LIVING HOPE - 1Pt 1:1-9

Spring Retreat 2019 Morning Devotion 1 - By Yvonne Lee

KV: 3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”

In verses 1-2, Peter identifies himself as an apostle of Jesus Christ. This was very dangerous then as it would be now in a modern day Muslim country. You would be pronouncing your own death sentence. Yet, Peter proudly wore this title, an apostle of Jesus Christ. He also called his fellow Christians, God’s elect. At that time, Christians in Peter’s church were being thrown to the lions and burned alive in boiling pots of water by anti-Christians. Yet Peter called them, “God’s elect.” Out of all the world, they were chosen by God to be his elect. How great they are! However, in reality, according to verse 2, they were exiled from their communities and scattered and hidden like today’s underground church in North Korea. Though we in this room are not quite so persecuted, yet we face human rejection or are despised for our faith. Like them, we are God’s elect scattered throughout the high schools in the Chicago area: Lane Tech, Evanston, Northside Prep, Amundsen, Senn, Mather, Lincoln Park, Niles East, Niles North, and even Bell Elementary. And as verse 2 also says, we spiritual exiles have been chosen according to God’s foreknowledge, we are being sanctified by his Spirit to be obedient and are covered by Jesus’ blood. Through all these spiritual blessings, we truly experience grace and peace in abundance.

Verse 3 is our key verse and the title and theme of our conference. Let’s read this verse together very meaningfully. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…” Sometimes we feel our Christian life is too hard and does not get us anywhere in this world. Rather, than praise to God our Father, all kinds of complaints come out of our mouths, anger fills our hearts, and sorrow and self-pity trap our minds in dark thinking. But when we know our identity -- who we are in Jesus, his precious elect, called by the Father, filled with the Spirit, covered with Jesus’ blood, we realize we have so much to praise God for!

We can praise God our Father that he sent his Son Jesus into this world to be one of us! Out of his mercy Jesus died for us though we did not deserve it! Jesus rose from the dead and opened the way back to the kingdom of God for us! Jesus gives us new birth into a living hope through his resurrection! We are purchased by Jesus’ blood from Satan and the realm of death and judgment and now belong to the kingdom of God and eternal life! Praise Jesus!




Let’s read verse 4. “...and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you…” High schoolers (and third graders) have hopes for good grades, popularity, and sports ability. For example, you may think if you get an A in biology or win the sports championship, this will make your life great. But these hopes fade fast and these things often don’t work out.



We also naturally inherit what was left behind by our parents or grandparents or the generation before us. But these things that we hope for and inherit all perish, spoil or fade -- sometimes as an astonishing rate. There is nothing in this world that lasts or we can hold onto. The people and things of this world are from the dust and return to dust. We cannot put our confidence in this world. This week I took my 8th grade students to the Holocaust Museum and I was reminded of how truly wicked, dark and evil this world is. We cannot put our hopes such a volatile world. But we have a living hope in Jesus and our inheritance never perishes, spoils or fades. It is always shining in heaven with God’s infinite glory and majesty. Where is our inheritance? In heaven! Revelations 21:21 says that heaven has pearly gates and streets of gold. Rev 22:1-3 says, the river of life flows from the thrones of God and Jesus. And on each side of the river grows the tree of life with leaves that bring healing for the nations. Where in the world can you find such a place? You cannot. This is the inheritance kept in heaven for you!




We may suffer in this world. But we are truly God’s elect and the most blessed people who have a living hope to inherit heaven! By really praising God and Jesus for this living hope, let’s read verse 3 again. “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…”




This living hope in Jesus is our real confidence. This living hope in Jesus helps us to persevere in our faith. This living hope in Jesus restores our joy!




In verses 5-9, Peter explains that the meaning of our trials in this world is to purify our faith and strengthen our living hope in Jesus’ kingdom. So trials are good!! Did you know that? People may not like you at school because you say you are a Christian. (I know because my friends feel uncomfortable when I bow my head before lunch and pray in the teacher’s lounge.)Trials are God’s way of polishing our faith and making it shine brighter in the world! Through trials, our love for Jesus grows. Instead of becoming too attached to this world and people in this world, through trials we learn to cry out to Jesus for his help, rely on him, and fix our eyes on Jesus. Then we love Jesus more and believe in Jesus more, seeing Jesus’ hand at work in our lives.




Let me tell you my side of the story. In 2012, I met M. Steven. His wife had died 2 years before, and he had 2 girls, ages 9 and 14. We spent one week together in Korea, and then he proposed. Then for 2 years we did not see each other, and we had a burning hope to get married. I joined the 5:30 morning prayer meeting at the center, driving 30 minutes each way, to pray for our house church to be established, and then went to work. Finally, in May 2014, we married in Seoul, blessed by God’s people from around the world. Afterwards, I spent the summer in Korea and returned to Chicago. We prayed for their US visas with a desperate hope for our family to be united as a house church in America. But it took 2 more years during which I continued to go to the early morning prayer meeting. I can’t mention all the trials, but here are a couple. We prayed for M. Steven to get justice and God answered our prayers, his assets were unfrozen, and his debt of $35 million was solved. In great agony, we prayed for US visas for them, but his police record of bribery made it impossible. In 2016, I went to the world mission report in Korea, taking a week off from work without pay. At the airport, many senior missionaries gathered to pray, and in a very loud voice, they prayed for M. Steven to get a US visa and go to America as a missionary. God accepted our crying out prayers at the airport, and exactly at that hour, the US government miraculously granted them US visas. First, our daughters came. Their hearts were broken by the power of death, like Mary and Martha. I suggested they take names after their mother who was called Living Hope Maria in UBF. Olivia sounds like Living (Hope), and Marie is for Maria. For the next year and a half, we were desperately hoping for M. Steven to join us. But during this time, family members were holding him in Korea with various human obligations. Yet God answered our prayers in his own way through a serious car accident in which I was unable to go to work for 3 months. M. Steven decided to go permanently to Chicago to take care of our family, leaving his elderly parents. After six months, we prayed for M. Steven to have a good job and to be successful in Chicago and serve HBF as a missionary. And immediately God answered these prayers and he got an excellent engineering job at his first interview. These trials refined our faith and helped us to set our hopes in Jesus and to do his will. We greatly rejoice in all these things through which God has helped us to overcome for his glory!




As I get older (I am 51), I worry about health, retirement and death. But I have no assurance of anything. Only the living hope in the kingdom of God can be my real hope. I repented through this passage that I still put my hopes so firmly in this world. I wanted to be recognized and well-liked at work; I want my children to be successful and spiritual at the same time; I want good health and want to prepare well for my retirement. I thought these things will make me confident and secure. But these wants are not real hopes at all. They do not give me real confidence or strength to persevere in the face of reality of so many personal or global problems and lead to a lot of stress. Rather I found that when I have living hope in Jesus, fixing my eyes on my heavenly reward, I can thank Jesus, praise Jesus, give glory to Jesus, and love Jesus. I am happy and free, trusting in his power and love. I can love others more and more. And, I can have a living hope in his kingdom in heaven which is forever and is far greater than anything we can imagine here. I can only ask Jesus my Lord to forgive me for holding onto hopes in this world and ask Jesus to help me to persevere through all kinds of trials putting my hope in Jesus, having confidence in Jesus’ love and power, and love others more for Jesus’ glory.




Let’s pray: Lord Jesus, thank you for giving us a living hope through your resurrection, Please help our HBF children to have a living hope in your kingdom and trust in you, not putting their hope in their own strength or ability to reach their dreams. Help them to trust in you Jesus, who shields them, loves them and will help them to pass through the fire, shining in their faith in their high schools. Thank you! I pray in Jesus’ name, amen

Young Man, Get Up!

Spring Retreat 2019 - Morning devotion 1 by M. Steven Lee
Luke 7:11-17

Key verse Luke 7:14 “Then he went up and touched the bier they were carrying him on, and the bearers stood still. He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’”

Don’t cry
Jesus went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. When Jesus approached the town gate, a dead person was being carried out. He was a young man and an only son of a widow and her only hope. She could not find the meaning of life without her son.

A large crowd from the town was crying with her. They loved this widow and wanted to help her. But they could do anything to comfort her. Nobody could overcome the power of death. The only thing they could was crying with her.

Jesus saw her and his heart went out to her. Jesus understood her sorrow. Jesus said, “Don’t cry.” “Don’t cry” means Jesus would help the widow. Even death could not block Jesus. Jesus is God and in Jesus there is Life. It is very easy to sit and cry when we encounter our limit and high obstacles. But in Jesus, we don’t need to cry. In Jesus, we can ask his help rather than crying. Psalm 121 sings, “I lift up my eyes to the mountains - where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip - he who watches over you will not slumber.” (Ps.121:1-3)

Young Man, get up!
After Jesus told a widow, “Don’t cry”, he went up and touched the bier they were carrying her son on. They stopped and saw Jesus. People wondered, “What can he do?” The bier (or coffin) symbolizes desperation, the end, period. Nobody can overcome death. Even youth can’t do anything when he is in the bier.

But Jesus wanted to put new life in the young man. Jesus said to him who was laying down in the bier. “Young man, I say to you, get up!” When he heard Jesus’ voice, the dead man sat up and began to talk. The power of death obeyed Jesus and gave the boy his life back. Jesus gave the young man back to his mother. The young man did not need his coffin anymore.

I wanted to be rich and be recognized. I established a company with $20,000 USD and worked hard. I got 7 patents and my company revenue multiplied year by year. Many officials of Korean government recognized me as a good engineer. I controlled 80% of the electronic security market. 6 years later my company revenue was over $50,000,000 USD. I became a millionaire, I travelled to 21 countries to do business. I moved my company to the richest part of Gangnam. I became a idol of young people. Many people came to me and imitated me to get success.

But I was very arrogant and went far from God. I treated high government officials to drinking parties in Gangnam spending $10,000 USD easily every night. I stayed out drinking from one end of Gangnam to the other until 5 am, went to a coffee shop, and started work again at 6 am. I only saw my family on Sundays, and out relationship grew worse. One Christmas morning, I woke up after having passed out on a bench at a bus stop in Gangnam. Two young woman were laughing down at me, saying “Look at his expensive tie and messed up hair, and snowflakes falling down on him.” I was so humiliated, but I could not stop my wickedness from spiraling out of control.

In 2005, I sued the Korean government for infringing on my patent and I won. As a result, some government officials lost their positions. Some of them gave information to the police and I was the focus of a police sting involving government bribes in 2008. The police arrested me in my office and froze my assets and carefully watched my bank accounts. I spent 1 day in jail. Many of my colleagues and government contacts were also arrested. Still, I did not repent but only I tried to fight back in court while continuing my business. Yet many colleagues, bankers, and government officials avoided me, because they did not want to be caught also in the police sting. My company could not grow, but shrank. To overcome, I designed a new system, putting all my resources into this project. I made a contract with Korea Telecom, but they stole my technology and made a patent with it and made a lot of money. Though I was so frustrated but I did not return to God.

In 2010, the doctors stopped treatment altogether for my wife’s lung cancer. She was dying. Nobody could help me. I was desperate and cried myself to sleep. That night I had a dream in which a person stood far away from me. He was waving his hands to me. I felt he was calling me to come back to UBF. After this dream, my wife and I repented and I brought my family to Sunday worship service. Shepherd Phillip Lee and all co-workers welcomed us and accepted us with love. Shepherd Phillip announced: “Welcoming them with a handshake is not enough. Let’s welcome them with a big hug one by one.”

A couple months later, my wife returned to heaven, and my daughters were baptized. But I was in the coffin of money. One day, I stood up on a bridge and was looking down at Han river. I tried to jump in the river because of my financial issue. At this moment, from deep inside my heart, I heard Jesus say, “I’m your Shepherd. What more do you need?” I had nothing to say. I found I am so arrogant, selfish, and sinful. God already had sacrificed his one and only son Jesus on the cross to give me new life. But I was laying down in the coffin. I did not come out of the coffin.

I remembered Psalm 23:1 “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not lack anything.” And I repented of all my sins. Then God filled my heart with peace, love and grace. I had a huge debt of 35 million USD, but God gave me peace. After that, God led Yvonne to me. God resolved all my financial issues and brought me to America as a missionary. God prepared a good job for me and I am working as engineer. When I was in the coffin of money, I could not do anything. There was only one way - death. But when Jesus came to me and said, “I am your Shepherd,” his voice raised me up and I do not need the coffin anymore. Thank God who is the best Shepherd for all of us!

What kind of coffin do you lay down? Money, honor, victory of study, and so on? It doesn’t matter what kind of coffin, Jesus says to us, “Young man, get up!” When we hear Jesus voice, we can sit up. Jesus want us to get out of the coffin and have new life in Jesus. Through this Easter season, may God bless our life and give us abundant life.

One word: Young man, get up!

Bible School 2017: 1 John 3:16-18 Devotional

1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person? 18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.

Let’s get practical! John tells us so clearly how to love our brothers and sisters. Let’s get real! It’s not so easy to practice loving our brothers and sisters…

There nothing in this world that can compare to and show what love is like Jesus Christ showed us. It was not even easy for Christ, who struggled in prayer, to lay his life down for the world, yet we are commissioned to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters, imitating a similar love.

It is not about what you say, if you claim to love a brother or sister but do not show it in your actions, your words are empty and what you claim to be love is nothing. Look to Christ who loves you and showed you the ultimate extend of his love to learn to reflect love towards others. Loving others is something you see, it’s as straightforward as John writes it, it’s in what you do. If you see your brother or sister in need, show pity.

It’s not in a passing statement hoping someone else comes along to help, it’s deciding YOU will help them. Remember, when you were in your darkest moment, when you needed the most help, Jesus came and saved you. He didn’t speak it, he did it-- he died on the cross for you.

If you struggle to find where to start, pray, ask God where he can use you and it’ll be clear to you who he wants you to love. Start small and be meaningful in all your actions.

Food for thought:

• Who are your brothers and sisters?
• How can you show you love through action?

Bible School 2017: 1 John 3:1-3 Devotional

1 John 3:1-3 See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears,[a] we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. 3 All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

(KV 1 John 3:1)

In a world of 7.4 billion people there is constant feelings of insecurity, loneliness, and hatred. It is only through God’s love that we experience the fullness and wholeness of being loved. John clearly states that we are children of God; our identity is rooted in something deeper and better than anything that the world can offer. Though you may struggle to feel unaccepted or unloved by those around you, your hope is in coming savior.

These verses point us to answering the question of our identity. In being a child of God not everything may make sense in the moment or sometimes ever, but John encourages us to hold on, to purify ourselves simply because Christ is pure. When we take on our identity in Christ, we too strive to reflect his image. When Christ appears everything blurred and all the gray areas will be separated and cleared up.

Look around you at your fellow brothers and sisters, you are all greatly blessed with the great love the Father has lavished in your life, and continues to lavish on you.

Food for thought:

• If someone walked up to you on the street how would they identify you?
• How is your relationship with the Father? Do you seek him and hope to understand him? Is there something or someone stopping you from growing in your relationships with Him?
• What is one way you take on the image of Christ and one way you can hope to take on the image of Christ?