Faith & Life

Labor Pain Continues Even Today

One day while preaching overseas, I met a young man at a shopping mall and asked him if he had ever heard about God the Mother. He said it was his first time to hear about God the Mother and gave ear to the words of the Bible. He wanted to learn more, but had to leave soon because his friend was waiting for him. We promised to meet again the next day, and I waited for the next day to come. On the following day, we went to meet him. He said he had already arrived forty minutes before our appointment time; he had come straight from work to keep his appointment with us. I felt excited as I…

Park Ji-hye from Seongnam, 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

Yielding Is Easy If You Love

“How many times have I told you what I want from you is not a good grade but your getting along with each other?” This is what I say every time my children quarrel. My son and daughter who are both in elementary school seem to regret what they did the moment I scold them, but soon after, they easily squabble again. Wondering how I could help them get along, I came up with an idea: I decided to give a star sticker to the one who yielded to the other, and to award them with some pocket money when they gathered ten stickers. They prepared some paper where they were going to put the stickers, and discussed how they…

Gwon Sun-hye from Daegu, Korea

The Good Samaritan

Those who do not help others in a dangerous situation, even though they are able to rescue them without exposing themselves or people close to them to danger, shall be punished by imprisonment for no more than three years. Article 247 of the Polish Criminal Law, 1932 Those who do not rescue another person from danger, despite the fact that it is not a situation where they may become endangered, shall be punished by imprisonment for no more than five years or by a fine of no less than 360 francs nor more than 15,000 francs. Paragraph 2 of Article 63 of the French Criminal Law Some countries like Poland and France have laws to punish those who see others…

Dew of the Dawn

The Bible likens young adults to the dew of the dawn (Ps 110:3). As I am also a young adult, I have often heard the words “dew of the dawn.” However, I didn’t know what it really meant when I heard it before. I just thought, ‘Does it mean that we should always take the lead in doing something, like the dew that forms early in the morning when everyone is sleeping?’ Then I happened to know the meaning of it. In Israel, the setting of the Bible, the dry season lasts for about six months. Despite no rain during that period, plants can survive thanks to the early morning dew that forms as a result of the temperature difference…

Yeon Bo-ra-mi from Jeju Island, Korea

Something Small and Trivial

My sister-in-law runs a restaurant by herself. When she asked me to help her with wallpapering the hall, I immediately went over to her place with comfortable clothes. “I think we have to tear it down from the upper part,” I said to her. Then she brought out a small ladder from the storage. I climbed up the ladder and moved my arms around to tear down the wallpaper. At that moment, I fell off the ladder and landed on my hip. Surprised, my sister-in-law rushed up to help me stand up. “Are you okay? That’s strange. This ladder isn’t that weak.” As she was sorry about that, I reassured her that I was fine. Then I picked up the…

Kim Im-suk from Daegu, Korea

Focus

When taking a picture, you can get many different photos from the same scene according to the focal point; your photos may turn out bright or dark, blurry or clear. It is the same with your faith. You may have a completely different feeling about the same situation according to what you focus your faith on. Aren’t you focusing your faith on yourself and feeling satisfied with your own efforts? My feelings, my pain, and my thoughts—this self-centered faith makes us focus only on things right in front of us and it eventually leads us to complain. We must put God at the center of our hearts. Moving away from childish faith and trying to match ourselves with God, we…

If You Can’t Stop Time, Enjoy It!

Whenever the end of the year comes, we hear people grumble, “I’m going to get another year older.” Everybody wants to live long, but doesn’t want to get old. It is not a pleasant thing to get old, because getting old means losing physical strength and having less time to live. As 365 days—the time takes for the earth to revolve around the sun once—pass, we become a year older and our bodies get older. We are just riding on the earth that revolves like a spinning top, but our bodies get older, which is something interesting in a way. There are many theories on the cause of aging. The Wear and Tear Theory of Aging proposes that some of…

The Weft and Warp Threads

The overall image of someone or something is determined by the multiplication of all factors, not the sum of them. Even though they have earned high marks in many factors, if they get “0” points in one factor, they end up with “0” points for their overall image. Here are some examples: A company’s image may be ruined because of one employee who answered phone calls unkindly, and a couple of people in a country who are unkind and immoral can cause a prejudice against the entire country. As the gospel of the new covenant is spreading quickly to the ends of the earth in the west according to the prophecies of the Bible, God’s people are displaying the glory…

We Get to Resemble Each Other

The Adopt Happiness Spore Project is a Gimhae City’s project to support private organizations to take care of certain places where many citizens come and go, such as roadsides, parks, and streams, and clean up those areas at least once a month. Our Church of God in Sambang, Gimhae, too, participated in the project, and we were to take care of the Shineocheon Stream. The trail along the Shineocheon Stream is somewhat dirty, compared with other places, because it is close to a university area with a large floating population. That’s why the city paid attention to it. On the day we gathered to do a cleanup, the head of the Saman-dong Office came out to support our activity and…

Lee Jeong-hwa from Gimhae, Korea

Mother’s Happiness

On my way home, I got on the bus. The bus was crowded with students after class, office workers after work, and elderly people going home after their grocery shopping. Then I saw a kid eating toast while sitting among them. His mom was grabbing a handle while standing beside him with all his stuff in her both hands. Although her hands were full, she was smiling happily, seeing her child eat toast deliciously. The scene remained clearly in my mind as if it had been caught on camera, because Heavenly Mother came to my mind. Heavenly Mother always takes good care of us and looks at us with love even while carrying the burden of our sins. I was…

Koh Ji-hae from Namyangju, Korea

Spiritual GPS System

If you have a GPS system when you go to an unfamiliar place, you feel at ease. All you have to do is input the name of the place or the address into the GPS system. Then it guides you with a tender voice, showing you the location and surroundings in detail. Also when you pass by the destination by mistake, or take the wrong way, it provides you with a new path by searching again. For people who have a poor sense of direction, it is a faithful guide that saves the effort of wandering from place to place. Upgrading is essential to maintain the convenience that the GPS system provides. If you do not upgrade, it cannot read…

Shaking Seeds Off Sesame Plants with My Grandma

I went to my grandma’s during the harvest season. Usually I leave early for the next day’s work, but that day, I decided to help her shake seeds off sesame plants and leave later. As soon as I reached the sesame field, crossing the persimmon field where ripe persimmon fell here and there, I knew the work would be more than I had expected. At the field on hillside, sesame plants were tied in sheaves like children standing in a row at a playground. “Grandma, are we supposed to shake all these seeds off?” “We can’t finish them all today. We’ll just do as much as we can until sunset.” Since I came to help, I couldn’t stand there idly.…

Jeon Yeong-seon from Anyang, Korea

Make Your Family Fall Asleep Pleasantly

Finishing off your day, you prepare for the next day before going to bed; this time is very important because in order to wake up in a good mood in the morning, you need to fall asleep pleasantly. As it is the most relaxing time of the day with your family, make good use of this time to bond with each other even more. Before going to bed, don’t forget to give affectionate greetings like “Good night” or “Sweet dreams” to your family. Tip Good Things to Do 30 Minutes Before Going to Bed Writing down what you were thankful during the day, or conversing with your family about it. Getting reconciled with someone if you had a quarrel. Massaging…

Exercise to Build Mind Muscles

I work as a physical therapist in the hospital. One day, I saw the old man whom I had been helping with exercise sit on a thump on the chair, putting up his entire weight. “Sir, do you know how the former South Korean professional figure skater Kim Yuna can walk lightly? That’s because she has good muscle strength. I know that’s not easy, but you have to grow your muscles, which will help you sit softly in the chair and not fall.” As I was explaining how to strengthen his muscles, I came to think it’s the same with the muscles of the mind. When we grow our mind muscles, we can handle any and every situation flexibly and…

Gwak Jin-yeong from Daejeon, Korea

One Act of Filial Piety

I grew up in a rich family thanks to my father who was a well-known tax accountant. Many people envied me for my capable father, but as for me, my father was the most difficult and hardest person to be with. It was because I was always weak and incompetent unlike my older sister and older brother who lived up to my father’s expectations. I got fascinated by the saxophone which I got to learn by chance in college and started focusing on music. Then my father was more unsatisfied with me. My sister and brother successfully became experts in their fields, but I had no idea about my future. As time went by, I stayed even further away from…

Lee Hye-gyeong from Seoul, Korea

Stained Glasses

We did repair work on our church restroom. As we finished cutting the tiles, the restroom was filled with stone powder. I left the restroom after ventilating it. For some reason, however, stone powder was still floating around in the hall, too. I opened all the corridor windows and brought in a fan and turned it on, but the stone powder blurred even the sanctuary. I got worried because the following day was the Sabbath. So I hurriedly opened all the windows and doors. While opening the windows, I looked outside and found something strange. The outside area was also covered with stone powder. ‘Did this happen because of our repair work? That’s strange. This can’t be. Can it be…

Oh Dae-yeop from Seoul, Korea

Victory Through Endurance and Unity

I watched a video entitled “Elementary Schools’ Tug-of-War That Moved the World.” It was a tug-of-war between two elementary schools in Kazakhstan. True to its title, the video was very touching. From the beginning of the tug-of-war, the blue team was in the lead. In the beginning, most of the children of the red team were drawn to their opponent’s side, and only one boy remained in the baseline. The boy was trying hard not to cross the baseline, and he never let go of the rope even with his face distorted by the pain. While everyone was astonished at the boy enduring the pain by clenching his teeth to wrestle with the game, the momentum leaned toward the red…

Hong Jeong-eun from Seongnam, Korea

Gigaseo(寄家書)

欲作家書說苦辛 恐敎愁殺白頭親 陰山積雪深千丈 却報今冬暖似春 When I send a letter home, I was going to mention my troubles, But I was worried that my gray-haired parents might become anxious, So although heavy snow has covered this shadowy mountain, I wrote that this winter is as warm as a spring day. This is part of the poem named “Gigaseo” (which means a letter sent home) that was written by a civil servant, Lee Ahn-nul, when he was the governor of Hamgyeongbuk-do the northernmost province, in the middle of the Joseon Dynasty of Korea. Although he went through difficulties while living far from home, he wrote to his parents in a way that was different from the real condition. The writer’s love and…

With Uncontrollable Happiness

The ultimate purpose of life is to meet God and return to the kingdom of heaven by receiving salvation through Him. To put it another way, our lives can be referred to as the process of preparing for the eternal kingdom of heaven. Many people live without knowing the essence and meaning of life, but I believed I was different. After converting from Hinduism to Christianity around 1996, I thought I’d finally found my way and there was nothing more I could wish for. A dozen years later, I heard the message of the Bible from a colleague, who I had led a religious life together with and accepted the truth later in Nepal. Then I realized I too was…

Raju Purty from Kolkata, WB, India