Yabuki Breeze Blog

The Apostle John tells the Christmas story this way…

John 1:1-18John 1:1-18
English: Contemporary English Version (1999) - CEV
The Word of Life ^{1 1} In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God. ² From the very beginning the Word was with God. ³ And with this Word, God created all things. Nothing was made without the Word. Everything that was created ⁴ received its life from him, and his life gave light to everyone. ⁵ The light keeps shining in the dark, and darkness has never put it out. a put it out: Or “understood it.” ⁶ ; ; God sent a man named John, ⁷ who came to tell about the light and to lead all people to have faith. ⁸ John wasn't that light. He came only to tell about the light. ⁹ The true light that shines on everyone was coming into the world. ¹⁰ The Word was in the world, but no one knew him, though God had made the world with his Word. ¹¹ He came into his own world, but his own nation did not welcome him. ¹² Yet some people accepted him and put their faith in him. So he gave them the right to be the children of God. ¹³ They were not God's children by nature or because of any human desires. God himself was the one who made them his children. ¹⁴ The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us. ¹⁵ John spoke about him and shouted, “This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born.” ¹⁶ Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another. b one blessing after another: Or “one blessing in place of another.” ¹⁷ The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.

WP-Bible plugin
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome[a] it.

6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

9 The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15 (John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and[b] is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.

 Rejoice because for the first time, when Jesus was born, we could see God dwelling among us “in the flesh” through his Son, full of grace and truth – the light of the world!

Check out some of Christmas pictures! Check out all our latest pictures.

Merry Christmas every one from the Yabuki’s!

Tags: Christmas, grace, Jesus

Sad story from this last week that hit me hard. I took a student to the airport to go home this week that I first picked up 6 months ago from an affluent country in Asia. He was an short term English student who happened to be a PhD student. We saw him occasionally at different events but lost track of him as the year went on. Anyway, as we were driving to the airport, I asked him what he planned on doing when he got home, he told me he was planning on quitting his PhD program and getting a job so he could “demonstrate.” “Demonstrate?” I asked him to clarify. He said, “yes, demonstrate against my government.” I was surprised. He is a humble young man, seemingly not too taken to passionate expression. I wasn’t sure what to say.. so I asked, “What kind of job will to do?” He said, “Self-Sustenance.” I was thinking he meant self-employed and I asked him to clarify. He said, “You know, living off of the land, planting vegetables, etc.” All I could say was, “Oh…” I asked why he was doing this. He said, “People from my country have so many things, everything a person could possibly have and yet our people are not happy.” Like Emerson and Thoreau, he sought the peace and meaning by chasing simplicity. At that moment, I realized something. He was a man who was looking for something while here. Something that would sate the angst that he felt living in modern Asian society. I have no doubt God could have filled that void, but I was not sensitive enough to his need. I didn’t sow broadly enough, thinking he would not be interested and so I missed an opportunity. I was sad. I learned alot from the conversation. I needed to salt all my conversations with the Hope that I have in Jesus so if God is working in someone, like this young man, he could identify himself to me.

• A new student Andrew from Nepal made a decision to follow Jesus through one of our volunteers doing Discovery Bible Study with him. God was influencing him in many way through many people and when he read the Bible he recognized what he was looking for.
• We are praising God that several of some of our closest students finished school this last weekend. Still we will miss them dearly. Vritant, Fernando and Bibianna specifically said that we all were their family in Texas (they even said it in a caption on facebook). Cynthia and TCU was showered with many blessings by the team over there. We are very sad to see these very special friends go home.
• We are excited that our student friend, Greg from East Asia welcomed his family to the US to join him after 6 months apart.

Tags: Asia, Bible Study, Discovery Bible Study, Family, ISI, Nepal, Rest, Student, TCU, Texas, volunteer, Vritant, Welcome