Faith & Life

Resonator

Musical instruments that make beautiful sounds! Their material, shape, and way to be handled are different, but they all have something in common: Their inside is empty. The empty part is called a resonator which enables the instruments to produce a loud and clear sound. If the resonator is clogged up or filled with other substances, the instrument cannot make any sound, and it will be useless. People too have a resonator. What do you think the human resonator that makes a beautiful sound is? It is the mind. You can never make a beautiful sound with a mind full of your stereotypes, thoughts, and stubbornness. When you empty your mind, you can make a profound resonance with the inner…

Tears of a Prodigal Child

Before I entered high school, I was led to the Church of God by my cousin, and I started attending the Church. My parents opposed my going there, but I liked Zion so much because there was a beautiful unity among brothers and sisters through the word of God. However, my mind changed when I entered university and my parents approved of my faith. Just as the saints of the early Church relied fully on God and kept their faith firm during hard times but became neglectful of the truth during peaceful times, my mind, which once went towards Zion, gradually started to go towards the world and I became lazy in my life of faith. After I started a…

Hui-jeong Im from Namyangju, South Korea

A Heart That Goes Out to the Neighborhood

Jang Gye-hyang is another great mother in the Joseon Dynasty of Korea along with Shin Saimdang, the mother of famed scholar Yi I. Jang wrote recipes invented around the middle and late of the Joseon Dynasty in Hangul the Korean alphabet. The book is titled Eumsikdimibang. In every morning and evening, her servants looked for houses with no chimney smoke. If there was no smoke coming out of the chimney in the morning, it meant that home had no food; and if there was no smoke coming out of the chimney in the evening, it meant that home had no firewood or the head of household was lying ill. Jang Gye-hyang had her servants deliver food and firewood to the…

Mom and Strawberry

In my childhood, my family was very poor. When the six members of my family lay in a single room, we had no space to turn over. My parents leased farms from others to raise their four children. One day, I was so sick that I told my mom that I wanted to be absent from school. She told me not to be absent because there was no one to take care of me while being alone at home and forced me to go to school. When I arrived at school after walking for two hours, I was so sick that I bent over the desk. Seeing my condition, my teacher wanted me to go home. I said it would…

Park Eun-ja from Gumi, South Korea

As the Children of Light

The darker it is, the brighter the moonlight seems. The brilliant shining moon in the night sky lights up the streets at night and works as a guide. The moon does not emit any light. However, the reason it seems to emit light is that the light from the sun reflects on the surface of the moon. When the moon receives the sunlight on a little part of itself, it becomes a crescent moon. When it receives the light on half of its surface, it becomes a half moon and when the light is reflected on the whole moon, it becomes a full moon. “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children…

Scar

There was an eagle, injured and hurt. The eagle thought he couldn’t fly higher anymore because of his wound. In grief, he no longer wanted to meet anyone. The head among the group of eagles was aware of this. He went to the wounded eagle and comforted him. “Look at my scar. I’d rather die instead of living like this.” After hearing the wounded eagle’s moan, the head spread his wings without saying a word. On his wings, there were numerous scars. “I wish you know that you’re not the only one wounded. No eagle lives without a scar, except the ones that aren’t born yet.”

Tests

There are many accessories made of pure gold, which is not only beautiful but also has the characteristic that doesn’t change or get rusty over time. The value of pure gold has maintained since great antiquity. Pure gold refers to the pure gold which was filtered out impurities from Calaverite and remained without other metals. If the adulterants go out completely through the process of heat treatment in the furnace it becomes high purity of gold. The process which God makes us reborn as the perfect men of God is all the same with that of producing pure gold. Just like getting rid of all sorts of adulterants mixed with gold in the hot furnace, God let us remove spiritual…

Giving Love in a Lunch Box

I am a young adult—a youth like the dew of the dawn with full of energy. But it sometimes puts me to shame and I feel sorry to people around me. At home, I just eat at the table that my mom prepares; and in Zion, members older than me take care of me. Mother says that it is more blessed to give love than to receive. However, I was accustomed to receive and so I felt ashamed. At any time, I wanted to share the love, which I had received more than I deserved, with many. In this past March, I finally had a chance: Young adults in my Zion organized the Wow Mom volunteer service team and planned…

Lee Si-won from Seoul, South Korea

The Solution

On a newspaper column for suggesting solutions to readers' problems, one teenager shared his personal problem. “My mom nags at me all day long. She tells me to wash my hands when I come home, do my homework on time, brush my teeth before sleep, and stay away from bad friends. How can I be free from my mom's nagging at me?” The counselor replied. “Wash your hands when you arrive at home, do your homework on time, brush your teeth before sleep, and stay away from bad friends.”

Become a Hidden Assistant of Your Family!

How will you feel if someone cares about you, pleases you, and is willing to help you when you have a hard time? You will be happy, encouraged, and reassured as well. You know that? You already have that person. It is your family. However, you may often forget that. Even after receiving love from your family, you might not appreciate it but grumble and complain against them. This month, rather than expecting something from your family, why don’t you become a “hidden assistant” doing good deeds secretly for your family? You will know that giving love brings greater happiness than receiving it. Tip Decide the mission period. Write each name of your family members on each paper and pick…

Good Deeds Open People’s Hearts

We, the Wolpi Church in Ansan, clean up streets every month. Since we don’t carry out volunteer services in a cursory way, residents, store owners, and street cleaners near the church compliment us. This time, we cleaned up Seongpo Art Park and Wolpi Park. We picked up garbage not only inside the parks but also on the streets where there are many stores. There were cigarette butts more than other rubbish. While we were busy cleaning, a driver who delivers live fish to nearby restaurants said something to the one who was smoking at a passenger seat. “Those who throw away cigarette butts should go to the Church of God. Why don’t you join the church?” I thought he said…

Yu Hui-sun from Ansan, South Korea

Enjoying Happiness & Recalling Happiness

Throughout our school days, we have many worries about friends, schoolwork, and future. But adults who have lived through those days say, “Now is the best time for you,” to students. Mothers who are concentrating on childcare after childbirth feel that they are going through a hard time. However, all parents without exception say that their children are their greatest happiness. If you ask a serviceperson in the military if he enjoys his time, few would say yes. But those who completed their military duty have passion in their voices whenever they talk about their military life; their episodes are ceaseless and they keep talking as if recalling a happy memory. Life seems like a heavy burden to young people…

Giving Thanks in All Circumstances

Dario Silva, who used to be a representative football player in Uruguay, lost his right leg in a car accident in 2006. Hearing the news, many people felt sorry for him, but he surprised people by saying unexpected words. He said he was thankful that he could experience brilliant moments in his football career because he did not go through such trials in the beginning of his career. He appeared at a charity match with a prosthetic leg in 2009, and received a standing ovation for scoring a goal; a happy smile broke across his face.

Something That You Know When You Do It

My parents died when I was young and I had to earn a living. So, my life was literally like a war and the world was like a battle field. In order not to get left behind in the cold-hearted world where no one could protect me, I worked tenaciously. Even after having a family at a late age, my life was the same. Doing the delivery service in the market, I had been working nights and sleeping days for over ten years. It was even difficult to see my children due to my busy daily life, so my only joy was to chat with the market vendors and get drunk. Since we had been living a tough life, we…

Ahn Byeong-chan from Seoul, South Korea

A Brilliant Challenge

Bobsleigh is a winter Olympic sport in which two or four teammates steer, running fast down narrow, twisting, banked, and iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. Before, it was a sport for well-off classes because it costs a lot of money to make a sled alone. In short, it is a sport that requires cold weather and sufficient funds. But in the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics, there was a surprise in the bobsleigh stadium. The Jamaican athletes showed up. Jamaica is a small island in the north of the Caribbean Sea, where it is very hot throughout the year due to the tropical marine climate. As the athletes from a snowless country, or a wasteland of bobsleigh, threw their hats…

You Can Do It Too

Jim Abbott is known as an American pitcher who overcame his limitations in Major League Baseball. He was born with a disability in his right hand. Abbott grew up, getting used to doing things with one hand, but there was one hard thing for him. It was no other than tying shoelaces. For young Abbot, it was the most embarrassing day when his shoelace tied twice at home was unraveled. The problem was solved when he was a third grader in elementary school. One day, his teacher, Donn Clarkson, came to Abbott and said in an excited voice. “I’ve got it! I figured it out. I know how you can tie your shoes.” Mr. Clarkson studied how to tie shoes…

When One’s Home Is Happy, All Goes Well! Happiness Begins at Home

When people are asked what their family motto is, many people say, “When my home is happy, all goes well.” A family is the basis of society and the nation, and the starting point of one’s life. Therefore, it is a given that society can be strong and the nation stable when families are harmonious. Secret to a harmonious family Mr. Kim’s family always argues with each other; not even a day went by without arguments. One day, Mr. Kim tied his cow on a hill to feed him grass, but as the rein became loose, the cow ran around the whole field and ruined the crops. Mr. Kim managed to seize the cow, tied him in the stall, and…

According to the Law of Nature

The animals in the Serengeti plain of Africa live according to the law of nature. Herbivores make good use of their excellent sight and running skills to escape predators, and carnivores use their sharp teeth and bravery to get prey. But no one can say that herbivores are good and that carnivores are bad. They just follow the law of the jungle. Predators do not show off their hunting skills. They do not even desire to catch many prey at once. No matter how good their hunting skills are, they go hunting only when they are hungry, and if they eat enough meat they hunted, they leave the spot. Then, the remaining meat is passed to hyenas the African scavengers,…

In Baton Rouge Where the Prophecy Is Fulfilled

It’s been almost a year since my husband and I came to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, U.S. It would be a lie if I say we did not have any fear to come to this spiritually dry and desolate land, where the gospel had not been preached yet. Just as always, however, God was with us in this city, too. I realize the power of God once again, seeing the brothers and sisters revive through the water of life within a short time. Before we came here, one Korean sister had been preaching the gospel alone for five years. She was busy managing a gas station, but preached to her customers, regarding her workplace as the field of the gospel. Some…

Jeong Min-gyeong from Houston, TX, U.S.

Being Acknowledged by God

If you have anything to boast about, you want to boast it. It’s human nature. Wanting to be acknowledged by someone is the most basic need for human. ...circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in…