A note from my brother...

This is one of my brother's writings and i believe this can be a blessing to you all and i want to share it with you... :) 

Spiritual - A Journey looking for God's Heart by Christopher Angkasa

 Spiritualism is one of the areas that we, as youth, often neglect. I don’t know about majority of you, but I personally have been struggling with the question of spiritualism since your age. And not just intellectual struggle, but also practical issue on how a Christian should act in the relationship between him and God.

Before we go further, let us get into the same ground and find out what do we mean by spirituality. When we look into a word, sometimes it is hard to communicate because that particular word actually means differently for each person. It is quite hard to define it, but for some reason, you know it when you see one.

I am sure a lot of my brothers and sisters here have this kind of feeling. You have received Christ as your savior and you pray to God that you want to know Him more, you want to become a man after God’s own heart. Nevertheless, day after day, you pray, week after week, and there are something call spiritual desert, you are walking through unending valley. It seems that you never get the level of spirituality that you long for.

Before getting deeper, I want to give you statement, that you need to keep in mind throughout my talk.

“Christianity cannot be reduced to formula and method. Every person’s journey is unique where it becomes part of dynamic relationship with God in history”

The Role Model

Let us look into the bible, and I want to look into some people’s life that deemed to have a great spirituality, where God seems to put them in a special light. I think our generation now, is a generation which lacked role model. Our role model is limited to David Beckham and Lady Gaga, which is not spiritual in a sense. It is important to have correct role models, for our life is partly shaped by who our role model is.

Let  us open Genesis 5:21-24. Enoch lived 365 Years and all the bible tells us about this man is only, who his son is (who will become the oldest man in the bible, and just for the information sake), that he had sons and daughters and look at the end. He walked with God, and he was not, for God took him. This is how the bible recorded one of two people in the Old testament that did not experience death. Nothing else matters.

Another man’s life, is recorded in Act 13:36, look at how the bible summed up his life. Isn’t it amazing? David, served his own generation by the will of God, and die, and was buried. David in all his weaknesses, shortcomings, sins and his grieves was called a man after God’s heart. Just stop a moment, and think how the bible recorded about these two men.

A lot of you are still young. And you will not think much about death. But let us imagine ourselves when we die. How do you want people to remember you? You know, in your gravestone, they usually put a sentence there to sum up a person life. What do you want people to remember you for? Do you want people to remember you that you build the tallest building in the world? Someone else will beat you. Or maybe you are once the richest man on earth? You can’t take that money, after all throughout time, it will be gone. Or maybe the most famous artist in the world? You will get forgotten. Or do you want to be remembered, as someone who keep searching for God’s will and live according to His word?

We often tend to regard Jesus as a superhero who come to this world and live a life of human. We see Jesus as a Deity first and mere human last. We often forget that Jesus is fully human. When disciples of Jesus look at Him, they have different picture with what we are seeing now. They are looking at Him as a human first, and slowly, steadily, through incidents and miracles, they start to conclude that Jesus is not just human. He is more than an ordinary human.

Then what is the implication? It means that taking a glimpse of what Jesus do to be spiritual will help us also in our journey. Jesus, as a human, did have limitation (albeit self-imposed). In the bible, even Jesus have to make effort to keep Him close to God. Although He was member of trinity, he still had to do mundane thing that we have to do. For example, he has certain sense that He needed to be in His Father’s house, He woke up early to pray and throughout his life, we saw the ultimate example how a human should keep close to God.

We also see many spiritual people that live before us. We can learn a lot from them. For example… livingstone, AB Simpson, St Augustine, CS Lewis… I really recommend you all to read about these people. Please, do spend some time studying about their lives.
Looking at these people's will tremendously inspire us in our own spiritual journey.

Spirituality – a gift

When we talk about spirituality, it is a sign of someone being controlled by Holy Spirit, therefore having a good relationship with God. This, however, is not something that is resulted from self-effort, but it is a gift, a grace that God has given.

However, we cannot say that therefore, spirituality is not something that we can control and stop making effort. Spirituality involves a choice that we have to make in order to know and grow in our relationship with God. It is a daily conscious effort to submit ourselves to the will of the Spirit. That means, we have to make choice to keep our communication with God.

For example, let say you get yourself a piece of mango seed. You carefully take it home, and you imagine in your head that you are eating those juicy fruits. You pray to God to give growth to this seed, after all He is the only one who can give life. But will this little mango seed grow, if you do not carefully plant it in soil? Will it grow if you do not water it daily and give it fertilizer?

That is why, Jesus said in ….. “who ever have ear listen”. We have to look for it. Have you wonder why Jesus spoke in parables? He could have easily taught straight forwardly and let his disciples and his followers understood it easier. But in …… he said…. The truth will only be revealed to those who are seeking it earnestly. That is why, for you who have not yet start searching, search now. That is where the growth starts.

And you know what, the irony is, once you look for it, you will be never finished in this world. A person who thinks who has found it, has yet to find. A person who thinks that he is spiritual, is not. Just like a person who thinks he is humble, he is not. That is why it is life-long process. In the bible, when a person is holy, do not realize that he is. When Moses came down from the mountain, his face is shining, but he do not notice it, others do. Spirituality can only be measured by others, not yourself.

The role of loneliness.

I am afraid that this is a hard truth that we have to accept. For some of us, loneliness is a dreadful thing. I remember that during my study abroad, I am stripped away from the fellowship. That is why I always stressed out the importance of appreciating your fellowship, whether it is here or in other places. Fellowship is something that God gives to you, to give you a chance to grow. Unfortunately, I found out that in many case that my faith and spirituality go deeper when shaped by loneliness. It is a process that we need to get used to.

Oswald Chambers said that it is when we are alone in walking through suffering, heart break, temptation, disappointment, sickness, broken friendship that He begins to teach us. Many of us would think that these things are unnecessary, but if there are people who might think that way are the twelve disciples of Jesus. They are closer to Jesus on earth than anyone else, they are taught and given chance to ask question, but it was only when Jesus left the earth, and Holy spirit came that they experience the kind of spirituality like never before.

The Role Atonement/Repentance

The ultimate problem of why it is so hard for us to connect with God, can be summed up in one word. SIN. Sin is the one cause that separates us from our Creator. We have already lost the image of God, we have defied His command, rebel against His will, and somewhere in the middle, we are dead.

One needs to realize that every day is a battle, and we need to repent. Even after we are taken into salvation, we are still battling it, because day by day, we are still living in a sinful world.

Without daily repentance, it will be hard for us to connect to God. Sin causes us to be ashamed and run from God. Daily repentance is crucial in order to keep us constantly close to Him. Be wary thou, that once a person decides to delay his repentance, your relationship with God will not become stagnant, it will deteriorate. The longer you wait, the less you will be able to hear His voice.

Closing

Now, the question is, are you ready to embark this wonderful journey with God? You are all preparing to enter one of the most crucial phase in your life. Do not waste your life doing futile thing, focus your mind, heart and soul in living out your life's purpose.

Live life to its fullest
You only live once
There is no second chance

Seek your Creator
While you are young
And you will live a life
Worthy of living


Blessings,
NANA