3 April 2016
Dear Phyllis,
Things were looking very bleak for John. He was close to 90 years old. They had been preaching the Gospel for nearly 60 years. It started off real good but after 30 years intense persecution got the upper hand, false teachers were polluting the church and Jesus hadn't come back yet. The worst thing happened when he got exiled to the lonely island of Patmos and there was no warm fellowship. He didn't even have e-mail. But he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day when he heard a Voice speaking behind him. The reason the Voice was behind him was that he was looking the wrong way. But when he turned to see the Voice what he saw was the Candle Sticks. The Candle Sticks obviously is the Church. But in the midst of the Candle Sticks he did see Jesus.
Jesus well described this when He told us that the Kingdom of God would be like a treasure hidden in a field (Mt.13:44). I'm really not interested in farming. I don't care if it is 20 acres of bottom land top soil. I don't care what you can do with the field. And sometimes you can get a whole truck load of horse manure thrown in free. Hang the dirt. Hang the horse manure, I don't need it. But I sure am interested in the treasure that is hid there. Obviously the treasure is Jesus and the field is the Christian religion. The problem is that Jesus is hidden and sometimes He is hard to see in the field. It is highly significant that when John turned to see Who was speaking the thing that he saw first was the Church and then Jesus standing in the midst of the Church.
You know my favorite book in the Bible is the Song of Solomon. For many years I have been greatly puzzled by the way Jesus raves at the beauty of His Bride. For a long time I protested,”This can't be the Church. She doesn't look like this. The Church is disgusting. All I see are warts and scabs.” And as I studied what Jesus had to say about the Seven Churches I asked the Lord, “How in the world can You stand in the midst of that? I would get out of that church right now.” No one should be a member of an immoral idolatrous, dead, prosperity gospel outfit like, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, and – worst of all – Laodicea. Even Jesus said the church in Laodicea made Him sick to His stomach.
My goodness that prosperity gospel is diametric to everything Jesus ever taught and the central teaching of the New Testament. They not only glory in their luxurious living but preach that this is the Gospel of Christ. How can Jesus say that this is His Bride? Then I noticed one word that is added to all seven churches. Overcomers. “He that overcometh...” And I saw the bottom line in Rev. 21:7 where the Lord says, “He that OVERCOMETH shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be My son”. That is the Church. It is not that half-saved, backslidden, worldly, self-serving gang that call themselves Christian, but it is the hidden overcomers. That is the real church and in very reality that is where Jesus is living. Jesus is the hid treasure in the field of dirt.
In 1996 when I went back to America to be with Rosemary I was shocked at what had happened to her home church. Thirty years before then the Burley Bible Church had been one of the best I had been in. Oh my goodness, those people were fantastic. But the church had gone through two nasty church splits, three pastors and the donkey that was there then was a clown. I went to every service and for nine months I despaired of ever shaking hands with a true believer. Oh, there were a few of the old timers still around but the atmosphere of the place was ridiculous. Then my neighbor invited me to go with him to an early morning mens prayer meeting in Tacoma. Oh my goodness, did we have church! There were about eight or nine fellows from two or three churches who gathered together at 6:00 in the morning to seek the Lord. Man howdy, they were the real deal. One brother asked me if I would come to his church to speak, but his pastor didn't want me.
For fifteen years I was my great privilege to work with the underground church carrying Bibles into China, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and Burma. And I have had some contact with the church in Pakistan, Nepal, and India. May I tell you that the believers in those countries are much different than the ones you see on TV in the mega, prosperity gospel, Joel Olstein churches in America. But even in those places you will find the occasional believer who is the real deal. In 1990 when I was at Link Care we went to a large Baptist church in Fresno. It was so bad one time I had to excuse myself to go out side and sit in the car. But we did go to a Bible study one morning and heard some terrific testimonies. It has been my great privilege to know a number of Christ-centered, Christ-honoring, Christ-living Christians. But they are more or less hidden.
Miyako was my secretary for a couple of years. She had lived a most unfortunate life for many years. She had a good husband but ran around and dumped her son. But then when she was 40 she got saved. She was just like Jesus said, “She who has been forgiven much loves much (Lk. 7:47). I never met a person who loved the Lord more than Miyako. She would give her life for me. I never saw 1mm of self in her. Her entire life was devotion to others for Jesus sake.
Miyako had a good friend, Yumi chan who saw an add in the Christian Shimbun (newspaper) by a man looking for a Christian wife. Yumi chan called the fellow to see how old he was. He was too old for Yumi but she thought Miyako might be interested. Miyako did send the guy a letter and he said of the 35 replies he got from the add he liked Miyako's letter the best. I knew nothing about this until Miyako told me that she had a marriage hanashi (talk) going and wanted me to check the man out. He came to see me and he indeed had a bad background but seemed to be solidly saved and pretty straight with Jesus. I gave him a passing grade. A few weeks later when they got down to the bottom line the man honestly said, “Before you give me your answer whether or not you will marry me I want you to know that I have leukemia of and don't have long to live.” Miyako replied, “That is okay. Actually what I was looking for was a blind man or a cripple – someone that I could take care of. If you have leukemia that is all right.'” I was blown way. I never heard anything like it. They asked me to marry them and I said I would only do it after three in-depth session of counseling. The wedding was set for a Sunday after church and he was coming to Karuizawa on Saturday afternoon for counseling and a practice. But it was a national holiday. At 8:00 o'clock that evening he called from Takasaki saying he had been driving all day and had only gotten that far. It took him another four hours to cover 40 km and got to our house at midnight. He hadn't eaten all day, so while he was eating I started the counseling session. In passing I asked, “Will you promise you will never hit Miyako?” I was stunned when he frankly replied, “No”. I asked Miyako, “What will you do if you get clubbed?” She said, “I don't know. I have never been hit.” At 12:30 at night we were at an impasse. He would not back off and promise he would never hit her and she looked to me for the nod whether or not the marriage was on. He was straight on everything else. He would love his wife like Jesus loved the church, but he would not promise he wouldn't strike her. On the grounds that the Bible does not say, “Thou shalt not deck your wife”. I reluctant gave the nod and we had the wedding.
He was a rough one. The war started at the elevator in the hotel on their honey moon. We went on furlough shortly after the wedding and I never heard what happened. But Miyako put up with beating for three months and called it quits. She came to Karuizawa to talk to the Christian sister there. Takako Yamamoto listened to her for an hour and said, “You call yourself a Christian and can come up her to bad mouth your husband like that?” Miyako burst into tears, repented, and went back to faithfully serve her husband for 14 months and then saw him off to heaven. She was one of the most beautiful Christians I ever saw. Years later her first husband got saved and the last I saw of them were they were remarried faithfully serving the Lord together in their elderly years.
Miyako was the real deal. I agree with Jesus. She is exactly like what He describes in the Song of Solomon. I can see why the Lord loves His wife so much. I struggle with the rank and file of Christians I see around me. There is a lot of dirt in that field, but the hid treasure is there. It is Jesus and He is still standing in the midst of the Seven Candle Sticks. But the real church are the overcomers.
Oh, thank You Lord,
bill
PS: When you read this letter I will either be airborne or on the ground somewhere in LA. In four hours I will be on a plane leaving Thailand.
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