<TITLE>12. Par 45-48</TITLE>L-45 Are you thirsty? Do you really want to be a real Christian? If you really want to be a old time Christian, there's something in there that makes you want it. Do you want to go to heaven? You remember the animal doesn't want to go to heaven. That animal hasn't got no soul. The animal don't know what life hereafter is. But you know what life hereafter is. You long for life hereafter; the animal can't; it has no soul. But you were made with a soul. And that soul was given to you to make a decision. That heart that's within you, it makes a decision. And the animal can't make that decision, 'cause it has not that in it to make.

L-46 But there's something in you that longs for God, and you're trying to quench it, maybe by staying home getting in the air conditioned room, and looking at the television, and staying home from prayer meeting, and never reading the Bible, and going down to church on Sunday morning, and then maybe going back, paying the pastor, and waiting for an evangelist to come to the city. And you might set back and say, "Well, that preacher's a pretty good fellow. I'm telling you; I kinda like him. I kinda like the way he smiles. I--I--I like the little jokes he pulls." Brother that's not life; that's death. That's death.
But do you really long for a room that you can go into, set down under the old shade tree of the Bible, look up with tear stained eyes and say, "Blessed Saviour, Thou will guide me till I reach that healthful shore." Is there something in your heart that you long to love Him, and to praise Him, and to worship Him. All the things of the world become dead in you, just Christ or die. "I must have Christ or I must perish."

L-47 Now, I want every head bowed, and every eye closed, and everyone praying. Be honest. Be sincere. If you really mean it, and you who raised your hand to God and say, "Lord God, from this day on, please, I know, I--I--I... These things that I do is not right. But I want to love You. I want what that preacher said today about You in the Bible. My thirst is after Thee like the hart thirsting for the water brook. And the thirst, Lord, that I have, someday I expect to be a great person." Oh, I do too, but after I cross the border yonder." I expect to be God's child."
Do you really want to be that? If you do, would you just raise up your hand to Him, saying, "God, it's me; I now raise my hand saying my soul is thirsting for Thee, God." God bless you, lady. God bless you, young lady. And God bless you, and you. Someone else? God bless you. I don't... God bless you, and you, lady. God bless you, sir, and you lady.

L-48 You might be church members; that don't have nothing to do with it. You can be a church member and just as black as a harlot out here on the street. I know you say, "That's hard preaching, Brother Branham." If you come here at nighttime, or come any other time, and watch around the life, and see the things that the Lord Jesus does, exactly in the Word, surely, I should have some conception of what Christ means. I know this one thing, brother; the devil has perverted life; he has perverted the church action. He's perverted it so much till he's perverted the people. And it's the hardest thing in the world to get the people to see the actual truth. It's right. Oh, they miss it by a thousand miles.


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