Thank you notes :)

Inspired by Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show Thank You Notes, I am now going to pen some of my thank you for my 33th birthday. This is not going to be hillariously funny like the one on Jimmy Fallon’s show of course, but it sorta have the same essence. Lookie…

Treasures for a woman’s heart

Ladies out there… what do you treasure the most?

hmmm… if I am to answer that question few months back, the options would be…

1. My BRAIN, though I am not a Berkeley graduate, but I am not a dumb dumb blonde girl… at the very least I know how to tab my own bill.
2. My BEAUTY, I always say I am beautiful. Then again beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
3. My BEHAVIOUR, I can be cool and collected even when I am about to explode. I use kind gestures, encouraging expressions, and positive words to most people around me. I know my way around people. I read Malcolm Gladwell’s books.

But right now, I tell you, I treasure something rather different. And it’s totally true what they said, where your treasure is, your heart is.

Abort! anyone?

It was our 6th meeting of Christian Beliefs classes. Basically they were just session where we watched Wayne Grudem and then discusssed topics with people who came. Some of what said were not new science. The discussion was what made the sessions alive.

When we came to “What is man?” topic. We had an interesting discussion about abortion. A friend raised her hand and asked “Is it okay to have abortion? How will this applied to a woman who got pregnant because she was raped? Because if we keep the baby alive, that baby will be a constant reminder of that incident (when the mother raped). The mother might hate the baby. And instead of helping the baby to have a life, that baby will live in a hatred broken situation.”

Our moderator, one of our elder at church, suggested to give up the baby to good christian families who are willing to raise the baby in loving and christian ways. He then referred to Bible passage to the story about a blind man who had been blinded since he was born. When Jesus’ disciples asked whose sin is this, that made this man blind since he was born, Jesus answered that he was blinded that God’s power will shown unto him. And regarding to the out-of-wed-lock babies, he said that, even through these situations, God can shwo His power.

Then everybody’s happy… or not?

All are welcome!

It’s so good to be able to be in the house of the Lord. Happy Sunday, God bless you.

what coins inside an offering bag mean

I will never sacrifice things that don’t cost me.

Last two weeks, we had a guest speaker at our church. He is a singer and a song writer, Bob Kilpatrick. He gave somewhat different color on that Sunday service, a good color. He shared a true story that his friend experienced few months back. And the story went like this.

His friend is a worship pastor and he always pray to God prior to leading a worship in Sunday service, asking God to reveal songs that he need to sing for the service. One time, he sensed that God directed him to lead two songs, songs that he hated, Jesus Loves Me and In The Garden. For once, he did not follow. The coming week, he prayed the same prayer and he got the same answer. He was still unwilling to sing that two songs. Until the third time, he gave up and led his congregation to sing these songs. On the day, when he annouced the song that they were going to sing, right after he said the title, one man stood up and shouted “This is my song!” and he danced along the song. The same thing happened, right after the pastor mentioned the second song title. He screamed “this song is for me, thank you God”. No doubt that everyone there surprised and confused. But at the end of the service, one elder came approaching the pastor amd shared a story. Apparently, that man had phobia of getting out of his room. He had been staying inside his bedroom for 34 years until 2 years ago when someone came to help him to overcome his phobia, a psychiatrist. For the past 2 years he and his psychiatrist were planning for an outing and they had decided to visit the church. Because he never got out hence never attend any church service, they chose 2 songs that they can practice together to sing at the churhc. So, for the past 2 years, they had been practicing 2 songs so that that man felt familiar with church, Jesus Loves Me and In The Garden. It was then, their outing day. When that worship pastor gave up and obeyed God and sang that 2 songs. Indeed, those songs were his. And how amazed that pastor must have felt after listening this explanation. It was as if God said, welcome home my son, let’s sing your songs.

Ten Words, Two Stones, Three Truths

“Run, John, run the law commands,
But gives me neither feet nor hands;
Far better news the gospel brings:
It bids me fly; it gives me wings.”

I was late today. And it was raining. I felt so cold. But one thing for sure, I should not be not on the best seat for my favorite speaker. I understood that there was nothing in this life that will last forever, not even a good preacher. So, I intended to make every minutes counted. So, I boldly moved to the front seat sitting there alone and cold.  Thank goodness, as the sermon was delivered, a group of New Zealanders sat on my row. Now, that will help to ease this coldness. I can be more relaxed in enjoying today. It was all about the ten commandments.

As every good Bible teacher would do, he expectedly open his preach with something catchy. Well, he opened the sermon with a song, kiddy song, the ten commandments. It was a warm breeze to this cold sanctuary, where we can witness the sincerity of children singing for God. And I learnt it as quickly as I could. 

Story of God: Mountain View

Finally, the long waited one.

Yup.

I have been waiting for ages to sit and listen to Dan Fennell’s sermon.

And it is today.

Thank God.

To celebrate his sermon, I’ll try to put up some of his insight in words.

Hopefully, I can also upload the recording.

JICF

~ Jakarta International Christian Fellowship ~

[original post was published on Sunday, May 30th, 2010. Due to some condition all content has been removed. This note is simply a reminder for the writer that the first and foremost idea of this post is not whatever written under this note.]

… I know this sounds awkward and corky. I mean, what am I doing writing something about a church. Isn’t that a blog reader turn offer? Yap, I shook my head in disbelief as well. But you know what they said, you gotta do what you gotta do, you gotta write what you gotta write. So, I hope this post is nice enough to keep you reading till the last word. Happy Sunday everyone!

Let’s DANCE!

When I meditated on the word guidance,
I kept seeing “dance” at the end of the word.
I remember reading that doing God’s will is a lot like dancing.
When two people try to lead, nothing feels right; the movement doesn’t flow with the music.
When one person realizes that, and let’s the other lead, both bodies begin to flow with the music.
It’s as if two become one body, moving beautifully.
The dance takes surrender, willingness, and attentiveness from one person and gentle guidance and skill from the other.
My eyes drew back to the word guidance.
When I saw “G”: I thought of God, followed by “u” and “I”.
God, you, and I dance.
As I lowered my head, I became willing to trust that I would get guidance about my life.
Once again, I became willing to let God lead.

JICF, May 9, 2010.
Let’s dance!