Only by Grace

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Note: This is a guest post by Yohan Setiawan

Plus haut
iko / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Hi guys,

I wrote this song a couple weeks back. It all started by a thought. I was thinking about how unworthy and filthy we are as sinful people. Yet, God with His great great love would send His Son to die for us. So that we would have a way to be with God. How amazing is that? He has chosen us specifically to be His child and we could be with the Father.

The first verse is about our confession and how we were before we received God and how God took us and nurtures us in Him despite our rebellious nature. Ultimately, He cleansed us as white as the snow with His Holy Blood. This is the greatest gift that one could ever imagine. What a wonderful God we have. Every row in this serve is deliberately started with the word I to explicitly show our self-centered-ness and our struggles as believers trying to grow.

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Following the will of God – my admiration to Noah

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Noah's Ark Toy Skirball Cultural Center Los Angeles
Al_HikesAZ / Foter / CC BY-NC

Each one of us has one or more “idols” in the Bible. People that we admire, such as Jesus, Daniel, or Paul (probably one of the most popular ones). But these few years, I have grown my admiration to Noah. Now I rarely hear people actually admire Noah. I mean, yes, we know his story and we’ve heard countless of sermons on him too.

But personally, how far do you know his struggles and admire him for it?

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A tree in the midst of storm

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English: Tree by the road No guessing as to wh...

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There are times when we are deeply troubled and pondered whether our convictions in God’s plan were fake, were shrouded by our own feelings. Problems, things we expected that never happen, plans that seem to go wrong, and many other “storm” in our lives.

A post shared by a friend that she took from a devotional reminds me (and hopefully you) about a tree in the midst of storm. A tree, planted by God. It’ll never fail, it’ll never fall, no matter how hard the storm is.

Let us be that tree. Let us be strong in what ever darkest valley we are enduring at the moment. Let us be content in God’s love, grace, and perfect plan no matter how hard it may seem.

If we were sure before that our conviction was planted by God Himself, why doubt, oh, soul with little faith?

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Greed – The Parable of the Rich Fool

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Coins-9r7l

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In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus was giving a great advice to all of us, along with a great parable: The Parable of the Rich Fool. The story reminds us of our main priority in life – it’s not all about being successful or being rich. It’s all about Jesus, it’s all about His Glory, it’s all about becoming “rich” towards God.

Greed makes us deviate from this true goal of life and most of us may not be aware that we have fallen into it (and greed is not just about money). Let’s try to take a closer look at this parable and the story in Luke 12:13-21.

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How to hear God’s Voice – Part 4

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This is the last part (Part 4) of “How to hear God’s Voice” series. Please make sure you read How to hear God’s Voice – Part 1 first before you read this one through.

 

praying

Image by ater_unda via Flickr

 

In the last part (Part 4), I will discuss about the “WHAT” factor – What if we are still unsure? Especially for major decisions, it is imperative for us to really know that it is the voice of God’s. Following our “intuition” is going to cost us grief in the future if we are not in tune with God’s will.

 

Then I’ll close it with the “WHEN AND WHERE” – when you feel God is silent or just doesn’t care with what you are going through at the moment. Or when you just can’t seem to hear His voice or answers to your prayers.

 

 

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Enemies of the Heart by Andy Stanley

enemies of the heart
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This is my personal review on Enemies of the Heart audiobook by Andy Stanley, as part of christianaudio reviewer program

enemies of the heartThis is one of the books that I’d trully recommend for others to read (or listen to). Enemies of the Heart strikes deep and makes us to truly identify the most core foundation of what we say and what we do, our heart.

Have you ever wondered what’s your heart condtion at the moment? No, not the physical one. Have you ever wondered why certain nasty things came out from your mouth? Or  an action that you did in the past that left you regretting for the whole life? Ask your heart – it’s the place to answer all of your questions.

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Knowing God by J.I. Packer

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This is my personal review on Knowing God audiobook by J.I Packer, as part of christianaudio reviewer program

knowing GodKnowing God is a book by J.I Packer that focuses on explaining the true God in biblical manner. Often in this modern world, our concept about God has diminished or simply been clouded by current trends, society, culture, and many more.

Some people find it hard nowadays to see the true God such as His real characters and what He approves and disapproves. Some even believe they have known God really well and close, where in fact, they haven’t.

J.I Packer explains from the Bible about God and He covers almost everything you can imagine about God – such as His Grace, His Wrath, His Sovereignity, and many more.

It’s a good book for new Christians but also a good book for Christians in general. Knowing God in practice is of course not as easy as it may sound. Even with 9.5 hours long, this audiobook cannot simply cover everything about God and we can never uncover 100% about God as He is simply way beyond our knowledge and brain to understand. However, this book does cover many foundational doctrines about God and in biblical truth. There are a few minor interpertations that I disagree but they are pretty minor (such as the author mentioning that it was a volcanic erruption that hit Sodom and Gomorrah – which was never mentioned directly in the Bible, etc).

The audiobook is narrated by Simon Vance and in general, being read wonderfully. It can be monotonous at times, but this is not a “story telling” kind of book, so it’s understandable. The book is unfortunately, not the type of book you can just read or listen to in one whole swoop as there are lots of things to grasp slowly. It’s then recommended to read/listen to this book by chunks and ponder them before you continue on to the next chapters.

How to hear God’s Voice – Part 3

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Moses and the Burning Bush, illustration from ...

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This is Part 3 of “How to hear God’s Voice” series. Please make sure you read How to hear God’s Voice – Part 1 first before you read this one through.

In Part 3, I will discuss about the “HOW” factor – How goes God speak to us? If you’ve been asking that you’ve never heard the voice of God, you are definitely wrong. He has spoken to you so many times but you probably weren’t aware that it’s God’s.

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