Living in Graceland

Jim and Terui Grace's beautiful worship space in Sendai, Japan

"Living in Graceland" is a term that talk show host Eric Hogue uses to describe Christian living. We live in a place of immeasurable grace that we have received from God. When Paul prayed about his thorn, God's answer was, "My grace is sufficient". For the afflicted, that can be a very confusing if not unsatisfying answer. And I'm not talking about your everyday "I can't believe that Starbuck's ran out of toffee bars" variety of suffering. These are trials that can shake the foundations of a person's faith. God did not save us from sin and death just to be broken by trials. He has, whether it feels like it or not, given us through his grace everything we need to get through our trials. Even though you don't know if you can go on, with God's help you will. How many times in your life did you ever think, "I can't make it..." but did? The reason is the second part of the aforementioned verse, "for my power is made perfect in weakness." God got you through it. Our strength is too weak to get us through our difficulties, but that's exactly where God's strength lies. And that's life in the land of grace.

American Idol

Christians across the nation were pleasantly surprised on Wednesday when the hit TV reality series, American Idol, concluded their show with a rendition of the the praise song, "Shout to the Lord."

In this day and age, that a secular show with such wide appeal would feature a Christian anthem in it's closing act is no short of miraculous. On top of the fact that American Idol regularly draws 30 million + viewers on a weekly basis, they selected Shout to the Lord to be sung on their mid-season gala show, "Idol Gives Back", their celebrity-studded charity telethon which earned over $60 million in just a few nights. The "Idol Gives Back" episode likely drew millions more viewers than their normal numbers.

One peculiarity that many observers noticed was that Idol replaced the name "Jesus" in the opening verse of the song with "shepherd." To their credit, when they encored the performance on Thursday night's show (that's right! they sang it TWICE in one week! Amazing!), they rightly sang the verse by addressing the praise song to "my Jesus, my savior."

Here is Thursday night's performance with "Jesus":


I may be a little cynical most days, so I doubt myself when I make this speculation, but I wonder if there is a certain element in today's culture that is tired of the removal of God from all thing public and are simply ready for revival.

Pray that it is so!

Here is Wednesday' (inferior) performance with the word "shepherd":

"My Grace is Sufficient"

"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness ' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me."

- II Corinthians 12:9

Blessed are the pure in heart. . .

. . . for they shall see God. (Matthew 5:8)

This picture totally reminds me of God as a cosmic being, and if you stare long enough, you may even see a face in the dust. But seeing God is not something that is for everyone. Matthew 5:8 was spoken by a very trustworthy source, yet how many of us actually "see" God? John MacArthur says that a more literal translation to "They shall see God" would be, "They shall be continuously seeing God for themselves." The pure in heart are the ones that are walking in step with God, seeking him and obeying what he commands. Is it then any wonder that when you are walking with God, you will see him? Of course we can't see God visually, but we can definitely see his fingerprints in our own lives and the lives of others if we are pure in heart. What others may quickly dismiss as "coincidence" or "unsolved mystery" the pure in heart see as God's work. Sometimes we see God in the miraculous, like an open door where there once was none. Or we may see him in something as mundane as washing dishes. The possibilities are endless because whether we see him or not, God is everywhere. Seeing God is no small thing. Is it any wonder that a person who is pure in heart is blessed? I pray that you will be blessed with a pure heart so that you will see God today.

What Happened to "Heal Our Land"?

What the hey? I go to check the mail this afternoon and what do I find?

Another broken window

But this time there's... evidence!

This does not look like our "land" being healed to me! The weird thing is that I was at church all day except for a couple of hours in between when I was at a lunch meeting. It must have happened at that time because I don't think it was broken when I got there, and I don't think it was broken anytime I was in the office because I think I would've heard the pellet hitting the glass. It's so easy to want to unload on the person that does this, but really should we expect anything different? What can we expect from someone that neither knows God nor acknowledges his ways. And that's how we all were before the mercy and love of God saved us. And even though the person that did this would be considered an enemy of God, isn't that the kind of person that God loves and saves? Of course it is. Let us pray for the person that did this would be forgiven, because it is obvious that he or she "knows not what they do." And pray for our church too because changing these windows are really expensive!

Heal Our Land Part II - Walk in the Light

From darkness to light

At the dedication of God's temple, God responded to Solomon's prayer with this: if my people, who are called by my name (e.g., CHRIST-ian), will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)

To humble yourself and pray means to seek God. After all, isn't the main point of prayer to be in God's presence? But we must also repent. We are all sinful, and must repent from something. Some must repent from the bad things that they've done, some must repent because of the good things they haven't done. The bigger problem might be the good that we are supposed to do, we don't do. Not that we never think, say, or do bad things; we do them all the time. But for some reason the other aspect of sin, "missing the mark," is not talked about so much. I think the most telling fact is that most non-believers can easily identify what we are against, not what we are for. What is/are the good thing(s) that you have been neglecting lately? Choose this moment to walk in the light. And when we do this, God will bring revival in our hearts and heal our land.

Heal Our Land Part I - Go to Prayer. . . Meeting!

Guess who came to prayer meeting last Wednesday?

Prayer meeting attendance has been very. . . shall we say. . . not so good, lately. Last week we had just 2! Including me! But let's be honest here: attendance has never been good. At best, we'd get 10 English congregation members. Coming together as a community of believers to pray for our ministries, our members, as well as other needs in our area, or even the world is important and does make a difference. At the dedication of God's temple, God responded to Solomon's prayer with this: if my people, who are called by my name (e.g., CHRIST-ian), will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14) Can you imagine what our world would look like if all churches were truly "Houses of Prayer"? Would God not heal our churches, families, communities, nation, and even the world? Prayer matters. Maybe you can't make it every week, but what about every other week, or even once a month? Every little bit matters. Revival on a large scale will never happen without starting on a small scale - with you and me. Come to prayer meeting. No matter what you've allowed yourself to believe previously, your presence matters.

Schedule change: Starting 4/16, we will start prayer meeting at 7:30 PM instead of 8:00.