Emboldened Believers
January 25, 2010
“So everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven.” –Matthew 10:32-33–
“Then Jesus told his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.’” –Matthew 16:24–
Japanese believer’s make up less than one half of one percent of the nation’s population. And of that small nucleus of Christians, the majority are extremely timid or even ashamed of their faith and the reaction they would receive from family & friends if they were to share their beliefs.
The lack of clear, bold witnesses for Jesus in the industrial, commercial and political realms is cause for concern. I even had lunch one time with a secret believer – a Japanese who claimed to believe in Jesus yet his own family & roommates & friends did not know because he feared their reactions.
Pray that if the Spirit of God be indwelling these Japanese that their faith would become in them like the prophet Jeremiah who said, “If I say, ‘I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,’ there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.” –Jeremiah 20:9–
by David Rainer
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