Dear Church Family, an update for the week of August 1, 2010…
For those who attended the Adult Sunday School introductory video for “Go: Cross Cultural” it was a great introduction and overview of God’s plan for the nations and an invitation to all believers, to join in what God is doing worldwide. In the next five weeks, Greg Ing will be helping us to discover what the Bible says about this. All ages are welcome to please join in for any or all of the sessions.
Thank you to Mitsu and Karen Nakamura for sharing their work with Japan Campus Crusade for Christ. Mitsu’s official title with JCCC is the National Strategic Team Leader. He is working in many areas of equipping other missionaries for the field, Bible translation work, and mentoring. He and Karen also work in campus outreach/evangelism; discipleship training; and creating evangelistic materials. They are faced with challenges/opposition to the work (escorted from a campus and asked not to return) and find creative access ways to engage people to offer the opportunity to hear the gospel message. They equip and prepare Japanese missionaries to be sent out to other countries. They are involved with Celebrate Recovery small groups, where they and others learn to grow in healthy ways by working through past problems. Karen is also active with Mom’s In Touch; Sunday School Kid’s Camp; and MK2MK a support group for missionary kids to help them with work through identity issues and care for fellow staff. Our church joined the Nakamura’s support team over ten years ago and we praise God for how He is working through their whole family’s lives (Emily-12, Miye-15, Abe-17). They drove 1,600 miles through Texas and the mid-west looking at colleges for Abe and they will drive back to Southern CA on Tuesday, then will return to Japan on August 23.
Mitsu is currently working on translating the book of Jonah into Japanese in conjunction with an entire team working on the whole Bible. So it is natural, he spoke from Jonah 1:1-3. Many are familiar with the story of Jonah, but he focused on the first three verses:
1) God’s Command: (vv.1-2) 1 The word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai: 2 “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.” Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a people of much wickedness who were an arch enemy of Israel.
2) Jonah’s Response: (v.3) 3 But Jonah ran away from the LORD and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the LORD. Jonah was a prophet of God who must have known you can’t run away or hide from God but with his hatred for the Assyrians, he chose to disobey and run. Although it is not certain where Tarshish actually was, it is thought to be near modern day Spain. The exact location is not important, other than it was in the opposite direction of Nineveh. So Jonah’s response did not reflect his understanding of God. We sometimes do the same.
3) Jonah’s Problem: Why didn’t Jonah go to Nineveh? It was not that he was afraid of them, but because of his own hatred for the Assyrians, and knowing that God would save them, chose not to obey God by going to Nineveh. He put his own convictions over God’s will. We see in other circumstances from the Bible, Jonah was obedient (2 Kings 14:25). So Jonah’s problem was that of “selective submission.”
4) Application: What happens when God sends you where you don’t want to go? Are there areas or things in our lives that we hold back from God? We do “almost everything” He asks us to do, but we stop short when it comes to things like: evangelism/missions; working through family issues; forgiveness; an addiction; or doing something for the church? When we have a problem with selective submission, we miss out on the blessings of personal spiritual growth. We are left out of opportunities to be used by God or to get to know Him better. We cannot experience true satisfaction. God doesn’t expect us to be perfect, but He does expect us to grow in every area of our lives.
5) Conclusion: When God sends you where you don’t want to go don’t refuse His leading, obey Him. If you have problems doing this, seek help from others. Don’t keep using selective submission as Jonah did, you will come to know God better when you obey Him in every way.
Have a blessed week in the Lord as you submit to Him completely,
Stan, for SLZJCC