“Day of the Lord”: Reflections on the Book of Joel

Having just finished a three-part sermon series on the Old Testament Book of Joel, I wanted to share some reflections. Written in the aftermath of a devastating plague of locust, the central theme of Joel is the “day of the Lord.” What is the “day of the Lord?” It is the final day of human history. When the locust destroyed all vegetation and brought about a devastating famine, this was but a foretaste of a more complete destruction, judgment day, when God will bring an end to evil on earth.

Here is the surprise at the heart of Joel: the “day of the Lord” is not only ahead of us—it is also behind us. On the cross, when darkness fell and the earth shook, it was God’s final judgment brought forward in history and poured out on a single man, Jesus Christ, for the salvation of his people. But the fullness of that judgment awaits us in the future. It is already here but not yet.

Joel promises that in that future day to come, there will also be a renewal and resurrection of the world, so that everything will be good and beautiful again. This is the prophecy of the “New Heavens and the New Earth” in Revelation 21-22. Until that day, God is gathering his people from all nations, and the offer still stands: “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Joel 2:32)

Reflections on America at 250

The famous scene of raising the flag after the Battle of Iwo Jima

As we approach the 250th anniversary of the birth of the United States, I've been thinking about the role of patriotism in the life of a Christian. There are two extremes to avoid.

First, we should keep the Kingdom of God and the United States distinct. Sometimes we fret over certain laws or national trends as if the very fate of Christianity were at stake. Augustine addressed this in his seminal work, The City of God, written after Rome was sacked by the Visigoths and Christians fell into dismay. We must never forget that nations rise and fall, but the Kingdom of God endures forever.

Second, patriotism and love of country are not bad things, but good things. They bind us to our communities and express neighborly love. We ought not to be detached and remote, but deeply involved in and concerned with local and national affairs.

And so, as Christians, we maintain a dynamic tension. On the one hand, we are the very best of citizens—law-abiding and laboring for our nation's prosperity. On the other hand, we are citizens of a greater Kingdom, and there our ultimate loyalty lies. And so we live as dual citizens until the age to come.

Do troubles come from God or Satan?

Luke 4:1 offers a striking image: "Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil." Jesus, led by the Spirit into the wilderness, endures forty days of torment and temptation by Satan.

This raises a question we all wrestle with in times of suffering: do our troubles come from God, or from Satan? The Bible's answer is both.

Jesus in the Desert by Gustave Dore (1865)

God is not the author of evil. That is Satan's work — the great adversary who seeks to harm and destroy God's people. But here is a profound truth: in His infinite wisdom, God permits Satan to bring grief and hardship into our lives, and He does so for a purpose — our good. He allows pain not because He is abandoning us, but in order to build us up and draw us close to Himself.

This is difficult to accept. That a loving Father would allow evil and injustice into our lives strains our understanding. But when we receive it by faith, we are comforted and strengthened. We can endure any trouble and hardship because we know that behind the pain stands our Father — holding us, shaping us, and caring for us.

Let us trust him!

Reflections on Evangelism

For many, evangelism feels daunting, even scary. We doubt whether we are sufficiently trained or articulate to share Christ--surely this is the work of pastors. But the Great Commission was given to every believer! And the call to be ready to give a reason for our hope (1 Peter 3:15) is addressed to ordinary Christians. The assumption in that verse is that we are living such distinctive lives that people are drawn to ask about our faith. Which means evangelism is first a lifestyle—a life of truth and goodness that requires explanation—and it most often spreads through the relationships God has already placed in our path. So we pray for courage, take the initiative, and learn through many imperfect conversations. We won’t always have the right answer, and that’s okay!

A second fear that silences us is the fear of giving offense. In our culture, being a Christian is acceptable as long as we keep it to ourselves. There are real costs to going public—lost friendships, awkward moments at work, being labeled a “religious fanatic.” But Scripture promises suffering and persecution when we share Christ. So what do we do with our fears? The antidote to fear of man is the fear of God, and the reminder that when we speak, God is always with us (Matthew 28:20). It is God who opens blind eyes and softens hard hearts. What an encouragement that is! In the end, we’re not responsible for the results. The results, whether success or failure, belong to God. Our job is to be faithful to the mission God has given to us.

I recently preached on this topic. You can listen to the sermon here:

Evangelism (1 Peter 3:14-16)

Pastor Michael Chung

Easter 2026

“He is risen!” Imago Dei Church celebrated Easter Sunday with worship, fellowship, and an egg hunt for the kids. What a joy to gather as a spiritual family and proclaim the Resurrection together.

You can watch the Easter sermon here:

Christianity is a Rescue Religion

I recently came across an idea in Andrew Wilson's book If God, Then What? that I hadn't quite considered before. Wilson points out that only Judeo-Christianity claims that God will rescue the world. As he puts it, in most other religions "there is no concept of being 'saved' or 'rescued' at all" — people either cycle endlessly through existence or the good guys escape to paradise. The idea of the world itself being redeemed and set right is unique to the Bible.

I think Wilson is absolutely right. Christianity doesn't promise that we'll float away to some ethereal heaven, leaving this broken world behind. It promises that this broken world will be set to rights — a New Earth, a redeemed and resurrected people, all sadness undone. A new creation where the mountains drip with wine, the trees clap for joy, the deserts flow with living water, and there is everlasting shalom.

As we celebrate Easter Sunday, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is a foretaste and the first fruits of a world that will one day be fully renewed when the King returns!

Part 5: Church Attendance and Civic Life

The benefits of regular church attendance extend far beyond the individual and the family. A growing body of research shows that church-goers are measurably better neighbors and citizens.

The data on generosity is particularly striking. According to research compiled by The Gospel Coalition, regular church attenders are 50% more generous than non-attenders. More remarkably, this generosity is not limited to religious causes. Church attenders are 81% more likely to donate to secular charitable causes than their non-attending peers. Two-thirds of people who worship regularly give to non-religious charities, compared to fewer than half of non-attenders.

The pattern continues across other measures of civic engagement. According to a Gallup study, church attenders are significantly more likely to volunteer their time, help a stranger in need, and give to the poor. They commit less crime, vote more frequently, and participate more actively in local civic life — joining PTAs, neighborhood associations, and community organizations at higher rates.

We live in an era of rising individualism and declining civic engagement. Trust in institutions is falling. Volunteerism is declining. Neighborhoods are becoming more anonymous and transactional. The church stands against this trend by forming people whose deepest identity is not as autonomous individuals, but as members of a community called to love their neighbors.

This is not accidental. It flows directly from the heart of the gospel. God showed mercy to us while we were sinners — while we were his enemies. That experience of undeserved grace, when it takes root in a person’s heart, produces a life characterized by generosity and compassion toward others. The church is the community that keeps rehearsing that story, week after week, and so produces people who live it out: “Remind them to be submissive to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready for every good work, to speak evil of no one, to avoid quarreling, to be gentle, and to show perfect courtesy toward all people.” (Titus 3:1-2)

Part 4: Church Attendance and Marriage

The Harvard Human Flourishing Program study on divorce deserves deeper attention. A 50% reduction in divorce rates is a striking finding — and it raises an important question: why does church attendance have such a powerful effect on marriage? There are at least four overlapping reasons:

1. A High View of Marriage. Christianity teaches that marriage is not fundamentally a romantic relationship to be maintained as long as it is emotionally satisfying, but a covenant — a binding promise of lifelong fidelity. In an age when marriages are fragile and feelings are unsteady, the church’s teaching on the permanence of marriage creates space for love to truly flourish.

2. A Community of Marriages. The church provides something invaluable for flourishing marriages: a community of other marriages. When you are in a church, you see other couples navigating the same problems and conflicts you face. This normalizes struggle and provides perspective. And it creates natural relationships of accountability and support — brothers and sisters in the faith who are in the same boat with you and cheering you on.

3. Pastoral Counseling. One of the most practical gifts the church offers struggling couples is the care of a pastor who can serve as a third-party mediator: someone who does not take sides, but helps each spouse move toward forgiveness and reconciliation. Congregations empower their pastors to counsel and care for marriages.

4. Gospel Resources for Love and Forgiveness. Christianity uniquely provides resources for sacrificial love and forgiveness that is necessary for any marriage to survive. Every couple gets married, to some degree, under starry-eyed conditions in which the deep flaws of their spouse are hidden. Married life brings forth those flaws. In the end, marriage can only survive if the husband and wife realize the purpose of marriage is not happiness, but holiness, and the central problem in marriage is not a flawed spouse, but your own selfishness and blindness. That insight can began to heal the marriage.

The ultimate model and motivation for marital, sacrificial love is Christ, who gave himself for the church: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25) A marriage shaped by this vision can endure and thrive through seasons of difficulty.

Part 3: The Social Benefits of Church

Beyond the individual benefits to physical and mental health, regular church attendance has measurable effects on social life. Studies consistently show that regular attenders build closer friendships, maintain larger and more resilient social networks, and experience higher levels of social trust than their non-attending peers.

One of the most remarkable “spillover” effects is on marriage. According to a study from Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program, married couples who attend church together regularly are 50% less likely to divorce than those who do not. This finding held across age groups and was especially pronounced in mid- to late-life, when the majority of divorces occur.

These social benefits flow directly from the church’s core mission. Salvation, in the Bible, is not merely a private transaction between an individual and God. It creates a community of fellow believers who are bound to one another in something deeper than friendship or affinity. It is this quality of community — forged by a shared experience of grace and held together by a commitment to gospel reconciliation — that makes the church such a uniquely life-giving social environment.

Every close relationship eventually reaches a breaking point. Friendships fracture. Marriages strain. Conflicts fester. What the church uniquely provides is both the motivation and the means for reconciliation. Because we have been forgiven much, we can forgive much. The church is, in this sense, a small foretaste of heaven. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” — Ephesians 4:32

Part 2: Church Attendance and Mental Health

The mental health benefits of regular church attendance are even more striking than the physical ones. People who attend church regularly show dramatically lower rates of addiction, depression, anxiety, and suicide — and significantly higher rates of happiness and life satisfaction. Church attendance does not just lead to a longer life; it leads to a better one

Consider the data on suicide. A Harvard study found that people who attend religious services at least once a week are approximately five times less likely to die by suicide compared to those who never attend. A separate Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health report on “deaths of despair” — deaths from suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning — found that women who attended services weekly had a 68% lower risk of dying from despair than those who never attended.

Why such a dramatic effect? According to the research, a major factor is the deep sense of belonging and community that church provides. We live in an era of unprecedented loneliness and social isolation. Even as digital connectivity has exploded, rates of reported loneliness have risen sharply. The church offers something our culture has largely lost: a place where you are known, where you are missed when you are absent, and where you belong not because of your achievements or status, but simply because you are a member of the body of Christ.

This is how the church is described in the Bible: “In Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” (Romans 12:5) The church is not a loose affiliation of like-minded individuals who happen to gather on Sundays. It is a body — organically connected, mutually dependent, designed by God for deep community. It should be no wonder that belonging to this kind of community has such profound effects on our mental health.