TEN COMMANDMENTS FOR CHURCH LIFE (Part I) - Pastor Lee, SooKwan

Pastor Kyung Jun Lee of Seoul Dawn church, who came to SBC as a speaker for our revival few years ago, told us about Ten Commandments for church life. He said this is modified from the Ten Commandments of the Bible, and I remember that when I heard it, I had the ‘Ah Ha’ moment since it was so true and applicable.

A month ago, as I organized my office, I found a memo I made at that time. It is so relevant and helpful, that I want to share it with you. I recorded each caption at that time, and the explanation is added later by me.

1. You shall have no other gods before me - Through church life, we need to continuously experience God: The ultimate purpose for church life is to experience God. Therefore, whatever we do, we need to get to know God more and better through it. That should be our goal and our drive.

2. You shall not make for yourself an idol - Leave your desire and anxiety to God: If I place anything in my mind where there should be God that is an idol. These days two things which consume modern men and women are greed and anxiety. Church should be a training ground for us to put down greed and anxiety which sneak into our lives to take the place of God in us. As the practice of repressing greed and anxiety becomes our habit, our lives will be renewed and abundant.

3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God - Be careful with your words: The area where we most often make mistakes is our words. It is also our words which can cause pain in our brothers and sisters in Christ. With our tongue and due to its improper use, we bring shame to the name of the Lord outside of church such as exaggeration, thoughtless jive, inconsiderate words, promises which you do not intent to keep, etc. When we mature enough to control our tongue, our church life will enjoy peace.

4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy - Sunday should be spent for rest and recharge: As we give one tenth to God, we acknowledge that our worldly possessions belong to God. When we give one day a week to God, we acknowledge that our lives belong to God. We live diligently in the world for six days of the week and on Sunday we spend the day for worship and ministry work which pleases God and give our souls a rest. It provides new energy for our lives.

5. Honor your father and mother - Be respectable and polite: After God talked about the first four items above related to the relationship with God, He talked about six elements about neighbors and the first of those is to respect our parents. He saw that respecting parents is the basis of human relationships. Just like that, inside church, we all should practice to respect elders and love younger ones since this is the basis of human relationship.

The Apostle Paul urged us to exhort an older man as if he were our father and treat younger men and women as brothers and sisters. (1 Timothy 5:1-2). This week, it would be great to show kindness and render a helping hand toward others in church even though they do not belong to your house church. Next week, I will continue with the remaining five items of the Ten Commandments.

- Pastor Rein

My Mother by Ann Taylor (1783 –1866)

Who fed me from her gentle breast, And hush’d me in her arms to rest, And on my cheek sweet kisses prest? My Mother.

When sleep forsook my open eye, Who was it sung sweet hushaby, And rock’d me that I should not cry? My Mother.

Who sat and watched my infant head, When sleeping in my cradle bed, And tears of sweet affection shed? My Mother.

When pain and sickness made me cry, Who gazed upon my heavy eye, And wept for fear that I should die? My Mother.

Who dress’d my doll in clothes so happy, And taught me pretty how to play. And minded all I had to say? My Mother.

Who taught my infant lips to pray, And love God’s holy book and day.

And walk in Wisdom’s pleasant way? My Mother.

And can I ever cease to be Affectionate and kind to thee, Who was so very kind to me? My Mother.

Ah, no! the thought I cannot bear; And if God please my life to spare, I hope I shall reward thy care, My Mother.

Who ran to help me when I fell, And would some pretty story tell, Or kiss the place to make it well? My Mother.

When thou art feeble, old, and gray, My healthy arm shall be thy stay, And I will soothe thy pains away, My Mother.

And when I see thee hang thy head, ‘Twill be my turn to watch thy bed. And tears of sweet affection shed, My Mother.

For could our Father in the skies Look down with pleased or loving eyes, If ever I could dare despise My Mother.

- Pastor Rein

Welcome Back!

Finally! We are Back! It has been a long month and half, full of uncertainty, not sure when to come back, or when it’s going to be safe.

There are still no right answers. We just have to make a smart decision for ourselves and try our best to live through.

Times like this, it reminds us who we are, such a weak, afraid, limited human beings, and who God is , the creator of universe, perfect loving, and same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

And also reminds us that each day counts and tomorrow can be dramatically different from today.

Who knows, today can be our last worship in sanctuary, ever. So let’s make this worship, each worship best worship we can offer to our God and enjoy being with each others in worship.

When we sing, let’s sing with our heart with loud voice, when we pray, have faith in God that He will answer, when we give an offering, be thankful for His provision, and when we serve, let’s serve as Christ Jesus have served us with love and compassion.

Starting today we will be covering the book of Deuteronomy. It’s the fifth and final book by Moses (Torah or Pentateuch). The title means ‘second law’ but the Hebrew title is ‘book of words’.

This book is one of my favorite book in Old Testament and there are so many great stories we can share and learn from the book.

It has 34 chapters so it will take us rest of the year and little more to cover the whole book.

I hope you would enjoy Deuteronomy and pray for me so that I can deliver what God has stored for each one of us from this book.

Welcome back and let’s do this! ^^

- Pastor Rein

How To Overcome An Inferiority Complex - Pastor Chai

During the New Life Bible class, I mentioned that I suffered from an inferiority complex until my mid-forties. Someone in the class sent me an email saying that she had the same problem and wanted to know how I overcame mine. The following is a part of my response:

Attacking your inferiority complex directly doesn’t work. No matter how hard you try to convince yourself that you aren’t inferior, the small voice that says you’re inferior doesn’t go away. An inferiority complex comes from comparing ourselves with others. So to overcome our inferiority complex, we should stop comparing ourselves with others. To do that, we must learn to see ourselves and others from God’s point of view.

We are infinitely valuable to God. God loves each of us like we’re only ones who exist in the world. When we devalue something that is so valuable to God, it hurts Him. When we realize that, we can no longer consider ourselves inferior to others and pity ourselves.

Other people are also infinitely valuable to God; God loves them with the same love by which He loves us. When we envy others or put them down, it saddens God. When we realize this, we cannot be jealous of them or think ill of them.

When we entrust our lives to God’s hands, He helps us live the lives we are meant to live, lives that are beautiful, meaningful and rewarding. These lives aren’t the same for every person. We must simply live our lives the best we can. It shouldn’t be our concern what kind of life God leads others to live. There should be no comparison. We just trust God, obey Him, and live the lives God assigned us to live.

We cannot tell for sure whether our lives are successes or failures before we die. Only God knows. A life the world deems successful and applauds may be a failure to God. The things that the world considers blessings may turn out to be curses in God’s judgment. The success and failure of our lives will only be determined on judgment day. We must set our sights on God, who will judge with fairness and righteousness, and live our lives the best we can.

It takes time to see yourself and others from God’s perspective. You have to be patient and do your best each day with the hope that someday, you will be freed from your inferiority complex. In the meantime, when you meet someone you feel is superior to you and the inferiority complex kicks in, give a verbal compliment or congratulate their achievements via email. When you keep doing this, you will gradually begin to sincerely want them to succeed and your inferiority complex will slowly disappear.

- Pastor Rein

Hearing the Voice of God

For this past week, my family and I have been doing intercession prayer that I’ve learned from Youth With A Mission.

Usually intercession prayer is about praying for others but the one we are doing is to build relationship with God by asking and waiting on God to hear what we need to pray for/about then we pray together with things we shared with each other. It’s about hearing from God first then we pray on what God has inspired, spoken, and shown us to pray.

I wanted to do this because it’s very good spiritual practice to be comfortable and getting used to ask God and wait to hear His voice. We often want/need to hear God’s voice at last minute but if we don’t recognize the voice, how do we know and trust the voice?

I also thought this could benefit us as we wait on Pentecost in 50 days and of course, times like this gives us perfect opportunity to spend time with God. So here’s how we do it.

Praise God - Sing a song or praise God for who He is

Repentance - Psalms 66:18 If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.

Rely on the Holy Spirit - Romans 8: 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.

Deal with the enemy - James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Trust and rely on God to speak to you - If possible, have your Bible with you, should God want to give you direction or confirmation from it. Isaiah 55:8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord.

Share with others - When God ceases to bring things to your mind for which to pray, finished by praising and thanking him for what he has done, reminding yourself of Romans 11:36 “For from him and through him and for him are all things to him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Finish with prayers

- Pastor Rein

Easter - Resilience

Probably the hardest thing to face in life is that whatever you believed, worked and followed has been completely destroyed, and failed. Feeling hopeless.

That’s where Christians were the day before the Easter. and I believe many of us are going through that right now… feeling hopeless…

But Christians are not defined by the death of Jesus on a cross but what happened after provides the complete picture of who we are.

The Resurrection.

Now that! changed everything about who Jesus was, is and will be and who we are as Christians as well.

So did persecution stopped after the Resurrection? No, it got worse.

Did believers benefitted after the Resurrection? No, most of them got persecuted and got killed.

Then how is it possible for them (us) to be where we are now and keep believing and having hope?

Because we knew this life isn’t end of all and trust in Jesus kept us moving. We can call it the resiliency of Christians. I think that’s what we need at times like this. Being resilient of our life and our faith

It’s easy to give up when things are difficult but for those who continued on will come out stronger, wiser and better equip to overcome other challenges and let the Easter reminds us to continue the walk in Jesus by having a hope in life to come.

“Success is measured by how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” - General George Patton

- Pastor Rein

As we prepare Easter Sunday

The number of infected people are growing each day, unemployment numbers are record high, pretty much all businesses are closed, people are ordered to stay home, it doesn’t look like it’s getting better anytime soon and there are so much uncertainty ahead of us.

In times like this, full of difficulties and uncertainties, we must remember God’s righteous and love for His people.

In Old Testament, people built altars or monuments to remember God’s presence among them and it helped them during the time of crisis in their nation. And right now our nation, our world is in crisis due the virus.

And what better ways to remember God’s righteous and love than Easter!

Easter actually follows Leviticus 23 and it was called ‘Feast of First Fruit’ in Old Testament. Which begins by ‘Passover’ then follows by ‘Feast of Unleavened Bread’ and then ‘Feast of First Fruit’ (Easter) happens in-between those two festivals. It’s three festivals together in 8 days and this year, Passover is on April 8 and lasts till sundown on April 16.

As we celebrate Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread and Feast of First Fruit; Easter all together, let’s be Thankful for the life we have in Jesus because of His death and resurrection, Pray for those that are going through difficult times and remind them we are in this together and Share hope in Jesus Christ for this is not the end for us for He is with us!

- Pastor Rein

How to Discern God's Will - Pastor YoungGi Chai

Each month, I would like to share Pastor Chai’s column. He’s the one who started House Church ministry movement and influenced many churches and pastors around the world. I’m sure you will enjoy his letters to us.

Recently, a church member who was facing an important decision asked me how to discern God’s will. I’d like to share the email I sent to him. It may be helpful for people who have similar questions.

The best guide to finding God’s will is the Bible. If you are given the opportunity to buy a bustling bar at an attractive low price, you don’t even have to think about it, no matter how tempting the deal may be. Selling hard liquor and running a bar is obviously against God’s will as revealed in Scripture.

But many situations aren’t this clear cut. Often, people have to choose between two options, neither of which are clearly sin. For example, people might have to choose between two job offers. Or they might have to decide whether or not to marry the person they’ve been dating. They want to discern God’s will for their decision, but it’s difficult when no option is clearly sinful.

When you’re given choices like these, choose what’s enjoyable and makes you happy. Our purpose in life is to serve others. If we want to serve others well, we should enjoy what we’re doing and live happy lives for ourselves. So when choosing a job, ask yourself: will I enjoy doing this for the next 10 or 20 years? When thinking about a potential spouse, ask: will I be happy living with this person in 10 or 20 years after romantic feelings have faded?

When you have no clear preference, choose on the basis of ministry. There are three areas of ministry in your life – family, work, and church. Make the choice that aligns with your ministry goals. For example, if your family’s finances are tight, it’s reasonable to choose the job that pays you best. If your family needs more of your time, choose the job that gives you the most time to spend with them. If you’re involved with important church ministries, choose the job that gives you the most flexibility to serve in them.

Once you make a decision, it’s best not to look back. God values your motivations in decision making more than the decisions themselves. If you try to honor God in your decisions, God will honor them even if they’re not the best. He may redirect your way so that you eventually return to the right decision or help your poor decision produce good fruit. Take the time to discern God’s will, but once you’ve made a decision, go with it boldly and don’t look back, expecting that God will honor it.

Pastor Rein