"there confound their language" - Christ Jesus

Around the Tokyo Station

Christ Jesus

Christ Jesus never talked about how great Rome should be.
Christ Jesus never talked about how great Pyramids in Egypt should be.
Christ Jesus never talked about how great the Greek culture should be.

Christ Jesus never talked about how great it would be to be rich.
Christ Jesus never talked about how great it would be to succeed in one'e career.
Christ Jesus never talked about how great it would be to lead a nation as a top leader.

Christ Jesus never taught how to be rich and how to solve matters with money.

Christ Jesus only told to believe in God who created all the gold and silver in this world and gave life to each one.

But those who want to earn money always admire New York, its skyscrapers, and American culture.
Those who want to promote commercialism always tell others to be rich, succeed in their careers, and try to be a top leader.

And Satan teaches those who sell their souls to him how to be rich and how to solve matters with money.

However, Christ Jesus only tells to believe in God who created all the gold and silver in this world and gave life to each one.



*** *** *** ***



Gen 11:5 And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
Gen 11:6 And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Gen 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
Gen 11:8 So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.

"fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts"

Rainbow around Tokyo









*** *** *** ***



Act 11:6 Upon the which when I had fastened mine eyes, I considered, and saw fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air.
Act 11:7 And I heard a voice saying unto me, Arise, Peter; slay and eat.

"in a trance I saw a vision" - Inflation vs. Deflation

The Tokyo Station

Inflation vs. Deflation

As is often discussed in the global financial community, Japan has been in deflation in these decades. specifically since around the middle of 1990s.

After Japan became the second largest economy in the world in 1969, its economy further continued to grow, but after its economic bubble around 1989, the Japanese economy gradually into a blunting process while the US economy was boosted up riding on the IT boom and globalization of economy driven by the IT technology.  Further Japanese businesses started to move their plants and factories to China in a large scale to actively use cheap labor force in China so as to cope with the trend of globalization.

As a result, cheap products came to flood in the Japanese market and wages of Japanese workers came to stop increasing.  Though the natural environment of Japan was somewhat protected from further industrialization as many factories moved to China, this relationship with China introduced deflation in the Japanese society.

In a wider view, even the EU and North America now face deflationary pressure arising from globalization of economy that helps developing countries, like China, India, etc., carry out industrialization and export cheap products of reasonable quality to the advanced countries.  The IT technology, consisting of advanced computers and the Internet, has contributed to this new Industrial Revolution in the world.  But, it is also posing deflationary pressure to the EU, the US, and Japan.

However, it is also interesting to see a trend of monetary base, since it tells that the central banks of the advanced countries have supplied a huge amount of money for the global market to cope with deflationary pressure that was however caused by the 2008 Financial Crisis (as a direct factor).  When the financial systems in the US and the EU became unable to function normally, its influence was clearly manifested in consumers' attitudes.  The demand shrank while strong supply potential remained intact.  Businesses faced bankruptcy.  To keep a certain level of demand and operation of businesses, the central banks had to take charge of financially supporting the money market and circulating funds in society.  It was a clear tug of war between deflation power and inflation inertia.    

http://therealasset.co.uk/monetary-tectonics/


Inflation continuing forever will surely destroy the global environment as it was feared in Japan in early 1990s before many Japanese factories moved to China.  But can mankind cleverly control deflation to make all the members of the human species happy if not so materially rich?

One thing certain is the technological innovations will continue forever.  There will be always strong supply capability.  GDP of the whole world will continue to grow for centuries ahead.  But, this economic scheme is not aimed at making all the peoples in the world rich.  It is still in the hand of super-rich people who don't mind poor and unhappy people at all.  Inflation and deflation can be still a result of strategies of those super-rich people who are always trying to make themselves richer despite any crisis of the world and the earth.

We have to continue to keep watching the trend.








*** *** *** ***



Act 11:5 I was in the city of Joppa praying: and in a trance I saw a vision, A certain vessel descend, as it had been a great sheet, let down from heaven by four corners; and it came even to me:

"Go and shew John again those things" - Saladin

The Tokyo Station

Saladin

ISIS and AlQaeda should learn from a great Muslim leader in the 12th century: Saladin.

He was from a Kurdish family and was born in Tikrit, Mesopotamia; When he died, he was buried in Damascus.

Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb (Arabic: صلاح الدين يوسف بن أيوب‎; Kurdish: سه‌لاحه‌دین ئه‌یوبی , Selahedînê Eyûbî) (1137/1138 – 4 March 1193), better known in the Western world as Saladin, was the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria and the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Muslim of Kurdish[1][2][3] origin, Saladin led the Muslim opposition to the European Crusaders in the Levant. At the height of his power, his sultanate included Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, Hejaz, Yemen and other parts of North Africa.
...
Saladin achieved a great reputation in Europe as a chivalrous knight due to his fierce struggle against the crusaders and his prodigality. Although Saladin faded into history after the Middle Ages, he appears in a sympathetic light in Gotthold Ephraim Lessing's play Nathan the Wise (1779) and in Sir Walter Scott's novel The Talisman (1825). The contemporary view of Saladin originates mainly from these texts. According to Jonathan Riley-Smith, Scott's portrayal of Saladin was that of a "modern [19th Century] liberal European gentlemen, beside whom medieval Westerners would always have made a poor showing."[106] Despite the Crusaders' slaughter when they originally conquered Jerusalem in 1099, Saladin granted amnesty and free passage to all common Catholics and even to the defeated Christian army, as long as they were able to pay the aforementioned ransom (the Greek Orthodox Christians were treated even better, because they often opposed the western Crusaders). An interesting view of Saladin and the world in which he lived is provided by Tariq Ali's novel The Book of Saladin.[107]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saladin#Recognition_and_legacy 

While Saladin’s legacy is the retaking of Jerusalem, he is also well known for his generosity and compassion. While he was a military genius and a warrior with a cause, he believed that all people were inherently good, simply misguided. The Christian crusaders who fought against him in the battle to retake Jerusalem were treated with kindness and Saladin made sure to keep every promise made to the inhabitants of the city. He agreed to a treaty allowing Europeans to hold ports on the Palestinian coast and also allowed Christians the right o make pilgrimages to Jerusalem. This taking back of Jerusalem was final in the eyes of the Muslims, and while the crusades lasted another hundred years, the Christian fervor towards the holy city waned as the renaissance and economic growth began to spread through Europe (Setton 621).

http://www.inforefuge.com/the-life-history-of-saladin

However 800 years after Saladin's death, still the areas from the Kurdistan region to Tikrit, Syria, and Palestine are in bloody wars.  Something must be wrong in the Islamic world.

Anyway, Saladin was respected even by Dante who hated the founder of Islam:

When Dante Alighieri compiled his great medieval Who's Who of heroes and villains, the Divine Comedy, the highest a non-Christian could climb was Limbo. Ancient pagans had to be virtuous indeed to warrant inclusion: the residents included Homer, Caesar, Plato and Dante's guide, Vergil. But perhaps the most surprising entry in Dante's catalog of "great-hearted souls" was a figure "solitary, set apart."

That figure was Saladin. It is testament to his extraordinary stature in the Middle Ages that not only was Saladin the sole "modern" mentioned--he had been dead barely 100 years when Dante wrote--but also that a man who had...

http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,993030,00.html

Now what we can do might be just to hope that the Mausoleum of Saladin will not be damaged by any Muslim fighters and soldiers.

Saladin died of a fever on March 4, 1193, at Damascus, not long after King Richard I's departure. In Saladin’s possession at the time of his death were 1 piece of gold and 47 pieces of silver. He had given away his great wealth to his poor subjects leaving nothing to pay for his funeral.[3] The mausoleum was originally built by Saladin's son, Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din. Saladin's body was interred temporarily at the Citadel of Damascus until the construction of the building was completed in 1196. The madrasah was built later by Saladin's other son, Al-Aziz Uthman.[1] The mausoleum was rebuilt in 1898 under the patronage of the German Emperor William II who financed the repairs after he visited Damascus and found the tomb in a state of disrepair.[4]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mausoleum_of_Saladin

*** *** *** ***



Mat 11:4 Jesus answered and said unto them, Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see:

"Lord hath need of him"

The National Diet Bldg., Tokyo









*** *** *** ***


Mar 11:3 And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.

"Our Father which art in heaven" - Faith and Oil

Tokyo

Faith and Oil

One of interesting teachings by Christ Jesus is related to ten girls

Matthew 25:1-13New International Version (NIV)
The Parable of the Ten Virgins 

25 “At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6 “At midnight the cry rang out: ‘Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!’
7 “Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.’
9 “‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
10 “But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 “Later the others also came. ‘Lord, Lord,’ they said, ‘open the door for us!’
12 “But he replied, ‘Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.’
13 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. 

This is a very cruel parable.  Foolish girls are helpless, and nobody feels sympathy for them.  It is as if they were punished only because of their negligence.  How can the kingdom of heaven be so stern to people?  Can't it be more generous and tolerant?

But the lamp might be the human soul and oil might be faith.  And a soul without faith should be useless in the kingdom of heaven.  And, more gravely, you cannot borrow faith from others.

However, this situation of the ten young women might be related to a certain incident of the days when Christ Jesus was preaching.  He must have observed ten girls a half of whom had faith and another half had not.  Christ Jesus wanted to give a warning to them, without taking a harsh stance.  He meant that every girl was given the same lamp or the soul.  To fill it with oil is their responsibility.  They had to make an effort by themselves.  And an effort cannot be borrowed from others.  

Now I think that Christ Jesus must see three girls today: a Jewish girl, a Christian girl, and a Muslim girl.  Each has her own lamp.  But who has not oil?








*** *** *** ***




Luk 11:1 And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.
Luk 11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.