Japan's Ron Blough

29 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

If I was to make a list of the five men that have had the greatest influence on my life, Ron Blough would have to be on that list. Ron was easily the craziest guy I ever met. He was the, most erratic, and did the dumbest things of anyone I ever knew, but he was (and probably still is) a very special guy to the Lord.

Russ O'Quinn was the first man I met in Japan. The first three months I was in Japan, Russ and I started the Church of the Open Door. I led the first service and Russ preached the first message. But within a year the O'Quinns got rotated to the states. We wrote to the states to OCSC (Overseas Christian Servicemens Center), and the Boughs came out in response to that request in 1960. Ron was straight out of Bob Jones University. He was as wild as a spring hare and as tactful as a bull. We had a terrific clash. He destroyed the spiritual structure we had established to keep the church going in the interim after the O'Quinns left and the Bloughs got there. I would leave services in tears saying I couldn't take any more. I desperately wanted to pull out, but I knew if I did, half the church would come with me; and that would destroy everything. Of necessity, Ron and I developed a system of honest exchanges where we would go to the Yokota Officers Club for breakfast about once a month and have it out. Those breakfasts were almost like fist fights, but we both were dead honest and both committed to sincerely following Jesus. Two hours later we would walk out of the O Club arm and arm with everything settled, and deep respect for each other. This probably molded both of our lives.

I was at a young malleable stage in life, and Ron's intense evangelism set the tone for my life ever since. I never went to BJU but for many years I was known and accused of being a BJ-ite. Ron's convictions and mine became one. As a young man I read the life of George Mueller and Hudson Taylor, but I saw it animated in the Bloughs. That gave me an intense conviction to follow their pattern.

To Ron, the most obscene word in the English language was “compromise”. There was zero tolerance for compromise in him; and that applied to everything clear across the board. He would not compromise on doctrinal issues. He would not compromise with sin. And he would not compromise with finances. I admired him greatly for his unflinching stand. He would not make an appeal for funds, he would not accept money from an unbeliever, and he would not use red ink. We had a fabulous Christian Center that was a converted night club. The location and facility was perfect. The Bloughs had a nice house right behind it. Ron said, “The day comes that the Lord does not pay the rent; that is the day I move.” That day came. One month they were $5 short. The landlord loved the Bloughs, and would have gladly waved the rent. But it was an issue of principle with Ron. He found a rundown house of prostitution downtown and closed the Christian Terrace to move into that lesser facility. One time Ron was mad at the base Chaplin and said, “If I ever see that man I am going to tell him what I think of him. He did run into him a few weeks later. Man howdy, it was rough, but he told him exactly what he thought of him. If something came out of Ron's mouth, you could count on the fact that he would do it.

Ron's wick of patience was about an inch long. One time in spring I went with the Bloughs up to Hakone. There was a late spring heavy snow. In those days that road was the main artery between Tokyo and Osaka and was only two lanes. There was a monumental traffic jam. After fifteen minutes, Ron could take no more. He got out of the car and walked a considerable distance. He found the problem was two big trucks were nose to nose with no room to pass. The traffic was backed up for kilos, and no one was doing anything. Ron walked up and down a line of trucks and found a truck loaded with shovels for a hardware store. He tore the paper off them, and passed them out. After he got a crew of men to shovel space enough for one truck to get to one side, he looked around for the driver. No driver was to be found. The driver had left the keys in his truck, but apparently had taken off. Ron got in the truck, got it started, and fished though the gears to find a forward gear. Then he drove it off the road, slam over the bank. He climbed back up to the road and looked for the driver of the second truck. Not there. Truck #2 went over the bank. It would take a crane to pull those trucks out of there . Drivers started running for their trucks everywhere. In the mean time we had been sitting still for 45 minutes when the traffic started to move. I drove about 500 meters to see Ron standing in the middle of the road directing traffic. We came along, he jumped in, and we were on our way again.

Ron was a man of tremendous faith, but his greatest attribute was his intense simplistic honesty. The only thing that saved him his first term in Japan was Lake Chuzenji (Nikko). He would take all he could stand at Yokota – about two months – take his fishing pole, and go up to Chuzenji-ko for a break. One year he was up there in March. It was freezing cold and about a meter of snow on the ground. He slept in his car, but couldn't sleep. Early in the morning he was having devotions by flashlight, and read in Psalm 37:4 “Delight thyself in the Lord and He shall give thee the desire of thine heart”. Freezing cold, Ron said, “Lord, You know I delight myself in You, and the desire of my heart is that I want to catch the biggest fish I ever caught.” Thirty minutes later, when it got dawn, he got out of his car, and threw his line in the water. On first cast he pulled in the biggest fish he ever caught.

In 1966 the Bloughs returned from a furlough in the states to find the Church of the Open Door had gone to zero. He closed the church, and decided to move to Hokkaido. Commercial moving by Marutsu would have cost $500, but Ron thought it would be cheaper to do it himself. He found a used truck for $500 and went 50-50 with Ed Scalf to buy the truck to move, and then give it to Ed. Six months later – after five trips, three burned out engines, and 18 flat tires, he finally got everything moved to Sapporo. On trip #4 he was up by Sendai when he burned out the engine for the third time. While sitting there wondering how to call a tow truck, tire #15 blew. He got out his tire tools to change the tire when a little bird flew over and dumped on his head. When he told me that story, I roared. He looked at me seriously and said, “Bother, that was not funny. That was something that came from heaven. Of 120, 000, 000 people in Japan and the entire land mass; why did that little bird have to dump on me?” He said – at that point – that was exactly the way he felt the Lord thought of him.

After spending two years in Sapporo, Ron felt the Lord would have them go to some more remote area. On a hot summer day, he and Marlyn went to Rumoi, which was the
end of the line on the desolate northwest coast of Hokkaido. They looked in vain all day for a house to live in. That afternoon they saw an ice cream store, which was very unusual. Ron said, “Let's get some ice cream.” Marlyn protested, “Dear, we don't have any money for a luxury like that.” Typically, Ron came back, “It doesn't matter. Maybe we will get a house in there.” They were sitting in this ice cream store and a large crowd of people gathered around the window to gawk at the weird sight of two gaijins (foreigners). It was like ET was in the store. A newspaper reporter saw this crowd of people and went over to see what they were looking at. When he saw these two gaijins, he thought there might be a story for his newspaper, and went in to speak to them. “Why are you here?”

“We would like to, move here and are looking for a house.”

The reporter said he would get one for them. And it was through him that they were introduced to a huge empty fishermen house that would hold 80 fishermen. They moved out of Sapporo, only to be greeted by a refusal to live in the house that had been promised to them. Yes does not mean yes in Japan; and the owner never thought the Bloughs were serious enough to move there. The owner had a family sodan (discussion) and reluctantly gave them permission to live in that house for one year, with the stipulation that the lease might get canceled the next year. A year later, Ron went to the house owner to pay the rent and see about a renewal. The eldest son told him, “The house is yours for the rest of your life, or as long as you want to stay.” He was a commercial fisherman, and later told Ron that the day they made the decision to let the Bloughs stay there, he had the biggest catch of fish that he got all that year. He saw how God had blessed him because of Ron.

Ron had one of the very few rifles in Japan. They are dead illegal, but he had a rare license. He would try to study Japanese, but his concentration was limited to about 15 minutes; and then he had to have a break. For a diversity relief he would open the window and shoot crows off the telephone line. One day he shot too low and shot the telephone line in two. It wasn't just the telephone line, but the main telephone cable for northwest Hokkaido. Suddenly all the phones for 200 km along the west coast of Hokkaido went dead. NTT (National Telephone) sent a crew out to see what went wrong. By a process of checking halves they worked it down to some problem behind Blough's house. After days of searching the phone crew finally saw a small hole in the line where Ron's shot had cut the cable. Something like this was extremely serious. NTT sent out the #2 man in their company to talk to him about the incident of cutting the cable. The damage would be in thousands of dollars. When the man confronted Ron with what they had found, he frankly replied,“Yes, that is right. I was shooting crows off the line and shot too low. Sumimasen (I'm sorry).” The NTT man was stunned by the candor and frankness of this unusual gaijin and frankly forgave him everything. But he wanted his wife to meet the Bloughs. The next day he came back with his wife and secretary to see the Blough family. Ron spoke to them strongly about hell. The man's wife broke down and wept, and the secretary got saved. She quit her job and came to live with the Bloughs – all because Ron shot the line in two.

The Bloughs were huge news in Hokkaido. They were the feature article in the Hokkaido Graff – which is the Japanese equivalent of Life magazine. They were specials on television several times and and major celebrities in Rumoi. After being in Japan for 16 years, one morning Ron got up and said to the Father, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” ,and closed up shop in Japan. It was front page headlines in the Rumoi Times the day they left – “Bloughs return home”. JNR (Japan National Railway) put on a special car for them to leave Rumoi.

I went up to Haneda to see them off. Their departure was typical Ron Blough. They had 8 of their own children and 2 more staying with them. Altogether they had 54 bags. They got to Haneda six hours early, and put a mountain of bags in front of the check-in counter. Two hours before departure, the check-in counter opened, and they set up a table to check the contents of bags. The airline man saw the huge stack of bags and asked, “What travel group is this?” Ron held up 12 passports and said, “That is all me?” The man demanded, “Take these bags and move to the end of the line in front of this table.” Ron protested,“Look, I was here before you were. You move your table.”Reluctantly, the man backed off, but said, “I must look inside each bag.” Every bag had a lock on it and the children all had the individual keys to their own bags. The kids were all over the airport, and there was no way that Ron could get them together to get the keys. Finally Ron said, “Mister, I have 10 children on that plane. Do you think I have a bomb in one of those bags?” It ended just like his years of service in Japan started – and had continued nonstop for 16 years – with a monumental squall with an airline official. Ron won.

bill

Heroes of the Past

22 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

The other day Jon Ruleson invited me to speak to the Chiang Mai staff of Global Recordings. I had known the founder of GRN (then Gospel Recordings), Joy Ridderhoff, many years ago, and, at one point, she had invited me to come to Los Angeles to be her assistant. Her story is a unique one, and the organization she started has undoubtedly spread the Gospel in a wider area than any other Christian organization in NT history. To date they have made the Gospel possible in over 6,000 languages.

Joy had gone to Honduras as a missionary in the early 1930, but had to return home to Los Angeles due to poor health. She had an intense passion to get back to the mission field , but health would not permit that. However, she remembered how people would gather around a gramophone in Honduras to listen to music. Why not make a record of the Gospel story, and send it to her friends in Honduras? She took what little savings she had, and went to a studio in Los Angeles that could make a record. From that small beginning, her vision expanded to what GRN has become today.

I shared with their staff a few testimonies that Joy had told me many years ago, then concluded my remarks by saying, “Joy and those heroes of years past are gone, and we are left to carry on the mission of making known the Gospel to our generation.” That remark has struck me with a renewed impact of the awesome task that has fallen on our shoulders. Somehow I look back on the warriors that in knew 50 years ago and feel extremely small to attempt to wear their shoes. As a young man I looked up to the men and women of God of that generation. To think that someday we would be their successors seemed like a little boy trying to wear his dad's shoes. Israel of old could look back at Moses with wonder and awe at what that man accomplished. We read the stories of David, the mighty prophets of the OT, and the account of the things that Paul did with marvel. They are gone, and we are left to continue what they started. Oh my goodness, where are we, and who are we that we should have this awesome responsibility?

I am a member of the 1950 missionary community. After the 2^nd WW, the main slug of missionaries went to Japan in 1952 - 1954. After that the flow of new missionaries slowed down considerably. I arrived in 1958, but was a young man in the Air Force at that time. I looked up to those who had preceded me with awe. The thought that the mantel would someday pass to me seemed unreal. I never have been half the man that some of those original pioneers were. It seems they were a special breed of men of God.

I have written to you several times about Dave Martin. There was only one Dave Martin and it is doubtful that there will ever be another equivalent. He pulled a stunt in Bushi that still baffles me. He had started that church and had a fine man in his church who was his top elder. One day this brother was killed in an accident, and Dave had to preach his funeral. In his message he spoke from the difficult text in 1 Cor. 15:29 - “They which are baptized for the dead”. In his exposition, Dave choose the conservative view that in the early church there was much martyrdom. As one Christian would be taken another person would step forward to take their place.

There was a famous incident reported that Caesar once ordered any Christian soldier was to be killed. In the Roman legion there was one battalion of Christian soldiers. Their commander demanded that they renounce Christ or die. To the man, they all refused to compromise. As a mode of execution, the commander stripped them naked and forced them to stand on ice to freeze to death. They stood there and sang “50 Christian soldiers giving their lives for Jesus” all night. As the hours wore on, one man capitulated and fled the ranks. When the commander saw that, he stripped off his clothes, and rushed forward crying, “No! No! There must be 50!” He took the place of the man who defected.

Dave said, “In the early church when one went down another person would step forward and be baptized to replace the one who died.” Then he said, “We have lost one of our key workers. We need someone to come forward to replace him.” Then astoundingly he addressed the father of the man who had died and challenged, “Otoo san, (father) will you come forward and be baptizded for the dead to replace your son?” You don't do things like that at a funeral! And to pull a stunt like that in Japan is totally off the scale of anyones imagination. The stunned old man laughed nervously. Dave repeated, “Otoo san, I am serious. Will you come forward to be baptized for the dead to replace your fallen son?”The man was furious. “No!” Dave responded,. “Alright, that is your decision. Onii san (elder brother), will you come forward to be baptized for the dead to replace your brother?” Astonishingly, the man stood up and came forward at that funeral. He was soundly converted, got baptized, and became a leader in Dave's Bushi church. Only the Holy Spirit could direct a man to pull a stunt like that.

Another one of my favorites was Allen Fadel. I suppose he was an average missionary, but to me he was a giant. Phyllis, you told me about the time when you and Ted were visiting Allen and Jane in Aomori. It was three kilometers from the church in Aomori to Fadel's house. After the morning service, Allen told you, “You and Ted can take the bus back, but the boys, Jane, and I walk home.” A few months before then, the Fadels were standing at the bus stop waiting for the bus. A believer who lived another kilometer past their house walked by, and Allen called out, “Come, take the bus with us”. The believer shyly explained, “Today I only had Y20, and put my bus money in the offering.” Allen turned to Jane and said, “How can we sit in our warm house and look out the window to see our believers walk past our house in the cold?” From that time on, for two years the Fadels walked six kilometers to church every Sunday.

In 1954 there had been a revival in TEAM mission. Many missionaries were touched and did some extreme things. They sold their cars, and rode bicyucles instead. Some sold their washing machines, refrigerators, and other electrical appliances to give everything away for Christ's sake. Allen told me.“Perhaps we did some foolish things.” Later on, everyone bought newer and better cars, more expensive washing machines, and refrigerators. They all wound up with a more luxurious lifestyle than before. Allen said, “Maybe that was wrong, but God knew our hearts. It was to the Lord that we gave away everything we owned.”

Allen often said the work in Aomori was the most ludicrous thing imaginable. Allen was a tall slender man that made it hard for Japanese not to stare at him. Foreigners were so unusual in northern Japan in those days, he must have looked like an alien from outer space to them. Allen would walk down the streets of Aomori, knowing that every person he met was dying to stare at him. But Japanese etiquette demanded that they keep their eye balls caged. He would get to the end of the block, and then suddenly turn around to face a street full of embarrassed people staring at him. He would politely wave at them and go on.

At first the church was very small. There were three men. One was a total social misfit. Another was a legless man who was born with only half a body. And one poor fellow was a blowout in life who couldn't hold a job. Allen tried to set him up in business, and bought him some chickens. They all died. Next he tried pigs; hoping that pigs might be slightly more endurable than chickens. The man would go around the neighborhood collecting garbage from everyone to feed his pigs. Jane would much rather throw her garbage out, but kept it under the sink for him. He would come in the kitchen with muddy boots, reach in the garbage pail to get the garbage, and then strew it all over the kitchen as he carried it out to put it on his sled that he used for collection. Poor Jane, had to mop the floor every morning after he left. On Sunday, Allen would take his three men for a street meeting. He would walk before them playing his trombone. The social misfit would carry a banner. The pig-garbage man would pull his sled with the legless man on it passing out tracts. Allen said you couldn't construct a more ridiculous sight.

Twenty years later, the social misfit had married a wonderful Christian sister and became a mature family man and a real man of God. The pig-garbage man became a successful business man with a large company. And the legless man was Takahashi sensei, of Sapporo, who had a large church, and was one of the top ten pastors in Japan.

Later on, Allen had two Christian policemen in his church. One day a policeman was killed; which meant that they would have to attend a military type funeral. Of course that meant bowing before an idol. Allen and the Japanese pastor were desperately concerned that they not compromise with idolatry; and pleaded with these brothers to take a stand for Christ. Hours of counseling proved fruitless. At last the men said, “Shikata ga nai”(there is nothing that can be done), and left the church in defeat. Allen and the pastor stayed on their knees until late that night praying for them. The next day the two policemen showed up at the funeral, and took a hard stand refusing to cooperate and bow before the idol. The chief of police was furious. As discipline, the two men were separated, sent to different police stations, and demoted.

A few years later one brother set a national record for more traffic arrests than any other policeman in Japan. He was famous for being the strictest cop in Aomori. They had him on TV and everyone was mad at him. He had arrested the head of the driving school for speeding along with dozens of others. Then they interviewed the chief of police for Aomori prefecture. “What do you think of this man?” He replied, “If I had two more men like him, I could reduce the traffic accidents in this prefecture by 50%.” When the emperor was making a trip to northern Honshu, this brother was chosen to be the personal chauffeur for the emperor of Japan.

The other policeman got tired of the discipline. He quit the police force and went to Bible school. He later became the pastor of the Aomori church.

Allen went from Aomori to start a good church in Hitachi, and then a third one in Akebono, Tokyo. I used to visit him often in Akebono. He would tell me how tough it was. Here he was 50 years old. He had been on the mission field for 25 years and was just starting out on a fourth church, like he had just graduated from Bible school and was just starting out in life. In the mean time, his classmates from Bible school were all pastors of well established churches in the states with stable congregations and a comfortable lifestyle and future in front of them.

Dave Martin was unusual. Allen Fadel was probably just an average foot-soldier missionary. But to me these men were heroes. They were men who gave their lives to Jesus and lived a life of total dedication, selflessly proclaiming Christ. Joy Ridderhoff was a weak single woman who came home from the mission field, but still had a burning passion to make Christ known anyway she could. I haven't heard from Allen in many years and have no idea where he is today. Joy and Dave have gone on to join the ranks of biblical and other NT heroes. And we are the ones left here to carry on the banner today. I blush with shame at the littleness of what I have done for Jesus. I have no expectation of standing in line with the giants of the past. But it will be a great privilege to be in the bleacher section in heaven cheering those who have run so well.

What a privilege to serve the Lord!

bill

Keep Your Hands Off The Line

15 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

Several years ago I was with Ron Blough and a bunch of GIs up to Nikko. We stopped at a trout pond to get some fish. The trout were biting like crazy, and several fellows had fish on the end of their lines. I grabbed the line to pull them in. Without exception, I lost every fish. About four or five large trout got away. The lady at the fish pond came over to explain to me what was going wrong. She told me that, as long as the trout is fighting the bamboo pole they can't get away. But as soon as I touched the string, my firm hand was on the other end of that line, and they could easily jerk the hook out of their mouth. I learned a big lesson that day.

In the work of the Lord it is important that we keep our cotton picken hands off the line. When the Holy Spirit is dealing with someone, the issue is between them and God. If we insert ourselves in the equation, it is easy to argue with us, and the work of the Lord slows down. The trick is, how do we serve God and still keep our hands off the line?

I have mentioned my friend Paul several times. He is a rare phenomenon. He is distinctly a work of God such as I have seldom seen. The only reason I know why the Lord is using him so much is because he is the most unlikely, unqualified, person the Lord can find in town. He didn't get saved the traditional way, and he isn't being trained the traditional way. But I see more of the Holy Spirit in that family than I have seen in many years. He gives me credit for much of his success, but I see where I have contributed very little. The other day he said, “The best advice you ever gave me was “Don't get things organized. Don't start an organization. Just keep following Jesus.” He said, had it not been for that advice, he probably would have started an organization. But as it is, he is influencing hundreds of people all over the world by Internet. He says he has more people writing him from Africa than from Thailand. He is reaching the most unusual spectrum of society in America. One lady from Argentina is writing him from Romania in Spanish .And what is going on here in Thailand is amazing.

My friend, Scott, teaches at the same school where Paul's girls go to school. The other day, at noon, Scott saw a large group of kids gathered around singing Christian songs. He had never seen anything like that in a public school. He went over to see what was going on and saw Paul's girls in the middle leading things. He asked the girls what they were doing, and they replied,“Oh nothing. This is just our thing that we do every Tuesday.” It might be just their thing, but what they were doing was highly effective. They are terrifically infectious, and their group is growing larger every week.

The other day a Buddhist monk was giving a talk in their school. Then he made all the kids worship his idol. One of Paul's girls refused to budge. He was furious and came to her seat demanding that she bow her head to that thing. She refused. Finally he got a stick and said, “Bow or I will beat you!”She looked up at him and replied, “If you beat me I will pray for you, but I will not worship that idol.” You don't say things like that to a ranking Buddhist monk. The king bows to him. Finally he threw his stick down and walked away. The entire class was a buzz. They had never seen a weak 13 year old girl back off a Buddhist monk. That got noised around the entire school. Kids were asking, “Where does she get that kind of power?”

I was telling a brother about the terrific meeting that the girls have going at school. He said, “We must get those girls and teach them how to witness.” I said, “I would rather not. If we teach them how to witness that might kill their effectiveness.” The only thing the girls know is that they are up every morning at 5:00 AM praying. They are just flat head over heels in love with Jesus. That is all they do all day long. They are filled with joy such as you seldom see. That joy is drawing a large crowd of young people at school, and the fire is spreading.

Paul has seven girls. There are two of his own, and four Karen and one Lahu hill tribe girl. They live with them because they couldn't go to school in their remote village. The other day they visited a home where there was domestic problems to pray for that family. They sang and poured their heart out in prayer. The atmosphere in that house was radically changed. I told Paul, “You could take those girls to the States and they would empty prisons. Their testimony is so powerful, Jack the ripper would become a saint.

On the other hand, Pammy has some friends whose son is a member of a large American organization. He wanted to teach Pammy strategy for Christian work. The other day mom, dad, and their son came over to have a teaching session for Pammy. I didn't sit in on the session but later saw the things that the die sensei (great teacher) had written on the black board. I later told Pammy, “I disagree with what Bee taught for two reasons. First of all it doesn't work.” Point number one of Bee's teaching was Vision. You must have a vision. I said, “That is great, but Bee's vision is nonsense.” He has a vision to get 300 Christian witness to reach Thailand with the Gospel. So far he doesn't have three; and it isn't likely that he will get any. It is nice to have a vision, but I doubt seriously that that is God's vision, and it won't work.

Several years ago Bill Reese was having a mabaroshi kai (vision meeting) with his Japanese pastor and a group of young folks from their church. Hayatsu sensei (pastor) told the young people that his vision was to have a church of 500 in the next five years. Bill was highly impressed. The church at that time was about 25, and the pastor had led none of them to the Lord. Bill was the main soul winner. Bill was leaving the next year. Apparently Hayatsu sensei felt as soon as Bill was gone hundreds would be saved. It didn't happen. And 90% of these “visions” are not of God, and they won't work.

Secondly, Bee had five points to his strategy teaching. Why he wanted to teach that to Pammy was a mystery to me. I asked Pammy, “What was your vision?” To get married.“Okay, you got married. Now what is your strategy?” To be a good wife and mother. You don't need a great deal of strategy teaching to do that. All you need to do is to do what you are supposed to. Do that, and everything else will fall in place.

If someone asked me to have a seminar on mission strategy, I would have five points. Point #1 would be“Abide in Christ”. Point #2 would be to repeat point #1. Point #3 would be to repeat point #2. Etc. There may be some room for all these seminars and strategy sessions but I suspect most of it is a waste of time.

Years ago a very fine sister from Kichijoji came to Ikoma to live with us. I took her with us to the local Japanese church where we were attending and wanted her to get involved. Nakaya sensei was very anxious for everyone in his church to be a soul winner and was having session on soul winning every Sunday after the morning service. He had very good material. It was exactly what I had taught in the Karuizawa Bible School. But Tomoko got up and walked out. I went after her and asked, “What is wrong?”

“That stuff won't do any good.”

I didn't know why, but in my heart I knew she was right. I doubt that there was one soul brought to Christ through all that teaching. If the believers had been fired up, and in love with Jesus, no doubt, others would have been saved. This is what is happening with Paul's girls in school.

Perhaps the greatest word on mission strategy was what the Lord told Hudson Taylor.”Walk with Me, and I will evangelize China through you.” Basically Hudson Taylor did that, and he probably had the greatest impact on China of any gaijin (foreigner) that ever set foot in that country. Hudson Taylor was one of the truly great missionaries and Christian statesmen in NT history, but the only writing he ever left with us was a little devotional booklet on the Song of Solomon. He left no manuals on mission strategy, but he left a great mission of the CIM.

The other day Mike called me warning,“The Jehovah Witnesses are in the area. They were just here and are headed for your house.” I appreciated the heads-up, and a few minutes later two very attractive falang (foreigner) girls were at our door. This was a first time experience for me, but I couldn't have enjoyed it more. Wilber Lingal is one of the top authorities on Mormon and Jehovah Witness. He said, most of the books you read about how to witness to them are nonsense. He said, “Don't argue doctrine. They love it and are extremely well schooled in Christian debate. They know all the verses.” I didn't treat these girls like JWs, but like friends. I asked them their testimonies on how they got involved with the JW. Their testimonies are odd, but they were very sincere. I knew they were anxious to take control and share their line what they had been taught, but I kept things going about dealing with basic issues of life.

For the next hour and a half the Holy Spirit was absolutely in control. I enjoyed it immensely, and I believe they enjoyed too, as this was something they had never seen before. The JW s are very biblical. They are always pushing “The Bible says”. I agreed with every verse they read to me. I asked,“Do you have eternal life?”

“No”

“You should. The Bible says God has given us eternal life right now.” I had them read 1 Jn. 5:11,12 in their Bible – “And this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hat life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” Then I told them about my experience talking with a Bible teacher in a school in Russia. I held up my passport and suggested, “This is eternal life.” Then I held up my Bible and suggested, “This is Jesus Christ.” I placed my passport in my Bible and asked, “Where is eternal life?” (my passport). In Christ (my Bible). “How do you get eternal life?” By taking Jesus Christ (my Bible).

Then one girl protested, but James says“Without works faith is dead” (Jm 2:17). Again I replied, “That is certainly true.” Then I told them that in Japan they have plastic policemen (manikins). When they first came out, a friend stopped to ask one directions. If you see a cop and you can't tell if it is real or a manikin, stick it with a pin and you will find out. If someone says they have faith but there is no works I doubt seriously that they have faith. If their faith has no works that faith is dead. Works is the expression of faith – not the means to get it. No reply.

They knew very little about the new-birth. I gave these girls an extended testimony on how I got saved and what Christ had done for me. There is no way anyone can argue with a personal testimony. They were very impressed. One girl sat there for 30 minutes bug-eyed with her mouth open. Another girl read two or three passages from the Bible. I said, “I totally agree with that. That is absolutely true.” Then I quoted the verses before and after the passage she had just read. They were blown away. They said they never met a man who knew the Bible so well. I stomped them at their own game without a word of argument. There was no contest. I was just sharing Christ.

Oh how my heart went out to them! I was perfectly sincere when I begged them to come back. I would love to be friends with them and have them in the home often. But it is the Holy Spirit that does it. Thank God He is doing that for Paul and his girls. And He can do it for anyone.

bill

Hell

8 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

I really have nothing to say. Paul suggested, “Why don't you just not write anything?” That might be the best approach. What I have to say is more negative than positive. I was preaching at Kichikun's church this morning. That was probably the worst service I have been in in that church. And it was probably the worst time preaching that I have had in a year.

I don't know what happened, but the devil just owned the service. At first it looked like no one was going to show up. At 10:30 there were only about four or five people there. Fortunately most of the Destiny Rescue gang showed up ten minutes later. Fa is the usual song leader. He does an outstanding job. He was gone this week and Kichikun had one of the men from Destiny lead the service. It would be hard to do worse. The guitars were turned up higher than Rei's mike. You could see his lips moving but it was hard to hear what he was saying. Rei was poorly coordinated with the boys on the guitars. He sang one or two choruses of the first song and stopped. The boys on the guitars weren't looking at him and just kept playing. It was bad. He stood there in silence while the guitar boys kept doing their thing with no one involved. Then they got back on page; and the computer with the projected words went out. Whoever was running the computer couldn't find the songs, and Rei was trying to sing songs with no words for the crowd. It got so bad I just stood there looking around. Some were trying to sing, but several were as inspired as I was.

I wanted to have a scripture reading before I spoke, but Rei just told me to speak and sat down. I asked several people to read the Bible, and had a hard time before I finally got Kichikun to read Ephesians 2. That too was very uninspiring.

Kichikun's wife, Ying, always interprets for me, and does an outstanding job. I really enjoy working with her. But today the Sunday school teacher didn't show up, and Ying taught the children rather than interpreting for me. A very fine girl, OA, was there and Kichikun asked her to interpret. I remember when OA was first saved four years ago at a Scott Noble Bible study, and I have been close with her ever since. She has been in the states twice to work for three months, and her English is pretty good. But to interpret for me was too far above her head. I was fired up and ranting as usual, but OA was very low-keyed conversationally trying to get across the point I was making. I felt like I was trying to get a fire hose stream of water through a perfume bottle. I knew I had a lot of material to cover, and it was terribly slow going through OA. Finally I thought, “Hang it! I don't care what time it is. I am just going to keep talking until I finish what is on my mind”. I did. Until 12:20. Then Rei had to have the rest of the service. It was 12:40 when the service was finally over. I was hoping for a wind-fall of souls today, but no one was saved. The high point of the morning for me was when I could leave the church and go home. I have had enough experience in preaching not to be offended by a down day. Life is a coin with two sides. Not every day is a bell-ringer high. There are bad times. But I believe the bad times area as profitable – if not more so –than the good days.

Pammy and I had had an unusually bad squall last week. You have got to take your hat off for the devil. It is utterly amazing how he can take nothing and make a huge issue out of it. It was so small, I can scarcely recall what the problem was. But Pammy went ballistic. That did marvels for me. The result was that I had one day as a complete write- off. It was like the end of the world. But the bottom line was, that when the Lord put things back together again, the new product was better than the one before. The north rim of the Grand Canyon is higher than the south. It seems that when we have a down time, when we come back up again we are on a higher plane than we had before the dip.

Thursday I was so low I felt it was impossible for me to speak this coming Sunday. In my depressed state I read the word “Having no hope” in Eph. 2:12.. That word resonated in my heart. I thought, “That would make a powerful message”. As I read Eph. 2 over several times, the contrast of the believer with the unsaved person became very sharp. Paul said,“Wherefore remember...(what you were)” That is a good idea.

My friend Lenard Hasson had gone to India to adopt two children. He got one 5 year old street girl who was living in a jail; not that she had done anything but simply because there was no place else to live. He took her to the states to live with them in a very affluent home. When Kathy was 16 she asked her dad to take her with him back to India. They hadn't been off the plane in Calcutta five minutes when she grabbed Len and pleaded,“Daddy, please take me home. This is too terrible! I can't stand it.” Her former life was so horrible she had completely blocked it out of her mind. It was overwhelming to be reminded what she had come from.

Paul begins his thesis of Eph. 2 with the statement. “And you hath He quickened (made alive) who were dead in trespasses and sins...”. This is the state of every descendant of Adam that has ever been born on this planet for the past 6,000 years. We all are born dead. The tree in the Garden was absolutely necessary. Adam could not prove his allegiance to God without having the opportunity to make a choice. A choice is not a choice if there is no choice. When Adam failed the opportunity given to him to say yes to God and no to the devil the lights went out, and they have been out ever since. The spirit in Adam died and humanity has been born dead ever since.

That is why the new-birth is absolutely necessary. When the Spirit of Christ comes to live in a persons heart, there is a new life that is born in him. And what a life it is! The last verse in Eph. 2 concludes that we are “built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit”. But for those who are not born-again we are reminded that they are “without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world”. That is a pretty grim situation.

I knew that nearly half of my listeners were unsaved, and my burden was to bring them to Christ. I wanted to press home to them how horrible it is to be without hope. For the patient slipping away with cancer, or the prisoner with a life sentence, their only hope of release is death. But death is no escape. I reminded them that it is appointed unto men once to die and after that the judgment (Heb. 9:27). Then I spent fifteen minutes describing the terror of hell.

There are five things the Bible tells of about hell. In Rev. 20: 1,2 we are told that it is a bottomless pit. That is a bad place to be. The terror of hell is that there is no bottom. You just keep getting lower. Man wants no restraint and God puts them in a place where there is no restraint. I have known people were bad, but the worst part was that they never seemed to hit the bottom. They just kept getting lower. In hell they spend eternity just getting lower.

Secondly, it is a place of outer darkness (Mt. 22:13). Jesus said, “This is the condemnation that light has come into the world but men love darkness rather than light.” (Jn. 3:19). Before I was saved, I went with some friends to a bar in Bandara, Texas. When we opened the door, I couldn't see a thing. I could hear the music and voices, but it was some time before our eyes adjusted to the dark to be able to see faces. One time I took an innocent young man to a bar in Japan to show him what it was like. He took a picture. That was a no-no. They ushered us to the door. Men do not like light. Sin is best in the darkest place. So God gives them what they want. Outer darkness. There is no light in hell.

Third and fourthly Jesus told us that in hell the worm never diesand the fire never goes out (Mk. 9:43-48). Forty years ago garbage disposal was different than it is today. Every city in the world had a city garbage dump. One time I was impressed when I went to the town dump in Karuizawa that that was the only place in town where the fire never went out and the worm never died. That was true of every city in Japan. The reason the fire never went out and the worm never died is that there was an unending flow of garbage. They were always burning and worms were always in the raw garbage. The reason why the fire never goes out and the worm never dies in hell is that there is nothing to stop the flow of filth. The lost souls just keep producing more and more filth and God just keeps burning it and the worms feeding on it. Hell is the city dump of creation.

And finally Rev. 20:14,15 tells us that hell is a lake of fire. I am not sure why this is other than that is God's best way of dealing with filth. Hell is not a real nice place But the worst feature of hell is that there is no hope. Once a person falls into hell there is no end and there is no coming out. Jesus frequently reminded us that it is forever. And that is the same forever used to describe eternal life. Just as our life in heaven is forever, the soul in hell is there forever. There is no hope. I said all this to encourage my unsaved listeners that it would be in their best interest to say yes to Jesus and accept His offer of eternal salvation.

No soap. No one was saved.

I have known this for years; that there is no persuasive argument that will bring a person to salvation. Only the Holy Spirit can do this. I did my best, but it was a real poor meeting this morning.

I don't know. Maybe the Lord spoke to someone and that word went into their heart which will ultimately bring forth fruit. God is good in shielding us from success. There is a great deal of fleshly satisfaction to preach a powerful message and see souls moved to tears and salvation. But there is no glory when you preach your heart out only to see yawns.

We know that Rom. 8:28 is still a fact and we are commanded to thank God for all things. Obediently, I thank God for a bad time this morning and it is up to Him how He will work things out of what looked like a poor service. Jesus is the same on good days and bad. It has been a tough week, but He has kept us through it and we are still on our feet plodding on. I hope your feet aren't as sore as mine. But it can't be far from here to when we will be home.

Looking forward to seeing you there,

bill

The Disciples Requests

1 July 2012

Dear Phyllis,

Friday night I was invited to speak at an all night prayer meeting. The prayer meeting turned out to be a fellowship meeting until midnight, but they did sit through a thunder storm of a message. At first they asked me to restrict my comments to 30 minutes. Then it was doubled to asking me to speak twice for 30 minutes. Fortunately, I didn't look at my watch, and – praise the Lord – neither did anyone else. In a five hour meeting I wound up speaking for three hours. That was just as well, because the total prayer was about 30 minutes, and from 11:00 o'clock on, many were horizontal – literally.

I have no idea what happened. I prefaced my remarks by saying , “This will probably be one of the most important messages you will ever hear in your life, but I doubt seriously that it will have any impact in changing your life.” I say that because there are extremely few messages that are life-altering, pivotal, moments. But I do know that I had one of the most intense anointing by the Holy Spirit that I have ever had. What the Lord laid on my heart was so intense that it was almost inexpressible. I was encouraged that as the evening progressed, the interest factor of people leaning forward, seriously listening to what I was saying, continued to escalate. When I finally quit, everyone was stunned when we looked at our watches to discover that it was 11:00 o'clock.

In the gospels, we read that the disciples only asked the Lord to do two things for them. The first one is in Luke 11:1 where they asked Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray.” That was one of the most significant topics that has greatly refocused my life. The second request was in Luke 17:5 where they asked, “Lord, increase our faith.”

There is no need to discus the importance of faith. There is nothing more vital in the spiritual life than faith. Faith is everything. What oxygen is to the body, faith is to the spirit. Who doesn't want to have more faith? There have been untold thousands of messages on how to increase faith. If you ask ten people, you will get ten different answers, but I have never heard anyone discus the answer that Jesus gave to that issue. From Luke 17:7 to verse 10 you have Jesus' answer on how to have more faith.

Basically there are three points. But before He got to discussing how to have more faith, Jesus set forth the kind of heart that a person must have. He talked abut servants. If a person does not have the heart of a servant it is pointless to talk about faith. Big men, powerful guys, empire builders, religious politicians; don't need faith. They can do all right on their own; maneuvering, and pushing their way through the crowd to get to the top. Faith doesn't work that way. God gives faith to the poor. The reason we need faith is to serve. Jesus didn't talk about masters or kings here. He talked about servants.

He said that servants were out all day doing two things. Some were plowing and some were feeding cattle. Watchman Ni suggests that this is the two aspects of Christian service. Plowing is evangelism, and feeding cattle is taking care of believers. He may be right. Everyone's gift is different. Some are better at evangelism, and others are better at teaching. But the first requirement to having more faith is DO YOUR DUTY.Do the task the Lord has given you. If the Lord has given someone a gift in evangelism, and they spend all their time making model airplanes, it is pointless to ask the Lord for more faith. It is required of stewards that a man be found faithful (1Cor. 4:2). How is it possible that a person is irresponsible in doing what he is supposed to do and then expect the Lord to increase his faith. Forget it! Do your duty!

But the second point is huge. In todays labor relations environment Jesus' remarks are down right offensive. It difficult for the Holy Spirit to explain to us what is so important. In todays world, if a servant is out in the field putting in a hard day doing what he is supposed to do, and comes in at 6:00 pm the day is over. For a master to demand that servant fix supper for him before the tired servant can get a bite to eat himself, that master would be in court. But the point that Jesus is emphasizing is that the most important issue in life is waiting on the master. It is His needs first. I told the folks Friday night that I wished I had three hours to discuss this point alone, as there is nothing that is more vital. To what degree the Holy Spirit was able to get that point across to them, I don't know.

When I was a young man in the Air Force, I attended a Joe Carrol conference. I was considering leaving the Air Force to become a missionary, and asked Joe what was the most important thing for a missionary? Instantly he fired back, “The establishment and maintenance of a strong devotional life”.That was probably the greatest advice anyone ever gave me in my life It has become the corner stone of my life ever since. For a Christian, there is nothing more important than devotions. If we go to the dinner table three times a day, how much more vital is it that we spend a significant amount of time with the Lord? A person can just as well attempt to skip meals, and stay healthy; as they can neglect their time with the Lord, and expect to be in good shape spiritually. What kind of insanity is this, that a person can spend three minutes a day reading Our Daily Bread and saying a now-I-lay-me-down-to-sleep prayer; and expect the Lord to increase their faith? This is a huge problem with most Christians. I challenged the folks Friday night, “Get a sheet of paper and write down your daily schedule. How many hours a day do you spend looking at TV or on your computer? And how much time do you spend with the Lord?” I doubt that most people give Jesus 5% of their time. It probably is more like 2 or 3%, if they are especially spiritual.

For years, Dave Martin was one of the top missionaries in Japan. He was a fantastic evangelist, and a man with gigantic faith. His heart was so bad he was supposed to be dead before he was 30, but he lived to be high 80s. One time he was having special dendo kais (evangelist meeting) with Peter Kobabe in Nagoya. Early one morning his wife, Jackie, called from Tokyo. Peter staggered to the phone, and told Jackie that they had been up late the night before. Dave needed his rest, and he was reluctant to call him. Jackie laughed and said, “He has been up for hours.” Peter quietly knocked on the door and was surprised to see Dave fully dressed sitting at the desk spending time with the Lord. Dave later told another friend of mine that, from the first day that Jesus came into his heart as His savior, he had never missed a day in his time meeting with the Lord. That was his secret. His devotional life was basic.

But what are our devotions like? Are we waiting on the Lord, or do we expect Him to be waiting on us. In Jesus' parable, the servant is waiting on the master first. Do you want more faith? Make His concerns more important than your own. Tragically, most of our prayer time is little more than a wish list asking the Lord for things that we want Him to do for us. But it is when He is seated, and we are attending the things that concern Him the most, that He can increase or faith. Really, what is our game plan? Are we out to promote our cause or His? Why have more faith if it is only to make our own program front and center? It is exhausting to try to grunt harder, to have more faith, to believe God for the things that we want so badly. If we only had more faith, then we could move this mountain or that tree. But if we forget the mountain or the tree, and focus on the beauty of who Jesus is, and devote ourselves to joining forces with Him – rather than trying to get Him to join forces with us – then we relax and are more satisfied. This is a lost message among the prosperity people whose basic concern is self-promotion.

The third point of the Lord's instruction how to have more faith is equally surprising. He talks about these servants who have been out all day putting in a hard days work; then they come in and fix supper for the boss before they can eat themselves. My goodness these are five star servants! But after all this, they are supposed to say, “We are unprofitable servants. We have only done that which we were supposed to.” What does this have to do with having more faith? Humility. Humility is one of the most important ingredients in the walk of faith. For one thing, pride is terribly onerous to God. God resists the proud (Jm. 4:6). Jesus said to the Pharisees, “How can you believe, which receive honor one of another, and seek not that honor that cometh from God only?” (Jn. 5:44). Pride is a terrible barrier to faith but humility is the gate.

I believe the two greatest people that Jesus met in His life here on earth were gentiles; and we don't even know their names. The first one was the Roman centurion who had a sick servant (Mt. 8:5-10). He sent word asking the Lord to heal his servant. When he heard that Jesus was coming to his house he rushed out and said, “Lord, You don't need to do that. Just speak Your Word.” He didn't go himself, but sent someone else to Jesus with the message. This man was a high ranking Roman soldier. They were occupying Israel. No Jew was bigger than a Roman soldier. But he didn't consider himself worthy even to speak to Christ – much less have Him in his house. Jesus said of him, “I have not found so great faith in Israel”. That is some testimony that Christ gave of him. He was the greatest man of faith He had ever met. Jesus marveled at his faith, but I marvel at his humility.

The other hero was the Canaanitish woman of Tyre (Mt. 15:21-28). Jesus went with His disciples for a vacation way up north. This lady heard that Christ was in the area, and knew He could fix her demonized daughter. She sought Him out, and caused a terrific ruckus. At first Jesus ignored her, but she got on the nerves of the disciples so badly they begged Him to tell her to split. Finally Jesus said to her, “I'm sorry, lady, but I am only sent to help the Jews.” That didn't slow her down. She came and worshiped Him pleading, “Lord help me!” Then Jesus said, “It is not right to take bread away from the children and cast it to dogs.” That has got to be the most insulting remark in the Bible! It is one thing that the Jews looked down on the gentiles and there was strong feeling between them; but after being ignored so long, and such a serious rebuff – to be called a dog, and be considered like, to help her would be taking bread from children to cast to dogs – that would blow out the breaker box of the most gracious humble person. It is safe to say that, to get a remark like that, 99.999% of all people would turn on their heels and storm out of the building. That is as crushing a blow as it is possible to administer. And yet her response has got to be the greatest word in the Bible; “True, Lord, but the dogs get the crumbs which fall from the masters table”. That remark took the breath away from Jesus more than anything He ever heard in His 33 years on this earth. He was just floored; and remarked, “O woman, great is thy faith! Be it unto thee even as thou wilt.”Jesus knew what was inside that woman, and His insult brought it out. That enabled her to take the highest pinnacle of faith in the gospels. Humility and faith are inseparably joined together.

In response to the request for more faith Jesus told the story about servants and said the path to more faith is by doing your duty, making devotion to the Lord primary, and humility.

Gomen nasai. I know I have written you about this before. I know this is not a new message. But it certainly was the Lord's word to us Friday night. I nearly went crazy trying to share with the people there the truth of these three things. Pammy was the interpreter. I don't know how it came out, but she seemed to do reasonably well in keeping up with me. I am not a candidate for more faith, but I certainly plead with the Lord to make these three things to be more functional in my life every day.

See you next week. Have a good one, for Jesus' sake.

bill