An interview came out today with a man who escaped from a North Korean concentration camp. He is one of only three people on earth who can boast this accomplishment.
Shin Dong-hyuk was born in Camp 14, the labor camp for political dissidents located south of Pyongyang. Political dissent is punished to the third generation in North Korea. Shin lived the first twenty-two years of his life in utter oppression. He was raised by prison guards, not parents. He feasted on corn kernels found in cow dung, because this topped starvation. His mother and brother were executed before his eyes, but he felt no sense of guilt. He’d been raised by prison guards and had no sense of family; his only instinct was survival.
This report hit home for two reasons:
I skipped Western Civilization class today.
PHC is mobilizing to do something about this horror story.
We’ve reached World War II in our study of Western Civilization. A discussion of the Holocaust in Nazi Germany should not be separated from the study of World War II. Today the class watched a movie that showed in graphic and plain detail the human carnage of the Holocaust. Having been exposed to documentation of these atrocities multiple times, I took advantage of my professor’s willingness to excuse any absences from the showing of this movie. I already know that we cannot let a Holocaust occur again.
Two hundred thousand people are in concentration camps in North Korea.
Are we letting it happen again?
I am no policy maker. I am no international relations expert. But I am a follower of Jesus Christ, and I believe that the United States must do something.
Bringing me to reason two.
I’ve become friends with a student who took spent some time in South Korea last semester. The Lord has given her a heart for the Korean people, particularly the North Koreans. She is organizing a project that will be run by PHC to raise awareness about the atrocities the North Korean government is committing and to lobby for the U.S. government to take action. I am hopeful that the Lord is going to use this project to begin to remedy the North Korean situation.
This weekend, there will be a national call to worship in North Korea. Every citizen will be ordered to worship Kim Jong-un. There are Christians in North Korea.
This weekend, our brothers and sisters will be faced with the decision that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego faced in Babylon. They will have to choose to worship the state and bow to a false god or abstain and face almost certain death and torture.
Pray for our brothers and sisters in North Korea. Pray that the U.S. government will respond to Shin Dong-hyuk’s story appropriately. Pray for the North Korean government to relent. Pray for the perseverance of the poor people trapped in concentration camps. Pray that the Lord would be glorified through this project at PHC.
I skipped class today because I am aware of what happened in Nazi Germany. But we learn about this tragedy in order to prevent something like it from happening again.
It’s happening in North Korea.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Vision
This week brought Biblical Emphasis Week and and Pastor Matt Ristuccia to campus. Pastor Ristuccia’s been working us through Ezekiel, and it has blown my mind. We’ll make this brief, because I am overwhelmed by the power and majesty of King Jesus...
...
... And I should be writing a paper.
Ezekiel has four visions throughout the course of the book. The first is of the earth, seraphim, and the Lord Jesus appearing in the form of a human reigning above and controlling it all. The second is of the removal of God’s glory from the temple in Jerusalem. The third is the famous dry bones vision. The fourth describes a river flowing from the south side of the new Temple depicting the flow of grace that would come from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The human mind has three faculties: will, reason, and imagination. Pastor Ristuccia has argued that the Lord provides visions in the Bible to recapture the imagination of the prophet and the audience.
Imagination is powerful. It allows us to picture what is invisible. Of course, it can be used for evil, but a biblically centered imagination can provide vitality to our walk with Christ and unending awe at His splendor.
Pastor Ristuccia advocated the memorization of the prophetic visions in Scripture so that they are readily available to help us take every thought captive to Christ and use our imagination in a moral and beneficial manner. Though I had never seriously considered memorizing passages like Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, such visions were originally given to provide the people with hope. Hope in the power of Christ’s resurrection and gospel has not lost any relevance.
I leave you with the first two visions I want to memorize:
Revelation 21:1-6
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’
And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’
Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.’”
Revelation 22:1-5
“Then he showed me a river if the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.”
May I keep these visions in the forefront of my mind throughout the day. May the pictures that my imagination conjures based on these words cause me to simply live in awe of the Great I AM.
SDG
...
... And I should be writing a paper.
Ezekiel has four visions throughout the course of the book. The first is of the earth, seraphim, and the Lord Jesus appearing in the form of a human reigning above and controlling it all. The second is of the removal of God’s glory from the temple in Jerusalem. The third is the famous dry bones vision. The fourth describes a river flowing from the south side of the new Temple depicting the flow of grace that would come from the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
The human mind has three faculties: will, reason, and imagination. Pastor Ristuccia has argued that the Lord provides visions in the Bible to recapture the imagination of the prophet and the audience.
Imagination is powerful. It allows us to picture what is invisible. Of course, it can be used for evil, but a biblically centered imagination can provide vitality to our walk with Christ and unending awe at His splendor.
Pastor Ristuccia advocated the memorization of the prophetic visions in Scripture so that they are readily available to help us take every thought captive to Christ and use our imagination in a moral and beneficial manner. Though I had never seriously considered memorizing passages like Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones, such visions were originally given to provide the people with hope. Hope in the power of Christ’s resurrection and gospel has not lost any relevance.
I leave you with the first two visions I want to memorize:
Revelation 21:1-6
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, ‘Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer by any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.’
And He who sits on the throne said, ‘Behold, I am making all things new.’ And He said, ‘Write, for these words are faithful and true.’
Then He said to me, ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost.’”
Revelation 22:1-5
“Then he showed me a river if the water of life, clear as crystal, coming from the throne of God and of the Lamb, in the middle of its street. On either side of the river was the tree of life, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse; and the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and His bond servants will serve Him; they will see His face, and His name will be on their foreheads. And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them and they will reign forever and ever.”
May I keep these visions in the forefront of my mind throughout the day. May the pictures that my imagination conjures based on these words cause me to simply live in awe of the Great I AM.
SDG
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