Joe Carroll

28 July 2019

Dear Phyllis,

If I were to pick one man who had the greatest influence on my life, it would have to be Joe Carroll. When I first went to Japan in 1958, it seemed that a great curiosity in me that, sometime before I die, I would like to hear that man.

Joe had first come to Japan in 1954 to be the speaker at the EMAJ conference in Karuizawa. That was possibly the best conference ever held in Karuizawa in post-war Japan. It was so good they asked him to return in 1955 for another one. That is the only time that has ever happened. Then Joe came back in early 1959 to live in Japan with the singular purpose of praying for revival.

I first heard him on Thanksgiving in 1959 when he spoke at Frank Tetroes Baptist Church in Tachikawa. Man howdy, he was as advertised. That was the most powerful message I had ever heard. A year later I had the privilege of attending an OCU (military officers) conference where he was the speaker. I thought that was the privilege of a lifetime to be able to attend a conference and have personal interchange with him. On a whim I went to Karuizawa one day in August, and saw his house sitting by itself on a hill. I wound up driving directly up to it and spent the afternoon with him. In 1961 I was facing release from the Air Force, and was up against it for guidance, whether to remain in Japan or return to the states and go to Bible School. I wrote Joe asking him if there was a place to stay in Karuizawa to fast and pray for a few days. He replied that Mable was in Tokyo and invited me to stay with him. While there, the Lord gave me a very clear green light that it was His will for me to remain in Japan; and I wound up living in Karuizawa, studying the language. While in language school, another brother, Dale Boyles, asked me to be his prayer partner to pray everyday. We invited Joe to join our circle and that began my official tie with him.

That summer I was invited to go to Korea to be the speaker at a Korean pastors conference. Joe was also going to be the speaker at the Taechon Beach Korean missionary conference. Joe had never been in Korea, but I had been there often, and knew the country quite well. I told him, after I finished my conference, I would meet him in Seoul, and we could go together to Teachon Beach. I made arrangements for us to stay at the missionary guest house and planned to meet him at the air port in Kimpo. There was only one reasonable commercial hotel for foreigners in Seoul, and the day he was coming I went to the Grand Hotel to take the hotel van out to the air port to meet him. But I missed the van by five minutes. I asked at the desk if there was any other way to get out to Kimpo. Yes, there was a commercial bus. What a misnomer! It was just like a Philippine jitny – a 20 passenger Jeep. It was like a relic left over from the war that didn't quite make it. That wretched thing shook and rattled all the way out to Kimpo. When I got there, I ran into the terminal and asked if the flight from Tokyo had arrived yet. Yes, it had, and all the passengers had cleared the air port and left for Seoul. KOMATTA (problem, big time)! I couldn't imagine a worse scenario. Here we were in a city of 5,000,000 people; Joe didn't know where to go, and there was no way for me to find him. As I stood there in that empty terminal praying, suddenly I had the strangest witness of the Spirit that I was slam in the middle of the will of God. I walked back to the bus stop and that horrible thing I had ridden out in was going back to town. It was awful! It was steaming hot, loaded with kimchi smelling, sweating, Koreans, dirty children, chickens, and dead fish. The stench was unreal. We went about 5 km and the front end fell off. What a perfect day! I had to get some fresh air and got off to watch them jack up the bus to up put the front end back on. As I stood there watching, suddenly the Holy Spirit spoke to me as clearly as I ever heard His Voice. He said, “Go stand at the rear of this bus.” As I walked to the rear I saw a jeep coming down the road with Joe Carroll sitting in the front seat. They saw me, slammed on the brakes, and I jumped in. That was perhaps the most monumental miracle of my life. The Lord knocked off the front end of that bus to bring us together. That was the Lord's seal that He had directed us to work together. From that time on Joe took me in to be probably the only close disciple he ever had. Our partnership was clearly the will of God. Bringing us together like that on that dusty Korean road was perhaps the most direct act of God I have ever seen.

That fall, in November, Betty Whewell called Joe saying they had a difficult case of demon possession, and could he come down to help. Joe told her that he couldn't, but he would send me. I went down there to spend a few days, but Betty decided the Lord had sent me to stay. Joe and I had nothing going in Karuizawa, he was leaving for the states in a three months, and so I told her I would go back, get my things, and move down there to Yokkaichi. Joe wound up living in the states and never returned to Japan. I stayed with Mino Mission for one year, and then got sick and had to return to the states for a medical furlough. I saw the Carrolls when they were living in Ventner, NJ. They were planning on moving to Ashville, NC, and I helped Joe haul some things down there. While we were in Ashville, Joe had a meeting in Greenville and we went together to Greenville. Little did I know that was to be my future home. From there I went on to California, where I finally got on a plane to return back to Karuizawa for some more language study. A few months later the missionary who was living in the Carroll's house moved out, and, because I was his agent in Japan, of necessity, I had to move in.

Seven years later: I had been the director of the Japanese language school, and had a wife who was going to have a baby in three months. The Lord suddenly, miraculously, opened the door for us to return to the states for a furlough. We were living with my mother in Pa. when Dave was born. Then Rosemary came down with severe anxiety attacks. After a month in the hospital in Syracuse, NY Rosemary got well enough to travel. We stopped in Greenville to see Joe, who was building a Bible school there. What was supposed to be an overnight stay wound up lasting six weeks. We went on south to my spiritual home with the Stadsklevs in Florida, where Rosemary had a horrendous relapse. I was as komatta (desperate) as I had ever been in my life. We had only one option – go back to Greenville. We wound up living with the Carrolls for three months as Mable nursed Rosemary and the girls helped out with Davey. That turned out to be a two year stay and the longest period I had together with Joe. We resumed being prayer partners where we would meet at 6:00 AM for prayer. I was working full time as a carpenter building the Bible School campus and running the wood shop to make the furniture for the school. I would have loved to stay there as a teacher in the Bible School, but the Lord had other plans for me in the Orient.

After returning to the language school in Karuizawa, we put in six more years and then returned to our home church in Greenville. I planned to spend one more year of my life working for Joe as a carpenter, but 1980 was the worse year of my life up to that point. It could not have been worse. Through misunderstanding Joe had turned against me and that year was just a little foretaste of hell. Bitterness filled my heart. For the next 15 years the Institute in Greenville, for me, was the most radio active place on earth. I vowed never to go near it.

Then ten years ago, through Harold Carman, I was forced to spend one night at the Institute. I planned not to see Joe, but he had Alzheimer and was in a deep coma, and I thought “why not?”. I have written to you about that meeting. That was a once-in-a-lifetime miracle. Today Joe is with Jesus, and it won't be long before I can see my dear mentor again and thank him for being the most influential man in my life and showing me much about how to serve Jesus.

Thank You, Lord, for this great privilege, bill

Ministry

Dear Phyllis,

There is much in my heart, but I have no idea how to express it, or even what to talk about. Richard Feynman said, “Anybody who says they understand quantum physics has only proven that they know nothing.” I would like to say, anyone who says they know spiritual truth is an idiot and has no idea what they are talking about.

One of the clearest arguments is Ezekiel's Temple in Ezek. 40-48. I know of knowledgeable PHDs who confidently tell us that this is describing the Millennial Temple that will be built in Jerusalem after Jesus comes back, and the sacrifices that will be offered then. You idiot! Have you ever read chapters 40, 41, and 42? Being a carpenter and having built a number of buildings, several years ago I was determined to get a better handle on Ezekiel; I decided to draw this Temple as it is described in detail in chapters 40-42. Now the Lord is very precise. At the beginning we read that Ezekiel was given a measuring rod (reed) and told specifically to measure the building. Okay, that sounds straight forward. First we see that there was a wall, and the breadth of it was one reed and the height was one reed. Then there was a gate and the threshold was one reed and the breadth of it was one reed. Then there were little chambers that were one reed long and one reed broad. Then there was a porch that was one reed. Okay, let's see you put that on a sheet of paper. And you want me to believe that this is an actual temple that will be constructed in Jerusalem when Jesus gets here? What in the world is Ezekiel talking about? There is only one possible explanation. This is the Temple that Paul is talking about in Eph. 2 that is built for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The Church. If we understand that and read Ezekiel by the Holy Spirit we see that Ezekiel has a great deal of vital information to share with us. First of all there is a wall. Any preacher who tells us that there isn't a wall is not of God. I went to church here in Chiang Mai where the pastor had a series preaching on Nehemiah. Nehemiah was the wall builder. Rupert preached for weeks and never once mentioned that there was a wall. He refused to draw lines between conservatives and liberals I quit going to church. Then there are specific measurements. We see the measuring rod (reed) is six cubits. Six is the number of man. And every cotton picken thing in that Temple is one reed. What is the measuring rod? May I suggest it is the Man Christ Jesus?

The only way I have been able to get any spiritual teaching out of Ezekiel is by simply taking the objects that are presented to us. The first thing is the Wall, the next is the Gate, the next is the Thresh- hold, The next is the little Chambers, Stairs, Posts, Arches, etc. All of that is highly meaningful to me. It is interesting that there is no mention of any beams. There is a difference between an arch and a beam. A beam holds everything up by itself. In an arch everything is compression where every brick (stone) is dependent on the one next to it. In the Body of Christ we are all dependent on each other. Lone Rangers in the Body of Christ are in bad shape. Enough said.

I see the same thing in Revelation. Several years ago I was was convinced that Revelation is not lineal – 1,2,3, etc. Many Bible scholars tell us that Revelation is lineal. I am convinced that it comes in a configuration that we do not have on this earth. There is no question, in my mind, that the 6^th Seal at the end of chapter 6 and the 7^th Bowel in chapter 16 are exactly the same event. I believe I can incontestably prove that argument. I see the 7 Trumpets and the 7 Bowels as being an overlay of the same things. This is obvious. They are circular – not lineal. By setting aside my natural reasoning and human logic I have found that the Holy Spirit has opened vast treasures of spiritual truth to me that make no sense to the natural mind.

One of those truths is the Inverted Kingdom. By accepting that things in the Kingdom of God are backwards to the natural laws of this world, this has explained a great deal of things that make no sense at all. One truth that Jesus told us about was when He saw the poor widow put her two cents in the offering plate. There had been the big doners who had written big checks, and then that poor thread-bare woman put in her two pennies, and Jesus said that was the biggest donation of the day (Lk. 21:1-4). Really? Obviously, the accounting in heaven is different that the way we keep books. In this world we count by what is put in, but in heaven the Lord counts by what is left over. When she gave all, and had nothing left over, that was the biggest donation.

Grasp this truth, I have been trying to console myself with the lot Jesus has granted me here in Chiang Mai. This is almost exactly the way I didn't want things to go. I have said for years I want my last lap to be my best. When I head down the final 100 yards towards the finish line, I want to have my head down giving it all I have. I want to be wide out at the finish line. I have said for years the most disgusting thing I can think of is to retire and go to Fort Lauderdale to play shuffle board. Today I look with envy at the men in Fort Lauderdale with shuffle board sticks in their hands.

Towards the end of Corey ten Boons life Jesus spoke with her asking her what she wanted. He asked, “Do you want to come home now or stay here for five more years?” She replied, “Lord, I want the one that will bring the most glory to You”. And the Lord gave her five more years. They were the worst years of her life. She had virtually no ministry. She was dependent on others to take care of her. Most of the time she was in bed. Her body was so frail that to touch her would break a bone. Cliff Barrows was visiting her, and she looked up and said, “Cliff, why does the Lord leave me here like this when I can do nothing?” Cliff replied, “I don't know. That is a mystery. Maybe it is to prepare us so we will enjoy heaven more.” I don't know either. But I know Corey ten Boon is an inspiration to me.

I thank God for 15 years that I was able to engage in one of the most satisfying ministry of carrying Bibles to people who have no access to the Word of God. But today I am doing no traveling. There are still needy pockets but those days are behind for me. Today I am silent. Lord, That is a mystery that I don't understand.

The other night I had a most unusual, very emotional, encounter with Jesus. I had just been looking, for two hours, at WW 2 battle films on You Tube. The human suffering there was horrific. After turning my computer off, I thought I would spend a little time in the Word before going to bed. I turned at random to the 54^th & 55^th Psalm. The cry there was by the Psalmist to save him. He told of the horrible suffering he was in. I thought, “Well that doesn't apply to me”. But then suddenly, the Holy Spirit said to me, “This is Messianic. This applies to Jesus.” Putting in Jesus has made much of Psalms a different book to me. Then in a way that I had never seen before, the Holy Spirit pulled back to curtain and let me look into the heart of Jesus. Oh it was awful! No one knows the suffering He undertook and the battles He fought by Himself. I thought of the terrible battles I had just been watching on You Tube and somehow the same thing applied to Jesus slugging it out by Himself. What He fought inside Himself was on a level that goes beyond human comprehension. The only passing note that we have in the Word of God, is that He sweat great drops of Blood, and angels came to strengthen Him (Lk. 22:43,44). When I saw that Messianic Scripture and had a brief glimpse inside the heart of Jesus it was more painful than I could bear.

Oh. what can I say? We haven't the fainest idea of what Jesus went through to save us. Our most eloquent expressions are only trite suggestions of the reality of Jesus' experience. Oh, will we ever know? Will the Lord pull back the curtain of reality? I don't know. The only thing I know is that this is spiritual truth on a level that is humanly impossible for us to handle right now. Oh, I'm embarrassed. How can a man see this and be so cold-heartedly indifferent? This puts a new light on heaven. All I know is that the Bible says He will wipe away all tears. I used to think that applied to the sorrow we had in this world. But if the Father gives us a showing of what Jesus went through to save us, there will be rivers of tears in heaven that will leave us speechless.

Oh Lord, thaw my frozen heart and let me Love you today.

                           bill

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Conference High/Low Lights

14 July 2019

Dear Phyllis,

I thank God for the position He has given me where I am today. I have been climbing this mountain for 62 years and am getting near the top. The view from up here is radically different than what it looked like when I was at the bottom looking up. I feel a little like a sign that was hanging on the wall in the English Department of the School of Engineering when I was at Michigan - “Six months ago I couldn't spell enjunear, but now I are one”. Sixty years ago I looked on missionaries with great admiration and respect. I wondered what it would be like to follow Jesus on that path. Now today I look back with tremendous gratitude to God for the privilege of being able to say “now I are one”. Being this high on the slope gives you a perspective that is impossible from the bottom.

Shortly after we were married, Pammy and I were on the sponsoring committee for a Bible conference here in Chiang Mai. Pammy was close friends with a wonderful lady who had a deep love for Jesus and was very rich. Kasuri was very popular with a number of Thai pastors because she was wealthy and sponsored a number of Christians events and ministries. She had paid for a high profile pastor from Singapore to come a conference in Chiang Mai, and our picture was on the posters advertising this conference. I went to the conference with great anticipation, but when I heard the first message, my heart sank. I said, “I have heard this message before.”, and walked out in disgust. A very dear Thai pastor was a close friend and he was up front leading the meetings. Peter was greatly distressed when I walked out of the meetings. He bought into the message hook line and sinker. Three years later he was nearly in ruin. Everything that snake oil salesman said proved totally false and those who bought into his line were badly damaged.

Last Sunday Pammy told me, “Tomorrow we have to go to the Heaven Mission Center and stay for three days for a conference”. I asked, “Who is paying for this?” “They are. It is all free.” “Okay”.

Korea has taken over as the #1 missionary country of the world. They are very rich and are making the mistake that you can equate money with spiritual power. They are investing a tremendous amount of money in foreign missions world wide and are out in front of everybody else here in Thailand. This conference was called Half Time and sponsored by Korean missions. A group of nearly 15 Koreans had come to bring revival to Chiang Mai. Ironically most of the Koreans were from the states but their native language was Korean and all the messages were in Korean translated into Thai. I heard very little English. There were about 30 Thais there and many of them were close friends of Pammy. She knows everybody in town and the brother who was the coordinator for this conference was a friend of Pammy's. Several had been at out house. I really like the Thais who were there. Nearly all were very sincere servants of Christ who wanted more of Jesus and had come to get better equipped to take Jesus to Chiang Mai. Most of the meeting were pretty good. The singing was as good as it gets. The only problem was it was like being in a stadium for a soccer game having a wild time cheering and celebrating when there was no one on the field playing the game. Everything was fine. It was just as it should be with one exception - the Holy Spirit wasn't there. I liked most of the people very much. The way they did most things was good. The only problem was they thought they could get spiritual results from a financial investment.

The first night one of the main speakers explained the title of the conference, “Half Time”. He had a 15 minute video of a soccer game where a team was getting trounced, but at the half time the coach gave an inspiring message that fired up the team, who went out in the second half and won a thrilling game. Amen! Hallelujah! The only problem was that, if you analyzed the message, it was that we hadn't done too well the first half – which certainly is true – but they had come as the coach to fire us up to go out and win the game the second half. The only thing that is wrong with that message is that it is the Holy Spirit that brings the fire - not well meaning Koreans with a lot of money. That is why the Holy Spirit was singularly absent from an enthusiastic conference.

I walked out of two sessions. Pammy was distressed to see me leave. I said, “I'm sorry but this is an old movie that I have seen several times before”. For young sincere Christians, there was much attraction to learn the secrets of the Spirit how to do spiritual work. Forty, fifty, sixty years ago I have seen several messages came along that looked very appealing at the time. Much of it sounded very scriptural. There was a strong emphasis on the Word of God. Salvation was clearly front and center. It was all done in the Name of Jesus. The only problem was that it was a false message that was not of God. Years later the results was not a fruitful vineyard but barren land.

I liked most of the Korean team who had come. But I didn't like the two main speakers. One was a very quiet man who looked just like he had bitten a sour lemon. The other was a domineering, strong willed, choleric woman. She is exactly the type of woman that the Bible says should not be allowed to speak in church (1 Cor. 14:34; 1 Tim. 2:11,12; Tit. 2:3-5). She pulled a couple of dumb stunts that I had seen before. One was to equate spiritual power with decibel level. She said, “Now this is the way you should pray”, and she screamed at the top of her lungs. Bye bye. I left. The second was when she had everyone write down all their sins on a sheet of paper. Then we went forward to nail the paper on a large wooden cross. Pammy was distressed when I said, “This is non-sense”. She pleaded, “Don't be negative”. I wasn't. I left. I told her later, “Nailing a piece of paper to a wooden cross is not going to change the character of anyone or free them from sin. Only the Holy Spirit can do that, and out of respect for the Holy Spirit I went back to my room.

The third morning I was stunned when Pammy requested that they pray for me to be healed of cancer. The first night they had one of the most unimpressive healing meeting I have ever been in when a number of people went forward to be healed of various pains. When Pammy requested that they have special prayer for me I didn't know what was going on until the choleric woman came up to lay hands on me. I came unglued. I asked Pammy, “What in the world are they doing?” “They are going to pray that you get healed”. I'm sure no one had ever seen anything like what happened in the next five minutes.

In a very intense, very LOUD, voice I shouted, “I am not interested I being healed! I WANT JESUS TO BE HONORED!!! There are two options before me. One is to be healed, the other is to die of eye cancer. I DON'T CARE WHICH!!! I want Jesus to make that call. If Jesus can be more glorified by healing me I am all for it. If He can be more glorified by my suffering, then that is the one I want. I am not opposed to healing. I don't enjoy pain and I don't want to suffer. If you want to pray for my healing I am all for it. I say, 'Amen. Lord Jesus, please heal me'. But a thousand times more than healing I want Jesus to make that call and choose the road that will bring Him the most glory.”

I don't know what happened. A number of people gathered around me and prayed very specifically for my healing. I shook and wept. I have no idea what the Lord has in mind, but I am coming to the conviction that this is a special gift that the Lord has given to me to glorify Himself.

Thank You Lord. And thank You for the view You have given me from this point up the mountain,

                                                             bill

PS: If someone comes and says, “Stand back folks. I'm here and I have come to bring revival – look out.

The last day, the Korean team lined up and everyone passed by to shake hands or to hug them. When I came to our choleric sister, she just stood there motionless glaring at me. I thought, “Sister, you are more honest than me. I was going to shake hands and thank you but your glare is more honest than my hypocrisy.”

Surrender all?

7 July 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Last Sunday, at church, for the closing hymn, they sang “All to Jesus I Surrender”. Surprisingly, I was so mad I refused to sing it. Years ago that would have been one of my favorite hymns, but today I have gone well past the point of surrender, and the very concept angers me.

Towards the end of the 2^nd WW in Europe, Germany was within weeks of total collapse. The Russians were advancing on the eastern front and the Americans and British were closing in on the west. American President Roosevelt and Stalin had made an agreement on how to divide Germany up and the Americans were waiting on the Russians to advance. The Germans were terrified and sent a delegation to the Americans asking them to, “Please hurry. We want to surrender to you”. This is what surrender to Jesus looks like to me today. It is not a matter of walking forward waving a white flag, but with me on my knees pleading with Jesus to please take me. The options are terrifying. If Jesus doesn't accept me in my offering myself to Him, I am left to deal with the flesh or the devil to direct my life. And, of those two, I don't know which one is worse. For the Germans, if the Americans didn't take them, it was a matter of Hitler or the Russians.

I say I have never surrendered my life to Jesus. I didn't know you were supposed to. In 1956 I stood in a government room and raised my right hand pledging myself that I would be a soldier. With that I was inducted into the United Stats Air Force. After that I never surrendered myself to the Air Force. I made that decision when I joined up. From that time on my life was just a matter of receiving orders and following them. I thought it worked the same way with Jesus.

There is only one time that I remember that I had to make a decision to surrender. I was within weeks of completing my training as an Aviation Cadet. I had one final flying exam, and then I would get my wings. I had done very well in flying and had the reputation as being one of the best student pilots in my class. I had set a near record score on my mid-term instrument test, and no one was worried about how I would do on my final. The day came, and as I was making an ILS (instrument landing system), I got a total mental block. I couldn't read a compass. The instructor said, “I'm sorry, Cook, but if you had been by yourself you would have been killed.” That was the first time I had ever had a bad flight. It looked like my life had collapsed. I desperately wanted to be a fighter pilot, but it seemed that was not the will of God for me. I was going to call every Christian I knew and have them pray for me. But what should they pray for? Should they pray for a miracle that I could get my wings, or should they pray that God would give me grace to wash dishes in the mess hall if that was His will for my life? There was a fierce war in my heart. Fortunately, the Lord won the battle, and I surrendered to do the will of God – whatever that was. Thirty minutes after a measure of peace came to my heart, I was called in the Captains office. He handed me a paper and told me to sign. Oh my goodness, they are quick with elimination. I looked at it and it said, “60-4 Instrument Exam. Satisfactory check.” I asked, “Sir, what is this?” He said, “ILS is not required on a 60-4.” He had found a loop hole and passed me on my flight. I didn't earn my wings, Jesus gave them to me.

After that I can't ever recall surrendering anything to Jesus. But over the years I have lost every precious thing I ever owned. I have had many things that have been extremely close to my heart, but today there is not one that is left. Job never surrendered his children or his possessions, but he lost everything. When he was stripped bare, he looked up and said, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the Name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). I have had to kneel beside Job and say “Amen” many times. These are not things I have surrendered. These are just things I have lost.

Surrender is letting go before hand. There was a very dear sister in our church in Greenville, SC., who had a very difficult marriage. The greatest joy of her life was her one son. One night, at church, the Lord was speaking to her that He wanted her to surrender her son to Him. For an hour Vivian agonized on her knees at the alter wrestling with the Lord over the most precious thing in her life. At last she was able to release her son to the Lord. Thirty minutes later, Vivian returned home to find him dead on the lawn in front of the house. When she knelt beside her dead son, and realized what had happened, she quietly looked up to Jesus and said, “Yes, Lord, I meant it.”

Having released her son to Jesus before he was taken eased the pain somewhat in her heart, but I believe eternity will reveal a deeper truth about these transactions. There was another sister in our church in Greenville who had a wayward son. She had prayed with tears for his salvation. One night the prodigal went forward to accept Jesus as his savior. What a joy to the mother! That night she had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. As she walked past his bedroom, she noticed the light was still on and the door was cracked open. Looking in, she saw that he had fallen asleep sitting at his desk with the Bible open in front of him. That's a pretty good sight. The next morning, on his way to work, he was killed outright in an auto accident. The mother was crushed. He was only saved a few hours before his life was snuffed out. I did not know of that incident, but a few months later the Lord led me to preach on the text in Isaiah 57:1 - “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come”. The dear mother came up to me after that service to tell me that the Lord had explained to her His doings. She knew he was a weak boy surrounded by temptation. To protect him, the Lord saved him and took him straight to heaven.

Paul shared a word with us that I don't believe we fully appreciate. He said he knew Who he believed in and was fully confident that “He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him” (2 Tim. 1:12). I believe things that we commit to Jesus are in safe hands. If Jesus asks us to give Him something I don't think He is going to loose it. I believe Vivian Garret is going to discover when she gets to heaven that the best thing she ever did was give her son to Jesus, and Jesus kept him safe all that time. I believe that sister Jones will find the same thing when she sees her son waiting for her in heaven. And even things that we didn't surrender, but Jesus took them without asking our permission, are safe in His Hands. I have never heard anyone preach on this, but Job lost 10 children in one disastrous swoop (Job 1:2,19). Later the Lord gave him another 10 children (Job 42:13). Job didn't loose a thing. In heaven he has 20 children.

What is this non-sense that we nobly sing “All to Jesus I surrender”? We get some sort of a warm feeling out of that as if we have attained to a higher level of spirituality. My goodness, it is not a question whether or not we will surrender; the question is “will He accept us?”. We don't know it, but we are like the Germans trying to surrender to the Americans. Man howdy, if Jesus doesn't own us we are in bad shape. And what is this business of holding tightly in our hot little hands the things He has given to us to enjoy for a few years? Do we think that we are able to keep them more securely than Jesus? If He asks us to give them to Him, I believe it with a great degree of confidence that we can rest assured that He is able to keep them safely. Why should it be an question of surrendering anything to Jesus? Do we think we are smarter than Him or they are more secure with us?

Lord Jesus, forgive me for not singing that song last week, but You know my hands are empty and I shall be eternally grateful if You will accept me and put me in Your house.

                                            bill

PS: There is not one incident in Scripture where Jesus ever asked anyone to surrender to Him. There are several records where He graciously offered to various people the privilege to follow Him. There was one young man to whom He extended that invitation, but the man sadly walked away (Mk. 10:21,22). “Please surrender”, is not a word that comes from the mouth of Jesus.