Shall I Fall Down Before a Block of Stone or Wood?
In Shizuoka City, the Rainer’s are grateful to have some patient, friendly families in the building that they live in. One family in particular, the S-family, will go to great lengths to listen to, talk to, and try and make David and Mindy feel welcome despite the language barrier. They even are kind enough to compliment them on their infantile language!
The Rainer’s sense something different about this family. It does not seem that they are following the outward rules of the Japanese society of expected niceties, but instead, they seem genuinely interested in showing kindness to foreigners in their country and willing to go the extra mile to serve those who are different.
During a conversation this month, the Rainer’s found out that this family is Buddhist. They have a six year old and four year old son, and the oldest boy attends a school started many years ago by Catholics. The Rainer’s used this conversation to ask if the S-family were also Catholic, assuming they were not, and were told that they believe in the ways of Buddhism.
There was no offense taken when David and Mindy had previously given written Gospel material to the family and they also had no problem with the fact that the Rainers are in Shizuoka City to teach others the way of Christ. However, it is most likely that because of the language barrier, the S-family has no idea that the truth is that the claims of Christ mean that Buddha is dead and unworthy. The claims of Christ mean they must repent and trust in Jesus in order to be saved. The claims of Christ are that He is living and worthy or worship that they are not giving Him.
Please pray that this family of four, with two young, precious sons, and loving, friendly parents, would through our influence or any means come to repentance and faith in the living, risen, Son of God. The Rainers recently spent part of an afternoon at a Buddhist temple, and all around were small statues of Buddha – with his head missing. They kept thinking of this family God has put them near, and how sad that something so dead was the closest understanding that had to a loving Father God. Pray that the people of Japan would no longer fit this description of the prophet Isaiah:
“The ironsmith takes a cutting tool and works it over the coals. He fashions it with hammers and works it with his strong arm. He becomes hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water and is faint. The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, ‘Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!’ And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for you are my god!’
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, ‘Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?’ He feeds on ashes; a deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’” (ch 44:12-20)
