10 Reasons Why Learning The Korean Language Is NOT Difficult

I have a lot to learn about my job/career. I love what I am doing right now at work and I am really enjoying the everyday learning. I always look forward to exploring new things. Learning deepens our character and makes us more inspiring to those around us.

I also believe that everyone is entitled to live your passion. Some say don't follow your passion, but follow your effort. It is the sense of fulfilling achievements. It is clear that it does not always end on gaining wealth rather on finding your full potential, satisfaction, contentment, and happiness. 

DON’T DO WHAT YOU LOVE. LEARN TO LOVE WHAT YOU DO. 

1. When you work hard at something you become good at it. 
2. When you become good at doing something, you will enjoy it more. 
3. When you enjoy doing something, there is a very good chance you will become passionate or more passionate about it 
4. When you are good at something, passionate and work even harder to excel and be the best at it, good things happen. 

Don’t follow your passions, follow your effort. It will lead you to your passions and to success, however you define it. 

Pay attention to where you spend your time, learn how to get good at what you’re doing and get much better at it. 

However, sometimes time is the hindering factor. I think it’s all up to the individual when there are so many outside forces influencing the situation towards living your passion. 

The author (who is an English native-speaker) of the re-post article below itemized several reasons why learning a new language, especially the Korean language, is not really difficult. 

1. The alphabet can be learned in an hour or two 
2. Korean grammar is actually very simple and straightforward 
3. Korean phonetics are a piece of cake for English speakers 
4. Many words are made up smaller, single-syllable words 
5. The blessed 하다 verbs are a cinch! 
6. Respectful forms and honorifics aren't a problem at all 
7. Korean word order is different with English sentence structure but here’s how you can make it easy 
8. There’s an abundance of excellent material to learn from 
9. Konglish gives you a good head start 
10. Korea is one of the easiest foreign countries in the world for any native English speaker to move to and live long-term to learn the language.

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Reason 1: The alphabet can be learned in an hour or two

This is an obvious point and I talked about this before so I won’t repeat myself here. 

Even though Korean newspapers do use the occasional Chinese character, Korean hangeul is an incredibly simple and easy-to-learn alphabet.

This little comic strip that’s been floating around is quite good:

Also typing in Korean is really easy to pick up too (I recommend you practise this early so you can use Naver and Daum to look things up).

The online Branah keyboard is excellent for this if you don’t have the Korean keyboard set up.

Reason 2: Korean grammar is actually very simple and straightforward

I’ve studied over 10 languages and Korean has one of the easiest grammars I’ve ever seen.

While there’s probably a lot I could say about the finer points of grammar, here are just a few in point form:

There’s no need to worry about gender or number when dealing with verbs. “He eats”, “she eats”, “you eat” are all conjugated exactly the same way (it gets only slightly different if the person’s older than you or in a position of authority which I’ll explain below).

Nouns don’t change according to case. Many languages (especially ones like Greek and Russian) often have many different noun forms depending on what the noun is or what it’s doing. In Korean this is done with a few basic suffixes called case markers that are extremely easy to learn. For example, 로is an instrumental marker (by/with/using) so if I attached it to the end of the word for the Korean language (한국말+로), it means in/using Korean. If I’m ordering ice-cream and I want my ice-cream in a cone I can attach it on the end of the word coneto mean in a cone. If you’ve never seen an agglutinative language before then it will take a little while to adjust to but overall Korean is a very simple agglutinative language.

While there is a copula verb to be (이다 – for sentences like “it is a house”), there is no auxiliary verb for action or descriptive verbs. For example, “I am happy” is simply “I happy”.

Past, future and progressive verb tenses follow an insanely simple and consistent pattern. Apart from a few minor changes that happen to some verbs, it’s usually just a case of attaching one of a few appropriate endings to a word. Once you get used to the patterns, you can spot and use them very easily.

Passive and causative verbs, adjectives and adverbs are all formed using extremely basic patterns with few irregularities.

Reason 3: Korean phonetics are a piece of cake for English speakers

For English speakers there’s nothing terribly unusual about Korean phonetics.

Unlike Arabic and Hebrew there are no guttural sounds.

There are no consonant clusters like Georgian or Polish (where you have 4 or more consonants in a row).

There are also no tones like many other East Asian languages.

For the most part Korean is usually pronounced exactly the way it’s written, unlike English which is full of words that sound nothing like the way they appear on paper.

The only exception to this is that like every language, Korean assimilates and omits sounds sometimes when combined with others.

This happens in pretty much every language though and is just an evolutionary process determined by what’s more comfortable for us to pronounce. Some letter combinations (e.g. putting n and l together) just don’t feel right when spoken.

Try saying nlion or nlight and you’ll see what I mean!

One example from Korean is 편리 which means convenience. It’s writtenpyeon-li but is pronounced pyeol-li where the n becomes an l sound. The latter is much easier to pronounce which is why these types of words evolve over time in every language.

As another example, 맞다 (to be correct) is not pronounced maj-da as it’s written because that would be too awkward to say naturally so it’s pronounced ma’-da (a glottal stop in place of the j).

Don’t let these things concern you because these basic phonetic changes are easy to adjust to after a little practise and even more so when you understand why it happens.

Reason 4: Many words are made up smaller, single-syllable words

This makes learning Korean vocab a walk in the park trust me!

Firstly I should add that there are some great lessons made by TTMIKcalled Word Builder lessons that explain this well which I highly recommend you check out.

Many compound Korean words (particularly ones that are derived from Chinese) are made up of single syllable words and you can usually take a rough guess at its meaning if you can recognise them.

For example, if you see the word 학 (hak) you can be pretty sure it’s got something to do with education or learning:

학원 – academy

학교 – school

학생 – student

언어학 – linguistics (study of language)

과학 – science (subject)

You’re miles ahead for vocab if you already know Mandarin Chinese too! 

Reason 5: The blessed 하다 verbs are a cinch (Something easy to accomplish)!

This is one thing I friggin’ love about Korean verbs.

Many Korean verbs are actually just nouns connected to the verb to do (하다).

For example, the verb 행복하다 (to be happy) is literally happiness + do =doing happiness.

What I usually do when I learn a new noun is get on Daum or Naver and search to see if there’s a corresponding 하다 verb that goes with it. It’s all about killing two birds with one stone.

So easy! 

Oh and 하다 verbs are amazing when it comes to forming adverbs, causatives and passives because they’re all identical in form.

Reason 6: Respectful forms and honorifics aren’t a problem at all

I’ve talked about this at length before so I won’t repeat it here (see this post) but I just want to say that this is nowhere near as tough as people make it out to be.

Generally it’s just a matter of adding or dropping -요 (or -야 if you want to be casual) on the end of sentences depending on who you’re talking to.

There is of course more to it than that but for most learners that’s all you need to worry about in the beginning.

Honorifics likewise follow a pretty simple pattern of using the infix -시-for verbs. Once you practise it a few times and be mindful of the people you’re talking to or about, it’s really a piece of cake.

There’s only a small amount of extra honorific vocab too but you learn those just as you would any other vocabulary.

Reason 7: Korean word order can be a son of a bitch but here’s how you can make it easy

This is the most challenging part of learning Korean in my opinion but I’ll explain how I’ve simplified it for myself.

First of all, for us Korean is backwards.

Not backwards in the ‘primitive’ sense of the word – I mean literallybackwards. English is a S-V-O language whereas Korean is S-O-V (e.g. I went to the shop in Korean is I to the shop went).

Now, this is very easy for short sentences and there’s nothing challenging about a simple sentence like I went to the shop. The problem is when you have relative clauses or longer sentences with extra information embedded in it.

For example, a sentence like “Remember that pretty girl who works at Samsung that I met yesterday?” is where an English speaker would have huge headaches.

A few months ago sentences like this were making my hair fall out! 

The trick I’ve found useful is to practise breaking it down into its smaller parts (sometimes I use what linguists call phrase tree diagrams (Google it) to help visualise it too).

I did this on paper for a while but these days I don’t need to. It comes much more naturally with practise:

“Remember that pretty girl who works at Samsung that I met yesterday?”

Subject: the pretty girl

Main verb: remember

All the extra information: who works at Samsung that I met yesterday

So if we only had to say “Remember that pretty girl?” it would be very straightforward.

The rest of the sentence describes the girl. It works like a big long adjective coming before the subject.

The reason why this is weird for us as English speakers is that in English we tend to state the person or thing we’re talking about right at the beginning in a sentence like this. Before I say anything else about where she works or when we met, you know that I’m going to talk about a pretty girl.

In Korean you say all of the descriptive stuff before you even mention the girl.

So if you’re a really slow speaker then the person you’re talking to is not going to know who you’re talking about at first, especially if it’s a long sentence.

This gets really awkward sometimes!

One thing you can do as a new learner to fake it till you make it is say the same thing by making lots of little sentences – e.g. “Remember the pretty girl? I met her yesterday. She works at Samsung.”

My other vital bit of advice for you is this: STOP THINKING IN ENGLISH!

I use caps so you realise how important this point is. 

If you’re thinking in English and trying to say sentences like the example above in the middle of a conversation then you’re going to really confuse yourself.

The sooner you start thinking in Korean, however limited it may be, the more coherent your sentences will be.

Reason 8: There’s an abundance of excellent material to learn from

There is so much good material around for learning Korean.

After popular languages like French, Spanish and German, Korean is up there as one of the languages where good quality resources are abundant and overflowing – both paid and free.

There are many free resources I’ve found amazingly useful such as My Korean from Monash University, Berkeley Intermediate College Korean, TTMIK, Matthew’s Korean Study and Reference Guide, and TOPIK Guide. YouTube also has a bazillion learning videos, talk shows and kdramas with subtitles.

This is an excellent beginner series:

As far as good quality paid resources go there are just too many!

I used Elementary Korean by Ross King and Jaehoon Yeon when starting out which is an excellent book (the audio’s not the best but the book is brilliant). I also bought Korean 2 from Seoul National University which was worth every cent.

A few months ago I reviewed the brilliant Talk To Me In Korean books that you can watch here.

Of course, italki has been my number one paid service that beats anything else I could have spent money on. The experienced Korean language teachers I’ve had on there have helped me more than anything to get where I am now with Korean.

There’s just tonnes out there for Korean. You’ll never have a problem finding resources.

Reason 9: Konglish gives you a good head start

This kind of feels like cheating but it’s not really.

Korean has actually got a lot of loan words from English.

Apart from the fact that Koreans are fanatical about learning the English language and therefore most of the people can speak at least a little, you’ll find a lot of borrowed words that have become assimilated into Korean.

An example off the top of my head is 체크하다 (check + 하다 verb). Korean of course has its own verb for to check something but this Konglish verb is as much part of the language now as anything else.

See here, here and here for some lists of a few other Konglish words.

It’s always a good idea when you’re learning any language to start with cognates and borrowed words as it’s a good way of rapidly expanding your vocab.

Reason 10: Korea is one of the easiest foreign countries in the world for any native English speaker to move to and live long-term to learn the language

This is a very important point.

Since being in the country is so crucial to learning any foreign language properly (online lessons are great but they have their limits), this is something you should take into consideration before starting anything.

The great thing about Korea is that there’s an abundance of ESL jobs here with free accommodation, free flights and very good salaries that will put you in the midst of the language you’re trying to learn (as long as you stay away from expat-magnet shit holes like Itaewon and Hongdae!). You can do this in other countries sure but very few of them offer the same perks you get here.

I live in an area surrounded by limitless ways for me to practise my Korean every single day.

It’s one of the best immersion opportunities that you could ask for – learn a language through immersion and get cashed up at the same time.

CREDITS/SOURCE:

http://www.mezzoguild.com/korean-language-is-not-difficult/

Something To Truly Ponder Upon! A Love Letter :)

Plastic Cling Wrap

I found the title in a most funny moment where I had to use the object in something I really love so much- food. We can't live without the latter, and we must admit that. Beyond our physical body needing nourishment, exercise, happy thoughts, a heart of encouragement, hope, and a lot of things to live through a day of GOD; we need to keep ourselves alive within. Nothing can compare to the fuel which is coming from spiritual wits that sustain a human life. 

Every individual has soul and even though many times, people disregard to keep an eye to their spiritual condition or ignore to check if they need reconstruct something either with their daily habit, standard norms or what-not of what people used to live with. 

There are going to be times when you question God’s call on your life. It is during these times in which you need a spiritual check-up. However, it is encouraged not to only do spiritual check when there are rough times in our lives but to be very diligent in seeing accountability in everything.

To have sound assurance, we must understand that our salvation rests on the merit of Christ alone, which is appropriated to us when we embrace Him by genuine faith.

I am a fan of simplicity. I encourage others to eliminate the unneeded things from their lives.. but positive words cannot be on that list. Let us always check how GOD perceives us. 

You may find confidence in LORD JESUS with the Word of Wisdom bestowed on us through the reading below:

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True and False Disciples

21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7:21-23)

21 나더러 주여 ! 주여 ! 하는 자마다 천국에 다 들어갈 것이 아니요 다만 하늘에 계신 내 아버지의 뜻대로 행하는 자라야 들어가리라 22 그 날에 많은 사람이 나더러 이르되 주여, 주여 우리가 주의 이름으로 선지자 노릇하며 주의 이름으로 귀신을 쫓아 내며 주의 이름으로 많은 권능을 행치 아니하였나이까 하리니 

23 그 때에 내가 저희에게 밝히 말하되 내가 너희를 도무지 알지 못하니 불법을 행하는 자들아 내게서 떠나가라 하리라 

The Narrow and Wide Gates

13 “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13)

13 "좁은 문으로 들어가라 멸망으로 인도하는 문은 크고 그 길이 넓어 그리로 들어가는 자가 많고"

John 10:14-15 

I am the Good Shepherd. I know My own and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

14 나는 선한 목자라 ! 내가 내 양을 알고 양도 나를 아는 것이 15 아버지께서 나를 아시고 내가 아버지를 아는 것 같으니 나는 양을 위하여 목숨을 버리노라 

Several times Christ gave advice that seemingly discourages rather than encourages people to become Christians. Why did He do this?

Surprisingly, all but a relatively small number of disciples turned away from Jesus by the end of His ministry! The thousands that once chased our Savior like a celebrity apparently dwindled away to few hundred after His death (Acts 1:15; 1 Corinthians 15:6). How strikingly different the true picture is from the supposedly easy path to becoming a Christian by just giving your heart to the Lord.

In Matthew 7:13-14 we read of Jesus saying, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (emphasis added throughout).

Narrow gate, difficult path

The phrase “narrow is the gate” is fairly easy to understand. A narrow gate is harder to pass through than one that is wide, and only a few people can go through a narrow gate at once. In saying “difficult is the way which leads to life,” Jesus was explaining how hard being a Christian really is.

“Difficult” is from the Greek word thlibo, which means: “To press (as grapes), press hard upon; a compressed way; narrow straitened, contracted” (New Testament Greek Lexicon, www.bibletstudytools.com).

The lexicon adds that the word can be used metaphorically to mean “trouble, afflict, distress.” If Jesus wanted to draw people to follow Him, why did He tell prospective disciples that doing so would bring them grief?

To understand what He meant, let’s examine a few of the passages where He seemingly discouraged people from following Him.

Advice to would-be followers

Luke writes of three encounters Jesus had with would-be Christians as He and His disciples were traveling. One of them made a dramatic statement of commitment, saying to Christ: “Lord, I will follow You wherever You go” (Luke 9:57).

Jesus didn’t reply, “Wonderful! Please join us!” Instead, He said something that, at the least, would have caused the man to have second thoughts and, at the most, would have turned him away completely: “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (verse 58). Jesus was conveying the uncertainty that could accompany the life of a true Christian.

Luke’s narrative continues with Jesus turning to another person and telling him, “Follow Me” (verse 59). The man begged off, asking to be allowed to first bury his father. Since Jewish custom was to bury the dead as soon as possible, it is unlikely the man was out with the crowd around Christ with a dead father at home. More likely, the man was asking to spend whatever remaining time he might have with an aging or perhaps ill father—an open-ended request actually.

The blunt record of Luke has Jesus responding to this man’s excuse, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God” (verse 60). Obviously, dead people do not bury anyone. Here, Jesus was referring to those who were spiritually dead—people who had not responded to His teaching. Jesus was telling the potential Christian that his calling was infinitely more important.

Then a third man, who was committed to becoming a disciple, made a seemingly reasonable request to first return home to say goodbye to whoever was at his house, whether family or guests we do not know (verse 61). To this person, Jesus responded: “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God” (verse 62).

We cannot know with certainty, but this person may not have been as committed as his words make it sound. The Bible records only the essence of the exchange—what we need to know to understand the main point. All three of these responses add clarity to Christ’s teaching that “narrow is the gate.”

In this third example, the added lesson was that Christians must continue to keep their eyes on the goal—God’s Kingdom. An experienced plowman immediately recognizes the point of this analogy. When plowing, the farmer fixes his eyes on a rock, a hill or some other marker, so that he will plow straight furrows. Although modern farmers with vast fields often use GPS equipment to accomplish this, the principle remains the same!

More little-known advice

A few chapters later, we find another insightful account about what we must do to become followers of Jesus Christ. With a huge number of people crowding around to hear Jesus’ every word, He gave more examples not of how easy it is to give your heart to the Lord, but how heavy the obligation of becoming a Christian is.

“Hate” those closest to you?

In Luke 14:26 Jesus said, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.” This instruction seems strange until we understand the meaning of the original language.

The NKJV Study Bible explains: “To ‘hate’ one’s family and even one’s life is rhetorical. It refers to desiring something less than something else” (2007, notes on Luke 14:26). In other words, a Christian’s love for living God’s way of life has to be greater than the love he or she has for any human relationship, as well as for himself or herself.

Even clarified, the statement is rather unexpected.

Endure trials

The next example was extremely graphic. Jesus said, “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (verse 27). Just as condemned criminals were made to carry the crosses upon which they would be executed, we must be willing to endure whatever trials we may face for being Christians.

“Count the cost”

Next, Jesus spoke of a construction project. He pointed out that any responsible builder would consider the cost of the entire project from start to finish and then make sure he had the necessary funding to complete the project before he would even start. Beginning a construction project without considering funding could result in an abandoned, partially complete building—a visual symbol of the builder’s lack of judgment (verses 28-30).

This principle can also be applied to becoming a Christian. We need to understand the cost—the challenges and hardships—that are sure to come when we begin living God’s way of life.

Consider your resources

Jesus then gave an illustration about going to war. Quite simply, Jesus said that a king or general counts his troops before engaging an enemy. He wants to know in advance that victory is possible. If He doesn’t have sufficient resources to win, He makes peace instead of going to war (verses 31-32).

As for Christians, our battles are spiritual in nature. In reality, it is impossible for us to win this war by ourselves. Upon becoming a Christian, we will need the help of God’s great power—His Holy Spirit—to achieve victory against overwhelming odds.

“Forsake all”

Concluding His teaching on this occasion, Jesus said, “So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple” (verse 33). The lesson here is that in order to truly follow Christ, this must become the most important thing in our lives.

Why would Jesus tell people that unless they met these undeniably stringent standards, they could not become His disciples, Christians? He was simply further expounding upon the principle that “narrow is the gate.”

Sources

Priceless Guitar Melodies of the Heart

Dear LORD

I thank You for this day. I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this day. I’m blessed because You are a forgiving and an understanding God. You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me. Forgive me this day for everything I have done, said or thought that was not pleasing to you. I ask now for Your forgiveness.

Please keep me safe from all danger and harm. In the same way You protect me, do it unto others. (friends/families I love..I'm keeping in my heart) Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Let me make the best of each and every day to clear my mind so that I can hear from You. I may not be able to see something I wanted to quest but You never cease to show that there are more to what's behind the clouds. 

Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over. Let me continue to see sin through God’s eyes and acknowledge it as evil. And when I sin, let me repent, and confess with my mouth my wrong-doings and receive the forgiveness of GOD.

And when this world closes in on me, let me remember Jesus’ example to slip away and find a quiet place to pray. It’s the best response when I’m pushed beyond my limits. I know that when I can’t pray, You listen to my heart. Continue to use me to do Your will.

Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others. Keep me strong that I may help the weak. Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others. I pray for those that are lost and can’t find their way but keep me first on track so that I may not pull others. I pray for those that are misjudged and misunderstood. I pray for those who don’t know you intimately. I pray for those that will ignore this epistle and not taking it in their heart. I pray for those who don’t believe but I thank You that I believe.

I believe that God changes people and God changes things. I pray for all my sisters and brothers for each and every family member in their households. I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes that they are out of debt and all their needs are met.

I pray that every eye and ear that listens knows there is no problem, circumstances or situation greater than God. Every battle is in Your hands Dear Jesus for you to fight. I pray that these words be received into the hearts of every eye that sees them and every mouth that confesses them willingly. These I pray..

In Jesus’ Name. Amen. 

..Thank You~. *^__^* <3<3<3

Source/Credits: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DkllPaxqJPCKn1Tykrfig

I Don't Want To Stay As A Baby Christian.. Am I?

At the moment we receive Christ as our Savior, we are born again spiritually into God's family. But just as a newborn baby requires nourishing milk for growth and good development, so also a baby Christian requires spiritual food for growth.

Spiritual Growth - What is it?

Spiritual growth is detailed in 2 Peter 1:3-8, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."

So, spiritual growth includes: (1) increasing in your knowledge and understanding of God's Word, (2) decreasing in your frequency and severity of sin, (3) increasing in your practice of Christ-like qualities, and (4) increasing in your faith and trust in God. Perhaps the best summary of spiritual growth is becoming more like Jesus Christ. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says, "Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ." Jesus Christ is the ultimate example of what it truly means to be spiritual.

Spiritual Growth - How is it done?

In order for spiritual growth to occur, you first need to make sure you possess a true spiritual life through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life" (1 John 5:11-12). When you believe in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit lives inside of you (John 14:16-17) and you are a new creation in Christ! 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" Your old nature, which is dominated by sin, is replaced with a new nature that is under the influence of God's Spirit (Romans 6-7). Spiritual growth can only occur in a person who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior.

Learning how to grow spiritually is a life-long journey which occurs as you read and apply God's Word to your life. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 teaches us, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." In order for spiritual growth to occur, we must be taught, rebuked, corrected, and trained by God's Word. Then we will be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This is the essence of spiritual growth.

Another key to Christian growth is walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-18, 24-26explains, "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other."

Walking in the Spirit is allowing Him to fill you (Ephesians 5:18), control you, and guide you. This is brought about by consciously choosing by faith to rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you in thought, word, and deed (Romans 6:11-14). Failure to rely on the Holy Spirit's guidance will result in a believer not living up to the calling and standing that salvation provides. Ephesians 4:1says, "…I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received."

Spiritual Growth - What are the results?

Spiritual growth is a life-long process of manifesting the acts of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21) less and less and producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) more and more. Notice that it is the Holy Spirit who produces the fruit in us. Yes, we must submit ourselves to the Spirit's leading, but it is the Spirit who produces the fruit of spiritual growth in our lives. What does spiritual growth look like? Galatians 5:22-23 has the answer, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." If you are becoming more loving, more joyful, more kind, more self-controlled, etc., then you can rest assured that spiritual growth is genuinely occurring in your life.

God works in different people in different ways. Some people grow rapidly, while others grow slowly, but steadily. Our focus should not be on comparing ourselves with others, but on comparing ourselves with God's Word. The Scriptures are the mirror to show us what we are like spiritually and to shine light on the areas that need to experience and learn spiritual growth.James 1:23-25 declares, "Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it - he will be blessed in what he does."

Source:

http://www.allaboutgod.com/spiritual-growth.htm

Question: "How can I become more like Christ?"

Answer: God's desire for all who know Him is for us to become more like Christ. We do this by first growing in our knowledge of Christ. It stands to reason that we cannot grow to be like someone we don’t know. The deeper our knowledge of Christ, the deeper our understanding of Him, and the more like Him we become. Among other reasons, we are to know and understand Christ so that we will be secure in the faith.

The Apostle Paul reiterates this truth in Ephesians 4:14-16: "Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work." This fact is repeated once more in 2 Peter 3:17-18: "Therefore, dear friends, since you already know this, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of lawless men and fall from your secure position. But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen." These passages show us that growing in the knowledge of Christ will preserve us from faith-destroying error.

Of course, knowledge alone will not produce a Christlike character. The knowledge we gain from God’s Word must impact our hearts and convict us of the need to obey what we have learned.Romans 12:1-2tells us emphatically that the process of filling our minds with the knowledge of God not only brings us closer to Christlikeness, but obedience to that knowledge aligns us with the perfect will of God: "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will."

The natural consequence of knowing and obeying God is that He becomes greater and greater, while we become less and less as we yield control of our lives to Him. Just as John the Baptist knew that “[Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30), so the Christian grows to reflect more of Christ and less of his own nature. Luke sums it up best when he describes what Jesus told His disciples: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it" (Luke 9:23-24). The cross was an instrument of death, and Jesus encourages us to take up our cross in order to put to death our old sin nature upon it. God wants us to forget about this world and all its temporary pleasures and be obedient to His Word. Jesus is the living Word (John 1:1), and the Bible is God's written Word. Therefore, conforming to the Word of God is conforming to Christ.

It is important to realize that becoming more like Christ starts by receiving Him as Savior from our sins. Then we grow in our knowledge of God by reading the Bible daily, studying it, and being obedient to what it says. This process causes us to grow and occurs over an entire lifetime in Christ. Only when we have entered Heaven for eternity with God does this process reach its culmination.

Read more:http://www.gotquestions.org/more-like-Christ.html#ixzz3SUn545G2

South Korea Work Visit and Vacation Tour

      
Seoul Tour Bus Trip with Park JM - Seoul, South Korea - 27.November.2014

Walking Tours : http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/SI/SI_EN_3_4_14.jsp

...One of the most enjoyed first-time experiences in Seoul with a dear Korean chingu is our lunch at Tong-in Market. Unlike the usual dining experience, my appetite has been served well with what I expected to taste. My Korean friend and I took the Seoul City Tour Double-Decker bus from Dongdaemun place and alight near the Gyeongbukgung where this unique diner is found in the heart of a local market. It was so great to visit with a native Korean because you are given more information about the Dosirak (도시락) dining mechanics. It was so much fun indeed. 

Lunch Time at Dosirak (도시락) Café 

Off our lunch trays, stuffed to the brim with delicacies bought with the yeopjeon tokens at the Dosirak (도시락) Café in November 27, 2014 at Tong-in Market, within the heart of Seou, South Korea.

Tong-in Market is located just next to Gyeongbokgung Palace. For just KRW 500, a so-called Lunchboxes, or dosirak (도시락) could be taken. After paying 5,000 won ($5USD), we ware given a string of coins that were to be used at the vendors in the market marked with the Doshirak sign. We received a tray and headed downstairs to get our food grub on.

Everything looked fantastic and it was difficult to figure out what to order first.  We wandered up and down the main strip of the market to see what was for sale.  Older women and men worked over grills, flipping, roasting, tossing, and stirring. The experience of a first-time savoring aromas lured us from stall to stall, which offered up everything from grilled fish and beef to spicy looking vegetables to fried things I couldn't easily identify.  Although the foods were all priced differently, nothing cost more than 3 coins (1,500 won) and most items were 2 coin (1,000 won).  We loaded up my tray with some of my favorite dishes as well as some we had never tried before and headed back to the cafe, where my friend ordered soup and rice for 2 coins each. Park Jongmin is from Incheon but he is familiar to the place because since usually visits the downtown Seoul. Some of these foods are naturally known to him. He suggested that we order differently so I can taste more dishes and we will share our trays to each other but look at the photo of our trays, it looked like we ended up almost having same kind of foods. :P 

Everything that we had ordered was fantastic and although we tried hard to eat it all, I was completely stuffed and simply couldn't. My dear friend told me to stop and don't force myself to take what I could no longer. My mind uttered I wanted to eat them all because this is a very first but my tummy says no. There aren't many places where you can eat well and get full for less than 5 bucks, which makes Dosirak Cafe an excellent find for those on a budget. In addition, visiting Tong-in Market is a truly unique dining experience and is a wonderful way to sample some of Korea's best market foods.

Hours:  Open Monday- Saturday 11a.m. to 4p.m.  Closed on Sundays.

Address:  Seoul Jongro-gu Tongin-dong 10-3 서울 종로구 통인동 10-3번지

Many photos to upload soon.. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH..

MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HAPPY 2015!!

#HAPPINESS

Please Partake... and listen! We Are Truly LOVED :)

Luke 16:19-31
King James Version (KJV)

"Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus"

This is NOT a message of eternal condemnation, 
but a message of hope, justice, and love. ^____^

¹⁹ There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:

²⁰ And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,

²¹ And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.

²² And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

²³ And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

²⁴ And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.

²⁵ But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

²⁶ And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

²⁷ Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:

²⁸ For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

²⁹ Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

³⁰ And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.

³¹ And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

It Is All About Balance and Optimism

Rest as hard as you work

There’s a fine line between the amount of work you do and the rest that you allow yourself. Rest can take the form of physical rest, or, for most of us, mental rest. Exercising, deep breathing, and vacations will take care of your mental rest. If you feel physically exhausted, try switching up your workout routine or take a week off. You will come back fresh and ready to do more.

Spending quality time with your kid(s), nephews/nieces, and friends is one way to temporarily stay out of your work routine slash quite stress. 

Once recharged, produce more good output with positive outlook and with clear mindset towards achieving your goal.

Baking - Some New Skills To Master

Baking is a food cooking method that uses prolonged dry heat by convection, rather than by thermal radiation, normally in an oven, but also in hot ashes, or on hot stones. The most common baked item is bread but many other types of foods are baked. Heat is gradually transferred "from the surface of cakes, cookies, and breads to their centre. As heat travels through it transforms batters and doughs into baked goods with a firm dry crust and a softer centre". Baking can be combined with grilling to produce a hybrid barbecue variant by using both methods simultaneously, or one after the other. Baking is related to barbecuing because the concept of the masonry oven is similar to that of a smoke pit.

We all are becoming so artistic, creative and scientific, in terms of cooking that new methods are created to cook food which not only enhances its flavor but also minimizes cooking time. Baking is one of them. Baking refers to cooking food in sealed enclosure. In past, food was baked closed under wooden or stone stove or underground but these days special purpose stoves are available for baking food and those are called ovens. Oven is advanced version of a simple stove. It has the ability to cook food by baking, grilling etc.

An Oven can be operated either by using electricity or gas. Electric and gas ovens are both used for all types of cooking but electric ovens are generally used for baking cakes and bakery items in bulk , while gas ovens are preferred to use for rest of the cooking which includes roasting, grilling etc.

We decided to have an gas thermostat oven which also include a grilling feature that is so ideal for December (Christmas) cooking plans.

Now by learning these benefits of baked food, I usually prefer to use it rather than cooking by deep frying and making oily food on stove. Although, we can’t ignore the importance of stove cooking but whereever possible it is better to bake your food. Don't slump into too much sugar though which means, avoid doing baking stuff with a lot of confectionaries.  

Merry Christmas From The Philippines

The "BER" months of 2014 starts!! The Christmas celebration begins in the Philippines. So happy and everyday is considered a moment to remember LORD JESUS in everyone's heart. Christmas is really FUN in the Philippines!! ^_____^ but I also wanted to visit and spend Christmas in South Korea someday soon~~ 안녕하세요!!

Passion, Happiness

Software languages.

Conversation languages.

...........

Seoul, Busan, Jinhae, Daegu, Daejon, ---Seoul.

My sincere prayers go for them..T________T while we live freely.. they.. those who are far far.. , hmm (teary-heart)