Thank God for His word. The more I live the more I realize how unreliable everything in this world is. The more I realize how unreliable this world is the more my affection for His words grow. The word of God is my security blanket during thunder storms. When I am near it I feel His presence more keenly. I am like a child waiting for his father to return from a long trip. I can always read his letter to remind me that he’s going to come home soon. It’s such a long letter but every part of it has something to say to me.

1 Peter 1:24-25
“All men are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord stands forever.”

We are surrounded by a hungry and dying world.  Sometimes the reality of this is overwhelming to say the least.  The more I am aware of the reality of my faith the more helpless I feel.  How can I possibly make any difference?  I know the theology of God’s sovereignty.  I know that it’s predestined and it’s all in His sovereign hands.  But how I live day to day not totally gripped by this reality is beyond my own comprehension.  Even the Lord wept over Jerusalem.

Lord, open my eyes to see the spiritual reality I live in.  Who wants to just make it?  I want to live.

Maybe some of you can relate…..

The sports day was a big success, at least from my perspective.  Our goal was to give the church an opportunity to clearly establish the identities of each ministry groups.  It was a great kick off to a new year for the collegians and a great victory for the newly established singles group.  The family ministry is growing week to week and to even have them out there represented was a huge testament to what God is doing in our community.  We had great fun and great fellowship as well.  Depending on how this turned out we were hoping to continue this tradition each year.  Seeing how everyone had so much fun and got to spend the whole day interacting with the church we will definitely do this again next year.  We have to…. Our winner’s plaque has 12 years of space to fill.

May God be glorified through Berean…..

There are two ways to read the Bible. The one way to read the Bible is that it’s basically about you: what you have to do in order to be right with God, in which case you’ll never have a sure and certain hope, because you’ll always know you’re not quite living up. You’ll never be sure about that future. Or you can read it as all about Jesus. Every single thing is not about what you must do in order to make yourself right with God, but what he has done to make you absolutely right with God. And Jesus Christ is saying,  “Unless you can read the Bible right, unless you can understand salvation by grace, you’ll never have a sure and certain hope. But once you understand it’s all about me, Jesus Christ, then you can know that you have peace. You can know that you have this future guaranteed, and you can face anything.”
Tim Keller

On October 4th, 2008 9a.m. Berean Community Church will be launching our first annual BCC sports day. One of the most memorable things about my college life was the annual sports day we had between different campus ministries. Some participated in basketball, some in volleyball and some in tug of wars. Whatever your assignment was everyone cheered for their team as if their salvation depended on it. I can’t physically compete like I used to but I am looking forward to the family of Berean gathering together to spend a day in healthy competition. At the end of the day we will see who will have the bragging rights and who will need to remain silent..at least for a year.

Though we are encouraged to consider each other better than ourselves in Philipians, apostle Paul also challenged us to run the race as to win in 1 Corinthians. Let’s put both of these principles into practice on this day. Let’s do our best to beat the people who are better than us. See you there……

Peter Kim

God’s plans are never frustrated.  What He wills He fulfills.  It’s so important that I never forget that.  When I feel like God is frustrated it inevitably gets me frustrated.  Our God’s power can never be exhausted.  His plans can never be thwarted.  Though things don’t go as I’ve planned or desired it’s just a reminder that my plans were not His all along.  My frustrations are just a reminder that I have focused too much on what I can and cannot do and not enough on my Father in heaven.  His breath keeps every living creature alive every single moment of existence.  His love keeps me safe from anything that is ultimately harmful for me.  There is no where I can go where His presence isn’t just as rich as where I’ve been.  I am safe…….  Don’t forget to look up…….  that’s where strength and life comes from.

I forgot how much work it takes to raise a child from infancy.  I have been staying up all night since I came back from China so that Esther can get a break from the night feedings.  I’m not fully over the jet lag so my sleeping habits are all messed up right now anyways.  I’ve already gone through this with three other kids so I thought this would be a lot easier but now I’m remembering how difficult it was for all three of them.  But as I look at each one of my kids I would do it a hundred times all over again for each one of my kids if they need it.

Berean is my spiritual child.  I wouldn’t trade it for the world. ( I really mean that)  But there are other children that are growing on the other side of the ocean.  I can’t seem to get them out of my mind…not that I’ve been trying.  I have one family but two homes.

Lord…I beseech you…send out more workers into your harvest………….