Pastor Gwajima told an incredible story of how he was paralyzed from the neck down for six years as a child. One day after the doctors told him he was going to die, he had a dream. In his dream, he was below a man on the cross whose blood flowed down on him. The man told him that by his stripes he was healed. When he woke up, his neck started to shake. His arms and legs began to work. He sat up and went to his parents door shouting. His dad and mom looked through the window at him and didn’t believe it was their son even though he told them, “I am your son Josephat!” Finally they went out and terrified, asked him what happened to him. He said over and over: a man on a cross, a man on a cross. “Who is this man on the cross?” the father asked. Josephat said, “I don’t know.” Josephat was one of twelve children and lived in a village with no church. No one in the family had ever been to church. But the youngest daughter said, “It is Jesus!” And she told the family that they had to believe in Jesus and be saved. Incredibly, she apparently led the family to Christ even though she had never been to church or heard the gospel! So the whole family knelt down and believed in Jesus. Afterwards, Josephat laid awake that night unable to sleep but ended up speaking in tongues nonstop for two days. Then he went to Bible school, became a pastor, raised people from the dead and now is leading a huge church and traveling the world doing revival meetings. What an incredible story!

This video is embedeed from Call2All Media.

Take aways:

• be humble
• trust completely in God
• don’t be presumptuous but get God’s direction
• don’t be jealous when others (especially younger ones) make victories in God

Learn more about Joy Dawson at her website. If you want to order a DVD of this message, it’s available on her website on page 3 of the DVD section.

Last night we were talking to some missionary friends who told us a wonderful story of thousands of people who had just gotten saved in a revival. How do you disciple thousands of people who get saved at once? House churches. But you’d need hundreds of leaders trained and ready to go. That’s a problem. Most churches don’t have enough small group leaders as it is where is no revival.

Immediately Internet video came to mind. Actually I’ve been thinking about it for some time. And, incidentally, I’m almost always thinking about the Internet. Ha. There are already a lot of great video websites which host video for free. They contain thousands of video of worship songs, many with lyrics. Many churches also provide their sermons by video online. The way to string them all together to create a cohesive service would be to create a playlist. A playlist allows you to watch each video in succession without having to click from one video to the next. It is like a slideshow of videos where the next video plays automatically once the previous video finishes.

Churches and missionary groups can setup any number of ready-to-go online “services” which anyone can use to host a small group in their home. No one needs to know how to play a guitar to lead worship. Instead you can have the very best and most talented worship leaders in the world, lead the small group in worship via video. And no one needs to prepare a Bible study with discussion questions. You can just add an online sermon. There are thousands and thousands of them available online for free. There’s no need to reinvent the wheel every week.

YouTube has the capability to create playlists. Here is a sample worship YouTube playlist embeded below.

You can embed your playlists on your blog or a forum, post them on facebook or email the URL to people. For the best viewing experience embed the playlist on your blog and play it at full screen. Try it out above, you can set it to play at full-screen and when videos advance from one to another seamlessly. If you were to watch a playlist on the YouTube website with autoplay enabled, at the end of each video, it pops out of full-screen as it loads up the next video.

Lots of Worship Videos Available on YouTube

There are a wealth of videos on YouTube that people have made with lyrics and (mostly) pretty good audio. I’m in the process of collecting worship videos in English, Chinese and Japanese. You’re free check out my playlist videos below:

• English
• Chinese
• Japanese

I’ll keep adding to those playlists as I find good worship videos. Please feel free to create your own playlists and share them below in the comments.

How to create a playlist on YouTube

1. First make sure you have a YouTube account. If you already have some kind of Google account, like GMail, you’ve already got one.

2. Search for a video you want to add. Here’s a tip. If you want to find a particular worship song video, search for the name of the song or artist along with the word “lyrics”.

3. Once you find the song, look for the “Save to” box below the video and click it.

4. A drop-down menu will appear below. Click on “Create a new playlist…” and type in the name of your playlist.

5. Repeat steps 2-4 until you have added all the songs and/or testimony or Bible study videos that you want for the small group meeting.

6. Once you have your videos in your playlist, to get to your playlists click on your username in the upper right-hand corner and select “My Videos”. Then on the next page, click on “Playlists” in the left side menu. Your playlists will be listed now in the left side menu. Select the playlist you made.

7. You will now probably wish to make sure the videos are in the order you want them rather than in the order that you added them. To see a list of the videos in your playlist, scroll down to the bottom of the page. To change the order of the videos, double click on a blue number next to a video in the “Position” column. An edit box will appear in its place so you can edit the position number of that video.

8. Now we want to embed the playlist on your blog or forum. To do this, scroll up until you find the field entitled Embed. You’ll need to copy the embed code for pasting it into a blog or forum post. If you don’t know how to copy and paste, watch this video for the Windows OS or this video for Mac users.

9. Finally go to your blog or forum post and paste the embed code when you have set the editor to HTML mode. Here are some videos which show you just how its done.

How to embed a YouTube video on a Blogger blog post.

How to Embed into WordPress 2.9

Here are other videos that show you how to embed into forum posts.

In any kind of partnering relationship where two or more people must cooperate and work together, they must agree to move in the same direction. Without some degree of unity, they won’t be able to go anywhere or get much of anything accomplished. That’s not to say that I’m comparing you and the love of your life to a draft animal, but you get the idea.

Marriage is the most important partnership of a lifetime. So singles should take great care in preparing for this partnership and in evaluating potential spouses. The Bible is a treasure trove of wisdom regardin the qualifications of a godly husband or wife.

When single Christians are searching for a spouse to marry, they should look for someone who matches the character qualities put forth in the Bible of a mature believer. And they should also seek to become the kind of godly person they would like to marry.

On the other side of the coin, the Bible describes many fleshly traits which a believer would be wise to eradicate from their own lives. Certainly, they should not consider marrying a person who has not matured beyond these childish ways.

The following are two lists of both godly and fleshly character traits, broken down in to conceptual categories. 

Seek and Become

Godly traits to look for in a potential mate and to strive to develop in yourself, as well.

• loves, fears and obeys God above all
  • devoted life of prayer and worship
  • sound in faith and doctrine (student of the Bible)
• loves and has concern for others
  • kind and compassionate
  • generous, charitable and forgiving
  • selfless sacrificial love
  • loves children (like Jesus does)
• joyful, thankful and content
  • encourages others verbally
  • happy helper, cheerful giver
  • hospitable
• peaceful, humble and gentle
  • gentle tongue and quiet spirit
  • peacemaker
  • dignified, worthy of respect
  • gracious and tactful
  • accepting of others
  • teachable
  • willing to admit when wrong
  • honors and respects others
• honest, truthful, upright, pure
  • dresses modestly and speaks cleanly
• trustworthy, faithful and reliable
  • hard-working, responsible, helpful
  • can keep secrets
  • loyal: perseveres in relationship
• patient, self-controlled and sober
• wisdom, leadership and practical skills
  • able to teach and disciple
  • sensible, wise
  • prudent decision maker
  • considerate: thinks and plans ahead
  • entrepreneurial, problem solver
  • frugal
  • can both lead and follow
  • communicates well
  • can discipline/rebuke with love
  • speaks truth in love
• emotionally whole
  • healthy relationship with parents
  • ready to “leave” and “cleave” (i.e., make a clean break from parents to establish a new family unit with spouse)
  • can trust others

Avoid and Redeem

These are red flags that should disqualify someone as a wise choice in a spouse. And, too many of these character flaws in your own life may be an indication that you still have some spiritual growth yet to do before you are ready for marriage.

• unbeliever or spiritually immature
  • wrapped up in worldly interests
  • materialistic
  • addicted to alcohol, food, money, porn, shopping or entertainment
  • envious, vain & high maintenance
• selfish and self-centered
  • rude, arrogant, disrespectful
  • miserly
  • manipulative
• negative complainer
  • harsh (ruthless verbal attacks)
  • critical and judgmental
• rebellious, violent, quarrelsome or contentious
  • domineering and controlling
  • tactless and loud
  • bitter and holds grudges
  • demands perfection
  • unteachable
• dishonest and lacks self-control
  • exaggerates a lot and embellishes the truth
  • cheats
  • out-of-control temper
  • engages in filthy, crude or foolish talk
  • dresses provocatively
  • slanderous or gossip
• untrustworthy, unreliable & irresponsible
  • lazy, idle, unproductive, chronically jobless
  • doesn’t pay bills on time
  • can’t keep secrets
  • gives up on people easily
• foolish, feeble and passive
  • can’t make decisions
  • lacks direction and motivation
  • excessively dependent on parents
  • can’t communicate in complete sentences; mostly grunts and phrases
  • unable to confront conflict
• emotionally broken
  • as evidenced by a recent a break-up or divorce
  • cannot trust others, always suspicious
  • rude toward, bitter or out of touch with parents (who are sane and still living)
  • insecure or overly sensitive

PDF version (41 KB)

But Isn’t Romance is Supposed to be Fun?

Yes! But as most of us know from personal experience, getting your heart broken is NOT fun. It’s better to make wise choices and enjoy romance in a safe relationship rather than to run headlong, giddy into a romance with your eyes closed and suffer for it later. It’s prudent to make level-headed decisions about when to “arouse or awaken love“. And that is usually when you can safely let your heart open up to fall in love with someone because chances are high that you will likely enter into a committed relationship and marry.

It’s wise to keep your eyes WIDE OPEN before marriage. Do your due diligence or you will regret it later. Ignorance is definitely NOT bliss. What you don’t know is still real: knowledge is not necessarily bliss, but neither is ignorance. Certainly character traits are not the only factors in selecting a mate. Personality,  chemistry and common interests definitely play a role. However, moral character should be the foremost priority because without it most marriages fail. Once your prospective life partner has cleared the first screening test of spiritual maturity, then you can check him or her against your other “must have” criteria.

Top Ten “Must Haves” and “Can’t Stands”

One of the best books I’ve read on the subject of finding a husband or wife is How to Know Whether Someone Is Worth Pursuing in Two Dates or Less by Neil Clark Warren, founder of eHarmony. The book has been replaced by an updated version. My biggest takeaway from the book is the importance of the two top ten lists that each person looking to get married should develop: Top Ten “Must Haves” and Top Ten “Can’t Stands”. Figure out for yourself what are the top ten non-negotiables you must have in your mate-to-be. And you also need to decide what are the top ten things you would not be able to tolerate in the person you’ll be married to for the rest of your life. These lists are personal to your particular values, needs and personality. They require you to really know yourself first in order for you to know who would best match you in marriage.

Now the idea of making top ten lists may cause some push-back from some. You may not want to limit your choices. Or you consider yourself a free spirit who likes to think out-of-the-box. However, realistically with close to seven billion people on the planet it only makes sense to narrow your options down to a more reasonable subset.

One of the best reasons why Dr. Warren advocates these lists is that it saves you time and heartache. If you don’t know who you are and what you want, then any person that is half-way attractive and makes you feel good is a candidate for you. However, later on when problems arise, you realize that you should have “done your homework” earlier. By then, though, you may have invested months or years into the relationship and you’d be reluctant to throw that all away and be back to square one with nothing to show for the time and money sunk into the relationship. At that point, you’d also be emotionally involved and thinking rationally would be a stretch. You also may have already gotten sexually involved or married or worse, married with children, and a break up now would be very costly indeed. How much better it would be if you could “rewind the tape,” so to speak, go back to before all that, make your lists and have been able to have confidently said on the second date that this person is not for you and moved on with your life. So much time, heartache and money saved! And for most people, there are only so many years when there is an adequately large enough pool of unmarried people your age to choose from. I’d say you really have only about ten years, from age 22 to 32, when you’re still young enough to have children (for women) and most people your age aren’t already married or divorced. You really don’t have time to waste. If you can determine whether someone is worth pursuing in two dates or less using top ten lists, why not do it?

So, what are your Top Ten “Must Haves” and “Can’t Stands”?

I suggest selecting the top six or seven of each list from moral character traits taken from the Bible as listed in the “Seek/Become” and “Avoid/Redeem” section above. Then fill out the rest of the list with more personal criteria such as things like:

• wants to have 2-3 kids
• willing to live in a certain city or state
• doesn’t smoke
• likes the outdoors

All the best to you in your search for God’s best in a spouse for you!

This blog post was written in preparation for the OnePlusOne relationship seminar to be held at HSK church in Hamamatsu, Japan on March 26-27, 2010.

If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. The one who rejects me and does not receive my words has a judge; the word that I have spoken will judge him on the last day. (John 12:47-48)

We know theologically that Jesus Christ was both human and divine. As a human being, he is the prime example of what a sinless person looks like … someone who is completely yielded and obedient to God; someone who is in constant and unbroken connection with God. He was a prophet who was perfectly true, without the influence of the flesh.

Jesus never spoke independently of the Father God. Everything he said was in obedience to a command the Father had given for him to deliver as the Father’s message. The Christ was the perfect example of a servant of God, who does not inject his own personal message, but truly represents God and delivers messages of God.

High fidelity (or hi-fi) sound systems reproduce recorded sound with very high quality, that is to say that it reproduces sound with minimal amounts of noise or distortion. Christ, of course, was a prophet who spoke with perfect fidelity. Everyone who speaks as a representative of the Lord, must strive for high fidelity reproduction of  God’s holy word.

Moses, one of the greatest prophets of the Lord, had to be sentenced to death because he interjected his personal anger into a miracle that God commanded him to perform (Numbers 20:11). Moses tainted the purity of God’s message by striking the rock when God hadn’t commanded him to do so. Anyone who speaks on God’s behalf, or teaches in church, is to be like an interpreter. The interpreter is responsible to both the speaker and listeners that they translate what was spoken with high fidelity. If the original meaning is distorted in translation, the interpreter breaches the trust placed in them by the speaker and listener. Failing to stay true to the original meaning and intent of the speaker is a severe ethical failure in legal/courtroom interpretation. Certainly the holy word of the Lord deserves the highest fidelity interpretation possible.

Jesus makes a very interesting statement in John 12:47-48 when He said that he won’t judge people for not obeying his words; the word itself will judge the disobedient. Isn’t the Christ divine? Doesn’t He sit on the throne in heaven? Isn’t He also the Word of God so isn’t Jesus the same as the word He spoke? I believe Jesus was speaking as a human being while on earth. I believe he was speaking as a human prophet should, perfectly yielded to God, in constant connection with Holy Spirit, reproducing with perfect fidelity the messages of God. The Christ did not come to judge the world, but to save it by dying for us on the cross. But while he was on earth in public ministry, he served as the perfect example of a human servant of  God.

We, too, are not to judge people. If God gives us His messages to deliver, that doesn’t give us equal standing with God that we should presume we are qualified to judge others by our own wisdom. Even the Christ did not do that. Instead we are to humble ourselves by quieting our own fleshly reactions and yield all lordship over our thoughts and feelings over to Holy Spirit. This internal kneeling before the Lord is the proper posture for God’s prophets, teachers, worship leaders and all servants of God. No one should presume to speak on God’s behalf out of fleshly wisdom. But if God commands us to speak, we should reproduce His word with high fidelity. Our job is always to love our neighbor. But in this case our job will be to love our neighbor and to act as a delivery mechanism for God’s word: a mouthpiece, a speaker cabinet, a hi-fi sound system. By commanding us to speak, God has placed a trust in us to reproduce His word without noise or distortion. We dare not breach that trust by contaminating His holy word with fleshly opinion. If we have truly delivered the word of God, then the word itself will judge people for disobedience. It is never our place to judge.

And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows’ houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation (Luke 20:45-47).

What a sobering critique! I would be ashamed to be spoken of by You that way by my Lord. Religious people, listen up (…and I’m speaking to myself, too): fake “Christian” busybodies will receive the greater condemnation.

Long Robes

The scribes liked being admired and honored by others. They enjoyed a high position in society. Their long robes were a mark of that position. They were greeted in the marketplace and sat in the best seats in the synagogues.

What are some outward symbols of religious status today? Perhaps some of these:

• sitting in the front row at church
• sitting on the stage
• being on a soloist at church
• having people call you “Pastor” or “Dr.”
• having the title “elder” or “deacon”
• wearing WWJD pins (who does that anymore?)

Do you rush to grab seats in the front row? Maybe this isn’t wrong. Perhaps you just want to be up close because you think you can worship God better right at the front of the church. Perhaps it is to show enthusiastic participation in the “body life” of the church. Or is it because you want to be seen by others in the best seats in the church? Only God knows our own heart motivations.

When I sang on the worship team at a megachurch, I was easily recognized in the hallways and greeted by people I didn’t know. It always made me feel uncomfortable. I shied away from such honor. But that’s not the right approach either. It smacks of false humility. I should rather graciously love each person who greets me and endeavor to have a true heart-to-heart connection, with joy and warmth.

Long Prayers

It’s not wrong to pray long prayers as long as its Spirit-led and sincere. The Lord taught us to pray and not give up, even if you have to ask again and again (Luke 18:1). We aren’t, however, supposed to drone on and on meaninglessly with canned mantras. But there isn’t anything wrong with praying for a long time. Jesus would pray all night long! He did encourage us however to pray in secret rather than in public to be seen by others. The problem with the scribes is that they made long prayers in public only so people would think they are holy. These kinds of prayers will offer no reward whatsoever.

If the long robes were outward symbols of “fake faith”, then the scribe’s long prayers were behaviors of false religion. Long prayers can represent anything we do in the name of God that really isn’t backed by true faith acting out in response to a command of God.

Long Noses

The scribes practiced their religion before others so they could be seen. Their long robes and long prayers made them “look” holy, but it was all a lie! So they had proverbial “long noses” like Pinnochio. Religion-for-show is not pure faith. Jesus elsewhere says that we’ll get no reward for that kind of religion. Pure religion rather is keeping yourself from evil and helping orphans and widows. In contrast the scribes devoured widows’ houses. What did that mean? Did they demand some exorbitant temple tax from poor widows who couldn’t afford it? Maybe that was the poor widow who gave her last two pennies. Perhaps they scribes over preached the religious importance of giving to the temple.

All this makes me want to be a “secret Christian”. Is there something undesirable about that term. “If you are a real believer, shouldn’t you stand up for your faith?” Yes, but most of the time I think we can keep our faith to ourselves. Jesus taught that we should give, pray and fast in secret (Matthew 6). The heavenly Father will see our spiritual acts of obedience done in secret for an audience of One. There are definitely times for public unashamed ministry where we preach or lead worship, exhort or rebuke. But we should do public ministry in response to God’s leading. We should speak what we hear God speaking; and do what we see Him doing … whether in public or in private.

Lord God, make me a true servant that serves You alone. Help me not to usurp Your rightful place as Lord and Master over my life. Let me steward this life for Your glory, not mine. Lord, may this blog bring glory to You, not to me. In Jesus’ name, amen.

(Luke 17:11-19)

Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, “Jesus, Master, have pity on us!”

When he saw them, he said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went, they were cleansed.

One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan.

Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” Then he said to him, “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”

100% Faith, 100% Healing

“Go and show yourselves to the priests,” Jesus told the ten lepers who pleaded with Him to heal them. Only one, a Samaritan, returned to thank the Lord. And Jesus’ response was, “Weren’t all ten cleansed?” One thing that strikes me here is the Lord’s firm conviction that all ten were healed. He knew they were healed. There was no doubt in His mind. He believed and knew that there was 100% healing.

Lord, give me faith to believe. Help me to be at that place where I believe that You are working through me and that I will have not even a single trace of doubt. Lord, transform me and help me to grow.

10% Worship

Receiving the blessing of God is not a time to be all prim and proper. The response of the Samaritan leper was to praise God with a loud voice. He was happy! He was ecstatic! He couldn’t help but go back to the Lord Jesus, fall at his feet, and on his face give thanks to the Lord. This is a picture of gratitude and rejoicing. Hallelujah!

Sadly, though, just as in this story, even today not many rejoice at their salvation. Even if they are saved, they don’t rejoice and worship the Lord with abandon.

Lord, help me to have the Samaritan’s kind of joy at my salvation! I want to return to You and praise You loudly, falling on my face and give thanks to You, Lord. Help me to see Your blessings. I want to be that ten percent that realizes the wonderful gift given to me. I don’t want to be the ninety percent that simply goes on my way, unthankful, with the blessing of God but an unchanged heart. Lord, transform me that I may not only receive Your blessing but also be transformed on the inside to humbly and gratefully rejoice with excitement!

Help me to believe in You 100% and be the 10% that worships You with joy!