One Life to Live and One Wife to Love

Former president of South Korea, Kim Dae-jung, died on August 18 at the age of 85. Born in a remote Island of the South-western seacoast of Korea, DJ (affectionately called by common people) made his way up to the highest office in the nation but his journey was full of ups and downs as he becomes nostalgic in his diary. For him to say that his life was full of ups and downs is a very mild way of putting the perilous journey into a lighter tone. His was a journey filled with sufferings, sorrows and death itself. But his dedication and idealism for democracy in his homeland paid at last and he became the first democratically elected 15th president of South Korea, brought his nation out of the Asian economic crisis and nearly succeeded in uniting the two Koreas after a half a century of hostility. It was during his administration that the world actually got to know what Korea is really like; the resilient spirit of Korea coupled with love and forgiveness was personified in the life of the man Kim Dae-ung. Nobel Peace Prize added just a little flavor to a man whose life was already an aroma of inspiration for any aspiring politicians and civil servants. He carried this aroma of inspiration around him primarily because of his strong faith in God as a devout Catholic which undergirded his moral convictions that man must live to love God and serve fellow human beings. Such faith in God sprang from a tragedy when his first wife died suddenly leaving him behind with two young sons. His faith was again tested and affirmed when he was kidnapped from a hotel in Tokyo, bound and bundled in a boat to be drowned in sea by the Korean secret servicemen. In that moment of death, he had a mystical experience of Christ and miraculously with the help of US government, was spared from drowning. With this strong Christian conviction, in a culture where bribery, corruption and power grabs are considered normal, DJ exhibited a different moral standard of humility, forgiveness and reconciliation. His second marriage to a strong Christian activist only strengthened the faith that had already led him through many troubles and he led the nation from the economic miracle story of the 80s and 90s to a miracle of one of the most democratic and free societies in the world.
In retrospect, one can say that DJ was a successful man who lived his life to the full. On January 11, 2009, six month prior to his death, he wrote: "The relationship with my wife is now the best it has been since we got married. I love and look up to my wife. If it wasn't for my wife, it would have been hard for me to stand where I am right now. But I can't imagine myself without her, even at this point of time. I pray every day to God that we could live happily together for a long time."
At the grand old age of 85 he says, “The relationship with my wife is now the best it has been since we got married”, and he prays everyday that God would allow them to “live happily together for a long time”. This was not a wish of a man who had squandered loving relationship with his wife and was regretting at the end of his life; it was a wish of a man who had very fulfilling and richly blessed marital relationship with his beloved wife. Theirs was a story of a marriage filled with love and mutual respect. In a typical Korean society it is not a common thing to hear a husband confessing his respect for his wife, but almost all the letters he wrote to his beloved wife from the prison begin with “To you with love and respect”, and till the end he kept his love and respect for his wife and only wished to deepen it. Sadly, his wish to live happily together for a long time with his wife lasted only about six months in this world, and God willing, eternity awaits them for that. But here is a lesson for us who are still much younger than DJ to make that wish come true. As we come to the end of our lives in this world, may our wish to love and respect our wives and husbands be not from the regrets of failure to do so while in good time, but may it be a desire only to deepen the life-time of cherished love and respect because wife and husband will be the only person that will matter the most when we come to the end of our journey.
Sometimes, when we are in pursuit of ambitions, it is easy to neglect this part of life. Other times, our stupidity, selfishness and greed may destroy all the beauty of a marriage and a home. But from the life of a man who was never free from the challenges and dangers, we learned that he never forgot who mattered the most in his life. As he grew older, his love for his wife grew deeper as his prayer tells it all. He died as a man who loved his wife and reaped life full of contentment; he died with no regrets. Surely, he was not an angel or a saint, in their marriage they may have had their fair share of struggles, but judging from his words, it is easy to see the heart of a man who truly loved his wife and if given a chance for another life would have asked for no other person.
From Kim’s diary, if there is one thing we need to learn to have a happy ending; it is to have a hope for the better marriage every single day of our life in spite of all the struggles. It is to wish to love our spouses more than yesterday, respect them more than they deserve and if we can do this, every marriage will last a life-time with flames of love still blazing. Our romance does not have to be buried after the birth of our first child and respect for wife does not have to be equated with “joitingre” . Extended families and in-laws do not have to replace our spouses and economic hardships and suffering of any kinds do not have to be the messengers of doom for our “happy ever after”. If there is love and respect for each other, in the midst of all hell, we can still have a wonderful marriage filled with love, respect and romance as demonstrated by beloved DJ and his wonderful wife.

In God We Trust

The national motto of the most powerful nation on earth reads “In God We Trust”. Out of the ashes of terrible civil war, the nation longed for some sense of hope and security and the motto first appeared on the United States’ coin in 1864. Nearly a century later in 1956, President Eisenhower approved this motto into a law passed by the US Congress to provide a calming assurance from the looming danger of communism and a new kind of imperialism hiding behind the shadow of cold war. The congress insert reads: “In these days when imperialistic and materialistic communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper to remind all of us of this self-evident truth that as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail”. The wisdom and the commitment to recognize human limitations in the affairs of a nation by the historical leaders of the United States has stood the test of time, and today the nation reaps the reward of their faithfulness. God said to Moses in the second commandment that he will punish the children for the sins of their father until the fourth generation but he will show love and kindness to a thousand generations of the righteous. Psalms 33:12 says “blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh”. In spite of the carnality and heathenism that we see coming out of the United States of America, this nation still has a divine hedge built around it because God is ever faithful to his promises made in covenant with his faithful servants. The carnal children of the US still benefit from the faithfulness of their forefathers because their forefathers chose to trust God, individually and nationally, and left behind a blessing for a thousand generations.
The same story can be repeated for many of the European states whose forefathers trusted God and the children still reap the blessings of peace, prosperity and freedom which the world is in great need of. China and many of the Islamic nations are now wealthy and prosperous but with great cost to peace and human freedom. God created man with free will but in these nations the free will of man has to be regulated by manmade rules. Man has become the master in these nations even though there is plenty of prosperity. Japan and South Korea have enjoyed peace, prosperity and freedom; thanks to their association with a nation that carries God’s blessing. It is the American money, manpower and prayers that have made what these two nations have become. The rest of the nations in the world has a long way in recognizing Yahweh as their God and thus deprive their citizens of the blessings of peace, prosperity and liberty. They have lived in misery for thousands of years and will continue to do so until they recognize the Lordship of Yahweh.
Now, as a citizen of a nation like Nepal, what hope do I have? What blessings can I expect from my forefathers who broke the very first and second commandments of God and worshiped the creation instead of the creator? The first book of the Bible is named Genesis, which means “beginnings” and in the very beginning of this book, Satan is represented by a snake that deceived the first man. The Bible also tells us that Satan fell from heaven because he refused to worship God; he wanted to be God and wished the angelic beings to worship him. He wanted to set up his throne higher than God’s. But God cast him down and replaced him by the creation of man. But we see him in Genesis chapter three as a snake and today there is no household in Nepal (except Christians and Muslims) on whose doorpost they do not post a picture of five, seven or sometimes nine snakes entangled together. Every year on Nag-panchami (Day of the snake god), the Hindu households will replace these pictures with the worshiping ceremony of the snake god. The snake posters will be posted on the top horizontal post of the door frame so that when a person goes out of the house, the head has to be a bit bent down to worship the snake and the same thing when one enters the house (traditionally, the doors in a Nepali house are slightly shorter than the average height of a person so that one has to bend the head to enter in and out of the house and therefore, the best place to put the snake god). In a devout Hindu home, every door in the house must have one of these snake posters. This tells us that what the Bible symbolizes as evil, Nepal worships as its main god. In Egypt, the blood of the lamb that symbolized Jesus Christ was put on the doorpost for the deliverance, but today Nepal replaces the blood of the lamb with the symbol of Satan itself. What blessings will we hope for?
On the national level, there is no hope now for Nepal. Unless the rulers and the general population turn to God and repent from the generations of violating the very commandments of God; our nation has no hope of prosperity, peace and freedom. The atheistic Maoists might be able to bring economic prosperity (that is because in my assumption, God prefers an atheists than an idolater), but this economic prosperity might come with a high price of peace and human freedom. In their pursuit of absolute power, they will not be hesitant to kill any number of people and once they have the power, there will be no liberty left for the common man. But because poverty is such a terrible task master, the general public might be happy to live under the political tyranny than the tyranny of poverty. So, there is no hope of a national blessing for Nepal.
But on the individual level, there is hope. There is hope because God in Jesus Christ transcends the national and collective boundaries and brings his blessings to every individual. Any Nepali who has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal savior from sin and satanic bondage has the power to break free from all generational curses. If anyone is in Christ Jesus, he or she becomes a new creation (2Cor.5:17) and Jesus has covenanted with such people a new covenant by his own blood (Luke 22:20). He has become the lamb that was slain and his blood on the doorpost of their hearts protects them from the angel of death and destruction. They are born again and all their past has been wiped away and now they are free to create a new genealogy for their posterity that will last for eternity in the blessings of God.
But this new beginning has to begin by trusting God just like Abraham trusted and he was declared a friend of God (Romans 4). Hebrews 11:6 says “Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him”. David says in Psalms 40:4 “blessed is the man who makes the Lord his trust”. This picture of blessedness is beautifully painted by Jeremiah in the context of a man who trusts in man. The one who trusts God is “like a tree planted by the water…does not fear…leaves are always green…has no worries…and never fails to bear fruit” (17:7-8). But “cursed is a man who trusts man…will be like a bush in a wastelands…will not see prosperity…dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives” (17:5-6). This is a very scary picture the prophet paints for the man whose trust rests on man. But the one who trusts God, he or she shall be free from lack, fear and worry and will live in the land of prosperity. This land of prosperity does not have to be some other nation or geographical location. In fact, regardless of a national boundary, one can enter into this blessedness on the basis of one’s trust in God, and therefore, Nepali followers of Jesus Christ do not have to bear the burden of generational curse from their forefathers. God in Jesus Christ is able to come to their aid and bless them spiritually, physically and materially.
But have we seen all these blessings (spiritual, physical and material) come to us in the last 50+ years of Christian history in Nepal? Yes and no. Yes, because, first, many Nepalese have come to the Lord and spiritually they have received eternal life. With the handful of Christians in 1960s, today some estimates claim that there are a million Christians in our nation. So, let’s say that all of these one million Christians have received the forgiveness of sin and eternal life; that is the greatest spiritual blessing we can ever imagine. The Nepali church is strong in preaching the message of salvation; Jesus Christ saves. Second, we also have received physically blessing of healing. The highest cause of the growth of the church in Nepal is physical healing. Even the cessationist Baptist and Presbyterian ministers in Nepal are still preaching that healing is possible when they pray (in their seminaries they teach that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit have ceased after the death of the apostles). So, the church in Nepal preaches that Jesus saves and Jesus heals, but the third aspect of the blessing, which is material, is the biggest issue now. Salvation is not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that. Healing is also not possible apart from Jesus Christ and they trust him for that. But for the material blessings! Because, right from the early days, Christian leaders found out that man can meet their material needs and because of that, this faculty to trust God for material blessing never developed in their newly formed spiritual brain. Because the leaders did not have to worry for their material needs (their needs were met by outside donations), they did not know how to teach their members to trust God to meet their material needs.
The Christian population even today comes from the lower end of social stick and they have tremendous needs. They cannot send their children to school, they never have the luxury of seeing a doctor when they become sick, and they do not know what it is to have a vacation in life because if they do not work for the day, there would be no food in the evening. Life in this world to them becomes a burden from which they wish to be free and that’s why they trust the Lord Jesus for their eternal rest. But unfortunately, they have never been told that God has the ability to give them the glimpses of that blessed rest from the tyranny of poverty right here on earth if they could exhibit the same trust that they have for salvation and healing. Until today the Nepali Christian leaders have blinded the Nepali believers from trusting God for the material blessings by demonstrating that without the outside financial the Nepali church cannot exist. But, like the motto of the US, it is not the money that would give us the rest and peace and freedom in this world, but it is our trust that puts us in a higher plane of life where every need is met by the power of God. And therefore, Nepali believers need to learn to trust God to carve their new course for their own lives as well as for their posterity by placing their trust in God’s goodness and his ability to bless them and meet their needs. The God who is able to save them and heal them is able to meet their material and financial needs; and thus individual Christians can be free from the national curse that comes from breaking his commandments.

Church With No Songs

The Sunday came; I was not engaged for any ministry related matters. I decided to visit a church that I had ministered in a few years ago when I was a student. It was a lovely congregation of people coming from different nations, but mostly the English speaking Koreans or the Korean Americans. They had a pastor from an English speaking country.
This morning I arrived there early because they had moved the time half an hour late. The deacon that I knew was still there, fixing the place for worship. But when I saw a bewildered look into his face after shaking my hand, I did not know what to make of it. But he politely informed me that the church is no longer the way it used to be and not many people come. In Korea, most English or international congregations are either branches or the department of strong and powerful Korean churches. This particular church was no exception.
As I was sitting there for nearly 40 minutes, four mid thirties ladies came in and then three more men. The deacon had fixed the microphone and the chairs, in the bulletin, the name of the preacher and the presider was printed. Well over 15 minutes of the starting, no one showed up. Then a little girl of about 10 years old came in. She sat on the front row and called someone from her mobile phone. As she finished the call, in came the English department pastor, not the person from an English speaking nation but a Korean educated in UK with zero level of English communication. He fixed a small microphone for the little (apparently she could be his daughter, but we never had a chance to meet them) girl sitting in the front row. Neither was there any opening prayer, nor was there any one to play music, and believe me, this was the first time in my entire life that I attended a church service without singing a one line of hymn or a chorus, I mean not one song or a prayer (except benediction). The pastor went to the pulpit and motioned towards the deacon who was way back controlling the sound system. The pastor muttered a few words in Koreans and the deacon replied likewise. The first word in English from the pastor’s mouth was 1 Corinthians 1:1-3. After that he began to preach in Korean…and a sweet sound of English translation came from the PA system (I was the only foreigner there today), and it took me for a while to figure it out as what is happening and finally I saw the little girl in the front row reading the notes for her apparent father. He was reading in Korean from the pulpit and she was reading it in English from the chairs. He took about 20 minutes and sat next to the girl translating for him. I was so impressed with the little girl as how beautifully she read and had decided to meet her at the end and tell her how blessed I was to hear her read the sermon. The content of the sermon was…Corinthian church was full of division and immorality but still Paul called it “the church of God”. “The church of God” was the title of his sermon. While the preacher sat down, the deacon went forward and took the offering without any song. After the offering, he asked the pastor to pray and close with benediction. In Korea once the benediction is pronounced, you just don’t shoot yourself from the seat; you sit with eyes still closed and wait for the pastor to come to the exit so that he or she can meet the members as they go out. So, as we said “amen”, with eyes closed for few seconds and I looked around to see if the pastor was there. They were nowhere to be seen, the pastor and the little girl well. This church had the practice of having some snacks after the service, and nine of us who were still in the room, we gathered around the snacks table…and I could not help but told the deacon that this was the most bizarre church service that I have ever attended. With apology, he told me that the church is going through division and there is no communication between the pastor and himself. He said, “we are playing wait and see, hide and seek game”. As I moved out of that room, my heart became so heavy, knowing that I have witnessed the most destructive weapon of the devil in the church being fully used. Division has totally paralyzed and now possibly the English church will cease to exists and what kind of ministry will the pastor that can come, preach, and go without meeting his congregants can have in life. How could he come and preach? I just cannot fathom. How could he?

Life comes with its own storyline