Song of Solomon 6:2

30 August 2015

My Beloved is gone down into His garden to feed in the garden and to gather lilies. Song of Solomon 6:2

Dear Phyllis,

There is a verse in Song of Solomon 6:2 that I feel is the most wonderful verse in the Bible. I have preached it several times; most notably at my son TJ's funeral and at my mother's funeral. It has three points of: Jesus' Possession, His Presence, and His Purpose. Or in other words; what He Has, where He Is, and what He is Doing. I won't expound on this verse today but the Lord did speak to me about it this morning. The word that the Lord said to me this morning is part B of the third point, of what He is Doing. The point is, He is gathering lilies.

Of course the question arises, what are lilies? Jesus cast a little light on this subject when He told us to “consider the lilies” (Mt. 6:28). But the Bible is its own best interpreter and in that regard there is no question, as the Bride of Christ (or believers) in speaking in S. of S. 2:1 clearly say, “I am the lily”; and Jesus confirmed that in the next verse by saying “As a lily among thorns so is My beloved among thorns. Christians are the lilies.

In my time with the Lord this morning the Lord reminded me of this truth by saying, “I am gathering lilies”. This helped me solve a distressing problem that I have been struggling with recently. This is a sick, sick world. The news each day just keeps getting worse and worse of indescribable atrocities happening in all over. ISIS has distinguished itself as being one of the most vile organizations the world has ever seen. They have put out a number of high quality promotional videos of atrocities that are so disgusting I refuse to mention them. But suffice to say, more than any other group, it seems their greatest delight is what they are doing to Christians. My mind is incapable of imagining what it would be like to be living in the Middle East and be in the path of ISIS. What has happened so far are now just historical facts. Innumerable of Christians have been killed. And it is not just ISIS. A few years ago it was Rwanda where hundreds of thousands of Christian were ethnically cleansed (genocide). The story goes on and on. If we are to be honest this story began in the 1^st century. Stephen was probably the first Christian martyr and James might have been the second. Then it got in high gear in the Roman Coliseum where Christian families were fed to lions. George Fox documented much of this with his morbid book Foxes Book of Martyrs, which was the only book, apart from the Bible, the Pilgrims took with them to America. I can relate dozens of testimonies of martyrdom I know of from China, Korea, Vietnam, and many other countries.

On Jim Dobson's Focus on the Family I heard the testimony of a sister from Korea. In her story she told what happened to a little three year old girl that was with her. That was so sickening I refuse to relate it. When I heard that I wanted to vomit and protested to the Lord, “Where were the angels?”. I was surprised at what the Lord told me. He said, “They were there. That is why I allowed that to happen”. When Jesus said that it all made sense. What happened in Korea was unimaginably horrible but just behind the curtain were the angels waiting to catch that precious little girl and take her in their arms to Jesus. That is so wonderful we can excuse the exit the girl made from her precious little body. The Lord has some pretty rough angels and and some pretty difficult exit doors to go through to get to heaven. Not every exit is made by the believers lying comfortably in bed with a smile on their face surrounded by loved ones holding their hand.

I was with my dear friend, John Richardson, two years ago when he was elevated to heaven. It was wonderful. As he lay dying I said, “John, the deep place is behind you. The water just gets shallower from here in”. That was exactly the way it went. I had been with him for a portion of the day before and it was getting close to midnight the second day. His childhood friend, Dan, was standing there with me. I asked Dan, “Are you going to stay here or go home.” Dan said, “We have been friends for 60 years. I am not leaving now.” He stayed and I went home. Dan told me the next day it was about two hours after I left, John was very peaceful. His breathing just got softer and softer until he placed his feet on dry ground on the other side of the River. Then it quit. I have heard of hundreds of departures like that. I know several brothers who probably died with a big grin on their face for different reasons. Tim Hottel told me how he was talking to a man in a hospital one day. The man said, “Brother Hottel, I am so glad you stopped today. I'm leaving soon.” They had a good chat and the man stuck his hand out to shake hands goodbye and stepped out of the body. Brother Hottel's wife left peacefully to be with Jesus as he held her in his arms.

That is wonderful, but it doesn't always work that way. Some departures are pretty rough like the three year old girl in Korea and many of the Christians being killed by ISIS. But the point is not how they leave but where they are going. The word that Jesus said to this morning was to remind me of what He is doing. As I thought of the carnage going on all over the world today, Jesus quietly reminded me, “I am gathering lilies.” I burst into tears and said, “Oh Lord Jesus, that is wonderful. You have a myriad of angels helping You. But Your ultimate goal and purpose is wonderful.” Oh, what must His garden look like? What will it be when we see the millions and millions of lilies He has gathered? All we will be able to do then is weep and say, “Lord Jesus, You are wonderful.”
                                                                                                                   bill

Holy City Chiang Mai

23 August 2015

Dear Phyllis,

Friday night we probably had the night of the year. We have a big Christian extravaganza once a year called, “Holy City Chiang Mai”. This is a Korean deal started by Korean missionaries eight years ago and it really is some production. It is about as good as it can get. I don't know what you could do to improve on it. Technically is is for prayer for Chiang Mai and pray they did. This year they held it in the Convention Hall for Chiang Mai University. Pammy said there were 3,000 there. I would guess there were all of that. I saw very few empty seats. It started off with a Korean Christian dance team doing a high quality Christian dance. Then they had a gal from Korea that probably was an opera singer sing a couple of songs. The second one was in Thai but Pammy said it was pretty hard to understand. They had a top pastor from Korea give, what I suppose, was a pretty good message. Of course he preached in Korean and the interpretation was in Thai so I couldn't get a word. And over the night they had special prayer for a number of items ranging from prayer for the Thai king to all the churches, church leaders, young people, minority groups, and casting out demons. Prayer was a significant portion of the evening that lasted four hours. The last half hour or so was a praise time that turned into a Christian rock concert. There must have been at least 400 or 500 young folk standing up front jumping up and down singing praise songs.

There was only one thing left out – Jesus. It thought it was as good a production as natural man could produce. But that was the problem. It seemed to be man serving the Lord totally executed in the realm of the soul – minus anything in the spirit. I asked Pammy what she thought of the evening. She said it was like a festival. Very good. I say that as I sat there for four hours with zero sense of the presence of the Lord. When it was over I stood at the exit waiting for Pammy. I must have looked at the face of 2/3 the people leaving, and nearly all had a somewhat glum look. I saw no one that looked like they had met with the Lord.

Two weeks ago a friend sent me an e-mail with Leonard Ravenhill on You Tube. It was excellent. One of the videos was an interview of Leonard Ravenhill. One of the question posed to him was what he thought was the greatest hindrance to revival in America. He immediately answered, “Evangelism”. I totally agree. The interview was probably 10 or 15 years ago. He said we was watching the #1 evangelist in America on TV giving an invitation. The evangelist said, “Please come forward. It will only take five minutes.”. When he heard that Ravenhill said, “I wept and went to bed”. Being born-again takes more than five minutes. It takes deep conviction of sin. It takes a genuine crying out to God.

Recently I have been watching a number of Leonard Ravenhill and Dave Wilkerson messages on You Tube. Wilkerson had a couple of irrefutable messages on false prophets. With deep passion and conviction Dave quoted Paul's words, “Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so we say now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto than that ye have received, let him be accursed.” (Gal. 1:8,9). Dave Wilkerson didn't mention anyone by name but by his description of the message and church there is no question that he was referring to Joel Olsteen. By any honest examination of Olsteen's message I see no way that anyone could come to any other conclusion than he is a false prophet. Along with the seeker-friendly message Wilkerson denounced the prosperity gospel message. If the prosperity gospel is correct then the Church in Smyrna must have been the worst and the Church in Laodicea must have been the best (Rev. 2:8-11; 3:14-22).

Listening to these two men of God pour out their heart describing the abysmal condition of the church in America today and the example of genuine men of God in years gone by peeled some of the barnacles off my heart and brought me to my knees. As Ravenhill was preaching on the church in Laodicea which was characterized by lukewarmness I burst into tears and said, “Lord, I am not even lukewarm”. That is true. When I consider my embarrassing prayer life and wasted time on the computer I had to stand in the front of the back-sliders line.

Paul Almstead consistently reports of a revival going on in his Thai church. If what he says is accurate, that is something the likes of which I know of in no other church in Thailand, Japan, or America. Every Sunday people are walking in off the streets and every Sunday is a new record. They literally can't get in the building. They are having a 5:00 AM prayer meeting every day and 35 people are coming to the Wednesday night prayer meeting. Twenty five years ago when I was in Los Angeles I attended John MacArthur church every Sunday. He announced a Wednesday night prayer meeting that I decided to attend. I was utterly stunned to discover that a church of 8,000 to 10,000 had a church prayer meeting of 15 to 20 people. I couldn't believe it! But then I looked at my own life today. I was too embarrassed to stand in line with the true servants of God standing before His Throne of Grace and went around to a back door to plead for mercy. I have boasted for several years that I have two hours of devotions each morning, but then when I had to account for the rest of the 22 hours each day I had to pull a sack over my head. It has been many years since I have done serious knee drill (praying on my knees). But I have committed myself to getting back to disciplined praying for an extended time each day on my knees. This is starting to pay some dividends as Jesus is opening my eyes to see things a little more clearly than before and there is some sprinkle drops of mercy in answer to prayer.

Oh for a new day of reality! Oh for a new day of David Brainerd praying for hours on his knees in the snow. Leonard Ravenhill told of several of his friends who pray 5, 6, 7 hours every day. Oh my flickering candle would scarcely melt and ice cube. I fear nothing came from the Holy City Chiang Mai last Friday night. But if God can find two or three genuine warriors in a closet perhaps He could do something in Chiang Mai.

Lord Jesus, help us for Your own great Names sake.
                                                                                                          bill

John and Yoko Lennon

16 August 2015

Dear Phyllis,

One more testimony. Hopefully this will be the last one and perhaps I might get to a different subject next week. But today I want to tell you the story of an English musician who came to Karuizawa in June 1978. His name was John Lennon. When Lennon showed up in town I said, “The scum of the earth is here.” I was gravely mistaken. One day John was walking past the language school and Kjell Harjo hollered at him, “Hey John, come here and let me show you this place.” Kjell was a new missionary who had been born in Norway but had a US citizenship. He was as friendly and out going as they come. He showed Lennon the tabernacle of the Union Church there with the language school and John said, “This is terrific.” He and his wife Yoko came to church the next Sunday. I was preaching in my own Japanese church but when I got to the Union Church to pick Rosemary and Dave up the place was a buzz that John Lennon was in church that Sunday. That was the beginning.

The Lennons and Harjos became close friends that summer. I'm sure Kjell was John's closest friend. Kjell and I were close and he would come up to our house everyday and tell me what was going on. One day he said John had asked him for a list of good books to read. Kjell and I made up a list of the best books we could think of for an honest seeker. The Christian book store was in my office and the next day John came in and bought every book we had listed. He told Kjell that that summer he was doing little else but reading the Bible and Christian literature.

I had heard a lot of garbage about John Lennon how he boasted that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ. I asked him about that and he said the way that appeared in the news papers and what they meant was much different. I had heard he was married in a cemetery in the Mediterranean. He said that he had been involved in drugs and all sorts of garbage but he had a death fear of black magic and he had never dabbled in that darkness. I was surprised that the media image and the real man were radically different. John actually was a very decent, genuine, man. He had an amazingly good heart.

One day the Lennons and Harjos went for a picnic to a quiet area up on the hill above TEAM Center. Kjell's wife brought her guitar and after the lunch she gave it to John asking him to play so they could sing some Gospel songs. After singing a number songs John put the guitar down and said, “This is it. This is what I have been seeking all my life. My friend George (Harrison) will be surprised when I go back and tell him I am a Christian now.” Indeed John bore every sign that he was a genuine child of God that summer. We thought this is going to be big news when I hits the media that John Lennon has been saved.

Very few people knew what the Spirit of God was doing in John's heart that summer. One zealous brother felt called of God to witness to John Lennon. He went to their house. The house maid foolishly told him that they were at the Manpei Hotel for supper. The missionary went to the Manpei dining hall and interrupted their supper to tell him the Gospel. Three years later that brother told me how he had witnessed to John Lennon. I didn't tell him that I knew all about that story and how the Lennon's didn't appreciated the intrusion in their meal that night.

Yoko was a serious problem. We all felt she was demonized and some brothers asked me if I thought they could cast demons out of her. I said that is unlikely as they obviously are there by her consent. John really was a wonderful man but he was a surprisingly weak man. Yoko was vastly more powerful and controlled his life. The next summer when the Lennons came back to Karuizawa, Kjell went over to see his friend, but Yoko met him at the door and declared they didn't need his company any more and “please don''t come back again”. She terminated our contact with him.

A year later I heard that John had appeared stark nude with his wife on the cover of a new music album. That is not a good witness for a Christian. Three months after that he was shot and killed. There is a verse in Isa. 57:1 that says, “The righteous perisheth... none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.” Personally, I like to think John Lennon was a saved man but married to a very strong evil woman, and the Lord took him to keep what little salvation was in him. Had he lived longer she might have taken him further from the Lord.

I always felt someone should write up and publish John Lennon's testimony. After 20 years I wrote up a five or six page account as I recalled it that summer in Karuizawa. Kjell had retired as a missionary by that time and was pastoring a church in Seattle, Wash. I sent a copy of the brief testimony I had written up to Kjell for his correction and opinion what we should do. I was disappointed that I got a pretty warm response from Kjell saying he would have nothing to do with it. Kjell's objection was; “The reason John and I were good friends was that he knew anything he said to me was confidential and I would never make anything public that was personal about him. My main concern is the salvation of his wife Yoko and his son.” Kjell went on to say, “I want nothing to do with this. If you print this please do not use my name.”

I wrote Kjell back that I agreed with him about his concern for the salvation of Yoko and Sean, but I asked him, “If John is in heaven and we could get in touch with him by e-mail, what do you think he would say? Do you think he would be grateful if someone would publish his testimony for Jesus or be quiet? And if John is in hell what do you think would be the best shot for Sean's salvation; if he heard this testimony his dad had for Christ or keep that news from him?” Kjell never answered my letter and I have never made any attempt to write up anything and publish it myself. It couldn't have been too confidential as my niece heard Kjell on a Christian radio station in Los Angeles telling that story to a million listeners.

Our last exchange was in 2000. Tragically two or three years later Kjell was killed in a car accident, and the world will never know of the Christian side of John Lennon. I heard a video of his biographer who knew that John had expressed interest in Christianity and there was a mention about something in Karuizawa, Japan, but no one knew any details. That is two major testimonies; the North Vietnamese general Tha Dam and John Lennon who have had marvelous testimonies that have died with them. But Jesus has all this recorded in heaven and we will hear a better version of it then.

Looking unto Jesus,

                                            bill

General Tha Dam

9 August 2015

Dear Phyllis,

Ten years ago I was staying in the home of General Tha Dam in Saigon, Vietnam. General Tha Dam was the commanding general of the North Vietnamese army when they made the final assault on Saigon and the Russian T-54 tank crashed through the gate of the presidential palace ending the Vietnam war.On Christmas day 2001 General Tha Dam has died of cancer as an unbeliever in a hospital. He went out into eternity and came back from the dead a born-again Christian. I was on black list in Vietnam at the time and couldn't get in to talk with him but four years later I was able to get there and spend a week living with him. Quite obviously the general had one of the more interesting testimonies. I was interested in writing a biography of the general's life and had gone to talk with him about that. The general replied, “I have witnessed to everyone on top, and I don't care what the lower ones under them think. Okay.”

There had been an American chopper pilot who had had a very bad time during the war and said Vietnam was a place he never wanted to see again. But he had been saved and heard of the ministry of carrying Bibles into Vietnam. To get in on this ministry he came to Thailand and went with a team. While in Vietnam he was in a service where they had a foot washing ceremony. The North Vietnamese general knelt down and washed the American pilots feet and the tearful pilot washed his North Vietnamese brothers feet. I had heard several such stories and felt this testimony should be recorded.

While living with him I asked the details how he got saved. He told me his wife had been led to the Lord by another lady in a market. He was furious when his wife refused to make offering before their family Buddhist idol, but he let her stay. A year after his wife's conversion he came down with cancer, He had been in a revolving door with the hospital going in and out for treatment, He obviously was near the end in December of 2001. On the 17^th of December a Vietnamese pastor was visiting him in the hospital. He knew nothing about Christianity but knew the Christmas was Jesus' birthday and that was the most celebrated religious day world wide. He thought that Jesus must be some special person. He commanded the pastor to pray exactly as told. The pastor dutifully prayed; “God, if you are God I want to be saved on Christmas day. If You don't save me on Christmas day I know You are not God and just want to die anyway. Amen” After that he tried to have another surgery on Christmas that would save his life, but he was told Christmas was a holiday, everyone was off. It was impossible to have surgery. He thought, “Well, I'm dead.”.

On Christmas morning a Vietnamese pastor visited him at 7:45. At 8:00 o'clock a nurse making the rounds found him dead and thought the pastor had killed him. They put put an arrest warrant for the pastor but never could find him. Then the hospital panicked. They had let the top general in Vietnam die without doing everything they could to save him. They couldn't find a surgeon to do it, but simply to save their own skin they called in a general practitioner who had never done surgery to come in and cut up the corpse.

I asked the general what happened after he died. He told me when his soul left the body it was like he had gone out into empty space. He saw a light in the distance and started moving towards it. While going he heard a Voice saying, “Open your eyes and take back your life.”. He tried but couldn't do it. Moving on, he heard the Voice the second time. Again he tried but couldn't. Going on towards the light he heard the Voice saying to him the third time, “Open your eyes and take your life back.” He did, and the first voice he heard was, “It's finished.”. Two hours had passed. It was now 10:00 o'clock. The doctor had just finished sowing up the cadaver and said to the nurse, “It's finished.” With that the general opened his eyes and said, “I want to go home.” The doctor was somewhat surprised to have a dead man speak to him and replied, “You can't.”. The general persisted, “I want to go home.” So they loaded him in an ambulance and took him home. Two weeks later he was completely recovered riding his motor bike around Saigon. He became a very aggressive Christian and wrote 120 letters to all the top men in the Vietnam government. I was with him in January and he told me that the president of Vietnam had called him three weeks before on Christmas asking him how he enjoyed the church service.

General Tha Dam wanted to start a church in his own home. I happened to be there that Sunday and had the privilege of preaching the first message in his church. I preached on the two most powerful words in the Bible – “But God” – in Eph. 2:4. To illustrate that message I spoke extensively about Tamar and Pharez in Genesis 38. At the end of the message the general said he had always wondered (along with thousands of others) why Genesis 38 was in the Bible. But now he knew.

To write his biography I would need a full-time interpreter and spend several months in Vietnam researching all the locations, people, and events in his life. I was never able to come up with the funds, the interpreter, or the time to do that task.

Five years ago I led a Canadian lady to the Lord who had shot and killed her husband. She was in the womens prison here in Chiang Mai. Joan had such a powerful testimony I was sure when she got out of prison she would write a book of her testimony how she had gotten saved through hearing about General Tha Dams testimony. When she was released and went back to Canada a friend that I worked with pleaded, “If Joan ever writes her testimony please don't let her mention anything out general Tha Dam. We must not let anyone know he is a Christian. If she mentions his name the media will be all over him and that will destroy his testimony.” I couldn't believe it! George said, “Right now he is a national hero but if anyone finds out he is a Christian they would consider him a traitor. We must not let anyone know he is saved”

I was livid. I wrote his son-in-law who was a good friend of mine and asked if this was the general's position or just the fears of this paranoid missionary. Tang had been the first man I ever met in Vietnam and he was the one who took me to the general's house when I went in to talk to him. Tang was as courageous as they come. I knew the general was a courageous man. I knew his bold witness and I was stunned by the paranoid fears of this cowardly missionary. I couldn't imagine the general hiding his light under a bushel basket. To my unending astonishment I wrote three letters to Tang for a confirmation and never got a reply. What happened? I don't know. I heard the general has now gone to be with the Lord two years ago. One of the most amazing testimonies in the past 50 years has died and few people will ever know abut the North Vietnamese general who died on Christmas day and came back to life to tell the world about Jesus who saved him.

                                                                                          Lump, bill

Louie Issh

2 August 2015

Dear Phyllis,

I would much rather write a letter saying, “What a wonderful savior!” than about outstanding Christians. Recently I have had a series about the top Christians I have known, and before I get off that subject I would like to write about one more. I believe Louie Issh was the most Spirit-filled man I ever met.

In 1972 we were staying with Bill and Elaine Jackson in Syracuse NY. Rosemary was in the General Hospital. One day I asked Elaine, “How many Spirit- filled Christians do you have in your church?” She replied, “We all are”. I responded, “That's wonderful, but how many really are?” To that Elaine was thoughtful and replied, “Well Pastor Issh is.” To meet Pastor Issh I went to a Tuesday night Bible study he was conducting at his Christian and Missionary Alliance church. He was an 80 year old retired pastor. The C&MA had put him out to pasture but gave him the job as visitation pastor and a Bible study for a lolly pop. There were probably about 25 people there, most of whom, had no idea what he was talking about. After the meeting I introduced myself and said I would like to personally talk with him. He invited me to his home the next night.

What a night! It was a night like I had never experienced before or since. I sat there from 7:30 until midnight drinking at a fountain such as I had never tasted. Brother Issh told how he and his wife had been saved shortly after they were married. From the beginning they had a tremendous hunger for the Lord and all He had for them. He told how one day he was spending some time in prayer while his wife was out. Quite suddenly the Lord spoke to him saying, “Follow Me.” Louie was surprised and replied, “Lord, I am following You. What do You mean follow Me?” To that the Lord explained, “Follow Me through pain.” Whoa. Louie said, “Lord, I don't want to follow You through pain.” But the Lord's word persisted and at last he surrendered. As he went on the Voice came to him the second time, “Follow Me.” A little bit nervous Louie responded, “Lord, what is it this time?” “Follow Me through misunderstanding.” That was tough but he finally promised, “Lord I will follow You.” He scarcely dared to continue praying but shortly he heard the Voice the third time. Badly frightened he inquired again, “Lord, now what?” And the Lord replied, “Follow Me through loneliness”. With great reluctance Louie finally surrendered and said, “Lord, I will follow You”. Some time later his wife came home and he said, “From now on things are going to be different. It is going to be Jesus first, others second and ourselves last.” At that his wife turned on her heals and went into the bedroom. Sometime later she came out quietly composed. They never discussed the incident. Thirty years later they were counselors at a C&MA Bible camp in Rome, NY. There had been an invitation and a number of young people had gone forward. Louie was counseling a young man at the altar and his wife was knelling beside him talking to a young girl. He overheard his wife say, “Don't be afraid, dear, since my husband and I did that the Lord has given us the most wonderful marriage possible.”

Brother Issh told me of a time when AW Tozer invited him to be a speaker at his church in Chicago. Tozer warned, “Chicago is a tough town. The Christians there are very hard”. Vance Havner had been at Moody Memorial a few months before and the meetings were so bad Havner quit in the middle of the week and went home. Louie Issh wasn't expecting much but every night the crowds just kept getting bigger. The response at the altar was tremendous. Fifteen years after that Louie was in Georgia having lunch in a restaurant. A man at a table near him kept looking at him. At length the man came over and asked. “Are you Pastor Issh?” He went on to say, “I was a student at Moody Bible Institute when you were having meeting at Tozer's church and attended those meeting.” Louie asked, “Could you please explain to me what happened there? Tozer said it was a tough town but those meetings were excellent.” The man repied, “Yes, what Tozer said was true. Chicago is a circuit for all the top speakers in the world. We had heard them all. But there was something about your message that was different.”

I know what he meant. It has been my great privilege to have heard, known, and fellowshiped with many of the top conference speakers in the world. But talking with Louie Issh was different. It was like talking with Jesus. Oh, what a night! I sat there for 4½ hours drinking at the well like never imagined existed on this planet. He told story after story of Jesus. It was like fellowshipping with John who had walked, talked, and handled Jesus. Oh, the Lord was so real; He was so powerful; He was so wonderful!

Louie told how his wife had been victim of a Jewish doctor who confessed to him that he had inadvertently cut out his wife's ovaries and said she could never have a baby. She had two sons. The Jewish doctor told him, “I could believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ before I could believe it was possible for your wife to have a child. I know there was nothing there.”

Brother Issh told me how he had led a young man to Christ a few months before who asked him to visit his father who was in a nursing home. Louie promised him, “Certainly, I will visit him the first thing Monday”. Monday, he was on his way out the door when suddenly he recalled he hadn't prayed about it. He stopped at the door and asked the Lord to bless his time at the nursing home. Surprisingly the Lord said, “Don't go.” Okay. He took off his hat and sat down to read his Bible. The next day before going he prayed first. Again the Lord said, “No”. Wednesday came and it was getting to be an issue. He told the Lord, “I promised the boy I would go Monday. It is now Wednesday. If I can't go today I would like an explanation why.” The Lord said, “You can go now.” Louie went to see the old man and found him granite hard. He swore and said, “I want nothing to do with Jesus.” After some time Louie excused himself and was at the door when he turned around and asked, “Old man, is there anything I can do for you?” At that the old cadgers voice dropped and replied, “Yes there is. Today is my birthday. My daughter in Sacramento sent me a birthday card. My eyes are bad. Could you read it to me?” The card was lying on the table beside the door. Louie opened it up and read, “Happy Birthday Daddy. I have the most wonderful news. I just received Jesus as my savior last week and am praying that you might know this joy too.” Louie read the words that had come 30 minutes before and asked, “Well, dad, how about it?” Tears trickled down the old mans face and was he saved.

Oh, to know Jesus! Oh, to know Jesus! OH, TO KNOW JESUS! I only saw Louie Issh three times. But oh, the mark he left on me, and how I crave to know something of this wonderful Lord that he followed.

Dear Lord, grant it. Please.

                                                        bill