Horizonal/Vertical Relationships

27 November 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I believe in our human experience there is nothing more important than the marriage relationship. When I say, our human experience, I am referring to horizontal relationships. This, of course, excludes our vertical relationship with God. There is nothing more important than our relationship with the Lord. But on the horizontal level, I believe the marriage relationship is number one. And the reason for this is that God has instituted this relationship to show us what He desires our connection to Him be like. The very fact that the church is called the Bride of Christ should amply prove that. When Paul explained the respective responsibilities each member of the family has with each other in Ephesians, he paused briefly to inert, “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church” (Eph. 5:32).

When God made the wiring diagram for a human, He put the sex drive as an area to have very high voltage. Sigman Fraud thought this was the most basic drive in the human psych and virtually all human functions revolved around it. Whether he was right or not may be academic, but there is no question that in advertising and entertainment sex appeal is an incredibly dominant factor. Unquestionably, anyone must agree that the hormonal attraction between male and female is an extremely powerful element. Obviously the reason for this is that God intends that there be the strongest possible bond between man and wife. To restrict this magnetism to a singular relationship, it was necessary for God to make the 7^th commandment one of the Ten commandments. (Thou shalt not commit adultery.) Any violation or perversion of this commandment is a serious violation of God's intended purpose. This was serious enough that, in the OT, the Bible clearly sates that adultery – or any sexual perversion – was a capital offense to be punished by death (Deut. 22:22 and dozens of others). I don't believe God has changed His mind and that sentence still stands. Rom. 3:23 says that “the wages of sin is death” and I believe the sentence for sexual immorality is still serious enough to send people to hell.

The marriage relationship is very simple. There are just two words that describes the respective partners responsibility. For a husband the command is LOVE. For the wife her responsibility is SUBMIT (Eph 5:22, 25). The expression of the husbands love for his wife is that she is #1. Her needs are more important than his, and he must be willing to give his life for her sake. (Jesus did that for us.) The expression of the wife's submission is genuine obedience. It is impossible for a husband to be a genuine follower of Christ if he doesn't love his wife in the deepest sense of the word. And it is impossible for a woman to say she is an obedient follower of Christ and still be defiant to her husband.

This biblical truth is clearly expressed in all Christian marriages. It is the wedding vow that makes the wedding. Without the wedding vow you just have two people living together. It is impossible for a marriage to fail if both partners fulfill their vow before God. And it is impossible for a marriage to be successful unless both partners fulfill their wedding vow. Because this is a fact, I say marriage is simple. Just do what you said you would do.

I am astounded at the complexity of marriage and the unbiblical STUPID counsel given in most marriage counseling. One thing that should be blatantly clear is that the basis of marriage IS NOT LOVE in the romantic sense of the word. Anyone who thinks that this is the basis of marriage is living in the land of delusion. There is only one thing that holds a marriage together – THE WILL OF GOD. One time I told a counselor, “I love my wife because it is the will of God.” He was startled and alarmed.

In my former many years of going to marriage counselors and psychologists I found that any concept of doing the will of God was something totally foreign to them. The will of God simply did not exist in their mentality. One hundred percent of their philosophy was encompassed within the scope of human need and human solution. The fact that God might be involved in the equation simply didn't enter their mind. If they were a Christian, of course, God was someone to call upon for help to get out of distress. But the suggestion that God might be central to everything was foreign in their thinking to the point of being alarming.

As I read the life of Christ, I see that everything He did revolved around doing the will of the Father. Quoting from a messianic prophecy in the OT, the writer of Hebrews summed up the life of Christ with the statement, “Lo I come to do Thy will O God” (Heb. 10:9). Time and again Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself... I can of Myself to do nothing...I seek not My own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me” (J. 5:19, 30). There was absolutely nothing in Jesus as an autonomous individual doing His own thing. In the Gospel of John Jesus uses the word SENT 32 times. He was a Man who was supremely aware that He was sent by the Father and that His activity was entirely limited to doing the will of the Father.

I might be wrong, but it seems to me that there is an enormous amount of Christian activity by earnest Christians doing things, in the name of serving God. The question might be raised, is it wrong to do things to serve the Lord? I see there is a difference between doing things and obeying Godto accomplish His will. Doing things can be totally autonomous. It is just the individual on a task. But doing the will of God brings God into the picture. There is only one person in doing things, but there are two persons in performing the will of God. It is God who gives the command and the believer who does His will.

Many years ago my friend Bil Schack was at a home meeting when suddenly a lady began to manifest demonization. There was a young man there who was a self-appointed authority on deliverance. He immediately rushed forward to cast the demons out. He knew all about it and he was going to fix the woman. Nothing happened. The Lord spoke to Bill and told him that He wanted Bill to cast out the demon. Bill said, “No way”, and went out in the kitchen. This happened three times, and three times Bill went out to the kitchen. Finally the conviction was so strong that Bill had no option but he must obey God. By this time the dai sensei (great teacher) of deliverance had worn himself out shouting at the demon who wouldn't budge. He was delighted to have a rest and let someone else try. Bill firmly spoke to the demon in the Name of the Lord. She was immediately delivered. What was the difference? One was a man who thought he knew everything and he could do it. The second was a man who was obeying God. One was doing his own thing and the other was doing the will of God..

This is especially imperative in team work. On a football team each man has an assignment. There is only one man who calls the play. Everyman must do his assignment according to the play. It is usually safe to say that the job of a lineman is to push the man in front of him out of the way. But a lineman can't just think independently. When he faces the man in front of him, he can't just say, “I'm going to deck that dude.” That may not be the play. The play may be for him to pull out and go the other way. You can't have 11 men on a team each one thinking independently, and doing his own thing. He must obey the will of the guy who is calling the signals.

In a military function team work and obedience is imperative. If you have a squadron of aircraft flying formation, it is unthinkable that a pilot would be any place other than where he was assigned. If he is supposed to fly right wing, he better stay in position flying right wing. He can't be all over the sky any place where he wants to go. During an attack every man must stay in his position and obey the assignment. If they don't, there might be a mid-air collision or something bad happen.

I see very little of this in Christian service. I see an enormous amount of earnest workers doing their thing. The centrality and preeminence of doing the will of God does not seem to be a factor. Everything seems to be Christians very much in charge and hoping God will back them up and cooperate with them to be the fuel in the bulldozer to provide the power as they do the driving.

AW Tozer wrote an interesting booklet on Tom Hair the Praying Plumber of Lisbon. Tom Hair was indeed an amazing man. He had a very unique walk with the Lord and was a man of prayer like the world has seldom seen. Tozer told of several astounding miracles in answer to Tom's prayer. But he said the basis of his faith was a revealed will of God. In any given situation the first thing that Tom did was to determine what the Lord wanted to do about it. Once he was sure he knew the mind of the Lord, nothing could deter him in standing by faith until his prayer was answered. But until he knew what the Lord wanted to do he was a powerless as any man in the dark. There was on incident where an outstanding missionary had returned home from Africa sick. Someone wrote Tom asking him to pray for the man's recovery. After several weeks of earnest prayer, Tom wrote back and said, “I have no idea why, but the only thing I can get is that God has some special reason why He wants this man in heaven. I believe he is going to die.” He did. Tom Hair would be very much out of place in today's Christian scene. According to some theology it is always the will of God for everyone to be healed. If we just pray enough and believe hard enough we can accomplish whatever we set our minds to.

It is not true to say that no one thinks in turn of the will of God. Occasionally we hear someone to say, “God told me...” But then we must plug in x amount of prayer and positive confession to see the key to the lock work. And if it doesn't come to pass, then we hear that we didn't pray enough or that God changed His mind. Proverbs 30:5, 6 says,“Every word of God is pure... Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee and thou be found a liar,” I fear a great deal of this“God has told me...” is an attempt to put words in God's mouth and hope He will cooperate in doing what we say. And there is not a little of this “God has told me...” that is in direct opposition to the written Word of God. I have a problem with that. I knew a lady who was attempting to leave her husband. She wanted to make sure she was doing the will of God. So she was planning to go to the states and contact her lover in Japan. If God worked in his heart to come to the states to be with her then she would know that she was following the Lord in divorcing her husband and marrying the other man.

This independent spirit is incontestably a renunciation of the wedding vow. The solemn vow to “love cherish and obey ...until death do we part” has been replaced by, “Hang you ,Jack! You can stuff it. I'm out of here!” This has produced the inevitable destruction of the marriage institution and is causing the disintegration of society.

And it has produced a religion that may well terminate in the scene Jesus described in Matt. 7:22, 23 where the startled believer says, “Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name? And in Thy Name cast out demons? And in Thy Name done many wonderful works?” And then will I profess unto them I never knew you. Depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.”

A vow before God is a serious matter and following the Lord is grim business. May God help us.

bill

Going to Chiangmai

20 November 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I have found my journey to heaven has been many miles of daily plodding along a fairly straight path punctuated by a few major mile-markers and turns in the road. It appears that we have come to one of those major moments this past week.

Fourteen years ago I boarded a plane in Tokyo to go to Vietnam on what I thought was a one way trip. While in Bangkok waiting for a visa to Vietnam, I met a man who told me the man I needed to meet lived in Chiang Mai. It was through that word of advice that I first met Mark. Basically we have been working together ever since.

When I was terminated at NLL in 2003, I had no income or any place to live. Mark let me live in a room of a house he was renting for a Bible warehouse. This has been my home for the past eight years.

Last week Mark told me that he had signed a contract on a new home for himself about 30km from here and was closing down everything in this part of town. He has offered this house to me, and said he would speak to the house owner to see about having the rental contract changed to my name. Inasmuch as this house has basically been Mark's warehouse, he has always covered the expense. This has allowed me to live extremely low budget. But with the weight of that coming this way it is somewhat of an open question whether or not we can afford to live here. The rent has been extremely reasonable, but it has not been changed in ten years. If the owner does not raise the rent from what it is now we might be able to manage to pay it, but if it goes too high, that will mean a move to some other location.

If we stay here, I have my shop, and can continue to minister as we have for the past year. My primary purpose for coming to SEA was to engage in Bible logistics. But that has changed considerably in recent years, and I have done very little traveling in the past two years. Since Pammy has come on board, there has been a significant increase in the number of contacts, which has opened up an increase in preaching and personal work. Where previously, my main focus was more out of the country, but now our major activity is here in Chiang Mai. Before she came to Chiang Mai for Bible school, Pammy had been living in Lamping, which is a fairly large city 100km from here. Her sister and brother-in-law have a very large piece of land there that is available to us. Pammy has frequently mentioned the possibility of moving down there and do church work. Personally I don't want to.

I love it here in Chiang Mai. All my contacts are here. We are engaged in helping several churches in this area right now. I have my shop here. All that would be canceled by a move. I can't imagine building another shop in Lamping like the one the Lord has given me here. I have had many shops over the years but this is the best one yet . But a Righter 9 earthquake, and a radical upheaval of everything, is not unprecedented. Nearly every turn in the road thus far has been marked with a total devastation of everything I counted dear, and a major venture into the unknown. I really had hoped I had made my last relocation and vocation. But that may be in the offering. In a week or two we should know what is next.

This morning I was preaching at the Forgiveness Church again. This was my third time. Pastor Peter (Thai pastor) has asked me to work with him and preach there regularly each month. I like that brother very much. Really, it would be hard to find a better man. And we enjoy the church. They are wonderful people, but my last two times there have been extremely bad. Three weeks ago I had such a bad Sunday I vowed that would be the last. But Peter called last week asking if I could come today, and I decided to give e it one more try. I really felt I had a message from God. Up until 10:00 o'clock last night I had been in a blank. But quite suddenly I felt the Lord gave me a text that I hadn't preached on in 40 years. This morning, as I was up early meeting with Jesus, the message seemed to come together.

I don't know what happened, but he devil was faithful in causing a huge upheaval before we got to church .Pammy woke up this morning with a slight headache and decided to go get a massage before church. I don't know why, but what was supposed to be an hour absence turned out to be two and a half. We were already late for church by the time Pammy got home, and she hadn't gotten dressed for church yet. And the church was over half an hour drive away. I was so mad I told her to call Peter and tell him we weren't coming. Peter assured us it would be no problem if we were late and pleaded that we come anyway. It was a pretty quiet ride to church. I was in a terrible mood when we got there.

I always count on at least 45 minutes for a message and can easily go well over an hour if the clock will permit. But Peter requested that I keep myself to 35 minutes. The last time I spoke there he passed up a note to Pammy, who was in interpreting, asking that I quit in 2 minutes., I did. I thought it would not be surprising to get another note to shut up and sit down. I did.

The message the Lord gave me was on the Love Slave in Ex. 21:1-6. It was a wonderful economic leveler that the Lord instituted in Israel when He wrote in the law the mandate to release every seven year. This was a time when all debts were to be canceled, all property reverted to the original owner, and all slaves released. This whole issue of the Love Slave started out as an economic one. The very fact that you were talking about slaves meant someone property.

Slavery was a highly undesireable occupation. It wasn't something a boy wanted to become when he grew up. The only way a person got to to be a slave was when he had gone past absolute zero financially. There were several incidents mentioned in the Bible when a person got so destitute that the bottom line was they got sold as slave to pay their debt. That is how they got to be a slave. Fortunately, that tenure only lasted six years and the seventh year the slave was to be released. But if he loved his master and didn't want to walk out the door, he could opt to become a love slave. At that time his master was to take him to the door post and bore a hole in his ear with an ail. When that happened his hope for release was gone and he would serve his master forever.

The Lord in His graciousness doesn't force anyone be be His child or serve Him. But the fact is there is a segment of Christianity that is in church because they have to. There are tens of thousands of children raised in Christian homes that have no choice, and many would much rather be somewhere else. There are a lot of husbands that just get dragged off by their wives to go to church. Dear Isami San of the New Beginning Church was one. He told me how much he disliked going to church but had no option because Miwa, his wife, had a ring in his nose and he got dragged off each week. He used to tell me how kurushi (suffering) it was. Fortunately, he caught a fierce fever for Jesus on a trip to Vietnam, and came home so fired up he made Miwa look backslid. Isami wound up the pastor of The New Beginning Church.

I was talking to Dr. Kim, who is the president of Pammy's seminary, yesterday. I asked him when he got saved. He told me he was raised in a Christian home, but the Lord never meant anything to him until he got into college. At that time he made a commitment to serve Jesus, and has been going full bore for the past 30 years. I met a pastor in Laos two years ago who was the son of a Lao pastor. Of course, he was raised in a Christian home. He must have been very outstanding because, when the communists took over in 1975, he was selected for pilot training, and sent to Moscow for training. He came back to Laos and was a helicopter pilot until the wraps came off, and it was discovered that he was a Christian He was given the choice of what suit he wanted to wear – a flying suit or a prison suit. He told me, while in prison, he made the decision to give his life serving Jesus. Today he is the leader of the fastest growing Christian group in Laos.

Theologically it is a nice message to preach about becoming Jesus' Love Slave. But realistically there are some questions I can't answer. I have known a number of outstanding missionaries over the years who tell how they made a decision to become a missionary at an early age, and have never veered from the path. At mission conferences, it is common to preach an inspirational message on missions, and give an appeal for young people to come forward to be missionaries. Unfortunately only a small percentage of those who come forward ever make it to the mission field.

For the Love Slave in Ex. 21 when the hole was bored in his ear there was no chance of changing his mind later on. But dedication to love and serve Jesus doesn't work that way. For some there is a clear time when Jesus stepped forward to take His place on the throne of their heart. And they have been in love with Jesus ever since. But I have found that dedication is not a one time act. It is a daily commitment.

I don''t know if this is just a recent phenomenon or one that has been in humanity since Adam, but it seems to me to be a horrible plague of shallowness to a commitment today. Certainly y this is true in marriage. I knew a missionary who boasted to me how he was having a squall with his wife and threatened her,“The next time I speak you, it will be with my layer.” I couldn't believe it! I was stunned that a Christian could be so irresponsible as to threaten his wife with a divorce over a squall. I knew a Christian wife who got mad at her husband and threw her wedding ring out the window. Unbelievable! I was talking with a missionary lady one night when she said, “Bill Cook, if I was your wife I would have left you years ago.” I replied, “Yes, Jane, I can believe that. But with that statement you have just told me what you think of the permanence of marriage and the level of your commitment to Jesus.” Oddly enough I never got invited to that house again for coffee. But what, pray tell, can we say about the wedding vow. We make a mockery of it by our fair-weather commitment to marriage. Making a serious vow to God doesn't mean a thing, and millions flippantly walk out the door, never considering that perhaps they should keep that vow they made to God.

And that certainly applies to serving Jesus. Twenty years ago I was talking to a Japanese brother telling him about the hard time I was having. He flippantly remarked, “Why don't you dedicate your heart to Christ?” Ordinarily I would have considered that comment highly insulting. I had been a missionary for 30 years and I thought I was fairly dedicated. But I was amazed at what came out of my mouth. When he said that, I burst into tears and replied, “Because I don't know how. I have been trying to dedicate my life to Christ for 30 years but I don't know how to do it.” If Jesus doesn't accept us and bore a hole in our ear, all our good intentions are for no avail.

It was a good message but I didn't get a chance to give it this morning. In 35 minute I had only covered about one third. I got a note and sat down.

Maybe some other time.

bill

PS: Gomen nasai but this week Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday got wiped out and it is now Wednesday

Get to Be Part of the Team

13 November 2011

Dear Phyllis,

Last week we celebrated our 3^rd month-anniversary. Needless to say life is certainly different. Loneliness is not an issue. With the exception of when Pammy may be out shopping or visiting, we are together 24-7. Basically speaking it has been an enjoyable experience, but the biggest factor has been the spiritual. Fruitfulness in soul winning has taken a dramatic surge forward. It might be said, because we are a team, but reality is, this huge surge is due to Pammy's gift in evangelism. It is safe to say she wouldn't be as fruitful by herself. But for my part, we have seen more souls come to Christ in the past three month than all the souls I saw saved in the previous 25 years. I told you of the barbecue we had three weeks ago where seven accepted Christ. That is more than the average church will see saved in a year. Last Friday night we had another unusual time.

In my belated letter last week I told you about baptizing the lady with cancer, and Paul and Marisa taking in the 11 year old molested girl. Pammy had promised them that we would be back Friday night for a Bible study. Paul and Marisa invited us over for supper before going together to Bua home for the Bible study. When we got to Paul's house for supper we were greeted by the news that everything had gone to worst-case scenario. I fully expected Bua to be healed, but she was in the hospital in very bad shape. And the little girl, Bea, had gone bonkers. Paul and Marisa were at their wits end. Bea had gone totally sullen demanding that she wanted to go home. She was sitting on the couch and wouldn't speak to anyone.

This looked to me like a direct assault by the enemy. I asked if I could lay my hands on her and pray for her. No problem. I did, and alter that everyone gathered around to pray for her. We saw a marked improvement and she was fairly cheerful when we left for the Bible study. Bua's house is down a very narrow country road. Another car was coming the other direction Paul got over as far as he could and the two cars inched their way forward. It looked like we had successfully passed when there was a sickening grinding sound. Their rear ends scraped.

After an endless talk with the other driver, the three girls, Pammy and I walked the remaining 500 meters to Bua's house. Her husband and two children were there waiting for us. Then another lady showed up. I was completely stumped as to what to do, but Pammy took over singing lively Christian songs with hand signal. That was a big hit. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. Then Pammy turned to me and said, “Alright, now have your Bible study”. I hadn't a clue what to say, but I felt that Marisa's daughter, Benjuwan, was the key. I began milking her for a testimony asking about the contrast from where she was a year ago and where she is now, That was like leaving hell for paradise. Talking about what the Lord had done for her affected her deeply. Seldom have I seen such an emotional tearful testimony.

Then I targeted Bua's 13 year old daughter, Duan, and asked if she had ever accepted Jesus into her heart. No. “Would you like to?” Yes. I wasn't quite sure how to handle it when suddenly her father broke in and said he wanted to be saved. Everyone broke out applauding and the father crawled to he middle of our circle sittings on the floor. Pammy turned to me, but I said, “Look, you are better at this than I am. You deal with him.” Pammy had him raise both arms in the air and pray a very lengthy prayer of accepting Christ. When he finished I asked , “Did you mean that from your heart?” “Yes.” And I shook the new brothers hand. Then Duan was next. After that her younger brother prayed to accept Jesus, And last of all, Bea sat in the middle of the circle to ask Jesus to be her savior. She looked marvelous. It was hard to believe that that was the same girl who was so sullen three hours before then.

Paul and Marisa had been at the scene of the accident for over two hours and showed up just as we got through praying. Marisa asked Bea, “Do you want to go home with us now?” “No.” That kicked off a firestorm of everyone lecturing to Bea. I thought, “Man, I would hate to be on the receiving end of that.” And the result was predictable. By 10:00 o'clock the devil was in complete control again.

What has happened since then is another long story. To abbreviate it, all I can say is that I have no idea what is going to happen. There have been some very encouraging things and an equal amount of reverse things. From my vantage point here it looks like a real mess. Barring a most unusual miracle, it looks like Bua, the cancer lady, is probably a very short time out of eternity. If she is truly saved, she will be happy to be in heaven, but that leaves two needy children, and a widowed husband behind.

This morning Pastor Kichikun asked me to preach. I have been thinking and praying all week about what to say. Last night I was a complete blank when I went to bed. But the Lord woke me up at 4:30 this morning and clearly gave me His message. Kichikun told me that there was going to be a baptism after the service at a lake. I thought I really should preach on baptism, but didn't have a message for that. Then the Lord gave me the message “In Christ”.

I started out my message this morning by telling a sweet testimony I had heard in Karuizawa many years ago. A Swiss missionary told how she had been saved as a little girl. She was about 5 or 6 years old and wanted to ask Jesus to come into her heart, but she didn't know how to do it. One day her mother bought her a helium balloon. When she got that, she had a great idea. She wrote a little note to Jesus explaining how she wanted Him to make her His child and be her savior. She tied the note on the string of the balloon, went outside, and, with no one looking, sent the balloon up to Jesus in heaven. She said when her mother tucked her in bed that night, her heart was just pounding. The mother turned the lights off, closed the door, and went down stairs. The little girl waited until all was quiet and she was sure she was alone. Then she jumped out of bed, got down on her knees, and asked,“Lord Jesus, did You get my note?” The dear sister said, Jesus, replied, “Yes, My child I did”, and she became His child that night.

That testimony had little to do with my message, but right now we are having Loykatong festival in Thailand. They are sending up thousands of small hot air balloon in the sky, and sending thousands of tiny boats loaded with their sins down the rivers. They put their sins on the hot air balloons and little boats, but all the balloons come down in fields and streets, and all the boats clutter the rivers down stream.

Fortunately, God had a more effective way of dealing with sin. I told the people this morning that everything went katty-whampus in the Garden. God warned Adam that in the day he touched the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he wold die. And that was exactly what happened. Something horribly wrong happened to Adam and that sinful nature has been passed on to every decedent of Adam that has appeared on this planet since then. But God had a strange way of terminating Adams race. In 1 Cor. 15:45 Jesus is called “the last Adam”. In Adam all die (1 Cor. 15:22) . God had to terminate that race of dead people. He did that through the death of Christ.

Paul said very clearly that the Gospel was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4). I told the folks that in a couple of hours we were having a baptism; and a baptism is a burial and resurrection. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. This is what baptism is. It is a burial and a resurrection serviced.

The way God makes this personal to us is by placing us in Christ. IN CHRIST is probably the most significant two words in the Bible. Everything is IN Christ. We went through Eph. 1 where the key word is IN. That word appears 12 times. But what does IN CHRIST mean? Basically it means identification. I had Pammy come forward. First I had her stand at the opposite wall, and said, “Four months she stood all by herself”Then I had her come to me, and we put our arms around each other. I said, “Now she is joined to me. She is identified with me. Whatever happened to me is her lot also. If I get rich she gets rich with me. If I am poor she is poor with me. We are inseparably identified with each other.”

Then I told about American football. Only one man carries the ball, but all participate in what happens. When I was in high school, I was the manager of the football team. As the manager I was a member of the team. The football team members got to wear special lettered sweaters. I had a sweater. My senior year we had an undefeated season going. The last game of the year was with Waverly high. They also were undefeated. It was a tight game. Late in the 4^th quarter our star, Dick Jackson, got the ball and took off on an end run. Everybody on the field was chasing him. The stands went crazy. Jackson took it in for the winning goal. He was the only one carrying the ball, but we all were identified with him in winning the game. This is identification. It is because we are in Christ we are identified with Him and His experience is our experience

But how did we get in Christ? 1 Cor 1:30 gives the answer to that question. It tells us “Of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus”.It was God that placed us in Christ. That was something that was impossible for us, but God placed us in Christ.

But that is only half the story. It is wonderful that God has placed us in Christ so that His experience becomes our experience, but there is something even more miraculous. God has made it possible for Christ to live in us. This is a miracle that I have never got over. Oh how can it be?! When I said yes to Jesus, the very Spirit of Christ came into my heart making me born-again. When that happened His nature was born in me. That was a terrible shock to my friends. Suddenly I quit drinking; I quit running around with girls; my filthy mouth was cleaned up. I had a craving for Bible study, Christian fellowship, and church.

This is what happened to the little Swiss girl when she asked Jesus to come into her heart. He did. When I heard her give that testimony Jesus had been there for 50 years.

We had a most unusual good service this morning. I thought the song service was the best I had been in in Thailand. Seldom have I experienced such enabling of the Holy Spirit. The Word just seemed to come alive. As I looked at the listener's faces, I could tell by their eyes and their nodding heads that they knew exactly what I was talking about. What a miracle that is; that the Holy Spirit has explained these deep spiritual truths to these Thais.

And in the afternoon we had a burial and resurrection service in a lake near here for two fine Thai boys.

Oh it is wonderful! The Lord is working. He is using Pammy like I have seldom seen, and I get the privilege to be part of the team in sharing Jesus with these marvelous folks here in Thailand. Praise God!

bill

Sordid Mess Part II

6 November 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I'm sorry for being so late this week but we have had a complete wipe-out of time. Sunday we left the house at 8:30 in the morning and did,'t get home home until 9:00 that night. Yesterday Paul was at our house at 7:00 in the morning to talk about a serious matter and the day was slam full from then on. We got home at 10:30 last night. It is now Tuesday morning and I am just getting around to writing you.

Last week I wrote you abut a sordid mess with an adulterous couple. This is a bit of a follow-up on that subject. We had gotten involved with this dear sister whose husband had dumped her to take up with another woman and took her three children with him. That was one thing, but the fact that the husband was a lead member of a praise team, and the woman he decided to sleep with was a self-appointed lady pastor who had a well known House of Praise. More than that they were very well known in Chiang Mai and our friend Keosari had invited them to be the main feature at the combined fellowship service a week ago. I was as fired up over that situation as anything that has pushed my button in a long time. After that horrible time at the fellowship meeting I was going to take Keosari's head off even with her shoulder. We did go to see her and had a surprising time.

Pammy had prayed that I might be a“help to her”. That was not really what I had in mind. But that remark stuck in my heart, and somewhat changed my attitude. As it turned out, I believe that is what happened. When we talked with her, I unloaded and said everything to her that was in my heart. I told her how wrong she was and the sin she committed in sponsoring this adulterous couple. Keosari disarmed me with a very good attitude.. In my anger I said, “Have you ever heard of such a thing as church discipline?” In all sincerity, she looked at me and replied, “No, I never have.” After I explained to her how to deal with adultery in the church, she thanked me and pleaded, “We must have you speak to all the pastors”. I was totally dumb-founded that it was possible to have abysmal ignorance of church discipline in any Christian fellowship. The wicked adulterous woman is very rich, and compromise with money may be another a factor in the equation. But there does seem to be a startling ignorance as to how to deal with sin in the church. Needless to say a follow-up on this is very much on the books.

Sunday I was speaking at Pastor Peter's church. This is the second time I have been there. He had asked me to speak on giving. I was a little uneasy with this subject and later found out that he had gone overboard in hammering the people in his church to jack up the financial offerings. Small wonder he was in financial difficulty. I have never spoken on the subject of giving money and wondered how to deal with it,but the Lord gave me the message at a prayer meeting Wednesday. Rather than talking about money I spoke about the flow of Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is EVERYTHING in the church. Take away the Holy Spirit out of the equation and you have no Body of Christ. The only reason the church is the Body of Christ is because Christ lives in that Body. Take the Spirit of Christ out, what have you got? Dead religion. The distinguishing feature of the Holy Spirit is the direction of the flow. In the two reference to the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of in John 4 and 7 is that the flow would be OUT. In speaking to the woman at th well in John 4:14, Jesus said that the water He would give would be a “well SPRINGING UP to eternal life”. And in John 7:38 Jesus said of those who believed on Him, “OUT OF their innermost being would flow rivers of living water”. (“This He spake of the Spirit”.) So very clearly the central characteristic of the Holy Spirit is that the flow is OUT.

This is the fundamental difference between those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and those who aren't. The very essence of self is that it is selfish. For those people who are filled with self, the flow of their life is IN. It is a grief that there are people who claim to be Spirit-filled that are filled with self. Everything about them is self-centered and the flow is fundamentally IN. Rather than giving out they are totally focused on what they can get. This is very poor evidence of the fullness of the Spirit of Christ. If the flow is not OUT this is proof that there is very little of Christ. In the heart where Jesus lives and reigns He must be in charge of everything. If this is not true, that is an indisputable proof that the dedication is defective. Of course, if Jesus is Lord of all He must have all. This means everything we have and everything in our life.

He must be Lord of our possessions. We must be generous. We talk about giving everything to Jesus but woe-be-tide the turkey that touches out possessions. When I first went to Japan I bought a very nice new car to take to Japan to give to some missionary. It was the only new car I ever bought in my life. I was very careful how I treated it. In those days the roads in Japan looked liked that had just been bombed by a B-52. The pot-holes were like craters and they were every 15 meters. The difference between new missionaries and old ones was the new missionaries drove around the pot-holes, and the senior one just drove straight through them. One night a good friend stopped to see me and said, “Bill, I just broke the axle on my car. Could I borrow your car to drive home?” I wasn't real happy when I handed him the keys, but it was a good test to see whether the car was really mine or the Lord's. I am very careful with my tools. But I always say all that I have is the Lord's. That means if the Lord sends someone to use His tools they have as much right to access to them as I do. Of course there is such a thing as responsibility. I must be responsible with the Lord's tools and not let just anyone destroy them, but I have always considered everything I have as the Lord's property ; and that means His servants have as much right to them as I do.

We must be hospitable. This is a requirement for a for a bishop; he must be a lover of hospitality (Tit. 1:8). Tragically there are Christians who are very tight with their homes. Strangers and other are not welcomed. I have noticed that the fundamental difference between missionaries who win souls and those who just preach the Gospel is the front door. I have never seen a missionary who had an open door that didn't win souls. And I have known some very good preachers who had a closed door and didn't win souls. I believe we can forget about talking about being filled with the Spirit of Christ if our doors are closed to others.

Perhaps the most precious thing we have is our children. But Jesus does not exempt this when He asks everything. Isobel Kuhn's mother was and active Christian and very much involved in missions. She was 100% in favor of supporting missions until one day her daughter came home and told her mother that the Lord had called her to be a missionary in China. Isobel thought her mother wold be thrilled, but was shocked when her mother said, “Over my dead body you will go to China.” No way she was going to let her daughter go overseas. Isobel said it was tragic that that was exactly the way it went. She was dead before Isobel went to China to work with JO Frasier. Here was a woman that acted like she had given all to Jesus but when it came to her daughter, she drew the line. As a result she never lived to see the great success her daughter had working among the Lisus in China and as one of the great Christian authoress. I knew a missionary wife in Karuizawa who had two sons but she couldn't dedicated them to the Lord. The devil had her between a rock and a hard place. She knew if she didn't dedicate her sons to the Lord that He would take one as punishment. And if she did, He would take one to see if it was real. It was a lose-lose situation and she lived in torment. Fortunately, at a Joe Carroll meeting she finally broke and gave her sons to the Lord. What wonderful release! She knew they were the safest with the Lord. I don't know what happened but I know they are in their 50s by now and I am sure she has many grand children by both.

The reason the pastor wanted me to talk about giving was to jack up the offerings. But money was the last thing I mentioned. Talking about money is pointless. God doesn't want our money. He isn't that poor. The reason God wants our money is so we will enable Him to open the treasure chest in heaven. The lock on the treasure chest in heaven is our pocket book. Paul said to the Philippians, “Not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account” (Phil. 4:17). If this is not true offerings are a sham.

I told the folk Sunay morning about the principle of the Inverted Kingdom. The laws of the Kingdom of God are reverse from the laws of this world. The law of the Kingdom is, to get we must give. Jesus said, GIVE and it shall be GIVEN you. He didn't say, “If you get money then give God 10%.” The law is in order to enable God to give things to us we must first empty our purse. When I told the folks about the treasure chest in heaven I held up my wallet and said, “This is he key to that treasure chest. If we use it right, that enables God to open His chest to give us the things He wants. But for the flow to come in to us, it must be Out from us”.

I don't know what happened Sunday. I felt the topic the Lord gave me was good but I had a very bad time preaching. The Lord knows.

Yesterday morning Paul was at my house at 7:00AM asking if I would baptize a lady. There was a Christian lady that Paul and Marisa had never met, but had a daughter who was a class mate of their daughter. Through her testimony the lady knew that Paul and Marisa were Christian. She told them of a sick situation where a father had raped his 11 year old daughter and the mother didn't care. The girl ran away to live with another sister who was 33 years old but was dying of cancer and couldn't take care of her. She asked if Paul and Marisa could help.

They went over to talk to the woman dying of cancer and found a soul on the brink of eternity terrified of going to hell. Marisa shared with her the Gospel an told how Jesus died so she wouldn't have to go to hell. And the lady wanted to be baptized. Paul asked me if I would do it.

What happened last night was a first time experience for me in many regards. I had never baptized a person who couldn't be immersed and wasn't sure how to do it. Pammy said that her pastors used a wet towel to cove the person. That sounded like the best approach, but things turned out differently. The poor soul lived in a hovel without anything in it. She was deathly ill but managed to come outside and sit on a low stole. I refused to baptize her without Pammy dealing with her in depth about salvation. Pammy was fantastic! She is a much better personal worker than I am. Paul had brought his four daughters (that is another story) and they sang a song making it a regular religious service. There was really quite a crowd sitting on the ground. When I baptized her, I first asked her for a testimony that she believed in Jesus. She was able to mumble that she did. When I baptized her I stuck my hand in a bucket of water and got as much water as possible – laying my hand on her head – I said, “On the basis of your testimony of faith in our Lord Jesus; by the authority of the great God in heaven, our gracious heavenly Father,, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit I baptize you.”

There seemed to be an amazing witness of the Holy Spirit in that service. Before I baptized her she wailed like I have seldom seem anyone cry. She cried, “Oh my sin is so terrible!” After I baptized her I prayed ion English pleading that the Lord might raise her up to be a testimony of His saving, healing, power. I felt a tremendous anointing in the the Spirit when I prayed, and again she cried loudly. There was every evidence of a deep working of the Holy Spirit there. After the baptism she went back inside and Pammy took off having her own evangelistic meeting with her husband and a few children there. I don't believe in, or will allow her to be, a lady preacher, but that girl is fantastic in sharing Christ. She has a Gospel Rubic cube that she uses very effectively. Man howdy we had another great meeting sitting on the floor inside as Pammy shared Christ with the circle sitting around her. Before the night was over the dying lady, filled with cancer, who looked deathly ill previously, was sitting up looking radiant. We took a group picture and she looked like a strobe light in the middle. Right now I am putting my money on her healing. I will be surprised if Jesus doesn't heal her and give her a full life as strong Christian.

Paul and Marisa have taken in the 11 year old girl that started this off as their daughter. That makes #3. I couldn't believe that either. Three days ago she was totally traumatized. She was terrified of everything. She had been repeated raped, threatened with her life, and told that she was going to be sold. I expected to see a vegetable, but I was amazed to see joyous secure young girl who obviously felt safe. Marisa's other two girls, age 13, have been fantastic in taking in their new younger sister. And she has a another niece who wants to live with them. That makes four. Seldom have I ever seen a home where Jesus has just moved in and transferred a nightmare into a corner of heaven. There is nothing but the Bible, Jesus,and joy in that home. And they may have a new freshly baptized, healed, 33 year old sister become part of that circle.

It doesn't get much better,

bill