By Peter Sung, Conference Coach, PacNWC
Over time, I became disgusted with my family’s immigrant church. Politics, status, money, legalism, hypocrisy, judgment, emotionalism – these are the things that I witnessed week after week, and soon enough, enough was enough. In protest, I left.
In college, I openly spoke out against ethnic-specific ministries that spoke English and accused them of being social instead of demonstrating the reconciling power of the Gospel. Why can’t I bring my non-ethnic, non-Christian friends here? These so-called ministries became dead to me.
So I started starting churches, churches that were truthful, diverse, gracious – better.
When I first came upon the Covenant in 1999, I was promised fewer fleas on this dog. Over time, I found some fleas. Sometimes, it seemed like a lot of fleas.
When I was a little boy, when my Sunday school teacher put his warm hand on my bloody knee and prayed for God to comfort and heal me, I remember believing. When I was in middle school, I remember looking up into the Pennsylvanian night sky and feeling really small. When I was in high school, I remember the moment I felt the conviction of sin. When I was in college, I remember giving my life once again to God as I switched grad school plans from medicine to theology.
God’s been walking with me for 45 years and this year, God took my heart of stone and put a new spirit within me. He removed my heart of stone and gave me a heart of flesh. How he did that is another story but here and now, I want to remind all of us, as we enter into Advent and wait for his coming, that Christ can be everywhere but he is nowhere if he does not enter in and give you a heart of flesh. Nothing can really change if you don’t. But, if you have a new spirit, behold, all things will be made new.
I was listening but unable to hear; sighted but unable to see. How wondrous are the works of God!
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26