Title: Expand Your Mind
Contents
title ; expand your mind
main text ; 2 Corinthians 6:11-13
There was a woman professor. When this woman was young, the 6.25 Incident happened, her father died, and her mother alone went to Namdaemun and Seoul Station to sell rice cakes and educate her only daughter. Thanks to her mother's sacrifice, she finished graduate school, met her talented husband, and went to study abroad together. And when I came back to Korea, I started teaching at the university between the couple.
Since the two of them were professors at the university and had a decent income, this man persuaded her husband to live with her mother. After living together, it was my mother's birthday, so I had a birthday party, and my daughter asked her mother. “Mom, what is your wish?”
Then the mother quietly tells her daughter. “Daughter, I have no wish if you go to church.” "Okay. Mother, I will go to your church." In fact, my daughter attended church well until she was a student, but as she went to college and graduate school, she gradually moved away from the church, and this has always been the subject of her mother's prayer.
On the first day, Kwon's daughter said that he had come to church, so the people of the church gave a big welcome with applause. However, this person was welcomed and was sitting in the fellowship room, and one person came and said, “Professor Aigo, my son is not good at his skills, so he drops out of college every time.
And after a while, I hear the female butlers talking from the other side. "Ah, that's new and it's so disgusting! If you're a professor?" I hear a smirk. You can also hear quarrels at the Women's Mission Church.
Seeing it, this man said, "I won't come back to this church again." I made a decision and almost forced my mother to drag me back home. The mother of the mother did not know what English was, so she asked her daughter. "Son, what happened at church today?" The daughter told her mother that she had made up her mind and said that she had decided not to go to that church again.
So my mother gently closed her eyes and said, "Even though I've been to church all my life up to this day, I didn't hear any other people's complaints because I liked one God.
Hearing this, the professor's daughter was very shocked. Then the mother then speaks to her daughter. "Life is too short to live with gratitude, so why do you only see things to complain about?" At these words, the professor's daughter realized.
"I went to graduate school and became a doctor, so I prided myself on living a deep and thoughtful life, but when I listened to my mother, I realized how narrow-minded I am!" And I didn't know that my mother's heart, who didn't even go to elementary school, was so wide and deep.
And I realized it again. "Yes, it was not in vain that my mother went to church for decades! Her broad heart, her deep thoughts, my father died on June 25, and for many years, without complaining once, he raised me as a widow in Cheongsang, thanking God. How did you not know!" I shed tears while doing it.
Then he looked at his mother and could not see how great she was, and why she was so small. He said that he was a doctor and that he was a university professor, and he gave strength to his neck, but he saw himself too small in front of his mother.
Everyone, who can succeed in the life of faith? It is not a person who learns a lot, a person with a good education, a person with a lot of money, or a person of high status and honor, but a person with a broad mind just like this professor's mother.
Only when there is such a broad-minded person can the family, society, and church become comfortable and become a good family, a good society, and a good church.
There is another story like this. A young couple was shopping at a department store. But instead of shopping, my husband is looking carefully at one place. I looked at him for what he was looking so intently at, and he was staring at a beautiful young woman in awe.
Then, the wife gets a fever, and she points at her husband and starts yelling at her. "Where are you staring at me with such deep eyes!" It is said that the couple fought continuously for 1 year and 6 months because of this.
On the other hand, there was a lovebird couple who went to church diligently. This couple also went to the department store after worship on Sunday and returned from shopping, when the husband was waiting for a signal at the crosswalk, watching a beautiful woman attentively.
So the wife smiled and walked up to her husband and said, "Honey, have you seen it all? If you've seen it, let's go." and said nothing. How broad is your wife? As a result, the husband was sorry and shy, so he was able to treat his wife better than before.
Ladies and gentlemen, if we have such a generous amount of leisure in our lives, our family will be comfortable. Church is convenient. The company and society are comfortable, but when there are narrow-minded people, the family, society, and church become uncomfortable. That is why the Apostle Paul is earnestly asking for the Corinthians in today's Word.
Quoting this verse as the New Standard Version of the Bible, it is as follows.
“Dear Saints in Corinth, we have spoken openly to you. We have opened our hearts wide. It is not that we treat you poorly, but that you are humble in heart. I speak as I say to my children, in return. You too, broaden your mind.”
Gentlemen, we say that a person with a broad heart is a person with a big heart. However, no matter how good a person is and how much you study, if you are narrow-minded, you are a small person. A mother-in-law or daughter-in-law must have a big heart to make life easier for a mother-in-law or daughter-in-law.
Also, husbands and wives should have a broad mind, and if they misunderstand and swear over trivial matters, it becomes a difficult family to live in. Likewise, the members need to have a broad heart, and if they fight and struggle over small things, it becomes an uncomfortable church.
Then, the husband said in a bad tone, "It's only for today. I've never had such delicious food before." Then my wife's face turned red, and the pastor became uncomfortable.
Once again, a pastor went to visit the saint's house. And I told the husband. “Saint, your wife is a beautiful woman.” How do you usually feel when husbands tell you that their wives are pretty?
Ladies and gentlemen, do you have a narrow-minded wife here? Do you also have a narrow-minded husband? Do you have a narrow-minded saint? Receive God's grace and broaden your heart. The reason many people do not receive God's grace properly is not because God is stingy, but because their hearts are narrowed.
However, those who receive God's grace and live their lives are people with broad hearts. People with broad hearts are understanding, positive, good for others, and live in peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, God wants us to live our lives abundantly and happily. He wants us to love each other, understand each other, and live in peace during our short life. However, many people live in this world in a difficult and painful way. It may have environmental influences, but the important thing is the person's mind.
If your mind is petty, you make life difficult and frustrating by yourself. So, there are a lot of complaints, misunderstandings, and quarrels with other people over trivial things and living a painful life. On the other hand, there are people who have a broad mind and lead a peaceful and leisurely life.
Everyone, let's take a look at ourselves today.
Do we live with a broad heart between husband and wife during family life, or are we struggling with trifles over trivial matters, and whether my narrow mind, which was narrow after I believed in Jesus, has broadened, my understanding has increased, and my thoughts have deepened, and as I get older, my personality is also good. Let's reflect on ourselves whether we have lost and changed into a more leisurely life, or whether we have been reduced to stubbornness, self-righteousness and prejudice.
There was a large pine tree in a hillside. But thorn vines grew around it and wrapped around the big pine tree. The pine tree was very badly shaped and uncomfortable because of the thorns. But the pine says nothing.
And I waited until the cold winter came. Then, when a cold wind blew, the thorny vines that covered the pine trees turned yellow and the rainwater ran out. And in that hillside, only the pine tree stood alone.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is a tragedy to come to this wide Canadian land and live with a narrow heart. Moreover, it is truly unfortunate that a child of the broad God who created and governs the entire universe lives with a narrow heart.
So today God tells us: "My children, expand your mind!"