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-