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

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