December 14, 2016

Posted on December 17, 2016 by jgarrott

Luke 1:74-75 … to rescue us from the hand of our enemies,
and to enable us to serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

The ideas in these two verses are so intertwined that the Japanese translation I use explicitly lumps them together as one verse, 7475. That’s more a matter of word order in Japanese versus English than it is anything theological, but it’s still true that God’s blessings are all interconnected. This is an interesting restatement of God’s promises to Abraham. It’s very interesting, and helpful, to do a study of those promises, especially since Paul says that all of those promises are applicable to those who are Abraham’s children by faith. (Galatians 3:7-9 and elsewhere) Zechariah here seems more focused on blessings in this life rather than in eternity, but he does say that the purpose of the blessings is for us to serve God. It is important to step back and realize, every once in a while, that everything God does to and for us is interconnected with His plans for all mankind. W. O. Carver called it “the plan of the ages.” (Sorry, he was my grandfather, and his books have been out of print for a long time now.) God loves us individually, but not in isolation. The greatest supercomputer possible couldn’t include all the variables God deals with all the time, considering the vastness of the universe, so it is a miracle of the highest order that He cares for each of us individually. In fact, if it weren’t explicitly stated in Scripture (Matthew 10:30) and experienced personally, we would have to dismiss the very idea out of hand as completely absurd. Even the most famous verse in the whole Bible, John 3:16, includes this dichotomy. God loved the world, (the totality) enough to send His Son so that whoever (each individual) might have eternal life. We need to rejoice that God indeed loves us individually, without forgetting that His loving plan includes every other person. If we will do that, we will rejoice to be instruments of His grace and love to one another.

This certainly applies to me, as it does to every other human being. I am very prone to get caught up in the individual moment, which can totally stress me out. However, from the perspective of my whole life, not to mention eternity, those moments are rarely of great importance. Little things like stubbing my toe, forgetting appointments and the like can really ruin my day, when they certainly don’t change God or the fact that He loves me. He has gone so far as to tell me personally to rest, relax, and rejoice, and yet I fail to do one or all of those all too often. Yesterday was a good example. God did something marvelous, downright miraculous, but then later in the day I couldn’t see well as I was backing the car and I bumped a rock. The damage wasn’t major by any means, but it soured my disposition for a while even though I had experienced God’s greatness just a couple of hours earlier. I’ll be glad to get to heaven, where I’ll be done with this foolish, sinful nature! I need to rejoice that He’s working on me even now to transform me into the likeness of His Son, and so not sweat the small stuff.

Father thank You for the huge reminder of Your faithfulness yesterday. Thank You also for the reminders of areas I still need to grow, as well as where I need to be active in Your service. May I indeed serve You in righteousness all my days, so that Your name may be hallowed because of me and Your will be done in and through me, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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December 13, 2016

Posted on December 14, 2016 by jgarrott

Luke 1:62 Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child.

It has always struck me that Zechariah and Elizabeth’s friends and neighbors assumed he couldn’t hear, when all Gabriel had said was that he wouldn’t be able to speak. This actually is a common thing. When someone doesn’t respond as we expect, we assume they didn’t hear properly in the first place, but that isn’t necessarily the case. They may think we are talking to someone else. Sometimes they are thinking about it, considering the answer. Sometimes they don’t want to give the answer they know is expected and/or desired. Sometimes they are ignoring us deliberately! We act that way toward God often enough. He speaks to us often, through His Word and otherwise, but our responses are all over the place. It’s true that we often don’t recognize that He’s speaking to us, either because our spiritual ears are dull or because we think what He said doesn’t apply to us. That’s why Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” (Matthew 11:15 and many more. In Revelation 2:7, etc. He cuts it down to one ear!) Several years ago Don Francisco recorded a song that has the line, “He’s talking to the hypocrite, Pharisee, anybody else but me!” We register that God has spoken, but we fail to apply it to ourselves. That’s exactly what James was talking about, and he said that’s no more than self-deception. (James 1:22)

I’m certainly talking to myself here. I couldn’t begin to count all the times I’ve failed to receive and apply what God has said to me, even when I heard Him clearly enough. That should give me patience in dealing with those around me, but often enough it doesn’t! We are all deeply flawed human beings, and it is only by the grace of God that we make it through at all. I’ve got to remember God’s grace toward me and apply that grace toward others. That doesn’t mean excusing them, but it does mean forgiving them. The longer I live the easier it is to recognize character flaws in people, but at the same time I have to recognize that those same flaws are reflected in me. As often as I have heard God and failed to act, I shouldn’t despise anyone for doing the same! Especially when I am the instrument through whom God is speaking, I need to express the message as many times as necessary, in as many different ways as possible, so that they may have the maximum opportunity to receive it and act on it.

Father, this is a daily exercise, as You know well. Help me never give up on anyone, but also not take their feigned deafness personally. May I be a willing and conscious mouthpiece for You, not going around saying “Thus sayeth the Lord,” but allowing You to touch people through me to open their eyes, heal them, correct them, and otherwise turn them to You, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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December 12, 2016

Posted on December 14, 2016 by jgarrott

Luke 1:45 “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

Like Gabriel’s statement to Mary that nothing is impossible for God, (Luke 1:37) this is a simple statement of fact, but it is profound from two different directions. In the first place, believing God keeps us out of trouble. Eve didn’t believe fully what God had told her and so she fell for the devil’s lie that she wouldn’t die from eating the fruit of the tree, and mankind has been suffering ever since. (Genesis 3:4-6) Failure to believe God has eternal consequences! However, there are other benefits to believing God on a more immediate scale. The Japanese here specifies “believed completely” and “certainly be accomplished.” The more firmly we believe God the more peace we have. Isaiah put it this way: “You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.” (Isaiah 26:3) There were all sorts of repercussions, immediate and potential, for Mary in what she had been told, but Gabriel had started his message to her with, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” (Luke 1:28) If she was highly favored and the Lord was with her, then it was bound to turn out well! This is actually part of the victory that faith brings us: victory over anxiety. (1 John 5:4) That is a blessed thing indeed!

I have missed out on a lot of peace because of the weakness of my faith. When we were building this building and ran out of funds because of cost overruns from errors in the blueprints, and banks wouldn’t touch us because we hadn’t gone to them before we started, the thought of throwing myself in front of one of the trains that runs by here was actually pretty tempting. However, God used the CEO of one of the companies to which we owed money to suggest the idea of setting up time payments to each of our suppliers. All of them accepted my proposal, and the building was paid for in an amazingly short period of time. Right now we are faced with our current lack of funds to purchase the land next door, which we need not only for the group home we feel the Lord wants us to build, but also for parking for the people the Lord is going to bring in to the church immediately. There were people at the City Christmas yesterday evening specifically because of the fliers and tracts I took around on Friday, and some of them indicated they want to attend our regular services here. One was in the service yesterday morning! I need to believe completely that God’s plans will certainly be accomplished, even when I have no idea how He is going to do it, and so rest in perfect peace.

Father, thank You for yesterday and all it held. Thank You that the City Christmas went so well, and thank You especially for the positive feedback from my tracting on Friday. Help me be active in seeking first Your kingdom and Your righteousness, not slacking off because of any perceived lack of results but rather believing completely that You are going to bring abundant fruit in Your time if I will simply abide in Christ, (John 15:5, 8) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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December 11, 2016

Posted on December 13, 2016 by jgarrott

Zechariah 9:12 Return to your fortress, O prisoners of hope;
even now I announce that I will restore twice as much to you.

I probably write on this verse every time the passage comes up in daily Bible readings (which is every December). However, it’s a powerful verse, and bears a lot of reflection. What strikes me right now is the matter of the fortress to which the hopeful prisoners are told to return. Even in the original context a physical construction seems unlikely to be what God is talking about. I would think that the fortress would be hope itself, faith that God is going to be true to His word and come through, regardless of how things look at the moment. Those who have that assurance are indeed protected, which is what a fortress is all about. We are all too likely to wander from that fortress, which leaves us open to all sorts of attacks from the enemy. That’s why he tries so hard to distract us, to keep us from the Bible, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. If we maintain our relationship with God as our first priority, we have a fortress indeed. That’s why James says, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) Submission to God, listening obediently to Him, is the fortress we need. Without it, the devil will hardly flee, but rather will pile on his attacks.

Yesterday I felt very much under attack. I had some important opportunities for ministry, for which I am grateful, and the devil did all he could to steal my joy. At one point it seemed like there was someone who might loan us the money to be able to get the land next door, but then that seemed to pass, and my emotions took a toll. We had planned on one course of action and circumstances made it clear that wasn’t the best, but the change from expectations was again taxing. With those and other things, by nighttime I was exhausted and went to bed at 9. Today, in addition to the morning service, we have the City Christmas from 5, and I’m the point man/MC for that. I’ve got to stay in my fortress if I want to make it through! I have real hope that we will have good turnout for the 24th and 25th, but that’s two weeks off. I need to be careful my hope is in God, rather than in people and especially not in my own performance. When demands are great I tend to focus on how I will perform under those demands. That’s an invitation to disaster! I need to keep my focus, my anticipation, on God. Such hope will never be disappointed. (Romans 5:5)

Father, it seems like Christmas is this way every year, which makes me dread it. Forgive my foolishness! Help me indeed rest, relax, and rejoice in You, delighting in the reality that You sent Your Son and in the opportunity to share that good news with others, so that Your purpose in sending Jesus would be fulfilled more and more, (John 3:16-17) for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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December 10, 2016

Posted on December 13, 2016 by jgarrott

Luke 1:37-38 “For nothing is impossible with God.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May it be to me as you have said.”

Every year, at least, I read this passage again, and it never ceases to impact me. Both Gabriel’s flat, matter-of-fact statement and Mary’s remarkable faith and submission are worthy of a great deal of reflection and application. We generally choke on Gabriel’s use of “nothing.” The Japanese says, “not a single thing,” which doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. We may accept this as an abstract philosophical statement, but when it comes down to practical application, we blow a fuse. We get caught in our finite perspective and can’t wrap our minds around the reality that the One we worship spoke the universe into being. Scientists who aren’t dead set on trying to liberate themselves from moral responsibility acknowledge the principle of irreducible complexity, that is, the idea that the odds of things turning out the way they are without a guiding hand and mind is infinitely small. Put that way, it’s far harder to believe there there is no Creator than that there is. Given that as a foundation, Gabriel’s statement is only logical. Mankind has tried such word tricks as, “Can God create a rock too big for Him to move?” in an attempt to deny Gabriel’s statement, but that is foolishness on the face of it. Mary was not so foolish. Rather, she submitted herself to her Lord in a way that every one of us should emulate. We will not be asked to go through what she was, but then she was not asked to go through what we are. Each person’s path is individual, and we bear individual responsibility for how we deal with it. If we will follow Mary in the path of submitted faith, we will discover that God’s plans are far better than our wildest imaginations.

My faith has been challenged many times, as it is being challenged even right now. Each time I have chosen to trust and obey, things have turned out well. The less I have done that, the rougher it has been on me. I struggle with the line between trust and presumption. I feel I have a tendency to laziness, to dumping things on God not because I can’t do them but because I don’t want to. That’s not faith! I tend to get paralyzed by problems, withdrawing and not doing anything either because I have no idea what to do or because what I know to do seems too distasteful. That never benefits anything. Regardless of the circumstance, I do know to seek God and choose to submit myself to Him, and that is something He will enable me to do if I so choose. Right now, I am being reminded to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, so yesterday I spent three hours total taking tracts and fliers to homes in the area. In contrast to how I have done it before, I rang doorbells over half the time, and had some delightful responses. Not being by nature a “people person,” I would prefer to put material in mail slots and be done with it, but obedience was the better course by far. Whatever happens to the land next door, I think we are going to have good attendance at our Christmas services, and hopefully some real harvest in the Kingdom. I need to remember Gabriel’s statement and Mary’s response, and do likewise.

Father, I realized that the more I did that yesterday the more I got into it, and it became enjoyable. Thank You. Thank You for the almost universally good response I got from the people I talked to. I do pray that they would follow through and we would have a full house, both the 24th and the 25th. More than that, I pray that the seed that has been planted, not just yesterday but in the past, would bear abundant harvest, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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December 9, 2016

Posted on December 12, 2016 by jgarrott

Isaiah 7:12 But Ahaz said, “I will not ask; I will not put the Lord to the test.”

On the face of it this is a very pious response. After all, Deuteronomy 6:16 says not to test the Lord. However, we have to look at everything in context. In the first place, Ahaz was not a particularly pious person at all. Superstitious maybe, but not pious. If this had been part of a pattern of humility before God, Isaiah would not have gotten upset. Instead, this shows a distrust of Isaiah as God’s spokesman, perhaps a fear that Isaiah was setting a trap. It’s no wonder Isaiah was upset! However, God used Ahaz’ weakness and turned it around, speaking through Isaiah one of the most famous prophesies of the Messiah that He would be called Immanuel. (verse 14, Matthew 1:22-23) There is a major difference between distrusting God and distrusting whether you have heard Him accurately. That comes out in the famous story of Gideon and the fleece. (Judges 6:36-40) We are quite capable of making up “words from the Lord” in our own minds, plus there are plenty of lying spirits out there. Wanting to be sure you’ve heard accurately is no sin! However, it’s not smart to doubt God Himself. If He has made something clear, in His Word and in our hearts, then it is the height of foolishness to doubt it.

This is certainly applicable to us right now! We are still faced with the looming deadline for coming up with the funds for the land next door, if we are to be building the group home we feel the Lord has birthed in our hearts. Humanly speaking, the owner of the land had every reason to laugh when I told him over the phone that nothing was impossible for God. That said, it would be nice to have a sign that this really is His plan! I am reminded of what Jesus told Thomas: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29) The church as a whole could use a real infusion of faith right now! However, I am not to descry others’ lack of faith, but rather seek to fix my own heart on my Lord. As we were getting ready to leave after our first look as a church at the land the church building sits on right now, the Lord gave us a horizontal rainbow off to the southeast. That helped sustain us through the difficulties of building and paying for this building. Whether He will do something similar in relation to the land next door is irrelevant; He wants us to trust Him regardless. That is my choice, whatever the final outcome.

Father, thank You for all You are allowing us to go through. Thank You for all You enabled us to get done yesterday. I ask Your anointing as I take the fliers around to the neighborhood this morning to invite people to our Christmas programs. May many people be touched by what they see, and may every strategy of the enemy to keep them from coming be defeated. May this house be filled with people, and even more by Your presence, so that many would repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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December 8, 2016

Posted on December 9, 2016 by jgarrott

Luke 1:18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well on in years.”

It struck me as I read just now how Zechariah’s focus was off. Gabriel was telling him things about how his son would live and what he would do, and Zechariah was stuck on whether it could happen in the first place. I think we are often like that. God tells us something and we get all hung up on how or even whether it could happen, when God wants us to be preparing for when it does. Gabriel had to give Zechariah a fairly severe lesson before he got straightened out. At the same time, we are not to be presumptive, taking our pipe dreams as a Word from the Lord. It’s not often the Lord tells us stuff as clearly as this, and we need discernment and humility as we seek to follow God. That said, we have no reason to be anxious, because we can rest in the assurance that God’s plans for us are good, and He will bring them to pass. (Jeremiah 29:11)

The past month has been intensive training in this. It’s been less than a week since we had the blow of being told the land next to the church was to be sold to a developer, and then the next day we heard that someone could come up with the money for us to buy it. As it turned out, that person’s pockets weren’t as deep as we had thought, (and he thought we had much more on hand than we did) so our excitement was dashed. However, in the process we grew in faith, in surrendering our dream of a group home to the Lord. If that is to materialize we still need to come up with the money by the end of the year, but we have far more peace about it all, whether the funds come in or not. That actually is good training, because the church vision is for Omura to again be the foremost Christian city in Japan, which it was 450 years ago. Humanly speaking that is clearly impossible, even more so than our coming up with $275,000 in the next three weeks, but God wants us to be preparing for when it does happen. Compared to that, this congregation having a group home or not is hardly a bump in the road. I still believe that having such Christian institutions would fit in very well with the greater vision, but the most important point is in a massive increase in the number of genuine disciples in this city. Quite a few people have indicated strong interest in attending our Christmas services here, and that is where my focus should be. Money and land are entirely secondary! Just as Jesus said, if I will focus on His kingdom and His righteousness everything I need will be supplied, and I am to trust Him with knowing just what my need is.

Father, thank You for this clarifying Word. Thank You for the various things You’ve enabled us to do this week, and for what is on the schedule for today. Help us be faithful moment by moment, not being paralyzed by what we think is coming up but leaving it all in Your hands, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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December 7, 2016

Posted on December 9, 2016 by jgarrott

Jeremiah 33:16 “‘In those days Judah will be saved
and Jerusalem will live in safety.
This is the name by which it will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.'”

Time and time again the Bible points out that human righteousness is worthless before God, (Isaiah 64:6) but He supplies all the righteousness we need if we accept it by faith. That is a central part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul said, “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.” (1 Corinthians 1:30) Every other religion has people striving to be accepted by God in one way or another, with no genuine assurance of salvation, but genuine Christianity says that God counts us as acceptable if we will believe and trust in His perfect Son. That is the ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy of “The Lord our Righteousness.” That doesn’t mean at all that our behavior doesn’t matter. Paul went on at length about that in Romans and elsewhere. We are to respond to the love, grace, and forgiveness of God with loving obedience. Jesus said without equivocation, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching.” (John 14:23) That doesn’t leave any wiggle room! Our focus is not to be on going through the right motions, but on loving Jesus more and accepting His full work in our hearts and lives.

This is a major issue in Japan, because the Japanese are such hard workers the message of salvation by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9) seems illogical and even wrong to them. That’s why there are more Jehovah’s Witnesses in Japan than there are evangelical Christians: they take to the idea of working for your salvation. As I minister I’ve got to let the Holy Spirit tear down that barrier, because it’s for sure I can’t do it on my own. I am to rejoice in the righteousness of God that is mine in Christ and continue to press in to love Him more, not simply for my own sake but as an example to all who are watching me, so that they too may accept the free gift of God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:23)

Father, thank You for this reminder. The days are full, and not just with things that delight us. Help me remember Your grace, love, and power at all times, never despairing but always allowing You to use me as an instrument of grace and love. May Your righteousness be manifested in all Your children, not just for their blessing but also to draw many more into Your family, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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December 6, 2016

Posted on December 8, 2016 by jgarrott

Isaiah 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.”

It is not unusual for people to take this passage individually, and it is true that the pronouns are singular, but I think the context leans heavily toward a corporate interpretation of Israel/the Church. (Putting it that way does NOT mean I subscribe to “Replacement Theology!”) When we read the Bible as a textbook for personal aggrandizement we are misreading it badly. God does care about us individually, and we are individually responsible before Him, and He does pour out abundant individual blessings, but when we lose sight of the Bride of Christ we get totally off track. That is particularly true when it comes to such things as spiritual gifts, but actually it applies to everything the Lord gives us; they are not for the individual recipient alone. Even such things as the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) make life much more pleasant for those around us. When we “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) we are focused on Him and not on ourselves, and that brings blessings not only to us but to everyone around us.

I talk so much about self-centeredness not leading to happiness that even I get tired of it! However, the reason I talk about it so much is that there is so much of it around. We all have a very stubborn tendency that way. Recent studies have shown that small children have a distinct tendency toward altruism, wanting to help adults when they perceive the adults have need. A TV program just this past week was demonstrating that children will put their toys away happily if you ask them to show you where the toys go, rather than simply command them to put the toys away. As a pastor I need to do better about asking people to help, rather than berating them (or simply feeling resentful) for their not volunteering. The Lord has blessed me in many ways and it is a joy to use those blessings to bless others, but I must not deprive them of the opportunity to use their own gifts. As adults too often we have been taught to “look out for number one,” so I have to work into it gradually, not overwhelming people with what they might see as demands. Once again I don’t have sufficient wisdom in myself, so I’ve got to depend on the Holy Spirit. However, He is totally dependable!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Various things recently have fit in exactly with this truth. May I flow with Your Spirit to do Your will on Your schedule, for the blessing of many. I know I will be blessed in the process. Thank You. Praise God!

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December 5, 2016

Posted on December 8, 2016 by jgarrott

Isaiah 40:9 You who bring good tidings to Zion,
go up on a high mountain.
You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem,
lift up your voice with a shout,
lift it up, do not be afraid;
say to the towns of Judah,
“Here is your God!”

The Good News of the Messiah is not to be spoken in a whisper! The Japanese here says, “Raise your voice to the limit of your strength.” That’s pretty loud! I really can’t read this passage without hearing Handel’s music in my head and heart. He was one who was obedient to this passage! Every year at Christmas the world gets pretty noisy (actually, it’s noisy much of the time) but only a small fraction of the noise is the Good News of the Messiah. We are bombarded with songs about reindeer and snow and Santa and the like, and some of them even manage to be sexually suggestive. We hear comparatively little, “Here is your God.” That is sad indeed, but believers don’t have to take it lying down. The world would have far less junk in it if believers weren’t so tolerant of the junk, failing to see how it distracts from the true “reason for the season.” A song I’ve heard for the first time this year is “It’s All About the Cross.” That’s the true reason for the season, the message that we need to be communicating. Here in Japan there’s no time of year that it’s easier to do public evangelism. Japan has a tendency to adopt foreign things that seem attractive for one reason or another while failing to grasp any more than the surface of whatever it is. Christmas is a perfect example of that. The general public thinks Christmas is all about fir trees and “Christmas cake” and a funny man in a red suit. KFC has sold the idea that a bucket of fried chicken is an America Christmas tradition! In the middle of all that noise, believers have to be pretty loud to be heard at all! At the same time, they must not be deceived into thinking they have to adopt the same tactics as the world. We have “the real deal,” and all the other stuff is counterfeit. We must speak the truth in love, but we must never be afraid or ashamed to proclaim that truth. We cannot force anyone to accept it, but we can make it as accessible as possible.

I have been so burned out by all the general noise of commercialized Christmas that I have wanted to chuck the whole thing, ignoring it altogether. That’s not the right response! I must not let the extreme familiarity breed extreme contempt. In recent years the busyness of the season has generated a rising level of resentment, and that is not good at all. I need to rejoice, both in the fundamental message of the Messiah and in this opportunity to communicate that message. The combination of my resentment and my general weakness when it comes to advance planning has delayed our having materials ready to distribute in the neighborhood inviting people to our Christmas programs. That’s not good! The joint interdenominational City Christmas is this next Sunday, and I’m in charge! That I haven’t gotten any publicity material out for my own congregation certainly isn’t good. I need to make full use of this opportunity (Ephesians 5:16) to “lift my voice,” so that more may hear and perhaps respond, for their salvation and God’s glory.

Father, thank You for this Word. Thank You that I at least have the song booklets for the City Christmas printed. Help me get posters and fliers prepared today, not putting things off further, so that more people may indeed know the reason for the season, and receive the Messiah into their own hearts and lives, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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