The Game of the Royal Way - Part 1: The Predetermined “Yes”

"I hung back. I seemed to have so many points against me. I didn't have the learning, and, hide it though I might from others, I had a crippled ankle. How could I expect to be a missionary if I couldn't even walk a city block without pain?"*

Andrew knew that God was calling him to be a missionary, but he didn't see how he could obey. The traditional route of becoming a missionary required him to get ordained as a minister. To do that he would have to first make up the schooling that he had missed during the war. Altogether it would take twelve years of study and, if that wasn’t ridiculous enough, there was the expense to be taken into account as well.

A friend told him of an alternate route, an English organisation called the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade (the WEC). They trained men to be missionaries without requiring them to be ordained first.  But this too had a catch - at the end of the two-year program they sent their students out without any financial support. Andrew didn’t know how he felt about begging from churches as he went along. 

On top of it all there was his ankle - a war injury that had never properly healed.

 "I began to ask myself if I really intend to be a missionary - or if it was only a romantic dream with which I indulged myself? 

I had often heard talk of ‘praying through’, of sticking with a prayer until you got an answer. So, I determined that I was going to try it. One Sunday afternoon in September, 1952, I went out to the polders where I could pray aloud without being embarrassed. I sat on the edge of a canal and began talking to God casually, as I might have talked to a friend. I prayed through coffee and cigar hour, right through Sunday afternoon, and on into the evening. Still I had not reached a point where I knew I had found God's plan for my life.

"What is it, Lord? What am I holding back? What am I using as an excuse for not serving You in whatever You want me to do?"

And then, there by the canal, I finally had my answer. My "yes" to God had always been a "yes, but." Yes, but I'm not educated. Yes, but I'm lame."- Brother Andrew, God's Smuggler

When God asks us to do something, most of us know better than to say “no” and yet we don’t exactly say “yes” either. We hesitate, we procrastinate, we agree on certain terms. Like Brother Andrew, our "yes" is accompanied by a "but". I'll be a missionary, but I’m not going to do twelve years of study. I will be a missionary, but I need to have financial support. I will ask for forgiveness, but they have to ask me for forgiveness first. I'll tell that person about the gospel, but only if they approach me. Is this obedience?

In October 23^rd’s post, Legally Bound, we learned that we are legally required to obey God. God gave us the responsibility to say "yes" to Him in whatever He asks us to do. In correspondence to this He gave us a promise– He committed to provide us with everything that we would need to obey. But that promise of God was never meant to be an excuse for our delayed obedience. Obedience was not meant to be put off while we stand around, waiting to see if God is going to come through with His promise, and yet this is so often our response to God's requests. 

It is the same attitude that we see when little children are trading things and they argue about who should be the first give their item to the other. Eventually they agree to count to three and both hand over their treasures at the same time. This type of behaviour stems from a lack of trust. Neither party wants to give up what they have until they are sure they will get what the other has promised in exchange. When we say “yes, but” to God we are essentially saying that we will only give what is required of us - obedience, after we have what God has promised us - provision. We don’t want to be the one who goes first in this deal, because we don't trust God to follow through on His end of the deal.  Or to do so in the way that we want Him to. In a way that we are comfortable with. This lack of trust is the exact opposite of the faith that God has asked us to have in our dealings with Him.

 He always supplies what is needed for His people to obey Him. He always comes through. But rarely does He show us His provision ahead of time and He never promises that it will come in the way we want or expect it to. Rather He asks us to obey instantly - even before we’ve seen His provision. To do our part in faith, trusting that He is faithful. 

 "To another He said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”  Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke ix. 59 - 62)

 Jesus was calling for followers, for men who would say "yes" to Him and He told those He called that there was no place for a "yes, but" in the kingdom of God. No space to give qualification to your obedience. To do so is just as bad as saying “no”. 

"With my next breath, I did say "yes". I said it in a brand new way without qualification. "I'll go, Lord," I said, "no matter what, whether it is through the route of ordination, or through the WEC program, or through working at Ringers. 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." *

Obedience to God isn’t optional. It is meant to be instinctive. We shouldn’t have to decide if we will say “yes” to God, it should be a predetermined decision. A choice we’ve made long before He asks us to obey. We should be able to say “yes” before we even know what it is that He is asking because we know that God will only ask us to do that which we should do and that He will also supply us with the means to do it. Simply saying "yes", without qualification, leaves an opportunity for God to be God.

 This was a step of faith for Andrew, a step of obedience, a 'step of yes' and he was about to discover what God intended to do with it. He had learned the first rule in a game that he didn't yet realise that he was playing. Now it was God's turn...

to be continued

In Christ

quiana

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

Legally Bound – A Study of the Name Adonai

The name Adonai appears in the Old Testament four hundred and thirty-four times. It is considered to be one of the names of God, but it is actually more of a title than a name. For Adonai is a relationship defining term, in much the same way as “mother” or “friend”. The word mother not only conveys the concept of a role that is played by a woman, it also infers that there is a corresponding role to be played. Which would be that of a child. Thus, the role of a woman as a mother is defined within the relationship she has with her child. You cannot have a mother without having a child. Likewise, when someone is referred to as a friend the statement indicates that they have a friend in someone else. To be called a friend, you must have a friend. The name Adonai means Lord or Master and in the same way as the title mother infers that someone else plays the role of a child, the title Lord or Master demands the corresponding role of a slave. Thus, when God calls Himself Adonai He is simultaneously calling you and I slaves. His slaves.

In a world that was predominantly Roman, Hebrew, and Greek this name revealed more than just the position of God over men. These groups of people had countless differences but there were a few things that they had in common, including two laws that dealt with slaves and masters. The first was a law that allowed for slaves who were disobedient to be put to death. By this law the slave was legally bound to obey. If they did not, they could be legally killed. The second law corresponded to this, it legally bound slave masters to provide their slaves with everything that was required for obedience. Which was defined to be sustenance, instruction, and protection. Therefore, while the slave was legally bound to obey, the master was legally bound to provide all the things that slave needed to obey and the second law also was on pain of death.

 The role of men and women is to obey God. That obligation did not disappear with Ancient Rome, nor is it only for those in the Hebrew culture. On pain of death, you and I are legally bound to obey God as our Lord and Master. Those who do not obey will die. It is an uncomfortable fact for a world full of ‘disobedient slaves’ to accept. However, the name Adonai was not only given to remind us that we have a legal obligation to obey God and that we will be put to death for not obeying Him. It also reveals that He has bound Himself to provide for us. To provide everything we need to obey Him. To provide our daily sustenance, to give us instruction on what to do and how to do it, and to protect us from anything that might rise up against us to do us harm or to prevent us from carrying out the task He has assigned. 2 Peter i.3-4, tells us that “His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.”

God has more then fulfilled His obligations to us. For all the way back in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve had everything they needed to obey God.

“And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis ii. 16-17)

God told Adam and Eve what they could and could not do and He informed them of the consequences of disobeying. He gave them instruction. They could eat of any tree in the garden besides the one He had commanded them not to touch, thus they had their needs provided for. They had sustenance. Lastly, God Himself walked with them in the garden and was with them and they knew Him. He was not distant nor distracted, had they called for help He would have heard them. They had protection. In all this God had fully satisfied the requirements by which He was legally bound. So, when Adam and Eve did not obey, they were legally to die and God was legally freed from His obligation towards them.

Instead accepting this freedom, however, He continued to fulfil His role towards us. He continued to bind Himself to provide for us all that was needed for obedience, which was now a much greater requirement. For in order for us to walk in obedience again He had to die in our place. This He did of His own free will. He was no longer legally bound. In His own free will He went to the cross and through it purchased all that is needed for sinful men to walk in obedience again. We are legally required to obey but He has provided us with every thing that is necessary to do so. Including the example of fulfilling our role out of love rather than legal duty. Let’s obey God not only because we are legally required to do it, not only because we have been given all that we need to do so, but primarily because we love Him and because He first loved us!  

In Christ

quiana

Set Free - The Victory Sophie Gained in Giving Up Her Life

The cell was cold and the grey, cement walls made it feel dark even though the sunlight was pouring in through the window. Sophie shivered and blew on her hands, as she surveyed the little room. There was nothing much to it - three cots with a blanket on each, a little wooden table, the chair on which she sat, and the blank piece of paper that lay before her. 

Oh, that piece of paper! How could it ever hold all that she still wanted to tell the world? There were things she wanted to write to her parents and the siblings that she would leave behind. Hopes and dreams that had never been voiced. Plans and ideas that could never happen now. Then there was the cause itself, it must be carried on. 

She picked up the pencil but didn't write. Instead, her eyes strayed to the window and she watched as the sunlight poured in through the bars.  

Such a fine, sunny day. She recalled the dream she’d had in the night.  It had been a sunny day, just as it was now. She thought of the child in the perfectly white dress that she had carried. She thought of the steepness of the hill that led up to the church. If only she could have made it to the top and placed the child safely down! 

She sighed, she could still feel the terrible sensation of the ground giving way; of falling as a chasm opened up beneath her. She trembled for a moment as she thought of what that chasm represented and yet, she felt a strange peace about it all. The child had been put safely down on the solid ground after all. She had only been meant to carry it for a short while. Now she was going to the place that the Lord had gone ahead to prepare for her. 

"The child is our idea. In spite of all obstacles, it will prevail." She had told her cell mates earlier that morning. "We were permitted to be pioneers, though we must die early for its sake."

 The other girls hadn't seemed to understand, but she hoped someone would. Someone had to carry on in the cause. 

"How can we expect righteousness to prevail when there is hardly anyone willing to give himself up individually to a righteous cause? Such a fine, sunny day, and I have to go, but how many are dying on the battlefield in these days, how many young promising lives." She sighed. "What does my death matter, if, through us, thousands of people are awakened and stirred to action?" 

She spoke aloud though there was now no one else in the cell. They were words that needed to be heard. She glanced down again at the clean, white sheet of paper and finally she knew what to write. A single word would suffice to tell all. She scribbled it across the page and then jumped to her feet for she heard a key turning in the lock. 

A moment later, a guard led her out and the cell was left empty. Only the piece of paper remained to tell of her presence there. On one side, in the font of a typewriter, was the indictment that read: 

'Hans Fritz Scholl, Sophia Magdalena Scholl, and Christoph Hermann Probst are accused:

In 1942 and 1943, in Munich, Ausburg, Salzburg, Vienna, Stuttgart, and Linz, committing together the same acts:

I. With attempted high treason, namely to change the constitution of the Reich, and acting with intent to...

1.) organize a conspiracy for the preparation of high treason,

2.) render the armed forces unfit for the performance of their duty of protecting the German Reich against internal and external attack,

3.) influence the masses through the preparation and distribution of writings.

II. With having attempted, in the internal area of the Reich, during time of war, to give aid to the enemy against the Reich, injuring the war potential of the Reich.

III. With having attempted to cripple and weaken the will of the German people and to take measures against their defense and self determination.

The accused on the whole were willing to admit to their acts and on this account they are to be punished by death. Their honour and rights as citizens are forfeited for all time.'

They had done it all, just as the indictment said. They hadn't denied it and they weren't ashamed of it. They didn't consider fighting injustice and pleading with the German people to surrender the war to be crimes.

Yes, it had all been done just as the indictment read. It had all been done through simple words. On the opposite side of the paper, Sophie had left one more. One more word that enunciated all that they had already said; all that they had desired to achieve. One more word to plead with the German people. One more word to show the victory that she felt even in facing death. The word she scribbled on the back of the indictment was: FREEDOM

Hans had left a similar message etched onto the wall of his cell. It was a quote that his father had him commit to memory as a child: 

"Hold out in defiance of all despotism" -Goethe

These siblings wanted the German people to be free but they knew that they could only gain freedom through surrender. While they allowed wicked men to council them to fight for their own gain, while they continued to exercise cruelty for “the furtherance of their own people” they could never truly be free. Never free as God intended them to be free. 

Hans, Sophie, and Christoph had forfeited their honour and rights as German citizens for all time, but in so doing they had maintained their honour and rights in a higher kingdom. It was this that they longed for Germany to understand.

"For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew xvi.25)

Hans, Sophie, and Christoph had freedom even in death. That was a true freedom. Not freedom to do what was right in their own eyes, but freedom to do that which was actually right. 

They had died for exercising that freedom. Nazi Germany and its ideals would likewise have to die if its citizens were ever to taste that kind of freedom. The same is true for all that is wrong, sinful, and rebellious within you and I. 

True freedom is not to do whatever you think is right, but what is truly right no matter the consequence.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." (Galatians v.1)

In Christ

Quiana

The story above is written in a historical fiction format but it is entirely based off of the biographical record of Hans and Sophie Scholl as recorded by their sister Inge Scholl in The White Rose. The dialogue, indictment, and all other facts were taken directly from that resource.