Stand on the Word みことばに立つ

Charles Simeon knew the importance of The Word.
He firmly stood on the Word of God in his ministry for over fifty years.
He once said

"My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture out of what is there and not to trust in what I think might be there."

Some called Simeon Calvinist though his preaching was orthodox.
He had a conversation with John Wesley who was sometimes called Arminian...
somethigs like this

Simeon asked "Sir, do you feel yourself depraved creature, so depraved that you would never have thought of tuning to God if God had not first put it into your heart?"
"Yes, I do indeed." Wesley replied.
"And do you utterly despair of recommending yourself to God by anything you can do; and look for salvation solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ?"
"Yes, solely through Christ."
"But, sir, supposing you were first saved by Christ, are you not somehow or other to save yourself afterwords by your own works?"
"No, I must be saved by Christ from first to last."
"Allowing then that you were first turned by the grace of God, are you not in some way or other to keep yourself by your own power?"
"No."
"And is your hope in the grace and mercy of God to preserve you unto his heavenly kingdom?"
" Yes, I have no hope but in Him"
"Then we are cordially those things wherein we agree."

Regardless trash talk of some people, he strongly stood on the Word.

"Simply teaching the Word simply."

This is the legacy of Calvary Chapel that we are to pass on generation to generation.
As long as we stand on the Word of God, the movement will never stop.

So, why not we stick to the truth, orthodoxy and most importantly to the Word of God?


　チャールズ・シメオンはみことばに堅く立った教師だった。彼はその重要性を50年以上のミニストリーの中で常に守っていた。彼は常に聖書から教え、そこに自分があると思うものをはさむことはしなかった。彼は、神のみことばをのべ伝えることのみが人々の人生を、教会を変えることができると悟った。
　
　彼の人生、常にみことばを教え続けた人生を見るとカルバリーのレガシー「ただ素朴にみことばを教える」というフレーズが浮かんだ。このことは世代から世代へと受け継がれている。そして、私たちも受け継いでいくべきことである。
　最近エンジェルス・スタジアムで行われたハーベスト・クルセードのメッセンジャー、グレッグ・ローリーが言っていた「私でもなく、音楽でもなく、その他ものでもなく、福音の力が人々の人生を変える」と言っていたことを思い出した。
　だからこそ、神の言葉を学びたいし、そしてその力に信頼したいと思った。

Boast in my weakness

"If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness."
2Corinthians 11:30 (NASB)

The title of my last post was "Harvest that God brings". I wanted to communicate with you that our God works in His mighty way which I cannot even imagine most of the times. It is not our work that brings harvest, but it is God.

Throughout the week of outreach, I think I learned two things one of which I'd like to share in this post.

One, "The importance of recognizing my own weskness and seeking God's power"
As I said in last few posts, I didn't like passing out flyers and was thinking I am no good at evangelism. Though I had done outreaches in Okinawa many times, it was totally different here and very big challenge for me. Well, I still think I am no good. But, God used the challenge to train and teach me.
Though, in my mind, I know that God is all powerful and nothing is impossible for Him. But, my flesh constantly refused to fully trust in Him. So I took a step, stepping out of my comfortable zone to go out and do the task He gave me.

I said to God, "Ok, I'm going out to do what you told me to. So, you gatta do something!"
God would have said, "Ofcourse I will. Just trust in me."
After a while, I was like, "God, people don't recieve my flyers!! What's going on??"
God would have said, "Just trust in me."

......and you know the result. God showed up. He did His mighty work!
I believe throught the time of my challege, God was showing me my weakness and how I need to trust in God in the situation like that.
Boasting in own weakness is something that we, in our nature, never do. I learned that is simply why I need to be taught by God.
I want to end this post with two quotes, one from the great preacher and the other from my favorite song.

"Take courage, for there must be a consciousness of weakness bofore the Lord will give you victory. Your emptiness is but the preparation for your being filled, and your casting down is but the making ready for your lifting up."
C.H.Spurgeon

"Let now the weak say I have strength
By the spirit and power that raised Christ from the dead
Let now the poor stand and confess
Oh, my portion is in Him and I'm more than blessed"

Harvest that God brings

So, as I wrote on last post, I want to share what God has doing this past week.

I have already mention to the team of CCM from L.A..
We, together, did outreach events such as Icecream party, E.L.A. Night with passing out flyers.
I wrote in last post about how God worked in my heart to go out and do the things for the Lord with His power that sustains me perfectly.

So, I did. With help and ecouragement from God, I went out and passed out many flyers to invite people to church events.
Ofcourse, many refused to recieve them, but some did take them. During the whole time on the street, I was just praying that God will use this in His way which I totally cannnot think of.

And to my great surprise, God Did It!!!!!!!!!
On Tuesday, we had ice-cream party @ church.When I was sitting on chair and chatting, one boy came in. I was thinking he is friend of someone from church. However, I got up from my chair, went up to him and introduced myself asking how he knew this event. He just lifted his hand and showed me the flyer we were passing out earlier.
YES, HE CAME THROUGH THE FLYER!!!!! I was just overwhelmed by God's way of working!!
but,
Story does not end here.................

At the ice-cream party, one of the girls of CCM gave her testimony which was really nice. And They gave so-called salvation bracelet which explains sins, blood, cleanse, new life in Jesus, baptism and heaven, individually. Melissa from CCM as well, gave one to four-teen boy, who came with the flyer. I was given a oppotunity to help Melissa with interpretation.
So she explained what each color means. At end, she asked him,
"So, do you want to accept Jesus?"
he said,
"Yes"
.........................................!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?
Yes!!! He Said "YES" nodding his head!!!!
It was so beautiful to see one precous soul having got saved in front of me!

Later, he came to our Friday night Bible study. Again, he openly accepted Jesus as his Savior!



The boy in the middle is him, Yuya with me and Aaron.
Please pray that he will continually come to church and grow in Jesus
　真ん中の男の子が、ゆうや君です。

(Please leave a comment for him)

投稿を公開

　この前の投稿で、神が何をなさったかについて書くといいました。今回はそれについての投稿です。

　ＣＣＭのチームとアウトリーチをしてました。もちろん、神の力によって、自分の恥ずかしい、恐いという思いと戦いながらでしたが・・・・・・
　何をしたかというと、教会でアイスクリームパーティーや、イーストＬＡナイトなどの企画があり、またそのためのチラシ配りをしました。あまり準備時間がないままの企画だったので、ホントにもう神が何かするしかないなーって感じで配りました。もちろん、多くの人は取ってくれなかったのですが、幾人かの人は取っていくれました。
　そうしたらなんと・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・
　来たんです！！！ゆうや君という中二の子が、チラシを見たと言って来てくれたんです！！！
　神が私の想像もしなかった方法で働かれました！（人づてにしか来ないと思ってたんで）
　でも、まだここでは終わりませんでした・・・・・・・・

　彼が来たアイスクリーム・パーティーではＣＣＭの一人の子が証しをしてくれました。そして、サルベーション・ブレスレッドというものを、個人個人に配りました。
　メリッサというこれまたＣＣＭの女性が、先ほど紹介したゆうや君にそれを渡しました。私は通訳としてメリッサとともにそこで働く機会が与えられました。そして、彼女がそのブレスレッドの意味（罪、清め、血、バプテスマ、新しい命、天国）を説明しました。そして最後にこう言いました、
　「イエスを受け入れたい？」
　そうすると彼は、
　「うん」と言ってうなずきました。
　！？！？！？！？！？！？！？　　「うん」！？
　そうです！！受け入れたんです！
　ゆうや君はそこでイエスを心に受け入れました。
　そして、その後の金曜日のバイブルスタディでも手を挙げ、受け入れるという意思を示しました。
　このような、神の素晴らしい働きに立ち会うことができて本当に幸せでした。
　　神は本当に、私たちの想像もしないような方法で働いて下さいました！
　主を賛美します！

Fear that brings........

Hi, everyone!! Sorry for not posting past few weeks. I was really busy with finals (five all nighters was first exprience in my life....).
Anyways, I am on officially summer break now.

These past few days, we are doing out-reach in our community with a group of CC Montebello.
Sorry, I totally forgot taking pics. I'll post some later.

When it comes to out-reach, I get really nervous. I always get timid about talking to some one.
I feel I am always afraid of people ignoring me sharing or rejecting flyers. Today, I was feeling like that again.....
During a break time, I was talking to Mark, one of the leaders of this group, he said that he doesn't get fearful of people rejecting flyers because they are rejecting a chance to meet Jesus. (not exact quote) The thing is the statement made me realize the reason I was so fearful was that I was just afraid of being embarrassed or not seeing real fruit of it. So self-centered and Christ rejected thought.....

I recall Greg Laurie's words,

"Not all of us are called to evangelism, but all of us are called to evangelize."

It's His command, why am I trying to hold off?
I realized the fear came from my unbelief of God's power and His goodness.
If I believe He is powerful enough to use person like me, why I'm not doing my best?
When I stepped out of my comfortable zone, I may fail to hit the goal. But even through the time, I am getting stronger in God. Proverbs 24:16 says ,

For a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again.(NASV)

God lifts us up when we fall.
God gives us fulfillling experience when we step out our comfort zone indeed.
The fact was, Harvest was awaiting.
Because afterwards, I was able to see God's great work.
I will write about it next time.