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