Divinity Above Eternity

Do you realize that our God exist outside of time ? He has seen from the beginning to end what has happen in our lifetime....to Him, our life on earth is nothing but a blip in the whole cosmic scenario of eternity...but for Him to care for us deeply even for just a nanosecond of His time is amazing....

Let me use the Lord of the Ring trilogy.....that’s the longest trilogy that I know, with 3 hours for each movie, that makes the total of 9 hours……. For Frodo, the main character, that 9 hours is his lifetime, although for us it only costs us not even half a day. Compared to the 9 hours that he has, if we live to be 60, that's already 525,600 hours. That means 9 hours period is only 0.0017 % of our time... This is the analogy of God's time and our time.....eternity vs temporary...

We, the viewers, are like God in a way, because we already see the movie from beginning to end…we know Frodo will make it…we know that he will meet his great helpers in the journey…magnificent people like Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Gandalf…..people who will die fighting for him or with him.....we know that he will destroy the ring and with it Sauron, the ultimate king of evil….we know he is going to “heaven” with the elves at the end…. we know that everything is going to be alright….

But what if we are Frodo? As Frodo, we cannot skip the bad parts of the movie where he is almost killed during all of his perilous trips to Mordor. In the Mines of Moria, he met an army of deadly, war hungry killer Orcs, topped with a huge devil in flame called Balrog. In the end of the journey to the gate of Mordor, he was almost eaten alive by a spider….In the final part of the movie, after Frodo destroyed the ring, he has no way out and probably ready to die in the middle of a river of hot lava…

He also have to endure the temptation of the ring…the dark power that tries to consume him…the ring that has a mind of its own...trying to get him killed because it only serves Sauron…..and he has to bear it all alone….

I’m sure that Frodo will ask the same question as us….”Why me? “…”Why am I chosen to bear the ring?”…"Why did this ring come to me? "and a series of whys to the suffering that he has to endure.....we will ask God the same thing when it happens to us for all of our "suffer-Ring"

But as much as Frodo begs us (his "god"), if he can, to speed up the process or let him get way with all his troubles, we know that he has to go through all of that suffering to reach the final goal....we know that if one thing happen before the other, Frodo will not be able to finish his mission....everything has to happen in order for him to complete the journey....Frodo can’t make the time go faster or slower...but everything will happen in the determined time and place.....

God knows what’s best for us..... God knows WHEN or IF you are married...God knows you will meet a series of people in your life… but one thing to keep in mind, that God does NOT control LOVE...this is the free will of human being to fall in love....God doesn’t make someone fall in love with you or vice versa….. But He knows the best person that will love you and complete you....He will direct to you to that person and you will meet the person when you’re ready…..

God also knows all the bad decisions that you are going to make....the beauty of it, even when you make bad decisions, God will give you a way to go back to the right path, and it depends on you whether you want to take it or not….again free will takes a role here….

I know it can be frustrating at times when God doesn't answer us instantly....do you know why? because God has seen the finish line of our life.....He knows when is the best time to give us what we need.....or refusing to give what we want....because it’s not the time for the event to happen yet.....the good thing is, unlike watching Lord of The Ring where we have no control over the story, God has a plan for each of us.....a good plan....no matter how bad it seems, in the end it’s always for our own good.....

I guess what’s more important to God is our attitude during our lifetime....the communication and the prayer to Him...waiting patiently for Him to finally reveal His plan to us as we become closer to Him......let me close this with a quote from Frodo :

“Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

We can choose to be bitter over all the trials that happen to us, or we can choose to find God and ask Him for his guidance and wisdom to overcome all adversities.....

Where's your bible ?

WARNING

spoiler alert !! If you have not watch the book of Eli, please don't read this note because I am telling the end of the story. Read this after you watched the movie...

I just watched a movie title "Book of Eli" by Denzel Washington...it's a great movie....and talks to me a lot about the importance of a bible....

The book of Eli tells the story of a person with the last bible on earth....for some reason, people in the world are destroying all copies of the bible that ever existed.....and after that a huge war breaks and the earth is left to rubble with only a few people alive...and to make it worse, these people try to kill, rob and rape whatever is left....

This one man, Eli, happens to be the bearer of that bible......he truly values the bible that he protects it with his life, as it is the only copy on earth.....and what amazes me is that at the end (SPOILER WARNING) when the book is taken by the villain, he doesn't seem to worry at all. Do you know why ? Because Eli REMEMBERS the whole bible !!! From Genesis to Revelation, verse by verse, chapter by chapter verbatim.....

We often took our bible for granted....sometimes it's either we let it collect dust or we never bring it with us as it is too heavy, especially with the digital bible available now.....

We are still blessed to stay in the country where bibles are still widely sold and available....
We are still blessed that we can go to church without being persecuted...
We are still blessed that carrying bible in the public is not against the law...

Here's a thought .... What happen when suddenly ALL the bible in the world is banned and destroyed ? What happen when Skynet in the movie Terminator comes true ? When all digital gadgets are no longer usable anymore as they are taken over by an evil super computer ( don't think that this is impossible in the near future.....the Current fastest supercomputer system is AMD Opteron-based Cray XT5 Jaguar at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory was announced as the fastest operational supercomputer, with a sustained processing rate of 1.759 PFLOPS - for info about FLOPS. find it in WIKIPEDIA in this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer#cite_note-3 perhaps it's only a matter of time that A.I. developed by humans will grow a conscience....)

Anyway, back to laptop =)

How many verses of the bible that you remember ? How longing are you to read the bible when you can't anymore ? When it's not available anymore, we start to value the one thing that we never look upon at the first place....

I am guilty of this too.....I don't value the bible as much as I should have been...the book of life....I am not saying that we should put our bible on a shrine and praying on it......because it's not the bible that gives life but the Creator and Savior that does......and he also stresses one important point about the bible....It's not only reading the book that is important, but also living it.....

In the end, Eli passed away.....after he finished dictating the whole bible to the people who will put it to print.........he never regret any suffering that he has to endure in his life protecting the bible and finishing the mission the Lord has given him....this is his final words before he died....part of it was taken from II Timothy 4:7

Dear Lord, Thank you for giving me the strength and the conviction to complete the task you entrusted to me. Thank you for guiding me straight and true through the many obstacles in my path. And for keeping me resolute when all around seemed lost. Thank you for your protection and your many signs along the way. Thank you for any good that I may have done, I'm so sorry about the bad. Thank you for the friend I made. Please watch over her as you watched over me. Thank you for finally
allowing me to rest. I'm so very tired, but I go now to my rest at peace. I fought the good fight, I finished the race, I kept the faith.

Keep the faith, fight the good fight....and don't forget to bring your instruction book while at it...

God bless you all.....

The Rain and Storm before the Sun

We went to Tanjung Papuma this long weekend for our holiday. We were expecting bad weather, but we prayed over it before the trip. With faith, we went there expecting a good weather from the Almighty Himself.

The first day we came, the tent was not really set. We didn't have tarpaulin, so they set up another tent to cover the ground under us.. But we slept in the tent after all...then suddenly it rains...at first it was a trickle...then a really hard rain ! The "greatest" thing was, the tent was made of clothing fabric. Sure enough, water was seeping from the tent, over and under us. Some of us decided to sleep in the car, while some of us decided to stay. That was unforgettable moment for me. The sleeping bag was wet, the sand splashed to our faces because of the hard rain. It was a crazy first day. The rain was so hard and long ( about 4 hours and counting) , that I began to question this trip...In the back of my mind, I said "Huh...is this going to be a good trip ? it's not a good start.." but I kept my feeble faith anyway.

But amazingly, after the hard rain, the weather began to clear up. The sun was shining, and we can swam in the ocean. The funny thing was, we were so afraid of the rain, we prepared our tarp the next day. We covered our tent so tight, and put tarp below us, put rocks on the tarp. On that night, there's no rain ! it was so hot that a friend finally decided to open the tarp and let the wind in ^^ We had a great time doing trekking, swimming, and some pictures along the way. It was a great outdoor activity with great friends.

In the end, after all is said and done, after too many fish and young coconut, we decided to go home...and the heavy cloud was forming again. ...God has provided a window for us to have a good vacation, and let it close again after we were done....thank You Lord...

For me, it's like life itself...we pray for a good time for our life. We pray for prosperity and happiness to happen in our life. But many times, like our pastor said, when we are really happy, we don't remember God at all. When our ATM is unlimited, when we are healthy, when all the kids are obedient, God is the last thing in our mind.

The Lord sometimes let the storm to happen in our life. The Lord wants to make our faith grow by letting us feel the heavy storm...if we keep the faith and pass through it, by then we can really appreciate the sweet taste of God's blessing in our life...so that we will not take God's provision for granted.

Many times when the storm happens for a long period of time, we often question God's intention in our life. We don't believe that there will be a sunshine after the rain. But God's intention is always good. No matter what happen, He will always be in control. If we keep the faith and finish the race, God will not overlook your suffering and double the reward for your trouble.

Isaiah 61:7 (New International Version)

7 Instead of their shame
my people will receive a double portion,
and instead of disgrace
they will rejoice in their inheritance;
and so they will inherit a double portion in their land,
and everlasting joy will be theirs.


and last but not least, my two most favorite verses...

Jeremiah 29 : 11

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.


Psalm 32:8
8 The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.

God bless you all.....

When All is Hopeless, Look UP !!!

I can finally tell this story after a couple of weeks for various reason. Some people know this already, as I already explained to them over and over....But for the sake for explaining it for the n-th time, I will write it here.

Couple of weeks ago, I went to Makassar for school visits. So I booked travel arrangements with a travel agent. From the beginning, this agency has been giving me trouble.

First of all, after I have paid them my fare, they were asking me to pay in cash even though I have transferred the money. Since it's from a different bank, it took two business days to complete. I showed them the transfer receipt, but they don't believe me, ask me to pay it in cash first, and refund it if the money went through.

The worst part was they threaten me of canceling the hotel room. I was furious. What they ask is impossible, since it's already Friday. If it took 2 business days for inter-bank transfer, then I would be in trouble since I would be leaving on Sunday. The whole Friday afternoon I spent just to argue with them. She kept on saying " my accounting department won't let it"...

I prayed to God to help me with this.....My coworker also helped me with this by calling them...after hour long of argument, by some miracle, the transferred money went through....and I thought my trouble was over...NOT !!!!!

So I flew to Makassar on Sunday. Already feeling tired, I wanted just to shower and take a good night rest. I checked in, and then the concierge told me something unbelievably shocking "Mr Sinaga ? your hotel reservation was canceled" I was so shocked. Apparently this travel agent was using a sub agent. I reserved 2 rooms under the same name for a different date. The accountant of the sub agent, apparently thought it was a double booking and cancel my room without notifying the primary agent.

I was mad and furious. I wanted to call both the agents, but just my luck, it was a Sunday afternoon. So no one to call. I was devastated and angry, BB broadcasting all the friend I have with no luck. To make it worse, the hotel was not helping at all. They wanted me to pay a hotel room with them, and hoping that the agent will cover it, despite the trouble I was in. Truly no help was coming from any side.

But the Lord is good. I happened to take a marketing class long time ago, and I know the franchise owner of the travel agent. So I SMS-ed her about this debacle. But she doesn't reply to me. So I gave up fighting for this hotel room. I was tired, emotionally exhausted, and desperate. This was the point where all knowledge and and all money was useless. So I stood still. I told God. "You are still on the throne. I am at my wits end. No one can help me but You, Lord."

So I decided to move to another hotel. I got a room..but no elevator to the 3rd floor. I was laughing out of madness. But I decided to smile anyway. About 11.30 at night, the hotel called me again. Saying that all was cleared. I got my hotel room back, they even picked me up from my other hotel. Apparently someone ( I don't know who, perhaps the franchise owner or one of my BB friend) called the travel agent and asked to resolve the problem. The travel rep apologized to me over and over (which has no meaning at this point).

Finally all was resolved, they even pay for the cancellation fee..and I can go on finishing my duty there.

Moral of the story :

- God can use whatever event in your life to help you later on. I took the marketing class when I was unemployed out of keeping my insanity. If I never took that class, I would never know the franchise owner, and she won't be able to help me. It's amazing how God's plan work.

- It's not a good example to ask God only when we are backed to a corner...we should always look up to Him in every situation....but when all is hopeless, look up ! God never fails you or disappoints you.

Hope this note will bless you.....