Our man in Japan

For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  Romans 11:36 When we got married the Vicar gave us a book by John Stott, in which he explains all these prepositions. Here's Stott: Our major problem is not our ignorance but our sin & guilt. And the redemption which God has achieved, like the revelation he has given, is 'through Jesus Christ'. Jesus Christ is the agent or mediator of both.  

Consider the goodness & severity of God.. Romans 11:22

Thieves and robbers.. John 10:8 How much is a Buddhist funeral these days? 

A foolish nation.. Romans 10:19 A mayor who is against the Ukraine war has just been elected in East Germany. Jesus said "blessed are the peacemakers", but The Guardian is in a panic because he is a member of Alternative for Deutschland, whom they call "far right".  As the left call everyone who isn't in favour of dressing their sons up as daughters 'far right' these days, I will reserve judgement, but if this guy truly is a Neo Nazi, maybe just maybe the centre left government bankrupting the country to pursue a useless war with Russia just might have something to do with it. 

I will call them my people, who were not my people.  Romans 9:25 This is Good News. The same God who destroyed Pharoah's army is fighting on the side of Japanese Christians. Jesus Christ is a far more reliable ally than Joe Biden. Ask Afgans for details. 

Out of whom he had cast 7 demons.. Mark 16:9 The woke narrative is that there are 2 types of people. Oppressed & oppressers. This is way too simplistic. Every person has the potential to be both. We are all subject to lust, pride (the deadliest of 7 the deadly sins), gluttony, anger, envy, sloth & avarice. History shows us that despots can be black (Idi Amin), female (Catherine the 'Great') and gay (Caligula), not merely straight white males. 

When you were younger.. John 21:18 Harrison Ford said once that he doesn't want to be young again, he was content at the age he was when interviewed. I suspect that if we were as wealthy as he is, we might similarly be content, but even then, I dare say there are people who look to the past instead of the future. I see people who say they have "no regrets" & I struggle to believe them.  

Shepherd of the sheep .. John 10:2 So many teachers these days seem hell-bent on teaching kids all the wrong things. 

We hope for what we do not see.. Romans 8:25 What would a Christian majority Japan look like? 

To be spiritually minded is life & peace.. Romans 8:6 You don't need to worry your way through life. 

O wretched man that I am!  Romans 7:24  "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,  That saved a wretch like me ."  John Newton Modern versions often remove the word "wretch". We wouldn't want to damage anyone's self esteem by suggesting they are desperately depraved sinners in dire need of grace now, would we? St Paul, didn't you get the memo? 

The law is holy.. Romans 7:12 So it is rare I agree with ISIS on anything. And I certainly don't condone violence. But I find it hard today not to feel a certainly sympathy for the very young Muslims (teens) who were caught trying to attack a Vienna Pride parade. I'm glad nobody died, but I hope they get minimum sentences. What they did was misguided but better than the knee jerk support for depravity coming from the left these days. 

It was very large.. Mark 16:4 However large your issues & problems are, they are tiny compared to God. 

Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood.. Romans 3:25 This is the kind of technical theological word that has mostly fallen out of use. The Good News Bible simplifies it: 'by his death he should become the means by which people's sins are forgiven..' Oxford defines propitiation as 'the action of propitiating or appeasing', from the Latin propitius, favorable. 

Shall we continue in sin..?  Romans 6:1  A holy person is happy pleasing God. A sinner is happy sinning..for now, in the very short term. Most of us, I believe, are somewhere in the middle. We want to be better, but we also want stuff we know isn't good for us. There's a famous T shirt in the UK - "Everything I love is either illegal, immoral or fattening!"

The grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many.. Romans 5:15 Grace is a wonderful gift. Almost too good to be true. But it is true. Not wishful thinking, just the way God is. Merciful beyond compare. 

It is of faith that it might be according to grace.. Romans 4:16 Seems to me you call your daughter Grace if you take Christianity fairly seriously. A hockey star, at the top level in England, was murdered yesterday in Nottingham, along with her friend Ben, a talented cricketer, coming home from a nightclub.  Both students, both 19. A third man in his 50s was also killed. Only GB news tells us the man with the 🔪 knife was a black migrant from West Africa- the mainstream media are entirely wiping clean anything which does not fit their liberal narrative. 

Blessed is the man to whom the LORD shall not impute sin.   Romans 4:8

What if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? Certainly not!  Romans 3:3  Sceptics like to talk about 'wishful thinking' when it comes to Christians, but actually it's the people wishing away hell that are guilty of wishful thinking. 

Make disciples.. Matthew 28:19 One of the many reasons why the church is growing so slowly in Japan is, I think, that Western Christians like me are often less self-disciplined than many Japanese themselves.  Today I left our apartment & the first Japanese man I met grinned and pretended to pick his nose as he walked past. May God bless him richly. 

I long to see you.. Romans 1:11 I long to go home. 23 years in Japan this month. 

Come to me, all you who labour.. Matthew 11:28 I would trust the Labour Party more if they trusted the Bible more. 

Haters of God, violent, proud.. Romans 1:30 The rainbow 🌈 was made by God as a sign to Noah of His covenant with him. It does not belong to trans people, etc, exclusively. 

Lawyers rejected the will of God.. Luke 7:30 The farce of the Japanese Olympics allowing men to compete as women has shown that the liberal secular West are unfit to manage international sport, so although, yes, the Saudis have a terrible human rights record, I don't have a problem with them running golf for now. At least they know what a woman is, even if they treat them very badly. 

I am a debtor both to Greeks & to barbarians.. Romans 1:14 It's nearly that time of year again when the men of Hakata run around the streets half naked..

The days are evil.. Ephesians 5:16 The Dark Ages are now! 

The first day of the week.. John 20:19 One thing that drives me mental here in Japan is the tendency to organize many social/community events on Sundays. It may not be specifically designed to exclude Christians but it has that effect. Today the "respectable" people of Kasuga are doing "environmental" clean up. On a Sunday morning. On the feast of THE MOST HOLY TRINITY.  I lost my rag. Sorry, but killing 'weeds' that God created on His day, instead of worshipping Him as is His right and due, is hardly a good act. And yet you can bet these people will see the angry Christian and look down on me, even when it seems to me their own Buddhist religion condemns them when they take (plant) life without just cause.  And even by the standards of the secular Green movement, merely killing weeds is somewhat retrograde & regressive. How is this really benefiting the environment? It gives a superficial sense of order whilst actually destroying plants which absorb car...

We went towards Rome.. Acts 28:14  De Santis isn't perfect. But he is a much better Catholic than Joe Biden. 

All who ever came before Me are thieves and robbers .. John 10:8 That includes the Buddha himself.

Blessed is she who believed.. Luke 1:45