New Life Community

Yesus memberikan perumpamaan tentang anggur baru yang tidak bisa disimpan dalam kantong anggur yang lama. Di kitab Lukas kita melihat berbagai contoh bagaimana orang yang bertemu dengan Yesus berubah hidupnya, atau menjadi seperti farisi dan menolak Yesus. Di awal tahun ini kita belajar bagaimana cara kita bisa meninggalkan kantong anggur yang lama untuk mempersiapkan diri menerima musim baru di 2022.

Jesus is the fulfilment of many prophecies. The true revelation that the all-powerful God with all of the different attributes personified and dwell among us. By being named Immanuel, God took the initiative to reconcile us, not only to show us the Kingdom of God but also to empower us to live so. Not only to show us righteousness but to make us righteous. Not only to heal us but also to give closure for things we don't understand. He is Immanuel.

When the Word of God come into flesh, we are not only get a glimpse, but a full fleshed out face of grace. Through Jesus, we got a role model and a full revelation of grace and truth. And this grace is what sustains us through ups and downs as we close this year and showing up for the next. 

having God among us, we need to have the right attitude, and steadfast faithfulness before God. Our race is the race of faith, and what we need to pray for is so that we can live bit by bit honoring and bringing forth God's will and agenda in our lives. 

Through the lives of Zechariah and Elizabeth, we learnt that God's promises are still true amidst oppression and fear. While the key is understanding that God is the centre of the story and not us or our dreams. God and his Kingdom is the only thing that remains the same even if everything is shaken. Therefore hold fast to this true identity, to this grace and to this love that sustains us through every ups and every downs.

Paul entrusted his ministry and reputation to a youngster, Timothy. Despite of his youth, Timothy is a young person with a strong character, tested faithfulness, and put forth other interest before his own. As young Christians we shouldn't take for granted the time that we have, focusing on our dreams and goals but missing the key ingredients that Paul saw in Timothy.

We like to live without limit, feeling young and free to do whatever we want to do. Yet even in the beginning God gives boundaries for Adam to truly live free. Through Peter's letter we learned what does it mean to live as Christian, not leading a limitless life, but a purposeful and meaningful ones.

Impatience usually a main reason that we don't see God's promises. We need to realise that even in the waiting room, God is always in control and He has the best plan in mind. In the season of waiting we need to develop our humility and trust so that we can stand until the season ends. 

Waiting time does not equal to a passive season. Everyday we have a purpose and calling to live our lives the way God wants little by little until we see the compounding effect in our lives. 

We live in a fast-paced world with ever-moving goals, expectations, and priorities. In the Bible, we see Jesus as a role when he turned our Eisenhower Matrix upside down and advised Martha that hustling might not always be the necessary thing.

From Moses we learned that God looks through our identity crisis, personal weakness and limitation. If he calls us out, it is not because of what we can do or who we are but more because of who He is.

We learned from David and Goliath that we need to take our focus on God. The Word of God is the source of our faith, as long as we are not fixated on our limitations. 

One of the most inspiring comeback story is Caleb. As he was pushing for God's promises in his old years. We learn that from Caleb there is a great lessons on following Christ, even if we are in the wilderness and don't get closer to the promise land yet.

When we are coming back to our previous normal life, we need to live our lives respecting Sabbath - honoring God and others. We need to be able to rest right and rest better as we comeback to our high pace life. 

We are geared toward winning, however it is easy to set our minds wander from the true race, the race of faith before God. We see evidence and principles that God is into the process and the endurance more than the worldly results.

We live in the age where there are many options, thus our decisions seems meaning less. At this time, live as a committed Christian is counter cultural and need a lot of self evaluation. We need to understand that life is not a rat race and if we seek any kind of fulfillment in life, it would come from accountability. 

As Solomon chose Godly wisdom, we can choose Godly wisdom when we are dealing with everyday life. However we also learned that wisdom alone might not enough as Solomon ended his life as a fool. 

To live a foolproof life, we need to know what fool means biblically, and learn humility. There are many traits of fools that we might easily identify with ourselves when we do not hear others, refuse to learn, and even further we adopt a defensive stance whenever we are being reminded or rebuked. 

Wisdom sustains us through difficult situations. Thus to lead a foolproof life, God might allow us to be pressureed, in a hardship and even among fools. However God does not leave us alone and He gives wisdom to us, so that we can come out winning.

Proverbs writes about hindrances of wisdom, among them simple, folly and scoffer. We even might see it these traits in ourselves from time to time. The Bible tells about the symptoms for us to evaluate and gives some great examples of how low we can fall if we do not have wisdom to navigate through our lives.