Hi friends. I hope you had a good and peaceful Christmas week. Even if you didn’t that’s all right as long as you keep your eyes, mind and heart focused on Jesus Christ, and not your circumstances and mistakes. This is a lesson that I always have to learn over and over again. The good thing is that as I mature in Christ, the circumstances and people don’t upset me as much. Basically, the Holy Spirit has been teaching me how to be less hot-headed and more self-controlled. I am a very, very different person than 15 years ago. Thank God!!
I have told you that joining God’s family is like joining a military family. There’s A LOT of training, learning and self-control involved. The first two years being in the military are probably the hardest. There’s also a lot of practice on how to rebound from mistakes and learn from mistakes. As I’ve studied over the last 15 years the art of leadership, human behavioral and organizational psychology research; I realized that the Holy Spirit was simply teaching me how to have good emotional intelligence along with grit and resilience. Since I do not work for pay, He has been using all my voluntary positions, my family and church relationships to teach me these lessons. I’d imagine that if I work for pay, then He would also use my workplace to teach me these lessons.
Whatever or whoever God uses to teach you to become more like Jesus Christ, it really doesn’t matter. In my opinion, if you accept the fact that you will always be in the classroom of growing and learning until you move forward to heaven, I think you’ll be a happier person while living life on earth. Here’s an excellent short devotional that I saved while back. C.S Lewis is a great professor and author to learn from. I highly recommend all his books on Christianity. He wrote the famous fiction series on the “Chronicles of Narnia”. He was also good friends with the author J.R.R Tolkien who wrote the fiction book series the “Lord of the Rings.” Can you imagine the late night conversations between these two great and creative minds?
As I have read and heard many, many Christian stories over the past 15 years, I realize that there are so many super intelligent people in our faith family! Their beliefs were not based on ‘blind faith’ but rather based on facts, data, historical evidence, and some supernatural signs along the way if they needed it.
Lee Stroebel is an award winning, investigative journalist who broke the famous story about the Ford Pinto cars in the late 70s. Google him and the Ford Pinto car debacle. His investigative book on “The Case for Christ” helped me tremendously to let go of control over my life and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ. Recently in this interview, Lee Stroebel talked about his newly released revised book “The Case for Christmas”. It was an excellent interview and he talked a lot about Roman mythology that arose after Jesus’ life. If you are into mythology, I think you’ll enjoy this interview. He also talked about the history of Santa Claus and how he became what he has become today in our society. Very fascinating history.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/maybe-god/id1329159271?i=1000742377605
As I have been learning more conversational Korean by watching k-dramas, I have also been more interested in reading Korean news. This article caught my eye. It’s about the first Catholic Korean priest, Saint Andrew Kim Taegon (1821-46). I have always wondered about the pioneers of Christianity into Korea. It says on the article that it’ll be streaming soon. It’s only being shown in Korea right now. Once I find it streaming, I’ll let you know.
If you want to watch the movie version here’s the YouTube link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfkefSAXPBY
I think I’ll hold off watching the movie, and see the TV drama. The director said he was able to elaborate more about the priest and his emotions and struggles. He was only 15 years old when he was sent abroad for his religious studies. Wow.
Wherever the Holy Spirit places you in the church for service, you will rub closer to those in the same ministry. Since I have been placed in the work of intercession and prayer, I share information and encouragement with others in this work as well. I don’t know who shared this documentary with me but I saw it several years ago but I couldn’t find it again…until a few days ago. Praise God! This 20 minute documentary is about a Canadian Inuit (aka Eskimo) community in the late 90s. Their small community was ravaged by drugs, alcoholism, youth suicides, sexual and physical violence, and high crimes. But God’s people prayed and one night at a youth church meeting, God’s spirit came down with a loud noise that was recorded on their cassette player even though it was turned off by the pastor who thought it was the sound system malfunctioning.
Watch this short 20 minute documentary. It’ll encourage you so much! I’ve heard of other people in other places saying that they hear a very loud noise like that when God’s spirit comes down.
This was also recorded in the Bible in book of Acts: When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. – Acts 2:1-2
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%202&version=NKJV
It is not just a loud sound for one moment of impact, but the people become deeply impacted for all of their lives. Please watch this documentary about how God moved mightily in this Canadian Inuit community in the late 90s. https://youtu.be/X42oZ1O8hAk
FYI – Here’s a short article that explains why we should use the word ‘Inuit’ over ‘Eskimo’. https://www.uaf.edu/anlc/research-and-resources/resources/archives/inuit_or_eskimo.php
As the new year approaches very soon, many churches are starting off the new year with prayer and fasting. My church is doing this too. I highly encourage everyone to join a corporate prayer movement in January. If your church doesn’t have one organized, then join another church or ministry who is doing it. Fasting doesn’t have to be very strict. I fast my meals on days that I do corporate prayers because I noticed that I can hear the Holy Spirit better on what needs intercession, plus I have more faith to believe in what I’m asking for. God is a rewarder of our faith and I believe he also rewards our attendance. I’ve also seen that faith is contagious. I sometimes show up to a prayer meeting with little puny faith and by the time I leave, I have really big faith because of hearing others pray with great faith!
I thought this interview that I heard was very good too. Church hurts happen to everyone. Church is where God teaches us many lessons so that we are more ready for ministry and for the outside world. When I was asked to co-lead a women’s Bible study group about 11 years ago at my church, I faced backlash from a few core members in our group because they objected to my leadership since I have a non-believing spouse. I was so hurt by that since I didn’t even want to lead. It was also at a time when my husband was displeased with my heavy involvement in the church. I couldn’t share anything negative about the church with him too. It was very hard to suffer quietly when I was hurting so deeply by the people I thought were my new friends. Long story short, I remained because I didn’t get a release from the Holy Spirit to retreat or step away. Like I said before, we are in a military family and you should not make any moves without receiving approval by God, and receiving counsel and prayers from mature Christians too. Back then my church had a mentorship program for anyone interested to join. My mentor was a longtime member, teacher and board member at my church. I don’t know if my church has the mentorship program anymore. It was very helpful to have my assigned mentor when I was going through this church hurt. If your church offers a mentoring program, please sign up. My program lasted about a year and it was basically meeting one-on-one once a month. Here’s an interview with a female pastor on how she dealt with church hurts. If you haven’t experienced this, that’s great. But in the event you do, it’s worthwhile to hear how to navigate church hurt. When it happens, it will happen very unexpectedly and it will hurt too. If you need help with a church hurt, please reach out to me for prayers. I think I know how to pray for you with empathy and understanding. And if you have hurt someone by accident, please do your best to reconcile with them. I have always tried my best to reconcile when I realize that I hurt someone by mistake. Let’s be kind to each other and ourselves too when we make mistakes. In my opinion, church hurt teaches us how to navigate any hurts in life (family, work, friends, etc). Trust God and let him lead you through. Reach out to people like me in the church for prayers, support and guidance. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-carey-nieuwhof-leadership-podcast/id912753163?i=1000742445975
Around that time, someone told me about Christine Caine and her ministry. I have read a few of her books. She is one brave woman! She is involved with combating human trafficking with her organization A21 which is a very dangerous mission to lead. I pray often for her, her family and her organization’s safety. Here’s a recent podcast from her where she talks about her very tough childhood. She also faced a lot of backlash as a forerunner of female leadership in the church. I noticed that whenever I read about other’s struggles and their victories in Jesus Christ, then my struggles become less painful. You should try it before you go out and spend a lot of money to lessen your anxiety and pressure. Besides your problem isn’t even resolved. Only God can fix problems and bring peace in the waiting. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/christine-caines-life-leadership-podcast-with-propel/id1723389734?i=1000741805944
For those who are interested in the supernatural aspects of our faith, I highly recommend you learn from Pastor Derek Prince. Here’s an interview about his life. His stories are insane to hear because he went through WWII and lived in very dangerous places such as in Palestine/Isreal during their wars. He is like a grandfather of the Pentecostals. I like him a lot because he’s so methodical and super educated. Plus no scandals! He has passed away. (Now it seems his children are maintaining his website and promoting his work.) He was a professor of philosophy in Cambridge University before he was drafted into the war. He studied Greek language since age 12 and so his understanding of the Bible is very deep. One more thing about ministers who specialize in deliverances and healing – I see them as trained surgeons in the church. You need to research them and travel to see them. But even great surgery isn’t lasting or successful without a good team of nurses and various trained staff behind the patient at home. Anyway, if you are interested in learning more about the supernatural aspects of our faith, please listen to this interview with Derek Prince when he was age 83. He passed away at age 88. Pastor Derek Prince had a dry and unassuming British humor that I find funny. It is helpful since he often talked about serious topics. https://youtu.be/nEEOIuzMlj8
Pastor Tim Keller is another great minister to learn from. He also passed away without any scandals. Praise God. I just heard this one from 2007. It’s was really good and funny too. 😂https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/timothy-keller-sermons-podcast-by-gospel-in-life/id352660924?i=1000741341969
Please look through these top ten most read articles by Crossway ministry. I’ve read through some of them and they are biblical essays on theology. I’d imagine if one is enrolled in a seminary college that these are the things that the professors will address. I could only imagine the discussions and debates going on in the classrooms. Whenever you start getting heated and angry, please remember to take a break and walk away from the situation. If the topic doesn’t matter in a 100 years, it’s just better to drop the conversation and keep the relationship. https://www.crossway.org/articles/the-most-read-crossway-articles-from-2025/
I’ve given you a lot of resources in here. I simply want to prepare you in advance so that you don’t fall victim to the traps of the enemy aka Satan and his demons. Plus I want to show you that there are many very intelligent people to learn from in the body of Christ, including in the supernatural. Our faith is not blind faith, but rather a faith based upon facts, data and a ton of historical evidences. It is helpful to remember that when you are going through a difficult time. With blessings and prayers. 🙏
Journal of Faith 