God's Light Shines in The Darkest Storms of Life

Take up Your Cross O Disciple

Luke 14:27

A large and varied crowd of people were walking along with Jesus one day, and He was talking to them about what it means to be a real disciple of His.  

Then Jesus pointedly said, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple."

Consider this critical condition of true discipleship a-fresh - from a slightly different, and perhaps more personal perspective.  

"If you want to be able to be a true disciple of Jesus, you must carry your own hanging rope with you all of the time, and be ready and willing to let the enemies of Christ hang you with it if following Christ in full obedience to Him were to lead to that."

Luke 14:27

This statement of Jesus's really is something to mull over - and consider seriously.

In the mid 2nd century (about A.D. 155) Polycarp, Bishop of Smyrna, was martyred in Rome by being burned at the stake.  He had been challenged several times to swear allegiance to Caesar and deny Christ.  He stood firm in his allegiance to his Savior, Christ Jesus.  After his martyrdom, his Christian friends in Asia Minor asked witnesses of Polycarp's death to send them an account.  That account is documented in a letter known today as "The Encyclical Epistle of the Church at Smyrna Concerning The Martyrdom of The Holy Polycarp".*  This letter includes the following description of a conversation between the proconsul, before whom Polycarp had been brought for trial, and Polycarp just before he died as a witness for His Lord:

Polycarp (AD 69-155)

     "'Swear, and I will set thee at liberty, reproach Christ;' [demanded the proconsul.]  Polycarp declared, 'Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury:  How then can I blaspheme my King and Savior?'"

     "And when the proconsul yet again pressed him, and said 'Swear by the fortune of Caesar,' he answered, 'since thou art vainly urgent that I swear by the fortune of Caesar, and pretendest not to know who and what I am, hear me declare with boldness, I am a Christian.  And if you wish to learn what the doctrines of Christianity are, appoint me a day, and thou shalt hear them.'"

     "The proconsul then said to him, 'I have wild beasts at hand; to these will I cast thee except thou repent.'  But he answered, 'Call them then, for we are not accustomed to repent of what is good in order to adopt that which is evil....'  But again the proconsul said to him, 'I will cause thee to be consumed by fire, seeing thou dispisest the wild beasts, if thou wilt not repent.'  But Polycarp said, 'Thou threatenest me with fire which burneth for an hour, and after a little is extinguished, but art ignorant of the fire of the coming judgement and of eternal punishment, reserved for the ungodly.  But why tarriest thou?  Bring forth what thou wilt.'"

* "The Ante-Nicene Fathers"; Vol. I' Ed. Rev. Alexander Roberts, et al; 1885; COSIMOSCLASSICS, 2007; p.41.  (Italics have been added for clarity.)

God Answers Prayer - Sometimes Before You Pray

It was early in the summer of 1974 - A Sunday.  Mark and Sharon had just left for their first summer camp, and Judy, Barbara and I were still standing outside the church in Oak Park, Illinois.  One of the pastors came over to us and asked if we knew of anybody who could deliver a pallet of Spanish Bibles to the Spanish World Gospel Mission in Winona Lake, Indiana.  It would be an overnight trip, and it would be best if whoever went could leave that afternoon to return the next day.  The pallet of Bibles would easily fit in the church minibus.

We agreed that we could do it if my boss could let me off from work on Monday.  I was a student at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, and was working part-time for Buildings and Grounds. We went home, and I called my supervisor.  He gave his OK, so, we called a fellow married student in Winona Lake to arrange to spend the night with them, and packed a few items for an overnight road trip.

Then we went back to the church, loaded the Bibles in the minibus, and the three of us started off.  We arrived at the Spanish World Gospel Mission headquarters at about 10:00 that Sunday night.  One of the men there came out and helped us to unload the Bibles and stack them on the floor in the mission headquarters.

After we had unloaded all of the Bibles, this gentleman invited us to have breakfast with them in the morning.  He told us that the head and founder of the mission, Reverend Florent Toirac, was in Wisconsin speaking at some Churches, and would be back late that night.  He said that Reverend Toirac would want to meet us and visit over breakfast.  So we agreed, and left for our friend's home to get some sleep.

The next morning, we returned to the headquarters and met Reverend Toirac.  During breakfast, he told us an amazing story – a story in which we had unknowingly played a part in God answering a prayer - even before it was prayed.

Reverend Toirac told us that the previous evening, he had been speaking at a church in Racine, Wisconsin.  When he was finished, the pastor of that church had given him an envelope, which he said contained a special offering that the church had taken to help support the work of the Spanish World Gospel Mission.  Reverend Toirac put the envelope in his pocket, eventually said his goodbyes, and got in his car.  Before driving away, he was prompted to open the envelope.  Inside there was a check.  As Reverend Toirac looked at the check, he recognized that the amount of the check was exactly what he needed to pay for some Bibles that he had ordered.

Reverend Toirac was so excited about God's provision that he was praising God all the way from Racine, down through Chicago, and across to Winona lake.  As I recall, Reverend Toirac told us that he needed those Bibles in time to be able to mail them in response to requests from listeners to a radio broadcast that had already been scheduled.  And God had miraculously provided the funds to pay for those Bibles - what a wonderful God.

Now, as he drove back to Winona Lake, he prayed to God, asking Him to provide a way to have these Bibles delivered to his office.

A little after midnight, that Sunday night, as Reverend Toirac related to us over breakfast the next morning, he arrived back at the Spanish World Gospel Mission headquarters, parked his car, got out, walked into the building, and turned on the light – what did he see?  – – The pallet full of Bibles about which he had been praying to God!

We have a wonderful and faithful God.  He gave our family the privilege of seeing first-hand that He is a God who can answer prayer even before we ask.

Blessed are You, O Lord our God, King of the Universe, Creator and Savior.  For you alone are worthy to receive all glory and honor and praise.

"Playing Chicken" with A Russian Ship in The South China Sea

Our enemy is very deceitful.  But if we will hold our course by obeying our King, all will be fine.  (Matthew 7:24-25)

It was in the early Fall of 1967 in the South China Sea.  I never expected to be involved in a game of "chicken" with a Russian ship!

I was in the U.S. Navy serving on board the USS Markab (AR 23).  We had been in Yokosuka Japan, and we were steaming toward Vung Tau, Vietnam.  When we left Japan, a First Class Electronic Technician and myself were assigned to Combat Information Central (CIC) to work as CIC watch supervisors.  Normally, this position would be manned by a Radarman , but the only Radarman on board at that time who was qualified to be watch Supervisor was a Chief Radarman.  So he stood one of the 3 watches and the other ET and myself stood the other 2 watches - 8 hours on and 16 hours off every day.

The responsibility of CIC on our ship was pretty straight forward.  Maintain a constant RADAR watch in every direction around the ship as far out from the ship as our RADAR could reach, which was about 65 miles or so.  We were to track the course of anything we picked up on the RADAR and keep the Bridge (Officer of the Deck) informed.

AR 23 with 5 other ships alongside for repairs (4 to the port & 1 to our starboard).

As I was saying, we were steaming across the South China Sea toward the mouth of the Saigon River.  It was early in the morning when we picked up a blip on the RADAR that turned out to be a ship.  We began to plot it's course and report it to the Bridge.  It soon became apparent that this other ship was on a deliberate head-on collision course with us.  In navigational terms, it was on a constant bearing with a decreasing range that indicated it was moving through the water directly toward us at about the same speed we were traveling.

As sunlight increased and the other ship got closer, our lookouts identified it as a Russian trawler (i.e. a Russian spy ship pretending to be a fishing vessel).  The trawler did not show any signs of changing course, but seemed intent on "playing chicken" with us.

To follow what happened next, let me explain the normal procedure for two ships in this position:  Each ship would move to its right (starboard), and each Captain would expect the other ship to do this so that the two ships would safely pass by each other with the other ship on its left (port) side as they passed.

Another rule of the sea (as I understand it) is that if two ships collide, and your ship is dead in the water (i.e. propeller not turning and rudder amidships - straight ahead), then you are not at fault.

Well – It appeared likely that this Russian Captain wanted to create an international incident, and use our ship to do it.

As we monitored the trawler on the RADAR and the lookouts watched it as well, our Captain forewarned the engine room that he might be calling down an order to immediately stop the engine, and that he wanted the screw (propeller) to stop turning immediately when they received that order.  The Captain also told the helmsman that he was to keep the rudder amidships no matter what happened.

The ships were closing in on each other – bow to bow.  In CIC we were watching the RADAR very closely as the blip on our RADAR screen moved steadily closer to the center of the scope (which represented the location of our ship).  The Captain ordered that the ship be immediately prepared for a collision, and to make the ship water tight.

It was obvious that the Russian captain was hoping that we would move, as expected, to our starboard, according to the rules of the road, to avoid a collision.  But our Captain did not flinch.  At the last minute, the Russian ship moved – but not to his right as required.  He moved to his left, which would have put him directly in our path if we had followed the correct procedure.

Because we did not move, the trawler passed harmlessly (although dangerously close) down our starboard side.  As he went by, I leaned out of CIC to look through the door in the Navigator's chart room.  I could see several Russian sailors standing at the rail of their ship smiling at us.  They were so close I could almost have reached over and shook their hand.

Our Captain understood the situation and new exactly how to handle it.  He issued the orders, the crew obeyed, and all was fine.

___________________

Matthew 7:24-25

"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock."