After they had been tried, found guilty, and sentenced to die, twenty six Christians were marched to the place where crudely made crosses stood. Almost three months earlier they had been arrested in Kyoto, Japan,and charged with following Christ.One of them was Ibaragi Kun.Seeing how young Kun was, an official took him aside and urged him to recant his faith to save his life.Looking the official in the eye,Kun said confidently,"Sir,it would be far better if you yourself became a Christian.Then you could go with me to Heaven."The Officer stared,startled by the young man's faith.Finally Ibaragi asked"Sir,which cross is mine?".The bewildered officer pointed to the smallest of the twenty six crosses..Young Kun ran to it knelt before it and embraced it.When the soldiers began to nail his hands and feet to the cross he did not cry out in pain.He courageously accepted the path that was laid before him.The crucifixion of the twenty six Christians on November 23,1596 was the beginning of an intense period of persecution.In the next seventy years close to one million Japanese believers laid their lives for their faith.Many would embrace their own crosses to follow the example of young Ibaragi Kun,a very mature Twelve year old Believer.
Spiritual maturity is not measured by a birth certificate or a certificate of Ordinance.Chronological age has very little to do with conviction. Rather spiritual maturity is measured one day at a time.We measure our maturity by how well we daily apply our faith in every day situation that spells out life.Contrary to popular belief Spiritual maturity is not based on how much we know about the Bible.Many people have very great knowledge about the Bible yet remain strangers to Jesus Christ and the maturity that comes through faith in His atoning work on the cross.Obedient application of the Biblical teaching is a mark of spiritual maturity.We must daily ask ourselves"How much more do we look like Jesus today than we did yesterday?" Our answer would be a true reflection of our growth in Christ.
Source: Extreme Devotion, VOM
A bonfire of vanities
Apologies to all in Blog land this time it was just plain ol' laziness :) Consistency is hard work I must say. It's 12 28 AM ...Yes It Is!! and I am up blogging...Oh well the Randomn things people do!! Friday nights are fun nights after a days work it is fun to , hang out....do nothing .Some nights though are world event or philosophy nights some are just 'Monk' or 'Office' rerun nites.....ah the bliss of indulgence.
So the bros decided to watch a movie and so thats just what we did, we rented out Rambo XIV...seriously I don't even know how many parts are out by now. Anywho the movie started with the usual Rambo uptightedness[Hey I might have actually discovered/coined a new word here] what I mean is for some reason Stallone's character always looks like somebody just ate his last piece of fudge brownie. A good five minutes into the movie the storyline started to emerge, it was about a rebel faction in Burma sowing terror across the land as a part of some kind of insurgency. All I know is that there was an awful lot of gore. People being mercilessly gunned down, land mines blowing and limbs flying around, Human beings shot as target practice even women and children. Halfway through the movie I decided that I had seen enough bloodshed for one night and slipped out.
Well, in the movie hall the faint hearted always have the option of walking away or even looking away when it came to a violent scene. But what about when it is real life, What do you do when a Machette wielding mob rushes into your house and mercilessly slaughter your dear and near ones. What do you do when one day you find yourself helplessly watching the smoke columns arise as the flames consume the dreams and hopes that you have been building for years. There is nothing left the memories of the rooms where your little one grew. The very front door that you walked in as a shy bride...the place you called a home. Now all that is left of it is charred rubbles. Who would have ever thought that we would live to see the days where mothers are being gang raped in broad day light and young fathers being buried alive. Yes, recently the Largest secular democracy bore witness to a spate of such horrible events.
There is this scene in the popular movie 'Hotel Rwanda' where Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) tells a cameraman to record and broadcast the violent events unfolding around them. The cameraman's response to Paul Rusesabagina was convicting as he says that a good majority of the world that has the power to act would just dismiss it as a sad event and carry on watching their favourite shows. I wonder how much of it is true about me, Somehow unpleasent events are often discounted as that which happens to nameless faceless people somewhere in some distant land. I think that the greatest weapon used to silence the collective conscience of a generation is often times a blissful ignorance. For we believe that what we don't know does not have the power to touch our hearts......and life goes on, back to the i -phones, the mortgage payments and the fall winter collection.
Tonite I hear a different call....a clarion call to break free from the complacency that ignorance brings,a call to get on our knees for the Nations of the world,a call to love like never before. A call to give and share and care like never before. I pray that a dying world would see Jesus Christ in and through us as we respond to this call.
So the bros decided to watch a movie and so thats just what we did, we rented out Rambo XIV...seriously I don't even know how many parts are out by now. Anywho the movie started with the usual Rambo uptightedness[Hey I might have actually discovered/coined a new word here] what I mean is for some reason Stallone's character always looks like somebody just ate his last piece of fudge brownie. A good five minutes into the movie the storyline started to emerge, it was about a rebel faction in Burma sowing terror across the land as a part of some kind of insurgency. All I know is that there was an awful lot of gore. People being mercilessly gunned down, land mines blowing and limbs flying around, Human beings shot as target practice even women and children. Halfway through the movie I decided that I had seen enough bloodshed for one night and slipped out.
Well, in the movie hall the faint hearted always have the option of walking away or even looking away when it came to a violent scene. But what about when it is real life, What do you do when a Machette wielding mob rushes into your house and mercilessly slaughter your dear and near ones. What do you do when one day you find yourself helplessly watching the smoke columns arise as the flames consume the dreams and hopes that you have been building for years. There is nothing left the memories of the rooms where your little one grew. The very front door that you walked in as a shy bride...the place you called a home. Now all that is left of it is charred rubbles. Who would have ever thought that we would live to see the days where mothers are being gang raped in broad day light and young fathers being buried alive. Yes, recently the Largest secular democracy bore witness to a spate of such horrible events.
There is this scene in the popular movie 'Hotel Rwanda' where Paul Rusesabagina (played by Don Cheadle) tells a cameraman to record and broadcast the violent events unfolding around them. The cameraman's response to Paul Rusesabagina was convicting as he says that a good majority of the world that has the power to act would just dismiss it as a sad event and carry on watching their favourite shows. I wonder how much of it is true about me, Somehow unpleasent events are often discounted as that which happens to nameless faceless people somewhere in some distant land. I think that the greatest weapon used to silence the collective conscience of a generation is often times a blissful ignorance. For we believe that what we don't know does not have the power to touch our hearts......and life goes on, back to the i -phones, the mortgage payments and the fall winter collection.
Tonite I hear a different call....a clarion call to break free from the complacency that ignorance brings,a call to get on our knees for the Nations of the world,a call to love like never before. A call to give and share and care like never before. I pray that a dying world would see Jesus Christ in and through us as we respond to this call.
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