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Dear Coworker:

"Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith." (1Ti 1:18,19)

Dear Samuel Lee, if you compare yourself to Timothy, do you have a good conscience?

Already, in the twinkling of an eye, the year 2000 has gone by and the new year, 2001, has dawned. I pray that the love of God who sent his one and only Son to be a ransom sacrifice, the grace of Jesus who accomplished God's salvation work by bearing all of our suffering and sins in his own body on the cross, and the work of the Holy Spirit who binds us into one body and gives us the courage to have faith in Jesus may be with you, my dear coworkers, in this new year.

May the love of God be with you, too.

When I
look back on this past year I realize that God's grace to me is boundless, and I am grateful to God for the opportunity which he has given me to grow spiritually.

It's great to hear you have grown spiritually!

Because I do not have a shepherd, ...

Poor man! Don't you know everybody in UBF has a shepherd? Many of us are desperately seeking for sheep. You will surely find a good shepherd in UBF.

... I accepted the apostle Paul as my shepherd ...

Good idea! He will surely not rebuke you too much or give you inhumane trainings. Just wanted to remind you, that there is an even better shepherd, Jesus. Ever heard of him?

... and I made his epistles my text book, and this is how I have grown until now.

Great! I will tell my shepherd to quit bible study. From now on I will only accept the apostle Paul as my shepherd, then I will grow as large as you did. I'm sure he will be
amazed!

His word is like a precious jewel to me; it teaches me and fills me with God's grace. And sometimes his word disciplines me like a flail.

Does this flail hurt as much as a baseball bat?

In the past 1500 years, Korea has suffered from factionalism, internal divisions and power struggles. As a result, so many people died of hunger and innumerable people were killed by the sword. Last year, when I saw such a power struggle going on in UBF, ...

Power struggle going on in UBF? Tell me more. The director of my chapter never told me. Anyway, what power can a person have in UBF?

... I realized that we were only following all over again the bad example of our ancestors.

Yes, of course, confucianism and so on. You are certainly free from such ideas, I assume.

I prayed daily to find God's will and new direction.

Need for a new direction for UBF.
Sounds good. I heard some refo... er... rebels say that, too.

Every night just before sleeping at midnight I sang the Lord's Prayer two times and put everything into the hands of God. This is how I spent each night.

Yes, better not care and put everything into the hands of God. Especially if it's a mess you have fabricated yourself.

As I read Paul's Epistles the words of 1Timothy 1:18 and 19 came to my heart and gave me comfort and showed me God's direction. As we seek to live lives of faith we find that we are engaged in a battle with the devil. But Paul told Timothy to "Fight the good fight."

"... holding on to faith and a good conscience."

I will quote Mathew Henry on this passage:

And let us be upright in our conduct in all things. ... May all who are tempted to put away a good conscience, and to abuse the gospel, remember that this is the way to make shipwreck of faith also.

color="olive">So even though I was struck and wounded by all of Satan's arrows, I only fought the good fight.

Of course, you always did.

I did not to use human means to fight back.

Never! And what about inhumane means?

Every time I heard slanderous lies,...

That must have been very often... But of course, it's all slander. Everything just invented for fun. Or by satan.

I thought, "I must answer this false slander."

Oh, yes? Other people thought that, too.

But I realized that no matter how truthful and right my answer to these slanderous false statements might be, if I answered anything I would only become a crazy dog fighting other crazy dogs.

I understand, if you answer truthfully, you will become a crazy dog. Your logic is ingenious. Anyway, I did not know that there are so many crazy dogs in UBF already. Fortunately, you did not
become a crazy dog, too.

So I only prayed. My most difficult battle was the one I fought with myself to fight only spiritually.

Yes, we now. You never made politics. You always fought only spiritually.

Because of your prayers I am still clinging to life and I am so grateful to you.

Nothing to thank for. Our director always asked us to pray for you and we simply obeyed, as we are used to.

I will continue to fight the good fight of faith.

And don't forget to hold on to faith and a good conscience, too. Just in case you did not remember.

I think that to fight the good fight of faith, not to bite and scratch like fighting dogs is the right attitude of God's servant.

You are so right. Those crazy dogs out there only want to bite and scratch.

No matter what happens to me in the future, ...

Do you fear to be torn
in pieces by those crazy dogs?

I have run the race of mission for 40 years, and I am grateful to God. That is all.

Of course. Who cares about the problems other people have? By the way, David and Salomon reigned for 40 years. Good time to abdictate.

I am thankful to God for using an unworthy servant like me in raising Korea from a sorrowful and fatalistic country like a flower under the wall to a country of bold heros of faith who have gone out to conquer the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Why didn't you receive the nobel price for peace instead of the president of Korea? You achieved so much more for you country! Once it was only like a flower under the wall, but when you came, it became a country of bold heros (and a few crazy dogs we don't count here).

This is God's great mercy on Korea. But I am so sorry that the Korean UBF has not been able to bear this great blessing of God.

You are so right. In some document of 1976 they already said (quote) "We can not bear it any longer." Fortunately, US, Japan and Germany have been able to bear this great blessing you are much longer.

When I see the political infighting in Korea and hear how non-Koreans in the various mission fields, and especially growing sheep who respected Koreans read the slanderous accusations on the internet become so disappointed in and discouraged by the Korean UBF, my heart is very heavy and sore.

How miraculous the non-koreans could understand the slanderous accusations by the Korean UBF, which are written in korean language!

However, I am convinced that God has a good purpose for his people who love him and he has a purpose for us, so we must follow the will of God and fight the good fight of faith.

Just in case you forgot ... holding on to faith and a good conscience.

Paul says that one who fights the
good fight must have a good conscience.

Finally, you got it.

One who has a good conscience does not slander and gossip about others but bears with the weaknesses of others and seeks to be a good shepherd.

Someone like you, I assume...

I am also a human being who is both good and evil.

No! I always thought you were something different.

The hardest thing for me is to maintain a good conscience.

That's why I repeated this point.

When UBF began, we sought to use 50% of our material gifts for world mission, 25% for relief work and 25% to take care of the flock of God.

How concrete!

This was our UBF direction and this was our conscience. But there were many times when it was very difficult to keep this principle.

Would be interesting to hear more about that...

But even
though it was difficult, I kept this principle no matter what.

No doubt you always used 50% of our material gifts for world mission, 25% for relief work and 25% to take care of the flock of God! It was hard, but you did it. No matter what.

There have been many international conferences and Chicago has been responsible for financing them all.

I assume Chicago also payed all of the oversea tickets and the conference fee for everybody.

At the last MSU international conference, missionaries suffering on the front line came from all over the world. We wanted to make their visit joyful and meaningful, so we chartered a plane which carried 175 people.

It surely was a great joy to sit in a plane with 175 people. And so meaningful!

We bore the financial responsibility for this in Chicago. We also paid for the expensive hotel accommodations.

I'm sure you worked hard day and night to
pay back those expenses.

Those whose consciences have been burned with fire have been planting doubt in the hearts of missionaries and students about how the offering money sent by missionaries as their tithe has been used.

They even slandered, that not only missionaries, but also native shepherds and sheep offered money over all the years, and the tenth of all chapters and sometimes more went to Chicago.

But this precious money has never been touched. It is all saved.

In this ingenious way you also achieved to spent exactly 50% of our material gifts for world mission, 25% for relief work and 25% to take care of the flock of God, because nothing was spent and 50% of nothing = 25% of nothing = nothing! Good to hear it's all saved. Let's hope moth and rust won't consume it.

I know very well how much the missionaries on the front line suffer from poverty. I know the deep meaning of the offerings that
they have made. Only God can use this money. My conscience does not allow me to touch it.

That will be a big event, when God will be stepping into the bank to use the money, finally!

When the time comes, and the government allows it, this money can be used to purchase a center in Russia.

This of course has to be done by God himself or some crazy dog who's conscience had been burned with fire, because your conscience does not allow you to touch the money.

It could also be used to build buildings in Africa that would alleviate our missionaries' suffering from sickness and heat and mosquitos.

What a great idea! I'm sure the missionaries in Africa never had such a great idea.

Those who accuse me of spending this money like water, using it any way I please, only show evidence that their consciences have been burned with fire.

That's undoubtedly an evidence of a conscience that
has been burned with fire!

Your prayers for me are so precious. I can't begin to tell you how much they mean to me. Please help me not to engage in a dog fight, but to fight the good fight of faith. Pray for me to do the work of God with a good conscience. Depending on your prayers, I conclude my new year's greetings to you.

I will continue to pray for you. Especially for the good conscience issue.