SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #75 ---- 6/20/99
Posted by: lifeunlimited <lifeunlimited@...>
As We fight The Good Fight
SHOULDER TO SHOULDER #75 ---- 6/20/99
TITLE: "The Great Tragedy"
My Dear Fellow Warrior:
I greet you today as a weary warrior just returned from a trying and
exhausting yet victorious battle. While my body is back at home, my mind
is wandering around seeking a clear path home, and my heart is still in
the Balkans. It will take several days for all my systems to catch up to
the reality of another seven hour time shift. I still want to go to bed
at 3:00 in the afternoon, and I still wake up at 2:30 in the morning
ready to eat breakfast.
First on the agenda is to thank you so very much for your undergirding of
intercession on our behalf. We could tell that many were praying for us,
and it is evident that we needed that extra measure of prayer support for
a most significant mission filled with several unusual events and
circumstances.
While on the trip we sent letters twice weekly to a key group of family
members and friends detailing some of our adventures. It was not
possible to chronicle them all in my weekly "Shoulders" letter. Just as
an example, . . .
1. While in Amsterdam, our 747 was "tail ended" by another 747 while we
were waiting for docking at the gate, resulting in a "hang up" that not
only caused us to miss our connecting flight to Vienna but also
prohibited our getting luggage until the next day because the weight
reduction in our plane would have made the separating process much more
difficult.
2. Our team worked feverishly at the Hope Center in Fuzine, Croatia,
spackling and sanding walls, sealing ceilings and door casings, painting,
tearing out toilets, moving kitchens, sweeping floors, cleaning debris
from three newly installed septic tanks, ad infinitum.
3. We had a highly successful youth discipleship and evangelism retreat
in a church in Karlovac, Croatia, and then promptly spent that Sunday
speaking in Plaski, Blata, a neighboring front yard, and in Karlovac,
followed by a late night drive back to Crikvenica to prepare for our
special guest group from Tuzla.
4. In spite of their unexpected early arrival, we enjoyed a highly
productive week with 46 Orthodox and Muslim displaced persons from Tuzla,
Bosnia. God had not only prepared us, but had also made ready their
hearts as they soaked up virtually everything we shared with them about
how much God loved them, how they could know Him personally, and how
Jesus had made the way of reconciliation possible.
5. We also sensed Satan's efforts to immobilize our team through some
internal conflicts between a couple members. However, God kept that from
being a major problem and there was a good reconciliation between the two
parties ---- at least enough so to not interfere with our ministry.
6. Early in that week we were saddened to hear that the grandfather of
one of our team members had unexpectedly died; it was a difficult time
for the entire team as they sought to know the will of God concerning
whether or not to return to the United States. After significant prayer,
Angela made the decision to stay. Her brother was also on a mission trip
to China.
7. Last Monday we learned that Jo Ann's father had suffered a major
stroke and was not expected to live. We understood that he had the
stroke on Sunday. We were later to learn last Tuesday upon our arrival
in Munich that the stroke had been earlier, and that he had actually died
Monday night before we got the initial message on Monday. Our efforts to
get an earlier flight for Jo Ann were unsuccessful, so she remained with
the team as we traveled home.
After a late Thursday night arrival to my parents' in Kansas City, a
couple hours of laundry work and a few hours of sleep, I took her back to
the airport at 6:15 Friday morning for her flight to Tucson, Arizona.
She arrived two hours before the funeral, spent Saturday there, and
returned Sunday afternoon to Kansas City. I will pick her up Monday.
8. Finally, it was with great sadness that we learned that one of the
Muslim men in our group, one who had literally sat in the front row on
the edge of his chair every single day during all of my teachings, died
shortly after returning to Tuzla. Our hope is that somewhere in the
process he put his trust in Jesus before he died. He was only 50 years
of age.
So ---- it has been an extraordinary trip of contrasts between joy and
sadness, victory and struggle, life and death.
Each time Jo Ann and I travel on our frequent international mission
opportunities I return with a myriad of thoughts churning in my mind.
Without exception, however, one stands out as the "stack pole" thought
around which all others revolve.
Today is no exception.
THE CATASTROPHE OF THE FALL:
I have never been so aware of the absolute thorough and total catastrophe
of man's choice to be independent from God as recorded in Genesis 3. We
saw evidences of it on every hand, and on every level of man's depravity.
It is far worse than we can ever imagine. The fall of man was absolute;
it was total.
1. It has affected the Body with its relationships to the world.
With the death of Angela's grandfather, Jo Ann's father, and the Muslim
man, we saw in a fresh new way just how destructive that fatal choice is
to the human body. Death is now inevitable because man chose to be
independent from God. In doing so, he alienated himself from the Tree of
Life, and his source of life was cut off.
Now disease has entered the human race, the aging process has now found a
place of prominence, and man's days are numbered at far fewer years than
God intended. It was in God's heart that, when man died, it would be
because of aging and not because of disease.
Even with the young, like little three-year-old Demitri, the death
process has already begun its work as neurological problems force
weakness upon his right side and his little hand uncontrollably forms the
shape of a claw, no matter how hard he tries not to allow it to happen.
2. It has affected the Soul with its relationships to others.
1) It is perverted minds that foster hatred and prejudice that lead
to killing and genocide such as had happened again in Kosovo. It is a
repeat of Bosnia and Croatia, which was a repeat of World War II. The
mind without God continues its depraved scheming to destroy anything that
threatens it.
2) It is self-centered emotions that run rampant clamoring for their
own self-satisfying ways. It is the anger, resentment, and fear that
prompt men to do insane things like bombing a house, engaging in mass
murders of those who are different, or being fearful of hearing the
liberating truth of God's grace.
3) It is unbridled wills that take courses of action that lead to
destructive deeds.
3. It has affected the Spirit of man with its relationships to God.
Because man's spirit is dead without Christ, . . .
1) Man's conscience is seared and he no longer recognizes right from
wrong. You would have thought that eating from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil would have given him an edge. Instead it gave him a
conscience with no sensitivities to truth remaining.
2) His intuitive abilities are no longer reliable, and therefore he
must rely on logic, rationalization, and limited understanding to make
the most important of life's choices. He usually chooses wrong.
3) His capacity to worship, because it is now malformed, turns him
inward on himself and he settles for worshiping himself and the work of
his own hands instead of worshiping the God who created him.
Yes, dear friend, man's fateful choice in the Garden of Eden was
unspeakably catastrophic. The consequences are beyond description. We
see the evidences all around us. You don't have to be in Croatia or
Bosnia or Kosovo to see them. You see them in your town. You see them
in the pews of your churches. You see them within the walls of your own
home.
The Fall of Man was great, indeed.
THE CLARITY OF REDEMPTION:
And then I look at men like my father-in-law. He was 93 when he died
last Sunday while we were in Croatia.
Elmer Carson was a quiet man. He never had schooling beyond high school
in Brownstown, Illinois. Yet, he was a man of great wisdom. While I
sometimes saw him frustrated, I never saw him angry.
We were always welcome in his home. Many nights his house would be full
of high school and college students when he returned from work at
midnight.
He worked for the Postal Service for more than 40 years before retiring.
Then he went to work for the Tucson Chamber of Commerce. He was always
working around the church and among the neighbors in the mobile home
park.
More importantly, he was a preacher ---- a pastor. He never pastored a
big church; he was hardly known among the other pastors in the state. He
was a "no name" preacher. Yet he and his wife, Florence, helped plant
seventeen churches in Southern Arizona, and he helped develop and sustain
the Friendship Center in a low income multi-ethnic district of the city.
They became known as "The Aquila and Priscilla of Arizona Baptists". No
single family has ever helped start more churches in that state than they
did.
When I see Elmer, I see more than a friend or a father-in-law. I see an
example of what redemption can do to a human heart. Because he chose to
surrender to the will of God, the curse of the Garden choice was broken,
and He demonstrated God's work of redemption.
He never seemed as old as he was. In 1988, just a few months after his
wife had died, he came to Wisconsin to help us in the construction work
of our ministry center. At his own expense he bought a table saw just so
he could help me build book shelves and stair cases. His carpentry
skills left their marks all over those buildings. His servant spirit
left its mark all over my life.
His enjoyment of life was best epitomized when he told me that he never
noticed that he was getting old until his children began to retire. Even
then, he got old with dignity. Even after two strokes that left him
physically weak on one side and mentally unable to recall facts he could
at one time easily recall, he seldom complained. While we weren't there
this last time, I'm sure his disposition was the same, and he died as he
had lived ---- with grace.
THE URGENCY OF THE MISSION:
One final picture from this trip remains in the gallery of my mind. It
is the troubling paradox I see of the Church.
As we traveled throughout Austria, Croatia, and Germany, the great
cathedrals were visible. Some were Orthodox, others were Catholic, a few
were Lutheran. The thing that stood out about them all was their
extravagant ornateness. Some, such as St. Stephans Church in Vienna,
were spectacular, twin spires piercing the clouds as they pointed
heavenward.
I was both awed and grieved as I pondered their beauty and their complex
symbolisms. My final analysis was that, no matter how well intentioned
and no matter how beautiful, they have left a false hope and a futile
assumption ---- that money and works get you to where God is.
As we ministered to the group from Tuzla, I was again reminded that both
the Serbian Orthodox and the Muslims were part of a system that said the
same thing ---- if you work hard enough, you can get to God, gain His
approval, and receive your heavenly rewards.
It was the same story as the cathedrals gave.
Then I looked westward, across the sea. What I saw grieved me greatly,
and I was deeply disheartened. The Church in America is often sending
the same message. Even the evangelical church sometimes sends the same
message. Maybe not with the same ornate pomp and ceremony, but it is
there nonetheless.
I thought ---- "We are becoming just like the churches of post Christian
Europe!"
But then I remembered the group of praise-filled people in the church of
Rijeka, situated directly across the street from a former Yugoslav Army
military installation, and meeting in a building that looks like an
apartment building. This was the little church that gave birth to the
Life Center where we work. They continue ministering, giving, praying,
weeping for the souls of their compatriots, whether they be in
Yugoslavia, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia, or Montenegro.
When the time comes, and it will, they will again open up their hearts
and homes to the homeless, the hurting, the hopeless.
No wonder they know how to pray. No wonder they know how to praise.
And then I remembered the little Serbian church in Plaski where we
ministered the second Sunday. Jo Ann and I had been there before. When
you look out into the audience of about 40 people, you see a half dozen
older men, and 30 or more women dressed in black ---- the sign of
widowhood.
The day we were there, only two cars and a bicycle were there. Everyone
else walked. But all were faithful.
Again ---- I remembered Blata from the year before. The people had been
given three days notice ---- "Get out of town; there will be fighting
here soon. But, don't worry, it will not be long, and you will be home
in a few days."
Five years later, when we first visited a year and one-half ago, only 30
had returned ---- all women except for one elderly man, the lay pastor of
the local church. As of two weeks ago, 20 more had returned. Of a town
of 250 population, only those with no place else to go have come home.
Nearly all of them are old, most of them are women.
And yet, their hospitality is without limits, their kindness without
comparison, and their appreciation for our visit beyond expression.
Finally, I remembered the yard in an unknown village near Plaksi. There
were too many of us to get inside the house where the group met each
Sunday afternoon. A widow lady from Plaski had a burden for her Muslim
and Orthodox neighbors, so she began holding Bible studies in her home.
When we arrived, they were waiting ---- all four of them. But, then she
began going up and down the street inviting friends to come and meet the
Americans who had come.
We sat on the grass, on stools, on broken chairs. Most of the locals sat
on a long bench attached to a small granary.
After we had sung and one of our team members shared a personal testimony
of how God had changed her life, I began to speak.
It was one of those "moments". You know what I mean. Sometimes you have
moments, and then there are those "moments". This was a "moment".
As I began to speak, God literally began to give me thoughts and words
that flowed like a river of water. My translator, Hilda, kept pace right
along with me. I can always tell when God is doing something
extraordinary, because Hilda begins to "groove", and we "ping pong" back
and forth as if we were one person. It is an awesome experience when
that happens.
Suddenly I sensed that God was speaking directly and clearly to those
hungry souls, and He was letting me watch it all. It was such a sacred
moment that I was almost afraid to move, for fear of interrupting the
flow of the Holy Spirit.
When we were done, Hilda said, "I cannot believe what I have just seen!
The message was so clear ---- so perfect ---- so right!"
One of our own team members said, "I have never heard such a clear
presentation of what makes Jesus so totally different from all other
religious leaders of the world."
All I could do was humbly rejoice, because I knew it wasn't me. It was
God.
I wanted to sit there ---- to just bask in His presence and revel in His
mighty deeds.
But ---- another church, the fourth one that day, called for our
attention ---- and we were off to Karlovac.
As we drove that hour and one-half drive back to Karlovac, I could see
the contrast. The cathedrals of Europe and the "cathedrals" we have
erected in the name of Christ in America are nothing but stone and mortar
---- the very same things with which the Tower of Babel was constructed
---- and God was not there, because He cannot be where He is not honored
and where He does not receive all the glory.
But He was in the weeping church of Rijeka; He was in the caring church
of Plaski; He was in the gracious church of Blata; He was in the unknown
new church meeting in the yard.
When I see how we often use our moneys in the western culture to build
our own towers of Babel, it angers me. If you really want to make a
difference, give me the $50,000 you may spend on a new organ or a new
chandelier, and I will build ten new churches that will make a difference
in a country hungry for and open to the Gospel.
IN CONCLUSION AND CONTRAST:
When a museum wants to show off its most precious diamonds and other
gems, it will often display them against the backdrop of black velvet.
There can be seen an equally dramatic contrast between the catastrophe of
the fall of man and the redemptive victory of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ. The side-by-side existence of both makes each more clearly seen
in stark reality.
I am deeply burdened over the grave consequences of the act of
independence which brought on man's dilemma. I am, however, more greatly
thrilled over the incredible act of redemption provided by God through
Jesus Christ.
It remains to be seen still just what our reaction needs to be concerning
the responsibility the Church has to declare both to the ends of the
earth.
How is it going at your end of the earth?
In Christ's Bond,
Bob Tolliver ---- (Rom 1:11-12)
Copyright June, 1999. All rights reserved.
If this letter has blessed you and you know of someone else who needs to
be encouraged, feel free to forward it in its entirety to all such people
you know.
If you would like a list of past issues which you could receive upon
request, just let us know.
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Hang in there! I'm with you!
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