As I walked over to the church on Wednesday morning, I saw the cloudless blue sky and thought, “what a beautiful day.” At the moment, my biggest concern was about trying not to splash any mud onto my pant legs as I walked between the snow banks and the really muddy parking lot. Then, my mind went back to the images from Japan that we’ve all been seeing on TV; entire villages (and cities) reduced to piles of rubble, people gathered in shelters with no place to go and little, if anything, to eat, people waiting for hours to get into stores with empty shelves, and thousands of people unaccounted for. First a 9.0 earthquake, then a tsunami, and now a nuclear crisis … could it get any worse? I think the answer is “yes” when you consider the following statistics from OperationWorld.com:
Population of Japan: Roughly 127 million
People groups: 34 (68 % unreached)
Religions:
Buddist: 69.59 %
Christian: 1.54 %
Evangelicals: 0.5 %
(The remainder is not noted)
Even with so much devastation, so few answers, and so much loss of life, these figures make the picture look more bleak … so many people living and dying without Christ, facing a hopeless eternity. Our hearts should be broken.
Today, I encourage you to pray in three ways. First, pray for the people of Japan- that God would draw many people to saving faith in Jesus Christ through this crisis. Second, thank God for the blessings, safety, and eternal hope that we enjoy as His children. Finally, pray for those around you who are living without Christ, and, therefore, without hope.
In His grip,
Pastor Decker
No comments:
Post a Comment