Reformation
Praying for Japan after the Earthquake
Our hearts are saddened at the damage caused by the massive 9.0 earthquake that rocked Japan to its core on March 10. The visual images of destroyed villages, imperiled nuclear plants, mountains of debris left by the tsunami–and the stories of personal tragedy as well as heroism–have touched our souls deeply. The 24/7 news coverage has etched the devastation indelibly upon our minds.
I was in Salt Lake City when the earthquake struck–involved in board meetings with the National Association of Evangelicals. We immediately went to prayer, and followed things closely throughout the entire day.
One of my favorite verses when confronting natural calamities is Isaiah 26:9 – “My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
This is a time for great learning in the Japanese nation. It is time for them to yearn for God during this time of “night.”
Here’s how we can pray and help them.
First of all, a personal reflection. I have been to Japan a number of times. My first visit was in the 1980s when I visited and taught in Osaka and Tokyo–a massive metropolitan area with millions of people. I was amazed how Japan had miraculously rebuilt its nation and economy after a crushing and humiliating defeat in World War II.
Yes, it was true that “Made in Japan” carried a stigma in the 60s and 70s. But by the 80s and 90s it stood for quality, innovation, hard work, self-reliance and the world’s third largest economy.
But below the successful surface was an unhappy nation that did not enjoy a robust relationship with the God who had blessed them.
For many centuries, Japan was a graveyard of Christian missions.
Here’s the quick history. In 1549, Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier was the first missionary to Japan. Under his ministry, many were converted and the church grew rapidly. But Japanese officials saw Christians as a threat, and severe persecution began. The opposition to Christianity grew. In cities like Unzen, Christians were boiled in volcanic lava. Others were crucified on wooden crosses in the town of Nagasaki. Japanese soldiers rounded up all known Christian in 1637, around thirty thousand of them, and killed each one.
Following this, the church went underground in hopes of protecting those who managed to survive. The church struggled for several years. However, by God’s grace the church survived. Faithful missionaries did not stop coming. They heard about the monstrous persecution and answered the call to minister to the few faithful believers who were left.
Japan now has only 1.7 million active Christians out of a total population of 126 million. Whereas neighboring South Korea is over 25% Christian, and Christian evangelism is exploding in nearby China, Japan remains, according to the Joshua Project, “the second largest unreached people group in the world.”
I hope that is about to change.
Let’s pray that God will use many means of compassion and restoration to bring scores of millions into his Kingdom in the coming years.
Maybe God can use an earthquake to bring a mighty revival to the nation of Japan.
According to one source, Japan is often overlooked as a country that is has little exposure to the gospel because it is a rich nation with a high standard of living. The high cost associated with living in Japan actually contribute to what keeps Japan as one of the most unreached countries in the 10/40 Window having a Christian population of less than one percent. Many missionaries from America to Asia fly right over Japan completely unaware of the lack of exposure to the gospel it has. Japan is one of the safest countries in the world to live but it is also one of the most spiritually dark. The following are just a few facts.
• There are about 7,800 protestant churches in Japan and the average church size is 35 people… that is one church for every 16,000 people.
• There are only about 270,000 people serving the Christian population of Japan. Thats one Christian for every 477 people.
• Nearly 80% of Japanese pastors are in their 50’s, 60’s, and 70’s with there not being many Japanese Christian men to replace them. In 15 years many Japanese churches will have few pastors.
• Japan has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. More than 30,000 people have committed suicide each year for the past 13 years (about a 100 people a day or one every 15 minutes).
• Japan has 183,000 known cult groups registered with the government and is known by some as the cult capital of the world.
• Abortion is the most common form of birth control.
• Japan is the #1 provider of child pornography.
• Shinto & Buddhist world views prevail.
Due to Shinto & Buddhist world views Japan has over 8 million gods and almost every house has a little altar where food is offered, incense burnt, and prayers are offered to false gods. Japan quite possibly could have the highest concentration of demonic activity in the world in light of what the Apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:20, “what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not God.”
Japan is a very hard place to do ministry and help is needed to plow the soil. Having the world’s 3rd largest economy, significant political influence, and a resourceful and diligent population, Japan has tremendous potential to reach countries American missionaries have no access to in the 10/40 Window… should the Lord work in Japan as he has in other nations such as South Korea.
The Lord wants to reach the younger generation of Japanese. A 2001 poll on Japanese teens revealed that 85% wondered why they exist but only 13% percent believe they exist for a reason. 11% wish they never existed and some tragically contribute to the 100 people per day who commit suicide in Japan.
Jesus tells us “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few.”
Let’s pray for a revival among youth to sweep across Japan.
American pollster George Gallop, Jr., has an interesting perspective. He recently said about Japan:
“The findings of the study show that the [Japanese] populace is somewhat insular, uncomfortable with diversity and “outsiders”, and possibly, in some small degree, “racist”. In terms of reaching out to help others, the focus is primarily on one’s own family group and not on persons outside these groupings. Broader altruistic motives are not so apparent.”
“Most Japanese, judging by their responses to scales on happiness, are neither “very happy”, nor “very unhappy”. Their responses tend to fall between these two extremes. In earlier Gallup International surveys, responses for many nations fell more heavily in extreme positions than is the case in Japan.”
“While at least moderately happy, many Japanese seem resigned to being caught up in ‘the system’ or ‘the cycle of life’. There is a degree of fatalism in their somber mood. Teen’s perspectives on life tend to a sense of nihilism to an alarming degree. A note of hopelessness is found in the responses to a number of questions. And there is little evidence of eternal hope, although a considerable number do believe in some form of life afterlife.”
“Like much of the rest of the world, the Japanese tend to take relativistic view on ethical matters. There is little belief in ‘absolutes’, and this is true across the all-generational groups. In the ‘hierarchy of crimes’ (things that are wrong), those related to economic and family matters far outweigh those related to sexual activity.'”
“Seven in ten among adults, and half of teens, say they do not know enough about Christianity to express a favorable or unfavorable opinion about this religion. Corresponding, seven in ten adults, and half of teens say they do not know enough about the teachings of Jesus in order to give an evaluation.”
“In summary, then, we see challenges or obstacles to presenting the Gospel in a number of ways: in the insular feelings and somber mood and feelings of hopelessness of the Japanese people; in the relatively little importance they give to religion compared to other aspects of life, yet at the same time their attraction to other religions (namely Shinto and Buddhism) and “new religions”, as well as their attraction to the paranormal.”
“In some respects there seems to be a solid, impenetrable wall that could prevent the spread of the Gospel in Japan. Are there any possible openings in this wall? In seeking to reach people for Christ, the Christian message of hope and reassurance in times of darkness would likely be paramount.”
Japan has now entered such a season of darkness and trial . After years of self-sufficiency and the despair and death that it brings, we need to light up the Japanese nation with compassion, care, rebuilding and hope.
RescueNet, a YWAM Relief team out of Australia, is sending a team to Japan this week. If you are interested in supporting this outreach effort, please contact Josh Harmsworth at (360) 774-1181.
And let’s pray for Japan’s first great spiritual awakening as a result of the devastating earthquake.
It is could light up all of Asia in the 21st century.
“My soul yearns for you in the night; in the morning my spirit longs for you. When your judgments come upon the earth, the people of the world learn righteousness.”
Repealing Obamacare
A few days ago, the newly elected U.S. House of Representatives honored the will of the people by voting to repeal Obamacare. I am grateful for their courage and thank them for sticking to their convictions and the wishes of the American electorate.
Obamacare was arguably the worst piece of major legislation ever passed in the United States. It was a corrupt, brazen take-over of nearly one-sixth of the American economy, a job killer, a massive deficit creator, and just plain stupid.
Kudos to the House for “change we can believe in.”
Now the battle will go on in the Senate and be one of the pivotal issues of the 2012 election.
The following article by Redstate.com is the best summary I’ve seen on the importance of ending Obamacare and what we need to do make our health care system the best in the world.
It boils down to this…..RB
Repeal Obamacare. Them Let’s Do Something Really Radical…Try Freedom
Government is (and always has been) the problem, not the solution.
Redstate – 12-17-10
ObamaCare. No, it’s not dead. Not even close. Yet…there is some hope on the horizon that the foray into enslaving America in a government-dictated insurance scheme may yet be repealed, outlawed, or just thrown into the ash heap of really, really bad ideas.
The reason for this post is very simple: First, we need to recognize that government is the problem with America’s health care costs, not the solution. Second, we need to start coming up with some fresh and bold ideas in the eventuality that we can slay the beast of government-run healthcare once and for all. Even if ObamaCare is repealed in House, unless there are 67 senators who can be dragged away from the altar of closed-market health care to override a presidential veto, 2013 is the earliest ObamaCare can be aborted—but then what?
As a small business owner who just got hit with a $3600 insurance premium hike for 2011 and who will be paying (at a minimum) $177,500 over the next ten years just for the “privilege” of having one family covered with insurance, you can be assured that my points are more than mere rhetorical ones. If I had my druthers, I would have a catastrophic-only plan that covers emergencies and life-threatening illnesses, and pay the rest out of pocket. I’d probably save well over $125,000 in the next ten years with a plan like that—if one existed.
The problem is, a plan like that doesn’t exist…can’t exist. Why? The government bureaucrats won’t allow it. In our state, there are, by law (or regulation), only three types of insurance, provided by three insurers. It is a closed market scheme. In addition, let’s just say (for the sake of discussion) that a plan like that did exist in the next state over and I wanted to purchase it. I couldn’t do that either—because the government bureaucrats have created an artificial wall that won’t allow insurance to be bought across state lines. You see, in this simple and real small-business example, already government is the problem—and we’re paying the price.
Last year, when Nancy Pelosi went on her lunatic rant about insurance carriers being “immoral”, it was the epitome of hypocrisy—sort of like the Devil calling demons evil for doing what their master taught them to do. (Too harsh?…What is it then, if not evil, for those who purposely unleash a disease to also claim to be the cure?) People who claim that insurance companies have monopolies don’t realize that it is Congress that created the monopolies to begin with. That is why Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Obama, and the rest of their kind, have been so disingenuous in shoving ObamaCare up America’s rectum.
Like a healthy person going for a checkup, and going home with herpes, America has been gamed, lied to, and tricked into believing that health care is incompatible with a free market—lied to by the very people who claim to have the cure. Democrats and their union coaches have become nothing more (or better) than snake oil salesmen.
Yes, the cost of health care has risen exponentially for years. Health care costs have destroyed incomes, cost American jobs, caused strikes, and bankrupted companies. But it’s not due to a lack of government, it’s because of too much government. It hasn’t been the fault of the free market, as the socialist union bosses and the Marxist Democrats claim, it has been because it has not been a free market. If America wants to blame anyone, we should blame those who have been controlling and gaming the system—the bureaucrats and their union bosses—who now claim that more bureaucracy is the cure.
So, before we continue talking about “how government should fix health care,” perhaps it’s time we recognize how government caused it to be broken in the first place. Let’s begin looking at the true reason why the cost structure has been so blown out of alignment. And, then, perhaps more will understand why we need to tell government to get out of the way—now!
Last year, as the heated rhetoric of the health care debate was raging all across America, John Mackey, the CEO of Whole Foods wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal that provided some market-based alternatives to the monstrous big-government scheme that has become ObamaCare. While Mackey’s piece was brief, the Left’s reaction to it was extreme.
Immediately, the attack dogs from the unions launched a nationwide boycott of Whole Foods, Mackey was attacked personally, and the Left screamed hysterically. To see the Left’s ridiculous reaction indicated that they felt threatened by Mackey’s ideas—which meant they were probably pretty good ideas. While you can read the entire Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare here–and it is worth reading in its entirety, below is the main thrust of Mackey’s ideas:
Remove the legal obstacles that slow the creation of high-deductible health insurance plans and health savings accounts (HSAs). The combination of high-deductible health insurance and HSAs is one solution that could solve many of our health-care problems. For example, Whole Foods Market pays 100% of the premiums for all our team members who work 30 hours or more per week (about 89% of all team members) for our high-deductible health-insurance plan. We also provide up to $1,800 per year in additional health-care dollars through deposits into employees’ Personal Wellness Accounts to spend as they choose on their own health and wellness.
Money not spent in one year rolls over to the next and grows over time. Our team members therefore spend their own health-care dollars until the annual deductible is covered (about $2,500) and the insurance plan kicks in. This creates incentives to spend the first $2,500 more carefully. Our plan’s costs are much lower than typical health insurance, while providing a very high degree of worker satisfaction.
Equalize the tax laws so that employer-provided health insurance and individually owned health insurance have the same tax benefits. Now employer health insurance benefits are fully tax deductible, but individual health insurance is not. This is unfair.
Repeal all state laws which prevent insurance companies from competing across state lines. We should all have the legal right to purchase health insurance from any insurance company in any state and we should be able use that insurance wherever we live. Health insurance should be portable.
Repeal government mandates regarding what insurance companies must cover. These mandates have increased the cost of health insurance by billions of dollars. What is insured and what is not insured should be determined by individual customer preferences and not through special-interest lobbying.
Enact tort reform to end the ruinous lawsuits that force doctors to pay insurance costs of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year. These costs are passed back to us through much higher prices for health care.
Make costs transparent so that consumers understand what health-care treatments cost. How many people know the total cost of their last doctor’s visit and how that total breaks down? What other goods or services do we buy without knowing how much they will cost us?
Enact Medicare reform. We need to face up to the actuarial fact that Medicare is heading towards bankruptcy and enact reforms that create greater patient empowerment, choice and responsibility.
Finally, revise tax forms to make it easier for individuals to make a voluntary, tax-deductible donation to help the millions of people who have no insurance and aren’t covered by Medicare, Medicaid or the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
While there are likely other ideas that are out there, Mackey’s ideas serve as a good starting point for debate and discussion as to what we will “replace” ObamaCare with, if we can ever get to that point. However, if we are not serious about coming up with solutions that truly reflect a market-based system, as opposed to a government run bureaucracy, there is no point in trying to repeal ObamaCare. If politicians on the Right think they can replace big bureaucracy with little bureaucracy, it will fix nothing, we’ll be right back where we were two years ago, and we’re wasting our time.
In healthcare, as in all other areas of life, we can either choose freedom and a free market, or we can choose to be our brother’s’ keeper—and he our keeper—but you can’t have both. Freedom is incompatible with a government bureaucracy making life and death decisions. And, in healthcare, we can’t just be against ObamaCare, and not be for something to replace it.
The question is, can we take the steps to beat the bureaucrats back? And, if so, then what?
We Must Not Give Up the Fight for Life
It’s easy to be discouraged over the fight against abortion in America. Since our nation made it legal on January 22, 1973, some fifty million Americans have died on the altar of sexual liberation.
That’s a horrific number–and after a decade of a declining abortion rate, the most recent statistics show that the trend is ticking up. We are cruelly killing, in the name of choice, 1.2 million of the most vulnerable among us.
Many of you–like our family–have prayed, participated in marches for life, or gotten involved in crisis counseling and adoption ministries. Yet, after almost forty years, we have very little to show for it. I feel like those who fought against the evil of slavery for many decades, and didn’t see a change.
But then something happened in the 1860s, and the slaves were set free.
In 2011, is there hope on the horizon for ending the abortion holocaust?
When I was in our nation’s capital a week ago, I met with some leaders that are on the forefront of the abortion fight. One of them participated in 24/7 prayer near the Supreme Court for months leading up to the 2008 election. They, like me, were believing that a John McCain election could possibly tip the balance of our highest court in the direction of reversing Roe. vs. Wade.
They were agonizingly disappointed when Barack Obama was elected president. He brought into office the most blatantly pro-abortion Administration that the United States has ever seen.
The prayer warriors were dejected.
Had God not heard their prayers?
It’s easy for all of us to be dejected–especially if you live on the Left Coast (west coast). California is the number one abortion-friendly state in the nation and Washington is number two. Oregon clocks in at number six and Hawaii is number four. It’s very sobering to look at the chart of where states rank in their support of abortion. I encourage you to open this page, find your state, and use it in your prayers. On the chart, “A” is bad (pro-abortion) and “F” is good (pro-life).
But on to the good news.
Then a year went by and an interesting poll came out. At the end of 2009, the national consensus on abortion had changed seven percentage points–across all demographic lines. For the first time in history, more than fifty percent of Americans believed that abortion was morally wrong.
Their prayers had not been in vain. They hadn’t influenced the election, but God had used them to change the hearts of millions of Americans.
My pro-life friends now tell me that victory in the abortion holocaust could be on the horizon. More people are praying than ever before. The tide has changed on the issue. Most Americans now see that we must go back to a culture of life in this nation.
That’s why I marched in Olympia, Washington this morning in our state’s pro-life event. There were nearly 10,000 people. It’s also why hundreds of thousands will march this week in Washington, D.C. as well–as I did with my family back in the 1980s. Just like the anti-slavery movements of the 19th century, we must have the determination and faith to never quit fighting for truth and the unborn.
I don’t know if it will take another Civil War to get this issue right (as it did slavery), but if it does, it will be worth it. On the other hand, because American opinions are changing, it might only take one more election and then one more appointment of a Supreme Court justice.
That’s how close we are to victory.
My dedicated friends believe that by 2013, that victory could be achieved.
We must not give up the fight for life.
This year a new book on the evil of abortion called Unplanned will hit the book shelves of America. It’s written by former Planned Parenthood director Abby Johnson and explains her conversion from pro-choice activist to pro-life advocate as she watched an abortion being performed live on an ultrasound.
Here’s the chilling scene in the book that changed Abby’s life. It’s one of the most powerful statements for life that I have ever read:
“At first, the baby didn’t seem aware of the cannula (the suction tube that will eventually rip the bay to pieces). It gently probed the baby’s side, and for a quick second I felt relief. Of course, I thought. The fetus doesn’t feel pain. I had reassured countless women of this as I’d been taught by Planned Parenthood. The fetal tissue feels nothing as it is removed. Get a grip, Abby. This is a simple, quick medical procedure. My head was working hard to control my responses, but I couldn’t shake an inner disquiet that was quickly mounting to horror as I watched the screen.”
“The next movement was the sudden jerk of a tiny foot as the baby started kicking, as if it were trying to move away from the probing invader. As the cannula pressed its side, the baby began struggling to turn and twist away. It seemed clear to me that it could feel the cannula, and it did not like what it was feeling. And then the doctor’s voice broke through, startling me.”
“’Beam me up, Scotty,’ he said lightheartedly to the nurse. He was telling her to turn on the suction — in an abortion the suction isn’t turned on until the doctor feels he has the cannula in exactly the right place.”
“I had a sudden urge to yell, “Stop!” To shake the woman and say, ‘Look at what is happening to your baby! Wake up! Hurry! Stop them!'”
“But even as I thought those words, I looked at my own hand holding the probe. I was one of “them” performing this act. My eyes shot back to the screen again. The cannula was already being rotated by the doctor, and now I could see the tiny body violently twisting with it. For the briefest moment the baby looked as if it were being wrung like a dishcloth, twirled and squeezed. And then it crumpled and began disappearing into the cannula before my eyes. The last thing I saw was the tiny, perfectly formed backbone sucked into the tube, and then it was gone. And the uterus was empty. Totally empty.”
One book reviewer made these observations about the liiterary power of Unplanned:
“If you are able, I encourage you to read the whole thing. I have to confess to you that I almost was not. The horror that Johnson describes is almost unfathomable, accentuated by the cruelty and insensitivity of the conscienceless monsters cracking jokes as they watched the death of a tiny human unfold live before them.”
“Perversely, the most shocking aspect of this particular story is its mundanity. It occurs every single day in the United States, over three thousand times a day, and has for almost four decades. The only thing that sets this particular abortion apart is that a person possessed of a conscience and some measure of writing skill happened to be present and witness it on ultrasound. Every day, including today, probably several dozen times during the course of the time it takes you to read this article, this horror is repeated in America and no one is present who cares to chronicle it in a book about the way it changed their life. Tens of millions of times since 1973 this has occurred in this country under the color and protection of law.”
“The only way to ensure justice in a society is for the law to recognize that all humans are humans, and therefore entitled to equal protection under the law. Whenever the law takes the position that certain humans (be it slaves or those physically located within a womb) are not in fact humans at all, it is certain that moral outrages will follow, and that other moral outrages will be perpetrated to protect the unjust status quo, and that sooner or later, the conscience of America, however long dormant, will collide with those moral outrages.”
“It is at these times we remember why it is that we participate in this fight even though it wears on us from day to day; why it is that we continue to watch news shows that infuriate us, donate money to candidates that would otherwise be put towards our own retirements, and take time away from our families to pound the pavements, man the phone banks, and get out the word. This is why we ”fight,” if it is still permissible to use such terms to describe battles fought with the ballot box. And it is also why we reject the empty calls for “truce” and silence from those who have hardened their heart to the ugliness, for we know that there can be no truce with unrepentant evil – there can only be victory or defeat. And for the sake of the country we love, we refuse to accept defeat.”
To these words of courage and outrage, I heartily say AMEN.
Please pray that Abby Johnson’s Unplanned will convince more Americans to alter their view on abortion. Pray that mothers and fathers who killed their own children will become broken and repentant; Pray that the churches of America will not become complacent or silent about the number one moral issue of the 20th and 21st centuries.
I believe that victory is at hand in the abortion battle.
We must not give up the fight for life.