Nine months have passed (no kidding!) since we opened the first page of our I Corinthians study book. After the long journey of beating the chests, squinting the eyes, scratching the heads, and echoing millions of words -- that's a healthy discussion -- , we have finally come to the end of the I Corinthians series. Hopefully, all of the lessons learned have fallen, like seeds, into good soil. When the time comes, these seeds will multiply and produce good crops for our Master and Creator.
At the end of every passing moment, there are usually two things that people can choose to do: to forget or to cherish the memory. Sadly but true, everything related to our spiritual life is tend to be forgotten easily. What an irony! Many of us won't disagree that the physical life is temporary, while the spiritual is eternal. Yet the way we allocate our energy and mind in each 24 hours tells which part of life is the most important.
Let's be different! We don't have to follow the crowd. As we believe that taking care of our physical life is important, we also believe our spiritual life needs the same attention. Hopefully we want to spare some times to look back to the lessons we have learned from our last series.
Please drop one or two paragraphs (or even just a line!) -- as a comment for this posting -- about the things that you have learned from our study of the I Corinthians. By doing that we can make the lessons stick and will also help our brothers and sisters to remember some important points from the letter. Yes, it's a looking back, but a constructive one!
Important(?) fact: The series began on July 20, 2007.
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8 comments:
Coba yang posting blog mulai duluan kesan pesannya ttg 1 korintus... ehheheheh :p
Iya donk...pasti entar yang laen bakal mulai kasih pesan dan kesan...huehuehe
Sadly but true, saya ga getu inget kmrn2 itu qta ngomongin apa aza.
Ada 2 yg masih 'nyantel' di pikiran saya, pertama ttg love. Unconditional love, for precisely.
qta perlu mengasihi org bukan KALAU dia org na baik, cocok sama qta, etc. tpi qta perlu mengasihi org karena qta sudah terlebih dulu dikasihi Tuhan.
Kedua ttg giving, saya sudah tau ttg persepuluhan sejak lama, tpi masih berasa beraaaat banget utk melakukan na. discussion kmrn menjadi a good reminder buat saya, specially wkt ko Ian bilang... Tuhan kasih qta berkat, salah satu na berupa uang, brp % dr berkat itu milik Tuhan? Semua na.
It made me realize trnyt selama ini saya menahan apa yg seharusna milik Tuhan.
The lesson about Work that lasts has made me think of the things I do. Do they have an eternal value? It is a reminder for myself to choose eternal things over temporary things. Every work that we do with love (for God and for our neighbors) will last.
The second lesson that really hits me is about The body of Christ. Believe it or not, I have a tendency to be anti-social! How I am always tempted to go hiding alone in my "cave" than to be with other people. But, that's not how God wants his children to be. God wants us to complete and to build each other up. The problem is, the more we know each other, the easier we get irritated. No matter what, we are still parts of the body of Christ. We are always called to love and respect others regardless of who they are.
Buat gw. Hmmm... yg pertama ttg God's wisdom vs worldly wisdom. Kadang kita tanya2 ama Tuhan, knp sih ini kok begini? Knp gw musti ngalamin ini? Knp rencana gw ga berjalan dgn sempurna? Kadang kita yg berasa pinter dan lbh tau ttg diri kita sendiri, pdhl Tuhan yg jelas lbh tau ttg kita dan tau apa yg terbaik buat kita, juga tau gmn caranya mendidik kita biar 'naik kelas'.
Yg kedua ttg Love. Gw ter-convict bgt pas baca kalo love yg bener tuh yg ga egois. Gmn coba kita bisa mengasihi org tanpa syarat, ga inget2 kesalahan org, ga mikirin diri sendiri. Susah banget! Gw masih jatuh bangun, tapi ya semoga sudah semakin maju :p
BTW, I'm really glad kalo skrg kita dah bisa mulai terbuka (at least yg cewe2 sih, yg cowo2 ga tau) krn ada kesempatan sharing n doa di smaller groups. It's really a blessing to know you guys more and pray together!
Well, two things that stick with me are Work that Lasts and Love chapters. I've been putting too much hay and woods on the Foundation far too long. It's time to put something precious on the Foundation.
The second one is Love, agape love that is. I have no problem loving people that I care about or even strangers. I have problem loving the people that I felt have dissapointed me, that is my achilles' heel. I'm probably not the only one on this matter.
I got a knock on the head last sunday at church. A simple question with wrestling answer. Do you understand God's Grace? This unmerited love from God. God loves me even when I was His enemy. I thought I got it, I really did. But I guess not, well, not completely anyway, if I did understood it then I would not have a problem with loving people. So when I read 1 Cor 13, I wrestle with that chapter. I truly believe what separate us, the believers and the non-believers is our ability to love and forgive unconditionally, yet I won't even give myself a passing grade on that one...
"So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love."
Love. Too many of us mengumbar-umbar (apa ini bahasa inggrisnya?) the word "love" easily. We say we love somebody but do not realize that we are nowhere close to the characteristics of love mentioned in previous verses.
It's that "Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous, is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury, it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things."
After having read the passage over and over again, I realized that loving someone, or even just the idea of "love" itself, is not that simple nor easy. It takes a lot of major work! - well, at least for me. These characteristics don't come easily within me. Patient? Yeah right. Not jealous? I really *am* trying hard not to! Not quick-tempered? Yeah, when I don't have those "moody" days. Conscious efforts need to be made - every time I'm about to get irritated, I'd say "Patience, Nit... orang sabar tuh disayang Tuhan..."
A work in progress... until one day I can honestly say, "I really AM a loving person, just like my Jesus is."
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