"I am the way.."

John 14:1-6 (KJV)

1 Let not your heart be troubled:ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions:if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

What a beautiful preaching today by Kenny Goh. During the period we bring up Truth as our big theme, he did well interpreting the truth, for the truest truth comes from Jesus and the other truth was fake, and knowing Jesus in person is way more important than pursuing the truth in a ‘How’ structured question.

“Truth is not just a HOW, it’s a WHO.”

That covers exactly every points he planned to explain. Since we tend to look for a structured how-tos, in order to reach our goal, rather than trying to know more about the planner of our life. That too, poked a hole in my mind, since people go to church was all about getting right teachings, simply put, We are going to church for a lessons, which exactly accessible even outside the church. So what’s the point? Going to church should be all about experiencing God, and His great love towards us. So let’s put it together like this, we go to church for the experience of God, not because the preachers.

            John 8:31-32 (KJV)

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

We need to know first who’s our giver, before we can ask for our needs. Who’ll ask to unknown giver, since there are possibilities that the giver will mislead us. God is the perfect giver. He knows us better than we do, but we don’t know Him as much. We need to get to know God, for His plans are eternal and always for our best. For knowing (by experience with a person) leads to trusting. What a freedom it is to be able to ask freely without hesitations or even insecurities, for we have encountered our mighty giver personally?

Sometimes, we pray to God for the way, how we can succeed in life through every detailed steps we learn, and plan to take. We pray for His blessings, to justified our specified steps, without even bother to ask, “God, what this the way?”. For Jesus has replied the apostles, when they asked the same question, “I am the way.”

We oftentimes got stuck in the life currents, choosing ways after ways, steps after steps, without even considering the REAL way. Then, after we are confident enough, we start to ask God’s approval. He is not just the approval, He is the project manager who knows every details in our hearts. He is the way. Never settle for just bunch of pointless instructions, but settle for the great instructor, for God is our instructor. Keep pushing to know Him better and better, the owner of life, and the creator of plans.

Imagine that you’re on a long flight home, and before the flight, you have the opportunity to meet the pilot, who happens to know you by your name. Then you chat with him, asking about how long the flight will be, how many metres the plane will be above the sea level, and something and something. Wouldn’t you be more relaxed? Would you still care about the millions ‘what ifs’ you have in your mind? That’s the same when you live your life knowing God is in control, you’ll be more relaxed, you can do your best in the natural way God has planned you to do, and let He does the supernatural.

“I am the way, the truth, and the life:no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

God, thank You for your plan over my life, which I believe is above all my thoughts

Thank You for the reminder today, for the life I live is worth surrendered to You
Please God, I need to know You more. Draw me closer to You, God
For I believe that You are the creator of the life, the planner of all plans
Occupy my thoughts, so I can be more like You and You live in me
In Jesus name, Amen.

Whose side is God on?

I’ve been pondering this thought for quite a time now. Having read the Instagram post from Ria (find her @riaangelina2409), talking about favoritism, I think I should dig deeper on this subject. For you guys who are curious about what she said in the post, here I’m going to type it down for you,
 
            “It’s not about whose side God is in but what God’s will and His kingdom have to say.

I was reading a book I truly love that made me tear up pages after pages (willtalkaboutitnexttime). Anyway, sometimes our prayer may contradicts to other people prayer. As an example is some of us want the train to not be late, but others pray that the train is delayed so they can catch the train. So whose prayer will be answered? And if yours or his is not answered; it doesn’t mean that you are not better because God does not play favouritism. But what is God’s will upon that situation. Sometimes early is good but sometimes delay is beautiful as well. What we need to understand at every situation is what is God have to say about it.

Like in the case of Joshua when seeing a man with a sword and he asked whose side are you on? The army said “No, but I am God’s commander army.” This simply said; it’s not which side I am on, but it’s what God’s kingdom said I will do J Have a blessed Godly kingdom day!!”

After doing some casual research on the internet, I found the story of Cain and Abel interesting, for that story really represents God’s favoritism. But does God play favorites?    

Genesis 4:1-12 (NIV)

1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel.

Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

6 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.”

8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.” While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?”

10 The Lord said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth.”

What if God was one of us?

Just imagine, if you were Cain, wouldn’t you be angry? I surely would, why on earth my hardwork is not appreciated, since I’ve been putting on my all? Then again, I think about that in the work situation. If your boss said, “I don’t like what you did, I like the way he’s doing it.” Would you just grab your knife and stab your coworker? I thought about maturity, in processing all inputs we got from outside. We have to be able to filter all the informations, whether it’s true or false, based on kindness or hatred, and so on, so on.

Back to the story, I wonder why Abel’s offering is more favorable in God’s eyes, rather than Cain’s? As I search through the internet, I found that Cain was the first person to have offered a sacrifice to God, before any rules had been laid out about proper and improper sacrifices. Along the verses above, in the verse 3 stated that, “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.” and in the verse 4, stated that, “And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock.” It’s not that Abel offered animals, and Cain offered fruits, which make God chose one and reject the other. If we read deeper into those verses, Cain’s offering sounds ordinary, rather than Abel’s which sounds lavish! Notice that Abel brought from the firstborn of his sheep, which Cain never reported about bringing his first-fruits of the ground.

From that story above, we noticed that Abel put God first, while Cain didn’t. So, God accepts offering from the fullness of gratitude, rather than from half-hearted effort.

What if God wasn’t one of us?

1 Samuel: 16-7 (NET)

“God does not view things the way men do. People look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

If God is really all-knowing and infinitely wise, so He wouldn’t be playing favorites, between Cain and Abel. Furthermore, God loves us equally, saints or sinners. With that in mind, let’s think again about why Cain’s offering were rejected, but Abel’s accepted? It’s about the heart.

            Micah 6:6-8 (NET)

“With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? With what should I bow before the sovereign God? Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings, with year-old calves? Will the Lord accept a thousand rams, or ten thousand streams of olive oil? Should I give him my firstborn child as payment for my rebellion, my offspring -my own flesh and blood- for my sin? He has told you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord really wants from you: He wants you to promote justice, to be faithful, and to live obediently before your God.”

The book of Hebrews writes this way about Abel,

            Hebrews 11:4 (NET) 

“By faith Abel offered God a greater sacrifice than Cain, and through his faith he was commended as righteous, because God commended him for his offerings. And through his faith he still speaks, though he is dead.”     

And this verse tells about Cain,

1 John 3:12 (NET)

“not like Cain who was of the evil one and brutally murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds were evil, but his brother’s were righteous.”

From those verses, we can easily point out the difference. Apart from the Cain’s offering was half-hearted, and Abel’s was full of gratitude, we can see that Abel offered to God from the deepest of his heart, and by faith, while Cain offered to God from the heart that was initially evil, showing the self-pitiness and jealousy.

Most of us show our self-pity when seeing others are blissfully blessed, and we often show our insecurity from that situation. Just be sure, that when God doesn’t answer our prayers, that means he doesn’t do it yet. For His plans are bigger than ours, and His thoughts are wilder than ours. We are made uniquely different to each other, that’s why God needs to customize our needs, and everything in His timing. God rewards faith, compassion, and wholeheartedness when we are nearing Him. We sometimes need to keep our eyes off of people to see that God is good for us, because other people may see Him differently, but the ending still the same. It’s unending. His love.

Hillsong Conference 2015

“Hillsong Conference? Sydney? What? You’re going there? Wow! Cool! I wish I could.”

That thoughts are still replaying in my head. Back in 2013, when we’re having DATE (cellgroup) meeting, Elbert, brought that up. He said what an experience going there, feeling the atmosphere and the presence of Jesus so apparent, and suggesting that we can go there together. What? I thought no way. Saving up for the future is what’s important for me that time, even I didn’t know what the future holds.

Week after week, we prayed for that thought to be realized, if He agrees, of course. But still, I couldn’t imagine going there. My faith just reached Singapore, for the farthest travel I could do. Yah, we still prayed for that, though.

Then I got accepted to work at EY, the company I’ve been dreaming of, lately. That means more income, and more saving I could do throughout the year. The reality seemed to align to what we prayed for, and yet we continued our prayers. Until that day, August 28th, 2014, when I looked up the internet for tickets to Sydney, and found a quite bargain price, I contacted Alston, my best friend who committed to go there too. And he said it’s a go, and I said it’s a go, then we bought the plane tickets. That’s how it all started.

Then we bought the conference ticket afterwards, with the help of Rieny, another DATE friends. She bought it for me at bargained price of AUD279 (early bird price for this year is for AUD239) using her Credit Card, since I didn’t have one. So grateful to have great people around you, ready to help when needed. Thanks, Rieny! Wish we could go together next year!

Fast forward to 2015, when the date of departure came close, we still have to apply Australian Visa. Another great help from good friend, Virgin, to took care of our Visa Application process. Even our Visa were granted just 2 weeks before the departure date, which scared us the most, but it’s granted anyway! Thank God!

The day! June 27th, 2015. I have to leave some undone work to my teams, which I really felt sorry for. Really sorry! The first flight, went to Kuala Lumpur and then followed by the other flight to Sydney. And on that day, my initial thought struck again, “What? Sydney? Really?” When what you prayed for became reality, once it’s hard to believe, sometimes we couldn’t understand what’s really happening. But that’s grace of God meant to be, not to be understood, but just to be experienced. And that’s enough for Him, to see us experiencing His grace. Because grace is free, you have been paid, for free. That’s grace.

After a long flight, we reached Sydney! We were picked up by Ko August, Alston’s cousin, and he took us around Sydney, going to tourists’ attractions, eating Hurricane ribs, trying out the best gelato I ever tasted (it’s Cow & The Moon’s mandorla affogato), and so on. That’s the end of day one in Sydney.

Day two, Day three, Day four, and Day five. We attended the conference, located at Allphones Arena, Sydney Olympic Park. Oh gosh! The arena’s so packed. From what I read, nearly 30.000 persons going there. The opening ceremony was amazing, the worship session with Hillsong UNITED was amazing, the message from Ps. Brian Houston was amazing, the atmosphere was amazing. God is amazing! We had the best teachings throughout the week, from the amazing Ps. Rick Warren, Ps. John Maxwell, Ps. Joseph Prince, Ps. Carl Lentz, Ps, Judah Smith (WOHOO!), Ps. Bobbie Houston, Ps. Jentezen Franklin, and Ps. Brian Houston himself.

The masterclasses were brilliant too, we got so many new insights throughout the week. I attended Create stream (You can choose between three streams, Lead, Create, and Help) and it’s so relevantly great. It ignited my creative side again, after being dead for a long time for working long hours, etc, etc. We met so many amazing people there, and being friends with them was such a blessing! We met Mariella and Vanessa on the second day of conference, they are so friendly, and we decided to go together during the conference. Then on the fourth day, we met Antonio, Dericka, and Phoebe, and decided to go together too. So we made a group of 8 person. So happy to meet new friends! It opened my mind to learn to see things differently.

 I am grateful for my host family, Om, Tante, Ko August, and Deta, all of them are Alston’s close family. They are so kind, you know, I felt like I’m home. I prayed for them for their happiness, for their good deeds, and for their living. Couldn’t ask for more!

Then, here I am home again, in Jakarta. I really prayed for the thought God has placed in me, for the experience I got from the conference, for the new understanding of Jesus, and for the opportunities to share it to friends here.

If you’re asking, What do you get from the conference?” I’m going to answer this way, “My answer will not satisfy you, since I’m going to say “God is grace” and you probably heard that too, but I’m grateful for the opportunity to feel it. And once you felt it in your heart, it won’t go away. It brings new understanding of what can’t be understood. It’s like swimming in an open sea, where you can’t see the bottom of it, but you keep swimming deeper and deeper. I am happy to say, that I am deeper than I was before.”

These are some pictures:

 Here we are in the Gap Bluff!

 Hurricane ribs! Want more!

 The amazing atmosphere @Allphones

 Ps. Brian Houston & me. So grateful for him!

 The stupids (i am too)

 Packed.

 Selfless selfie @train.

 with Om and Tante.

The lost are found.