Joy and Thanks; November 26, 2023

Posted on November 27, 2023 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 5:21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

This church is having our Thanksgiving celebration today, and there is nothing for which we should be more thankful than what this verse says. This chapter is absolutely loaded with truths that should shape our perception of ourselves and of the world around us. We have to believe them for that to happen, so as it says in verse seven, we live by faith, not by sight. When we have that faith, everything falls into place and we understand that, though we live in a fallen world, God has a perfect plan of redemption and we don’t need to be anxious about anything. With that assurance, we can indeed be ambassadors for Christ, as it says in verse twenty. We aren’t worthy to receive any of this, but in a totally one-sided action, expressed in this verse, God made us worthy by proxy, so to speak, so that we can walk in everything God the Father has provided through His Son and His Spirit. The better we grasp that, the more we will overflow with joy and gratitude.

This is a very timely reminder for me, since temporal factors have been pushing to make me dread all the busyness of today. Whatever my body is doing, my spirit should be rejoicing in the truths of this chapter. I’m the one who complies these Bible-reading lists, but I am frequently touched by how very timely the readings are – which proves that I can be led by God, both consciously and unconsciously. That’s another thing to be grateful and happy about! Today is a day with many opportunities for God to display His love and grace, and my job is to not get in His way. My body will indeed be busy, but I need to rest, relax, and rejoice in Him through every moment of it all, so that all present may be touched by His Spirit for His glory.

Father, thank You for Your timeliness, and for using even me to bless me with this Scripture today. May I delight to be a channel of Your blessings to each person with whom I interact today, not being demanding or impatient but allowing Your love to flow freely, for their blessing and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Perspective; November 25, 2023

Posted on November 26, 2023 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 4:17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.

I quote this verse so often, and there are certainly other magnificent, vitally important verses in this chapter, that I almost didn’t choose to write on it, but it is extremely pertinent to the current season. This verse needs to be coupled in our minds with the widely quoted secular aphorism, “This too will pass.” Perspective can be very hard to come by at times. Presented with the immediate crisis, we panic as though the worst possible outcome were guaranteed, when that is not the position of faith at all. We live in the flow of time and we are accountable for our stewardship of the time we are given, but temporal things are by definition temporary. We are so prone to forget that, emotionally at least, and that destroys our peace and upends our priorities. We are to appreciate the good times, but not demand that they continue forever. We are to endure the hard times, and rejoice that they will not continue forever. Eternity is for after this life! That takes care of the “momentary” part of this verse, but we are still faced with the “light” part. In the middle of it, any trial seems more severe than it actually is. It is only after we have gotten through it that we can look back and recognize that God was with us the whole time and we actually had nothing to worry about. It is as such experiences pile up that our faith is strengthened and we indeed learn to rest, relax, and rejoice in our Savior.

The reason this is so timely for me is the calendar. Every year I tend to dread Christmas because of how busy I am with various special events. I expect many if not most pastors feel that way. Tomorrow we will have our regular service and then in the afternoon we will be decorating the building for Christmas, culminating in the church Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night. As an introvert, I don’t enjoy the busyness of it all, nor do I enjoy my unavoidable leadership role in it. This morning I woke up at 3:25 and was unable to go back to sleep for thinking about it all. That’s not exercising faith! We have done this successfully year after year, and we will get through it this year as well. Every year there are some different challenges, but we have the same God, and He is more than able to deal with everything. I have two weddings to officiate today, but they won’t take the whole day. I have to go pick some people up tomorrow morning, because their usual driver has to work, but there really will be time to do that. The problems are almost all in my head, taking my eyes off of my Lord and feeling I have to do everything in my own strength alone. That’s a lie of the devil, and I must stand against it. God can and will carry me through every moment of the next two days, so I should shut up and enjoy the ride!

Father, thank You for this very necessary reminder. I quote this verse to other people all the time; help me keep it in the forefront of my own awareness. Help me indeed submit and surrender every issue to You, so that Your unfathomable peace may guard my heart and mind in Christ Jesus my Lord, (Philippians 4:7) for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Channels of Blessing; November 24, 2023

Posted on November 24, 2023 by jgarrott

2 Corinthians 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.

I keep coming back to the awareness that God’s blessings are not to stop with the immediate recipient. God in His incredible mercy flows His grace through His children, allowing them to participate in the destruction of the devil’s works. (1 John 3:8) When we try to keep God’s blessing for ourselves alone, we quickly lose them, or at least the benefit of them. It is when we extend those blessings to those around us that they are multiplied in our own lives, for the glory of God. That’s fairly easy to understand when it comes to things like love and comfort, as in this passage, but Jesus indicated that it applies to material things as well, when He said, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life.” (Matthew 19:29) That said, it is things like love and comfort that affect us most directly and deeply. It has been said that “Love isn’t love until you give it away,” and there’s a lot of truth to that. In much the same way, we receive the full benefits of comfort when we in turn comfort others. On a romantic level, there are countless stories of people who have been widowed discovering a new level of peace and happiness with each other, as each comforts the other. However, this certainly isn’t limited to that. I think just about everyone has experienced the joy of being able to help someone out in a situation we have experienced ourselves. That’s precisely what Paul is talking about here, and he gives God glory for it.

This is something I’ve experienced countless times, and I’m grateful. At the same time, I think my wife has experienced it more, because she’s been through a lot more. I have watched as she has comforted people with the same or similar medical issues as she has, and I have seen her be blessed in the process. She is also a much better tutor than I am, because academics have always come easily for me, but she has figured out methods of study that she has delighted to pass on to others. Whatever the area, I need to remember that I am simply a transit point for the blessings God pours out on me, and rejoice to see others blessed.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the hymn, Make Me a Channel of Blessing. It is true and appropriate indeed. Help me indeed live that way, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Masculinity; November 23, 2023

Posted on November 24, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love.

From the modern viewpoint, this admonition seems almost contradictory. In the first place, where the NIV says “be men of courage,” the Japanese says, “be like men,” that is, be manly. Some people today like to talk about “toxic masculinity,” insisting that just being a man is a detriment to society, but Paul wouldn’t have understood that in the least, because it is contrary to fact. At the same time, he says, “do everything in love.” By modern standards, that seems to fly in the face of “be masculine!” However, God’s definition of masculinity includes love, because God Himself is love. (1 John 4:8) People who talk about “toxic masculinity” create a straw tiger that God never designed. I have recently enjoyed watching numbers of videos by Nick Frietas, who in my opinion is an excellent example of a strong, loving man – who also happens to have an excellent sense of humor! He is unapologetic about standing for God’s truth, and as a former Special Forces operator, he certainly fits several definitions of strong. At the same time, it is very clear that he loves his wife and children deeply, as well as loving America, and that love motivates the majority of all he does. Too many people want men to be passive, when that would be denying God’s template in creating men. (On a side note, He didn’t create women to be passive either, but modern society doesn’t attack women as much.) Strength of various kinds is part of how and why God created us, both men and women, and we need to exercise that to do His will and resist the devil. Love is an inescapable part of that, because the devil is in no way agape love, so exercising such love is the ultimate example of resisting him.

Physical strength has never been very high on my profile, but I find that people these days are surprised at the physical strength I have, given my age. Emotional and spiritual strength are characteristics the Lord has nurtured in me over the years, showing me that neither is automatic or to be taken for granted, any more than a novice could do a 100kg snatch-and-grab in weightlifting. I am to seek to exercise the strength God has given me to do His will, and always in love. (1 Corinthians 13) After all, Jesus said clearly that it is love that will mark us as His disciples. (John 13:35)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the various opportunities You have given me recently to express Your love. May I always do so accurately, as the man You created me to be, so that people may be drawn to You in repentance and faith, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Resurrection; November 22, 2023

Posted on November 23, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 15:17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins.

To be honest, I don’t think churches or Christians today dwell on resurrection very much. We focus on heaven, which seems to make resurrection beside the point. Also, we think of resurrection in strictly physical terms, which makes people be afraid of cremation and other such things. When it comes to that, what about the martyrs who were literally eaten by wild animals in the arenas of Rome? Surely they wouldn’t miss out on any of their reward! Living in Nagasaki Prefecture, I think of believers who were vaporized by the atomic bomb, since the hypocenter was very close to a Catholic girls school. Resurrection is not a problem for God! However, failure to believe in resurrection is a major problem for us, as Paul expounds on right here. Some people, like the Japanese Catholic novelist Susaku Endo, have believed that Jesus died to atone for our sins, but they couldn’t bring themselves to believe that He really rose from the dead. To me, that removes much of the power and most of the hope from such works as his book Silence, which has been made into a successful movie. Jesus’ body after His resurrection obviously didn’t have all the limitations it did before His resurrection, because he walked into locked rooms and such. At the same time, it was not merely a spiritual apparition, which He proved by eating in front of His disciples. (Luke 24:40-42) That sounds interesting and fun, but at the same time my biggest anticipation is unlimited fellowship with my Lord.

And that brings me to my own attitude toward resurrection. I have no doubt whatsoever that Jesus rose, and since the Bible says that we will rise as well, I believe that. As I’ve already mentioned, my biggest anticipation for after this life is unlimited fellowship with my Lord. What form that will take is something that, as the song says, I can only imagine. However, I have great assurance that it will be glorious. I look forward to joining the “cloud of witnesses” mentioned in Hebrews 12:1. (Incidentally, I don’t think they are witnessing us, I think they are witnesses of the grace and love of God, as Jesus said in Acts 1:8.) There are many, many things I don’t know about life after this life, any more than an infant in the womb knows about life outside the womb, but I have tasted the grace and love of my Lord enough to have full assurance that it will be wonderful beyond my current ability to comprehend.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the assurance that makes me seem a bit weird to those who don’t have such assurance. As Jake Hess sang, “Death ain’t no big deal!” Use me as Your instrument to bring others to such faith as well, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Grace of God; November 21, 2023

Posted on November 22, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them–yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

Paul was well aware of all that he had done, both before and after encountering the risen Lord on the way to Damascus. That made him very sharply aware of God’s grace, because his life could be explained no other way. I don’t think he’s putting the other apostles down here, but he is recognizing the sheer volume of work the Lord had accomplished through him. Paul was indeed a special case. We know definitively that Peter was married, and in 1 Corinthians 9:5 Paul seems to imply that the majority of the other apostles were married as well, but Paul stayed single, and seemed to enjoy the liberty that gave him. Some use such liberty to carouse, but Paul used it to labor for the Lord. That said, recognizing that Paul was a special case, what he said about himself can actually be applied to every believer: “By God’s grace I am what I am.” We sometimes speak of a “self-made man,” but even such a person is as they are only by the grace of God. The things about ourselves we can’t control, such as our genetics and our environment, might go without saying as being by God’s grace, but even the things we accomplish personally fit into that category, because it is God who has given us the abilities involved. All the way back in Deuteronomy 8:18 Moses pointed out explicitly that it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth. Perhaps the biggest problem with celebrity is that when we get it, we tend to think we deserve it. The flip side of that is called “imposter syndrome,” where people can become paralyzed by the awareness that they don’t deserve all the accolades and attention being poured out on them. Paul’s attitude, expressed here, is the answer to both sides of that. Only an awareness of God’s grace can give us a clear-eyed appreciation for what He has done and can do in and through us.

This certainly applies to me! For too much of my life I wallowed in pride, not recognizing sufficiently that it was God who had supplied my genetics and I could take no credit. By most counts I have been a considerable underachiever, not being a very good steward of all the things God poured out on me. That current awareness gives me a very sharp appreciation for God’s grace! I am currently in the process of writing my autobiography, simply to record the magnificence of that grace, but I find I’m not very consistent or persistent in that process either. I need not only to appreciate God’s grace but appropriate it and exercise it, letting it empower me to do all that God desires of me, for His glory.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for getting me to finally start making the candles for Christmas yesterday. Help me follow through consistently. Thank You that I only have about a month more of school classes to deal with. Lord, every year I tend to dread the holiday season because of all that I see as demands on me. Help me rest, relax, and rejoice in You, allowing You to carry me through everything by Your gracious power, so that all with whom I interact may see You and be drawn to You, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Purpose of Gifts; November 20, 2021

Posted on November 21, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 14:12 So it is with you. Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, try to excel in gifts that build up the church.

Having been involved with the Charismatic Movement since the 1970s, I find I empathize and agree with this whole chapter to a very high degree. As I wrote in relation to chapter 12 just two days ago, I was privileged to work with Don and Katie Fortune in their teaching on Motivational Gifts from Romans 12:6-8, which gifts are analogous to personality types and are present in every human being. The gifts Paul is talking about here and in chapter 12 are what most people think about when they say, spiritual gifts. You could say they are the “flashier” gifts, and that is why people tend to seek them. However, the principle Paul mentions here must be remembered: gifts have a purpose, and that purpose is to build up the Body of Christ, not to inflate egos. We’ve all seen people who, on discovering that they had a spiritual gift, thought that made them an “instant apostle,” or something of the sort. If they really understood apostleship, they wouldn’t want it. Paul’s description of his experiences that he gives in 2 Corinthians 11 isn’t something that any sane person would aspire to! However, being used by God to build up the Body of Christ is a worthy goal for any believer. When it comes to spiritual gifts, our focus should be on the Giver and what He loves best, which is His Body.

Recently I have been realizing the high number of parallels between me and Paul, which is in a sense ironic, since my wife has never really cared for Paul as a person! I could see myself writing this chapter verbatim, since I agree completely with every word in it. Even this morning I almost wrote on verses 18-19, since they express my position on the gift of tongues so accurately. My own experience of spiritual gifts has shaped my life in many ways, not the least of which being keeping me out of a major missionary-sending organization. That deprived me of financial support, but it also freed me to do what I felt the Lord was saying, and not what an organizational bureaucracy was demanding. Today as I lead others, I would love to see more gifts actively displayed, both for the sake of the individual believers and for the sake of the church, and the Church, as a whole, but I am not the one dispensing the gifts. I am to seek to recognize and encourage gifts for the purpose mentioned in this verse, and give the glory to God.

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for the gifts that are manifested here, and for the increasing level of spiritual health, as I see it. May we indeed be healthy in Your eyes, being and doing what You desire, so that Your will may truly be done right here as it is in heaven, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Maturity; November 19, 2023

Posted on November 20, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Maturity is a strange thing. We desire it, but at the same time we almost seem to fear it or even regret it. The two terms, childish and childlike, reflect that ambivalence. We know, on a logical basis, that being childish is not good, but at the same time we elevate being childlike to a place of honor. That gets all the more complicated by the fact that we have trouble defining either term concretely. One clear component is the matter of patience and tolerance for delayed gratification, as many psychologists have pointed out. The more we have of that, the happier everyone is! However, too much of that would bring progress to a grinding halt, because we would stop pressing for improvement. Thus, the Serenity Prayer, “O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed, the courage to change what can be changed, and the wisdom to know the one from the other,” is actually a prayer for maturity. So what are the things we admire about being childlike? I think it’s a matter of innocence of evil and delight in good. The world being what it is, we become all too familiar with evil all too soon, but we can still delight in good. I’m reminded of a video of a family that thought they were pranking their young son by telling him an empty cardboard box was his present. (I don’t remember if it was for a birthday or Christmas.) The tables were turned when he absolutely delighted in the box, immediately thinking of all sorts of things he could do with it. Putting aside the whole matter of whether it was wise or nice of them to try to prank him like that, his response to the box was in my eyes the epitome of being childlike but not childish. As children of God we should be constantly maturing, and part of that should be in seeking to maintain a childlike delight and wonder at our Father’s goodness toward us. As a refrigerator magnet we once had said, “Happiness is seeing a beautiful sunset and knowing Whom to thank.” God can turn even air pollution into something beautiful!

When people comment on my supposed “youthfulness” at my age I generally say that the secret is that I never mature, but I actually hope that isn’t the case. I desire to be a mature child of God, able to be trusted to do as He tells me, but I certainly want to keep delighting in Him, even in difficult circumstances. A friend of mine was recently told that his wife has three to six months left because of her metastatic cancer. Hearing that was like a punch in the gut for me, but I know that she is certainly ready to “graduate,” and he is increasingly ready to allow her to do so. At this point he is rejoicing in the cessation of the side effects of the chemotherapy drugs that she has now stopped. That is maturity! When my wife just had her 76th birthday yesterday, and she has a litany of ailments, that hits very close to home. I too desire the maturity to rejoice in my Lord whatever is going on around me, resting in the assurance that His plans are always good, acceptable, and perfect. (Romans 12:2)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Thank You for all You had planned for Cathy’s birthday yesterday. Thank You for Your plans for today. I pray that every one of those plans would be fulfilled as You desire, drawing people into Your family and defeating the plans of the devil, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Spiritual Gifts; November 18, 2023

Posted on November 19, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 12:1 Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant.

I can’t read this verse without remembering what my mother’s younger sister said about her response to her many suitors when she was the youngest child of an esteemed seminary professor. Changing only the location of a comma, she quoted (at least in her mind) the KJV translation of this verse: “I would not have you, ignorant brethren.” That tale is tempered by the fact that my father was one of the many seminary students who proposed to her, but my mother was away in college at that point. All humor aside, believers should not be ignorant of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, but sadly, very many are. And to be honest, that includes many “Pentecostal” Christians. The problem is twofold. First, many don’t really understand that such gifts are available, and second, even those who know about such gifts have no grasp of their purpose and how they operate in the Body of Christ. This whole chapter is worthy of a lot of thought and meditation! I’m reminded of when I was in Basic Training in the Army, and we were taught to familiarize ourselves with our weapons. We could literally disassemble and reassemble an M16 rifle blindfolded, and many of us could do the same with an M60 machine gun and the 45 caliber pistol of the day. The same could be said of many craftsmen with their tools; it’s not limited to weapons. We all need to be familiar with what our Lord expects us to use in His service, and how to apply each item. To go back to the military analogy, I wouldn’t try to use a grenade launcher for precision targeting, for example, but a rifle isn’t much good against something that is out of sight. In the same way, some Christians misuse spiritual gifting. As the saying goes, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. Having said all of this, the most important point is listening to the One who gives us the gifts, that is, Holy Spirit. He knows what He’s given us and why, and He knows how those gifts should be used. The point that I think is most often missed is what Paul stresses later in this chapter, that everyone is gifted differently but all the gifts are necessary. We have a strong tendency to want and expect everyone to be like us, when as Paul points out, that would end up with there being no Body at all. It is wise and important to know and recognize gifts, in ourselves and in those around us, but our focus isn’t to be on the gifts but on Jesus Christ our Head. (Ephesians 4:15)

I have been very grateful to have worked with Don and Katie Fortune, interpreting for them several times here in Japan and knowing them as dear friends. Their ministry was focused on what they called Motivational Gifts, based on Romans 12:6-8, but they also talked about the list here, which they called Manifestation Gifts, as well as the short list in Ephesians 4:11, which is individuals given to the Body, rather than gifts given to individuals. That experience has helped me understand myself and those around me much better, making me more tolerant of differences and understanding of how to cooperate with others. I have been tempted to focus on such teaching myself, but I realize that isn’t the role the Lord has for me. I have experienced all of the gifts listed in this chapter at least once, but I do find that the Lord grants them when and as needed, and they aren’t continuous. As a pastor I want everyone in the congregation to know and utilize their own gifts, as well as recognize and appreciate the gifts of others, but interest and understanding vary widely. As in every other area of my life, I am totally dependent on the Lord! All I can do is express the truth in love, and ask Holy Spirit to work it into the heart and life of each believer.

Father, thank You for this reminder. There really is so much I want to teach the congregation, yet I feel such limited opportunities to do so. Help me be faithfully obedient to whatever You want me to do, wherever and whenever You want me to do it, so that the Body of Christ may be built up indeed, for Your glory. Thank You. Hallelujah!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Differences; November 17, 2023

Posted on November 18, 2023 by jgarrott

1 Corinthians 11:19 No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval.

This is a very interesting statement, particularly in view of the strong things Paul said earlier in this same letter about factions in the Church. However, there is also a lot of logic behind this, so there is a tension between the two truths. As Paul said to the Romans, “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” (Romans 12:18) At the same time, we aren’t to compromise God’s truth on essential things. As Paul again wrote to the Romans, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2) The NIV translates this verse as, “which of you have God’s approval,” but the Japanese says, “who is a true believer.” We tend to use “true believer” in casual, secular ways, but this is deadly serious. The fact of the matter is, there are assorted heresies in every Christian grouping, and as C. S. Lewis famously said, when we get to heaven we can be sure that we will find out that we were all wrong somewhere. We are to hold to our faith strongly and sincerely, but with humility and love. Paul dealt with that repeatedly in regard to dietary matters. There are things, like throwing Biblical standards of sexuality and marriage out the window, that automatically create divisions, and we need to be very careful of those. That’s the sort of thing Paul is talking about here.

This is something I have thought much and felt strongly about for a long time. As I have written before, there are various Christian traditions I could not join, but I still have brothers and sisters in Christ who are in those traditions. I will let God be the judge of who is a “true believer,” but I need to focus on the essentials of faith and not the peripherals. As I quoted Ben Wong just recently, “The important thing is to keep the important thing the important thing.” I am not to deny for a moment that Jesus is the divine Son of God, the only Savior who died to take the penalty for our sin and rose again to demonstrate His victory over sin, death, and the devil, but I am not to reject a brother or sister who holds to that truth while differing with me on other points. Pride is the big danger here, because I can certainly be proud that I am “right.” God is the judge of that! (1 Corinthians 4:3)

Father, thank You for this reminder. Help me be an instrument of Your grace and love to all, while holding fast to Your truth, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!

Posted in Christian, encouragement, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment