The Gospel of John and Jeanna

21 December 2008

Dear Phyllis,

Man howdy, did we have church last Thursday! That is the Bible study we have at Scott’s house. Our two regular Thai brothers had other things to do. Only Mannford came. I really wondered at the wisdom in having a Bible study, and Mannford was dragging anchor badly. He had a bad headache, and requested that we not go on too long. With his bad headache, he wanted to get home as soon as possible, and I thought that was a good idea. But we asked Jesus to meet with us and heal Mannford’s headache.

Seldom has the Word been more powerful. We covered the entire 8^th chapter of John in a way like I have never read it. I had no intention of going the full two hours of Bible study, but when we finished at 9:00 PM, we all were marvelously refreshed, and Mannford said, “My headache is nearly totally gone.”

John is absolutely unique as a book in the Bible. The synoptic gospels (Matt., Mark, Luke) tell the story of Jesus, but John gives us a unique look into the heart of Jesus, and His relationship with the Father. There is no other place in the Bible that gives us such an intimate view of that relationship. As we read those passages I asked, “What verbs are used to describe Jesus’ relationship with His father?” It was refreshing as the others accurately pulled them out. “The things that I have HEARD (vrs, 26, 40), The things that I Seen (vr. 38), My Father hath TAUGHT Me (vr. 29), the Father SENT  Me (vrs. 16, 18, 26, 29, 42), I always DO those things which pleas Him (vr. 29).

I asked, “Do these verbs and this relationship that Jesus had with the Father have any bearing on us today?” With deep conviction, Mannford replied, “They most certainly do; especially in this evil generation.” I asked, “In order to hear, what is the requirement to hear?” Mannford properly replied, “We must listen.” In order to be taught what must we have? A teachable spirit. The Word was as instructive to us as it ever gets.

The chapter started out with a loaded no-win situation that the enemies of Jesus confronted Him with – the woman taken in adultery. They trapped Him by saying, “Moses told us to kill her. What do You say?” Either way Christ loses. Instead of an either-or answer, He replied, “He that is without sin let him cast the first stone.”, and quietly wrote on the ground. I asked, “What do you think Jesus wrote on the ground?” Of course the Bible doesn’t tell us. We are left to own speculation, but there are many possibilities. One possibility is I, II, III, IV of the Ten commandments. Another one is the names of the girl friends of the ones who brought the woman to Jesus. Another one is the name of the man she was having sex with. This had to be a set up. Obvious this whole thing was a trap and one of their own men was the other partner.

But once the crowd was whittled down to zero with everyone going home under deep conviction of their own personal sin, then Jesus went after them. Verse 12 starts out, “Then spake Jesus again unto them…”  The confrontive language that Jesus used in this chapter is shocking. In today’s politically-proper speech environment that language is unthinkable. “You are from beneath, I am from above” (vr.23), “You shall die in your sins” (vr. 24), “You are of your father the devil” (vrs, 41, 44), “The lusts of your father you will do” (vr. 44). “If God were your father you would love me” (vr. 42). “You say God is your father but you have not known Him” (vrs, 54, 55). “If I said it, I would be a liar like you” (vr. 55). Oh my goodness that is refreshing to read! That kind of speech is strictly forbidden in Japan. We must be careful to say “we” and “our” – certainly not “YOU”. It makes me sick to my stomach to hear the gutless “men of God” (?) today who are so careful abut speech so as not to offend anyone. The TV screen would have gone blank if Billy Graham had ever used language like that. That kind of speech would have been censored out as four letter words. Norman Vincent Peal would have been appalled at the suggestion of ever using that kind of speech in public. Small wonder that today’s evangelism lacks the power of conviction of sin that characterized Finney’s preaching.

Tonikaku (anyway) we had a terrific time last Thursday going over John 8.

The reason I am sending this letter out today is because our trip to Laos got slid back 24 hours. In a few hours I will be on a bus headed for Laos. There is another brother here who is in bad shape for a visa. We are going to give it a go at the Thai embassy in Vientiane.  If we can get one year visas in Laos, that will solve a huge problem for me for one year. If I can’t get a visa, then I will be up against a wall to know what to do. I could try Malaysia or Jakarta, Indonesia, but each time I go somewhere my finances get lower. I would love to go to Japan, but, as I have told you before, I lost my home there two years ago.

My heart is with Jeanna Crane. Scott and I went to the prison last Wednesday but we were told that they had some deal going on, and things were closed for us that day. And we won’t be able to get in again until sometime in January.

The reason I am concerned for her is because she has been totally convinced for several months that the Lord had promised her that she would be released sometime before winter. Officially winter starts today. That means that all of Jeanna’s guidance was a false hope. I have been quietly warning her about that for sometime, and yet at the same time I didn’t want to be a prophet of unbelief if the Lord had actually spoken to her about a miraculous release.

I am sure there has not been one child of God since the days of John the Baptist to the present that hasn’t had some disappointing experience where they were sure the Lord had promised them some thing only to have “their faith” shattered. These head-snappers are hard to deal with. I have had so many that I have come to expect disappointment to be the norm rather than the exception. The problem is that Jeanna is a new believer. She has had very little experience in trusting God for miracles. She has read an enormous number of excellent Christian books. Unfortunately all these books only emphasize the good stories. They tell of all the times when God has promised to His servants impossibilities and then fulfilled them. They don’t tell about the time when sincere servants have fully believed God for something, only to see it go south in the most crushing way.

The last time I spoke with Jeanna I shared with her the 10^th Beatitude. There are 9 Beatitudes in Matt. 5, but the 10^th is in Lk. 7:23 – Blessed is he, whosever shall not be offended in Me. It is amazing that the person this was addressed to was John the Baptist. When Jesus showed up on the scene, John had every reason to believe that, now that the Messiah is here, things will be different. He had the prophecy about the ax being laid to the root of the bad tree, the fan being in His hand, and the chaff being burned up (Mt. 3:9-12). He naturally was certain that the guys in the black hats would be in bad shape now, and the good guys were about to come out on top. When he was arrested, I suspect he had a grin on his face and thought. “This will be interesting. Wait until Jesus hears about this. Herod is gong to be in trouble – BIG TIME”. But weeks and months went by. Nothing worked out the way that John expected it to happen. At last he sent some disciples to Jesus to ask, “Are you the One we have been waiting for or should we look for another?” (Lk. 7:19). Jesus told the messengers to tell John what they had just seen and heard; then he added, “One more thing. Tell John, blessed is the man who is not offended in Me.” How many times has that scene been repeated since then?

We have our expectations. We have our faith. We firmly believe that the Lord will do just as we believe He has promised us. We have all of our verses and proof promises. We have all the evidences of our guidance leading us to believe God for miracles. And it doesn’t work out that way.

I wish I could be there to be a safety next for Jeanna, but it will be several weeks blank before we can get in again to see her. The Lord alone will have to be with her and strengthen her in her disappointment, that her faith was ill-founded. These are difficult things to deal with.

But Rom. 8:28 is still a fact, and they Lord has chosen something more important for Jeanna through this experience than an early release. She will get out in time. Officially she still has another year to serve – which is miraculously short for murder. She killed her husband. Somehow the Lord must make this failure in faith a strengthening experience for her.

My problem is trust the Lord for a Thai visa.

Hopefully, I will see you next week at this our seat of fellowship,  bill