❖ Video ❖ Audio Our Attitudes Toward Authority Romans 13:1-7, 1 Peter 2:11-17 Mari Ikeda Dear God, this world suffers many pains and sorrows because of our sin. Help each of us understand your love and work on your justice. Give your guidance to our political leaders in order for them to realize your love in our society. Dear our Lord Jesus, we pray this in your name. Amen.  1 Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God…

❖ Video ❖ Audio א (Aleph): The Joy of Walking in the Lord’s Way Series: Finding the Gospel in Psalm 119ーA Hymn to the Law 1/22 Psalm119:1-8, Luke 6:20-26 Andy Nagahara Psalm 119 is the longest psalm, even longer than the previous one, which was longer. The Japanese Bible describes it as an alphabetical song.　The eight verses are grouped together, and the same letters are used at the beginning of each of the eight verses. The 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used in order, so for example, in today’s section, the letter of א (Aleph) is placed at the beginning of every sentence in all eight verses in…

❖ Video ❖ Audio Let Us Rely on the Holy Spirit Acts chapter 1-10, John 14:15−21 Mari Ikeda It’s Pentecost today, the day to remember and celebrate the first coming of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God and Jesus. While God, the Son Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one and the same, they are all different from each other. So we don’t need to make a strict distinction among three, today I’d like to focus on who the Holy Spirit is, by reading mainly the book of Acts. Let’s read Acts 1:3-11 first. A.We cannot do anything without the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:3-11) Act1:3…

❖ Video ❖ Audio His Love Endures Forever Psalm 118 Andy Nagahara Psalm 118 is a long psalm in contrast to the previous one. So, my suggestion is, why don’t you read this psalm to yourself little by little this week, starting today, and have a short service of meditation and prayer every day?　So today I will try to provide a guiding explanation for this. The first thing I would like you to know about this entire psalm is that the 113-118, including this one, were sung as a series of prayers during the Passover meal.　So it is likely that these were also the songs that Jesus and his disciples…

❖ Video ❖ Audio The Practice of Love (Part2/2): “Love Your Enemies” Romans 12:17-21, Matthew 5:38-48 Mari Ikeda Today I’m going to talk about what it means to practice love by reading the Romans chapter 12, continuing from last time. While last time we heard about loving each other in church, we’ll learn today what it means to love our enemies. I’d like to briefly read the Romans first, but will more focus on Jesus’ words in the Gospel of Mark afterwards. Let’s read from Romans 12:17-21. A. Flawed reasoning in Old Testament teachings （Romans 12:17-21） 17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is…