Enlightenment

Father’s Hometown

“When we get a chance, I want to go visit my hometown with you all.” My father used to say this all the time. Whenever he said that, my sister and I would always answer indifferently, “Okay. Let’s go some day.” It took a long time for “that some day” to come. After getting married, I visited my father regularly, but I couldn’t afford to take him to his hometown. My father’s physical disability also played a part. As each year went by, he missed his hometown more and more. “I need to go there before I die. I miss my sister . . .” My father’s sad eyes seemed to be telling me that I shouldn’t delay any longer.…

Seo Jin-hee from Busan, Korea

God Is Patient With Us, Wanting Everyone to Be Saved

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. 2 Pe 3:9 This is a scripture that made me cry during the second study after receiving the truth. The sister who was teaching me the Bible thought I was crying because I got scared of disasters, and she tried to comfort me, but that’s not why I was crying. Tears welled up in my eyes, because I felt so thankful to realize that God had been patiently waiting for me in order to save me. God’s patient love, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance! I,…

Kim Ok-gyeong from Uijeongbu, Korea

Whether They Listen or Fail to Listen

I flew to Europe to fulfill God’s word to preach the gospel to the whole world. Whenever I ask people here, “Have you heard of God the Mother?” many of them walk away, waving their hands as if they don’t care. I sometimes feel discouraged, but I have a source of energy that wells up. “Go now to your countrymen in exile and speak to them. Say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says,’ whether they listen or fail to listen.” Eze 3:11 Every single word in the Bible is fulfilled without fail. It is the same with preaching the news of salvation to all the peoples of the world. That’s why I boldly preach Heavenly Mother today,…

Jeong Hye-in from Guri, Korea

Demonstration of God’s Love

“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Ro 5:8 No one would dare to die for someone else. It’s even harder to give up one’s life for a sinner. However, there is One who demonstrated His sure love for us by being crucified in our stead while we were still unforgivable sinners. He is our Heavenly Father. Is there a greater demonstration of love than this? Now, we want to demonstrate our sure love to our Heavenly Father who loved us even to the point of death, by completely changing under His grace.

Lee Eun-suk from Saket, New Delhi, DL, India

The Angelic World, Overflowing With Delight Day After Day

“Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence.” Pr 8:30 Proverbs 8 shows us that Solomon existed in the angelic world even before God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them in the beginning. We can also learn that it is a place full of delight and joy day after day. No matter how much delight and joy we experience on this earth, it fades quickly, often followed by hardships and sorrows. Perhaps the reason the heavenly world is eternally delightful is because new joys are continuously created. Similarly, our ability to rejoice always may stem from the constant creation of new joy. While…

Lee Sun-ju from Gwangju, Korea

Father’s Shoes

It was when I visited my parents for my mother’s birthday after a long time. On the way to the market to buy my mother a birthday gift, I met my father who was returning home. Then I noticed his shoes were worn-out tennis shoes, tied so tightly that no air could go through. “Father! Why do you wear tennis shoes on this hot day? Don’t you have sandals?” He just smiled and entered the house without saying anything. I bought a pair of shoes for my mother in the market. However, on the way out of the store, my father’s worn-out shoes came across my mind. I went inside the store again and picked a pair of sandals for…

Jeon Eun-ok from Seongnam, Korea

Son Who Looks Just Like Dad

“Your son resembles you a lot.” When my dad hears someone say that, he smiles from ear to ear. Sometimes I wonder if it is such a joyful thing to him that he smiles so big. In fact, when I was a child, I heard so many times that I was a carbon copy of my mom, and I just thought that I resembled her. Then one day, someone said to my dad that I resembled him. He bragged about it to my mom as soon as he came home. Since then, I started to hear more often that I resembled my dad, and I was often asked, “You look like him. Is he your dad?” My dad was pleased…

Kim Seung-hyeok from Madrid, Spain

Mother’s Love

Recently, I visited my mother in my hometown. She was overjoyed to see me, and through her facial expression I felt her love beyond words. When I was about to leave after I spent some time chatting with her, my mother turned her head and wiped her tears. In my childhood, I never knew what she felt in her heart. I used to walk under streetlights with resentment toward my mother who always arrived home late at night because of her work. However, I came to realize the love of my mother through my wife. When I come home from work, my wife warmly welcomes me and my sons run into my arms with bright smiles. While I rest my…

Kim Guk-hwa from Seoul, Korea

God’s Daily Gifts

“God always gives us a new day and new strength. What if God did not give us a new day and new strength? Just thinking about it makes me so thankful to God. If God didn’t, I would be struggling with accumulated fatigue.” Listening to a sister who was busy living a life of faith, working in the office, and taking care of her household, I was thankful and sorry at the same time. It’s because I took the time given to me every day and the power of the Holy Spirit for granted. I will receive God’s daily gifts with thankfulness and put my time and passion into what pleases God.

Han Min-ji from Montevideo, Uruguay

Practice

In our Zion, we have a cute and lovely child who has just turned one. It seems like it was only yesterday that he was wriggling in his mom’s arms, but he soon learned to hold his head up and sit up on his own, and now he even pulls himself up to stand and walk. He looks so cute when he struggles to balance but soon falls that I cannot take my eyes off him. As he doesn’t have enough strength in his legs yet, he often falls on his bottom. But he does not stop trying to walk. Although there is a soft mat on the floor, it must be hurting when he falls, but he smiles as…

Goh Su-jeong from Jeonju, Korea

That’s Something Everyone Can Do

At the start of the autumn feast, I set a goal to preach the Gospel to as many people as possible, being united with the members in my church. As the head of a household, I felt it would be difficult to make time to preach. However, I wanted to be of help to Zion even a little bit, and I went to Zion after work. I went out to preach the Gospel with some members, but I couldn’t open my mouth. For a few days, I just stood beside the members when they were preaching. As I diligently participated in preaching while cheering myself up, I came to have courage to tell God’s word to people. At that moment,…

Jang Seong-min from Seongnam, Korea

Memories of My Mother

Last winter, my mother came to see me in the U.S. I met her in seven years. I was very happy to do everything with her from morning till night. Three months passed quickly and the day came for us to part. I felt like crying at the airport, and I just waved goodbye to her. When I came back home and saw the empty room without her, I burst into tears. I remembered that she gave me warm water, tomatoes, bananas, and eggs every morning, and that we walked together around the neighborhood for exercise in the evenings. “Look at the buds on the tree that’s seemingly remained dead.” “That house is almost finished.” Even now, when I’m walking,…

Lee So-yeong from Hwaseong, Korea

We Are All Parts of One Body

I went to hospital because I had pain in my neck and shoulder. I was diagnosed with a herniated cervical disc. It was manageable with simple medical treatment, but I had to be careful while working on a computer or doing the housework so that I wouldn’t put pressure on my neck, which in turn caused pressure on my waist. Around the time when I was about to have started to feel less pain in my neck, I even had a lumbar disc herniation. After I received medical treatment for my lower back pain, my whole body became so weak that even my hands and feet began to shake. I had swelling and pain in my legs, which caused aches…

Gu Yeon-hui from Suncheon, Korea

Mother’s Memory

I have an adorable high school son worth ten daughters. He liked to go to sleep in my arms and didn’t ever want to leave my side when he was a little boy. But before I knew, he has grown so tall that now I have to look up at him. Whenever I see him who has grown tall, I’m proud but sad on the other hand because soon he will not need my help any longer. Perhaps this could be the reason I got a strange habit of asking my son whether he remembers his childhood. When he walks up to me, I remember him crawling up to me with his diaper on; when he’s talking, sitting beside me,…

Yun Eun-ju from Goyang, Korea

Light in the Fog

During the last national holidays, my husband went to his parents’ house first to take care of things, and my son and I went there the following day. After spending a good time together, we headed back home. It was early in the morning, and the thick fog caused blurry vision on the highway. Then my husband changed the lane, got in front of us, and turned on the hazard lights. Depending on his lights, I drove slowly and carefully. After driving for quite a while, we finally got out of the foggy area safely. However, my husband’s car which was right in front of us until a moment ago disappeared from sight. Through the side-view mirror, I saw that…

Kim Hyeon-su from Gunpo, Korea

The Sister Who Sings for Her Younger Sister

One day in Zion, I overheard the conversation between two sisters, who were elementary school students, as they were talking to each other in the bathroom. “Sister, please sing a song for me!” As soon as the younger sister finished, the older sister started to sing. I was a little surprised to see her singing with a loud voice, because she usually seemed quiet and calm. Shortly after, I heard their story, which moved me deeply. “I need to sing for my younger sister because she is scared to be in the bathroom alone.” I was proud of her for taking care of her younger sister. It made me look back on myself. I was somewhat ashamed of myself because…

Lee Hye-gyeong from Seongnam, Korea

Ask Myself

My wife plays the piano during worship. One day, she said she was worried because the choir song was too difficult this time. Then I said to her, “Try a hundred times, and if you still can’t, then you can’t help it.” After she heard me say that, she practiced more than a hundred times, and she was able to play the piano in harmony with the beautiful voices of the choir to offer up a gracious song of praise to God in worship. It was nice of her not to give up or give it a lick and a promise, with the excuse that it was difficult. From now on, whenever I face a difficult problem or situation, I…

Jeong Jae-pil from Anyang, Korea

Although God Gives Us Everything We Need On Our Journey of Faith

Last winter, when an extreme cold warning was issued, my wife, said that there was no hot water coming out at all during her shower, and she asked me to check if the boiler was working. When I checked the boiler operating system, the red light was on. I turned the switch off and then on, but it still didn’t work. Thinking what I should do, I went out to the veranda where the boiler was installed and carefully read the instruction manual on how to deal with the problem. It was suggested that I should clean the heating filter. As soon as I located the filter, I took it apart. It was full of small pieces dirt and sand.…

Yeo In-won from Daejeon, Korea

The Right Time for Treatment

At some point in time, one of my teeth started to hurt. The toothache disappeared soon, and I delayed going to the dentist. As time passed by, the pain became unbearable. Finally, I went to the dentist. As I expected, the tooth was severely decayed. Cavities had started to develop in my other teeth as well. So I decided to fix them all. It was easy to fix the slightly decayed teeth, but it was very painful to fix the severely decayed tooth. The doctor said: “The deeper a cavity goes and the longer you delay treatment, the more pain you will experience and the longer it will take to fix.” Due to the bad cavity, I had to go…

Kim Se-hun from Sejong, Korea

The Happiest Moment Is Now

My company invites lecturers once a month to train employees. The lecturer of this month asked a question during his speech on the importance of time: “Do you know when dead people are most envious of us? It is now. If you do not know how happy you are while spending these precious moments, you cannot be happy in the future, either.” His words struck me. God told us to give thanks in all circumstances and be joyful always. It means that we should realize how happy we are as God’s children. However, I didn’t appreciate the present time given by God and I didn’t rejoice in all circumstances, so I couldn’t feel happy. Suddenly, I was scared that I…

Park Geum-ryeong from Busan, Korea