In recent years, I have been serving not only at my church in Matsudo but also at Kuki church in Saitama prefecture. Just the other day, a member of Kuki church who is a doctor gave us a donation towards Akagi Camp. My wife and I attended the camp, which was held August 15-17, 2018, at Akagi Bible Campsite. The event, specifically, was called Covenant Refreshing Camp (CRC). We were joined by another member of our church (IBF), along with an American man who had visited IBF’s Friday service not long ago. This American brother had been introduced to IBF by a missionary living at Akagi Camp. He now
“Blessed are the meek” (Sermon outline by Steve Breithaupt)
An outline of Ps. Steve Breithaupt’s message when he visited Japan and preached at IBF church in April 2018. BLESSED ARE THE MEEK The great reversal The world encourages us to be arrogant, aggressive, confident, driven. To think of success as way more important than our character or Christ-likeness. (Christ-likeness is just something to do on Sundays.) However, in the kingdom of God, the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Honor and respect is given to the humble and gentle. In Jesus’ eyes, the meek will be successful! 1 Peter 3:3-4: “Your beauty should not come from outward adornment . . . Instead, it should be
Brotherly love
Scripture exhorts us to put love into practice. By practicing love, I believe we will come to understand God’s immense love, Jesus’ immense love — if only a glimpse of it. I have a friend living on public welfare. He’s a wonderful person, but he struggles with practical aspects of daily life. For example, he knows he should keep his home tidy but can’t seem to manage it. I visited him once with some church members to help clean up the trash around his home. We disposed of a considerable amount of trash and tidied up enough to make a comfortable living space. However, 6 months later I found him