9 September 2012
Dear Phyllis,
Not surprisingly, Jesus is still hearing and answering prayer. Last week was really bad. This past week has been a considerable improvement. There has been some movement with Harry, but the Kingdom of God has returned to my home. One of the many things that has been a challenge to me is learning how to deal with Pammy. Strangely enough, she is quite different from me. Her way of problem solving is much different from mine. I prefer to talk it out, and her style is to wait it out. I guess it doesn't make much difference if they both work; but the bottom line is that the sun has come out again and warmth has returned to the Cook household.
One of the major events of the past week has been Annie's school. I wasn't real happy when I was confronted with the issue that Annie had to go to school. Personally, I would prefer to home school, but that isn't an option here. I wasn't a real happy camper when Pammy came back and told me where she has decided to enroll Annie. But it could not be more evident that she was Spirit led. The directors (man and wife) have turned out to to be fantastic. Two huge factors have surfaced. One is an earnest plea for me to speak to the children every morning. It looks like I am on staff now. This is a real plus for the Gospel. And it has also cut the tuition to one half. Secondly – and this is almost more important – seldom have I seen more earnest seekers of the Gospel. Along with speaking to the children each morning, the directors have pleaded that we teach them the Bible. I wasn't too sure what this meant, but I couldn't be more impressed with what I have seen. I have drawn the line on Pammy, and told her that her days as a lady pastor are over. But the one on one Bible teaching she has given them was terrific! I have been deeply impressed with the way she has handled the teaching, but I have been equally impressed with their response. Unbelievably, the wife was in church this morning to hear me preach. This is extremely unusual in Japan or Thailand. At this point it is harder to believe that they won't get saved than to believe that they will come to Christ.
I have a rare opportunity in speaking to 200 children every morning. Even before I spoke the first time they requested, “Tell them about God”. I'm sure that would not be the case in America, that a secular kindergarten would ask a speaker to “Tell them about God”. They are Buddhist, and there would be a mass exodus of students if I came on too strong, but it is an excellent opportunity for first-stage evangelism.
It has been wisely said,“The first step to salvation is a positive relationship with a Gospel communicator”. If a persons first experience with Christianity is unpleasant, that isn't a real strong sell for the Gospel. But if the say, “This is a real nice guy”, that opens their minds to listen to more. I had a very good time speaking four times last week and“Uncle Bill” has become a popular friend of all the children. I make a point of establishing personal eye contact with each child and treat them like they are the only one in the school. Children crowd around and want to touch me. This is an unusual experience for them to have a relationship with a falang (foreigner). I don't know how long this will hold up, but at the moment it looks like a long-term deal. I can easily see the directors getting saved and making big waves for the Lord.
It was my turn to preach this morning and I really didn't know what to expect from my message. The pastor's wife, Ying, is in America for three weeks. She is a top-flight interpreter. With her gone, that means that Pammy has to be my interpreter. We do alright in conversation in the home, but she is not a 5 star interpreter yet. When I get fired up in a message, it frustrates the daylights out of me when she looks at me blankly or misses what I say. As an interpreter, on a scale of 1 to 10, I would give her about a 3 or 4. I knew we were in for a bad time if we didn't go over the message in advance. We did discuss it for two hours last night, but the rehearsal was so depressing I almost despaired of preaching today. With no other option I told the Lord that was His problem – not mine. Finally I thought, “Hang it! I don't care what she says. If her message is radically different than what I say, then Lord bless her message anyway.”
In the days of Spurgeon there was another famous preacher in London, Joseph Parker. It was said that a believer went to hear Parker preach and came away raving, “I never heard such an outstanding message in my life.” The next week he went to hear Spurgeon. He came away from that meeting raving, “I never knew what a wonderful savior Jesus is.” I have no ambition on being an outstanding preacher. I am not the least bit interested in preaching outstanding messages. But, oh, that I had the ability to lift up Jesus. I have heard very few speakers do that. Rather than trying to get the several unsaved folks, that I knew were going to be in church, saved, I decided just to try to make Jesus look as lovely as possible.
The best description I know of Jesus in the Bible is Song of Solomon 5:10-16. I can't get away from that book. There is no other possible interpretation other than this is the OT narrative of the relationship of Jesus with His Bride, the Church. Any other view is ridiculous!
Chapter 5 begins with the description of a believer who has lost their first love and fallen asleep at the switch. There are untold millions of Christians who started out well but as the years dragged on they cooled off to the point of being drowsy. We see the Lord drawing the believer back to Himself, and a bit of an awakening. But the response was half-hearted; and the Lord left the scene. When the Christian finally came to herself, she was startled to discover how badly she had drifted, and what that had cost her. In her search for the Lord, she encountered the Daughters of Jerusalem. These characters are clearly unsaved church goers. These are the tares among the wheat (Mt. 13:24-30); the five foolish virgins (Mt. 25:1-12); and the unsaved preachers and evangelists at the Judgment Throne (Mt. 7:21-23). The D of J clearly give themselves away and show us who they really are by their question in S of S 5:9– “What is so special about Jesus?” After all, all religions are the same. Yes, of course, Jesus is wonderful, but so is Buddha, and Mohammad. All religions are good. Why are you so stressed out about Jesus? This is the heart of someone who doesn't know the Lord.
In response to that question, the Christian gives the most wonderful description of Jesus in the Bible, with 12 or 13 points. I was going to try to get through verse 10 with three points this morning. As usual, I spoke far too long – the service was over at 12:30 – but, even then, I only covered one point. Verse 10 says “He is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.” Oh I love that verse!
The first point in describing Jesus is that He is white. That doesn't require too much explanation. Everyone immediately responded that white means clean. My goodness how many TV commercial selling soap powder do we have to look at to come to that conclusion? It is highly significant that the first point in describing Jesus is that He is clean. I asked the people in church this morning how clean their garments were. Everyone knew what I was talking about. Everyone had to admit that their garment was pretty soiled. There is no one but Jesus that you can say they are truly white. There has never been a person whose life was looked at more closely under a microscope to find some flaw than Jesus. His enemies couldn't find a flaw in Him. Even Pilate decreed,“I find no fault in this Man” (Lk. 23:4). Jesus wasn't killed because he had killed a man. He wasn't killed because he had tried to overthrow the government or had stolen millions of dollars. He wasn't killed because He had run off with someone else's wife. The only thing He did wrong was to tell the truth that He was the Son of God. That was the only accusation that stuck.
I had someone read 1 Cor. 13:4-8 about love. Then I had one of the girls read the same passage inserting her own name in place of love. “Fah suffers long and is kind. Fah envies not..., etc” It was terrible! She was nearly embarrassed to tears. I asked another girl if she could read it like that. She nearly dove under the chair. No one can read that passage inserting their own name. But you can read that inserting the Name of Jesus and it stands up. That is one of the proofs of the deity of Christ.
There are some people that are better than others. We all have those that we admire. But without exception you cannot have a relationship with anyone long-term without sooner or later finding a flaw that is disappointing. Pastor Kichikun told me last December, “I thought you were a very great man, but I see now that you are just like the rest of us.” I was glad to hear that. The first time he was mistaken. The second time he was right.
My friend Shirazaki san told me when he was a young man in Bible school there was an older boy that he admired very much. He thought that boy was the greatest Christian he had ever met. He had a great desire to be like him. They were living in an old dormitory in adjoining rooms. The wall between the rooms were boards, and there was a board with a missing knot, leaving a hole in the wall. The boy was fasting and praying. Shirazaki san wanted to look at this impressive sight of his sempai (advanced brother) fasting and praying. He peeked through the knot hole and was shattered to see the kid eating potato chips and reading a magazine. So much for the ill-founded admiration. It is alright to have those who we admire, but we must admit that there is no one in this world but Jesus who is truly spotless. Sooner or later we will be disappointed.
I told the folks this morning that they could safely place their confidence in Jesus. In His life on this planet He never did a thing out of place. He was utterly flawless. And since His return to heaven, His basic character has not changed. For 55 years I have found that everything He has done for me has been good. There have been things I didn't understand at the time, but ultimately I have learned that He was right and I was wrong. I have found no flaw in Him. He is truly white.
Anyone could talk for hours on this subject. When it comes to the character of Christ and His sinlessness; what can you say? It is endless. You can look at Him from any angle. You can look at Him in any situation; who can point a finger at Him and say, “That was dirty.”? He may not fit into some men's mold because of a divergence of the law of God with prevailing political correctness. He may not smile on sexual perversion, or dirty politics. He may not stand up to some men's standards, but I believe in the eyes of God, God will have the last word on what is clean and what is dirty.
I was hoping to get to point 2 and 3 of verse 10 in my message this morning, but the clock won the battle, and I had to sit down. Lord willing, next month I will try to cover point 2. If there are 12 points, this could take a year to talk about the beauty of Jesus. But that isn't a bad subject.
I'm sure you have found Him so. When you speak to Him this week, please thank Him for me for what He did for me last week.
Arigato gozaimasu (thank you ).
bill
PS: Pammy did good. She got a 7 or 8 today.
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