"I enjoy reading your Pastor's Corner. I appreciate your wisdom and insight. Could you write something about marriage? Such an article would be helpful to many singles like me." Someone, probably a member of NLF, wrote me this note. The request prompted me to write today's corner. Needless to say, it is not a Christian duty to get married. Jesus never married. Neither did the Apostle Paul. In fact, Paul encourages us to stay single, if possible, because those who are unmarried are able to devote their full time to the service of the Lord (1 Corinthians 7). So don't feel obligated to get married. I know of some people who got married not because they ...

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Some time ago I received a call from Sister Shin Shin Kang, one of our shepherds. She told me that the renowned Dr. Kang Young Woo and his wife wanted to have dinner with me and asked if my wife and I would be available. (Sister Shin and Dr. Kang's wife graduated from the same college.) I knew a bit about his life, such as how he overcome his physical handicap of being blind to become the highest ranking Korean American official in the U.S. Federal Government. So we willingly obliged. They say that behind every great man stands a great woman, so I was very interested in meeting his wife as well. We ended up spending a wonderful evening at a Vietna...

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This year's special Thanksgiving offering will be sent to the Korean-American Senior Center for them to use in remodeling. The Seniors Association recently purchased a building. Unfortunately, it could accommodate only 60 to 80 people. They needed the building to hold 200 people so expansion is necessary. The cost is estimated to be $140,000. The center only had $100,000 available. This year's Thanksgiving offering, expected to be between $15,000 and $20,000, will be given to help make up the difference. Our church has three special offerings a year. All of them are dedicated to missions causes. The Christmas offering is given to the Lottie Moon ...

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Our church will be holding "KJ Choi Night". For those who do not know him well let me introduce him briefly. KJ Choi is a professional golfer active on the PGA Tour. It is very hard to even earn the right to play in Tour because you're competing against the very best players in the world. Choi is the first Korean player to win a tournament on the PGA Tour. In fact, he won two events last year. He is also a member of our church and a devout Christian. He lives in the Woodlands and never misses a Sunday worship service or Wednesday prayer meeting when he is in town. The purpose of having "KJ Choi Night" is to give him an opportunity to share his ...

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I'm leaving Houston tonight (November 9) to lead several meetings in Korea including a seminar on house churches for pastors, another seminar for lay leaders, a conference for pastors, and a series of revival meetings. My wife will be accompanying me on this trip and teaching an intensive course for married couples at the conference. For those who'll be praying for us while we're away, let me share some details of the trip. As soon as we arrive we'll change planes and go to Yosu, a beautiful southern coastal city on Tuesday. The conference will start there that afternoon. Around 80 pastors have registered for the conference. During the day, ...

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One of the concerns people who come to attend our house church seminars have is that their church members may be unwilling to meet every week. In most Korean-American churches small groups meet once or twice a month. But every house church is a true "church" and as such, must meet every week. These people wonder if such frequent meetings might be requiring too much commitment. Weekly meetings should not be a problem if members' needs are met. One big human need is self-expression. In Korea, men go to bars after work with their coworkers almost every day, not so much for the drinking, but more to relieve stress by talking with their friends, the ...

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These days a great number of people have been visiting Houston for cancer treatment. Many of them are non-believers. Some of them became Christians after attending our church when they came here. I think this recent influx of people is related to the work of Brother Lee, who used to serve as a shepherd in our church and is now the director of the National Cancer Institute of Korea. When he was working at M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, he treated two well known Koreans for lung cancer. One of them was the CEO of Samsung, the other a former CEO of Hyundai Auto Company. Many people in Korea used to consider cancer a near fatal disease with no cure, but ...

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