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Text Sermons : Paris Reidhead : Both and Not Either Or

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Both and Not Either Or By Paris Reidhead*
Shall we bow in prayer? Our Father in Heaven, we lift our hearts to Thy, thank and praise Thee, Thou has given to us the privilege of being laborers together with Thee. Now we’re asking that hence Thy present will become more real and all else beside. We do rejoice Father, for Thou art here. Minister to it grant to us Father that it will not just be a meeting when we have met with one another about Thee, but that we heard from Thee. What thou dost do will give Thy all a praise in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Now, I want you to turn to Acts Chapter 1, and verse 8, I want you to turn because I’m going to read it and I wouldn’t be surprised if I make an error. I want to be checked up if I do, {hi brother Doogan, how are you? It’s so nice to see you.} Now, I want you to listen carefully, because there’s a possibility that there could be an error and I don’t want to have it slip through. Are you listening, you’re clued up?
“But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you. Ye shall be witnesses onto Me either in Jerusalem or in Judea or in Samaria or unto the outermost part of the earth.”
I’m wondering if you would agree that that was a correct reading. You don’t, you disagree? How strange, that’s the way the church is practicing it. Why don’t we change the Scripture to conform to our practice if we’re unwilling to change our practice to conform to the Scripture? I think it’s foolish for us to read something and do something else. It’s an either or situation with most of God’s dear children. I believe the reason is that most of us don’t understand the difference between “either or,” and “both and.” I think we think they are the same. That’s at a certain age that occurs. Younger, they know.
For instance, my little 4 year old son, or when he was 4 years old, that was a long time ago, knew the difference. I came back from a missionary conference where I’d been out ... Well, several conferences, I’d been away for about 5 weeks. Jimmy had been asking, “When is Daddy coming? When is Daddy coming?” His mother had been telling him on a certain date, but he was there to meet me. I never had such a effusive warmth from my little son, he clung to me, he was a shadow. If I went into the house, he was there, out, he was there, to the car. He just was right with me. When I got the ball that I had to take out of the car in the house, he said “Daddy, let’s go for a walk.” Just a bright idea, just occurred to him, for about a week. We started to walk, and “Which way, Jim?” We could have gone to the left which was a pleasant walk up around a little hill, and come back to the front. We were living on a hill, and we could have gone around us. Or, we could have gone to the right, or we could have gone down the front steps. He looked for a minute, and he said “Let’s go this way,” which was around the house, down the steps, to the road. Now, we could have turned right and gone up around the other way and come back, or we could go left. “Which way shall we go Jimmy?” “Let’s go left, this way, which was about half a block to Greater Road, which was a busy thoroughfare there in Chattanooga, Tennessee. There was a spotlight, we came to it, said “Do you want to go through here?” “No, let’s cross the street Daddy, but you’ve got to wait, you’ve got to wait for that light.” He was already teaching me to cross the street. I said “You tell me whether we should go.” “Now we can go.” We went across the street. We could have gone right, which was up to the grey tunnel under Missionary Ridge in there, or we could have gone left, which was further down Greater Road. It wasn’t much up toward the hill, but there were some stores down the other way. He said “Oh, let’s go this way.”
We went down there about half a block, and all of a sudden my little 4 year old said “Daddy, there’s a drug store! Can I have an ice cream cone?” I realized I’d been conned by an expert. This was a setup job if I’d ever seen one, the whole idea was to get that ice cream cone. When you’ve been conned you’d better just roll, go with the flow, you know, so I said “Sure, you can have an ice cream cone.” I went in, I told the woman behind the fountain, “Pack it, because he’s a roller. Flips them like this, you’ve got to be pretty well anchored or it’ll roll down the floor.” She’s there trying to screw that ice cream down into the cone so it’ll stay, and Jimmy’s there. No air conditioning, hot, hot day, and they put some Hershey, little Hershey kisses there in a plastic bag. He has these, and he’s coming to it, I can just see them squish because it’s warm. He said “Daddy, can I have these Hershey kisses?” Now, I know why he wanted the chocolate, he didn’t particularly like it. His brother loved it, his brother, if his brother had been here Esau it wouldn’t have been a sod pottage, it would have been a box of chocolate, he loved it. He just

wanted it, and Jimmy could trade him out of his eye teeth for that. He wanted to take that back and give some of the things that his brother had that he wanted. You’ve got to stop somewhere, don’t you? I said “Now, Jimmy, you can have either the chocolate,” which was now in my hand, or the ice cream, which was also in my hand. My little 4 year old looks at the ice cream, which he’d wanted so badly, and he looked at the chocolate, which he realized he could trade with his brother, and he looked back at the ice cream. Then he looked at the chocolate, and a big blob of ice cream hit the back of my hand. You’d better understand when you’re licked, you know? I’d bought them both regardless of what would happen, so I became magnanimous. I said “Jimmy, just this once, you can have both.” His face lighted up, his eyes bright. His little hand reached out and he took the chocolate in one hand and the ice cream in the other. That started up. He knew the difference between “either or”, or “both and.”
How sad that the Church of Christ doesn’t know the difference. We think the Lord said either in Jerusalem or unto the outermost part of the earth, and He never said that. He said, “After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and under the outermost part of the earth,” and he didn’t use the word carelessly. He intended it to be just the way He said.
Now, there’s a biblical, historical, Scriptural reason for it. I want you to turn over to Romans, the 4th chapter. You must understand why the Lord Jesus said “Both and,” not “Either or.” I think it’ll be sufficient if I begin reading with Verse 13, Romans 4, 13, and we’ll conclude with 17 and comment on the way. “For the promise that he, Abraham, should be heir of the world, was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith, for which is they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace to the end, the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, the natural generation, the natural heirs, the successes of Abraham, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all. (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before Him who we believed even God, who quickened as the dead and call us those thing which be not as though they were.”
What was the promise made to Abraham? “Indeed, and in thy seed, shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” (Acts 3:25) That promise is not just to Abraham’s literal, physical seed, the Jews, those of Israel, but we’re told here those who like Father Abraham believe God and their faith was counted them righteousness. We too therefore are “the children of Abraham through faith, and heirs of the promise,” and thus it was consistent for the Lord Jesus Christ to say, “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the outermost part of the earth,” because every one of Abraham has an heir to the promise, “indeed and in thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” We all therefore are in Christ, are expected to have a worldwide ministry for Christ. Now, that’s the Word of God, that’s not something Paris Reidhead invented. That’s something that God has made clear in His Word.
I was at Monterey Massachusetts, New England Keswick, when Robertson McQuilkin, the founder of Columbia Bible College, came to visit his sister, who was Mrs. Thomas Lambie. Tom Lambie was the great missionary doctor from Ethiopia. Tom Lambie had a cottage right near Monterey, the New England Keswick. Robertson McQuilkin was there, and the director of the New England Keswick asked that Dr. McQuilkin to speak to the Sudan Interior Mission candidates that were there for their month of in-house examination. We were there being tested as to whether or not we would be accepted as missionaries. I’ll not ever forget, as long as I have memory I’ll remember the afternoon when Dr. McQuilkin stood before us with his open Bible and unfolded to us the promise that was made to Abraham coming to us as the heirs of salvation, that every one of us were heirs of that promise and had the privilege of a worldwide ministry for Christ. He took us to that Act 1:8, and said Here are the spiritual resources with which this is to be accomplished. “After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, you shall be witnesses in all the world.” “Both, and.”
Now how does it work? What are some of the ways by which this is to be accomplished? Some of the methods that God uses to accomplish it? One of the early records of missionary ministry was an event that occurred in Scotland many, many decades, back 100, nearly going on 200 years ago, not quite. There in Scotland were some people that had an awakened missionary vision because of what God had done to the Moravians and through John Wesley and through the revivals that had taken place, there was a growing missionary interest.

In Scotland, was the church that had a missionary-minded, missionary-hearted pastor, in that church was a woman, an unmarried woman, caring for her parents, who was burdened about a country just beginning to come to the attention of the world, China. She wanted to be a missionary to China, and she prayed every day for China. Her heart was breaking for China. But of course being a woman, with her family responsibility, she couldn’t go to China. She said, “Lord, somehow use me to bless China.” That was before the Lord was her burden. One Saturday afternoon, she had gone downtown shopping to get the things that the family needed for the Lord’s Day, which was a very important day in Scottish Christian family.
She was walking down one of those cobbled paved streets, past the little narrow alley that led off into some rabbit warren type housing for the poor, and a little boy burst out of the alley, running, sobbing, crying, and bumped into her leg and fell down on the cobble, and lay there sobbing. She reached down, took a handkerchief from her pocket, wiped his face, wiped his runny nose, raised him up, looked at him and smiled, first kind word he’d heard for a long time I suppose, and she said “What’s the matter, laddie? What’s the matter?” Oh, He says “My father is drunk again, and he’s been beating me, and he’s chasing me. He hasn’t found me.” “He isn’t here, no one’s chasing you. You got away from him. What’s your name, laddie?” He says “My name is Bobby, ma’am.” She talked to him a little while, they walked down the street, they passed the church. She said, “Bobby, do you ever go to church?” “What, me? These are all the clothes I have to my name ma’am, look at me, I’ve got rags and dirt. Only the swells go into the church. Sometimes I hold the horses for the people that are there, but I wouldn’t go in there. They wouldn’t have the likes of me.” She said “Bobby, would you like to go?” “Yes, I hear the Word and I like the music, I’d like to go.” She said “I’ll get you some clothes.” So she detoured, went into a store, bought him clothes, all the way up, underwear, socks, shoes, pants, shirts, gave him the bundles. “Take it home, take a bath, put them on, and meet me right where we bumped into each other, there by the alley tomorrow, and go to church.”
For several weeks that’s what happened. Then one Sunday when she came, he wasn’t there. She looked for him, he wasn’t there the next Sunday, he wasn’t there the following Sunday. Then she spied him, and she called him and he came, said “What’s the matter, Bobby?” He said “I hid the bundle with my clothes when I get home from church, I take them off and I wrap them up and I put them under my bed. But my father was looking for something to pawn so he could get a drink, and he saw the little bundle, and he took it down to the pawn shop and sold it for enough to get drunk again, and I was ashamed to tell you.” She said “Bobby, that’s all right. Come, we’ll go to the store.” She took him back, but she said, “This time we’ll do it differently. This time I’ll keep them at my house, and you come to my house and you can take a bath and put the clothes on, and then we’ll go to church.”
For months and months and years, Bobby would come. He would use their home, put on the clothes, go to church. She often go to school. She tutored him so he could go to school. He went on and on and one day he came to her and said, “You know, I’ve asked Jesus to come into my heart, and he has.” That’s what she’d been praying for. Later on he said, “I feel the Lord Jesus wants me to serve Him, but I’ll have to be trained.” She said “I’ll help you, Bobby.” And so she helped him get the preparation so he could go and get training. Stayed with him, helped him all through the year.
Well, the scene changed. Many, many years later, this dear woman has gone to be with the Lord, it’s out in China, late at night, a bare table, a candlestick, and a large pile of paper. Kneeling on the floor with his hands against the sides of the table, there’s a man whose face is lined, his hair is prematurely grey, and he’s got his hands on that paper. He’s dedicating it to the Lord. Who is it? It’s Robert Morris, first missionary to China, the first translation of the Bible, or part of it, into the Chinese language. Who’s Robert Morris? He’s the wee Bobby of Edinburgh.
We shall be witnesses both in Edinburgh, and in the outermost parts of the earth. She understood, she realized that she was an heir to the promise made to Abraham, and thee and thy seed. All nations of the earth be blessed. You want to be a witness for Christ where you are, you can’t buy escape from the responsibility to witness because you give to mission. It’s not a license to disobey, indulgence that permits you to lose concern with the people that live next door to you because you give to somebody in some distant land. We’ve heard said, “The light that shines farthest must shines brightest nearest home1” and He’s got a
1 C.T. Studd

heart for the outermost part of the world, must have the burden to the people that He knows and sees. It’s a lot easier to give money to someone whose face you’ve never seen than it is to talk to someone whose lawnmower goes where yours go right side by side.
The Lord Jesus has said, “You’re to be witnesses both in your Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and other outermost parts of the earth.” Well, we understand how we’re to be witnesses here. We know what we’re to do for the lost neighbors, you know that there are certain things that you must do if people are to come to Christ. You’ve got to live before them as a sample of God’s grace, we saw that Sunday night. You must intercede for them, legally represent them before the throne of God because God gave man the power to choose to go to hell, and He doesn’t take that power away from them until either the sinner or the sinner’s legal representative asks them to. We have been made to be kings and priests under God, He didn’t ask us if we wanted to be. He said, “Unto Him that loved us and washed us in His blood, and made us to be kings and priests,” made us and then consequently for those people next to us we must not only live Christ before them, realizing that to some were the very best Christian they’ve ever seen or will ever know. (Rev. 1:5b,6a) We not only must do that, we must also intercede for them, and to intercede is to legally represent the sinner in this fashion, “Oh God, this man, this woman, these people, these children, are no worse than I. They don’t deserve hell any more than I did, they are just as bad as I was and I worse than them. Father, you were merciful to me, I ask you in Jesus’ name to be merciful to them, who can awaken them to their need and convict them of their sin.” That’s the responsibility we have as being their kinsmen and having been made priests, to go into the presence of God on behalf of the sinner and plead with God as though we were the sinner, to pray for the sinner must pray for himself, but it is behalf. Impresses sin, acknowledges guilt, and plead for mercy, this we must do.
The third thing we do for the loss is to witness to them. We’re not only to be intercessors on behalf of sinners, but we’re to go from the presence of God into the presence of the sinner and plead with the sinner as though we were with God to be plead with them to be reconciled to God. Now, that’s our task, that’s what He meant when He said “You shall be witnesses unto me,” live Christ for them, intercede for them, and then plead with them to be reconciled to Christ.
What’s a witness? A witness is someone who tells what he’s seen and heard and experienced. Have you seen the holiness of God? Have you seen the sinfulness of your own heart? Have you been convicted of the lostness that if God didn’t have a Hell and you were to die, He’d have to make one because if you went to Heaven as you were you’d ruin it for everybody else? You were lost. Have you ever seen your lostness? I asked a company of people, about 100 people, I said, “How many of you have ever been lost?” 4 hands went up. I said, “How many are saved?” Every hand went up. I said, “This is a miracle, I don’t understand it.” The Scripture says, “He came seeking to save that which was lost,” only 4 of you have been lost, all of you claim to be saved. (Luke 19:10) Either He’s wrong or you’re wrong, I don’t know which. He only saves lost people. The biggest task we have in our witness is to let people know how lost they are. The only way we can do that is to let them discover how lost we were, you can witness and tell them what you saw, found out about yourself. The witness can not only tell what he’s seen but also what he’s heard. Have you heard God speak an invitation to your heart, “Come unto Me and rest, all ye that labor in heavy laden?” (Matt. 11:28) Have you come, have you received Jesus Christ as your lord and savior, have you found rest for your soul? Well, then you’ve heard something.
So that’s a witness’ privilege, to tell what he’s seen, tell what he’s heard, tell what he’s experienced. Have you experienced the witness of the spirit? Has God’s spirit bore witness with your spirit, or by you can cry Abba Father? That you can witness to. You’re the world’s greatest expert on you; nobody in the world knows anything about you. Nobody can say you know, if you say “This is what I heard, this is what I saw, this is what I experienced,” there isn’t a philosopher anywhere in the world that can argue with you because you’re the world’s greatest expert about you. The Lord Jesus didn’t say you were to be philosophers for Me and metaphysicians for Me, and great arguers for me and debaters for Me. He said you’ll be witnesses onto Me, you’ll tell them what you’ve seen and you’ve heard and you’ve experienced, and that’s the whole of it. When you go beyond that, it’s hearsay that’s inadmissible. Don’t worry about having words to say, if you know yourself and you know what you’ve seen and heard and experienced, that’s all God wants you to say. He’ll do the work from there on. “You shall we witnesses unto Me, both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the outermost part of the earth.”

How are you going to do it? We’ve got this thing on Jerusalem fixed up, haven’t we? We understand what we’re to do here. What about Judea and Samaria and the outermost parts of the earth? How are we going to handle that? God’s got a plan, God’s got a plan. Of course, you can go there by prayer, instantaneous travel to any part of the globe, any place in the universe, instantaneously by prayer, by the gifts of the spirit, the word of knowledge. If God pleases and you concern, you can know what’s going on around the world. Have you ever tuned in on somebody around the world and asked God to show you what’s happening to them? That woman that you were talking about woke up, she saw something, she felt something, she knew something. God was communicating from way down there in South America to a woman somewhere, telling her “Pray for your friend.” We’ve got instantaneous communication around the globe; most of us have never learned to use it. We should, we should learn to use it. We’re not just praying about things, we’re praying for participants, and we’re laboring together in prayer. That’s a good way to do it.
Then there’s something else, “Ye shall be witnesses unto me,” we come to another matter, of money. I’m going to talk about it for a minute, because I used to have some very negative ideas about money. My, when I think about some of the things I said to churches when I was a young preacher I’m ashamed of myself. I had packed in more nonsense about money, because I’d been through ... You know what I’d been taught? Nobody said it, but it was that was what we had. To be wealthy is carnal, to be poor is spiritual. I grew up in that atmosphere, I grew up in Minnesota so most of the year I was the only one. The other thing was to be successful was carnal. To be a failure was spiritual. If you could be poor and a failure, you were going to be one of the most spiritual people in the community. But, if you were wealthy and successful then you really had problems, because money was very dangerous. It was dangerous to me, I didn’t have any. I was hoping I’d get a little of the danger they talked about, but back in the depression when I was going to Bible school, a dime was the biggest piece of money I’d see from one week to the next.
Now, I learned some things along the way, God is great, I’m still learning, I’m still learning. I’m a student, I’m a disciple, and a disciple is a learner. You never outgrow your learning process, and God’s teaching me every day.
Now, what about money? What is money? Well, it’s a filthy lucre, no, it isn’t. It can be, but that’s not what it is. What is money? Let me put it this way. Everybody works for somebody, I don’t care whether you run your own business or you’re employed. You work for somebody, everybody works for somebody. At the end of a certain period, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, however you get what you’ve worked for; it’s put in your hand. What is it? Well, it’s money.
What’s money? Money is education. Money is time, money is talent. Money is energy. You trade a certain amount of time and a certain amount of talent and a certain amount of training and a certain amount of energy and somebody puts in your hand what they think your time, your talent, your training and your energy is worth. What’s money? Money is fluid life. Money is crystallized training. Money is liquid time. Money is what you are. You’ve traded it, this equals that. This equals 1 week, 2 weeks, 1 month of that, and what’s this? This is money, and what’s that? That’s your training, your talent, your time, your energy. You’ve traded it for this, and now it has become liquid life, fluid life.
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the work of God flows around the world on fluid life. We’ve got to take a whole new view of money. It represents time, I said, here are missionaries from Mexico, my dear friends, and here are missionaries frolicking around the world. Here’s somebody that’s going for the first time to some distant drive, there to sit down with them, learn their language and give them the Bible. They stand before you, and they say, “I’m going and I need your support, I can’t go unless you’ve helped me, unless you pray for me, unless you support me and give, because I will have needs, I must have money.”
Now, let’s make a hypothesis, I want to illustrate. Let’s suppose that you work for one dollar an hour. That’s pretty good, because when I worked—the last time I got paid by the hour—was when I was a student in college and I got up to 37 cents an hour and I was one of the highest paid guys where I was in that factory. I started in at $0.19, went up to $0.24. That was an awful long time ago? I don’t think so. It went awful fast. I just know. But I know there are some folks that get a $1.00 an hour, it’s illegal if they’re still paying you that. You’ve got to get 3 dollars and 35 cents an hour, or 65 or whatever it is, or else they’re going to be in the pokey. The fact is, let’s use a dollar an hour, shall we? So what happens? You go to this missionary and you

say, “I’m going to support you, and every week I’m going to give a dollar. I’ll give 4 dollars a month for your support.” She goes, she lives there, she witnesses, and you’re here. You get paid 40 dollars a week and you give 1 dollar to send her.
Now, what’s happening? What then? 1 hour a week, boy, that’s not very much. There’s 168 hours in a week, and that means that’s 4 times, but we’ll drop the 8 hours because that’s goof off time, we won’t even count that. Let’s just say 160 hours, so that’s 4. You work 1 hour and you live 3 hours so that you can work 1. Therefore, what you’re really doing is giving 4 hours of a week to keep that missionary there, 1 hour of your working life, all right? Now, over next to you is somebody that makes a munificent amount of money, $10 dollars an hour. They say to their missionary, “I’m going to give you a dollar a week.” Now, both of them gave the same dollar, the same amount of food, same amount of whatever the missionary needed. What about the person that’s here? 1 hour, but in 40 hours they make 400 dollars. The other one made 40 dollars, and they each gave the same dollar. How much is a dollar when it’s an hour? 10 dollars an hour, that bought how much? 6 minutes times 4 is 24 minutes. The one person is getting 4 hours of witness time on the field; the other is getting 24 minutes. You see, “To whom much is given from them much is required.” (Luke 12:48) As you are prospered, as you are enabled, means that you’re giving time. Obviously, you can do as much with one dollar as you can with the other, but it doesn’t do as much for the donor. The donor has to give a lot more, has to give 10 dollars to equal that 1 dollar the other one gave.
Now, you say “I don’t understand that. I don’t know where you get the Scripture for that. It’s a lot of your own personal nonsense.” Maybe, maybe it is, but I’m not stupid enough to come here unless I’ve got something figured out to answer that question. So I want you to go to Luke Chapter 16, and Verse 9. Luke 16 and Verse 9, and I want you to hold onto your hat. “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when you fail,” finish, die, go to be with the Lord, “they may receive you into everlasting habitations.” Who are they? The friends you’ve made with money.
So, you die, and you’re there in Heaven. Somebody comes to meet you and says “Brother or sister, I have come here, the Lord told me He was bringing you home and I was to be here to meet you and receive you, and I want to thank you for leading me to Christ.” You say “Look, I recognize a lot of family, a lot of friends. I recognize everybody I knew that’s here, that I’ve seen so far, but I don’t think I ever saw you all through my life. How in the world did I ever lead you to Christ?” “That’s true you never saw me.” “I was where Mary-Anne went down there in the interior of Brazil, and she came and she lived among us and she learned our language and she gave us the Scripture and she talked to us and God broke my heart and brought me to Christ, I was born again. But you see, she couldn’t have come without you, and God, who kept the books, on that great computer in the sky, He just put me down to your account, as one of the friends that you’ve made, and I want to receive you and thank you for leading me to Christ.” You say, “I don’t think that’s what that Scripture means.” Well, here’s the difference, I’m here and you’re there, and I think it does, and you’ve got to prove I’m wrong. Until you prove I’m wrong I’m going to say that’s what it means, that’s what it means. “Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, so when you fail, they will receive you in everlasting habitations.”
I close with this. My wife and I were in Sudan, on the Ethiopian border, and we came to the Gilo river. We were there. I had met a boy over at the Dorre Medical Compound who wanted a ride back to the Yabus. I came in, and he came up, the director said, “Will you take this man and his wife maybe back to the Yabus in your truck?” I said, “I will.” He came up and he said “This is Sodia” and I did something to show them...most of the tribes in the area didn’t shake hands, they snapped fingers, that was how the greeting was. He held his fingers out for me to snap them, and I reached over and I took his hand, as he had seen us do with the English and with others. I held it, and I prayed for him. I said, “Oh God, bless this boy and his wife and his family,” while holding his hand. Something happened.
Later on, when another missionary came, he said, “My heart was bound to that man, because he shook my hand.” I didn’t realize that just that, doing it my way not His, would make such an impression on him. We got back to the Yabus and I told Salia that I wanted him to help me translate the Bible. I had to get a sample of his language and he was to be my informant. He would come day after day. They walked 6 miles to get there by 6 in the morning. He would stay there till just time enough to get home before dark. He would sit there and I’d go over it again, and I’d show John 3:16. Third day came, we got up, they were quiet, nobody disturbed...when we awakened. There were 2 women, with 2 babies. My wife said, “Honey, it’s going to be a hard day.” We looked out to these little bodies were totally covered with what we knew to be syphilitic sores, plus yaws. You

couldn’t have put a silver dollar anywhere on the baby’s body; it wouldn’t have hit a sore. We didn’t have any of the medicine needed, we weren’t trained in medicine. All we had was a tube of Unguentine and some cotton, tweezers.
My wife went out and she cleaned the sores, put on the Unguentine. It was all we could do and just let them know we loved them and pray. I’m sitting there with Solia as she’s there too, tears streaming down her cheeks trying to help these women. I’m getting it through God onto me, so love the world, trying to get this into me ... Oh, it was poorly done, poorly done. I was looking for a word love; I’d got most of the word love. And then, Solia used a word about one of the babies had come had died, and he used a word that says, as a mother cried for her baby when it died. That was the only word I could use “for God so loved the world,” God so cries for the world as a mother cried for her baby dies, “that He gave His only begotten Son.” (John 3:16) Solia heard that and with eyes wide, “Our God loves us.” He said “I want to talk to him right now.” We bowed, the first time God to my knowledge, God has heard anyone in that language. He uttered the name of Christ and asked God to forgive and pardon, give them eternal life on that day in that little rest stop.
Well, I went back and said “God you’ve got to send somebody here to live.” Two things were happening. When we were praying, God sends somebody here, because I couldn’t stay. Back at Wheaton College was a young fellow by the name of Charles Deuce who was an expert commercial artist, even though he was a student. He wrote a letter to his pastor, that same week, and he said, “Pastor, you know I’ve had this job opportunity to go with this good job and that commercial act firm, but I’ve just heard that there are some tribes in the eastern part of Sudan that need someone to live with them and witness to them, my wife and I have agreed we’re going to go to Sudan.” I found out from the pastor, who heard me tell what I’m telling you, and he came and we checked the week, and it was the same week that he got the letter.
Back in Minnesota, was a woman who had been moved of the Lord. She wrote to the mission and she said just about 2 weeks before my letter came, asking for $2,500 dollars to build a house for 2 missionary families. Build a small little temporary ... Not temporary, but small house; it’s not a full station. We could do that. I got a letter back quicker than I’d ever expected one from New York, and it said, “We’re transmitting a gift of $2,500 dollars for the houses at the Yabus for Mrs. Cordican,” just a name. When I got back I wanted to find out about Mrs. Cordican. I didn’t see her, but I talked to the mission, talked to Hal Street about her. Hal told me how when he was down at Spirit Lake, with the Mission SIM missionary conference, this woman, from nearby Spirit Lake, Iowa had come in and she was there. He didn’t know much about her, only this, is he talked to her one day, and found out that she and her husband had had a fine farm, an Iowa farm, 160 acre farm all corn land. They had made a lot of money, they’d raised corn and hogs and sold them, and they got an excellent price for the farm. They bought a little house in town, and they were going to take these ... Oh, there was a Methodist church and they met once in a while.
They went to their banker, or they said “What do we do with our money?” “I advise you to put it into ...” He named the bonds that they said they should put it in. They lived there for a year or so on the income from this investment. And then one day, when they got up, they heard on the radio that the Samuel Insull stocks and bonds were valueless. Everything they’d labored for and saved for and worked for, was gone.
Well, over 100,000 dollars, evaporated, gone. They had about $1,500 dollars in their checking account. House was free and clear, nothing else. Mr. Cortican went to bed that day, 6 weeks later they had his funeral. Never got out of bed, just died, willed himself to die. Mrs. Cortican couldn’t do that, she had to take care of him. She opened her home, she got 3 teachers from the school to come in to take the 3 bedrooms. She put a curtain up and slept in one of the rooms in the first floor. She cooked for the teachers, and now she had come to an SIM conference at Spirit Lake. She wanted a vacation and she could afford that. She went over. At the end of the week, Mrs. Cortican came to Hal Street. She said, “Hal, Mr Street, God has spoken to me, that I am to sell my house and build a mission station in Nigeria to give the Gospel to 500,000 people like you told us.” He said, “You can’t do that Mrs. Cortican, you’re a widow, that’s all you have.” She said, “Mr. Street, will you let God mind his business and you mind yours? I’m not saying you told me, I’m saying God told me, and I’ll do what God tells me. All my life I’ve lived and I’ve not done what God told me, and I’m going to do what God tells me from now on. My husband told me what to do and he’s gone, but I’m not going to let you tell me what to do. I’ll let God tell me what to do, and if God tells me to send you a check for a mission station you build that station for me. I’ve got to have fruit out of Africa, laid at Jesus’ feet.” So Hal got a check for $5,000 dollars, which in those days would build a station. That’s all he knew about it.

She wrote the same letter and sent the check, she said, “Praise the Lord, isn’t it just like the Lord? I’ve been given the privilege of being a missionary, I’m going to go to Oak Hill Fellowship up the Bamidji, MN and they’re asking me to come to be their laundress. So I don’t need the house anymore.”
Two years later, she was back at Spirit Lake, and she went to Hal Street. She said, “You know, I’ve got $2,500 dollars I’ve saved. God’s told me I’ve got to give it. There’s going to be a need for a station somewhere else, not in Nigeria, but either in Ethiopia or Sudan. I want that money to go there.” That’s where we got the money.
Well, I told this, and when I finished a man, a tall very fine looking man, obviously a professor of some sort, came, stood there and tears streaming down his cheek. He said, “You’ve got part of the story about Mrs. Cordican, but I want you to know the rest of it. I worked for many years in the Bible school and on the staff at Oak Hills Fellowship, and I want to tell you about her. She was a laundress all right; she was the greatest laundress the world’s ever seen. She collected clothes from people all over, all over friend center clothes, she washed them and sorted them, size for boys, for girls, for different ages. She collected bedding and towels, everything a house would need.” And whenever there would be a need for one of the Jack Pine savages, these were people who lived there, collected blueberries, killed deer, raised a little something, as poor as could be, they’d get a call come in, So and so’s gone to the city to get work, and his wife’s sick and the kids are sick, can you help? We’d call Mrs. Cortican, and she’d go, she had some boxes there and she found out the ages of the children. She put in 2 plain changes of clothes, and then she’d take her mops, and her dust cloth, and her soap, and her pails, and then she had some big insulated containers that she put in soup and stew and boxes of bread and food. We’d take her out. She’d bathe the sick woman, bathe the children, give them clean bedding, give them a hot meal, scrub the house. Then she’d sit down with her elder and say, I’m not a missionary, I’m just a laundress. I want to tell you about Jesus and what he’s done for me.
This professor said, Mrs. Cordican has led more people in our area to Christ than all the rest of us, put together. She lived all of her career, all of her life for herself, had nothing to show for it, and then she took God seriously, “we shall be witnesses both,” and one day, when we see her, in His presence, she’ll have so many. From Minnesota, from Nigeria, from the Sudan, they’ll be there to receive her. She was a witness where she was, by the means that God put in her, here she is now. “After that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be witnesses onto Me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and unto the outermost parts of the earth.” Everyone in Christ is the heir to the promise made to Abraham, has the privilege of a worldwide ministry for Christ. What will you do with it?
Now we bow in prayer. Our heads bowed and our eyes closed, I want you just in a moment of silence, talk to the Lord Jesus, ask him just one question. “Lord Jesus, if I were to meet you in the morning, could I hear you say you have done what you could? “Could I hear you say it Lord? Have I been a witness to you in my Jerusalem, Judea, my Samaria, the outermost parts of the Earth? Have you gotten out of my life the full reward for your suffering? Is there more that I could have brought if I had loved You as much as I wanted to try to convince You I loved You when I sang, “O, how I love Jesus”2 Jesus, what do You want me to do? How do You want to use my life differently, what must I repent on, what must I ask forgiveness for? What must I commit to Thee? How can I honor Thee and glorify Thee in the way, in the manner that Thou deserves? This is the prayer of our hearts, our Father, tonight, as we’re bowed before Thee. We’re asking that somehow Thou by Thy spirit will move upon us, and that Thou will be willing to be able to get through all the complacency we might have, satisfaction about what we’ve done and give us that judgement day perception, so that we’ll know in our heart of hearts whether it is true that you could say you’ve done what you could.
Lord, we don’t want anyone to imitate Mrs. Cordican, we don’t want anybody to imitate anybody else. We just want each of us to treasure this marvelous gift of life and the high and the holy privilege of being witnesses for Christ, and that I ask Thee by Thy spirit so to empower us, so to equip us that these blood ransomed lives will indeed bring to the lamb that was slain the full
2 “O, how I love Jesus” Words by Frederick Whitfield, 1855.

reward of His suffering, that everything that He deserves out of us He will receive. So to that end Father, we’re asking that you will bless us.
While our heads are bowed, eyes are closed, we’re waiting before the Lord right where you are, if you would like to pray, please pray aloud, express your concern, your burden, the desire of your heart in respect to this unfinished task and the message you’ve heard. We open it now, so right from where you are, stand if you wish, your voices flow so that others can hear, and let’s just turn this for a few minutes into a time when you voice your desire, your burden to the Lord. There’s nobody here, just us and the Lord, just take your liberty now. To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 1:25)
* Reference such as: Delivered by Paris W. Reidhead, Pastor. ©PRBTMI 1955-1965






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