Food for thought

Here's some text from a Japanese Christian from many years ago:

=================================

"Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." (Revelation 5:12) This is my faith; I believe in this God alone and worship Him in spirit and truth.
I do not place my faith in dogma or in doctrine. Neither do I have faith in miracles or mystical experiences. I am an alien to faith in the Church, faith in the cross, faith in the resurrection, faith in speaking in tongues, and faith in divine healing. I cannot consider those dogmas and experiences objects of my faith.
The primary question of faith ought to be "Whom do I believe?" and not "What do I believe?" The object of my faith should not be an event such as the crucifixion and the resurrection but God Himself standing behind these events. Just as Paul did, I also say, "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." (I Corinthians 2:2)

We Should not stake our faith upon a merely intellectual theory of the cross - a futile playing with words. A theory of redemption does not save us, but the redeeming blood of the Lord does.

==================================

Do we sometimes cheapen the gospel and merely expect people to mentally consent to the facts of the gospel without actually teaching about a supernatural encounter with the most high God through His son Jesus? Does 2 Timothy 3 describe us?

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.

From Matthew 23:

23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.

25 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.

27 "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.

Are we mere teachers of the law and full of greed and self-indulgence? Do we truly take up our cross daily and walk with Jesus? Do we really do things out of love? Do we show mercy to others, just as Christ shows us mercy every day? Is repentance preached these days? Do we offer our bodies as living sacrifices as our spiritual act of worship?

Why do I ask so many questions? :)

I'm just thinking out loud...my daily verbal communication has gone way down over the last 2 weeks, so I need to just get my thoughts out. :)

I went to Tokyo Tower today, but other than that, I've been reading. I read a book about spiritual strongholds in Japan, and I'm reading another on religion in Japan written by a Christian anthropologist. Quite interesting...and some of the things in the Japanese culture are completely foreign to my upbringing. I'll probably post on that later.

--David