Virtual Vitamins

Matthew 13:11-12 He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

This passage is one of the reasons some people claim the Bible, and the Gospel, are unfair. Paul dealt with the issue on the basis of the sovereignty of God in Romans 9, and that feeds into the glorious passage on salvation in Romans 10. From the human perspective it sometimes does seem that God plays favorites, but the truth of the matter is, He makes His salvation equally available to all. We don’t know what goes on in people’s hearts. To be honest, we hardly know what goes on in our own. However, God knows, and He acts accordingly. Those who are disciples of Jesus Christ have made the choice not to depend on their own non-existent wisdom and righteousness but on God’s, poured out through the cross of Christ. As long as we are depending on ourselves, we are unable to receive what God has for us. As Jesus said, what understanding we have is taken from us. It is when we recognize our own inability and cry out for the grace of God that He opens the floodgates of heaven and pours more out on us than we could ever have imagined. The “secrets of the Kingdom” aren’t so much hidden as they are incomprehensible to anyone who isn’t willing to repent of their pride and rebellion against God. As the Bible says again and again, the ticket for entrance is repentance and faith.

It’s odd, really, how slow I was to grasp this myself, but now I need to do all I can to communicate it to as many as possible. There are those who don’t understand that the Kingdom is worth having, and for them I need to make clear the alternative. That’s not to say that the focus of my evangelism is to be the fear of hell, but it is to say that I am to be unflinching in presenting the truth. A major problem in my ministry is that with my background, I often fail to understand what it is my hearers don’t know. That’s why I need people who are younger in faith but fully committed to tell me what I’m missing in my teaching. I am not to be defensive, but rather grateful to God for such faithful ones.

Father, thank You indeed for how You have designed the Body of Christ so that we all need each other. Help me express what You know my hearers need to receive, and help them indeed take it in. May we all recognize and operate in Your grace, with great gratitude and joy, so that all of Your purposes for us may be fulfilled, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Matthew 12:49-50 Pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”

This famous passage is not only a comfort and encouragement to every believer familiar with it, it also blows a hole in the veneration of Mary as “the Mother of God.” The Biblical record is that at least two of Jesus’ physical half-brothers and His mother did indeed join His spiritual family, and there’s no reason to believe the others didn’t as well, but the point is that there are ties that are more important than genetics. Probably most Christians have experienced going to an unfamiliar place and encountering brothers and sisters in Christ, and the remarkable kinship that can exist there. However, it’s also worth noting that Jesus didn’t say, “those who have parroted a formula,” He said, “those who do the will of My Father in heaven.” There can be a very big difference there. Unity in the family of God is based on our acting like His children, not on labels. If we want to experience Jesus as our Big Brother, then we have to be obedient to our Father. (Writing that, I realize that George Orwell did us a disservice in using that term for the all-controlling State, but then appropriating innocent terms for evil purposes is typical of the devil, as is easily seen in many areas.)

I have experienced the fellowship of the family of God more times than I could possibly count, but I have also encountered those who claimed to be Christians with whom I could have no real fellowship. It is not my business to be judging who is or isn’t a true Christian, but I need to be very careful that those who enter God’s family in name under my ministry, enter it in truth. It is indeed a matter of heart commitment, of a growing relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, and not just a matter of words. Our words are indeed important, but without the heart commitment that makes us follow through, they are empty. Discipleship is very much part of the package, and that is why Jesus told us to make disciples.

Father, we have two who are on the verge of baptism and several more who should be. Keep me from going for numbers, but rather for true commitment. At the same time, keep me from placing false barriers in the way of anyone. I pray that Your Spirit would work in each one of us, before and after baptism, to draw us into ever deepening discipleship, obedience and fellowship. May we, individually and as a body, be all that You desire and intend us to be, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Matthew 11:1 After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee.

I think the NIV misses something important when it renders this verse as “the towns of Galilee.” A footnote indicates that the Greek says “their towns,” and they should have rendered it that way. It is true that the 12, with the exception of Judas, were Galileans, but it is significant that, after sending the 12 out, Jesus went specifically to their towns to teach and preach. When God sends people out as missionaries, that doesn’t mean the towns they come from are neglected. Whereas Jesus sometimes told people to stay right where they were to proclaim the kingdom of God (Mark 5:18-20), He also knew first hand that familiarity breeds contempt, from what He encountered in Nazareth more than once in His ministry. (Luke 4:16-30, Matthew 13:54-58) Often in churches today a visiting speaker will be able to say things and get them across that the pastor has been trying to say for months without much success, because the element of novelty causes us to pay attention in a different way or on a different level. There are advantages to home-town ministry, and there are advantages to going where you are a stranger. The point is that in either case we are to proclaim God’s truth under the guidance and anointing of the Holy Spirit. That means going when He says go, and staying when He says stay, whether it seems hard or easy. Only then will we get the results that He desires for us.

Thinking about it, I’m thankful God didn’t plant me in Fukuoka. When I have spoken in the church where I was raised, people were glad to see me, but I didn’t get the feeling they were ready to hear a Word from the Lord through me. They had heard too many tales of frogs, lizards, and snakes! At the same time, I am recognizing new levels of effectiveness here in Omura after having been here almost 30 years, because there is an appreciation for the way I am obviously planted here. God is more than able to use each person in their circumstances for the sake of the kingdom of God. I need to get that truth across to the believers, so that rather than bemoaning their circumstances, they will be looking for how God wants to use their circumstances to bring people into His family for His glory.

Father, thank You that You know us and our circumstances better than we do. Thank You for sending some out, and for using some where they are. Help us all be fully available to You, to go or to stay, so that Your plans may be fulfilled for the salvation of many, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Matthew 10:34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.

Jesus certainly had a way of upending conventional thinking! This particular statement even seems to conflict with Isaiah 9:6, where He is called the Prince of Peace. However, the conflict is all a matter of perspective. If You are looking to Jesus to solve all your interpersonal conflicts, He is telling you that’s not going to happen. However, those who are fully submitted to His Lordship do enjoy peace that is found no other way, and that is what His eventual kingdom is all about. The problem is, we live in the here and now, so we sometimes experience conflict at every turn. There are many believers in the world today who can identify 100% with what Jesus says right after this, about our enemies being the members of our own households. If we place anyone or anything in a position of higher value or higher authority that Christ in our lives, we’ve got a problem, and that means a remarkable percentage of Christians in the world today have problems. Japanese society demands that people conform to the group, and especially to the family, and all sorts of animosity is stirred up if that doesn’t happen. We are so prone to opt for short-term “peace,” not realizing that in the process we are defeating the long-term goal of God’s kingdom being established, at least in our own lives. This is one area that Islam has taken truth and twisted it, because their definition of “peace” is a world-wide caliphate, with everyone in submission to shariah law. That’s why in the short term, all who are true peace lovers will be in more or less active conflict with those who are true to the tenets of Islam.

I am grieved to hear people say that “Islam is a religion of peace,” but that isn’t a direct concern for me here. However, conflict avoidance, at the expense of conflict resolution, is a major issue. I have the personal blessing of my physical family being part of my spiritual family, but few in this church are in that situation. I have never been where they are, so I need to be especially sensitive to the Holy Spirit in supporting them. I am to encourage and equip them in sharing the Gospel with those close to them, and comfort them in the conflicts that will arise. I especially need to stress forgiveness, and who our enemy really is, so that the believers won’t lash out at those who are less than understanding with them. Likewise, when issues arise that involve me directly, I must speak the truth in love so as to deal with the issues, rather than covering over and allowing them to fester. That sort of thing has already caused far too much damage in this church!

Father, thank You for not pulling punches in Your Word. Help me receive it and practice it fully, not seeking conflict but not avoiding it either, so that I and those in my care may be nurtured and brought into the full maturity that You desire and intend for us, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Matthew 10:22 All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

This whole chapter seems very real and immediate to believers in Islamic countries, but believers in America pretend it doesn’t exist. We tend to make our lives popularity contests, and hesitate to say or do anything that might “hurt our ranking.” That’s no way to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ! Those who have never experienced active persecution often draw back because of simple inconvenience, which shows all too clearly what their priorities are. This calls to mind the parable of the sower and the seed. (Matthew 13:1-23) Those who draw back after having made an initial commitment fit either into the category of those with shallow roots, or those who allow the concerns of this world choke them into unfruitfulness. It is those who refuse to let go of their commitment to Jesus, enduring to the end, as this verse puts it, who bear the fruit that God desires in their lives. Their reward in heaven is abundant and sure!

I have experienced little if any persecution, and I have indeed let things of this world get in the way of my commitment at times. Like everyone else, I like to be liked, but thankfully, my times of compromise for that particular reason haven’t been so many. Simple distractions have been more of a trap for me. Having written that, I am forced to realize that I have indeed drawn back from proclaiming the Gospel countless times for fear of offending, of making someone not like me. I have no high ground to stand on here! I need to be willing to risk people hating me, for the sake of taking at least some of them with me to heaven. I, too, am subject to the “popularity contest syndrome.” I am not to offend needlessly, but I must not let the fear of offending make me draw back from presenting the Gospel in love.

Father, thank You for opening my eyes to my own weakness in this area. Help me love You and love people enough to risk making them hate me, in order to bring as many as possible to salvation. I don’t want to be stupid and I don’t want to be needlessly offensive, but I do want to bring people into Your kingdom! Help me be willing, not just to be a fool for You, but to be hated for your sake, so that the barriers that keep people from entering into Your life may be torn down, for the salvation of many and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Matthew 10:8, 10 “Freely you have received, freely give. The worker is worth his keep.”

It’s interesting how much trouble we have trusting and following this simple principle. On one hand, Christian workers tend to go where the money is, and on the other hand, many churches underpay their pastor. The minute a Christian worker makes income the criterion for where they will go, they have chosen to serve money rather than God. (Matthew 6:24) When churches fail to support their pastor to the best of their ability, they are despising the servant of God. God is our supply, and that is true for everyone, but we are to hold ourselves available as channels of His supply to one another, and that is most naturally true of a church and its pastor. It has been shown repeatedly that when the pastor’s income is much above the median income of the congregation, then there is dissatisfaction and resentment in the congregation. However, when the pastor’s income is much below the median income of the congregation, it shows that there is little respect for the man and his message, and therefore little submission to God.

The only period in which this applied directly to me was when I was pastoring in the US. Here, as the bi-vocational pastor of a very small congregation, I receive directly from the church less than I put into it in offerings. However, God is my supply, and I have never gone hungry. I’m not at all sure what the median income of the congregation is at this point, but I’m sure it’s not very high. If I had high income from whatever source, the resentment would still tend to be there. Though my income is not high, God’s provision has been such that I look to many people like my income is much higher than it is, and there has indeed been some resentment. From my standpoint, there’s some pretty sharp irony there! Thankfully, I don’t feel that from those presently active, and I have been quite touched at their desire to provide more for me. My focus must be on active obedience to God, and not what I am going to be paid in material terms from any source. After all, I know that my “retirement package” is absolutely out of this world!

Father, thank You for Your abundant provision. Thank You for raising me in an environment where money was never central. Help me continue to grow in my trust and my stewardship, so that whatever funds You choose to send through my hands may be used as You intend. Thank You for the e-mail last night from someone who wants to contribute to the church from the US. Guide me in responding to them, and in getting something onto our website for those who might want to do that, so that we will not miss the flow of Your provision. May my focus, and our focus as a church, always be on You and Your kingdom, so that nothing may distract us from full obedience, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Matthew 10:32-33 “Whoever acknowledges me before men, I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before men, I will disown him before my Father in heaven.

This is a very significant statement/promise on Jesus’ part, but I think that in the modern context we tend either to take it lightly or ignore it completely. In America today it can mean very little when someone says, “I am a Christian,” because they mean it in a strictly cultural sense. The situation is rather different in Japan, where the same statement can cause a major family disruption. Doctrinal purity doesn’t mean very much when a person is putting their family harmony, social standing, or even life on the line for the name of Jesus! (In Japan there is no risk to life, but in numbers of countries a confession of faith is an invitation to be killed.) When we get to heaven we won’t be questioned on assorted points of theology, we will be divided as to whether we followed Christ or not. That’s not to say that theology isn’t important, or that we don’t need to keep learning, but it is to say that salvation is a heart matter, an allegiance to Jesus Christ, and other things are secondary.

This is an area in which I still have trouble with the American mindset. When a Japanese says, “I am a Christian,” it sets them apart from the vast majority of the people around them, and I am not to take it lightly. When such a person fails to live an exemplary life as a disciple, I am not to insist that they were never saved, but rather seek to help them understand what their confession of Christ means. As has been said, when we get to heaven we are sure to be surprised as to who is there and who is not! It is true that our actions can either acknowledge or deny Christ, and Jesus was very hard on those who called Him “Lord” without doing what He said, but I am not to go around judging people’s salvation. Rather, I am to speak the truth in love with the goal of setting people free to be disciples of Christ indeed, for their blessing and the glory of God.

Father, recently there have been people saying, “I am becoming a Christian” to me, in the presence of witnesses. Keep me from taking that lightly. Rather, help me teach and nurture them, allowing Your Spirit to use me to reveal Christ to them indeed, so that they may know Him whom they claim indeed, and walk in Christ in this world and the next, as You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Matthew 9:38- 10:1 “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.”
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.

It is significant that Jesus told His disciples to pray for harvest workers and then He sent them out as harvest workers. Anyone who commits to being a disciple of Christ is committing to be a harvest worker. In the harvest, some wield the sickle, some bind the sheaves, and some thresh the grain. Being a harvest worker doesn’t necessarily mean being “an Evangelist,” but it does mean bringing people to Christ, for salvation and discipleship. Reading the Japanese for verse 1 gives me new insight, because it says, “He gave them authority over unclean spirits. This was for them to drive out those spirits and heal all sorts of disease and illness.” Praying for and operating in healing is spiritual warfare, and it is a powerful harvest tool. It is very hard for someone to deny the reality of God when they have just been healed! As the story in John 9 of the man born blind shows, there are all sorts of reasons for physical and emotional distress, but the vast majority involve some sort of rebellion against God. For us to have authority in those cases, we ourselves must be fully submitted to God. His authority won’t flow through us if we aren’t submitted to it ourselves. God equips His workers for the tasks He assigns them, but those workers must be in right relationship to their Lord for those tools to be effective.

I have been given many powerful tools, but my use of them has hardly been consistent. That’s because my submission to and fellowship with God haven’t been consistent either. I desire that the church members be effective in using the tools God has provided, but I’ve got to lead the way if that is going to happen. I cannot simply lecture from the pulpit, I’ve got to be an active demonstration of what God is saying through me. That puts a lot of pressure on me! If I am focused on myself, the pressure will squash me. If I am focused on my Lord, it won’t be pressure at all, because I will be operating in His power to do His will. With job transfers, we will be having personnel shifts over the next couple of months. I am to lead the flock in praying blessing on those who are leaving and praying for the Lord to bring in even more to replace them. In doing that, I am to remind them that they too are workers, so that together we may bring in a great harvest indeed.

Father, thank You again for all You are doing in and among us. At times I just stand back amazed. There are certainly lessons in it all, and lessons aren’t always pleasant, but I can see some of what You are doing, and it’s exciting. Help me lead and encourage all the believers to anticipate eagerly what You are going to do, so that we may hold ourselves ready and available to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Matthew 9:16-17 “No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved.”

This is a justly famous passage, yet at the same time a somewhat enigmatic one. The principle of new with new and old with old seems obvious enough, but the question becomes one of what is new and what is old when it comes to spiritual matters and the Church. I studied a book in seminary titled The Problem of Wineskins about this very issue. At the time it was extremely relevant, because the Charismatic Movement was making big waves in the Church. However, when God’s truth is eternal, when is it new? And in the effort to be “new wineskins,” are we to abandon the institutional Church altogether? The context of Jesus’ teaching was the transition from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, and institutional religion was indeed transformed. The shift brought about by the Protestant Reformation was lesser, but still major. And yes, the Pentecostal/Charismatic Movement has made some fairly big changes in how the majority of churches “do church.” However, all along the way many people have used this passage to justify throwing out virtually everything. That is happening today in the “Post Church Movement” in the US, where self-confessed Christians are rejecting not only church buildings, but regular meetings and all the rest. Some good points have been made by people in that group, but in general it seems to be a means of evading accountability. The real issue in all of this is remaining flexible and responsive to what God is saying. We are all strongly influenced by our respective cultures, which is why foreign missions is such a challenge. The goal is for every group of believers to acquire kingdom culture, that goes along with our spiritual citizenship (Philippians 3:20), flavored by but not dominated by the cultures of our upbringing and residence.

And I have just delineated one of the biggest challenges of my life and ministry. I should be more aware of the challenges than most, as a “Third Culture Kid,” raised in Japan by American parents, but that certainly doesn’t give me all the answers. The Church in Japan is not sufficiently “Japanese,” but in modern society, the definition of “Japanese” is constantly changing. My goal, my desire, is a church structure that will be fully true to Scripture and the Spirit while pre-senting as few obstacles as possible to Japanese coming into God’s kingdom. I don’t have the full answer to that! As an independent church we have fewer organizational restrictions on us than most, but my roots are firmly in the Southern Baptist missionary tradition, and that has colored things a great deal. I’ve got to listen to the Holy Spirit and listen to the Japanese, letting my past traditions take third place in that hierarchy. That’s not to say my past experience won’t be useful, but it must not push ahead of the first two, and that’s a real challenge.

Father, thank You for bringing this up this morning. I wasn’t thinking about it. Help me hear You and obey You indeed, not getting onto the “autopilot” of habit but letting You have the controls, so that my life and this church may go where You desire, on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Matthew 8:21-22 Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”

There is debate over the precise circumstances of the man who made the request of Jesus, but many scholars feel that his father wasn’t yet dead at the time. Rather, this was a request to stay with his family until his father died, and that obligation was out of the way. In that case, Jesus’ response is much more understandable. People put all sorts of things up as excuses not to follow Christ fully. A friend who was gifted and called as a pastor didn’t take that position until his children were mostly out of college. When he did follow through, his children’s response was, “Finally!” The very people he was using as an excuse had been wanting him to be more aggressive in his obedience. We are very sensitive to what other people think, often too much so, and we often misread how they are going to react. However, that is beside the point when it comes to following Jesus. He requires, and He deserves, our primary allegiance, our full devotion and obedience. It is hard to grasp that failure to be obedient to God because someone might disapprove is doing that person far more harm than violating their desires or even their commands. If we are strong in our obedience to Christ, the people we care about are far more likely to be influenced to check Him out for themselves, what­ever it looks like at the moment. We have the situation right now of a man who experienced great protest and opposition from his parents when he became a Christian 20 years ago, but now they are actively seeking Christ and he is amazed and praising God. We have no guarantee that the people we care about will turn to Christ, but we can say definitely that our failure to follow Christ will not make them any more likely to follow Christ.

This is a constant issue for me as a pastor in Japan. Japanese society is extremely conscious of consensus, and doing things in opposition to the group is very difficult. I am not to put people down for that, but I am to continue to pray for and encourage them, on both sides of the salvation commitment. There are those who, in an effort to win those they rightly love and care about, have withdrawn from fellowship with the church. Not surprisingly, that has not produced the desired result. I need to encourage all in my care, but at the same time remember that it is only the Holy Spirit who can do the necessary work in their hearts. I am to be loving and gentle, but very, very firm and clear on the necessity of full commitment. Only then will we be the body of disciples that God desires us to be.

Father, thank You for all You are doing here. Thank You that the teaching on discipleship is being received, and that people are growing. Help us all keep our focus more and more on Christ and off of ourselves and our circumstances, so that we will allow You to do in and through us all that You desire, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!