Happy Easter-- HE IS RISEN!

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead really is the cornerstone of the Christian Faith. Christianity stands or falls on the reality of the resurrection. I find it hard to believe there are so-called theologians who deny the resurrection, but still hold to some semblance of the Christian faith.

Paul was not that stupid, He said that if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is worthless (1Cor.15: 12-19). In other words, Paul was saying if Christ did not rise, he wouldn’t be a Christian.

When you think about Christianity at its core what is it really? We preach Christ crucified to expiate sin and take away the wrath of God. We teach about the forgiveness of sin and the new life in Christ. We speak of the empowering of the Holy Spirit, but for what? So you have your sins forgiven, So you have eternal life? Big deal what now? What is the Christian faith really about? Those things I just mentioned are but tools or things that open up a great pathway but to what for what?

The Christian life goes back to the beginning. God created all of life in the Universe. The final act of Creation was Man. Why? God made all of the Universe just to have a relationship with man. In Genesis we find in the very first chapter that it was Man whom God breathed a breath of life into. Why?

I believe in Genesis 3 we find our answer. This answer for me seems to unlock the rest of the scripture. In fact, for all of our relationships in life, marriage, business, with kids it seems this transcends all areas of life.

We find Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes afraid of God who is in the cool of the evening walking in the garden. God is walking in the garden with the new creation. Only they are hiding form him because they have sinned.

The Bible teaches us that Man was created for a relationship with God. God designed man to be a being that the very nature and presence of God can be felt and experienced and enjoyed. Sinned has severed the ability of Man to relate to God it has separated us from God and his desire to have a relationship with him.

God sent Jesus to repair the breach and provide a solution that would bless God allowing him to once again have the capability of relating with and to mankind.

Because Jesus died and rose again from the dead we are able to now have that walk with God. This is the core of why we exist. If you understand this the rest of life here on Earth will be so blessed. We are created to walk with God. Not run from him, or Run at him, or Run over him. We were created to walk with him.

Now studying the word “walk” in the Bible we discovered it is everywhere. God gives the Jews and us many verses that describe our relationship to God as a walk with him. There are some other prepositions that indicate how we are supposed to walk with God.

Genesis 17:1 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I [am] the Almighty God; walk before me, and be thou perfect.

Dt. 5:33 Ye shall walk in all the ways which the LORD your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and [that it may be] well with you, and [that] ye may prolong [your] days in the land which ye shall possess.

Dt 13:4 Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him.

Ps 84:11 For the LORD God [is] a sun and shield: the LORD will give grace and glory: no good [thing] will he withhold from them that walk uprightly.

Ps 119:45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.


Those not walking with the Lord

Ps 82:5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.

How do we walk with the Lord? It begins with waiting on the Lord and sitting reading his word and praying.
Is 40:31 But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew [their] strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; [and] they shall walk, and not faint.

Walk in Love:
And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. Eph 5:2
The Bible says God is Love in order to walk in God the bible tells us to walk in Love. Ehe 5:2 Walk in love as Christ gave us an example. When we walk in love for others helping them that is the same as God walking with us helping us and loving us.

Eph 5:8 For ye were sometimes darkness, but now [are ye] light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

There are two legs there with one being walking in love being fruitful in every good work the second leg is increasing in the knowledge of God. The two go together. You can’t walk without the other. Many Christians are stuck in their faith having great knowledge but no love and the are not practicing the walk. They just have knowledge and are standing firm on that but their Christian life is boring and stale and lame. The other leg is those Christians that shun the knowledge of God not having time for that and they are just all about ministry. Doing and going everywhere to all the meetings never learning only acting. They are lame as well and there is no depth to their faith. There is a third aspect to this dynamic of a spiritual walk. Many young Christians are pushed into Christian service with the two legs yet they never do the Isaiah 40:31 learning to get an equilibrium from the Lord. You wait on the Lord reading the Bible and praying and you gain balance in your life. This lack of balance in a young Christian’s life causes the early burnout or just a lack of endurance and disorientation as to the direction the Lord is leading. So many followers of Christ are following a dynamic pastor and don’t really get a balance in the Lord. Walking takes two legs but also a balanced mind and a strong body to hold you upright. Just having one or not all of the aspects of spiritual walking will make your Christian experience Lame and ineffective. You will hunger for direction and vision. You press on in service blindly asking God to help you but you just need to stop and wait and read and pray. A good walk with God takes time to cultivate. Babies don’t just get up one day and stroll around the neighborhood. They take months grabbing on to things to pull themselves up and strengthen their muscles with exercise.

The physics of walking seems quite easy for those of us who have been walking all our lives. But it is really a complicated thing. If only one foot moves you can’t walk anywhere you just go in circles. If your brain has no equilibrium you will fall down. The physical walk is a learned experience that over time becomes second nature.

I see today the resurrection of Jesus is key to understanding this walk. There is a passage in Luke chapter 24 where we find some keys. Beginning with verse 13 down to verse 32 let’s read.

Jesus enters a conversation two men are having about Jesus himself. Notice Jesus walked with them. God wants relationship and talking and dialogue. He didn’t just appear and say, “Hi It’s me Jesus back from the dead.” No Jesus toyed with them and asked them questions. Then he sought to grow their faith. Verse 25 Jesus begins at Moses and all the prophets he expounds on the scriptures.

It is as if the God of the Universe who created everything just for a relationship with man was picking up where he left off. You see back in the garden of Eden God came to the garden one evening for a stroll with Adam and Eve. He was enjoying the creation and time walking with Adam. He is looking for Adam, “Where are you?” That walk was postponed. Now the Lord had desired this kind of intimate walk with mankind for thousands of years. The sacrificial thing and religion didn’t work and the walk was always marred in some way. Now Jesus fixes all that and as soon as he is resurrected from the dead what is the first activity that is recorded about him doing. He seeks a couple of believers out and goes for a walk with them. Do you see that is what God wants from us just a simple walk of faith in communion with him.

Their hearts burned within them for the things of God and they were now full of faith to tell the disciples. They went 7 miles and then ran back to Jerusalem to tell the disciples. Sadly in Mark 16:12,13 tells us the disciples didn’t believe them either.

There were 40 days of appearances and over 500 people at one time saw Jesus alive and well. He was dead and came back to life. This fact alone is the basis of Christianity so that mankind can have a walk with God.

So many people see religion as a means to an end. To get all they can get by trying to appease some god and make him happy so that they receive a blessing. The God of the Bible knows our hearts and he isn’t fooled by us. He wants a real relationship with us praying and reading our Bible. To not pray or read is like trying to walk without equilibrium.

Maybe sometimes our Christian lives can get confusing and crazy because we have no equilibrium for the things of God. Our heads spin in unbelief and we then stop walking because we are not reading our Bible and praying. Not just to do those things as an end in themselves. We do those things to really relate to the Creator of the Universe on a personal level. He doesn’t want our phony religious actions. He just, like the guys on the road walking, wants to join us in conversation and activity. I pray we will seek to do that this week as we celebrate the Resurrected Lord may we just have a simple walk with him. We walk in love with God and in love with others praying and reading our Bibles learning more about God.

Amen

Moving was a blast

We moved. Packing everything up and taking it to the next place is an adventure but also a pain. Unpacking it the hardest part. I talked with one family that after a couple of years they still have 4 boxes unpacked. Mihoko and I like to move quickly. We like to have every thing ready to go. This time Pastor Travis and the gang from CC Tokorozawa came over and plowed like I have never seen before. We were moved in two hours. They were vicious in attacking everything. It was awesome. I wish I had more pictures but I can't find the camera. LOL. Mark Bedow also came over and helped. Then after the CCT crew left the Ome Crew showed up with the knock out punch of cleaning up. One of our neighbors took our kids and man my head is still spinning at how fast it was all done. Praise God. Pastor Jonathan came and bless us as well. Then a great family brought dinner over and took the girls home. What a blessing. We have a lot of work to do sorting and unpacking. We are having to be wise as we lost two bedrooms in the move as we have downsized our apartment. God is good and we will be fine. Mihoko's parents arrive Monday and we will be ready for them. Pray for Sunday as it is Easter and we are excited to have our very first Easter Service in there. Thanks CC Tokorozawa and GCF Ome and Mark. God bless you all.

ESL finale

We did it we finished a first year of English. Praise God. We had a fun day after our ESL exercises we then had some cake and played some rowdy UNO. The kids play it differently and it is more like a free for all but in the end there is always a surprise. I love these guys. Praise God they are coming back for another year.

Ladies Easter Tea with Mark & Rutsuko Bedow

Today we had a Ladies Easter Tea. We invited Rutsuko Bedow to share her music with the ladies Mark comes as a extra perk since he mixes the sound and also sing; or is it mixes the singing and does sound? We also had some other men come. In fact, the men out numbered the women. But that is okay it was a blessed time to remember our Lord and his sacrifice for us. Rutsuko was a surprise as she was really a powerful singer. She is the quietest and most humble person you could meet but then there is a giant of a singer that comes out and wow we were all so blessed. The kids even loved her. We had some great fellowship and time in the Lord. Praise God for his goodness and for good friends like the Bedows.

Jane's last day at Yochien

Jane has finished her first year at the Iruma Youchien. They had a celebration and time of fun. Afterward the mom's and kids went to the park to eat a sandwich and play. Jane will go back to School in about 3 weeks and she will be in the upper class.

Bowling at Yokota with Home Schooling families

Leaving the freezing park we all headed over to Yokota where we were blessed to get signed on and we went bowling. The families all had a blast. The kids were cranking away at their games and getting all serious. The Dads were plowing through buffalo wings and chili fries and Thai Food. It was awesome. They had the "Thai Spice" No.46 dish from the restaurant in Newport Beach. It tasted awesome. The mom's were the spiritual ones. As the real meaning for us to gather together is for the mom's to engage and encourage each other in the word. They had a Bible study right there in the Bowling alley. It was such a blessing to see them just go for it amongst all the noise. There were a lot of folks checking it out too. Some people know some of the mom's and it was a great testimony. Mihoko handed out one of the Bible studies and invited a Lady to come and join them. She may next time. So we had an awesome time. Thank you to the family that blessed us all with privileges on base. That is what we do with prayer I believe. For our Non-Christian friends we bring them into the Kingdom of God in Prayer and request privileges to just bless them and minister to them to show them God's love. What a great day.

Fun in the Park with Home Schoolers

We have started to hang out with some like minded Home Schooling families and we had a blast playing at a park in Tachikawa. They had this rubber jumping thing that the kids just went crazy over. This was a small one there was supposedly a larger one on the other side of the park but it was being repaired. The kids had fun the parents froze so we went to Bowling next.

From Snow to Spring in just a couple of days WOW

It seems like over night the seasons change here in Japan. Being from California I have never really experienced the seasonal changes that occur. We had at the beginning of the week alot of snow dumped on us and then by Friday the blossoms are blooming like crazy. I noticed birds chirping and also many bugs are back. That is one thing I love about winter is no bugs. We went to a homeschoolers meeting and met at a park. It was beautiful but there was still a very cold wind blowing. In the sun it was warm out but that wind just cut like a knife so we played a little and then went bowling. But the trees in the park are just lovely. Yes I said lovely they are really beautiful.

Last Snow

We got a good bit of snow this last week. Although as I type this it has all melted. We had a warming trend and then wham a front came through with some cold temps and it was snowing and snowing and well we got about 1 to 2 inches. We had to shovel part of the church driveway. It is a steep slope and as we got to the bottom we hit a patch of snow that caused our car to momentarily slide a few inches that caused us all great concern in the car. Then, as I being the skillful California kid, over compensated with gassing the car and sliding more we had a stomach knot of panic. We did not hit anything but it was very...well fun so to speak. Like we can laugh now but we weren't laughing then. So we got out and tried to shovel snow. It wasn't as easy as we thought. We actually were successful at pushing it around but didn't clear it all the way. I tried water but that wasn't good either. So we let God help us out by using the Sun. It melted by the end of the day and everything is okay. It gave us a real good perspective on "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Winter is not over yet...

Wow, last week we had temps up in the high 60s and it was nice but as you can see from the pictures we had a very cold storm blow in all day today and it brought snow. It is still snowing and the kids are so loving it. I am worried as I have only driven on snow back in my Army days in Germany. We don't even have chains. I guess I won't drive and risk revealing my inexperience in driving on snow and hit other cars like a pin ball machine.

Joseph and Amy Totsis

We had a great time of fellowship with some of the other pastors as we celebrated Joseph and Amy's marriage. They not only got married but they have come to Japan to live and plant a church. Right now they are acclimating and language learning. It was such a blessing to hang out with these great men of God that the Lord is using in so many lives of the Japanese people here. God bless you Joseph and Amy.

10th Annual CBMC Prayer Dinner

I was asked if I wanted to go to a prayer meeting in downtown Tokyo. I said sure. The tickets were 10,000.00 Yen (100 bucks). They gave me a ticket. I didn't realize what it was until we were there sitting among 500 some Erai Christians at the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku this was the national day of prayer dinner. There was the ambassador from Israel there and a Member of the House of Representatives. There were Pastors from Korea and other countries. The presidents of many organizations were there. The main speaker there was the President of a Japanese Christian University. I was so excited to be in the same room with all these dignitaries. What an honor. It was glorious as we entered the hall they were playing an instrumental song. That ole Calvary Chapel Original "In His Time." I felt like shouting for Joy to be apart of God's work here in Japan and be with all these men of God.

I soon found my soul stirring in dispare as the meeting began and a song was sung and announcements were made and it was 20 minutes into the program before someone finally prayed. Then as the main speaker spoke without a Bible and they had Matthew 6:33 on the big screen yet he never once referred to it. In fact, this Bible college president didn't talk about Jesus or the Bible or the lost. He talked about Candles and give others warmth and light. Hmm, Doesn't the Bible warn us James 2:15 "And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be [ye] warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what [doth it] profit?" James 2:26 says, "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."

I am being critical here guys as the dignitaries here will receive greater scrutiny and judgment by God for their lack of faith yet standing in a position of someone who declares to have faith.

Not all were that way a Pastor Kanda from Food for the Hungry Japan was dime on in his prayer, He even shared some gospel in it. I applaud his Faith. The others grieve my soul that if this is a representation of Christianity in Japan no wonder the churches are small and the fruit is quenched. We need laborers here in Japan that actually believe in the Bible as the Authority of God, it is God's infallible Word. We need those who believe in the Power of the Holy Spirit and seek daily to walk in Him. We need those who actually believe the message of the Cross as the Power unto salvation. We also need those that actually have a prayer life outside of a big meeting.

They did have some meat there... On my plate was a Hockey puck size piece of beef that was very raw. Unprepared flesh could be a Prophetic sign of Erai people standing before God. The meat did taste good but my friend and I went to McDonald's afterward.

Eigo Class out of control

My English Class kids were mauling my recliner. It was hard to maintain the class and still have a productive time. Flash card basketball always works.