Who vrs How

17 March 2019

Dear Phyllis,

We've had a good week. Pammy's home church had an unusual speaker come from the states for a seminar and she got tabbed to be his interpreter. When she told me his message was “Bible story-teller evangelism” I told her, “He has got the wrong message”. But then we had him come visit us for three days. I found Dr. Jim to be a very unusual man. He asked me, “Do you have any advice for me?”; and I told him, “I really don't want to tell you.” The problem was he has a HOW message, and for several years I have said, “Any one with a HOW message is wrong. It is not a HOW message but a WHO message”. It is not HOW you do it, but WHO does it. The WHO is Jesus or the Holy Spirit. It is not how you do things but whether or not the Holy Spirit is doing something.

For twenty years I sat in missionary conferences in Karuizawa and listened to conference speakers come to tell us how to do missionary work. Everyone would get all excited that at last we learned how to do it, and then come back a year later, discouraged, and learn again how to do it. It doesn't work that way. Allen Fadel was one of the top missionaries with TEAM in Japan. He started three excellent churches, and then he went to a new area in Tokyo. Two years later he told me, “I don't know what is wrong. I have done everything exactly the way I did it in the three other places and I can't draw flies. Nothing works.”. LE Maxwell said he was going to write a book on how to raise children until he had his son Paul. Paul was a rebel. In the spirit no two are the same. If someone thinks they know how to do something they are dead wrong. It is the Holy Spirit that does the work – not some special technique. Anyone who writes a book on deliverance and tells us how to cast out demons - 1. 2. 3. - has missed the point. Some things may be important, but the power is the Holy Spirit not the technique.

I didn't want to tell Dr. Jim that he was wrong but we had a very good time together. He said he had been serving the Lord for 45 years and then when he was 67 he learned the power of story-telling. Ironically, I agreed with him.

May I say I am a hard-core fundamentalist. I am as fanatical and militant about the Bible as any theme you can mention. The Bible is the inerrant Word of God – PERIOD! It is the Word of God that changes lives – not stories. But stories are one of the most effective tools the Holy Spirit uses. I first learned this from Haggi Iverson 40 years ago. Haggi said, “I am a story-teller, because my Lord Jesus was a story-teller. Jesus used stories to teach spirit truth.”. True. The parables of Jesus are all stories. Dr. Jim said the Holy Spirit loves stories. He said 75% of the Bible are stories. I never thought about that, but he is right. Stories are the most effective means of teaching. Spurgeon said, “Illustrations are windows that allows the light to come in.” You can quote a Bible verse and very few people will remember it half an hour later. Tell a griping story and they will recall it in detail years later. I was in Tennessee several years ago and a brother came up to me and said, “I remember the message you preached here 25 years ago.” I asked, “What was it?” He said, “You preached about the Highway of Holiness from Isiah 25”, and he knew it in detail. The reason he remembered that message was because I had in it five powerful illustrations. I have listened to well over 40 conference speakers but the messages I recall the best are the ones with unforgettable illustrations or stories. Dr. Jim has got something with his technique of Bible story-telling. I still have some reservation about his seminars, but I was highly impressed with him and his thesis.

At 73 he will go to a park or any place where there are people and walk up to strangers to tell them about Jesus. He has a technique that makes me scratch my head, but he has had astonishing success. His line is: “Hello.” They respond with “Hello”. “Where are you from?” They respond and tell him where they are from. Then he says, “I am a story-teller. Can I tell you a story?” He said he has done this over 2,000 times and, by actual count, has only had 31 times when the response was negative. Then he tells them a story from the Bible. I thought that was astounding, but he said in over 98% of the times people gratefully listen.

There are several things about Dr. Jim that I admire very much. Joe Carroll had a message on the three types of soldiers. He said there is the young soldier, the good soldier,and the old soldier. The young soldier has the spirit and the willingness to fight. He is anxious to get involved. But he lacks experience and unless he is carefully shepherded he will wind up a needless causality. The good soldier has all the qualifications plus experience. He knows how to get along. The old soldier has all the experience and knows the ropes well, but he has lost the will to fight. He is first in the chow line, first in the leave line, first in the medal line, and last in the battle line. He has lost the will to fight. Of the three types, Joe said the last type was the most dangerous and the one he feared the most. Joe was dead right. One of the things I admire about Dr. Jim the most is that, at 73, he is doing the things I did when I was 23. I don't put on my coat to go outside to confront strangers to tell them about Jesus, but he does daily.

Dr. Jim liked Pammy very much. She did an outstanding job interpreting for him. I told him, “When you met my wife, you met the ultimate. You will never meet another person like her.” After God made her, He threw away the mold. She is one of a kind She has absolutely no fear or intimidation to confront strangers and start talking about the Lord straight out. Two afternoons they went out together to walk the streets and witness. I told him, “You two are a deadly combination. If you were around here long enough we would see the whole city of Chiang Mai saved.” He loved it. Pammy would confront anyone at random and then he would follow up with his Bible stories with her interpreting for him.

Another feature about Jim that I liked very much is that he goes by his first name. Dr. Kim has a lot of high profile speakers come through to speak to his people or hold large meetings. I knows these guys. It is next to impossible to be the featured speaker on the platform world wide without thinking that you are something special. Well they are special. But you don't find very many who go by their first name.

And one more thing that impressed me very much was the size of his audience. He had maybe 8 or 10 that he was talking to with Dr. Kim, but he came to us but and spent two days with two boys who are staying at our house – one of which just got out of the mental hospital. He travels all over the world. He has been in more countries than I can name. I asked him, “How large a group do you usually speak to?” About 10 to 12. My goodness, he travels 10,000 miles to speak to a crowd of people that you could get in one van.

I don't know. I said I don't like his HOW message, but he has something going that impresses me very much. I thought I had heard it all, but this is a new one for me. He has got a message that may be highly effective. He has given me a renewed conviction of the power of a good story. One basic difference between his stories and mine is that all his stories are Bible stories and most of mine are actual testimonies. He has a special technique where he uses a Bible story to weave in spiritual truth and salvation. This is unique.

Perhaps the one basic point where we might part company, is the necessity of a gift. A gift is something that cannot be taught. It is something that you are born with or given. It is possible to develop a gift that you didn't know you had, but – again – it must be the Holy Spirit. A man filled with the Holy Spirit can say, “Mary had a little lamb”, and people will fall down under conviction of sin. Hundreds of young men from Bibles schools have quoted Johnathan Edwards famous “Sinners in the hands of an angry God”, and people fell asleep.

It's been a good week. I met another one of God's great ones who is cutting a mighty swath for God with a sickle.

Thank You, Jesus,

                             bill

Kingdom Contribution

10 March 2019

Dear Phyllis,

This morning I went to church, sat on a chair in silence for an hour and a half, got up, and came home. I wondered, “What have I contributed to the Kingdom of God today?”. As I ponder about my silence it came to me that perhaps, in this, I am fellowshipping with Jesus. I believe in many services Jesus sits in the back in silence and leaves unheard. I believe it can be safely said that the overwhelming emphasis of many, perhaps most, church services is entertainment. Far more than hearing from God, the main concern is that we have good entertainment. Good music is important. We must sing the right songs. It is vital that we have a good song leader. In some churches they have to have deafening, ear splitting, sound systems. Really good special music helps, and, of course, the main point is that we have a good speaker who gives interesting messages. If these elements are not there, you can right off church as a pretty bad trip. If Jesus was there, He probably sat in the back in silence. In most places it is unusual that Jesus is up front speaking.

The rare exception to this is times of a moving of the Spirit in revival. In church history one of the times when Jesus spoke the loudest was under Evan Roberts in the Welsh revival. Evan Roberts would stand up front in silence and multitudes would be griped with overwhelming conviction of sin. Very often, in times of revival, the Holy Spirit speaks the loudest when the speaker talks the least.

This is not to say that preaching is not important. Certainly the Lord uses His servants and there are times when we leave a service with an intense realization that we heard from God this morning. But if that is true, we are more impressed with what the Lord said to us than the speaker. I have been in services where the clock stopped and you were totally unaware of the passage of time. There have been times when I scarcely thought of who was speaking – only that I knew God was speaking to me. In former years I never heard of a church service where the speaker was rewarded with applause. One morning I was the guest speaker in a church in Japan. At the end of the service the leader said, “Let's thank Cook sensei for a wonderful message this morning”; and there was loud applause. I stood up and said, “I realize that you did this as an expression of appreciation to thank me for what I said, but if you can clap like that, that is a sign that the Holy Spirit has spoken very little to us this morning. If you walked out of the service in silence and tears I would be satisfied, but if you can clap that means you were well entertained.”

The best services I have ever been in was when there was no one standing up front. This was the secrete of Kichijoji. They had no pastor, no leader. We came there to worship God - not to be entertained. I was the pastor of the Karuizawa Bible Church when I learned of the Plymouth Brethren system of service. I told my people, “From now on we are not going to have a message, but sit in a circle and worship God.” Man howdy, did we have a bad time. It was awful. The next morning I was talking with Robert Mullen, a Brethren missionary, and told him, “Yesterday was a real bummer.”. He replied, “Oh that is easy. The problem is that everybody came with empty sacks and thought, 'Please fill it'.” I saw in an instant the fundamental difference with a traditional church service and a Brethren service. The way the system is supposed to work is that Christians are supposed to walk with the Lord, Monday through Saturday night. Sunday morning their sacks are to be so filled with the blessing of God they can't wait to come and pour out their offering to Jesus. But in stead of that, what we have is Christians coming to church like Joseph's brethren with empty sacks and say, “Please fill it”. Traditional church is referred to a battery charging session. We come to church to get our batteries charged and then go pup, pup, pup through the week. That is not the way the Lord intended the system to work. We come to church to give our thanks to God – not to get our batteries charged.

After talking with Robert Mullen I told my people the next week, “We are not going to have another bummer like last week. You all come with full sacks and we will see what happens”. Another bummer. After a month of really bad services the elders came to me and said, “Cook san, this isn't church. Please quit it”. I knew they were right. It was impossible to convert traditional Christians to a Brethren style of Sunday worship service. Take the Holy Spirit out of the system and you have really bad services.

A church with no pastor doesn't mean that we ignore the gifts of the Spirit. Of course there is a pastor. Of course there is preaching. The Lord equipped the Church with apostles (apostles are missionaries), prophets (prophets are men who know God – not self-appointed loud-mouths), evangelists, pastors, teachers for the perfecting of the saints (Eph. 4:11). Any healthy assembly should have men with these gifts. And when the Holy Spirit is allowed to be the administrator, it will be self-evident who has what gift. But a healthy church is not a one-man show. There should be a plurality of elders who will minister to the flock. There will be men who are gifted teachers. Some men are very good evangelists and some men are fine pastors. But one man should not be required to be all three. I am a good preacher and teacher, but a terrible pastor. Some men are good pastors but awful preachers. Why mix it? Some men have the gift of helps, but would die in a pulpit (1 Cor. 12:28). I have found in Japan a man with the gift of helps in one of the most valuable men around. And some missionaries don't know how to use a screw driver. God has equipped His Church with people with all sorts of gifts and we should allow each person to exercise his gift for the betterment of all.

Eighty years ago one of the mightiest men of God in the Nazarenes was Uncle Buddy Robinson. Buddy Robinson was an uneducated drunken cowboy from Oklahoma who had a flask of whiskey on his hip when he got saved. After he was saved he had a great desire to be a preacher. That was ridiculous. He was uneducated with a bad speech impediment. He stuttered badly and couldn't say “Mary had a little lamb” clearly. But he wanted to preach. So he bought a black suit and a big Bible. Then he rented the school house and put up posters in the feed store that there was going to be an evangelistic meeting in the school. People came from miles around to see this spectical and the building was packed. When Buddy stood up to preach the people began to howl with laughter. Poor Buddy could only stand there and weep. But as Buddy stood there sobbing the place quieted down and men began to take off their hats. Then a strange thing happened. Hardened old cow hands began to rise to their feet to come forward to pray at the alter. Before that meeting was over half the school house was saved. It wasn't a polished graduate from the seminary, but an uneducated cowboy with a bad speech impediment that brought down the power of God.

Oh, to hear from God! How wonderful it is to be in a hushed atmosphere where the basic sound you hear is people sobbing with tears coursing down their cheeks. I believe the most effective message Watchman Nee preached was the last 18 years of his life spent in prison. When Samuel Rutherford was in exile in Aberdeen he wrote, “May the tinkling of the chains on my hands and feet be a love sonnet of praise to Jesus. If so my soul is satisfied.” Amy Carmichael said, “Is it so important that I be a mouth? Can I not be a heart?”. A heart doesn't make a lot of noise but carries a very loud message.

I don't like sitting in silence in church, but if there is anything of my silence that could be a voice for God, I will sit there and praise the Lord.

Wherever we are, lets raise up our hands and thank God for Jesus,

                                          bill

Deeds Produce Consequences

3 March

Dear Phyllis

Last week we had a really big problem. As I was in a quandary wondering what to do the Lord reminded me of the first law of the Kingdom. This was the first restriction the Lord imposed on Adam. That is that DEEDS PRODUCE CONSEQUENCES. The Law in the Garden was - to touch the forbidden tree would produce death. The first lie that the devil uttered was to deny this basic law. And the devil has wrought havoc in the world with that lie ever since. The devils principles tactic is to convince people that deeds do not produce results; that you can defy God's basic laws without paying a price. If God's law is true, sanity would demand that you not step out of line. Deeds have consequences.

The Covenant of God had two sides. One was the blessing and the other was the curse. Good behavior would produce good results and bad behavior would bring the roof down. One of the main commands that the Lord gave Moses was that, when Israel entered into the land that they should mark out two mountains - Gerizim and Ebal. They were to stand on Mt. Gerizim and proclaim the blessings of God. And they were to stand on Mt. Ebal to proclaim the curses of God; and the people were to say Amen. We see in Joshua 8:30-35 that Israel did exactly as the Lord commanded in Deut. 27. The history of Israel proves that God keeps His Word. When Israel followed the Lord they were blessed. And when they turned their back on God, disaster fell. For 1000 years Israel reaped what they sowed. In the end, when they crossed the red line, Jeremiah acknowledged in Lam. 2:17, “The Lord hath done that which He devised, He hath fulfilled His Word”. Israel did not keep their side of the bargain but God did. He did exactly what He said He would do. Deeds had consequences.

The devil has two messages. To the unsaved he says there is no God, there is no law, there is no standard, there is no absolute truth. You can do what you want with no bad consequence. To the Christian world the devil's gospel is, God is kind, merciful, loving. He will not hold you responsible for what you do. Joel Olsteen is one of the devil's premiere spokesmen when he says, “It doesn't matter what you did last week. I doesn't matter who you did it to. God loves you and will bless you.” (That is a quote. That is his central message.) Where in the world did he get that kind of insanity out of the Bible?! This is in direct contradiction to everything in the Bible. Paul said it correctly when he said, “whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap” (Gal. 6:7).

The problem is the mercy of God. He doesn't want to kill. He wants all to repent. He delights in mercy and wants to forgive sin. In order to do so God has imposed a time factor. There is a time gap between cause and effect. Solomon saw this clearly and wrote that “because the sentence against evil is not executed immediately the heart of men is set to do evil” (Ecl. 8:11)). If the result came instantly that would sure cut down on a lot of foolishness. If Germany had seen in 1935 what Berlin was going to look like in 1945 they never would have started the 2^nd World War. But if God did not impose a time factor we would all get wiped out in a heart beat.

To prove that there is a limit on the patience of God and time does run out, the illustrations are limitless. Every civilization, every kingdom, every nation, every family, every person – they all have one common testimony, they all have one message – you reap what you sow. Deeds do have consequences. Pray tell, what could be a clearer message? A blind man with one glass eye could clearly see this. And yet humanity plunges ahead in insanity. AW Tozer said it is the bewildering phenomenon of Christianity that people sow to the flesh six days of the week and then come to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure. Lots of luck. It's not likely to happen. Paul clearly stated the inviolital law in Rom. 8:13 - “If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live”. How in the world is it possible to produce good Christian character by living for the world six days of the week and expect to grow spiritually? You get out of it what you put into it.

Spiritual reality runs on God's clock – not ours. Again Paul reminds us that some mens sin are open before hand going before to judgment, and some they follow after (1 Tim. 5:24). But one thing is certain; sooner or later your sin will catch up with you. There are numerous illustrations of men who have lived in deep sin for years and gotten by with it. But sure as a burr sticks to a coyotes tale the fruit of his sin will follow him.

As certain as there is a God in heaven; as certain as God lives; as certain as there is a balance scale in the hand of God; one of the fundamental attributes of God is that He will reward every man according to their works. Three times in the closing chapters of Revelation the Lord has written “according to their works” (Rev. 20:12,13; 22:12). And one of he last words to come out of the mouth of Christ in His Word is, “Behold I come quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every man ACCORDING TO HIS WORK”. Deeds have consequences. Every action will produce some

result. Some are rewarded instantly and some are written in the Book to be rewarded later.

There are two sets of Books in heaven. In one set we see that everything that anyone does in this life will be judged according to their works (Rev. 20:12). But there is another Book that is The Lamb's Book of Life. This is mentioned seven times in Revelation. In it we see two words that do not appear in the other books – BUT GOD. It has been suggested that these two words are the most important words written in the Bible. If we all got what we had coming to us there would be no salvation. The freight train of the wrath of God was bearing down on all of us, BUT GOD - just before it hit us - diverted it to another line and the wrath of God was poured out on His Son. Deeds had consequences, but the bill got sent to Jesus and Jesus paid the bill.

Does this mean that deeds don't matter for us? By no means. Jesus told us that the Kingdom of God was like a man traveling to a far country and gave to His servants talents. Some got more some got less; every man according to his ability (My. 25:14-30). God will hold us responsible for what we do with the things God has given us. Everything we do in life will either move the ball forward or backwards. Which way the ball moves will depend on what we do. Some things help and some things don't. Deeds produce results. Wasted time is wasted. That is a loss. Wasted opportunities are wasted. That is a loss. Wasted talents are wasted. That is a loss.

The OT is replete with illustrations of God responding to the conduct of men. Some got it right now, and with others, judgment was deferred. When Miriam bad mouthed her brother Moses, she instantly turned leprous (Num. 12:1-10). When Abiram and Dathan defied Moses, the earth suddenly opened up and swallowed them (Num. 16:1-33). Saul was rejected as king of Israel in the early part of his reign, but it was 40 years later before he fell on Mt. Gilboa. We see God telling Abraham that “the iniquity of the Amroites was not yet full” (Gen. 15:16). It seems that God gives to a nation a cup, and when it gets full judgment falls. This was true of the Amorites, Sodom and Gamorrah, Israel, Rome, and every kingdom since then. Pay day does come.

It might be argued, “Well, yes, that was true in the Old Testament, but we are in the day of grace. God doesn't work that way today”. You would have a hard time convincing Ananias and Sapphiah that God does not hold people responsible for their actions (Act 5:1-11). God did that dramatic action at the very onset in the days of Pentecost to warn us that He hasn't changed His mind and He still holds us responsible for what we do.

Lord, give us grace to not be stupid but do the thing that is right.

                             bill