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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What is Your Ministry?

The current MINISTRY EXHIBIT has many purposes.  First, it is to introduce church ministry work to newcomers.  During this time, the church ministry department will set up a booth to introduce their work and provide opportunities to be involved.  Another reason is to do the ministry work on yearly basis.  Ministry work is not something to start and end at one’s whim.  Once you make a commitment, you needs to work on it diligently for a year and after a year, you will be given a chance to make another year’s commitment. God grants us many talents.  When we ...

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All Alone in the Office

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 ...

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Can a Man Save Himself Through His Goodness?

Some time ago, a Korean movie titled ‘ODE TO MY FATHER’ became a huge hit.  At that time, I was in Korea, so I watched the movie with my mother.  The movie depicted recent Korean history when War-torn Korea was struggling to survive and achieve economic development.  Korea sent miners and nurse aids to Germany, sent soldiers to Vietnam, and sent construction workers to the Middle East.  The main character is an eldest son who lost his father in the war and tried to obey his father’s dying wish to care for his family.  To achieve that, he sacrificed himself and ...

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Must be getting old

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 ...

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To Increase Creativity

Creative people are known to have several distinctive characters.  Regardless of their areas of expertise which could be either science, art or business, creative people have superior ability to concentrate and to relax.  In other words, these people can greatly focus on the task they enjoy but when it is needed, they can totally unwind and be able to relax.  These are the people who know how to rest in the middle of their busy schedule. Creativity is produced when people move into relaxation after high degree of concentration.  Because of that, it is difficult to ...

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