God Who is Near; January 6, 2026

Posted on January 7, 2026 by jgarrott

Deuteronomy 4:7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

This is a major point. Various religions posit all sorts of gods, but certainly at the time of the exodus, no other religion claimed their god or gods were omnipresent. I don’t know what Islam says on this point today, but that is the only religion I know of that might claim this. And of course, under the New Covenant, God gives His Spirit to not only be with us but be in us. You can’t get any closer than that! Sad to say, Jewish history, and even Church history, show that people are all too slow to recognize and acknow-ledge that God is so close. I have heard it rightly said, “If God seems far away, guess who moved?” The saints of both the Old and New Testaments were those who recognized the nearness of God and responded to Him in gratitude and obedience. This particular truth is repeated time and time again throughout the Bible. Today, those with wisdom and perception start each day reaching out to God, and don’t limit their interaction with Him to special times and places, either. Paul quoted Epimenides of Crete to say, “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Those who recognized a Creator, even without the revelation given to Abraham and fulfilled in Jesus, could understand that you could say we exist in God’s imagination. That is true intimacy, and failure to recognize and appreciate it is a loss beyond words.

I have commented many times that I grew up in a home where prayer was as natural as breathing. The idea that God was always listening was powerful indeed. I have certainly had times when I didn’t hear His responses very well, but that was never His fault! I find that few people I interact with really grasp that God desires such intimacy with us. I remember the time, right after our first real date, that Cathy and I spent every available moment talking with each other. The intimacy of soul to soul was intoxicating! In marriage counseling I tell couples that physical intimacy is a given in marriage, but without emotional, spiritual intimacy we get tired of it, and that’s a major factor in infidelity. My emotional and spiritual intimacy with my wife has only grown over the past 57 years, and I’m deeply grateful. (The anniversary of our first date is next month.) What’s even more wonderful is that my intimacy with my Creator also continues to grow, giving me huge anticipation of heaven, where all hinderances to that intimacy will be removed. As a pastor I try to communicate to everyone, believers and not-yet-believers alike, that God loves us more than we can imagine, and the better we open ourselves up to that love, the more glorious it is. To this point I have found very few who really believe it as much as I’ve experienced it, but I’m not to give up, but rather keep speaking the truth in love, demonstrating what intimacy with our Creator is like.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be increasingly effective in sharing the Good News of Your love and grace, so that as many as possible may repent and believe, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Teaching; January 5, 2026

Posted on January 6, 2026 by jgarrott

Exodus 35:34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others.

Many people have been impressed with the consummate skill of Bezalel and Oholiab, given all they accomplished, but they often overlook this detail. There was far too much to be done for these two men to do it all personally, so God gave them the ability to teach others to do the work as well. This is a vital part of discipleship training, which is our theme at this point. We are to be disciples of Jesus Christ, but we aren’t to do it alone. A person might have keen insight in reading the Bible and steadfast faithfulness in applying it in his daily life, but to fulfill the Great Commission, he needs to lead others to do the same. It has rightly been said that one of the best ways to learn something is to teach it, and in teaching others to follow Christ, we ourselves become much better disciples. America is traditionally all about “rugged individualism,” but that’s not how the Body of Christ operates. We are individuals, certainly, and we are individually accountable to God for all we say and do, but God’s plan is for us to interact with each other, building each other up in faith, love, and obedience. The thing is, each one of us has something they can teach others, and as I said, teaching is one of the most effective ways to learn. We need to be humble enough to learn from others, and at the same time recognize that God has placed things in us that He hasn’t yet placed in others, so that we will teach with assurance and love.

As someone with Teacher gifting, this is very close to my heart. I have been involved in classroom teaching for over half my life, and at this point I stand in a pulpit almost every Sunday. However, from a few years ago I have been learning more about coaching, which can be called a form of teaching but is far removed from lectures. Just yesterday a close friend cautioned me on this very point, saying that just giving people material on discipleship won’t do the job; I need to interact with them more personally. I was a bit defensive about it, because I have tried to be more one-on-one, but modern lifestyles have gotten in the way. However, that’s no excuse. I need to make the effort to create opportunities to interact with believers individually, checking on their growth and encouraging them to keep going. I think I am rightly careful of gender interactions. I have seen too many men, too many ministries, destroyed by such things. The “Billy Graham Rule” is very wise, avoiding both temptation and the appearance of evil. However, for men with jobs, I have to ask them to make time to meet with me, and the reception of such requests is spotty. However, I’m to keep trying. Every good thing God has given me is to be shared!

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me follow through as You desire, neither proud nor defensive, so that the Body of Christ may be built up, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Time; January 4, 2026

Posted on January 5, 2026 by jgarrott

Exodus 24:18 Then Moses entered the cloud as he went on up the mountain. And he stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights.

Sometimes what God does seems instantaneous, and sometimes it seems to take time, or even a lot of time. The thing is, all of that is a matter of our perspective, because God is outside of time, and everything is NOW for Him. For an extreme example, we can look at creation. Genesis records it in terms of days, but current scientific estimates speak of millions and billions of years. Human life is limited when it comes to time, with anything over 100 years being considered exceptional, but for those who are in Christ, it is totally unlimited. (John 11:25-26) The timeframe mentioned here, of 40 days and nights, brings to mind Jesus’ time of temptation in the wilderness, which was said by Luke to be the same length. (Luke 4:2) We think of a 40-day fast as pretty extreme, but we don’t know how it seemed to Jesus. Just yesterday I read a study that showed that our perception of time affects how our bodies respond, to the point that we heal faster if we think more time has passed, regardless of objective measurement. There is a lot we don’t know! The point here is that we need to trust God with the schedule, whether it seems long or short to us. Our general perception has been likened to a toilet paper roll. When it starts out, a few sheets seem to make no difference, but by the end, even a few sheets make a big difference. For a small child, a week can be an appreciable fraction of their life experience, but for senior adults, even a year seems to flash by. We are not to be impatient, but know that God’s plans are perfect. Having just entered a new calendar year, all sorts of things seem new, but are negligibly different from a week ago. We sometimes get impatient, and sometimes think we have “all the time in the world,” but all of that is subjective. We need to look to and trust our eternal God, and leave Him in charge of the clock.

Not surprisingly, this is something I have a growing appreciation of as I grow older. I deal with people at all points on the time spectrum. I have a great-grand-daughter about to be born at any time now, and I have a friend who will be 101 next month. Time is relative! It’s now been many years since the Lord told me to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him. I’m still learning to do that! I am not to be slow in my obedience, but neither am I to complain at how long things seem to take. I remember having a pressing financial need while we were in seminary, and a check arrived in the mail the day after we prayed – showing that it had been mailed before we prayed! I am to keep my faith in the One who is outside of time, and know that His plans are perfect.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It’s interesting that I need it, after all these years! Thank You that I have gotten back to work on my autobiography. Help me be faithful in that, so that it will be completed on Your schedule, whatever that is. May I be instantly obedient to You, all the while resting in You, so that Your plans may be fulfilled on Your schedule for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Delegation; January 3, 2026

Posted on January 4, 2026 by jgarrott

Exodus 18:17-18 Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.”

We can learn several things from this incident. The first is that, as we saw yesterday, even someone like Moses needs to grow and improve, because they don’t get everything right; no one does. The second is that God will use people around us to correct us and give us His advice. We do need to be careful about this point, because not everyone speaks wisdom, but we definitely need to have the humility to listen, and submit advice to God for Him to tell us what is of Him. The third thing is a common issue with leaders of all sorts: no one can do it all. Moses’ father-in-law was right on in saying that over-centralization wasn’t good for anyone. Moses had to learn to delegate, and that’s a hard lesson for many. In Moses’ case, the numbers were so big that I feel sure he just chose the next tier of leaders below him, and let them in turn choose those below them. You couldn’t deal with over a million people any other way! A very current example of this would be Elon Musk. He is a genius about a number of things, but he couldn’t begin to run all his companies by himself. He has various trusted people, like Gwen Shotwell at SpaceX, to run things on a more granular level, and he sticks to the big issues. There is risk to doing things that way, but there is risk to every facet of life, and delegation brings far more potential for growth than any other way. And the forth thing is that God doesn’t always gift us as we might like for the tasks He has for us to do. Moses was not gifted as an administrator, so he had to listen to his father-in-law to get wisdom from that perspective. If God gifted us perfectly for every task, we would depend on our gifting, and not stay humbly dependent on God!

This is an area where I have made a lot of mistakes. I am very broadly gifted, and much of the time it seems easier to do things myself than to ask someone else to do them, or even help me do them. That has been a brake on this church from the beginning, but it is slowly improving. Advancing age is finally showing me I can’t do it all myself, and some of the people around me are probably thinking, “It’s about time!” I don’t want to ask anyone to do something I’m not willing to do, but that shouldn’t keep me from turning things over to them to do them. Pride is still very much an issue, because I tend to think they couldn’t do things as well as I could. That has been a major trap! I’ve got to keep it in focus that God is the only One who can do things perfectly, and He can use someone else as easily, or more easily, than He can use me to get things done. Delegation is still a major “study area” for me.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It fits in perfectly with what You have been saying to Cathy and me, that You are making various changes in what You have for me to be doing. I ask for wisdom in delegation, so that people will rise to the occasion and not feel dumped on when I turn things over to them. I don’t feel like I have a very big pool to draw from, so I ask You to show me whom You are raising up, for their blessing and the good of the Body of Christ. Thank You. Praise God!

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Training; January 2, 2026

Posted on January 3, 2026 by jgarrott

Exodus 4:12 “Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

It is very instructive that Moses, the great leader of the people, had to be trained to do the job. No one in history has ever arrived on the scene perfect, doing everything right. The New Testament records that even Jesus grew – naturally enough, since He was born an infant like everyone else. We discount ourselves when we look at our current state (unless we are wallowing in conceit, which is even more dangerous). God takes us where we are and as we are, and works with us, transforming us into what we need to be to accomplish what He has for us to do. In this case, Moses had a speech handicap, likely either stuttering or stammering. It was no big deal as long as he was dealing with sheep, but God was telling him to go deal with a king! Here, He assures Moses that He  “will be with Moses’ mouth,” not just telling him what to say but enabling him to say it clearly. That should have been enough, but Moses wasn’t yet trained enough in trusting God. We see things only as they are in the moment, heavily colored by how they have been, but God sees things also as they are going to be, and He knows what it will take to get us there. We are to trust Him enough to do as He says, even when we feel we are incapable to doing it. That means accepting His training, His discipline, even when that isn’t fun. Hebrews 12 has long been a favorite chapter of mine, with its discussion of discipline. Japanese doesn’t have an exact equivalent of the word, discipline, and in Japanese translations it generally says training. That doesn’t reduce the impact of this statement: “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” (Hebrews 12:11) If we aren’t trained/disciplined, we won’t grow into what God created us to be, and that would be a tragedy.

I have tended to fall more on the conceit side of this issue, and that certainly hasn’t been good either. God has had to teach me that, though He can do anything at all through me, I can indeed do nothing right on my own, just as Jesus said. (John 15:5) As a pastor, my job is to train, and occasionally discipline, believers to do what God has for them to do. (Ephesians 4:11-13) I’m not to do it by commanding from above, but by coming alongside them, walking with them through the path God has for them. The various believers in this church come to mind as I write this, as well as the difficulties of my doing what I have just said, in each situation. That’s my training, because I am still incapable of doing anything right on my own. I’ve got to stay humbly dependent on God, accepting the people He brings alongside me, just as He provided Aaron for Moses, and know that the power and the glory all belong to Him.

Father, thank You for this strong reminder. Help me take it to heart and operate in it, allowing You to do in and through me everything that You desire, for the sake of the Body of Christ and for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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New; January 1, 2026

Posted on January 2, 2026 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Some years I really have to seek the Lord for what the Verse for the Year should be, but this time He just dropped this into my heart when I wasn’t even particularly concerned about it. We tend to be very conflicted about newness. In some areas we tend to want the latest thing, and in some areas we are comfortable with the familiar. That also tends to shift with the age of the observer, with younger people more in favor of the new, and older people hanging onto the familiar. The interesting thing is that God embodies that paradox. As He told Malachi, “I the Lord do not change.” (Malachi 3:6) However, as He told John, “I am making everything new!” (Revelation 21:5) To go to what Paul says in this verse, those who are in Christ are made new precisely because they acquire the unshakable, unchanging foundation of the God who created them in the first place. As many Bible writers noted, we are entirely transient in this earth, often compared to desert grasses that can sprout, bloom, and wither within a single day. It is only when we are anchored in the Rock of our salvation that we acquire permanence, and that is not for this life, but for eternity. It is natural to fear change, but when we are settled on what and who we are in Christ, we can welcome the new with joy, knowing that our God not only doesn’t change, He is totally loving and good, as well as totally holy and just. In Christ we are never chained to what has been, including what we have been, but we look forward to a new heaven and a new earth, as it says in Revelation 21:1.

I am definitely to an age where the old and familiar is more comfortable, so I have to choose to look forward to and accept the new. It has been widely said that the only constant is change. That is true only from some perspectives, and I need to stay anchored in my unchanging Lord. I need to remember what the Lord told me personally over 20 years ago. I was lying in bed, not consciously praying but just thinking, “There are so many things I wish were different.” As clearly as if He had been a person standing beside me, I heard the Lord say, “How do you think I feel?” It was quite a shock, and only the second time I had heard Him speak like that. However, it gave me a great peace that He isn’t pleased with a lot of what is going on, but He has a solution for everything, and I just need to trust Him. It is interesting that at this very moment, all sorts of things in the world that have been in violation of His character are being exposed, not just in the US but in nations around the world. That kind of new is welcome indeed! I am not to get tied in knots over how things are, or how it seems like they might be, but rather trust God to bring about His perfect plans, on His schedule for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder, and for this new year. Thank You that the watchnight service went well last night, though there were certainly some unexpected elements. You have indicated that You are making some changes, on a number of different levels. Help me not fear any of it, nor try to make things happen on my schedule, but rather flow with Your Spirit on Your schedule, so that I may be fully useful to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Believing; December 31, 2025

Posted on January 1, 2026 by jgarrott

John 3:12 “I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?”

This is the most familiar of all Bible passages, yet there is still much to meditate on here. That’s precisely because of what Jesus says in this verse. We tend to choke on what God says to us about living on this planet. How much more help do we need to grasp all He tells us about genuinely spiritual things? We need to let His Word simmer, sometimes percolate, in our hearts and minds until our merely human thinking is transformed by His truth. That’s not the same thing as being gullible. A gullible person believes anything uncritically. There are a few things that we do need to believe without any question. First, that God loves us. Second, that we are by nature sinners, totally unworthy of God’s love. Third, that God’s love caused Him to send His Son to take the penalty for our sin, enabling us to become His children. There are countless more things, but those are the foundation. Without them there is no salvation, but with them there is eternity in fellowship with our Creator. As Jesus sadly noted in verses 19-20, far too many people refuse to acknowledge their sin, and so choose eternal darkness and destruction over coming to God in repentance. This is the core of evangelism. We can present the good news of salvation, but it is up to each individual to repent and believe. When they refuse to do so it is tragic, but when they open their heart to receive God’s grace, it is glorious!

As I testified this past Sunday, I have recently discovered great joy in evangelism. Up until now I have felt, and stated, that I was not gifted as an evangelist. I still don’t have legions being converted, but I do have joy in the process! There is one man whom I will be seeing again today who seems on the very brink of commitment, but I think he still has trouble with the idea that God actually loves him. However, he is seeing God’s love at work in me and in this church, and he is being transformed. There are others with whom I interact a little less intensively, but still regularly. My prayer is that they all, and many more, would wake up, repent, and believe for their salvation, for the pleasure and glory of God.

Father, thank You for the privilege of having a small part in Your process of salvation. May I be fully available and obedient to You at all times, so that as many as will may come into Your kingdom, Your family, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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The Claims of Christ; December 30, 2025

Posted on December 31, 2025 by jgarrott

Luke 4:21 He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

There are those who say that Jesus didn’t claim to be divine, but here, at the very outset of His public ministry, He declares that He is the fulfillment of prophecy, and specifically, prophecy that the Jewish scholars had long agreed was Messianic. We don’t know at what point Jesus became self-aware, but certainly from the point of His baptism He had that assurance, since the Father spoke it out so that even others could hear it, that Jesus was His beloved Son. (Luke 3:22) As C. S. Lewis said, either Jesus was the Son of God, or He was the most brazen liar that ever lived. He wasn’t just “an inspired teacher,” as a lot of people try to claim. Countless people, and sadly, even a lot of Christians, put Him on a plane with Buddha or Mohammed: the founder of a religion. That’s a lie the devil pushes with all he’s got, but it just doesn’t work. Many, many people find the claims of Christ to be offensive, because they don’t want to submit to Him. Jesus’ glorious statement in the Upper room, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6) is particularly irritating to them, because it completely invalidates every other religion. “How exclusionary!” they exclaim, again trying to place Jesus on the same plane as other religious leaders. If all religions are the same, none of them have any ultimate authority! Jesus was fully God and fully man, which offended the Jewish leaders as well, because, despite various Old Testament Scriptures, they insisted that “God has no Son.” This true union of God and Man is found in no other religion, but it is absolutely essential to the Gospel. If Jesus were not fully Man, He couldn’t have taken the sins of mankind on Himself as our representative. However, if He were not fully God, His death could not have been sufficient atonement for the entire weight of all our sins. The glorious reality is that Jesus was and is everything He said about Himself, and everything that was prophesied about Him before His birth, because He existed before the creation of the universe. It is impossible to express in words all that Jesus was and is, for all eternity.

This is something I have dealt with for most of my life. Ministering in Japan, the average person on the street doesn’t know Jesus from any other “foreigner” on the street, and they don’t particularly care. My challenge is to let them know what He has done in me, and that He loves them just as much as He does me. I think I’m pretty universally known as “a nice guy,” but they don’t know how nasty I am without Him! I’ve got to live as consistently as possible with Jesus as my Lord, speaking what He says to me and acting in obedience to what He shows me, and let the Holy Spirit sort it all out in the hearts and minds of those around me. Before I ask someone else to commit to Him as Savior and Lord, I’ve got to have that commitment myself.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the people to whom You have me ministering. I pray that they and those after them will indeed make that commitment, so that Your name may be acknowledged as holy and Your rule and reign me established as Your will is done, as perfectly on this earth as it is before Your throne in heaven. Thank You. Hallelujah!

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Temptation; December 29, 2025

Posted on December 30, 2025 by jgarrott

Luke 4:13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.

We don’t know how the temptation of Jesus came to be recorded. It seems most probable that he told some or all of His apostles about it at some point. It is important to note that the three temptations listed match the three categories given by John in his letter: “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” (1 John 2:16) It is extremely important to note that these temptations aren’t for things that are necessarily bad in themselves, but the moment they come into conflict or opposition to God, they are temptations to sin. Physical hunger, such as Jesus very naturally had after a 40-day fast, certainly isn’t sinful, but gluttony is. For that matter, the physical desire of a husband and wife for each other isn’t sinful, but there are countless distortions of that impulse that are sinful. Ambition, the desire to accomplish great things, isn’t bad, but the devil uses it to get us to follow him instead of God, and that is disastrous. And the third temptation encountered by Jesus is the most tricky: testing God. At times God tells us to test Him, famously in Malachi 3:10, but we are all too capable of misapplying Scripture, as the devil did here. We are to trust God, but not be presumptuous. We aren’t to “proof text” Him, demanding He fulfill some Scripture on our schedule, to meet what we would like. It can take real spiritual maturity to distinguish deep faith from presumption, but we should certainly desire to do so. The final lesson we are to take from this record is what is recorded in the letter to the Hebrews: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.” Hebrews 4:15) Jesus understands us, and He doesn’t look down on us for our weaknesses, even as He is the perfect standard for us to emulate.

Of these three areas, I’ve had the least trouble with ambition, I think, but I’m not entirely innocent there, either. As a pastor, I deal constantly with people who are struggling in all these areas, and I am never to look down on them for it. At the same time, I am not to excuse them, any more than God excuses me. I am to lift up Jesus as the example, because He too was fully human, but He relied on the Holy Spirit to keep Him straight. That same Holy Spirit has been given to all honest believers, and my goal is to listen more and more accurately to Him, and to encourage others to do so as well. Just yesterday I downloaded a paper on “Keys to Leadership,” and one of those was, naturally enough, setting an example. Like Paul, I am to follow the example of Jesus to a degree that I needn’t hesitate to tell others to follow my example. Temptation is a given in this life; yielding to it isn’t.

Father, thank You for this clear reminder. May I recognize temptations for what they are and walk in full commitment to You, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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Representing Christ; December 28, 2025

Posted on December 29, 2025 by jgarrott

Matthew 3:11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

This declaration by John is one that every pastor needs to take to heart. Whatever the details of their ministry, they are not the Savior. In some churches there are sycophants who will try to make the pastor feel they are on a plane with Jesus, but such people are being used by the devil. Every believer is a representative of Christ, (2 Corinthians 5:20) and Christ is being formed in every believer, (Galatians 4:19) but that doesn’t begin to make us equal with Him. It’s like a private who takes a message from the general. Like John, we are to be telling people to repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, (verse 2) and when they do repent we are to baptize them, but we are never the Savior; That is only and always Christ Jesus the Lord. As John goes on to say, He baptizes with the Holy Spirit and fire. We are to seek to draw ever closer to Him, knowing that involves such baptism. We might desire to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, but fire is a different matter! The fire of God burns away anything that isn’t of Him, and it can be devastating to find out how much of our lives is in that category. For the person fully dedicated to God, that is a welcome thing. The final step of that is physical death, and that too is to be received with gratitude and joy. However, up until that point, we are to be active in our obedience, allowing His Spirit to work in and through us. Nothing this world could offer can compare with the privilege of being an ambassador for Christ! (2 Corinthians 5:20)

When I was still in elementary school I participated in Royal Ambassadors, a Southern Baptist discipleship program for boys, every year at Mission Meeting. (It didn’t exist in Japanese churches, so we did it when the missionary families were gathered.) That’s naturally when I memorized 2 Corinthians 5:20! That probably is a major factor in my awareness of representing Christ. Of course, being in a missionary family was a big part of that as well. At one point I had a sign beside the front door of this building, declaring it to be “The Kubara Embassy of the Kingdom of God.” I eventually took it down, not wanting confusion with the “kingdom hall” of Jehovah’s Witnesses, but I think the principle is valid. No believer is a perfect representative of Christ, but every one of us is a representative to some degree. Our lives often govern how others see God, what they think He is like and what He thinks of them. That is a heavy responsibility! However, as Paul said, we can do it through the One who strengthens us. (Philippians 4:13) At the same time, we’ve got to remember that we aren’t Christ, any more than John was Jesus. My goal, my prayer, is for every believer in this church to recognize that Christ lives in them, and delight to represent Him to the world.

Father, thank You for this reminder, on this last Sunday of the calendar year. I pray that all we do this morning would build up the believers and make them more like Christ, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

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