17 Sept, 2000
Dear Ted & Phyllis,
This morning when I sat down to have devotions the Lord
surprised me by immediately meeting with me. I say surprised, because I badly
overslept. Had it been me – I would have either been too busy to meet with
someone like myself, or keep them waiting for a while just to teach them a
lesson. But the instant I opened the Holy Book immediately the print jumped off
the page at me and my heart began to burn. Psalms is not my favorite place but
this morning it was Psalm 87. Two things: the first – “the Lord loveth the
gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.”; and the second – “this
man was born there.”
I had the latter phrase underlined in my Bible as it appears
three times in this short psalm. It must be important to be repeated three
times. It was like someone just discovered gold and couldn’t get over it. They
just keep exclaiming. “I found it, I found, I found it!” Then the Holy Spirit
took me to John 1:13 – “which were BORN; not of the blood, nor of the will of the
flesh, nor the will of man, but OF GOD.” Really, we don’t have much to say
about where we are born. That is one thing we cannot choose. In most cases we
can decide where we want to die or be buried, but we cannot choose where we
were born. For those who are fortunate enough to be born in a highly desirable
location their birth is a thing of intense pride. Even the Roman Centurion
looked with envy at the prisoner when he said, “With a great sum obtained I
this freedom.” but Paul could answer, “I was free born. (I was born there).”
Our spiritual heritage is a great mystery that is little
understood. We know by the theology we have studied that we are already seated
with Christ in the heavens, and we give mental ascent to it; but Heb. 12:21
says we have already arrived at the New Jerusalem. The Japanese translators
didn’t have courage enough to translate that verb correctly and hedged by
translating it “we are approaching” (chikazuite iru). I challenged a Japanese
pastor on this subject and ask him to get out his Greek New Testament. When he
read it his mouth flew opened. I asked, “Is that Japanese translation correct?”
And he replied, “You are right. The Greek says we have already arrived.” The
reason for that is related to the new-birth. When we were born again our
citizenship is in heaven and on the birth certificate it says, “Born in Zion”.
We must be the envy of all creation. Small wonder the psalmist said the same
thing three times in three verses; “of Zion it shall be said, This man was born
in her;” and, “The Lord shall count, when He writeth up the people, that this
man was born there.” How privileged we
are!
But this psalm starts off with a surprising statement; “The
Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.” This
morning when I read that, I asked the Lord why He loved the gates so much? It
would seem that the dwellings would be more important than the gates. If I
understand what the Lord said correctly, I believe it is because the gates are
where the people enter in. This is something of special importance to the Lord.
It is because we were “born there” that it is absolutely accurate to say, “we
are going home”. It is not so much of where we are leaving from but where we
are going. I may be in Laos, someone else may be in Japan, and a third person
may be in the states; if we are all headed to Zion we are “going home”.
Certainly it is no cause of sorrow to leave this world. If the Lord ever is
merciful and gets some of those American POWs who have been in chains for 27 years
out of the jungles of Laos, I don’t think it would be a sad moment for them to
“go home”. True, our journey here has been a pleasant one. There have been some
sad times but there have also been some very enjoyable times; but our greatest
pleasure in this world pales in comparison to the good things that the Lord has
in store for us when we get home. One wonders if there can be any higher
pleasure than to see the Gates and ENTER IN. Small wonder the Lord loves the
Gates so much! Far better than we do, He knows what He has been keeping for us.
Just to think that we are getting nearer those Gates everyday should be reason
enough to lighten our feet and quicken our steps. Just the distant sight of
those Gates and the singing that we can occasionally hear from the City should
cure any weariness. Oh, my goodness, this is not wishful thinking – this is a FACT !
I wish I could be like Ahimaaz (2 Sam 18:27) and out run you, but I’m afraid
you have too much lead on me. But the nearer I get to that City the more I want
to be on a dead run.
God knows I love you all dearly;
In our
wonderful Lord Jesus, Who made this all a reality, bill
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