Uniqueness of Om 18.9.75 — George Verwer

I was really wrestling with what I should speak on tonight. I find it very frustrating when there are so many things that are on my heart to know what to speak on. I thought of speaking on victory in Christ and really looking into the Word about this.

Then I thought, that's really something that should be communicated to everybody. You know, I'm not just in a leaders' conference, though I know there are many guests and other friends here for the evening meeting.

Victory and True Spirituality

I really believe there is a victorious life. And I believe a lot of the other things we've talked about this week are meaningless if you're not experiencing a victorious life in Jesus Christ. Our main concern is not to communicate to you how to preach, how to line up meetings, how to lead a prayer meeting, how to write a prayer letter.

If you don't know the sufficiency and the power of Jesus Christ in your life. And in many ways, we would love to almost make that the theme of the whole conference. Victory in Jesus Christ. Maybe we could put that in big letters.

Though, starting tomorrow, I believe we'll be meeting downstairs in the big auditorium, because of the earphones. It'll be a little cooler there as well. It's rather warm in this room. Then, as I was wrestling through this, I thought that really I'd rather speak about true spirituality.

This is very much on my heart. What is true spirituality? It's not mainly things that we do or activities that we get involved in. I don't think it's mainly a series of disciplines that we somehow manage to develop.

And I hope that in this conference we can deal very clearly with this issue of what is true spirituality. Once I summed it up, in first, it's knowing God. Second, it's knowing yourself and what to do about yourself, which goes into victory.

And thirdly, it's knowing others and having a relationship with them. Of course, that covers a lot of territory. Anyway, the third subject won, and that's what I'm going to preach on. It's more difficult because it's more easily misunderstood.

The Unique Aspects of Operation Mobilization

I'm going to speak about the unique aspects or the uniqueness of Operation Mobilization. Now, it can be misunderstood because, of course, it will sound like I'm pushing OM. And, of course, in one sense I am.

It would be rather insane to have a leader of a movement who didn't believe in the movement. And I don't think we should pretend that we are excited about this work we're in. I haven't been in it for 17 years because of the salary raises or other fringe benefits.

And I believe that God raised up this work despite us. And I believe when that little lady prayed years ago, God heard her prayers. Even for the sake of Brother Case, I would just inform him that the work in Europe, if he wants to date OM in Europe, which is good because that's when we took on the name and it's a very good concept, was 1961.

But by the time anything exploded, and that's when Roses came in, and that was a very separate explosion in itself, that's 1962 in the summer. But the name OM was given to us the summer of 61 and the first Fall Conference was in the fall of 61 and then the teams launched out, recruiting for summer of 62.

But I believe God heard this woman's prayers and I believe God has raised up this work just as he has raised up many other works. And in no way, and what I'm saying tonight, am I trying to run down anyone else.

They have strong points and weak points. We have strong points and weak points. We are all learning from one another. But I think there are some of us, even in leadership, that don't even know what our strong points are supposed to be.

And so pretty soon we won't be a movement with strong points and weak points. We will be a movement with only weak points. And then we will be in trouble. And I want to speak about what I feel should be some of the strong points of this movement.

And therefore of our lives. Now, I know the mind of some people. And you may be thinking that by now in this conference we should be given more of a completely Christ-centered message that will wonderfully lift us up to the Lord and bless us and reveal more of him in us.

Now I know this message. I have read this message. I have preached this message. And those of you who are here for three more weeks will get some of that ministry. But I felt that for this Leaders' Conference, though I hope this message will glorify the Lord, that I should stick on this subject, a sort of spiritual message.

And I hope it's not misunderstood. The uniqueness of OM. What are some of the things that are a little unusual or unique that God gave us and is still giving us because we're still learning. And as we hear these things, we should ask, is this reality in my life?

Is this what I want? You see, I don't have many opportunities to speak to my beloved leaders. And so as I speak, though I appreciate some of you are new leaders and I want to keep you in mind, I also am burdened to share with those of us who are locked into this work on a longer term some of these things.

And I hope you'll understand. One other clarification. All through history, long before OM came along, there were individuals who already emphasized these things. So it's nothing new. They were certainly, in most cases, not a majority group.

There were also organizations and missions that emphasized some of these things. Some perhaps emphasizing something, and another group other things. And linked with that, of course, there have been individuals and groups that certainly have demonstrated some of these points far greater than we ever have.

And we just praise God for them. We have had the advantage of being able to learn from the mistakes and errors of so many who have gone before us. And this is where literature has played such a vital role in forming the mentality and the spirit of Operation Mobilization.

As we have learned from such a great range of men, from Hudson Taylor to Billy Graham, from Amy Carmichael to Eugenia Price. I think, however, that we have to acknowledge that these points that I'm going to review are not generally emphasized in the Church as a whole.

And that is what I'm interested in us understanding. Because, for example, the China Inland Mission had a very basic and similar policy, or we have a similar policy financially to theirs. Not exactly the same, very similar.

Does not mean that it is not unique. Because in many, many countries and in many, many places, people have hardly, the average Christian, hardly know anything about what the China Inland Mission taught.

You know, and of course, we soon all know who Hudson Taylor is. We all know who George Mueller is. But even in Bristol, when I was preaching a couple of years ago, I took a survey and only 15 of the people in the meeting had read George Mueller of Bristol.

That was in Bristol. Much less the rest of the world. So, I hope you understand that and that will help me communicate. First of all, the uniqueness of our attitude toward material possessions, money, faith, believing God, that whole area.

Material Possessions, Simple Living, and Faith

Very, very important. There are so many scriptures that come running into my mind. I think especially of the teaching of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount. And it would be good to perhaps just look at that for a moment, just in the way of remembrance and to feed our minds on the Word.

I'm so happy I now have my Bible. The Lord Jesus spoke more about these things than most people imagine. Turn to the Sermon on the Mount. Chapter 6, verse 19. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal.

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Going on over to verse 24.

No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. And then it goes on, the cure for care.

In verse 25 through verse 33 are absolutely glorious and beautiful verses in God's Word. Look at verse 28. Why are ye anxious for raiment, your clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin, did I say unto you?

And even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. On it goes. O ye of little faith. Verse 31. Therefore be not anxious, saying, What shall we eat? What shall we drink? With what shall we be clothed?

For after all these things do the pagans, the Gentiles, seek. For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. This perhaps has been the most upsetting aspect of OM. And if anybody thinks that I have changed my viewpoint on this subject, they obviously have not fellowshiped with me much lately.

I believe stronger than ever that the ideas God gave us concerning money, concerning lifestyle, concerning forsaking all, concerning esteeming others better than ourselves, concerning living on the barest essentials, concerning all this area, I believe more than ever before that this is God's way.

And believe me, more people are seeing this in this particular generation than almost ever before. New books are coming out and new aspects are being discussed and one of the most important, significant statements at the Lausanne Congress on Evangelism was that the Evangelical Church must repent and also must go back and develop a more simple lifestyle.

Men like John Stott have been a tremendous demonstration of this and praise God that this was brought into the Lausanne Congress. A missionary friend of mine out in Asia and I was speaking to him recently shared how he felt he must move out of this tremendous bungalow and live in a small flat among the people in Bangladesh.

And he said one of the things that helped him was the statement and covenant he signed at the Lausanne Congress. And anybody who puts their pen to that covenant as I did and doesn't go out and make a greater effort for a more simple lifestyle is a hypocrite.

Better not to sign it. We know men in Scotland years ago signed the famous covenant. It cost them their lives. They were covenanters. I wonder how many of us would have signed that Lausanne Congress if we knew that every name was taken off that list and put on somebody's hit list to be exterminated as soon as possible.

We may have thought twice about signing such an evangelical and powerful covenant. I was in the question and answer session with Dr. Schaeffer when he was asked whether he signed it. People know that Dr. Schaeffer is conservative to say the least, at least in doctrine.

It's difficult to say that his lifestyle is completely conservative. And he answered that he had signed it. After bending the covenant drafters to a stronger statement in regard to inspiration of Scripture, he himself signed that covenant.

I hope during our conference we can make this covenant available for you to read. Maybe some of you will feel burdened to sign it. God gave us this burden, I guess, 17, 18 years ago to develop a simple lifestyle, to practice community living to an extent where practical and possible without legalism, to share, to give all, to sell our possessions, Acts 2, Acts 4, and a number of other examples.

And it upset a lot of people. I hope to bring copies next week of a little book called Christian Devotedness. Very upsetting. William MacDonald's ideas, to a great degree, have their original source in Christian Devotedness and the teachings of Anthony Norris Groves and George Mueller.

I think Mueller married Groves' daughter. Somewhere there's a link. And I hope if you get the chance you can re-read True Discipleship in the days to come. It's not the whole truth. Only part of the truth.

The whole truth is in this book. But it's an important truth. It is still basically unique, not totally. Especially people who literally begin to practice. Paying lip service is one thing. But to practice simple lifestyle, to practice living on the fairest essentials, to give maximum for World Evangelist and for others, to get involved in selling out as a joyful event, as a joyful expression of your faith in Jesus Christ, is not yet the order of the day, even in the Church.

I think most of us realize that. And then, of course, on top of that, especially for those that feel led to go into Christian service, which I don't even like that term, this whole area of believing God.

We don't believe everybody should be praying in funds for themselves. There are some who are called to work in a secular occupation who will only be called to pray in funds for others. Don't know if you've thought that one through.

But as Oswald Smith tried to emphasize in his teaching, it's not how much you can give, even as a man sitting in the secular world, working for the Rolls-Royce company. It's not just how much you can give.

It's what can you believe God for. So I do not believe that praying in funds is just for a few odd bods who are going out to India. I believe the whole Church should have this ministry. However, the man working in the secular job has the privilege of giving all that he prays in.

Whereas when we pray in money, we have to use some of it to survive on. We have brothers in ON that have secular jobs on the field, and yet they're still praying in money for the nationals, for literature, to advance the work.

When we first started talking in 1961 about producing faith, people didn't know what we were talking about. Producing faith, contrary to survival faith. Survival faith in a missionary is enough faith to believe God for the money to keep him alive, house, clothes.

Producing faith is faith to not only stay out on the field, but to produce something, to do something, to believe God for the money for a million tracts, to believe God for the money for some books that nationals may be supported, to believe God to open a bookshop, to believe God to open a radio station, to believe God for a new light bulb, or whatever else may be the challenge.

That was a very important emphasis. God especially gave us, really, through a dear elderly Spanish man. We had it somewhat before that, but he clarified it in a book that I think has gone out of print.

We must not lose this unique emphasis. We must not presume that it will just automatically be part and parcel of OM. Not so. Man's materialistic instincts, man's general degeneration towards selfish living will mean that only by definite acts of faith, discipline, and recommitment can these principles survive in a materialistic age.

It will take more than signing a covenant. It will mean signing some checks as well, and maybe even more than that. The second unique emphasis that I want to mention is our emphasis on prayer. Now, it is not unique for Christians to say we should pray.

Extended Prayer and Spiritual Discipline

The uniqueness in OM is the general amount of time, or the extraordinary amount of time that is usually given to prayer. Now, the moment I say that, I know the danger. Spiritual pride. Spiritual pride is a danger all the time.

All the time. And we don't want any of it coming in tonight. On the other hand, false humility will not accomplish anything as well. And there's a danger that because we don't want that spiritual pride, and we know that a person who does pray a lot and gets involved in a lot of prayer and sees God move through prayer is susceptible to that, we swing the pendulum way over here.

Let's not have any more long prayer meetings. Long prayer meetings produce many answers to prayer, and many answers to prayer produce spiritual pride, so we won't have any long prayer meetings. If there's anything that's crooked thinking, I would say that is.

Let us, as one brother told me years ago, not throw the baby away with the dirty bathwater. We know there are dangers in extended times of prayer. Of course. We know there are dangers in having two hours given to prayer every day.

It can become routine. You know, it may become like eating or some other thing. Have you ever found anyone stop eating because they felt it was routine, legalistic? People don't seem to get under bondage about that.

But prayer, if it comes in two regular intervals, someone will squawk that it's getting legalistic. It's interesting in the book of Acts we have the apostles going up to a particular place at the hour, the appointed hour of prayer.

And so, it isn't just praying. It isn't just saying we believe in prayer and opening our meetings with a word of prayer. But it's the practice, taking large parts of our conference and disciplining ourselves, giving it to prayer.

It's not easy. There's so many other things we could be doing. Many other pressures. Many other good things. But believe me, oftentimes in Christian work, the good is the enemy of the best. I believe prayer is the best.

I've had people recommend first aid courses. I'd love to have first aid courses. We could also, these days, have special midwife and prenatal training. This would be ideal for the way O .M. is going. And there are so many good things we could be doing at conferences.

I would like to teach a course in rock climbing. I would like to have a tennis tournament. We've got a tennis court out here. I've tried to get Jonathan to put some wire around it. He's too tight. So, we probably won't get any tennis court.

But the good is often the enemy of the best. And I feel that prayer is the best. Worship, praise. And I believe one of the great mistakes is to just pay lip service to this. We've got to give time to it.

Billy Graham interviewed a whole group of missionaries going to the mission field. 75 of them... I think it was Billy... No, I think Billy Graham was just giving this in a sermon. I don't think he was doing the interview.

75 of them had no systematic quiet time. Cannot be. We must make time. In our schedule as leaders, we must make time so that the team members have time for prayer. We must allow team members to go off for days of prayer.

It's got to be functional. And I think this is a unique, somewhat unique emphasis. We must not allow it to slip. Teaching people how to lead prayer meetings. I don't think there's too much teaching going on in that realm.

There's even less of actually leading them. One of the things that has amazed me as I've gone to conferences all over the world, and many Christian leaders have agreed on this, is the relatively little time that's ever given to prayer.

Praise God for the Indian church. The Indian church has been the greatest demonstration in some places of really believing in prayer. The Evangelical Fellowship of India has a whole week given to prayer.

Can you imagine European Christians getting together for a week of real prayer? Even many of our prayer meetings seem to be mainly overrun with requests and other things and not much praying. What is the thing that marks the life of Bhakt Singh?

Prayer. He's a weak man. He's a human being. It doesn't take people long when they're with him to see his weaknesses, like all Christian leaders. But he's a man of prayer, a man of faith. God has honored that.

What I have learned from that man, being with him, one of the reasons his heart, I believe, was linked with some of us, you know, is because we had such a similar interest and burden in the area of prayer.

Why, nights of prayer for those people are just normal course of events. Prayer chains and 24-hour prayer efforts. And it's a thrilling thing to see the simple faith and the life of prayer of such believers.

And yet, the church in general today is so prayerless. I don't think I'm being unfair when I say that. George Duncan, speaking to the pastors at Keswick, I was listening to his tape, more or less assumed that most of these pastors had very little prayer life.

And boy, did he speak straight. He knows pastors. And in my experience, where the pastors that have come to the ship, the Christian leaders that have come to the ship, it is confirmed by view that many Christian leaders have very little prayer life.

It's so easy to become discouraged in praying, isn't it? Of course it is. Samuel Chadwick, that great soul winner, said the main aim of Satan will be to stop your prayer life. If he gets that, whatever else you have, you don't have much.

I hope we'll re-read in the days to come that book, Power Through Prayer. A unique part of our vision in regard to prayer has been our burden to flood out all over the world books about prayer. In fact, right now, a brother is going to come and quickly give out a list of books on the subject of prayer.

I think that's Gary Hanson. Try to do that as inconspicuously as possible so that everybody can just pay attention and not worry about this list. But on this list are books about prayer. And I hope that you will read them.

We have just sent this list out to everyone on the British mailing list. We also have been sending book parcels. We are in the process, it's a 20-year program, of sending book parcels to every missionary who reads English in the world.

We have already sent these parcels out to hundreds, perhaps it's got to thousands by now. I think it is past the thousands mark. And I just believe that God wants us to do this. Another, I go through the missionary leaders.

I don't send them behind their backs. And another, leading mission has just sent all their missionaries. Please send us your book parcels. It usually includes George Mueller, Power Through Prayer, True Discipleship, one of these lovely green living Bibles, one or two other things.

We have had over 300 letters from missionaries all over the world. Most of them thanking us for these books. And sharing some of the spiritual battles they have been having in some of these areas. Do you presume that there is so much prayer going on in the mission field?

If you do, you obviously haven't been out there. Missionaries become very busy. Very, very busy. On the mission field, it takes more effort to survive than most people think. Especially if you are living alone.

You have your own house and you have a family and you have this and that. Visas and this. The time of day is through. If you get two hours serving Jesus, you are doing good. Where are you going to get time for prayer?

Unless you, by an act of your will, determined to be a man and woman of prayer, you will not be one. Determination must come in. The third emphasis that we feel is somewhat unique and greatly needed in our day is our emphasis on reaching everyone.

Reaching Everyone With the Gospel

Reaching everyone. Now when you come down to it, it's really crazy. It really is crazy. You can imagine how crazy it was 17 or 18 years ago when a little group of nobodies started talking about reaching hundreds of millions with the word of God.

Hundreds of millions. People used to just, you know, a bunch of exaggerators. Yet God has enabled us by his grace to put the gospel into the hands of over 220 million souls in a little over a decade. We can start at 62 if you want.

This is no small thing and I don't think it should be despised. It's impossible to know how many others have been reached through radio, television, things along that line. This has taken place because of this unique belief that everybody in the world deserves an opportunity to hear the gospel.

Now, a lot of people will say, well, you know, I believe that too. But our whole strategy is built around it. We don't just say that. We begin to live in the light of it. We begin to think and to pray and to dream about the next million tracks.

In India, I've just asked the leaders to approve a plan which is mainly for the prayer partners to catch their vision for prayer of operation 10 million. It's to produce 10 million tracks in 10 months in 10 languages.

It is not a strategy for within India. They can use the tracks as they want. But it's a strategy or a challenge for us out of India to claim at least 10 million tracks, booklets, leaflets in the next 10 months.

Believe me, this is unique. Again, when I say unique, I'm not saying exclusive. Others, especially now, getting a similar vision. Small groups, churches, even some bigger groups. But most of our standard mission societies relegate literature to a very small part of their program.

Now it is in grief. And we have learned from some of that. For example, the Conservative Baptist Mission Society, 18 years ago, put out a film strip called Mr. Printed Page. There was an organization formed about 22 years ago called ELO, Evangelical Literature Overseas, which led to the establishment of many literature fellowships like Evangelical Literature of India and similar fellowships around the world.

We were influenced by these people. We were greatly influenced by the Pocket Testament League. One of the greatest movements to me of all times. I was converted to Christ through a Pocket Testament League gospel.

So, in no way is this kind of vision exclusive. And yet even as we meet with different ones who are already involved in spreading out literature, very few seem to really believe that everyone can be reached.

It can't be all literature because we have illiterate people. Of course, someone can read it to them. And then there's gospel recordings. In fact, I think we could fairly include here that one of our unique emphasis coupled with this reaching everyone is our willingness to try almost anything at least once.

I'd like to know what kind of evangelism we have not been in. You please tell me. Films, records, plastic bags in the ocean, we haven't got the balloons yet, but Bible studies, all kinds of evangelism.

Because we're learners. We can learn from others. When the four spiritual laws came out through Campus Crusade for Christ, we were the first ones to produce it in Europe. And Campus Crusade, the man who coordinated all of Campus Crusade for Europe, came to an OM conference to help us before he went on to start Campus Crusade for Christ in Europe.

Gordon Klink, a very dear brother. Whether it be Campus Crusade, or IDF, or WEC, or CLC, or Pocket Testament League, we want to learn. That is not totally unique, but it isn't so often in general practice.

Most groups tend to get what they feel is their thing, then they pull the shades down and close the doors. And you just try to get in. We've seen how at times we bring speakers in from other movements to speak at OM.

But not always is there any kind of reciprocal going back into their movement. Because they have more of a closed door mentality. They feel that they have their own package. And sometimes people don't want the status quo disturbed, or they don't want people confused.

I know a group of very living good assemblies in the United States that have told the people in their assemblies, and they're young people, and some of them say they're very friends of ours, they tell the young people not to go on OM.

You must not go on OM. It is not God's will yet. We are still in Jerusalem. You stay here and work for us. And if you think that I get into these places to speak, there was a big conference arranged among some of these people.

Last minute, the door was closed by one of the very strong-minded leaders because they were afraid that I would recruit for OM, or that I would say things that would disturb the doctrinal status quo.

People don't want their doctrinal status quo disturbed. With some outsider coming in and dropping some bomb in their midst about this or about that. Personally, I think it's a tremendous thing at times to have someone come into OM and really drop a bomb on us.

We've had it. I remember when Mr. Rockmacher, forgive the pronunciation, Dutchman, came to the ship. And he belongs to the LaBrie Fellowship in Holland. I don't know whether he smoked a cigar the whole time or his pipe.

A little difficulty since we have a no-smoking rule on the ship. But anyway, for him, we lifted the ban. And he proceeded to drop bombs on Operation Mobilization. He was fairly tactful. And people really went away from that meeting thinking.

Of course, we let Dr. Schaefer have us for three days. When he first came to Europe and people were wondering, you know, who is he? What is LaBrie? He hadn't written any books yet. He came in and for three days bombed us.

It took us a long time to recover from that. But we ended up very good friends. And we took a lot of his ideas. In fact, our early university teams were all trained at LaBrie. I feel this is a very important emphasis.

I don't even need to use the word unique. It may not be the best word, but it's a very important emphasis. We want as much truth as we can get. We want to continue to be learners. And in the process, we want to maintain this vision of reaching everyone with the gospel.

I feel that other groups would take on a greater vision for literature that without much effort they could reach ten times as many people as they are reaching right now. I think of some of these big meetings that people have and if they arm the people with literature, at the end of those meetings, anything that broke my heart at the Lausanne Congress was the weak emphasis on literature.

Very little emphasis on literature and the book display proved it. You couldn't even buy books. You had to order them and they had to be sent to you. And they were very... It just burned my heart, though I praise God for what there was.

Literature and radio, all the media was thrown into one section. And in the plenary, really main sessions, there was very little emphasis on this. Though there is some. Track distribution is considered superficial.

How many of us have had it insinuated to us again and again that distributing tracks is superficial? When is OM going to get into a real work, as if the only thing we did was give out tracks? Not even 5 of our work anymore.

In 1962 it was a big push. I don't believe track distribution is superficial. And when you get to heaven, you're going to discover many thousands saved because somebody believed in giving out tracks. We mean together with all the other wonderful groups God has raised up.

And to some degree, if a lot of the groups neglect one kind of evangelism, we want to emphasize it more. To me, it's a thrill if we can be given the jobs that are not so important. For example, if Billy Graham comes to Brussels, as he did, he's got that strategic ministry of preaching.

Others have the strategic ministry of counseling. We were involved perhaps a little bit in that. Others may have the strategic ministry of music. Others may have the tremendous ministry of organizing.

Well, praise God if our part is just to go down the streets, put the invitations in the post boxes, and cover every house or every street in every district. Somebody has got to do that if the people are going to get to the meeting or even find out about it.

So, of course, when groups like that have a lot of money, they can advertise on the buses and every other way, which is, I don't know, perhaps even more effective. Reaching everyone. We believe this. This is why we try to save money.

Because we know that every dollar, every pound, every deutschmark is so many hundreds of tracts. We believe this. We believe that tracts, the gospel, the word of God, is more important in some ways than food.

You can give a man a meal for the next twenty years, but eventually he's going to die. Eventually he's going to die. I believe you need to give him the word of God. Another one of these unique or significant aspects of the work is our emphasis on discipline.

Discipline, Teamwork, and Foot Soldiering

And this one really gives a lot of people the jitters, even within the work. There's been pressure that we need to, we need to cut down, we need to cool it a bit. We make people nervous. People feel they've got to get up early.

Some people feel they have to do exercises. Some people get the idea that if you don't suffer and endure hardship a little bit, you're not a disciple. Such a big emphasis in our day that you don't want anybody to have a nervous breakdown.

This is the main thing in your work, is to keep anybody from having a nervous breakdown. You don't want anybody to get in bondage. Boy, that's a terrible thing if somebody gets in bondage. Personally, I would rather be in bondage, I would rather have a nervous breakdown, than to be out of God's will.

We don't seem to get very upset over the fact that today, 150 ,000 souls slipped into hell. I don't hear many people emphasize that. But if somebody catches a chill because he gave out tracts in the rain, or somebody gets a little ill because they prayed too long in the night of prayer, weren't wise, boy, I tell you, you'll hear it for 15 years.

Now, it is not unique to say we believe in discipline. Everybody knows that's necessary. Billy Graham, speaking at Urbana, years ago, said, if you're not ready for the discipline in life, forget it, you won't live for Christ.

But it's another thing. To so structure things, that people really must learn something about discipline. Alan Redpath said the greatest problem in the English Church, or one of the greatest problems, was blanket victory.

Getting the blanket up off you in the morning, and getting up out of bed. Blanket victory. It's true. Many people have written to me and said, the greatest problem in my life is, one, I can't get out of bed in the morning.

And that is only one small aspect of discipline. Discipline of time, discipline of money. The constant, not always, but often choosing the harder way. Overland India. Many other things. Disciplining ourselves in the area of food.

Disciplining our minds. This whole emphasis on discipline in the area of sex is somewhat unique. Because in many places, it's not even spoken about. We just presume anybody in Christian service is not going to get in any kind of sexual troubles.