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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.

Let Us Have a Vivid Dream of the Gospel

A teacher, a painter, a singer, a police officer, a scientist, or the President of a country. . . In our school days, we might have written these dreams on our personality description forms as our future jobs. But when we graduated from school and started our life as social members, how many of us were able to fulfill the dreams that we had had in our childhood? There are not many who realize the dreams that they dreamed in their childhood as well as in their lives after childhood. People say that their interest changed or their circumstances did not allow them to realize their dreams. Under these excuses, people just keep their dreams in their hearts as unreal…

Laughter and Tears: Expressions of Joy, Anger, Sorrow, and Happiness

The movie Inside Out is an animation about an 11-year-old girl Riley’s five emotions that work in the emotion-controlling headquarters in her head; it’s about an adventure that her five emotions—Joy, Sadness, Anger, Disgust, and Fear—have to bring back happiness to Riley who’s having a hard time in a different environment. The film tells us that Sadness who cries about everything is as important as Joy who is always bright in life. Humans are animals of emotions that feel tens of different emotions. Human emotions cannot be categorized exactly like in the movie, but there is no objection that joy and sorrow are the keys that play pivotal roles. Laughter and tears are two ways that express the extreme feelings…

Standing against Suffering and Hardship

It was when Paul and his companions reached Caesarea and were staying at the house of Philip for a number of days. One day, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea to meet Paul. He took a belt, tied his own hands and feet with it, and said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘In this way the Jews of Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles.’ ” The belt Agabus tied his own hands and feet with was Paul’s. Hearing this, the people there pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, “Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be…

The Miracle of the Gospel Through Gratitude

“Thank you!” This may just be a courtesy that people usually say after we’ve purchased something at their store. Even so, every time we hear that, it makes us feel good and we feel like going to that store again if we have something to buy. It is the same when we say it to others; when we show our appreciation to the person who did us a favor or helped us, it makes us feel good. It is said that the simple gratitude practices in our daily life serve as a source of developing infinite potential within us. If the power of gratitude piles up, it may bring about a miracle in our life some day. The Power of…

Amazing Animal Senses

How do animals see, hear, and feel the world? It is very difficult to imagine the world of animals on the basis of our senses. It is because various animals on the planet sense the world in different ways than humans do. For animals, their own unique world created by their special sensory organs spreads before them. Let’s take a trip to the wonderful world of animal senses. Sensory organs that feel the world more accurately: vision, hearing, smell Regarding sharp-sighted people, we say that they have eyes like a hawk. In fact, birds of prey such as hawks and eagles have extraordinary vision which enables them to see 4 to 8 times farther than the average human can. Hawks…

Turn Fear into Faith

When Israel was under the suppression of the Midianites for seven years, God sends an angel to choose a judge who will save the Israelites who are calling out to Him in suffering. The angel of God sits down under the oak in Ophrah that belongs to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon is threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites. God talks to him through the angel. “Go and save Israel out of Midian’s hand. I am sending you.” Gideon realizes that God has chosen him to be the leader of Israel, but he doesn’t know what to do. “But God, how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and…

By Respecting One Another

There is no one who hates hearing words of recognition and acknowledgment for their talents and styles. We feel good when we are spoken well of by others even in trivial things. It is because our “esteem needs”—the desire to be recognized and respected by others—are satisfied. It’s not too much to say that “respect” is an essential virtue for good interpersonal relationships. It has been considered as a basic human need and a virtue as well. These days, the word “respect,” which is nothing new to us, is on everybody’s lips. It’s because there is an increasingly loud call for self-examination and lamentation about the present situation where the culture of mutual respect is disappearing. An age when respect…

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.…