HOMEGOINGS

Home in Japan

To True Life BP Church and FEBC

I really thank the Lord that even I can graduate from FEBC. I believe He has helped and encouraged me so much. And I want to say thanks to all members of True Life BP Church and FEBC lecturers, directors, staff, and students.

Thank you very much for your many kindness, encouragement, help and support. I have learned many good things here. The most instructive and impressive learning here is sincere heart for the Lord. I met many good Christians here, and I found they have a very sincere heart for the Lord, very faithful, honest, serious, responsible and zealous to the Lord, and to the works for Him.

From Pastor, Elders, Church members, FEBC lecturers, and many students, I have learned many good instructions. Most of fellow students are much younger than me, but I learned many good things from them. I have learned that the most necessary thing for me is a sincere heart and great zeal for the Lord. Thank you very much. And I really thank the Lord that He taught me this most important lesson.

I will serve the Lord in Japan. And I know that evangelism in Japan is very hard for me because most of people have no interest in Christianity, quite ignorant about spiritual things, and totally blind. I pray for them that the Lord open their eyes through even this catastrophe by virus and many natural disasters. Please pray for our country.

Thank you very much.

Tadahito Yamazaki
6 May 2020

[Our brother Tadahito hails from Hokkaido, Japan. He spent 4½ years in FEBC for his theological studies. For his final-year project, he translated into Japanese Buswell-Tow-Khoo’s Systematic Theology. He has also translated our gospel tract “Will I Get to Heaven” into Japanese. Let’s pray for our brother who flew home to Japan on May 7^th. May the Lord use him greatly.]

Home in Heaven
Eulogy for Berean Joshien Opiso by Dr Jose Lagapa

The peace and comfort of God be with you all especially Dr Einstine, Josephine and Daniel Opiso.

The Word of God in Ecclesiastes 7:1 says, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” This good name does not refer to how beautiful a name sounds, or how it is after a showbiz megastar or how foreign it sounds to the ears. It refers to a life which the name stands for. It is the nature, attitude and peculiarities of a person that come to mind when the name is mentioned. It reflects who the person is. So, if a man’s life is a blessing and a joy to others, the name emits a better scent than the most expensive perfume on earth.

But though a man strives to live an almost perfect life, there are still failures and weaknesses that are always associated with his life. These ruin the smell of a good name. Therefore, in what way can a man attain a good name? Well, the only way a person can attain such perfection is when he or she has confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour and believed in his heart that Christ rose from the dead. This means he or she is truly a born-again Christian. This person may have lived an imperfect life but God is the Judge of all the earth. As Final Arbiter, God is the One who declares whether a person lived a good life or not. In other words, if you are believer of Jesus Christ, you have a good name far better than a precious perfume!

BJ herself carried already a good name. Appended to her name is the word Berean which described the believers in the time of the Apostle Paul who received the word of God with readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily. Thankfully, that name is not a misnomer to BJ, for indeed she was a girl who readily received the Word of God and searched for it. In the annual Bible Conferences and other trainings we had in CMU, she would be one of the youngest, if not the youngest participant there! She was not just physically present but spiritually and mentally attentive to the messages. She also searched the Scripture more often than many of us do as she read her Bible regularly and memorized chunks of passages not just in her head but as seen in the way she recited, from her heart.

Above all, her name was indeed a good name for in her young age she already had a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Every early Saturday morning Bible studies we had with her father she rarely failed to appear in the background listening to our studies. In the eyes of God she had a very good name with a far greater scent than the best perfume for her testimony reaches not only to the different islands in the Philippines but among Christians in Japan and Singapore and I believe in many other parts of the world too. This is because her good name was not anchored in her literal name and the character that she beautifully lived but on the name of Jesus whose name every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

The day of death is better than the day of one’s birth, too, as our verse says. For in death, the temporal life is made to a full stop, and if a person ends in a faithful life for the Lord, how good it is. At the day of death, people are not only thanking for the person’s life as a blessing but the Lord Himself, the Father in heaven considers death as precious in His eyes because He is pleased to have His saints in His kingdom. He will welcome and say, well done thou good and faithful servant. So it does not matter how long a person lives on this earth, it is how he lived his life and lived it fully to God and end it with God!

Birth is the start of life. There are still many things a person must face as he starts his life. He does not know yet whether he will end his life well and good. There are many religious people who appear sincere at the beginning but then later they backslide and some go too far and become apostate and into unbelief, becoming atheist.

But death seals life’s performance. There are no more chances of departing from the Lord. It wraps up the kind of life lived whether good or bad, whether in Christ or not. If a person ends a zealous and truthful life in Christ, he got a good name!

For us who are still living we must be on our toes to be watchful and prayerful for we know not what is ahead of us. For BJ she is very much secured now in the hands of her Saviour, for to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Her spirit is in the paradise of God awaiting the first resurrection where she will be given that glorified body. We too must look forward to that day where we shall be meeting our Lord and while we are still running the race that is set before us, let us run with patience that race and bear a good testimony. Like BJ, she shone forth as light having a good name that others saw and they glorified our Father who is in heaven.

Yes, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.” You don’t need to be named BJ to have a good name, you need the Lord Jesus Christ to have a name that is better than the most expensive perfume. When yours and my death day will come, we pray that people can testify that our death day is better than our day of birth because we end well in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To God be the glory! Amen!

A Plea for Prayer
[Sent just before the homegoing of BJ on 14 May 2020]

Dr. Einstine Opiso (Engineering, Central Mindanao University, Philippines) called yesterday, asking prayer for his little girl – a victim of “lupus”. Her name is Berean Joshien. I’m asking you and other Christian friends to pray also.

Dr. Einstine came to CHRIST about ten or so years ago, during his candidacy for PhD at Hokkaido University (Japan). It was a privilege and blessing to know, help, and fellowship with him. He married a Christian girl, and GOD has given them two precious little children.

Last year I learned that Joshein had come down with lupus… hospitalized (ICU)… later in a coma & unresponsive… and now the monster has invaded her vital organs. The doctors say they’ve done their best, can do no more, and give the child only 4 weeks to live (at most). Thank you for any possible PRAYER HELP.

Enclosing a few lines of consolation (hopefully) for her parents. If you should have additional that you wish to share, please e-mail to me and I will forward.

DEATH has always been very difficult for me to deal with. Of course I am well aware of CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY appertaining, but it is a different matter altogether when it strikes so close to one so dearly loved and closely related through our mutual TRUST IN CHRIST as SAVIOUR AND LORD. So you can remember me too…

Extremely grateful,

A bro in CHRIST,

bk [Rev Dr Robert Lee Kluttz, Missionary to Hokkaido, Japan]
Psa 67.1–7

Someday He’ll Make It Plain
Words: Lida S Leech, 1911;
Music: Adam Geibel

1. I do not know why oft ’round me,
My hopes all shattered seem to be;
God’s perfect plan I cannot see,
But someday I’ll understand.

Refrain:
Someday He’ll make it plain to me,
Someday when I His face shall see;
Someday from tears I shall be free,
For someday I shall understand.

2. I cannot tell the depth of love,
Which moves the Father’s heart above,
My faith to test, my love to prove,
But someday I’ll understand.

3 Tho’ trials come thru passing days,
My life will still be filled with praise;
For God will lead thru darkened ways,
But someday I’ll understand.

[A hymn sent from Pastor Kluttz right before BJ’s death.]

Dr and Mrs Einstine Opiso with daughter BJ (photo taken in 2013)