Author: RCCM

↓Audio link to the sermon: (1st worship service recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) Personally, I don’t know many dog owners in Japan but I imagine they treat their dogs very well and feed them nutritious pet food. I read that, in the past, Japanese people used to feed their dogs leftover rice with miso soup. Many Malaysians still do that; they give leftover rice and other food. Another interesting fact about dogs in Malaysia is that they are considered unclean by the majority of Malaysia’s population, who are Muslim. If a dog’s saliva touches a Muslim person, they should cleanse themselves using a

↓ Audio link to the sermon (1st worship service recording): (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) During my time at a Christian university in Texas, I encountered an interesting policy—no dancing was allowed at school events, except for cultural dances from other countries. The intent was to discourage unhealthy sexual behavior. While the university eventually relaxed this rule, it may still seem overly conservative to many, including Christians. This memory resonates with today’s sermon. In our quest to please God, we can sometimes veer to extremes, as seen in the Pharisees’ misguided approach. Their misinterpretation of God and the Bible led their religious devotion astray.

↓Audio link to the sermon: (1st worship recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) After watching a cartoon, my daughter asked, “Are ghosts real? I’m scared of ghosts.” In today’s Bible passage, Jesus’ disciples see him walk on water and freak out because they think he’s a ghost. I mean, humans don’t walk on water, right? Unless they’re Japanese ninjas! Anyway, through this supernatural incident, Jesus shows that he is indeed no ordinary person. Let us pray and then read the story. [Read Mark 6:45-55] Another boat story One of my sermons this year was about a similar story: in Mark chapter 4, Jesus’ disciples

↓Audio link to the sermon: (1st worship service recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) I have fond memories of my wedding dinner 9 years ago. It was a joy to see so many relatives and friends come together in one place. There were about 100 or 150 guests, which is a normal size for a Malaysian wedding dinner. While the food was prepared by a restaurant, we still had to do the work of deciding who to invite and where they should sit. Most of you have heard the story of Jesus feeding a crowd of 5,000. I can’t imagine organizing 5,000 people, much

↓Audio link to the sermon: (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) The Witness of John the Baptist: Faithful but Suffering Corrie Ten Boom was a well-known Dutch Christian writer. During World War II, she and her family protected Jews by hiding them in their house from the Nazis. They were all caught eventually. Her father died in prison, while her sister died in a concentration camp. Corrie herself was almost sent to the gas chambers. But one week before the execution scheduled for Corrie and all other young women her age, she was suddenly released from the camp, due to an error in paperwork. Unfortunately,

↓Audio link to the sermon: (1st worship service recording) (If you can’t listen on your iPhone, please update your iOS) Honoring Jesus, the Carpenter-King Is there a shop you visit very often, one where you’ve become familiar with the shopkeeper’s face and they also know you? Well, imagine if one day, the shopkeeper suddenly told you that they are the Emperor of Japan. How would you respond? Then perhaps you can relate to the feelings of the people in today’s story, in Mark chapter 6. [Read Mark 6:1-4] [Jesus] went away from there and came to his hometown, and his disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to

[An audio recording of this sermon will be uploaded after the worship service.] As we continue reading the Gospel of Mark, I want to talk about how Jesus saves us from shame and bestows us with honor. The ideas of honor and shame run deeply in many cultures. Let me give an example in Japan. For a few years, a hot topic in Japanese media was the story of Princess Mako’s engagement to a commoner. The young man was scrutinized from all angles. Was he worthy of marrying a member of the Imperial family? Many people opposed this marriage because the young man’s mother had an unresolved financial dispute. This