Remembering North Korea by Rose McCormick Brandon

Dr. Robert Hardie

The first signs of revival in Korea appeared in 1903 when medical missionary, Dr. Robert Hardie, gave a series of talks on prayer at a conference. Hardie shared these messages in many churches. Within a year,ten thousand turned to Christ. In 1906, several from the Methodist and Presbyterian Missions at Ping Yang (Pyongyang) began noon-hour prayer meetings asking God for an out-pouring of His Spirit. When believers in the area gathered for the universal week of prayer in January 1907 they expected a first century blast of blessing. Instead, their meetings seemed dull and weak and their prayers earth-bound.
On the last day of prayer week, a highly-respected Christian stood and tearfully confessed before a congregation of 1500 that he had stolen from an estate he'd managed. "God can't bless because of me," he said and publicly promised to make restitution. This man's shocking admission set off a flood of confessions. One after another confessed their sins. The meeting lasted until two o-clock in the morning. In the months following this mass confession thousands came to Christ. Missionary to China, Jonathan Goforth, visited the revival and concluded that hidden sin had hindered God but uncovered sin glorified Him.

       By mid-1907, 30,000 converts attended the Pyongyang church. To accommodate this number people went to church in shifts. Churches sprang up all over Korea. Confession of sin remained a primary factor in this revival. Many repented of racial bias, including Dr. Hardie, who confessed his prejudice against Koreans. Koreans repented of hatred toward the Japanese, their occupiers. Love from Christ filled their hearts and erased their biases. People recognized them as His disciples because of their love (John 13:34,35).
       One man learned about Jesus in the city and returned to his village with a New Testament which he read to his neighbours. When converts numbered fifty they decided it was time to form a church but had no idea how to do it. Thinking it must have something to do with water baptism they each went home, took a bath, returned and declared they were now a church.
       Korean Christians eagerly shared the gospel. Even school children were known to stop passers-by in the street and tearfully plead with them to follow Jesus. Those who suffered imprisonment for the faith used the time to read their Bibles – one man read it through seven times. Others memorized large portions of scripture. It wasn’t uncommon for prisoners to commit whole books of the Bible to memory. Pyongyang became known as “Jerusalem of the East.”
 

Rose McCormick Brandon

Today, Pyongyang is often in the news. In the same land where many experienced this amazing outpouring of God's Spirit, Christians are cut off from the world by Communism and divided from their countrymen. They need our prayers. We won't know until Korea's iron curtain is lifted how many believers have survived, how they survived and what God is doing amongst them now. What we do know is those revival fires can't have gone completely out. Sparks remain.

O Lord, remember your people in North Korea. Pour out your Spirit upon them as before. Keep them strong and may your words resonate continually in their minds and hearts.

***

Rose McCormick Brandon writes books and articles, teaches Bible studies and writing classes, speaks at churches, libraries, historical societies and museums. Visit her website at: http://writingfromtheheart.webs.com Contact her at: rosembrandon@yahoo.ca. Visit her blog on Canada’s British Home Children at http://littleimmigrants.wordpress.com.

What Are the Odds? (by Peter A. Black)

Calgarian Barb Parker could scarcely believe her eyes when she saw her golf ball nestled in the bottom of the hole following her 125-yard drive. Yep, it was a hole-in-one. The Canadian snowbird was competing at a Tucson, Arizona, tournament in March this year. 

Understandably she was more than a little excited at her amazing (pardon the pun) ‘stroke of luck.’ Ms Parker moved on and nervously positioned herself to take a swipe towards her next hole. She swung and drove the ball into a breeze, up and over a ridge – a 136-yard drive. Where did that one

Source Credit: calgaryherald.com

go?

Her eyes scanned the green . . . no sign of her ball – at least, not until she got close enough to look down at the hole, and there it was, its shamrock emblem facing up, winking at her astonished gaze. A little excited? Barb Parker could hardly function for her next drive. And yes, she won. She later learned that the odds to landing two consecutive holes-in-one were 167,000,000 :1.

Our Western culture increasingly projects responses towards the Bible that range from indifference to scepticism and mistrust, and from negativism and disbelief to outright hostility. Some folk who identify themselves as Christian never crack open a Bible from one week or month to the other. (Simply stating a fact, not judging.) I’ve heard some people say that the Bible isn’t relevant to their lives.

North American TV Bible teachers and preachers and End-Times prophecy ‘specialists,’ might have wearied some folk and frightened others. But hold on; don’t throw away your Bible yet. If you don’t possess one, they’re readily available in Canada and the USA. (Also, BibleGateway dot com has versions galore you can read.)

Barb Parker’s amazing 167,000,000 :1 odds of her consecutive two holes-in-one fade into the mists of early morning fairways, compared to those of prophecies fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. That was established many decades ago, by the calculations of the eminently-credentialed Peter Stoner. (He’d been chairman of the mathematics and astronomy departments at Pasadena City College. In 1953 he moved to become chairman of the science division at Westmount College of Santa Barbara, California.

In Science Speaks** Stoner extrapolated that for just eight Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah to be fulfilled in Jesus, it would require a probability factor of 1 in 1 quintillion. That is, one chance in 1,000,000,000,000,000,000!

To help us get a handle on that Professor Stoner explained: If you were to cover the entire State of Texas with quarters two feet deep and send in a blind man to pick up just one coin, and that [specially] marked coin was the one he picked up; then that’s scale of probability involved here. (Since then others have calculated or else extrapolated much greater odds.)

Jesus of Nazareth beautifully fulfilled more than two hundred prophecies given during a period upwards of two thousand years, as recorded by a variety of writers and prophets from  contrasting social and educational backgrounds.

The mind seems incapable of conceiving the odds against those fulfilments occurring in one person during one narrow time frame – unless, of course, there is no coincidental factor, whatsoever. In Jesus the events were assuredly unfolding according to the Divine Plan.

Events unfolding from His final entry into Jerusalem through the days leading up to His betrayal, crucifixion, burial and resurrection, fulfilled so many prophecies that they would have required enormously greater odds than our Calgarian snowbird’s two consecutive holes-in-one.

That demands I seriously regard the biblical scriptures.

~~+~~

*B. Parker two holes-in-one story constructed from various online media sources.

** Moody Press, Chicago, 1958

~~+~~

Peter A. Black lives in Southwestern Ontario. He writes a weekly inspirational newspaper column, P-Pep! and is author of Raise Your Gaze ... Mindful Musings of a Grateful Heart, and Parables from the Pond. ~~+~~

 

Completing the Circle by Eleanor Shepherd

                This month our good friends are celebrating their 50^th Wedding Anniversary and I have been invited to speak at the event.  This is a huge honour for me and the story is a complicated one.  We were good friends when we were in our late teens and early twenties.  One thing we sometimes did was double date, going to a movie or to a concert as four rather than as two. 

                  Our friends married two years before we did and at the time of their wedding a misunderstanding developed between us.  Hurt feelings, not dealt with smoldered into negative thoughts and actions and with the passage of time, the relationship turned to embers because of our failure to nurture it.  We all had busy lives, raising families and involved in our church activities.  We were no longer part of the same congregation and we moved to different cities, so it was easy to let the friendship lapse.  However, we were aware that something was not right in our spirits.

                  A decade passed and then another.  We found ourselves back in the same city and again members of the same congregation.  Although the unpleasant memories were buried, there was still a strain in our relationship.  If memory serves me right, there was one time during the first decade after the rupture, that we went to our former friends and awkwardly tried to make amends, but at that stage none of us were ready for reconciliation.

                  Now it seemed there might be a glimmer of hope.  As we had occasion to be thrown together in various projects and activities, we discovered that they were pretty fine people, despite the way that we had demonised them in our minds.  At the time I was searching for a prayer partner, as this was something that I valued for my own spiritual well-being.  As I prayed about this, the name of my friend came to mind and I could not shake it. So I asked her if she would be willing to meet regularly with me to pray. She agreed. We spent meaningful times together in prayer.

                  We were transferred to Europe with our work, and before we left, my friend and I went out for lunch together.  At that time, she humbly apologized for her part in the initial misunderstanding.  Although I had spent many years blaming her for what I thought she had done, in hearing her apology, I realized that the fault was not all hers.  I had not acted in the way I ought to have acted either and our falling out was as much my fault as hers.  I realized what an incredible treasure she was to have as a friend.

                  From that day, our relationship took on a new depth.  There are few friends that I value as much as this friend who reached out to me and enabled me to experience the joy of forgiveness and reconciliation.  So you can imagine the pleasure that it will be for me to honour her at their 50^th anniversary celebration. 

                  As I shared this story as part of my journey, with my spiritual director this week, she reminded me that all that we have learned through the years, has enabled us to handle things so much better now.  If, when we were young, we had been able to talk with each other honestly about the issues that caused the break in our relationship, we would have been spared those years of negative feelings toward each other.  I agree.

Word Guild Awards
2009

However, without the tangles, I may never have realized the depth of grace and humility that my friend possesses, if she had not dared to reach out to me the way she did.  I may never have become aware what a gift she offers in her friendship with me. What was intended for evil, God turned to good for us.

Word Guild Awards
2011

Eleanor Shepherd from Pointe Claire, Quebec has more than 90 articles published in Canada,  France,  the U.S.A., Belgium, Switzerland and New Zealand. Thirty years with The Salvation Army in Canada and France including ministry in Africa, Europe, Haiti and the Caribbean furnished material for her Award winning book, More Questions than Answers, Sharing Faith by Listening. Eleanor works as a pastor in Montreal with The Salvaton Army.

Speck Vs Plank

by Glynis M Belec 

It bothers me immensely when Christians judge other Christians in a mean-spirited way. Actually, it bothers me when anybody judges anybody negatively, because it isn’t in the ‘be nice to other humans’ job description. In Matthew 7:1-5 we read this:

Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

            Excellent direction for those times when we think we are right and someone else isn’t.         

     Someone with a beam in her eye cannot see things clearly. She has little discernment. As much as is possible, and in all humility, we need to leave judging to God alone. Although I do believe this scripture verse does say – it is okay to judge – once you’ve removed the log from your own eye!

I believe we have a moral responsibility to judge ethical behavior of others—but only if we are humbly aware that we are not always right and sometimes we can be dead wrong. And the key to proper judgement is to do it quietly and in love.

Look what it says in Romans 3:23:

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard (NLT)

Our ability to judge is limited because we are sinful people. And we might want to remember

 hat one day, this will happen— 2 Corinthians 5:10:

For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body who will ourselves, one day, come under judgment.

I am thinking that it’s not so much the act of judging that is the issue, but from what I understand, it’s the attitude with which we do it that matters.

It’s okay to be discerning about someone’s character or teaching that seems askew according to God’s word. But when we address this we are not to do it with ruthless Bible-thumping, harsh words and threatening insults.

It’s okay to speak to a fellow Christian about something you believe is sinful according to what is taught in the Bible, remembering that interpretation is at play. Speaking in love, in private is the correct way to approach a person—not speaking about him publicly or behind his back, spreading gossip because you think others should ‘hear this, too!’

Check out Matthew 18:15:

“If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother.)

If I am jealous of someone and I criticize him, then I am not building him up. I am attempting to tear him down. Not nice.

If I think I know the whole story (facts, motives) but I jump to conclusions, then I judge wrongly – I am merely going on hearsay and opinion. Not right.

If I make up my own rules because I think I interpreted God correctly, mainly because I want things a certain way—as in distorting the truth to suit—then I need to look out. Bad move.

If I am not a nice person to be around and I consistently point out everyone else’s shortcomings but don’t bother looking at myself, then I have a whopping great log in my eye blocking my vision; which makes me arrogant, judgmental. Time to look within.

     If I share confidential information with the wrong intent (humiliation verse humility) then I am messing up big time, because I have no right to make someone look bad.

     If I am being self-righteous and critical over something that might mean one thing to me and something else to someone else, then I deserve to get pinched by God.

     And I think, most importantly, if I think I have the right to say that someone is going to hell (pronouncing eternal damnation) then who do I think I am? Look out for the thunder!

     It’s not my job to usurp God as Judge.

     I know the best thing I can do to resolve conflicts, or to stop judging is to submit to God by showing love and living the Fruits of the Spirits as best as I can (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.)

     Loving words don’t tear down. People can choose to react how they wish, but as a Christian I should speak loving and kind words even though I might be considered judging. I try to use kind words even if I am judging a contest or teaching children about right choices or working with writers to help them improve their work.

     If I am harsh and heavy handed with my words, beating others over the head with the Bible, then I am working on making myself look like I know it all and ultimately, I am loving myself more than I love others. Our words and deeds need to reflect God, not my own stubborn pride, thinking I have all the answers.

     Know what happens when I imply I am the one with all the answers? People get defensive and arguments ensue or they run away, not wanting anything to do with all that Christian hypocritical nonsense. Not a very good witness for the Kingdom.

     Resolving conflicts involves an operation—removal of the plank, and then healing—demonstration of God’s unconditional, non-judgmental love.

     I’ve got my surgery booked. How about you?

        Glynis lives, loves, laughs and does an awful lot of reading, writing, publishing and praying in her home office. 

        How thrilled Glynis is to be part of GOOD GRIEF PEOPLE (Angel Hope Publishing) - an anthology filled with stories that help readers recognize, honour and celebrate  the individuality of grief.                     www.glynisbelec.com 

Seasons of the Heart/Donna Mann

Sitting with a friend today, we reflected over the past twenty years. I find it interesting to talk about the importance we place on certain experiences and events at different times in our lives. In hindsight I understand how important it is to move on from certain perceptions and mature in others. These are seasons of life.

My earliest memory of knowing God’s love was nurtured in a small rural Sunday school. The first time I remember expressing it was when I made angels in the snow, looking up at a bright blue sky and feeling apart of it because God loved me. I probably had a song in my heart, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Some colleagues have talked about how they first understood God in their teenage years after coming home from their first youth retreat or summer camp.  As a farm girl, I didn’t have the opportunity to have either of those experiences, but I remember my first Sunday school teacher’s event at Five Oaks Christian Training Center. It was like fresh water on a hot day: refreshing, stimulating and inspiring. And a deeper meaning of God stirred in my spirit from the weekend.

I’ve sat in conversations with people who referred to their early years and confessed that they understand God’s love differently today.  I can identify with that. I think God’s love has remained constant from the times I took the cows to the back fifty after they were milked; through three academic degrees, family deaths and touching the new born grandbaby’s hand. That love has grown and is constant, refreshing, nurturing and comforting. It is like a warm blanket regardless of the situation I’m facing. And it is different than those early days.

I remember people saying, “When you go to seminary, your theological interpretation and definitions will be examined and severed.” Examined, but not severed! Seminary was a wonderful time in my life when my eyes were opened to interpretations that I’d never considered. In the late 70s, I was the only woman in some of my classes and that didn't take away from my desire to study. God’s love for me grew and became even more of everything it was previously, which gave me confidence to dig in and to do.

When I read some of the early sermons I wrote, I am always glad to feel that I could write it better now. I’d definately write with a different theological understanding of the scripture text which slightly nudges me into another season of the heart.

Another season of the heart!

 ^“When I was an infant at my mother’s breast, I gurgled and cooed like any infant. When I grew up, I left those infant ways for good (1 Corinthians 13:11) The Message (MSG)

Blessings,

Donna

Check out donnamann.org

For your copy of Good Grief People, check with any one of the authors.