meet your core -- my hopes for this year's KCM

Stephen Kim

Yo whatup this be the one and only Stephen Kim! Actually not really haha, there’s a lot of Stephen Kim’s so I had to make a nickname for myself when I came to college: ‘Stevo’. Well, that being said, let me tell you more about this mysterious Stevo Kim.

Right now, I am a third-year at the best school ever, UCLA! I used to be a BizEcon major with Accounting, but today I am a Communications major. Yes, it’s true…90% of my classmates are girls, but that’s not why I changed majors. I actually have no clue why I changed majors. What do I like to do in my spare time? My favorite things to do are fellowship, fellaship, and feelaship. You can guess for yourself what they each mean. I also enjoy basketball, fishing, snowboarding, and trying to be holy like Cho Yim.

I was saved July of 2006, after high school—and let me tell you, I’ve had the best times since! Today I am able to say, “I’m not scared of death at all, but I am scared of dying”. I have no fear of death because Christ my Savior took the place of all my sins and I know I will be glorifying Him forever in heaven. But heck! I’m a chicken. I’m scared how I’m going to die, whether it’s from a parachute malfunction or a freak swordfish accident while I’m fishing.

I love UCLA. I love KCM. I love my church. I love my friends. But I love them because Christ first loved me and He is the source of my joy. That being said, let’s rejoice and share in our Joy. My vision for this year is: FELLOWSHIP. To be honest I don’t fully understand what that word means. My prayers are that God will show us a fellowship like we’ve never seen experienced before. I want KCM to be the saltiest of salts, the brightest of lights, and the city upon the highest hill. I want skeptics and seekers to feel the warmth of Christ through our fellowship. And to believers I want us to provide accountability, encouragement, and the LOVE of CHRIST. C’mon. Where else can you get a group of students that will rejoice in spending the next billion years together praising our Great God? This year, let’s plant fellowship, water it, cultivate it, raise it, and eat it as a delicious fruit from God.

I thank God so much for our servant team. I’m blessed to be a part of this group, and I’m blessed that God even gave us a heart to serve His kingdom. I’m a sheep, you are a sheep. A sheep is a sheep-- whether a pastor or churchgoer, Korean or Mexican, a veteran believer or a new convert. At the end of day, all we have is Christ, and without our Great Shepherd we are all lost. Each one of us are that hundredth sheep, so let’s all rejoice that that we were found by The Shepherd.

Remember, prayers are like gasoline-- without it we can’t drive forward. So let’s prepare our hearts for this year and get pumped up! Let’s get this show on the road!

leave the 99, there's a LOST sheep out there

Coming back up to my room from class, I had to walk by our Hilltop Convenience Store. I pass by the store about 10 times a day, but something caught my eye this time. On the glass doors there were posted all these papers that read “LOST RING” printed out in like size 100 font.

At first I was like hmm… must’ve been a nice ring. Maybe Tiffany Co. I wonder if it’s gold or silver. Maybe her bf gave it to her for their anniversary but the ring size was too big so it just popped out somewhere. Then I realized, Oh my gosh I know how she feels!! She had lost her ring somewhere in the dorms and she made a crazy effort to find it… So badly that she went around all over the Hill and posted these LOST flyers everywhere!

I totally know what that feels like. When my doggy ran away, I chased her down and dragged her back into the house. When I lost my wallet, I drove 20 miles to Speedzone at 6 am the next morning and walked around the whole track with the janitors to look for it. Whenever I lose my keys or cell phone, my heart stops for a second and I look fervently for it. The best example is my old SAT teacher, who swallowed his golden crown because it came off his tooth. He collected his stinky poo-poo for a whole week and picked it apart in search of it. When he found it he was so joyful so he took it to the dentist and put it back in his tooth. We’ve all had our own stories of lost things, so you know what it feels like. I really empathized with how the girl felt, and suddenly I remembered the verse about the LOST COIN.


Luke 15:8-10
"Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.'

Haha sounds like that girl, no?! But how infinitely times more important than a silly ring is a person who is LOST.


How ironic that I go all out when I lose my wallet or my dog, but when it comes to those who are lost spiritually (and possibly eternally), I just ignore it. It’s like when I lose the TV remote control. Instead of looking for it, I just walk up to the TV to change the channel. I am so adamant about doing my own thing (which is watch TV) rather than taking the extra 1 minute to look for the controller. In the same, I am so consumed by my own “Christian” life that I often forget to share the love Christ first showed me. I frequently make more of an effort to live my Christian life in a self-centered way than to go out and look for and share the gospel with the lost. In Amazing Grace the lyrics say “I once was lost, but now am found”. Too many times I forget I WAS LOST TOO NOT EVEN TWO YEARS AGO! Oh the overwhelming joy I felt when I met Christ, and oh how quickly I have grown selfish and kept this love of Christ to myself!


This brings me to the parable in the same chapter 15:
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”


So where is all this going?....

Listen everybody, let me tell you what has been going on for the past 3 Fridays. Only 3 Fridays?! But it seems like it has been literally months. A small group of us have been going out on Friday afternoons to Santa Monica (3rd Street Promenade, the Pier, etc.) to meet people and share the love of Christ with them.


Week 1: The first week was kind of just get our feet wet. We split into groups and went different directions. Me, Daniel, Laura, and Angela did a homeless ministry. We felt the deep and heartbreaking spiritual needs for the homeless, but we realized, there’s pretty much nothing we could really do for them in the long-run except for prayer for God to have mercy. One particular man was named Ryan, a brother in Christ who just had a series of unfortunate events, and we talked for a while and gave him my Bible. At the same time, Jean and Jasmine’s groups met a disabled man named Derek. Sure they met lots of people, as we did also, but God introduced them to certain people that would began a much longer relationship.


Week 2: Jon Kang and I walked towards the pier and felt convicted to talk to this cholo looking guy! Haha talk about getting out of your bubble-- this is the meaning of “leaving the 99 to go after that one lost sheep”. So this guy David Anthony was shirtless, shaved head, tattoos everywhere, and to be honest I got a little scared at first. The first he said to us was “Are you those religious people? I’m a Satanist, I’m a bad person, get away from me!” Yet the tattoos on his arms were of the cross, and of Christ. Jon and I felt like he was that “sheep gone astray”, and contrary to his wishes we stayed. Oh how wonderful it turned out to be! We had an interesting two hour conversation with Dave Anthony. We shared pizza with Dave Anthony, but more importantly we shared the gospel. He knew the Bible pretty well, except somewhere in his life he was influenced by the world/satan and the Truth was twisted. Yet we had a great time which concluded with Jon and Dave trading a Bible for “River Runs Through It”. We agreed to meet the next week, and parted ways. Meanwhile, Jean, Jasmine, Christina, Shalom continued their relationship with the atheist Derek and other people they had met before.


Week 3: Jon and I came a little late and Dave had probably left by that time. So we just walked around the pier looking for him, shared the gospel in Spanish to Leo, and returned to where we had met Dave the week before to just pray. Then on the way back to Third Street, we saw a homeless man wearing chains all over his body and Tuba evangelizing to him. With so much symbolism, that’s an image I’ll never forget. Anyways, we get to our meeting spot, but the girls are nowhere to be found. So we walk to the McDonalds and the girls are sitting down talking with Stacy and Clark. Clark, an atheist, after hearing Jean and Jasmine singing “When the music fades”, started singing his own songs to God and making his own chords on the guitar! Shalom and Christina were talking to a fellow brother named Stacy. Out of nowhere, Derek (the man in the wheelchair), comes looking for the girls and joins the conversation as well. Meanwhile, me and Jon had no clue what was going on so we started walking to eat buffet. Jean comes running towards us with so much joy, and cries out “He’s about to accept Jesus and be saved!”. It was almost as if she was saying “Rejoice with me I have found the lost coin.” We told Jean “Then go back! Don’t worry about us omygosh!” The girls came about 30 min later to the buffet and told us everything that had happened. Just 3 weeks but the relationships and the way God is moving in those people were so amazing. We were all tremendously blessed, and then we prayed in the middle of the restaurant, with the girls crying and stuff. Hahaha. Good times, we have been just so tremendously blessed the past few weeks.



“And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'REJOICE WITH ME; I HAVE FOUND MY LOST COIN.' In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." (Luke 15:9-10)

In Greek, it is heureµka, heureµka—I have found, I have found. It is a declaration of rejoicing. And our outreach group knows, it is no joke, it is the greatest joy to see someone coming to Christ. The joy I feel through this is equal to, if not more than the joy I felt when I personally met Christ. Yes! To that extent!! So crazy!


These are just a few testimonies and blessings we have from the past three weeks. This note does injustice to everything that went on. Feel free to ask Me, Jean, Jasmine, Shalom, Christina, Jon, Daniel, Tuba, anyone who's gone and get ready for an earful of tesimony/crazy stories/amazing blessings.

We only have about a month left of school, so I encourage all the KCM brothers and sisters to come out. Leave the 99, search for the lost! Get out of your bubble, and share your faith!

Just one last thing to add. Take note that in Luke 15:8 the lady "lights a lamp" in order to find the coin. Hmm.. I wonder what the lamp is? The WORD is a lamp unto my feet! Jesus says "I AM THE LIGHT...he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). So if we want to go out into the dark and find what's lost, we need THE light in order to even see them. Without it, we are lost also. So I urge you to grow in the Word and in Christ so that we may be able to have a brighter light, and with that brighter light we may see truly how many lost coins there are in the deep darkness! Grab your lamp, and let's go...

For from Him and through Him and to Him are everything. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow" (Hebrews 4:12)

It takes a couple brothers to help use the Evangelism Cannon.

Starting always with prayer.

Daniel and Laura walking around 3rd street promenade.

Our group on Week 1, with pier in the background

Good times, so good times.

We figured out the bus was so cheap, only a quarter! So here we are waiting for the bus on Week 3.

jon hiding a concealed weapon, his bible

We pass by some beautiful views during the bus ride.

We look to the Everlasting, for it is completely through him and for him that we do this. There's a bright future out there in Santa Monica. Let's finish the good work that has started.

get up and WALK by the Spirit!

So our beauitful/wonderful outreach leader Jean suggested we talk about our spiritual lives, and share amongst ourselves! Just a little something...(Note from Stevo that finished writing, it's really long actually my bad-- outreach team i hope u read it tho).

Today I was walking back from class listening to a Francis Chan sermon and I wasn't really listening until he mentioned the FRUITS of the Spirit. And I was like "Oh shoot! We were talking about fruits like 2 nights ago!" Outreach group, remember the other night? I was like hey, what exactly is our fruits gonna look like when we bear fruits. Do we show our fruits through outreach? Is it going to show through giving? What is it gonna look like? And the Bible makes it exactly clear in Galations 5:22-23.

So I was like, wait a second... I wonder if the FRUIT from Galations 5 was even the same as the fruit from the Gospels. For example Matthew 7:16 (By their fruit you will recognize them) and John 15:8-16 (You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last). So I whipped out my Greek dictionary that I won in a white elephant gift exchange (which I never figured out how to use before) and I looked it up. Even though there's 3 different nouns for "fruit" in the Bible, the FRUIT in Galatians 5 is exactly the same as in Matthew and John-- KARPOS. It means the fruit of trees, fields, the earth, that which is produced by the inherent energy of a living organism. LIVING ORGANISM?? Shalom was talking the other night about "the VINE", which is JESUS!! So okay, we get fruits from living in Jesus. We grow spiritually in Him. But what ARE the fruits of the Spirit?? What do they look like, or what are they? Hold your horses.

I had to get the whole context of the passage, so I read Galatians 5:16-26, and it turned out to be awesome, as usual (the Word tends to be awesome).

Galatians 5:16-26 (NIV)
"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.
The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
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. 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."

So here we go..
Verse 16 "So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature."

LIVE BY THE SPIRIT- In Greek, translated is "keep on walking". MacArthur says its a "continuous actions, a habitual lifestyle". Not a one time act. The verb is a command, but also its not passive. It is something we have to pursue instead of doing nothing and saying "Holy Spirit! I have a porn/drug/alcohol problem. Fix it! And then just do nothing. Francis Chan says, "it's like buying a treadmill at Christmas, and saying why am i not losing weight?" Ha! 'Cause you need to get on it first and start walking!



Verse 17 "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."

SINFUL NATURE DESIRES- Or better known as, the FLESH. We CANNOT walk in the Spirit and walk in the Flesh at the same time. They're mutually exclusive. You can't be a UCLA fan and a USC fan at the same time. Sorry, bad example. You can't be sleeping and be awake at the same time. Or it can't be night and day. It's one or the other. As a Christian, the Spirit lives in me, but we're still in our humanness, so our flesh is still here. Stupid example, but I guess it's like a 900 lb. annoying fat guy you hate and can't push out of the house so you try to ignore him and just wait until you move out to your permanent mansion (when you die). Basically, you can't walk in the Spirit, and walk in the Flesh at the same time.



Verse 18 "But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law."

NOT UNDER LAW- Yes! Because we cannot live under the Law. Romans 7:5-6 says "For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter." Okay I don't even want to get into that actually. That's a whole note in itself, but basically, yea... the Law can only curse us because we can never live up to its perfect standard through our own works/merits. Law is not evil though, it shows us sin. Our flesh gets aroused by restrictions, because fleshly Stevo loves to go against God and do stuff thats forbidden. But through the grace of our Christ Jesus we are released and there is no condemnation.



Verses 19-21 "The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God."

IMMORALITY- The greek word is porneia, where we get the word pornography. Refers to all illicit sexual activity, and remember? Jesus says even if you look at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. I'll be the first to admit, I am the chief of sinners in lust. I need Jesus.

...AND THE LIKE- Yea, I've blown every single one of them. It doesn't mean you do ALL these things.It's not an exhaustive list. It's just means in general, if you walk in this path, you are not going to heaven. Simple as that. Thank God He found me and I no longer am bound by the Law. Because I'd be dead meat right now!! But we live to Christ!


and finally we come to the FRUITS!
Verses 22-23 "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."

LOVE- First on the list! It's like that for a reason. The word is "agape", which in Greek is the strongest word for love, a full on devotion leading to self-sacrifice.

JOY- I realized I should be more joyful. I mean why not!! I've got eternal life awaiting me and it will be the greatest time ever worshipping and being with God. I'm saved from eternal wrath and judgement and punishment!! That's the greatest joy ever!

PEACE...SELF-CONTROL- Here's our answer. These are the fruits, the results of living in the Spirit. Jesus says, "by their fruit you will recognize them." Simple, if Stevo is bearing fruits, he's walking in the Spirit. If not, better watch out and walk the other direction, for I am walking in the dangerous road of the Flesh. I can't grow fruits on my own either. What if I was just a branch on the ground, can I grow fruits? Heck no! Probably only mold and bugs and stuff. But I must be ATTACHED/CONNECTED to the vine (JESUS) which will give me nourishment and allow me to bear fruits. And how will I keep myself in check? By my lil fruitys!



Verses 24-26 "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."

CRUCIFIED- R.C. Sproul writes "For the people of Christ, the Cross broke the grip of the law and also the grip of the flesh. By faith they recognize the reality of their union with Christ in His death. So, too, they have been raised to new life in the Spirit of Christ and therefore WALK in the Spirit.

KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT- Stevo, you can't expect everything when doing nothing. Say I have a bicycle. I can't balance on it when I don't pedal. I can't ride it if I don't make the first push. But when I do, I will stay balanced and ride and the momentum of Christ will carry me weeee!! But the point is, I need to be pedaling, can't expect the bicycle to go forward when I do nothing.

WE LIVE BY THE SPIRIT, LET US KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT- If we live by the spirit? To clarify John Piper says this means "that the Spirit of God creates something new; he takes out of us the heart of stone that rebels against God, and he puts into us a new heart which trusts God and follows his ways. Or to put it another way, the Holy Spirit establishes himself as the new ruling principle of our life." Sounds familiar. Does it ring true to your heart Christian? If it does, good. But so what? What's the next "step"?! He continues by saying to "Walk by the Spirit" means "do what you do each day by the Spirit; live your life in all its details from waking up in the morning until going to sleep at night by the enabling power of the Spirit. But what does that mean, practically speaking? How do we "walk by the Spirit"?" When I'm "walking by the Spirit", Stevo its never something I do in order to get the Spirit's help, but rather, just as the phrase implies, it is something i do BY the enablement of the Spirit.



No more just KNOWING the Word, right Jean?? Even the devils know the Bible. Gotta live it out! BY the enablement of the Spirit, I walk in the Spirit. Get up Lazarus! Get up all you paralyzed and lame and handicapped! Get up STEVO!! and WALK! Walk by the Spirit!

Dang this was so unorganized! Hope I didn't say anything too blasphemous. Rebuke/correct me if necessary.


Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen!

-Stevo