Japenese Earthquake of 2011

29 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

In 2011 I had one of the strangest missions the Lord ever sent me on. I had just gotten back to Thailand from a trip to Japan when the historic Tohoku earthquake/tsunami leveled the Sendai area of Japan. Neil Verwey knew that I had been involved in relief work when the major earthquake struck Kobe in 1995 and called me asking how long it would take to get back to Japan to go to Sendai. Remembering that in Kobe thousands of people were buried under mountains of rubble I knew that time was critical and paid double price to get to Ikoma 12 hours early. Tim Cole was the director of missionary relief. He knew that I had been in Sendai building a Bible school there and called Neil asking if he knew how he could get in touch with me. Neil said, “Bill is in the air right now and will be here in two hours”. Japan Mission prepared a truck for me that was so overloaded that the tires waddled as I drove out of their headquarters. Nearly all the main roads from Tokyo to Sendai were closed. To get there I drove up the west coast of Japan and came down to Sendai from the northwest. I pulled out of the Japan Mission headquarters at 2:00 AM and drove nonstop 21 hours arriving at the Bible school at 11:00 PM Saturday night.

The next morning, after worship service at the Bible school, I asked Nagai sensei, the principal of the school, what he was going to do that afternoon. He said, “Cut firewood”. “Cut firewood??? Here we have one of the most historic earthquakes in history and you are going to cut firewood?” “I don't have any gas for my car.” “Look, I brought half a dozen jerry cans of gasoline and a truck load of relief supplies.” That afternoon we put some gasoline in his car and drove 20 K to Sendai. We went to a church in the center of Sendai to see if there was anything we could do to help. The pastor told us some believers had suffered a little but no fatalities. Unlike Kobe, in Sendai there was little visual evidence of collapsed buildings. Then we drove to the coast. Oh my goodness! I had never seen anything like it. For nearly two hundred miles along the east coast of Japan it looked exactly like someone had taken a giant spatula or putty knife and scraped the surface of the earth. They had placed everything in a blender, and then re-plastered that paste back on the earth. The earth was covered with a coating of trash about waist deep of huge piles of what had been buildings, refrigerators, cars, trucks, children toys, and what had been towns. The paste was so even there was no difference between what had been towns and rice fields. I knew in a moment that there were no survivors. Unlike an earthquake, in a tsunami there only two types of people – those who fled and those who didn't. If you are caught in a tsunami your chance of survival is zero.

The relief mission was maddening. There were tens of thousands of people who had lost everything but the civil governments had stepped forward to handle all the relief work. I met many teams who had come from all over the world to help and we were all milling around with nothing to do. Franklin Graham's organization, Samaritan's Purse, had leased a Boeing 747 to fly 97 tons of relief supplies to Japan. I talked to the director of that mission and he told me that he had been in 37 different countries on relief missions and the coordination of churches in Japan was the worst he had ever seen. It looked like my expensive relief mission had been one colossal waste of time and money.

Before I had left Ikoma Neil Verwey had given me almost unlimited funds to buy anything I needed for the mission in Sendai. I had gone to a hardware store in Ikoma and saw a come-along. A come-along is an unusual devise of a metal box with a ratchet and handle, where you can crank the handle back and forth to pull tons of pressure along an unlimited length of cable. They are a wonderful device, but very expensive – nearly $1,000. Remembering my experience in Kobe, I thought that is exactly the tool I will need in Sendai, and bought one. My chain saw was invaluable in Kobe so I bought a chain saw also.

While I was sitting at the Bible school day after day with nothing to do, a sister from the church came over with a desperate problem. An old bath house was sitting on her property that had tipped over during the earthquake and was leaning against the house next door. The neighbor was furious and demanded that she fix the problem. Was there anyone who could help her? Man howdy, that is a difficult job. You are talking about an awful lot of money. That could only be done by professionals with a crane. I was probably one of the very few carpenters in Sendai with a come-along and that was exactly the tool needed for that job. It took me three days using the chain saw and come-along, and I was able to successfully tear the bath house down. The dear sister was speechless with gratitude that I was able to solve that problem for free. It was a major miracle that I had exactly the tools needed to do that job. But that wasn't the main miracle.

While working over there I noticed that she had a large butsudan. A butsudan is a large cabinet where they keep idols and worship spirits everyday. Nearly every house in Japan has one, and when someone gets saved the butsdan is the first thing to go. If someone gets saved but doesn't get rid of the butsudan it is like having a speed boat with the propeller going, but the boat still tied to the pier. The sister had been saved for many years but had never thrown out the butsudan. I asked, “What in the world are you doing with that filth thing in your house?”, and offered to haul it away for her. But she answered, “I don't worship at it any more, and, yes, I know I should get rid of it, but...” The last day I pushed the issue to the limit. I did everything short of ringing blood out of her nose. If anyone doubts the power of the devil it was on full display that day. She finally wound up crumpled on the floor crying, but I couldn't move her. With mix emotions of disgust, sorrow, and frustration I drove away thinking, “I came all this way only to loose to the devil”. But God's miracle was on the way.

Two days later she called the school and asked, “Could you have Bill come back here to get my butsudan?”. I was huge- six feet tall – but oh the joy to load that thing on my truck and burn it at the Bible school. I was grateful that I was able to do that job, and the dear sister was floating with joy to be free from the devil who had kept her in bondage for years.

In retrospect it looked like my main mission in Sendai was to burn that butsudan. I wondered at the wisdom of traveling 12,000 kilometers to burn a butsudan. But then Jesus had gone on at least two trips to reach only one person. He had gone to the Gadarenes to free the demonic living in tombs (Mk. 5:1-20). And His longest trip was to Tyre to help the Syrophenician woman with the demonized daughter (Mk. 7:24-30). I thought, “This is amazing, the Lord thought so much of that sister that He sent me 12,000 kilometers to come from Chiang Mai, Thailand to Sendai, Japan; and then pay $1,300 to buy the tools I needed to do that job”. But then again when we consider that God sent His Son from heaven to this earth to shed His Blood for us, and the horrific price that Jesus paid to save us; maybe a little extra yen isn't too bad a deal.

Praise the Lord,

                              bill

Random Thoughts on Revelations

23 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Gomen nasai. I am sorry that I am a day late today. Actually I wrote you yesterday, but before I sent my letter, Paul came over for some fellowship. I told him what I had written and he pleaded, “Please don't send that letter. It is not of the Lord and won't help anyone.” I felt strongly convinced that I was right and my letter was true. Incontestably what I had written was true but Paul challenged me, “Will this help anyone?” I have been convicted that every (maybe most) stories have two sides. As Christians we tend to only tell one side. In the interest of honesty I felt the other side should be told. I told about the dark side of a couple of really good testimonies and then went into detail sharing about shocking flaws of several great men of God. I said “we all have clay feet”. I felt very strongly that I was right. But the argument was; a man might be a man of integrity with a good message, and yet have bad breath. Bad breath doesn't detract from his message. What he says may be wonderful, but if you stand near him he might smell bad. Who is going to be blessed by talking about his bad breath? Okay, I deleted my letter and didn't send it.

Now it is Monday morning and I really don't have much to say. I just have a few scattered thoughts. I love Revelation. John's experience on Patmos is of extreme importance. His opening remark is very interesting. He was on the island and heard a Voice behind him. The first lesson we can learn from that is that he was looking the wrong way. I wonder if that isn't true of some of us. It looks like I was looking the wrong way when I wrote you yesterday and had to turn around before I could see the Lord. Man howdy, it is hard sometime to turn around.

The second lesson that we can learn from John's experience is after he was turned around the first thing he saw was 7 candle sticks. This perfectly expresses the function of Christians in the world. Paul reminds us that, “Ye are letters known and read of all men” (2 Cor. 3:2) It has been accurately said “that the only Bible that many people will ever read is Christ in you”. In nearly all cases before anyone ever picks up a copy of the printed Word of God or hears the Gospel the only representation of Christ is what they see of Jesus in us. That was the first thing that John saw. Then He saw Jesus standing in the midst of the Seven Golden Candle Sicks.

I cringe when I think that the Church is Christ's representative on earth. Like it or not, that is the way it is. But fortunately the Lord is very honest is showing us an accurate view of the Church with all of her warts and blemishes. That is why I thought I was in the Spirit yesterday talking about the blemishes of high profile Christian leaders. But talking about bad breath isn't uplifting and no one gets blessed.

Innumerable messages have been preached on the Seven Churches of Rev. 2 & 3. Rolly Reasoner was preaching a series in Karuizawa many yeas ago and prefixed his messages by saying, “In looking at the churches; just because one thing is right does not mean that everything is right. And just because one thing is wrong does not mean that everything is wrong.” That was a word for me. I had a strong tendency to denounce somebody if they were off on some point. I am still very hard head on false prophets but reluctantly have to back off sometimes and give a few speakers I don't like a little slack.

There are three interpretations about the Seven Churches. The first is that this was John's message to seven actual churches in Asia Minor. That may be so. In John's day there were actually seven churches there, in what is now today Turkey. The second interpretations is that this is a chronological view of the history of the Church. I'll buy that. This is pretty accurate with Ephesus being the first church and Smyrna being the second persecuted church. Laodicea is a dead ringer for the disgusting affluent church today. The third interpretation of Revelation 2 & 3 is that these churches represent various weakness and sins in our personal lives. Who hasn't gotten under conviction when we hear a message about losing our first love for Jesus? Every sin that we see in the Seven Churches are red flags to be careful about in our own personal life.

Along with Revelation we must read her sister book, Daniel. I have been an avid student of eschatology ever since I have been saved. Along with everybody else I bought into the traditional view of Daniel 2 – Nebuchadnezzar image. When I was saved in 1957, the bench mark of spirituality was the CI Scofield Bible. If a man didn't have a Scofield Bible it was questionable whether or not he was saved. This set the stage for the traditional western view of eschatology. But recently Joel Richardson and several prophetic scholars have challenged the traditional view saying that the Bible is Mideastern and the Bible seen through the eyes of people from the Middle East looks much different. I think they are right. For nearly a century nearly everyone was agreed that Ezek. 38 & 39 was Russia's invasion of Israel. Hal Lindsey eloquently forwarded that position. The key to Ezek. 38-39 is the identification of Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal (Ez. 38:2,3). Scofield placed these participants in Russia on the basis that they come out of the land of the north (Ez. 38:15; 39:2). No reasonable prophetic scholar questioned that. But Richardson challenges, if you take a globe and draw a line directly from Jerusalem to the north pole it misses Moscow altogether. Russia is well to the east of true north. But the line goes directly through Ankara, the capital of Turkey. And every conservative Bible atlas list these areas as being located in northern Turkey. Richardson warns, the country to keep your eye on today is Turkey. All this is very much under the radar. Turkey is still held up as the model western Islamic nation. But there are a few voices warning that there a very intense nationalistic movement in Turkey today. Richardson says that Erdogan, the dictator of Turkey, is the Ayatollah Khomeini of Turkey. What Ayatollah Khomeini did in converting a very western Iran to a fanatical Islamic theocracy in 1973 Erdogan is doing exactly the same thing in Turkey today. Richardson also lays up a strong argument that Gog is another name for the anti-Christ. It doesn't take too much imagination to believe that the anti-Christ is Islamic. These are some major shifts I have made in my position of eschatology. All this makes a great deal of sense as we watch the kaleidoscope of the changing scene in the Middle East. I really believe we are in the day of “hold-your-hat-Hanna” as we are galloping towards the day of the fulfillment of what the Word of God has told is will happen in the last act.

Gomen nasai for being late this week and I apologize for a rambling letter. As they say in the south “Ya'll pray for us now, he'ya. bill

Abraham

15 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

I knew a fellow in Japan who had a 10 watt radio transmitter in his attic. It carried about 100 yards. Every night he would go up in his attic and broadcast the Gospel over the radio. Unfortunately I don't believe many of his neighbors who were within the 100 yard range listened. This morning I preached to an overflow crowd at the church of two old ladies and two old men with an average age of over 65, plus one boy about 21. I have been pleading with the Lord for years for a voice to proclaim the cause of Christ to thousands and I will leave the results of today's message with the Lord. But I did have a marvelous time sharing a very important message.

The 15^th chapter of Genesis tells of a pivotal moment in the life of Abraham. Verse one begins with the statement “After these things”. Obviously that refers to what happened in chapter 14. There we read about the civil war going on in Canaan land and his nephew Lot being captured. In a moment of haste Abraham, armed his servants, took off after the captors, and rescued Lot. Returning back, the king of Sodom met him and said, “You keep the booty and just give me the souls”. Abraham said, “I won't take a shoe string lest you say, 'I have made Abraham rich'”. Would to God that we had more men of God today who would refuse to enlarge their bank accounts with the riches of Sodom.

Obviously Abraham had some serious thoughts on his mind when he went to bed that night and was worried if he had made a mistake. The last thing he wanted was to get involved in local skirmishes and he had just kicked that can of worms. And he had some second thoughts about giving back all he had won to the king of Sodom. Some time after midnight Abraham woke up realizing that the Lord was speaking to him. The first thing the Lord said to him was, “Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward”. That settled the two concerns on Abraham's mind. But then Abraham brought up the old problem about Sarah having a child. The Lord told Abraham to go outside and look up at the sky. It was a gorgeous night outside. He told Abraham that if he could number the stars that was what his seed would look like. The next verse says that “Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness”. Paul quotes this in Romans 4:3.

But then the Lord gave Abraham some very specific instruction about offering a sacrifice. There was a heifer, a goat, a ram, and two birds. Sometime shortly after dawn I'm sure Abraham was busy making an altar and getting the sacrifice ready. Then he sat down fully expecting the Lord's response. That was a wonderful place to be. The ball was in the Lord's court. He had done exactly what God had told him to do.

This was not something that Abraham had thought up; that he thought would be a good idea to try and see what God would do. In this Abraham is much different than 90% of Christian activity today where we think something is a good idea and hope that God will come on board to help us with our project.

Having done everything God told him to do, Abraham sat down to wait for the response of God. Nothing happened. After a while Abraham looked up and saw a black spot in the sky. Then two. Then three. Four. Then they got larger. Buzzards. Abraham picked up a stick and verse 11 says “When the fowls came down on the carcasses Abraham drove them away”. Here Abraham was expecting the glory of God on his sacrifice and instead he got buzzards on the carcasses. There is something depressing about that noun “carcass”. A sacrifice is something holy but a carcass is just dead meat.

What a bummer of a day! It started out with such high expectation. Abraham had every expectation of nothing but the best, and instead of meeting with God, all he got for the whole cotton-picken day was a stand-off with buzzards.

That is the way it works. We have such high hopes as we launch out to follow the Lord and instead of blessing all we get is a bucket of worms.

Paris Redhead was an outstanding missionary to Africa. He left the states to go to Africa with every expectation of success, but when he got there he was surprised that the Africans were not appreciative that he had come. Worse than that, he discovered that the Africans were really bad people. They were so bad they weren't worth saving. Finally he got genuinely angry with God. He protested, “Lord, this isn't fair. I have sacrificed so much to come here to save these people and they aren't worth it. They deserve to go to hell”. But then Jesus answered him; “You are right. These people aren't worth saving, but I am worthy to have them. I paid the price for their sin and I deserve to receive the reward of My sacrifice.” That is the reason why we preach the Gospel. It is not because people are in bad shape and going to hell. No one deserves to be saved. But Jesus paid the price for our sin and He deserves to receive the full reward of what He paid for.

Don't be surprised if you start off serving Jesus with full expectation of the blessing of the Lord and things go south. Abraham spent the whole day with the buzzards. He was wore out. Evening came and the Bible says, “When the sun was going down a deep sleep came upon Abraham; and lo a horror of great darkness fell upon him”. But then in verse 17 we read, “As the sun was going down, and it as dark, a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between those pieces”. This is the only place in the Bible we see the Lord responding this way. With Able, Elijah, Solomon, and a couple other places we see the fire of God coming down on the altar to consume the sacrifice. But here we see the fire of God passing between the pieces. We know there was a custom in ancient times when two people were to make a covenant they would slay an animal, cut it in down the middle and pass between the pieces (Jer. 34:18). Verse 18 tells us, “And the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abraham...”

This was one of the major moments in the life of Abraham. The night that started off worrying about what had happened the day before. But then that wonderful exchange with God during the middle of the night only to wind up spending one of the really bad days of his life with buzzards. But then when it got dark again and he was all wore out God made the major covenant with Abraham.

I don't know why I preached this message or if anyone got anything out of it, but the Word was as alive and powerful as it ever gets. I don't know if this is a word from the Lord for me. I don't feel the least bit old but one of these days the sun will go down for me. I know that frequently the Lord has to take us to the end of ourselves before He can use us. I qualify for that. It is pretty dark. I see little hope that the Lord will ever use me. There are only two things I am asking Jesus for. One is the salvation of my son Dave. The second is that before I leave this plant I would like something of my life to be a credit to the Lord. All of that is in God's hands.

Thank you for the privilege of your fellowship,

In our marvelous Lord Jesus,

                                                bill

Eye Sight

8 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Gomen nasai (I'm sorry), this is the kind of letter I really would prefer not to write. It is more enjoyable to eat apple pie than to talk about it. It is an exhilarating experience to fly a jet aircraft and I would rather fly one than talk about it. I would rather lift up Jesus and have everyone gaze upon that lovely One than talk about eye sight. But today I am constrained to talk about eye sight.

Apart from God sending His Son here to live among us and give His life for us, the next greatest gift that God has given us is His Word. Words are an inestimable treasure because it is by the means of words that we communicate something that is inside of us to others. And it is by His Word that God imparts much of Himself to us. It is highly significant that the first words that came out of the mouth of the devil was “Hath God said?”. It was an attack on the Word of God. And this has been the central battle for humanity ever since that early moment in the Garden.

In the transmission of words there are two aspects – one the giving and the other the reception. During the Cold War radio was one of the fields of battle. America was beaming the Voice of America into Russia and eastern Europe, and the Russians were doing their best to jam it. The Lord has given us His Word in many ways and the devil is doing his best to jam it. This battle is not being fought in the air waves but in the mind of the listener.

It is not my purpose today to challenge liberalism - although I think it is the most vile and wicked argument satan has ever set forth - but to discuss the battle fought in the minds of conservative, born-again, Christians.

Paul explained something to us in 1 Cor. 2:14 that should be obvious to any sincere follower of Christ after he has been walking with the Lord for three months or more; that “the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for the are foolish unto him, neither can he know them”. To put it another way; we cannot measure God with mans yard stick. For us to try comprehend spiritual truth with our intellect is as foolish as a child going to the top of a hill and hold up a stick to see how far it is to a star. And yet that is exactly what theologians do. Millions upon millions of dedicated Christians fiercely argue that they understand spiritual truth with their intellect; and they indisputably prove that with heated arguments over controversial theological issues. Perhaps the most common one is over Calvinism and Armenianism.

I have come to a very satisfying position on this issue. I am a Calvinist. The conflict over the sovereignty of God and the free will of man is one of the most obvious contradiction found in scripture. By mans intellect they both can't be true. It must be one or the other. It is impossible for man to have a free will if everything is pre-wired before he is born.. And if man has a total, unrestricted, free will, to choose or reject what he wills, then it is Impossible that God is totally sovereign.

Since the days of Aristotle physicists have pondered over the nature of light. Is light a wave or a particle? In the past 100 years physicists have proven, repeatedly, by the double slit experiment that light is a wave. In every experiment light always behaves as a wave. And yet more recently quantum physicists have proven that light is corpuscular. Light is photon particles. By the laws of nature it is impossible for anything to be both a wave and a particle, but that is exactly what light is. All physicists have come to accept that things that are impossible do exists in nature, but theologians are reluctant to come to that conclusion. Mans intellect is held as king which closes the door to spiritual understanding. And the heated controversy continues.

The Old Covenant was a very good one. The covenant that God made with Israel at Sinai was unspeakable grace. Never before in history had God made a covenant with a nation to be His chosen people. The covenant was basically the same as the marriage vow, that they would be His people and He would be their God. That put Israel in a unique category as the most blessed people on earth. God promised to remove sickness, to bless the fruit of their bodies, to bless the fruit of their fields, and to deliver them from enemies. You can't get better than that. All He was asking of them was that they be decent. It is impossible for the people of God to be disgusting and decadent and still be His people. The marriage vow reasonably requires that both side be faithful. Infidelity breaks the covenant and dissolves the marriage. God specified that they keep ten items, and Jesus summed it all up into two – that they love God and their neighbor. There is nothing wrong with that. But the Old Covenant proved to be fatally flawed. Israel couldn't keep their side of the bargain; thereby making it necessary to make a New Covenant. But if the New Covenant was to be better than the first one, it was necessary to fix the flaw of the Old one. God kept His side of the deal but Israel couldn't keep their side. To fix that God had to come up with a plan that that would guarantee both partners were faithful. To do that God wrote a New Covenant guaranteeing fidelity by, Himself, signing both sides of the deal. To do this God would fix the problem two ways. First He would write His law in our hearts (Heb. 8:10; 10:16). That is; He would give us a new nature that instinctively would keep His commandments. He would clear the slate and put the old man out of business by the death of His Son. And secondly He would make His Son to be the mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:6; 9:15). That is; Jesus would be the co-signor of the Covenant. In a contract where there are two signers, if the first signer fails to comply, by law, the co-signer must step forward to fulfill the agreement. I can't live the Christian life. Jesus must live it in me. This is the fundamental difference between the Old Covenant and the New. In the Old Covenant the weight of the responsibility to keep the deal rested upon Israel. This is Armenian. In the New Covenant the responsibility to preserve the agreement rests entirely upon the faithfulness of God's Son. This is Calvin. Jesus said to the Father “All that Thou gavest Me I have kept” (Jn. 17:12), and I don't believe Jesus has lost any since then. The clear declaration that Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant makes this argument indisputable. Samuel Rutherford frequently said, “Grace is the only garland worn in heaven”. I believe it can also be said there are no Armenians in heaven. By that; I mean, there will be no one there thumping their chest saying “I got here on the strength of my own free will, that I held out to the end”. The most adamant defender of the Armenian position will have to hang his head and admit the only reason he is in heaven is entirely the grace of God.

This being true, what can we say about the overwhelming testimony in scripture irrefutably establishing the responsibility of mans free will? At the great White Throne Judgment Seat of Christ, there will be no one there protesting, “This isn't fair! You predestined me to go to hell”. The Lord will honestly be able to reply, “No, I did everything possible to save you. It was never my will that anyone should perish (2 Pet. 3:9). Jesus shed His Blood for you as well as for those who are in heaven (1Jn. 2:2). The only reason you are going to hell is because you stubbornly refused my offer of salvation. Your fate is entirely your own doing.” To anyone who wants to forward the most convincing Armenian argument, I will reply, “You are correct. That is exactly what the scripture teaches”. All men have a free will.

I have come to the conclusion that with our human intellect we cannot sit in judgment on the Word of God and be selective of scripture to support our own theological position. We must accept ALL the Bible exactly as it says. Am I wrong?

                                           bill 

Spiritual Fragrance

While the King sitteth at His table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof. (Song of Sol. 1:12)

1 October 2017

Dear Phyllis,

In the Book of Leviticus, when we are told about the offerings on the altar, it every case the expression is made, “It is an offering made by fire, a SWEET SAVOUR unto the Lord” (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17: 2:2, 9, 12; 3:5, 16. The whole purpose of the sacrifice was to offer to the Lord a sweet savour. It smells good. In 2 Cor. 2:15 Paul tells us that “we are unto God a SWEET SAVOUR of Christ”. And in verse 16 he tells us what we smell like to others.

Spiritual fragrance is not a major theme among westerners but Orientals are considerably more sensitive. To describe the characteristics of a person, the Japanese frequently use the expression “he smells like”. The sense of smell is the most sensitive of the five senses. In deer hunting, hunters approach the animal from down wind because deer can smell them coming a long ways off. Like it or not – the impression we make on people around us is the one thing that cannot be avoided. And if a lady has on perfume everyone near her knows it. And spiritually, we are always impressing people around us. Our impression on others is the first stage of evangelism.

The verse in Song of Sol. 1:12 is the sister OT verse to the NT event of Mary's anointing of Jesus (Mk. 14:1-9). It is highly significant that of all the events that happened in the life of Christ this is the only one that was singled out by Jesus to go hand in hand with the Gospel (Mk. 14:9). What we have in the Song of Solomon are the three principles that govern the law of spiritually fragrance and therefore they are of extreme importance. They are (1) the King, (2) He is seated, and (3) at His table. These are exactly the same three things that we see of Jesus at Mary's anointing in Mark 14.

We know that the four gospels are written showing Jesus from four perspectives – KING (Math.), SERVANT (Mark), MAN (Luke), and GOD (John). It is significant that when the Father presents His Son to us the first view that have of Him is as king. Unfortunately, in our presentation of the Gospel we have so emphasized what He has done for us (servant) and His nearness to us (man) that we have lost sight of His majesty (king). It is true that Jesus is a wonderful savior, and a precious friend, but He is also KING. We need a greater emphasis on His kingship and show Him more reverence and respect. Thailand is the most king oriented nation in the world. Every baht bill (money) has a picture of the king on it, every home has a picture of the king hanging on the wall, every store has a picture prominently displayed, and every village has a large banner with the kings picture beside the road. The Thais would never dream of showing disrespect or familiarity with the king of Thailand. He is treated with the highest honor and respect. It is unthinkable that anyone would show the king the blatant disrespect that is commonly displayed towards Jesus in churches and in our personal relationship with Him. Referring to Israel's offerings to the Lord, Malachi expressed it best when he challenged, “Offer it now unto thy governor; will he be pleased with thee?” (Mal. 1:8). See if he likes it. When I was young we wouldn't dare dress for school or talk to a teacher the way that is accepted as normal in our relationship with Jesus today, and in nearly all churches. Small wonder that there is such a foul odor in religion today. The disrespect that we show towards God is shocking.

The second law of spiritual fragrance is that we see the king SEATED. There is much that could be said about this, but suffice to say seated is the posture of completed work. In Heb. 10:11, 12 we see the priests in the OT standing offering over and over sacrifices that can never take away sin. But when Jesus offered one sacrifice He sat down. That did it. The job was done and He could sit down. When I am preaching I say, “At the moment I am standing talking to you, but when I am finished with this message I will sit down. When we see Jesus seated, basically that means my heart is right with God. When a person's heart is right with God there is a relaxed atmosphere about him. When things are out of place there is tension. You can sense it. The main question is, “Is your heart right with God?”. If so, Jesus' posture in your heart is that of seated.

The third law of spiritual fragrance is that the King is seated at His TABLE. Table means fellowship. If I invite someone over for a meal it is to have fellowship with them. I am not worried about their nutrition. We call communion “having His Table”. The importance of daily devotion and daily communion with Christ cannot be over emphasized. It is one of the basic hall marks of men of God. There is an atmosphere about people who walk closely with the Lord that is obvious. They don't need to advertise it. It is just plain to anyone. More than anything else this will determine the spiritual fragrance of our life and the impression we make on others.

There is so much that could be said about spiritual fragrance that it would fill many books. I can only mention the topic here. But there are two more things that must be said. One is, that when Mary anointed Jesus she poured the spikenard on Jesus. In John's account of this event, he tells us that “the house was filled with the odour” (Jn. 12:3). Everybody in the house got blessed. But all that was a side effect. This is very important. Why do we tell people the Gospel? To keep them from going to hell? We spread the Gospel not as a humanitarian effort but for Jesus sake. There is a big difference here. All that we do should be as an outpouring of our devotion to the Lord. Why do we have devotions every morning? Is it because we are supposed to? Is it to make us better people or perhaps have a better day? Is it to tell Him what we want and get things? If we spread the Gospel for listeners sake or have devotions for our own sake, sooner or later we will hit burnout. But if what we do is for Jesus' sake there is spiritual merit in that. The fragrance is considerably different. That others get blessed should be the side effect of our devotion to the Lord.

And one more vital point is the question Judas raised - “Why this waste?”. Watchman Nee told the story of a time when he was at a very low ebb. He met a professor he had in college many yeas before. The professor was delighted to see his old student and invited him to a tea room. It had been many years and his teacher wanted to hear all about the success of his gifted student. As Watchman Nee tried to explain that he had devoted his life to evangelism, the teacher looked at him with eyes of sadness and pitifully remarked, “What a waste! You were so gifted and we had such high expectation of you. What a waste”. Watchman Nee said that remark cut him to the core. He nearly burst into tears. And then the spirit of glory flooded his soul. Oh what a wise decision! He had wasted his life for Jesus. Is there anything we pour out for Jesus that is a waste on Him? If we do it on a cat, that might be a waste. But is there anything too precious to spend for Jesus? When Jim Elliot and the four other missionaries were killed by the Akah Indians in Ecuador in 1954 the cry went up, “What a waste!”. But from that offering there has been a sweet savor to the Lord that has influenced missions for decades.

Oh, Lord, may our lives be a sweet savor unto You.                                  bill