Tag: Story

  • A Story Of A Tree Frog

    In Korea there is a old story of a tree frog.

    The frog was very disobedient to the words of his mother when he was young. When his mother told him to do some work, he would go out and play around doing nothing. He did everything in the opposite way as he had been taught by his mother. If his mother said to go right, he would go left. And if his mother said to do work in the barley field, he would go up a mountain for hunting. He was so much disobedient, and his mother gave up on him.

     

    And when the time came for her to end her life on this earth, she was worried about her tomb. If she told her son to prepare her tomb in the high mountain where there was no danger of flooding, she knew that he would make her tomb near the river and when a heavy rain came, her tomb would have been washed away. After thinking for a long time, she called her son and said to him, “My son, it is time for me to leave now. And I have a wish for you to do after my death. My will is to make my tomb next to the river right behind our home. Then I would be happy.”

    She made this will just before her death, thinking that he would do it in the opposite way making her tomb on the mountain where she wanted him to do. After his mother’s death, the son finally felt sorry for what he had done while his mother was living and he repented of his old ways. And he wanted to make the will of his mother come true by making a tomb next a river where she told him to do. And he buried his mother next to the river and set up a tomb stone.

    But that evening it started to rain. Even the heaven seemed to be sad for the death of the mother frog. It continued to rain several days and the son was alarmed about his mother’s tomb. He was afraid that it might be washed away by the rain. And he started to cry, “Ribbit, Rabbit.” From that time on, when it rains, the frogs cries for the fear that their mother’s tomb might be washed away in the rain: “What should I do, ribbit? My mother’s tomb would be washed away, ribbit?”

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    When I think of this story, I feel sorry for my mother and father and also my spiritual Father and Mother. It seems that the story was given to me to show me how disobedient son I must have been to my parents. I would like to repent when I still have some time.

  • King Solomon’s Ring Of Wisdom

    Life on this earth is truly filled with many tears and sorrows, pains and sufferings. King Solomon with his wisdom knew clearly that everything on this earth is impermanent and will pass away quickly. Even though he had riches, wisdom, knowledge, power, wives, whatever a man desire after more than anyone on this earth, but still he did not lose his wisdom and knew that all these things are evanescent and meaningless.

    Ecclesiastes 2:4   4 I undertook great projects: I built houses for myself and planted vineyards. 5 I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. 6 I made reservoirs to water groves of flourishing trees. 7 I bought male and female slaves and had other slaves who were born in my house. I also owned more herds and flocks than anyone in Jerusalem before me. 8 I amassed silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and provinces. I acquired male and female singers, and a harem[a] as well—the delights of a man’s heart. 9 I became greater by far than anyone in Jerusalem before me. In all this my wisdom stayed with me.
    10
    I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;
    I refused my heart no pleasure.
    My heart took delight in all my labor,
    and this was the reward for all my toil.
    11
    Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done
    and what I had toiled to achieve,
    everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;
    nothing was gained under the sun.

    One day King Solomon asked one of his ministers, saying to bring something to him, something that would be able to comfort him in the time of sorrow and distress and that would be able to humble and calm him in the time of happiness and exaltation. The minister brought one thing to Solomon which gave him great joy and contentment when he saw it. It was a ring with a inscription of four Hebrew letters, גם זה יעבור” (gam zeh ya’avor), which means “This too shall pass.” Wisdom too shall pass; so are the riches, power, authority, youth, wealth, and finally short and absurd life. These words gave him much comfort, making him always aware that whether it is good or bad, a thing shall have its end just as it had its beginning: Everything is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.

     

    This realization led him into a longing for the eternal and spiritual things that never end and that is not meaningless. To gain eternity he concluded:

    Ecclesiastes 12:13   Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil.

    God and his world is eternal. Before our short life on this earth is over and we should go to stand in front of God for the judgement, Solomon teaches us to remember God and obey his commandments because God can give us the eternal life in heaven.

  • Sae-ohng’s Horse

     

    Once in China There was a man named Sae-ong in a village. One day, his female horse ran away and did not come back. All the people of the town came and comforted him for his loss, but he did not show any change in his emotion. He was as calm as he was before. A few days later, the female horse came back to Sae-ong’s house, bringing a tall and stout male horse along. Nobody came to claim the horse back. So the horse stayed in Sae-ong’s house. When people of the town visited Sae-ong, now they started to exclaim about the good fortune he received and they all envied the windfall he had, but Sae-ong did not answer anything to them without showing any happiness for the new horse.

    One day, the firstborn son of Sae-ong wanted to try the new horse and put a saddle on it and rode out to a field to test the horse. The horse was swift as wind, and ran around the town and far into the field. But suddenly it stopped just in front of a tall fence, knocking Sae-ong’s son off to the ground and he broke his leg so badly that he became crippled for good. All the people of the town came to Sae-ong and wept for the leg of his son and comforted Sae-ong for the bad thing that happened to him. But Sae-ong did not seem to be sad at all. He worked and behaved as if nothing had happened to him. Now townspeople thought it strange that Sae-ong did not feel sad for his son.

     After many years, the country was having a big war with a neighboring country. And all the young men was drafted as soldiers to the war and most of them died in the war. But Sae-ong’s son could not go to the war because he was crippled and he could save himself from the war. Now there were many in the town whose sons died in the war and came to visit Sae-ong and felt envious for the son of Sae-ong. All of them said how lucky it was for Sae-ong that his son was safe at home. But Sae-ong did not say anything. And Sae-ong lived many years and he died at his old age.

  • TWO WOMEN TALKING ABOUT THE CREATION WORK OF GOD

    Two women were walking together talking about the creation work of God and one woman started to say, “I can’t understand the some part of the creation work. Think about this. The sparrow is very small, but has wings. It does not need to go here and there fast to get food. It can get food quickly without moving to many different places with its wings because its stomach is so small too. But an elephant or hippopotamus is a big animal with a big stomach. So they have to move around a lot to get enough food to maintain its body. If they had wings like birds, it would have been better for them to get food by moving fast to find a place for food.”

    The other agreed too and said, “You can say that again. Big animals should have wings, but they don’t. And little animals which does not need to move around to get food have wings. I don’t understand why God created animals like that. If I had done the work, I would have done it differently by giving wings to larger animals.” Sharing their opinions like this they were walking together for a long time. At that time a small bird was flying above their head and pooped on them. A white small dropping soiled the shirt of the one woman. She tried to wipe the stain away. But it was hard to get rid of it, and what was worse was the smell of it. Even though she tried so hard, she could not take away the foul smell of bird’s dropping.

    At that moment, she exclaimed as if she realized something and said, “Now even though I don’t understand the creation work of God, I can understand what God has done is right.” The other one was puzzled and said, “What are you talking about?” The woman said to the other, “Think about this. This small bird flying over our head can make us annoyed so much with its small dropping. Then imagine if an elephant was flying and pooped on our head, and then what would have happened? Think about a hippo flying leaked on us.”

    On hearing that the other woman understood what the woman was thinking and said, “Oh, I didn’t think about it before. I think what you are saying is right. God’s work is right. Even though sometimes we cannot understand some part of his work, we should believe what God has done has some reason behind it.” And the one said, “That’s true. From now on, we should not doubt God’s creation work because everything is done according to God’s providence.”

    After this they felt happier and went their way.

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    I heard this story from this Sabbath Morning Video Sermon of General Pastor of WMSCOG in Zion. The video sermon had some animations to show the story. When the story came to the part of an elephant and a hippo flying and dropping its poops and water, the animation showed an elephant flying over head, dropping a mountainous dropping over their head. It was so hilarious! Even though I would forget the contents of the sermon, still I would never forget the story he told in the sermon. Neither do I want any careless elephant flying around, causing annoyance like that. God’s creation work is always right!! Thanks to Father and Mother!

  • Two Friends And A Camel

    There were two friends and they had completely different opinions about the religious matters. The one said that there is no God and the other said there is God. When the other tried to prove the existence of God, the one always argued back by saying, “Good, but show me the God if he exist. If you cannot show me, try not to persuade me.” One day they were traveling in the desert and could not find a place to rest for the night. So they set up a tent and spent the night in the desert. When they woke up in the morning, they could not find their camel which was tied near the tent. The stake was there, but the rope was unloosed. The camel must have run away because they could not see any camel as far as their sight could reach.

    camel foot print에 대한 이미지 검색결과
    Camel’s Foot Print. By merely looking at the footprints we can know many things such as who, when, where, etc. How about God? God left his footprints everywhere, but we refuse to accept.

    Suddenly the one who believed that there is no God exclaimed and shouted, “I found it. I found it.” The other ran toward him and asked, “Where is it?” “Look. There are marks for its footprints,” said the one. “What are you talking about?” said the other, “These are not the camel. Show me the camel.” The one got annoyed and said, “See, there are footprints and if we follow these, we can find the camel.” At that time, the other said, “By merely looking at the footprints left by a camel, you know that there is a camel which left its marks on the sand. Then how come you can say that there is no God even though you can see His footprints everywhere you look: in the sun and moon, in the wind and land and see, birds, fish, animals… Everything teaches us that there is one who created all these things. Then after witnessing all these footprints, how can you say that there is no God?”

    The one could not say anything after that.

  • The Voice Contest between a Lion and a Blackbird

    The Voice Contest between a Lion and a Blackbird

    A blackbird challenged a lion to have a voice contest. “My voice is stronger and more powerful than yours,” said the blackbird. But the lion did not care about the blackbird. The blackbird kept flying back to the lion and annoyed him so much that he agreed to accept the challenge.

    Finally, the two of them stood next to each other and shouted with all their might. First, the lion roared at the top of his voice, which made the mountain shake and all the animals around the mountain fled silently and hid themselves as quickly as possible making no noise at all. And next the blackbird sang with the fullest volume of his voice and said, “Chirp, Chirp,” which was no match for the voice of the lion.

    The lion said to the blackbird, “Now you can see whose voice is stronger?” But the blackbird challenged again and said, “Let us go and find out.” So they crossed over a mountain and asked animals there. “Did you hear the lion’s voice?” All the animals said, “Yes, we heard.” And the lion asked them, “how about the blackbird? Did hear his voice?” And all the animals also said, “Yes, we clearly heard.”

    So they decided to travel further away to find out who was the winner. Now they crossed over five mountains and asked animals there if they heard the voice of a lion. Some animals with keen ears said yes, but others said no. But for the blackbird all the animals said that they heard clearly the voice of a blackbird.

    Now they decided to go farther so that they could know who had stronger voice. After crossing over ten moutains, they asked animals there if they heard the voice of a lion. All the animals said that they did not hear any sound of a lion. And the lion asked the animals there if they heard the voice of a blackbird. Surprisingly enough, all the animals said, “Yes, we clearly heard a blackbird’s voice.”

    The blackbird held up his head high and proudly sang at the top of his voice, “pippip~~pip.” The lion was at a loss and he went back to his home disappointed. Now do you know how this could be possible?

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