The Door and The Key

Author’s Note:
Originally written on February 2007 and migrated here.

God gave each one of us different talents, abilities and gifts that we must use for His purposes. More often than not, though, when we first accepted Jesus into our lives, we didn’t know what potentials we have and what gifts we can use to bring glory to His name. It’s like God has given us a lot of things, but those things lie behind a special door, locked with a special keyhole that only a special key can open. A unique key, one that is made to open your door and unleash the potential that lies beyond that door.

The church is the key. God has given them the responsibility to nurture the growth of the believers and help them find and achieve their true purpose in life, that is to glorify God with all their have and what God has given them. As each of us is unique and have our own special keyholes, there are also a vast number of churches in this world and one of them has been specially designed to fit our keyhole and open the door. This is also one reason why we shouldn’t dispute between the large number of denominations and claim that one is better than the other, for every one of the churches are made according to God’s own design and purpose, as part of the Body of Christ. They were made to nurture and attend to different kinds of believers, each becoming unique keys to open up the different types of doors that each believer may have.

Now what will happen if you force a key that doesn’t fit into a keyhole, trying to open the door? Which one will be broken in the end? The key or the keyhole?

The Mountain Road

Author’s Note:
Originally written on January 2007 and migrated here.

There are moments in life where I felt like my spiritual maturity would never be able to go further than it is already. Everytime I took a step forward, I took another five steps backward. It feels like the struggle to reach spiritual maturity is a trivial one. You go very slowly up the mountain, and yet one small slip on the way up would send you tumbling back again to ground zero. When you think of reaching spiritual maturity as a journey to go towards the peak of a mountain, you feel like the road is so slippery that you would never ever be able to reach the top. In this moment in life, when I needed just another truth to move my life back on the track again, God provided me with an allusion that helped me understood it all.

Take this spiritual journey as going up the mountain road by a car. If you drove manual, you’ll understand this truth better. When you go with your car up a mountain, do you go by the first gear or you go by the final gear? Of course, you’ll use the first gear (even the strongest car with the most experienced driver out there won’t dare climb a mountain on full speed with the final gear, no matter what those mountain drift movies told us). The first gear, while slow, gives you the most power (torque) out of your car. It gives you stability. No matter how slow it may be, you’re sure that at the end of the day, you’ll eventually reach the top. Even though at times your engine won’t be strong enough to take it all in one stride and you need to take stops to cool down and rest the engine along the way, you know, you will still get to the top this way.

There’s a spiritual lesson to be learned from this. Most of the time, we want to go towards that maturity peak as soon as possible, as fast as we can. Well, just like a car speeding towards the mountain peak can fall towards the bottom of the ravine, going too fast at your own set pace can send you towards the bottom of the pit. Learn to follow God’s pace, not yours. It may be a seemingly slow-paced journey up the mountain, but with God, who knows the mountain road best and knows the best pace for you to tackle it on, you’re sure to reach the top one day. It may be a hard journey with a lot of breakdowns, tears and agony – God understands it.

At times where you can’t take it anymore, He will give you rest. He will ask you to hand your burden to Him and He will carry you through it all. There may be some rests and “pit-stops” that you will need along the way – moments when you’ll need to get closer to God and understand His Word and purpose for your life, moments that will cool down any tension and stress you might have in your life and “refuel your tank” for the next trip up the mountain. Don’t push it all the way at once. As a car’s engine might overheat and break down from the pressure, you too can experience mental, spiritual and emotional breakdowns from your life’s pressure. Know when to stop and take a rest, taking a leave from your day-to-day trivialities to spend time with God, asking Him to heal you, refresh you, revitalize and reinvigorate you and provide you with strength for the coming day.

The next lesson we can learn comes from the question, “How do you get a car to go backwards when going up a mountain?”. Simple, you don’t even need to put the car into reverse or even neutral for that to happen. Just do nothing. The same principle applies to our spiritual lives. You don’t need an effort to backslide. Just do nothing – no prayers, no devotional times, no studying God’s word, nothing. Sometimes we may think that by doing nothing, we won’t be going up but we won’t be going down either. This is a very wrong and dangerous principle. Satan keeps trying to pull us down every moment in our lives, that’s why, like the way gravity pulls down your car in a mountain road, during the uphill battle of spiritual maturity, doing nothing will make you backslide, because there is a force out there that is pulling you down.

It is far easier for us to go down than to go up, far easier to backslide than to grow to maturity. But with God in our side, we will be abled to reach that goal He has set for us. Even though sometimes we may feel we’re going at the first gear, know that we’re making progress. And just as there’s no man crazy enough not to do anything when his car starts to go backwards in a mountain, we must do the same with our spiritual lives. When you feel you’re going down, hit the brakes, pull the handbrake! Stabilize yourself and keep going again, even with the first gear. As time passes, we will grow familiar with the temptations and tactics that Satan is using on us (as we grow familiar with the mountain road the more we tackle it on), and we will eventually be able to move up and up, no matter how slow-paced it may be, towards our final destination with God.

Imaging Jesus

Author’s Note:
Originally written on January 2007 and migrated here.

It’s imaging Jesus, not imagining Jesus.

It is a “day one” concept that was very important but I have seemingly forgotten until today when I was just reminded again of it in my first cellgroup meeting. I was lost and as you know, I was even looking for my own self image in the previous post. I don’t know what I should become. Then my friend strikes me with a question, “If now I ask you what kind of person you should become? What is all Nathan really should be like? What will be your answer?”. I paused for a moment to answer this question and I even went with some ‘general answers’ like must be mature and God-loving and all that. Then in a flash, the answer came.

I should be like Jesus.

A True Hero, Father, Husband

Author’s Note:
Originally written in December 2006 as a tribute and obituary to my all-time favourite CNET reviewer who died while trying to save his family. Migrated here.

About two weeks ago on 24 November, James Kim, 35, a senior editor at CNET for MP3 and gadgets went with his wife and two daughters for a holiday to the beach. The family was expected to return to San Francisco on November 27. When both James and Kati failed to show up for appointments on November 28, co-workers began to worry for their safety. The Kims are known for keeping in touch daily with their friends and co-workers, either by phone or e-mail. After this time, a full-scale search effort were brought out to find the missing Kim family. Until many days, nothing was heard from the family and the situation was starting to look grim. Then on the ninth day (4 December), a helicopter pilot found the Kim’s car and managed to rescue Kim’s 30-years old wife, Kati and their two daughters, Penelope (4 years) and Sabine (7 months).

It turns out that James went out of the car two days before, on the seventh day, to look for help for his family. He planned to go to the town of Galice, which he thought was four miles away but was actually closer to 15. Then the heart-wrenching story of James Kim’s ordeal began. He built a fire for Kati and his children and says that he would return by midday. Then, by 7.45am, he went out of the car and went on foot to travel the miles, hoping to save his family.

He would never return.

Becoming GOD’s Answer In The Workplace

A few weeks ago, I was attending a prayer meeting held by a real estate company in Surabaya. By the end of the sermon, one of the managers moved to the front and gave the preacher a prayer list. The “prayer list” was actually a list of properties (houses and such) that had not been sold at that moment, and the company wished that the preacher would pray for the properties so that they can be sold soon.

There remains a debatable point among Christians whether we can pray to God on material things or not, whether we can pray a prayer such as “God, please help me sell this house by the end of this week”. Some people said that it is not good to pray like that, as God has His own plans and His own timing and He isn’t actually interested in our material or “worldly” interests. If we pray like that we will be forcing our own needs and timing to Him as if God is a genie in a bottle lamp. Still others held another perspective that God wants all of His children to be happy, successful and prosperous, thus we should petition all our requests to him (including, or rather, especially material ones).

Now while both viewpoints have their own merits, it is the prayer of this preacher that gave me insight upon a third, a new and fresh perspective on how we should pray for our jobs. In essence, he was praying for those properties to be the answer for those that seek it. What does it mean? I sat down with him after the prayer meeting and asked him about it. He told me that in this world, we cannot deny that people (even Christians) have material needs. Most of the time, we know what we need but we do not know how to fulfill it. We, as Christians, have a duty and an opportunity to be used by God to help out and give answers to these people who seek material fulfillment.

If you look at your occupation from this perspective, this fact is very true. I work in a shop that sells laptops, and most of the time, people came to my shop knowing what they need but they don’t know which one they need. They will tell me, “I have a $1,000 budget for a laptop and I need it for my work as a graphic designer, but I don’t know which one to choose. Can you help me find one that suits my needs best?”. After I know what he required, I will give him insights and present him with options and my personal recommendations. By the end of the day, he got what he needed and I got a feeling of happiness and enjoyment of being able to be used by God to help him and give a solution for his needs.

The same truth holds true no matter what your occupation is. You may be a car sales, a financial advisor, a marketing in a real estate company and everything else, but there is one Biblical truth that you must always hold true in your life, “Whatever you do, do your work heartily , as for the Lord rather than for men” (Collosians 3:23). In other words, whatever your occupation is, think of it as an opportunity the Lord has presented you to bless other people and be a part in God’s grace, care and providence through fulfilling others’ needs.

Think of every day as an opportunity and pray to God, “Lord, how will you use me to answer a person’s prayers today?”. A person might have prayed to God, “Lord, I am getting married soon and I only have $100,000 to buy a house. Will you open up a way for me?” or yet another might have prayed, “Lord, my daughter will study overseas and she have a problem with her illness. I need a health insurance, will you show me the right one to take?”. You never know that God might use YOU to be the answer to their prayers.

If you have never done it before, thank the Lord today for your occupation, for He is the one that gave you your present occupation and at the same time, by giving you an occupation, He is also giving you an opportunity to be of service to Him and for others. I pray that the Lord will instill on you the right perspective about work so that your life will be refreshed and renewed, and so that you will be able to experience joy in your workplace every day, knowing that God might just use you to be a blessing and answer someone’s prayers today.

Talitha Koum! It’s Time To Rise!

Holding her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum!,” which means “Little girl, ARISE!” And the girl, who was twelve years old, immediately stood up and walked around! They were overwhelmed and totally amazed.
(Mark 5:41-42, New Living Translation, paraphrased)

I was greatly blessed by the sermon today, where we talked about miracles and healing in the life of a believer. The sermon was based on Luke 8:40-56 where Jesus healed the woman with bleeding and also the daughter of Jairus. It was the latter part of the story — the healing of Jairus’ daughter — that touched my heart and resonated with me most.

Often times, we think that we have to do things to please and appease God before He would do miracles in our lives. But the point that struck me the most from the story was this, “what did the girl have to offer for God to do a miracle to her?” Money? Obedience? Faith? She had none of these. She had nothing she could offer, for she was dead… D-E-A-D! She couldn’t even say, “oh Lord, if you heal me then I will follow you all of my life.” There was nothing she could do to make Jesus heal her. She couldn’t even reach out to touch Him like the woman with bleeding.

Yet He did. Jesus did heal and restore her life. He had love and compassion for the child. He had great plans for her. And here today I will tell you that God loves you so much too and He have great plans in mind for you and your life! (Don’t believe me? Go read Jeremiah 29:11). Whatever trouble or difficult situation you may be facing right now, believe that Jesus will be there to say to you “Talitha Koum!” and restore your life, so that you can stand up and rise again.

Talitha Koum! Arise!
It’s time for you to make a stand and face those sins that’s haunting your life.
It’s time for you to get rid of that bitterness that you have carried for so long.
It’s time for you to start showing love and compassion to those that hurt you.
It’s time for you to be a beacon of light that shows people the way to Christ.

Talitha Koum! Arise! Will you rise up and be born again today?

HCSB Study Bible!

After a long time of waiting, I’m excited that the publishers have now released details on this upcoming and highly anticipated Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) Study Bible!

This bible is going to be released in the US on October 1st, 2010.

Don’t know when it will ever reach Singapore though, as even the  HCSB Apologetics Student Bible (released in February 2010 in the US) haven’t reached these shores yet. So if any one of you is going to come back from the US to Indonesia around October or November, if it’s not too much hassle I’d like your help on buying one of these for me. I’d even give you something for your efforts if you’d like.

I’ve been using the HCSB bibles for a long time now — as I have one HCSB Student Bible in my possession since about two years ago — and the translation is very good. Definitely better than the NIV in my opinion, I usually use the HCSB for in-depth studies of  the Scripture., while using my NLT for casual reading (as it is lighter and easier to comprehend). This upcoming study bible is going to use the revised version of the HCSB text, so I believe it would be much better and enjoyable to read.

As for the features of this Bible, you can find it here…

• One-minute visual trailer:

• How-to-use visual trailer:

• 16-page sample (Matthew):

  http://g.christianbook.com/netstorage/pdf/sample/405083.pdf

I’m very excited about this Bible and I’m gonna find a way to get my hands on it as soon as it is released.

Arranging Your Life Priorities

There was a time in my life where everything was in a total mess and confusion. I did not know how to arrange my priorities in life properly and in the end it led to many confusion and hurt. It wasn’t until I came to join my GO group and discussed about this issue with my fellow brothers and sisters that I finally found out the truth.

In our opinion, the proper priorities of life should arranged be this way:

1. GOD (personal, deep, intimate relationship)
2. Family (biological family, not family of believers)
3. Work or School (whatever your occupation is)
4. Ministry and Church Activities

Usually, the issue for most people here is that we often confuse between God and ministry. They often believe that God and ministry are the same, while in truth there are major differences between personal relationship with God and church ministry. Sometimes, ministry, if not being handled properly, can even get in the way in the relationship between you and God! How often it is that we are too busy doing our ministries that we forgot to step back and take time to have a personal and intimate relationship with God? I know I had made this mistake too in the past.

Time For Physical Healing

If you happen to be in Surabaya this weekend, I have a special invitation for you this Sunday…

Series: Christ’s Scenes Investigation (CSI) – Week #2
Place: ICA West, Pakuwon Trade Centre 6th Floor (Rooftop)
Time: Sunday, April 18th, 2010 – 8.30am, 10.30am and 4.30pm

To reach the place, just drive to Pakuwon Trade Centre, enter the car parking lot tower (the one which spirals upwards, not the basement one) and just drive to the 6th floor, the one on the roof. We’re having a 5-part series called Christ’s Scenes Investigation (CSI) that started last week, so this will be the second week of the series.

The special thing that we’re going to do this week is to pray for physical healing. Last week we prayed for financial healing in the lives of the people here — because business has been quite difficult lately for so many of us — and the outcome was tremendous. If you have anyone in need of physical healing (maybe even yourself), feel free to come this Sunday and we’ll pray for you so that God would do something in your life. Remember that whether He heals you or not physically, have faith that He has the best plan laid out for you already, so never despair and lose hope.

Personally, this Sunday I’ll be praying for two important people in my life that are currently in need of some physical healing from God (and I’d like to ask for your support in prayers too if possible)…

The first is my father. He is 54 years old now but still working very hard for the family and our future. Just this week, as he returned from a trip to Japan, out of nowhere he got something like an “ink blot” in his vision. We went to the doctor today to have a check and it turns out that my dad is developing symptoms of cataract. We were quite shocked with this development and still have no plans on how we are going to proceed with curing this. I just hope that this Sunday God would show his love, mercy and compassion to lend a healing touch to my dad’s eyes.

The second is my girlfriend’s mother (or “mother-in-law-to-be”, if that’s even a word), who is 61 or 62 years old now. She is also developing symptoms of cataract and she’s been having trouble with her legs. They are gradually weakening and she has been undergoing physiotherapy in the hospital for some time now. I asked her to come and she said that most probably she won’t be able to go with me this Sunday, so I’ll just pray for her healing this Sunday and hope that God would open a way and do something for her.

If you’re not in Surabaya but you would like for someone or even yourself to also receive the healing from God, please leave a comment below this post and I’ll be glad to pray for you this Sunday.

Another Start!

Hello world.

It has been quite a long time since I last wrote anything on the Internet. The date from my last post in my previous blog (for those of you who know where to find it) says June 28, 2008. That means I have gone into a nearly two years hiatus. A lot of my friends have encouraged me to start writing again, but all these times I’ve been too busy to write and I don’t have any good inspiration either. But I don’t know why, lately something is stirring inside me and telling me to start writing again and do it by first opening a new journal. Then God will take care of what I need to write later.

So – this is it! New address, new design, everything is fresh and new. For those of you who have been following me since my previous blog days, it is still there and I haven’t deleted or changed anything – so feel free to have a look around if you need something from those “olde” posts. But please note that I won’t be updating that old blog anymore and from now on I will only do my updates on this new journal.

Okay then, let me say “WELCOME” to those who are following me for the first time, and “UPDATE YOUR MARKS” for those who have been following me from the old times. I think it was 2004 when I first started to write, and if you are someone I know from that era, leave a message below and let me say thanks for being with me even until today.

Me out.