Hanny Setiawan

What a pathetic life!

It was almost 15 years ago, the last time I was in the area.  I was about to pray for an elderly who was sick and was about to pass away.  When I stepped my feet to the area (Kampung), Kajen - Solo, my heart was pierced.  I cried and stumbled to the fact that Kajen (the Kampung's name) does not really change.  It's still a slum area! It looks like that it is not moved by time. 

I was walking to the house.  And along the way I saw a view that even made me ponder harder. Why this area is still poor, dirty, and slummy? Don't they have majority "believer citizens"? Where are "the light and the salt" of this kampung?

Suddenly, God puts in my heart His compassion. I know I have to do something more to this people.  Not just merely a preaching.  They need to be set free from their bondage. The problems of drinking, smoke, sex, poverty are some of the common problem there.  And even  more of heartbreaking story is that there are many other "kampungs" in my city that have the same problem.  What a pathetic life they have :(

Tommorow, I will be having a service for the elderly who was just passed away.  And I am very passionate to share the "real gospel" to these people. In fact, we will be having an evangelistic meeting in the center of the area. Please keep us in your prayer.  I believe this will be another milestone of my ministrial journey.

They are real people, real problems, and real bondage.  And I will be bring "real God" to them.  As long as I live, I am praying to God to use me to be blessing for these people.  I want to see another 15 years this kampung becomes different area! The area where people of God show a real life, a life with Jesus in the center! (yhs)

The One Thing

Finishing International Youth Festival II, I've been thinking many things.  Ministry, Business, and personal life get more complex.  More 'voices' come to my ear. Sometimes they have made me difficult to concentrate on "the one thing" that God has given in my life to do.  Thankfully, God has sent my friends from Singapore to strengthen the call I have recieved.  The harder the way, the more will be.  But the reward is not all I want it.  What I really want is doing His will on this earth until someday I finish the race and complete the task. Friends let's all of us do "the only thing" God intends to do in each life of us.  God bless.

Keep On Fighting

After 10 years, on 6.6.06 I performed again in LiVE Concert "Beware" with my "juniors".  The average of their age is 10 years younger than myself.  Before thousand young people gathered in the hall, I enjoyed played with them.  Indeed, I was really blessed to finally see what I dreamt, duet with my brother ;).  But more importantly, I realise that many of my "ministry partners" are not in the "field" anymore.  Where are they?  Let's keep on fighting for the kingdom, so that nobody will ask the question, "Where are you?"

A Breakhrough

I was late, just got back from work.  They already prayed and some were crying to God.  Henry, my brother, gave me the mic to continue the prayer meeting.  I wasn't ready.  I was tired and a bit overwhelmed with work these few months.  But suddently, He reminded me to give thanks.  My eyes were wide-openned to see what He has done for me.  I challenged people to give a short prayer to give thanks.  And then I knew that God had moved among us.  God's peace shadowed the room.  We were all blessed.  Then I were moved to challenge peole to give the best offering we can bring to God to show our best gratitude.  We all cried out lout in one accord asking for God's favor.  And the miracle came, the breakthrough happened.

When I openned my eyes, I saw Cell-Phones, a ring, Monies, a piece of paper full with promises and others, they really gave the best offering that night.  I was touched! Their offering has strengthened my faith to continue to do what I am doing.  God is indeed at work among people  and raising up an army to shake the city, and the nations. 

To all my elders in Youth Center Bethany Solo Baru, I would like to say thank you so much for your faithfulness and heart to make Youth Center Celebration I happened successfully.  Furthermore, thank you for your support, your ministry are the proof from God that I am called.  I am not just doing 'something', I am convinved that He called me to work with you guys to shake our familly, churches, cities, and nations for God (yhs).

Grace For All!

What Do We Believe?

CS Lewis: 'You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you'

Got the quote from an email in a mailing list, it touches the deepest part of my heart.  Many times we cross the thin line of "truth" violating our belief and become the 'unbeliefs'.  God helps us to live up to His standard, walking in His truth regardless of the offer of the world.  The  question for today, "what do we really believe?"  (yhs)

Finding God's Will (6)

Trial & Error: An Error Of Finding God's Will (6)

Finding God's Will is indeed a challenge that people
of God face relentlessly.  Where we want to settle
down, what School we should attend, what business we
must work on, whom we will marry, how many children we
should have are only few common questions that we face
daily in our lives.  There are many attempts to
discover the secret of finding God's will.  But all
comes down to a conclusion that rarely (not
impossible) does God provide His guidance that
directly addresses our questions.  God knows that His
Word is adequate to lead our path (Psalm 119:105; II
Cor. 3:16-17).  That's all we have.  General
direction! The issue raised is whether it means that
to find God's Will we are 'pushed' to try and error
every decision.  After all, who can really make a
decision in 'darkness' with full confidence?  And if
we make mistake, won't God take care of us anyhow?

Trial and Error becomes a common approach given the
nature of the matter.  However, God never teaches us
to "try first" or "we'll see' type of attitude.  His
desire is to reveal His heart to His beloved.  The
pitfall is that many times we cannot distinguish the
difference between Trial & Error and Walking in Faith.
  They both look the same, but the paradigm underlies
the matter is completely different.

Walking in Faith will never result an error.  That's
for sure.  It leads us to the next step that God
desires.  On the other hand, Trial & Error will cause
many problems along the way.  It is merely based on
the most convenient path.  It never knows what the
result might be.  God never leaves us in total
darkness.  He is the Light of the world.  Thus, in
every decision that we make, if we don't know what the
result should be, we are not walking in faith but just
trying a path.

The good news is if we are sincere, eventually we will
get to the destination because God is good.  He is
always faithful even when we are not.

2 Timothy 2:13 "if we are faithless, He will remain
faithful, for he cannot disown Himself"

However, Trial & Error will cause many emotional
baggages, spiritual bruises, and sometimes even get
physical such as financial problem.  It is very
destructive. It is the source of our misery. Consider
following rhetoric questions:

* How much money that will cost us if we change our
major, business so many times?
* How much time we waste before we 'finally' settled
down in the right place?
* How many emotional scars that reside in our heart
because of all the 'fail relationships' that we 'try'
before we find the right one?
* How miserable it is to find out that we work on
something completely wrong?
* How sad it is if in the end of our life we find out
that our life is just nothing but a series of Trial &
Error?

Think it through, pray harder, fast, ask Godly
friends, consider our past mistakes (can be a
pattern), let Holy Spirit be the leader, and then take
the step of faith to live up to His call.  Don't just
try all convenient paths and at the end we regret
them.  It's not just wasting our precious time, it
hurts God, others, and ourselves. (yhs)

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God has wisely kept us in the dark concerning future
events and reserved for himself the knowledge of them,
that he may train us up in a dependence upon himself
and a continued readiness for every event.
(Matthew Henry)
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Finding God's Will (5)

God or God's Will?: Finding God's Will (5)

Our desire and eagerness to find God's best option in
our life sometimes can blind our spiritual eyes of why
we want to do His Will in the first place. We are busy
to search the "what is" question - the guidance,
and forget that after all the ultimate goal is to
please God by personally and intimately knowing Him.

Proverb 3:5-6 says "Trust in the LORD with all your
heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths
straight."

To trust somebody, we need to know him/her. Without
any knowledge of who he/she is, it is impossible to
know what he/she relly wants. In other words, we need
to have a solid relationship with God in order to know
what He really has in mind. When David was in the
midst of confusion of not knowing what to do, he cried
out to the Lord " My God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? .....and O my God, I cry out by
day, but you do not answer...." (Ps 22 :1-2).

Amazingly, he never lost his trust in God.
Ps 22:7-9 says "All who see me mock me; they hurl
insults, shaking their heads: "He trusts in the LORD;
let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he
delights in him." The NASB uses the word COMMIT
instead of TRUST. They both are rooted in the same
hebrew word that means to roll.

We need to roll or to give away ourself totally to God
in order to know what He wants. That what TRUST means.
In fact, the word WAIT in the hebrew means TO SERVE
(Jim Reeve, God Never Wastes a Hurt). We are not
sitting around and doing nothing when we wait on His
guidance or answer; instead, we need to serve Him with
all we have.

It does not matter what we say we believe, what we do
reveals what we believe. If we do really trust Him,
our behaviour will show how dependent we are on Him.
Thus, what important is to know Him where His heart
is. Bob Pierce, the founder of World Vision, once
prayed, "Let my heart be broken with the things that
break the heart of God" (Robert L, Empowering The
Poor). That's what finding God's will is all about, to
know His heart.

Therefore, I doubt that we are in His will, if we
don't have the desire to COMMIT and to SERVE Him. If
our heart is not in His work, how can we seek for
another guidance? We don't even want to do what we
know He really wants!

Craig Keener in His book Gift and Giver states, "The
foundation of knowing God, is not simply being able to
determine specific guidance from Him, important as
specific guidance is. Knowing God is more than simply
getting guidance for the details of our lives."

I would like to urge all of us to work more on our
relationship with God in every way. Let's put aside
all barrier that can hinder our relationship with Him.
Remember What matter is God, not us. Let's us be like
Paul that has all the desire to please Him in every
way.

"To advance the gospel has been Paul's lifelong
passion; he has thus ordered his life so that nothing
will hinder, and everything advance, the message about
Christ" (Gordon Fee) (yhs)

Finding God's Will (4)

Brokenness: Finding God's Will (4)

The nature of finding God's will is similiar to
decision making process that we know in today's
management practices.  Unfortunately, the similiarity
presents a dangerous pitfall that can be very counter-
productive.  Choosing God's best is not merely
choosing the best option offered on table.  In fact,
many times "the best option" is not what God has in
mind.  This means that the right decision does not
necessarily "profitable", and it can cost us
something.

Paul says "But whatever was to my profit I now
consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I
consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing
greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose
sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish,
that I may gain Christ" (Phil 3:7-8).  Basically, the
decision that Paul made has literally cost him
everything that he has.

One can argue that Paul is different and that he is
one of his kinds.  And perhaps it is a very true
argument.  But it does not rule out the
fact that Paul (aka Saul) was a mass-killer.  In our
modern vocabulary, Paul was a terorist.  His life was
even far from so-called "a normal life."  In average,
we have "better life" than Paul.  So I strongly
argue that even though Paul is indeed one of his
kinds, by the same Grace, we can be used by God, if we
walk the same path as Paul.  For
Paul what matter is "to gain Christ." And that's God's
will.  By choosing God's way, Paul's life was
brokenned. The question is whether we are willing to
do the same thing.

In our daily life, decision that we have to make might
not have the same ramification as Paul's. But still
the concept is the same.  God's way is always the way
of Cross.  As we live in a sinful world, we tend to
choose the most comfortable and convenient way.  Even
though the "worse option" is not automatically God's
preferred way either, I would like to suggest to be
more "suspicios" to any easier, looks better, makes
more sense type of options.  Theology of suffering is
always less popular than theology of blessing. But
through the suffering, Jesus Christ has brought to us
the eternal blessing.

Phil 3:10 "I want to know Christ and the power of his
resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death"

Are you about making an important decisions? Just take
a moment and ask this question, "For whose's sake this
decision I make?" Let's learn to be obedience and
choose God's way of suffering. It's not promised as an
easy road, but it's assured to bring us closer to the
real reality: God Himself. Psalm
34:18 "The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and
saves those who are crushed in spirit." (yhs)

Finding God's Will (3)

Writing His-Story : Finding God's Will (3)

Finding God's Will is undoubtedly very crucial for our
personal relationship with God. The more we know Him,
the clearer we're able see our life's path. On the
other hand, the more we know His Will, the closer we
will get to Him. But ironically, the personal nature
of the process of finding God's will could sometimes
become a hindrance to understand what God really
desires us to do. We become "too personal" and think
that the story is just about us.

The center of our faith is the Cross. Any sound
theologies should reflect why God left His divine
nature to become a limited nature and even died in a
such a horrible way, carrying our sins. Walsh and
Middleton says, "Any world view built on the Bible
must focus on Christ's incarnation - his life, death
and ressurection" (The Transforming Vision, p. 74).
Thus, any paths that we choose should bring us to be
more like Christ (Rm 8:20; Heb 2:10-11). Living, and
thinking like Christ should be the only thing that
matters for us.

Unfortunatelly, we tend to forget that to live is
Christ when we're in searching of God's will. We think
that our life is our story and God is merely the
"great counselor" to help us write the right story.
Indeed, He is our counselor, but don't forget that He
also owns us (I Cor 6:19-20; Gal 2:19-20). In simple
words, when making any decisions, we should always
remember that we simply write His story in our live.
Our story is part of God's big story, the
meta-narrative.

The discussion brings to my point that to find God's
will, regardless of how personal the decision we need
to make, we have to be able to set aside our personal
feeling and preference. I strongly believe that it
doesn't mattter where we want to live, what kind of
jobs we want to do, what type of boys/girls we want to
marry, what academic majors we want to take, and any
other kind of decisions, God's big story is more
important. The problem is that we can't always see the
bigger picture that God has for us. That's where faith
comes to play. We have to believe!

Faith is a living, daring confidence in God's grace.
It is so sure and certain that a man could stake his
life on it a thousand times (Martin Luther)

In conclusion, I would like to urge us to really
contemplate any decisions we are about to make. Are we
making decisions just for our own sake, or God's sake?
Don't be afraid to make "unpopular decisions" if
that's necessary, believe that He will perfect His
plan for us, because above all our life is His-Story
(yhs).

Finding God's Will (2)

Unbeliever Advise: Finding God's Will (2)

The role of unbeliever, people who don't share our
Christian belief, has somewhat been deemed by some
Church's pulpits.  I Cor. 15:33, "..Bad company
corrupts good character...", is undoubtedly a strong
support of how we have to be extremely careful with
whom we hang out with.  The Corinthian believers lived
among pagan worshipers, sexual immorality, and
super-arogant society. Paul knew that they had to
stand up and "be different people".  Indeed, in I Cor.
3:16, he urged them to be God's Temple, alluding that
they should NOT be the same as the "other temples."
They have been bought by the Blood of Christ (I Cor
6:20), so it's a necessary to be holy, separated from
the wicked.

Paul's concern is absolutely important to be noted and
remembered.  However, this truth has been extended to
a degree that has ruined the purity of God's word.
Extended application has notoriously been recognized
as the source of confusion.  In this case, I would
argue that Paul didn't suggest that we COMPLETELY
ignore the role of unbelievers.  He merely said that
they should be aware of the danger and urged them NOT
to live like them.  Therefore, the same principle
applies to us.  We should be aware of the danger of
unbeliever influence and should not live like them.
But we're not encouraged at any rate to ignore them.
In other words, I believe, biblically and
experientially, that our unbeliever friends, family,
co-workers, etc are also placed by God in our path, so
that they can shape our view of life (to certain
degree).  And since our view of life is the framework
of how we make godly decisions - finding God's will, I
would suggest to start "listening" to unbelievers
around us.

This opinion, I realise, is not the easiest truth to
accept for some people.  But believe me, we can learn
a lot from them.  The most practical example that I
can give is the role of unbeliever parents.   While we
can't live like them, and their advise could be
non-biblical, they are definetly placed by God to help
us grow.  Listening to their advise is a must.  And
don't be afraid to learn from them.
From my own experience, I have found out that my
unbeliever friends can be a lot wiser than my godly
friends.  And usually after viewing their advise from
the Word of God, I realise that some of what they say
are also what God says.

In conclusion, if we believe "all truth is God's
truth", consequently we also have to believe that all
good advise is from God regardless where it comes
from: believers or unbelievers (yhs)