When we pray

“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites… But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.” Matthew 6:5,6.

So we started playing hide-and-seek in the house. Sebin has so much fun when she is playing hide-and-seek with me. I mean, the house is small and there is not that many places where I can hide but she loves it! Sebin is not afraid of counting in the closet. So she goes in to count to a certain number before she starts looking for me. Once she is done counting she zooms out of the closet and runs (yes, she runs around) to look for me. She doesn’t slow down the pace and she would be running all around the place to look for me!

The funny thing is that I am hiding in the most obvious places but she just can’t find me at once. She has to run around a few times to find me. I can hear her footsteps all around but she cannot find me until later. So this one time I decided to stand where Sebin could see me right away. I stood right next to the door. I mean, I was not hiding behind the door where I would be hid when Sebin opened the door. I was stand right next to the door so that when Sebin would open the door, she can see me standing on the plain wall. When Sebin was done counting the numbers, she opened the door and zoomed right past me! She runs to mommy and asks, “Where is Appa! (Daddy)” I wasn’t hiding behind the curtain or anything, I was just right there! Sebin was so focused on running forward that she couldn’t see me. The objective of the game is to find me but she’d forget that for a moment that she just runs even when I am just right there.

We shouldn’t make the same mistake when we pray. The objective of praying is to meet God. It’s not to show off to others how close I am to God. Like hide-and-seek Matthew says that the ‘Father is in a secret place.’ We seek Him because we want to spend exclusive time with the Father. That is the purpose of praying. May God be with you in your journey of praying.

God's Law

“For I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled.” Matthew 5:180.

So when you study biology, you will understand how awesome our body is and the way God has created our body is purely amazing. Thankfully, I have a wife who is a biologist and so Hye Mi gets excited when she tries explain to me how our body is made. She told me about how genes work in our body.

According to Wikipedia this is what a gene is: “A gene is a segment of DNA that encodes function. A chromosome consists of a long strand of DNA containing many genes. A human chromosome can have up to 500 million base pairs of DNA with thousands of genes.” Wow, that is a lot and that’s what makes up our body. Now these genes are a combination of amino acid base known as A, T, G, and C. They make up different sequences and combinations for each part of the body to function properly. This is so small that we can’t see them with our own eyes, but when the sequences of these base changes, there would be some serious damage in our body. We call it a mutation. We can say, that’s only such a small change, so what harm can it do to our body? Well, it can cause cancer, or make our body parts to not function at all. It is pretty serious.

It’s the same with the law of God. Engineered by God, His law is perfect. There is no way it can be changed. God’s law expresses His character, and that is love. There is no room for mutation, for He is perfect. His love is never changing, therefore not one jot or tittle can be changed. It’s safe to trust and obey God’s commandments!

Lost and Found

“For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Luke 19:10.

My family and I were shopping Korean food down at the cities during the weekend. I get really excited when we shop at that market. I mean, it’s Korean food! I feel overjoyed to know that our kitchen would be well supplied with Korean food at least for the next few weeks. I reached into my pocket for my wallet to pay, but it wasn’t there! I freaked out. I looked all over the floor, went through the aisles, came back out to the car and looked all over. I couldn’t find it. All sorts of thoughts went through my mind. I was about to call the credit card companies to report my loss. I reached for my phone and guess what, my wallet was in the pocket of my inner shirt I was wearing. I felt foolish, but I was relieved to find it on me!

When I was a little boy, my mom lost me once in the market. Back in the days, Korean markets weren’t like Walmart or Super 1 market. It was outdoors crowded with people. It was like a farmer’s market with thousands of people all over the place. Mom was paying attention to something else but then I guess I slipped out. She panicked at the thought that she couldn’t find me. She looked all over the market place and eventually mom had found me. Imagine the fear and joy she must have felt through the experience.

I wonder if that was how God felt when He lost us. And the joy He feels when He finds us again. Perhaps that’s why we read the three parables in Luke 15: the parables of the lost sheep, lost coin, and the prodigal son. Lost-and-found. There is great rejoicing in heaven when we are found again. God our Father is truly happy to have us back. Praise God!

E. M. Bounds, "Power Through Prayer"

“Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He went out and departed to a solitary place; and there He prayed.” Mark 1:35.

The men who have most fully illustrated Christ in their character, and have most powerfully affected the world for him, have been men who spent so much time with God as to make it a notable feature of their lives.

Charles Simeon devoted the hours from four till eight in the morning to God. Mr. Wesley spent two hours daily in prayer. He began at four in the morning. Of him, one who knew him well wrote: "He thought prayer to be more his business than anything else, and I have seen him come out of his closet with a serenity of face next to shining."

John Fletcher stained the walls of his room by the breath of his prayers. Sometimes he would pray all night; always, frequently, and with great earnestness. His whole life was a life of prayer. "I would not rise from my seat," he said, "without lifting my heart to God." His greeting to a friend was always: "Do I meet you praying?"

Luther said: "If I
fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer." He had a motto: "He that has prayed well has studied well."

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