Cy Winskell, in Oji

30 January 2011

Dear Phyllis,

This certainly has been (is) a most unusual trip. Last Thursday I said to Miyuki, “I can almost go back to Thailand now. I have accomplished the purposes of my visit.” But, of course, I had just got started. The basic reason for this trip to Japan in January was to renew my Japanese driver’s license. If that expired, that would be a serious loss. The second purpose was to change my legal residence from Saitama-ken back to Nara. And the third was to get things sorted out with my bank account in Japan. All those things required my actual presence here. The rest is social.

I had four major stops planned. First I needed to cover base with friends in the Kansai (Osaka) area. The next was to go up to Karuizawa to see friends up there. The third was to get back to the Tokyo area to visit friends. And the last stop is a quick run down to Kumamoto, in Kyushu, to see one friend, and speak in a church there. Then back to Thailand on the 17^th of February.

Last Saturday was a blank day, and I decided to call an old friend, Cy Winskell, in Oji, 45 minutes away from Ikoma where I was staying. The fellowship with Cy was probably the best time we had ever had. But two days ago I received a surprising e-mail from him.

Cy had been through some extremely deep water with his mother-in-law and a truly unimaginable, traumatic, experience. She stayed with Cy and Eiko for a period of time. Her presence brought total pandemonium to their home. Cy was fortunate that everyone maintained their sanity, The mother-in-law is now staying elsewhere, but there had been little movement with the enormous issues of repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation. These unresolved problems are like having giant size craters in the road of life making it virtually impossible to proceed further in their walk with the Lord.

In our fellowship, I shared with Cy the major meeting I had had with Jesus less than two weeks previous. I consider this one of the most dynamic encounters I have had with Christ since being saved. I tried to share this with you a couple of weeks ago in narrating my experience in speaking in a Thai church that Sunday. Since our time of fellowship, Cy has had his own pivotal encounter with Jesus, and wrote me about it.

As we talked about the needs of his wife and mother-in-law, I told Cy, “What they need is revelation – not instruction”. I had gone through this many years ago with the destruction of my family, and my subsequent deliverance from paralytic bitterness. Surprisingly, it was Cy that had his personal moment of revelation that brought him to a higher spiritual plane than anything he had ever experienced. What he shared with me via e-mail is an experiential animation of a basic spiritual truth the Lord has been teaching me for the past three years.

Even now there is no way I can reduce to writing the fundamental things the Lord has been teaching me. I wish I could. Anything I attempt to share with you will be woefully defective, but I want to make a feeble attempt to reduce to a few words what has been a major revision in my understanding of our relationship with God.

Through reading Andrew Murray’s book on Hebrews, I was genuinely surprised to discover that salvation is a covenant relationship. The Jews are related to God by a covenant God made with Abraham (Gen. 15:12-21; 22:15-18). This covenant was ratified at Sinai at the time of Moses (Ex. 19:4-6). The covenant was virtually a marriage vow. God promised to be their God, and they would be His people. This was a relationship that God had with no other descendents of Adam on this planet. All other nations of the world had their gods and Israel had Jehovah to be their God. In that they were utterly unique. This stood for 2000 years until Christ came, and the unimaginable happened, when the door of the blessing of Abraham was opened to the Gentiles. The Gospel suddenly became a universal invitation to “whosoever-will-may-come”. This is known as the New Testament (covenant). Paul’s letter to the Galatians clearly establishes our entitlement to being in the Abraham covenant (Gal. 3:7,14,16,29). That means basically, we are God’s people.

A covenant is a document delineating the terms of an agreement between two parties. Any document clearly specifies the various terms of responsibilities and advantages each partner has. In a marriage, the vow is, “You be my wife, and I will be your husband” With that both partners vow to have a unique relationship with the other, which is exclusive of anyone outside. That is – “You be faithful to me, and I will be faithful to you. I will love you, take care of you, and not sleep around with anyone else.” If either one breaks that vow, the deal is off. The covenant at Sinai had two sides – the blessing of God if they obeyed, and the curse of God if they were unfaithful (Deut. 27 & 28). Israel was delighted to sign on the dotted line (Ex. 19:8). Tragically, the results were catastrophic. At the time of the Babylonian captivity Jeremiah lamented, “Lord, You have done just what You said You would do” (Lam. 2:17). And for 2000 years Israel has experienced unique abandonment.

Andrew Murray brings out that the Old Testament (Covenant) and the New Testament (Covenant) are basically the same. Both are conditional. Both are based on, “I will do this IF you will do that”. But there is one fundamental difference. Murray brings out that the flaw of the OT was there was no provision to enable Israel to fulfill their side of the bargain; and in the NT that need is met. The difference is; “Jesus is the mediator of the NT” (Heb. 8:6). That is Jesus is the co-signator (the responsible person) of that agreement. He is the One who has to come up with the goods. I heard a brother preach on this text a year ago where he said, “Jesus is the one who has co-signed for us, so we better live a good life so the burden won’t fall on Him.” The bother got that exactly backwards. It is not our life, but His life. He is the One who lives the Christian life – not us! He is the One who fulfills the terms of the agreement – not our trying. It is Christ in us! This is the provision in the NT that God as made to fulfill the terms of the agreement. This may sound a little off the wall, but I believe anyone would agree that it is Christ’s life – not mine – that works.

The thing that was the key to Cy blessing was what I shared with him about Lord’s revelation to me of Luke 12:37. Jesus wants to serve us. The essence of Cy’s encounter with Jesus was that the Lord told him that he was carrying a burden he was unable to bear. And Jesus said, “I will carry that burden for you.” With that, tons fell of Cy’s shoulder, and he soared like an eagle in praise and worship to the One who freed him. This is just one feature of the NT. By revelation the Lord revealed this to Cy which brought him into freedom like he never dreamed was possible. He said he can scarcely stop the tears from flowing.

I was a little bewildered by Cy’s e-mail. I certainly can rejoice with him in his new deliverance, but it is a bit of a stretch to imagine how my little testimony had much to do with it. What the Lord said to me, and what He said to Cy are quite different. But one point is the same; it is Jesus who fulfills our end of the bargain with God. He is the fulfiller, and – in Cy’s case – He is the burden bearer.

One of the most consistent spiritual truths the Lord continues to impress upon me is the basic thesis of the little book I have written on The Inverted Kingdom. Cy has encouraged me to try to make that a little more available. When I first wrote it, I thought I would write a short 30 chapter devotional book taking one spiritual principle at a time. Today I am up to 47 and still have more to go. The book is poorly done and needs a total revision, but the truths I have tried to expound are clearly there. This may be something the Lord wants me to work on soon.

This trip is a poignant example of how the ways of God are backwards. As I have just hit a little of over the 1/3 mark of my time in Japan, it looks like a washout. After fulfilling the basic technical reason for the trip, I took off last Thursday for the first leg of my major tour. I drove to Otsu, about two hours from Ikoma, to see my dear friend Sam Benedict. From there I was going up to Karuizawa, and then on to Tokyo. Friday morning I called my friends, the Ganahas, in Karuizawa to tell them I was coming, and confirm that I could stay there. Sister Ganaha told me she had just gotten out of the hospital, and they were not in a position to have a house guest.

Tragically, they are the only family I have in that area to stay with. That means everything in the Karuizawa area is cancelled. In like manner, I have been requested not to visit New Life League, which means I have no place to stay in the Tokyo area. With no place to stay, either in Karuizawa or the Tokyo area, half of my purpose for this trip is wiped out. Instead of having a tight schedule for four weeks I now have a blank two weeks on my hands with virtually no place to go or anything to do. I am back staying with my family the Hirotas at the moment, and can stay here indefinitely, but it is a real set back not to be able to see the many friends I have in my old stomping grounds in Japan.

What has happened so far has been excellent. I greatly enjoyed my time with Sam, as I have with everyone I have seen so far. But what the Lord has in mind for the next two weeks is a mystery at this point.

Tonikaku, the Lord has assured me that He is still with me (that is unbelievable) and He is the One who sets the schedule and lives His life in me.

Praise God!

                             bill