Saving Faith vs. Dead Faith

What is saving faith? What is dead faith? What saves and what transforms our lives? James talks on God's wisdom in chapter 2:14-26.

Here is the link to the message.

Happy Summer and happy meditation on James.

MERCY, NOT FAVORITISM

This is our third lecture on James. Nathan Walker delivered the message on James 2:1-13.

Here is the link to the message.

Church Planting Seminar days (Tuesday to Wed June 2nd to 3rd)

As we pray to re-launch the Deeper Roots in Christ to 2.0, Andrew Lamb and I will attend the Firststep Church planting seminar at St. Louis, MO.

Here is the link to the webpage and some seminar info.

Please pray for Andrew and me to learn and apply the principles. (James 2)

Will share our learnings.

Jung's wedding picture

The Jungs will come to the U of I this Fall. The bridegroom will be a Ph. D. student in Nuclear Engineering. They established their family before God on May, 30, 09. (They do not have their American names yet. Will post when they have theirs.)

Please pray for them so that they can start a new family and also new life at Champaign/Urbana, IL, USA.

May God grant them pure joyr in following our Lord Jesus. (James 1:2)

Preaching Through Books of the Bible

D A Carson spoke at a conference called, “Katoomba Christian Conference Centenary" (Sydney, Australia) in 2003.

He spoke on how to preach through books of the Bible. His teaching
is timeless.

May God grow us as servants of God's word and bring the gospel of Jesus to the lost.

I learned much and found that I need to practice what I hear. (James 1:22)

Here is the audio link:

There are only 12 points.

1.Read and re-read and re-read and re-read and re-read the book before looking at the commentaries. (This reminds of my father, Samuel C Lee, who memorized the Bible text before he delivered the message. Pastor Ron is also practice this method.)

2.Start the process early. Give time to re-reading, meditation, and saturation.

3.Eschew the division of head and heart. (Carson is from Montreal so he loves to use French words. Eschew means to avoid. His dad was a church planter in French speaking Canada. See his book on Ordinary Pastor).

4.Early on attain sufficient grasp of the book that you can succinctly state (a) what the book is about, (b) what this book contributes to the canon that overlaps with what other books bring to the canon, and (c) what distinctive things this book brings to the canon. (All these things need to be thought about simultaneously. This is what brings clarity and precision). Scan biblical theologies on the book to get a large scale picture of the book.

5.At roughly the same time determine (a) the number of sermons you’ll devote to the book and (b) the large scale outline of the book insofar as it impinges on your text boundaries for each sermon.

6.Start working on individual sermon preparation (either in advance or week by week). Ideally work on the text first.

7.Each sermon must simultaneously stand alone and constitute a part of the series.

8.Thematic vs. biblical theology. Give your listener a big picture.
(Echoing the materials on how to make the Bible study materials from the UBF website. Study how the theme or main point is developed throughout the rest of the Bible. Search for the theme in both Old and New Testaments; for example: Ge 3:15; 12:7; 13:15; 22:18; Gal 3:16)

11.Your message is to re-revelation of God to his people. Think of your audience.

12. Keep revising, praying, preparing so that it is not so much that you have mastered the material as that it has mastered you.

Graduation pictures

Here are some graduation pictures (Class of 09):

John Kim, BA in Political Science

Doug Browning, BA in English Literature

Peter Cowen from Centennial High School, Champaign, IL

Andrew Lee from Jefferson Junior High, Champaign, IL (Graduation in the morning and hand surgery in the afternoon. May God grant him pure joy of knowing our LORD Jesus Christ-James 1:2)

U of I University Bible Fellowship (UBF) Summer events

Several of us spent our memorial day working on missionary Mary Cowen's house. Afterward, we had a very nice cook out. For those who came and worked on missionary Mary's house on the Memorial day we extend our appreciation. A special mention goes to Elijah's mom, Joan Kim who came down from Chicago and cooked for us. She told us that she is praying for us every morning. We value her partnership with us.

Thank God for Gideon and his successful Toledo trip

God is good and his love endures forever (Psalm 107)

Mediate James and Ecclesiastes weekly during the Summer

Ask God for his wisdom and be transformed by the word of Truth and live as firstfruits. (James 1:5, 1:18)
Make sure that you have an accountable buddy to do weekly meditation. Don't be a lone dead ranger. If you are married, form a married couple group. If you not married, get a buddy so that you be accountable to God and to your you and to your buddy.

Andrew Lamb's visit

June 1st to June 4th
Andrew Lamb will attend the church planting conference at St. Louis.
Dinner at Berea house on Monday June 1st at 7 pm
Come by and say hi to Andrew

Discipleship conference workshop

June 16-20
Spots still available
Jerry Park and Gloria signed up

Abraham Lincoln Lecture

Fireworks on July 4th
On July 5th, pastor Abraham Lincoln will deliver a special lecture.

Ignite Concert or drive to Toronto (July 18 to 19)

To be decided in the middle of June. Mark you calendar.
Need volunteer to coordinate this. Let Sam know if you want to coordinate this event

European Summer Conference

Aug 13 to 16th
Sammy Lee
Peter Cowen
Sam Lee will attend

If you want to attend make arrangement by June 1st.

Re-Launch the Deeper Roots in Christ 2.0 at the Fall

Reflect, Repent, Recuperate and Re-launch 2.0
Launch Date- Aug 23rd. We are counting down. We need your prayers and support. Let's pray that we can reach out to non churched U of I students with the gospel of Jesus.Thank you for your help in advance.

Ed Vs. AL

MissionAL

Gideon Shin

Gidoen Shin recently visited Toledo UBF and shared his life testimony. Here are some pictures of his trip. This is Gideon's second trip. The first trip pictures are here.

We pray for God's leading on his life. Praise God. God's love endures forever. (Psalm 107)

Turkey Spring Conference

Point asked us to pray.

"I want to kindly ask your prayer for our Spring Bible seminar in Yalova (Turkey, May 29-31). Please pray for 20 attendants and the messengers. Pray for our sister Hava as well. She is thankful to you just as we all are."

For more info, go to http://ubf.org/bbs/worldmission/2386

If you want to Dig Deeper

Dr. Toh sent us a good link on how to read the Bible. As James said you need to look at the perfect Law of God intently. (James 1:25)

Dr.Toh writes:

This process helps us to not think or write or share what we want from the Bible (which may be out of context, and perhaps based on our own agenda or thoughts), but to discipline ourselves to study the Bible from the Holy Spirit inspired author's (and from God's) point of view.

This is Dr. Fuller's method that John Piper picked up when he was a young seminary student.
This is a heavy duty method of inductive study.

Here is the link.

This method worked very well when I studied Romans but did not work when I read Psalms.

Can we use this method when we engage in 1:1s or this method is for leaders? This worked for John Piper and John became who he was using this Bible arching method. The question we need to ask is:
Can we use this method for reaching out at the U of I and for the post modern students or we need to develop our own?

Let me hear what your think.

We might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created (James 1:18)

This Summer we are studying the book of James.

How can we live like first fruits of the word of truth after our initial conversion? James gives us wisdom on how to do this.

This is our second message based on James 1:18-27. Here is the link.

Church and Evangelism

Evangelism is not an option but must.
Create welcoming environment

KBC: Comeback Churches and 2 from Ed Stetzer on Vimeo.

Outreach principles
1.Love Christ
2. Live like Christ
3.Multiple approaches to bring people to Jesus
4.Take a whole church but it takes a leader to do so
5.Become a church of open arms
6.Creating an environment spontaneous and planned
7.Open the door

Everyone should pray for the lost
Everyone should be a bringer
Everyone should be a teller

Is everyone to do evangelism or a select few? The answer is everyone.

Start with intentional prayers
Pray for the boldness
Help to bring your friends
Invest time and energy to make friends to the lost people
Seeker comprehensive -welcomed and hear the gospel accessible and understand it
Create a welcome center
Follow up in 48 hours from the initial contact

Worship matters

Celebratory and orderly worship

Do you agree or disagree with Ed? Leave your input

Christian Perspective on Islam

The Christ on Campus Initiative (CCI) put out a good resource on Islam. Many Christians assume that Muslims and Christians worship the same God but this can be further from the truth.

Islam undermines the Scriptures and Jesus and the doctrine of sin. Thus, it is a religion of works, not that of Grace.

If you are interested, here is the link.

What is your thought after reading the article. Leave your comments.

The goal of Sunday

Why we get up early and drag ourselves to the Union on Sunday?

To come to the church because if you do not show up your mom gets upset? A thing to do?

Calvin said that on Sunday we meet God face-to-face. We want people to experience God's presence and respond to him in repentance and worship. And as we proclaim the Gospel and exalt the name of Jesus, we are to do nothing more than work out that same Gospel in our service to God and his church, just like we work it out in our daily worship.

The goal of Sunday whether we're sitting in the seats or serving in the praise band is to meet God face-to-face...to know him more, be edified by his truth, respond to him in repentance and worship, and then go into our communities or tribes on mission with the Gospel in our heads and our hearts.

Ultimately he sees our hearts and motivations. God uses your hard work, and even your weaknesses to further his Kingdom. And in light of his sovereignty and goodness, how can we have anything but a response of giving him back all he put in us, while delighting in all of who he is.

The Sunday worship is all about God and enjoying him and meeting him. It is not about you.

Extreme shepherding

Look at this video and think about your shepherding life. Anyone you can identify with?

One encouraging trend among 20 somehting young poeple

Time Magazine's cover story on 10 Ideas Changing the World Right No recently appeared. Guess what #3. It is new Calvinism.

One pastor commented after attending the Gospel Coalition, "When he preaches on tough issues, the older people argue with him. The younger people are prepared to be contradicted by Scripture, and they don’t seem to fight back as much."

Another older pastor commented that he’s not putting much hope in the baby boomers, but he puts a lot of hope in the younger group that loves to be challenged.

These two pastors were into exposition and theology before it was popular. They’re just not used to having so much company.

Even Bill Hybels is advising pastors to stop trying to entertain twenty-somethings. Instead, he says, engage them.

Every generation has its weaknesses, and this is only a small segment of the whole. Still, it is exciting to see a group that is interested in theology and willing to be challenged, not just entertained. Just a fad? Hope not.

Pure Joy in the midst of trials (James 1:2)

James tells us how to have pure joy when we face trials (James 1:2). Let's have pure joy. Joy that is so pure and not circumstantial but based on God's character and through his son's work.

As we read Ecclesiastes and James in this Summer , let's ask God for his wisdom to grow as God's servants.

Here is the message on James 1:1-18.

May God give you pure joy when you meditate on the book of James.

North Korea Prayer Report

John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

Dr. Paul Koh writes after visiting North Korea.

From April 29 to May 9, M G.A Lee and I, as well as ten other medical doctors, visited PY through Beijing, to attend a medical conference and visit several hospitals, to confirm that the medical supplies there are properly utilized. But our main purpose was to pray for N.K. and visit PUST.

More at UBF website:

Let's pray for our brothers and sisters in North Korea. Dr. Koh wants to go there to preach the gospel so pray for him to do so.

Jesus gospel blasts the idols of our hearts

Tim keller asserts that all human and society has idolatry, personal, religious and cultural idols. The idols often block our sight and ways to see and enter the narrow door. He mentioned that even truth can be the idol. I learn from the prodigal God that religion and self righteousness is the great stumbling block to enter the kingdom of God. We should demolish all the power and authorities by the cross of Jesus Christ. We should demolish the idol through deep repentance and enter through the narrow door by following the foot step of Jesus Christ.

3 Kinds of Idols You Have to Expose to Preach the Gospel:

Personal Idols
Religious Idols
Cultural Idols

Personal Idols

Money can be an idol, especially in the business world. Everyone recognizes this as the idol of Wall Street. (All over New York City, child sacrifice is going on. If you want to succeed, you have to sacrifice your family. If you're going to get the money and power, you must sacrifice your children. Jobs are set up that way.) How do you do your job without bowing down to it—how do you demythologize money? Only by living in the gospel.
Romance is another idol. This is when you look to your lover or spouse for worth. Only they can make you feel valuable. You cannot lose this person. People who have a good marriage must constantly fight this idol, constantly looking to Jesus and finding their satisfaction in Jesus more than their spouse.
Self-expression is an idol of the artistic community.
Children can be idolized when you find your significance and meaning in your children. You know you're worth something if your children turn out well.

Religious Idols

Those who worship religious idols think they are devoted to God, but they're not.
Truth can be made an idol. Are you resting in the rightness of your doctrine rather than the work of Jesus? If so, the Bible calls you a fool. In Proverbs, "the scoffer" is a person like this. The scoffer is always sure he is right, and always disrespectful, disdainful, and mocking toward his opponents. The internet breeds scoffers, because if you're a scoffer you get more traffic to your blog.
Gifts can be an idol. You can mistake spiritual gifts for spiritual fruit. Especially if you are successful in ministry, you can begin believing in justification by ministry: "I know I'm in God's will because my ministry is going well." Many of us in the Reformed world make an idol out of being a great preacher: "If I could just be a great preacher, then my life would have significance."
Morality is a religious idol. It's typical for Christians to feel like that God loves them and will bless them because of their moral record.

Cultural Idols

Evangelicals love to talk about cultural idols. We look back at the idols of the Enlightenment: the elevation of human reason, the belief that reason/science will solve all the world's problems. Today we see the idol of individualism. We attack Western individualism, but in many traditional cultures family is an idol—so you have honor killings, women treated as property, etc. In individualistic cultures like our own, the individual is an idol. No one can tell anyone else they're wrong, no one can impose their beliefs about God on anyone else.

Any ideology can be an idol: free-market economics, communism, socialism, democracy, liberalism, etc.

Which idols we are struggle with? Do you agree or disagrew with Tim's message on Acts 19?

Skye Jethani on The Divine Commodity

Skye Jethani describes his new book, the Divine Commodity. This book describes how we can transform people suffering from consumerism to disciples of Jesus.

We need to correct diagnose them and help them to change their world view.

Skye Write: So it is with God. Those holding a consumer world view see everything as a commodity--assigning value based not on a thing or person's inherent identity, but their usefulness to the consumer. In Consumer Christianity God has not inherent value apart from what he can do for me. As one sociologist studying American faith has put it, our God isn't the one revealed in Scripture--almighty and holy--but a consumer deity part divine butler and part cosmic therapist. Unfortunately many churches are failing to deconstruct this warped understanding of God, and in their attempts to attract religious consumers they may actually be reinforcing the idea that the individual, not God, is the center of the universe.

Here is the link to his book.

James, one of younger brothers of Jesus

We will study the book of James this Summer. It would be good to know something about the author.

The author of this epistle was the half-brother of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal.1:19) and the brother of Jude, the writer of the epistle that bears his name (cf. Matt.13:55).

This James was not the brother of the Apostle John, the son of Zebedee, who suffered martyrdom early in the history of the church (Mark 1:19; Acts 12:2). Neither was he the son of Alphaeus (Mark 3:18) or the father of Judas (Luke 6:16).

He was the leading man in the Jerusalem church who spoke at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15:13-21; cf. 12:17; 21:18; 1 Cor. 15:7).

The recipients of this letter were the Jewish Christians of the Diaspora, Jews who had scattered from Palestine and had come to faith in Christ (1:1). Several Jewish references in the book support the claim that a Jew wrote it to other Jews (e.g., 1:18; 2:2, 21; 3:6;5:4, 7).

Date of this letter. It seems that his epistle was probably the first divinely inspired one and that James composed it in the middle or late 40s, perhaps A.D. 45-48. Many scholars have taken James' lack of references or allusions to other inspired NT texts suggest its early date. Josephus said that James died in A.D. 623 so he wrote the letter before that date.

Traditionally James wrote early, however. It seems that his epistle was probably the first divinely inspired one and that James composed it in the middle or late 40s, perhaps A.D. 45-48. Many scholars have taken James' lack of references or allusions to other inspired

James died for his faith. According to Josephus, the high priest, Ananus (his father was also called Ananus), a man bold in temperament and very indolent, convened the judges of the Sanhedrin and brought before them a man called James, the brother of Jesus who was called the Christ, and certain others. He accused them of having transgressed the law and delivered them up to be stoned (Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, page 598).

Hegesippus, a second century writer, says that James was thrown down from the pinnacle of the temple, stoned, and finally killed by a fuller's club (Jack P. Lewis, Historical Backgrounds of Bible History, page 141).

Although at first unwilling to accept Jesus as the Son of God, James came to be a staunch believer and a respected leader in the early church. Ultimately, he died for his faith.

References:

Dr. Constables Bible study notes; DA Carson, Introduction to the New Testament; ESV Study Bible; Wikipedia.com; Catholic encyclopedia; Gosepl Gazette, http://www.gospelgazette.com/gazette/1999/jun/page5.shtml

Raising Children Who Are Confident in God

What is our calling as parents and as a community of Christians toward our children?

John Piper emphasizes these points:

Our Children Are Not Our Highest Value. But God is.
To be born into a Christian family does not make a child a member of the New Covenant community; it makes the New Covenant community the spiritual guardian of the child.

Piper then calls for a new kind of partnership between church and parents. Parents are the primary agents of God in this calling. But no parents can do all this without the help of others. This is why schools exist and why all other educational efforts in the church exist.

Parents need help in keeping a God-centered vision of parenting alive.
Parents need a deep confidence in God.
Parents need motivation to persevere year in and year out.
Parents need encouragement when everything seems to go wrong.
Parents need relief from time to time from the strain of parenting.
Parents need help in boiling down the Book of God into essential, transferable, age-appropriate portions.
Parents need help in teaching subjects and skills where they lack expertise and time.
Parents need community reinforcement of truth and moral standards.
Parents need solutions to tough problems raised by children.
Parents need camaraderie for the sharing of accumulated wisdom.
Parents need correction when others can see that something is wrong and they can't.
Parents need prayer because in the end God is the great Teacher.

Parenting is the main thing for children under God; but God means for parenting to happen in a covenant community that helps provide what parents need. And he means, in turn, for parents—and single people—to sustain and shape the ministry of the covenant community toward the children.

Parents and singles who teach,
parents and singles who oversee,
parents and singles who sing,
parents and singles who plan and carry out activities for children,
parents and singles who open their homes,
parents and singles who model all that we are aiming at in educational mission.

The audio presentation is here.

What are your thoughts? Leave comments below.

Reaching out to the college students

Aaron Messner, college chaplain of Covenant College, discusses the unique challenges and opportunities churches face in reaching college students.

Here is the audio interview conducted by 9 Marks ministry.

Worship -It is about God, not about you

John R. W. Stot writes on worship (Christian Basics, Eerdmans, 1969, p.119).

This is worship. It is…to revel in the unique wonder of who God is and has revealed himself to be…In true worship we turn the searchlight of our mind and heart upon God and temporarily forget about our troublesome and usually intrusive selves. We marvel at the beauties and intricacies of God's creation. We "survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died." We are taken upwith God, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Jesus taught us to do this in the Lord's Prayer, whose first three sentences focus not on our needs but on his glory, on the honoring of his name, the spread of his kingdom and the doing of his will. Because we are normally so turned in on ourselves, we will not find this easy. But we have to persevere, since nothing is more right or more important.

Worship is to God. We are in the presence of God. God’s eyes are on us.

(Eph 5:19-20) Speak to another and make melodies to the Lord

Worship is for God. It is for his pleasure. We cannot worship God anyway we want to.

Miriam stepped up this semester as a worship leader. She said to the praise band members, "We worship God so come to worship God."

What is worship for?

Congregations? Unbelievers? Pastors? But worship God.

Below video is the U of I UBF chapter -Deeper Roots in Christ praise band helping us to worship God. We value their service for the Spring semester. Pray for them to grow as worshipers of God

Alex Foster singing the Third Day song

Alex visited the U of I UBF chapter -Deeper Roots in Christ from Springfield, IL and sang a special song for us on our Worship service.

Meditation is having Delight in God's law

Week of May 3, 09.

We are in the middle of the finals.

We all want to do well and be successful but the Bible talks about the blessed men, not successful men. The main metaphor is a tree planted by the streams of water.

The blessed are those who are totally happy. The blessed men are those who are growing and bearing fruit in season to God. We can this if we are transforming by the word of God.

How can we be blessed men? The answer is to meditate on the law of the LORD.

Psalm 1 talks about many things. But we will look at 4 things:

1. Benefits of meditation. Or motivations behind meditation.
2. Define what meditation is.
3. How to meditate.
4. Finally Psalm 1 gives us some clues on how to have delight when we meditate on the law of the LORD.

Here you will find more on this topic and learn how to meditate on the law of the LORD based on Psalm 1.

The Bible is all about Jesus, not about you

"And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself" (Luke 24:27)

Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the garden and whose obedience is imputed to us.
Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out, not for our condemnation, but for acquittal.
Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing wither he went to create a new people of God.
Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, “Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me,” now we can look at God taking his son up the mountain and sacrificing him and say, “Now we know that you love us because you did not withhold your son, your only son, whom you love from us.”
Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved, so we, like Jacob, only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us.
Jesus is the true and better Joseph who, at the right hand of the king, forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them.
Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant.
Jesus is the true and better Rock of Moses who, struck with the rod of God’s justice, now gives us water in the desert.
Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent sufferer, who then intercedes for and saves his stupid friends.
Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory, though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves.
Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk his life, but gave his life to save his people.
Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so that we could be brought in.
Jesus is the real Rock of Moses, the real Passover Lamb, innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the angel of death will pass over us. He’s the true temple, the true prophet, the true priest, the true king, the true sacrifice, the true lamb, the true light, the true bread.
The Bible’s really not about you — it’s about Jesus.

(quoted by Tim Keller at a Resurgence 06 seminar entitled "Preaching the Gospel")

North Korea prayer team

On the morning of April 29, 2009, M. Grace A. L. and Dr. Paul K. left for North Korea.

They will attend the medical doctors’ conference in the capital and will visit hospitals. They also want to visit Punyang University Science and Technology (PUST), which will open this fall, to pray for the campus.

As Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth (Matt 28). N.K. is the modern day end of the world.

Pray for the North Korea mission and her suffeirng people.

'The importance of teaching Catechism

Dr. John Armstrong is a former pastor and church-planter, of more than twenty years, the author/editor of eleven books, and the author of hundreds of magazine, journal, and Web based articles. Besides this ministry of writing Dr. Armstrong serves as an adjunct professor of evangelism at Wheaton College Graduate School, teaches in various seminaries and colleges as a guest lecturer, and is a seminar and conference speaker in the United States and abroad. He is the founder and president of ACT 3, based in Carol Stream, Illinois.

Dr. Armstrong gave a special Friday lecture at the Chicago UBF center on topic of the Apostle's Creed. Among other things we emphasized teaching our children the sound doctrine.

His video presentation is at: UBF TV.

He shared his experiences of teaching his children catechism by C. H. Spurgeon. As we know catechism is an elementary book containing a summary of the principles of the Christian religion, in the form of questions and answers.

Spurgeon was a gifted preacher. Spurgeon trained his children and families of his congregation to know the sound doctrine of Jesus.

In his preface of the Catechism, Spurgeon writes:

I am persuaded that the use of a good Catechism in all our families will be a great safeguard against the increasing errors of the times, and therefore I have compiled this little manual from the Westminster Assembly's and Baptist Catechisms, for the use of my own church and congregation. Those who use it in their families or classes must labour to explain the sense; but the words should be carefully learned by heart, for they will be understood better as years pass.

May the Lord bless my dear friends and their families evermore, is the prayer of their loving Pastor.

Here is the link to the Spurgeon's catechism.

My personal plan is to teach Spurgeon's catechism to my two sons this Summer. I will share my experiences coming Fall.

Paul Joseph Shin

Good news from Paul and Lydia Shin

"...Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. ¹⁶I will show him how much he must suffer for my name." (Acts 9:15, 16)

Paul Joseph Shin was born April 25, 2009 at 11:11pm. He was 8 lbs 9ounces and 21in long. Thank you for all your love and prayers for him and our family. Please pray for Paul Joseph Shin to be converted by the work of the Holy Spirit and become a useful layman missionary for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are greatly indebted to all of you for your labor of prayer.
Love in Christ, Paul and Lydia Shin

Jesus at the Prominent religious leader's house( Luke 14:1-14)

Sunday May 03, 2009

First, Doug Browning who is graduating with a BA in English Lit. shared his Bible study experiences with us for the past 4 years based on Matt 6:33. Doug encouraged the audience to seek God and his righteousness first and believe that Gods provides his children with everything we need. He encouraged us to keep on studying the Bible from our hearts.
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Second, Sam Lee shared the message on Luke 14:1-14 entitled, "Jesus at a prominent religious leader's house."

This passage deals with Jesus' conversation with a prominent religious leader. We see how Jesus points out this religious man's core issues and brings out the good news to him. The religious leader fails to see himself who need God's mercy like the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. We can be so easily fooled by our religious ways but Jesus brings out his transforming gospel to this man. Indeed we are blessed when he know Jesus' transforming love.

You can find Sam's message transcript here.

Third, we had lunch together and prayed for the graduating students:
Those who have been studying with and are graduating this semester are:
Doug B., Mary K. Beth L., Jeni W., John K., Peter Cowen (from HS) and Jerry C. (from Parkland)

We thanked God for his grace upon us.

Please pray for them to grow in the grace of Jesus.

Summer 09

Summer 09 has come upon us. The weather is getting hot and we are having rains nowadays. My friend Mohamed who came from Egypt said, "If it is raining, a window of the heaven is open. This is the time to pray to God." I love his comment.

We have only two weeks left in this semester.

Josh has new hair style and new picnic table. He is happy that he sold his house finally.

Doug B., Terry M., John K. , Beth L., Jeni Wong and Mary K. are graduating at the end of the semester. Peter C. is graduating from high school. Jerry C. is also graduating from Parkland.

In season and out of season, we thank God for those who have shown Jesus' love for our young students. Indeed doing God's work is like a marathon but I thank God for those of you have decided to run the race to the end with Jesus.

The official BBQ season has started last Sat at Danny's house.

We will have a special service for those who are graduating. Those who are graduating will say a few words. Join us for lunch after the service. We thank God for giving us his grace to study the Bible with them.

There are several notable UBF official events in Summer 09 that requires your prayers: (Visit UBF.org for more info and updates.)

Disciple workshop
European Summer Bible conference
Summer music festival (Tentative-TBD)
The Abraham Lincoln Lecture on July 4th weekend.

We will study two books:

Eclesiates and

James

You can see our tentative plan here.

We need your prayers for our Summer plan.

Happy Summer.

Faith in Flux

About half of American adults have changed religious affiliation at least once in their lives. This interactive explores the reasons different groups cite for leaving or joining their religion.

The Pew research data sheds some light to our mobile, religion switching society.

The reasons people give for changing their religion - or leaving religion altogether - differ widely depending on the origin and destination of the convert. The group that has grown the most in recent years due to religious change is the unaffiliated population. Two-thirds of former Catholics who have become unaffiliated and half of former Protestants who have become unaffiliated say they left their childhood faith because they stopped believing in its teachings, and roughly four-in-ten say they became unaffiliated because they do not believe in God or the teachings of most religions. Additionally, many people who left a religion to become unaffiliated say they did so in part because they think of religious people as hypocritical or judgmental, because religious organizations focus too much on rules or because religious leaders are too focused on power and money. Far fewer say they became unaffiliated because they believe that modern science proves that religion is just superstition.

How do we teach the gospel to highly mobile and highly disappointed de-churched people?
We need much wisdom and prayer as we reach out to those who are abandoning their faith.

See more detailed report at here.

Don't be a dead lone ranger

Ed Stetzer writes in his blog:

In Fast Company Magazine, two studies were compared--one in which "90% of heart patients can't change their lifestyles" and another in which 77% of patients did. The difference? The latter provided "support groups with other patients, as well as attention from dieticians, psychologists, nurses," etc. In other words, left alone, most patients choose death over change. When in a setting with relational support, the numbers are almost reversed.

And in my personal experiences, we saw the same pattern in the ministry--those who changed often did so with help from others.

It is imperative that we collaborate and work together bring our friends to Jesus and pray so that we can all be transformed and changed with the gospel of Jesus.