“I did it again. I keep on doing the same foolish thing over and over again. What was I thinking? Lord, forgive me. You know my heart. You know my intentions. You know me. Sigh. Lord, what was I thinking? I wasn’t thinking; that’s the problem. I feel horrible. I’m sorry Lord. What was I thinking?”

Recently, the above monologue kept running through my head and I could feel myself becoming more and more dejected and dismayed. I wanted to make it right but… no, I just wanted to fix it. There’s a difference between wanting to make something right and just wanting to fix it.

When I want to fix something I’ve said or done, I basically just want to make it look like it never happened. I’m rowing down the Egyptian river of denial; refusing to face my shortcomings and sin.

However, when I finally own up to what I’ve said or done, it’s then that I’m willing to make it right. For me, “making it right” means doing the righteous thing. It means doing what pleases my Lord.

The first thing I do to “make it right” is get out of that old ancient river and grieve over what I’ve said or done. I acknowledge my sin before the Lord, stop covering it up and I confess it to him (Psalm 32:5). If I find myself doing this quickly, like I just want to get it over with, then I know I’m still rowing in the river.

Afterwards I read and pray what is true. I pray slowly and out loud passages like Psalm 103:8–14 (ESV) 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. 14 For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.

I will often pray through Scriptures, like Psalm 103, 32 or 51, a few times, not chanting it but just praying through it slowly, reaffirming and receiving his mercy and forgiveness for me because of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

Then, if my sin is against a person, when the time is right (sooner rather than later), I will apologize and ask for their forgiveness. I will try NOT to explain myself or give reasons for why I said or did something (because of our pride, this is very difficult to do!) because I find that when I explain myself, I’m usually just back in the “fixing mode”. I’ll say something like, “So-and-so, I’m sorry for not being honest with you. Please forgive me for deceiving you.” It’s better if you can identify what you are sorry for because it allows the person to know what they are forgiving you for, and if forgiveness is extended, you know what was forgiven. Know that your spiritual growth will be significantly stunted if you have sinned against a person and ask the Lord for his forgiveness but do not also ask for the person’s forgiveness.

After seeking forgiveness, you can rest in knowing that you did the righteous thing that was pleasing to the Lord. If they forgive you, a relationship has been mended and reconciled. If they don’t, at least you were making it right.

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; 3 but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’ 4 And the serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’” Genesis 3:1-5

As described in Genesis 1, the goal of Satan was to have man and woman disobey God. He used a lie to get them to be disobedient. God said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.” Satan countered, “You surely shall not die! 5 For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

Eve, then Adam, decided to believe Satan rather than God. Bad choice. Just as God said, they died spiritually and eventually died physically.

Believing the lies that Satan has perpetuated in this world can lead us to adopt and embrace those lies and they can become ungodly beliefs. Remember what Jesus said about Satan while addressing the scribes and Pharisees in John 8:44. He said, “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” Satan is the father of lies and there is no truth in him.

Let’s return to the Garden.

We learn in Genesis 3:6-7 that “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.”

The woman and the man believed Satan’s lie. As a result, they develop some ungodly beliefs.

From that day forth, humanity has believed that they know as much as God does. They believed something negative about their nakedness. They believed that God could not be trusted and that the world offered something better. They believed that there was an alternative to the truth.

These ungodly beliefs continue today as part of Satan’s worldly system of beliefs. One of the things we should endeavor to do is to identify the lies of Satan that has been embraced by the world and make sure that we do not enfold them into our lives as the truth.

For example, much of the world has been convinced that marriage is not meant to be exclusively between one man and one woman as found in the Word of God. Marriage other than between one man and one woman is an ungodly belief based upon the word of the father of lies.

Another widely accepted lie of Satan is that power, prestige and possessions can bring us happiness, whereas the Bible teaches to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” Matthew 6:33 The Bible also teaches us that true joy can only be found in Jesus and His Word ("These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” John 15:11)

God has called us to live in truth, which means we need to study and understand His Word so that we might be pleasing in His sight.

Take some time and ask the Lord if there is any lie of the enemy that we embrace as truth remembering that only the truth can set us free.

Something to think about…

by Pastor David Kim

At a certain point of his ministry, Jesus found himself speaking to his disciples at the top of a mountain in Galilee. There he began to teach and we are familiar with those teachings, of which in total we call the sermon on the mount. In fact, many popular “Christian” phrases come from there. Blessed are the poor in Spirit, Our Father in Heaven, Turn your cheek, Love your enemy, Treasures in Heaven, etc.

Amongest all of the phrases found within the sermon on the mount, there are a few that I found particularly interesting as of late. As he speaks, Jesus calls his disciples two things. One of the titles he gives the disciples is that of being “the salt of the earth.” Yet, after calling them the salt of the earth, Jesus would continue by asking a question; if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? To which he then says; It is no longer good for anything, but to be thrown out.

Immediately after that, Jesus gives them another title. He calls them the light of the world. He tells them that a city on a hill cannot be hidden. People don’t light up a lamp just for the sake of hiding it under a basket. Lights are meant to shine.

Now I wonder why after he calls them the salt of the earth and the light of the world, both positive and good things to identity with, Jesus quickly moves towards mentioning situations in which those identities can become quickly useless. My guess is that Jesus wanted to remind these ordinary disciples that they were chosen to be something special. They were something special so as to live with a purpose. To be salt which tastes like salt. To be light which shines light. But if they don’t fulfill their purposes, then they are useless. They serve no reason for existing except to be trampled on.

Now this may sound harsh but I think Jesus is trying to make an exhortation to the disciples. He is trying to encourage them to be different in light of what was around them.

You see, all around them was Israel. The chosen people of God. The people who were supposed to know God, follow God, represent God, bless others, and be a vessel by which others would come to know God. Yet, for the most part, Israel had failed in all of this. From the outside they looked fine, maybe even great. They looked like Israelites. They gathered like Israelites. They celebrated like Israelites. They worshiped like Israelites. But it was all just a cover for their uselessness, because they became a form without a function. They were salt that weren’t salty. Light which didn’t shine.

And Jesus is now calling the disciples to walk a different path. To have form with a function. He is reminding them that they are the salt of the earth, so they ought to taste like salt. He is reminding them that they are the light of the world, so they ought shine like lights.

And this is the same thing that we are trying to strive for at City on a Hill, our new Young Adult/Post Graduate Ministry here at Evergreen SGV. Our aim is not to just have another ministry for the sake of having another ministry. Our aim is not to just participate in more forms of Christian activities. Our aim is not to just have a form without a function. No, our aim is to know God, follow God, represent God, bless others, and be a vessel by which people might see our good works and give glory to God. Our aim is to be salty salt and shining lights. Our aim is to be a City on a Hill.

We want to be a community where we would be able to gather to support one another in pursuing this. We hope to be community radically shaped by the love of Christ and conformed to His desires for the glory of God. And today our mission is to propel one another to reflect Christ in our hearts' meditations, life decisions, and daily interactions.

So if you are looking for a place to pursue these things, we want to invite you, not just to check out this ministry, but to come and be part of this ministry, especially as we gather with a purpose, one of which is to be a City on a Hill.

Jesus said, “…and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” John 8:32

The opposite of the truth is a lie. According to Dictionary.com, a lie is “a false statement made with deliberate intent to deceive; an intentional untruth; a falsehood”. Applying this definition to the biblical understanding of the source of all false statements with the deliberate intent to deceive is Satan, the father of lies is Satan, himself (John 3:44).

Lying is embedded in our human nature since the fall of humankind. Allow me to illustrate.

After a long life, and a tumultuous marriage, Stan Herman dies and arrives at the Gates of Heaven, where he sees a huge wall of clocks behind him.

He asks an angel, "What are all those clocks?"

The angel answers, "Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move."

"Oh," says Herman, "whose clock is that?"

"That's Moses' clock. The hands have never moved, indicating that he never told a lie."

"Incredible," says Herman. "And whose clock is that one?"

The angel responds, "That's Abraham Lincoln's clock. The hands have moved twice, telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life."

"So where's my clock?" asks Herman.

"Your clock is in God's office. He's using it as a ceiling fan."

The world is filled with ceiling fans beginning with the original lie in the Garden of Eden. Sometimes the fact that people tell lies leads us to the thing that is most harmful to us… believing the lies of Satan.

What does your Lie-Clock say? More importantly, have you adopted any of Satan’s lies and believe them to be true?

Something to think about and more to come…

This is a piece I wrote for our church newsletter about the Los Angeles Times article that I wrote about in last week’s blog.

On Monday, September 11, 2017, I received a text message (yes, I do know how to text and even have a smart phone) from one of our church members. He informed me that the anticipated article about Rocky Seto becoming the next Senior Pastor of Evergreen SGV was on the front page of the Los Angeles Times.

I eagerly went to our neighborhood 7-Eleven convenience store and bought three issues of the morning paper for $9.75 (I remember a time when newspapers were a dime). I then drove to our staff meeting and eventually read the fairly long article.

I thought it was an excellent article about what transpired over the past three years regarding God’s providential hand moving Rocky from the Seattle Seahawks to Evergreen SGV. I was very blessed to read it.

The genesis of the article started months ago, right after Rocky made the decision to accept the call of God to become our next Senior Pastor. Rocky approached me about a reporter, named David Wharton, wanting to do a story about what was transpiring at our church.

One of my first questions to Rocky was, “Is he trustworthy?” Rocky said that he knew David from his days at the University of Southern California and that he was indeed a trustworthy man. Normally, I refrain from interviews because it is so easy to be misquoted or misrepresented. However, because Rocky trusted David, I decided to consent to the interview.

I first met David when he and his photographer came to our joint worship service on March 12th. He worshiped with us, hearing the story of how Rocky came to be our next Senior Pastor and got a feel for who we are as a church family.

He asked if he could attend a staff meeting and see what happens on a normal day at the office. My first impression of David was that he was a very nice man, humble in spirit so I consented. He said, he would like to interview me when he visited.

After sitting in our staff meeting, he and I got together in my office. One of the first things, I said to David was that I normally record interviews, but because Rocky trusted him so did I and I would refrain from using my phone to record the interview. He said not to worry; he was recording it for the sake of accuracy.

He asked questions and I answered them. It was a very pleasant interview. I enjoyed his company. However, I wasn’t sure how the article would eventually read.

Fast forward to Monday, September 11, I thought that the article represented what transpired really well. There was only one thing that probably could have been clarified, but overall, David captured the essence of what actually transpired. Rocky’s call was a God thing and not a human thing.

I wanted to give kudos to David for being a warm, friendly and a very professional reporter.

Please read the article. It is now an historical piece in the life and times of Evergreen SGV.

By the way, David Wharton has written two book about the University of Southern California’s football program, entitled, “Conquest: Pete Carroll and the Trojans' Climb to the Top of the College Football Mountain” and “USC Football: Yesterday & Today”

This article and other happenings causes me to believe that God has a will and a way for what is going on at our church regarding the transition from me to Pastor Rocky and we can trust Him for it.

Something to think about…