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Mt 6:10a, “Dein Reich Komme.” (Your kingdom come)

My family attended the Heidelberg SBC on August 19-21. The conference was held with the theme, “Your kingdom come” and 93 members, including children attended from Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Stuttgart. We praise God for the excellent conference with wonderful messages.

Dr. Brigitte, the wife of Sh. Reiner, delivered a message on Mt. 5:1-12 with the title, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” She spoke on having spiritual poverty for the kingdom of God. Though we have studied the Sermon on Mount many times, her message urged us to go up to the mountain once again and be hungry and thirsty to listen to Jesus’ sermons.

M. Simon delivered a message with the title, “Utopia and the kingdom of God.” Various ideologies have appeared in human history. When ideology first appeared, it seemed to be true, but later it was found out to be false. M. Simon was convinced that the true utopia could be established only when the kingdom of God comes through Jesus’ death and resurrection. The kingdom of God is fundamentally different from worldly ideologies, for it does not come through the improvement of environment or system, but through the change of our inner man or through our personal relationship with God and it lasts forever. 

Dr. Moses from Darmstadt delivered a message on Mt. 5:17-30, teaching the standard of heavenly citizens. He spoke on Jesus who fulfilled the Law and the Prophets. Jesus demonstrated the example of adultery and murder in keeping God’s law in its standard and intensity. His message urged us to repent our lustful desires and hatred in order to reach Jesus’ standard by faith.

M. David from Stuttgart, the brother of M. Kaleb, spoke about what the kingdom of God is like. He testified how one word of God, Genesis 12:1 changed his life. One word of God planted in a person is like a mustard seed but it has life inside to grow big and strong. His message was followed by my presentation of UBF history. This presentation demonstrated that early UBF ministry was like a mustard seed. But when the word of God was planted in the hearts of several Korean students, his kingdom grew and grew and spread out to the whole world.

Sh. Toni delivered the main message on the Lord’s Prayer with the theme, “Your kingdom come.” Jesus taught that “Your kingdom come” was the primary prayer topic which his disciples had to learn. His kingdom comes when we are redeemed through the blood of Jesus and reigned by God, and we could taste true joy and peace when his kingdom rules in our hearts. Sh. Toni dedicated his summer vacation for message preparation on the Lord’s Prayer. He is an influential shepherd who had persevered parents’ fiery persecution for his calling. He is currently living common life with several young shepherds, leaving his parents’ home

Sh. Samuel delivered the Sunday message on Mt. 6:19-34 with the title, “But seek first his kingdom.” Through this message we learned that we have to overcome two things so that God's kingdom can come in our hearts. First, money We should not love money but try to serve God only. We were challenged to make a clear decision to serve God alone as our true Lord. Second, worries We should not be champions of worries, but trust God fully who is our loving father and Almighty Creator. We were greatly encouraged to hold on to God's promise in our daily life to seek his kingdom as first priority. Though Samuel graduated from law school, he is currently enrolled in the University of Frankfurt in order to feed student sheep. He established a mission centered house church with Dr. Esther. This family has been having a daily bread meeting every morning, along with their parents with a prayer topic of raising one ancestor of faith and 12 disciples. May God bless this family to be a fruitful shepherd family both physically and spiritually by holding on to Mt 6:33.

Sh. Reiner translated and also led English group Bible studies for us. He often redirected us from our common sense back to the Bible text and pay close attention to the word of God. His excellent deductive Bible teaching, his Bible exposition and his faith in the word of God impressed us greatly. We were so thankful to God for granting an opportunity to learn from him. We also watched him shepherding others and his teenage son Johannes during the conference.

We could see Heidelberg ministry growing through several committed shepherds, including Reiner and Brigitte, Birgit Steller, Markus Abel and Maria from Yonhee UBF, Martin Ziegler and Petra from Kyungsung UBF, Aydin, Toni, Simona, Regina Latreider. We prayed for Germany to be a shepherd nation by raising 12 shepherds through Heidelberg UBF.

This summer conference in Germany had a significant meaning to us. Prior to leaving for Germany, I had a chance to read parts of Dr. Samuel Lee’s 1976 daily bread. One note was written on the air plane returning from his extensive stay in Germany after visiting all the coworkers one by one in various cities. He was struggling in his prayer to overcome his negative thinking and fear but to believe in God. As the plane was landing, he decided to believe by faith and help others to have faith. The conference reminded us of Hebrews 11:6. Observing the fruitful Heidelberg ministry, we could see how God kept his promise in making once a weak and fatalistic Korean nurse, M. Sarah into a mother of the German campus students.  God has raised many German student shepherds with the gospel of Jesus. We thank God for helping us visit Switzerland and Germany after nearly over 40 years ever since our missionaries planted the seed of the gospel with many tears. In various places in Switzerland and Germany where Dr. Lee had visited, though many have left and many things have changed, there are still remnant house churches keeping the lamp of God burning for the campus mission. We prayed that God may strengthen these house churches to be faithful to the end. “Dein Reich Komme (Your kingdom come)” 

Reported by Dr. Paul