Humility

Humility is something that we should aspire to. People has a positive image of someone who is humble in comparison to an arrogant person. But what is humility really? I have been thinking and struggling with this myself lately, as I fall a lot in the sin of pride and arrogance. The bible says that God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6b). The first sin and the fall of satan were primarily because of pride, wanted to be equal with God. One preacher even said that pride is demonic and it must not reside in the heart of God's children.

In the course of human history, we often heard people say that someone is humble. Many world leaders are great because even though they are capable of doing something great and full of talents such as leading a nation or military soldiers, but they are also humble and considerate of others at the same time.

First of all, I want to think from human point of view of what humility is. Human can lower himself/herself because of the following reasons:

1. Self-pity: the person has no talent, so there is nothing to boast about in his/her life. No matter what circumstances he/she is in, this person is "Minder"towards others. (self-pitying himself)
2. Circumstances: the circumstances do not allow the person to think highly of himself. For example, the person may be among a group of people who are way above him/her in terms of social status, economic condition, expertise, educational background, experiences, etc. Another case is the person is forced to humble himself by law/circumstances.
3. Self-willing because of his/her love and respect for other human being. An example of this is that a father is willing to beg just for the family to have food on the table
4. Self-willing because of his/her love and respect for God. An example of this is Jesus and the prophets in the Old Testament who are willing to give everything to do God's will.

A person who does (1), (2) cannot be considered humble at all. (3) has merit because the person did it for other people and not himself/forced to do so. (4) has the highest merit because it is not for self-gain and it is done because of his/her love for her Creator, who is the very reason of why he/she lives.

Looking at the bible, I can't help to acknowledge that Jesus is our most humble God and human being at the same time. Jesus teaches about humility in (Luke 14:7-14). He gave an example on how a person who exalts himself will be humbled, yet a person who humbles himself will be exalted. Funny enough, Jesus did not just teach, but with integrity Jesus also did the same thing. The verse in Philippians struck me hard on how Jesus actually humbled Himself so much that God exalted Him above all names in heaven and under the earth. (Philippians 2:5-11). To me this is the fulfillment of what He taught earlier in Luke 14.

So going back to the definition of humility, is humility equal to

1. Not acknowledging what we have in life and always look at others as more highly than ourselves or
2. Acknowledging that God is the giver of what we have in life?

I supposed it is very clear that normal people will choose the later. After all, Jesus acknowledged Himself as God in front of His disciples and Pontius Pilate, Cayaphas, etc. He did not hide the fact that He was God plus the first seemed like self-pity if we look at it closely.

But I just can't help to think of the Word in Philipians which says that Jesus emptied Himself. According to the bible, it means that Jesus, being in the very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied Himself and take form of a servant (which is the total opposite of God), humbled Himself until He died on the cross. And that's why God the Father exalts Him so much and He is forever to be praised, Amen. So in this case, Jesus because of His obedience to God, did all of that. It's amazing. So to me, humility may mean that times that because of our obedience to God, God wants us to lower ourselves, social status, and doing God's Will. Even though we are great and able to do lots of things, sometimes because of God's will, we need to humble ourselves and let go of all those self-attributes, self-righteousness to do His will.

Letting go of what we are/have at times because of our love for God is not equal to self-pity. I believe that's true humility!!!

In less than 6 months, God-willing I'll be married. I humbly ask God that Me and nonik will grow in humility towards each other.

Youth vs. Oldies

Hello, haven't updated this blog for a while. But glad to finally have the time to do so... :)

I accidentally thought about the above topic through the circumstances that I am in at the moment. I guess my Lord Jesus has been gracious to me ... Always at the right time he gave His Word when I need it ...

This topic (as most topic) has two sides of the coin.
- Young people thinks that they know better and thinks their older parents as old-fashioned
- Older generation don't want to listen to anybody even though they are clearly wrong

I always struggle about this myself. Just to give an example, my parents are not Christian and me being still relatively young (and dangerous ^o^) and claiming to 'know' the Word of God (even though I don't really know that much either) makes me reluctant to respect their advices and opinions. To be fair to myself, some of their advices really don't fit into what the bible says. Well, how did (should) I deal with the situation?

This is not just about my relationship with my parents. Sometimes at church I feel that I know better in terms of how to act, what to say than some of my older brothers/sisters in Christ. I don't deny that older men/women have a lot more experiences than me in life, but I can't help to feel that they need to behave to a higher level of Christian behaviors to gain respect from me ... Sinful am I not?

Recently I prayed about it while feeling pain and struggle inside me. My gracious God reminded me of
1 Timothy 4:12
12Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity.
And then Paul continued with how Timothy should treat older generation
1 Timothy 5:1
1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity

Thank God for His Word. I believe it is the Holy Spirit that reminded me how I should behave as young people. The Word of God commands again and again to respect our parents, even if they are in the wrong. There must be a reason for it and we young people need to trust that!!!

Rather than judging on how our parents/older generation should behave, we (young people) should SET AN EXAMPLE WHILE GIVING THEM RESPECT THAT THEY DESERVE. Easy? not really ... My human inclination is always to judge, fight back when I see something wrong ... Once or twice I can still accept it, but if I 'judge' that he/she doesn't repent from it and his/her heart is not aware that (s)he is wrong, I'll start thinking how and what to say if that person is doing it again (especially if (s)he is doing it to me). I am thinking to even use the Word of God to counter him/her if (s)he is a christian.... very ashamed of myself.

Here are some practical advise if such situation arise:
1. Pray to God and ask him for patience ... *Looking at Jesus usually helps*
2. NEVER talk back impolitely or losing yourself in front of them. *Shut our mouth (even though it hurts a lot) usually helps*
3. SET our hearts to be committed to be more godly and set good examples to them.
4. Talk to them at the later times about our feelings. *This is very important as I find it very useful to do this with my parents lately. It feels good when they finally understand how you feel. I find it useful for them to know my heart as a Christian, what my priorities are, how I treat God, how I treat them, my difficulties in communicating with my parents, my hope for our family, my prayer for them, etc. Sharing my feelings with parents (even though just for a few hours) has much much much larger impact rather than spending time with them without this quality time and sometimes this is not easy for guys*

I hope this entry can be a blessing to us all ... Until then!!

Pohon Jati Diri

Pohon Jati di tengah taman bebungaan
Berdiri tegap kebingungan
Dimanakah buah diri-diri gerangan
Tidak ditemukan di pekarangan

Dimanakah jati sejati
Sudah bertahunan diri rekat berjati
Rekat dekat menyentuh daging
Dipelihara bagai buah kirmizi

Pohon jati kembali mencari diri-diri
Daunnya merambah rambah kanan kiri
Akar merasuk menembus tanah alami
Serat kayu melandau landau seakan tak pernah berhenti
Terus dan terus mencari

Diri pun sadar dan menangis
Tanpa Jati diri tak dapat berdiri
Oh Indahnya dunia taman bebungaan asri
Disaat pertemuan jati diri

2 things to do

1. To be more patient and humble ... especially when I feel threatened by something or someone
2. To be more pro-active in gospel sharing to my family and friends

Relationship stuffs

This is just a quick entry ...

In a relationship, how can we know if our bf/gf is the one from God for us to marry? It's a hard thing to answer, because I can never give an answer that is definite she is the one 100% ... After all, who can fathom the mind of God?

What I learned this past couple of days/weeks/months/years is that God has a plan for each of His children ... And His plan is always a plan to prosper (spiritual prosperity) and not to harm ... Whatever challenges ahead of us, they are there because God allows them to be there ....

What we should do in a relationship when this question arises are

1. To surrender our life (relationship, plans) to God daily ... Asking for His will be done and to block the way if it's not His will ...
2. Keep working hard in the relationship itself and not slacking off ...

Back to the topic, my experience with my past is the same. Like any other normal guy, I had crushes on (Christian) girls. There are 3 cases in my observation:

Case 1:
The girl is not interested ... ^_^

Case 2:
In some cases, I changed my mind about the girl because I saw some characters/incompatibility that I can't bear if she would become my wife... This, I consider as God working in my life and an indication that I shouldn't go into a deeper relationship with that person no matter how much I like that person (after all there are no coincidences in His children's life)

Case 3:
But in some other cases, I didn't see anything that would cause me not continue pursuing the girl (she is in a ministry, not lazy, love God, good communication, bla bla bla) ... Of course she has bad characters as well, but those are not the show-stoppers ... Still God blocked my way somehow (time, activities, future plans, other guy, etc) ... I guess this is also God working in my life, guiding me not to go into a deeper relationship with that person ....

In the three cases above, I was serious in looking for potential gf .. but God somehow blocked my way ... It is no different when I am in a relationship ... God can open the door or close it ...

Many people especially in Chinese new year wants to know his/her luck in the new year. As a Christian, we are lucky to have a God that guides our walk daily.

YES, it is important to know God's will ...
God's plan will be revealed to us at the right time ....
BUT all the more important is whether we accept God's plan/will when it comes and say Your will be done!