Monday 12 January 2009

How to have abundant life?

My friends, I just want to share my experience last week when I went outside and looked the snow around, I saw its beauty and immediately God started ministering to me again. I began to see that when the snow cover the place, no matter how dirty, how bad and how stinky the things are, they become white and pure.

When I saw the garbage in front of my dorm which usually so dirty and full of rubbish, they are now fully covered. When I saw the cars in the parking lot, I just can't differenciate between the good and the bad, between the expensive and the normal, between the new and the old, between the clean and the dirty for the snow covered them all.

God reminded me about Bible verse that says "Come now, let us reason together," says the LORD. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool (Isaiah 1:18)

God loves us so much, He is our Father in heaven. He wants us to be saved, not to perish. He wants to give us a gift: Salvation. As the snow covered all the type of cars: good, bad, clean, dirty, expensive, cheap, new and old. God will cover all of our sins with His love IF ONLY we believe in His Son, Jesus Christ who has died on the cross for our sins. His precious blood in the cross purifies us. He doesn't care from which background we come from, He is our Creator and He shows no favoritism (Romans 2:11).

  • No matter how good we are, we still commit sins before God for the Bible said, "There is no one righteous, not even one, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:10, 23)" If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8). We need justification from God through the blood of Jesus Christ.
  • No matter how bad, dirty we are, God will forgive us IF we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).
  • No matter how rich we are, we can't buy our salvation. For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:18-20).
  • No matter how poor we are, we can still get salvation from God, for it is the gift of God, it is for free. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
  • No matter how strong, how clever, how wise we are, we still need Jesus Christ for the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength (1 Corinthians 1:25).
  • No matter how weak, unlearned and despised we are, we can have salvation for God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him (1 Corinthians 1:27-29).

My friends, this salvation is offered to everybody. Jesus came to save the world, not just Christians. In fact, many Christians are behaving as stumbling blocks instead of being as children of light. Many "Christians" are walking straight to hell, they are lukewarm, they are serving 2 masters. To my non-Christian friends, please do not allow those stumbling blocks shut the kingdom of God from you. God loves you and want you to be saved.

But God will only give to the people who are honest to Him, who admit their wrongdoing and their incapability to stand alone, who ask for help from God. And then, in that moment He will show Himself strong, He will do something great in your life. We are all naked in His eyes. He knows all about us even all of our dark secrets that nobody knows. Confess all of your sins and be honest with Him until your burden taken away, until you have nothing to hide and to shame. I just believe that when you do that with all your heart, you will be a different person, you will find your peace of heart for the very first time.

You will be a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). Your spirit will be quickened (Romans 8:11), your eyes will be opened, the scales will fall down from your eyes (Acts 9:18). Your nature will change from sinful nature to godliness (Romans 8:9), you will have renewal of your mind (Romans 12:2), your heart will change from heart of stone to heart of flesh (Ezekiel 11:19). He will write His Law and Commandment in your new heart, no more on 2 blocks of stone. You will know by yourself whether you sin before Him or not. If you have something not right with Him, your heart will condemn you and it feels so unbearable, you will immediately go and confess your sins to Him, otherwise your spirit will starve to death and your soul will be thirsty. We can't do anything without Him and it will continue for all of our lifetime and little by little we walk toward perfection, toward holiness. And we didn't work for it, it is gift of God. Our nature, our pleasure has changed and we just want to please Him and make Him happy. It gives us lot of joy to live this Christian life.

When you have love of God inside you, when you have Holy Spirit inside you, you will start walking like Jesus for the Bible said, "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did (1 John 2:6). You will have faith, hope and love. You will love your God will all your heart, your soul, your mind, your strength and you will also love your neighbours, including your enemies. You will have compassion and love toward people. Your life will be beautiful, colourful and full of noise.

You just can't stop telling people about your new life with God. You will tell people to come to Jesus and have this great experience. Great Commission is not a burden at all, it is your nature. You just want to sing and praise God all the days, reading Bible, praying, etc. You always want to keep in touch with your Father in heaven. My friends, If you don't have this feeling, you better hope not to go to kingdom of God.

  • Imagine, if right now you can't open your mouth to sing praise and worship, what would it be in His kingdom? In the church service which only 2 hours a week, you are tired and lazy, Wouldn't His kingdom be a miserable place for you because there you will praise worship Him all days long for eternity?
  • Imagine, if right now you don't want to listen to God, to read Bible, Word of God, in His kingdom you will always listen to His Word all days long for eternity. Wouldn't it be a miserable place for you?
  • Imagine, if right now you never talk to Him, you don't even know what to talk in prayers, in His kingdom what language will you speak, do you want to be mute there for eternity? Wouldn't it be a miserable place for you?
  • Imagine, if right now you hate your neighbours just because of their skin colour or races or their poverty, their behaviour, what will happen when you enter kingdom of God and you will see people come from all around the world with their own characters but one God, one faith, one unity, and only you alone who have faction and racism. Wouldn't it be a miserable place for you?

Living a Christian life is joyful, happy, colourful, and full of noise, you can't ask for more, you will be fully satisfied and you don't want to come back to your past life that full of misery, problems, troubles, and short-term happiness. Bible said, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it (Matthew 13:44-46). You will do anything you can to keep your new life instead come back to your past, miserable life.

Have you seen heartbeat monitor? If you are dead, it will be always constant, no movement at all, just a line, but since you were dead but now you are alive, your spirit is quickened, you will have many upside down in life.

That means your life will be full of noise. You will meet people who are kindly enough to lower their level from "normal" to "stupid" just to teach you about patience, you will find people who will persecute you just because of your faith by calling you "fool" just to bless you more, you will lose a lot of friends because they see you are different and no more one of them, just because God want you to tell you that "Bad company corrupts good character (1 Corinthians 15:33)". That's your life now, but you have Almighty God, the only One who is faithful, He will never leave you nor forsaken you. He is just more than enough.

I have a favourite Bible verse, it says "It shall come to pass... " My happiness will come to pass and change to sadness, my sadness will come to pass and change to happiness. My life will full of hills and mountains. There will be time for everything, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to be silent and a time to speak, etc.

Jesus makes me whole. If you don't have this kind of life, you better repent and ask God's forgiveness, have faith in Jesus Christ and see things will happen. God bless you

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