JMS Blog

...I realized is the worst thing you can say to a person. It's probably worse than any of the four-letter or the B words.
Pastor Joshua Jung (Jung Myung Seok) told us what Hell was like yesterday. He said that the suffering is so great that you wouldn't even want the people you hate most to go through that type of suffering. And so, we must forgive our brothers endlessly. He went further to explain what Hell is really like. Before, he had told us what Heaven is like but I think teaching about Hell is probably more effective to motivate people to forgive and love one another. Sad, but so true because after learning about Hell, I wanted to forgive those who I never thought about forgiving.

He said that if you've been to Hell, you will see the urgency to save as many people as possible. And of course, work hard to go to Heaven.

Man, so telling someone to go to hell is basically saying that I more than despise you. The irony of this is that the person who says "Go to Hell!" will be the one going to hell. Hmmmmm...

I would like to pose the question, nurture or nature? Being in Providence, we are taught that we can change and become a better person, so I believed that nurture overpowers nature. To believe that we can change no matter where we started out from is a great belief. However, I'm led to believe that nature is not completely out of the picture. I see so many different types of people and seeing, hearing what they choose to see or hear makes me wonder if in fact, it is their innate character that determines how they choose to be nurtured.

For example, two children of the same family can become good or bad even if they were exposed to the same environment, teachings, and parents. With a great leader, a person can choose to see the same actions as negative or positive. And a person can choose to see only the mistakes and learn them or learn to hate them. In the same way, a person can choose to see only their best traits and learn them or learn to love them.

Weeds, I conclude, choose to see the bad no matter what the cause. Anyone, MS or not, if they persecute or target and attack someone, they are not any better. Life is short and this is a lifelong project to make ourselves perfect (Matthew 5:48), so why should we see and hear the bad. There's not even enough time to take in all the good in this world.

Ok, back to our topic. So, is it our innate character that determines how we are nurtured in the first place? Maybe. But I do hold onto the thought that with tremendous amount of effort and prayer, and definitely God's miraculous hands, we can change our innate character. After all, our innate character is ultimately the image of God as we were created in His image.