no. 30, shared Nov. 25, 2001
Entitled: "The Rest of the Story!" by Fritz Springmeier
And now for the r-e-e-s-s-t of the s-t-o-r-y! I remember listening to the
living American icon Paul Harvey when I was a high school freshman in drafting
class. To still hear his voice, in a world of turmoil & change is like
finding
an island of stability in the middle of a stormy sea. In recent times, Paul
Harvey's words have had a chime of familiarity & comfort. This manna
article
has many "rest-of-the-story" themes to it, so it almost begs to get
its
title.
My material is as widely read in Japan as in America (which is deeply
satisfying to me since I have such a love for the Japanese people). I
think
my father, who lived in Japan for two years and loved the people, planted a
seed of love in me early on for the Japanese people. One of the men who
subscribed to my material (and traded letters with me) in the early 90's was
Timothy Pietch, one of the old time pioneer missionaries to Japan after W.W.
II. He was especially interested in my Billy Graham material. A few years
back, his dear widow sent me a letter telling me of the death of Timothy. And
I mourn the loss of one of our dear brothers in Christ. Timothy was not aware
that I knew the following story about him-as he never shared it with me.
I want to use my "pen pal" Timothy Pietch for my "rest of the
story" anecdote,
which I'd like to share with you friend to friend. You see, maybe some of you
thought I was trying to butter you up when I wrote in manna 21, that "some
of
the people who receive these manna articles are awesome", but I really
feel it
is an honor being a part of all your lives. Even if you feel ordinary, I like
to see you as God sees you, like a book that doesn't have the rest of the
story written, the best part is waiting.
Timothy was willing to be where God wanted him to be one day. He handed a man
a book that told the story of DeShazer, one of Doolittle's raiders. I imagine
most of my readers are familiar with the Doolittle raid, where the United
States did a surprise raid on Tokyo during the early part of the war when we
were still losing. The raid overall was a great psychological blow to Japan,
but DeShazer himself was captured and spent 40 months in a Jap POW camp. While
a POW, he was fortunate to have both discovered a Bible and to have had the
wisdom to read it. When he read the Word of God in that harsh POW camp, he
gave his life to Christ. After the war, he went back to Japan and had the joy
of bringing one of his sadistic guards to Christ. Now Timothy was handing out
the book in Japanese that told the story of DeShazer coming to Christ and
returning to love the Japanese. And the man who happened to come along and
receive the book was by divine accident Mitsuo Fuchida, who had been the
Commander in the air in a "Kate" bomber leading the attack on Pearl
Harbor.
Fuchida did not lead the attack on Pearl Harbor simply out of duty; he
personally hated America (an old grievance) for how the U.S. government had
treated certain Japanese back in the 1920's. After the first two attacks had
killed 2,403 Americans and sunk or damaged 9 battleships, it was Fuchida who
pleaded with his superiors to let him have one more attack. But his cautious
Admiral refused to risk more planes in another strike. This then was the man
whose life was changed because Timothy was obedient to God and was where God
could use him handing out a free book. Mitsuo Fuchida, the man who hated
America and led the devastating 12-7-41 attack on our Pacific Fleet at Pearl
Harbor, gave his life to Christ.
Mitsuo Fuchida was quoted after he gave his life to Christ, "No more
bombs,
only Bibles." We are "more than overcomers", because we
Christians don't just
overcome our enemies, we convert some of them to a better way.
God uses ordinary people in extraordinary ways. You were born in a stable (so
to speak) but you were born to be a King or Queen! I want you to go all the
way with God. Don't bury your spiritual assets under petty trivialities. In
all thy ways acknowledge God, and He will lead your paths. You will get such
great satisfaction from seeking God, and doing His great plan for your life.
Augustine said we could not find happiness apart from God. Christ taught that:
Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of
the mouth of God.
You are just as capable of doing some small (but great) act for God as
Timothy. Why can I say that with confidence? YHWH says, "All things
come
alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the
good and to the clean..the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the
strong, neither bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor
yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all."
I'm
not promoting the lottery, don't get me wrong. I just want to help call your
attention to the fact that God can use you.
Have you gotten lost running down the wrong trails of life? Or perhaps,
just
the opposite, you know exactly where you are, the same boring routine. In both
cases, you need to take stewardship of your creative energy. God doesn't just
give you a gift of creative energy; He gives you a creative spark of His own
divine creativity. Listen to what is great within you. This is the day, this
is the day, that the Lord has made. Your brain is not a photocopy machine, so
use it creatively.
I know at this point, I may have begun to lose some readers. They are
convinced that circumstances have them boxed into a life amounting to zero.
Perhaps your morale and personal esteem is at low tide. I know most of my
readers can at least hand out books like Timothy did. O.K., so you have no
hands or are disabled in some other way? I have still seen disabled people
doing fantastic things for God.
Allow me to introduce you to a small town in Nevada, Battle Mountain. It's
nothing to write home to mom about. It's just a bunch of trailer houses, and
even fewer of those, now that the World Order's policies put the silver mines
out of work. I had the honor to speak there, and in the process meet two
ordinary people doing extraordinary things. One was a disabled vet named
Cowboy. He didn't let his disability stop him from making a positive
difference. Cowboy is out to make his mark, and he doesn't care what people
think of him. Another wonderful Battle Mountain inhabitant was James
Whisler.
Since my visit, James has created a web site www.PoweredbyChrist.com, and he
posts all these manna articles on his site if you ever want to look at back
issues.
Now James merits mention in this manna because he was concerned about going to
the Burning Man festival to witness and investigate. First James was
apprehensive because he didn't feel worthy to be a representative for Christ
in the middle of tens of thousands of wild occultists. But he went anyway. And
that is my point, we need to recognize our sins before God, like James, and
then we need to realize that God uses imperfect people and we had just better
truck on out there and do what we can, whether we feel qualified or
not-because the battle is not to the strongest! The man who is
enthusiastic
with God's missions will out perform anyone with a set of skills and
qualifications and no enthusiasm. James did a great job for Christ. It is not
easy to walk into thousands of hornets, and he did stir up a hornet's nest.
You might want to read about his Burning Man experience. He has gotten lots of
negative emails from Burners.
God creates strength in the midst of weakness. Face up to what you are. Yes,
its true you have your problems, but you also have so much potential, and
that's the rest of the story. I hate for you to mumble when you die that the
only thing God gave you was old age. But if you sow to the whirlwind, God says
you'll reap the whirlwind. HOS 8:7
And I'm not going to get off your case. Let me do some self-disclosure here. I
like the bumper sticker that says to do random acts of kindess. Until now, one
of the things that essentially no one knew about me, is that over the years I
randomly go to hospitals and visit people who never have visitors. (By the
way, not all hospitals take long-term patients.) I am amazed that I find
people who have never gotten a single visitor in 20 years! It saddens my
heart. Now come on people-all it takes is willingness to listen and chitchat.
There are so many things each one of you could do for God, and they may be
this simple (but profound). If you are disabled and stuck at home, then
minister to other home-restricted disabled people. You got a phone right?
Overcome that inertia and boldly step out in faith.
And now I would like to share two true stories that show how the Spirit of God
does and doesn't work in people's lives.
How can the Spirit work? There was a father and son who were camping. The
father sent the boy out in the dark to fetch wood. The boy could only see one
step at a time, but because of his father's encouragements, he made it to the
woodpile one step at a time. "And in the same way the Spirit also helps
our
weakness." ROM 8:26
How is the Spirit prevented from working? That is illustrated by the following
anecdote. There was a certain German soldier in W.W. II, who was home wounded.
His mother was very concerned about him, and kept after him until he agreed to
go for medical attention at a nearby military hospital. When he entered the
hospital, a sign pointed down one hall for enlisted men, and another pointed
the direction for officers. He took the enlisted men's hall. At the end of
that hall, was another sign, this time pointing one way for "seriously
wounded" and toward another corridor for the "slightly wounded".
He took the
slightly wounded route. At the end of the hall was another division. One sign
indicated the way for Nazi party members, and another way for non-party
individuals. He took the non-party direction and came to a door. He opened the
door and stepped through it. He found himself outside of the hospital. Now
when he returned home, his mother asked, "Did they do any good at the
hospital?" He answered, "You wouldn't believe how well-organized they
were,
but I wasn't able to do much good there."
When the Holy Spirit walks through the halls of your mind and your life, and
your church programs, and your church schedules, and your church doctrines
will He come back and say, "You wouldn't believe how well-organized they
were,
but I wasn't able to do much good."?
Perhaps this anecdote from Germany reminded you about recorded phone messages
when you call the government or some business. At times you get shunted off.
And that is what we do to the Spirit, who would like to take our lives and do
something creative with them. Don't be like the man who left home and traveled
all over the country looking for diamonds, when there were diamonds on the
property he had owned. If you are not living an exciting joyful life for
Christ, it's not that there is no opportunity. It may be that you have been
too discouraged to see the opportunities, or too timid. I see people who have
great projects in mind, but they let the small-minded people around them throw
wet blankets on their great exciting ideas. God wants you to creatively bloom
where you are planted. Now give God the rest of the story.