This
morning I was preaching at Kichikun's church. I really like that church. It is
very small, but Kichikun impresses me as one of the finest pastors I have ever
met. He certainly is the best I have met in Thailand
The
message I preached was as basic a message as I have ever given, and yet there
seemed to be considerable assistance by the Holy Spirit. I enlisted several in
the audience to help by acting. We physically enacted out the truths the Lord
was sharing with us.
I
began by telling a story of Al Schultz. Al had met a very fine Japanese sister,
and they wanted to get married. But the girl had an elderly father and other
responsibilities that made the decision for marriage difficult. He asked me to
counsel them. I took them back to Genesis 24 and told them their decision was
simple. It was just a matter of responding to the question posed to Rebekah in
Gen. 24:58 – “Wilt thou go with this man?” I told Sachiko that this was the
pivotal issue of her life. Depending on her response, everything in her future
hinged on that one basic question. If the answer was yes, then that settled all
the other issues in her life. Her father and her other responsibilities all
faded way. If she said yes, then she had only one responsibility for the rest
of her life – to obey and follow her husband. Some days later I heard that she
did say yes, and they have been happily married for the past 20 years.
A
friend had asked me if I was interested in meeting a lady who had had a dream
about meeting a man with cowboy boots. As a joke, I said I would be willing to
have a meal, but I could assure him that nothing would come of it. Neither one
of us were much impressed the first night. But as a courtesy I invited her to
come to a Bible study that coming Saturday night. After a couple of meetings, I
decided that there was no way
that hanashi (talk, discussion) was going to fly. We were too dissimilar. Amos
3:3 was the verse that came to both us us, and there was no way we could walk
together. Pammy was standing on the bank of a wide river and I was on the other
side. The only way that a relationship could develop was that she would have to
cross that river to walk with me. I told her that I was sure she really didn't
want to do that. She kept maintaining her willingness to cross to my side. But
I warned her, “If you do that, it will cost you your life. You will have to give
up everything in your life and future and have one responsibility of following
me.” To demonstrate that I had Pammy stand on one side of the room and I was on
the other. Then I had her walk over to join me. Again I warned everyone in the
room, “This is what is involved in being a Christian.” It is not a matter of
making a decision for Christ or going to church. The central issue is,”Have you
given up everything to follow Jesus?” We turned to Mk. 1O:17 and Mk. 2:14 and saw how this
was the invitation that Jesus gave to Simon and Andrew, and Levi. He simply
said,”Follow Me”; and they walked away for their fishing nests and tax table.
After
the first demonstration of having Pammy stand on the opposite side of the room
and then cross over to join me, I solicited Kichikun to be Jesus. I wanted to
give a visual demonstration of what it is to follow Jesus. We stood together in
the front of the room. I had him walk towards the door in the rear. When he
went in that direction, I walked the opposite way. I asked, “What is the first
requirement if you walk with some one?” Obviously, you have to be headed the
same direction. Then I asked, “What direction are you headed?” We turned to
Isa. 53:6 and read how “we all have turned everyone to his own way”. This is
the direction every child of Adam that has ever been born on this planet is
headed from birth. By nature we have a fanatical commitment to walk our own
way. But which way is Jesus headed? Jesus has only one pointer on His compass
of life. He is totally committed to doing the will of God. If anyone wants to
follow Jesus, they have got to be headed the same direction – and that is a
determination to do the will of God.
It is a strange phenomenon in Christianity that we give two invitations. The first invitation is to ask people to make a decision for Christ to accept Him as their savior. I am always bewildered why this is usually presented as if we were asking the people to be kind to God by accepting His offer of forgiveness of sin and salvation. Somehow we have made God the supplicant. “Won't you come forward and accept Christ?” My goodness there is something wrong with that picture! But then some years later we give another invitation, asking people to surrender their lives to Christ. This is something I have never done. I didn't know you were supposed to make a decision to surrender. When I gave my life to Christ, I thought the name of the game was to follow Him, and do the will of God. For 54 years this is the only thing I have done.
In
Japan Japan
I
told everyone, when I met Pammy, it wasn't a matter of whether she was cute or
I liked her. It was simply a matter of guidance. Was she one the Lord had sent
to me, or just another contract? If she truly was one sent by God to be my wife
then, I had the choice whether or not to obey the Lord in marrying her, or
refusing to do His will. If indeed the Lord has sent her, that meant He is also
responsible to make everything else work out.
The
next demonstration was to start out walking with Kichikun towards the rear of
the auditorium. Half way there, I stopped at a chair and he kept going. I told
how on our honeymoon, on Pee
Pee
Island
My
last demonstration was to have Kichikun walk slowly towards the back. I
followed him, but at a distance. By this I showed how it was possible to follow
Jesus at a distance. If we are really going to be good Christians we must walk
closely. How do we walk closely with Jesus? A major answer is time. The intense
ambition I have with Pammy is that, over the years, we will grow closer and
closer together. To do this it is imperative that we spend a great deal of
quality time together.
I
knew Japanese couple, several years ago, who had such a cold relationship that
for two years they never spoke one word to each other. It was like hell in that
home. They spoke to the children but never to each other. Then the wife got
saved. The next morning she fixed a good breakfast, and when her husband came
downstairs, he was greeted by a warm “Oyaiyo gozaimusu” (good morning). They
both were startled! But the Lord worked in their hearts so they began speaking
to each other again. Son of Sol. 2:14
says, “Let Me see your countenance, let Me hear your voice”. I have promised
the Lord that He will see my face and hear my voice every morning. If He wants
to see my face and hear my voice, who am I that I should deprive Him of that? I
told the Christians this morning that it is imperative that they spend as much
quality time as possible with the Lord everyday. This is one way of walking
closely.
But
then I warned them about subjective guidance. When we listen to subjective
internal spiritual impressions there is considerable danger. There are three
types of spirits. God is a Spirit. Angels and demons are spirits. And a man has
a spirit. You can get signals from all three sources. My opinion of many
Pentecostal services, where there is a great deal of tongues and prophecies,
most of that stuff is off the wall. I have heard of tons of prophecies that
never come true; and, somehow, no one ever seems to notice. In my own
experience, I find at least 50% of my spiritual impressions are wrong. Occasionally,
God does speak but you can easily get in deep trouble if you go too heavy into
subjective guidance.
And
finally, a person must have a teachable spirit. Tragically there are some
people that have their fingers struck in both ears. There is no way you can
tell them a thing. These people are on a trip. They think they are following
Jesus, but that is pure delusion. They may be doing their own thing in some
direction, but they certainly are not following Jesus.
We
had a good time this morning. Now we all have a shot to walk one more week
following Jesus. It is an enormous privilege and a lot of fun.
bill
