19 Nov, 2000
Dear Ted & Phyllis,
Here we are again. Last week was a genuine surprise to me.
Frankly I dreaded sitting down to try to compose a letter, as I had absolutely
nothing to say. My heart was cold and filled with nonsense. But midway through
that letter the Lord suddenly presenced Himself and I wound up the happiest I
had been all week. Thank you for the privilege you afford me of writing to you
on my favorite subject – Jesus and heaven.
Have you ever noticed the pronoun transition in Song of Sol.
1:2? This is – of course – the book where we see the relationship of our Lord
Jesus with His Church depicted like we find it no other place. It starts of
very objectively with the simple declaration “The song of songs which was
Solomon’s”. Solomon here, is very clearly a type of Christ as the son of David,
heir to all the promises of God to David, and king of Israel.
We see in 1 Ki. 4:32 that Solomon
wrote 1005 songs but this one is in a category by itself. In it we find the
whole spectrum of the Christian walk. Verse 2 starts out with a desire for the
Lord; “Let Him…”, but then right in the middle of the verse, at a comma, the
pronouns change from “Him” to “You” (Thy); and then it stays with the personal
pronoun on through the end of verse 4. This teaches us a very basic spiritual
principle – talking about the Lord brings us into a sense of the presence of
the Lord. I remember praying with Joe Carroll one night when he quoted Malachi 3:16 in prayer; “Then they that feared the
Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened and heard it, and a
book of remembrance was written before Him for them.” That tells us a little of
the unique nature of fellowship in Christ. That was one of the first signs of
life I was aware of when I first got saved. I couldn’t explain it but suddenly
there was nothing that I enjoyed more than Christian fellowship. A month
previous I would have been looking at my watch and edging towards the door. But
now mysteriously, all week I began to look forward to Friday night when I could
go out to the farm and talk with my spiritual family. Somehow as we talked
about the Lord there was a sense of the presence of the Lord and our hearts
burned within us. Malachi tells us that this is one Christian activity that
catches the attention of heaven. Jesus told us that He Himself would grace such
an event whenever two or three of His people would get together, but even the
Father stops what He is doing to eavesdrop in on that fellowship. And He thinks
it is so important that He summons a heavenly scribe to write it down and put
it on file in heaven. When we get to heaven the shelves will be lined with
books filled with years of our fellowship in Christ so we can live them all
over again. It will be just like going through an old picture album, only
better. I can almost quote some passages now that happened 41 years ago. There
was a fine TEAM family that we invited to
come out to speak at the Church of The
Open Door at Yokota. It was a rainy Sunday but we
spent most of the afternoon at the O’Quinn’s house, then Russ and Mary Alice
and a young Lieutenant, Bill Cook, took them up to the Officers Club for
supper. We had filet minion for supper and then went over to the church for the
evening meeting. Russ gave a flattering introduction of the ministry of this
outstanding missionary family and concluded his remarks by saying, “Now I would
like to introduce to you our speaker tonight whose name I just forgot.” That
brought the house down. I’m sorry, Ted, I can’t remember your message but I
know it was a good one. I will have to refresh my memory by looking at the text
that the Lord has recorded in heaven.
The O’Quinns and everyone else went back to the states but
the Lord was gracious to me and allowed me to enjoy years of fellowship with
that family each summer in Karuizawa. The Lord only knows how many times
someone came up to me with a huge scroll of a banner that Phyllis Brannen had
made for JEMA or the Deeper Life Conference, and asked me if I had a ladder or
could help them put the banner up. Each year we would put up a new banner and
looked at it during the conferences. Then it would stay up until the next year
when someone would show up with a new one. Then there was one that we hung up
in Kai Hall that said “Of Him, Through Him, and To Him”. That was in 1970.
There was the time
when I wrestled in vain trying to develop an attractive letterhead stationary
for the Karuizawa Language
School. Finally it dawned on me
that this was a job for a professional. I spoke to my good friend Phyllis
Brannen and asked if she could draw up something for us. She was a very busy
gal and naka naka didn’t get to it. I called down to Nagoya to see when she
might get it done and she apologetically suggested that perhaps it would be
best if I came down there where we could sodan together. I jumped in my truck
and went down to Nagoya to see the
Brannens. We talked about it a little in the afternoon and then after supper we
went in Phyllis’ studio and she began to draw. Two hours later I rolled up a
treasure of the finest letterhead art work I had ever seen and sent it down to
NLL to have the stationary printed up. It was so attractive I used the same
picture of Asama and a white birch tree for my personal meishi. I have never
seen a finer meishi.
It was a sad moment when the Brannens finally called it a
day in Japan
and that was the last I heard of them for years. Then Dough Hopper told me of a
retired Japan
missionary couple that was going to his church. It was a couple weeks before I
got Dough to introduce me to this couple but he finally grabbed me one night
and dragged me up forward though the crowd after church. This couple was
sitting on the left-hand side of the isle about a 1/3 of the way back from the
front. Dough tapped the brother on the shoulder and as he turned around he
asked if we knew each other. Oh, the floodgate burst again. That was the
beginning of some of the happiest moments Rosemary and I ever enjoyed. Every
Sunday night at Arbys it was just like heaven all over again. How we hated to
go home and we usually made the poor girl or fellow a little late closing up.
Then on the way home Rosemary and I would bask in what we had enjoyed and
always say, “That was just like being back in Karuizawa at the JEMA
Conference.” Small wonder the Lord stopped what He was doing to eavesdrop on
our fellowship. Small wonder He thought it was so important He commanded the
angels to write it up in a book for us. That is one book I want to read again.
Now I have a new type of fellowship. Each week I look
forward to when I can sit down with my laptop and write to my dear friends in
the states. Ted, I must apologize to you that the Lord had to make you
horizontal to make this possible. If you were still running around as before I
could never have the opportunity of this unusual fellowship. But as the Lord
has moved you into a higher station this opens up a new vista of fellowship for
us. Reminiscing like this used to make me sad, but this fills me with joy. Joy
for two reasons. The first is that what we have enjoyed up to now is all
eternal and will not fade away in some forgotten archive. It is said of the
wicked that their remembrance dies with them. Try as I might to recall and
relive some of the events before I was saved the flavor is different. There was
something living about our fellowship in years past and that still seems to be
alive today; and it will be even more alive when we can sit down and go over
the books together. But the greatest joy is the knowledge that our fellowship
is not terminal. It has been great up to now and is guaranteed to just keep
getting better. Each phase has been different. That fellowship at the O Club at
Yokota was great but that was nothing compared to what we enjoyed at Arbys. Oh,
my goodness, the tales we went over at Arbys! Had someone shown me an advanced
video when we walked in the O Club at Yokota of the events we would be talking
about in Arbys I wouldn’t have believed it. There is no way we could have
envisioned the goodness of God that would be poured out on us in the next 37
years. And that is even more true today. We are standing on the threshold of
the greatest moments we have yet to enjoy. Undoubtedly the next time we sit
down together won’t be the O Club at Yokota or Arbys in Tacoma,
but AT THE TABLE WITH THE LORD! Can you imagine that! Of course that is
impossible, but we know for sure that it will be a lot better than what we can
imagine. If Solomon took the breath away from the Queen of Sheba
and she said, “The report that I heard was true but the half hath not been told
me.” I believe we haven’t heard the hundredth part of the good things that the
Lord has stored up for us – and it is just a mile or two in front. We are
standing on the very threshold of the Kingdom. It will be fun to reminisce but
I believe it will be even more fun to soak up the indescribable joy of the
eternal present when we get seated at the Table. I hope I can get a seat near
you but even if I can’t I will rejoice with you in the fellowship you will have
with those around you up front. If you hear some idiot hollering in the back of
the room waving a cowboy hat you might quietly say to the person seated next to
you, “Well, yes. We used to know him. He was sort of a strange fellow from Japan.”
But even so, you know I love you all deeply.
Isn’t Jesus wonderful?
Bill
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