Jesus, Our Flag Bearer

24 October 2010

Dear Phyllis,

 In the Holy Spirit’s description of Christ in Song of Sol. 5:10, Jesus is described as being the “chiefest of ten thousand”. The original word there is more accurately translated “the flag bearer”. In ancient times in battle, they would take their bravest man and set him out front as the flag bearer. As the flag advanced the entire army would follow behind. The position of the flag would designate soil won. In recent years this principle was immortalized by the Marine photograph of the six US Marines raising the American flag on Mt. Suribachi on Iwo Jima. The Battle of Iwo Jima was one of the fieriest of the II WW and was the first time the US had actually captured Japanese soil. That famous photo sent a thrill across America and stands today as the symbol of the Marine fighting spirit.

Thank God, Jesus is our Flag Bearer. He carried the flag for the Father and won the Battle for Humanity when He triumphed over the devil at Calvary. When He cried “It is finished”, He was right. The battle was won. It is our great privilege to follow after Him in His conquest to claim soil for the Father today. There is no place on this earth that is excluded from His victory. He has assured us, “ALL POWER IS GIVEN UNTO ME IN HEAVEN AND IN EARTH” (Mt. 28:18). It was because of that that He could confidently commission us to “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations baptizing them…” (vr. 19). It is an enormous privilege to be a flag bearer for Jesus and carry His flag to areas where the devil is still struggling.

Some people mistakenly credit me as having a pioneer adventuresome spirit. Unfortunately, this certainly isn’t true. But it has been my great privilege to know a number of flag bearers and, on occasion, to figuratively ride in the car with them as they charged forward.

Ron Blough was one of them. In the early years of my life following Jesus, Ron had more influence on me than any other person. I had read the books of men of faith – Hudson Taylor, George Mueller, etc. but Ron was the first person I met who lived and proved that life of faith. I saw in Ron what I had read about in the books. It was his example that gave me the convictions that molded my life ever since.

When the Lord made Ron He threw away the mold. There has only been one Ron Blough. The one word that would describe Ron the best was crazy. He was just plain nuts. He would do some of the wildest things, and amazingly often, the Lord would back him. He was a man of enormous drive and unflinching conviction. He would never compromise his convictions.

He was a man of incredible financial integrity. He had an iron-clad policy of never talking about his financial needs. He let his request be known to God – and to NO other. Consequently the Lord blessed him like He blesses few men. He always said, “The day comes the Lord does not pay the rent, I will not live in the building”. That day came. We had a fabulous Christian Center that was a converted night club. Ron had a fine house right behind it. After two or three years the day came when the rent was due and Ron was $5 short. The landlord loved us and would gladly come down on price if we asked him. But that wasn’t the issue. The Lord knew how much Ron needed and He didn’t supply. The next day Ron closed the center and moved to a cheaper location downtown.

 Ron Blough stories are endless. Perhaps someone should write the book, but then it would sound so much like fiction that no one would believe it. One time he took his family up to Nikko for a summer vacation. They had just started home when his car ran bone dry out of gas. He had an old 1952 Ford station wagon that got about two gallons to the mile. He had a small spare two gallon gas can and poured that in the tank. Then he drove 200 km home on it getting about 65 mpg (miles per gallon) out of that gas. And then he drove another 5 km the next morning to the gas station. Of course it was bone dry when he got there.

One morning in 1987 he got up and said to the Lord, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do.” (Jn. 17:4), packed up and left Japan. It had been several years since last we met and I went up to Tokyo to see them off. While waiting for the plane, I asked Ron, “Where are you going from San Francisco?” He replied, “The only thing I can tell you is that it will not be west.” He got in a car with his 8 children and drove from San Francisco to Maine; then turned around and headed back west. He got as far as Littletown, NH where he settled down and did a marvelous work in starting a church and Christian Scholl. The several years later he got in his car headed for an unknown destination again, and wound up in Alaska, where he again pioneered a work for Jesus. I heard Ron retired from the ministry a couple of years ago, but I am sure there is nothing in him that will back off his tenacious spirit of carrying the  flag for Jesus with a passion shared by few men.

Recently I got a letter from his daughter Vicky. She and her mother had made a trip to Japan to visit old friends. It had been 33 years since last Vicky was “home to Japan”. She told what a thrill it was to visit pastors who where high school boys the last they had met, and have joyful Christians come up and say, “I am your father’s grandchild. Your dad led the man to Christ that saw me saved.” It doesn’t get much better than that.

Another flag-carrier that has been an inspiration to me is John Cathcart. John is considerably younger than I, and has somewhat looked to me for help, but he is cut from a different piece of fabric. When John first came to Japan in 1982, he said he wanted to do kaitaku dendo (pioneer evangelism) in Tenri. Tenri City is the Salt Lake City of Japan. What Salt Lake City is to Mormonism, Tenri is to Tenri-kyo. Tenri-kyo is the third largest religion in Japan and Tenri City is the Mecca. It is the weirdest city in Japan. It is down right spooky. There was a population of 70, 000 people there and the only Christian influence was Jehovah Witness. Somehow no missionary felt led to go into Tenri and raise the flag for Jesus. John started out by renting a room over Mister Donut’s right across the street from the eki (train station). After a year he got put out of there and rented a few other places with great difficulty.

In his desperation for a place to meet, he began thinking about renting some property and building a church. John was the most child-like man I ever met. Only a child would think of doing the stupid things that John did. But they worked. He found a man who said he would rent him a rice field and he could put a building on it. In early December John went to the states to buy the material for a church, but only had money enough for a one way ticket. He vowed he would not return home until the church was paid for. The Bible school where he had gone gave him a good missionary offering and his father-in-law emptied their own church building fund to give it to John for his church. One night, during a phone call, his mother suggested, “Why don’t you call your uncle?” (her brother). John did, and he said he would fly down to Boise the next day to talk about it. They had a good time all day but nothing was said about the building. John was getting nervous. Then his uncle asked Wert Edmonds, who was coming to build the church, “How much more money do you need to pay for it?” Wert replied, “$20,000”. His uncle wrote a check and handed it to John. He was home for Christmas with the building paid in full. I later had the privilege of driving the first nail in the first Christian church in Tenri City.

From that church five other small churches have sprung up and it is still there today.

In 1992 John took his family and went to Vladivostok to do pioneer evangelism in Russia that had just opened up. What he did in Siberia for a year was legendary. That would take another book.

 It was in the summer of 1994 that I went with John and 34 others to Siberia to do dendo (evangelism) in a 400 km area from Vladivostok. It was following John’s example that challenged me to launch out into a wider area of service that eventually led to me where I am today. I am not one to break a fresh track but it has been my great privilege to ride in the car with those who do and walk in some of their foot prints.

Chronicles are full of genealogies but in 1 Chron. 11 we find the list of David’s mighty men, with testimonies of their heroic deeds. In many cases it wasn’t a matter of army against army, but it was the daring act of a few brave men who turned the tide, and then others followed. It wasn’t just what David did in taking out Goliath, but what that deed did to the rest of Israel’s army (1 Sam. 17:52). What Jonathan and his armor bearer did in taking out 20 men in half an acre was very small but the effect of that deed did something to the Philistines and all the army of Israel so there was a tremendous victory that day.

It has always been that way. God has laid His hand on a few courageous men who have not counted their life dear unto death. These are the men who have carried the flag forward and we all are indebted to them for their courageous examples. The rest of us may not be made of that tough steel but it should be easier for us to stir ourselves and at least follow behind.

Lord, put within the Spirit to be soldiers for Jesus.

                                                                               bill