Persepsi Kristen Yang Harus Diubah

Pandangan sebagian besar manusia di dunia terhadap agama itu ternyata sama. Mereka menganggap bahwa untuk melakukan perintah agama itu sulit bahkan sangat sulit. Sebagai Kristen, pandangan kita perlu dibaharui pula; jangan sampai hal-hal yang dikehendaki Allah kita anggap terlalu sulit untuk dilakukan. Bagaimana cara membaharuinya? Tentu dengan pertolongan Roh Kudus juga, kita harus memandang secara terbalik; yakni: justru kalau melakukan hal-hal dosa, itu yang sulit, dan melakukan kebenaran firman Allah itu lebih mudah (karena kita disertai Yesus).

Justru kalau membenci (=membunuh) manusia itu sulit, mencuri itu sulit, menipu itu sulit, berzinah itu sulit, tidak menolong sesama itu sulit, tidak mengasihi itu sulit. Mengapa sulit? Karena kita tidak akan merasa kedamaian di dalam hati jika berbuat hal-hal demikian. Sebaliknya kalau kita melakukan kebaikan kepada sesama karena kasih Allah itu, itu yang “keren” dan “lebih mudah”. Karena dengan melakukan kebenaran firman Allah saja maka hati kita merasakan kedamaian hati yang sejati. Dan berbicara soal kedamaian, maka hanya Allah Sumber Damai yang sejati (Yohanes 14:27; I Tes 3:16; Kolose 3:15, Timotius 1:2).

Ada 2 hal yang membuat hati kita merasa kedamaian surgawi:

1. Kalau segala dosa (kejahatan dan kenajisan) kita diampuni (Mazmur 32:1,2; Yohanes 8:2-10)
2. Kalau kita melakukan kehendakNya (Yesaya 48:18; Lukas 11:18)

Jarak Paling Jauh di Alam Roh

Di alam lahiriah/jasmani, jarak itu tidak ada artinya bagi mahluk roh, seperti Tuhan atau malaikat atau setan, jika mau pergi dari kota satu ke kota lain itu kecepatannya hanya sekejap saja seperti satu kedipan mata, bahkan dari negara satu ke negara yang lain, benua ke benua, planet ke planet, bahkan dari bintang satu ke bintang yang lain, galaksi satu ke galaksi yang lain.

Tetapi, kalau di alam roh, lain lagi kendalanya, ternyata yang menjadi jarak terjauh di alam roh, yakni jarak antara:

1. KEJAHATAN dan KEBENARAN
2. KENAJISAN dan KESUCIAN/KEKUDUSAN
   

A Time to Die

It is 10:47 at night. I am sitting in a hospital beside the bed of my mother. Today I made the decision to take her off all medical help. So, now I wait.

We do a lot of waiting in our life time. We wait for the baby to be born, we wait for the bride to walk down the aisle. We wait for the beginning and we wait for the end. We wait in line and we wait for the pain to stop. But, this is the longest wait of my life.

I watch her chest rise and fall and think ahead to that last moment when it no longer rises. When my mother is no longer a part of my everyday existence and I no longer hear her voice. That is a time I wish would never come. But, I sit and wait for that moment knowing I can not stop time.

I chose to make this wait stop. I told the doctors "no more". And yet, I have my doubts that I did the right thing. Knowing it is the right decision and feeling it is right are two different things. My feelings are drowning in a sea of tears.

The wait could take a while. "No one knows" is what the doctor said. He added that, "her heart is strong, but it is failing." I wondered at the contradiction, but understood that she was not going to come back to me. So, morphine is the drug of comfort and now she sleeps. But, I do not. I sit and wait. Watching her chest rise and fall. Waiting for her to leave me.

The Farm

The first time I heard the audible voice of God I hear, "No predator will cross your land." I had been working in the psych department of a local hospital, at the time, and thought I needed to go to lock up because I was now hearing voices.

Within moments, I realized I was hearing God's voice. So, I then got excited. What could this mean, was my next thought. We were, at the time, living on our 120 acre farm. I was only about a mile from the farm when I heard this message. So, I immediately believed that God meant my farm. But, when I shared this word with a friend she said, "isn't it frustrating that God always speaks in parables." I was a new Christian, so I believed that what she was saying was the absolute truth and decided that what God truly meant was that He would not let people cross me or destroy me.

Now, as I think back on that, I realize that God has not once talk to me in parables. He has always spoke to me without mystery. It has always been straight talk with no hidden meaning. So, I ask myself, why would He have talk to me in a parable this one and only time.

So, I have reevaluated this Word and gone back to what my sense of its meaning was in the beginning.

We still own the farm. We had to move into town because of the Lupus that, at that time, was ravaging my body. The doctors said I needed to be close to a hospital. Since my healing, we have not thought of moving back. But, we did not feel the need to sell it either. The land is leased out and that makes the payments for us. But, now, we have an intense sense that we need to get back to the farm.

Both my husband and myself have been praying, intensely about this decision. Wanting only Gods will in this matter. Gas prices are a concern. My husband has to work and it is 60 miles aways from work. This is an isolated farm. Even the locals say our farm is in the boonies. It is far from civilization.

So, back to the word. My original thought was that God meant that my land was a safe place. A place that no predator (man) would cross. That in the end times this was a sanctuary from the evil of the world.

Last night, God gave me a dream, where I was back on the farm. Last evening, my daughter, A Homesteading Neophyte, shows up and wants to talk about all of us moving to the farm and homesteading it. Her and her husband are concerned about a depression and the prophesies of the Bible. This morning, while I am praying about what to post, God tells me to turn on the T.V. and when I did, there was another report about food rationing in the United States and in the world. Am I seeing God's hand at work in my life, telling me to go back to the farm.

I am pragmatic in my thinking. I try to be practical and consider and weigh all options. Should I wait to make sure that this is what God is saying or should I just jump in and go for what I think that God is leading me toward?

Again I quote the Word:

Proverbs 22:3
A prudent man sees danger and takes refuge, but the simple keep going and suffer for it.

I want only to follow the leading of my God. So, we pray, we seek, we follow.

VIDEO - Elham, Former muslim women's journey from Islam to Christ