Monthly Archives: November 2009

A Tribute to Dr. John Dreisbach, 1922-2009

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Dr. John Dreisbach was one of the “old school” missionaries, who spent his life serving as a career missionary doctor and evangelist in various places around the world. When he died, I was working on a children’s book about his adventures in western Africa. Perhaps the book will never be finished, but as a tribute, I am posting here the first chapter.

CHAPTER 1
The Mantle

“Don’t know what to say, Mrs. Dreisbach. Sure am sorry.” Mr. Johnson stood at the kitchen table with his hat in his hand. “Don’t seem like enough to say that.”

Mrs. Johnson set her chicken casserole down on the table and came to wrap her arm around the shoulder of her friend. “Molly, words aren’t sufficient in our grief. But God knows, God knows.”

Mrs. Dreisbach sat at the kitchen table looking straight ahead and smiling slightly. Her brown bun rested loosely at her neck, as neat as ever, the wisps of hair gently touching her face like always. Her fist gripped her starched white apron, holding it to her mouth. But her eyes were dry.

Mrs. Kellerman came in from the other room. “Honey, the neighbors are gonna be comin’ in from all over, bringin’ you food. I know it’s not nothin’ compared to your loss, but it’s all . . .” she sat down heavily and began to sob.

Mr. Johnson shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. “Mr. Dreisbach sure was a good man.”

Mrs. Dreisbach shook her head and spoke for the first time. “More than a good man,” she said. “He was a God man. He loved the Lord. He taught his family the Word.”

“And your son,” Mrs. Johnson went on, patting her friend’s shoulder. “What a fine strapping young fellow. Wanting to be a missionary doctor. Almost ready to go. Ohhh,” she almost groaned. “Well, God knows.”

Mrs. Dreisbach turned and looked at four-year-old Johnny, who was standing on his tiptoes gazing out the window. “The mantle has fallen to him,” she said.

Johnny pressed his nose against the window and watched his breath fog up the glass. He had been listening. He knew that yesterday a bolt of lightning had hit the door track of that shed, that one right out there, and in one stroke had killed both his father and older brother.

He didn’t turn his head at his mother’s words. But he knew, he knew. His big brother was like Elijah. He had gone to heaven. He, Johnny, was like Elisha.

“Poor little thing.” Mrs. Kellerman raised her head from the table and dabbed her bleary eyes with her apron. “Don’t even understand what happened.”

But he knew what had happened.

The mantle had fallen to him.

Maturity: praying in faith or in fear?

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I was doing a Biblical word study, because I wanted to understand the concept of perfection, often translated “maturity.” After all, with two children young adults, it seemed about time.

Mature, perfect, complete, sanctified, holy, whole-hearted. The study got bigger and bigger, but I kept doggedly moving through it. Learning a lot. Being deepened and blessed. Convicted again and again.

Then I came to I Thessalonians 3:9-10. How can we properly give thanks to God for all the joy that you give us in Him? Night and day we keep praying earnestly for you, longing to see your face and complete that which is lacking in your faith.

Maybe at first glance it doesn’t look like anything outstanding. But in reading the earlier part of the chapter I saw that Paul had been experiencing some discouragement in his persecution, and he had wanted to hear how the Thessalonians were doing in hope of being encouraged. Timothy had brought back such an outstanding report of how these believers were growing in faith and love that Paul was filled with joy and hope.

So then, he said that this joy motivated him to pray for them even more.

Paul didn’t say, “What a relief that they’re doing well. I can forget about them for a while. I’ll focus my prayer attention on those people over there who aren’t doing well.” No, actually it was just the opposite. In fact, his continued prayer for them was a way of showing his thankfulness to God for what He had already done in their lives.

“Augh!” I thought. “I don’t pray like that!” When I hear that people are doing well spiritually, I tend to think, “Oh, wonderful. Thank you, Lord. Now I’ll pray for these other people who aren’t doing so well.”

And I realized that sometimes my prayers are motivated more by fear than by faith. I grew up hearing and giving prayer requests for people in trouble. Health trouble, financial trouble, spiritual trouble. I don’t mean to say that these requests are wrong. But I don’t remember hearing or saying, “Pray for so and so, because he’s really growing strong in the Lord.”

The mindset Paul shows here, and as well in Colossians 1:3-4 (“We give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you ever since we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and the love which you have for all the saints”), is one of the confidence of victory, rather than the fear of defeat. It’s centered around the assurance that God is doing a great work. “You have made great progress! Praise God! Now I am eagerly longing to personally see that you make even greater progress!”

One thing I have learned about maturity is that the maturity that can “complete” (perfect, bring to maturity) the faith of another is the same maturity that rejoices in, revels in, the beautiful growth that is already evident, the faith and love already blossoming. This kind of maturity will focus less on what I think God still needs to do and more on what God is already doing. In great joy I will be motivated by it to pray even more.

Waging warfare through Psalm 18

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It seemed like a normal day. I was going about my ordinary household tasks, for the most part on automatic. But during the course of the day I became aware of where my heart was going. I realized that I was continuing to be bombarded by temptations in my thoughts, and that I was coyly flirting with the enemy, even though it was only barely at the level of consciousness. Because, after all, I was still washing clothes and cleaning the kitchen and doing school and answering emails and carrying on with life.

Under this bombardment of wrong desires, anxiety, and wrong attitudes, I grew more and more acutely aware of the weakness and inability of my heart to resist temptations so strong. I knew through painful experience where my own flirtations could lead: I am all too subject to being drawn away by my own lusts and enticed. So, under the pretense of “going to go rest,” I took my Bible to bed and began to pray through Psalm 18.

I love Psalm 18. I’ve loved it for decades. I love the way David starts it out with a declaration of determination. Not “help me to love You,” but “I will love You.” I love his proclamation of who God is to him—nine proclamations, in three sets of three—as the introduction to his astounding story. My Rock, my Fortress, my Deliverer. My God, my Strength, the One in whom I trust. My Shield, the Horn of my salvation, and my High Tower.

I will call on the Lord, who is . . . who is . . . Not “who is very powerful.” Not “who is faithful.” Those are true. But where is his focus? “Who is worthy to be praised.”

This is going to be good.

I was overwhelmed by my enemies. I was afraid. Yes, Lord, that’s me. They are too strong for me. I’m afraid I’ll be taken captive.

In my distress, I cried out to the Lord. Yes, Lord, that’s what I’m doing. I’m terribly distressed, and I’m crying out to You. You are the only one who can rescue me.

The whole psalm has me on the edge of my seat, but this next part is especially exciting. God heard. God came. And not quietly and calmly, but in a storm of thunder and lightning and hailstones and fire and blackness and earthquakes and chariots. With a blast of His breath, He vanquished the enemy.

Yes, Lord, I trust You! You will do that for me! I cry out to You to do that for me!

Then David makes one statement after another about his own integrity, his own righteousness in the situation with Saul. For me, these are statements of my righteousness in Christ. So I could assert “I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God,” because I knew that Christ had done that for me, and I am in Christ. I came to the Lord guilty, asking forgiveness, but now I stood before Him clean in the cleansing power of my Savior.

Then David’s whole demeanor changes. He is no longer the fearful one, hiding in the shadows. The deliverance of the Lord has empowered him. Now he is a new man. He is strong. By Thee I have run through a troop! Yes, Lord, You will strengthen me to charge through theses enemies. By my God I have leaped over a wall! I have seen it in my life before, Lord, I remember that wall, and I remember how You empowered me to leap over it. Your way is perfect. You are the only God. You are the only Rock. You give me hinds’ feet to walk on my high places. Show me my high places, Lord. I want to walk on them! Let me see my hinds’ feet. Increase my faith!

My arms are strong enough to break a bronze bow. Your gentleness has made me great. Now I have chased after my enemies and destroyed them, because you have filled me with strength.

One amazing statement after another to meditate on, all pointing to the power and glory and mighty salvation of our matchless God. Through the salvation of my great Savior, I am victorious beyond my dreams.

For about an hour I fought through Psalm 18. By the end of it, exhaustion put me to sleep.

It wasn’t long before I got up and returned to my housework and schoolwork. But the temptations to sin in my thoughts had fallen away, the Lord had conquered the enemy once again, and my mind was free to praise Him without the constant bombardment.

Though I know I am still new at this, I am waging warfare. Though I know I still have much to learn, He is teaching me to overcome my enemies through faith.

And all of it, all of it, comes through the power of my Savior Jesus Christ. He, unlike any other, is worthy to be praised.

Psalm 131: How can I have a soul like a weaned child?

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This question is one I asked myself not long ago when my soul was not quiet. In agony I turned to Psalm 131. “Lord, how can I quiet my soul?”

Until that time of weaning, often as late as three years old, the Hebrew child knew confidently where to find his comfort and satisfaction: at his mother’s breast.

Then the time of weaning comes. Sometimes the mother says “Wait.” Sometimes she denies him altogether. And because he doesn’t understand her purpose or her goal, his soul can become tumultuous. Anxiety can fill his heart, even to the point of raging against his mother, against the world.

He thinks that what he wants is his mother’s milk, his mother’s breast. But what he really wants is comfort and satisfaction.

Then he learns that the satisfaction can come in a world of God-given provisions that he had never before experienced, that he never even knew existed. And he learns to find comfort in his mother on a whole new level of relationship, sitting on the loving lap, touching the loving face, of the very one who had denied him the thing he thought he needed.

And his soul becomes quiet. He is satisfied, comforted, happy. The entire community sees and rejoices. The Hebrews would even throw a party to rejoice that the weaned child had taken an important step on the way to maturity.

Oh, Lord, my heart is not haughty. I will not rage when You deny me the thing I think I need. Oh Lord, my eyes are not lifted up. I bow my head and cover my mouth. When I don’t understand Your purpose or Your goal, I will trust. Though I may think I need the satisfaction of a predictability of days or a family that is just so or time to accomplish cherished tasks or renewed health or certain temporal things to make me feel secure, I will know, I will know that what I truly need is You, the Great Soul Satisfier.

I will rest in the arms of the One who cried, “Peace! Be still!” I will marvel at His ability to calm the storm inside of me. Where is your faith? Through faith, I myself will calm the storm.

I will not walk high. But when I sing this song of humility, I will find that it is a song of ascending. You will set me upon high places that I never even knew existed. Oh, Jehovah, great I AM, it is too incomprehensible for me.

Israel! Place all your hopes, all your expectations, all your anticipations, in the great Savior! In new ways, He will satisfy your soul and comfort you.

In ways we never even knew were possible.