International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

In the first Sunday message of the new fall semester, Matthew Kim explores the following three questions with the backdrop of “The Parable of the Rich Fool” from Luke 12: (1) What is the life philosophy of the rich fool? (2) What are some fundamental assumptions inherent in the man’s life philosophy? (3) What does Jesus say about life?  The answer to these questions will color how we want to be remembered by our colleagues and family members at the end of our lives.

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Teaching based on 1 Timothy 1:12-17 and Ephesians 3:7-13, Chul discusses how Christians should respond to “pressure” in Christian life.  Why do some people view Christian life as laborious and tiresome?  What happens when God becomes the center the of our lives?  How does our personal appreciation for the Gospel and our testimony affect the way that we view service to God?

To learn the answer to some of these questions, click the link below to hear the podcast:

In the last installment of the “Pursuit of Happiness” series, Matthew Kim contends that happiness cannot be achieved by pursuing directly after it, but rather, it comes as a natural by-product when we put first things first.  To put it another way, happiness can be found when we lose ourselves in worshipping God in a loving community, serving God’s mission on Earth.

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In the second installment of the “Pursuit of Happiness” series, Matthew talked about how happiness is not something that we are really good at predicting so we end up thinking something will make us happy even though it will not.  Furthermore, he adds that happiness doesn’t come from our circumstances, but our character.  Using the story in Luke 15, he talks about what will really bring happiness, which it turns out is a living as we were designed – in connection with God and pursuing a life following Him.

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Teaching from 2 Thessalonians 1, Chul talked about the important topic of how faith and love are meant to grow because Christian life is about relationships and in relationships things grow.  He talked about the reasons why some people don’t grow and some do and provided some practical guidelines for how we can grow in our faith and love.

To learn the answer to some of these questions, click the link below to hear the podcast:

In Part 2 of his message series on prayer, Chul Kim reviews our need to constantly pray for grace and peace and discusses the power of prayer through 1-2 Thessalonians.  With a focus on 1 Thessalonians 1:3-5, we learn about the impact of enriched relationships on an enriched prayer life and growing conviction in our faith.  How can we form deeper conviction and growth in the larger context of a Christian community?

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In the last installment of the “Help My Unbelief” series, Chul Kim first reviews the historical and circumstantial evidence for the Christian faith, and then discusses Apostle Paul’s conversion story in Acts 9:1-25 as a model of someone who “heard” God through life’s circumstances.  Often times, our “How do you know?” and “What if…?” questions can drive us into skepticism ad infinitum, but if we listen for God through the immovable evidence of our own life, God can shed a light from Heaven to illuminate what he might want to say to us today.

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In Part II of the “Help My Unbelief” series, Chul discusses how we may bridge the gap between the undeniable and unexplainable things in our lives.  How should we respond when something unexplainable happens?  Could it be possible that we can of

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This week, we started a new series called “Help My Unbelief” to talk about how we can come to have saving faith.  Chul shared from John 1:43-51 and John 3:16 to draw out four lessons.  The first lesson is that though we may have a lot of prejudices (some against Christianity), we should acknowledge these prejudices and be mature and humble enough to see that these prejudices may not be right.  The second lesson is that we need to be seeking after the truth with a genuine desire to know the truth otherwise we will continue to remain stuck.  The third lesson is that when we realize that God knows who we are that is when we get to know God personally.  Finally, the fourth lesson is that Jesus came to the earth as a Savior to be bridge between God and us.

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Howard and Wesley returned from Honduras this week and they provided a mission report of their trip with BMDMI (Baptist Medical & Dental Mission International) and all that they experienced on this trip.  Afterwards, Lauren gave a touching testimonial bible study of her trip to Central Asia and how it is with sacrifice and love that the valleys of bitterness in our lives can turn into places of springs (Psalm 84:6).

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