Be conscious of being sinners

 Confucius, he said “ Know yourself.” Like his words, what's more important, I know who I am. But, there are not many who know themselves. We, too, have not known who we are: What caused us to come down to this earth? Why do we go through hardships during our lifetime-70 or 80 years? Most people hope to occupy an important position and seize honor and power that others envy. However, it is not easy to achieve what they want. Against their desire, they are bound to continue a hard life. Most of them pay no attention to those fundamental problems until the end of their life.

 The Bible teaches us that we are sinners. If we believe that, we will not have any complaints about our sufferings and pains in this earth. For sinners have no right to enjoy happiness and to exercise power. See how criminals are treated under the earthly system. They forfeit all their rights and liberty.

 To make us realize we are sinners, Jesus gave us a teaching as follows:

 Mt 9:12-13 "On hearing this, Jesus said, "It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick . . . For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners. "

 Lk 19:10 "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

 Here Jesus said that He came to seek the lost from heaven. So, we can understand that we are sinners, the lost from heaven. We are all sinners who long for salvation and eternal life. If we were the righteous, salvation would not be required. Considering that we are longing for salvation and endeavoring after it, it is certain that we are all sinners.
 However, sometimes we forget that we are sinners. We know the fact, but we easily forget it. Forgetting is no better than not knowing. If we do know, we should not want or try to exercise any rights; for they are only for the righteous. When we forget that we are sinners, we want to reach a high position and exert some power and be served.
 A prison officer says that when convicts are sent to prison, they feel guilty at first-some for about a week and some for about a month. While most repeaters have no guilty conscience, the first offenders feel pangs of regret for what they have done, not controlling themselves. However a month passes, two months pass ..., and a year passes. As time goes by, they adapt themselves to their prison life and they come to lose the consciousness of guilt; they try to occupy a better position and struggle for power in prison.

 We are now kept in this earth, the spiritual prison. Then, are we not following the same course as those offenders do? All of us sinned in heaven and were hurled down to the earth, the city of refuge. Jesus teaches us that when we realize we are sinners, God's grace and mercy will come upon us.

 Lk 18:9-14 "To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everybody else, Jesus told this parable: "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men-robbers, evildoers, adulterers-or even like this tax collector . . . But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.' "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God . . ."

 Those who consider themselves as righteous do not repent nor humble themselves nor serve others. How about those who realize that they are sinners? "O God! I'm a sinner. Have mercy on me, a sinner." Such a prayer of repentance naturally rises to their lips.
 This is the attitude sinners must have. Like the tax collector, they would not even look up to heaven and beat their breasts in repentance, giving thanks to God for having mercy even on sinners.

 How can we be greedy for fine food? And how can we, sinners, exalt ourselves? We are merely sinners even though we make ourselves seem great. As sinners from heaven, we should not indulge in worldly pleasures. When we forget that we are sinners and consider ourselves as righteous, we will try to reign over others and extract obedience from them; we will try to be superior to others in everything. Are we the righteous? Not at all. Christ didn't come to seek and to save the righteous, but sinners fearing God with the consciousness of sin.

 Because of sins from heaven, we need salvation. Therefore like 2,000 yrs ago, Christ Ahnsahnghong has come to this earth for our salvation.