[BIBLE] Persistence in Prayer

Recently, I've been trying to be more consistent (and purposeful) in spending time with God each day.  Although this can and will take on many forms, I always want it to include prayer, as well as reading from God's Word.
最近僕は毎日神様と時間を過ごしてみたんだけど。神様と過ごす時間っていうことはたくさんの形があるのに、いつも祈りたいで、できるだけ聖書も読みたい。

With that said, part of my prayer tonight was simply that God would enable me to pray more consistently, and to really understand what it means to pray.  I somehow ended up reading out of Luke, in particular Luke 11:5-13, which reads:
 それとは言うものの、今晩のお祈りの部分は神様が僕は毎日祈れるように助けてくれて、ちゃんと祈るのが理解できるようにも助けてくれるっていうことだった。何となく、ルカ福音書の11課5-13節を読んでた。ルカ11:5-13を次のように読む：

⁵ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; ⁶ a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ ⁷ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ ⁸ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
   ⁹ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰ For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

   ¹¹ “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹² Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³ If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

5.	そして彼らに言われた、「あなたがたのうちのだれかに、友人があるとして、その人のところへ真夜中に行き、『友よ、パンを三つ貸してください。
6.	友だちが旅先からわたしのところに着いたのですが、何も出すものがありませんから』と言った場合、
7.	彼は内から、『面倒をかけないでくれ。もう戸は締めてしまったし、子供たちもわたしと一緒に床にはいっているので、いま起きて何もあげるわけにはいかない』と言うであろう。
8.	しかし、よく聞きなさい、友人だからというのでは起きて与えないが、しきりに願うので、起き上がって必要なものを出してくれるであろう。
9.	そこでわたしはあなたがたに言う。求めよ、そうすれば、与えられるであろう。捜せ、そうすれば見いだすであろう。門をたたけ、そうすれば、あけてもらえるであろう。
10.	すべて求める者は得、捜す者は見いだし、門をたたく者はあけてもらえるからである。
11.	あなたがたのうちで、父であるものは、その子が魚を求めるのに、魚の代りにへびを与えるだろうか。
12.	卵を求めるのに、さそりを与えるだろうか。
13.	このように、あなたがたは悪い者であっても、自分の子供には、良い贈り物をすることを知っているとすれば、天の父はなおさら、求めて来る者に聖霊を下さらないことがあろうか」。

Most Christians know that we're to take our petitions to the Father in prayer, but how many of us really believe those prayers will be answered?  Are we persistent in prayer, like the man persisted in asking his friend for the loaves of bread, or do we stay at home, not wanting to "bother" God with our prayers?  Or maybe we prayed for something once, but figured that was enough, that anything more than that would be a nuisance to God?  Absolutely not!!  God WANTS us to come to him, he WANTS us to pray boldly, and he WANTS us to pray faithfully.  
殆どみんなのクリスチャンは神様にお祈りでお願いを聞くのがわかるけど、そのお祈りを本当に神様に答えられますのを信じる人は何人ですか。私たちはパンをお願いした男の人のように 何回も神様に祈りますが、神様を迷惑をかけないように、何もしない？もしかして、一回何かについて祈って、神様を迷惑をかけないように、一回がいいって思った？そんなことはないよ！神様がみんな来て、思い切って祈って、毎日祈るのが欲しいだよ！


So if you want to ask God for something, don't be afraid!  Be bold!!  The worst he can say is "no" or "not now"...and if that happens, there's probably a very good reason for it.  Have faith and try; the only thing worse than hearing "no" is hearing nothing at all because you never asked!!
だから、神様に何かを聞いたら、心配しないで！大胆にして！万が一神様が「いいえ」か「今じゃない」っていう。そして、それならいい理由があるやろう。信仰で、頑張ってね！「いいえ」を聞くっていうより、神様に聞かないので、何も答えを聞かないっていうことは一番最悪ですよ！

Going through open windows

The past few days, God has been very faithful in providing opportunities, for both practicing Japanese AND sharing my faith :-D

最近神様が日本語を練習すると自分の信仰について話機会を与えてくれました　：D

The first opportunity occurred last Sunday night.  I was riding the train home from church, when suddenly I heard someone say, "ah, Jeremy-sensei!" (i.e. "Oh, Mr. Jeremy!").  Typically, no one outside of my English classes (or work) refer to me as "Jeremy-sensei", so I thought it was strange to hear someone saying it on the train.  So I turned around, and to my surprise, there stood one of the (Japanese) teachers from my school!  I saw that she was surrounded by several young girls, so my initial thought was that maybe she was a girl's badminton coach or something...nope, they were her DAUGHTERS!!  All of them!  There were six girls in all, I couldn't believe it!  In America, such large families are becoming rare, but in Japan they're nearly unheard of.  Anyways, a couple of them were in JH, so they attempted to ask me some questions in English (w/ some success), including the wonderful testimony-opener: why did you come to Japan?  Unfortunately, at that point I had less than 5min to tell my story, so I gave the most abridged version EVER (essentially, "God told me to come") and hoped that was enough for them to understand.

一番目の機会が日曜日の夜に来た。電車に乗ってで、突然「ああ、ジェレミー先生！」って誰かを言われたんですけど、あまり仕事以外誰も僕に「ジェレミー先生」っていうことを言われないんだから、「何それ？誰言ったん？」と思った。 それで、僕は振り向いてで、僕の仕事の先生いた！彼女は六人の女の子に囲まれただから、あの先生は女の子のバドミントンチームを連れてもらってると思ったけど、実はあの子は先生の娘さんでした！全部！ロク人の娘、信じられなかった！アメリカの家族でも、そういう多い子どもがいる状態は珍しいだけど、日本は殆どないです！とにかく、あの子の中の二人か３人の子は中学生だから、英語で質問を聞いてみて、このすごい自分の証を言う機会込み：どうして日本に来ましたか。あいにく、その時に僕の日本に来た話を教えられるように５分以下あったんだから、本当に一番の短い簡略版を言った。でも、その話の意味理解できるかどうかわからないんだ。

My second opportunity came in a way that I least expected, but has been becoming more common recently: during one of my lessons!  I asked my student what she had done the previous week, and she told me about "setsubun" (a festival where they drive away evil spirits by throwing beans at them) and some of the traditions surrounding that.  When I asked her what the purpose of it all was, she said it was to "get rid of bad spirits, and to let in good spirits; to have a happy life!"  she then asked me if I was a Christian, which opened the door for me to talk about my faith, how Christianity is more about a relationship w/ God and not simply asking him for things at the temple a few times/year.  To my surprise, she used to attend a Catholic church (in Kobe) when she was younger, and even attended a Protestant highschool!  She said that, though she is Buddhist (which nearly every Japanese will say just by virtue of being Japanese), Christianity was actually much easier to understand than Buddhism!  She said she loved how Christians always sang songs, and prayed everyday as opposed to most (Japanese) Buddhists who only prayed at special occassions, and even then only to ask for something :-/

二番目の機会は思いがけなく来た：僕のレッスン中！僕の生徒に「先週何をしましたか」って聞いた時に、彼女は節分の伝統について教えてくれた。その伝統の意思は何って聞いた時に、彼女はいい人生ができるようにいいこと来て、悪いこと出て！」って言った。そして、彼女は僕に「あなたはクリスチャンですか」って聞いて、それで僕の信仰について言ってで、キリスト教は一年間一回か二回お寺に行って、神様に欲しいことしか聞かないっていうより、神様と愛の関係が欲しいっていうことですってた。実は彼女は子どもの時に教会に行った！高校生の時さえ、プロテスタント教の高等学校に行った、ビックリした！彼女は「

あたしは仏教家だても、 仏教よりキリスト教のほうがわかりやすい」って言った！クリスチャンはいつも歌を歌って、毎日祈るから大好きだって言われた。一方仏教家は特別な状態か何か欲しいことがある時しか祈らないって　：ー／

Father God, thank you so much for both of these wonderful opportunities!  Please continue to bless me w/ more such opportunities, and help me to faithfully take advantage of them as they come ^_^

天のお父さん、素晴らしい機会を与えてくれて感謝します。そういう祝福を与え続けて、来る時スッキリできるように助けてください。 アーメン！

Lucky Star Day

At my kindergarten, every so often they have, during lunchtime, something they call "Lucky Star Day". Ironically enough, it's literally called "Lucky Star Day", although when spoken with their Japanese katakana pronunciation, it becomes something that sounds more like "Rakki Stah Dei". I remember it being one of the first things they said at lunchtime that I could actually understand  lol
僕の保育園で、たまに給食の時に「ラッキースターディー」っていうことがある。実は「ラッキースターディー」って言いますけど、日本人はカタカナの発音で言うから、あまり本当の英語の発音にならない。それでも、それは日本に来るばかりの時は一番わかりやすいことだと思い出す。

On "Lucky Star Day", the school lunch cooks take thin slices of carrots, and using a star-shaped cutter, cut out stars and randomly place them under the main dish for that day. Although it seems to vary a little each time, there's usually several winners per classroom. There's no "prize" or award for the winners, other than bragging rights for finding a star-shaped carrot buried in your food. Nevertheless, it is a nice surprise for those lucky enough to land one, and if the teachers manage to "win", it's not uncommon for them to take a picture of it with their cell phone (just as I did here :-) )
「ラッキースターディー」っていうことで、給食料理人はニンジンを細い切れで切ってで、星の形でニンジンの切れを切って、無作為にみんなのお数の下に入れています。だいたい組ずつたくさんの勝者がいる。ラッキースターを見つけた大いばり以外、賞品がないけど。其れでも、そういうビックリは良いことですよ。そして、もし先生が勝ったら、一般的に携帯で写真を撮ります　「ここの僕の撮った写真みたいにする」