We have been praying as a church that God will use New Life as a resource church in helping other churches to become a church in the spirit of the New Testament. This means we make ourselves available which includes our time, money and relationships.
About a year ago, there was an invitation from Missionary Enoch Lee in Johannesburg, South Africa for me and my wife to come and teach them about house church particularly to those churches whose pastors and wives attended our Pastors’ Seminar last year. He asked me to bring one shepherd couple along with me who can share ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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Some of congregation think that it is better for deacons who say the prayer during Sunday worship to speak without written notes. Maybe because of this, I also noticed some offered prayers without notes. I believe this is because of the congregation’s expectation that deacons of our church should be able to say a 3-minute prayer without notes and that is why they made such a request. However, my thought is different.
Since the basis of prayer is a conversation with God, anything can be said. Therefore, remembering our Father is with us, using our daily language ...
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As many college students who are from out of town will return home for the summer, many who grew up in our church who have been away for college will return home to Houston. Just as I pray for those students who will leave Houston to go home or elsewhere to have a fruitful summer, I desire the same for those who will return home to us. It will be very important for these college students to find a place where they can get plugged in during the summer in order to grow in their walk with Christ. Without getting involved in a small, intimate and consistent community like ...
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How I perceive myself unknowingly is called self-consciousness. This self-consciousness has a strong influence in our lives. For example, if someone considers himself a lovable person, it is easy for him to relate to others, to have self-confidence and to be positive toward others or their words. However, anyone who does not have a positive self-view, tends to hear other’s words in a distorted way and could think it is about him when it is about something else.
One well known theory about self-consciousness is called ‘Johari Window’. This theory claims ...
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