Time flies quickly.  And thank you for your prayers. I left Adelaide last Wednesday (15 August) and arrived in Korea on Thursday morning. Having spent two days in a city library to finish my sermon preparations (though I need to make a couple more messages), my work finally began in Korea. On Sunday, I preached four times in different cities.  Two morning messages (9 and 11 am), one message at 2 pm, and the last one was at 7:30. Between the 2 and 7 pm messages, I had to travel a long distance with a heavy traffic jam. I was quite surprised that there were so many cars on the road on the Sunday afternoon. Though I was asked to preach one more time at 5 pm, I could not do it because of the lack of time. On Monday morning, I moved to a different city with many pastors and their wives. The pastors’ retreat was held in a resort with a hot spring water spa. A funny thing was that although the summer temperature in Korea this year is extremely high, and everybody is sweating, but we were in hot spa! I was the keynote speaker for the pastors, and every evening I spoke to them from the Scriptures. They wanted to hear about the Hopefuls in Adelaide, and I was able to tell them about Hope church and you.  I was very happy to talk about the Hopefuls, and the pastors praised the Lord for His goodness on the Hopefuls and Hope church. It was a time to encourage and challenge pastors, and once again I realize that it is very hard for me to speak to a group of pastors. It was really a humbling experience. Many of them were much more senior than me, and they were kind enough to listen to a much less experienced pastor like me. I am going to fly to JeJu (Cheju) island tomorrow morning (Friday) and fly back on Saturday. I am expected to preach for about 3 hours on Friday night, and a couple of hours on Saturday morning. Then on Saturday afternoon, I’ll come back to Seoul. I am scheduled to speak three times on Sunday.  Then, next Monday (27 August) I am flying to CheongDo. Don’t ask me where it is located. The only thing I know is that it is about one hour away from Seoul by plane. Thankfully, Gillian has helped me by translating my notes from English into Chinese. Thank the Lord for her willingness and language skill.  I’ll be back to Seoul next weekend. There are lots of invitations for preaching, and it is surely true that people like to hear from the Word of God. People have responded to the Word of God with tears and prayers. The Lord is working in the hearts of people. It is joy to see such enthusiastic responses to the preaching from the Bible.

While I am here, I know that all of you are busy in serving the Lord in Adelaide. Thank the Lord for our young people who had gone out to the street for evangelism and who had remained in the Stone Mansion to support them with prayers. Thank the Lord for those who are looking after pulpit duties on Sundays. It is a blessing to have able Session members who can preach from their hearts.  Please pray for them. It is a fearful experience for them to preach from the pulpit. They are nervous, but surely nervousness makes all of them humble as they preach. We do not have anyone who considers himself to be worthy enough to preach from God’s Word. We all depend on God and His grace.  It is my prayer that all of you listen to them preaching prayerfully, not judgmentally. I know that they have spent lots of time to prepare for their messages and prayed for effective preaching. They are doing it for His glory and His honor. Please encourage them for what they are doing. Rev. George is looking after the Wednesday Bible study and prayer meetings. Thank the Lord for his willingness to minister to us. Probably most of you do not know about Mrs. Irene Kurek who went to be with the Lord a few days ago. I believe that her funeral service was held on Thursday.  She is the mother to another Irene who comes to worship with us often. I must say a few words about Mrs. Kurek. She was a godly Christian who had committed herself to the Lord by faith. I could not talk to her freely because of language barriers. However, quite often Aranka was my interpreter.  Mrs. Kurek loved the Lord and prayed quite often. Despite her physical pain, she never lost her dignity and sweet Christian spirit. It is my prayer that the Lord fills her daughter, Irene, with His comforts and peace. I send her my deepest condolences. We all probably need to pray for Aranka, too. Mrs. Kurek had been a good friend to Aranka, and they shared love and friendship in their nursing home.

Christian unity is one of the hottest topics people love to discuss about. It is really true that divisive Christian groups do not look beautiful, and divisive individuals do not look nice. However, Christian unity or division cannot be easily discerned or judged because there are various contributing factors to any division and any unity. For example, if you have seen any military parade in Communist countries, you must have been greatly impressed. They are skillful and their performances are wonderful. It seems that they are really well united behind their parade.  However, this unity comes from their dictatorship and fearful regime. When a few communist countries were dissolved, we saw what happened to their countries and leaders.  Having said that, I must say that we ought to endeavor to unite our heart and mind in order to work together and to live together in peace. I believe that there are a few things we need to remember, if we promote Christian unity. Let me expand on the matter using two cases.

Case one: Christian unity is often threatened by some individuals who seem to glory their

knowledge of the Bible. They are strongly opinionated by their biblical and theological views. We ought to encourage all believers to study the Bible and to get to know God’s Word. However, if a man thinks of himself as spiritual, he needs to think of the following points written and exhorted by Richard Baxter. He said that there are a few things we ought to consider, if we truly promote Christian fellowship and unity.

· Do not overemphasize issues over which godly men differ.

· Do not overemphasize controversial issues that are matters of speculation.

· Avoid controversies due to misunderstandings about the use of words.

· Do not overemphasize obscure doctrines that were unheard by former generations of believers.

· Avoid adopting beliefs that were either not held or opposed by wise and godly men in any previous age of the church.

Case two: Christian unity needs to be strengthened by the spirit of togetherness such as learning-together and serving-together. The Bible continues to tell of the importance of learning. Unless we learn together, we do not come to an agreement on what we believe. I’d like to encourage all believers to come together to learn from the Bible. If we learn together, then we need to serve together.  Every one of us has a portion of work in the body of Christ. Well, this is all for now.  I’ll talk to you later.

In His Love, Your Pastor

More Lively Hope

© Hope Bible-Presbyterian Church
14 Bedford Square, Colonel Light Gardens, South Australia 5041