ベサニー・キリスト教会

4月12日はイースター礼拝です。イエス様の受難と復活を覚えて、信仰を新たに感謝と賛美をもって礼拝しましょう。また、この日は、礼拝の中で、特別賛美、転会式、洗礼式もあります。礼拝後には、ささやかですが、昼食にカレーを用意しております。ぜひ、ご家族やお友達とご一緒に、また一人でも、お気軽にお越しください。きっと、元気と喜びを分かち合えると思います。この機会を楽しみにしております。

１０：２０　賛美タイム
１０：３０　礼拝　(～１２：００過ぎ）　
　　　　　　昼食　(ご自由にお残りください。）
　　

English Service: Notice
Due to a variety of programs provided on the Easter Sunday on April 12th, we will postpone our English Service to May 10th.
Thank you,

英語礼拝：ご連絡
4月12日（日）、教会ではイースターをお祝いする様々なプログラムが用意されております。その関係で当日予定の英語礼拝は、5月10日午後4時に延期する事となりました。
ご了承ください。

Today was Easter Sunday and at Bethany Christian Church we were able to hold our 60th baptism. PTL 60 people have confessed their faith in Christ and in His Resurrection in this small baptism pool. Over 20 years ago we decided to build our own baptism pool. The believers got shovels and dug the hole and mixed the cement and we were able to complete this little pool to use for the glory of God.

I came to Japan in 1973 with the commission from God to make disciples, baptize, and teach people the words of Jesus. (Matthew 28:18-20) In our church I have been trying to concentrate on that and by God’s grace nearly every Christmas and Easter and sometimes at Pentecost we have been able to hold baptism services. Sometimes it is one person, sometimes two, and sometimes even three. Every time we are able to hear wonderful fresh testimonies and hear how God has worked to bring people to Himself and to the point where they are ready for public baptism.

This year, young Mr. K got baptized here. He is just starting high school and our church was so glad to see such a young person confess Christ as Savior and Lord. Listening to his testimony I realized that age is not an issue-God’s Voice and leading will get through no matter what.

Please continue to pray for our church that God will continue to send new people to us and that they will become disciples of and believers in Jesus and that we will be able to continue to see people baptized here in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost.

「不埒なキリストの弟子」

今日は素晴らしいイースターでした。イースター礼拝に加え、転会式、洗礼式、食事会、墓前礼拝と、盛り沢山の日曜日でした。キリストが復活された日をお祝いする日ですから、多彩なプログラムと共に本当に充実した主日でした。

　実は、告白します。クリスチャンである私は、実は今日のイースターを迎えるにあたり「良いクリスチャンらしく」ちょっとは主イエスに感謝の気持ちを表すために、主が十字架につけられた金曜日から復活されるまでの日曜日の3日間だけは禁酒しようと考えました。飲酒が悪いとは言いませんが、「酒と主イエスを選ぶとすればどちらを選ぶか？」と考えると、「良いクリスチャン」としては勿論3日間ぐらいは飲酒をやめ、主イエスを選んで禁酒できるはずです。毎日晩酌をする私も「キリストのために禁酒はできる！」と考えていました。

　禁酒初日は木曜日の夜。この日の夜に飲めば主が十字架につけられた金曜日まで酔っぱらう事になるので、禁酒を願う「完璧なクリスチャン」としては木曜日の夜から禁酒するべきです。でも不埒な弟子である私は、「早朝から長時間仕事をした私に対し、その労働を主は祝福して下さる。長時間の仕事の後の酒一杯は、主が下さる祝福だ！感謝して頂けば良い。」と決めつけ、木曜日の禁酒は失敗。

　金曜日の早朝レトリバー犬の息子、J君を連れて散歩中、情けない気持ちでいっぱいでした。「今日こそは主が命を私に捧げ十字架にかかって下さった日なのだから、禁酒は問題なく出来る」と確信していましたが、結局夕方のJ君散歩時には「今日も、主に感謝して酒を頂けば良いだろう。酒も神様が我々に与えて下さったもの。」と自分で納得して、禁酒は断念。もうここまで来ると禁酒の「断念」は、いともたやすい事で、もちろん土曜日の夜もお酒を頂きました。

　私は不埒なキリストの弟子。たかが3日間の内、１日も禁酒できませんでした。このような私を、本当にキリストは受け入れてくれているのでしょうか？「私の弱さを十分理解した上で、キリストはそれでも私を愛して下さる。」と言うのは簡単で、安易でしょう。そればかりか、自分の弱さをキリストの愛で正当化しています。キリストもその深い愛を言い訳に、自分を正当化する弟子を一番嫌う事でしょう。

私は私へのキリストの愛に心から感謝しながら、その愛に応えることができない自分をどうする事も出来ません。自分自身の行動を、自身が制御できない情けなさでいっぱいです。でも今日のイースターに起こった様に「死んだキリストが生き返る」と言う、我々人間の常識や科学知識の範囲で理解する事は「不可能な事」を、「可能」にする主が本当に存在するのであれば、私の弱さなどいとも簡単に解決してくださる事はいとも簡単です。

　私たちの常識をはるかに超える主に全てを望み、私の数々の問題を全て委ねて、全能の主と共に歩んでいくことを、今日新たに決心しました。

I go rock climbing for many reasons. My main reason of course is to keep in shape and for my health. However, I also go to enjoy beautiful mountain scenery and breathe nice fresh mountain air and of course I also go to be alone with God in the mountains that He has made.

However, there is another reason and that is the many wonderful friendships that I have been able to make in the mountains. One of the wonderful people I have met is Mr. T. The other day I arrived at the Kura Iwa and found him in full climbing gear. He at once invited me to share his rope and to climb together rather than for me to use my own. I had a wonderful time of climbing and and also relaxing together over coffee.

Afterwards I thought of this concept of one rope. To offer the use of your rope you are letting someone else touch and use a very basic piece of equipment. The rope is what makes sure we come back alive after each climb. To let someone else use that is a great sacrifice I thought. Secondly, it involves the giving of your time. Mr. T did all the hard work of setting up the rope and now he is going to let someone else use it while he just watches. Each time I use his rope to climb is time that he himself could be climbing. But, for the sake of comradship and friendship he decided to offer me the use of his rope.

Of course, accepting the offer is also meaningful I thought. It involves trusting his rope. I know I can trust my own rope but to use someone else's rope means you trust them. I also have to give up any ideas of my own about which route to climb. Of course, for me, spending time climbing with Mr. T was more important than choosing my own route and so I gladly accepted his offer.

Let me end with a quote I have used before.

"Mountaineering transcends all everyday matters. It transcends all national frontiers. Mountaineers are a band of brothers. They are all one party on one rope."

Guido Tonella: Italian climber and journalist

Paul is happy after a successful rock climb.

The demand for equality has two sources; one of them is among the noblest, the other is the basest. of human emotions. The noble source is the desire for fair play. But the other source is the hatred of superiority.

C. S. Lewis

(page 33 of Present Concerns)

There are three kinds of people in the world. The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them. In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them-the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society-and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier's or a schoolboy's life, into time "on parade" and "off parade", "in school" and "out of school". But the third class is of those who can say like St. Paul that for them "to live is Christ". These people have got of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims fo Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.

And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy.

C.S. Lewis

(page 21 of Present Concerns)

The menu at the Makio Kanko Center

Osaka is famous for many things but maybe mostly for its good food. And so of course if you want a good bowl of "udon" (wheat noodles) Osaka would be the place to come. It is true that I eat "udon" on a weekly basis at home and also I am sure I eat it at a noodle shop somewhere at least once a week. So, it would seem that if someone asked me directions to a place where they served really good noodles I should be able to answer right off. Wrong!

There are many many chain stores in the Osaka area that specialize in udon. Every shopping center and every mall would have several "udon" shops. And of course all the major highways have "udon " shops waiting for customers. When I climb Mt. Kongo I have a choice of two places to eat "udon". And yet, if I were to be asked where to go for really good "udon" I used to not have an answer. Now I do.

The best udon that I have ever eaten is served at the Makio Kanko Center located at the base of Mt. Makio. It is a very small shop-cement floor with old comfortable chairs and tables. Most of the customers are pilgrims who are visiting the 33 Sacred Temples of Saikoku of which Seifuku Ji located at Mt. Makio is No. 4. Otherwise the customers are hikers or rock climbers.

What makes the "udon" here so good? I suspect that it is made from an old family recipe. The udon is made by a mother and daughter team while the father sells souvenirs outside. This family of three is very friendly and kind to all who come in. So, I suspect a lot of kindness and love goes into the "udon" that cannot be copied at a chain store. Even if a customer does not feel like ordering anything he or she is invited in for a cup of tea and encouraged to sit and rest. Overall this makes for a very nice eating experience. Good "udon" in a good atmosphere.

I don't know if anyone comes just for the "udon" but for me the best "udon" in Osaka is to be found in this out of the way place.

Ted Preaching at the Sakai City Bethany Church

"Denial of self is an utter unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ, including the giving up of all of my "rights to myself". Here is the root of sin in experience-my idea that I have a right to myself, or that these are my rights. Thus, the reason that we are so easily irritated, jealous, touchy, impatient, anxious, proud, or angry (to say nothing of other gross sins) is that we have not denied ourselves. Our part is to deny self, to nail the disposition to have our own way to the Cross. The Word says that positionally "our old man was crucified with Him" . It is already done, for there we were crucified, there we died, there we were buried. As far as God is concerned, He is through with the old man. However, in our experience, God will not make this real until we give Him permission by making an absolute surrender to Him-a surrender so complete that death (to self) is the only word that can properly describe it. Then we can go on and reckon outselves "dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).

T. A. Hegre: Founder of Bethany Fellowship (1908-1984)

"Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbols
praise him with resounding cymbols.

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.
Praise the Lord."

Psalm 150:3-6

Our church recently received a banjo and so I believe we are the only church in the New Town with a banjo. Psalm 150 tells us that everything that has breath is to praise the Lord and so I am hoping that our new banjo will be used in that way-to praise the Lord with new sounds.

We have the banjo-now we are waiting to see who will take up the challenge to learn how to play it and to praise God with it.