by Pastor John Kim

As we prepare for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday, it would be helpful for us to consider why we celebrate these events. For many, these days represent nothing more than ritual and tradition — an excuse to buy a new outfit, to have a $50 brunch at some fancy hotel, or to look for eggs hidden in the bushes and dress up in costumes.

I recall going to the Czech Republic for the first time during the Easter Week and in Prague, there were stalls and carts filled with decorative eggs in celebration of Easter. When asked what Easter represents, the typical Czech had absolutely no idea, except that it had something to do with eggs. Now these eggs were beautiful and came in wonderful designs, but you are left to wonder, “So what are these eggs all about?”

It’s almost akin to Christmas and people getting hung up with mistletoe and eggnog and dressing up as Santa or the elves. Or Thanksgiving where it’s all about getting a turkey and dressing and gaining ten pounds. Or even Halloween, which originally stood for “Hallow’s Eve,” the celebration of a holy day, and it gets turned completely upside down into a celebration of demons and witches and other depictions of evil.

Why make a big deal of all this? For starters, we celebrate Good Friday because of the goodness of God that was displayed in what was a most extreme and violent event: the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. How could the brutul murder of the innocent Son of God be considered good? Because of what was accomplished. It was His death that took the place of my own, not simply the physical death, but to face the wrath of God that was to be poured out in judgment of my sin. Jesus took my place on the cross. When He cried out, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” we must consider the absolute agony of what Jesus had to go through, to feel the very wrath of God poured out on Him where there was a very real sense of the break of fellowship that takes place when sin enters the presence of God. God cannot accept it or allow it to go unpunished.

2 Corinthian 5:21 states it so clearly, “He [God] made Him [Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Good Friday is good because the righteousness of God is now imputed to us through Christ so that His goodness stands in our place as our righteousness. We have absolutely no goodness or righteousness that we can generate on our own to merit standing before God. We would be totally unacceptable in His presence. But as our substitute, the Lamb of God was slain so that we might receive the goodness and grace of God through Him.

As we prepare to partake in communion this Friday, I hope that we can all take some time to meditate on the goodness of God shown through the sacrifice of His beloved Son. It was a dark day, the darkest day of all history, when the Son of God was subjected to the cruel torture and excruciating pain He suffered on the cross for us. But thank God it was not left to end at the cross, for the third day would approach and the Resurrection of Christ would take place to show that sin and death had been conquered once and for all. Not only can we experience His goodness in the forgiveness of sins, but we also have the incredible and unbreakable promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ.

by Pastor John Kim

The pursuit of sanctification for the Christian brings at least two things to mind: the glory of God and the abhorrence of sin. The glory of God should weigh heavy on our hearts and minds as we consider that it is God alone who deserves glory as the Creator, and all of creation was designed for the purpose of glorifying Him since all things were made by Him and for Him and exist only because of Him.

Jonathan Edwards writes, “The end of creation is that the creation might glorify God. Now what is glorifying God, but a rejoicing at that glory he has displayed? The happiness of the creature consists in rejoicing in God, by which also God is magnified.”

The pursuit of sanctification is a pursuit of joy, not of drudgery. It is we, and not God, who make Christianity to be less than what God intended, which is a life full of happiness. But happiness is not something that can be generated with ourselves in the place of primacy. True happiness can only be experienced when God’s glory is my greatest desire and that life is not so much about me as much as it is all about God receiving the glory and the majesty and the honor and the praise.

John Piper writes in reflection of Jonathan Edwards these words:

“The love of God for sinners is not his making much of them, but his graciously freeing and empowering them to enjoy making much of him. As Edwards says, “God is their good.” Therefore if God would do us good, he must direct us to his worth, not ours. The truth that God’s glory and our joy in God are one radically undermines modern views of self-centered love. God-centered grace nullifies the gospel of self-esteem” (God’s Passion for His Glory, pp. 34-35).

To find our greatest happiness, we must seek the greatness of God. It is only when we strive to grasp the transcending glories of God that we start to understand the majesty and wonder of who we are dealing with, not some two-bit deity morphed out of some Greek mythology book but rather the Creator of the universe who in His super-abounding grace and mercy reached out to us in Christ and provided the way of salvation to save miserable souls destined for hell. Left to ourselves, hell is exactly where our free will takes us. We CHOOSE to go to hell because we CHOOSE to reject the glories of God and, in what Piper calls “the suicidal exchange,” we settle for the broken cisterns of created things.

This perspective really is something that we must consider. Sin is not simply just falling short of God’s standards of right and wrong. It is to want something less than the glory of God, which is utter folly. It is, as C. S. Lewis wrote, to settle for mudpies in the slums when you can have a day at the beach. It’s not that we want so much but that we settle for so little.

Romans 1:23 says that people will exchange the glory of the incorruptible God for the image of corruptible man and birds and animals and crawling things. This is sad but all too true. This can be seen in the lives of so many people, who make unbelievable choices to settle for anything and everything except God, that they would stoop to worshipping inanimate objects that have been fashioned by man!!

This is what sin is. It is to fall short of desiring the glory of God and settling for junk. It is to look at the Creator and see His loving heart and wisdom to guide us and reject that for the shallow “love” of the world and worldly thinking that only leads to destruction.

I would encourage you to consider the mindset of what drives you as a Christian. Do you take sin seriously? You will only when you are filled with the wonder of God’s glory and see sin as a suicidal choice to settle for something less. Don’t be a fool. Seek God’s glory. Then you’ll not only be holy but happy. =)

by Pastor Patrick Cho

In a tough road to the NCAA Final, the Florida Gators topped the Ohio State Buckeyes 84-75 in the men’s basketball tournament. Certainly this was a favorable outcome for me since I was in last place the entire tournament in our bracket competition until the final three games, and I predicted Florida would beat Ohio State in the final.

But I suppose the big question that arises out of it all is: Who cares? A week from now, hardly anyone will be talking about the NCAA basketball tournament. I’m sure the players and coaches will bask in their accomplishment for a while. Perhaps there will even be an ESPN documentary made for the Gators. And I’m sure there will be conversations about how the Gators rank amongst the all-time great teams. But in the end, it’s just a season of basketball come to an end. Sports fans will turn their attention to baseball and Barry Bonds’ chase for the homerun title, or some other item in the sporting world.

Praise God that the Christian life is more than anticipating short-lived excitements. There is a lasting hope and joy found in Christ that even the most exciting events of the world cannot compare with. The hymns portray this hope very well:

What a wonderful redemption! Never can a mortal know
How my sin, tho’ red like crimson, Can be whiter than the snow.
All that thrills my soul is Jesus, He is more than life to me;
And the fairest of ten thousand In my blessed Lord I see.

Or…

Ev’ry joy or trial Falleth from above,
Traced upon our dial By the sun of love;
We may trust Him fully All for us to do-
They who trust Him wholly Find Him wholly true.

Stayed upon Jehovah, Hearts are fully blest–
Finding as He promised, Perfect peace and rest.

by Pastor John Kim

What does it mean to have a Christian worldview? The German word “weltanschauung” stands for the idea of a “worldview” and many of the noted philosophers are known for very strong worldviews that influenced many to live in such a way that reflected a particular worldview. Adolf Hitler, for one, was tremendously influenced by Nietzche, and World War 2 was a result.

I think many of us underestimate the importance of having a God-centered worldview as we consider the various aspects of life. For many, the issue of education, vocation, marriage, parenting, and even the role of church in life is governed by what a person’s worldview is.

For many who grow up in an Asian culture, there is a very strong undercurrent of Confucian ideology that governs the mindset of how one values the importance of various things in life and it is especially seen in the parent/child relationship. Though some parents would claim to be Christians, even as leaders in a church, there is a strange absence of a high view of God and often there is a manipulating of Scripture to serve a man-centered goal, whether it be related to the pursuit of a particular major in college or the pursuit of a specific vocation, namely those of the “doctor, lawyer, engineer” variety. Not that those roles are inherently wrong in themselves, but it is the motivation and intention behind the pursuit of such roles that often reveal the greed and the self-serving mindset that pursues the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life as warned in 1 John 2. There are even times when some might appeal to the glory of God being served by pursuing such ends. But down the road we often see what is revealed to be the true heart and intention behind the pursuit of success. It is not the glory of God. It is the pursuit of self-glory and self-fulfillment at the expense of the glory of God.

I would see this happen many times working with college students who would enter their first year idealistic and would even go as far as to admit that they were not balanced in how they handled their spiritual priorities but would always reassure me that they would take care of them later after they graduated, got settled in their jobs, and became successful. They would often add that they would give a lot of money to God, assuming that they would make a lot of money. But this is sadly not the case. I have seen what success does to people and it more often draws them away from God rather than toward God. And this is due to their worldview ultimately being about themselves in the center.

It is also seen in addressing the issue of marriage, where instead of seeking to honor God by reflecting the love relationship between Christ and His church, marriage is seen as a self-seeking opportunity for social-economic advancement. There is little preparation and education given regarding the biblical purpose for marriage and it is no wonder that many marriages suffer immediately with much trauma, often leading to stale relationships that teeter on the brink of divorce, often tipping over when the differences become “irreconcilable.”

What really draws some ire from my perspective is when I see so-called Christian parents, who in the name of “thinking of their child’s best” would show absolutely no concept of God’s glory being at stake. Rather there is some “practical” advice about a certain criteria having to be upheld to “protect” their child when in fact it is all about their own pride.

It is not wrong for someone to go to a good school. It is not wrong for someone to choose a particular vocational path. Neither it is wrong to marry within your own ethnicity or age range. But to insist that certain things are “God’s will” when they really are not, I believe, is a travesty that many parents are imposing on their children, often with a subtle (or even not so subtle) threat of disownment. It is portrayed as an issue of “honoring” parents, even “obeying.” Now I am not suggesting that there should be a full-scale rebellion just thrown back. But I think there must be a line clearly drawn when a worldview is being revealed for what it is, a man-centered pursuit of worldly success and approval as opposed to God’s kingdom and righteousness.

More about this later. Our Single Life retreat this weekend will be on “My Father’s World – Building a Biblical Worldview” so I’ll have a lot more to say about this in the days to come.

Three entries in one day!! I’m starting to feel like Al Mohler =) But no way can I keep up with his pace. I’ll stay at being John Kim, one of many.

by Pastor John Kim

When I was attending UCLA and studying psychology (after a two year bout with pre-med bio), there was one thing that started to stand out about all that I was hearing. There seemed to always be a reason to deflect personal responsibility for “abnormal behavior.” Taking abnormal psych revealed that EVERYONE is abnormal so it really is not our faults because it is either society’s fault, our parents’ faults, our cultural upbringing, the trauma we had coming through the birth canal, and a host of other possibilities where we could conveniently place the blame for why we are the way we are.

The Bible is clear in that the primary reason for all our “abnormal behavior” is really because we are sinful creatures that are prone to rebellion against God’s design and we are quick to point the finger at what others do. Or maybe worse yet, we blame God.

Wives blame husbands, husbands blame wives, parents blame children, children blame parents, church members blame the pastor, the pastor blames the church members, neighbors blame the “bad” neighbors, employees blame the boss, boss blames the employees, and the list can go on ad nauseum.

There is a simple response to all this psychological irresponsibility. Admit that YOU are the one responsible for YOUR sin. Yes, others might make it difficult and even tempting, but in the end, we make the choices to sin. Others do not force us to sin, even if they were to threaten us with violence. We still have a choice to make.

Do you take responsibility for YOUR sin? Or will you just try to deflect it to others? Maybe for some of you, you don’t want to even admit that you sin. Take a look at Scripture and see what God says:

“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:8-10

Let’s stop blame-shifting and start taking responsibility for ourselves. But it doesn’t end with just trying to beat ourselves up. Consider 1 John 1:9 – we look to the character of God as we respond humbly in confession.

This is why there is always hope. God is faithful and righteous. He will never change. So let us rejoice in hope (Romans 12:12).

by Pastor Patrick Cho

As I was searching through the news today, I came across an interesting article about Indianapolis head coach, Tony Dungy. He is apparently, but not surprisingly, taking a lot of heat for accepting an invitation to speak at a banquet for the Indiana Family Institute, which is supported by Focus on the Family. The group is one of the strongest opponents of same-sex marriages in the state and a firm supporter of the state marriage amendment.

Regardless of how I might feel about the Indianapolis Colts, I cannot help but hold Coach Dungy in high regard and great admiration. Nowadays, one hears much of alleged Christian athletes, but apart from a spattering of WWJD bracelets and an occasional prayer after a touchdown, not too many of these celebrities are seen making bold stands for clear biblical values. Coach Dungy obviously knew he would face much animosity because of his association with the IFI, but still courageously stood up for what he viewed as the “Lord’s side” on the marriage issue.

Too many Christians today shy away from taking the same kinds of stands. Certainly as the culture we live in becomes more and more tolerant of lifestyles and practices that are blatantly against Scripture, it will become proportionately more difficult to have biblical convictions without facing harsh attacks from those around us. We are living in an age where those who speak up about certain biblical convictions are labeled as promoting hate speech. Christ’s words are becoming more evident with each day, “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you” (John 15:18).

by Pastor Patrick Cho

Pastor John mentioned to me this afternoon that Al Mohler posted an article on his blog about the church and the home. This is a tremendously helpful article for anyone trying to find the balance between ministry and family. Much of what Dr. Mohler shares is what Pastor John has already been sharing for the past few years, but sometimes it helps to hear it from a respected seminary president from outside our church.

It is a challenge to families to consider having a higher view of church in a practical sense. It is easy to talk about loving Jesus and living for Him. It is understandable that believers should be studying the Bible regularly, praying, and attending church on Sundays. These things are obviously going to take up some measure of a family’s time. Many families today complain, however, when the church puts additional activities on the calendar because they infringe upon “personal family time.” Considering all the other things families are typically involved in and committed to, it is no wonder little time is left for the church. Families must consider what is important in the end. What kind of message do we want to give our children about what are the right kinds of priorities? People wonder why there is a moral decline in the lifestyles of children in the church, and why children today seem more and more disinterested in church! Perhaps it is because parents have not demonstrated to their children that church is more important than music lessons, sports, shopping, and weekend trips.