It's about SEX.

In 2001, I suddenly wanted to know if there was a crystal clear reason why I needed to wait to have sex until I got married. I asked several people, but their answers did not satisfy me. So whom should I ask now? GOD!


I prayed, "God, I am tempted for the first time in my life! I need to know! Please teach me! I know some reasons, but they have not convinced me enough!"


After that prayer, as I was lying in my bed, pondering and questioning about first sex, I was wondering why first sex causes a woman to bleed. Why only the first time? Is there a reason for the bleeding?



And I saw a vision. And that was it! You might not see it, but I GOT IT.


At that time, I was studying the Covenant that God made with His people. As many of you know, covenant means "to cut" literally. Abraham cut the animal, and the blood was shed. The shedding of the blood was an integral part of the covenant relationship between God and His people.


Christ was pierced and His blood was shed. This also leads believers to their covenant relationship with God.


"OH WOW. So... Marriage is also a covenant relationship, ha!? The light is breaking! I am getting the picture!"


God created the hymen. Then the man comes/pierces the hymen, and there is blood. Isn't that the symbol of a covenant relationship?



God did not have to create the hymen. Why did He? God has a purpose in everything He does! When man and woman are joined together, the hymen is pierced and blood is shed, picturing a covenant relationship that God designed for man and woman.



Remember, covenant is sealed by the blood.



Covenant relationship means, "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee." That's what marriage is suppose to be! It's beautiful. It's perfect. God's designs are always beautiful and perfect including FIRST SEX. Fabulous!

Kobe Earthquake Experience

January 17, 1995 at 12 a.m.: I checked into a luxurious room on the 20th floor at a hotel. I had worked the evening shift that night at an executive floor, serving V.I.P. guests from America. I was very tired because it had been a long day, so I collapsed into bed and set the alarm clock for 5 a.m., so I could sleep for at least five hours. However, I had a peculiar night. Even though my body needed sleep, my heart felt some uneasiness. It was very unusual that I could not sleep. I changed my position many times in the bed, tried to relax, but when I looked at the alarm clock, it was 4:50 a.m. I decided to get up and prepare for work as I needed to be at the front desk at 6 a.m. that morning.



With my heavy head and body, I sat down on the chair by the bed, putting on my make-up. It was 5:30 and still dark outside. Nobody was walking down the street. It looked cold and quiet. Everything was okay, but I was still uneasy for some reason. Well, maybe I was too tired…



January 17, 1995 at 5:45 a.m.: When I was about to put on my lipstick, I heard a noise like Niagara Falls coming up from the ground below. Of course, there were no waterfalls around the hotel. I stopped what I was doing, listened to the noise, and still I could not understand what was going on. “What’s this noise?” I said. Then suddenly, the TV fell off the shelf, and the bed was swinging and bumping from the right to the left. All the drawers jumped out of the furniture toward the floor and closet doors kept opening and closing with a loud noise. As my body was thrown on the floor, I shouted out loud, “It’s an earthquake!”



I crawled on my shaky hands and knees to the table by the bed and crawled under it. And all I could do was to hold tight to the legs of the table. Everything was shaking, me included. I started praying, “Lord, help me! Help me!!” I was almost dancing because of the movement of the ground. But little by little, it calmed down and then stopped.



The earthquake seemed to last about ten minutes, but was only 45 seconds. I thought I would die, but I realized I had somehow survived. I wanted to cry, but I was a professional concierge at the hotel, and felt I should be strong to help our guests. I checked my appearance and my uniform in the mirror, opened the door, took a deep breath, and went out. On the 20th floor, there were guests from America, Australia, and so on. There they were, in the corridor, some in their underwear, their movements showing how panicked they were. "We are all right. Please get ready to evacuate.” As I said this, trying to make my voice strong, I ran down the stairs from the 20th floor to the lobby. The motion made me very dizzy.



Managers were at the front desk already when I got there. Cameron, my manager said to me, “Call every room and say they need to come down to the lobby. The lobby is the safest place for them to be. Do that now.” I started calling 500 rooms, asking them to come down to the lobby. An American airline crewmember said to me, “I cannot move. I am shaking. I cannot walk! What’s going on? I hate Japan!” “Do not worry,” I told her. “We have a new, strong building. We will be all right.” So I sent a bellboy to pick her up.

Around noon, I took a short break and watched the news about the earthquake on TV. The magnitude was 7.2. The earthquake was located in Kobe, my hometown, and the center was about 15 miles away from the hotel. On TV, I saw highways were buckled and saw many buildings on fire. The smoke was all over. It was scary to see that Kobe, my city, was destroyed. It was shocking. I thought where I was in the hotel was the center of the earthquake, but it was not. Kobe was by far the harder hit and it was where my parents, my relatives, and my friends were.

I called my house many times, but could not reach anyone. “We are unable to connect you with this number. Please try again,” came the voice from the telephone. There were many reports that thousands of people had already died in Kobe. Even so, I was very surprised at how calm I was and credited it to my faith in Christ. “God is with you, be strong, Noriko.”



My manager asked me to stay at the hotel, but I said no. I could not be comfortable while not knowing about the rest of my family. I wanted to be with them no matter what their condition was. I knew there would be no transportation at this point, so I asked around to see if anyone had a car. “Noriko, I will take you to Kobe,” Mr. Tatsumi, a front desk clerk, said. We headed off to Kobe immediately. We had no problem as we drove down to Nishinomiya, a city close to Kobe; the streets were okay, but then it became more and more difficult to find a way into Kobe. The earthquake caused crevices in the ground, and all the electric poles were broken off, lying down on the ground. We looked for spaces where one car could go through. I happened to see my friend’s home on the way, and the house had collapsed into the first floor. I knew my friend’s grandfather always slept on the first floor, so I started crying. The buildings were on fire, and the houses were destroyed, but it was eerie because it was very quiet. I could not see even a hint of rescue operations. I felt like I was the only survivor from a horrible war. But when we finally arrived at Fukuike Elementary School in Kobe, the place where I figured I might find my parents, the darkness kept me from seeing much of anything except shadows. There was no light anywhere except for burning homes.




There were hundreds of people outside in the freezing weather. The building was completely packed already; there was no room for more. It was a very cold night, and I could see my breath, but I did not feel cold because my thoughts were consumed by my concerns about my family. All I wanted to do was to look for my family. “Be strong, Noriko,” I said to myself. “God is with you.” And I renewed my search.



“Toshinori!” I screamed, but there was no answer. I was glad because I hoped my parents were safe inside of the building. Even in the dark, the building appeared okay. When I stepped into a corridor, I had to be careful not step on people. Every inch of the building including the corridor was packed. “Toshinori!” “No” “No…” “No…” came the answers. All I heard was “no.” I kept repeating my father’s name. Then I came to a science room. I groped my way to the door in the dark. Strangely, the door was closed. Slowly I opened the door and said, “Toshinori!” Still no answer. I could see many people were on the floor, but they did not move or say anything. The following day, I realized that was the room where the dead bodies were laid. No wonder the door was closed!



Even the stairs were full of people. While screaming my family name, I went upstairs and came to a huge gymnasium room, the last room of the building. The room had a spooky feeling. It was very dark and quiet, but there were hundreds of people, lying down, with no space between them. “Toshinori!” “Noriko! Here we are!” cried my mom. Even as I was embracing them, feeling such joy at having them safe, I was overwhelmed at how calm God had kept me through the whole terrible disaster. They had saved a space for me to lie down between them. My grandmother, uncles, and their families were also there. Unexpectedly, we had a family reunion that night.

And I ended up staying there for two months without water, gas, electricity, etc... More stories to tell, but that is for today. ;)

温故知新 Japanese Proverb

温故知新 [pronounciation: on ko chi shin] is a Japanese proverb, meaning「故(ふる)きを温(たず)ねて新しきを知る」. In English, it means "knowing new things by visiting old ways."


I went to Japanese Tea Ceremony at First Presbyterian Church today. By looking at Sensei's performance, I had a little 温故知新 experience.


It reminded me of home. But the sensei (teacher in Japanese) was an American man and he analyzed and explained Japanese Tea Ceremony through Christian perspective, which was fascinating to me.


Chanoyu (Traditional Tea Ceremony), which attained greatness under Rikyu, has been handed down for over 400 years at Omotesenke's Fushin'an. Fushin'an is the name of the tea room that was run by Rikyu and which has been inherited by the successive Iemotos since then. The sensei said that half of Rikyu's disciples were Christians and it was deeply influenced by Christianity even though the truth had been hidden. That was because under Tokugawa's power, Christians were greatly persecuted. During that era, one fourth of SAMURAI were Christians according to the sensei from Omotesenke.





If you want to discover new things by visiting old ways regarding tea ceremony, go to the website at: http://www.omotesenke.jp/english/chanoyu/2_1_1.html.

Is Noriko Anointed By the Holy One of Israel?

Now I am working on a paper for History of Christianity II.
The topic is women's ordination.


Can a woman become a priest at church?


Before I started reading the articles on that controversial topic, I was simply curious about what ordination really meant and brings. Do priests have a superior power as opposed to lay people? Did God consecrate them in a particular way, like pouring out His special spirit upon them? What's happening to the "ordained" priests in the earthly and heavenly realms?


Then I started asking myself, "Wait, am I anointed? Am I consecrated?"


Before anything, any opinions, any traditions, I wanted to know who I was as a woman in Christ.


When I researched the words in the Concordance, anoint, anointing, anointed, ordained, priests etc and read them all in the Old and the New Testament, I was extremely encouraged. I felt like I could fly!


Now I say to myself, "I have been anointed in Christ Jesus by the Holy One of Israel by grace to be a king and a priest to serve God through the High Priest who is Jesus Christ. I will inherit the kingdom of God and will reign with Him forever!!!"

(e.g. 1 John 2:20 & 27; 1 Peter 1:5 & 9; 2 Cor. 1:21 & 21-22; Rev. 5:10)



Both regenerated men and women will be kings and priests to God in Christ and reign over the Kingdom with Him together. Thus, Paul says, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28).



Therefore, there is no difference among the saints because of their gender.
No wonder Jesus treated women in a very counter-cultural way. Perhaps Jesus saw women through that lens.


The truth rocks! It is better than good news. It is GREAT news.
As for me, this was an amazing thing to remind myself before I began to study this subject.



We both men and women are kings and priests in Christ Jesus, but God instituted an order, a different role to a man and to a woman. To make a long story short, I think women cannot be pastors because of the order that was given by God, but that does not mean men are superior. As a woman, I am a king and a priest before God in Christ. I will inherit the kingdom and reign over the earth. I am anointed by the Holy Spirit. That is who I am who believe in Christ Jesus.



But in the earthly realm, God gave different roles, Adam a father and Eve a mother. Different assignments. But both subject to God. Simply roles are different. And God created Adam first to be the head of his family. The headship to man is a significant role given by God.


Anyhoooooo, I will start reading the articles now and see how I conclude my opinion on women's ordination later this week. I am very looking forward to knowing the difference between Complementarian and Egalitarian views. I might change my mind! Funnnnnnnnnn!