Berkat & Kutukan Terbesar Parenting

Di sebuah kantin sekolah dasar yang cukup ternama itu tampak berbagai macam aktifitas terjadi di dalam kantin tersebut. Hiruk pikuk suara anak-anak yang habis berolahraga berteriak dengan sekuat tenaga mereka, untuk berjuang membeli nasi gorengan ayam kesukaan mereka yang selalu habis dibeli anak-anak yang beruntung sebelum jam makan siang. Tetapi yang menarik dari pemandangan itu bukanlah keluwesan anak-anak untuk saling berebut membeli nasi ayam itu. Tepat di samping kiri dari jendela kantin yang diperuntukkan untuk menjual makanan itu, tampak 4 orang ibu-ibu sedang duduk berbincang dengan peluh berkeringat dan sambil masing-masing menikmati es teh tawar di gelas plastiknya. 4 orang ibu-ibu ini ternyata sedang "mendiskusikan" mengenai anak-anak mereka. Pembicaraan mereka kurang lebih berlangsung seperti ini. Ibu 1: "Eh tahu nga. Saya kagum banget loh sama anak saya. Bayangin aja. Anton dari semenjak kecil sudah di les kan piano oleh kami, dan pas ultah ke 9 nya, Anton berhasil menjadi salah satu murid termuda yayasan musik itu. Saya dan suami , walaupun tidak bisa bermain musik, dari dulu memang berpendapat bahwa anak harus dipastikan belajar piano dari kecil agar otaknya lebih bisa berkembang dan menjadi lebih kreatif." Ibu 2: "Wah hebat kali anakmu Anton. Anak saya Ika juga tidak kalah hebat loh. Dia mulai ikutin jejak saya sebagai seorang pesenam dari umur 5 tahun. Hampir setiap hari semenjak dia berumur 4 tahun, dia ikut terus dengan saya ke tempat senam dan melihat kami semua berlatih. Ika pada awalnya menolak mati-matian untuk belajar dan selalu mencoba untuk berontak lari. Tetapi dengan jalannya waktu, akhirnya dia mau mencoba dan kemarin baru pertama kali mengikuti lomba senam dan akhirnya menjadi juara 2 se DKI Jakarta. " Ibu 3:" Sebenarnya buat saya sendiri yang terpenting adalah anak saya jadi multi-talent. Punya banyak keahlian dimana nantinya apapun yang dia putuskan untuk kerjakan, sudah ada modal dasar keahliannya. Makanya si Bonar dari umur 2 tahun sudah kami masukkan dalam berbagai macam kursus dan kegiatan ekstra kurikuler. Ibu 4: "Wah hebat-hebat ya anak sekarang. Kalau buat saya malah simple. Saya ingin anak saya bisa menghargai kehidupan sungguh-sungguh dengan belajar dan bermain dengan maksimal. Saya ingin mereka punya karakter yang kuat dan bisa mandiri dan mengambil inisiatif sendiri untuk melakukan eksplorasi terhadap pilihan-pilihan kehidupannya. Sehingga apapun keputusan yang dia ambil dalam hidupnya, dia punya drive dan ambisi yang kuat untuk menjadi sukses. Percakapan dari 4 ibu ini merupakan representasi dari kebanyakan pemikiran orang tua jaman sekarang. Ini merupakan perwakilan dari ambisi dan kebanggaan orang tua terhadap anak-anak mereka. Dimana perlu diingat betul bahwa kebanggaan dan ambisi kita sebagai orang tua adalah pedang bermata dua yang bisa menjadi berkat atau pendorong semangat terbesar untuk anak kita, atau malah menjadi kutuk yang menjerumuskan anak kita sendiri. Ibu 1 merupakan gambaran dari orang tua yang menjadikan anaknya sebagai perpanjangan tangan untuk mimpinya yang tidak tercapai dalam kehidupannya dulu. Orang tua yang seperti ini sangat sulit untuk melihat anaknya sebagai individu yang terpisah dari kepribadiannya sendiri. Perlu diingat sebagai orang tua bahwa setiap anak dilahirkan berbeda dan spesial dengan bakal, minat, dan kepribadiannya masing-masing, yang tentunya bisa sama sekali berbeda dengan orang tuanya. Biasanya yang terjadi adalah semakin besar mimpi atau hasrat orang tuanya yang tidak tercapai, semakin kuat dorongan dari orangtua agar anaknya bisa menghidupi mimpi orangtuanya yang tidak kesampaian itu. Padahal, sangat penting untuk di pahami bahwa anak itu adalah sebuah titipan bukan alat. Sedangkan Ibu 2 adalah gambaran orang tua yang terlalu percaya akan yang namanya legacy atau prinsip warisan. Orang tua yang seperti ini mempunyai pemahaman bahwa bakat, minat, dan kepribadian dari mereka sebagai orang tua bisa diturunkan kepada anak-anak mereka untuk melanjutkan kerajaan yang sudah dibangun. Seringkali ekspektasi seperti ini ditemukan pada keluarga dimana orangtuanya telah membangun sebuah reputasi yang mengagumkan berdasarkan kemampuan, bakat, ataupun kepribadian mereka. Mereka mampu membangun sebuah image atau kerajaan bisnis yang sedemikian rupa yg sangat melekat dengan keahlian mereka dan siapa mereka dimata masyarakat umum. Orang tua yang seperti ini terperangkap dengan anggapan bahwa,"kalau papa mama bisa, kamu pasti bisa nak!" Padahal setiap anak dikaruniakan bakat, minat, dan kepribadian yang berbeda-beda. Dan tidak tertutup kemungkinan bahwa perbedaaan ini sangatlah nyata dengan orang tua mereka masing-masing. Semua orang tua mempunyai harapan terbaik tentunya untuk anak-anak mereka. Tetapi kita harus bisa belajar menerima kenyataan bahwa pilihan studi, karir, ataupun jalan hidup anak-anak kita adalah misteri ilahi yang perlu kita telusuri bersama dengan anak-anak kita. Memang sangat tidak tertutup kemungkinan anak-anak kita mampu dan mau melanjutkan apa yang kita bangun. Akan tetapi kita harus benar-benar jujur, apakah kita memaksakan kehendak dan ambisi pribadi kita, atau kita menghargai dan ikut mempelajari bakat, minat, dan kepribadian mereka dengan seksama dari semenjak mereka kecil. Tipe Ibu 3 justru merupakan tipe orang tua yang kemungkinan besar mempunyai anak yang paling stress daripada anak-anak lain pada umumnya. Anak-anak yang multi-talent adalah anak-anak yang akan dikarunia banyaknya pilihan untuk berkarya dalam hidup ini. Akan tetapi , seperti yang kita ketahui, banyaknya pilihan, secara alam sadar akan membuat kita ataupun anak-anak kita, menjadi sangat sulit untuk memilih karir ataupun jalan hidup, karena akan sangat mudah sekali dibayang-bayangi dengan pertanyaan "What if". Apa jadinya kalau seandainya saya memilih jalan yang ini bukan yang itu? Apa jadinya kalau seandainya dulu saya teruskan untuk mencemplungkan diri di bidang itu bukan yang ini? Terlebih kalau seandainya orang tuanya yang selama ini sangat berperan dalam mengarahkan dan mengasah kemampuan anaknya tanpa benar-benar mencoba untuk memahami minat atau passion dari anak terebut. Memang diawal anak perlu dituntun, tetapi kita sebagai orangtua tidak boleh lupa bahwa seiring dengan perjalanan waktu, kita harus terus berdialog dengan anak kita dan mulai melihat secara jujur dan terbuka, apa yang merupakan passion dari si anak dan menomorduakan ambisi pribadi sebagai orangtua. Dan tentunya mungkin sudah tertebak bahwa tipe yang ideal adalah tipe Ibu 4. Ini adalah gambaran orangtua yang menyadari bahwa anak merupakan makhluk individu yang di bekali dengan 3P (potential: Bakat, passion: Minat, personality: Kepribadian) yang unik dan spesial yang membutuhkan atensi dan perawatan khusus dimana tidak bisa disamaratakan dengan orangtuanya. Anak kita adalah handmade products, bukan produksi masal. Oleh karena itu, kita harus pastikan adanya komunikasi yang luar biasa yang terjadi, dimana komunikasi ini memampukan kita untuk mengenali dan mengetahui hasrat terpendam dan keinginan terdalam dari anak kita, yang akan mendefinisikan siapa mereka dan apa yang akan membuat mereka menjadi sangat istimewa di dunia ini. Pride (Ambisi dan Rasa Bangga) kita sebagai orang tua memang tidak terelakkan, tetapi inilah salah satu tugas mulia kita sebagai orang tua untuk bisa menomorsatukan apa yang benar-benar menjadi passion dari si anak , bukan pride kita. Dengan beginilah, rasa bangga kita sebagai orangtua diposisikan di tempat yang benar, dimana pride ini menjadi salah satu motivasi terbesar untuk anak berkembang , karena sang anak bertujuan untuk membuat orang tuanya lebih bangga lagi dari sebelumnya. -JIMBO the Educator- Co-Founder & CEO of Tes Bakat Indonesia

Seize the Kairos! - LOST in Jesus

LOST (Love-Oriented Slave Trait) in Jesus

Luke 15:29New International Version (NIV)

²⁹ But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.

We have been taught countless times as Christian to serve Jesus and have a servanthood mentality to serve God and others. In fact, knowing how much God love us even He sacrificed His Only begotten Son so that we can be saved (John 3:18), shows the level of commitment for us to love Him back. The level of commitment where we also give our entire life back to Him. Realizing that it is not about us and our agenda, but it is all about God and His agenda. It’s about being God’s slave where our rights are no longer applicable, but His rights are. For we know, that Jesus has lost his rights in order to save us. This is the true image of unconditional love. For when we love someone wholeheartedly, we are more than willing to lost our rights and become slave to the other person’s needs.

However, the Bible reminds us that this entire “being slave for Jesus” can be easily misunderstood without we even realizing it. There are 2 kinds of slave with different traits here: Love-Oriented Slave Trait and Reward-Oriented Slave Trait.  Many of us are actually practicing our selfless life in order to live for Jesus, but the pure underlying motives to do so is because we are still chasing God’s rewards and blessings. The oldest son in the story of the prodigal son is actually the heaviest case of the prodigal son. The oldest son is truly are the one who actually lost…really lost. He has been serving God by becoming a slave for Him and willing to lose all of his rewards and demonstrated total obedience to Him. Yet, he missed the whole point.

What God really wants for us is to have the right trait of being a slave, the Love-Oriented Slave Trait (LOST).  A selfless life dedicated to God with total obedience out of love to God, not because of the rewards and blessings, but because we truly love Him wholeheartedly.

Have we become slave to God in a proper trait? We might have been living a selfless life with an egoistic motive all this time without realizing it. Let us examine our hearts and ask God to search our heart so that we can truly become LOST (Love-Oriented Slave Trait) in Jesus.

-JH-

Seize the Kairos - Do You Truly Love Me?

Do You Truly Love Me?

John 21:15-19

All of us have different perceptions about love. Our perception about love is heavily influenced with the culture and the norms that we are raised with and sadly to say, media.

It means that when a couple say that they love each other, it does not necessary means that they truly love each other according to their own standards and expectations. Because “love” for one person does not necessary means “love” for the other person. Some might categorize love as the tingling feeling or butterfly inside of your stomach, but for some might be a serious commitment that goes beyond feeling, and some might have a completely different ideas about love. That is why it is so important to truly understand each other’s definition of love before we say that we love that person.

Same thing with God. Do we really understand what God means with love? Because if our version of love is different with God’s version of love, then it means that either we have been loving God in such a low standard or worse, we have been loving Him in a wrong way because of the mislead paradigms.

Jesus truly questions Simon Peter in His appearances to His disciples after the resurrection. Jesus asked Simon Peter 3 times in a row with very similar questions but not the same. The questions translated in English will be all the same, “Simon son of John, Do you truly love me?”. But notice that the first two questions and the last question were actually different based on the Greek translation.

There are 2 Greek words of “love” is used here. For the first two questions, the word “love” that is used is agapao – which speaks of an intelligent, thoughtful, and purposeful love involving the entire personality, but primarily a decision of the mind and the will.

For the third question, the word “love” that is used is phileo – which speaks of a warm, natural and more spontaneous sense of feeling and affection – a more emotional love.

From this verses, we learn that God has 2 expectations when we say that we truly love Him. The first expectations , or God’s paradigm of love, is that we love Him wholeheartedly based on our minds’ decisions and our constant will and action to prove it. It means that loving God is a conscious commitments that we have to make, conscious decisions everyday that we love Him by doing His commandments. To like what He likes and to hate what He hates.

However, making these conscious decision and commitment to love Him is only halfway right. Notice that Jesus asked Peter, whether Peter truly love Jesus in a more emotional love (phileo). A love that is full of tingling sensation, butterflies in our stomach. A love that is full of passion and warm feelings.

A complete understanding of love according to God is a love that consist of agapao and phileo. Many God’s children stuck in the zone where they say that they love God, they make the conscious decisions to follow Him, but hardly, or even never felt a passionate kind of love with God. Or perhaps, some of us might have the burning passion to love God, but hardly ever have the unshakeable commitments to follow and obey His commandments. God wants us to have and experience both kind of love – agapao and phileo EVERYTIME.  

This is our journey in loving God wholeheartedly. Knowing that these two kinds of love (agapeo and phileo) must exist in our love to God then, it is our job and duty as God’s children to pursue God not only with our conscious decisions but with passionate love as well, so that we can truly say, God I do truly love you!    -JH-

Seize the Kairos! - Formula for a Satisfied Life

The Formula for a Satisfied Life

Proverbs 13:12 - "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

The Bible teaches us the simple, yet powerful formula for Satisfaction and Unsatisfaction in life. 

Everyone has what its called hope or longing. Hope or longing in a general term is Expectation.

According to the verse above, we can conclude that the formula for having a satisfied life in general is Expectation equals to Reality (E=R).

When "hope deferred", which means that, the reality of life does not equal to the hope (expectation) that we have, thus the Bible says that "it makes the heart sick". Heart is the source of life. When our heart sick, it means that we are in great distress.

However, when "a longing fulfilled", which means that, the reality of life equals to the expectation that we have, the Bible says that it "is a tree of life". A tree of life portrays comfort, certainty, growth, fruitful, and life, which all leads to great satisfaction.

By understanding this formula of a satisfied life from the Bible, we can learn some important things.

When we feel that we are unsatisfied with our lifes, we have 2 options. First, we change our reality by being proactive in repenting to God and ask for His help to be committed in making real changes in life, or we change our ultimate expectation about our life. 

Many of us have expectations in life built based on our dreams, goals, values, beliefs that have been in our mind for sometime. In fact, the Bible teaches us that the ways we live and think have been inherited from our ancestors. That is why the second option is to renew our minds daily with the Word of God, so that eventually, with time and process, we start to adopt the new expectation that is not from this world, but from His perspectives - the Word of God.

Because if we think about it, it is as simple as what the Word of God teaches us: the Formula of a Satisfied Life is Expectations equal Reality (E=R).

-JH-

Seize the Kairos! - Did You Get It?

Seize the Kairos! - Did You Get it?

Matthew 13 talks about the 7 parables: the Sower, the Weeds, the Mustard Seed, the Yeast, the Hidden Treasure, the Pearl, and the Net.

These parables were shared by Jesus in sequence by purpose starts from the parable of the Sower, all the way to the parable of the Net.

These parables are connected to one another to give the complete picture, explaining the essence of the Kingdom of God that only those whose eyes and ears have been touched, will be able to fully understand and grasp the significance of these secrets of the Kingdom of God.  "But blesses are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear" ( Mat 13:16)

These parables seems pretty straight forward, however, the Bible strongly remind us, "...many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. " (Mat 13:17)

How come the teachings (the essence of the Kingdom of God) implied from the parables were not being able to be grasp, even by prophets and righteous men? Prophets and righteous men means that these are the people that live for Christ and in fact, shows commitment to live righteous for Him, but at the end, they are not able to truly grasp the essence of the Kingdom of God.

The above dilemma showed that we have to be very serious about our commitment and our faith to Jesus. Many might have shown great level of commitments, but in the end, they still can not see the essence of the Kingdom of God. It means that we have to really ask God to truly search our hearts, to help us understand what we need to do, what we need to change from our ways of thoughts and life. Because committed itself is not enough. We have to be truly prepared to really give up everything and live for Jesus and His Kingdom only (Mat 13: 44-46).

Can we truly say that we love Jesus wholeheartedly when everything in our life is being stripped down? Let's Be Ready and Be Prepared for 2015. It is no longer about us and our needs...but It is about Jesus and His Kingdom. Let us have the mentality of Job, when everything else fails us and we no longer have any reason to trust Jesus, we would still love Him wholeheartedly. And when we have this kind of intimacy level, the essence of the Kingdom of God will be embedded in our life and we will thoroughly understand the death and the rise of Christ. 

-JH-

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-