Endurance

I don't have it yet, but.....
This morning sermon has nudged myself with these:
- Revelation 14:12, Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold on to the faithfulness of Jesus.
- James 1:4, But you must let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.

I was also reminded:
- To give thanks to God for the lungs, eyes, heart, ears, etc..etc.. that God has trusted me and for the breath that I still have.
- to be continued.....

1, 2, 3 are equal

I joined the first service today; it's 07.30 in the morning.

The preacher was a lady from Aussie who seems well known in the church-hood there. So, my today's breakfast was Matthew 25:14-30.
Here's the incomplete version of the sermon that I heard today that is very useful for me (myself….!! pleaseee..listen to me now!!):
- God knows my personal capacity
- He gave me talent in accordance with my personal capacity
- Eph 2:10, I was created for good works.
- No matter how many talent that I have or even only one, I must do my best to increase it or else I will have none.
- Destiny is about how I deal with the resources God has given to me.
- God set a beautiful destiny for me, it depends on me whether I get it or not.
- Faithful = Fruitful, means to be proactive, to multiply what God has given me and be a living proof of His words
- God has infinite resources and He is so generous, but first I must multiply my talents and then enlarge my personal capacity.

therefore........
1. I must identify my personal capacity
2. Manage the talent/s that God has given to me, if not, then why He wants to give more only for a mismanagement
3. Understand my limitation

then….
[she said] buy my books!
[the local pastor said] buy her books!

Vainglory

was on 28 September 2003

I decided to go to Church today, after feeling so reluctant at first. I went to a conservative church. Conservative, compared to today's roaring church here. This is my first time visit for this year, almost a year from my last visit there.

The reverend lady sermonized about Galatia 2:15-21

As usual I lost my concentration a lot of time at church. This time I was craving for potato chips and thinking about it almost constantly (later on I rushed to Carrefour for some potatoes and made yummy flavoured chips and eat them with my favourite chilli sauce! hmmm…). So, I felt lost at first when she talked about "Feng Shui." What's the telling? Later on I understood the relation between those verses and Feng Shui.

The people of Galatia and many Christians these days don't really depend their selves on God. They believed by giving offerings to Church and doing all good things that are mentioned in the Book would make them always right, but that belief directed them into misdeeds. Their prides make them to forgive wrong things that they might or have done. That's why there are some Christians who still go searching for something else, and Feng Shui is just one and popular choice.

Of course to do what the Bible wants us to do is right, but we must not doing it because we want ourselves to be righted. That's not a faith in God at all, that's a way into vanity. Christ has righted us; it's our payback time to thank Him by doing good deeds. That's a faith in God.
so…
I guess that's the most I could get for free :-P
Oh well…I can still have alternative free tips on how to doing best from the net.

Distraction
Wow! I was and am still amazed by her talent!
She is the interpreter girl, an Indonesian. It's like, the English words enter her ears, got processed by her brains less than a blink of an eye, then instantly exit as Indonesian words through her mouth. Her words choice is almost flawless or 99% perfect! My concentration on the sermon was breach because I was busy matching my words choice with hers! I know, silly me. Her tone was also very well in control.

Hoo-Ha
Before the sermon began, the local pastor that still seemed a little bit pissed-off (well…otherwise, why need to tell everybody about it anyway?) told us about his preaching experience in one of West European countries. He told us that he said to the congregation there (more or less of course): "here you have euros, but you give in rupiahs. In Indonesia we have rupiahs but we give in euros"
I didn't get it until he explained that the congregation there only gives a dime (or what is it called for Euro?), unlike the people of his congregation! Lol.
He said he doesn't mind if what his saying irritates them, because they only gave small money there.
I hope soon he will remember: 1 Sam 15:22 or Hebrew 13:16 so next time, he can have diplomacy ability like Paul in 2 Cor 8:1-15