Gajumaru Tree
- Tommy Mahaffie
- Sep 7
- 3 min read
In Okinawa there is a tree called the Gajumaru Tree. These trees have deep roots and easily survive the many Typhoons that hit Okinawa. They are immovable!
At Calvary Ginowan today Pastor Tom was preaching on Colossians 2:1-10. Paul's encouragement to the Colossians.
2"My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ"
Pastor Tom say's that there are many things that we don't understand about this world or about God. But as we get to know the Lord more many of these mysteries will be revealed to us. Only in Christ will we begin to learn how to live life to the fullest.
He continued on about how he knew someone that worked as a Banker in the 80s on the island. Back then they counted the money by hand were able to tell the difference between real currency and fake ones very quickly because they handled the money every single day and became really familiar with the true currency. The same goes with us. We must continue to immerse ourselves with the truth on a daily basis so that we don't get deceived to the ways of the world. We must be rooted.
7"rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness."
Just like Gajumaru trees that have deep roots we too must be rooted in the word so that we are not so easily deceived when strong winds come our way.
If you have Jesus in your heart you lack NOTHING! You are complete in Him! You are not missing out on anything.
You won't find completeness in a relationship, money or even ourselves. We are only complete in Jesus! AMEN!
In the book I'm reading on Bonhoeffer. Nichols the author talks about Bonhoeffer's thoughts on justification and how we need iustitia aliena or alien righteousness. Righteousness that is outside of ourselves.
Next Nichols talks about Sola Gratia "By Grace Alone" And how there are 3 propositions that make up the essence of the gospel. The first is the the holiness of God, then its the sinfulness of humanity and lastly its the person + work of Christ.
Grace is hard for humans to grasp. How could a God that is omnipotent grant us grace? We usually tend to think of merits or demerits but we need to start thinking of what Bonhoeffer calles efficacious grace or soteric grace. Which is a type of grace that accomplishes it's purpose. It's purpose which is to bring salvation to those who have faith in Him.
Faith can be hard sometimes though. We can be so distracted by the day or the world around us that our faith can sway from one end of the spectrum to the other.
Bonhoeffer states that faith is the "Most profound passivity."
That's all for my Church Recap and Bonhoeffer reading connections.
Let's now talk about what happened this past week.
School
I already feel a little overwhelmed with school and coaching and it's only been two weeks. But I do remember it does take a while to get use to the new rhythms.
School is going good and it seems like all of my students are enjoying my class.
Cross Country
We had our first meet this past Saturday.
Weirdly my timer broke the second I hit start.
Luckily there was a backup timer.
Instagram Reel for our First Meet
Sadly we had 2 of our runners sprain their ankles
I couldn't have run the meet without all of the volunteers that came to help. I'm super grateful for everyone here.
I have been reading from a book that our new athletic director gave us called The Christian Athlete to all the runners. This past week I talked about Glory to God. More to follow.
We will be doing a fundraising meet at the end of October to help raise money for the runners
That's it for this week!
A little short synopsis. More to follow.
Comments