1 April 2012
Dear Phyllis,
The biggest thing I have going right
now is my relationship with my friend Paul. He is a phenomenon like I
have never seen in my life. I first met him about three years ago
when he was a neighbor to my friend Scott when we had Bible studies
at Scott's house. Scott would invite him to come to the Bible
studies, but I had deep reservations. I thought it was a waste of
time, and I really didn't want him to show up. I tried to be
friendly, but he was the kind of unsaved guy that I really didn't
care for. Sharing Christ with him was like pouring water on a rock.
There simply was nothing going in. He was as brain-dead, unteachable,
guy as you will ever meet.
Then the miracle happened around
Christmas a year and a half ago. Paul and Marisa were buying Scott's
house. Marisa was talking to Scott's wife, Kae. Kae told her, “I
know this will be your house, but we would appreciate it if you did
not put a spirit house on this property. We have dedicated this land
to Jesus, and Buddhist spirit houses are infested with demons.” A
miracle happened such as I have never seen. Marisa was a very
dedicated Buddhist, faithfully doing everything she was supposed to
in worshiping idols. When Kae talked to her, something snapped
inside. She came home and got all over Paul. “You would have let me
go to hell. You went with me to the temple and let me do all those
things worshiping the devil. Kae told me that Buddhism is of the
devil; Jesus is the true God, and the only way to heaven.” Paul was
stunned. Suddenly Marisa started going to church and reading the
print off the Bible. A couple months later Paul came to me and asked,
“What is all this stuff about baptism?”
“Why is that?”
“My wife wants to get baptized.”
“Why does she want to get baptized?”
“She wants to join the club.”
Paul was glassy eyed and nervous. He
never repented, prayed the sinners prayer, or even asked Jesus to
come into his heart. He just happened to be on a bus that got
hijacked by Jesus. The only thing meritorious that I saw him do that
might have got points in heaven was to make a New Years resolution to
read the Bible through in one year. He started at Gen. 1:1 and waded
through the genealogies in Chronicles. At first I was dubious and
advised him to quit the OT and read more in the NT. Paul replied,
“No. A vow is a vow and I promised the Lord that I would read the
whole Bible.” He finished it in four months.
At first he was highly unteachable, but
after while he started coming over to talk to me like a little bird
with his mouth open. Then major miracles began to happen. One was the
Christmas party that they put on for a boys home. He personally saw
207 people get a large piece of chicken where he knew there was only
98 pieces in the pot. Marisa hadn't heard from her daughter in ten
years. She was living with her dad who was an abbot in a Buddhist
temple. Suddenly, Benjuan called and said she wanted to come and live
with them. Her niece called and asked if she could come to live with
them, Suddenly, they had two 13 year old daughters living with them,
and both girls became instant, zealous, Christians. The only thing
that anyone in the house did was read the Bible, pray, and talk about
Jesus. Paul didn't have a chance.
He comes over almost every morning at
6:30 and takes a couple hours of my time. Ordinarily I would not
devote that time to anyone, but I consider him someone that the Lord
has sent to me to disciple. Paul is a prodigious reader and
voluminously goes through stacks of Christian books. He comes from a
horrible background, but he is a diamond in the rough with a lot of
rough edges. In his introduction to Christianity, the Lord has put
him on the fast track, and he is being swamped with a lot of
Christian experience early in the game.
The first major lesson he is
experiencing is disillusionment. He started out with stars in his
eyes thinking that everyone in the Christian camp was wonderful. But
then he started coming to me complaining, “Some of these
missionaries in Chiang Mai have worse character than the prisoners in
prison where I was the guard. I agree with him that some of the
missionaries are sleazy characters that I don't like either, but I
warned Paul about getting too negative an attitude.
Last weekend they were at a Karen
village in the mountains north of here. He came back floating. He
said it was the greatest time of his life. The place where they were
had 27 churches. He said, “I don't know what the men do because
every man I met was a preacher. Everyone in the village was up at
5:00 AM every morning praying and worshiping Jesus. But the dominant
factor was the joy. The lady in the home where they stayed had had
eight children. But because of the extreme poverty and lack of
medical help three of her children had died. Paul said he could not
imagine a person who had suffered so much and yet was the most joyous
women he had ever met in his life. “They were dirt poor. They had
nothing. But they wanted nothing. Jesus was everything.” Paul came
back really pumped up. He had touched something that very few
Christians have ever seen. This was the real deal.
In reading the Song of Sol. last week,
I was impressed again how Jesus raves at the beauty of His Bride. How
could He say such things? Then the Lord showed me something I had
never seen before.
I have spent a great deal of time in
Revelation in the past two years. I have gone over and over the Seven
Churches in chapter 2 and 3. The more I studied them, the madder I
got. Smyrna was hands down the best, but that was the one church that
no one would care to join. They were poverty struck with horrible
persecution. The Lord said they would have tribulation ten days and
encouraged them to be faithful into death. Who wants that?
Philadelphia gets a mild pass but was weak. The rest had serious
flaws. Ephesus was good, but legalistic. They had lost their first
love. It was a loveless outfit. Pergamos was polluted by those who
taught fornication and idolatry. Thyatira was worse with the great
female prophetess Jezebel who took sexual putridity and idolatry to
a new level. And Saudis was just plain dead religion. Of the seven
churches, the worse was, hands down, Laodicia. That was the affluent
church that boasted they had arrived. The Lord gave them the lowest
failing grade and said they made Him sick to His stomach. He said He
would spew them out of His mouth (Rev. 3:16). And yet He said that He
was the One who held the Seven Stars in His right hand and walked in
the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks (the Seven Churches)
(Rev. 2:1). I read that and got mad. I said, “Lord, You have no
business walking in the midst of those churches. You shouldn't be
around that gang in Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardus, and Laodicia.” No
Christian has any business hanging around a church like those are.
They should get out. I thought it was bad that Jesus would associate
with such wicked, compromising, churches as those. He should just
rebuke them for their sin, and get out.
The Bible has many levels of
interpretation. There is the primary, secondary, tertiary, etc. The
primary interpretation of the message to the Seven Churches is that
these were probably seven actual churches with the Lord's message to
each one. The secondary interpretation is that the Seven Churches
represent seven different dispensation of church history. The church
of Ephesus was the 1st century church. Smyrna was the
early church under terrible persecution. The others were the dark
ages. Philadelphia would have been the 18th ad 19th
century church. And Laodicia describes the present day church in
America to a tee. The affluent church in America with their
multi-million dollar buildings, state-of-the-art sound system,
professional choir, TV ministry, and polished pastor; and yet Jesus
is standing outside knocking on the door, calling to any man who
might hear His voice. The tertiary interpretation is where the Lord
speaks to us personally about some sin in our life – loss of first
love, compromise with sin, deadness, etc. All three of these views
seem to be legitimate.
But the Lord showed me a fourth view.
The Seven Churches could represent seven different types of religious
environment, or church condition. You can find all seven churches in
any country where there is an established church. The Lord is very
honest in telling us that this is what Christianity looks like. But I
was much confused how you could reconcile the Seven Churches in
Revelation with the spotless, beautiful, Bride of Christ in Song of
Sol. and the Bride in Rev. 21. Then the Lord showed me something I
had never seen before. In that marvelous chapter describing the final
Bride in Revelation 21, I read the word; “he that overcometh...”
My mind went back to the Lord's message to the Seven Churches; in
each case we read; “to him that overcometh...” (Rec.
2:7,11,17,26; 3:5,12, and 21). In each case that conditional promise
is given to those who overcome.
I have been in, or seen, churches that
are in the exact condition described in Revelation 2 and 3. I have
been in hard core Baptist churches who were hard working
fundamentalist and as loving as a police dog. I have been in deep
poverty churches in Korea in the 1950s, and persecuted churches in
Vietnam and Laos in more recent years. I have been in churches who
have sold out to compromise with idolatry and immorality in Japan. I
have seen just plain dead churches and weak churches. And I have seen
the affluent carnival that is supposed to be Christianity in America
today. And I have found that the Lord has always left Himself a
remnant of genuine believers in every religious environment.
Rosemary's home church used to be
outstanding, but the devil had gotten in so badly, when I was there
in 1996, I wondered if there were any Christians left. Then one day I
was invited to attend a 6:00 AM mens prayer meeting. I was shocked.
The were 8 or 9 guys there that were terrific. Each one had problems
in their home church, but they were as sold out to Christ as you
could get. Harold Carmen's church and James Bell's church in
Tennessee are as good as they come. There are a few very good
churches in America. There are a few good churches in Japan and
Thailand. And there are a scattering of genuine believers in every
environment. And these people are beautiful. No, those
churches in Revelation 2 and 3 are not the Bride of Christ. But the
Bride was (is) in those churches. In all seven cases there was a call
“to him that overcometh”. And Rev. 21:7 says that it is those who
overcome who are the real Bride.
This is what Jesus told us that the
church would look like. It would be like a field of wheat where the
devil got in and sowed tares (Mt. 13:24-30). The Lord has told us
that we would always find a mixture.
The Lord showed me years ago that you
can only grow white lilies in black soil. You can only develop
Christian character in a sinful world. And the Lord has allowed the
devil to pollute His church to allow the real believers to stand out
in the face of tainted Christianity. This is what Paul is up against.
He has found that not all that glitters is gold. There is a lot of
nonsense mixed in with the real. He has been disillusioned by much of
what he has found in the Christian community in Chiang Mai, but he
sure enjoyed his weekend with the Karens who are the real thing. And
fortunately there are some genuine children of God in some of the
most challenging religious environments.
Let's keep our own robes clean and walk
with Jesus this week;
bi
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