| He Is Free Indeed! |
It was Saturday afternoon and Ambassadors Academy #12 was drawing to a close. I sat down near the top of the amphitheater at Huntington Beach, next to one of the participants. His face was a dark red as a result of a full day in the sun. The look on his face expressed a combination of deep thought, determination, and sorrow.The man, sixteen years my junior (almost to the day), had made his first-ever trans-continental flight to come to the Ambassadors Academy. It was his first trip to California. It was the first time he had seen the ocean. It was the first time he had ever experienced the open display of immorality that is commonplace on Hollywood Boulevard and on Huntington Beach. He had traveled from the small community of Honey Brook, which is located in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The road he traveled to get to the Academy is an interesting one. I first became aware of the man when Ray Comfort asked me to watch a BBC documentary about the man and his family. I was moved to tears as I watched the man's story and heard his testimony of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I was also shocked as I learned about the persecution he faced from his own community. The story reminded me of what Martin Luther and the other great reformers faced at the hands of a religious system that had become corrupt, legalistic because of adherence to man-made traditions, and morally bankrupt. What shocked me is that what I was watching was not taking place in 16th century Europe, but in the farming communities of southern Pennsylvania. Ray stood near my desk as I watched the end of the documentary. "I talked to him." Ray said. "He told me he wanted to come to the Academy; but I told him that the Academy was full." Ray smiled. He smiled because he knew what I was going to say. "Ray. We'll make room. If he wants to come, then we're going to get him here!" "Okay, Tony." I could tell that Ray had already decided that we would make room for one more participant. But knowing Ray, I think he just wanted to see my reaction. Ray gave me the man's phone number and I gave him a call. Most of us take for granted how easy it is for us to just pick up the phone, or hop on the Internet to send an instant message, or get into a car and drive from Point-A to Point-B. But in Ephraim Stoltzfus' world none of these things are commonplace. You see: Ephraim Stotzfus is Amish--or as Ephraim now describes himself, he is a Christian who lives in the Amish culture. Ephraim and his family were excommunicated from the Amish Church a few years ago. What was their crime against God and against the Church? Ephraim believes that the Word of God is true and that it is the responsibility--the duty--for every Christian to read the Bible and study it for themselves. He further violated the tenets of the Amish Church by attending and leading Bible studies and prayer meetings outside the confines of the church. It was the reading of the Bible that showed Ephraim that a person is not saved by keeping the rules of the Amish Church; but rather by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone. As a result of reading the Bible and the testimonies of genuine followers of Jesus Christ, Ephraim came to repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was assured of his salvation--not by keeping the rules of the Amish Church (which brought no assurance), but by the grace of God and the forgiveness of sin given to him, through the sacrificial death and glorious resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ. Ephraim was free indeed. As we sat next to each other on the concrete steps of the amphitheater, Ephraim turned to me with that before-mentioned look of deep thought, determination, and sorrow and asked, "Tony, do we have to go home?" "Yes, my brother, you have to go home." "But there are so many lost people here." "And there are just as many lost people back home." "That's right. That's right." He affirmed, nodding his head. "Brother, this is why you came here. You came here so you could then go home and reach your community, your culture, with the gospel." He continued to nod his head. He squinted as he stared at the ocean. I don't think it was the glare of the sun that caused the squint as much as it was his resolve to go home and fulfill his mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the community and people he loved so very much. All weekend I had watched Ephraim. I watched him with both concern and curiosity. I was concerned and curious about how the culture shock of being so far away from Amish Country would impact him. In observing Ephraim, I didn't see a fish out of water. I saw a young man who had been set free. Ephraim's zeal, determination, passion, and joy were evident all weekend long. During our times of corporate prayer, I couldn't help but to hear Ephraim. He prayed as one who had been set free from the bondage of sin. He prayed as one whose chains of legalism and tradition had been broken by the free and sovereign grace of Almighty God. Whenever I heard Ephraim cry out "thank you" to God, I knew it was not mere words stemming from a prayerful habit; but the impassioned cry of gratitude of a prisoner to his Liberator. He was free indeed. When I watched Ephraim open-air preach (which he seemed to do non-stop the two days we were on the streets), I heard not a man going through the motions; but rather a man whose heart broke for lost souls. Ephraim's preaching was filled with a very real sense of urgency and expectancy--urgency due to the realization that people around him were dying and bound for hell, and expectancy about the return of his King, Jesus Christ. Ephraim was not a machine in his preaching. He was a missionary. And the cry in his voice matched the cry of his heart. Ephraim was a man who had been set free, begging others to come to the only One who could set them free. I fully expected that the Academy would teach Ephraim a thing or two about evangelism; and I'm sure it did. But as for me, personally, I think I learned more from Ephraim than I taught him. I learned that I (and maybe other Christians, too) take for granted the freedom I have in Christ. I'm not talking about liberty--the freedom to do this or that. I'm talking about the freedom I saw expressed in the life of a Christian man who lives in an Amish community. The freedom I sometimes take for granted is not the freedoms I have, but rather the freedom given to me by my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ--the freedom from sin and death. Watching Ephraim Stoltzfus this last weekend was like watching a man who had been liberated from a deep, dark, dank, dirty cell and taking his first breath in many years of fresh, clean air. It was like watching the same man take breath after deep breath because he couldn't get enough of the sweet-smelling, clean, and fresh air. His lungs burned with every cleansing breath, but he didn't care. He was free. With every deep gasp, the once-confined prisoner flung his arms to the sky and screamed, "I'm free! I'm free!" The air of freedom that filled his lungs also filled his heart with joy, which in turn filled his mouth with words of thanksgiving to and praise for his liberators. Although Ephraim was saved from the law of sin and death a few years ago, he is still enjoying the deep cleansing breaths of freedom in Christ. And it shows. It shows in his worship. It shows in his prayer. It shows in his evangelism. "I'm free! I'm free!" Thank you Ephraim Stoltzfus, my brother in Christ, for the reminder that I too am free indeed. And thank You, Lord Jesus, for setting me free. "So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, 'If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free . . . So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed'" (John 8:31-32, 36). "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:1-2).
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choose truth from falsehood. What are you afraid of "the truth"?