English Weekly Bulletin Sermon
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2025/01/18
Words of the Prophet As we start a new year, both domestic and international news are gloomy, including the entertainment world. There is no sign of abating either between Israel and Hamas or between Russia and Ukraine. The number of people infected with the virus is on the rise. While there are many concerns about the first practical use of mRNA vaccines, Japan has built a self-replicating mRNA vaccine (replicon) factory in Japan and has begun manufacturing and selling it. In Japan, 30 years...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2025/01/18
Notes when you are baptized The form of baptism described in the Bible is "immersion," in which the whole body is immersed in water. We believe that this best represents the death of the sinful body on the cross and the participation in new life through the resurrection (Romans 6:3-14). Baptism is a way of showing God and people that you have been saved by believing in Christ. Our Baptist predecessors advocated conscious faith and separation of church and state, rejected "infant baptism" and...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2025/01/10
For Those Who Will Be Baptized and Join the Church "For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” (Romans 10:10) "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (Mark 16:16). Church is also a confessional community based on "faith". Church members have Jesus Christ as their head and as members, they have fellowship with each other through faith. Church...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2025/01/03
Last Sunday Service of the Year Today's service (December 29th) will be the last Sunday service of 2024. Today is the last Sunday service, but it is not limited to Sundays. It can be any day of the week or at any time. It can be every day. Our church gathers together to worship on the day of the Lord's resurrection. When we meet together to break bread on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), everyone should always put aside something according to their income on the first day of the week, so...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/12/27
Christmas in many ways There are many colors that represent Christmas. Each color used in Christmas decorations has a meaning. Green represents eternal life, red represents the atoning blood shed by Christ on the cross. Gold and silver represent the nobility of Christ the King and white represents snow and angels. The items used in decorations also have various meanings. Bells represent the joyous news, candles represent Christ the light of the world and stars represent the star that guided the...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/11/07
Noto Disaster Relief Fund Remittance Your donations were sent to the same “Noto Help, Noto Earthquake Christian Disaster Relief Association” as last time on October 30th. This organization was formed on January 5th, centered around the local church network "Ishikawa Prefecture Broadcasting Evangelism Cooperation Association (Representative: Okada Akira)" to provide support for the Noto Peninsula earthquake that occurred on January 1st, 2024. Six caretakers were selected and have begun their...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/10/31
Chapter 4, For the Beauty of the Earth I write about Chapter 4, "For the Beauty of the Land," in Part 1 of "What it Means to be a Christian," written by N. T. Wright. I write about what I learned from this book. The title of Part 1 is "The Echoes of a Voice," and from Chapter 1 to Chapter 4, and talks about how Christians can listen to the voice of God on earth. The title of this book is "Simply Christian," but the contents are by no means simple. The teachings of the Bible may seem simple, but...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/10/17
Thirst for a Human Relationship "Being a Christian" by Wright is divided into three parts. The title of the first chapter is "The Echoes of a Voice," and this "echoes of a voice" is a familiar voice that we have heard somewhere before. It is something that humans were originally given by God. The first chapter is made up of four parts: To make this world righteous (longing for righteousness), Longing for the hidden spring (spiritual longing), Made for each other (thirst for human...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/10/10
Spiritual Thirst The second chapter of Wright's book "Being a Christian" is titled "Yearning for the Hidden Spring." I have summarized what is being taught here. Wright compares the spirituality to a spring of water. A dictator covers this spring with concrete to stop the flow and he lets his water flow via a new water pipe. This is "philosophy." Even the church has lost its spirituality due to this "philosophy." At first, people were happy with the dictatorship, but gradually they began to...
English Weekly Bulletin Sermon · 2024/10/03
Yearning for Righteousness I am writing about my understanding of N. T. Wright's book "Being a Christian" (subtitled "An Introduction to Christianity by N. T. Wright"). The first chapter is about righteousness and was surprised at how the book begins. The reason why the church exists is developed in relation to righteousness. We have a vague idea of what righteousness is. In this present world where injustice is rampant, our voice is overridden and is faded away. In such a society, there...