The New Covenant

Dear Phyllis,

Covenant is not a real strong issue with Christians today. I doubt that there is one Christian in twenty that knows what the New Covenant is. Several years ago I was preaching through Hebrews and ran into the verse that said, “This is the New Covenant”, and I asked myself, what is it? I didn't know. I asked ten missionaries and got ten different answers. Thank God, today I know, but I don't believe I have ever heard a message on this subject.

That is strange because nearly everything in our lives is based on contracts. You have to sign a contract to buy a car, rent a house, buy anything on installment, sometimes to get a job, and the most important of all – to get married. Contact are absolutely basic to any agreement between two people establishing the responsibilities of each partner.

God has used covenants (contacts) on several occasions affirming His commitment to keep various promises. One of the most basic is the covenant (contract) that God made with Israel when He brought them out of Egypt. This is the Old Covenant and the foundation stone for everything that comes later. Ironically no where is the covenant written out in clear words as you would expect but basically what it is, is “You shall be My people and I will be your God”. Fundamentally, this is a marriage contract. In referring to the Sinai Covenant, in Jer. 31:12, the Lord said, “They broke My covenant, although I was a husband to them”. Israel was the only nation that God made this covenant with, and the origin of this goes back to Abraham where God promised to bless his seed (Gen. 15:18; 22:16-18).

I believe it is because of God's covenant with Israel that the marriage relationship is so sacred. God wants to explain to humanity the nature of the relationship that He desires to have with the creatures He created in His own image; and to do that He has established the institution of marriage. A man and his wife are to be faithful to each other and to violate this covenant is one of the most serious crimes there is. I believe this is the reason why the devil has made marriage and moral purity ground zero for his attack on humanity to desecrate the image of God.

A covenant is serious business, and it is particularly critical to look at the negative side of the covenant of what God said He would do if the terms were not met. God keeps His Word – both the good and the bad.

I told Singha last week that keeping your word is the most important issue in life; whether it be in marriage, parenting, teaching, employment, or just among friends. Keeping our word is the most important issue in life. And God keeps His Word. That is why it is so important that we understand the terms of the Covenant.

The fact that God established a marriage relationship with a nation is mind boggling. The uniqueness of it; the intimacy, the security, the blessing, etc. Oh my goodness, what more could you ask? To have God as your husband and have Him be responsible for you; how can you top that?

 The terms were totally reasonable. All He was asking was that they be decent. There were only ten things that He required and they were so basic that common sense would tell you, of course, this is the way it should be. Don't kill anyone. Don't steal. Don't sleep around. Etc. What is wrong with that? That is the way it should be.

There was only one flaw in the Old Covenant. Israel wasn't up to keeping their side of the deal. It was like a kid buying a car when he couldn't keep up the payments. The Covenant required that both sides keep their end of the deal. If one side can't do it, making half a dozen new contacts won't solve anything, unless you correct the flaw with the original. God did this in the New Covenant by guaranteeing both sides would be faithful. To do that God made Jesus to be the co-signator, the mediator, the guarantor, of the New Covenant. Hebrews 8:10-12 spells this out. I have written to you about this before and space will not allow me to do it again. God never negated the terms of the Old Covenant, He just wrote a New one guaranteeing that both sides would keep their end of the contract. It was major revelation when the Lord revealed this to me. Keeping our end of the deal is the whole point of the New Covenant.

The question has been raised, “are the Ten Commandments a PROHIBITION or a PROMISE?” For a long time I didn't know the answer to that question. Thank God I know it today. Absolutely, it is a PROMISE. And to explain how this is possible, the Lord spells this out in Jer. 31:33,34. And He repeats this in Heb. 12:10-12. Basically it is Jesus living His life in us. But the 4^th point of the Covenant says. (where there was failure) “their sins and iniquities will I remember no more”.

Lynn wrote me the other day. She was commenting on my warm heart for Jesus. I wrote her back saying she obviously is greatly deceived. If she knew me as Jesus knows me, and as my wife knows me, that might call for a note of compassion and say, “poor man”. I had no idea the magnitude of my sin when I was first saved. When the Lord finally opened my eyes and saw what Jesus had done in forgiving me it was staggering. But that is not the problem. What staggers me the most is what Jesus has done since then.

Jesus said, “He who has been forgiven much loves much (Lk. 7:47). This is only reasonable. But when a person has been forgiven so much - and given such unimaginable advantages - but is unappreciative; man howdy, that is a big problem. The Lord was gracious in keeping me from a deep debauched life before I was saved. I never took drugs, never smoked, or like alcohol. I never got into gang life. All this was the grace of God. But what I have done with the grace of God since then is bewildering. I don't know anyone who has had the unusual advantages the Lord has extended to me, and now at the end of the road I have so little to show for it.

In my letter to Lynn, I shared what must be the experience of the angels in heaven keeping the books. In any account book amount received. It is good when the books balance. But in my book there is not a figure in any human language that can express the price God paid to save me. Millions of dollars would be an insult to put as a price for the Blood of Jesus. You could suggest 10 to the 900,000,000,000,000 power and that would be an insult. That God sent His Son to pay the price for my sin??? Who can take that in? Now we put that down in one column and on the other side of the ledger, the pitiful two digits figures of what I have done for Jesus is mind boggling. How is it possible that a man could have such an inexpressible indebtedness and have such a cold heart is truly mind boggling. I shared with Lynn what my book in heaven must look like. On one side we have all that Jesus has done for me and on the other side, the most significant feature is the red ink. It must be a wonder to angels how a man with such staggering red ink has any chance of heaven. But then before the final closure I believe there will be a stamp – PAID IN FULL (by Jesus). When I wrote that I burst into tears and could write no further.

What can we say? I don't know.

Thank You. bill

PS: I am in Japan – for one month.

Revival

Dear Phyllis,

Revival is a word on many lips. There is no question that we all need revival, but I suspect that few know what revival actually is. The best definition I know is, A VISITATION OF THE SPIRIT. This is a very uncommon phenomenon, but when it happens you know it. It is the intense awareness that Jesus is here. Of course Jesus has promised to always be with us, but the soulish (intellectual) promise and the spiritual awareness are two different things.

There is a fundamental difference between the soul and the spirit. They are as much different as water and air. Water and air are two radically different environments and yet there are similarities. They both have living creatures in them. One has fish and the other birds. The way both fish and birds move around and live in their respective environments is very similar. But the environments are different. Applying this to our life, we can see that our natural (soulish) life is like a water environment and our spiritual life is like living in air. We are unique in that we are creatures who live in both worlds. By nature we have a soul, and by the new-birth we are citizens of heaven and have a unique spiritual nature. The natural man has a spirit just like the saved man, but there is a vast difference in that the natural man's spirit is dead (Eph. 2:1,5). Even with his dead spirit there is some communication or awareness of the spirit world. Spiritist are able to communicate with demons and anyone can sense an atmosphere. Both Daniel and Paul had an encounter with the Lord while they were with others but what they saw and heard was different than those who were with them. (Dan. 10:7; Acts 22:9). Those who were with Daniel were frightened and hid themselves. Those with Paul saw the light but heard nothing. I believe it is safe to say that the vast majority of our life is spent in the soul world. The soul is composed with the intellect, emotions, and will. We share this with all living creatures ranging from monkeys to ants. I believe 90% of our Christian life is soulish which is intellect, emotions, and will. But the real spiritual component is totally different.

Two weeks ago I visited my friend James' church which was very good. It had more English than I had been in in years. The songs were excellent, and everything they did was right on the money. In my mind I agreed 100% with everything they did - but with dry eyes. Last week I was back at my regular Beulah Christian Church which is almost totally Thai, and my heart burned with tears coursing down my cheeks for almost the entire song service. As they worshiped Jesus all I could do was say, “Yes, yes, yes. It's true. That's right. It is real”. There was a spiritual component there that I didn't find in James' church.

I'm sure everybody experiences this to a limited degree. This is why, when we have devotions and read the Bible, sometimes it is just words, and sometimes the Word comes alive, our hearts burn and tears flow. This is what the Emmaus disciples experienced with Jesus and they exclaimed, “Did not our hearts burn within us as He spoke to us in the way?” (Lk. 24:32). A burning heart is one of the evidences of the presence of Jesus, and frequently this is accompanied with tears.

But the awesome awareness of the presence of Jesus is something of a higher level. In 1962 Phares Huggins was holding down the Karuizawa Bible school for one year while Earl Tygert was on furlough. One night there was a musical group from the states visiting them for the weekend. It was Phares' custom to have brief devotions after a meal. After a brief reading of the Word Phares suggested, “Let's pray”. When the prayer started, suddenly, there was the intense awareness that Jesus stepped in the room. This startled everyone. Thirty minutes later eight people sat around the table in awed silence and wet faces. One of the guests that night was a senior missionary lady who had had a serious physical problem for 18 years. That was instantly gone. No one wanted to move. At last the ladies realized they had to clean the table and wash the dishes, but they were reluctant to make any noise. Kathy Yamada was another sister there. She said when she awoke the next morning the first thing that ran through her mind was, “Is Jesus still here?”. Sitting in silence she was delighted to answer that question, “Yes He is.”. Kathy said she felt like she could jump out her 2^nd floor window and float down to the ground. That awareness lasted about two weeks.

One famous visitation was at Asbury Bible College in 1975. They were having their usual morning chapel hour when suddenly Jesus showed up. The planned schedule went up in smoke and the alter was filled with weeping students. What was to be a brief 30 minute morning chapel was going strong at noon. All classes were canceled. The president was out of town at the time, but by evening the assistant director called him and said, “You better get back here immediately”. That 30 minute morning chapel lasted non-stop for three days. You can't program something like that.

Johnathon Goforth was one of the great revivalist of China. Around 1903 he was challenged by Charles Finney's book on revival. Finney's thesis was that revival was a miracle, but so is a field of corn. He said, “A Christian worker could pray for revival, but not cooperate with the laws of revival, with as much expectation as a farmer could pray for a crop of corn but not cooperate with the laws of agriculture and expect to get a good harvest.” Goforth said, 'If Finney is right, I'm going to find those laws of revival, and obey them at all cost.” That began an intense search for spiritual truth that lasted for 18 months. At the end of that time suddenly there was a radical transformation in Goforths meeting. He later wrote he had been in China for 14 years and had never seen one tear roll down a Chinese cheek. For the next several years Goforth's meetings were characterized by torrents of tears and the most startling public confession of sin. Marie Munsen and John Sung also had very similar results.

I have been much interested in revival for 60 years, but have seen very little of it. As close as I came was when I was the speaker at a pastor's conference in Korea. There were about 300 Korean pastors gathered at a Bible school in Chunju. One night there was an unusual enabling by the Holy Spirit. I was surprised to see several pastors jump up and flee out of the building. I was young at the time and didn't know the ways of the Spirit. Years later I saw this was a common phenomenon at Goforths meetings when pastors sensed

there was about to be a moving of the Holy Spirit and they didn't want to get trapped where they would have to make public confession of sin. I gave an invitation at the end of my message but I wasn't mature enough to allow the Holy Spirit to take over, and I closed the meeting too soon.

It was said of Evan Roberts that he never missed a church meeting. Roberts said, “If Jesus ever comes I don't want to miss Him.” Jesus did come and Evan Roberts was there. It happened when he was addressing a small meeting for students. But within two weeks it burst into flame of the greatest revival of the 20^th century. The Welsh revival lasted two years. There has never been anything quite like it since then.

Jesus best described this phenomenon when He said, “The wind bloweth where it listeth”. We cannot command the Wind to blow. We cannot program a moving of the Spirit. When Jesus wants to visit a person or a gathering that is totally His prerogative. I have heard a fair amount of preaching and some prayer for revival for 60 years but have seen very little of it.

But on a personal level Jesus has been kind to this poor, unworthy, man beyond expression. As I sit here on my balcony morning after morning Jesus has stopped by to fellowship with me on a level that I cannot explain. All I can say is, in His presence is the fullness of joy and at His right hand are pleasures for evermore (Ps.16:11).

Oh, thank You, thank You, thank You, Jesus,

                                                              bill

Brave Men

Dear Phyllis,

In Luke 16 Jesus told the most difficult parable in the Bible. He told about the unjust steward who wasted his masters goods. When he realized he was going to get fired he went out and changed the bills of his masters creditors cheating his master out of a lot of money. Then Jesus held up this crook as a wise man and told us to make friends of wicked money that when we come to our end that might receive us into heaven. Don't ask me what this means. I have no idea. But there are times in our lives when what the Christian thing to do is illegal.

Brother Andrew was probably the founder of the ministry of Bible smuggling. After I had engaged in this ministry for several years I was back in Japan meeting with a large group of Japanese pastors who were touring the New Life Ministries printing facilities. Roald Lidal ask me to speak to them and I shocked the pastors by telling that I was a professional smuggler. The pastors were stunned and one man asked Roald, “Is that what you are doing, smuggling?” Roald nervously replied, “That is Bill's expression, not mine”. For many years supplying Bibles to persecuted Christians in communist countries had been my main ministry. I have been arrested four times, I have been in jail, and black-listed in Vietnam. My name was listed on the immigration computers in Vietnam as a terrorist. Some may quibble, “Is it right to do illegal things to serve the Lord?” There are several answers. It is not us, but the government that is illegal. In the central post office in Vientiane, Laos there was a large poster showing how Laos had signed the UN human rights agreement guaranteeing religious freedom. I wasn't illegal, the government was. Once when I was arrested in Vietnam I charged the police, “These Bibles that I am carrying are perfectly legal.” They couldn't answer me. Corrie ten Boon was arrested in Holland for hiding Jews. I don't know, but there are times when the right thing is to violate the law.

In January 1982 an Air Florida passenger plane was taking off out of Washington International Airport in a bad snow storm, and, due to wing icing, crashed in the Potomac River. A TV photographer was there and recorded one of the most dramatic scenes I ever saw on TV. A lady was in the frozen Potomac not more than 15 feet from the shore. A helicopter was right above her dangling a horse collar ring for her to hang on to to pull her to shore. She was almost gone and her hand kept slipping off the ring. At last her hand slipped off and she sank beneath the water. One hundred men stood there watching. Something in me screamed, “Jump!”. How in the world any man could stand there watching that and not dive in defied me. At the last second one man dove in, grabbed the woman and the ring, and within seconds was out.

In 1998 I heard of the desperate need of Bibles in Vietnam. I thought, “If no one else will go I will”, and bought a ticket. A friend asked me, “Why are you going to Vietnam?”. I replied, “That isn't the question. The question is, 'Why don't you go?”'.” “Well, I have a wife, family, and a job. I can't.” “Fine. You stay here and I will go.” Some one asked me, “Do you have a call to go?” “No, I don't have a call but I can't stay here.” Did those men watching that lady drown in the Potomac have a call to jump in? Obviously not. They didn't want to get their clothes wet. How in the world can we do less?

After I had been working in SEA for several years I was sitting in a restaurant in Vientiane, Laos. The wife of a good friend of mine, who was the number one missionary in Laos, was sitting at a table with two visitors from the states. After a while one of the men came over to speak with me and shake my hand. He said, “I understand you are Brother Andrew and the bravest man in Laos.” I replied, “I'm sorry, sir. You are badly misinformed. It is true that I have done a couple of unusual things, but I certainly am not a brave man. I simply have the privilege of being one of the most expendable turkeys Jesus has in His inventory. That enables me to do some thing that might be difficult for others”.

In any inventory there are two different category of items – things that are expendable and things that are not. Screws are expendable, drills are not. Bullets are expendable, guns are not. Rackets are expendable, airplanes are not. In the Lords work our greatest need is for expendable workers. The Chinese Church has taken upon themselves to take out the 10-40 window. That is basically the Islamic world. Working in Islamic countries is the most dangerous place there is. You can't fight a war without taking casualties, and that type of ministry is impossible without shedding blood. Our great need today is for those who count not their lives dear to themselves and go forward not expecting to return safely. In the days of our Lord Jesus to take up a cross had a singular meaning. It was the same as climbing a scaffold to a hang-mans noose. Someone carrying a cross did not have much plans for the future. Someone else made his future for him. It is a wonderful blessing to have empty hands. To have empty hands means you have nothing to lose. That makes it easy.

But what I said to the man in the restaurant in Vientiane about not being a brave man was true. An expendable man with a defective alarm system is not a brave man. A brave man is the man who has everything to lose and is scared to death – but he just keeps moving forward.

John Cathcard is the bravest man I ever met. He went places and did things that no other man would dream of doing. I marveled at what he accomplished, but I was shocked when he told me how he did it. Before John went to Russia in 1991, he met a elderly Russian couple who were teaching in Tenri University. John asked them if they would teach him and his wife Russian. For one year John and Gloria met with this couple every week and became close friends. But at last when the Russian couple realized John and Gloria were dead serious about going to Russia, the Russian coupled panicked. They pleaded, “Please don't go! Please don't go! They will kill you. They will kidnap your children and you will never see them again.” Gloria admitted this desperate warning alarmed her. For the first time in her life she seriously thought about buying a pistol to protect her children.

One night their son Johnny had a serious asthma attack. John took him to the doctor's house in the middle of the night but waited until morning before ringing the bell. When the doctor saw the seriousness of Johnny's condition, he was furious and gave John the dressing down of his life. He sternly warned him, “Don't you ever pull a stunt like this again. That boy might have died. I don't care what time it is day or night, you get him here immediately.” John researched the air condition in Vladivostok and saw it was one of the worse in the world for asthma The devil told John every day, “You are carrying that lad to his death”. Terrified, John and Gloria kept moving on.

John later told me the situation in Vladivostok was so dangerous his legs would hardly hold him. He said the only thing that kept him from going out of his mind was the 3^rd Psalm and Psalm 18:1-6. He memorized them and quoted them to himself every day. With enormous courage he opened his apartment door and ventured out. Now there is a brave man. Gloria later testified that what the Russian couple had told them was true. She said at times she had to step across dead bodies in the street but she only saw it with her eyes. It never came to her (Ps. 91:8). Johnny was healed of asthma as soon as they reached Vladivostok.

The brave man isn't the turkey who is half brain-dead and has nothing to lose, but the man who has everything to lose and is scared silly, but just keeps moving on. It is a wonderful blessing to have empty hands - even if it necessary to give everything you own to Jesus to keep it for you. The main thing is to shoulder our cross and follow Jesus. Oh that is wonderful.

Thank You, Jesus,

                                       bill