Через COVID-19 та порушення роботи міжнародної
поштової служби ми тимчасово призупинили наше служіння безкоштовних друкованих книг.
поштової служби ми тимчасово призупинили наше служіння безкоштовних друкованих книг.
У зв’язку з цією ситуацією наразі ми не можемо надсилати Вам книг.
Моліться, щоб ця пандемія незабаром закінчилася і робота поштової служби відновилася.
Моліться, щоб ця пандемія незабаром закінчилася і робота поштової служби відновилася.
Subject 16 : The Gospel According to JOHN
[Chapter 14-2] All the Faith of Believing in God Is Real (John 14:1-10)
(John 14:1-10)
“‘Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know.’ Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; so how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority; but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.”
How are you today? Today, we have read together the Gospel of John from the Word of God. Through this Word, I want to share with you the fact that faith is the reality that truly exists, not a figment of imagination.
Dear fellow believers, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is the graceful Truth just as you and I believe. Such faith is not something humans can create out of fleshly imagination or human logic. The life of faith is believing and following the Word that God has actually spoken, not believing a figment of imagination that humans create by dreams and imaginations.
Jesus Referred to Himself as the Truth
Jesus said to us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Because Jesus personally has become the way, the truth, and the life for us, there cannot be any lie or impossible hope that humans create in the spiritual life of us who believe in this. Therefore, I want you know clearly and believe always that your life of faith must be fulfilled by true faith, not by the faith of following a figment of imagination.
Jesus said, “I am the truth,” and it means that all the Words of Jesus are the very “truth” without even one iota of lie mixed in the Words. As the fact that you and I are alive at this moment is real, that we have been created by God also is real. And the fact that you and I commit sins while living in this world as humans and that Jesus took all such sins of ours upon Himself through the baptism He received at the Jordan River also are real. Like this, that Jesus who carried all the sins of the world like this suffered and died on the Cross to pay off the wages of sins in our place and that He resurrected in three days after dying on the Cross and now sits at the right hand of the throne of God the Father are also real. And that Jesus has become the true Savior for those who believe in such facts by real faith, not as a figment of imagination, lie, or a dream and that He leads them to eternal life is also real. Believing in such facts through Jesus is as clear as the fact that you and I are here together today offering up the worship service to God and sharing the Word.
There cannot be any unclear and deceitful figment of imagination in the lives of the people who have been born again by the water and the Spirit. Just as the fact that our flesh needs air in order for our flesh to survive is an absolute fact, we must also know the fact that our heart becomes even stronger through the true faith. The heart that believes in God does not become distant from the reality. Instead, it is the “reality” that makes our spiritual and physical life truthful.
In the Gospel of John chapter 14 verse 1 to 3, our Lord said to the disciples, “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” This was the Word Jesus spoke to the disciples about what He would do after being resurrected from death. Jesus was telling them to preach the faith without worrying about anything because He was going to prepare a place for them by returning to Heaven.
There was a disciple of Jesus called Thomas, and when Jesus said, “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know” (John 14:2-4), Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). Thomas who originally had a lot of doubt probably was a realistic person who just believed only the things he can see and experience.
Jesus was telling the disciples that He was going to the very Kingdom of Heaven, not just any other place in this world. The Lord was going to Heaven to prepare a place for His disciples as He promised, “I will be resurrected shortly from death after being crucified to death on the Cross and then ascend to Heaven and go before the presence of God the Father, and I will prepare a place for you to live there and return to receive you when the time comes.” However, Thomas asked, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” Thomas was asking an ignorant question, that is, a foolish question, with a doubtful heart that cannot believe in the profound will and the Word of Jesus. And Jesus said again to such doubting Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). The Lord was saying again that the Lord is the way to Heaven.
Jesus is the Lord who gave us the remission of all our sins: He is the Lord who took all our sins upon Himself at the Jordan River; the Lord who received the penalty of being crucified to death on the Cross in our place; and the Lord who has saved us and given us the eternal life by resurrecting from death. Jesus who took all our sins and bore judgment in our place has gone to Heaven to prepare a place for the believers to enter and live in the Kingdom of Heaven and will descend to this world again in His time. So, the Lord said to the disciples that the Lord Himself is the way to Heaven. After the Lord spoke such things, Thomas still asked, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). He probably asked such a foolish question because he did not hear the Word of Jesus by the ear of faith.
The Lord said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Through this Word, we could understand well the authority of Jesus. Who in the universe can say such things? Who in the world can say that he is the Savior, the way to Heaven, and that people can receive the remission of sins and the blessing if they believe in him? We believe there is no one but Jesus.
People of the World Admire Such People
There are many famous people who have made their names known throughout the entire world, not only in our country, Korea. The name of Jesus also has become well known to the people of the world. However, we must always remember that Jesus is the true God who came to this world as the Savior of humankind, not just a human being such as you and me. Although Jesus was born as a Son of a human through the body of human, He is the Son of God the Creator of all things and the Savior of humans and the Judge who judges our sins. Jesus represents the power of God and gives faith to everyone in the world through the Word and gives eternal life to us through Himself. Hence, Jesus is different from all the other scholars and religious people who made their names known throughout the world. Jesus was the Son of God who could not be mentioned in the same category as Socrates, Confucius, and Buddha.
There is a word Socrates the famous philosopher from ancient Greece said. He said, “Know thyself,” and it is one of the famous quotations of Socrates, but the funny thing is that this actually was not originated by Socrates himself. One day, he discovered it while sitting on the toilet and he happened to see a scribbling on the wall. The eyes of this philosopher opened wide the moment he saw the scribbling that said, “Know thy self.” He realized, “This is it! How foolish it is for a human to discuss about other people when he does not know himself! Moreover, how difficult it is for a person to really know himself. A human must know himself first.”
Confucius is an advocate of Confucianism, the foundation of Taoism. He came to a conclusion that the greatest virtue is “generosity” and that “generosity” is “the love for humans.” Unlike the love of Christianity or the mercy of Buddhism, the compassion for parents and family, that is, the filial duty and brotherly compassion, was the central ideology of Confucianism. He did not come up with a new theory that was not in the world before through Confucianism. Rather, Confucius organized the most common and sensible values of this world and established them as the ideology of Confucianism. Based on ethics and morality, he said that humans needed to establish “adequate propriety” in form of rituals in order to practice “generosity.” For example, Confucianism insists that sons and daughters must honor their parents; a person must be loyal to the nation; and friends must be faithful to each other.
The thoughts of the people of future generation were added to such ideology of Confucius and it was handed down as the customs of Confucianism in the form of “sacrificial rites for the dead ancestors.” A person must honor his or her parents, and it was the notion of the people of next generations that they had to first offer up the sacrifice to their ancestors faithfully in order to do this. Along with the purpose of doing one’s best to the deceased parents and ancestors and faithfully worshipping them, offering up the sacrifice faithfully also has the purpose of teaching the descendants the filial duty of sons and daughters and the custom of worshipping ancestors faithfully by practicing such things. We can also see it as a teaching that has the purpose of making the family prosperous generations after generations through such teaching that places great importance in traditions and propriety.
However, it is wrong to think that everything will be prosperous if one worships his or her ancestors faithfully. The heart of respect for the deceased parents and ancestors is the basic character a person should have, but the heart of seeking one’s own safety and prosperity through the ancestor worships, the heart that believes that unfortunate things happen to himself and his family if he does not offer up the sacrificial rite to the ancestors, is same as entertaining a superstitious belief and it instead violates God’s Word. We are making a great mistake of misplacing a foundation of life as well as receiving judgment from God in the future if we throw away the Word of life by believing in the deceased humans superstitiously and worshipping them. It is truly foolish for one to try to teach the filial duty to his sons and daughters through the sacrificial rites to his deceased ancestors.
It would be more proper for parents to teach their children the filial duty and ethics through strict and upright teachings in their daily lives. What benefit would worshipping parents after they are deceased bring to the parents or their sons and daughters? Filial duty should be taught practically.
However, Confucianism has led people to wrong customs that place great importance in filial duty to deceased ancestors as the filial duty to the living parents. Confucianism teaches that the family would be prosperous only if they did this faithfully. Although Confucius was a person who achieved a great work as a scholar, his ideology has developed into wrong customs by future generations. And many people in far eastern Asian countries such as Korea, which was influenced greatly by Confucianism, learned wrong customs as a result. Even so, the ideology and name of Confucius has become well known throughout the world.
Then, what about Buddha, alias Sakyamuni, who is regarded as one of the four sages of the world? Buddha realized that humans are destroyed by their own greed and taught the deliverance of one’s soul through ascetic exercises. He taught humans to throw away greed because they could reach the state of deity if they threw away greed. Sakyamuni said every human flesh has 108 torments, and that they are all worries, concerns, and fears of the world. They are called “108 torments.” He was a person who lived an ascetic life in order to be freed from worldly anguishes that humans carry in this world believing that humans can attain deliverance of their soul and become a deity if they become totally free from such worldly anguishes. Afterwards, people saw his effort and ideology and lifted him up as one of the four great sages of the world.
Some people also call Jesus a great sage. However, as I mentioned before, Jesus is the Son of God and the Savior, not just “a holy man,” a creature like the so-called great sages of the world. Jesus took all the sins of humankind at once through the baptism He received from John the Baptism at the Jordan River and gave up His body to the Cross to pay off the wages of our sins. The Lord gave eternal life to us by shedding all the blood of His heart and giving up His life. We are able to go to Heaven through the Lord. Jesus is the Savior who has become the door of salvation to the humankind and opened the door wide open to everyone. However, many people do not know such Jesus as the true Savior and instead focus on the work Jesus had done. They only emphasize His healing ministry and the other benevolent work such as His taking care of the poor and the alienated when they call Him a great sage.
Only Jesus Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life
Jesus said that He is the way to Heaven. And He is the very Creator, the Alpha and Omega. He created this world, the universe, and all things in it. The Lord said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End” (Revelation 1:8). The world began from the Lord and the end is also from Him.
God the Father sent His only begotten Son Jesus to this world in a human body in order to remit the sins of humankind. He is also the very God Himself. And He took over all the sins of humankind when He became thirty years old by receiving the baptism at the Jordan River. Jesus bore all those sins upon Himself at that time to the Cross, died on it, and was resurrected and fulfilled the salvation of humankind. He is the Lord who has the power to make the believers in Him receive the remission of sins and become the sinless people and children of God. This is how He leads them to Heaven. By His power, the Lord has freed humankind from the slavery of Satan the Devil. Like this, Jesus has become the way for us to enter the Kingdom of God.
Jesus came to this world as the Son of Man and fulfilled the Word in the midst of suffering and persecution and gave us the Word of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Jesus has become the way for us to receive the remission of our sins, the way to receive happiness, and the way to receive blessings and eternal life due to His sacrifice and true love. Where in the world can there be a blessing greater than this? Jesus who gives us the remission of sins and eternal life is the Lord who actually gave us the most precious and valuable things. Therefore, we must always remember with thanksgiving that our eternal life comes from Jesus the Savior. This is the work Jesus has done by coming to this world.
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). This means that Jesus is God Himself. Henryk Sienkiewicz, the author of the renowned novel “Quo Vadis,” also acknowledged this fact. He actually collected various kinds of materials and analyzed them in order to prove that Jesus was not a real-life person. However, he eventually surrendered to God and the Scriptures, saying, “Lord, I really believe in You. The more I examine and come to know You, the more I realize that You are a historical Person who really existed in this world and that You are also God at the same time. This is true.” A person who had not acknowledged Jesus eventually came to believe in Jesus even more firmly.
There have been many people beside him who did not acknowledge the existence of Jesus and denied His historical existence. They denied that Jesus is the very Jehovah God Himself and persecuted the servants of God who believed in Jesus. When we look at the world history, most of the emperors of the Roman Empire persecuted the Christians ruthlessly. The political system of the Roman Empire at that time was based on the divinity of its emperors that argued, “The emperor is god himself.” However, because the number of Christians who believed and followed God increased and they refused to bow to the statue of the emperor because it was worshipping an idol, the emperor at that time used his authority and persecuted the Christians ruthlessly. The persecution of the emperor was truly vicious. They persecuted the believers and the servants of God by all kinds of vicious methods. For example, they killed Christians by putting them alive into the lions’ den. However, the worldly emperors who denied God like that and insisted on their authority ended their lives truly pitifully and unfortunately as a king and even as a human. And their empire has been destroyed completely as well. Even if an emperor has the greatest power in this world, the emperor also is nothing but a human, a creature of God. If a person misuses the power that has been entrusted to him with wrong methods and ruthlessly persecute people violently out of his stubborn self-righteousness, he will not be able to escape the judgment of those sins like the miserable end of the emperors.
Jesus is the Lord who really came to this world and ascended to Heaven. God who created the universe and all things in it came to this world personally as a human and dwelled in this world temporarily. He came to this world as the baby Jesus with flesh through the chaste body of a virgin, and He took all the sins of humankind by receiving the baptism when He grew up and became thirty years old. And He said, “It is finished!” when He carried the sins of the world and died on the Cross. And Jesus was resurrected in three days after dying on the Cross and the resurrected Jesus witnessed for 40 days the amazing work of salvation He had done through His baptism and the blood of the Cross. And as He ascended to Heaven, He promised to send the Holy Spirit, and He actually sent the Holy Spirit to the people who have been born again by the gospel of the water and the Spirit according to this promise.
All such things really happened and such amazing grace is the fact that is by your side even now. As God the Holy Spirit has really witnessed in the Bible, the love and grace of Jesus Christ is proven exactly in the Scriptures. We can meet Jesus Christ if we believe in the Word of God. And we can receive the remission of sins and go to Heaven because of Jesus Christ. You and I are now living the life of faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Due to our truthful life of faith, we receive the remission of sins through Jesus Christ, receive the power to defeat the temptation of Satan the Devil, and are always full of the Holy Spirit in our heart. And by true faith, we can go to the Kingdom of Heaven, receive the qualifications to call God the Father “Abba, Father,” and because of this, we have peace in our heart and receive the blessing God gives. All these things are real before the presence of God, not a figment of imagination. How amazing is this truth?
A certain Korean popular singer sang a song titled, “You are in my imagination,” but the Jesus we believe in is not the Lord who exist only in our imagination. The Jesus we believe in is the Lord who is really alive, the living Savior, and the living God. He is the living Lord who has given us the remission of sins; He is the living Lord who gives us His blessings in present tense, not in past tense; and He is the Lord who really gives us the Kingdom of Heaven. And He is the Lord who lifts us out of the evil scheme of the Devil and the Lord who gives us the strength to defeat all his traps of temptation. If you are suffering from the Devil, you must believe more firmly in Jesus as your Savior. You must believe in the fact that Jesus took your sins upon Himself at the Jordan River and that He carried the sins of the world to the Cross and was crucified to death on the Cross, and also believe that Jesus thereby saved you. You really become free from the grip of Satan the Devil when you believe in the fact that the Lord who was resurrected from death and now has become your Savior and the living God.
Dear fellow believers, a person must believe in Jesus Christ who said, “I am the Truth,” as his Savior if he wants to really receive the blessing in his life and not be ensnared by Satan the Devil and become his servant while living in this world. One must really accept this Word in faith. You will really experience the miracle of all the blessings that the Lord promises in the Scriptures manifesting upon you if you hold onto this Word and believe in it. Jesus Christ Himself said precisely, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Therefore, a person who believes in Jesus Christ receives the true life.
And Jesus Is the Living God
There are times when I think, “Is this a dream or a real life.” I think of such things whenever I experience something of significance while living in this world. When my mind is confused because I am half-awake, I seek the Lord after being wide-awake by taking a shower. I pray to the Lord to help me with all the things that worry me and trouble me. I seek and call out the Lord, praying like this, “I seek and entrust all these things to You, Lord, and I believe in You. I believe that the Lord will take control of all these things and give blessings and protect me.”
We will preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit throughout the entire world. Before we started this work, we probably were burdened greatly because of such important mission. However, haven’t we really established the Church in the United States, distributed books in Japan, and met so many people whenever we go to Europe or the other continentals? Spreading the gospel all over the world would not be impossible if we really do ministry through such encounters. However, if we just think of such things in our imagination instead of doing our best in daily lives with our hearts like this, we feel so burdened over such things that we become worried if we would not be able to do them all. Then, we do not really achieve much and the burden of the mission becomes even greater. Whenever I feel that way, I think, “That the Lord is in my heart is real; that the Holy Spirit is in my heart is real; that I have no sin in my heart is real; that I have life now is real; that the Lord is with me is real; that the saints are to receive blessings is real; that there is God’s Church is real; therefore, preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit is also real and us living for the gospel is also real.”
Dear fellow believers, people will also receive the remission of sins if they also believe by real faith in the Word of God we are preaching. All these things become more clear and organized precisely after coming to know that all these things are real. I feel that preaching the gospel throughout the entire world is not much different from operating a huge corporation. I come to think like that because everything is real. If we just do God’s work in our imagination, then, our minds would be bogged down with truly many thoughts like, “I wonder if we can really do this work. What should we do?”
However, preaching the gospel is real, not an imagination. All these things are real, the reality itself, just as moving to another Church building is real and that we had breakfast this morning is real. These things are not just a figment of imagination that exists only in our thoughts. That God saved us and that we are living the life of faith in Him are all entirely real. That you do not have sin in your heart is real and that you have become a child of God is also real. God is leading you and helping you in your lives even now. This is also real. The blessing and the miracle that God bestows upon us would become more apparent and shine even more in your life always if you really believe.
I have prayed for the coming winter discipleship training camp, “God, take control of the weather and keep us safe.” We swept the slopping road to the training center so that it wouldn’t be slippery, but I was still worried that the road would be frozen. Therefore, we did everything we could do and prayed. I got up next morning and went outside. I was so captivated because the morning scene full of snow that fell through the night was so beautiful. I looked around the training center as I felt, “It is so beautiful when God works like this!” Huge Korean nut pine trees revealed their mystical figure covered with thick snow and even the snow that sat on little grass covering it softly like a cotton ball seemed so beautiful. I felt truly deep fullness of mind from the fact that I could feel the hand of God through nature. After seeing the beauty of nature that day, the snow had melted completely by the morning of the last day of the training camp and we were able to come down by car safely.
The hand of the Lord and the miracle of the Lord who controls our lives become more visible when we see through faith in our lives like this. We come to really experience the Lord who controls all such things like weather, environment, and even our hearts, and also experience that God lives and works in our lives, in our faith, in our spiritual life, and in everything we do.
Our Spiritual Life Is Real
The spiritual life you and I are leading like this is real. That we are preaching the gospel in foreign countries is real and that souls are receiving the remission of sins through the gospel is also real. That someone’s body is cured after being sick is also real and all these things are really happening in our lives. Living inside God’s love is not a figment of imagination. Therefore, we must not dwell in our thoughts only as if we are dreaming this life of faith. We must live this spiritual life only in real life and never live this spiritual life in our imagination.
Dear fellow believers, there are times we commit sins in our lives. And there also are times that we commit sins again even after repenting of them because the fleshly will is weak. At times, there are sins we commit because we cannot escape from the temptation of Satan the Devil. However, our Lord came to this world and defeated Satan the Devil on the Cross. Jesus took all the sins of the world upon Himself by receiving the baptism from John the Baptist and carried them to the Cross.
Dear fellow believers, do you believe in this? That is correct. That we have received the remission of sins is real. Our sins really have been atoned by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And the Lord really gave us the Kingdom of Heaven and He ascended to Heaven before us and has prepared a place for us to live in the future. Now, the Lord will come to this world in His time again and appear to the people who seek the Lord apart from their sins (Hebrews 9:28). And the Lord will judge the world and lead the people who have received the remission of sins to the place He has prepared.
We can see many stars when we look up to the sky after finishing a day’s work. I think quietly, “In which star is our Lord preparing for us?” I dare to draw a picture of what kind of place Jesus has prepared and how beautiful it is. The Apostle Paul said that he had been caught up to the third heaven (2 Corinthians 12:2), and I also wonder if God has made a place to live in three levels of heavens. I imagine and draw a picture of Heaven in my thoughts like that. I do not know what Heaven looks like and I just draw it in my imagination, but there are times when I feel the Kingdom of Heaven. Whenever I think of the perfect salvation of the Lord, my heart is full of joy and peace, and then my sinless heart is full of the Holy Spirit. And at those times, I feel, “Oh, this precisely is the Kingdom of Heaven!” I feel the Kingdom of Heaven deep in my heart precisely when I hear the news from abroad that souls have received the remission of sins. The Holy Spirit in my heart works in me like the Holy Spirit made the baby John the Baptist leap in the womb of Elizabeth. Just as the babe leaped in Elizabeth womb for joy when she heard the voice of Mary (Luke 1:44), my heart is filled with the Holy Spirit when I hear the news that someone has received the remission of sins.
Are you experiencing the fullness of joy manifesting in you? Are you experiencing your heart becoming full of the Holy Spirit and becoming joyful as you hear this and that good news in the Church? The fullness of the heart and the overflowing joy is precisely the fullness of the Holy Spirit, not such loud and ostentatious things like beating a drum and banging on a drum. Experiencing the joy of the Kingdom of Heaven and the joy Jesus Christ has given by devoting ourselves to the evangelization of the gospel throughout the entire world is the true fullness of the Holy Spirit.
Of course we have not really gone to Heaven and lived there. But Heaven is real, although this body has not transformed and lived there yet. You and I and all the children of God will dwell there eternally. The Kingdom of God is real just as we are living the spiritual life like this after receiving salvation is real. You can receive heavenly blessings if you live by faith. You can never enter the Kingdom of God that the Lord has prepared for you and me and do not accumulate His blessings if you do not follow this Word and hold onto this Word.
God’s Word Is the Truth
Dear fellow believers, is the Bible real and true? It is true. All the Words of the Scriptures are the treasure house of truth. The Bible that has been maintained and handed down as the Word of God is still being read by all the people although thousands of years have passed. And the Bible is being fulfilled exactly as it is written in the Scriptures through the long period of human history. In the future, even the things written in the Book of Revelations will really happen. The rapture will also happen and the people who have received the remission of sins receiving peace and living in the splendidly golden Kingdom of Heaven will really happen. We will surely live and eat the fruit of the trees by the river of life. We believe that God has really predestined such amazing blessings and truth and such amazing facts. God will actually give much help and love always in your life if you receive the remission of sins and unite with the Church and hear the Word and live by faith together with the righteous.
If you want to do well in your life, you cannot do this by your own strength only no matter how hard you try. It is difficult to follow the Word while living alone by yourself. You can really experience God helping you when you unite with God’s people. I hope that all of you prosper. I want to tell you that our faith is real. God will bless you if you unite together with God’s saints according to God’s will and do the work of missions by firm faith. Such blessing manifest when your faith in this Word is firm in your life, and it is important to have the heart of really believing in the things God has witnessed through the Church.
The more I live the life of faith, the more I come to feel that the Word of God that I believe in is real. Some time ago, I went to the hospital because I was sick but the doctor in charge said that he couldn’t find the cause. Although the modern medicine and medical science has progressed so much that it is even difficult to imagine the limits of human power, there still are many sicknesses that cannot be cured even in the most technologically advanced hospital. We do not know the sickness when we seem healthy. But when a person becomes sick and goes to the hospital, it could turn out to be a rare sickness that even the doctors do not know the cause. It seems the world has become a better place to live for humans as the world becomes more advanced every day. However, that is only in comparison to the days before, and the world has not become so much better that there is nothing impossible. Although modern hospitals cure many people with the medical technology humans have developed and accumulate huge wealth, there is limit to humans. And there still are greed and vanity in such lives. A hospital that treats the human body is merely a business that is operated based on the criteria and standard of humans.
There are things that are visible to us when we look at them through the Word of God but are not visible to the eyes of humans. We are the servants of God who preach the gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven. By His providence, our God heals even the sicknesses that the professional doctors cannot heal. Therefore, I prayed to God regarding my sickness that even the hospital could not find the cause. I prayed, “God, please heal me. Even doctors do not know the cause of my illness. I have no one else to believe except You, God.”
After that, by God’s providence, I met a person that I needed. I do not overestimate the ability of a human. However, if someone has accumulated experience in a certain field for a long time, I do acknowledge that person’s expertise and ability. There are all kinds of people in the world. There are some people who have had proper education and attained a doctoral degree, and there are others who have become just as capable an expert as the people who have attained a doctoral degree in a certain field by accumulating experience diligently and consistently in this field although he has not studied professionally. The person I met was such a person. He was a person who has worked for forty years as an acupuncturist in one village. People outside the village might not readily trust his expertise. Rather, they probably would tell you to go to a big reputable hospital to see a medical specialist.
However, I decided to trust this person’s ability because I had already heard from the hospital that I could not be cured. I thought that he could have attained high degree of expertise since he had worked at this field for forty years. My trust in his ability returned with good results. I believe in this case as the guidance of God. I believe that God really took control of the situation and made me meet this person because I prayed to God. I was almost healed through his treatment of acupuncture. The inflammation of my spinal column is now gone. It is not completely healed, but I am so happy because it is getting better each day.
I want to tell you that all these things regarding God are real. God listens to the concerns and worries that you pray about and He really takes control of the situation and helps you. He is the living God who gives us the remission of sins, blesses us, leads us to Heaven, and gives all the blessings of Heaven. Even now, God is by our side and works in our circumstances, in our hearts, and in our faith.
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
Copyright © 2021 by The New Life Mission