Dan’s Bible Fellowship Class

We’ve been in Tokyo five days now.  Every day, all day, we go to schools and universities to take the gospel to the students and into the household.  Although the middle school and high school students are polite, the acceptance rate is extremely low.  They will not take this gift that is freely given.  The universities are a sea of sullen faces, a reflection of ambivalence to nearly every passerby.  Less than one in ten will accept a New Testament.  This is truly rocky ground.

It’s easy to become discouraged when the long hours do not appear to be very fruitful.  Having been in Africa, South & Central America where the distributions were so very welcomed, I began to question the huge expenditure of labor and money to come here.

This morning, during my quiet time, I read the account of Jesus teaching in the tabernacle in Capernaum.  Obviously teaching to Jews, He was using images that they were very familiar with.  He reminded them of the manna that was given by God when they the Israelites traveled in the wilderness.  Then He said, “I am that bread of life.”  John 6:48.   But that wasn’t what grabbed my spirit this morning.

Again, as He was trying to get them to understand that He was the Messiah that the prophets wrote about, He said, “This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof and not die.”  John 6:50.

Then to drill His point home, so no one would miss it, He said what I needed to hear this morning, “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.  Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”  John 6:53-54.

I needed to hear this certainty pronounce directly by Christ this morning.  If we penetrate 10% of these young people, if we penetrate 1%, or even if we penetrate less, it is time well spent and a good allocation of resources.  No one else pushed us aside while we were here saying, “Let me tell them about Jesus.”  No one said, “We gave them the Gospel last week.”  We take the Gospel to these because it is the only way that they will have life for eternity.  Many of these boys and girls could be my children.  I don’t want them to miss heaven.  They won’t miss it on account of me.

Thank you Lord for knowing my spirit.
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Special Note:  I’ve not posted for several days, but don’t misunderstand my failure to post to be an indication that I’m not having my quiet time. This experience is pretty intense.  God is teaching many things which I may share with you at the appropriate time.