GOD OF BLESSING

I've got a new enlightenment when I entered this year. God gave me a new way to start a new job by being an entrepreneur. Not only that, He also gave me this yearly verse: The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it (Pro. 10:22).

At first, I didn't know why I got the verse. My friend who helped me to find the idea of homeworking thought that it must have something to do with my job. I tried to figure out what's the point behind it. I thought I was going to get what I wanted through this new job. But, we almost enter the fourth month, yet I still haven't got what I've expected.

I prayed and asked God to show me the meaning behind the verse. I always expect that it's connected with my homeworking job. I dreamt and hoped a new income from it. (It was because I knew that I would never got enough income from my other jobs. That's why I worked it enthusiastically.) But He shows me something else. Something I've never expected or imagined or thought. By April 1st, He entrusts me a new and better position in my old job.

All this time I thought if I worked harder, I would get what I wanted. I almost forgot that all blessings come from heaven. We can do everything, but God's favor decides whether we deserve to receive the blessing or not.

I will not stop doing my new job, but now I'm doing it with different purpose. I believe that God will bless me and give me the feeling of enough by ways I may never imagine or expect or think of. God is the God of blessings.

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THERE IS SOMETHING

There is something in His love
that I can never understand
There is something behind His deeds
that I can never comprehend

How many words to take
to tell about His love
How many lives to live
to witness His amazing deeds

Even if seas turns into ink
and sky turns into paper
it weren't enough to tell about His love
till seas run dry and sky becomes full

I admire Him in everything He does
I adore Him in everything He says
for He has loved me with amazing love
for He has touched me with forgiving pray

There is something in His love
that I can never understand
There is something behind His deeds
that I can never comprehend

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LIFE

Full of grace, full of mercy
Full of joy, full of glory
Every day You've given to me
is an expression of love and blessing

Full of tears, full of sorrow
Full of challenges, full of failures
Even though I have to face them
Your promises ensure me about future

Most of the time I don't understand
what kind of life waiting ahead
but one thing I know worth to stand
words of Your mouth will always have led

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SAD CLOWN

There was a clown at a park. Its funny face made every child who saw it laughed. Its funny style made every person who passed by smiled. Of course, that is what a clown do, to make other people happy. Of course, that was what this clown tried to do, to make other people joyful.

After working, the clown went to a public rest room to change and clean his make up. He was very different without his costume and make up. He looked so sad. When he went out, a father and his daughter approached him. Without recognizing the man, the father asked, "Excuse me, Sir. Do you see a clown around this park? My daughter really wants to meet him and see his attraction." With a tired and full of burden face, the man answered, "I am the clown."

Note:

True joy and happiness can only be seen in its nature, purity, heavenly nature. People can tell others that they are joyful, that they are happy, but it won't last forever; it will be easily gone when trouble and problem comes. Even a clown can hide his sadness through costume and make up, but that is not the real joy and happiness.

God wants us to be joyful always, no matter what our condition is. See... He wants "always/eternal/everlasting" joy, not the fake one. Such kind of joy (everlasting joy) can not be made up. Such kind of joy can only be gained from God.

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PLEASING WORDS

"I'm proud of you!" It is the most unforgettable sentence which was ever said by my brother. I am grateful that I knew him.

Well, actually the one I call my brother isn't my real brother. He was my sponsor. I have known him since I was in junior high school. He helped me in my education for several years. And during that years, we wrote to each other. The sentence above was repeated in almost all of his letters. "I'm proud of you!"

I was not always be a good child, I didn't always make a good score at school, but the sentence was never forgotten to write. And each time I received or read his letter, I always thought that I am loved and appreciated. Through his letters I found my strength, a will to be someone better. Through his letters I know I can face the world.

Good words can truly bless the hearer, the reader. It can even change someone's life. If I didn't know my sponsor, I think I would be someone worse than now.

Have you spoken pleasant words today? You will never know it, but your word might save someone's life.

Dear God, bless my mouth, my tongue, and every word coming out of it. I want to be Your blessing channel, saying all blessing changing effective words. Help me, God. Amen

Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

Pro. 16:24

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THE REAL SALT AND LIGHT

Be the salt and the light of the world!

Salt makes food salty, tasty. Light makes a place seen, clear, brighter. Salt keeps away tastelessness. Light keeps away darkness. Salt is meaningless to sea, salty things. Light is meaningless to bright places.

Both salt and light has a great influence over things it touches. Yet, it has no meaning among its kind. So, be the salt and the light for the needing people, at the needing places.

Someone ever said that most Christians who are born and raised and surrounded by Christians give a very minimum contribution in the world of evangelism. Why? Because all they see are people who do not need to be saved anymore. They should go outside, to the world, so that they can be the real salt and light for those who really need it.

Now, be the real salt and light that is highly effective and efficient for the hunger world.

Dear Father in heaven, use me as Your salt and light. I want to be the useful, the real salt and light, but I don't know where to start. Show me how to change a taste and replace a darkness in the heart of those who need You. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.

Mat. 5:13-14

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THE BEST

Everyday we try to do our best. We work for the best result and our goal is perfectness. It's good, and even a very good thing to do. But, whom are those things for?

We live among people, who know God and do not know God. Have we pay attention that they who do not know God, our God, also do good things, even things better than what Christians do? We have to admit that sometimes they do better than us in terms of doing God's words. But how come? They don't even know our bible and don't even trust our God!

We stay in a world where Christianity are demanded to show who is Jesus Christ. People can do things we do, but the clear difference between them and us is that we do things for the name of God, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the sake of Holy Spirit (not for ourselves). That's why Paul reminds us to do everything as for God, not for men.

But, what's its difference with we, Christians, doing best things? When we do best, it is stop on our standard. No matter how high that standard, it is still far from God's. But when we do things for God, we will do best things over best things we usually do. Why? Because the purpose of our deeds are not ourselves, but God of all created things.

We are children of God of BEST THINGS!!!

Dear God, now I know my purpose of life, that is to do best of the best. I need Your interference over my life. Please remind it to me, always. I love You, God. Amen

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men,

Col. 3:23

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SMILE!!!

People often think that the greatest gifts are the expensive and rare ones, but I don't think so. We can always give priceless gift at all days in our life. What is that? It is smile. Smile is the easiest and cheapest kindness we can give to others. Believe it or not, but smile can even transform hatred into love.

There are two people who live as neighbors. Their houses are not too far but they haven't known each other. One of them is a christian who loves to go to church, and each time she goes to church, she will pass her neighbor's house.

Without obvious reason, her neighbor didn't like her. It was expressed every time they met. The neighbor would always give a strange look and a way face. This christian never dared to ask why her neighbor did so. All she did was praying and asking God what should she do. One day she woke up with something in her mind. She decided to smile. She thought that smiling was a free and positive thing to do and she believed that it would make her neighbor's attitude changed over her.

Since that day, this christian always smiles to the neighbor. It didn't show any positive result at first, but in the next days, she finds that her strategy works, her neighbor starts to smile too. Now, they have a good relationship.

We can be God's hand in order to bless people through little things. You don't have to do dramatic or awesome things to attract them; just do something simple, as smiling.

Smile and the world will smile with you.

The world can't always make you smile,

but each time you smile, the world will also smile.

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P.U.S.H

I notice something common in some Christian conversation. It appears each time they talk about their plan, their problem, or their struggle. What is that? It is the term of, "... at least, pray."

Prayer sometimes refers to last attempt in dealing with things. "At least, pray" gives a connotation that prayer is the minimal effort when people still have no clue about other things to do. Well, ironically, prayer is the most powerful way among many powerful ways to solve problems.

P.U.S.H (Pray Until Something Happens) is supposed to be the first thing that comes to mind at every situation. I can not guarantee that every prayer will come true, but God can guarantee that endless prayer will be heard, and when it is made based on God's will, it will take its form, REALITY.

You can list hundreds ways to solve your problems, but make prayer as the first solution. And if you can only find prayer as the only solution, don't worry, it is more than enough. Prayer is more than enough; it's just, don't stop doing it, for its effect equals to billions solutions.

Dear God, I come before You with all I am. I bring You my life, my plan, my future, my problems. Help me to live it, God, since I have no more power and clue to face it. I know that You hear prayers, that's why I won't stop praying. In the name of Jesus Christ, my prayer hearer, Amen.

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 

Jas. 5:16

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JUST BELIEVE!

...

There can be miracle when you believe

Though hope is frail, it's hard to kill

There can be miracle you can achieve

When you believe somehow you will

You will when You believe

This chorus must have been very familiar in your ears. Yes, it is from "When You Believe" popularized by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston. This song has given a great influence all over the world, including me. It spreads the possibility in having faith in something, that miracle can do happen.

Having faith in something is not as easy as saying the word, especially when you can not see what you have to believe. I sometimes get difficult to believe my friend when he says that he's going to pay all his debt to me. Ha...just kidding. The point is, we often can't trust things we meet everyday, we see with our own eyes, we touch with our own hands... and now we are demanded to believe in things we can't meet everyday, we can't see with our own eyes, we can't touch with our own hands? It's certainly a very hard thing to do.

After Jesus passed away, Thomas and the other disciples were terrified and hopeless. They didn't know what to do, they even forgot when Jesus said that He would live again on the third day. Why? Because they couldn't find Him beside them, because He didn't speak to encourage them anymore, because without His presence, it was hard for them to trust Him. No wonder Jesus allowed Thomas to touch Him when He suddenly appeared among them; He wanted Thomas to make sure that his heart (his faith) didn't fail him. But, what did Jesus say to all of them? "...blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Jesus wants us to understand that everything in Him is beyond our imagination and expectation. And since we're still living in this perishable world, He teaches us to believe Him although we can't see or touch Him. Our God is able to do everything, but all the He asks from us is faith; that is the only way so that "the beyond things" come to our life.

Do you have problem with your health? Do you have problem with your family? Do you have problem with your future? I can't give you way out, but He can. All you have to do is believe. Miracle can happen, as long as you believe.

Dear God, give me faith. I really don't know what to do now. All that I have is You. Thank you for the freedom that You give. Thank you for that the solution that You make. Thank you for the answer. Even though I can't see it right now, I believe that You have worked it for me. In the name of Jesus, the only answer that I need, Amen.

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

John 20:29

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SACRIFICE

That girl was laid there, didn't move, didn't blink. She didn't know where she was, she didn't realize what's happening to her. She just stared at the sky.

She felt that she laid on something cold, something wet, something hard for her back skin. The wind breezed around her, touched her chicks and turned them cold. She tried to move her hand. It's difficult at first, but when she made it, she felt dirt, she felt soil.

She saw to the left and to the right, but she still didn't remember what had happened. She moved her body, tried to wake up. She felt dizzy, but she kept trying to understand the situation. She stood.

Not far from her, she saw her bike, broken, with no more form. She saw an old man, lying, not moving on the road side. She walked to him, but she suddenly realized that her right knee was bleeding. Ignoring the pain, she stepped closer.

She found him badly injured. She wanted to shout for help, but she found no one around her. She remembered that she had ridden her bike too far from her house to the hill next to the district. She remembered yelling to her mother because she didn't give her the doll she wanted. She paddled her bike with anger until she was almost out of her small town. She saw the image of the man in front of her, pushed her avoiding the main road to stay away of something. She tried hard to remember what it was, but she couldn't remember a thing about it.

The man had actually saved her from being crashed by a truck. The girl was riding too far until she didn't realize a truck behind her. The man didn't know the girl, neither did she, but he didn't had a choice. The only way to save her was by hitting himself to the girl, pushed her away of the road, while he might be the one who got hit by the truck. And it did happen. The man sacrificed his life for the girl.

Note:

God is just like the man. He sacrificed His life for us. No matter what fault we've made, He didn't thought another way but saving us, rescuing us, for that is the only way that we keep alive.

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WEAK LOVE

There was a woman who was falling in love. She loved her boyfriend so much, and she believed that someday they would unite as husband and wife. The man also felt the same thing for his girlfriend, until he decided to propose the woman to marry him. And, as what we've guessed, his proposal was accepted.

These couple had a very happy marriage. They filled their first years of togetherness by saying love to each other, sending gifts to each other at every special occasion, and other things a new couple usually do. Until that time came, time when those beautiful moments gradually disappeared. They started to get difficult to meet or communicate, because they were busy with their own activities. Finally, they felt that their love for each other had dimmed.

They decided to get divorce for they thought that it was the best solution for the cold love between them. They gave up on the marriage they'd been longing since they made a relationship. They forgot why they love each other so that they could easily end the love. They chose to fail their own promise at the altar. What a poor love, what a weak love.

Note:

We often hear how couples could easily marry, divorce, and remarry. We can never understand what's behind their doing since they have a lot of reasons to do so. But again, we are children in God; we will remember His Words that they who are united in Him can not be separated by men. These words are obvious enough in its meaning about how sacred and pure a marriage is. They who respect a marriage, will try to defend it no matter how hard it is. We can reason that our couple is no longer worth to call couple (husband and wife) for they have done painful things, terrible things. But, it should make us, children of God, to be more aware in finding our couple. Find the one who loves God and ask Him to show us the sign that they we love are really meant for us. It also should make us, children of God, surrender to God more than ever that we can't maintain our marriages by our own strength.

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UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

You love me for the way I am
You accept me for whatever I am
You never reject me for my weakness
You always welcome me with open arms

Your unconditional love has filled me
made me precious and worth to love
I've never met someone like You
who is so beautiful in the way You are

God, I'm so grateful to have You
I'm so blessed to know You
With You only I want to spend my days
You're the one I want, no other

Lots of songs I will offer before Your throne
I will fill Your house with adoration
Psalms of praise will come up from my room
every second, every minute, forever

God, thank you for the unconditional love
I think I can never be able to repay You
not in this life, not even in eternity
But allow me to love You with all I am

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THE MAN AND HIS WIFE

A man worked as a teacher in a remote area. He decided to become a teacher because he loved kids and he wanted to share his knowledge to children in such areas. His dream was to produce children who could lift their village through their knowledge learned at school. He lived with her wife and she supported him in everything he did, including becoming a teacher.

The school where he taught was far from his house. How did he go there everyday? He would walk for several miles through woods, fields, and small river for there were no public transportation there. When it was rainy season, he would face muddied and slippery road, and bigger flow of the river. The school was also a very ordinary school where he worked almost all of the school stuff by himself. He cleaned, he painted, he fixed the roof, he prepared the school materials, and many more. But, he did it earnestly, because he believed that someday his students would succeed.

One day, because of being too tired, the man got sick. He was paralyzed. He couldn't walk or go to school, and he was so sad knowing that he couldn't teach anymore. Seeing his husband wished to teach again badly, she wanted to do something for him. She then carried the man on her back, to and from school, and she did it everyday without complaining.

The man taught again, but he couldn't help seeing his wife did things like that everyday. She woke up earlier, prepared everything for the family, yet she still had to carry him to school. Finally, the man had a plan to make her wife asked for a divorce. He was angry all the time without obvious reasons. His wife was upset, and clearly triggered to be angry too. She then agreed for her husband request for a divorce. But, beyond his imagination, his ex wife didn't let him just like that. She kept carrying him to and from school everyday.

Note:

This story is truly inspiring. A man with his dedication and a woman with her loyalty; two things that are definitely hard to find these days. If people know one thing called love, they should see dedication and loyalty too in it, because love is not love without these two things.

We also have the most perfect example of dedication and loyalty, it is Jesus. And His story is the most inspiring story in eternity. Let's us learn about love, dedication, and loyalty from Him.

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PURE HEART

Having a pure heart is a very difficult thing to do. You have to be used to thing I call sacrifice. Someone can sacrifice things for others, but he might not have a pure heart. But the pure heart will never spent their time without sacrificing things for other people.

I had an appointment with my friends this evening. The place where we should meet was quite far from my house. My friends have their own motorcycle, but I haven't, and it makes me find difficulties to go to certain or far places. I didn't mind going by myself, taking the public transportation. But I had to go earlier than them because the public transportation around my place isn't as much as in other areas. If I ask you to calculate my expense for one day trip using public transportation, it will be enough for three days trips using motorcycle.

Arriving at the place, some of my friends borrowed some money from me. I wouldn't mind giving them the money, because I knew that they really needed it at that time. Besides, I also thought that I still have enough money to go home. Time moved on and it was getting late. When our activity ended, and I went home by taking public transportation, I realized that I didn't have enough money to take another transportation to get home. I stopped at the closest place to my house district, but I still had to walk for about 20 minutes to get home. No wonder, I was tired.

Without realizing it, I was suddenly filled with disappointment over my friends. "Why didn't they understand me or even try to help me?" This mind blinded me from God's voice. Thankfully, I prayed... It was the moment when God renewed my power and my heart. He thanked me for being independence and for being so kind that day. He said that I've done a good thing and that He appreciated it. He reminded me, deep inside me heart, that I had to learn to have a pure heart. He said it was not easy, but it was worth fighting, because He loved the pure heart.

When I said, "He (God) said...", it was not literal thing, but I knew I was right, I heard His voice through the Holy Spirit, I wrote His words through the Bible that He loves the pure heart. You may have also experienced times when you should sacrifice things, and it seems like you are the unlucky ones, but notice this, God know what you've done and He appreciates it. Don't contaminate it with complaint or grumble. Let's learn to have a pure heart, because that is what He wants.

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