❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) Where Do We Come From and Where Are We Going? (John 8:12-20) Mari Ikeda Today we continue with the Gospel of John, and today we will read 8:12-20. We will read the whole passage in three parts. Let’s start with reading the first 12-14 verses. A. Jesus is our guiding light. 12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”13 The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) Give thanks unto the Lord! (Psalm 138) Andy Nagahara Today’s text, Psalm 138, is a song that focuses on giving thanks to God and praising Him. Over the past few weeks, we have thought about the problems in our society and how those who believe in God should live in that society. Today’s text teaches us the source of the strength to live in a way that pleases God in this difficult society. Let’s read it in three parts. 1. Worship to Strengthen the Soul (1-3) 0 Of David.1 I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; before the “gods” I will sing…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) Sing the songs of the LORD while in a foreign land (Psalm 137) Andy Nagahara The background to today’s text, Psalm 137, is an unforgettable event for the Israelites which is the “Babylonian Captivity” (2 Kings 25:2-21). This incident occurred when the people of Jerusalem, the central city of the southern Kingdom of Judah, was occupied by the powerful Neo-Babylonian nation at the time, and were forcibly relocated and were unable to return to their homeland for over half a century. (At that time, Israel was divided into the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel, and the northern kingdom of Israel…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) The Male-Dominated Bible and the Universality of Jesus’ Love (John 7:53-8:11) Mari Ikeda (NOTE: It is said that this passage was not originally in the Gospel of John, but was added later. The reason is that it is detached from its context and the characteristics of the text are different from those of the Gospel of John. That is the reason why this passage is in brackets in your Bibles as well. But even with that background, this passage was inserted here early on as part of John’s Gospel as an important episode that teaches us in a nutshell what Jesus’ forgiveness of sins means.…

❖ Video ❖ Audio (Message) God’s love endures forever (Psalm 136) Andy Nagahara Today’s text, Psalm 136, is thought to retain well the form of a hymn sung in temple services, in which the worship leader sings the first half of the verse and the congregation follows with, “God’s love endures forever.” Even today, there are Christian churches that sing hymns of this type during worship services. Today’s keyword is “compassion” in Japanese and “love” in English. The original Hebrew word is “hesed.” If you would like to know more, you can read it on Wikipedia in both Japanese and English. Because this word has a broad meaning, different modern…