April 26, 2025

Hyemi and I were driving around one day, and there was a dump truck ahead of us. I am always afraid of dump trucks, thinking that a rock would fly off and hit our windshield (which has happened to us in the past on a highway). So we went around the truck and came to a stop at the light. Soon, the truck caught up to us and shifted to the left turn lane and stopped right next to us. Its passenger side window was half open, and there was loud music coming out of it. It was opera music being sung by a male soloist. Hyemi and I looked at each other, and I told her, “I wasn’t expecting to hear opera music from that dump truck!” Yes, it was a stereotype, and I made a judgment according to its looks. Too often, we fall into that trap of judging the book by its covers.

Even the great prophet Samuel had a stereotype and judged by the looks when the Lord told him to anoint the next king of Israel. The Lord told Samuel, “For the Lord does not see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7. As we remind ourselves that we should make judgments on other before actually getting to know them, we should also consider what God would see in our hearts. Consider the encouragement Apostle Paul gives us, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Ephesians 4:1-3. I hope that when we encounter others, that they will see us in a worthy manner of who we are as followers of Jesus. 

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April 19, 2025

With spam calls flooding our phones today, we have a tendency not to answer phone numbers that we are not familiar with. For instance when I get a phone call and the numbers do not start with area codes 262 or 414, I would hesitate for a moment and just let it go to voicemails. If my phone suggests that it’s ‘likely spam’ then I don’t even bother with it. 

On the other hand, since I have a Maryland area code, many people do not answer me when I call people around our area. Then, I would have to leave a voicemail or text that person to get a response. 

There are also times when I get a call and it’s a number that I haven’t saved, but the numbers are very familiar. Those are likely numbers that I have received before but forgot to save them in my contacts list. So I would answer them and sure enough, they are people that I know. The key is familiarity. 

You probably had experienced where someone would tell you about Bible facts and you wonder if that is really true? The Devil does that really well. He spams us all the time. He would fabricate Bible truths with small bits of falsehood and make it look real. Also, he is very capable of copying the truth and creating counterfeit truths. It’s very easy for us to fall into his spam messages. Once again, the key is familiarity. When we stay close to God’s Words and study them carefully, we can know the difference between the truth vs spam. “Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’” John 8:31,32.

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April 12, 2025

We all know that men cannot find anything in the refrigerator. When the wife asks you to find something, that item becomes invisible and no matter how much you look, you cannot find it. Then, the wife comes to find it, lo and behold, it’s right there!

Well that happened to us a few days ago, but this time, Hyemi and I couldn’t find that missing item together. So we were going to make a Korean meal for lunch on Sunday and Hyemi asked me to grab a bag of sliced rice cakes from the refrigerator. Now I remembered this because I brought it out few days before that but ended up not using it. So I know that we still have a whole bag left. I looked in the refrigerator, not there. Looked again, not there. I went downstairs to the basement to check on our second refrigerator, not there. I checked the chest freezer, not there. I shouted, “I can’t find it!” Hyemi shot back, “Of course you can’t find it! What are you going to do when I find it?” So Hyemi started looking for that bag of sliced rice cakes. Guess what? She couldn’t find it either. We looked all over for it but it was lost. It was so odd because none of us used it for cooking the other day. It had to be there, but it vanished. 

We ended up having something else for lunch. The lunch was delicious, but I kept wondering where the rice cake went. About an hour later, I opened the refrigerator for something else. To my surprise, that bag of sliced rice cake was right in front of me! The bag disappeared and then appeared. What a mystery.

In Luke 24, Jesus appears to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus, but Jesus hinders them from recognizing Him. “But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him.” Luke 24:16. And then in verse 31, they realize Jesus. “Then their eye were opened and they knew Him.” Jesus wanted the disciples to see Jesus and His mission from the Scriptures first, and so He intentionally restrained their eyes from recognizing Him. Sometimes, we will miss, forget, or not understand certain things that occur in our lives. Maybe God does that intentionally, so that we can see what is beyond and understand the greater will God has for us. We will have to trust God and have faith in Him no matter what. 

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