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| Today |  | December 6 - December 12 2026 |  |
Dec6
The Root Of Inspiration
Isaiah 26:3-4 | |
| 3 | You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. |
| 4 | Trust in the Lord forever, For in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength. NKJV Study, think, say, act. These are the keys to a successful spiritual and natural life. If you study the Word, you are going to know how to think powerful thoughts. When you have your thinking in line with God, then you are going to make actions that are effective. Humans are different from animals. We are created in God’s image, His likeness. We have a spirit, a soul (mind, will, emotions) and we live in a body. If you keep your mind focused on Yahweh, you’ve got a promise in Isaiah 26:3 that you are going to have perfect peace. Perfect peace is God’s peace. It is peace that says even when you are just starting something, you know that God is going to bless you. It is peace that says even in the worse situation Yahweh is going to see you through. Whether you are going through earthquakes, famines, wars, or even just job changes, you can know that God is going to bring you through to an even better situation. However, there is one thing you must do. You have to keep your mind (soul-area) focused or ‘stayed’ on Him. You need to be thinking about Him. How do you do it? The answer is to keeping your mind fit is STSA. You have to study, think, say, and act. It is exactly in that order. Study- Study the Word of God (Bible) a bit for yourself every day. Read it and it will change you. Think- Think the way God thinks you will know His thoughts by knowing His Word. Say- Say what God says about you, not what your family, your company, your school, or your teachers say about you. Act- Without action faith is dead. With action, faith is alive. To act is doing those things that God spoke to you about already through your study, thoughts, and saying. What you talk about is what you are going to do. What you think about is what you are going to become. Benjamin Franklin must have understood STSA as he thought of ways to light the streets of his town when cities were dark. Winston Churchill was a reader who became an inspiration to his nation in one of the darkest times as the enemy attacked. Daniel understood STSA as he continued to spend time with the Father each day in prayer even as his enemies plotted against him. You may not feel yourself called to be a famous world leader, but you should certainly be a great leader to your family and the people around you. You can be an inspiration to believers and unbelievers alike as to how God wants to be a blessing to His people so they can bless and inspire others. Wondering how you can do it? It is all starts with the Word and STSA. Trust in Yahweh forever, He is your everlasting strength. Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 29 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec7
Judgment Will Come
John 3:36 | |
| 36 | He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him." NKJV God is love. Being a believer is all about love and forgiveness. God is forgiving, but if you don’t ask you will not receive it. In Japan, there are many mid-level restaurants called ‘family restaurants’. Numbers of young families go there when they don’t want to cook a meal or just need a break. We learned that they are not relaxing places to be because the young mothers or fathers tend to just let their kids run around the restaurant and no one really stops them from making noise. It is not very pleasant to share a meal with someone when kids are running around out of control. Children need to be disciplined when they are young so that when they are old, they will have the training to be able to succeed. With increasing divorce rates and many children being raised by just a single mother or a father, children are not learning the discipline they need. Discipline is needed to read a book, do a project, work for a boss at a job, show up for work on time, or even to exercise. If you do not have discipline, you will pay the price. We have two older relatives that eat right, exercise their bodies and minds are are physically and spiritually well. Then we have two other relatives that do nothing but sit around the house despite the calls from their children to get out and do something, eat right, and use their minds. Their lack of discipline has taken a toll as they are sick, weak, and cranky to be around. Their children do not visit them. John 3:36 tells us that we have to believe in Jesus and accept His covering of our sins by His blood. However, many times we forget to look at the last part of the verse. There is judgement for those who do not choose Him. If you don’t choose Jesus, you have chosen darkness by default just like the people who chose not to take care of themselves or their homes or property. God wants all people to come to Him. 1 Tim 2:4 says, |
| 4 | who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. NKJV There is only one way to God. Reading on in 1 Tim 2:5 we see, |
| 5 | For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, NKJV If we and our friends and family don’t know Jesus personally, we will pay the price. God has given us everything we need to have a great life forever, but just as a son who doesn’t respond, it is just ours to lose. Tell someone about what God has done in your life and how they too need everlasting life. Ask the Holy Spirit to lead you to that person so that your sharing will be even more fruitful. Judgement is coming, but it is nothing to be afraid of as long as we’re disciplined enough to make the right choice. Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 30 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec8
Is Death To Fear?
1 Cor 15:50 | |
| 50 | I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. ESV When you were born into this world, that was the beginning of you. We don’t spiritually die, we physically die. Our bodies die, they perish. If we know King Jesus personally, we have eternal life. If we don’t know the saving grace of the Messiah, then we have eternal death. There is nothing in between. As we are, we cannot go to heaven. In the 1960s when the men when to the moon, they could’t just drive there. They had to have special suits, space suits. To exist in space, they needed space suits. Once they had space suits, they could board a rocket, head towards the moon and actually visit that desolate satellite orbiting our planet. People landed on the moon on 20 July 1969. Thankfully I am not old enough to remember that day. For existing on the earth a space suit doesn’t help. We are spiritual beings and therefore to exist on earth, you must have an “earth suit”. That is your human body. When your spirit leaves your body, your body dies. Another way to say it is, when your body dies, your spirit leaves. 2 Corinthians 5:8 says, |
| 8 | We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. NKJV It is very clear that if you know Jesus, when your Spirit leaves your body, you will be with Him. Atheists are people who insist they know, without a shadow of a doubt, that there is no God. (I wonder, how can they be so sure?) Agnostics are people who don’t know whether or not God exists and don’t care. When people are young, it is easy to try to deny the existence of God or even just ignore Him like these two groups of people. However as people get older they tend to realize, they don’t really know what will happen to them. Every person has it built into them to know that there is a God. Romans 1 will give you a good feel for that. Romans 1:20 is particularly revealing saying, |
| 20 | For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, NKJV As you can see everyone knows. They can deny or accept. If you don’t accept, you are automatically denying it. By not choosing to turn right, you have chosen to continue straight down the road in the wrong direction. There is nothing to fear with death. When your body dies, you will be with Him. However, you have got to know Him. There are many who think they are a believer, but never come to church. They do not know Him, because if they did, they would be at church in God’s house every Sunday. We’ve got so many promises for our life after bodily death. The classic is Romans 6:23 saying, |
| 23 | For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV God’s gift of eternal life is so awesome. If you think about it, eternal life doesn’t start when the body dies. Eternal life starts when you believe... when you trust Him. When you trust Him, you have nothing to fear in death. Death where is thy sting? Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 4 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec9
Knit Together
Ephesians 4:16 | |
| 16 | from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. NKJV Being a follower of Jesus is not a lone wolf activity, where you are just off by yourself. Yet there are always people who decide they don’t agree with their church or they didn’t like something that one of their church leaders did or said, and went away from God’s house by themselves. There is no perfect church, but there are some great ways to measure a healthy church from a church that needs a Holy Spirit clean up, and the power of the Word in the hearts of the people. When you are deciding on what church to make your home church, there are really two measurements. 1) The music 2) The message If you can sense the flowing on the Holy Spirit in the music you are on the right track. When the pastor or a church leader comes up to preach, you should hear a message that is based on the Word of God and strong faith. Instead of sticking to the right church, some people get discouraged or offended because of some experience they had at some meeting and start to wander from church to church or stop fellowshipping all together. We as believers are supposed to be supporting and strengthening each other. Of course, we should get ourselves around those of like faith. We are to being doing church as a team. Sometimes you have to just put aside your feelings and just work together with others because they love Jesus. This relationship in the church (the body of Christ) must be something important as God said we should be knit together in Ephesians. Not only are we knit together, it describes each and every one of us as a joint. Every one of us has to do our share. We all have to do our part. So many times we see pastors doing everything in the church. They do the worship, the special song, the message, the special events, the materials, and everything else. They eventually get burned out and tired as that is not the way God designed the church. Everyone has a part to play. If your church needs greeters for guests, be a greeter. If they need musicians be there every week to help with the worship. If they need Sunday school teachers, then volunteer and teach. If they need camp counselors, help at those summer camps. If they need someone to do nursery, then help with those small kids. Do those things that you feel you should do to contribute to your local church family (or body as the Word often says). If you do your part, then things are going to happen. As a matter of fact, Ephesians 4:16 goes on to tell us exactly what is going to happen when every person, every joint, does their part. The church is going to grow. The love in that place is going to be overflowing in the neighborhood. There is going to be growth! Why is your local church growing? It is growing because people as getting behind the pastor, his wife, the church leadership, and doing their part in love. It is time for the body of Christ to rise up and make a difference in their areas. It is time to put our faith to action. When we are knitted together in love, we are going to see the overflow of the gifts of the Spirit and so much more. Colossians 2:2-3 gives a preview into how much more we are going to be able to see as we work together saying, |
| 2 | that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. NKJV Are you knit together with your local church? Are you ready to learn the mysteries of the knowledge of God. Make a decision today to do something regularly to contribute to the growth of your church both spiritually and in numbers. What are you going to start doing from this week for your church? Usher, Sunday school, youth, homeless outreach, music, singing, teaching, encouraging, special projects, audio visual, media, sound, outreach... Have you decided? Now is the time to do it. Ask your pastor or one of your church leaders how you can minister in the area you decided this week. Then figure out how you can do at regularly to help. As you participate, then watch your church grow! Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 6 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec10
A Very Good Thing
Rom 7:2 | |
| 2 | For the woman who has a husband is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband. NKJV If you have ever met a married coupled that says they never have disagreements, you can know that the husband is either a jellyfish or they’re lying. Marriage is a relationship between a man and woman for life. Love is not something you just feel, it is a decision. Regardless of this, we have many people these days who refuse to stick with the spouse they promised “to love and hold to death do I part”. Back on the farm in Oregon, I learned the saying, ‘the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence’. Growing up on that farm we had horses, chickens, and cows. We had an electric fence around the pasture of our farm with one electrified wire going down the middle of the field behind our house. For a couple years we had a pretty aggressive steer (bull that couldn’t reproduce) on one side of the fence. As kids we would go over there and get him to chase us, then we would duck under the little divider fence. He knew He would get electrified if he touched that fence so he would stop chasing us once he got close to the fence. Both sides of that center fence had the same grass, same mole holes, same weather and everything else. The reason why you split the pasture is so the animals would cleanly graze the grass on one side, then you would move them to the other. The only benefit to changing sides was that the grass had time to grow back and was nice at first. Marriage is a similar thing, no matter who you are married to you are going to have the same things to deal with. You are going to have disagreements, misunderstandings, and wrong impressions that any relationship might have. Of course some people are better than others to deal with. Some spouses are very controlling and selfish. They need to grow in love. This is where you have to pray equality into your marriage. Ask God to move in your marriage, but remember divorce is NEVER an option and you should never threaten your spouse with it. Divorce will hurt you just as much as it is going to hurt your spouse. It is not a weapon. Besides God clearly hates divorce (Malachi 2:16). Divorce has always been a problem in society. It goes through ups and downs in volume over the years. There are jokes about the US state of California being the worst place to marry due to 50% plus divorce rates, meaning more than half the couples who pledge themselves to each other end up breaking that promise. It was an issue in the time of Jesus as well. People were divorcing for anything they didn’t like about they’re spouse, their body, way of talking, financial status, and even because of their smells. Divorce has always been controversial and it always will be because it is not God’s way. King Jesus was asked about divorce by the religious leaders of the day. It was an issue then just as now. In Matthew 5:31-32 Yashua says, |
| 31 | "Furthermore it has been said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' 32 But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery. NKJV In short, Jesus was against divorce as well. When a husband and wife break up, they not only hurt each other, they hurt children and relatives. They have broken the promise they made to each other. One pastor in the US suggests that couples who divorce should be required to return all their wedding gifts and pay a penalty to all those who came to the wedding as they have broken their promises. That idea gets you thinking, that’s for sure. The point of it all is this, God doesn’t honor divorce, He actually hates it. If He hates it, we should as well. Make a decision with your spouse now (or before you get married) that you will never mention the word “divorce” and you will keep it out of your vocabulary as you both know it is not an option. No matter how mad you get. Marriage is a wonderful thing as the husband and wife submit to one another just as we submit to our savior King Jesus. Every good thing takes work, and marriage is a very good thing. Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 7 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec11
Understanding Business
Luke 2:49 | |
| 49 | And He said to them, "Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?" NKJV The goal of any great business person is to leave a great inheritance for their children’s children. That is a noble desire. When we think of business I think of two words, ‘busy’ and ‘ness’. The things that keep you busy. These types of people are motivated and always busy. Whether you are young or old, if you want to live long you have to keep busy. When you are young, you better work hard because you need to create some savings that you can live off when you are old. We are Jesus freaks, we will tell anyone and everyone that they need to have Jesus. One longtime acquaintance who has done work for us over the years is a 50 some year old Australian. We have know him for a good 7 years and care about him. He knows we are all about God in everything we do and not afraid to talk about. About a year ago we noticed that he was not so happy, he divorced his wife, left his country, and moved to the Philippines. A few months later he came back and remarried his wife. You see, when you are unhappy, no matter where YOU go YOU will follow YOU around. Just as Jonah was unhappy, his unhappiness followed him around. My friend was unhappy because he didn’t look after his business or his family. We have to decide each day that we are going to keep ourselves busy and engaged. When Jesus’ earthly mother and step-father came back looking for him, they found him in the temple, having been there for days. He made a famous response to their asking about why He stayed there without letting them know in Luke 2:49. Jesus knew it was all about doing His Father’s business. To be able to do God’s business we have to be filled with His Word. Psalm 40:8 says, |
| 8 | I delight to do Your will, O my God, And Your law is within my heart." NKJV If you want to prosper and be sensitive to God’s plan, will, and calling for your life, you got to be in His House under His Word every week. God Himself, came in the form of a man and showed us that is what we need to do. There is no doubt that those priests in that temple were imperfect. However, Yashua went there because he knew the only way to grow faith is by the Word of God (Romans 10:17). There is no perfect church, but there are sure a lot of good ones if you look with spiritual eyes. When you put God first, He is going to bless whatever you do. God’s business is to make sure you prosper if you seek Him, His righteousness, and His Kingdom... His business. This way you can reach others. What is God’s business? Being the best worker at your company. Sharing Jesus with everyone you can. Praying for that friend when they need healing or encouragement. Being a light in the crowd when everyone else is negative and lethargic. But if you are not in church, then you aren’t going to be prepared to do anything for the Kingdom. You’ve got to be under a Spirit-filled preacher. Romans 10:14 makes that clear saying, |
| 14 | How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? NKJV Want to be victorious and blessed, then you better get about His business. The only way you are going to know God’s business is by getting to where He works... His house. God wants to work in His house and go with you by the power of His Holy Spirit each week. Get to a Spirit-filled church this weekend. You will never be the same. Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 8 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
Dec12
Flourishing In The House
Ps 92:13 | |
| 13 | Those who are planted in the house of the Lord Shall flourish in the courts of our God. NKJV If you ask them, everyone wants to win the lottery. They want to win something where they don’t have to work ever again. People want to be able to spend time on what they want to do. Many companies try to appeal to that dream of success by marketing products and services that would somehow help you in business. There are network companies that get people to sign up and sell their products. The first people get others to come underneath them in business and sell for them. The person on the top is the one who makes the money. The individuals on the bottom end up quitting as there is a constant flow of people at the bottom coming and going as this business is only good for the top. Really rich people aren’t the ones who drive the expensive cars and wear the brand name goods. Really rich people are rich because they’ve been good stewards (sometimes to their demise) with what they have. A friend knows the 8th richest man in the world. When asked about his favorite things to do, he says he loves to go early in the evening to the supermarket and save money on the food that has just been marked down. This man flies on the cheapest air tickets and stay in the most reasonable hotels. He is rich, but I wonder what God sees in that. We are God’s children, and God wants His children to flourish. He wants us to have the very best so that we can grow and develop. You can work like a dog and make a lot of money, however the problem is many people who really get rich (not pretending to be rich) don’t always seem to enjoy life. There is definitely more if you know God. God wants us to flourish and in Psalm 92:13 the Word tells us how to do it. We must be planted in God’s house. What does that mean? That means that we must make sure that we protect our Sunday’s and are in God’s house, church, every week. If you are there you are going to flourish in every aspect of your life. To have a healthy church in your nation, everyone needs to come in and do their part. The Word calls all of us members, ‘the body of Christ’ with each one having a different function. 1 Cor 12:18 says, |
| 18 | But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. NKJV Some people are eyes, some people are ears, some people are the hands and others are the feet, with others being the body itself. Every member is important and every part has to be healthy for the body to be healthy. The ear person may be the person who hears the direction of the Holy Spirit to do something. The feet people are probably the ones that get on the streets and lead hundreds to Jesus. We have to protect our unity and realize not everyone is the same. 1 Cor 12:25-26 says, |
| 25 | that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. 26 And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. NKJV In other words, protect your church and unity. Don’t allow people to cut down your leaders and fellow members. Keep positive and build up that body. As you think about your church this week, pray for your pastor, pray for the leadership, pray for other members. Pray that they will be led by the Holy Spirit. Pray for wisdom in making right decisions that will build up the body. Pray for the church body (or family) that you belong to and watch them grow. Give and it will come back to you. Those prayers are going to come back to you as well. In God’s Kingdom it’s all about growth. If you are growing, then you will be and flourishing. That is His plan for you. Are you in His house every week? If not, start this weekend. If so, start expecting His blessings on your life and speak them out in faith. Today’s Reading- |
Proverbs 12 | |
| Annual Bible Reading Plan at www.vwc.jp | |
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