CHRIST IS ALL
Summer 2023 (June, July, August)
Dear Friend in Christ,
Please pray that God will enable me to lease the vacant lot
behind Matsuida Post Office, if that be His Will. (I briefly
mentioned that in my previous quarterly news.)
That location is highly visible (making it ideal
for billboard prayers, and other “Gospel broadcasting methods” I have in mind),
because, on each school day, 60 or so grammar school kids file past it
twice a day, walking to and from Matsuida Elementary School, about 200 yards
down that same narrow back street from this vacant lot. A Japanese Christian brother
searched out the owner’s name and address for me. I am already praying for the
salvation of the owner’s entire household. You also, please intercede for their
eternal welfare. I am not rushing into this,
and will inform you of new developments.
These idol-worshipping Buddhists and Shintoists around me
have been terribly blinded and captivated by Satan. Please pray with me
for Christ to give Spiritual Sight to their Spiritually blind eyes. God’s Truth
is so foreign to their blinded hearts and minds.
For example, back in 1979, when I spoke of Christ to a
neighborhood man in my town of Matsuida, he spoke of
his religious belief, saying that he would not step on a bug on the ground
because one of his ancestor’s spirit might be in that insect.
Another example, in 1984, while hiking near my house, along a quiet,
rural road in front of a majestic steep mountain range of cliffs and
buttes, I was gazing on the most grand and
tallest of the buttes. As I walked past by a farmhouse where the middle-age wife was out front, I commented on the beauty of
that grandest butte. “That is god,” she told me. They will worship a
flower, bush (most any plant or such) as a god, because of its beauty. So
blind!
Recently in May this year, as I was teaching English
conversation to 2 retired lady schoolteachers in their mid 70s, one lady asked
me what Americans say at the meal table before starting to eat.
‘Most Christians pray a prayer of thanks to God for the
meal.’
She was quite “turned off” by that answer of mine,
replying to me; “We consider everything to be a god.”
Thus she actually never gives
any thanks to any god, I assume. And I know that unless her blind eyes
are made to see that all good comes from her Creator God, and that unless
she repents and trusts in Him, that she will never have any help in the
day of death, nor any salvation from the eternal torments of Hell fire.
“Lord, open their eyes!”
Late afternoon of that same day, I was staking my mini-tomato
plants in the tiny front yard of my house, when my neighbor (retired taxi
company owner) moseyed over to chat. He told me of the death of an elderly
neighborhood man, news that I had not yet heard. He asked me to go burn incense
at the deceased Japanese man’s grave. That is done as an act of worship.
In particular, they worship deceased folks
(family, relatives, friends, and acquaintances). Truth means nothing to them, because the devil has so blinded them to God’s
Truth. I speak Truth to them ever so plainly, but they have no heart to
receive it.
Pray for the salvation of elderly Miss “June” near my Rescue
Mission in Karuizawa Town. The very next morning after my neighbor taxi man
asked me to commit idolatry, she came into the Rescue Mission in Karuizawa Town.
She is about 89 or 90 years old, with one foot in the grave, still running her
shop nearby that sells many idols, incense, and such. She was slowly hobbling
along, using 2 modern “walking staffs” (designed to well aid the
elderly or weak in walking). She entered my place because she is lonely, most
local people shunning her pesky ways. I said ‘I’m praying for Jesus to heal and to strengthen you.’
Such talk sent her hobbling right on her way. She had no ears to hear such
speech.
‘Mercy, Lord, on her, and on the many like-minded souls around
me here in central Japan.’
I am blessed to now be passing the hot season in the Rescue
Mission in Karuizawa Town in the mountains, where it is about 8 degrees
Fahrenheit cooler than at my Matsuida house at the base of this steep mountain
range. Karuizawa is a summer resort and tourist town. In Japan, Covid
restrictions relaxed much back in the spring this year. Thus, a multitude
of vain, lost souls daily walk past the Rescue Mission,
many pushing “baby buggies” with up to 3 dogs in the buggy. Many of the
dogs are elegantly attired. Many souls are constantly snapping
pictures or taking video as they walk along. “Pretty, cute, amazing,
wonderful, delicious, fun, exciting.” One or more of those vain words constantly come forth from their mouths, as they praise
the much lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, & the pride of life that is powerfully
“in one’s face” from the small shops that line the streets of this Vanity Fair.
This end-time generation has gone mad, chasing the “things of
this world”.
All Glory Be to Almighty God in the Highest Heaven, looking down on this vain mess of the
human race, that the Rescue Mission stands out like a sore thumb.
I’m most blessed and privileged that God has placed me as a
Lighthouse in the midst of these vain perishing
souls. Most of them turn a sour face to me as I sing, preach, or hold up
the word of life in print. Ever so soon, all their proud faces will be
aflame in Hellfire as they weep, wail, and gnash their teeth,
without end or release. Knowing that awful fate awaiting them, fills my
heart with compassion for their salvation.
Fellow Christian Believer, what is your heart attitude
toward the many lost souls around you daily?? Compassion
makes me fish for men and seek lost sheep. Are you doing the same?? Or, are you content to have their blood on your hands
when you soon stand before the Judgment Seat of Christ?
Not only do the devil’s children turn a sour face to me as they
walk past, but also missionaries & their families do so, especially
their half-naked, scantily attired children. Some of them would do well to take
some of the fancy clothing off of the dogs being
strolled by in luxury, and add those clothes to the scant, indecent clothing on
their youthful offspring.
Also many Japanese Christians sour on me as they walk by, refuse
to greet me, and even warn other Japanese Christians to avoid me.
Precious Sweet Lord Jesus, I’m thankful to Thee, that such
rejection and scorning results in making me the most bless-ed soul on
this earth by bringing me into the closest, most intimate Fellowship
with Thee. I plead for mercy upon my fellow Laodicean Christian
Believers worldwide, the ones of them who prefer the praise of men, over
going forth unto Thee without the camp, bearing Thy Reproach.
God richly bless you who
pray for me, & intercede for the salvation of the
many lost Buddhists around me. Thank you who send me
offerings to feed me & to send me forth.
On Sunday 2 July, Missionary
Pastor Dan Roberts allowed me to preach the sermon in his church at the 10:30
AM worship service. Along with him, his wife and adult daughter, there were 4
or 5 others present, all but one of them were Japanese. I was blessed to
worship with them in a quiet residential area amidst lovely scenery of
rolling plains nearby, with high, majestic mountain ranges far away; afterwards
doing outdoor evangelism in that area, while gazing on that lovely scenery.
In late July, a Japanese
pastor, his wife and her parents came into the Rescue
Mission, and took much literature to distribute, thank God. He pastors a
church, plus both he and his wife minister at a Christian “junior college”.
Blessings be upon them.
To fish for the eternal souls of men, women
and children, we must go out into the streams of life where
humanity is flowing by, or to the ponds of life where humanity gathers.
During August, the narrow asphalt lane in front of the Rescue Mission in
Karuizawa mountain town is filled with idol worshippers gaily flowing past
on their way to the Lake of Fire, like an unknowing ox to the slaughter.
With several large print prayer signs at the front of this store
space, and with either my voice or audio broadcasting from a player inside the
store space, I call on them to repent and to trust in the Saviour
of mankind to be saved and blessed eternally. Most of them scoff. Each year, fewer
show any interest in the words of eternal life. My duty is to faithfully
keep warning the lost to flee the wrath to come, and which is now
drawing ever so near.
Thru out August, a good
number of people came into the Rescue Mission. One day, a Chinese man and woman
came in and talked. They said that they were Christians, and
were missionaries to Cambodia. I gathered that they had entered Cambodia
several times. I commented that it must be plenty dangerous to preach Christ in
Cambodia. Both of them nodded their agreement. Both
spoke very little, their ministry of necessity, must
be kept secret. I sensed much Spiritual maturity and no vanity in each of
them. Putting one’s life on the line for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus
Christ produces such Spiritual maturity. “Shield & protect them, Lord.”
During October, I pray that one of my Japanese acquaintances in
my Matsuida Town neighborhood, will agree to be a “go-between” between me and
the owner of the vacant lot behind the Matsuida Post Office, that I desire to
lease. The custom of using a “go-between” is most strong in Japan, and in much
of Asia, more so than among the Caucasian race, I think. That custom is more
necessary in Japan when one of the parties is a foreigner like me. Pray with
me, for our Lord to prepare the way.
God richly bless you for caring, for praying, and for giving
offerings. I pray for our Lord to wrap up your family in His Loving, Protecting
Care, in these perilous times.
Christ’s servant in Japan,
Richard Yerby