Sordid Mess Part II

6 November 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I'm sorry for being so late this week but we have had a complete wipe-out of time. Sunday we left the house at 8:30 in the morning and did,'t get home home until 9:00 that night. Yesterday Paul was at our house at 7:00 in the morning to talk about a serious matter and the day was slam full from then on. We got home at 10:30 last night. It is now Tuesday morning and I am just getting around to writing you.

Last week I wrote you abut a sordid mess with an adulterous couple. This is a bit of a follow-up on that subject. We had gotten involved with this dear sister whose husband had dumped her to take up with another woman and took her three children with him. That was one thing, but the fact that the husband was a lead member of a praise team, and the woman he decided to sleep with was a self-appointed lady pastor who had a well known House of Praise. More than that they were very well known in Chiang Mai and our friend Keosari had invited them to be the main feature at the combined fellowship service a week ago. I was as fired up over that situation as anything that has pushed my button in a long time. After that horrible time at the fellowship meeting I was going to take Keosari's head off even with her shoulder. We did go to see her and had a surprising time.

Pammy had prayed that I might be a“help to her”. That was not really what I had in mind. But that remark stuck in my heart, and somewhat changed my attitude. As it turned out, I believe that is what happened. When we talked with her, I unloaded and said everything to her that was in my heart. I told her how wrong she was and the sin she committed in sponsoring this adulterous couple. Keosari disarmed me with a very good attitude.. In my anger I said, “Have you ever heard of such a thing as church discipline?” In all sincerity, she looked at me and replied, “No, I never have.” After I explained to her how to deal with adultery in the church, she thanked me and pleaded, “We must have you speak to all the pastors”. I was totally dumb-founded that it was possible to have abysmal ignorance of church discipline in any Christian fellowship. The wicked adulterous woman is very rich, and compromise with money may be another a factor in the equation. But there does seem to be a startling ignorance as to how to deal with sin in the church. Needless to say a follow-up on this is very much on the books.

Sunday I was speaking at Pastor Peter's church. This is the second time I have been there. He had asked me to speak on giving. I was a little uneasy with this subject and later found out that he had gone overboard in hammering the people in his church to jack up the financial offerings. Small wonder he was in financial difficulty. I have never spoken on the subject of giving money and wondered how to deal with it,but the Lord gave me the message at a prayer meeting Wednesday. Rather than talking about money I spoke about the flow of Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is EVERYTHING in the church. Take away the Holy Spirit out of the equation and you have no Body of Christ. The only reason the church is the Body of Christ is because Christ lives in that Body. Take the Spirit of Christ out, what have you got? Dead religion. The distinguishing feature of the Holy Spirit is the direction of the flow. In the two reference to the Holy Spirit that Jesus spoke of in John 4 and 7 is that the flow would be OUT. In speaking to the woman at th well in John 4:14, Jesus said that the water He would give would be a “well SPRINGING UP to eternal life”. And in John 7:38 Jesus said of those who believed on Him, “OUT OF their innermost being would flow rivers of living water”. (“This He spake of the Spirit”.) So very clearly the central characteristic of the Holy Spirit is that the flow is OUT.

This is the fundamental difference between those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and those who aren't. The very essence of self is that it is selfish. For those people who are filled with self, the flow of their life is IN. It is a grief that there are people who claim to be Spirit-filled that are filled with self. Everything about them is self-centered and the flow is fundamentally IN. Rather than giving out they are totally focused on what they can get. This is very poor evidence of the fullness of the Spirit of Christ. If the flow is not OUT this is proof that there is very little of Christ. In the heart where Jesus lives and reigns He must be in charge of everything. If this is not true, that is an indisputable proof that the dedication is defective. Of course, if Jesus is Lord of all He must have all. This means everything we have and everything in our life.

He must be Lord of our possessions. We must be generous. We talk about giving everything to Jesus but woe-be-tide the turkey that touches out possessions. When I first went to Japan I bought a very nice new car to take to Japan to give to some missionary. It was the only new car I ever bought in my life. I was very careful how I treated it. In those days the roads in Japan looked liked that had just been bombed by a B-52. The pot-holes were like craters and they were every 15 meters. The difference between new missionaries and old ones was the new missionaries drove around the pot-holes, and the senior one just drove straight through them. One night a good friend stopped to see me and said, “Bill, I just broke the axle on my car. Could I borrow your car to drive home?” I wasn't real happy when I handed him the keys, but it was a good test to see whether the car was really mine or the Lord's. I am very careful with my tools. But I always say all that I have is the Lord's. That means if the Lord sends someone to use His tools they have as much right to access to them as I do. Of course there is such a thing as responsibility. I must be responsible with the Lord's tools and not let just anyone destroy them, but I have always considered everything I have as the Lord's property ; and that means His servants have as much right to them as I do.

We must be hospitable. This is a requirement for a for a bishop; he must be a lover of hospitality (Tit. 1:8). Tragically there are Christians who are very tight with their homes. Strangers and other are not welcomed. I have noticed that the fundamental difference between missionaries who win souls and those who just preach the Gospel is the front door. I have never seen a missionary who had an open door that didn't win souls. And I have known some very good preachers who had a closed door and didn't win souls. I believe we can forget about talking about being filled with the Spirit of Christ if our doors are closed to others.

Perhaps the most precious thing we have is our children. But Jesus does not exempt this when He asks everything. Isobel Kuhn's mother was and active Christian and very much involved in missions. She was 100% in favor of supporting missions until one day her daughter came home and told her mother that the Lord had called her to be a missionary in China. Isobel thought her mother wold be thrilled, but was shocked when her mother said, “Over my dead body you will go to China.” No way she was going to let her daughter go overseas. Isobel said it was tragic that that was exactly the way it went. She was dead before Isobel went to China to work with JO Frasier. Here was a woman that acted like she had given all to Jesus but when it came to her daughter, she drew the line. As a result she never lived to see the great success her daughter had working among the Lisus in China and as one of the great Christian authoress. I knew a missionary wife in Karuizawa who had two sons but she couldn't dedicated them to the Lord. The devil had her between a rock and a hard place. She knew if she didn't dedicate her sons to the Lord that He would take one as punishment. And if she did, He would take one to see if it was real. It was a lose-lose situation and she lived in torment. Fortunately, at a Joe Carroll meeting she finally broke and gave her sons to the Lord. What wonderful release! She knew they were the safest with the Lord. I don't know what happened but I know they are in their 50s by now and I am sure she has many grand children by both.

The reason the pastor wanted me to talk about giving was to jack up the offerings. But money was the last thing I mentioned. Talking about money is pointless. God doesn't want our money. He isn't that poor. The reason God wants our money is so we will enable Him to open the treasure chest in heaven. The lock on the treasure chest in heaven is our pocket book. Paul said to the Philippians, “Not because I desire a gift but I desire fruit that may abound to your account” (Phil. 4:17). If this is not true offerings are a sham.

I told the folk Sunay morning about the principle of the Inverted Kingdom. The laws of the Kingdom of God are reverse from the laws of this world. The law of the Kingdom is, to get we must give. Jesus said, GIVE and it shall be GIVEN you. He didn't say, “If you get money then give God 10%.” The law is in order to enable God to give things to us we must first empty our purse. When I told the folks about the treasure chest in heaven I held up my wallet and said, “This is he key to that treasure chest. If we use it right, that enables God to open His chest to give us the things He wants. But for the flow to come in to us, it must be Out from us”.

I don't know what happened Sunday. I felt the topic the Lord gave me was good but I had a very bad time preaching. The Lord knows.

Yesterday morning Paul was at my house at 7:00AM asking if I would baptize a lady. There was a Christian lady that Paul and Marisa had never met, but had a daughter who was a class mate of their daughter. Through her testimony the lady knew that Paul and Marisa were Christian. She told them of a sick situation where a father had raped his 11 year old daughter and the mother didn't care. The girl ran away to live with another sister who was 33 years old but was dying of cancer and couldn't take care of her. She asked if Paul and Marisa could help.

They went over to talk to the woman dying of cancer and found a soul on the brink of eternity terrified of going to hell. Marisa shared with her the Gospel an told how Jesus died so she wouldn't have to go to hell. And the lady wanted to be baptized. Paul asked me if I would do it.

What happened last night was a first time experience for me in many regards. I had never baptized a person who couldn't be immersed and wasn't sure how to do it. Pammy said that her pastors used a wet towel to cove the person. That sounded like the best approach, but things turned out differently. The poor soul lived in a hovel without anything in it. She was deathly ill but managed to come outside and sit on a low stole. I refused to baptize her without Pammy dealing with her in depth about salvation. Pammy was fantastic! She is a much better personal worker than I am. Paul had brought his four daughters (that is another story) and they sang a song making it a regular religious service. There was really quite a crowd sitting on the ground. When I baptized her, I first asked her for a testimony that she believed in Jesus. She was able to mumble that she did. When I baptized her I stuck my hand in a bucket of water and got as much water as possible – laying my hand on her head – I said, “On the basis of your testimony of faith in our Lord Jesus; by the authority of the great God in heaven, our gracious heavenly Father,, in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by the power and presence of the Holy Spirit I baptize you.”

There seemed to be an amazing witness of the Holy Spirit in that service. Before I baptized her she wailed like I have seldom seem anyone cry. She cried, “Oh my sin is so terrible!” After I baptized her I prayed ion English pleading that the Lord might raise her up to be a testimony of His saving, healing, power. I felt a tremendous anointing in the the Spirit when I prayed, and again she cried loudly. There was every evidence of a deep working of the Holy Spirit there. After the baptism she went back inside and Pammy took off having her own evangelistic meeting with her husband and a few children there. I don't believe in, or will allow her to be, a lady preacher, but that girl is fantastic in sharing Christ. She has a Gospel Rubic cube that she uses very effectively. Man howdy we had another great meeting sitting on the floor inside as Pammy shared Christ with the circle sitting around her. Before the night was over the dying lady, filled with cancer, who looked deathly ill previously, was sitting up looking radiant. We took a group picture and she looked like a strobe light in the middle. Right now I am putting my money on her healing. I will be surprised if Jesus doesn't heal her and give her a full life as strong Christian.

Paul and Marisa have taken in the 11 year old girl that started this off as their daughter. That makes #3. I couldn't believe that either. Three days ago she was totally traumatized. She was terrified of everything. She had been repeated raped, threatened with her life, and told that she was going to be sold. I expected to see a vegetable, but I was amazed to see joyous secure young girl who obviously felt safe. Marisa's other two girls, age 13, have been fantastic in taking in their new younger sister. And she has a another niece who wants to live with them. That makes four. Seldom have I ever seen a home where Jesus has just moved in and transferred a nightmare into a corner of heaven. There is nothing but the Bible, Jesus,and joy in that home. And they may have a new freshly baptized, healed, 33 year old sister become part of that circle.

It doesn't get much better,

bill