Grace From the Ashes
Dear Spirit and Truth Members!
I commend this story to you as a reminder that our God is amazing and He can do amazing things!
Pastor Russ
Grace from the Ashes
Jacob DeShazer
(1912-2008)
In 1912, Jacob DeShazer was born to a hard working farming family in West Stanton, Oregon. He was raised in a Christian family where faith shaped not just their Sundays, but every sunrise and sunset.
But everything changed when he started school. Some of his teachers openly questioned and mocked the Bible stories he had grown up with, and soon Jacob felt ashamed of his Christian background.
By the time he finished school Jacob had become an atheist, firmly denying the existence of God. His life was now guided by principles of patriotism and humanitarianism values, rather than Christianity. His patriotism then inspired him to enlist in the United states Army Air Corps.
When Jacob was 28, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, with the Japanese bombing the US Navy base in Hawaii. The death of more than 2000 Americans filled his heart with a burning desire for revenge.
Soon, Jacob volunteered as 1 of 80 men in the secret mission to strike back at Japan, known as the Doolittle Raid (after the name of the commander James Doolittle.) As a captain, Jacob led his eight person crew, known as Bat Out Of Hell, on a mission to bomb the city of Nagoya in Japan.
Bat Out of Hell dropped multiple bombs on the city's aircraft factory. Watching the explosions, Jacob felt great satisfaction with his revenge. He also aimed his machine guns at civilians because he wanted to kill as many as possible.
After completing the mission, the Bat Out Of Hell, unexpectedly ran out of fuel while still in Japanese territory. They had to parachute into the darkness. The team of eight bombardiers was soon captured by the Japanese troops.
Three were executed on the spot, while the remaining five were taken into long and brutal captivity. Another member of the team soon died from the harsh beatings and starvation. Jacob's hatred for the Japanese grew into an all-consuming bitterness: “My hatred for the Japanese people nearly drove me crazy.”
The only time he felt peace, free from hatred and revenge, was when he remembered scriptures his parents read to him each night as a child. Month after month, he desperately asked the guards for a Bible.
Amazingly, two years into his imprisonment a Japanese guard brought him a Bible. Jacob eagerly read it from cover to cover. The scriptures then revealed to him “a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31) to live – the way of Jesus Christ.
Jacob said, “I found my bitter hatred changed to loving pity! With his love controlling my heart, the 13th chapter of 1Corinthians took on a living meaning.” He began sharing the Gospel with the guards and praying for them, even for the one who had crushed his barefoot in a door jamb.
One year and three months after his conversion (and 40 months into his captivity) in 1945, Jacob and three other surviving prisoners were rescued by the American paratroopers.
After his release, Jacob studied theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Following his graduation in 1948, at the age of 35, Jacob returned to Japan to share the Gospel with the people he had once despised the most.
When the Japanese saw Jacob - once an American Bombardier, then a war prisoner, now a Christian missionary - their jaws dropped in disbelief. Crowds gathered, and during his first year of preaching, thousands converted to Christianity.
Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese commander who led the Pearl Harbor bombing raid, listened to the message of Jesus Christ. Mitsuo was suffering from guilt, rage, and hatred that filled his heart during wartime. He also accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and was forgiven and set free.
Jacob and Mitsuo preached the Gospel together side by side - the captain from the Bat Out Of Hell in the Doolittle Raid and the Japanese commander of the Pearl Harbor attack.
By the love of Christ, Jacob DeShazer built 24 churches across Japan, including one in Nagoya the city he bombed during the Doolittle Raid.
In 2008, he peacefully entered the presence of the Lord in his sleep at the age of 95.
I commend this story to you as a reminder that our God is amazing and He can do amazing things!
Pastor Russ
Grace from the Ashes
Jacob DeShazer
(1912-2008)
In 1912, Jacob DeShazer was born to a hard working farming family in West Stanton, Oregon. He was raised in a Christian family where faith shaped not just their Sundays, but every sunrise and sunset.
But everything changed when he started school. Some of his teachers openly questioned and mocked the Bible stories he had grown up with, and soon Jacob felt ashamed of his Christian background.
By the time he finished school Jacob had become an atheist, firmly denying the existence of God. His life was now guided by principles of patriotism and humanitarianism values, rather than Christianity. His patriotism then inspired him to enlist in the United states Army Air Corps.
When Jacob was 28, the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred, with the Japanese bombing the US Navy base in Hawaii. The death of more than 2000 Americans filled his heart with a burning desire for revenge.
Soon, Jacob volunteered as 1 of 80 men in the secret mission to strike back at Japan, known as the Doolittle Raid (after the name of the commander James Doolittle.) As a captain, Jacob led his eight person crew, known as Bat Out Of Hell, on a mission to bomb the city of Nagoya in Japan.
Bat Out of Hell dropped multiple bombs on the city's aircraft factory. Watching the explosions, Jacob felt great satisfaction with his revenge. He also aimed his machine guns at civilians because he wanted to kill as many as possible.
After completing the mission, the Bat Out Of Hell, unexpectedly ran out of fuel while still in Japanese territory. They had to parachute into the darkness. The team of eight bombardiers was soon captured by the Japanese troops.
Three were executed on the spot, while the remaining five were taken into long and brutal captivity. Another member of the team soon died from the harsh beatings and starvation. Jacob's hatred for the Japanese grew into an all-consuming bitterness: “My hatred for the Japanese people nearly drove me crazy.”
The only time he felt peace, free from hatred and revenge, was when he remembered scriptures his parents read to him each night as a child. Month after month, he desperately asked the guards for a Bible.
Amazingly, two years into his imprisonment a Japanese guard brought him a Bible. Jacob eagerly read it from cover to cover. The scriptures then revealed to him “a more excellent way” (1 Corinthians 12:31) to live – the way of Jesus Christ.
Jacob said, “I found my bitter hatred changed to loving pity! With his love controlling my heart, the 13th chapter of 1Corinthians took on a living meaning.” He began sharing the Gospel with the guards and praying for them, even for the one who had crushed his barefoot in a door jamb.
One year and three months after his conversion (and 40 months into his captivity) in 1945, Jacob and three other surviving prisoners were rescued by the American paratroopers.
After his release, Jacob studied theology at Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Following his graduation in 1948, at the age of 35, Jacob returned to Japan to share the Gospel with the people he had once despised the most.
When the Japanese saw Jacob - once an American Bombardier, then a war prisoner, now a Christian missionary - their jaws dropped in disbelief. Crowds gathered, and during his first year of preaching, thousands converted to Christianity.
Mitsuo Fuchida, the Japanese commander who led the Pearl Harbor bombing raid, listened to the message of Jesus Christ. Mitsuo was suffering from guilt, rage, and hatred that filled his heart during wartime. He also accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior and was forgiven and set free.
Jacob and Mitsuo preached the Gospel together side by side - the captain from the Bat Out Of Hell in the Doolittle Raid and the Japanese commander of the Pearl Harbor attack.
By the love of Christ, Jacob DeShazer built 24 churches across Japan, including one in Nagoya the city he bombed during the Doolittle Raid.
In 2008, he peacefully entered the presence of the Lord in his sleep at the age of 95.
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