Sometime ago, I was about to enter the highway on my way to the early morning prayer sessions. A truck suddenly came running at me at a very high speed, passing in front of me. Because the truck tried to cross the lane, that he was not allowed to cross, with way too much speed, I had silently thought to myself that he was driving in a very reckless and dangerous manner. But then, the truck started to invade the right lane, only to suddenly swerve to the left. Then he moved back right again, crossed the shoulder of the lane, jumped onto the road divider, and continued to drive with one wheel on the divider until it came down. I was genuinely shocked. The driver may have been sleeping, drunk, or high; what was evident was that his behavior was not normal. Although I tried to catch up to alert the driver, the truck was too fast and the distance between us was already too far.
I was still concerned about the truck while I was driving home. It was only then I realized that I had had a life and death experience. If I was driving a little too fast when the truck passed in front of me, or if the driver had turned the handle a little more to the right, I would have been caught in a major car accident. It was God’s grace that I had still been able to stand at the pulpit that morning. The thought came to me that I should faithfully assume the role of being a pastor.
One of the missions of a pastor is to prepare the congregation for life after death. It is similar to a spiritual hospice. Sometimes, I stare at members of the congregation and wonder how prepared they are for life after death. How prepared are you? If I say “you may have not been saved” to those who are mistakenly convinced that they are saved, they will usually respond in one of two ways. They will either get angry at me or they will ignore me. There is something common in these two contrasting reactions: they do not put much weight into their salvation. Those who are truly saved always examine their salvation, because they know that it is so extremely valuable. When traveling abroad, I will repeatedly check to see if I have brought my passport, since without my passport, all the effort I put into the trip would evaporate. It is so incredibly important to reaffirm your faith in Jesus in your journey through Christianity. I encourage you to attend the ‘Accepting Jesus’ meeting. Please reexamine and reaffirm your faith.
Following the shepherd…
Pastor Jiwon Choi