Confession of a debtor to the Lord’s love
Every Time I remember the love of the Lord, that the Lord made known to us God’s management plan through revelation and called us as members of His body, the church, we cannot measure how great that love is. I don’t know how to start because I want to confess the past day when I was saved.
I remember the first time I met the Lord. How can I live well in this world? With only that thought in mind, sometime after the late Brother Lim Jong-Won was called to the Ulsan area and pioneered, the older brother and sister in-law were first saved and added to the church. In December 1977, I came down to Ulsan and heard the gospel. I heard the gospel for the first time at the Methodist Church where my mother attended since I was young. At that time, I knew the gospel but I had no assurance. After I finished the school and finished the military service in Korea, I was memorizing John 1:1, and February 2, 1983, my sister in-law, who was saved first, asked me to sing hymns in a small room she rented in Ulsan, so while I was singing hymns on Mount of Calvary, “In I will hold on to the rugged cross…”, Lord spoke to me with the verse John 5:24 “Truly Truly I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life”. How can I forget that day?!!
Going to the Methodist church formally, I vaguely thought someday I would return to God, but since the day I received salvation, I never worried about returning to Him. Even now, when I think of the day I was saved, I give infinite thanks to the Lord for saving me without any merit. After that, I was buried in the Word for many years, reading and re-reading until the bible parted, and how fervently I lived intoxicated with the word of God.
After I got saved, I had no discernment about the church, so I went back to my hometown to the Methodist church, met the church members I thought were beautiful from childhood, testified of salvation, and went up thinking that I would fellowship. I was very happy to meet the deacons, elders and pastors and I heard they have been praying for me for a while. However, as we started having a fellowship, it didn’t get along well like we hit a big wall, because when I shared my salvation testimony, they said I had fallen into a strange heresy, so my heart was hurt. After that, I had to close my mouth and not mention anything about salvation.
After a while, I was accepted for a job in Ulsan, so I went down. Naturally, after a while at Sinjeong-dong chapel, when the church gathered at the elder brother’s house to build a chapel, I was baptized on April 24, 1983, added to the church, served, and built a chapel.
When I attended the Yeongnam Chapel (now Ulsan Jungbu Church) and listened to the Word, it was like the Word I was realizing in my heart. It was only then that I received the Amen as my heart, which had been deeply oppressed like lead, was relieved through spiritual fellowship, and my heart was thirsty for cool cold water. It became pleasant as if my insides were refreshed.
Many years, I lived thinking that the Catholic Church and all denomination churches in Korea were the Church of God and all the christians are saved, but as the Lord nurtured the Word of the truth through the elder brothers and sisters, it was only then that I came to know that there is a separate Church of God. While evangelizing and serving the children at the Yeongnam Chapel (currently Ulsan Jungbu Church), I met Sister Bok-nim Yun and married her, and the Lord blessed us by forming a family to serve him.
It has been 35 years since I was called by Brother Lim Jong-won to the old Suncheon assembly which was planted by Brother Lim Jong-won shortly after we got married and set foot on the land of Jeolla-do.
It was about meeting a seeker in a rented house in Suncheon and giving him the fruit of salvation through the gospel. After being added as a member of Suncheon assembly, I came to evangelize to some people through a sister. After my family left, an investigator with whom I had fellowship received salvation, and the Lord later gave me great comfort when I was discouraged.
Later on, I realized that it was the Lord’s will for the church to move to the Gwangyang area while our family was in Suncheon, we obtained a chapel in Gwangyang-eup and held a gospel meeting. I discerned and prayed that this departure would lead to the union of believers in the Suncheon and Gwangyang areas. After that I was determined to study again and find a job where I could serve the Lord for the rest of my life. I was praying to move to a church in Gyeonggi-do, but Brother Huh Yoon-wook, who had been there as a gospel meeting instructor, heard the news and founded Naju Church. Not too long after the ministry, he asked me to work together at Naju Church, so I obeyed. I am ashamed to think of how many weaknesses I showed while working for 12 years in Naju, just as Jacob used all sorts of tricks to accumulate wealth in Naju.
The Lord gave us the twins, not once, but twice, so I hardened my heart and thought that I should earn a lot of money somehow to help the church and run a family, so I worked day and night. The Lord taught me through various things. I feel ashamed when I think of the times I have lived without caring about the church and family and not being able to work together with the ministering brother. The Lord forcibly pushed me out of Naju Church. The IMF back in 1997 came and the livestock industry collapsed, and the livestock cooperative I worked for became difficult enough to go bankrupt, and I also lost all the material I had earned. Because I forsook the calling the Lord gave me and lived, he reminded me of my many faults and sins of the flesh, and I prostrate myself before the Lord. Just as Jacob wrestled with God, I came to pray to the Lord for me and my family. While my wife and I were praying, the Lord gave the same word (Habakkuk 3:17-19). Even now, 20 years later, these words are the words that give me great comfort and work for my family.
Serving the Lord in the Naju assembly, we met many people who were struggling and willing to meet the Lord and many others with many different situations. The Lord was able to open their hearts and still with our assembly and desire to serve the Lord’s ministry. After that, the families of the brothers who worked together left because their jobs were moved or lost, and some of the older members passed away and the children grew up and went to their places. Meanwhile, the landlord of the chapel building suddenly asked to vacate the hall. I was in the desperate situation I had in Naju again, so I had no choice but to pray. So I asked other brothers in Ulsan to pray for us, our situation and our health because I was physically sick at that time. By the blessing of God, He provided a small place to gather and worship in January, 2019 in Naju, Green-ro so we named our assembly (Naju Green-ro assembly). I realize there are many things we have to take care of which is not just the rent cost, but management cost and much more. The occurrence of COVID 19 makes it difficult to evangelize, and it is difficult to gather and worship. But, after the COVID 19 is alleviated, it seems that now is the happiest time when 13 believers gather to worship. I give thanks to the Lord.
I do not know what the Lord will do through the Naju Green-ro assembly in the future, but with the growth of faith with saints and the salvation of the family and relatives of the saints and those left behind whom the Lord has chosen, we will do our best to evangelize and serve the Lord. I pray that the will of the Lord will be fulfilled.
Brother Han from Naju assembly in South Korea