Title: Unchanging Faith / Ephesians 6:23-24
It is good to live a person's life with a steady and sincere spirit. A sincere and faithful life no matter how you look at it gives everyone a warm and reliable feeling of trust. This is the most simple aspect of human life.
If you look at the book of the national school, you will find the story of a rabbit and a turtle. The hare and the tortoise had a running race. The hare is a fast-footed animal and the turtle is a slow-footed animal. From the start, the match between these two beasts is not an opponent. Either way, the results are obvious. But the result is that the turtle won. This story is an allegory of sincerity.
Here, the turtle symbolizes a hard-working person. It symbolizes a person who lacks talent, is not smart, and has many weaknesses. However, he knows his weaknesses well, so he tries his best. As a result, it is a story of getting very good results in the end. On the other hand, the rabbit symbolizes a person who believes only in his talents and lives. He's talented, he's got a lot of strength, he's smart, he's smart. However, it is a story about believing too much and overconfidence in that and failing. So the game of these two beasts was not a match from the beginning, but the result is giving us a message as the tortoise, who works hard and sincerely, wins.
Such an attitude is not only necessary for a person to live. It is an absolutely essential quality for a life of faith. If you look at the text, you will find the contents of the blessing. “The peace of Jesus Christ and the love combined with faith be with the brothers.” "Brothers" here are those who love Christ unfailingly. In the end, it is saying that to receive the Lord's grace and to receive the Lord's love is to love the Lord unchangingly. This is the secret of the life of faith.
But the problem is that we are not consistent. It can't be the same. There are too many twists and turns. Before we are baptized, we first receive what is called learning. This is a system unique to Korea. In a foreign country, if you confess, “I will believe in Jesus,” you will be baptized immediately. However, in our country, they are baptized after six months of learning. Because it can't be consistent. For example, it gives you time to be capricious. This is learning. It's a very shameful story. No matter what we do, there must be integrity and sincerity, but this element is absolutely essential for a life of faith. Without this, the life of faith cannot be achieved.
Then, what should we do to maintain our faith life consistently? There are several basic elements to this.
The first is "getting close to the Bible".
The Bible is the word of God. This contains the message God gives to me. Here is the word of salvation, and here is the spiritual food. Just as intellectuals receive food for their intellect in books, so Christians receive their spiritual food through the Bible. When we draw closer to the Bible, we come to know God more closely, understand the gospel more deeply, discern God's will more deeply, and come to know our future, destiny, heaven, and even the afterlife.
Young people these days come to church and ask a lot of questions. It tells what God is like, what the virgin birth is like, and what the resurrection is like. When you listen, you are saying things that are not appropriate. So, if you ask how many times you have read the Bible, you will say that you have read a little bit of Matthew. If you can know God by reading a little bit of the Gospel of Matthew, what will be the problem? So can you call it faith? That's why some said, "You have to take up the cross and read the Bible to know the truth, love your enemies and pray for answers to come true, and you need to dedicate yourself and sing praises to receive grace."
However, reading the Bible a lot and memorizing it a lot doesn't mean it's all over. If you look at every church, you will see that a lot of the Bible is memorized while educating young children, but there is something to think about here as well. Most of the children who memorize the Bible do not know its meaning, do not know the contents, and memorize it over and over. The point is that this is nonsense.
A missionary theologian named Nebius came to Korea and analyzed the mission field and concluded that Koreans were too ignorant. There are too many illiterate people. As a result of studying how to effectively preach the gospel to people who can't read, the policy was established: "Because I can't read, have me recite it." So, the recitation contest was born. If you can't read, even if you recite it, you should get closer to the words of the Bible.
But the problem is that just because you recite a lot, it doesn't necessarily mean that you are fluent. Unfortunately, it is said that the person who memorized the Bible the most in Korea was a prisoner who was in Yeongdeungpo Prison. This is a good example of not being able to memorize everything blindly.
To live close to the Bible means to receive the Word with your heart, savor it, meditate on it, and receive it as the word of life and live.
At that time, the Word moves with a kinetic power in our hearts, giving us strength, nourishment, and strength. Living with this power is the life of a believer.
A famous theologian in our country wrote a book called "Theology and Piety". He said in that book, "If you can, get close to the Bible." He said that he once lived with the Bible in his hospital bed when he was on the verge of dying from a lung disease. Later, he confessed, "I overcame that crisis by being with the Bible at that time." So we Christians, this Bible is our weapon. You need to get this close. This is the first basis of the life of faith.
The second is "a life of meditation".
A life of faith requires a life of meditation. This is also required. If there was a most precious time in Jesus' life, it was this time of meditation. He liked to go to secluded places to pray. “At dawn, Jesus went to a secluded place to pray” (Mark 1:35). Sometimes he went to the riverside, sometimes in the fields, and sometimes in the wilderness to pray.
In that quiet time, in a quiet place, the Lord thought of God, reconsidered the mission given to him, and sometimes shed tears while thinking about the future of the nation. That is why believers should have time to meditate like this. The Christian life is to reflect on yourself through that time and pray while meditating on the Word. It is Christ who finds inspiration there and lives by grace there.
Albert Schweitzer said this. “I was led by my father when I was a child, and while attending worship, a sense of solemnity and a desire for contemplation developed in my body, and I learned reverence through quiet and solemn worship.” This is the blessing that comes through meditation. Good habits are good habits. A habit of faith, a habit of godliness, how good it is.
It is recommended that children intentionally pray for meals at the table. It is to help the body acquire the habit of praying from an early age. When food is placed in front of your eyes, it automatically makes you bow your head. Still, there are times when I forget it and take a spoonful and put it in my mouth without hesitation. When I remembered as I went in, I filled my mouth and closed my eyes and prayed.
do. The order has changed, but in the sight of God, it will never be hated.
This is also important for your lifestyle. David also set aside three times a day to pray. So did Daniel. If you don't do that, your life is so busy that you don't have time to pray. The greatest weakness of modern people is that they do not have time to meditate. Too busy. There is no time to sit quietly and meditate. I want to go out and pray at dawn, but this doesn't work.
So, when a person does not have time to meditate and think, even worries disappear. If there is, it is only about the troubles you get from everyday life. I don't even think about the essential troubles of human beings or the inner troubles I have to go through because I'm a human being. So can this be faith?
So Kant said to his students, "You don't learn philosophy from me, but learn to philosophize." For example, to meditate deeply, to develop the ability to meditate and think. If a person has no meditation, no prayer, no contemplation, he becomes a beast. It means becoming profane and materialized.
A certain surgeon confessed this. "Before I go into surgery, I always pray before I go in. I don't pray that the operation will be completed safely, I pray that I will recognize this person as a person and get the operation done." As we cut, cut, sew, and cut a person every day, later on, he doesn't look like a human, but a piece of meat. So I pray and go in.
In particular, we believers should always be supported by a life of meditation and prayer. Otherwise, only human beings who have no relation to the inspiration of God remain, only flesh, and become a snob. You cannot become a believer in this state. Believers must listen to the voice of the Lord, hear the inner voice, and hear, feel, and discern the coming of the Holy Spirit in deep meditation. At that time, power will come, strength will be given, and you will receive God's grace. Living with the power given at that time is the life of faith. That is why we believers should have time to meditate.
The third is "the will to become a believer with content".
A believer must have a chair to become a believer with a spirit. For example, we must strive to have a living spirit of faith. People who have this will do not just live in the world. Even if you live your life of faith, you will not become disorderly. You will find a form of faith that has content in it.
A foreign theologian came to Korea and looked around the churches and was amazed. He said that he was blown away when he saw the quantitative revival and his zeal and enthusiasm. However, there is one conclusion that he came to as he turned around. It is said, “The enthusiasm is good and the enthusiasm is good, but Korean Christians seem to seek only cheap grace.”
The most precious grace for us is that I was saved and became a new person and became a child of God. This is the greatest blessing that cannot be compared with anything. It means that you are living a life as if you are seeking only too cheap grace, such as fixing it. For example, it means that they do not seem to know the true value of faith. All of them are ignorant.
So, if we are going to live a steady life as really good believers, we need to be prepared. It is a life that is always close to God's Word, the Bible, a life that has a lot of time to meditate, and an effort to become a believer with a spirit. When that happens, God is with you and the Holy Spirit dwells in you. Living with the power given at that time is the life of our believers.
1992. 4. 26. Sunday morning