Desmond's Story

Desmond in 2004 or 2005

Coming back from church two weeks ago, I heard a strange noise coming from my vehicle.  I was pretty sure something important just fell off my car!  I turned around and drove slowly down the road looking for some sort of vehicle part on the road. Then, I saw it, a large (22 metric) bolt, and I knew it must have fallen off my car.  I picked it up and drove carefully back home anticipating some type of trouble in my car.  There was nothing though, the vehicle ran just fine.  I wondered why the large bolt had fallen off.  Our road has been recently sealed so it was not from a rough road.  I hit nothing on the road that might cause damage.  I had no idea why.  I located where on the car the bolt fell off from and I decided to take to a mechanic to have him look it.  I could have easily put it back on myself, but I wanted a trained eye to look for what might have caused it to fall off in the first place.  I took the vehicle to the mechanic first thing Thursday morning.  He too was baffled as to why the bolt just fell off.  He saw no reason for the bolt to have fallen off when inspecting the car.  The reason, though, was about to be crystal clear.

At church the evening prior, we had our normal prayer meeting/preaching service.  One of the prayer requests was for a man named Desmond.  Desmond is 26 years old and during his teenage years he attended the Baptist work in Sohun.  However and sadly, as many young people do, he left church when he was no longer required to go by his parents.  Desmond simply came to church because he had to, not because he was converted to Christ.  (The answer to our issues with young people not wanting to serve the Lord is not  the youth pastor  with a "cool" youth department and great teen activities and "teen" music, but true conversion to Christ.  I think I will do a post later on this subject.)  I would see him plenty of times and always say hello and try to encourage him.  He always maintained a very kind disposition with me.  The prayer request was to pray for Desmond because he was sick.  I was told it was a swollen spleen, which is very common here due to recurring Malaria.  To me this did not sound like a major sickness since we see this all the time, but certainly something to pray about.

So again Thursday day morning I took my vehicle to the mechanic.  As I was leaving the workshop on Thursday morning, I had the urge to go and pray with Desmond.  Thursdays are usually days for studying for Sunday’s sermons, not visiting. I knew I was not very far from where Desmond lives, and felt strongly I should go pray with him.  I arrived at his house and his mom, twin brother, one of his two sisters, and one other brother was present.  We all went into the house and sat down.  It was clear Desmond was sick, and he told me it was not his spleen.  He said he just had pain in his stomach area and could not eat.  It started after a night of heavy drinking.  I was immediately concerned about alcohol poising or bad home brew, which is common here.  I know Desmond had heard the Gospel many times from his days at church, but I decided to tell him again of Christ before praying with him. After I finished presenting the Gospel he said he wanted to trust Christ and follow the Lord.  He then, without my help, with tears streaming down his face, prayed and put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ!  We rejoiced and it was nice to see the tears of joy also flowing from his mother’s face.  I now knew why the bolt had fallen off!  The Lord used that to put me in a place to go and talk with Desmond.  The story is not finished yet, though.

 Desmond told me if he was well enough, he would be at church on Sunday. I was hoping to see him there, but I did not.  After I left him on Thursday, his Mom took him to see a doctor in Kavieng.  I was not aware they would be going to Kavieng.  Little did we know then, only his body would return.  I received a call at 6:00am the following Thursday.  Desmond had just passed and went to be with the Lord.  I preached his funeral that Saturday and hundreds more heard the gospel from the village.  Oh, how thankful I was he trusted in the Lord!  I have no doubt Desmond is doing great right now!  I am also thankful for a bolt that “just happened” to fall off my car and directly led me to go pray with Desmond on that Thursday instead of that Saturday.  I had no idea at the time, but that Thursday morning would be the last opportunity I had to speak with Desmond.

Are These Verses Really in the Bible?

Matthew 10:37-39

(37)  He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

(38)  And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

(39)  He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

(I am preaching through Matthew and these are some thoughts from these verses and part of the sermon for this Sunday.  In context, Jesus is giving instructions to the newly selected 12 Apostles as he sends them out.)

Are these verses really in the Bible!?

 Yes, of course they are, but we certainly do not hear much about them, or we hear them being explained away! 

These verses show us what it takes to truly follow Christ.  (The truth of these verses would be one of the keys to the success of the Apostles.) Christ is much more than just fire insurance. He is much more than just help in time of need.  He is much more than just encouragement during heart-ache or loss.  He is much more than just something to think about on Sunday morning for a few hours.  Although much of our preaching focuses on the above aspect of being a Christian, Christ demands much more of us. 

Matthew 10:37-39 begins to show us the true worth of being a follower of Jesus Christ.  These verses demonstrate how very important, and what a great treasure Jesus Christ is to all.  He is so valuable, he is worth more than our parents and more than our children.  He is so valuable, he is worth having to suffer for, and bear shame and reproach.  He is so valuable and important that he is worth losing your life over!  We fail to see this because we fail to see who Christ truly is! This is a result of being too focused on the temporal.  How then could we ever accurately portray Him to the world, or demonstrate the greatness of our God?

We are losing our country because we were not willing to put Christ above all; we were not willing to bear our cross; we were not willing to lose our life.  We were willing to give God our Sundays, but not our children.  We were willing to give God our tithes, but not carry a cross. We were willing to give God 10%, but certainly not 100%.  We had houses to build, cars to buy, careers to build.  All the while our country collapsed from a lack of light or a lack of understanding of the necessity for a fulcrum for morality.  The result ... people began trying to base morality without absolutes or base it on man as the starting point.  Christians were too busy with the things of the world or trying to make Christ acceptable to the world, so as to avoid bearing reproach. (Sadly, many times this was done in the name of evangelism and produced false converts, turning many churches into entertainment houses.)  Much of this was done in the name of, “bridge building”.  The fact is, the real bridge to the world is already built, and it is the Cross.  There is no escaping, it is a reproach to many.  It is the only bridge and the only means of salvation.  

We need Christians willing to give Jesus Christ the priority above all others; we need Christians willing to bear the shame and reproach of following Christ, bearing our cross;  we need to be willing to lose our life.  Then will we began to see true life.  Then we can proclaim “for to me to live is Christ and to die is gain”!

As to the context of the verses, and the fact that 11 of the Apostles obeyed the verses, others saw the importance of Jesus Christ and who He is!  Others saw Christ was important, by the example of the lives of the Apostles.  They saw men who, even though they dearly loved their families, Christ was the priority; they saw men willing to suffer for Him; they saw men willing to lose their life!  Many people wanted to listen to see what could be of so great importance.  Their words and their lives demonstrated the greatness of Christ!  Today we put money, careers, family, entertainment, and comfort well before God.  Then we wonder why we have trouble reaching the world!  Why should they listen?  We actually worship ourselves, money, and pleasure, just like any atheist!  Oh, how others need to see the greatness and value of God, not only in creation, but in our life!

May Christ be our priority, our treasure worth suffering for, and our very life!

  

Getting to the Root of the Problem

If you have ever had to pick weeds, you know the importance of removing the weed with the root.  Not doing so is just vain work, as the weed will quickly grow back.  I am currently preaching though the book of Matthew, and I am in the middle of a three part sermon I called, “Getting to the Root of the Problem”.  The text is from Matthew 5:17-34.  In this section of verses you will find Jesus stating something like, “…It was said of them of old….”, and he then goes on to quote something from the law.  He then shows how the law was misinterpreted or used in an improper manner.  In the Sermon on the Mount, of which Matthew 5 is a part, Jesus was dealing with the Pharisees of his day.  The Pharisees, for the most part, only worried about outward actions and tradition, but cared little for areas of the heart.  They never got to the root of the problem!

I think we see the same problem in our day.  We concentrate on the outward but rarely get to the root of our sin problem.  As a result of this, our Christian life becomes a roller coaster going up and down, faster, slower, and still returning to the same place you started!  We need to get the root out or our sin will quickly return.  In our text, Jesus deals with what I call “root” sins.  Sins of the heart, i.e. anger, lust, lack of commitment, deceit.  All of these sins are “root” sins and lead to other sins.  Many times we concentrate our efforts on the “other sins”, which are simply manifestation of the root sins.  If we eliminate the root sin, the other sins which stem from them will die off. 

For some a root sin is unrighteous anger.  Jesus dealt with that sin first in our text.  We see how it leads to murder and other sins.  Jesus demonstrates how it affects our prayer life, walk with God; how it affects our relationship with others and our community.  If we get the root problem out, anger, it takes care of so many other problems in our life.  Anger will destroy your marriage, your walk with God, your relationship with your family and your co-workers. 

For some a root sin is lust.  Lust is another sin which leads to many other sins.  Lust leads to adultery, fornication, stealing, etc…  If you remove lust, adultery will not be a concern, neither will many other sins such as living for money, new houses, new cars, etc…  Stealing will not be a problem.  One horrible effect of this sin is it will cause the Word of God to be of no affect in your life (Mark 4:19).  The lust “of other things”, is what will consume you, and God will not consume you!  Is it any wonder the preaching does nothing for you, when all week long you lust to have things of this world, and then try jump to the Spiritual for one hour a week!  May we desire God and Him alone!  All else is vanity!

My point is, if you are struggling with your walk with God perhaps it is a “root” sin.  Maybe you have cleaned up the outside, but the root is still there.  If the root is not removed, the weed will grow right back! 

Back in Papua New Guinea!

We are back in Papua New Guinea!  Although, there are only four of us now instead of seven.  My three oldest are all in the States attending Fairhaven Baptist College. We miss those three very much.  Well, I already have several stories I could tell and we have only been here a few days!  We have seen the Lord watching over us on our travels, and help us through our adjusting again to the field.

For this first post, I will go with a lizard story.  We have been very busy and have faced several battles since we have been back.  On our first morning back, Sunday morning, as we prepared to leave for church, Levi noticed our vehicle had a flat tire.  I am not back two days and I have my first flat tire!  We also have a short somewhere in our wiring in the house.  We currently have no ceiling fans working, the majority of lights are out due to the short and the fridge is fried!  Welcome back!

On our second night here, we all fell asleep very quickly.  We have been working hard all day long to get things back in order.  I woke up shortly before 6:00am.  Mariann was still sleeping and as I sat up and looked at her, I noticed she had a tattoo of a Lizard on her arm!!!  I was pretty confident she could not have snuck out that night and went to a tattoo parlor, so I decided to take a closer look.  As I looked  closer, I am still thinking, yep that is a tattoo of a lizard!  Mariann woke up and noticed me starring at her arm.  She looked at arm and freaked out, and then the “tattoo” fell off!  Only it was not a tattoo, it was a real lizard! Mariann had laid on the gecko and squished it, and the lizard became one with her arm!  It was in a perfect “S” format.  The poor thing suffocated to death!  I certainly hope that gecko had life insurance!

"...we know that all things work together for good..."

This past Sunday morning we left for church or I should say churches. (I preach at two churches each Sunday.) We were only about five minutes down the road when my tire went flat and a horrible noise started coming from the back end! I turned around, went back to the house, changed clothes, and began to work on the vehicle. It was only 8:30am and it was already very hot! I discovered three of the four bushings went out on the rear equalizer/stabilizer bar! (How that happened all at once is beyond me.) I would not be able to use my Land Cruiser.

All was not lost, though, as I still have my old white truck. I only use the truck for short distances because the tires are completely bald, and I only have one spare. (One needs two or three spares here because of the condition of the road.) Also, the white truck needed fuel if I was going to take it all the way to Kudukudu for church. I managed to find some diesel in a container I have, and it did have enough to get me to the village and back. Even though the distance worried me with the tires, I decided to go ahead and use the white truck since the Lord did provide us with enough fuel. I took another shower and then we prayed and asked the Lord to watch over us, especially our tire situation. Keep in mind if we end up with two flats, which is common, we are stuck! There is no AAA to call or Goodyear store to go to.

By the time we got on the road, it was already too late for me to preach at the first church in Sohun. They would still have preaching, though, as a man I have been training in the Bible college is doing the work of pastor at that church. I knew I would be very late for the work in Kudkudu, but I was confident I could make it before any one started leaving. I still pastor this work, as I do not have a man ready to be pastor there yet. The trip was going fine until about 3 or 4 miles from the church. We heard a big BOOM, and I knew a tire just went out! (I have attached a picture of the tire.) Since we were just a few miles from the church, I changed the tire and then as we left, the truck started experiencing some fuel problems. Thankfully, it did not die. It was probably some bad fuel from my container. At that time, a man came out from the bush down to the road, and he was headed to the river to wash. This was Steven. About four years earlier, he came to church for about three or four Sundays, but he had not come back to church since then. When he saw me, and noticed I was in the white truck, he decided jump in the back and go to church instead of the river. We made it to church without any further delay, and no one had left yet! We had three visitors, including Steven. We had a very good service. I am preaching through Matthew and I was starting the Sermon on the Mount. I preached from the first 12 verses from Matthew 5 on how to truly be a blessed man. I showed how the verses are like steps which lead to salvation and then steps of what comes after salvation. After the preaching, three people asked for prayer concerning salvation. One of those three, then put his hand up to signify he wanted me to talk with him about salvation. That man was Steven! I took him aside and explained the gospel to him, and he put his faith in Jesus Christ for salvation! Steven left his house that morning to go to the river to get his body cleaned. Instead, the Lord took over and he went to church and received the “washing of regeneration”; his sins washed away!

Afterwards, we talked about all that God had done so he could hear the gospel that day! I told him all the trouble I had in getting to church: from tire problems, bushing problems, having to switch vehicles, etc… The fact was, without all of those hold-ups, I would not have been there on the road the moment he came out from the bush to go the river. Also, had I not been in my white truck he would not have stopped me and said he now wants to go to church with me. All that “trouble” I had was just the Lord putting things together because He loved this man and wanted him to hear the gospel! How true the verse is “…all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.”!!!

PS
By the way, I made it all the way back home with no problems, even though I only had one good tire, three completely bald tires, and no spare on a very rough road! Amen!!!