How far are you away from reaching the righteousness of God? It is a heart and a tongue away. “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10: 8-9: The fundamental meaning of “righteousness” is… Read More »The distance to the righteousness of God

Why is sin a recurring subject in the Bible? If gospel is all good news, why this preoccupation with the concept of sin, which clearly is bad news? The truth is, being ignorant of one’s sinful condition is part of what separates a person from salvation. The fallacy of every human philosophy more or less relates to ignorance or misunderstanding of sin as human nature.  On a personal level, every excuse for unbelieving or rejecting… Read More »Sin & death, faith & resurrection

The Bible has a total of 66 books (39 in the Old Testament and 27 in the New Testament), authored by different individuals at different times.   The New Testament itself has Gospels, Acts, Epistles, and Revelation. When more broadly defined, the book of Acts belongs to Gospels, while Revelation, the last book in the Bible, belongs to Epistles because it is a letter written by apostle John on behalf of the Lord to His church. … Read More »An essential introduction to Bible study of the New Testament

If we blindly emphasize a “simple Gospel” without giving heed to the whole counsel of God on the matter of salvation, we may fail to look beyond the basic truth to attain a deeper and more complete one. First of all, we must take it as an unshakable foundation that salvation is all grace and all by faith, not our own deeds and own righteousness, even when it comes to sanctification.  It is the first… Read More »The complete salvation

A letter to a friend once wrote to share her joy in the commencement of a journey to knowing God.  We just received and read your letter.  The letter brought us true joy. Praise God our Lord for the work in your lives by His Holy Spirit. No one has ever changed anyone’s life except with the help of the Holy Spirit of God. If you saw light when you first heard the good news from your… Read More »To a friend who starts to see the light

Reading “Judges” and continuing on to “Ruth” is like traveling from a hopeless land to a place of joy. My heart suffers along with the Holy Spirit while reading “Judges” because of everything Israelites did before the Lord. It hurts me deeply because what the Israelites did were a vivid type of what our old life is and what it does to the Lord. Then just to the same extent, my heart is blessed while… Read More »From Judges to Ruth

Dear brother, I recall the years in which the Lord purposefully blocked the sight on the path ahead of me and patiently waited for the growth of my faithfulness.  (He still does, but only in a different way in my life at this time.) I was no Ruth, the blessed Moabite who with her pure and simple heart followed her mother in law Naomi, so faithfully and so beautifully, through death and humiliation, all the… Read More »A letter to a brother going through trials

I remember the several days after the event of 9/11 in the year of 2001:  I struggled through to come back to my senses then.  There are no right words for it.  Terror, sorrow, anxiety, anger, and all. But one night as I was praying, my heart sensed a gentle voice of the Holy Spirit asking me not to be buried under the rubble but look upon Him and Him only. The Holy Spirit pointed… Read More »A fearful destruction

With the time of Christmas focusing mainly on blessings and our own “warm feelings” (not to even mention the commercialization that doesn’t have anything to do with the the real meaning of the birth of our Lord), I ask myself: “Did the Lord come so that we may celebrate his birth?” Many Christians celebrate Christmas as if the real meaning of the Lord’s first coming were wrapped with a pretty glow, something that is glamorous… Read More »Remember His death

My Lord was born in a manger.  From a human perspective, there is nothing glorious about such a birth.  It took divine humility and infinite love for that to happen.  His birth in my life was the same.  When the Lord’s life entered into my heart, my heart was no cleaner than a manger.  I was saved and made joyful, just as the shepherds who witnessed the birth of Jesus were, but had no idea… Read More »He was born in a manger