Our Little While

 
Hymn 396, "Our Little While", was sung.

"Our little while will soon be gone." That should be our theme song, a song we should sing often, for we need to be reminded often that our time is passing. In Taiwan, two little girls walked down the street and one of them went into the store and paid the price to buy a sweet, sugar-coated lolly. The other girl wanted a bit of it and we could see her begging. So after while the little girl let her taste a little of the sugar on her finger. As we have gathered these days we have had a taste from what others have paid a price for, and God wants all of us to have what others have paid the price for. It is in us to want things cheaply but these are things that we do not bargain for. There is one price to buy the things of God and that is your all.

I notice that the evening meal here consists of quite a combination of things mixed together and someone mentioned that the name was a Russian salad, and that is the kind of salad I am giving today, a mixture of many things. I hope that we will be able to comprehend a little of what God is trying to speak to us. In Taiwan we have two big motorways and the roads that lead off are very limited, so every once in a while there are rest stops which are welcomed, and then there are places to get something to eat and to be refreshed. This convention has been to us a rest stop. We need to remember that it is a rest stop and not our destination.

In John 17, Jesus said to His Father, "The world has hated them because they hate me," and then asked His Father to keep them from the evil one. ln only a few hours we will be faced with the reality of this world, a spirit working against the spirit that we have here, and we may be wishing it was different. We will go back to the same old wife, the same old husband, the same old boss, the same old teacher, the same old companion. One lady always had to battle with her husband when she wanted to go to convention so finally she said she would not fight with him, she just would not go. The husband asked her, "You are not going to convention?" "No, you always make it so hard for me to go." So he answered, "You had better go, please go, for you are always a better wife when you come back." I wonder if there is any difference to our lives, to our attitude when we leave here today? The reason the world hates us as it hated Jesus is because we are not of it. The world is there for a purpose and the purpose is for you to overcome. Don't forget to overcome, to change, for that is where the change should take place, in us. We are not going to change the world but we need to change.

Jesus asked His Father to sanctify them through the truth. To sanctify means to become holy and what does holy mean? It means to be different, for there is nothing like it. That is why the Bible is called the Holy Bible, because there is no other book like it. God wants a holy people, no other people like it and this calls for us to be an overcomer. Last week we were standing at an airport waiting for someone and there was this huge screen and of course you look at it, but oh, you wish you had never seen it for you are polluted in a second. I wished I had a rock that I could throw at it. There is so much for us to overcome and the problem is me. The problem is not the things in the world, so just don't watch it. We say we can't help the things we hear, but just don't listen to them. Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and I hope that this will be your experience in a few hours from now, being led by the spirit into the wilderness. What is in the wilderness to feed us? There is only food for wild animals, there is nothing there for your soul. We find that in this place the devil tempted Jesus but Jesus was an overcomer.

So why did Jesus go into the wilderness? He was making footsteps for you and me, to show us how to overcome. If we do not follow His footsteps we will not be an overcomer, for we need the wilderness to live a life of overcoming. Romans 8:38, "For I am persuaded that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ." Not tribulation, distress, famine, peril. Often, people get into difficulty and say, "God doesn't love me anymore." One of the friends said in testimony, "The past year I have had much suffering and perhaps it was needed to teach me more of Christ, and perhaps if I had more of Christ it may not have been so hard." Paul says, "For thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." It is for God's sake, not for fifteen minutes per day or Sunday morning only. No, we are killed all the day long, counted by the world as sheep for the slaughter. If you see a group of sheep waiting to be taken to the abattoirs, there is not one thing you'd admire in them and this is the way the world wants to see you.

The time that Phillip saw the Ethiopian eunuch, he was reading, "He was led as a sheep to the slaughter and he opened not his mouth." Then it says this, "In his humiliation his judgment was taken away and who shall declare his generation, for his life is taken from the earth." This is the question for all time, "Who will declare His generation?" Peter followed afar off; he wanted to see the end. Later, Peter wrote about Jesus' end and he saw a lamb that opened not his mouth, and there is no other way to declare His generation apart from having the spirit of the lamb. Overcoming by arguing? No. By putting others in their place? No. Have the spirit of the Lamb.

What is this spirit of the Lamb? I was driving with others one day and I had not held a lamb for over fifty years, and when we saw a ewe with her little lamb I said, "Stop, I want to take hold of a lamb." I got close to it and the other man went around it but soon the mother was alerted and she would not let us get near it. So the man's wife got out also and we all helped to catch this lamb. The poor little thing wanted to stay with the mother. We were intruders, we had no right to do this and as it ran away from us, it did not see a wire fence and ploughed right into it, so I grabbed it and it completely submitted to me with no struggle, no cry. It was completely at my mercy. I felt its wool, felt its mouth, then took some pictures. The mother ewe was over there crying but the lamb paid no attention, so then I took it back part way and put it down, and the little lamb then followed me back to the car. This is the spirit of a lamb.

Some time ago a brother worker was driving a car and I was sitting beside him, and the car in front was going slowly, and I could see this brother getting agitated. Finally the elderly couple in the car in front pulled over to the side of the road, and this brother honked the horn and flew past. We get these tests every day and it gives us an opportunity to show patience. Don't miss your opportunity to show the spirit of the Lamb, for there is no other way to declare His generation. To live a life of overcoming we need to let in the Overcomer, to be alive and let Him live His life over in us. A girl found a dead cat in the garbage, so she picked it up by the tail and brought it into the house and said, "Mum, look, I have found a perfect cat, a good cat!" It was all there but it had no life. If we do not have the life of the Lamb we will have no life. If we have not the Spirit we are none of His. This is vital and there is so much out there to be overcome.

The time we do not need to fear the enemy is when we are obeying God. We then have peace, for there is contentment in being an overcomer. It is not popular to be content, for the young people in their conversation (and the older ones too) discuss what they are going to buy that is better than what they have already. The devil shows you what you don't have, but God wants to show you what you do have. Keeping our hearts and lives clean, that's victory; getting bread, that's victory; being able to forgive others, that's victory. Having victory in spite of all the things that need to be overcome, we just keep continuing on desiring more and more of the spirit of Christ within, for He gives us the victory.

In Taiwan there is a little village on the east side called Red Leaf and in this dirty little village there was a baseball team, boys competing with each other. Then they competed against all Taiwan and they won, then they played in Japan and they won, then they went against the all Asian team and won. All this winning was in the paper. Then they were taken to Florida and they won, so any old grandmother in Taiwan would say, "We won!" People who had never played baseball before were saying, "We won," because this winning belonged to them. We also want that winning spirit and the final victory is Christ, for there is no victory without Him. The final victory is there.

There was something that used to bother me a lot, and from my second convention it was a very devastating thing to me. That was if a person made a vow and did not keep it, and it happened to me and I felt a complete failure, almost felt like giving up, saying, "What's the use?" It tells us in the Chinese Bible that we are not to vow because you cannot make one hair white or black. James tells us not to swear by Heaven or earth, saying, "Yes, Yes," because we will be brought into judgment. When Mary was spoken to, did she vow? No, she submitted like a little child, just obeying.

Then we read in Ephesians: "Now, unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us." "To Him that is able." So where does my vow come in? We read here that God is able to do far more than I can imagine if I am submitted to Him and just allow Him to work, for He will supply all our need. A purpose is like a vow. In the Old Testament you made a vow to God that if you do this then I'll do that, but in the New Testament, God has already done everything so now it is up to you. God has made all available to us. Just submit to the promises in God, just say "Yes", not "Yes and No". In Timothy, Paul says that all the promises of God in Him are "Yes", there are no "No"s in the will of God. So just say, "Yes" to God and, "No" to the world. Can you think that a little child two years old would say "No" to its father? Can you think you have a right to say "No" to your Heavenly Father? We are like clay in the potter's hand and if left there, He is able to do something that far exceeds our imaginations.

Everything we read in the teaching of Jesus is positive and not negative. It is Satan that sows the negative thoughts, and we cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought. We in the work have got to be positive for sometimes we hear, "We look for a place to have meetings and we can't find one, and even if we do find one, no one will come; and if we do have meetings no one will profess, and if someone should profess they will not go on, so we might as well go fishing." We need to lift up our eyes to the fields that are white unto harvest. A young man asked us, "What are we supposed to do with our leisure time?" "Why," I said, "If we are professing we do not have any leisure time! There is much to do so get on with it."

People who are positive have joy, they are seeing something accomplished and there is a fulfilment in it. People who are negative feel they are mistreated; they have fears, doubts and resentment. People who are positive have calmness, peace, and they have energy and enthusiasm. A negative person feels tired and alienated from others and possesses anger and tension, so we want to be aware of this. Satan seeks to sow doubts as he did with Eve, saying, "You won't die if you do this." Jesus says that if you must doubt, doubt your doubts, for doubts are very deceitful and they hinder us by taking away our privileges and opportunities. This is the result of our enemy, and doubts must be removed before God can do anything in us at all.

Jesus told His disciples to get into the boat, He compelled them to cross over the sea and Jesus was on the shore praying. The wind was against them. I have been in a ship a few times and now we are in the harbor, today we are taking on board cargo and soon we will be sailing on the open sea. It is not the same as it is here, and the first thing we need to do is to fasten things down or we will lose them. We need to fasten down what we have gathered here, for Satan wants to come and rob, take away the seed that has been sown. The Taiwan Straits are very rough water and the reason for this is that the waters are shallow. Shallow waters are rough. This world is a shallow place, there are lots of storms. The National Geographic tells us that at any one time there are 2000 storms taking place in the world, so we cannot avoid them. In Taiwan we receive storm warnings, typhoon warnings and the warnings need to be obeyed for we cannot prepare in the storm. We need to give heed to the warnings.

One thing that can capsize a ship is being overloaded. When I first went to Taiwan, we encountered a storm and a ship followed ours a week later. It was overloaded and as a result of coming through the same storm it went down, broke in the middle and sank. Our captain told us that this other captain always overloaded his ship. You might think you can get by with an overloaded life, but the storms of life will test it. Paul says to take heed to the weights, not the sins, for if the weights are weighing us down in a storm you may sink.

In Sweden there is a ship in the museum, a beautiful work of art that was built for war. There were 1000 oak trees cut down to make this ship, wood carvers came in from Germany to carve the decorations, it had a double deck with canons. It was the battleship of all battleships, and Sweden had an enemy in Poland. So the ship was floated and the canons were fired, all very impressive, all very true. Then they hoisted the mainsail and along came a gust of wind and over she went and down she went. She never got out of the harbor because she lacked one thing, a hundred tons of ballast, something that is unseen. It is the inner parts that are deep that enable the ship to right itself again in a storm.

Do you have ballast? If not you had better get it. What is ballast? Think of the blind man in John 9. He got his sight and then the storm came. His parents didn't stand beside him, the Pharisees attacked him, but what did he say when he was asked about his sight? "I don't know Him, but one thing I do know, that I was blind and now I see." That is good ballast, when we remember how it once was, so who could sink him? Think of Mary, who could sink her? She knew what happened when her brother was resurrected, she remembered Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever. That is good ballast and we had better get familiar with it.

When we professed it was like this but now it is all different. God's Lamb brought changes and we need the kind of ballast that Paul could say, "Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, God knows those who that are his, and all that name the name of Christ depart from iniquity." That is good ballast. These words of Jesus are not established on the internet. There we can glean all kinds of stuff, but God's word is fixed in Heaven, just remember that.

Matthew 28:20, "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The end of the world has not come yet and today we want to have the presence of God with us. In the Old Testament they had the presence of God and we are not in the Old Testament but in the New, so how can I have the presence of God? Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life, and no man cometh to the Father but by me . . believe in the Father and also believe in me." So often Jesus is bypassed, but Jesus says that they who honor Him, honor the Father and if they do not honor Him they will not honor the Father. Here Jesus says that, "If you observe all things that I have commanded you then I will be with you for these words are not my words, they are the words of the Father and this word is going to judge you."

Today we need to be taken up with what Jesus said, for the tests will come and where are we going to get the strength to face the tests? I like that story about the professor who was preparing his students for a test, and one student asked him a question. The professor said, "That is a good question but it is not in the test." Satan tries to create a lot of questions, and questions produce doubts so we need to be taken up with what is going to be in the test. The things that are going to be in the test are simply the sayings of Jesus in Matthew 5, 6 and 7, not in Leviticus and Isaiah. You and I do not know how much longer we have to prepare for that test, so we need to have these sayings of Jesus that we have made our own, made living in us. This is what gives ballast in the storm. It is wonderful to be upright again after being in a storm when we have been leaning. Ballast is the unseen part and we need it, for we are all carrying precious cargo. We are a family when we gather for a Sunday morning meeting, and we have known many who have their conscience seared and have made shipwreck.

Well, I like to read in Colossians 1, speaking about the Gospel coming to them: "As it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit, as it doth also in you since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God in truth." Jesus is looking for fruit as a result of the Gospel coming. One time Jesus was hungry and He saw a fig tree. It was not the season for figs but Jesus cursed it, and there is something in our carnal reasoning saying it is not fair. Everything that Jesus did and said had Christ in it, and it was planned in Christ that there would be fruit in every season. When we are tired, when we are mistreated, in every season we are to bear fruit, for this yields fruit every month. There is no excuse for any of us to be unkind or impatient, for our example is kind and patient.

This fig was in the vineyard and the owner came three years and found no fruit. The man that owned it wanted to eat figs and not grapes all the time, so he said to cut it down. But now this is where the advocate comes in and says he will dig about it and fertilize it. I wonder if there has been any digging around our roots today? One time a man had a tree that did not bear any fruit, so he cut a ditch deep all around it. Why? Because there were other roots coming in and sapping the strength out of the soil and that tree was not getting it. What are the unseen roots sapping your strength so you do not bear any fruit? We need to have these things dealt with, so there may be fruit and if we respond to what God puts before us there will be fruit.

Colossians 2:12, "Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God." Then Paul writes, "If then ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above . . not on things on the earth . . for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God." Then Paul tells what this new life does. It puts to death the members that have evil desires, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, idolatry and so on. Sometimes people think that they do not have these things after they are baptized, but after you are baptized you get some power to deal with them. This "putting to death", we asked our teacher at school, "What kind of death is that?" He showed us a house plant that had not been given any water, air or sunshine and so it died. That is the way it dies, but if you give the plant a shot of water it revives again and this is exactly like your human nature. Don't feed it and it will die, feed it and it will stimulate and get going again and you will have the wrath of God on you. It doesn't matter what the world says, don't go by that.

Then it says, "Let the peace of God rule in your hearts." Okay, if you don't have peace maybe it is because you have been seeking to put these things out of your life, like lying, then you have told a lie and you find out that it was this that has disturbed your peace. The greatest miracle is not when Jesus turned the water into wine, not the feeding of the five thousand, but it will be in presenting you and me before God blameless. Colossians 1:23, "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard." We find that all things are possible with God if you continue. Remember there is no stopping place for we can never say that we have gone far enough.

I will finish with a story. A few years ago, two ladies came to visit from South Africa and they carried with them a snuff bottle, very old. They had it appraised for value in South Africa before they came and wanted to know if had any value in China. So one lady stuck it in her handbag and they went around all the various homes carrying it that way. Then they came to Taipei and went to a palace museum where there are endless exhibits of Chinese antiques. They took out this snuff bottle and a little old man took it away to appraise it and came back exclaiming how wonderful it was. It had been in the Forbidden City and was stolen 1700 years ago. Then one lady asked what value it had, and he said it was valued at $26,000. When she knew its value it spoiled the rest of her trip because she was always worrying where her handbag was because in it was the snuff bottle. When they got back to South Africa the snuff bottle ended up in a separate box and was kept safe. If only we knew the value of what we have in these vessels of clay! We had better not take it for granted for it is the only thing that has any value at the end of life, this eternal life. ~ ~ ~

D. LINAMAN - 2005 - A Russian salad - Madrid, Spain