Title Midnight
Contents
Bible: Luke 11:5-13
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This year marks the 100th anniversary of Korea's loss of its country to Japan, the 65th anniversary of liberation, and the 60th anniversary of the June 25th. However, it seems that it is still difficult to solve the task of unification that remains for our people. Looking at the inter-Korean relations that have taken place in recent months following the Cheonan incident in March of this year, it is inevitable to feel gloomy about unification.
Of course, this is not an era where Korea cannot eat and live. On the contrary, it is an era of eating very well and living well. However, considering the reality that it is difficult to solve a big national problem, it makes me wonder if our people are still in the middle of the night.
In today's Bible, Jesus is telling a parable about what we should do in the middle of the night. It was a friend's visit to a man's house, and he starved for several days. But there was no food to serve the friend in this house. So the owner of the house went to another house to find food for the friend. Today's Bible verse says that the owner of this house was able to go to another house and get food, not because the house knew the owner, but because he knocked on the door and shouted so that he could not sleep.
It is the 65th anniversary of liberation and 60 years since the June 25th, but I think it is time to cling to God and pray for the peaceful reunification of our nation, which is still in the middle of the night.
There are people who oppose unification because of the huge cost of unification. They say that the country that can lead the world in the next 4 to 50 years will be a country where a country with a large population leads the world. If so, it can be said that a country with only 50 to 60 million people cannot become a world leader.
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. What you ask for will receive, and the one who seeks finds, and it will be opened to the one who knocks. Where is the parent who will give you a snake when you ask for an egg, and who will give you a scorpion when you ask for an egg? Even evil parents who know how to give good things to their children, how much more can the good and good God in heaven give you the best when you earnestly ask for them. It is time to remember the words, “Will you not give me something?”
Even in the darkest night of the nation's time, we believe that God will grant our nation peaceful unification if we do not give up or sit down and pray and pray to God.
In Isaiah 40, we read, “O Israel, the time of your service is over. In other words, your Babylonian captivity is over. You will return to your homeland.” I'm talking about hope. Chapter 43 also says this. “Behold, I will do a new thing for you. Forget all the old things and look to God who will do new things in the future. I will certainly make a way for you in the wilderness, and a river in the desert, that my people, my chosen ones, will drink from it, and follow the way back to their homeland. Why am I doing this new thing to you? Because you are my chosen people, and I want to be glorified through you.”
The Bible consistently speaks of God's hope when it is thought to be the darkest of the night.
Dear saints, on the 65th anniversary of liberation, dream of peaceful reunification of North and South Korea once, and if that is a good thing, pray earnestly to God like Daniel, so that our hope is granted through prayer to the God of hope who gives us good things. I hope that the people of Korea will receive the blessings that come true.
Midnight is also a time for a personal encounter between God and us. A man named Kielkegaard said, “Christianity is meeting God.” This worship time is the time to meet God one-on-one. But meeting in person is only possible in the middle of the night. Because in the middle of the night we lay down everything we have. In the most desperate moment, we put everything down, meet God, have a personal relationship, and see the sun rising brightly in the new morning of Peniel, which Jacob experienced.
That is why you should not look for idols in the middle of the night. Do not bow down to idols. Even though Daniel was given an office in a foreign country in the darkest times, he prayed to God three times a day rather than bowing down to idols, so we should seek only God.
Midnight is a time for desperate prayer. Prayers that are not urgent cannot be answered. You must pray earnestly to receive answers. And midnight is the time for me to meet the Lord one-on-one. Midnight is the time when we live in obedience to the Word. Lord, I pray in your name that you will become members of the Hanshin Church who pray for peaceful unification on this earth, meet God, and live according to the Word.
2010-09-08 13:49:24