Last week God called home a friend in ministry, Marojahan Sijabat. After ministry in Batu, Malang, he experienced acute abdominal pain; so, he was taken to a hospital in Malang, which subsequently sent him to a hospital in Surabaya. The doctors found abdominal blockage but before they could perform surgery, he suffered blood clot in his lungs. Within hours, he passed away. It all happened so quickly and so unexpectedly because despite the not-so-young age of 58, he’s in good health. God had another plan for him: to rest.
It's from Pastor Marojahan Sijabat that I learned about faith, about trusting God to provide for our needs. Years ago, when he informed the church that he was serving of his intention to quit, the deacons of the church did not take it too kindly. I am not a judge, so I’m not here to decide who’s right and who’s wrong; none of us is perfect. But there was something that happened, then, that I stored in my heart as a guiding principle. In short, the deacons told him that he’d have a bleak future in ministry. In response he told them that it was God, not men, who would take care of him and meet all his needs. He left the church, without knowing where to go next. But he’s right because till the day he died, God was faithful to him and his family. God provided for him and blessed his ministry beyond measure.
Early on in her ministry, Corrie ten Boom learned to trust God to provide for her personal and ministry’s needs. Instead of asking for money, she sometimes gave money. Whenever she felt called to go to a certain place, she’d ask the Lord to provide. She never asked for remuneration or even travel expenses. She always remembered the words of her sister Betsie while they were in Nazi’s concentration camp, “Corrie, we should never worry about money. God is willing to supply our every need.” And supply, He did! God calls, God leads and God supplies. That’s the story of every child of God, isn’t it?
Pastor Paul
On Tuesday evening our sister Vera called Santy and me to break the sad news that her father had suddenly passed away. She told us that just an hour prior, Benny, Vera’s husband, was still talking to her father over the phone. After the phone conversation, Vera’s father went to a nearby store and while there, he collapsed. Vera and Benny flew back to Jakarta last Thursday morning. We’ll pray for them and their family as they are grieving their deep loss.
For us Christians, death is like Sabbath. The word literally means “stop” so, it is usually translated “rest.” Sabbath, the seventh day of creation, became the concluding day, where God stopped His work of creating the universe therein. Life unfolds just like the six days of God’s creative work. It begins with Light and ends with Men. The light is Jesus where through Him we see God’s love and salvation, and Men, God’s most precious creation, is the object of His love. In between Light and Men, God fills our life with many things. That is life, isn’t it? And in the end, we reach the final day of rest, Sabbath.
In his book, An Unhurried Life, Alan Fadling has a chapter about rest and in it he shares his thought about Sabbath as “a day measured not by productivity but by relationship and worship,” to help us “remember and trust that life is given, not earned.” So true, isn’t it?
Too often we think of being productive whenever we think about living, don’t we? Sabbath reminds us that what’s truly important is relationship with others and worship to God, not productivity. And that is what we must fill our life with: Relationship and Worship.
Sabbath also serves as a reminder that life is given, not earned. We reach the seventh day because of God’s creative act; it is He who gives us the rest of the week and now it is He who gives us the rest. One day we’ll reach the Sabbath day, the day of rest from our labor.
Pastor Paul
This year we are celebrating our church’s 45-year anniversary. Like a person, each church has its own distinct quality that sets it apart from others, quality that’s usually imprinted early on by its founder. I am sure we can come up with a lot of qualities, but I’d say that the main characteristic of our church is welcoming. It’s a quality that’s best described the person and the ministry of the late pastor John Lim who, with Tante Barbara, started this church from the scratch.
I felt welcome when I first set foot on this church 47 years ago, and I felt welcome when I asked Pastor John Lim for a favor to use the church’s sanctuary for our wedding ceremony. Because we had no building of our own and were using the First Baptist Church, Temple City, Pastor John had to make the call to the pastor of the church to ask for permission for Santy and me to use it as our wedding venue. At the time we were not even attending this church; we’re already serving in another church! That’s how welcoming Pastor John was! Thank God, that welcoming spirit is still well and alive to this day.
To be welcoming, even to the point of going out of our way, is only possible if we have love, not the kind of love where we only love somebody if and when she is good or useful to us, but the kind of love that comes out of “a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). That’s what I see in you; I see love that comes out of a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. You are always ready to roll up your sleeves and help; you are always happy to share what you have without expecting anything in return; you’re ready to reach out and make somebody feel at home.
As your pastor I cannot ask for more; I can only say, thank you for making this church look like Jesus Our Lord. Thank you for showing the face of Jesus to everyone who walks in here. Happy anniversary!
Pastor Paul
At our youth group’s 50th reunion, I met Robert and Lea. You might be familiar with their songs that we frequently sing such as Deeper in Love and Kau Yang Terindah. It’s nice seeing them again and to hear what God is doing in their lives and ministries. But what did touch me was what Robert shared in that meeting, that it was in our youth group that he was first exposed to church life that eventually led him to follow Christ. I remember vividly it was Kokoy who first invited him to join our singing group, so, indirectly, brought him to the fold of Our Good Shepherd. We’ll never know how God works!
It was also in that reunion that Robert shared that several years ago he was diagnosed with lymphoma and had to endure treatment. He is now in full remission and thankful to God for giving him another opportunity to live for Christ Our Lord and to serve Him. Praise God for His mercy! But there is something else that I’d like to share with you and that’s about Lea, Robert’s wife. When we met, I told her that I always remember her older sister, Swat Hiang, who happened to be Santy’s close childhood friend. Swat Hiang died at a young age and her death plunged her parents to a deep and dark pit.
But God used her death to bring revival not only to her parents, but also to Indonesia. I told Lea that I believe her mom, whom I used to call Tante Swe Lie, was the catalyst, or at least one of the catalysts, of the revival that spread like fire across Indonesia in the late 1970s. With her band, The Disciples, she travelled all over with celebrities like Rudy Hartono, the badminton icon, to share the Gospel. By the grace of God, that fire is still burning. God’s marvelous work!
Sickness and death are never in our plan, but they are in God’s plan. And in the plan of God, they are used to bring about something that is greater than anything we can imagine. God’s mysterious work!
Pastor Paul
Santy and I would like to thank you for letting us go to Indonesia to celebrate my mother’s 90th birthday. She is doing fine and to this day, she’s never stopped praying for our church. Thank you for the many birthday’s wishes. May God bless you for your love and care.
While there I had the privilege of attending our 50th youth group’s anniversary with Kak Thomas and Cie Poppi, who happened to be our youth pastor, then. Out of this small youth group and by the faithful and steady mentoring of Cie Poppi and Kak Thomas, we all grew up to be the men and women we are today. Thank you, Jesus!
Santy and I also had the privilege of going to Malang and staying at our former residence. For Praise and her family, the three-day stay became something nostalgic and special. It’s the home where she grew up; it’s the home where we built many fond memories. It just so happened that the seminary’s professor who used to live there moved out several months ago, making it possible for us to re-live our past, albeit for only several days. Thank you, Jesus!
While there in Malang, we also had the opportunity to visit a friend in ministry who’s been battling Stage-4 metastatic lung cancer for the past five years. What’s happening to him is nothing short of a miracle! He’s still teaching, and he even took us out for breakfast while receiving chemotherapy that week, which reminds me of the truth of God’s Word in Ecclesiastes 8:8, “As no one has power over the wind to contain it, so no one has power over the time of their death.” All in the Mighty Hands of God! Our part is to surrender to His care and trust in His will, as Paul says about Abraham, “Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed” (Romans 4:18). What a sweet contradiction! Against all hope, earthly hope, that is, we, in hope, believe, in heavenly providence, that is. As God’s beloved, “we walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). Thank you, Jesus!
Pastor Paul
What did they do in the face of adversity in ACTS?
Doesn’t it seem like life is just getting more and more difficult? There are more challenges, more division, more uncertainty, and it’s a lot harder to be optimistic about the future.
In ACTS the community of faith had things they always did, and one thing they never did.
When they faced adversity the did the 4 main things they always did together – 1) they prayed (ACTS 12:5), 2) the worshipped (ACTS 16), 3) they stuck together and leaned on each other (ACTS 4:32), and 4) they looked in God’s word for direction and wisdom and then followed it (many people, but one example is Peter in Acts 2 & 4).
So, I ask myself – when I face adversity, do I do those things? Or how do I respond? This community gave us an amazing example to follow whenever we face adversity.
But there’s something they didn’t do.
They didn’t blame, doubt, let go of, or leave God. They believed in God’s presence, faithfulness, and calling no matter what they were facing. So often in life I encounter people who look at life and then judge God – like, if God is so good, why is this happening? But the community in ACTS helps us to reframe the question to something more like – God is always good, life isn’t, so how can I continue to respond faithfully in God’s strength empowered by His Holy Spirit in whatever situation(s) I’m facing?
Facing adversity isn’t a choice, it will happen, but how we face it is. Just like Stephen (ACTS 7) asked God to forgive people as they were stoning him to death, we see that adversity doesn’t just help us get closer to Jesus, but actually helps become more like Him as we go through it.
Pastor Steve
Power given to people in ACTS
As we look at the beginning of ACTS, we read Jesus’ words that His followers will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon them and they witness for Him in Jerusalem, all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (ACTS 1:8).
The word for power is an interesting one in Greek – dunamis. Dunamis can mean many things, and is translated differently in the Bible at different times. It can mean power, like doing miracles. It can mean strength like having the strength to live a godly life in today’s world (2 Peter 1:3), but it can also mean ability like the parable of the talents in Matthew 25. They were given according to their “dunamis” or ability, and that is why they were given different amounts – because they had different abilities to handle or make money. But the last meaning is also very interesting – a moral excellence, or maybe in easier terms – a strength in character. It is used when Paul, talking about the thorn in his side, says that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Cor. 12:9), when our character rests fully on Him. These definitions and descriptions help me understand better how God’s Spirit gives me power – dunamis – to become His witness; not just in praying for or seeking big miraculous things, but also in using the talents and abilities He's given me, the spiritual gifts He’s instilled in me, and lastly in me choosing godly character in my life, thoughts, and actions.
What is also interesting about dunamis is that it describes power you receive because of where that power originated from and in this context, we see that this power is directly from Jesus. It is His power that He says will allow us to bear much fruit – I am the vine and you are the branches, if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. He gives, and also is, the power we need to not just make it through life, but to leave an impact in this world wherever He places us, because the power we use isn’t our, but His.
Pastor Steve
If God’s willing, this coming Thanksgiving we will have our annual retreat again. This time the theme will be, “Prove What Is That Good and Acceptable and Perfect Will of God,” taken Romans 12:2. I will divide this topic into four sub-topics: (a) Prayer and the Will of God, (b) Pain and the Will of God, (c) Temptation and the Will of God, and (d) Planning and the Will of God. I hope we’ll gain a better understanding of the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
Every child of God must grapple with, not only understanding, but also accepting the will of God. The bigger the impact the will of God is on our lives, the harder it is to understand and accept it. How can we call losing our loved ones “good, acceptable, and perfect”? How can we call terminal illness “good, acceptable, and perfect”? How can we call losing a job “good, acceptable, and perfect”? Yet God challenges us to prove or in other translation, to test and approve, that His will is good, acceptable, and perfect. So, let’s delve deeply into His will, learn why Paul calls it, “good, acceptable, and perfect.”
On a slightly different note, I want to share with you the wonder of the mind. What we think of when we talk about the wonder of the mind is usually the amazing power of the mind to process and store data. Well, as I grow older, I have found another aspect of the mind that’s totally amazing: the power to forget! You see, this semester I teach an online class on Wednesday and Thursday evening. At the end of my class on Wednesday, I still talked about meeting with this same group of students on the following day. What happened on Thursday really caught me by surprise: I completely forgot about it! When a couple of friends came over and Santy suggested that we go out to dinner, I just said, yes. It was after we got home that I had an epiphany: I suddenly remembered that I had a class to teach! O no! If all the gifts of the Spirit will one day cease, so will this gift of mind.
Pastor Paul
As we’re nearing the end of our study on Hannah, I’ve been thinking about what a blessed life is. Can we call Hannah’s life a blessed life and if we can, since what point of her life can we call it blessed? We often hear testimonies from folks who point to a specific place and time where their lives began to be blessed. They usually associate God’s blessing with a better income, a better health, or anything else that makes their lives better or happier. If that’s the criterion, we can’t then say that Hannah’s life before the birth of Samuel was blessed. But is it true that she wasn’t blessed while she was barren?
I think most of you will agree that Hannah’s life was blessed before she had Samuel. Even while she painfully endured the derogatory comments from Peninnah and perhaps others around her, she was blessed. If we can agree on this, we can then agree that we should have a more accurate definition of a blessed life. First, let’s agree on what a blessed life is NOT: It’s not prosperity, not luck, it is not success, it’s not getting what we pray for, it’s not a life without pain.
So, what IS a blessed life? A blessed life is a life where we can see and experience the power and the lovingkindness of God. Simply put, a blessed life is a SHARED life with God. It is a life where not only do we walk together with God, but it is also a life where we and God share a life together, where His heartbeat becomes ours, and where His love becomes ours, and where His Spirit becomes ours.
In his book, Knowing Christ Today, in his commentary on Matthew 5:20, Dallas Willard explains, “Entering the kingdom of the heavens as here spoken of, is clearly not a matter of ‘making it into heaven’ after death . . . It is precisely a matter of being interactively engaged with the kingdom in your life now.” That’s what a blessed life is. It is a life we share with God, where we’re actively engaged with Him.
Pastor Paul
As I write this on Friday, there is encouraging development in the country which we love: Indonesia. By the grace of God, the unrest has stopped and the communication between college students and members of the parliament has resulted in steps to implement the proposed changes. Despite attempts by some to inflict harms to the Chinese community, most have remained vigilant and focused on the issue of corruption that has gone rampant and out of control. Another May 98 mayhem has been averted. Thank you, Lord!
In his book, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, Kenneth E. Bailey reminds us that in the Beatitudes, Jesus does not say, “Blessed are those who live righteously and maintain a righteous lifestyle.”No, instead, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.” Hence, the emphasis is on hunger and thirst after righteousness as a goal that we, Christians, should strive after. Bailey comments, “The blessed are not those who arrive but those who continue, at whatever cost, in their pilgrimage toward a more perfect righteousness. The constant, the relentless drive toward righteousness characterizes the blessed.”
While on earth, Jesus never attempted to change the government He’s under, the Roman Empire. No, His focus was not on changing the external but on changing the internal. Changing the external—the system of government, colonization, etc.—will only bring about a temporary and superficial transformation. Changing the internal will bring about a lasting and complete transformation. We cannot change a country or a government; we can only change a person. In the fourth century Caesar Constantine tried to make Roman Empire a Christian state. He only succeeded in changing the state religion, not a person’s faith. Change will come when we begin to hunger and thirst after righteousness, when we see we need “righting.”
Pastor Paul