The Unity of Christians

Published on by Jin

“I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.”

(1 Corinthians 1:10)

If you visit many church chapels these days, you can see 1 Corinthians 1:10 written above as a banner. It shows that there are disputes within each church, so it’s heartbreaking, but we have to take a biblical approach to the unity of the church. Looking at the trend, it seems that 1 Corinthians 1:10 is used as a basis for applying business organizational theory. Due to this influence, it seems that churches are focusing on a controlled organization based on a unified vision similar to business organizational theory. However, it is completely different from the essence of the biblical unity. What do you think? According to this trend, when new Christians participate in the church, many churches teach the vision and tradition of each church first and lead them to become members of the church based on business organizational theory, rather than teaching how to unite with God through Jesus with patience and the Bible. Of course, this may be because they understand the biblical meaning of church differently or are vaguely aware of it. Since we talked about the biblical meaning of the church before, today we are going to talk about the unity that the Bible says.

“That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”

(John 17:21-23)

The essence of the unity that the Bible says is not the numeric union of each member through any vision or idea, but the spiritual unity through Jesus. In John 17:21-23, Jesus clearly says that Christians will also participate in the unity through Jesus, just as Father God and Jesus are united. In other words, the unity of churches does not mean a unified group of people through any special education or training. We Christians participate in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through Jesus. Of course, I am not ignoring the church’s responsibility of nurturing new Christians, but insisting on guiding them to God through Jesus. It is necessary to check whether the essence of the unity is left behind because of seeking only results with emphasizing efficiency too much. The vine parable in John chapter 15, which we know a lot, explains the biblical unity and its impact on Christians. The Bible says that it is not possible for us to live in unity as Christians through education or a systematic approach, but by participating in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through Jesus. Furthermore, 1 John 2:23-25 says that this unity leads us to eternal life. Are you participating in the biblical unity? So how can you participate in the unity and guide others into it?

“No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. See that what you have heard from the beginning remains in you. If it does, you also will remain in the Son and in the Father. And this is what he promised us–even eternal life.“

(1 John 2: 23-25)

In this relational approach, we can achieve the complete unity by knowing and understanding each other properly. Ephesians 4:13 explains that we should be united in trusting the Son of God and getting to know him properly. Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones says in [The Church and The Last Things] that the church must unite based on doctrines for the spiritual unity of the church. This means that our faith must be united in the proper direction according to the guidance of the Bible and the Holy Spirit. The complete unity and companionship of the early church in Acts 2:42 begins with “they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching,” and the words explain that the process of this unity is shown according to God’s inspiration. What is it like? Looking at the trend these days, many churches rely on the unity through the business organizational theory rather than through helping to know Jesus with the Bible and to unify with Him properly because of seeking the results and the reduction of time. The rapid numeric union among local churches based on emphasizing ordinary love without the unity in doctrines and the organizational approach to promote rapid union through sharing vision and tradition rather than teaching and nurturing in Bible are not the unity that the Bible says.

“Until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.”

(Ephesians 4:13)

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.”

(Acts 2:42)

To sum up, the unity is important to Christians. This is because the first step toward becoming a Christian is to participate in the Trinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit through Jesus. Moreover through the participation, we must unite to form the body of Christ Jesus and live our life that fulfills his will together. In the world where numerous non-truths are prevalent , we all hope to wear the belt of the truth based on God’s words, unite with the Trinity through Jesus, and further enjoy and share God’s love and grace with our brothers in Christ.

Blessings,

Jin

Where is the Kingdom of God?

Published on by Jin

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”

(Mattthew 6:33)

Christians often say, “I am the part of God’s kingdom, and I am a child of God.” We also use the expression “I hope God’s kingdom will come here.” Moreover, it is common to hang the scripture Matthew 6:33 at work or home. Are you the people of God’s kingdom? Or are you living a life of seeking first God’s kingdom and righteousness? If so, what does “the Kingdom of God” look like and where is it? Only when we know properly about “the Kingdom of God” can our faith be directed toward God.

Some people say that “the Kingdom of God” is “the Kingdom of Heaven.” What do you think? Isn’t this world we live in “the Kingdom of God”? Some people limit the kingdom of God to a “church.” Well, isn’t the world outside the church God’s kingdom? There have been a lot of discussions theologically. These two ideas seem close to the truth, but these are not enough to be the truth. The first idea, the idea is that the Kingdom of God is only the Kingdom of Heaven, conflicts with the truth that God creates and operates this world. Also, we can see in our history how the second idea that limited the kingdom of God to only churches affected the Middle Ages.

So, what is the definition of “the Kingdom of God” in the Bible? Pastor Martin Lloyd Johnson defines it as “the place where God rules” in [The Church and The Last Things]. In other words, both heaven and the church are parts of God’s kingdom, and everywhere God operates is defined as God’s kingdom. Looking at the Bible, Luke 17:20, when asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus said, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.” In addition, Matthew 12:28 says, ” But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.” In other words, if Jesus expels the spirit of evil in us with the Holy Spirit, God’s rule is established there, so it is declared that it is already God’s kingdom. Colossians 1:13 also explains this part. To clarify again, “the Kingdom of God” is where God’s rule takes place, and all universes, including heaven, churches, and the world outside the church, are included in the kingdom of God.

“For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,”

(Colossians 1:13)

Then why did Jesus mention our intrinsic part to explain “the Kingdom of God”? The reason can be seen through [the Holy War by John Bunyan] as it expresses the conflict in the spiritual realm of humans as a kingdom of soul. God is the one who creates and governs all this world. Among the creations God has created, humans are the only ones who choose to have a relationship with God by free will. Of course, leaving behind a deeper discussion of the choice, the part that does not follow God’s rule in the world built by God is the area of Satan and the people who reject God. In all but these two areas, the world unconditionally follows God’s rule and operates, so it is the realm of God’s kingdom. Also, he says that the two areas excluded from the kingdom of God are not physical areas, but spiritual areas, which are invisible to the eyes, but separated.

Going back to the beginning, are you living as God’s people in “the Kingdom of God”? In other words, does the kingdom of God come upon you? As mentioned above, the definition of “God’s kingdom” is where God rules. But if we are living in our own will, not in God’s will, we cannot say that God’s kingdom has fully come upon us. We often recognize the word “governance and authority” as a word expressing a very oppressive and uncomfortable state. Moreover, if we are advised to “live within God’s rule and authority,” we often go our way, refuting that this is not a desirable religion. Perhaps most people misunderstand the meaning of the words “governance and authority” because they have experienced incomplete human governance and authority. In addition, many churches explain the governance and authority of God’s kingdom as the form of unconditional obedience to pastors and spiritual leaders, so it may have caused misunderstanding as a negative effect. However, we Christians must live differently from the Israeli people who asked God to set one of them as king even though he is already the perfect king to us. The God we believe in is the creator of the world, the absolute righteousness (Psalms 33:5), and the God who surpasses all comprehension (Philippians 4:7) and who gave his son for us with the absolute love (Romans 8:32, John 3:16), and such God is our king. Moreover, he is not an oppressive ruler, but the God who respects our free will (John 1:12). What do you think? Do you still feel frustrated by the expression “God’s rule and authority”? However, if you think about the meaning of the Bible, it may be the choice to escape the fear of uncertainty with your will and enjoy true freedom.

“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”

(John 1:12)

Now in summary, the expression “Seek first God’s kingdom and righteousness ” or “God’s kingdom has come upon me” means that I seek God’s will and live according to his will, not my will in life. This life is the appearance of obedience in the Bible and the appearance of children in the kingdom of God. Wherever we are, I hope we can all clearly understand the meaning of “the Kingdom of God,” live as children of God’s Kingdom, and enjoy and share the true freedom God gives us.

Blessings,

Jin

What Is The Biblical Meaning Of Church?

Published on by Jin

Many Christians often use the expression “I go to church” or “Let’s go to church together!” As can be seen from the mentioned expression, the word “church” contains the identity of Christians. However, I myself have never thought deeply about the meaning of the word “church.” Then, Christians, do we know and use the word “church” exactly? What does the word “church” mean to you?

“To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ–their Lord and ours:”

(1 Corinthians 1:2)

First of all, looking at the Bible, 1 Corinthians 1:2 says, “To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ–their Lord and ours:” Does it mean the same as the meaning of the church you think? That is, “the church of God” is a group of people who are called saints in Christ, or a group of people who believe and call Jesus Christ as the Lord beyond space and region. Of course, we cannot ignore the reflection of the meaning of the times that the meaning of the word contains the meaning used by many people in that era, but we must know and use the biblical meaning of the word “church,” which expresses the identity of Christians.

According to Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones, (The Church and The Last Things), there are two important meanings based on the origin of the word “church.” First, in many parts of the Greek Bible, the word translated as “church” is “eklesia,” which means “people who have been called together.” Also, the word of “church” originated from the Greek word “kurios,” which means “Lord,” and through various changes, the current word “church” was created. Looking at these two things, the word of “church” means a group of people who recognize God’s presence and sovereignty. Is it similar to the meaning of the words we looked at above or what you think?

Furthermore, the meaning of “church” can expand further. In the New Testament, the word of “church” is sometimes used as a plural form, and it is also expressed as the only universal church. For example, in Galatians 1:2, it is described as “To the churches in Galatia,” and each group of people who recognize God’s presence and sovereignty in the Galadia region is recognized as a church. On the other hand, in Ephesians 2:22 “And God placed all things under his feet and pointed to be head over everything for the church,” it is expressed as the only universal church. In this way, we, familiar with the vertical hierarchy, think that each church in a region belongs to a church in a wide sense in a vertical hierarchy, and that the head of the church in a wide sense is Jesus. This is a completely different idea from the Bible. Each church in a region is an independent church, and there is also an invisible universal church, and the head of this universal church and all local churches is Jesus. Of course, we continue to think of vertical hierarchies, but that’s never the case. Pastor Martin Lloyd Jones said, “All Christians are members of the spiritual and invisible universal church and are also members of the visible local churches.”

In summary, the biblical meaning of “church” is a group of people who have been called saints who are distinguished from the world in Christ, or a group of believers who recognize Christ’s presence and sovereignty. This group is expressed as a local church that appears to be independent locally, and also refers to the only spiritual and invisible universal church in which all Christians consist of one body. What do you think? Are we participating in the church that the Bible says? What does the church that we expect look like? I hope we all understand the biblical meaning of the word “church” properly and establish the righteous church and the identity of Christians.

Blessings,

Jin

How to Install TeamViewer on Windows 10

Published on by Jin

Recently, some people often ask me to figure out their computers’ problems in remote locations. Windows OS includes the built-in feature: Remote Assistance (Quick Assist), but some changes on their computers are required to enable the feature. That could be another problem to them, so I searched remote access and support software and found a convenient program: “TeamView”.  In this posting, I will show you how to install [TeamViewer] on Windows 10 to receive the remote help from your friend. Let’s go:

[How to Get TeamViewer from the Website]

  1. Go https://www.teamviewer.com
  2. Click the button: [Download Free Trial]
  3. Follow the instructions to save the setup file

[How to Install TeamViewer on Windows 10]

  1. Run the setup file you have downloaded previously
  2. Select [Installation to access this computer remotely (unattended)] under “How do you want to proceed?”
  3. Under “How do you want to use TeamViewer?” select the option that suits you.
    • If you want to use TeamViewer commercially (for your Business), select Company / Commercial use
    • If you want to use TeamViewer with friends and family, select Personal / Non-commercial use
  4. Click Accept – finish to start the installation

[How to Get  Remote Help from Your Friend]

  1. Run the TeamViewer
  2. Let your friend know your id and password
  3. Wait for connecting from your friend

I hope this posing is useful for you. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Blessings,

Jin

Java Programming and Object-Oriented Concepts – (1)

Published on by Jin

These days, I have had chances to teach Java to a couple of students.  Unfortunately, they do not know why they learn the concepts of Object-Oriented Programming and how Java language approach the Object-Oriented concepts as I did when I was a student. They know only there is a class that is a unit of Java programming, and an instance of a class can be called an object. Yes, their idea is not wrong, but the idea is not enough to understand Java programming.

First, let’s talk about “object”. As you know, an object can be a thing that exists physically or a business process that does not exist physically. For examples, a student, a computer, or a pencil can be an object and even a bank account can be regarded as an object.  Now, we are clear that anything in the world can be viewed as an object irrespective of its physical existence.

Java_OOP_1

Next, a class is a description about an object. That means a class explains the characteristics of a group of objects that have common characteristics to be identified from other groups of objects. Some people probably think this explanation is weird. Yes, it’s weird to our brain’s mechanism. You should know programming is not for human beings, and it is necessary to make computers understand our world. Therefore, programming languages have been developing to the direction that makes developers and computers have common ground efficiently between our brain’s mechanism and computers’ mechanism.

Java_OOP_3

Anyway, a class is a description about a group of objects that have common characteristics. There are two categories of characteristics to define a class.  The two categories are called ‘state (also known as properties or member variables)’ and ‘behavior (also known as member methods)’. For examples, a bicycle can also have manufacturing ID and numbers of wheels as its states and the processes of changing gears and applying brakes as its behaviors. Please, be aware of this process is to express our world in our programming (in memory of our computers). Therefore, if an object is created by following a class in our programing, it is called an instance of the class and the process is called instantiation.

In next posting, I will explain how Java language cover these Object-Oriented concepts.

Blessings,

Jin

My good shepherd

Published on by Jin

These days, I’ve thought about me, but I’m not sure why I was born. However, I found reassuring scriptures in Bible.

I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father–and I lay down my life for the sheep.” (John 10:14-15)

This is Jesus’s word to us.  He knows me as the Father knows Him and He knows the Father. That’s so incredible and gracious. As you know, Jesus and the Father are one, so They know everything about each other. That means God knows everything about me even though I’m not sure about myself. Moreover, Jesus is my good shepherd, so He leads me. That is amazing grace, isn’t it?

Blessings,

Jin

How do you teach your students?

Published on by Jin

Recently, I had chances to teach C++ to a couple of students. I disappointed about the current curriculum of the classes that the students were taking. The curriculums were similar to the classes that I took 10 years ago. I thought my college friends and I were in a period of transition to new generation. However, the students who are taking the class of C++ Programming are still complaining that they’re learning only how to type the programming languages and that they do not know why the C++ has the concepts, functions, and rules as I complained in college.

I understand the professors and lecturers didn’t get their degree about their programming skills, so they don’t have to program fluently like a programmer who is working in real technical filed. However, they have responsibility to teach their students the concepts or frameworks of the programming language. Of course, I know some lecturers have passion to teach their students, so they try to make interactive classes. I hope I can see many more the passionate lecturers in teaching their students.

Blessings,

Jin

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,”
(Colossians 3:23)

How to remove space between images and borders of tables in Chrome

Published on by Jin

A couple of week ago, I found an issue on my website. IE, Firefox and Safari worked well with my website, but Chrome displayed mysterious 2-3 pixels of white space between the bottom of the images and the border of the tables on my website.

[Open the code that shows the issue with Chrome]

Actually, I set the space among the cell walls and the cell contents to 0 pixels by using the attributes: [cellpadding], [cellspacing]. In additions, the values of the border attributes on the table and the images were zero. Therefore, I thought there is no reason for the mysterious white space.

<table width="200" height="150" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" style="table-layout:fixed;">
  <tr>
   <td width="200" height="50">
      <img border="0" src="cell1.jpg"> 
   </td>
  </tr>
 ....	
 </table>

I researched the issue for several days. There were so many similar cases on the Internet, but I cannot find the reason of my case. As a result, I tested a bunch of cases. I started the test with a code excluding any CSS codes. In that case, Chrome didn’t display any space between the images and the borders of the tables, so I assumed a CSS attribute caused this issues. Finally, I found what triggered the space. The reason was the attribute: “word-break:break-all;” in my CSS code.

<STYLE TYPE='text/css'>
   body {
     word-break: break-all;
   }
</STYLE>

Even though I found the reason, I wasn’t able to solve the problem because I needed the attribute: “word-break:break-all;” in my CSS code. I guessed Chrome recognizes images like words because  <img> is an inline element, so the attribute makes space after images. Therefore, I tried to set the images to block elements by using CSS display property: “display: block;”. I also used .class selector to specify the only images that showed the mysterious space. The shot worked.

<html>
 <head>
  <title>Example.2</title>
  <STYLE TYPE='text/css'>		
  body {
    word-break:break-all;
  }
  img.noSpace
  {
    display: block;
  }
  </STYLE>
 </head>

 <body> 
 <table width="200" height="150" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" style="table-layout:fixed;">
   <tr>
     <td width="200" height="50">
	<img class="noSpace" border="0" src="cell1.jpg"> 
     </td>
    ......
 </table> 
 </body>
</html>

[Open  this code with Chrome]

If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

Blessings,
Jin

HOW TO USE <VIDEO/> TAG ON A MOBILE SITE

Published on by Jin

These days, most people use smart phones, so it is natural to use cell phones for watching a movie or a video mail. However, many web developers are struggling to implement the natural thing because there is no helpful instruction in the Internet or books.

Of course, if you have a lot of experience in implementing a mobile site, you must already know what I’m saying. However, if you aren’t familiar with mobile web programming, my posting might help you understand how to use <video> tag.

The first issue is what the proper video file format for your website is. Conclusively, I recommend the MP4 file that is encoded by the format of H.264/AVC based on my experience.  There are many manufactures of smart phones but I think there are only three distinguished OSs (Operation System) such as iOS, Android, and MS-Mobile 7.  The three OSs support the file format; moreover I was able to see the most satisfied results by using the file format. The following links might help you figure out what my point is.

Second, you probably think how to make video files executable on your website.  If you have never heard “<video> tag”, you might be in confusion.  Actually, HTML5 was announced as a W3C Last Call Working Draft last year, so there is no useful instruction in the Internet and even books. As a result, most web developers are curious about how to use new elements such as <video>, <audio>, <canvas> and etc. Anyway, iPhone system supports HTML5, so you can get satisfied results even though you use only example sources that are provided by HTML 5 specification documents. However, the case of Android is more complicated because each version of Android supports different HTML and video type. According to the official Android homepage, HTML5 has been supported since Android 2.1. However, based on my experience, <video> tag is supported since Android 2.2.

Consequently, in the case of Android, the method of “paly ()” should be called by using Java Scripts like following my example codes.

I hope my posting is useful for you. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact me.

 

With Best Regards,

Jin