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=