Dr. Harry Kelm
NAB Executive Director
When we use the word good, we are usually thinking of something beneficial, agreeable, and appealing. When the Scriptures use the word good, it means good according to God. When God proclaims something is good, it is what is right and best – it is just as it should be.
The good of Good Friday is not a good we would ever want to go through. We read the accounts of Jesus’s betrayal and arrest, his trial, and then his condemnation to death. We are shocked at the abuse and the suffering he went through. We recoil at the absolute horror of the crucifixion. We are reminded that his body was broken and his blood was shed.
But it is God’s good. It is a good that is as it should be. The message of the angel to Joseph in Matthew 1 was that Jesus will save his people from their sins; the message of Jesus in Matthew 20 is that he will be condemned to death, mocked, flogged, and crucified. Jesus had prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane that God’s will would be done, and as he was dying, Jesus said, “It is finished.”
The Friday before the Easter celebration brings to the followers of Jesus a message of sorrow and grief as we remember the death of Jesus. I grew up in a home where German was the first language I learned. In German, Good Friday is Karfreitag – Freitag, meaning “Friday” and kar, in the old German, meaning “mourning and lamentation.”
The sacrifice and death of Jesus on the cross was for the sins of mankind – for your sins and mine. Jesus knew this needed to happen. So this day, Good Friday, is the day we acknowledge the suffering and pain Jesus endured for us. We also humbly recognize the grace of God that has given to us a living hope in Jesus for this life and for eternity. Good Friday is not the end. We know the good news of 1 Corinthians 15:3–4, “Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day” (NIV). In the living Jesus, we can live.
Good Friday is not something to be hurried through or to be passed over. It is part of the message of redemption we can know in Jesus. Tomorrow, I urge you to spend some time considering the grace of God found in Jesus. Thank God for all you have been given in Jesus. Thank him for the opportunity to live in and for and with the living Jesus.
God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
(2 Corinthians 5:21)
For a number of months, NAB missionaries Yuri Nakano and Nick & Iris Hung have been serving in Japan alongside TEAM Japan, allowing them to remain in Japan to continue reaching and teaching the people there after the necessary closure of the NAB’s legal entity in Japan.
For the Hungs, everything about this is new. Having only recently arrived in Japan in September, they are still in language learning to help them reach the Chinese diaspora in Japan. Meanwhile, they are eager to learn and absorb valuable experience from former and current missionaries. For Yuri, the mission is still the same, even if her teammates have changed a bit. “Partnering with TEAM Japan is a small part of a larger movement I believe God is stirring to open up more possibilities for his Kingdom to grow here in Japan,” she said.
The unity of the cross as found in God’s people and extended to all others is on display in Japan through the work of NAB missionaries. Would you please consider giving in support of efforts such as these? Your gift of $100, $500, or more to the Global Missions Fund allows for the NAB International Office to provide the support crucial to times of transition like we are seeing in the Japan field. As Yuri said, “I am hopeful and glad NAB mission work in Japan is not over!”
Give to the Spring Mission Offering (CND)
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You can also give via text message by texting your gift amount followed by “SPRING” to (204) 400-2238 for Canadian giving or to (916) 249-0534 for US giving.
Canadians can also give via e-transfer using givecanada@nabconf.org with “Spring Missions” in the note field.
