Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Scriptures to Remember

Psalm 51:17
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.  
Mazmur 51:17 
Korban sembelihan kepada Allah ialah jiwa yang hancur; hati yang patah dan remuk tidak akan Kaupandang hina, ya Allah.

Jeremiah 9:23-24
23 Thus says the Lord:
“Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Let not the mighty man glory in his might,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;
24 But let him who glories glory in this,
That he understands and knows Me,
That I am the Lord, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth.
For in these I delight,” says the Lord. 
Yeremia 9:23-24 
Beginilah firman TUHAN: "Janganlah orang bijaksana bermegah karena kebijaksanaannya, janganlah orang kuat bermegah karena kekuatannya, janganlah orang kaya bermegah karena kekayaannya, tetapi siapa yang mau bermegah, baiklah bermegah karena yang berikut: bahwa ia memahami dan mengenal Aku, bahwa Akulah TUHAN yang menunjukkan kasih setia, keadilan dan kebenaran di bumi; sungguh, semuanya itu Kusukai, demikianlah firman TUHAN."
 

Monday, March 10, 2014

6 deeper life things to say or do


Taken from M.Robert Mulholland Jr- The Deeper Journey

1. Centre yourself in God's presence. Acknowledge God as the context of your very being and the content of your living.
Reflect on what we are to do today, who we are to meet, what we will be saying and put God's presence in there. God with us in there.

2. Pray "Stir up in me the desire to be all yours in all things today"

3. "Free me from care for myself" There may be something that we love more than God. Ask God to free us from it. If we are about to do or think something that puts God second, tell yourself to stop and ask God to remind us that He has freed us.

4. Abandon yourself to God. "Lord help us to have You as the sole content of our lives today"

5. Spend time on the Word. Read and meditate. Let His words sink in.

6. Spend time in silence with God. God can be found in the inner silence. God is our true life. We are hid in Him.

No one is ever united in Christ until he is willing to relinquish not only sin but his whole way of looking at things- Oswald Chambers

Being of Use

Being of Use

...that if One died for all, then all died. 

And He died for all that those who live should live no longer for themselves but for Him who died for them and rose again

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.old things have passed away behold all things have become anew.

2 Corinthians 5:10, 15,17

The Lord has already put to death the false self ( the self that makes itself god). Our role is to appropriate this fact by mind and by action. How? Turn/change/ reorient our minds our whole self and being to lose our self to Christ. Radical abandonment of self reference to God reference. Deny yourself, take up your cross.

We were made to be in union with Christ. Yeshua prayed for this union. (John 17:21 & 23- that they all may be one as you Father are in me and I in you that they may also be one in Us. I in them and you in me that they may be made perfect in one). The life in union is true life. Yeshua came in human form to show us how a human should be. The false self has uprooted this union and rooted itself in other things that draw us away from the Father. These could be our titles, our possessions, our status, our performances, our intellect, our ethnicity, our wealth. Detach ourselves from these. They are crucified with Him. We need a whole new way of thinking of acting. Acknowledge that our life is hidden with Christ. We are hiding in Him. Do all our everyday things for Him. No need to ask how we may be of use. We are to radically abandon to Him, the fruit of which is availability for service to other. He will use us. We need to only abandon all.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Hidden with Him

Hidden with Him

2: Peter 1:3, 4- His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him 
who called us by glory and virtue by which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises 
that through these you may be par takers of divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust

By the knowledge of Him, we grasp all things that pertain to life and godliness. We know Him by walking with Him daily. And by this, we are able to partake in the divine's nature. 

When we live in union with God, we are restored to that which we should be I.e., to the fullness of the image of God.

What is the very essence of God's nature? (That we should follow?)
The cross. The cross is the very essence. He comes to us  when we are in the state of our false self ( State apart from God. We, being our own God), enters into our false self and works in  us to enable us to be restored to the fullness of our true self that is  one who mirrors Him ( He is in us as we abide in Him therefore we mirror Him). As we are one with Him, He takes hold of our false self and our false self is crucified with Him  when He is crucified.

We are carrying about in the body, the dying of The Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:10).  ( our body carries the dying of The Lord). He is in us, took our false self and this was crucified with Him. When He arose, He gave us new life, His life (it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me Galatians 3:20). We lose our life in order to gain life (Matthew 10:39). This life of Christ In us allows us to call God "Abba" 

We are then restored as His beloved children, to become Christlike, to have the likeness of His family. The false self needs to be crucified with our Lord if we are to be adopted into the family.

We suffer with Him in order to be glorified with Him Romans 8:15-17. How do we daily suffer with Him? When we release the false self to the cross. It is with this act that we deny ourselves - we take up our cross and follow Him ( Matthew 16:24)

Yeshua our master stands at the door and knocks. When we open it, He enters to do what? To plunge into our darkness ,our false self , giving it light for He is light. This light is healing and liberating. He comes and eat with us. But we are to open that door. We are to let go of that which we find our identity our value( that is inconsistent with His) , let go of our perception for instance that material wealth lends us value or our child as our idol or it is how well I perform that gives me value. The door is something we love more than God. Open it and let. Him in! The door could be that deep seated resentment that has become part of you. Crucify this false self by forgiving. Tough but this is where we deny self and take up our cross. He will enter to heal.

Denying self, giving up our false self requires our act. Resurrection with our Master is His act. Begin by total abandonment and abiding in Him. Orient your entire being and actions to things of the above

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

Are We Operating from False Self?

Are we operating from false self?

1. Playing God is the essence of false self.

2. We are created to be in intimate loving union with God where we will put God as Lord. Playing God i.e., false self is separation from this union.

3. The union will make us like Him. Therefore separation means being UNLIKE Him.

4. When we separate from Him, we start identifying ourselves apart from Him (Being and becoming UNLIKE Him).

5.We start creating something to center our lives around, to identify or define ourselves with eg: our jobs, projects, our spouse, our children, our title, our performance, our hobbies. We "are what we do" This is false self. Self apart from God.

6. We may believe in a God but on our own terms. There is no referencing to Him on everything. We do not seek Him first. This is false self.

7. Take the example of people who built the tower of Babble. They believed God exists but they wanted God on their own terms. The tower was their center. This was their project. They said "let us make a name for ourselves" "Name" describes the essential nature of the thing which is named. They said let us create our own nature - which is to make up of what we deem as essential. And they move away from God to a false self.

8. False self creates our own values, our own identity, our own beliefs (not the identity that mirrors God, not the values of God, not what God wants us to believe) and if others oppose, false self retaliates. Wars begin with the false self.

9. Notice that the first encounters with God always begins with words "Do not be afraid" False self is always fearful. Union with God drives away fear.

10. God's spirit in us when we are in union with Him allows us to call Him "Father" "Abba" with such intimacy. It is the spirit bearing witness that we are God's children. This is opposite from the spirit carried by the false self which is the spirit of fear.

11. The false self knows without union with God, there is no anchor. One just floats about with activities and centers that bear no weight to true self i.e., identity as children of God in union with Him.

12. We sometimes do not realize that we identify ourselves so much with what we do, our position in our job, our own created nature/personality, our children/our role as parent, our business, our status, our money etc that we are lost when these temporal things or persons or roles are lost.

13. The false self who centers around the life apart from God always values estimation of others instead of God hence are always insecure and in fear. True self is always concerned with how God estimates him.

14. False self creates a network of friends and relationships to call on when lonely, when help is needed. The false self needs these to hang on to. False self also protects itself by gathering as much information and acquiring knowledge or acquiring wealth to remain in control, to justify his world. Acquiring knowledge, wealth, friends are not of itself wrong but when they are the means to not rely on God, they are destructive.

15. When we identify ourselves with a certain lifestyle, with money- having enough is NEVER ENOUGH. The false self is never satisfied and always empty. The new brand is a must have, the new phone is a must have.. what is next?

16. Things which false selves value eg money, appearance are also means of manipulation. Eg. money to get others to view them favourably. When others fail to be manipulated, strife, enmity, anger, envy, despair arise. We become destructive to ourselves and others. Solace may then be sought from drugs, drink, promiscuity and more.  The false selves also largely view others from the perspective of how the other may provide for the false selves or be useful to the false selves.

17. A false self may do God's work but for the appraisal of men. It is seeking promotion of self.

18. A false self blames others to protect itself.

19. A false self is self indulgent not "God-indulgent". Only God can ultimately satisfy us. The self indulgent false self finds itself moving from one thing to another to gratify need for own pleasure. The self indulgent is in bondage. Symptoms: new activities, new projects, new partners. These are just to plug the holes, to deal with the symptoms. But the root problem which is being away from God is not dealt with.

20. We are made to be in union with Him. It is a wonderful walk. Why run away from it?

Points from The Deeper Journey- Robert Mulholland Jr