Showing posts with label christianity. Show all posts

Biblical Principles for Wise Financial Management

Foundations: Cultivate a steward's mindset.

1. Recognise God created everything
In the beginning there was nothing, and God created (Genesis 1:1).
2. Recognise God owns everything
"'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty" (Haggai 2:8). "Every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills" (Psalm 50:10). "The earth and the fullness thereof belong to the Lord and all those who live within" (Psalm 37:21).
3. Realise we cannot serve two masters
"No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" (Matthew 6:24).

Father Love Letter

Can You Handle The Truth?

A man had a drinking problem. Before a bottle of wine, he is virtually powerless. He knew he had to break the vice so, for a start, he started reading medical journals to know more about the evils of drinking. After reading enough materials and being convinced of the hazards of drinking, he immediately vowed to stop reading medical journals.

Better Than I

(a song by Joy Williams)


I thought I did what's right
I thought I had the answer
I thought I chose the surest road
But that road brought me here

So I put up a fight
And told You how to help me
And just when I had given up
The truth is coming clear

For You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
'Cause You know better than I

If this has been a test
I cannot see the reason
But maybe knowing... I don't know
It's part of getting through

I try to do what's best
And faith has made it easy
To see the best thing I can do
Is put my faith in You

For You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
'Cause You know better than I

I saw one cloud and thought it was the sky
I saw a bird and thought that I could follow
But it was You who taught them to fly
If I let You reach me... Would You teach me?

For You know better than I
You know the way
I've let go the need to know why
I'll take what answers You supply
'Cause You know better than I

You know better than I...

God's Love

A Tale of Two Trees
by Max Lucado

Chapter I
Formless masses. Floating. Disconnected. Divine artist. Earthly dream. Light!
Sun rays piercing through jungle trees. Sunsets volcanic with explosions of gold. Soft sheets of moonlight soothing a weary ocean.

Beings! Snorting. Flying. Splashing. Bleating. Gnawing. Clawing. Digging. Sound! Horse's hoof beats. Cawing crows. Hyena laughter. Cannoning thunder. Chirping chicks. Rat-tat-tatting rain. Nothingness converted.

Then silence … as an unseen Sculptor molds mud and dust.
Lions motionlessly watching. Sparrows perched, peering downward. Clouds hovering. Inquisitive kangaroos. Curious caribou. Snooping centipedes.
"What's he making?"
"An animal?"
Giraffes peeking through leaves. Squirrels chattering gossip. Pausing. Wondering. Gibbering. "A mountain?"A sudden breeze, surprisingly warm, whistles through the leaves scattering dust from the lifeless form. And with the breath of fresh air comes the difference.

Winging on the warm wind is his image. Laughter is laid in the sculpted cheeks. A reservoir of tears is stored in the soul. A sprinkling of twinkle for the eyes. Poetry for the spirit. Logic. Loyalty. Like leaves on an autumn breeze, they float and land and are absorbed. His gifts become a part of him.
His Majesty smiles at his image.
"It is good."
The eyes open. Oneness. Creator and created walking on the river bank. Laughter. Purity. Innocent joy. Life unending.

Then the tree. The struggle. The snake. The lie. The enticement. Heart torn, lured. Soul drawn to pleasure, to independence, to importance. Inner agony.
Whose will?
The choice.

Death of innocence. Entrance of death. The fall. Tear stains mingling with fruit-stains.

Chapter II : The Quest
"Abram, you will father a nation! And Abram - tell the people I love them."
"Moses, you will deliver my people! And Moses - tell the people I love them."
"Joshua, you will lead the chosen ones! And Joshua - tell the people I love them."
"David, you will reign over the people! And David - tell the people I love them."
"Jeremiah, you will bear tidings of bondage! But Jeremiah, remind my children, remind my children that I love them."

Altars. Sacrifices. Rebelling. Returning. Reacting. Repenting. Romance. Tablets. Judges. Pillars. Bloodshed. Wars. Kings. Giants. Law. Hezekiah. Nehemiah. Hosea. … God watching, never turning, ever loving, ever yearning for the Garden again.

Chapter III
Empty throne. Spirit descending. Hushed angels.
A girl …
a womb …
an egg.
The same Divine Artist again forms a body. This time his own. Fleshly divinity. Skin layered on spirit. Omnipotence with hair. Toenails. Knuckles. Molars. Kneecaps. Once again he walks with man. Yet the Garden is now thorny.
Thorns that cut, thorns that poison, thorns that remain lodged, leaving bitter wounds.
Disharmony. Sickness. Betrayal. Fear. Guilt. The lions no longer pause. The clouds no longer hover. The birds scatter too quickly. Disharmony. Competition. Blindness.

And once again, a tree. Once again the struggle. The snake. The enticement. Heart torn, lured.
Once again the question, "Whose will?"
Then the choice.
Tear stains mingle with bloodstains. Relationship restored. Bridge erected.
Once again he smiles.
"It is good."

For just as death came by means of a man, in the same way the rising from death comes by means of a man. For just as all men die because of their union to Adam, in the same way all will be raised to life because of their union to Christ. (I Corinthians 15:21-22)

From God Came Near: Chronicles of the Christ
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1999) Max Lucado

Dashed Hope

(By Max Lucado)
“I had intended …”
David had wanted to build a temple. And who better than he to do so? Hadn’t he, literally, written the book on worship? Didn’t he rescue the ark of the covenant? The temple would have been his swan song, his signature deed. David had expected to dedicate his final years to building a shrine to God.
At least, that had been his intention. “I had intended to build a permanent home for the ark of the covenant of the LORD and for the footstool of our God. So I had made preparations to build it” (1 Chron. 28:2 NASB).
Intentions. Preparations. But no temple. Why? Did David grow discouraged? No. He stood willing. Were the people resistant? Hardly. They gave generously. Then what happened?
A conjunction happened.
Conjunctions operate as the signal lights of sentences. Some, such as and, are green. Others, such as however, are yellow. A few are red. Sledgehammer red. They stop you. David got a red light.
I had made preparations to build it. But God said to me, “You shall not build a house for My name because you are a man of war and have shed blood.… Your son Solomon is the one who shall build My house and My courts.” (1 Chron. 28:2–3, 6 NASB, emphasis mine)
David’s bloodthirsty temperament cost him the temple privilege. All he could do was say:

I had intended... I had made preparations... BUT God...
I had intended …
I had made preparations …
But God …
I’m thinking of some people who have uttered similar words. God had different plans than they did.
One man waited until his midthirties to marry. Resolved to select the right spouse, he prayerfully took his time. When he found her, they moved westward, bought a ranch, and began their life together. After three short years, she was killed in an accident.
I had intended … 
 I had made preparations … 
 But God …
A young couple turned a room into a nursery. They papered walls, refinished a baby crib, but then the wife miscarried.
I had intended … 
 I had made preparations …
 But God …

I had intended …
I had made preparations …
But God …
What do you do with the “but God” moments in life? 
 When God interrupts your good plans, how do you respond?
The man who lost his wife has not responded well. At this writing he indwells a fog bank of anger and bitterness. The young couple is coping better. They stay active in church and prayerful about a child. And what about David? When God changed David’s plans, how did he reply? (You’ll like this.)
He followed the “but God” with a “yet God.”
“Yet, the LORD, the God of Israel, chose me from all the house of my father to be king over Israel forever. For He has chosen Judah to be a leader; and in the house of Judah, my father’s house, and among the sons of my father He took pleasure in me to make me king over all Israel.” (1 Chron. 28:4 NASB)
Reduce the paragraph to a phrase, and it reads, “Who am I to complain? David had gone from runt to royalty, from herding sheep to leading armies, from sleeping in the pasture to living in the palace. When you are given an ice cream sundae, you don’t complain over a missing cherry.
David faced the behemoth of disappointment with “yet God.” David trusted.
His “but God” became a “yet God.”

Who’s to say yours won’t become the same?

* PS: I've been so blessed by Max Lucado's mailing list, especially this one for now... :)

The Wisdom of a Woodcutter

(By Max Lucado)

Once there was an old man who lived in a tiny village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he owned a beautiful white horse. Even the king coveted his treasure. A horse like this had never been seen before - such was its splendor, its majesty, its strength.

People offered fabulous prices for the steed, but the old man always refused. “This horse is not a horse to me,” he would tell them. “It is a person. How could you sell a person? He is a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?” The man was poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse.

One morning he found that the horse was not in the stable. All the village came to see him. “You old fool,” they scoffed, “we told you that someone would steal your horse. We warned you that you would be robbed. You are so poor. How could you ever hope to protect such a valuable animal? It would have been better to have sold him. You could have gotten whatever price you wanted. No amount would have been too high. Now the horse is gone, and you’ve been cursed with misfortune.”

The old man responded, “Don’t speak too quickly. Say only that the horse is not in the stable. That is all we know; the rest is judgment. If I’ve been cursed or not, how can you know? How can you judge?”

The people contested, “Don’t make us out to be fools! We may not be philosophers, but great philosophy is not needed. The simple fact that your horse is gone is a curse.”

The old man spoke again. “All I know is that the stable is empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I don’t know. Whether it be a curse or a blessing, I can’t say. All we can see is a fragment. Who can say what will come next?”

The people of the village laughed. They thought that the man was crazy. They had always thought he was a fool; if he wasn’t, he would have sold the horse and lived off the money. But instead, he was a poor woodcutter, an old man still cutting firewood and dragging it out of the forest and selling it. He lived hand to mouth in the misery of poverty. Now he had proven that he was, indeed, a fool.

After fifteen days, the horse returned. He hadn’t been stolen; he had run away into the forest. Not only had he returned, he had brought a dozen wild horses with him. Once again the village people gathered around the woodcutter and spoke. “Old man, you were right and we were wrong. What we thought was a curse was a blessing. Please forgive us.”

The man responded, “Once again, you go too far. Say only that the horse is back. State only that a dozen horses returned with him, but don’t judge. How do you know if this is a blessing or not?

You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge? 
You read only one page of a book. Can you judge the whole book? 
You read only one word of a phrase. Can you understand the entire phrase?

“Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. All you have is a fragment! Don’t say that this is a blessing. No one knows. I am content with what I know. I am not perturbed by what I don’t.”

“Maybe the old man is right,” they said to one another. So they said little. But down deep, they knew he was wrong. They knew it was a blessing. Twelve wild horses had returned with one horse. With a little bit of work, the animals could be broken and trained and sold for much money.

The old man had a son, an only son. The young man began to break the wild horses. After a few days, he fell from one of the horses and broke both legs. Once again the villagers gathered around the old man and cast their judgments.

“You were right,” they said. “You proved you were right. The dozen horses were not a blessing. They were a curse. Your only son has broken his legs, and now in your old age you have no one to help you. Now you are poorer than ever.”

The old man spoke again. “You people are obsessed with judging. Don’t go so far. Say only that my son broke his legs. Who knows if it is a blessing or a curse? No one knows. We only have a fragment. Life comes in fragments.”

It so happened that a few weeks later the country engaged in war against a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were required to join the army. Only the son of the old man was excluded, because he was injured. Once again the people gathered around the old man, crying and screaming because their sons had been taken. There was little chance that they would return. The enemy was strong, and the war would be a losing struggle. They would never see their sons again.

“You were right, old man,” they wept. “God knows you were right. This proves it. Your son’s accident was a blessing. His legs may be broken, but at least he is with you. Our sons are gone forever.”

The old man spoke again. “It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. No one knows. Say only this: Your sons had to go to war, and mine did not. No one knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No one is wise enough to know. Only God knows.”

The old man was right.
We only have a fragment. Life’s mishaps and horrors are only a page out of a grand book. We must be slow about drawing conclusions. We must reserve judgment on life’s storms until we know the whole story.

I don’t know where the woodcutter learned his patience. Perhaps from another woodcutter in Galilee. For it was the Carpenter who said it best:

“Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.” (Matt. 6:34)

He should know. He is the Author of our story. And he has already written the final chapter.

From In the Eye of the Storm
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1997) Max Lucado


***

The Powerful Prayer

(by Max Lucado)

"Give us this day our daily bread…"

Your first step into the house of God was not to the kitchen but to the living room, where you were reminded of your adoption. "Our Father who is in heaven." You then studied the foundation of the house, where you pondered his permanence. "Our Father who is in heaven." Next you entered the observatory and marveled at his handiwork: "Our Father who is in heaven."

In the chapel, you worshiped his holiness: "Hallowed be thy name." In the throne room, you touched the lowered scepter and prayed the greatest prayer, "Thy kingdom come." In the study, you submitted your desires to his and prayed, "Thy will be done." And all of heaven was silent as you placed your prayer in the furnace, saying, "on earth as it is in heaven."

Proper prayer follows such a path, revealing God to us before revealing our needs to God.

The purpose of prayer is not to change God, but to change us, and by the time we reach God's kitchen, we are changed people. Wasn't our heart warmed when we called Him Father? Weren't our fears stilled when we contemplated His constancy? Weren't we amazed as we stared at the heavens?

Seeing His holiness caused us to confess our sin. Inviting his kingdom to come reminded us to stop building our own. Asking God for his will to be done placed our will in second place to his. And realizing that heaven pauses when we pray left us breathless in his presence.

By the time we step into the kitchen, we're renewed people! We've been comforted by our father, conformed by his nature, consumed by our creator, convicted by his character, constrained by his power, commissioned by our teacher, and compelled by his attention to our prayers.

The prayer's next three petitions encompass all of the concerns of our life:
- "This daily bread" addresses the present.
- "Forgive our sins" addresses the past.
- "Lead us not into temptation" speaks to the future.
(The wonder of God's wisdom: how he can reduce all our needs to three simple statements.)

First He addresses our need for bread. The term means all of a person's physical needs. Martin Luther defined bread as "Everything necessary for the preservation of this life, including food, a healthy body, house, home, wife and children." This verse urges us to talk to God about the necessities of life. He may also give us the luxuries of life, but He certainly will grant the necessities.

Excerpted from any fear that God wouldn't meet our needs was left in the observatory. Would He give the stars their glitter and not give us our food? Of course not. He has committed to care for us. We aren't wrestling crumbs out of a reluctant hand, but rather confessing the bounty of a generous hand. The essence of the prayer is really an affirmation of the Father's care. Our provision is His priority.


From The Great House of God
Copyright (Thomas Nelson, 1997) Max Lucado

About Envy

Here is an article I copied from Kerygma Mailing List this morning:

When others are blessed, we’re likely to be jealous, unconsciously thinking that they’re getting something that could possibly be ours. For example, when someone gets a promotion at work, instead of rejoicing with that person, you’ll hear others say that corporate patronage was behind the move.

But God’s blessing is for all. It’s like the Niagara Falls with its mighty water rushing to the bottom. The water travels upstream first before it flows downstream but it eventually reaches its destination. Its falls generates so much mist that it projects a number of rainbows. Like the waters of Niagara, God’s blessings may seem to reach others first.

We just have to stay thankful and faithful even as we persevere in claiming His promises. And just as the rainbow is a symbol of God’s covenant with His people (Genesis 3), He is faithful in keeping His promises to us.

Reflection: Do you always feel that the neighbour next door or your co-worker is being blessed more often than you?

Pray: Lord, give me a thankful heart that I may realize that You always provide for what I need.

Envy is a horrible sin. Saul envies the success of David even though it is obvious to everyone that his success was due to the hand of God achieving victory over Goliath.

Francis of Assisi gives us something to consider about envy when he says he thinks it is a sin against the Holy Spirit. Why?

He sees envy as the direct refusal of a person to rejoice in the way the Holy Spirit has chosen to work through another person.

This has been happening to me lately. I must be honest that sometimes I secretly jealous / envy towards some of my friends who seem richly blessed and already got good things that I have been wishing for since a long time ago… I failed to recognize God’s great blessings in my life and my family. I repent for that…

Thank You for correcting me God…
I’m not a sin’s servant anymore.
I want to keep walking in Your path and keep the freedom You have given me…

God's Way Is Right

(by Max Lucado)

"When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you." Isaiah 43:2-3 NASB

God knows what is best. No struggle will come your way apart from His purpose, presence, and permission. What encouragement this brings!

You are never the victim of nature or the prey of fate. Chance is eliminated. You are more than a weather vane whipped about by the winds of fortune. Would God truly abandon you to the whims of drug-crazed thieves, greedy corporate raiders, or evil leaders?
Perish the thought!

We live beneath the protective palm of a sovereign King who superintends every circumstance of our lives and delights in doing us good.

Nothing comes your way that has not first passed through the filter of his love.

The Real Essence of Our Father

(Source: Kerygma Mailing List)

The most common prayer among Christians is the Lord's Prayer. It is one of the first prayers that we get to memorize early in life. It is a prayer that is so rich with meaning and calls the pray-er to a particular responsibility.

When praying it, one cannot miss the fact that it is a prayer that is supposed to be offered communally. Thus, "Our father… Give us this day our daily bread… forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us… Do not bring us to the test, but deliver us..." It speaks of the prayer's supplication not for himself but for others even if he is praying it alone.

We cannot deny the fact that God really listens to all our prayers. Not one prayer is left unanswered. That was Jesus' promise, "Ask and you will receive."

Hence, when we ask for bread He gives it to us. So where does the prayer's responsibility come in? When God heeds his supplication by giving him bread he is expected to share it with others. After all, he prayed not just for his own bread but for "our" daily bread. God responds by giving it to one or some, who then are expected to share.

The event when Jesus gave food to 5.000 people can be understood in the same light. The multitude is hungry. Jesus, in His compassion, multiplied the bread. But He gave them not directly to the multitude but to His apostles. And as He gave the food to them "the disciples gave them to the crowds."

(Fr. Sandy V. Enhaynes)

Reflection Question:
Pray the "Our Father" meditatively and imagine yourself praying it with the rest of humanity.

God Does Big Things with Small Deeds

(by Max Lucado)
“Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin”
(Zech. 4:10 NLT).

Begin.
Just begin!

What seems small to you might be huge to someone else.

Just ask Bohn Fawkes. During World War II, he piloted a B-17. On one mission he sustained flak from Nazi antiaircraft guns. Even though his gas tanks were hit, the plane did not explode, and Fawkes was able to land the plane.

On the morning following the raid, Fawkes asked his crew chief for the German shell. He wanted to keep a souvenir of his incredible good fortune. The crew chief explained that not just one but eleven shells had been found in the gas tanks, none of which had exploded.

Technicians opened the missiles and found them void of explosive charge. They were clean and harmless and with one exception, empty. The exception contained a carefully rolled piece of paper. On it a message had been scrawled in the Czech language. Translated, the note read: “This is all we can do for you now.”

A courageous assembly-line worker was disarming bombs and scribbled the note. He couldn’t end the war, but he could save one plane. He couldn’t do everything, but he could do something. So he did it.

God does big things with small deeds.

Against a towering giant, a brook pebble seems futile. But God used it to topple Goliath. Compared to the tithes of the wealthy, a widow’s coins seem puny. But Jesus used them to inspire us. And in contrast with sophisticated priests and powerful Roman rulers, a cross-suspended carpenter seemed nothing but a waste of life. Few Jewish leaders mourned his death. Only a handful of friends buried his body. The people turned their attention back to the temple. Why not?

What power does a buried rabbi have? We know the answer. Mustard-seed and leaven-lump power. Power to tear away death rags and push away death rocks. Power to change history.

In the hands of God, small seeds grow into sheltering trees. Tiny leaven expands into nourishing loaves.

Small deeds can change the world. Sow the mustard seed. Bury the leaven lump. Make the call. Write the check. Organize the committee.

A Love Worth Giving

Moses had a staff.
David had a sling.
Samson had a jawbone.
Rahab had a string.
Mary had some ointment.
Aaron had a rod.
Dorcas had a needle.
All were used by God.
What do you have?

God inhabits the tiny seed, empowers the tiny deed.
He cures the common life by giving no common life, by offering no common gifts.

Don’t discount the smallness of your deeds.

Making New Priorities

To make a change, especially a significant change, we need to change our habits and start making new priorities. Either we realize it or not, we often "automatically" doing our daily activities based on priorities we have in our mind. Those priorities become unconciously stronger because we do it over an over again.

That's why it is very important to stop for a while and assess your memories, write down what you do in daily basis (or weekly) and your habits (or repeated reaction towards certain situations), and how many hours you spend for each activity.

We can know our priorities based on things we do, not based on what we think we should have. For example, an extreme one, if you spend almost a day on your job (exclude sleeping time) and only have 1 hour to communicate with your family, then it is obvious that your job is your number one priority.

This is what I'm doing now... I'm trying to renew my priorities since I want to make a significant change. It is not as easy as it says, but I really need to do this. :-) I'm inspired from Shaun Stenning's blog :-)
   

It's Going To Be Ok. Keep On Going!

The major difference between average people and achieving people is their perspective of and response to failure. In other words, how I see failure going in, how I respond to failure coming out. Now, we want learn three lesson about it!



Lesson no 1
I have also discovered about failure and problems that our perspective changes tremendously if it is someone else's problem with failure, versus my problem for failure. It's the old joke, major surgery, minor surgery. You know minor surgery is when it's on you and major surgery is when it's on me.
My dad loves to tell this joke about two men who were talking. 


One guy says, "I lost my job."
The other guy says, "Well, it could be worse."

Perpuluhan: Alkitabiah Tapi Bukan Kekristenan

TITHES AND CLERGY SALARIES (PERPULUHAN DAN GAJI KEPENDETAAN)


Sebab kami tidak sama dengan banyak orang lain yang mencari keuntungan dari firman Allah. Sebaliknya dalam Kristus kami berbicara sebagaimana mestinya dengan maksud-maksud murni atas perintah Allah dan di hadapan-Nya.
2 Korintus 2:17

Bolehkah manusia menipu Allah? Namun kamu menipu Aku. Tetapi kamu berkata: "Dengan cara bagaimanakah kami menipu Engkau?" mengenai persembahan persepuluhan dan persembahan khusus! Kamu telah kena kutuk, tetapi kamu masih menipu Aku, ya kamu seluruh bangsa! Bawalah seluruh persembahan persepuluhan itu ke dalam rumah perbendaharaan, supaya ada persediaan makanan di rumah-Ku dan ujilah Aku, firman TUHAN semesta alam, apakah Aku tidak membukakan bagimu tingkap-tingkap langit dan mencurahkan berkat kepadamu sampai berkelimpahan.
Maleakhi 3:8-10

Bagian dari kitab Maleakhi tersebut menjadi teks favorit bagi banyak pendeta, khususnya ketika persembahan dan pemberian di gereja berkurang. Jika kita punya waktu untuk memperhatikan gereja modern maka kita akan mendengar bagian dari kitab Maleakhi tadi sering "bergemuruh" dari mimbar. Pertimbangkan retorika yang sering kita dengar ini: "Allah memerintahkanmu membayar perpuluhan dengan setia. Jika kamu tidak memberi perpuluhan maka kamu sedang merampok Allah dan menempatkanmu di bawah kutuk. Akankah kita ulangi bersama mengucapkan "doktrin perpuluhan?" Perpuluhan milik Tuhan. Di dalam kebenaran kita pelajari, di dalam iman kita percaya, dan di dalam sukacita kita memberikannya. Perpuluhan! Dan persembahanmu diperlukan jika pekerjaan Tuhan ingin jalan terus ("pekerjaan Tuhan di sini tentu artinya adalah gaji staf kependetaan dan pembayaran listrik bulanan gedung gereja"). Apa akibat dari tekanan ini?

Stop trying To Fix People

You know what our monstrous mistake is?
We try to fix the people in our life.
Oh, I see it everywhere.
Everywhere I go, I see people complain about the people in their life.

Wives complain about their husbands.
“Bo, please talk to my husband. He eats too much.”
“Bo, can you help me? My husband watches too much TV.”
One frustrated wife told me, “Bo, please advice my husband. He doesn’t have a one romantic bone in his body. Last year, he gave me a bar of soap for Valentines Day. The brand? Mr. Clean.”

But husbands complain about their wives too.
“Bo, please talk to my wife. She’s gastadora.”
“Bo, help me with my wife. My wife is always hysterical and historical. She remembers all my past mistakes, including date, time, and place.”
One husband told me, “My wife is so talkative. If the universe paid 1 centavo for every word she said, I’ll be the richest man in the world today.”
Another man said, “My wife is always angry. When she’s angry, she causes global warming and the melting of the ice caps in the North Pole.”

Are You Malnourished for Love?

        
Today, I start a new 7-week series entitled Relationships Reborn.
Here’s why you need to take this series with me: I believe that if you change your relationships, you change your life.
Because if you squeeze out the essence of life, you realize that life is all about relationships. Your happiness, your success, your health, and your dreams depend on relationships. Give me a person with very happy relationships and I’ll show you a very happy person. Give me a person with miserable, dysfunctional relationships and I’ll show you a very miserable person.
I’m going to spill the beans here and tell you the central message of the next seven weeks: Relationships need renewal or they die.
In fact, not only the relationship will die, but a part of us will die. Why? Because you have a Heart Wound that can only be healed by love—a love that can only be found in relationships.
So you want to change your life, keep reading.

Are You Malnourished For Love?
      
Have you ever seen a malnourished child?
I believe you have—you just didn’t know.
Here’s the problem: When you hear the word “malnourished,” you automatically think of the starving kids in Africa you see in pictures. A child living in a famine-stricken dessert that has absolutely nothing to eat.
But there’s a second type.
The person could be your next door neighbor. He doesn’t look malnourished. He could even be fat. And yet, amazingly, he is malnourished.
Because he’s eating the wrong type of food.

Let me stoke your imagination...

Economic Gap in The Community

I'm not going to talk about global economy gap, but economy gap specifically among church communities.  


Tadi pagi tiba-tiba aja kelintas topik ini 'n jadi inget pengalamanku di masa lalu. Beberapa tahun yang lalu pas aku masih kerja di Lippo Cikarang, Jawa Barat, aku kan ikut komunitas salah satu gereja di Jakarta. Gereja ini memang udah keliatan kalo mayoritas (walopun ga semua) jemaat-nya memang kalangan menengah ke atas, banget :p Keliatan dari penampilan pastinya...  


Tapi karna emang pengajarannya bagus 'n seimbang, aku tetep ikut berjemaat di sana 'n juga ikut komunitas selnya. Sebenernya siy ga ada masalah yang gimana gitu... cuman lama-lama aku ngerasa aku ga bisa ngikutin lifestyle mereka.  


Kadang-kadang tu (walo ga sering juga siy) abis dari gereja hari Minggu tu kita jalan-jalan ke mall, lunch di sana. Nah tau sendiri kan harga lunch-nya brapa hehehe... Blom lagi pernah juga sekali nongkrong di cafe semacem Starbucks yang harganya harga langit itu... 


Pernah siy pas makan siang aku ga ikutan makan tapi beli Breadtalk buat aku jadiin lunch, alasanku siy waktu ditanyain bilangnya masih ga seberapa laper jadi makan roti aja, padahal mah ga rela hihihi... abis makanan resto-nya mahal amir hehehe...  


Lama-lama yah mungkin

The Screwtape Letters - Chapter 1

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian apologetics by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of an earthly man, known only as "the Patient."

Screwtape (along with his trusted scribe Toadpipe) holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, "Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape." In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil's viewpoint. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

Characters
Screwtape – old, wise demon, the uncle of Wormwood
Wormwood – nephew of Screwtape and novice demon who is being trained by Screwtape to help in causing a young man to lose his soul
“Our Father Below” – Satan
“The Enemy” – God
the patient – the young man who is the object of Wormwood’s mission
the old lady – the patient’s mother
Glubose – the demon who is assigned to the “old lady”
Slumtrimpet – demon in charge of the patient’s “young woman”


CHAPTER 1

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still

connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" of "false", but as "academic" or "practical", "outworn" or "contemporary", "conventional" or "ruthless". Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch.

At least I think that must have been His line for when I said "Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning", the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind", he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic". He is now safe in Our Father's house.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life". But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modem investigation". Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE

Overcoming Shame and Fear of Failure

Jabez

Pada saat saudaranya puas dengan keterbatasannya, Jabez inginkan lebih untuk melayani Tuhan dengan segenap hatinya. Tapi Jabez punya masalah yaitu ketidakmampuan emosional maupun fisikal. "Jabez" itu artinya kesakitan. Kata "Jabez" itu artinya kosong atau hampa. Jabez harus bergumul dengan perasaan tidak diinginkan dan ditolak.

Merasa malu dan tidak dikasihi merupakan tantangan yang besar dalam hidupnya. Dia sadar akan ketidaklayakannya sehingga dia mengalami depresi. Namun Jabez berhasil mengatasi rasa malunya itu. Jabez merintis suatu kota bernama kota Jabez dan membangkitkan suatu generasi yang bisa memelihara firman Tuhan sampai jamannya Ezra.

Pada saat kita merasa terkutuk dan malu, maka kita akan menyerah untuk masa depan kita. Menghadapi masalah malu, tidak hanya sekali dalam hidup kita. Menghadapi trauma masa lalu, harus terus dilakukan kalau kita ingin melakukan perkara-perkara besar. Lihat saja dalam alkitab hamba-hamba Tuhan yang sukses:

1.Yusuf
Yusuf ditolak dan tidak diinginkan oleh saudara2nya dalam keluarga. Dituduh dan difitnah bahwa dia memperkosa dan dimasukkan dalam penjara. Bisa dibayangkan betapa dia merasa tertotak dan malu. Tapi dia berhasil menghancurinnya dan menjadi perdana menteri di Mesir.

2.Abraham
Dimana dia tidak percaya kepada Tuhan pertamanya tentang anaknya. Begitu lemahnya, bahkan berbohong sarah bukan istrinya waktu bertanya. Tapi sebaliknya Tuhan masih menginginkannya contoh menjadi Imam. Harusnya malu Abraham, bagaimana mungkin dipakai oleh Tuhan. Tapi Abraham berhasil melampaui rasa malu itu, dan menjadi bapak imam percaya.

3.Musa
Seorang pembunuh dan seorang pelarian. Datang dan turun dari gunungnyna Tuhan. Dan dikatakan hai oleh orang Israel jangan membunuh. Siapa kamu Musa kasih kami perintah itu? Harusnya kamu malu mengatakan itu, karena kamu seorang pembunuh? Jangan kasih tau kami apa yang harus kamiu lakukan. Namun Musa harus melampaui masa lalu itu untuk menjadi pahlawan dalam iman.

4.Daud
Daud orang yang disebut paling dekat dengan hati Tuhan. Bayangkan Daud menjadi penjinah dan membunuh. Dan Tuhan mengambil putra yang pertama. Daud harusnya malu, dia tidak layak jadi raja. Namun dia harus melampaui rasa malu itu untuk mengejar dan mencari Tuhan. Bahwa Daud harus mendapatkan putra kedua, agar bisa menguasai dan memerintah di Israel.

5.Simon Petrus
Menyangkal Kristus dihadapan Yesus 3x. Salah satu terjemahan, dikatakan bahkan dia mengutukin nama Tuhan. Namun Yesus tidak datang dengan kalimat, "kamu seorang pengecut, harusnya kamu gagal Simon!". Namun Yesus berkata, "Petrus, apakah kamu mengasihi Aku? Berikan makanan kepada domba2Ku dan gembalakan mereka." Dan 50 hari kemudian Simon Petrus membangun sebuah gereja.

Setiap orang harus berurusan dengan masa lalu mereka. Ahli ilmu jiwa mengatakan, rasa malu adalah hal yang paling parah bisa menghancurkan kehidupan manusia yang paling sulit dihadapin. Rasa malu membuat kita merasa tidak layak. Bahwa Tuhan tidak mengasihi saya. Saya tidak layak untuk Tuhan. Bahkan mungkin, anda mulai percaya dengan diri anda, saya adalah orang yang bodoh, saya orang yang gagal.

Rasa malu membuat anda selalu menyalahkan diri anda atas setiap apa yang terjadi. Kita begitu takut untuk kehilangan muka. Begitu takut tidak bisa berpenampilan baik dihadapan teman-teman kita dan keluarga kita. Kalau belum berhasil, kita merasa malu dihadapan keluarga.

Ada 3 tantangan rasa malu yang harus dihancurkan dalam hidup kita:

1. Rasa malu yang diwariskan
Karena kita dilahirkan dalam kehidapan umat manusia, yang jatuh dalam dosa. Diatas kayu salib Yesus telah mengambil rasa malu itu.

2. Rasa malu yang coba ditempelkan oleh orang kepada anda
Mungkin karena masalalumu, mungkin seperti Jabez.
Ketika Yesus datang, bisa saja dia datang sebagai Tuhan yang perkasa yang menghancurkan dunia ini. Tapi untuk menjadi seorang juruselamat dia harus dilahirkan daari seorang darah. Anda bisa bayangkan bagaimana Yesus dilahirkan oleh wanita perawan dan orang2 bisa menertawakan dia, dll. Bahkan saudaranya laki2 tidak percaya padanya. Dia ditolak oleh saudaranya, jemaatnya, bahkan dikota dimana dia berada. Bahkan perampok yang disalibkan itu menertawakan

3. Rasa malu yang sesungguhnya
Karena kesalahan yang anda lakukan. Kadang-kadang anda merasa begitu bersalah dan berdosa.


Be blessed,
Kotbah by Kong Hee

(Taken from Suwandi Tanha's Note on Facebook)
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