beautiful feet

:::romans 10.15 states: "how beautiful are the feet of those who bring (or preach) the good news"...paul is quoting isaiah 52.7, that wonderful old testament promise of salvation that is accompanied by God's blessings of peace, good tidings, and songs of joy (verses 7-9)...

...the feet pictured above belong to one of the most established worship songwriters and singers in japan...chu kosaka...



...tonight our church joined hundreds of japanese spectators in a christmas festival sponsored by hanshin railways (which also owns a hugely popular baseball team in this area...the hanshin tigers)...

...at least in part, the evening captured the contours of isaiah 52.7's promise...

...as chu kosaka and other pastors proclaimed peace in the message of Jesus Christ as God's gift of salvation to the world...

...as a youth corp brought good tidings through dance...

...and as a collaboration of local church choirs burst into songs of joy...

..after the festival, an unexpected treat....backstage, we were introduced to chu kosaka...

...we were impressed and honored by the fact that though he was busy and tired, chu-kosaka maintained eye contact with us and engaged us in a five-minute conversation...picking up on our broken japanese, he asked us when we arrived here and what we were doing in japan...hearing about our experiences, chu-kosaka encouraged us to keep serving the Lord in gakuentoshi...what we sensed from him onstage was reinforced backstage:::he has such a humble, pastor's heart...praise God to know that a well-known pastor like him and little 'ol us are serving toward the same end...

...on the train ride home, we prayed that God would raise up more workers with beautiful feet like chu-kosaka's so that people who do not believe will hear and believe the good news of Jesus, like the man below who -- along with dozens -- prayed the sinner's prayer tonight...

...isaiah 52.7-9 leads to verse 10's truth that "all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God"...would you pause for a moment and join us in praying that the unreached people of japan will see the salvation of God in the suffering servant of jesus christ (isaiah 53)...