Music and singing!

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.” Colossians 3:16

I know that many of you like to listen to music. I like listening to music as well. When Hyemi is cooking, doing dishes, or doing house chores, she likes to turn this smartphone music application on. She likes to listen to certain genres like Christian choir music or classical music. And this app plays the music randomly online so we don’t know what music will come on. While Hyemi is doing her work, I am at the desk doing some work and I can hear the music loud and clear as it is played. Suddenly I find myself humming to the music whenever a familiar song comes out. I am sure you have similar experiences as well.

You may be singing to the music that is on the air, or just sing while driving, or even shake your body in rhythm along the music. I see Sebin doing that all the time. You can see her feeling the music and dance. That is pretty adorable. Music is powerful. And it is a great way for us to express our feelings and thoughts. The Bible encourages us to express ourselves in music towards God.

Paul teaches us that we get really acquainted with the Word of God, and as God’s Word dwell in your heard we should sing to the Lord. Paul makes another similar statement in Ephesians 5:19 saying, “speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.”

Paul himself practiced what he said. Acts 16:25 says: “But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singings hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.” Music is a big part in our everyday life. It can be used in many ways, but let us use music and our singing for the purpose of praising God! 

GC 458

“It was not the will of God that Israel should wander forty years in the wilderness; He desired to lead them directly to the land of Canaan and establish them there, a holy, happy people. But ‘they could not enter in because of unbelief.’ Hebrews 3:19. Because of their backsliding and apostasy they perished in the desert, and others were raised up to enter the Promised Land. In like manner, it was not the will of God that the coming of Christ should be so long delayed and His people should remain so many years in this world of sin and sorrow. But unbelief separated them from God. As they refused to do the work which He had appointed them, others were raised up to proclaim the message. In mercy to the world, Jesus delays His coming, that sinners may have an opportunity to hear the warning and find in Him a shelter before the wrath of God shall be poured out.” GC 458.1

I spent some time reading the Great Controversy book this week. It’s such an important book that when I try to read it I take my time as much as I can. I try to read the paragraphs over and over again because I want to make sure I understood what I read and that I don’t miss out on any important information. My eyes stopped at the above passage. It really spoke to me and I hope that it speaks to you as well.

You remember my last sermon on part one of the “#40days series.” One of the main focus was our willingness to obey God and go out to tell about Jesus. I believe the above text encourages us. I pray that it will motivate us to stand up to work for Jesus. The one thing we all want is the second coming of Jesus. Ellen White encourages us to ‘believe.’ As we believe, we will be guided by the Holy Spirit that we can go and tell about Jesus to the people around us.

Matthew 24

I could not believe what I was reading on the news today as I was reading about the Malaysia Airlines flight number 17. It was flying from Amsterdam to Malaysia and as it was flying over Ukraine air space it was shot down causing 298 passengers to death. On the other hand, I have been hearing news about Israel all week long. In fact, we have been exposed to all sorts of tragic events around the world for some time. It reminded me of what Jesus said in Matthew 24:

“Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of ward. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but then end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up tribulation to kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come… Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” v. 4-14, 30,31.

I wanted to type out all of these verses for it gives exact details of what will happen and what we need to know and do. What we know for sure is that Jesus is coming soon. And Jesus tells us to endure it to the end. Even if all these tragic news discourage you, let’s look to Jesus. And let us hope in the soon coming of Jesus.

What a relief to know!

“He who testifies to these things says, ‘Surely I am coming quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus!” Revelation 22:20

Since you know that I am a big soccer fan let me talk about the World Cup again. When we were still at campmeeting there was this camp staff who was from Brazil. As you know, Brazilians, along with many other South American countries, are super crazy about soccer.

One day during campmeeting Brazil was playing a World Cup game and due to work this staff couldn’t watch the game. So she decided to wait until the day was over and watch a recorded game. In order to prevent from knowing the result of the game, she turned off all of her devices.

She was pretty successful about not hearing the game score until she met me. I was excited about the game that Brazil was playing in, and I had been following the game on my phone. Brazil won that game. So when I saw this staff, I said, “Congratulations!” And she got really, really mad. She had failed in trying not to hear the game score and now she would have to watch the recorded game knowing what would be the result of the game.

When it comes to the great controversy between good and evil, we know the results. The Bible teaches us what will happen. We know and believe that Jesus will be victorious and He will return back to take us to where He is. Isn’t that great? In this war, I prefer to know the results than not knowing it. It is a relief to know that God will win. And that He will save us. So for us, because we have confidence in what the Bible teaches us, we should learn to be faithful to God no matter what. Revelation 14:12 tells us, “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.”

God and rain

“Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” Matthew 8:26

Let me share with you what we experienced last Saturday evening. Campmeeting was over. Usually when campmeeting is over, the pastors and the camp staff wait until Sunday morning for Camp Strike to take down the meeting tents. But this year due to Camp Wakonda schedule we had to do Camp Strike on Saturday evening as soon as the Sabbath over. Things were challenging. We didn’t have much time. We didn’t have sunlight. And we were expecting rain.

All week long we prayed that we would have a fair weather on Saturday night. We couldn’t get the gigantic meeting tents wet. Otherwise we would have to wait until they get dry and then store them. Unfortunately the weather forecast had said there was high chance of rain that night. We prayed that God would hold the rain.

When the sun had set, all the pastors and the staff worked hard together to take down everything. We made some good team effort and it was joyous and fun. God kept everyone safe and we were able to take all the tents down in 3 hours! Now here is the exciting part: The last tent came down. We folded the tents and were put into a huge box. The very moment the last box of tents was stored away, at that very moment, rain started pouring down! God had been holding the rain for us! We praised God for His goodness. God can do mighty things for us when we ask.