Japan's decline...

"The country (Japan) is not just in a prolonged slump but also in an inescapable decline." Read A declining Japan loses its once-hopeful champions - The Washington Post

Other articles: Japan's Potentially Dangerous Decline - Forbes, Sharp, Panasonic's job cuts mark Japan's decline - The Times of India, The scary global implications of Japan’s slowdown

Even America....Obama V Romney: Fighting Over An America In Decline? - YouTube

Do pray for Japan, and us, as we preach the gospel. That the nation would be transformed inside out- even society.

"First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this I was appointed a preacher..." 1 Timothy 2:1-7

SBC

Can you read the lettering on the buidling in back? SBC My parents for many years faithfully broadcasted a short weekly gospel message from there on Sunday mornings. I few elderly men reminded me of that the other day... "Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty."  Matthew 13:8 This is our prayer.

Under the mastery of one great and predominate affection

“It is seldom that any of our [bad habits or flaws] are made to disappear by a mere process of natural extinction. At least, it is very seldom that this is done through the instrumentality of reasoning… [or by] the mere force of mental determination. But what cannot be thus destroyed maybe dispossessed- and one taste may be made to give way to another, and to lose its power entirely as the reigning affection of the mind… The heart’s… desire for having some one object or other, this is unconquerable… The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the explosive power of a new one… It is … when admitted into the number of God’s children, through faith that is in Jesus Christ, that the spirit of adoption is poured upon us- it is then that the heart, brought under the mastery of one great and predominate affection, is delivered from the tyranny of its former desires, and is the only way in which deliverance is possible.” 

Thomas Chalmers

'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'  Mark 12:30 

Fishing...

On October 21st, my birthday by the way, after worship and fellowship at Azumino Family Chapel, we took the kids to go fishing. They loved it.

"Mine!"

"There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is sovereign over all, does not cry 'Mine!'"

Abraham Kuyper

"The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice." Psalm 97:1

Azumino Family Chapel

Me preaching at Azumino Family Chapel last Sunday, the 21st. I preached from 1 Timothy 6 on our attitude toward money.

"Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment." 1 Tm 6:6 

Arguing about Politics

In a period when politics is becoming a 'god' in America, it would be good hear a sermon on politics. Click here: Arguing About Politics by Tim Keller

"The Pharisees pose a controversial question to Jesus when they ask him if they should pay taxes. Jesus responds with a revolutionary answer: He refuses political complacency, political simplicity, and political primacy. Jesus then models a revolutionary idea, showing his followers that the way to gain power is to give it away." redeemer.com


 "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Mark 12:17

The Abundant Life Church

The Abundant Life Church. Please pray for us.

"Pray at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,... that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak." Ephesians 6:18-20

Potential idols

“All sorts of things are potential idols… If this is so, how do we determine when something is becoming or has become an idol?... As soon as our loyalty to anything leads us to disobey God, we are in danger of making it an idol… An idol can be a physical object, a property, a person, an activity, a role, an institution, a hope, an image, an idea, a pleasure, a hero…” 

Richard Keyes

"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me..." Exodus 20:2-3

Picnic

Picnic at Matsumoto Airport, last Saturday.

Without which one cannot receive life joyfully

“Every self exists in relation to values perceived as making life worth living. A value is anything good in the created order- any idea, relation, object or person in which one has an interest, from which one derives significance… These values compete… In time one is prone to choose a center of value by which other values are judged. When a finite value has been elevated to centrality and imagined as a final source of meaning, then one has chosen…a god… One has a god when a finite value is… viewed as that without which one cannot receive life joyfully.” 

Thomas Oden

"You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." Deuteronomy 6:5

Friends...

Friends from Kagawa visited us and stayed over night last weekend.

We visited the Matsumoto Castle. We had to line up for 40 minutes. 

We also hiked in the mountains nearby and saw this unique French form of damming.

Whatever controls us is our lord.

“Whatever controls us is our lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please. We do not control ourselves. We are controlled by the lord of our lives.” Rebecca Pippert

"No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24

Matsumoto Bible Gospel Church

Last Sunday, I spoke at Matsumoto Bible Gospel Church from I Peter 1:18-21 on the blood of Christ. This church was 'planted' by my parents over 40 years ago. Many memories!

"Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot." 1 Pt 1:18 - 19

A period of profound uncertainty

"Japan will enter a period of profound uncertainty, ultimately leading to an unprecedented political shakeup." Masahiro Matsumura

Read more: Japan's coming political quake | The Japan Times Online

"Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer's; he makes me tread on my high places." Habakkuk 3:17-19

Cultural Festival

Last weekend , there was a Cultural Festival at Joshua's Junior High. Joshua's in there somewhere singing. One class sang a capella Amazing Grace and Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho. They did an excellent job.

Infinitely glorious in itself

“They whose affection to God is founded first on his profitableness to them, their affection begins at the wrong end: they regard God only for the utmost limit of the stream of divine good, where it touches them, and reaches their interest… But… in a gracious gratitude, men are affected with the attribute of God’s goodness and free grace, not only as they are concerned in it, or as it affects their interest, but as… infinitely glorious in itself.” 

Jonathan Edwards

"For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God."  2 Corithians 4:15