Study the Bible!

“And He opened their understanding, that they might comprehend the Scriptures.” Luke 24:45.

Happy new year to you all. We say this each year, but time did go by real quick, didn’t it? And yet I am just thankful to God for giving us another year of life. It’s exciting to think about the wonderful blessings God will allow us in the new year. Also, we can be assured that we are now one year closer to the second coming of Jesus Christ.

You know, when Jesus was arrested and crucified the disciples and His followers fell into complete chaos. They didn’t know what to do. It seemed their meaning in life was gone and they were completely disappointed. When Jesus was resurrected the disciples heard about it and yet they couldn’t believe what they were hearing. It didn’t convince them. Finally Jesus appeared in front of them. And you know what Jesus did? He gave them a Bible study! It was a refresher for them. It was not the first time they were studying the Bible but Jesus had to spend time in explaining to them the Bible.

A similar experience is found in the first part of the chapter as Jesus decided to walk with the two disciples as they were heading towards Emmaus. Verse 27 says, “And beginning at Moses and the all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.” It was not like they never heard of it before. They forgot.

I pray that in the new year that we make it a habit of studying the Word of God regularly. One thing I noticed with long time Christians is that they are familiar with the beliefs and teachings of the Bible but when asked in details, they don’t know how to answer them. It’s because we don’t study the Bible regularly. The one time study in the past is not good enough. You cannot rely on the pastor’s sermon on Sabbaths. You have to study the Bible for yourself on a regular basis. The New Year is here, please study the Bible. If the disciples couldn’t remember the Scriptures (especially when they were with Jesus for over 3 years), how can we remember the Words if we don’t study them regularly?

One last time

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.” 2 Peter 3:9.

Sebin loves reading books. My mother and Hyemi’s mother shipped to us many Korean books and so we have many of them at our house. And Sebin just loves to read! But she doesn’t like reading them by herself. It’s kind of obvious because she cannot read. So whenever she wants to read, Sebin will pull out a book from the shelf and bring it to either one of us and we would read to her.

This is just the beginning. When we are done with the book, Sebin puts the book away and goes for the second book. She’s not done yet. She goes for the third book, and so on! She doesn’t stop! When it’s time for bed we tell her that we need to stop reading and go upstairs. She says no! Then we tell her, “Let’s read two more books and go to bed.” So Sebin brings a book. We say, “Two more books.” We read and then say, “One more book. This is the LAST book.” It seems Sebin doesn’t fully understand the word ‘last.’ When we are done with the last book, Sebin says, “One more last book!” We tell Sebin that is not what ‘last’ means but she doesn’t care. She has to read at least 3 more ‘last’ books and then finally goes to bed!

I wonder if that is God the other way around. To God, ‘last’ doesn’t mean ‘last.’ God is patient with us. He is ‘longsuffering’ toward us. He wants to give it another try with us because He is loving, merciful, and patient. God dearly wants to be with us that, even though when we mess up He says, “OK, one last time…” again and again. We are now at the last week of this year and we have a new year coming up within a week. We should look back at how much God has been patient with us in our mistakes and count the times He has said, “Ok, one last time.”

1 Samuel 15:22

“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams.” 1 Samuel 15:22

When Hyemi and Sebin returned back from Korea, Sebin brought new toys that grandparents bought for her. It seems like half of the luggage were toys. One of the new toys that she brought was a very fish tank where you can put in toy fish. You fill the small tank with water. After that you can turn the switch on. When you press a button music will come on with bubbles in the little tank and the toy fish would move around. Sebin loves it.

Well, Sebin insisted that she put the little aquarium right in front of the television. I am already freaked out because you know what babies can do. I didn’t want the small tank to knock over, spill water, and cause trouble with the television! You just can’t predict what the baby would do! So I would tell her that we’ll move the tank to somewhere safe, but for some reason Sebin had to put it there.

Thankfully, Sebin never knocked it over and ruin the television, until a few days ago. I was ironing my shirt next to the television and Sebin was playing around me. Suddenly Sebin became quiet. When babies get silent, it’s a sign that they are up to something. I looked up. Sebin said proudly, ‘Daddy I am cleaning the TV!” She put her hands in the small tank to wet her hand and she was wiping the television screen! I shouted, “No!!!!!!!!!!!”

Oh, Sebin had good intentions. She wanted to help daddy. But the method was wrong. I wonder if that’s the mistake Saul had made. He clearly disobeyed God’s instructions. When Saul was to attack Amalek, he was not to spare any life. Yet, when Saul won the battle, he spared the life of the king and the best of the animals. Then he made a sacrifice to the Lord. Making sacrifice seems to be good after all. Intentions seemed to be good in his own eyes. But he clearly disobeyed God.

John 12:43

“For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” John 12:43.

When you are scuba diving under the water, all the live wild life is in the strong current. One time our team went down to a shark point. It was a dive point where you can see a lot of sharks. But there is always a strong current so in order for you to stay in one spot to enjoy watching all the big sharks, you have to use a hook to hook yourself to the bottom of the point. Otherwise you would be swept by the current for it would be nearly impossible to use the fin to fight the current to stay in one place. It would be much easier to just let go and stay in the current. Just go wherever the current leads you. But if you do that, you’d miss out on the great view.

It seems that’s what the rulers were doing back then. Verse 42 tells that the rulers believed in Jesus (as He performed great things, and recently, Jesus brought Lazarus back to life) yet they could not confess due to the Pharisees. They did not want to be put out of the synagogue. They were not willing to fight the current to watch the great view, which is receiving the reward of salvation as we confess to believe in Jesus. They gave in and went along with the current. Peer pressure is something that is not easy going against. And for these rulers, it wasn’t just peer pressure, they would be cast out of the social connections and the community, since they’d be kicked out of the synagogue. Hence, it was persecution for them.

What about us? There will be a time when people will give us trouble for expressing our faith in Jesus Christ. What should we do? Should we give in to the current and go with the flow like the rest of the world? Or should we learn to hook ourselves on to Jesus and be able to receive the rewards that He has prepared for us? You know the answer.

From Daytona Beach

“Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.” 1 Kings 19:18.

I am writing this from Daytona Beach in Florida. I have never been to this state before so it’s been a wonderful time for me to visit here with my family, enjoying the weather, the view, and a wonderful time here.

However, we didn’t come here on vacation. Southern Union has been hosting an Evangelism Conference for the past 30 years and I had the opportunity to attend this event this year. To sum up the experience in one sentence: it’s been a tremendous blessing to me. I didn’t fully understand what I would gain from this event but I have to say I have learned a lot. The seminars and the discussions were amazing and it’s been an eye opener in many ways.

But the best thing I learned here is that we are not alone. I was able to resonate with the challenges that the pastors were facing and I wasn’t the only one. It was a reminder that there are many Adventists out there with the same visions, prayers, challenges, and passion. This has been exciting for me because I have noticed certain challenges in our district. But we aren’t the only districts like that. The better news is that God has not given up. He has special plans for us. We are to be His vessels and when we learn to trust Him and abide by His plans, He will be able to do great things for us.

Church, remember, we are not alone in this. I pray that we can get the same blessings Elijah received in his difficult times! Look forward to seeing you all soon.