I wonder if we can just take a
few minutes right now, because we want this
to be an informal time, and I certainly
don't want to mainly preach at you.
I do want to share something from my
own experience and from the word.
But I just wonder, before I do that,
is there anything you would like to ask
about OM?
Where is OM going in 1984?
Maybe you've heard this, you've heard that.
You'd like to ask something.
I'm a great believer in question-answer sessions.
You remember the question-answer sessions, usually on
sex, but we won't go into that tonight.
But it's good if we could just give
you that opportunity to ask any question that
you want.
Anything at all.
Really feel free.
Dulles, of course, came back to Europe partly
because of economic difficulties in South America.
That changed the whole picture in regard to
book sales.
As most of you know, the ship is
supported largely by the gifts of God's people,
but also by the book sales.
Sometimes it's 30% books and 70%
gifts in answer to prayer, though we believe
book sales also is an answer to prayer.
Sometimes 40-60.
This past year, of course, the book sales
greatly dropped, which threw the ship into a
very difficult, different type of situation.
Also, we found that in recruiting many Latin
Americans, their support would often come for the
first couple of months, and then suddenly there
was no support, or we couldn't get it
out of the country, or it devalued from
this to this.
Many, many other complications that have made this
a hard year for Dulles.
And yet we can say, and tonight is
a good night to look back on the
faithfulness of God, that he has kept this
ministry going.
Not at the same level outwardly, but he
has kept it going.
And in some ways, through this providential situation,
has brought the ship into a whole new
challenge, the challenge of northern Spain and the
challenge of being back here.
You know, as someone who has to give
a lot of my time to the home
countries, I can only say to the person
who thinks it's a waste of time for
Dulles to be in England, that I take
that actually very personally.
Because then it's even more of a waste
of time, in my book, for people like
Roton and Maiden and myself and Hicks, you
know, to be back ministering in these home
countries.
In many ways, we don't want to be.
But until the church is obedient to this
book and comes into revival and obedience, and
there must not just be revival, there must
be revival and obedience.
Until that day, a lot of things aren't
going to be what we would idealistically hope
for.
And just to get one individual, much less
one church, just to get one individual on
fire for God, and obedient to his word,
is no small task.
In fact, when I launched out in my
Christian life, and in the early days of
OM, and if I had seen how hard
it was going to be, I probably would
have given up before I ever left Mexico
or the United States.
And so, we believe in the providence of
God.
He's put both ships back here in Europe.
Only for a short time they'll be together
in Britain, because of a number of other
factors.
And we believe the Lord is just wanting
to build up the foundation.
In some ways, Lagos is already getting ready
to launch out again.
Though, as we met yesterday, the board of
directors of Lagos, we don't feel Lagos is
quite there.
And the Lagos schedule may be changed again.
You know, some of our best prayer partners
have actually gone to be with the Lord.
I was at the funeral of another one
just a few weeks ago.
And, you know, this is not exactly a
praying generation.
I don't know about your church.
Is the strong point of your church intercessory
prayer?
Tearing down the strongholds of Turkey, Afghanistan, the
Muslim world, the Hindu world, the unreached people,
the 25 million Kurds, the Baluchis, the Patans?
You talk to some Christians about these things,
they think you're talking about a new sandwich.
But, in fact, these are unreached people's groups.
And we feel, therefore, that not only the
ships, but also some of us as leaders,
as much as we find it at times
a pain and a strain, that we've got
to continue to work toward laying a solid
foundation.
And that's where we are right now with
the ship ministry.
Lagos has gone 13 years.
Doulos, what is it, six?
Or is it pushing seven?
Six.
And very little time to consolidate in the
home countries.
You know, it was sort of a...
I mean, the Lagos, I was living on
it.
I can remember sitting down with the chief
engineer in Rotterdam and getting a strategy that
would have put the hair up on some
people to get that ship out to India
as quick as possible.
We bought Lagos in October, and by February
we were sailing with this very old ship
toward India.
And two months later we were there, two
or three months.
So it is a time of consolidation.
What does that mean?
We're looking for prayer partners.
That's not easy.
People are slow even to commit themselves to
get our prayer letter.
They feel, I already get two or three
missionary prayer letters.
How can they get one more?
You see, that's the kind of small vision
people have.
And I was in a church where I'd
already preached a couple of years ago, ministering
with Lagos two weeks ago in Bournemouth.
A tremendous weekend.
They thought it was great.
But when I took a survey there two
weeks ago and found out how many had
the prayer letter, very few.
And so I really, you know, poured out
my heart, and that night 75 people signed
for the prayer letter, more than I've ever
had in a meeting that I can remember.
I guess I came on a bit strong.
But sometimes one of my problems is being
too vague.
You may not think so, but some people
do.
So that was an encouragement.
So we're looking for prayer partners who will
pray.
We know some of those people will give.
Some of them may not give.
Some are already committed in their giving.
No problem.
But as they pray, God will work.
And that's one of the most important ministries
we have.
Now at the same time when the ship
comes in to do this kind of consolidation
work, a lot of the other ministries all
go on as usual.
Evangelistic meetings.
We had one in Bournemouth with Lagos.
A thousand people were there.
You know, not many OM meetings we attract
a thousand people to.
I'll tell you, we usually need a ship
to do that.
And I was there the next night.
We didn't have that many, but it was
a challenging meeting.
So all the other ministries go on, not
always at the same proportion.
Very few people can grasp all that's happening
through the ships.
In fact, I find the actual people living
on the ship don't even know what's happening
on the ship.
They're all working away in their department, and
there's plenty of work on the ship.
And that's why sometimes we get accused of
being workaholics.
But there is a lot of work on
the ship.
And they're working away, and they can't get
in on all the blessings.
They can't sit in on all the meetings.
There are people down in the engine room
right now.
They don't have this message piped in.
They've got to listen to any funny sounds
that may come in the generators that tend
to hiccup.
Others are working in other aspects of the
ship.
No doubt somebody's doing dishes right now, that
monster dish-breaking machine, washing machine.
And it's just really quite amazing when you
do sit down.
And I just recently read again that four
-and-a-half-year report of South America.
I think you'll find some on the free
literature stand.
You check and see if that's there, Benjamin.
But they print that right here on the
ship.
That's another thing going on on the ship,
printing literature.
So we're consolidating, yet we're not sitting around.
We're evangelizing.
We're having pastors' conferences, leaders' conferences, every kind
of conference you can think of, even some
you've never thought of.
And I've been involved in both ships almost
every single week now for the last six,
seven, eight weeks.
And I tell you, it has challenged me.
You go find some of those, Benjamin.
See if you can find some of those.
Spanish, run out.
Oh, I brought some.
They're out in my bus.
Anyway, how many do you have there?
Oh, they're in the pack?
Let's check, because they may not be in
all the packs.
I don't think they're in all the packs.
Anyway, don't worry about that.
If you'd like it, we'll send it to
you.
But as I read through that, four-and
-a-half years in South America, I was
just amazed.
And we're encouraged.
And then recently, we've seen a large gift.
This is the leaf that I was just
referring to and trying to get some preps.
We've had a large gift, meeting almost one
-half the cost of a new generator for
this ship, that, according to our Marine Superintendent,
Mike Pointer, will use heavy oil, which is
much cheaper, and save $7,000, $8,000,
$9,000 every month.
You see, we don't use our main engines
much, but this power, it takes generators.
And so we've seen a breakthrough equal to
half the price of that generator.
That generator, when we pray the whole thing
in, will cost more than the entire ship
Logos.
So we're dealing with a big item.
And that's another reason the Lord's brought us
back here.
In fact, the generator we have our eyes
on is up in Finland, and that's probably
where we will install it.
It's a huge undertaking, and it needs a
lot of prayer.
The original thought I've heard of was that
you have to cut a hole in the
side of the ship to put it in.
Now they're taking measurements, and there's some thought
it can come in from above, not on
angels' wings, but on a crane, and it's
a huge undertaking.
So we're encouraged.
There's a long way to go.
We're also aware now that there's not just
two ships at sea.
Youth with a Mission has a ship bigger
than this out in the Pacific.
They just got another ship, a 1,000
-ton coaster.
That didn't add to the fleet, because the
famous missionary ship Ebeneezer was just sunk off
the coast of Indonesia.
A heart-breaking experience.
But all on board, Captain Nyambola, is a
small old World War II minesweeper.
They all got to the lifeboats at three
in the morning, and they're all safe.
But the famous Ebeneezer, which predates Lagos as
a ministry, is in the bottom of the
ocean.
What a reminder that operating ships is a
serious business.
That's why we don't mind slowing down a
while.
We also need more people.
And let me just lay it to you
straight, because I think ex-OMers know this.
Only half the problem today is getting the
people.
The bigger half, 51%, is for them to
see the breakthrough for support.
Because I tell you, the churches often, with
their building programs and their new organs, and
all the things they're into, gymnasiums in America,
bowling alleys, swimming pools, the works, the missionary
budget is not a high priority.
And I feel greatly embarrassed that in some
ways I challenge so many young people to
launch out, and so often the adults, and
the people who have this world's goods, contrary
to 1 John 3.16, have not been
willing to invest that to send forth the
labor.
So we got to preach both messages.
You know, as one member suffers, we all
suffer.
And as the church suffers from lack of
vision, and lack of motivation in regard to
world missions, and I'm very sympathetic toward pastors.
I just spoke on this ship to a
pastor's conference.
In fact, I had three pastor's conferences in
one week.
One in Merseyside, in advance of the ship.
One on Lagos in Poole.
One here in Swansea.
And I don't know if you realize what
the average pastor's up against.
Probably one out of ten people in his
church are on the verge of divorce.
Probably, you know, another one out of ten
are on the verge of a mental or
emotional problem.
In fact, in the United States now, pastors
have fallen into the fourth group, according to
a recent survey, for divorce.
Pastors.
So not only are they dealing with divorce
in their church, they are maybe on the
verge of divorce themselves.
Then there's those with emotional problems.
Then there's this problem and that problem.
So, you know, we have to be patient
in working with the churches in why they
don't have such a vision for the Muslim
world.
And why they're not sending out, you know,
ten more laborers next year to India.
And the enemy is literally attacking on every
side.
And the secret of OM has been, in
some ways, our deep relationship with the local
churches, which has been built on, yes, a
strong message, but also much patience and understanding
to build together.
Well, I'm terrible at answering questions, you see.
You ask a strategic question like that, and
I'm off to the races.
But there it is.
I'll stop right there.
Who has another question?
Yes, John.
That's a good question.
I'm sure it is affecting OM.
There's no question.
We are working in dialogue with new groups
all the time to convince them that we
can work together in world evangelism.
We are not the local church.
And if you study the Book of Acts,
you'll see that evangelism was carried on by
teams.
And those teams eventually led to the establishment
of churches.
Now, one of the major churches in California
was moving that way.
You know, we're going to do our own
thing.
We're going to send out cassette tapes.
They're going to be our missionaries.
And through biblical study, I've just received an
invitation to preach in that church, and they
have just moved their position back and realized
they need to work together with biblical parachurch
organizations.
I don't like the word parachurch, but at
least people know what that means.
Groups like OMF, WEC, Youth with a Mission,
OM, are classified as parachurch, because they're not
a local church.
And so, actually, we're seeing a swing in
the pendulum right now in a lot of
strong local churches realizing if the job is
going to be done, they need parachurch agencies
who have expertise, who know the language, who
are strong, abiding, permanent forces in a country.
OM has been in Turkey 17 years.
To bypass OM Turkey and just go into
Turkey would be as foolish as me going
next to your local church and just forgetting
you ever existed and start a new church,
appoint some apostles or something else, which sometimes
actually happens.
But, praise the Lord, there has been that
tendency, but quite a few are swinging back.
And there's dialogue and there's discussion.
Now, new mission boards are also being created.
Greg Livingston is pioneering a new mission board
called Frontiers.
And they are far more avant-garde.
It's far easier to get with them and
get going.
It's sort of a combination of OM principles
and other Livingston principles and biblical principles.
He's praying about 2,000 people for the
Muslim world.
So there are new structures that the Holy
Spirit is raising up.
I believe, of course, that if the Lord
leads a church to have its own missionary
sending agency, that's what the Brethren Assemblies eventually
did.
When they got very big, they saw all
the problems of local churches just doing their
own thing.
What did they do?
They created echoes of service just down the
road here and back to provide structure so
that things could be done decently and in
order.
And all the other things that have to
take place, very few people understand what an
ongoing missionary work takes.
And so maybe some of these new denominations,
like, for example, the Bradford Denomination, they don't
like to be called a denomination, but it's
got every single feature of any denomination in
2,000 years of history, and they shouldn't
be ashamed of that.
They are creating a structure and will probably
have a mission society full-fledged probably within
the next 10 years.
Now, praise the Lord, we've seen in past
history interdenominational missionary structures like OM, OMF, and
we've seen denominational missionary structures, the Elam Church,
echoes of service, hallelujah!
The main thing is that the Word gets
preached and that people go out and that
churches get planted.
And you know, when it comes to planting
churches among the Kurds, 25 million precious souls
with hardly a single church, you know, though
I have my own beliefs, personally, I don't
care if it's a Pentecostal church or a
Brethren Assembly or a Baptist church or even
a Bradford House church, hallelujah!
Anybody who can plant a church among the
Kurds, I'm going to give them a prize
or ask the Lord to when they get
to heaven.
And these people have such a church-planting
vision, I say, why plant a church right
next to somebody else's church, if it's a
live church?
Though, you know, you never stop them from
doing that and I believe there's a place
for church-planting in Britain because there's church
-growth in Britain.
But boy, it'd be great if we had
a few church-planters for the Kurds and
the Patans and the Baluchis and about 1
,000 other unreached people's groups.
You know, recently, this is a beautiful thing,
the Bible Presbyterians of Singapore are very strong
local church people.
And one of their churches launched an article
against parachurch groups, including OM.
And their church called all their people back,
including some on this ship.
And they tried to influence the entire Bible
Presbyterian denomination in Singapore.
It's a very strong work, very conservative work.
And you know, the denomination just met together
and they decided not to accept this one
church's decision as a denominational decision.
And so the Bible Presbyterians, we don't know
what will happen next year, at least for
one more year, they're still moving with us.
And they are one of the strongest local
church-type fellowships.
That's a great encouragement to us because we
believe that when OM, with all the experience
God has given us now for a quarter
of a century, the contacts, the language learning,
when we can team up with these strong
local churches who have the manpower, who have
the resources, who have often expertise on a
local level, when we can get that combination
together, that is hard for the devil to
stop.
Each one on their own.
I've seen the enemy stop them cold.
But that combination together, very hard to stop.
Someone else.
Keep an eye on the watch here.
Yes.
Not in a big way.
We're just stretched in so many ways, OM
right now, in so many different visions.
I don't think OM is being led into
big, longer-term rural development relief.
We feel Afghans are special.
They were the top of our list as
an unreached people's group from the very founding
days of OM.
And so for Afghans, we would do what
we would not necessarily do for the Italians,
the Spanish, or even the Turks.
We praise God for other groups in rural
development.
We believe the greatest hope for OM's vision
is within ex-OMers.
There's only 1,600 OMers, plus a lot
of children.
Hundreds.
An average of one baby every five and
a half days.
Especially with an avalanche of twins.
But we believe the key manpower source of
OM is actually with the ex-OMers.
Many of them get with groups that are
in social work and rural development.
And that's great.
That's great.
But I'm not sure we have the mandate,
that's the word we're using around OM lately,
a mandate from the Lord to start up
in a big way in that area.
Actually, we are quite concerned to keep our
growth slow and steady because we don't want
to lose the personal touch and the personal
family spirit that still exists within OM.
It's more difficult now that there's so many
people.
It's more difficult on this ship than Longos.
But it is possible.
Because in any case, even in a church,
even a small church, you don't get an
in-depth relationship with everybody.
You only get so many in-depth relationships.
That's all you need, in a sense.
How many did Jesus have?
But you can have love and compassion and
a degree of personal touch for a wider
range, of course, of people by the grace
of God.
Someone else?
I think we'll have one more question.
One of the greatest areas of exo-emer
work where we're trying to do something.
Let's understand that some exo-emers, there's nothing
that we can do except pray.
I mean, they don't necessarily need us.
Some may not even want us to be
involved with them.
We don't want to presume that we're going
to set up some great alumni association, as
the Americans call it.
But we want to be available and we
want to pray.
And I get dozens and dozens of prayer
letters from exo-emers, and use them in
prayer time.
Excuse me.
But within India, there's a greater need to
help the exo-emers.
It's harder for them to get their feet
on the ground in a new ministry.
And so we're more involved in supplying literature,
sometimes supplying finance, in a small way.
We would ask you to really pray for
the thousands of exo-emers in India, some
of whom are really struggling in difficult situations.
Living on a very small income.
Maybe praying for weeks, the Lord would, maybe
months, give them a bicycle.
You know, back here, you get somebody praying
that the Lord will take them from the
Ford Escort category to the Rolls Royce category.
I don't even know, understand cars that well.
Which ones are the good ones?
But, you know, out there, they're often praying
for a bicycle.
And we feel very, very committed to the
exo-emers in India.
My wife and I, and she's with me
on the ship today, and my son Daniel,
we are headed out to Pakistan.
Pakistan has become our substitute for India.
Our heart's in India, but we still can't
get a visa.
We go to Pakistan.
Do you know how many people we have
in Pakistan?
Ninety-four million.
I would say that's more than enough for
George Ver and his wife to keep pretty
busy for the rest of their life.
And we got ninety-four million in Bangladesh
as well.
And temporarily, we've made a number of interesting
moves in O.M. We've increased our efforts
on the area leadership basis.
Dr. Alan Adams is the area leader for
East Asia, Singapore onward.
Jonathan continues, Macrosti is the leader in Europe.
Dennis Alexander, based in Lebanon, the leader for
the Middle East.
They're working closely with Bertil, the leader for
the Arab world, which is like an area.
And now David Hicks is the leader for
North America.
And I've dumped a lot of my responsibilities
in connection with Mexico and Canada on to
David Hicks.
And I am the temporary leader looking very,
very much for my replacement of the subcontinent.
Because in the subcontinent, we now not only
have India, we have Bangladesh, a growing work
among Muslims.
Pakistan with one of our, I feel, one
of our really gifted leaders, Mike Wakely, as
well as a very small work in Nepal
and Sri Lanka.
And you know, in that area, where I'll
be going for two months.
Appreciate your prayers.
We have a billion souls.
One thousand million, you say over here.
What a challenge.
One of the reasons now I can get
more time for that part of the world
is because Peter Maiden, who still is the
British director, is also the associate international leader
of OM.
And is taking a lot of my load,
especially finance.
In terms of, you know, when people want
money or they got a complaint or unpaid
bills, all that kind of thing, they call
Peter Maiden.
They don't bother me with all that anymore.
I'll help pray it in, let him spend
it.
But it really has been one of the
greatest answers of prayer in my life that
God has raised up.
Someone like Peter, willing to work closely with
the likes of me.
Difficult, loud mouth, the worst type of temperament,
choleric, emotionally unstable, subject to various problems.
It's so good to have someone like him.
And my burden actually is to be able
to give myself at least more time to
evangelism and evangelistic preaching.
And I saw this in Poland last year.
I saw it in Pakistan.
Though I try to worm out of it.
I try to get out of it.
Because evangelistic preaching is five times harder than
preaching to believers.
You sometimes feel the enemy is just right
there, about to put his teeth in your
nose.
My nose is quite sensitive and long.
And I just felt when I was in
Poland, also when I was in the Soviet
Union, and when I was in Pakistan, that
I must take a certain amount of my
time and give it to evangelistic ministry.
And taking people with me, so they can
learn how to do it at the same
time.
And believers will get turned on as well.
Oswald J.
Smith, I think, taught me that.
And in one of his books, he says,
you want to see somebody really grow in
their faith, take them with you in evangelism.
Let them see souls coming to Christ.
Let them see answers to prayer.
Let them see you in action, rather than
just listening to you talk.
And they will be stirred on.
You know, Oswald J.
Smith practiced that.
He had a little vision for missions.
He had the evangelism and the missions, you
know, together.
He's still alive, by the way.
He's 90 plus.
I wonder how he'll be doing at that
age.
It's been a blessing to have with me
on this trip an old friend who came
to Christ out in India and got linked
with O.M. in a special way, Tal
Brook.
And I'm going to ask Tal if he
would come now and just share whatever's on
his heart, really, Tal.
But maybe some of the ways you see
how a person who's not in O.M.
full time can still, you know, be 100
percent linked with this burden and with this
vision.
Thank you, Tal.
It's a horrible idea to think that we
backslide when we get out of O.M.
or we've lost our salvation.
I think in a lot of...
you know, that's a horrible thing.
I think in a lot of Christian groups,
you all know, having been in O.M.
for years, I mean, for a long time,
a lot of you I know, that you
can get into this mentality where you're afraid
of the outside or dealing with the outer
world.
You know, you're here and you're doing this
righteous thing and there's an intimidation and a
fear regarding, quote, the outside.
And the thing that the Lord has pressed
on me, right now I'm at Princeton, after
being a writer for ten years, God opened
up a scholarship at Princeton, so I'm back
there at Princeton University Seminary.
So, what I find is that it's an
absolute joy for me to be able to
mingle with the world on all sorts of
levels.
In a seminary with some very orthodox evangelicals,
he's got a problem.
And, you know, and with some extremely liberal
people who to me comprise the enemy.
The question is, do we become turtles and
do we go underground in that sort of
milieu?
Or do we somehow try to address the
need at the moment?
And I think if we're to be sought
in this world, if we're to have any
effectiveness whatsoever, without any apologies or fear, we
participate in the full thrust of life wherever
God has us, where we're useful and we
meet people on their level, we learn to
dialogue with the world.
And this is what I pray to the
Lord I can do the rest of my
life.
Our assignment, I mean, in a sense, I
feel OM for life.
And that's why, in a sense, I think
of myself as associate staff for life.
I probably am unless I backslide.
Wherever we are, we have got to meet
people and we're going to have the chance
to meet people in all kinds of situations.
I'm meeting people at Princeton that I never
would have met in OM.
And yet I tell you that when Peter
Conlon came through and spoke at Princeton, he
had a very large turnout due to George's
speaking at Vision 82 in the area due
to my having known already half the seminary.
I know a lot of people there.
God has opened one door after another.
And some of these are extremely talented people
who God can use in different contexts.
I've got a vision for cinema, for people
who are Christians to do quality movies on
the par of Chariots of Fire.
I have a vision as a writer of
seeing raised up people of equal gifts of
some of the large secular minds.
Some of the people whose best sellers flood
the market and have been doing so for
decades and whose books have more impact on
the secular world than we can ever imagine.
And a lot of our Christian publishing attempts
are impotent in comparison with some of these
things.
So we're in a full scale war that's
multi-level.
We can't be simplistic.
But the important thing to do, and I
try to do this in my own life,
is a minute to minute checking your heart.
Is your life on the compass?
Are we on the right track?
And we can't have a defeat mentality.
This is where we need to encourage each
other.
I stay in fairly close contact with George
and that of course helps me all the
time.
As a brother, to feel, as he does
with many different groups, the nerve endings of
what God is doing on the world.
George is not just obsessed with O.N.
He's very interested with many other groups and
different leaders because you have a sense of
what's happening on the fringe, globally.
What's going on?
Where in India are conversions beginning to happen?
Why?
What sort of polemical message is turning the
Hindus?
Is it something that Donald McGavern thought of
from his church growth idea?
His years in India?
Are we dealing with something new, a new
twist?
Is the Marxism in Bengal creating atheists who
are then open to becoming Christians?
What's the chemistry?
And this is the sort of thing we
need to be aware of and in continual
dialogue.
My feeling is that, as I said, I
feel like O.N. for life.
I don't give up on friendships.
I have a friendship with George.
It's a very deep one.
I've got that with Peter Conlon, with Nigel
Lee, with many people in O.N. You
never give up on that.
I feel plugged into these people for life.
What they do concerns me.
So whether I'm at Princeton or the Lord
moves me over here, that has no bearing
on the connection and we should all feel
similarly.
This is true in a family situation.
You always feel that connection with your family.
That doesn't change, hopefully.
And I think if I have a message,
it's that and just to encourage us as
we go into different secular occupations to feel
that you haven't sold out or things haven't
changed.
God can greatly use you there and He
may draw you back into O.M. I'm
no judge of that.
But then wherever we are, we can be
dynamically used.
We do not need to carry with us
a sort of semi-children of God cult
sense that I'm out of the Lord's will
because I'm not doing full-time Christian work.
That's an illusion.
Some of the most powerful people I know
who are doing Christian work are right there
in the middle of it all in the
world.
And their voices in the marketplace wouldn't be
heard otherwise.
So let me just share that with you
and if there's anything you want to talk
about later, please ask me.
So, give it back to George.
Thanks, Tal.
I do, some of you want to talk
to him, get a hold of him, be
around tonight.
Maybe I'll just mention the books now because
then when I finish the message we'll just
close in prayer.
This little book section here has some very
special books and I'd like to mention a
couple of books that we may have been
pushing when you were on OM.
Depends how far back you go.
But there are some new books that really
have meant a lot.
I think most of you recognize that OM,
in its early days, had some extremes and
the Lord, somehow, in His mercy, with those
extremes, kept driving home to us 1 Corinthians
13.
That was never missing from OM's earliest days.
And the other extremes kept being brought into
perspective and into balance by 1 Corinthians 13.
And every time there was a new book
on love, I'd circulate it around to the
OM leaders.
And I don't know where OM would be
today.
I dare to say it could be quite
ugly if it wasn't for 1 Corinthians 13.
The message of love and all that that
means.
And that's why we keep looking for new
books.
And one that made an impact on OM
in the last three years is Love Covers.
And if you've been on OM recently, you
know all about this book.
But if you haven't been around, there it
is.
Love Covers.
Showing how different kinds of Christians from different
backgrounds can work together, respect one another, grow
together.
We're never all going to agree.
Bill Heimer is 80, 81 years of age.
Still worshiping Jesus.
He's written Destined for the Throne.
Don't Waste Your Sorrows.
So there's a brilliant book that some of
you may want to get tonight.
A book that we've been pushing all along,
way, way back.
Spiritual Leadership, Oswald Saunders.
In fact, all who are trained in leadership
in OM, generally, they are required to read
this.
Now the sequel of this book has just
been published this year.
And we've waited a long time.
Paul the Leader.
So if you have already this one, then
get Paul the Leader.
A Vision of Christian Leadership Today.
I wish I could take a day off
and finish reading it.
I started, haven't finished.
Another beautiful book that I just think is
so significant.
It was given quite a famous award, the
Writer of the Year Award, is Celebration of
Discipline.
I notice that continually in Christian magazines they
are taking chapters from this book.
It is a goldmine.
And one or two things in it that
perhaps some of us wouldn't be so happy
about.
One or two of his ideas on meditation.
But most of the book is just really
powerful.
I would suggest perhaps if you don't get
any other book tonight, you get this.
I know it will minister to you.
And those of us who are somewhat, we
feel we may be somewhat O-M-ish.
You like that term?
I don't actually.
But you know, evangelism, prayer, discipline, you know,
that's half the O-M story.
That half without the other half actually gets
pretty pretty gross.
But on the other hand, the other half,
the love, the balance, the patience, sensitivity, that
without this becomes insipid.
You need both.
So those of us who sometimes are a
little strong on evangelism and work, what's everybody
sitting around for?
We need to sit down and read books
like this.
Celebration of Discipline.
And his section here on solitude, very strong
in my heart.
His section on simplicity, meditation, a beautiful book.
Lastly, how many of you are married?
Many, many O-M'ers get married.
How many of you are married?
Raise your hand.
Please raise your hand.
How many are married?
Well, about 50%.
I made a lot of mistakes in my
marriage.
I had very little training, you know.
At Moody Bible Institute there wasn't one single
course, not one single hour given to the
subject of marriage that I can remember.
We spent time studying a lot of things
that I never ever used in my ministry.
Maybe it's my fault.
You know, all the stopping places in Sinai.
All the kings of Israel and what they
did.
And I just wish someone had given me...
I had one book on marriage back then.
It helped me a lot.
But I'm amazed at some of these books.
And I just strongly recommend the writing to
Norman Wright.
This is his second or third book.
Communication Key to Your Marriage.
And it is.
And I learned, for example, a little bit
late and I'm still learning it, what a
very poor listener I am if my wife
is doing a speaking.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones on a cassette tape, no
problem.
Billy Graham on a cassette tape, no problem.
One of my leaders is upset about something,
no problem.
I'm listening.
Tune in.
But my dear wife, there's something psychological, maybe
I need psychiatric help, that I can be
looking at her and not hearing anything that
she's saying.
And I'm so phony that when she asks
me if I'm listening, I say, of course
I'm listening.
That's why I've written another book called No
Turning Back.
Because the truth is when I've looked at
some of my failures in my life, a
lot of them little things that other people
don't even know about, I have really been
tempted right to the very core of my
toes to pack it all in.
Just throw it all in.
OM, marriage, the Christian life, everything.
And if you know anything about psychology, you
know that I have the perfect temperament for
throwing it all in.
And as I've watched some people in my
temperament, and I've seen their marriages explode, and
I've seen their lives explode, I thought, wow,
the main thing in my life isn't how
much I accomplish.
The main thing in my life is somehow
survival.
I got a lot of other stable people
in OM, a lot of other steady people
like Rotan.
I've just watched him take over like a
Swiss clock now for 27 years.
He's just off to India to take my
place.
I've just realized I've got a lot of
men, they're going to get all kinds of
visions, OM is going to grow, and my
need is to survive.
Because I'm such a vulnerable target of the
enemy.
So I've written a book, No Turning Back,
and that's the burden of my life, and
that's what I want to share a little
bit about right now.
Let me look at my computer report again
here.
I'm going to finish it.
Now that we've got the book reviews, 2020,
don't think it's actually that bad.
I just thought it would be good because
I hear some music going on in the
background, I don't know whether the troopers are
going to come in here any minute or
what.
They have another meeting going over there, which
is part of ship life, so don't worry
about it, I won't let it bother me.
Turn quickly to the book of Habakkuk.
One of my burdens is to pace myself
and slow down, give more time to intercessory
prayer, correspondence, not take so many meetings, so
I've really cut back on meetings, and this
night is the final meetings of this year.
I used to take about 900 meetings a
year, now I'm down around 500, and I
hope I can cut it even more, because
also I see that it's not the number
of meetings you take, that's for sure, but
the quality, and even tonight I just pray
that somehow we'll get what the Lord wants
to give in these closing moments together.
I want you to look at the book
of Habakkuk, the last chapter.
The subject that I'm sharing with you, I
preach on quite often.
The message will be a little bit different,
I hope geared to those of you who
have been on OM, and may now be
out in some other ministry, and I want
to talk about dealing with discouragement.
Of all the messages I've shared on, lately,
this is the one that brings almost the
greatest feedback.
I think it may even bypass the sex
message feedback.
I don't preach so much on sex anymore,
I let younger men get up and speak
to this generation on that.
Though it is amazing, the requests, I had
huge meetings in Switzerland some months ago, they
insisted I take a seminar on what the
German Radio System is, and I started on
the road of discipline in this area, and
lo and behold I found they just broadcasted
this seminar over the whole German Trans World
Radio System, as someone was driving down the
road and suddenly George Burr comes beaming in
on his car radio on sex.
Well, the Lord is merciful.
I'd rather preach really on dealing with discouragement,
though there is a slight overlapping, because if
there's anything that discourages some of God's people
is when they have a failure in the
area of sex.
It seems that people can bounce back from
almost any kind of failure.
You get Mr. Hothead, he loses his temper,
no problem, next day he's back in the
Bible.
You get Mr. Irritability, he gets irritated, says
something really ugly, somehow he repents, sleeps on
it, next day he's back in the Bible.
Pride, I mean, most people have trouble with
pride.
A lot of Christian leaders have trouble with
pride, but, you know, somehow they repent, say,
Lord, I'm sorry, forgive me, boom, they're back
in the Bible.
But I'll tell you, when the fiery dart
of impurity strikes at a man's soul or
a woman's heart, often it's months, and sometimes
years, before they ever recover.
It's so devastating to a Christian with his
high ideals, when this difficulty comes into their
life, and therefore many are discouraged.
Many young people have recommitted their life this
summer, in our Christian camps, they're already sleeping
with their girlfriends by now, and there's no
way they can completely turn the voice of
their conscience off when they do that.
They try.
This generation is especially trying hard.
And they'll watch James Bond until he falls
out of bed, and their conscience will still
bother them, because they know what the Word
of God says, and if the Holy Spirit
is in their hearts, there will be a
witness by the Holy Spirit that they are
into impurity, and that what they are doing
is wrong.
So what happens?
They get into discouragement, they feel their total
failures, they feel God can no longer use
them.
In fact, we have found it's quite normal
among exilers.
After two years of semi-monastic life, sailing
around the seven seas, with an overly strict
social policy, they arrive back in their hometown,
and little Johnny come lucky, dazzles little Sally
Sue with his bright eyes, and they're off
to watch James Bond or Clint Eastwood, and
after the film they get carried away, and
they're not just eating pizza.
And what happens?
They're devastated.
All their ideals, all their goals, everything they've
been taught for two years, in one night,
gone.
And so we find, of course, that people
like OM people, who have been exposed to
the front lines of spiritual combat, are more
vulnerable than many who have never gone forth
to war.
And in any war there will be casualties,
and those who don't go to war don't
become war casualties.
And so what happens?
One OM-er backslides, maybe nine in that
particular town go on for the Lord, but
one backslides.
What's the one we hear about in that
town, by the churches in that town?
We hear about the one who backslides, not
the nine who go on.
And, of course, nobody is taking surveys about
those who never go.
There's all kinds of surveys being taken to
missionaries.
Missionary casualties, those who go one term, those
who go two terms.
You know, it's now with the computer, it's
coming out in fine print.
When are we going to have a survey
on those who've never gone?
How many of those who've never gone on
OM are divorced today, or are casualties today,
or whatever other kind of crazy statistic you
want to produce?
So there is an overlapping in these two
burdens that I often share about.
Let's read these verses.
Although the fig tree shall not blossom, verse
17, neither shall fruit be in the vines,
the labor of the olive shall fail, the
field shall yield no food, that's pretty heavy,
the flocks shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no herd in
the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the
Lord, I will joy in the God of
my salvation.
That's where you and I must stay, right
there, on verse 18.
That's the only way to live.
And if you don't choose that road, sooner
or later you will be discouraged, sooner or
later you will be a casualty.
You get your eyes on the fold, you
get your eyes on the fruit, you get
your eyes on other things, and sooner or
later you're going to be discouraged.
But if you take that as your motto,
I will rejoice in the Lord, I will
joy in the God of my salvation.
Verse 19, give us the reason for this.
It doesn't leave us dangling.
The Lord God is my strength, and He
will make my feet like hind's feet, like
a deer's foot, and He will make me
walk upon mine high places to the chief
singer of my string instruments.
You know, almost from the moment of my
conversion, people were predicting my departure from the
faith.
It's always interesting to hear about that.
People wouldn't generally directly say it to me.
They would say it to someone else.
And then in a conversation, somehow it would
come up, the person would say, oh well,
yeah, so and so just believes the way
you're living is impossible, and that you're just
going to be wiped out by the end
of the year.
So it's a very encouraging ministry.
Anybody prophesying over you like that?
And really, to be quite honest, I can
understand, a lot of people were afraid of
O.M. in the early days, largely because
they were afraid of me.
And I don't, I don't have, I've never
had the problem of holding anything against anybody.
But Lord knows, I've got so many other
problems.
You can't have them all, isn't that good?
I've just never had this problem of, uh,
I'd better be careful, take heed, lest you
fall, maybe I'm going to have this one
this year.
But I've never had this problem of holding
things against people.
And, uh, I can understand people being afraid
of O.M. I mean, think of when
this thing first arrived in England.
I mean, really, it was way out.
I mean, within after a month of being
here, we were, we were, we were talking
about reaching 25 million with the Word of
God that summer.
You know, here were some missionary societies hadn't
yet read, met, reached 25 million in 50
years of hard, sincere, dedicated work.
And along comes this little, skinny, long-nosed,
loud-mouthed gospel pipsqueak, says, we're going to
reach 25 million souls this summer.
I mean, they wanted to stone me.
One missionary leader just talking to me, I
could see his blood vessels, you know.
And he, I've never seen that man since.
I tried to win his friendship, it just
didn't work.
I think he thought that I was, because
somebody wrote that I had distributed pornography, that
he was thinking that I believed that my
distribution of pornography, which I never did that
much, I thank the Lord, were my credentials
for being into Christian literature.
Because I had never said that nor believed
it.
But he read this into this newspaper article
and was very much upset.
And he expressed it to me, which is
good, most people never did come to me
face to face.
But I can understand.
And I just realized that if God can
keep someone like myself, it's now almost 30
years.
And I know I have a long way
to go.
And that's why I will not allow the
publication of my biography, because, you know, I
just feel that I have just so much
yet to learn.
And that my life has been littered with
failures, though they may be small in the
minds of some and don't produce any scandalous
articles in the local gospel gazette.
They have been heart-breaking to me, very
heart-breaking to me.
And I know that if God can keep
someone so weak, who's had so much failure
as he has kept me, that he can
keep all of you right to the end
of the race.
And really, this is why we wanted you
to come here today.
We didn't brought you here so we can
get you wound up again on OM.
That's not our first burden.
You know us better than that.
You can't even get an OM newsletter without,
you know, writing in and sometimes chasing the
office down.
We're not here to sign you all up.
We're not going to take some big, you
know, alumni special offering for George Verro's Retirement
Center at the end of the meeting.
Our burden in bringing you here today and
inviting you to be here is that somehow
this may be a blessing to you, that
somehow as you go into 1984 it will
be a year for much more.
That's a poem.
I was never too good at poems.
I've written my wife one or two of
my nervous moments.
And I believe that one of the most
important concepts that we must have in our
spiritual life is right here in Habakkuk.
The Lord God is my strength.
When my friends fail, when organizations fail and
they will, when my local church fails and
it will, when I even fail myself because
we do fail ourselves, we fail to live
up to our own promises, the Lord is
still there.
And that has been more than anything else
that which has kept me going.
Sometimes people say or ask, you know, what
is it that's kept you going these years
in the work?
I generally say it's not any one thing.
I say that because I feel that part
of the human nature is to look for
the total easy answer.
That's part of us.
And I see people popping from here to
there, jumping from church to church, from group
to group, from theory to theory, from sanctification
convention to sanctification convention, looking for the total
final answer that's finally going to set them
free from whatever may be bothering them.
And I feel that's one of the great
mistakes, even of our generation today.
Some came into OM thinking, really, it was
the total answer.
Maybe you came that way.
There's the New Testament Movement.
Boy, these people, they got it together.
They know how to pray.
They're into evangelism.
They're into the disciplined life.
Well, you see them at 630 in the
morning doing exercises.
These people are dying to self.
And probably by the end of your first
year on OM, if you're normal, some of
you are still trying to figure that out,
you were disappointed.
You were disappointed.
Because you discovered that OM is part of
God's New Testament plan.
It's far from perfect.
The human factor is there on every corner.
Inconsistencies exist despite every desire we have to
be consistent, to be ethical, to be pure
before God, to be totally honest in all
that we do, to be open, to be
above board, to walk in the light.
Somehow inconsistencies take place, somehow by the very
flukes of human behavior.
In fact, in some cases, in the process
of trying to help one person, we neglected
someone else.
That's why some people come into OM and
it's one of the greatest experiences of their
life, and some people go home at the
end of the summer, and it's the worst
experience they've had in their life.
I don't know many in that category, but
there have been some.
So I don't think it's any one little
thing that's going to keep us going and
keep us from discouragement.
And I think as we grow older, and
I'm thrilled to be in these middle years,
I tell you, this is great.
My battery is not only charged, it's been
overcharging, and some of the acid has actually
poured out on my wife.
Pray for her.
But really, it's so good to be in
these middle years.
Some of you look like you're getting there.
Right, some of you have leaped past it.
But you see, so many years, I always
had people laying the youthful zeal trip on
me.
Have you ever had that laid on you?
You know, you do something for Christ, you
give out some literature, you preach, you're moving
for God, and somebody says, that's not the
Holy Spirit, it's just youthful zeal.
Wait till he becomes a man.
You know, wait till he has a few
hairs on his chest.
You know, he's got a wife and a
couple of kids in there.
He'll lay off all this hot gospel.
That's a term I first heard when I
came to England.
I never heard that one.
Hot gospel.
As if there was some kind of cold
gospel.
The Bible does say our God is a
consuming fire.
Consuming fire.
And, I don't believe it was youthful zeal
even when I was 17.