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Thursday, September 27, 2007
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Apologizing in Japan
In Japan it is very appropriate to apologize often, even if you didn't necessarily to do anything wrong. If you learn from this video you can fit in anywhere in Japan!
Monday, September 24, 2007
The Gospel and Personal Evangelism
Recently I have been thinking about how I can spur others and myself on towards more personal evangelism. What is it that keeps me from stopping to have a conversation with someone I see everyday? Am I too busy to care for people that God has made? Am I afraid that these people won't like me? Perhaps I think they are too busy? What would happen if I truly took an interest in people's lives and tried to get to know them?
One thing that I have found is that when I do take an interest in someone's life, things usually go well. They are interested to hear about my life also. They don't feel that I am being pushy when I start to share about Christ. They are open to fielding my questions about their spiritual life as well. If there is one thing that I have learned is that personal evangelism doesn't have to be unnatural or strange for anyone - though it does takes a step of faith in God. It is a good thing that it doesn't have to be hard, because we are ALL called to personal evangelism as Christians. All the disciples (including us) were given the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations.
Check out these free downloadable messages about Personal Evangelism from Mark Dever
Recently I have been thinking about how I can spur others and myself on towards more personal evangelism. What is it that keeps me from stopping to have a conversation with someone I see everyday? Am I too busy to care for people that God has made? Am I afraid that these people won't like me? Perhaps I think they are too busy? What would happen if I truly took an interest in people's lives and tried to get to know them?
One thing that I have found is that when I do take an interest in someone's life, things usually go well. They are interested to hear about my life also. They don't feel that I am being pushy when I start to share about Christ. They are open to fielding my questions about their spiritual life as well. If there is one thing that I have learned is that personal evangelism doesn't have to be unnatural or strange for anyone - though it does takes a step of faith in God. It is a good thing that it doesn't have to be hard, because we are ALL called to personal evangelism as Christians. All the disciples (including us) were given the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations.
Check out these free downloadable messages about Personal Evangelism from Mark Dever
Friday, September 21, 2007
Friendship and the Gospel
Here is a great post to balance out my last one!
Question: Can you really be a friend with someone and withhold from them the thing they need the most - the gospel?
(HT: JT)
Here is a great post to balance out my last one!
Question: Can you really be a friend with someone and withhold from them the thing they need the most - the gospel?
(HT: JT)
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Throwing Rocks or Building Bridges
I have been citing my brother Doug's blog a lot recently because he has some
great things to say. Here is another example. We Christians sometimes look more
like Pharisees pointing fingers than like humble people who realize they are ignorant
of many things concerning other people's lives, background and culture.
I have been citing my brother Doug's blog a lot recently because he has some
great things to say. Here is another example. We Christians sometimes look more
like Pharisees pointing fingers than like humble people who realize they are ignorant
of many things concerning other people's lives, background and culture.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Monday, September 17, 2007
Good thoughts on Free Will
R.C. Sproul has been a mainstay of good, solid Biblical theology for years. Here is fresh material from him about Free Will, in a new book about the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Read more here.
(HT: JT)
R.C. Sproul has been a mainstay of good, solid Biblical theology for years. Here is fresh material from him about Free Will, in a new book about the Westminster Confession of Faith.
Read more here.
(HT: JT)
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Photo Phun
The last couple weeks have brought the beginning of school (www.kyotoiu.org) and the starting back up of college ministry. Unfortunately, I have to leave my precious family each day for several hours now! (Sorry, this is new to me after getting to spend a lot of quality time with the family this summer!)As a college ministry (CrossRoads) staff, we are beginning to have a Bible study and fellowship time (pictured above) which meets at our home. I am thankful that Maki really wants to do this, even though she is very busy with Noah!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Keepon Robot
Check out this new robot made in Kyoto. It moves to the beat and follows eyes so that it seems to be interacting with people. My friend told me that this robot is being used to help autistic children who find it overwhelming to interact with complicated facial movements and body language of adults. With its simple reaction to eyes and to where eyes move, Keepon can help children take steps in beginning to interact with others. - It also can "move to the rhythm" more than most people!
Check out this new robot made in Kyoto. It moves to the beat and follows eyes so that it seems to be interacting with people. My friend told me that this robot is being used to help autistic children who find it overwhelming to interact with complicated facial movements and body language of adults. With its simple reaction to eyes and to where eyes move, Keepon can help children take steps in beginning to interact with others. - It also can "move to the rhythm" more than most people!
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Friday, September 07, 2007
Thursday, September 06, 2007
Testimony from our pastor Steve Rohrer
Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible.
Have you ever read Philippians?
Do any of you know what the theme of Philippians is?
Rejoicing!
Sounds good, huh?
Let’s look at a few verses from Philippians (2:17-18):
“But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.”
Now maybe some of you are thinking,
“Rejoicing and sharing your joy with others sounds nice, but sometimes circumstances in our lives make it pretty difficult to rejoice!”
Well, Paul certainly knew about that because he was in prison when he wrote this letter!
Put in jail for telling people about Jesus.
And one of the reasons he was writing to the Philippians was that he knew they had problems in their church.
People in the church were having a hard time getting along with each other,
But even in prison, Paul was rejoicing and he was encouraging the church to rejoice in spite of their problems.
Why? Because when we rejoice, we focus on what God is doing,
We see our problems from the right perspective.
They really aren’t as significant as they may have seemed.
And rejoicing together draws Christians together so we can be united in serving the Lord.
But what do we have to rejoice about?
If you are a Christian, no matter what your circumstances may be, there is always much to rejoice about,
For as Christians all of our sins have been forgiven,
We have become children of God and nothing can separate us from his love,
We have the hope of living with God for eternity,
We have the Holy Spirit who is at work in our lives,
And we have the promise that God works all things in our lives for our good, to make us more like Jesus.
I think that sometimes we don’t rejoice because we are so focused on our problems that we don’t take time to remember these spiritual blessings God has given each of us,
And we sometimes forget to look at the individual blessings God has given to us recently and how He has been at work in our lives.
This summer I spent a month away from my family studying at a university in America, and I had a lot of time to think.
I had also spent several weeks studying there last summer.
One thing I thought about was the past year, since I was last at that university.
A lot has happened and God has done many things in my life.
Sometimes it was hard.
But it was very good for me to look back.
It led me to rejoice.
So today I’d like to rejoice and share my joy with you all as I tell you of God’s goodness to me and my family.
After returning from the States in the summer of 2006, I started right back into school at KIU Academy.
Fall trimester is always busy, especially because every year my elementary social studies and Language arts classes write a historical play and make it into a video.
We study about some civilization or time period and then do a play about a person or event related to what we have studied.
Last year we were studying Greek and Roman civilizations, so we did a play about the life of Paul from the Bible.
He’s the guy who wrote the book of Philippians.
He was a Roman citizen who traveled around Greece telling about Jesus.
It was a lot of work, but it was also a fun learning experience for the kids in the class,
And it was also a good learning experience for me.
We read all about the life of Paul from the book of Acts,
And it really makes you think about it in a new way when you are trying to decide what to include in a play and how to act it out.
On the one hand I saw so clearly that Paul really had a very hard life.
We were trying to figure out how many times to show Paul being beaten and how many of his hardships could we show without the video becoming gloomy and depressing.
But on the other hand I saw so clearly Paul’s attitude of rejoicing in the midst of his struggles.
He was so focused on what God was doing in the world and how God was in control and was working even through all of Paul’s hardships.
That was a very timely lesson for me to learn.
We showed the video at our Christmas program, and during vacation I was finishing up the editing and making DVDs for my students.
Over and over I heard the song we used in the video titled: “God is in control.”
My kids walked around the house singing it.
Then, on the last day of winter vacation, my youngest daughter Julia came down in the morning and started vomiting blood in our kitchen.
That was a frightening experience, yet God had prepared us and given us assurance that even in this situation when we could do nothing, He was in control of what happened to Julia.
Julia came very close to dying, but God had mercy on her and on our family.
He protected Julia and kept her alive.
She has had two operations since then and her stomach exam a few weeks ago showed her esophagus is now clear of all the swollen veins that had ruptured and caused the bleeding.
We thank you for we know many of you have prayed for Julia.
But even more we rejoice and thank God, for He has been so good to us.
But it isn’t only when God heals that He is good.
I mentioned this promise earlier (Romans 8:28):
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”
In the apostle Paul’s difficult situations as well in ours, God was at work to bring good out of it.
Now this doesn’t mean God causes all of the problems in our lives.
Most of them are the results of sin in our world.
But God is so great, He uses even bad circumstances to bring about good results.
Paul rejoiced that his imprisonment gave him opportunities to tell his guards and judges and other rulers about Jesus.
In our family’s case, God used Julia’s situation to help our whole family grow in faith.
You know, when everything is going along smoothly in our lives, it is easy to forget about God and how much we need Him.
But when something like Julia’s illness comes along,
it shows us how helpless we really are and how much we need God.
This was true in our family.
Even Julia at her young age of five was learning how to trust God for strength to face difficulties.
You know, we wouldn’t ask for painful circumstances in our lives,
But often these are the times we grow most so I rejoice in what God has done in Julia and our family over the past 8 months.
Now at the same time, we were facing a situation with our house.
For the last 19 years in Japan, we have been renting homes.
Often from owners who were away on business, so we would have to move whenever they came back and wanted the house.
Then in the spring of 2006, we received permanent residence visas, so we had the ability to borrow money and buy a house.
We started praying about it and looking at houses that were available.
But we didn’t find any houses that had what we wanted for a price we could afford.
We asked the real estate agent for the house we were living in whether the owner would be willing to sell.
He said no.
But then he told us last fall that the owner was coming back to Japan but would not be living in that house,
So we could get a new contract and stay there as long as we wanted without having to move.
I thought that sounded pretty good.
Maybe this was God’s answer to our prayers about whether we should move or not.
We stopped actively looking at houses, but we still received faxes of floorplans from the real estate agent from time to time.
One Saturday morning we got one.
It was very blurry and confusing and neither Jemi or I were very interested,
But we were not busy that day, so we decided we would go just to see what was available.
It was very big,
Not very old,
10 minutes drive from KIU Academy,
And a price we could afford!
Wow! We prayed and talked about it, and decided to buy it.
A few days later when I came home from talking with the bank about a loan,
I got a call from the real estate agent for the house we were living in.
He said, ”Oh, Mr. Rohrer, I have something very important to tell you!
The owner changed his mind.
He is coming back and wants to live in the house you are in now.
So you must move by February 9!”
That was less than 3 months away!
I replied, ”My God is so good!
He has provided the house for us to move to when we didn’t even know we would have to move!
And the owners are planning to leave about two weeks before we must be out of this house!”
As it turned out, God’s timing was perfect.
We moved February 2:
One week before we had to be out of our old house,
And 2 days after Julia got out of the hospital after her internal bleeding problem!
Again, I rejoice, for God was so good to us.
The house he provided is so good for our family,
And His timing was also good in that our new neighbors were concerned about our cute little daughter in the hospital,
Which helped us start good relationships with our new neighbors very easily,
And gave us the opportunity to share with them about how our faith in Jesus was helping us through that difficult time.
One of our new neighbors even said that she had gone to church when younger,
And she thought God had brought us to this neighborhood to help her.
Wow, that’s reason to rejoice, isn’t it!
God was at work, even through difficult circumstances.
God has also been at work similarly through my wife’s health problem.
For the past 4 years my wife has had trouble with hyperthyroid,
But God has graciously caused her condition to improve to the point where she could stop taking medicine for it a few months ago.
That’s more reason to rejoice,
But again, God was also working through that difficulty, with the result that several people from her hospital have come to Chapel and heard about Jesus.
We rejoice in what God has done and share our joy with you.
Now while all the medical problems were happening with Julia,
Life was still going on for our other four kids, and it was often rather stressful.
Those of you who are parents know it is often challenging raising children.
You teach them what is right and how to treat others, but you can’t make them want to do right.
We can try to guide their actions, but we can’t change their hearts.
Only God can do that.
And we have prayed to that end for our kids since before they were born.
And this year we’ve seen God answer some of those prayers.
This spring, the Holy Spirit clearly worked in my son, changing his attitude toward God and others.
I was so pleasantly surprised to see the kind way he was relating to his younger sisters.
I told him I really appreciated it.
He said, “Oh it’s no problem. It just comes naturally!”
But we both know the change really came supernaturally through the work of the Holy Spirit.
I rejoice to see God’s work in my son’s life.
Likewise, I’ve seen God at work in my daughter’s life.
One night before we prayed together at bedtime, I asked my daughter if she had ever talked to some of her friends about Jesus.
We started praying for them together.
Before long she had invited two of them to Chapel and they were coming regularly.
As a father, it is exciting for me to see my daughter’s concern for those around her,
To see her desire to share Jesus with her friends,
And to see God at work in her life, answering her prayers.
It’s another reason to rejoice.
Now God wasn’t at work only in our family,
But we’ve seen Him at work in encouraging ways in the lives of others around us in answer to our prayers.
A good example is Akemi Yamaguchi’s father.
You may have heard Akemi’s testimony about it a few months ago.
Mr. Yamaguchi used to attend our Suminodo Int’l chapel years ago and my family also attended there.
Many weeks I helped him practice his English speaking,
And then after the message I would try to talk with him about Jesus,
But he had no interest.
His heart was hard toward God.
Then, years later, we heard from Akemi that his condition was rapidly deteriorating from cancer.
Our family prayed for his physical condition, but we prayed even more for his heart:
That it would soften and that he would repent of his sin and give his life to Jesus before he died.
I must admit that my faith often was not very strong as I thought back to my talks with him at Suminodo,
But my young daughters prayed for him faithfully almost every night,
And God answered.
Again God graciously worked through a difficult illness to bring about good:
Mr. Yamaguchi’s heart softened and he turned to Jesus.
He died at peace with God and will be with him forever in heaven.
This was so encouraging to our family and to many others at Chapel.
That is reason to rejoice!
Now the question arises: Why has God done all of these wonderful things for my family in the past year?
Is it because I am a missionary or some kind of great Christian?
No, as I said earlier, I think my children’s faith is sometimes greater than mine.
But this summer as God brought to my mind the blessings of the past year,
tears ran down my cheeks,
And I saw it is all because of God’s grace,
Because He is such a loving and generous God.
It is such a blessing to know Him.
All I can do is rejoice and give thanks to Him.
His grace is the hope for my family.
His grace is the hope for this church.
His grace is the hope for Japan.
Most people in Japan see no need for Jesus in their lives.
*As the Bible says, (Romans 3:10-11) “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.”
That was Mr Yamaguchi’s situation
And Maybe this is your situation today,
But just like with Mr Yamaguchi’s case, God still loves you and He is seeking you.
He is the hope for your life,
And that is reason to rejoice.
What reasons do you have to rejoice today?
Think about it,
Then rejoice and share your joy with others.
Philippians is one of my favorite books in the Bible.
Have you ever read Philippians?
Do any of you know what the theme of Philippians is?
Rejoicing!
Sounds good, huh?
Let’s look at a few verses from Philippians (2:17-18):
“But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me.”
Now maybe some of you are thinking,
“Rejoicing and sharing your joy with others sounds nice, but sometimes circumstances in our lives make it pretty difficult to rejoice!”
Well, Paul certainly knew about that because he was in prison when he wrote this letter!
Put in jail for telling people about Jesus.
And one of the reasons he was writing to the Philippians was that he knew they had problems in their church.
People in the church were having a hard time getting along with each other,
But even in prison, Paul was rejoicing and he was encouraging the church to rejoice in spite of their problems.
Why? Because when we rejoice, we focus on what God is doing,
We see our problems from the right perspective.
They really aren’t as significant as they may have seemed.
And rejoicing together draws Christians together so we can be united in serving the Lord.
But what do we have to rejoice about?
If you are a Christian, no matter what your circumstances may be, there is always much to rejoice about,
For as Christians all of our sins have been forgiven,
We have become children of God and nothing can separate us from his love,
We have the hope of living with God for eternity,
We have the Holy Spirit who is at work in our lives,
And we have the promise that God works all things in our lives for our good, to make us more like Jesus.
I think that sometimes we don’t rejoice because we are so focused on our problems that we don’t take time to remember these spiritual blessings God has given each of us,
And we sometimes forget to look at the individual blessings God has given to us recently and how He has been at work in our lives.
This summer I spent a month away from my family studying at a university in America, and I had a lot of time to think.
I had also spent several weeks studying there last summer.
One thing I thought about was the past year, since I was last at that university.
A lot has happened and God has done many things in my life.
Sometimes it was hard.
But it was very good for me to look back.
It led me to rejoice.
So today I’d like to rejoice and share my joy with you all as I tell you of God’s goodness to me and my family.
After returning from the States in the summer of 2006, I started right back into school at KIU Academy.
Fall trimester is always busy, especially because every year my elementary social studies and Language arts classes write a historical play and make it into a video.
We study about some civilization or time period and then do a play about a person or event related to what we have studied.
Last year we were studying Greek and Roman civilizations, so we did a play about the life of Paul from the Bible.
He’s the guy who wrote the book of Philippians.
He was a Roman citizen who traveled around Greece telling about Jesus.
It was a lot of work, but it was also a fun learning experience for the kids in the class,
And it was also a good learning experience for me.
We read all about the life of Paul from the book of Acts,
And it really makes you think about it in a new way when you are trying to decide what to include in a play and how to act it out.
On the one hand I saw so clearly that Paul really had a very hard life.
We were trying to figure out how many times to show Paul being beaten and how many of his hardships could we show without the video becoming gloomy and depressing.
But on the other hand I saw so clearly Paul’s attitude of rejoicing in the midst of his struggles.
He was so focused on what God was doing in the world and how God was in control and was working even through all of Paul’s hardships.
That was a very timely lesson for me to learn.
We showed the video at our Christmas program, and during vacation I was finishing up the editing and making DVDs for my students.
Over and over I heard the song we used in the video titled: “God is in control.”
My kids walked around the house singing it.
Then, on the last day of winter vacation, my youngest daughter Julia came down in the morning and started vomiting blood in our kitchen.
That was a frightening experience, yet God had prepared us and given us assurance that even in this situation when we could do nothing, He was in control of what happened to Julia.
Julia came very close to dying, but God had mercy on her and on our family.
He protected Julia and kept her alive.
She has had two operations since then and her stomach exam a few weeks ago showed her esophagus is now clear of all the swollen veins that had ruptured and caused the bleeding.
We thank you for we know many of you have prayed for Julia.
But even more we rejoice and thank God, for He has been so good to us.
But it isn’t only when God heals that He is good.
I mentioned this promise earlier (Romans 8:28):
“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.”
In the apostle Paul’s difficult situations as well in ours, God was at work to bring good out of it.
Now this doesn’t mean God causes all of the problems in our lives.
Most of them are the results of sin in our world.
But God is so great, He uses even bad circumstances to bring about good results.
Paul rejoiced that his imprisonment gave him opportunities to tell his guards and judges and other rulers about Jesus.
In our family’s case, God used Julia’s situation to help our whole family grow in faith.
You know, when everything is going along smoothly in our lives, it is easy to forget about God and how much we need Him.
But when something like Julia’s illness comes along,
it shows us how helpless we really are and how much we need God.
This was true in our family.
Even Julia at her young age of five was learning how to trust God for strength to face difficulties.
You know, we wouldn’t ask for painful circumstances in our lives,
But often these are the times we grow most so I rejoice in what God has done in Julia and our family over the past 8 months.
Now at the same time, we were facing a situation with our house.
For the last 19 years in Japan, we have been renting homes.
Often from owners who were away on business, so we would have to move whenever they came back and wanted the house.
Then in the spring of 2006, we received permanent residence visas, so we had the ability to borrow money and buy a house.
We started praying about it and looking at houses that were available.
But we didn’t find any houses that had what we wanted for a price we could afford.
We asked the real estate agent for the house we were living in whether the owner would be willing to sell.
He said no.
But then he told us last fall that the owner was coming back to Japan but would not be living in that house,
So we could get a new contract and stay there as long as we wanted without having to move.
I thought that sounded pretty good.
Maybe this was God’s answer to our prayers about whether we should move or not.
We stopped actively looking at houses, but we still received faxes of floorplans from the real estate agent from time to time.
One Saturday morning we got one.
It was very blurry and confusing and neither Jemi or I were very interested,
But we were not busy that day, so we decided we would go just to see what was available.
It was very big,
Not very old,
10 minutes drive from KIU Academy,
And a price we could afford!
Wow! We prayed and talked about it, and decided to buy it.
A few days later when I came home from talking with the bank about a loan,
I got a call from the real estate agent for the house we were living in.
He said, ”Oh, Mr. Rohrer, I have something very important to tell you!
The owner changed his mind.
He is coming back and wants to live in the house you are in now.
So you must move by February 9!”
That was less than 3 months away!
I replied, ”My God is so good!
He has provided the house for us to move to when we didn’t even know we would have to move!
And the owners are planning to leave about two weeks before we must be out of this house!”
As it turned out, God’s timing was perfect.
We moved February 2:
One week before we had to be out of our old house,
And 2 days after Julia got out of the hospital after her internal bleeding problem!
Again, I rejoice, for God was so good to us.
The house he provided is so good for our family,
And His timing was also good in that our new neighbors were concerned about our cute little daughter in the hospital,
Which helped us start good relationships with our new neighbors very easily,
And gave us the opportunity to share with them about how our faith in Jesus was helping us through that difficult time.
One of our new neighbors even said that she had gone to church when younger,
And she thought God had brought us to this neighborhood to help her.
Wow, that’s reason to rejoice, isn’t it!
God was at work, even through difficult circumstances.
God has also been at work similarly through my wife’s health problem.
For the past 4 years my wife has had trouble with hyperthyroid,
But God has graciously caused her condition to improve to the point where she could stop taking medicine for it a few months ago.
That’s more reason to rejoice,
But again, God was also working through that difficulty, with the result that several people from her hospital have come to Chapel and heard about Jesus.
We rejoice in what God has done and share our joy with you.
Now while all the medical problems were happening with Julia,
Life was still going on for our other four kids, and it was often rather stressful.
Those of you who are parents know it is often challenging raising children.
You teach them what is right and how to treat others, but you can’t make them want to do right.
We can try to guide their actions, but we can’t change their hearts.
Only God can do that.
And we have prayed to that end for our kids since before they were born.
And this year we’ve seen God answer some of those prayers.
This spring, the Holy Spirit clearly worked in my son, changing his attitude toward God and others.
I was so pleasantly surprised to see the kind way he was relating to his younger sisters.
I told him I really appreciated it.
He said, “Oh it’s no problem. It just comes naturally!”
But we both know the change really came supernaturally through the work of the Holy Spirit.
I rejoice to see God’s work in my son’s life.
Likewise, I’ve seen God at work in my daughter’s life.
One night before we prayed together at bedtime, I asked my daughter if she had ever talked to some of her friends about Jesus.
We started praying for them together.
Before long she had invited two of them to Chapel and they were coming regularly.
As a father, it is exciting for me to see my daughter’s concern for those around her,
To see her desire to share Jesus with her friends,
And to see God at work in her life, answering her prayers.
It’s another reason to rejoice.
Now God wasn’t at work only in our family,
But we’ve seen Him at work in encouraging ways in the lives of others around us in answer to our prayers.
A good example is Akemi Yamaguchi’s father.
You may have heard Akemi’s testimony about it a few months ago.
Mr. Yamaguchi used to attend our Suminodo Int’l chapel years ago and my family also attended there.
Many weeks I helped him practice his English speaking,
And then after the message I would try to talk with him about Jesus,
But he had no interest.
His heart was hard toward God.
Then, years later, we heard from Akemi that his condition was rapidly deteriorating from cancer.
Our family prayed for his physical condition, but we prayed even more for his heart:
That it would soften and that he would repent of his sin and give his life to Jesus before he died.
I must admit that my faith often was not very strong as I thought back to my talks with him at Suminodo,
But my young daughters prayed for him faithfully almost every night,
And God answered.
Again God graciously worked through a difficult illness to bring about good:
Mr. Yamaguchi’s heart softened and he turned to Jesus.
He died at peace with God and will be with him forever in heaven.
This was so encouraging to our family and to many others at Chapel.
That is reason to rejoice!
Now the question arises: Why has God done all of these wonderful things for my family in the past year?
Is it because I am a missionary or some kind of great Christian?
No, as I said earlier, I think my children’s faith is sometimes greater than mine.
But this summer as God brought to my mind the blessings of the past year,
tears ran down my cheeks,
And I saw it is all because of God’s grace,
Because He is such a loving and generous God.
It is such a blessing to know Him.
All I can do is rejoice and give thanks to Him.
His grace is the hope for my family.
His grace is the hope for this church.
His grace is the hope for Japan.
Most people in Japan see no need for Jesus in their lives.
*As the Bible says, (Romans 3:10-11) “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God.”
That was Mr Yamaguchi’s situation
And Maybe this is your situation today,
But just like with Mr Yamaguchi’s case, God still loves you and He is seeking you.
He is the hope for your life,
And that is reason to rejoice.
What reasons do you have to rejoice today?
Think about it,
Then rejoice and share your joy with others.
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
7 years in Japan!
In 2000, I remember a friend telling me, "Going to live in Japan is kind of like climbing Mt. Everest. Are you really ready?"
Well, I don't know if I've really reached any summit, but Sept. 2 brought the 7th anniversary of my coming to Japan! It also was the 5th anniverary of meeting my wife, Maki. It has been great to see all that God has done and worked during that time. When I look at the short-term, sometimes it is hard to see much of anything happening. However, God often works in mysterious and slow ways. During my 7 years I have seen many friends come to Christ - something very rare in Japan. I have seen my Japanese language abilities go from nothing to something and I have gone from a young, single guy, to a grown (?) man with a beautiful wife and child. But most of all I have learned to trust God in a greater way as the Provider, Protector, Creator and Sustainer. He is simply the all in all. All things, including me, have their being in Him. (Acts 17) Thank you God! (Below is another little picture of Noah - I know that is what most people want to see! - I don't blame you!)
In 2000, I remember a friend telling me, "Going to live in Japan is kind of like climbing Mt. Everest. Are you really ready?"
Well, I don't know if I've really reached any summit, but Sept. 2 brought the 7th anniversary of my coming to Japan! It also was the 5th anniverary of meeting my wife, Maki. It has been great to see all that God has done and worked during that time. When I look at the short-term, sometimes it is hard to see much of anything happening. However, God often works in mysterious and slow ways. During my 7 years I have seen many friends come to Christ - something very rare in Japan. I have seen my Japanese language abilities go from nothing to something and I have gone from a young, single guy, to a grown (?) man with a beautiful wife and child. But most of all I have learned to trust God in a greater way as the Provider, Protector, Creator and Sustainer. He is simply the all in all. All things, including me, have their being in Him. (Acts 17) Thank you God! (Below is another little picture of Noah - I know that is what most people want to see! - I don't blame you!)
Tuesday, September 04, 2007
Jesus & Natural Selection
I have been studying Psalm 8 recently in preparation for a message at church. One thing that I noticed is the desire God has to bless and lift up the weak and the humble. He ordains praise for little children while prideful Ivy League professors, by and large, are blinded to His wonders. (1 Cor. 1:18-31) He is mindful of sinful man and cares for the son of man (literally "adam" - one made of dust), but He sits far off from the proud. To people who exult in their own foolish pride, like Nebuchadnezzar, (Daniel 4) He makes more animal-like and machine-like, incapable of wonderous delight in anything bigger than themselves.
Charles Darwin himself said, "Up to the age of 30 or beyond it, poetry of many kinds... gave me great pleasure, and even as a schoolboy I took intese delight in Shakespeare...Formerly pictures gave me considerable, and music very great, delight. but now for many years I cannot endure to read a line of poetry: I have tried Shakespeare, and found it so intolerably dull that it nauseated me. I have also almost lost any taste for pictures or music... I retain some taste for fine scenery, but it does not cause me the exquisite delight which it formerly did... My mind seems to have become a kind of machine for grinding laws out of large collections of facts..."
As I watched, "Darwin's Deadly Legacy" today I wasn't surprised to learn the following:
Columbine killers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 12 people and themselves in the worst school shooting in US history up that time. Their goal was to bring death to more than 500. Harris wrote on his website, "YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE??? Natural SELECTION. It's the best thing that ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid and weak organisms."[59]
The autopsy report for Harris revealed that on the day of the attack, he wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the words "Natural Selection." Harris and Klebold, who planned their rampage for a year, paid homage to their hero, Adolph Hitler by carrying out their killing spree on April 20, Hitler's birthday.
Same-Sex Marriage in Iowa
Given the a Polk County, Iowa, judge has granted a marriage license to a homosexual couple, I think it might be time for some bold and creative Iowa conservatives to consider Francis Beckwith's gameplan, from an article published in 2004 in light of the situation where the San Francisco mayor began handing out marriage licenses to gay couples:
I believe . . . that given present circumstances that the best strategy is to take the mayor at his word and employ “street theatre” in a provocative way in order to force the other side to defend their marital nihilism in all its glory. Here’s the plan: Have about 50 folks go to San Francisco city hall and request marriage licenses, but not for gay marriages, rather, for other sorts of “unions” that are also forbidden by the state: three bisexuals from two genders, one person who wants to marry himself (and have him accuse the mayor of “numberism,” the prejudice that marriage must include more than one person), two married couples who want a temporary “wife-swap lease,” a couple consisting of two brothers, two sisters, or a brother and a sister, an adult mother and son, and a man who wants to add a second wife and a first husband in order to have a “marital ensemble,” etc., etc. Let’s see if the mayor will give these people “marriage” licenses. If not, why not? If not, then the jig is up and the mayor actually has to explain the grounds on which he will not give licenses to these folks. But what could those grounds be? That it would break the law? That marriage has a nature, a purpose, that is not the result of social construction or state fiat? If so, then what is it and why?
(HT:JT)
Given the a Polk County, Iowa, judge has granted a marriage license to a homosexual couple, I think it might be time for some bold and creative Iowa conservatives to consider Francis Beckwith's gameplan, from an article published in 2004 in light of the situation where the San Francisco mayor began handing out marriage licenses to gay couples:
I believe . . . that given present circumstances that the best strategy is to take the mayor at his word and employ “street theatre” in a provocative way in order to force the other side to defend their marital nihilism in all its glory. Here’s the plan: Have about 50 folks go to San Francisco city hall and request marriage licenses, but not for gay marriages, rather, for other sorts of “unions” that are also forbidden by the state: three bisexuals from two genders, one person who wants to marry himself (and have him accuse the mayor of “numberism,” the prejudice that marriage must include more than one person), two married couples who want a temporary “wife-swap lease,” a couple consisting of two brothers, two sisters, or a brother and a sister, an adult mother and son, and a man who wants to add a second wife and a first husband in order to have a “marital ensemble,” etc., etc. Let’s see if the mayor will give these people “marriage” licenses. If not, why not? If not, then the jig is up and the mayor actually has to explain the grounds on which he will not give licenses to these folks. But what could those grounds be? That it would break the law? That marriage has a nature, a purpose, that is not the result of social construction or state fiat? If so, then what is it and why?
(HT:JT)
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Are Creationists True Scientists?
Dr. James Kennedy, in his book, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, says:
"In a debate on creation-evolution held in our church several years ago, the
evolutionist-scientist made the incredible claim not only that creationism
wasn't scientific, but that creationists, therefore, were not scientists. The
truth is that creationists gave the world science! Creationists invented science!
Without creationists there would be no science.
Here is a list of some of the outstanding Bible-believing scientists who founded
the following branches of science...
Antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister
Bacteriology, Louis Pasteur
Calculus, Isaac Newton
Celestial Mechanics, Johannes Kepler
Chemistry, Robert Boyle
Comparative Anatomy, Georges Cuvier
Computer Science, Charles Babbage
Dimensional Analysis, Lord Rayleigh
Dynamics, Isaac Newton
Electronics, John Ambrose Fleming
Electrodynamics, James Clerk Maxwell
Electromagnetics, Michael Faraday
Energetics, Lord Kelvin
Entomology of Living Insects, Henri Fabre
Field Theory, Michael Faraday
Fluid Mechanics, George Stokes
Galactic Astronomy, Sir William Herschel
Gas Dynamics, Robert Boyle
Genetics, Gregor Mendel
Glacial Geology, Louis Agassiz
Gynecology, James Simpson
Hydrography, Matthew Muary
Hydrostatics, Blaise Pascal
Ichthyology, Louis Agassiz
Isotopic Chemistry, William Ramsey
Model Analysis, Lord Rayleigh
Natural History, John Ray
Non-Euclidean Geometry, Bernard Riemann
Oceanography, Matthew Muary
Optical Minerology, David Brewster
And on it goes. All of these founders were Bible believers and believers in creation."
Dr. James Kennedy, in his book, What If Jesus Had Never Been Born, says:
"In a debate on creation-evolution held in our church several years ago, the
evolutionist-scientist made the incredible claim not only that creationism
wasn't scientific, but that creationists, therefore, were not scientists. The
truth is that creationists gave the world science! Creationists invented science!
Without creationists there would be no science.
Here is a list of some of the outstanding Bible-believing scientists who founded
the following branches of science...
Antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister
Bacteriology, Louis Pasteur
Calculus, Isaac Newton
Celestial Mechanics, Johannes Kepler
Chemistry, Robert Boyle
Comparative Anatomy, Georges Cuvier
Computer Science, Charles Babbage
Dimensional Analysis, Lord Rayleigh
Dynamics, Isaac Newton
Electronics, John Ambrose Fleming
Electrodynamics, James Clerk Maxwell
Electromagnetics, Michael Faraday
Energetics, Lord Kelvin
Entomology of Living Insects, Henri Fabre
Field Theory, Michael Faraday
Fluid Mechanics, George Stokes
Galactic Astronomy, Sir William Herschel
Gas Dynamics, Robert Boyle
Genetics, Gregor Mendel
Glacial Geology, Louis Agassiz
Gynecology, James Simpson
Hydrography, Matthew Muary
Hydrostatics, Blaise Pascal
Ichthyology, Louis Agassiz
Isotopic Chemistry, William Ramsey
Model Analysis, Lord Rayleigh
Natural History, John Ray
Non-Euclidean Geometry, Bernard Riemann
Oceanography, Matthew Muary
Optical Minerology, David Brewster
And on it goes. All of these founders were Bible believers and believers in creation."
Inherently Wind
Find out the true story of the Scopes Trial (and the propaganda behind the Hollywood version).
Click here for free online video
(Scroll down and look for "Inherently Wind")
Find out the true story of the Scopes Trial (and the propaganda behind the Hollywood version).
Click here for free online video
(Scroll down and look for "Inherently Wind")
The Pleasures of God
If we cannot be fully satisfied with the things in this world, how does God plan to satisfy His chosen and beloved people?
Not with rich food or with bigger barns (those things aren't great enough!), but with God Himself.
"God is the happiest Being in the universe. To know him in his pleasures is to see him as he is— and to have a fresh encounter with his transforming presence. If you are hungry for this deep delight in God, these twelve messages (which inspired the book The Pleasures of God), invite you to consider the gladness of his great heart."
Listen to John Piper's message series here.
If we cannot be fully satisfied with the things in this world, how does God plan to satisfy His chosen and beloved people?
Not with rich food or with bigger barns (those things aren't great enough!), but with God Himself.
"God is the happiest Being in the universe. To know him in his pleasures is to see him as he is— and to have a fresh encounter with his transforming presence. If you are hungry for this deep delight in God, these twelve messages (which inspired the book The Pleasures of God), invite you to consider the gladness of his great heart."
Listen to John Piper's message series here.
Osteen and CBD
iMonk with a pointed and well written letter to Christian Book Distributors (CBD) about their featuring of Joel Osteen materials. He writes:
Why is Mr. Osteen pre-featured on your front page? Why is his book highlighted? Is it because Mr. Osteen’s power to create sales is the “golden goose” in publishing and you are going to ride his sales as far as possible? I can’t believe it’s because, as a business serving Christians, you actually believe that what’s best for us is the teaching of Mr. Osteen, who has said that the cross of Jesus and the historic orthodox Christian message are of no in
No, it must be because it’s going to make you a lot of money.
If CBD now believes that motivational speakers are communicating the Gospel, please say so, because millions of people trust your business and endorsement. If you believe Mr. Osteen is good for evangelicalism, despite his devotion to materialism, prosperity and self-improvement, perhaps you should explain who the “evangelicals” are that you are seeking to serve? I would assume that a whole warehouse of motivational, positive thinking, New Age books would now find a way to fit into CBD’s definition of “helpful.”
(HT: Vit. Z) Read the whole post here.Worship Evangelism and Megachurches
Sally Morgenthaler, author of the influential book Worship Evangelism, has now concluded: "For all the money, time, and effort we’ve spent on cultural relevance—and that includes culturally relevant worship—it seems we came through the last 15 years with a significant net loss in churchgoers, proliferation of megachurches and all."My question is this: If we would make God the center of our worship, would He not draw people to Himself?
(John 12:32, 6:44, 4:24)
(HT: Cranch)
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
Does God want us to be Happy?
I read a 2005 article by TIME magazine with the same title a few days ago. This article seemed to focus on whether God wants us to be materially prosperous or not. This was held up as the standard of happiness. This follows the teaching of the day - that God wants us to be happy with the world and the things in it. It is the teaching not just of eccentric Pentecostals, but the teaching of many mainline denominations today. "If God loves me then he will give me nice things."
As I read the Psalms today I was given a very different picture of true happiness. In Psalm 63, David is being pursued in the wilderness of Judah. He is being hunted down like a 12-point buck during deer hunting season! He is crying out to the LORD because he realizes that he has NO other refuge or hope. At that exact moment, God fills his heart with deep joy, peace and happiness in GOD Himself.
"O God you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water... Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you...
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me."
It is great when we can enjoy the things God has made. This too is a good thing if accompanied with thanksgiving, but the true joy is not in the physically "rich food", but in soul food from God which is MUCH better. In an amazing way, struggles actually work to increase our joy in soul food and strip us from lesser pleasures.
I read a 2005 article by TIME magazine with the same title a few days ago. This article seemed to focus on whether God wants us to be materially prosperous or not. This was held up as the standard of happiness. This follows the teaching of the day - that God wants us to be happy with the world and the things in it. It is the teaching not just of eccentric Pentecostals, but the teaching of many mainline denominations today. "If God loves me then he will give me nice things."
As I read the Psalms today I was given a very different picture of true happiness. In Psalm 63, David is being pursued in the wilderness of Judah. He is being hunted down like a 12-point buck during deer hunting season! He is crying out to the LORD because he realizes that he has NO other refuge or hope. At that exact moment, God fills his heart with deep joy, peace and happiness in GOD Himself.
"O God you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water... Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you...
My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for joy. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me."
It is great when we can enjoy the things God has made. This too is a good thing if accompanied with thanksgiving, but the true joy is not in the physically "rich food", but in soul food from God which is MUCH better. In an amazing way, struggles actually work to increase our joy in soul food and strip us from lesser pleasures.
Monday, August 27, 2007
Documentary on Intelligent Design
Ben Stein--former Nixon speechwriter, actor who played the deadpan teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off ("Bueller . . . Bueller"), host of "Win Ben Stein's Money," conservative commentator, etc.--has a new documentary coming out in February 2008 on the issue of intelligent design and it's marginalization among academic elites. You can watch the trailer online.
(HT: JT)
Ben Stein--former Nixon speechwriter, actor who played the deadpan teacher in Ferris Bueller's Day Off ("Bueller . . . Bueller"), host of "Win Ben Stein's Money," conservative commentator, etc.--has a new documentary coming out in February 2008 on the issue of intelligent design and it's marginalization among academic elites. You can watch the trailer online.
(HT: JT)
Sunday, August 26, 2007
Does God want us to be Happy?
"Blessed (Happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." - Matthew 5:3
Do you feel a deep-seeded pleasure or joy when you are needy for God? This week as I studied this verse in preparation for a Bible study, the verse finally came alive for me. For a long time I have treasured 2 Cor. 6:10 where Paul writes, "suffering, yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing all things." I feel this deeply when I am really humbled by God or when I feel an earnest desire for Him or when I am in deep repentance. Usually all of these things come together at once. I see the grandeur and the greatness of God through something and I am led to amazement, then joy, and then to brokenness in my need for more of God. I am humbled and am driven to joyous, sorrowful repentance. It is a sweet sorrow indeed! It was a joy to discover this same heart and these same thoughts again in this famous passage. Truly Jesus, in love, wants our deep and abiding happiness so much that He lets us go through many pains in order that we discover and experience it deeply and abidingly.
This is what Jonathan Edwards wrote:
"Blessed (Happy) are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God." - Matthew 5:3
Do you feel a deep-seeded pleasure or joy when you are needy for God? This week as I studied this verse in preparation for a Bible study, the verse finally came alive for me. For a long time I have treasured 2 Cor. 6:10 where Paul writes, "suffering, yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing and yet possessing all things." I feel this deeply when I am really humbled by God or when I feel an earnest desire for Him or when I am in deep repentance. Usually all of these things come together at once. I see the grandeur and the greatness of God through something and I am led to amazement, then joy, and then to brokenness in my need for more of God. I am humbled and am driven to joyous, sorrowful repentance. It is a sweet sorrow indeed! It was a joy to discover this same heart and these same thoughts again in this famous passage. Truly Jesus, in love, wants our deep and abiding happiness so much that He lets us go through many pains in order that we discover and experience it deeply and abidingly.
This is what Jonathan Edwards wrote:
"All gracious affections that are a sweet odor to Christ, and that fill the soul of a Christian with a heavenly sweetness and fragrancy, are brokenhearted affections. A truly Christian love, either to God or men, is a humble brokenhearted love. The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires: their hope is a humble hope; and their joy, even when it is unspeakable, and full of glory, is a humble brokenhearted joy, and leaves the Christian more poor in spirit, and more like a little child, and more disposed to a universal lowliness of behavior." (Religious Affections)
Are you a True Saint?
According to Jonathan Edwards:
This is . . .the difference between the joy of the hypocrite, and the joy of the true saint. The [hypocrite] rejoices in himself; self is the first foundation of his joy: the [true saint] rejoices in God. . . . True saints have their minds, in the first place, inexpressibly pleased and delighted with the sweet ideas of the glorious and amiable nature of the things of God. And this is the spring of all their delights, and the cream of all their pleasures. . . But the dependence of the affections of hypocrites is in a contrary order: they first rejoice. . . that they are made so much of by God; and then on that ground, he seems in a sort, lovely to them.14
Friday, August 24, 2007
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Huckabee Joins Top Tier
(by Matt Reisetter)
Mike Huckabee's popularity continues to grow. His poll numbers in Iowa have increased 6% since the last Zogby/Newsmax poll in this state, out pacing the growth rates of Giuliani, Thompson and McCain, whose stock is actually falling in Iowa. And all this by spending way less money than many of his primary opponents. Click here for the story.
Once Brownback and Tancredo bow out, which will inevitably happen, Huckabee will see another big boost. Friends, this guy is in the race! If you haven't given him a good look, now's the time ... I can't imagine you not liking what you see! Just click that blue button "Huckabee for President" at the top right of my page.
(As you can see, I've added it to my page too.)
(by Matt Reisetter)
Mike Huckabee's popularity continues to grow. His poll numbers in Iowa have increased 6% since the last Zogby/Newsmax poll in this state, out pacing the growth rates of Giuliani, Thompson and McCain, whose stock is actually falling in Iowa. And all this by spending way less money than many of his primary opponents. Click here for the story.
Once Brownback and Tancredo bow out, which will inevitably happen, Huckabee will see another big boost. Friends, this guy is in the race! If you haven't given him a good look, now's the time ... I can't imagine you not liking what you see! Just click that blue button "Huckabee for President" at the top right of my page.
(As you can see, I've added it to my page too.)
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
White People Don't Exist?
Did you know that there are no white people in the world today? Most people aren't aware that all human beings have the same skin color.
We all have a pigment called "melanin." If you have a lot of melanin, you can be very dark... even "black." Albinos don't have much pigment, but no one is really white.
It can be shown from simple genetics that if we started with Adam and Eve as middle-brown, that, in just one generation, they could have had children who were very dark or very light brown... or anything in-between!
Now why do groups of people in our world have these varying shades? After the event of the Tower of Babel, populations split into groups, which resulted in certain shades of melanin being concentrated in particular groupings. This is what we would call "natural selection", according to Genesis, though not Darwin.
This is another great example to help us understand that all human beings are descendants of the first couple, Adam and Eve.
(From Answers... with Ken Ham radio program - www.AnswersRadio.com/radiolog )
Did you know that there are no white people in the world today? Most people aren't aware that all human beings have the same skin color.
We all have a pigment called "melanin." If you have a lot of melanin, you can be very dark... even "black." Albinos don't have much pigment, but no one is really white.
It can be shown from simple genetics that if we started with Adam and Eve as middle-brown, that, in just one generation, they could have had children who were very dark or very light brown... or anything in-between!
Now why do groups of people in our world have these varying shades? After the event of the Tower of Babel, populations split into groups, which resulted in certain shades of melanin being concentrated in particular groupings. This is what we would call "natural selection", according to Genesis, though not Darwin.
This is another great example to help us understand that all human beings are descendants of the first couple, Adam and Eve.
(From Answers... with Ken Ham radio program - www.AnswersRadio.com/radiolog )
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