9.  THE BEGINNING OF WISDOM

 “Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth forever.” Psalms 111:9~10

 

“High and Holy Reverend Abba Father on Thy Glorious Throne in the Highest Heaven, right now please reveal to me the great extent to which Thou are Holy, Pure, Righteous, Clean, and Upright. Please teach me Holy Reverence and utmost respect toward Thee. Please guide me to serve Thee with fear and trembling. Reveal to me the great extent to which I am unclean and undone before Thy Eyes. Please teach me that as a fallen sinful human creature, I need God’s Wisdom instilled within me. Please teach me fully how that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and that First and Foremost, I need to learn to fear my Creator God Who casts rebellious sinners into eternal Hell fire, to weep and wail and gnash their teeth forever and ever, without reprieve or remedy. Please teach me all of Thy Commandments and create within me a heart most willing and desirous to do all Thy Commandments. Amen.”

On Saturday night, 12 April 1975, I sat in the Karuizawa Language School chapel room listening to Brother Sekiguchi give his testimony to a group of lost Japanese university students. As a young man, he had entered the Japan Self Defense Force and started pilot training to become a military jet pilot. His class of pilot trainees often talked of the dangers of military flying and the possibility of dying in a plane crash. (My class of military jet pilot trainees talked together in like manner in the early 1970s.)

In Bro. Sekiguchi’s class in Japan, one particularly “brave” student pilot boasted that if such a time came for him, he would gleefully yell “Banzai” as he stared death in the face. Well now, that lost sinner’s boast, entered into the Ears of Almighty God His Creator, Who soon put the young rebel to the test.

One day when he was flying solo (alone in the trainer jet), upon touching down on the runway when landing, the landing gear (wheel) under one wing collapsed, causing that wing to drop onto the runway. And as that wing scraped along the concrete sending sparks flying, the plane flipped completely over in the direction of the scraping wing onto its top, causing fuel to start spilling out and to catch fire from the scraping sparks, soon coming to a stop, afire and upside down. The boastful student pilot could not open the clear Plexiglas canopy to escape the fire because the inverted plane’s weight was resting on that canopy.

The air base’s fire truck and emergency rescue vehicles scream out to the fiery accident site. Many of the doomed pilot’s classmates run out of their building sprinting to the death scene. Brother Sekiguchi testified to these defiant university boys of him staring thru that clear Plexiglas bubble-shaped canopy at the lost pilot who boasted against his Creator, but is now losing in that battle.

Dying in that extreme heat, that Boaster is not gleefully yelling “Banzai” as he bragged that he would do. Instead, with profound fear on his face, he is desperately screaming at the top of his voice. “Help me!” “Get me out of here!” “I don’t want to die!” But he died before the firemen could put the fire out and turn the small jet upright to rescue him from that flaming inferno.

In the language school chapel room, Brother Sekiguchi gravely told us that terribly tragic death scene put the fear of God into him, causing him to seek salvation in The Lord Jesus Christ.

“For the wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23)

Precious Young Soul, your Creator God ordained that the fear of death lead you to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ to save you. If, like that Roasted Toasted Dead Boaster in this true story, you boast of not fearing death, rest assured that you also will definitely fear death when you soon stare it in the face.

“Our Father which art in Heaven, I desire that Thy Son, Jesus Christ, be my Eternal Life and my Resurrection. I desire that my life be hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3) Please train me to be the witness I should be, warning others around me to fear God, repent, and trust in Christ to save them. Please convict and save many lost Japanese to whom Brother Richard preaches. Amen.”

“I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.” (John 14:2 & 3) “Lord Jesus, I trust in Thee to be my Saviour and to prepare a place for me in Heaven. Please come for me today, and take me Home to Heaven to forever be with Thee there in the Celestial City. Amen.”

Richard Yerby  (Matsuida, Japan)  www.Christ-is-all.us

 

 

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