When everyone was celebrating the Independence Day this past July with friends and family over a cookout, I was in my office working all alone. It was Saturday and New Life closed the church office. But KSC had their Saturday Early Morning Prayer at 6:30 am as usual. Since I am a pastoral staff at both New Life and KSC, I needed to go there. One deacon shared his testimonial message. It was one of the best deacons' messages ever. I was blessed. After the prayer meeting, there was Deacons' Meeting as usual at 7:45 am. Again, I needed to be there as a staff. There were about ten deacons present in the meeting who weren't out of town. I praised and ...

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I have several routines that I do daily or weekly. One of them is that I stop by at my neighborhood's McDonald's drive-through and get a small coffee with two creams on Sunday mornings as I come to church. I also do this at times on Saturdays when I come to work. It costs me $1.08 including tax. A few Saturdays ago it was my turn to preach during Early Morning Prayer at KSC. I wanted to be wide awake for this. So, I decided to get a cup of coffee on the way. I pulled up my car to the drive-through and placed an order as usual: a small coffee with two creams. But the cashier told me the price that didn't sound familiar to me. When I drove to the ...

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Several house churches have multiplied in the recent past. We praise God for this! As we faithfully do our part by serving and loving on our VIPs, we see God doing His part by opening their hearts and enabling them to receive Christ as their Lord and Savior. As a result, we get to witness and celebrate baptism every month. In one person coming to know Christ and getting saved, there are many people who pour out their sweat and tears and sacrifice their time and resources. That's why each baptism is very dear and precious. We must appreciate this because this unfortunately doesn't happen regularly in other churches. In the center of each house ...

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It's been said that monkeys dislike humans the most because humans look most like them. People who have major issues with their leaders are often those who either have a very strong personality and conviction or see in the leaders the same traits that they have and struggle with. Often, it is because of our competitive and prideful spirit or the uneasiness of seeing the reflection of our own unwanted image through the leaders that we have a hard time liking and following the leaders. Every once in a while, I hear from people that so and so said that I am like a dictator. Some people think that I am a strong man of conviction. So, they like me. They ...

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Our shepherds' wives meet once every two months to fellowship, praise, share and pray with one another. My wife facilitates the meeting. She always says great things about the meeting when she comes home. All the shepherds at New Life are men. They don't need to be. In the Bible, we see some women house church leaders in the early church such as Lydia and Priscilla. My personal biblical conviction is that, other than the senior pastor who needs to be a man, all the ministries can be done by both men and women. New Life used to have women shepherds several years ago though they were always small in number. They served very well as shepherds especi...

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My mother passed away January 2008 in Chicago where my oldest sister and her family live. We had the most beautiful funeral service at a Salvation Army Corps (church) building where my sister and her husband serve as captains (pastors). As I was standing outside the sanctuary to greet the guests who were coming for the funeral service, I was shocked and amazed to see one particular woman walking in. She was my fourth grade classmate and used to live right next to my house. She didn't seem to have changed a bit. I immediately called out her name to greet her and thank her for coming. It had been 31 years since we last saw each other. I didn't get to ...

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I have had shingles for the past few weeks. It's been pretty painful. You can read about it on WebMD or Mayo Clinic. Shingles is not contagious to those who have had chicken pox or received chicken pox vaccine. There is no cure for this. It has to run its course. The most you can do is to take some medicine or apply cream to shorten the duration of the virus or relieve the pain temporarily. One doctor from New Life prescribed the cream for me because I asked him for one. When I went to the pharmacy to pick it up, I was told that it is $45 even with my insurance. I left the store without getting it. It was too expensive for me. I am not going to ...

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