Our Korean teacher, Hu Hong-Gon (English name-Jonathan), today during our 2nd Korean lesson this semester. (Held every Wednesday) If you are interested in learning Korean, check out http://korean.sogang.ac.kr/

Bumped into one of our international students, Samuel Vu, at the express bus terminal Monday evening as we were both catching the 5:40pm bus back to Pohang. Sam's from Vietnam and has got an awesome ministry going on there!

Certainly not the best shot ever taken of Inha University but such is the case when taking pictures from a moving car on a rainy day...Inha University, so far, has treated Fred and Solange quite well. www.inha.ac.kr (not to confused with www.inha.co.kr which is some crazy clock website...(?!))

3 Canucks hanging out on Chuseok-Solange, Fred and Andy-Monday, September 19th.

Crocodiles in Korea?! Only if you go to Outback's Steakhouse (a chain of "Australian restaurants" which I have heard from Australians is not really authentic Australian food.)

I had the pleasure of spending Chusok with my old friends, Fred and Solange Perkins. Now, when I say "old friends", please understand that I mean in terms of length of friendship (since December 1999) and not necessarily to do with age, ha!ha!

No visit to "Outback's" is complete without the "Blooming Onion"-Delicious!

My good buddy, Fred, enjoying a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon during Chuseok, 2005.

My good friend, Solange, cooking up a storm in the kitchen!

I AM the door/gate

"Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth. I AM the gate for the sheep. All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. I AM the gate: whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." (John 10:7-10)
Who is THE authority?
God has the ultimate authority.
Jesus, once again, loud and clear makes it quite clear that He is that authority sent to bring life to sinful man.
When you trust Jesus with your life, you "enter through the door" and you receive admittance into God's family. Those were the 2 main sermon notes from Sunday's sermon:
1) Admittance into God's Family
2) Abundance of God's Eternal Life
When we trust in Christ, we have free access to His pasture. Verse 9 says "He will come in and go out, and find pasture." The greek word in this use of "find" is "Ureka" which means "amazing, surprizing discoveries".
When we come to know Jesus Christ, our souls scream out "Ureka! I've found it!"
When they hear "eternal life" many only think of quantity (long stretch of time) but it is more related with quality. Jesus came to give us "life and to the full". (verse 10)
God does not promise that there will not be hardships but He will give us inner strength and confidence and will allow us to overcome, endure and persevere.
Tim shared the story of Corrie ten Boom. She was considered ugly, never married, lost her home in WWII and tortured in a German concentration camp. Is this the abundant life Jesus promises?! Well, one only need read her books-Full of joy, love and the forgiveness of God. Our pastor shared that her book "The Hiding Place" is 2nd only to the Bible in books that have impacted his life. One example of a strong testimony in her life is "being thankful in all things". How could she thank God for the fleas that swarmed over them within the camps?! Well, "In the evenings, after a hard day's work and a miserable supper, Corrie and Betsie took out the little Dutch Bible. At first a small group gathered round to listen, then more and more women joined them. The guards never came in to stop them, because of the fleas. So Corrie and Betsie thanked God for the fleas!" (You can check out a shorted version of her book at http://www.soon.org.uk/true_stories/holocaust.htm )
After the war, Corrie ten Boom was speaking in Germany about the love of God and afterwards, a previous SS officer who was responsible for her sister's death approached her. He, too, had accepted Christ's forgiveness and he held out his hand to thank her for giving witness to God's love and forgiveness. She cried out to God, "I can't forgive him, Lord. Please help me to forgive." and she miraculously felt her arm lifted up and grabbed his extended hand. Only through the love and forgiveness of God (through Christ on the cross!) can we be enabled to forgive the unforgivable.

The "Sri-Lankan Boys" blessing SIBC on Sunday with their presence: Sanjay, Samantha, Lakmal and Kamal.

Romans Bible Study Lesson 3:
First, the Bad News (Romans 1:18-32)
The theme that Paul wrote and preached to the Romans was.... "God is righteous. God is "always in the right".
Knowing that God is "always in the right" is:
A. a comfort?
B. a challenge?
As in a courtroom setting:
Picture man standing before the desk of God, the judge, and being declared righteous. As he stands there, man knows in his heart that he is far from being "in the right". But, before he can be declared righteous, charges have to be made and the evidence must be presented to substantiate the charges. So, before man can hear the Good News, he must first grasp the measure of the bad news. Paul makes the point that while the righteousness of God has been revealed, there has also been a revelation of the "wrath of God".
What is the difference between divine wrath and human anger? ________________
Human anger contains...hurt, humiliation, uncontrolled passion, unreasonable oubursts, self-vindication. God's wrath is...right, a holy response to the unholy, a just reaction to the unjust, a pure rejection of the impure. God's failure to respond in wrath would be intrinsically wrong.
What human actions and attitudes move God to wrath? ___________
Any sin but ultimately the unforgivable sin of unbelief, rejecting God, rejecting Christ.
1. MAN'S SUPPRESSION OF TRUTH:
Which of the following statements is most often true?
A. Modern man, so sophisticated in technology and skilled in managing the complexities of the modern world, exercises equal effort to discover the spiritual world.
B. Modern man, so sophisticated in technology and skilled in managing the complexities of the modern world, seems content to live in self-imposed "unsophistication" in the area of the spiritual.
Man may even suggest that he doesn't have the time to unravel the mysteries of God. Indifference and complacency are common. Man may even express a sense of well being...truth is too hard to come by...one cannot be reasonably expected to know more than one does. According to verses 18-20, what is Paul's position?
Paul points out:
1) Man is not ignorant of truth
2) Man rejects truth not because it is difficult to discover but because he has "suppressed the truth".
3) Man's problem is not confusion but an ungodly response to the truth that leads to rejection.
Modern man's position is a product not of an unfortunate lack of information but a deliberate rejection of the information given. This, God will not tolerate.
Modern man regards MAN as the center of reality or truth and relegates God to a position of unimportance or irrelevance. It cannot be overemphasized..all reality is to be found in the "knowledge of God". Failure to recognize this is to suppress the truth.
Illustration: Copernicus He knew that the earth went around the sun and not vice versa but he was afraid to reveal this as he knew people would not accept it and he would be rejected.
What response would you give someone who says..."God is not knowable, and man is limited in his capability. He has little hope to do more than just struggle for knowledge of the truth."? __________
We can see some evidence of this in:
-man's built-in sense of morality
-man's innate "religiousness"...Is there a city anywhere in the world that has no temples and no gods?
-man's inbuilt sense that truth is in some ways connected with the being of God.

While many Americans say they've never had a deeply spiritual experience, they insist that they believe in the existence of God.
How has God clearly revealed Himself? __________________
Man's intelligence and observational powers, as well as his moral insight and spiritual intuition are all involved in God's self-revelation to man. The ability to translate "general revelation" into the knowlege of God's invisible attributes is a gift of God. Man, in all types of civilizations, has been able to see behind the forces of nature (however imperfectly) and see God Himself.

God's reaction in response to man's actions was not to send fire and brimstone. He did something far more subtle and more appalling. ________
What does the following phrase mean: "God gave them up to"... or ..."over"?
The greatest judgment God can inflict on us is to let us have our own way.
Why? ______________
God gave man the absolute right to choose his own course of action. With that right comes perfect freedom to live with the consequences.
There is an awful rightness about this. Why? ____
Explain: The tragedy of humanity is that it fails to recognize the wrath of God and the righteousness of God at work in everyday experience.
Man used his freedom to remake God in his own image..arrogant self-centeredness. The human heart and its lusts take precedence over the divine being and His plan. Physical experience becomes more important than spiritual realities. This leads only to "uncleanness".
The wrath of God to the sexually promiscuous is...emptiness, loneliness, a lack of satisfaction and sometimes health problems.
Freedom must be protected, but pleasure distracts from the disciplines of protection, so freedom perishes.
Pleasure needs satisfying, but the search for new satisfaction becomes a burden that denies freedom.
The lie: Man has his own destiny in his own hands and is capable of providing the "good life" for himself.
Sexual freedom and pleasure have always been dear to the heart of man. However, when freedom and pleasure become "liberated" from the truth of God, it is the area of sexual morality that the consequences can be most unmistakably seen. Concerned pastors and Christians have long been crying out. Recently, even secular film critics and some sociologists have begun to express concern about what they see as a chronic social malaise.
There is a chilling severity about the bad news:
-God's revelation of Himself has been callously rejected by man.
-God's righteous anger at such behavior has been revealed
-Man is without excuse

2. MAN'S REJECTION OF GOD (Romans 1:21-22)
Mother of a toddler: Sam, did you smear chocolate pudding on the refrigerator door?
What is Sam's probable response? _____
As we've stated, even the most primitive man has enough knowledge of God to lead him to an attitude of glorifying and thanking God...enough to move from knowledge to response.
God's assertion: rejection is an inadequate response and unacceptable to God.
Man's response: chooses not to respond adequately and accounts for his actions by stressing his inadequate knowledge of God.
-Failure to recognize God's divine order
-Failure to express adoration to the Creator
-Mentally lazy
-Morally irresponsible
-Willfully disregards God
The scriptural definition of a fool is...a person who willfully makes moral decisions contrary to God's instructions. He who rejects God is a fool.

3. MAN'S SUBSTITUTION FOR CREATION (Romans 1:23-28)
From earliest times man has suppressed the truth, rejected God and totally reversed the diving order by making God in his own image...and even in the image of lower species. The root of the problem is in man's arrogant preoccupation with himself.
Some gods may be wooden figures, but they may also be goals, such as money, power, or comfort. What are our priorities? Dreams? Plans? Do I worship God or idols of my own making?
Many of the tourist attractions all over ancient Rome, Greece and Egypt are man's tribute to himself and are an insult to God. Many of the statues that grace our museums provoke God to wrath.
When we think of the wrath of God, we tend to project into the future to the coming day of judgment. Paul taught that the wrath of God was already being experienced in ways that many do not recognize (verses 24-28).
A person out of touch with the reality of God is out of touch with reality. When sexuality is misunderstood, the sheer power of unrestrained sexual drive and uneducated sexual insight will produce all manner of aberrant sexual behavior. Confusion about God breeds confusion about man, which breeds confusion about sexuality, which produces sexual confusion and chaos.
Read Romans 1:28-32
A sense of repentance and grief ought to permeate the human scene. A great reaching out for righteousness, restoration, and renewal ought to be the greatest human longing. Such is not the case. The appalling truth...man's reaction is often the opposite.

4. MAN'S APPRECIATION OF EVIL
A carnival air of casual enjoyment prevails in human society. Instead of acting as guardians of each other's souls, people tend to function as encouragers of each other's destruction. Instead of wholesome disapproval of sin, there is a wholesome approval of unrighteousness.
The confusion, the perversion, the inappropriate responses, the chaos, and the disintegration of society are clear evidences that "the wrath of God" has been revealed. If people suppress God's truth in order to live the way they want, they have no excuse. They know the truth and will endure the consequences of ignoring it.
But, the same God who delivered up sinners to judgment delivered up His own Son for lost sinners (8:32). This is the gospel. Are you sharing it?