I\u2019m finishing up the book \u201cDOG MAN, An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain\u201d.\u00a0 It is the story of a Japanese man, Morie Sawataishi and how, in the face of strong Japanese tradition, he was a man who went against tradition and common expectations.\u00a0 The major part of his life was saving, loving and breeding the Northern Mountain dogs of Japan, the Akita.<\/p>\n
What, from this book, I would like to share with you is a portion from the eighth chapter \u201cShiro\u201d.\u00a0 Recounting a memory from a war that Morie and Kitako (his wife) refer to as shameful, Morie shares what impacted him deeply: \u201cWar?\u00a0 He\u2019ll show you his diaries, date books, his assignment papers \u2013 he\u2019s kept everything from his seven years of service, but these days Morie doesn\u2019t want to talk about it much, except to say that while he saw many countryman die on the fronts of China \u2013 Nanjing and Shanghai \u2013 he never heard one Japanese soldier cry out \u2018\u201cTennoheika Banzai\u201d\u2019, in praise of the emperor at their moment of death, the way they\u2019d been trained to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019d say \u2018\u201cMother! \u2019\u2019\u2019 as they died, or they\u2019d call out the name of a child,\u201d Morie says.\u00a0 \u201cThat\u2019s what I learned.\u00a0 No matter how patriotic and loyal you are, when you are dying, you express something from the deepest part of you- and call out to what you love most.\u201d<\/p>\n
His revelation rings true to me.\u00a0 Acts 20:59-60<\/b> \u2013 \u201c59\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, \u201cLord Jesus, receive my spirit.\u201d\u00a060\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Then he fell on his knees\u00a0and cried out, \u201cLord, do not hold this sin against them.\u201d\u00a0When he had said this, he fell asleep.\u201d<\/p>\n I remember hearing a tape, close to the time that my wife and I gave our lives over to the Lord.\u00a0 (Yes, I said a tape!)\u00a0 The tape was the memories of a survivor of a terrible plane accident at Tenerife, the largest island of the Canary Islands.\u00a0 The survivor related his memory of horror at what people were yelling out as they were dying.\u00a0 They cursed and took the name of the Lord in vain.\u00a0 He remembered how in the past people have said to him that they knew they should accept the Lord as their Savior, but they didn’t want to do so right away.\u00a0 They had said that at the moment before their death they would call out to Jesus in repentance and He would forgive them and they would go to heaven.\u00a0 What this survivor learned is that people don\u2019t do that.\u00a0 Instead, they yell out what they have always yelled out in times of fear, anger or surprise.\u00a0 If they had trained their minds to swear and curse God, \u00a0then in that instant when there was little or no time to think, their mind did what it had always done, swear and curse God.\u00a0 So in their last breath before seeing their maker, with their last words, they took His name in vain.\u00a0 They treated His name as if it were something filthy or common.\u00a0 What I remember about the story of \u201cTerror at Tenerife\u201d is that the \u201cterror\u201d was how these men could curse God and then be ushered into His presence.\u00a0 I still tremble with horror for those who face that fate.\u00a0 Oh how truly terrible!<\/p>\n I heard a teaching, many years ago, that our minds are like computers.\u00a0 What we put into them, stays there.\u00a0 What we put in is what comes out.\u00a0 Stories were related how old men, lost in dementia, could no longer be allowed to be around women.\u00a0 These men, no longer able to restrain themselves, have the filth of a lifetime of dirty thoughts pour out of them in ways that shock and embarrass their loved ones.\u00a0 Men who were thought to be of high moral integrity, including men thought to be of great faith, when the control was gone, their brain, their computer, spat out the filth they could formerly hide.\u00a0 Those who knew and loved them were lost to wonder what happened to these gentlemen who now are like ravenous lust driven animals. Who are these men who are now so filthy they could no longer safely be around unprotected women?<\/p>\n Galatians 6:7<\/b> – 7\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Do not be deceived:\u00a0God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.<\/p>\n Proverbs 6:12-15<\/b> – 12\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>A worthless person, a wicked man, Walks with a perverse mouth; 13\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>He winks with his eyes, He shuffles his feet, He points with his fingers;\u00a014\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Perversity\u00a0is<\/i>\u00a0in his heart, He devises evil continually, He sows discord.\u00a0 15\u00a0<\/sup><\/b>Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly; Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.<\/p>\n Luke 6:45<\/b> – A good man\u00a0out\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0good treasure\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0heart\u00a0brings forth good; and an evil man\u00a0out\u00a0of\u00a0the evil treasure\u00a0of\u00a0his\u00a0heart\u00a0brings forth evil. For\u00a0out\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0abundance\u00a0of\u00a0the\u00a0heart\u00a0his mouth speaks.<\/p>\n So, in your moment of greatest desperation, perhaps as you breathe your last breath, who will you call out for?\u00a0 Who is it that you love?\u00a0 Who, or what is it, that is foremost on your mind.\u00a0 I pray that all of you would love God more than all else and in your dying moment, you would, like Stephen, look up to heaven, and call out to your greatest love, God.\u00a0 Then, you will be ushered into the presence of your greatest hope and your greatest love.\u00a0 Forever.<\/p>\n IHS 1\/2\/14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019m finishing up the book \u201cDOG MAN, An Uncommon Life on a Faraway Mountain\u201d.\u00a0 It is the story of a Japanese man, Morie Sawataishi and how, in the face of strong Japanese tradition, he was a man who went against tradition and common expectations.\u00a0 The major part of his life was saving, loving and breeding…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[79,21,142,141,37,23,139,7,14,62,8,1019,13,144,143,20,27,24,35,22,1021,140,145,15],"class_list":["post-159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspirations","tag-almighty","tag-beauty","tag-computer","tag-curse","tag-eternity","tag-father","tag-filth","tag-god","tag-heaven","tag-holy-spirit","tag-jesus","tag-lord","tag-love","tag-lust","tag-mind","tag-peace","tag-pleasure","tag-son","tag-soul","tag-spirit","tag-strength","tag-swear","tag-train","tag-truth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=159"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.Bob4God.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}