINGS of JOB and ENOCH and the great forefathers and prophets and Adam, Noah and Abraham, etc.! It must be heresy!" And they sure accused Christ and his disciples of that!--And just because of a couple of little verses in revelation about not adding to or taking from the words of "this prophecy"--the prophecy of John in the book of Revelation, that if you add to it God will add to you curses, etc.: THE CHURCHES HAVE TOTALLY REJECTED ANY NEW PROPHECIES OR NEW REVELATIONS FROM GOD! Who's adding to the Book of Revelation or taking away from those prophecies?--We're not touching it! We're just getting new ones! We're not adding to it in any way, much less in such a way as to CHANGE it!--Not on your life! But I'm sure quite a few Jews in JOHN'S day thought he was adding to it, Paul was adding to it, and JESUS WAS ADDING TO THE ALREADY GIVEN AND ACCEPTED SCRIPTURES!--And they crucified and beheaded them for it!

       49. THERE 'S PLENTY THAT'S GOOD FOR YOU TO STUDY AND MEMORISE OF WHAT THEY SAID, but much is old hat and out of date--except what Jesus said. But even some of what PAUL said seems no longer up to date, because WE'RE NOT LIVING IN PAUL'S DAY UNDER THOSE CIRCUMSTANCES. Even he said "according to your OWN custom."--And he said, "We have no such custom!" Well, WE'VE changed customs too! We've got new customs! TO HELL WITH YOUR CUSTOMS! AS LONG AS YOU'VE STILL GOT CHRIST AND LOVE THE REVOLUTION, MAY GOD DELIVER YOU from old worn out Bible studies, and old worn out prophetic interpretations, and old endless scripture memorisation, and old boring ancient classes, if it means you haven't got time to LISTEN TO WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY NOW, or you are not ready to CHANGE your method of operation according to what God is doing now instead of the way He did it yesterday!

HOW TO TELL WHETHER YOU ARE AN OLD BOTTLE OR A NEW BOTTLE!

       50. IF WE'RE NOT GOING TO CONSTANTLY KEEP CHANGING OUR TACTICS AND METHODS AND MODES OF OPERATION just like God does, to what He knows will work and what won't with a new day and new situation and new people, then we're going to become an old has-been bottle just like the rest of the churches, and the revolution will have died!--Well, you can if you want to, but I'M not!
       "Morning by morning new mercies I see!
       Great is Thy faithfulness dear Lord unto ME!"

"ALL THINGS CHANGE, but Jesus never," and He even changes some of His tactics and some of His messages and some of His methods, depending on what suits the situation! Paul said, "I became ALL things to ALL men!" (1Cor.9:22) If we're not viable, flexible, pliable, able to stretch or shrink or bulge or bend to accommodate the NEW Wine, than we're going to break, burst and shatter and lose even what we've got! And I want to warn you, this letter is going to be a bomb that will break a lot of old bottles, but it's going to break some of us loose to where we can explode and go somewhere!

       51. THERE ARE SOME OLD BOTTLES WHO CRIED "WHOA! WHOA!--NOT SO FAST!"--AT THE "DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE" LETTER, BUT WE EXPLODED anyway just a year ago, and the kids kicked over the traces and broke some old bottles on the way, but they're still exploding! Some of old bottles are still there, but some are in other parts of the world still trying to press new bottles into the old-bottle form you know what a form is?--You know you just pour it into the mold and clamp it together and make them just alike!--And some of our leaders are still running around with the same old mold in their hand trying to make all our new disciples into old bottles! And the kind of bottles they're making won't be able to hold the new Wine, because they are old bottles!

       52. IF THIS THING HAS BEEN ANYTHING, IT'S BEEN A REVOLUTION FROM THE BEGINNING, and every time I come around I break a few more old bottles, and the new ones just have to carry on without the old ones!--The new young bottles that can hold the new Wine! That's what God did with us in the first place: He took us fresh young bottles out of the churches with their old unstretchable bottles, and that process has not stopped! God is still pouring out new wine, but some of our people have become old bottles and can't take it, just like the old churches, and He is still saying, "Come out of her, ye my people!" (Rev.18:4)--and He's constantly drawing out a new Church and leaving an old Church behind! Some of our people are still back where we were two or three years ago and the way they are going or slowing, they'll never get any further!--While the rest of us ever renewing bottles are already 10,000 miles further out in space in the World of the Spirit, and the old bottles still haven't left the old pad! So what are we going to do?

       53. I'M JUST GOING TO HAVE TO KEEP ON POURING OUT THE WINE AND DROPPING THE BOMBS, and the ones that can take it will just go right on with the Age of Aquarius and the Water Bearer and leave the old bottles behind! If your bottle is full and can't hold any more, you know what's the matter with it?--It hasn't been pouring out! even an old bottle can hold more if it keeps pouring out! They can even hold new wine if they keep pouring out the old stuff! They gotta give it up and forsake all including some of their old wine they cherish--the old vintage we vinted back in TSC or Huntington Beach or on the Road! Instead, some old bottles say: "I have the oldest vintage of all! I was there in Huntington Beach, vintage of 1968! Mine is the oldest wine!"--For God's sake, what the hell are they still doing with wine that old, anyhow? It should have been drunk up a long time ago! They should have been standing there waiting for a filling of brand new wine!

       54. BUT THEY'RE OLD BOTTLES: AND THE OLD IS ALL THEY WANT! They don't want to let the old go or give it up: "I am the ancient vintage! I contain the oldest wine of all!"--In fact, it's so old it stinks! Did you know wine can be too old, to where it loses its flavour and kick and really turns sour?--And with some of these old bottles, their wine has grown too old cause they haven't kept giving it out and getting a fresh supply! You know those old wineskins?--They could keep using them for a long time as long as they kept emptying them, shrinking and stretching and accommodating new wine. But when they can't take the new wine anymore, they lose their usefulness. SOME OF THESE OLD BOTTLES NEED TO GET RID OF SOME OF THEIR OLD WINE AND MAKE ROOM FOR THE NEW! But God knows usually the old bottles can't take it, and THEY GO THE WAY OF ALL OLD BOTTLES, DISPOSABLE CONTAINERS, ONTO THE SCRAPHEAP, and God will look up some NEW bottles! So IF WE DON'T KEEP FINDING NEW BOTTLES, WE'LL SOON RUN OUT OF BOTTLES, because the OLD bottles aren't going to survive!

       55. WE'D BETTER TAKE THIS NEW WINE GOD IS GIVING AND GET OUT AND FIND SOME NEW BOTTLES who can take it! The day of old-bottle usefulness is passing!--Not that God won't give them credit for the job they did. But they are old disposable, fragile containers that can't take the new wine anymore.--And if we're going to depend on those old bottles to take the new wine, we'll fail! We have to FORGET THE OLD BOTTLES AND FIND THE NEW! If the old bottle can't take it, cast it aside and get out and find a new one that can! Fill him up with all he can hold and tell him to get out and get rid of that and then come back and you'll give him some more! Don't let yourself get stretched too far by holding the wine too long! Those old leathern bottles: If you poured it out right away they didn't get stretched so fast. They kept pliable! THE MINUTE YOU GET THAT OLD BOTTLE FILLED UP, TAKE IT OUT AND DUMP IT INTO ANOTHER NEWER BOTTLE, spread it around into other empties, and come back for more! 'Cause God's always got more! I can remember a couple years ago when I wondered what I'd do if I ran out of revelations, so I thought maybe I ought to pour'em out a little more slowly and make'em last!--Ha! God keeps giving us more faster than we can give it out!

       56. SO ARE YOU AN OLD BOTTLE OR A NEW BOTTLE? WELL, IT ALL DEPENDS ON WHETHER YOU CAN HOLD THE NEW WINE OR NOT! Whether you are or not will probably depend on whether you've dumped out your last load and come back so you can hold some more! But if you're going to sit around all filled up till you stretch your limit and get all bent out of shape to where if anybody just pokes their finger at you it will poke a hole in you and spill what you've got, then you're a has-been, an old bottle!--The days of your usefulness are ended.--You've become a disposable container ready for the scrapheap instead of the scrap or the battle, we'll just have to go on and find some new containers.--And that process continues throughout time: God is constantly giving new wine for new bottles, and the old ones are constantly wearing out.

       57. SO DON'T FEEL BAD!--THEY SERVED THEIR PURPOSE IN THEIR TIME: They were good folks back in Huntington Beach, or good leaders a TSC, or good drivers on he Road! But if they can't hold any new wine 'cause they haven't been giving out what they had, then they're old bottles. They've served out their usefulness, and we'll have to retire them to the disposable scrapheap! But God's scrapheap is such a sad sight! It's just filled with the litter of old bottles that couldn't take it anymore and had to be cast aside. Thank God we don't have to sit here weeping over the trash and the old broken bottles and the litter and the disposable containers! For God's sake. let's go dump it in the garbage can and give it to the garbage man to take it away, and let's go find some new ones! We've got the new wine, Brother! We're a bottling company, but we need new bottles to put it in! These old ones can't take it anymore!

GET OUT OF THE COLONIES AND FIND NEW BOTTLES FOR THE NEW WINE!

       58. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, HELP US GET OUT AND FIND SOME NEW BOTTLES! That's what's wrong with the Revolution. Nothing's wrong with God's supply. Nothing's wrong with God's hotline or channel: It just keeps flowing! I can turn on any time I feel like it! I can turn on right now, and it looks like I have!--But you know what makes me afraid to turn it on?--I'm afraid I won't have anyplace to put it, that I'll pour it faster than you can bottle it or find new bottles for it! We've got more now than we know what to do with!--We've got about 50 new draughts of wine in the works we haven't even had time to pour! Till we get that off the shelf I don't know if God's too interested in giving us any more! I know some of you are working on it as fast as you can, but if those Letters for Leaders books are just going to be old wine to fill up the old bottles again, we better forget about the old wine and work on the current harvest, and find some new bottles for the new wine!

       59. ABOUT THE ONLY EXCUSE WE'VE GOT FOR COLONIES ANYMORE AND TO STAY HOME THIS SUMMER IS THAT YOU ARE A FULL-TIME PRINT SHOP MANUFACTURING THE "MO-'AMMO" FOR THE SOLDIERS ON THE FRONT lines! No one should even have to stay home to procure supplies except for the ammunition factories to keep the ammunition rolling and to fill the orders for more ammunition from the soldiers on the field!--Or to train new soldiers to shoot it, or care for babies! Let's get'em out! Let's get'em going! I'M WILLING TO SEND MO LETTERS TO ANYONE IF YOU'LL WRITE US A LITTLE REPORT EVERY WEEK ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING WITH THEM! BUT ANY COLONY THAT WON'T EVEN REPORT WHAT THEY'RE DOING. I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO SEND THEN MO LETTERS because they're probably not doing anything or have closed down anyway! But I'm willing to send an 8-year-old girl MO Letters if she's willing to send us a little report each week, like Artaxerxes' little sisters, God bless 'em! I'm ready, brethren, to bust up these colonies and scatter the pieces to the four winds to get them off their damned asses and out on the road for this Summer and get out the Words that Work to the Waiting World!

       60. IF YOU'RE SCATTERING ENOUGH SEED SOME OF IT'S BOUND TO get snatched off by the birds or fall on shallow or stony ground or amongst thorns, but some is bound to FALL ON GOOD ground! Let's get'em out and get'em to everybody that wants'em, and forget about these old worn out colonies unless they're producing fruit! Anybody that doesn't want to hit the road for the summer and get out and sow seed, there must be something wrong with them! These old bottles have lost the power because they've gone flat because they haven't used it, poured it out! Therefore they've lost the vision and the faith and the courage and the initiative and they're dead, finished, kaput! They're sitting around in the barn while the harvest is going to waste, still sharpening the tools and teaching out of books how to farm, while the harvest rots in the fields!

       61. THE ATTITUDE OF SOME LEADERS WHO DON'T WANT TO LET GO OF THEIR FLOCK IS: "We've got this big house and we have to pay rent, and we have to pay utilities and keep the home fires burning, so we can't let our people go!"--That attitude is exactly the same as the churches!--"Why, if everyone went out to the field, what would happen to the church? We can't all be missionaries!--What would happen to our churches?"--I'll tell you what!--Close'em up and get out!--Unless you're in some big city or place like London or Amsterdam or Rome, etc., which is a such a fruitful field that you have to stay because there're such a plentiful harvest right there, you should go out on the road! You should read "Pastors II", "Labour Leaders", "Dropouts II", "Monster", "Monster on the Move", "Die Daily", etc.! Read'em and weep!--and grab your MO-AMMO and get going!

       62. JUST DON'T FORGET TO COMMUNICATE!--SEND IN THOSE WEEKLY REPORTS SO WE CAN KEEP TRACK OF YOU AND SEND YOU MO'-MO-AMMO and try to help you all we can and tell the world what you're doing! For if you break that line of communication, you're breaking fellowship with the rest of your Family around the world that you need and who can help you when you need it! Don't get stranded without a line because you didn't write a line! Please keep in touch!--We love and pray for you, but how can we know what you need, or know what the score is, or where to send your MO'-MO-AMMO, if you don't write! WRITE-A-LINE to HOLD-THE-LINE!--OK?--Hallelujah? We're with ya!

       63. WRITE-A-LINE
       to HOLD-THE-LINE
       and GET-NEW-WINE!--
       And don't forget to bear FRUIT-OF-THE-VINE
       and WE'LL COMBINE
       to HEARD-THE-KINE
       ALONG-THE-LINE
       so YOU-CAN-DINE
       on LETTERS FINE
       for the OL'-ENGINE!

       So DON'T-GET-BEHIND
       on LETTERS-MINE
       or you MAY-MISS-NINE
       WHILE-YOU-PINE
       and for MAIL-YOU-WHINE
       ALONG-THE-RHINE,
       YOU STUPID SWINE,
       because you didn't WRITE-ON-TIME
       or DROP-A-LINE
       to YOUR-OLD VINE
       LEST-YOU-RESIGN-
       FOR AULD-LANG-SYNE!

       And--DON'T BE AN OLD BOTTLE,
       OR YOU HE'LL THROTTLE!
       Get on the beam!
       Join the Team! Amen?

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family