a Memorable Day

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” (Acts 2:1-4)

Whenever I read the story of Pentecost, it seems a story with vivid pictures: violent winds, tongues of fire, speaking tongues etc. That day was not normal but truly memorable to those people. Their lives were never the same after that day. Pentecost was the birth day of churches.

When I was young, I was truly expecting to see and feel the Holy Spirit as fire or strong wind at the worship service on Pentecost. How about you?

This Sunday is Pentecost. And as you know it is Memorial Day weekend. We will celebrate both at our worship services. I pray that we all have a memorable experience throughout the services in God’s strong presence. At the 8 AM service the Sonrise Singers will lift up a beautiful anthem “Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” as an offertory. At 11, the Sanctuary Choir will praise “Every time I feel the Spirit” as an anthem with two soloists, Mark Krueger and Linda Scott. Our men’s quartet group, Call to Harmony, will share a medley of songs from armed services as an offertory. The Grace Notes will sing, “Jesus and Mommy love me” as a call to worship. What a blessing to have all these talented people to lift up their talents to the Lord!

Sadly, it will be the last Sunday at Floris for our accompanist, Billie Whittaker. She is moving to Florida soon due to her husband’s new job. Please pray for God’s blessings on her and her husband and their new adventure in a new area.

At last, I am back to the States safely. Thanks all for your prayers. I did have a wonderful time even though it was hard to leave my mom. I appreciate for your continuing prayers for my mom. She is well but alone.

Here are the lyrics of our anthem at 11:00. May the Spirit of God fill us fully!

Every time I fell the Spirit, moving in my heart, I will pray, every time I fell the Spirit, moving in my heart, I will pray.

1. On the mountain, my Lord spoke, out His mouth came fire and smoke. Down in the valley, on my knees, asked my Lord have mercy please.
2. Jordan River, chilly and cold, chills the body not the soul, All around me looked so fine, asked my Lord if all was mine.
3. Ain’t but one train on this track, runs to heaven and right back. St. Peter waiting at the gate, said come on sinner, don’t be late.

Every time I fell the Spirit, moving in my heart, I will pray, every time I fell the Spirit, moving in my heart, I will pray.

what makes people pray?

I would like to share with you the special music to be offered during our worship services for the next two weeks. All of this inspired music will be happening in my absence as I am currently in Korea visiting my family.

The Oakton High School Madrigal Choir will visit to share their glorious music at 9:15 AM and 11:00 AM this Sunday. They will lift up several songs in various forms of music. I am sure that it will be a musical offering, not only to the Lord, but also to Mothers!  At the 8:00 AM service the SonriseSingers will share, “Great Are You Lord” as an offertory.

Then, on Sunday May 20, it is confirmation Sunday, and there will be special music offered by a student trio, including Hannah Berlin, Sarah Smiths, and Christine Cox at the 9:15 AM and 11:00 AM services. And, Stephanie Introne will play a lovely flute piece for the offertory at 11:00 AM.

I pray that the Lord may enrich your spirit with beautiful music during these worship services.

On a personal note, I arrived in Korea on Tuesday. The last time I visited was in 2006, and I can see how much has changed during those six years. I am acclimating myself to new ways of using public transportation while I stay at my Mom’s place located outside of Seoul. Seoul is like downtown New York--full of people, cars, neon signs, and huge buildings.

I have noticed some major differences on this visit, particularly when I attended a dawn prayer service with my Mom at 5:00 AM. The church has two dawn prayer services from Monday to Saturday and it runs more than ten church buses. They were big tour buses to take people to the dawn services every morning. It came 4:40AM in my Mom’s neighborhood. All those buses were full of people. I found that other church buses were on the street at that time to take their members to their prayer services. When I went into my Mother’s church, I was surprised how many people were already in the sanctuary praying before the service started. They have about 10,000 members. The sanctuary holds 2,000 people at once and it is three stories tall. While hearing people’s prayers around me, I questioned myself and wondered what make people pray like this? Even though I pray almost every morning, I was deeply challenged when I witnessed this. And surprisingly, this church was not considered a big church in the town. There were several similarly large churches nearby. There are even more in downtown Seoul. I am not inspired by the size of these churches, but by their congregants’ willingness to get closer to the Lord. I don’t believe that only people who are praying in church are more faithful. However, I could tell you that their hearts are close to the Lord.

We studied and made new efforts with prayer during Lent this year at Floris UMC. I am not sure whether or not I prayed more during that time, but am sure that I did not pray like these people. Around 200 years ago missionaries from America came to Korea to spread the Good News, and several of them were persecuted and died in this land. I think those sacrificed lives helped make this happen in Korea now. Their prayers and their lives still run through the churches and people’s hearts in Korea.

I pray that the power of the Good News also restores people’s hearts in America. Who knows, we might have to run huge church buses every morning!

Geistliches Lied (Sacred Song)

Welcome May! Can you believe that it is already May? I have lately enjoyed fresh air after rain. It bring more various fragrant to me always. I hope that you all enjoy it too.

In May, there will be many special Sundays at our worship. On May 13^th, Mother’s day, you will hear wonderful music by Oakton high school Madrigal choir at 11:00 o’clock service, and on 20^th, confirmation Sunday, beautiful trio and flute solo from our students will lift up their music! And 27^th is Pentecost!

This Sunday is a Communion Sunday, and the chamber choir will lift up a beautiful song by Brahms called “Geistliches Lied” (Sacred Song) in German. Brahms used early baroque composition technique to bring more sacred sound along with the lyric. I hope you enjoy hearing this beautiful song, and feel God’s presence.  

At 8:00 o’clock, one of my daughter, Christine and I will sing a duet “Prayer for Humility” as an offertory. It has a beautiful prayerful lyric. I pray that the Lord refresh our souls with beautiful praise throughout the services.

May the Lord enrich our lives abundantly with His love and grace!

 Here is a translation of “Geistliches Lied”. Enjoy!

Geistliches Lied (Sacred Song) by J. Brahms

Let no sad thought oppress thee, distress thee;

Fear nothing, trust God's own will, and be thou still, my spirit, my spirit.

Heed not with care and sorrow the morrow, the morrow, our Father who all doth see shall give to thee thy portion.

From righteous paths then range not, and change not; be steadfast, for God is just; give Him thy trust forever, forever.

Amen 

THe Majesty and Glory of Your name

One of things that I love about living in Virginia is having four seasons with lots of trees and flowers around. I cannot believe how fast the green leaves have been growing on trees! I love to watch them tirelessly. I also love to watch the sky--especially the night sky on a cold winter night or a really early morning.  Whenever I read Psalm 8, I remember the cold winter night sky with bright twinkly stars.

The Sanctuary Choir will sing one of my favorite anthems, “The Majesty and Glory of Your Name” based on Psalm 8 at the 11:00 AM service this Sunday. It always leads me to meditate on His glorious creation that was created for us. The Floris Strings will play, “On to Victory” as an offertory at the same service.

The Sonrise Singers will also sing a beautiful hymn, “All Creatures of our God and King” as an offertory at the 8:00 AM service. I pray that you will join us to praise His awesomeness in the worship services.

The Majesty and Glory of Your Name

When I gaze into the night skies and see the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars suspended in space. Oh, what is man that You are mindful of Him?

You have given man a crown of glory and honor, and have made him a little lower than the angels. You have put him in charge of all creation, the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, the fish of the sea. But what is man, Oh, what is man that You are mindful of him?

O Lord, our God, the majesty and glory of Your name transcends the earth and fills the heavens. O Lord, our God, little children praise You perfectly, and so would we, and so would we. Alleluia!

The majesty and glory of Your name. Alleluia!

Joy in the Morning!

First of all, I would like to share my grateful heart with all who participated in and prayed for the Holy Week at our church, especially our choir members and orchestra players. As you all know, even though it was the week of Spring break for many area families, none of these participants complained about having to be present at all rehearsals, the Good Friday worship service,  and all three Easter morning worship services. I deeply appreciate all of them for their efforts and prayers. I prayed that the experience of the worship services would remain in everyone’s hearts as God’s inspiration.  My heart almost burst with indescribable joy when we sang “Hallelujah” on Easter morning. I hope you all had similar experiences.
This Sunday will be the first Sunday after Easter and we will continue to praise and worship the risen Christ.  At the 8:00 AM  service, the Sonrise Singers will sing, “Here I Am to Worship” as an offertory.  At the 11:00 AM service, the Sanctuary Choir will lift up, “Joy in the Morning” as the anthem, and the Celebration Choir will sing, “The Mission Song.”  The Little Praisers will share,  “Give Me Oil in My Lamp” at the 9:15 AM service.
May the joy of God through the risen Christ be upon you and your family always.
Here are the lyrics to “Joy in the Morning.”
Joy, there’ll be joy, there’ll be joy, joy, joy, joy, joy in the morning.
There’ll be joy on that day, with the light of dawn, the dark is gone, there’ll be joy,joy, joy.
There’ll be peace, there’ll be peace ever more, every heart and voice will then rejoice, there will be peace. And the glory, glory, glory of the Lord will shine, will shine. And the glory, glory, glory of the Lord will bring the truth divine.
There’ll be love, there’ll be love and forgiveness everywhere, there’ll be love everywhere, and the way of the Lord will that day be restored, there’ll be love, sweet, love everywhere.

Praise the Risen Lord!

As you can guess, the Holy week and Easter are the most exciting week of the year in churches: of course, at Floris! Have you had a chance to see “Holy week and Easter” announcement? What a week we will have! I am very excited about sharing this with you all.

From Palm Sunday (April 1^st), we enter the Holy week that last week of Lent. I could tell you that you don’t want to miss the opportunities to walk through the journey on the Holy week because it leads you to celebrate true Easter. It gives indescribable joy on Easter morning that I could promise. We will start praising Jesus by children’s praising “Hosanna!” on the Palm Sunday. As you all know, there will be Lenten Cantata called “The Lenten Sketches” on Good Friday night service. The Floris Orchestra and choir will lift up deeply worshipful cantata. This cantata will lead us to have a portrait of God’s grace that showed on the Holy week thoroughly with meditative words and beautiful music. We have been working hard and praying deeply not only may the Lord be glorified through the worship service but also may we have experience of His presence to transform us throughout the service. Please invite your friends and neighbors who especially need to meet our Savior, Jesus. You never know how God will work through your invitations to others. He works miraculously through our actions. 

On Easter morning, we will start from “Sunrise” service at 6:15, and Hallelujah chorus will be lifted up throughout all morning services at 8:00, 9:15, and 11:00. There will be a fanfare of brass that will lead us to the Easter hymn “Christ, the Lord is risen today”. Also a special Easter anthem “Risen today” will be sung by the Easter choir.

Now, you can guess how we praise and worship Him! We will use all our talents and breath to proclaim “He is Risen, indeed!” Are you ready? I am surely ready.

May the Spirit of the Lord be upon you and your family through this incredible experience of Praise and worship on the Holy week and Easter!

Here is lyric of Palm Sunday anthem.  Enjoy!

Behold, The King of Zion Comes

Behold, the King of Zion comes, the promise is fulfilled.

The visions seen by prophet eyes, to all is now in truth, revealed, to all is now revealed.

From age to age the people prayed and searched the Eastern sky. Rejoice! Rejoice! The time has come. Redemption draweth nigh. Redemption draweth nigh.

Hosanna, hosanna! Hosanna to the King! O blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Lift up your heads, ye ancient doors. Fling open wide, ye gates. Open ye gates neath chapels made of palms and praise. Your King rides humbly on to reign.

Behold, the King of Zion comes. The promise is fulfilled.

Panis Angelicus

Have you had a chance to look at the gorgeous cherry blossoms in our church parking lot? Looking at the trees makes me smile and be happy. I hope you all have a chance to smile.

We are already at the fifth Sunday in Lent this Sunday. The following Sunday, April 1, will be Palm Sunday. Then, yes, there will be Easter!  I can tell you the time has been flying !

The Chamber Choir will lift up an anthem, “Panis Angelicus” at the 11:00 AM service this Sunday. This well-known song has been loved by many people throughout the world. In fact, I used to sing this in Korean quite often when I was in a student choir. We will praise Christ who came to us as our sacrament.  Also, The Call to Harmony men’s quartet group, will share, “Savior, Like a Shepherd” as an offertory. What a blessing that we have many musical groups and people to praise and worship in our church. I pray that we all have an experience of God’s presence through the musical worship services on Sundays.

Here is one more invitation to our Lenten Cantata that will be at the Good Friday evening service April 6 at 7:30 PM in the sanctuary. As I have shared with you before, the orchestra and Cantata Choir will lift up the beautiful portrait of grace through this cantata that tells of the last week of Christ’s life on earth. Please invite your friends and neighbors to the worship service. If they are not familiar with churches, please try to introduce them to the church through the Cantata performance. I believe that God will use the music to reveal His amazing grace and indescribable love to His people, especially to those who have been lost. If we don’t invite people, they will miss the opportunity to restore a relationship with their Savior. It will be a great gift to others.  I am very excited about it! I can’t wait to see how God will work through it.

Here is a translation of the lyrics for “Panis Angelicus.” May the love of Christ embrace each of us in an immeasurable way.

Bread of the angel host sent down from God above;

Body of Christ our Lord in token of His love:

O Gift most wonderful! Christ as our sacrament: Humble, lowly, all share His sacred feasts.