What is wrong with Brazilian Christians compared to Japanese non-Christians?

 According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_by_country , 90.2% of Brazilians are Christians, while only 1.1% of Japanese are Christians.

According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_intentional_homicide_rate , the intentional homicide rate in Brazil is 22.5 intentional homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, while in Japan it is only 0.3.

In conclusion, a nation of unbelievers seems to be an example for a nation of believers.

According to the Bible, we are born sinners, enemies of God. It is only through Jesus that we have our hearts transformed. This goes for the Brazilian and the Japanese. However, in practice, the Japaneses are behaving much more in accordance with the teachings of Jesus than the Brazilians, despite their evil hearts, at least when we talk about homicide rate.

My explanation begins with:

• - the 90.2% of Christians in Brazil are clearly wrong. It is more convenient to profess the Christian faith in a Christian country. This is particularly true for Catholics: many people are baptized in a Catholic church but do not attend any religious services.
• - in Japanese culture, society comes before the individual. In Brazil it is the opposite.
• - Japan went through famines, wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, etc. These difficulties shaped Japanese society to expel those who do not work. Society obliges everyone to contribute, to work. Brazil has not faced problems like this.

Despite this explanation, I am sure that the percentage of Christians in Brazil is much higher than in Japan. Does Christianity have any influence on the Brazilian soul? I will continue saying that "sin" can not be measured by intentional homicide rate alone. Brazilians are more open to Jesus because their sins are different.

• - According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate , the suicide rate is 6.4 deaths per 100,000 population, while Japan has a higher suicide rate of 12.2.
• It is evident to me as a Brazilian, of Japanese descent, that Brazilians enjoy life much more than Japanese people. I think that, in general, a Brazilian is happier than a Japanese. You could argue that since Brazilians haven't gone through the Japanese adversities, they are happier, but I think it is something more profound. 
• - Brazilians are more open to other cultures. Although I was bullied when I was young, I think Japanese society is much more prejudiced than Brazilian society.
• - Pharisees behave better than prostitutes and tax collectors, but Jesus came to save the lost. Suddenly, the Brazilian people have the notion that they are even more lost. Brazilians need Jesus more.
• - Some sinners are more transparent than others. For instance: an adulterer is more transparent than an arrogant person (because his sin is more scandalous). I think that Japanese people are very proud but they seem humble. It is very difficult to understand what goes in a Japanese mind. For me, a Brazilian, people here are much more transparent and humble. 

In resume, Brazilians Christians seem to be much worse than Japanese non-Christians and in a shallow reasoning, it seems an argument for the failure of Christianity. However, in a more deep reasoning, Jesus changes individuals and society. Jesus came to the sick, for who that recognizes their sickness (because Brazilian and Japanese societies alike are ill). Jesus changes our eyes. The world is beautiful with Jesus. Brazilian society is more open, transparent and happy than the Japanese society. 

Are enemies to be despised (Psalms) or loved (Matthew)?

I read in Psalm 139:22. 

I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies.

and in Matthew 5:44:

But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

David curses his enemies in many Psalms. In fact, I don´t know of any psalm that says something similar to "love your enemies". Some say, that David is searching for the Lord's help when persecuted and that despite his hate for his enemies, he is searching for the justice of the Lord. According to this view, it seems that after praying to the Lord, David could love his enemies. I agree on it, but I think that it is a very shallow view.

Expanding a little more Psalm 139, we are informed that David considers himself aligned to the Lord because he hates the enemies of the Lord:

Do I not hate them, O LORD, who hate You? And do I not loathe those who rise up against You? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

Jesus must have read the Psalms many and many times. In fact, many Psalms, notoriously Psalm 22, prophetically reflects Jesus. So, are Jesus teachings pro or against Psalms?

Some people see Jesus as one who loved his enemies. In fact, Jesus prayed in favor of his enemies that were killing him in the cross. However, it doesn't mean He will send everyone to heaven.

Jesus says in Matthew 7:

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’(V)

In Matthew 7, Jesus calls 'evildoers' people who see themselves as Jesus followers. He sends these people away from him. Certainly, we can qualify these people as enemies of Jesus. They are hated by Jesus.  

Judas Iscariot is portrayed as a disciple who sees in Jesus a way to conquer what he wants: money. In John chapter 12, he uses the argument of helping the poor as a cover for more access to money.

In Psalms 41:9-10 New Century Version (NCV):

My best and truest friend, who ate at my table, has even turned against me. LORD, have mercy on me. Give me strength so I can pay them back.

I believe that Jesus could have said the very same thing against Judas as David because it is evident that some psalms are really prophetic.

In conclusion, Psalms and Matthew walk together and complement each other. The problem resides in identifying the correct enemies to be loved or to be hated. 

The enemies to be loved are the ones who, clearly, don't belong to God's people, who need God's grace and understand this lack of God's grace on their own lives. A Christian must love his enemy and has power to do so when he understands how graciously the Lord has been to himself. Let me love the one who hates me because the Lord has loved me first when I myself was his enemy. 

The enemies to be hated (at least, avoided) are the ones who should be our friends because they claim to love the Lord, but in fact, they are using the Lord as means to serve their false gods (notoriously money). 

In the last supper, the disciples questioned themselves when Jesus told them that there was one traitor among them. In some way, I must study myself: am I using the Lord? or do I serve Him? It is really difficult to know the answer based on my effort. Let the Lord answer this question and correct me before it is too late, as David said:

Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; And see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting.

Chess.com

 When I was young, I enjoyed playing chess. The game has a very clear objective, very clear rules and each player must choose a piece to play among many possibilities. I am quite sure that chess helped me to take decisions when pressed. However, as time passed by, I considered it a waste of time. I installed some software applications in my computer such as gnuchess, but generally for very short periods because it somehow boring to play with computer because it has no emotion, it rarely makes mistakes and it doesn't feel the pain of loosing. Recently I began to play with chess.com. It enables humans to play with humans as in a championship. Each player receives a score. I began to think why on earth, I became addicted again on chess. I think that the main motivation is to look the score going up and down after each game. 

I know that I am wasting my time. There are so much more on life than chess. The question is: "what is important in life?". Certainly is not chess, and even less significant is the score on chess.com. So, why do I strive for higher score? It is number that helps to measure some kind of intelligence among the chess.com addicts. Thus, if one of my students say he has such score, I rapidly tag him as "intelligent" or "dumb". 

Youtube suggested me a video about Bob Fisher who had a very high IQ. If I heard correctly, it was higher than Einstein, but obviously Einstein made much more than Bob Fisher who died as crazy guy in Iceland.  Kasparov is the great genius of chess, but he lost to the IBM computer, deep blue. Is any advantage for a human being to train hardly to improve some chess score? I don´t think so; but as said it must be useful for improving some decision making, although it in a limited way. For instance: a chess player must restrain himself when in a great advantage over his opponent because he may commit a big mistake leaving some holes in his defense; and a chess player must be patient when loosing by some margin in hope that his opponent make a mistake. This behavior is very similar when investing money in stock market. Chess is a school that teaches, transfers some learning, a proper behavior in other games. However this transference is limited. The proper way to became a better investor is to apply the time, studying companies, and not playing chess.  

We all need to rest

 Today is Sunday. Let me rest today, rest from trying to earn more money by buying and selling stocks, rest from reading the book "Value Investing" from Bruce Greenwald, rest from watching youtube videos about countries, companies, health, bikes, and even where to stay in Ubatuba (a brazilian beach city). Let me rest from worrying about the new students that I am going to receive this week for the Operating System course, or even, let me rest from worrying about how vulnerable my computer or how easy it is to rob my password. 

There is a book titled  "The top five regrets of the dying" from Bronnie Ware. I haven't read it yet, but I know that a lot of people regret from not spending more time with their families or friends, from over working, from worrying too much about little things, etc.

It means that a lot of people regret from not resting in their Sabbaths because they regret from things that they should be doing in the resting day.

I am about to retire, I am almost 60 years old (In Brazil, the normal retiring age for men is turning to 65 years old, but I got some transitory phase). I expect to rest in my retirement, at least, I expect to enjoy life more. My wife would say that in order to retire, I should have already begun working. Frankly, I don't see that I have done anything grandiose, but I really feel that I didn't enjoy life as I should have enjoyed. 

Today is a Sabbath. Let me enjoy this day. Let me thank the Lord for so many things He has done in my life. The Lord has been following me, taking care of me; nothing has lacked to me. He is the provider of all the things I need to live. He is the author of life. He is my Creator. 

Today is the day to "feel" the Lord taking care of me, to contemplate his beauty, to contemplate his creation. I hope that today is the day that I won't regret living before dying. 

a new church

 We decided to leave the nikkei church because we (my family) seemed to be wasting time there. I was there because I felt it was some kind of my obligation to the congregation to present a message more biblical. I was preaching once a month. As soon as I decided to leave the pulpit, I decided to leave the church too. We stayed there longer than other families and we saw the declining in number of people. In fact, there is just one family there, although there are more senior people that attend alone. With covid-19 and the closure of face to face activities, I was preaching online; however it seemed to me that I was, somehow, wasting my time preparing the sermons with no support of the new pastor (because the older pastor that I was used to got some kind of dementia). 

We decided to attend a Presbyterian church that began with koreans. We came to know them by a Taiwanese family that we knew in the nikkei church. It is widely known that Koreans and Japanese don't get along very well due to the second war, but my ancestors came to Brazil before second war (I have nothing with war related problems). Anyway, we are the only nikkei family there and we hope to be accepted by the congregation.

A very great difference from our nikkei church and this new church is in the sermon. We appreciate very much the word being preached. The pastor (a young fellow) got master degree in Canada and Phd in England, besides he is a professor in a seminary. It is very different to listen to a sermon from someone who knows to read the Bible from end to end in a harmonic way. He is wise in applying the Word in our day lives.

We pray to the Lord that He leads us (my family) to a church where we may grow in faith and love.

Celebration

 My dad bought a house in 1980 in order to save money (because our brazilian currency was very unstable). This house was invaded some years ago as I told in this blog by a lot of people (perhaps 20 guys) with the clear purpose of taking dad's house to them. The house is located in a dangerous place here in Sao Paulo city. It is an absurd but depending on how it is done, our municipal law would grant them the property. We ended up in the police station. I noticed that half of the police was corrupt (or complacent) and they seemed to be supporting the invaders. Anyway, we felt that we couldn't rely on the police force. After the police restored our property, some guys came back and retaliated by burning our car that was parked there.  We didn't call the police because we didn't trust them.

After 2 months, Bob (let us call him so), decided to rent this house from dad. I thought that even in case of him not paying anything, at least, he would prevent the house from being taken over. However Bob didn't move there, didn't pay anything and sub rented the property to others. This bad situation was going on for some years and we really didn't know what to do. Bob pretended to be a friend to dad. He had the audacity to say to my brother in law that his children abandoned him and that he treated dad as his own dad. Despite this ridiculous situation, dad trusted him (I think now that he was already in the beginning of his dementia, but dad has being a controlling person for all his life and he wouldn't listen to any of his children; so this ridiculous "rent deal" continued). 

However, dad was not receiving any money from this rent deal, so he went there some times charging some money from the sub tenants. In one occasion, he was injured. Not so severely to end up in a hospital, but enough to stop going there. In his dementia, he told us (children) that the house was sold.

I thought that the house was in fact stolen by Bob, although he seemed friendly. I thought that it would be very hard to sell the house and all confrontation (with Bob sub tenants) wouldn't pay. However, my family were still paying taxes. I was convinced that a good solution would be renounce the property and began to study how it could be done (because the prefecture still wants to collect taxes and the process is not so easy). As I was asking about how it could be done, a friend envisioned a solution: he would take the property, sell it and return some money to us. We agreed. Two weeks ago he managed to make it with the help of a real estate agent that knew how to deal with invaded houses. 

Yesterday, we commemorate that this house was sold with some wine and italian food.

Let us celebrate freedom, specially the freedom that the Lord has provided by our Lord Jesus.

Resting

 Today is Sunday.

Jesus taught me to call the Lord, the Creator, as my father who takes care of me. Sunday is the day to rest trusting that is Him, the Lord who really takes care of me.

I ate today because the Lord provided me food and a stomach, I am breathing today because the Lord is providing me air and lungs. I even pee today because the Lord provided me water and kidneys.

Today is the day to think about how great is my Lord, my Father and surrender to his mercy because I am always thinking that I am in charge of working to make things happen. In my madness I have been searching glory and richness to myself, but today is the day to praise Him and humble myself before Him.

Let the glory be given to Him alone. Let my soul rest in Him.