Tuhan itu Dekat

TUHAN terlalu mengasihi kita.. 

IA tak akan pernah meninggalkan kita dalam keadaan berantakan. 

IA mempunyai rencana untuk kita yang jauh melebihi dari apapun yang dapat kita bayangkan.

Malam tanggal 6 September 2012, adalah malam yang menyedihkan. Hati saya bercampur aduk menjadi satu. Rasanya sesak di dada. Airmata tak dapat ditahan. Rasanya ingin memeluk seseorang, dan menangis di bahu sahabat namun tak bisa karena ternyata saya sendirian di ruangan kos yang baru itu. Dengan barang-barang pindahan kos yang masih berantakan, saya hanya dapat duduk menengadah. Seakan tabir langit terbuka dan hanya bisa memanggil Nama Tuhan tanpa bisa berkata apapun.

Malam ini, saya sedang berkelahi dengan pacar saya karena kepindahan kos ini merupakan kesepakatan bersama agar kami dapat mengevaluasi hubungan ini. Saya kecewa karena walalupun kami sedang perang dingin, saya mengharapkan malam itu dia ikut mengantarkan saya ke kos yang baru bersama mobil pick-up yang disewa. Sepanjang jalan saya pikir, ia mengikuti dari belakang mobil namun ternyata tidak. Akhirnya, saya pun mengangkat barang bersama driver mobil Pick-Up dengan hati yang sedih. Apakah ia sudah merasa terlalu capek dengan saya? Dengan relasi ini? Apa keputusan ini baik untuk dirinya dan saya?

Sambil mengatur barang-barang yang berantakan, tiba-tiba handphone saya berdering. Adik mama mengabarkan kepada saya bahwa mama mengalami kecelakaan dan tidak sadarkan diri karena luka yang dialami cukup berat dan menghabiskan banyak darah. Mulut dan dagu harus dijahit. Lutut pecah dan darah keluar dari telinga. Begitulah berita yang saya dengar.

Sekujur tubuh saya pun dengan cepat menjadi dingin dan lemas. Saya tersungkur di lantai kamar, di atas tumpukan buku-buku yang masih berhamburan. Mengapa hati ini terasa berat?

Malam terasa sangat panjang dengan dihibur oleh suara isakan tangisan saya sendiri.Aku memang lemah, tapi Engkau Kuat ya Tuhan. Jadi tolonglah..

Tuhan..

Engkau tahu dan mengerti apa yang kurasakan. Kesedihan mendalam dan kekecewaan menyakitkan. Aku benar-benar hancur saat ini. Tapi tolong jangan tinggalkan aku dalam kehancuran dan kesedihan ini. Dalam kondisi yang berantakan ini.

Tak selalu tahu maksud-Mu tapi ku tahu pasti hati-Mu..

Bahwa KASIH-MU selalu cukup bagi-ku untuk maju terus di dalam-MU..

Marriage 2#

Ingin MEMPERJUANGKAN sampai titik darah penghabisan. 

Ingin mempertahankan sampai dapat menikmati HASIL-nya. 

Walalupun sulit dan sesak rasanya, kutahu semua relasi menghadapi pergumulan yang sama seperti itu. 

Telah memikirkan KOMITMEN ini sebaik-baiknya. 

Engkau tahu, aku bukanlah wanita yang mudah MENYERAH. 

Namun, jika Engkau mau agar aku membiarkan ia pergi, maka aku akan melakukannya.

BERJUANG ATAU BERHENTI DI SINI ?

Kintamani-Batur-Gunung Agung, BALI

Menjelajahi jiwa di hadapan sang Danau Batur yang tenang dan damai.. 
Tiga gunung yang menjulang tinggi menjadi penjaga yang tangguh bagi-nya.. 
Menikmati munculnya bulan purnama dari balik Gunung dan menjadi saksi biasan sinar yang memukau di danau Batur.. 
Satu kata, FENOMENAL..

Surat Kecil dari TUHAN

Kepada : KAMU
Tanggal : HARI INI
Dari : TUHAN
Perihal : DIRIMU

Ini AKU,
AKU akan menangani semua masalah-mu..

Catatan:
Dan ingat,
Bila dunia ini menyodorkan masalah yang tidak dapat kau tangani sendiri,
Jangan berusaha menyelesaikan masalah itu.

Tetapi, letakkanlah saja masalah itu di box-KU untuk KU selesaikan.
AKU akan menyelesaikan masalah-mu sesuai jadwal yang AKU tentukan sendiri.
Semua masalahmu pasti akan AKU selesaikan, tetapi sesuai jadwalKU, bukan jadwalmu.

Setelah semua masalahmu, kamu letakkan dalam BOX, Janganlah kamu pikirkan dan khawatirkan.
Sebaliknya, fokuslah kepada semua hal-hal yang baik yang sedang terjadi padamu sekarang.

Bila kamu terjebak kemacetan di jalan, janganlah marah, sebab masih banyak orang di dunia ini yang tidak pernah naik mobil seumur hidupnya.

Bila kamu berhadapan dengan masalah di tempat kerja, berpikirlah bahwa masih banyak orang yang menganggur bertahun-tahun tanpa pekerjaan.

Bila kamu sedih karena hubungan keluarga, pikirkanlah orang-orang yang belum pernah merasakan mencintai dan dicintai.

Bila kamu merasa bosan dengan akhir minggu, pikirkanlah orang-orang yang harus lembur siang dan malam tanpa libur untuk menghidupi keluarga dan anak-anaknya.

Bila kendaraan-mu mogok dan mengharuskan kamu berjalan kaki, janganlah marah, pikirkanlah orang-orang cacat yang sangat ingin merasakan berjalan di atas kakinya sendiri.

Bila kamu melihat di cermin rambutmu mulai berubah, janganlah bersedih, sebab mempunyai rambut hanyalah merupakan impian bagi orang-orang yang dalam perawatan kemoterapi.

Bila kamu merenungi makna hidup-mu di dunia ini dan merenungi apa tujuan hidupmu ini?
Bersyukurlah karena banyak orang yang tidak mempunyai kesempatan hidup yang cukup lama untuk merenungi kehidupan mereka.


With LOVE'
G  O  D

The Tyrant and Daniel

'If you do not tell me the dream, there is only one penalty for you...' The astrologers answered the king, 'There is not a person on earth who can do what the king asks!'... This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon.
Daniel 2:9-12

There have been many tyrants in our world over the past seventy years or so, vicious and unpredictable men with the power and means to terrorise and destroy. Nebuchadnezzar was probably not the first, and certainly not the last to have filled his servants with dread and anxious insecurity.

The 'wise men' of Babylon were commanded to interpret the king's disturbing dreams; only he refused to tell them what they were. This was a 'public decree' and failure meant death. They would probably have told the king anything to keep him happy. But they were caught between an impossible demand and the arbitrary and irrelevant messages from their occult practices and divinations. Desperate enough to remonstrate, they were soon herded together for execution while the king's troops went off to find Daniel and his companions, also the king's 'wise men', in order to execute them as well.

Daniel took the initiative. 'With wisdom and tact' (2:14), he questioned the executioner, assessed the situation, and then asked for a short delay, saying that he would give the interpretation. He and the other Hebrews began a night of urgent prayer, and in the night God revealed to Daniel the king's troublesome dreams.

Daniel demonstrated faith, courage and diplomacy. He trusted in God's greater purposes. But he and his friends always had a 'but if not' clause - they might die themselves, but God's purposes would never be thwarted (see 3:18). He did all he could to save the Babylonian wise men; he didn't distance himself from the pagan magicians or take advantage of them. He had taken the trouble to understand the culture and worldview round him and knew enough about the king to interpret his frightened and angry demands. But he would only speak the truth. He may have been apprehensive, but he was never scared witless - because he knew the living God was with him.

Christians in some parts of the world today face similar kinds of life-threatening tyranny. But for most of us it may be the petty tyrannies of school bullying, office rivalries, unpredictable bosses and domestic aggression. How do we handle these?

"Daniel demonstrated faith, courage and diplomacy. He trusted in God’s greater purposes." 

 

by Margaret Killingray

Engaging with a World

To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.

Daniel 1:17  My father-in-law was a faithful hard-working Christian, who helped found a church, and was Sunday school superintendent and church secretary for many years. But he never voted, and viewed much of the world’s activities as something to be avoided. When we trotted in from university full of the sociology and economics we were studying, his response was, ‘The world by wisdom knew not God’ (1 Corinthians 1:21). He thought there were better things to do!

Daniel, forcibly removed from his God-focused society into comfortable but restrictive house arrest in a pagan land, did have a few choices. He could have refused to cooperate and been intransigently hostile, probably ending up dead or enslaved. He could have simply given up, accepted total defeat and obediently done what he was told.

Instead he and his friends went to the enemy’s schools, learnt to function in an alien culture and language, read the literature, and engaged with the worldview. But at the same time they chose to maintain their independence as the servants of the one true God. Daniel decided to refuse the food allocated them from the king’s kitchens. And because ‘God had caused the official to show favour and compassion to Daniel’ (1:9), they were permitted to live on vegetables.

They established their independence and essential difference from the enveloping and swamping totality of the imperial culture and social world of the palace, with an act of self-effacing humility and self-discipline, without rancour, or disdain for their captors. And after their training, no one was found to compare with them. They were now in a position to influence events within the throne room of a powerful king.

Someone once said that Christians in the world are sometimes chameleons, fading into the colour of the culture, sometimes ostriches with heads in the sand avoiding all contact, and sometimes porcupines, confronting with hackles raised. Daniel chose to understand the world he was in, to respond with courtesy and friendship to his captors, but also to establish his credentials as a servant of the living God.

How do we respond to the world we inhabit?

"Daniel chose to understand the world he was in, to respond with courtesy and friendship to his captors, but to establish his credentials as a servant of the living God."

by Margaret Killingray

Kenali Tulang Rusuk-mu

Untuk para pria..

Seorang bijak dalam blog-nya berkata:

"Wanita selalu mengembalikan yang lebih untuk pria"

Jika kamu memberinya RUMAH, maka ia akan memberimu KEHANGATAN dalam rumah-mu.

Jika kamu memberinya BERAS, ia akan mengembalikan NASI untuk-mu.

Jika kamu memberinya CINTA, ia akan memberimu pengabdian seumur hidupnya.

Tetapi jika kamu memberinya HINAAN, ia akan memberimu doa dalam airmata kepedihannya, dan itu berarti siapkan dirimu untuk berjuta KEMALANGAN.

Jika kemarin kamu berdoa dan yakin bahwa dialah tulang rusukmu, maka terimalah dia bukan sebagai wanita yang sempurna, melainkan sebagai wanita yang TERBAIK dari TUHAN.

Bukanlah dia yang tidak pernah berbuat salah, tetapi dia yang selalu berkata maaf untuk setiap kesalahannya dan ia yang punya sejuta maaf untuk kesalahan-mu.

Ia yang menerima masa lalu-mu dan yang siap merancangkan masa depannya bersama-mu.

Ia yang akan selalu cemas dan hilang akal ketika kamu tak memberinya kabar.

Jika dulu sifat manjanya membuatmu tertawa lucu, cemburunya berarti sayang, airmatanya bisa menyayat hati-mu, NAMUN sekarang semuanya itu menjadi alasan kamu melepaskannya, maka merenunglah sejenak!

Mengapa wanita tercipta dari tulang rusuk pria, bukan dari tulang kepala karena wanita bukan untuk memimpin pria, bukan dari tulang kaki karena wanita bukan alas kaki pria.

Wanita tercipta dari tulang rusuk pria karena dekat dengan hati, agar wanita menjadi pendamping, penjaga hati pria.

Karena wanita akan terlelap dalam dekapan pria.

Wanita selalu tahu dari sana-lah ia berasal.

What is a Christian Artist?

I’m a double major in the visual arts and a leader in the art community on my campus so I jumped at the opportunity to join other artists for five days to explore our opportunities and challenges as art students who follow Jesus. I was curious about how my peers integrate their art and their faith. Here is what they had to say at the recent StoneWorks Arts Leadership Training Conference (SALT).

I travelled to Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi to attend SALT, expecting to learn more about God’s calling on my life as an artist. I was excited to meet other people who were passionate about ministering to their campuses and communities through their artwork. I wasn’t disappointed!
It was so inspiring and refreshing to see Christian artists from across the country come together. We represented many different visual and performing arts disciplines and we were all encouraged and empowered to offer our gifts in service to God.

During the conference, speaker Dr. Colin Harbinson talked about what it means to be a Christian artist and the obstacles, or “stones,” we commonly face. Three areas of struggle for many Christian artists are issues related to the church, or the artist personally, or within the culture at large. He emphasized the need to remove these “stones” so that we can be free to live up to our identity as artists. He is the International Director of Stoneworks, a global arts initiative.
I asked some of the art students at SALT about their thoughts on what it means to be artists and Christians on campus and in the world. Here are some of their responses:

What does it mean to you to be a Christian artist?
Meg, a senior at Southern Illinois University, understands the difference between the terms “Christian artist” and “Christian art.” “Someone at SALT said that the word “Christian” is not an adjective; it’s a noun. “Christian” doesn’t describe the art, it’s just art made by someone who loves Christ. I think that’s a really simple way to look at it.”
“I’ve always seen creative expression as one of the greatest gifts God has given us as human beings; we have this ability to express ourselves that is purely from God,” said Grace, a sophomore at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). “There’s no real separation there, to be an artist, to be a Christian, to be a follower of God — it’s all a form of worship and connection with him on a really deep spiritual level. Even if you don’t make explicitly “Christian art,” being a Christian means that your values and your beliefs will come out in what you produce.”
See Grace’s video where she shares her thoughts on art as a form of worship:
Worshipping God as an art student from StudentSoul on Vimeo.

Stephanie, a senior at MICA, believes that being a Christian artist is a way she can bring hope to people in the fine arts community. “I think that the fine arts world is often an unhappy place and the joy that I have as a Christian comes through my art. I choose to be an artist because the arts don’t give answers; they pose questions — and that’s the most effective way to do ministry,” Stephanie said. “People don’t want to be told what is right; they want to come to it on their own. I think the Holy Spirit uses the arts to do that.”

What difficulties do you face as a Christian artist on your campus?
“The hardest thing to overcome as a Christian in an arts school is the preconceived idea of what a Christian is,” said Stephanie. “When people find out I’m a Christian, they say “I’ve never met a Christian who accepts me.” I think that just meeting people where they are is the most important challenge that we as Christians have to take on.”
“Because my campus is, in some respects, hostile towards Christianity, it is difficult to practice an art form that you know is God-given in an environment where people don’t see it that way. Christianity is so steeped in the history of art that it’s hard to be in an artistic setting and not talk about Christianity. It is fertile ground for discussing questions people have about the history of the church,” said Grace. “What’s important for me now is to display my faith through my actions and my art for people on my campus who aren’t receptive to my words.”

What impact did SALT have on you personally?
“I’ve been learning just how intricately the artistic side of me connects with my faith and how to express what I know about God and how I feel about God through my art,” said Meg. “I have this really strong sense of possibility and calling on my life. I’m excited about stepping into that and living it out. I feel released and free, as if God is saying, Don’t be afraid or hesitant; just jump into it and see what I’ll do.

“SALT reaffirmed in me the fact that I am a leader in the arts. It sparked a fire in me to share everything I’ve learned, like a reinvigorated commission” said Stephanie. “Through this conference, I sense God telling me that this is what he wants me to do and what he’s enabled me to do, so I must go do it. I think that the message of Christ’s love communicated through the beauty of the arts is something that I am able to take into the world now.”
Dick Ryan, InterVarsity’s Director of Arts Ministries, summarized the SALT conference by saying, “We’re trying to create a way for people to become high-quality, productive artists and, at the same time, to become high-quality, productive Christians. This happens in an authentic community with others where there is a safe place for honest discussions about life, God, and the arts. This is what we want our students to be doing when they go back to their campuses.”
—by Angela Schram

Conflict with GOD

If there is indeed some truth to the Illuminati conspiracy, the Illuminati are nothing but pawns in the hands of Satan, tools to be manipulated in his conflict with God. 

The fate of the Illuminati will be the same as the fate of their lord, Satan/Lucifer, who will be cast into the lake of fire, to be tormented day and night, forever and ever (Revelation 20:10). 

In John 16:33 Jesus declared, 

"In this world you will have trouble. 
But take heart! I have overcome the world." 

For Christians, all we need to understand about the Illuminati conspiracy is summarized in the words of 1 John 4:4, 

"You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world."

From Faith to Faith

by Daniel Kirk

What makes us Christians? What defines us as a people?
“I believe in God the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his only begotten son, our Lord…”

That’s one way of doing it. We are articulate what we believe. In an upward gesture, we define ourselves by a common set of postures toward God, Jesus, and Spirit.
What makes us who we are, what saves us, is our faith.

But, as I’ve argued here before, we need to be careful how we identify ourselves. We need to exercise care because how we define who we are will determine what we think faithful action looks like.

Ethics and identity are inseparable.

I’ve been arguing for some time that we need to reconstrue our identity and our ethics in narrative terms. We need to loosen our grip on statements of faith, and move toward more fully living into the story of the narrative of the faithful Christ.
It strikes me that what I’m arguing for is a wholesale transformation of our way of understanding Christian faith that corresponds to a shift in the way many Paul scholars are reading the phrase, “the faith of Christ” (πίστις χριστοῦ).

This phrase can be read one of two ways.

1. Christ can be seen as the object of faith (thus the phrase “objective genitive” as the Greek construction). This would mean, “[our] faith in Christ.”
2. Christ can be seen as the subject of faith (thus the phrase “subjective genitive” as the Greek construction). This would mean, “Christ’s faithfulness.”

At bottom, what is Paul after? By what are we justified in the sight of God? Is it our faith in Jesus? Or is it Jesus’ faithfulness in going to death on the cross?
The idea that we’re justified by our own faith in Christ is part of a larger way of construing Christian identity in terms of believing the right things about God.
When Richard Hays renewed the argument for the subjective genitive (“Christ’s faithfulness”) reading of Paul, the subtitle of his work was this: “The narrative substructure of Galatians 3:1-4:11.”

The point is not simply that we translate a phrase in one particular way. The larger point is that this translation reflects a deeper structure in Pauline theology.
Paul is a narrative theologian. He tells the saving story of Jesus. And he invites his congregations into it.

It might be that Hays was onto something even larger than his own initial project caught sight of (or, at least, articulated): by decentering our faithful response, the faithfulness of God in Christ can return to center stage. We can being to creatively reimagine what it means to be the faithful people of God, not as those who believe a certain list in a shared statement of belief, but those who are active participants in the saving story of the crucified Christ.

Not only might we make room for a storied theology, we might make room for a storied identity that gives rise to a faithful, storied ethic.