Gray and Toward the Grave

My hair began to turn gray. First one here and one there, and my kids loved to pull them out. It was a great pastime. Then, gray began to come out in multitudes. I had to tell them, "Sorry to stop your fun, but you have to stop pulling them out, or your dad will turn bald."

A few weeks ago, my gray hair began to bother me. I think I am going through my midlife crisis. It bugged me to the point that I wanted to dye it. I did not understand it before, but I realize that midlife crisis is encounter with your own mortality. We all know that we will die, but we don't KNOW, that is, it does not grab us emotionally and shake us so that we have to face it squarely, until something, or some things begin to happen. In my case, that something is my gray hair.

Honestly, it is aggravating, to have to face this undeniable reminder that I am moving closer to the grave. But there is a great benefit: I get to live each day more fully, for I know that the clock is ticking, and it has always been ticking. I spend less time on frivolous activities. I focus more. I make my day count. I live more fully.

Remember: New Levels, New Devils!

We are living in an exciting time. The testimonies we hear on Sundays are astounding--healing from emotional wounds of many years, liberation from suicidal spirit to giddy joy, prophetic words that breaks open closed hearts, etc. And these things are happening regularly now. We are almost living the Book of Acts. We are grateful.

At the same time, great challenges have come upon several. Near experiences. Violent clashes with parents, and a house being robbed. How often do these things happen in the life of a church. And all these have happened in just this past 2 months! We are living in an unusual time.

Remember: New Levels, New Devils. With the spiritual upgrading, so do the challenges. BUT DO NOT BE AFRAID. God is still in control. God does not allow anything apart from our benefit. The challenges will expose the hidden in our soul and if we would respond with faith, make us more whole. Trials pass, and if we respond right, character remains. If not, we fall away. A month ago I spoke about the time of shaking that is upon us. It is. It is no time to fear. It is rather the time to press on even more into Christ. The devil will not have the last word. He will be vanquished by the faithful with the help of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Be on guard, and always respond forward into Christ.

Answers to Questions about Assurance of Salvation

A few weeks ago I spoke on "False Assurance of Salvation." Since then I asked people to send me questions about the sermon and I would respond. Two questions came. First was about clarification of the necessity to bear spiritual fruit: "Unless your life bears spiritual fruit, you are probably not saved." Answer: The statement was made to address false assurance of salvation. In short, "just saying the prayer" does not make you saved as though the prayer is an incantation. Rather, if the prayer was genuine, it would be followed with a life of pursuit after God and His righteousness, which will naturally bear spiritual fruit like love, joy, peace, kindness, etc. Salvation is an organic process; if the salvation is genuine, it will show in life. The statement was not made to turn salvation into salvation of works--that we have to prove it. Rather, if the salvation is genuine, its effect will show. The questioner suggested, would it not be more helpful to say, "you can not be sure of salvation unless there is fruit, so please reexamine your life and receive Jesus as Lord and Savior?" I completely concur.

Second question concerned "people who accepted Christ right before they die (e.g., at a hospital). Are those people saved?" Of course, they can be. The criminal who died next to Jesus on the cross entered Paradise! There is no time to examine whether that person's confession of faith was genuine. We can only hope.

At the end, we must examine our lives. Are we saved? When we received Christ, did we really mean to follow Christ as our Lord? Are we following Christ now? Did we in any way fall away from Christ and need to repent and get back to Him? Paul told the Corinthian believers to "examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith" (2 Cor. 13:5). He was saying it to those who went to church! We must examine ourselves.

New Levels, New Devils

There is an increase of activities of the Holy Spirit at JOY. At the same time some people have mentioned how they have experienced increased level of spiritual attacks, whether in the forms of direct attack such as "physical" oppression (choking sensation with a clear presence of a demon/s) or through people's criticism or opposition. When such attacks come, those who are inexperienced can get discouraged: "I am seeking God hard. Why are these things happening to me?" These attacks, however, are signs of encouragement. They show that you have caught the devils' attention. They consider you a threat, so they come against you. The Bible promises that if you resist the devil, he will flee from you (James 4:7). So that's another encouragement. In other words, the attacks will not last forever. After a season, the devil has to flee.

When I experienced an increased level of attack one or two years ago, Bob Hartley mentioned, "New Levels, New Devils." That is easy to understand, isn't it? You move up the level spiritually, and your opponents will be stronger too. However, be encouraged instead of being discouraged, for that is how we grow. God strengthens us further so that we overcome the new devils, and we move up and up and up.

God's call for us all is that we be fully mature and make differences for His Kingdom. The increase of attacks? These are good news. Let's continue to pray.

Man Hit by Lightening Survives, Power of God

Scott Jough was hit by lightening last week during vacation in Mass. He survived. Fortunately, the lightening was not a direct hit. It hit the ground, traveled and hit Scott near his shoulder, went through his organs and went out of his leg. Scott remembers nothing. He was instantaneously knocked unconscious. He suffered no organ damage and will be released within a day or two. The family is thankful to God. Had Scott been a few feet from where he was, or had it struck his son, Peter, whom somehow Scott covered, the story would have turned out differently. The family is thankful to God's protection.

In the mean time, God is demonstrating His power at JOY in different ways. Regular people are being filled with the Holy Spirit and used by God to heal one another, cast out demons and speak prophetically to one another unto inner healing and encouragement. This has been happening for four weeks now. At the Alpha retreat two weekends ago, I am told, everyone was touched by God through these people. I am very excited because this is exactly what happened in the Book of Acts--God using average people supernaturally.

I am reminded about St. Paul's statement: "My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom, but on God's power (1 Cor. 2:4, 5). Also, 1 Cor. 4:20, "the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power." Christian faith is not about arguing better, but about the demonstration of the power of God, and that is what's happening. We cannot be more thankful.

For next few Thu. nights, we will gather to learn more about the Holy Spirit and the ministry through spiritual gifts, and to answer any questions. We welcome all who is interested in what is happening.

Healing ual and Relational Brokenness

Andy was a homosexual. Annette was ually abused as a . Now they are married and leading a ministry dedicated to bringing healing in ual and relational brokenness. It is called Desert Stream.

If one area exists where probably just about everyone is broken, it is uality, my seminary professor once said. The brokenness is manifested not only in conspicuous things like homosexuality or ography, but also in subtle things like power struggle between a husband and a wife in marriage, or fear in dating scenes among singles. The confusion and distortion run the whole depth of humanity, from shallowest to deepest. What God in His goodness has created for beauty and joy has become a source of perversion and pain. How we wish we could restore it! We must restore it, and we can, by the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

I am reading Andrew Comiskey’s Strength in Weakness: Healing ual and Relational Brokenness. I hope you will read it also. To whet your appetite, I typed about 1.5 pages of his book below. A caution in reading it though: do not read it to accuse the other (male or female), but to acknowledge our own wrong in this relationship, confess and seek healing.

"The fallen pair set in motion a struggle for power that has raged since time's beginning. Whereas in Eden they complemented one another in wholeness, outside the garden the genders tend to merge in brokenness.

In the case of a woman, we see her greater relational capacity becoming a potential for sin. She now years for a man's love inordinately--a tendency that places her at risk of making a god out of a mere mortal. This occurs when she allows herself to be subject to the broken creation in a manner that eclipses the primacy of the Creator in her life. From this flow the sins of a woman compromising her dignity to satisfy a man's cruel demands. Her idolatry is paired with the sin of self-hatred.

Many men reinforce this idolatry through requiring much of a woman and yet giving little. They want leadership without the cost of serving a woman in love. They may even justify the imbalance on the grounds that men are superior… and thus entitled to receive more than she does. This can lead to all manner of boorish, demeaning behaviors toward women. At the root such sin involves misogyny, or the hatred and dishonor of woman.

Modern women often tend toward a counterreaction to this traditional idolatry. A woman may ignore her ned for men altogether. This is a posture of worldly justice; the woman now exists in reaction to the man's historic cruelty. She becomes larger than the man--more confident, more capable and free to need him no longer. In reaction to his abuses, she now refuses him. Her sin involves the suppression of her good and appropriate need for the man. She complements his misogyny with misandry, the hatred and dishonor of man.

Many men today grow up in a culture rife with misandry and misogyny. The battle for justice has resulted in evolving gender roles. This confusion, combined with a lack of adequate fathering, can leave men boyish and underdeveloped in their masculinity. They are thus prone to bonding with women in their immaturity.

Unsure of himself, this type of male does not lord himself over the woman in his life, but neither does he love her with the clarity and commitment that healthy relationships require. His presence may be underwhelming; hers, larger than life. She retains control through her greater function in the relationship and yet resents him for his littleness. Her disrepect reinforces his disempowerment. He remains at odds with himself and subject to self-contempt. She struggles for security in her oversized, maternal posture. Both need to confess the sins of not standing in their true status: man and woman before the Creator. Their mother-child dynamic undermines God's intent for his image bearers.

Related to this boyish immaturity is a pervasive theme I see in men today--the tendency toward narcissism. Here the man, unaffirmed and self-absorbed, engages the woman with a limited capacity to give himself to her. The relationship revolves around him. Even then he is nearly unable to love her, to extend himself beyond the awareness of his own desires. He sees her only to the degree that she satisfies him.

Such chronic selfishness can be cured only if it is acknowledged. Confessing the idolatry of self is the beginning of healing here. This requires more than the other party's long. It must involve the clear witness that such a self-serving posture is wrong. Otherwise the one partner can contribute to the idolatry of the narcissistic other." (Strength through Weakness, Andrew Comiskey, 103-5)

America My Country?

I am in Kansas City, praying for a couple of weeks. Julie, my beau, and I came here right after JAMA Conference on July 4th. We went straight from the airport (Eddie picked us up) to Bob Hartley's house. He was having a 4th of July party. By the time we arrived, the party was well on the way. About 30 s and children sat in the backyard, thanking God for independence.

As I put my foot in the backyard, I had a culture shock. I consider myself Korean-American. I am an American citizen. Yet, as I saw the non-Asian Americans, mostly Caucasian Americans, I could not help feel less American. (Julie thinks it's because there were older Caucasians.) I had to mentally tell myself that I am an American.

Later people shared prayers and poems for America. When Bob asked if anyone had anything else to share, I shared the "Declaration of Dependence" we drafted for JAMA conference. When Bob asked if I wanted to read it or should he, I said, "I think it will be good to have an Asian-American read it." People were deeply moved. (It may find its way to some newspapers.)

Do we consider ourselves fully American? Korean-American, or Chinese-American, but fully American nonetheless? Or do we consider ourselves less American than fully American? That is to say, do we take full ownership of this great country? Do we feel responsible for this nation's well being, and do all we can to make it blessed? Or do we sit by the sideline of this nation?

The key theme of JAMA conference is to instill ownership of this nation to Korean-Americans. God has brought us here to make this nation great. We must step into the ownership of this nation. When people think of American in the future, may they think of Asians because God is using us to make America great, for God's glory.