Welcome to Me !!!

MOTIVASI MINGGU INI

 

Jika Anda yakin bahwa Anda tealah berada pada jalur tujuan yang tepat, maka jangan kuatir mengenai berapa lama Anda akan mencapai puncak sukses, dan jangan menguartirkan orang lain mengenai hal tersebut.

 

Seperti halnya anak jerapah yang baru lahir, dalam hitungan menit ia akan dapat merangkak, lalu kemudian berdiri, berjalan, dan berlari. Demikian juga dengan banyak hewan lainnya, yang dalam hitungan hari dapat menjadi mandiri.

 

Namun coba lihar pada kasus manusia, manusia membutuhkan waktu sejak ia lahir hingga dewasa dan menjadi mandiri.

 

Tuhan memberikan kesuksesan kepada setiap manusia. Namun tidak dalam sekejap kita bisa meraihnya, semua itu perlu waktu. Dalam perjalanan menuju kesuksesan tersebut kita harus terus berjalan dalam jalur yang Tuhan sudah tetapkan. Teruslah berjalan hingga rencanaNya digenapi dalam hidup Anda. Bersabarlah dan Bertekunlah!!!

A Friend In Need is A Friend Indeed

 

A hare hears a lion approach and goes to her many friends for help. First she goes to the horse and asks him to carry her away. But the horse says: “I can’t do this for you, I have so much to do for my master. I don’t understand why you don’t go to another friends”. Now the hare goes to the bull. He can drive away lion with his horn. But the bull answers: “I can’t drive him away, I have no time”. Ask our friend the goat. The hare goes to the goat, but the goat doesn’t like to do such dangerous work and says: ”I am not strong enough, go to the ram”. The hare goes to the ram, but what was the ram’s replay? “Go to another friend, I can’t help you now, because I am ill”. The lion is close now and the hare runs away. Now she knows that “WE MUST NOT RELY ON OUR FRIEND FOR HELP”.

 

The Grapes Are Sour

 

A hungry fox saw some fine bunches of grapes hang from a tree. But the branch from which the bunches hung stood rather high. The fox tried to reach them and jumped. But it was all a vain, for they were out of reach. The fox walked away in disgust and said: “THE GRAPES ARE SOUR. I WILL NOT EAT SUCH STUFF IF I HAD IT”. Hence a proverb comes into use. IF A PERSON SAYS THAT A THING IS WORTHLESS, BECAUSE HE CAN’T GET IT”, we call it an example of “Sour Grapes”.

 

It is said that film maker Walt Disney was a ruthless film editor. He would cut any scene from a movie that interfered in any way with the flow of the story. No matter how beautiful, or funny, or brilliant a scene was, if it didn't fit, it was discarded.

Ward Kimball, one of the animators for Snow White, worked nearly eight months on a 4-1/2 minute sequence in which the dwarves made soup for Snow White. It was a humorous scene in which the dwarves wreaked havoc in the kitchen as they tried to make soup. Walt Disney thought the scene was funny, but ultimately decided it hindered the flow of the picture. So out it went.

Good writers will tell you, just as good motion picture directors will tell you, that it is often what you leave out of a work that determines whether or not it is effective. Good writers will often edit a piece as many as a dozen times, each time continuing to carve it down until only their very best work is left. When actors moan that their best scene ended up on the cutting room floor, it means that a director sliced out a scene in the motion picture that he felt detracted from the movie in its entirety. When a writer sends off a book to an editor, he knows that some of his favorite words will forever go unsaid.

I'd like for you to try to think about your life as if it were a movie or novel. Are there parts of your life that detract from the whole? Is your life out of balance? Is there something that needs to be edited, rewritten, or left out? Do you need to trim a bit here in order to give a lot more effort there?

Let's go to today's lesson from the gospel. I warn you Jesus uses some pretty graphic language in this passage. It may disturb you. He says, "If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched." (NRSV)

In other words, if there is a part of the movie or the novel of your life that is detracting from your life as a whole, edit it out. Sometimes the difference between a mess and a masterpiece is what you eliminate!

This is particularly true when it comes to overt sin. Remember the words of Marc Anthony in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: "The evil that men do lives on; the good is often interred with their bones . . ."

It's true. Many people who are otherwise fine decent people, have had their lives destroyed because of one small, momentary weakness. That weakness might be greed or envy. It might be lust or any of the other seven deadly sins.

That's an interesting phrase--the seven deadly sins, for they are deadly. They cause problems far out of proportion to their importance in the totality of our lives. That's one of the ways life seems unfair, but that's how it is. You can mess up just one time and end up paying for that mistake for years.

William Rodgers Johnston tells about his father's sage advice on the subject of sex. "It was the Victorian era," says Johnston, "when women wore dresses down to their high-top shoes so that their "˜limbs' (the word "˜leg' was taboo) would not show and "˜sex' was never mentioned in polite society. Sex Education, of course, was entirely unheard of. But Poppa did have his say on the subject." Here was his father's advice:

1. Sex was started by Adam and Even and has been around ever since, but each generation that comes along thinks they are the ones who discovered it.

2. "Watch it," counseled his father, "It is stronger than you." That's pretty good advice for many of us. "Watch it. It's stronger than you."

For some people that could be said of greed. For others it could be said about envy, for some it could be said about sex, etc. That's worth remembering: "It's stronger than you."

This is the best advice I can give you about overt sin in your life. Take the scissors or the delete key and eliminate it before it destroys something good and precious that you really care about.

Steve Goodier tells about a woman from Switzerland who was served dinner on a domestic American flight. She immediately opened up her dessert, a delicious-looking piece of chocolate cake, and heavily salted and peppered it. The flight attendant was shocked and said, "Oh! It's not necessary to do that!"

"But it is," the woman replied, still smiling. "It keeps me from eating it!"

Broadcaster Paul Harvey once told a story about boxer Mohammed Ali. He said that Ali had come up with a way to resist temptation. Wherever he goes he always carries a small box of matches. Ali explained further, "Whenever I go to a party and I'm tempted by a beautiful woman, I simply pull out one of the matches and strike it. Then I put it out with my fingers and remind myself, "˜Hell is a lot hotter than this.'"
 
It sounds like Ali is taking Jesus' words literally. "It is better," said Jesus, "for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched."

Certainly it is true that our lives sorely need to be edited if there is overt sin in them. Sin can destroy us. But there are many ways in which our life may need to be edited.

Some of us have allowed our lives to get out of balance, and we've forgotten our priorities. It can happen to any of us.

Author Dave Stone tells about one minister's wife who threatened to put these words on her husband's tombstone: "Gone to another meeting."

If the people around us could edit our lives, I wonder how our lives would look? Our spouses, our children, and our friends--all people who depend on us. What would happen if they could take scissors to our calendars?

Perhaps you've seen the poster that shows a dad and his son in an old rowboat on a little lake. It's early in the morning, there's a faint mist still on the lake, and the father and son are sitting there, quiet and still. They're each holding little bamboo fishing poles, and the two corks attached to their lines are floating motionless on the placid water.

Underneath the picture are two words: take time.
 
Take time. Are the urgent things in your life crowding out the important ones? That can happen, can't it?

Let me say a word directly to the dads who are here. This may also apply to some moms, but probably not nearly as often. Many men wake up one day and realize that their kids are grown and that they've missed out on the most important and rewarding years of their children's lives. If a Dad is not sensitive to his children's needs, all kinds of tragedies can occur.

In the book A Cup of Comfort, Mary Helen Straker tells the story of her Aunt Molly. After Molly married she left Ohio and was determined never to go back. She offered excuse after excuse for not visiting the family, but everyone knew the truth. Their mother had died when Molly was only 10. Molly's new stepmother was hard on her, making her work more than her brothers. Molly soon grew to hate her stepmother and her father. She tried hard to cut off all memories of them.

But finally, Molly's brother convinced her to come back for a visit. During the visit, Molly and her brother began discussing their father's old trunk. He had kept it locked up, and asked that it not be opened until after his death.

The next morning, the family gathered around as Molly's brother opened the trunk. Inside were old letters and legal papers. Wrapped in a handkerchief was their father's gold pocket watch. When they opened the watch casing, out fell a lock of auburn hair--the same color as Molly's hair. Her father had carried a lock of her hair in his watch up until the day he died.
 
You see, Molly's father loved her, but somehow he failed to communicate that love to her. Maybe he had too much to do, or maybe he was simply unaware of how very much his daughter needed him. But it was not until after he was dead that she was aware that he had had deep feelings for her. Could that happen in any of our families? Do our lives need to be edited to ensure that those critical needs are met?

Some of us need to slice a little here and trim a bit there. We need to get rid of overt sin, and we need to balance our lives in terms of the importance of our relationships.

Some of us have let God get crowded out of our lives. It's true. Oh, most Sundays may find us in church, but God doesn't really play that big a role in our lives. He is on the periphery, and if we need Him, we'll call. But we've got places to go and people to meet.

This may very well be the biggest mistake we make. God is the best friend we will ever be blessed with. He can take a drab and meaningless existence and give it new purpose and power. We need Him in our lives, and we need to know His forgiveness and love.

Let me tell you about a man named Ray Giunta. Ray goes wherever there are hurting people who need someone to listen. He has served as a volunteer counselor for students who were involved in school shootings or survived natural disasters. Ray worked with survivors of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. And after 9/11, he headed to New York City.

Ray dedicates himself to spreading God's hope because he knows what hopelessness feels like. When he was just a baby, his father was sent to prison. Not long afterward, his mother abandoned all nine of her children. Ray's oldest sister was only 10 at the time, but she made a valiant effort to take care of her siblings. When the child protective workers discovered the children, they were scattered to various foster homes. Ray was fortunate enough to be adopted by the Giunta family. There he found love, and there he found God. Many years later, Ray initiated a family reunion. In his own life, Ray had seen how God brings hope and restoration out of heartbreak, and he wanted to share that message with others.

At the bombing site in New York City, Ray listened to firefighters pour out their grief over losing friends when the towers collapsed. He saw the danger in which they worked. He thought that they were the only reason he came to New York.

But later that evening, as Ray headed downtown, he encountered an elderly woman and a young boy lugging huge garbage bags down the street. Ray stopped and offered to help. The old woman spoke up, "My daughter is a drug addict, and tonight she kicked my grandson out of the house." Suddenly Ray knew that there was another reason why he had come to New York that night. He knelt down beside the little boy and began to tell him a story about another little boy who had been abandoned by his parents. He told this little boy how God helped the abandoned child throughout his life and how God was still helping him. He assured the little boy that God loved him and was watching over him too.
 
You and I need to know that God loves us and wants only the best for us. I believe that is why Jesus was so harsh in those words we read from scripture. Christ wants only the best for us, and so he is telling us to take some shears to our lives. Cut out hurtful sins. Readjust our schedules. Take time for those we love and take time for God. Then we will discover that our life will no longer be a mess. It will become a masterpiece.

Perumpamaan Sebuah Pensil

 

Seorang pembuat pensil sebelum menaruh sebuah pensil ke kotaknya berkata, “Ada tiga hal yang kamu perlu tahu sebelum aku mengirimkanmu ke dunia ini. Selalu ingatlah itu dan jangan melupakannya, dan kamu akan menjadi pensil yang terbaik yang kamu bisa.” “Satu: Kamu akan bisa melakukan banyak hal yang besar hanya bila kamu membiarkan dirimu dituntun oleh tangan Seseorang.” “Dua: Kamu akan ditajamkan dari waktu ke waktu, dan ini menyakitkan, tetapi kamu perlu itu untuk menjadi pensil yang lebih baik.” “Tiga: Bagian yang penting dari dirimu adalah yang berada di dalam.” Pensil itu memahaminya dan berjanji untuk selalu mengingatnya, dan iapun dimasukkan ke kotak.