JMS Blog

Pastor Joshua (Jung Myung Seok) always says, "It is the mind that moves the body."
I can't agree more. A smile smiled with force, and a smile smiled with sincerity, no matter how great of an act you pulled will produce different results. It is also the mind that can will you to survive 40 days without food or 7 days without food.

When the leaves of a tree rustle, it is the wind that caused the movement. (Aside from the obvious of little animal creatures.) So why is it so hard for us to believe that God exists? Why is it much harder to believe that it is God who rules the world? We dismiss our daily events as coincidence. When a person says the things we need to hear most, at a moment we need to hear it most, we again dismiss it as coincidence. I see that there's so much more to this than meets the eye.

Pastor Joshua also said, "It is the mind that moves the body, it is the spirit that moves the mind, and it is God who moves our spirit." Yes, God works through people. You know that gut feeling or that strange out-of-the-blue desire to do something? That's someone from beyond trying to inspire us.

Have you ever had that feeling where you just KNEW something terrible was going to happen? Or the feeling that something was right when logic pointed in the other direction? And in the end, it turned out that the feeling was right. For example, a person is introduced to you by a trusted friend, this person is in a power suit, wearing all the right accessories, the rolex, the whole deal, his experiences list jobs in top companies, he says all the right things, but for some reason, you just can't trust him. That strange feeling discourages you from doing any business with him. It turns out that he was a con-artist.

Or the other way around. If you are a logical person, you may have experienced this. You reason everything so you ignore most of your gut feelings and you always end up making the worst decisions or things never turn out right.

God definitely exists and He definitely works through nature and people to warn us or to speak to us. To utilize our gut feelings correctly, we basically have to deny our desires and vices. I mean, if I had that gut feeling or inspiration to escape an unforeseen fire but that meant leaving behind thousands of dollars, if money was so important that it clouded my priorities, I could've ignored that gut feeling.

Ok, getting back to my original topic. That gut feeling is invisible but it controls us. Oxygen can also control how fast we age, our mood, and our weight even. The wind can move a feather and even a whole house. God is also invisible but He rules the world. Seeing is believing? Not necessarily.

Why lie? You will be found out anyway.
I'm just too simple of a person to keep tabs of all the lies I would make. Why waste brain space? And imagine the fear of getting caught. You'll be living in anxiety.

Pastor Joshua( Jung Myung Seok) said, "Momentary shame brings eternal glory, momentary glorly brings eternal shame." Just be bold to come clean with all your lies, face that momentary shame, but imagine the feeling of relief for the rest of your life.

I know some of the girls who accused Pastor Joshua of rape. And I know for a FACT that they lied. I will not reveal here how I know but I know. Revealing that here would be like putting them to shame without giving them a chance to come clean. I believe that I'm merciful enough to give them that. But what can they say now? Already the ball went rolling into an enormous avalanche that won't stop. They've already done so much damage that it would take the boldness of who-knows-what to tell the truth. What can they do? They have to keep lying and make it believable in order to save face. They are trapped in their own lies.

You know what? I feel sorry for them. I pity them. Even if we don't do the judging, they are judging themselves. They are in hell because they have to live with the knowledge. Living with that voice in your head, anger in your heart, and remorse that will follow later, it will be so overwhelming that it will be hell. Why lie? I really wish from the bottom of my heart, for their well-being and peace of mind, that they will confess the truth. It's not worth it to put the blame on someone who is innocent. It's really not fair.

I'm trying to understand the mind of women.

I have true compassion for the women who were raped because I have several friends who were raped by their fathers, uncles, and their male friends. But just as much as I have compassion for women who were raped, I am upset with the women who lie about rape. When a woman lies about rape for her own selfish gain, pride, or revenge, it hinders the chances of people believing the rape allegations when it actually did occur.

According to statistics, 41% of the rape allegations are false. This number only reflects the percentage of women who admit that they were lying about the rape. This number doesn't reflect the number of the police who investigate and find that there was no rape because police is not allowed to claim any allegation as false even if there is clear evidence that there was no rape.

There was this one incident where this girl, Candice (pseudonym), wasn't doing so well in faith and so had distanced herself from Providence. After a time of no contact, a friend of mine, Bobby (pseudonym) gets a phone call from Candice's mother asking for help. Candice had gotten so mentally ill that she would pee in her pants and couldn't even feed herself. So Bobby's wife along with other Providence members decide to help her for the sake of goodness and love. They dedicate their time to take care of her, changing bed sheets, cleaning out bedpans, feeding her, etc, for about 3 months (probably longer). After some time of taking care of her, praying for her, and giving her God's Word daily, she gets better until she returns to normal.

That's when they all decide to go to the GACP (Global Association of Culture and Peace) event in Hawaii. Candice also wanted to go to this event and they thought that it might be good for her because with Pastor Joshua Jung (Jung Myung Seok) there, they believed his prayer might cement her "normal" phase.

Contrary to what they had hoped, she decided to sleep with half of the European soccer players who attended the event. The guys were overheard talking about their sexual ventures with her. After hearing all this, Bobby and the other Providence members were disappointed and hurt. They decided to distance themselves from her so that they wouldn't get hurt again. But after a few weeks after they had come back from the GACP event, they got another call from her mother asking for help again. They still had compassion so they decide to help. Again she got better and went home. They got another phone call from her mother. This time the mother was mad. She shouted at them and said that Candice claimed Bobby and another Pastor had raped her. Bobby was flabbergasted but he told me that he realized what it felt like to be in Pastor Joshua's shoes. He puts his whole heart and soul in helping a person and is later accused of something he never did. Bobby's wife said that Bobby was never alone with her and the time that Candice accused Bobby of raping her was when his wife was there in the same car! And Bobby was driving! It didn't stop there. She also accused Pastor Joshua of rape, whom she got close enough only for a brief prayer among a crowd of people.

Do they not understand the harm they are causing when making such a claim?

I tried to put myself in their shoes and wondered how I would feel if a woman accused me of rape. You know what, I wouldn't know what to say to defend myself. I would feel trapped. But I would turn to God and have faith in Him. If the whole world believed the lies and couldn't believe me, I would know deep in my heart that God would take care of me, if not in the physical world, then in the spiritual world.

This was just one of the many stories of Providence.

Inspired by my previous blog and comments.

Nowadays, media can make or break us in both but not limited to the entertainment biz and politics. In journalism, anything goes.

In the name of journalism, you can stalk someone, take pictures, go to places uninvited, state your opinions creatively to appear as fact, and even kill someone. (Referring to Princess Diana's death.) And they will publish anything to cover their butts. For example, the possibilities for the cause of her death is the papparazzi and the driver who's bloodtest showed that he was drunk. Hmmm...if your occupation was to be a driver for Princess Diana, a high-profile figure, with police and publicity everywhere, would you really drink and drive. I think not. I seriously doubt that the journalist would put the blame on their own kind. And what does the paparazzi do? They take pictures of her when she's dying instead of calling for help. And they escape all this unscathed.

Oh, and there's the Britney Spears fiasco. They practically harass her and when she tries to drive away from them with her baby, they say that it's from her carelessness as a mother. Yeah, put the blame on her, right?

Even with Pastor Joshua Jung (Jung Myung Seok), when Taiwan press slandered him with false information, the court ruled that the magazine should make a formal apology. So what do they do? They make a formal apology...several months later...in small print.

Media can determine the rising or the falling of a star, they can determine who would be voted as President, what issues are important or trivial, what morals are good or bad, what products to buy or boycott, and even how we view the simplest of events.

Here's an example.
"Storm Hits New Orleans"
"Storm Hits a City Recovering from Hurrican Katrina"

See, how it has a different effect.

The Bible states, "The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit." (Proverbs 18:21)

That's my thought of the day.

Christians are calling Christians cults. How stupid is that? Satan is probably laughing at us for such stupidity. He's probably thinking that he has less work to do because we're practically killing each other off.

There are things that make me wonder. If the goal of Christianity is to spread the gospel and testify to God, Jesus Christ, and their goodness, why are their attacks directed at Christians like us trying to achieve the same goals, and not the Shamaans, Buddhists, or even the Satan worshippers?

Also, they have a list of cult behaviors which I see is prevalent in the "normal" Christian churches. It's almost as if they choose what groups these cult behaviors apply to.

For example, love-bombing. Ha! Isn't that another word for "love your neighbors?" Isn't that what we are supposed to do as Bible-abiding Christians? Imagine that! Being criticized for being kind to people.

Another is brainwashing. That's a whole new topic. What is considered brainwashing? Is it repetition, sort of like everyday advertisement on TV? Is it sleep deprivation, sort of like what they demand in any entertainment or broadcasting business?

And if brainwashing is to teach what is good, for example, "this is your brain, this is your brain on drugs, any questions?" then would it still be considered brainwashing or would it then be acceptable brainwashing? Or what about the all-too-familiar brainwashing by our parents, "don't talk to strangers," "clean up your room," "you're a nobody," "don't stay out too late," "eat your vegetables," and well, you get the point.

If we were to scrutinize any group, it's only inevitable that we will find something that will fall under cult behavior list.

In the Bible, the Jews preferred to crucify Jesus Christ over Barabbas the "notorious prisoner." In the same way, it seems to be human nature to crucify the innocent over the guilty. There are murderers on the lose and we waste time putting someone dedicated to improve society and its people on the cross.

Someone mentioned this to me the other day, that this is no different than the days of witch hunting. If someone was slightly different or revolutionary, they were quick to judge that they were witches and put them on a stake to burn.

We need to re-evaluate the standard of cults, not with behaviors but with its fruits.

Here is my opinion on Cult Awareness Groups that are quick to label a group as a cult.
They say that if a group teaches other than what is orthodox, it's a cult but their constant judge of other people is unorthodox to the Bible.
They say that if a group forces belief on others, it's a cult but they "deprogram" individuals to believe what they used to believe through sleep deprivation, starvation, and even electrocution. And when I say, sleep deprivation, I don't mean making them wake up at 4am to pray. I mean that they will pinch you, spray water on you, or electrocute you if you even so much as blink an eye to sleep.

If a group, like Providence, has gotten kids off the street and off drugs, gotten them to stop drinking, stop smoking, do well in school, and respect their parents, why put a stop to them?

I don't understand it when people talk about how corrupt the society has become, schooling has worsened, and violence has increased but try to abolish groups that try to make the world a better place. That just screams CONTRADICTION.

I wouldn't recommend this movie. Very gruesome, blood, lots of blood, violence, and that's about it. The storyline doesn't even really tie in with the other Hannibal series. And if it did, it was a little forced. It wasn't a "ah, so that's what happened." It was more of a, "so how does that match up to this?"

The young Hannibal acted very well. He conveyed anger, vengeance, and at the same time, a sense of insanity. Other roles, however, were too stereotypical. There weren't real development of characters. They were either good or evil.

I was really impressed with the child actress that played Mischa (spelling?). It made me think, 'is she acting or what?'

Ok, overall, the movie dragged despite all the gory details. It was not as intelligent as Hannibal or Silence of the Lambs. I give it thumbs down.

Hmmm...what did I realize from this? That life definitely needs to be valued. Once you lose touch of how valuable each individual is, people can lose touch of morality and resort to murder and cannibalism. They kill for their selfish gain, to cover their tracks, for thrill, or out of revenge. We need to value life more than our own pride and ambitions.

I also got to thinking that physical injury is visible but mental injury is not visible to the physical eye but so damaging. One slander, one false accusation, one attack, can do so much damage. It reminded me of this guy in the news who was falsely accused of selling spoiled packaged food product. Of course the media just gobbled this up and publicized it mercilessly. His business went bankrupt. All his dedication, efforts, and earnings crumbled to nothing. So he commits suicide. Later the investigation proves that the accusation indeed was false. If we could see every mental damage as shown in this movie, life would be pretty gory.

Anna Nicole Smith died.
Jung Dabin, a Korean actress, committed suicide.
Japanese News Anchor also committed suicide.

What's with all these deaths?

It really makes you think about all that King Solomon wrote. Life is meaningless. It really depends on what we do with our lives while we are alive. We have to invest in things that are worthwhile after we die. Because once we die, then what? Can we take all that money with us? Can we take our loved ones with us? Can we take our collectors' items with us? Our cars, iPod, bags, shoes, game scores, house? Nope.

And it's really up to the people who are left behind that determine whether you are a legacy or not, a positive influence or a negative influence, remembered or forgotten. So it's silly to live for fame, too. You may have given money to charity, volunteered to feed the homeless, but it really depends if the people in the next generation sees that as a standard to be remembered.

Me? I choose to live for God. God is fair and if He remembers me, I will be remembered forever because He is, after all, the alpha and the omega.

I was chatting with a friend today and he brought up the idea that the opposite of faith was fear. I thought it was a topic worthy of exploring.

Out of fear, we get angry, defensive, scared, there is hatred, doubt, and worry.
Out of faith, we feel calm, we are at peace, there is acceptance, trust, love, and even confidence. In other words, when we are afraid and we combat that with courage, courage has to come from faith. So the root of all evil is fear and the root of all goodness is faith!

I know, I know; this is a bold statement but the more I think about it, the more I see that it's true.

Even this whole cult awareness thing is preventative measures taken on a group they are unfamiliar with. Why? Fear of the unknown. Definitely, Providence is new. Unfamiliar to many but hits the right spot to the inner soul. So, out of fear, people warn others, withdraw themselves, or attack. And to attack is such a negative thing that they need to justify themselves for what they do. To justify their actions, they need to either believe the rumors or spread it themselves.

What? You think I'm biased? Well, ok, I'll give you that. So, I'll even explore the other side and think, what if Providence was a cult? A brainwashing violent group that leads many people to utter destruction. What if Pastor Joshua Jung (Jung Myung Seok) really did rape all those girls out of sexual perversion really thinking that he could continue doing it without getting caught, even if he was found out already by the many newspapers? What if he stole all the principles and lessons from the Unification Church (or moonies)and took it as his own? What if he did all this to get money from the people, rape young beautiful women, and his plan is to ultimately discard Providence members once he has gained all the riches and no longer has the sex drive to have sex with the women.

Hmmm...several things come to mind. Former destructive cults never lasted long until it became destructive. 25 years of peace says a lot. I've witnessed too much healing and "value life" lectures to assume otherwise. The 10,000 plus people would have to be super stupid to follow a guy who is run by testosterone. An average joe can have sex by hiring prostitutes (since we're talking about illegal sex, too), starting a Playboy magazine and making his girlfriend thing a prestige, or just have a lot of money and that alone can draw a lot of superficial women. In this time and age, you don't even need all this to have sex with a lot of women. Just go bar-hopping. Why would he go through the efforts of teaching each individual not 1 but 30 lessons, counsel with each member (men and women), reading the bible, giving sermons every single day, and writing books? Ok, and if he stole the lessons from the moonies, does that mean the Unification Church has the original truth. If so, then shouldn't all the ex-Providence members who struggled with this idea go to the Unification Church and be content? Why would the Unification Church members leave them and come to Providence? And for someone who stole the lessons, he sure knows it well enough to continue to give a sermon every day. And if his goal is to get rich, shouldn't his target group be business men and the more elderly folks who are more established? Why target the students and high school students? That's not very strategic from the business perspective. And he is over 60 and is only 5'5". A guy in his old age and short, can he rape girls who are about a head taller than he is?

You may come up with your own answers to these questions but that's a lot of ambiguous answers. It just doesn't make sense.

Anyway, I was talking about fear. It is fear for the worst that drives us to reject the new, and even revolutionary events or figures. It is a way to prep ourselves so that we don't get hurt, disappointed, or even to feel stupid for having believed. I think people hate to hear that they were gullible. I think that's why people have an easier time criticizing than praising. Criticizing something or someone makes us sound intelligent. Praising something or someone makes us sound naive.

Maybe we need to think about the fear of not the present but of the afterlife. Then maybe we will see things in perspective and realize that the fear of this world is really not so bad.

I finally saw the movie Stomp the Yard.

Sorry for ruining it for the people who haven't seen it yet but it goes something like this. There are two brothers who are awesome dancers. They battle and win but the losing team gets angry and starts a fight that ends up killing one of the brothers.

The other brother lives on with remorse. He moves to another place and starts college there. He meets a girl and despite the fact that he hasn't danced since his brother died, he joins a fraternity that makes stomping a sport. He is recruited and he gets the girl. He faces some adversaries but at the last moment, he does his long-gone brother's dance move and wins. He wins for the sake of his dead brother.

Ok, what got me thinking is that if this guy had such a strong attachment for his brother and out of his love for him, he overcomes himself (his fears and all) for the sake of his brother, sort of like, "Long Live the ________ (fill in the blank)," then wouldn't we do the same for Jesus Christ.

If we really loved Jesus, and knowing that he was crucified and killed, wouldn't we surpass our fears, capabilities, and limits to soon be victorious. Of course, to give Jesus' the glory...to show that his death was not in vain. It got me thinking...have I ever thought about overcoming the boundaries I set for myself for the sake of living out Jesus' death?

What I do see is that Pastor Joshua (Jung Myung Seok) does exactly that. He works so hard, from dawn (4am or earlier) to 11pm (or later), and he says, I do this because Jesus died at 33. He died at an early age and imagine all the things he wished he could've done. We need to be the body and act out his wishes. He says that he needs to be his body no matter how tired he is.

I think that's a beautiful thing. When someone we dearly love passes on, the best thing we could do is to live on for that person, fulfill their wishes, and be their bodies while their spirit is with us.

Let this be words of encouragement for all of you who may have experienced a death in the family, or if you've lost a dear friend. Let's live on!