Friday, January 9, 2009

A Testimony of A Changed Life

Last Sunday, here at ICCS, Reiko-San was baptized. She gave the following testimony in English and in Japanese. We are so glad our Sister found true Hope in a living relationship with her creator in the Person of Jesus Christ.

My testimony


God came into my life when I was 15. I was in the states for summer program of my high school and home staying in Christian family. My host family Browns loves Jesus a lot and is so faithful to Him.

As every teenager wonders so many things about their lives, so did I. I always felt empty and couldn’t communicate with my family, friend and others very much. Especially I really didn’t like to have a meal with somebody.

God touched my heart when I had a dinner at home with Browns for the first time. Before a dinner, they started to hold their hands with each other, sang a praise song and prayed (to) God. Then I did feel something warm touched my heart. It was the 1st time for me to feel secure to be with somebody and enjoy the meal. I felt my heart was healed by something at that moment.

The days spending with them surely changed my life. After being back to Japan I missed them a lot and started to think about God.

But right after that, some sad things happened to me. It was too sudden and too sad for just a high school girl. Most of them were human's death—I’ve lost my friends, relatives and people who loved me a lot by unacceptable ways. I couldn't understand what was going on in my life.
I still kept in touch with Browns. They always encouraged me and in the end of their letters and emails there were always the words about God.
"God loves you, He knows everything and will be with you all the time"--these words made me feel better, but also made me think why these sad things happened if God really loved me.

I tried so hard not to think anything. Kept all negative feelings deep inside of my heart.

After enrolling in Sophia Univ, I got sick because of these happenings and it was terrible. So that my Univ life was about going to hospital or being brought into ICU because of overdose. I thought nothing could fix my heart, but hopefully I was getting better about 3 yrs later.

Because my Univ is a Catholic school, during Univ time some teachers told me Jesus, but I couldn’t know Him for my savior.

After graduated Univ, I started to work. The hectic and stressful job made me feel spiritual thirsty and I started to read the Bible, which the Browns gave me before. But work made me sick again--I couldn’t find any hope in my life again. I was too tired and seemed like nothing helped me except going back to Oregon where Browns lives.

I don’t remember how I could make it to go back there with unhealthy condition, but I made it.

When I’ve been there that was just before Christmas of 2006. When we prayed before dinner like we did when I was there for the 1st time--I did feel something warm came inside of me! Again. Finally I realized it was God and thought I'd love to live with God like Browns did. Then I accept Jesus personally.

2yrs have passed after that Christmas. I've learned that many things--good or bad--happen even in Christian life. Even though we're imperfect and weak, Jesus still loves us and He can make us strong. I would love to live the rest of my life with His love and wanna share this special gift from Him with others like my family, friends and people whom I will get to know in future. So that I decided to be baptized today and wanna share my story with you all.
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神様が私の人生に初めて分かる様に触れて下さったのは、私が15歳の時でした。高校のプログラムで初めて外国に出たこの時、私はブラウン家というクリスチャンの家庭にホームステイしました。彼らはとても神様を愛していて、初めて直にクリスチャンの文化に触れた私にとって、その姿はとても新鮮であり、彼らとの生活を通して私は沢山の事を教えてもらいました。
当時の私はどの10代の子もそうである様に、自分の人生や周囲の人間との関係にとても敏感な時期でした。いつも心に空白を感じ、本当に気を許して家族や友人、周囲の人とコミュニケーションが取れないでいました。特に当時の私にとっては、誰かと一緒に食事をする事はとても苦痛で仕方のない事でした。
 神様が私の心に初めて触れて下さったのは、ブラウンさん達と初めて食事をした時でした。私達はお互いの手を取り合って神様を褒め称える歌を歌い、神様に感謝してから食事を頂きました。その時、私の心にとても温かい気持ちが生まれた事を今でもはっきりと覚えています。その温かさは今までに一度も感じた事のないもので、この時私は生まれて初めて人といる事、食卓を囲むことの健やかさを感じました。
彼らとの生活は短いものでしたが、その先の私の人生を全く変えたと言っても過言ではありません。帰国後、私は彼らをとても恋しく思うと同時に、彼らが愛する神様とはどういうお方なのだろう?と時折考える様になりました。
ですがその直後、私の身の回りにとても悲しい出来事が連続して起きました。それはあまりにも突然で、ただの高校生でしかなかった私にはとても受け止めきれるものではありませんでした。当時起こった事の大半は大切な人達の死でした。友人、親戚、私をとても大切にしてくれた人達を同時に、しかもとても納得の行かない理由で亡くした事が受け止め切れず、当時の私は正直な所、一体何が起こっているのか理解が出来ない状態でした。
その様な時期も私はブラウンさん達とやりとりを続けていました。彼らは本当に賢明に私を励まし、支えてくれました。そして彼らの手紙やメールの最後には必ず神様の愛についての言葉がありました。その言葉はとても温かくて私を安心させた反面、本当に神様がこの世にいて私を愛しているなら、何故今こんな事が続けて起こるのだろうとやりきれない気持ちにもさせました。 
結局、私はまるでこれらの事は何も起こらなかったかの様に、今まで起こった事やその悲しみを自分の奥深くに仕舞い込む事にしました。
 大学進学後、受け止め切れなかった傷は心の病気と言う形で浮上してきました。私の心は切り裂かれたかの様にバラバラになり、大学時代の思い出といえばほぼ毎日の病院通いか、処方薬の大量摂取による入院生活でした。私はもう何も自分の心と身体を治す事は出来ないと思っていました。しかし、医師の賢明な治療と周囲の支えの結果、大学生活が終わる頃には人並みの生活を送れる程度まで回復する事が出来ました。
そんな大学時代も、神様は私に働きかけて下さいました。カソリックの大学である事が影響してか、何人かの教授や神父先生達が私に神様の事を懸命に伝えてくれようとしました。しかし、何も信じる事が出来なかった当時の私はいつも彼らの心からの神様への愛情を理解出来ず、彼らの親切を断り続けていました。
大学卒業後、忙しくストレスの多い職場に就職した私の心の支えはブラウンさん達がくれた聖書でした。しかし、ストレスや環境の変化で再度体調を崩してしまった私は、自分の生きている事に全く意味を見出せないまま抜け殻の様になってしまいました。自分の意思で身体を動かす事が困難になり、精神的にも疲れ切ってしまった私の頭にたった一つ浮かんだのはブラウンさん達の住むオレゴンに戻る事でした。
私がオレゴンに戻ったその時は2006年のクリスマス直前でした。彼らの待つ家に帰り、初めてそうした時の様に食前の祈りをした時、私は再びあの時に感じた心の中の温かさを感じました。手を繋ぎ、祈っている間に私の心に生まれたのは、彼らが今までそうして来た様に、私も神様の愛情と共に生きていきたいという思いでした。そうして、神様が私の心に初めて触れた時から7年越しで、私は個人的な救い主として神様を受け入れる事が出来たのです。
 あのクリスマスから2年が経ち、私は例えクリスチャンになっても良い事、悪い事を含め、私達の人生にはたくさんの事が起こるのだと感じるようになりました。私達は弱く、不完全な生き物ですが、大切なのは神様に委ねて生きていく事、神様は私達を愛しておられ、私達が生きていくのに必要な強さを与えてくださると信じることなのだと思います。私はこの先の人生を、神様の愛の中に生き、神様から与えられたこの特別な恵みをクリスチャンの方々はもとより家族、友人、まだ見ぬこれから出会っていく人々とも分かち合って生きて行きたいと思います。以上が今日、私が洗礼を受ける事を決心した神様との歩みの初めであり、その事をみなさんに証したいと思います。

Monday, January 5, 2009

Overcoming Our Handicapped Lives

The ideas of this sermon come from the pen of Roger Barrier
Text:
2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (The Message)
7-10 Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then He told me,
My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

God’s Grace: True story. Two pastors were on their way to Atlanta, Ga. for a large Christian men’s gathering. One of them had never been in the south before. After staying in a motel overnight, they stopped at a nearby restaurant for breakfast. When their meal was delivered, the pastor who had never been south before saw this white, mushy looking stuff on his plate. When the waitress came by again he asked her what it was. "Grits", she replied. "Ma'am I didn't order it and I'm not paying for it". "Sir, down here you don't order it and you don't pay for it, you just get it." How like the GRACE of God!

Topic: How to overcome life’s handicaps
Big Idea: God gives us handicaps for our own betterment.

Introduction
* Much of the great work in this world has been done by handicapped people:
Ludwig van Beethoven: 1710-1827. Beethoven used a special rod attached to the soundboard on a piano that he could bite—the vibrations would then transfer from the piano to his jaw to increase his perception of the sound. Later, became 100% deaf. Also, he was most likely suffering from Obsessive Compulsive Disorder along with Albert Einstein, who also had dyslexia along with Donald Trump.

John Milton: 1608-1674 Authored the Epic Paradise Lost. By the time of his death in 1674, Milton was blind, impoverished and yet unrepentant for his political choices. Milton had by then attained Europe-wide fame, and notoriety, for his radical political and religious beliefs, as well as his writings in English and Latin poetry.

Helen Keller:(June 27, 1880 – June 1, 1968) was an American author, activist, and lecturer. She was the first deaf/blind person to graduate from college with a magna cum laude from Radcliffe College. She spoke and traveled opposing war, campaigned for women’s suffrage, and worker’s rights. Was made world known by the movie and play The Miracle Worker.

David Beckham and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: have/had Tourettes Syndrome.

Kristi Yamaguchi: an American figure skater and the 1992 Olympic Champion in women's singles. Yamaguchi also won two World Figure Skating Championships in 1991 and 1992 and a U.S. Figure Skating Championships in 1992. She won two national titles in 1989 and 1990 and one junior world title in 1988 as a pairs skater with Rudy Galindo. In December 2005, she was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. Kristi was born with club feet.

* Paul also had a handicap or thorn. He says, "To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given unto me a thorn in my flesh.” - 2 Corinthians 12:7

* No one knows exactly what Paul’s thorn was, and he probably left it a mystery so everyone could identify with him.

* Handicaps come in many forms but they tend to be looked at as being ‘bad.’
To overcome life’s handicaps, trust that they are no accident.

* God has a plan for each of our lives, and to carry out that plan, He must correct us. Our thinking may be off center. It (LIFE) is not about me-it is about Him.

- Illustration: One man told the great preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who, because of his debilitating gout and kidney disease, was knit closer to Christ, as was evidenced in his preaching. It is really beyond our understanding at times. Or just a different way of looking at things.

To overcome life’s handicaps, say, “What an opportunity” Instead of “What if?”

* Paul rejoiced in his circumstances because he knew that God would pour His power into Paul’s life.
- Illustration: Norwegian Classical violinist Ole Bull once broke a string during a concert, but instead of stopping to replace the string, he improvised and finished the concert using only three strings.

To overcome life’s handicaps, stop window-shopping and enjoy your own inventory.
* Paul warns us in Rom 12:2-3 to stop comparing ourselves with others.

* God gives us each a special plot to till and accept, and the real test is what we will do with it. How can Man make better God’s creation? Why, indeed, do we believe we would know better…?

To overcome life’s handicaps, recognize that thorns set the stage for spiritual service.

* Paul would not have been Paul without the thorn in his side. “It” really made him who he was: dependent on the Lord.

- Illustration:
It Is Well with My Soul is a very influential hymn penned by hymnist Horatio Spafford and composed by Philip Bliss.
This hymn was written after several traumatic events in Spafford’s life. The first was the death of his only son in 1871, shortly followed by the great Chicago Fire which ruined him financially (he had been a successful lawyer). Then in 1873, he had planned to travel to Europe with his family on the S.S. Ville du Havre, but sent the family ahead while he was delayed on business. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship sank rapidly after a collision with another ship, and all four of Spafford's daughters died. His wife Anna survived and sent him the now famous telegram, Shortly afterwards, as Spafford traveled to meet his grieving wife, he was inspired to write these words as his ship passed near where his daughters had died.
The Spaffords later had three more children, one of whom (a son) died in infancy. In 1881 the Spaffords, including baby Bertha and newborn Grace, set sail for Palestine. The Spaffords moved to Jerusalem and helped found a group called the American Colony; its mission was to serve the poor. The colony later became the subject of the Nobel prize winning Jerusalem, by Swedish novelist Selma Lagerlöf.
taken from http://en.Wikipedia.org

To overcome life’s handicaps, find the strength in God’s Grace, which is energy enough when life gets tough.

* When Paul begged God to take away his affliction, God told Paul that God’s grace would be sufficient for him. But many of us say: “But the pain… I could do so much more without this… I feel it would be better than what You have planned for me… After all, I do know what works best for me!”

- Illustration: A boy playing by the sea coast cannot possibly drain the ocean with his sand pail. In the same way, God’s Grace will never run out.

* Illustration: A television show profiled three terminal cancer patients from the time of their diagnosis to their death. Two were faithless and their anger destroyed their relationships, while the third was a pastor who embraced God’s Grace and his impending death with faith.

• Illustration: When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time, that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance, that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements, that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no award—yet receives such a gift anyway—that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what we mean when we talk about the Grace of God.
Clip-Art Features for Church Newsletters, G.W. Knight, p. 53
Handicapped by GRACE Alone!

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Next week: Let's Talk About Fruit. It would be great if you would please read ahead from Galatians 5:16~25.