<TITLE>28. Par -</TITLE>L-784-197 Some people say, "Well, now wait a minute. We keep the Sabbath. Ever... We do this. And you know, we keep all this, and we keep that, and every, why, every Good Friday, why, when fast time comes on, forty days before Easter, we always observe Lent. I give up smoking for forty days. I give up drinking for forty days before--during the time of Lent." Oh, tradition of the fathers, legalists. If you love God, you--you don't smoke in the first place. If you love God, you... I--I wrote it in the back of my little Bible, first one I ever had; I said,
Don't ask me foolish questions,
Make this up in your mind.
If you love the Lord with all your heart,
You don't smoke, drink, or--don't smoke, chew, or drink any 'shine.
And now, that still stands good today. I don't do it because I think He condemns me for doing it; I would quit it because it's a dirty thing and isn't becoming to a minister. That's right. I wouldn't say...

L-784-199 Many times I'd go to houses and their women standing out there. And I'd go to the house and knock on the door and a sister'd come to the door and say, "Come in, Brother Branham." If her husband was not there, I--I--unless it was a case of sickness and somebody with me, I don't go. And then, they'd call me to a hospital or to a room, say, "Brother Branham, come over here. I'm Sister So-and-so from So-and-so. I'm--I'm here at the hotel. I--I brought my mother along; she's sick." I'd take my wife. If I don't, I take some other brother.
See, I--I don't--I don't think... I think it'd be all right for me to go in there, but what if somebody seen me go in there? See? What if somebody seen me do it? See? Then the first thing you know, they'd say, "He went in there where that woman was. He's chasing after women." That... See, that would be a thing I shouldn't do. See? You should never do anything like that, 'cause you put a stumbling in somebody else's way. See? I don't believe that I would do anything wrong in there. It wouldn't, I wouldn't trust God to go in there. No matter what the thing was, I'd trust God. But yet, you see, in--in--in... I love the Lord well enough till I wouldn't do it. See, it's a love you have. You're--you're not doing it because it's a duty to do it; you do it because you love the Lord. You don't have to do it, but you do it anyhow.

L-785-201 Paul said to me, "All things are lawful, but not all are expedient." See? Paul could do lots of things that maybe that he knowed the Lord understood him and trusted him, but it wasn't expedient for him to do it. So that's the way these legalists, trying to say, "Forty days before Easter we always start in a fast." And they eat just as much as they ever do. Maybe they say, "Well, I don't like beans, so I'll give up beans for Lent." I've heard them say that. "I don't like pork, so I'll just give up pork, you know." "I'm going to quit drinking for Lent."
One woman told me, said, "You know what I give up for Lent this year, Brother Branham?"
I said, "No, what?"
Said, "Candy." Said, "I never did care too much for it anyhow." See? There you are. Now, they call that fasting. See, legalism. They say, "Well, I've gotta... You know, I--I--I stagger to church a long time, 'cause... I tell you; I kept Sunday school for a full year, because my teacher said that they'd give a Bible to the one that didn't miss a day."


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