Ki Moon
God Surprise
My biography
My name is Moon Ki Su-Korean name, but I also have a Russian name – Peter. This name was given to me for two reasons: to make it convenient for teachers to call my name during the school years, the second – in honor of the Great Russian Tsar, Peter the Great who was the reformer of new Russia. .
According to my mother, when I was born, unlike other children, I was overweight, and my face was chubby compared to my siblings, and weighed over four kg. Whenever my mother feeds me I never get satisfied from her breastfeed. She always has to give me cow's milk over breastfeed.
At the first stage of feeding, she could not understand why I was constantly crying. At first, she thought that I was probably sick, and then later she realized that I was not eating my fill. Although all my siblings had enough breast milk, I was the only one who was happy with breast milk.
When the neighbors found out that I was born, everyone who could make it came to our house to take a look at me. Looking at me, everyone said in unison that a hero was born in this house. They also said that I would be different from other children in something. Traditionally it was believed that when a child is born, then all the neighbors are to come to take a look at the newborn by predicting the baby's future. They even noticed the way I played differently from other babies.
In this respect, the neighbors were right when they said I would be any different. Unlike other brothers, and there were four of us in the family. All the brothers disturbed parents, and I was the only one who practically did not cause much trouble.
On the contrary, I was weak hearted, I would always try to please them, and did everything I had been told. In addition, ever since I was a child I could not bear to see peers hurting the weak. At least I loved breaking a fight apart. I have always been trying to take care of the weak. If I someone get hurt, I had to feel bad about it. So I never get fight first, I would rather wait until I get hit me in the face. It seems God did not do me any favors in my conscience. Some people told me that I was born with two helpings of brain but only half a helping heart. Even during my student life in Siberia there had been many occasions when I have had to feel remorse. Although I did not get into a fight first, I am always the one paying the price. I had to feel guilty. When I lived in a student’s dorm next to academic building, I could always defend myself.
The majority of these newcomers were from the Altai regions. They have always been there for each other. They look out for each other.
That day when the incident happened they were prowling the dormitory to molest girls who try to avoid them.
For the first time in my life, I felt a pang of conscience, but there was no other way out.
There were cases when conflicts took place between them and me over nothing, after which I have had to intervene to prevent bloodshed in the dorm. Since I was the eldest of all students living in the dorm, the deputy appointed me to be a senior to maintain order and discipline. Otherwise students would get disgustingly drunk to mess around.
Once in our dorm during a disco, a fight almost broke out being caused by drunken students. I told them not to molest girls like that. Knowing that I was alone, they pounced on me to intimidate me. I had no choice but to use force. All I needed to do is defend myself. There were three guys; two of them were taller than me by a head, and larger in build. I could not to see them getting me down in front of the crowd. They had been trying to humiliate me. I kind of just stood there in stunned in silence, as they had been rude to me. Then I could not endure the behavior of those men and I was the first to strike, I knew beforehand, if I didn’t strike first, they would have trampled me under their feet. I had keen a sense of self preservation. As a result, one of them, who was the tallest, found himself on the floor with broken lips and blood all over the floor. He was lying on the floor in a pool of blood holding himself. At the sight of blood, I was scared beyond imagining. And what if he needed stitches on his lips and surgery. At the thought of being responsible for violence, I was seized by the dreadful fear that I would be arrested. I felt bad about it. This mental pain continued until he forgave me completely. Although it was not my fault to start a conflict, I had to suffer a lot and become a victim of the conflict. It was the worst night I had ever spent in my life. I could not sleep all night through
Since the incident happened before the weekend, one of the students who became a victim of my temper went home for the weekend in his home. While he was absent, I was in a bad place, personally. For almost two days in a row, I could not find a peace within myself. I was tormented under the fire of conscience because I had injured him. Most of all, I was afraid that the judiciary would be involved in this case, and then I would just be upended.
To be honest, I was so tired of the justice system back in Sakhalin, and I don't want to get involved here too. I don’t want bothered by them even far from Sakhalin. I had had enough there. As soon as I found out that he had returned from home, I immediately ran into his room and fell on my knees and began to ask for an apology. I know it was a sense of degradation but no other way around. It's better than under the pang of conscience. Upon seeing that I was seriously repenting of my misdemeanor, he forgave me. After that, my soul felt better, and my heart instantly calmed down with forgiveness. After this incident, I swore that this will not happen again. Actually, I have been trying to restrain aggression and the use of my fist. However, after I was sent to work in Khabarovsk after graduation, a similar incident occurred again in the hostel. I will not describe what happened. I think you can guess it yourself.
This is the kind of person I am by nature, easily vulnerable to justice, and weak-willed, but quickly restored to be forgiven. Sometimes, I hate myself because of such a bad temper. It seems that outwardly a man, but inwardly does not look like a man. I don’t know why I am so like that. Who do I look after?. There is no one like me in the family to be sensitive and easily vulnerable. It’s may be because I was born in a deep forest. I am the only one in our family who was born in the forest, in the outback of the village of Sovetskoye, and moreover, at home. And all my other brothers and sister were born in good conditions, of course, not all in the maternity hospital, but some at home, but in good surroundings. Let's say I was born in the forest, generally speaking, I should be rude and strong-willed, but it turns out the opposite. According to my mother, when she started having labor, there was no one at home to help her with the birth. As we lived far from the village, especially there were no telephones or a hospital nearby. Therefore she has had to give birth to me alone, without anyone's help. When my father came home after the daily work was done to find a surprise that God had prepared for him. It was so as had been expected my mother was holding me in her arms and feeding. He was simply shocked by what he saw. What happened was when my father left for work, I was not in the world, but when he came home from work, I was already in my mother's hands. If anyone were in the father's place, he would also be shocked.
So whenever anybody asks me
where were you born? I would smile and say in the forest. It's my homeland and my friends are wild animals. That's what a fate brought me as a surprise to this world, everyone says so. Back then I did not understand anything what fate was, and mechanically believed in it. Being a godless, I readily agreed with their statement. However, after I learned the truth and the intervention of God in my life, I began to reject the destiny. This is not the fate, but the providence of God. It turns out God had a special plan for my life to be used as a special vessel.
After some time, a strong flood occurred in the forest due to torrential rains and floods. After the flood, nothing was left of the house, everything was carried away or washed away by the flood. Soon after the flood, we moved to another place what is now called Dolinsk. It is a small town with a population of 20,000 not far from the sea. It is geographically located in the southern part of the Sakhalin Island, about 42 km away from the capital of the Sakhalin Island.
The city in which I lived and spent all my childhood, and received secondary education, is called Dolinsk. The city is named Dolinsk, because it is located in the valley itself. It is surrounded by rainforest, small hills, similar to that of mountains. It turns out I lived and grew up being surrounded by this strikingly beautiful nature. We lived in our own house and we had a huge vegetable garden. We grew everything there. There was a little river behind the garden. The river was rich with fish of various kinds, from large to small. It was nice for fishing in summer.
In summer, when it is hot, we used to make a pool out of it There we would swim and fish at the same time. The temporary made pool is easily destroyed by torrential rains and high water.
At the end of the road not far from our house, about 100 yards away, a rainforest starts. Forests are rich in mushrooms and berries of various kinds while in the rivers there are many different species of fish. There are raspberries, wild strawberries, lingo berry found between late spring season, and fall season. There are early and late blueberries are about the same size as small grapes.
In short, when I recall those sweet moments spending in the forest, my mouth is watering now. I feel like eating large and sour blueberries after which your mouth gets red -blue.
Living in such a rich environment, God-given nature, I was not thankful and did not notice this beauty simply because I had been blind to nature, and to God. However after the blindness of unbelief had been taken away, I was able to see all the beauty of the reality of God's creation as it is. This phenomenon in the Bible is called born again or born of God.
In addition, not far from our city there is the Sea of Okhotsk, It is located 12 km away from our city in the village of Starodubskoye. It stretches so beautifully along the railway on the southern coast, all the way to the city of Poronaysk. I remember this from childhood, because in the summer I would often go to my grandmother by train. As a child, my brother and I would often go to the sea. We could sit for hours on rocks by collecting crabs and shellfish, and admire the beauty of nature. Back then I did not understand what beauty is. We just loved to sit on the rocks by the sea to watch people fish. It was also interesting for us to watch the fishermen unloading fish on the ground. They loaded the fish onto trucks, and the rest of catch they threw away on the ground . My brother and I took home everything that was left abandoned on the ground. The funniest thing is that we would go there on foot, because we could not afford to go there by bus. It was especially interesting to go there barefoot after rain, along the only dry road from the burning sun. After raining, the road becomes soft and pleasant to the feet, so my brother and I loved to go there.
As far as I remember, our family was a gourmet in marine delicacies, without which our dinner table was indispensable. Our family was not well -off, but we were happy. Almost every day we would be happy if a bowl of rice was served on the table with greens. Then the country's economy was at the stage of a transitional period because of the patriotic war. Since 1945 there have been an economic depression throughout the country. Many trophies and remaining war weapons had been found in the forest. Now as I am writing a book I recall the episodes of the past that brings me the most pleasant memories of that time. Although many years have passed since then, and they seem forgotten, in fact, they remain hidden in my subconscious.
When I was there, I did not value anything, neither the sea, nor the forest. It would be nice if I could turn back time with a time machine that has never been invented. I never thought before that I would miss my native land with age.
To some extent, I agree with the old people who had predicted about my future. I have had to live and work under harsh conditions, among former prisoners (those who have been released due to good behavior on parol) in order to pay back my education. Life had been harsh on me when I was sent to work in the northern part of Sakhalin. In winter there is extremely cold the temperature gets down 40 degrees below zero. In order to protect myself from being cold, I have had to bundle up. It is clearly understood that all the time God has taken care of me. I thought I was just a lucky but I was mistaken. They got drunk to such an extent that they could not control their emotions, and started a scuffle. I saw for the first time in my life how prisoners fight among themselves. It's scary to watch! They would hit each other with anything they can get their hands on. And how much blood I've seen, it's scary to remember. At the sight of them, my heart trembled! I felt like giving up on everything, my work, the hostel, and run away as far as my eyes could not see it. In fact, I remember one day I broke down and ran away home. but later I have got the letter from the Construction and Installation Department. It was written on the summons that if you did not work for 3 years as you should after training, the cases may be referred to court. Seeing this agenda, I have had to go back there and work out the appointed time. God has been always with me in the midst of difficulties and trouble. !
Having returned to the village of Tymovsk, I was engaged in the team to work, with a prisoner, who was considered to be boss of prison “Athos”prison. It was located on the island near the city of Poronaysk. All the prisoners were afraid of him, respect him. No one dared to pass him without bowing down low. He became my protector and shield, he constantly encouraged me: I was chubby, and everyone who saw me could not walk past me without touching my chubby cheeks. Because of my little baby fat, almost everyone called me Pet, donut, but no one called me Peter And this man also called me Pet which means cute. One day during lunchtime, we went to have a snack while sitting at the table. I was bombarded with lots of questions how I got there and so on. Then he said to me: God forbid, Pet! If anybody among our prisoners hurts you, let me know about, I will immediately deal with them. And thanks to this man, I was able to complete the appointed time. This is how God kept me everywhere! Apparently, I was considered a particularly chosen vessel to be cared of
Unlike my friends, I was the first to believe in God and lead a new life. Almost thirty years have passed, and I still continue to serve him with all my heart, wherever He leads me. He deliberately orchestrates such situations so that I would experience His miracle. Although there have been many difficulties, and valleys of tears and torment, God always watches over me. I have been through many adversities in my life due to illness. Despite the fact I have had difficulties and valleys of tears to go through God did allow all these difficulties in order to strengthen me, and bring me to the next, desired spiritual level as he did to Job.
History repeats itself
The scripture says that there is nothing new under the sun; what was, it will be: and what was done, it will be done. In other words, people will change, and everything will be repeated. With a good example I want to show all that I said is true. .For example: let’s take the Soviet Union as an example. Speaking of the Soviet Union, many people still have nostalgia for the Soviet Union, they want to return to the Soviet Union again. The People cannot forget the systems to which they were accustomed to, saying in those days we had had everything: sausage, meat, free education and medical service and so on.
As for me, the law had been harsh and difficult with regard to my past. I don't know anybody else, as for me, I don’t want any longer drawn into the past. I don’t want to live isolated and bullied from outside the world. Freedom is more valued than anything else. Once you have lost the freedom, you would be in great trouble in many ways.
After I became a Christian, I read the book of Exodus in the Bible and found something in common with the Soviet system. This book tells how God miraculously led the people of Israel out of Egypt, in which they were enslaved, where they were exploited as they could be. Moreover, the Egyptians scoffed at them, treating them like low-class people. Unable to withstand such severe torment, they howled to God for help. And God heard their moaning and cries. Then, He decided to bring the people of Israel from slavery into the Promised Land, called Canaan, where freedom and peace awaited them. In the end, when God actually brought them out of Egypt and having them gone through the Red Sea on dry ground and seeing the Egyptians that pursued them drowned in the sea. Seeing how Pharaoh's army perishes in the water, the Jews began to glorify God, His Majesty, and power. They joyfully sang praises to God that He was their protector, and the deliverer. Less than a few days after they were liberated from the bondage of slavery, finding themselves in difficulties, they all rebelled against Moses, and began to murmur against him and against God.
No sooner had they been liberated from the hands of their enemy then they started complaining to God that they happened to be in difficulties. They all rebel against God and Moses. They began to grumble at him and God, saying that in Egypt there were a lot of things – watermelon, garlic, meat, but there is nothing but manna from heaven. They stated that they want to return again to Egypt. Less than a few days after the release, finding themselves in difficulties, they all pounced on Moses, and began to murmur against him and against God. How come quickly they forgot that they were in bondage, where they were treated like low-class people.
After all, God knew that they would want to return to Egypt. He knows us better than we do ourselves. Although there were many paths leading to the land of Canaan, but God chose this path- through the Red Sea-there is no turning back. Therefore, he chose this path, don’t you think there is similarity between the people of Israel and of the Soviet Union. Prior to this, we have had abundance of food in the Soviet Union, such as meat, sausage and so on, but after the collapse of the country, there is nothing. So we have forgotten that during the times of the S. Union, there was not what we had had after its collapse – freedom of speech and free movement abroad. Freedom is a gift from God that we are freed from political dependence.
Chance for citizenship
During the period when Stalin was in power of the Soviet Union, back then the Koreans were given the chance to take USSR citizenship. A large number of Koreans took the opportunity to be naturalized as soviet citizens. However, my parents, out of special feelings of motivation, basically preferred to hold on to statelessness persons, hoping that someday they would return to their homeland. According to the parents, every day they lived with the hope that someday representatives of their country would come to take them home. As time went by, the children were born to them, but no matter how much they waited, their expectations have not been met! Although their dreams did not come true, they continued to hope for the best that someday there would be a chance to repatriate to Korea.
Then the relationship between the two countries deteriorated sharply after the passenger plane was shot down en route from the United States to Korea. More than 200 passengers have been killed in this tragedy. My parents constantly listened to the Korean news on the radio, and said that they would soon allow Koreans living on Sakhalin to repatriate to Korea. They said that the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Moscow is about to .
As time went by, the leaders of the country changed, but there was no warming in relations between the two countries. Soon after Gorbachev came to power, the Sakhalin people were allowed to move freely around the Sakhalin Island. Prior to coming a new leader to travel across the Island a permit was required from a Visa department. Along with this, finally, the long-awaited day came, which had been expected for so long. While waiting for this day, many have grown old, and some are no longer alive. Before the new leader came to power in the country, life had been very harsh on Koreans. Because of the refusal to accept citizenship, it had been difficult for my parents to move around. This problem extended to us, we inherited this problem from our parents.
. Although we lived in Soviet Union and studied in a Soviet school, we were deprived of many rights to be used. Many of the benefits did not apply to us and we could not do what other people could have done it. In a word, we lived like foreign guests. Without the permission of the passport department, it was strictly forbidden for ethnic Koreans to freely move from one place to another, it was possible only within the territory we were registered. Even when I went to the summer camp, I had to take permission of the passport department whereas other children could freely do it without it.
The law had been very harsh in relation to Koreans who did not take citizenship. And in case of violation of the passport regime, illegals were expected to be punished very severely, up to imprisonment for serving in labor camps. Because of these problems, we ethnic Koreans have had difficulty living there. There have been such cases when we moved without the permission of the passport department, hoping that everything would be ok.
Due to the strict passport regulation, we had to avoid the law enforcement agencies. I remember I was traveling by train to another place, suddenly a passport control procedures began, out of fear that I would be caught, I hid in the toilet and sat there holding my breath until the passport control procedures was over. And sometimes out of fear, because of the sudden appearance of the police on the train, I had a desire to jump off the train on the move. That’s what the matter is all about. In fact, I know many people who have served their sentences in labor camps because of the passport regime violations. To make a long story short, it is impossible to describe everything in detail what we had been through because we were regarded to be foreigners. .
`Not of their own will, but of imperialism.
Many foreigners were interested in how fate decreed that a lot of Koreans ended up on Sakhalin Island. In order to tell everything, it will take a long time. But I'll tell you as much as I know it.
Most of the young Koreans are of draft age, including my father ended up on the Sakhalin Island not by their own will, but by the will of Japanese imperialism. You are probably all aware that Korea had been under the Japanese colony for a long time. In order to carry out their treacherous plan, the Japanese authorities mobilized many young Koreans to serve in the Japanese army during World War II. In addition, many people were forcibly taken out of Korea to be used as force labor. According to the old people, I learned that they were driven into coal mines so that they would extract coal under the terrible conditions at that time. And when Japan lost the war to the Soviet Union, most of the Japanese returned to their homeland, and the Koreans have been left there to fend for themselves. The remaining Koreans hoped that they, too, someday return to their homeland. While they were waiting for that day, they had to take root there, live, have children and then raise grandchildren.
As an adult when I read the book and learned the story of my people, how the Japanese had treated them brutally. The first thought that crossed my mind was that they had committed an unforgiving sin before the Korean people. After I came to know Jesus as my savior and God who loves and forgives. With the love of Christ, I was able to forgive the Japanese for their sin and all that they had done to my nation. Actually, I realized that there are no things that cannot be forgiven. Anything can be forgiven, but it takes a time. In other words, everything has its time. Time to love, forgive, cry, etc. This is very well and clearly written in the book of Ecclesiastes. Yes, it is true; we must forgive and love, as Christ did. After all, we were all created by one God and we are all brothers and sisters because he from one nation created all the nations throughout the whole earth. It seems that we are all different;
In fact, we are all the same, only we are different in appearance.
There is no bad nation on earth, but there is sin that makes a nation proud and bad. Therefore I hold no grudge against Japan and its people. It turns out that the Japanese and Koreans were descended from the same ancestors. Frankly speaking, I have learned this truth from my Japanese historian teacher when I studied Japanese at university. Most of the people living on the Japanese islands are considered to be of Korean descents. They are just like us belong to the same blood group, which was confirmed by DNA analysis, but the Japanese were brain washed because of politics.
One day when I was returning home from seminary, I met by chance a Japanese man who was standing at a bus stop and waiting for the bus, but he did not know that buses did not run at that time due to the restriction of bus traffic.
At first, I thought he was one of us local ethnic Korean, but turns out that he was Japanese, and he looked a little upset. Then I had a strong desire to help this man, get out of this wilderness. Out of pity, I asked him if he needed help, he said he was waiting for the bus. I knew that the buses were no longer running after 4 p.m. Then I decided to have a conversation with him, it turned out that he was Japanese. To be honest, I had never met Japanese so close in Sakhalin before, because the island was closed to foreigners.
He spoke English with a Japanese accent. Having learned that he was Japanese I had compassion, besides had no grudge against them, I decided to give him a lift to Dolinsk. Because of this, I arrived home late, for which my wife was greatly offended by me all day. However, I was so happy that I was able to help that man get to the next city where traffic was available. Upon returning home, I was so happy that I was able to help the Japanese solve the problem of transportation. This did not happen by accident, but God gave me a chance to exercise my faith. Faith should be shown not in words, but in deeds.
After I dropped him off, he said that he would just want to talk to me. Then he gave me his contact phone number, and with a smile said: give me a call if you are in town. It was a good opportunity for me to practice my English. At that time, I was already fluent in English, but not as good as it should. In addition, he asked me to call him in case I was around his area. This was the first time I have practiced my English especially with a foreigner. Before we parted with each other I shared my testimony what made me believe in Jesus and how my life had been transformed into an image that God wants me to be. It was not easy to start a conversation about God; he was a completely unknown person to me, who may not be interested in this topic.
While I was driving him, all the way I thought about how I could start a conversation with him about God. Hearing my testimony, he was deeply moved and eventually accepted Jesus. He was the first Japanese to accept Jesus into his heart as Lord and Savior. After that, we met more than once in the city when I went to study seminary. Once he invited me to his apartment, and treated me well with different kinds of foods. By the time I got to his place the table was pretty packed anyway. There was a different kind of food that I was not familiar with. And then after a while, he flew home. After that the line went dead. …
Through the love of Christ, I've learned to forgive and bless people even if they don't deserve it. I am very grateful to God that I can forgive and love and experience the abundance of God's love, which I do not deserve. This is simply the grace of God manifested through the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The love of God is poured out on me regardless of whether I want to or not. This is nothing other than the promise of God given to our spiritual progenitor Abraham. God forgave my sins, and in confirmation of this, he gave me peace and joy. How can we not forgive those people who have wronged us like He can. Jesus still forgives and is ready to accept anyone who repents of their sins.
When the commander Bonaparte Napoleon was defeated, finding himself alone on an uninhabited island, he realized the truth about Jesus and his love. His love is more powerful than the weapon with which he tried to conquer the world. He wanted to conquer the world with arms, but Jesus conquered the hearts of people with his unique love and justice.
Through this story I came to a conclusion that Christianity is not just a fictional religion, as some claim, but the truth that leads us to the true God. All who believed in Jesus Christ were reconciled with the Heavenly Father on the basis of the sacrifice of the Son of Christ and they become children of God. This is the highest privilege that humans can experience in this life.
For example: let's say that the president of a country has a son. To him, the president is just a father, but to others, he is an inaccessible person. Despite the fact that not every citizen has access to this president, the president's son can easily enter his office, even ask his father for money. That is the attitude of a person to God, just like the son to the president. A son can at any time turn to his father for help, so can we. All we have to do is to ask in prayer to meet our needs. God is always ready to take care of our needs.
I remember by any chance, in Australia I got a book “Escape from Buchenwald” written by Zinchenko. After God orchestrated his escape from the concentration camp, he became a famous Christian who has traveled extensively around the world by preaching the gospel. . In addition, he has made a huge contribution to missionaries. The book was very exciting that I was able to read it in one breath.
The story of this book focuses on how God miraculously saved this man whose life was hanging by a thread. He could have been killed at any moment, but only thanks to the intervention of God he was able to escape from the concentration camp. If you come across this book, I highly recommend that you read it, it's worth reading it.
The Collapse of the Soviet Union. 1991
In the early 90s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country found itself in a very difficult economic situation. As a result of it, most of cutting- edge enterprises closed down, and at the same time the vast majority of people have lost their jobs. A new wave of change has begun abruptly throughout the country.
At that very moment for the first time in the country the first and the last president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected. In order to lift the country out of the fallout of the crisis, he began a new political reform of the country so called a perestroika and glasnost. In connection with the new political reform, freedom of speech came to the country and some restrictions on movement around the country have been removed. …
The Sakhalin Island that had been considered as a strategically important military objective for many years was classified. Therefore, in this regard, no one could cross the border of this island without the permission of the Soviet government. Only the inhabitants of the island with Soviet nationality could freely move around Sakhalin and from the island to the mainland and back. As for the rest of the citizens of the USSR, they could not cross the border of the island if they so wish. As for me, although I lived and was registered in Sakhalin, I could not move freely out of the Sakhalin Island as well as travel through it since I did not have Soviet citizenship.
Despite the fact that the parents had the opportunity to acquire Soviet citizenship, they chose to maintain stateless persons, hoping that they would someday return to their homeland. Due to the fact that they renounced citizenship, it was not easy for our family in our life, as for all ethnic Koreans living in the Sakhalin region. At that time, there was a harsh law on violations of the passport regime. In case of the violation of the passport regime, it was strictly suppressed and punished by the legal authorities, up to and including imprisonment.
I knew people, many of whom were serving sentences for violations of the passport regime. Therefore, it was not easy for me to move from one area to another. The island, being considered closed for many years, could not withstand the pressure of new political publicity, and opened its doors.
However, Sakhalin, which seemed to never open its doors, under no circumstances, with the coming to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, the island's doors could not withstand the pressure of the so-called policy of perestroika and glasnost, at last it wide opened. In addition, Sakhalin was elected as a free economic zone, which attracted many foreign investors from the countries of the Asian Pacific region.
No sooner had the island been proclaimed a free economic zone than a stream of foreigners rushed there so that it was impossible to stop them. Only could God do that! Together with them are the Protestant missionaries.
Once after the daily work was done I came home to find many guests whose faces I did not know. At first, I could not understand what was going on in my house. Why are so many guests gathered at our home? What brought them to our house, I was very interested to know. It turns out later I learned from my mother that the missionary guests came from South Korea.
That's how it got all started. As soon as I open the door, a tall missionary approaches me, his height was less than 2 meters. Although I was not familiar with the guest, he spoke as if we knew each other well. He began by saying that I need to believe in God and repent of my sin, then I can go to heaven. Frankly speaking, I did not like their approach, as they imposed their idea on me to accept Christ. They were completely unfamiliar to me, how I could trust them. On the one hand, I was glad to see them, because the room was filled with a warm atmosphere, which we lacked, but on the other hand, I was not ready to accept what they imposed on me. In order not to offend them, I pretended to accept their offer, and behaved appropriately. However at the start, I wanted to observe them for who they are. The first impression they made on me was pleasant and inspiring. As far as spiritual life is concerned, I saw the purity of their hearts and zeal to evangelize, in contrast to other faiths. They began to gain some attention with their sincerity like a magnet. And I thought that maybe through them I would be able to fulfill my dream – to go to Korea.
I had a big selfish plan for the future, to fulfill my father's will to go to Korea.
As a child, I remember my father during his paycheck, came home drunk, and harassed us with his own conditions – who are you going to live with? Naturally, we answered him with mother. In response to this, he got cross at us l and behaved very aggressively, and it happened that he forced us to undress to our underpants, and kicked us out the door despite its cold outside whether in summer or in winter. It was tolerable in summer because it was not cold, but in winter it was unbearably cold, so we answered that we would go with him. Then suddenly he became soft and nice that invited us into the house by taking care of us with food and talked about his homeland. He said that he was on Sakhalin not of his own free will; he was forced to come when he was 20 years old by the Japanese authorities. The Japanese gave severe orders to young Koreans who had not yet turned 20 when they were forcibly mobilized to serve in the army of Japanese imperialism. Listening to him for hours, we ourselves did not notice how the dream was sown in our souls. From that moment, my brother and I only thought about how to leave for the homeland of our ancestors. Only in order to fulfill my father's will, I did not get married there while almost all my friends got married and have children.
In order to fulfill my father's will, I did everything so that they would be impressed by me. Initially I went to church formally, but inside I was far from God. Generally I was not interested in God at all; all I wanted to do was to fulfill my dream. From my point of view, I could not believe in God, because he is invisible. Therefore in order to please our guests, I did everything they demanded of me, and I myself pretended to be a believer. Even though I would go to church, my life remains as it was. In fact, I had been obedient and tried to please them with everything. However inside of me I remain the same- no transformation involved. However, my life at that point did not differ from the life of my friends. I also continued to keep up with the world, follow new trends. One leg was in the church and the other in the world. Every Sunday I go to church, but on weekdays, I also play cards and enjoy the beer. Unlike my friends, I didn't really like vodka, but I was a fond of the beer. Usually, my friend and I liked to drink beer after the bath, moreover, a lot with a mountain of fish being served (smelt) on the table. Sometimes, we could drink so much with him that we could barely move our legs. Apparently God was not pleased with my double standard life, he decides to impact me. In fact, I kept telling people that I believe in God, but in reality my heart was way too far from the truth. In order to change me, God decided to teach me a lesson, and he started following me. After God intervened in my life, suddenly strange events began to occur in my life, in which I have had to feel remorse. More than likely, God began to work in my life, crushing me into an image that he wants me to be The most interesting thing is that when I was a godless, no matter what evil I have done or lied to people I felt no remorse. From that experience I learned a great lesson that my life was led by evil. I belonged to the god of this world so God did not pay special attention to me. It turns out that I was a child of darkness and wrath, so he did not need to interfere with me at all. In the Holy Scriptures there are many cases how God intervened with his chosen people, but he did not pay attention to other nations. Therefore when I was a godless, I was a child of darkness, I did not sense God and lived as I wished. My spirit was dead, but God revived it. If God does not interfere in people's life, it means that people belong to the power of darkness. This is my conclusion based on the experience of my spiritual life. Whether agree with me or not, my statement is true. As it is written in Romans:“There is not one righteous;
11 there is no one who understands; no one seeks God; Romans 3
And just as they did not care to have God in their minds, God gave them up to a perverse mind – to do lewdness.
I know this from my experience when I lived by the will of the god of this world, nothing like this wonderful thing happened in my life. However, after I accepted Jesus into my heart, having learned the truth that was revealed in the light of Christ, life went in a completely different direction.
What happened was, then the other night I get back, I stay up all night because of guilty conscience. I spent all night in getting on my knees by repenting of my sin. I cried out to God for help to get rid of the torment of guilty conscience.
I have been under the fire of conscience for a week. Technically I can't find the words, what I went through then, and I don't even want to flash back to that night. No one will ever understand me without being in my place. I was lost and desperate to struggle with myself to get out. Lots of bad thoughts crossed my mind it was the devil's whisper. When I was in this state, the devil whispered to me to commit suicide, and then you will be at peace. After I heard this voice, I became even more scared, and did not know what to do. Then I realized that it was what seemed to be the voice of Satan, and suddenly the thought of my brother's suicide I flash back to those days. It turns out that my brother went against his will because Satan forced him to end his life.
The next day, in order to comfort myself in time of despair, I decided to make a purchase brand goods at the competitive price at a specialized store named Berezka. I thought if I bought goods from that store, it would comfort my heart. During the Soviet Union there was a shop which used to sell various foreign-made items such as jackets, T-shirts, shirts, etc. It was impossible to purchase with rubles, only it was possible to acquire with currency. In order to go to that store, I needed to go to Kholmsk, because this store was only there, but I didn't have a car. So I asked my friend to take me there. He agreed, provided that I would give him some currency. I agreed, and the deal was struck; at that point , the currency was of insignificant. And so we finally got to Kholmsk, and purchased things that I wanted to, but these things do not make me any better. I learned my lesson from this experience that money is powerless in the face of grief, it cannot make people any better.
Of course, I’m not saying that we don’t need money, but we do. I wanted to say that our soul is much more important than money or anything. Money can buy everything, but it can't heal the soul. Money cannot buy health that has been lost. A cold can be cured with pills, once you take it, that’s all, but the soul, no pills will help. Only God can heal the soul as soon as a person is touched, and that's it, then the person can become a different. Then I realized that it was not a physical torment, but spiritual. I still cannot understand how I was able to endure a whole week, which seemed like an eternity. As written in 1 Corinthians chapter 10:13.
The temptation has befallen you no other than human: and God is faithful, Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond your strength, but in the temptation itself will give you a way out so that you can endure.
1 Corinthians 10:13
It seems I have been through thick and thin with torment and mental pain. Although it did not last long, it seemed to me it lasted a very, very long time. Probably the suffering that I endured can be felt only in hell, not only after earthly life, but also in this life. Life without God in this life is like in hell and in the world to come. Since this happened to me on weekdays, then there was no one near or nearby who could help me get rid of this pain and anguish. Then my friends could not help me, I needed an experienced spiritual mentor. Therefore, I prayed almost every day that Sunday would come quickly for me to see a spiritual guide.
Finally, the long-awaited day has come, which I have been waiting with impatience. With the coming of Sunday, my spiritual mentor, also my spiritual father arrived. As soon as he appeared at the doorstep of my house, I ran into him with questions, and told him everything that had happened to me during the past week. However, in response, he said nothing, by which I was disappointed in him. As soon as possible, he asked me to gather our neighbors for a bible study meeting.
As the people got gathered, we began to sing a hymn and then the missionary began to pray. Shortly after he preached the gospel and then the meeting was over. For the first time in my life, I began to listen very attentively with great interest to his sermon, looking back at my entire sinful life.
After the gospel was preached, suddenly a peace came upon me and my soul rejoiced as if a heavy weight fell off my shoulders no more remorse as if nothing had happened. I was in the state of mind that I immediately forgot what I felt through. At the blink of an eye I have changed beyond recognition.
After this spiritual transformation, I stopped going to restaurants and spending time with friends playing cards and keeping a company. For several days I kept praying and repenting of the sins that I had committed. For once in my life, I experienced a peace of mind that I had never felt before. I guess, I am getting a second wind. At the tail end of my 30s is like “breathing fresh air"
This state should be nothing but the presence of God in the midst of confusion. The Tears start welling up in my eyes with joy that I have been forgiven of the sin I had done. Although the tears kept flowing down my cheek, I was not ashamed of. Before that, I did not know what those tears meant, but now I know that the tears mean the fruit of the Holy Spirit that produces by the Holy Spirit. The tears are the result of forgiven and the profound change in my spiritual walk with Jesus.
After having these terrible experiences, I did not want to return to the world of sin, which is ruled by Satan. Then I felt relief a sense of some lightness as never before as if I were floating in the air in a state of weightlessness. However this state did not last long. That was enough to prove that God exists! I have got such joy and peace in my soul, great. To be honest, I would not say that his sermon was inspiring and heart breaking; rather, it was boring and monotonous because the whole sermon was about my godless life.
Being filled with joy, and an unearthly peace, I turned towards the window and vowed to God that I would never again follow the heels of this world and lead a sinful life. Something happened to me that never happened before as if someone replaced my soul, and no more heartache and remorse, peace reigned in my soul. It seemed to me that I was in such a state as if a bird flew out of a cage, freed from dependence. Later I realized it was the peace of God in my heart. This peace has not been known to me since I was born. My life has taught this peace should never be taken for granted.
The following day I began to see the world in a different light, and perceive everything that surrounds me differently. The trees, to which I had never paid much attention before suddenly seemed so alive and colorful that I felt like talking, and the singing of birds that once seemed to be like noise under the window when I was sleeping, poured into my ears so melodiously as if I was just in seventh heaven. I cannot describe what changes took place in me when the spirit of God touched me.
How can you not believe that the God we believe in is loving and all-forgiving and He knows our hearts better than we do.
There is no doubt that what happened to me was nothing more than the grace of God was upon me.
Eventually, the blindness of my essence fell from my eyes, and my new spiritual eyes were opened to enjoy things differently. And the blindness, which prevented me from perceiving the world correctly, disappeared forever from my life. In addition, with the change of my life, there have been changes in my guts. I became more balanced, and morally stable, and my temper changed to patience, which I lacked.
All my life I have suffered and tormented because of my stubbornness. I liked to argue, I was kind of self-opinionated. I did not yield anything to anyone because of our differing opinions.
In another word, in this way my life was completely crippled because of my stubborn nature. If I could not stay at home, even for a second, I became constantly drawn to something. Since I could not be in one place, I have had to travel through the Sakhalin oblast illegally These days, nothing gets me down. I can rather sit down and read the Bible and pray and sing to God.
I find joy in doing what pleases to God.
Even my mother sensed some change in my demeanor. One time she asked me: What happened to you, that you became completely different? You don't seem like your usual self. On top of it you are not interested in going restaurants nor meeting your friends. Furthermore, you are being completely isolated from the outside world. After I have tasted the bitterness of this life, and the atrocity of the world that makes people sin. I did not want to return to the world of darkness any more. All I wanted to do is keep my heart pure and holy! No more filthiness of this sinful world and lawlessness.
Bible reading and prayer gave me such great pleasure and joy, and solitude with God that I could sit quietly for days and hours at home. If I used to fidget back and forth before, I could not sit still. Life without God is not a normal life; it is sheer boredom, not life, but just vanity.
With such joy and peace, I could not just sit with folded hands, but went and told my brother's friend about God, who touched my essence, and gave me peace, in whom I found the meaning of life. Seeing that I was sincere, he was getting all the attention of my testimony of living God. After all, he went to church with me, and God touched him. He has not been to the hospital since he devoted his life to God!
After he became a Christian, his siblings, including his parents, were opposed to his decision to start anew!
Before he came to know the lord, he often got sick. He worked as a bus driver, he often had to climb under the bus, as a result of which he was very sick and had to be hospitalized twice a year.
Upon learning this, his wife and his children abandoned him. He was left alone. He had lost interest in life, so he wanted to end his life. After he became very ill, his family left him alone. Naturally, he fell into despair, and on numerous occasions he tried to commit suicide. Fortunately, his mother happened to be at the scene on time, and all his attempts to end his life did not work out as expected. Otherwise another tragedy could have happened.
Due to the fact that he was often ill, he has had to go to the hospital for treatment twice a year. Once the doctors said that he had an incurable disease and their words broke his life, so he wanted to give up on everything.
After I found freedom, joy and peace, I remembered what my mother told me about his story that he wanted to commit suicide. So I made a decision to challenge him with the message of Jesus. One day I went to him, he was an elder brother of my friend I had already spoken of. By the way, I caught him at home on time, I told him about God who gave his life for the sake of humanity, He is loving and all forgiving. However he hates sin and he is the giver of peace and of joy and so on.
Some people misunderstand about guardian angels that protect people from tragedy. It is not true! Only true believers are reliably protected by guardian angels.
I used to think so, but then I realized that I was mistaken according to the bible Psalms 44:7The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. ..
I am very grateful to God that he used me as a messenger to convey the truth to him. The truth that changed my life, allowed me to reprioritize. I had to do the right thing in the right order.
When I did not know God, I laughed at people who talked about God. If I knew who God was, I would believe in him. Now people laugh at me when I am telling them about God.
I was sure that God would impact him to turn around. Something happened that I knew that would occur in his life.
As soon as possible, I began to share with him what happened to me. I was sincere in sharing my testimony. I have never had such a serious conversation with him before. I didn't want to hide anything from him what happened to me. In fact, I was more frank with him than ever before. Seeing my frankness, and the authenticity of my story, he immediately opened his heart to me. This was the work of the Holy Spirit upon me to make a great impact on him. I remember how I talked to him for hours about God and about Jesus, and time flew by at the blink of an eye. I could never have imagined that my story would intrigue this man to start anew. After all, it was not just some kind of fictional story, but the truth, based on conscience and feelings. Therefore, he was blown away by my testimony. He listened to me with such great interest, and a thirst for knowledge of the truth, by which I was greatly pleased.
At this point I didn't know very well about Jesus. All I knew that he died for our sin and rose again from the dead. The next Sunday we went to church together. And you know what? A miracle happened, he was healed during the sermon as had been expected! He began to feel better and better every day that he had decided to come with me to seminary. After this incident, I do not remember that he ever went to the hospital. Having accepted Jesus into his heart as Savior and Lord, he gave his whole life to the Lord. As his life changed, he devoted his life to serving God. Now he serves as a pastor in Dolinsk church.
God blessed him with marriage, so he got married again that God prepared a good bride for him. After he decided to give himself to the Lord, the entire families, including his parents, were opposed to him.
When I had been told, that all his relatives were against his decision to become Christian, I was surprised at that news. What's wrong he had done to be criticized.
Anyway, at least it’s better for him to be alive than to be dead.
They wanted him to live an ordinary life without God, because they did not believe in the existence of God. It has been a long time since then, to a great surprise, his mother believed in God when she was in a hospital bed, when her life was in danger, then my mother was constantly near her and prayed and told about Jesus. The heart surgery has undergone successfully after which she also believed in God. And now she goes every Sunday without missing a single Sunday. And his father also accepted Christ, being paralyzed, bedridden when I flew to Korea on my business from the mission field. What does Jesus tell the Pharisees?: It is not the healthy need a doctor but the sick. I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners. Who are the righteous that Jesus spoke of? This is a category of people who, relying on their self-righteousness, ruin their lives and want to look righteous outwardly, but inside is full of hypocrisy.
What the Apostle Paul said in his letter to the Romans: not understanding the righteousness of God and striving to establish their own righteousness, they did not submit to the righteousness of God.
Then my former friend with whom I loved to spend time with a glass of beer and his sister opened their hearts to the Lord. It is too early to tell the results, but something would happen. Nobody knows when but God does!
This is not a self -fulfilling prophesy as people may think of. Of course not, God is alive; He is the creator whom we can not see because of our spiritual blindness. The Word says that the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe, so they are unable to see the glorious light of the gospel of Christ that is shining upon them.
I feel embarrassed to tell that I used to know Jesus like a historical person like one of us, who had nothing to do with my life. Now I know that He is my savior and Lord, more importantly he is the source of life and joy. He has done so much in my life that it is impossible to count on. My whole life is connected with him from now on forever.
After God walked into my life, the impossible becomes possible and the weak becomes strong and the poor becomes rich in God!. I bless the day God walked into my life after which I was able to start a new blessed life! Sometimes it happens that when you want to meet a person, he works miracles in an amazing way. Among many people, he can accurately point to the person with whom you want to meet. It seems as if he is aiming at people with a magnifying glass so that the object become larger and more clearly visible and noticeable. Anyway, this is how I feel but others may feel differently.
It is impossible to describe the glory of God and his works in human language!
Now I understand what it means to be forgiven and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. I was forgiven and saved from the bondage of sin, and have been given new life-eternal life that can only be obtained through Jesus Christ. The most interesting thing is that people do not want to believe in him by making an excuse that they are busy minding their own business. Perfect joy and true happiness can only be found in him. For Jesus is the King of the world and the giver of joy. Jesus set me free from sinful life and gave me new life. The more I believe in him, the more I want to talk to people about him. People who do not know God like the prodigal son. But there is hope for everyone to find the truth and the meaning of life, but the time has not come yet.
Jesus is always ready to accept you as you are. You must be aware of the story of the prodigal son. In fact, at first it may seem to you that this story has nothing to do with you, if you carefully look at this character in the story, then you will find yourself in the place of the prodigal son. It was not in vain that Jesus spoke of the prodigal son. The story of the prodigal son concerns all people who cut off from God! These people do not have real peace and joy in their hearts, rather anxiety and worrisome. It seems to them now that everything is going smoothly, but in reality it is not so, it just seems to them. They are the most unfortunate people, driven into a dead end by the forces of the darkness. The story of the prodigal son shows his helplessness, hopelessness, and inability to hope for the future.
Furthermore, the bible says that he came to himself – this is a very important moment in the life of every person, without which there will be no turning point, and his whole essence prompted him to return to his father.
Before that, he lived dissolutely, even though he had money to burn. While he had money, power and everything that is needed in life all people revolved around him. He thought they were his friends as soon as he ran out of money. They no longer need him – a friend in need is friend indeed.
As it turned out, they didn't need him, they needed money, that's all. Therefore, they pretended that they were his friends, and in fact, they pulled everything they could have from him. No money, no shelter, nothing to eat, he went to graze the pigs to nourish his belly. While the owner was engaged in other matters, the prodigal son at this time quietly began to eat pork feed.
I also remembered my childhood. One day my parents gave me an assignment to feed the pigs. Then the country was in an economically deplorable state, and we lived barely day by day. Then we kept the pigs, and fed them on black bread, along with other things. In the presence of my parents, I threw a loaf of bread into a bucket of water, and when they moved away from me, I took out this loaf, a part of which that had not soaked in water. Having cut off, with a knife, the dry part of the crust, while no one was looking, I ate it up secretly.
When I first read the story of the prodigal son, it seemed that this story was written about me, and for me.
Finally, it dawned on the prodigal son that food is much more important and more valuable than friendship. In addition, he learned the truth that a man without God can sink to the level of a pig's life. Then he came to his senses: what am I doing here nothing begging for food. After all, I have a rich father, who has everything to make happy life. Well, I will go to him and ask him to forgive me and my behavior! After that, he returned to his father, the father did not scold him, but threw a banquet, and even called the guests, and said: my son was dead but now found!
Such a banquet awaits everyone who will repent of their sins before God, as the prodigal son did. After that, the level of his pig life changed to the royal level.
King Saul had a son named Jonathan. He loved David, he even made an alliance with him that he would be faithful to him to the end. And Jonathan had a son Mephibosheth, he was crippled because of his childhood injury. One day a nanny was carrying him in her arms and dropped him.
As a result, he got injured two legs. Once upon a time David in
2 Kingdom 9: 5-13
And David said, Is there any one still left from the house of Saul? I would show him mercy for Jonathan's sake.
In Saul's house there was a slave named Ziba; And they called him to David, and the king said to him, Are you Ziba? And he said: I, thy servant.
And the king called Ziba, the servant of Saul, and said to him: Everything that belonged to Saul and to all his house, I give to the son of your master.
This is the mercy of God and grace, Mephibosheth, who considered a dead dog, by the mercy of David, he began to eat from one king's table until the end of his life.
Each parable contains a valuable lesson from which to draw valuable lesson.
In this story you need to find yourself, and then this story will have meaning in life. In the parable, the prodigal son, he did everything to free himself from the dependence of his father, so he begged his father for part of the property, and went to squander them. When there was money, there were friends, no money, no friends. Friends abandoned him because they no longer need him, but what did his father do? Every day he goes out to expect to see his son return because he knew that sooner or later he would definitely return home. Take a closer look at this prodigal son. Don’t you see yourself in him with his antics? In the person of the prodigal son, God shows us, describing the details of our behavior. The prodigal son is like us that having been separated from God, who chose our own path, and wanted to live according to our own laws, relying on our own righteousness, thereby justifying ourselves that we were not involved in sin. Waiting for the father with longsuffering is the heart of our loving God. Sooner or later, you will understand this truth. No one can help you but God.
I, too, was once the prodigal son, who wandered through life alone, relying on himself, and not noticing the Creator God. Lost, but found. After He made me a different person, I decided to fully devote my life to Him. Nobody could change my life except Jesus. For more than 20 years I have served Him firmly, and in this I find my calling. He is worthy of praise and glory!
Many years later, since I accepted Christ, and my life changed, I began to attach special importance to the soul – to cherish it, to keep it carefully clean. Jesus said: what's the point if we gain the world and hurt our souls. Jesus also said: Do not be afraid of the one who can kill our body, but fear the One who can kill not only the body but also the soul. Just think about the deep meaning of Jesus' words! If the mind is in place, then you will immediately understand what it is about, if your mind is far from this, alas.
Nothing is impossible with God!
God has miraculously changed me, my habits, and interests in my life.
how much I was stained with indelible sin, that a little bit of a swear word comes out of my mouth. I didn’t even suspect that in this way I sin and defile my body. For more than 25 years I have forgotten what a swear word is. Although I, too, was a terrible swearing man, God's rod corrected me. I used to love to tell jokes, and make people laugh, but all my jokes are associated with swear words. But one day it happened that now I never swear. On the contrary, I make a remark to people when they swear. As a minister of the church, I told one man joke with swear word. After that, my tongue began to pinch and hurt, so it was unbearably painful and unpleasant for me. To whom and wherever I did not turn for help, but no one could help me. Even the ointments that were prescribed at the pharmacy did not help. I began to worry about what if it doesn't pass before Sunday, what about the translation. My wife read a sermon, and I translated her sermon. From unbearable pain, I went into my secret room, where I loved to spend time in prayer. Usually, before starting to pray, I read the Bible. On that day, before prayer, I accidentally discovered a place of writing, where it is very similar and logically written about our tongue. How to hit the mark! Only a fool will not be able to understand what is written there, but if a person is of sound mind, he will undoubtedly understand it. James chap 3 After reading this verse, I got goose bumps all over my body that I have had to repent for my dirty lips with tears. Then God touched me so hard that my heart was filled with peace, the flame of love flared up. Then, I again became convinced that the Bible was written not just by people, but God's living word. Yes, there is no doubt about what was written by people, but the thoughts were moved by God. Sometimes people say why you make us read the Bible, because it is written by people.
If the Bible were not written by people, but by the Spirit of God, no one on this planet would make it out.
God will never allow His children to dishonor Him with their unworthy behavior. Therefore, interfering in our life, He changes us into images pleasing to Him, sometimes uses a rod so that we do not dishonor Him. Whom God loves, He punishes. He does this not to kill and hurt, but to teach us a lesson, so that we glorify Him with our pure lips. Honor and glory to Him – He deserves it! After this incident, my pains and pinching disappeared. To confirm this, God gave me a word: 1 Peter 4: 1. He who suffers from the flesh ceases to sin. I definitely recommend reading this verse in its entirety. We are human beings, we do not want to admit that we are sinners; we always seek justification by relying on our righteousness. If we do not recognize it as it is, we will never taste the goodness of God. In fact, we are by nature, all sinners, we ourselves cannot change our lives, and get rid of our bad habits, if God does not intervene in our lives, nothing will happen. With any desire and effort, you will not be able to get rid of bad habits and unwholesome things that are of no use to you. On the contrary, they can only harm and make them look older. I feel sorry for people who do not value their health and ruin their lives. He looks old, when asked, he turns out to be young. Take care of your health when you have it, when you lose it, it will be too late to return. Appreciate now what you have and or else will be late!
God continues to change people. I have many examples on this topic, not only about myself, but about other people. Even God is changing people who were serving time behind bars. Having accepted Christ, they not only changed, but also bring great benefits to those in need of their volunteering. I have a lot of them.
And so I became a completely different person! In 2 Corinthians it says that our flesh decays, and our souls are renewed day by day. This is the secret of Christianity. Colossians says: For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When I began to change, even my friends were surprised at! I stopped coming to visit him as I usually did. Moreover, I stopped companionship for a glass of beer and other strong beverages, etc.
Blessed are those whose hearts are pure.
A few days later, I felt completely different. Finally, my conscience was set free from filthiness! The wounds and pains are gone, and there are no more struggles. God forgave my sins and made me what he wanted me to be. When people asked me where you were going, at first I was ashamed to admit that I was going to church, so I just lied to them that I was going to the meeting. A few more weeks flew by; I discovered that I had become a completely different person, not what I was. Jesus, secretly penetrating into my heart, changed my unsightly heart into the heart of hope. Not only my heart has changed, but also my outlook on life, and values, and interests and attitudes towards people have changed. The desire for alcoholic drinks and longed-for flesh has dulled. This is a real miracle that my life was transformed into the way God wanted me to be.
So whoever is in Christ is a new creation; the old is gone, now everything is new
2 Corinthians 5:17 – 2 Corinthians 5:17
Interweaving of two sins and its misunderstanding
Sins are of two kinds, just like the law. The Law can be statutory and spiritual.
1.A Spiritual law is kind of universal moral law written on the human heart,their conscience bearing witness which is based on the ten commandments given by God.
This law is written on the hearts of Christians because they are transformed by the grace of God. Grace and truth came through JesusChrist.
The law can not change people, but they can be changed only by the grace of Jesus.
It revealed that all humans, including the Jews, are under sin and that life cannot be obtained by “works of law.”
There is no country existing without crime as a result of which law enforcement agencies and places of detention were born.
The existing such places show that the physical law is only formal and unable to change sinful nature.
As long as the sin exists, the crime is inevitable.
I have seen many former prisoners whose lives had cardinally been transformed into an image of getting close to Jesus .
2. A physical law is kind of statutory law which is formal written on paper.
This law is way too stern but powerless and less effective to change people's minds.
This law was given through Moses.
Why was this law given to the Jews ? It was given to make the Jews realize that they are unable to keep the given law so they were destined to look for something more powerful than the law which is the Messiah.
1. An intentional sin is something we do consciously on a daily bases without admitting that we are committing it because we justify ourselves by relying on laws that do not exist.(the none existing law to fit to individuals) Misunderstanding of sin, mostly it was believed that sin is defined as a serious crime: murder, theft, etc. Those actions that are mentioned above is an act of the consequences of sins.
2. An unintentional sin that we do unconsciously on a daily bases, but can not be accepted as conscious sin being acknowledged as a sin in the eyes of God.
This type of sin differs from the above in that we can't avoid it even if we wanted to. While we are in the body, we are involuntarily prone to sin – visually and mentally. Jesus said: it had been said to the ancients, do not commit adultery, but I say, if anyone looks at a woman with lust, he has already committed adultery in his heart.
What did Jesus mean by this? there is no righteous one. By this he clearly shows that all humans are sinners, and there is no exception. However, the sin that is committed unintentionally is not considered as sin.
Therefore, the apostle John says that whoever is born of God does not sin because God's love is in them.This means that the person who has been changed by God does not continue to sin just as did he did before.
… This refers to the 2nd type of sin that we do not intentionally sin. Sin has the power to tempt us, and we easily succumb to it. We live in a world dominated by sin, from which we cannot run or hide. It is exposed to us, but all we need to do is to keep away from it as far as possible. That's why we need to strive for holiness. The holiness is the solution to problems of sin. To become holy is to be separated from sin by thoughts and actions. We need to be as far away from it as North is from South and West is from East. Rom 6. The law of sin is given to confirm that we are all born as sinners. At first it may seem that it is impossible to live without sinning, but in fact the Holy Spirit will help us, because the experience of life shows that nothing is impossible with God, and the rest is just an excuse to live and sin.
How can you manifest His power and the work of the Holy Spirit without knowing Him? If you don’t tell people about Jesus whom you have received in your heart, you will never know His will and His blessing. Praise the Lord who is worthy of praise. I want to confess that I was the last sinner, went all the way from the cradle to becoming a Christian. However, now I am forgiven, as my heart is poured out with peace and joy.
I used to be judgmental, self-centered and fond of arguing, and never yielded to my opponents, but God changed me in such a way that no one can recognize me. When I was transformed into a positive image, my friends laughed at me that I had turned into a strange person. Before that, I could keep a company with them and drink strong drinks to such extent that I was unable to control myself. Now my appetite for alcohol has changed to reading the bible. I am totally anchored to the word of God. I have not been changed into an image that I wanted to, but rather into the image that God wants me to be. If you want changed, do not rely on your knowledge, but rely on God. He is able to set you free from the bondage of sin into freedom, from darkness into the light that God has prepared for you.
What can you say about the change that has taken place in me in Christ? Is this self-hypnosis as people like to say? And I think it's a supernatural phenomenon. In other words, through Jesus Christ we become the people that God wants us to be. Consequently there should be nothing surprising at this. Most likely you need to be surprised at the image of what you were like before coming to faith.
Regarding the change in my life, my assumption is that a person must be changed, and the transformed image is the image into which God wanted to transform. Thus, it shows that God is the author of our life. The changed image is the blueprint according to which God created us before the creation of the world. Thus, the changes that we experience are not special, but natural, as we should be. From self-centered to God-centered, and from lawlessness to righteousness is possible only through the intervention of the Holy Spirit. 2nd last John 3: 8-10.
But when people continue to sin, it shows that they belong to the devil, who originally sinned. However, the Son of God came to destroy the works of the devil. Those who are born into God's families stop sinning, because of the love of God through Christ dwells in us. Now we can surely distinguish between who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil.
Therefore, every time sin draws me to itself, I proclaim the power of the cross, which is foolishness to those who perish, but the power of God to those who are being saved. Despite our strong decision to follow Christ to the end, we have to fight sin at the same time. We tend to sin because of the sinful nature that we are born with. We are tempted to sin every day when we live in a sinful world, because sin attacks us with arrows, but we cannot do anything on our own. Cast down your sinful thoughts upon Jesus and He will keep you holy and pure. This is the best way to protect yourself from sin and temptation. Therefore, there are two sins condemned by the Creator.
We tend to accept the visible and not accept the invisible. I know many people who accepted the Lord and then turned their backs on Him. They did this because the world of darkness being visible
seemed to them more attractive and voluptuous than the kingdom of God which is invisible. They believe that this is simply absurd. Sooner or later, they will regret leaving God.
The eyes are limited to a large extent that they cannot see what they should.
Handicapped a man
In order to share with an amazing experience that happened in the past (a turning point in my life), while we are at it, I cannot fail to emphasize the beauty of the Sakhalin Island, though I have spoken more than once in an another section of my book.
Although many missionaries have been fascinated by the beauty of Sakhalin nature, to me was nothing special. For I have seen this nature all my life, so there was nothing but ordinary: fauna, flora and so on.
It turns out that I have been blind all my life to nature, it's because I was blind to God.
I remember how they had spent for hours enjoying the nature of the island especially on the seashore by cooking natural seafood. I don’t remember a single missionary who didn’t admire it .However, for me, the Sakhalin nature was so familiar that I did not find anything to be attractive. It was not amazing, no beautiful, as it seemed to the missionaries. I've seen it all since childhood – slender birches, poplars so on. Although there many beautiful flowers can be seen in the forest in summer, I do not pay attention to all these creations until the blindness to God was removed. We humans are not physically blind, but are spiritually. We are born blind to nature and to God, no one can deny it.
After my life had radically been changed, along with it my attitudes toward nature and life. If you cannot see what God wants you to then you must have been blind to God and his creation. Blindness prevents you from getting closer to God. We can see not everything what was created by God, just a part of it. I feel sorry for those who are considered alive, but can not see what they should. I used to think the same way as you do, but now I can see what was impossible to see before. Now I do not just live, but enjoy life, I rejoice every day. Now I want to testify how God revealed himself to me in the light of nature. In other words, what he revealed himself to me through two revelations – general and special.
What are general and special revelations?
Well, with regard to the former, every person is born with. It is a manifestation of God through the nature. The latter is given God when we are born again. Doctrinally it was believed that is a bible and its full manifestation of the invisible image of God which is Jesus Christ in human flash.
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Jesus said in the gospel of John..
That's why we call it a special revelation. We tend to long for nature and its beauty, is it really so. Of course not it's not because of nature but because of something bigger than that which is hidden behind the nature that is God. Our Souls cannot be deceived but what can easily be deceived is our intellect which is the mind. In fact, They have already been deceived by the blindness of the power of darkness. 2 Corinthians 4: 3-4. It says the god of this world has blinded the minds of those who do believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of Jesus.
I have been in such a state all my live until the blindness had been removed.
This is a testimony I believe it will fascinate you as you read it through.
What happened was it was somewhere in the middle of spring, the sky was clear and I could feel the freshness of the morning dew being seen on the leaves of the trees glistening with small drops of. Although the road was broken with bumps and cracks, in this brokenness I have seen something to be admired.
With the onset of spring, the bumps slowly begin to smooth out, leaving behind cracks. It repeats like this all year round.
Although I was accompanied on the road by all God's living creatures, I did not notice this until that hour when God revealed himself to me. Who could have though that after that day everything would change into a new perspective – my view of nature, and my worldview forever?
That day, as usual, I went and picked up a missionary to take her on business. On the way there because we got busy chatting as we ended on a road that leads to the capital of the Sakhalin Island. I still remember everything in detail. To be honest, usually when I'm driving I don't look around for the sake of safety but that day I had difficulty where to look because of the beautiful panoramic view. As we moved forward to our destination, all of a sudden I was a bit blinded by the bright light of the nature being full of colorful sprink flowers of its kinds as if a dark room were lit up by candles. And the high way was all broken, because this road was very familiar to me. I have traveled on that road more than a million of times since childhood. Suddenly before my eyes, the road with cracks and bumps that had not yet recovered from harsh winter. It feels as though I was riding on a carpet that was being lowered by God from heaven. And on both sides of the road, brightly freshly bloomed flowers of various types gave such beauty, as if I was flying over a real carpet of unearthly origin. I saw all the beauty in all its goodness of the surrounding nature, as if I saw it from a bird's eye view. Honestly, I can't find such words to describe what I saw – the color of leaves, trees, flowers, etc. It seemed to me that I really was driving on the most beautiful carpet that nature can create. I also felt as if God gently lowered this carpet for me from heaven, opening the curtain of his world, beckoning me into his world, showing how beautiful it is. From the joy of what I saw, tears began to welled in my eyes. Thus the divine encounter began the transformation of my life. The greatness of beauty was only given me to have tasted only once. However even now I can see it, not in the same way as I did on that day.
Nothing but a miracle could save a boy
What is a miracle? My definition of a miracle is an action or a phenomenon that occurs beyond human understanding- a supernatural event. Such a miracle happened to me two weeks before going to Korea. I have experienced many miracles – I have lost count of miracles.
Why does a miracle happen in our lives? A miracle happens so that we can understand that God is in control of the universe, and we are nothing but his creation. God is the author of the miracle! I do not remember such a person performing a miracle. A person cannot perform a miracle, a person is able to perform tricks, and tricks are deception and sleight of hand.
Despite this humans think they are all that. And unlike believers, they can be cold and judgy. When you talk to people about God, they are so arrogant that they do not want to listen to you, and they argue as if they know everything.
No I want to share with you a testimony that happened in 1994 in Sakhalin. In winter, as a rule, Sakhalin is very cold and snowy, for 5 months, but despite this, the sun shines constantly, even in winter. It makes one feel better in the dead of winter. The short day passes, the snowstorm begins and the long night is approaching, the temperature drops to minus 30 degrees Celsius.
The coldest period of the month is January and February, but the rest of it is bearable.
Although it has been such a long time since the accident happened, I remember that day as if it happened yesterday. How God miraculously saved me from an accident in which a child could have died. When I shared this story with foreigners at the missionary school in Korea, the entire audience was moved to tears. I do not remember such a case when people were not moved by this story. God touches the hearts of people through this testimony, not because it is a heartbreaking one, but God is behind the story. Therefore, it evokes a feeling of emotion and compassion on those who listen to my testimony of the living God. We have been taught at schools that there is no God, I feel like I was drugged or brain-washed or whatever they did to me. And we believed in this nonsense as the truth, unaware that all their statements were based on human lies, guesses, and assumptions. This is a figment of the imagination. No matter how hard you try, it is impossible to hide God, because he is alive and everywhere. I will testify more in detail how God miraculously got me out of a trouble that seemed hopeless and helpless.
What happened was two weeks before we had gone to Korea, the missionary asked me to help register her car at the DVM. Since she was alone, I decided to help her as much as I could. So we went to the DVM to register her car. After the car was registered, we were heading back home. Despite its cold outside, the sun was shining so much that we did not feel much cold. When I was on the way home, on a freshly cleared driveway from snow, I found that it was very slippery. At that point I never thought that in just five minutes I would have to stand in front of the boy’s father, whom I constantly spoke about God out of love. No matter how much I told him about God, and shared my testimony that God had changed my life, he laughed at me. In response, he said, show me God, then I would believe in him. Being bombarded by lots of questions, I did not know how to defend my belief..
As I was pulling up to my home, all of a sudden a boy about seven years old has stumbled into the streets straight under the wheels of a car. He jumped out of a snowdrift onto the road toward my car. At first, I got panicked and frightened than I could not help applying the brakes as hard as I could, but the car kept going and eventually hit the boy. The boy that was visible in front of my car, disappeared as though steam vanishes into thin air. What happened was, he got under the car. It turns out that he got under the wheels of a car under which he has been for a while.
Could you imagine how terrible I felt then? What would you do if you were in my shoes when you don’t know whether the boy is alive or not. All those present and witnesses of the accident thought that he was probably killed after a strong blow; he was a grandson of an elderly who was a member of our church. Think just for a moment, what would happen if the grandson of a believer of our church be killed! Probably, the grandfather would possibly say, where is God, who could not protect his servant?) He was rather encouraged when he was told about it. The following Sunday I shared my testimony at church during a special given time. All those who heard my testimony could not help crying. After this miracle, the faith of our brothers and sisters became stronger than ever before.
When the car hit the boy, the blow was so strong that I felt it myself inside the car. After the car hit him, it kept running over him by dragging him about ten meters, leaving traces of the tires behind it, and then crashed into a snowdrift. Eventually, the car stopped, getting stuck in a snowdrift. At first, the instinct for self-preservation mechanism worked out. I wanted to get out of the car as far as I could, but could not be helped because of the snow.
At that point, my mind was filled with hundreds of thoughts popping in and out in my head clouding everything. I thought this is the end of mission, and would have to be prepared for the consequences of so far unspecified crimes. Although many years have passed since this accident occurred, it still rings in my head as if it happened yesterday. I just break out in a cold sweat every time I recall a car accident. I would not wish on anyone what I have been through.
The tire size of usual cars is 130 but my car is 120. It is very low sitting position car. Since he was believed to be dead I had no mood to live, more over my heart was torn pieces, and the cats were terribly scratching at my soul. I was just sitting in the car in my head I was getting to be behind bars for the crime of killing the boy. Finally, getting out of the car by pushing the door open with my feet as hard as I could. So many people ran around me and my car that I was scared to think of the consequences that I would have to pay for the rest of my life. At some point, I turned into the center of attention of crime.
Among the crowd I noticed the boy’s father who was killing me with such ferocious, piercing eyes. Approaching me, he said, what you have done to my son, I will do the same to you. In response, I could not help bowing my head as a last criminal. I did not have courage to lift up my head in front of him. I told him do what you please. I did not care and I wanted to get rid of this anguish and pain caused by the accident.
Believe me or not unexpectedly I heard a whisper in my heart. The inner voice whispered something to me, and the inner voice was mistakenly the voice of God. As soon as I heard it I turned to the boy’s father and said:, Sergei , don’t worry , your son is alive, but he did not want to listen to me, he got hysterical and so furious that he got ready to tear me apart.
Meanwhile, a guy came up to me and said that he had seen everything had happened and that I was not to blame for this accident. I was the witness to this accident. Then he invited all those present to lift up the car. All without hesitation approached the car, including me.
At that moment, my soul was in peace and no more the cats. Being in such a situation, I learned the great truth that anxiety in soul is the absence of God, the presence of peace is the presence of God. The presence of God is the source of humans’ happiness.
To my great surprise, the car was not as heavy as it seemed to us, so we lifted up the car. While the car was being lifted, everyone was expecting to see what happened to the boy, whose father wanted to kill me. From under the car I heard a boy crying, who was in the back of the wheels. He was crawling out from under the car like helpless a little insect. Seeing with my own eyes that the boy was alive, I sighed deeply that I avoided the court. And he could not believe with his own eyes that he son was standing in front of him safe and sound. Not believing his eyes, in full view of all people, he undressed his son in order to find at least some clue to accuse me. Fortunately his son turned to be without the slightest scratches, not to mention injuries. Isn’t it miracle, is it? Neither could I believe with my own eyes that the boy was alive. He has been saved as might have been expected. I was right about the whisper in my heart. Upon seeing the miracle, tears again welled up in my eyes, tears of happiness and of joy.
There is no doubt whatsoever that God revealed himself to the boy’s father that He is alive and ready to help in time of trouble.
After the crowd has ascertained that the boy was alive, they began to disperse one by one. I was left alone and the Lord. Out of joy I could not but face down gave praise and thanks for his faithfulness and care. After this incident I felt my faith is elevated.
Being convinced that he was safe and sound, out of joy, I could not but fall to my knees and thank the Lord for his faithfulness and unfailing love. I had tears flowing down my face like a river but these tears were not the tears of sadness and joy and confidence that God in whom I believe is alive and real!
After the first part of the service, the chief pastor of the church entrusted into me to lead the second part of the service. He told me to get ready to lead part 2 of the service. As soon as he said that the announcement has already been made. I just stay at him and I am whining, and badgering, but he does not relent. At the thought of speaking Korean in front of the church congregation I did not know what to do but obey if the lord willing. Why not try to persuade him he may give in but he walks way. Before leaving, he says that pray so that the holy spirit would guide you. Being in such a situation, I could not help but pray that the anointing of God would descend on me. I also prayed that God would help me to speak in a tongue.
Now it was a time for the second part of the service, before I was allowed to speak in the pulpit, as befits the chief pastor, he started off by introducing me to the them that I had come from Russia.
As soon as I stood in the pulpit, then my whole body would start to shake as never before. Suddenly I recall the miracle that happened before I came to Korea. I don't remember how I spoke, but I started my massage in broken Korean, and everyone being present there was moved to tears, praising God! And at the end of the service, the people came up to me and thanked me for my word.
This was my first sermon I had ever done in Korea. It turns out that the miracle happened for a special purpose.
Something happened to me that had never happened before. Believe it or not, what happened was I heard a whisper in my heart that gave me a great consolation. It was an inner voice. It whispered something to me by which I was surprised at. At the same time I was tremendously encouraged as is expected to be. That is what we need today to live as we should, to be in peace. ( if everyone experienced the voice of God, there would not be any war and terrorism around the world ). I am sure that the inner voice was the voice of God. I found out about it later.
As soon as I heard the voice of God, I told the father of the child with confidence that your son should be ok, Sergey, don’t worry, your son is alive, but he refused to listen to me. Instead, he said : " How dare you say when you killed my son! Still furious got ready to tear me down, and destroy. Back then he was seven years old, now he should be about 27 years old. I am curious what he is doing now.
In the meantime, a man came up to me, who tried to comfort me by saying that he had witnessed what happened – you are not to blame for this accident. Then he made all the men come and lift up the car. Without any hesitation, everybody got engaged, including me in lifting up the car. At that moment, for some reason, my heart was calm and in peace. The peace in my heart was the assurance and confirmation of the presence of God in time of need. How can a person have peace in his heart when he has seemingly committed a crime? God told me that nothing happened, so I calmly began to react to this situation. Being in such a situation, I learned a great lesson, that the anxiety in my soul was the absence of God's peace. Peace is the presence of God. And God's peace is the source of human happiness. Until I experienced the loving hands of God, did I not believe when people say that their lives are protected by guardian angels. Yes, what they have said is true, but not for everybody, it is only applied to those who are selected by God. -Those that are crushed in spirit in obedience to God. The bible clearly states that God gives grace to the humble, but opposes to the proud. Even though God exists, no one can experience the living God until he is crushed in spirit. An angelic visitation is believed to protect us from trouble and difficulties.
In order to find out what had happened to the boy, we had to lift up the car. To my great surprise, the car was not as heavy as it seemed. Therefore, we lifted it up without any difficulty. As the car was being lifted up, everyone was curious if the boy were alive. As I had heard the voice of God, I could hear the boys crying and crawling out from under the car like a defenseless little insect. What a joy and hope that you are protected by angels who are God’s ministers.
I was convinced that the God I believe in is really alive and at work. Not only that, but also every cell in my body confirms the fact. I feel like crying out aloud like the baby that needs to be fed on milk. It is apparent that the God we believe in is the omnipresent and protector of our life. It turns out that He never let us be in a trouble, and if He does, he will give a way out for us.
Being convinced that the boy was alive, everybody was speechless. That just made my stent slips. As soon as the crowd was assured of, it began slowly to disperse one after another. And I was the only one left to myself. With the feeling of satisfaction, and thankfulness I kneeled down before the living God, though the ground was too cold on I gave praise and thanks God for defending me to be innocent. After this incident, my faith not only grew fast, but reached its peak, the climax of my walking with God.
I feel the peace of God was poured out on me like never before. I feel like God saying, do not worry my child and you don’t have to worry about the consequences for the incident that happened. Stay in peace. Then at length, I took a deep breath that I should have been behind bars. My eyes were focused on Jesus alone to have been with me for having been with me in the situation that seemed to be hopeless and no way. I believe that our Lord can solve out the impossible in no time. That’s what our God is for.
The boy must have been saved by the guardian angels so that the glory of God was to be revealed. So many people became an eye witnesses to what God had done to reveal Himself.
If he had not been protected, I would surely end up in jail. Seeing the son, at first, the father could not believe his eyes that his son was standing in front of him, safe and sound. I think he does not want to believe that his son is safe and sound. So in the presence of the crowd, he strips down the child to find any bruises to blame me. Unfortunately, he could not find any but accept the fact as it is. To his great surprise, his son was without the slightest scratch, not to mention injuries. Isn’t it a miracle! I also could not believe my eyes that the boy was alive. This might happen only in dream or in movies. After making sure that it was a miracle, tears rolled down my cheeks that could not hold it back. However, these tears were not the tears of sadness, but rather, the tears of joy that God is always with me. God showed the father of the child whom I was constantly preaching about Jesus, that God is alive and ready to help in any troubles.
He is too loyal and faithful to be trusted. After this experience, I promised that I would never drive a car again. However I did not keep this promise to some extent. The time had passed and it healed my wounds, and I forgot that incident, and again I got behind the wheel, but in Korea. Whenever I drive the car, I do it very carefully, looking around to make sure there is nobody to be seen. If suddenly children appear in the distance, my legs instinctively slam on the brakes. If God is with us, who can be against us! When I shared my testimony with M.T.I students and professors from the USA, England, and South Africa, they asked me, if he is alive? I remember saying if the boy got killed than I would not be here in front of you.
The language is changed
God has amazingly changed my personality, habits, and interests etc. My mouth used to be unclean. I was powerless to control my tongue. Bad words are forced to be out of my mouth because it was my nature. I did not even suspect that in this way I had been defiling my body,
It's been over twenty five years since I forgot what curses are. Although I was bad at words, God's rod changed me. I used to love to tell jokes, and make people laugh, but all my jokes are offensive languages. Ever since I was a child I remember making an oath, knowing that I would not keep it. This was my habit by habits. Once it happened that now I do not swear at all. On the contrary, I make comment to people when they swear.
As a minister of the church, I told one person jokes, containing bad words, after that I had to suffer from pain in my tongue. Before I was a fond of jokes, after painful experience my tongue began sorting out words. I have seen everyone but to no avail. Even the ointments that were bought in the pharmacy did not help. With the unbearable pain, I went into my secret room, where I loved spending time in prayer. I opened the bible, and it opened the passage in which is clearly and logically stated about our tongue This is what I like to do to prepare my heart before holy God. Don’t take a genius to work it out, does it? it. James Chapter 3.it is about our tongue. After reading the passage I found out the reason why I had pain in my tongue. I got goose bumps all over my body which made me repent with the tears for my tongue being full of filthy mass. Then God touched me in such a way that my heart was filled with peace, the flame of love flared up. Then I again became convinced that the Bible, though it was written by people, it is the word of God.
The content of the Bible is the reflection of our lives. God will never allow His children to dishonor Him with their unworthy behavior. Therefore, interfering in our lives, changes us into a positive image, sometimes punishing us with a severe test. Whom God loves, He also punishes. He does this not to hurt us, but to make us stronger by faith. Honor and glory to Him – He deserves it! After this incident, my pain and wounds disappeared.
In order to prove this, God gave me the word: 1 Peter 4: 1. Be sure to recommend reading this verse. We are people that we do not want to admit that we are sinners; we are always looking for an excuse, relying on our righteousness. If we do not recognize as it is, we will never taste the goodness of God. In essence, we are by nature, all sinners, we ourselves will not be able to change our lives, and get rid of our bad habits, if God does not interfere in our life. However hard you try, you can not get rid of your bad habits, and negative things that are not useful. On the contrary, negative things ruin us and cause us to age faster than it should. I feel sorry for people who do not value their health, they ruin their lives. I am very surprised to see people get older because of bad lifestyle. Outwardly, they look old, when asked they are much younger. Keep your health when you have it, when you lose it, it will be difficult to keep it. Appreciate what you have now, otherwise you will regret for the rest of your live.
God continues to change people and their minds into what God wants them to be. I have many examples on this subject, not only about myself, but about other people. Even God still changes those people who have been behind bars. Having accepted Christ, they have not only been changed, but also bring great benefit to the needy.
Also God has changed me into an image that no one was able to recognize me. The pas is the past .Although many friends know me as a good person, I wasn't as good as I should be. I clearly remember after the service the pastor of the Russian community church in Australia complimented me on my heart it's like a sheep, and your preaching makes my faith jump. Although he made a good comment on me, I thought to myself if I deserve this comment. This is not of my deserving but of God's. I remember standing next to him, and the tears come to my eyes, and I could not help but thank the Lord who transformed me and cleansed my filthy lips with the word of truth!
James 3 chap: The tongue is an embellishment of falsehood.
I remember describing already more in detail how God taught me a lesson with his word of truth by prickling my heart and cleansing my lips. Or else, I would not have been able to carry the word with my unclean lips to other people. When the Seraphim flew and spoke Holy, Holy, Holy, and the house was filled with incense.
What happens when a person feels the holiness of the Lord, he simply falls to his knees. No soul can leave untouched by God's holiness.
As a result, the holiness of the Lord penetrated into my consciousness and every cell of the essence. Isaiah, who was the prophet, realized that he was a man with unclean lips. And I said: woe to me! I am lost!
For I am a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Isaiah 6: 5
God changed me completely, now only my appearance remains, but God changed my appearance, too for His glory! Even friends, seeing me, cannot recognize me; they say that I have become different. By doing this, they glorify God despite of themselves. …
And how much God had to work on me to shape and cleanse of dirt and lawlessness. This was not enough; he forced me to go through the crucible of pain and suffering to be used for his glory. He who suffers from the flesh stops sinning 1 Peter 4 ch: 1
In Jesus I became a completely different! In 2 Cor, it is said that our flesh perishes, but our souls are being renewed every day. This is the secret of Christianity. The Epistle to the Colossians says: For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When I began to be changed, even my friends were surprised at. I stopped getting involved in drinking company as usual, I was treated as abnormal.
Blessed are those whose hearts are pure.
A few days later I felt completely different. Finally, my conscience gained freedom! Wounds and pains disappeared, and there are no more struggles. God forgave my sins and made me the way He wanted to see me. When people asked me where you were going, at first I was ashamed to admit that I was going to church. Church in broad sense meant a strange place where aged people were concentrated. I did not want to be laughed at, so I just lied to them that I was going to a meeting. A few more weeks passed, I found that I became a completely different person, not what I was. Jesus, having secretly penetrated my heart, changed my unsightly heart into a heart of hope. Not only my heart has been changed, but also my outlook on life, and my values, interests and attitudes towards people have changed. The desire for alcohol and carnal pleasure disappeared. This is a real miracle that my life was transformed into the image that no one expected me to be. That’s the way I was meant to be when God had a plan for me.
Supernatural healing!
This part of my story is the most incomprehensible section of my testimony, which seems to be a fantasy at a first glance, but is based on a statement of fact.. Once you read it you feel through your skin the presence of the Lord.
I can’t but emphasize on dreams given by God to make sure the God given dream no matter what, ultimately it comes true. As you might be aware of God’s plan for Joseph, that God revealed it in his dream. He was one of the patriarchs to be a model of faith. He was chosen to help fulfill God’s plan for His chosen people. Although he had been sold by his brothers into slavery, he did not mention to them what evil they had done. When he told his dream, his brothers laughed at him, but his father kept the matter in mind. Gen 37:10-11 Joseph could have taken revenge on his brothers, but he did not do that.
Do you know why? In my opinion, he did not go for it, because he firmly believed in the promise of God. In fact, he had no doubt that God would exalt him, as he showed him in a dream.
Hence we can draw the following conclusion that dream may come from God. How do we know whether it is from God or not? Well, it’s simple the dream that comes from God contains a profound meaning and His hidden plans.
Thus, we must keep the dreams and visions from God to the end, until they are fulfilled. This is what Joseph believed and held on to. Therefore everything that God shows inaccessible not to everyone should be appreciated! Therefore dreams and visions given by God should be valued as a treasure of spiritual heritage. No matter how difficult it is and no matter how it seemed impossible to fulfill, keep and take care of them, in the end they will come true.
If you live with a dream, sooner or later you will achieve the desired result you were striving for. In addition, through dreams, God will bless you so that everyone will be surprised at! I am a living example. I was able to have a breakthrough in the midst of difficulties because God constantly reminds me of the vision he showed me back in 1995. With such a vision, I could be sure that God would never leave me and let me down. I went through many difficulties and a valley of lamentation, which I lost track of. I have seen many people who find themselves in a similar situation, like me, but their hope was instantaneous and unproductive. Almost all of them gave up on their lives, because they did not understand that the difficulties and pains that God placed on their shoulders were not in order to destroy, but to bring them to a different level of life. I hope you understand what I meant by that.
As I mentioned, God has always been, is and will be with me, no matter what happens, and on my part all that is required is to hold on to Him. For He is leading me by the hands, along the rocky and thorny paths to a bright future.
I believe that you can do anything as long as you can dream it. Sooner or later you will achieve what you have been striving for. I am a living example. I was able to have a breakthrough in the midst of difficulties because He reminds me of the vision He showed me back in 1995. With such a vision, I could be sure that God would never let me down. I have gone through many difficulties of lamentation, which I lost track of. I have seen many people who find themselves in a similar situation, like me, but their hope was instantaneous and unproductive. ,
In 2000, I accidentally find out that I am sick with something.
One day during a sermon, when I was translating the message of the senior pastor, all of a sudden I started to feel dizzy. At first I thought it would pass, on the contrary, these signs became more frequent every time, and I realized that this was no accident. Those Thoughts did not leave me for a minute that something had happened to me. Then I came to the conclusion that I was seriously ill, so I needed to come to terms with this and have a medical examination. Therefore, I turned to a well-known doctor to check me up and take a blood test. The outcome of the medical examination was terrible as might have been expected. I was not afraid of the result, because I was firmly prepared for it. As expected, after a while I find out that the hepatitis C virus has been detected in my blood. He feels sorry to tell me but there is no way to escape out.
Back then I did not know what hepatitis was, I thought it would probably like jaundice, and therefore I was not scared. But my assumptions exceeded my expectations.
Therefore, I requested my church friends to pray for my illness. As soon as I told my Canadian friend John, he found the data about these diseases on the internet. The information on it was various and found to be new one. This disease is very rare and cannot be cured overnight, like the other types of Hepatitis. In my case, the virus is in the blood, so it cannot be easily removed.
Thus my torment and suffering began, which lasted more than ten years. There was a day went by when I did not have headaches and some discomfort. At first, I began to self-medicate, hoping to soon get rid of the disease, taking expensive drugs, such as bionormalizer, herbs, but nothing helped, on the contrary, self-medication made me worse. Then I had to go to the doctor of the famous Kosin hospital. Examination of my liver revealed that I have an extremely high level of hepatitis C. Then I was forced to be hospitalized. There the doctors first took a biopsy, and then prescribed me a very expensive injection – interferon. A very unpleasant injection, it somehow reminded me of an injection that I got ever since I was teenager in Sakhalin. When I got injected with interferon, I felt hot steam in my mouth. The nurses taught and trained me for a week on how to properly and independently give injections. After this intensive training, I was discharged from the hospital. Since no one could help me with the injection at home, I myself had to give the injection for six months, at home. For the first two weeks it had been painful and stressful to endure, but then I got used to it. I was depressed at that time because it drove me crazy. At night I could not sleep, so I had to sleep with the TV on. I suffered all night, but only in the morning I began to fall asleep. Everyone told me that I looked bad. At work, my acquaintances began to talk too, which made it seem to me that I was out of my mind. Therefore, while I was on the interferon treatment, I somehow had to avoid meeting people. After a long battle with this injection, I began to feel better, the headaches and discomfort disappeared, but it did not last long.
After a while, I had this hepatitis again; everything returned to the former – malaise, headaches and discomfort. Again because of this illness, as before, again I began to quickly get tired and exhausted, and lost all hope of continuing to fight this illness.
I remember when I came home after work, by that time everyone was asleep, I was left alone with myself, in a secret room, which was specially separated for prayer. Especially I felt loneliness at night, when everyone was asleep, although I was not alone, but the illness brought me to such a degree that it seemed to me that I was alone. During the day, I somehow did not notice, because I was surrounded by people and kept forgetting that I was sick. You are surrounded by familiar people who constantly show sympathy for you.
I knew that the Lord was with me, no matter how terrible I felt because of illness.
Once I remember I came home from a mission as dog tired although I did not work to such an extent to be tired, but I was so tired, as if I had been working all day at a construction site.
Actually, I am a builder by profession; I studied at the construction school as a bricklayer-assembler and graduated from it. After graduating from it, I worked at a construction site for a long time. Not only did I erect the walls and corners of the building, but sometimes I have had to stay late at work because of the concrete, especially when we were doing the floor screeds. Then we have had to take the puff up late, carry concrete on a stretcher and pour it in the basement, and cars with concrete never stopped coming. Sometimes they made 15 trips, one ZIL-130 Dump can hold 15 tons of concrete. We were tired as dogs by the end of the day; this was repeated every day.
One day I came home from work, feeling tired, as if I had been working all day at a construction site, went into my secret room to pray.
On that day, instead of praying, rather a murmur against God began from my lips: what have I done that you are giving me such a test! I don’t go to nightclubs, I don’t drink, I lead a normal life, and I bring your precious word to people. But why are you sending me such terrible torture and torment! Then such silence reigned, one could even hear the breathing of children soundly asleep in another room. In the midst of this silence, there was a sudden crash, and I opened my eyes. Believe me or not the books and magazines that had been placed at the head of the bed for a long time began to fall one by one, like a domino effect. Upon seeing such a strange phenomenon, it made my eyes almost pop out. For the first time I saw that the books were falling from a horizontal position.
Suddenly I was seized by fear and a feeling of trembling that I was not alone, but God was with me; goose bumps ran all over my body, and naturally, tears flowing like a river my cheeks
Despite of myself I found myself on my knees, and instead of murmuring, repentance began to emerge from my dirty lips.
On my knees, I began to repent and apologize to God so that he would forgive me for my murmurings and discontent. After repentance, I was filled with peace and peace, and most importantly, with the confidence that I was not alone, and boldly went to bed.
I cannot find the right word for this case. The most appropriate word, I would say, is a supernatural phenomenon – an action that is contrary to the law of physics, or, in other words, a violation of the law of physics. The books could not have fallen by itself so easily, especially since they were there for a long time. These books were in this state for several years, no one paid attention to them, they were simply abandoned! How they could have fallen remains a mystery to me! The most interesting thing is that the books began to fall at the very moment when I began to complain to God. There is not the slightest doubt that it was a sign from God that he is always with me. In such a wonderful way, the Lord constantly supported me with his invisible presence in the midst of difficulties and adversities.
In fact, I could not lead a normal life due to the fact that I was constantly tired and could hardly stay on my feet, because I was exhausted to some extent.
Do you thank God for giving you health?!
Whenever I see people being healthy, and leading an ugly lifestyle, First, I envy them and second I feel sorry for them because they do not value life and on top of that, they are worse than animals. Even animals do not behave like that. At least animals know their children, but the people do not know God, who created everything, and all the conditions for our well-being.
I just feel sorry for them, especially when they get drunk and behave in an inappropriate way. They just need nothing but strong alcohol, and they do not think that leave a terrible impression of themselves to other people.
Come to your senses, people, you were not created to live like this, but you were created for the glory of God! If only you knew what the grace of Christ is, it would be worthwhile to plunge into the grace of Christ; you would become a new creature – healthy mind, healthy body!
Every minute of my life was not a joy, but a burden. It can be said that I did not live, but simply existed. At that time, I was not interested in anything, no other than getting rid of this disease, that’s all.
No matter what hospital I went to, what kind of prayer houses I just visited, but there was no benefit, on the contrary, my health became worse and worse. I remember a diet specialist came from Japan. I went to this meeting hoping that I would get well. After the seminar, I did as I had been told. I decided to try to stay on a diet. I completely removed all unhealthy ingredients from the food: salt and other seasonings, ate as she recommended at the seminar. On the recommendation of a specialist from Japan, I had to consume tasteless food for several days, after which, for the first time in my life, I realized the importance of salt and its role in food. As a result of this difficult diet, I have lost a lot of weight. I began to weigh 67, and usually weighed 72 kg. Everyone said that I had lost weight and looked bad. Honestly, the diet did not give anything, except for weight loss, only wasted time that's all.
I did not know what to do, I felt like hiding somewhere out of sight, but nowhere – my family and children.
Finally, I made the decision to go on a mission. First I went alone to Russia in the city of Novosibirsk. There I got a job at the plant of the branch of the Korean company "Chokopai Orion", as a translator, and on Sundays I served in the church. Due to visa problems, I had to return to Korea. Soon after I got from Siberia, we got a call from my wife’s friend a missionary from Kyrgyzstan, she told us to come. Having passed a medical examination for HIV, my family and I went to Kyrgyzstan.
Much more needs to be said, but I just decided to omit it – there is no spiritual benefit from it, and it has nothing to do with a miracle.
In short, I have spent many sleepless nights, my wife is an eyewitness. Over time, the disease reached the point that the same thing began as in Korea – no strength, no energy to communicate with people. However, I had to pretend that I am healthy and happy when I was sick and miserable. Judging from on the look of my face other missionaries knew that I was sick but no one dared to say that I look terrible. I tried not to meet acquaintances outside, was locked up in my world while sick. Even my wife and children did not suspect about this, because they saw me every day. It seems to them I play pretend. I noticed how I was getting old by leaps and bounds; It was evident from my appearance. I was afraid to look at myself in the mirror; I didn’t want to get upset once again, although sometimes I had to.
Sometimes I would go to early morning devotion. The first thing I do is to look in the mirror at my aging face. Naturally, looking at myself in the mirror, I could not believe that it was me. (If necessary I keep a picture of that image)
In order to maintain my health, I went to a gym near my home. Almost every day I spend a time in the gym, doing dumbbells and barbells to raise tone and feel strength. However, no matter how hard and I tried it didn't make me feel better; on the contrary, it got worse.
I was sick and tired of fighting this disease, but there was nothing I could do about it. Finally, a miracle happened! Besides, it happened far from Korea.
What happened was that, after the gym, being tired and in a bad mood, I came home and went to bed, without even having dinner, to disconnect from this torment and unpleasant feelings that overwhelm me. However, I woke up at 3a.m due to anxiety and some discomfort. It was after the midnight, but my wife did not sleep at that time. Then I told my wife I was not feeling well and I needed to go to the hospital for a blood test. In response she said: why do you think that you need to go to the hospital? This is a spiritual problem, you need to pray!
Then I did what my wife said. I sat down on the chair next to my bed to pray. To be honest, I had no mood and desire to pray. After sitting for a while, I went to bed, stretched out my legs, and asked God to take me to himself, because I was tired of fighting this disease, my strength was already exhausted. Besides, I am of no use to You, Lord!
I remember lying on a bed, my wife covered me with a blanket to keep me warm. I remember that well! As soon as I closed my eyes, I had a vision that I look elderly and frail, and besides, I was dying. This was the same vision back in 1995.According to my spiritual experience, what happened to me in a vision it seems that I was still in the body but not fully. I feel the same peace and joy that cannot be found on earth. As a father, the first thought crossed my mind: what about my children, who will bring them up, how will they grow up without me and who will take care of them? Probably, I think, such a thought comes to every parent when he or she leaves his children prematurely for another world.
Then I saw myself from the outside, but in a different time, not in the time in which we live, but outside of time (it was all I was in the flesh). I mean, our life is limited to a lot time, but life without time is eternity. According to the Holy Scriptures, in the beginning God created man to live forever, regardless of time. In fact, in Russian means eternal being. However, after the fall, the first man limited himself to time, putting boundaries on it. There is such phraseology: outside of time and space. In other words, living in time means being separated from God and living independently, relying only on yourself. Therefore, unbelieving people live and do not need God. No matter how you tell people about God, they look at you as an abnormal person and in response they say: why do we need him! We live well without him.
As the Scripture says, people themselves became like gods. That's why they don't need God! Russian proverb says:" life without God is meaningless. Even if people do not want to have God in their minds, God still continues to love and forgive! The essence of God – He never intervenes in people's lives forcibly if people do not want to. I know this in the light of my spiritual experience over the years.
Why did I come to this conclusion? When I did not know God and lived without Him, I did not feel his presence; his attention was not drawn to me.
I clearly saw myself, but in a different image, and I looked much older than my re years, and besides, I was dying. It turns out that God can show in advance your future image of how you will look in a few years. How amazing God uses time as a time machine. Basically, I couldn't figure out what vision meant at all. The vision does not take place in time to which we are attached, but outside of time.
And then I felt some kind of state that was familiar to me back in 1995.
So I died, but suddenly I was seized by such joy and a world of unearthly origin, which filled my whole being. I was completely surrounded by an amazingly bright, blinding light that cannot be found in this world. I felt so good and easy that I wanted to scream with joy that at last I was divorced from this earthly torment and my body! I was in this state for more than two hours, I realized this later, but there it seemed to me, only a few minutes. Then God returned my essence back to my body, I felt some kind of limitation that freedom was no longer there. When I opened my eyes, I saw my wife beside me. It seems to me that she sat and prayed for me.
God returned my youth and health!
Now I have at least a little idea of what happens to a person when his earthly life ends. It turns out that we do not die, but be transformed into the image of an imperishable person. We just disappear from this world, but this does not mean that we will not be. We simply become a physically intangible being, we can see the world and everything that surrounds us, but the people can't. This is a mystery. This experience gave me confidence what will happen when we, i.e. essence or consciousness, let us free ourselves from sinful flesh. Overwhelmed with joy and confidence in the afterlife, I began to scream at the top of my lungs and could not hear what my wife was saying. When I opened my eyes, I felt so good with joy and peace, as if nothing had happened to me, which I had lacked for ten years.
Being filled with joy and peace, I could not hide it, keeping it to myself, and without hesitation, I immediately decided to share it with my brothers and sisters during the morning devotion, which we had held illegally. After this incident, I began to feel better than ever before. Once again I felt a surge of strength and energy, which I had been lacking for many years. Finally, I got rid of this bloodsucker (I called that hepatitis C), from which all my strength was exhausted to nothing.
The Lord miraculously healed me of hepatitis C, which doctors could not cope with! Nothing is impossible for God! It seems to me that in order to heal me, he released my essence and, having healed the flesh, returned it back to my body. In other words, I cannot find an explanation for what happened to me. A miracle, and a miracle again!
Apparently, it was so pleasing to the Lord, because he needs me as a tool for preaching the gospel. We can say that I had a second wind or a breath of fresh air to continue my career further.
From here began a new chapter in my life!
It feels like God gave me a new body and new life. In all likelihood, he needs me in a body, and not without a body, in order to bring people the good news about Jesus.
There is still much I have to do to fulfill the will of God that God has for me. – I believe that this is just the beginning of my ministry, and the climax is yet to come.
After this supernatural miracle, I felt uncomfortable for two days. My mind did not succumb to my control, you want not to think so, but, unfortunately, it did not work out the way I thought
That day I was heading home on a minibus, and looked out of the windows I saw cars passing by, among which there were foreign cars, but they all seemed to me like some kind of moving metal boxes, and the buildings were also gray and inconspicuous, as if I saw them in black and white.
As I mentioned above, I could not control my mind and control my actions. My behavior immediately betrayed that something was wrong with me. This condition lasted for two days. After I returned to my previous state, I thought what kind of phenomenon was that. After a long, deep thought, I came to the following conclusion: God did it on purpose to change my interests and values in my life. If earlier I had some kind of craving for worldly things, such as a car, a computer, etc., now they have become indifferent to me, it doesn't matter with or without it. To be honest, after this event it became much easier for me to handle the situation. Now I'm not really interested in things that are not very useful.
After this incident, I began to feel well, from being weak to being energetic again. Once again I felt a surge of strength and energy, which I have been lacking for many years. Finally, I got rid of this bloodsucker, from which all my strength was exhausted. I was miraculously healed from the Hepatitis C. With the power of God, nothing is impossible.
It seems that God had a spiritual surgery on me. At first, He makes me fall asleep, takes my soul out of my body, and put it back after my body was healed. Otherwise, no explanation is possible. In other words, I cannot find such words to describe the miracle that I had experienced with. More importantly, I had a visitation from the Lord at the time of need .More than likely God needs me because I am his chosen vessel to spread the gospel of Jesus to people who may be under the power of darkness. After that marvelous experience I began to feel as if I was given a new body. God wants to use me while I am alive, there is still much to be done to fulfill the will of God that remains in the bible. I believe that this is just the beginning of my ministry
The climax is yet to come.
Shortly after I was freed from the bloodsucker (figuratively) I did not look at all like myself as if I got out of mind. Happily, it did not last long but only two days. To be honest, I cannot forget or won’t forget what I was like. I was easily noticeable by the people who I was familiar with. They all told me about my strange behavior that I could not help running away.
I remember going home after the lesson was over at university, I noticed a strange phenomenon as I looked out of the window of the bus. The streets of the city and buildings that I was passing by which in reality are very colorful and attractive but during two days of that period they seemed to have been dull and ugly. The decent foreign cars and trucks that were passing by all them looked like metal boxes and nothing more. At first I wondered what’s wrong with me. I have never felt that way before. So I was so afraid that I wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible, but I was not able to control my mind. In the midst of this strange condition realized that God did so on purpose, to change my interests and values. Prior to this phenomenon, I had had the craving for worldly things, such as: cars, computers, and etc. However now it turns out that the things I liked have become indifferent to me. It makes my life simpler but then spiritually powerful. From now on, I have no craving for material things. I'm not really interested in things that are of unimportance.
.In conclusion, God has revealed to me something that had been fearful and unknown about death. Actually, it turns out that death is not an object of fear and dreadful anymore but I can surely say that death is no longer an object of fear for someone, but for someone it is an unresolved issue. None of the inhabitants of the earth will be able to escape from it.
I am looking forward to that day
. This is the secret of our life.
Sometimes I ask God: why did you allow me to study and speak English, for what purpose? There must be a special purpose, to use me as a living witness among English speaking community. Now I can surely say that death is no longer an object of fear for someone, but for someone it is an unresolved issue. No one living on earth can escape this inevitable fate.
This is the secret of our life.
Bible quote God gave me after this experience.
Job 33rd chapter Bible:
Why should you compete with him? He does not give an account of any of his works.
14 God speaks once, and if he is not noticed, another time:
15 in a dream, in a night vision, when sleep finds people, while dozing on a bed.
16 Then he opens a man's ear and seals his instruction,
17 to take a man away from any undertaking and to remove pride from him,
18 to divert his soul from the abyss and his life from being struck by the sword.
19 Or he is admonished by sickness on his bed, and by severe pain in all his bones,
20 and his life turns away from bread and his soul from favorite food.
21 The flesh on him disappears, so that it is not visible, and his bones are shown, which were not visible.
22 And his soul draws near to the grave and his life to death.
23 If he has a mentor angel, one of a thousand, to show a man his straight path,
24 God will have mercy on him and say: “Deliver him from the grave; I have found propitiation. "
25 Then his body will be fresher than in youth; he will return to the days of his youth.
26 He will pray to God, and he is merciful to him; with joy he beholds his face and returns to the man his righteousness.
27 He will look at people and say: “I have sinned and transformed the truth, and it was not repaid to me;
28 He freed my soul from the grave, and my life sees the light. "
An elderly man who was afraid of death was a blessing to his relatives 1993
Now I will talk about a man who has worked all his life at the mine in Bykovo. In fact, there was no such person in the village who did not know uncle Kim Sang Soo. He was a highly respected person, literate and kind by nature.
He was greatly praised for his dedication to work and was well received at the mine! Even the chairman of the village council was familiar and maintained good relationship with him. In addition, among the Korean communities of Bykov, he was recognized as a decent, always giving a good example in all respects. When the vote for the candidacy of the chairman of the Korean diaspora took place, the entire community voted for him. As a result, he was appointed to be chairman of the Korean community. He was always ahead of other people when it comes to a big event.
I remember when we didn’t have a place for worship service; he helped us to get it through the village council. At that time we did not have our own place, so we had to rent temporary premises. As soon as he found out that we were renting it, he introduced us to the chairman of the village council, with whose help we got our own premises. And he himself occasionally, once or twice a month, dropped in on us during the service, but he did not have faith as such. Moreover, he did not believe in the existence of heaven and hell. Now many people go to church, but in their hearts they do not attach special importance to this.
My wife, as a missionary, was responsible for the church in the village of Bykovo. Accordingly, she was very strict and principled when it comes to the holiness of the church. If believers behaved in an inappropriate way, for example, there was a scandal between believers, they walked sulky, we had to visit them in order to reconcile. Although my wife was younger than them, she could make a harsh reprimand to them. Thus, she tried to keep the church clean and holy.
This man never smoked or drank strong beverages in our presence. He did it all in secret. We would often go to visit their house; he treated us generously and wholeheartedly. His wife was a member of our church. Once we met by chance near his house, he was standing and smoking. Then my wife jokingly tells him: "Grandpa, if you smoke, you will not go to heaven." In response to this, he aggressively attacked her and said: "Show me a person who has ever been to paradise!" To which she replied: "We go to heaven by faith." Then he added: "What difference does it make to you if I smoke or drink." She said: "Grandpa, don't be offended by me, I'm just worried about your health." He took the joke seriously. And then we went our own way. After that we did not go to visit them, and he avoided meeting us.
It has been several weeks since we last met with him. However, a rumor reached us through someone that he was in the hospital and was seriously ill. We were just about to visit him when his wife called us. Since she was a friend of my mother, she called me Kisu. The day she called me and repeated my Korean name, it meant that we were not strangers, but familiar. She asked to come to the hospital as soon as possible. She also said that doctors had diagnosed her husband with cancer and that her husband had recently been to heaven. At first I took it as a joke and did not believe it. Despite this, we put everything aside and drove to the hospital in a car.
By the time we arrived at the hospital, in the room in which he was, there was no one around except him and his wife. As soon as they saw us, they joyfully received me and my wife. His face shone and it is clear that he was filled with joy. Immediately on the face it is noticeable that he experienced something unusual.
In general, he is a little dark by nature, and maybe because he smoked a lot, but that day his face shone brightly. Before Christ, I knew him very well, because this family is my friend's relatives. When I was a godless, his son and I often played cards at weddings or funerals.
According to his wife, all the relatives went home before our arrival. Just recently, before we arrived at the hospital, the assembled relatives, sitting next to him, mourned that he had died. As soon as we crossed the threshold of his room, his wife was glad to see us, but a little saddened by the news that her husband has cancer. However, the most surprising thing was that he behaved calmly, and his wife asked us to listen to him. He was sitting on the bed, staring at me, and so confidently said:"Kisu, I will probably live another twenty years." Where did he get such confidence and what is the basis for the statement of the fact that he will live another twenty years?
Then he began to talk about his experience of being in paradise. For the first time in my life, I heard from a person about paradise, from the person who said: show me the one who was in paradise. According to him, he suddenly found himself at the foot of paradise; the gates of it could be seen from afar. He saw, as in reality, green meadows, and there was a clear river nearby. On the other side of that river, one believer stood, who had gone ahead of him. She waved her hand and said, Uncle Kim Sang Soo, why did you come here so early? It's not time yet, go back. He felt so good that he did not want to go back. This woman was Vera's mother, where we started the church, because she went to heaven unexpectedly. She will also be discussed in the next story. Her husband experienced a miracle and, filled with joy, went to heaven.
When my wife and I started a church in the village of Bykovo, it was opened so that we could get together and share the word of God. She always looked forward to us, preparing dinner. We had to travel from one church to another by bus. We didn't have a car then. You have no idea how inconvenient it was to travel from one service to another. We went there by bus, and returned home late, and besides, by two types of transport. Thank God, and then the Lord gave us a car, seeing how it was inconvenient for us running back and forth. We worked actively, and therefore God gave us a car.
We went there twice a week to attract many young people to Christ. In the village, we constantly stayed with this woman, who was waving her hand on the other side of the river. Her house was the first to receive us. The house became the foundation of our church. In the beginning, there were only old and elderly people in the church, and we had to attract the youth by studying the Korean language. They were interested in this language.
A lot of young people came to our lesson. I myself did not really know the Korean language, and I also taught them. Thus, young people appeared in our church. As for the elderly, in order to attract them to the church, the wife used a medical device operating on a piezoelectric element and treated backache. Many elderly people liked this device because it helped to get rid of backache and other diseases, and they spread a rumor throughout the village that a doctor came from Korea. At first they came from curiosity, and then they became members of our church. The husband of this mistress also suffered from cancer and suffered a lot, and believed in God. Good strategy, isn't it?
A little about the woman that Kim Sang Soo's grandfather spoke about.
One day her daughter called us and told us that her mother had a dream, as if the angels had come to visit her. My wife and I, as usual, rushed to her house in a car. When we arrived at the house, her daughter and she were sitting on a bench. Seeing us, she was delighted and said to me:"Kisu, it seems to me that I will live a long time, and do not worry about me." Her face was shining, it was difficult to determine from her appearance that in three hours she would go to heaven.
We prayed for her and returned home. However, somewhere around 4 pm, her daughter called us again to inform that her mother had died. As soon as we heard that her mother had died, we immediately postponed all our affairs and went to her house. By that time, people gradually began to gather near her house. And as soon as we appeared there, her daughter met us and told an interesting story about her mother, how she painlessly went to the Lord. She was surprised at the news that her mother had gone to heaven so calmly, so unexpectedly.
Before going to heaven, Vera's mother asked her daughter to bring her something tasty to eat and hug her tightly. When her daughter returned with sweets to hug her, she was already cold. She very calmly and painlessly went to heaven. When I was convinced that her mother had left peacefully, I thought that God was taking His children away without any torment, moreover, calmly. After this incident, my faith became even stronger than it was before.
After this woman left, a few months later her husband followed her. His story is also very interesting. More and more I was convinced that God does not take believers without the assurance of salvation, but necessarily gives confidence that He is, and then only takes them. Therefore they so calmly leave for eternity.
And so grandfather opened his eyes and saw that all those gathered were crying like at a funeral. He asked,“Why are you crying? I'm alive!"They tell him in response that they had only recently seen the doctor; he said to prepare for the funeral. Then he says to them: go home.
A few days later he was transferred from Bykovo to Dolinsky hospital. That was in 1993, when I was attending seminary. Before going to seminary to study, I visited him in the hospital. I remember when I entered his room; he met me with tears in his eyes with joy and said: "Soon I will go to heaven." Then he asked to say hello to my wife and apologize to her on his behalf. He continued to say: “Now I understand why your wife bothered me, and what she meant, and she was right! I am saved from eternal destruction! "Hearing these words, I was moved to tears, but I could not imagine that he would leave so early, because he was positively disposed to fight further. But his wife, being next to her husband, saw how he was tormented by the procedures.
As a human being, I can't just imagine how he endured such torment when his stomach was washed with water by a tube. He suffered more not from cancer, but from the washing procedures. Eventually, he went to heaven. However, his death did not become a stumbling block for unbelievers, on the contrary, the daughter-in-law became convinced that he was in heaven, and then she herself believed in God. Looking at everything that happened, my faith grew, and the doubt that people would go to heaven disappeared. Every day I praised the Lord our Savior, falling on my knees, and imagined green meadows and a clear river, which he talked about.
The next day, his body was brought home. On the door, as usual, it was written in hieroglyphics that he had reposed. This was a tradition among the Koreans in Sakhalin. Every day endless streams of people, including Russians, came to say goodbye to him. When they saw that he quietly left, everyone was surprised at! Everyone said he was asleep. As a result of this, his last journey turned not into sadness, but joy, as if not a funeral, but a wedding. His last journey became proof that God lives. My wife was in charge of preparing the body for the funeral. Seeing how she touched him without fear, I stood aside and just marveled at her courage. Where does she get so much courage! I would not dare to do this.
After he was buried, they found a letter under the mattress that he had written at the hospital to his children, whom he writes: "I am going to heaven, if you want to come where I am going, obey Missionary Choi." His funeral turned into a joyous gathering. As a result, many relatives accepted Christ.
And his wife lived in the hope of seeing him in heaven. Ecclesiastes 7: 2. Better to go to a funeral than to a wedding, Solomon suggests that we go to a funeral because there is a message for all of us.
I saw off three or four believers on their last journey, including my stepfather. As for the stepfather, the doctors themselves were surprised at how calmly he went to heaven. I remember they said that my stepfather left so calmly that they didn’t have time to blink an eye when he fell asleep forever.
The fact that my brothers and sisters go into eternity calmly could not but affect me positively. Someday we will all go there too, it's a matter of time. Now I hate the word "death", instead of this word I prefer the word "eternity" or "the end of earthly life." Thanks to miracles, my faith grew by leaps and bounds, like a plant being watered. Although I have another story about a person who experienced a similar situation, I think this is enough to be strong in the Lord, to resist the values of this world.
His youngest son has not yet come to God, for some reason he still avoids me. I recently met a sailor who works with him and knows him very well. They are on the same ship "Aniva".When the sailor came to the seamen’s club again, we got into a conversation, and I learned from his story that he works with the youngest son of grandfather, Kim Sang Soo.
I asked him to send my regards to him. And he did as I asked him. However, being not far from our club, he did not dare to come to visit us.
God revealed Himself through the rainbow. 1995
What does a rainbow mean to you? God showed the first rainbow to Noah and said: this is the covenant made between Noah and all living creatures. And God promises that he will no longer punish the earth with water. This covenant still remains in force, but in addition to this, there is a covenant to be made between the individuals.
One fine day, my wife and I got together to go to the office to be discharged from the housing registration book. When we left the village, on the way a huge beautiful rainbow appeared in front of us, it was so close that we were stunned by the sight of this unusual beauty. We saw for the first time at such close range!. Usually a rainbow appears far, more over after the rain, but that day there was clear weather and it was five steps away from us, because the very reflection of the rainbow on the tree spoke for itself. From feelings of trepidation and joy, I pull over. For a second we froze to admire it, but for me it was a special message that God will always be with us whatever happens! And so it was, as had been expected.
Unlike my wife, as for me, whenever I have a particular phenomenon, I attach some special meaning to it. The rainbow we have seen has a special meaning for us.
This happened a few days before we had left for Korea in 1995. As had been expected, things went well after that covenant made by God.
In a short period of time, with the help of the Lord, we were able to solve a problem in three days, which cannot be done in a month! We managed to check out and make an extract from the housing registration book, and we gave the apartment to another missionary.
However, we didn’t expect to experience another problem at the Kimpo airport, Seoul, Korea.
On that day, there was joy and peace in my soul that the Lord is always with us!
Here we are standing in a line and waiting for our turn to go through passport control and customs inspection. Then there were no scheduled planes, but a charter flight, which was very rare at that moment..
Here we are standing again with the documents in front of the border guards to go through passport control, and one of the border guards pushed my son aside Daniel, but let others go through. At first, I got angry at the border guard for his unacceptable manner, but later realized what he had done was appropriate. Naturally, I had to go out with my son, because my son did not have his entry visa. The border guard told me: Don't come without the entry visa of your son! As a result of my negligence, not only us but also all my family had to leave the waiting room again. Until now, I cannot understand how I could have forgotten to apply for my son's entry visa, which is of great importance. Frankly speaking I flew to the Korean embassy, which is in Vladivostok on purpose to get his visa as well..
Although many years have passed, it sticks to my mind, which makes me think over and over again why I had forgotten to get a visa.
At first sudden panic overtook me and began to rush around the airport. My wife began to grumble at me. The whole mood soured, I did not know what to do, because I had been driven into a dead end. My wife screams at me for my negligence, and I let go of my head. Then I sat down on a bench and began to pray for God’s guidance. All of a sudden the peace descended on me for no reason and I was confident that everything would go as planned. This was the providence of God. And I was one hundred percent sure that God would solve this problem out in no time and in an amazing way.
On the one hand, it seemed that I was out of my mind, or God orchestrated specially to show a miracle so that he would be glorified. On the other hand, I was just inattentive. Anyway, what happened happened.
When my wife found out that it was my fault, she got angry with me. I had been trying to reassure her, convincing her that everything would be fine. After all, we saw a huge rainbow, which was the sign that God would be with us even if we got into trouble. I told her that we do not need to be discouraged, no matter what obstacles await us on our difficult path we must trust our God. In such a situation, I looked like a fool in front of my wife. There was nothing I could do about in such a situation but pray to be guided by God's providence. Then I had the feeling that God heard my prayer, which was inside of me, and said everything will be fine, child! God was moving us in a direction from a worldly point of view that seems to be unimaginable.
If the other person were in my shoes, he would have frozen from despair. As I finished praying, the wisdom of the Lord came upon me that makes me act out. So I could no longer watch my wife grumble at me.
In order to act out I went outside, and took a taxi to go to the OVIR (department of visas and registration). I had only 40 minutes left until the office is closed. I made the taxi driver hurry, he drove as fast as he could that we got there in 20 minutes, and besides, there weren't many vehicles on the track that day. However, by the time we arrived in the department, it was 6 o'clock. It was the end of the working day!. But the door was
still open, so I went in there, then a woman came up to me, waving her hand that the working day was over, come tomorrow. Despite this, I began to whine and beg her, but she did not want to hear me! Being frustrated and in despair as I was about to leave, but suddenly God prepared the woman I was familiar with. When she saw me, she recognized me at once and asked: What brought you at this hour? I explained to her everything that happened at the airport. She says: show me your passport! So I handed out my passport, which did not have my son's entry visa, she examined it carefully, and then she says: just a minute. She took it and wrote something on it by pen, put a seal, and said: now enjoy the trip! Having taken the passport with the temporary visa, I went to the airport as fast as possible, in the same way as we came but the time was late. Although I arrived in the airport late than I should have been, the flight was delayed due to technical problems. The moment I entered the airport, I found my wife and children, they were eagerly waiting for me. By the time I got to the airport, she calmed down and behaved properly. Thus far she knew nothing about the result of what makes me be absent. Apparently, she guessed from my face that the cases were resolved successfully.
The women have some senses we as man know nothing about. They are likely born police officers- don't try to cheat on them, they will find out in no time what you have done. No man can hide anything from them!
Then I showed her my passport with the handwritten visa.
Being convinced that we had our son's entry visa, we went successfully through passport control this time without any cavils.
And now we are on the plane. As soon as the charter plane took off by spreading its wings towards the sky. From a sort of a helicopter perspective, the beautiful panorama of the Sakhalin Island with all its glory is being opened below me. The more the plane climbed higher, the smaller everyone around became, and I could see the outline of the island, becoming smaller and smaller. Suddenly, tears began to well up in my eyes, but these tears were not tears of sadness, rather the tears of joy and assurance that God led us all the way. Leaving the island with open wide fields, and cars rushing back and forth, I felt so good in my soul, and forgot all the difficulties that I had to overcome with the help of the Lord.
However, we faced another serious problem with regard to passport and some other documents that were related to Korea law at the Kimpo airport, Seoul, Korea.
When we arrived at the Kimpo airport, Seoul Korea, I did not think that I could be detained and interrogated for more than an hour without being allowed out.This was due to the registration of marriage, which was important for obtaining citizenship. I didn’t know that a lot of problems were expected in Korea.
I had already lost hope that they would eventually release me from the airport, because they thought my passport was fake, and my daughter is not our daughter she must have been kidnapped. In this case, I turned into a sandwich, I could not enter Korea nor could I go back. Therefore, if I begin to describe in detail everything that happened to me at the Kimpo airport, I think it will take a long time. So I have to let go of something a little and get to the point.
My wife had a picture of my daughter Deborah attached to her pasport, which were believed to be fictitious. Because of that, we were held detained at the airport. Although we were married in Russia in all respect, our marriage is considered to be illegal in Korea. In fact, even though we were married officially in Russia, in Korea this marriage is not accepted based on the Korea marriage law. It all boils down to the fact that my wife is a citizen of Korea, and I am nobody, because I did not have Russian citizenship nor Korean..
It turns out on the basis of the Korea law of marriage; the embassy employee had no right to attach my daughter's picture to my wife's passport, because my wife and I were not married under the Korean law of marriage. .
Then how was I able to enter Korea in 1994 with the same picture of my daughter being attached to my wife's passport without any hindrances!? Back then we came to Korea to find my parents' roots. Then the thoughts of my son's visa crossed my mind that forgetting about the visa was nothing but the grace of God.
If I applied for my son's visa, then everything could have come up to the surface of an illegal visa of my daughter in 1994. Here again the providence of God is traced behind the scene.
As I recall now, the customs service that held detained us immediately called the Korean Embassy to clarify the problems. It's good that the employee who issued the visa for me in 1994 turned up at the place, he picked up the phone, and the member of the customs service began to shout at him and question him. Do you remember that you applied for a visa for Moon Deborah last year? Suddenly there was silence, apparently he began to rummage through the documents, yet a year has passed, and he probably does not remember it. A few minutes later, the answer came from there: yes, I personally worked with this document. And the person from the customs service started shouting at him, how do you work that you don't check the documents!? Then he hung up and walked over to us.
He couldn't help but apologize to us. It's their faults not mine. It's good that there is a witness – this is my wife. She was also very worried about me when I was held detained by the airport authorities. Why am I writing all this so that no one dares to say that everything I write is fictitious! How can you deny the providence of God that he made me invisible in 1994 when I flew to Korea to find the remaining documents of my parents.
It seems that one problem has been solved and yet another is expected to appear. In the wake of this problem, the next problem arises; this is that my temporary certificate is considered to be fake..
Although they detained me, I was as calm as ever because I have a picture taken with the Korean embassy member after I was given this certificate at the Korean Embassy.
A few minutes later, a man comes up to me with honor and says: forgive us there is a small misunderstanding here! Now you can go. So we finally entered a country in which problem after problem awaited me.
In short, God made me invisible when I went through passport control at Kimpo Airport, Korea in 1994. Then I flew to Korea with my wife to find the roots of my father, though we could not find it. And then I got the idea that a year ago we went through passport control illegally, but due to the inattention of the South Korean airport authorities. From here, I concluded without any doubt that we crossed the border of South Korea illegally. (All documents saved if necessary)
We also had a lot of problems with an apartment on Sakhalin before leaving for Korea. People living in capitalist countries will never understand what it means to live in bureaucratic countries like Russia and other CIS countries. We had our own apartment, which we gave to another missionary as a gift. Although we gave our apartment to another person, no one had the right to move into this apartment until the problem in the management house was solved. (it was the Soviet reality)
Therefore, I repeatedly had to contact the control house. Being tired of this bureaucracy, all the way to the office, my wife and I saw a rainbow in front of us. I can tell the exact distance because the reflection of the rainbow was on the tree. Seeing such a sight, I was stunned, but my wife did not attach any importance to it. After we bumped into the rainbow, everything went as smoothly as clockwork. From this, I learned that this rainbow was a covenant made between God and me.
Prayer is the key to resolving the problems
After becoming a Christian, I was eager to learn more about Jesus. I think that every person, if he considers himself a spiritually mature Christian who has a little bit of the knowledge of the Lord, has to have a thirst and desire to learn more about Jesus. We must ask questions about who I am, and why Jesus died for me and was crucified, taking upon all our curses. The epistle to Galatians chapter 3:13 is written about this. Christ redeemed us from the oath of the law, becoming a curse for us (for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree"),
Galatians 3:13 – Gal 3:13: Now, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law. He himself bore the curse in our place (as it is said about this:"Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree"),
Paul, too, when he encountered Christ, he says: forgetting what is behind, I stretch forward to learn more about Christ. This is not surprising; it is a common process that every believer strives for.
Because of the spiritual need to learn more about God and Christ, I went to study at the seminary.
In fact, from the lecture of the seminar, I learned a lot of useful things that were unknown to me.
After seminary, I was filled with such a presence of God that I forgot that I was on earth. From a spiritual point of view, for some reason people seemed to me somehow pitiful and insignificant, devoid of hope. The seminary was held once a week, on Saturdays. Seminary students would come from different parts of the Sakhalin Region. It was very interesting that I did not notice how 8 hours flew by so quickly. There was no such case that I let go of the lesson.
In the early stages of my walk with God, God began to pour out financial blessings on me, but my wife constantly told me that this was not from God. It was not easy to give up money that just floated into your hands. But despite this, I had to obey her because she had more experience than me, and she was also a missionary.
For I was just a fetus in Christ, who was only trying to get out. Moreover, at
Оглавление
My biography
History repeats itself
The Collapse of the Soviet Union. 1991
Handicapped a man
Nothing but a miracle could save a boy
The language is changed
Supernatural healing!
An elderly man who was afraid of death was a blessing to his relatives 1993
Prayer is the key to resolving the problems
