God's Smuggler

by Brother Andrew

Of course we didn’t have any real enemies in my hometown of Witte—not when I was very small—so we made enemies out of each other.

During the week the village fishmonger will talk pleasantly with the village ironmonger, but on Sundays the fishmonger will walk with his family northward to the Roman church while the ironmonger will walk with his family southward to the Protestant church, and as they pass on the street neither will acknowledge the other with so much as a nod.

From childhood I had had a completely unfounded confidence in my ability to do anything I set out to do.

When I woke up from these orgies, I would wonder why I was doing these things, but the question never got an answer.

And it all came about through obedience. ———

If Christ were a King and these were His Ambassadors, it surely did not speak well of the state of His exchequer.

“is to teach our students that they can trust God to do what He has said He would do.

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.

In the years of living this life of faith, I have never known God’s care to fail.

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.

With Hans and Rolf traveling so much of the time, we had been forced to install a phone in the house. I often resented the interruptions it caused. But not this day. For it was from the Dutch Bible Society, asking me if I could see them that same afternoon.

Both Hans and I learned to announce first thing that we were Dutch.

A group is the right size, I would guess, when each member can pray every day for every other member, individually and by name, interceding for his personal needs as well as for the success of a particular mission.

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.

We never had that discussion, but it would have been very interesting. What kind of people does the Qur’an produce? What kind of people does the Bible produce?

“Andrew, when they kill

me, it will not be for being silent.”

However, we are not weak. There is much we can do, starting on our knees. It’s true that I can no longer travel and see my brothers and my friends. But I can pray. Recently I have been challenging Christians to be more aggressive. For the most part I feel Christians are afraid and therefore on the defensive. God did not call us to defend ourselves or our Church or Christianity in general. He calls us to be on the offensive. From