Hold Out to the End

 

[1]

Matthew 24:12-13 Good News Translation

¹² Such will be the spread of evil that many people's love will grow cold. ¹³ But whoever holds out to the end will be saved.

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While a student at Andrews University, I discovered the joys of being in an academic environment. Many of the students had interests in all kinds of things; curiosity was popular and encouraged. I had discovered the fulfilment that came from picking up languages. In high school I learned Afrikaans and could speak it fluently. Then as a sophomore in college, I found myself at Seminar Marienhöhe sweating to learn German. By the end of the semester, I was speaking it fairly easily. At the end of that semester, my brother Elwood and I were shipping out to the States through Rotterdam in the Netherlands. From a Bbile Society booth, I picked up the gospel of Mark in Dutch. Totally unaware of the pitfalls of language, I spent several weeks reading the gospel and, using my Afrikaans to understand the meanings of the words, wrote up a grammar for Dutch and felt pretty good about knowing the language. When I got to Holland, I quickly discovered that I had done well and understood all that was being spoken. However, it took a couple days to pin down the fact that the Dutch I had taught myself so diligently was very old fashioned. It was like King James English—understandable, but totally outdated. The gospel I had used was probably the Statenvertaling of the Bible and was published in 1637! However, by the end of four days, I was getting around very well in modern Dutch.

At Andrews the Greek scholar, Leona Running, announced that she would be teaching New Testament Greek on Friday evenings in the Seminary Chapel. As a kid I had spent a lot of time delving into various historical fonts and knew the Greek alphabet very well. So, I showed up to the Seminary Chapel and got myself a seat near the front. The chapel filled up so there was standing room only as Dr. Running began her first lecture. She had me enthralled. I observed, in total surprise, that over the next ten weeks there were significantly fewer attendees at each meeting. For the last few meetings there were only about four of us attending. Prof. Running was not surprised.

About ten years later, I was a graduate student at the University of Iowa working on my PhD in mathematics. I was toying with going to teach math at Middle East College in Beirut, Lebanon. Two Egyptian students at the university announced a “class” in Egyptian Arabic. I signed up and made excellent progress in Arabic. Again, I noticed the same phenomenon as in the Greek class. The first meeting or two we had a huge class, but towards the end there were only a handful of people who were still coming. I did not go to Lebanon; instead, I went to Helderberg College in South Africa. However, I’ve often wondered how I would have done with Egyptian Arabic in Lebanon. As it is, I never used the Arabic and so have forgotten it, except for some cognates of Swahili words I had learned during five years teaching math and learning Swahili in Tanzania.

In Biblical stories, remember Noah’s Ark? I have a feeling that when Noah started building it, he had a large number of helpers. However, as more than a century went by, many helpers’ love or enthusiasm grew cold, and they deserted him. Eventually only three of his sons, and he probably had many, entered the ark with their wives and were saved. Most of the antediluvial patriarchs started their families during their first or second centuries, whereas Noah’s sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth were all born around the beginning of his seventh century. Very likely he had other children during his younger years, but they never went into the ark to be saved. That must have been tragic for Noah and his wife.

Christ was aware of our human nature to start things but then give up along the way. Hence His encouragement in our text.

Continue to remind me, Lord, that I must hang in there with You, or all of our cooperation of effort will be in vain.

 

[1] https://blissfulroad.com/the-importance-of-persistence-in-achieving-your-goals/

Double-Edged Sword

 

[1]

Hebrews 4:12-13 Contemporary English Version

¹² God's word is alive and powerful! It is sharper than any double-edged sword. His word can cut through our spirits and souls and through our joints and marrow, until it discovers the desires and thoughts of our hearts. ¹³ Nothing is hidden from God! He sees through everything, and we will have to tell him the truth.

 

We recently attended a Wycliffe Associates Summit here in California. They accentuated the transformation native speakers undergo when they read the Bible in their own language. The translators especially are changed because they have spent genuine time actually understanding God’s word and then expressing it in their own heart language.

Some of my fellow believers ask me if it wouldn’t be better to donate what I give for Bible translation to church evangelism instead. As we discovered in Tanzania many years ago, where people used an English or a Swahili version of the Bible to study for themselves. I heard them say, “But this is in the language of our oppressors.” Indeed, the English were the most recent rulers of Tanzania, and Swahili is a language created by the Arabs who used it in the slave trade. It can be difficult to learn about love and grace in a language normally associated with oppression.

But then, some argue, what if people misinterpret the meaning of the text? That is the same argument the Catholic Church made in order to restrict the use of Scripture throughout the Dark Ages. Some experts claim there are over 9,000 Christian denominations in the United States alone (over 33,000 worldwide). See what happens when each person is able to read the Bible and form his/her own opinion about the Truth of God?

God’s Word is alive! It is causing people to think about what message God has for them. It is the Holy Spirit’s duty to teach each person what he wants them to believe as well as what He wants them to do. It is only the active intervention of the Holy Spirit in our lives that prepares us for heaven, that applies God’s grace to the individual believer.

Just as God used human instruments to write His words contained in the Bible, God has given people the privilege for making His Word available to every to every nation, kindred, tongue and people[2] in their heart language.

Thank You, Lord, for giving us the opportunity to help spread Your Word to all of mankind. And Thank You also that it is not our assignment to police how Your Holy Spirit chooses to use this Word.

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[1] https://clipground.com/images/gods-words-clipart-3.png

[2] Revelation 14 :6 “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,”

 

Dimensions and Trust

[1]

Proverbs 29:25 King James Version

²⁵ The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe.

 

While I was teaching at Ikizu in Tanzania, they held a camp meeting on campus. There were far too many people to use the large campus church for meetings. So, they stretched ropes between several trees and then covered an area with thatch grass to shield attenders from the equatorial sun. By this time, I understood Swahili well enough so that I could attend the meetings and understand what the presenters were saying. One was Bekele Haye, an Ethiopian who spoke in English because he didn’t speak Swahili, and his message was translated, so I heard it twice.

He told the people who wished they had been born white that that was a foolish wish. “I went out one day with a white missionary and worked in the fields all day. The next day, all of the white man’s skin peeled off, so he was in bed in great pain. I was out working in the fields again.” Then he went on and told the people that Africans had been Christians long before Europeans. They got the message of salvation from the Ethiopian whom Phillip baptized. “We should be missionaries in Europe and America, rather than they being missionaries to us. Christianity is really an African religion. We failed to carry it to the world, so the Europeans are doing our work.”

Another speaker was Mrs. Wangai. I have forgotten her first name and her maiden name. She was a Kikuyu from Kenya. She told the people about her experience as a teenager during the British control of Kenya. The Kikuyus are the largest tribe in Kenya. During the 1950s many people of the Kikuyu tribe started guerilla warfare against the English. They were called the Mau-Mau and were fighting for the freedom of their country. They also distrusted anyone who was a Christian because they saw them as being supporters of the colonial regime. To gain followers, a Mau-Mau group came into her village. They lined up all the people and then one-by-one demanded that they swear an oath, denouncing Christianity and pledging allegiance to the freedom fighters. This pledge often demanded sexual favors and drinking a strong native beer that had several opioids in it. Those few who refused were put into a hut with no windows and with guards at the door instructed to kill anyone who tried to escape.

She refused to take the oath and was sentenced to death. They bound her and put her into this prison hut to await her death in front of the whole village. She lay on the floor and prayed for deliverance. After a while her bonds dropped off of her, and she felt herself being lifted up and moved towards the wall away from the guards at the door. She told how a hole appeared in the wall and she was passed out through the hole. Looking back from the outside, she could see that there was no hole. A voice told her to flee into the bush and await the departure of the Mau-Mau from her village. She fled into the bush and hid for several days. When she returned about three weeks later, she found out that everyone in that hut had been executed. She went to the hut and examined it. There was no evidence that there had ever been a hole in the wall.

At the time, there was enough evidence of the truth of her story that I believe her. As I mentioned in a previous blog, if our three-dimensional universe is part of a higher dimensional space, then an angel—who lives in this space—could easily have picked her up in his space. The knots on her bonds would have disintegrated, as I mentioned in my blog. She could be moved slightly out of our universe and transferred past the wall. To her eyes, it would look like she was passing through a hole in the wall. After all, our eyes can only see in three dimensions. She later finished high school and married a Christian man who became a pastor.

Does my explanation change her story of the miracle of her survival? Does it lessen the miraculous nature of her experience? Not at all. We have absolutely no physical access to anything outside of our universe, of course. Does it support my spatial concepts? Maybe.

Needless to say, God fulfilled His promise that if she put her trust in the Lord, she would be safe.

Lord, help us to place our trust in You and keep it there.

 

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[1] https://civilianmilitaryintelligencegroup.com/5652/the-mau-mau-rebellion

Sing and Shout

[1]

Psalm 95:1-2 World English Bible

95 Oh come, let’s sing to Yahweh.
    Let’s shout aloud to the rock of our salvation!
² Let’s come before his presence with thanksgiving.
    Let’s extol him with songs!

 

At Solusi in Zimbabwe and at Rusangu in Zambia and in many other churches in the newly independent republics in Africa, I had my soul transported into the grace and love of God by the singing. The people sang in full four-part harmony. They sang with deep spiritual joy that was entirely contagious.

As a kid I remember how we sang joyfully and forcefully enough to make the windows rattle. We loved those songs that were joyful, that had loud chords and praised the Lord.

Then I came to Ikizu in Tanzania. Most kids refused to sing. Those who did sang as though they were singing a dirge. It was as if they were forced to sing. They reminded me of the ancient Israelites who were marched off in chains to Babylon. They hung their harps on the bushes and sat and wept on the shores of the Euphrates.[2] Their captors expected them to sing, but, of course, they couldn’t

Then Pastor Mbwana joined the school. He evidently saw what I saw. However, he knew what to do to remedy the situation. He had a repertoire of Swahili gospel songs all set to the much-loved folk tunes of the people.

Suddenly the students came to life. Their singing was joyous and heartfelt. They made the walls reverberate. My heart leapt for joy. I must admit that the alien, to me, music made me do a double take. I felt alienated, strange. Was this really Christian music? This was music glorifying the gospel. It just wasn’t western type music. I decided to embrace it.

Many of my fellow missionaries, however, were shocked to their core. My music appreciation never has been very cultural or classical, so I didn’t resonate with their horror. They wanted to put a stop to it before it got out of hand. There was a distinct beat to the new music. Those who had long taught and been taught about the evils of Rock and Roll feared it might lead to that. I talked with them and pointed out to them the beautiful change that had come over the students’ singing and themselves. This finally got them to hold off their criticism and wait to see what would become of it.

Thank you, Lord, that Your salvation reaches all people in their own setting.

  

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[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=er1F8AvJBfk

[2] Psalm 137

Priceless Gift

[1]

 2 Corinthians 9:15

Good News Translation

¹⁵ Let us thank God for His priceless gift!

 

When we lived in Tanzania, our boss’s boss made friends with those in high places in the national park administration. He let me know that we could go into the world-famous Serengeti National Park without paying. I had no paperwork proving this and never tried to use it when we entered the park at one of the standard entry points. But it was a priceless bit of knowledge.

There was no entry point near us, but the Ikizu villagers used to drive south across country and ford the Grumeti River and poach in the park. They were careful not to leave any tracks so that vengeful rangers could follow them and bring them to justice. The Grumeti sported hippos and crocodiles in many spots. It also had shallow spots where one could simply drive across in less than a hand’s breadth of water. These fords were not marked.

We had no car, but we could often talk some of our fellow missionaries into taking us on a spin out into the park on a Sabbath afternoon. I developed a sense of the veldt so that I could always guide us much the way I imagined the poachers used and find one of these fords easily. There were always many animals all over these vast Serengeti plains. We saw wildebeest, zebra, topi, and Thompson’s gazelle (tommy) every time we went. We often found ostrich and giraffe. Occasionally we would be favored with a small herd of elephant or one of the great African cats.

It was a cathartic to the stress that built up in our very confined missionary work. Some of our daughter’s first words were “g’af” and “tommy”. Once or twice, we encountered a ranger also out on the great plains. We would stop and exchange greetings. Since I had some knowledge of Swahili, I usually did most off the talking, and we always parted as friends.

On one occasion the ranger must have reported our presence in the park. One day two Land Rovers stopped in front of our house. I was out in the yard, and 8 or 10 uniformed men jumped out of the vehicles and surrounded me, their rifles pointing directly at my chest. I was totally astonished and wondered if this would be my last day on earth. The leading officer stepped up to me and demanded that I pay the entry fee for the previous time I had been in the park without paying.

The entry fee was only about ten shillings (about $1.50), and I was of a mind to pay up and call it quits. But I was very young and adventurous and started talking with the officer, using my best but somewhat broken Swahili. I mentioned my upper boss’s arrangement with national park’s headquarters in the capital, Dar es Salaam. I had no documentation, so my arguments were really worthless, and I was aware of that. We must have stood there in my front yard for well over a quarter of an hour; in those days in Africa people expected to talk about a proposal at length and to become friends in the process. The whole time we were talking those rifles were still aimed at my chest. Those holding them could follow the whole conversation because they all spoke Swahili much better than I.

In the end we came to a truce, and they all climbed back into their Land Rovers and left me. I was still in possession of my ten shillings, but much more importantly, I had the priceless right to go and come through the back entry of Serengeti with a free conscience.

In our part in the great controversy between Christ and Satan, the devil is always attempting to rob us of the priceless gift of God’s grace and eternal life. We have Christ’s eternal promise that no one can ever take it away from us by any force.

Thank You, Lord, for your priceless gift!

[1]  https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/soldiers-surrounded-soldier.html