Korean American Christian Blog

There is a passage in the bible where it shows how  one little verse can show you that life is meant to be lived for the purpose of glorifying God, just as Christ had lived on his time here on earth.

Love, as directed by our forefathers before us, proclaimed by the lips of Christ, is the ultimate command that God wants of us to fully understand, comprehend, exercise, and embody.  It is the only way of the cross and all that it signifies and ultimately, loving another person more than you love yourself, that is the act of surrendering all that is inside of you and all that you are-  is the greatest example in form and perfect definition of what Christians must comply to in order  to become complete in Christ. 

How then does one truly love another, as Christ loves you?  It is not in the physical, emotional, monetary, or relational means that the world describes love to be.  All of this is superficial. What matters is God's love for us. That even before time began, he poured out his love to us, through the redeeming grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Proof in writing? One place is found here: 1 John chapters 3 and 4 testify this plainly.  That God is love, and because God loved us so much, he sent Jesus to die in place of our sins, so that we may stand righteous before him, and through the love placed through Jesus and his example of love for us, even death on a tree, we are able to commune with God and know God in a personal and real way.  How great and marvelous are thy works O God Almighty!!!

We are such a blessed nation, to have the many blessings and freedoms that many countries would die for, and yet, in our lavishness, our minds are fooled by the devils scheme to manipulate how we should act, think, and reply to daily living situations in our abrupt and unimportant life.  What matters not is what we do, but how we do it.  If you are called to love in a capacity to show kindness, or compassion, or encouragement, we should do it.  To give like you've never given, to share like you've never shared, to enjoy the hardships and turmoils because all those moments of heartache and dross are but temporary! What matters more is that your treasure is stored in heaven, and there will be an eternity of rejoicing and enjoyment afterward!  (Our treasure is found in the worshiping of our Lord, praising, loving, and exalting Him! ) 

My father grew up in a household with two mothers, and eleven siblings.  My grandfather had secretly married his second wife, and my grandmother had no idea he was already married before she moved to his hometown.  My father barely finished junior high school, and was forced to work for my grandfather, while his brothers and sisters all went on to high school, and some of them to college.  He started working at the age of about 14, doing hard physical labor for my grandfather until he passed away.  Once a fairly wealthy man, my grandfather had left this earth with almost nothing in his possession, only a dozen heartbroken children who never even had the time to think about how unusual or dysfunctional their own family was.

This past Sunday at New Hope, we kicked off a new series of teachings called, "Crossroad: A Theological Praxis from the Streets". This new series will focus on developing a theology rooted in the streets as exemplified by Christ's interaction with humanity during his time here on earth. As a former professor of theology and ministry for 9 years, I was able to see and experience some of the disconnect between the theology formed in academia from that of practitioners ministering in the field. Although much good is produced from the ivory tower, I believe there needs to be some more field-based development of our theological lenses.

This series is designed to encourage, challenge, and inspire the hearer to reconsider the stories of Christ's interaction with people on the streets in hopes of developing a practical theology for day-to-day ministry, especially outside the walls of the church. I invite you to listen and interact via this blog about the topics introduced during this series.

Click here to hear this message on the New Hope podcast (iTunes required). [Please keep in mind that it may take a few minutes or hours for this particular podcast to show up on iTunes. It is there. :) Just click on subscribe and it should start downloading.]

Psalms 34: 6

"This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles." 

It is such a thrilling feeling to have won a million dollars, who could fathom having the potential to spend that much in a day's time? But I say, rather, what a greater thrill it is to see, feel, and know that joy, when your financial debt disappears, like that magical wave of the hand, and the anguish, worry, and hold money can have on people.  The kind, where tuition rates soar as tomorrow's gas prices surge to new highs, the kind of money troubles where our elderly, our parents, and grandparents, friends,

 

"The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!"

Psalms 19: 46

 

Simple and profound were the shouts of David.  The moments of exaltation, when your heart bursts forth into a new song reminds me that joy,  old and new transcends time...

In my youthful days, I listened to sermons about Jesus, his teachings, read on somewhat of a daily basis, and fell into the category of "average" Christian.  Someone who was brought up in a God fearing home, raised and bred in the all american (or komerican) church family, and did all those wonderful activities branded by our loving parents (and others as well) to do good works for church and beyond. I suppose that is what you call the call to go beyond...

Leadership comes at a cost. More accurately, leadership comes at a deep cost. In fact, leadership comes at a cost that no one can fathom until they themselves are placed in "that" role. No book, seminar, advice, or person can adequately prepare you for the cost that great leaders face.

so many of my close friends know that I have two boys. They will soon in fact be turning 8 and 3 respectively, but I just wanted to share something funny my oldest one said to me today. Perhaps it will send a chuckle too.

 

Mom to son (M2S): Jaehan... mommy waited 10 long months to see you, and had 48 long hours of labor just to see you...

son to mommy: Yeah I know mommy, you always say that

M2S: I just wanted you to know I really love you

Today at New Hope, we continued our new series of teachings entitled, "Sacred Kinship". The focus of the new few months will center around this notion of biblical kinship and its impact on how we live our faith within the context of family, friendship, community, and mission. I'm anticipating that this series will help to frame a healthy context for life with those we love.

 

It's Tuesday, July 3, 2007 at 11:11 a.m. We were supposed to begin our first kids program 11 minutes ago, which made us about an hour and 11 minutes late from actually heading out onto the reserve to pick up kids. I remember being really frustrated and restless, but about what? I questioned whether I was really upset over not having a mode of transportation for ourselves as a team, or if it was because the kids were not being fed on TIME with the Word. Asking myself these questions, I thought of how insignificant these details were. Who was I to determine what was more important, let alone in what order they occurred. I was there and near. I just needed to be still and wait.