Author: editors

Jesus commands us to be baptized.    Matter of fact, it is so important that He got baptized himself.

15 And He said to them, “ Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned
(Mark 16:15-16 NKJV)

It’s very simple, but good to understand a bit more about baptism.

Water baptism is not only significant to the person being baptized, but it also testifies to his or her community what happened when their life was changed by Jesus. It confirms and strengthens the new believer’s commitment to live a godly life. It also gives the believer the opportunity to openly testify to others of his experience of having been crucified with Christ, buried with Him and raised together with Him to walk in newness of life (Galatians 2:20; Romans 6:4-6).

The significance of water baptism is clear when you understand the meaning of the original Greek verb baptidzo. It means “to immerse.” Immersion is a picture of burial. So, though some churches sprinkle or pour water in the baptismal ceremony, it is when a believer is completely submerged and then raised up out of the water that the significance is more clearly understood. The old man is dead and buried. A new man is raised up out of the grave, reborn to live a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is important. Without first making Jesus Lord and believing that God raised Him from the dead, water baptism would have no purpose. Water baptism is not the baptism that saves. What cleanses us from sin is not the water but the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross (see Ephesians 1:7; Hebrews 9:22; Revelation 1:5). If you feel you’ve never properly buried your old, sinful nature and dedicated your whole self to the Lord, don’t wait any longer—find a place to participate in water baptism and get totally free!

This description is quoted from here.

James 1:14-15 (GWT)
Everyone is tempted by his own desires as they lure him away and trap him. Then desire becomes pregnant and gives birth to sin. When sin grows up, it gives birth to death.

James 1:6-8 (GWTransl)
When you ask for something, don’t have any doubts. A person who has doubts is like a wave that is blown by the wind and tossed by the sea. A person who has doubts shouldn’t expect to receive anything from the Lord. A person who has doubts is thinking about two different things at the same time and can’t make up his mind about anything.

James 1:5 (GWTransl)
If any of you needs wisdom to know what you should do, you should ask God, and he will give it to you. God is generous to everyone and doesn’t find fault with them.

Proverbs 4:23 (GWT)

Guard your heart more than anything else,

because the source of your life flows from it.

As a believer, we are challenged to protect our hearts.  Remember, as humans, we are a three-part being. We are a spirit, we have a soul, and we live in a body.  (1 Thess 5:23).

Our heart in the Bible is our soul and our spirit. Of course, our soul is our mind, will, and emotions. The wisdom of Proverbs to to protect your heart. How do you do it?  By protecting the entrances to your heart or soul, your eyes, ears, nose, mouth.. Your senses.

If you want to go deeper with God, you can’t watch what the world watches. You can’t say what the world says. You can’t listen to what the world listens to. You’ve got to surround yourself with God things. Gods ways are the way to eternal life. Gods ways are the way to long life.

As you go about your day today, make an effort to protect your heart. When you do, your spirit will become more sensitive to hearing Gods voice when He directs you.

1 My son, do not forget my law,
But let your heart keep my commands;
2 For length of days and long life
And peace they will add to you
(Proverbs 3:1-2 NKJV)

The Bible tells us how to live long life.  Have you ever had one of those days where it seems like whatever you do just doesn’t flow.  Or worse, you running so hard all day, it doesn’t seem like you can accomplish all the set out to accomplish that day?  There is a way to fix that.

For myself, I noticed that when I don’t have my time with the Lord in the morning (some people pray in the evenings which is okay too) that my heart is not set.  Proverbs 3 gives us the answer to how to set up your day.

Verse 1 says to remember His law and keep His commands.  What are we talking about here?  We’re talking about the Word of God.  When you take the time to read the Word of God and pray each day, you are setting your day up for effectiveness and success that only God can give.  There are two things that come out of this.  Verse two tells us-

1. Length of Days
2. Long Life

What exactly does that mean?  Will God give you more than 24 hours?  No.  But God will help you do more in 24 hours than any unbeliever or person out of fellowship with God.

It also says you will get long life.  What exactly does that mean?  It means when you get into the Word and pray each day, God will give you more time on this earth, to do more.  Praise God!  Isn’t that amazing?  When you get into the Word and follow God, you will live longer.  Praise God!  I want to live longer.  I am planning for 120 years and a full life.  How about you?

I’ve been to Singapore many times and love the people. Lots of wonderful followers of Jesus like us there. We know City Harvest members in Singapore but we don’t know Kong Hee. Undoubtedly, it is a wonderful church. It’s a huge church. 

Sometimes when a church grows, a pastor can see it as his work instead of the Lords. From the news reports in both secular and Jesus media (such as the Wall Street Journal, the BBC and Charisma News), it seems pretty obvious what happened. Kong Hee diverted millions of dollars in church funds ($35m to be exact) to promoting his wife’s secular music career. We don’t know what he was thinking when he was doing this. Maybe he thought they deserved it or that he would return the church funds once his wife’s career took off. They did try to justify the secular music videos as ‘ministry’, which seems to show the pastor did not wake up yet. 

Everyone messes up. Yes everyone. Including pastors and ministers. When you are in sin, many times when ministers are in sin they try to rationalize or justify things. This is nothing new. King David did it with adultery until the minister Samuel called him out.  When David realized his sin, he repented and completely turned back to God. However he still had to pay the price for his sin. Sadly the child fathered in sin died and later his older son absolom rebelled against him to try to take his position as King. David had to pay the price for his sin but when his friends called him out, he was able to turn around. 

For Kong Hee, he also is going to have to pay the price for his wrong doing. Let’s pray the Holy Spirit convict his heart and the hearts of his leaders that went along with him. City Harverst is wonderful church we should support in prayer. Let’s lift them up and watch how God turns this around as the pastor repents. Unfortunately, the pastor will have to pay the price for stealing and will likely get prison time for it. 

However, just because the pastor did wrong doesn’t not mean that all the individuals of the church are off. Let’s not discount what God has done and is doing through City Harvest church in Singapore. 

Proverbs 2:6-9 (GWTransl)
The Lord gives wisdom.
From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
He has reserved priceless wisdom for decent people.
He is a shield for those who walk in integrity
in order to guard those on paths of justice
and to watch over the way of his godly ones.
Then you will understand what is right and just and fair—
every good course ⌜in life⌟.

Fairness and Justice is Gods way. Mariko served at a church before we went into Ministry for several years. We loved the people and grew while we were there. 

They were having financial problems. We later discovered why, the leadership was ‘gray’ when it came to money. 

We prayed about it and decided to leave. When we stopped going, the pastor lied to the church and said we didn’t want to be talked to. 

You cannot cheat and expect God to bless you. Praise God He is gracious and willing to forgive if we turn from evil. The cool thing is that God blesses and gives wisdom to those who walk in integrity. 

  
Today, Sunday, was an amazing service. Kayvin opened the service with Deuteronomy 28. Lord, let your blessing chase us and overtake us! Powerful.

I had prepared a message on prayer as I sensed God wants me to continue on this. That will continue. However, I also was directed by the Father to have certain people to give testimonies of what God had done for them. This was yesterday (Saturday) during our prayer and fasting time.

We skipped the message and started with a great testimony from Yoko about how God brought her to Victory. It was very good as I felt the same way years ago before we started Victory. We need to pray for more churches in Japan!

Then we also heard from Gigi about how she and her sister were protected from a bombing at the airport in Davao in 2004. If God had not of intervened her, her sister, and two brothers would have been maimed or even killed.

Mariko shared how God wants to help those who are tired. She asked if anyone wanted prayer. About 15 people came forward.

Anika sang “Complete” by the Parachute band in English. What a girl with such guts! It was so cute.

Following church, we had very brief Life Group/Bible Studies. We divide into Japanese and English groups. There was so much going on that we just had 30 minutes. It was good. We were happy to welcome guests from all over. Daniel was visiting from Hakuba Nagano. Great to have him!

We’re getting ready for the Christmas Party in Shibuya on 6 December from 3PM. There was a quick planning for that, then we called it a day.

Can’t wait to get to Victory again Wednesday!