The power of the Word

Today we spent our morning having some worship time on our own. We sang some songs in Japanese again and did a bit of Bible study and had some prayer time as well. It was a nice time to refresh ourselves before hitting the field. We spent the afternoon in Musashi-Sakai prayer walking and doing 5 minute English practice. We had a number of people stop and talk with us, which is a good thing, a few of them were even open to the Gospel message. I had one young man stop and talk with me for a bit, M-san is his name. We talked for a while about the Bible and other things and then asked if he wanted to go to dinner with us once we were finished. He said yes, which came as a surprise to us! We went to dinner at a local restaurant where many young Japanese like to hang out. All they serve is basically appetizers which is kind of weird but interesting none the less. The picture of the fish was my dinner, they were kind of tasty. At dinner we talked with M-san a bit about the Gospel and about the Bible, we then proceeded into the full on Gospel presentation, where he reads the verses in Japanese. After we get through presenting it all to him, we could actually see him physically struggling with the decision placed before him. I have always heard and knew that God's Word had power, yet I had never actually witnessed it like this before. As he sat and struggled with this decision you could honestly tell that he knew what he was being offered. The sad news is that he chose to say no to the offer of forgiveness today. I would ask that you pray for M-san that God's Holy Spirit continues to convict him and continues to soften his heart. I would also ask that you pray that the relationship that we built with him continues to grow. It was sad to see him wrestle with this decision and then say no to it. However we have to keep reminding ourselves that it is not up to us to save an individual, it on them to choose to follow God and for God to save them from their sins, we just have to be obedient in proclaiming His Word.