Subject: Christian Primer Terms? |
Bible Note: Charis: Thanks for sharing about the work habits of the Japanese. I had never even thought of that as an avenue for communicating God's truth. So many things come into play there for the Christian to address. Here are some that I can think of right off hand: 1. Gaining the whole world, and yet losing your soul (Matthew 16:26; Mark 8:36) 2. Biblical admonitions of raising one's child (too many references there to cite) 3. Christian marriage (1 Peter 3; Ephesians 5) 4. Counting all things as loss for the sake of Christ (Philippians 3). I would suspect that this would be quite a powerful one, since Saul was on the fact track to executive status when he met his Maker on the road to Damascus :) 5. Ecclesiastes. Need I say more? :) 6. And, of course, bringing it all back to God's holiness, our sin, judgment, and the Cross... You know without a doubt that the Bible stands completely contrary to the lifestyle of the Japanese middle class (in a different way than it does in the U.S., in many respects). What an opportunity you have to advocate the Christian "counterculture" there! What a marked difference those who are following Christ will make there! Perhaps a very effective approach would not be to try and find in-roads into the culture (blending Christianity ino the culture), but rather stressing it as a way of life completely contrary to the lifestyle of the Japanese world. This is certainly not going to cause those who will continue to love the world to embrace Christianity, but that is the idea, isn't it? First John in living, breathing, 3-D. And, as you can undoubtedly attest, a task for which only the Holy Spirit is equal... Thanks for sharing! --Joe! "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, 'BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.'" --Romans 1:16-17 |