Freedom

3 April 2019

Dear Phyllis,

Your daughter-in-law, Lynn, wrote me last week thanking me for my little poem, and asked that I write some more. I told her, “You are knocking on the wrong door. If anyone thinks that I am a poet they are sadly mistaken.”. It is like going to a dry well to get some water. Many years ago I was staying in a hotel in South Korea. It was the best hotel in town, but didn't have running water. But they did have a well in the central court yard and kept a glass of water on the stand beside the bed. One afternoon I was thirsty, and decided to get some water myself. I went to the well and threw the bucket down into it. I was surprised to hear that, rather than going, splash it went thud. I looked down in the well and saw the water was only 4” deep. To get water you had to flip the rope to make the bucket fall over and then let a little water flow in. That is about as much water as there is in my well. But occasionally Jesus does share some thoughts with me and I try to write down what He says.

May I say that anything that comes from the mouth of God is well worth listening to. Oh, how I love His Word! This has probably been the greatest surprise of my life. Before I was saved I thought the Bible was the dumbest, dryest, most difficult book in the world. But after I was saved, I discovered that the Bible is the most wonderful treasure of truth ever penned. I love every page! Only the lost and the blind can read it and not bask in its light. But it does require the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit to explain it to us the Bible is Like a lamp with no switch..

In Acts 11:26 there is a small verse that says, “disciples were called Christians first at Antioch”. Years ago I heard the reason for this was because there was a slave market there where Caesar bought his best slaves. One day Jesus gave me some verses to talk about that. I wrote:

What is a Christian? The answer might be,

A Christian is one who is morally free.

In the days of our Lord, in the town of Antioch

A market was there with a slave auction block.

It was here Caesar had his purchasing men

To buy the best slaves when they would come in.

“Not him - he's too slim.

Now there's a Stout fellow, I think I will buy him.”

A brand was burned in his flesh there to see,

That hence forth this soul was Caesar's property.

For slaves who were put in Caesars own stall.

“Caesar's ones” was what they hence would be called.

About this time in places near here,

A strange type of people bean to appear.

They said they too were bought with a price,

And claimed their owner was the Lord Jesus Christ

They were just like the ones purchased with Caesar's cold sum So folks round here called this type “Christ's ones”

Thus we learnd by tradition

Why at Antioch believers first were called Christians.

They were not bought with silver or gold

But with the Blood of a Lamb who for them once was sold..

It was not with iron that their fetters were bound

But cords of love round their hearts that were wound.

Here in is the strange mystery,

For those bought by Christ, He set at liberty.

To serve Him was joy, and with Jesus within

No more to live in the bondage of sin.

Days are now singing - with rhapsody

These are the ones who are morally free.

And yet our strange story does not end right here

For many today go one living in fear.

They fear to own Christ's righteous claim,

And live as a slave in Satan's domain.

Who is the wise one? You tell me.

I like Christ's brand – He's set me free.

With my little poem, I have somewhat faintly tried to set forth the spiritual law, that it is only those who are bound who are truly free. In the Inverted Kingdom the slave is the only freeman.

One night I was walking down the road in the bar district at Yokota, and a young man with a Japanese prostitute was walking in front of me. I was about five feet behind him and ragging him as we walked along. I said, “Hey, Buddy, you know that is sin. Will your dad be proud of you tonight? Are you going to write and tell your mother what happened? Do you want your sister to be like that girl under your arm?” As we were walking along I noticed his ears were getting redder and redder. Suddenly he stopped, turned around, and exploded. He roared, “I want my freedom!” I fired back, “Freedom? Man, you don't know how to spell the word. The devil has you bound with a chain that would hold the Enterprise. You are a slave to sin.” He burst into tears.

Freedom is probably the most emotionally charged word in the American lexicon. At any political rally, or sporting event, one word you are guaranteed to hear is “freedom”. This is the main commodity all politicians are offering. If you want to get an emotional response from any American heart, all you have to say is “freedom”. I am amused when I hear the Star Spangled Banner sung at any sporting event; when the singer gets to the final line and sings, “Oh, say doth that star spangled banner still wave, or' the land of the free and the home of the brave?”; the whole stadium burst into a loud roars. It bewilders me that the obvious answer is “NO”. America is no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave. We gave that up years ago with liberalism. When nine Supreme Court judges in black robes ruled it was no longer legal to read the Bible or pray in an American school - and with hundreds of other laws - freedom went out the window. And Americans are no longer brave. We learned that at 9-11 when we had every cotton picken team we had coming from America to carry Bibles into Laos, Vietnam, and China cancel out. They were afraid to get on an airplane. And we had the same thing happen two years later with SARS, when people were afraid they might catch cold. America is no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave. If we want that we will have to go to Russia, Japan, or Thailand. They have freedom there. I have taught Bible in public schools in all these countries.

One of the sickest phenomenon in modern area is the new morality. I remember when I was in college the favorite cry was “free sex”. But it wasn't free in those days. There was a cultural restraint against it. Sexual perversion was a secrete, dark matter. Today it is a civil right. You can't win a political battle if you speak against it. The central plank of the new morality is there is no law. There is no absolute truth. Everything is relative. We have total freedom. We can do anything we want. What has this produced? Chaos and bondage. Freedom is a thing of the past. In seeking freedom humanity has produced bondage and darkness like never before.

I never wanted to be a Christian. I never wanted to get locket into such a religion of frustration. It was one of the shocks of my life, that when I gave my heart to Jesus, for the first time in my life, I knew real freedom. Oh man, it felt good. Oh to be free from sin. This is the law of the Kingdom. If we want real freedom, this is only found by being a slave of Jesus. Thank God for Antioch. Thank God for Jesus.

                                                                                    

                                           bill