Christmas Miracle

18 December 2011

Dear Phyllis,

With the construction of Pammy's new kitchen, the Lord is re-installing me to the world of the homo sapient. For 21 years I felt that I had been demoted to being a sub-ningen (human) species. Ever since my world disintegrated in 1990, I felt strongly that I was no longer a ningen, and learned to live comfortably in my new status. It was a simple life, and a good one. For years I had no home, no family, or personal possessions. I never wanted to acquire anything more than I could carry on my back. But since the Lord has given me a wife again, with her, comes all the things associated with a domestic life. It is a bit of a struggle, but the Lord is helping me to adopt to being a ningen again.

Many years ago I had a wonderful life in Karuizawa. No one could have desired more. We lived in the prime property in Japan, had a house that made ambassadors envious, and had a model family. The only problem was, Joe Carroll owned the property, and there was always the shadow that it might get sold someday. As I was praying about my future, I felt that the Lord spoke to me from the Scripture and promised, “The Lord will build thee an house”(1 Chron. 17:10). It was a bitter pill when the day came that Joe told me to get out and everything went to zero.

But then two years later we moved to Ikoma, and Japan Mission funded building Joy Corral. Oh my goodness, I enjoyed that! I wrote, “the Lord has fulfilled His promise to me of building me a house”. That was the best house I ever lived in. But then that crashed. I learned a bitter lesson about claiming promises from the Bible that turn out to be a bad trip. For the next two decades and more that promise about the Lord building me a house got relegated to the file of many mistakes I have made in life in claiming false guidance. But now I wonder if I am in the process of enjoying a third house. Last week in my devotions I went back to that promise that the Lord made to David, and the Lord reminded me of the strangeness of His ways.

! Chron. 17 is a wonderful chapter. It was at a peaceful time in David's life. He had spent 20 years being chased from pillar to post by Saul, and then engaged in a civil war in Israel until the kingdom was finally established. At last everything in his life calmed down. He was established as king in Israel.

One of the first things David did was to move the Ark of the Covenant. It had sat in Kirjathjearim ever since the Philistines had captured it, and then returned it on the ox cart. The first attempt to move the Ark was a disaster because David tried to move it on an ox cart. But the second time he realized the Ark should only be carried on the shoulders of Levites. It was a big event in Israel when they finally moved the Ark to its final resting place in Jerusalem. It had been a 500 year journey from the days of Moses until it finally came to its resting home in Jerusalem. David had a lovely palace in Jerusalem and peace on all sides. After he had moved the Ark, and consider the nice palace he was living in, the shabby tent the Lord was in looked very unfit. Very naturally, David had a great desire to build a proper temple for the Lord. Nathan told him to do whatever was in his heart. But that very night the Lord spoke to Nathan, and told he to tell David that he couldn't build the temple, but his son would. The message that the Lord sent to David by Nathan is as wonderful as any in the Bible (1Ch. 17:7-15).

It starts off with the Lord reminding David how He took him from following the sheep to making him one of the great men of the world. Then he said, “Furthermore, I tell thee, that the Lord will build thee an house” (1Ch. 17:10). God promised David that He wold raise up his seed after him and establish his kingdom. He promised that his son would build the Lord's house and He would establish his throne forever. He said, “I will be his Father and he shall be My Son.” Verse 13 says, “I will settle him in My house and in My Kingdom forever; and His throne shall be established for evermore.

We naturally read this with Solomon in mind. It is true that Solomon did build the Lord's temple, but what God promised David does not fit Solomon. Solomon was only a type of the real Son of David who was to come. Three times in that promise, the Lord used the word forever. For another 500 years the dynasty of David did continue in Jerusalem, but when it came to the Babylonian captivity the throne of David ceased to exist. The linage of David virtually disappeared. From the time of the Babylonian captivity on it looked like God's promise to David was a sham. The kingdom never really got established and the throne of David did not exist. So much for the forever.

But then, when we read the New Testament, it is highly significant how that starts out. Mathew 1:1 reads, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David...” There it is. This is what the Lord was talking about when He promised David, “that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will establish His Kingdom.” (Ch. 17:11). Even before the birth of Christ, when Gabriel was talking to Mary, he told her that her Child would be called the Son of the highest and the Lord God would give to Him the Throne of His father David (Lk. 1:32).

Mathew 1:18 tells us that there were 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 generations from David to the Babylonian captivity, and 14 generations from there to Christ. We can trace some of the genealogy from Abraham for a while; the genealogy from David to Babylon is fairly easy, as these are the kings recorded in 1 and 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles; but from there on the linage of David becomes almost oblivious. Of course, if you would put the whole family tree down, there would be hundreds. But lost in that maze of multiple decedents the blood line of David actually ran to a poor carpenter who lived in Nazareth. Who would have ever thought that that poor carpenter was the seed of David promised by God? I used to wonder why it was so frequent in the gospels that Jesus was called the Son of David (16 times). And when the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream he called him,“Joseph, thou son of David” (Mt. 1:20).

Christ was the fulfillment of God's promise to David about “The Lord will build thee a house...” and He would “establish His Throne forever”. How strange are His ways! Again it is just another reminder that if we think we can trace the Hand of God by our natural reasoning we are greatly mistaken.

The reason I mention all this is because I have been caused to reconsider what I thought was God's promise to me 35 years ago. The first house was the one in Karuizawa. The second one was the one in Ikoma. Now I am working on a third house in Chiang Mai. I have no idea how this is going to turn out, but I have no difficulty in believing, someday, when I get to heaven, the Lord will explain all this to me; and I will be overwhelmed at His mercy in the life He has granted me.

The biggest difference between now and 35 years ago is that, then I was obsessed with a physical house on a hill in Karuizawa. Today things like that are relatively unimportant, but I am obsessed with building the Lord's house; which is made of living stones built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit (Eph. 2:21, 22).

I am making progress on Pammy's kitchen, but there have been an enormous amount of daily interruptions. It was 8:00 o'clock last night that I finally got the work done that I had hoped to have accomplished by 10:00 o'clock Thursday morning.

My friend Paul has developed a practice of showing up at our house at dawn every morning for an hour or two of fellowship. I would consider this an unwarranted interruption except he is one of the most unusual young Christians I have ever met. He comes from a terrible background, and is as rough as a wood rasp. He is such a young Christian that he is still wet. But, man howdy, they are seeing some amazing things.

A couple of months ago he got in with a British missionary who has a boys home. Everyone is dirt poor and Paul wanted to do something special for the boys for Christmas. He suggested to Garreth that they have a special Christmas party, and he planned to buy 15 pairs of soccer shoes for the boys. Unbeknown to him, Garreth invited everyone in northern Thailand to come to the Christmas party. This put everything totally off the scale. He feared that if things got totally out of hand, there might be as many as 100 show up. Marisa bought enough food for 100 guests and got a huge pot to cook it in. He said, by count, they had 98 pieces of chicken cooked. (He ate 2 before they got there.) To his total terror, truck load after truck load of guests came from all over northern Thailand. By actual count he saw 207 noses and hungry mouths. Then the miracle happened. This long line formed and he watched 207 hungry children and a few adults file by and everyone got a piece of chicken. More than that Marisa had ordered 6 cakes for what she thought would be about 20 guests. Miraculously 207 people got a large piece of cake. Some came back for seconds. I have heard of a few “feeding the 5,000” miracles before, but this one is the best. Paul was completely blown out of his mind. But the miracle of the feeding of the 207 was only part of the story. What happened that night defies explanation. Paul said the party got started at 4:00 in the afternoon and was still going strong at 11:00 that night when they left to go home.. It was totally unorganized. No one planned it. But different groups of Christians from all over got up to perform. In view of what they thought would be a small party, Marisa and her two girls had planned to sing. Of the seven hour program that took ten minutes at most. There was another sister, who has a girls home that frequently sing together, who sang some songs. But the rest of it was spontaneous as far as he knew. A large percentage of those there were hill tribe people who did a lot of their native Christian dancing. Paul said some of it looked like Los Vegas – really professional!

As astounding as all of this was, Paul said the main feature the joy. He had never seen anything like it in his life. He never knew there was anything like that on this planet. Paul is a real tough guy. He has been in many horrible situations. He is a tough guy that never cried. Several months ago he came to me in strictest confidence, and confided that he would unexplainably burst into tears at some Christian meetings. He asked, “Am I sick? Do I need medication? I don't even know what they are saying, and sometimes I burst into tears.” I explained to him that this was a sign of the Holy Spirit. Paul said last night he uncontrollably bawled for two hours straight. He was so embarrassed that he had to pull his cap down over his face.

They are pretty tight financially at the moment and had spent close to $250 for that small party. He apologized to his two daughters that he didn't have any money left over to buy them Christmas presents. His 13 year old girls replied, “That's okay, dad. Jesus is all the Christmas present we need.”

After all, that is what it is all about.

bill