Irrational Rationalism Apart From Scripture
If you are a reader of this blog, you know that I believe that in these days scientism (a.k.a. the belief in the sufficiency of autonomous human reasoning) has a power over a majority of minds, including many Christian minds, in a number of unhealthy ways.

Reasoning power alone is a wonderful God-given blessing. Christians are called to administer this gift in a number of ways, especially to be able to give a reason for the hope that is in them. God also gives us logical reasons why we should listen to and follow Him throughout the Bible, in order to minister to our minds. He gives us many details in the Bible in order to help us know things truly and sufficiently, though because our minds are tainted by sin, never completely or fully in this life.

That is why I found these quotes from Dr. John Frame to be so wonderfully helpful in explaining some key facets of the problem of rational thinking apart from the certain guidance provided by God in Scripture.

Frame writes in his book, The Doctrine of the Word of God:

"irrationalism (is) the view that there is no ultimate meaning in the universe." (Basically the oxymornoic belief that we can hold to the "rational" in a universe devoid of any overarching meaning, purpose or order.)

"rationalism (is) the view that a godlike knowledge can be obtained from the creation alone." (Basically the oxymoronic belief that we can have true and sufficient rational knowledge through simply observing a creation we are also a part of.)

This last quote is the most revealing: "Of course, Satan and his followers embrace rationalism irrationally, for they have no right to insist that their minds are the ultimate criterion of truth. Similarly they embrace irrationalism rationalistically, assuming the ultimate authority of their own minds... That irrationality permeates the whole fabric of human knowledge. So we can understand how the assumption of intellectual autonomy destroys knowledge." (p.16 - Emphasis mine)

I urge us all to seek true and sufficient knowledge from the only One who truly knows.

Note: J.I. Packer, in his forward of this book, claims that it is the most indispensable book of our day on the nature of Scripture.

"O Man of the Sea, Hearken To Me!"

Do you want to increase your child's vocabulary and creativity?

My three-year-old son looked at me and said these words this morning, "O Man of the Sea, hearken to me! My wife Isabelle will have her own will and has sent me to beg a boon of thee."

Why?!

If you have young children, I really recommend this site.
My sons have really enjoyed listening to the Brothers Grimm as well as Alice in Wonderland being read aloud. You can download hundreds of books, put to MP3 files FOR FREE. We burn them to CDs and let the boys listen to these when we have had enough of reading our own books to the boys. It has amazed me how fast Noah memorizes words and ideas (I don't think that is unusual for three-year olds!), and this is a wonderful way to immerse them in language! He has asked us many questions as a result of these CDs.

Please Consider Donating to Haiti Again
Most of us have forgotten that needs continue in Haiti. For God's glory, we have a chance to help these people. Watch what Samaritan's Purse is doing there and please consider getting on board.

The Christmas Story
This is a wonderfully sweet video from a friend's church in New Zealand.

Shall We Forfeit to Popular Thought?

I love John Piper. What he says about the Bible is almost always what the Bible in fact says. This little video reminds me though to beware of accepting everything any one man says, or quickly accepting as fact what I read in books, or what is seen to be as acceptable by the majority of the "reputable". One man never holds all truth, only God does, and truth is never determined by popular vote (unfortunately). The more I base my thinking on the Bible (just as John Piper usually does), the better off I will be.

Piper says, "Whatever science says it is, it is." Come on, John, really? What does science tell you about miracles? That they are not possible. What does science tell you about a virgin birth? Better get rid of your Christmas beliefs. The bigger issue is this: Science cannot tell us even one fact about the past, since by very definition, science concerns itself with what is testable and repeatable. Science does not give us all the answers, especially "historical science" based on the popular thoughts of men.

Case Study: The Big Mac

My friend Mark Rood highlights the growing financial problem for missionaries in Japan:

The price of a Big Mac in Tokyo is 680 yen. (complete with fries and a coke!) This has increased in the past several years by a few yen. No problem. The problem comes when in the same period the value of the dollar has dropped from from $1 = 120 yen in 2007 to this month’s rate of $1 = 82 yen. Ouch. That 680 yen burger at McDonalds which did cost $5.67 now costs $8.29! For the Japanese the change in the past few years has been a percent or two, but to us whose income is from the states, there is over a 30% increase.

Of course the same is true of our rent, gasoline, food, water, electricity, and everything else. It has all basically has increased by about a 30% in the past few years.

Please pray for us and for the many others who are in the same situation.

Adoniram Judson
I was greatly encouraged by this.

My brother Doug writes:
Dr. Tom Nettles, (is) widely regarded as one of the foremost Baptist historians in America.

Watch as Nettles unleashes this giant of a role model, trapped in the pages of history, for us all to spend a few minutes with, and thereafter long to follow.

What is an Unreached People Group? Why Japan?

Matthew 24:14 says, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." Matthew 28:19 says, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,"

It is clear, if you read the Bible, that God loves all nations! We, as followers of Jesus, should presumably love all nations as well!

What then, is a "nation" or "ethne" in the way Jesus used the word? (These days, in order to clarify the matter, we often hear the words, "people group".)

Ralph Winter writes:

"In March 1982 a group of mission leaders came together in Chicago for a meeting sponsored by the Lausanne Strategy Working Group. It was designed to help bring clarity and definition to the remaining missionary task. At no time before or since this meeting has as large or as representative a group gathered for two days to focus specifically upon the necessary definitions for strategy to reach the unreached peoples. Two basic definitions came from this meeting;

1. A People Group is 'a significantly large grouping of individuals who perceive themselves to have common affinity for one another because of their shared language, religion, ethnicity, residence, occupation, class or caste, situation, etc., or a combination of these.'

2. An Unreached People Group is 'a group within which there is no indigenous community of believing Christians able to evangelize this people group.'"

Now maybe some are thinking, "Well, if these groups have two or three Christians, then aren't they reached?" But let's step back to consider this more deeply. Without greater numbers of Christian support, these Christians themselves are in danger of losing their faith and or dying out.

More than this, let us consider:

Because Jesus loves all nations, we should love Muslim peoples. We should love communist-controlled peoples, we should love people groups that hate us! Because Jesus loves all nations, we should give ourselves to the task of REALLY reaching all nations, just as Jesus has promised they would be.

Well, where does Japan fit in? Japan is currently the second largest unreached people group in the world. For most this comes as a shock. Less than .5% of Japanese are evangelical Christians, and therefore Japanese do not have the numbers to effectively evangelize their own people group without significant outside help.

How could such an advanced country be so missed in the commission that God gave to all of his disciples, not to mention all of his disciples living today? If you would like more information on how you can pray for or help Japan, please leave your e-mail address in the comment section below and I will contact you.

The Insufficiency of Reason to Guide Morality

One News Now:
But suggesting that reason alone is sufficient to direct behavior is intellectually dishonest. Human reason will always be guided by presuppositions. That is why civilizations like ancient Rome found it reasonable to murder handicapped children while we in the Western world find that to be abominable.

Jacoby noted that Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger wrote, "'We drown even children who at birth are weakly and abnormal,'...stressing that 'it is not anger but reason'" that provides justification for such an act. This horrific practice is the result of reason built upon a Godless foundation.

Read the whole thing.

This Christmas I am thankful for the Christian sub-culture, influenced by the Bible, that has directly and indirectly influenced both America and Japan in many ways.

I Looked For Love in Your Eyes

Here is a must-read poem for men, especially young men, from a family nearly destroyed by porn:

I Looked For Love in Your Eyes

I saved my best for you.
Other girls may have given themselves away,
But I believed in the dream.
A husband, a wife, united as one forever.

Nervous, first time, needing assurance of your love,
I looked for it in your eyes
Mere inches from mine.
But what I saw made my soul run and hide.

Gone was the tenderness I’d come to know
I saw a stranger, cold and hard
Distant, evil, revolting.
I looked for love in your eyes
And my soul wept.

Who am I that you cannot make love to me?
Why do I feel as if I’m not even here?
I don’t matter.
I’m a prop in a filthy play.
Not an object of tender devotion.

Where are you?

Years pass
But the hardness in your eyes does not.
You think I’m cold
But how can I warm to eyes that are making hate to someone else
Instead of making love to me?

I know where you are.
I’ve seen the pictures.
I know now what it takes to turn you on.
Women…people like me
Tortured, humiliated, hated, used
Discarded.
Images burned into your brain.
How could you think they would not show in your eyes?

Did you ever imagine,
The first time you picked up a dirty picture
That you were dooming all intimacy between us
Shipwrecking your marriage
Breaking the heart of a wife you wouldn’t meet for many years?

If it stopped here, I could bear it.
But you brought the evil into our home
And our little boys found it.
Six and eight years old.
I heard them laughing, I found them ogling.

Hands bound, mouth gagged.
Fisheye photo, contorting reality
Distorting the woman into exaggerated breasts.
The haunted eyes, windows of a tormented soul
Warped by the lens into the background,
Because souls don’t matter, only bodies do
To men who consume them.

Little boys
My little boys
Laughing and ogling the sexual torture
Of a woman, a woman like me.
Someone like me.

An image burned into their brains.

Will their wives’ souls have to run and hide like mine does?
When does it end?

I can tell you this. It has not ended in your soul.
It has eaten you up. It is cancer.
Do you think you can feed on a diet of hatred
And come out of your locked room to love?

You say the words, but love has no meaning in your mouth
When hatred rules in your heart.
Your cruelty has eaten up every vestige of the man
I thought I was marrying.
Did you ever dream it would so consume you
That your wife and children would live in fear of your rage?

That is what you have become
Feeding your soul on poison.

I’ve never used porn.
But it has devastated my marriage, my family, my world.

Was it worth it?

(HT: Tim Challies)

Merry Christmas!
From Our Family to Yours

Christian Scientist not Wanted, Regardless of View on Evolution

One News Now:
"Even though Gaskell says he is not a creationist, he claims he was passed over for the job at UK's MacAdam Student Observatory three years ago because of his religion"

Many Christians are quick to accept evolution (and millions of years) so as not to appear foolish in the eyes of secular "science". The problem: Christians are already foolish in the eyes of most secular scientists, regardless of what they think about evolution.

This article showed me again that we must stick with the Bible despite unwarranted attacks on our science and on our credentials. The issue is not science, the issue is a spiritual one. This age is increasingly resembling the time of Noah, along with the slander and abuse that he endured. The most foolish thing would be to give in to popular opinion at a time like this.

Read the whole article.

The History of Redemption
Can you sum up the message of the entire Bible in 30 minutes using only Scripture?

You need to hear and watch this video!

By the way, the book would be an ideal last-minute gift for almost anyone. The artwork is simply stunning.
(HT: Z)

Ministry In Japan Video Renewed
This summary video of our ministry has been down for a bit, but is now back! - And it still summarizes our work quite nicely. We are thankful for your prayers.

Meet A Missionary - The Wolter Family In Japan from Rudy on Vimeo.

Taking Up the Cross

CNN recently interviewed Phillip Yancey.
CNN: How is the practice of Christianity different in China than in the U.S.?

Yancey: At my church, when something bad happens, people immediately ask God to fix it: get me a job, heal my aunt, whatever. I pray those same prayers, and I see nothing wrong with them. In China, though, I heard different prayers, not “God, take away this burden,” but “God, give me the strength to bear this burden.”

The Ark Encounter
UPDATE from ABC news.
Another wonderful learning tool for the whole family is coming from Answers in Genesis.

Announced by the governor of KY:

Announcing the Winner of the Giveaway...
And the winner is... Brian Rock! - Congratulations.

Gibbons are Amazing
What an amazing design in this little creature.

Do Christians Love to Sneer at Others?

What an important message from Jerram Barrs:

When people spend time with us do they more often see us filled with love and joy, or do they more often see us disparaging situations and those we disagree with? As Christians, are we demonstrating the grace and love of God in our words about non-Christians, or does it feel better to poke fun at, look down on, or even sneer at those who do not yet get the gospel of grace? Have we forgotten that we are Christians because of God's sheer mercy and grace alone?

I encourage you to listen to Dr. Jerram Barrs speak on this crucial issue (Postmodernism and Culture Wars) here, for the sake of more effective witnessing in the future.

If You were Born Here Instead of There
Michael Oh:
If YOU were born into a fundamentalist Islamic family what would YOU want Christians in America to do? If YOU were born into a family of a Shinto priest, how would YOU want Christians in America to respond? Knowing what you know today, certainly you would want them to share with you about eternal life through the Savior of the world Jesus Christ. Certainly you would want them to bring the Gospel to their nation and teach them about salvation for their souls and about eternal life. Certainly you would want churches and Christians in other nations to sacrifice financially to send missionaries to teach you the Bible, God's Word to this world.

But again, by the grace of God, you WEREN'T born into those circumstances. You were born into your own. So you can ignore what COULD HAVE BEEN and just continue in the circumstances you have been given by God's grace. Or you can choose to recognize that you are who you are, that you are saved, that you are blessed, that you are undeservedly loved— only by the grace of God— and choose to do all that is in your power to help those in need. To invest the blessing of your education for those who have none. To invest the blessing of your finances to help those who have little or none. To invest your spiritually blessed life to help those around the world who are lost without Christ to hear the good news of Jesus Christ.

Takanori Oba is a young man who was born in Japan, the largest unreached nation of the world. He was born to a father who when he would get drunk took out his anger by beating his son and throwing golf balls at his head. In the evening when his father returned to their apartment Takanori would quickly turn out his light and pretend to be sleeping hoping to avoid a whipping by his father's belt. Perhaps you are thinking, "Thank God that I wasn't born into a life like his." Eventually Takanori and his mother escaped their father and home to start a new life. Years later the grace of God reached down to Takanori Oba and saved his soul. He later became the first graduate of Christ Bible Seminary in Nagoya, Japan where I serve as president. During the second year of his studies he was able to visit his abusive father, seeing him for the first time in over 15 years. When he saw his father, God gave Taka a logic-defying compassion for the man who had caused him such pain.

Why was Takanori born into his circumstances? Was it a curse? No, it was the grace of God. And today Takanori is seeking to share that same grace with the father who abused him. That's what Takanori would have wanted if he were born into his father's circumstances. That's the Golden Rule.

Read the whole thing.

Free Book Give-Away
Overcoming Spiritual Barriers in Japan
Do you want to know more about how you can effectively pray for Japan?

I want you to know! I will be giving away one free copy of this book to a random reader of this blog. If you want to be registered for the drawing, just include your first name and your physical and/or e-address in the comment section below.

Here is a blurb about the book:
"More workers, more money or better methods will not help a situation that is a result of spiritual strongholds. When Christianity landed on the shores of Japan 450 years ago, Japanese people were so attracted to the Gospel that they chose torture and death rather than renounce their faith. Today, Japanese people seem indifferent to the message of salvation. What changed?"

Note: The give-away will end on Dec. 3, Japan time.

A Missionary's Home
Occasionally I am asked by Japanese people, "Do you think you will go back home someday?" That is always a difficult question to answer. I know they mean, "Do you think you will go back home (to the states) someday?" But it never really comes into my heart in that way.

A fellow missionary friend sums up my own thoughts nicely:

There is a “home” that is very comfortable and that we can easily fit into and be “normal people.”
[Then] we have our “home” here in this land where 2 of our 3 kids were born and where much of our heart is now. This home isn’t always comfortable, and we don’t often easily fit in, but yet we are here now and this is what God has us for now.
Finally, there is a third “home” - and that is our true HOME (and the greatest home). Hebrews 13:14 speaks of it this way, “For here we have no lasting city (or HOME), but we seek the city that is to come.”

Japanese Cultural Awareness #2
(Updated video below.)
Taco Yaki.

Nope, no Mexican food here.

Taco means "octopus" in Japanese, and yaki means fried.

It is scrump-delish!















One taco yaki ball with sauce and mayo. I don't know how many I ate at this sitting.

Fuel For Prayer - Japan
This quote just devastated me today, "85% of Japanese teenagers say, 'I wish I wasn't born - I don't know why I live on earth.'"
(HT: Christopher Grissom)

Intellectually Unsatisfied Atheists
Richard Dawkins is perhaps best known for his much-cited comment that evolution "made it possible to be an intellectually satisfied atheist." With the steady growth of atheism in America and Europe, it would seem that many are increasingly being "satisfied" by this bankrupt theory.

For most Christians one major part of our stories is coming to the point of seeing our need for Christ. We realized that the we were unsatisfied with the things of this world, both spiritually and intellectually.

To an atheist the material world is all there is. It would seem then that Christians, who truly love God and others, should be making it an aim to help others see how materialism is an unsatisfactory belief, in every way. If Christians can show the complete moral, spiritual and intellectual bankruptcy of the theory of abiogenesis/evolution, we could in many ways begin to reverse the secularizing damage that has been already been afflicted on so many.

Sure, evolution, like the love of money, is not the root of all evils. It is simply one of the major roots of deception around us today. However, taking out this massive and cancerous root of deception, I believe, will surely take an increasingly central role in the ministry of Christians around the globe as time goes on.

All or Nothing?

In football it is all or nothing, win or lose with no points for close games (unfortunately for my Iowa Hawks today!)

How about life? I sometimes wonder, are all my little efforts for anything lasting? Does it really count or matter what I do in secret? If my efforts are not seen or praised by other people, do they still matter?

If God does not exist, all my efforts and good deeds (seen or unseen) eventually count for absolutely nothing! The most giving, kind, powerful, influential, famous and historical figures will someday all vanish from all recollection and remembrance. Without God everything is finally and absolutely meaningless and vain; in other words it is nothing - just chemical reactions. However with God, faith as small as a mustard seed will give us a perfect score and record in heaven (through Christ's work) for all eternity! Not only that, but we will have an eternity to celebrate the victory in Christ! For my money, that is a better bet than any college football team!

Hilarious - The Power of the Group!

Japan: Picture Profile
Some great pictures and information on Japan here.

Why Don't People Come to Jesus?
Have you ever wondered why some people come to Jesus as their Savior and Lord, and some do not? How can some hear the good news of Christ all their lives and never come to a true saving faith, and how can others hear the message for only a short time and become fully convinced of the rightness and truth of the message?

John Piper writes:

"Why don’t people come to Jesus? At one level the answer is because they “refuse to come.” In other words, people do not want to come. Some call this the choice of free will. Jesus would probably say it is the choice of a will enslaved to sin. “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin” (John 8:34). Jesus would say that people do not come to him because they are enslaved to their supreme preference for other things. “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light . . . everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light” (John 3:19-20).
How then has anyone ever come, since we are all enslaved to sin and spiritually dead? Jesus’ answer was that God, in his great mercy, overcomes our resistance and draws us: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (John 6:44). “No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father” (John 6:65). God grants the gift of new birth and repentance, which opens the eyes of the spiritually blind to the truth and beauty of Jesus. When this happens, all suicidal objections fall. We are finally free. And, finally free from slavery, we come."

I thank God for his powerful work among my Japanese brothers and sisters. I truly see his work in you!

White Lightning
Fall makes me think of football. Football reminds me of playing against this guy.