Rivers of living water

Two of our students came yesterday for our English Language Bible Study. We had been praying for Mrs. H., because she had already told us that she wanted to believe in Jesus and she had often shared with us her worries about her children. In Japan the school system is based on periodic tests which start as early as first grade and go all the way to the end of university. The goal in the educational system seems to be to be able to jump through a succession of hoops by taking tests to graduate from one level to the next. Like all good parents the Japanese are concerned about their children’s success, especially so, considering the high degree of literacy and education in Japan. The high value placed on education, a love of learning and a natural curiosity have been a blessing for our work in Japan. We have found that many people want to learn English and are likewise curious about God’s plan of salvation from the Bible.

Our study was from John 7:37-39, set again the backdrop of the Jewish feast of Tabernacles (also know as Ingathering, Booths, or Sukkout). We taught about the priestly ceremony of carrying pitchers of water from the Pool of Siloam up the steps of the temple to be poured out at the altar of sacrifice, a tradition during the second Temple period that is attested in the Mishna (Sukkah 4:9-10). We explained that Jesus also offers special, spiritual water to all who are thirsty. Just as the ceremonial water at Tabernacles symbolized the outpouring of God’s spirit upon Israel in the last days prior to the coming of the Messiah, even so Jesus Himself calls to all who are thirsty to come to drink from fountains of living waters that will never run dry. We explained that when we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we also receive the Holy Spirit, which becomes a never-ending well of eternal life within us, always replenishing the empty, dry places within that are longing for lasting joy, strength and peace.

When we asked Mrs. H. if she wanted to receive Jesus into her life she said, “yes!” We shared some more with her about how our sin has caused a separation between us and God, and that Christ died as an atoning sacrifice to pay the penalty for our sin but then rose from the dead on the third day. That day she prayed to receive Jesus, promised Messiah, Savior and soon coming King!

We will continue to pray that Mrs. H. will grow in her knowledge of God as she learns more about him.

Where Does it Talk About Jesus in the Old Testament?”

On Tuesday evening Keiko gave everyone in the class a page with Genesis 1:1-5 in two English translations which she had found on the Internet. I took this as a cue that the Lord wanted us to be flexible with our lesson plan, so for the next 50 minutes we surveyed the entire Bible – Messianic prophesy, the Suffering Servant of Isaiah 53, Jesus (Yeshua) the Messiah, the Son of David and even the Beast foretold in Revelation 13 (as well as in the Book of Daniel), “whose number is 666″. They asked us many questions, and we tried our best to answer them from the Bible. Whew! We hadn’t been expecting that but our students eagerly listened, and we hope they are starting to understand as we explained to them once again, the Christ died as a substitute for our sins, so that we could have forgiveness and be reunited to God.

Life’s most important question

Mr. Yoshida usually poses a BIG QUESTION at the end our Chapel Times at Chuo Christ Gospel Church. Last week he asked us, “What is purpose of life?” We had supposed that seeking purpose or meaning in life wasn’t an issue for the Japanese, but indeed it is. At some point in our lives, everyone asks himself questions like, “Where did I come from? Why am I here? Where am I headed?”

We offered our best response from Scripture. Turning to Ecclesiastes 12:13 we read, “The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person.” The fear of God has to do with trust, worship and awe to be sure, but there is also a strong element of fear because of God’s great power and His determination to deal with sin. We must come to Him in faith to understand and experience the riches of His grace and to discover His purpose for our life, which is to KNOW HIM personally in all respects: Friend, Savior, Provider, Helper, and also Lord, Master and coming King.

The Westminster Larger Catecism provides this concise statement: “Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.” The familiar phrase, “a personal relationship with God,” hardly communicates the fullness and riches of a life lived through Christ, in Him and for Him. We can only realize God’s purpose in our lives by turning to the Lord Jesus Christ in faith and yielding ourselves to Him, “Who was, Who is, and Who is to come.”

For Becky and me, this has been our purpose for coming to Japan and will always be our goal in life: to know Him and make Him known to others.

Thank you for your prayers for Mr. Yoshida and for us, as we labor to introduce our Messiah and King to the people of Japan.

Shikata means Process in Japanese

My doctor here in Yigashi Yamato recently told me my triglycerides were too high.  Too much cheese he said.  He put me on a prescription for a few months but today I used my best Japanese to tell him I was cutting back on cheese, sweets and going for a walk every day.  “Mainichi sampo shimasu,” said I, and he smiled.  He drew a chart on a little tab of paper and told me to keep a record of my daily exercise and weight and to manage the eating/walking process toward a target.  80 kg would be a good near-term goal and the long-term target would be 64 (my weight in 11^th grade!).  We could buy a digital scale just down the street at Yasaka for 3 sen (about $30), said he. Praise the Lord, it only cost about 2 sen and after our walk today I found that I’m already down 3 kg.  All this reminded me of course of my years of quality and process work at Boeing.

The Japanese are disciplined people and many of our students are in their 70’s, quite trim, energetic and very active.  A little more discipline would will pay off as we try to keep to our diet and walking regimen.  Doctor expects to see me back in a month with a report including measures and demonstration of further progress.

A Journey of Faith

When we first started sharing the Lord with Mr. M., he countered by proudly telling us about some of the Japanese festivals. Taking the approach of “letting them evangelize you,” we patiently listened. In all honesty, the traditional Shinto and Buddhist traditions have a sort of colorful fascination for me. In reality of course this can be deceptive, and we want our friends to come to understand the truth of the good news in Jesus. Mr. M. travels frequently and, knowing that we are Christians, he sent us a postcard from Europe featuring a larger-than-life statue of the Virgin Mary. After we politely explained that we don’t worship idols he told us, “Sumimasen – I’m sorry, I didn’t know that Christians don’t do idolatry!”

Recently we visited a beautiful Buddhist temple together in downtown Tokyo. Built in the 1930’s on the site of an old temple founded by a Buddhist master in the 11^th century, an impressive church-like building with a Buddhist altar, the scent of incense, a display of tracts presenting the essentials of their faith and a large pipe organ. Afterwards we invited him to the Christmas celebration at our church and he agreed to come!

Last week we taught our class a story based on Luke 2, and afterwards he proudly showed me a bilingual version of the New Testament and asked me to show him where to find the birth of Jesus, so I pointed him to Matthew 1 and Luke 2. It has been a joy getting to know our friend and witness God’s working in his life.

For more information on our ministry please go to davidandbecky.com.

Jishin desu!

“It’s an earthquake!” is the newest phrase in our Japanese vocabulary. A major earthquake hit Northwest Japan on yesterday, costing at least 9 human lives and injuring hundreds (Earthquake in NW Japan). We felt it in our 3^rd floor apartment a considerable distance away in Tokyo. Here it was gentle and lasted about 20 seconds, but we definitely felt it. We have felt perhaps a half dozen earthquakes since arriving here last November but there have been many more.

Earthquakes are mentioned in the Bible, both in history past, present and future, and they are also mentioned in the coming of the Messiah. When Yeshua (Jesus) gave up his life, Matthew, in the Brit Hadesha (“New Testament”) tells us of earthquakes confirming the Jewish (and Biblical!) assurance of the resurrection from the dead (Matthew 27:51-53, 28:2). The prophets of Israel also told us that the coming of the Messiah in power and glory will be accompanied by natural calamities, including yet future earthquakes (Ezekiel 38:12). Jesus likewise assured us of his return and prophesied also of yet-future earthquakes and other natural disasters (Matthew 24:4-7).

As believers in the Messiah, Becky and I look expectantly every day to His coming; our hope in the Lord keeps us going in good times and in bad. Though the world seems to be crumbling around us and becoming crazier every day, we are learning more and more every day what it means to “be still and know that the LORD is God.” (Psalm 46).

Voila! Challah! Bake 1

Last Friday was shabbat and we felt an inkling to bake challah. A quick Google search yielded Grandma Rosie’s Fabulous Challah recipe, which worked fine, notwithstanding the fact that David let it rise too long. It looked a little bloated and sad but tastes like real challah. We sprinkled black Japanese poppy seeds, baked it for 30 minutes, and voila! I’m sure we fractured many traditions by not eating it sabbath eve. but it was a satisfying experiment.

Challah is a leavened bread. To my knowledge, Torah does not prescribe it for the sabbath celebration and I’m uncertain as to to origin of this tradition, but a good one it is! The sabbath is a weekly feast with leavened bread and pessach is an annual hag with unleavened bread. As as believer in Yeshua (Jesus), whom I am convinced that he is the promised Messiah, and I rejoice that his body, like the unleavened Passover bread, was broken to make atonement for my sin and guilt. Along with other believers today I “strive to enter in” to the sabbath rest that is found in him and him alone.

We shared our challah with the other members of Chuo Church yesterday, and we hope to try our hand at challah again in the near future.

For now, we bid you shalom and sayonara from the Land of the Rising Sun.

Simple Pleasures

One of the simple pleasures of the missionary life in Japan is Coca-Cola in BOTTLES. Somehow it seems to taste better this way – a psychological phenomenon? As we anticipate the humid rainy season followed by an even hotter August, we can console ourself knowing that the refrigerator is not too far away.

Tachikawa Hanami Festival

Yesterday we met with our class at the Tachikawa Community Center. We taught them for an hour indoors and then they wanted to go outside for a hanami (picnic with viewing of the cherry blossoms). They provided quite a feast for us, and afterwards we reviewed the “Love Chapter” from I Corinthians 13 and danced the hokey pokey. Our students are getting good at doing the hokey pokey – it went better than the first time we tried it. We also sang, “You are my sunshine.” A passerby on a bicycle took a group picture. We distributed copies of “Power for Living,” to the class and urged them to read it. Power for Living includes testimonies of well-known Christian personalities in Japan and a presentation of the Gospel. Please pray that God will touch their hearts so that they may come to know Jesus, Light of the World.

Arrgh! Computer Problems

Arrgh! A missionary’s life is not free of technical glitches. After an upgrade of my anti-virus software, I can no longer use our scanner. I suspect the the AV upgrade bungled up my computer, since my wife can still scan just fine. Numerous attempts at reinstalling the software hasn’t helped and it looks like I’ll be reformatting my harddrive and reinstalling all the software. I’m almost looking forward to this. Flattening the harddrive always seems to have a therapeutic effect anyway.