166 results for author: Pastor Sookwan Lee

Desire to Have a Significant Spiritual Experience

Some of us have a desire to experience strong spiritual reality.  It is our common fascination to experience God in any way just like when we have a session to experience the Holy Spirit during the Living Life Bible study class.  Nevertheless, some of us have a yearning to experience something miraculous like the story of the Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.  I was not an exception in that regard. When we have such a desire, we expect that such an ‘out of this world’ experience will totally transform us.   Amazing and extraordinary experiences of God or receiving tongues will change the person into a new being who is filled with the Holy Spirit ...

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HEALTHY SEX LIFE IN MARRIAGE

When I was serving as a shepherd for singles’ house church, I saw many young people getting married.  Also, I officiated marriage many times and became interested in their married life afterwards.  When they have problems, I get to talk to them and sometimes have more serious counseling session with them.  Through that experience, I found out to my surprise that many married young couples do not have a regular sex life. Another clear fact based on meeting with many couples is that a happy couple certainly have a healthy sexuality and are very satisfied with their sex life.  It is not clear whether the good relationship causes good sex life or ...

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A True Friend whom I can lean on

One book I read recently talks about the importance of having a friend.  All humans need friend, the writer say.  We all need someone with whom we can share our deep thoughts and even expose our own weaknesses.  This friend is someone whom we can lean on in times of trouble.  As I read the book, I asked myself whether I have such a friend.  Regretfully, I did not. I met my wife when I was a freshman in college.  I was very close to my wife so she was such a friend to me and I did not have any other such friend except her.  While I was living in Korea, I had several very close friends.  Since I left Korea, however, all I do is to exchange ...

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Changes in Youth Ministry

I want to announce that there will be changes in youth house church and youth Sunday worship time.  Presently, youth house church is made up of middle school and high school students, but we are going to separate these two groups.  Under the current system, high schoolers have difficulty sharing because of the presence of young middle school students.  Also, it is not the right environment to invite friends and because of the burden of caring for younger kids, students have tendency of avoiding to serve as a shepherd. Also, there is a problem for middle schoolers to hear unfiltered sharing of high schoolers and they do not get the care as they ...

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One Church, Two Congregations

Today is the day of speaker exchange for our church between SBC and NLF.  Therefore, I want to provide some explanations of our church system of two congregations of two languages. One of the important principles of our church is two congregations in one church.  In other words, Houston Baptist Church of Houston is made of two congregations; one is English speaking and the other is Korean speaking.  The division is by language regardless of race. Most Korean churches in the US call an English speaking congregation as an English ministry.  This word implies that English congregation is an appendage of Korean congregation.  Also, it reflects ...

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For Prayer to be a Blessing

I wrote about prayer two weeks ago and I want to add some more thoughts.  The preparation of the person who will deliver public prayer is important.  However, there is another facet which is equally important.  It is the attitude of the congregation who is listening the prayer.  This attitude is so crucial that it can govern the level of blessings from the prayer. In an American group, during prayer, it is common to hear responses of congregation to the public prayer with exclamations like ‘Um ~’, ‘Oh, yes.’ Or ‘Amen’.  The group is responding to each word of the praying person.  It shows the level of involvement of the congrega...

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When God Comes To Us

God seeks us.  Whenever men encounter God, it is always because God seeks him and not the other way around.  That is why bible says God held out his hands to people all day long.  (Isaiah 65:2) The first reason that God seeks us is because of His love for us.  People often think that salvation is something that we need to earn.   Therefore, manmade religion claims that to receive salvation, we need to have an enlightening experience, accumulate enough suffering to achieve good or do something to win it.  That is not true.  God’s desire to save us is much greater than our desire to be saved. The second reason that God seeks us is ...

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