<TITLE>12. Par 43-45</TITLE>L-43 Well, that to me just was a little joke. But I told it to a man, and he goes and tells it to his wife, and his wife said, "Do you mean that Brother Branham would tell a joke?"
Well, you see, it was wrong for me to do it. Sure it was. We look over things sometimes. Paul said, "If eating meat puts a stumbling block in my brother's way, I'll eat no more meat as long as the world stands."
Well, the man tried to justify it, said, "Brother Branham's meetings," says, "He gets so keyed up, and under the anointing, and seeing visions and things, till he has to relax."
She said, "But you're not Brother Branham, and you don't have that kind of a meeting."
You see, it puts a stumbling block. We have to watch what we're doing. And God's going to judge us for the way we act and what we do. I don't care if we have rushing mighty winds, and we heal the sick and whatmore. Jesus said, "Many will come to Me that day and say, 'Have not I cast out devils in Your Name? Have not I done many might works?'" And He will say, "Depart from Me, you workers of iniquity, I didn't even know you."
I don't want to stand with that group. If there's anything in my heart, I want to be as honest when I stand before God.

L-44 That condemned me. Then when I was preaching, I been under a tax investigation for my church, and for my campaign. [Blank.spot.on.tape--Ed.]... put me in a sweat box. And for nearly six months, I had to dig up my grandmother's birth record, almost, for the government. And these bootleggers and moonshiners and things get by with it, and gamblers and cigarette people, and...
And you cigarette smokers, aren't you ashamed. Did you see in the, I believe, "Reader's Digest." I may overestimate it or under it, I think it's a hundred and thirty-three thousand's going to die this year from smoking cigarettes. And that... Most... Ninety percent of that's so-called church people. What's the matter? We've fallen somewhere.

L-45 I was going down the lane Sunday. And there was a preacher standing there praying on a... Down from me, there's a... They'd formed a little league, say to take the--the boys and give them a baseball league. And they had a preacher standing up there blessing the ground.
When I was seventeen years old, I was a pretty active little fellow. I played shortstop, and I was playing for the Methodist church on a--on a church league. And any boy that even played Sunday baseball could not play with the churches. And now, here stands them same preachers, blessing the place. What's happened anyhow?
Has our rushing mighty winds got us anywhere? Has our thunder, and lightning, and blood, and everything else gotten us anywhere? Has it made us any sweeter and humbler before God? We need to come back into the Presence of God again. That's exactly right. We get so loose and rest upon sensations and things. Let's get back to God.


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