"Alleluia"

Peter

(2)

Alleluia means "praise the Lord" in the Hebrew language. I guess that it must have been the

first voice of God at the beginning of the universe. God created many angels, and those angels in the entire universe praised to the Sovereign Lord, "Alleluia!" Two thousand years ago, on that night, the shepherds in the field in the suburbs of Bethlehem must have heard the angelic praise of alleluia. Two thousand years later, when I was young, I also heard the angelic praise of alleluia, and then I was led to the mysterious world of life till now.

Alleluia. What a mysteriously beautiful tune of praise it is! We find the famous "Alleluia" at B

-7 in our praise book of the Kohitsuji no Mure church. When I was in the United States and heard this song for the first time, I was just amazed that there existed in this world such beautiful music. At that time when I was young, the movement of the Holy Spirit was storming over the entire United States. I saw it with my eyes how tremendously powerful it was. During only one summer season, the Spirit Movement started in the south of California spread out to New York, and it swept over the entire United States. TVs, magazines, and all kinds of media were surprised at what this was. Hundreds and thousands of young people got baptized at the beach of the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. Most of the ministers today probably met Jesus Christ at that time. It was just only one summer. What a tremendous power it is when God works! Many people who were saved were dirty clothed hippies, who smoked marijuana. When the Holy Spirit fell down on those hippies, something surprising happened. They were transformed. They praised the Lord with alleluia by quietly raising their hands at the beach, at the corners of the cities, and everywhere. Such a scene could be observed anywhere in the entire United States.

With regard to changing man: Preaching does not change man. It is not those people who

shouted "Revival! Revival!" that change man. It is the unconditional gift, visitation of the Lord our God from Heaven.

Turn our eyes to Japan nowadays. Everyday newspapers there report the tremendously

crazy state of the Japanese children. This is not Japan I have known before. Everything has gotten worse and crazy. However, we adult know that the cause of the wrongs is not the children. The Japanese, the statesmen, businessmen, scholars, from top leaders to the bottom, all think about themselves only. People do not work without bribery. Who made this country so corrupt? The country of Japan is certainly falling into pieces. Children do not have any interest to go to school. They murder people. Who changed Japan into such a rotten country?

It is only the heavy shower of the Holy Spirit I saw when I was young that can save this

Japan. There is nothing else to save Japan but the life of this Sovereign God, as the Spirit of Christ Jesus would be showering over the entire Japan. Only the love of Jesus Christ can save and bind up the broken family. Truly, truly this love of Christ started soaking through on the land of Japan.

Over ten years ago, when I came to Japan for ministry for the first time from the United

States, many missionaries told me that Japan is the most difficult country to minister. The Japanese are kind and polite, but they close their hearts so tightly that they never let the missionary minister into their hearts. Since Meiji era, the population of Japanese Christians is less than 1 percent even after 100 years of ministry. What a hard-hearted people the Japanese are! Nevertheless, I felt something wonderful when I first visited Japan, such as "The time of God is close. The time of God is close." And I saw a mental image -- one corner of the black cloud over Japan was broken and that the rays of light from Heaven were beaming into this country. I spoke about this image to many people, but nobody believed it.

Then, a several years later, God sent the waves of new praise to Japan and the Kohitsuji no

Mure church was born. Now, the amazing light of life is streaming over not only entire Japan, but also various areas of the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Netherlands, Taiwan, and Philippines. I am convinced that it is nothing else but the life of Jesus Christ can save and bind up the broken family, heal the wounded children, and deliver Japan from its spiritual bankruptcy. And the time has come. The time has already begun.

December 27, 1999