Author: editors

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!

“I’ve asked you for two things.
Don’t keep them from me before I die:
Keep vanity and lies far away from me.
Don’t give me either poverty or riches.
Feed me ⌜only⌟ the food I need,
or I may feel satisfied and deny you
and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’
or I may become poor and steal
and give the name of my God a bad reputation.

Proverbs 30:7-9 (GWT)

The above prayer was quoted to me by a well meaning missionary’s wife many years ago. She told me she was praying for not too much and not too little. Immediately I had a check in my spirit and thought, what a stupid prayer. Too much or too little is all relative. For me, for example, having 100 people at our church is too little (or in proper English, too few) as a pastor. I believe God wants our family to have more influence. For another Pastor or minister 30 people may be too many (or too much). It’s all relative, that’s why I called it a stupid prayer.

After she said this to me, of course I also had to look the Bible verse up in context.  We know Proverbs are mostly the wisdom of Solomon, however I noticed chapter 30 was not written by him by someone named Agur.

Then I looked at how Agur described himself in context.
The words of Agur, son of Jakeh. Agur’s prophetic revelation.

Agur Speaks about God
[To God]
This man’s declaration:
“I’m weary, O God.
I’m weary and worn out, O God.
I’m more ⌜like⌟ a dumb animal than a human being.
I don’t ⌜even⌟ have human understanding.
I haven’t learned wisdom.
I don’t have knowledge of the Holy One.
Now, the writer says himself that he has no understanding and even refers to himself as stupid.

Proverbs 30:1-3 (GWT)

So that begs the question. Why would anyone want to pray such a stupid prayer about asking God not to give them too much?  I think only religious people can swallow that silly line.

Yes, it is possible to pray a stupid and meanness prayer. However, that is not Gods plan. He wants us to pray with power so the place shakes!

I hate religion. It’s illogical and binds people up. I love Jesus. He’s logical and sets people free to achieve whatever they can conceive by faith!

• It is so neat to finally see a real Christian running for the United States President.  Most people running for office seem to scramble for a Bible to put in their hand to carry to the local church when the cameras are running.  They don’t know God so how could we expect them to have the wisdom of God to lead a nation?  There are very few that are truly followers of Jesus.  After months of observation, it is very clear to me that Dr. Ben Carson is a true follower of Jesus.  Hallelujah!  What is so appealing about him as the next US President?
• Dr. Carson actually started with nothing.  He and his brother we’re raised by a single parent in Detroit.
• Dr. Carson worked hard to become America’s leading neurosurgeons.
• Dr. Carson cares about people and you can see it.
• Dr. Carson recognizes that the political correctness or PC is just taking America down, not making us stronger.
• Dr. Carson prays.  What that means is that when we pray for him, God can direct him as the guy can hear God’s voice
• Dr. Carson has served on the boards of major companies such as Costco and understands business as he runs his own.
• Dr. Carson founded and runs non-profits that help bring kids from being dependent on the government to being self sufficient.  He did it himself.

It is so refreshing to finally see a godly person, who is truly listening to God’s voice running for office.  I’ve had enough Obamas, Clintons, and Bushes.  We need to be praying and acting on getting someone who can bring America back into prosperity and fix the broken moral compass.

I’m praying for Dr. Carson.  What an exciting time!

I get many compliments on my Bible.  I love the Word of God. It is powerful.  I actually have many Bibles and many different translations.  We mostly use the New King James Version Bible (NKJV) at Victory Word Church in English and 新改訳 or Shinkaiyaku in Japanese.  Both very good.

One reason, my Bibles are so different is that they are actually custom made.  I have a friend in Florida that will actually take a Bible, new or old, and remove the cover and recover in all sorts of different leathers.  Cowhide, calfskin, pig, goat, all sorts of leathers.  With zippers, with straps, whatever you like.  Very cool.  Below are some of my personal Bibles he has done.  All of the below Bibles are cowhide.

I have a business trip to the US coming up.  Have ordered ten Bibles with large print, in New King James Version, and thin.  I’ll bring them back to Japan for our book table as people are always asking for Bibles.

If you would like a custom made Bible, please let us know before 28 October so we can get one ordered for you.  Probably will cost you around 15,000 yen or so.  You can check out the various leather options here and see their pricing.  I’ll hand carry them back in my luggage so we can save on the shipping.  It is not cheap, but these Bibles will last you a lifetime and may be even something you can pass down in your family. If you want a custom leather Bible, please let us know here.

Will also bring back a bunch of the Bibles that are standard cover.

God is so good!

Hebrews 7:16 (GWTransl)
That person is a priest, not because he met human requirements, but because he has power that comes from a life that cannot be destroyed.

Serving is about having a hunger for God and an anointing on your life.