Tonight was wonderful.
A lot of times we talk to God about our stuggles, complaints, our to do lists, our future or our worries, but tonight a couple of friends and I noticed God pouring His love on Tokyo with rain as we were walking past a window at about 11:30pm. We peaked outside to feel the rain air.. you know its different than any other air (the smell and the coolness)...and decided to go for a stroll/jog/dillydally (ha ha).
We went to a park and just basked in His glory.. in the beautiful creation He has given us! Tonight was refreshing because as we sat on the huge grassy hill all i could do was thank Him over and over and over for letting me experience it. Tonight I truly felt like all creation was singing His praises.
Just think... this week hundreds of unbelieving Japanese will walk around that same park where we sang songs of thanks and worship to the Living God and prayed without ceasing through dance and song to Father who gave us the earth. The ground that they walk on will be holy ground and God had already gone before us in the many spiritual battles that could happen right in that very park... maybe tomorrow..maybe in a hundred years.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Sunday, June 15, 2008
praise God
Joshua met me in Yoyogi Park today and, after 2 hours of us talking back and forth and answering questions, he prayed for God to come into and radically change his life.
He kept saying, "I'm so excited! I'm too excited to talk!"
As we walked across the park to meet some members of my team, he stopped for a second. Then he said, "You know, before I felt like a cloud or something covered my mind. But right now, I feel so relieved! And the cloud is gone..it's not there anymore."
2 Corinthians 3:15-18
Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
That is what Joshua was feeling at that moment! The veil being removed from his eyes. After 23 years of living in the Buddhist traditions and looking for meaning in his life, the veil was lifted, and he saw The Light. The light of Jesus Christ through hours of reading scripture and prayer.
Please email me if you want to hear more about it! It was so awesome! I love him so much and I am so excited to have Josh as a new brother in Christ.. he knows he is a new creation and every wrong thing he has ever done is washed away and forgotten by God who loves him so much.
He said, " But I have done so much wrong.. How can anyone be so kind? Why would someone die for me?"
LOVE.
LOVE.
LOVE.
GOD'S never-ending LOVE.
Praise GOD! He is so amazing and His work is so obvious in everything we do! Really, why would anyone love people like us? I'm so thankful... so so thankful that my God loves me even with all of my fears, failures and darkness.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
GOD IS SOOOOO GOOD!!!
Okay, on Saturday I a group of us went to the Shibuya train station to do 5 min english lessons to attract Japanese and make friends with people. 5 min english is not my favorite thing to do ( I dislike it a lot actually lol) because I always feel awkward standing in the middle of the huge crowds holding a sign up, so I almost decided to not participate and just have a lazy day, but after talking to God about it, I was like "okay" reluctantly and went. After standing there awkwardly for about 30 min and meeting a few people here and there, two guys (Joshua and Immanuel-great names to start conversations with!) came up to me. Joshua was Japanese and Immanuel was German. We went through the baisc english lesson material I had and I said "hey did you know your names are great names in the Bible?" and joshua said no.. (Immanuel said he was part of the Mannonite Church and knew a little about everything) :) I asked Joshua if he would like to know about the story of Joshua and he said YES! We all ended up going to an area where we could sit and talk and we talked for over an hour and I went from Genesis to Revelation basically. Joshua seemed pretty interested, so I gave them both my contact info and this is what Joshua sent me today: Hello Erin, It is Joshua who met in the intersection of Shibuya. Thank you very much for teaching me about Christianity. Now I am interested in Christianity. I would like ask to you if you can help me to start being christian. Do you go to the church in Japan? If you go, could I go with you? I would like to see you again if you can teach me more about christianity. I am looking forward to hearing from you. Joshua I will be meeting with him soon! So please pray that Gd will speak through me and that he will feel drawn by the Holy Spirit (even though i'm pretty sure the HS is already working in his life)! I am so excited and so so so filled with joy!!! I just wanted to tell you all what happened so you could rejoice with me!!! I love you all so so so much. :)Erin
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Finally!
Hello Everyone!
I wrote just before we went to the Asaksu Temple on Tuesday, asking for prayers, and I felt them!
Walking into the temple gates, there was such a spiritual heaviness (only way I can describe it), but we prayer-walked around the Temple and inside it, and God revealed so much to us through prayer, watching the people worship, and scripture.
The morning before we went, I was pretty nervous, so I was praying for strength and boldness and God directed me to Isaiah 44.
1-2 The Lord says, "People of Jacob, you are my servants. Listen to me! People of Israel, I chose you. This is what the Lord says, who made you, who formed you in your mother's body, who will help you. "People of Jacob, my servants, don't be afraid. Israel, I chose you."
and then 9-20 was good.
10-11 that said " Who made these gods? Who made these useless idols? The workmen who made them will be ashamed because they are only human. If they all would come together, they would be ashamed and afraid."
Through Isaiah 44, God reminded me that I should never be nervous or afraid to go into any spiritual warfare because He chose me to do what I am doing and He is my protector, so He would never put me in a situation He hasn't prepared me for.
The second half of the chapter was ALL about idol worship and how the things made with human hands are worthless and the makers of idols will be ashamed. This applied to idol worship in the Temple and my own personal relationship with Christ. It was so eye-opening to watch hundreds of people coming into the Temple clapping their hands, throwing coins, and making extreme noise to awaken their gods. I couldn't say "How ridiculous" because Isaiah 44 had reminded me just that morning "He doesn't know what he is doing; his confused mind leads him the wrong way." 20a. God showed me exactly what I needed to prayer for.
Seeing this also made me want to praise my own Father for being a God that is near. I don't have to claps my hands and make noise to get His attention because I am always on His mind and in His hands. Sometimes I just forget and take advantage of the fact that Father is just a thought or a smile away and He shows His love to me in every little thing throughout my day. Their gods are known to be constantly angry with them and their gods are not even available to them. They have to wake them up any time they want to talk to them-even then its just a one-way communication. God showed me exactly what I needed to praise Him for.
In my opinion, the morning was successful :)
Then we went to the Shibuya train station for 5 minute english lessons on the street. We were out there for about 30 minutes (it was going pretty slow) AND THEN the police came and told us to stop...
We were bummed.
So at about 4:15pm we "stopped", but God had other plans. People pretty much bombarded us after that point..and our signs weren't even up! We weren't able to leave the Shibuya station until 6pm. God is good :)
So that was just one day.
Lots more has happened...lots lots lots..but I will have to fill you in later because this is getting wayyyyy too long and I'm sleepy.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers.
I wrote just before we went to the Asaksu Temple on Tuesday, asking for prayers, and I felt them!
Walking into the temple gates, there was such a spiritual heaviness (only way I can describe it), but we prayer-walked around the Temple and inside it, and God revealed so much to us through prayer, watching the people worship, and scripture.
The morning before we went, I was pretty nervous, so I was praying for strength and boldness and God directed me to Isaiah 44.
1-2 The Lord says, "People of Jacob, you are my servants. Listen to me! People of Israel, I chose you. This is what the Lord says, who made you, who formed you in your mother's body, who will help you. "People of Jacob, my servants, don't be afraid. Israel, I chose you."
and then 9-20 was good.
10-11 that said " Who made these gods? Who made these useless idols? The workmen who made them will be ashamed because they are only human. If they all would come together, they would be ashamed and afraid."
Through Isaiah 44, God reminded me that I should never be nervous or afraid to go into any spiritual warfare because He chose me to do what I am doing and He is my protector, so He would never put me in a situation He hasn't prepared me for.
The second half of the chapter was ALL about idol worship and how the things made with human hands are worthless and the makers of idols will be ashamed. This applied to idol worship in the Temple and my own personal relationship with Christ. It was so eye-opening to watch hundreds of people coming into the Temple clapping their hands, throwing coins, and making extreme noise to awaken their gods. I couldn't say "How ridiculous" because Isaiah 44 had reminded me just that morning "He doesn't know what he is doing; his confused mind leads him the wrong way." 20a. God showed me exactly what I needed to prayer for.
Seeing this also made me want to praise my own Father for being a God that is near. I don't have to claps my hands and make noise to get His attention because I am always on His mind and in His hands. Sometimes I just forget and take advantage of the fact that Father is just a thought or a smile away and He shows His love to me in every little thing throughout my day. Their gods are known to be constantly angry with them and their gods are not even available to them. They have to wake them up any time they want to talk to them-even then its just a one-way communication. God showed me exactly what I needed to praise Him for.
In my opinion, the morning was successful :)
Then we went to the Shibuya train station for 5 minute english lessons on the street. We were out there for about 30 minutes (it was going pretty slow) AND THEN the police came and told us to stop...
We were bummed.
So at about 4:15pm we "stopped", but God had other plans. People pretty much bombarded us after that point..and our signs weren't even up! We weren't able to leave the Shibuya station until 6pm. God is good :)
So that was just one day.
Lots more has happened...lots lots lots..but I will have to fill you in later because this is getting wayyyyy too long and I'm sleepy.
I love you all! Thank you for your prayers.
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