The First Samurai!

God is so cool! Was reading the Bible on the train en route to Kawasaki and suddenly, there was this Japanese lady who came up to me and said `Excuse me? Are you reading the Bible? Are you a Christian?` Imagine my surprise cos

1. Japanese are VERY polite and private people.
2. Only 1% of the Japanese are Christians.
3. Most Japanese don`t DARE or shall i say ATTEMPT to speak English.

The lady proceeded to invite me to her church, Jesus Lifehouse in Tokyo, which has bilingual services and is a contemporary church singing Hillsongs etc. I was pleasantly surprised and jotted down her mobile because I was alighting. Wasn`t thinking much about going because i thought i am already going to Shinjuku Shalom Church but I was glad the lady, Miyuki, took the courage to approach me. Made me realise: IT IS ALL ABOUT WILLINGNESS. Very encouraged by Miyuki.

That was Saturday noon (16th April). Ps Caleb, who was in Tokyo with Anne (Ps Christina`s network) called me and asked me if i wanted to join them for service at Jesus Lifehouse on Sunday. I GOT A SHOCK! It was like God was knocking on my door TWICE, asking me to go to the church somehow. Turned out that the pastor from Jesus Lifehouse went to watch MOL last year and Ps Caleb wanted to catch up with him.I was glad to have company so I decided to go take a look.

It was Easter Sunday, a day of celebration! The service was held at this Culture Centre near Ginza, kinda like the ballroom where we have our Encounter Weekends. The number of people is around there also, mostly young people, many foreigners too.The energy was very high, sang many familiar songs, everything was so alike to FCBC! The young people put up a skit of Jesus and his life and after that, they showed the part of `Passion of Christ` where Jesus was being crucified on the cross. i think the Japanese really enjoy acting cos i realise they like to put up little skits to demonstrate their points. Interesting though, think Singaporeans probably wouldn`t be so candid and creative. At least for me, I think.

Ps Rod, the Senior Pastor who is from　Australia and the interpreter. Both of them were wearing cotton kimonos that samurais wore in their daily lives.

The sermon by Ps Rod was entitled `The First Samurai`. A samurai is a warrior who serves a master. I thought it was cool to put Jesus in a Japanese context though it has not occurred to me before to imagine Him in a kimono. Indeed, Jesus was the true First Samurai for He was obedient even till death.

Jesus was not a samurai who died a noble death. His was a sacrificial death that broke the power of death. On this Easter Sunday, we looked at 3 declarations Jesus made at the cross:

1) A declaration of Forgiveness

Luke 23:34 Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."

This verse never fails to move me. I cry when I read this verse because it speaks of GRACE, grace so BIG that it touches even the hardest of hardened hearts. Even as Jesus was suffering as He hung on the cross, He was interceding for us.

2) A declaration of Pain

Matthew 27:46 Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Jesus took the world’s sins upon Himself that God, in His Holiness, had to leave Jesus. Because of the pain that Jesus suffered on our behalf, we are REDEEMED.

3) A declaration of Victory

John 19:30 Jesus said, "It is finished."

This is one of my favourite verse! I always repeat this verse to myself when I am faced with a situation that I have no control over or is troubled about. Interesting, Ps Rod explained that this verse ‘It is finished.’ is translated from one Greek word ‘Tetelestai’ which means “It stands finished; and it will remain so forever.” It was a cry of victory shouted by Roman generals when they won a battle and surveyed their accomplishments. I didn’t know this!

Wow! That is so cool! And ‘tetelestai’ is used in the perfect tense which means the victory will hold forever. To read more on this, please go to http://www.fbch.org/pdf/ItIsFinished.pdf

Easter is meaningful to us Christians because we serve a living God who loves us so much, who demonstrates His love for us by dying and who rose again on Easter Sunday!

Got much revelation from the sermon, God must have wanted me to come to this service for a reason, to let so many things happen in my path. We also met Ps Caleb’s friends – Aunt Bea and Uncle Rephael at JesusLifehouse. They are Singaporeans living in Perth and they were here enroute to LA. Imagine, they were only in Tokyo for 3 days and all of us visited this church for the first time. God is amazing I tell you!

Had coffee together with this couple, learnt a lot from both of them, so God-fearing so guided by the Lord. Uncle Rephael worked in Tokyo for a year some time back and the first thing he told me was to never lose my identity as a foreigner in this land. It sets me thinking because I thought of becoming as close to a local as possible so that I can blend into the crowd but it seems wiser to retain my ‘foreign-ness’.

Another word of advice he gave to me was always hold on to my roots instead of trying to modify the roots to suit the environment. Grafting onto a weak foundation will eventually cause the grafted original branch to fall off. Chanced upon Romans 11:11-24 where there was a passage on ingrafted branches. Shall think about striking a balance between staying true to my roots while absorbing the good stuff I can learn from this land.