Achievement in 2017

As the year comes to close (Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!) especially on my 25th (quarter life crisis, anyone?) – I’m spending this long weekend reviewing 2017 especially on a personal level.

And so when @arisetyo tweeted “What achievement from 2017 that you are proud?” – most people would probably guess my answer will be related to my work/company: Talenta. Yet, despite that, I instinctively replied:

Staying and committing in a long distance relationship

— Joshua Kevin (@jshkvn) December 1, 2017

I got into a (long distance) relationship sometimes around September 2016. She’s Korean, lives in Seoul, speak little to no English.

I have been preaching to most of my friends that long distance relationship wouldn’t work. I mean, even couple who live close by would fight all the time, how would a relationship survive hours of flights away, nevermind culture differences, and whatnots.

Yet, here I am, 15 months into the relationship, and I couldn’t be more happier with who I am with. No matter how tiring it is to fly 7 hours for both me and her. No matter how big our fight is when we meet. She’s the right match for me and I feel super comfortable with her, whenever I’m with her I feel at home.

Thank You God, for letting me meet her and to help us stay committed in this relationship under your blessing. Also, she’s the one who got me back on track in Jesus and after all this years, I finally gave a tithe because of what she said “Your money, is not yours, it is God’s”

Hillsong Conference

This might be a boring post for non-believers but hopefully even this post can convince some of you to start looking. I have been a Christian since I was born since it is the law here to actually have a religion. My dad was legally Buddhist and my mom is a Christian.

I went to a Christian school and even have a Christian class and even a Christian exam (!). Ended up remembering all the books of bible (10s to look for any verse) and all the stories inside. And yet — just like any teenagers I fell into a deep shithole of sins especially when my parents were divorced. What kind of shithole is for another post but the key thing here is that I wasn’t a devoted Christian at all.

And so, with no other direction but up — I ended up trying to “restart” my faith and actually going to the church with both curiosity and an open heart. I ended up receiving baptism, and like how everyone said it: the rest is history.

Few years after my baptism, I graduated from my uni, was pretty much in a “jaded” phase and or “rut” — I know i need to go somewhere and yet I was stuck. Somehow, God sent me a chance of a religious trip. My good friend and life mentor, Ronald Ishak – wasn’t able to go to his Hillsong Conference trip because he had to go to the United States.

All I had to pay was my accomodation and foods while there – an offer too good to resist — not long after going there, Talenta was born.

Fast forward again another few years, 2017, I honestly felt that we have built something that people want and need, and yet I’m stuck in terms of growth. At the same time, I felt like despite all the achievements — I’ve also have built a stack of sins. Somehow, God answered this again with Hillsong Conference trip. God sent another friend to sponsor and actually went together with me for this trip. (Thank you Ko Jeffrey Gunawan!)

And this are several things I learned this trip:

1) We have to wait and pray in expectation to God. It doesn’t mean that God must do what you want or what you tell Him, but when you ask, God will give it to you.

2) This is just the start, not the end. This particular words resonated with me really deeply because I was feeling tired and hitting this wall I couldn’t go through. I thought that the blessing is ending, yet God said — I just got started

3) Don’t just SEE, but LISTEN. Sometimes, all we can focus on is what we see (currently). All we can see is the battle that we are losing (in our daily life) but when you close your eyes, and listen – Holy Spirit is saying that you are winning the WAR!

4) God is raising Kings and Queens in this world. We are our own influencer in our community. We are destined to become something big — and no matter how “small” we thought we are – God want to use us.

5) Holy Spirit isn’t (always) something that you watch or you see externally. Holy Spirit should be something internally, and feeling extraordinary. The reason this is also part of the things I note is because recently churches started practicing “speaking in tongue” as if we can only have Holy Spirit if we do it. Meanwhile, God is reminding us it’s not about something exceptional that you should see but actually WE should be exceptional in our life.

6) Fastest way to kill something special is to compare. Comparison made you inferior or superior and neither are God. This is actually something that (again) resonated with me — especially in the era of social media where we just can’t seem to stop comparing ourselves to our friends or even a complete stranger.

7) Father in heaven waited for more than 20 years (CMIIW) to “announce” Jesus. Jesus doesn’t need an announcement — but what God wants to tell us is that you may be anointed but not announced, don’t wonder why you have to wait so long to be successful, to be blessed, to be rich, to be famous, to be smart. God has His own time.

I believe that God will (again) put something special into work for me and my life — and I can’t wait to share that with you. God bless you all

Independence in God

Taken from 2 Corinthians 3:17

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

The true independence or freedom is indeed when we are in God. We are free from the punishment of our deadly sin, we are free from the devil that is trying to get us each and every day, so if you feel trapped and scared, receive freedom in God. Because only in Him, you receive a true and eternal freedom.

Happy Independence Day, Indonesia!

How Baptism Changed My Life

Disclaimer: I think this post might be too religious for some, so if you think you can’t read something around that topic, I guess you can stop reading.

Today at the church our pastor, Handoyo Santoso, preached about how we should stay strong or persevere until the end. From Alpha to Omega, and he quoted this from Revelation 22:13

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.

The pastor said that God nor Jesus doesn’t have a beginning or an end. He’s been there all along, and He will still be there forever. But what God meant in this verse is for us, we begin our true Christian life through Him in baptism and reaching the finish line when He came again to this world. Today’s preach or specifically this verse, inspired me to write this post.

I have been Christian ever since I was born into this world with a reason that my mom is Christian. I went to Sunday school sometimes and since my school from pre-school up to senior high school is built by Christian institution, having a class where we read bible and sing a song for God is becoming just an activity for me, just like having a sport class. Although I believe in Him, I never really give my all or put a serious thought about my Christianity.

It has to wait until senior high school, when I fell into the deepest misery ever in my life. If there was hell on earth, I was in one. I ashamed myself in front of my friends, I lost most if not all of my best friends, and the worst thing is I kept disappointing my parents. (No, it’s not about school grades, it was much much worse) I felt like there is no way up, sometimes even the thought of killing myself had became an option back then. I can’t tell you what I did, but if I do, you would look at me differently.

A couple of months after the incident, I started going to a church, the same one as the current one I regularly go on Sundays. I started to seriously pray and I just felt like there is no one else to talk to but to God. After becoming an official member of the church, I applied to be baptized. Usually you have to go for 6 straight months without any absent, but somehow me and my sisters (I have two younger sisters) were getting a call that the appointment was advanced and we were getting baptized in two weeks.

We did it. My youngest sister get Phoebe, the older one get Priscillia, and I got Joshua. I wasn’t that excited back then but when I read the whole book of Joshua, I realized that he is in fact is more successful than Moses, he got to the land of promise and most importantly, the name means: God saves. If this is an article on Upworthy, it would be titled: “You Won’t Believe What Happened After He Got Baptized”

For the past few years after I got baptized and actually wore the name Joshua on all of my internet profile also when I met new people. I used to introduce myself as Kevin but now I’d say my name is Joshua. Not just my name is changed, my entire life changed. I have managed to:

Work at East Ventures, one of the most active Venture Capital in Indonesia based in Singapore, headed by Willson Cuaca and Batara Eto (co-founder and ex-CTO of Mixi $5b internet company in Japan)
Work at Tech in Asia, the TechCrunch of Asia. Held Startup Asia conferences in Singapore and Indonesia. They have now expanded to more than 50 people and holding a Tokyo conference in a month.
Work at KakaoTalk, where I was the Indonesian on the small team back then as a Community Manager. Helped them to reach more than 10 million downloads, now it’s a public company (after merger with Daum) and in Jakarta it has more than 30 employees.
Travel to Singapore super often, back then it was a luxury to even fly to Singapore but ever since I start working, it feels like a home away from home
Traveled to Seoul, South Korea. It is one of the hottest destination nowadays, visited KakaoTalk office, and did almost all the touristy stuff. Went there alone, came back with more than 10 Korean friends that I met at BeLaunch 2013 – the biggest startup conference in Seoul.
Went to the United States for a month. Mostly in San Fransisco. Did a West Coast trip, from Hollywood, LA to Las Vegas to Grand Canyon.
Went to Alaska with a grand cruise (to be exact it’s a Norwegian Pearl – NCL Cruise). Probably the first 21 years old from Indonesia who did this trip without bankrolled by rich parents.
In fact, managed to did all above with my own money that I saved from all the work I have done.
Went to Hillsong Conference 2014 in Sydney this summer. Sponsored by Ronald Ishak and Grace.
And this year also managed to raise small investment to start my own company that is trying to disrupt the HR industry through technology.

All of these were done in less than 5 years, and in fact these are just the highlight reel, I received so much more important things like friends. All of these happened after I received baptism. So, if you are a Christian, why wait so long to get committed to your faith? Get baptized and feel the difference of living with God and on the road to the Omega, which is heaven. God bless you all

This post might seem to surreal and feels like a bragging post (I really hope it doesn’t sound like that) but what I hope is to inspire more people. I’m still the same human who isn’t perfect and make or do sins in my daily life, but what is different is that now I make less of them, I “think” before I do it, I try to limit the sins I make. Thank you for reading this!

The Luckiest Donkey

In a preparation of Easter, and Jesus’ death, we will seek what is needed to prepare to get the Easter’s blessing.

Luke 19:28-30

²⁸ After Jesus had said this, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem. ²⁹ As he approached Bethphage and Bethany at the hill called the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, saying to them, ³⁰ “Go to the village ahead of you, and as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it.’”

In this verse, we are being pictured as the donkey. Jesus would have easily walked to Jerusalem as it was already near, but He chose to call his two disciples and told them to bring the donkey, a wild one, for Him to ride on.

Genesis 16:12

¹²He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him,and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.”

We are wild, we chose to listen to our lust, to our hunger to get lots of money only to spend it in a worldly pleasures. We will have a lot of hatred for our enemies and a lot of enemies will hate us. As long as we are still acting like a wild donkey.

Exodus 13:12-13

¹² you are to give over to the LORD the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD. ¹³ Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons.

Jeremiah 22:19
¹⁹ He will have the burial of a donkey— dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”

If and when we are dead, we will have a burial of a donkey if we stay as it is, we will be thrown away out of Jerusalem, the land of peace, and without God it means that we will be beaten by death, we will go through hell. There’s always a but..

³⁵ They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. ³⁶ As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.

But, IF you are ready to put Jesus on to your life, admits that HE is our savior and our only hope, HE will give us direction. He will give us vision and a life full of wealth, health and victory. Before God is on the donkey He rode, the wild donkey would probably worth nothing, but as we see on the verse, people spread their cloaks for the donkey to step on, imagine that!

Romans 5:1-5

¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we^[a] have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we^[b] boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we^[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

We will see glory in our sufferings, what does it means? It means that if we suffered with and for God, we will have perseverance, character and hope in our Christian life. If we are buried and dead with Him, it means that we will be raised again from death to win with Him.

John 8:30-36

³⁴ Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵ Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶ So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

God has set us free from our sins through His death, we are free from sins who we are used to be slave to. We should be thankful, we should show God that we are truly free from sins by leading a life of a Christian.

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 1st April 2012

Faith, Action, Love and Character

This is the four things that shaped our life as a Christian. We simply aren’t someone who is worthy of God unless we are keeping this four in our mind, our attitude and what we do everyday. Today, we learned a lot from a centurion, whom has an admirable faith in God.

The Faith of the Centurion

⁵ When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. ⁶“Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”

⁷ Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”

⁸ The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. ⁹ For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

¹⁰ When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. ¹¹ I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. ¹² But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

¹³ Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.

What is inspiring about the Centurion is that he is someone who came from a nation which ruled the Jews back then and yet he came through, forgetting all the status, to his enemy to ask for help. Not for him, or anyone from his family if that matters, but for his servant. How many of us would go to church and lie under His cross and pray for our servant or maid? A very few people. Imagine the difference in status back then.

Jesus offered to come to his house, which is an honor, yet the Centurion felt unworthy of Him. He believed in God so much that he only hoped to hear His words, and only after that his servant will be healed. Even Jesus felt amazed by his faith and even said that no one in Israel has faith as huge as him, and he will have a feast, in one table, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, imagine that!

We must have faith in God, put love out there into our action which will instills that in our character. God bless us!

About Fasting

There has been a lot of question about fasting and a lot of ways that has been said about fasting for Christians. There is only one way which is not eating and not drinking, there is no Daniel way of fasting which is for example a week without eating steak only. In passages below we will learn more about fasting.

Zechariah 7:5-6

5 “Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and seventh months [a]these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted? 6 When you eat and drink, [a]do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?

God asks whether are we doing the right way of fasting, whether we are directing the fasting in the right direction, are we using fasting for the right reasons?

Joel 2:12-13

12 “Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.”13 Rend your heart
and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity.

Fasting is indicated being similar to regret, to wish that God can take away all the sins that we have done, to purify ourselves from the lust and all the deadly sins that we have done over and over again. God is gracious, He forgave our sins, He will always be there waiting with His warm love.

Judges 20:26

²⁶ Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went up to Bethel, and there they sat weeping before the LORD. They fasted that day until evening and presented burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the LORD.

So when is the right time to fast? When is the proper time? The key word is that day until evening means that after we ate our dinner, we don’t eat anything or drink anything until tomorrow evening. That is the proper way and time to fast.

Ezra 8:23

²³ So we fasted and sought our God concerning this matter, and He ^[a]listened to our entreaty.

Matthew 4:1-4

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted^[a] by the devil. ² After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. ³The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” ⁴ Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’^[b]”

This two verse complete the answer of why we should fast. When we weakened ourselves and we left all of our lust and wants and needs behind for God, He listens, He answers. We should not live off of our needs and wants like money and all of the bling of the world. We live by His words.

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 26th February 2012

Rely on Him

Most of Christians can say it out loud that they believe in Him, but that’s not enough. If we want to get His blessing, if we want to experience God in our life, we need to rely on Him. Most of us got into the step one, which is, believe in God, but when trouble came we rely on other things first and didn’t put God as someone that we rely the most.

2 Chronicles 20:1-4

1 After this, the Moabites and Ammonites with some of the Meunites[a] came to wage war against Jehoshaphat. 2 Some people came and told Jehoshaphat, “A vast army is coming against you from Edom,[b] from the other side of the Dead Sea. It is already in Hazezon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi). 3 Alarmed, Jehoshaphat resolved to inquire of the LORD, and he proclaimed a fast for all Judah. 4 The people of Judah came together to seek help from the LORD; indeed, they came from every town in Judah to seek him.

Moab and Ammon were ambushing Jehoshapat from all sides. He got nowhere to go. What did he do? He relied on God. He believes that He is the only way out. No one else. No where else to go. But it’s not a sense of desperation but a sense of reliance that this problem can only be solved if he face it together with God, and together they did.

2 Chronicles 20:4-12

5 Then Jehoshaphat stood up in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem at the temple of the LORD in the front of the new courtyard 6 and said:

“LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. 7 Our God, did you not drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? 8 They have lived in it and have built in it a sanctuary for your Name, saying, 9 ‘If calamity comes upon us, whether the sword of judgment, or plague or famine, we will stand in your presence before this temple that bears your Name and will cry out to you in our distress, and you will hear us and save us.’

10 “But now here are men from Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, whose territory you would not allow Israel to invade when they came from Egypt; so they turned away from them and did not destroy them. 11 See how they are repaying us by coming to drive us out of the possession you gave us as an inheritance. 12 Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

He ask for His help and not only him, but he ask all of the men of Judah to fast and together ask for God’s blessing, and to rely on Him. So what did happen after that?

2 Chronicles 20:22-26

22 As they began to sing and praise, the LORD set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated. 23 The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the men from Mount Seir to destroy and annihilate them. After they finished slaughtering the men from Seir, they helped to destroy one another. 24 When the men of Judah came to the place that overlooks the desert and looked toward the vast army, they saw only dead bodies lying on the ground; no one had escaped. 25 So Jehoshaphat and his men went to carry off their plunder, and they found among them a great amount of equipment and clothing[d] and also articles of value—more than they could take away. There was so much plunder that it took three days to collect it. 26 On the fourth day they assembled in the Valley of Berakah, where they praised the LORD. This is why it is called the Valley of Berakah[e] to this day.

They sang praises, they put out their prayers, they rely on God to help them win the war and you know what? They did win. All of their enemies are dead, not even one alive. They earn more than what they can bring to their houses. That is what we will get if we trust and rely on Him. We will WIN and we will get more things than what we ever wanted.

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 19th February 2012

God Knows What We Need

In life, we always ask a lot of things. Whether it’s the things that we want or the things that we actually need. The important thing is actually the latter rather the former. In today’s service, God teaches us that He knew what we need, and how He helped us.

Matthew 37-38

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. 38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”

Here is a scene before God was arrested and then crucified to atone our sins. He isn’t afraid but in this verse, He wants to teach us that in our sorrow, in our suffering we need a friend. We need someone to accompany us. For example, if we are sick and if our friends come to visit us. It’s not the things that they brought that make us happy, it’s their presence and us chatting with them. The couple of verse after this one shows that even when God asked them to accompany Him, they or in some cases, we, failed his trust to do so.

Genesis 26:29-33

Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished. 30 He said to Jacob, “Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!” 31 Jacob replied, “First, sell me your birthright.” 32 “Look, I am about to die,” Esau said. “What good is the birthright to me?” 33 But Jacob said, “Swear to me first.” So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.

This is a famous verse where Jacob earns his brother birthright but also it pictures something different. In this scene, Esau(pictured as us) needs something, and he even said that he could die if he didn’t get it. Yet, Jacob(people/friends) used our needs and took advantage of it to gain something for himself. This happens quite a lot in real life, where when someone needs something, say farmers in the villages, the loan shark took advantage of it and put out crazy interest. So make sure you share your problems to the right person, beware/be careful that someone can do it to you, except God.

Exodus 17:10-13

¹⁰Joshua led the attack as Moses had commanded, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur stood on the hilltop. ¹¹The Israelites out-fought the Amalekites as long as Moses held up his arms, but they started losing whenever he had to lower them. ¹²Finally, Moses was so tired that Aaron and Hur got a rock for him to sit on. Then they stood beside him and supported his arms in the same position until sunset. ¹³That’s how Joshua defeated the Amalekites.

Sometimes we want something or we need something. People knew it, but they don’t really know what we really need. For example, we love shoes, but what if your friends gave you shoes that are too big for you or too small. That doesn’t fulfill your needs right? This verse shows us that Aaron and Hur helps Moses, and they understand what he needs, and in the end everyone is happy because Joshua won the war. If there’s no Aaron and Hur, everyone would be defeated instead.

1 Kings 19:3-8

³ Elijah was afraid^[a] and ran for his life. When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, ⁴ while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” ⁵Then he lay down under the bush and fell asleep. All at once an angel touched him and said, “Get up and eat.” ⁶ He looked around, and there by his head was some bread baked over hot coals, and a jar of water. He ate and drank and then lay down again.⁷ The angel of the LORD came back a second time and touched him and said, “Get up and eat, for the journey is too much for you.” ⁸ So he got up and ate and drank. Strengthened by that food, he traveled forty days and forty nights until he reached Horeb, the mountain of God.

God understands what Elijah needs. He was afraid, he was hungry, he doesn’t have any strength anymore to continue. God made something impossible happen for him, he is served by bread and a jar of water, two of things that are definitely didn’t came from this world because it is impossible for humans to have those in the middle of a desert. And what happened after? He traveled 40 days and 40 nights. HE understand what WE need, and HE fulfills it so WE can continue our life, and even greater one each time.

John 20:19-20

¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

God’s disciples were afraid that time and NO ONE can save them. No one can provides safety, or something to beat the afraidness in them. Then, God shows up, He knows that they are in fear, they don’t have someone to rely on. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. So are we when He fulfilled our needs. We will feel overjoyed!

Philippians 4:19

And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus

And HE will fulfill/meet ALL of our NEEDS. When or where can you find someone that says that to you? He is the one that is able to do that. Knowing what our needs are, meeting them in a right moment and in a right place, without mocking us or taking advantage of our needs. God knew what we need, and He is there for you every time, because He has all the things that we need and in Jesus we trust.

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 12th February 2012

About Failure

We all have experienced failure in life, at least once. Whether it’s an exam, driver’s test, relationships, business deals or even tougher ones like health problems and marriage. So what does it means for us? Do we surrender and just act nothing to the failure? A lot of people said that we have failed because we lack skills, experience and the will power to do it. So then should we just try it again when we have it all? Nope. Why? Let’s start with a verse:

Luke 5:1-3

One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God 2 he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. 3 He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked to put out little from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the people from the boat.

Jesus saw Simon as an experienced fishermen with skills, yet he lacks faith in God. He chose to got into Simon’s boat to give out God’s words to people and also to Simon.

Luke 5:4-7

When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water and let down the nets for a catch.” 5 Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” 6 When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. 7 So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.

Simon with all of his experience has been failing to catch a single fish all night, and God told him to set sail in a time where it’s unusual for fishermen to do their job. Yet after receiving God’s words, he began to believe and has a faith in God. The result? He received multiple returns of what he usually got with all his experience and skills, and that is what we will get if we put God first before our experience and skills. With God, there is no dead end, with God, your win is expected and being prepared by Him.

2 Chronicles 13:13-14

Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rer, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the LORD. The priests blew their trumpets

In this verse, we clearly learned that we have faced this in life probably more than once. We faced the impossible, the odds are against us, it’s easy for us to just surrender and receive what we afraid of, which is losing and the failure itself. Israel was turned into two kingdom fighting each other, Jeroboam was a part of Israel which at that time boasts more power than Judah. As we see it, Judah was faced with the impossible, Jeroboam has all the skills and power, Judah turned into God, they cried it out, the priests blew the trumpets.

2 Chronicles 13:15-17

and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 18 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. 17 Abijah and his men inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel’s able men. 18 The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.

I’d like to put a pressing issue against the last word of the last verse. And the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. They RELIED on the LORD, and not themselves, not their skills nor their experience. They put God first, and God made a certain failure into a huge win.

Jeremiah 17:5-8

This is what the LORD says:

“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6 He will be like a bush in the wastelands; he will not see prosperity when it comes. He will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives. 7 “But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

This truly sums up what this post is about. Don’t trust human’s strength, even our own strength to face our problems. Human has limitations, God never has one, and never will. For those who did, they won’t even see prosperity when it comes, how poor is that? But if you trust God, you will be blessed, you will always be producing the goods of God and people will see that in you. God bless you!

This is a summary from Handoyo Santoso service from Gereja Kemah Tabernakel – 5th February 2012

Joshua Kevin

Korean Culture, Tech, and Soccer rolled into one

Sunday Blessing