St Timothy Presbyterian Church in Toronto: Sermons

John 15:12-17

I think many people live with a wrong image of God, distorted image of God and this image of God is very important. What we think about God is very important. Of course, this image is not necessarily explicit image that you have. It’s almost like subconscious that it is underneath. And that image is God is powerful and fearful that is image that we have, God is powerful and fearful. One of the rabbis describes about his congregation member or member of his synagogue. The girl who just went to university first year, one day she just fell and dropped dead and the school did not know how to communicate that to parents, but finally, barely. They called the parents and let them know that your daughter on the way to the class, she kind of collapsed and died.

It was too late for them to do anything. So the parents came and then they didn’t know what to do. They were very disturbed. And then the next time they went to the synagogue and met with this rabbi. And the first thing that they said to the rabbi was, “rabbi at the last Yom Kippur we didn’t fast.” In other words, because they didn’t fast. This tragedy happened. So this kind of a powerful image and fearful image of God we have and depending on what image you have about God, your life is shaped very much depending on what you think every day your life is very much shaped and then all you have is powerful image of God. But to know that God is powerful, you do not need any insight. Even Asian people, they knew that God is powerful. So they all gave sacrifice to appease God.

So then nothing bad may happen to them. So even Asian people, they knew that God was powerful. They didn’t need any insight about God and people still live with that image. The powerful God image. I’m not saying that God is not powerful, but Jesus came to tell us. Something else about God. He came to show us that God is not just powerful. God is love. That’s what he came to tell us. God is love for God so loved the world that he gave his only son, Jesus Christ came to tell us to show us that God is love. This is what 1st John said, beloved, let us love one another because love is from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God. For God is love. God does not just love. God is love. He claims that God is love and that’s what Jesus Christ came to tell us. Why? Because we don’t know that. I mean he had to come all the way down to us to tell us that God is love because we don’t believe that we don’t have that image within us.

Jesus wanted to restore that understanding of God because we humans beings don’t live with that understanding that God is love. Subconsciously the only image that we have is that God is powerful and scary. This is what Jesus said today. I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I have called you friends because I’ve made known to you everything that I have heard from the father that is a radical image of God, God being our friend, but come to think of it, it’s not a new concept that Jesus created. God being a friend. That image is also in the Old Testament. They described the relationship between Moses and God. As friend, relationship, friendship. Exodus 30 3:11 he says, “thus the Lord used to speak to Moses, face to face as one speaks to a friend, so he already in the Old Testament, Moses and God were like friends and God called also Abraham as friends. That’s how Isaiah, saw the relationship between Abraham and God. This is what Isaiah says, Isaiah 41: 8, “but you Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen the offspring of Abraham, my friend, we are God’s friends. That’s what Jesus said. I don’t call you any longer servants. I call you my friend. The fearful God or the fearful God that we thought that fearful God came down to us to be our friend. That is a theology of incarnation that is a core of what incarnation is all about, that God far away who looks at us with fearful, scary eyes and every single move that we make and ready to make judgment upon us. We thought that that is kind of image of God, but then God came down to us and became our friend

And that is the understanding of incarnation. God is right here with us talking to us, embracing us and comforting us, but still in our mind. We put God way out there because we are too scared of thinking of God. We are too scared to have God around me. We feel that we are too dirty to have God near me, so as far as possible, I want to get away from God. But when you understand that God is your friend, your whole life changes. When you have this new image of God, your life changes. Your thinking changes. When God becomes our friend, you have the best friend, no other human being can provide that kind of friendship to you. All other friends are not as perfect as God is.

This is what Jesus said. “No one has greater love than this to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” That’s what Jesus did to his friends. He made us his friends and then he laid down his life for us. Do you have that kind of friend? I don’t have the friend who laid down his life for you. That’s the best friend you can ever have. To most of us friends are just friends whom you play with. When you have a hard time, when you go through difficulties and troubles and pain and suffering, they will not last too long, very long. They’ll be there for awhile, but they cannot be with you forever. And they will not lay down their lives for you.

If you have that kind of friend, you’re a lucky one. The wonderful thing about this friendship is that I didn’t choose it. God chose us. John 15, 16 said, you did not choose me, but I chose you. You don’t need to have the fear of rejection because God chose us. Jesus chose prostitutes, tax collectors and sinners. We don’t usually choose those people as friends, but Jesus chose them as friends, not because they’re worthy, but because they need friends. They were the social outcast. Nobody wanted to be friends with them. Nobody wanted to be around them so they had no friends in a way that’s why they needed friends Jesus chose them to be friends because they needed friends. That’s how Jesus understands friendship, to be. For us, friends are those who are like me, who can play with me. You may feel you’re not worthy. You may not be that popular. You may not have that charisma to draw people. You may not have attractive qualities but God chose you as friends of God. Rejection hurts, betrayal hurts. Jesus received rejection and betrayal from his friends, but he never rejected them and Jesus never rejects us.

When you start seeing God not as a scary powerful being out there, but as friend, something changes within you, that you will get to know God so intimately, unless God becomes your friend, you cannot know God. You’ll have a lot of concepts of God, but you cannot really intimately understand and know God only when God becomes your friend, you can get to know God very intimately. Jesus said, this is what you just said. “I do not call you servants any longer because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but I called you friends because I have made known to you everything that I’ve heard from my father. So when you have that intimate relationship with God, you get to know God very intimately and that’s how your existence become fruitful. As you get to know God intimately, your existence becomes fruitful. In John 15, 16, Jesus said, “and I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last so that the father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. The father will give you whatever you do, you ask in Jesus’ name,” and that gives me confidence. Whatever I ask God, God will give me. That gives me tremendous confidence. God will give you what you’re asking for and then you will have that confidence in life

And you will love being alone with God, God becomes your most intimate friends. You can say almost anything you want and you need and you’re not scared of being lonely. You are not scared of being alone because you are alone with God. Walk with God you talk with God. You laugh with God. You cry with God. God becomes your best friend. Knowing God, knowing that God is your friend is the most liberating experience you can ever have and you’ll be free from fear. That’s why Jesus said love casts out fear. At the end of today’s scripture, Jesus said, “I’m giving you these commands so that you may love one another as God is a friend to us, be friends to each other. That’s what community is all about. Be a friend. Be a friend to each other. Be Nice to each other, be kind to each other. If you can show your love to each other, being a friend to another human being, that’s the best thing you can do while you live. Be a friend to each other.

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Matthew 13:44-46

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

The Kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field which someone found and hid. Then in his joy, he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again. The Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls on finding one pearl of great value. He went and sold all that he had and bought it. When you look at the scripture I’m going to talk about three things today and all of them are within this scripture. Professor Susan Wolf who used to teach at Harvard and also John Hopkins, a set in her book, “meaning in life and why it matters. She said that there are, there have to be at least three elements for us to live a meaningful life. Three qualities or three elements. First one is passion. The second one is an active engagement. The third one is the objective of value.

I like to reflect on the meaningful life today. Why is meaningful life important? Because meaningful life is a happy life, without meaningfulness. Happiness is not possible happy life is not just about having fun, a happy life is not just about enjoying the abundance of life. A happy life is not just doing well in your career all of those things are very important to make you happy, but by themselves that won’t give you a happy life because around you have seen people who have all those very unhappy, so happy lives. These are important things to have, but underneath there has to be one thing essentially, and that essential thing that you have underneath all these things is meaningfulness. In other words, you have to believe that your life is worth it. You have to believe that your existence is worth it.

Your existence has some meaning and some value. If you don’t feel that my life has any meaning or value, then no matter what you do, you cannot have a truly happy life. So we human beings are created to pursue and search for the meaning. It is in our gene. It is coded genetically within us. So every human being who lives a good, happy life, they are searching for the meaning. So the meaning is, is very important in life. And I like to look at these three qualities or elements of meaningful life. The first one is a passion. There has to be a passion, in a meaningful life. Life Without Passion. There’s no meaning. I mean, you have to have something very important in your life. Something you’re passionate about. You know, one disease or poison that I see in modern generations when I look at their eyes, there’s no energy in their eyes.

There’s no passion. They’re just: “Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I like it. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah.” Everything is just kind of a mediocre. You don’t have anything. You have nothing to be passionate, but I really want to eat this or I really want to do this or I really want to achieve this. We lack that kind of a passion. You know, life’s passion is like a furnace that Burns your existence, that Burns your life, say, and this energy that moves you forward. That’s what passion is. So like no matter how busy you are, how tired you are, the next morning you get up to do that, you get new energy. There’s always energy left to do that thing. That is passion. When you look at Jesus’ life, I think he was quite passionate, man. Nothing could take away his passion.

Even the cross cannot take away his passion. He went all the way to the cross to live out his passion. Nothing could threaten to take away his passion. No threat was powerful enough to stop Jesus’ passion. Whatever you decide to do, I realized that you will experience obstacles, obstacles always we experience. You cannot achieve anything without obstacles. When you do certain things for so long and then you realize that you’re hitting the wall. You cannot go any further. You hit the wall and most people give up right there, but it is a passion that break through the wall. It is a passion that breaks down, that obstacle, with that passion, you can overcome obstacles. All the great people don’t think that they had an easy, easy way, easy time. They all experienced obstacles, probably the wall higher than the other walls that we experience. They experience, tremendous obstacles, but they went through the obstacles because they had a passion in their lives.

There is a will, there is a way, there is passion, there is a way when you have passion, the door is open for you and the road is an opened up for you. The way you can see. so passion really opens your eyes to be able to see the way a person with this passion. Her name is Dorcas Gordon. Dr. Dockers, Dorcas Gordon a, she used to be, she just retired, but she used to be a principal of Knox College, but when she went to theological seminary, people called her your demon possessed. Why? Because you’re a woman studying theology. He was like that a few decades ago. He was like that your woman and you’re studying theology, you must be like a demon possessed or whatever. That threat or that kind of attitude did not stop her. Her passion overcame that obstacle. She was not discouraged because of that. And as she went all the way and at the school as well, where is she was labeled as Demon possessed.

She even became the principal, the leader of their school. That’s what passion does. To live a meaningful life. You have to have passion. I hope that all of you think about what your passion is. What is, what is your passion for life? Think about it. It’s amazing to have passion. Some older people have passion like Kathy’s father. His passion for photography and the other last night he came to me, Reverend, I guess from my store, I got some kind of rebate from the government. And then please tell my wife I need a new full frame camera. Her, his wife will not be buying the cameras. He asked me to ask you is why?

Oh, you gotta have some passion. Whatever that is. And in passionate is something that you, you need to cultivate. If you’re taking everything so mediocre and everything becomes mediocre, but when you rip passionate about, then you can cultivate. You can build that passion within you. Second, the passion by itself is not enough. You need a channel through which your passion becomes actualized. Otherwise, it just becomes a vain dream. You need to actively engage to do something about your passion. Passion has to be translated concretely into something concrete. Are you engaging? We have to constantly ask ourselves, what are you gonna do about it?

Dorcas had a passion and then I’m in via principle of no now’s college or to be a professor in theology, you have to have a Ph.D. I mean, she had four children and she told me, I mean, she, she and I are very close. She told me, you know when I studied, I had my babies on my back and I went to the class sometimes when the baby cries, she came out and then went back to the class. That’s how she finished her Ph.D. She did something about it. You have to constantly think about what are you gonna do about your passion. Nothing can be done easily. We have too many what ifs. What if I cannot do it? What if I fail? What if, what if? What if? Sometimes we never get to the anything where we constantly think about what if thousand miles journey begins with a small step. Actually, that word, that phrase when I first met Dorcas in her office when I entered in that agency, a thousand miles begin with a small step. It is important to take one step at a time when you actually engage in, engage in what you want to do. What do you experience? When don’t you engage it? You didn’t experience it, but once you actually engage in it, what do you experience? You experience failure. For those who never try, they never know what failure is, but people who achieve great things, they are very familiar with failure.

Hey, when you actually get things, try to get things done. What you experiences feeling? Everybody experiences failure. Failure is a part of the process, is not a result. One succeeds without failure. People who never did anything about their lives with their lives, they don’t know what failure is for people who did wonderful things about life tape, all experienced tremendous failures. Michael Jordan, Michael Jordan became just market jewel Jordan because he was born with that talent. Of course, he was born with talent and height too. I can never be like Michael Jordan, but just because he was born with his physique and the talent, Michael Jordan did not become just mark Jordan. This is what he said, I can accept failure. Everyone feels like something, but I cannot upset not trying. He always tried. He always tried. He failed and failed and failed. He tried again and again and again.

I mean I really love Tiger Woods these days. He’s not doing very well, so I’m very sad that he’s not doing very well. But, you know, after every game he used to always other people went to the clubhouse or whatever. He went back to the putting green and he was practicing because he was correcting himself. Failure and success are not two opposite ends. Failure is simply a process of success and part of it, failure is not a shameful thing. You shouldn’t feel embarrassed about failure. You shouldn’t be sensitive to your failure. Thomas Edison said I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. This is a great attitude, isn’t it? I mean, all of these great people have a great attitude of all their lives. They don’t see things as a failure, as a, as we reflect on the last week, they didn’t see it as a failure. They just learned something new that won’t work. To overcome failures, you need to be strong.

You need to have a character. There is strong to overcome failures because most people will give up. What is the best way to make you strong? I believe that it is faith, faith that keeps you going, not your own strength, but the strength of faith. St Paul experienced tremendous difficulties and hardships in his life, a lot of persecutions, lot of oppositions, and he, he, he experienced a lot of failures too. Well, what kept him? This is what kept him going. He said I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. That’s what kept him going. Even though I feel God never fails, even though I cannot take anymore, God will continue and it is God who’ll who began a good work and it is God who completed in your life have that kind of attitude. Then you will never give up. This conviction drives us and compels us to keep knocking even when we feel that the door is really quite tight shot. We’ll keep knocking. Finally, whatever we do for your life to be meaningful, it has to have objective value. No matter how passionate Hitler might’ve been and how concretely he lived out, his passion to conquer the world. I won’t say that that life is meaningful life because it lacks objective value. Conquering the weak and the vulnerable concrete. Other countries cannot have objective value.

When I look at Jesus’ life or Paul’s life, I can see their worldview. I can see their philosophy of life. They lived in the world where there were no human rights for women and rice, for the slaves. They’re primitive society. The powerful, always conquer the weak and the vulnerable, but even in that society, Jesus thinking and Paul’s thinking, we’re very different. This is what Jesus said, but Jesus called them to him and said, you know that the rulers of the gentiles lorded over them and their great ones are tyrants over them. It will not be so among you, but whoever wishes to be great among you must be your servant and whoever wishes to be first among you must be your slave, just as the son of man came, not to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many that is a very, very different thinking from the society he used to live. He is more than 2000 years ahead. He always thought about objective value. This is what Saint Paul said. See, Paul’s teachings are seen. There is no longer a Jew or a Greek. There is no longer a slave or free. There is no longer male and female for all of your one increase. Jesus this theme in this crazy statement 2000 years ago, what are you talking about, Paul?

But he said that prejudice was taken for granted in Jesus’ life and Paul’s life, and yet they preached equality. What they try to do had objective value, meaningful life doesn’t have to be big and glamorous. A meaningful life is our everyday living. Objective. Value has nothing to do with people’s recognition. Objective value has everything to do with being helpful to others in whatever way it may be.

These three things, so what are those three things? First of all, passion, a second activity, engagement, third objective value. Think about it. A meaningful life is a good life. A meaningful life is a happy life. I want all of you to live with passion, to do something about with your life, even though it is short and through your life. I pray that other people get tremendous benefit. Let us sing together.

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Luke 11:34-36

The Light Of Your Eye

Luke 11:34-36. “Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with this phrase.” This is the word of the Lord.

I’m going to further explore the Inner Voice that I sent last Wednesday. There I said what we see controls our lives. What we see controls our lives. We are very much affected by what we see, we are very much affected by how we see things in life. We see that a lot in the Bible. Many stories actually show that. It was when Moses sent out twelve people to the land of Canaan, the promised land, before they actually entered the promised land. So these were spies, they went into the promised land. They saw the same reality, same situation. But ten people and two people had a totally different report. In other words it’s the same reality, but what they saw was very, very different.

Ten people said this, “There we saw the Nephilim. The Anakites come from the Nephilim. Anakites are giant, huge people and to ourselves, we seemed like grasshoppers. And so we seem to them.” So they saw giants. When they see giants, what happens is, “Oh, I’m just a grasshopper. I’m like dirt. I’m nobody compared to that giant. That’s how 10 people saw it.

But two people said this, “The land that we went through as spies is an exceedingly good land.” They didn’t see the giant. They saw the beautiful land. Do not fear the people of the land. For they are no more than bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us, and do not fear them. Same situation, same reality. They all saw, but one focused on giants and the other focused on God who gave them the beautiful land.

Don’t Look at The Wind

We see the same thing in the story of David and Goliath. All of the Israelites when they saw Goliath the giant, they were so scared and terrified. Nobody would dare to come out and fight against Goliath. They were all scared because they saw a giant. But David came along. He didn’t see a giant. David saw God. And then he saw Goliath as a kind of rude man who insulted God.

So depending on who you see, what you see, you’re very much affected. Jacob, he had to run away from home. He was in the middle of the wilderness and then he fell asleep. He was in the wilderness, but there he met God and all of a sudden that land became Bethel, House of God, the Holy Land. The same wilderness, but before he met God it was just a wilderness. But after he met God he saw it as the Holy Land.

Do you remember the story of Peter walking on the water, when Jesus called Peter to come? Peter focused on Jesus and he was able to walk on the water, but as soon as soon as his focus has changed from Jesus to the wind, when he saw the wave, he started falling. The same situation, but when he saw Jesus, he was able to walk, but when he saw the wind, he started falling into the water. And Matthew recorded the incident in this way. But when Peter looked, he saw the strong wind, he became frightened and began to sink. He cried out, Lord, save me. See, how important our eyesight is, how important what we see is, how much they affect us. You may be the same reality that you’re living, but depending on what you see, you can either walk on the water or fall into the water. I believe that this is a very, very important truth for you to remember. If you don’t understand this truth, then you won't understand faith, you won’t understand how faith works. You won’t understand what the world of faith is like.

Everyone experiences the same reality, but the way everyone sees the reality is very different. So I’ll say, we don’t live the reality. We live the perceived reality. Let me say it again. We don’t live the reality, we live the perceived reality. The reality doesn’t kill us, the perceived reality kills us. We should not live oppressed by our reality. We are given the power to interpret our reality. We don’t just live the reality. We have power to interpret our reality, and we live with that power to interpret our own reality. I believe that that power comes when we have the eyes of faith. When we have the eyes of faith, we have the power to understand our reality in a new way. Otherwise, you will see as everybody else sees. But when you have the eyes of faith, you’ll see a deeper aspect, deeper dimension of your reality, and you will live that reality, the reality that you saw. You know, the eyes of faith always look for a ray of light in the most difficult and gloomy situations. In the pitch black darkness, the eyes of faith always search for a small ray of light, and when you follow that light, a whole new world opens up for you. Depending on what we see, our mood changes, our thinking changes, our life changes. If you see certain things over and over and over again, you are shaped by it, if our eyes only see the darkness of life, we will become gloomy, our thinking will become distorted and our lifestyle becomes dark. In that sense, your eye is the lamp of your body. If you’re constantly seeing only pleasure in your life, then what you see will shape you and be the kind of person you become. If you constantly see self-centeredness, only yourself, then you’ll be shaped by that self-centeredness.

Follow The Light

Our eyes are so important and what we see routinely and repetitively. That’s what’s important. What do you see repetitively? Not just once or twice, but continuously. What do you see everyday in your life? That will be what will shape you. When our eyes see the ray of light, then everything comes alive – the way we see the world, the way we see each other and the way we see our life. The eyes of faith actively search for the ray of light in the darkness and I realized that the eyes of faith never misses the opportunity. Doesn’t matter how small the opportunity may be, the eyes of faith always see that.

Sometimes we see no way out. Don’t you experience that? There is no way out, no solution in our problems… but when you carefully look at them – your problems and your situation – you’ll be able to see small potential for the answer, and God lets us see that small opening, and we have to have eyes of faith to see that. Discover a deeper perspective. Your life will change. Find the light in your life. The light will guide you. The light will open up the new world for you.

People only see death. Death is everything. Death is the end. But even in death, the eyes of faith looks for a ray of light, and that’s what Paul did. When he saw death and it found a ray of light, he saw the resurrection. Death may be the reality for everyone, but to Paul, he saw the ray of light and resurrection even in death. When we see only death, the death will control our life, but if we see a ray of light, even in the darkness of death, the light will lead us to resurrection. Don’t think that the reality you presently see is everything. That’s a fool, only fools do that. Don’t give what you see the absolute value and power. What you see may be a typical, superficial, mindless, and distorted interpretation of your reality. That is not everything.

Newton’s universe and Einstein’s universe are very different. It is the same universe, but the way Newton saw the universe was very different from the way Einstein saw the universe. Just last week, Time magazine chose Einstein and had a special, good magazine, go and buy it. I just bought it yesterday. I was reading through it and though the universe – it’s the same universe – but what Einstein saw opened up a whole new perspective, a whole new world for all of us. Cultivate your eyes so that you may see bigger things in your reality. With the eyes of faith, we can see new things in any circumstance.

Your Reality

That’s why St. Paul says, “Give thanks in all circumstances.” Because in all circumstances, even in bad circumstances, Paul found something beautiful. That’s why he said, Give thanks in all circumstances. you’ll see hope in despair, God’s power in your suffering, resurrection, in death and light in darkness.

People fall not because of reality. People fall because of their distorted reality, distorted view of reality. As we experience hardships in life, failures in life, disappointments in life, our eyes have become distorted. Our eyes need to be restored in our Lord. We pray that God may touch our eyes and restore them, like the scale that fell from Paul’s eyes when he met Christ. I wish that the scales that blocked my vision may fall from my eyes so that I may be able to see the beautiful world of God. Beautiful life, I want to see. What is the sermon you listen to every week? What is the nature of sermon? Sermon is very much like an interpretation of your reality. You should see this reality in this way. That’s what sermon is all about.

Try to find the answer every day that opens up your life, not closes your life. Always find the answer that opens up your life. You will be able to see that answer and you’ll become a bigger person.  

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Genesis 41:15-16

{Transcript}

Today’s scripture reading is taken from Genesis 41:15-16.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it. 16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

This is the word of the Lord.

We all need dreams to live a meaningful life. When you have dreams you tend to look ahead. That’s what dreams do. In life, you’ve got to always look ahead. You shouldn’t just look back, and you shouldn’t just drown in your own daily living, worries and anxieties and things like that. But I believe that a good life always looks ahead, you see what’s coming. Kierkegaard said this, “life can be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.” I think that’s a very profound statement. When you look back, you can learn a lot of things, but your life should be lived forwards. To live your life forwards, you have to look ahead. To look ahead, you need to have dreams. Dreams help you do that.

There’s a characteristic of dreams. You have to understand. Dreams are not easily reachable. Dreams are often beyond our reach. In that sense dreams are very different from plans. Plans are also about what’s ahead of you, but you can control them. Often times, dreams are beyond your control. You cannot even imagine the result of your dreams, and many times you feel that it is impossible to achieve dreams because it’s so far ahead of you.

Imagine the dream of Martin Luther King Jr., where you’re judged not by skin color, but by your character? How can you imagine a world where there is no racism, where everyone just lives peacefully? Imagine the dream of Isaiah, for example. Isaiah said this, “lions and lambs lying together and the little kids will put their hands into the den of vipers and no one will be hurt.” How can you imagine a world where no one hurts each other, where everyone just loves each other and helps each other? How can you imagine the dream of Isaiah? It is beyond our reach.

It is very difficult to imagine our dream. So we have this question. When dreams are so hard to be reached or realized. Why do you have dreams? Regardless, dreams will not be realized. Why do you have dreams? Maybe that’s why many people find dreams futile, no use, and they say negative things about dreams. Living in clouds, vanity, lots of ideas, but no action, that kind of thing, so they give up on dreams altogether. I think dreams are very important still. Dreams are hard to imagine, and it’s hard to be realized, but there is power in dreaming. You know what that power is? Dreams have power to draw your life to that dream. That is the power. When you have dreams, your life automatically is drawn to them. Dreams are like a jet stream where they control the direction and movement of the wind. In the same way dreams set and control the direction of your life, dreams shape who you are and dreams shape your life. That is what dreaming does. Even though it’s not easily accessible, easily reachable, dreams continuously move you into certain directions. If you have no dreams it’s almost like living without direction of life. When you have dreams, then you will have  clear direction in your life.

I also realized that dreams are not something that I can make up. I can come up with all kinds of dreams, but they are doctrines, they are vanity. I realized that real dreams are given to you. It’s not something that you make. Dreams are not what I choose. Dreams are given by God. Dreams have a lot to do with your relationship with God. When we think about dreams, we can think about Joseph, dreams are not luxuries, dreams can be quite difficult.

This morning I was talking with a KSM member, a young woman and she said, just this morning on the way to church she talked to her husband about her dream. “My dreams are luxury. I’m going through so much. So dreams are luxury.” But dreams are not luxuries. Dreams can make your life very difficult.

Like in Joseph’s case, if he didn’t have dreams, he didn’t have to leave his home, but because of his dreams he was hated by his brothers and they even tried to kill him, and then they sent him away into Egypt. Ultimately, because of his dream, he was able to save his family and established the foundation of the nation. Israel. That’s what Joseph’s dreams were all about. Joseph believed that it’s not something that he came up with, that dream was a dream he received from God. So often, there are a lot of dreams that you make up, but there are dreams that God gives you and you know that has a lot to do with what God wants to do with your life.

As we enter into deeper relationships with God, this is what I realize. Dreams are moving within you. Dreams are being formed within you and dreams are given birth within you. These dreams have everything to do with what God wants to do through you. It is important to think about our dreams because they shape your existence. You all have dreams within you. They’re just not discovered yet, but you all have dreams within you. When you met God, dreams were created already, deeply buried within you and maybe not discovered, but you all have dreams. Or maybe you put them aside as unimportant because you’re so busy living your life.

When you sit down and carefully think about them, you’ll be able to find dreams within you. Don’t try to force your dreams, but listen to your authentic existence and dreams will come to you, they will come alive. Then you will be able to live out those dreams and you, your life will move forward.

Also sometimes, dreams, even if you find them, there are many obstacles and challenges for these dreams being realized, but just because of challenges and difficulties, do not throw away your dreams, they are precious. Just because life is hard and difficult, do not throw away your dreams, or do not replace your dreams with your ambition. Personal ambition is just for yourself, dreams are for other people. Dreams are for the community. Dreams are for the country. All these great people had dreams. Martin Luther King Jr. and Isaiah, all these people had dreams. As they met God these dreams were created within them and they lived out those dreams. No matter how difficult life was to them they lived out those dreams. They are great people.

Just because your life is busy and you’re having a hard time right now, don’t throw away your dreams. Sit down and carefully think about what your dreams are, especially for young people. Most of you are young. Don’t ever throw away your dreams. Start learning to practice dreaming everyday. Practice dreaming. Go and buy a notebook. If you don’t have money come to me. I’ll buy you a notebook. Buy a notebook and start writing down what your dreams are, what your your dreams for life are, and then live them out one by one. Wonderful things will happen. You will start seeing how God works in your life through your dreams.

Life without dreams is like life without hope. My friends, let us rise from our sleep and let us live our dreams. Let us bring out those dreams that you used to have and live out those dreams. You will be able to do wonderful things to each other, for the world. Yes, the world that we live in is very harsh, difficult. A lot of fights, animosity, division, all of these things are what we are experiencing every day, but we have noble dreams. Noble dreams for justice, noble dreams for peace, noble dreams for harmony and reconciliation.

Let us humbly come before God and ask God to give us dreams so that we may live out the wonderful life that God has given to us. Dreams are a gift from God to you.

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Philippians 2:1-11

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Jeremiah 29:11-14

Today, as I said, I want to talk about change. Change includes many things. You can think of many things regarding change, such as a change to maturity, a change to deeper commitment and a change to find one’s own calling and take that journey and so on. So I don’t want to talk about superficial changes or something taking place only outside. We can call that a cosmetic change, but today I want to talk about the real change. Because of that real change, our life will be changed forever. And I want to talk about how to make that real change in our lives. First, when we hear the word change, we feel resistance. There are so many reasons why we feel that way. It can be psychological reasons or spiritual reasons or habitual or behaviour reasons and so on. It looks to me that we may welcome the changes, but deep down in our hearts, somehow we do not want to change. Our whole body refuses to be changed. But in our head, at least we are saying, yes, we need to change. Sometimes we would say that we need to change, but only in lip service. The reason behind this is that we may want to let others know that we are trying to change, but there’s no actual change happening, right? Or by just talking to ourselves that even though we are not doing anything for change, we are at least aware of that need and the importance of the change. But what we are really doing is making excuses for not doing anything for change. We refuse and avoid changes instinctively. We think about the changes only conceptually. Because of these discrepancies and conflicts within us, we cannot achieve any changes in reality. When we approach changes with just a sense of responsibility or out of guilt, changes will not happen. Unless we do something about the change concretely, change will not happen. Albert Einstein said, “insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That is insanity. Unless we put something into practice for change, there’ll be no change. Even though we may say a hundred times to ourselves or to our spouses or people around us that we need to change, nothing will happen. Even though we may think about the changes, if we do nothing about it, nothing will happen. Let’s take a look at the change from a different angle. When we encounter serious challenges or experience a great loss in our lives, then we will change things around us. For example, when we find out that our health is not in a good condition anymore, we begin to exercise or go to the gym and we pay more attention to what we eat, even if before we didn’t do anything for our health. Sounds familiar, at least my age, right? But we all know that such a change doesn’t last long. We will all fall back to the previous lifestyle. Even though we may take medications and all that, it seems to me that we do not change our lifestyle that easily. This kind of change is a forced one and the forced change is not a real change. Similarly to that, if we make changes just because of the fear for other people and their opinions, there will not be a real change. If you make changes just because of survival in the workplace and so on, that is not the real change either. All these changes may have a form of change in appearance, but it will not result in anything.

A few years ago, when I was at one of the KSM happiness seminars, I received so much grace. I was like discovering a new God so to speak. What I discovered was that when we say we believe in God, we also mean that we believe in changes. When we say, “I believe in God”, it’s like the same thing as saying “we will achieve changes in life with God’s help.” I did not connect these two together before: changes with God, God with changes. To me, it was a new discovery about God. Yes, God is the God of changes. When we say we believe in the living God, that’s what it actually means. God is in charge of history and human life. And God is not only the God of the past but also the God of the present and the future. God will be God in every step of our lives. So we need to open to the changes God may lead. From that point on a few years ago, change is not anymore in the powerless concept nor the struggles that I want to change, but must be in the realm of spirituality. My friends, if you really desire to have this kind of change in your life, it is with God, it is with our faith in God. Before I made changes, I was thinking lightly. That’s why I couldn’t make any differences. I thought changes existed outside, so whenever I decided to make a difference or change, I thought I was able to do that. But no, that was a misunderstanding. But I finally realized that true change is connected to the faith in God. And from that point on, I have meditated on the spiritual truth over and over again. In the Bible, there are so many stories that contain how God made changes in history and in human lives. And we all know this. We all learned before that, there is one common theme or movement reflecting such changes in the Bible. That is from bondage to freedom. Whether that is the story of Exodus, coming out of Egypt or the story of a Samaritan woman, both the community and an individual experience the movement of liberation, which is from bondage to freedom. And this is the actual change God has caused for God’s children in history. And I believe God is still making these changes in our lives so that we may experience the true freedom and fullness of life.

In today’s text, we can see God’s movement that is from bondage to freedom for the people of Israel. Verse 14 says, “I will let you find me, says the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I’ve driven you says the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you to, into exile.” God has promised that the community in exile will return to their Homeland, and that is exactly the change God is making for the people of Israel. They will experience freedom from captivity and they will restore their life’s calling as God’s people. In this sense, a real change is to go back to the essence of one’s calling and finding out God’s purpose for us. But even though God will make the changes and return the people to their Homeland there’s one process that Israel must have taken. That is they must acknowledge and confess that they cannot make the changes themselves, but only God. I think it is a huge and important spiritual statement. It is the very reason why we cannot make any changes. Change is something we cannot make. When we can acknowledge this truth wholeheartedly and bring ourselves to the presence of God, God will take care of it. God will take of ourselves. This is the spiritual principle for real changes. And we need to remember this and live this out in our lives. That’s why verses 12-14, ask us to go before God and pray to God. He says, “then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me. If you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the Lord.”

Jeremiah says “with all your heart”, I love this expression. Some other English Bibles translated it as “wholeheartedly.” It shows absolute trust in God, and it shows a genuine passion for God. One truly desires for changes, but at the same time, one confesses humbly that only God can bring about the changes. God will take care of the remaining process. In this sense, change becomes easier than before. Only when we stop our effort to make changes, God can begin to work to change us. Please remember this. Please remember this spiritual principle. Jeremiah mentions the process of change in another chapter while using this particular metaphor. It is from Jeremiah chapter 18, verse 6, “Just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.” The metaphor of the potter and the clay is such a beautiful metaphor. God is at work, changing us into the pottery that God wants us to be. God is at work, God is changing us into the pottery that God wants us to be. Now we come to understand clearly that change is not the reaction to external factors nor the reaction from our fears. Nor is it the powerless and fruitless determination in concept, but the spiritual event for those who seek God wholeheartedly with all their hearts and meet God in a real way. When we meet God, we will be changed forever. That’s what happened to the Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. And that’s what happened to Zacchaeus in Luke chapter 19. And all the disciples of Jesus have gone through these tremendous changes and became a true witness for Christ. So we can confidently say that it is God who will make changes in our life. Amen.

But there’s one more thing we need to remember when it comes to the changes. God often uses struggles and pains to change us. I’m not saying that we should take suffering in a perverted way. We should not take any joy in suffering and struggles themselves, but I’m asking you to have spiritual insight into the struggles you are going through. If we keep avoiding the struggles and pains, there’ll be no changes. If we keep hopping around for quick solutions, there’ll be no changes, Do not bypass hardships, but go through it with God’s help. Think about this image: when the potter holds the clay and smashes them on the pottery wheel and moulds them with God’s hands, it can be a quite painful process for the clay. But if we have total trust in God’s hands, then God will make us into useful pottery and we can go through such a process. German philosopher, Kuno Fischer, once said something similar to this. “The pottery that is well baked in the kiln does not change its colour. Those who are well-tempered by hardships will not break easily. As we are living in this world with lots of thoughts and busyness, when you feel like you really want a change, just bring yourself to God’s presence wholeheartedly. Have total trust in God, knowing that God is just making you into beautiful pottery right now. And after this, we will all come out as beautiful pottery that God wants us to be. God will use us for God’s glory. When I think about our young students, you don’t know where you are right now, but you know that you are struggling with lots of uncertainty about future schools and relationships. Just bring yourself to God with all your heart and ask God, “God, I know that you are making me now. You are putting me in your pottery wheel, but I know that after this process, I will become the beautiful and wonderful pottery you want us to be.” And after this, after all the hardships and struggles and processes, during this time of struggle, we can say this, “I can do everything. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” This is my prayer for every one of you and including myself. When we face hardships and struggles, let’s look for God and not at ourselves. Instead of something superficial and simply reacting, just calm yourselves. Bring yourself to God’s presence and ask for help. “Lord, please change me. I know you’re changing me. Please give me the strength and wisdom so that I can go through this with your help. Amen. 

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1 Kings 17:8-16

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Matthew 13:31-32

(*The message was delivered bilingually as part of the joint worship service, therefore the overall length is shorter than usual.)

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Romans 12:12-13

{Sermon}

Romans Chapter 12 verse 12 and 13 “Rejoice in hope. Be patient in suffering. Persevere in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers”. I think this scripture shows us what good life is and how we should live daily. This kind of describes a beautiful, healthy and abundant life, almost like a guideline for our life on earth. These are five pillars of good life. These are what make anyone live a happy life, and I’d like to reflect upon those five pillars of life. The first, you have to be hopeful about life. Life can be tough and the reality may be very harsh, but you always have to have hope that there is a better tomorrow. There may be tears and agony today, but you have to believe that there will be laughters and healing tomorrow. This is why we need to have hope in our lives. Saint Paul said, Rejoice in hope and I believe that you can rejoice only in hope, in hope, by having things, by enjoying things you can not truly rejoice. The true joy comes from having full hope. When the hope dances, it is joy. When you have hope for tomorrow, you have joy today, you can not see tomorrow, but you can see joy today. When you see the invisible tomorrow with hope, no matter how hard life can be, you should never give up your dreams . That is good life number one, rejoice in hope.

Number two, learn to persevere in suffering. Suffering is inevitable, it is reality. We are bound to encounter suffering. There is no life without suffering. Trying to avoid suffering is not the wise thing to do. In that way, you become weak and passive and even turn into a coward. You don’t confront life’s real challenges when you try to avoid suffering. Jesus was not scared of suffering. He went through a lot of suffering, but he was not scared of suffering and he did not try to avoid suffering. He confronted the suffering without fear, so it is better to learn how to persevere in suffering rather than trying to avoid suffering. Suffering is not necessarily a bad thing that you should avoid at all cost, suffering is not evil. You have to believe that suffering can even have positive effects. That’s how Saint Paul saw suffering, this is what he said “But we also boast in our sufferings knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint us . The suffering will not be with you forever. When the time comes, the suffering will end and those who have persevered will come out stronger, but when you go through suffering, you feel like the suffering will be with you forever and will never end, but any suffering will not be with you forever. Ultimately it will end, but for those who persevere, suffering will come out stronger. When we persevere through the pain and suffering, then we build character. Character makes us unique. Don’t fear the suffering. Don’t succumb to the pressure and give up. Persevere, suffering may even do good to you. Good life Number three, pray constantly. Praying is a beautiful thing. Praying opens up new possibility. I believe that I don’t know about you. I believe that life is full of mystery. That’s what I believe. I firmly believe that life is full of mystery. Then what is the best way to respond to the life of mystery? To me, it is prayer. The best way to respond to the mystery of life is prayer. Through prayer, you let go of your obsession to control, and I believe the number one cause of unhappiness is obsession to control, but through prayer you are liberated from that obsession to control. You don’t need to be in control all the time. Life is not controllable. When you don’t need to be in control, you experience peace and calm just because you tried to control your life. Your life doesn’t get any better. Sometimes there’s a equals better. When you don’t try to control it and you experience calm and peace, we become aware of what is important to you, what you want in life, and where you want to go. That’s what prayer does. People who pray, they know what they want in life. They know what life is all about, so they are awakened through prayer. They are aware of their life. Jesus always said, my time has not come yet, so he was always reading for time. He didn’t just respond to the situation or his life was not just drifted away by the circumstances he always looked for and waited for that time. In other words, he lived intentional life. Life has to be intentional. You can’t just respond to the situations and to be intentional. You have to know what you want and through prayer you’re awakened and you know what you want. That’s what prayer does.

Good life Number four, take care. Take care of the needs of others. That is a good thing to do. That is what a good person does. You don’t have to save the world. You cannot save the world, but at least be mindful of the person in need around you. As we live the life of taking care of others’ needs, our life comes alive. We are made that way. Our DNA is made that way by making other people happy, you will become happy. By making others miserable, You’ll become miserable. That’s what our DNA does, so always take care of the needs of others. The real joy comes not just from heading full of hope. Real joy comes from serving others, making others happy. That’s when you become really joyful. Being selfish makes you happy. That’s not true. You experienced that. Being selfish makes you unhappy, miserable. You get things only for yourself. In the beginning is good, but soon you realize that you become miserable. You complain, and you’ll get more dissatisfied when you live just for yourself, so being selfish makes you happy, that’s wrong assumption, a wrong theory. You don’t want to be around selfish people. Selfishness destroys human spirit. America first. It’s not a good slogan,  is that a good slogan? United, we stand divided We Fall thats a good slogan. by giving what you have to others, you have less. That’s Reagan’s understanding, but that’s not true. By giving away what you have to others, everybody becomes abundant,abundance. When you share the abundance, all become abundant. Abundance is created by abundance.

We human beings are created to take care of each other. That’s the only way for us to survive. Good life Number five, be generous, be generous, have a generous heart, and you will experience the abundance of life. Make that as your life principle. Be Generous in sharing your abundance, your experience abundance. Be a blessing wherever you are. If money is required to be a blessing give if forgiveness is required to be a blessing, forgive.if your presence is required to be a blessing Give your a presence. Be present for that. God blesses the generous heart. These are five pillars of good life and we need to build our life on these good five pillars. These days I’m a little bit busier than before because I’m writing every day, the inner voice. I send every morning a very short five minute you can read and then meditate because I just want people to start a day with good thought rather than negative, gloomy thought. And then just let that let them think about it all the time.

Even though it is a difficult, I do that to share something good. And in these 140 people, some of, send me email saying that, you know, thank you for the word. And it has helped me greatly. And then I become really happy. I become really abundant in that way. But these 140 people, many of them also send to other 10 people, they say they are very busy in the morning because as soon as they receive it, they send it. I want you to live a good life and to build a good life. You need these five pillars. Then you will experience the happiness, abundance, and joy and of life.

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Galatians 6:9

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.

The purpose of inner voice is for people to reflect on good thought every morning. It takes only five minutes to read if you want to read it, but if you want to think about it the whole day, you can use it to meditate on it the whole day. So it’s a very short meditation, so far I have about 120 subscribers and so if you are interested in it, some people use it quite effectively and spiritually, they tell me that every morning they read it either on the GO train or bus or just read it quickly and then think it over for the whole day. So if you are interested in it, go to the website. The first one has instructions so you can read the instruction for the first one, and you can see today’s June fourth, so continuously 365 days a year you will be able to get it. Today I like to talk about giving up because these days I see a lot of people give up too easily. I like to think about giving up. Giving up is an easy way out. Scripture, Galatians six, nine. “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time if we do not give up.” Very short passage. So I was thinking about giving up. Giving up is an easy way out and we can always give up, that’s the easiest way to deal with our problems. Just walk away. That’s easiest, but it should be the last. That’s not the best way to deal with our problems every time. I don’t think, if that is our lifestyle, then we can never achieve anything. We’ll always give up in the middle of doing things.

We may start well, but we won’t be able to finish it. Don’t you realize that whatever you do, you always hit the wall, don’t you? I mean, whatever I do, I always hit the wall, plateau. It doesn’t get any better whether you play sports at a certain point, you don’t get any better. Even some great players, they go through a slump, and then they just don’t get out of it for a year or two, or if you’re an artist, you’re imagination is kind of fixed and limited, you cannot do anything any better. So I know this sculptor and he got an award. He was just going crazy, every day, he’s reading all kinds of books to get inspiration, but nothing comes. Also writers, they often tell me that when they see a blank page, they get really scared because nothing good comes.

Even in a relationship, we hit a wall at a certain point. Our relationship doesn’t go anywhere, and the wall is so high and so strong that it makes us feel so helpless and hopeless. We feel so powerless and small in, in front of this big, huge wall. That’s why we give up and turn around and we say to ourselves, I have no power within me to break that wall and I have no choice but to give up. That is a logical conclusion. That is a logical conclusion and sensible conclusion, maybe that’s why I believe that we cannot live just simply by the logic. We always faced the wall that is too high and too strong. No matter what we do, we can logically explain why we gave up and we can logically explain well, why we stopped running. No matter how logical that may be, that’s not what I want.

That’s not what I need. I don’t need to explain logically why I gave up. I’m not interested in why I gave up. I’m not interested in a logical explanation of why I have given up. I believe that people have become victims of their own logic. They don’t see beyond that. Their own logic gives justification for giving up too easily. They have a very good reason why they give up, but they become a slave to their failure and to their own logic, they become victims of their own limitation, so I don’t think it is good to simply live by logic. It doesn’t get us too far. I want to live by faith. I want to embrace the mysterious aspect of my life by faith. Saint Paul said “we walk by faith, not by sight. We walk by faith, not just logic.” Hebrews writer said, “now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Whenever you hit the wall, that is when you should turn to faith. Whenever you feel helpless and hopeless, I hope that you can try to turn to faith. Don’t just try to break the wall. Sometimes when you try to break the wall, you feel helpless and hopeless. Your weaknesses will overwhelm you. You will be exhausted and then soon give up.

When you turn to faith, you will see something more than the wall. You know this image came to me when I was writing this sermon; There is a door on the wall. Somehow this image is given to; my door on the wall. When you see your wall with faith, you can see the door on the wall. You don’t need to break the wall. You just go through the door through faith, you’ll be able to see the open door. You know, Jacob’s life was always running away from the beginning. He had to run away from Israel, all his life he ran away. At the end of his journey, he could not run away from his life problems anymore. He had to face his own life challenges, so this time he decided not to run away. He decided to face it. That’s why he wrestled all night with this unknown figure. To Jacob, the wall of his life was Esau, but he didn’t have to break the wall. He didn’t have to destroy Esau to move on. Mysteriously, Esau turned around and accepted Jacob. He never expected that. That was an open door to Jacob. On the wall, there was an open door.

We don’t know how our life will turn out. We don’t know how our problems get solved. We don’t know what the future holds for us. The important thing is to believe that what I’m doing is worthwhile. I’m doing good things. It is good work that I do while I do ministry, many times I have experienced the wall, but every time I have believed that what I’m doing is worthwhile, it is valuable, and God always, every time he showed me the way. So it’s just important that you believe that what you’re doing is valuable, important worth it. It reminds me of what Isaiah said “I am about to do a new thing. Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I’ll make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, away in the wilderness, the rivers, in the desert”. There is no way in the wilderness, there is no river in the desert, so there’s no door on the wall. So rivers are the way, they are like doors, St Paul said, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time if we don’t give up.”. Yes, I believe that if we believe all we do is right, then we should not give up. God will show us the way and he will. We will. We will reap when the right time comes.” Second Chronicle said the same thing, but as for you, be strong and do not give up for your work will be rewarded.

You do a good thing, you don’t give up and ultimately you’ll reap rewards when the right time comes. Run, but when you face the wall, don’t run away. Turn to God, have faith in God. You may not have the power to break the wall, but you may be able to see the opening. As you look at your own life, didn’t you experience that one moment in your life where it goes nowhere? You’re stuck. There’s no way out. I felt in many times, there’s no way out. I’m stuck here. I’m so helpless and hopeless, but somehow there was an opening. I don’t know how that opening came about, and I was able to go through that opening and life opened up. My friend’s life is like that. Sometimes you feel you’re stuck. You go nowhere, your life goes nowhere. You look around, there’s no way out, but with faith, you will see a small, small opening opened up for you, and when you go through that opening, the whole new world opens up for you. I do believe that there’s a faith journey you cannot see that by logic alone, only by faith. You’ll be able to see that opening, then your life will open up. Otherwise, you’ll be stuck in your own situation. I hope to be all have eyes of faith so thou life moves on beyond the wall that we hit.

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