God's Smuggler

by Brother Andrew

Because if He were a King in name only, I would rather go back to the chocolate factory. I would remain a Christian, but I would know that my religion was only a set of principles, excellent and to be followed, but hardly demanding devotion. Suppose on the other hand that I were to discover God to be a Person, in the sense that He communicated and cared and loved and led. That was something quite different. That was the kind of King I would follow into any battle.

But money or produce, we stuck fast to two rules: We never mentioned a need aloud, and we gave away a tithe of whatever came to us as soon as we got it—within 24 hours if possible. Another team that set out from school at the same time we did, was not so strict about tithing. They set aside their ten percent all right, but they didn’t give it away immediately, “in case we run into an emergency.” Of course they had emergencies! So did we, every day. But they ended their month owing money to hotels, lecture halls, and markets all over Scotland, while we came back to school almost ten pounds ahead. Fast as we could give money away, God was always swifter, and we ended with money to send to the WEC work overseas.

“No strength at all!” she answered me joyously. “And don’t you know that it is just when we are weakest that God can use us most? Suppose now that it wasn’t you but the Holy Spirit Who had plans behind the Iron Curtain? You talk about strength. . . .”

It was as though every individual in that room sensed that God was very close, and in the delight of His company wanted nothing, needed nothing, except occasionally to express the joy bubbling up inside.

“That’s the excitement in obedience,” he said. “Finding out later what God had in mind.”

“Lord, in my luggage I have Scripture that I want to take to Your children across this border. When You were on earth, You made blind eyes see. Now, I pray, make seeing eyes blind. Do not let the guards see those things You do not want them to see.”

So we determined to change. We still live frugally, and always shall, partly because both of us were raised that way and wouldn’t know how else to act. But at the same time we are learning to take joy in the physical things that God provides. Corry bought some dresses.

Funny how long it took us to learn the simple fact that God really is a Father, as displeased with a cramped, miserly attitude of lack as with its opposite failing of acquisitiveness.

Of course he was right. It would not be I who supplied the funds for such a project; it would be the Lord.

How faithful God is, how utterly trustworthy, how good beyond imagining! He asks for so little in order to give us so much.

Persecution is an enemy the Church has met and mastered many times. Indifference could prove to be a far more dangerous foe.

As we had in Eastern Europe, we urged our listeners to reconsider the role of a Christian when his country is in trouble. Is it to run, or is it to stand? Life in Cuba in 1965 was not easy. But perhaps God had had His reasons for putting them in this place at this time. Perhaps they were to be His arms and legs and His healing hands in this situation, without whom He would have no representative in this land.

But God is never defeated. Though He may be opposed, attacked, resisted, still the ultimate outcome can never be in doubt. Every day we see fresh proof that indeed all things—even evil ones—work together for those who are called by His name.

None of us knows where the road will lead. We only know it is the most exciting journey of them all.

First you need to become friends. You can never win an enemy to Christ. As long as we see any person as an enemy—whether Communist, Muslim or terrorist—then the love of God cannot flow through us to reach them.

The devil will do everything possible to thwart the advance of God’s Kingdom. Jesus told us that if the world hated Him, it will also hate us. So we must not be surprised by the increase in persecution around the world. However, we are not weak. There is much we can do, starting on our knees.

I hope that my life demonstrates that there is no more exciting mission than following Jesus wherever He leads us.