God's Timing

17 December 2017

Dear Phyllis,

Last week I was preaching at a Lahu church. As we are into December I was supposed to bring a Christmas message. I didn't feel very Christmasy but choose to speak on Gal. 4:4 - “When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son made of a woman”.

There are many things about God that are utterly amazing. No one can fully comprehend the love of God. When we examine it, the mercy of God and His forgiveness are mind-boggling. How He does it is utterly beyond me. The various attributes of God are so far beyond our human experience to fully appreciate Him is like getting a 6 foot ladder to pick stars. Among the amazing features of God is His patience. We are always in a hurry and want everything right now. This is particularly difficult for children but for all of us waiting is hard.

But God is in no hurry. Somehow He is able to wait millenniums. Shortly after the dawn of creation God promised the day would come when the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. It is with bewilderment that we read of God's dealing with humanity from the days of Noah, through Abraham, Moses, the time of the judges, the kings, and the Babylonia captivity; that in every conceivable way God would extend mercy to His people only to see things go sideways. Then we read, “When the fullness of time was come”. God was in no hurry. He could wait. He knew what He was doing and when the fullness of time was come He sent forth His Son.

This sheds a little light on some of our perplexing problems. In Isaiah 30:18 we read, “Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you”. The problem isn't that God is unwilling to give us good things,, but there is the need for Him to work in our hearts before we are prepared to receive them. God is waiting that He might give us His best. We want what we want now; but God is waiting that He might give us His best.

After Rosemary left my life went to zero. I lost everything. For a long time I felt like I was a sub-species of humanity. In reading the 22^nd Psalm I saw where Jesus cried, “I am a worm and no man” (Ps. 22:6). I said. “Me too”. I was reading my Japanese Bible at the time, and the Japanese said, “I am not a 'ningen' (human)”. For the next several years I adopted the attitude that I was no longer a ningen. I had a great desire to rejoin the world of homo-sapiens but I had to be content that I was no longer a ningen. There were many hopeful candidates that appeared on the horizon that I would have loved to marry but everyone fell through. The Lord waited 21 years until I was burned out, then He gave me a partner was was a run-away freight train evangelist.

Sometimes God gives us what we want right now but usually there is a period of waiting. One of the reasons for this is that waiting adds value to the gift. Things that come cheap are cheap. Things that come after years of waiting are of great value. The longer we wait the more valuable the gift.

Sometimes it is a lifetime. One of the finest Christians I ever met was Bob Holsten. But I never met a man that had more things go south on him. His entire life was a series of great hopes only to see it explode in his face. I don't know one thing that ever developed into real fruition. But one thing it did produce was Christian character like you seldom see in anyone.

Some times we never see what we have hoped for. For several years Lavinia McCart was my secretary. I never had a friend that was more devoted. But Lavinia's life was a tragedy. She was as dedicated a Christian as ever walked on God's green earth. She had been a missionary in Cambodia for eleven years. When things went sour in Cambodia with Sihanouk she was put out with the rest of the missionaries. From Cambodia she came to Japan to work with Kyoritsu Girls school. That didn't work out. Then she joined TEAM, but nothing major ever happened. Like all women Lavinia had her dream of being married with a nice family. There was a man in her life that she deeply loved but heart-ache was all she ever got. After I stated working in Cambodia I wrote Lavinia telling her how wonderfully God had heard her prayers and Cambodia was blooming like a flower. I had gone through the horrible Pol Pot years with Lavinia when all her dearest friends were being slaughtered. Now the Gospel was in Cambodia and thousands were being saved. I thought she would be thrilled to hear the fantastic reports of what was happening there. To my surprise Lavinia's sister replied to my letters thanking me, but said Lavinia was in a nursing home a very sullen person. She said Lavinia had never told them much about anything. They were delight to hear reports and information that Lavinia had never shared. Lavinia died with a broken heart.

But some time later, as I was praying, I saw Lavinia in heaven in my mind. I am not a spiritual person and don't have visions, but I believe what the Lord showed me was true. On earth Lavinia was a very plain person. She was a long ways from anything you might call good looking. But what I saw was a beautiful, radiant, woman. Lavinia was gorgeous in her wedding dress married to Jesus. She was raving, “Oh the Lord is good! He has given me His finest”. And now she has this for eternity.

I believe this is another chapter in the Inverted Kingdom. I believe heaven will be just like Abraham told the rich man in hell- “Remember in your lifetime you had the good things and Lazarus the bad, but now he is comforted and you are tormented”. I believe this is one of the laws of the Kingdom of God. The people of this world have their part right now, but the people of the Kingdom of God will get their part in the life here after. I am sure that in heaven we will see this in very clear contrast. The cute girl that was so poplar here, that married the guy who became the pastor of the 1^st church and had a wonderful life, will be in the bleacher section; and the poor, lonely, wall flower that got left behind here will be the most joyous soul in the front row in heaven. They might have to wait a lifetime, but God is good as His Word and He will make it all up.

The Father waited a long time before He sent His Son, but in the fullness of time Jesus came. After He left the last thing Jesus promised us was “behold I come quickly”, and He repeated that twice (Rev. 22:7, 12). He has been away a long time, but eternity runs on God's clock – not ours. When we see Him I am sure we will all agree that He kept His promise. In the mean time, “blessed are they who wait for the Lord” (Isa. 30:18)

                                                       bill