Safe in His Arms

Come, Thou Almighty King, help us Thy name to sing, help us to praise. Father, all-glorious, all-victorious, come and reign over us, ancient of days. Even so, come today, Lord Jesus, and rapture us out into Thy presence.

I am Richard Yerbe, missionary in Japan, continuing preaching from my previous time, as I highly recommended Richard Wurmbrand's book, Tortured for Christ, his autobiography, and how he stood before a communist parliament, when other Christian leaders were praising communism, and he stood strong for his Lord, and he had to pay fart. Oh, how he paid fart with many years of imprisonment, undergoing much torture during that time, and oh, how worthwhile it has been, as he has inspired millions of Christians worldwide, like me, by what he endured for Christ in prison, and by the glorious work he has done for God after coming out of prison. And his wife's courage impresses me as much, or more so, than his.

What great love she has for her Savior, as she sat beside him in that communist parliament, and said to him, Richard, stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ. They are spitting in his face. Richard replied to his wife, if I do so, you lose your husband, and that brave lady said, I don't wish to have a coward for a husband.

What a courageous believer she is. Christian wife, how do you measure up compared to her? Do you love God more than you love your husband? For a long time after the communist arrested her husband, she didn't know where he was, what his condition was, or whether he was alive or not. At times she heard rumors that he was dead.

Each night she would pillow her head alone, not knowing what they had done to her husband, who before times lay beside her side faithfully each night. Christian wife, would you have spoken to your husband as she did? Stand up and wash away this shame from the face of Christ. They are spitting in his face.

Or would you have cringed at the thought of the secret police storming your house at night, dragging your husband away to you know not where, leaving you alone at home to pillow your head in solitude each night, not knowing if your husband is alive or what terrible torture he is enduring? If you and your husband present day lay out of sin, Christian wife, had been at that meeting, would you have tugged on his arm and whispered to him, now you just sit still and keep quiet, hubby. Don't make any ways or we'll get into big trouble. Would you have been more than glad to have a coward for a husband, and therefore would have said something along those lines to him? Well, if so, then it is time for you to repent.

It is time for you to fall on your knees and ask God to help you to be like Job. I was not in safety. Many men who are called to do a work for God are held back by their wives.

What a shame. An elderly Christian man in southern Alabama supported my missionary work in Japan for several years. He has since died.

For the heart he had for missions, I visited in his home in the States, saw the world map on his wall that he regularly gazed upon and prayed for countries by name. He gave financial support to Christian labors throughout the world and would talk to me at length about his burden for world missions. During one such time, he remarked to me, I really admire you, Richard.

You went out. I was so honored by that elder's remark about admiring me. But at that time, I felt like I was accomplishing so very little here in Japan.

And it seemed to me such a small matter that I simply went out to a foreign country with the gospel. But later, piercing together the things he said over a period of time, I am quite sure I discerned that he had been called by God to take the gospel to an Asian country. But he didn't go.

Hence his fervent interest in foreign missions. Also, he made remarks to me which indicated that his wife didn't want to go live in Asia. Therefore, she held him back from God's calling.

So for years, as he did a good work of supporting foreign missions and praying for countries by name, as he looked at that world map there in his study, he also did it with a heart full of sorrow and regret over disobeying God's call to him to go abroad. What a shame. What a loss.

Christian wife, purpose in your heart to honor your creator in this matter. Stand behind your husband to push him out into the work God calls him to do. If he is reluctant and whines that he may get killed, leaving you and the children alone, then just smile and say, don't worry about it, honey.

I know God will take care of us. And after I mourn over you for a decent amount of time, no doubt God will give me another good Christian husband, if that be his will for me. So you just be like Job and then don't worry at all about what may result when you lay aside your safety.

Wives, such an attitude on your part should greatly inspire your husband. Multitudes who are called to go serve God are kept back by family members. Wife, mother, father, or others in the family.

You hold a loved one back from going where God leads and you will regret it forever. Don't do it. Love God with all your heart.

Love him more than you love your family. And on judgment day, be able to say, I was not in safety. Let's pray.

Heavenly father, I beg thee to have mercy on me and help me to always love thee much more than I love any other person. Help me to never hold back or discourage a family member or anyone from following thee. Rather, help me to encourage them and help them in any way I can for them to go forth conquering in thy precious name.

Upon hearing missionary Richard tell these missionary stories, please convict me of my wicked sin of selfishness, being so desires to live a comfortable life here in my home country, surrounded by family, relatives, and friends. Thou knowest my heart, how reluctant I would be to go serve thee in a foreign country. Thou alone knowest how just likely I would be to draw back from such leading coming from God.

So please have mercy on me to forgive me of the terrible sin of selfishness. Give me victory over it, I plead. I want to know the genuine, deeper spiritual life of being totally committed unto thee.

I want to be completely willing to endure any trials and sufferings that would glorify thee, my Lord, and will fully accomplish the work thou hast ordained for my life on earth. Please make me into a strong, courageous soldier of the cross. I pray this for all other Christians also.

Amen. And when time shall be no more, heaven will have been populated with a multitude of precious souls redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, because down through the ages there has been an army of God's soldiers in each generation who laid aside their own safety and went forth with that bloodstained banner in one hand and that razor-sharp sword, the word of God, in the other hand. No matter how bitterly the devil, demons, and wicked men fought against them, they stood far and fought far right as long as there was life in them with which to fight.

I was not in safety. The one whom God called perfect and upright had this as his number one priority in his walk with God, and today it just may be impossible to find a soul who is more pleasing to God than the one who makes this his top priority. Lord, please help us all to be like Job.

Lord Jesus, that is what I want to do. Let's pray it. I want to make this my number one priority, just as Job did.

So please help me to do that, Lord. Thou knowest that I am so weak and so fearful, so please take away this spirit of fear. Make me into a courageous soldier for Thee and for Thy glory.

I pray this prayer for missionary Richard Yerby there in Japan and all other Christians too. Amen. I will speak a word of balance in this matter of not being in safety.

Fleeing persecution is certainly scriptural. David fled and hid from King Saul. Read about believers fleeing for their lives in the New Testament, especially in the book of Acts.

I do not consider such to be cowardly at all. I believe there will be times when it will be appropriate to flee to hide from persecutors and such. I believe there will also be times when we should stand in the face of the enemy and fight him.

Let us daily walk according to the Holy Spirit in order for God to guide us perfectly. Always seek His will while also asking Him to always make your heart willing. This principle of a believer not being in safety is not limited to the possibility of danger to life and limb.

To be in safety also means things like always seeking the easiest road to trod, not living by faith, building up our own man-made security instead of looking to God in faith and such. Often when Christ moves in the hearts of the pastor and church members to lunge out into the deep and do greater works for the Lord, we are likely to hear a cry from souls weaker in faith among us, that's too risky, it's taking too big of a chance, it may not be safe. And when we follow those natural instincts and draw back from the task instead of being like Job and not being in safety, then the cause of Christ suffers greatly.

In 1973, I came to Japan in the U.S. military with orders to be stationed here for one year, the final year of my active duty. But after I came to Japan, my Lord told me, I want you to get discharged from the military here in Japan without returning to the States and stay here to preach the gospel. God's leading in this matter was very clear to me.

But that clear call, it was also plenty scary to me, what a major change that would be to quit a well-paying job as a captain and pilot in the U.S. Marines and stay in Japan without any income, living halfway around the world from all my family and friends. I felt like I didn't have the courage to do that, so I prayed for courage. Also, I started seeking out other missionaries here in Japan to discuss it with them, hoping to get some encouragement from them, but most of them discouraged me.

Although two of those missionary men encouraged me to obey God, a dozen or so of them did just the opposite. As I told them about what God was leading me to do, they acted shocked that I would even consider doing such a thing. Then they would respond with such discouraging words, that's shaky, that's risky.

It won't work. There's no security in that. That's not safe.

How are you going to live? Where will you get your money? I had no idea how I would live or where I would get my money. Such thoughts had already scared me enough and sent me running to them, seeking encouragement and assurance. But miserable comforters are you all.

Most of them told me, you had better go back to the States and get with a good mission board and raise your support so that you can be sure that you will be able to stay on the field. Man's promised support is a sure thing was sort of their theme. So I had gone to them in hope of getting encouraged to obey God.

Instead, they advised me to disobey God and that highly discouraged me. I was young and inexperienced, they were old and experienced. So I thought they must know what they were talking about.

Each time after talking with such various missionaries, I would travel back to my military base in Japan, so discouraged and defeated by them. I would get along with God in my room, pour up my heart to him and ask, what shall I do, Lord? God's answer was always so very clear. Obey me.

I would spend hours alone praying to God about that while thinking about the many discouraging things the veteran missionaries had said to me. Oh, God seemed to give me this ultimatum. You can believe them or you can believe me.

And you know, I did what was the most stupid, dangerous, unsafe, shaky, and foolish thing in the minds of many Christians. I believed God. Then I obeyed him in his calling.

One year and three months after I arrived in Japan, my mandatory time of active duty in the military came to an end. So at that time, in obedience to God, I received my discharge from the U.S. military here in Japan and immediately entered a missionary language school to study the Japanese language. And since that time, which was February 1975, not for one single second have I ever regretted that decision.

I praise God for teaching me that I don't have to be in safety. I don't have to know how I am going to eat tomorrow or how I am going to obtain the other necessities of life. All I have to do is to first seek the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto me.

Amen and amen. Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto thee. Hallelu, hallelujah.

I just keep trusting my Lord as I walk along. I just keep trusting my Lord and he gives me a song. Though the storm clouds darken the path or the stormy veil, I just keep trusting my Lord, he will never fail.

He's a faithful friend, such a faithful friend. I can count on him till the very end and I just keep trusting and singing. Though most missionaries I talked to plainly told me it would not work, glory to God that it did work.

Amazing how it always works to obey God, no matter how many preachers and missionaries do not believe it will and even strongly advise people against obeying him. Now, over 51 years later in 2025 now, I still marvel at how important to those missionaries was the safety and security provided by man and how foolish and dangerous they deemed it to be to obey and follow God in faith. Give us man safety and security, lest we perish.

By God's great grace, by now I've let God's two lights shine in Japan for a longer number of years than any of those did who advised me against staying. All of them having finished their course in Japan one by one, I was not in safety. Preach it to us all, preacher Job.

Let's pray again. Lord God, please help me to never trade obedience unto thee for safety, security, and provision which comes from fellow man who is fallible. As a Christian, help me to never discourage another believer in the matters of believing, obeying, and following thee in faith.

Rather, give me truthful words from thee to speak to them in an encouraging and assuring way concerning obeying thee. Please keep me from being a miserable comforter and a hindrance to believers following thee. Please help all other Christians to also do right in this matter.

Amen. In the New Testament, our Lord Jesus clearly shows us his method of sending out missionaries. In Luke chapter 9, Christ sent out his 12 closest disciples to preach the word, sending them on missionary journeys.

And when he did, he commanded them, take nothing for your journey. That's Luke chapter 9, verse 3. Then in Luke chapter 10, Christ sends out 70 other people on missionary journeys. Now he commands these, carry neither purse nor script nor shoes.

That's in Luke 10, verse 4. Even though we have those two most clear examples, commands of our Lord in the Bible, most mission organizations have a firm policy that all missionaries who go out under their authority must go out in disobedience to these two commands. Those organizations require their missionaries to first raise much financial support before going on their missionary journey. And if the missionary to be cannot or does not raise those finances in advance the journey, then he cannot be a missionary with that organization.

In order to associate with them, they require him to disobey our Lord's commands in Luke 9, verse 3 and 10, verse 4. What wicked sin that must be in our Lord's sight. Let's pray again. Heavenly Father, is that true what brother Richard just said? That is a most profound statement to make and it is hard for me to believe.

So please speak to my heart and tell me if it is true. I want to know God's truth in this manner. I pray for Christian leaders who are in authority over missionaries and other such Christian workers.

I pray for thee to help them to know the exact present day applications of thy commands in Luke 9, verse 3 and 10, verse 4. Then please give them a heart that desires to obey these commands and that desires that the Christian workers under their authority also obey these commands. Deal with them to cease requiring thy servants to disobey these commands. Clearly show them any sins they are committing in this matter and give them a heart to repent of and forsake those sins.

Also give them a heart to proclaim to all people the importance of obeying these scriptural commands from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Do you know why those mission boards require such disobedience to God? Because it is not safe to do it the way God says do it.

We must have man's security also. Without it, and that missionary journey is far away on to the opposite side of the world, some heathen nation, God might forget about him and allow him and his family to starve to death. So if we are going to do this thing right, we must look out for their safety and have pledges of support made and funds raised before we let them go and tell.

But take nothing for your journey. Why? Well, there's no safety in doing it like Christ said do it. That's dangerous.

That's just too risky. No security in that at all. Forget about what our Lord commanded in Luke chapter 9 and chapter 10.

That is just too unreasonable, once even unthinkable. We can get our heads together and come up with something much better than that. So it's thinking and scheming our sin.

It is most displeasing to God on high, and it robs him of the glory that our obedience to his word would bring to him. It is not my place to tell anyone else how little or how much he is to take on his journey to spread God's word. That's between him and God.

I cannot tell him that he must go penniless. But for another Christian to take authority over him and tell him we operate on a firm rule that support in full must be raised in advance for all foreseeable expenses before we will allow you to go amounts to nothing more than plain, blantan, open, sinful disobedience to and rebellion against God when no leeway is given for the missionary to be obedient to what Christ commanded in Luke 9 and 10. And almighty God is highly displeased with that sin.

I'm out of time. God richly bless you and be with you. Cause his face to shine upon you and do you much good.

May you obey him wholly. Amen.