Where Shrines once thrived...

The red-roofed temple at the top of the hill closed about a decade ago, and now Yoshihiro Shibata can’t even remember its name, though the 54-year-old dairy farmer has lived in this picturesque village all his life.

“The income of the temple depends on the number of residents, and there weren’t enough to keep a monk here,” he said, looking around the deserted grounds nestled amid the village’s lush landscape of tea plants and hydrangeas, bamboo and pine trees.

The local Shinto shrine is barely hanging on. With only about 250 households left in Hara-izumi, which is technically part of nearby Kakegawa city, the village no longer has enough men to hoist up the traditional float and parade it around during the shrine’s annual festival.

“They just set it out there and it doesn’t move,” Shibata said. In a few more years, even that may not be possible. “We’re supposed to lose half our population in the next decade.”

Please read: As Japan's population shrinks, bears and boars roam where schools and shrines once thrived - LA Times

Please pray for the Norukura Fellowship. Up in the Japan Alps, northern Matsumoto, is a fellowship of about 20. The worshippers are primarily of North Star. Ask the Lord that they would be able to reach out to the local people with the message of 'Christ our hope'. 

Why Politics Can't Save Our Politics

"Insofar as both liberalism and capitalism tend to devour and erode the institutions and communities that made them possible, they end up parasitically consuming the host and thus engendering their own demise, starved by their own hunger.

"We want the fruits of stability without its demands; we want the free-flying feeling of liberation without the anchored foundations that launched us. 

"'To learn from nostalgia, we must let it guide us not merely toward 'the way we were,' but toward what was good about what we miss, and why.'

"The creative way forward, then, is to recover a culture of solidarity in the face of atomistic individualism and an abstract state.

"Social conservatives must therefore make a positive case, not just a negative one. Rather than decrying the collapse of moral order, we must draw people's eyes and hearts to the alternative: to the vast and beautiful "yes" for the sake of which an occasional narrow but insistent "no" is required. We can do this with arguments up to a point, but ultimately, the case for an alternative that might alleviate the loneliness and brokenness evident in our culture requires attractive examples of that alternative in practice, in the form of living communities that provide people with better opportunities to thrive."

from Hope in the Ruins: Why Politics Can't Save Our Politics | Comment Magazine

Joni Eareckson Tada

I sure hope I can bring this wheelchair to heaven.

Now, I know that’s not theologically correct.

But I hope to bring it and put it in a little corner of heaven, and then in my new, perfect, glorified body, standing on grateful glorified legs, I’ll stand next to my Savior, holding his nail-pierced hands.

I’ll say, “Thank you, Jesus,” and he will know that I mean it, because he knows me.

He’ll recognize me from the fellowship we’re now sharing in his sufferings.

And I will say, ”Jesus, do you see that wheelchair? You were right when you said that in this world we would have trouble, because that thing was a lot of trouble. But the weaker I was in that thing, the harder I leaned on you. And the harder I leaned on you, the stronger I discovered you to be. It never would have happened had you not given me the bruising of the blessing of that wheelchair.”

Then the real ticker-tape parade of praise will begin. And all of earth will join in the party.

And at that point Christ will open up our eyes to the great fountain of joy in his heart for us beyond all that we ever experienced on earth.

And when we’re able to stop laughing and crying, the Lord Jesus really will wipe away our tears.

I find it so poignant that finally at the point when I do have the use of my arms to wipe away my own tears, I won’t have to, because God will.

Hope...the Best of Things: Joni Eareckson Tada: 9781433502194: Amazon.com: Books

More: Why Joni Eareckson Tada Thinks You Should Go See the New Pro-Suicide Movie, “Me Before You” | TGC

Leading Rabbi comes to Christ

This is a must see: Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri Who Believed in Jesus - YouTube

Some 10 years ago, Israel's leading Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri came to believe in Messiah, Yehoshua Jesus. It seems there was a massive media cover-up in Israel, the international and also evangelical media…. Many of his disciples have come to Christ too though…. After checking it out in the internet, I believe he actually came to salvation through Christ. 

Please check it out for yourself. The Rabbi, the Note and the Messiah - Israel Today | Israel News, KELLNER: Did a prominent rabbi find Jesus — and does it matter? - Washington Times, Rabbi Yitzhak Kaduri Reveals Yeshua is Messiah! - YouTube

Here are some more links: Herman and Sharron - "The Rabbi Who Found Messiah" Carl Gallups - YouTube, Messiah of Israel Ministries - Home

Romans 11:25-27, "Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, he will banish ungodliness from Jacob, and this will be my covenant with them when I take away their sins." 

"When I am weak I am strong."

Please listen Tim Keller sermon Who Will Convert the West? - YouTube. 

What kind of people will convert Japan? In Keller's illustration from D. Martyn Loyd-Jones, elderly preachers say concerning a popular young preacher, "I'm not sure he's been humbled yet."

"When I am weak I am strong."2 Corinthians 12:10b

Here's more: Tim Keller - How To Change Deeply - YouTube

Praying about revival

"Does it grieve you my friends, that the name of God is being taken in vain and desecrated? Does it grieve you that we are living in a godless age… But, we are living in such an age and the main reason we should be praying about revival is that we are anxious to see God's name vindicated and His glory manifested. We should be anxious to see something happening that will arrest the nations, all the peoples, and cause them to stop and to think again." D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Isaiah 64:1, "Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down…."

Also please listen to this Podcast. Why We Need Revival Today, Gospel Coalition

Movie "Silence"

"Silence" should be a thought provoking movie, coming out this fall. The movie includes one of my favorite actors Liam Neeson (Les Miserables). Liam Neeson Talks About Filming Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ | Variety. 

I've read the book by the Japanese writer Shusaku Endo. It's troubling in some ways. How does one handle the silence of God? Reminds me of Psalm 39 (Heman's Cry of Darkness). 

Ps 39:5b, "…Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!.."

Here's more: Martin Scorsese's Silence to get awards season release - Collider - YouTube

In Japanese: スコセッシ監督、遠藤周作『沈黙』を映画化、２０年越しの願いが実現へ : 文化 : クリスチャントゥデイ