Three Ways of God's Answers

This is from the sermon that I attended on 23 Agosto 2009, I couldn't really take a good note, that's why this note is loose and incomplete.


The Pastor gave illustration from Luke 5:12-16:

12And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy: who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.

13And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will: be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him.

14And he charged him to tell no man: but go, and shew thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing, according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them.

15But so much the more went there a fame abroad of him: and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by him of their infirmities.

16And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.

These are some explanation from the pastor about the above verses:
1. God has had mission since the beginning to rescue sinners, but should always remember that Salvation happens only when the human is still alive.

2. Interesting facts from the leper case:
a. The lepers in that time were the outcasts and lived in their own community. The fact that the leper could present in the town and reached Jesus shows how big the risk that he took and how great was his faith.
b. What made it so special that God healed him without even questioning him?
It is his sentence: Lord, if You are willing, You are able to cure me and make me clean.
His words show how the leper left all the authority to God, that God is The Omnipotent.

3. There is this X  factor within someone's faith, known only by God.

My conclusion:
God is always willing to help us, but it is our effort, Faith and our submission to His will that He sees. We might feel that we already have big faith, but only God knows whether we have The Faith.

The pastor who delivered this sermon also warns us, that there are three ways of God's answers:
1. Prayer is granted immediately
2. Prayer takes a longer or long time to be answered.
3. Prayer is not granted, this can be because of that X factor or because of God's plan to make the person as a great testimony to others. --this is tough

How to Grow in Prosperity

Photo by alicepopkorn

was on 12 Ottobre 2008
I like what I heard on this sermon, unfortunately I failed to take a complete note. I post it today because I think this is relevant with New Year's resolution.

Started from around 10 years ago, especially when the doomed times of our economic hit my country, there have been some preachers who like to prophesy about prosperity, which to me sounds like just building an empty dream. Many of them just said things like "give your best -in term of money of course- to the Lord -they mean to Church of course- and so Heaven will pour prosperity unto you"...or...something like "I don't care about money, I gave it all to God, but when I need it God will give me abundantly, and I have experienced it", always like that.

This reverend gives a decent disclosure about prosperity, he does not weight on the material result, but he reveals what prosperity is in Christianity.
He says prosperity will come if we're being blessed by God, therefore we should know how to get God's blessings.

Here's some small part of the preaching that I managed to save on my note :)

The sermon is taken from Deu 28:1-6

Deuteronomy 28 (King James Version)

1 And it shall come to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:

2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.

4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.

5 Blessed shall be thy basket and thy store.

6 Blessed shalt thou be when thou comest in, and blessed shalt thou be when thou goest out.

Here's how:

1. Know your AIM in this life, don't make yourself a center, but make Jesus as the center of your life. Live with need not with want, know the Right Direction.
2. Don't be shy with God, know your position that you are God's beloved ones, do it like Jabez did on 1 Chronicles 4:10

10And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.

3. Know the to do things as shown in Joshua 1:4-8:
- Believe in God's promises
- Be tenacious
- Act His words
- Tell and spread His words

May we all can have God's blessings in the New Year.
Happy New Year 2009, May Our Lord Jesus bless us and this Earth, amen

Blessings and Curses

It takes me almost 3 years to finally put this on FaithShip. It's already a long time, but when I read the note that I made 3 years ago, I feel like it came just from some weeks ago sermon.
Unfortunately I didn't write enough at that time, but I am glad I wrote down the verses because these verses are indeed giving answer to why we fail to keep receiving God's blessings, and if curses come from God. So here it is.

........was on sermon 18 September 2005

Jesus is the greatest blessing given to humans. We have so many blessings already in our hands because of Jesus, but how come adversities still happen?

Blessings

Deu 28:1 And it shall come to pass, IF thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe and to do all his commandments which I command thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:
Deu 28:2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, IF thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.

Curses

Deu 28:15 But it shall come to pass, IF thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:
Deu 28:16 Cursed shalt thou be in the city, and cursed shalt thou be in the field.

The pastor emphasised the word IF.
As we understand that God included free will into human when He made us, so that we as human are free to do anything that we like. Because we are not robot at all.
Whether or not we can keep the blessings from God, it solely depends on our response to our free will.
IF we follow His words, then we can keep those blessings.

God won't curse us even though we don't follow his words. But ignoring His words means keeping ourselves away from God's protection. Being outside of God's protection it also means letting ourselves unprotected in this world -the place where evil forces is freely floating and preying for their victims anywhere.
So remember the IF factor ;-)

Christian Story Books

...off the chlog...

Reading is one way of getting knowledge and information. Adults normally are able to choose wisely suitable books or articles to read, and teens who have had good guidance from their parents since their early childhood will choose their reading sagaciously.
Filtering what to read for kids or very young children is important, since there are so many popular children's books available and not all of them are worth to read. These kids' pure minds are like clean canvasses which can easily absorb any colours, and we know wrong colour might ruin a picture. Wrong knowledge and information give bad influence to kids.
As the world tends to become more and more secular, Christian parents or any adult Christians are better to present books that not only provide secular knowledge but also spiritual growth, hence the kids will grow into smart and empathetic Christians. The best book of course the Bible, and it will be a blessing if a kid can be instantly hooked with the serious look of Bible :)
Kids love to see pictures and they are learning through images too, unless it's an illustrated Bible I doubt they would be interested. Fortunately now we can find Christian children's story books that are beautifully illustrated in www.christianstorybooks.com. The collections there are compatible with Bible truth, kids will learn about their Christian faith in a fun and imaginative way.

Is problem to make us suffer?

........was on sermon 22 July 2007

Winning in this life is determined by our response to problem.
They key of winning in life is optimism.
Problem can make us either bitter or better.

Why God lets us suffer?
1. To make us humble
2. To verify our heart, to prove our character
Deuteronomy 8:2-5

Deuteronomy 8:2 Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands.
Deuteronomy 8:3 He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.
Deuteronomy 8:4 Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years.
Deuteronomy 8:5 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

3. To discipline us as to tame us

Psalm 119:67 Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.

Have we given the best gift to Jesus?

........was on sermon 25 December 2006

Four gifts that God accept:
1. Luke 1:34,38 Our purity
2. Mat 1:19 Sincerity, genuineness
3. Luke 2:8 Simplicity and obedience
4. Mat 2:1 Effort to give the best like what's shown by three wise men.

The Meaning of Christmas

........was on Sermon 24 December 2006

It's written well on John 3:16

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Christmas talks about God's greatest blessing, the greatest Love.
Christmas is a Celebration of Love, on Christmas day the perfect gift that we should give to others and God instead of anything else is Love, bountiful love.

The Love that is:
- unlimited
- universal
- unconditional: don't ask, give first.
- the best love
- responsible

I know You are reading this blog too Lord

...off the chlog...

I'm boarding on Faithship again, but I didn't go to Church today instead I was at a hospital and I'm going to be there again. My Mom needs prayers from all the followers of Jesus who come across this FaithShip, please pray that she will get well soon, that I still have time to fix my mistakes. Jesus I believe in you, I believe in your Miracle, I believe you always plan the good things for your loves. Amen and thank you.

The Always Kind God

When dealing with tough situation, we must stick to our believe that He is never away from us.

Take a look Psalm 23:1-6, from that we can learn ups and downs of life.

These are 4 situations that can be drawn from Psalm 23:1-6:
1. Good moment
Psalm 23:1.
He guide David and supplied his needs.
Psalm 23:2.
In Christianity, Lord is our Shepard and we are His sheep. Green pastures are food heaven for sheep. So this verse denotes how God provided abundant food and other necessity for David.
Psalm 23:3.
He took care of David.

2. Tough moment
Psalm 23:4

3. Elation moment
Psalm 23:5

4. Joyful moment
Psalm 23:6

Notice that that from 4 situations, God only allowed hard time to touch David once, and in that tough moment He didn't leave David at all.

What about Job? How could God let that biggest-catastrophe-ever to happen?

Hang in there....I will try to remember more today's sermon tomorrow.

Hate vs Love

...off the Chlog...

I finally take off Persecutionblog link from my blog.
I would agree with it if its focus were to strengthen all Christians who live in non-Christian countries who are facing problems in carrying out their faiths.

All I can see in that persecution blog is hatred, weakening some Christians' faith and diminishing God's power.

Read this entry that I quote from its November 2, 2005 entry:

More Beheading Pictures

Are you grossed out? Good. I had a friend send me more pictures of this grisly beheading that is continuing to be ignored by the mainstream media.
And all I can say is that if you think that being a Christian in a country where Islam is the majority religion, well, this is your future.

Do you think Jesus would agree with that sayings?
Why then God sent Jesus to this world if not to face dangers to safe us human?
......Love your enemies
.........Do good to those who persecute you

Who said carrying the Cross is easy?
Please pray for my country, Indonesia.
God bless you all, thank you.

His Words

I escaped Church last week, and this week I almost escaped it again cos I chat til late and slept when the time almost hit 3.

Thank God I was able finally to push myself to attend the 9 am Church. There were already a huge number of people when I arrived; I thank God there were still seats left for us.
The preacher today it happened to be a guest preacher from abroad, he's Dr. Samuel Doctorian. How lucky I was, cos later I found out he's the one who had prophecy about tsunami (in Indonesia)- that is what some said.

He didn't really make sermon from specific verses, it was just a very general one and was mainly addressing his vision experiences and his books.
The verses were taken from John 7:46 (44-46), to point out how Jesus' words are powerful and unlike anyone else's words.



What other things Jesus said that no body else ever or can say?

- John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
- Mat 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
- John 14:9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
- John 10:30 I and my Father are one.
- John 5:27 And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man.
- John 10:38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.
- Etc

And these are 5 points from Jesus:
1. I love you
2. I died for you
3. Believe in me
4. You never go to hell
5. You go to Heaven

Then the Reverend mentioned again about his experience in Patmos Island where God gave him 5 visions about the worlds through 5 Angels, each of them is representing Asia-Oceania, Israel-Middle East-Turkey-Asia Minor-etc, Europe, Africa, North-South America-Canada.

This link will take you to the Vision of 5 Angels.

I know.....I again was not so good in taking a note that Sunday :-D

Good Friday

....Glory to the Lord...
My first entry for this year and after my longgggg break of writing on my Chlog. I'm not going to write about my Chlog, I didn't find the sermon interesting and worth to mention here.
Why??
Well...later ok, when I have the mood to write about it.Instead, I want to mention that "The Pasion of The Christ" was playing today on TRANS TV.

Plug and Pray

.....off the chlog....into a blog.....

Feel bored with your own religion?
Got stuck with your faith?
Need soul rejuvenation?
or………
want to convert your love one, wife, hubby, priest, neighbour, teacher, dog, etc?

Try this almighty-gadget Plug and Pray.
It even has this powerful Switch Edition for those who live in conflict areas.



Satisfaction guaranteed!

Shakespeare in Bible

...off the chlog for a while....

I'm chlogless today because I skipped Church, but I want to add this newsworthy stuff here.

I just heard recently the story about Shakespeare's name in Bible KJV, but I think it's already known by many already.

Is it a pure coincidence? Or
Was it just made up for Shakespeare's 46th birthday celebration? :P

I wonder who was the first to find and write about it?
This person must be an avid-painstaking-persevering Psalm reader.
To make things short, here what I collect from the net:

• William Shakespeare is believed to have been born on 23rd April 1564.
• A memorial at Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon, records that he died on 23rd April 1616.
• Shakespeare's plays were first performed in 1588,when Shakespeare was 23.
• The First Folio of Shakespeare's works was published in 1623.
• Now 23 + 23 = 46
• The King James Bible was first published in 1611, when Shakespeare was 46.
• "WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE" is an anagram of "HERE WAS I, LIKE A PSALM

Now this is how the things work.....
• Open and turn to PSALM 46 of a King James Autorished Version Bible
• Write down the 46th word from the beginning - Shake
• Write down the 46th word from the end - spear
(ok.....so the person forgot the last 'e' in Shakespeare but it sounds alike)

That ignited my curiosity to search further read about KJV.

Our Relationship

was on 9 May 2004

A lot of times we said we believed in God, yet our actions show otherwise.
Do we believe in His resurrection? Or we're no different than Thomas?
Thomas had rather unique character, he's sometimes 'lost'-- somewhere.
Thomas had been with him for long time but still he demanded proof.
Yet Jesus loved Thomas still and gave him peace that enlightened him.
That made Thomas learn important lesson.

Some people are willing to change like Thomas, but some were just reluctant, like Judas Iskariot who betrayed Him.

Like Jesus who brought peace to the world, so do we, must bring peace to other.
In fact, that's also the meaning of the Cross: to maintain a vertical relation i.e. with God and also horizontal relation, i.e. with others.

4 Steps to get your Celestial Body

was on 2 May 2004

Death is no longer the final stop. The dead will arise with his/ her celestial body by doing these following steps (when he/ she was still alive, of course):

1. Be like Christ, not Adam.
In Christ there is Life.
Not just 'a life' but 'the life', because the word 'life' has many synonyms in Bible, and in this sermon the preacher explained 2 of them. The previous one is Bios and the latter is Zoe. I couldn't see the difference of the two had I just read Bible in Bahasa Indonesia or in plain English, because each of them only uses one word for Bios and Zoe. With e-Sword I become fully understood because I also installed English Bible 'KJV+' that includes Greek and Hebrew dictionary.

Bios is our (literally) the present state of existence; by implication the means of livelihood: - good, life, living.
While Zoe is life as the opposite of death, Zoe is the divine life of Christ, the life that conquered death.
In order to get Zoe, one must start to exercise Christ's way.

2. Be decided, walk in the Spirit!
I learnt that God created us with 'free will' because human is not a robot. In one way it seems to benefit us, but in other way it complicates our lives. The snake-Eve-Adam conspiracy caused all human sinful, that made us inherit illwill. We are vulnerable to sin, but we have our weapon, Jesus!
So walk in the Spirit, and you'll gain the victory.

3. Oopss.....!! I kinda missed this part, just got this in my note:
When a believer died, he will have supernatural body.

4. Be a spiritual man not a natural man.
In this so alluring world, do be steadfast so that we will get the secret.


FAQ:
Q: How are the dead raised up? With what body do they come
A: Don't be stupid!

East, Easter, Eastest

H A P P Y E A S T E R...
for easterner...westerner..southerner....northerner.....etc

If on Good Friday many people at Church became Man in Black, means wore black, this Easter we were united in colours to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

What's on for Easter at the church today?
A boring fragmented play of Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection with some snips from the movie of The Passion of the Christ.
Honestly, I think they better leave that play out at all if it's only badly presented like that. Talking about that film, I heard its pirated copies are here now, I just hope NO Church or Christian buys this pirated vcd or dvd.

The sermon itself was taken from John 20:19-20
With Jesus, death is nothing; He offered us everlasting life.
With His resurrection I shall not fear death anymore (I just fear I'm not yet qualified when the time comes…)

Back to The Passion of the Christ thing.......
I really hope we'll be able to see it here in Indonesia. It's already shown in Qatar, and beginning March 31, according to the UEA's GulfNews, it'll be shown to the public in United Arab Emirates (so that means it's on now).

Good Friday

I don't know if anyone else has this experience, but I do, that the sun hides itself behind the clouds every Good Friday at certain times

Every Good Friday we recall how the so powerful Jesus who can do just anything chose to mortify Himself to save the world.
Why...oh...why...??

Because Jesus never did these 5 things:

He never pushed His wish to His Father
He never saved Himself, He saves the whole world instead
He never defended Himself .
He never ran away from duties.
He never failed to love the sinners.

Marriage Miracle

Amongst many miracles that Jesus made, the Cana wedding was His first.
It is His way to make people to keep remembering the importance and the influence of marriage and family in their lives. Don’t we agree, first of anything is always hard to forget?

God's concern about marriage:
As part of His creation activity, God completed Adam with Eve and made an approval about marriage.
Jesus debut in this world was thru the wedding of Mary and Joseph.

Query on Proverbs 5

Oh! I would never heard about Alibi Agency (it seems the site is dead already?) if not because of this morning sermon. How innovative it is, an affair aid facility that serves globally and provides false alibi for anyone who wants to have a free-of-worry secret rendezvous with their secret partner.
It's perhaps much easier to create innovation for something destructive.
Anyway, no matter how successful the Alibi Agency covers one's affair; at the end an affair will only cause loss to the ones who commit it. They will gradually lose peace in themselves.
This reminds me to a novel that I am currently reading called Follow Your Heart by Susanna Tamaro. A moving book (actually I am not reading its novel, but its periodical in newspaper. I plan to buy the book too though).

Meanwhile…back to the sermon….
The preacher cited Proverbs 5:3-11 for this morning sermon and they did portray dangerous liaison and its consequences well.
Too bad the preacher didn't explain why these verses only mention 'strange woman' and not to include 'strange man', the womaniser? :(
I don't believe that Bible is preferential; I know there must be explanation about it.

Anyone can help? :D
Not an anti-Bible assertion of course, I don't want to walk away from it just because I don't know one or more things. I've seen so many good things already in the Bible.