The Word Became Flesh

John 1:14 “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

These days I have more spiritual thirst to learn. According to Jesus, those who thirst for truth and righteousness are blessed because they will be filled. I left Korea at the age of 27 and passed through my 30’s and am now getting near my mid 40’s. I changed my mission field once and where I am now I still feel as though it is an empty field and a wilderness. All the more, I thirst for the spiritual truth.

One could say that I am still young, but knowing I am not very young, I have desire to sew together pieces of what I have done in my life. I remember the words of one missionary who said, “Look at your life as a whole.” Instead of focusing on one thing, if I have been gathering materials to build a house, now it is time to start building the house.

The late Dr. Samuel Lee’s first word of legacy is “Go back to the Bible!” It makes me ponder on its meaning newly. When I think about Dr. Lee, he pioneered the UBF USA by his gospel faith. From my college days, I read his messages and heard about his discipleship training. I heard that Psalm 1 was his favorite Bible passage and that he read the Bible until it became worn out. I heard that he would often read books all night, researched the word of God, and studied the Bible until he knew the chemistry of the Bible. Also, many people longed to be trained by him. I heard many stories of examples of faith, and I am sure there are many more than what I heard about.

As the Founders Day is approaching, trying to keep up with the direction, “Go back to the Bible” for the future of our ministry, is refreshing and encourages me to face it newly. I can even imagine comparing myself with the late Dr. Samuel Lee and other mature and fruitful shepherds. But knowing that each of our lives has meaning before the Lord, I can meditate on Jesus’ word “new wine into a new wineskin” with a new perspective.

We are living in the age of information. If we Christians make up our mind we can communicate with many different people through various medias. If, however, we look at only our church with a narrow point of view, we live like a frog in a well. Over the last 10 years serving a new mission field, I experienced difficulty; at the same time, spiritually I was blessed very much. Each year studying and preaching from the 4 gospels, Acts and Romans was such a great blessing that I had never experienced. Also, through the Bible Panorama, I read the Old and New Testaments with new insights. Although there is a difference in depth, when I read with a decision, I could draw the forest of the Bible little by little and experience joy. Studying the Bible is the most important focus and essence of my life. I want to continue to pursue this direction.

These days in Nicaragua we can listen to many messages of God’s servants through CGN TV. This is resulting in an interesting phenomenon, a knife sharpening another knife and friends becoming better friends. In the past, we would have followed other messages, but now I feel we share new experiences and thoughts together, while encountering others’ thoughts and opinions. When we lean toward one way, unintentionally, we can fall into prejudice. But as the world is full of colors, our church also can be like a harmonious orchestra of all colors, and the day will come when all creation will reveal the glory of God and sing praises to him like in Genesis 1.

Some time ago, one professor introduced a book and lectured on “God Mission,” or “Mission God”, meaning Mission first or God’s Word first. It was a very interesting lecture. We must not be confined to a single Bible passage. Instead, we should look at the Bible passages in context (holistically). But the conclusion is always the Bible. This made me pay attention and I said, “That’s it!” I believed that that’s what “Go back to the Bible” meant. I must see God’s Word, the church, the world and myself as I experience them in a holistic perspective, but always the Bible is the ultimate authority. We don’t just look at the Bible, but we must see the church and the world are under it and me in it. When confronting and interacting with one another we find that the answer is in the word of God. Until now God’s word has been interpreted differently depending on time and place, but can God’s word in Africa and the USA be applicable in the same way? Can God’s word, theology or the movements of the 19th Century have the same effect as on the people of the 21st Century? As the age of Darwinism, the time of the World Wars and now as the world is passing through the peculiar post modern period – how should the word of God be interpreted and applied? Once again, the answer will be found in the Bible.

Lately, I began to have a deep desire to see the church, world, me and God’s Word with this holistic perspective. Not just with my subjective thought, but with various objective opinions and thoughts. Ultimately the Holy Spirit is the Teacher who will guide me to a higher level so that I may meditate on the Bible with joy. Although Jesus was the Word, he didn’t remain as the Word apart from us. When he came into the world in the flesh, we could experience the indescribable grace of the Word. Likewise, our meditation of God’s word should not end with meditation; instead, like Jesus who incarnated we must feed sheep on campus, struggle with problems in the family, church and society, and look for answers through prayer and God’s word. Then our bible study will be three dimensional. (Note. Not only vertical for the relationship with God, but also horizontal for the relationship with others)