and it cost four hundred dollars for boat fare. Where did the money come from? Simple again was the reply: “ Tuan is rich, has lots of money,” they said. We had humble enough furnishings in our jungle home, yet, to the Dyaks, our table and four chairs, our set of dishes, our cutlery, etc., was wealth that they had never seen before. Thus the reply was, “ Tuan is rich!” They be lieved I was and the argument I ex pected to use was not as valuable as I thought it would be. What I was lead ing to and wanted to tell them was that Christian men and women in America, through sacrificial giving, provided our outfit and paid our fare so we could go to Borneo. I held my large Bible high and said, “ Everything I have taught you has been from this Book. From it you have learned about creation, about the origin of sin, the serpent that beguiled Eve; but, best of all, you have learned of God’s love, redemption and salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, and you have be lieved it. Is this Book true?” With one voice they answered, “ It is true!” Hold ing the Bible still higher, I asked. “ Al though you cannot read this Book, has it ever told a lie?” “Never a lie, Tuan, only the truth,” they responded. I said, “ Now I will teach you something new,” and, turning to the third chapter of Malachi, I taught them the rudiments of tithing. As their alert faces looked at me, I continued and finally, to make it very plain, I said, “ Tithing really means this: if you have ten chickens, one belongs to the Lord; if ten eggs, one belongs to the Lord; if ten measures of rice (precious rice to them), one measure belongs to the Lord. And yet,” I continued, “upon the authority of the Word of God, I can tell you God says He will bless, will open the windows of Heaven, will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, that He will not destroy the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit be fore the time in the field.” I could say no more. Most of them wore only a loin cloth made of the bark of a tree. Many of the women’s skirts were made from the same material. Finally, they began to talk, some very deliberately, others with haste. Their dialect was a different one and I had difficulty in catching many words. After a half hour they were quiet and sat waiting for me to say the next word. I asked, half doubting, what they thought about the message from God’s Word and the plan He set forth. Very simply they said, “ Tuan, we have decided to accept this plan. God has done so much for us; we have been wondering how we could show a little gratitude to God for giving His Son to die for us. This is a way.” The speaker continued, “ Tuan, we have chosen three men whom we know to be honorable. They will accept our gifts and once each moon, if it will be all right with you, they will bring them to your home.” Just as simply as that was it all accomplished in their half hour of dis cussion. Would it be all right with me? T H E K I N G ’ S B U S I N E S S
try to inspire or create faith in the hearts of these workers, for “ Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10: 17). They heard it, but there was no response, no wil lingness to obey God’s command. So faith was not gendered in their hearts. They were cold toward the subject and finally said, “ Tuan, we know it is im possible; we can’t teach the people to tithe, they are too poor. But if you be lieve in it so much, why don’t you teach it yourself?” I made one final statement saying, “ God has-promised in His Word to bless if people tithe; the Dyaks do not know about tithing or the promised blessing; they do not know how to read or write. They can only learn about tithing from us. If we do not teach them to tithe, we will withhold the blessing God wants to give, and God will hold us responsible!” The argument did not work, and I was reminded again by my workers, “ If you believe in it so much, why don’t you teach it yourself, Tuan?" I believed in tithing. I had tithed since I was eight years old, for my dear father and mother had taught it to me, and they practiced it. The tithe was the Lord’s. No matter how poor we were, it was not touched! I believed David when he said, “ I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread” (Psa. 37:25). My father never begged, and we never went hungry one meal in our lives. I believed in tithing, but here was the test: “ Do it yourself!” I began to visit the Christian Dyaks, going from village to village. I had at least two “doubting Thomases” (work ers) with me to begin each service. Be cause of this, I must confess that I started out with fear and trembling, re membering some words of the workers, “ We can’t take away food from these hungry people.” In the first place, I asked the Dyaks if they knew how I got to Borneo. The answer was simple, of course: “ By boat.” America is a long distance away
Scriptures is because I believe God wants and intends us to help the Chris tian Dyaks to become self-supporting. I want you to teach the Dyaks to give to the Lord.” The answer on the part of these workers was, to say the least, disap pointing. With one voice they responded: “ It is impossible to teach the Dyaks to give; they are too poor.” They were very poor, that was true; they could put all their earthly belongings in one five-gallon tin can. Rubber was only one and a half cents per kati (one and one- third pound) at the time. Everyone was looking for work and one could hire all the coolies he wanted for four cents per day, if food was furnished, or eight cents per day if they furnished their own food. The argument “too poor” was not from the Scripture, how ever. God had said, “ Bring ye all the tithes,” or one-tenth of what you have. We could only ask one-tenth, but the workers reasoned, “ Tuan, the Dyaks now go hungry four to six months out of the year; dare we ask them to give and make them hungrier than they are?” This was sound logic and the word “ im possible” was used frequently. But logic is not faith, and faith cries, “ It can be done!” I was frustrated—my own native workers did not believe the mes sage given from the Word. They had not been taught it before. As far as they were concerned there was only one way—the old way—to continue to re ceive the monthly money from head quarters; headquarters received it from America; America was rich—why wor ry? I pled; I showed other Scriptures to them and explained that Philippians 4:19 was not for everyone, but only for those who take care of God’s vineyard. Paul could say “ God shall supply all your need” to the Philippians because the Philippians remembered Paul’s need and that of the Church. The same promise would not be applicable to the Corinthians at that time. I finally realized it was of no use to
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