On my way...

I found this on a missionary's blog recently...

This is where I want my desire to be going.  I pray that my desire develops into this, to just be with Him.  I know He is always here; He is always with me; He is always pursuing me.  

Yet, I do not always take time to sit down with Him, to turn a listening ear toward Him, to let my heart beat in time with His.

Before coming to the field we all read the biographies of the 'great' missionaries, Amy Carmichael, Mother Teresa, Hudson Taylor, and many more.  We wanted to do all of the amazing things that they did.  

However, we forget what we also read in those stories, hours spent with Jesus, Sabbath rest days, the desire just to be with Him.

May this become my desire!

Tonight I thought I was going to get all kinds of tasks accomplished after I finished writing my sermon for tomorrow.  As I stood in front of the sink to start washing dishes- keeping it real, several days' worth- I reached for the soap and my back screamed at me.  I very slowly and carefully walked back to the living room and laid back down on my mat.

There went all my projects for the evening.  But, there I was with no where to go, no desire whatsoever to move.  Hmmm, wasn't I just saying that I wanted to learn to desire Him more than doing things for Him?!

And so, right there, in the midst of my back pain, I started praying.  I started listening.  And, He was there.  He is here.  (I have been able to move up to the chair at the table now.)

So, I pray that I may continue on this path, the one in which my desire becomes Him and not activity.

Merry Unexpected Christmas!

Christmas day is almost over here in Japan.  It has been a great day!  A completely unexpected day.  Actually, a completely unexpected week!

Sunday was an unexpected when I received a message that my coworker was not feeling well.  By 1PM it was obvious that he was not going to be able to make it to church that afternoon.  Thankfully, we had already planned the themes for advent Sundays, so planning a message in a couple of hours was not quite as difficult.  Everyone at church was understanding and helpful.  We had a good time studying about joy in the story of Jesus' birth.

Monday morning dawned with a snow squall and another not quite as unexpected message.  Influenza had taken down two more of the members of my coworkers' family, putting the count at 3.  I continued with my day off as usual which included tea time with a friend.  God prepared both of our hearts and she offered as I asked her to play piano for our Christmas Eve service at church!

With that unexpected challenge cleared, I was ready to begin preparing for the service on Tuesday.  I spent the day at church, reading, preparing, checking out the programs from the last couple of years, and enjoying delving into the Christmas story again.  My friend came to get the music and help me check the Japanese on the power point.  We had another good time of fellowship.


Unexpectedly, I had just enough cookies left at home to take to my morning exercise friends at the park on Christmas eve morning.  It was fun to see their faces and hear the "Merry Christmas" responses.


Our Christmas eve service was beautiful and full of joy.  I am so grateful for our church, the lovely people, and the wonderful celebration of our Savior's birth.

Following the service, my piano-playing friend came over and spent the night.  We enjoyed fellowship late into the night and basically all day today.  What a blessing to have a friend with whom I can spend a day sitting at the table, chatting, snacking, laughing, crying, and sharing words of wisdom.  An unexpected Christmas was just what I needed!


(Although, I missed hanging out with the Ewing family and look forward to our belated celebration!)

Mom

A few years ago I wrote a post about my mom.  This week I reviewed it since I am speaking at CrossRoad on Mother's Day.  As I prepared my message on 2 Timothy 1:3-7, here are some thoughts that crossed my mind to add to what I had already written.  Since it is Mother's Day, I am talking about my mom, however, this also applies to my dad!

I learned about God from my mother's sincere faith (and she learned from her mom!)  I learned by watching her.  I watched her interact with people in a sincere way.  I watched her love her family and friends through her actions and words.  I watched her love God through her Bible reading and worship at church.

I didn't just learn through watching, though.  She also taught my sister and me directly.  Every night after supper, we read the Bible and prayed as a family.  When we misbehaved, she taught us how to apologize.  When we went to church, she taught us how to worship and learn and asked us about what we thought.

I am thankful for parents who believed it was important for me to know Jesus.  Not just know about Jesus, but to really know Jesus.

Thank you, Mom!
Thank you, Dad!
Thank you, God!

A Month of Bible

Your word, O Lord, is eternal; it stands firm in the heavens.  Psalm 119:89

I am aware that it has been a while since I last wrote.  Not for lack of ideas or Bible reading time, but for lack of writing time.

Last Sunday was my turn to share the message at church.  I have been going through 1 John.  Last week we arrived at chapter 2, verses 18-27.  I was re-reminded that studying and talking about the Holy Spirit is not well liked by our enemy.  However, praise God, the victory has been won and we need only to trust.

We talked about three antidotes to falsehood found in these verses:
1.  Anointing of the Holy Spirit-  We are able to discern truth and falsehood because we have the Spirit of the Living God within us.  Yes, the same God who created this universe and raised Jesus from the dead.  This is the power we have within us!
2.  The truth we have heard since the beginning- We are not learning new things.  We do not have to add more to what we have learned.  We have learned what we need to know: Love God.  Love others.  And, in the following verse, we have received the free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Savior!
3.  Remain in Him- By the strength of the Holy Spirit we can remain in Him.  We can trust that our God is going to lead us through.

Here is a quote from one of the commentaries that I found helpful:
The antidote to falling into false ideas of the Christian faith is to be found in holding fast to the initial statement of Christian truth given in the apostolic witness, as this is confirmed in our hearts by the anointing given by the Holy Spirit.

Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world!

Who am I?

On Sunday I went to Kyoto to share the message since Pastor Aoki needed to be at another church that morning. (This is one of the churches where I used to work.) Becky and Serena went with me and we sang a song together, Becky playing the piano and Serena playing the guitar-and singing in Japanese! She did great!

The text was Galatians 3:26-4:7. I talked how when becoming a Christian we put on Christ and we are given new names. The names I talked about are listed in those verses, God's child, Abraham's offspring, and children of the promise. Since I have that elementary teacher background, I like to get everyone involved. Everyone participated willingly and even were willing to flip all over the Bible while I told about the background of these different names.

There was a new lady in church that morning who doesn't hear well. Thankfully, God had me prepare an extra copy of the manuscript of my sermon-the one I use has lots of notes and corrections on it! So, she could follow along and participate, too.

Becky took a few pictures for me while I was speaking, and even got one of the worship leader after the message! Since we were all singing we didn't get a picture of that because I forgot to ask someone to take one for us:)
It was a fun day! I loved getting to see people again and was encouraged to see new people there, too.


Putting on Christ.


Handing out paper and tape for the congregation to get involved.



With all of my name tags on.


Tasuku san with his tie and name tags!