Dependence on God; September 1, 2025

Posted on September 2, 2025 by jgarrott

Zephaniah 3:12, 15 But I will leave within you
    the meek and humble.
The remnant of Israel
    will trust in the name of the Lord.
The Lord, the King of Israel, is with you;
    never again will you fear any harm.

It struck me that the same terminology is used in referring to humble and lowly people and to the Lord, the King of Israel. The same thing is said in different ways in other places, but it is clear that God is with the humble, not with the proud. In fact, pride is perhaps the single greatest hinderance to salvation. I keep coming back to this truth, but salvation requires acknowledging that you need it, and that you can’t save yourself. There are literally countless stories that illustrate this, but a famous one is that of John Newton, the author of the lyrics of Amazing Grace. He went from being the captain of a slave ship, one of the most despicable occupations, to being a pastor, and penned the words to perhaps the best-loved hymn in the world. If he had not humbled himself before God as his ship was in danger of sinking in a storm, he would indeed not have been saved, on any level, and would today have been rotting in hell. This is why Jesus so famously said that “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 19:24) Materially wealthy people are very likely to trust in their wealth, not realizing how ephemeral it really is. It is much easier for someone who has nothing in this world to depend fully on God. If you want to be with God for eternity, you need to realize that you have nothing valuable apart from Him even now.

I didn’t grow up in poverty, exactly, but it certainly wasn’t “the lap of luxury.” That said, many of my Japanese friends as a child thought we were rich, because compared to them, we were! We were supported by the mission board on an American framework, when Japan was recovering from the devastation of WWII. As an adult, I have had times of fairly major “pinch,” financially speaking, but God has always come through. At this point, various things have combined to the point that we have fewer financial worries that ever before. I am grateful, and at the same time I am aware that we are no less dependent on the grace of God than when we didn’t know how we were going to get the next meal on the table. I want to be one of those who are with my Lord and King even now, before I get to heaven!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your abundant supply of everything we need, whether we see it with our physical eyes or not. Help me walk in constant awareness of my dependence on You, resting, relaxing, and rejoicing in You, just as You have told me to do, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Trusting Faith; August 31, 2025

Posted on September 1, 2025 by jgarrott

Habakkuk 3:18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord,
    I will be joyful in God my Savior.

This is rightly one of the most famous declarations of faith in the face of circumstances in the whole Bible. A musical setting for verses 17-19 echoes in my heart and mind, which is appropriate enough, since the last line indicates that from the beginning it was intended to be sung. Verse 17 lists absolutely calamitous circumstances for an agrarian society, and then we have this verse: “Yet will I rejoice in the Lord.” That boggles the mind! Habakkuk was facing a foreign invasion leading to potential death by starvation, even if not by direct enemy action, and yet he chooses to rejoice in the Lord. This passage should be required reading and meditation for every believer tempted into a victim mentality, indulging in a pity party. We don’t have it this bad! There is a great deal going on in the world, both good and bad, and with this Information Age we live in, we are bombarded with news about it all. We aren’t to be passive or indifferent, but we’ve got to keep it all in perspective, remembering that God hasn’t changed, nor has He abandoned us. We are to act to remediate circumstances as the Lord directs, but remember that the temporal is never the final answer. As Jake Hess sang, even “death ain’t no big deal.” If we can maintain that perspective, we can join with Habakkuk in rejoicing in the Lord regardless of what is going on, in the world or in our own personal lives.

This is a perspective I have come around to more and more, the longer I have lived with the Lord. As Bill Gaither wrote, “The longer I Serve Him, the Sweeter He Grows.” For an infant with no perspective, a dropped cookie is a tragedy. I think I’ve gone far beyond that! That said, I’m not to make light of other people’s problems, but as Paul said, “mourn with those who mourn.” (Romans 12:15) I’m not to encourage pity parties, but I’m not to put people down for having them. God is absolutely faithful, and as He told Jeremiah, His plans for us are good. (Jeremiah 29:11) Immediate circumstances may be genuinely horrible, all the way to and including martyrdom, but I’ve got to remember, and remind others, that God’s plans for us are for eternity, and any difficulties we have in this life are no more than minor bumps in the road.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You again for all You did on Friday with the concert. Thank You that today is a service of praise and testimonies. Thank You that my call yesterday got me an appointment with a dermatologist for tomorrow, to check out what I suspect is another skin cancer lesion. I was shocked that it was so soon! Thank You that I don’t have to be anxious about anything at all, but just rest, relax, and rejoice in You, just as You have told me to do, as an example for all who know me and for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Salvation; August 30, 2025

Posted on August 31, 2025 by jgarrott

Joel 2:32 And everyone who calls
    on the name of the Lord will be saved;
for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
    there will be deliverance,
    as the Lord has said,
even among the survivors
    whom the Lord calls.

I almost chose to write on verse 25, because that also feels very meaningful right now, but this verse won out. The statement, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved,” is immensely powerful, and is quoted by both Peter and Paul. (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13) Our human minds think that’s too simple, but there are a few conditions built into it. In the first place, the person who calls has to know they need to be saved. Sadly, far too many people don’t fit into that category – and that includes a lot of nominal Christians. The second point is that they have to know the Lord exists, and to some extent at least, who He is. I have read quite a few testimonies of people who called out to Allah, and he didn’t answer, but when they called out to Jesus, He did. This is where we come in, because it is our privilege and responsibility to tell others about Jesus so that they can call out to Him. The third thing is that there has to be enough humility to ask for help. And many people stumble on this point as well. Often we have to come to the end of our own resources before we’ll reach out the One who holds everything in His hands. All that said, those three points are hardly insurmountable! As Paul said, God “wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (1 Timothy 2:4) God opens the door as wide as possible, but it is our own stubbornness and pride that make it narrow. (Matthew 7:13-14)

Over the years there have been many people to whom I’ve ministered who died without making a public profession of faith in Christ, but I hold onto the hope that in their dying moments, they cried out to the Jesus they had heard about from me. However, that’s hardly what we would call effective evangelism! Public profession and baptism are almost infinitely better, and that’s what I’m to work for. Last night we had a concert here, and I was absolutely thrilled that three people I have been working with personally, as well as others who are not yet believers, came to it. I’m still somewhat in “shock and awe!” We didn’t promote this as evangelistic, but simply as a concert, and that was non-threatening enough that people came. The couple who performed gave personal testimonies, not “sermons,” that clearly and gently showed the way to salvation, and I believe they were received. The anointed music certainly didn’t hurt! I need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit from this point as well, not failing to follow through, but not applying pressure that’s not needed. I believe we’re going to need our baptistry a lot in the coming months! I need to keep praying for these people, that the devil will be unable to steal the seed that has been planted, and that it will bear abundant fruit, not just for these people’s salvation but for further expansion of the Kingdom of God.

Father, I’m still blown away by what You did last night. Thank You that it’s so clear that it wasn’t my doing! Help me be more and more yielded and available to You, so that You may do through me whatever You like, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Knowledge; August 29, 2025

Posted on August 30, 2025 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

This is an absolutely amazing offer from our omniscient Creator. Expressed a little differently, He’s saying, “You want to know something wild? Just ask me.” Today we tend to look back on people of past generations and think, “They were so ignorant.” The thing is, we are still so ignorant! Some items of information have made a major difference, such as the awareness of germs causing disease, but there is still far more that we don’t know than we do know. God never has that problem! The question becomes, what do we need to know? On the eternal scale, what is most important is that we have a Creator who is perfectly holy and so cannot abide sin, but who is perfectly loving, and so sent His Son to take the penalty for our sin and enable salvation by grace through faith. Everything else is strictly icing on the cake, but some of it is important to our quality of life on this planet – the awareness of germs being a good example. As the following verses make clear, what God was referring to here was future events that Jeremiah couldn’t have imagined on his own. That was important, because Jeremiah’s writings were what gave the Jews hope during their time in Babylon, preparing them to return to the land when God used Cyrus the Persian to accomplish it. At this point, God has given us knowledge of future events through Ezekiel and Daniel in the Old Testament and John in the New, but we tend to get confused by it all, trying to draw timelines and such. The far wiser course is to ask God to show us whatever we need to know, and not worry about the rest. Daily faithfulness is the key. The devil is quite an expert at distracting us with all sorts of things that might be true in themselves, but they are strictly temporal and don’t mean anything in the long run. Our focus needs to be on our Lord, listening to Him and following through with whatever He tells us. It’s important to remember that God sometimes shows us “hidden, unsearchable” things. The Japanese expresses that as “things beyond human understanding.” We may sometimes have no idea what to do with what He has shown us, but we have James’ reassurance: “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” (James 1:5) Wisdom is ultimately more important than knowledge.

I have always been something of a knowledge junkie, delighting to collect information, so learning to value wisdom over knowledge hasn’t been an easy road for me. As has been said, knowledge is knowing that tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad. That’s a silly, humorous example, but I need to keep my focus on my Lord, and not on all the information that so delights me. The Internet is a blessing and a curse to me, because it certainly feeds my knowledge addiction, while at the same time distracting me from what God is saying to me. I’m not to reject information, but always keep it in perspective. Virtually all of it will be totally insignificant when I stand before God’s throne! I need to keep remembering that God’s smart and I’m not, and be at peace with that.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the intelligence You’ve given me. May I always use it in submission and obedience to You, for Your glory alone. Thank You. Praise God!

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Fear and Happiness; August 28, 2025

Posted on August 29, 2025 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 32:39-40 “I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me and that all will then go well for them and for their children after them.  I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me.”

This promise of God combines two things that we tend to think of as antithetical to each other: fear and happiness. Actually, English translations don’t use “happiness,” but that is the most common translation for the word used in the Japanese. It carries strong overtones of blessing and good, and those words are used in English for this passage. This shows one of the chief benefits of reading the Bible in multiple languages, because translation is very seldom  a matter of direct equivalence, and I doubt that anyone today understands perfectly the nuances of all the words used when the Bible was written, in whatever language. Whatever language we’re using, we need to remember that God’s Word is deeper and higher than any merely human language, or even human thought. (Isaiah 55:8-9) It’s one of His many miracles that He expresses His thoughts to us in ways we can grasp. To get back to this passage, it actually expresses something that is repeated in various ways throughout the Bible: God’s plans for us are for our good. We tend to doubt that and rebel any time His plans differ from ours, but that’s just human stupidity. It we fail to fear Him, we aren’t likely to obey Him! I’m reminded of something Dennis Prager has said. In his many years of being a radio talk show host, he asked countless people who had never used drugs, why they hadn’t. The answer was consistent: “My mother would have killed me.” That’s precisely the kind of fear we’re talking about here. If children don’t fear their parents’ discipline, they’re very likely to go astray, and bear the consequences of that. This is no excuse for child abuse, but these days, almost any kind of discipline is labeled as abuse, and that’s a lie of the devil. It sounds contradictory, but we need to fear our parents, and God, in order to love them and receive the good they desire for us.

My parents weren’t perfect, but they did a pretty good job. Neither I nor any of my siblings got into drugs, though we did stray in some other ways. My wife and I likewise didn’t do a perfect job by any means, but our daughters turned out OK. Human parenting pales in comparison to Father God, naturally enough. I was taught about God from infancy, but I don’t think I feared Him enough. However, God has been faithful to guide as well as guard me over the years, and I think I fear Him far more now than I ever did in my youth. The interesting thing is, I also love Him far more than I did! I have learned that you can’t separate love and devotion for Him from deep respect and awe. My awareness of Him should scare the sin out of me! When I fear Him properly, there is absolutely nothing else I need to fear, and I’m grateful.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for Your continuing, overflowing grace toward me. It’s a very minor thing, but thank You for arranging my schedule so that I was able to watch the 10th Starship test launch live yesterday. That really blessed me! Thank You for all the big and small things You do for and through me. May I be fully yielded to You in active obedience, so that Your plans may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Prophecy; August 27, 2025

Posted on August 28, 2025 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 31:14 “I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
    and my people will be filled with my bounty,”
declares the Lord.

Jeremiah is known as a prophet of “doom and gloom,” to the point that “jeremiad” refers to a very negative rant about something. However, he also prophesied some very encouraging things indeed. This chapter is glorious, and deeply comforting. After all, it was Jeremiah’s prophecies that enabled the exiles in Babylon to know that after 70 years they would be returned to the land of Israel. Various parts of this chapter have been set to music, and are running through my mind and heart even now. Honest prophecy may seem severe in the moment, but it will always reflect the character of God. He is indeed holy and righteous and just, and He is also kind and loving and gracious. Some people focus on the severe stuff, and they are scared witless of Him, and some people imagine Him as a soft, fluffy Santa Claus, indulgent in the extreme. Both of those are terrible misconceptions, fostered and encouraged by the devil. God is indeed 100% righteous and holy, so our sins and rebellions have consequences, but He is also love itself, as John so famously pointed out. (1 John 4:8) Prophecy that is from Him will reflect both of those poles, as opposite as they might seem. Going back to yesterday’s reading, if Jeremiah had only prophesied doom and gloom, hearing God speak would hardly have been a joy to him! When God nudges our heart to indicate He wants to say something through us, we should not fear, but rejoice to be fully available to Him for whatever He wants to say.

I have been used in prophecy, and I have heard various prophecies. I certainly like this one! Since I would fit in the category of “priests,” it certainly sounds good to me! It is interesting that where English translations say “bounty,” or “goodness,” in the last part of the verse, the Japanese says “grace.” That term in Japanese indeed means more than we usually mean by grace, having a strong feeling of blessings. However, God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him, at a point when that wasn’t really what Paul wanted to hear. I need to remember to feast my soul of God’s abundance, and know that His grace is sufficient for me, regardless of whatever I’m going through.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the youth missions team that came yesterday, and for the yard work they did for us. Thank You even more for the privilege of sharing Your heart with them. May they, may we, open up to You more and more, to be more and more effective as Your agents, in word and in deed, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Jeremiah; August 26, 2025

Posted on August 27, 2025 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 15:16 When your words came, I ate them;
    they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
    Lord God Almighty.

Being called and used by God can be a mixed bag! Jeremiah is recognized as one of the great prophets of history, but his personal life was very far from being a picnic. In verse 10 he laments having been born, because his obedience to God stirs up society, and he suffers the consequences. On that score, in the last part of this chapter God assures him that his enemies will be unable to conquer him, so he needs to be at peace with that. He finally was stoned to death in Egypt by his own people, who had fled to Egypt in direct violation of what Jeremiah had told them from God, but by that point, I’m sure he was more than ready to leave this life. The pain of the rocks was no fun, but the glory of what came after than more than compensated! All that said, this verse tells us what sustained Jeremiah throughout his ministry. He loved hearing from God, and his relationship with God was more personal than most people can dream of. The turn of phrase here is interesting: eating God’s Word. That seems odd to us, but when we eat something we take it in, absorb the nutrients in it, and it becomes part of us. That was Jeremiah’s experience with what God said to him, either through the Torah or directly to his heart. We can have the same experience, actually, because we have much more Bible than Jeremiah had available to him. And even today, God isn’t limited to speaking through the printed Word, but speaks to us in many ways. If we recognize His voice and take in His words, as Jeremiah did, then it will be a joy and pleasure to us just as it was to Jeremiah. However, there is a precondition to that: we have to be committed to do whatever God says to us, just as Jeremiah did. If we aren’t going to obey God, why would He speak to us? The world’s reaction to us probably won’t be as severe as it was to Jeremiah, but it could be. We need to be decided ahead of time that intimacy with God is more than worth it, and be as committed to Him as Jeremiah was.

I haven’t been involved in as much turmoil as Jeremiah was, but I can certainly identify with this verse! What is most exciting is that the sister who spoke this past Sunday obviously feels the same way. She has my spiritual DNA! Every believer needs to fall more and more in love with God, and that includes taking in what He says to us, digesting it, and making it part of us. I am to be a man of the Word, just as I am a man of words, and I need to be an open channel for God to speak through. I’m no Jeremiah, but if my speaking God’s words causes conflict, so be it. I can’t claim to love Jesus if I don’t do what He says to me! (John 14:15) However, I have tasted the joy Jeremiah spoke of, and I am totally addicted. It is a blessed addiction indeed!

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for the joy of taking in Your Word. May I recognize what You are saying whenever You speak to me, however You do it, so that I may be fully useful in Your hands, accomplishing Your will on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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God’s Care for His Children; August 25, 2025

Posted on August 26, 2025 by jgarrott

Isaiah 66:5 Hear the word of the Lord,
    you who tremble at his word:
“Your own people who hate you,
    and exclude you because of my name, have said,
‘Let the Lord be glorified,
    that we may see your joy!’
    Yet they will be put to shame.”

God never forgets those who genuinely honor Him, those who “tremble at His word,” as it says here. The image presented in this verse is all too familiar, with people who don’t honor God ridiculing those who do. God is reassuring His people that it is those who oppose them who will ultimately be ashamed. Immediately after this verse, through verse 9, we have the specific prophecy that was fulfilled in 1948 when Israel very abruptly was reborn as a nation, after almost 1900 years without that status. And that took place immediately after the holocaust, when Hitler explicitly sought to exterminate the Jewish race! Those who don’t love God, and sadly, even many who do, have no grasp, no expectation, of all He can and will do for His people. Because His actions often don’t fit our expectations, we may not recognize them. Particularly in the case of martyrdom, we see it as unmitigated tragedy, but for the faithful martyr, it is glory beyond our words to express it! Going back to this verse, probably everyone who is devoted to the Lord has experienced ridicule, at least, from those around them. Frankly, our righteousness makes them uncomfortable, so they cover it over with attacks on us. Like the early Church, we should rejoice at the honor of being treated that way! (Acts 5:41)

My experience of this hasn’t been severe, and sometimes I wonder at my own level of commitment, that it hasn’t provoked more opposition. However, God is my judge, and I leave it in His hands. I did have a cousin attack me verbally for putting my entire inheritance into building this church building, but he shut up after I said that I could think of no better investment than the Kingdom of God. He was raised by devoted parents and was at least a nominal Christian, but the idea that someone would let their faith govern their “real world” actions like that threw him for a loop. At this point I don’t think I care what anybody thinks, so long as my Lord is pleased with me. I certainly don’t follow Him perfectly, but that is at least my desire, and He is continuing to grow me as His child.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and this encouragement. Thank You for the good service yesterday, and for the evidence of the health of this church. Thank You for the Word you gave through the sister who spoke. I had never thought of David’s response to Absalom as being analogous to Your response to us. It was beautiful, and touched many. May we continue to grow in every way that You desire and intend, so that all of Your purposes for us may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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End Times; August 24, 2025

Posted on August 25, 2025 by jgarrott

Isaiah 65:24 “Before they call I will answer;
    while they are still speaking I will hear.”

There are various, seemingly conflicting, narratives of the “end times” in the Bible. Some focus on the destruction coming upon those who are in rebellion against God, some, like this, focus on the “millennial kingdom” of perfection on this earth, some focus on believers being “snatched away” from all the destruction, and some focus on eternity with God. I think the confusion comes from our perspective. All of these things will happen, but God sees them all at once, whereas we see them sequentially – or would like to, to keep it all straight. I believe we need to recognize that we don’t have the mental “horsepower” to grasp it all, and so rest in the assurance that God’s got it all sorted out, trusting Him to bring it to pass in the right way at the right time. Charisma Magazine just had an article on the difference between the “Rapture” and the “2nd Coming.” To be honest, I didn’t bother to read it, though I’m sure it will be helpful to many. I’ve seen too many people who were so obsessed with this sort of thing that they could hardly be bothered with what God wanted them to do for and with their neighbors right now. Verses like this one, speaking of a level of intimacy with our Creator that few have yet tasted, strike me as far more “practical,” if that’s the right word. Jesus said repeatedly that we are to be ready for the end when it comes, but for the vast majority of people throughout history, that will be at the end of their physical life on this earth. None of us knows when that will come, but it is certainly a more immediate time frame than “someday.” We are to be focused on “What does God want me doing now.” If we will do that, then we will receive the ultimate accolade when the time comes: “Well done, good and faithful servant.” (Matthew 25:21)

This is a position I have come into more and more strongly over the years. Right now many are feeling that the world is indeed in “end times.” They are probably right, but the question for me is, what am I to do about it? I think I’ve already answered that. Sharing the Gospel with as many as possible seems to be the only thing that might affect the timing, (Matthew 24:14) but that’s something I want to do anyway. As far as my own “appointment with destiny” goes, I’ve already outlived my father by 13 years. My health is good, and I enjoy life, but I would be delighted to be fully with my Lord. I am fully in agreement with Paul. (Philippians 1:21-25) I would be absolutely thrilled for the Lord to do something that would bring Cathy and me simultaneously before Him, but I can’t dictate that and I’m not about to try. In the meantime, I’m to be about the business He sets before me and rest, relax, and rejoice in His all-sufficient grace, just as He has told me to do, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. Thank You for the service we’ll be having this morning, and that I’m just interpreting, not being the speaker. May my joy in You draw others likewise into Your presence, so that together we may worship You in spirit and in truth, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Consequences; August 23, 2025

Posted on August 24, 2025 by jgarrott

Isaiah 65:11 “But as for you who forsake the Lord
    and forget my holy mountain,
who spread a table for Fortune
    and fill bowls of mixed wine for Destiny…”

This is a hard section to write on, because from here on God is contrasting the fate of those who forsake Him to that of those who are faithful to Him, in verse after verse. The contrast is pretty stark, and He doesn’t even get into the eternal consequences! The problem is, so many people are blinded, or are willfully blind, to consequences of all sorts. Otherwise, why would anyone ever take the first hit of cocaine, or of any other narcotic? The devil does blind us, as Paul said, (2 Corinthians 4:4) but I think willful blindness is the bigger issue. We tend to downgrade the reality of free will, blaming our many faults on anyone but ourselves. The devil does all he can to foster a victim mentality, because once he has that, he gets full control of a person. The problem is, we can’t control what happens to us, but we can control how we respond to it, and that’s where accountability comes in. God does all sorts of things to warn us of the consequences of sin, but too often we choose to sin anyway. In this passage He spoke through Isaiah, He lays it out very clearly, and it’s clearly not pretty. We need to understand that, whereas we can’t earn our way into heaven, there are consequences to sin and rewards for obedience. None of us could ever get it perfectly, so He provided a way through His Son for us to be saved by grace through faith, but there is a lot more to the Christian life than just a “ticket to heaven!” We need to understand the consequences of sin, and of obedience, and choose obedience.

As a part of my duties as a pastor, I am to warn people of the consequences of sin. However, I’ve seen very few good results to “hellfire and brimstone” preaching. I am to speak the truth in love, unequivocally and unapologetically, but I’m not to do it in a condemnatory manner. That’s not “in love!” I have a friend who just recently entered into a same-sex marriage. My heart is broken, but I don’t know anything to do but pray. Both people have been “active Christians” for a long time, and all I can do is surrender them to God, for Him to be as merciful as possible. There have been many places in my own life that I could easily have taken the wrong fork in the road, but God has been more than gracious. I can’t save anyone, but I need to keep myself available to God for however He might want to use me to draw others to Himself, away from the pit.

Father, as much as my own heart breaks for some people, I know that Your heart breaks more. You told me Yourself that there is much that is not as You would like it to be. Help me stay yielded to You, so that I may be as useful as possible to You in making things right, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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