Our man in Japan

The mystery of lawlessness is already at work.. 2 Thessalonians 2:7 People who are gleeful about the rise of secularism in the West forget that the Bible predicted this. Christians now have the pleasure of seeing 2 of the world's most liberal countries try to knock each other out of the World Cup when the US play the Dutch. Thanks to the US Senate doubling down on sodomy I'm cheering for the Dutch. Meanwhile England face Senegal, who clearly are a better Muslim side ( & country I would suggest) than Iran.  

What about this man?  John 21:21 A seriously mentally ill man enters Britain illegally, makes a famous actress's life a living hell by persistently stalking her, writes The Guardian. He may be up for deportation but the one thing the very PC Guardian won't tell us is where he is from. The Mail will: he's American. Hey Biden, can you keep your sex pests on your side of the Atlantic please? We have too many in Britain already. 

The glory of His power.. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 France are the only team so far to win 2 in a row. Every other team has been humbled somewhat, or downright eliminated like Canada & Qatar. To be fair, Brazil, Switzerland & Portugal still have the chance to emulate France with 2 straight wins. 

Seek Jesus of Nazareth.. Mark 16:6 So it turns out Uma Musume was one of the most popular Google searches in Japan 🗾 last year. Weather was ichiban. Despite western ideas of Japan being a land of oriental mystery full of ninja, samurai and geisha, it turns out it is full of salarymen & office ladies anxious 😰 not to be caught without an umbrella ☔, with numerous individuals  (otaku?) showing a somewhat surprising interest in cartoon girls named after racehorses. Meanwhile in Britain today, it seems Doddie Weir, a Scottish rugby 🏉 star who sadly died recently, is the number 1 Google trend. May he rest in peace. 

If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved. John 10:9 England is not safe yet, but I will take 4 points & top of group. It is better than a loss. The wokeness of the US & Britain cancelled each other out, neither managing to win. We need to beat Wales now to be sure of advancing, but a draw will probably be enough.   

Whether we wake or sleep.. 1 Thessalonians 5:10 These games that start at 4 am are not ideal.. And now, my favourite footie joke: Sheffield Wednesday! (Sorry Sheffield fans) No seriously, here's the joke. Peter "The Cat" Bonetti, the famous Chelsea goalie is walking through West London early one morning when he notices a 🏠 is on 🚒🔥 fire. A woman appears at an upstairs window.  "Peter" she screams "Save my 🍼 baby! My only son!" So she throws the baby down to him & he makes this spectacular diving catch. The crowd that has gathered cheers & applauds. Then Peter absentmindedly bounces the baby a couple of times & kicks him down the high street ....

Sudden destruction comes upon them.. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 Turns out the shooter at the gay club in Colorado is "non-binary" & wants to be addressed as "Mx". (Not Mr)

Disregards not man but God.. 1 Thessalonians 4:8 There's a lot of talk this World Cup about so called gay "rights". Where are these gay rights? In Argentina, where same sex marriage was legalized in 2010? Saudis today are laughing at Argentina, & the world is laughing with them. I suspect something similar could happen to woke Germany tonight. Good luck, Japan!  

A beloved brother.. Philemon 16 I wish the Americans & Welsh well: just not against us! I would suggest their wokeness resulted in their failure to win last night. England sits top of the group after their stonking win over Iran, but the 2 conceded is as Southgate notes, cause for concern. Even so, surely the best start to a World Cup in my lifetime; thank you, lads. I would like to point out that Saka, scoring 2 goals , is a Christian. 

Returned to her home. Luke 1:56 After 22 years, I would like to go home to England. But what would I find if I did? With the captain of the English football team more concerned with gay rights than scoring goals, I don't recognize the country I grew up in. Do we even deserve to beat anyone? 

Disciples of all nations.. Matthew 28:19 So, many, if not all, nations are gathered in Qatar. Russia was unjustly excluded. I am cheering for Ecuador today, as I suspect many of us are. Vamos, Ecuador! 

A severe test of affliction 2 Corinthians 8:2 Britain is in a tough place right now. I think voters in Manchester quoted in The Guardian are right to see Sunak as out of touch. They also see Kier as out of touch, but guess what, The Guardian kept that out of the headline. What I can assure you is that Jesus is never out of touch. He understands exactly what you are going through. 

What is our hope..?  1 Thessalonians 2:19 So Canada crushed Japan's ⚽ hopes in the final seconds. Nevermind, it doesn't count. Hopefully they can learn something. I obviously hope England's lads embarrass the Iranians. They deserve it. Then again it is the Iranian government that is the problem, not the people themselves.  But clearly, for us Christians, once the football is over, we still have Christmas to look forward to. 

The working of miracles.. 1 Corinthians 12:10 Miracles happen! Science still cannot explain everything, though sometimes it pretends it can. It saddens me that NASA sees fit to name its new moon 🚀 rocket after a Greek myth. To me it shows a godlessness innate in much of modern science: they refuse to give the True & Holy God of the Bible credit for everything good, and they end up giving glory to mythological nonsense. How perverse! How 🖤 wicked! 

a foolish nation.. Romans 10:19 Now, there are many candidates for the title "Most foolish nation". I am going to cross America off the list because the voters there did show sense by kicking Pelosi to the kerb & dramatically shutting down Biden's opportunities to pass legislation.  Britain is a candidate: why are we putting up illegal migrants in luxury hotels & footing the bill? But let's look at Qatar, as the planet's focus turns to the World 🌎  Cup. Is Qatar foolish? Yes and no. Is it foolish to have strict laws against alcohol & homosexuality? No. In this the West could learn from the Qataris, though total Prohibition may not work as the Americans found out. Is it very foolish to kill 6,500 of your foreign workers with brutal labour laws & then draw international attention to this fact by hosting a major footie tournament? Yep, absolutely.  But Japan 🗾 doesn't escape entirely. Here's me off to the supermarket for coffee ☕ in full win...

Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. 1 Thessalonians 1:10 It gives me no joy, but let's be real: if you vote Dem because you want killing babies to be legal in abortion clinics, how is God going to feel about that? Happy that innocents are being killed? I don't think so. Remember: God ALWAYS knows our true motives for doing what we do.

Buffeted & homeless .. 1 Corinthians 4:11 My wife is off to Tokyo 🗼 to visit our kid, but at least I still have a roof over my head. This time of year is not the best to be without one. Things do seem to have improved since I first got here, 22 years ago, in terms of people sleeping in parks, but I wouldn't yet like to claim there are no homeless in Japan. 

At that time, Jesus revealed Himself.. John 21:14 God is omnipresent. Jesus is God, so therefore, He is also omnipresent. But are we aware of this? God reveals Himself in a myriad of ways, but often chiefly through His Creation, & through His Holy Word, the Bible. If you aren't reading it, what are you missing? FOMO is an epidemic amongst millennials, but this is the biggest omission of them all: you may be having a great Sunday, nice 🥑🥝 food, nice friends, nice family even, but are you too busy to even notice the Creator of the Universe would like to talk to you, one on one? 

He gives to the poor.. 2 Corinthians 9:9 To me, as an outsider, Biden did very few things right over the last 2 years. But buying the votes of students was a shrewd move. I am deeply grateful to the British state for allowing me a full student grant to get a degree. They also paid for my teacher training. I doubt if I would have considered higher Ed if I had had to get into debt to do it. I know hardcore fiscal conservatives feel everyone should work & pay for their own education & health care. I guess I am a centrist on education & health. I cannot accept that as the left claim, the state should pay for a Queer Studies degree and a sex 'change' operation. You want weird stuff, pay for it yourself. But the poor who merit it SHOULD get free degrees, especially in medicine & education. We need teachers & doctors. And dental care should always be free. For everyone. You can warn of "socialized" medicine 💊💉 all you like, I don't give a fig. No on...

Let light shine out of darkness.. 2 Corinthians 4:6 It'll soon be ⛄🎄 Christmas. We may even get a US election result before then. 

We have become a spectacle to the world, to angels and to men.. 1 Corinthians 4:9 Millions of us watching the heartbreaking results from America. It seems roughly a quarter of the US electorate believe infanticide is the most important issue. I would point to this verse because some clearly need reminding angels are watching also. Can De Santis save America from itself? Florida gave us a ray of hope in a disappointing night for Christians. It seems as if Biden may run again, taking credit for a surprisingly small loss for Dems, but I would argue that ironically the Supreme Court gave the Dems comfort tonight, not Biden himself. Trump needs to learn from these results that there is no path forward for him. It is pointless him maybe winning the GOP primary then losing again in the general. The only people who had a worse night were the feminists themselves: their claimed blue wave 🌊 got completely washed away by a slightly bigger red one. But the victory for the conservative right was p...

What part of the night the thief was coming.. Matthew 24:43 If the Dems keep the House I think it is safe to say they cheated. 

If he refuses to listen to the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector..   Matthew 18:17 Here's Jesus' handy voting guide, Americans! If a pol ignores Christian wisdom, they are to be shunned. Bye bye, Nancy! 

Not holding fast to the Head.. Colossians 2:19 5 Bishops in the Church of England have decided to abandon Christ & the New Testament and make up their own secular woke heretical religion involving gay marriage. They need to repent or resign. Will anyone sack them? It's time we had an Archbishop who brooks no nonsense, & if Welby won't do it, get someone from Africa who will. 

Simon Peter said to them,  "I am going fishing".. John 21: 3 All around the coasts of Japan, there are men who earn their living from the sea. I find it somewhat surprising that Christianity isn't more prevalent amongst these guys. I think sometimes the theological education of your average priest or pastor removes them from the working class & alienates them from ordinary working men. Jesus has no problem reaching men where they are, rich or poor, whatever their occupation, but churches sometimes tend female & middle class. How many men today are going fishing for fun, on their day off, INSTEAD of going to church? More than one, I suspect. My cousin married a guy who would rather spend his Sundays on a riverbank. Jesus totally gets these guys; after all, as God He created 🐟🐠 fish & rivers in the first place, that would suggest He likes them. As for me, I prefer walking along the river to sitting still for hours, wrestling with maggots & the right type o...

To this day, whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds..  2 Corinthians 3:15 St Paul is talking primarily about Jews that reject Christ, but here in Japan 🗾 (and in the UK) there are plenty of people who can't get past Genesis chapter 1. Darwinism is taught in schools here almost as if it were a fact instead of merely a theory, despite increasing evidence each year that Darwin got things wrong. Which is basically doing a HUGE disservice to the kids of Japan, many of whom will never hear a decent unbiased summary of any alternative position. And websites like Wikipedia, despite claims of neutrality, make sure to also censor the truth. Which is why if you are reading the Bible for the first time you may be better of starting with the Gospel of Luke or John. Because you can't really understand the Old Testament without reading the New Testament.. 

Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom & knowledge.. Colossians 2:3 You may have a PhD, but do you know everything? No? God does. 

God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.. Colossians 1:27 The Pope is off to Bahrain. While most celebs go to nice beaches or famous beauty spots that the rest of us can't afford to visit, the Jesuit leader of the global Catholic Church goes to places not well known and with dubious human rights records. God bless all Christians living in the Middle East. 

The hope of the gospel.. Colossians 1:23 Hope is needed in these dark times. Better to put your hope in Jesus Christ than fallible politicians like Sunak, Starmer, Biden or Kishida. Having said that, we do need to fight for traditional Christian values. Not with guns or with bombs, but at every election, and with our lives. Abortion is wrong, and the Supreme Court did well to restrict it. There is no such thing as the right to kill your own child. Secularists bring destruction wherever they are in power, it is time this month to kick them out in the mid terms. And people like Biden & Pelosi, who claim to be Catholic but whose words and actions show them to be very far from the Catechism, do not deserve to be in office.   

Do all work miracles? 1 Corinthians 12:29 After more than 50 years of cakes🍰🎂, sweets, 🍫 chocolate, crisps & canned drinks, it feels like my dentist is fighting a losing battle. Still, I'll be dead soon, & then no toothache can touch me. Although hell sounds like one big toothache. I'm hoping to go to the other place, where there is no toothache.