To Every Generation

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations.” Psalm 90:1

What is a dwelling place? These aren’t words that we often use today. You may never hear a young child asking a friend, “Yo, you mind if I come over to your dwelling place?” Or a housewarming party where the hosts welcome everybody by saying, “Welcome to our dwelling place!” But in essence, that is what a dwelling place is. It’s a home, a refuge, a place where someone can return to for refuge and protection. Home is oftentimes where you know that you can go to experience love and warmth, and even safety from harsh weather.

In Psalm 90, I believe that such an important truth is revealed to us. It is one that I pray and hope every person would be able to really hold onto, stand firm in when faced with difficult circumstances and hard times in life.

I had the chance recently to serve at KOSTA Youth English ministry, which is a retreat for youth group children. I was given the opportunity to preach a couple sermons and join in worship through praise songs and prayer. It was truly an amazing blessing to be a part of it all as I experienced the Spirit moving. It was during the prayer times, however, that God made something ever so apparent to me. It seems like a simple statement, but the thing that kept popping up in my mind is that there is simply so much brokenness in our lives. Brokenness, difficulty of life, pains of loss, and the need for acceptance and true love are so real. My heart broke for many of the students as they shared with me and I prayed for them. In the midst of brokenness and hurt, I saw hope as many were crying out to the LORD, surrendering up their lives and circumstances to Him. Oh, how we need the touch and healing of the Heavenly Father.

 

 

It’s the End of the World as We Know It?

With recent talks about the 21st of May, which is of course tomorrow (unless you’re in a different timezone), being the last day of the world, it has definitely gotten some people thinking. I’ve seen people respond by calling the people who have made the claim lunatics and false teachers.

It says in the Bible in Matthew 24:36 in reference to the Lord’s second coming that “concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.”

With that being said, I recently saw someone post a comment about Harold Camping (the man who says he has figured out the exact date of the Judgment Day). I 100% agree that there is no way that Harold Camping or anyone else can determine mathematically or in any other way when the world will come to an end. Only God knows this! But then I saw someone’s reply to the post: “But what if the world really does end tomorrow?” And it got me to thinking, what if?

There was a catchy song back in the day by a group called R.E.M. called “It’s the End of the World.” The chorus goes “It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.” The song seems to give the message, “It’s not really a big deal; I’m good.”

I wonder if we as Christians have fallen into this sort of carefree thinking. “I’m good because I have my faith.” “I’m good because I know I’m saved.” What if tomorrow really was the last day of the world as you knew it? What would you do differently? Would you spend countless hours on Facebook, watch your favorite movie or play your favorite game one last time, or maybe spend time with those you love? Or would you pray with all your heart, go out and share the Gospel of Jesus and His story of loving redemption so that even one more person might respond to the Truth and come to know Him and share with you in the coming glory. I’m not saying that there’s one right thing that we should do, but I end with this challenge for myself and for others of faith:

Fellow brothers and sisters, let us live with urgency, as if every day was our last, sharing the message of Christ’s love for us in every possible way, all for the glory of God.

Happy Birthday, Abba.

The last memory that I have of my father is him humming his favorite hymn songs of worship. Why was he just humming you might ask? My father had an incredible voice, he was a true tenor. In fact, after receiving his Masters of Divinity degree in Korea, he came to the States in to receive a degree in classical singing as well. I never was able to appreciate how amazing a singer my father was until I was much older, but man could he sing.

So why was he just humming you might ask? The simple answer in one word: cancer. You see, my father had gastric cancer and it was in its terminal stages. And so here he was, Reverend Kyu Hyun Cho, my loving father, who had once been invincible in my eyes, broken down by this disease. It broke him down to where he couldn’t see. It broke him down to where he couldn’t even speak. But, the thing it could never break down was his love for God, his faith in Jesus Christ. More than the reality of the pain, more than the reality of sickness or brokenness of his condition, more than the reality of death, the reality that God loved Him and was bringing Him to be by His side gave Him great comfort and joy. I know it saddened him greatly to leave us so early, but he knew we were in God’s hands as well.

And so he hummed, not because he didn’t want to sing the words, but because he physically was not able to. But with all of his heart, he praised the LORD, even amidst such difficulty and pain. He was faithful until the very end. He went out humming songs with his lips, but singing songs of praise with all of his heart to the ONE who had given Him life and was now taking him Home.

Happy birthday, Abba. And thank you for showing me what it means to be a man of God. I want to be faithful until the very end, just like you. I can’t wait to see you again. And to God, thank You for blessing me with such a loving father, who taught me so much about who You are and Your amazing love for Your people. Thank You for taking care of my mother and brothers and me, for being forever faithful in our lives.

God, This Doesn’t Make Any Sense…

Why is this happening to me? I’m supposed to do what? What do you want me to do? God, this just doesn’t make any sense.

We’ve all been there haven’t we? The question looms large in our hearts and in our minds. And when there is doubt and uncertainty, the last thing that we want to hear from God is “Obey.” The last thing we want to hear from our pastor or Christian friends is “Just fight through it and keep your eyes on God.” In fact, many of us hate those cliche Christian answers, and we chalk them up to people who don’t know difficulty, people who are ignorant to the realities of just how hard it can be to live faithfully in the midst of trials. And the truth is, a lot of times, it just doesn’t make sense to obey God, especially in light of difficult circumstances.

So how ought we to respond when things are not going the way we had planned? When we wonder if God is really good, and if He’s blessing us, when we feel like He is no longer working in our lives?

The answer: Just obey.

There, I said it, and many of you will probably hate me for taking this route, but I’ll tell you right now, it’s the route the Bible takes. You can see from the first book of the Bible in God’s calling to Abram, as God commands him to leave his homeland, his countrymen, everything he knows (Genesis 12). He had everything going for him, why leave? Practically speaking, it doesn’t make any sense! But we see also with His illogical command to leave that there is great blessing that will come as a result of his faithful obedience: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing” (Genesis 12:2). And for those of us who are believers, we are now a part of this great blessing that carried on into Christ’s life death and resurrection. Hence, the promise is for us as well.

In Joshua 6, we see Joshua as he faces the impenetrable walls of Jericho with a command from God to walk around the city once a day for six days, and then seven more times on the seventh day. And to top it all off, play some music and shout after walking around. Now, if you were a soldier and your leader told you to do this, how would you respond? I can imagine there may be some objections, “We’ve got weapons, why not use them?” “We’re just gonna walk around the city?” “Umm, Josh, have you lost your mind?” We’re talking about some thick walls here! Archaeological studies have shown that Jericho’s outer wall would have been about 6 feet thick, with the inner wall being double that! And so again, the commandment didn’t make much sense. There are a lot of barriers, literally, that could have kept Joshua and the Israelites from obedience. And as they marched around and around and on that seventh day doing all that God commanded, the wall inexplicably came crumbling down, and the Israelites took the mighty city.

When you think about Abram (later named Abraham) and even the account of Joshua and the battle of Jericho, one thing is very clear. God does the work of blessing and holding true to His promises, Abram and Joshua needed only to walk, go, and obey. Would they have been able to see the amazing work of God had they not obeyed? Imagine an Israelite soldier who decided that obedience was foolishness and left! Imagine if out of frustration and not understanding how this could at all be the right plan, he had left. He wouldn’t have been able to see those walls come crumbling down. God’s command is an opportunity for us to obey and to see His work and faithfulness in our lives; this is a blessing unto itself because we are reminded again that He is a good, trustworthy and powerful God!

The thing is, when God tells us to do something, our response of obedience or disobedience actually is a great indicator of just who we think God to be. If He is truly our God, the one we trust and know that loves us, we would obey in every moment, wouldn’t we? Especially knowing that He knows the past, present and future, all that is going in our lives, and that He is working for our good (Romans 8:28)! The question of obedience doesn’t lie in the action as much as the knowing and trusting, our faith in God and His character. Because we know God to be good and powerful, we trust and obey. In light of that truth, we must obey, not for the sake of blessing, but because we know God will bless His people and that He is in control. He is one who keeps His Word.

And so I want to ask those of you who might have made it this far down in this post. What area of your life has it been difficult to surrender up in obedience to the Lord? Are you going through a difficult time that is hard to understand? Maybe it is the command to love someone who just seems too difficult to love. Maybe it is the command to be faithful as a student, giving of yourself in your studies as unto the Lord. Maybe it’s trusting God as He is leading you to stay or to go, as you think about your future. It could be a plethora of different situations and circumstances, but in the end one thing remains the same, God in His love and grace for our lives. And when we trust in Him completely, surrendering our own plan to His, surely even in the most difficult or uncertain of times, we will obey.

“Just obey” doesn’t seem so illogical when we know the truth of our good, sovereign and powerful God.

The Word of God Stands

Will you take road number 1 or road number 2?

Road 1: It’s quite the easy route, and you can enjoy your time along the way doing whatever you’d like, whatever suits your fancy. And you see that many people are deciding to go down this particular road.

Road 2: You can tell just from the looks of it that not many have traveled along this route, and it seems that there will be much difficulty upon making the decision to go down this particular road.

So again, which road will you take?

It sure would seem silly for any of us to take the 2nd road, wouldn’t it? I mean, who wants troubles and struggles in their lives? Who in the world would opt for hardships and difficulty when they could have it easy instead? Well, this would be the easy choice if we were only looking at the road. One who has a bigger picture in mind would ask about where it is that each road leads.

Matthew 7:13-14 says this:

[13] “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. [14] For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

These days, I wonder if we as Christians often acknowledge the truth that following Christ is difficult, but seldom know how to work out our difficulties in a healthy Christ-centered way. Especially in America, it seems that people are either being taught or have been sold on the belief that following Jesus is a piece of cake. In fact, following Jesus means you’ll just be happy all day, bluebirds and rainbows ahead. If you’re going through difficulty, you MUST be doing something wrong (not praying enough, not giving enough on the offering plate, not reading the Bible enough, not loving others enough, sinning too much). But Jesus says it right in these verses in the Gospel of Matthew that as genuine followers of Christ, we will indeed face hardships in our lives.

It’s hard trying to obey God no matter what. There will be times when something happens in our lives that will test us to the very core of our faith. It might make us even question the very character of our loving God. What will we do then? How will we respond? Will we look back on when we made our decision to take the hard road and follow Jesus and say, “Man! I made the wrong choice!” Or instead, will we look at God’s Word and be reminded of the truth that time and time again He has shown Himself to be one who keeps His Word at all times.

Reading through the account of King Balak and Balaam in the Old Testament book of Numbers, reminds that for those who are followers of God, His Word and promises for us will always stand:

Numbers 23:19 God is not man, that he should lie, or a son of man, that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?

The story goes that Israel had just defeated the mighty Amorites by God’s might and power. The Moabites, who were a nearby nation were worried greatly because of the ease with which the Israelites had taken the Amorite cities. Afraid that they were next, the Moabites call upon a soothsayer named Balaam to go and curse the Israelites so that they could have victory over them. As Balaam prepares to give his divination of curses against Israel, God speaks to him, commanding him to do no such thing. And as Balaam continues to disobey God, God gets Balaam’s attention and gives him the words to speak to King Balak of the Moabites in Numbers 23:19-23:

[19] God is not man, that he should lie,
or a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Has he said, and will he not do it?
Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it?
[20] Behold, I received a command to bless:
he has blessed, and I cannot revoke it.
[21] He has not beheld misfortune in Jacob,
nor has he seen trouble in Israel.
The LORD their God is with them,
and the shout of a king is among them.
[22] God brings them out of Egypt
and is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

There are a few things to take from these words and how it relates to us:

1. God always keeps His Word – there is covenant language here. Israel is blessed because God has chosen them as His people and blessed them. Spiritually, as followers of Christ, we are now His people Israel, and His promises for Israel are now ours. All the promises found in the Bible are for us to remember.

2. God is always with His people – “The LORD their God is with them and the shout of a king is among them.” Their king is God Himself. Do we see that God is always with us at all times? When we have a relationship with Jesus, we are trusting in His character to keep His Word. We are also saying that He is our King, worthy of our entire lives in every way.

3. God is powerful – There is a reminder of the Israelites being brought out of Egypt. It is not a testament to the strength of the people; rather, as it is worded, it is God who brought them out. He is the one who is keeping them. I wonder if we look back enough in our own lives to see the ever powerful faithfulness of our loving God. God never changes, and He is always FOR us.

In the end, God does keep His Word as He delivers Israel  from the Moabites’ quest against Israel (Joshua 24:10).

So we get back to the question we started with. Which road will you take? For those of us who have chosen the difficult road, let us remember that it leads to life, one that we will share forever with Jesus Christ. I’d be lying if I never thought about the easy road and asked myself “Why am I doing this again? Is it worth it?” And God gets my attention pretty quickly as I pray and read His Word. Not only this account of God acting on behalf of His people, keeping His promises, but until the very end, account after account of His amazing love for us. And as I see more of the unchanging character of God, I know that He is working for my good even when it is difficult (Romans 8:28). In Joshua 21:45, it says this: “[45] Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” And neither will His Word fail for any of us. Are there places in the Bible where you know you can turn to be reminded of His goodness and His promises for your life? Let us hold to the promises of God; He is our God and we are His people, and His Word will always stand.

You’re the Man now, God.

“[14] And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14 ESV)

The Gospel of John begins by teaching us that Jesus, who is The Word, was with God from the beginning of time. And not only the truth that He was  with God the Father, but also that Jesus was and also is God Himself. How mysterious and how amazing!

I know it’s a bit early for the Christmas story, but as I’ve been reading and learning, the thought of God, the Creator of the world, humbling Himself and taking on the form of His creation has been something I’ve been reflecting a lot on these days.

A lot of times, people, even those who have grown up in church, make too little of the humanity of Jesus Christ. In fact, to not believe that Jesus was fully man and fully God would leave one in the heretics’ circle. God came and took on humanity, while still being fully God. But don’t we do that sometimes? We fail to see that He was a genuine, real person in history, who was born, breastfed, grew as a young boy, played with friends, loved His family, ate, slept, and yes, even went to the bathroom. He probably tripped and fell on occasion, maybe stubbed his hand while working with a hammer as a carpenter. He had emotion and feelings. He experienced the joys and the pains of life, just as we do now, though without sinning.

Jesus didn’t come out of the womb instantly running around and proclaiming “I AM JESUS CHRIST THE SON OF GOD!!” In fact, we see evidence of His humanity in this: “[52] And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”
(Luke 2:52 ESV)

He grew physically. He studied the Scripture, just as we do now! He grew in wisdom and love for God as more of His truth was being revealed to Him! And I’ve always wondered what must have gone through the mind of Jesus, when He came to this realization that He was the one that the prophecies of Scripture were talking about, that He would be the one to bring the truth of God and make available to all, a relationship with God and salvation through His loving sacrifice.

Jesus, the eternal Word, existent from before even time began, became flesh, taking on the form of man, to show His amazing love for His creation that they might believe in Him and be a part of His family: “[12] But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
(John 1:12 ESV)

And how did He ultimately show this love? He lived in perfect obedience to God, without fault and without sin. He lived a perfect life as man and died for the sake of imperfect mankind. He showed His love as His flesh was thrashed and broken on the cross, experiencing not only physical pain and death, but the spiritual pain of separation from God the Father. But let us remember also, that He rose again, defeating death and sin! This is the hope that we have in Him!

Jesus is a personal and loving God, not a distant Creator who has left us to our demise. He has given all man, hope for something far greater than this world has to offer. This is the Jesus I know, love and follow. Oh, how He loves us!!

The Pains of Fantasy

Truly, the game of Fantasy Football can be an absolute heart-breaker. How many of us have oftentimes thought to ourselves, “If only I had played him!” or “I KNEW I should have started the other guy!” or “Why do I have to play the highest scoring team when I had the second most points in the week and could have played any other team and gotten the victory, oh my gosh what in the world I can’t believe it…” Well, I think you get the point.

Tis the life we choose to live, sometimes in great joy, and sometimes in great pain. This week, I’m sure was painful for many managers, who had Kenny Britt or Darren McFadden aka Run DMC on their benches. The two players accounted for almost 100 points by themselves!

This only goes to show that you can only do so much in preparation and research from week-to-week. Unless you have some type of sports almanac from the future, you would have been foolish to start either of these guys. Britt was clearly in the doghouse, didn’t start, and he didn’t have Vince Young, his star QB throwing to him. McFadden was limited in practice all week and though willing to give it a go, never was counted on to carry the majority of the load for Oakland this week. You do what you can. You put your best foot forward week-in and week-out, and then wait for gameday to see what happens. That’s part of the fun, isn’t it? The thrill of seeing the players you manage doing well. But what joy would there be in those thrills, if you never experienced the pain of seeing someone who absolutely blew up out of nowhere, but was on your bench?

In one league I play in, my team did pretty well. The only problem was that my opponent owned both Matt Ryan and Roddy White. Yes…Needless to say, I will be 3 – 4 in that league. But still, that’s the game!

Lets learn to enjoy every aspect of the game of football and Fantasy Football, shall we?

From the Show-Me State

Another day has gone by since left Champaign-Urbana. Today was my first day of seminary @ Covenant Theological Seminary. Had a Greek course and a preaching course. It’s all still very surreal, you know? I’m here, in St. Louis, but it feels like I’m not really here. I don’t know, it’s something about moving on that’s tough. You grow to love a place, the people, the atmosphere even. Things are definitely different here, not different bad, but just different. It’s the type of feeling you just can’t quite put into words. The one thing, the one person that remains is God. He reminded me tonight that He has a plan for me and that He still has so much to change in me. I came here, knowing that I was by no means “ready,” nor would I ever be that without the power and grace of my Lord. At “The Source,” which is a Campus Crusade for Christ large group meeting @ Lindenwood University, I have the privilege to lead the worship time. There’s nothing like worshiping the Lord and seeing others lift up their hands to our loving Father in Heaven as well. I don’t know, I gotta get to sleep, but I had a lot on my mind. Need to pray more… Please pray for me.

The Mis-Adventures of Mr. Josh

So, I realize that NOBODY reads my weblog… mostly because I don’t really write in it, and I haven’t really told anyone else that I have one. I never got around to really using it… in fact, for about a year, the only post I had up on my site was the default one that says “Hello World!” But here I am now.. at almost 2AM in the morning, wanting to write something down before I forget.
So many hilarious things can happen in a kindergarten/1st grade classroom. If you didn’t know, I work as a co-teacher in a K-1 room, and every day is an adventure.

Just today, I realized, I’m still so much immature when it comes to some things. In a world where gas prices are continually increasing, in Mr. Josh’s K-1 classroom, there is an ABUNDANCE of free gas. Unfortunately, it’s not the kind you can use to get your car’s engine going. Nope, it’s the kind that hits you in the face like a car accident, haha. A lot of times the teachers and I will look at each other and with no words just facial expressions communicate to each other “Are you serious!?” The head teacher in my class even gagged once because the smell was so foul. How can such a foul odor be emitted by one of God’s beautiful children? A little African-American 5-year old? Two words… Original Sin.

I’m not gonna lie, we always teach our kids to not laugh when fellow classmates fart, but sometimes it just gets so ridiculous that I just HAVE to laugh! Hahahaha, even just thinking about it makes me laugh! Aww, I love my kids, stinks and all… but really, sometimes… ARE YOU FOR REAL!?

Another thing that reminded me of my still sometimes childishness is when I laugh at slightly inappropriate things. Really, this time it was because it was kind of a cute mistake by one of my kids. We’ve been learning about God’s love in our class over the past few weeks, and today we reviewed some of those things. The teacher asked “What does God teach us?” One of my students, Jeremiah, was SO excited to answer. “Yes, Jeremiah?” the teacher asked. Jeremiah proudly answered, “God teaches us how to make love.” Hahaha, sorry.. definitely just chuckled to myself. What he was trying to say was “God teaches us how to SHOW love.” Of course, some of the kids saw me chuckling over by the side and TOTALLY called me out!! Maya, how could you!? “MR. JOSH IS LAUGHING!!” And then the head teacher, overhearing everything that was going on, of course laughed as well. Nothing gets by these kids, haha. I LOVE’em!!! Well, that’s about it. Tomorrow, another fun day at Canaan Academy. I’m gonna miss it when I head out to St. Louis for sure.

Here is my beautiful class!