Evangelism

25 September 2011

 Dear Phyllis,

About a month ago, Pastor Bayun of the New Creation Church asked me to teach a 10 weeks course on evangelism in his Bible school. I told him I would be glad to teach on any other subject, but the topic of evangelism is one that I know very little about. Had he asked me 40 years ago I would have been delighted as I was an authority on that subject then. I taught a course in soul winning in the Karuizawa Bible school 50 years ago, but since then I have discovered how little I know. When I was young I knew a great deal, but the older I get the less I know. I doubt that anyone else will get much out of my course in Bayun's Bible school but it should be a great help to me.

So far I have spent three weeks on the subject of Why evangelize, and I still haven't gotten to the main point. Hopefully next week I might be able to get on that subject.

The reason I feel so strongly about this subject is that I fear the driving engine for a great deal of evangelism is for the wrong reason. One reason for evangelism, that is very thinly disguised in many churches, is to make the churches bigger. Any pastor wants to be successful, and the index of success is how big his church is. Needless to say this is not a very spiritual or noble motivation, but, frankly speaking, it is a very major engine in encouraging believers to visit and witness.

A slightly more noble motivation is that unbelievers are kawaiso (in bad shape). Evangelists make strong appeals describing the horror of hell and the terrible fate awaiting unbelievers at the end of the road. It would be less than Christian, or even human, to stand by idly and watch friends and family fall into the flaming pit from which there is no exit. Humane instincts should be a strong incentive to drive Christian to do everything possible to save people from that horrible fate. But when looked at that objectively, we must admit that this is fundamentally humanism. This is the same heart-pull that moves us to be concerned for starving children in Africa, or the terrible poverty of Calcutta. This was the driving force of Mother Teresa. She saw the hundreds of street people in Calcutta dying like poisoned rats on the streets, and felt that every human deserved to die with a measure of dignity. Her whole purpose was totally humanism. And this motivation is not totally restricted to Christianity. It is hard to speak against hospice, but I suspect that majority of people involved in hospice care are not saved Christians, and they themselves do not have any answer to what is on the other side of death. Their ministry is exclusively on this side of a flat line on a cardiograph.

As compassionate as that is, it is significant that Jesus never thought or taught that motivation. His purpose was different from just keeping souls out of hell. To try to establish what was the driving force of Christ's life I believe a strong indicator of that would be what He taught about prayer.

I had been saved at least 15 years when I was reading Luke 11 one night. Verse 1 says, “As He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him,'Lord teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples'.” When I read that, my heart leaped. Man howdy, that resonated with me! That was exactly what was in my heart. What a privilege to have Jesus teach us how to pray! But what I read in the next verse stunned me. Reading between the lines, Jesus might have said, “Look, I already taught you one time, but, in case you didn't understand let me tell you again.” Then he said, “When ye pray say ...” I was shocked! He repeated the same prayer He had taught a year and a half previously in the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 6:9-13). Because of the perverse liturgical way the Lord's Prayer is used in 90% of Christian churches I had always despised it. But when I saw it in Luke 11:2-4. I thought, “Oh my goodness, this is important!” That kicked off an intense study of the Lord's Prayer that transformed my life.

The reason I despised it so much was because it is mechanically repeated in countless liberal and dead churches every Sunday morning, and it doesn't mean a cotton picking thing. It is just plain empty religion. It is the Protestant version of the Catholic “Hail Mary full of grace”. And how in the world can you honestly pray “Give us this day our daily bread” when the refrigerator is so slam full you can hardly close the door. I don't know anyone who doesn't have several days supply of food – or certainly sufficient money – stored up to keep going for weeks.

I feel it is highly significant that Jesus never said this prayer once. And it is not recorded that anyone in the NT ever said that prayer one time.

The Lord's Prayer is divided into two parts. There are the three “Thys” and the three “Us-es”. Thy Name, Kingdom, and Thy will; and give us, forgive us; and deliver us.

The main point is that the Thys precede the us-es. It is safe to say that the most dominant issue in the heart of Christ was the honor of His Father. His life was totally absorbed in the three Thys. Why did Christ come? To save us from hell? Tonde mo nai! (I don 't know how to say that in English but that is the the only cry that comes to my heart. It is something like– it will never happen, or God forbid!) Jesus didn't come because sinners were kawaiso (in bad shape). Jesus didn't come to provide fire insurance salvation. He came to do the will of God. And what was that? Humanity had been hijacked by the devil. Men that were created in the image of God were totally depraved and grossly dishonoring the Father. What was the solution? They must be brought again into the Kingdom of God – or the government of God. Or rather it was necessary to bring the Kingdom of God to the hearts of sinners. This is what happens when someone is saved. The Kingdom of God becomes resident within the believers heart. That is His government is operative in their life. They quit living for self and sin. They now live to do the will of God. Jesus becomes the dominant force in their lives. The whole purpose of salvation is not to keep sinners out of hell, but to establish God's Kingdom in their heart.

 Tragically this driving passion that characterized Jesus is seldom mentioned in Christianity today. Jesus told us the main point when we pray was to have an obsession for the honor and glory of God. That is why He said, “When you pray say,“Father hollowed be Thy Name!” This issue is almost totally ignored in our prayer meetings. What is the dominant concern in our prayer meetings? Somebody is sick. Somebody has financial needs. Somebody is in trouble. Somebody needs to be saved. Where is the concern for the glory of God? The only time I ever hear anyone praying for the honor of the Father, the promotion of His Kingdom, and the execution of His will is when people stand in church and mechanically mouth the Lord's Prayer on Sunday morning' But that is the last thing they are concerned about.

One of the rare glimpses we get inside the heart of Jesus was what He said in John 12:27,28 – “Now is My soul trouble; and what shall I say? Father save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father glorify Thy Name.”That is the driving factor in the heart of Christ. That is praying the Lord's prayer. In that famous prayer of Jesus in John 17 we see the first thing that came out of Christ's mouth was, “Father, the hour has come: glorify Thy Son that Thy Son may glorify Thee.” That is praying the Lord's prayer.

 In my personal devotions, as I am concerned about various problems, I try to hammer the central point,“Lord, hollowed be Thy Name, Lord, Your Name is being dishonored here. Lord, You have got to work that Your Name be glorified.”Sometimes I can't get past that point. The solution to most problems is for the government of God to become operative in those areas where His Name is being dishonored. And the bottom line is that the will of God is done.

This is the whole point of evangelism. This is what we are praying for, and this is what we are working towards. As noble as it is to have compassion and concern for lost souls, the main point isn't that they need to be saved so they can quit drinking or living a bad life. And it isn't to keep them out of the flames which wold be the righteous consequence for their sin. But the point is that the Father is being dishonored in that unsaved person. Jesus came to turn that around and the salvation from sin needs to be made a reality in that sinners life.

There is another motivation that is extremely powerful. In 1736 there was a wealthy man who owned 3,000 black slaves on St. Thomas Island in the Caribbean. He vowed that the Gospel would never be preached on that island. There were two Moravian young men who felt called of God to carry the Gospel to those slaves who had no chance of being saved. The only way these men could get on that island was to sell themselves as slaves to that salve owner. He was so wicked that he wouldn't even provide the means of transportation to get there, and they had the use the money they got from selling themselves to him to pay their passage. A group of family and friends gathered at the dock to see these young men off on a mission that they all knew they would never return from. This was one way. As the ship pulled away to sail out in the harbor one of the young men called out across the water to the weeping crowd, “May the Lamb receive the reward of His sufferings!” That famous remark became the rallying cry of the Moravian revival for the next one hundred years. Thousands of Moravian missionaries went out at tremendous cost to “Win for the Lamb the reward of His sufferings.” That is a message that has almost been totally forgotten in modern evangelism.

 It is tragic that the emphasis for evangelism and Christian living has been placed almost entirely on the needs of the sinner or saint. But where is passion for the honor of the Father? Jesus came to undo the damage done in the Garden when the devil hijacked humanity and to bring humanity back the Father. The focus is placed on the purpose and honor of God – not the needs of the sinner. And the Christian life should be lived under the same spot light.

It was a costly thing that the Father did when He sent His Son to shed His Blood to delivers sinners. And it was an unthinkable sacrifice that Jesus paid for our salvation. Surly He deserves the reward for that sacrifice. Oh that that would grip our hearts and we would be willing to lay done our lives, and pay any price to see that the Lamb receives the reward of His suffering. How can we remain silent? How can we remain indifferent and still call ourselves followers of the Lamb?

 I don't know if I will be able to get this point across to the few students in Pastor Bayun's Bible school. But before we talk about how to evangelize, I feel it is vital to get the motivation set forth first. If the Holy Spirit is able to get that point across to us, perhaps that might motivate us see a few people brought to Christ, and see His Kingdom extended here in northern Thailand.

When you speak with Jesus this week, you might mention to Him that He has a very needy, inadequate, servant trying to lift up His flag in Chiang Mai.

Arigato (thank you),

bill

Loas Adventure

8 September 2011

 Dear Phyllis,

Recently we have been working with a very unusual lady from Laos who is a close friend of Pammy's. Keosiri was fascinated by some of my Laos adventures and asked me to write some of these stories. There are two that I probably have written you before but but I will try to put them down again.

I had been in Laos three times but I had zero contacts in that country. I didn't know one Christian or know where there was one church. One night I was up in Luang Prabang, which is probably the number one tourist spot in Laos. I was in a little hole in the wall restaurant having supper by myself, when a backpacker walked in., He came over to my table and asked, “May I join you?” In my travels, I had met a lot of backpackers, but I had never met a Christian. I didn't feel too spiritual but wound up giving nearly a one hour testimony on how I got saved. He was a very unusual quiet man. He gave no indication where he stood with the Lord, and said almost nothing. But as I was sharing my testimony I kept asking him if he knew various Christian words and experience. The only indication that I got where he stood was that he knew too much. When I finished I said, “Alright, it is your turn. When did you get saved?”

He was a secret missionary. I asked,“Do you know this country?”

“Yes.”

“Let's get out of here where we can talk.”

As we were walking the dark streets of Luang Prabang at 9:00 o'clock at night, I asked, “Alright, please tell me where are the churches and Christians.”

He checked me out in Laos. He told me where to go and where the Christians were. We had been talking for over two hours, and when we parted I stuck my hand out to shake hands and said, “My name is Bill Cook. What is your name?” He replied,“Names are not important.” (Gen. 32:29). I never saw him again, or met anyone who had ever heard of him. I went where he told me to go, but I am 99% sure that he did not have a mother or father. That was not a man but an angel I was talking to that night.

In the early days when I first started working in Laos I had a great desire to go to the Plain of Jars, which is a very famous place in Laos. I had read about it many years ago in National Geographic. I asked around and was told it was illegal for foreigners to take a bus up there. The only way in was to fly, but that was very expensive. I went to the bus terminal in Vientiane and asked for a ticket to Xieng Khuang.

The next morning I got on a bus at 6:00 AM and rode forever. It was a very old bus and frequently had breakdowns. At 11:00 o'clock that night we pulled in a field and everyone got off. Obviously we were stopping for the night. I didn't want to loose my seat, so I left my backpack on the bus. There were little bamboo huts to sleep in; so I paid 30 B for a place to lay down. No one spoke English, and I couldn't even communicate with my fingers. I had no idea when the bus was leaving the next morning, and was very concerned that I not miss that bus. Around 3:00 AM there were several people walking around outside, so I got up and asked again what time the bus was leaving. It seemed like they said “6:00 o'clock”. I got up again at 5:00. It was pitch black, but there were three buses sitting in the field, and I wanted to check to see which one was mine. I looked at all three, but my bus wasn't there.

An hour later they put up a table to sell tickets, and I asked what time the bus would be leaving for Xieng Khuang. They said, “The next day.”

PANIC TIME! BIG TIME!”

I was terror struck! Here I was in northern Laos standing in a field with no idea where I was. My bus was gone with my backpack. You talk about a bad feeling; now there is one for you. I asked, “Is the any other way to get to Xieng Khuang?” They said I could take a plane. I didn't think there was an airport within 200km. I asked, “How do you get to the airport?”And they told me I could get there by motor bike. A young boy was there so I gave him 20 B and got on the back of his bike. It was just breaking dawn when I looked up and saw the sign, “Luang Prabang Airport”. My goodness, I was in Luang Prabang and didn't know it.

I had to wait two hours before the airlines opened up, and I tried to get a ticket to Xieng Khuang. At first they said there were no seats, but later there said there was one seat open. I was delighted to be on that plane, but my main concern was to get my backpack back.

When we landed at Xieng Khuang, there were several tour guides vying for the passengers patronage. One fellow had an open face that I immediately was attracted to. I asked him, “Do you speak English?” Reasonably good. I told him my main predicament was to find my backpack and I would give him$10 if he could find it for me. That was a lot of money – almost a months wages for him. Another fellow was more aggressive, and most of the passengers went for him. Somehow I didn't like him. Naturally speaking, I should have gone with him like the rest of the crowd, which would have been considerably cheaper, but that guy was just too greasy. It was a lot of money to hire a guide all by myself, but I preferred the open fellow.

I had been told that all tour guides in Vietnam and Laos had to be members of the Communist Party and all of them were very dangerous. I had been told never to tell a guide that I was a Christian or speak to them about the Lord. That was a sure way to get in troubled with the police. But as we were walking around the Plain of Jar looking at the historic huge vases sitting in the fields, Sang was saying a lot of things he shouldn't. He was quite anti-government and wasn't careful about his criticism . This encouraged me to talk more openly about the war in Laos. He told me that his father had been a soldier with Van Pao, the famous Hmong general. I asked him if I could meet his father. I also asked himself he was a Christian. He told me that he wasn't, but there were a large number of Christians in his village.

That afternoon he took me to his village, which was the largest Hmong village in Laos. Technically, that was illegal but Sang was willing to stick his neck out. As we were waking around his village, suddenly I stopped in front of a fairly large bamboo building and looked up to see a bamboo cross. I thought, “Oh my goodness; I am standing in front of a Hmong church.” Of course gaijins (foreigners) were a very rare sight, and soon a large crowd of people began to gather. Sang's Christian vocabulary was very limited. He didn't know the word “pastor” but I asked him who was in charge. One man stepped forward. I had no idea what kind of Christian they were and there was no way to talk doctrine. Finally I asked them to sing a song for me. About 20 people began to sing, “Come Thou fount of every blessing , tune my heart to sing Thy praise”. He sure did! When I heard that familiar hymn my heart nearly burst. I had found them! They were my people! They were the real Hmong Christians in northern Laos.

I asked the pastor if they had any Bibles. He said they had four. Only four Bibles in that area northern Laos. I asked the pastor to show me one. They were the same ones that we were distributing. I asked him how he got them. He said an American had brought those Bibles to them four years ago. Would they like some more? What a stupid question! That was like asking a starving man if he would like a meal.

I turned to my tour guide, Sang, and asked, “Do you have a drivers license?”

“No”

“What would one cost?”

“One hundred dollars.”

Neil Verwey had given me $100 before I left Japan. I reached in my pocket and handed that $100 bill to Sang. I told him, “You are going to get baptized in this church, get a drivers license, and drive us all over northern Laos distributing Bibles.”

I went to the bus terminal several times that day, but my bus wasn't there. I spent the night in Xieng Khuang. Before I left I decided to try one more time. To my utter astonishment the bus was there and my backpack was still on it! The driver told me that they had looked all over for me, but when they couldn't find me they came on, and the backpack was still there. Now there is a miracle for you! And I gave Sang the $10 that I promised him.

A week later I got back to Chiang Mai and told Mark what had happened. He couldn't believe it! He said they had been praying for four years, asking the Lord to open up a route to get Bibles into northern Laos. This was the first break they had had. It was an enormous answer to prayer.

Three months later I was back on Chiang Mai, and had the privilege of leading the first team taking a large consignment of Bibles to that church. In the subsequent years that was the main route to meet the needs of Christians in that part of SEA. Many teams have gone there taking thousands of Bibles to waiting souls.

That was 12 years ago. Much has changed since then. There was a very foolish team that went up there one time while I was in Japan. They were rank amateurs and made a serious mistake. Through that error, the contact person was arrested, and that more or less closed things down on that route.

I heard that a very fine missionary was living in that town now. Two years ago, I was back in Laos and rented a motor bike to ride to northern Laos. While up there, I visited the resident missionary asking him about the situation there now. He said to the best of his knowledge that area was adequately covered. He had his own ways of getting what Bibles he needed and said he had more in his house at the time than they could use. That is good news.

It was 13 years ago that I first boarded a plane in Tokyo to go to SE A with zero contacts. I planed to walk th streets of Saigon and trust the Lord to lead me to someone. What has happened since then has substantially gone beyond my wildest imagination. I hadn't been in Bangkok three days before the Lord miraculously led me to Mark. It was through Mark that I was introduced to the underground church in Vietnam. But the work in Laos has been different. Most of that has been the direct miraculous guidance of the Lord doing things that are beyond human achievement. I believe the encounter I had that night in Luang Prabang was with an angel. And the opening up the route in Xieng Khuang came as a result of that terrifying experience of losing my backpack on the bus. It is nice to tell stories like this afterwards, but it sure was uncomfortable at the time. The only thing I can say is that we don't experience Jesus undergirding arms until we get out in water that is over ankle deep. It isn't until you get where you can't touch bottom, then Jesus steps forward to hold you up.

What an awesome privilege to follow Him.

bill

The Four Questions

Dear Phyllis,

I had an interesting meeting with Gary last Wednesday. In our time of fellowship, I shared with him my Psalm 27:4 testimony. He asked me to write it up again. I am sure I have shared this with you before, but at the expense of being redundant I will try to reconstruct this again.

In 1962 I heard Joe Carroll bring a tremendous message on Ps. 27-4 – “One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life; to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His temple.” Joe brought out that this was the secret of David. As multi-gifted as he was, David said there was really only ONE THING that he was after. And he was going to devote his life in pursuit of that. Jesus somewhat underscored this truth when He said to Martha, “ONE THING is needful. Mary has chosen that good part” (Lk. 10:42). That was one of the greatest messages I ever heard, and I decided to make that my life verse. For the next several years, if anyone ever asked me to sign their Bible, I would always sign, “Bill Cook Ps. 27:4”. And it was my great joy to preach several outstanding messages on Ps. 27:4. Until I came to the end of life's road.

When Rosemary left me, and my life collapsed in 1990, I went wild. For the next two years I was totally obsessed with a desperate battle to save my marriage and family. I tried to pray the horns off a brass billy goat. It seemed that God had changed sides. He gave Rosemary everything she asked for, for the destruction of the family, and gave me nothing for our salvation. When I hit the bottom, the Lord spoke to me a very surprising word. He said, “You have been talking about Ps. 27:4 for 30 years, but you have never practiced it.” David said the one thing he desired of the Lord was to dwell the house of the Lord to behold the beauty of the Lord; and that was the last thing I was after. My one thing was the salvation of my family. Finally I said, “All right, I quit. I will stop praying for the salvation of my family, and devote myself to the one thing that David was after.”

The next morning I got up early, got a cup of coffee, and sat down before the Lord. I said, “Lord, I am not going to pray about a thing, but just sit here for an hour and do nothing but bask in your beauty.” I had been doing this for a month when I was talking to a sister at church one Sunday, and challenged her to try it. I said, “Set 15 minutes aside every morning; don't pray about a thing, but just sit there and behold the beauty of the Lord. Then come back next week and tell me what you saw.” The next week I said, “What did you see?" She said, “I did what you told me, but I didn't see a thing.” I replied, “Neither did I.”

Man howdy, did that raise some serious questions! For the next several weeks I was desperately engaged trying to find the answers to four question.

1.      Are you supposed to see something?

2.      What are you supposed to see?

3.      How do you see it?

4.      If you don't see anything – why?

I asked a dozen different people and got a dozen different answers. No one knew if you were supposed to see something. And if so, what?

The Lord started at the tail and began to explain the answers to my questions. The answer to the fourth question was fairly easy. If you don't see anything – why? Poor eye sight. The Lord showed me how blind I was. But He also told me that He had some medicine that would cure poor eye sight (Rev. 3:18). I told the Lord, “If You are serious about selling some medicine, You can put me down as a serious customer. Tell me the price of this medicine, and I will pay it.”

When I asked the Lord the price for His eye medicine, He told me very clearly that the first price was TIME. It is impossible to have 20-20 spiritual vision unless you are willing to spend a great deal of time quietly waiting on the Lord. You don't get this by having five minute devotions reading Daily Bread at the breakfast table.

AW Tozer was one of the greatest men of God in the 20^th century. Tozer's books are classics, and his sermons were unique. He was a man of God who spent a tremendous amount of time in prayer, worshiping the Lord. One time my dear friend Joe Carroll was sharing a conference with Tozer at Fort Wayne Bible school. They wanted Tozer to preach twice a day and counsel. He said, “I can't do it. I don't have that kind of time.” So Joe did the counseling. Joe said the kids were lined up down the hall coming in for counseling scared silly. I asked Joe, “What in the world was Tozer preaching about?”

“God.”

“God?! What could he get out of that?”

Joe quoted a verse from Exodus when the Lord came down on Sinai, and the entire mountain was a blaze of fire. And Moses went up into that burning fire and lived. Oh my goodness! I never thought of that. Tozer knew God like few men of his day. He shared with us what he saw. But he got that from spending many hours each day before the Lord.

Gary surprised me very much Wednesday when he challenged me on this point. He asked, “Where in the Bible does it say that it takes so much time?” I showed Gary how Moses went up Sinai to meet with the Lord. The Bible says “and the seventh day He called unto Moses” (Ex. 24:16). I don't know why God didn't speak to Moses on the first day, but he waited in silence for seven days before the Lord spoke to him. Joe Carroll suggested,“Perhaps it took that long for the Lord to settle Moses down.”And in the gospels we see where Jesus spent a great deal of time in prayer with His Father. If it was necessary for Jesus to spend so much time in prayer, what does that say to us?

Another thing that the Lord told me was part of the price for this eye medicine was to clean my mind out of too much junk. You can't get spiritual vision with your mind full of all sorts of extraneous thoughts. It is impossible to get all that stuff out of your mind, but you can cut down on it.

Working from the back going forward, the Lord began to show me how to behold the beauty of the Lord. The third point was How to see. This one also surprised me. He showed me that there is a fundamental difference between imagination and spiritual revelation. Previously in my preaching, I told people,“If you want to see the beauty of the Lord, you just imagine Jesus sitting on the Throne and all the angels worshiping before Him.”Wrong! If you use imagination you shut the door on the Holy Spirit making it impossible for Him to reveal anything to you. Imagination is totally internal. It is soulish. It is my mind. Revelation is external. It comes from the outside, by the Holy Spirit. Andrew Murray said the mind must function as the servant – not the master. The mind must wait on the spirit. The Holy Spirit reveals spiritual truth to us to our spirit (1 Cor. 2:10-14). Then our spirit transmits this to our mind. There is a difference between light and knowledge. Knowledge can be stored. Light can only be seen. That is why sometimes we see things that we can't put into words. When light is converted to words, then it become knowledge

Passivity can be a little dangerous as the devil can also come in on this frequency. This is one way of communicating with the spirit world. We must be a little cautious, but it only as we wait on the Lord allowing the Holy Spirit to take the things of Christ and reveal them unto us that we will see anything. It is a huge mistake to think that we can get spiritual revelation by studying a lot of books. Pulpits are full of pastors who have heads as big as beach balls and hearts as small as peas. They have a lot of knowledge but they have seen very little.

It has been said that the difference between the prophet and the scribe is that the prophets enters beyond the vial into the the Holy of Holies, and comes out to tell us what he has seen. The scribe enters into his study, and comes out to tell us what he has read. The flavor is slam different. One is the reality of Person of Christ, and the other is mans thoughts about religion.

The next point of What are you supposed to see? Also surprised me. That was a big question. What is the beauty of the Lord? I used to think it was something external.

Todd Bentley is a highly spiritual man. He is a man who sees a lot of angels. He says this is the way to raise money. He claims to have had many celestial visitations. Paul said he knew a man14 years previous who was caught up into heaven and saw things that were impossible to describe (2 Cor. 12:2-4). Todd Bentley says he has had many such experiences. (Bob Jones says he visits heaven everyday.) Bentley says he has talked with Abraham and Paul. He has seen Jesus and the Father. He said Jesus was handsome. He has a massive chest and 36 inch biceps. Really? This sounds much different than what John saw when he saw the Lamb as it had been slain (Rev. 5:6). I used to think this was the beauty of the Lord. I used to think we should imagine this beautiful Being sitting on the Throne and marvel at the beauty of the Lord.

Isa. 53:2 says of Jesus that there was“no beauty that we should desire Him”.

What then is the beauty of the Lord?It is His heart. It is His character. This is the beauty of the Lord. When I saw that, it changed my whole attitude towards Ps. 27:4. I began to reread the gospels looking at the character of Christ. As I began to see more of Jesus' heart, my heart began to be filled with the beauty of the Lord. When I got to that I knew the answer to the questions that plagued me why I didn't see anything.

Are you supposed to see anything?Man howdy – YES. But what are you supposed to see? The beauty of Jesus is His heart. As I began to spend serious time quietly waiting before the Lord allowing the Holy Spirit to show these things to me, my life began to change. The stuff that was driving me nuts began to fade away. Instead of being problem consumed, I began to be more filled with Christ.

In 2 Cor. 3:18 we see that the spiritual law of transformation is by beholding – “we all...beholding...are changed.” It is true that anyone become what they are obsessed with. A person who is after money has $ signs in his eyes. A person obsessed with sex has lewd eyes. A person who spends a tremendous amount of time with the Lord, consumed with the beauty of the Lord, will be Christ-like. Before the Lord got hold of me, if anyone heard me speak for more than two minutes, they got an ear full of my problems. But after Christ began to fill my vision, Jesus began to fill the landscape.

I can't say that my life has been totally devoted to pursuing this ONE THING, but from time to time I have to remind myself that this is really the main point and spend more time beholding His beauty. That was a major event when the Lord finally was able to pin me hard enough that He could teach me one of the greatest lessons of my life. The value of that made the agony of all that went before it well worth while. I think we all could profit if we took David's advice and followed his one thing more.

Have a good week, looking unto Jesus,

bill