1 Timothy 2:1 (NIV)
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers,
intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people—
As we take the time to remember the events of December 7,
1941 let’s take a look a report I came across in a recent report from Christian
History magazine by Elisha Coffman entitled Beyond Pearl Harbor: How God caught
up with the man who led Japan’s surprise attack.
Coffman retells the story of Mitsuo Fuchida. Fuchida grew
up loving his native Japan and hating the United States, which treated Asian
immigrants harshly in the first half of the twentieth century. Fuchida attended
a military academy, joined Japan’s Naval Air Force, and by 1941, with 10,000
flying hours behind him, had established himself as the nation’s top pilot.
When Japanese military leaders needed someone to command a surprise attack on
Pearl Harbor, they chose Fuchida. [Here, you can cut to the movie--it renders
the attack pretty faithfully.]
Fuchida’s was the voice that sent his aircraft carrier
the message "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!) indicating the
success of the surprise mission. Later, he too was surprised when he learned
that, of the 70 officers who participated in the raid, he was the only one who
returned alive. He had another close call when he was shot down during the
battle of Midway in 1942, but despite serious injuries, he survived again.
By 1945 he had attained the position of the Imperial
Navy’s Air Operations Officer. On August 6 he was eating breakfast in Nara,
Japan, where a new military headquarters was under construction, when he heard
about a bomb dropped on Hiroshima. He flew to investigate, then sent a grim
report to the Imperial Command.
On the same day, an American POW named Jacob DeShazer
felt moved by the Holy Spirit to pray for peace. DeShazer had been in captivity
since 1942, when, as a member of Doolittle’s Raiders, he dropped bombs near
Tokyo and then was forced to parachute into a Japanese-controlled part of China.
While imprisoned, first in Nanjing and later in Beijing, DeShazer had become a
Christian. He found his heart softened toward his Japanese captors. After being
liberated, DeShazer wrote a widely distributed essay, "I Was a Prisoner of
the Japanese," detailing his experiences of capture, conversion, and
forgiveness.
Fuchida and DeShazer met in 1950. DeShazer had returned
to Japan in 1948 as a missionary. Fuchida had read DeShazer’s testimony, bought
a Bible, and converted from Buddhism to Christianity. DeShazer had recently
finished a 40-day fast for revival in Japan when Fuchida came to his home and
introduced himself. DeShazer welcomed the new convert and encouraged him to be
baptized. While DeShazer continued to plant churches throughout Japan, Fuchida
became an evangelist, spreading a message of peace and forgiveness in his
native country and throughout Asian-American communities.
Fuchida died 25 on May 30, 1976. Like dynamite inventor
Alfred Nobel, who wished his legacy to be one of peace rather than destruction,
Fuchida wanted the message of his changed heart to supersede the memory of his
infamous attack. He wrote, "That morning [December 7] ... I lifted the
curtain of warfare by dispatching that cursed order, and I put my whole effort
into the war that followed. ... [But] after buying and reading the Bible, my
mind was strongly impressed and captivated. I think I can say today without
hesitation that God’s grace has been set upon me."
As we read this real life testimony reminds we can come
up with three lessons.
1. We serve a powerful and faithful God who is capable of
overcoming doubt and darkness, changing living, and saving even the least
likely individuals.
2. God’s Word has amazing power to produce faith. “Faith
comes from hearing; and hearing from the Word of God.” That is still true. No
one will come to faith until they hear or read the Word of God in some way
3. The winning of any person to the Lord begins when
someone starts praying. Who prayed for you before you came to know Christ? Who
are you praying for?
It all starts when somebody prays. Why not let it be YOU?
Dear Lord, we pray today that we would be the tool that You
can use to bring somebody to you. We pray that You will bring to our minds the
ones You would have for us to p[ray for today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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