In a lengthy article for a missionary publication an eighteenth-century female missionary to China told of the abuse of girls and women. She pleaded for hundreds of additional ladies to serve along with her. Her task was to rescue the girls being sold by families as the future wives of those who could afford the asking price. The girls were often less than 10 years-old and were doomed to serve a domineering future mother-in-law. The future for Chinese girls born to poor parents was grim. Beatings, servitude, abuses of every kind were common.
One line in the published article is arresting. "Picture it! Ponder it! Pray over it! And think – do they not need us?" The author merely asked for serious consideration, not a rash decision or mindless commitment. But few responded to the impassioned appeal of the young writer who was giving her life to a ministry that rescued those so unfortunate to be born female and in China’s poverty.
Those who did respond risked their lives. Many died in service while in the prime of life. Young families buried their children. Many who answered the call were widowed at a young age. Orphans among the missionary contingent were sadly a sobering reality. The task and the conditions under which the mission was executed were difficult beyond words. But today, those who laid down their lives in the risky service to the least of China’s populace celebrate around heaven’s throne. A multitude of those who were rescued and generations of spiritual descendants are singing the songs of heaven!
A missionary call by Charles Gabriel was penned at about the same time as the missionary magazine article. I sung repeatedly the words in my youth and years of pastoral ministry. It needs to be revived! Let us boldly adapt the young woman’s challenge from long ago, "Picture it! Ponder it! Pray over it! And think – do others not need us?" Come on! Let’s sing! Let’s pray! Let’s go!
There’s a call comes ringing over the restless wave,
"Send the light! Send the light!"
There are souls to rescue there are souls to save,
Send the light! Send the light!
Send the light, the blessèd Gospel light;
Let it shine from shore to shore!
Send the light, the blessèd Gospel light;
Let it shine forevermore!
We have heard the Macedonian call today,
"Send the light! Send the light!"
And a golden offering at the cross we lay,
Send the light! Send the light!
Let us pray that grace may everywhere abound,
"Send the light! Send the light!"
And a Christ-like spirit everywhere be found,
Send the light! Send the light!
Let us not grow weary in the work of love,
"Send the light! Send the light!"
Let us gather jewels for a crown above,
Send the light! Send the light!
The spiritual needs of the world continue. In addition to reports in print, color photography, video journalism, and television help us see world need. We must, however, "Picture it! Ponder it! Pray over what we see!" And, then all serious disciples of Jesus must act!
Saint Paul makes an arresting statement in a letter to his young trainee, Timothy, an insight into the apostle’s heart and understanding of the ways of God. The aging apostle wrote, "The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly." (1 Timothy 1:14) Paul wrote after decades of ministry. He knew beatings which left him all but lifeless. He knew shipwrecks which caused all others aboard the boat to despair. Imprisonments and certain death at the hands of the enemies of the Gospel were overlooked. The grace of God moved to the bright lights of center stage.
The ninth generation of James Hudson Taylor’s decendents now minister in China, more than 150 years after the missionary patriarch arrived in the land to which he was called. That is amazing! Nine generations! But, that is recent history for the Taylor clan. In 1776 England was awakening from decades of decadence as George Whitefield, John and Charles Wesley preached wherever and whenever an opportunity presented itself. James Taylor, Hudson’s great-grandfather, was the life of the party a genuine scoffer who mocked the Methodist way and openly scorned whenever the message of grace was presented.
On the day of his marriage to Betty Johnson, James Taylor’s beautiful bride and dance partner, the bells announcing the time of the ceremony rang out, but the bridegroom was nowhere to be found. The grace of God was being poured out on him in the family barn. Concern for his soul overwhelmed him as the Holy Spirit convicted him of sin and taught James of his need of Jesus. Taylor was so caught up in the presence of the Spirit that he almost missed his wedding!
On their wedding night James Taylor informed Betty that he had been born again, opened a Bible and convened the newlywed’s first family altar! She resisted, for weeks! Betty wanted to continue dancing and partying. She missed the fun loving man she thought she had married. One night James lifted his bride of a few weeks and carried her to their bedroom. Placing her on a chair, James knelt before Betty and began to passionately pray that God would save her. The very next day Betty joined James in the new birth and became his life-long partner in prayer and Bible study. The Taylors became the leaders of Methodist classes in their community and patriarchs to those who founded a modern missionary movement.
One can trace the grace of God poured out in China all the way back to a plain Englishman’s wedding day in a small English village in 1776. The great-grandson, the one about whom many biographies have been written, may receive undue attention. The grace of God can be traced to a time and person who lived nearly 100 years before. From men’s viewpoint, James Taylor was anything but an "A List" candidate for salvation, but the grace of God was poured out on him as surely as on the Apostle Paul.
The Taylor story is amazing! But, each one who has known the conviction of the Holy Spirit and has been born of the Spirit can trace the grace of God all the way back to Noah and Abraham! The continuous chain of undeserved acceptance at God’s initiative is astounding! Trace the grace! Ah, sweet wonder . . . amazing marvel . . . the grace of God poured out in abundance.
Do you ever wonder how much our parents understood or appreciated the events through which they lived while they were occurring? While my parents joined millions of Americans in flattening tin cans, patching threadbare tires and rationing sugar to help fund a war on another continent, how much did they comprehend of what was happening? Was what we call "The Marshall Plan" just another piece of post war legislation which their tax dollars funded? Were our parents and grandparents too busy working, building homes, rearing children and funding retirement accounts to notice the great strides being made in industry, technology and knowledge? Did they ever reflect on the impact their lives were having on us, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren?
Alliances formed 60 years ago remain. Little fragments of order and peace known to our war-torn world are a result of eye-to-eye negotiations. Stalwart leaders stared down the pesky anti-christs of the 50's, 60's and 70's. While a parade of dictators threatened the extermination of Capitalism, pounded on a desk at the United Nations with a shoe and pointed missiles toward our shores, presidents refused to blink and expanded the "Arsenal of Democracy." But, I was busy attending classes, falling in love, building a family and scurrying about doing really significant things! How important is a guy named Castro? The names of Russian leaders were impossible to spell and pronounce. It was easy to ignore them while we pursued our own agendas.
I thought about these things as I awakened this morning. I thought about it because my sister, Gloria . . . the one who remembers praying for me with my Mom and Dad before I was born . . . my only sister, the one who helped me pay my college bills and sent me care packages . . . the one who helped me in more ways that I can ever remember or will ever repay . . . is having surgery today. Doctors say it is routine, just cataract removal. But, we three siblings have been so healthy that "routine" isn’t routine! The ophthalmologist who last looked into my eyes said that it wouldn’t be too long before I will share Gloria’s experience. In light of where we are in life, are we observing what is happening around us? Are we applying ourselves to the really important issues and sounding the appropriate warning?
Where we stand in national history is worth thinking about today, before the opportunity to appreciate its importance escapes. Consider that our President, in an inaugural speech no less, promoted the rights of those who live a lifestyle which God made a capital offense. The torturous events within the Boy Scouts of America put us at risk of God’s judgment while we listen to threats of "extreme wind chill indexes" and "accumulating slush on the roadways." Most children now grow up in a single parent home, most often with just the mother. Our President, who was reared in a single-parent home, is part of the new single-parent home majority. How has his journey through life colored his decisions? How are the realities of today impacting our future?
Some hear, observe, and have chosen to come out swinging. My e-mail "Inbox" is stuffed with challenges to activism. Some spend time angrily castigating everyone with whom they disagree. Others cower in fear, wringing their hands with a moribund view of the future. Some merely listen for the "wind chill index," dress appropriately and forfeit the opportunity to influence others. Could we ask ourselves, "Whom may I influence for Jesus’ sake by the way I pray, the way I live, and the words that I share?" Is it too simple, or is it audacious to assume that we are this generation’s equivalent to Ezekiel’s "watchman?" I intend to send a card to a friend’s daughter who is undergoing another round of chemotherapy. I’ll try to call someone I missed in church Sunday, do my best to make the Spirit of Jesus know with whomever I meet today and attend prayer meeting tonight. I sense an urgency to make today count.
The church that God assigned to form me during childhood, the years filled with pesky anti-christs, consistently preached, prayed, hoped and sang about holy living and Jesus’ return. We knew Jesus as our "Blessed Hope!" So, while I was musing long before daylight this morning, I sang!
It may be at morn, when the day is awaking,
When sunlight through darkness and shadow is breaking
That Jesus will come in the fullness of glory
To receive from the world "His own."
It may be at midday, it may be at twilight,
It may be, perchance, that the blackness of midnight
Will burst into light in the blaze of His glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
While its hosts cry Hosanna, from heaven descending,
With glorified saints and the angels attending,
With grace on His brow, like a halo of glory,
Will Jesus receive "His own."
Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying,
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying.
Caught up through the clouds with our Lord into glory,
When Jesus receives "His own."
Chorus:
O Lord Jesus, how long, how long
Ere we shout the glad song,
Christ returneth! Hallelujah!
Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Amen.
Lyrics: H. L. Turner
Music: James McGranahan
A good book is a great gift! I love giving them. This morning I sent off a copy of V. Raymond Edman’s, The Disciplines of Life to a new friend. Dr. Edman’s book is a condensation of a series of chapel sermons he presented to the student body at Wheaton College during his presidency. Each reading is a reminder to acquire wisdom, or how to apply knowledge.
I am sending another book to a friend of more than 50 years, a book on preaching. Bob is already a fine preacher, solid teacher and a thoughtful communicator, the kind of person who will continue to learn. The book will encourage him, I hope. The "I hope," is an indicator of the anxiety factor in book giving. What if the one to whom I send the book hates it and thinks I am a Neanderthal? It does happen on occasion!
The "I hope," factor is a worthy risk to take, especially if the book is a classic like Dr. Edman’s. The Disciplines of Life was copyrighted in 1948 and has gone through more publications that some author’s books have sold. The wisdom of truth and life application is timeless. It is more contemporary than today’s headlines.
Receiving books is a second love. Friend Bob, the old college friend who has been preaching for nearly half a century, sent me an Alan Redpath title, Victorious Christian Living. The book is a series of deeper life studies from Joshua preached while Redpath was a pastor of Moody Church in Chicago in 1953. The call to personal holiness is timeless and reminiscent of pulpit themes from my childhood. Redpath’s knack for quoting poetry and hymn lyrics enriches the text. Bob sent me a book he described as "thrift store salvage" that is priceless.
Ah, books! They are wonderful gifts.
As I read through the older King James Version of the Bible earlier this year, I stumbled over vocabulary that was more familiar in my youth. Have you ever wondered why the Kohathites important? For instance, in the King James Version Numbers 4:19 says, ". . . when they approach unto the most holy things: Aaron and his sons shall go in, and appoint them everyone to his service and to his burden." The language arrested my thoughts for a moment with, "What burden?"
The language of The New International Version says, ". . . when they come near the most holy things, do this for them: Aaron and his sons are to go into the sanctuary and assign to each man his work and what he is to carry." Aha! Everyone has an assigned piece of the Tabernacle to carry. No one is exempt from sharing responsibility. A whole clan of Kohathites was available to the larger priesthood. The Lord says, "Don’t overlook the help you have, and don’t deny them the opportunity to share in the blessing of service."
Every pastor has known the blessing of the Kohathites, the people who work behind the scenes, experts at carrying and moving. Ernie and Betty were treasurers who made the work of the pastor pure joy. Don and Sam were skilled differently, but each loved to keep God’s house looking beautiful. A roster of secretaries, Nancy, Marilyn, Arlena, Rachel, Emily and Becky have made life better and everything run more smoothly. (I know "administrative assistant" is the more culturally correct, but I am writing with retro language running around in my head.) I am a little skittish about mentioning my son-in-law, Otis, because of nepotism’s stigma. But, few have carried more assignments with so little recognition. Hundreds of others enjoyed attention to details which allowed me to dream and define the huge sweeping pictures the Lord had shown me. On many occasions someone would ask about a detail in the church kitchen, a line item in the budget, or a detail that only a Kohathite could answer. Small group leaders, nameless Kohathites, and I shared pastoral ministry and we all grew together.
"Burden" surfaces again in Numbers 11:16-17, "The LORD said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting, that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.’" (Emphasis mine) The same Spirit that equipped and qualified Moses was upon the rank and file, people like the Kohathites. The Spirit breathes on those whom He wills for the purposes that suit the One who made us.
If you are a leader, ask the Lord to show you those with whom you can share the burden. You will then join me in celebrating the Kohathites which make life better than we could have ever known it doing everything ourselves!
How many times . . . ? Questions beginning with those three words are loaded! How many times have you idled, fingers drumming on the steering wheel as the signal lights cycle through an endless menu of lights allowing left, right and straight ahead options? How many times do you arrive for a doctor’s appointment and wait, and wait, and . . . ? How many times have you circled the maze of roadways tangled around airport terminals as your loved one waits for a bag tangled in an out-of-sight contraption? "How many times?" tends to lean toward impatience, frustrations even anger. How many times . . .?
Peter asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" (Matthew 18:21) Jesus, is once a day for a week enough? How will I know the one who has wronged me really means it? When is enough, enough? When will we ever be able to move on?
Jesus’ response is demanding. He said, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven." You and I hear sermons on the theme and usually respond with a shrug of the shoulders and, "Well the preacher doesn’t know about my case! If he could just be the fly on the wall and see what is really happening . . ." Do you know what they did? Nothing like that has ever happened to you!
Well, let’s not forget who said, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy times seven." Nor, let’s not overlook how He continues to model His instructions by forgiving us. As disciples of Jesus, we learn to think like Him, behave like Him. Like Him we learn to pray for those who slander and attack us. I can find no evidence that Jesus ever stopped praying as He did on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." Yes! He prayed, and kept on praying that way while some gambled for His clothes . . . right there in front of Him!
If the seventy times seven is daunting, consider John who wrote, "Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world." A chorus from my childhood says:
To be like Jesus
To be like Jesus
All I ask, to be like Him
All through life's journey
From earth to glory
All I ask, to be like Him.
Seventy times seven is an order, a clearly-defined expectation for us who follow Him who models forgiveness for us.
Some folk just see life differently. They dream! Their drummer’s cadence is off-meter. What consumes the interest, energy and time of the majority seems to be of little interest to dreamers. Western industrialized cultures have little time for dreams. Hard data, provable theorems and observable phenomena are the currency of Western decision making. Dreams are eerie, spooky, too weird for serious consideration in a society that interprets life with numbers.
Joseph’s brothers, eleven of them, said, "‘Here comes that dreamer!’ . . . Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.’" (Genesis 37:19) The envious siblings discarded their meal ticket! If it hadn’t been for a trading company passing by, Joseph would have starved to death and they would have also.
The Patriarchs and prophets were familiar with dreams. It is what makes Daniel, Ezekiel and others so interesting! When Peter stood to explain the phenomenon of Pentecost he quoted Joel, "‘In the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.’" (Acts 2:17) As we live the "last days" we ought to be comfortable with dreams and visions.
We "older men" ought to expect dreams as normal, as much as Pentecostals profit from speaking in tongues. Younger men should expect to experience God-inspired visions, an escape from committee-driven strategy, and a holy interruption to business as usual. Dreams and visions facilitate a divine freedom from institutional goals and measurements. By the Spirit, in dream or vision, David Wilkerson saw young people more than 150 miles away whom others were walking past without notice. Loren Cunningham received a Spirit vision, the mobilization of 100 thousands of young people in missionary service. Dreams and visions change the world!
Dreams and vision bring glory to God. They outlive the dreamers and visionaries. The fruit of what is born of the Spirit makes Jesus known. Public recognition is almost inevitable. We still talk about Joseph. Daniel is a major hero of the faith. But everyone who understands their stories stand in awe of the power and mercies of God. Decades before it was fulfilled Joseph dreamed the dream that saved a nation from starvation and gave us Moses and the Exodus story as a building block for our faith. His siblings didn’t sit in a committee session and develop a clandestine strategy to get "that dreamer" into Pharaoh’s inner circle.
National and international conditions require another generation of Spirit-dreamers. The church thrives when dreams and visions accompany other manifestations. If you see or hear of a quirky person, one who marches to a different cadence, hears a voice that others cannot, sees what is invisible to the masses, listen to him! Watch him! Ask the Spirit to give you discernment. "That dreamer" may the be one who God uses to save a generation!
