This past Monday, we were invited to have lunch with Kazuko, one of our English students. We drove to her house along with Keiko (another student who is also a Christian). As we talked, we discussed how both of us had had somewhat difficult weeks and commented on how we were looking forward to having lunch with Kazuko because she is one of those people who laughs easily and is a joy to be around. The lunch was delicious (Kazuko has also worked as a professional cook) and a lot of fun.

Later, I pondered our discussion in the car: three Christians feeling uplifted from being around someone who is not a Christian. Hopefully Kazuko enjoyed being with us as much as we did with her, but the somewhat backwardness of it really struck me. As Christians we should be the ones bringing joy into others lives. We are called to serve others and we are called to share the true source of ultimate joy – the message of the Gospel, but we should also be just plain fun people. Because we are children of God, our lives should be filled and overflowing with joy. We should laugh often, have fun easily, and put people at ease when they are around us.

I remember the unsaved husband of one of the women in the church telling me that he was okay with his wife going to church because she always came home happier than when she left. Is that true of your church? What about you personally? Do people enjoy being around you? Is it obvious to the non-Christians around you that your life is filled with joy?

Pray for us as we live out the Gospel message amongst our Japanese friends and contacts. Pray that our lives would be filled with joy even amidst difficult or tiring circumstances.

Today our blog celebrates its 100th post, going back over the past three and a half years. As a little blast from the past, I though I’d excerpt some of the first posts and comment on some of the things we’ve learn since then.

Thursday, July 12th, 2007: As we stood and waited for the train to Kudamatsu, we felt proud of ourselves for being able to get our tickets and find the correct place to wait… that is until we looked around and realized that we were on the wrong side of the tracks! With the train coming in a minute or two, we found ourselves running up the stairs and across the tracks to the other side! We did make the correct train, but we sure were scared there for a bit!

If only that would have been one of the last times we did something goofy. One of the things you learn living in another country is not to take yourself too seriously and to always be double checking to make sure you’re not bumbling your way through something.

Saturday, July 14th, 2007: One of the things that we have been noticing as we are out and about is the Japanese dress. The Japanese are similar to most Asian countries in that people almost always wear pants when they are out in public. Some people (like those in SE Asia) do it for practical reasons to ward off sunburn and bugs, but the Japanese seem to do it simply out of a sense of propriety. You feel a little self conscious to be the funny looking American walking around town so oddly dressed. The more you learn about Japanese culture, the more you begin to understand that politeness and propriety are significant concepts and much that the way the Japanese behave is centered around those standards.

It was interesting this summer to see the record-breaking hot weather break down that pants standard. The more the heat dragged on, the more often we saw people (even older folks) going around town in shorts. The sense of politeness and propriety, however, it still in full force. One of the most obvious things you come to notice is the pleasantries. In the same way that North Americans say “How are you?” and are expecting “Fine, thanks. You?” instead of the person’s feelings, Japanese people also have standard phrases. Here, though, there are a lot more of them, and they are often used in ways that seem strange given their meaning. If you ask a Japanese person the reason, the response is simply “Well, that just what you say.” The fact that you have said the “polite” thing more than your true feelings is what makes you polite and proper.

Friday, July 20th, 2007: We went to the Todaiji Temple, located in Nara which was the old capital of Japan. The temple is a massive building and a Buddha statue fills it from top to bottom. It was an amazing sight that left me breathless… It was only when I walked behind it that I was brought back to reality. I noticed that there were two large beams holding it up from behind… [It's good] to know that the God I serve does not need beams to hold him up. He is much larger than this statue or the temple it is in.

As we have adjusted to life here in Japan, tried not to make too many mistakes, and tried to act in polite ways that would be well received by the Japanese, knowing Who were are here to serve has been vitally important. Our God does not need to be propped-up; He is the one who does the propping. Whenever we don’t know what to do or feel like we have flubbed up yet again, we can remember that God is always there to restore and uphold us.

Psalm 37: 23-24:  The LORD directs the steps of the godly.  He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall,  for the LORD holds them by the hand.

Pray for continued wisdom for Theresa and me to know the right ways to interact with the Japanese, both believers and unbelievers, that will show care and respect. Pray that despite mistakes, the love of God and the light of the Gospel will shine through us.

As someone whose passion in life is seeing people effectively engaged in bringing glory to God and building his kingdom, I am often focused on challenging Christians to do that. However, over the last few weeks, I have been struck by how even those who are not followers of Christ can build God’s kingdom and bring him glory. Kind of a tricky subject; so let me start with two examples from here in Ube:

On Tuesday night, we met again with the Tamuras. They are enjoyable language helpers and are also some of the founding members of the “Angelic Shout” gospel choir that meets here at the Lighthouse Church. The choir performed a few songs at Lighthouse Church’s Easter service. Not only did they clearly sing praises to the Lord for everyone in attendance to hear but they were also a special blessing to Christians in the church as well. Tamura-san was also a vital resource in helping us arrange transportation for the work team that came recently from First Baptist, Atlanta as well as helping our teammates who recently returned to the US dispose of their car.

Konoike-san was here again this morning helping us with the renovations to the ministry center. He owns his own home remodeling business and his wife and daughter participate in the Lighthouse Church’s English classes. When he found out we had a building we needed to renovate, he offered to come help us on a volunteer basis. Over the last two months, coming to consult and assist few hours a week has turned into coming to help three or four days a week – basically, anytime he isn’t needed at one of his other job sites. He can often be found not just answering our many questions, but right alongside of us cutting boards, laying carpet, or hanging wallpaper. At this point, we can’t imagine how we would have ever gotten the renovations done without his help.

So, the rub in all of this… none of these people are Christians. I won’t pretend to understand what motivates them and am keenly aware that their work is not earning them any sort of favor in the eyes of God.  But, none the less, the point is that they are helping to advance the work of God here in Ube and thus indirectly building God’s kingdom.

My take… well, I am yet again reminded about how God works outside of the boxes that I often put him in. While only those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are sensitive to his working, God is still able to work in the hearts and minds of everyone. While it may only be those who are filled with the Holy Spirit who honor God in the way he desires, even the fragments of his image that are in every person and every culture can be seen bringing him glory. While those who are filled with the Holy Spirit are specifically called and chosen to serve God and build his kingdom, it will be built whether they (…whether you and I) participate or not. He can and does work through any means possible.

Next time you interact with someone who is not a Christian, resist the temptation to write them off as outside the kingdom of God. Even if they have not yet responded to it, God could still be working in their heart and life. They deserve to be respected as God’s creations, and as such (even if in small ways) still reflect his glory.

Pray for Theresa and me as we interact with the Tamuras and Konoike-san. Pray that their hearts would be open to the truth they are encountering and that they would respond to the call of God on their lives. Pray that they would come to know God and serve him, not for their own reasons, but as his children.

This past Sunday afternoon Colby and I went ice skating with his sisters and niece.  That was an interesting experience for me.  Growing up in Maine you would think that I am a pro at ice skating since we get so much snow and ice.  However, I am not.  There was a large swamp in the woods behind my house when I was young that my family and I would go ice skating on.  I mostly just slipped and fell, but it was fun nonetheless.  Unfortunately we moved away just as I was getting the hang of it.  The next time I went ice skating was when I was in high school with a bunch of friends.  Again, I mostly teetered around the pond, trying to keep my dignity in tact.  We all decided to form a line and skate around together in circles.  Much to my delight (sarcasm), I was at the end of the line and thus was the one to be whipped around the circle.

So it was with trepidation that I went ice skating this past Sunday.  Even the thought of it made me start to feel stressed.  This was when the Lord brought to my mind the thought, “This is a great opportunity to practice having a good attitude!”  “Yippee”, I thought, but I knew He was right.  I began to pray that God would help me to do my best, remembering that falling down is not the end of the world.  When the time came that we went ice skating, I was nervous and did cling to the edge a little bit.  However, pretty soon I was able to go at it alone and found myself cautiously making my way around the rink.  By the end of the afternoon, I was going a bit faster and feeling more confident!  It makes such a difference when you tell yourself that you can do something and encourage yourself along the way.  I don’t know as if I want to take up ice skating as a regular hobby, but at least I know that I am capable of it.

Please pray for Colby and I that God would enable us to have the right kind of attitude as we adjust to Japanese culture and learn the language.

We got up early Wednesday morning ready to begin our time here at our PreDeparture Orientation for Christar.  With a delicious breakfast already down, coffee in our mugs, and fellow missionaries surrounding us, we had our first seminar of the day with Christar’s president.  A veteran missionary, he stood before us to challenge and encourage us for the next step in our journey.  When he said this, he got my attention:

“It’s okay to fail. Failure is not the worst thing that could happen.”

This is interesting, I thought.

“It is better to step out in faith trusting God than to never try at all,” he went on.

What a profound thing for the president to tell aspiring missionaries.  What a profound thing for God to tell me….

To be honest with you, I don’t want to fail.  In anything.  It’s just not comfortable, lovely, and doesn’t seem right.  In thinking about telling the Japanese about Christ, I want more than anything to be effective and see people’s lives changed by God.  The concept of failure being okay is a totally foreign thing to me.  It’s scary to even think about because it so goes against who I am as a person, American, and “good” Christian.  For so long it has been ingrained in me that to fail at anything is awful.  But here we were yesterday, sitting before the president of our organization, being told that it was okay.

In thinking more about this and about the God I have committed my life to, I have to consider the fact that He is bigger than anything I aspire to do for Him.  He can use a failure of mine just as much as a success.  Probably the bigger issue is if I am willing to fail.  Willing to try something new that might not work, to take a risk, or to pick myself up after having failed.  My response to my failure is probably what is more important than the failure itself.

At least I would have tried….  Stepped out in faith, and tried.

Pray for us this week as we enjoy Pre-Departure Orientation and all we are learning. Pray that we will learn all that God has for us as we prepare for Japan. Pray also that we would soon receive our Certificate of Eligibility, which we need in order to get our visas.

For any of you who follow the church-year calendar, yesterday was a holiday called Epiphany. It is the day that the church celebrates the visit of the magi to the Christ child and ultimately the revelation of Christ to the Gentiles. Recently, we were discussing the magi and their visit at our Wednesday night service. It got me thinking about the role they (and more specifically, their stargazing) play in the story of Christ’s birth. I have been reading a book recently by Gerald McDermott called Can Evangelicals Learn from World Religions: Jesus, Revelation & Religious Traditions. In it, McDermott postulates that while other religions cannot tell us anything about God that is not revealed in scripture, they can sometimes help us to see aspects of biblical revelation from a different perspective – with fresh eyes.

This brings us back to the magi. It is interesting to note how they came to be notified of Christ’s birth. It was through the stars. Certainly nothing unusual there; Psalm 19 tells us that the heavens “declare the glory of God (ESV).” However, the more interesting thing is how the heavens showed them that and where Christ was to be born – using secular astrological symbolism and interpretation. Anyone who understands the truths of the Bible knows that there is no credibility to astrology. God sovereignly controls all that happens in the world, not the stars. But in this case God chooses to use this pagan system to announce the birth of his Son, the Messiah, to these pagan wise men. Using the power of modern computers, we can backtrack astronomical phenomena to the time of the birth of Christ.  Doing so reveals that a fascinating set of astronomical occurrences with astrological significance would have occurred – sufficient enough to get this group of magi to leave their palace court and their homeland to pay homage to a great king (for more on this, see http://www.bethlehemstar.net/dance/dance.htm). The interesting part is that not only does this astrological interpretation cause them to realize the birth of the Messiah, but to be the ones to notify the political and religious leaders in Judea. Those religious leaders, with their copies of the scriptures, must fill in some of the details, but the magi initiate the process.

This has made me think about what Theresa and I will learn as we are in Japan interacting with the Japanese. Our goal is to go to spread the light of the gospel to those who have never heard, but I think the Japanese, with their “secular” culture will have much to teach us as well. Just today I was talking with a colleague about the fact that in Japan people are not so concerned about having their own way as maintaining harmony among the group. It seems to me that their culture is better prepared to live out passages like Romans 12:17-18 & Philippians 2:1-4 than we are as Americans. Sometimes I think that we mistakenly believe that, just because a person or culture has not been permeated with the gospel, there is nothing we as Christians can learn from them. However, the truth is that all people (and thus all cultures) have been created in and contain the image of God. While they may be marred by the curse of sin, elements of that image still shine through and in some cases could even outshine that element in the lives of even a dedicated follower of Christ. My prayer is that Theresa and I can be open and humble enough to learn from them.

Pray for Theresa and I as we continue to prepare our hearts for Japan. Pray that we would be open to learning from the Japanese and would be able to quickly acclimate to the Japanese culture and lifestyle.

I don’t worry. But I do something worse… I think.

I know it may not seem like it, but for me it is. If you think about what worry is, it I essentially a lack of trust in God. Often worry can be described as looking at a situation and saying, “I can’t do anything to control this.” and combining that with a lack of reliance on God’s sovereignty. With that in place, you begin to pointlessly replay all the negative scenarios in your head.

We would all admit that worrying is bad, but thinking…?

Here’s what I’m getting at. I am a type A personality. The type of worrying I mentioned above is often done by those described as type B, those who are not as aggressive in their approach to life. Type A’s don’t tend to worry like that; we’re too proactive, too intentional. What we do instead is problem solve. When a difficult problem arises, we sit and think. We think about possible solutions, possible contingencies, about people or organizations we can talk with to find solutions, about ways of reorienting ourselves to find solutions.

The negative thing about this approach is it also shows a lack of trust in God. This lack of reliance on God’s sovereignty is combined with saying, “I have to find some way to fix this problem.”

I am reminded of Proverbs 9:10

Fear of the LORD is the foundation of wisdom. Knowledge of the Holy One results in good judgment. (NLT)

“Knowledge of the Holy One” – knowing that God cares about us and that he will sovereignly work out his plan in our lives – is the key to life’s problems. Taking those problems on myself, either in the form of worry or in the form of problem solving, only makes me feel responsible for something I have little control over anyway.

I’ve been working for the past few months to plan my store’s VBS workshop coming up in February.  These past couple weeks I have felt the pressure of deadlines and responsibilities bear down on my shoulders as I strive to get things done.  There have been more than a couple times when I have woken up in the middle of the night completely stressed about the workshop and how everything was going to get done.  These past couple days have been particularly stressful, so much so that the stress and pressure do not abate once I have come home from work.  This has been trying for Colby and I and finally last night I broke down and cried after a benign comment that he made.  This is where my lesson in perspective came in.  After a long talk with Colby, in which he reminded me that because I am only human (I had forgotten), I can only get a certain amount of work done in a given day and that it is useless to stress about the rest.  I must focus on doing the best that I can, prioritizing my work, and giving everything to the Lord.  If I don’t get everything done, I don’t get everything done.  This is life sometimes.  I had been going crazy operating under the impression that the workshop rises and falls on me and that I absolutely must accomplish everything I need to do.  This reminder allows me to step back, realize that God is in control, and concentrate on what is most important.  A little perspective….it has done my heart some good!

Theresa and I just finished reading Victory Over the Darkness: Realizing the Power of Your Identity in Christ, by Neil T. Anderson as part of Christar’s required reading. To be honest, we weren’t really thrilled with the book, although that’s probably due more to the fact that it didn’t have a lot of relevance to where we were currently, rather than the book’s quality. I have personally known many people who have benefited from Anderson’s books. However, something he said revived some things that have been bouncing around in my mind recently and so I decided to share my thoughts with you. I don’t know if my comments are going in exactly the same direction he was headed in in the above quote, but his term struck me and I think what he was addressing is a symptom of the same problem I am wrestling with.

“Many Christians are living under a half gospel. They have heard that Jesus is the Messiah who came to die for their sins, and if they pray to receive Christ, they will go to heaven when they die and their sins will be forgiven.” (p. 44)

Half Gospel… If you spend any time in evangelical circles, the word gospel gets thrown around a lot. To most, the gospel is the facts of salvation. Jesus died and rose again to take the punishment for my sin. If I accept his gift of salvation, I can have eternal life. The fact that these are well understood is good. 1 Corinthians 15 makes it obvious that Christ’s resurrection is pivotal to our faith. But what I am struggling with is that these are all that is talked about.

As the people of God, our mission is to join God in his work of reconciling and restoring all creation from the effects of the curse. The effects of the curse were not just spiritual, and I think God is just as concerned about how we build his kingdom in the here and now as what goes on “in the sweet by and by.” Unfortunately, many Christians’ misunderstanding of what the gospel fully entails leads them to view salvation primarily as a transaction. I give my heart to Jesus and he gives me eternal life. “…we end up with,” as Anderson puts it, “forgiven sinners instead of redeemed saints.”

I believe one of the best encapsulations of the gospel is found in Jesus paraphrase of Isaiah 61:

“The Spirit of the LORD is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the LORD’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18-19)

I don’t think Jesus is talking in all spiritual metaphors here. It seems clear from his ministry that he is actually concerned with the poor, the handicapped, and those bound by societal oppression. As Christians, we should be on the front lines in dealing with these issues. Being a Christian is as much about working to make our world reflect what God originally intended, as it is about getting our ticket to heaven. Certainly spiritual separation from God is one of the catastrophic mars of sin on the world, but it is not the only one. As we work to bring people into right spiritual relationships with God, we must strive to combat the other affects of the curse as well.

As someone involved in evangelistic cross-cultural ministry, I know how easy it can be to become a spiritual head hunter, simply looking for that next convert. The challenge is to say, “How can I engage people where they are and make their lives better, healthier, more how God intended?” We have been given a mission, and it is vital that we live out all of it.

PS – I recently saw a website promoting some projects in areas mentioned above. If this is new to you and you want to see some examples of these types of things in action, check out http://www.fermiproject.com/projects/

Before you begin reading this post, you’ll need to plunk down two one dollar bills down on your keyboard, because I am going to give you two doozie words. They are consumerism and narcissism, and one can hardly go through a holiday season in the US without being assaulted by them. Before I talk about how they have affected our culture, let me define them.

Consumerism - an attitude that values the acquisition of material goods
Narcissism - excessive self-admiration and self-centeredness

These two attitudes combined have set our society on an increasingly troublesome path. Because of the way we are connected across the US and across the world, we can look up anything we want, talk to anyone we want, or buy anything we want, virtually any time (sorry, no pun intended). We have been taught to be consumers, to “shop around,” to only extend our loyalties as far as our needs are met. Especially for people in the younger brackets of society, this reinforces what we have been told during most of our growing-up years – you are special, you are unique, you deserve to have opportunities in life, and you deserve happiness. While this should be true in some ways, getting told this all the time has heightened our narcissistic belief that we are the center of our own universes.

I was particularly struck by this while watching a Toyota commercial on TV the other day.

Did you catch the tagline? “Anyway you want it, that’s the way you need it.” This is where consumerism and narcissism come together in our culture. We have gone beyond the attitude that you can have things anyway you’d like, to the understanding that how you want something becomes you own personal need – essentially wants turned into needs.

This comes out in a strong way at Christmas time when Americans are unwittingly turned into over-consumers. Under the guise of holiday spirit, we are encouraged to meet everyone else’s consumerist needs. Not that there is something wrong with giving someone a gift to show that you care, but we should stop and question the purpose and the difference between a symbolic gift and the debt creating splurges or obligations that we often see.

However, Christmas isn’t the only time this is present and the US isn’t the only place this happens. In Japan, young people are absorbed with having a good job so they can afford the luxuries of life and busying themselves with the latest fad or amusement. Consumerism is even present on a small scale in underdeveloped countries where making it big simply means having a nice mo-ped and a cell phone.

In the end it’s all a symptom of trying to fill a void that is part of the fall, a need that can only be satisfied by a relationship with our loving creator. That’s what makes a real understanding of Christmas so important – God gave us the only gift we really need in Bethlehem. It wasn’t just a tiny baby; it was his son, who lived and died to fulfill God’s redemptive plan, to allow us to once again be in relationship with our creator.

As you celebrate the holiday season with your family, take time to pray for those around the world who are still trying to fill that void in their souls. Pray that they would hear the message of the gospel and that it would break past the forces of materialism and consumerism and into their hearts.