Dear Phyllis,
Today I had one of the
privileges of my life. I am down in Kyushu tonight visiting
some friends and spoke in a small church this morning. I am serious when I say
it was one of the great honors of my life. I have been in Japan Inverted Kingdom
The church where I was this morning
is a typical missionary/ Japanese setting. The brother in charge there is Karl
Hoessel. My friend Scott Nobel had been here seven years ago and found this
church by Internet. When I was here two years ago, Scott introduced me to Karl.
I had a very good time then. Today was
my second visit. By earthly standards, this place is not that impressive. Karl and
his wife, Junk, have been here 24 years. They have given it their best shot,
but that is a long ways from what any missionary/pastor would hope to see in
that period of time. There were probably about 25 in attendance this morning.
For a pastor in the states to be banging away for the Gospel that long and still
be hovering around the 25 mark would be very discouraging. That is just about
an average of one soul a year. But that is also the national average for missionaries
winning souls in Japan
I found Karl to be an unusually
refreshing brother. He is Lutheran, which is quite different for me. But in Christ
we couldn’t be more one heart. I was amazed to see his library loaded with the classics
that I haven’t seen in many years. There are extremely few missionaries or
pastors who have ever heard of these books today. I saw on his shelf my favorite,
The Holiest of All, by Andrew Murray. Before I left he pulled another rare
classic off his shelf and gave it to me as a present – The Letters of Samuel
Rutherford. That was a book I had found in a used book store in Tacoma
It is a tremendous grief to
me that a new generation has come along who are nearly totally illiterate of the
great classics. I find it a frustration that there are extremely few brothers I
can fellowship with who know anything about that enormous wealth the Lord has given
to His church in Christian literature written several hundred years ago. These
books are almost impossible to find on shelves in Christian book stores today.
There was a generation – several
generations – who lived in a much different world than we have today. They had
none of the distraction that dominates us today. They didn’t have Internet.
They didn’t have TV. They didn’t have CNN, or any of the other propaganda organs
polluting our minds with unbelievable nonsense news (?). They didn’t even have magazines
or newspapers. All they had was the Bible. These men saturated themselves in
the Word of God. They spent their lives walking before the Lord. As a result,
the Lord was able to share things with them that are so far out of character in
today’s Christianity, that it sounds strange to many. But these men knew God. Karl
is a rare brother who lives in the environment of men like that of the past.
But his flock is small.
By any standard of
desirability, to be invited to speak in a church of that size would not be very
high on the list. Of course the pinnacle of success would be the rare
opportunity to be on the platform of one of the mega 10,000 member churches in America
But in the Inverted Kingdom
Spiritual truths are so familiar
and trite to us that they are almost totally meaningless. I remember the day
when John Lennon came to our Union Church in Karuizawa. That was such an event that
people were still buzzing about it years later. If that was something major,
what would we think if Jesus Christ showed up for a service? Where would we be?
I suspect the most comfortable place would be flat on our faces in awe and worship
before the Lord. Is it remotely possible that Jesus might actually attend one
of our meetings today? If that was true how should we conduct ourselves? We all
know what Jesus said about, if any two or three are gathered in His Name, that
He promised to be in attendance. But that
doesn’t do a thing for us.
The Lord has been extremely
good to me in bringing me to a time of life where spiritual reality has become
so real that it is almost impossible to talk about. That happened this morning.
I found it almost impossible to share with the people the inexpressible things
that burn in my heart. I don’t know if anyone else got anything from the
service, but to me, the awesomeness of what that tiny assembly meant to Jesus –
as compared to some monstrous mega church in the states – reduced me to near
speechlessness. I felt like one of the shepherds in the barn looking at that
awesome Child. Oh my goodness, places like that are like an oasis in a desert,
or diamonds in a coal mine. In a nation where probably less that one in over
200 are remotely saved, to be in such an unusual gathering was a huge
privilege. If I had the opportunity of speaking on TV to an audience of
50,000,000, or to speak to these 25 simple folks there this morning – with the awesome awareness that Jesus was also
there – there is no question which would be the greater honor.
The Lord honored me with
another unexpected blessing. A man came up to me after the service and said, “I
still have the 20 baht you gave me.” I had completely forgotten about it, but
when I was at that church two years ago, I was talking to an unsaved man. To
show him the way of salvation, I asked him if he would accept 20 baht from me.
He did. I asked him today, “Do you have your visa to heaven?” He replied, “Yes,
when you gave me that 20 baht, I knew how to accept Jesus, and He has saved me.”
Just for the privilege of leading one soul to Christ would make a lifetime on earth
well worth while.
This has indeed been a
different trip to Japan Nagano Tokyo
I was walking back from the
eki (train station) to Hirotas the other day and wanted to go by where our old
house, The Joy Corral, was. All that has
been torn down and a large apartment building now stands on that sacred spot.
Then I thought I would look at the new church where we use to go 25 years ago. I
had had an unfortunate falling out with the pastor and things have been
strained between us ever since. I was shocked when I saw the extensive new
building they had put up. I had no intention of going inside, much less any desire
to talk to Nakaya sensei. A new assistant pastor saw some hen na gaijin (odd foreigner)
with a cowboy hat on standing outside, and came out to speak to me. He had no idea
who I was, but invited me in to look at the sanctuary. Much to my dismay,
Nakaya sensei showed up, and invited me for some tea. That was of God. For the
next hour or so the Lord tore down the wall that had been standing between us. I
shared with him some of the amazing things the Lord has done for me in the past
13 years in SEA. He was deeply impressed. Much of what I told him were things
he had never heard. It was with deep gratitude and mutual respect that we
parted. That was one place I purposed I would never go, but the Lord wonderfully
forced my feet.
Lord willing, I will be back
in Thailand
Hope to see you soon.
bill
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