regeneration

We went to church Saturday night and heard a really good message called ‘The Door of Rest’. (listen/watch here.) Pastor Dennis spoke on trusting God and surrendering to Him so He can work through us. ‘Take My yoke upon you, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light,’ Jesus said, and that means that as Christians we can either choose to let God handle the burdens, or we can live life as practical atheists and worry, strive, and struggle as we try to handle it all by ourselves.

As I listened to the message, I realized that I had taken on a ‘burden’, that of learning Japanese, and it really hadn’t been fun. It felt like more of a heavy responsibility than anything, and it was eating the joy out of it. As I surrendered this burden to God, I suddenly felt more at ease. Japanese became fun again. I spent the majority of the day in between calls studying kanji, numbers, and dates, and it was actually a marvelous time. The day has more of a flow to it, rather than a struggle. That’s a good thing. It’s a really good thing.

We still need things to change in our finances. As my wife recently mentioned, the oil crisis and rising food prices are really starting to hurt, and of course when prices go up, one’s salary doesn’t automatically rise to match (as nice as that would be!). As a result, what was a tight squeeze has become even tighter. For some reason, though, I feel more positive about it than before…letting it go. It’s in God’s hands. As the Word says, He will never suffer the righteous to be moved. God owns the cattle on a thousand hills, and His people will never be forsaken, nor their children begging for bread. He shall supply all our need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus, and since He feeds the sparrows, He will most certainly take care of us. So I feel more encouraged. I believe that by the time registration for the JLPT comes around (next week, I think), I will have the money, and that God will turn our financial situation around. I do not believe that He wants us to live in debt and in an oft-uncomfortable housing situation like this. I believe things will turn around…and believe it more than before.

Last month I had a dream that was encouraging to me. I was in a park at Mt. Fuji, speaking fluent Japanese to some people there. I couldn’t understand what I was saying, but obviously the hearers understood. I believe that some dreams have a special meaning, and as I very rarely have dreams that seem to mean anything, when this does happen, I write them down and treasure them. It was encouraging to me, because it makes me believe that some day this at-first-seemingly-impossible dream–that of speaking fluent Japanese–will come to pass.