For years I have tried to have the JOY family to get into the Scriptures. While many have take extraordinary steps to consume the word of God (for example, Jacob Chung's group finishing the Bible in a year), I suspect that the vast majority are not even reading the Bible regularly.

During summer, I would like to provide you with some devotional help.

I. Each day you will receive a simple devotional guide. We will start easy: just one chapter of the Bible during July. Then, 2 chapters during Aug. By the end of Aug, you will finish all the letters of St. Paul! At the end, if you do not want it, you will not do it. But with a little help and encouragement, maybe you will get into the habit of this basic necessity of our spiritual life.

The following is the guideline. It has three steps:
1. 1-2 songs of worship (you can use your own worship music, or youtube. Plenty of great music.) You can use the ABC's of adoring God.
2. Bible reading: You will receive a few questions to reflect and pray about.
3. Prayer using the Lord's Prayer
a. "Our Father Who Art in Heaven" -- Acknowledge that God is your Father. You are His child. He loves you
b. "Hallowed be Thy Name" -- Worship God, acknowledge His characteristics: his power, love, etc.
c. "Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will Be Done on earth as it is in heaven." -- Pray for God's Kingdom before your own needs, for example, for your friends who need God, for church, ministry, the poor, missions, etc.
d. "Give us today our daily bread." -- Pray for your needs: your job, finance, emotional needs, etc. Anything that weighs on your heart.
e. "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us." -- Ask for forgiveness, and forgive those who sinned against you.
f. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." -- Pray for spiritual protection.
g. "For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glorfy forever." -- End with worship.

I encourage you to pray through the Lord's prayer everyday. It is the best prayer guide.

II. Besides personal devotion, I ask you to find "marvelous comrades." You may use your LTG partners, or get back to them if you have not met for a while. If you never had an accountability partner, search them out today. Find at least one or two others. Get together with them weekly and share what God is speaking to you and to pray for one another. During summer, without TLC, I encourage you to begin this. I hope you will continue even after summer.

So, let's begin today:
1. Songs: listen to some songs by Matt Redman on youtube, or any other music. Worship God as you listen.

2. Read Romans 1
Questions 1) Paul identifies himself as a servant of Christ. What is your self-identity?
2) Paul thanks God in v. 8 for Romans. What can you thank God for?
3) Paul writes the process of how a person's heart gets corrupted (vv. 18-32). How do you see that around you? Are you in danger of becoming corrupt?
4) Pray for things that God impressed upon your heart, whether thanksgiving, conviction, things to obey, repent, etc.

3. Pray (using the Lord's Prayer)

Summer Spiritual Helps

For years I have tried to have the JOY family to get into the Scriptures. While many have take extraordinary steps to consume the word of God (for example, Jacob Chung's group finishing the Bible in a year), I suspect that the vast majority are not even reading the Bible regularly.


During summer, I would like to provide you with some devotional help.

I. Each day you will receive a simple devotional guide. We will start easy: just one chapter of the Bible during July. Then, 2 chapters during Aug. By the end of Aug, you will finish all the letters of St. Paul! At the end, if you do not want it, you will not do it. But with a little help and encouragement, maybe you will get into the habit of this basic necessity of our spiritual life.



The following is the guideline. It has three steps:

1. 1-2 songs of worship (you can use your own worship music, or youtube. Plenty of great music.) You can use the ABC's of adoring God.

2. Bible reading: You will receive a few questions to reflect and pray about.

3. Prayer using the Lord's Prayer

a. "Our Father Who Art in Heaven" -- Acknowledge that God is your Father. You are His child. He loves you

b. "Hallowed be Thy Name" -- Worship God, acknowledge His characteristics: his power, love, etc.

c. "Thy Kingdom Come. Thy Will Be Done on earth as it is in heaven." -- Pray for God's Kingdom before your own needs, for example, for your friends who need God, for church, ministry, the poor, missions, etc.

d. "Give us today our daily bread." -- Pray for your needs: your job, finance, emotional needs, etc. Anything that weighs on your heart.

e. "Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who have sinned against us." -- Ask for forgiveness, and forgive those who sinned against you.

f. "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." -- Pray for spiritual protection.

g. "For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glorfy forever." -- End with worship.



I encourage you to pray through the Lord's prayer everyday. It is the best prayer guide.



II. Besides personal devotion, I ask you to find "marvelous comrades." You may use your LTG partners, or get back to them if you have not met for a while. If you never had an accountability partner, search them out today. Find at least one or two others. Get together with them weekly and share what God is speaking to you and to pray for one another. During summer, without TLC, I encourage you to begin this. I hope you will continue even after summer.



So, let's begin today:

1. Songs: listen to some songs by Matt Redman on youtube, or any other music. Worship God as you listen.



2. Read Romans 1

Questions

1) Paul identifies himself as a servant of Christ. What is your self-identity?

2) Paul thanks God in v. 8 for Romans. What can you thank God for?

3) Paul writes the process of how a person's heart gets corrupted (vv. 18-32). How do you see that around you? Are you in danger of becoming corrupt?

4) Pray for things that God impressed upon your heart, whether thanksgiving, conviction, things to obey, repent, etc.


3. Pray (using the Lord's Prayer)

5/7 National Day of Prayer

I have been encouraged by our people. The response to the 40 days of Repair Your Altar has been enthusiastic. Several have come up to me immediately after the launch and said something like, "I have been wanting to restore my spiritual life, but did not know what to do. I am so excited about the 40 days because we can do it together." Those responses tell me that our people have spiritual hunger. They will not let their spiritual lives slide passively. Since the launch on Sun, I have attended both the morning prayer (I come at 7am when some have already left) and evening Marveling Place. There also, I have been encouraged. The attendance has increased significantly. People are truly seeking God.

If you have not join the campaign, I urge you to join today. 1) Fast: some time-eating, non-life-giving activities like watching TV, or surfing the net and a meal a week for devotion; 2) Feast: devotion (Scriptures reading; we will provide more materials); 3) Focus to hear God. Ask God to speak to you during the 40 days. I encourage you to do it together with another person(s). It's always easier together than alone. If you have co-workers who are Christians, ask them to do it with you. If not, find someone from your TLC. If you are homemaker-mom, take this time to form a spiritual comaraderie with other moms. Reject spiritual passivity. You are called to make an eternal difference.

Coincidentally, tomorrow is the National Day of Prayer. What wonderful opportunity to pray for our nation! I encourage you to boldly ask your co-workers to pray for your company and for the country. Make it be known that you are a Christian, and you are praying for your company and the nation.

Warning: Fogs and Tentacles

Someone shared yesterday about a vision (a mental picture) one of his TLC members had last Sunday. In the vision the member saw a group of people, some of them JOY members, standing in a fellowship setting. Then, a fog came and surrounded them. Out of the fog came out tentacles that separated people from each other. The fog represented a spirit of confusion that comes over people that prevents people from seeing clearly; the tentacles represented works of the devil that try to separate people and create division.

As we considered what is happening in some of the members' lives, we could tell this type of division was at work. Some people are upset at each other, and some have not attended church for a while because of relational strains. Others want to leave a TLC, etc. Going forward, we see a greater possibility of division, with the elder selection process for example.

It is imperative that we pursue unity of the spirit. After St. Paul severely rebuked an immoral member of the church, and after a time of the member's repentance, St. Paul asked the church to forgive and restore him to fellowship for "we are not unaware of the devil's schemes" (2 Corinthians 2:11). What is the devil's scheme? To create division in the church, and through that division destroy people's spiritual lives. And that kind of scheme happens constantly around us. People leave churches because they are hurt by someone and eventually quit their relationship with God. These are not just small relational problems that we can overlook. People's eternal destinies are at stake. It is imperative that we pursue the unity of the spirit.

The best way to do it is first to pray. Pray for protection. Pray for humility among us all to seek unity. Before we try to humanly bring unity, we need to pray, for our struggle is not against people, but against the spiritual forces of evil (Eph. 6:12). Second, we reach out to people, humble ourselves and reconcile. Do not let one person perish because of our pride. We commit ourselves to do all we can to restore fellowship, knowing that their eternal life may be at stake.

After hearing about the vision, the group of us spent time praying for protection of our church. This morning, I shared the vision at our staff meeting and again prayed for protection. I ask you right now to pray for protection of the church, and if you know of anyone who has fallen away because of relational issues that you would reach out, call, email, etc., and bring them back to fellowship. Blessings.

Elder Nomination

The ball is rolling. In February JOY passed the bylaw and affirmed the decision to go forward with the eldership. After getting the board's input, I have selected the nominating committee. We decided to choose five members so that the burden would not fall on few shoulders but shared broadly. At the same time, we did not want the number to be too big thus causing the process to consume too much time. The nominating committee members are: Sung Park, Paul Lee, Kathy Lee, Sandy Moon and Susan Yom .

Nominating committee plays a very important role in selecting elders. Therefore, I prayed and looked for the following characteristics in selecting the nominating committee: People who deeply care about the church, are respected leaders of the church and will give discerning and unbiased opinions. I also chose people who represent different pools of people in the church.

There is no mystery in elder selection process. Besides the biblical requirements about elders (1 Timothy 3:1-7, Titus 1:5-9), we are looking for people who 1) have no selfish ambition in serving as an elder, 2) have wisdom and discernment, 3) are conciliatory in nature, and thus seeking harmony, 4) have leadership (others respect them as leaders), 5) are long time members of JOY, 6) supportive of pastors, and 7) people who together will bring a mixture of gifts to the church leadership.

Starting now, these people will take charge of the nomination process. They will ask for nominations, screen and interview them, and eventually provide me with the short list from which the elders will be chosen. Once chosen, they will be affirmed in the congregation vote, go through training (proposed period is six-months) and once they pass the elder ordination exam, they will be ordained publicly. This is an important step our church is taking, so please keep the elder selection process in prayer throughout the whole period.

It's Lent. Have you been praying?

For the first time in Bergen County Asian-American history, seven churches have been gathering every Friday for praise and prayer during this Lent season, moving from one church to another. The Bible and history demonstrate two elements are necessary for revival--unity and prayer--and through the joint prayer, we are trying to accomplish exactly that. Although the overall participation is encouraging, I find the lack of JOY members' participation disappointing. There are the usual faithfuls who show up at every Friday prayer, but I had hoped that many who usually do not come out to pray would come out, it being a special Lent season. I am mostly disappointed about that. Even in this dire economic climate, most remained unmoved. For some people, especially parents of young children, I understand the difficulties. Still, even for them, I long for the old days, like when I was a young boy. My mother took me to the prayer services, which was completely age-irrelevant to me; I found it boring, frequently fell asleep in the middle of the service, etc., but in those services I caught something. The spirit of revival. I felt the Holy Spirit move in those passionate prayers. And those prayers changed the nation--in this case, the nation of South Korea. I wish those days would come to us, that the spirit of desperation would descend upon us, and we would pray as though the world depends on our prayers; and it does.

We are living in a momentous point in history. The tipping point of history is upon us. It is not time to sit idle with TV. It is not even time to panic with news. It is time to pray. The world is moved by God, and prayer moves God. It is time to come together and pray. The people of God must take up their battle positions to pray and change history.

"I have posted watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem; they will never be silent day or night. You who call on the LORD, give yourselves no rest, and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem and makes her the praise of the earth." (Isa 62:6, 7)

Manhattan Site

I am preparing to launch JOY's third site in Manhattan. For those who wonder why we would want to do that, I write this blog entry. A year and a half ago, we began looking for a second site to provide room for growth. That search led to the Edgewater Site. However, what began as a simple search for physical room to grow led to a total paradigm shift of how we would do church. As the congregation prayed for one month concerning the decision to have a second site, God began to give us confirmations via many people. One verse particularly struck me: "Jesus went through every city and village, preaching the good news of the Kingdom of God" (Luke 8:1). This is a most simple verse describing Jesus' ministry, but it struck me hard. Until then my paradigm of doing church was : build it as large as you can and have people come to you. However, this verse showed a different picture: Go where people are and build churches. Jesus did not put up a large tent and gathered people from all over the country; he went to people and preached the gospel. Thus, before we launched the Edgewater Site, we had changed how we would go forward. We would look for places where churches are needed--especially places where concentrations of Asian-Americans live without Asian-American church presence--and build churches. As we started the Edgewater service, we were already planning for the third site for the fall of 2009.

I thought the third site would be near Parsippany. I never thought of going into NYC. What a wild idea! How daunting it looked. However, some people shared with me their impressions from God that the third site would be in NYC. These were unsolicited; therefore, I began to mull over this possibility and inquired what other people, especially those who live in NYC, thought. The responses were enthusiastic: "We need JOY in NYC. People want to come to JOY but cannot because it is in NJ," etc. Thus, we began seriously thinking, and it made more and more sense that the third site would be in Manhattan--where massive number of Asian-Americans live with limited church presence. Julie and I also visited the Redeemer Church and The Journey Church and came back more convinced that JOY will have a role to play in NYC.

The Manhattan site launch will not be as Edgewater launch. It will be much more limited. Edgewater launch was a passive structural change: 70-80 people coming out to start a new service. For Manhattan site, I expect 20-30 from JOY to come out. While Edgewater was a like division of forces in half, Manhattan will be like sending a special force.

Therefore, we are looking for mission-minded people, people who look forward to the hard work of tilling a new soil, people who want to begin something for the sake of many. Already a good number of mission-minded people have signed up. If you are interested, please let me know. We need people who will lead TLC's, ministries, and worship band (for worship band, please talk to Kevin Jun if interested kevinjun@gmail.com) . If not, please assist us with prayer that many will be brought to God's Kingdom through this new site.

We will be duplicating what we are already doing at Tenafly and Edgewater. I think the service will begin at 4:30pm, somewhere midtown. I will preach. TLC will take place immediately following the service, just as at Tenafly and Edgewater.