It's easier to get up here in the
east than it is in the west.
Various built-in alarm systems to the culture,
like these men who get shouting from the
minarets early in the morning.
But this morning we got up even earlier
as Wakely's dog was having a convulsion right
outside the door where I was sleeping.
And I went up to see if I
could help him.
And then I couldn't get back to sleep,
but I had enough sleep.
And then I went into the other little
room where I probably woke Wakely up with
my coughing.
My wife is not well.
She has been fairly well on this trip,
but somehow got a little ill the last
couple days.
And I was crying out to the Lord
for a message to share with you.
To me, every hour in life is important.
Some of you, I may never get the
chance to speak to you again.
OM is a movement of people just coming
and going, you know, like ants in an
earthquake.
And so you never get to see people
sometimes again until maybe an ex-OMer's reunion
20 years later.
It's a little late then.
But the Lord was very gracious.
He not only gave me a message to
share with you, he gave me two messages.
You know, like yesterday, we had, you know,
the four points.
That's on the fourth point.
We had seven points.
But I want to limit it to this
one 60-minute tape because also Mike has
a lot of things he wants us to
do this morning.
I'll have to visit bishops or lepers or
whatever else is on his mind for today.
But I'd like to first of all just
share with you something fairly practical, similar to
what I shared with a group of Indian
brothers.
God gave me a message, seven major obstacles
of the work in India, very much geared
toward the Indian national situation as I work
in India is very much a movement of
nationals with some internationals, of course, involved as
well.
This morning I got the seven obstacles to
the work in Pakistan.
This is built up over my last four
trips.
Four years in a row I've come here.
I went out jogging around six o'clock
to this fantastic park.
If you haven't discovered the park behind the
zoo yet, you probably have as much initiative
as a water skiing donkey.
But I went to that park and there
must have been at least 2,000 Pakistanis
doing their exercises all over the park, everywhere.
Some weightlifters, joggers, jumpers, yoga specialists, hardly anyone
was in the mosque.
And I got the burden to come and
live in Lahore.
But I'm not sure that was from the
Lord or from the park.
But what a beautiful place.
No wonder they have to crowd people into
other parts of the city so they can
keep the park, such a huge park, completely
free.
I was thinking it is a terrific privilege
to be here in Pakistan.
I guess we're more aware of this now
that the day is over for long-term
missionary service in India, except for very few
people.
And yet here the Lord has kept the
door open.
It is a terrific privilege, really.
I count it a privilege even to be
here for a few days.
I'm scheming and conniving constantly how I can
get more time in Pakistan without getting out
of the God.
It's difficult.
If I look over this trip in terms
of its results, by far the three most
fruitful days were Singapore and Malaysia.
Nothing even come near that.
In terms of the gifts God has given
me and seeing a lot happen that will
have a lot of long-term results.
On the other hand, I was very motivated
down in Butwal, just meeting with our Indian
brothers all day long, just man-to-man,
face-to-face.
It's not that one is important and the
other is not important.
It's just that there's so much, so many
opportunities.
And of course, some places the church is
just so much larger, so much more responsive,
and so right in a sense to what
the burden and the message God has put
upon our hearts.
And I think some of you know that
even as I leave here in a few
days, wherever I go, I'm challenging people about
Pakistan.
It was an encouragement to talk with one
of the eastward bound brothers yesterday who was
partly here because after the Easter leadership conference,
which I offered free tapes about Pakistan, he
wrote for one of those tapes.
And that was used to challenge him, I'm
sure, together with other things to come to
this part of the world.
Now, everybody who's a learner and a true
OMer at heart at this point either has
his notebook out or is about to take
it out.
Those who are still not to that stage
of initiative, vision, discernment, you can just recommit
your life at this point and get your
notebook.
But it is good to be able to
write things down.
OM, please, we're not trying to be funny.
OM is a serious thing.
We're trying to prepare you for life back
there, which is much tougher than life here.
And I've seen even OM leaders now, men
that are with us 10 years, go back
there.
And I tell you, in one year, they
were in not such good condition.
Billy Graham said, life at its best is
filled with sadness.
And in OM, we are a training program,
not just for missions, but for marriage.
I had a letter from another one of
those great couples who met on OM years
ago, young Englishman and a young woman from
another nationality.
And they just hit the divorce court.
That's not a very pleasant experience.
I don't know how many of you have
been through divorce.
They say it is one of the most
difficult emotional draining experiences in your life.
Everybody ought to go see Kramer versus Kramer.
But somehow they met on a summer campaign,
and it was all whoop-dee-doo.
Life is one big bowl of blessings, romantic
feelings.
And I tell you, their marriage was one
saga of agony and pain until they finally
had the courage.
And I think, in their case, it did
take courage to divorce.
Don't get the wrong idea.
So the reason I like people to write
a few things down is because if I
didn't believe in what I said, I wouldn't
say it.
And because I believe the truth of God
and the message of God from any of
his servants is worth remembering.
Now, I'm an inconsistent person.
And I have to admit, sometimes when I'm
listening to a message, especially when I'm jogging,
I have difficulty writing it down.
But often when I get back, I write
it down.
I'm also at a little different stage of
spiritual life than some of you.
I'm not saying I'm any better.
But I have so many messages, so much
notes, so many notebooks, that I think I
have to, at times, confess that I'm a
truth glutton.
And I'm reading less and studying less now
because I'm up to here.
I'm saturated.
And I have to give it out.
Or I don't know how I can take
anything else in.
And there's not that many opportunities to give
out, especially when a lot of my meetings
are with new people.
And I don't want to just give them
my 100th message when I haven't given them
my first basic message yet, sufficiency of Christ,
the lordship of Christ, total commitment, world missions.
But with people like yourself, who I've had
the joy of speaking to before, and I
count that a great privilege, and I have
the joy of somehow getting to you also
through some of my cassettes, they say a
way to a man's heart is through his
stomach.
The way to my heart is through cassettes.
You write to me and say you've listened
to one of my cassettes.
I'm irresistible when you say that.
I don't know, especially if it's a video
cassette or a Super 8, because that program's
been a bit of a disaster.
Having somebody out in the middle of Rajasthan
in the back of a truck is listening
to 25 points for survival.
And they write me asking a question.
That can really make my day, and you'll
probably get a fairly good answer.
I need to apologize, by the way, if
I haven't answered any of your letters.
A number of reasons some letters don't get
answered.
Number one, I never get them.
Number two, I can't read the signature, so
it gets into a file to deal with
later.
That's always drastic.
Number three, I dictate the tape and lose
it.
Number four, the letter gets typed out by
a new secretary, not Vera, who doesn't make
many mistakes, and gets posted off to the
wrong nation.
I mean, there's a number of other reasons.
Lack of discipline sometimes on my part.
But I hope you'll feel free to ask
any questions based on this little message.
Which message should I give first?
I think the seven obstacles I see to
the work here in Pakistan.
I don't think I need to give you
some of my basic verses, like be not
ignorant of Satan's devices, or Ephesians chapter six.
Most of you, I hope, by now have
Ephesians six at least partially memorized.
So I'll just dig right into the obstacles.
I think we know Satan is going to
counter-attack what you're doing.
The obstacles to the work in India, I
think, are greater than the obstacles here.
Maybe that's just because I've been involved in
the work there longer.
For instance, one of the great obstacles to
the work in India is terrific gossip against
OM in India by embittered OM graduates.
You know, you don't have thousands of Indians
go through your training program and not have
some of them bitter.
And Indians who can seem very placid and
very controlled, and far more hospitable and loving
than those of us from the frozen west,
I tell you, when they get upset and
they get bitter, you better get out of
the way, because they'll have you in court.
And fortunately, OM has never had a major
court case in India.
The main court case we had was my
breaking of the customs regulations, which is probably
the reason I can't get the visa.
They wanted a big bribe because I broke
a technicality of the law by selling my
possessions, which I shouldn't have done.
It was a mistake.
That led actually to my eventually not being
able to return to India.
And there is some pretty vicious gossip against
Ray Eicher, against Alfie, against OM.
It's very sad.
And it hinders the work.
There are some churches that are quite strongly
opposed to OM.
But we don't have that problem here.
You may have in a few years' time.
You may have a little.
But in Pakistan up to now, I think
you have terrific credibility.
In fact, with top church leaders, you've arrived
more credibility in a couple years than India
has in almost a couple of decades.
But there are other obstacles.
Obstacle number one, just jot these things down,
think about it, pray about it, try to
keep it in balance, is the state of
the church in Pakistan.
Now, there are many positive things we can
say about the church.
I think it's very important to have that
weighty positive mentality.
He came to Kathmandu and gave us all
a message last year on being positive.
He gave the same message in Europe.
And OM needs this kind of optimism, this
kind of positive attitude toward God's people and
toward the church.
And in a sense, the church in Pakistan
isn't so different than many, many churches in
our own countries.
So don't major in putting down the church
in Pakistan.
I'd love to give a message, the obstacles
the church is facing in just surviving in
this country as a minority group, as a
socio-political entity, surrounded by people who do
not understand, with a couple hundred years of
interesting history.
And I hope all of you read at
least some history of the church in Pakistan.
To me, incredibly important.
Compare it with the church in Nepal, which
is very young, they have almost no history.
There is some, I saw a book that
I really wanted to read, the history of
the church in Pakistan.
But in fact, generally speaking, when it comes
to evangelizing our special friends that we are
primarily here to reach, the church situation presents
quite an obstacle.
Many times they are completely cut off from
these people as far as real communication, though
it is amazing how they do exist together
in some of the busties, in some of
the different areas we visited.
And I think personally, there is a foundation,
a foundation for communication that we can build
upon, more than in some other countries.
But many of God's people here, as in
most parts of the world, are lukewarm.
This is not something I am telling you
for myself.
This is what my Pakistani friends, and I
know many of them, have told me.
So don't let anybody say, George Verwer is
saying most Pakistani believers are lukewarm.
No.
Pakistanis have told George Verwer that most Pakistanis
are lukewarm.
That's what they've said to me.
I've been four years trying to see if
it's true, whether it is true.
And I think it is.
And we know what Revelation chapter 3 says
about lukewarmness.
There are beautiful exceptions.
We have the privilege of working with many
of the exceptions, people who are on fire.
And let us understand that the great problem
sometimes within OM is lukewarmness.
It's easy to start out the September conference
with a great burst of enthusiasm and zeal,
but after a few of the devil's arrows
get stuck into your back, and some of
them don't come out.
I didn't have arrows yesterday, but as I
was fellowshipping here under the trees, I had
other things landing on me.
And I just recommend that if you fellowship
any longer in this compound, try to stay
away from the trees.
There are birds in the trees who are
usually having target practice.
Praise the Lord elephants don't fly.
But after you get a few arrows, a
few arrows in your back, and you discover
some of the problems, it's easy for lukewarmness
to set in.
So that's one of the major obstacles.
And that's why I think it's so sane
in Pakistan that we are committed to work
with the church.
We're committed to see reality, revival, and training
in the church.
These people do speak Urdu.
When God touches them and their lives are
changed, they will influence the special neighbors around
them.
And some of them I believe will come
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Number two, because we're short on time, the
language obstacles.
Now some of you are going to get
a little upset by this, but I have
to be courageous.
But I really believe that a lot of
OM people really dilly-dally at language.
Get all excuses, all excuses.
But I really feel we go about language
study often in a very slipshod way.
And if you were in a secular corporation,
in which they give you one year at
times to get that language if you want
the promotion, I tell you, you'd get it.
I was in Mexico one month and I
was preaching in a Spanish language.
I listened to cassettes night and day.
I refused to speak English except when I
absolutely had to.
I had about 10 different ways that I
got brainwashed with the language.
When I got to Spain, I was working
on advanced Spanish and I was learning Russian.
I was playing the Russian tapes in the
night, playing them.
And that was before the Walkman.
The Walkman, you put the little thing in
your ear and you can be pumping those
words into your head when you're jogging, when
you're sleeping, when you're bathing.
And if we're going to make an in
-depth impact, long-term people especially, if you're
not even thinking of staying here more than
a year, I agree language is not priority.
But anybody who's serious, you've got to go
at language with a much more intensive way.
Not just with your teacher when he comes
around for a few hours, but every possible
opportunity.
Turn off the English.
Nobody's taught language in O.M. like Mike
Evans.
You either speak French by Christmas or you're
just going to be out of it.
You're going to be like a goon.
Nobody wants to be a goon.
And if we're going to reach 80 million
people, most of whom speak Urdu and also
have the language so when you get back
to England, you can go to Bradford where
we have 40,000 speaking, Urdu speaking people.
You've got to get that language.
Don't make excuses.
I'll get too many other things in the
program.
I've never hardly seen anybody of the people
I've traveled with in Pakistan redeem the time
in the vehicles.
And I saw it again this time.
They're just sick.
I say, don't you read the thing?
I get sick when I read.
Maybe you ought to get sick.
But to just sit for hours and hours
in a vehicle, not using the time.
You can take the cassette recorder.
You put a 25 rupee thing in your
ear.
You can listen to Urdu or you can
speak.
I've seen Pakistanis sitting with foreigners in the
back of the vehicles not even converse once
in three hours as if the Pakistani had
leprosy.
This Pakistani speaks Urdu.
You can talk to him.
He won't bite you.
And I believe if we really want to
reach this nation for Christ, we are going
to have more of this initiative.
We're going to have more get up and
go, more oomph.
Now admittedly, I have a thing about this
because I feel that so often people in
the secular world are more serious about what
they're doing than people in Christian work.
The same thing goes over to driving.
Now my brother Steve has told me that
people are not taking the driving seriously.
Now are you telling the truth or not?
You're getting me in trouble?
Not taking it seriously enough.
How many more deaths do we have to
have in O.M.? How many more deaths
do we have to have before we realize
that driving is one of the most serious
things you can do?
And in a country like this, why?
I tell you, if Steve is willing to
give you a little extra training as someone
who's been out here for years.
By the way, the best drivers have the
most fatal accidents sometimes.
So we're all at the mercy of God.
And my teaching is do the best you
can, keep learning, and then leave it with
Jesus.
Leave it with Jesus.
You will not find me coming down heavy
on you after you have an accident.
No way do I believe in that.
I believe in prevention, and then after that,
God's mercy, God's providence.
You know, Keith Green, he overloaded that plane
that killed 12 people.
That was a clear-cut mistake.
Clear, simple mistake.
He had been warned by Ravenhill.
He'd been warned by me about the way
he carried on, especially a number of areas.
He confessed that he was an extremist, but
in a moment of impetuousness.
Keith Green was a very impetuous guy.
He overloaded the plane.
So much so, the insurance will not even
cover that accident.
And Melody's asked me to share this with
OMers.
Please pray because they're being sued for millions.
Millions.
Can you imagine if we try to operate
the Dulaws and Lagos without discipline?
Can you imagine if some of our engineers
worked in the engine room to put in
that new generator, the way some of you
go about driving, language study, keeping your flat
clean, single men?
What if I went over there today for
a little inspection on the single men's accommodation?
I think it's all a joke.
I had a wife come to me recently
and she was just crying on the inside
and she really wanted to divorce her husband.
Why?
He stank.
He stunk.
I don't even know how to, whether stank,
stink, or stunk.
He never learned to take a bath and
put a little deodorant on.
We still have this problem in OM.
I was with someone in OM the other
day and I almost had a seizure just
from the odor.
You know, is this asking people too much
to bathe?
I fortunately have a wife who hassles me.
I even have a secretary who hassles me.
I am not speaking as one who has
arrived.
I'm not a good driver.
I'm not super disciplined.
I'm not Mr. Cleanliness.
It's an ongoing battle, but at least as
Dulas, when she sails from Southampton, I know
what direction I'm going in.
It's going to take Isaacson a long time
to get to Karachi when he sails from
Southampton, maybe two years, but at least he
knows what direction he's going in.
OM is not going to change your life
in one year.
Life is habits.
Some of you have deep, deep, deep habits.
After you're married, it'll take your wife several
years to change those habits.
Dubai.
So I see language as a great obstacle,
especially for follow-up, for in-depth work.
I might say some of you have done
tremendous in getting the language and it means
a lot to the people.
It really does.
Language is a very important thing to people.
One of the reasons I'm hesitant at times
to extend my time of ministry here is
because I don't know that language.
I think this is linked with a lot
of other things.
I think it's linked with the whole thing
of culture and getting to understand the culture,
fitting into the culture.
Pakistan is a pluralistic society.
There, of course, are very Western people here.
Praise the Lord for the opportunities among them.
There is scope here for those that don't
even know or do because a Christian witness
is never just one thing.
It's many, many things.
There's a literature which is so powerful.
And even when people know that you're trying
to learn their language, my own experiments in
the streets, just telling them that I was
trying to learn the language and using different
phrases brought quite amazing response and certainly very
high book sales.
Number three, the third obstacle I see is
linked with vision, initiative, and discipline.
I once gave a terrible message on Lagos.
Never preached it again.
Remember, one brother wrote me a really heavy
letter about it.
And it was seven reasons why most OMers
will never amount to anything in life.
Can you imagine that?
Oh, I was in a rare mood.
It was what you call a reverse message.
It was just, you know, a little bit
of cynicism just to try to stir people
up.
And, you know, I feel that a message
like what I'm sharing with you this morning
in Pakistan is good because I don't think
most of us understand how difficult it is
just for a Pakistani young person just to
make it through.
Education, a job, marriage, the pressure is enormous.
It's enormous.
Society generally is much more difficult here than
in many of our own countries.
And many of our own countries are tough
as well.
There's a number of ex-OMers totally unemployed,
one for two years.
England is not a game.
And again and again people write to me
after their time on OM and they say,
it's like a broken record, it's much tougher
now.
It's much tougher now.
Getting a job, getting a place to live,
paying the mortgage if you're following that road.
And I think that it is good as
old Martin Lloyd-Jones exhorted us to do,
to just exert ourselves a little more.
There's plenty of messages on pace, keeping God's
pace, spiritual balance, mercy, forgiveness, healing for damaged
emotions.
That pendulum has almost gone too far with
OM.
I think we need a little more old
-fashioned discipline.
The problem is OM has become basically socialistic.
People are coming to OM expecting a lot
on the plate.
And where they don't get it, I tell
you, we get a lot of complaints.
You know, when I arrived to Mexico, it
was either do or die.
It was either see breakthroughs.
I had nobody with me.
There was no organization.
It was do or die.
And believe me, the opposition was waiting.
Short-term work was unheard of.
George Verwer was unheard of.
Who are these foreigners?
And of course, you know, the intensity of
prayer, the intensity of commitment, the many, many
nights in which I didn't sleep.
Not that I recommend it anymore.
I don't.
But now in a movement that's 25 years
later, vehicles are there, the headquarters are here,
things are organized.
Sure, there's plenty of things that still go
wrong.
We're not against things being organized.
We don't have the answer.
But it's just sort of part and parcel
of the way it is now.
People expect a lot.
Of course, often we can't produce it.
And so then people get bitter.
I tell you, I met some very bitter
people in Singapore.
Just be honest with you Singaporeans.
Really bitter against OM.
And it's a lack of maturity on their
part.
It's a lack of understanding what life is
about.
OM, of course, the 700 Singaporean Malaysian graduates
going into Singapore and Malaysia with no understanding
of Chinese culture, already embedded in endless cultures.
Of course, we have failed some of those
people.
They have come with their complexities, just as
the Americans bring their complexities, the Englishmen bring
their complexities.
And I thank the Lord that at the
ex-OMers reunion in Singapore, He just broke
my heart and I apologized and I asked
people to bring healing, to allow healing to
their bitterness.
It's only a small percentage.
But you know, the Bible teaches if 99
are going well and one is going off,
that's the one that concerns us.
And if there's any ex-OMer anywhere who's
hurt, who's bitter, who's upset, and these days
it often isn't with OM in general, it's
often one particular leader.
Of course, leaders have failed people.
Leaders are over-committed.
And it's a great burden to me, a
great concern that people now come in OM
expecting a package tour.
I think it's a little less perhaps in
this part of the world.
Certainly on the ships, they often expect a
package.
The ships have such a reputation, you know,
study program.
And of course, when they don't get it,
they're bitter.
I got to Lagos, every fifth person I
talked to was fairly, fairly upset.
One was leaving the day I got, another
was quitting and leaving a few days later.
He flew in from Australia.
He didn't know what OM was from, from
a moonwalk.
And when he got there and found out
that he had to go into a study
program, they're very strict now along us with
a study program, everybody in the study program.
And when he found out that he had
to go into a study program, he just,
he just went down and then sin got
in different ways.
Back he'll go to Australia.
I'm not picking on any one country, by
the way.
Every country has these problems, but it's good
sometimes to be specific.
And I just feel that part of this
syndrome that creeps in is linked with lack
of personal vision, personal passion for souls.
I want to tell you, if you got
a passion for souls with or without OM,
you're going to go places for God.
And if you don't have a passion for
souls and you're not baptized or filled with
the Holy Ghost, which we all go around
the world teaching, OM or no OM, ultimately
you're not going to go anywhere for God.
We can't create spirituality.
We can't rub you together with Mike Wakely
and create spiritual reality, or with Shastin, or
their dog.
Spirituality comes from above.
It comes from the book, and it comes
as you repent at the foot of the
cross.
Praise God for some that left OM.
They just left OM.
Maybe Tom Hawksley's way is the way to
go.
You know, get yourself one of the local,
you know, local women.
That seems to be a big thing in
Pakistan right now.
And you know, leave, leave the loving fellowship
of this great OM Pakistan movement.
By the way, OM Pakistan is one of
the highest reputations with an OM.
That can make it dangerous a couple years
from now, because people come expecting so much
they get disappointed.
And it does seem sometimes no matter what
way you move, you can't win.
No matter what way you move, you can't
win.
But praise God for those that have left
OM and they were just thrown, like pitching
a little baby in a, in a, in
a pool.
They're teaching swimming that way.
I forget which country.
Little babies at a few months, pitch them
in.
And of course, if they go down, I
think they fish them out with a, with
a net.
But you know, I don't know.
I don't know what the answer is on
that.
But I believe vision, initiative.
You know, I know I'm hyper.
I know I need to calm down.
But do we really need, do we really
believe these people are lost, these people right
outside the doorway?
Or is this sort of a game, like
a Monopoly game?
I've seen people more seriously playing Monopoly than
I've seen OMers going for souls.
They sit down and start that Monopoly game.
They have a lot of similar games.
They go right through meals until the game's
over.
Have you ever been in a gambling casino?
People go at gambling more serious than we're
going for souls.
I've seen people in the casinos in Las
Vegas, sitting there, you know, winning all ages,
you know, bloodshot eyes, a little mule neck,
popping coins, pulling the, you know, commitment.
Well, it's an addiction.
Maybe we need to be addicted to people.
Vision, initiative, sanctified imagination.
Have these become cliches in OM?
Spend a whole month getting taught.
We should come out of there like laser
beams from an American satellite nuclear project.
Follow-up is linked with this.
Perhaps one of the obstacles, this is linked
with this point, is how do we follow
up on what we're doing all over Pakistan?
This is the greatest burden on the heart
of our Indian brothers.
How do we follow up?
And so we get a lot of people
saying, well, OM, we must plant churches, as
if that's the only way to follow up.
But you know, until you get some on
-fire Christians, or at least some solid Christians,
you're going to have difficulty planting a church.
You might, you might plant a group of
people, but it may not necessarily become a
church.
How's your letter writing?
Do you meet people in these villages?
Do you write to these people?
Now, I haven't had many days in evangelism
here, but for my little time in evangelism,
I'm corresponding with people, unsaved people in Pakistan.
I would have thought that OM is basically
impossible without writing letters, because we're on the
move.
And if one minute you're giving the idea
to a person, you love them, you appreciate
them, you'd like to know them, the next
minute they never hear from you.
It doesn't add up.
And I think that in our work, we've
got to increase our discipline in letter writing.
Of course, we can also link people up
with local believers.
There are Pakistani Christians who would like to
follow up in areas where something is really
happening.
We can pray, but we can't break God's
arm.
And I'm a great believer in God's providence.
And up to now, there's not a major
breakthrough among our special friends here in Pakistan.
And I don't think anybody should go on
a three-day fast necessarily to bring it.
But I believe that we can see some
of these people that profess Christ, follow it
up on, and disciple.
Basically, I think most of you are doing
a fairly good job in this area from
what I've observed.
But I think that some steps of faith
could be taken.
I talked to a brother.
I better not even mention what nationality.
I might get too close to home.
And he just, at least he was honest.
He just admitted he's been in our training
for over a year.
He just doesn't have any discipline.
That scares me.
I tell you, that really scares me.
How he could be in this work for
a year and not have any discipline.
Now my prayer is that he's just humble.
Now he doesn't hardly write any letters.
And a lot of the other basic things,
it does seem that he's falling on his
face in that area.
Praise the Lord, I just want to be
positive.
He's at least honest.
But I wouldn't want to marry him.
Of course, I won't marry him because I'm
already married.
And he's a man.
Please, please, don't take lack of discipline lightly.
It could destroy you.
Life is cruel.
We arrived in Katlandu all rejoicing over the
birth of Wayne and Sheila's baby.
Two days later, she's got the baby in
her arms, dead.
Now is that cruel or not cruel?
I know all the theological answers.
I know God ultimately is a God of
love.
Humanly speaking, humanly speaking, there's a cruelty element
in that.
You say, all right, not cruel for Sheila
and Wayne because the baby goes to heaven.
All right, what about the baby born down
the road here to two Muslim parents?
How do you explain that?
Maybe you've got nice little theological answers.
I don't have them all.
I had them when I got out of
Bible school.
But I've lost them for 25 years of
being kicked in the teeth.
And life does kick you in the teeth.
It really does.
Ingemar Emker, Christmas, day after Christmas, only married
a couple of years.
One of the best, most committed, compassionate Swedes
we've ever known in OM.
Bang, he's gone.
How?
Why?
Lord, we're trying to evangelize the world.
Takes 20 years to see an Ingemar Emker.
You have to take him when he's in
the prime of life.
What about Irma?
If the rest of us overcome it, that's
relatively easy.
She just wrote me it's getting harder.
And we know God overrules.
We know our faith is being tested.
We distribute.
Don't waste your sorrows.
We preach.
1 Peter chapter 1, In this ye greatly
rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be ye are in heaviness through manifold trials.
There is a place for heaviness.
And my heart is heavy when I've seen
the trials of God's people.
That the trial of your faith being much
more precious than gold that perisheth, though it
be tried with fire, might be found unto
the praise and honoring glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ.
Thank God for his word.
James says the same thing.
Let me read it.
So many times this has warmed my heart.
My brethren, count it all joy when you
fall into various trials.
You know, I think it's a trial to
have to move your house here, really.
Don't develop a position where if the trial
is not being martyred for the faith, you
don't count it as a trial.
Little things can be a trial.
And having to move house, having a van
break down in the middle of nowhere when
you're trying to get to a meeting, these
are trials.
They're small trials.
But you know, if you don't pass the
test with the small trials, what are you
going to do when the big one comes?
You know, an interesting, an Indian brother is
going through a very deep trial right now,
reminded me that in 1968 in Kathmandu during
the leadership training, I shared a message called
the Big Test, that God allows many, many,
many small trials, hundreds, hundreds, hundreds to prepare
you for the Big Test.
For some it's divorce.
For some it's murder of a loved one.
For some it's rape.
For Rosalyn, Helen, Rosalyn, what's her name?
Helen Rosevere, it was rape.
Imagine!
For others, it's something else.
Probably most of you this year will not
have your Big Test.
These are just little preparation programs, the heartaches,
the troubles, the things that go wrong, the
disappointments.
It's to prepare you for the Big Test.
I've had medium-sized tests in my life.
I haven't had my big one yet.
I'm getting ready for it.
I don't know what it'll be.
My brethren, count it all joy when you
fall into various trials, knowing this, that the
testing of your fate worketh patience.
But let patience have her perfect work, that
ye may be perfect and entire, lacking nothing.
That's quite strong, isn't it?
Lacking nothing.
God wants us to come into maturity.
Then it talks about wisdom, which we shared
about in the meeting last night.
It was encouraging to see many of you
there.
The fourth obstacle I see as financial.
Financial, well, there's a danger in Pakistan because
you have field credit.
Woe to the ease in Zion that comes
with a positive field credit.
I personally have always functioned better under negative
field credit.
I remember sitting in Kathmandu, getting a letter
from a strong leader in Europe, basically telling
me the whole work in India was out
of God's will.
What a letter.
I visited the spot where I read that
letter about 10 times in Kathmandu because I
was taking people for walks and that was
the best route.
The Lord hasn't allowed any house to be
built on that spot, which is quite unusual
in Kathmandu.
And I can remember with agony of heart,
I remember one of the big misunderstandings between
Dale Roton and I.
And he wrote me a heavy letter, which
he was 90% right, but I nailed
him on the 10%.
But you know, when OM India was really
growing and things were really moving, we did
run into a little in debt.
Now that's much more difficult now.
You've got the budget boys, the financial committee.
You've got managers.
You've got all kinds of people ready to
move down on you, like some kind of
spiritual God squad, if you get too much
in the red.
We get them hovering over ICT.
But lately they've been backing off, as I
sent them a little bit of a memo
to think about.
Now we would appreciate your prayers as an
ICT, an entity that is barely recognized in
OM, and yet has to absorb enormous expenses
for the whole movement, is $100,000 in
the red.
More.
Only the Dulas bypasses us.
But I think basically we are on a
good program of trusting God for finance and
paying our bills as we go along.
And I have got along with that.
I simply want to say this.
There is a lot more we could do
in Pakistan if we saw specific gifts.
Gifts for vehicles.
The day of running the operation on foreign
vehicles is over.
I am not pushing this.
I am just resounding what Mike Wakely has
been talking to me about.
We need more Pakistani registered vehicles that can
stay in the country.
Literature needs, cassette needs.
You are definitely among the penny-pinching fields.
I mean, Wakely has this by nature.
His wife seems to go along with it.
He's coming into a little more liberty lately.
But, you know, I'm not opposing it, though
it can be dangerous in certain situations.
Mike is very flexible.
He even lets me travel first class when
I come from Peshawar, which I very much
appreciate, though when I'm alone without my wife,
I prefer to be alone with her.
I have a second-class upper berth so
that I can take pictures of all that's
going on beneath me, which is really wild.
Cooking food, wiping baby's bottom in the same,
almost the same photo.
Very exciting photography.
So, I see finances as an obstacle.
The fifth obstacle, I've written down here, extremism,
disunity, anti-parent church mentality, total answerism.
I don't know if that can all fit
into one category.
Certainly, there is disunity in Pakistan between the
parent church and the church structure.
We had a very, very good time with
the bishop yesterday morning, but he was quite
blunt in sharing that though he greatly appreciates
OM, he does not appreciate the way certain
other parent church groups go about things.
It is complex.
There's a whole book on this now called
Parachurch Church and Uneasy Marriage.
It's a major problem for us in Singapore,
where the church is big, but where they
are invaded by parachurch organizations.
There seems to be a new one arriving
every month.
And Singapore is a small island.
And I tell you, it's a miracle OM
got its roots in Singapore before some of
this happened.
But it's still not easy.
It's still not easy.
Thank God for the meetings we had there,
not only among ex-OMers, but among Christian
leaders.
Don't despise these meetings among Christian leaders, because
I tell you, it's basic.
The PR gift that he has given Mike
and some of you.
PR, public relations, not a naughty word.
You don't have to use that word.
1 Corinthians 13 is even better.
People.
Caring for people.
Listening to people.
Listening to some of these pastors, some of
these other church leaders, why they are saying
what they're saying about parachurch groups.
People that run full-page ads like one
recently in the United States.
We are church planting on the Afghan border
among the Afghans.
Full-page ad.
You don't think that the embassies get copies
of some of these ads.
One group through one ad set their work
back in the land of Egypt at least
two years, if they ever get it off
the ground there.
I think they will, at least temporarily, because
they're bypassing the church.
Bypassing the church sounds good for certain types
of strategy.
I'm not convinced it will work.
There will at least have to be some
very careful behind-the-scenes public relations, apologies,
repentance, and brokenness, because God's people do get
involved, especially when people start to come to
Christ.
There's no way we can think of Pakistan
that our special neighbors are going to come
to Christ and the church isn't going to
look.
That's sort of projecting on them something that's
less than best.
Also here in Pakistan there's a fair amount
of extremism in some of the churches.
There is a fair amount of legalism and
extremism where you may want to take a
survey and ask people who are believers if
they sinned and died before they could repent,
would they go to heaven or hell?
Somebody took a survey in Gujarat state and
I think 50% of the OMers believed
they'd go to hell.
I tell you when I heard that I
just couldn't believe it.
I've got to do some research because I
still find it difficult to believe that people
could be on OM where we have such
an emphasis on mercy and grace.
If a believer who's born again at a
moment of depression commits suicide, what do you
think, he's going to hell?
You've got a God that's a little short,
what I read about in my Bible.
Now the possibility, the high possibility of a
man committing suicide may have never been born
again, I will also accept that possibility.
Legalism, extremism, total answerism, and some of it
comes in by visiting preachers.
They come in offering total cures, total blessings,
you know, get the baptism, get the blessing,
come forward, let me pray for you.
Do you think this is new in Pakistan?
I remember 1968, Indonesian team had come to
Pakistan and one of the main things we
heard about over in Singapore was revival in
Pakistan, revival in Pakistan.
But you see, as I shared in that
meeting yesterday, which I believe is an important
message for Pakistani Christian leaders, it's not just
the blessing.
We need all that comes after that, the
wisdom, the spiritual balance, the love, the message
that these Christian books you distribute have.
Don't think that's a secondary activity.
Selling Calvary Road to Pakistani believers is not
a secondary activity.
To me it's a primary activity.
Getting some powerful cassette tapes with balanced teaching
about love and some of these other subjects,
as you know I could come here and
take meetings 365 days a year.
Once I lived here and they knew I
was here because they do respond.
They want this kind of teaching.
And Viv could stay here probably the rest
of his life going around teaching.
There is a great need for teaching because
there is extremism.
The enemy is attacking the church.
And God has given us in these books
and in our hearts a message that the
whole church around the world really wants.
Do you know some of the standard messages
we get on OM?
Pastors in various countries have never had even
once.
Just basic, simple material.
And that doesn't mean it's in your life,
but you've had it in the hands.
And in OM, where people are complaining that
the study program is not good enough, we
have more truth than most of the believers
I meet in churches in various parts of
the world.
And I don't think the greatest need in
OM is more and more study.
I'm in favor of study, study seminars.
That's clear in scripture.
But I believe the greater need is obey.
Obey.
See it really put into practice in your
life.
And of course you know that I'm not
expecting that in one year or two years.
It'll take many years.
Number six.
Sixth obstacle.
Family pressure.
Now this is true first of all within
Pakistan.
We must try to understand the Pakistani family.
If you don't understand the Pakistan family, you're
not going to understand Pakistan because actually people
here are very family centered.
It was amazing in the park this morning
to see quite a few husbands and wives
walking together in their exercise program.
And that certainly wouldn't be original Pakistani culture.
That's an amalgamation.
Perhaps some East and West.
One family was jogging even with the children.
Whatever is going on in the park, you
can be sure back in the home.
Family is very important.
One leader shared with me yesterday that they
are actually having to, having quite a lot
of difficulty with Pakistanis living in England to
get them matched up.
To get the right wife.
Very important.
Get the right wife.
Right husband.
And I think we have to realize as
Greg Livingston once said, parents can sometimes be
the greatest obstacle to world evangelism.
And I think this is where we need
a little research.
Deeper understanding.
I think this is where also we need
both OM strategies for discipling men.
Maybe you already know this.
The in-house strategy.
These all have subdivisions.
In-house strategy.
That's Brother Samson.
He's in-house strategy.
He's in OM.
We're hoping he's going to get just so
turned on, so excited, so filled with spirit,
so challenged that the rest of his life
he's going to turn people upside down for
Jesus.
That's the bigger part of the strategy over
in the big country to the east.
The Middle East, this is, Dennis Alexander pushes
this, is the, we don't like to say
out-house strategy because that miscommunicates, but the
outer strategy.
Discipling people in the context of their own
culture.
They don't have to join OM.
Don't think if people don't join OM they
can't be discipled.
I mean that's crazy.
And learning to disciple people within the family,
within their own culture, as some of you
are trying to do with your contacts.
I'm not trying to get all these people
to join OM.
I think one of the beautiful things about
OM is we don't put all of our
eggs in one basket.
Different strategies, different approaches.
Because God gives different people different gifts.
Some of you are functioning here largely with
the gifts of helps.
You're helping, you're serving those who are out
doing more discipling or longer term.
That is also part of God's strategy.
I spoke on that three years ago when
I was here.
I don't know what you do in those
states, but there's a lot of messages around
here that share some of my burdens.
Now we discover this is also true in
some of your countries.
Significant pressure to come home and stay home.
And we're not seeing so far the long
term people we need to see in general
in the Muslim world.
Well I'm a little hesitant to say this
here in Pakistan because with the way things
have taken place in India as far as
families, we now are on a stage here
where we're not so capable to take on
a lot more families.
But I think Mike Wakely would agree with
me, the right families who are really willing
for the kind of cross-cultural living and
communication that's needed in this country and the
high degree of initiative and vision and discipline
that's needed in this country, such families I
think we will be able to find a
place for.
And then number seven, the lack of deep
trust.
You know in my own Christian life, you
may not believe this, at times I am
just hanging on for survival.
Even yesterday I found it very, very hard
just to keep going.
You know I love people, I want to
serve people, I want to do all these
things that I talk about, but at times
I just find I'm running out of whatever
I need to keep running.
And I tell you I thank God that
His Word emphasizes not only this kind of
challenge I'm sharing with you this morning, but
it has so much emphasis on grace, forgiveness,
healing, mercy, the human factor, man's weakness, all
that kind of thing which I'm always going
on about.
As you know I'm criticized by some as
now departing from my original messages.
George Verwer of the 80s is a compromiser.
He's turned away from the original discipleship, commitment,
forsake all message.
I don't think most O.M.s believe
that.
There's a little group, I had a few
little discussions along that line.
Isn't it amazing that I was such a
hardliner in certain areas in the early days,
you know that term?
Today my greatest problem are the hardliners, even
sometimes O.M. leaders.
And there's a couple of O.M. leaders
that are worried about me.
I've allowed these committees and I've allowed these
area leaders to take over the overall leadership
of O.M. And that I'm on the
retreat and that I'm compromising in the housing
policy, letting people buy houses.
People have owned houses from the beginning of
O.M. But basically that certainly wasn't a
direction of the work in the early days
and there's no big direction now.
The fact that a few exceptions took place
has not brought a great rush of house
purchasing as some people thought.
It's God working in individuals in different ways.
It's interesting even back in the early 60s
when I gave a message, this is a
message I shared with him in Peshawar, dangers
that face O.M. at that time, early
60s.
Getting set in our ways, not walking in
the light, not taking time to meet for
prayer, not being involved in evangelism, subtle influences
of the lukewarm, presumption that we know the
principles, choosing the road of least resistance, listening
too quickly to evil reports, allowing discipline to
slip, subtle forms of pride, slacking off in
the battle against lust, neglecting the home.
Number 13, very interesting, the early 60s, idealism.
It's not just the last few years.
It's through David Seaman's book that we've warned
against idealism.
I've given you a challenge for learning the
language.
Some of you probably will never learn any
language.
The sooner you face that limitation and choose
a different direction in your life, as Mickey
Walker did when he discovered he was not
going to learn Arabic and he got out
of the Arab world and he got on
to Duluth and had a phenomenal ministry and
he's chosen now Southern Ireland.
Why?
They speak English.
He's still having a worldwide ministry.
Everything I say generally needs to be brought
into balance, into balance some way.
And you've got Mr. Balance Incorporated, Mike Wakely,
to bring anything I've said here that's a
bit extreme into balance.
This last thing, perhaps, is what some people
say or call the bottom line, deep, deep
trust.
When things are going wrong, when you're not
seeing the breakthrough in finance or the language
or winning people to Christ, the contacts are
backsliding, this is going wrong, that's going wrong,
that somehow you just trust him.
And that's the way I am at times.
Just believe God is in control.
Sometimes I have even difficulty accepting some of
the basic doctrines of the Christian faith.
When I'm under attack like that, sometimes I
don't fight it.
I just pull back just for a while
and I say, God, I know you're there.
I know you're there.
I'm not sure about all the rest right
now.
Certainly some of these OM policies.
But I know you're there.
And I just start worshipping.
I just start worshipping.
And pretty soon I realize, well, not just
God, it's Jesus.
I know Jesus is there.
And I realize He died on the cross
for me.
And I realize He rose for me.
And then pretty soon all the other doctrines,
including OM's minor principles, fall back into place.
It usually only takes a couple of hours
and I'm back in the race.
Now, you never have to go through that
kind of survival pattern.
Praise the Lord.