The Little Princess

I've just read an interesting story about Halloween on this link and found the site is really cool and awesome. They got the way to spread The Gospel via email. You should visit the site! :)

GOD WHO PRAYS FOR US

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers."
Luke 22:31,32, NIV

I read these verses on our Sunday Service this morning. And although I've read and have heard these verses for several times, this morning I sensed something different in my heart.

I have known that Satan has been over and over attempting us. Yes, we knew that already. Even he asked to sift us as wheat -just as Bible told us. So, many people had fallen and descended into the trap of sins. Even they're living in that sinful ways. But thanks to Jesus who have prayed for us. He knew already what will be happening. And He had foreseen our weaknesses and our easy-to-attempt natures, yet He prays for us. What a huge thing A Mighty God can ever do for His creatures!

I can't say how much I felt grateful this morning. Realized that I had God who prays for me has rocked my world. Yeah, I may not be perfect, but I am guaranteed in His hands. And He even accepts me just the way I am, remembering the fact that I'm living in the world which define its identity based on all 'superficial' things. (You mention it!:)).

9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
John 17:9, 15, NIV

Thank God for being my Lord and my God.
Thanks Jesus for praying for me.
My life is in Your hands..

GOD WHO REMEMBERS

He remembered us in our weakness.
His faithful love endures forever.
Psalm 136:23,NLT

I didn't satisfy when I read this verse in Indonesian. The translation was a little confusing for me, so I tried to search its different translation. Yeah.. different words, but the same meaning.

God remembered us when we were down,
His love never quits.
Psalm 136:23, The Message

to the One who remembered us in our low estate
His love endures forever.
Psalm 136:23, NIV

This verse was so meaningful for me right now.
Knowing the truth that I am remembered -no matter what- is something profound for me.

Thank You, Father God.
This is all I need for now. That's it.
Thank You for unfolding this truth personally for me.
Your faithful love endures forever..

I Ask God..

I asked God for strength, that I might achieve,
I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey.

I asked for health, that I might do greater things,
I was given infirmity, that I might do better things.

I asked for riches that I might be happy,
I was given poverty, that I might be wise.

I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men,
I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God.

I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life,
I was given life, that I might enjoy all things.

I got nothing that I asked for -
but everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself,
my unspoken prayers were answered.

I am, among all men,
most richly blessed.

-Anonymous Confederate soldier

SELF ACCEPTANCE

Many today have found that acceptance of their real selves is definitely a not-too-easy thing. So did I.

Somewhere in the past, I used to believe that my parents accepted me just because I did a good job, or because I had a good manner, or because any thing I did that pleased them. Shortly, I felt accepted if I was doing good only, not because of who I really was. And, unfortunately, I felt the same way about God. I thought He accepted me because of any good things I did, or because I didn’t distract from His ways, or because I walked in love with all my neighbors. I used to look at my parents’ face to see the value of myself there, but I barely found it. As they disappointed, I knew that I wasn’t valuable enough. I wasn’t accepted the way I really was. And so if I got distracted, or if I did mistakes in my life, or if I started to get mad to somebody, I started to feel that I wasn’t accepted by anyone, including God. People would always have hated me, left me abandoned, and I’ve got to feel rejected.

So sad, wasn’t it?

Wrong perception of self acceptance will govern one’s behavior. It will also mess up his/ her life. It diminishes confidence, faith, even hope for future. Oh, what a really important issue is the way we accept our selves!

As time went by, I started to see God’s love. He showed Himself up to me and got me think that I had been wrong. In Him I’ve always been accepted, no matter who I am, what I do or how I look, the superficial things which have always been being my way to accept other people. I realized that God knows who I really am, even before I was born. Even when I failed Him, He won’t stop loving me. Even when I fell, His plans for me won’t be failed. Even when I was wrong, or coincidently displayed my weaknesses, He let me know that He’s strong and He would direct me through the way He wants me to go.

The acceptance of myself doesn’t depend on how I look or what I do anymore, but more depends on how great He loves me and His willing to die for me. I know that someday I’ll be fallen, I may fail Him, I may do something silly, I may still full of weaknesses, but as big as my stupidity, as that big is His love for me. I know it for sure. I am acceptable, not because of anything I’ve done, but because of the great things Jesus Christ has done.

For whoever who are still in process of their selves acceptance, if I may recommend, simply come to the place where anyone is always welcome. Anybody is accepted in Christ, no matter what ever happen to them in their pasts. You don’t have to be perfect to come to Him, all the thing you need is just your willing to believe. It’s that easy.

We Do Need God

When I browsed internet, I found an inspiring blog by Kenny Corn. This is one of his post. Yes, I agree with him. We do need God. We like to look for Him in so many ways but often forget to come to Him just the way we are.

Oh, I won't to talk more, just read it!

We don’t need more of ourselves. We’ve tried that and it hasn’t accomplished anything but heartache.

We need God.

We don’t need more books about God. How many more books can be written about God that says something nobody else has said? Maybe we could just start reading “The Book of God” called the Bible to find out more about Him.

We need God.

We don’t need more self-help books. Do you think that maybe enough books have been written on how to help ourselves with our problems? There is only one book I know that will ultimately help and that is the written word of God that points us to the Living Word of God. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” (John 8:32).

We need God.

We don't need more daily devotional books to be published. How many more devotional books need to be written? We don’t read the ones we have already purchased or been given to us for a Christmas or birthday present.

We need God.

We don’t need more study Bibles to be published. Why? Because we don’t use the ones we already have to study the Bible. A new one isn’t going to make any difference.

We need God.

We don’t need more bluegrass, rock, rap, disco, punk, high-church, low-church, mid-church, country & western, do-wop, be-bop, hip-hop, contemporary, blended, traditional, gospel, classical, or polka music in the church. Let's see: did cover I it all? What would happen if we announced in church one Sunday that next Sunday the worship service would have no music of any kind but the service would include prayer and preaching. Thinks anyone would show up for that?

We need God.

We don’t need more of man’s opinions. Look where that has gotten us.

We need God.

We don’t need more web sites and internet resources about God. Technology replaces the personal, intimate relationship and friendship that is supposed to occur between the believer and God.

We need God.

We don’t need more PowerPoint presentations about God. You would think that PowerPoint is the key to church growth and the Christian life. How ridiculous!

We need God.

We don’t need more money to accomplish the work of God. He owns the “cattle upon a thousand hills” [Psalm 50:10]. For those who actually give, it is too easy to give money. God doesn’t need our money. He wants our hearts but we don’t want to give Him that. Why? It would be too difficult and too painful and cost us too much to give Him our hearts. So, in order to ease the pain and the guilt, we slip a little money into the offering plate every Sunday so that the preacher and God will be satisfied for a week.

We need God.

We don’t need more Sunday School/discipleship curriculum to be developed. We’ve got enough already and we still don’t know the word of God and we have too few disciples.

We need God.

We don’t need new magazines to be published with all of the answers about how to live the Christian life. Ever notice how a lot of Christian magazines have those “smiling beautiful people” on the covers and the articles inside the magazines are going to help us through the next crisis that we go through. Just once I would like to see a magazine cover with somebody crying and writing an article discussing how they are still in the midst of a storm, haven’t yet received a solution from God, are desperately crying out for help, yet they are remaining faithful and true to God. “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him’ [Job 13:15].

We need God.

We don’t need God to heal our bodies through some “miracle healer” who always says “you gotta have faith; you gotta believe; you gotta send in your money, disguised as a ‘faith seed’. We need God to heal our hearts and our broken lives. And, where does the Bible ever associate money and faith together?

We don’t need more technology to help us relate to God. Through technology, we can read the Bible online, study the Bible online, pray online, give online, go to church online and even be healed online. (Believe me, I googled “online healing”). God forbid that we should actually open a Bible and study on our own, get on our knees to pray, and then get up and actually go to church.

We need God.

We don’t need more super computers to assist us in accessing the technology that promises to help us in our relationship to God, as if more RAM, processors, and hard drive space were the answers to our relationship with God.

We need God.

We don’t need more “star power religious personalities” on blue ray discs, DVD’s, cd, or videos to teach a Bible study or preach to a congregation about God. How did we ever get to the place where some famous personality, in some format of technology, teaches our Bible studies, our Sunday School classes or preaches to a congregation instead of us doing it?

We need God.

We don’t need more sooper-dooper/Xtreme/we are going to blow your socks off/radical/power conferences with the biggest names in show business (oops, sorry: in church growth and evangelism). What if someone had a conference with godly, pure in heart, thirsting for God no-name preachers and teachers? Think anyone would show up?

We need God.

We don’t need more academic degrees to impress everyone that we have learned something about God. Academic degrees have never impressed God. The only degree He requires is the A.U.G. degree: Approved Unto God, Second Timothy 2:15).

We need God.

We don’t need more religious denominational programs to be developed for the church. We’ve got enough programs as it is. How many more programs need to be developed that make (empty) promises and guarantee success but you have to spend the money to buy the program. Programs don’t reach people. People reach people. And, by the way, Christianity has turned into “big business”. You can purchase a Jesus bobble-head, holy bottled water, and “Jesus is my homeboy” t-shirt, all in the name of the “gospel”. You can also have the word of God stamped on the shoes you wear and stamped on the insoles of your shoes so that you can “walk in the Word”. Surely, God must weep!

We need God.

We don’t need more experts about God and church growth. “An expert is someone who knows more and more about less and less, until eventually he knows everything about nothing”.

We need God.

We don’t need more family life centers with weight rooms, exercise rooms, walking tracks, basketball courts, saunas, and whirlpools so that we can isolate ourselves from the world. Ummm………..go ye therefore?

We need God.

We don’t need to know more about what other churches are doing so that we can copy what they do. What God does in one church doesn’t necessarily mean that God will do the same thing in another church. Why did God bless that other church? Never playing favorites, God does have His intimates-those pastors and churches who decide to throw “caution to the wind” and spend time alone with God to develop an intimate and personal relationship with Him. Though God stopped creating on day six when He created the “heavens and earth”, He has never stopped being creative and He has the ability to reveal creative ways to any pastor and to any church who are intimate with Him and want to be used by God to reach their community for Him.

We need God.

We don’t need more self-sufficiency, though we still try to do it by ourselves.

We don’t need more self-centeredness, though we live our lives like it is all about us.

And we don’t need more self-righteousness, though we just can’t admit that we are not right with God.

We need God……

Or

Maybe we don’t.

Oh, reading this post is like being hit by something big right on your head. Maybe you'll be shocked at first, but then you'll awake and accept the statement as a truth of your bad habit so you have to destroy it.

If you interested, just read more posts from Kenny Corn here. He writes many useful posts on his blog!

25 Good Things About God

I love this! Let's keep it going! No catches. Just the peace in knowing that you were able to share God's love and wisdom to all those you have contact with and even bless someone you don't know. Have a blessed day!

1. Give God what's right -- not what's left.

2. Man's way leads to a hopeless end! -- God's way leads to an endless hope.

3. A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.

4. He who kneels before God can stand before anyone.

5. In the sentence of life, the devil may be a comma--but never let him be the period.

6. Don't put a question mark where God puts a period.

7. Are you wrinkled with burden? Come to the church for a face-lift.

8. When praying, don't give God instructions - just report for duty.

9. Don't wait for six strong men to take you to church.

10. We don't change God's message -- His message changes us.

11. The church is prayer-conditioned.

12. When God ordains, He sustains.

13. WARNING: Exposure to the Son may prevent burning.

14. Plan ahead -- It wasn't raining when Noah built the ark.

15. Most people want to serve God, but only in an advisory position.

16. Suffering from truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.

17. Exercise daily -- walk with the Lord.

18. Never give the devil a ride -- he will always want to drive.

19. Nothing else ruins the truth like stretching it.

20. Compassion is difficult to give away because it keeps coming back.

21. He who angers you controls you.

22. Worry is the darkroom in which negatives can develop.

23. Give Satan an inch & he'll be a ruler.

24. Be ye fishers of men -- you catch them & He'll clean them..

25. God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Now take 60 seconds and give this a shot! Let's just see if Satan stops this one. All you do is: 1. Simply say a small prayer for the person who sent you this, e.g. LORD God, bless this person in whatever it is that You know he or she may be needing this day....) 2. Then forward to everyone you know relatives/friends.

WHY DID JESUS FOLD THE NAPKIN?

Have you known this fact?

Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded and was placed at the head of that stony coffin. Early Sunday morning,while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, "They have taken the Lord's body out of the tomb, and I don't know where they have put him!"

Peter and the other disciple ran to the tomb to see. The other disciple out ran Peter and got there first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen cloth lying there, but he didn't go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus head was folded up and lying to the side.

Is that important? Absolutely! Is it really significant? Yes!

In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day.The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition. When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it. The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table until the master was finished. Now if the master was done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers and mouth with that napkin and toss it on to the table. The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, "I'm done." But if the master got up from the table,and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant knew that the folded napkin meant, "I'm not finished yet." The folded napkin meant, "I'm coming back!"

LIFE isn't about waiting for the storm to pass... It's about learning to DANCE In The RAIN!!!

Have a Blessed Day!

God's Pattern

God only knows how to handle me.

When I've almost been fallen, He came through to me.

If He hold over a little while longer for helping me, have no idea what would my life have been becoming.

Sometime I think that God works slowly within my life. Yeah, probably because I myself am an adagio person. I don't like to be in hurry. Even, I often be late. So, maybe God doesn't need to be hurry also for me. He knows me well and He does His mighty works for me according to my personality :).

I just believe one thing, that if God seems to hold over His promises for us, it might not be the same as what you could ever think. Why? Because there might be miracles being arranged in His mind.

I always think about Abraham when it comes to be patient in waiting. If Abraham got Isaac right after God promised him, there might haven't been a miracle happened.

If Jesus directly came to Bethany right after He heard that Lazarus, whom He loved was sick and didn't stay in the place where He was, possibly we would never heard the story about the dead being raised. Wasn't it a miracle also?

When God seems to procrastinate doing His mighty work, or answering our prayers, or helping us in the right time, I believe that He is planning the best one for us.

He works in patterns we should know. He doesn't work at random. There are 12 hours in the day and 12 hours also in the night. A year always has 12 months likewise a day has 24 hours. There always be patterns surrounds us.

I realize indeed that God has always wait until I have been exhausted and powerless before helping me. But it wouldn't always be so forever. There are moments also in my life when He works sooo fast. Yeah, His timing is different with my timing.

If God has different pattern for each of us, which way works best in your life?

How to Get Connected with God

Once in my life, I've been being asked a question 'How do you get connected with God?'

I had to think for a while before answering that. I thought I had gotten connected with God already considering all the way I'd been through. But, I wasn't sure. I thought for it for moments and caught up the message eventually. Definitely, not the big things that could bring me closer to God, but very often, little things use to inspire me seeing the mighty power of my God, Lord of hosts.

Here are the way I get connected to God. If you feel that you've been being so far to God or don't have a good relationship with Him yet, please consider this.... may be it can help.

1. Behold the stars

Can you imagine what would nights be without the stars above? They are all so beautiful and amazing. But above all, we are much more precious rather than each of them. Remember when Psalmist said

'When I look at the heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars that you have established;
what are human beings that you are mindful of them,
mortals that you care for them?

(Ps. 8:3-4, NRSV)

When I behold the stars, I always remember God' s covenant with Abraham that He would made him exceedingly fruitful. I keep this promise in my mind and I believe, as God had blessed Abraham with so many blessings (Bible says that The Lord had blessed Abraham in all things Gen 24:1), He'll do the same for me. So I trust Him, whatever my circumstance is, God will always be mindful of me!

2. See the nature's beauty

We all know the beauty of nature. If you see it, remember Who has created them. Don't ever think that they was insanely happened by accident.

When I play with my pet, I like to imagine what's actually in God's mind when He created dogs. What was in His mind when He created a peacock? Or when He put wings to a bird? Or when He pointed out the stars? Or grows a tiny seed to become a mighty tree? There are so many miracles in nature.

Oh, and don't forget to consider how might tsunamis, earthquakes or floods could offense our lives! Doesn't the nature reflect His mighty power?

3. Look at the mirror

Not to look for who's the most beautiful in the world, but to look at the greatest miracle and the masterpiece of God, Our Creator. There's none like you in the world, there's only one you. So, give thanks for your well being. Trust me, He created you for a special purpose that irreplaceable, only you can fulfill it. So, ask Him about it and trust Him with all your heart.

4. Think about your problem

When we face a problem, we would understand that weren't defeatable. We are just as weak as a lamb. We have no idea what to do. Often, we can see God from such a hard circumstances. Remember that He never promises that everything will always be okay, but He promises that He'll be with us whatever storm we're walking through.. Problems often lead us to get closer to something higher than ourselves, and remind us that we need the greatest power from heaven to solve it all. We could never bear our problems alone. But don't ever give up your life. He is mindful of you!

5. Pray, pray, pray

How come you know someone not by talking to him? It's the reason why we should pray all the time: to get connected to Him and to know Him better.

Furthermore, whenever you call Him, He listens to your voice. He knows you. He understands your tears. He sees how hard your burdens hit you. He'll always come through for you and He has so much blessings in store for you.

6. Read The Bible

The Bible is His Word, and His Word is Him Himself. It keeps the secret of God's best plan that much more better than you could ever think.

7. Make every single day counts

We like to wait for a miracle to be happened in our lives. So we overlook little things surround us. We forget that the sun shines every morning for us. We forget that the oxygen is available anytime for us, and even our hearts always beat without any problem in it. Aren't those little things worth to be called a miracle?

Each of us have a life to live. But, by keep waiting for a big miracle, we'll overlook the blessings we received in every single day of our lives. If we wouldn't be able to choose the right attitude, we'll loose the chance to get rewards from life. I think God saves some of those little surprises for those moments in which we choose to do the right thing.

Instead of waiting for something too far to be reached, let's walk forward one step at a time. Make every single day counts. Don't forget to count your blessings!