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Words of the Bible

The Bible enables us to be wise for salvation (2 Ti 3:15). Let us learn the true will of God from it.

Mom’s Scent, the Most Comfortable Scent in the World

To newborns, their mom is everything. There is nowhere they feel safer than in the arms of their mom. It is said that “kangaroo care” was developed in a public maternity of Bogota, Colombia, to make up for the lack of incubators in 1978 when the mortality rate of premature infants was high. According to this method, a mother holds her baby naked against her bare skin to keep the baby’s body temperature warm. The wrapping of your infant into your chest looks very much like a mother kangaroo holding her baby in her pouch, which is where the name kangaroo care comes from. Kangaroo care is also called “the miracle of a mom’s chest.” That’s because just placing a…

His Hands Remained Steady till Sunset

The Israelites set out from the Desert of Sin and camped at Rephidim, where the Amalekites came and attacked them. Before the battle, Moses said to Joshua, “Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites. Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill with the staff of God in my hands.” So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went to the top of the hill. The victory depended on Moses’ hands. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but when he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired as he held up his hands for a long time,…

How to Break a Bad Habit

“I am a man of thirty with wrinkles and lines on my forehead that make me look forty.” A world-famous artist, Vincent Van Gogh, wrote to his brother Theo. As he suffered hardships of life and pain by creative work of painting, it left traces on his forehead. He was distressed because he looked older than his age. Is Gogh the only person who worries about that? When we are tired or frustrated, we show our emotions on our faces unconsciously. Appearance of wrinkles is a natural biological process due to aging, but our facial muscles can also stiffen as our habitual facial expressions; if we frown or raise eyebrows when things do not go our way, after a few…

The True Value of Sweat

There is something that always accompanies us when we run around with our friends, when we lie and feel guilty about it, when we take a bite out of a hot pepper, or when we have a bad cold with fever. It is sweat. We, humans, sweat in many different occasions throughout our lives. Particularly, we have big and small battles against sweat every day in hot summer. Many people regard sweat as something like an unwelcome guest that visits them in summer, or like some dirty and smelly waste. However, what will happen if we don’t sweat? We might have to walk around, panting with our tongues sticking out of our mouths like dogs under the scorching sun. Sweat…

God Has Brought Me Laughter

“Your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac . . . He will be your heir.” What God promised to Abraham who was childless was fulfilled as He had promised. The old Sarah bore 100-year-old Abraham a son. Following God’s will, Abraham named his son “Isaac.” To Sarah, who had no hope of having a child, having Isaac was like a miracle. Sarah could not help but keep laughing. “God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me. Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.” Sarah was filled with joy by her son…

Sowing Seeds

In January 2017, big forest fires broke out in various places of Chile, including Maule. The scale was so large that the country had to declare national emergency, and the disaster resulted in 11 deaths and over 7,000 victims. The forest fires swept across approximately 4,570 km2 [1,130,000 acres] of forest land and turned it into a heap of ashes. When everyone was devastated, seeing mountains that were covered in black soot and smoke, an assistance dog trainer came up with a special idea for restoring the destroyed forests. The idea was surprisingly simple. He attached specially designed bags onto the backs of border collies, which are renowned sheep dogs, and let them playfully run around on the devastated mountains.…

Breast Milk, the Food of Life

The Morin khuur is a traditional Mongolian instrument. A mother camel goes through much suffering when it gives birth to a calf, and because of that, it sometimes refuses its young though the young is very little and barely walks. A calf has no way to survive without drinking its mother’s milk. Then the camel farmer plays plaintive melodies with the Morin Khuur to heal the mother camel’s stress. Then the mother camel sheds tears and breastfeeds its young. A mother goes through tremendous suffering until she gives birth to a baby. However, labor pains are not the end of suffering. Breastfeeding is also a tough job. A mother should become a picky eater of healthy food for the baby,…

Was Not My Spirit with You?

Commander Naaman who had leprosy went to see Elisha the man of God. When Naaman washed himself seven times in the Jordan according to the word of God, his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy. So he wanted to give a gift to Elisha. “As surely as the LORD lives, I will not accept a thing.” As Elisha refused to the end, Naaman was forced to give up. Soon after Naaman left Elisha, Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, ran after Naaman. Naaman got down from the chariot to welcome Gehazi running toward him. “My master sent me to say, ‘Two young men from the company of the prophets have just come to me from…

To Heaven with the Best Teamwork

A group of geese travels a long distance, flying in a V formation. There is a reason for their V-shaped formation. When the bird in front flaps its wings, it creates a vortex in the air, and the vortex creates uplift as it moves back. This allows the birds following behind to fly comparatively easily than the bird in front. However, it is too much work for the bird in front to keep its position the whole time in the V formation. The geese solve this problem wisely. Instead of having a certain leader, they take turns to lead. The secret to the geese’s long-distance journey without getting tired is their teamwork which is to help and encourage each other…

Imprinting & Raising: Birds’ Love Towards Their Young (Ⅱ)

Cheep, cheep! When you were children, you might see yellow chicks chirping at a pet store and end up buying one of those cute and lovely creatures after staring at them for a while. Excited, you would do your best to take good care of it, but unfortunately it would get ill and die a few days later. Why did they die despite your efforts? Chicks hatch at around 37–38℃ [98.6–100.4℉], the incubation temperature of the hen, and the body temperature of the hatchlings is more than 40℃ [104℉]. After hatching, the hen continues to brood its chicks, because they cannot control their body temperature by themselves. That’s why a chick without its mom would die easily. It isn’t too…

The Most High Is Sovereign over the Kingdoms of Men

Daniel came into the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar in obedience of his command. He was summoned to interpret the king’s dream. “Belteshazzar1, I know that no mystery is too difficult for you. Interpret my dream as you did before. In my dream, there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky. Its leaves were beautiful. The birds of the air lived in its branches. From it every creature was fed. Then there was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice: ‘Cut down the tree and trim off its branches; strip off its leaves…

Egg Incubation: Birds’ Love Towards Their Young (І)

Thomas Edison, the king of invention, was curious since he was young. One day, Edison disappeared and his family got in commotion. It turned out that he fell asleep while curling up to brood goose eggs. Contrary to his expectation, however, no eggs hatched. Why did the goose eggs fail to hatch? Nest: home for the young Brooding and hatching are the most important part of avian reproduction. Making a nest is the first step to incubate eggs. Just as a man needs a shelter from rain and wind, a bird too needs a nest where it can protect its eggs from natural enemy and raises its soon-to-be-born baby birds. For this reason, birds put all their efforts into making…

The Lord Has Sent Me So That You May See Again

When Saul nears Damascus on his journey in order to take Christians as prisoners, suddenly a light from heaven flashes around him and he hears Jesus’ voice. By this, he goes blind and does not eat or drink anything for three days in Damascus. Then Jesus calls a disciple named Ananias in Damascus in a vision: “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” Ananias answers: “I’ve heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to Your saints in Jerusalem.…

Pleasant Changes in Me

In a science fiction film or novel, we often see a character who arbitrarily controls someone else’ will. What if this happens in reality and our will is controlled by an unknown power? Today, like every other day, Mr. Joyce is late about five minutes for work. He dozes off throughout the morning, and gets lively when the lunch break starts. After lunch, he stops at a coffee shop and drinks a cup of coffee that is as expensive as a meal. As soon as he arrives home after work, he flings himself down on the sofa and turns on TV. He watches TV till around midnight, having some snacks. Among his daily tasks listed above, how many things were…

The Feast of Tabernacles and the Water of Life

The Feast of Tabernacles is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month in the sacred calendar and it is the last of the seven feasts in three times. The Feast of Tabernacles commemorates the Israelites’ construction of the tabernacle during their journey in the desert. It is a feast during the autumn harvest. In the Old Testament, this feast is also called the Feast of Booths and the Feast of Ingathering. God established various regulations in the Old Testament as a shadow of the New Testament; He let the feasts contain profound secrets of what would happen in the New Testament times. Let us understand God’s will contained in the Feast of Tabernacles and find out who grants…

Gravity, the Earth’s Safeguard

Mankind lives under the influence of gravity. Not only apples from the trees, but all objects fall down from above. We try to jump high up in the air, but we don’t stay there even for a few seconds; we fall right back down, far from reaching the sky. We don’t feel it because we always live under the influence of gravity, but we are always caught up by gravity. Even at this moment, gravity constantly works for the trees, chairs, air, etc. Mankind has not been sparing endless efforts to get away from gravity for a long time. In 1783, the Montgolfier brothers travelled in the sky in a hot-air balloon. About 100 years later, the first powered airplanes…

The Feast of Trumpets

Among the seven feasts in three times, the first of the autumn feasts is the Feast of Trumpets, followed by the Day of Atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles. The representative feast of the autumn feasts is the Feast of Tabernacles. At the Feast of Trumpets, the Israelites blew the trumpets; they purified their hearts according to the regulations for the feast, and had time for repentance until the Day of Atonement. Trumpets are musical instruments that add strength and vitality to a melody; they are used for various purposes, such as a bugle call announcing the morning and an alarm signaling war. For the Feast of Trumpets, they were used to announce the upcoming Day of Atonement and to…

Life Is Closely Bound Up with Each Other

Eleven men threw themselves to the ground before the ruler of all Egypt. They are being questioned about Joseph’s silver cup found in one of their sacks. “What is this you have done?” Joseph scolds them sternly. In actuality, all this is what Joseph has planned. A long time ago, Joseph was once sold into Egypt by his brothers, but now has become the ruler of Egypt, who manages the whole land. As the famine was severe, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold grain. Then, he saw his brothers come from Canaan to Egypt to buy grain. However, his brothers did not recognize Joseph. Joseph who recognized his brothers at a glance pretended to suspect that they were spies, and…

The Day of Pentecost

The Day of Pentecost in the New Testament is called the “Feast of Weeks” in the Old Testament. After Jesus’ resurrection and ascension 2,000 years ago, God poured out the power of the Holy Spirit upon His people on the Day of Pentecost, so they could powerfully preach the gospel of the kingdom and testify about Jesus Christ to all nations. Christ proclaimed the mission of world evangelism on Ascension Day, but it was the Day of Pentecost that ignited the fire of world evangelism. The Holy Spirit that was poured out at Pentecost became the driving force for the growth of the gospel in the early Church. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and boldly preached Christ.…

The Meaning of Ascension Day

Ascension Day commemorates Jesus’ ascension into Heaven. This day gives us the hope of being changed and ascending like Christ. Before Jesus ascended to Heaven, He commanded His disciples to lead all people in the world to salvation. In obedience to this holy command, the saints of the early Church prayed earnestly for ten days starting from Ascension Day, and they began to preach the gospel to the whole world after receiving the former rain of the Holy Spirit. The mission that we, who are living in the age of the Holy Spirit, must complete is the same—world evangelism. Let us reflect upon the glory and blessing that God has promised through Ascension Day and discover how to complete the…