Perfection; May 10, 2023

Posted on May 11, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:96 To all perfection I see a limit;
but your commands are boundless.

Perfection is an interesting thing. On the one hand we find it exquisite, but then it can become boring. Likewise, different people can have completely different concepts of perfection. For some people, mathematics is the highest expression of perfection, but other people want nothing to do with it. Physical beauty, in people or animals, can seem perfect indeed, but experience certainly teaches us that it is fleeting. And again there, the standards by which such perfection is judged vary widely with culture and era. As the Psalmist declares, we have to get into the realm of the divine to really grasp the idea of perfection. The closest physical parallel I can think of is astronomy, where better telescopes keep showing us more and more with incredible beauty, teaching us the concept of infinity. As Isaiah proclaimed and Peter later quoted, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:24-25) We need the awareness of God’s perfection so that we won’t get lazy and self-satisfied. That’s why Jesus told us, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48) The longer we live the better we understand how impossible that is, but that also teaches us the magnificence of the Gospel. It is totally impossible for us, but “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Walking with God is a continuous acknowledgement of our own imperfection and an acceptance of the perfection that He offers us in His Son. It is totally grace, so there is absolutely no room for pride. (Ephesians 2:8-10)

This is something that on the one hand I have known for as long as I can remember, and on the other hand I am learning day by day. Perfection is always desirable, but on this earth it is at best fleeting. I am reminded of a tribe of Indigenous people in Panama who weave exquisite blankets, but they always include a deliberate imperfection in the design because only God is perfect. I have no need to be deliberate in my imperfections, because I have plenty of them! As the Bible tells us in many places, we become like what we worship, what we fix our attention on. My desire and my goal is to be so focused on my Lord that I increasingly reflect Him, even as Paul said. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Often I’m painfully aware of my imperfections! Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in the assurance that, as impossible as perfection is for me, it is Your natural state of being, and You have made me Yours. Thank You. Praise God!

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Interaction; May 9, 2023

Posted on May 10, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:74 May those who fear you rejoice when they see me,
for I have put my hope in your word.

Some people are encouraging to be around. Particularly when we encounter people who exemplify traits that we would like to have, we are spurred to demonstrate such traits ourselves. That’s one of many reasons the New Testament says so much about “one another.” The devil doesn’t want us to be encouraged, so he does all he can to keep us apart. The recent pandemic was very much part of his schemes, not just for the actual deaths but particularly as a tool to keep people apart from each other. We need to take this as a lesson not to let fear keep us apart. The elderly were particularly vulnerable, but they have a higher probability of dying in the first place, and the numbers of people who were forced to die alone is tragic indeed. Of course, the devil attacked churches, and some governments forbade churches to meet while they allowed liquor stores, and even big discount stores, to stay open. The biggest shock in that was the number of Christians who went along with it! Paul said, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing,” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) but the best statement on the subject is found in Hebrews: “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:25) We need to be with people who put their hope in Christ!

We have had visitors from overseas recently, both expected and unexpected, and it has struck me how they have delighted in and been encouraged by getting to know Cathy and me. Seeing God’s grace to us, they have realized that same grace is available to them. When we are this blessed at this age, they realize they can be too! The Japanese for this verse is an expectation: “Those who fear You will rejoice to see me.” The people who have stayed with us recently have reacted like that! This is not to be a point of personal pride for us, but rather an awareness of God’s plan that involves all of us fitting together in various ways, together defeating the enemy in ways we could not do alone.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for our recent interactions. Thank You also for the meeting I could attend yesterday, seeing people I don’t get with very often, including a brother who hasn’t been here in four years because of the pandemic. Left to myself I often prefer to be left to myself. Help me recognize that as weakness, and be the part of the Body of Christ that You want me to be, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Freedom; May 8, 2023

Posted on May 9, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 119:45 I will walk about in freedom,
for I have sought out your precepts.

Of all the nations on earth, America is probably the one most founded on, and obsessed with, freedom. However, the devil has been working overtime to pervert that very concept, to the point that many people equate freedom with perversion. The Japanese for this verse doesn’t use the word, freedom, but rather says, “I will walk about broadly,” that is, without restrictions. However you translate the first half of the verse, it is the second half that gives the secret: seeking God’s precepts, His rules for life. The average person equates religion with restrictions, but that’s another of the devil’s lies. In actual fact, God’s rules free us from the chains of sin and death. As Paul said, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (2 Corinthians 3:17) John pointed out, “This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.” (1 John 5:3-4) We want to be overcomers, but we don’t want to follow God’s guidelines. How self-defeating! It is only in Christ that we are truly free from the flesh and the world – which also teaches us that we have trouble abiding in Christ in this life. That’s one of the things that make heaven so inviting! Until that time, we achieve the greatest freedom by focusing on Christ and following Him. “What Would Jesus Do” has had periods of popularity as a slogan, but we need to remember that Jesus was totally obedient to His Father, and the more we emulate that the freer we are to be and do exactly what we were created for, for our greatest blessing and God’s glory.

Of course this applies to me as much as it does to anyone else. I don’t do a lot of things that some people find enjoyable, but I do other things that bring me, I’m convinced, far more real joy that they know nothing about. I have known the Bible from childhood, but that doesn’t mean I’ve always been true to it. The more I walk in step with my Lord, the more freedom I experience. As the Bill Gaither song says, “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.” Like everyone else, I chafe at restrictions of various sorts, but I have found that obedience to God brings genuine freedom, and I am deeply grateful.

Father, thank You for the freedom that comes from You alone. Thank You for opening the way through your Son to freedom from sin and death. Help me be more effective in letting people know of that freedom and inviting them into it, so that the devil’s works may be destroyed indeed, (1 John 3:8) and multitudes be set free to be Your children, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Salvation; May 7, 2023

Posted on May 8, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 118:14 The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.

In a way this Psalm seems almost like a “best hits collection” of lines from other Psalms. That said, it has some pretty good lines in it! In this verse, the Japanese specifies “song of praise,” rather than just “song.” That makes it clear, to me at least, that the focus is truly on the Lord, rather than just singing because you’re happy. The second half of the verse, however, is what holds some deep meaning. God is salvation indeed, as Jesus’ name proclaims. However, He doesn’t become my salvation until I acknowledge Him and commit myself to Him. This is always the issue, particularly in culturally Christian places like the US. That’s why evangelism is so different in different places. The techniques taught in the US rarely work in Japan, for example, because Japanese have no cultural concept of “salvation” apart from the strictly material. For that matter, the whole concept is missing from Buddhism, with the ultimate “good” being Mu, or nothingness. To go back to this verse, it is when we recognize that any strength we might have comes from our Creator and we respond by singing praise to Him, that we enter into the relationship that allows us to receive His full salvation.

As thoroughly rooted in faith and the Bible as I am, I still need to check my focus to be sure I walk in God’s salvation. It is too easy to drift into “business as usual,” presuming rather than pursuing, and that can cut me off from a lot that God intends for me. As I have written before, even as a missionary I had a period, when we had lost our regular prayer support, that what I was doing with the church was more like a hobby than my vocation, my commission from God. That was certainly not good! Just recently I have made the decision to retire from school teaching at the end of the current school year (in March). My “church work” hasn’t been my financial support for the past 42 years, but that decision will also put a point on my use of time. I don’t know what plans the Lord has for me from next April, but I am sure they are good and I want to be faithful in fulfilling my part in them. He is indeed my salvation, and I want Him to be that for as many others as possible.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your plans, and for including me in them. May I not deviate from them, but allow You to manifest Your salvation in, around, and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Witnesses; May 6, 2023

Posted on May 7, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 116:1-2 I love the Lord, for he heard my voice;
he heard my cry for mercy.
Because he turned his ear to me,
I will call on him as long as I live.

It is interesting to me that such a beautiful and often-quoted Psalm would be completely anonymous. Verse 10 and verse 15 are quoted in the New Testament and today, but we don’t know who wrote the words. What we do know, however, is that the writer had a personal experience of and relationship with his Creator. That’s what we all need, more than anything else, and that’s what makes this Psalm beautiful and memorable. When we speak of “faith” it often seems theoretical, impractical even, but you can’t say that about being a witness. Courts of law are very strict about the distinction between personal witness and hearsay. Far too many Christians have only a hearsay testimony. That’s why Jesus said that we would be witnesses after the Holy Spirit came on us. (Acts 1:8) It has rightly been said that you can change the mind of a person who has an opinion, but you can’t change the mind of someone who has an experience. That is sadly only partly true, because the devil does all he can to convince us that our experiences of God are only our imagination, that they didn’t really happen. After all, “voices in your head” is practically the definition of insanity! (Actually, demonic voices are a very real and dangerous issue, but that’s another discussion.) Like the writer of this Psalm, we need to recognize how God interacts with us, meeting our needs and expressing His love for us in many different ways, and respond accordingly. If we will do that, we will have many testimonies, and the Bible tells us such testimonies enable us to overcome the devil . (Revelation 12:11)

Just last week Hank Gruver was exhorting us to experience God and talk about it, because our testimony would draw others to desire to know God themselves. He was right! I have experienced God more times and in more ways than I could recount, and I love to talk about it, but Japanese tend to have such strong ethnic identity that they don’t think they can have what I have, simply because we look different. Thankfully that’s neither universal nor absolute, but it is certainly a hindrance to evangelism. That’s why I seek to encourage the Japanese believers to press in for more of God, not just to experience Him more themselves but so that they can share those experiences with those around them. There’s a huge cultural barrier there as well, because Japanese tend to be very private, and religion simply isn’t a topic of conversation, particularly in contrast to some other countries. However, nothing is impossible for God, and I’m to keep witnessing, keep praying, and trust God for the harvest.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the message You’ve given me for tomorrow, reminding people of what they heard last week and encouraging them to put it into practice. May we indeed be people who do Your Word and not just listen to it, so that we may be transformed as You know we need to be, for our blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Gods and Idols; May 5, 2023

Posted on May 6, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 115:2-3 Why do the nations say,
“Where is their God?”
Our God is in heaven;
he does whatever pleases him.

This exchange might seem a little odd to those not used to physical idols, but the truth in it is important to us just the same. Right after this passage the Psalm goes into detail about the deficiencies of idols, that are inanimate regardless of what they are made of. Verse 8 is very pointed: “Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them.” As I mentioned a few days ago, the current work on AI is, on some levels, aimed at creating “gods” who will eventually supplant humans, but verse 8 still applies. It is an entirely different matter to know and worship the Creator of the universe, who indeed is in a plane far above our own and does whatever pleases Him. When our concept of God is limited to our own intellect and senses we cut ourselves off from the infinite eternity that God inhabits, and the our loss is greater than we can imagine.

Almost 50 years ago we were living in Sasebo, and a burgler broke into the church we were attending. They only stole some sound equipment, but they had previously broken into a Buddhist temple and stolen a statue. When the police came and investigated, one detective said, “I see they stole your god,” because there was no crucifix on the wall, it being a Protestant church. The pastor and I laughed at that, but it showed the cultural mindset of Japan. I left Sasebo to go to seminary in the US, but returned to Japan in 1981 and continue to minister here now. The cultural mindset still hasn’t changed! Only now, Japan is on the forefront of robotics technology, creating bodies for the AI that is being developed in the US and elsewhere. My challenge is to demonstrate the reality of the Creator and His interaction with people through my own life, being faithful to say and do what He desires. As this passage says, He does whatever pleases Him, but I desire to do only what pleases Him as well. After all, I know that in the not too distant future I will be with Him in heaven. I desire to take as many people with me as possible. There is no such thing as heaven being “too full,” because it is truly infinite as well as eternal. I know that desire is pleasing to God, because the Bible states clearly that He “wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) And that means being rid of idolatry in all its forms.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Ministry in Japan often feels like beating my head against a wall, but nothing is impossible for You. Thank You for those who do discard idols, physical and otherwise, and open their hearts to You. May their number increase greatly, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Blessings of Fearing God; May 4, 2023

Posted on May 5, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 112:1 Praise the Lord.
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who finds great delight in his commands.

This anonymous Psalm certainly paints a desirable picture for us to aim for. Japanese grammar expresses this verse more on the lines of, “It is a blessed thing when a person fears the Lord and takes great delight in His commands.” We certainly want such blessings! So why do we often fail to fear the Lord and delight in what He tells us? That’s because we are deceived by the devil and our flesh into chasing after anything but God. This is exemplified by the song, My Way, made famous by Frank Sinatra, who certainly lived as that song depicts. How totally empty and pathetic! To get things right, we first have to acknowledge that there is an absolute authority, and we aren’t it. For that matter, neither is the government, and that’s why totalitarian regimes of all stripes suppress religion, replacing God with the State. That’s most obvious in North Korea, but China is coming in a close second these days. They would love this verse if only it said State instead of Lord! However, a person with spiritual perception will realize that no human organization can be perfect, or even close to it. (That includes churches and denominations, but that’s another discussion.) We need to grasp that the focus of this verse, and actually the whole Psalm, isn’t the person (though it seems to be) but the Lord whom he fears and trusts. (verse 7) When our heart is fixed on the Lord and being obedient to Him, the blessings that accrue are beyond counting.

I had the incredible blessing of being raised by a man who fit the description in this Psalm. There’s a bit of irony in the mention of “his heart,” because my father didn’t wake up after heart surgery at 64, but that was just the physical. Otherwise, it seems like a description of his life. Even now I hear stories of him, and I am humbled. I doubt I will be awarded anything at my death the way he was given a very high award from the emperor at his, but like him I will receive the crown of life, (James 1:12, Revelation 2:10) which is infinitely more important. Having had that example, it is easier for me than perhaps for many to follow this verse. I certainly pray that I will do so faithfully, accomplishing God’s purposes for His glory.

Father, once again I am in awe of how You have blessed me, and impressed with how it is totally grace, and not anything I have earned. If anything, I should have been disqualified from having received the blessings! Help me be the steward You want me to be of all that You have poured out on me, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Wisdom and Understanding; May 3, 2023

Posted on May 4, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 111:10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
all who follow his precepts have good understanding.
To him belongs eternal praise.

Sometimes the world seems insane, with people insisting that biology is meaningless, good is evil and evil is good. This verse clues us in on where all of that comes from. When people start from a point of insisting that their opinions, their feelings, are ultimate, that there is no absolute truth, then the probability of their arriving at wisdom is essentially zero. They really can’t grasp what reality is. As this verse says, it is those who act in accordance with their accountability to their Creator who have good understanding. Those who start by rejecting God, whether they believe He exists or not, are really to be pitied because they are quite pathetic, but they can do a lot of damage in their foolishness. Rejecting God, they reject His love for them as well, and in the process reject the very meaning for their existence. This delights the devil, and is the reason why he attacks the family so strongly. If a person has no physical father in their life, or even if their father fails to discipline them and earn their respect, then they will have great difficulty relating to Father God. All the psychology I have studied, along with my personal experience, tells me that homosexual people do not have a right relationship with their father, and that applies to both men and women. Mothers may or may not be directly involved, but the father is key. If we don’t respect our father, we won’t respect Father God. Another point to remember here is that wisdom isn’t the same thing as intelligence. To take a point that is very much in the news today, “Artificial Intelligence” (AI) is being pursued by people who have high IQs, but perhaps little wisdom. They are effectively trying to create electronic gods, and in the process wipe out people and their reason for existence. Trying to create on their own, they are forgetting that they have a Creator, and leave Him out of their equations. The current situation requires great wisdom and patience on the part of those who seek God to be obedient to Him, but we’ve got to remember that nothing is impossible for Him, and He knows the end from the beginning.

I was gifted with a high IQ, so I know the temptation to descend into hubris. I am more than grateful that I not only received superb genetics, I was raised in a home that genuinely loved and served God. My parents weren’t perfect – no parent is – but they modeled devotion to and fellowship with God, and that was most important. Whe­ther I am wise isn’t for me to judge, but I do know that I seem to see a lot of things more clearly than many, and I’m not talking about my physical eyesight. I’ve got to be very careful of pride, but I am also to be grateful for the understanding I am given, so that I may exercise it in service to my Lord.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me live my life in right relationship to You, so that I may then be in right relationship to everything else, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Gratitude; May 2, 2023

Posted on May 3, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 106:24-25 Then they despised the pleasant land;
they did not believe his promise.
They grumbled in their tents
and did not obey the Lord.

What follows this is a horrendous record of idolatry and child sacrifice, certainly bringing to mind the tragedy of abortion. However, all of that sprang from what is mentioned here: a failure to believe God, appreciate His blessings, and listen obediently to Him. Faith in God will open our eyes to recognize His gracious blessings to us, generating the obedience that comes from gratitude. It is actually very ironic that we refuse to be grateful, when psychologists, and actually all of history, teach us that gratitude is the key to happiness. However, the devil is out to steal, kill, and destroy, (John 10:10) so he attacks gratitude in every way he can. Gratitude requires an object, someone to whom we are grateful, so atheism by its very nature is antithetical to happiness. As Dennis Prager says, you won’t find a happy Leftist. Conversely, a genuinely happy person isn’t going to be a Leftist. Genuine happiness requires recognizing that, as James said, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.” (James 1:17) Gratitude toward people is certainly appropriate, but true happiness requires the recognition that good things may come through people, but they originate with our Creator. Faith isn’t for God’s benefit, it’s for ours!

I’m very grateful that I was raised to be grateful. At Christmas, each gift was opened individually, with everyone watching, and they didn’t come from “Santa,” but from a person who was to be thanked. Year after year, that became a powerful lesson to me. I also learned the joy of giving, taking more delight in others opening the gifts I had chosen for them (even if they weren’t bought with my money) than in what I received myself. I would be happy if that attitude permeated my life more than it does, but my primary gifting is Teacher, rather than Giver. However, I do have a clear grasp on the reality of what James said, and that makes me a generally happy person. I have had more than enough struggles with pride, that deafens my ears to God and makes me forget that everything I have is because of His grace. He has told me to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, so that needs to be my focus.

Father, thank You for that reminder. We were really under spiritual attack yesterday, and it was no fun. Thank You that indeed, joy comes in the morning! (Psalm 30:5) Help me receive this day from Your hands with appropriate gratitude, rejoicing in You and blessing others in the process, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Impatience; May 1, 2023

Posted on May 2, 2023 by jgarrott

Psalm 106:13 But they soon forgot what he had done
and did not wait for his counsel.

This particular issue has snared people throughout history, and it certainly does today. Forgetting all that God has done in the past, we think, “I’ve got to do something.” This particular phrase appears almost countless times in the Old Testament and is captured beautifully by the Japanese translation, but I have yet to run into an English Bible that does it justice. The Japanese says, “wait in hope,” that is, expectantly. Waiting for the sake of waiting is certainly tedious, but those who know God should be able to wait expectantly, like a child waits for Christmas. In the famous play, Waiting for Godot, Godot never shows up. That’s not the way it is with God! Many Jews today feel that way about the Messiah, not accepting that He showed up over 2000 years ago, and even now is waiting for them to acknow­ledge Him. This particular verse says they failed to wait expectantly for God’s “counsel,” that is, His instructions. Wise people down through the centuries have known that until God tells you something different, you need to keep doing the last thing He told you. We tend to want to know everything ahead of time, but God generally doesn’t tell us stuff until we need to know it. The flip side of that is that today we have the Bible, so if we genuinely want to hear from God we should be reading it. After all, He’s not going to tell us anything that contradicts the Bible. Those who say otherwise are revealing that they are false teachers, serving the liar (John 8:44) instead of the One who is the way, the truth, and the life. (John 14:6) We indeed need to wait at times until God makes Himself clear, but we should spend that time getting more of His Word into our hearts.

I have had my times of impatience, but I don’t seem to struggle with it as much as some do. I have certainly experienced God’s guidance, provision, and blessing countless times in countless ways, so I have no excuse for impatience! The biggest thing I’m still waiting for is what my parents waited for as well, and that’s God’s massive move of revival in Japan. My father once prostrated himself on the floor, crying out to God, “Lord, if I’m what’s standing in the way of revival in Japan, then take me out of the way!” As a young single missionary he had visited the Shantung Revival in China, and he knew what revival looked like. I’ve been ministering for 42 years in Omura at this point, and I too have yet to see the revival I desire. I know without question that I can’t make it happen, so I seek to keep myself available for however God might want to use me. He has been giving intimations recently that His time might be near, and that’s exciting, but again, it’s in His hands, so I’m to wait expectantly for Him, and not go off on any tangents.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the past few days with Hank and Doug here. They have been an encouragement to us and to others, and have worked to tear down the works of the enemy. (1 John 3:8) I ask Your protection and blessing on them as they go to Tokyo today and then back to the US this week. I pray that what You did through them in these days would be cemented and multiplied, contributing to Your rule and reign being established right here as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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