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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

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

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My heart is burdened for Okayama and many other areas affected by floods in West Japan. Pastor Ryuji Saito of Kibi Covenant Church in Okayama had shared online about an effort to collect towels and distribute them in flood-affected areas. When we heard about it, we sent them 3 boxes of towels. I heard that, in response to his call, various churches within our Japan Covenant denomination sent a total of 20 boxes of towels. What is required in each emergency varies from situation to situation, but from here on we hope to be prepared to meet the needs that arise. Below, I would like to share an excerpt of

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. We are entering the final section of 1 Kings, which is about King Ahab, the worst king in Israelite history, and the prophet Elijah. Today’s passage is short and will introduce these two main characters. I would like to talk why Ahab was considered the worst king and what Elijah represents. From both characters, I would like to share reflections on the idea of suffering and how we can respond to hard times. Let’s pray. [Read 1 Kings 16:29-17:1] Ahab So why does the writer of 1 Kings think that Ahab is the worst king

From a sermon series on 1 Kings by See Huang Lim, a missionary at IBF. In this sermon series on the book of 1 Kings, we will soon reach a turning point and enter the fascinating story of prophet Elijah. Today’s is the last passage about evil kings, and it revolves around King Baasha. King Baasha rose to the throne by murdering the previous king. His actions set a pattern for the next few kings; they, in turn, became king of Israel through assassination. Today’s passage is bleak, but I believe it will not leave us hopeless. There are 3 ideas I want to reflect on: 1) God may allow

By Pastor Shoichi Ino I never expected to visit the country of Finland, but this year I had an opportunity to do so for the first time. On invitation by the North American Covenant Churches, I visited Finland from April 2 to 8. A seminary of the Finnish Evangelical Free Church had invited representatives from the American Covenant Churches to speak on the subjects of church revitalization and pioneer evangelism. Local pastors and seminary students attended the lecture. Representatives from the Japan Covenant Churches were invited too, and we sent 3 Japanese pastors to discover if we could apply lessons from the lecture in the Japanese church context. In a