真の家族

妻は１０年以上に渡り、留学生に日本語を教えています。
多くの留学生は、日本に戻って来たいと考えるようです。

日本の社会環境の素晴らしさ、治安の良さ、住みやすさ、食事や製品の素晴らしさなどが挙げられます。

しかし、学生が疑問に思うのは、日本の家族の在り方です。
ハンガリーから来た留学生は、あらゆる面で日本は優れているが、家族だけは自国の方がはるかに良いと語りました。

ご両親は共働きで決して裕福ではありませんが、早く家に帰った者が食事の支度をして、休日には家族が公園でピクニックするのが日常だそうです。
質素な生活ですが、家族をとても大切にします。

教会は、正真正銘、神の家族です。
しかし、日本では良い家族のモデルを目にすることがありません。
日本人が普通に（無意識に）考える家族の概念を教会に持ち込むなら、それは聖書とかけ離れた姿となってしまいます。

使徒の働きには、宗教ではない、会員制度でもない神の家族の様子が記録されています。
それは、地球上のどの国にも、真の家族の素晴らしさを示しています。

エペソ人への手紙２章１９節

Measure of our faith

Recently, a leader of the biggest church in Singapore was arrested. He used the non-profit offering for his wife’s entertainment activity in U.S.A., in short, for commercial. His crime hasn’t been charged yet but it’s a sad thing and I pray that non-Christians don’t stumble because of this issue.

This church is so called Mega Church (more than 20,000 members), this pastor lives in a luxurious house in America, and he travels in first class between America and Singapore so there was an argument against him. *I don’t want you to misunderstand this but this thing itself is not a sin. Many people in Japan and Asia thought they want to be a pastor like him.

I’ll introduce a story that I heard from a leader in Sri Lanka. When he was invited from a church in other country, a ticket of business class was sent to him. He told the church, “please send me a ticket of economy class from next time because I want to use the amount of difference for pastors here.”

When I heard this story, I thought I want to have faith like him. We can’t decide which one is correct or wrong (at least, I don’t have the authority to decide it.) because each country has different situation or the way of thinking. Also, we can’t imagine the person’s motivation.

In the Bible, it says people have different measure of faith but leaders have a big responsibility. When we judge something and when we think we are correct, we need to go in front of the Lord and pray. God. Search me and know my heart.

The Lord is our High Priest and a Chief Shepherd.

Psalm 26:2

Appearance often 〜 Old Testament

After an expression of “Appearance often” is “deceives.” When a newscaster interviews people who live near a criminal, they answer, “I didn’t see he or she does that kind of terrible thing.”

When Samuel tried to appoint Eliab as a king, Samuel heard the voice, “you shouldn’t see his appearance or his height.” At this time, not only Eliab’s appearance but also their traditional thought and family environment influenced Samuel.

If we judge people with their appearance, their way of talking, their occupation, or their outside, we might misjudge people. People see outside but the Lord sees inside of our heart. Christians also need to judge after hearing the Lord’s voice not with people’s outside.

1 Samuel 16:6~7

A meeting that thinks about the issue of cult group, “Setsuri”

There were meetings that think about the issue of Korean cult group, “Setsuri”, on 6th and 7th of July. We can say this issue is very serious because many mass communication medias and more than 110 people attended the meeting. The sponsor is not Christians or churches. Usually, this kind of meeting will be closed with feeling of helplessness although they call out to try hard in front of severe reality but in this meeting we felt pleasant cooling sensation although the atmosphere was heavy.

Speakers were ex-members of “Setsuri” from Korea. One of them used to be a pastor of this cult group and another one was a key person in Korea and was leading this group from the beginning. Right now, these two people have true faith and talked about what the problems are and what the solutions are with tears.

They spent their life in this cult group for 20 or 30 years but the Lord lead them from the darkness to the light. They can share the truth openly without hiding anything or conniving (which means to tell a lie for their god.) to protect their cult group.

Colossians 1:13

Attack churches in Nigeria

Boko Haram, Islamic extremist, blasted 3 churches this month. In April, they attacked a school and more than 20 people were murdered. They believe western education is sin and evil.

Just like India, we can see they have misunderstanding and have prejudice of western religion. There is no stained glass and chairs. They don’t sing English worship songs and pastors don’t wear a gown. Also, faith of Christians was not from western countries. (It had spread out from Middle East and Asian countries at that time.)

I don’t know why but Japanese people have wrong image that a church is a western thing as with countries where has persecutions. Christians and churches are not built on some countries, culture, tradition, and belief. Christians and churches of Christ are built on the rock.

Acts 11:26

My wife’s homemade dish

My wife had never cooked until we got married. Before we got married, she thought she can’t get married because she can’t cook. Right now, she can cook a variety of dishes. Especially, her curry rice and ratatouille are good.

Why did she think she can’t cook? One of the reasons is she didn’t have an experience or opportunity. Another reason is her mother’s word.
Before her mother passed away, we believe she believed the Lord but she had always said to my wife, “you can’t cook”. The repeated word gave her a bad influence unknowingly.

Although the word was true, it was not God’s word. The Bible and God’s word is the only guideline for Christians although other word has a big influence.

Deuteronomy 11:18

Cross over American dream

A business journal, Forbes, announced a billionaire’s list of athlete. The first is F. Mayweather and he has 6 billion 700 million yen. The second is Manny Pacquiao and he has 4 billion 900 million yen. The third is Tiger Woods.

People who succeeded from poverty or deprived situation are called American Dream but I would like to introduce a person who is nothing like as good as American Dream. He is Sun Myung Moon, a leader of sect, “the Unification church”.

According to the internal record, he and his family got 30 billion yen in 2011 and this money is from Japan. Two boxers above trained hard, lost weight, and had a rough game. After that, they received this reward. However, this leader just gave instructions and believers worked like a horse for him. However, this leader who says he is a resurrected lord has unlucky events, such as being sued by his wife and son, fighting for the next leader, and so on.

One of boxers above is in prison and another one is asked to divorce by his wife. Mr. Wood, Tiger divorced because of his bad behavior with many women.

Jesus told us we can’t serve both God and wealth. Christians can experience wonderfulness of serving God. This life is more wonderful than American dream and a cult leader.

Mathew 6:24