How Did All This Happen?

New Life is a strange church. We just finished "Six Day Dinner Fast & Early Morning Prayer." We did this in order to prepare our hearts for the revival meeting that begins from this Thursday. We fasted from 3pm to 6am the following day. We did this for six straight days. We also came out to church at 5am to pray for an hour. We prayed individually for the first 45 minutes and then corporately for the last 15 minutes. We did this also for six straight days. I don't know how many participated in the dinner fast, but on average there were about 70 to 80 people that ...

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How Do You Know My Situation?

Many reported to be surprised during service when they heard message speaking directly to them as if pastor knew their situation.  A new comer comes to church and is amazed to hear a word which, he feels, is specifically speaking to him.  Sometime, someone who is struggling comes to Living Life bible class and hears a message which speaks straight to his heart. They are amazed at such experiences, but then sometimes there is misunderstanding.  A shepherd wanted to give an advice to his house church family but could not dare to say it.  The next Sunday, the very ...

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Let’s Start New Fiscal Year’s Ministry with Prayer

Two weeks ago, through Sunday sermon, I mentioned that we need to learn to pray whenever we sense God's leading.  We have the tendency to forget the sermon so I want to repeat the message in the pastor's corner. Throughout history, we can see that when we share God's prompt with others and pray together rather than keeping it to ourselves, it becomes a seed of something great for His purpose.  That was the way The Great Awakening in the 20th century started.  When America was indifferent toward mission, the flame started from a few students at a small college called ...

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My Youngest One Is Going to College

His name is Josiah. When he was little, like three or so, he thought this Christian cartoon video that all my kids grew up watching was talking about him because he kept hearing the word "Messiah." He used to say to his brothers, "You see, they are talking about me!" I am so glad that he didn't turn out to be a cult leader. It's 2:45pm on Thursday afternoon. I am in my office preparing messages for the retreat where I will be speaking from this Friday to Sunday in San Jose, CA. It's the church where I had asked Grace Lee to go to. But I have decided to take some time ...

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Sending our Children to Other Churches’ VBS

Summer is almost over.  That means almost all the churches' Vacation Bible Schools are also over.  So let me address all the parents on an issue that may be a little uncomfortable to hear. Over the years, I have noticed that New Life parents send their children to multiple VBS's during the summer, which struck me as odd.  I grew up going to just one VBS each year and that was the one at my home church.  I played and did school projects the rest of the summer. Why, then, do New Life families send their children to multiple VBS's?  There could be several reasons...

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I wonder what she was thinking

Recently my wife and I visited a house church that was severely struggling about three years ago. It was to a point where the shepherd wanted to throw in the towel and give up. I prayed for him and encouraged him to persevere just a little bit longer until he gets married. I felt that his house church could change and turn around when he gets married and his wife supports him in ministry. He listened and obeyed. The house church slowly started to get better after the shepherd got married. They faithfully served their house church members by loving on them and at times ...

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Is This a Place Where Prayer is Answered?

Many visiting pastors from Korea often comment as they watch the lives of our church members, ‘Here something is different from Korea.  People seem to live with God as their priority.’  Whenever I heard it, I agreed, ‘Sure.  Our church members live with God and church as their top priority.’  However, I did not know the real meaning of this word.  I had a chance to understand it as I visit churches who struggle with house church system. Generally speaking, many church members say that they believe in God but they do not really rely on God in their lives. ...

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