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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October 19, 2024

We were gone for about 16 days to a time zone that was 14 hours different from central daylights saving time. They say it takes one day per one hour to adjust to the new time zone. So that would take 14 days for us to adapt to the new time zone, cycle, and pattern. It wasn’t easy for us, especially the kids. For me, I had to run at odd hours, and just try my best to stay away during the daytime and sleep at normal hours. That was not the case for the girls. Around after mid-afternoon, they would start dozing off and go into a deep sleep mode, and it was quite challenging to just keep them up. This went on for about a week and they were finally adapting to the new time zone.

After 16 days, when we, at last, were feeling normal in the Korean Time Zone, we flew back home again. Now we have to adapt to our home time zone, repeating the whole process again. It was over 12 hours of flying. We left Korea in the morning, so the girls were wide awake for almost the entire flight. We landed at O’Hare at 10 am, and went through immigration and customs, the girls immediately fell into a deep sleep when we got into the car. I had to fight off sleep while driving back home. They are still sleeping in their rooms at the time of this writing. They will likely get up around 9pm ish and won’t sleep for most of the night. It will take another 2 weeks to adapt again.

When Jesus returns, we will be on a journey to our heavenly home. The distance to the heavenly kingdom is more than a 12-hour flight. We will be traveling through the galaxies and exploring the universe that God created on our way. How will we adapt to the new time zone? This is what the Bible says about the change: “who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body” Philippians 3:21; “For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” 1 Corinthians 15:52. Physically, we won’t have issues to adapting in heaven. 

What about our character? It was challenging to adapt to the driving practices and the traffic laws and patterns in Korea (yes, driving in Korea is different). It took time to remember how I drove back in the days in my motherland. Our character is the same about living in heaven with Jesus. And we must be changed to live in heaven. As we are justified by faith, the Bible says, “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Romans 5:3,4. Jesus will help us change our character! May we all look forward to that day in heaven. And please be merciful when you see my family fall asleep during worship today!

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