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-