Racial Discrimination; September 26, 2021

Posted on September 28, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 10:34-35 Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.”

This was the full understanding of Peter’s vision on the rooftop three days earlier. When God teaches us things it often takes time for them to sink in, and that process can take hours, days, or even years. We are all constantly learning, or at least we should be. This is something both learners and teachers need to understand. After Paul wrote so magnificently about his own continuing journey toward Christ, he wrote to those reading it, “All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” (Philippians 3:15-16) In other words, he trusted God to be the ultimate teacher, whether or not he was involved as a “teacher’s aid.” His concern was that people wouldn’t slip back into thought patters and actions from which they had previously been freed. The lesson God taught Peter, through the rooftop vision and then through encountering the people gathered in Cornelius’ house, was earthshaking, even if not in a geologic sense. He was making very clear that, though He chose Abraham and his descendants as His special tools, His concern was for all mankind. That just about split the Church, as Chapter 11 records. The sad thing is, we still descend into “us vs. them” all too often, and the devil does all he can to encourage that. Right now, politics of division based on race are in disgusting display in the US, in direct violation of what God taught so clearly to and through Peter. Those who know God need to stand firmly on His Word, His truth and, as Martin Luther King so eloquently proclaimed, judge people on the basis of the content of their character and not on anything else.

Born and raised as a Caucasian in Japan, I have been aware of this issue all of my life. There have been many people on both sides of that racial divide who have needed this lesson, too. My wife was just reading one of my father’s devotional notebooks from when I was a small child, and he was lamenting the tendency of many Japanese to feel they were unfit for leadership, so soon after Japan’s defeat in WWII. He used his “furlough” (my first time in the US) to insist that the school where he ministered choose another, Japanese Chancellor and not keep the position open for him to return after a year. It is sad to me that when he died, unexpectedly to most, at 64, having recently returned to the position of Chancellor, the school, rather than choosing a Japanese replacement, called a retired missionary back from the US to take the post. I have dealt with people looking at and treating me differently, because of my different appearance, all of my life. Sometimes those differences have seemed favorable to me and sometimes unfavorable, but it is the differences themselves that are the problem. I cannot change other people directly, but I can be an influence and I can pray. I also need to be careful that the content of my character is exemplary! I cannot say that I myself am free from racial stereotypes, so I need to be alert not to let them manifest in my words and actions toward others. God’s lesson to Peter needs to be repeated to all generations!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your mercy and patience toward us all. May I and all Your children stand firm in Your truth, so that the world may learn Christ by the love they see in us, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Eating Meat; September 25, 2021

Posted on September 28, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 10:13-15 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.” The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

This is a very familiar story, but reading it just now something occurred to me I had never thought of before: this pretty well disposes of the majority of arguments against eating meat. The lesson to Peter and all his spiritual descendants was not to impose legalistic traditions on situations when God has said otherwise, but it starts with the very graphic point of slaughtering animals. Failing to take care of animals is inexcusable in my book, but making dinner of them, at the cost of their life, is very much part of how the world is laid out. The absurdity of some of the positions that are expressed reaches its peak, I think, in people who are against hunting and they state, “People who want to eat meat should just buy it at the store and not kill innocent animals.” (And yes, that has really been stated.) We are so far removed from the mechanisms of nature that we lose rational thought! Much has been made of the 6th Commandment, traditionally translated as, “Thou shalt not kill,” but much less of the 7th, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” (Exodus 20:13-14) The English word “kill” has been extrapolated incredibly, when the far more accurate word used by some more modern translations is, “You shall not murder.” And those who insist that making steaks out of a cow is murder really don’t understand the concept. When we apply distorted human reasoning (greatly encouraged in that by the devil, I believe) to the world around us, we lose perspective, proportion, and eventually, rational thought.

A very memorable early exposure I had to this concept was when the governor of Fukuoka Prefecture presented my family with two live turkeys, one for us and one for the missionary association, and my father was tasked with taking them from that condition to being ready for my mother to put them in the oven. I won’t go into details, but I doubt I will ever forget it! Years later, for a high school biology class, I did a presentation on comparative anatomy using photographs I took of dissecting a frog, a fish, a snake, and a chicken. The chicken didn’t start out live, but was rather a whole one from the meat shop that had simply been plucked after having its throat cut. The point is, with the chicken, my pictures progressed to the plate of fried chicken my mother made from it after the dissection, and then to a plate of bones after my family had eaten it very thoroughly. (I once cooked a snake, but my mother made me feed it to the dog rather than let me sample it, which I was eager to do.) I have always loved animals of many sorts, either as pets or as food! (I find horse tasty, but I’d rather ride them than eat them.) All that said, I still need to remember what Paul said about such things, not offending “weaker brothers” needlessly. (1 Corinthians 8) I have successfully hunted deer and I have taken a pig from the pen to the table, but I am not to make that my “public face.” At the same time, I am certainly not to look down my nose at anything God has cleansed.

Father, I certainly didn’t expect to write on this this morning! I pray that I would recognize what You are saying to me regardless of when or how You say it, so that I may walk in full obedience all the time, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Spiritual Authority; September 24, 2021

Posted on September 26, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 9:40-41 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called the believers and the widows and presented her to them alive.

I find it interesting that with both Aeneas (verse 34) and Dorcas, Peter commanded them to get up. In Aeneas’ case there was a faith response, but Dorcas was already dead, so it wasn’t her faith in operation. Actually, Peter had a track record of giving commands like this, as we saw when he was instrumental in the healing of the man lame from birth at the Beautiful Gate of the temple in Jerusalem. (Acts 3:6-7) We tend to associate prayer with essentially begging God to do something, when sometimes we need to exercise the authority we have been given in Christ. Even evangelism is often expressed in terms of command. Jesus Himself commanded people to “Repent and believe the Good news.” (Mark 1:15) Often enough the vocabulary is still here, but the sense of spiritual authority isn’t. It was in no way just coincidental that the Great Commission was given in conjunction with Jesus’ declaration of His authority. “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:18-20) The danger here is that many of us have a thirst for authority, and when that kicks in genuine spiritual authority generally goes out the window. It’s like the Roman Centurion realized: there is a flow of authority, and when we aren’t submitted to that above us, our authority evaporates. (Luke 7:8) We must be humble, but at the same time realize that the authority of Jesus Christ the Son of God operates through us. Peter grasped that, and we have the record of the results.

As I have written many times, I have had a very ambivalent relationship with authority all my life. The American side of my heritage – or maybe it’s just the human – doesn’t like to submit to authority. That was something I didn’t like about my two years in the Army! At the same time, I don’t think I’m rebellious for the sake of being rebellious. When it comes to giving commands myself, I’m if anything even less comfortable. Even in the Army, though I rose to E5, traditionally called a sergeant, I was a “specialist,” and so not in a place of ordering others around. Frankly, I don’t like ordering people around, but sometimes that needs to be done. Of far more importance is the matter of spiritual authority. I need to realize that when “all authority in heaven and on earth” is in Christ, operating in His name means having that authority operate through me, for healing and resurrection, even, as demonstrated by Peter, and for deliverance, salvation, and every other spiritual benefit. For that to operate, I’ve got to be fully submitted to Christ myself, so that is to be my focus, allowing Him to show me when and how to exercise His authority.

Father, this is an area that I’ve only touched the fringes of to this point. Keep me from operating in the flesh, but also keep me from holding back for any merely human reason. May I be a useful instrument of Your authority, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be manifested as Your will is done in and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Chosen Vessels; September 23, 2021

Posted on September 25, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 9:15-16 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”

We speak highly of those God chooses to to His work, but we don’t always think about how those people might feel. I think every “chosen vessel” thinks sometimes, “Couldn’t You have chosen someone else?” At the same time, there is enormous reward to being used by God. I’m sure there were countless times that Moses wished he could “retire,” but he started his major ministry from age 80! In the Facebook group I’m in for children of missionaries, many write of the suffering and deprivation their parents endured for the sake of the Gospel, much as the Lord said about Saul. However, the majority of those who write such things also talk about their enormous pride in their parents, acknowledging that they were imperfect but being grateful for their example. We tend to look at famous/wealthy people with envy and even awe, but they are at least as human as we are. We fail to see their struggles, and we judge their successes by human standards. How foolish! The thing is, each of us is chosen by God for something. Otherwise, we wouldn’t exist. Frankly, I don’t think anyone is chosen by God for “easy street!” The point is not to focus on the negatives and grouse and gripe about it all, but rather to focus on gratitude that God would deign to use you. Jesus was very clear that things wouldn’t be easy for anyone, but He reminded us that in Him we already have victory. (John 16:33)

This is precisely the Word that I need right now. I’m in the middle of various projects, and the conflicts and “bumps in the road” were really getting me down. I could clone myself several times and every one of me would have plenty to do! My stress doesn’t come from God, but from the demands and expectations I place on myself. I am constantly telling others about how an “attitude of gratitude” is the key to genuine happiness, but I fail to maintain such an attitude myself. Rather than focusing on difficulties or even mistakes, I need to focus on the God who enables me to do things in the first place, and to recognize when I’ve done things wrong so that they can be corrected. As I tell others all the time, depression is at its root self-centered. The answer is always to lift our eyes to our Father who loves us so much as to send His Son to save us. It is when we do that, that we really understand that “Our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17)

Father, thank You for this very timely reminder. Thank You for helping me understand when I’ve made mistakes, and how, so that I may go on to correct them. Help me indeed not focus on the negatives that surround me, but rather on You, in whom I “live and move and have my being.” (Acts 17:28) Thank You. Praise God!

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit; September 22, 2021

Posted on September 25, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 8:15-17 When they arrived, they prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon any of them; they had simply been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.

This passage was widely quoted, and hotly debated, reasonably enough, around the time I was introduced to the Charismatic Movement in the ’70s.The discussion seems to have largely died down, but whether that’s a good thing or not is open to question. What is clear is that this is talking about people who had repented and believed for salvation, receiving water baptism as a sign of that, but the Holy Spirit had not yet been manifested in their lives. That becomes problematical when throughout Romans Paul is very clear that all who are saved have the Holy Spirit. There are some in the Pentecostal camp who insist that manifestation gifts, such as are discussed in 1 Corinthians 12, particularly the gift of tongues, are a necessary sign of salvation, which creates an incredibly elitist attitude. Perhaps in reaction to that, the current attitude in most churches seems to largely ignore spiritual gifts. Many churches have adopted “Charismatic” forms of group worship, but essentially nothing else. That is tragic. As a result, there are many genuine believers who are just as these Samaritans were before Peter and John visited. Philip had been demonstrating the power of the Spirit and there were many healings and deliverances, but he wasn’t active in passing that along to others. Peter and John wanted everyone to operate in the power of the Holy Spirit, so they prayed for that and laid hands on people. Acts records times such as this where the Spirit was imparted by the laying on of hands and also times, such as at Pentecost and in the home of Cornelius the Roman, (Acts 10) where that was not involved. The point is, the Holy Spirit is active, and He makes His presence known when we open our hearts to Him.

My own experience lands me squarely in the middle of this argument, because when I first heard of the baptism in the Holy Spirit, everything I read said that I would speak in tongues once it happened. I really wanted the power of the Spirit, but that desire twisted to seeking the gift of tongues, and nothing happened. When a friend straightened me out and said that we can’t place conditions on God’s gifts, I prayed again to be baptized and felt nothing, but two days later abruptly realized that I was talking to a total stranger about Jesus, which in my awareness had never happened before. At that moment Acts 1:8 came to mind, and I realized that, by the power of the Spirit, I was being a witness, and I knew that God had been true to His promise. As it turned out, after a few months I started experiencing the gifts mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12, and to date have tasted all of them listed there at least once. I also knew a dear saint who thought she had never been baptized in the Holy Spirit because she never spoke in tongues (she was in a Pentecostal church) but who radiated the love of God more than anyone you could imagine. I am totally convinced she was baptized in the Holy Spirit! The thing is, I feel somewhat like Philip, because not many people have opened up fully to the flow of the Spirit under my ministry. I know better than to be dogmatic about specific gifts, but I indeed want everyone to operate in the fullness of the Spirit. I know that the contents are more important than the vessel, (2 Corinthians 4:7) but the vessel still needs to be available. I need to seek actively to be more available for the Holy Spirit to be poured through me, so that God’s children may rise up as an active army, defeating the lies of the devil and bringing many from death to life.

Father, this is a huge challenge! The problem is my track record, and looking at myself even now, instead of at my Lord. Help me believe, fully and in fact, that You can and will do anything at all through me, regardless of how I have gotten in Your way in the past, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory alone. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Response to Truth; September 21, 2021

Posted on September 23, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 7:57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him.

It’s amazing sometimes what people will do when confronted with unwelcome truth. The thing that jumps out at me about this is how they both yelled and covered their ears. They didn’t want to risk hearing another word Stephen said! We make a joke of it, with people putting their hands over their ears and saying, “La la la la I can’t hear you,” but in this case it was deadly serious. We don’t like to be confronted with unpleasant truth, and how we respond speaks volumes about our spiritual and emotional maturity. Al Gore became famous, and even received a Nobel Prize, for producing a movie called An Inconvenient Truth, but the only problem was that it was largely made up of distortions and outright lies. That he himself didn’t believe the things he was proclaiming is proved by the fact that he lived in a huge house that used several times as much energy as the average home, and he had his own private jet in addition to that. Those who have been swept up in that “movement” are always loudest about other people reducing their “carbon footprint.” When you are speaking genuine truth, you don’t have to silence your opposition. The fact that some people are working so hard today to silence opposing viewpoints on various subjects makes it very clear that truth isn’t on their side. When we are dealing in God’s truth, as Stephen was, we tend to get much the same response from some quarters that he did. That’s why we need to be wise, but that doesn’t mean we need to be silent. That’s coming out right now in response to Critical Race Theory. Thankfully, the opposition to children being indoctrinated with CRT, along with totally unscientific concepts of sex and gender, is rising to a high level, with parents standing up for their children in various ways. That such theories exist isn’t the issue, it’s that they push them on the most impressionable and that they insist that all other viewpoints be shut down – just like the people who stoned Stephen!

I’m very thankful to have been raised to value objective truth, and that God was always presented as the ultimate Truth. After all, Jesus said explicitly, “I am the way and the truth and the life.” (John 14:6) Also, I am very grateful for my 7th Grade English teacher, who taught me to expect and recognize bias in what was presented to me as truth. Bias doesn’t mean something is untrue, just that it isn’t the total picture. My occupation is that of Truth Presenter, both as a pastor/missionary and as a school teacher. I have problems with inaccuracy at times in both those roles, and I have had to apologize. I am not to be hesitant in presenting what I know to be true, but I must remember that I personally don’t have the whole truth, (1 Corinthians 13:9-12) and always speak the truth I know in love. (Ephesians 4:15) When I am given information that is unwelcome to me, I am to let the Holy Spirit be my filter first of all, and then examine things objectively. I must not imitate the men who stoned Stephen!

Father, there’s so much junk being proclaimed as truth these days. Help me stand for Your truth without attacking those who are deceived by the lies. May my life be a demonstration of the truth I proclaim, for the blessing of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Delegation; September 20, 2021

Posted on September 22, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 6:2-4 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This actually was a major inflection point in the early Church, when things could easily have gone either way, and going the wrong way could have essentially doomed the Church as an organization. There are always important things to be done, but there are also priorities. Ordering those priorities can make or break either individual lives or large organizations. God gave the apostles wisdom, just as He did to Moses’ father-in-law thousands of years before, because the answer is often delegation. (Exodus 18) There is only so much a given individual can do, and there is always more to be done than one individual can handle. It’s not that things aren’t important, it’s a matter of focus and concentration. Just as people are spiritual beings who inhabit bodies, (as I brought up in the message a week ago) the Church is a spiritual organism that is made up of people and deals with all sorts of things involving the material world. If we forget that the first priority is spiritual, everything falls apart. The devil does all he can to distract us with the physical in various ways, both with pleasurable things and unpleasant things like pain and conflict. The only way out of it is, as Jesus said, to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.” (Matthew 6:33) That’s why we need to start each day by taking time with the Lord, regardless of how urgent other things might seem to be. Here, the apostles faced a situation that threatened to tear the Church apart, so by the wisdom of God they delegated, allowing the people to choose their representatives so that it wouldn’t be seen as a top-down solution but would have everyone’s agreement. However, they set clear guidelines. Those chosen should be “full of the Spirit and wisdom.” The Japanese includes the characteristic of “well-spoken,” which the NIV leaves out but in my view would be very important for this particular job. (Some translations say, “of good reputation.”) These men needed to know how to get along with others. Peter may have been especially aware of this, because that wasn’t one of his outstanding characteristics! That at least Stephen was very gifted with words comes out right after this, when he is arrested for being too effective as an evangelist. In any case the point here is that a genuine issue was acknowledged and people were assigned to deal with it, and a crisis was averted.

Delegation has always been an issue for me. I tend to do everything myself, or at least try, and all too often that makes a mess of things. I am gifted in many ways, and often doing things myself is the easiest and simplest solution, but that doesn’t mean it’s the best. I need to involve others in the church far more consistently, for them to grow and the church to grow. Today I am conflicted because of the various things that need to be done, but at the moment I don’t have anyone else to call on. However, starting with this time in the Word and prayer is certainly the right thing to do! With the size and current composition of the church I don’t have options for some of the things, but this is a wake-up call for what we need to do from here. Today, I need God’s wisdom as to the order in which to do things, and indeed, what is to be done today and what later. In the future, I need to be active in seeking the participation of others, so that God’s work may be done by God’s people for God’s glory.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. I know many things in theory that I don’t apply in practice. James 1:22 was written for me! Help me keep growing so that the church can keep growing and indeed, the Church keep growing, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Persecution; September 19, 2021

Posted on September 22, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 4:29-30 “Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”

Reading this I am reminded of something I read just yesterday, that the number of Christian believers in Afghanistan is increasing with the Taliban takeover. That is certainly not what the Taliban, or really anyone else, expected! However, anyone genuinely familiar with Church history should not be surprised at all. The same thing has been happening in Iran, to the point that the Islamic government seems to be in genuine danger. We tend to look at the rise of anti-Christian forces in the US and panic, forgetting that God is looking at the whole world. God is waking up His children in the US by allowing the enemy’s activities to be exposed, and at the same time He is strengthening His children in places where the enemy seems to be in full control. We forget that, as the chorus says, “He’s got the whole world in His hands.” We look at external factors, but He sees people’s hearts. We are limited to a temporal perspective, but He sees all eternity at a glance. The believers in Jerusalem set a precedent that all believers down through the ages should follow: meet opposition with faith and boldness, regardless of the immediate consequences to your own flesh. Martyrdom started with Stephen (Acts 7) and multiplied from there, to the point that John son of Zebedee is said to be the only one of the original 12 apostles to die a “natural” death. (Why do we ever think of death as unnatural? Our bodies are mortal, and we shouldn’t think otherwise.) We forget that our word, martyr, comes from the Greek martyrion, meaning “witness.” When Jesus said that we would be His witnesses when the Holy Spirit came on us, (Acts 1:8) He wasn’t excluding martyrdom! When our hope is fully and firmly in Christ, then we are witnesses whatever happens to our physical bodies.

This is something I have been aware of for a long time as objective fact, but I don’t know how well I have lived it out. I haven’t experienced much persecution for my faith personally, but I am very aware of the persecution that is going on around the world. I am never to take suffering lightly, particularly when it is that of a brother or sister in Christ, but at the same time I am never to think that suffering is the end of the story. As I quote frequently, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) Getting your head cut off, particularly slowly, with a knife, is hardly something to look forward to, but even hours of torture are momentary when compared to eternity. I am to be as bold as these believers in Jerusalem, and pray for my brothers and sisters around the world who are in the middle of persecution that they would be so as well, so that we may all be effective witnesses to the grace and power of our Lord.

Father, I’ll confess to being surprised by the report of increased believers in Afghanistan so quickly after the takeover. O me of little faith! Help me indeed trust You fully, whatever my news feeds are telling me, so that I may be a faithful, effective servant in whatever capacity You desire me to be, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Peter; September 18, 2021

Posted on September 20, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 3:16 “By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has given this complete healing to him, as you can all see.”

Peter could hardly have been accused of being subtle! Every record we have of him speaking he pulls no punches. To us today it seems almost surprising and unnecessarily harsh for him to have been so accusatory toward his hearers in the three verses just before this, but he was establishing their need for repentance, which is sadly lacking in most preaching today. “Political correctness” is certainly a tool of the devil! We don’t know exact numbers, but verse 4 of the next chapter indicates that there were a lot of conversions that day. As an American evangelist told me over 40 years ago, we can’t save anybody; our job is to help them understand they are lost. When we are so careful not to offend, that’s not likely to happen. We aren’t to offend needlessly, but all too often fear of offense muzzles the truth and even denies it. Peter was far from being a trained orator; he was an exemplar of the “ignorant country hick.” That’s why it was so astounding to the members of the Sanhedrin that he spoke as he did. (4:13) Education and training are certainly not bad, but they are no substitute for the anointing of the Holy Spirit, even though, sadly enough, they are often taken to be so. It is a travesty that some denominations require academic testing before they will license and ordain someone to preach. Peter would never have passed such testing! When we substitute human criteria for the calling of God, we are guaranteed to fail at advancing His kingdom.

I have always been blessed and encouraged to read about Peter and read what he wrote. I am amused that the first letter with his name on it is used for teaching Greek because it is so beautiful and grammatically correct, but 2nd Peter is the opposite, showing that it was written directly by him rather than being “grammar-checked” by Silas or some other trained scribe. (1 Peter 5:12) That said, 2 Peter 1:9 has been enormously helpful to me personally. We all need the “unvarnished truth” much more than we like to admit. Coming from an academic family and being a seminary graduate, my “credentials” don’t have much in common with Peter’s, so I’ve got to be careful not to rely on gifts or training, but rather on the Lord my God. My gifts and training can be useful tools, but they are worthless and even counter-productive if they aren’t totally submitted to God.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the example of Peter, who had some of the biggest failures but also was used by You gloriously to bless countless generations of believers. Help me likewise take my eyes off of myself and fix them on You, to walk on water as called for and draw many into Your kingdom, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Pentecost; September 17, 2021

Posted on September 20, 2021 by jgarrott

Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

The events on the day of Pentecost were momentous in every way, and here we have the response to them. That there were 3000 commitments to Jesus Christ as Lord in one day, without benefit of modern sound systems or anything of the sort, is an indication of how God had prepared the people to receive the message. It had been less than two months since the Crucifixion, and with none of our current electronic distractions to give them a “24 hour news cycle,” people were probably still talking about it, particularly with all the rumors of resurrection that were doubtless going around. The thing is, everyone has big events in their life; it’s how we respond to them that really makes the difference. The Japanese translation here gives a slightly different slant on the people’s response. Whereas the English says, “They devoted themselves…” and then goes on to list the various activities, the Japanese says, “They strictly obeyed the apostle’s teaching, had fellowship, broke bread, and prayed.” The point seems to be, their first goal was to absorb everything they could about Jesus from those who had been with Him, and the other things followed from there. The thing is, the more we know of Jesus, the more we are going to delight to be with His children and the more we are going to pray. There is discussion of exactly what is meant by “breaking bread,” whether it means celebrating Communion or simply eating together, but if the latter, it seems a little trivial to include it here. In any case their faith-encounter with Jesus consumed them, and the foundation for the Church was laid.

As a pastor, and particularly one ministering in Japan, I have always looked on Pentecost and the events following with more than a little bit of longing. Japanese people today are close to the opposite of the people in Jerusalem on Pentecost. They have no foundation in the Old Testament, certainly, and the culture itself has a very distorted concept of sin, repentance, and forgiveness. If I hadn’t been born and raised here, and particularly if God hadn’t commissioned me to serve here, I would have chosen an easier place to work! That said, I am daily reminded that nothing is impossible for God. The things that happen are generally very small, but they are reminders that God is at work. Just yesterday I was called in by the chairman of the school where I teach, wanting me to speak on “Giving” to the Rotary Club. I cautioned him that I would definitely be quoting the Bible! Also, my wife has discovered the online prayer meetings hosted by Don Moen, and when she sent a comment and he noticed it was from Japan, he recalled a vision he has had of revival sweeping Japan, from the west to the east – and Nagasaki is the westernmost prefecture in Japan! These things are little at this point, but they are reminders that God hasn’t given up on this nation, and I must not either.

Father, You have been giving various hints that my ministry is going to change, but I can only guess as to what that might mean. I pray that I would be as available as Peter and the other apostles were on the day of Pentecost, whatever, whenever, and however You want to do, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your kingdom come as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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