MENGATASI KEKUATIRAN

MENGATASI KEKUATIRAN

Siapa diantara kita yang tidak pernah kuatir?
Tuhan tahu bahwa kita manusia yang rentan terhadap kekuatiran, saat mata kita tidak focus pada Tuhan.
Matius 6: 25-34, Yesus berkata empat kali, “Jangan Kuatir” (ayat 25,31,34)

Kuatir akan apa? (ayat 25)
- Hidup (Kel 14:10-12, Yer 29:11)
- Makan atau minum (Kel 15:24, 16:2-3, 17:1-3, Bil 11:4-8)
- Tubuh (Yoh 9:1-3, Ayb 2:10)
- Pakaian (Kej 37:3-4)

Bila kita kuatir dan focus pada harta, kita sama dengan orang yang tidak mengenal Allah (ayat 32a)

Mengapa kita kuatir? (ayat 32b). Sebab kita tidak mengenal Bapa di sorga dan tunduk sepenuhnya padaNya.

Kekuatiran terjadi “karena”:
- Kita tidak sungguh-sungguh mengenal Bapa. Ia Yehova Jireh (Allah yang mencukupi) (Mzm 23, Yoh 10:14-15)
- Kita tidak focus padaNya (Yer 17:7-8, 5-6)
- Kita tidak menjadikan Dia sebagai Tuhan atas hidup kita, kita masih “berusaha membantu Tuhan” (Why 3:16-19, 2:2-5)
- Kita tidak mau berjalan dalam kebenaran Firman Tuhan seutuhny, kita hanya mau menjalani bagian Firman Tuhan yang “ringan”. (mat 19:16-26, Yak 2:10)
- Kita meminta berkat untuk kita habiskan dalam hawa nafsu (Yak 4:2c-3)

Apa yang harus kita lakukan (ayat 33):
- Carilah dahulu Kerajaan Allah (menjadikan Yesus sebagai Tuhan dan Raja atas hidup kita, bukan atau tidak sama dengan rajin ke gereja, ikurt PD/PA bahkan terlibat pelayanan)
- KebenaranNya (hidup tunduk pada perintah Raja atau Tuhan)
- Maka Tuhan akan memberikan apa yang kita perlukan.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2009

Merry Christmas and a happy new Year 2009. Harapan kami di malam Natal kita sekali lagi berjumpa secara pribadi dengan KRISTUS. Doa kami sekeluarga ada penghiburan dan kekuatan yang baru di malam Natal ini.

We that love and care for you,

Dave and Novie

WALKING THROUGH YOUR WILDERNESS

  WALKING THROUGH YOUR WILDERNESS
Have you ever prayed, "Lord, be relentless with me!" and really meant
it? The heart burden of that prayer is an intense desire that God will bring
to completion all His purposes for your life, no matter what it costs in
sacrifice or suffering or discipline. If I honestly pray such a prayer, I may
be setting the stage for difficult times ahead. Difficult? Yes! But full of
excitement, fruitfulness and fulfillment!
 
God will not pamper me, nor will He spare me the pains that are necessary to bring me up to the measure He has designed me to fill. If God has appointed for me a task of deliverance or leadership, I will, in the process of preparation, walk through a wilderness experience that is a great deal more pronounced and intense than the common ordinary variety of trials that all believers experience.
 
Jesus was in the wilderness forty days tempted of the devil, but he came forth from that intense time of testing in the power of the Holy Spirit
and began to cast out demons, heal the sick, and bring deliverance to the
captives. The word "drove" in Mark 1:12 indicates how important this
wilderness experience was. "And immediately the Spirit drove him into the
wilderness." This was no gentle leading. The word "drove" carries a burning urgency. Jesus was compelled by the Spirit. It was something Jesus, as a man, could not avoid if He was to fulfill all He was sent to do and to be.
 
God gave Abraham a promise of unusual fruitfulness, prosperity, and
influence, but between the time of the promise and the time of fulfillment
lay a wilderness of 25 years of walking by faith alone with no sign of the
promised blessing. This long dry spell was necessary to perfect Abram as the
father of those who walk in faith and to help him accept the name Abraham
instead of Abram. Abram means "exalted father" but Abraham means
"father of a multitude."
 
Joseph, as a young man, dreamed dreams of being used of God in a
place of responsibility and authority. He saw the vision long before he was
qualified to assume the role. Joseph had to walk through an agonizing
wilderness of reproach, resentment, false accusation, slavery, and
imprisonment before he was ready to function effectively as the Prime
Minister of Egypt and the deliverer of Israel in a time of famine.
 
The apostle Paul walked through his wilderness in Arabia before he emerged as a leader among God's people in the early church. If we knew the spiritual biography of every man or woman whom God has greatly used, we'd soon see that they all had something in common. They could all point to a wilderness they had walked through before they came into an experience of abundant fruitfulness to the glory of God and the good of mankind.
 
Are you faced with a wilderness experience that you have sought to avoid? Is the Holy Spirit urging you to a course of action that will result in personal growth and development for you and deliverance for those who sit in darkness?
 
Moses became a leader and a deliverer only after he spent 40 years in a lonely wilderness. When he was finally convinced that he was nothing in his
own strength, then God appeared to him and called upon him to go in the
strength and authority of Jehovah and deliver Israel from Egyptian bondage. If we can see the true nature of our wilderness and what God designs for us in it, we will be better able to bear the pain and inconvenience of walking through it. Here are some things to consider about your own personal wilderness:
 
First, your wilderness is good for you. The Spirit drives or urges you
into your wilderness because it is the will of God for you. And the will of God
is always good.
 
Second, your wilderness will be uncomfortable. It is a time of fiery
trial, testing and discipline. It is said of Jesus that "Although He were a son, yet learned He obedience by the things which he suffered." Down through the ages, men and women of God who have been mightily used of God have gone through the fire and through the flood in some personal way. Praise God for the promise in Isaiah 43:2 that when we to through the floods He will be with us and they will not sweep us away. And when we go through the fire, we will not be burned!
 
Third, your wilderness points to an increase in power and effectiveness. Jesus' wilderness issued forth in a mighty ministry of deliverance. The scope and measure of your wilderness and your ministry will be unique to you, but there will be a great deliverance wrought for you and for others as a result of your cooperation with God in walking patiently through your wilderness.
 
Fourth, your wilderness is a time of character building. The apostle Paul said, "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us." Your wilderness may lead you through suffering, hardship, discipline, misunderstandings, and many
other unpleasant experiences. But God is building into your inner man
steadfastness, patience, wisdom, perseverance, knowledge, and forbearance.
God's very likeness and glory will shine forth from you because you have
walked with Him through the fire and through the flood.
 
Will you now accept and embrace your wilderness and walk patiently through it for the glory of God? It is important that we understand this, for if we walk reluctantly; complaining and murmuring with every step, our wilderness could become a place of bleached bones, as it was for the Israelites in Moses' day. But if you will recognize it, and embrace it, and walk through it with the praises of God in your heart and on your lips, God will bring you into a large and fruitful place! You will be totally fulfilled for you will see His glory revealed in you and through you to the building and expansion of Christ's Kingdom in the earth.
 
 

Forgiveness brings Revival

FORGIVENESS Brings REVIVAL
-by Tony Langton.

A few days ago a minister friend of mine traveled to Kentucky to
preach in a church. Shortly before he arrived, the pastor's wife
was stricken with illness. She requested prayer for healing, but
before she was prayed for, a man in the church asked her some
important questions. He asked, "When did this illness start and
what was happening in your life when you got sick?" She
answered by saying her illness started about the time a major
incident occured in their church daycare, in which she was
involved. The Lord revealed to this woman that she had critically
judged some people involved in the daycare incident. She
repented of this sin and was healed, which set the stage for
what God was going to do next.

Later my minister friend showed up to teach, among other things,
about the crucial need to forgive those who had wronged them
so they could be right with God. The Lord moved there in a
remarkable way as the Holy Spirit uncovered unforgiveness in
the leaders and the congregation. Many church people there
were convicted that God wanted to clear up all the relational
"viruses" before God could descend upon them in power.

My friend said that he personally prayed with approximately 40
people who were seeking repentance and wanting to make things
right with others in a congregation of about 150 folks. This is the
beginning of a true revival. I believe there will be an increased
movement of God in the future, but much of it will be preceded by
a time of great adversity where everything that can be shaken
will be shaken. In the middle of this crisis I believe there will be
an outpouring of God's Spirit. The Lord is giving His church the
forewarning so that we can have a song of praise in our hearts
beforehand and be prepared to help others.

Are there any relationships that you need to clear up?

~Tony Langton.

When others dissapoint you

When Others Disappoint You
by Os Hillman www.marketplaceleaders.org
________________________________________
"Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica" (2 Tim 4:9-10).
Adversity molded the apostle Paul into the greatest warrior for Christ the world has ever known. But there were times when adversity and disappointment took its toll on this rugged warrior. We can sense Paul's hurt and discouragement near the end of his second letter to Timothy:
Do your best to come to me quickly, for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone to Thessalonica... At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me... Do your best to get here before winter (4:9-11,14,16,21).
Do you hear the pain in those words? Twice he urges Timothy to come to him. Do you feel his anguish when he twice speaks of being deserted by his friends?
In most of his letters, Paul seems to have an invincible spirit. Yet he was a man who suffered, felt betrayed, and was at times very lonely. However, Paul chose to look at life from a heavenly perspective. That's why he could write:
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body (2 Cor. 4:8-10).
Paul had experienced a level of opposition and suffering that you and I can scarcely imagine. People said they would do things but did not follow through. He could not depend on certain people. Yet he was not crushed, and he refused to give in to despair. He viewed his life as a continual process of dying. His goal was to live in such a way that the life of Jesus would be revealed in his response to adversity.
Beware of placing too much expectation on others. Realize that people will let you down from time to time, but do not let that impact your faith. Trust God to work even through these disappointments.