A Navel String and Baby Shoes

A Navel String and Baby Shoes

A long time ago, we invited missionaries from the United States as a short term English teacher. One of them was a mother who brought up four children. One day, a group of our church ladies talked about this topic. “What do you have for a memory of your child(ren) when they were babies?” Japanese mothers answered they have a navel string in a paulownia box one after another. When the American missionary was asked, she said she didn’t have it but had a pair of baby shoes. While a navel string shows a bond of affection, a pair of baby shoes show a first step of independent. The ladies and I were surprised the difference of the way of thinking between Japan and the United States.

Though it is wonderful to make the bond strong, nowadays many terrible affairs, which breaks the bond between parents and child(ren), have happened in Japan. This is a matter of life. We have to think about its importance. According to the Bible, the maker of life is not parents, but God, the Creator of all things. The Bible says,

 “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  (Ephesians 2:10)

You are “God’s masterpiece” and you have a purpose for which you are made. It is to do “good works”. You are created by God as a unique and only existence in the world. You also are given a mission to do good works. Moreover, the works have been prepared beforehand. Only you can do the works, not others. Do you want to know what they are? Come to our church and hear the word of God. May God bless you.    

Senior Pastor  Masao Nakanishi

To love is greater than to be loved

Books about Kakue Tanaka are booming lately. They call him “genius” or “a god of leadership”. I got a book written about him and was impressed a lot. What moved me the most was as follows: He put himself into shoes of the weak and did what they wanted.

He gently approached those who mourn and rushed to funerals earlier than others. Not only did he do what normal people did, but he got involved in ceremonies and gave a helping hand to those who lost their loved one. That is why they loved him. They still respect him though he fell into disgrace and resigned his position as Prime Minister.

However, I couldn’t help remembering someone as I read the book. It was Jesus himself. According to the Bible, he was neither one of the saints nor a god-like being in a certain area. He was the Savior of all mankind and the Son of Almighty God!

He washed the feet of his disciples, became a friend of the lonely and wept over the death of his friend. He ate with sinners, defended them and spent a long time together. He took care of the sick and handicapped. He directly touched those who have an infection.

Paul says, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Corinthians 5:21) Though Jesus never sinned, he was crucified and received the judgment of sin instead of us all. Because he laid down his life, those who believe in him will not be condemned and cross over from death to life!

Jesus was one who told about love and showed the real one by laying it down. Even if you have no interest in him or put him off, his love for you never runs out.

You are so precious that the Son of God died for you. History shows countless people found power for living, restored their lives and experienced healing and recovery through Jesus Christ. I wish you would come to know him and his true love toward you.

Youth Pastor  Kenshiro Goto

The thing that changes death into life

What we fear the most in life is death among things we feel fearful.

Soseki Natsume is a famous novelist who wrote “I am a cat”. When he was forty-eight, he lost his daughter and wrote in his diary.

“Yesterday we had a wake, today we have a funeral and tomorrow we will place the ashes in a grave. It is busy. But, after doing all these things, I think what we are doing is meaningless. Unless death is not changed into life, everything is meaningless.”

He seems to have said this as a father, not as a notable writer. We can sympathize with him in his suffering. Death takes away all our hope from us. However, here is a book that gives us hope! It is a bible. It tells us there is Jesus, who changed death into life. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.”(John 11:25)

This word is not just a consolation. Jesus said this while the funeral of a young man named Lazarus who had become sick and passed away four days ago. And the Bible tells Jesus raised him from the dead.

If this event had been a fake one, attendees of the ceremony would have criticized him and the story would have been eliminated a long time ago. But it has been told as a fact till this day, not just a symbolic story, because it really took place in the past.

For forty years, I have attended the last moment of many people as a pastor. It makes a big difference whether he or she has hope for eternal life or not. May you come to church and know the thing that overcomes death so that you have peace in your life.

Senior Pastor  Masao Nakanishi