16 February 2014
Dear Phyllis,
The biggest plus that came out of attending Dr. Jack Green's Baptist church last Sunday was meeting a pastor from Pakistan. We hit it off so big he called me requesting that we have a meal together. Last Wednesday we did get together. He is so absolutely adamant that we are going to Pakistan to minister that he e-mailed his wife telling her that we are coming.
Unfortunately I believe he has made a serious misjudgment in character. He told me several times, “You have passion”. I replied, “Yes there is fire in my heart, but there is more smoke than fire in my mouth.” A lot of smoke but very little heat to cook on. I am more like that fig tree that was in full bloom, with a lot of leaves but no fruit (Mt. 21:17-20).
I believe Pastor Hanook is the real thing. He showed me the scars on his body where we was tortured for preaching Christ. He said, “They tried to cut out my tongue but couldn't”. He told me, “They can cut off my ears, they can cut off my nose, they can pluck out my eyes, but I will never allow them to cut out my tongue. That is for preaching Jesus.” He want us to come work with him. His offer is tempting. I told him if I could, I would go with him tomorrow, but at this point that looks very difficult.
It is doubtful that the Lord will ever give me my request, but the highest ambition of my life is to be a Christian terrorist. Recently I have developed a real affection for the Islamic terrorists. I would love to visit their training camps and talk with those men. I admire their spirit. Of course, I do not agree with their cause, and I do not like their tactics. Their cause is to promote Mohammad, and their tactics is to kill infidels – Christians and Jews. They are murders. But I do admire their dedication and commitment to their cause. I believe to a large degree the Lord has raised up these terrorists to show us what we should be. Our greatest need today is for an army of Christian terrorists. What we need is to tie a bomb of the love of God on our bodies and go to the most dangerous places to see how many souls we can save. If their goal is to see how many they can kill; how much more should we exceed them in our dedications to see how many we can save? And the only way we can do that is by suicide bombers who are willing to give their lives to see other saved. Jesus gave His life for that cause. How in the world is it possible that we should shrink to do the same?
We are utterly without excuse if we are afraid of them, but they should be terrified of us. In describing His Bride in Song of Sol., twice Jesus said “Thou art as terrible as an army with banners (S. of S. 6:4,10). Christians don't think so, but the devil knows this is true. In the early days at Yokota, Ron Blough and I got to bantering each other one Saturday. The result of that was to shame each other into having a street meeting in the bar district. Neither one of us wanted to do it, but we were too proud to admit our fears. We got about a dozen GIs together to go downtown for a meeting. When we got to the end of the bar district street we locked arms and started marching down the street singing Onward Christina Soldiers. It was hilarious. The street was crowded with hundreds of GI s standing there talking to each other or the girls. When we started down the street singing, it was like a fire alarm went off. The entire crowd looked at us in shock. We marched 300 meters to the other end of the street to Kay's Bar – the street was deserted. There wasn't a soul in sight. Every man fled like we were coming with tanks and flame throwers. From that I learned how terrifying Christians are to the unsaved. After that I had numerous occasions of walking up to huge men who could easily kill me and see them tremble as I gave them a gospel tract. When John Paton landed on the New Hebrides Islands near New Zealand the devils knees buckled. Thirty years later Paton had made nearly a clean sweep pf seeing those cannibals saved. There is no reason in the world why we should be afraid of terrorist but there is every reason why they should be terrified of us.
Several years ago we had a large group of students come out from the states to help us with our Bible logistic mission. The last day they were here I had the privilege of speaking to 80 young folks. I spoke to them about Ability. I said the one thing that is the most important qualification in mans sight is almost a disqualification in God's economy. In man's book the primary criteria for candidates is that they are looking for people with abilities to get the job done. God is not. He is looking for weak ones, foolish one, those who are zeros to do His work (1 Cor. 1:27-29). The problem with gifted men is that they think they have what it takes to serve the Lord. God is looking for the weak and foolish.
But there are three abilities that God is looking for in servants to carry the Gospel to the lost. The first ability that is necessary is AVAIL ABILITY. There are a lot of good people that could be useful for the Lord but they just aren't available. “I would like to go to the mission field but I can't because...” We have our ambitions and things we want to do which makes us unavailable for the Lord to use. There are myriads of reasons why people are not available. The only job application I know of in the Bible is in Isiah 6 where the Lord asks the question, “Who will go for us?” It is to Isiah's credit that he could answer, “Here I am send me.” (Isa. 6:8). Praise God he was available. I knew a brother who was a fine missionary to Papua New Guinea. I asked him how he got there. He said he heard of a need for someone to take care of a MK home there and thought, “I am not qualified to be a missionary but I am here; there is no reason why I shouldn't go”. So he did. Some of the best missionaries that I have ever met are people who weren't qualified, but they were available and went anyway. God is looking for a few un-gifted folks who are simply available to go anywhere. But there aren't that many.
The second ability that is primary is DEPEND ABILITY. God needs someone He can depend on. There are many who start well, but when the sledding get tough, many fade away. It is required of a steward that he be found faithful (1 Cor. 4:2). Proverbs says that an unfaithful man is like a broken tooth. You think he good, but when you put your confidence in him, and he proves unreliable, it is like eating with a broken tooth (Prov. 25:19). A man may not be that gifted but if he is dependable that is a wonderful ability.
But the third ability is one that is never mentioned – EXPEND ABILITY. This is going to be the determining factor for tomorrows servants of God. They must be expendable. Psalms says, “As arrows are on the hand of a might man so are the children of youth” (Ps. 127:4). There are some things that are expendable and some things are not. Bows are not expendable – arrows are. Guns are not expendable – bullets are. Hammers are not expendable – nails are. What we need today are expendable servants of God. When Paul went up to Jerusalem he was clearly warned of the Holy Spirit what dire fate awaited him there. His response was, “I am ready not to be bound only but to die at Jerusalem for the Name of the Lord Jesus” (Act 21:13). He obviously considered himself expendable. I have thanked God that for the past 24 years the Lord has made me the most expendable turkey He has in His inventory. I have lost some of that status for the past 2 ½ years since I have been married, but the Lord knows I am still willing to go one way any time He directs. The Lord would have to provide for Pammy if I go, but I can't stay here forever anyway. Sooner or later we are going to have to say goodbye. I have frequently thought of many of the men who were terrorists on those three planes that got hijacked on 9-11. Some of them were loving family men. The time came when they said goodbye to their wife and kissed their children for the last time. We don't admire them for what they did, but I marvel at their dedication to pay the ultimate price for the sake of the cause they felt was more important.
The problem is that America has been asphyxiated with a Safety First mentality. It has become paralytic to think of safety first. When I was a kid, the only thing we wore was a baseball cap. Today mothers would be horrified if their children got on a bicycle without wearing a helmet. Safety first may be alright in the work place, but it is not healthy to be too neurotic in the home. We have a generation who won't take a chance on anything. Of course there are going to be injuries, but that is part of life. I did the most dangerous things imaginable as a kid, and grew up normal. To eat totally aseptic food is not healthy. Of course there is bacteria in raw food but our systems can handle it. The Bill Rees kids had so many cuts on their hands and bare feet around cow and horse manure that their blood had built such resistance to infection it probably would have cured AIDS.
Safety first is not the number one concern for a soldier. In the early part of the 2nd WW the causality rate for the 8th Air Force in England was 75%. If you were air crew in England your chance of getting shot down was 3 in 4. But the German targets were so critical hundreds of brave airmen went up daily to bomb those targets. Most of them did not come home. The Marines at Guadalcanal, Saipan, Iwo Jima, Okinawa, etc. were not thinking of safety first when they stormed ashore those islands. The men at Normandy weren't thinking safety first when they landed in France. The last time I was in China a member of the house church gave me a chart of the missionaries who were martyred during the Boxer rebellion in 1900 in China. In Shanxi Province alone there were 136 missionaries and 53 children killed. I never knew there were so many. The first three missionaries to go to the Sudan were dead within weeks. And yet others kept going. The only way you can do something like that is to consider yourself expendable. Islamic mothers raise their children to be suicide bombers. Do we raise our children to send them out as missionaries?
We have come to a time in history where this world is going to be a very dangerous place. The day is soon coming when Christians are going to have to make the choice of accepting the mark of the beast – 666 – or be beheaded. The martyrdom rate for the CMA in Cambodia during the Pol Pot era was 80%. If I understand the Scriptures correctly, I see where that will not be restricted to a small SEA country, but will be world wide (Rev. 13:16,17; 20:4). The rapture may come before then. I won't comment on that, but it would be hard to tell the Christians in China during the Culture Revolution in 1965 that they were exempt from tribulation. It would be hard to tell the Cambodian Christian that they wouldn't have to pay the price. It would be hard to tell the Christians in North Korea today that they would be exempt from suffering. What makes Americans think that they are exempt from taking a stand or losing out with God?
I don't know about Pakistan. Barring three things – finances, a commitment here in Chiang Mai, and marriage – I would go tomorrow. I admire Pastor Hanook who is there preaching the Gospel everyday. Of course there must be Christians in Pakistan. Pakistan must be won for Jesus. We must win the battle there. Of course there is going to be more blood shed. You can't fight a war without taking casualties and there will be no victory without blood. Jesus shed His Blood and calls us to do the same. Lord Jesus, make us willing.
The three greatest abilities God is looking for today is simply AVAIL ABILITY, DEPEND ABLILITY, and EXPEND ABILITY. That is what it is going to take in Pakistan. Holy Father, raise up Your laborers and thrust them forth into the harvest;
bill
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