KESWICK IN JAPAN

In just a few days I will have the honor and privilege of returning to Japan to speak in a series of Keswick Christian Life Conventions. To say that this is a blessing to my heart would be an understatement. Last year, 2011, Japan celebrated the 50th anniversary of Keswick Christian Life Convention. From one who has seen the Japan Keswick Conventions up close and personal I can assure you that our Christian brothers and sisters in Japan take the series of Keswick Conventions in February very seriously. The conventions in Japan are modeled after the "Mother Keswick" in England. That great Christian Life Convention in England was founded in 1875 by a group of pastors and laymen who had a hunger and a thirst to know fullness of life in Jesus Christ.

Japan Keswick leaders have guarded their Keswick Conventions carefully to protect the integrity of the message of the convention. You see, Keswick Conventions have an aim...a specific purpose. That purpose is that all in attendance will be drawn into a deeper, more personal and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ through the preaching of God's word.

I have known of the Japan Keswick Conventions for many years. My association with the late Dr. Stephen F. Olford, who was a frequent speaker at Japan Keswicks, brought me into direct contact with this ministry as well as other Keswick Conventions and Christian Life Conventions around the world. I spoke for the first time at a Japan Keswick in 2008. In two of the conventions in which I spoke I was teamed with Jonathan Lamb, who at the time was chairman of the Keswick Convention in England. (It was a great blessing to my life to have that time with Jonathan. He is wonderful man of God.) I was also teamed with Dr. Ted Rendall of Olford Ministries International. Brother Ted and his wife, Hester, are always a blessing to my llfe.

In 2008 God put Japan in my heart. My ministry there is a ministry of genuine love for the people. I have found in Japan some of the most earnest Christians I have ever known. My life is deeply, deeply enriched each time I go to minister there. You will read in a moment that I am scheduled to preach in Sendai. Would you please pray especially for my days there as I minister message of Christ against the back drop of the tragedy of March 11, 2011, when that region was devasted by the tusnami and earthquake.

This year I will speak in Sendai, Osaka, Kobe, Hakone and Tokyo. I would appreciate your prayers for God's anointing upon the Keswick Conventions and my fellow speakers.

I will report on the conventions when I return. Thank you for your prayers.

BR

Possessing Our Spiritual Possessions

In 1969, I was a senior in high school.  I had been a Christian for one year and was at the time sensing God's call to vocational ministry...to be a preacher.  It was during those early days in my Christian life that I saw first hand the divine providence of God.  It was in those early days that I learned the value of investing my life into the lives of others.  It was by the providence of God that I was invited to a meeting in the home of a man and woman, husband and wife, who had come to know the meaning of the Christian life.  It was as a result of a "crisis" in the lady's life that she had a life changing encounter with Christ and at that time committed to God to share the secrets of the victorious Christian life with others for as long as she would live.  This she did.  This wonderful couple held a meeting in their home on the second Monday night of each month.  I remember it as the "Second Monday Night" meeting.  It was by providence and, in many ways, a miracle that I was an invited guest to these meetings.  You see, I was just a country boy with very few connections with people in town.  The host and hostess of the "Second Monday Night" meeting were people of position and influence.  But, God in his goodness arranged for me to be a part of this informal and unofficial discipling process.  (We did not call it mentoring or discipling back then...it was just sharing with others what Christ had done for you.)

The "Second Monday Night" meetings began in a large den and about 12 to 20 people were present.  Our hostess sat in a chair near a reel to reel tape player.  The machine was loaded with a tape and ready to play.  The hostess and her husband had, in their personal pilgrimage with Christ, come to know many of the Keswick Christian Life Convention preachers and other men who preached the great truths of fullness of life in Christ.  In these meetings I heard men like Stephen Olford, who became a life long friend and mentor, Stuart Briscoe, Alan Redpath, G. Allen Fleece and others.   Our hostess would introduce the speaker and the topic and for an hour or more all of the "students" would sit with an open Bible, an open notebook and open heart listening to an exposition of God's word. At the conclusion of the sermon our hostess would teach us how to understand and to apply what we had heard.  We would then take a break and have a piece of cake and some coffee or a soda and then return to the den to repeat the process again...yes, two hours of preacing and as much time as needed for application.  It was in the months that I attended the "Second Monday Night" meeting that I was introduced to the Keswick Christian Life Convention in England.  The mission and message of Keswick became a primary influence in shaping my theology and my understanding of New Testament Christianity.

For over 25 years a Keswick Convention was held for one week every March in Birmingham, Alabama.  I was blessed to be involved in that convention for many years.  For a time I served on the Board and also served as Chairman of the Board.  Since that time I have attended the English Keswick twice.  It has been my dream to one day preach in the the historic English Keswick...mainly because I have wanted to personally thank the dear folk of Keswick for the impact the ministry has had on my life.  I have preached at Keswick Conventions in the states, Trinidad &Tobago, and Japan.  The Keswick Conventions in Japan still follow the traditional English Keswick pattern and the committees there are quite serious about maintaining the integrity of the Keswick Message in Japan.  It will be my privilege to preach at five Japan conventions in February.

My love for Keswick is not difficult to understand.  It was because of the Keswick Convention that I was introduced to people who discovered their possessions in Christ and then made it their life mission to tell others how to enter into all of their spiritual possessions.  Jesus came that we might have abundant life. (John 10:10)  This life is available to every born again Christian...but it is not experienced by every Christian.  Have you entered into fullness of life in Christ? 

May God bless you as you learn of your Riches in Christ.

RDW



HAPPY NEW YEAR...2012

We are on the threshold of a new year.  In just a few hours we will cross the threshold into 2012.  These are moments of reflection and contemplation.  Most of us find it difficult to believe that 2011 is gone and is now in the anals of history.  It is only when we sit quietly and reflectively that we are aware of all that the last year held.  As a pastor I reflect upon on the events in my own life and the events in the lives of the people I shepherd.  There have been times of laughing and times of weeping.  There have been mountain tops and there have been valleys.  Even now I think of many of those with whom I rejoiced and the many with whom I wept. 

These moments of contemplation remind  me that God is God and we are not...and that God is absolutley sovereign and we are not.  We have experienced again and again the truthfulness of His word in such passages as Romans 8:28, And we know that all things work together  for good to thosw who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.  God is in control, and even if our lives, our nation and our world seem to be coming apart at the seams God is still God and He is still on the Throne.  For this great truth I am exceedingly thankful.

Today I was reading the biography of George Muller by F.G. Warne.  The first chapter opens with a quote by Bishop Taylor.  In  beautiful, picturesque lanuage Bishop Tayor  describes the power of our sovereign God.  So have I seen the sun with a little ray of distant light challenge all the powers of darkness, and without violence and noise, climbing up the hill, hath made night so to retire that its memory was lost in the joy and springliness of the morning.  Here we have it, the power of God to dispel the darkness with one little ray of light. 

Each year I select a verse for the year.  A few years back I chose Jeremiah 29:11, For I know the thoughts I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.  This was just the verse for that bygone year.  I held onto it throughout the year and received comfort, encouragement and hope its promise.

This year I have returned to Jeremiah 29 for my verse.  This year the longing of my heart is that I might know a deeper longing for God.  This, my 61st year of life, is a year that I want to know the Lord more intimately, personally and powerfully than ever before.  This year I am captured by Jeremiah 29:13, And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.  I pray that this will be an "All of my heart" year for Jesus. 

As I wish you a Happy New year I am praying that 2012 will be a Jeremiah 29:13 year for you.

Happy New Year,
Roger Willmore
Jeremiah 29:13