2025年1月

Timothy
In Psalms 50, it says that God had “no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens…Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor me.” (v. 8, 14, 15). In other words, God does not want sacrifices as a thoughtless ritual but wants the people to give thanks and honor him. In verses 16 and 17, the psalmist writes about the hypocrisy of the wicked; “What right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you.” I learned that like the sacrifices, these Bible readings are not to be done legalistically.

Jun re: Timothy
I learned that like the sacrifices, these Bible readings are not to be done legalistically.
The author of this psalm points out that God has no need for sacrifices, since the whole earth belongs to him. This is something that seems self-evident, but something that we so easily forget. Even the monetary offerings we give, we need to remember that what we are doing is merely giving back a small percentage of what God gave us. The same can be said with Bible reading, or praying, or coming to services, or doing houshi. From God’s perspective, he doesn’t need us to do any of those things. He is God! We are the ones who need to do these things and we are the ones who benefit by doing them.

Did you think about how “burnt” offerings are differentiated from “thank” offerings in this psalm? God says he has no need for “burnt” offerings, but seeks “thank” offerings. What’s the difference? And what do you offer God as your “thank” offering?

A hint can be taken from the next psalm. David says, “my sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” This is a strange expression—isn’t something broken of less value than something whole? Isn’t it better to have (and offer) a healthy, whole spirit and heart, than a broken one? But it seems like God desires a broken one.

In a sense, those who are suffering right now have broken hearts. Those of us, on the other hand, who were “lucky” run the danger of not having broken hearts. (Think about what this means for you.) Let us strive to always offer God broken spirits.

Tomas
This week’s Bible Reading, I learned in Psalms 49 that you shouldn’t be envious when others grow rich since they are just worldly things that will not last forever. Applying this to my life, when doing something like helping or praying for someone or something, I should do it in a way that pleases God rather than just doing it do say it or to make others feel good about me since that is worldly and it won’t really help since there was no faith in God when doing that.

Jun re: Tomas
Yes, very good, Tomas! I can tell from what you wrote that you really learned this truth by reading this Psalm. Simply doing something “good” is not enough—what matters is the motivation and whether you are doing it to please God, not other people (even the people you are doing it for).

What the author of this psalm (and God) wanted to say was that in the end, all people—rich or poor, even good or bad, wise or foolish, are the same. None of us can take anything with us when we die. Coming home from Suzuki-san’s place yesterday, we drove through the neighborhoods that got the worst of the Eaton fire. People were visiting their “homes” (but really, it was not possible to tell where one home ended and the next began, because everything was reduced to ashes) and trying to salvage anything that survived. It was impossible not to feel pain for what they were going through, and to realize how fortunate we and the other church members were.

But at the same time, this Psalm reminds us that though it seems like we still have our things and homes left, all of us are the same as those who lost everything in the fire. In a sense, we should live the rest of our lives until we die, as if we have already lost everything of value—except for one thing!! The salvation that comes from Jesus’ death and resurrection. This is the only thing we can “take” with us when we die. This is the only thing of value we have on earth. We must let as many people know, for as long as we have breath. Don’t you think so?

Emiri
From this week’s bible reading I learned from Psalm 49:20 “People who have wealth but lack understanding are like the beasts that perish.” I learned that things in this world is useless if you don’t have God’s word. Applying this to my life when I think about all the time when I chasing after just good grades and things, I learned that it isn’t important as I thought through this fire. I learned that through Gods word we are given things that are really important like life. So I want to not go after things like just good grades and material things but to seek God because he’ll provide for my needs and to pass on the blessings I received to my friends and classmates.

Jun re: Emiri
Your lack of specificity in what you write makes me think that you are not writing about things you really thought yourself or understood from reading the Bible, but are trying to write things that maybe you think you should write about. There’s a big difference between the two. If you really did think these things from reading the Bible or from what you experienced in the past few weeks, be more specific and practical in what you say. Your writing should never be something chatGPT could come up with (I’m not just writing to Emiri!).

I learned that it isn’t important as I thought through this fire.
What kind of things did you learn as you “thought through this fire?”

I learned that through Gods word we are given things that are really important like life.
But God gives life to all living beings—regardless of whether they know God’s word or not. What exactly do you mean by the “life” that you receive through God’s word?

and to pass on the blessings I received to my friends and classmates.
So how are you going to do this in reality? What do you have in mind? Since you lived so close to the neighborhoods that were burned in the fire, did you contact your friends and old friends from grade or middle school who may have lost homes or may be going through a hard time because of the fire? Of course, invite them to church (because like I wrote before, what people need most, more than material things, is the hope and strength that comes from God’s word), but also, you can share what you know about all the resources available to them that you and your family are currently benefitting from, or you can even provide more direct help as well, since none of you lost anything in the fire.

Another way you could have “passed on the blessings” is by inviting Timothy and/or Tomas to your hotel in Redondo Beach, and you guys could have enjoyed the pool and the beach, or watching movies in your room since you guys were staying in a really nice hotel. (Whenever juniors/youths had breaks from school, we always tried to schedule fun things to do for you guys, right?) Or you could have invited Hanna over, since her birthday that Yuka had planned was canceled because of the fire.

(I’m not saying you should do these things now—first of all, school is resuming soon, and the time to do it has already passed. Also, doing these things are meaningful only if they come from your heart, not someone else’s heart. But sometimes, I feel I need to provide concrete examples of what I mean by saying “be more specific.” Otherwise, you guys don’t give these things a second thought.)