One of the reasons I believe in Jesus is because it is mostly rational. Of course, it is different from the theory of rationalism, which regards human reason as absolute. It amuses me to think that the existence of the great God who created us needs to be explained entirely through human reason. On the contrary, when attempting to explain God, there must be a sort of wonder that cannot be rationalized.
God has made himself known through words and actions that we can understand, and the record of this is the Bible that we currently have. If you look at the content, overall we can see that it can be examined rationally – excluding miracles, which have “God-like” elements, because they appear and speak specifically to a specific country or person in a specific era.
I have been attending church since my third year of middle school, but it was during one-on-one Bible study sessions during my first year of university that I really came to believe in Jesus. After that, I spent the four years of university studying the Bible every day. So, personally, I am naturally inclined to loving, knowing, and teaching the Bible.
Looking at my faith as well as watching many believers, I became convinced that a healthy and solid faith is closely related to the Bible. There are various ways to learn about the Bible, and although the church helps us to learn and read the Bible, personally, the best habit is to consistently read and reflect on the Bible for a certain amount every day. This is commonly called QT (“quiet time”).
There are many books in Korea that help us meditate and reflect upon the Bible. Representative books are ‘Living Life’ and ‘Daily Bible’. However, our church has been using a book called GT. We chose this out of our desire to focus on mission, as GT provides both the Word and but also news from those in the mission field.
However, starting in November, I plan to change our bible study book to ‘QTin.’ The biggest reason is that it is available in English and Korean, and also appropriate for all generations – from the 1st generation to adults, and it is written by around 40 employees, so the quality is high. Other books also have English versions, but in the opinion of Pastor HanYo Kim, who came from the United States, many of the English expressions are awkward. However, he said that was not the case for QTin because it is directly translated into English by the interpretation and translation team of Bethel Church in the United States.
Because QTin is a book created by a community called ‘Our Church,’ many of the testimonies contained in it are an honest sharing of the process of recovery of broken families – while some considered this to be inappropriate for sharing with the general public, I hear that they are gradually lowering the level of explicitness. And the content is age appropriate for the versions for children and teenagers.
We hope that non-Korean believers and Youth members who are comfortable with English will actively participate, and that families with children will use it for home worship – and that it will be used as a good tool for the whole family to become spiritually united by reflecting and sharing the same bible text every day. The books are expensive, especially in the case of the English version, but considering the shipping cost, the mission is actually sending it to Europe at a loss for the purpose of missionary work, so I hope that we can all subscribe to build a strong faith together.
