November 9, 2024

When Ironman 70.3 Augusta was canceled due to Hurricane Helene, the organization allowed the athletes to transfer their bibs to Ironman Chattanooga, as long as they could make it to athlete check-in on time without any extra charge. You need to understand that they are transferring from a half distance to a full distance, which is no easy feat for anyone. A handful of professional athletes and age groupers took up the offer, and one of them was Tim. 

I got to know Tim the day after the race through our mutual friend, Michael. We connected through text messages right away and congratulated each other. Since I didn’t want to drive back home all the way in one day, I was going to sleep over at Michael’s. My bike chain was all rusty from racing in the rain for 6 hours, and I wouldn’t have time to wash my bike at home as I had to fly out to Korea immediately. So, my plan was to wash my bike at Michael’s. I messaged Tim to ask if he had a chain lube and told him my intentions. I would borrow it from him, but he had a better plan. Tim told me that he had a bike repair stand and invited me to stop by his place on the way and wash our bikes together! Mind you, we had never met before, but he was willing to invite me to his place and help me out! He showed his Christlike hospitality and kindness to me in the way Abraham did for the three men (Genesis 18:1-8), and I was extremely grateful for his offer. I went over and had a great time chatting while washing the bikes.

I want to do the same for others as Tim did for me. Jesus reminds us to “love your neighbor as yourself.” (Luke 10:27). This is the summary of the commandments that God gave us and immediately after this, Luke writes about the story of the good Samaritan. This was a story that defined who our neighbor is. Matthew also writes that when we serve others, we serve Jesus (Matthew 25:40). I pray that we as a church family find joy in helping one another, especially as we are in the month of Thanksgiving.

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November 2, 2024

One of the scary aspects of social media is that the system knows you very well. Once you access a few contents online, the media platform would assume what you enjoy watching and create an algorithm of similar contents and will continue to push the videos and in the end click bait you in continuing to watch more contents. So once you watch a video online, you will find yourself watching another one, followed by another, and another. Before you know it, an hour has gone by just like that.

If you were watching or reading an educational and informative content which proved to be a productive time, good for you. But in most cases, it’s not like that. It’s more of a wasted time. On average, people spend about 143 minutes on social media each day. That’s 2 hours and 23 minutes! Think about what else you could have done with that time. Imagine the positive things you could have done with those two and half hours: spend more time with family, study, exercise, spend time with God etc.

I was thinking about this as I was reading Acts 19 with the kids at home. There were people practing magic in the community and it affected the advancement of the gospel due to this. But when the name of Jesus overpowered them, they repented and confessed their sins. “Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver.” Acts 19:19. Think of all that money that could have been spent for ministry, that was a lot of investment. But now, they were all surrendered to Christ. When the source of evil were eliminated, guess what happened? “So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.” Acts 19:20.

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October 26, 2024

Both of my daughters carry two passports: a US passport and a Korean Passport. They obtained their US citizenship by being born on US soil and their Korean citizenship because Hyemi and I are Korean citizens. So when we flew out to Korea recently, the girls used their US passport to leave the US, and used their Korean passport to enter Korea.  It was the other way around when we returned: they used their Korean passport to leave Korea, and their US passport to enter the US. These passports are proof to show that they are rightful citizens of both countries. 

The USA is the strongest nation in the world, and having US citizenship is coveted by many others from outside to fulfill their American, which is still true today. And that is why my daughters are fortunate to have both citizenships. And that was the case for Paul in Acts 22:22-29. When the Roman soldier bounds Paul, he reveals that he is a Roman citizen. The centurion said, “With a large sum I obtained this citizenship.” To this Paul says, “I was born a citizen.” It was quite the privilege to be a Roman citizen and Paul was born to be one, even as a Hebrew. You can see that the centurion spent a lot to obtain his, similar to what many immigrants do today to become a citizen here in the US.

But we have a better citizenship. And that is heaven: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” Philippians 3:20. We were given this citizenship through Jesus Christ, who paid for us so that we can receive this eternal citizenship, and we can rejoice in that and give glory to our God in heaven!

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