Following God

For the first time last week I attended a service at the All Nations Church near Taepyong Station. There were only two nationalities present: Koreans and Filipinos. I was quite excited because it was my first time to attend an English service in Korea (the services that I've been attending have all been in Korean since my husband and his mom attends a Korean church, and so even though I've been attending Church for almost every Sunday since I arrived, I can't say that I've actually learned anything from those meetings.)

We had gotten to the Church just in time; Pastor Ansel was about to begin his speech. He began the service by welcoming all of those who were present, including my husband and myself. He welcomed us, the newcomers to this Filipino-Korean church, to which the crowd responded to with a round of applause.
Pastor Ansel talked about about the story of how Jesus' followers watched as Jesus, the man who called Himself Son of God, and Barabas, the criminal who had plundered and murdered and was obviously far worse a criminal than Jesus Christ was, was put side by side and judged in front of a restless crowd. Pontius Pilate asked the crowd who they’d rather set free, and the crowd roared Barabas’ name.

During all this, Jesus’ followers watched in silence; I bet even Pontius Pilate was surprised at this reaction. He put a murderer alongside a man who had no faults at all but to claim that He was the Son of God. In the end though, he had no choice though but to let these people have what they wanted; he set Barabas free.

Believers or not, those who loved God fell silent in front of men.

This also reminds me of the story of Peter, who denied Jesus thrice before the rooster woke the world. It is ironic how we call ourselves Christians and yet either keep silent or deny God entirely in situations like these. I’m not saying I’m any better than all of these people; on the contrary, I might even be far worse. So I can’t help but admire those who still follow God, even though their weekly visits to the church might become disastrous for them. I’ve met some; and these people, for all of their sacrifices, are most probably the best examples of Christians I’ve ever met.