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VESPERS!--PSALM 7        DO 2366 4/82

       VERSE 1-9!
       1. Psalm 7! PTL! Lord bless the reading of Thy Word, in Jesus' name! (Verse 1:) "O Lord my God, in Thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, & deliver me." They persecute me--comma! They don't save me & deliver me, they persecute me & the Lord delivers me! Amen?
       2. (Verse 2:) "Lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces, while there is none to deliver." He said, "From all them that persecute me, & deliver me," then he turns around & says, "lest he tear my soul like a lion, rending it in pieces." How come he's talking about all of them & then all of a sudden he says he? Who goes around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour? (Family: The Devil!)--Right! (1Pet.5:8.) So he realised that all of his enemies were just outcroppings of the Devil & instruments of Satan.
       3. (Verse 3-5:) "O Lord my God, if I have done this; if there be iniquity in my hands; if I have rewarded evil unto him that was at peace with me; (yea, I have delivered him that without cause is mine enemy.)" He says, to the contrary, he hasn't, but says, "If I have done evil, then let the enemy persecute my soul, & take it; yea, let him tread down my life upon the earth, & lay mine honour in the dust. Selah."
       4. He said, "Okay, Lord, if the enemy is right & I'm wrong, then let him conquer me & take me & end me!" But he says, "Think of that!"--Sort of like he waits, "Okay, let him do it. Let's wait & see." Well, thank the Lord, I've been waiting for quite a few years & he hasn't done it yet, so I must've done something good! PTL? When you see some of our wonderful young people on the videos & how they thank the Lord for me, even though it's all the Lord, it certainly gives me a thrill to realise that we were all channels & all instrumental in reaching them with the Gospel & His Love & saving them for Jesus! PTL? Isn't that wonderful?
       5. (Verse 6:) "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger!" He's going on the attack again, right? He often presents the negative side, "Well, things are pretty bad. Well, maybe I'm even bad. If I'm bad, show me & let the Enemy conquer me." But then he knows that he's not, it's the Lord anyhow, so now he gets on the attack.
       6. "Arise, O Lord, in Thine anger, lift up Thyself because of the rage of mine enemies: awake for me to the judgement that Thou hast commanded." Praise God! I think you might even skip that little word "to" which someone put in to try to make it clearer, & I think it might even be clearer that way, "And awake for me the judgement that Thou hast commanded." In other words, "Awaken Your judgements, Lord, to wreak vengeance on my enemies."
       7. (Verse 7:) "So shall the congregation of the people compass Thee about: for their sakes therefore return Thou on high." Praise God! Why? Who's he talking about? Who's talking? A lot of times in the Prophets--& David was one of the Prophets--it's a little hard to tell who's talking to whom! Part of the time David will be talking to the Lord, & all of a sudden God's talking to David & it switches back & forth!
       8. He's calling for the judgements of God! He's calling down the wrath of God on the heads of his enemies. Then all of a sudden it says, "So shall the congregation of the people compass Thee about: for their sakes therefore return Thou on high." Who's talking to whom? Well, David was already talking to the Lord, wasn't he? So why does he say this: "So shall the congregation of the people compass Thee about: for their sakes therefore return Thou on high"?
       9. Well, it sounds to me like he means the people will gather together & praise the Lord! "Compass Thee about in praise, because You have returned on high in power to exert Your power against our enemies." That's what it sounds like to me, you may have some other interpretation. "For their sakes save the people, for their sakes return on high."
       10. (Verse 8:) "The Lord shall judge the people." He says the people will congregate around the Lord & He will return on high for the sake of the people, right? In other words, in a sense return to power. Well, the Lord's never really been away from power, but sometimes to David it seemed like He was kind of out of sight a little bit.
       11. He says the Lord is going to judge the people & he asked God, in a sense, to judge him first. "Judge me, O Lord, according to my righteousness, & according to mine integrity that is in me." David's reminding the Lord that he's tried to do the right thing & tried to be right & righteous, right? Nobody's perfect & David often makes it plain that only the Lord can save.
       12. Nevertheless, the Lord even talks a lot about our righteousness at times. It's all of the Lord & comes from the Lord, but we're supposed to try to do good & love people & do good to others, & that's righteousness. But it won't save you, it's Jesus Who saves you. He will reward you for it & bless you for it, but it's the works that are a result of Salvation. The works don't save you, but the saving results in works. PTL? They're the result of your Salvation.
       13. (Verse 9:) "Oh let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts & reins." I think that's quite evident what he's saying there in the first part of the verse, "Let the wicked come to an end"--that's what we all pray for, & they will, very soon in fact! At least their reign will come to an end soon. Some of them will continue through the Millennium, but they'll all come to an end before long. PTL! TYL!
       14. Now what does he mean by "reins" here? R-e-i-n-s. What does that word mean in the Bible? It uses it many many times. Don't tell me you never looked it up to find out what it meant! Well, actually you'd never think that part of your body was that important, your reins. Doesn't anybody know what the word "rein" means in the Bible? You have two of them! (Family: The kidneys.) Ah, that's no fair, you looked it up!
       15. Now isn't that strange? The same word is used in another sense for what? Of course, you folks are too young to remember, but anybody who knows something about horses can remember something that's called reins. What are they? (Family: The straps on the bridle for controlling & guiding the horse when you ride.) They're long lines, or as you said, straps, usually leather lines about an inch or so wide, & they go to the bridle of the horse, & particularly to what part of the bridle? (Family: The bit.)--The bit! And what is that for? (Family: To control the horse.) How many reins are there on a horse? (Family: Two.) Where are they? (Family: One on each side.) So what do you do with the reins? (Family: Guide & steer.)--Exactly!
       16. That's the horse's steering wheel! Instead of a steering wheel, you've got these two lines. If you want the horse to go to the right, you pull on the right-hand one & that turns his head to the right. If you want him to go left, you slacken up on the right-hand one & you pull the left one & that turns his head to the left so the horse knows that that's the way you want him to go. And by & by, if he's a real smart horse, you hardly even have to give the slightest bit of pressure.
       17. You can even take the reins in one hand like this, & if you're a real good horseman, just by the movement of your fingers you can relax one rein enough & just tug slightly on the other one enough to be able to direct the horse which way you want him to go. So what are horse reins for? (Family: Guiding?) Guiding the horse, right, driving the horse the way you want him to go, directing him. It's the way you control a horse, really.
       18. And if you say, "To rein in your steed," it means to do what? You not only use it for turning his head to the right or the left, but what else? (Family: Stopping.) You say, "Whoa, Dobbin!" & you pull on both reins & what happens? Well, if you pull too hard he's apt to rear up! But if you just pull on the two reins, he knows he's supposed to stop. "Whoa, Dobbin!" They used to call a lot of horses Dobbin, I don't know why. They weren't dobbin' anything! Well, they did do a bit of dobbin' on the streets! But anyway, that's the way you stop the horse.
       19. The reins are what you use to control the horse really, right? Of course, there are a lot more things to horsemanship than that, your knees, your feet, your heels & even your voice. But horses that are difficult to control, they have to put a very tough bit in their mouth. What do they call that bit? There's a kind of bit that really hurts the horse's mouth if he's really stubborn.--I think it's called a curb bit.
       20. A lot of theories are given as to just exactly why the Lord talks about two parts of your body--the heart & the kidneys--as representing actual spiritual things. When He talks about, "the righteous God trieth the hearts of men," He's speaking spiritually, isn't He? He's not talking about this pump that's pumping away here, right? That's just a muscle that pumps blood. It's very important, though, & your whole life depends on it & it's working hard all your life! It almost never rests.
       21. The only rest your heart gets is between beats, & it works hard enough that in a certain period of time it could lift an elevator, or it can help you climb up steps, lift 100-200 pounds up the stairs. Actually, it does that hard work to help your body move & survive & perform all the operations of your body, but this heart is purely physical.
       22. I believe the reason the Lord uses the term is because it is central & vital to your existence. A wound to the heart usually terminates your life for sure, because once your heart stops, life stops, as a rule. So it's considered, in a sense, the "heart of your being," the "core of your life," you might say. The very center, in other words, of your physical being is naturally considered as your heart, so it's pretty important to your physical life.
       23. Yet the heart He's talking about, of course, is your spiritual heart, the very "soul of you" or the center of your spiritual being, your spiritual core, in other words, the real you, the real center of you. Amen? So most of us understand the use of the term "heart" for the center of not only our physical being, but our spiritual being also, right? In fact, the term "heart" is used throughout our language for the center of something, the "heart" of the thing.
       24. But what about the reins? What does it have to do with our kidneys? Well, that's a good question, & since it's so late, maybe we'd better leave it for next time & maybe you can study up on it. You might look up all the verses on reins & see if you can figure out what the reins represent of your spiritual being. You haven't got two hearts, just one, but you've got two kidneys, one on each side in the back here.
       25. Maybe in the next lesson we can find out how important the reins are. You can live without one of them & with just one, but you can't live without both of them. And maybe we can find out what our spiritual reins are in the next lesson. Would that be interesting? (Family: Yes!) The Bible speaks of them a lot of times, I'm surprised some of you were never curious enough to look it up before to find out what the reins were.
       26. Even in the Old Testament it talks about the different parts of the animal's body that you can eat, & the different parts you're not supposed to eat, & as I recall you're not supposed to eat the kidneys. Yet the British do it all the time, they have kidney pie etc. The kidneys & the gall-bladders, as I recall, are not supposed to be eaten. Well, that's another story. Someone please close in prayer. (Family prays.) Amen, as we pray our goodnight prayer: ("Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep," Psa.19:14, Num.6:24-26.)
       27. Give us all a good night's sleep, Lord, safekeeping & strength for tomorrow! Thank You for our lovely Home & precious Family, Lord, & all Thy goodness & mercy to us, in Jesus' name. Amen! Bless us now & help us to understand the news & what's happening & which way the World's going & to be able to have Thy Holy Spirit explain it to us. Amen! PTL!
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       VERSE 9b--THE REINS! 5/82
       28. Well, who found out what "reins" means today? (Family: They're kidneys.) I know they're kidneys, but what is the spiritual significance? (Family: The Hebrews considered it one of the sources of joy, pleasure, pain & knowledge.)
       29. Apparently the reins were considered centers of emotion. The same word is used for the control of horses or beasts, & if you know anything about your anatomy, there are, as I recall, two long tubes, one on each side, that run from your kidney to your bladder.
       30. See, the kidney is a kind of a filter, & then the waste water goes from the kidney to the bladder to be eliminated. The blood passes through the kidney & the kidneys are like a filter or sieve that sifts out the impurities & the wastes & passes them on through these two long tubes, one from each side into the bladder. And in a sense those two tubes are like lines or like reins, so they have a similarity.
       31. There may be other people who have other definitions or explanations or interpretations, but I always felt like it had something to do with the controls of your spirit. Of course, the Lord's not just talking about your physical anatomy, either, when He talks about the heart. The heart is almost, you might say, the center of life & the core of your physical being that keeps you alive.
       32. The heart, in a sense, is the part of you which keeps your physical being alive. Of course, there are many parts that have to do with that, but the heart is considered the most important organ in the body, because when the heart stops, that's it! You've had it--all you're going to get--unless the Lord decides to revive you, which happens but is a little rare.
       33. I sort of like to think of the heart, in the spirit, as being like Salvation. What is it that gives you a new spirit & keeps you alive? It's your Salvation, right? We speak of our hearts being "washed by the Blood" & purified etc., & although you're saved, every day you have to watch your walk, right? You have to watch the controls of your life & control your emotions & your walk & your thoughts.
       34. So the reins are likened to the controls, in a sense, of your daily walk. And what are the kidneys for? They even filter the very blood that passes through your heart. They're for cleaning up the blood & keeping it pure, sifting out the impurities to sort of keep you clean. Your heart is washed with the Blood of the Lord once & for all, but your daily supply of your own life's blood has to constantly be purified all the time.
       35. So the reins or the kidneys have to be constantly working all the time cleaning up your blood, purifying your daily supply of blood & keeping it clean. So in a way, it's the controls of your life & your daily controls. You may say self-control, but really it should be Christ-control & His purification methods to keep your life clean. And what is one of those methods in the Spirit? (Family: The Word.)--The Word!--Washed by the pure water of the Word, having your minds washed by the Word.
       36. The Word, in a sense, is like a sifter or a sieve or a purifier, right? It cleans up the life stream of your life. So you might even consider comparing the reins to God's purification process through the Word. Isn't the Word what we use to test & try everything to make sure it's of the Lord? So where did we run into that here? Psalm 7, Verse 9:
       37. "For the righteous God trieth the hearts & reins." He not only tries your heart, to see if you're saved, but He tries your reins, your daily controls & purification, your daily walk. In other words, in a sense, you might say your works.
       38. Salvation is a gift that He gives to your heart, just like life is a free gift. You didn't earn your life, did you? You didn't work for it, you got it as a free gift. The life that He's given your heart to beat & pump blood & keep you alive is a gift. It was a free gift & so is Salvation. But you have to manifest that Salvation through Love &, "faith which worketh by Love."--Gal.5:6. So faith will work!--And by what? (Family: By Love!) So you're not saved by your works, but your works come by Salvation. Your works come because you are saved, right?
       39. If it weren't for your heart, the blood would never move & even pass through the reins to be purified, would it? So you've got to have life to begin with or there wouldn't be any point in having any reins or anything! So your heart of Salvation is your gift of life in the Spirit, but there has to be a certain amount of daily purification & control & a sifting out of the impurities of life so that you can live a good clean life constantly cleansed from the pollution of this World.
       40. There's always all kinds of pollution around! I think one of the worst pollutions we've got here in this location is noise pollution from all sides! In the morning, Maria closes this door & that door & this window & that window & we usually wind up all closed in.--All windows shut, doors shut, everything, trying to keep out all the racket which pollutes your ears & your mind & almost pollutes your thoughts because of all the noise!
       41. Well, that's the way the Devil is, he tries to constantly bombard you with all kinds of pollution! What other kinds of pollution can you think of? (Techi: One kind of pollution is the Devil's words.) The Devil's words are pollution too, that's right! His lies, that's real pollution too. Where do you hear the Devil's lies?
       42. Sometimes you get them on television or reading magazines or newspapers or in schoolbooks--any sources of the Devil's propaganda. (Techi: Devil books!)--Devil books, that's right. So through the various media we can get pollution of the Devil's lies, the Devil's words. That's a very good point, Techi!--Through reading bad books & bad papers & bad television! But there are some good things too & you've got to sift them out.
       43. Not all your blood is bad, it's just the pollution in your blood. You've got to have blood or you couldn't stay alive, the blood's got to flow. Daily throughout life you have to learn & have teaching & have information through various media, but you have to constantly sift it out & sift the evil from the good, don't you? He talks about "eschewing good from evil," in other words, knowing the difference between good & evil so you can "choose the good & eschew* the evil."--Isa.7:15; 1Pet.3:11. *(Eschew [EDITED: "verb"] means to avoid or abstain from.)
       44. The Lord spoke of one case where He said "Before the child would even know good from evil" that a certain thing was going to happen.--Isa.7:16. Well, that's a pretty early age when children begin to know good from evil & learn to be naughty. You constantly have to be sifting out this pollution, so it's sort of a method of control.
       45. Your reins or your kidneys really sort of control the purity of your blood. If they become diseased or infected, they don't work very well. Some people's kidneys get so bad that they have to have one of them removed, & if they both get bad, they have to remove them both & put you on a machine of some kind. That's pretty bad, you're just about gone! I think I'd almost rather go be with the Lord than live like that!
       46. Thank God we're all healthy & I don't think we've got any bad kidneys & the Lord is good to us! Just think of all the things that could go wrong with this amazing machine! Science says the human body is the most amazing machine known to Man. It can take the most abuse & all kinds of wear & tear, & yet repair itself constantly & last longer than any other kind of machine known to Man, constantly renewing itself!
       47. In fact, every cell in your body is renewed so that you have an entirely new body every seven years! How many bodies have I had by now, huh? I think about nine, isn't it? I'm on my ninth body! In fact, I'm going on my tenth now, I think, & it looks just like the other nine, I can't really tell the difference!
       48. So your body is constantly repairing itself, sloughing off the old, dead, worn-out cells & constantly building new cells. They say your whole body is completely renewed every seven years. How often is your blood purified? Does anybody remember how long it takes the blood to complete its circulation throughout the body? (Family: 28 days?) It actually takes less than a minute!
       49. You may be talking about a complete new supply of blood. Like the body, the blood is completely renewed & you eventually have a whole new blood supply, as each red blood cell only lives an average of 120 days. The length of the menstrual cycle, which is according to the rotation of the moon, is usually every 28 days. See how many things are controlled by the various stellar bodies & planets? I just hope these stupid idiotic little specks of dust they're shooting up there called satellites, or whatever they are, which are visiting the various planets, aren't fritzing up somebody's controls who's being controlled by those planets!
       50. I really believe the planets are a part of God's machinery to control the whole physical World & its system, but Man keeps trying to fritz things up & mess things up & he wrecks the balance of nature & the ecology & he pollutes the Earth! Man just seems to be bent on destroying himself & the Earth with all this pollution!
       51. So we have to constantly work at staying clean, don't we? You have to wash your body every day, which is very refreshing & keeps you clean. Because the bugs & the germs love to multiply, & if you don't keep clean, you'll find them multiplying between your toes & under your armpits & in your hair! You'll get scaly & scabby & all kinds of things, because the germs multiply so fast. You can get all kinds of worms & scabies & ringworm & everything if you don't keep good & clean. So PTL! We need to keep clean!
       52. (Family: You also always tell us to drink lots of water to keep flushed out.)--Yes, just like in the physical, we need the Water of the Word spiritually too. Water washes out your kidneys, & your whole body inside needs lots of water to keep flushing out the impurities. You sweat about half a liter every day (or up to 8 liters if you're working hard & it's hot), & breathe out another half liter a day, besides going to the toilet! That's why you have to constantly keep drinking water to replenish it.
       53. You'll find that people who have kidney trouble have to drink water all the time & keep going to the toilet all the time to replenish the clean fluid & get rid of the bad fluid by urination much more rapidly than ordinary. Of course, this process is also speeded up sometimes by cold weather. Have you ever noticed that in cold weather you have to go to the toilet more often? You don't have to go quite that often in warm weather because you perspire so much.
       54. Did you know that your perspiration carries pollution out of your body in sweat? It eliminates a lot of the waste matter from your body, which takes quite a bit of the load off your kidneys & off your bladder. So it behooves anybody who has any kind of kidney or bladder trouble to live in a nice warm climate where your sebaceous glands--those are your sweat glands--will help take some of the load off your kidneys & your bladder etc. Because those are elimination glands which eliminate waste matter & pollution. So PTL! I'm sure in all those things you'd probably find some spiritual similitude in some way.
       55. So now we know something about the reins! "Let the wickedness of the wicked come to an end; but establish the just: for the righteous God trieth the hearts & reins." He's telling the difference between the wicked & the just there, the wicked & the righteous, & he's saying that God is the Judge Who is going to try your heart to see if you're saved! And He's going to try your reins, which in a sense are your works. Aren't these also judged? The reins really sort of control the whole works of your body & the purity of your blood.
       56. So He's going to try the heart for Salvation & the reins for your works! We'll have to give an account of every deed done in the body & every idle word, think of that!--Rom.2:6; Mat.12:36.--Even those of us who are Christians. Even though you're saved, you're still going to have to give an account for every deed, everything done after you were saved, whether you obeyed or disobeyed the Lord, whether you did your job or you didn't, how well you did it, how well you witnessed, how many souls you won, how faithful you were.
       57. He says, "Those that are faithful unto death, to them I'll give a crown of life!"--Rev.2:10. They're going to get a special crown, but that's not Salvation. The Holiness people try to say it's Salvation, but it's not. It's a special crown of reward. Salvation is not a crown, Salvation is life in the Spirit!
       58. What is a crown physically? It's sort of an adornment, isn't it? It's an honorary thing to wear a crown, an adornment. So if you wear a crown, then isn't that a sort of a glory to you, a credit to you? Paul speaks about earning a crown. You don't earn your Salvation, so a crown is bound to be the special reward & glory God gives to you for your good works.
       59. So He's going to try your hearts and reins, your hearts to see if you're saved, and the reins to see if your works are wood, hay and stubble and only worthy to be burned, or gold and silver and things that endure!--1Cor. 3:12-15. PTL!
       60. That's about all we have time for! Somebody please close in prayer, will you? TYL! (Family prays.) PTL! TYL! As we say our little good-night prayer: (Prays: "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," Psa.19:14, Num.6:24-26.) Do give us a good night's sleep, safekeeping, Lord, as You have, & we thank You for it, & strength for tomorrow, in Jesus' name. Amen!
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       VERSE 10-17!
       61. Psalm 7, Verse 10 & 11: "My defence is of God, which saveth the upright in heart. God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day." You notice He still judges the righteous--according to your works, according to your words, according to the thoughts & the intents of your heart. He's still going to judge us according to the deeds done in the flesh.--Mat.12:37, 16:27; Heb.4:12; 2Cor.5:10. But He's angry with the wicked every day!
       62. (Verse 12:) "If he turn not, He will whet His sword; He hath bent His bow, & made it ready." What does it mean, "if he turn not"? Who? Sometimes it's a little difficult to see who's who in these pronouns. In the original Hebrew the pronouns are very clear as to who it refers to, but in our English language it's not quite as clear. So let's read the next verse, then I'll explain.
       63. (Verse 13:) "He hath also prepared for him the instruments of death; He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors." If who turn not? (Family: The wicked!) It sounds like he's talking about, "If the wicked doesn't turn, repent or change, Who will whet His sword?"--God! He'll prepare the instruments of judgement and death for the wicked if he doesn't repent. "He ordaineth His arrows against the persecutors"--is God going to judge your persecutors? (Family: Amen!) Praise the Lord!
       64. (Verse 14:) "Behold, he travaileth with iniquity & hath conceived mischief, & brought forth falsehood." Now who's talking? Who's the "he" here?--The wicked, of course! "He made a pit, & digged it, & is fallen into the ditch which he made." Give the Devil enough rope & he hangs himself! Give the wicked enough time & he'll fall into his own trap, his own pit. How often they have laid a trap for us & fallen into it! The bad publicity & things they prepared for us actually turned on them & reacted against them!
       65. (Verse 16:) "His mischief shall return upon his own head, & his violent dealing shall come down upon his own pate." What's a pate, David? That's a tough one! Because it's an old word we don't use any more! About the only way that word is ever used any more is when we speak of a bald pate. It means the top of your head. That's your pate, right up here, & it usually means the bare skin as a rule nowadays. So an awful lot of our enemies & persecutors have bald pates. They're usually old bald-headed Systemites!
       66. (Verse 17:) "I will praise the Lord according to His righteousness: and will sing praise to the Name of the Lord most high." PTL? When our persecutors & our enemies are being judged by the Lord, we're going to be singing praise to the Lord! Does it mean we're going to be happy?--Yes! In some cases we're going to rejoice over the judgement of our enemies, praise the Lord, & we're going to sing glory to God for His Salvation!
       67. Isn't that what Moses & Miriam & the children of Israel did after they had the Red Sea close on the whole army of Pharaoh & all his officers & horsemen? (See Exo.15:1-21.) Did they fall down & weep & sorrow that all those guys got killed? There are some times when you can rejoice! Those guys were coming to murder them, kill them, hurt them, persecute them, so when they saw the waters close over them & drown the whole works, they shouted, "Hallelujah! Praise You Lord! Thank You Jesus!" And they sang a song!--A song of Moses! Have you ever read it? I think you'll find it in Deuteronomy (See Deut. 32) & you'll also find it in Exodus, where he sings it as they're leaving.--Exo.15. If you're curious, you can look up the Song of Moses, & there's a song sung in rejoicing over the death of their enemies.
       68. So is there a time to rejoice over some people's deaths? I'll tell you, I rejoiced over a death today or yesterday, a death that I prayed for. He was not my enemy, he was anything but my enemy, I was sorry for him. He was just a little 8-year-old child who suffered, & every day they had his picture in the paper. It's pitiful! Why would they want to torture people with a horrible sight like that? It was almost like the Devil was rejoicing over what he had done to that little child. And I don't doubt, of course, it was because of the mother's sins.
       69. The little child had a disease that I'm sure was of the Devil which made him grow old, & he was already an old man at 8 years of age!--Almost your age, David! The little boy had a disease which is very very rare & hardly ever occurs, maybe only about a dozen in the whole World, which causes the child to age very rapidly. Thank God that didn't happen to you, Honey! PTL! It starts fairly young during their life & they just begin to age. They age about 10 times as rapidly as a normal human being. And if you saw his picture in the paper, it was pitiful! He looked like a little old man lying there, like a midget! Pitiful!
       70. And when I saw the mother on TV, frankly, I didn't care much for her looks. I could understand why maybe the child was afflicted considering the mother looked pretty evil herself. I wouldn't be surprised if she'd been involved in the occult. There's an awful lot of the occult & witchcraft & everything else going on in this country, it's very rife, a lot like some of the Latin American countries. But who knows what happened? Maybe she resented the child & didn't want it. It only spoke of her as a widow, it didn't say why she was a widow, 40, with no husband, & one of her other children had died of the same thing.
       71. Well, obviously the family was cursed, & that, of course, only means because of sin. Certainly the child was not the one to blame. The mother had to watch him suffer & die because of her own sins. That's a pretty tough punishment, to watch your own child suffer & die because of your sins. I can hardly imagine anything worse when a parent loves a child, to watch it suffer & die because of the parent's sin. Thank the Lord we don't have to do that, nearly all of our children are healthy & blessed by the Lord, & we are obedient & obeying the Lord so He doesn't afflict our children as a rule.
       72. It was about yesterday or the day before, I was sitting on the toilet reading about that child being so sick, getting sicker & now he was sick in bed, unable to move, partially paralysed, dwindling away, & I said, "O, Lord, have mercy on the poor child & take him! Please take him as quickly as possible. Surely the mother's learned her lesson by this time, just take the child!" The next newspaper I picked up, he was gone! TTL!
       73. So PTL, the Lord's answering prayer! In this case about the little boy, I prayed for the death, not of an enemy, not even a friend, I don't even know him, but a poor little child, to get it over with. And we're praying that this war in the Falklands will die quick too & get over with so that those poor boys won't have to keep suffering.
       74. Are you praying really hard about that? That's very important & the Lord hears our prayers. If He can hear one man's prayer & change history for it and spare whole nations or slaughter whole nations, He can certainly hear all of our prayers together, PTL? So let's pray that this will be it and over with.--Not "it," the big one, but this will be it, the peace or the lull in the storm before the big one so we can still get a lot of work done before the big one hits!
       75. Amen, so someone close in prayer & ask the Lord about those things, & lead us in our little "Lay Me Down" prayer. (Family prays.) (Prays "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep," Psa. 19:14, Num.6:24-26.) Bless & keep us & give us a good night's sleep, safekeeping & strength for tomorrow!
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MORE VERSES ON THE REINS!
       I will bless the Lord, Who hath given me counsel; my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.--Psa.16:7.
       Examine me, O Lord, & prove me; try my reins & my heart.--Psa.26:2.
       Thus my heart was grieved, & I was pricked in my reins.--Psa.73:21.
       For Thou hast possessed my reins; Thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.--Psa. 139:13.
       My son, if thy heart be wise, My heart shall rejoice, even Mine. Yea, My reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things.--Pro.23:15-16.
       O Lord of Hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins & the heart.--Jer.11:20a.
       I the Lord search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, & according to the fruit of his doings.--Jer. 17:10.
       And all the churches shall know that I am He which searcheth the reins & the hearts: & I will give unto every one of you according to your works.--Rev.2:23b.

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family