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: Three Cents Column by Director Bong

Three Cents Column by Director Bong of RGO 24! 'Although I am lacking and my writing is only worth as much as 'three cents...' I share the Sunday messages and interpret them with 'the language of the world.''

칼럼_연재칼럼_Three Cents Column

The reason we have to center only on Jehovah

'Regret' about life

Recently, one of the representative political leaders of Korea lost his wife. At the funeral, he expressed his thoughts while reflecting on his life: “Politics is just an empty business. It is a completely empty business that has nothing. When you die, you just die while lamenting.” More so than the loss of his wife, he might have been shocked to conclude that what he had been doing for his entire life was an empty business.

At the funeral, there was another politician who came to give his condolences. Two times in a row he had let [the opportunity] to win the presidency slip away right before his very eyes. He also said to reporters the same thing, that “politics is just a vain and empty dream.” This is not limited only to the field of ‘politics.’ Solomon lived having not only political power, but also unimaginable wealth in his hands--he experienced every kind of physical benefit that humans could enjoy. We all know very well that even he concluded that “life is meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless.”

In a message, Pastor Jung Myeong Seok said, “What you do later is regret.” However, if it were possible to realize ‘the regrets’ we may have at the last moments of our life beforehand and live a life without regrets, that life would truly be a meaningful and blessed life.

‘Joshua’ who lived serving only God

Joshua was a politician and a soldier of Israel, and he lived centering on Jehovah for his entire life. He lived ‘a life without regrets.’ When Joshua realized that he did not have much time to live, he gathered the leaders and people of Israel and said, “Now fear Jehovah and serve Him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your ancestors worshiped beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt, and serve only Jehovah.” Then he said, “But if serving Jehovah seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve; whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve Jehovah.”

He meant that even if all the Israelites did not serve Jehovah God, he and his household would [still] serve Jehovah. He lived centering on Jehovah for his entire life and even in his last moments, he did not waver at all. Through what he said, we can infer the extent to which his life was never-changing toward the one and only perfect Will.

Know the value of God and center only on Jehovah God.

Senior Deaconess Hwang Gee-peum, who recently passed away, emphasized this point: “Do not be greedy for money but be greedy for a faith that serves Jehovah God.” This message is also in line with the Word. We know well that this is truly the wise teaching of a mother.

Like this week’s message, it says that when seen absolutely, the value of Jehovah God is so great that we will never be able to calculate it at the level of humans; it is so great that we will never be able to describe it with the language of human beings. However, in their center and in their hearts, foolish humans judge that ‘they themselves’ are relatively deemed to be greater. Therefore, they center on themselves and cannot cut off foolishness and their attachment toward things that are futile.

Those who love Jehovah God the most and take action according to His Word are truly the ones who fit God’s shimjeong. Because God loves people who are like this to the utmost, He is always trying to give them the ‘best things.’ In the end, the more you center on Jehovah God, the more valuable things you will gain in life and the more you will live a life that gives off a brilliant light without regrets.

There is a saying that one philosopher left, “In one night, one book, one word can change someone’s destiny.” This week’s message perfectly fits this saying. This message is literally like showing you the <answer sheet> ahead of time before you take a <test>. ‘Center only on Jehovah God,’ this message is truly one of my life’s precious milestones.