Louie Isshi

25 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

It has been one of the great privileges of my life to have had access to, and fellowship with, some of God’s greatest servants on this planet. It is highly significant that in the Song of Solomon that the first two prayers of the believer are asking the Lord to draw her to Himself; and secondly asking how to find Him. And the first words of Christ to His Bride – in response to that prayer – are the instruction how to find Him. They couldn’t be simpler – “Follow the footsteps of the flock.” If someone wants to know where the Shepherd is, all they have to do is follow the footsteps and example of those who know Him and are with Him. If we would do more of that perhaps we too would know and love Jesus more.

Of the many great saints that I have known, Louie Isshi, certainly stands out as unique. In 1972 Rosemary was sick in the hospital in Syracuse, NY. We were staying with some friends who were active in the C&MA church. One day I asked Elaine, “How many people in your church are Spirit filled?” She replied, “We all are.”

“That is wonderful, but how many are filled with the Spirit of Christ and know the Lord?” After the first trite theological answer she thought for a moment and then replied, “Well, Pastor Isshi is.”

I went to a Tuesday night Bible study to meet Pastor Isshi. Oh my goodness – what a moment! I asked if I could speak to him, and he invited me to come to his home the next evening. Being with him was like taking to Abraham or the Apostle Paul. He was 80 some years old, and the C&MA denomination had put him out to pasture. To give him something to do, they made him visitation pastor and gave him a mid-week Bible study. Very few people came. But that man was so filled with the Spirit of Christ that every word that came from his mouth was like the breath of heaven. I sat in his living room drinking for four hours. I only saw him three times but he left a profound impression on me. The stories he told were astounding. Some were old and some had happened just a few days before. If I were to describe Louie Isshi it would be in one word – he was a man who knew God. Very few do. I never heard him preach a sermon, so I can’t comment on his ability in the pulpit, but Christ was so dominant in his life that his messages must have been different.

He told me one time AW Tozer invited him to come and speak in his church in Chicago. But Tozer warned, “Chicago is a tough town. All the top speakers world wide come there and Christians in Chicago have very sophisticated taste.” Vance Havner had been at Moody Memorial Church a few weeks before then. The meetings were so bad that Vance got mad and went home half way through. With that warning in mind, Brother Isshi didn’t know what to expect at Tozer’s church. But he said every night the attendance kept going up and the alters were increasingly filled with seekers.

Several years later he was traveling through Georgia and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. He noticed a man sitting a few tables away kept looking at him; and then the man stood up to come over to speak with him. He asked, “Are you Pastor Isshi?”

“Yes I am.”

“I was a student at Moody Bible Institute the year you spoke at Tozer’s church and attended your meetings. Those meetings were such a blessing to us.”

Louie Isshi was surprised with that self-introduction and asked, “Could you please tell me what happened there. You people at Moody and in Chicago listen to all the top speakers world wide, and yet there was a tremendous response to the meetings I had there.”

“Yes that is true. We have access to all the top speakers and are taught solid doctrine. The teaching is very good. But there was something about your messages that was different. The flavor was different.”

Yes, of course. It was Christ speaking through His servant.

Louie Isshi had an unusual gift and message on healing. He told me how his wife had had surgery shortly after they were married and an unscrupulous Jewish doctor later apologized to him, “I’m sorry, but your wife can never have children. I removed her ovaries and everything involved in reproduction.” Later she had two sons. The Jewish doctor came to him and said, “As a medical man I can believe in the virgin birth of Christ before I could believe it was possible for your wife to conceive. I know for a

fact that I had cut everything out of her.”

I only spent seven or eight hours with Brother Isshi but – 38 years later – I could still write pages of his stories. One particular one had just happened two weeks before I met him.

A young man in his church had recently been saved. His father was a very elderly man in a nursing home. This young man asked Pastor Isshi if he would visit his father in the nursing home to share Christ with him. He replied, “Certainly, I will do that the first thing tomorrow.” The next day he put on his hat and was about to leave when he remembered that he hadn’t prayed about this visit. When he prayed the Lord told him clearly, “No, don’t go.” He had no idea why, but he took his hat off and stayed home. The next morning before he put his hat on he prayed first; and again the Lord told him not to go. The third day he spoke to the Lord and said. “I promised that young man I would go on Monday. It is now Wednesday. If I can’t go today I would like an explanation why.” This time the Lord gave him the green light.

When he got to the nursing home he found the old man to be one mean, tough, old cadger. He tried patiently for 20 minutes to share with him the salvation of Christ only to be met with cursing. At length he gave up and was about to walk out the door when he turned around and asked, “Is there anything I could do for you?” For the first time the old man’s voice dropped and in a quiet tone he said, “Yes, today is my birthday. A card just came from my daughter in Sacramento, Calif. It is there on the table beside you. My eyes are bad and I would be grateful if you would read that to me.” Louie Isshi opened the card and read, “Happy birthday Daddy! I have the most wonderful news to tell you.  Recently I have just found Jesus as my savior. I am praying for you that you might know the love of God also.” Louie looked up and said, “Well, Dad, how about it?” Tears trickled down the old man's checks and Brother Isshi led him to Christ. That card had only arrived one hour before.

Five years ago I was up in Kunming, China in a meeting with about a dozen fellows who were targeting evangelism in Tibet. There had been a problem of miscommunication. A group from a totally different organization had gone into a town and tract bombed it (secretly placed tracts in mail boxes). Two weeks later the fellow leading that meeting went in there to quietly share Christ. The police thought he was the one who had tract bombed the place and he was arrested. He was pleading for better cooperation and coordination.

After listening to their discussion for a couple hours I broke in and said, “Fellows, your biggest problem is that you don’t have men who know God. If you knew the Lord better you would have a lot less of these problems.”

I know that is a big bucket of worms. You talk about subjective guidance and you can get into an enormous amount of problems. As I young missionary, I heard a Nazarene pastor preach one of the finest messages on guidance I ever heard. When he finished I grabbed my Bible and went up to speak to him. I told him that was the most frustrating thing I had ever dealt with in my Christian life. He gave me the best advice I have ever heard – “Don’t try to get guidance over your head.” Everyone is different. There are special men like George Mueller and Louie Isshi who walk very closely with the Lord. He speaks to them very clearly and they follow Him. But to try to be a George Mueller or Louie Isshi without their intimate relationship with the Lord and sensitive spirit can lead a person to do some of the most bazaar things. The Lord alone knows what ridiculous things have happened all in the name of “The-Lord-told-me-to-do-it”. My foot!

But to follow their example of total surrender, deep devotion, and a consistent life of obedience and walking in the Spirit certainly would be an awfully good idea. That is an area where most of us could improve.

Recently, I have been reading The Memories of Robert Murray Mc’Cheyne, by Andrew Bonar. Oh my goodness, that is convicting! When I read of the total commitment, the single eye, and passionate love he had for Jesus, I am embarrassed to call myself a follower of the Lamb.

Oh Lord if You only had more of me. If somehow, by Your grace, it might be possible for You to get a better grip on my heart; to live in it more fully, and to see that only the will of the Father is done in me on a daily basis. If I can only have one request, let it be that Jesus is everything in me. If You would only do this 10% I would have eternity to praise You. Father, let Jesus be exalted in my life. Amen

Gomen Phyllis, but this is a desperate issue in my life. Oh to know Him better! Ya’ll pray for me now – he’ah.

                                                                                  bill

Visa Run to Malaysia

18 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

Well this past week has been an interesting one. This has been Songkhron in Thailand which is the Buddhist New Year. This is the Thai shogatsu (New Year). This is the biggest holiday of the year where everything closes down for a week and everyone goes home. That would be alright, but the main event of Songkhron is that it is one week of a huge national water fight. It is impossible to go anywhere without getting doused with water. This is particularly dangerous on a motor bike, as you are guaranteed to get a bucket of water in your face about every kilometer. Hundreds of people are killed every year by accidents caused by this merry-making.

 Our Burmese workers on John’s house are off for one week. On the 24^th I had to leave Thailand to get a new visa, so John suggested that I go a week early. That was a very good idea. I missed the water fight in Thailand, and didn’t slow things down on John’s house. If I am not there no one else knows what to do.

 My trip started off very excitingly when I got on the wrong bus. When I leave Chiang Mai, the bus is usually waiting at the boarding area half an hour before hand. This time I was surprised that it wasn’t there, so I waited in the terminal until about ten minutes before bearding. When I went back, the man there told me to get on the bus the bus that was in the boarding dock. I was surprised when they didn’t have a bus girl to show me to the proper seat, as always, and it seemed to be free seating. Then the bus pulled out five minutes early with very few passengers. I was more than curious, but the alarm bells began to ring when I saw it wasn’t going in the right direction. I asked several people if this was the bus for Bangkok. No. One gal seemed like a bus girl and understood enough English to recognize my plight. She looked at my ticket and talked to the bus driver. Five minutes later she told me to get off and she got off with me. Panic time! I’m in the wrong part of town and my bus was supposed to leave five minutes ago. I was desperate to get any kind of transportation to get back to the bus terminal, but she kept telling me to wait. Finally a tuk tuk (a small three wheeled taxi) showed up. She told the driver to take me back to the bus terminal. When I got there everyone was in a near panic. She obviously had called them and they were holding the bus for me. But then there was a problem with my ticket. Apparently someone else was in my seat. The bus girl finally let me ride in the crew quarters on the lower deck. Actually that was a better seat as I had the two seats all by myself, Thank God for the first miracle!

The eight hour wait I had in Bangkok for the train for Malaysia wasn’t too bad, and the ride down to Penang was uneventful. It is about a 22 hour train ride from Bangkok to Butterworth, which is the train stop for Penang. Then a 20 minute ferry ride over to the beautiful island of Penang. This was my third trip down there for a visa, so it is getting to feel a little bit like home.

The visa service told me that it was impossible to get a one year visa without a statement from a Thai bank that I had $10,000 in an active account. I have heard this before, but the Lord did a miracle a year ago in giving me one year visa when everyone told me it was impossible. So I asked the visa service man to try for a one year visa, and if that didn’t come through I would accept a three months visa. He was so sure it was impossible that he was reluctant to take my request to give it a shot. Jesus does miracles. Praise God, Jesus is still in charge of handing out visas. He opens doors and no man can close them. And if He doesn’t open the door, there is no way you can pry it open. When I picked up my passport from the visa service the next day, the man who had made my application just shook his head and said, “You are very lucky.”  Not really. I just work for God.

I had met a man from England on the train briefly. He was staying at the same guest house where I stay and was also applying for a Thai visa. That night, as I was eating supper at the restaurant in the guest house, he was seated at the table next to me. He was the typical low class foreign man, of which there are hundreds (perhaps thousands) in SEA. He was the type that I really didn’t want to share Christ with, but I was convicted that I hadn’t been more aggressive with a Norwegian family that I met on the train. Most of those men are rather unpleasant, but this fellow was somewhat friendly. After talking for half an hour, he very politely asked me if I would loan him some money. He said he had left his bank card at home and didn’t have money enough to get back to Thailand. This is extremely dangerous. The chance you will never see your money again is about 90%. But I have been in tight spots myself and know what it feels like if what he said was true. He wanted $75, and I had that much. I told him that I would loan him the money on one condition – he must listen to me explain the way of salvation. That is pretty expensive witnessing. But he was more than delighted to listen to me explain how God did an insane thing in sending His Son to die for people who were totally unworthy. And all we had to do to be saved was to accept what God is offering us. When I handed Simon the money, I said there were two things necessary. First of all I had to have in my heart a willingness to give it to him. And secondly he had to accept it. He certainly understood that and had no trouble stretching out his hand to accept my money. I told him to get on his knees in his room that night and honestly talk to God asking Him to show him the gift of God and work in his heart to be a follower of Jesus. He seemed to have very poor comprehension of what I was saying, and I had little expectation that much had gone into his heart. But we exchanged e-mail addresses. If things work out in the next few weeks I want to do some serious follow up. He promised to return my money as soon as he got home. We’ll see. 

My first morning in Penang, I went straight to the railway ticket office to buy a ticket back to Bangkok. Sold out. I couldn’t get a train until Sunday that would get me back to Chiang Mai Tuesday morning. I went back to the Banana guest house/visa service and asked if they could get me on a bus back to Bangkok. I was pleasantly surprised that the bus connection is actually better than the train, but slightly more expensive. The difference in price was well worth it if I could get back to Chiang Mai by Sunday night. That way there would be no delay on John’s house. Praise God I got home by 6:00 Sunday evening.

Jeana Crane wrote me the other day asking if I would tell her again the story about the man who got saved by smoking up a Bible. I hadn’t thought about that story in years but I must have shared it with Jeana some time in the past.

Khou was in his mid 20s in around 1980 when he escaped from Laos and got to Thailand. But unfortunately he got stuck in a refugee camp, which is little better than being prison. Thailand doesn’t want refugees, but there are hundreds of thousands on both sides of Thailand who have fled from Burma, on the west, and from Laos – and formerly Cambodia – on the east. Many of these refugees get stuck there for several years only to get repatriated back to their former country. There is virtually nothing to do inside these refugee camps.

Khou was a smoker but couldn’t get cigarettes inside the refugee camp. Somehow he did get a Bible and used the paper to make his own cigarettes. In time he smoked up one entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. He wanted to get some more paper but didn’t know where to get it. Khou had a girl friend who told him that a missionary was working in that refugee camp who would give him a Bible, but the condition was he had to go to a Bible study to get one. Simply to get some more cigarette paper Khou started attending the Bible study.

This time the Word of God went into his heart rather than into his lungs. Jesus came in – not smoke. In time he was soundly saved, and swam the Mekong River to go back to Laos to witness to his parents. That was over 25 years ago.

I first met him in 1999 when I was on a Bible run taking Bibles into Laos. We had some things to give him, and he had some things he wanted us to carry into northeast Laos for him. He met us at the bridge when we crossed over from Nong Khai. He had a car and we made the exchange in the car as he drove us the 20km to Vientiane. It was noon when we got to Vientiane so he took us to a restaurant for lunch. It is generally unwise to discuss the things of the Lord in public places but as Khou was sharing his testimony with us it took all the restraint I had to keep from shouting. That man is slam filled with the Spirit of Christ.

From time to time I have heard about him. He is one of the leaders of Campus Crusade in Laos and one of the truly top men of God in that country. It is a wonder that he hasn’t been killed. His witness for Christ is fearless. It has been a couple of years since last I heard Khou or even thought about him. If my unlikely friend Simon gets saved through the $75 I loaned him that will be a good investment in eternity.

 Lord Jesus, make Simon another Khou who gets saved through the most unlikely means. Lord, if You do that, that will make my trip to Penang doubly worthwhile. And thank You for the miracle one year Thai visa.

Gratefully,   bill

Back to Jerusalem

11 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 This past week I have been so busy I have hardly had time to think what my own name was. The Lord is doing some amazing things at this house I am building for John, but I doubt that you would be interested in a long discussion about construction. As I have thought about what to write this week, it came to me to do a rerun on the Back to Jerusalem theme. Perhaps I have written to you about this before, but there is nothing that I feel is more primary in the Holy Spirit’s agenda today than the Back to Jerusalem Movement. It is the driving engine for the Church in China, and I believe it explains a great deal of what we are watching world wide.

 It is hard to point to one incident where the Back to Jerusalem Movement began, but if we were to choose one it would be on the Shandong peninsula of east China in 1921, with the founding of the Jesus Family. The Jesus Family was an unusual indigenous movement in China that believed in giving all to Jesus. They had five words that expressed their commitment – Sacrifice, Atonement, Poverty, Suffering, Death. If this is what you were willing to pay then you were eligible to sign up. You literally had to sell the farm, give everything to Jesus, and live communally. They saw that the Gospel had come to China by the missionaries from the western world; and that the Gospel must go around the world and return to Jerusalem before the Lord’s return. To accomplish this goal, they started out in 1921 walking across China, preaching the Gospel to every village they came to on their way to carry the Gospel back to Jerusalem by foot. They walked for 49 years until they came to Kashgar at the extreme end of Xinjiang providence in west China. They were making application to go into Kazakhstan, that was then the USSR, when they were arrest by the communists and sent to prison. That was the end of their road. But I believe they were dead right in their vision for three reasons.

The first is, because I see in nature a clear message that the movement of God is from east to west. Because of the rotation of the earth, the Lord speaks to humanity every day that His sun, moon, and stars always arise in the east, traverse the earth from east to west, and settle in the west. Everything in nature testifies to us that God’s basic movement is from east to west.

Secondly, I see in Scripture a directional orientation that God’s basic movement is from east to west. I spent three hours preaching at the Thai church on this subject and I certainly can’t write everything here. There are many proofs of this, but one is the layout of the OT Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple. Both were laid out east to west with the entrance being on the east and the Holy of Holies being at the back in the west. Everyday when the priest came before the Lord they had to progress from east to west. There are dozens of illustrations, but it is interesting that when Jesus went up to Jerusalem to be the sacrificial Lamb of God, He should have gone from north to south; but His last ministry was on the east side of Jordan. When He went up to Jerusalem He went from east to west. When He left to return to heaven He left from the Mt. Olivet which is on the east side of Jerusalem. When He returns again, He will land on that exact spot and reenter Jerusalem by the east gate. Everything in Scripture is in a direction of going from east to west.

 The third reason I passionately believe in the Back to Jerusalem Movement is the testimony of church history. In Acts 1:8 Jesus said that the Gospel would first be preached in Jerusalem, then in Judea, Samaria, and unto the utter most part of the earth. As we read the book of Acts we see that the Gospel went exactly that way. It first started in Jerusalem (chap. 1-7). In chapter 8 we see Phillip going down to Samaria. In chapter 11 the Gospel went up to Antioch. In chapter 13 the Holy Spirit sent out the first missionaries and they went west. In chapter 16 Paul wanted to turn around and head east but the Holy Spirit forbid him to go in that direction. Then he saw the Macedonian vision and went west to Philippi. And at the close of Acts we see Paul in Rome.

The movement of the Gospel went exactly that way. It started in Jerusalem and progressed across the Mediterranean to Rome. Then the Gospel was dormant in Rome until the time of the Reformation under Luther. At that time Christianity moved from Rome northwest to Germany. For the next several hundred years the driving engine of the Gospel was in Germany. The Moravians were German. But at the early part of the 1700s, during the time of the first great evangelical awaking under Wesley, the Gospel moved from Germany to England. For the next two hundred years England was the great power house for the Gospel raising up some of the finest preachers, giving us some of the best Christian literature and hymnology, and sending out historic missionaries. But at the early part of the 1900s the Gospel moved across the Atlantic to America. For the 20^th century America became the fortress of Christianity and became the main engine sending out the vast bulk of missionaries and mission support.

 In 1970 we saw a surprising thing when the Gospel jumped the Pacific rim and moved to Korea. For 30 years we saw an amazing revival in Korea where it looked like Korea would become the number one Christian nation on earth. Today Korea has overtaken America as the number one missionary country sending out and supporting more missionaries per capita than America.

But then, totally hidden from human eyes, the Lord did an astounding thing in pouring out the greatest moving of the Holy Spirit the earth has ever seen on China. Today things are happening in China that eclipses what the Apostles saw in the 1^st century. With my position at NLL, I personally witnessed the sending out of millions of Bibles to China. Never before in history have we seen anything liked what is going on in China for the demand and supply of the Word of God to millions.

In 1997 Brother Yun was conducting a meeting in central China. He was making an appeal for the church in China to look beyond its borders to sending out missionaries. At the close they were singing a hymn taken from the old Jesus Family hymnal. An old man at the back was greatly moved and came forward to speak. He said, “My name is Simon Zhao. I wrote that hymn. I was a leader in the Back to Jerusalem Movement and we wrote that hymn. But in 1950 we were all arrested. I was sentenced to 45 years in jail. They are all dead now. I am the only survivor.” As the believers sat bathed in tears by this moving testimony that night, Brother Yun said that was the pivotal moment of his life. He tearfully said, “Uncle Zhao, the vision isn’t dead. We will take the flaming baton of the Gospel back to Jerusalem”. From that moment, this has been the burning vision of the church in China.

I believe I have shared this history with you before. But rather than commenting on the obvious trajectory of the Spirit of God today in moving through the 10-40 window, and an amazing harvest of millions of Islamic souls; I want to briefly consider the spiritual phenomenon of what happens after the sun has passed an area. Darkness sets in. As certainly as the Gospel has moved across the Mediterranean, Rome, Europe, England and America; the darkness that has engulfed these countries today is undeniable. North Africa, Turkey, Greece, Rome, all saw a sweeping revival where Christianity was the dominant religion. And much of that is Islamic today. If the present demographic alteration continues at the present pace, in another 25 years, England will be an Islamic state. Already there are more mosques in London than churches and some Shari laws are being enacted in England. Europe has become a moral zoo. We think this could never happen in America but we are seeing things today in America that were unthinkable 50 years ago. Obama has advocated and implemented things that, if someone had tried them in 1950, they would have been in prison. In his first year in office he has altered the US system of government more than everything in the previous 225 years. In his first eight months in office he took over the US banking system, took control of the US auto industry, and restructured the US government with his unauthorized czar system. He declared in Egypt that America was no longer a Christian nation, and praises Islam. He openly told how he and his wife had attended several flag burnings, and now is attempting to take control of every soul in America through his health care system.

The astounding thing is that he has done all of this openly and no one is listening. America is deaf. With the exception of Fox News and a few conservative commentators the main stream media has ignored most of his stunning policies.

There seems to be only one possible explanation for this drastic plunge in America. God has abandoned her. When America turned her back on God, and insulted Him by banning the Bible and prayer from the education system and the public arena, God has stepped back and turned America over to the fate of the wicked in Rom. 1:18-32. It appears that the sun has gone down on America.

 But the reverse is true in Asia. The work of missions here in SEA is unprecedented. The spirit of revival has burned intensely in eastern and parts of central China. The situation in western China has not yet caught fire but I have no doubt but what we will soon see millions saved there. Never in history has there been such an interest in missions in the Islamic world, and I fully believe we will soon see a revival there that will exceed anything previous on this planet.

Jesus is coming soon. The Gospel is progressing on its irresistible course westward. The Chinese brethren are totally committed to clearing out the 10-40 window and see the Good News of salvation complete its course back to Jerusalem. Far from being discouraged; these are the most exciting days in history, and it is our great privilege to be participants as the witnesses for Christ in this historic hour.

Gambarimasho (let’s let it all hang out and give it our best shot) for Jesus.

                                                     bill

Every Day is Resurrection Day

4 April 2010

Dear Phyllis,

It’s Resurrection Sunday again – the day in which the calendar reminds us of the bodily resurrection of our Lord Jesus. How many more Resurrection Sundays will there be until every eye will see Him (Rev. 1:7)? What an experience to be like Mary and fall at His feet! But until then perhaps will are consigned to be like the Emaus

disciples where “Jesus Himself drew near and went with them – but their eyes were holden…” (Lk. 24: 15, 16). Phillip could say to Jesus, “Show us the Father and it will suffice us. Jesus replied, "Have I been with thee so long and thou hast not known Me.” (Jn. 14:8, 9).

In like manner we might say, “Lord, oh that we might see You.” And have Him reply to us, “Have I been with you so long and you have not known Me?”

“Lord when did we see You?”

“I was hungered and you gave Me meat: I was thirsty and you gave Me drink…”

“Lord when did we do those things?”

“Inasmuch as ye have done this unto the least of My brethren, ye have done it unto Me.” (Mt. 25:35-40).

The Lord could say to Saul, “Why persecutest thou Me?” (Acts 9:4) How little we realize that Jesus Himself is in His brethren and what we do to those who compose His Body is actually being done to Jesus. In both cases – those in Matt. 25 and Saul in Acts 9 – the reality of Jesus being in His believers was so genuine that that which was done to believers was actually being done to Jesus Himself. How little we realize that Jesus is with us today. But still in all we want to look in the eyes of the resurrected Christ.

Several years ago a speaker came down from Tokyo to bring an Easter message to our fellowship in Kobe. I was talking to the brother the night before and ask, “What are you going to preach on concerning the resurrection tomorrow?” He replied, “Every day is Resurrection Day.” I don’t recall what he preached on only that I do remember that it was not about the resurrection. In like manner I prefer to not write some devotional about the resurrection today.

 Things are going slow but rather well at the gemba (job site) where I am building a house. My friend John, is a real perfectionist, and I like to keep my tolerances down to Angstroms. (1Angstrom is 1/250, 000, 000^th of an inch). We are doing extremely precise work. John knows very little about construction or wood but he is a magician with metal. If pigs ears were made out of metal, John is the kind of man who could make a silk purse out of a sows ear. We have a very good combination. He does miracles with metal and I know construction and wood. Together we are making a concrete house. And the Lord has provided some good Burmese workers to do the grunt work. I believe it can honestly be said that we are doing some unprecedented work in building this house.

Last Sunday I had the privilege of speaking at a Thai church. I like the pastor there very much. He is as good a pastor as I have ever met in the Orient. A month ago they were having a baptism for a couple who got saved through Scott’s Bible study. I simply went to be there when these two new believers were baptized. Pastor Getchkun stunned me when he asked me to help him with  the baptism. I don’t know a pastor in Japan who would do that. A year ago Pastor Getchkun asked me to speak at his church. I said I couldn’t do it in 30 minutes, so they gave me the entire morning. I stood up to speak at 9:30 and finished at 12:30. There was a break in between but that was stilt the longest I have ever spoken at one Sunday morning service. I am amazed that he invited me back. But I did much better this time. I kept my message down to 1 hour and 2 minutes. I apologized to the interpreter for being so long winded. She was kind in replying, “I know you have so much in your heart that you want to say.” That may not be an excuse for double length sermons, but it is true that there are an enormous amount of things that burn in my heart that I want to share with others.

When I stood up to speak last week I began by saying, “I do not have a sermon, but there are some things that I want to speak out of my heart.” I began by hammering on the point that there is a fundamental difference between religion and life. Jesus never came to start another religion. He came to give us LIFE (Jn. 10:10). This is a very major problem in Japan and I fear they have the same problem in Thailand. Many people think that the name of the game is religion and they don’t experience the life.

The Lord said a very important word in His prayer in John 17 when He said, “And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.” This is one of the truly unique features about those who are saved – they know the Lord. I called on a boy who was saved four months ago and asked, “Champ, do you know the Lord?” He beamed and replied, “Yes I do.” Again I asked, “Did you know the Lord six months ago?”

“No, I didn’t.”

That is an amazing phenomenon. All believers know the Lord. This is one of the four points in the New Covenant in Heb. 8:11 – “All shall know Me.” This is the main goal in life. Some might protest, “No, the main goal is to be a witness for Christ.” But I believe witnessing is a result rather than a cause. If someone truly knows the Lord, the overwhelm reality of that relationship will burn in their heart so intensely that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to remain silent. How can a person know the Lord and not tell others about Him?

My next point was to go to the Song of Solomon to tell the folks at that church how to know the Lord. Very clearly the S of S is the relationship of Jesus with His Bride. No other interpretation is possible. And in it we find the entire spectrum of the Christian life beginning with the first moment we are saved (S of S 1:2) to His second coming (S of S 8:14).

The S of S is undoubtedly the oddest book in the Bible. It uses such embarrassing language it is almost pornographic. It must be read spiritually. But in it we find the most basic principles of the Christian life. Being the book about our relationship with Jesus, it is natural that it would begin with instruction on how to know the Lord. There are five prayers and nine commands of Christ in the S of S. There is one more, but rather than a prayer, it is more simply an expression of a desire for the Lord.

One of the keys to reading the S of S spiritually is to consider the verb that is associated with the body part noun. That is the verb that goes with eyes is to see. The verb with ears is to hear. The verb with mouth is speak, etc. When verse 2 says “Let Him kiss me with the kisses of His mouth”, the spiritual meaning of that is a desire for the Lord to personally speak to me. Mouth is to speak and a kiss is a very personal word. But the essence of this verse is almost an inexpressible desire for a personal relationship with the Lord.

I told the folks that this is perhaps the most important thing in their life. How much desire do you have for the Lord? This – more than anything else – will determine how far you will go with the Lord. To illustrate this point I told the story of Sammy Morris.

 Sammy Morris was the little African boy who had an insatiable desire for the Holy Spirit. He bugged the missionary who told him about the Spirit of Christ that lives within us until she replied, “If

 You want to know more you will have to talk with the man who told me.” He asked, “Who was that?”

“Stephen Merritt.”

“Where does he live?”

“America.”

“Where is America?”

“The other side of the ocean.”

And so Sammy Morris walked to the ocean, got on a ship, and went to America to talk with Stephen Merritt. I have no explanation why, but as I was sharing the story of Sammy Morris I was so overcome by his desire for the Lord that for several minutes I was unable to speak

I had first heard the story of Sammy Morris from Joe Carroll 50 years ago. I had never read the book, but Scott had the book and loaned it to me. Oh my goodness! This past week I read that book for the first time. I was totally dissolved. What an astounding testimony! Jesus was so intensely visible that all I could do was weep. Oh, if only I had one tenth the passion for Jesus that possessed Sammy Morris.

 This is what it is all about. This is why Jesus came, died, and rose again – so that we might know the Father.

 Gomen nasai, Phyllis. This is not much of a Resurrection Sunday letter. But it’s real. Jesus is real. He is alive. He has sent His Spirit to be with us and to lead us to the Father. Perhaps if we knew Him better we might be more like Him.

Lord grant it – for Jesus sake.

                                                             bill