Classic Friday: E. Burns Interview (April 29, 2015)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, �But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn�t for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we�re called by the Divine Trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here�s our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth.

Thinking Biblically About Everything

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry. My name is Mike Abendroth, and we have a little slogan around here, and that is always biblical, always provocative, always in that order. I�m really after your mind.

I want you to think properly. I want you to think biblically, and whether you read the newspaper, or you look at the weather, look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, I want you to think things from a scriptural.

Perspective.

That�s what I�m after, and I want you to consider the one who never compromised. While I don�t want to compromise, while I try to call people out who do compromise, the Lord Jesus, imagine, he never once compromised in any way, shape, or form, so we�d like to point you ultimately to him.

On Wednesdays, we have interviews with different pastors, theologians, authors, missionaries, and I want you to try to get to know them and their ministry so that you�re encouraged that the Lord�s kingdom is expanding, Jesus is building his church, and nothing will stop.

It.

Also, so you can pray for some of these men who are on the show as God has given them ministry and they are required to be faithful. So today, we have Evan Burns on, welcome Evan to No Compromise Radio Ministry.

I�m really glad to be here, I�m a big fan of your ministry.

How Evan Burns Came to No Compromise Radio

Well, Evan, tell our listeners how we met and how that all happened, because it�s not a strange providence, it�s not a bad providence, I�m trying to think of William Cooper�s term, but it�s a good one, so tell our listeners how we met.

Well, I initially was introduced to No Compromise Radio through Wretched Radio, I got to know Todd with that ministry, and he promoted you guys, I started listening, and then at Southern Seminary, and after about two weeks of rooming with him, he said, �Hey, by the last week and a half, and I think I�m going to propose to my church that we support you as a missionary, and then one thing led to another, and.

Missions and Spirituality in Thailand

Well, Evan, tell us about your ministry that the Lord has given you in Thailand, I believe you�re on the faculty of Asia Biblical Theological Seminary. What do you do there, how long have you been there, what are some challenges in Thailand?

Yeah, we have been there for a couple years, we used to be in China for a number of years before that, and Turkey before that. And in Thailand, at the seminary, my main position is to teach missions and spirituality, and I�ve done both of those in my Ph .D., and they are not as theologically driven often, they are more often pragmatically and even spiritually driven, in the sense that they�re very pietistic and very pragmatic, and so I think one of the best ways to get to their head is through their pragmatism and through their piety.

My goal is, formally, it�s a.

Biblical Spirituality Versus Mysticism

Evan, tell us a little bit about this issue of spirituality and how you teach that. What is a biblical view of spirituality in contrast to maybe contemplative prayer or some other types of Eastern or Roman Catholic mysticism?

Well, where they diverge essentially comes down to united to Christ. Through all those come back to the Bible, our spirituality is grounded in and emerges out of our justification and our union with Christ, which is what they�re seeking to attain.

And so a lot of times, people who seek to employ Roman Catholic or other ascetic mystical practices, they doubt that their heart is bigger than their head, but a lot of times when I teach biblical spirituality, I�m.

Psalm 1 and the Practice of Meditation

Evan, you and I were talking, or maybe when you were preaching here at Bethlehem Bible Church several weeks ago, about how people in the old days used to read out loud. And so you spurred me on. I went and got a book about silent reading and when that came about.

Tell our listeners a little bit about silent reading, reading out loud, maybe a little bit of Psalm 1, meditating on God�s law. I found that fascinating.

Yeah, so this isn�t obviously an original idea to me. He pointed out in a spirituality class seminar in parts of Asia where I�ve found it uncommon to see somebody in a blessed as the man who walks out of the Council of the Wicked, or stands in the way of sinners, or in the law of the Lord, and in that law, he meditates day and night.

The word for meditate is the idea of chewing between what�s going on in your mind and in your mouth. There�s a connection, but not the words in my mouth and the meditation where I see there is a direct correlation, even in the history, what you do with your mouth and what you do with your mind and what you do with your heart.

Epilepsy, Surgery, and Romans 8:28

Talking to Evan Burns from the Asia Biblical Theological Seminary. Evan, tell our listeners a little bit about what happened with you in terms of your testimony, and then what the doctors said about you and your brain and the issues there.

I just find it encouraging that we know Romans 8, 28 isn�t just some verse thrown in. God is, for His glory and our good, really orchestrating every little detail. So share with our listeners if you would.

Yeah, well, I grew up with epilepsy, and neuroscience wasn�t suggesting I go to a neurologist, and I did, and then they started putting on lots of medications. And around that, in that time, I became a Christian earlier in life.

And then I actually first started sensing a call to missions when I was about eight years old, and I was laying in bed in the dark of my room. I�d have a migraine every time I�d have a seizure, and I could have up to, and then listen to preaching on the radio.

And I heard the story where I first started feeling a draw of emissions, possible as if we are using, I think, hammers and chisels and chainsaws back then, because the procedure was a bit more, yeah, so even after the surgery, the fact that I was not a vegetable and I was able to finish college and get a job through epilepsy shouldn�t be the case for me.

Thankfulness in Suffering

Evan, how can a Christian, I mean, we�re to be thankful people, show thanks, this is God�s will, First Thessalonians. Are you, or were you able to say, �Lord, I thank you for this and for these reasons.

Walk our listeners through that, because many of them struggle with all kinds of issues. How can we say, �Thank you, Lord for a very tough situation or trial?

I mean, so I grew up with the pain and the migraines and all the other health issues. God is just merciful to me, and he overcame my unbelief, and he, in his mercy, has decided to adopt me into his church, whether it�s for anything.

I am able to enjoy the privilege and the pleasure of sharing the gospel. I�m getting in a cab, and he�s asking me about the scar on the side of my head from my brain surgery, and I�m able to talk to him about, you know, what I struggle with, what I�ve gone through, and then I�m able to help me with my epilepsy, but he healed me of the dis-ways we can interpret our past.

And what is that power? What does that power do? And he said, �And so, a lot of people, if they use that, it�s going to do something with my weakness, but I think we need to take it a step further. I will be glorified in my body, whether I�m living or whether I�m dying.

I want Jesus to get the attention of people.

Faithfulness, Small Steps, and the Call to Missions

Good answer. Evan Burns, today we�re talking to on No Compromise Radio. Evan, it seems to me that, and again, this is my personal observation, it�s only anecdotal. Back in the old days, men, excuse me, children and teens and maybe young students would hear a missionary that would come in from furlough or off of furlough, and they�d talk about what�s going on in Burma or what�s going on in Thailand, and there seems like there would be, probably there were altar calls, but there would be a call to serve the Lord.

Overseas.

Now, I know we can serve the Lord where we are, and you need to be a good missionary where you live today before you go overseas, but what would you say to people who maybe need to be pushed a little bit to think about the glory of Christ in his kingdom.

Across.

The world?

Do you have something you say to young people to spur them on to consider missions?

Well, I think one thing I�m quick to tell people is that are maybe not as future-oriented in their thinking, they live in the here and now and the next latest download and the next selfie and whatever else they�re doing.

I do push them to think about every little decision for eternity, it�s not just those big decisions that someday down the road they�re going to be able to make that big, and it comes down to those little decisions of faithfulness, of getting in the Word, getting on your knees in prayer, sharing the gospels, like Christ, and I think on those little significant decisions.

Now, that being the case, that sets you up to be missions. Anybody going into ministry needs to have a certain level of integrity and spirituality and maturity in the faith. Who wants to go into ministry does the same thing with people, even young people, as missionaries, as much sense as a self-baptized Baptist, you need to have, you need to have a, that long answer would be, not interest in culture, not interest in adventure, no stepping out of faith, but if that�s what gets you to the mission, you�re going to realize that you want to be there and they don�t like your gospel.

Adoniram Judson and Suffering for the Gospel

Talking to Evan Burns today, I was thinking of Psalm 37, Evan, as you were speaking, �Trust in the Lord and do good. And he goes on to say, �Delight yourself in the Lord. He will give you the desires of your heart, and commit your way to the Lord.

Trust in Him and He will act. I think you�ve given our listeners some great advice in terms of the small steps of faithfulness in light of the strength that the Spirit gives us, and God does lead and guide, and Evan, I wanted to, because time is going by fast, I wanted to ask you about Adoniram Judson.

You have finished your Ph .D. thesis and you�ve passed your oral exam. When can I technically call you doctor? Well, okay, tell our listeners about Adoniram Judson and maybe a lesson or two that we can learn in light of, well, let me just intercept it for a second.

I think of missionaries and I�m, I wonder if you think the same way. Men like Adoniram Judson, I say to myself, I could never be like that, and I�m spurred on to, �Lord, help me to be more faithful. Then I also say, you know, he was just a man, a sinful man.

He was still struggling with his unredeemed humanity or flesh, whatever we want to call it, and the Lord used him, so thank you, Lord, that you could use a person like me because you used him. Is that how you think about it?

Yeah, and it�s due till May 14th when I graduate, so even though I�m done, they can�t call me that yet, but regarding Judson, he, Augustine said that you can�t know a man unless you become his friend, and I feel like over the last three years of my immersing myself in the writings and the journals and the letters of Judson, I feel like I know the man as well as I would know him if he were here with me today just because I�ve really gotten under his skin, and I think that a few of the main takeaways, one thing I flippantly say to people if they want to know what I thought of Judson, I�ll say, well, he was messed up like the rest of us, but God providentially healed him in spite of himself.

So an observation about him is sometimes it can be our greatest weakness, and our greatest weakness is to think that was true. He was, the thing to remember about the context of when he was a missionary was really the boonary biography or the conversion narrative, and so hero novels, and it was around the same time as the other hero novels written by or written about men like Danny Crockett and Daniel Boone, stories are fabulous.

And so all that, to be fair, he did suffer a lot, but also you have to remember that this was in pre-jet travel, pre-internet, and he was in pre-modern Asia, and if he could have gotten on a plane and gone back to the States to get medical attention for his wife or his children, he would have done it in a heartbeat.

He put them on a boat for six months, and they were gone for two years, and that was sacrifices he's now to do that because of modern conveniences, and that's not bad, it's just different.

Prayer, Support, and Closing Remarks

Well, Evan, today has gone by quickly, 24 minutes done, we've got 30 seconds. If our listeners would like to support you via prayer, or know more about you, or give to the ministry, how could they do that?

Probably the longest domain name in the history of the internet is called...

All right, say it one more time, you've got 10 seconds.

Yeah.

Evan, thank you for being on No Compromise Radio. May God bless your ministry.

Yeah, thank you.

No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church, firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15, and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org, or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.