The Game of the Royal Way - Part 4: Without Reserve

“You’re going to like this, Andy,” said Mr. Dinnen. “It’s an exercise in trust. The rules are simple. Each student on your team is given a one-pound bank note. With that you go on a missionary tour through Scotland. You’re expected to pay your own transportation, your own lodging, your food, any advertising you want to do, the renting of halls, providing refreshments…”

“All on a one-pound note?”

“Worse than that. When you get back to school after four weeks, you’re expected to pay back the pound!”

I laughed. “Sounds like we’ll be passing the hat all the time.”

“Oh no, you’re not aloud to take up collections! Never. You’re not to mention money at any of your meetings. All of your needs have to be met without any manipulation on your part – or the experiment is a failure.”*

When Andrew had learned that the WEC missionary training school sent their students out without financial support he instantly began to question if that was where he should go. Memories of the missionaries who had held meetings in Witte, the town where he had grown up, flooded his thoughts. These men had claimed to live by faith but the people of Witte knew that they lived not by faith, but by the collections they took up. They called such men ‘hint missionaries’ for, though they never came right out and asked for money, they were always hinting at it. The way those men lived seemed grubby and undignified to Andrew. If Christ were a King, such ambassadors did not give a good report of His treasury. Andrew thought that the only solution to the hints and collections was to have financial support secured ahead of time. This is why he was hesitant to join a school that sent their students out without provision. But God had asked him to obey without question (see The Predetermined "Yes") so he had laid down this qualm along with the rest. He was resigned to obey even if that meant living as a ‘hint missionary’.

 Now Andrew wondered if, perhaps, there was still another way of getting provision. Perhaps a man truly could live by faith – faith that was placed, not in the offering plate, but in God Himself. The idea was soon to be put to the test as Andrew and four other guys set out to live and minister, for a month, on a total of just five pounds. Five pounds that would have to be repaid. The assignment was an interesting one to be sure!

*“I tried to reconstruct where our funds came from during those four weeks and it was hard to. It seems that what we needed was always just there. Sometimes a letter would arrive from one of the boy’s parents with a little money. Sometimes we would get a cheque in the mail from a church we had visited days or weeks earlier. The notes that came with these gifts were always interesting.

“I know you don’t need money or you would have mentioned it,” someone would write, “but God just wouldn’t let me get to sleep tonight until I had put this in an envelope for you.”

Contributions frequently came in the form of produce. In one little town, in the highlands of Scotland, we were given six hundred eggs. We had eggs for breakfast, eggs for lunch, and eggs as hors d’oeuvres before a dinner of eggs with an egg-white meringue for dessert. It was weeks before we could look a chicken in the eye.

…There were times before the end of the tour, however, when it looked as though the experiment was failing. One weekend we were holding meetings in Edinburgh. We had attracted a large group of young people the first day and were casting about for a way to get them to come back the next. Suddenly, without consulting anyone, one of the team members stood up and made an announcement.

“Before the meeting tomorrow evening,” he said, “we’d like you all to have tea with us here at four o’clock. How many think they can make it?”

A couple dozen hands went up and we were committed.

At first, instead of being delighted, the rest of us were horrified. All of us knew that we had no tea, no cake, no bread and butter, and exactly five cups. Nor did we have money to buy these things: our last penny had gone to rent the hall. This was going to be a real test of God’s care.

For a while it looked as though He was going to provide everything through the young people themselves. After the meeting several of them came forward and said they would like to help. One offered milk; another, half a pound of tea; another, sugar. One girl even offered to bring dishes. Our tea was rapidly taking shape. But there was one thing still missing – the cake. Without cake, these Scottish boys and girls wouldn’t consider tea tea.

So that night in our evening prayer time, we put the matter before God. “Lord, we’ve got ourselves into a spot. From somewhere we’ve got to get a cake. Will You help us?”

That night as we rolled up in our blankets on the floor of the hall, we played guessing games: How was God going to give us that cake? Among the five of us, we guessed everything imaginable, or so we thought.

Morning arrived. We half expected a heavenly messenger to come to our door bearing a cake. But no one came. The morning mail arrived. We ripped open the two letters, hoping for money. There was none. A woman from a nearby church came by to see if she could help. “Cake,” was on the tip of all our tongues, but we swallowed the word and shook our heads.

“Everything,” we assured her, “is in God’s hands.”

The tea had been announced for four o’clock in the afternoon. At three the tables were set, but still we had no cake. Three -thirty came. We put the water on to boil. Three-forty-five. It was then that the doorbell rang.

All of us together ran to the big front entrance, and there was the postman. In his hand was a large box.

“Hello lads,” said the postman. “Got something for you that feels like a food package.” He handed the box to one of the boys. “The delivery day is over, actually,” he said, “but I hate to leave a perishable package overnight.”

We thanked him profusely, and the minute he closed the door the boy solemnly handed me the box. “It’s for you, Andrew. From a Mrs. Hopkins in London.” 

I took the package and carefully unwrapped it. Off came the twine. Off came the brown outside paper. Inside, there was no note – only a large white box. Deep in my soul I knew that I could afford the drama of lifting the lid slowly. As I did, there, in perfect condition, to be admired by five sets of wondering eyes, was an enormous, glistening, moist, chocolate cake.”

The experiment was a success and through it the five students learned that God could be trusted. That He could be trusted in practical ways. They learned that God was faithful. But that wasn’t all that they learned. They also had a part to play in the game and that part was to have faith.

*“We stuck fast to two rules: we never mentioned a need aloud, and we gave away a tithe of whatever came to us as soon as we got it – within twenty -four hours if possible.

Another team that set out from the school at the same time as we did was not so strict about tithing. They set aside their ten percent, but they did not give it away immediately, “in case we run into an emergency.”, they reasoned. Of course, they had emergencies! So did we, every day. But they ended their month owing money to hotels, lecture halls, and markets all over Scotland, while we came back to school almost ten pounds ahead. Fast as we could give the money away, God was always swifter, and we ended with money to send to the WEC work overseas.”

The only difference between the two groups, was that Andrew’s group obeyed two rules while the other group did not. The rules were simple – mention your needs to no one but God and give away tithe as soon as it comes to you. What made these rules so important that they could effect outcome of the experiment in such a way? It all had to do with faith…

 “All of your needs have to be met without any manipulation on your part – or the experiment is a failure.” Mr. Dinnen had told Andrew. Andrew knew exactly what Mr. Dinnen meant by manipulation. He had seen it firsthand. The hints of the missionaries who had visited Witte had revealed even to a little boy that they weren’t truly trusting God. They claimed to be but all the while they were asking for the help of others. They had an insurance policy in place just in case God didn’t come through. Andrew had known that, that wasn’t the way faith was meant to work but now he knew why.

In last week’s post, The Question of His Character, we discussed that it is not enough to have faith – you must have faith in the right thing. The ‘hint missionaries’ had faith but it was placed in the collection basket and the generosity of their hearers rather than in God. The other group fully intended to tithe but they held onto that ten percent just in case they should run into an emergency. This too was misplaced faith. As Andrew said, emergencies came. They came for both groups. The difference was that the one group turned to their tithe money to help them while the other turned to God.

When Hudson Taylor was preparing to go to China as a missionary. He knew that he would have no one to rely on there except for God Himself. There would be no one else to tell his needs to, no insurance policy to fall back on. Every need would have to be filled by God alone. In February 26^th post, By Prayer Alone, Hudson put this kind of faith to the test in an experiment similar to Andrew's. Though still in England, near to his family and friends, Hudson decided that he would not mention his needs to anyone other than God. When his bank account was getting low, Andrew prayed about it. When he gave away his last coin and had no way of buying food only two options remained – Hudson would either go hungry or God would provide. It was faith without insurance policies. Faith without doubt.

"But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;" (James i.6-7)

to be continued

In Christ

quiana

* Quotes, excerpts, and facts have been taken from Brother Andrew's book God's Smuggler

The Game of the Royal Way – Part 3: The Question of His Character

*“The building itself was a tall, two -story house on the corner. A low stone wall ran around the property. I could see the stump-ends of iron railings in it, the fence itself had no doubt been melted for scrap during the war. Over the entrance, on a wooden archway, were the words “Have Faith in God.” This I knew was the main purpose of the two- year course at Glasgow: to help the student learn all he could about the nature of faith. To learn from books. To learn from others. To learn from one’s own encounters. With fresh enthusiasm I walked under the arch and up the white pebbled path to the door.”

It was September of 1953 when Andrew arrived in Glasgow, Scotland. He had come all the way from Holland to learn about faith. It was a subject in which God had already begun to train him and the words of the sign that stood over the path summarized what his next lesson would be.

Have Faith in God. Often we become so concentrated on the first two words of that command that we neglect the second two without even realizing that we are. This mistake renders faith useless. For we have not only to have faith but to have faith in the right thing. Hebrew xi.6 tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. But it does not stop at that, it goes on to say, “he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” We have not only to believe but to believe something very specific. This tells us that the object of faith is of equal importance to the presence of faith and the two only become pleasing to God when they are coupled together.

In the first post of this series, The Predetermined “Yes”, we talked about the connection that exists between faith and trust. The two terms are synonymous. (I am going to continue explaining the relationship between faith and that which it is placed in but as I do, I want to switch terms from faith to trust. Because the majority of us seem to be more familiar with how trust works than with how faith works.) In terms of trust then, we could say that you have not only to trust, you must trust in something. The object in which your trust is placed is as important as the trust itself. In fact, it is the object of your trust that directly determines the outcome of it. For example, when you jump out of an airplane, it is of the utmost importance what you trust in a parachute to carry you safely to the ground. A parachute will do it, but a bed sheet will not. Now you must trust in the parachute for it to save you, you must put it on, do up all the buckles, and then pull on the string that causes it to open. Without the presence of trust the parachute is unable to save. For this reason, you could rightly say that it was your trust in the parachute which saved you. However, you would also be correct in saying that the parachute saved you. For, if you had put your trust in the bed sheet it would not have saved you. Not even if you had unfolded it, tied its ends around your wrists, and waved it over your head while you were falling. You were save by a combination of trust and what it was placed in. The parachute can not to its job without being trusted, but the bed sheet can not do the parachute’s job no matter how much it is trusted. In this, we see that the trust, if it is to work, can not be separated from the object that is worthy of trust.

In the same way the command to have faith cannot be separated from God Himself.

*“The real purpose of this training,” Mr. Dinnen said, “Is to teach our students that they can trust God to do what He has said He would do. We don’t go from here into the traditional missionary fields, but into new territory. Our graduates are on their own. They can not be effective if they are afraid, or if they doubt that God really means what He says in His word. So here we teach not so much ideas as trusting. I hope this is what you are looking for in a school, Andrew.”

“Yes, sir. Exactly.”

“As for finances – you know of course, Andy, that we charge no tuition. That’s because we have no paid staff. The teachers, the people who run things in London, myself – none of us receive a salary. Room and board and other physical costs for the year come only to ninety pounds – a little over two hundred and fifty dollars. It’s as low as this because the students do the cooking, cleaning, everything themselves. But we do request the ninety pounds in advance. Now, I understand that you will not be able to do this.”

“No, sir.”

“Well, it’s also possible to pay in instalments, thirty pounds at the start of each session. But for your sake and for ours we like to insist that the instalments be paid on time.”

“Yes, sir. I altogether agree.”

I did agree too. This was going to be my first experiment in trusting God for the material needs of life. I had thirty pounds I had brought from Holland for the first semester’s fee. After that I really looked forward to seeing how God was going to supply the money.

But during the first few weeks, something kept happening that bothered me. At mealtimes the students would frequently discuss inadequate funds. Sometimes after a whole night in prayer for a certain need, only half of the request would be granted, or three quarters of it. If an old peoples’ home, for example, where the students conducted services, needed ten blankets, the students would perhaps receive enough to buy six. The Bible said that we were workers in God’s vineyard. Was this the way the Lord of the vineyard payed His hired men?

…I could not understand why this bothered me so. Was I greedy? I didn’t think so. We had always been poor, and I had never worried about it. What was it then?

I realised that the question was not one of money at all. What I was really worried about was a relationship. When I was working at the chocolate factory, I trusted Mr. Ringers to pay me in full and on time. Surely, I said to myself, if an ordinary factory worker could be financially secure, so could one of God’s workers.”

If we go back to the illustration of the bed sheet and the parachute, we saw that it was of great importance that the object in which trust was placed was trustworthy. The trust itself can not equip an object to save you, it can only enable an object that is already equipped to do so. The Christian’s trust or faith is meant to be placed in God. But how do we know if He is worthy of that trust? How do we know that a parachute is worthy of our trust, or that another person is? In relationship with other people, trust comes with knowledge of the person you are trusting. As you get to know someone better you see if you can or can’t trust someone. In the same way, we know that we can trust a parachute because we know about the parachute. We know how it works and why. Trust doesn’t just appear, it is built with knowledge. The same is true of faith. God doesn’t expect us to blindly have faith in Him just because He said to. Rather, He has set about building our faith. He has set about making Himself known. To gain faith in God, we must gain a knowledge of Him.

*“If I was going to give my life as a servant of the King, I had to know that King. What was He like? In what way could I trust Him? In the same way that I trusted a set of impersonal laws? Or could I trust Him as a living leader, as a very present commander in battle? The question was central. Because if He were a King in name only, I would rather go back to the chocolate factory than continue on this way. I would remain a Christian, but I would know that my religion was only a set of principles, excellent and to be followed, but hardly demanding devotion. If, on the other hand, I were to discover God to be a Person, in the sense that He committed and cared and loved and led. That would be something quite different. That was the kind of a King I would follow into any battle.”

It is here that the question of God’s character becomes of the utmost importance. We not only need to know to have faith in God, we need to know the God we have faith in.  Leonard Ravenhill once said, “My goal is God Himself. Not joy, not peace, not even blessing but Himself. The person of my God.” Faith is not an attribute on its own. It is not something that we give God in order to purchase His promises. Rather it is simply trust in God Himself. That trust like any trust comes through a knowledge of Him. The more we know God the more faith we will have in Him.

*“Somehow, sitting there in the moonlight that September night in Glasgow, I knew that my probing into God’s nature was going to begin with this issue of money. That night I knelt in front of the window and made a covenant with Him.

“Lord,” I said, “I need to know that I can trust You in the practical things. I thank You for letting me earn the fees for the first semester. I ask You now to supply the rest of them. If I have to be so much as a day late in paying, I shall know that I am supposed to go back to the chocolate factory.”

It was a childish prayer, petulant and demanding. But then I was still a child in the Christian life. The remarkable thing is that God honoured my prayer. But not without first testing me in some rather amusing ways…”

To be continued

In Christ

quiana

* Quotes, excerpts, and facts have been taken from Brother Andrew's book God's Smuggler

The Game of the Royal Way - Part 2: Going They Were Healed

“I stood up. I took a stride forward. And in that moment, there was a sharp wrench in my lame leg. I thought with horror that I had turned my crippled ankle. Gingerly I put the foot on the ground. I could stand on it alright. What on earth had happened?”*

In 1949, Andrew had been shot in the ankle while fighting against the rebellion that had broken out in the Dutch East Indies. The wound had put him out of the war and Andrew had been living as a cripple for the last three and a half years. This was one of the arguments that he had laid before God, when he felt the call to become a missionary. “How could I be a missionary when I can’t even walk a city block without pain?”*(see The Predetermined "Yes")

But none of Andrew’s fears were bigger than God. God didn’t cater to Andrew’s excuses, rather He asked him simply to say “yes” and trust Him to provide a way for him to obey. Andrew accepted this challenge. He had said,

“Whenever, wherever, however you want me, I'll go. And I'll begin this very minute. Lord, as I stand up from this place, and as I take my first step forward, will you consider that this is a step of obedience to You? I'll call it the Step of Yes.”*

 It was with these words and this fresh determination to obey that Andrew had stood and taken that first step. The ‘Step of Yes’. What had happened when he did so? He didn’t seem to have turned his leg, for he could walk on it well enough.

“Slowly and very cautiously, I began to walk home, and as I walked, one verse of scripture kept popping into my mind: “Going they were healed.”

I couldn’t remember at first where it came from. Then I remembered the story of the ten lepers, and how on their way to see the priest, as Christ had commanded, the miracle happened. “Going, they were healed.”

Could it be? Could it possibly be that I too had been healed?”*

God took Andrew’s ‘Step of Yes’ and used it. He took a man’s faith and began to show His faithfulness. The story that Brother Andrew thought of is found in Luke xvii.

“On the way to Jerusalem Jesus was passing along between Samaria and Galilee. And as He entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices, saying, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When He saw them, He said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And going they were healed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus' feet, giving Him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then Jesus answered, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?  Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And He said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.” (Luke xvii. 11 -19)

Jesus told the man that his faith had made him well. It is a phrase that we find Jesus repeat on multiple different occasions when men and women were healed. But wait, wasn’t God the one who had made the leper well? In the same way that Andrew’s faith had to come before he saw God’s faithfulness, the leper had to believe before he was healed. Andrew’s ‘Step of Yes’ and the leper’s obedience in going to the priests both demonstrated faith. First came faith and then the show of His faithfulness. This is and always has been God’s pattern. If the order was reversed neither would work - men’s faith would not be faith, nor would God be seen as faithful. In Romans viii. 24-25 Paul says, “hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.” In the same way we can’t trust God, or have faith in Him, to do something that He has already done. But if He hasn’t yet done it, or we do not yet know that He has done it, then we are given the opportunity to trust Him to do it. Likewise, God needs men to trust Him if He is going to show that He is trustworthy. He asks men to have faith in Him so that He can prove Himself faithful. God employs the actions of the men’s faith as the means of showing His faithfulness. This is why He desires for us to act in obedience to His words; to step out in faith. He is beckoning us to trust Him so that He can work in and through us. Our God is saying, “Step out in faith, say “yes” to Me, so that you may see what I will do!”

*"I was due at a Sunday evening service in a village six kilometres away. Normally, I would have ridden my bicycle, but tonight was different. Tonight I was going to walk all the way to the meeting.

I did too. When it came time to go home, a friend offered me a ride on his motorbike.

“Not tonight, thank you. I think I’ll walk.”

He couldn’t believe it. Nor, later, could my family believe that I had actually been to the service; they had seen my bicycle leaning against the wall and assumed that I had changed my mind.

The next day, at the chocolate factory, I walked each employee back to his post at the end of our interview instead of sitting rooted to my chair as I had done in the past. Halfway through the morning my ankle started to itch, and as I was rubbing the old scar, two stitches came through the skin. By the end of the week the incision, which had never healed properly at last closed. 

The following week I made formal application for admission to the WEC Missionary Training College in Glasgow. A month later the reply came. Dependant on space opening up in the men’s dormitory, I could start my studies in May, 1953.”

God had stepped in and played His hand. He met Andrew’s faith with perfect faithfulness and He was only just getting started…

to be continued

In Christ

quiana

* Quotes, excerpts, and facts have been taken from Brother Andrew's book God's Smuggler