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| Romans 12: 11 |
Chapter 20 - “Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the LORD.”
“Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the LORD.”
My life’s summationis the Romans 12: 11 verse.
Before Reverend KyungJik Han retired he had gone around each of the small groups and had done farewell. At that time I was living in Dongdaemun-ku Leemun-Dong. It was a gathering with the small groups to have a farewell party because we were sad that Reverend Han was retiring.
During this time Reverend had instead of his usual sermons, told us to find a life verse. He read from the Book of Romans chapter 12 and from there we chose which verse stuck out the most to keep as long as we lived. I chose verse 11 at that time and ever since used that verse as my life’s preference. Not just me, all the other who had gathered in the group had also chosen their verse and shared. Even if I’m a follower of Christ with talents and personality, being lazy makes it useless. Like the servant who had hid his 1 talent. If there is no diligence then the person is just a misguided worker. Therefore our diligence should be to our Lord. He alone must have all the glory we can give. I thank Revered Han who had shared his time with us as a retiring pastor to give us the opportunity to visit us.
One time I had helped the Reverend wear his coat after a young adult meeting was over.
He wore a black coat because it was during the winter time. I was surprised again when I saw how old his jacket was and that the rumor was true. The jacket was very old. I thought it wouldn’t be that much warm anymore with that. I noticed while I was rolling up his sleeve that the neck around the area was very worn out and almost falling apart. I thought he was living only with 2 pieces of clothing and saw that it was true.
Reverend Han had original wanted to go to Yale after he had graduated from Princeton Seminary but he suffered tuberculosis and had almost died. That’s why whenever Christmas came around he sold a lot of seals and gave the funds to tuberculosis organization. During the Japanese occupation of Korea he had made an Orphanage and a Nursery for old poor people in ShinUiJu when he could no longer practice as a pastor because churches were shut down by the Japanese Governor of Korea. Simple and poor, or rather living with almost no possession was almost normal to the Reverend.
One time during a question session with the young adult members before he retired, one of the member asked “Reverend, you had done a lot of things to this church. What is your worry about the successor?” and he said “The one who is in charge of the church is God and because he is in charge He will be in glory because my successor will serve the Lord” as a reply.
Another asked “What was a thing that you were most regretful about during your time as our Reverend?”
His reply to that was “While I was in charge of this large church there are two things that I regret the most, one was I had not done as much one to one evangelism and teaching the newer believers solid foundation in Christ through the Bible.” Was what he said. That’s why after I had become a pastor I tried my best to do one to one evangelism and teach the Bible as their foundation.
In 1988 my wife had visited Korea. One middle aged woman had asked “Are you Pastor Lee’s wife?” while she was coming out of service from the YoungNak Presbyterian Church. She said “Yes” and the woman said “Your husband won’t really remember me well enough but I’m one of the evangelized people by Pastor Lee and now I am a faithful deaconess serving this church.” To be honest, my wife and our family were in hardship during the time when I was following the mission of evangelism. She told me the story after she returned to the States and said “Our little faith and trust had made a person faithful to God is a valuable thing.” She gave thanks to the importance of evangelism and growing in God thought that way.
On the Reverend Han’s retirement day, elder Won Gong was reporting his resume and the things he achieved and had awarded him in front of the entire congregation. Reverend Han had gone up the front stand to reply said “What you said elder is not really all true.”Which was a shocking reply, and he said “All the things were done through God and all the people who had participated. I had merely put the names of those who helped me.” I knew from that point all the people who respected Reverend Han had now more respect for him. Indeed! Those who “lower than those around you make you higher”were shown even to his last day as a Reverend.
(January 2011)
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Moving back to San Jose 
Life Summation