www.tesbakatindonesia.com - BE HUMBLE TO SEEK COUNSEL

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BE HUMBLE TO SEEK COUNSEL

``Advice is like a snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper in sinks into the mind.`` - S.T. Coleridge

As we all know that in the journey of finding our purposes or the things that we are passionate about might not be an easy ride. Some people might already know what get them passionate since they are still young, but some people might know and start doing what make them passionate about in their late careers or even in their late life when they are old and retired. One of the strongest reasons why some people can identify their passion faster than others is because they are humble enough to seek counsel from others.

Advises can either bring you forward in life or backward. Remember that not all of the advises that you receive are good advises. Use your heart and mind to filter these advises. And never feel embarrassed or shy to ask for advice, especially regarding your future and what you are passionate about. You never know. Perhaps, some of the moments where you ask for advice would be the moment that you have never expected, because those are the moments that are so called, MIND-OPENER SESSIONS.

Don’t limit your options. Best advises not only come from your closest family and friends, they might come from professional help as well from those who has been there and knows what to do to make you save time and cost in pursuing your dream and passion.

Please keep in mind that no matter how good and how much advice we have received in our life, these advises will not do any good if they never been acted or pondered upon.

Thus, Be Proactive in Seeking Counsel. Better yet, Be Proactive in Doing and Pondering the counsel and advises that you have received. Prepare to be amazed, because you will come across some MIND-OPENER SESSION that will truly shape and change your life for the better and get you super passionate about your life.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Make the Most of Every Opportunity

Make the Most of Every Opportunity

5 Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. 6 Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. - Colossians 4:5-6

Everyone knows that time is constant and precious. Time is constant because it will always tick without stopping. Time is also precious because once it is ticking, it would never come back again.
Supposedly, everything that is constantly moving and will never come back should be appreciated because this thing will never be repeated in our life, and we only have one chance to seize this thing.

Yet, the reality presents different thing. Many of us waste our time in things that are not bringing values nor building our life at all. In fact, some of us might have destructive habits whether we realize it or not. Some of us might also stuck in demeaning and destructive relationship with other people or even things, that somewhat have become addiction.

 The Word of God reminds us to go back to God's original plan for our life. God reminds us to "make the most of every opportunity", to always seize God's given chances (kairos) in every moments and opportunities that life have been presenting to us. It means that there is always light in every darkness, sweetness in every bitterness, salt in every tastelessness. It means that we can be the light and bring Godly perspective in every hardship and troubles.

How do we make the most of every opportunity?

The answers are there: Stop wasting time and start building healthy and Godly habits. Be Wise and ask God for Wisdom and it shall be given to you. Fill our heart and mind with God's grace through the meditation of the Word. Pray to God so that everything that comes out of our mouth is truly impeccable and bring strong flavors to those who we encounter everyday.

-JH-

www.tesbakatindonesia.com - SHOWING UP FOR YOUR FUTURE

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SHOWING UP FOR YOUR FUTURE

“Great things might show up in our life when we simply just show up to new things.” – J. Hariyanto

The greatest, yet the scariest thing about life is that it presents us with endless possibilities and opportunities.  We are told that we can be anything we want, but not everything.  One of the prominent characteristics of successful people is that they are focus in what they are passionate about in life.  Thus, the most important questions for us would be, “What do we want to become in the future?”, “What are the things that we are passionate about?” In order to answer these questions, we are often confused and have no idea at all where to begin.

One of the best advises to start exploring our passion is to “show up”. We have to be open with new things such as seminars, gatherings, trainings, and/or any introductory events that are introducing us to new hobbies, skillsets, and/or paradigms.  Being open means that we proactively find these kind of events and just show up on time. No special skill or preparation required to show up at these events.

I believe that by just showing up to these events, we are opening our hearts and minds to new opportunities and possibilities to seek and explore our passion in life. Showing up will definitely help us take the first step to seek and explore our passion, especially when we have no clue at all.

So, make sure that we attend seminars, gatherings, and / or events that might potentially lead and prepare for our future. And the beauty of all of this is that it is mostly free and all we need is just to show up.

-JH-

www.tesbakatindonesia.com - YOUR LIFE PURPOSE

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YOUR LIFE PURPOSE.

Have you ever felt waking up in the morning, dragging your feet to get ready for your day and feeling bored and unexcited about life? Perhaps one of the strongest reasons why most people feel that way is because they do not really understand their purpose in life. S. Gautama once told that, “Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give your whole heart and soul to it.”

History has proven from time to time that people who influence the history of mankind, the ones that are changing and shaping this world, are the ones that are understand their purposes in life and giving their very best every single day from the moment they wake up until the moment they fall asleep. These people, most of the time, would wake up in the morning with such great passion, expectations and hope for the future because they know that every day, they are one step closer to their dreams and goals, closer to their purposes in life.

Life sometime is not about finding your purposes, instead, it is often about creating your purposes. Go Dream Big! Be Proactive, Be Passionate, and Create the best scenario for your life. Your life purpose will not come if you never try new things, or if you never open your mind and your heart to new possibilities or opportunities. Read and write a lot. Hang out with inspirational and successful figures. Be attentive when people share their life stories, achievements, even failures. Meditate and reflect on your life every day and ask guidance from the Almighty to show you the way to your purpose.

It is never too late to start. No matter where you are and what you have been through in life, no matter how old you are, the fact that you are still reading this post, means that a 2^nd chance is being given to you to explore what you really want to do in life, and get ready to be passionate about the purpose.

Start Now! Explore Now! Find out your life purpose. Find those things that will burn you inside, get you passionate and makes you truly alive. Whatever it is, be glad if you have found one, and make sure that you give your whole heart and soul to it. And if you have not found one yet, remember what R.W. Emerson said, “The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have live and lived well.” 

Once you find your life purpose, not only you get super excited and passionate about your life, but you will influence the people around you as well, and inspire them to find their life purposes as well.

So? What are you waiting for? Be Proactive, Be Passionate, Find your Purpose, and Create your own destiny!

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Certainty in Uncertainty

Being Certain in UnCertainty.

Joshua 23:14
"Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. EVERY PROMISES HAS BEEN FULFILLED; NOT ONE HAS FAILED.

I believe that we are living at the very edge of the end time. Love has grown cold. Integrity and Purity has become extremely scarce and deemed to be awkward if you possess one.

The mother earth has gone radically mad. Earthquakes, tornado, tsunamis are getting more and more common these days.

In fact, our day-to-day problems and challenges become much harder than ever before. Families are struggling with confusion, affairs, chronic bitterness, extreme love for money, and generations who have been raised to satisfy their flesh with impulsive actions and thoughts without valuing, or even knowing the importance of delayed gratification for their own good.

No wonder feeling certain is no longer easy to have. Yet, we cannot lose hope. The world might become more uncertain everyday, but we have to believe, without any doubt at all, that God`s promises and His grace upon us is 100% certain. Because the more we live in this uncertain world every day, the harder and the stronger we have to fight in our faith and mind to truly rely on God`s promises every day as well.

Remember and crave it in our hearts that we have to ``Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock. ``(Isaiah 26:4) The everlasting Rock that would not be shaken with anything at all.  ``For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord`` (Romans 8:38-39).

However, it does not stop there. Once we are truly convinced that God is our Rock and Nothing can separate us from His love, we have to be extremely ready for situations in our life, where ``17 If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. 18 But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:17-18)

Believing that God is our certainty means that in any uncertainty situations, where the outcomes might not favor what we wants, we have to truly accepts the outcomes, love and respect God and His decisions not because of what He has given us, but, for who He really is!

True love will love the person as who the person is, not what the person has done or give to us. IF the level of our love is still in the level where we love someone because of what they have done, then we are similar with those who sell love and attention, in order to get what they want.

Let`s love Him for who He really is and be certain in any uncertainty, and no matter what the outcomes are, love Him wholeheartedly.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Lessons from Job

Lessons from Job

Job' suffering teaches us that we have to love God wholeheartedly beyond all the blessings of materials, family, status, and even our own health.

Most people will associate sudden sufferings and depressions with sin and faults with our God, just as three of Job's friends did. Yet, it is not our rights to judge and perceive God that way.

Job's story proves to God, the devil, and us that yes, a sincere human like job does exist. A sincere man that truly love God and honor Him even when everything precious in one's life has been stripped away.

As a human being, Job does question God's motivation in giving him tremendous pain and sufferings with constant silence from God that did not answer Job's prayer at all.

But one thing for sure, even though Job questioned God's motive, yet Job never cease to always seek Him and cling to Him even though he felt that God's presence is not in his life anymore.

The story of Job is in the Word of God to remind us that we need to love God beyond the blessings that He has given us. Are we still love God the same, or even, better in our darkest time?

 I believe that if Job can do it, then we have the biggest hope as a fellow human being to continuously take conscious decision to love God wholeheartedly and tell Him that we truly love Him as an individual.

God told Job twice when He answered Job to, "Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me." (Job 38:3, Job 40:7)

Let's brace God's sufferings and temptations like a man! Stop questioning God's reasoning and His divine plans. Let's love Him wholeheartedly even at times when we feel that we have no reason at all to love Him.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos - Handling Money

Handling Money

Luke 16:11-13
"So, if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?
And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."

The Word of God teaches us that the love of money is the root of all evil (I Timothy 6:10) .When we ponder about this verse, we often portray a person who has such a great love to money, that would, literally, become extremely stingy and would sacrifice anything, including his/her self and the loved ones in order to get more and more money.

Yet, we might be missing some of the real points about these verses, about the real meaning of loving money and the inability to to handle money.

Loving money does not necessarily means that we have such a great affection towards money. It could also means that we have such attachment to money that we cannot let go our mind from thinking about it all the time. God's children who are still worry about money, heavily in debts, or do not have the proper knowledge in handling their money and assets will not be trusted with the true riches from God! (Luke 16:11-12) . We will not be able to love God wholeheartedly when we know deep inside that we are constantly worry about money and debts that we have to pay. More and more God's children are trapped into consumerism and buried with credit card debts.

Thus, it is time to learn how to handle money and our assets seriously. I believe that one of the main characteristics of the saints that will be entrusted to rule together with God in the New Heaven and Earth will be those who truly understand how to handle money and how to take a good care of it so that the money will expand and will be used purely for the glory of God. Never underestimate the way we handle our own money. Because God's wisdom and True Riches will be entrusted to those who truly understand and have the capacity to handle the worldly wealth well.

If we truly love Him, then it is time to handle our money and assets seriously and learn to refrain ourselves from spending excessively. When money no longer have any attachment to us, then that is the time when we can honestly love God wholeheartedly.

-JH-

Sebagai tambahan, true riches disini tidak semata-semata digambarkan sebagai kekayaan dunia, tetapi yg terpenting adalah pengenalan kita akan Dia dan misteri2 kebenaran Tuhan yang akan diungkapkan di akhir jaman ini utk org2 yg benar2 mengasihi Dia (Christ in you is the hope of Glory).

Sudahkah pikiran dan perasaan kita sejalan dengan pikiran dan perasaanNya?

Apakah Kristus benar2 tinggal di dalam hati dan pikiran kita?

Inilah mengapa kekristenan itu adalah kasih karunia dan juga perjuangan berat utk memikul salib. Lets finish the race together.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos - Mercy Makers

Mercy Makers

Lamentations 3:22-23 
It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

One of the most visible characters in Jesus is merciful. According to dictionary.com, there are mainly 3 definition of mercy;

1. being compassionate,

2. the power to pardon someone, and

3. something to give evidence to divine power.

It means that for us being merciful is to have a compassion heart that is willing to be proactive in helping people in need instead of just talking about it.

It also means that we have the responsibility to forgive those who wrong us. Because having the power to forgive does not necessarily means that we are willing to forgive.

Being merciful also means that we have to pay attention on how we live our life because through our life, as a living evidence, Jesus-as the divine entity, is glorified.

Knowing all the definition of merciful is good, but what is great is to have the commitment to be merciful everyday. it means waking up in the morning, praying to Father to grant us the power and the courage to exercise our inner muscle of mercy, just the same as Father's mercy is new every morning.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Growing Pains

GROWING PAINS

Luke 2:40 – “and the Child grew and became strong; He was filled with wisdom. And the grace of God was upon Him”

We are living in an instantaneous world where everything is valued more when we can get what we want in a very speedy way. In fact, businesses can charge ridiculously more expensive for things to get done faster than ever, as long as someone willing to pay for it. We tend to underestimate process and overestimate result.

When we look at the life of Jesus, we can learn one important thing, that Jesus himself was growing into His role as a saviour. He became strong, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon Him through time to time when He was growing from a little boy into the man He was destined to be.

Growing takes time. No one can become expert or mastering something in a night, or even in a year. Thus, no one can have Jesus’ characters and mindset in a short period of time. It would take years or perhaps decades to have the mind and the heart of Christ.

That is why never lose hope. Don’t be hard at ourselves if we keep on stumbling in our daily life to work on our salvation. Yet, we do need to work hard in reminding ourselves everyday that we are God’s children and always ask for guidance and directions in working on our salvation everyday.

When we focus on Jesus and His words everyday, slowly but sure, becoming like Christ eventually matters as the most important goal in our life. When that happen, our perspective and priorities will change, and we will grow to become more like Christ without we even realizing it. And when we look back we would be amazed with all the changes in our characters and mindset that has happened in our life.

Growing also means experiencing pain. Everything that is being stretched is forced naturally to go beyond its current limits. What we think is impossible at that time become possible now. Growing into the man God wants us to be will not be an easy journey. Taking up the cross is the best, yet the most difficult decision we will ever make. but, the rewards are unthinkable and amazingly great.

Thus, when is the best time to grow to become like Christ? The answer is now! Time is ticking. Let’s make the most of our time to focus on becoming like Christ so that we can spend eternity in the New Heaven and New Earth as God’s chosen people that will rule together with Him.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Do We Really Know the Price?

Do We Know the Real Price?

There 3 ways which things or people in our lives can suddenly become extremely valuable:

11. When we start losing them naturally,

22. When they were taken away by others.

33. Or when others come to us to show how precious these things and/or people are in our lives.

The intrinsic values that we give to these things and/or people instantly become exponentially massive and undoubtedly precious. In Luke 9:57-62, Jesus shared to His disciples the real price to follow Him so that all of His disciples, including us, understand the real value of following Jesus.

11. Luke 9:58B: “…the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.”

Following Jesus means that we have no dependency and no relationship whatsoever with this world that we live in. We live on this earth knowing that this is not our home. This earth is just a temporary place for us to contribute to society, to work on our salvation, and ultimately to prepare us to become His saints that will rule together with Him in the New Heaven and New Earth.

22. Luke 9:60: ”Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”

The decision to follow Jesus has to be done NOW! This verse expresses the sense of urgency, showing to the disciples that they do not have any time to waste. The end-time is near. IF we decide to follow Jesus wholeheartedly, it means that we have to make decisions to focus and stripped away all the earthly things that will hinder us in following Him.

33. Luke 9:62: “Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

The decision to follow Jesus wholeheartedly has to be done once and knowing that there will be no chance to go peek at your old life. Focus on the present and the future when we walk with Him, but use your past only as point of reference, not as an alternative of life that you could always go back to.

It is time to reflect on our own life. Do we really understand the real price in following Jesus? Or all this time, we only say we believe in Him but we do not necessarily follow Him? Let’s make the decision now to be prepared for the New Heaven and New Earth and never look back to our old earthly life of comfort.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - The Six Woes

The Six Woes

Luke 11:37-54 talks about the 6 woes that Jesus shared with the Pharisees and the teachers of the law. Jesus was so strong talking about these woes, thus, when Jesus left there, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law began to oppose Him fiercely (Luke 11:53).

These 6 woes represents 6 areas/things in our life that we really have to pay attention to in order for us to work on our salvation and live holy for Him. Because a lot of so-called God's children nowadays (including us) live in the edge of becoming the Pharisees and the teachers of the law without them knowing it.

1. (Luke 11:42) "Woe to you Pharisees, because you give God a tenth of your mint, rue and all other kinds of garden herbs, but you neglect justice and the love of God. You should have practices the latter without leaving the former undone."

Be obedience 100%. When we decide to love Christ and become the imitator of God, we can't just choose the "convenient" laws and ways of life, and neglect those which are not "convenient" for us to do. When we say "yes" to Him, it means we are saying "yes" to all of his commandments without anything less.

2. (Luke 11:43) "Woe to you Pharisees, because you love the most important seats in the synagogues and greetings in the marketplace"

Be careful of self-respect, self-pride and recognition-addiction. The deepest need of human's heart is to be appreciated and respected. However, as God's truly son, we have to know and believe that the greatest respect, appreciation, and recognition does not come from human beings, but by Him and Him alone.

3. (Luke 11:44) "Woe to you, because you are like unmarked graves which men walk over without knowing it"

Be fully transparent without any pretends.Unmarked graves talks about looking beautiful from the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones (Mat 23:27). God hates hypocrites. We have to make sure that what we think align with what we say and what we do.

4. (Luke 11: 46) ..."woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them."

Be consistent. Walk the Talk. We have to ensure that we do what we preach. Spiritual authority comes from direct obedience and true experiences with God.

5. (Luke 11: 47) "Woe to you , because you build tombs for the prophets, and it was your forefathers who killed them."

Beware the impact of sins for generations to come. What we choose to do and not to do will impact generations to come.Do not play games with sins and temptations. God can forgive you , but the consequences of sins will continue to do what have become their portions.

6. (Luke 11: 52) "Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering."

Be responsible with our life and the words of God that are entrusted to us. As God's children that have committed to work on our salvation, we have to keep on learning and studying the words of God. The more we know and the more we experience the power of the Words, the more we can share to people and the more influential we become, and the more effective God can use us for His divine purposes.

The worst things that could happen is for church leaders to become complacency and stop growing in the words of God. Their focus will no longer expanding God's kingdom on earth, but their own kingdom.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Deal or No Deal!

Deal or No Deal!

Readings: 2 Samuel 18:1-33

This passage talks about how David was pursuing Absalom by sending out his troops to chase after Absalom and his troops. Absalom, David’s son, was a ruthless dictator and has opposed God’ s chosen king. Before David sent out his troops, he told all of his troops and commanders in charge to make sure that they will “deal gently” with Absalom when they met him. However, Joab, one of the commanders decided to kill Absalom and believes that his action was the right thing to do for the people of Israelites.

The reason why David asked to “deal gently” with Absalom is because David thought that Absalom is his own son. He believed that the best for his life and his family is to capture Absalom alive in hope for a great repentance from Absalom. Yet, it is all David’s delusion, thinking that Absalom could easily have changed. Worse, David’s decision to “deal gently” with Absalom actually hurting his position as the King of Israel because the people knew and understood that Absalom is very ruthless, terrorizing king, that would kill many people in order to get what he wanted.

Several things that we can learn from this passage:

1. One of David’s most fatal weaknesses is the inability to separate emotions from conscience. In order for us to become more like Christ, we have to exercise self-control and put our “decision muscle” into work everyday. Yes, it is the decision to choose Jesus and His Kingdom, despite what we feel about the situation and/or the commandments from God. Many Christians allow their feelings and emotions to take control of their spiritual life. Thus, we have so many baby Christian who decided not to grow up for the rest of their lives and choose to follow Him whenever he/she like it.

2. The first step to potential disasters for our own life is when we start to believe what is best for us, not what God thinks is actually best from us. We just have to learn to make the decision and always believe that everytime you look forward, God is with you , and every time you look above, He always give you wisdom and clear conscience to show you what to do and what need to be done. It is all about God’s agenda in our life, not our own Agenda in our own life.

3. Being consistent is very important in our daily life, especially when we lead people at work or at non-profit organization. Consistency will create reality in our life, because consistency will create the habit needed that would eventually become the characters in our life.

4. Don’t be surprised when God will allow our “right-hand commander” to make the right decisions instead of us due to our inconsistency in making the right decision according to God’s agenda.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - The 2nd type of People

The 2nd Type of People

Luke 23:35 – The people stood watching , and the rulers even sneered at Him. They said, “He saved others; let Him save Himself if He is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.”

Luke 13:16 – Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

There are 3 kinds of people in this world. First, people who make things happen. Second, people who stood and watch things happen, and third, people who does not even know what happen.

We heard a lot of teachings and seminars talking about how we, as God’s children, should be the ones who make things happen and try our best to avoid being the third type of people who cannot read the sign of ages and not knowing what God is actually doing nowadays.

However, almost no teachings or sermons are talking about the second type of people, the ones that just stood there and watch things happen.

There are some intriguing key learnings from the second type of person that only stood there and watch things happen:

* The Biggest percentage of people is actually in the second type of people who only watch what happens without doing anything, compare to those who truly doing something to make things happen and those who are ignorant that do not really care about what is happening.

·         * Learning that majority of the people just stood and watches the crucifixion of Jesus, we can learn that there is a presence of darkness and corruption in the human heart where we do take pleasures in violence, blood, and death. Thus, in Roman and Greek arenas there are people who cheered as other people fought and killed each other. In fact, in this modern society, we can see that millions of adults and children find pleasures in entertainment and media that shows brutality, violence, and death. Worse, it has become something that is natural to see these days.

·         * Jesus is crucified to change this attitude of the heart and to show the world the meaning of true love and how we can learn to love and care for others.

·         * It is our duty as the head of the family, as entrepreneurs, as professionals, as workers, as members of families, to spread our influence and take on the responsibilities to guard all our hearts from human pain and tragedy.

·         * Jesus wants to remind us that above all rules written in the Torah, the most important thing is our availability to respond to other people hurts and needs, instead of taking pleasure in watching it happen (Luke 13:16).

It is always easy to choose to do nothing and just stand there and watch. We have to always ask ourselves this question, “How proactive are we in noticing other people’s hurts and urgent needs and our actions to help?” 

It is time to become more like Christ everyday. Let’s see this world from His eyes and do what He desires. And when that happens, get ready to feel His heart and His compassion towards His people.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Planting Godly Trees

PLANTING GODLY TREES

 Luke 6:43-45
43 “No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. 45 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 

One of the keys for living a Christ-like centered life is to have your mouth and your heart in agreement. No matter how good we are in keeping what's inside of our heart, eventually our "mouth speaks what the heart is full of".

If we dig deeper and look at passages leading to Luke 6:43-45, we can see that the Word of God is talking about how we have to love our enemies and how we shall not judge and condemn others to live a Christ-centered life. Loving our enemies means that we have to live our life in full forgiveness and mercy as a lifestyle. 

Luke 6:35-36
35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. 

To connect the dots, it seems that the Word of God is teaching us that in order for us to be more like Christ, we have to live in agreement with our mouth and heart, and in order to do that, we have to live in full forgiveness as a lifestyle. 

Forgiving people is not always easy. Some of us walk around in our life with big scars and bitterness. That is why too many of us is no longer able to live in harmony between what is inside our hearts and what we say to others. God's commandment is not impossible to do. Creating forgiveness as a lifestyle might be the hardest thing that we could ever done. In fact, there would be moments where we can release forgiveness easily and there would be moments where we have to fight with our flesh and mind to forgive someone. That is why the Word of God tells us that we have take up the cross and truly work on our salvation. Because at the end, what matters the most is to become the real children of the Most High (Luke 6:35). God will always with us (Immanuel), but we have the ultimate responsibility to train, discipline, and shape ourselves so that we would live as Christ has lived. 

Trees mentioned in Luke 6:43-44 are describing the habits and characters that have been rooted in our life. If we have started our life as bad trees produces bad fruits, it is time to cut down our trees and take out all the roots in our life, and start sowing new seeds of Godly characters with our quality relationship with God and His Words. It is our duty to make sure that this amazing and miraculous seeds that contains Godly characters are properly sown and well taken care of in a daily basis. Yes, we have to work on our salvation to make sure that these seeds will grow and eventually become strong trees that produce good fruits. 

 - JH -

Seizing the Kairos! - The Mystery of the Fig Tree

The Mystery of the Fig Tree

Mark 11:12 - 14
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

Jesus was very hungry (verse 12) and yet it was understood that it was not the season for figs (verse 13). However, Jesus still expects that the fig tree would provide the solution for His hungerness.

The reason why Jesus later on curse the tree so that we, as God's children, are reminded to be ALWAYS fruitful even in times where it seems natural not to bear fruits.

It is not an excuse even when we are stressed or under huge pressure, for not giving our very best in loving Him and emulating His characters. Even in Jesus' darkest hours, when He prayed in the Gethsemane, He gave His very best in being obedient to the Father and to His destiny, to be crucified so that you and I are saved.

Being intimate with God and learning to become more like Christ everyday is the hardest commitment we will ever make. Yet, by His grace, it is no longer impossible.
Let us be reminded of our commitment and strive to always be fruitful with the help of the Holy Spirit.

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Redefining Forgiveness

Redefining Forgiveness

When we really talk about real faith, we do not talk about our needs and wants (e.g. I have faith that I will have my own house in the next 5 years). When we really talk about real faith, it always talk about God's divine plan to bring us back to His blueprint regarding the real men and women of God. Real faith talks about how much God truly loves us to a point where He sent His own beloved Son to a slaughterhouse to be killed by His own ungrateful creation (John 3:16).

When we learn to see this world not from our needs and wants, but from His needs and wants, we start to feel what He feels. We start to consider and re-prioritize our goals in life. It's no longer about us, but it's all about Jesus and His Kingdom. Our life change because our mind change. Our mind change because the way we see things are also change, influenced by His thoughts, His desires, and His values and conviction (Romans 12:2)

Jesus has proven that a man/woman of God has the inner capacity to unleash the true forgiveness in their hearts, no matter how hard and painful the wrongdoings in our lives. Jesus has proven this through the cross where He truly sacrifice Himself for sinners like us. God's children that truly understand the meaning of the cross in their lives, will start to believe that no matter how painful the wrongdoings in our hearts, we believe that, all sins have been forgiven and that there is no sin committed by human that cannot be forgiven.

The world teaches us that the we need to forgive others so that it would bring peace to our hearts and freed us from unnecessary pain, sufferings, and depression. The focus is always about us and our lives.

However, Jesus taught us that the reason why we need to forgive is because of the cross. As stated in the Lord's prayer, God will forgive us IF we forgive others too (Mat 6:12). We forgive others because God has forgiven us unconditionally. True Faith will produces True Forgiveness. By believing wholeheartedly that we are called to become Christ-like, we starts to see that no wrongdoings is big enough that cannot be forgiven, because Jesus has forgiven all sins. We forgive because we want to become more like Christ and through faith He will enable us to work on our salvation and fulfill His ultimate plan for us. The focus is no longer about us, but it is about Jesus and His Kingdom.

It's time to redefine our paradigm about forgiveness.

- JH - 

Seizing the Kairos! - Stop Abusing Faith!

Stop Abusing Faith!

Ephesians 2:8

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-

Faith is one of the common words nowadays that are often used wrongly. In fact, many believers start to see Faith as Positive Thinking, worse, as self-actualization.

According to the Words of God, Faith is a pro-active response from the heart of a person who truly desires to accept Christ as Savior, and to follow Him as Lord.

Faith is originated from the hearing of the Words of God (Romans 10:17).

Faith is never based on our personal needs and wants as human beings.

Thus, Faith isn’t Self-Actualization and Positive Thinking.

Because the purpose of Faith is to enable us as God’s Children to live in a way that we become more like Christ every single day (John 14:12). 

For the sole purpose of God’s grace is for us to become perfect like Our Father in Heaven.

Faith means putting on God’s glasses in our paradigm, instead seeing this world from our own.

Because God said that if we truly love Him wholeheartedly, we do not need to worry at all about what we are going to eat, what we are going to wear, and where we are going to live. 

The power of faith granted upon us is not destined for our needs and wants, but is greatly destined for the work of salvation in us and the people surround us.

Let’s stop abusing the words of faith in our lives and start using it properly, to propel our lives in working on our salvation faster and greater than before so that we, eventually, become Christ-like.

=JH=

Seizing the Kairos! - How salty are you?

How Salty Are You?

Mark 9:50 – Salt is good; but if the salt become saltless, with what will you season? Have salt in yourselves, and be peace with one another.

One of the keys to become intimate with God and people is to understand the essence of salt, as written in the bible. We all know that salt is one of the most common used ingredients to cook. Imagine cooking without salt. Culinary won’t be exciting anymore because everything is tasteless.

Salt is used to enhance and give flavors to food. We, as God’s children, are called, not only to do good to people, but to enhance and bring such a great influence to other people’s life. Showing and leading them to a life filled with unfailing love and the desire to become Christ-like. We have to examine our hearts to make sure that each relationship that we have truly shows great Christ-like attitude and the passion for lost souls.

Salt is used to preserve. We are called to preserve this world from the corruption and decay of sin. We are called to preserve Godly influence in our culture by expanding our Godly influence in the culture surround us, starting from our own family.

Salt is used as healing instruments. We are called as God’s vessel to bring spiritual, emotional, and physical healing to the people around us.

Salt creates thirst. We are called to bring such influence so that people will thirst after God and His Words like never before.

Let this be a great reminder to all of us that everytime we eat and taste the salt in our taste buds, we also remember to always enhance and give flavors to other people’s life, preserve Godly influence in our family, become the healing vessel for God, and always create thirst of God to others around us. 

And now it's your turn. How salty are you?

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Heaven-made Intimacy

Heaven-made Intimacy

Act 13:22

22 After He had removed him, He raised up David to be their king, concerning whom He also testified and said, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My heart, who will do all My [a]will.’

Someone once said that Intimacy can be spelled as “In-To-Me-See”. Being intimate with someone means letting that person to see the real you by opening your heart and be vulnerable. Risking your heart so that these precious others can truly know and understand who you are deep down.

If we look at the world these days, intimacy has become the “niche” market in technology. Software and Tech companies are in competition in creating the best apps to connect people through the internet and smartphones. Thus, apps and sites like Facebook, Path, Instagram, Twitter, etc, have been born and become extremely popular in terms of connecting ourselves to each others.  However, we have to understand as well, that being intimate through these channels have driven us away from personal touch and the ultimate joy in truly spending time in the presence of our friends and families.

Worse, we even start to see our relationship with God the way we connect with others through the internet.  We start to crave for people “acknowledgement” and “ likes”. We start to spend more time in thinking how people think about us, instead of how God think about us. We start to forget the ultimate joy in spending our time in His presence. Our hearts become dull and somewhat lonely because the spring of life is no longer flowing excessively from our hearts. God is yearning for a generation that He can call after His own heart!

It’s time to go back to the real intimacy. Spend more time with the Words and in His presence.  Letting God to “in-to-me-see” and let us “in-to-God-see”.

Seek for His Heart, His Longings, His Passion, and His Will. And, once again, you will experience the real intimacy, heaven-made.

-JH-

 

Seizing the Kairos! - Pathway to Quality Intimacy

Pathway to Quality Intimacy

Romans 5:3 -5 "Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."

Bollywood is the one of the largest movie makers beside Hollywood. Bollywood has made thousands of movies since its establishment. The interesting thing about Bollywood movies, based on my observation (yes, i do watch quite a few movies myself), is that the way they picture true love is often through great sufferings. Through such pain, endurance, and perseverance, at the end, the impossible love become possible. The harder the hardship, the more interesting it gets, and the better the love story leave impression on our hearts and minds. I believe we can truly grasp and learn one important principle through Bollywood movies, "suffering is the pathway to quality intimacy."

The Word of God teaches us that suffering produce perseverance, perseverance produce character, character produce hope, hope triggers Holy Spirit to overflow God's love into our hearts.

Quality intimacy with God must be initialized with suffering for Christ sake. When we share God's suffering in our life, we start to know and feel what He feels. We start to see the world the way He sees the world. We start to understand the things He does in the past, present, and future. We start to share His mindset, and in fact, we also share His glory as a result (Rom 8:17).

Being intimate with God, is not only being joyful and peaceful at His presence all the time. Being intimate with God means sharing His tears, His pain, His thoughts for the lost souls, having the same sense of urgency to do what its need to be done to speed up the end time.

It's about time we grow up and see God in higher perspective. Being intimate with God is no longer about finding comfort and peace for ourselves. It's no longer about us and our needs. Being intimate with God is about your decision and commitment to see this world from His perspective, learning to adapt His mindset, and starting to act on the decisions that will further the Kingdom and preparing the saints for the end time.

=JH=

Seizing the Kairos! - Present evil age

Present evil age

Galatian 1: 3-5
"Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."

One of the great purposes for Jesus to die on the cross, rise, and ascend to heaven is to rescue us from the present evil age. Present evil age is talking about popular values, wisdoms, opinions, corrupt desires, and selfish pleasures of those in the world who do not follow Christ.  Present evil age is also describing all unbiblical religious systems and organizations that use the name of Christ or his family of believers, yet teach and encourage the lifestyles contrary to God's words and His standard of holiness that are given in His Words.

Many of us as Christians might realize that some of our paradigms are actually fall under the category of present evil age. However, only a few take actions to actually repent and run back to His Words. We tend to underestimate the impact of having these wrong values and paradigms because we mistakenly believe that these misleading values and paradigms is not too essentials compare to life-and-death values and corrupted paradigms.

However, the Word of God set a very clear standard as mentioned in 1 John 2:15-16
"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in Him. For everything in the world - the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does - comes not from the Father but from the world."

99% obedience is 100% disobedience.

It is time to ask for God's help to learn to live in God's standard, not ours. We have to daily examine our hearts and minds to ensure that we are no longer live based on corrupted values, opinions, desires, and paradigms. When we daily ask for His help, believe that He will rescue us from this present evil age!"

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Kebutuhanku atau KebutuhanNya?

Kebutuhanku atau kebutuhanNya?

Salah satu ayat yang cukup sering di salah mengerti dan disalahgunakan adalah:

Filipi 4:19  Allahku akan memenuhi segala keperluanmu menurut kekayaan dan kemuliaan-Nya dalam Kristus Yesus.

Ketika bicara tentang kekayaan dan kemuliaan, kita sebagai manusia yg lahir dan hidup di dunia ini, mempunyai kecenderungan untuk memahami kedua hal ini sebagai kelimpahan harta dan tahta, yang tentunya mampu memuaskan dan mengenyangkan kedagingan kita.

Inilah saatnya kita belajar melihat dari sudut pandang Allah, bukan dari sudut pandang dunia, ataupun sudut pandang kita sendiri.

Firman Tuhan mengajarkan bahwa ikut Tuhan itu adalah memikul salibNya dan ikut menderita Dan mengalami kuasa kebangkitanNya. Bahkan di ayat sebelumnya telah ditekankan bahwa kita harus belajar untuk mencukupkan diri dalam segala keadaan (Filipi 4:11  Kukatakan ini bukanlah karena kekurangan, sebab aku telah belajar mencukupkan diri dalam segala keadaan)

Tuhan lebih rindu melihat anak2Nya mempunyai "stronger self control" dan "better sense of responsibility" daripada berkelimpahan dengan harta dunia. Karena menjadi semakin serupa dengan Kristus dan tercebur dalam panggilanNya adalah "destiny" utama kita sebagai anakNya.

Tetapi kita juga harus berhikmat tentunya. Bukan berarti Tuhan tidak bisa memberkati kita dengan harta. Tetapi kekayaan dan kemuliaanNya haruslah dilihat dari sudut pandangNya. Karena yang terpenting adalah untuk selalu bertanya, apakah yang kita minta setiap hari dalam doa kita adalah kebutuhanku atau kebutuhanNya?

-JH-

Seizing the Kairos! - Snatch them with Love and Mercy

Yudas 1:23-24

(23) selamatkanlah mereka dengan jalan merampas mereka dari api.
Tetapi tunjukkanlah belas kasihan yang disertai ketakutan kepada orang-orang lain juga,
dan bencilah pakaian mereka yang dicemarkan oleh keinginan-keinginan dosa.

(24) Bagi Dia, yang berkuasa menjaga supaya jangan kamu tersandung dan yang membawa kamu dengan tak bernoda dan penuh kegembiraan di hadapan kemuliaanNya

Kitab Yudas ini ditulis dengan nasihat keras karena pada masa-masa kitab ini ditulis muncul pengajar-pengajar palsu yang disebut sebagai golongan Antimonian (melawan hukum) atau Libertine. Golongan ini mempromosikan hidup berdosa tanpa harus takut terhadap penghakiman. Mereka bisa berbuat apa saja dengan tubuh mereka, asalkan mereka percaya terhadap hal yang benar, yaitu terhadap kesalamatan dan kasih karunia dari Yesus Kristus.

Kalau kita paralelkan dengan situasi yang terjadi sekarang di ujung pada akhir jaman ini, paham Antimonian sangatlah kental dan menjamur di kalangan orang-orang Kristen sendiri. Inilah salah satu misi kita di bumi ini untuk menyelamatkan mereka dari api penghakiman karena pengaruh dari ajaran / pemahaman yang menyesatkan ini (ayat 23) tetapi juga harus meminta hikmat dan pertolongan Tuhan (ayat 24, ..."menjaga supaya jangan kamu tersandung...") secara konstan agar roh yang takut akan Tuhan (ayat 23, ".... tunjukkanlah belas kasihan yang disertai ketakutan...") tetap melekat dalam kita agar kita juga tidak terjerat dengan kilau sengatan dari dosa itu sendiri.

Kiranya kita boleh diingatkan dan disadarkan kembali bahwa memang hanya belas kasihan dan kasih sayang yang bisa merubah orang yang paling keras sekalipun. Dan sejahat-jahatnya seseorang,  kita tetap harus meminta pertolongan Tuhan untuk mengasihi orang tersebut. Karena firmanNya berkata bahwa yg harus kita benci adalah "pakaian mereka", bukan orangnya. 

"People don't  care about Jesus, until they know how much Jesus care about them!"

Let's spread the love and show mercy to others and snatch them back from the fire to the Kingdom of God

-JH-

Seizing Kairos! - The God of Process

Genesis 1 - The God of Process

Our God is ELOHIM - A Creative God, a God that is productive, creative, and flawless  in making His creation. He is the true artist, the true engineer, the true designer, and the best project manager there is that ever lived in this world, because Heaven and Earth and all the things inside them are truly His creation.

I believe that He has the capacity and the capability in creating things, spoken only through His words (e.g. Gen 1:3, "God said,...."). In our mind as a human being, we would think that it is best to be effective and efficient in everything that we do, especially living in today's world, where "time is priceless and very valuable asset that will never come back again". I believe that God has everything it takes to create Heaven and Earth only in 1 day.

But God has a different paradigm. Our God is not a result-oriented God. Our God is a Process-Oriented God. He believes in creating masterpieces, a step-by-step approach has to be taken in order to ensure that He could witness and enjoy the process. That's is why the creation of Heaven, Earth, and the first man took in total 7 days, not 1 day.

It reminds us that God values process more than results. He wants to ensure that God's characters and paradigms are embedded and craved in our life through our struggles and challenges. That is why sometimes God does not answer our prayers directly, because He need to see our hearts, our minds, and our soul, grow and expand through our challenges so that  we become more like Christ everyday.

No matter how hard your life could be right now, enjoy the process and be extremely grateful. Love Him and obey Him more than ever even in your darkest hour. Because as God has created this world, right after "night", the "day" will come. The sunrise always come right after it's darkest time of the night.

I believe that God's given destiny in our lives would be revealed one-step at a time, because He wants to witness and enjoy the process of us becoming more like Jesus everyday, for our God is the God of Process.

-JH-