20 October 2013
Dear Phyllis,
Well another Sunday is here, which means another PB letter. As always, this puts me very much on my face crying to the Lord for what He would have to say. To start with there are a couple of good reports.
Last Sunday I mentioned the subject of reconciliation with Pammy. This has materialized with positive results. Pammy did return home for the first time in two months Wednesday. Her presents has been a pleasant change in the house in many ways. One of which the house is much cleaner. Perhaps the biggest area of conflict we have is over sanitation. She is clean to an extreme, and I am clean to to an acceptable level of what you might expect camping in the woods. It has been a little difficult for Black Canyon, as she had a significant upgrade in liberty during Pammy's absence, but now some restrictions have been imposed. But still in all, she is a very fortunate dog. As I mentioned a few weeks ago, there were some serious problems that necessitated a change in our living together. Time alone will prove to what degree there has been an alternation there, but, so far, things have been much better. It would not be true to say Pammy is a radically different person, but she does seem to be a better person. Our relationship is more relaxed and communication is on a higher level.
In an unexpected way, the separation appears to have been a plus for the Kingdom of God. Pammy's younger sister visited us a few week before Pammy went home to Lampan. Very much to my surprise, the testimony came out that she was saved the weekend she was here. Pastor Kichikun told me that he led her to Christ. I had no idea that they had such a talk, but the subsequent events have substantiated that her conversion seems to be genuine. Among other things Pammy told me that her sister was a spiritual medium previously, and there has been a real deliverance from demons. Pammy stayed with her sister in Lampan for two months, and reports that her sister is a very solid Christian. Pammy was a great help in getting her established, introducing her to a good church in Lampan, and praying together. If nothing had happened here, it still would have been very advantageous for Pammy to spend these first few months with her sister to get her rooted in Christ.
Another extremely good news is that Singha, the co-director of the kindergarten, seems to be clearly saved. I am not sure how, when, or where he moved from death to life, but there are some highly encouraging signs that he is very much in the Jesus' camp now. A couple months ago I was preaching on the Wedding Supper, and said there were four responses to that invitation. After that message Singha told me that he was somewhere between 4 and 5. (Four being the guy without the wedding garment.) I said, “Hang 4, get into 5!” But then in the subsequent conversation he said that he had accepted Jesus into his heart. Since then I have been tremendously blessed by unexpected indicators. One of which is his establishing a strong schedule of Bible reading. He is reading the Bible three and four chapters a night, and thoroughly enjoys the Word. What a blessing it is to talk with him every day at school about what he was reading last night.
He surprised with with another unexpected stand. Two weeks ago, he told me that the brother of one of their teacher had died, and he was going to his funeral that Sunday. I knew that was almost a guaranteed compromise with idolatry. It would be extremely difficult for him to go to that funeral without bowing before an idol and speaking to the dead. I told him of a couple cases I had dealt with in Japan, where the Lord had intervened in keeping believers from this act of idolatry. When I warned him, and pleaded with him, not to compromise, he said, “Oh, of course I won't bow before an idol. I bow only before Jesus Christ.” Such a statement from a new believer is unusual.
One other incident was a blessing. Singha told me that he started reading Acts. Then he injected a discovery he made from Acts 1 that Jesus is coming back. He never knew that before, and was blown away with the promise; “This same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven”. Sangha asked me, “Is that really true?” I said, “Yes, it is a fact and I believe His coming is extremely close.” With that Sangha uttered, “Uuuugh! Look at my arms!” He held out his arms as they were covered with dense goose bumps. I have never seen anyone react so intensely physical over hearing about the return of Christ. I told Him, “This is the Holy Spirit.” And it is.
Gomen nasai (I'm sorry), but I am obsessed with the New Covenant. I wrote about that last week, and it just keeps getting stronger. This week I read the chapter on the Covenant of obedience. Oh my goodness, this is so obvious, and yet so unusual, that I marvel that there is any other discussion. By definition, any covenant is predicated on the agreement that both partners keep their side of the contract. Break the promise and the deal is off. God couldn't have made that any more clear. He promised blessing or curse, depending on Israel's performance. And when the ax fell in terrible judgment, Jeremiah acknowledged in Lamentation, “The Lord hath done that which He devised; He hath fulfilled His Word' (Lam. 2:17). There was nothing wrong with the Old Covenant. The Law was excellent. If everyone kept that, we would have heaven on earth now. The only problem was Israel's inability to keep their side of the bargain. If a New Covenant was to be made, it must correct that which was lacking in the Old. And this is the very essence of the New Covenant. It didn't nullify the Law; it simply made it a doable reality. The key word here is OBEDIENCE.
Obedience was the only thing the Lord required of Adam in the Garden. He only had one item, and was told to keep his hand off that tree. The future of humanity hung in the balance of Adams obedience. Paul wrote in Romans 5:19, “By one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous”. Any system of theology that exempts men from obedience is ridiculous. Jesus said, “He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me” . And, “If a man love Me, he will keep My Word” (Jn 14:21, 23). It is impossible to have any vertical structure without someone being on top, and those beneath obeying him. This is true in marriage, business, school, military, law, etc. Without obedience all you have is chaos. And the Kingdom of God is not chaotic.
I fear we have taken the doctrine of imputed righteousness to an extreme. I am not even sure that the Bible teaches imputed righteousness. We have been taught that when God see us He doesn't see us but sees His Son. Christ is my righteousness. To limited degree that may be true, but I fear we have pushed that beyond biblical boundaries. Somehow in this we tend to think more of an external Christ. One who covers our outside. You can take a leper, and put a clean coat on him, and he will still be a leper inside. God doesn't work that way. He makes us clean inside.
The ministry of Christ is two fold. The one He does in heaven is to cancel our debt by His Blood. This is the doctrine that is so popular today. This is payment. But the work He does on earth is to work in our heart by His Spirit to make us good. This is performance. We talk about payment almost to the exclusion of performance. As soon as you talk about keeping the commandments, the cry immediately is “Legalism!”. They say, “By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified” (Rom. 3:20). This is true. But that thinking is the spirit of the Old Covenant. It is something external imposed upon us. But the very essence of the New Covenant is that the law is now written in our heart to the degree that we have a new disposition that loves to keep the law. That is; after I am born-again, I don't have another god that I follow, I don't want to worship idols, I don't want to dishonor His Name. I don't want to kill, I don't want to run around with someone else's wife, I don't want to steal, etc. This is Jesus living in my heart. This is performance. This is the New Covenant. This is Jesus lining in my heart giving me a heart that wants to obey. I love His law. This does not mean that I don't have a struggle with sin daily, but now there is a power that frees me from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:2).
Perhaps this is best illustrated by the eagle in flight. God does not delete gravity. The law of gravity is always present. But for the eagle there is another law of aerodynamics. He has wings. There is a law that enables him to soar high over mountains. As long as the eagle is alive he is able to enact the laws of aerodynamics and soar in the sky. If the eagle dies, his ability to stay in the aloft is terminated, and the law of gravity takes over.
This is the glory of the New Covenant. God never canceled the Old, but he did enact a New Covenant in which He has taken upon Himself to guarantee that we can and will be faithful in keeping our side of the deal. But this is a mystery that has been lost today in our excessive emphasis on Jesus paying our debt. We have dismissed the central point that He has come by His Spirit to make us like Himself. Andrew Murray laments this is a truth that has been so challenged that we have postponed the blessing of the New Covenant until another world. Oh my goodness this stuff is hot!
I am extremely reluctant to bring up the issue of money, but a brother wrote me the other day, “If the Lord leads me to send you some money, how can I do it?” Our home church is Amazing Grace Community Church, Lafayette, Tenn. The pastor is Harold Carman. If you feel the Lord would have you help us, your best bet would be to write Harold at haroldgenecarman@gmail.com and he could tell you what to do. Any funds that are sent there are placed in a bank account where I have the ATM card and can draw on it here.
I first met Harold in 1975 when he came to Karuizawa for Japanese language study. In the many years I was in Karuizawa I knew hundreds of missionaries, and I would put Harold in the top 5% – if not at the top of the list. He was amazing. He was in Japan less than a year, but cut a swath for God like few missionaries have ever done. It was a bewilderment, and a heart-break for me, when he left, but he has continued to make a wide path for God in Tennessee since then. They have been extremely kind to us in acting as our home church.
I say I am reluctant to mention money, because this is an area that has been very dishonoring to the Lord by missionary fund raising techniques. I try not to make appeal for funds or needlessly tell stories subtly designed to pull heart strings. In 1974 I met a very fine church in South Carolina where the pastor took me out for a meal saying that their church wanted to support us, and asked how much we needed. I replied, “I am sorry but I can't answer that question.” I told him that if I thought we needed $500, and he gave us that; but the Lord only wanted us to have $300, we both would be out of the will of God. I didn't know what was in front of us in Japan, and he didn't know what the Lord wanted them to do. All I could tell him was to ask Jesus what he wanted them to do and obey Him.
The Lord has wonderfully met our needs, but I do appreciate the privilege of your fellowship;
In the bonds of our marvelous Lord Jesus,
bill
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