Ex-BMC Forum

[Stanley]

Hello, my name is Stanley Oshiro. I am an ex-BMC who left the old church back in the mid 1980's. I am also a graduate of BMI. I was born in Okinawa, Japan. My late father was a nisei from Hawaii and my mother is a native of Okinawa. I was saved under the ministry of BMC missionaries Rev. William F.Thorn and his wife Carol.

I attended BMI off and on from 1978 to 1985 and graduated with a Bachelors in Theology. I actually started doubting the holiness doctrine as I experienced the emotional turmoil of death route holiness at BMI and the fact that of the other students, the ones I trusted the most as having a genuine relationship with Christ and not just putting up a front, was the alter riders. When you live in a dorm, you get to know your fellow students.

There was one in particular that caught my attention as having a real vital close relationship with the Lord in the room next to the one I was in. I heard him praying when he didn't know anyone was listening and I saw his attitude in good times and in bad. I envied his spirituality. I wished with all my heart I could be more like him except ..... every time an alter call was made, he went up front to seek for holiness. Meanwhile, many of the other students who gave glowing testimonies and shouted and ran around during service did not seem nearly as authentic in the dorm. For a time, I even emulated him and became an alter rider. But that was too depressing. During that time I remember being plagued with thoughts of suicide. I almost stepped in front of a truck once.

Then, one day, at the end of a revival service, Alvie Jarett told me "Let God be true and every man a liar". At that time, I was already beginning to doubt the holiness doctrine due to passages in Galatians and Ephesians that I had come across in my readings. So, I began to seek from the Word of God, answers to my spiritual struggles. It was then that the light came upon me that if God saved me in a most unmistakable way back when I was an open rebel and had no desire to know God, then why would he turn me away when I was seeking Him so desperately? When God promised me "eternal life" was it for now or later? When He said in His Word that He would NEVER leave me nor forsake me, what exactly did he mean? What does it mean when He promised that nothing can separate us from His love? When St. Paul spoke of his struggles with his "old man of sin" in Romans 7, was that a long ago event or a metaphorical example or was he speaking of present realities he faced and overcame with the glorious knowledge he reveals in Romans 8?

Once the truth of the fact that I was already a member of God's forever family struck my soul, I knew I could not stay bogged down in death route holiness that only brought depression and misery and thoughts of suicide. Since then, I have had my share of trying times and even some spiritual down times but never again the deep dark hole I knew seeking after a 2nd work of grace the Bible never taught. Sanctification is a daily process that will continue to shape us for the rest of our lives into the image of His glorious Son. I have lived in peace in the knowledge that the Love of God will never let me go. I live in obedience to Christ's command not because I am afraid I would loose my Salvation if I don't but because He loved an undeserving sinner only fit as kindling for the unquenchable fires of Hell. I love Him because He first loved me and I will not live a life that will bring him shame and pain. I am still a sinner but for His Grace and any good that others may glimpse in me is but a reflection of His Holiness. For all MY righteousness is but filthy rags.

God has blessed me with a wonderful mate I do not deserve in Cynthia my wife. He has also given me three great kids who gives us both great pain and great pleasure; Yoshimi, Chiemi, and Takamasa. And through Yoshimi, we also have a wonderful grandson who is like a 2nd son in Aiden.

I am a salaried middle management staff member for a global corporation.

I have done what I could to serve our Lord by teaching Sunday School almost continuously since I was in High School. I have served as deacon for a local Baptist Church but only as long as I was needed. I also served as interpreter for American BMC missionaries in Okinawa and more recently Japanese Baptist missionary in Oklahoma City. And by the grace of God, since April 2009 as pastor of the Japanese Language Church of Oklahoma, a mission of the Baptist Temple Church of Oklahoma City.