SEEKING FORGIVENESS FOR 1,250 YEAR

Every year during the darkness of cold March night sparks fly, as monks shake 2.5-meter-long flaming torches with all their might, and bells and horns echo through Todaiji temple in Nara, Japan.

 

About 30,000 visitors flock to see part of the two-week ritual on the climactic night of March 12.

 

The more than 1,250-year-old annual ritual calls for 11 selected monks to cut themselves off from their usual lives and gradually purify their minds.

 

While the monks with the torches dance close enough to the fire to singe their eyebrows in a closed-door ritual, conducted in the temple's inner sanctum, one of the eleven monks splashes sacred water and others help to dust off the sparks from the floor. The other monks bow thousands of times to repent for people's sins.

 

According to Buddhist doctrine, people commit myriad offenses due to the ‘Three Poisons’ -- greed, anger and ignorance. When the offenses accumulate, people become unable to see the truth and become ill.

 

Since ordinary people cannot repent for their sins and misconduct, the monks do so, on their behalf in the ritual.

Source: Yomiuri News, by K. Sakane, 2006-06-20

Some people might think this is creepy. But I guess majority of us here would see this perhaps serve as a great redemptive tool for Good News! These people do acknowledge sins, and believe that there is a need to repent!

Many in the crowd might be there just for fun, but many more would be there simply believing that the Kannon will remove their sins, and they will be heal from sickness and troubles in life. We need to find these people and tell them what is the TRUTH! more 

Mission Frontiers

I hope that you are already reading this, and I pray that you will read this if you have not. 

 "Missions Frontiers" presents very solid ideas on the direction of evangelical and missions movement providing firm evidence to each idea they claims. It opens our eyes on the area "unserved", "untapped", and moves us on to take role in the Kingdom movement. 
Let's learn together!           January - February 2008 Contents

Heart4Japan

Job had just called me this afternoon, sharing with me that 30 people had registered as volunteers for community work during missions week at church back home. In deed it was a great news! 

I was informed that a friend in the same time was trying to recruit people to pray for Japan. So, I believe that we have a small corner for Heart4Japan, screening the H4J promotional clip, as well as "God's Fingerprints in Japan" produced  by Daniel Kikawa and his team. We had prepared new brochures, and we are launching "Christians Love Japan Action 2008" in the missions week. 2 more days to go, and I pray that God will open the hearts and minds of people about the needs in Japan. I pray for likely minded partners, intercessors, doers! 

While all these things are happening back home, Heart4Japan is also moving in Hong Kong, although uncertain still, but very likely the plans of God for Heart4Japan at this place is going to be unveil soon, in a fuller manner. 

We have now a group of people that comes from different churches had gathered together to pray for Japan, and share about their desires and love for this nation. And this group of people had also began to adopt the name "Heart4Japan" for themselves. To me, that is tremendous progress! 

"Heart4Japan" should be a movement that people take on the passions and spark it on to others. It's an individual thing, in the same time a corporate thing. Individual should be supported by their respective churches for their visions and plans to get involve. If not, we will support each other as a team! Not to act alone, but as a team. We share resources, provide information and links to local churches and missions organizations. We share our visions, doubts, and we pray together for a breakthrough in the field! The basis for Heart4Japan existence is that, "We come for each other!" We stand in for each other. 

Interestingly we find, Satan love to distract us from this vision, by threatening individuals, making us to feel alone, creating chaos and disunite God's people to come together even just to pray for Japan. The evil one had been doing this since day one as we started this group. The devil hit so hard, that we could always feel it instantly as almost every meeting began. The atmosphere would became so intense, that we would quickly engage into spiritual warfare, and that was scary at the beginning, but it helped us to train our spiritual muscles. Now, as we pray, we are excited about things to come, we know we are on the track, and the devil is afraid. And it is exciting to see how God intervene in this matter! We are not fighting alone, but with the help of holy beings and His very presence. 

As a member of Heart4Japan, whether you are networking with us or not, we need to beware of what is going on at the other side, and put on the armor of God regularly, constantly if possible. Knowing that it is not against flesh and blood that we are struggling with, but the powers of darkness and spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 

And this was what I saw when I was in Shiga, listening to this sermon in year 2005. I saw the power of the sermon was being bounded by the forces of authorities, just like a cocoon in the air, struggling, full of energy. Yet it was so hardly pressed that you can sense a bursting force encapsulated, and that was this sense that this cocoon had been there for a long period of time. 

Then I began to sense the heartaches, disappointments and desperation in the field, which mainly caused by the disunity and distrust of God's very own people. And we need to break THAT to reduce the dark force! Heartaches, disappointments, desperation was the essential component that had aggravated the dark force that had bounded the spirit of God in a form of cocoon! It is silly that on one hand we are shouting REVIVAL, and we are asking for REPENTANCE in this land; on another hand we are pulling one another, thus delaying the march of the Kingdom! 

We need to be aware! Be fully aware of it!

Now, the church that I am serving in Hong Kong had been thinking about working along with Heart4Japan. Although things had not gone very smoothly, yet there is hope in Christ! God had told me that "the Church is coming in", "this is not your ministry, but MY ministry. " I will lean on that message!

Yet, the group in Hong Kong had not been able to get together to pray with each other since October last year. This is not good at all! We need to get together to pray for Japan as corporate at least three times a year. And aside from that, we should form into small groups, constantly sharing our visions and dreams and encourage each other and intercede for each other at least once in a month. We should know what others are doing, be alert, and reading resources on our own, so that we know where we are, and how we can help to facilitate others for Japan! Ask God for the peace in Japan, ask God for the workers to be sent, ask God to send us partners to work together! Our God is for missions! He sent His only Son to die for us so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but live forever! His heart is for all people, not one less. 

People, we are called to be a Watchman! Not sleep-man. 

Arise! Watch for Japan! For our Lord, Jesus Christ is coming. He arise!

Pledge Allegiance

As we are going to have this discussion of "Is Christ the only way to Heaven?", this song came to me, "I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb".

This song was one of my favorite songs, not that I can sing them well, but songs that I listen in my quiet time, as I seriously consider my faith. 

God had quietly introduced to me a number of songs that almost review the whole history of early disciples and the life of Jesus before I was matured enough to read the bible on my own. It was the time while i was seeking, I was listening Nichole Nordeman; then Michael Card before I made my choice; then while I was building my foundation on Jesus Christ, Roy Boltz became my another source of inspiration. And because of the work of these artists, my heart was heavily pounded and half aware by the sacrifice of Christ and choices that believers have to make.

Look for these singers, Nichole Nordeman, Michael Card, Roy Boltz, and may you be bless! May you begin to seriously hear the Gospel, and choices that comes with it. If you are still considering in making that choice in your life, and you are not reading the bible, these songs would help you.

Bless you, my friends!

Coming back to this song, "I Pledge Allegiance To The Lamb", If Christ is not the only way to Heaven, it doesn't make sense of the effort of the early church. And beware my friends, there will come a time for us to choose. What will you choose?

Listen to it carefully, and you will hear, it is the name of Christ that Herod had asked the people to reject, so we can see the name of Christ is really important, a foundation of our faith. Not all who does good go to heaven, but the one who believe in His name, Jesus Christ.

You were born to be love

きみは愛されるため生まれた
きみの生涯は愛で満ちている
きみは愛されるため生まれた
きみの生涯は愛で満ちている
永遠の神の愛は　われらの出会いの中で実を結ぶ
きみの存在が　私にはどれほど大きな喜びでしょう
きみは愛されるため生まれた　今もその愛受けている
きみは愛されるため生まれた　今もその愛受けている

When one is searching the meaning of life, when one has doubt about his or her own existence, perhaps this will be the song that speaks to him or her. Yet, without a practical action of love that is shown by you and me, believers, how would we expect them to understand the fulfillment of eternal God in their live?

Mourning over one who lost - remembering BEYOND

It's always painful to lost someone who is dear to us, or even someone who had impacted our lives. For Christians, because of our faith, the sorrow would be flushed by the ensure of Heaven in the love and mercy of Christ.

There was a band in Hong Kong in the mid 80's to mid 90's. And there was this singer, 黄家驹Ka Kui. Ka Kui was the main song writer for the band - BEYOND. There was a heavy message of peace and hope in their songs. Music was great, they introduced bridge into their music, and it was not common at that time. They were at the front line, silently striking difference, yelling for equity when the rest on the stage were still lingering in popular music.

They really had made a great impact in the youth! Marginal or not marginal, respected their work.

In 1993, he fell off a 3 meter platform head first while he was working with the Fuji Television. He was then admitted into Tokyo Hospital and died after spending several days in coma. He was 31.

He had a vision, a dream, and a fighting sprit, never gave up. Sometimes he wore a big cross at his neck, and it kept me wonder if he was a Christian? Had it been a time that he was seriously considering about this faith, had someone reached out to him? perhaps he had sometime in the past even had said the sinner's prayer? It had been 15 years after he had left, and I still had that thought in me. A hope to see him in Heaven one day, and talk to him, tell him how much we miss him, just like a friend. O Lord, have mercy!

I thank God for all the people that had impacted my life, yet there are so many that I love and know do not know Christ! It's very uneasy to see such person leave us without knowing Christ. We talked about mourning in the last bible class, and you would be surprise that I'm constantly in pain mourning for my love ones who died before they became a Christian. And that feeling of lost and sadness created a big hole in my heart, and this is painful.

And I begin to think over this again, if I would mourn over the lost of someone that much, what more the mourn of the Lord to the lost of His people?

O Japan, how should I forget you？There are 128million people in Japan that do not know Christ. And many are fading away because of their age! Japan is not getting any further without Christ, in both physical or spiritual sense! People are dying without Christ in Japan! 100 people suicide in a day of average. The figure equals to the average total death in a year for Hong Kong. What would God think about this situation? Would he mourn over Japan?


O Lord, I plea to thee, not one to be lost!



Below is a video clip in remembering of Ka Kui, setting aside what we had missed in this young man's life and talent, what I felt the biggest miss is if we do not meet in Heaven......