We are taught that we must become upright people who, in God’s sight, are blameless and fully keep His commandments. “In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly” [(Modern Translation: “When Herod was king of Judea, there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah, and his wife Elizabeth also came from the family of Aaron. They were righteous before God and faithfully kept all the Lord’s commandments and regulations without fault”)] (Luke 1:5–6). While meditating on this passage, I would like to draw out the lessons given to us: (1) The author of Luke’s Gospel, Luke, first wrote to Theophilus about John the Baptist’s parents. The father’s name was “Zechariah” (meaning, “The LORD remembers...
‘They have no comforter’ [Ecclesiastes 4:1-3] Two things happened after the end of the New Year the church leaders’ prayer meeting. One thing is that one of the women in the church took a lot of sleeping pills and attempted suicide. On that Sunday afternoon my wife, our church elder and two young ladies went to her apartment and helped her. The next day, when my wife went to visit her apartment, the woman was already on the ambulance and went to the hospital. Now she is in the nursing home. Another thing I heard was that one of the college students who went to the church in Korea where I used to serve went to a mission field and drowned. I used the served the English Ministry (EM) with his mother and I remembered seeing him few times during the EM worship. So when I heard the news about his death, I was very shocked. So I thought about how to comfort his parents and his older sister. And I wrote a letter to them and I prayed to God. “Abba Father,” I pleade...