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."