Hello, friend. When your past comes to accuse you, bringing doubts about your salvation in Christ, remember these words by Jonathan Edwards: “You contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary.” It’s not about what you’ve done (or do), who you were (or are)—it’s about Christ, who he is and what he’s done. He chose to pay your debt, to tear the veil, and be the bridge for you to cross over into eternal life in him and with him. Knowing this: Be strong, take heart and wait on the Lord! (Psalms 27:14)

In today’s edition:

• Remembering Japan’s spiritual crisis

• Why Mali needs the gospel

• Our prayers are a weapon

🤐 Japan’s Spiritual Silence

It’s one of the most modern, orderly, and advanced nations on earth. Trains arrive on the second. Streets stay clean without trash cans. Ancient shrines rest quietly beside glowing skyscrapers. Japan is breathtaking.

But behind the calm efficiency and cultural brilliance is something else. A quiet ache. A spiritual silence.

In Japan, less than 1% of the population is Christian. Not because the gospel is illegal—but because it’s unknown. Many Japanese people have never met a believer, never opened a Bible, never even heard the name of Jesus in conversation. The issue isn’t rejection—it’s absence.

Our documentary Hard to Reach: Japan—now available in its entirety—takes you into this quiet crisis. Filmed in Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and other cities, it captures not only Japan’s stunning beauty, but also its deep spiritual need. Through conversations with local pastors, young believers, and missionaries serving faithfully in obscurity, you’ll discover why traditional approaches to evangelism often fall flat—and what kind of gospel witness is actually bearing fruit.

Spoiler: It’s not pressure. It’s presence.

You’ll meet friends like Pastor Yoshito, who describes gospel ministry in Japan as “like a farmer waiting for the seed to sprout.” You’ll hear how love shown through meals, service, and faithful friendship often precedes belief by months or decades. You’ll learn why becoming a Christian can mean becoming an outsider in a culture where belonging is everything.

But you’ll also see signs of hope: churches quietly growing, young artists exploring faith, and communities being transformed—slowly but surely—by Jesus.

This is not just a documentary about Japan. It’s a call to remember the unreached. To pray for places where the gospel feels foreign, forgotten, or fragile. And to believe that even in the hardest soil, the seed of God’s Word is never dead.

Watch it today, and as you do, pray for Japan. For the laborers there. And for a harvest we may not yet see—but that God is already growing.

— Steven Morales

🇲🇱 Mali has urgent needs—both physical and spiritual

The Details: Mali is a nation with both great physical and spiritual needs. The country suffers from conflict, widespread poverty, food insecurity, and political instability.

Additionally, Mali is a majority Muslim nation with about a 95% Islamic population. Only a little over 2% of the population identifies as Christian. Christians—particularly converts from Islam—face persecution, especially in regions where there are jihadist militant groups.

The Takeaways: As a majority Muslim nation, pray that God would open opportunities for gospel conversations and open the hearts of many Muslims to follow Jesus. Pray that more equipped gospel workers would be sent to Mali to make disciples and plant local churches. Also, since many in Mali live in poverty, pray that their physical needs may also be met.

How has The Commission blessed you?

We want to hear what God’s done!

⚔️ A spiritual world with spiritual weapons

Imagine this: You wake up one morning, and as you look outside, you're surrounded. An entire army—horses, chariots, weapons—all closing in on just you and one friend alongside you. No escape. No defense. Everything in you starts to panic. 

But then your friend looks at you and calmly says, “Don’t be afraid. Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.”

You’d probably stare at your friend and think, “What are you talking about? It’s just us. There’s no one else.”

That’s exactly what happened in 2 Kings 6 as Elisha and his servant were surrounded by their enemies, and Elisha prayed:

In this moment, Elisha’s servant got a glimpse of the spiritual world and realized that the Syrian army that surrounded them was indeed outnumbered not physically, but spiritually. And in this moment when the invisible became visible, everything changed.  

Elisha led this army straight to Samaria to be captured by the King of Israel! That’s amazing. How did that happen? 

They saw the spiritual world, and they fought with a spiritual weapon. All he did was pray!

This is my question for you today: Do you believe that our prayers have power to affect the movement of armies in this world? 

Stories like this are all over the rest of Scripture. God makes it clear that there is an invisible, spiritual world around us that is just as real as the visible, physical world, but it is far more powerful. 

At this moment, there are glorious beings that would take our breath away if we could see them. Just ask Daniel in the Bible, who saw one of them and fell on his hands and knees shaking and barely able to breathe—and that was when he saw one of the good guys! 

God tells us in Ephesians 6 that there are rulers, authorities, cosmic powers over darkness, and spiritual forces of evil at work in our lives and around the world at all times. There are evil beings all around us that would send the toughest of us terrified and trembling to the floor if we could see them.

To most of us, what I just wrote sounds crazy. Most of us live with a worldview that explains most everything by what we can see, touch, taste, smell, or hear. To say that you believe in the existence of angels and demons is like saying you believe in dragons and elves. But God tells us in His Word that we live in a spiritual world, and that reality should change everything about the way we live. 

I encourage you to read Ephesians 6:10-20 below and reflect for a moment on how you can engage the spiritual world with spiritual weapons in your life and in the world around you.

— David Platt

📍 Attention Worthy

• Seemingly overnight, culture has shifted to the point where right and wrong are no longer measured by universal truth but by popular opinion. Get David’s book Counter Culture (at a discounted price!) to learn how to actively take a stand on issues such as poverty, sex trafficking, marriage, abortion, racism, and religious liberty.

• Is Jesus still the only way? Here’s why we need to recover the exclusivity of the gospel. There is no other way to be saved than to (consciously) put one’s faith in Christ alone for salvation (Acts 4:12).

• Sadly, prosperity gospel proponents have taken their gospel resources around the world. But there’s good news for those who hold to the true gospel: solid, gospel-centered resources are increasingly being distributed around the world. And they’re making a difference! 

THIS WEEK’S CONTRIBUTORS:

David Burnette, Selah Lipsey, Steven Morales, David Platt, Camille Suazo

MAKE JESUS KNOWN EVERYWHERE!