Seraphims

30 July 2017

Dear Phyllis,

As a young man I heard that the best prayers to utter were the prayers of the Bible. For worship, I thought there is no way you could improve upon the prayers of the seraphims that stand in the presence of God ceaselessly crying “Holy, holy, holy” (Isa. 6:3; Rev. 4:8). Try it. I did. It doesn't work. You do that for five minutes you will go nuts. For years this was a mystery to me how the seraphims can do that. Isaiah and John had very similar experiences. They both saw the Throne of God, and what they reported seeing was the seraphims crying “Holy, holy, holy”. It is interesting that these two men were separated by 600 years but the scene hadn't changed in 600 years. Apparently the seraphims never stop. Indeed John tells us that “they rest not day and night” (Rev. 4:8) .

One year we went over to Kashiwazaki for a Bible camp. The school is right on the coast of the Sea of Japan and we were swimming in the sea everyday. While we were over there a typhoon came up the Sea of Japan. Fortunately it missed us but the next day the effect of that typhoon came ashore. We went down to the beach to look at the waves. Man howdy, I never saw anything in my life like that. Those waves must have been 30 feet high. They looked like Mt. Fuji coming at you. There is a well used word in Japanese, SUGOI, that means awesome, fantastic, terrific, great, amazing, etc. When I first saw those waves I said “Sugoi!” Then another wave came in that looked bigger than the first and I said, “Sugoi!”. Then another and I said “Sugoi”. For 30 minutes I stood there compulsively saying, “Sugoi”. I couldn't get another word out of my mouth. I tried talking in English but any word I came up with just didn't fit.

For the first time in my life I understood the experience of the seraphims. When I saw the Grand Canyon I had a similar experience but it was radically different. When we went to the Grand Canyon, we parked in the parking lot and walked over to the rim of the canyon. What I saw was indescribable. I said, “Sugoi”. But after ten minutes I quit. Nothing changed. The waves in Kashiwazaki were dynamic. They kept coming. But the Grand Canyon didn't change. It was static. What the seraphims were looking at was the performance of God that was alive and kept changing.

By that I understood the motivation of the seraphims, what wound their clock. But their message is the main point. What they are crying is, “Holy, holy, holy”. This is the thing that impresses them so much. It is the holiness of God. Holy is not a word that is well used in our vocabulary. Maybe the reason we use it so seldom is because there is so little of it among us. What does it mean? I used to think it means clean, free from imperfection. I used to think holy meant you didn't smoke, drink, or look at pornography. I have a friend who had a hound dog, and he said his dog didn't do any of that, but the dog wasn't holy. If holiness means free from sin we must define sin. Obviously God's measuring rod is His law - the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments are a two edged sword. It has both a negative and a positive cutting edge. The Ten Commandments certainly are negative, prohibitive – don't do it. But Jesus told us that the Ten Commandments also have a positive edge on them. When someone asked Him which was the greatest commandment He replied “Love” - love God, and love your neighbor (Mt. 22:35-40). That sums it all up. The first four commandments are vertical towards God and the next six are horizontal towards fellow men. If you love God and love men you certainly won't do anything negative towards them. On the contrary all your actions will be positive. If you love someone you won't kill them; you will help them. If you love someone you won't steal; you will give. If you truly love someone you won't defile them by immorality; you will help them to be clean. Paul discusses this in Romans 13:8-10 and sums it all up by saying “love is the fulfillment of the law”.

The thing that impresses the seraphims so much is the character of God – His love. John tell us that God is love (1 Jn. 4:16). He is the very essence of love. He is the definition of love. When Moses asked God to show him His glory, God's response to that was to proclaim His Name (Ex. 34:5-7). And what is His Name? Merciful, gracious, long suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquities, transgressions, and sins...” This is His Name. This is who He is. This is His character. This is what the seraphims saw that blew them away. In all the actions of God they saw His character, His love; and they compulsively cried, “Holy, holy, holy”.

One big difference between the seraphims and us is that they are full of eyes (Rev. 4:8). They have eyes in the back of their head. They have eyes in their ears. They have eyes in the top of their head. They have eyes in the bottom of their feet. They see 360 degrees. They see the big picture. We are like a horse with blinders. We have a very narrow view of things. We don't see the big picture and consequently we have a very different perspective of God.

We had some very special friends in Greenville, the Kings. They were among the finest Christians in town. One day they received the tragic news that their son had been killed in a traffic accident. When sister King heard that news she immediately went to God and was going to give Him a piece of her mind and tell Him what she thought about the terrible thing He had done in taking their son. But before sister king opened her mouth, the Lord spoke first and said, “What I do now, you don't know, but later you will know” (Jn. 13:7). When sister King heard that she burst into tears and said, “Lord Jesus, thank You”. What she didn't know was that as a result of the death of his father their grandson, Walt, would come to live with them. Ten years later Walt would be an outstanding missionary to Nepal. That never would have happened if Walt had not been raised with them. My goodness, the Kings never lost a thing. That was 40 years ago. I am sure both brother and sister King have long since been in heaven with their son to enjoy each other for eternity. And Walt has proved himself to be an outstanding man of God.

We have a very limited perspective of all that God is doing. And we have a very limited capacity to appreciate the marvels of our wonderful Lord. Perhaps the day will come when we see more clearly and can join the seraphims in expressing our overwhelming wonder of the character of God. Just the fact that He sent His Son to save us should ignite our hearts with fire. What blew the minds of seraphims was just watching Him, but, in our case, we are the recipients of that unspeakable love and grace.

Even if it with dumb and stammering lips;

Thank You Jesus,

                            bill

In

23 July 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Perhaps the most profound, mysterious, and instructive word in the Bible is IN. Nothing could be simpler than those two letters and yet what a fathomless volume of information it carries. IN is the word that brings two objects together in the most in the most intimate and inseparable manner. IN is the word that describes how two objects radically alter each other. To say there is a little arsenic in lemon aide totally changes the character of the lemon aide. Lemon aide by itself is very good and healthful. Put a little arsenic in it and the lemon aid becomes deadly. To say there is $1,000 in a cardboard box totally changes the value of that cardboard box. By itself we would throw the cardboard box in the trash. It is worthless. Put $1,000 in it and that box becomes a treasure. Not because of the box but because of what is in it. Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is like a treasure hid in a field. By itself that field is only worth what it can produce, but if there is a treasure hid in it that is a totally different picture. The word that brings two objects together is that simple predicate IN.

It has been suggested that the key word of Ephesians is IN. In the first two chapters we find it written 18 times. That is the word that describes what God has done for us and our inestimable blessing we have IN CHRIST. IN is the key word of 2 Cor. 5:17 that says, “If any man be IN Christ he is a new creature”. This is the most important word in our life. This is the word that determines whether or not we have life or death – heaven or hell. It all depends on IN. The value of any mundane object is determined by what is IN it.

Last week I wrote you that he Lord spoke to me about oneness expressed in Jesus' prayer in John 17. This week He spoke to me about IN. I was deeply impressed with what Jesus said in verse 21 - “As Thou Father art IN Me and I IN Thee”. Oh my goodness, what a truth! 2 Cor. 5:19 tells us. “To wit that God was IN Christ...” That was what made Christ so unusual – God was in Him. He was just an ordinary man but God was in Him. He was the embodiment of God that had never been seen on this planet. He was just a carpenter but God was in Him.

The truth that impressed me so deeply this past week was the fact that Christ is in us. Who can take that in? Christ is in us!!! Can it be real?! The evidence is overwhelming that it is true. How else can you explain the radical difference that comes to a person when they are born-again? Sangha impresses me every day. He is a totally different man than he was five years ago. The other day he told me, “I used to be terrible afraid of death, but now it doesn't mean a thing to me.” Why? Because he now has eternal life. That life cannot die – it is eternal. He loves the Word of God. He reads his Bible every night. He has an insatiable passion for the Word of God. The unsaved know nothing of this. How in the world can a man be so changed? Jesus came into his heart. Christ is in him. Just as God was in Christ Jesus, Christ is in Sangha.

But what Jesus said in His prayer in John 17:19 has both a subject and object truth. He said, “As Thou Father art IN Me and I IN Thee. The Father being in Christ was subjective but Christ being in the Father was objective. Just as Jesus was in the Father we are in Christ. Don't ask me to explain it. I can't. No one can. It is totally beyond human intellect to comprehend how we can be in Christ, but the Holy Spirit testifies that we are. There is such a thing as positional santification. We are santified by our position in Christ. That is the central message of Ephesians. Christ in us is subjective but we being in Christ is objective. Both are true. The Father was in Jesus and Jesus was in the Father. During the 2^nd WW bomb shelters were basic in London. There was a terrible war going on topside. The city was being leveled. But deep underground it was safe in the bomb shelters. There is the famous picture titled “Peace”. It is a painting of a terrific storm at sea. Massive waves are crashing down on a rock. But hidden in that rock is a little bird. The little bird could care less about those waves. She is hidden in the rock. So we are hidden in Christ. But how did we get there? We all know the answer of how Christ came to live in our heart. We accepted Him. When we said yes to Jesus He came in. But how did we get in Christ? Paul give us the answer to that question in 1 Cor. 1:30 - “But of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus”. It was God that placed us in Christ. That was an act of God and we had nothing to do with it. If God does not place us in Christ there is not a thing we can do about it. That is totally a sovereign act of His will. If God doesn't place us in Christ there is no other way we can get there. But if God places us in Christ is think that is pretty secure place to be.

As I was going over John 17 last week it was mind boggling when I considered verse 21 where Jesus prayed, “As Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee, that they might all be one in Us”. Gomen Phyllis. I know this is meaningless. It is like playing a high note on a violin to a deaf man. There is no way we can take in the truth and reality of that statement. It is like tying to measure how far it is to the farthest star. They say the Hubble telescope can see as far as 10 to the 28 power miles. I can't write that number. Maybe we would be better off looking at the moon. At least we can see that with our naked eye. But I was deeply impressed by the power of that little two letter word IN last week and the truth the Holy Spirit spoke to me about the relationship Jesus expressed in John 17 - “As Thou Father art in Me and I in Thee...” That is the same relationship that we enjoy today by being in Christ. As much as it is a fact that the Father was in Christ, it is equally true that Jesus is in us. And just as Christ was in the Father, by an act of His will we are in Christ. Oh my goodness, what can be higher?! And then Jesus went on to pray that “they might be one in Us”. I don't know what that means but I am sure it is wonderful.

That little two letter word has joined us to the godhead. That little word has made it a reality that Jesus lives in my heart and tells me that I am in Christ. Just as a diamond in a box changes the value of that box Christ in me radically alters who I am. A box may be worth a penny but if a diamond is in it I better take good care of it. By myself I am not worth much but if Christ is in me that means I better think differently and be careful how I live. It has been accuractly said that the Blood of Christ is the price God has placed on each soul. I wouldn't place that price tag on anybody but God has. And when Christ comes into a human heart His presence makes that person something of infinite worth.

Pammy has been real vocal recently about going to the states. She keeps asking, “Can we go to America?” My reply has consistently been, “Yes, just as soon as the Lord sends us.” I don't have much faith or expectation for that trip but if the Lord would so direct it would be good to see you. And I want you to meet this unusual partner that the Lord has given me for the last few miles on my way to heaven.

Gomen nasai for what is probably a dull letter but the reality of what God has done for us by inserting the two letter IN in our lives is truly mind boggling.

Gombate (give it your best shot) for Jesus this week,

Joyfully in Christ,

                         bill

God Begot Jesus

16 July 2016

Dear Phyllis,

Today I want to briefly touch on a subject that is somewhat controversial but nevertheless I feel very important. This world, as we see it, is constituted by four measurable components – mass, space, energy, and time. We measure mass in pounds or kilo grams, space in feet and inches, or centimeters, energy in degrees Celsius or Fahrenheit, and time in minutes and hours. We have scales, measuring tapes, thermometers, and clocks. That is it. Those are the four measurable components that God made in creation. But because God is the creator He is outside His creation. That is obvious. Therefore we must accept that God exists in a world outside that with which we can understand. We cannot measure God with our measuring tapes. If a person does not accept that God exists outside that which we can understand it is impossible to understand spiritual truth.

I say all this to establish a subject that is obvious but I have never heard anyone with courage enough to develop it. That is, that Jesus was begotten of God. Begotten has a singular meaning. It means one object to be born out of another. Jesus was born of God. I know there are two begottens in scripture. The standard accepted one is that Jesus was begotten out of death in the resurrection (Acts 13:33). But Jesus told Nicodemus that he was the only begotten Son of God in John 3:16. In this He is unique as the only begotten Son of God. Thank God there are millions of others, of whom we are some, that are begotten of God by the new-birth (Heb. 2:10). If a person is not born of God by the new-birth he simply is not saved.

There are some who cry heresy because Jesus was the creator and He already was with the Father in the beginning (Heb. 1:2; Jn. 1:1). True. But that is the point. He was the creator. He created time. But He was begotten of the Father before there was a beginning. That is why we have a Father-Son relationship.

The reason I bring this up is because last week the Lord was speaking to me about oneness. In Jesus' prayer in John 17 five times He uses the word one. This was one of the major objects of that prayer. He prayed that Christians would be one. And to illustrate that point, and the degree of that oneness, Jesus prayed that Christians might have the same oneness that Jesus had with the Father.

It is impossible for us to get a complete grasp of that oneness. We can come close by looking at some couples who have a close husband-wife relationship. Muriel and Robertson McQuilkin had one of the tightest marriages I ever saw. I never saw a woman more passionately devoted to her husband as Muriel was to Robertson. She just bristled if anyone spoke a word slightly contrary of Robertson. She passionately agreed with every thought that ever passed through his mind. It was her joy and devotion to provide anything he might desire. And he equally gave his life for his wife. His life was spent loving, providing, and protecting her. In her final years when she came down with Alzheimer, Roberson resigned as president of Columbia Bible College and declined all conference speaking engagements to stay home to care for his wife. In response to the question on why he should do such a sacrificial thing, on national radio, he said, “She has spent 40 years taking care of me and it is only right that in her final time I take care of her”. That is oneness.

Jesus could honestly say, “I always do those things that please the Father (Jn. 8:29). And the Father was so pleased with His Son that He broke the silence of heaven to audibly say from heaven, “Thou art My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased” (Mk. 1:11). As far as we know, up to this point, Jesus had done nothing except make shavings in his father's wood shop and obey His parents. But His heart was certainly one with the Father, even in His silent years. He loved the things His Father loved. He hated the things that God disliked. He had a passion for the honor and glory of His Father. And the Father was delighted with the Son. The measure of the oneness of Jesus with His Father goes well beyond anything we can imagine and this is what Jesus was praying for for His church.. In John 17:11 Jesus prays that they might be one “as we are”. Then in verse 22 He emphasizes this by asking again that they might be one “even as we are one”.

One of the main characteristics of heaven is the total unity there. There is no political jockeying for position. There is no self-seeking. There is no “my way or the highway”. Everybody is on the same page pulling in the same direction. Oneness is not a one string banjo. In a quartet there are four parts and each one sings a different note but there is harmony. I have a beautiful auto harp with 36 strings. When it is well tuned it sounds wonderful, but when one or two strings are out of tune the sound is terrible. In heaven all the harps and hearts are well tuned. There is genuine unity there, which produces beautiful harmony. True unity depends on a devotion to a central object. And in this case it is a passion for the glory of God and an unqualified commitment to do the will of God. That is what makes heaven heaven. If we had more of it here, perhaps it would be more like heaven.

But when we look at the condition of the church it is pitiful. There are more denominations than Cater has liver pills. And even in individual churches it is more like a war zone. There is no doubt in my mind but what the Father has answered the prayer of His Son and there is a oneness like that which exists between the Father and the Son, but this is on a spiritual level. Religion is a man-made product, and because it is man-made it is fundamentally focused on a distinctive message or emphasis.

The central point of ecumenicism is oneness, but to achieve this, everyone is asked to delete the subject that is offensive to others. Liberals are incensed at the doctrine of infallibility and so they ask conservatives to give up their position on the inspiration of the scripture. Others dislike the deity of Christ and so we have to delete that. What they are doing is lowering the bar, but pretty soon the bar will be lying on the ground and the unified church will have no position on anything. Oneness is not organizational. It is spiritual. Wherever you have the Spirit of Christ He is the same any place in the world. The problem is where you have pollutants mixed in, then the overt unity disappears.

I have had the privilege of traveling and fellow-shipping in over a dozen foreign countries and, counting minority tribes, that number is well over 20. And I have found Jesus to always be the same regardless of what national suit He is wearing. Jesus in the Japanese and Jesus in Americans or Thai is still the same Jesus.

I love John 17. It shows the heart of Christ as we see it in no other place. It shows what is uppermost in His heart and His oneness with the Father. There is no doubt that some day we too will enjoy that same intimate relationship, but I fear we must wait for heaven for that. But in the mean time if we can close in with God perhaps we might enjoy some of that heaven right now.

Just a thought, bill

Lessons in the Days of Famine

9 July 2017

Dear Phyllis,

One of the strangest events in the life of David happened during the days of the famine (2 Sam. 21). It is interesting that this famine lasted three years. Famine is a sign of judgment and isn't supposed to happen if all is well. I'm sure David prayed early on but it was three years before the Lord told David what the problem was. The Lord told David clearly that it was because of a seemingly minor thing that Saul had done 40 years previously. In this story the Lord teaches us three very important lessons.

The FIRST LESSON is the seriousness of a covenant. When Joshua invaded Canaan the people living in Gibeon came up with a clever scheme to deceive Israel to save their skin. They sent some messengers to Israel saying that they weren't inhabitants of Canaan but lived hundreds of miles away and wanted to make a covenant with Israel. They took old stale bread and worn out shoes to prove that they weren't local residents but had traveled for weeks to get to Canaan (Jos. 9). The trick worked and when Israel discovered they lived next door they said, “Let's wipe them out.” But a covenant is a covenant and Joshua said they must keep their word even if they had been deceived. Four hundred years later, in his mistaken zeal for the Lord, Saul slaughtered a number of the Amorites living in Gibeon and because of that the Lord sent a severe famine. David asked the survivors what he could do to right this wrong. The men of Gibeon said, “We want revenge on the man who sought to slay us”. David gave them seven of Saul's sons who they hung up on a tree. Two of these men were sons of a Saul concubine, Rizpah. She wouldn't let the vultures and wild dogs eat the dead bodies.

The ultimate insult is to feed a human body to the vultures. Goliath told David that was what he was going to do to him and David replied that was what he was going to do to the hosts of the Philistines (1 Sam. 44,46). Jezebel was so bad that the Lord said the dogs would eat her flesh. But she was so filthy even the dogs wouldn't eat her skull, hands, and feet (2 Kn. 9: 35,36).

Recently I have made a major shift in my eschatology. For years I believed that Ezekiel 38 & 39 comes at the beginning of the seven years of tribulation but now I am convinced that this is Armageddon. The major point we read about Armageddon is the angel calling to the fouls to come to the “supper of the great God and eat the slain” at Armageddon (Rev. 19:17, 21). This is exactly the same language that we read in Ezek. 39:17-20, where the Lord calls the fouls of the air and beasts of the field to come to the great sacrifice “that I sacrifice for you”. That is what God thinks of the army of the anti-christ. He feeds them to the vultures and wild dogs.

The first lesson that we learn from the famine is the seriousness of keeping a covenant, but the SECOND LESSON is that God keeps balanced books. For years it looked like the mistake Saul made was of no consequence. But forty years later the Lord saw the books were still not balanced and sent a sever famine on Israel for three years. The Bible says that the land can only be cleansed of blood by the blood of the man who shed it (Num. 35:33), and in this case it took the lives of seven of Saul's sons to be satisfactory retribution to end the famine.

The THIRD LESSON here is one I have never seriously considered. That is the seriousness of what God thinks of the human body. The main thing that made Christ different an hour after He was born in Bethlehem and what He had been for eternity past was, previously, He had never had a human body. God thinks so much of the human body that He has determined that every created human body is eternal. The sea will give up the dead and every body that has been cremated will be put together again to stand before Christ in the flesh at the Great White Throne judgment; and the body of the unsaved will be consigned to the lake of fire for eternity, while we will enjoy our new bodies for eternity in heaven. I have never considered the body as important but God and the ancients did. The Egyptians mummified and built elaborate pyramids for their Pharaohs. Abraham bought a piece of land to bury his wife and Abraham and all his decedents were buried there. When Jacob died Joseph went to great lengths to carry his fathers body back to Canaan to bury it in Abraham's sepulcher (Gen. 50:13). And Joseph made instruction that his body should be brought out of Egypt to be buried there. When Israel came out of Egypt four hundred years later they took Joseph's body with them and Joshua buried it in Jacob's sepulcher (Jos. 24:32).

When David gave the seven sons of Saul to the men of Gibeon to be killed Rizpah would not allow the buzzards eat her sons bodies. This reminded David of a very minor point he had never considered. When the Philistines had killed Saul and Johnathon they decapitated them and hung their bodies up in Beth-shan. The men of Jabesh-gilead were fiercely loyal to Saul and fought their way to get those bodies to bring them back to Jabesh-gilead. They cremated the rotting bodies, and buried the bones there. For probably twenty years or more they had stayed there in Jabesh-gilead. Rizpah's act reminded David of Saul and Johnathon's bodies. He got the bones of Saul and Johnathon brought them back and had a proper funeral to bury them in Saul's family plot. That was what God was waiting for and the famine was over.

I have never considered that bones were important. To this day there is a major project going on in Vietnam and Laos where the US government is paying Vietnam and Laos millions of dollars for teams who go to crash sites of US airplanes to look for the bones of US pilots and send them home. I have always considered this a waste of money. What's the difference? At the resurrection everyone is coming back from the dead regardless of where the bone have been lying. But God considers the human body so important that He is even concerned how we treat the bones.

In his commentary on Hebrews Andrew Murray notes that we are to draw near to God with our hearts cleansed by the Blood of Christ and our bodies washed with pure water (Heb. 10:22). In this he remarked “the body is important”. We have a great emphasis on the heart – which is as it should be – but the body is also important. Paul talks about sinning against our bodies. That is why sexual sins are so dangerous. God didn't give us bodies to be play toys. Jesus kept His body holy and we are commanded to do the same. Seventy years ago body piercing and tatoos were virtually unknown in any Christianized society. The only place this was seen was in pagan cultures. I believe it is a sign how badly we have drifted from Christian principles and the devil is having a picnic today making the church look identical to paganism. We are to be clean on the inside, and if that is true there should be a corresponding cleanliness on the outside too.

I was surprised by this story in 2 Samuel 21 by how seriously God thinks about the human body even down to how we treat the bones. Let's give our bodies unreservedly to the Lord and keep them clean – both in and out. And have a great week serving Jesus.

See you next week, bill