Being the Friend of the Bridegroom

As the title said, are you one?

The first (baby) level of faith is of course admitting to Jesus that "Lord, I have messed up my life a lot. But Lord, I want to start afresh, turn around a new leaf. Please forgive me my sins and all the wrongs that I've done".

We confessed our sins to God, and of course, God forgives us unconditionally. But that's where the journey with Christ of some Christians stops. Yeah, God forgives me already and I'm anew. Nothing wrong in that, just that they close a sinful chapter of their lives aside. Indeed there's no much effort in doing so, because God presented us His most precious Son as a gift in exchange of our sins. This is the most worthy gift that one can ever receive, and we all received it since the day we were born. Most of us, if not all, have received (heard) this Good News that God wants us to hear. Some opened the gift immediately; some opened it slightly a little late into their lives; some opened it at the end of their lives; some never open it.

Now the important part is that many of those who opened the gift and took out the "Grace of God" and just putting the box aside. But do you know that the content of the box is not just "Grace of God"? Most of us missed out that point. There is also an invitation letter - An invitation to the wedding Banquet. By receiving the forgiveness of sins from God, we are entitled to be the friend of the bridegroom. It is our great responsibility as God's worker to be a friend of the Bridegroom.

John the Baptist said,

The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine (ours), and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.

John 3:29-30 NIV, Parenthesis mine

The joy is ours when we hear the bridegroom's voice. And we can only hear Jesus's voice if we maintain a good relationship with Him. To be in such a relationship with Him, we must constantly watch for all we are worth. We must be careful of ourselves and putting this relationship higher above anything else, including family, friends and those whom we dear to.

Jesus said:

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn 

"'a man against his father,

a daughter against her mother,

a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law--

a man's enemies will be the members of his own household.'

"Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."

Matthew 10:34-37 NIV

This may sounds cruel, but it is vital to maintain an above-all relationship with Jesus Christ. We may become amateur providences, but it will not last once crisis rises. If we are to hold things together with our own strength, it will come to a day when we get weary of this durable strain. It is because what we can give is nothing compare to what God has for us. That is why I think, God should be in higher position in a household. I would rather be second in my partner's most-loved-person-list while God is her first, rather than me being in the first spot. As what John said in Verse 3:30:-

He must increase, but I must decrease.

The question for you to think is: what is the status of your relationship with Jesus? Is He at the first seat of your most-loved-person-list?

I don't know what are you thinking about.
*confused.*

blessed

It is until now that I know, that shifting house needs a lot of money.

I spent a lot. It isn't a good sign. Even my first Google Adsense payment is not enough to cover these expenses. A little worried about money. =/

I found myself enjoying in working life. Although I have to look into lots (I think about a hundred or more) of TargetLink modells in MatLab, I enjoyed the life quite well. I enjoyed the time with my apartment's people. They are very kind and fun people. I have a cool boss whose name can be shortened to JFK. It seems like I have good opportunity with JFK. I like JFK in American history, I like my ex-house in JFK-road, and I like my new boss JFK. Well, his name not John F. Kennedy. But he is a cool guy; has style, shows good leadership, good-looking and somehow all the female workers & students know him. =/ 

JFK's boss is also someone steady and cool and I'll be meeting him tomorrow. And he wants to talk to me more, according to him. I wonder why. Haha. I also like my a senior/junior of mine, whose job I will be taking over. He is younger than me, but I will take over his internship job from next week onwards. And Seriously, I think I'm still unable to follow what he taught me since yesterday. Oh well. =/

In short, I love this company and I love the environment. I love the system. So far I got 3 hours OT and I will collect until 70 hours (max) so that I can have a good time during summer =D

I'm also grateful to able to stay in this house. This house is a 5 person WG, and all of them are nice people! 2 are leaving soon, but I'm very fortunate to able to know them. I know this might sound a little sakai, but yea, I never stay in a WG before and hanging out with these people are fun and great. And since everyone are Praktikanten and those who are writing their thesis, we are all free at night and it is fun to spend time with each other to know everyone in person.

In the end, the injured leg is another blessing in disguise. When I called the Hausmeister to take the room, I did pray hard that the people who I would be living with would be nice people. And God answered my prayer!

They say it is during the darkness that the Light shines brighter. It is definitely true. Being a 3 years old Christian, I thank God for putting me into such a situation, where I referred as "the new darkest period of my life". I prayed for a deeper level of faith, and God put me into such a situation that I really did feel lost, forsaken, and abandoned. It reminded me the situation in the bible:

Then he(Jesus) got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples (me) went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us (me)! We're going to drown!" 

He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then He got up and rebuke the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 

The men (me) were amazed and ask, "What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey Him!"

Matthew 8:23-27 NIV, brackets mine

It was a meaningful journey of my new chapter of (working) life. I'm looking forward to each day. Let's keep the momentum rolling. I'm such a blessed child.

=)