Catching Fish

16 September, 2018

Dear Phyllis, 

Many years ago I was with Ron Blough and a gang of Gis to the great lake of Chuzenjiko. We had been traveling all night and arrived at a fish pond early in the morning. It seemed like a great idea to catch some fish and fry them for breakfast. The pond was teaming with large trout and they were so easy to catch that some fellows were having a contest to see who could have a hook in the water the longest without catching a fish. I mean the fish were almost fighting each other to get on our hooks. The poles that were available at this fish pond were simple bamboo sticks about 6 to 8 feet long with a simple string attached to the end. It was almost seconds before someone would have a large trout on the end of the string pulling them to the edge of the water. I reached down to take hold of the string to pull the trout up on the bank.. Bang, and the fish was gone. This happened several times and every time I tried to pull a fish out of the water the fish would cast the hook and escape. The owner of the fish pond saw my predicament and came to explain to me what was wrong. She told me, “Keep your hand off that string”. If I didn't touch the string the fish would fight the hook but the flimsy bamboo pole would simply bend. As long as the fish was battling the pole it couldn't cast the hook, but when I took hold of the string that gave the fish something firm to fight against and the hook would pull out. I believe the Lord taught me an important lesson in life through that experience.

In dealing with souls if a person is under conviction of the Holy Spirit the person is fighting God. But if I inject myself in the conflict the person will be fighting against me and can easily harden their heart.

Sixty years later I still don't know the answer. I am just slightly above an immature in personal work. The tendency is to think that I know more than the person I am dealing with and if he listens to me I can bring him into the Kingdom. At a time when many turned their back on Jesus and went away Jesus asked the twelve disciples, “Will you leave also?”. Peter answered, “Lord to whom shall we go? Thou hast the Words of eternal life” (Jn. 6:60-66). Well said. Jesus said, “The Words that I speak they are spirit and they are life” (Jn. 6:63). At a different time Jesus said, “The hour is coming and now is that the dead shall hear the Voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (Jn. 5:25). This is the only way that anyone can be saved. Salvation and the new-birth is when the Voice of the Son of God is heard in a human heart. I can quote all the assurance verses in the Bible and tell someone to memorize them, but until the Holy Spirit speaks directly to that person the best they have is a “hope-so” or “I-think-so” salvation. Spiritual assurance is the Voice of Jesus being heard in their heart. When that Voice is heard there is life.

When meeting a Christian for the first time I frequently ask, “When were you saved?'. The answers are as varied as there are numbers of snow flakes. (Of the unknown number of quadrillions of snow flakes no two are the same,) In many cases – particularly with the second generation Christians– people really don't know. At such time the next question is, “Do you know that you are saved now?” This is the third point of the New Covenant – “All shall know me” (Heb. 8:11). If a person doesn't know, the chances are that he probably isn't saved.

Jane Smith was one of the missionaries with the Mino Mission. Jane came from a strong mission family. She had been in agony for years over her salvation and went to Columbia Bible College. Jane told me, “I remember clearly the moment when Dr. McQuilkin reached down from the pulpit and demanded, “Young person, are you satisfied with Jesus?”. Jane said, “I reflected in my own heart, 'Am I satisfied?' and decided, 'Yes I am'. At that moment peace flooded over my soul”. Is that the Voice of the Holy Spirit? It sure sounds like it to me.

//////This is the second letter of a two letter PB letter today./////

As the shadows of senility are casting darkness across my aging mind I fear my letters are becoming like re-runs of old I Love Lucy shows. One of the signs of aging is when you continually repeat the same story. As the limited numbers of fresh stories is diminishing I resort to repeating old letters. I know I have told you this one several times, but Friday morning as I was meeting with my gracious Lord Jesus He brought back a scene that happened 50 years ago. I remember that moment like it happened last night. It has been etched in my mind like it was cut in stone. JB Friends was preaching in the Karuizawa Union Church tabernacle. He told the story that happened around the turn of the past century.

A young JEB missionary was on is way to preach one morning when he walked past a house where he saw a man reading, what looked like, a Bible. Bibles were so unusual in those days that he stopped to see if that was what it really was. What he discovered was the treasure of a lifetime. Indeed it was a Bible. Through some unknown means a man dying of TB had fallen heir to a copy of the Word of God. He had never met a Christian or been to church in his life. But simply by reading the Scripture he had learned of the Gospel of Jesus and taught by the Holy Spirit the deep truths of Pauline epistles. After a brief but blessed time of fellowship the missionary was about to leave when the lonely man said, “I have written a poem. If you would care to read it I would like to give you a copy.” If I recall the story correctly I believe JB Friends said it was Padget Wilkes who translated this poem to English. Oh I can hear it now as JB Friends quoted that poem from the pulpit.

“With Him, with Him upon the Tree, ah this, yes this is rest at last.

Here is the souls felicity, here is the crown of victory, here is all sorrow past.

With Him with Upon the tree, here all my pain and grief have died.

I look in vain for misery, for joy is all that I can see with Jesus crucified.

Strong pain hath held me in its sway for six long weary weary years;

And yer my heart is always gay, my lips are singing every day I have to time to tears.

No tears, and yet the more His grace doth my joyful heart oreflow.

the more 'tis torn by fierce distress, the while I see a wooing grace rush to its form of woe.

I have never heard anything like it. This captures the Christian life as few have expressed it. Oh our identity with Christ. That Jesus would take us into Himself in His experience on the Cross. How little do we realize the truth of that. How inexpressible miraculous and mysterious that the Holy Spirit is able to communicate some of that truth to make it reality in our lives. And yet we have this unspeakable treasure in a body of corruption and sin. “No tears and yet the more His grace doth this my joyful heart oreflow, the more 'tis torn by fierce distress the while I see a wooing grace rush to it form of woe.”

There you have it folks. Oh Jesus is wonderful! What He has done for us; and yet we have this life in a sinful body of death.

I'll close it here. Sayonara, bill