RIPPLE EFFECT

"Go ye therefore, and teach all nations," the Lord had said, "baptizing them."   (Matt. 28:19)

But we see Jesus turned Everything around, Pastor Nishino showed us. After all, it didn't stop with individuals being set free from sin and giving testimony of it through baptism. They were the ones going out and spreading the message of life to others who in turn were baptizing others!

His mother was one of the first members baptized at Gushikawa Baptist Church. Medical professionals had told her she would never be able to have a child.

Her son, now its pastor, was baptizing believers into its membership.

One of them, who just graduated from Bible School this year, is getting married in the fall and leaving for Bangladesh where the Lord called her as a missionary--no doubt they will be baptizing others there who find new life in Christ.

Have you ever seen tsunami waves? Most don't have to be the big, scary ones you see in movies. They can be small but just keep coming, coming, coming; tsunami strength is in their relentless force. We need to be like that. Not like big spotlights, but just sending steady beams, beams, beams of hope into the dark.

Lord, let us ripple with energy, even little ripples.

FUNCTIONING UNDERWATER

"Will I have to hold my breath a long time underwater, perhaps be willing to die to show my dedication to God?" a new convert and baptismal candidate once expressed. Some Christians who have grown up seeing baptisms forget how strange the concept of ceremonial immersion can be.

Baptisms are occasions believers can invite unsaved to come see them--Sunday was another such occasion. Here are a few photos I witnessed online. (That's Joyce on the piano to the left.) You can see Shoko was beaming. 

Altho' it was the pastor and his wife who were teaching her from the Bible when she found the Lord, it was Jaime who spent the most time with her, and he'll be stationed in mainland Japan at the end of the year, so we're really praying. Jaime helped adjust things on the platform for the baptism.

After her baptism, Shoko gave testimony of how she had found meaning and life in Christ. Then a family who recently visited Gushikawa Baptist Church requesting membership each came up and gave their testimonies too.

I almost forgot to mention this. More and more Okinawan families are becoming cross-cultural. Joyce interpreted the English for the father and son while the mother spoke in her native Japanese. People can usually understand a family member's language without being fluid enough to orate in it.

If human creatures can endure short lifetimes to somehow function in foreign languages and cultures, surely the Creator of humans (Jesus is Creator; without Him was not anything made that was made) is able to let go, during his short early lifetime, of His Divinity (language and culture?) and function according to human time and reason.

...to be continued...

A LYING SPIRIT FROM GOD

Um...I'm going to just go ahead and post something without illustrations and post pictures later, because when I tried posting pictures, I started to change what I'd written, then everything got all funny....

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"Does God ever Lie?" A Sunday School pupil asked. It says in Num. 23:16, "God is not a man, that he should lie," so he doesn't do the same thing as man does, saying untruths to put himself forward or to hide sin or bend righteousness, BUT the Bible does tell us God actually sent a lying spirit, in 2 Chron. 18, the teacher said.

Another teacher said there were many facets to giving truth. He asked us to imagine we were civilians during a war in which a guerilla warrior neighbor came running into our yard, injured, with a desperate look and ran between the bushes to the right. A few moments later, when enemy soldiers with guns came looking for him, without hesitation, you'd probably motion to the left, LYING INSTANTLY, UNASHAMEDLY. And it would seem so right, wouldn't it? To do otherwise, in this case, would seem so wrong.

That was only one instance.

The instance from 2 Chron. cited by the Sunday School teacher frightens me. Those were men who prided themselves as prophets of God who had been sent a lying spirit. How long had they disregarded God's voice, before Yahweh decided He would no longer bless them with his visitation? Why does this frighten me, you ask? Because I wonder if I will ever let that happen to me.

I have seen many a ministerial student on fire for God who, decades later as pastor, has gradually had his heart numbed by busyness here, procrastination there, cutting corners and not having time to listen to the little man. He has countless times ignored the whispers of the Spirit. He looks and sounds very different now, probably like the person he never wanted to be. But perhaps a lying spirit from God tells him to remember the humble person he "really" is on the inside; this deceives him into thinking this is his present condition; he sees no need of repentance.

God, You know I started out sincerely wanting You to use my love for music, art, writing, words. I so want Your Love to engulf all my life and shine through it. Yet, I know that I get so engrossed, carried away with it--and there's nothing wrong with that in itself, but then it gets in the way of everything I wanted to do for You; and I see all the good that took so much time to build crumbles so quickly.

And it takes up so much time and energy, and I don't find myself really enjoying it in comparison to what You gave me--I never ONCE feel anything close to the "wings sprouting on my back"--and there are a handful of times I even feel heartbroken with disappointment; I've told my sisters about this. I think this is the best Art Group I am going to find in my life, and they really are a great group...my heavenly Father wanted me to see----what they have to offer.  But my going back again and again...makes me wonder if God doesn't get close to sending me a lying spirit too.

God Knew What'd Make Me Smile

A thick envelope? I still remember the time I was a young mother and feeling down about something--it was the day of snail mail--and I saw something in the post box from my Dad.

He'd sent two photos: one was of me as a little girl on a co-worker's motorcycle...I hadn't thought of that for decades! I mean, I was a mother of two children now, the oldest a little younger than that girl on the Honda.

The other was of himself on a Harley. Daddy was in his eighties by then, and that bike wasn't his, of course, but belonged to a person whose home he was visiting in the U.S. I found myself looking at those pictures and grinning in spite of myself.

I'd heard of how Daddy took one of my sisters by the hand and took her back and forth across the street to show her how to cross it the first time...how he showed another sister one of his old report cards so she wouldn't feel bad about her grades.

I used to think Daddy was non-expressive, that Mommy was the warm and caring one; but when I think about all this, I realize Daddy just showed his love for his family differently.

I remember one time hearing Daddy pray God would make him a good Christian father...was he sitting at his desk when he muttered that? I can't remember.

I can't remember either, what it was I was depressed about when those photos came. I just remember they made me smile. Thank you Lord, for sending me a Daddy who'd make me smile. You knew he'd do that, didn't You?

We sketch; GOD has the Big Picture

Some want to see my drawing of Mommy as an elephant.  You've got to get the whole story. She asked me to draw an elephant, which I did. THEN she informed me she wanted to write a prayer letter about making typhoon preparations alone and feeling like an elephant when she had to climb the ladder to nail down the shutters (Mommy added that part of the drawing)...and I realized I'd been asked to draw HER!

Here's, not a sketch I drew, but a photo taken when I had my schooling in the U.S. interrupted for health issues and had to come back to Okinawa. My parents made regular clinic visits with me, and Mommy got me on an exercise regimen to get me stabelized.  We didn't know cancer was growing inside her body this whole time, and she met her Savior several months later.

What we saw as only a typhoon may've been God's way of getting mother-daughter to work together; what I thought was illness to get a baby elephant into a mud puddle in the Pacific may've been God's way of getting a mommy elephant and her calf together for their last few months. 

This? A recent 10-min. drawing, NOT of  Mommy, but sketched from a live elephant photo!

ANTICIPATION

I didn't know why people wanted to be stalked when they were wanting viewers to "follow" them; I liked hashbrowns, but what were "hashtags"; and was "hardcopy" something sold in stores with pipes and extension cords? I make no secret of how computer illiterate I am. But earlier in the week, I enjoyed another of God's gleanings from technology.

Baby Boomers will remember the greeting card jingle: "the next best thing to being there." My sisters and I were together last year, but since then, we've met an hour a month online, talking about everything sisters talk about and praying at the end. I tell ya, 60 mins. goes by super fast. But with all that God does for us, so does the month in between those meetings.

One Day, we'll be meeting together and having more than 60 mins. to share about what siblings share about and to praise Him. And with everything He's done for us, I'm sure it'll seem like His coming will have been ever so soon. Even so come quickly, Lord Jesus.

DOORKNOCKERS, RINGS, & FROGS

Yesterday, I saw a video of Tom Sawyer.It had been a while since I'd read the story. I forgot he gave his shiny doorknocker to Becky Thatcher as symbol of engagement. We all smile knowingly, but whoever decided it had to be diamond rings? Can't it be one of those "broken medallions" where both partners keep the partial fragments, and the centerpiece is whole only when the two are united? I always liked those heart-shaped lockets.

A very long time ago, in Okinawa, it seemed to have been custom to tattoo married women's fingers black, so you looked down at women's hands to see if she had, not a wedding band, but a tattoo! Nowadays, a tattoo symbolizes a free spirit, but back then it meant you were owned. 

But Grandma Urata, I noticed, was young enough to wear a wedding band. With the ringed hand she poured kerosene on the dead idol she had found freedom from before lighting it aflame. Altho' as head priestess she had set up ancestor worship spots all over the island, she wanted to show homage to her new Love, the One True God and did so with this idol-burning ceremony in front of the family tomb.

"If the Son therefore will make you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)

Some people say it is not in the gift but in the feeling behind the gift. I think it is, as they say, case-by-case. Yes, Becky was special to Tom, and yes, he wanted to give her his most precious possession, but I think I would've done the same thing Becky did: she RAN when Tom put on her hand his bullfrog!

NIGHT LIGHT

 "When God seems to be blowing out your candle and making your room all dark," I once heard, "it could be He wants you to throw open the shutters because He has some secret light from Heaven for you to see."

Would you pray with me for my sister Janice's daughter-in-law Shannon who'll be having cancer surgery at 11 AM tomorrow?

She has 3 little ones at home--the youngest was born last year, just before my Stateside trip--and I'm sure that family's "room" is pretty dark right now.

But they've given testimony before the church of their trust in God in all of this. We are waiting to see how He'll work through the whole situation.

When I was in Iwatsuki, I remember taking a picture of what looked like plain ol' beetles in the daylight. It was only when it got dark and I saw another "plain ol' beetle" spread his wings then...glow from the tail I realized it was a firefly! But the delightful charm of the insect didn't show itself until the darkness came!

I wonder if the Lord is letting the darkness descend on Shannon and her family right now? Please pray the Heaven's light would shine delightfully brightly through them too!

HE UNSEALS IT

"And when I had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say..."  that's way too repetitious, I thought. How come? I was working on memory work from Rev. 6:3.

No wonder. It was "HE" had opened the second seal. He, the Lamb. I am not the one Who opens the seals!

It was as if God winked, giving me both a reprimand and relief. Reprimand to not try to take matters into my own hands and try to solve puzzles myself. Relief that in God's good time, HE WILL resolve matters; I just need to leave it to Him.

Today's drawing is of a 5-min. baby deer who probably tried to scamper away on his own...hopefully not too far from his mother, who he'd be pretty helpless without.

Right. It'd be wisest for us to stay close to our Constant Guardian too. Isn't it good to know He stays close to us?

(Oh--I had only 2 mins. for last week's drawing of a sheep; this one was done in 5 mins.)

A BULLET FOR THE GENERAL

"A Bullet for the General". I'd watched a spaghetti western online to sketch some portraits from its first and last scenes, and when I submitted my work to an artists' site, a moderator there made encouraging comments, saying my drawing had been improving.

Several years ago, I wrote a story about another bullet. A young Jewish bride, condemned to die in a prison camp during the holocaust, in line to wait before a firing squad, heard her fiance's whispered command to lie down in the ditch; trust him; and stay still until he came to get her.

She did...until she heard the guns go off, and a horrific dread yanked her to her feet and to the fence where she could see the pile of executed corpses...yes, her beloved's was there. He loved her; he had protected her and saved her life. He took the bullet for her to do it. Decades later, when telling of how her beau loved her, she couldn't help but speak of how He died in her place. Wouldn't it be almost cruel to not let a holocaust survivor share of her experience?

Yet when I can't help telling the story of how Jesus loved me and died for me on the cross; I am told people today do not want to hear offensive things like death and the cross and it would be preferable that I address things like love, art, and brotherhood instead.

MY BENCH FRIEND

"Did you call me? I saw you waving, so I came," I said to the man on the bench. Actually, I knew he hadn't meant to call me, but I had to give some reason for crossing the street  and coming over to speak with a total stranger.

I had been walking home from the park one morning when it seemed I felt a tug to talk to the person in front of the drugstore. What? But I'd just crossed the street to get to the other side! But the urging was unmistakable, so I found myself crossing the street again, glad there was little traffic that early in the morning.

Bench Friend

No; of course he had not called me. At first, he looked at me with an expression that seemed to say he'd wanted to be left alone. But when I was about to go, he asked if I could help read the English instruction on the trash bin. Could I? I wouldn't have been able to read difficult kanji, but to read English is the one thing I COULD do--and God KNEW!

SEKI Drugstore across the street

I suppose the person just wanted to talk, and this was a way of keeping me there. It turns out he had been sitting there for quite a long time thinking about "his friend"'s son's suicide, and he had been crying and trying to get drunk while trying to make sense of it all. This man, my age, was born in the Seventh Day Adventist Hospital in Okinawa and knew the name of the small village where I grew up. Altho' he hadn't accepted Christ for himself, he had been given a Bible at that hospital and even knew of the word "agape" referring to God's Love!

Bench Friend with June

God knew, when I was coming home from the park that morning, about this person's situation and need to talk. A female would feel less threatening than a male, and it would be easier to express his doubts to a layperson (born in Okinawa) than to a clergyman. We ended up talking for about 2 hours. Since we both lived nearby agreed to meet there at the bench for more talks.

That was Aug., 2022. When I first met my friend at the bench, he was in such a negative and garbled state of mind, he could not go to work. God must've cleared up a lot of things for him, because we didn't need to meet for any more talks. Hopefully, we'll be meeting again in Heaven someday and talking about this encounter. It will be August soon, and now I am back down here in Okinawa, the island we were both born in. Father, please do take care of my bench friend.

You forget about everything else then

What? This is the sketch that was inspired by the worship service message.

When Peter, trying to walk across the water, was sinking in the water and looked up, it was Jesus that filled his sight then. To any floundering in waters of trouble Jesus would beckon look to Him for help--not to past training, smarts, or competence, even to others...why do we usually go to Him LAST?

Pastor Nishino was teaching the significance of the words "This Do In Remembrance of ME" often quoted during the Lord's Supper. It's a good thing, he said, to focus on our need to maintain holy lives an intimate walk with the Lord, but that isn't what God is telling us to remember. He's telling us to remember JESUS HIMSELF.

Peter must've echoed the Psalmist, pastor Nishino read: "save me, O God; for the waters are come unto my soul." (Ps. 69:1)

This is the first time I've heard Peter's sinking in the water being used as an illustration to teach COMMUNION!

Spaghetti Meal and Gecko's New Tail

Not sure what to name this post.

In Japan, you're hospitalized for a week after giving birth. I still remember one of my last days when I gave birth to my first girl, I had a craving for good ol' spaghetti. Recently, I found a photo when I was a girl myself, stuffing my face with it...why was I eating with a spoon?

I was overjoyed the day spaghetti was served in the maternity ward! We were getting rice three times a day until then.

That day's spaghetti was the usual tomato-sauce-based one eaten with a fork and with a side of soup; but since then I've gotten used to seeing it with clams or mixed with fermented soy beans and raw eggs and accompanied by miso soup using bean curd and seaweed, eaten with chopsticks. 

These foods sound delicious to me now, but they wouldn't have to that little girl in the black and white photos.

Had I been chuckling out loud? I felt thirsty all of a sudden and stood up to get something to drink. But when I slid open the door to the hallway to go to the kitchen, I scared--almost stepped on--a gecko, who must've come to listen to me. Leaving his twitching tail behind, it ran away. 

People may think I'm wacko, but I think geckos are adorable, and I wouldn't harm them for the world. I was a little saddened that it felt it had to hurt itself to get away.

Most geckos don't come out in the open and let humans see them. But a few days later, one did. Maybe it's wistful thinking, or imagination, but I think it's the same feller who came back to reassure me his tail had grown back!

I STILL can't think of a name for this post. Something about a spaghetti tail? No. Something about leaving behind your pride--which you don't really need--in order to live? That's kinda corny, besides, that still says nothing about spaghetti... Can't think of anything good.

"You're thinking too hard;" seemed to come from the gecko; "keep it simple." This was his suggestion.

GOTTA GO TO THE DOCTORS？

"Ugh. Do I gotta go again?" I was running out of my medicine so time to go to the clinic to pick up enough for the next few months. It seemed so senseless. I was just going to run out again so would have to get some more then.

Why couldn't modern medicine find some way of giving patients bodily systems that wouldn't be dependent on refilling gasoline...I mean, taking medicine! Kinya said he'd go with me, like he always does.

It was HOT...I hadn't been out for awhile, haven't been walking or had any real exercise, for that matter, so even this 5-min. walk felt like torture for my weak back. We were "just walking," after all, not stopping here and there to take captivating pictures of wildlife.

I didn't see any of the flowers in the flowerboxes or parking lot...

The only living creatures that greeted us, I thought, were the kitty in the clinic parking lot and the sculpted sparrows on the sidewalk rails; but they were pretty extras God wanted me to see; thank You, Father.

As I was waiting for my prescription to be filled, it began sprinkling. I guess God used that to give us natural air conditioning, to bring down the temperature. Kinya and I decided, instead of taking nature pictures, since we might get rained on, to stop in at a nearby grocery store this afternoon--and God had treats lined up there for me...by the time we got out of the store, the clouds had parted, showing us a beautiful blue sky again.

By now, I'd gotten in the frame of mind where I could see the flowers God had been placing along the way for me. I hadn't been able to enjoy them when thinking about how hot and miserable I was. Just before going inside when we got back, I noticed my Mother's Day orchid mentioned in a previous post.

Hm; thank You God, for loving even silly folk like me who "gotta" be made every once in a while to enjoy His blessings!

HORSE RACE TO THE BOTTOM

 I think God would have me share from my journal...

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"a crown was given to him. and he went forth conquering" (Rev. 6:2)

At any rate, superiority over other men--a crown of conquest--is what the natural man would possess. Altho' the law of love tells us to seek to dive down to lift others up, it is the exact opposite the natural man seeks. He wants to be the best he can possibly be; he wants to succeed. His formula for success is to reach the top and to attain a "crown"...A Nobel Peace Prize? A Gugenheim? Perhaps not so big. A promotion? Simply a scholarship to a respected institution? "Superiority" is perhaps not the word I'm looking for. Praise? (Dare I say it: adoration/worship?) Individuals want it to be said "I made a difference," want to be remembered above others.

The race to the bottom to provide encouragement on which others can rise and find the life of God--have we not forgotten about our need to do so? It is when we do so and wear stripes and scars, not badges, ribbons, and trophies of honor, that God will say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." (Matt.25:21)

This is an illustration I drew in '85 when we were finishing up our deputation and coming to Japan as single missionaries with Baptist Mid-Missions, but clearly illustrates our Race, I think, so thought I'd post it here.

Are we obsessed with making God's Love known such we let our dreams get crucified in obscurity and our pride shamed? Then can we know what it is to say, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit." (Lk.23:46) And would not God Himself respond, "This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased." (Mk.1:11)

No; His Honor does not NEED our defense. But let us give all for Him in expression of our love for Him. In a rerun of the T.V. program, "Little House on the Prairie," a small illustration of this was given. Laura Ingalls gave up her treasured horse to Nellie Olsen in a trade for a stove for her mother.

The mother's first response was to say she couldn't let Laura give up her horse; she loved that horse! The father intervened: she loved her mother more so not to ruin it; let her give the gift. God often lets us honor Him with gifts He does not need to let us express our love for Him. (Of course, in this case, Laura's mother really could use that stove!)

...give up all for Christ? I can't even give up watching videos or doing online jigsaw puzzles--sigh.