Drawing ever closer...

Today I spent about 6 hours with Ryouji in Kagoshima. He is understanding more of the big picture and today mentioned that he understand that at some point in time he has to make a decision of some kind. I don't think he really understands what that means yet. He is reading the New testament that I gave him. Today we had a long talk about the Old Testament and how it leads to the NT. I gave him a copy of a book about the basic teachings of the Bible, very loosely translated I would say it is titled, " You should want to know at least this much." It covers basic teaching about the Bible, God, Jesus, Sin, Man, Salvation, etc. I'm praying it will tie some things together for Ryouji and answer some of his questions.

Ryouji wanted to see the World Trade Center movie today. As it ended I thought it was a good analogy to the spiritual struggle Christians face today. As the last policeman was pulled from the wreckage you saw hundreds of men and women cheering and helping get him out. I'm sure that all of them felt that the effort was worth all the time and money that it cost to get him out alive. And yet, in our spiritual equivalent, too often the rescure efforts are left in the hands of the two marines desperately struggling to find a survivor in the rubble. These marines, our pastors and missionaries on the front lines, are left to find and rescue the perishing with sufficient funding and prayer support, but without the constant encouragement and support of a fellow soldier to rely on when the going gets tough. The results of our spiritual search mission are even more important than that depicted in the movie. Rather than saving a life that is temporary, we draw people into a relationship with a Holy God who provides them with eternal life! Now that is worth all the time. money and effort we can give it!

posted by Norman @ 8:21 PM