Learning to put God first

Matthew 6:20-34

20But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

22"The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. 23But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!

24"No one 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.

Do Not Worry

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life^[a]?

28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

It is hard to put all things that happen to life in the perspective of God's kingdom ... At least for me, it is difficult ... why? Because I keep forgetting God in all other things that is happening in my life. As hard as I try to remember God, I failed ....

- If I work, I should think of focusing on how the gospel and Jesus can be glorified to my work instead of focusing on enhancing my career or other little things at work

- If I am in a relationship, I should focus more on how to honor God through this relationship by honoring and loving my girlfriend

- If I invest, I should do it in a light of providing for myself, my future family, and the work of the gospel in the place where God wants me to be

- If I invest in property, I should do it in a light of providing the shelter and security for my future family so they too can bring glory to God in the end

- If I engage my work friends or friends in general, I should be focusing more on how to bring them to know Jesus and the gospel lovingly and respectfully, rather than focusing solely on having fun with them and chat about general life conditions

- If I am doing ministry at church, I should focus more on serving others and God, not my own pride

Well, it is hard for me!! But will try to always remind myself in the process of this life!!

ENGAGE - conference

Just wanna share a bit about ENGAGE conference that I attended lately ... I guess I am not gonna share the summary of the kotbah, but I will try to share the Word of God that struck me during the conference ...

OK, a little background about ENGAGE ... ENGAGE is one of the conference ran by Katoomba Christian Center by evangelical churches which is intended for young professional ... I went there last week and there were about 1000+ people gathered in mount Katoomba, Sydney ... It's always amazing to see God's people gathering together to hear God's Word and sing praises to His name !!! Always Good!!

Well, let me share what struck me there ... I guess I will remember ENGAGE as a reminder to self about my love for my Lord Jesus ... A reminder to love Him like when I first became a Christian ... I can't say that I forgot to pray or have a quiet time everyday, but my passion for God has become eroded by all the other things in life, like work, church activities, social activities, relationship, investment, etc ... One example would be, I forgot to spend enough time in my prayer to adore God and say that I LOVE GOD in my prayer .... or another example would be during praise and worship at church ... Kalo dulu I can be very easily moved by church songs yang mengena to my situation, but now kayaknya jarang juga due to always busy playing music, etc ....

I guess it is a reminder that God's command is to LOVE God with all my heart, mind and soul and to love others like myself ... I cried to God during the conference and prayed that God kept guarding my heart to keep loving Him and others ... and not to lose focus on that ...

One of the speaker said something like: "If after this conference, your love for God has grown and grown and grown, than I would consider this conference to be a successful one" ... I guess it's true that our knowledge of the Word of God will only become knowledge when we don't love God and adore Him in all our ways ... We need to love God first and I believe the Holy Spirit will teach us about the scripture in His own unique way ... But loving God must be a priority ...

So friends, hope this can be a good reminder for us too ...!!

Random thought!

This is just a random thought OK ...

I was just thinking the other day:

Why is it that a church, that is supposed to be a place where sinful people who have been saved by God - encourage each other, forgive each other turn out to be a place where people is expected to be so holy and never make any mistake? Plus if we hear someone at church has fallen into sin (say sexual sin, and it was purely accidental and not intentional), we tend to judge him/her and talk behind his/her back, menjauh dari dia, etc?

This is just one of the irony that came up to my attention about the church! Aren't we (including myself) becoming more like a pharisee if we do that?

UpDATe - work

It's been a long time since my last update ...

Well, let me share about my work and what I do lately ... This sharing is in no way intended to boast about myself, but it's just purely a sharing and thanking God for His provision in my life ...

Work has been good ... thank God ... I have moved from ELAW (the only workplace in my entire working life that I didn't like very much) to CISCO ... Yayyy!!! I had to admit, it was very risky to move out of COIN software to ELAW in the first place ... I was considering to move purely due to the consideration of myself being "underpaid" ... I had to admit that ... and since the job market was very very very very good as well, I thought why not try to look around ... After all, given that in Australia people is entitled to be paid according to their skills, I saw nothing wrong in looking for a job just to get a pay that is close to what market is offering at the time!

It didn't turn out well at ELAW and I wanted to get out of there starting from the first week ... *so ashamed of myself* ... And then I looked for a job again ... Thank God that I got this job at Cisco ... I wasn't looking for an analyst/project coordinator role, but somehow God gave it to me *all things come from God* ... It was very much a surprise that I was offered this position even though 95% of the application that I sent was for .NET programmer role ... I was starting a bit desperate and really look up to God to give me a job ... I thought, it should be easy for me to move out of ELAW (due to my arrogance), but God somehow allow a lot of rejections happened to my job interviews ... I was starting to feel a bit hopeless after a few months at ELAW and all the frustration in the job that I did there ....

But thank Goddddd banget! .. I got a job at Cisco ... It's like a gift dari langit ... Better still, this job requires ZERO coding, which I really like ... So far so good at Cisco and praying that it will continue this way!

Good lessons learned ...
1. Always depend on God for everything ....
2. Acknowledge Him in all my decision making ....
3. Focus on His kingdom and righteousness rather than unimportant stuffs in this world ...

Question??? :)

What is the ideal number for a guy and a girl in a relationship say "I love u" in a day, a week, a month?
- Once a day?
- Once a week?
- Once a month?
- More?
- Less?

This question assume that the guy/girl really mean what they say ... *ga gombal*

Encouragement

I was encouraged by one thing that I saw at church ... I saw one of pension elder who went to church last Sunday where he had to use a tool to support his movement, but still faithfully come to Sunday morning service to worship God ....

I saw that every week, but it only strike me last week that that elder has been faithful for so many years and he is still going strong .... It reminds me how important it is to love God with all my heart until I am old, until death ....

"It's always good to start strong, but more importantly to finish as strong as we can be"

Death and suffering (in theory and practice)

Lately, I feel death and suffering are close to the people and friends around me ... Late last week, a friend of mine said that her grandma has passed away ... Just a few days ago, a good friend of mine had an accident ... quite severe one ...

It made me ponder on the question of death and suffering ...

• Well, in theory I know that God can not be blamed for the suffering that happens in this world .... Who are we to say to God the creator of heaven and earth that He doesn't know what He is doing in this world? God is God and He can do whatever He pleases according to His perfect and good will .... It is probably no coincidence that I have just finished the book of Job where suffering is so imminent in Job's life ... and the book talks about Job's suffering from God's perspective, Job's perspective and his friends' perspective ... How Job question God and how God answer him in the end ...
• In theory, I know that God's ultimate plan is for people to be saved ... it is a good and perfect plan ...
• In theory, I know that God will one day remove all the sufferings in this world
• In theory, I know that suffering happen to both Christians and non-Christians in this fallen world ... What differentiate Christian from non-Christian is Christians trust that God knows what He is doing and Christians also hope of eternal life where God will remove all suffering
• In theory, I know that God understand our pain and suffering because Jesus himself suffered on the cross ... and God does not just understand, but He helps us in our suffering and strengthen our faith in Him as well ...
  
• In theory, I also know that God can use suffering and pain to make us more like Jesus ...

Those things above are all theoretical knowledge until you really experience the PAIN .... You can talk all you want about theological answer, but unless you experience the pain like Jesus did, you can't fully understand about the topic ... I do not deny that knowledge is important regardless of whether you are facing difficulties or not, but that will become REAL when painful thing and life difficulties start to HIT us right on our face ....

With regards to what happen to my friends, I don't know the answer to all their life's problem ... Only God does .... What I know is God demands total surrender and reliance on His promises that one day He will remove all sufferings in this world ....

My prayer is that my friend (and myself) can stay faithful until the end and through everything that is happening now and God's plan is revealed fully in our lives ...

Dukaku, tempat kudusMu

Lagi baca buku with judul like the title diatas ... Baru seperempat sih, tapi menarik juga ... It says that waktu kita berduka, kita bisa bertemu Tuhan disana and can learn to re-dedicate our life to Him ... Waktu ancaman bertubi2 datang, kesukaran, kesulitan kita tau bahwa Allah hadir and mengerti ... ga cuman mengerti tapi menolong dan melepaskan kita ... eventually God will remove all kesusahan di dunia ini when Jesus came back again to those who love God ....

John 16:33

33"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Rumah baru!! and lama ...

It's still pretty much a mess ... I am trying to beres2 and hopefully bakalan beres sometime this week ... The worry now is ada banyak maling di Kingsford .... Anak2 North Sydney cerita about maling2 yg masuk ke rumah temen2 kita di waktu2 dulu ... It scared me a bit, especially our unit is just on level 1 ... It won't be too hard for a person to jump into the balcony and steal something ... We decided to get a new key in order to make the house more secure ... Hopefully ga ada maling masuk .. It's a bit scary now that I think about it ....

About rumah lama, today was the inspection day from the owner and the agent ... One problem: karpet di deket jendela rusak karena kebocoran air ... Kita sudah lapor awal2 twice or three times tapi agentnya ga respond ... In the end sekarang karpetnya rusak dan ga bisa dipake lagi and harus diganti ... I can understand that the owner is upset and minta diganti, but I explained the situation and in the end they took $250 from our bond money for cleaning purpose only ... I think that is fair given that we lacked in cleaning the house ... Ya sekarang udah lega lah ..

All in all, God's providence is very real in my life ... Just have to keep persevering and menguatkan kepercayaan to my God ...

Not good enough!

Susah banget rasanya untuk ga bikin salah .... The more I talk, the more I make mistakes ...

Psalm 141:3
Set a guard over my mouth, O LORD; keep watch over the door of my lips.

Thank the Lord!

Fiuhhhh ... Legaaaaaaaaaa .... setelah berminggu2 worried karena ga dapet2 rumah akhirnya we can move into the new place this weekend ...

The problem went into the surface when 3 weeks ago the property agent told me that the owner of my current place wanted to use the property and I have to move out as soon as possible ... I was told by a friend that I can have 2 months by law ... Being the confident me, I proposed to move out in 5 weeks ... I thought 5 weeks should be plenty of time to find a house ... After all, I found a place in 2 days before ....

It turned out that it is not so easy to find a property owner that wants to accept 4 guys in 2 bedroom apartment/townhouse ... Our applications got rejected and sometimes due to our busy schedules we missed the deadlines of submitting the applications ... Moreover, I miscalculated the fact that I need to have at least a buffer of 1 week of signing the contract and arranging the move itself and since finding the rent is so hard these days in sydney, it was so so so so tough !!! We also had lots of requirements, such as we wanted to pay around $350 pw and it must be in either Kingsford (1st priority), Maroubra, or Randwick ... If the property is a bit far from the main junction, we did not consider it straight away ...

It was so frustrating that some friends at church were afraid to see my tensed face .... I could not hide the fact that I am thinking about where I am going to live in the next 2 weeks ...

I cried out to God ... God please help!! Maybe I was too proud, saying that I could find the property without Him ... But only during the times when I had no choice but surrendering to Him, I learnt what it meant to trust Him fully .... I mean fully!! That does not mean that I didn't do anything ... I did my research every night, and called the agents during the day arranging for inspections ... I ran around here and there to inspect the property and filled in a tedious application forms ... It was so much trouble ... But I did surrender to my God at the same time .... because I know it is pretty hard to find a property that we want ....

During these times, I felt so blessed to have a family in Christ and many good friends ... I asked almost all of my friends for help!! and so many of my them offered me help .... Ada yg mau pinjemin garage nya, many sent emails to friends regarding my situation and asking if there is anyone interested in a room around eastern suburb area ... Ada yg just bantuin inspect the house because I could not make it for I had pelayanan on that hour ... My flatmates and my bro banyak bantuin juga, even though mrk pada sibuk assignment and exam ... Terharu sih !! Thank u friends!! I am grateful banget nget nget ....

Yesterday, the four of us at home prayed asking God for guidance ... Initially, we decided to take the house nearby, but we need one more person to fill in one of the room ... We made that decision because we thought we need to secure the place first and felt that finding the person to fill in the room should be easier than finding a place to rent ... But suddenly, this morning I got a phone call from one of the agent that I should send a deposit and sign the contract tomorrow morning ... It was a big big relief ... I thanked God straight away for His providence ....

Lastly, I just wanna say that my God is Jehovah Jireh, He provides the need of His children according to His riches and glory, especially spiritual needs .... !

Cari rumah susah banget

A bit frustrated nih cari2 rumah ... Udah mepet banget and we don't even have one accepted application ... The ones yg available is either too expensive atau 3 bedrooms (we only want two bedrooms) ...

So at the moment I am a bit worried, tapi not too worry juga ... Setelah dipikir2 ga ada gunanya worry juga .. Yg penting do our best and trust in God la ... Malah kalo kepepet gini, I learn to rely on God and realize my own limitation ... I also learn to trust others and be patient with them (my flatmates) because kadang mrk not doing according to my expectation (apply rumah telat sehari and keduluan orang, etc) ... I also learn to battle my pride of asking my friends for help ... I am the kind of person yg rada independent and it's very hard for me especially kalo ga deket banget minta tolong ke temen buat hal2 ginian ... gengsi kali yah ... but during these times I learnt to rely on my brother and sister in Christ as well ...

Oh well, two weeks to go ... kalo ga dapet homeless deh *huhuhu* ...

A blessing!

Coogee Beach - ^o^

Akhirnya blogku diupdate!

It's been a while my bloggggggg ... There is so much happening since last time I updated my blog ...Don't know where to start ... I feel like there are so many things happening and I don't know where to start ... I feel lazy updating my blog as well because there are many things happening, but if I don't do that there are even more things happening and I will never update this blog again .. huh ... *kayak lingkaran setan kata orang indo* ... ^^

Anyway, during these few months there is one at least one blessing that I receive ... and "that is" or lebih tepatnya "she is" Azaria .. ^^ .. We started courtship in April and pray that this relationship can truly bring glory to God ... Don't know what's going to happen in the future, but I guess both of us surrender our relationship to God ... He is in control la ... and whatever happen I am hoping we can grow together through this courtship ... Please pray for us!!

I just got a new job *again* ... The reason why I move is because I don't really like the work environment in my current place ... 4 developers resigned last month and we definitely shared a common view that my current work place is not suitable for developers ... I will move to North Sydney for the new job ... I will miss hunter connection food *cheapest in city* but I can't wait to try the beef laksa at Northpoint ... hahaha ... Thank God for the new job !!

I need to find a place to rent soon .. The owner of my current house wants to use the property and we have to move out soon by 9 June ... I haven't got any confirmation yet regarding the rent ... Please pray that I can have a place by 9 june ... Otherwise homeless deh .. huhuhuhu ...

My mum is very sick ... She had tipus + demam berdarah at the same time and has to be hospitalized ... Kaget banget and kuatir, but I realized ga bisa ngapa2in juga ... Can only call her and pray to God ... Please pray for her as well, especially biar dia and papa bisa kenal Tuhan ...

Bible study was cancelled again last Wednesday .. huhuhu ... si alfred datengnya telat, si ting2 and rio ga bisa dateng .. si wendy and me bible study sendiri juga ga possible ... kita group paling telat deh ... haha ... yg lain udah at least selesai chapter 3 ... we are still at chp 2 ... *matenggg* ... Tapi ga mau ngebut2 juga sih ... hopefully we can finish well ... yg paling penting ya melakukan firman Tuhan nya ... bukan cepet2an ..

Been reading a book called "Merupa hidup dalam RupaNya" ... bagusssssss, menempelak sekali ... recommended!!!!! .. It's like kumpulan kotbah2 yg bisa digabungin jadi satu ... ada bbrp theme: Berhala (memakai Tuhan untuk kepentinganku), Cara Tuhan (balas kejahatan dengan kebaikan), etc ... Ask me if you want to borrow!! Bukunya dikasih si Azar and dia ada 3 copy?? hehe .. kurang banyak !!

Hmmmm .... I guess that's about it for now ... There are so many other things that happened in my life these past month ... ada yg sedih, senang, menyebalkan, membuat kuatir, exciting, boring, melatih kesabaran, etc ... I guess ga bisa ditulis semua, but I am thankful because through all these I believe God works in me and others .... I know I am slow to trust and have faith .. Maybe I also need to love more and there are some areas in my heart that need to be changed ... and God is patient with me! hehehe .. So I'll be patient too ...

Lastly, I just want to remind myself about what I've learnt in Holland ... that is to die for self and live for Christ ... Kesibukan and activities kadang bikin me lupa about this truth, focussing on myself, my achievement, my problems and jadi self-centred and sombong rather than on focusing on God ... uhuhuhu .. Please pray for me!!!

Blessed man!

Psalm 112

1^[a] Praise the LORD. ^[b]
Blessed is the man who fears the LORD,
who finds great delight in his commands.

2 His children will be mighty in the land;
the generation of the upright will be blessed.

3 Wealth and riches are in his house,
and his righteousness endures forever.

4 Even in darkness light dawns for the upright,
for the gracious and compassionate and righteous man. ^[c]

5 Good will come to him who is generous and lends freely,
who conducts his affairs with justice.

6 Surely he will never be shaken;
a righteous man will be remembered forever.

7 He will have no fear of bad news;
his heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

8 His heart is secure, he will have no fear;
in the end he will look in triumph on his foes.

9 He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor,
his righteousness endures forever;
his horn ^[d] will be lifted high in honor.

10 The wicked man will see and be vexed,
he will gnash his teeth and waste away;
the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.

Besok si Jun dibaptis! ^^

Can't thank God enough for His grace ... I was shocked because I thought he was not yet ready and Om Joe suddenly told me that my bro is going to be baptized on easter ... I know that he joined kelas katekisasi, and told him kalo belum ready ga perlu dibaptis gpp ... yg penting terima Tuhan dulu secara sungguh2 ... That's what i told him, because in my eye he is not yet ready ....

After knowing that from Om Joe, I was really worried ... I was worried that he might feel pressured to be baptized by Om Joni ... I certainly did not or never put any pressure on him *tried my best not to* .. I then shared a little bit about christianity with him and asked him questions as well as showing him the passage from Luke 14: the cost of a disciple and a few more passages (John 3) .. Then I asked him, after knowing all this, do you really still want to follow Christ? He said "Yes" ... Dia bilang: "I am tired ga ada pegangan and gua percaya kalo Yesus itu ada and mati buat dosa gua gitu lah .. Lagian gua udah ngerasa cocok ama christianity .. Gua ga mau follow institutionnya, tapi gua mau ikut Tuhannya" ...

And then we prayed a little prayer ... After that, barulah gua sedikit tenang ... Right now, I want to learn to put my trust in not what I see, but what God is working in my family .... Pls pray for us!! Happy easter everyone ...

Awesome God

Just wanna give thanks for all of his blessings and reminders during my quiet time these days ... Been reading the first 5 books of the bible and almost reach the end now (Deuteronomy) ... I can see the big picture on the work of God in Israel at that time ..

1. God, having loved Israel so much, have chosen them not because of their own beauty and strength, but because of God's GRACIA alone.
2. God's plan is way way way above our plans ..
• Why would Joseph had to endure so much in Egypt, being thrown away by his brothers but eventually reigned as the ruler of Egypt?
• Who would have thought that God chose to put Israel under slavery in Egypt?
• Who would have thought that God delivered Israel in such a mighty way?
• Who would have thought that God led Israel to wander around the dessert for forty years instead of going straight to the Canaan land?
• Who would have thought that God is able to take care of Israel in the dessert, fed them, blessed them with riches, not even their shoes wore off?
• Which nation in the world ever had their God presence among them and fight with them?
  
• etc
  
3. Many times, Israel was unfaithful to God ... But God is faithful and He disciplines Israel as Father disciplined His child ...
   
4. God desires perfect obedience from Israel ...
5. God in His grace provides a way for Israel to come to Him through sacrificial system
6. God desires Israel's love first and foremost towards Him
7. It is always God's intention that through Israel, all other nations know that there is a GOD in Israel ... and all nations ought to worship this GOD
8. I feel God led Israel through the dessert and tested them to teach them to FULLY DEPEND on Him in any circumstance ... God desires full trust and dependence from Israel ... After all, he is dependable ..
   

The only thing I can say through all that I've read that God is awesome ... He is truly awesome ... and I am glad that this God is my God ... feel really blessed !!

sin

Gua banyak banget dosa akhir2 ini ...

1. Bbrp kali bilang sesuatu yg ga seharusnya gua bilang about something .... But I guess it actually reflects the state of my heart yg sinful banget ...
   
2. Bbrp kali gua lied about some matters .... Hal kecil sih, tapi still ....
   
3. Ga bisa focus to pelayanan .... Terlalu mikirin hal2 lain yg kecil2 and ga significant .... Gua ga yakin in this state if leading a bible study would be good for myself and my member ... But again, siapa sih bible study leader yg sempurna?
4. and masih banyak lagi ...
   

Please pray for me!

5th week in Sydney

Colosians 3:15 - 17: Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Ga kerasa, next week udah my 5th week di Sydney ... Well, kalo jet lag sih udah ga lagi, but a lot of things are already happening this year ...

Firstly, I am moving job (again) to software company in law industry ... I am excited about the opportunity and will hopefully grow more through this job ...

Secondly, my bro's gf is coming to Sydney and she will be studying English for one year .... It will hopefully be a good time to share with her and also I want to introduce her to Christ ... It is not possible for her to come to IPC, except for night church .. but even then, her english is still very bad .... Maybe I will go to nearby Korean church with her and my bro ...

Thirdly, one of my best friend at uni Farris is getting married with Helen .... I am happy for him, even two of my other friends are coming from Indonesia just to attend the wedding .... Today, we had acara tuker2 bingkisan merah di rumah Helen and Farris ... It was very nice, simple, friendly and seneng lah ngobrol2 ... I was introduced to both families and the acara lasted until 4PM gitu ... Tugas gua hari ini adalah jadi tukang photo ... Minggu depan waktu di gereja and resepsi, bakalan bantu2in di penerima tamu, parkir, projector, etc ... hehe ... Btw, gereja yg bakal dipake buat pernikahan itu bagus banget sih ... Tempatnya di rosebay di sekolah High school helen ... Gerejanya reminds me of miniature gereja di Europe ... Very ideal and classic banget .... hmmmm ... Europeeeeeeeeeeee ....

Fourthly, I am joining bible study again and may possibly lead .... That's exciting, but I am unsure of many things ... One is time ... Second is place (I can't use my place to run bs) ... Third is members .... For this 2 weeks I can't join the preparation since Farris is getting married, but hopefully I can join soon ...

Fifthly, I just realize kalo orang indo yg gua bisa ajak ke gereja tuh udah limited banget .... Kebanyakan org indo yg gua kenal udah ga anak uni lagi ... Di tempat kerja ada bbrp sih, tapi kebanyakan dari mrk udah Catholic atau udah tau kalo mrk Buddhist sih ... Kalo udah tau Buddhist, kadang rada sungkan mau ajak ... Catholic, biasanya ga mau ... Tapi pikir2 ga ada sungkan2 kali ya .... Firm aja, tapi sopan ... :) ..

Sixthly, This Wednesday bakal ada reunian ama anak2 exchange ... I am looking forward to see my friends again, terutama yg dari Sydney .... Gimana ya kabar mrk? hmmm

Seventhly, My friend B just accidently admit to me that he likes someone .... haha .... lucu abis ... gara2nya gua made jokes between him ama one particular girl (F) for no reason ... cuman iseng aja ... Terus dia bilang ke gua privately kalo jangan digodain, ga enak ama cewenya ... Gua ga sadar maksudnya ... terus ya gua tanya ... ga enak kenapa? kan biasa gua make jokes ... Dia jelasin muter2 sampe akhirnya dengan polosnya dia bilang sih ... "Gua kan suka ama dia" ... Waktu itu gua langsung ngeh, but can't help buat ketawa ... Dia juga rada blush gitu, soalnya B pikir gua tau tentang itu ... hehehe ... ga sengaja jadi victim deh ....

Spiritually, I feel like I have not fully trusted my life to God .... Kayaknya feel guilty banget ... Ttg masalah pindah kerja, masalah keluarga, masalah ini dan itu .... Susah banget mau berdoa, concentrate baca alkitab kalo in the middle of these things .... Gimana yah ... kalo mau jujur, mestinya all of these ga seharusnya bikin kita ga trust God, apalagi kalo kita tau God is so powerful and holy and He is our Father ... Kayaknya the things that I am worried about is so insignificant juga ... I learnt dulu di Holland that as Christians, kita seharusnya udah mati in Christ and alive for Him ... Now this life we live is for His glory ... Jadi mau pindah kerja kek, mau do this and that kek, we fully put our lives in God's hands .... Jujur gua gagal for these past 5 weeks .... Kebanyakan worry and lose focus on the things that really matter ... Banyak kali gua ngomong hal2 yg salah dan berpikir ke arah yg salah juga .... Well, I know it's a bit vague, but please pray for me ... and other Christians who are struggling as well ....

Banyak banget yang dipikirin

Banyak banget yah yg harus gua pikirin dan kerjain .... di tempat kerja, di gereja, di indo, di rumah ... Cape banget kalo mikirin semua itu ... Yah, I guess one thing at a time ... Pls pray for me!!

The tense me

It's definitely a combination of many things that got me so tense these days ... I don't feel relax at all ... I realize it's probably the lack of trust and faith to God that make me like this ... I've been trying to remind myself to be cheerful and joyful in the Lord ... Giving thanks in everything ... do everything as I do for the Lord ... Live a good life among my friends so they see God in me ... But I guess I just fail to do that ... So many things to think about ... arghhhh ... can't concentrate on the prayer, reading the bible, etc ...

I want to go back to the old cheerful me .......... !!

The Bible and Astrology

Someone from Bondowoso tadi telephone me and asked if aku mau titip something dari indo ... Apparently ga cuman itu doank tapi dia also told me about my horoscope shio this year ...

Summary:
- Jangan spekulasi this year, soalnya tahunnya ga baik
- Kalau pindah kerja tahun ini bakal ada banyak kesulitan, salah satunya difitnah sama orang ...
It made me think and worried a bit, so I searched quickly about christianity and astrology ... Without being disrespectful, what is wrong must be said as wrong .. Please pray for me that God may show His power and His complete control over my life ...

Read:

Quoting from http://www.greatcom.org/resources/handbook_of_todays_religions/02chap01/default.htm

The Bible warns people against relying on astrologers and astrology:

You are wearied with your many counsels; let now the astrologers, those who prophesy by the stars, those who predict by the new moons, stand up and save you from what will come upon you. Behold, they have become like stubble, fire bums them; they cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame... there is none to save you (Isaiah 47: 13-15, NASB).

Other warnings can be found in such verses as Jeremiah 10:2: "Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of Heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them." Elsewhere, the Scripture says, "And beware, lest you lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them" (Deuteronomy 4:19, NASB).

The Book of Daniel gives us a comparison between the astrologers and those dedicated to the true and living God. Chapter 1:20 reveals that Daniel and his three friends would be ten times better in matters of wisdom and understanding than the astrologers because they served the living and true God rather than the stars. When the king had a dream, the astrologers could not give an explanation for it, but rather God alone had the answer, for it is only He who can reveal the future (see Daniel 2: 27, 28).

The Scriptures make it clear that any type of astrological practice is severely condemned by God, for it attempts to understand the future through occultic means rather than through God's divinely inspired Word. The fatalistic approach of astrology, which says our lives are determined by the stars, is contradicted by Scripture, which holds us responsible for our destiny. Astrology and Christianity are simply incompatible

my week (mingguku)

I've been blessed since I came to Sydney ... Here is how my week went:

• First week back to work was not that bad ... I love seeing my work friends back .. we even hang out together a lot during the week ... The bad thing is I don't feel like doing the work that I did before I went to Holland ... THat's just how I felt about it ... I don't feel like doing programming most of the time and I don't really know how I am going to deal with it at this point ... A little coding is fine, but I wanna get more involved in client relationship building or even sales ... The idea of sitting in front of computer 9-5 does not appeal that much to me now !!
  
• Rose invited us for BBQ for her farewell to Mexico (read: mehiko) .. That encouraged me to become a blessing to the people that I know now ... The challenge to evangelize was there and to live faithfully for Christ until the end ... Of course, It was also very nice to be surrounded by christian bros and sis and see how we have grown together these years ... God is faithful indeed!
• I am still thinking of what ministry I wanna do this year .. I see there are many opportunities at IPC where God could use me ... still praying about it atm ...
  
• Went out for the 1/2 day with Pemuda bro and sis last Friday, Saturday and full day on Sunday .. haha ... haven't been doing that for long time ... I enjoyed karaoke on Friday, Ben's thai on Saturday, and full day session on Sunday ... I had so much fun and some encouraging sharing with some people ... Really pray that Pemuda will be much closer and encouraging one another more with God's word and not just about fun!

THat was my week ... I guess I am blessed!! God is good indeed .... Tomorrow is another week and can't wait to see what's installed!

Ketekunan

Tadi pagi kotbahnya di gereja is about ketekunan in living in this world ..

Theme kotbah diambil dari James 1:2-4
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

I remember there are so many things that I need to be tekun and faithful in my life right now and I can't help drawing the parallel with some tokoh di Perjanjian lama ...

• I remember Abraham .. He waited so long for the promise son Isaac, stumbled along the way (married hagar his slave), but in the end God is the one that carry through His promise ...
  
• I remember Joseph and how he spent most of his life in hardship, waiting for God to deliver His promises through Joseph's dreams ..
  
• I remember Israel needs to wait 400 years before God delivered them from the land of Egypt ..
• I remember Moses who needed to wait another 40 years in the dessert before being called by God to save Israel from Egypt
• I remember David, who needs to wait until he was thirty before he was sworn as the king of Israel and was being chased hard by Saul and the Philistine, even though he was annointed by the prophet Nathan long before that ...
  
• I remember how Daniel need to wait for a number of years in Babel and live under the yoke of slavery and went through many trials that could cost him his life from young until OLD
  
• I remember Nabi Nuh, where he waited for several years to build the ark and he was faithful to the command of God
• Jesus himself needed to wait until he was 30 years old before he came up publicly and being baptized by John the baptist ..
  

Those events above were written in the bible for us to learn to trust God in whatever circumstances that we face now and supaya kita tekun in whatever the things that God has set before us to do ...

The good part is God is the one who is faithful and will carry us with His loving hands until the end ... !

Saat teduh

I am currently reading Exodus, and it is so relieving to see how powerful God delivered Israel from Egypt, especially when I see the world around me where God does not seem to be that powerful anymore .. Among uncertainties in life, all toil and hard labour, all hardships and problems, God is the only source of anchor in life ... Sometimes it is hard to always cling to Him, but I just have to remember that He is the one that holds my hand!

Israel was in a difficult situation .. for hundreds of years they lived under the yoke of slavery in Egypt ... The promise of deliverance from God through Moses did not make life easier, but worse .. Pharaoh made life even more miserable after Moses and Aaron talked to him .. Worse, it seemed like the miracles that Moses did can be copied by the dark arts of Egypt .. Can you imagine? The dark forces can change staff into snake, convert river into blood .. that is pretty powerful stuffs !!

It must be pretty hard for Israel to trust God at that time ... But those things in exodus were written for us as a lesson, so we learn how to trust God and encourage others to do so ...

In the end, God is God and He triumphed over those magicians and achieve His purpose .. and He is the only one that we can trust ... Eventually the miracles that God performed cannot be copied by Egyptians magicians and through that all nations know that there is a God in Israel .. !! Amin!

2007

I have just been back to Sydney for 1 week and I am glad that I have met with lots of my friends and bros and sis in Christ, even though I have to say goodbye to Kenny since he is going to Brisbane to work there.

My friends seem to be doing well while I was away, first of all, they seem healthy haha .. Some are undergoing a big change in their life ... I don't know how much I have changed while I am away for 5 months, but I am really looking forward to go through this year ...

I said this to one of my exchange friend that 2007 is going to be very challenging for me personally ... Knowing what I know so far and to be in the situation where I am in, I need to be brave and not afraid of making decisions and mistakes ... and especially I need God's presence and guidance ... !! What I need to keep in mind is life and God's plan is not all about me, but I am just one tiny thing in His big grand plan .. I need to learn to put my trust in this God more !! Maybe my faith will be tested a lot this year, I don't know! Please pray for me!

Btw, Happy new year everyone!! :)

My holiday

I was planning on writing about my holiday, but I guess it will be very long and I don't feel like writing too much at the moment ... So I will just put some pictures instead!!

Florence and Pisa

Berlin

Vienna

Rome

Verona

Venice

Milan

Lisbon

Madrid

Barcelona

Reflection(s)

As I pack my luggage, there are many thoughts that came into my mind .. I remembered everything that happened to me a few months before coming to Netherlands for exchange and all the memories in the Netherlands ... It was like flashy images rushing through my brain ... Like a big waterfall, those images swept through my inner being and my mind ...

What has happened to me?
What will happen after this?
Is this real?
Yes, it is ...

Haha, I guess I am thinking too much ... Now it feels like I am closing one chapter of my life and opening another ... It feels weird, strange, unsettling to be where I am right now, but at the same time it is joyful as well ... Please pray for me!

Back in rotterdam from the trip

I am now back in rotterdam from the trip .. Feeling grateful when I look back ... Now I am ready to go home ... The wind is so terrible here in Rotterdam and Europe ... I was literally blown away by the wind, the 100KG me!!! Can you believe it? ... I couldn't move a single step and was blown backward a few steps even after getting my stand in position ...

Now I just need some sleep, eat, wash my clothes, say goodbye to friends, close my account and off I go ... Hopefully the flight is not delayed because of bad weather ... !! See you soon Australia.

Stranded in Mullhouse

I was denied an entry to Switzerland yesterday and left stranded in a small area of France ... *dough* ... Now I need to change my holiday plan ... Not much time left until my last day in Europe ... Will tell a long story later about my holiday and my last 5 months in Europe ...