“The LORD nullifies the counsel of the nations; He frustrates the plans of the peoples. The counsel of the LORD stands forever, the plans of His heart from generation to generation. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom He has chosen for His own inheritance” (Ps 33:10-12).

Are all saints of the Word well under this May sky in the season of dazzling verdure? I bless in the name of the Lord that God’s special grace be upon all your families.
As I look upon my people in the historical context, I ask “What did our people think of ourselves?” I would like to share my thoughts with the hope that it would be helpful in addressing this issue.

First, “Behold!” (John 1:29) “If you do not see, then you will die!”
First of all, think of the word “seeing/looking (觀).” When we say “an outlook on the nation (民族觀),” we all understand that “seeing (觀)” here is not only about what we see with our eyes. For human beings and for any living being, “seeing” is a very important thing. What does it mean for a person to “see”? Anyone who reads the Bible will immediately have an idea. There are people who “see.” People who see! In Chinese characters, we translate this into “seers (先見者).” Originally, there is no word in it meaning “fore-/in advance (先),” so literally it means “people who see.” In Chinese characters, these people are called seers (先見者) or prophets (先知者: people with foreknowledge). To know beforehand! In the original meaning, it also signifies “speaking on behalf of.” So in short, it means “to speak on God’s behalf.”

What are we seeing now?
We will perish if we do not see. This applies to each individual but even more so for a nation. In the Chinese word for “seeing (觀),” the left part of the character represents the owl and the top part of it represents its eyes. Below that is the character (?) signifying a bird. The owl cannot see during the day but see in the dark. Thus, the word “seeing (觀)” refers to seeing things that are not visible, not what is plainly visible. That is why the character “觀” is used in referring to an outlook of the nation (民族觀), not “見,” which also has the meaning of “seeing.” Looking inside life asking “What is life?” and understanding life is “seeing.” Simply put, awareness or understanding is “seeing.” When we speak of one’s “outlook of the nation,” we must understand the concept as self-awareness as the people of the nation, self-acknowledgement, or self-reflection.
So we must examine ourselves along with the question, “how did our ancestors come to know themselves since the olden days?” We really need to examine ourselves. We have to know ourselves. We cannot create history if we do not know. Works create history, but this is not possible if we do not know ourselves, understand ourselves, and see our nation.

Second, “God makes the base things of the world and the weak to know” (1 Cor 1:26-31). “The seed of the Word do not perish” (1 Pet 1:23-25).
The seed that saved us is the seed of the tree of eternal life (Isa 1:9; Rom 9:29). When this seed came upon the earth (Phil 2:6-11; Matt 20:28), He stepped foot into it without any status or power (John 1:14; 1:29). Furthermore, He did not withhold His life but laid it down for all mankind. He sacrificed Himself for us and shed His blood on the cross to redeem us. The seeds of the cross are those who realize and understand the blessing of redemption amid this grace and the gratitude for it, and sacrifice themselves for the nation and its people.
What is the “seed of the Word?” They are people who, without status or power, stand up, serve, and sacrifice themselves for “His kingdom and His righteousness” as well as for the nation and its people. These are the one who remain as they were born; because they are lowly in this world, they keep their original character as God had made them without breaking out of it. In Jesus’ consistent life, He did not have any laughter for the fleshly world. Look at the tragic tears He shed for the city of Jerusalem, which would perish in the future!
“When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, ‘If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation’” (Luke 19:41-44). Look at Jeremiah who spent his whole life lamenting and crying over the nation and look at the Apostle Paul (Jer 9:1; 5:31; 4:19-31; Rom 9:1-5).
For people of status, didn’t they sell off their nature in return for that status? Status is something that can only be enjoyed while the flesh is alive, but they sold off their nature for it. The higher you go up the social ladder, the more they have sold off their nature in exchange for status... We must not have such people in our society today. This country will be eternal if people who fear God in their hearts, who do things according to reason and sound theory, and who are educated and talented rise to high positions and lead the nation (1 Tim 6:19; Pro 28:1-2; 29:2).

Third, we must cry out with tear-filled prayers.
Let us examine the historical context of the prophet Jeremiah’s times. Judah, at the time, was in a pitiful state, both politically and economically; it was extremely corrupt, both politically and religiously (Jer 1:10-19; 5:26-31). Thus as the insightful Jeremiah watched that even ordinary people became corrupt, tears never ceased from his eyes. Moreover, he saw before his eyes that the power of Babylon was spreading with evil intention to attack the nation in the midst of such deprivation and corruption (Jer 4:19-31). As he heard the warnings of war, he could not help but feel deeply grieved and became anxious and sad.
Believers of the cross! Seeds of life! Let us reexamine the cause of Jeremiah’s tears and compare his time with the current situation of our nation! And let us pray to the living God for a people who pray will not perish. Let us love our nation and our people as we love our selves and protect them with faith! More than any other time, the murderous Kim Il-Sung and his underlings in the North Korean regime are sharpening their swords as they scheme to attack the South. How can tears dry from our eyes as we watch the realities of our nation at a time when concerns over an attack are ever-growing ferociously?
“Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bore, and the breasts that never nursed’” (Luke 23:28-29). This was Jesus’ farewell address for the women who were weeping as they followed the cross-bearing Lord.
Let us cry for our nation and our people! Just as King Jehoshaphat and King Hezekiah of Judah, let us plea to God with tears! An altar with tears shall surely be accepted. A people whose sins are forgiven will not perish (Isa 6:13; 35:8). The people who were called the seers of Israel saw what life was. They saw history. They saw the universe. Didn’t all these people live with the seeds of life at the bottom rung of society? Who can deny that the backbone of Israel were the ones who took life (eternal life) with the goodness of faith? They were a people who lived as outsiders that no one acknowledged and yet kept their faith and obeyed the will of heaven.

Dear saints! A people who do not see itself will perish. Those who have visible standing in the society are in the true sense, not the ones who serve the nation, but who feed off the nation. They are people who want to be served. They do not see themselves.
People live in two worlds: a world of the inner man and a world of the outer man. A person who lives by the inner man is the one who serves the whole. A person who lives as the master of the world of the outer man is the one who is served by others. So naturally, they are not interested in any kind of reflection of thought. This is because they do not possess the One (God) who is beginning of the world within (Phil 1:6; 2:13; Eph 4:17-27). They are that way because they do not have “man’s origin” and do not know “life’s origin” (Matt 19:8; John 6:63).
Those who see live and those who do not see perish! Let us become a people who see. Our eyes have to be bright in order to see the heavens (Luke 11:33). We have to prepare the food. No one will do it for us. Let us prepare our own and eat it. Let us work, eat and live for the will of heaven (Rom 14:7-8). And then, let us go.
Before telling others what to do and what not to do, let us possess faith that moves onward; let us know Satan’s secrets and destroy them with the iron rod of the Word; let us shed sweat and blood for this nation and its people. If we Christians cannot fulfill the mission of standing at the forefront of history to save all mankind, then we will not be able to escape the fearful judgment. This is no time for us to live with ulterior motives for ourselves.

Fourth, we believers are the prophets of our time. We are the pioneers. We are the seers.
This is a time of the famine of the Word. We can live on only if we become alert (Amos 8:11; Rom 13:11-14). Don’t just sit foolishly. Even though it is late, the later it gets, the more we need to start digging the well. Otherwise, people will die without receiving the refreshing Word of salvation. Only when we are alert and dig a well that bursts with cool living waters, the ones who come after us get the chance to receive the prophecies. Moreover, if those who come after us live, then we also come alive in them.
Man does not exist by oneself. Man lives as part of the whole. No great prophet can exist out of the historical context.
They did not let life go even when they were regarded as trash bin of history. It is as if when an old tree dies a new life and a new bud revives. “Sprout a new life from my heart!” This is what we need. If we have love for the nation and its people in our heart, let us not gossip. Let us pray to God.
If we want to bear a son, we pray deep in our heart, silently. And when we feel that we have conceived, we should be careful of each and everything that we eat, wear, say, hear, and think; we must be careful of how we carry ourselves and how we act. We won’t show our joy even though we are joyful and our fear even though we feel fear. We shall wait with patience until the baby comes out naturally.
Who would hastily find out how the baby looks and how it will come out from the first day? Anyone who does so must not be the child’s true parents, but strangers, fortunetellers or physiognomists who want to sell that information. This goes true to having a baby, let alone to the religion of the cross that will save the history of all mankind.

Dear saints! Why are there so many people who are deceived when someone proposes to introduce a new religion to them? People are deceived because they have greed in them. We can neither give birth to life nor see it if we have greed.
Look at how a life is born into this world! It is impossible unless a man and a woman is united in body, heart, and soul in tumultuous dynamism. The same goes for religion. We believers only have the cross. We can seek after the new Word earnestly, but we must not try to create the new Word. One who does so is a thief and a robber.
The year 1980! I do not doubt that in this year God will pour upon our nation blessings like the sweet rain of the Holy Spirit, the latter rain and the blessed monsoon showers so that it will be a chance to spread the gospel to this nation in these end times. I only pray for the pastors of the various assemblies who work at the forefront of this movement that
they are always healthy both physical and spiritually.
I have seen countless number of people from all over the country who used to wander about in the dark paths. But when I see them receiving the light of the truth of the gospel of Jesus’ cross and come alive through it, I cannot stop the tears of gratitude.
May this light fill the entire world quickly…Let all the saints become trumpeters of life. Now the vivacious voice of the workers who are creating history is starting to be heard clearly. Let all the saints with the conscience of faith?the ones that heaven has been looking for?arise and shine (Isa 60:1)!
Give heed to the tear-choked cry of the new era and the new Will, and let us rise together and march on!

Senior Pastor Abraham Park