The Problem, the Answer, and the Time Schedule

I grew up with my mom who was a nonbeliever, but all of a sudden, one day when I was in middle school, my mother became a Christian. Soon after that, she became an evangelist and a pastor. I enjoyed evangelism as I grew up, and it’s about knowing the problem, the answer, and the time schedule.

The reason I chose to talk about evangelism is that it is aligned with the time schedule of our church, and I want to forum about how I evangelized at the remnants’ age.  Why do we have to evangelize? Let’s read Genesis 1:27 together. 

This is not something I’m just making up, but there’s a pastor who actually told me about these words.  God blesses us and God gave us the gospel, and this is not so that we can live a good life by ourselves, but He told us to be fruitful and increase in number, and to fill the earth.  I wanted to tell you guys that evangelism is not something they do only if they have a talent for evangelism, but if we have received the gospel, then it is rightful to share that with others.  That’s just the basic, it’s the predetermined truth.

The thing that’s good about evangelism is that your human relationships will become so easy.  The point of view you see, you’re able to understand other people and to get along with them, becomes very different.  If I want to forum about myself a little bit, my mother was a pastor and evangelist.  Until I was in high school, my mom was completely a nonbeliever, then she completely fell into the gospel and became a pastor.  I don’t want to say my mom is crazy for the gospel but she’s really into the gospel.  The time she fell into the gospel was when I was in elementary school. 

She was always in the field and always showed me the image of her evangelizing.  It was to the point where my mom would stand in front of the gates of schools and evangelize to passersby; that was the trend back then.  So, as I came out of school, my mom would be there with the other evangelists, passing out these tracts.  Honestly, it was a little embarrassing. Even during birthday parties, after we had eaten all the food, we would go to church and do body worship.  It was very natural for me, I grew up very close to what evangelism is, and what saving lives is. 

The reason why I wanted to tell the remnants about evangelism is because, through my life from middle school to now, there was a stream of evangelism in my life. When I was in elementary school and middle school, I saw my mother giving the gospel to random strangers.  When I was in elementary school, I would just follow her, but in middle school, I would give the gospel to other people.  Then, as I got into high school, I started seeing some of my friends and developed relationships with them. 

There was a time when I was able to see the field of shamans, so I spiritually got deeper.  In high school, I learned about what nurturing is.  I realized that after you evangelize to someone with the gospel, that’s not the end; you have to nurse them like a baby.  Then, as I got into college, God showed me this nurturing, going beyond that to gatherings and regional meetings and regional churches.  I wanted to share with you, the remnants, how I evangelized while I was a student. I’m not going to write a message, but I want to explain to you how I see people when I was young and when I became an adult.

This is a plant, they have a root, a stem, and leaves.  We can see the leaves right here, and most people only look at that, but even when they look at the plant, they only see it physically.  They only see the outer appearance, “Why is this student so into boys? Why is that student so into video games?” but we need to see the leaves spiritually.  The leaves I see are the six states of the nonbeliever.  You all know this, first, they are children of Satan, and this includes our spiritual problems.  We worship idols, we have mental problems, physical problems, hell, and the future generations, these are the leaves that I see. 

I can see that they’re children of Satan, but the stem I see is that these states of the nonbeliever have flown down to these individuals through their family and family background.  Whenever you see a friend like that, there’s a lot of time when they were scarred by their parents.  Is the perpetrator in that situation the parents?  If you look at those parents, they also suffered from their parents.  Then, those great-grandparents suffered from their great-grandparents, so those problems continue down the family line.

If you follow it up, it goes to Adam and Eve, so the root I think about is the root, fundamental problem.  That’s how I see, that’s the fundamental problem.  But I think what we see is not the only thing that’s important, because it’s so easy for everyone to think that someone who is just into video games or addicted to something is seized by Satan, and everyone can come to that conclusion easily when they see it, “This is a fundamental problem,” but I think we need to go beyond just seeing that, I think we have to analyze and diagnose these people, including ourselves. 

We need to see not only the leaves and the stem, but even as we see the stem, if we’re continuously praying for this person, it is revealed to us by the things they say. When you’re able to see that, then you can even go to the roots.  Then you can go all the way to the point of realizing, if our fundamental problem is not resolved, people have no choice but to be like this.  If there’s a plant that is dying, but the roots are alive, then the whole plant can come to life, so that’s why we need to save the root.

You know how to save the root, right? It is Jesus Christ, and for me, that is why I think Jesus Christ is the solution to all problems.  Because, any problem, any person, Jesus Christ completely solves that root, so all problems are finished.  So, if we go full-force into this, when I think about what I need for evangelism, there are three things that come to mind.  I think, really, things like boldness or confidence or being bold with your words are not necessary. I think it’s completely finished if you know the problem, you know the answer, and you know the time schedule.  Even if one of those three things is missing, I wonder if evangelism can take place.

So for the remnants, you need to have the eyes to see this fundamental problem, this whole thing.  You need to have the assurance of how to solve this through Jesus Christ. Then finally, importantly, you need to have the eyes to see the time schedule.  Moreso than this coming from experience or repetition, you’ll have a moment or circumstance where you have no choice but to evangelize to them. Based on these three things, I’ll tell you about actual examples of how I evangelized.

I remember this from middle school, I was at home and got a call from my friend.  My friend’s parents had gone out of the house, so they were so scared, and it wasn’t just regular fear, but they were afraid that there was a demon or evil spirit in the house, and they could hear it.  So, they called me saying, “I’m so scared of this ghost, I can’t even do anything.”  Because this person was a child of Satan, I thought it was rightful that they were scared of demons.

Because I couldn’t tell the friend the entire way of salvation on the phone, I said, “You don’t have to be afraid of that. Demons are just the sidekicks or henchmen of Satan, so once you believe in Jesus Christ, you don’t have to be afraid of that problem, and it’s so rightful, we know we don’t have to be afraid of evil spirits.” That was the first time I evangelized to my friend, and I remember we did the acceptance prayer together, and she became a child of God.

In high school, I had a friend who had a very difficult life.  They had a lot of problems in their family and with their parents.  We were already so exhausted from having to study and go to school, but this family was struggling so much because of his family problems, too.  As I was talking to this friend, I realized they had a very strong Buddhist background in their family.  So, they were really intense about doing ancestral worship in their family, and I saw the idol worship. 

I was able to see idol worship.  I asked this friend very candidly, “After giving all of this worship, has this faith ever helped you?  Are you bowing down to your ancestors? You’re actually bowing to Satan because Satan wants all of your worship,” and as I told this friend about Satan, we did the acceptance prayer together as well.  I’m continuously telling you how to save this plant, to go down to the root.

I continued into college, and in the dorm, there was an older girl who couldn’t come out of her room because of depression.  Even if we had a meeting or a time to meet up, she would cancel all her plans at that time.  Its’ not only with me, but she had to cancel anything that involved her leaving her dorm, so at night, I was eating chicken with this girl and I didn’t ask her about it, but she just told me about her family.  I just wanted to eat chicken but she kept telling me about her family.

I had no other choice; because I’m someone who knows the problem and the answer, I had no choice but to give this to her.  I explained to her again, the curse that is relayed down the family line.  I told her, “If you stay in this family line like this, you’ll never be able to break free from it. You’ll never finish it because there is an invisible spiritual world.”  So, she accepted Jesus Christ, and even now, she is serving the church I went to in Korea, but she is still wandering a lot.  I think it’s been about eight years since I evangelized to her, but it’s really hard for her to change.  But even the fact that she’s inside of God right now, it’s so thankful.

Now, I’m a mature adult.  There is one friend I’ve been nurturing, and when this friend was young, they were in a lot of pain.  They are an international student I met in Boston, and when COVID hit, they went back to Korea faster than anyone else.  I thought that was just a coincidence, but it turns out their entire family has paranoia about getting sick.  Because this child was so sick while they were young, as soon as we heard about the virus, their parents forced them to come back immediately. I think this person didn’t leave their house for a year and a half, they were not able to leave their house because of their fear that, if they met with other people, they would get sick. 

We think mental illnesses are so severe, but physical illnesses are very large as well.  So, I explained to this friend where this physical problem comes from.  Yes, of course, with viruses and depending on how God made us, it is rightful that people get sick, however, to this friend who was so afraid of getting sick that they couldn’t even live their lives, I told them, “Your soul must get along well for your whole life to be well.”

I’ve given you four examples.  I’d like it if the remnants are able to hear this and get some ideas of their own.  Moreso than just memorizing the entire way of salvation, if you know the problem, the answer, and you can see the time schedule, then you are able to evangelize.  It’s so easy if you have a friend who is afraid of demons, to tell them the real state of the demons. 

So, there’s something I felt the most in my life.  For us, we don’t want to go out to evangelize; it’s hard to even go once. Because we hear about the gospel every day at church, we don’t really get moved by it.  I realize that for me, that can be an everyday thing, but for one person in my life, that might be the first and last opportunity to change their life.  I think as I came to that realization, I was no longer afraid of evangelism or camp.  One more thing I’ve experienced or realized is, when we see a person who has a lot of problems, it’s easy to say, “They really need Christ,” there are some people whom even nonbelievers may confess, “Wow, they really need to go to church.”  I’m sure there are many people who are praying for those around them, but even the people who seem normal need Christ.  I realized that even people who look like they’re living better lives than me, or people who look completely normal outside, their root is in the fundamental problems, so they need Christ.

We’re beginning evangelism camp at church. If you are able to see the problems in the people around you, it will become easier to do camp as well.  What I’m saying is, it may seem like I’m evangelizing with no problems and it’s easy, but that’s not true.  I would do all sorts of things, I was pulled to the principal’s office for being a heretic, one of my ex-boyfriends spread a rumor and set up a counseling session for me, but there’s no problem, I’m still alive now. I just receive the thought that everything is in God’s hands.  There are a lot of instances where I gave the word, but they didn’t receive it.  The ex-boyfriend I tried to evangelize to three times, and he said, “I’m never going to receive that.”

Then I realized my mission is not making someone accept or believe.  Whether someone accepts the gospel or not, that’s in God’s hands; it’s not up to me to force them to believe, so I realized where my place is.  My mission is just relaying God’s Word.  Whether they believe it or not, that’s already out of my hands.  After I realized that, evangelism camp really became okay. 

I don’t know if this is easy to understand, but this is all I wanted to say. Evangelism isn’t a heavy burden, but it’s simple. You give the answer to the problem that they have. I want to encourage you to start doing that. Thank you.