Some of our Shepherds lament that although they do their very best to find non-believers, it's impossible to find any. Most of the people they meet are already believers or members of other churches. This is understandable. Houston has a small Korean-American population (about 20,000) and it's hard to even meet others. However, I once heard a speaker at an evangelism seminar say that people come to Christ only by God's sovereign actions, and He only sends people to those who are ready to serve and witness to them. If this is true, the reason we don’t encounter non-believers is because God thinks that we’re not ready to receive them. In that case, ...

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Brother Lee called me a while ago – he used to be a Shepherd at our church and is currently the Director of the Korean National Cancer Center. He was in Houston and called to say hello. I remembered that he had kept his house in Houston so that his children could live there, so I said, "Oh, you must be visiting Houston to see your children!" There was a pause on the other end of the line, and then he said that he had sold the house a long time ago and that none of his children lived in Houston anymore. I then remembered that my wife had relayed this information to me some time back. A few weeks ago, when my wife and I were making our regular Friday ...

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When we classify Jehovah's Witnesses as a cult because they reject the doctrine of the Trinity, some people take offense, thinking that we’re condemning another religious group over an insignificant theological point. The doctrine of the Trinity is also a major obstacle for Muslims in accepting the Christian faith. The concept of a triune God seems like a belief in three gods to them, which runs counter to Islam’s strongly monotheistic theology. The concept of the Trinity is beyond human intellect and understanding, and difficult to describe in human language. So why is a doctrine that nobody seems to fully understand so important? It's import...

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When I got married, my wife was 24 and I was 27. We were poor graduate students at the time and couldn't afford a wedding dress or new suit. So she made her own wedding dress and I wore an old suit for the ceremony. We lived in Ohio, but the wedding took place in Pennsylvania, where my grandmother (who raised me) lived with her daughter, and we only had a handful of guests. At the time, we were considered young to be getting married. I recommended to our children that they also marry young. I told them to only go out on group dates until their sophomore year of college, but to start dating with marriage in mind afterwards, and to get married soon ...

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I used to be notorious for always being late for appointments before I was saved. I wrongly thought that trying to be on time meant being enslaved by it and that not caring about it too much meant being free from the tyranny of time. However, it usually ended up that other people, not me, had to wait. After I became a Christian, I came to feel that making people wait for me is a sign of arrogance. So I started to be more conscientious about being on time. These days, I’m known for always being exactly on time. So when meeting up with me, people are usually there before the scheduled time. Since my mindset on time changed, I started to get bothered ...

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One of the 333 Prayer Partners’ prayer requests in 2009 was to "help Pastor Chai become a man of compassion." As this year nears its end, I’d like to share the result of their prayers. God answered their prayer, but in an unexpected way. More than anything, He made me see how selfish and self-centered, proud and arrogant, and loveless and heartless I am. First, God has shown me how self-centered I am in my relationships with others, especially with my wife. I feel a difference in the fervency of my prayers for Sunday worship services depending on who’s preaching that day – me or someone else. I’ve found that there are sometimes cold, ...

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Many of the pastors who have visited our church have been envious that we have so many dedicated lay-leaders. Many of them are not just dedicated but devoted. They include a deacon who has completed 5 building projects without expecting any recognition at all, not even a plaque of appreciation. Another sister has faithfully served as the head Bible teacher for house churches, training teachers to lead Bible studies for house church meetings every week for 10 years. Another brother donated a large sum of money to a house church ministry fund, more than enough to cover my expenses after I retire. Some of our lay leaders are so sacrificial that I feel ...

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