“I want to believe.”

We are thankful that some dear Japanese folks came to trust in Christ in 2009. But two other people that stand out in my mind at the end of 2009 are what I call want-to-believe’rs, individuals who say they would like to believe in the Lord rather than that they actually do believe in him.

One is a high school girl who came to a Christmas meeting with her Christian friend. The gospel was clearly presented, and the Holy Spirit was obviously at work. But she comes from a very strong Buddhist family. She said to her friend after the meeting, “I want to believe.,” implying that she would follow the Lord IF it were only easier for her to do so.

The other want-to-believe’r is a grown man, who has read through the entire Bible in the last two years and came to church for several months. He still comes occasionally, but his position in his family is apparently weak, probably being an “adopted” son-in-law. His daughter, who attended a “Christian” high school, is adamantly opposed to Christianity. So it is impossible for him at home, not to mention at work and in other places, to easily believe in the Lord.

In North America one runs into folks like these commonly in places like Quebec, Salt Lake City, and tight-knit ethnic communities in N.Y.C., L.A., and elsewhere, where opposition to biblical Christianity is up-front and obvious. In other places, where persecution is much less obvious, people often quickly say, “I believe.,” but then fall away later whenever any real persecution comes. In hard places like here, however, it’s can be real progress and a reason to hope, to even hear someone say, “I want to believe.”

Of course, we (and more importantly the Lord) are not satisfied with these “want-to-believe” responses. And we will continue to pray for and work with these folks. The Lord can give them the personal courage that they need (Rev. 21:8) or even change their situation if he chooses. So thank you for praying for our two outstanding want-to-believe’rs of 2009. May they become true believers in 2010!

In Quest of Real Christmas

In some of our many Christmas meetings this year I've been using the "In Quest" method to compare the wise men and King Herod. The approach is to simply describe them on parallel worksheets. What a great contrast this makes! They were wise seekers; he was a wicked seeker. They had great joy; he had great anger. They brought blessed gifts; he brought great sorrow. They were able to find and worship the true King of the Jews; he was unable to find and kill the true King.

The final point in this study is that both the wise men and Herod were real people, and that Christmas is only real to those have real faith like the wise men. Herod, too, "believed" in a way, but a way that did him and others no good. (James 2:19)

Perhaps this can be part of a text titled "In Quest of Christmas" someday. I now have several such studies, having studied and spoken on several questions in the Christmas passages in recent years.

Questions in John Progress

Each week a new lesson on "Questions in John" is written and studied in the adult School school class at our main Japanese church. A friend teaches this class two Sundays a month, when I am speaking at other churches. It's going very well.

Recently a sample lesson, and introduction to the "In Quest" study method was sent out to people on our Japanese mailing list, most of whom have used other material from us in the past. Lessons are being translated as time allows.

In mid to late January, the editorial committee at AMG Publishers in TN will be reviewing this original material, in English, of course, for their possible (Dare I say likely?) publication. At present they have several lessons of the work as samples and several more will be sent in the next few weeks. It's a lot of work polishing up lessons to the level needed for this all important evaluation. (The format and layout has changed some since we first started writing.) And there are, of course, many other things happening, as well, in our other local ministries.

Christmas Meetings & Snow

We've been very busy with Christmas meetings. (I'm not sure just how many, in total, but more than ten for sure.) There are two this week (Tues. Dec. 22 & Wed. Dec. 23) And there is even a big one on the 27th. (for about a dozen high school students), after Christmas!

There's been a lot of snow, about 3' on the ground now; so I've been doing a lot of shoveling. It's good exercise, about two hours a day. Maybe I'll post a photo soon, if the house is still visible to photograph.