Hyungjun Kim (Young Adults’ Mission)

As a Christian, I have been trying not to look contradicted to the people around me. I wanted to keep up with morality, conscience, and culture for those who have certain expectations for so-called “Church people”. It’s because even though I chose to be a Christian, I thought I could be told, “Why are Christians doing like that?”
Then one day, a coworker asked me, “Why do you go to church?” It was difficult to know what to answer. I didn’t like to give the typical answer, “To go to Heaven”. So, I said, “To live a good life”. I want’s satisfied, but I ended up like this because I didn’t want to give a long sermon to him.
But after that answer, my own question began. I didn’t think of what the wise answer was. Even when I asked myself, “Why do I go to church?” and “Why do I believe in God?”, I couldn’t answer clearly. One day, when I read the anecdote of Pastor Yangwon Son, I felt ashamed of myself.
He refused to worship at the Japanese shrine, forgave the murderer who killed his two sons, and welcomed him as an adoptive son. “I have to be a Jesus addict. Alcohol addicts live only with alcohol and then die from alcohol, and opiate addicts live only with opium and die from opium. So, let’s become addicts of Jesus and live with Jesus and die for Jesus. If we live our entire life for the Lord, we will be resurrected like the Lord. Being the Lord’s servant, let’s work for the Lord alone. Let’s not work for myself.” I looked back on my life.



Can I refuse to visit the shrine to protect my faith in the threat of Japanese guns and swords? I live in this land of prosperity with the blood of martyrdom of people like Pastor Son, but if I were at a disadvantage in the process of keeping my religious value, can I be grateful?
I was embarrassed by myself, who tried to have the “look” of a Christian, but was unable to cultivate a true “heart”. In order to possess the heart of Christ who taught us the heart to love any soul around with our love for the Lord, rather than the “action” for living a life conforming to the truth, I had to meet Him in worship, praise, and prayer. The appropriate answer to the question of why I attend church was ‘love for the Lord’.
After the organization has set management goals, it regularly checks interim progress. Starting with the performance goals of the government or corporate organization, there are also personal life goals. In particular, Christians live with the hope of heaven waiting for the Lord’s Second Coming. Just as God loves us, we love God first, love our neighbors, and want to be the true light and salt of the world. We strive to keep the Lord’s Day and offer tithes. Can you be confident that you are living a proper life of faith even if you are practicing the above things?
Due to the situation of COVID-119 that has continued since 2020 last year, the traditional daily routine of going to church and worshiping every Sunday and having fellowship with the saints has stopped and we’ve been worshipping at home for about a year. In the early days, it was regrettable that I could not associate with other saints for a while, but I saw myself falling into mannerism as time went by. Just as I went to church on Sunday, I felt the behavior of turning on the PC for worship at home on Sunday was changing like a habit. Then, I suddenly thought, ‘Wherever you are, what is the true life of faith? How can you diagnose your state of faith?’

You can find the answers to those questions in this book. You can lead an essential life of faith that resembles the beautiful heart of the Lord day by day with a heart that truly loves the Lord, realizing the broad and profound will of God, rather than focusing on the appearance.

The author’s deep insight into the Nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit, such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, helps to understand the Bible verses through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. This suggests a way to check our faith in the last days like this, grasp the current position of your faith, and make efforts to become more like the Lord’s heart and bear fruit. It deserves to be used as a guideline for the modern life of faith that helps Christians to practice righteousness, goodness, love, and truth that are proper in the sight of God until they bear nine fruits of the Holy Spirit through love for the Lord rather than the standard of a person’s “righteousness”.

Finally, I leave confession of the author in the book that leaves a lot of lingering. You can feel the value of how the author treats the saints as a pastor, and I think that the spiritual “love” he describes is implied here.
“I once made this confession before the saints. ‘If I could save a thousand souls, even if I had to go to Hell instead, I would do it.’”
Will any Christian in the world say that he wants to go to hell on behalf of others? He is also the author who deeply communicates with God and interprets the words like in this book.