Every Tribe and Language and People and Nation

my daddy
Captain William Winfred Watson
Japan, 1945

"And they sang a new song with these words: 'You are worthy to take the scroll and break its seals and open it. For You were slaughtered, and Your blood has ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.'" (Revelation 5:9)

My daddy was aboard a ship headed to Japan when the United States dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, thereby ending World War II. As part of the occupation troops in Japan over the subsequent months, he served as Platoon Commander, Trial Judge Advocate, acting S-II-Intelligence Officer, and S-III-Training Officer. 

Seventy-five years later, on this 18th day of 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting, I find myself praying daily for Japan—asking Jesus to bring light and life to a predominately Shinto and Buddhist people group.

In the Gospel of Luke, when Jesus appointed seventy disciples and sent them in pairs to every city and place where He Himself was going, He instructed them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." (Luke 10:2)

Today, beloved, pray for laborers for the harvest. Pray that God's Kingdom will come and His will be done in every tribe and language and people and nation. For one day, at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father! (Philippians 4:10-11)