Psalm 40:3, 10 He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear
and put their trust in the LORD.
I do not hide your righteousness in my heart;
I speak of your faithfulness and salvation.
I do not conceal your love and your truth
from the great assembly.

When God delivered David, he sang about it to anyone who would listen! That’s a very good attitude to have, and a prime component of David being “a man after God’s own heart.” (1 Sam. 13:4; Acts 13:22) When we testify of what God has done for us, whether or not we do it musically, people do pay attention, recognize that they are equally at risk, and put their trust in God. That should be the motivation behind all witnessing, drawing people to God as we give Him glory for what He has done for us. As came out in the message this past Sunday, that sort of witnessing is far more effective than “evangelistic programs” of any sort. That’s why all preaching should be personal: if there isn’t a personal connection to the speaker, the hearer isn’t likely to feel any personal connection either, and it will all remain very abstract. Two different people could say exactly the same things about God and one be an effective evangelist and the other not. The difference is whether the person speaking understands how vitally important those things are to him on a personal level. Canned presentations are stale before they ever get started.

My difficulty in witnessing in Japan is whether those hearing feel any identification with what I am saying, because they see me as so “other.” On top of my being a “professional Christian,” I am a Caucasian among a people with some of the strongest racial identity in the world. I find that many people admire me, but they don’t think they could ever be like me, so they don’t begin to investigate how they might do so. That’s why I feel I am much more effective as a teacher of Christians than as an evangelist toward non-Christians. That’s why I so urgently want to raise up Japanese as evangelists, because they are a big step closer to those around them than I could ever be. However, Japanese social pressures being what they are, many are afraid even to say to non-believers that they are Christians, as one believer was confiding to me just recently. When Japanese society values harmony on the basis of sameness so much, people are greatly inhibited even from admitting they are different from those around them, much less proclaiming God boldly as David did. I am to understand the pressures on Japanese believers, and encourage them to receive God’s boldness to overcome those pressures, without putting them down for feeling the pressures.

Father, we’re back to the issue of Japanese believers waking up to who and what they are in Christ. I can’t bring that about on my own, but I pray that You would use even me to accomplish it, so that the Japanese Church may rise up as a mighty army, tearing down the strongholds of the devil and setting people free for a massive harvest in Your kingdom, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!