The personal site of Jonathan Hayashi
The line says, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” I feel that way sometimes. Too often I find myself distracted and drifting, instead of having my heart and mind focused on the Savior who loves me and gave Himself for me.
Some preachers used it as an acronym as, “God’s Righteousness At Christ’ Expense.” For as followers of Christ, we know how the Christian life is indeed all about grace.
Japan is known by many to be a difficult mission field. Japan has now been known as “the missionary’s graveyard.”
What is a calling? General calling? Specific calling? What location or timing can we see in a calling?
The Bible abounds with the truth about worry, fear, and anxiety, although applying these truths can be a complex and difficult task.
The fundamental question in the midst of sorrow is, “What is a proper grieving from a biblical standpoint?”
Many people are seeking purpose and identity horizontally such as their wife, from a job, from achievement, from health, or wealth which the cycle continues on over and over again.
Am I intended to be the hero of my HEART and the hero of MY story? Is this life about believing in myself and following my own heart?
“The mission of the Church is to seek and to save them that are lost.” – James H. Aughey
To get at the nature of that faith, it is helpful to ponder why faith alone justifies. Why not love, or some other virtuous disposition?
The heart of the matter is to whom/what is worship given and how does one’s life exert what one truly value?
“What we cannot obtain by solitary prayer we may by social…because where our individual strength fails, there union and concord are effectual.” – Chrysostom
“If you believe what you like in the gospel, and reject what you don’t like, it is not the gospel you believe, but yourself.” ― Augustine
“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
What’s wrong with the world today? Where is God in the midst of pain? Could we justify God in the midst of evil?
How can we continue on with faith in the life of anxiety when things seem uncertain? What are some ways to trust in our God in the midst of the storm?
If my church ceased to exist today, would the community be impacted by its lack of presence for we loved our neighbors so well?
One day our life will flash before our eyes, let’s make sure it’s worth watching.
The doctrine of hell is one of the most difficult aspects of the Christian faith for many people.
“He is not here,” tells them that their search is a vain one; no more should they look in a tomb for Jesus. “He has been raised,” where the passive points to the truth that the Father raised his Son.
Edwards has exercised influence through his voluminous writings, through a school of disciples known as the “New England Theologians”, and through the evangelical and neo-orthodoxy movements during the 19th and 20th century.
Can spiritual disciplines turn Christians into simply doing a checklist of rules? Or are these tasks weighing down Christians with unnecessary guilt?
The fundamental question that our 21st century evangelical churches must ask is this; If we could have everything in this world, yet Christ is not there, can we be satisfied?
The perspective of Christian mind once again is to rediscover the truth of scripture, critical thinking that is led by the Spirit, and identifying the various ways the secular world value and practice have creeped into the church.