For many years, sitting in the chapel pews
I have heard countless sermons
To hear the voice of the Lord saying, “Follow me,” and to follow Him
The narrow road, the lonely road, the happy road
For those who have never walked before.

Are you a disciple of Christ?
Are you a follower?

This is a new book by Pastor Hyung-ik Kim, who has served as a guide to the correct gospel for the Korean church and readers through books such as “We Misunderstood God,” “True Faith and False Faith,” and “Living Without Answers, Loving Without Answers.”
The early Christians were called 'Gilttareum'.
The author reminds us of this one word, ‘Gilttareumi.’
They were not simply people who gathered on Sundays to worship.
They were people who followed the Lord, who was the way in all their daily lives.


Because they were people who walked different paths in this world, the unique characteristics of their lives are sometimes described as 'habitus'.
Habitus is a sociological term that refers to the behavioral patterns of members that are acquired through postnatal learning and that react unconsciously or reflexively in moments of crisis.
Once a habitus is formed in a member of a group, that habitus becomes the characteristic that expresses their identity to the outside world.
This habitus that the early church showed to the outside world was its charm and power that made them stand out.


So the book asks:
Do we truly possess this habitus? If so, what is it? What kind of habitus should we, as followers of Jesus Christ, display to non-Christian society? How can this habitus be deeply rooted in the lives of believers? This book guides us through twelve milestones on the path of learning to follow Jesus Christ, divided into Part 1, "Questions of the Follower," and Part 2, "Answers of the Follower."
Questions that we have probably asked ourselves at some point now lead to new answers.
This is what a good book does.
It changes those who are not true Christians but 'almost Christians', those who do not belong to a community and who believe that 'oneness' is just a word and not a living reality, those who follow only their own judgment, their own subjectivity, and their own plans.
Encourage to follow a new path.


We needed a guide like this.
With this one book, "The Road Ahead," you will boldly take steps in one direction, following those who have already gone before, on a path you have never been on before.
Learning about Jesus Christ becomes true only by following His path, so we look forward to and await the glorious day the Gospel will bring about, when we will be called "followers of the Gospel."
We are now on the road!

Becoming a follower is the beginning of a wonderful adventure with the Lord.
There are many people who have been in church for a considerable period of time but still lack assurance of salvation and cannot say that they know God personally.
One reason is that we have never experienced entering through the narrow gate and walking along the narrow path by trusting in the Lord.
As long as you live by your own judgment, your own subjectivity, your own thoughts, and your own plans, you cannot enjoy that certainty.
--- From "Chapter 1: Narrow Gate, Narrow Way"

Those who follow the Lord's path are God's children who have been promised provision, protection, and all the blessings of God the Father.
Therefore, there is no reason to fight to prove that you are a child of God and that God loves you by any specific conditions or means.
Gilttareum is a person who enjoys peace under the gospel assurance that he has already become a child of God in Christ, and is sufficiently approved by God.
The gospel molds us into such confident people.
--- From "Chapter 2 Test"

The question, “Who are you going with?” could also mean, “Who is the leader?”
Who is the leader in your life? Who do you walk with? This question is incredibly important, and the answer is even more important.
…without God, we are nothing but filthy, stinking sinners.
We are such beings.
What does it mean to live a moral and successful life or to be recognized and acknowledged by others?
--- From "Chapter 3 Accompaniment"

The Lord does not love you more only when you successfully obey His commandments.
He says that He has loved us, that He still loves us, and that He will love us forever.
Regardless of the conditions you have to meet.
Because that love has already been proven and guaranteed by the cross.
As we live in this love, His beautiful character will be increasingly formed within us.
Gilttareum is a person who lives as a being who is always loved.
--- From "Chapter 4: Character"

People don't become broken-hearted just because they suffer a lot.
Even so, if couples can love each other deeply within their family, the human heart will not be broken.
The heart of a person in love is not easily broken.
Faith is falling in love with God forever.
God was like that to David, and this protected David's heart.
--- From "Chapter 5: The Heart"

We are not fit to form this called community.
I try to live in obedience to the Lord's new commandment to love one another, but I see myself as so inadequate.
I still see myself wanting only to be loved.
But the grace of the triune God changes us little by little.
From a selfish being who only wants to be loved to a being who loves without answers.
He is changing us, who can only love selectively, into beings who love all our brothers and sisters in the Lord and the church, the body of Christ.

--- From "Chapter 6 Abitus"

A person who has met Jesus cannot have the same life as before.
When you meet Jesus, your life changes.
Because you become a follower of Jesus.
So, when faced with the simple call, “Follow me,” we can only respond by following Him, by following the path the Lord took. We cannot respond by simply “becoming a believer” or by following a confession of faith.
This means that a new and absolute authority has been created in my life.
By abandoning everything and responding to the Lord's call to "Follow Me," I live my entire life in submission to His absolute authority.
The life of a follower is a life lived under the authority of the Lord and a journey following that authority.
--- From "Chapter 7 Authority"

A wife is not a special event in a person's life, but rather something that is experienced every day in the daily life.
It's not always the case that we have an abundance of resources within us to love someone.
There is no such person.
So you need a wife.
Especially in married life, you need your own wife.
Because the command to submit to one's husband "as to the Lord" and to love one's wife as the Lord loves the church is not something that happens automatically (Ephesians 5:22-28).
How often do we, even within marriage, indulge in selfish desires and act selfishly? No area of ​​our lives can exist outside of God's Word.
--- From "Chapter 8: Self-Denial"

Faith is not a vague hope or expectation of something that may happen in the distant future.
Faith is the reality of life that I experience, enjoy, and live here and now.
Because I now have fellowship with the Lord and walk with Him, I know that I will never be separated from Him by death, which will come to me someday, and that I will be with Him forever.
--- From “Chapter 9 Resurrection Life”

Any of us can get lost at any time.
The Lord shows us how precious the existence of the smallest of things is to God.
The Lord came to me, a dependent being like a child, lowly, powerless, weak, and small.
The Lord declares that you were that one lost sheep.
It wasn't someone I thought I was, but each of us was in that situation until the Lord found me.
It is you who the Lord has found.
--- From "Chapter 10 Little Ones"

There is a problem.
The fact is that we know so little about the deep mysteries of God that we do not even expect them.
We do not worship something we already know.
If it is something we can understand and think about, we do not try to control or manipulate it, nor do we try to worship it.
It is the deep and rich mystery of God and His works that ignites within us a fire of worship toward Him.
Nothing motivates true worship more than the majestic mystery of God.
--- From "Chapter 11: Worship or Idolatry"

We all have longings as we go through life.
This longing is expressed in German as 'sehnsucht'.
The dictionary definition of this word is 'longing, yearning, yearning', but a deeper meaning could be 'a longing that comes from the experience of this world but aims beyond it'.
It is clearly a longing born from life experience, but it is a longing that can never be filled by anything in the world.
Everyone cherishes the attachments, callings, and missions they have in life, but nothing can completely satisfy the longing within us.
Because it can only be filled with things of the other world, only with God.

--- From "Chapter 12 Death: A Better Grace"