QTin July 2023: Trusting, Dwelling, Rejoicing in the Word of God

By QTM

Publisher's Notes     

Table of Contents

QT Guide | How to Use QTin

I Love QTin | Kyungdoo Lee, Doyoung Kim, and Eunsil Kim

QTin Theological Stroll | Witness of Redemptive History

July Reading Guide | Proverbs, Romans, 2 Thessalonians, Joel

July Calendar

July Scripture 7.1-7.31

• Language: English
• Publisher: QTM
• Release date: Jul 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9791192205465

Book preview

Publisher's Notes

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With Groans That Words

Cannot Express

Romans was written by Paul during his third missionary journey in the three-month period he stayed in Corinth before he went to Rome. Corinth was an adulterous and divided city with a thousand prostitutes in the temples. Evil was spread throughout the city. Nevertheless, it was where Paul wrote Romans, which changed the Roman Empire and sparked Reformation of the church.

Romans is the longest of Paul’s letters. It was intended to teach the believers in Rome the principles of salvation. The contents of the book are Greetings (Romans 1:1-17), The basics of the gospel: redemption in Christ (1:18-4:25), Invitation to the gospel: the Spirit helping the weak (chapters 5-8), Applying the gospel: the salvation of Israel and the Gentiles (chapters 9-11), Living according to the gospel: spiritual worship of saints (12:1-15:13), and Closing (15:14-16:27).

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. (Romans 8:26)

We are so weak that we don’t know what to pray for. We don’t know what is good for us because we don’t know our future. But God helps us become righteous in faith. He frees us from sin, legalistic standards, and death. What do I pray for? Our prayers are often selfish and full of greed. We pray only with our words and refuse to reveal our sins during prayer.

Seeing this, God groans at us. He says, I have helped you become righteous! Why don’t you change? His grief towards us makes Him speechless. He laments, How many years have you come to church? How long has it been since I saved you?

It is painful for parents to see the children they raised become greedy and do only what they want. The parents become speechless. The Holy Spirit also becomes speechless out of pain when He sees us. We must recognize that the Spirit groans at my selfish prayers. But thankfully, the Spirit intercedes for us because God is our Father. We are lucky to have God as our Father because the Holy Spirit intercedes for us.

It is a greater blessing to be the weak child for whom the Spirit intercedes than to be the good one that always gets good grades. We cannot raise our kids on our own. We need the protection of the Spirit, who watches over His children like the apple of the eye. We cannot chase our children everywhere they go. Our children need the Spirit to protect and warn them. This is what we should pray for as parents.

Who do we look for when we need someone to pray for us? Don’t we prefer a truthful person over someone with just a lot of Bible knowledge? Some may want their pastor to pray for them, but most prefer someone they think God would listen to. No matter how much we know about the Bible, giving a powerful and sincere prayer is not easy. But even when we are selfish and greedy or weary and feel like a failure, the Spirit helps us.

During my 13-year marriage, I had prayed that my husband would believe in God. It was a good prayer, but God did not answer my prayer for a long time. The longer He did not answer my prayer, the more I came to understand how the Spirit groaned for me. The more I prayed for my husband, the more I lamented about the greed and arrogance in me. I started out groaning for my husband’s salvation but ended up groaning for my own sins.

God wanted me to see my sins before He changed my husband. God knew me better than I knew myself, so He knew what I really needed. The Spirit knows what I need and when I need it. God heard my incomplete prayer and made it complete by aligning it with His will. Of course, my husband’s salvation was also urgent and good, but what was better in God’s eyes was for me to see my sins.

Dear readers of QTin, I hope that reading Romans, which contains the essence of the gospel, makes us see the Spirit groaning and interceding for us, and helps us align our prayers with God’s will.

Hoping the Spirit’s groans become our groans,

Chief Director, QTM

Rev. Kim, Yangjae

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I Love QTin

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"I want to tell the story of my recovery

through songs of salvation."

Kyungdoo Lee, Doyoung Kim, And Eunsil Kim From the Theater Group Great Man

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Do you know what a Q-sical is? It is a word that combines Quiet Time and Musical. A Q-sical is a series of Christian musicals that tell Bible stories of God’s redemption through song and dance that are relatable to the audience. We met with the actors who want to share their personal testimonies of how the Lord came into their lives during their sufferings through song and dance. They are members of the theater group Great Man, a group that uses their musical talents to spread the gospel.

Theater Group Great Man

The theater group Great Man started in 2018. Their title is based on David’s last words in 1 Kings 2:2 which states, So be strong, show yourself a man. The title aims to help many people know the grace of God who has saved complete sinners like us. Great Man wrote and performed musicals each year, including The Inheritance in 2018, Absalom’s Monument in 2019, and Carmel in 2020. After they took a break during the COVID-19 pandemic, they resumed last year and performed Witness which was successful under God’s grace.

Q. Nice to meet you. Please introduce yourselves to our readers.

Kyungdoo Lee Hello, I am Deacon Kyungdoo Lee. I was born into a non-Christian family and had an ordinary childhood. I didn’t stand out much in academics or athletics, but people said I was good at singing, so I decided to major in vocal performance. Many vocal majors work as solo singers or choir directors at churches. I did so too, but I hadn’t met God. When people tried to persuade me to accept Jesus, I swore at them and told them to leave me alone. For eight years, I only sang for money at church and pretended to be a Christian.

After graduating from college, I quit opera and decided to become a musical singer. But I failed more than 50 auditions. It took a toll on my morale and I resorted to alcohol. Once, I fell asleep while driving after having a drink and got into an accident. My car was damaged but I thankfully did not get hurt. I realized that I would have died but my life was spared. That was when I noticed a Christian book I received as a gift from the church pianist. When I first started reading, I sarcastically laughed at the content but by the time I got to the end of the book, I met God. I repented and committed to God that I wanted to be a genuine follower of Christ. Now I serve others as a small group leader at church and work as a vocal trainer on weekdays.

Doyoung Kim I am Doyoung Kim. I was born with an illness called microtia (a condition in which the cartilage of the outer ear is undeveloped). My face is also asymmetric, so I had difficulty pronouncing words correctly. After a number of surgeries and procedures, I was finally able to live life normally. But whenever I saw myself singing and acting on the musical stage, I noticed my asymmetric face and didn’t like it.

Although I was born into a Christian family, I didn’t know much of the Word. After my father's business went bankrupt, I didn’t seek God, and sought worldly success and idolized money. I worked at a successful private academy and worked hard to receive recognition and praises from people every year. In 2018, Deacon Kyungdoo Lee invited me to a church that meditated on the Word. I now introduce myself as Doyoung Kim, the prodigal son.

Eunsil Kim Hello, I am Eunsil Kim. I was born into a Christian family and had a normal childhood. I worked hard and earned the recognition of other people. I didn’t have many problems in my faith life. But I didn’t know then that not having any problems was actually my problem. While I was working as a musical actress and choreographer, I got injured. It was like the sun, moon, and stars had fallen in my life (Matthew 24:29). When I felt hopeless and didn’t have the strength to face my problems, I began to see my sin of judging and criticizing other people. I repented of my sins. Now, I am living my calling working as a cultural administrator at our church.

Q. When did you want to become an actor? What are your roles in your theater team?

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Kyungdoo Lee I decided to major in vocals in my senior year in high school. I practiced hard at college, but I didn’t know how to train properly so I overused my voice. My singing wasn’t getting better, so I gave up.About this time I came upon musical theater, and wanted to become a musical actor. After many auditions, I was finally casted to my first musical. For four years, I acted in several famous musicals like Jekyll and Hyde but I quit acting in musicals because singing was too hard. Last year, I had an opportunity to sing in the musical Witness as a member of the musical team Great Man. I was afraid I would not do well because I hadn’t sung for some time, but my wife encouraged me to sing, and I played the role of Paul in the musical.

Doyoung Kim I have liked to perform for people since I was a child. I prepared to study music performance when I was in high school. I majored in musical theater when I was in college because I wanted to become a musical actor. I have been through many auditions and played in many big and small musicals, but the thought that I am not good enough made me quit like Deacon Lee. I spent the next couple of years teaching students based on my experience. I played the role of Barnabas in the musical Witness in 2022.

Eunsil Kim My dream wasn’t to become a musical actress at first. I majored in Korean traditional dance. A close friend introduced me to musical theater. I started to work as a musical actress, choreographer, teacher, and producer. I decided to focus on acting after I had three cruciate ligament ruptures. Through my injuries, I experienced salvation, and I wanted to tell others the story of how God restored my life. My dream of acting became clearer after I discovered a passion in me to show God’s grace to others by applying God’s Words to my acting. I currently work as a producer, choreographer, and actor in the theater team.

Q. What is the biggest change you have seen in your life or your acting career after starting QT with QTin?

Kyungdoo Lee I started attending my church in 2016. During one-on-one discipleship training at church, I came to understand my hardships through the Word. After this experience, I try to do QT with QTin every day and live by that day’s passage.

In 2017, I had a panic attack while I was singing at a friend’s wedding. After that, I was afraid to sing on stage in front of other people. But I wasn’t afraid during the entire time I sang in the musical Witness last year. I think this was because I reflected on my life through the Word and prayer each day. God changed my sufferings from human excrement to cow dung (Ezekiel 4:15), making them easier to endure.

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Doyoung Kim I also worked at a private academy with Deacon Lee. When Deacon Lee first shared his story and gave me a copy of QTin, I received the book but didn’t read it (laughs). One day, Deacon Lee was falsely accused at work. I asked him during dinner if he was okay. He replied that he accepts what happened to him, and he is thankful because the incident led him to see his sins.

Since then, I started to read QTin when I was having a hard time at work. I was touched by the Bible passages and testimonies in the book. I realized that my problems and hardships were God’s way of telling me to come back to Him. God also blessed me by leading my father to church.

Eunsil Kim I started to read QTin after I came to our church in 2012. I have done QT before, but QTin taught me how to apply the Word to my life. When I was experiencing a hard time and didn’t have anywhere to turn to, I did QT every day. That was when I started to see myself clearly. I felt God’s perfect love for me. Ironically, the more I saw my sins and admitted my weaknesses, the more my self-esteem recovered. This changed my life.

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