Testimony….

Joseph Kim finally escaped to China. He writes: "For a few weeks, I was barely able to beg enough to survive. Then an elderly Chinese Korean woman approached me. 'I am so sorry—there is nothing I can offer,' she said. 'But you should go to a church.' She told me to look for a building with a cross…. On the wall were written these words: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest….  （The Pastor's wife) looked so similar to all those who had refused to give me leftover rice, yet she was different…. In China, hosting a North Korean refugee is illegal, and this church had already sheltered me for more than two weeks." How I Escaped from North Korea | Christianity Today

Serving the Japanese businessman….

Japan's curious passion for the business novel - BBC News 

"When Japanese people want a really good read they may not pick a spy thriller, a sci-fi fantasy or a throbbing romance - they may choose a novel about the world of business, with a besuited middle manager as its hero. Business novels now routinely feature in bestseller lists, and have even made the transition from the printed page to chart-topping TV drama." 

"The Japanese business novel is a microcosm of all the anxieties and questions that Japanese people have." Marika Nagai, Temple University

"The young generation wants to become businessmen, rather than salarymen. They realise the importance of using their initiative and it looks as though they are increasing in number. But there is one issue - the bosses don't give them the power. So the older generation is blocking those with potential to become businessmen." Jin Mayama, Novelist 

How do we address these 'anxieties and questions' into our ministry and messages? Shouldn't we continue to work with businessmen through prayer sessions and special events? Shouldn't we include in our messages how the gospel relates to work too?

Jesus Christ said, "Be shrewd as snakes and innocent as doves." Matthew 10:16b

"Speaking the truth in love"

After the years of animosity between the Jews and Christians, this is a step toward reconciliation. Orthodox Rabbis Issue Groundbreaking Declaration Affirming ‘Partnership’ With Christianity The Lord knows how I love the Jewish people. And maybe this can be a step toward setting aside our ugly history. I do pray that the Lord would "pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. That they will look on Him, the one they have pierced, and mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son." (Zechariah 12:10)  And then in the Lord's time, "all Israel will be saved. As it is written, 'The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob.'" (Romans 11:26)


Here is a balanced article on the Wheaton tiff. Larycia Hawkins had said, "And as Pope Francis stated last week, we worship the same God." Yet is this not offensive to most Muslims who do deny the Trinity? (Note: In Defense of Wheaton College, What Arab Christians Think) Shouldn't we be affirming clarity as well as compassion? We need to be "speaking the truth (yet) in love," Ephesians 4:15b. 

Celebration of violence!?

"Falwell speaks for the largest Christian university in the United States, and publicly calls for death to thunderous applause. Even if we allow for the distinctly unlikely possibility that Falwell or one of his students would ever have the opportunity to shoot and kill radicalized Islamic terrorists, ought the response really be one of—there's really no other way to put it—celebration?" Tyler Huckabee 

Read about Why a Liberty Student Didn’t Cheer for Jerry Falwell Jr. call to carry a 'sword' | Her.meneutics | ChristianityToday.com 

"We can work to counter our cultural celebration of violence and division and replace it with the hope of the gospel." Moriah Wierschem

"But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Jesus Christ, Matthew 5:44-45 

Why we, Wheaton College students, are condemning Jerry Falwell Jr.’s remarks on guns and Muslims - The Washington Post

Another view: Commentary: Whom would Jesus shoot -- and why? | The Salt Lake Tribune

When Falwell encourages his students at Liberty to pack a gun, isn't he encouraging vigilantism? He's getting awful close. It seems to me that he is being more American than he's being a Christian.

Enchanted

”We live within a story far more enchanted than any of us dare imagine.”  Tony Reinke

Read The Rise of the Control Freak

"In Him we live and move and have our being." Acts17:28

Politics and the Christian….

"The greatest and most powerful Christian distinctive is not the exercise of power; it is the offer of grace." Micael Gerson from How Christians Can Flourish in a Same-Sex-Marriage World | Christianity Today

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage!" Psalm 33:12

Other thought provoking articles on Politics and the Christian:

Social Conservatives, Time To Drop The Grumpy Moralism: Joy Is More Powerful, And More Fun - Forbes

The Silencing: How the Left Is Killing Free Speech - The Gospel Coalition

Orthodox Christians Must Now Learn To Live as Exiles in Our Own Country | TIME

Meet Dorothy Burton, Founder of Christians in Public Service | Dallas Theological Seminary (DTS)

Why Settle for the 'Wilberforce Option' When We Have Dr. King? | Christianity Today

What Donald Trump gets wrong about Christian theology - The Washington Post

More good reads from Gospel Coalition

’Sleeplessness causes us to look away from ourselves — our capacity, our resources, our energy reserve, our mental acumen, our physical strength, and our careful planning and scheming — and it causes us to rely solely on him who “does not faint or grow weary” (Isaiah 40:28).’　Read more: The Sovereign Hand of Sleeplessness | Desiring God

Worship Is More Important Than Your Small Group | TGC Hebrews 10:25, "Not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." When we gather together to worship, in a unique way, "we are communing with the saints before the holy throne of a majestic God.”

There are other great articles too. Click here: TGC | The Gospel Coalition

Changing himself

“Everybody thinks of changing humanity and nobody thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy

"Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when there is the log in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye."  Jesus Christ, Matthew 7:3-5

Pastor Koiwai

Sunday the 15th, Pastor Koiwai of the Azumino Family Chapel spoke here at Abundant Life Church…."What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36…. Please visit us and worship with us. We have our worship service every week from 10:30AM. We also have a simple lunch together.  We're waiting.

"People committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ” President Obama

During an address at Thursday morning’s National Prayer Breakfast, President Barack Obama spoke about radical Islam and seemed to equate it with Christianity. "And lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,” he said. “In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.” Obama at Prayer Breakfast Speech | People Committed Terrible Deeds in Name of Christ During Crusades - YouTube

Yes, Christians, like people of other religion, have fallen short of the standards of the Bible and of Jesus Christ their Savior. But is the President accurate？ He paints only part of the picture. Here are some thoughts by Thomas F. Madden, an associate professor and chair of the Department of History at Saint Louis University. He is an authority on the Crusades and Islam.  In his article The Real History Of The Crusades he writes:

"Christians in the eleventh century were not paranoid fanatics. Muslims really were gunning for them. While Muslims can be peaceful, Islam was born in war and grew the same way. From the time of Mohammed, the means of Muslim expansion was always the sword. Muslim thought divides the world into two spheres, the Abode of Islam and the Abode of War. Christianity – and for that matter any other non-Muslim religion – has no abode. Christians and Jews can be tolerated within a Muslim state under Muslim rule. But, in traditional Islam, Christian and Jewish states must be destroyed and their lands conquered. When Mohammed was waging war against Mecca in the seventh century, Christianity was the dominant religion of power and wealth. As the faith of the Roman Empire, it spanned the entire Mediterranean, including the Middle East, where it was born. The Christian world, therefore, was a prime target for the earliest caliphs, and it would remain so for Muslim leaders for the next thousand years.

With enormous energy, the warriors of Islam struck out against the Christians shortly after Mohammed's death. They were extremely successful. Palestine, Syria, and Egypt – once the most heavily Christian areas in the world – quickly succumbed. By the eighth century, Muslim armies had conquered all of Christian North Africa and Spain. In the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks conquered Asia Minor (modern Turkey), which had been Christian since the time of St. Paul. The old Roman Empire, known to modern historians as the Byzantine Empire, was reduced to little more than Greece. In desperation, the emperor in Constantinople sent word to the Christians of western Europe asking them to aid their brothers and sisters in the East.

That is what gave birth to the Crusades. They were not the brainchild of an ambitious pope or rapacious knights but a response to more than four centuries of conquests in which Muslims had already captured two-thirds of the old Christian world. At some point, Christianity as a faith and a culture had to defend itself or be subsumed by Islam. The Crusades were that defense."

Watch this on YouTube: Thomas F Madden, Ph D ~ The Crusades Then and Now

In Inventing the Crusades Madden writes,"All the crusades met the criteria of just wars. They came about in reaction to attacks against Christians or their Church. The first Crusade was called in 1095 in response to the recent Turkish conquest of Christian Asia Minor, as well as the much earlier Arab conquest of the Christian-held Holy Land. The second was called in response to the Muslim conquest of Edessa in 1144. The third was called in response to the Muslim conquest of Jerusalem and most other Christian lands in the Levant in 1187." Also refer to Crusaders and Historians by Thomas F. Madden

Here also are some thoughts on the Spanish Inquisition by Thomas Madden.

 Jesus Christ our Savior said, "You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32 We need to see history accurately. President Obama's words don't present the full picture. But the truth is that Christians also have sinned. And we will sin in the future too. But we are to be ones quick to admit our sin in humility. And also we have One who died for us sinners. Christ Himself. This fact of history has touched our lives and so causes us to even love our enemies and relate to all in humility.

Jack Easterby

"Never forget what Jesus has done for you. Don't forget what's important." Jack Easterby, chaplain of the recent Super Bowl champs New England Patriots

Read more about Easterby: Patriots Love in the Time of Deflategate - ESPN

'And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me." Luke 22:19

Here's more from his Competitor's Creed. "I am a Competitor now and forever. I am made to strive, to strain, to stretch and to succeed in the arena of competition. ... My attitude on and off the field is above reproach, my conduct beyond criticism. Whether I am preparing, practicing or playing, I submit to God's authority and those He has put over me. I respect my coaches, officials, teammates and competitors out of respect for the Lord."

Great reads from "Gospel Coalition"

Please read How Preachers Read the Bible for Themselves Doriani quotes B. B. Warfield. "A minister must be both learned and religious. It is not a matter of choosing between the two. He must study, but he must study as in the presence of God and not in a secular spirit. He must recognize the privilege of pursuing his studies in the environment where God and salvation from sin are the air he breathes. He must also take advantage of every opportunity for corporate worship. . . . Ministerial work without taking time to pray is a tragic mistake. The two must combine if the servant of God is to give a pure, clear, and strong message."

This is good too. The Love That Is Neither Easy Nor Natural. Eric Raymond writes that we settle for the kind of love that comes easy and miss out on the kind of love that takes sweat (and grace).

Also, How to Combat the Demonic. I like his Charles Spurgeon quote. “The preaching of Christ is the whip that flogs the Devil.”

Finally, a book is recommended. The Presence of God: It's Place in the Storyline of Scripture and the Story of Our Lives.  The author quotes Psalm 16:11, "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore."

Azumino Family Chapel

Last week, I preached there from Luke 20:1-8. 

Right now, five men are preaching a series from Luke both at Azumino Family Chapel and Abundant Life Church. The primary verse is Luke 19:10. "The Son of Man came to seek and to save those who are lost." "The Son of man, Christ, came 'for us' to save. We are also to be for people. Christ is now for me, for them, 'the lost', saving, through me, through the church."

"Brothers, pray for us." 1 Thessalonians 5:25

"The best help in all action is – to pray, that is true genius; then one never goes wrong." Soren Kierkegaard

Please pray for us "In Jesus name", and for our ministry here in Matsumoto, Japan.

1. That the Lord's name would be magnified in our city of Matsumoto and then through out Japan.
2. That Matsumoto would be blessed in the truest sense.
3. That our Abundant Life Church would be gospel-centered.
4. That we would proclaim Christ with great boldness.
5. That lay-leaders would be trained and serve with diligence.
6. That our family would be protected spiritually.
7. That the Lord would provide our sufficient income.

Thank you so very much.

"I felt my heart strangely warmed…"

The evening of May 24th, 1738, John Wesley reluctantly attended a meeting lead by the Moravians in Aldersgate. Someone read from Luther's Preface to the Epistle to Romans. About 8:45 p.m., "While he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."

Read more: John Wesley's Heart Strangely Warmed – Church History - Christianity Today

"All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." Romans3:23-24

Look away from me….

"He knows how we speak when we are desperate.” Derek Kidner

Hear my prayer, O Lord,
listen to my cry for help;
be not deaf to my weeping.
For I dwell with you as an alien,
a stranger, as all my fathers were.
Look away from me, that I may rejoice again
before I depart and am no more.
Psalm 39:12–13

Praying Our Tears | Redeemer Sermons

The key to racial reconciliation: humility and forgiveness.

From Kate Bachelders article in Wall Street Journal: God Isn’t Dead in Gotham

A couple of Sundays ago a man stood up mid-sermon and asked Mr. (Timothy) Keller to address racial tensions amid recent grand-jury decisions not to indict police officers in Missouri and New York. He tried to defuse the situation by saying he doesn’t preach on political current events because you “can’t read out of the Bible a simple answer to these issues.” The man asked again.

Mr. Keller remembers how he replied: “Let me tell you what I think the Gospel does to people in power, to people with resources: It humbles them. It tells them to listen to people without. But here’s what the Gospel says to people who do not have resources and might be tempted to be bitter and angry: It tells them to forgive.” The man said thank you and sat back down.

"…Walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…" Ephesians 4:1-2 

＊Humility and forgiveness all flow from the gospel of Christ, yes at the foot of His cross.