Living Water

Dear Phyllis,

When I was 29 I preached one of the better messages of my life in a rescue mission in Elmira, NY. I preached from the text in 2 Kings 7:3; “Why sit we here until we die?” I said to those alcoholics, “I don't have anything to say to you tonight that you haven't heard dozens of times before, but it hasn't done any good. What I have to say to you is very simple. Jesus Christ has come. He has opened a well of living water. All you've got to do is drink. You are dying of thirst, and sitting beside life giving water. There is salvation. Jesus offers to anyone who want it a marvelous life that exceeds your wildest imagination. Man, there's salvation out there; TAKE IT!” But I can't recall whether or not anyone was saved that night. The director of the rescue mission thanked me for the message.

I thought the scene in that rescue mission was an exact replica of the scene in Samaria in 2 Kings 7. There was a horrendous famine in the city. They were selling an ass's head and dove dung for food, and women were eating their own children (2 Kn. 6:25-29). The Lord had caused the Syrians to hear a noise and they had fled leaving behind a huge stash of food, raiment, and gold (7:8). There were four leprous men sitting outside the city, and they came up with the brilliant reasoning, “Why sit we here until we die?” They had two options. One was to go into the city and die with everyone else, or, two, defect to the Syrians and get killed. But there was the outside chance that the Syrians might not kill them. Of the two options that seemed like the best. When they got to the Syrian camp they discovered unimaginable treasure; they started wolfing down steak, trying on new shirts, and hiding gold (7:8). Then they thought, “This isn't too smart. Let's go in town and tell the rest of the folks” (7:9). Here they had a city full of people starving to death when there was more food than they could eat sitting right outside. That was the same scene as what I faced in the rescue mission that night; and we have all faced it every time we have tried to share what a treasure there is in Jesus with an unsaved person.. Oh my goodness, what a frustration!

But it is not just restricted to the unsaved world. We have practically the same scene inside the church. Oh me, what unimaginable things are all around us and we are like children playing in a sand box and have no idea what we are missing. But you don't miss what you don't know is there. I wonder if Jesus and some disciples were frustrated. Admittedly, Jesus knew that the Father had hidden spiritual truth from the wise and prudent, and revealed this unto babes (Lk. 10:21,22). When He talked to opposing Pharisees He knew the reason they didn't believe was because they weren't God's sheep (Jn. 8:42-47). Jesus said repeatedly, that they who were of God would hear His voice and those who weren't wouldn't hear (Jn. 5:37,44: 10:27). Jesus knew there were two types of people – those who were of God and those who weren't. And those who were not of God, would not, and could not, believe. But it still hurt Him to see those who would not come. He still cried, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I gather your children like a hen gathers her chickens under her wings. And you would not” (Mt. 23:37). There is a note of sadness in that cry.

I am not a prophet. I certainly am not a well known speaker. But I sit here like one of the lepers in Samaria sitting on a pile of food while there is starvation in the city. I have seen things that 99% of the Church of Christ has never heard of, and never will hear until we are gathered in heaven. I knew from direct relationship one of the greatest testimonies in Vietnam when the top North Vietnamese general died an unsaved man, went out into eternity, and came back from the dead a born-again Christian. I lived with him in his home and preached the first message in his home church but his testimony will never be published. It was one of the most maddening, frustrating, experiences of my life when that testimony got buried. He is with the Lord now and only a very few will ever hear what the Lord did in his life.

An almost equal miracle happened in Cambodia. The Pol Pot era in Cambodia was unique in human history of national genocide. Pol Pot is credited with killing a greater percentage of his own people than any dictator in human history. The stories of the killing fields in Cambodia are blood chilling. During his reign of terror there was one facility that was so horrible it made Hitler's Auschwitz seem almost humane; where 18,000 prisoners were incarcerated and there were 12 survives, The director of that house of horror was a man by the name of Comrade Duch. He may have been responsible for some of Pol Pots madness. When a person was brought to Tuol Sleng he was told, “We know you are guilty. If you weren't guilty you wouldn't be here. Now tell us what you did.” Then they would proceed to use the most horrific techniques to torture the victim until he made a full confession of his crimes. Ninety five percent of these were ridiculous. Most of them were they had been a spy for the CIA or KGB. Then the culprit was mercifully killed. The worse part was what he had to endure until he was killed. Duch would then send these reports to Pol Pot of “the confessions of his enemies”. This fueled Pol Pot's paranoia to make even more bizarre arrests. In the end Pol Pot killed 2/3 of his original cabinet who had been his close friends from the early days of the Khmer Rouge. Duch was arguably the bloodiest man in the Pol Pot regime. His record of personal atrocities makes him one of the most vile men in history. When the Vietnamese attacked Cambodia on Christmas 1979 Duch was the last man to leave Phenom Penh. He got out of town a day after the city fell. After the fall of the Khmer Rouge Comrade Duch took on a new identity calling himself by the name Hang Pin. In 1996 he was wonderfully brought to Christ by a Baptist missionary and became a godly pastor. But in 2007 the Cambodian government convened a trial for former Khmer Rough officials and he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was 67 when sentenced so it is highly unlikely that he will ever be released to tell his story. I have had a great desire to go to Cambodia to interview him and write his biography for the Christian world, but that will never happen. Along with General Tha Dam his testimony will die in silence.

When I was a very young Christian, the Lord led me to teach the Song of Solomon. Every Monday evening when I started preparation for the next Sunday lesson I would read the passage and ask Jesus, “What does this mean?” Invariably He would answer, “What does it say?” I would reply, “It says this, but it can't mean that.” That argument would go on every night for three or four nights until I would gasp, “You mean that it really means what it says?” In recent years I have come to embrace the approach to exegesis that the Lord taught me 60 years ago. When I quit trying to explain the Bible by my own understanding but simply accept that the Bible means what it says; even though that doesn't make sense, the Bible has exploded for me where now it is like looking at the sun. My heart is so full of things I long to share it is ready to burst. But you and a very small hand full of readers are the only listeners I have. There is so much I wish I could share but it won't happen. It's kind of frustrating.

Changing the subject; I believe the Lord has spoken to me about what He has in mind for my eye. I am usually wrong more times than right, but at the moment I am more comfortable than at any time since the doctor told me I had cancer. Basically what I have in my heart now is; “It is all over. No problem.” I am still waiting on two things. The first is to get a spouse visa for Thailand. That will take at least another month. And the second is funds for a ticket (s). I really don't want that until I (we) get ready to go. Jesus knows His own mind best, but there is no question but what He has in mind is good. And I hope in that it will be His will to see you and have a cup of coffee in the not too distant future.

Rejoicing in the hope of His coming, bill