14. AS FOR ME AND MY HOUSE
“Now therefore fear the Lord,
and serve him in sincerity and in truth: and put
away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of the flood, and
in Egypt; and serve ye the Lord. And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose
you this day whom ye will serve…but as for me and my
house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua
24:14-15
“Almighty Lord God in Heaven, please help
me to determine to always stand on Thy Side, no matter if no one
else stands with me. Amen”
Observing the Japanese race, I am amazed at how much stronger
group pressure is among them, than it typically is in American society.
In Japan, everyone must “go with the flow” of the group with
which they daily function. No “oddballs”, no “Long Rangers” allowed.
This is most detrimental when it comes to spiritual
matters, because when I preach Christ to them, it is most difficult
for any one of them to step apart from the group to trust in
Christ. “You must not rock
the boat.” Also, they trust in the opinions of their group
members, causing them to disbelieve God’s Truth in the Holy Bible.
In 1980 as I was preaching on a narrow street in Matsuida (the
Japanese town I live in), several children were playing nearby. They gathered
around to listen to me. So I addressed the 3 personally who stood close in
front of me. ‘We must trust in the Lord Jesus to save us, so that we will not
go to Hell.’
“There is a heaven, but there isn’t any hell.” A boy about 7 years
old said.
‘Yes, there is a hell.
Hell is real also. And those who reject Christ go there.’
The 7-year-old boy doesn’t want there to be an awful
place like Hell. So, in trying to do away with it, he turns to the kid standing
nearest to him and asks: “There is no hell, is there?”
The kid he asks is a boy only about 5-years-old. And in
answer, this smaller boy shakes his head and says, “No.”
I observed how relieved the older boy was that his
friend agreed with him, like that was good enough to ensure that there
is no hell.
My Friend, don’t you ever dare to doubt one
word in God’s Holy Bible. “The wicked shall
be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.” “Each and every person who refuses to believe that truth will be
turned into eternal Hell fire. Think seriously on Joshua’s bold statement at
the beginning of this story, and you determine that you will
stand with the Lord God, just as firmly as Joshua did.
Your Creator God, The Lord Jesus Christ, now stands as the Saviour
of the world, calling on every lost soul to come to Him to be saved. To choose
Christ or to reject Him is a personal decision that each
of us makes. It is the most important decision to be made in anyone’s
life, because it determines one’s eternal destiny Heaven
or Hell. Don’t you be foolish enough to be swayed by the evil
crowd around you, and thus end up in eternal torments.
You be like Joshua.
“Abba Father in Heaven, please enable
me to be firmly fixed in my decision to trust in The Lord Jesus
Christ as my Saviour. Guard me against ever being swayed from
that decision. Instill within me firm courage to always stand for
God and for what is right, no matter what others around me are doing.
I intercede for the many lost Japanese to whom
Missionary Richard preaches Christ. By Thy Almighty Power, please set
them free from all bonds that prevent them from coming to Christ to be saved.
Give them the necessary courage to come to Thee to firmly
trust in Thee to save them eternally. Then please make the new believers
ever so bold not to waver, no matter how much their peers or
family oppose them trusting in the Saviour of all the earth. Set them free
and save them to the utmost, I plead. Amen.”
Richard Yerby (Matsuida,
Japan) www.Christ-is-all.us