Faith & Life

“What Is Love?”

“When you tell your friend you like his shirt, then he wears it every day.” “During my piano recital, I felt scared on a stage. I looked at all the people watching me and saw my daddy waving and smiling. He was the only one doing that. I wasn’t scared anymore.” “Love is when Mommy sees Daddy smelly and sweaty and still says he is handsomer than Robert Redford.” “Love is when your puppy licks your face even after you left him alone all day.” “When my grandmother got arthritis, she couldn’t bend over and paint her toenails anymore. So my grandfather does it for her all the time, even when his hands got arthritis, too.” “When you love somebody,…

True Filial Duty Starts from Understanding

Whenever I read a Bible verse, “Anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mk 8:34), I was reminded of my family. My father, who received a pastoral education in a Protestant church in his youth, opposed my faith when I said I attended the Church of God. Even my mom, who wasn’t interested in religion, stood on my father’s side; an invisible wall was built between my parents and me. When I was about to get married, there was a change. To prepare for the wedding, I had to talk with my parents frequently. While conversing with them, I realized that I had mistaken my parents; I felt through their words how…

Lee Si-won from Incheon, South Korea

In Order to Save My Brother

In April, 2013, a primary school girl and a boy, who are siblings, were on their way home from a study room in Seoul, Korea. They saw some children jumping up and down on the plate of a flood pumping station near a playground. Then, the boy too began to jump on the same spot after all others left. Seeing him doing that, his older sister came near to him to take him out of there. Suddenly the plate tilted and both of them fell into the pumping station which was eight meters (26 ft) high. The depth of water in it was 130 centimeters (4.3 ft). Fortunately, the girl was 153 centimeters (5 ft) all that she could breathe…

A Note That Changed a Thief’s Mind

Eileen was a visiting nurse in a small resort city in the U.K. She rode a bike whenever she visited patients. One day, when she came out of a patient’s home after counseling and treatment, the bike vanished. As she had to visit more patients and it was a gift from her friend, she was very angry. But soon, she calmed herself and wrote a note and stuck it to the wall. “Please return my bike. It is old but loved, and will be frightened without its owner.” The next day, she went to the place where she lost her bike with little expectation. There she wore a smile of joy. The bike was fastened to a lamp post with…

Even with a Little Act

The International University Student Bible Academy [IUBA] is an education program of the Church of God, through which college students go abroad and enlarge their experience during their school break. I, too, joyfully volunteered for it, wanting to have a meaningful school break. I went to Jakarta in Indonesia. Among many activities I did there, I cannot forget our voluntary work at an orphanage. From a week before we visited the children, we thought over and over the way to give the children a precious memory. The guide told us that the kids would be greatly interested just for the fact that we are from Korea, so we prepared traditional Korean games such as Jegichagi [Korean hacky sack] and Ddakjichigi…

Lee Jeong-yeon from Bucheon, South Korea

What the Brain Does Not Know

Our body moves as the brain orders. If the brain loses its function, other parts of the body cannot play their roles properly, so the brain is the most important part of the body. The brain receives a great quantity of blood, which is fuel for the body, because it performs that much important function. However, the brain has a weak point. When you say something, your brain does not know whom your words refer to. If you say negative words to others, the brain does not know if the words are applied to yourself or to someone else, so it orders to release stress-producing hormones. On the contrary, if you say positive words to others, the brain recognizes that…

The Worry That I Had for Nineteen Years Has Turned to Joy I Cannot Contain

“ . . . You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.” Jn 16:20–21 “Grief turns to joy,” “The pain of giving birth to a child is tremendous but when the baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy.” These are the verses that I liked and read often. I experienced the power of these words through my mother who was born again as a child of God Elohim nineteen years after she first heard about the truth. Mom…

Seo Mi-gyeong from Seoul, South Korea

That’s Not Me!

“That’s not me!” You might have reassured yourself with this thought at some point in your life. While watching TV or browsing the Internet, you may have thought that lewd or violent content may adversely affect others, but not yourself. This is called the “Third-Person Effect.” This perception stems from an arrogant mindset that you have more self-control than others. On the contrary, the “First-Person Effect” is when you think that positive mass media messages have a greater impact on you, compared with others. You do not think that others will be able to understand the message as well as you do. The thought, “That’s not me,” leads to over-confidence and puts our souls in spiritual danger.

Time to Reap Wheat

I work at the office of a construction site, where there is a laboratory to measure the solidity of cement. Earlier this year, we had a new director who is in charge of the lab. From the first day, I noticed that the new director was different from others. Although an employee from a cleaning company comes to clean our office, but he himself cleans the lab of 1,500 square feet by himself, worrying that it’s hard for the employee to clean two floors alone. Even though he can give instructions to his subordinates, he is humble to them and kind to clients. I truly wanted to deliver the word of God to the director. When I started to talk…

Ham Hye-jeong from Goyang, South Korea

The Power of Words

“Be careful with your words. Once they are spoken, they can be only forgiven, not forgotten.” “The tongue has no bones, but it’s strong enough to break a heart.” There are many quotes concerning the way we use our words. Most of them warn you to be careful of what you say because once you spit out your words before tasting them, you may get in trouble. Speaking too comfortably or jokingly may bring about irreversible negative results to your relationships. The power of words is greater than any weapon in the world; the slightest word can bring about a snowball effect. We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is…

Every Family Member Is the House Owner!

If the strength of a person pulling a rope is 100, theoretically it should be 200 for two persons and 300 for three persons. However, the result of an experiment with a tug of war showed that the power of an individual was used by 93% when there were two persons, 85% when three persons, and only 49% when eight persons. As the size of a group increases, an individual’s contribution to the task decreases. It is called the Ringelmann effect. It happens because of the thought, ‘Someone else will do it, though I don’t.’ The same thing happens at home. Your home is where all your family members live together, but sometimes they tend to pass the house chores…

In Unity

Chlorine [Cl] is a very toxic gas. If chlorine [Cl] and sodium [Na] combine, they become salt [NaCl], which is indispensable for our life. The process of forming water is similar. When hydrogen [H], that is flammable, is combined with oxygen [O], water [H₂O] is formed, which is also essential for life. The principle that two different substances combine and become a useful element is reflected in our life of faith as well. If alone, it is difficult to achieve the goal of our faith, have a joyful religious life, and receive the blessings of heaven. This is because it is difficult to throw away our sinful nature while walking the path of faith alone. God has prepared rewards for…

A Note from Baby Twins

“Hello! We’re twin baby boys on our first flight, and we’re only fourteen weeks old! We’ll try to be on our best behavior, but we’d like to apologize in advance just in case we become uncomfortable, get scared, or our ears start to hurt. Our mom and dad have ear plugs available if you need them. We are sitting in 20E and 20F, just in case you would like to come by and get a pair. We hope you have a great flight!” The note from the twins was actually written by their parents. A passenger took a photo of the above note, which was attached to packaged sweets, and posted it on social media. The parents handed out the…

Getting Rid of the Old Yeast

Last Sunday, I volunteered to paint a school located near our church with the brothers and sisters from the 5th Lima Church in Peru. This time, my husband and my son were also able to join it. My family hadn’t had much time to get together with the excuse of being busy, but we spent time together at this voluntary service, which made it even more meaningful. We peeled the old paint before painting it over. We had to do that, otherwise it wouldn’t be painted smoothly no matter how good the quality of the new paint was. I thought the spiritual principle is similar to this. If we want our souls to be cleansed by Mother’s water of life,…

Luz Angela Benites Carpio from Lima, Peru

Training for Humility

Nordstrom is an American department store famous for its high quality customer service. At Nordstrom there is an executive training program that all management-level employees must go through to develop their management skills. This training program is held in a very unconventional place–a shoe store. John W. Nordstrom, the co-founder of Nordstrom, even trained his three sons and grand-children at the shoe store. To find the right size that fits a customer, you must humble yourself by kneeling down at their feet. This is the only way to sell shoes; without doing so, you cannot sell even a single pair of shoes. In the mall, a shoe store becomes the best place to educate executives on how to have a…

A List of Things to Throw Away

When you have things that you have to do or you want to do, it helps you improve your concentration if you make a list of them and decide the order of priority. However, if you have too many thoughts about those things, you get distracted and fail to fulfill your goal. This is when you need to make a list of things to throw away. Arianna Huffington, an influential journalist in America, made a list of things she was not good at, things she didn’t like, and things she thought she might be able to do it someday but in reality, there was no possibility in doing it, on her 40th birthday. For example, one of the things in…

Even One Seed with All My Heart

My heart is only filled with hope for heaven now. It’s because earnestness and the sense of mission which I didn’t have before have filled me. It’s already been more than half a year since I came to Australia. I remember the day I preached the gospel here for the first time. I couldn’t express what I wanted to say because of my poor English, and couldn’t understand what they were speaking. Just following the brothers and sisters, I was surprised that people at the malls or on campus or some other places would listen to the words of the Bible for thirty minutes or even for an hour. Is this how Peter felt when Jesus made him a fisher…

Shim Eun-jeong from Sydney, Australia

Helper’s High

When you help others without conditions, a quantity of endorphins secrete and make you feel good and also bring good changes to your body. This finding is called Helper’s High in psychiatric term. Literally, it means the best psychological satiety the person, who gives help, feels. An experiment shows that among 3,000 volunteers who help others over eight hours a week, 95% experience a helper’s high. A forced service is no different. One legal profession, who mainly deal with criminals, says that under trials who’ve received a suspended sentence of probation and community service order, initially do the service by force, but that they gradually do with sincerity. Service is helping others of course, but it also changes me. When…

A Letter to Dad

A nine-year-old boy named Mac, who lived in Alaska, baked cupcakes and hosted a party every year on the birthday of his father, who was killed in Afghanistan in 2009. This year, however, he wrote a special letter. “Dear Dad, I have some questions. What is it like to be in a tank? How old are you now? How old were you when you died? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite animal? What is your favorite hobby? What is your favorite activity? What is it like to be in heaven? Have you seen what I have accomplished?” Mac was only five when he lost his dad. So, he was curious about many things concerning his dad. He…

With Beautiful Hearts Together

Members from the Cape Town Church and the Bellville Church gathered together for a blood drive. Through previous meetings, we made a thorough preparation for pickets, refreshments, and recreation for the blood donors who would be waiting for their turns. When the event day came, we got even busier getting ready to welcome people. At 3 p.m., the blood drive started with the words of appreciation given by the officials of the blood bank. Thanks to the Zion members and the invited guests, the waiting room was crowded without an empty seat. The process of checking the health status of each person before the blood donation took longer than expected, but no one complained, because we took care of even…

Churches in Cape Town and Bellville, Rep. of South Africa