Costly Worship

We just finished up Day 4 of our week and a half of ministry here in Korea. During the day we've been visiting people in their homes and businesses - friends of church members. These people are serious about doing whatever it takes to get their friends to Jesus. Their faith is amazing. In the past 2 days we've seen many come to Christ on their living room couch including several Buddhists. I've been focusing on the university and high school students near and around the local schools and the Lord has really blessed. We've seen many students open their hearts to Jesus.

Each night we head back to Daejeon Church, our host church, for services. This is a clip from the worship tonight with my new friend Hyo Suk (Philip). He's the 27-year old kid I mentioned earlier who spent a year in Bangladesh as a missionary. Yesterday he related to me and dad some of his experiences.

While in Bangladesh, he served alongside a local pastor and director of the evangelistic outreach in their city. Sometime before Philip arrived, the pastor was told by muslim authorities that he must discontinue his evangelistic efforts. After refusing, Philip's pastor-friend was attacked by four muslim men. His jaw was then ripped open with a knife as punishment for preaching the Gospel. When he told us this, we asked Philip if he himself had ever been hurt or threatened while in Bangladesh. Here's what he said.

During his year there, a famous news journalist caught word of his ministry in the city in which he was working. After anonymously attending a service in the church where Philip was serving, the journalist went back to the papers and wrote an article completely defaming Philip's name and creating lies. He claimed that Philip was coercing young muslims into Christianity through gifts and bribes. The authorities soon arrived at Philip's home and told him to stop evangelizing immediately or it would mean disaster. Philip looked at them and said, "Or what? Are you gonna kill me? Go ahead and bring the knife then!!" Amazing! Philip told us he is ready to go back to Bangladesh long term.

Philip is teaching me what it means to really follow Christ when there's a cost involved. So when you see him worshiping the Lord in this video through the musical gift that God has given him, you know that it's from a heart of overwhelming gratitude toward Jesus Christ. It's real. It's sincere. It's costly worship. And that's what I'm still learning.