I Lied

11 December 2011

Dear Phyllis,

I lied. Last week I wrote you, “I preached this morning on Isa. 3018”. I did no such thing. Now I have to tell the truth.

Fourteen years ago, when I returned to Japan from spending my year in the states, I had nothing to do on Sunday afternoon. I was lonely and you all were about the only people I had to write to. We had had such wonderful fellowship in the states that I started to write to you and Ted just for someone to talk to. That started this tradition, and I have written you every week since then.

But Sundays today are not like they were then. Sundays start out in the morning by having devotions and going to church. Who knows what will happen after that. But frequently, now, it is late evening before we get home, and I haven't written my letter to you yet. To get the drop on that, I am beginning to start this letter on Saturday morning, but sometimes it is Tuesday or Wednesday before I get it sent off.

Last week I got up at 5:00 AM to have devolution's and do some preparation for the message I was going to give at Forgiveness Church. In order to get my letter to you done on time, I decided writing you would be good sermon preparation; so basically what I wrote you about preaching from Isa. 30:18 was message preparation.

The night before, that verse had come to my heart and I thought that was what the Lord had to say to us. I felt unusually comfortable that I knew the mind of the Lord and was well prepared until I got to church. I had no idea it was Fathers Day in Thailand, and the theme of everything was on fathers. Obviously, what I had to say was totally unfit for that service, and I hadn't the faintest idea what to say to replace my message. I can't recall ever preaching on fathers in my life. As I sat there with my head spinning, one verse came to my heart. Jesus said, “When ye pray say, 'Our Father'”.

Bikquis Sheik was the wife of the Finance Minister of Pakistan. She was a very high class woman and a very devout sincere seeker of God. She desperately wanted to know God. Being a highly international lady she had come under some influence of Christianity in western countries and knew the Bible was the Book of the Christian God. In her search for God she was reading both the quaran and the Bible. She had no idea how to address the Christian God, but she had read in the Bible that Jesus taught “when ye pray say, our Father”. In her sincere innocence, the first time she spoke to God she said, “Father”. At that instant she burst into tears, and knew that God had heard her. She later wrote her autobiography , I Dared To Call Him Father. In 1971 I had the privilege of personally hearing her speak in Los Angeles. In her testimony, she got as far as that remark and broke down. That was as far as she could talk.

Reading her book and hearing her testimony opened my eyes to what an unusual experience it is for us to address God as our Father. This was something totally new that Jesus brought with Him. No one in the OT ever called God Father. That thought never crossed their mind. The very Name of God was so sacred that the Jews never used His Name. For a Muslim to address God as Father was equally unthinkable. That is why it was such a stunning experience for Bilquis Sheik to speak to God as Father.

Joe Carroll told me of a time he was sharing a Bible conference with AW Tozer at Fort Wayne Bible Collage. They asked Joe to do the counseling. Joe said the kids at that Bible school who came in for counseling were lined down the hall. They came in scared to death. I asked Joe, “What in the world was Tozer preaching about?”

“God.”

“What could he get like that from the doctrine of God?”

Then Joe quoted a verse from Exodus where Moses was meeting with God. He said, God came down on Mt. Sinai and the entire mountain was on fire. The Jews were scared to death. But Moses went up into that burning fire and lived.

Oh, my goodness! I never thought of God like that! Small wonder those kids were coming in terrified. They had never heard anyone speak about God before. Joe said that he thought Tozer knew God the Father better than anyone on this planet.

I am amazed at the startling disrespect that Christians show towards God today. I am sure it is because of a defective message that is being preached today. There is such an unjustified emphasis on the loving, compassionate, forgiving God that we have no concept of the basic attributes of the holiness of God, and of God as a consuming fire.

Jonathan Edwards didn't emphasize this in his famous message on Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. When he preached that message, his listeners were literally clinging to the post of the church for fear of falling into the flames of hell.

When I was in the Air Force at Yokota, one time the Russians were giving us fits with a stream of bombers coming at us in Japan. We had to scramble fighters to meet them. When we would get within radar range of the Russian bombers, they would turn around. We would go back to land and the bombers would come at us again. We flew a steady stream of fighters going at them for three days, round the clock. It was so unusual even our commanding general came down to take a turn in a fighter to go out to see what was going on. I had been on the alert pad that night, and was there when General Milton came out to set up in a plane. The airman at the communication desk happened to be out getting coffee when one of the pilots called over from our operation room. The general went over to take the call, and said, “This is General Milton. The captain calling said, “Aw come on George, knock it off. What is going on out there?” The general replied again, “This is General. Milton.”

“Knock off the ##xx## George. If you are General Milton I am President Kennedy.”

He didn't know who he was talking to. Five minutes later a red-faced, embarrassed captain came running out to the alert pad to apologize. You don't talk like that to a general.

As I listen to some people pray, I wonder, “Who in the world do they think they are talking to?” We have such an unhealthy familiarity with God that we have lost sight of any concept of who we are talking to. It is an awesome experience to talk to God. The Islamics don't have this problem. They have a terrific fear of God. The other day a brother asked me, “Do you think this is good?” My reply was, “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”

If we look at things this way, we can appreciate what an astounding thing it is to address God as Father. Jesus was the first One to ever do that. And the reason He could was because He was the Son of God. There is only one reason why Jesus instructed us to say, when we pray, “Our Father”. That is because we too are born of God to be sons of God. It is because of the new birth that we can honestly call God Father. And this is one of the evidences of salvation when God sends His Spirit into our heart crying “Abba Father” (Rom. 8:15, 16).

Last Sunday when I was introduced to speak I had little more than the verse in Luke 11:2 and the story of Bilquis Sheik, but 45 minutes later, when I sat down, Pastor Peter thanked me for a very good message. That one came from God – not me.

Yesterday Pastor Kichikun called me and asked if I could speak today. That was short notice, but not as bad as the week before. When I asked the Lord what He wanted to say to us, I felt He directed me to go with the message I had prepared for last week. Indeed that seemed to be correct, as I had a very good time today speaking on “Therefore will the Lord wait...” (Isa, 30:18).

Yesterday we had another amazing miracle. About a month ago Mark told me that he was quiting this building as a warehouse for his Bibles. Ever since I have lived here the kitchen has been slam full of Bibles, We only had a very small corner to use for a kitchen.

With this whole house being now our home I promised Pammy make her a beautiful American kitchen where we can entertain guest to share Christ. I wanted to get that done for a Christmas present, and Mark promised me to have the place cleaned out by the 7^th. Mark also promised to pay the December rent. When the 9^thcame, and Mark had done nothing to clean out the kitchen I decided he just wasn't concerned, and would let everything stand until the end of the month. I started to move the boxes to the other room, but that was a Herculean task. There were 384 boxes each weighing close to 50 lbs. That is 17,000 lbs to move from one room to another. I had moved 80 boxes by myself, and figured it would take me close to a week to move the rest. And I wasn't anxious to spend my time moving 304 boxes when I should be making Pammy's kitchen.

Friday, Paul told me that Mark had asked him to take some of those Bibles up to Mae Sai Saturday. Yesterday morning Paul showed up and started loading his truck with Bibles. I hoped he would take them from the kitchen and not from the living room, which was much closer to the door. No such luck. I came down stairs and saw he was loading the Bible I had moved to the living room rather than taking his from the kitchen. In my mind Paul was Mark's man doing Mark's work. But rather than helping me he was taking the short cut by taking the Bibles nearest the door. The problem was, in my heart I was not right with God and was somewhat upset with Mark. When I saw Paul loading the Bibles I had moved – something in me snapped. In a very nasty tone I yelled, “Thanks a lot! Go on take the boxes nearest your truck and let me move all those boxes out of the kitchen.” Paul is a fine brother, but he has an extremely explosive temper. My nasty remark really did the trick. He uncorked like I have never seen him. Be became down right violent. He shouted back, “Alright, I'll move the whole kitchen by myself!” What I am trying to say is we had a murderous situation on our hands. That sobered me up a little, and I asked Paul, “Could we pray?”

“NO! Get out of here! I will do everything by myself!”

The place was charged with high octane adrenaline. Both of us were furious. I started hauling boxes from the kitchen to the living room. Pammy saw what was happening and she and another girl, who was here visiting her, started carrying them from where I was putting them to the door. Together we were stacking them up higher than Paul could put them on his truck. It didn't take long to load Paul's truck. The exertion had burned up most of the adrenaline, and when Paul had his truck loaded, I spoke to him to apologize. He was crushed. In great humility he hung his head and said, “I can't believe I did such a bad thing. Those Bibles are sacred and I thew a couple of boxes.” I explained to him how the devil works to cause problems between brothers. I shared, “The problem was my heart was not right towards Mark, and I was totally wrong in speaking like that to you.” Paul was humiliated for exploding and offered, “Please let me move that kitchen for you.” He refused to accept my pleading not to do it. This forced me to work with him. It nearly killed me but, but two hours later the kitchen was completely empty.

You talk about Romans 8:28; now there is one for you. I was totally wrong in my heart and by what I said, but the Lord turned all that around to clear out the kitchen so I can get Pammy's kitchen done by Christmas

It is wonderful that we serve a God who an take even our sin and dumb mistakes and turn them around for our good and His glory. Praise God!

bill