Apple Tree

As the apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight and His fruit was sweet to my taste. S of S 2:3

Dear Phyllis,

The Lord took a tremendous risk when He put the Song of Solomon in His Scripture. He did this because of His intense desire to share with us the inner most aspects of His heart and the relationship He desires to have with His created humanity. Undoubtedly the reason God established man and woman on the earth was to graphically show us this relationship. Adam was as perfect as God could make him. Paradise was as wonderful as God could produce. To say I was good was a colossal understatement. But God saw that Adam needed one more thing. He could not be complete without a partner. I believe the reason adultery is such a serious sin is because it desecrates the graphic illustration of the relationship that God intends that we should have with Himself. In the marriage relationship God has shown us in the strongest possible way His own heart. Unquestionably the S of S is the biblical expression of Jesus' relationship with His Bride. And in it the Lord has shared with us His heart in terms that are almost pornographic.

Before I was saved I concluded that there was no such thing as satisfaction in this world. Suggest what you may, and over it we must hang a sign, “Not fully satisfying”. The devil only has three wares on his shelf to offer humanity. They are Pleasure, Possession, or Position. (Something I want to feel, something I want to have, or something I want to be). But gather as much as you like of these three items; the bottom line is – Not satisfying.

But Wednesday night I had an amazing experience. I have never been so satisfied in all my life. It was impossible to add anything that would have made me happier. For thirty minutes I sat on a bench in my shop raving over and over, “Oh, this has been a GOOD DAY”. As I sat there reflecting what the Lord had done for me I thought “Oh my goodness, Jesus' apples are oishi (delicious)”. The Bible expresses it well when it says “As the apple tree among the trees of the woods so is my Beloved among the sons”. We know the the Lord is the giver of every good and perfect gift. But there is something different about the gifts that Jesus gives and the cheap toys the devil offers. Jesus' gifts are satisfying. Samuel Rutherford frequently wrote about the Apple Tree (Jesus). And his chief concern was that he didn't want to enjoy the apples more than the Apple Tree. This is the old problem of enjoying the gift more than the Giver. I hope that is not true with me. Lord, never let me come to the place where I enjoy Your goodness and Your wonderful gifts more than Yourself. But when a father gives his son a bicycle for Christmas, it gives him great pleasure to see how much the lad enjoys the bike. We should be thankful to God for the wonderful gifts He gives us, and maybe He enjoys that too.

It would be impossible to enumerate all the good things the Lord has given me. One is good health. I couldn't be healthier. One is a good place to live. Another is a partner. The list is endless. But the thing that rang the bell so loud the other night was my shop. Three years ago I gave up my shop because Pammy was complaining about dust. I gave everything I owned to Dave Moore for Abba House. Dave and his boys are making a lot of things for Abba House and I was glad to let him have my tools, but I felt like a cowboy without his horse. Recently there are a number of things that Pammy has asked me to make for her. I said, “I would be glad to do that if I had some tools”. Through that the Lord laid on my heart that perhaps He would give me another shop. This seemed utterly impossible. My shop was worth thousands of dollars and it was highly unlikely that the Lord would give me that kind of money. Very much against my protest Dave started bringing some of my tools back. The main reason I accepted them was because, in many cases, Dave had duplicates. Then I started to remake basic benches. I was amazed at the things I found lying in the shop and how the Lord showed me how to do things that looked impossible. I needed a drill press and decided to make one using a very good hand drill. But the problems seemed unsolvable. After six months of terrible frustration last week I finally got the drill press done and it is better than any commercial one I have ever seen. You talk about a happy camper; I had the biggest grin on my face of anyone sitting around the camp fire. I could not have been more delighted. But there was an enormous problem of how to get rid of scrap wood. If you run a wood shop scrap material will accumulate. If you can't get rid of it you will get impossibly inundated. Previously I have always burned scrap wood, but now the situation had changed where that was impossible. If I could not resolve this problem, having a wood shop looked prohibitive. Then the Lord suggested, “Why not burn the scrap in the shop?” I never thought of such a ridiculous thing. But it was worth a try. Wednesday I burned a huge pile of trash on the concrete floor in the shop and it was no problem whatsoever. To someone else that might look like a small thing but to me it was a dream come true. It cleared the way for the biggest problem facing me. Now I had a clear shot at having a wonderful shop again. I could not have been happier. I thought if there is a happier man on this planet than me, I don't know who he is. Oh the feeling of intense intense satisfaction was indescribable. Then I thought how odd this is. Before I was saved I thought satisfaction in this life was impossible but now I was totally satisfied. Oh my goodness, Jesus' apples are oishi (delicious).

And His shadow is wonderful. What a joy to be able to sit down under His shadow. After working in a hot blazing sun all day it sure feels good to be able to sit down under a cool shade tree. What is the difference between working in the hot sun and sitting under a shade tree? The sun is the same but something else is taking the heat. I have had serious problems and people have asked me, “What are you going to do?”. My reply has been, “I don't know and I don't care. That is not my problem. That is Jesus' problem. I am sitting under His shadow.”

To anyone else what happened Wednesday night might have looked incidental but to me it was a huge event of another moment to be reminded of the indescribable blessing it is to be a member of the Bride of Christ and the innumerable things He does for us. The Bible expresses it well when it says, “As the apple tree among the trees of the wood so is my Beloved among the sons. I sat down under His shadow with great delight and His fruit was sweet to my taste.” There are many things in life that we enjoy but Jesus' apples are the sweetest of the lot. And to be able to sit down under His shadow to enjoy life – it doesn't get much better than this. What a privilege is ours!

Thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus,

                                                             bill

What's Wrong With Todays Traditional Chruch

4 June 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Paul was over the other day. Paul is easily the most unusual man I have ever met. He was the most violent man I ever met but was miraculously saved six years ago. At the moment he and his family are experiencing a time of spiritual moving the likes of which I have never seen. Two years ago they went to a small Thai church that had about three old women and a dog. Suddenly there was an explosive moving of the Holy Spirit. A month ago Paul was over in tears. He said it was the greatest day of his life. It probably was. He had been praying for his church and said that Sunday people just started pouring in. Soon the church was filled to the point where no one could get inside. Then he said an almost equal number were standing outside. He said there must have been close to one hundred there. That was astonishing but it wasn't the numbers that was significant. Jesus was there. And Jesus is moving in that church like I have never heard.

Two years ago Paul had a burden for revival in Chiang Mai. He started a noon prayer meeting that wound up in the office of the Chiang Mai Community Church. Paul is not a member there but quite regularly goes in support of the pastor and the spiritual condition of the church. It is pitiful. I went to CMCC regularly for over ten years until my stomach couldn't take it any longer. CMCC was started over 50 years ago as an international missionary fellowship. There are close to 400 missionaries who go there but Jesus is singularly absent. I have known the last four pastors and they are all good conservative Gospel men. But the church is anything but a spiritual functioning body. At best it is a semi-religious entertainment theater. It is composed of two parts. There is a stage with performers and an audience. There is a band on the stage and people who lead singing. There are people who recite (read) prayers. There is a speaker and a few others to fill in the blanks. The audience applauds when the performers do well but there is a shocking irreverence. During the time of prayer many are talking, looking around, or reading something. If Jesus would ever visited that place everyone would be startled. It has been years since Jesus got as close as the parking lot. The last four pastors have been terrific guys. The present one is marvelous. I was a close friend of the pastor who was there for eight years. He had been a missionary in Pakistan for many years before then and I had tremendous respect for him. But in a mixed missionary atmosphere like that you must be very politically correct in what you say. It would be totally unacceptable to say anything controversial and as a result truth is barred from the platform.

Paul sees the stark contrast between the real deal in his Thai church and the plastic one in CMCC. Correspondingly he has a great burden for the Church in America. I agree with 100% of everything he says, but I have no answer. Apart from an astonishing intervention by God I see no cure. And I don't see that happening.

Paul says, “This theater entertainment is not Christianity”. Right. In 90% of the churches I know the difference between the successful ones and those that aren't doing so hot is the ability of the performers - particularly the gift of the speaker. With a good speaker the church may grow. The Presence of the Lord is simply not a factor. What is a true NT church service like? I have had the privilege of participating in one for several years. And, man howdy, it was wonderful. No one wanted to go home.

It has been suggested that the 1^st century church service was probably a Sunday evening meal in a home. One argument for this is that a high percentage of the believers were slaves that had no free time except after work on Sunday. To accommodate them Sunday evening was the only time they could attend a meeting. Several scriptural passages support that the early church was a house church (Act 2:46; 5:42, 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Phm. 1:2). It would seem that communion was at least a weekly event and in dealing with communion in 1 Corinthians Paul rebukes the sin of gluttony which suggest that communion was actually a meal (1 Cor. 11:34). More than that 1 Cor. 14:26 suggest that a real church service is not a one man show but every one participating.

I believe the Plymouth Brethren are the closest to the original pattern of any denomination. In 1975 I went to a deacons meeting of the Seisho Kyokai (Bible Church) in Karuizawa and was introduced as the new pastor. I said “Chotto matte (just a minute). If I take this church I will turn it into a Brethren Assembly.” Steve Tygert was leaving and replied, “That's alright. Do anything you want with it”. The next Sunday I got everyone together and said, “From now on we are not going to sit like pigeons on a fence, but put the chairs in a circle and everybody participates.” It was awful. After three weeks the brethren came to me and said, “Cook san, this is not church. Please quit it.” I replied, “Okay, put the pews back in order and I will preach every Sunday.” But I insisted that they take turns and somebody else speaks once a month. For five years we had church but no church life.

A brother explained to me, “The problem is that everyone is coming to church like Joseph's brothers with empty sacks saying 'fill them up'”. A real service is where everyone is walking with the Lord Monday through Saturday. They are slam full on Saturday night and come Sunday morning to present their offerings to the Lord. That is a real worship service. It is when everyone is so thrilled with Jesus they are about to explode and can't wait to thank Him in a service. Church life is family life. A healthy family is where there is a loving father and everyone has a say. That is the way a true NT church should be.

Paul would like to start a service like this, but there are two problems. Structurally, human nature is welded to patterns. It is virtually impossible to change a system with old believers. You can't put new wine in old sacks. The traditional way of doing things is prohibitive for group participation, so every church has one man speaking and everyone else listening. There is no room or the development of spiritual gifts. But the biggest problem is the spiritual condition of Christians. The vast majority of Christians world wide is that they are used to being spoon fed and very few have much of a personal walk with the Lord. Henceforth they have very little spiritual experience and nothing to say, and you wind up with a situation like I had in Karuizawa where we sat around in a circle in silence with no one having anything to say. And then there is one more vital factor – the overwhelming sense of the Presence of the Lord. Where the Holy Spirit is there in power there will be tears, there will be sorrow for sin, and there will be unspeakable joy. Where Jesus is there will be Life. Take that away and you will have the shell with nothing inside. And there is no way human effort can manufacture that.

Paul is beside himself. He and his family are experiencing life as the Lord intends it. He sees the real thing and the pitiful, plastic, synthetic version. Millions are deceived thinking that this is Christianity but have never drunk from the cup of the real wine.

What is the answer? I don't know.

                                                       bill