www.tesbakatindonesia.com - YOUR LIFE PURPOSE

www.tesbakatindonesia.com

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-