13 November 2011
Dear Phyllis,
Last week we celebrated our 3rd month-anniversary. Needless to say life is certainly different. Loneliness is not an issue. With the exception of when Pammy may be out shopping or visiting, we are together 24-7. Basically speaking it has been an enjoyable experience, but the biggest factor has been the spiritual. Fruitfulness in soul winning has taken a dramatic surge forward. It might be said, because we are a team, but reality is, this huge surge is due to Pammy's gift in evangelism. It is safe to say she wouldn't be as fruitful by herself. But for my part, we have seen more souls come to Christ in the past three month than all the souls I saw saved in the previous 25 years. I told you of the barbecue we had three weeks ago where seven accepted Christ. That is more than the average church will see saved in a year. Last Friday night we had another unusual time.
In my belated letter last week I told you about baptizing the lady with cancer, and Paul and Marisa taking in the 11 year old molested girl. Pammy had promised them that we would be back Friday night for a Bible study. Paul and Marisa invited us over for supper before going together to Bua home for the Bible study. When we got to Paul's house for supper we were greeted by the news that everything had gone to worst-case scenario. I fully expected Bua to be healed, but she was in the hospital in very bad shape. And the little girl, Bea, had gone bonkers. Paul and Marisa were at their wits end. Bea had gone totally sullen demanding that she wanted to go home. She was sitting on the couch and wouldn't speak to anyone.
This looked to me like a direct assault by the enemy. I asked if I could lay my hands on her and pray for her. No problem. I did, and alter that everyone gathered around to pray for her. We saw a marked improvement and she was fairly cheerful when we left for the Bible study. Bua's house is down a very narrow country road. Another car was coming the other direction Paul got over as far as he could and the two cars inched their way forward. It looked like we had successfully passed when there was a sickening grinding sound. Their rear ends scraped.
After an endless talk with the other driver, the three girls, Pammy and I walked the remaining 500 meters to Bua's house. Her husband and two children were there waiting for us. Then another lady showed up. I was completely stumped as to what to do, but Pammy took over singing lively Christian songs with hand signal. That was a big hit. Everyone was laughing and having a good time. Then Pammy turned to me and said, “Alright, now have your Bible study”. I hadn't a clue what to say, but I felt that Marisa's daughter, Benjuwan, was the key. I began milking her for a testimony asking about the contrast from where she was a year ago and where she is now, That was like leaving hell for paradise. Talking about what the Lord had done for her affected her deeply. Seldom have I seen such an emotional tearful testimony.
Then I targeted Bua's 13 year old daughter, Duan, and asked if she had ever accepted Jesus into her heart. No. “Would you like to?” Yes. I wasn't quite sure how to handle it when suddenly her father broke in and said he wanted to be saved. Everyone broke out applauding and the father crawled to he middle of our circle sittings on the floor. Pammy turned to me, but I said, “Look, you are better at this than I am. You deal with him.” Pammy had him raise both arms in the air and pray a very lengthy prayer of accepting Christ. When he finished I asked , “Did you mean that from your heart?” “Yes.” And I shook the new brothers hand. Then Duan was next. After that her younger brother prayed to accept Jesus, And last of all, Bea sat in the middle of the circle to ask Jesus to be her savior. She looked marvelous. It was hard to believe that that was the same girl who was so sullen three hours before then.
Paul and Marisa had been at the scene of the accident for over two hours and showed up just as we got through praying. Marisa asked Bea, “Do you want to go home with us now?” “No.” That kicked off a firestorm of everyone lecturing to Bea. I thought, “Man, I would hate to be on the receiving end of that.” And the result was predictable. By 10:00 o'clock the devil was in complete control again.
What has happened since then is another long story. To abbreviate it, all I can say is that I have no idea what is going to happen. There have been some very encouraging things and an equal amount of reverse things. From my vantage point here it looks like a real mess. Barring a most unusual miracle, it looks like Bua, the cancer lady, is probably a very short time out of eternity. If she is truly saved, she will be happy to be in heaven, but that leaves two needy children, and a widowed husband behind.
This morning Pastor Kichikun asked me to preach. I have been thinking and praying all week about what to say. Last night I was a complete blank when I went to bed. But the Lord woke me up at 4:30 this morning and clearly gave me His message. Kichikun told me that there was going to be a baptism after the service at a lake. I thought I really should preach on baptism, but didn't have a message for that. Then the Lord gave me the message “In Christ”.
I started out my message this morning by telling a sweet testimony I had heard in Karuizawa many years ago. A Swiss missionary told how she had been saved as a little girl. She was about 5 or 6 years old and wanted to ask Jesus to come into her heart, but she didn't know how to do it. One day her mother bought her a helium balloon. When she got that, she had a great idea. She wrote a little note to Jesus explaining how she wanted Him to make her His child and be her savior. She tied the note on the string of the balloon, went outside, and, with no one looking, sent the balloon up to Jesus in heaven. She said when her mother tucked her in bed that night, her heart was just pounding. The mother turned the lights off, closed the door, and went down stairs. The little girl waited until all was quiet and she was sure she was alone. Then she jumped out of bed, got down on her knees, and asked,“Lord Jesus, did You get my note?” The dear sister said, Jesus, replied, “Yes, My child I did”, and she became His child that night.
That testimony had little to do with my message, but right now we are having Loykatong festival in Thailand. They are sending up thousands of small hot air balloon in the sky, and sending thousands of tiny boats loaded with their sins down the rivers. They put their sins on the hot air balloons and little boats, but all the balloons come down in fields and streets, and all the boats clutter the rivers down stream.
Fortunately, God had a more effective way of dealing with sin. I told the people this morning that everything went katty-whampus in the Garden. God warned Adam that in the day he touched the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil he wold die. And that was exactly what happened. Something horribly wrong happened to Adam and that sinful nature has been passed on to every decedent of Adam that has appeared on this planet since then. But God had a strange way of terminating Adams race. In 1 Cor. 15:45 Jesus is called “the last Adam”. In Adam all die (1 Cor. 15:22) . God had to terminate that race of dead people. He did that through the death of Christ.
Paul said very clearly that the Gospel was the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (1 Cor. 15:1-4). I told the folks that in a couple of hours we were having a baptism; and a baptism is a burial and resurrection. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again. This is what baptism is. It is a burial and a resurrection serviced.
The way God makes this personal to us is by placing us in Christ. IN CHRIST is probably the most significant two words in the Bible. Everything is IN Christ. We went through Eph. 1 where the key word is IN. That word appears 12 times. But what does IN CHRIST mean? Basically it means identification. I had Pammy come forward. First I had her stand at the opposite wall, and said, “Four months she stood all by herself”Then I had her come to me, and we put our arms around each other. I said, “Now she is joined to me. She is identified with me. Whatever happened to me is her lot also. If I get rich she gets rich with me. If I am poor she is poor with me. We are inseparably identified with each other.”
Then I told about American football. Only one man carries the ball, but all participate in what happens. When I was in high school, I was the manager of the football team. As the manager I was a member of the team. The football team members got to wear special lettered sweaters. I had a sweater. My senior year we had an undefeated season going. The last game of the year was with Waverly high. They also were undefeated. It was a tight game. Late in the 4th quarter our star, Dick Jackson, got the ball and took off on an end run. Everybody on the field was chasing him. The stands went crazy. Jackson took it in for the winning goal. He was the only one carrying the ball, but we all were identified with him in winning the game. This is identification. It is because we are in Christ we are identified with Him and His experience is our experience
But how did we get in Christ? 1 Cor 1:30 gives the answer to that question. It tells us “Of Him (God) are ye in Christ Jesus”.It was God that placed us in Christ. That was something that was impossible for us, but God placed us in Christ.
But that is only half the story. It is wonderful that God has placed us in Christ so that His experience becomes our experience, but there is something even more miraculous. God has made it possible for Christ to live in us. This is a miracle that I have never got over. Oh how can it be?! When I said yes to Jesus, the very Spirit of Christ came into my heart making me born-again. When that happened His nature was born in me. That was a terrible shock to my friends. Suddenly I quit drinking; I quit running around with girls; my filthy mouth was cleaned up. I had a craving for Bible study, Christian fellowship, and church.
This is what happened to the little Swiss girl when she asked Jesus to come into her heart. He did. When I heard her give that testimony Jesus had been there for 50 years.
We had a most unusual good service this morning. I thought the song service was the best I had been in in Thailand. Seldom have I experienced such enabling of the Holy Spirit. The Word just seemed to come alive. As I looked at the listener's faces, I could tell by their eyes and their nodding heads that they knew exactly what I was talking about. What a miracle that is; that the Holy Spirit has explained these deep spiritual truths to these Thais.
And in the afternoon we had a burial and resurrection service in a lake near here for two fine Thai boys.
Oh it is wonderful! The Lord is working. He is using Pammy like I have seldom seen, and I get the privilege to be part of the team in sharing Jesus with these marvelous folks here in Thailand. Praise God!
bill
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