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There were many difficulties during the Peru Bible conference. These problems made us turn away from our flesh and focus only on God. During the conference, God allowed me to see Him. Instead of being concerned about the result of the conference and how many people would receive salvation, it was graceful to us He worked in every moment of the conference by leading the hearts of the attendees. I was thankful to see the work of God¡¯s grace through the preaching of His Word by Pastor Park. As the music conductor I was able to clearly see the faces of the people. I could sense that God was leading the hearts of the people in their singing. God truly loves the souls of South America and I was again filled with thankfulness. When the sermon was over, many people came forward to receive the lying on hands and prayer. I saw their faces and eyes and many were crying. The tears from their eyes were not just from emotion. The Word held them all. The pastors and I who laid on hands had a difficult time trying to hold back our tears. As we saw the glories of God, our hearts became solemn. Just like the saying that life is like a tent that we see in a dream (because tents are temporary lodgings), the things I was experiencing seemed like a dream. I was deeply touched and thought, ¡°If this is a dream, I hope I don¡¯t wake up.¡± As I was leading the praise time, there was something that snapped in my heart. Pastor Won-suk Shin, who had come with Pastor Park, was sitting next to him waiting to pray and Missionary Sung-ju Cho was sitting next to him ready to translate. Pastor Shin and Cho were my alumni from missionary school. We three alumni were in one place. I began to think, ¡°Where is this place? What kind of people were we before? Aren¡¯t we on the continent of South America located opposite from the continent of Asia and our homeland of Korea?¡± I remembered back ten years ago when we argued over trivial things in the missionary school. We did not even look like missionary school students then. We were getting out of shape in disorder similar to the images of the disciples of Jesus but did not even dream that we would do this kind of work. However, people just like us were standing on the stage at the South American conference, half way around the world from where we had come from in Korea. I kept thinking, ¡°Is this a dream or reality?¡±
If I drive out into the countryside, all I see are palm trees lining the road. The scene is very different from the streets in South Korea. Often as I drive on these roads at night and I see the palm trees passing by I ask myself, ¡°Why am I in this foreign country and passing by these palm trees? This must be a scene from a movie I saw with palm trees and people playing guitars. But I know in reality that God did it, God has sent me here.¡± As I stood on the stage leading the praise time I thought to myself, ¡°Where will we be in 10 years? I don¡¯t know for sure, but I know this for sure, if the Lord does not come until then, then He will send us to another dream like place.¡± Because we are under God¡¯s amazing and grace filled plan, we are living in places that we see in our dreams. Places that we could not even imagine and can only comprehend in dreams. Pastor Park was seriously ill during the conference, yet he was not concerned about his health and diligently preached the Word. When I looked at him, I felt like he might fall down there on the stage. I could not help but be nervous and think, ¡°What should I do? What can I do?¡± There is nothing that comes before the gospel, including one¡¯s life. The gospel is something that we can not preach if we focus on ourselves. As I observed Pastor Park I could see that God works more strongly when we are weak and in hardship. To me Pastor Park is a very honorable and admirable servant of God because I have seen several instances of how God has worked through him. However, the pastor I saw at the Lima conference was very weak, and that is who he really is. He is a person who has the same weaknesses as I have. However, he emptied his heart and became a servant of God. As I looked at him, I thought about what spirituality really was. God said that there is no special flesh. God has nothing to do with flesh and the flesh that we have cannot make Him happy. Spiritual people do not try to cover their flesh nor do they try to change themselves. They fully realize that flesh is merely dust and must be offered entirely to Him to receive His grace. If you put a spectacle under the light of the sun and focus it on paper for a while, the heat is concentrated and the paper will burn. The spectacle by itself is nothing, but if you put it under the sun and focus it, the heat produces a flame. In the same way when the light and the power given off by men of God begins to focus on the Lord entirely and away from their flesh miraculous things can happen. The strength that they gain from focusing on the Lord transforms them into men of God who are able to use God¡¯s power to do things that they had never imagined they could do. Keep Up Your Courage Everyone Not long ago, the Word in Acts chapter 27 spoke powerfully to my heart. When the boat that the Apostle Paul was riding in encountered a storm, there was no hope of survival. The stars and the moon could not be seen by anyone for a couple of days. None aboard the ship had eaten for a long time, and the violent storm and waves were tossing the ship around like a toy. When the sea suddenly became still, no one had even considered that the Apostle Paul could be called upon for help and he was pushed away to the corner of the boat. However, now Paul spoke the following verses to the frightened people. It specially touched the verses 23 and 25. ¡°For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve...Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me.¡± The part of the Word that says I belong to God is very fulfilling in my heart. We are the people who belong to God. God speaks to those who belong to Him. He says, ¡°Do not be afraid and keep up your courage.¡± Although our faith is small, the God we serve will not let us down and or embarrass us. Light shown on that boat and on those who could not see the sun or the moon. That light was of Christ by way of the Apostle Paul and saved all the people on the boat. If we look at verse 44, the crew arrived on an island called, Malta, and survived just as Paul said. Not long ago, a Korean immigrant received salvation here in South America. She and her husband run a business here and she became the manager of a mutual finance association for the manufacturing part of the business. However, the association failed and she became responsible for everything that occurred. She is now in great debt. She worked hard and earned a lot of money, but in a moment¡¯s time she incurred so much debt that it took away all she had and much more. Never in her wildest dreams had she ever imagined that she would have to pay such a large debt. As she worried and agonized over her situation, she came to our church. However, she kept on crying. My wife preached the gospel to her and she received salvation. After she became born again, she was a totally different person. At that time we only had services during the week for the native Paraguayan brothers and sisters. But she came and listened to the Word anyway. I felt that the Word was somehow being absorbed into her heart. Although we had no means or ideas of how to solve her indebtedness, she was able to have hope through faith in the Word. I also believe that if she looks up to God and depends totally on Him, then He will set her free from all the problems she has. I know this because God always supports those who depend on Him. We cannot see nor touch the air or the wind with our hands, but they definitely do exist. They also have great power. As I live here, I have many opportunities to fly in airplanes. It is very interesting how those giant hulks of metal that weigh thousands of pounds can become airborne and fly in the sky. In order to fly it enters a runway and when it does, the pilot pushes the throttles forward and the jet engines accelerate the plane moves forward at a high rate of speed. This enables the airplane to fly at speeds well in excess of 300 kilometers per hour. But actually, the airplane itself is not what enables it to fly. When it moves at a high rate of speed, it meets air that is forced to flow over and under its wings. The wing of an airplane has a curved shape that causes the air that goes over the wings to move faster than the air that travels under the wings. This creates a pressure difference that creates lift under the wings and the airplane flies. The air that we breathe is the same air that creates this great power. However, a person who is stationary cannot appreciate, experience or comprehend this power. A person who runs fast, sails a boat or flies an airplane depends on the air and is the only one who can truly feel and appreciate its power. It is the same with water. It has the power called buoyancy, a lifting power. When we try to put a rubber ball under the water, it has the power to lift itself back to the surface of the water. The reason why some people cannot swim well is because they do not depend on the water. They do not believe in the power of the water. Those people who swim well believe in the power of the water to support them, but we cannot see this power with our eyes. That is why they can rely on the water and relax in it, letting the water support them. The people who don¡¯t know this cannot understand even when someone tells them about it. Therefore, because they try hard to fight against and protect themselves from the water, they sink into the water in spite of the power of the water to lift them up. When I lived in Korea, there was a time when the brothers in Taegu and I had a competition to see how long one of us could stay under water. It was then that I realized that people who can¡¯t swim would never be able to submerge in water. I thought that those who couldn¡¯t swim could at least be able to go under water since they often sink in it when they try to swim. A brother who swam well went into the pool and went to the bottom continuing to swim under the water. Then another brother, who could not swim and continuously sank in the water, even when we tried to teach him how not to sink, came forward and said that he thought he could at least go under the water. The brother tried, but the funny thing was that his head was under the water, but his hip was still sticking out of the water. It was very funny to watch so I just gave him a slap on his hip. The brother thought that he was fully under the water. When I told him, ¡°You did not submerge, but you did swim,¡± he was surprised to hear that. I realized that when someone tries to float on the water, they sink into the water and vise versa when they try to submerge in the water, they were afloat on the water. I cannot forget that incident because I related it to the spiritual world. In the Bible, ¡°Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it.¡±(Luke 17:33) As I spread the gospel in this country, I really feel that the Word is true. When I throw away my thoughts before God and depend solely on Him, I experience the protection of His life preserver. The life preserver is unbreakable and stronger than the womb that protects a fetus. However, those who try to protect themselves cannot understand or experience how strong God¡¯s life preserver is. Those kinds of people always want to boast about their flesh and remain in fear of the situation around them. The power of air resistance, the buoyancy of water and the power of God may not be seen or touched. Nevertheless, when we put ourselves in that power and depend on it, that is when we can finally realize its true power. In this way God has allowed us to feel Him and His power. The Life Preserver of God The eternal power of God is amazingly strong. His power is holding the stars and planets in there revolving orbits around the universe. That power also allows the earth to revolve around the sun and to rotate on its axis at the same time. God¡¯s power is all around us. Whoever avails themselves of that power through faith will experience it and will be changed. If at least once that person accepts the Word with faith, and depends on it entirely, then he or she will be able to experience the power of God that created and continually works to maintain earth and heaven. As I have been involved in mission work here, I have come to realize that many people are very tough. There are many hired assassins and murderers who are paid a little money to kill other people. When they play a soccer game, you know which team won even if you don¡¯t watch the game. When you hear gunshots, you know who is winning. When a certain team makes one point, people shoot and shout out loud. There are many people with guns and they don¡¯t hesitate to shoot them. That is why the incidence of violent crime is so high here. When local Koreans started to come to our church, a Korean pastor gave me a phone call. He criticized our church as heresy. He threatened me and said, ¡°This is not Korea. The youths here are very rough and they carry guns. You should watch out.¡± Our church is also in conflict with the Catholic Church. The power of the Catholic Church in South America is significant and pervasive. The brothers say, ¡°Pastor, if we preach the true gospel, I think that there will be persecution from the Catholics strongly.¡± However, one thing is for sure, people who are born again do not die just because a knife or a bullet pierces their body. They only die when God allows them to. They do not die according to the plans of human beings. Like the Apostle Paul said to his seamen I also tell them, ¡°Keep up your courage, men, for I believe that God will turn things out exactly as I have been told.¡± A few years ago, when Pastor Yong-jae Lee had an automobile accident, I went to Lima, Peru. When I looked at the remnants of the car in the body shop, it was totaled. I remember thinking that even if it were to be fixed, it could not be suitable to sell vegetables. The back bumper was smashed into one of the seats. It was fortunate that no one was sitting there at the time of the accident because surely someone would have been killed. The tires suddenly blew out at 120-130 kilometers causing the car to become airborne. In mid air the car turned upside down and smashed into the ground, continuing to roll over until it came to rest on the opposite side of the road. It was a serious crash that could have killed a couple of people and injured others. But luckily the only person hurt suffered a laceration and had to have stitches. I remembered Paul¡¯s testimony and it enlightened my heart. We are inside God¡¯s life preserver. We have the Word of God. I really thank God because I can experience the power of His Word in South America. If I believe in the Word and depend on it, the Word has the power to give me a new life. I want to tell everyone to depend on God and understand that if they accept and depend on God¡¯s Word they will not die, on the contrary they will live. We will feel His power as He pulls us up and changes our hearts. I cannot explain it completely but like the power of the blowing wind we will be able to feel the power of the Lord as He leads us. Once we experience it a couple of times, fear will leave us, for there is nothing to be afraid of. Any of you can become servants of the Lord. We call Hebrews chapter 11 ¡°The chapter of faith.¡± It says, ¡°by faith, by faith, by faith...¡± The Word is telling us that even though we may only have a little bit of faith, if we throw away our thoughts and depend on God we will never fail. I hope that God blesses us and we fall into the world of faith, believing in Him ever more, and I pray that our lives will be used as tools of praise for God. |
