Belonging to God; December 9, 2023

Posted on December 10, 2023 by jgarrott

Ephesians 2:10 For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

I hesitated to write on this because it is our Verse for the Year in this church. I am deliberately not going back to January 1st to see what I wrote then! Even saying this with the congregation every Sunday morning this year I realize that there is no Scripture I fulfill perfectly in this life, which is to say I’ve still got growing to do. However, that’s true for every believer, and the sooner and better we realize that, the happier and more fulfilled we will be. God has double rights of ownership to us, having created us in the first place and then, after we sold ourselves to sin, buying us back. As the Scripture-based song says, “I am not my own, I am bought with a price; I am purchased with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.” We have every reason not to like the idea of slavery, but I think God allowed that human – demonic, really – institution to help us understand the position we got ourselves into with sin. We see stories on the Internet all the time about things being returned to their rightful owners, and they are presented, rightly enough, as “feel good” stories. Likewise we see stories of families being reunited, and we rejoice with those as well. God wants us to know that we belong to Him and we are His children, so the ultimate “feel good” story is when someone returns to their heavenly Father. That’s why Jesus told the parable of The Prodigal Son in Luke 15. Just before he told that parable He made a very important statement: “I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” (Luke 15:10) There is ultimately no real joy or peace apart from returning to the One who created us in love to be His children and do His will, for our blessing and His glory.

This is something to which I have given lip service most of my life, but I haven’t walked it out in fullness. That’s why I still have times of frustration, irritation, and even depression. Just yesterday I failed to let something slide when someone spoke in thoughtless ignorance and touched a very sensitive spot in my soul. They had no idea what they were doing, and the only ones who suffered from my reaction were myself and my wife, who had to put up with me. I still have plenty of room to grow and heal! Going back to the verse, I don’t know even a fraction of the good works God has prepared for me to do in my remaining years in this body, but I need to be committed to recognizing them when they arrive and fulfilling them in obedience to Him. The danger comes in my deciding ahead of time what they are supposed to be and launching out on my own, or conversely, drawing back from what God has planned. I need to be fully submitted to Him so that I can indeed resist the devil and have him flee, (James 4:7) for my blessing, the blessing of the people around me, and God’s glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me keep growing, particularly in my sensitivity and obedience to You, so that I may walk out all the plans You have for me. Thank You. Praise God!

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The Church; December 8, 2023

Posted on December 9, 2023 by jgarrott

Ephesians 1:22-23 And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.

To be honest, this passage comes out as very confusing in Japanese, for various reasons I won’t go into here. That said, it isn’t a whole lot better in English, because we have such a distorted view of the Church. We forget that in both the Old Testament and the New, every time we see the word, church, it is speaking of assembled people, not a building or even an organization, really. Thus, you can’t have “church” by yourself, but it doesn’t take a very big group to qualify. Jesus specifically said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) That’s a pretty small church, but it qualifies! This isn’t to say that you can’t have times of fellowship with the Lord, just you and Him, or that worship is limited to a gathering. We should all be having such times daily, but that’s not the same thing as church. I would personally define “church” as any gathering where Christ is the Head, just as it says in this passage. Sadly, some “Christian” gatherings fail to be “church” because they fail to recognize Him and His absolute authority. A body without a head isn’t much use! Conversely, people who want to be “lone wolf Christians” are excluding themselves from the Church, and that is both sad and dangerous. What makes it more complicated, linguistically at least, is that a group of people who are connected to each other with Christ as their Head are still a church even when they are physically separated from each other. Some teachers have used the terminology of “the church assembled” and “the church dispersed” to try to make that clear. In any case, the Church is an organism, not simply an organization, and we need to keep that in our awareness.

I have tended to be a conceited introvert, thinking I didn’t really need other people, but God has really worked on me in both halves of that. He has shown me how really, really stupid, not just ignorant, I can be, and He has shown me that I cannot be what He has created me to be without other people. There was a while when I was not comfortable with that realization, but now I increasingly delight in it. I’m still not necessarily skillful at making connections with other people, but at least I realize such connections are essential. As far as this local congregation is concerned, for too much of the time it has tended to be “my church,” since I started it (or so I thought) and I did the majority of the functions in it. The Coaching teaching that I’ve been involved with for the past few years speaks of “The Seven Essences of the Church,” and one of those is “Christ-centered.” I have sought to make this church be Christ-centered, but I have had to learn that for that to happen, I’ve got to take myself out of the center. All the while talking about Jesus, I have tended to make everything revolve around me instead. How foolish! Since I am now 75, it’s obvious that I won’t be here forever, so it’s long past time for this body to indeed recognize its true Head, to be what He desires and intends.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me not just give this lip service, as I have done far too often, but truly live it out, rightly connected not only to my Head but also to the other parts of the Body, for Your name to be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Blessings in Christ; December 7, 2023

Posted on December 8, 2023 by jgarrott

Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Since everything from verse 4 through verse 14 is one sentence in the Greek, this is by far the easiest verse to pull out to write on! (Ancient Greek having no punctuation had its disadvantages.) That said, the rest of the passage could be said to be an amplification of this verse, so from that standpoint it is a good one to write on. Our entire time on this earth is an adventure in unpacking all that is included in “every spiritual blessing in Christ.” Our finite flesh simply isn’t capable of taking it all in, particularly at once, so that’s why we have to unpack it a little bit at a time as the Lord reveals it to us. It’s a matter of the infinite blessings of an infinite God! By definition I have no words to express it all, but the journey of discovery is indeed glorious. It is when our eyes are opened to this reality that all the junk of this world fades to insignificance. As the last line of Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus says, “The things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.” This is precisely what Paul was talking about when he wrote, “For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” (2 Corinthians 4:17) Any time we are bogged down by life – and there are plenty of opportunities for that – we need to shift our attention to this reality and simply praise God, because what He has done for us in Christ exceeds all the rest of Creation!

This is all very close to home for me for a number of reasons. My maternal grandfather, W.O. Carver, wrote several books, but many people agree that his best was his commentary on Ephesians, The Glory of God in the Christian Calling. He included his own translation of the Greek text, and it is interesting to me that virtually every translation since has chosen to use his reading of parts of this first chapter, in contrast to translations before his. In addition, my father’s doctoral dissertation was on all the appearances of “in Christ” and similar phrases in the New Testament. (He wasn’t my grandfather’s son-in-law at the time.) Despite having been awarded the PhD degree on the basis of his dissertation, my father told me that he had no real grasp of what it meant to be “in Christ” until he had a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit, after he was in Japan as a single missionary. For myself, I have used Ephesians so much that the first two pages of it in my bilingual Bible have literally fallen out of the binding! That said, I’m still on a journey of discovery of all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ, and I am blessed indeed. As the Bill Gaither song puts it, “The longer I serve Him, the sweeter He grows.” My task, as a pastor and simply as a believing disciple, is to introduce as many people as possible to these blessings, because the more I share them, the more I myself enjoy them!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the experience last night of sharing some of what You have brought me through, and how I am assured that since You have done that, I have every reason to trust You. Help me indeed give You the glory for all that You have done and are doing and will do, so that people will realize what a great God You are and yield themselves to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Perspective; December 6, 2023

Posted on December 7, 2023 by jgarrott

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

I have always thought of this verse in terms of getting worn out by heavy work, but the Japanese is very clear that it’s on the lines of, “I’m tired of all that mess.” That brings it closer to home, because we don’t often have physical labor in our doing good, but it can really get old at times. The devil throws thoughts into our mind like, “Why am I doing this? It’s not accomplishing anything.” Paul is saying here that’s a lie, and if we’re doing good in obedience to God, then it is the blackest of lies. As is true in so many areas of life, it’s a matter of perspective. We don’t see down the road, where God is using the echoes of what we do to accomplish His purposes. What Paul is saying is that faithfulness has a good result, whether we see it in this life or not. I’m reminded yet again of a line in Hebrews: “These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:39-40) That’s why another line from Paul is so vitally important: “We live by faith, not by sight.” (2 Corinthians 5:7) We don’t know what God is going to accomplish with what we are doing, so we need to trust Him enough to keep doing it until He tells us to do something else.

This is certainly pertinent to me! Yesterday I had my last classes at Nagasaki Rehabilitation College. I still have to give exams, but this closes out 42 years of teaching there. The faculty and staff gathered to give me a bouquet of flowers and a framed print of a group picture they took last week, and the person leading the assembly asked all my former students to raise their hands – over half the faculty! I cannot know the impact I have had on my literally thousands of students, but God does, and He placed me in that school for His purposes. Likewise, this church will celebrate 40 years in May, and I really don’t know all that God has done through me here, either. I can only seek to listen to Him day by day and trust that He will indeed use me. I have been praying for harvest this whole time, but have seen only a small fraction of what I have desired. The passage I quoted from Hebrews really resonates with me! However, I’ve got to leave it all in God’s hands and trust that His plans are always good, for me and for everyone with whom I interact – even when I don’t know I’m interacting with them! Someone is coming this month to be baptized by me, having come to faith far from here but attributing it to his interaction with me about 20 years ago. I literally have no idea what God has already done through me, much less what He is yet going to do through me, so I am to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, trusting Him with the harvest.

Father, thank You for this encouraging reminder. Help me indeed continue in faithfulness, never taking anything for granted but always pressing in for more of You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Righteousness; December 5, 2023

Posted on December 6, 2023 by jgarrott

Galatians 5:5 But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.

This whole letter is a screed against trying to earn salvation by works, and this verse is a very interesting element of that. It says that righteousness is something we receive from the Holy Spirit by faith. I don’t think we think about it that way very often. Anyone who is honest with themselves will acknowledge that they aren’t perfectly righteous; repentance is ongoing. That’s why we “eagerly await” the righteousness that God has prepared for us in Christ. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Of course, the devil twists that glorious truth around and tells us it doesn’t matter what we do, and Paul had to counter that lie repeatedly in his letters. Just a few verses after this he said, “You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love.” (Galatians 5:13) We receive righteousness as a gift, but we are to live in the righteousness we have already received.

I am often reminded of how the Lord set me free from a persistent sin through something Peter wrote. After talking about the characteristics we would expect of a genuine disciple of Jesus Christ, he then says, “But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.” (2 Peter 1:9) What the Lord said to me through that verse was that if I have confessed and repented of a sin, I have been cleansed of it and it no longer has a hold on me. The more I beat myself up over something I have done, the more likely I am to do it again! That was a very liberating realization for me. At the same time, one of the things I am eagerly looking forward to about heaven is liberation from the very presence of sin. That is the ultimate righteousness that this verse refers to. I am to share this truth of imparted righteousness with all who will receive it, along with the admonition, “Only let us live up to what we have already attained.” (Philippians 3:16) The righteousness of Christ which has been imparted to us is never an excuse to wallow in sin of any sort.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s an issue that I think every believer struggles with at some point. Help me lead those in my care into the righteousness and freedom we have in Christ, for our blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Unity in Christ; December 4, 2023

Posted on December 5, 2023 by jgarrott

Galatians 3:26-28 You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

I quote verse 28 every time I do marriage counseling, because it is a vitally important understanding for a healthy marriage. This is the exact opposite of what the devil does, dividing people in any way he can. “Identity politics” is an absolutely despicable lie of the devil that is threatening to destroy America at this point. That is exactly what he wants to do, because America, with all its many faults, has been a powerful force for good in the world. Thankfully, more and more people seem to be waking up to this lie, not just in America but around the world. God created us with differences for many reasons, not least of which being that He seems to really like variety. However, those differences aren’t to divide us, but to make us complementary, meeting each other’s needs and compensating for each other’s weaknesses. It is in Christ that this is brought to fulfillment, just as it says here. Any Christian with international connections has discovered that our bond in Christ transcends language, culture, and ethnicity. It is wonderful to discover that we have brothers and sisters who don’t look a thing like us! This is vital to remember right now, when so many things are being used to divide us.

This is an understanding that has always come pretty easily to me, since I grew up as a Caucasian in Japan. At the same time, I also felt discriminated against, that I never really fit in, not just a Caucasian among Asians, but as a missionary kid in a US Air Force dependents school, and then as an emotionally Japanese person in America. That has made unity in Christ very precious to me. At the moment this church has people from Japan, America, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Honduras in attendance, so we have little hope of unity apart from Christ! However, we do have Christ, and so enjoy rich fellowship. We are tasting just a little bit of heaven, where the Bible tells us, “There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9) As we stand in that awareness, we will overcome the enemy.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the unity we do enjoy here. Thank You that more and more people around the world are waking up to Your truth in many areas. There are those who refuse that truth and stand against it. Help Your children stand firm, always speaking Your truth in Your love, even if it means martyrdom, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign be established as Your will is done, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Choosing Faith; December 3, 2023

Posted on December 4, 2023 by jgarrott

Isaiah 7:9 “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.”

Every once in a while I really like the turn of phrase chosen by the NIV translators, and this is one of those times. The Japanese gives this as a very pedestrian, “If you don’t believe, you won’t be able to stand for long,” but I don’t think that has the same punch. The thing is, faith is always a choice. It is a gift, as Paul said, (Ephesians 2:8-9) but we have to choose to receive that gift. Sometimes we don’t recognize gifts and so fail to accept them, and sometimes we decide the gift isn’t something we want, but faith in God is a desirable thing at any time, if we have the sense to recognize it. I have seen videos of street evangelists getting rejected by people who choose to believe the lies of the devil over what is being offered to them, and it is always sad. With this verse, King Ahaz was faced with a logically frightening situation, with reports of two enemies ganging up on his little kingdom. However, Judah had a long history of being protected by God. Isaiah had just confirmed the rumors Ahaz had heard, but he also said that those plans would come to nothing. By this time Isaiah had a track record as an accurate spokesman for God, so Ahaz had every reason to trust him, but he was a very weak man and couldn’t bring himself to be bold in faith. That’s sad every time it happens. To be fair, faith often flies in the face of what our senses and our logic tell us, but as John famously wrote, “This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (1 John 5:4) The world is a mess, any way we look at it. It is only by faith that God is still God and that His plans are good and certain that we can stay on an even keel and enjoy all the blessings God pours out on us even in the middle of the mess.

I get the impression that God has perhaps given me a bigger portion of faith than He has given most people. Some people have commented to that effect. However, I have learned the lesson of this verse the hard way, which has really firmed up my decision to believe. With all the political and social turmoil of the past several years, I have had occasion to say many times that if I didn’t have faith I would have given up a long time ago. Actually, the same thing may be said about my own weaknesses. That God hasn’t squashed me or abandoned me a long time ago is amazing to me, forcing me to believe that He really does love me, just as the Bible says. I’m not surprised when painful or unpleasant things come my way, I’m grateful when they don’t come my way! I kind of shake my head at the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We live in a fallen world, filled with the consequences of sin, our own and others’. As Jesus said so plainly, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) I choose faith, because taking heart is much more pleasant than despair!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the privilege of being involved in other people choosing faith. I pray that this morning’s service, and indeed everything I do, would draw and encourage others to repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Fresh Faith; December 2, 2023

Posted on December 3, 2023 by jgarrott

Galatians 3:2 I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?

It is interesting that there are essentially no new heresies; all the lies have been around since at least the 1st century, and probably since the Garden of Eden. Today there are countless earnest believers who practice performance-based religion. It’s not at all that what we do doesn’t matter, but that isn’t what sets us right with God. The devil attacks us from both sides on this issue. On the one hand he tells us we have to follow a set of rules for God to love us, and on the other hand he tells us that we can do anything we feel like, because God loves us anyway. What is so dangerous is that both of those lies are just a little bit off of the truth. We are indeed justified by faith alone, as Paul argues so strongly in this whole letter, and at the same time we are called to be holy, (1 Peter 1:14-16) and we were created to do good things that God has already planned and prepared for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10) We need to keep both of those things in our minds and hearts, in full submission to God, if we are indeed going to resist the devil and have him flee from us. (James 4:7) One interesting thing to note about Galatians is that they were what we would call “Charismatic” or “Pentecostal” Christians; they evidently had and operated in the gifts of the Spirit. No branch of Christianity is immune from the lies of the devil! We all need a fundamental humility that causes us to seek and cling to Christ alone, or we will fall prey to the devil’s lies.

I have been saddened to see dear friends who seem imbedded in their religious traditions to the point of ignoring the liberty of the Spirit, (2 Corinthians 3:17) but I am just as prone to get in a rut and do “business as usual,” instead of always seeking more of my Lord. The Lord is leading me into a new season in my life, with retirement from school teaching, and I need to be fresh and ready for whatever He says to me. Traditions and habits aren’t bad in themselves, but I must not let them blind me to what the Lord is saying to me right now. I have all sorts of desires and expectations that are rooted in my flesh rather than in the Spirit of my God, and my choice must always be to follow Christ. I must never take things for granted and think that I know it all or have it all, but keep learning and growing as an obedient child of God.

Father, thank You for this reminder. The devil’s attacks can be very subtle. Help me be so in tune with You that I recognize them immediately and stand against them appropriately, so that his works may be destroyed (1 John 3:8) and Your rule and reign be established, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Death and Life; December 1, 2023

Posted on December 2, 2023 by jgarrott

Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

This is rightly one of the most famous verses in the New Testament, but it was good to read it again just now in full context. There are some who take Paul’s opposition to Peter, expressed earlier in the chapter, as a sign of Paul’s pride, but this makes it absolutely clear that his opposition was in order to defend the essential principle that salvation is by faith alone. It’s true that Paul was still a little defensive about being an apostle who had not walked with Jesus before His crucifixion, as comes out in the very first part of the chapter, but that is simply evidence that, like all of us, Paul was a work in progress, as he himself stated so firmly in Philippians 3:12-14. The point we need to remember that our life itself doesn’t belong to us; we have been bought and paid for by the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The better we realize that spiritually speaking we are already dead, the better we will be protected against the tricks and lies of the devil. That’s what Paul expounded on in Romans 6. We aren’t talking zombies here, but rather glorious reality. I have read many testimonies of “near-death experiences,” and something expressed in a lot of them is, “I felt more alive than I have ever been.” The more we grasp that in Christ we are already dead, the more we can walk in His life that is far more, and far better, than anything we can experience in the flesh.

At 75, my anticipation of being through with my current body is growing, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy the life of Christ right now. Actually, I do enjoy it a great deal, as various people have commented about me, but I need to remember that it is no better than a shadow of what awaits me. As Frank Viola and others have pointed out, I am not to run from the cross but to it and embrace it, just as the youngest of the 26 Martyrs of Nagasaki did. And as Luke made clear, Jesus said I have to do that daily. (Luke 9:23) Crosses aren’t fun, but I have a lot of stubborn areas in my life that are still kicking, and an extra nail or two is very necessary! At the same time, I need to remember that from God’s perspective this verse is already accomplished fact, and so rest, relax, and rejoice in Him, just as He has told me to do.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You that I seem to be dealing with the busyness of the season somewhat better than in some years. (I pray that statement isn’t premature!) Thank You for reminding me just now that I need to get the Advent candles today, since we’ll be lighting the first one on Sunday. Help me deal with each thing in turn, not panicking over all that is coming but letting You carry me through, so that my delight in You may be an example to draw others to delight in You as well, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Possibility; November 30, 2023

Posted on December 1, 2023 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 13:8 For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth.

I felt the Lord was directing me to write on this verse, but I wasn’t sure why. Then I read it in the Japanese, where it says, “We can do nothing in rebellion against the truth, but if it’s for the truth, we can do anything.” That puts a different spin on it! I am naturally reminded of Philippians 4:13. “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” When we are genuinely on the side of God and His truth, then everything becomes possible. I could be here all day affirming from Scripture things that God desires, and that He desires of each individual, but the point isn’t just to affirm things as objective fact, but to follow through and act on them. (James 1:22) Paul was literally writing the Bible as he went, allowing God’s truth to flow through his words, and he needed the assurance of the truth in this verse. Some would call that conceit, but as my grandmother once told my father, it isn’t conceit if it’s true. It of course requires great humility to operate in this without wrecking on the rocks of pride, and God kept doing things to keep Paul humble. In the chapter just before this, Paul famously recorded one of those. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10) The point is always to keep our focus off of ourselves and on our Lord, as it says in Hebrews. “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) If we will do that, then indeed everything will become possible.

A Brazilian missionary in the Nagoya area designed T-shirts in English and Japanese about revival in Japan, with  the word, “Impossible,” prominently displayed, with the “Im” crossed out. I’m sure he was inspired by God, because it works equally well in Japanese. I like those shirts very much, since I delight in plays on words, but I need to keep living like I believe the message. Following my father, next year will mark a 90 year history of my family’s ministry in Japan, and we haven’t seen revival break out yet. That doesn’t mean it can’t or won’t! God is freeing me from my school commitments in another month, and I will be the speaker at a small conference in February. I certainly don’t know the details of God’s plan, but I do know that “With God all things are possible.” (Matthew 19:26) I am never to think that I could do anything on my own, but I am to have complete assurance that God can do anything at all through me.

Father, this is a bit scary for me, when I have struggled with pride so much over the course of my life. I don’t want to fall into that! Help me take my eyes off of myself so thoroughly that I won’t get in Your way for however You want to use me, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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