Today is a special day that calls for thanksgiving.  We are celebrating our church’s 44th anniversary.  There are many things that we can thank God for but today I would like to give thanks to God for Tante Barbara, the wife of our beloved Pastor John Lim, who has been with us since the inception of this church.  It was she who stood by Pastor John Lim through years of pastoral ministries in Indonesia and the United States.  It was she who helped support her family as Oom John pastored this fledgling church. It was she who always believed in and prayed for Pastor John through the many seasons of life and ministry.  So, to her we owe her thanks.  Thank you, Tante.

On a slightly different note, I’d like to invite you to participate in our Thanksgiving Retreat.  The theme of this year’s retreat is, fittingly, “Be Thankful.”  I will speak in four sessions, starting from Thursday, November 28 to Saturday, November 30.  In the first session I will address the topic of “THANKFUL Does Not Always Lead To GRACE.”  In the second session, I will cover the topic of, “THANKFUL Does Not Always Lead To WORSHIP.”  In the third session, I will speak on the topic of “THANKFUL Does Not Always Lead To REPENTANCE.”  And in the last session, I will cap it all with the topic of “THANKFUL To See God In Everything.”  I hope you’ll come and fellowship with us.

Some say that being thankful is an inborn trait; some say that it is an acquired attribute.  The fact is being thankful is more complex than that.  It is my intent that through our studies of the Bible we will see that being thankful is not as simple as we think.  Being thankful does not automatically lead us to grace, worship, and repentance; more must happen in our spiritual walk.  And that “more” is simply being able to see God in everything.  The truth is the more we see Him, the more thankful we will be.  We who do not see God in everything will find it hard to be thankful to Him. So, open our eyes and see.

Pastor Paul

On Wednesday, October 2, around noon local time in Jakarta, Jesus Our Lord came to take Oom Hein to his eternal home.  I happened to have arrived the day before but that Wednesday I had a class to teach, so, I planned on visiting him on the day after.  Not knowing that he’d already passed, I contacted his caregiver, Nendah, to make an appointment.  It was then she told me that Oom Hein had passed just a few hours earlier.  Rest in peace Oom, in the arms of Jesus.

Nendah told me that for the past few days Oom Hein was already getting weaker; he mostly slept. That morning, he managed to get up and had breakfast; afterward, he went right back to sleep. She later became worried because Oom Hein seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep and was unable to respond.  So, she immediately called his nephew who directed her to call an ambulance.  On the way to the hospital Oom Hein slipped into eternity. That breakfast was to be his last meal on earth but that evening, he had his first supper with Our Blessed Lord in the Upper Room, with Tante Anne.

On Thursday, October 10, I attended Oom Hein’s funeral service, ministered by GKI Gunung Sari, his place of worship before he became too weak to go anywhere.  His body was cremated but his spirit was in the presence of Our Blessed Lord in the heavens, where he had always wanted to be ever since Tante Anne preceded him years ago.  To him death was merely a door to his new home. While on earth he opened the door of his heart to Jesus Our Lord to come in and dine with him. Now, it was Jesus Our Lord who opened the gate of heavens for Oom Hein to come in and dine with Him.  God calls His children home in His time and in His way; and we can never know when and how He will do that.  But this is what we know: It’s always the right time and the right way—and for the right reason: So, we can be with Him to enjoy His goodness and beauty forever.

Pastor Paul

2 amazing steps: Step 2

Last week we looked at how the community in Thessalonica lived faithfully, living in a way to please God. What more could they do? Do the things they were doing more, and more, and more, and more.

Paul says, “we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more.” 1 Thessalonians 4:1

What are those things to do more and more? 2 Things:

LIVE TO PLEASE GOD MORE & LOVE OTHERS MORE

Easy to say, not always easy to do, but it is what Jesus modeled for us. He showed us how to live to please God and how to love others, even when they don’t love you back.

Often the best test of the strength and depth of our faith comes when life is hard and we choose to live to please God no matter what, or turn on God, questioning Him as to why He isn’t working like we want Him to. And secondly, when people are hard and difficult, don’t respect us, act selfish, or simply are unkind – do we chose to love them, and like Paul said, to do it more, and more? These are the tests of faith that reveal our true heart, but Jesus showed us that the more we chose to do them, the more naturally they come to us.

Pastor Steve

2 amazing steps: Step 1

I’ve been working through 1 Thessalonians a lot lately and have been so encouraged by it. One thing that makes the letter easy to grasp is that there are basically just 2 parts or steps which are separated by prayers.

The first step – live faithfully & please God. This is often easy to just think about or agree with, but then not really do anything differently, but nothing could be further from the truth. It takes work to live faithfully. It wasn’t easy for those reading this letter from Paul, but they were overcoming the obstacles in life faithfully; how about us?

Paul is, “encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory.” 1 Thessalonians 2:12

If Jesus were to come back, how faithfully would he say we’re living? It’s something I wrestle with.

And then I see Paul’s words – to live a life worthy of God. I take this to mean that I can also live a life not worthy of God. The life God offers is “worth” the life of Jesus, because it cost Him his life, and I don’t ever want to take that for granted.

I encourage you to take time to read through 1 Thessalonians 1-3 and allow God to speak to us about what living faithfully to please God looks like.

Pastor Steve

Last Wednesday I felt like being in Heaven.  Friends that I met over four decades ago, three decades ago, two decades ago, and over a decade ago, came to pay their last respect to my father-in-law Peter Subadya.  I guess this is what Heaven must be like: full of laughter and joy; where our minds are filled with fond memories and hearts are full of gratitude to God.  In Heaven not only will we meet those we met decades ago, but we’ll also meet folks we had neither met nor heard of.  So, it is better than reunion; it is reunion plus union.

In his book, No Grown-Ups in Heaven, Art Greer shares his belief that there will be no adults in Heaven; there will only be children, as plainly stated by Our Blessed Lord in Matthew 18:3, “Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Of course, both Jesus Our Lord and Art Greer are not talking about it literally, but rather figuratively.  In The Message, Eugene Peterson translates the next verse in such a way that we will not miss the meaning of “children” here, “Whoever becomes simple and elemental again, like this child, will rank high in God’s Kingdom.”  In Heaven there will only be children—those who possess a simple and elemental faith.

One of the qualities of children, as pointed out by Greer, is that they simply live.  They don’t think about homework while playing.  When they cry, they just cry as they wish—loudly.  Children simply live. On the contrary, we, adults, think about work while we are home, and when we cry, we will look around to make sure no one is watching.  Unlike children who simply live, we, adults, simply think and worry.

Children belong to Heaven because they can enjoy God.  Heaven is a fun place, so it is perfect for children.  We, who cannot enjoy God, are not good fit for Heaven.  I am afraid, we might even ruin it.

Pastor Paul

In one of his sermons, Bishop Rober Barron explains the reason why Adam and Eve became afraid of God after they disobeyed His Word: They felt shame.  They became so self-conscious that they became ashamed of themselves.  But what came next was even worse: They blamed each other.  First Adam blamed Eve, then Eve blamed the serpent.  Bishop Barron explains that’s what sin does: throws us into a shame-blame game. And that’s what we still do today, don’t we?

Children who grow up in difficult homes often feel ashamed of who they are and end up doing anything to cover up their shameful past or to distort it to suit their needs.  They become experts in placing blame on others for everything that doesn’t go their way.  They find it difficult to look at themselves squarely in the mirror and admit to their shortcomings.  Like Adam, they blame Eve, and like Eve, they blame the serpent; by so doing we keep the shame-blame alive.

The main message of the Gospel is the love of God to us, sinners. It is love that brings forgiveness and redemption down from heavens to earth.  And it is also love that calls us to make peace with who we are, which includes our past and present that we are ashamed of. It is love that we the church of Jesus preach and show to everyone so we all can find a haven in this community. So safe that we dare look at who we are; so safe that we dare look at each other; so safe that we dare accept each other though the grace of Christ Our Lord. And so safe that we dare make known what we can do.  No more shame.

In his book, A Time for Being Human, Eugene Kennedy shares some practical ways to help those who feel ashamed and afraid.  Time is one of them.  He explains, “They learn something when others have time for them and do not pressure them to prove themselves . . . .”  People learn when we give time to them, so let us begin with that.

Pastor Paul

In his book, Your Legacy, Dr, James Dobson, a psychologist who God has used to bless many families not only in America but also all over the world, defines legacy as faith in Jesus.  There is nothing that is more important than this, so this is what we must pass on to our children and others.  I cannot agree more.  Having said that I must also say that what we can do is simply to try because the fact is we cannot pass it on.  Faith is not something that we can pass on.

But there is something which we can pass on: being faithful.  Others and our children may not inherit our faith, but they can inherit our faithfulness, to be more specific, our faithful way of life.  We stick to something even though we don’t feel like doing it anymore, we do not run away when the going gets tough, we hang on even when no one is still hanging in there.  And that includes being faithful to God.   This is the legacy that we can pass on to our children: faithfulness.

There are a lot of things that I appreciate about my mother; one of them is her flexibility.  Even though she prepared food for us to eat but she would allow us, children, to call food vendors that passed by.  There was one in particular that we called a lot during dinner time: a pork satay man.  I still remember this middle-aged man, who stopped by our house every evening, carrying two carts of food on a wooden stick over his shoulder. I remember seeing his face beaming with joy whenever we said “yes” to him, when he stopped to offer his satay.  Every evening, he passed by, clear or rainy, liked it or not.

You who love plants or farming know something about faithfulness.  You water the plants, you make sure they get enough sun, and you do all that every day, not knowing when exactly they will grow. That is what faithfulness is all about: we do it, not knowing when it will grow into a legacy.  Faithfulness seeps into our soul gently, quietly.

Pastor Paul

Fyodor Dostoevsky, who lived in the 19th century Russia, was not a psychologist; he was a writer.  However, through his writings he showed insights into humanity and spirituality like no other; one of them is this: “that the whole work of man really seems to consist in nothing but proving to himself every minute that he is a man and not a piano key.”  A piano key is of course instrumental in producing a beautifully sounding note; but as good as it is, we are not content to be a piano key.  We will not settle for anything less than a man.

One of the places where we want to show that we are a man and not a piano key is the church.  We do that by our contribution to the church and to each other, be it in the form of ministry, giving, doing something for others, or caring for the sick.  Through all that we do we prove to ourselves—and others—that we’re a man, not a piano key. That’s fine.  Having said that I must remind us that we are, in fact, a piano key in a concert grand piano, where God is the pianist.

A couple of weeks ago I attended the memorial service of Tante Sian Liem.  I knew her for only a short period of time before she moved to San Bernardino County, thus, could no longer come to church. It turned out, Tante Barbara told me, that Tante Sian once served as a church treasurer in the early days of our church.  I still remember those early days.  There were not many people, so there were not many hands to help Pastor John Lim.  God placed Tante Sian to be a piano key, an important key, to keep the church finance in check.

We do not know what note we represent, just like a piano key has no clue what note it represents.  What we know is that each piano key is important; a missing piano key will alter the melody.  And one more thing: A piano key will only make the sound when it is hit. The finger of God must hit us before we can make the sound He wants.

Pastor Paul

On Wednesday morning, Christ Our Lord came to take Oom Peter Subadya, Santy’s dad and my father in-law, home. For years he was bedridden, unable to stand and walk; and had to endure discomfort and sometimes pain. Several times he was rushed to the hospital for emergency care, taken on a stretcher, brought back on a stretcher, from one hospital bed to another hospital bed.  But through it all he remained strong; he did not complain or protest; he kept his faith.

Before he was sick, he made it a habit to sit and read the Bible then pray and sing praises to God every morning. At times after his time with the Lord, he would say this to me, “The Word of God is just so beautiful and true.” Not only did he find his Scripture reading so enlightening and encouraging, but also, he found it to be true from firsthand experience. His long and winding life that was filled not only with joy and laughter, but also with tears and sweat, became a testing ground for God’s promises. Time and again the hand of the Lord was upon him to provide him with strength, hope, and a way.

As I have already shared with you in the Bible Study, the attending nurse who was with him till the end, was a devout child of God.  He did not ask for this man, but God knew that would be something he would have wanted to.  So, Our Heavenly Father appointed this man to attend to his last medical needs.  The day after, the man who was sent to pick up the hospital bed, was also a child of God.  I sensed it right away by the answer he gave me when I asked him, “How are you?”  He replied, “I am blessed!  Look at the sunshine, look at the flowers!  I am blessed!”  Another gift from Our Heavenly Father.

While disassembling the hospital bed, this man muttered something beautiful and true, “It does not matter how bad things are, at the end of the day, they will only work in our favor.” Amen, Brother!

Pastor Paul

Some people look forward to retirement, but some do not. In fact, some dread it, like a germ we must stay away from. Like it or not, we must retire, we cannot and should not hold on to our positions. Work has no expiration date, but job does. Those who look forward to retirement usually think of retirement as a day of rest after six days of work, like a Sabbath. Those who dread it see retirement as a day of execution, like being in a death row. I think it is fine to view it as a day of rest; what is not fine is to equate it with inactivity. We must fill our days with activities, albeit small, mundane, and boring.

Richard Baxter, the 17th century British theologian, gives us a stern warning against inactivity, “Be sure that you live not idly but in some constant business of a lawful calling, so far as you have bodily strength. Idleness is a constant sin, and labor is a duty. Idleness is but the devil’s home for temptation . . . . Labor profits others and ourselves; both soul and body need it.” Labor or activity blesses not only us, but also others; and as John Piper in his book, When The Darkness Will Not Lift, points out, activity also breeds joy. We, who choose activity, will have joy; on the contrary, we, who choose inactivity, will lose joy. And joy is something we can’t afford to lose.

Many of you have retired from your jobs, but you have not retired from your activities. You who can travel far, travel far; you who can travel near, travel near. You who can visit, you go and visit while you who can only call, you make the call. You who can bake, you bake; you who can cook, you cook, and you share the work of your hands with others. As Baxter says, our labor profits others and us; they are blessed, so are we. And as Piper says, doing something gives us joy, and joy drives us to do something, both for us and for others. Proverbs 11:24-25 sums it well, “There is one who scatters, yet increases more . . . . And he who waters will also be watered.”

Pastor Paul