Title: Wisdom of Living
Content The way people live is very diverse. Some people live in a world that their parents have created for them. So, I live a good life without suffering in the world. No worries in the world. Parents provide all of them. It is like this person in track and field, while everyone else runs from the starting point, he runs from the middle. So we live in the world very easily. There was a time when I was envious of those colleagues. There were times when the drugs went up.
On the other hand, some people have to make their own one by one and live. Since there is no inheritance and nothing is given, we start with a small rented room and start our life with hard work. Even the smallest items have to be prepared by yourself. Creating something from nothing is impossible without me. Living like this is not the only thing suffering.
Considering these two types of life, there can be debate as to which one is better. The answer will be different for each person. Today, I am going to talk about a person who stands in the latter position and makes a living. I would like to tell you how beneficial this life is for God and for the world.
The Bible introduces a few special people. These are people who tell of an era in which they lived together and lived with the will to pioneer. What they have in common is that they are people who have always been one step ahead of everyone else, have opened the way for them, and have pioneered new ones.
One of them is "a man named Terah."
In Genesis 11, we find the story of Terah. Terah is Abraham's father. In the Bible, his story is treated as very short with only two verses. However, he is the one who set the footsteps and the one who made history.
He lived in a place called Ur of the Chaldeans. It is the city of idols. It is said that his house also had an altar to idols. All the townspeople are worshiping the idols in their houses. One day, Terah thinks deeply. “It’s not like this.” “I shouldn’t have to live like this.” Then, after destroying the idols he had worshiped, he took his sons Abraham and his wife and fatherless grandson Lot and left Ur of the Chaldeans, the hometown of idols. And go to Haran. Before God called Abraham, Terah had already left his hometown with his sons. And unfortunately Terah dies in Haran.
At first glance, it seems that Terah's life has been a failure. In a way, Terah is a guest because he died on the way from his hometown. I decorated the last in vain. That is why the Bible deals with him in just two short lines.
But take a closer look. This departure became an opportunity for Abraham to immediately respond to God's call. When God called Abraham, Abraham was able to leave his hometown immediately because Terah had already left his hometown and died. So, Terah has already started. If Terah had not left his hometown at that time, Abraham would not have been able to leave his hometown so easily. If you look at it this way, there are people in the world who make things happen. This is the person who makes history.
Had Amadera been a realist, her descendants in the city of idols would have died serving only idols. Also, if he had been a timid and passive person, he would have lived there that day and died without a name one day. But he had an extraordinary will. So we see Terah's courage here.
The second is "a man named Jeremiah".
If Terah is a person who made history, this person is a person who lived with the future in mind. Jeremiah lived in the 12th year of Zedekiah's reign, when the Babylonian army besieged Jerusalem, and it is unknown when Jerusalem will be captured. At that time, the country was in the midst of a threat, and it was a precarious time when the future could not be guaranteed.
At that time, a cousin named Hanamel came and said, "I will give you my field cheaply, so buy it." Why would you buy a field at such a time? Now, when Jerusalem is under siege and you don't know when it will fall, what will you do to buy a field? When there is a risk of war, it is best to have cash on hand. No one would do such a stupid thing, no matter how cheap it is.
But Jeremiah buys the field. People laughed and pointed at me for being stupid. Now, if war breaks out and this castle is captured, people will laugh at you for saying that it is useless to work in vain. That's a pretty straightforward calculation.
But Jeremiah has one reason. It is a hope for tomorrow. Even if the city is captured and taken to Babylon, it is our hope that one day we will return to this land. Even if this country is destroyed tonight, there is hope that one day we will find it again. At that time, I had a dream that I would return to plow this land, sow seeds and start farming, so everyone ridiculed it and said it was futile, but Jeremiah bought the land.
That's why Jeremiah is called a person who lived while looking forward to tomorrow. At any age, there is one such person. It is because of these people that, despite the dark times, people do not lose their courage.
So, we have to live looking to tomorrow. Those who live only for today seem weak and talented. Calculations are also fast. However, such people consistently have no expectation of tomorrow, no hope, no faith, and do not know how to see the dawn. So, such people are obsessed with today and only obsessed with profits. So there is no wisdom to live by.
Only those who see tomorrow can be happy today and be happy tomorrow. Jeremiah, what a hopeful person you are. Even though the city of Jerusalem is doomed to be destroyed tomorrow, he is the one who buys the land today, and even if the land is destroyed, he knows what happiness really is. Such a person can worry about the future of the nation and pray with tears for the future of the nation.
So, a philosopher named Spinoza famously said that even if the world ends tomorrow, I will plant an apple tree today. And Luther said to live as if the end of the world would come tomorrow, and to live as if the hope of living in the world would live for a thousand years. All of them are people who have eyes for tomorrow.
There is one more. He is "Apostle Paul".
If Jeremiah was a person who lived while looking into the future, Paul the Apostle was a person with a dream who overcame reality and lived. In Acts 16, when Paul went to Troas, he healed a fortune-teller possessed by a demon, and he was accused of and imprisoned.
I don't know what a prison is. From what I have seen on visits, there is no place for a perfect person to go. It is a dirty, uncomfortable, unnatural, and very bad place. It's a place where there's nothing to do all day, and it's the perfect place for pessimism and lamentation. So when a person makes a mistake and gets stuck there, it is a place where a lot of damage is done mentally and emotionally.
The Apostle Paul was imprisoned in such a place. He was not imprisoned for committing a sin, but by healing a demon-possessed man and being accused of being imprisoned. However, if we look at the Bible, we see the wise way of coping with the reality of the apostle Paul there.
Although the apostle Paul was imprisoned, he went around evangelizing without stopping, and he met Onesimus. And by holding on to him, persuading him, and admonishing him, he creates a new person. That is, he made good use of useless time, found a useless person, planted a dream in him and gave him a purpose, and created a vessel that can be usefully used.
Not only that, but the wisdom of living by making the environment suitable for them is also emerging. The Apostle Paul made that filthy and stuffy prison into a very quiet place of prayer. Then, they sit there and use it as a place of spiritual fellowship to meditate, pray, and sing praises. And I used it as a writing site and wrote many books. The four books of the Bible that we are reading, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon, were the books that were written in prison at that time. That is why these books are called prison epistles.
But look at the foolish people, there are people who can't even protect the heaven they have been given, but make it into hell and abuse it. And then every day, I blame someone. They blame their parents, they blame their incompetence, they blame the times, they blame the environment. Blaming the lack of inheritance, blaming the lack of business, and blaming the seller. At least, it is impossible for people who live with such thoughts to live with the wisdom and dreams that they create. That is why God does not give such people a chance.
who is a christian Aren't these people who even make their own destiny? Christians should not try to follow the flower path that others have built and paved the way. I must pave the way and I must make a flower garden to live. That is the life you create. When we want to walk on such a path, God gives us opportunities and gives us faith and courage.
So, didn't God always open the door for the Apostle Paul to go? Is the apostle Paul special? no. People just like us. However, if there is one thing that is wrong, it is that there is something new about the mental attitude than ordinary people. That is why God loved him.
Today, I hope that you will remember Terah, who looked forward to the future, and Jeremiah, who lived looking forward to tomorrow in any environment, and the Apostle Paul, who lived his life by overcoming any circumstances at will. Then, I believe that the same grace will be with you on the road ahead.
1992. 11. 8. Sunday morning