9 November 2014
Dear Phyllis,
When I was in high school I was very much a loner. I had very few friends and spent more time riding my horse than running around with the other kids. I can't recall ever having a date with any girl in my class, and I don't believe I ever met one person from my class after our graduation night. Although, from time to time, I have spent a few weeks or months living at home in that area of Pennsylvania, from the fall of 1953 on, I was in some other part of the country or overseas. It wasn't until recent years that some have tried to reestablish contact with me. Inasmuch as nearly everyone is 79 or 80 years old now the numbers have decreased considerably. Two classmates have been saved and written me, but for the rest I have no idea how much light they have had. If most of them lived in the same spiritual vacuum that I was in at home, there is a strong possibility that they know very little about the way of salvation. In an attempt to reach out to them, last week, I wrote the friend who is the class historian, or at least the contact man, for everyone in the class of '53. I was grateful that he sent me a letter saying that my letter to them had been sent out. This was a pretty basic presentation of the Gospel, but I tried to phrase it in such a way that it wouldn't be too offensive and yet give them a clear understanding that there is such a thing as salvation through Jesus Christ.
It is one of the bewilderments of my life that Jesus would reach down to the bottom of the barrel and pick the most unlikely candidate to have the most unique life of anyone in that class. It would be a tremendous joy if I see someone in heaven that was introduced through this letter I sent this week. Enclosed is what I wrote:
4 November 2014
Dear Classmates of'53,
Last week I got a flood of e-mails concerning the passing of two more of our classmates. The class of 53? My goodness, that was 61 years ago. Small wonder the ranks are thinning. Given that the average lifespan is supposed to be somewhere around 75 years, we are all living on borrowed time. Candles have different lengths – some longer and some shorter. But one thing common to all candles is that they all have a beginning and an end. Regardless of the length of the candle, when the wick burns to the end, the flame goes out.
I could wish that we could reenact our graduation ceremony on a stage set for heaven. If we were standing in line going up on the stage, and, to get our diploma, was our entrance into heaven, there wouldn't be the melancholy sigh, “I sure will miss Mary”. If it was only a matter of seconds before the next one in line ascended the steps to the stage, we would look forward for the day when everyone in line got their diploma, and we were all gathered together for a class picture. If life was like that, there would be considerably less sorrow. For myself I am making very poor progress on my way to get to heaven, and I fear I may be the last one in line.
I know to write something like this is offensive to some. Although we all are Americans, there is no doubt that our religions vary somewhat and our spiritual views are not all the same. But one thing that we all have in common is death. For every one of us the day will come when our heart will stop and our spirit will leave.
I know there were some in our class that went into the ministry. God bless the ones that did. I was not much interested in religion when I was in high school, and I am even less interested now. It is true that I have been a missionary for over 53 years, but religion has never been my thing.
I was the most surprised turkey in town when the Lord invaded my life in 1957. My father collapsed of a heart attack the night of our graduation, and died three weeks later. That was my introduction to death. I had never heard of salvation, and had no idea of what happened after death. My quest for an answer led me into spiritualism, and through that I had a frightening encounter with the spirit world. But that didn't help me. Four years later a friend told me that Jesus would change my life if I would let Him. I flat didn't believe him, but to prove he was wrong I said I would give it a try. I lost that argument. After my conversion everything was different, but I never went into the ministry.
After Jesus came into my life, the first job He gave me was flying jet fighter aircraft. It was through that that I wound up in Japan in 1958. And I have lived in the Orient ever since. The reality of Christ was so powerful that I couldn't stay in the Air Force lighting after burners, but had to get out to tell the Japanese the way to heaven.
For the past 12 years I have lived in Thailand. For 15 years I was a Bible smuggler carrying Bibles to Christians in the underground church in communist countries in SEA and China. Traveling extensively in those countries and working with persecuted Christians has given me a perspective much different from those who have never been much out of the USA. Religion has very little to do with it. What we are dealing with here is LIFE.
Both Japan and Thailand are Buddhist countries. They are very similar. Buddhism has no definitive answers about anything. I had a friend in Japan who was a Buddhist priest. I asked him how Buddhism handled creation. He told me that Buddhism does not deal with creation, and the only place he knew of an answer for that question was in the Christian Bible.
The way I explain the Bible message to Thais is that in the beginning there was a God who created everything. He created man in His own image. Man is fundamentally different from animals in that he has a spirit, and man will compulsively worship something. In much of the world, life is a matter of appeasing evil spirits. Originally man was created perfect, but tragically turned against God, and man became sinful. There are no exceptions. All have sinned. Being a moral being, God must judge everyone according to what they do in life. Buddhism teaches that life is a balance and if the good out weighs the bad you might make it. But the law doesn't work that way. I suggest that if there were five stop lights, and a policeman stopped you for running one; protesting, “Look I stopped at the other four lights, shouldn't that excuse me for just running one red light.” Because of our sin all humanity is in bad shape. But God in His compassion doesn't want to fling the guilty ones into hell. To correct this serious problem God developed an unthinkable solution. He sent His Son to this earth to die in place of the criminals. In order to get this forgiveness and a free visa to heaven all you have to do is accept it. Man howdy, it can't get any easier than that! Religion has nothing to do with it.
For those who have already left us, there is nothing I can say. But for those us still standing in line, if we individually checked our pocket and made sure that we have indeed our prepaid salvation, moving up in the line would not be a dreadful thing, but a joyful hope. We were all anxious to get our diplomas, but I'm far more anxious to get to that City, and get to see again some old friends that I haven't seen in 61 years.
Hoping to see you there,
bill cook
May God bless this simple letter to see some to come into the joy of knowing Jesus. Amen?
bill
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