26 May 2013
Dear Phyllis,
In flying one of the most dangerous things any pilot faces is hypoxia – lack of oxygen. This is the cause of blacking out when pulling high Gs. In tight turns, because of centrifugal force, the blood is drained from the brain and pools in the legs. When the brain is deprived of oxygen, several things happen. The first sign is eyesight. The visual nerves are the most sensitive and dependent on oxygen. The next is hearing, and the last is consciousness. Blacking out in dog fighting is not serious because as soon as you pass out you naturally ease up on the stick and regain consciousness. But if you pass out at altitude because of hypoxia there is no guarantee of recovery.
We used to have to take chamber rides every three years. A chamber ride is to go into a room-size tank where they pump the air out of it to simulate various altitudes. The reason for that is to familiarize pilots with their personal symptoms of hypoxia. It various slightly from person to person, but generally what it feels like is a tingling in your hands and arms. They had us work in pairs, and took us up to 40,000 feet. Then one person would take off his oxygen mask, and wait until he passed out. While you are passing out they had us write numbers from100 backwards. I got down to the 60s and then the pencil went to a slump line. The partner would watch you until you were unconscious, and then slap the oxygen mask on your face. Recovery was almost instantaneous. Then we would trade places and I would watch the other guy.
In five years of flying I only got hypoxia once, and that was unusual. I was flying with another fellow in a T bird (T 33). Everything was normal except the cabin pressurization was poor. In most aircraft, the cabin pressure is usually around 8 to 10,000 feet. Our bird was about 25,000 feet. That day was the first time I had flown with that pilot and he was an unusually poor pilot. He was flying from the back seat and couldn't keep the wings level. You never criticize another persons flying, but I thought he was as bad as I had ever flown with. After a few minutes he spoke up complaining that there was something wrong with the aircraft. I suggested, “Let me try it.” I couldn't keep the wings level either. What we were up against was extremely unusual. We discussed what could possibly be wrong with a T bird that wouldn't stay level, and we couldn't think of a thing. Finally he suggested, “Do you suppose we are hypoxic?” It seemed highly unlikely but but just to check it out we decided to go on pressure breathing.
The body requires a certain level of air pressure to put the oxygen into the blood system. A person can sit at 40,000 feet breathing 100% oxygen and pass out. The blood in the lungs can be saturated with oxygen but there isn't sufficient pressure to make the exchange. For extreme altitudes like that there is a setting on the oxygen system where the air comes out under high pressure. When that happens it is like the air is trying to blow the oxygen mask off your face And the breathing mechanism in the body is reversed where the air is forced into your lungs and it takes hard grunting to exhale. To check the possibility of hypoxia we flipped over to the pressure system. Suddenly our vision went bam. We were half out and didn't know it. Our peripheral vision had narrowed down considerably. When we went pressure breathing, our vision suddenly went wide. With that we dove that bird to a considerably lower altitude, and took it back to be fixed.
There was a famous case several years ago where a well known PGA golfer was flying in his Gulf Stream jet in America. The plane failed to report at several in-route points and the air traffic controllers scrambled some Air Force jets to see what was going on. As the interceptor jets flew close to the silent private plane, they noticed the plane was on auto pilot, and both pilots were slumped over the stick unconscious. There was nothing that could be done. Everyone in the plane was out cold and it was just a matter of time before the plane would run out of fuel and crashed. It was terrible news for the wives of the people in that bird to hear that their husbands were unconscious and in a matter of three hours they would be dead.
I feel like the fighter pilots flying formation with that doomed aircraft in talking to unsaved people here. It is a good sign when the bells go off inside the lost one, but it is serious when they can listen to a message on their certain doom with no response. You know it is just a matter of time and it will be all over, but you can't raise them to take necessary action before they are forever in the flames. For over a year a local NGO, Destiny Rescue, has joined forces with us in our Thai church, which has brought in a large influx of unsaved girls. I have a serous burden for most of the young folks in our church. I have preached some of the most impassioned messages of my life and still over 2/3 are unsaved. To what degree the bells have been going off in their hearts is unknown. A year ago we did have one good break where I preached an impassioned evangelistic message and five girls raised their hands for salvation. That was one of the very few times we saw tears in a service. Four were baptized a few weeks later. But that was the last break we have had.
I am scheduled to speak again next week and the Lord has laid a very heavy burden on my heart to see the remaining 2/3 saved. But what we are dealing with here is only a microcosm of the general condition all around us. I feel Thailand may be slightly easier to see souls saved than Japan, but both countries are very similar.
Yesterday my friend Scott called saying there was a girl from Japan visiting them, and he wanted to bring her by to meet me. I was delighted. Oh, it was good to speak Nihongo (Japanese). I am amazed how my Nihongo still stays with me. Though I seldom speak to Japanese here, the occasional time when I do meet someone, it just pours out like I have never left the country. Miyumi was a lovely 29 year old girl from Kumamoto. In our conversation I naturally asked her if she had ever read the Bible. She surprised me by saying she had a Christian friend who was taking her to a Bible study at the YMCA in Kumamoto and she had her own personal Bible. But as I tried to share with her the reality of knowing Jesus, it was like I was talking to a manikin. It is hard to explain, but when talking to people about the Lord, there is a very definite awareness when you are connected, and the other times when people are only polite. An argument is better than silent politeness. In an argument, at least you are connected. Talking to the silent polite one is like talking to someone passed out with hypoxia.
It is like both countries are totally out cold with hypoxia. I believe I wrote you last week abut how different Russia was. Even Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos are easier to win souls than in Japan or Thailand.
I remember one night I was in Hue, Vietnam, and went to a fairly expensive restaurant by mistake. I wouldn't have been there had I known the price. But as I was eating my meal, a lovely hostess passed by to speak to me. There was nothing immoral about that, as her job was to make the kyaku sans (guests) comfortable and welcomed. In our brief conversation I asked her if she wanted eternal life. She laughed and replied, “No, I just want a happy life.” I came back, “I have a happier life than you do.” Again she laughed lightly and responded, “What makes you think you are happier than me?” “Because you have a great deal of sorrow and pain in your heart.” She burst into tears. I pleaded with her, “Please sit down and talk to me.” She explained that company policy forbid her to sit at a table with customers. So I asked her if she would be there tomorrow. She said Sunday was her day off, but she would be there Monday morning. The next day I was meeting with some top-flight missionaries in Hue, and shared with them the story about that girl. I asked Mark to be on stand-by Monday morning as I might call him from the restaurant. The next morning I went back for breakfast and meet the girl again who was waiting for me. Ten minutes later I borrowed her cell phone to call Mark, and he was there with a Bible in minutes. The letters I got from them in the months that followed were wonderful. The last I heard was she was working with a Baptist missionary in Saigon.
Oh I long for that! It is so wonderful when you meet people with hungry seeking hearts. It can be done but that is an unusual phenomenon. Paul is seeing a little bit of that revival here right now. He has a young boy staying with him that was so bad he got kicked out of the last place he was staying. After Genalone moved in with Paul and Marisa they have had no problems with him whatsoever. After six months they had a call from his teacher in his school asking what they did. The teacher said, “That boy was the worst kid in the school; now he is the best. What in the world did you do to transform him?” Paul said he was no problem, but they didn't expect him to turn out to be a fire-brand for Jesus. The other day Paul heard that Genalone decided to start a cell-type Bible study at school and had 40 kids meeting with him. There is not a missionary or pastor in Thailand that can match that story.
I have seen refreshing times of the Spirit with the Kichijoji people in Japan. In 1986, sister Koyama started a small meeting her apartment in Kobe. We went there when it was about ten people sitting on the floor in her tiny apartment. But Jesus was there. For one year I was never in a meeting that you couldn't look around at some time during the meeting and see tears pouring down the faces of the believers assembled. Within a year that tiny assembly had grown to over 100. Oh, the testimonies were amazing! Sunday would start a 9:00 AM as the believers went to service, and would go non-stop to midnight. The service would start around 9:30, and go until noon. Then they would have lunch together. They could only stay in that rented meeting hall until 3:00. From there the believers would go to various friends houses and fellowship until midnight. One Sunday I was riding to church with the Hirotas, and Miyuki said to the other lady in the car, “How did we ever live before we had Sunday?”.
When I was in Chiba building a church in 1993, I met a brother who had recently moved to a remote section in Chiba near Ibaragi. He was driving 40 km to go to a Kichijoji meeting in Ibaragi, but decided to have church in his own house. His house was as inaccessible as you could get. He was 15 km from the nearest bus stop or eki (train station). It was like you couldn't get there from here. But there was something about his home. In no time they were running over 35 coming every Sunday. But it wasn't the Sunday service that counted. That was the craziest place I ever saw. Weekends would start on Friday evening and run non-stop until Monday morning. Christians would come from all over and somehow no one wanted to go home. His poor wife did nothing but fix coffee and sandwiches for 48 hours. People would come all day Saturday and all day Sunday. It was wonderful. The fellowship was intense. And, man howdy, did souls get saved!
What a contrast that is to the average church in Thailand, Japan, or the states today. Somehow is seems like there is a terrible shortage of oxygen in most places. It is like everyone is unconscious and they don't realize it.
Lord these are desperate days. Give us a deep Holy Spirit awakening and let Jesus be honored as He must be. Please do it for Your great Names sake.
bill
Sunday, May 26, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Finally, some answers!
19 May 2013
Dear Phyllis,
It is with a certain degree of confusion that I sit down today to write you a letter. Not that I don't have anything to write about, but that the card is too full.
Taking the minor point first; we have lost two boys. This is the first I have mentioned the boys to you. But a week ago it looked like our family had doubled. I little over a month ago a lady had asked Pammy if we would take two young boys into our home to raise. Pammy was quite positive about that request, but I had no guidance. From time to time Pammy asked me for a response, but I had nothing from the Lord. Then two weeks ago, as I was praying about it, I looked down from my balcony roost to see one of the boys and his mother walking towards our house. I hollered down stairs telling Pammy to go to the front door to welcome the guest and added, “The answer is yes”. As a result of that we had two boys move in. The oldest was 13 and the youngest was 9. At first it looked like a fairly good deal. But as days went by, it became apparent that we really weren't set up to take on this new responsibility.
Last Monday we took a bus up to Chiang Dao to visit one of the boys home. I have been in places like that, in my travels in SEA, before, but it would be an education for you if you could see it. That house was little different from a native shack for stone age people in Papua New Guinea. The frame was nearly entirely made of bamboo poles. The roof was grass thatch. The walls were entirely split bamboo. (There was only one room.) The building was on poles and the floor was split bamboo. The cooking was by wood in a clay vessel. Everything overhead was black from the smoke. The water had to be carried from a source one kilo meter away, and the toilet was a hole 20 meters from the house that would make an 1900 outhouse in America look like a five star hotel. But that was the boys home, and that was where he was the most comfortable.
Our house would look like the kings palace to them, but that was like putting a bird from a tree in a golden cage. Somehow these boys will get an education, and they probably will be raised in a slightly more affluent environment than that village, but I am satisfied we are not what the Lord wants for them.
The other day Paul showed up saying he had a message from God for me. It was so unusual that it causes me to believe that he might be right. He said the night before his mind was clear when suddenly, out of the blue, the Lord told him, “Tell Bill to paint that house and fix it up.” When he shared that word with me, I said that is basically the same word the Lord has been telling me. This past week I changed the water system in the house which is a huge improvement. We are picking things up outside, and generally trying to improve the over all appearance. If this is accurate, that would seem to indicate that the Lord intends for us to live here for the foreseeable future. Recently I have been thinking seriously about a major shift in living and ministry.
But the main thing on my heart is not the material things around us, but what the Lord has been showing me morning by morning. I grieve to use the word “indescribable”. That is inadequate, but that is the only word in English that comes close to expressing my dilemma. Light can only be seen. You can try to describe light, but that is like trying to describe a rainbow to a man born blind. Light is totally personal. Information can be shared, but light can only be seen by the person looking at it. My times with the Lord this past week have been as significant as at any time in my life. One morning spiritual things became so real I couldn't read my Bible. I tried to, but it was so wonderful I had to quit. It was a little bit like looking at the sun that was so bright you couldn't do it. Even now it is difficult to share with you the things that have become so real to me.
One morning I felt like a beggar holding out a stump with no hand to receive what the Lord was offering. I could see so clearly the things that Jesus is offering to me, but somehow I was unable to receive them. This is one problem with an unloved child. There are children that are intensely loved by their parents, but somehow the child seems unable to respond and accept that love. I was in that category. I pleaded with the Lord to give me a hand to be able to receive the grace He is offering.
The story Jesus told us abut the Prodigal Son has been extremely meaningful to me. For several mornings I pleaded with the Lord to give me the spirit of the elder son. Of the two boys, he was hands down the best. He stayed home, worked hard, and never stepped out of line. I prayed, “Lord if I could only be that faithful in serving Jesus, I would be very happy." I don't care what I can get out of it, but I desperately want my life to count for Jesus and be useful in adding to the advancement of His Kingdom. I admire the elder son. Of course he didn't know the heart of the Father, but I still like his performance.
But then I struggled with the plight of the Prodigal. He had a disgraceful record and a troubled conscience to deal with when he came home. I felt extremely uncomfortable with the three gifts that were bestowed on him. In addition to the feast, he got the robe, the ring, and the shoes. These three items became very meaningful to me. His clothes were coated with pig manure, and they were little more than rags when he got home. In exchange for that he was given a beautiful new garment.
This is the first thing Jesus does for us. The Lord has drawn picture of this for us in Zech, 3:1-5. There we see Joshua standing before the Lord with a filth garment and the Lord taking that off him to clothe him with a beautiful new one. This is, of course, what Jesus has done for us in taking our filth garment of sin on Himself, and dying on the Cross with it. Then clothing us with His righteousness. The new beautiful garment that the Father has given us to clothed with is Jesus. Anyone who has been saved for over a year should understand that clearly. That it the first thing the Lord does for us.
But the second gift was the ring. This is relationship. When the Father gave him the ring he said, “This is because you are my son.” I have never been seriously challenged whether or not I was (am) saved. But the Father-son relationship has always been a very weak point with me. I was born into a very fine family. We weren't saved Christians but my father was a very good man. Unfortunately we were so different that I never really knew my father. He was a CPA with his own business. By nature I was a cowboy and carpenter. My dad was afraid of horses and knew nothing about tools or how to use them. Consequently we I grew up like we lived on different planets. Whether or not that was the reason I never felt comfortable with addressing God as my Father I don't know, but for most of my life that has been a meaningless title. Reading Andrew Murray on prayer this past week, has been almost a life-altering experience. As never before the reality of what Jesus intended when He taught us to pray “Our Father” has impacted me so hard I had to close the book. Oh how little we (I) comprehend the relationship that is available to us, and God desires for us to have! If that truth ever got a serious grip on our hearts it would be almost inconceivable to imagine God not answering our prayers. The words “How much more shall your Father” (Mt. 7:11; Lk. 11:13) have burned in my heart like a branding iron on wood.
The third gift that was bestowed on the Prodigal was the shoes. Obviously, this speaks of our walk. I see those three things as highly significant in that order. For the returned Prodigal, the first thing he did was to exchange his robe; the second was to establish a father-son relationship, and then comes the walk.
Andrew Murray points out that the supreme gift that the Father can give us – and the one He is the most desirous for us to have – is the Holy Spirit. Having gone well past the half century mark in my walk with the Lord, I look back now on my early years of desperately pleading with the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit with profound gratefulness. There has been no issue in my Christian life that I have pursued more intensely, and have been more frustrated, than the doctrine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Joe Carroll was never Pentecostal, but his message was very close to the Pentecostal message. I saw the advantage and necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and begged God to fill me. It never happened. How I praise God now. The reason God withheld that blessing was clearly, what I was looking for, and expecting, was fundamentally wrong.
The Pentecostal emphasis on the Holy Spirit is good but their message is flawed. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is presented as an experience. At least that was what I was seeking. But to be filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one time experience. There is no such thing as having some experience 15 years ago, and ever after wear the badge as a Spirit-filled believer. Someone might have had a wonderful experience 15 years ago, but that says nothing about where he is today. Man thinks in terms of the bucket principle. “Here is my cup (bucket) – fill it up, Lord.” Spirituality is not a bucket, but a hose. It is not an experience, or a series of several experiences; but of a daily relationship. It is not getting filled, but abiding in Christ.
One other factor that makes the Pentecostal message of a one time filling wrong, is the Greek verb tense in Eph. 5:18 where we are commended to be “filled with the Spirit”. The Greek tense there is not a one time event but the continuative tense. It could be better expressed as, “be ye continually being filled”. The best illustration this is a balloon. You take one puff and the balloon is filled. But then you take two puffs and the balloon is even more filled. As you keep blowing, the balloon is increasingly being filled. This is what Jesus wants to do for us. He wants us to be continually being filled to an ever increasing capacity. He does this by the hose principal – not the bucket. The Lord's illustration is this is what He told us in John 15 about branch abiding in the vine. The life of the vine does not come in periodic bucket experiences, but the continual flow of life that is received by simply abiding.
I saw as never before how intensely the Father wants to fill us with His Spirit. The problem isn't on the giving end, but the receiving end. The problem is that we have such a tiny orifice to allow Him to fill us. It is like a bottle in the ocean. It is not that there is so little water to fill the bottle, but that the bottle has such a small hole to allow the water in.
What I am trying to say is, that this has been an extremely good week. It was a very good experience to go up to Chiang Dao to visit the home of the boys who wanted to live with us. I am satisfied that, it isn't that we closed our hearts to them, but that the Lord clearly showed us the this was not what He wanted for them or us. Getting the water system in this house fixed is a land mark event. This is something that I have wanted to do for over ten years. We have a much better system now that will be cheaper for electricity. But the visits I have enjoyed with Jesus nearly every morning have been so wonderful this is better than just getting saved. In retrospect I marvel at the Lord's patience with me, and now clearly see the reason for His dealings with me 45 years ago. What I longed for then is now my possession; only that Jesus has shown me that His ways are radically different from my former concepts.
Oh Jesus is wonderful! Oh my goodness, what a salvation! I hope you are enjoying Him too.
bill
Dear Phyllis,
It is with a certain degree of confusion that I sit down today to write you a letter. Not that I don't have anything to write about, but that the card is too full.
Taking the minor point first; we have lost two boys. This is the first I have mentioned the boys to you. But a week ago it looked like our family had doubled. I little over a month ago a lady had asked Pammy if we would take two young boys into our home to raise. Pammy was quite positive about that request, but I had no guidance. From time to time Pammy asked me for a response, but I had nothing from the Lord. Then two weeks ago, as I was praying about it, I looked down from my balcony roost to see one of the boys and his mother walking towards our house. I hollered down stairs telling Pammy to go to the front door to welcome the guest and added, “The answer is yes”. As a result of that we had two boys move in. The oldest was 13 and the youngest was 9. At first it looked like a fairly good deal. But as days went by, it became apparent that we really weren't set up to take on this new responsibility.
Last Monday we took a bus up to Chiang Dao to visit one of the boys home. I have been in places like that, in my travels in SEA, before, but it would be an education for you if you could see it. That house was little different from a native shack for stone age people in Papua New Guinea. The frame was nearly entirely made of bamboo poles. The roof was grass thatch. The walls were entirely split bamboo. (There was only one room.) The building was on poles and the floor was split bamboo. The cooking was by wood in a clay vessel. Everything overhead was black from the smoke. The water had to be carried from a source one kilo meter away, and the toilet was a hole 20 meters from the house that would make an 1900 outhouse in America look like a five star hotel. But that was the boys home, and that was where he was the most comfortable.
Our house would look like the kings palace to them, but that was like putting a bird from a tree in a golden cage. Somehow these boys will get an education, and they probably will be raised in a slightly more affluent environment than that village, but I am satisfied we are not what the Lord wants for them.
The other day Paul showed up saying he had a message from God for me. It was so unusual that it causes me to believe that he might be right. He said the night before his mind was clear when suddenly, out of the blue, the Lord told him, “Tell Bill to paint that house and fix it up.” When he shared that word with me, I said that is basically the same word the Lord has been telling me. This past week I changed the water system in the house which is a huge improvement. We are picking things up outside, and generally trying to improve the over all appearance. If this is accurate, that would seem to indicate that the Lord intends for us to live here for the foreseeable future. Recently I have been thinking seriously about a major shift in living and ministry.
But the main thing on my heart is not the material things around us, but what the Lord has been showing me morning by morning. I grieve to use the word “indescribable”. That is inadequate, but that is the only word in English that comes close to expressing my dilemma. Light can only be seen. You can try to describe light, but that is like trying to describe a rainbow to a man born blind. Light is totally personal. Information can be shared, but light can only be seen by the person looking at it. My times with the Lord this past week have been as significant as at any time in my life. One morning spiritual things became so real I couldn't read my Bible. I tried to, but it was so wonderful I had to quit. It was a little bit like looking at the sun that was so bright you couldn't do it. Even now it is difficult to share with you the things that have become so real to me.
One morning I felt like a beggar holding out a stump with no hand to receive what the Lord was offering. I could see so clearly the things that Jesus is offering to me, but somehow I was unable to receive them. This is one problem with an unloved child. There are children that are intensely loved by their parents, but somehow the child seems unable to respond and accept that love. I was in that category. I pleaded with the Lord to give me a hand to be able to receive the grace He is offering.
The story Jesus told us abut the Prodigal Son has been extremely meaningful to me. For several mornings I pleaded with the Lord to give me the spirit of the elder son. Of the two boys, he was hands down the best. He stayed home, worked hard, and never stepped out of line. I prayed, “Lord if I could only be that faithful in serving Jesus, I would be very happy." I don't care what I can get out of it, but I desperately want my life to count for Jesus and be useful in adding to the advancement of His Kingdom. I admire the elder son. Of course he didn't know the heart of the Father, but I still like his performance.
But then I struggled with the plight of the Prodigal. He had a disgraceful record and a troubled conscience to deal with when he came home. I felt extremely uncomfortable with the three gifts that were bestowed on him. In addition to the feast, he got the robe, the ring, and the shoes. These three items became very meaningful to me. His clothes were coated with pig manure, and they were little more than rags when he got home. In exchange for that he was given a beautiful new garment.
This is the first thing Jesus does for us. The Lord has drawn picture of this for us in Zech, 3:1-5. There we see Joshua standing before the Lord with a filth garment and the Lord taking that off him to clothe him with a beautiful new one. This is, of course, what Jesus has done for us in taking our filth garment of sin on Himself, and dying on the Cross with it. Then clothing us with His righteousness. The new beautiful garment that the Father has given us to clothed with is Jesus. Anyone who has been saved for over a year should understand that clearly. That it the first thing the Lord does for us.
But the second gift was the ring. This is relationship. When the Father gave him the ring he said, “This is because you are my son.” I have never been seriously challenged whether or not I was (am) saved. But the Father-son relationship has always been a very weak point with me. I was born into a very fine family. We weren't saved Christians but my father was a very good man. Unfortunately we were so different that I never really knew my father. He was a CPA with his own business. By nature I was a cowboy and carpenter. My dad was afraid of horses and knew nothing about tools or how to use them. Consequently we I grew up like we lived on different planets. Whether or not that was the reason I never felt comfortable with addressing God as my Father I don't know, but for most of my life that has been a meaningless title. Reading Andrew Murray on prayer this past week, has been almost a life-altering experience. As never before the reality of what Jesus intended when He taught us to pray “Our Father” has impacted me so hard I had to close the book. Oh how little we (I) comprehend the relationship that is available to us, and God desires for us to have! If that truth ever got a serious grip on our hearts it would be almost inconceivable to imagine God not answering our prayers. The words “How much more shall your Father” (Mt. 7:11; Lk. 11:13) have burned in my heart like a branding iron on wood.
The third gift that was bestowed on the Prodigal was the shoes. Obviously, this speaks of our walk. I see those three things as highly significant in that order. For the returned Prodigal, the first thing he did was to exchange his robe; the second was to establish a father-son relationship, and then comes the walk.
Andrew Murray points out that the supreme gift that the Father can give us – and the one He is the most desirous for us to have – is the Holy Spirit. Having gone well past the half century mark in my walk with the Lord, I look back now on my early years of desperately pleading with the Lord to fill me with the Holy Spirit with profound gratefulness. There has been no issue in my Christian life that I have pursued more intensely, and have been more frustrated, than the doctrine of the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Joe Carroll was never Pentecostal, but his message was very close to the Pentecostal message. I saw the advantage and necessity of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and begged God to fill me. It never happened. How I praise God now. The reason God withheld that blessing was clearly, what I was looking for, and expecting, was fundamentally wrong.
The Pentecostal emphasis on the Holy Spirit is good but their message is flawed. The fullness of the Holy Spirit is presented as an experience. At least that was what I was seeking. But to be filled with the Holy Spirit is not a one time experience. There is no such thing as having some experience 15 years ago, and ever after wear the badge as a Spirit-filled believer. Someone might have had a wonderful experience 15 years ago, but that says nothing about where he is today. Man thinks in terms of the bucket principle. “Here is my cup (bucket) – fill it up, Lord.” Spirituality is not a bucket, but a hose. It is not an experience, or a series of several experiences; but of a daily relationship. It is not getting filled, but abiding in Christ.
One other factor that makes the Pentecostal message of a one time filling wrong, is the Greek verb tense in Eph. 5:18 where we are commended to be “filled with the Spirit”. The Greek tense there is not a one time event but the continuative tense. It could be better expressed as, “be ye continually being filled”. The best illustration this is a balloon. You take one puff and the balloon is filled. But then you take two puffs and the balloon is even more filled. As you keep blowing, the balloon is increasingly being filled. This is what Jesus wants to do for us. He wants us to be continually being filled to an ever increasing capacity. He does this by the hose principal – not the bucket. The Lord's illustration is this is what He told us in John 15 about branch abiding in the vine. The life of the vine does not come in periodic bucket experiences, but the continual flow of life that is received by simply abiding.
I saw as never before how intensely the Father wants to fill us with His Spirit. The problem isn't on the giving end, but the receiving end. The problem is that we have such a tiny orifice to allow Him to fill us. It is like a bottle in the ocean. It is not that there is so little water to fill the bottle, but that the bottle has such a small hole to allow the water in.
What I am trying to say is, that this has been an extremely good week. It was a very good experience to go up to Chiang Dao to visit the home of the boys who wanted to live with us. I am satisfied that, it isn't that we closed our hearts to them, but that the Lord clearly showed us the this was not what He wanted for them or us. Getting the water system in this house fixed is a land mark event. This is something that I have wanted to do for over ten years. We have a much better system now that will be cheaper for electricity. But the visits I have enjoyed with Jesus nearly every morning have been so wonderful this is better than just getting saved. In retrospect I marvel at the Lord's patience with me, and now clearly see the reason for His dealings with me 45 years ago. What I longed for then is now my possession; only that Jesus has shown me that His ways are radically different from my former concepts.
Oh Jesus is wonderful! Oh my goodness, what a salvation! I hope you are enjoying Him too.
bill
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
To Russia With Love
12 May 2013
Dear Phyllis,
The Lord has embarrassed me. I wonder if there has ever been a man on this planet that has had more privileges than me. I am reduced to silence and tears to think of the inexpressible goodness of God to me. It will tax eternity to set in order a narrative of my indebtedness to Him, and the astounding things He has done for me. One chapter that is extremely short, but it would fill a library to properly record, is the testimony of Russia.
For years I thought of Russia like dreaming of living on Mars. But the Lord fulfilled that, beyond my wildest imagination in a short period of four months. In 1970 it was utterly impossible to imagine the collapse of world communism, and the opening of Russia in a brief moment of time. When Russia opened up, one of the early pioneers to go in and blaze an unbelievable trail, was John Cathcart. He was only there a short time, but accomplished things that go beyond imagination. In 1994 he had the ambition to get a team of 40 workers to evangelize the inaccessible regions of northern Siberia, along the coast of the Sea of Japan. He signed a contract for a large ship to take seven teams of workers up along the coast line to evangelize those cities there for a month. The story of what happened would be a book that would be rejected by any publisher as ridiculous fiction. But I was with John through it all and can verify it was true. To pay for that ship, John promised to provide 70 used Japanese cars that they would pick up in Maezuru. I won't tell you what happened as no one would believe that story. The ship never came. People will be scratching their heads as, someday, they see the video of that in heaven. But it happened. I was there.
But skipping that story, in July 1994 I was with a Japanese team of seven that flew from Niigata to Vladivostok to participate in this unprecedented dendo outreach. Three young Russians joined our team as we went up the trans-Siberian railway 400 km to Chernigovka. Our main interpreter was a 18 year old girl, Natasha. She was a phenomenon like I have never seen before or since.
Natasha had been an exchange student to the US, and her English was as good as mine. A year before then, she had run into a team from Juno, Alaska who asked her to be their interpreter for dendo. She had no interest in Christianity, but she loved Americans and loved talking English. She had been working with them for several days, when one night Mick sat down to try to lead Natasha to the Lord. For her, that was just another conversation over a cup of coffee. In his presentation of the Gospel, Mick said, “To get saved you have to accept Christ.” To illustrate that, he held out a pencil and asked Natasha if she wanted it. Russians are the most straight forward people on earth. What you see is exactly what they are. When Mick offered her a pencil, Natasha simply took the pencil. Mick went crazy. He shouted, “Praise the Lord! Natasha is saved!” Everyone came running, hugging her, and praising the Lord. She thought, “Are these people crazy? All he asked me was if I would take the pencil.” She was confronted by a social dilemma with two options. There was a clear misunderstanding, and she could clear that up by saying all she did was take the pencil. Or, she could go along with the misunderstanding, and say she was a Christian. As she weighed the two options in her mind, she thought, “Why not? Why not be a Christian?” Two hours later, when she went home, her sister looked at her and gasped, “Natasha, what happened to you? Your face is glowing like an angel.” And she led her sister to Christ.
That had happened a year before I met her. But she was as rock solid a Christian as any you will ever meet. She was easily the finest interpreter I ever had. One night I was preaching the Gospel to a large crowd in a civic auditorium. My text was the Mount of Transfiguration. When I was right in the middle of my message, Natasha said to me, “Make it simpler. They don't know what you are talking about. They don't know who Moses and Elijah are.” I was stunned. I couldn't imagine an 18 year old girl in Japan telling the speaker to make the message simpler. I couldn't imagine any interpreter in Japan correcting a speaker during a message.
The Russian Bible and the English Bible are different. The 23rd Psalm is the 22nd Psalm in the Russian Bible. But Natasha knew both Bibles well enough to know exactly where I was. She had only been saved a little over a year but she knew her Bible like a seminary graduate. When we were out visiting, she would talk to peasant women, putting her arms around them, and praying with them like they were her mother. She was utterly fearless. The KGB had lost their teeth, but some men were still acting like the old days. One night, when we came home from a meeting, a KGB man was hiding in the bush at our compound. He called her aside to question her who we were and what we were doing. She handled him like he was a newspaper reporter. We had several meetings with the mayor of Chernigovka. She told me, “I know how to handle him. He is weak to women.” A few days later we were in his office talking with the mayor and I marveled at the way she conducted herself with him. Indeed she was able to manipulate him. But he also knew what she was doing, and got revenge when we left. He was a strong man with an unusually powerful grip. When they shook hands, he put Natasha on the floor. I was next, and he tried the same stunt with me. We had an extremely firm handshake, but I was able to match him grip for grip as we squeezed each others hand smiling.
One day I was attending a Bible study with some young people. The passage they were studying was Moses' meeting with the Lord at the burning bush. Moses protested that he couldn't do it because he was “slow of speech” (Ex. 4:10). There is a passage that contradicts that in Acts 7:22 that says Moses was “mighty in words and deeds”. I thought I would impress them by pointing out that little known fact; but a 19 year old boy showed them the passage before I could open my mouth. I have never seen young people who grew so fast and were so well taught in the Scripture as those young folks.
When I later went back to Russia to live there my myself I had another interpreter, Annya. I asked Annya how she got saved. She told me that she and Natasha were good friends in high school. When Natasha got saved, she said there was such a powerful change in her that very shortly afterwards Natasha had led her to Christ. I asked Annya, “Have you led others to Christ?” “Yes, of course.” “And are they leading others to know Jesus?” “Yes, of course they are.” So Natasha had gone four generations like the Scripture says we should (2 Tim. 2:2).
My time in Russia was brief, but it might have been the highlight of a lifetime. The miracles were tremendous. Everything in Russia was extreme. The cooperation we got from the city of Chernigovka was astounding, and yet there was always sabotage from lower levels. The city office had contacted the other towns around there making arrangements for our dendo (evangelistic) meetings. One night we went to a neighboring city and were informed that the city office had told them we were coming the night before. A large crowd of people had come only to find we weren't there. That was clear sabotage. The manager of the city auditorium said we couldn't have our meeting that night as a movie had been scheduled, and he couldn't scrub it. In desperation we decided to have an open air meeting in front of the auditorium anyway. We got set up, and started our meeting with ten of us and two little boys on bicycles as our audience. We had been singing for about ten minutes when the manager came out to say he would stop the film, and let us have our meeting inside. We went inside, and had a very good meeting with a large crowd of people. The movie that was canceled that night was an American film titled “Satan”. Satan got canceled so Jesus could be preached.
Everything in Russia was in a large font scale. The problems were huge and the opportunities were amazing. I have never seen hunger in any country like we saw there. When I was living in Chernigovka, one of my interpreters was the principle of a high school. She was a marvelous lady about 50 years old. One day, as we were discussing past world events, I got a queer look on my face. She looked at my face and pleaded, “That is true isn't it? Please tell me the truth. We have written history books three times, and we don't know what happened.” She was shocked when I explained to her what actually happened at that world event. I told her, “In the near future I plan to live here and want to have a Bible study.” She leaped at that and said, “I will be the first one to come.” She meant it. She shared with me the grief, that they recently had the advent of INTERNET, and her son was feeding on filthy porno. That was something new, and there was no fence to protect them from sin.
One day she invited me to her school, and asked what class I would like to attend. I had heard that they had a Bible class, and opted for that. I was amazed to sit in a class with 18 enthusiastic students listening to their teacher explain the Ten Commandments. There was a copy of the curriculum lying on the desk where I was seated. In those days I was trying to learn Russian, and could read enough to find my way around the Bible. I had my English Bible with me, and could check the references in the study material. It was excellent! After the class I got a chance to speak with the teacher for fifteen minutes. I asked her how she became the Bible teacher. She said she was the Russian language teacher, and thought teaching the Bible would be a good job. She had been to a seminar in Vladivostok for Bible teachers, and loved the subject. But when I asked her if she was saved she came up with a blank. I asked, “How can a person get to heaven?” “You must keep the Ten Commandments.” I tried to explain to her that salvation was by faith – not works. But ran into a wall. I took her to 1 Jn. 5:11,12 – that eternal life is in Jesus Christ. To illustrate the point, I held up my passport and said, “Now let's suppose this is eternal life.” Then I held up my Bible saying, “And this is Jesus Christ.” Then I placed my passport in my Bible to illustrate how eternal life is in Jesus Christ. I asked, “Where is eternal life?” In Christ. “How do you get eternal life?” “By keeping the Ten Commandments.” I pleaded with her, “Please take my Bible with eternal life (my passport) in it.” I forced my Bible on her. Holding that in her hand, I asked again, “Do you have eternal life? (My Bible with my passport inside.) “No.” “How do you get eternal life?” “By keeping the Ten Commandments.” The bell rang and that was the end of our conversation.
Oh, how I longed to spend the rest of my life there with these dear hungry people. In early December I promised them that I had to go to the states for a brief visit, but I would return soon to spend the rest on my life there showing them the way to eternal salvation. Unexpectedly, three months later, when I was on the east coast of America, the Lord clearly spoke to me saying Russia was out. It was a disappointment to send an e-mail to my friends, saying I would not be back as planned.
You know the rest of the story. Three years later I had the great privilege of taking Bibles to desperate believers in Vietnam, Laos, and other places. My road has been watered with tears, but looking at the big picture, I wonder if there has ever been a man who has had as many privileges as the Lord has showered on me. But the greatest one of them all is the one that still reduces me to silence and tears. How can it be that the Lord has called me to Himself, and has come to live in my heart? That is the granddaddy of all mysteries.
And thank you for the privilege of your fellowship,
In the bonds of our wonderful Lord Jesus,
bill
Dear Phyllis,
The Lord has embarrassed me. I wonder if there has ever been a man on this planet that has had more privileges than me. I am reduced to silence and tears to think of the inexpressible goodness of God to me. It will tax eternity to set in order a narrative of my indebtedness to Him, and the astounding things He has done for me. One chapter that is extremely short, but it would fill a library to properly record, is the testimony of Russia.
For years I thought of Russia like dreaming of living on Mars. But the Lord fulfilled that, beyond my wildest imagination in a short period of four months. In 1970 it was utterly impossible to imagine the collapse of world communism, and the opening of Russia in a brief moment of time. When Russia opened up, one of the early pioneers to go in and blaze an unbelievable trail, was John Cathcart. He was only there a short time, but accomplished things that go beyond imagination. In 1994 he had the ambition to get a team of 40 workers to evangelize the inaccessible regions of northern Siberia, along the coast of the Sea of Japan. He signed a contract for a large ship to take seven teams of workers up along the coast line to evangelize those cities there for a month. The story of what happened would be a book that would be rejected by any publisher as ridiculous fiction. But I was with John through it all and can verify it was true. To pay for that ship, John promised to provide 70 used Japanese cars that they would pick up in Maezuru. I won't tell you what happened as no one would believe that story. The ship never came. People will be scratching their heads as, someday, they see the video of that in heaven. But it happened. I was there.
But skipping that story, in July 1994 I was with a Japanese team of seven that flew from Niigata to Vladivostok to participate in this unprecedented dendo outreach. Three young Russians joined our team as we went up the trans-Siberian railway 400 km to Chernigovka. Our main interpreter was a 18 year old girl, Natasha. She was a phenomenon like I have never seen before or since.
Natasha had been an exchange student to the US, and her English was as good as mine. A year before then, she had run into a team from Juno, Alaska who asked her to be their interpreter for dendo. She had no interest in Christianity, but she loved Americans and loved talking English. She had been working with them for several days, when one night Mick sat down to try to lead Natasha to the Lord. For her, that was just another conversation over a cup of coffee. In his presentation of the Gospel, Mick said, “To get saved you have to accept Christ.” To illustrate that, he held out a pencil and asked Natasha if she wanted it. Russians are the most straight forward people on earth. What you see is exactly what they are. When Mick offered her a pencil, Natasha simply took the pencil. Mick went crazy. He shouted, “Praise the Lord! Natasha is saved!” Everyone came running, hugging her, and praising the Lord. She thought, “Are these people crazy? All he asked me was if I would take the pencil.” She was confronted by a social dilemma with two options. There was a clear misunderstanding, and she could clear that up by saying all she did was take the pencil. Or, she could go along with the misunderstanding, and say she was a Christian. As she weighed the two options in her mind, she thought, “Why not? Why not be a Christian?” Two hours later, when she went home, her sister looked at her and gasped, “Natasha, what happened to you? Your face is glowing like an angel.” And she led her sister to Christ.
That had happened a year before I met her. But she was as rock solid a Christian as any you will ever meet. She was easily the finest interpreter I ever had. One night I was preaching the Gospel to a large crowd in a civic auditorium. My text was the Mount of Transfiguration. When I was right in the middle of my message, Natasha said to me, “Make it simpler. They don't know what you are talking about. They don't know who Moses and Elijah are.” I was stunned. I couldn't imagine an 18 year old girl in Japan telling the speaker to make the message simpler. I couldn't imagine any interpreter in Japan correcting a speaker during a message.
The Russian Bible and the English Bible are different. The 23rd Psalm is the 22nd Psalm in the Russian Bible. But Natasha knew both Bibles well enough to know exactly where I was. She had only been saved a little over a year but she knew her Bible like a seminary graduate. When we were out visiting, she would talk to peasant women, putting her arms around them, and praying with them like they were her mother. She was utterly fearless. The KGB had lost their teeth, but some men were still acting like the old days. One night, when we came home from a meeting, a KGB man was hiding in the bush at our compound. He called her aside to question her who we were and what we were doing. She handled him like he was a newspaper reporter. We had several meetings with the mayor of Chernigovka. She told me, “I know how to handle him. He is weak to women.” A few days later we were in his office talking with the mayor and I marveled at the way she conducted herself with him. Indeed she was able to manipulate him. But he also knew what she was doing, and got revenge when we left. He was a strong man with an unusually powerful grip. When they shook hands, he put Natasha on the floor. I was next, and he tried the same stunt with me. We had an extremely firm handshake, but I was able to match him grip for grip as we squeezed each others hand smiling.
One day I was attending a Bible study with some young people. The passage they were studying was Moses' meeting with the Lord at the burning bush. Moses protested that he couldn't do it because he was “slow of speech” (Ex. 4:10). There is a passage that contradicts that in Acts 7:22 that says Moses was “mighty in words and deeds”. I thought I would impress them by pointing out that little known fact; but a 19 year old boy showed them the passage before I could open my mouth. I have never seen young people who grew so fast and were so well taught in the Scripture as those young folks.
When I later went back to Russia to live there my myself I had another interpreter, Annya. I asked Annya how she got saved. She told me that she and Natasha were good friends in high school. When Natasha got saved, she said there was such a powerful change in her that very shortly afterwards Natasha had led her to Christ. I asked Annya, “Have you led others to Christ?” “Yes, of course.” “And are they leading others to know Jesus?” “Yes, of course they are.” So Natasha had gone four generations like the Scripture says we should (2 Tim. 2:2).
My time in Russia was brief, but it might have been the highlight of a lifetime. The miracles were tremendous. Everything in Russia was extreme. The cooperation we got from the city of Chernigovka was astounding, and yet there was always sabotage from lower levels. The city office had contacted the other towns around there making arrangements for our dendo (evangelistic) meetings. One night we went to a neighboring city and were informed that the city office had told them we were coming the night before. A large crowd of people had come only to find we weren't there. That was clear sabotage. The manager of the city auditorium said we couldn't have our meeting that night as a movie had been scheduled, and he couldn't scrub it. In desperation we decided to have an open air meeting in front of the auditorium anyway. We got set up, and started our meeting with ten of us and two little boys on bicycles as our audience. We had been singing for about ten minutes when the manager came out to say he would stop the film, and let us have our meeting inside. We went inside, and had a very good meeting with a large crowd of people. The movie that was canceled that night was an American film titled “Satan”. Satan got canceled so Jesus could be preached.
Everything in Russia was in a large font scale. The problems were huge and the opportunities were amazing. I have never seen hunger in any country like we saw there. When I was living in Chernigovka, one of my interpreters was the principle of a high school. She was a marvelous lady about 50 years old. One day, as we were discussing past world events, I got a queer look on my face. She looked at my face and pleaded, “That is true isn't it? Please tell me the truth. We have written history books three times, and we don't know what happened.” She was shocked when I explained to her what actually happened at that world event. I told her, “In the near future I plan to live here and want to have a Bible study.” She leaped at that and said, “I will be the first one to come.” She meant it. She shared with me the grief, that they recently had the advent of INTERNET, and her son was feeding on filthy porno. That was something new, and there was no fence to protect them from sin.
One day she invited me to her school, and asked what class I would like to attend. I had heard that they had a Bible class, and opted for that. I was amazed to sit in a class with 18 enthusiastic students listening to their teacher explain the Ten Commandments. There was a copy of the curriculum lying on the desk where I was seated. In those days I was trying to learn Russian, and could read enough to find my way around the Bible. I had my English Bible with me, and could check the references in the study material. It was excellent! After the class I got a chance to speak with the teacher for fifteen minutes. I asked her how she became the Bible teacher. She said she was the Russian language teacher, and thought teaching the Bible would be a good job. She had been to a seminar in Vladivostok for Bible teachers, and loved the subject. But when I asked her if she was saved she came up with a blank. I asked, “How can a person get to heaven?” “You must keep the Ten Commandments.” I tried to explain to her that salvation was by faith – not works. But ran into a wall. I took her to 1 Jn. 5:11,12 – that eternal life is in Jesus Christ. To illustrate the point, I held up my passport and said, “Now let's suppose this is eternal life.” Then I held up my Bible saying, “And this is Jesus Christ.” Then I placed my passport in my Bible to illustrate how eternal life is in Jesus Christ. I asked, “Where is eternal life?” In Christ. “How do you get eternal life?” “By keeping the Ten Commandments.” I pleaded with her, “Please take my Bible with eternal life (my passport) in it.” I forced my Bible on her. Holding that in her hand, I asked again, “Do you have eternal life? (My Bible with my passport inside.) “No.” “How do you get eternal life?” “By keeping the Ten Commandments.” The bell rang and that was the end of our conversation.
Oh, how I longed to spend the rest of my life there with these dear hungry people. In early December I promised them that I had to go to the states for a brief visit, but I would return soon to spend the rest on my life there showing them the way to eternal salvation. Unexpectedly, three months later, when I was on the east coast of America, the Lord clearly spoke to me saying Russia was out. It was a disappointment to send an e-mail to my friends, saying I would not be back as planned.
You know the rest of the story. Three years later I had the great privilege of taking Bibles to desperate believers in Vietnam, Laos, and other places. My road has been watered with tears, but looking at the big picture, I wonder if there has ever been a man who has had as many privileges as the Lord has showered on me. But the greatest one of them all is the one that still reduces me to silence and tears. How can it be that the Lord has called me to Himself, and has come to live in my heart? That is the granddaddy of all mysteries.
And thank you for the privilege of your fellowship,
In the bonds of our wonderful Lord Jesus,
bill
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Livinia's Glory
5 May 2013
Dear Phyllis,
I want to dedicate this letter to my dear secretary, Lavinia McCart. I'm sure you know her. She was a very well known TEAM missionary.
I first met Lavinia in September 1967. She had recently come to Japan as a missionary with Kyoritsu Girls Bible school in Yokohama, and came to Karuizawa for a short vacation. It wasn't long after that, that I got a letter from her asking if I would take her in the language school as a student. That was my first year as director of the Karuizawa Japanese Language School, and we were maxed out. I wrote Lavinia that we were at capacity with students, and couldn't take any more. But I didn't operate on the basis of what we naturally could do. My criteria for all decisions was simply the will of God. I told her that, naturally speaking, it was impossible, but if the Lord sent her I would take her. It was a bit of a problem, when a week later I received another letter saying she was on her way. After I made the decision to take her, a Swedish sister came to me asking what I was going to do with the new student. I replied, “I have no idea”. Then Lilia asked me, “Could she study with me? I would cut my tuition in half if there was another student in my class, and we could be a help to each other.” Lilia Olson's request opened it up where I could take Lavinia in the school without taxing the system to need another teacher.
Shortly after Lavinia came, she asked me if there was anything she could do to help the school. I told Lavinia, “I am doing alright managing the school, but I am a vegetable in book keeping and office work.” She told me that she was a professional secretary, and would be glad to help us as the school secretary. Taking Lavinia was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. She was a life-savior for me for many years. But more than being my personal secretary, she also became one of my closest friends. Eternity along will reveal how indebted I am to her for being one of my greatest assets in life.
Lavinia was a girl that loved the Lord like very few people I ever met. She was saved and raised through the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination from Albany, NY. She first went out as a missionary with the CMA to Cambodia in 1953. Her heart was really in Cambodia, and she had gone through the horrible trauma in SEA at the beginning of the Vietnam war. In 1965 Prince Sihanouk accurately read the tea leaves of what was going to happen to Vietnam. In a desperate attempt to preserve his own nation, he took a position of left leaning neutrality, and made a pact with Ho Chi Ming to allow the North Vietnamese army to establish their Ho Chi Ming trail and sanctuary bases in eastern Cambodia. Accordingly, he broke diplomatic relations with the US, and put American missionaries out of the country. After that expulsion, Lavinia came to Japan to serve the Lord at Kyoritsu.
Lavinia and I were close friends, and our hearts bleed together for her suffering friends in Cambodia when they were plunged into that indescribable genocide during the Pol Pot reign. It was through Lavinia that I got my intense interest in Cambodia. In those days I never dreamed that someday I would have the privilege to travel so extensively, and have the privilege of contributing to the Kingdom of God in that country. It was a tremendous joy to be able to later write Lavinia, “Your prayers have been heard. I wish you were here today, and could go with me to see the amazing things that the Lord is doing in Cambodia.”
But Lavinia was in a nursing home in the states. Her sister wrote me some very appreciative letters saying how much they enjoyed reading the letters I sent to Lavinia. She told me that Lavinia had become very sullen in her later years and spoke very little about her years on the mission field. Her sister said my letters had filled them in on many things they never knew about Lavinia, and they were especially grateful to hear about Cambodia.
Lavinia's life was almost a tragedy. My heart really went out to her. She lived life of a great deal of sorrow and pain, and died a lonely soul of unfulfilled dreams. The Lord had given her a deep love for the people of Cambodia. It is one thing to read about war in the news paper and TV, but it is a different matter when those people are your dearest brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes, those with whom we work on the mission field become closer to us than our own flesh and blood relatives. The CMA suffered 80% martyrdom during the Pol Pot era, and in all probability, most of those dearest to Lavinia's heart suffered horrible deaths.
Her years at Kyoritsu were not good. Kyoritsu was one of the better known girls Bible schools in the Tokyo/Yokohama area, but the leadership had made some unfortunate areas of compromise with liberals who had infiltrated the high school; and Lavinia was grieved to see a Christ-less gospel being preached in the Name of the Lord. After several years of conflict there she finally left to join TEAM.
Lavinia was one of Jesus' rejects. Some of the Lord's finest servants are the ones rejected by the world. In my early years working with young people I always felt sorry for cute girls. They were very attractive to boys, which put them at a serious disadvantage with temptation and sin. In Bible schools, the attractive girls are, naturally, the ones selected by the boys who become pastors of the 1st church. But the ones who didn't make the cut for the beauty pageant are the left overs. Their loneliness drives them to the Lord, and these are the ones who show up on the mission field.
I'm sure Lavinia had all the desire and aspiration of any young lady, but she also had a deep love for Jesus, and commitment to serve Him. She never told me about any marriage proposals along the way, but there was one man she met on the mission field to whom she was deeply devoted. She did mention to me a couple of times her desire for a husband and family. Tragically, nothing ever came of that dream. I can only imagine the pain it must have been to see others called out of line to step forward to put on a wedding dress and enjoy the joy of family living, while she herself was left standing on the side lines. Lavinia had a melancholic personality, which enabled her to have unusually deep devotion, and, correspondingly, deep pain.
I don't recall seeing her much after we left Karuizawa in 1980, and I never met her once after my world collapsed in 1990. I thought she would be thrilled to see my letters telling of my experiences in Cambodia, and the amazing things the Lord is doing there today. But I was genuinely surprised to read the letters her sister sent me in response. I was amazed how little she told her sister about her many years on the mission field. Her sister wrote that it was like hearing the details about a person she didn't know. Reading between the lines, I surmised that Lavinia's pain and disappointment drove her into a life of seclusion and silence. This is not the expression of someone who is bubbling over with excitement and the joy of the Lord. It was tragic that her life ended on such a melancholic note – but I can understand it. The disappointment, loneliness, and sorrow had just overwhelmed her.
The reason I am writing this letter today is because of an unusual experience I had the other day. I saw Lavinia. No, I am not having séances with dead spirits. I am not spiritual. I am a very ordinary, vanilla, Christian. I don't have dreams and visions. I have never had a 3rd heaven experience (2 Cor. 12:2). But I was thinking about all my friends and former workers who are now standing before the Throne in glorified bodies. As I was thinking about them, suddenly, Lavinia came to mind. And in a flash, in the Spirit, I got a brief glimpse of her. What I saw surprised me, and I am very sure it was accurate.
When I saw her, I remarked, “Lavinia, you are beautiful, and you look stunning in your garment. What a gorgeous garment you have!” All I could do was marvel and think, “Lavinia, you made all the right calls, and the Lord has given you the best place.” She is beautiful sitting at the head table. And the beauty she has is hers for eternity.
Conversely, then I thought of some of these cheer-leader, magazine model, girls that were so attractive when they were 25. Well endowed flesh gave them the preferred seats in this life. Sharp, ambitious, boys naturally were attracted to them, married them, and spent a life time of frustration trying to please them. I have seen a few of these poor things on the mission field. Their clothes were never expensive enough, their houses were never large enough, the cars were never good enough, and there was no way their poor husbands could satisfy their desire for the things of this world. The needs of others was something that never was their concern, and they never gave themselves to reach out to win souls for Jesus.
Unfortunately, all their treasure of physical things is very brief. Thirty years later, that cheer-leader figure has all gone south. Make up and hair style is fighting a losing battle trying to preserve what was her main asset in her younger years. Thousands of dollars have been wasted vainly trying to satisfy her craving for material things; leaving her destitute in heaven. How many of these misguided souls will have a seat at the table for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is questionable. But for those who may be there, their glorified bodies will have none of the radiance of Lavinia; and their garment will be shabby compared with the stunning robe Jesus has given her. Whereas Lavinia's treasures are eternal, their poverty is also eternal.
In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told us a story that clearly expresses this scenario. He told about two men who lived at opposite poles of prosperity and pleasure in this world. The one man had everything anyone could wish for. The other poor fellow was consigned to the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and lived with dogs liking his sores. Then the great common denominator befell them both. They died. Now the rich man was confined to the flames of hell, while the poor man enjoyed the bliss of heaven. If we had no other story in the Bible, this account that Jesus shared with us should be enough to cause us to make our investments in a bank that is bugler, rust, and moth proof (Mt. 6:19,20). But it appears the devil has so blinded our eyes that few people live with eternal values in view.
It came to me very forcefully that Lavinia had a lonely road here for 80 years, being deprived of much of the things that most people consider basic. But where she got short-changed here on earth, she has been marvelously rewarded in heaven; and she is now basking in the glory of God – forever. Oh, I am so happy for her. The glimpse I got of her the other day was very brief and unclear, but I am sure she is one of the beauties in heaven today.
Praise the Lord. See you soon;
bill
PS: Dear Phyllis, when you see Lavinia, please tell her hi from bill.
Dear Phyllis,
I want to dedicate this letter to my dear secretary, Lavinia McCart. I'm sure you know her. She was a very well known TEAM missionary.
I first met Lavinia in September 1967. She had recently come to Japan as a missionary with Kyoritsu Girls Bible school in Yokohama, and came to Karuizawa for a short vacation. It wasn't long after that, that I got a letter from her asking if I would take her in the language school as a student. That was my first year as director of the Karuizawa Japanese Language School, and we were maxed out. I wrote Lavinia that we were at capacity with students, and couldn't take any more. But I didn't operate on the basis of what we naturally could do. My criteria for all decisions was simply the will of God. I told her that, naturally speaking, it was impossible, but if the Lord sent her I would take her. It was a bit of a problem, when a week later I received another letter saying she was on her way. After I made the decision to take her, a Swedish sister came to me asking what I was going to do with the new student. I replied, “I have no idea”. Then Lilia asked me, “Could she study with me? I would cut my tuition in half if there was another student in my class, and we could be a help to each other.” Lilia Olson's request opened it up where I could take Lavinia in the school without taxing the system to need another teacher.
Shortly after Lavinia came, she asked me if there was anything she could do to help the school. I told Lavinia, “I am doing alright managing the school, but I am a vegetable in book keeping and office work.” She told me that she was a professional secretary, and would be glad to help us as the school secretary. Taking Lavinia was one of the best decisions I ever made in my life. She was a life-savior for me for many years. But more than being my personal secretary, she also became one of my closest friends. Eternity along will reveal how indebted I am to her for being one of my greatest assets in life.
Lavinia was a girl that loved the Lord like very few people I ever met. She was saved and raised through the Christian and Missionary Alliance denomination from Albany, NY. She first went out as a missionary with the CMA to Cambodia in 1953. Her heart was really in Cambodia, and she had gone through the horrible trauma in SEA at the beginning of the Vietnam war. In 1965 Prince Sihanouk accurately read the tea leaves of what was going to happen to Vietnam. In a desperate attempt to preserve his own nation, he took a position of left leaning neutrality, and made a pact with Ho Chi Ming to allow the North Vietnamese army to establish their Ho Chi Ming trail and sanctuary bases in eastern Cambodia. Accordingly, he broke diplomatic relations with the US, and put American missionaries out of the country. After that expulsion, Lavinia came to Japan to serve the Lord at Kyoritsu.
Lavinia and I were close friends, and our hearts bleed together for her suffering friends in Cambodia when they were plunged into that indescribable genocide during the Pol Pot reign. It was through Lavinia that I got my intense interest in Cambodia. In those days I never dreamed that someday I would have the privilege to travel so extensively, and have the privilege of contributing to the Kingdom of God in that country. It was a tremendous joy to be able to later write Lavinia, “Your prayers have been heard. I wish you were here today, and could go with me to see the amazing things that the Lord is doing in Cambodia.”
But Lavinia was in a nursing home in the states. Her sister wrote me some very appreciative letters saying how much they enjoyed reading the letters I sent to Lavinia. She told me that Lavinia had become very sullen in her later years and spoke very little about her years on the mission field. Her sister said my letters had filled them in on many things they never knew about Lavinia, and they were especially grateful to hear about Cambodia.
Lavinia's life was almost a tragedy. My heart really went out to her. She lived life of a great deal of sorrow and pain, and died a lonely soul of unfulfilled dreams. The Lord had given her a deep love for the people of Cambodia. It is one thing to read about war in the news paper and TV, but it is a different matter when those people are your dearest brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes, those with whom we work on the mission field become closer to us than our own flesh and blood relatives. The CMA suffered 80% martyrdom during the Pol Pot era, and in all probability, most of those dearest to Lavinia's heart suffered horrible deaths.
Her years at Kyoritsu were not good. Kyoritsu was one of the better known girls Bible schools in the Tokyo/Yokohama area, but the leadership had made some unfortunate areas of compromise with liberals who had infiltrated the high school; and Lavinia was grieved to see a Christ-less gospel being preached in the Name of the Lord. After several years of conflict there she finally left to join TEAM.
Lavinia was one of Jesus' rejects. Some of the Lord's finest servants are the ones rejected by the world. In my early years working with young people I always felt sorry for cute girls. They were very attractive to boys, which put them at a serious disadvantage with temptation and sin. In Bible schools, the attractive girls are, naturally, the ones selected by the boys who become pastors of the 1st church. But the ones who didn't make the cut for the beauty pageant are the left overs. Their loneliness drives them to the Lord, and these are the ones who show up on the mission field.
I'm sure Lavinia had all the desire and aspiration of any young lady, but she also had a deep love for Jesus, and commitment to serve Him. She never told me about any marriage proposals along the way, but there was one man she met on the mission field to whom she was deeply devoted. She did mention to me a couple of times her desire for a husband and family. Tragically, nothing ever came of that dream. I can only imagine the pain it must have been to see others called out of line to step forward to put on a wedding dress and enjoy the joy of family living, while she herself was left standing on the side lines. Lavinia had a melancholic personality, which enabled her to have unusually deep devotion, and, correspondingly, deep pain.
I don't recall seeing her much after we left Karuizawa in 1980, and I never met her once after my world collapsed in 1990. I thought she would be thrilled to see my letters telling of my experiences in Cambodia, and the amazing things the Lord is doing there today. But I was genuinely surprised to read the letters her sister sent me in response. I was amazed how little she told her sister about her many years on the mission field. Her sister wrote that it was like hearing the details about a person she didn't know. Reading between the lines, I surmised that Lavinia's pain and disappointment drove her into a life of seclusion and silence. This is not the expression of someone who is bubbling over with excitement and the joy of the Lord. It was tragic that her life ended on such a melancholic note – but I can understand it. The disappointment, loneliness, and sorrow had just overwhelmed her.
The reason I am writing this letter today is because of an unusual experience I had the other day. I saw Lavinia. No, I am not having séances with dead spirits. I am not spiritual. I am a very ordinary, vanilla, Christian. I don't have dreams and visions. I have never had a 3rd heaven experience (2 Cor. 12:2). But I was thinking about all my friends and former workers who are now standing before the Throne in glorified bodies. As I was thinking about them, suddenly, Lavinia came to mind. And in a flash, in the Spirit, I got a brief glimpse of her. What I saw surprised me, and I am very sure it was accurate.
When I saw her, I remarked, “Lavinia, you are beautiful, and you look stunning in your garment. What a gorgeous garment you have!” All I could do was marvel and think, “Lavinia, you made all the right calls, and the Lord has given you the best place.” She is beautiful sitting at the head table. And the beauty she has is hers for eternity.
Conversely, then I thought of some of these cheer-leader, magazine model, girls that were so attractive when they were 25. Well endowed flesh gave them the preferred seats in this life. Sharp, ambitious, boys naturally were attracted to them, married them, and spent a life time of frustration trying to please them. I have seen a few of these poor things on the mission field. Their clothes were never expensive enough, their houses were never large enough, the cars were never good enough, and there was no way their poor husbands could satisfy their desire for the things of this world. The needs of others was something that never was their concern, and they never gave themselves to reach out to win souls for Jesus.
Unfortunately, all their treasure of physical things is very brief. Thirty years later, that cheer-leader figure has all gone south. Make up and hair style is fighting a losing battle trying to preserve what was her main asset in her younger years. Thousands of dollars have been wasted vainly trying to satisfy her craving for material things; leaving her destitute in heaven. How many of these misguided souls will have a seat at the table for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is questionable. But for those who may be there, their glorified bodies will have none of the radiance of Lavinia; and their garment will be shabby compared with the stunning robe Jesus has given her. Whereas Lavinia's treasures are eternal, their poverty is also eternal.
In Luke 16:19-31 Jesus told us a story that clearly expresses this scenario. He told about two men who lived at opposite poles of prosperity and pleasure in this world. The one man had everything anyone could wish for. The other poor fellow was consigned to the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table, and lived with dogs liking his sores. Then the great common denominator befell them both. They died. Now the rich man was confined to the flames of hell, while the poor man enjoyed the bliss of heaven. If we had no other story in the Bible, this account that Jesus shared with us should be enough to cause us to make our investments in a bank that is bugler, rust, and moth proof (Mt. 6:19,20). But it appears the devil has so blinded our eyes that few people live with eternal values in view.
It came to me very forcefully that Lavinia had a lonely road here for 80 years, being deprived of much of the things that most people consider basic. But where she got short-changed here on earth, she has been marvelously rewarded in heaven; and she is now basking in the glory of God – forever. Oh, I am so happy for her. The glimpse I got of her the other day was very brief and unclear, but I am sure she is one of the beauties in heaven today.
Praise the Lord. See you soon;
bill
PS: Dear Phyllis, when you see Lavinia, please tell her hi from bill.
My Ears are Ringing, What's That I smell?
14 April 2013
Dear Phyllis,
Gomen nasai for beating on the same drum, but the thesis of the inverted Kingdom keeps ringing in my ear. I told you how years ago I got mad at the Father for calling His Son the Lamb. I was genuinely angry, and told the Father, “This is insulting! Jesus is not the Lamb. He is the Lion!” And then the Lord showed me that, in heaven, the Lamb is the highest symbol of power there is. The Lamb is the victor. Recently the Lord has shown me a new truth – the flower. I believe the flower is more powerful than the sword.
Several years ago I heard an amazing testimony of a missionary in Kenya. There was a legless beggar who sat on the street near his house. Occasionally, as he would pass by, he would drop a few coins in the beggar's cup. One day the Lord told him not to just give him money, but share the Gospel with him. Dutifully, the missionary turned around to go back to speak to the beggar. And then, going the second mile of grace, he sat down beside the beggar. What a wonderful gesture! But the fruit of that was to get spit on. In enraged disgust the missionary wiped himself off and got up to go home. But then the Lord spoke to him the second time saying, “That could have been you sitting on the sidewalk.” Humbled by this second remark, the missionary went back and sat down the second time – just outside spitting range. Every day he went back to share Christ with the man. He noticed that the spitting range kept decreasing, until he finally was able to sit next to him without getting wet. One day the beggar said, “I can't believe this fairy tale you are telling me.” The missionary replied, “If you can't believe it, why are you crying.” It was a wonderful conversion.
The missionary discipled the man, and bought him a skate board so he could navigate around town. One day the beggar said, “I must return to Ethiopia to my home to tell my father this wonderful news.” When he was a small boy his father had gone to a witch doctor and asked advice about his son who had been born legless. The witch doctor advised the father to carry him out in the jungles, and feed him to the hyenas. Miraculously, the boy had survived the hyenas, and wound up in Kenya as a street beggar.
He worked his way back to Ethiopia on a coastal vessel by digging the goat dung out of the cracks in the wood for passage. During that trip he led one of the seamen to the Lord who left the ship to carry the beggar back to his home in the jungles. Forty years had passed. His startled father told the other sons to beat him to carry the man back to the jungles and feed him to the hyenas again. The Christian survived that and made his way back to the house to speak to his father about Jesus again. The beating and the hyenas routine was repeated two more times. Finally the father gave up, and cried, “I treat you like the devil and all you do is to continue to show love to me.” His father was his first convert in Ethiopia. He later won hundreds to Christ. The flower conquered the sword.
There are a great deal of mystical things in the world of the spirit. The laws are backwards, and yet the same five senses that connect us to the material world – smell, sound, sight, touch, taste – are functional in the realm of the spirit. I fear one of our mistakes in dendo (evangelism) is too much emphasis on the intellectual (soul), and not enough on the spirit. If we were stronger in dealing with the five senses of the spirit, perhaps we might make more progress. The laws of the spirit world apply to the natural world also, but we are too natural worldly minded to use them.
At the turn of the 19th century there was an unsung missionary with the CIM (China Inland Mission) who offered a cash reward for the winning essay he sponsored. A brilliant Confucian scholar thought that was no challenge and won the prize. But the condition was that he had to personally receive the reward money directly from the missionary. The winner was terrified as he had heard that the foreign devils could cast spells on people. But he devised a scheme where by he could collect the money without risking the spell. He simply wouldn't look at the foreign devil's face. He went to the missionary's house, and waited in the waiting room until the foreigner came in the room. Keeping his eyes glued on the floor he cautiously approached the missionary. The missionary held out the envelope with the money. But in a moment of weakness of curiosity he lifted his glance to look into the eyes of David Hill. In an instant it was all over. He had never seen eyes like that, and was instantly won over. The world has never heard much of what happened to David Hill, but Pastor Xi became one of the mightiest men of God in Shanxi area of China. The Lord used the Word of God to establish Pastor Xi and deliver him from opium addiction. Pastor Xi certainly was a mighty preacher of the Word of God, but it was David Hills eyes that first attracted him to Christ.
Orientals are considerably more sensitive to spiritual impressions that westerners. The Japanese in particular are highly sensitive. The Japanese expression for someone who has western mannerisms is “batta kusai” (he smells like butter). Before westerners came to Japan, they has never seen butter, and they said the gaijins (foreigners) smelled like butter they ate. That expression persists to this day. A foreign visitor was speaking in the Karuizawa church one time. After the service a friend of mine asked a native Christian what she thought of the speaker. She replied he was “gaijin kusai” (he smelled like a foreigner). It wasn't the content of his message but the spiritual aroma that he displayed that impressed her. His message smelled foreign-ish.
In Thailand, the wife of a friend of mine was commenting about another person she had just met. She said, “That person is very attractive but she smells like raw garbage”. It wasn't that the other person didn't use deodorant, but her character was very unpleasant.
Like it or not, just as we carry around a distinctive body odor, we also have a spiritual smell about us that is impressing everyone we meet. We can pass out tracts and do our best to persuade people with our intellectual arguments, but that will not carry as much impact as the spiritual fragrance that others detect. Years ago I was witnessing to several people sitting around me on a train. A high school girl was sitting next to me to whom I gave a tract. A week later I received a letter from her saying she wanted to come to Karuizawa to visit me. In her letter she said, “I don't recall what you said but I remember your beautiful blue eyes”. Needless to say, I didn't invite her to my house, but took her up to see Mary Ellen Goodman. She was saved the first 30 minutes and went on to Bible school. The tract I gave her didn't impress her, but there was something spiritual about me that drew her to Christ.
Unfortunately, that applies both ways. Just as there is perfume, there is also BO (body odor). Some is attractive and some is repulsive. One time I was visiting Mino Mission with another friend. A third missionary was there that night, and the discussion at the dinner table got pretty much out of hand. In the middle of the meal, my friend, Tom, got up and went outside. I went out to see what was wrong with him. He remarked, “That man is sick!” I knew the other brother and knew what to expect, but it was a first time experience for Tom. I must admit that the fragrance at the table that night wasn't like a rose garden. It did smell more like a pretty rank barn.
Recently the Lord spoke to me through the verse in Song of Sol . 4:11 – “The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.” This was not a first time lesson for me but did remind me that our garments do smell like our environment. In the 1960s, the trains in Japan were like smoke houses. The cigarette smoke in those trains was so thick you couldn't see from one end of the coach to the other. Whenever I went to Tokyo my clothes reeked like cigarette smoke in the closet for three days afterwards.
In 1965 Dick and Millie Dennis came out to work with Earl Tygert. Dick and Millie had come to Karuizawa with stars in their eyes. I knew what was coming. Earl was very well known by the folks in town, and his reputation was not good. When I got back to Karuizawa two months later, Dick's eyes were glassy. He was like he was punch drunk groggy. For the sole purpose of his survival, I prayed with Dick everyday for the first year. Earl was a strange man who gave a very good first impression but he also had a dark side that turned off every missionary whoever worked with him. Dick's first year in Japan was a hellish nightmare. His home pastor didn't understand what was going on and Dick got it hard from both ends. During those many hours of prayer, Dick's main prayer was, “Lord, when I get out of this fire, please don't let the smell of the fire be on me” (Dan. 3:27). The next summer Dick's home pastor came to Karuizawa as the conference speaker. While he was in Japan, Pastor Didden, saw the other side of what Dick was dealing with; he apologized, and gave him permission to leave.
Dick seldom spoke of his fire experience, but one day he shared with me a wonderful squeal testimony. Eight years had passed. Earl had left the country but would occasionally come back for a brief visit. Dick was going to Tokyo one day and ran into Brother Tygert on the train. At first there was a little apprehension how that ride was going to turn out. That certainly was not an encounter Dick would have asked for. But as they sat together on that train, the Holy Spirit took all the ranker out of Dick's heart and filled him with the love of Christ. Dick said it was really an enjoyable time of fellowship. There was no smell of smoke on his garment whatsoever. Only the fresh fragrance of Christ.
In my early years I admired Joe Carroll as the greatest Christin on earth. I had a burning passion to work with him, and would have joyously given my life for him. It was my great privilege to be in the inner circle with Joe for several years. But as time went on various problems arose, and I became a very bitter man.
It had been eight years since the last time I had been in the states, and was visiting Greenville. I happened to be in the Christian health food store when Mable Carroll came in. She was delighted to see me, and exclaimed, “Bill, you are coming out to have lunch with us aren't you?” Somewhat cynically, I replied, “No, I don't think that is going to happen.” Mable looked me straight in the eyes and said, “May I speak to you outside?” Stepping out the door, Mable said, “Bill, you have the smell of smoke on your garment.” I knew she was right. The unresolved bitterness of my fire experience was still clearly detectable. That made me face up to my unclean heart. With reluctance, I repented and had a very good time of fellowship over a delicious lunch.
My last encounter with Joe was one of the highlights of my life. It was twenty years after the health food store experience and I was back in Greenville. Joe was in last stage of Alzheimer, and was virtually a vegetable. I stopped by the house to pay my respects and was sitting beside his bed. He seemed like he was in a coma but Mable said, “Talk to him. He is awake.” As I began to reminisce over old times, suddenly;y he turned to me and took my hand. What happened after that was like an out-of-body experience. For half an hour the Lord ran the clock back 45 years as we silently fellowshipped in the Spirit. Oh it was so good to have the smell of the smoke gone.
But I wonder what do people sense about me today? S. of S. 5:15 says. “His (Jesus) countenance is like Lebanon” Is this what my garment smells like today? We will smell like the environment where we live. Oh Lord, let me so live in Your presence that my garment might have the fragrance of Lebanon to draw others – for Jesus sake.
bill
Dear Phyllis,
Gomen nasai for beating on the same drum, but the thesis of the inverted Kingdom keeps ringing in my ear. I told you how years ago I got mad at the Father for calling His Son the Lamb. I was genuinely angry, and told the Father, “This is insulting! Jesus is not the Lamb. He is the Lion!” And then the Lord showed me that, in heaven, the Lamb is the highest symbol of power there is. The Lamb is the victor. Recently the Lord has shown me a new truth – the flower. I believe the flower is more powerful than the sword.
Several years ago I heard an amazing testimony of a missionary in Kenya. There was a legless beggar who sat on the street near his house. Occasionally, as he would pass by, he would drop a few coins in the beggar's cup. One day the Lord told him not to just give him money, but share the Gospel with him. Dutifully, the missionary turned around to go back to speak to the beggar. And then, going the second mile of grace, he sat down beside the beggar. What a wonderful gesture! But the fruit of that was to get spit on. In enraged disgust the missionary wiped himself off and got up to go home. But then the Lord spoke to him the second time saying, “That could have been you sitting on the sidewalk.” Humbled by this second remark, the missionary went back and sat down the second time – just outside spitting range. Every day he went back to share Christ with the man. He noticed that the spitting range kept decreasing, until he finally was able to sit next to him without getting wet. One day the beggar said, “I can't believe this fairy tale you are telling me.” The missionary replied, “If you can't believe it, why are you crying.” It was a wonderful conversion.
The missionary discipled the man, and bought him a skate board so he could navigate around town. One day the beggar said, “I must return to Ethiopia to my home to tell my father this wonderful news.” When he was a small boy his father had gone to a witch doctor and asked advice about his son who had been born legless. The witch doctor advised the father to carry him out in the jungles, and feed him to the hyenas. Miraculously, the boy had survived the hyenas, and wound up in Kenya as a street beggar.
He worked his way back to Ethiopia on a coastal vessel by digging the goat dung out of the cracks in the wood for passage. During that trip he led one of the seamen to the Lord who left the ship to carry the beggar back to his home in the jungles. Forty years had passed. His startled father told the other sons to beat him to carry the man back to the jungles and feed him to the hyenas again. The Christian survived that and made his way back to the house to speak to his father about Jesus again. The beating and the hyenas routine was repeated two more times. Finally the father gave up, and cried, “I treat you like the devil and all you do is to continue to show love to me.” His father was his first convert in Ethiopia. He later won hundreds to Christ. The flower conquered the sword.
There are a great deal of mystical things in the world of the spirit. The laws are backwards, and yet the same five senses that connect us to the material world – smell, sound, sight, touch, taste – are functional in the realm of the spirit. I fear one of our mistakes in dendo (evangelism) is too much emphasis on the intellectual (soul), and not enough on the spirit. If we were stronger in dealing with the five senses of the spirit, perhaps we might make more progress. The laws of the spirit world apply to the natural world also, but we are too natural worldly minded to use them.
At the turn of the 19th century there was an unsung missionary with the CIM (China Inland Mission) who offered a cash reward for the winning essay he sponsored. A brilliant Confucian scholar thought that was no challenge and won the prize. But the condition was that he had to personally receive the reward money directly from the missionary. The winner was terrified as he had heard that the foreign devils could cast spells on people. But he devised a scheme where by he could collect the money without risking the spell. He simply wouldn't look at the foreign devil's face. He went to the missionary's house, and waited in the waiting room until the foreigner came in the room. Keeping his eyes glued on the floor he cautiously approached the missionary. The missionary held out the envelope with the money. But in a moment of weakness of curiosity he lifted his glance to look into the eyes of David Hill. In an instant it was all over. He had never seen eyes like that, and was instantly won over. The world has never heard much of what happened to David Hill, but Pastor Xi became one of the mightiest men of God in Shanxi area of China. The Lord used the Word of God to establish Pastor Xi and deliver him from opium addiction. Pastor Xi certainly was a mighty preacher of the Word of God, but it was David Hills eyes that first attracted him to Christ.
Orientals are considerably more sensitive to spiritual impressions that westerners. The Japanese in particular are highly sensitive. The Japanese expression for someone who has western mannerisms is “batta kusai” (he smells like butter). Before westerners came to Japan, they has never seen butter, and they said the gaijins (foreigners) smelled like butter they ate. That expression persists to this day. A foreign visitor was speaking in the Karuizawa church one time. After the service a friend of mine asked a native Christian what she thought of the speaker. She replied he was “gaijin kusai” (he smelled like a foreigner). It wasn't the content of his message but the spiritual aroma that he displayed that impressed her. His message smelled foreign-ish.
In Thailand, the wife of a friend of mine was commenting about another person she had just met. She said, “That person is very attractive but she smells like raw garbage”. It wasn't that the other person didn't use deodorant, but her character was very unpleasant.
Like it or not, just as we carry around a distinctive body odor, we also have a spiritual smell about us that is impressing everyone we meet. We can pass out tracts and do our best to persuade people with our intellectual arguments, but that will not carry as much impact as the spiritual fragrance that others detect. Years ago I was witnessing to several people sitting around me on a train. A high school girl was sitting next to me to whom I gave a tract. A week later I received a letter from her saying she wanted to come to Karuizawa to visit me. In her letter she said, “I don't recall what you said but I remember your beautiful blue eyes”. Needless to say, I didn't invite her to my house, but took her up to see Mary Ellen Goodman. She was saved the first 30 minutes and went on to Bible school. The tract I gave her didn't impress her, but there was something spiritual about me that drew her to Christ.
Unfortunately, that applies both ways. Just as there is perfume, there is also BO (body odor). Some is attractive and some is repulsive. One time I was visiting Mino Mission with another friend. A third missionary was there that night, and the discussion at the dinner table got pretty much out of hand. In the middle of the meal, my friend, Tom, got up and went outside. I went out to see what was wrong with him. He remarked, “That man is sick!” I knew the other brother and knew what to expect, but it was a first time experience for Tom. I must admit that the fragrance at the table that night wasn't like a rose garden. It did smell more like a pretty rank barn.
Recently the Lord spoke to me through the verse in Song of Sol . 4:11 – “The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Lebanon.” This was not a first time lesson for me but did remind me that our garments do smell like our environment. In the 1960s, the trains in Japan were like smoke houses. The cigarette smoke in those trains was so thick you couldn't see from one end of the coach to the other. Whenever I went to Tokyo my clothes reeked like cigarette smoke in the closet for three days afterwards.
In 1965 Dick and Millie Dennis came out to work with Earl Tygert. Dick and Millie had come to Karuizawa with stars in their eyes. I knew what was coming. Earl was very well known by the folks in town, and his reputation was not good. When I got back to Karuizawa two months later, Dick's eyes were glassy. He was like he was punch drunk groggy. For the sole purpose of his survival, I prayed with Dick everyday for the first year. Earl was a strange man who gave a very good first impression but he also had a dark side that turned off every missionary whoever worked with him. Dick's first year in Japan was a hellish nightmare. His home pastor didn't understand what was going on and Dick got it hard from both ends. During those many hours of prayer, Dick's main prayer was, “Lord, when I get out of this fire, please don't let the smell of the fire be on me” (Dan. 3:27). The next summer Dick's home pastor came to Karuizawa as the conference speaker. While he was in Japan, Pastor Didden, saw the other side of what Dick was dealing with; he apologized, and gave him permission to leave.
Dick seldom spoke of his fire experience, but one day he shared with me a wonderful squeal testimony. Eight years had passed. Earl had left the country but would occasionally come back for a brief visit. Dick was going to Tokyo one day and ran into Brother Tygert on the train. At first there was a little apprehension how that ride was going to turn out. That certainly was not an encounter Dick would have asked for. But as they sat together on that train, the Holy Spirit took all the ranker out of Dick's heart and filled him with the love of Christ. Dick said it was really an enjoyable time of fellowship. There was no smell of smoke on his garment whatsoever. Only the fresh fragrance of Christ.
In my early years I admired Joe Carroll as the greatest Christin on earth. I had a burning passion to work with him, and would have joyously given my life for him. It was my great privilege to be in the inner circle with Joe for several years. But as time went on various problems arose, and I became a very bitter man.
It had been eight years since the last time I had been in the states, and was visiting Greenville. I happened to be in the Christian health food store when Mable Carroll came in. She was delighted to see me, and exclaimed, “Bill, you are coming out to have lunch with us aren't you?” Somewhat cynically, I replied, “No, I don't think that is going to happen.” Mable looked me straight in the eyes and said, “May I speak to you outside?” Stepping out the door, Mable said, “Bill, you have the smell of smoke on your garment.” I knew she was right. The unresolved bitterness of my fire experience was still clearly detectable. That made me face up to my unclean heart. With reluctance, I repented and had a very good time of fellowship over a delicious lunch.
My last encounter with Joe was one of the highlights of my life. It was twenty years after the health food store experience and I was back in Greenville. Joe was in last stage of Alzheimer, and was virtually a vegetable. I stopped by the house to pay my respects and was sitting beside his bed. He seemed like he was in a coma but Mable said, “Talk to him. He is awake.” As I began to reminisce over old times, suddenly;y he turned to me and took my hand. What happened after that was like an out-of-body experience. For half an hour the Lord ran the clock back 45 years as we silently fellowshipped in the Spirit. Oh it was so good to have the smell of the smoke gone.
But I wonder what do people sense about me today? S. of S. 5:15 says. “His (Jesus) countenance is like Lebanon” Is this what my garment smells like today? We will smell like the environment where we live. Oh Lord, let me so live in Your presence that my garment might have the fragrance of Lebanon to draw others – for Jesus sake.
bill
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