Winter Olympics 2018: Pyeongchang, South Korea

I approached a family friend and a man I admire and look up to, Scott Seigman, to share a little bit about his most recent trip to Pyeongchang, South Korea for the Winter Olympics were he went to spread the good news. I am very thankful that Scott took the time to share this. Enjoy!

There I was in South Korea sitting in a Bible preaching church, not understanding a single word, but the experience was a small taste of Heaven; Russians, Koreans, Japanese, and a group of Americans were praising God.  There were no politics, prejudice, hate, global competition, or malice over past ills…only love.  What could bring a simple rural Ohio man to the Korean peninsula?  Ah the beauty of answering a question with a question:  What event would bring the world’s nations together in one spot?  None other than the Olympic Games.  If you aren’t a Christian and have made it to this point.  Continue on, I think you will find it interesting.

You see, in 2010 at the Winter Olympics I finally got a full appreciation for 1 John 2:2, “He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.”  The nations you might say.  At risk of sounding corny, I stood on a street corner on bustling Robson Street, Vancouver B.C. thinking of the lyrics to “People Need the Lord.”  It was then and there my heart broke for the lost at home and abroad.

Fast forward through sharing Jesus at the games in Canada, England, Russia, Brazil, and now South Korea, it is safe to say that God spoke to my heart and I chose to listen.  One sure thing is that this is not about me.  It is about God, His glory, and the joy found in obedience to following His call despite a clear path…sounds a bit like faith, eh? 

If you have read thus far, thanks, and be sure to buckle up because you are about to enjoy hearing about our living, active, and amazing Lord.  I have never written a blog.  Our mutual friend Luke asked if I’d share about the recent Olympics.  I shall do my best; here we go.

God is Amazing:

On the 14 hour flight from Detroit to Incheon, S. Korea I walked to stretch my legs, met a fellow passenger, and the following ensued:  He spoke of his daughter that was on the U.S. Women’s Hockey team.  He shared her name and jersey number.  At the end of small talk, I did the awkward out of comfort zone prayer offering (many of you likely know that is where the cool stuff happens…outside of our comfort zone).  He accepted prayer and chimed in prior with, “We want to win the gold!”  I chuckled and said I would pray for that blessing if it were God’s will.

Later in the trip I started watching the gold medal matchup between the U.S. and Canada.  Two minutes into my viewing I saw his daughter hit the puck, it was redirected off of a team mate and go into the goal. I laughed, shared the story of praying with her father, and said, “I’ll bet his faith increases!”  To my surprise, guess who I saw at the gate for the return flight home at the end of my trip?  Sure enough, there sat Charles.  He recognized me from our initial meeting in the air.  I congratulated him and gifted a gospel pin and Scripture card for his daughter and one for the family.  A seed was planted in the midst of God showing Himself great for His glory.  We are just messengers.  Oh, and apparently it was God’s will for the gold win for the U.S.  I pray that souls draw to the One who can pave streets of gold.

There are many other stories of how God showed Himself amazing, but I will try to keep this short.  It is not the experience, but He that caused it to happen for His glory that should cause us to be in awe.  There was God allowing me to gift a Scripture to a very kind Lester Holt of NBC News.  Standing freezing outside of a train station gifting Scripture, God lovingly blessed me with a husband and wife coming up to me asking, “Do you know of anyone who would like two free tickets to the women’s ski jump final tonight?”  One of the most precious was a simple interaction as I shared the gospel with a S. Korean by pointing at Scripture in his native script.  The power is found in God’s Word. 

The highlight of this recent adventure in evangelism would not be the food.  I am an adventurous eater, but the staple of Korean dining was not a friend of mine…Kimchi.  Fermented cabbage was not a flavor I enjoyed.  The food variety is just something different that I culturally am not familiar with.  God loves variety and it shows in His creation.    

  

One of the highlights would have to be finally sharing the gospel via a text message to a dear friend back in the States.  It took traveling over 6,600 miles from home before I finally shared the gospel including Scripture via text with a dear friend.

It is easy to share the Good News with strangers far away.  Including myself, may we be more attentive to those close to us.  Relationship Evangelism is not healthy if we only assume that friends will see the gospel in our lives.  It has been said, and I used to frequently say, “May they see the gospel in my life, and if necessary use words.”  Folks, I lovingly share that after years of street evangelism I can say that a relationship can be developed in a matter of 30 seconds and words are necessary.  Also, people typically do want to talk about spiritual matters.  I attended an atheist rally in Washington D.C. to share the gospel in a loving way a couple of years ago.  Guess what? In general, the atheists I spoke with were very kind as we conversed despite having opposing world views.  I encourage you to share the truth in love.  We are a mist (James 4:14).  Those we love, such as family and friends, are a mist too.

The people of S. Korea were very kind.  Their culture is one of gift giving.  This maiden voyage of blog- words will end with a question, make that a few.  First, was this way too long for a blog entry? I totally don’t know as I’m 46 and totally out of touch with the blogosphere.  If so, have mercy. 

God has led all who have stayed with me this far for differing reasons. Have you accepted or rejected God’s gift of Salvation?  A gift must be received.  Having knowledge of an intended gift is just that - knowledge of, not acceptance of the gift; there is a difference.  If you haven’t accepted the gift here is some of God’s Word, not my opinion, if you are considering turning from a life that is opposed to God and turning to Jesus: Eph. 2:8-9, Rom. 3:23 and Rom. 6:23, John 3:16, Rom. 10:9-13.  Finally, a respectful thing to do according to Korean culture is to remove one’s shoes prior to entering a room.  If you are a born-again believer in Jesus, do you have beautiful feet? (Rom. 10:14-15).

Faithful Righteousness

In Romans it says: "Let God be true, and every human being a liar." Do you ever think about that. It's often easy to push God's truthfulness off to the side. Think about it! If we accept and remember how everything about God is true everything becomes so much easier. Your faith will grow so much! Sometimes we just need to be still. Be still believe God's truthfulness and faithfulness. 

Jesus Calling (March 14, 2018)

DO NOT HESITATE TO RECIEVE JOY FROM ME, for I bestow it on you abundantly. The more you rest in My Presence, the more freely My blessings flow into you. In the Light of My Love, you are gradually transformed from glory to glory. It is through spending time with Me that you realize how wide and long and high and deep is My Love for you. Sometimes the relationship I offer you seems too good to be true. I pour My very Life into you, and all you have to do is receive Me. In a world characterized by working and talking, the admonition to rest and receive seems to easy. There is a close connection between receiving and believing: As you trust Me more and more, you are able to receive Me and My blessings abundantly. Be still, and know that I am God. 

How attractive is that relationship? It's such a good reminder to be still. One of my best friends got me a mud love bracelet that reads: 'Be still,' during the year. Every time I see it on my wrist I am reminded of the very fact that in the midst of the busy life that I need to remember to be still, and remember that God is God and that God is so much more important than anything in my life. 

Here is what note said that I was given along with the bracelet. 

Dear Luke,

I just wanted to thank you for being the person you are. You have been the biggest encourager in my life this year and I am ever thankful. Just know that with a heart like yours, anything is possible. God is going to use you for amazing things and I hope you always remember that. I am giving you this Be Still bracelet, just as a reminder for you, that when times get tough or life gets busy, your faith will keep you still and strong. Wishing you the best basketball season. Tanks for being awesome. Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God.

How encouraging is that! I encourage you with the very words of my special friend. I didn't put that in there to help my self up, but imagine reading that by putting your name at the beginning. (and of course, you probably don't need to be wished a great basketball season) Remember that in the midst of this busy life. 

God is true, that means that God is faithful and righteous. One of the things that humans might use as an argument is this. But if our unrighteousness bring out God's righteous more clearly, what shall we say? That God is unjust in bringing his wrath on us? Certainly not! If the were so, how could God judge the world? Some might also argue this. "If falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" The central augment is that if evil allows God to show is righteousness than don't we just do evil things all the time? 

No One I Righteous 

There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have tighter become worthless; 

there is no one who does good,

not even one.

Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.

The poison of vipers is on their lips.

Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.

There is not fear of God before their eyes.  

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. (Romans 3:13-20) 

No one is righteous but righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. When we believe that Jesus Christ died for our sins, we are righteous. I think that a lot of people forget that. We are righteous because of our faith. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood-to be received by faith. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness! 

I hope that you were able to follow along with this to an extent. I feel like some of it may have been all over the place. If you can take away two things, I hope that you were reminded that God is true and that we need to be still remember that. I also hope that you remember that you are righteous when you believe that Jesus died for your sins.  

What treasures are you storing up?

You see the title of the post and if you're anything like me, whenever I see the word 'treasure' I immediately think of gold and jewelry. I think of all the pirate movies I have seen and the treasures they always seem to go after. Sorry for your luck, but this post isn't anything like those movies. Although, if I could ever relate a post to Captain Jack Sparrow, I would be thrilled. Maybe some day, if you're lucky...

My question to you is what types of treasures are you storing up? Are you trying to accumulate a great amount of wealth? Are you trying to store up eternal treasures by doing good things and living a righteous life? 

One thing that we as humans tend to do a lot is judge others. Even if you try not to it's still going to happen. I hate how easy it is...you notice that someone is different from you and you immediately start judging them. Judgment happens with you thoughts and your words. I struggle with it sometimes as well. Lately, when I realize that I just totally judged someone or am about to, I remember, hey...God created them just like me, I need to love them regardless of how alike or how different we are. It's so difficult because we are all so different. When you judge others, you are condemning yourself, because you are usually doing the same thing. You can't judge someone for acting like a hypocrite when you might do some hypocritical things yourself. 

I am friends with this couple who is together and they were taking a break recently. One of the two was texting me and venting a ton about the other because of frustration. This was happening for a solid two weeks. I would agree with her when she would vent to me, and one day it hit me that I was the one in the wrong. I used to struggle with things the my friend did and I was totally judging him for it. At my low point when I had my struggles, my friend at the time who found out what I was struggling had a choice...to forgive me, or judge me. Forgiveness was the best answer and that is what my friend did. So I told the girl, I said listen..you need to forgive him for this because we can't be perfect and we all have our struggles and we can change. I struggled and I changed. Let that be a lesson to you. It's so easy to choose a side when you are stuck in the middle of something. The best thing you can do it not judge, and be as loving as you can to both people whether you agree with them or not. Just don't judge. I judged and I condemned myself because I struggled with the same thing. I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit to convict me in times like that. 

Romans 2:5-8 says: But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God "will repay each person according to what they have done." To those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. 

When we are stubborn and when we judge we store up wrath against ourselves. Which is bad, bad, bad. Do you understand that? When you are judgmental, stubborn, unforgiving, unrepentant, we store up even more wrath than what God will already have against us. If you have ever read anything about God's wrath, I bet that you don't want to make it worse. I love that part in that scripture that says: "God will repay each person according to what hey have done. What types of treasures are you storing up? We will be given eternal life when we are persistent in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality.  The treasures we need to store are treasures in heaven. It's tough because treasures in heaven are not tangible. But there is a big different in something that is tangible verses something that is eternal. I am choosing eternity every time. I want what is good forever. This past week while we were in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the NAIA national tournament one of the Hall of Fame inductees said this during his speech...he held up his award and looked his two sons in the eyes and told them.."this award is cool and it's a blessing, but it's not what matters...what matters is the treasures that you store up in heaven some day." When he said that it was such a good reminder. It was the perfect reminder that so many things on this earth are meaningless. Our focus is so horizontal rather than vertical. 

To close, what kind of treasure are you storing up? Are you storing up wrath for yourself someday when we face judgment or are you storing up treasures in heaven... treasures that will last for ever. I hope and pray that this post reminds you and encourages you to store up treasures in heaven. That is what matters and that is what is important. It's tough because of the world we live in, but I promise you that once you start storing up treasures in heaven that your life will change. You will feel God's presence more and more when you store your treasures in heaven. 

Sinful Humanity

God does something unique and powerful every time I do a blog post. Regardless of what two books of the bible I am reading at a time, it seems like somehow the passages always relate and somehow match up on the same day. Today is the perfect example of that. I have been reading Genesis and I just finished the book of Ephesians, so I needed another book to read again, so I decided on Romans and the passage that stuck out to me in Genesis 18 deals with the same stuff the passage I liked in Romans dealt with.

Bear with me, there will be a lot of scripture in this post. Romans 1:32 says: "Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." That verse is exactly what I wonder all the time! I believe that there are so many people who know what is right thing to do is and know what is wrong, and they know what is wrong is sinful and deserves death...but they continue to do it. Over and over again. Here is where I struggle, people continue to do these things and these people are approved of like they do nothing wrong. I am not bashing on anyone, I know that people make mistakes and are not perfect. I just struggle with the fact when I know somebody who doesn't practice  what they preach. Hypocrites. I just don't think it is right that for someone to put their faith all over social media (example) and then away from the screen live a wicked life. It's a tough thing to do!

(Genesis 18:16-33)

Abraham Pleads for Sodom

 When the men got up to leave, they looked down toward Sodom, and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. 17 Then the Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do? 18 Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him.[c] 19 For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

20 Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”

22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the Lord.[d] 23 Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare[e] the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

26 The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”

27 Then Abraham spoke up again: “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, 28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five people?”

“If I find forty-five there,” he said, “I will not destroy it.”

29 Once again he spoke to him, “What if only forty are found there?”

He said, “For the sake of forty, I will not do it.”

30 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?”

He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.”

31 Abraham said, “Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?”

He said, “For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it.”

32 Then he said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more.What if only ten can be found there?”

He answered, “For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it.”

33 When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.

What sticks out to me in this, is that God isn't looking for 50 righteous people. It seems like God will be pleased if there is at least one righteous person in the city. Which is encouraging. I believe God would've wiped out everyone if there were no righteous people left. There is so much wicked in this world and if there is just a little bit of righteousness, God will be pleased. 

(Romans 1:18-32)

God's Wrath Against Sinful Humanity

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

28 Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

That's a ton of scripture in there. I hope you didn't mind reading through it all. I hope that you were able to learn a lot from reading the scripture. I hope the scripture had a bigger role than what I had to say did. I hope that you saw how these posts were related and that you were encouraged by them. 

Discovering Discipline

Discipline is defined as the practice of training people to obey rules or a code of behavior, using punishment to correct disobedience. I was thinking yesterday on our 12 hour drive home from Sioux Falls, that I talk about discipline a lot in my posts, but I never talk about how I became disciplined. So I thought, I need to address that in my next blog post. I believe that you can't become disciplined by yourself, I think you become disciplined by learning and observing disciplined like behavior from people around you. I don't know if anyone has ever been born with the gift of being disciplined, because being disciplined is a practice of training people, it's not a gift like being tall, or a spiritual gift. I do believe that once you learn how to be disciplined that it becomes a gift.

How did I become disciplined? I became disciplined from watching the people around me. It started with work ethic. I remember growing up, and my dad would always wake up early in the mornings to work out and he would wake up early to work overtime at work. I am not talking at like 8 a.m. either, the man wakes up at like 5 everyday. He gets up and gets so much work done before a lot of people are even out of bed. I didn't understand when I was younger, but I remember my mom telling me that my dad works so hard and has always been very disciplined. I remember asking my dad why he always does everything so early in the morning and he always told me that he loved to get a head start and get things done before other people. I took that concept and ran with it. As soon as I began high school, I remember those early mornings of lifting weights and getting shots up way before the sun came up. I watched and observed my dad's work ethic and discipline and became a hard worker myself. It wasn't intentionally doing it either, it was just one of those things that I noticed. Another group of people that I observed were my high school basketball coaches. Archbold High School boys basketball has the second most wins in the state of Ohio all-time. Growing up, the teams were incredibly successful. I was a huge fan. Going to every game, watching the deep tournament runs they had, watching the players that I looked up too. I wanted to be like them. I wanted to experience what they did when I got to high school. I wanted to be good and I wanted to win lots of basketball games. I was the manger when I was in 5th and 6th grade so I remember watching the team practice every single day. I saw the work that they had to put in every single day in order to be successful. Discipline started at a very young age for me. Hard work and winning were two things I loved, which is one of the reasons I ended up at Bethel. Once I got to Bethel I continued to learn what it meant to work hard. Hard work requires discipline. You can't work hard one day, take two days off and do it again. To be successful, you have to give it everything you have every single day and that is when you will become successful. One of my best friends texted me the other day, and told me he was a little nervous for the tournament to start because of how high the expectations were and how well they did last year. I told him what my coach always tells us, I told him that they have earned the wins they are going to get because the body of work that they have put in their entire season and career.

Being disciplined in one area of your life can lead to you becoming disciplined in other areas. You know what it takes, and you have what it takes.

I am very thankful to say that I am disciplined when it comes to my work ethic. Being disciplined in that area of my life has led to many blessings and many opportunities. Becoming spiritually disciplined has been one of the greatest achievements in my life. So how did that start? One thing that comes to mind that happened in high school was praying after basketball games. Zeb Frank was a senior on the team when I was a sophomore. He started started leading prayer after basketball games with both of the teams. We would circle up at center court and pray. When we played our final basketball game together, the first thing he told me was that he wanted me to continue the tradition and that if he came back and saw that we weren't praying after games that he wasn't going to be happy. So I led prayer after basketball games, every game after my junior and senior year. It was difficult sometimes, because you had to toss to the side everything that happened during the game between the teams to pray. Sometimes I didn't like the guys I played against and I know that they didn't like me. But basketball for me was bigger than just basketball. Praying after games like that is something that stopped after high school for me, but observing Zeb and learning from him led to discipline. Right now I am more spiritually disciplined then ever. I remember hearing one time that once you do something for more than 21 days that it becomes a habit. When I started getting into reading my bible on a daily basis over the summer, I remember trying so hard to do it every day for that first 21 days. I don't know why it is that way for me, but I just have it mentally engraved in my mind that if I can do something for 21 days straight then it's something that I can do every single day. It was tough to get that 21 days completed. There are days where you don't feel like it, days where you don't have time, days where you might even forget. But what I learned is that at the time when you don't want to do something and you do it, is when it becomes a true habit, which leads to discipline which for me, leads to an addiction. I am addicted getting into the word on a daily basis. Sure there are days where I seriously don't have time, and don't get it done...that is totally okay! God still loves me. It's been months and I have went through 4 or 5 journals and I am addicted to spiritual growth because of being disciplined. It's all a process...it has taken me my whole life to become spiritually disciplined and that discipline has lead to me feeling God's presence more in my life than I ever have. You are going to struggle, it's a rollercoaster. Remember you are not alone. One of the things that helped me was having people in my life who would hold me accountable. Don't roll your eyes because you probably hear that over and over again...I know it gets a little annoying to hear all the time. But it works. If that person in your life is constant and is there for you and wants you to grow, one of these times something is going to click and your life is going to change.

I must say again, that I am not perfect and I am not trying to get you to model your spiritual life after mine. I am just trying to encourage you the best that I can. I want people to feel God's presence because of a disciplined, on fire, relationship for Christ. I don't want you to have to wait till your 21, or even further down the road to experience how amazing life is when you dedicate all of yourself to God. I encourage you to not take for granted the people who are around you. You never know what God might be teaching you through them. Keep your eyes open and your heart open as well. Becoming disciplined in any walk of life can be difficult for someone, but once you figure it out...the world is going to have to watch out for you. Discovering discipline is a never ending process that I hope you can start today.