Some Links Are Not Yet Active!
This space will be dedicated to ideas and impressions from our daily lives in Japan. It will not be strictly about just mission or the church or about religion. Life is more than any of these issues and often seemingly unrelated items have strong confluent impressions on our spiritual lives. Sometimes it will be chatty. Sometimes analytical, sometimes only a reporting of events which seem either interesting or likely to have some long range effect. Please let me know if you like it and if it should continue to have a place on The Front Porch.
2. Shadow Buildings, Shadow Generals, Shadow Me
Christmas is coming. Advent is not waiting. It is coming. It does not matter how many sermons one must write. It matters less how many engagements you have. It disregards our scheduled desires. It is coming. And it comes in its own way - usually surprising the stars out of us if we don't try to shoot it out of the sky as it is attempting to land in our backyards.
It was thinking about Christmas in Japan and Advent, for which we in Japan have waited all those many years thinking it was just around the corner. I have quoted before the letter published in the old Presbyterian Missionary Survey (Did you realize that the Now defunct Presbyterian Survey was once dedicated entirely to overseas missionary news?) sometime around the beginning of the century, that "if things continue as they are today Japan will be a Christian nation in 50 years." At least that is the best my memory can do....History has a way of making liars out of radical prophets it seems. But History is also the vehicle which God uses His Wonders to Proclaim. And God does not always listen to you and me. You have likely noticed this one or two times if you have paid attention.
When we came to Japan, it seemed that we were going to find out how it would be to experience a completely uncommercial Christmas. That would not be too much to expect of a land with old established religions and only perhaps a1% Christian population, would it? Well think again. Except in the Churches, Christmas was only commercial. That was something which has irked a few of us overseas types.
Would it surprise you to learn that it appears that God doesnÕt listen to our complaints about this either? What is beginning to bring people to an acceptance of the truth of the Gospel is the trappings! At least it appears that way from my "CrowÕs Nest". There is a beautiful church (with flying Buttresses even! ) building on Highway 19 in Kasugai which I pass each week on my way to the little storefront where the faithful gather for worship. The Magnificent Building is not a Church, however. It is a church building used only for weddings (Crass commercialism!). Of course I am a little jealous! But unless my antenna are missing the mark completely, the wedding business is lowering some of the barriers which prevent people from entering Church Buildings for real worship!
And Santa......Well, would it surprise you to discover that the jolly old fellow may really be a saint in disguise? It would not be the first time that God has done a "no no" which has worked out just fine! (12/2/98)
Christmas is coming. Advent is not waiting. It is coming. It does not matter how many sermons one must write. It matters less how many engagements you have. It disregards our scheduled desires. It is coming. And it comes in its own way - usually surprising the stars out of us if we don't try to shoot it out of the sky as it is attempting to land in our backyards.
It was thinking about Christmas in Japan and Advent, for which we in Japan have waited all those many years thinking it was just around the corner. I have quoted before the letter published in the old Presbyterian Missionary Survey (Did you realize that the Now defunct Presbyterian Survey was once dedicated entirely to overseas missionary news?) sometime around the beginning of the century, that "if things continue as they are today Japan will be a Christian nation in 50 years." At least that is the best my memory can do....History has a way of making liars out of radical prophets it seems. But History is also the vehicle which God uses His Wonders to Proclaim. And God does not always listen to you and me. You have likely noticed this one or two times if you have paid attention.
When we came to Japan, it seemed that we were going to find out how it would be to experience a completely uncommercial Christmas. That would not be too much to expect of a land with old established religions and only perhaps a1% Christian population, would it? Well think again. Except in the Churches, Christmas was only commercial. That was something which has irked a few of us overseas types.
Would it surprise you to learn that it appears that God doesnÕt listen to our complaints about this either? What is beginning to bring people to an acceptance of the truth of the Gospel is the trappings! At least it appears that way from my "CrowÕs Nest". There is a beautiful church (with flying Buttresses even! ) building on Highway 19 in Kasugai which I pass each week on my way to the little storefront where the faithful gather for worship. The Magnificent Building is not a Church, however. It is a church building used only for weddings (Crass commercialism!). Of course I am a little jealous! But unless my antenna are missing the mark completely, the wedding business is lowering some of the barriers which prevent people from entering Church Buildings for real worship!
And Santa......Well, would it surprise you to discover that the jolly old fellow may really be a saint in disguise? It would not be the first time that God has done a "no no" which has worked out just fine! (12/2/98)