Nonogaki Reports – June 2020

8 Lessons on How to Pray and What to Pray – June 10

As a baby Christian, after I became a Christian, I didn’t have a private prayer life for a long time. I was terrible. My excuse is that nobody taught me about it. I didn’t know how and what to pray. I didn’t know the meaning of prayer and the importance of private prayer.

I started to work as minister for Yokota Church of Christ, I was forced to pray to God for help and guidance simply because I didn’t know what to do with somethings going on in the church.

Since last year I have been preaching from the Gospel of John. We came to John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.” I paused and decided to have consecutive lessons on how and what to pray. Next week I finish this. It amounts to 8 lessons (1) why we pray, (2) three principles of prayer, (3) who is God we praise? (4) God’s kingdom and will, (5) give us daily bread, (6) forgive us our debts, (7) Lead us not into temptation, (8) Don’t give up but keep on praying. This has been good for both the congregation and me. I have also posted them on YouTube so that church members can listen to them and reflect them again.

Using Twitter and YouTube – June 10

Churches of Christ may not use the Internet such as social media and YouTube as the means of communicating the gospel. Although high technology moves faster than we can keep up with, I think we should make use of it as much as possible. I have decided to use YouTube and upload every sermon with a visual aid.

I have been using Twitter to communicate the simple gospel. Twitter also helps me understand what people are thinking in the Japanese denominational world. In this way, I can have a meaningful conversation with visitors who have different Christian backgrounds.

Daily Devotionals – June 12

I began to send a daily devotional to the members and non-Christian friends several months ago. It consists of a few verses from the Bible and a very brief message to think over who Jesus is. This has been much better than I expected. First of all, my message is extremely short. I use the word “we” so that I can show the recipients that we are with one another to follow Jesus. We may have similar life struggles and setbacks, but they know Jesus is with us to encourage us and support us and help us.