natashacthe

Hi 2012!

2012-01-01T23:52:00.000+08:00

Greeting, folks! Wow, it's 2012! I'm taken aback by surprise on how 2011 had passed by already, pretty quickly I should say. I could say that 2011 had been the BEST year of my life. It had not come easy, but it is truly worth it, with God displaying all His strength and performing His mighty miracles in my life.

I can still vividly remember how I celebrate the new year of 2011 last year. I was in Lombok, writing a blog post on New Year's Eve by the beach, meditating and contemplating accompanied by the sound of the waves kissing the shore. There, I realize, that I would enter the year of 2011 with great fear of uncertainty. 2011 had some major life intersections and highlights that I have to undertake, and it would be ultimately life-changing, and at that time, I was scared of taking the wrong path. The thought of the senior year busyness, thesis defense, graduating, and applying for university; they all drive me crazy. There were even times I told myself "ah, if only God would have His Second Coming before all these, I wouldn't need to make such decision." But then, the time comes and there there, decision has to be made. I am extra thankful on how God has taken my hand and lead me step by step along the way. He taught me to wait on Him, to trust in Him, and to rely on Him, even against all the odds of the world. God supersedes human timing, because He is the Author of Time. God supersedes human reason, because He is the Author of everything. Even in the times that I couldn't understand God, through all the challenges happening in life, I have come to learn that all that matters is God. Having God is more than enough, and to trust in Him for unfolding His Perfect Plan, that is what we ought to have. God made me to go through humbling processes which mold my character and change my life altogether, to grow more and more like Him. I have to admit that all those processes have not been easy, but His Grace is indeed always sufficient.

Along the process of embracing 2011, I am also immensely grateful for relationships. God gave me the BEST classmates and form teacher to graduate high school with. Along the way, my friendships with my other friends have also been strengthened, that I found true and encouraging friends and mentors, who have been faithfully supporting me and praying for me, while teaching me to enjoy all the life's moments as well. And also, for the new friendships and acquaintances I have made with my new living in Singapore, I thank the Lord. Yet above all, I thank God for the precious family God has put me in. Living alone in Singapore for like four months make me realize how much I miss my family and the warmth that a home possesses. Yes, I enjoy my life there, but it's still different without my family around. So, during the time of my holiday for the past one month, I gladly come home to spend time with my dearest family and friends. I know that moments like this wouldn't last very long, and therefore I want to cherish every bits and moments of it.

Looking back to 2011, I am in awe, to the point to say that it is none of my work and none of my strength; yet it's ALL God's work. To graduate high school, to go off to a senior trip to Komodo Island, to be admitted to Singapore Management University (SMU), to finish off my first semester, and to live a life growing as a daughter, student, and friend. I couldn't help but sometimes wonder that if it's really me that God has entrusted with all those. Without His Favor and Grace, I am truly nothing.

And now, we have taken the step to begin the year of 2012. Even though we have not seen the whole staircase, we have taken a step of faith. And that faith is what God will consider as a seed, that will be watered to grow to move mountains. 2012 may not be as "dramatic" as 2011, where all the pivotal moments happen for me. But then, I believe that in all that, greater challenges will come, yet I have a greater God with me. He has not left me for the past seventeen years plus of life, and I believe He would never leave my side.

For the year of 2012, God has put in my heart that it will be a year in which God will require my total submission to Him. It is to Him that I should yield my will, my desires, and all my plans. In all submissions, I find my rest. And in that rest shall I be having my restful increase, in trusting that God knows what He is doing. Yes, folks, submit your life to His feet. With that submission, God's power will be able to flow freely in our life, to flow to our weaknesses and strengthen us in times of need. One of the tweets I favorited on Twitter is Adrian Lindsey's tweet last month, saying that "A submitted weakness gives access to heavenly strength.". It is when we tell God that we are powerless, that His power will come through. Whatever challenges that we will be facing in 2012, be it health, academic, family, or anything, we know that we couldn't deal with it on our own. We are to cast our cares on God alone, and believe that He is going to work it out. In reference, I am so blessed reading Pastor's Prince's devotional "Working out of Rest" on last December 2006, read it here.

I hope that I will be able to post more also in 2012. Know that you guys are in my prayer for all your circumstances. Remember that God is for you, and He will never forsake you in your weaknesses. He loves you so much, that He dies for all your sins so you would need to bear it no more. Oh I couldn't be more thankful for having a Savior like this. :)

Have a blessed new year of 2012, beloveds! May 2012 brings you greater peace, greater joy, greater hope, and greater blessings. Know that you are loved! :)

never forsaken,

Natasha Crescentia

"For the moments and for the memories; for the lessons and for the miracles; for the struggles and for the help; for the friendships and for the love; for the joy, for the peace, and for the hope. Lord, I thank You for 2011."

Lead Me to the Rock

2011-11-07T21:54:00.002+08:00

When we have something burdening our heart, what do we do? Do we wallow in tears, do we resort to gluttonous eating, do we post it up on facebook on twitter, or what? People have different reactions when trouble rolls into their way. There ARE times when things are not easy, when tough choices are ahead or when what we want does not seem to happen. When God does not make sense, when God seems to be so far away, or when waiting on the Lord's promise seems endless. So what are we supposed to do?

"From the end of the earth I will cry to You, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I." - Psalm 61:2 (NKJV)

There, it is said that when my heart is overwhelmed, we are to cry to the Lord. Our cry is not a cry of whining in regards to our circumstances. This is a cry, for us asking to be led to "the rock that is higher than I."

Refer back to this: Psalm 31:3 "For You are my rock and my fortress; Therefore, for Your name's sake, lead me and guide me." The rock that is higher than I is Christ Himself. He is higher than us, than our problems and our circumstances. We are led and guided to Him, to be above our circumstances and to be carried in His Everlasting Arms. Even when we felt so down and beaten, we should tell our soul to be still and cry unto the Lord, for Him to lead us to Him, the unshaken immovable Rock. From that High Place, we will be able to see through God's eyes that our problems are small, and we would be enlarged in faith.

When memorizing and meditating on Psalm 61:2 for the past few days, I'm reminded of a song in CompassionArt called "Lead Me to the Rock", originally written by Paul Baloche. Here goes the lyrics:

When my heart is overwhelmed
And my eyes are blind to You
And the pain of life is just too heavy to bear

And then the mountains seems so high
And my faith's too weak to climb
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I

Lead me to the rock, lead me to the rock
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I
Lead me to the rock, lead me to the rock
Lead me to the rock that is higher than I

When my life is hit with fear
And I fight to hide the tears
And I wrestle in my heart to know what to do

Lord, I'm welling up inside
But I know You hear my cry
Jesus, lead me to the rock that is higher than I

You are the rock and there is no other
A tower of strength, You are my shelter
Lord, You are my hope eternal
You are the rock that is higher than I

untouched.

2011-11-04T11:28:00.005+08:00

I was at my church's care group last night, and we're talking on the book of Daniel, about Daniel, Shadrach, Mesach, and Abednego. How those set-apart men of God were able to stand on their conviction, and stand up for what they believe in, and came out being untouched. Looking back, those four men would be able to declare:

"Even though I'm in a furnace, the fire will not burn me. Even though I'm in a den, the lion will not eat me."

The God who saves the 3 men in person by coming as the fourth men, and the God who closes the mouth of the lions, He is the God whom I believe in. I know that just as He came through for Daniel and his friends, my God will come through for me to. So i'm here to encourage you all that whatever we're facing right now, our God is in control. He watches over us while we're sleeping, and takes care of all our steps. On the days when I don't feel like going to campus or doing my projects, what gets me going is the assurance God gives that He is for me, and He is on my side. "if our God is for us, then who would ever stop us, and if our God is with us, then what could stand against?" (Our God - Chris Tomlin)

"The LORD is my strength and my song; He has given me victory." -Psalm 118:14 (NLT)

Mailing List

2011-10-01T23:48:00.001+08:00

Greetings to one and all!

Welcome to the month of October, where we are just a step closer toward Christmas (and home for me too!) I pray that all your steps are highly favored and richly blessed by our Lord of Abundance.

I just figure out of Blogger's Blogsend feature, in which it allows the system to automatically notify you through email every time I update a new post. I think it's a quick and easy way for you to sign-up if you're interested to read it as quick as it is posted! (or the other option is to hit the "follow" button on the sidebar to add this blog to your Blogger homepage reading list)

So if you're interested, click here to fill up the form, submit your email, then I'll make sure you join the mailing list and stay updated! :)

Be blessed!

Love,
Natasha Crescentia

Worship

2011-09-25T11:02:00.001+08:00

In worshipping I was ushered back into the right track of right living. Indeed, God's speaking is not limited to any medium. He is not restricted to reading the Word or listening to a sermon. I found God speaking to me through the worship that resonated loudly in my heart. While worship is a one-way adoration to some, I perceive worship as a two-way activity: for us to exalt God, and for God to make known His Everlasting Love for us. We could never enter God's Presence and leave the same way as we came in. We are strengthened, encouraged, and restored. We are enlightened, empowered, and healed.

I came to realize the impacts that worship has done to my life when I sang the song "Healer" in the youth service yesterday. The Presence of the Lord came to be so strong as the youths raised their voices and their hands in longing for our Dearest Father. Tears began to stream down to my cheeks. I do not mind of my friends standing on my left and right. I have come to learn, that worship is an issue between God and me. At the end of the day, my friends, no matter how good they are, cannot drag me to Heaven along. It is an issue on individual basis. While worshipping on "Healer" yesterday, I was reminded of the things I went through in the past, and how I finally came through. My past tests that God had turned into testimony; from the time I was a victim to the time I became a victor eversince. Looking back, I am so amazed and thankful on how God turned the impossibilities, making it all possible. It is nothing of my own work; apart of Christ, I am nothing. The song lyrics really came alive: "I believe You are all I need. I believe You're my portion, I believe You're more than enough for me. Jesus, You're all I need. Nothing is impossible for You, You hold my world in Your Hands." In the times when I have no one to hold on to but God, His Power is really manifested, and having Him is truly more than enough. This reflection does not only bring me in thanksgiving and gratefulness of the past; but it gives an encouragement for me. An exhortation for the future that God does not change. He will still turn my present & future impossibilities into reality. I know whose Hands am I gonna cling to, with full realization of whose strength am I going to rely on. God has provided everything for us when He paid it on the cross. Our fears are taken away, our sickness are healed by His Stripes, and the gift of Righteousness has been imputed with our life. He has taken away all my worries, and replaced it with His Eternal Hope. His peace takes the place of my stress. We let Jesus to take His place in being at the center of our life, and with that, everything else will fall into its place.

I know that worship is way beyond singing. Singing is just one way of exaltation to the King of kings. And God is not limited to the songs that we are familiar to. He speaks to us even with songs that we just recently heard. The key is to just open our heart in worship, to focus on the Being of God who loves us so dearly that He loves us with His entire life. God uses worship in songs as one of the ways to speak to us in light of our past, present, and future circumstances. There is nothing better than hearing from the Lord Himself, and so I look forth for indulging in His Presence. Worship does not have to be in a church with a six-piece band. I can sense God Worship is born out of the heart seeking God's Face, and the good news is that we can do it anywhere, anytime. Thank God that He is not restricted to time and place!

Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.

Love,

Natasha Crescentia :)

it's a new season!

2011-08-27T00:08:00.001+08:00

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I promised my "to-be-continued" post. I am currently in Singapore already. School has started for two weeks, and classes started to be in full swing. It had been a challenge in settling down with juggling all the independent living and the academic expectation, but I survived thus far. :)

yeap that's exactly what I want to share with you. So I moved in here and arrived on August 7, so it's my third week here. Although Singapore is just a one-and-a-half hour flight from home, it feels so near yet so far. My daily life here is totally different with the life I used to have for the past 17 years in my life. I used to have everything ready for me back in Jakarta. I got my maids, my driver, all my meals set, and all my family and friends around. In Singapore, I live in SMU's hostel. Thankfully, I got a single room, so I don't have to share it with a roommate. No, I am not being an antisocial, but I personally think that I need my personal space, private bubble, when I can just have my own 'territory'. I live in the fourth floor which means going all the way up and down the stairs often, I hope it's a good tiny exercise :p I share my flat with another 5 friends from different countries, and one of them is Indonesian too, yay! :) We have a weekly roster on who cleaned the living room area and who clean the bathroom area. My turn is next week for the bathroom, let's see how i'll work it out ;) I have to also do my own laundry and ironing here, oh goodness really I don't have to think about it back home, but it was my concern now. I need to have a proper strategic time management because the laundry machine can have a long queue some time. 200-ish hostel residents with 2 washing machines, no wonder. Aside from doing all the house chores, I do need to look for foods on my own as well. Meals used to always be provided at home, but now, I really have to go out and buy. There's no stove so I can't cook in the hostel (and I can't cook anyways so yeah hahhaha). There are plenty of considerable options to buy food around, but it's just sometimes that when I was in my dorm room already, the will of going out to buy dinner is just isn't there. :p Oh and my hostel is in walking proximity from the campus, only about 10-minutes walk. And it's also about 10-minutes walk to the MRT stations as well. So everything is either by train or by foot. Good exercise :)

To top all the life that seemed hectic already, it needs to be reminded that I go to SMU, with demanding assignments as well. The first week seems to be still okay as I can still have hangout with my friends and all that. But entering second week has given me the taste of reality. Projects, presentations, and other assignments began to haunt me already. I had to spend for like five hours on doing one assignment for one subject alone yesterday. Oh, I am really foreseeing myself to be busy in the near future, especially close to the midterm and finals week.

Settling down and adjusting to a whole different habit and lifestyle have not been a picnic. There are times when I just miss my family and home so much, dealing with homesick and all that. There are times when I feel inferior in compared to my classmates, especially when the subject is getting tough. There are times when I just feel powerless to just juggle these all, and how I wish to return to my senior year when I had really good friends and when everything seemed figured out. I haven't have that many of good friends here. Sure, acquaintances here and there from different classes or different occasions. I pray that God will send me with the friends that I could build a good friendship with that will build me up and help to go through all these.

When I just felt so weary with all these adjustments, I was reminded then I had been putting my focus at the wrong place. I focused too much on my own strength, on my own ability, on my own capability. I forgot that it was actually God who had brought me up to this point. It was God, it has been God all the way. One of my mentors reminded me of the importance of being in God's presence. We should desire God's presence more than His blessings. I put it into practice and change my attitude around, and it really works. There is a surge of Godly confidence and peace that's instilled in me, which gives me a different kind of strength and enthusiasm just to go to class and figure out all the life's hustles.

Every morning, it has been my prayer to desire for God's presence way beyond anything else. "I don't wanna go anywhere unless Your presence is with me. Unless I know that You are for me, I refuse to take a single step further." Just as Moses did not want to leave if God wasn't with him, I also don't want to walk away without His presence. From His presence is where I could find my strength, my joy, and my peace. It's really when we put God as the center of our life, He will make our life worthwhile. We can find our faith in God sometimes paradoxical. I am reminded of one of my teacher's sermons during MSA Camp about Abraham and his attitude of submission. He willingly obeyed God in sacrificing Isaac, until he lifted up his knife when the Lord finally spoke. He trusted God that He is the Lord who provides, and those who believe will lack no good thing. It is in our submission, that we know that we are not losing anything, but instead God is blessing us with so much better things. God saw Abraham of his faith in God and his love to the Lord, that Abraham did not withhold anything from God. And the result is the Covenant.

When life seems to weigh us down, it is a time for us to be reminded that we should entrust it all into the hands of God. When we give it to His Hands, He will take care of it. The Lord knows how to handle our life more than we did, so we should not worry. Our world is always safe in His Hands.

Be reminded that Jesus should always be the center of our lives, and everything revolves around Him. When we keep that in mind, we will always have joy going through whatever circumstances that we face, walking in and out of God's appointed seasons.

Love from Singapore,

Natasha Crescentia.

in its due season

2011-07-27T07:45:00.002+08:00

I am currently blogging in the airport's boarding room, waiting to fly out to Singapore all by myself. Why am I going to Singapore? Yep, my prayers have been answered. I was finally accepted to SMU (Singapore Management University), the only university that I applied to, despite the tough chance to get in. I'm now going for their Freshmen Camp held from tomorrow till Saturday :)

As I have mentioned in my post earlier, I had gone through a tough process prior to getting this good news. I had to wait long enough, learning to trust God and wait upon the Lord. I wouldn't say that the process was pleasant, but it was very precious. I have come to the point of realization that the process is a Season of Love, because God chastened whom He loved. I am thankful that He is still willing to chasten me, because that simply means that He still loves me and He holds me endeared to His heart. The journey of trusting the Lord has become a living testimony in my life on how faithful God is. When He has not give what He had promised us, it doesn't mean that He failed us. It is not in God's nature to change His mind and become unfaithful, for God is not a man. God fulfills His Promises in His perfect timing, a timing that would never match our carnal knowledge.

God is not bound by any deadline. He does not even live in time. He is able to retrieve what is lost from the past time and redeem it for our present, He is able to work things out. I have come to learn that when we seem to question God about His timing, it is actually our cue to just surrender everything trustfully into His Sovereign Hand. Tommy Tenney once wrote, "God is more interested in developing your character & pursuing His purpose than in meeting any kind of earthly time schedule." Until our dreams are being fulfilled, God is at work in testing and purifying our character, just like Joseph (Psalm 105:19). God will not abandon us, nor He will slack in His Word (2 Peter 3:9). We often find ourselves insecure because we still rely on our strength, thinking, and human possibility; while actually God is at work.

Sometimes, we get tired of waiting. We can't help but question God about His timing. But one illustration Tenney gave is that waiting on God is like waiting for a baby to be born. You don't want to speed up the pregnancy, it won't be good. Waiting on the Lord gives us new strength instead (Isaiah 40:31).

Okay I got my flight called for boarding onto the plane. To be continued next time :)

The Journey of Trust

2011-07-14T00:29:00.004+08:00

I've been through times when I felt that God was just silent. That He spoke nothing and revealed nothing to me. I had that. But this time, I figured it was somehow different. It's not that I couldn't hear God's voice. It's like I'm hearing SO many voices. I know that God is speaking, but I am also kinda worried that I had to use so much of discernment whether it is His voice or not. I really do not want to 'assume' hearing God's voice while it is actually my own voice or even worse, the devil's.

Not long ago, I fell into that mistake. I was really sure that God said something to me, which He did. But in all the pride that I have, I mis-interpret that voice and became self-conceited by accomplishing it with my own strength instead of doing it God's way. I claimed to be righteous, in which actually I was self-righteous. Purportedly I sounded living in a Godly way, but in reality, how can I be so sure. The way it was proven is simply by the time I spent with God. One night, my parents strongly rebuked me by asking how much time do I spend with God. Even though I am on a holiday on practically doing nothing, I just realized that I did not spend more time to build a relationship with God than the amount of time when I was busy with high school stuffs around two months ago. I had my excuses back then, but I didn't have it now, but I'm still keeping my attitude. This attitude was made worse when actually I was at the point when i should've sought God more. I am currently still being wait-listed for my university. My future is still unknown. Logically like d'oh, I should've seek God more because I KNOW I need Him. But I was just too proud to realize it. I believed in my own strength that my academics would be able to get me in. Seemingly, I held on to the Word saying that "God is able" that I will be fine. But what in the world am I doing, that I claimed to trust in the Lord, yet I did not build any relationship with Him. It was just a false trust. I could never trust someone whom I do not have a relationship with.

So after all that correction, I was brought into repentance. I turned my way around and it hit me hard that I DO really need God. It is mid-July already while the announcement should've been in late June. There is still hope, actually, and I'm still believing about it. But I don't want to just trusting the Lord without having anything to do with the Lord Himself. I have come to learn that my faith in God lies not on the understanding of my circumstance, but on the understanding of GOD. WIth the knowledge of who God is, along with His Sovereignty and Faithfulness, then I could trust my life being surrendered into His Hands. Without a proper relationship with God, the trust will just be a fake assurance. It is more into rationalization, which is the product of human mind. Paul Caram, in his book 'True Christianity', described faith not coming from our logical thinking or our natural mind. Faith is something that God puts in our heart. So, we are supposed to have the proper heart condition to receive this God-given faith. We could just believe for the promise, but we do not have the faith to make this promise becomes a reality. When the faith comes into our heart, it would make the promise to move closer to us and eventually becomes a reality.

I decided to turn my life around. I go on a fast. I rise early to pray and spend time with God. In the afternoon, instead of squandering my time catching up on my TV shows (which I still have some waiting for me), I spend my time digging in to the Word of God through the Bible and through spiritual books. No, I did not become a recluse who did nothing but read the Bible. And I didn't feel compelled doing so either. This eagerness was birthed with the thirst needing to be quenched, the thirst about knowing God more and having a deeper relationship with Him. I discovered joy when I learned more about His Truth and His Faithfulness. Waking up before dawn to pray isn't that much of a burden when it is compared with such an eagerness to cry out to God that "God, I need help. I can't do this without You. I know that You are able and You hold my world perfectly in Your Hands." It is the time when I fully surrender to Him, and I will receive any of the outcome that He will give me in the future to come, because I know that it will fit into His perfect plan. He knows the best, I just have to entrust everything. :)

It is to say that the journey with God is sweet. Getting to know God brings out so much joy and so much security as we get to trust Him. I know that with the relationship that I built in Him and with Him, it will get me stronger and get me to receive my portion in full according to His Perfect Plan. The peace that I have is not a self-conceited peace, but the Peace that surpasses all understanding found in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:7).

"You, Lord, give perfect peace to those who keep their purpose firm and put their trust in You." - Isaiah 26:3 (GNT)

This journey of trusting God has given me so much of a precious lesson that I couldn't learn it in any other way. If only that God had granted what I want long ago, I would end up being so prideful and I would not be learning these lessons He taught me. He knows I need to learn this. He knows that I still have so much to learn in this new season of my life and this new age that I'm in. I am so grateful of His abundant grace being so evident since the start of this. I know that I'm still a work in progress, and He will bring out the best in me by removing the impurities in me. But the removing will not be easy, just as the gold has to go through the furnace, I had to go through trials and tribulations to make me strong and pure. So then, I will have the courage to say what Job said in Job 23:10 "But He knows where I am going and when He tests me, I will come out as pure as gold."

How gracious God is, that He does not give up on me throughout this journey of trust. His mercy is new every morning! I know that I am serving a God of Hope, and He will never forsake me. I am secure being in the Best Hands that hold my world and my future.

Sola Gracia,
Natasha Crescentia.

Seventeen and Blessed

2011-07-11T12:57:00.002+08:00

this shall be my first blog post in my seventeenth year of age. Yes, last Saturday (July 9) marked my 17th birthday, and to say I am blessed would somehow be an understatement.

I didn't stay up through the midnight because I was so exhausted from Waterbom trip with my fellow graduates on the previous day. I fell asleep sometime around 11.20 PM. Then suddenly my parents and my sister came into my room exactly at 12.00 AM bringing in cake with candles and singing happy birthday. I was so dizzy and so I blew the candles, said thankyou, then collapsed back into my sleep. My head couldn't take it, but that was it, I was seventeen at that point.

Waking up in the morning, I checked my blackberry to be flooded with twitter mentions, bbms, text messages, facebook notifications, and emails sending birthday wishes. Those wishes deluge me throughout the day! I couldn't be more thankful that I was surrounded with so many thoughtful friends :) I had planned for a birthday dinner with my fellow graduates and my close friends on that day. So I dressed up a little and there went my birthday dinner. Showered with gifts and love, I couldn't ask for a better birthday. This had been my best birthday so far :)

The Friends and the Gifts :)

I was thankful that God has entrusted me with seventeen years of life, without leaving me even for a second. He had spared me from trouble, rescued me from afflictions, and comforted me through sorrows. He has always become the Rock of my Salvation and the Light of my way. I couldn't be more proud to declare that I have such an All-Powerful God. He had known every atoms of my being. He had supplied my needs. He had given me beyond my heart's desire. He had surrounded me with such a beautiful family and wonderful loving friends, mentors, and teachers. No words could ever utter my deepest gratitude.

Seventeen and Blessed,

Natasha Crescentia

He is Faithful

2011-06-21T11:13:00.003+08:00

and I'm here to testify of God's Faithfulness to give me my heart's desire at the very end.

All my eye's redness was healed by around Thursday-Friday last week (June 16-17). The doctor said that once the redness is gone, then it's no longer contagious. I was well. Finally on Friday night, my dad offered me to visit the VBS on Saturday. Saturday (June 18) was the last day of VBS. I thought it would be a wonderful idea for me to meet some friends, and help out with the program.

I woke up being so excited on Saturday morning. There I finally went to Morning Star, and felt the warmest welcome from my friends. I really appreciate everyone's thoughtfulness in asking my well-being. It was practically almost the whole school knew that I was sick. Even with the pastors and kindergarten teachers that I wasn't that close with. I'm really surrounded with the most wonderful friends and community :)

VBS Cast & the LCD Crew

So I end up helping out with the LCD in the control room, and the Kids Store. Those kids are soo adorable, really. I'm thankful for at least given a day to watch them shop haha. The praise and worship, not to mention, was really amazing! and everything else was really well prepared from the drama, sermon, and all the props. Kudos to all the VBS team for that. I'm honored to be given the last-minute opportunity to serve a little bit as well.

My God is faithful, and He remembers what I want. He has not forgotten.

Forever Blessed,

Natasha Crescentia. :)

When you don't get what you want..

2011-06-16T18:51:00.005+08:00

"When God doesn't give you what you want, it doesn't mean that He hates you. He loves you, always."

It hurts when you don't get what you want. Human tendency? Get angry, get disappointed, sulk. Yes I did those.

So, the story goes after my trip to the Komodo Island. The day after I landed back in Jakarta, my eyes got red, swollen, and watery. I went to the doctor right away and he said that it was just a bacterial infection healing within 5 days. He prescribed me with an antibiotic eyedrop. Okay, I thought it wasn't going to be that bad. That was Saturday. On Monday and Tuesday, I still came to school to work on the Graduates' Devotion with the Class of 2011. I still worked long hours on the computer working on the powerpoint slides and looking for sound effects. My eyes got tired, my body got worn out as well. My eyes weren't showing any improvement at all, it reddened even more, and scared some people a bit. (Whoops sorry hehe). The Graduates' Devotion was supposedly on Wednesday and Thursday. I came and did LCD as usual for Wednesday, and I decided to go to the doctor right away from school. I changed to a different doctor since the previous doctor wasn't convincing enough. The doctor's words came like a thunderstorm to my ears. She said that this was the Pink Eye disease, and I had to be on bedrest for at least the next three days coz I will be in critical condition until then. My mind worked right away to the thought of the Graduates' Devotion on Thursday. That meant I cannot come for it. It took me some time to wrestle and calm my thoughts and feelings to accept the fact that I wouldn't be there for the last ever Graduates' Devotion, and probably the last meeting with all my classmates. I had no power to change the situation, so I had to accept it.

I went through Thursday pretty much resting at home, but still watching TV and websurfing online. Seeing the redness kinda soothen at night, I thought maybe I could come to the VBS Volunteer Meeting held on Friday. I had planned to volunteer for VBS since a long time ago and I had wanted for it so badly. But my dad declared an absolute no. I was kinda mad at his decision, but I got no choice. I went to sleep, and the next morning, guess what: I cannot open my eyes at all. It was all swollen up and red, that it hurt so much to open. I had to lay helplessly on my bed, couldn't do anything or go anywhere, since I couldn't see. There in darkness, I was reminded with a life principle "Obedience brings blessings, disobedience brings curses." I regret my last night's decision to disobey my dad by having a bad attitude. As the consequence, I had to learn a valuable lesson in the hard way. I figured out my way to crawl out of bed to my parents' room and apologize to my dad for what I had done. My condition of not being able to see lasted from Friday morning till Sunday evening. I had to settle down with the fact that I had to miss out MSA Awards Day too. That day should have been the last day I meet my friends and teachers, but I had to miss it. I complained about being helpless to come, and all. But then God reminded me another lesson: be grateful in everything, although everything may not go as the way I wanted it to be. Throughout those times, I was brought into a deeper realization of what a precious caring family and wonderful friends I had. I had my parents and sister who lovingly take care of me while I cannot see. I had countless BBMs from my friends praying and wishing me for a speedy recovery. I'm also very thankful of the friends who kept on asking me on how am I recovering and my latest condition. Thank you sooo much! :)

The process of recovery still went on up till the following week. I went back to the doctor on Monday to have another check-up session. VBS started on Wednesday. I wished I were all well by then. But the doctor said that my cornea had been affected that my blurry vision may not be fully restored until the following week. So that means VBS is a definite negative. My right eye could not even read the top letters on the eye chart. My heart just broke at that moment, almost moaning to God "why, Lord?". So I had to tell to the VBS committee that I had to resign from being the volunteer. Thankfully, when I went back to the doctor on Wednesday, there was a significant improvement. Both of my eyes can at least read the first five lines on the eye chart. It's not all restored 100% by now, but I know it's a process of learning for me too. So I had to take it in.

The battlefield went in my mind on telling God, "God, I thought you said in Psalms 37:4 that you give us the desires of my heart. You know how bad I want to do Graduates' Devotion, Award's Day, and VBS. Why do you have to take them all away from me?" But then the Lord replied in a way saying that "I am the Lord. I know what's best for you. For now, be still." There, God said it, I got to be still. I am now thankful that in my sickness, I can learn so many valuable lessons that I may not have learnt otherwise. Obedience, Family, Friends, Gratefulness, and Being Still. I just love the Lord for teaching me all that throughout the weeks. And I deeply appreciate all the friends who had prayed for me in all these. God worked out healing in me, because He heard all your prayers!

The most valuable lesson learnt from this experience might be the quote that I started this entry with. Even though I didn't get what I want, in this case is all those events, I can still be thankful that He has better things in store for us. He loved us, He loves us, and He will love us always.

Yours truly,

Natasha Crescentia

MSA Class of 2011

2011-06-08T19:35:00.007+08:00

"A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful." - William Arthur Ward.

Upon reading this quote, I am keeping my fellow MSA Class of 2011 in thoughts. It's been 1.5 half week since we graduated. We've been through a lot of up-and-down moments especially through out the past senior school year, and it really has not been easy. But we managed to stick together and graduated COMPLETE without anyone bailing out throughout the school year. And after spending so much time in the Senior Trip to Komodo Island, I realized that I have such precious friends.

I really miss the school year and the senior trip so much by now. The crazy jokes in the class. The K-Aerobics that we did in the first semester. The Senior Devotions that we did. The Lunches and Deliveries that we did. The outings. The card playing. The stories shared. The trip. Even for just the fooling around in class. I miss it all like CRAZY. I just couldn't get over the facts that within just the count of days, we would go our separate ways. Maybe we will still meet each other as we volunteer for VBS, but that would not be everybody.

I would really thank everyone for leaving a mark in my heart that I would never want to erase. Thank you so much for making the senior year memorable. I would never regret being a part of the Class of 2011. Astrid, Aletheia, Daniel, David, Dhiandro, Jessica A., Jessica S., Joseph, Justin, Rachel, Randy, Rivan, Roselyn, Troy A., Troy S., Yunjin. Thank you SO MUCH! I apologize for my immaturity, my pride, and for every wrong words I said and for every wrong deeds I did. I know I had wronged a lot, and I am deeply sorry.

I am so gonna miss you guys like crazy! Let us embark on the next season of life with gratefulness looking at the past, with zeal looking at the present, and with hope looking at the future. We have been so much blessed, and now it's our time to bless other people! Let's have a reunion throughout the summer, and in like ten years from now guys! Excited on what God will do in each of our life. :)

The Class of 2011 in Sunda Kelapa with Ms Fina

with Roselyn, Justin, Dhiandro, and Aletheia

On Vacation to Komodo Island

Always the Crazy Bunch

Love you all,

Natasha Crescentia

always the kiddo of the class. :)

May-June 2011

2011-06-05T12:35:00.004+08:00

Dear Readers,

I sincerely apologize for all the absence of mine in this blogger world. I want to assure you that I am better than good and I have been living such an incredible life, especially in the past week. So, what happened if you may ask?

Thursday - May 26, 2011 - THESIS DEFENSE DAY.

Since January 2011, the Senior Class had been assigned to do a fifteen-pages research paper based on choosing and identifying one of the problems in Indonesia, and proposing a solution towards it. Writing this thesis paper has not been easy, as it challenged us to think beyond our superficial thoughts and look for ways to seek to improve our beloved nation. My heart has been loaded with the passion for literature, and hence my thesis is about "Redeeming the Indonesian Folk Tales to Enhance Children's Literature." While the process of writing the paper is tough, the defense is even tougher. May 26 is the Thesis Defense Day, when I had to give a 5-minutes presentation of what my thesis is infront of the panels and my fellow high schoolers (yes, grade 9-11 are compulsory to attend and there are a lot of other students, families, and teachers too). Then, the next 10 minutes are allocated for questions and defense. The panels are not easy also. There are two of my lawyer teachers, my headmaster, my vice-principal slash humanities teacher, and also my form teacher. Whew, it was a heart-pounding experience, but His Grace came through. I received quite a good response from the panels and I managed to answer their questions somehow :) Once it's over, I was smiling from ear to ear, grateful for everything.

Saturday - May 28, 2011 - HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION DAY

My classmates and I had been counting down to this day ever since it was sixty days away or so. We were so thrilled when it finally arrived. Goodness, after 12 years of education from elementary to high school, which were not all easy and fun, we made it! The event was splitted into two: the commencement ceremony at 12 o'clock, and the Junior-Senior Banquet at 5PM. The commencement ceremony was more opened for public so I decided to invite some of my old friends to come. I was deeply honored with the fact of me being the Valedictorian of the Class of 2011. I know it's beyond my strength. But then again, with the help of a friend on the day before, I organized my Intimations speech. I think I didn't make anybody cry as it wasn't that much of an emotional touchy speech, but I did express my immense gratitude for the school and for everyone being my lifetime heroes. Walking down the aisle to the Scottish bagpipes song during the procession gave me some chill of finishing the race. We made it, graduates! :) That was the Afternoon Ceremony. After some touch-ups and break, we continued with the5PM Banquet. This Banquet was more attended by families, faculties, and close friends. The space was limited and this was a paid dinner banquet. The Banquet event was filled with the Junior Appreciation - Senior Book. It was an annual tradition for the Juniors to work on a senior book of memories to the assigned senior. I was so thankful for Michelle Kartono for being so thoughtful to get so many people writing for me in the Senior Book. I spent the night eventually in tears reading the remarks from Families, Teachers, and Friends. :') Ah this day was really one of the best days of my life! I received more gifts than I received on my birthdays ;) Once again, I really want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone for their continuous love, encouragement, and support. Indeed, a little love and encouragement goes a long way!

the gifts!

With my Form Teacher, Ms Fina

May 30 - June 3, 2011 - SENIOR TRIP to KOMODO ISLAND

Underwater View

Sailing, Sailing

Komodo

After we all had persevered throughout the years, we had finally graduated, and we thought we deserve some celebration. So we had planned since last semester for this trip. This trip had not been cheap, so we had been doing Fund Raising as well to cover some of the fees. Although there was an increase in price due to the oil price and what-nots, we still manage to get going. After all that, I would still say that the trip is definitely worth it. We saw the exotic islands of Indonesia, swam and snorkeled at the beautiful beaches with beautiful corals, saw the nearly-extinct Komodo Dragons, played at the Pink Beach, gazed at the starry nights, and spent soo much fun that it's hard to describe here in blog. It's really beyond words of the nature's beauty and the fun we could enjoy. Spending five days and four nights with the Class of 2011 and my form teacher does not seem that long. I wish we could extend the trip some more. If you guys run out of destination and you are getting bored of Bali's beaches, you should try to travel beyond to Labuan Bajo, Flores. it's another 1.5 hours ride with a propeller plane, but it's not so bad, really. We got pretty lucky too to see a shark and some dolphins while sailing. Ah, this trip is so fun and memorable that it's hard to describe it here :D well, message me for personal traveling advices for Komodo Island. :)

Swimming in the Ocean

Midnight Stroll

I'm missing the school, my classmates, and the trip already :( I think we could still see each other for until around mid-June before we all go separate ways continuing with our respective season of life. I'm still also praying for my university application by the way. :) I'm really grateful that I have all these to cherish within me even for the years to come. I wouldn't trade all these experiences for anything, coz it's more than what money, gold and silver could buy. Thank You, Lord! and thanks everybody :D

Blessed Beyond Words,

Natasha Crescentia

Alpha and Omega

2011-04-29T10:54:00.002+08:00

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last." (Rev 22:13)

I don't know about you, but when I am brought to the term of God as the "Alpha and Omega", my mind was limited to the thought of Him being the first as the Creator, and the end for Him being the King who will reign forever. Of course I do acknowledge Him being so. But today, God reveals to me another interpretation of Him being the Alpha and Omega.

It's true that everything starts with Him being the Creator, that should be the basis of our theology. But what does God being the Alpha and Omega has to do with our daily life?Before we are saved, our ways were crooked. We lived in sin and wickedness, we abandoned God and lived in the hopelessness of the world. But when we accept Christ as our Lord, He acts as the Omega, as He brought the end. The end of our sinful life. He introduced us with His being the alpha, bringing to us new life, new hope, and new paradigm. Nevertheless, His Alpha and Omega role does not stop. Throughout our life as the new creation in Christ, we still experience high and low points. There are times when fear comes our way, dejection plays a part, disappointment invades, and sorrow rolls in. Thanks to God being the Omega that we don't need to dwell in those miseries. When we look up to God and ask for His interference, He is more than able to put an end to whatever we feel. He ends our fear, our dejection, our disappointment, our sorrow, and even our pain. God the Omega restores us wholly with His Grace, His hope, His joy, His mercy, and His peace. He heals our soul and renews our spirit.

I am really thankful for having such a personal God who is beyond only being the First and the Last of the universe, but He is also actively caring for me with His providence in day-to-day situation. Whenever we find ourselves in the state when we are bounded by the world-given spirits, we should ask the God-given strength to end it in our life, and renews us.

He is the Mighty Beginning and the Faithful End, whom we could always count on. I love my God! :)

Strengthened Daily,
Natasha Crescentia

Good Friday 2011 - God's Incredible Love

2011-04-22T20:38:00.000+08:00

My God and His Sacrificial Love,
Forever the epitome of Give-Love.
You never regret being crucified,
Paying for us with Your precious blood.

Thank You for the flogged body
Thank You for the nail-pierced hand
Thank You for the thorn-pounded head
Thank You for Your ultimate sacrifice

There is nothing I could ever do
To make me worth of what You do.
You did what's worst for You
To bring out what's best for man.

Oh, how great is Your love.
For me, for mankind, and for the world.
Oh, what a blessed soul I am!
You're worthy of all the praise.

I could really celebrate this year's Good Friday as I remember of His Love. I am really thankful of my God who had died more than two thousand years ago. His crucifixion, His flogging, and His sacrifices - all done for our sake. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (Rom 5:8 KJV) He did not regret His sacrifice, although some men turn their back against Him. God loves us anyway, even though we're still sinners.

As my God was crucified, so were my sin, my fear, my pain, and my distress. You had taken those away, so I could live life abundantly. We lose our excuse to fear, because He had taken it all away. He replaces our fear with hope, our sin with righteousness. By His stripes, we are healed. Our pain is taken away and redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.

Thank You my Lord, for everything that You have done. Thank You for being the God who created me, who died for me, who rose up for me, and who sustained me daily and gave me grace abundantly. I am forever blessed by Your amazing love.

How can you not love your Savior who died for you?

Carrying the Baggages

2011-04-04T00:28:00.005+08:00

Imagine yourself after a shopping spree, carrying eight different shopping bags already, four at each hand. Your hands are so full with these bags of stuffs you bought. When you meet your mom, your mom had bought another three bags of gifts for you, and she had to give you right away because she will need to go somewhere right after. But because your hands are too full, you could not carry the gifts from your mother and as the result, your mother had to keep the things with her until the next time you see her. You could have earn the gifts your mother had bought you (without even spending a dime on them); but you couldn't have it now because your hands are full.

Try to reflect this with our life. Our life may not be a shopping spree of a happy jolly moment. The baggages we carry may not be the things we like. Usually life's baggages we have to carry around are our dilemmas, our thoughts, our worries, our problems, etc. When we want to come to God, we often carry our baggages. Our mind couldn't focus on Him and receive what He have in store for us, just because our hands are full with our baggages. We cannot concentrate on what He has to say for us, because our minds are so much occupied with our thoughts. As the result, we may miss out the great things God wants to impart right now, just because we choose to hold on to our baggages.

We should make sure that when we enter into His presence, we lay down all our baggages at His feet. It is tough to carry all those baggages on our own. Thankfully, God says "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." (Matthew 11:28). We come to God in search of a place of rest, so even though we are burdensome, we should not be carrying all our burdens to ourselves. Psalm 55:22 says "Cast your cares on the LORD and He will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall." Aren't these two verses enough for us to lay our burdens before the Lord? We should not be weary in carrying the burdens ourselves, and especially we should not be carrying those burdens in coming to God. We come to God as empty-handed as we are, with a heart yearning and in thirst for God. God is the only One who could quench our thirst. We should lay those baggages down, and receive God's new blessings and graces with open arms.

We want to make sure that we don't miss a thing when we are in God's presence. We want to receive the fullness of His blessings and promises. We want to enlarge our capacity in receiving from Him, and we shouldn't let the baggages become our hindrance to receive the best from Him.

Blissfully Blessed,

Natasha Crescentia :)

Believing in His Plan

2011-04-03T21:01:00.012+08:00

Imagine yourself in the airport, going for a flight from Jakarta to Singapore. Then you unexpectedly meet an old friend.

Old friend: Hey! Where are you going?

You: Singapore! You?

Old friend: Hong Kong :)

Without you realizing, you trust the pilot and the aircraft so much that you will arrive at Singapore safe and sound. You're going there and you will definitely be there. God wants us to have the same confidence in Him. When He reveals His destiny for our life, we will get there. A lot of times, we do not trust God enough to believe in His plan.

Faith comes through hearing the Word of God. It's been a challenge to confess God's promise if we do not have enough faith about it. Even though we have not seen it our dream yet, even though others say that our dream is unattainable, but if God says we can, we could attain it. We believe that God will somehow work it out in a way beyond our comprehension. We should believe God more than we believe the pilot taking us to Singapore or anywhere else. We believe God because He is our faithful Father, our loving Creator, and our awesome God. Let there be no shadow of doubt as we put our confidence in Him alone.

Whatever God has promised to you, whether it's a good GPA, a top university, a dream job, or whatever, keep on believing! I am so thankful with a faithful God like Him, that I could always count on no matter what. His love for me sometimes does not make sense, that He is still faithful to me even when I am at the most unlikable point. He never gives up on me, and neither He will on you!

It takes a great faith to say as if you got it already. But I believe God is going to work it out :)

"God is not human, that He should lie; not a human being, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and then not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?"

Numbers 23:19 (NIV)

Enamored by His Faithfulness,

Natasha Crescentia. :)

going on. going strong.

2011-03-25T21:46:00.006+08:00

Some said my dream was too high. Some others said it would never come true. My God said it's possible in Him. Whom shall I listen to?

It's our daily choice to whom we would listen to? When we always listen to the world, we would end up being discouraged because we would never be good enough for everybody. When we try to listen to the Word of God, it gets challenging for us because it tests our faith. "His ways are higher, His ways are best; though sometimes strange." - Mandisa.

When we are sure that we live in God, we just have to believe that God is for us and we can do all things through Him. Our circumstances may tire us out, we may be drained that we feel we cannot do anything anymore. But lately these days, I learn to come to God and just surrender, saying "God I'm tired. I had given my all, and I dedicate all my works to You. You appointed me for the works I'm doing, You will empower me." God is a faithful God, He will never leave His works undone.

In all the pressure, all the stress, all the trouble, there is always a place of rest open 24 hours for us. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. His rest is truly refreshing, and it simply gives us new hope and new strength to face the day. Even when you think you can't do it, you can always find a new courage in Him. My form teacher often portrayed this picture to her students, that when we feel like giving up, we should just imagine that God is waving a flag of our favorite color with our name on it, cheering for us till we reach the finish line. Knowing that Someone is there for us to support all our endeavors encourages us that we are not alone. Knowing that we are loved gives us an extra confidence to continue our race in excellence.

The toughest cliffs are the ones closest to the top. The eleventh hour is usually the toughest, but when we just hang on and push through, we would make it till the end. Stop the complaining and grumbling because it would only drain our energy and waste our time. By the time we reach the top, we would be glad to say, "I'm thankful I didn't give up back then." We didn't just barely finishing our race in mediocrity, but we finish it WELL.

going on, going strong.

Natasha Crescentia. :)

God's Opinions

2011-03-15T23:11:00.003+08:00

What you say about yourself means nothing in God’s work. It’s what God says about you that makes the difference.

- 2 Cor 10:18 (MSG)

There are times when we listen so much to what others said we are, and what we said we are. We focused on our weaknesses and assumed that we are incapable for certain challenges. Every time I doubt what I'm doing, I ask myself on what God says about me. With that, I found a new strength being planted in my heart. I go beyond relying on my own strength, to having an assurance on what God says. It's only what God says that makes the difference; not our opinion, not others.

It is important to include in our prayer to ask God to lend us His eyes so that we could see ourselves the way God sees us. He sees us as precious, wonderful, and perfect. We should go beyond the world's measurement and judge based on God's opinion only. I am beautiful if You say I am. If God said that He has created a marvelous work within me, then why should I bother thinking that I'm not as pretty as other girls? If God said He had given me the talents and potentials accordingly to fulfill His great work, then why should I bother to believe others saying that I'm not good enough? Basically, others have no right to judge us. Our judgement about ourselves are often wrong too. We underestimate ourselves and fail to see the fullness of the potentials that God has instilled in us. We keep on thinking we're not smart enough, not eloquent enough, and not gifted enough. Once God questions us on from whom we got the smartness, eloquence, and the gifts? Aren't they the gift of God?

I am always blessed in a declaration that I found from Joel Osteen saying, "This is my Bible. I am what it says I am. I have what it says I have. I can do what it says I can do." Our standard isn't the world, our standard is Christ's Word. We are not condemned by our own words, and others' words. We all are the creations of God, and obviously, our Creator has the final say rather than us.

Start to see ourselves from the Eyes of God, and everything will be better, I believe. His Opinions are the only ones that matter, and I shall keep moving forward.

Graciously Blessed,

Natasha Crescentia

God Gives Beyond

2011-03-05T08:28:00.001+08:00

Often times, we ask God for something to give our needs, but we limit Him in His power to work fully in us.

God promises us His peace that surpasses all understanding (Philippians 4:7). But when we are faced with problems, we demand Him to give us understanding so that we could have peace. We want to fully understand what we are facing. We try with our human mind to think the ways of God. Clearly, God's way is way higher than ours. We couldn't possibly comprehend the fullness of His plan for us right now. It is our job to just surrender to Him, for our past, our present, and also our future. It doesn't matter if we do not have the full understanding of what we are facing right now. All that matters is that we are thoroughly dependent on Him that hold our world. It is safe in Him, and with that assurance, we could have the peace.

God gives beyond.
Beyond our limitation, beyond our understanding, beyond our imagination.
God is not limited with human means. He exceeds our thoughts. He works in a marvelous way that no eye has seen and no ear has heard. He is able.

We are the ones who usually limit His power to work in our life. We believe in what man says more than what God says. What I learn from Humanities class yesterday was that God could work on the 1% chance even though man gives 99% limitation. As long as we still have the faith in Him to do His Wonder, miracle would still be on our way.

Things may not go as we planned or as we hoped for. But this is also our part in surrendering our plans to Him. He works beyond our plans as well. We may think that our plan is the fittest one to live for our life, but apparently He has something better in mind.

stop limiting God, and start believing in His promises. Remember, God works beyond. :)

witnessing His power,

Natasha Crescentia.

Hello 2011

2011-02-23T22:25:00.004+08:00

Greetings, Blogger World :)

First of all, I had to apologize for not writing at all ever since 2011 has started. yes, I know it has been two months since it's almost the end of February now. I just want to let you know that I'm still alive and well here in this side of the world haha. The reason I has not been posting anything is due to my packed schedule ever since the new semester began. I had three extra class periods right now. I had to do this minimum-fifteen-pages Thesis and will do a defense later on May. While all these are going on, I am part of the Sports' Day 2011 Committee and I still have all the daily assignments and projects going on. I also have to work on my college application amidst all this.

If I thought about this beforehand, I would never think I can still survive. Juggling between responsibilities is never easy, and I nearly give up at the beginning. But God reminded me that if He is the One who gives, He will provides. God is faithful that He will not let His work unfinished. As He is the Author and Finisher of our Faith, He will also finish the marvelous works that He has created within us.

Prior to the New Year, I had mentioned that I was actually scared facing this year of 2011. God has spoken to me so much and taught me so many precious lessons in these two months. I was taken to a rapid journey to increase my faith and capacity. It is always painful to be stretched, but I know that it is for my own good. The process of surrendering, believing, and trusting in God despite all the visible circumstances has enlarge my vision beyond the problems. God is working out His plan in our situations which at first seem chaotic to our eyes. It should be our prayer everyday for God to lend us His eyes so that we could see ourselves the way You see us. God sees us as beautiful, we don't need to worry. God sees our life as marvelous, we just have to follow His plan.

I was still caught up with my assignments now, but I just felt guilty for not posting for nearly two months. I will try to post more often, although I am not promising anything since the schedule would even get crazier for the next two months. Please keep me in your prayer for Him to reveal His greatness in my life, as He would do so in all your lives as well :)

oh, for more updates on my life, quotes, and Bible verses, feel free to follow me on Twitter @natashacthe and let me know about you :) Stay strong in Christ and witness His Glory!

Still Standing,

Natasha Crescentia

New Year 2011

2011-01-01T00:55:00.001+08:00

Happy New Year, friends!

It's 2011 already here in West Nusa Tenggara where I am at now. It's still several minutes to go.. Wow, the celebration was incredible here with the tons of fireworks and the loud cheers from the international tourists here xP with a champagne toast, hugs to my family, and a loud noise alongs with the crowd, I welcome the year of 2011 with an open heart.

When I stare at the fireworks, I took a moment to thank God for everything that He had done in the year of 2010, for all the opportunities, blessings, and grace. I surrender to Him all my endeavours and my plans for 2011. I tell Him to take away my fear and enlarge my faith capacity, and I could tell that He has assured me, that everything's gonna be alright. I immediately felt a surge of peace with that kind of assurance, and it planted more hope in my life.

I could achieve nothing apart from His everlasting grace, and so every glory and praise go back to Him. God, I love You soo much, and You're everything I adore.

1 Peter 3:13-15 (MSG)
"If with heart and soul you're doing good, do you think you can be stopped? Even if you suffer for it, you're still better off. Don't give the opposition a second thought. Through thick and thin, keep your hearts at attention, in adoration before Christ, your Master."

No matter what you're going through, we're all in this together. We serve an awesome God and HE IS MIGHTY!

Hope in Him,
Natasha Crescentia

Resolution

2010-12-31T22:42:00.002+08:00

Evening, blogworld..

I'm now enjoying an entertainment show as part of my New Year eve gala dinner with my family by a beautiful beach. It's less than 2 hours away from New Year in my current time zone, 3 hours in Jakarta.
For now, I want to share my experience throughout the past New Years. I used to dislike New Year because I had to make resolution and all that. In my mind was like what's the use of making goals if at the end after a few weeks I would forget them and neglect them anyway. Sure the firework and staying up are fun but yeah, I used to hate the resolution part.

But this year had been different. This quote has changed my perspective:

"Unless a particular man made New Year resolutions, he would make no resolutions. Unless a man starts afresh about things, he will certainly do nothing effective." -G.K. Chesterton

Although at some points we might neglect our resolution, if we had thought our resolution through, we would be reminded about it every now and then. If we do it without resolution, we will not have any goal, hence least would be achieved. I got a set of lists of what I want to achieve in 2011, and I'll be praying for it. Part of that list includes my SAT score, graduation and also my college life. May God's best plan and will be done in 2011.

Think of what you want to achieve in this upcoming 2011. How would you want to remember your year by the end of 2011? I don't wanna regret a single day that happen in 2011 so I'm gonna make the most of it. And for now, a resolution is to be made to achieve that.

2011's definitely a better year for me and for all of us. God bless us everyone! :)

Epilogue of 2011, Prelude to 2011

2010-12-31T17:37:00.001+08:00

2010 is ending in less than 7 hours. I honestly don't know what to feel.

Grateful, definitely. I could never achieve anything this past year if it weren't for His power. So many blessings and favor have I received from Him, and I couldn't be more thankful. I am also immensely thankful for the distance He had brought me in my spiritual journey. All through the ups and downs in life, I manage to come back to the sole realization that HE IS GOOD. I couldn't be more thankful for His faithfulness in my life, that He never give up on me no matter how sidetracked I had been. His lavish love is truly abundant and real.

Scared, honestly. the year of 2011 seems to bring so many new challenges in life. So many major life-changing decisions I have to take. What if I made the wrong decision? What's really God's plan? The final five months of my highschool year is coming, while amidst of all its busyness, I have to decide about my college life.

Hopeful, supposedly. I know God is going to do so much greater things in 2011. To the plain sight, I should be fearful. But with the faith in my heart, I know I shouldn't. I should rely so much on His strength so that His Will is to be done in my life.

I really believe in my heart that 2011 will be a new season in my life. A new season, a new level. The old season is over, it's time to move forward.

I think the song "Take My Hand and Walk" by The Kry is the theme song for this new year. No matter whatever unseen things would come my way, I would put my trust in Him, my Fortress and my Rock of Salvation :)

Enjoy the lyrics:

I know there are times
your dreams turn to dust
you wonder as you cry
why it has to hurt so much
give Me all your sadness
someday you will know the reason why
with a child-like heart
simply put your trust in Me

CHORUS:
Take My hand and walk where I lead
keep your eyes on Me alone
don't you say why were the old days better
just because you're scared of the unknown
take My hand and walk

Don't live in the past
cause yesterday's gone
wishing memories would last
you're afraid to carry on
you don't know what's comin'
but you know the one who holds tomorrow
I will be your guide
take you through the night
if you keep your eyes on Me

Take my hand and walk where I lead.
Keep your eyes on me alone.
Don't you say why were the old days better
just because you're afraid of the unknown
take my hand and walk where I lead
you will never be alone

Faith is to be sure of what you hope for
and the evidence of things unseen
so take my hand and walk
Just like a child
holdings daddy's hand
don't let go of mine
you know you can't stand
on your own.

Christmas Day

2010-12-25T23:34:00.005+08:00

Merry Christmas! I trust you all have had a wonderful and joyous Christmas day. Can you believe it, that the long-awaited day has finally arrived and is about to end within like less than 2 hours? Yeah, sad but true. I have always and will always love the Christmas atmosphere when everything seems to be so warm and lively; the time when all miseries could be forgotten and we do good things for others instead.

For some, Christmas may be a time to shop due to the year-end sale. For others, Christmas is a big opportunity to share with the needy. For other people, Christmas meant nothing but a mere pagan superstition.

For me personally, I see Christmas as a reminder. A reminder of Christ's love for mankind. A reminder of God's sacrifice that He sent His only Son to earth to redeem our iniquities. A reminder for all of us to share our things among others especially the destitutes. A reminder for families that it is a good time to gather around and cherish the good moments given throughout the years.

During Christmas time, I always take moments to ponder and remember. I recount all God's graciousness in my life especially for the past 12 months of the year, that I can make it from one Christmas to another. I relate my current standing to God's grace only, that has been renewed each and every morning.

I am incredibly grateful of God's love. Imagine this, in the first Christmas -- the fact that Jesus was born on that humble stable in Bethlehem, we are in the thought of God. God's mind was like "what if I didn't send my Son, Jesus, to earth.. How will Tasha survived? How will each of the people in 2010 survived?" I am pretty sure that we wouldn't make it up until today if Jesus was never been born. It is US that God is thinking about. WE are the reason that Christ is born. Christmas is centered on the act of love of Christ, and we will be forever grateful about that.

I am sure that everyone of us has our own excuses of why this year may not be the best Christmas or the best holiday we have ever had. Maybe the Christmas celebration did not pull through, maybe you got a break up, maybe you got to spend Christmas away from the family this year. Nonetheless, we should be thankful for the Love that has been given to us from the Nativity up until today. I am blessed beyond all excuses, and I could testify for that. Forget about our own miseries and complain, and start being grateful for His extravagant love.

Once again, happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

Beyond blessed,

Natasha Crescentia. :)

Inhumane Education

2010-12-23T20:23:00.004+08:00

SAD. a heart-breaking depiction of moral ignorance that I wish the world did not have to see, especially from Indonesia. where’s the care for humanity? It hurts even more that the girl is wearing a school uniform. What’s the purpose of education if she still doesn’t care? Moreover, she goes beyond "not caring" into derision with her actions. Education without the love for humanity really makes no difference.

I found this picture on tumblr with thousands of reblogs. I hope the reblog is for the love of humanity, and not agreeing to what the girl is doing.

Because You love me

2010-12-22T17:30:00.000+08:00

If I am the only person on earth,
Would You still create the universe?
Would You still make the sun rise every morning?
Would You still die on the cross?

I know You would,
Despite all of my wrongdoings.
I know You would,
Because I matter so much to You.

You would carry the weight of the Cross,
On Your shoulder to Calvary
You would allow the nails to pierce Your hands,
Just because You love me.

You would go through all the pain,
To redeem all my sins.
You would go through all the trouble,
Just to make sure that I'm well.

Oh how thankful I am,
For Your immeasurable graciousness.
You hold me so dear,
Because You are madly in love with me.

Natasha C. The

Do it Again

2010-12-22T10:26:00.002+08:00

Inspired by the book You were Made to Make a Difference by Max Lucado & Jenna Lucado Bishop. (Page 18)

Do it Again
Do it again Lord,
Do it again Lord,
The miracle that You had done.

From the water into wine,
And the seeing of the blind.
So the limp can walk,
And the mute can talk.

Do it again Lord,
Do it again Lord,
The miracle that You had done.

Be praised, Be praised.
Your Name exalted on High.
Be praised, Be praised.
Your Name exalted on High.

Do it again Lord,
Do it again Lord.
Your Glory fills this place forevermore.

You Alone

2010-12-16T21:38:00.003+08:00

deluge me with Your love, shower me with Your mercy, embrace me with Your grace.

Without those, I don't think I'm even worthy to inhale a single breath. Your lovingkindness is definitely better than my life itself. My soul yearns for the God Almighty. May with every single step I take, every muscle I move, every second I'm awake, I can glorify You. You alone deserve all the praise and all the honor forevermore.

free indeed

2010-12-01T10:09:00.003+08:00

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." - Romans 8:1 (KJV)

This verse may sounds like a cliche. When we were in the Sunday School, we might have been told over and over to memorize this verse. As most of the people, I did think that way. But for this past month, ever since Generations of Virtue came and shared at my school about the lies that we all tend to believe and all that, I started to realize something. This verse is incredibly powerful. It goes beyond telling us what we receive as the follower of Christ, but our salvation has liberate us from all the condemnations.

Condemnations nowadays may exist in the form of lies. The lies that we heard around us, that we are "not as blessed as others", or that "God loves others more than He loves us" and all that. As we follow the Spirit of the Lord, it will open our eyes to see the situations clearly. We do not have to believe that God blessed others more than He blessed us, because He did not show favoritism. We can learn so much about the truth that can set us free from all the bondages. We may not realize it, but like seriously, everyone of us subconsciously believes the lies. From what I have learned, the devil has no stories. What the devil did is just to twist around the truth, corrupt it, and make it seems "presentable" and delightful to people. The packaging of the lies is more enticing than the packaging of the truth. Blame the flesh, we tend to be shallow and look for the packaging, and so we end up believing the lies and refusing the truth that God has instilled for us. The consequence of believing all that lies is that we will live in a bondage that will limit us to grow spiritually. We would not go anywhere and would keep on stumbling because we are practically "tied" with that lies.

Now that we know we were bound with lies, we should use the POWER of Christ's salvation to liberate us. It does not take only one truth to set us free from a handful of lies. We should continue to read and believe in the Word of God; so that what comes into our mind would be more of the Truth rather than the lies. I do find it a great relief to learn all this, at least not too late. It's indeed very tiring for us to constantly be lied to. We have the power in us, and let us declare that we are no longer going to be deceived by all the devil's deception. :)

free indeed,

natashacthe.

Have Faith

2010-11-30T20:31:00.001+08:00

Luke 18 (NIV)

¹ Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up.

⁶ And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. ⁷ And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? ⁸ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?”

A message for me, and for all of us:

Have faith, and persistently cry out to God. We should "nag" God (not in the negative way though, I couldn't find the appropriate word for it). My point is that we should show God that we have faith and we believe in what He has for us. We cry out day and night holding on to His Promises for us. And surely, He will give us what we ask for, if it's according to His plan.

a little additional note, don't nag like a whiny kid who throws tantrum asking for candies. Have the right attitude and the right heart, ask God to have control over Your life. "If it's according to Your Will, O God, may I have this and this" It all goes back to God, if it's His plan, then so be it. We do not force Him to go with our plan, but it's the other way around. Let His Will be done on earth. and one more thing, Have Faith! although it seems impossible for the time being, or you worry what the outcome will be, still, Have Faith! it's the Faith with the size of a mustard seed that can move mountains, it's the same faith that can make the impossible to turn to be possible in our life. :)

Believing for the Best,

natashacthe.

#nowreading: The Screwtape Letters

2010-11-26T19:38:00.004+08:00

i'm reading The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis now for my personal reading. It's not exactly a light common teenager's reading, but believe it or not, i'm loving it so far :) One of C.S. Lewis' masterpieces -- incredibly profound especially for the Christians.. will post more as soon as I'm done :)

You're There

2010-11-25T08:26:00.000+08:00

Even in the darkest of days,
I can look up and see the Light.
Thank You Lord for being there,
For I know that I can count on You.

To the broken, You have mercy.
To the desperate, You have hope.
To the sick, You have healing.
You're everything anyone could ever need.

My One True God

2010-11-12T07:49:00.001+08:00

"Each morning, my Lord brings the sun up in the east. Can you make it rise in the west?"

- Abraham to Nimrod regarding the idols

To me, there is no reason to worship other gods rather than my God. He faithfully brings the sun up in the east and sets it down in the west. He never fails me. Would other gods be able to convince me by being able to do the same? I doubt that. Would other gods be able to reverse what my God is doing my making it rise in the west? Highly impossible.

God's consistency and faithfulness are admirable. He remembers to wake us up every morning, restoring our soul to our very body. What happens if He forgets? Ouch, the chaos would be unimaginable. But we are rest assured that we don't have to think about all those scary matters. We can trust in Him. He has worked all this out eversince the beginning of time. He will also be faithful in the same way. :)

Trading Jesus

2010-11-05T07:17:00.002+08:00

We know that Judas has sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver,
What have we sold Jesus for?

I'm sorry Lord, that I have ever traded You.
I like my reputation more than You.
I prefer my academic grades more than You.
I read the novels more than I read Your Word.
I chose playing with gadgets over seeking You.
I spent my time on superficial things rather than You.
I talked about others more than I talked about You.

I realize that all these are vain without You. What can I do apart from You? All these mean nothing, if Your Spirit depart from my life.

"I don't wanna get the whole world and lose my soul!" - Lose My Soul by TobyMac, Mandisa, and Kirk Franklin

my heart for Indonesia

2010-10-27T08:17:00.006+08:00

"Hear our prayer, our Lord God almighty! Come bless our land, as we seek You, worship You" - Blessed - Hillsong

it doesn't seem fair that I'm living life so comfortably yet complaining so much about petty details; while people are suffering from the Merapi volcano eruption, Mentawai tsunami, and also Jakarta's flood. God bless Indonesia!

It actually hurts me and burdens my heart to know all these disasters being inflicted in so many Indonesians, yet to realize that I can't do anything yet to help them better. If it could help, I would want to just fly across the sea to either Mentawai or in central Java just to hug each person and to make them feel better knowing that they are not going through all this alone. Although they lose some loved ones, I would want to assure them that things are going to be alright somehow. But maybe flying all-over there is not possible right now. But there is something I can do: say a prayer. Although it does not seem to physically help; but knowing that prayer is one of the greatest force on earth, it doesn't hurt to pray. I speak wisdom to the nation's leaders! I speak strength to the survivors! I speak peace to all who suffer.
I speak compassion among the rest of the people. And I speak love over Indonesia.

God, we do believe that even in the midst of all these natural disasters, we can see Your Hand upon Indonesia. The Hand that gives peace, provides hope and also assures the people. No matter how devastated this nation might be, You are still in control O God! No volcano eruption, tsunami, or even flood could escape Your attention; because You love us soooo much. Show the people of Your love, mercy, and grace O Lord. And teach each one of us not to be smug in complacency thinking that we are alright in being comfortable. Teach us to have the heart of compassion to stand up together for this nation and help each other. God, You are Sovereign, and we thank You! We love You Lord. Amen.

Every Prayer

2010-10-26T08:17:00.001+08:00

Every Prayer
Album: Power of One
Artist: Israel Houghton

I heard 'em say He brought me from a mighty long way
And now today I can testify that I believe it
And on my way I realized He's the one who kept me
When the storms of life arise, sleepless nights and desperate cries
He has captured every tear assuring me He hears

Every prayer, waiting on the answer only to discover He is near
And He hears every prayer for He has done great things
And I believe He's a God that always answers prayer

I heard 'em say the prayers of the righteous availeth much
And now today I can testify that I believe it
Now on my way I wanna let you know that He will keep you
When the storms of life arise, sleepless nights and desperate cries
He's captured every tear assuring me that He hears

Every prayer, waiting on the answer only to discover He is near
And He hears every prayer for He has done great things
I believe He's a God that always answers prayer

Don't despise the tears you've cried
Or the prayers that you have prayed
Heaven heard your every word
And the answer, the answer's on the way

I heard 'em say there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things
Hold on and you will see there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things

Oh, there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things
Hold on, hold on, there is an answer on the way
My God has done so many great things, great things

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on
You can make it, you can make it
You can make it for he has done great things

I believe He's a God that always
I believe He's a God that always
I believe He's a God who always answers prayers
Yes, He does

---
A powerful reminder to everyone of us that He's there and He listens. Even though the result is not here yet, the answer is on the way. For every tear, for every cry, for every word, for every shout of desperation. He comes to the rescue. Prayer of the righteous availeth much. So don't give up, don't give in.. Don't lose hope; for He is there.

What I learned from reading a novel entitled "Charlie St. Cloud" last night is that it is never too late for miracle. Keep believing! :)

Gracious God, Forgiving Father

2010-10-24T22:25:00.001+08:00

When you ask God for forgiveness, He really forgives. He will not remember any of your sin. He throws away all memories of our iniquities, and remember of it no more. It is our own tendency that we come to God with a guilt "God, I can't talk to You. I still did this sin over and over. I don't think You can forgive me now. Remember that time when I did this?" God, being the forgiving God that He is, would say "No, dearest, I didn't remember anything about it. You're as good as new to me after You ask for forgiveness. It's okay now, get up and move on." It is us that we put the pressure to ourselves in reminding God about what we did.

I'm really thankful for having a God like Him. Phew, thankfully He is unfair. He's gracious enough and very merciful to overlook our past iniquities. Or else, I wouldn't have made it until today.

Stop punishing yourself by reminding God about what you did in the past. when you have said to Him that you're sorry, it's over. Don't let the past to cast a shadow for you to walk to your future. It's time to look to the future with hope! Time to declare that your past is over, and it's time to move on with your life VICTORIOUSLY! :)
♡,
tash.

With Love,

2010-10-23T21:04:00.000+08:00

To write, pray, and inspire with love.. Because when all my words, prayer, and inspiration fail; my love will still have its power to change people's lives. :)

"Love never dies. Inspired speech will be over some day; praying in tongues will end; understanding will reach its limit." - 1 Cor 13:8

As Israel Houghton puts it: Love God, Love People!

1 year after CIBFest 2009!

2010-10-10T21:55:00.004+08:00

Today marks the one year of CIBFest 2009. Exactly last year, I was exulted knowing that I won the most Impacting Blog on CIBFest 2009, an award that I had not imagined i would receive.

This event had burn up my passion to write even more. This brought me to a higher level of blogging and writing. CIBFest also introduced me to awesome bloggers that I knew or read via their blog listings on the Jawaban.com web or from the meeting during the event.

anyhow, I am truly astonished and couldn't help but marvel at how faithful my God has been doing throughout my years, that He had not failed me even once. I am so proud and thankful!

praying on for my next journey of life.. and i was actually kinda sad why there is no CIBFest 2010 this year. I was actually looking forward to see more generation of Christian Indonesian bloggers impacting the world through each of their posts. But the Jawaban.com team is organizing a different festival this year, not blog but film instead, called FFK. For all of you bloggers, film-makers, and everyone out there, keep up all the great work you've been doing!

a witness of God's faithful work,

Natasha C. The

Concluding September

2010-09-30T22:45:00.000+08:00

For things beyond our control,
For things beyond our imagination,
For things beyond our sight,
Remember, faith is believing.
We got a God we can always depend on.

It's been a blessed September that I really enjoyed soooo much! Saying hello to october in less than three hours :) thank You to the Good Lord who has made all things possible and revealed His Glory day by day :)

He Calls

2010-09-22T17:11:00.005+08:00

whether it's a whisper, a slap, or a silent tug in your heart.

you may not feel it as loud as before,

but you know, He calls you.

whether it's a call to pray or a call to read.

a call to implore or a call to worship.

but you know, He calls you.

would you answer? sometimes you ignore.

once, twice, thrice. but don't let that tug grows weaker.

for after times, it will grow weaker and weaker.

talk to me, O God.

speak to me, O God.

give me attentive ears to heed to Your call.

let me listen to Your Words.

let me respond to your tug.

let me learn from Your correction.

I promise, God.

the next time You call,

I will answer.

#nowreading:

2010-09-20T08:41:00.004+08:00

reading on this book for school's assignment and loving it!

to all teens out there, you're gonna love it as well!

a glimpse of a writer's life

2010-09-02T19:53:00.003+08:00

being a writer has its own 'thrills'. you love it when you got tons of inspirations or simply when the "muse" came to you. but you hate it when you seem to be stucked with nothing yet you have to write. being a fiction writer has that story, being a blogger has a different life for me :)

first, well a blogger does not have an actual deadline.

other than the commitment that one may have to the reader, or else there's nothing.

second, a blogger is not limited to the topic variety.

you see me once writing about music, books, tv shows, basically anything huh? ;p

third, a blogger writes informally.

I don't have to write like a formal letter to a President or that kind of language, right.. I simply use everyday understandable language to be easily digested :D

is life being a blogger easy? hmm, it is not, but it is INTERESTING. let me tell you why:

i found myself getting preached by what i wrote. it is one thing to write, but it is one thing that when you find yourself hard to do what you wrote earlier. Like for example to endure the process, not giving up, or all that sort. maybe that is easy to say, but in order for me to do what I said a lot in my blog? definitely not easy. But that's the beauty. I got reminded and often rebuked by what I had written earlier. or maybe i didn't also remember that, but my friend would sometimes say "come on, Tash! you said it once earlier in your blog ...." isn't that wonderful? :)

well i don't know. i just feel like sharing it all up to you all and hope you all somehow feel inspired and get blogging or writing :D happy writing, and be blessed!

Hello September!

2010-09-01T11:44:00.001+08:00

Greeting up the month of September! This shall be the month when things are heading up the right way! Staying true, staying faithful, staying pure. :D

August has been a wonderful month gone through with courage, determination, and perseverance. I'm glad I made it through!

love for our country

2010-08-29T15:48:00.004+08:00

1. Is Mr. President and the country's leaders in your prayer?
2. Does your heart break when you hear about increasing crime rate and the nation's moral corruption?
3. Do you see yourself as a contributor of the nation's future change?

These three things should be the checklist in our life.. We can't really say that we love our nation when we can't say "yes" to all three of the questions above.. I myself is not exactly there yet either.. But it's a step toward change.. We belong to our nation just like we are born to our family; we cannot choose which nationality we want to be. No matter how much we don't like the country we're born in, it is part of our identity we can't deny.. Let's begin our steps and try to implement those three questions in our life :)

God is working out GREATNESS in each of our countries wherever we are, and He wants us to take part in it. get ready! :D

Opportunity

2010-08-26T07:45:00.001+08:00

There are some situations that would resemble an opportunity for us, yet we should not take; because there's a greater opportunity that's lying in front of us if we do not take that opportunity.

I'm learning from the book of Acts when Paul and Silas were jailed. Then one night, God gave an earthquake and the prison bar broke open. The seemingly opportunity was then for them to runaway immediately. But they did not take it. When the morning came and the jailkeeper saw the prison bar was opened, he was going to kill himself for he thought the prisoners escaped. But Paul and Silas remained there, and instead, the jailkeeper repented.

If Paul had only thought about himself, he would flee instantly when there's an escape. But Paul was keen to the Spirit and he knew that he should wait. Through his discernment of the situation, Paul was able to lead a soul to Christ. And he was released later as he was proven innocent. What if Paul had run away that night, he would not be able to lead a soul back to Christ, and also he would be labeled as a "fugitive" among the people.

Still about Paul, he was also able to discern his situation when he was about to go to Jerusalem. Then the people prophesied that in Jerusalem he would be captured and bounded. If I were Paul, I would see it as an excuse for me not to go. It really seemed as an opportunity for him to stay back and had all the support from the people that care for him. But no, his conviction said that he should still go to Jerusalem. He was ready to be persecuted and die for Christ's Name's sake. A person's conviction will also help him to decide what's good for him to do and which opportunity he should take.

It took our keenness and also our discernment. We should think about the further outcome of what we are doing, and we should also judge from doing what is right. We might not see the next opportunity yet, but we should listen to the Holy Spirit inside of us. Then we would know which opportunity is for us to take.

Carpe Diem! and make the most of what you have :)

Living under His Mercy,
Natasha C. The

blessed

2010-08-23T16:24:00.000+08:00

I could come up with tons of excuses on how my life sucks for the moment. But I can't deny that I am blessed to be here up until today. blessed by the Grace! :)

Senior Year Season Premiere!

2010-08-19T20:26:00.005+08:00

how time flies! my summer has officially ended and i had my first day studying in school being a senior today. it's gonna be a tough tough one, i know.. all the math and science are even harder.. and the thesis, and all the responsibility a senior has to take. all these rigorous yet fun high school years will end in approximately nine months, so gotta cram everything in hard work yet still have fun along the way! well, it's kinda impossible to imagine it with ordinary human strength, but that's why I have the power from God above :) things are going to go a bit bumpy but all is well, and I'm gonna be so much busied up real soon. so, blog you later, readers! love you! :D

standing...

2010-08-05T08:12:00.001+08:00

Most people can stand on their feet;
But not all people would stand on their faith.

Standing on your feet takes strength.
Standing on your faith takes courage.

Standing on your feet on shaken ground is tiring.
Standing on your faith on shaken ground is painful.

Standing on your feet gives you better and taller view.
Standing on your faith allows you to see and receive the impossible.

Would you merely stand on your feet; or you would give your life standing on your faith?

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

my fear

2010-08-01T00:31:00.001+08:00

I know I shall not fear.
But if there is one thing that I should claim what my fear is.
I would fear of losing my God.
Losing the One whom I can always depend on.
But I know I shall not fear.
Because it will never happen.
My God never leaves me nor forsakes me!

You've turned my mourning into dancing.
You've turned my sorrow into joy.
And I have nothing to worry,
Coz my hope is in You forevermore.

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

True Hollywood Stories

2010-07-31T20:24:00.001+08:00

I was watching E! Channel this evening and it was showing THS (True Hollywood Story) of Oprah, then afterward Donald Trump. It was not a coincidence that Oprah was juxtaposed with Trump for us to compare their life. They both are American billionaires and the American public figures. But what made them different?

I had the impression about Donald Trump being some sort of money-minded person. I didn't have anything against him, I do love his TV show, The Apprentice. But I do not see him being a role-model inspiring billionaire. He did build sky-scrapers and all the luxuries in town. Even though he, I'm sure, contributed to some charity programs, I did not found him getting his hands on to touch the people's lives. And therefore, Trump was only being a workaholic billionaire and did not become as much an inspiration and did not build relationship with the people. He is simply another America's wealthy man well-known for his wealth and fame. But he didn't exactly touch and change people's lives.

But we can compare Trump fairly to Oprah Winfrey. According to the 2010 Forbes International Billionaire List, Oprah Winfrey is the richest black person in the world., and was once the world's only black billionaire. But Winfrey was different than Trump. Oprah was well-known that through her wealth, she has touched so many people's lives. She was being an altruistic women who actively gives and involves in helping people who are in need or the victims of natural disasters. While Trump's tv show was circulated about business and how to make money, Winfrey's show has proven to change people's lives and inspire people to live their life properly. I understand that Oprah has been a controversial figure to the Christians because she once made a statement that Jesus is one of the ways, instead of being The Only Way. Yes, I disagree with Oprah on that part. Oprah was also referred as one of the New Age figures, and I also regret that fact. But all I was saying is that what Oprah did with her wealth was inspiring. She did not focus on money, and she was not a workaholic. She loved what she did because she felt her life impacted as well when she impact other people's lives,

This is one of my vision for my future. That whatever my endeavor will be, I will not pursue money as my only goal. I would help my community around me and would not keep things for myself. I understand that money will not give me the true satisfaction that I will get when I inspire people. I do not only want to be popular, but I prefer to be influential. I do not want to keep my wealth only to myself and hurt people around me to achieve that wealth. But instead, I would do what I am supposed to do, and help impacting my community along the way. That way, I would reach the best of my life and being the best as how God wanted me to be.

My dream is to become an influential role model to my generation and for the generations to come. I won't let the love of money to come into my way as an obstacle for me to live my life, it will not be my focus. I would let God be my focus and glorifying Him is definitely what I'm devoting to do in life.

Prioritize:
God's Glory over personal Gold,
Rectitude over personal Reputation,
Ethics over personal Esteem

Sixteen and Blessed,
Natasha C. The :)

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

Rest Assured

2010-07-27T22:49:00.001+08:00

Too many times I fail,
Too many times I hurt You.
No, I don't think I will ever deserve
Such love and mercy from You.
But You kept me going.
Giving me the grace I need
For me to stand and face the day.
You give me strength to go on,
To embrace the world under all circumstances.
You do not let me give up.
You assure my heart,
That things are going to be all right.
When life hits a bumpy road,
The only thought of You keep me going.
My heart could be in peace,
For I know I'm in good hands.
Yes I am safe.
Yes I am secure.
For I have You, O God.
I am rest assured.

"When peace like a river,
Attendeth my way.
When sorrows like sea billows roll.
Whatever my lot,
Thou has taught me to say.
It is well, it is well, with my soul."
- Horatio Spafford's It Is Well With My Soul

We have an Omnipotent God we can rely on; and there is nothing to worry about. No matter what comes in our way, we can handle it through Christ. Yes He's able. He's mighty. And you definitely could count on Him. Give life a smile, and look up to Him. He's all you need :)

All by His Might,
Natasha C. The

Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

JHOB - Let Jesus Hold the Control

2010-07-06T16:21:00.004+08:00

hellow fellows! (what was that, a totally random greeting? lol)

this is early july already, and i've been in summer holiday for around one month, and i do have one more month left! i haven't been on vacation, but i have been kept quite up with my church event in which i am going to tell you about :D

soo, on July 24th (approximately 2.5 weeks from now), my

church community - JHOB - will be helding an event entitled "Let Jesus Hold the Control". How much of people's lives nowadays, particularly teenagers, got wasted and ended up not lived extraordinarily because they took their own control. they did whatever they want to do; they ignore their authority; and indeed worse, they forgot about their God their Creator, and go their own ways. Who knows best about our ways of living? it is God who creates us. So we should let Him taking control of our life and have it goes His ways.

God does not create us as robots. He creates us humans with the freedom to choose. and He wants us to choose Him based on our conviction. God does not force us to follow Him; but it is best and it is His Will for us to have Him taking control over our life. we all want a highly-blessed life. And so we need to surrender our rights and mostly, deferring our gratifications; so that we let God's will prevail in our life.

Make Him our Puppeteer; and our life will be an extraordinary show.

Come, Join us, and Bring your Friends!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

5PM-drop

House of Blessing

Jl. Lingkar Luar Barat, Kembangan

and it's gonna be one of the nights you won't forget for your life.. :)

judge each day...

2010-07-01T11:04:00.006+08:00

"Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant."

-Robert Louis Stevenson

personal declaration

2010-06-25T11:35:00.005+08:00

I know that I am BLISSFULLY BLESSED. I am going to have my FAITH FULFILLED; and I will witness more MIRACLES MANIFESTED in my daily life.

a difference to be made

2010-06-19T22:20:00.005+08:00

interesting website i found: http://www.positivepath.net/ideasMA11.asp

it's about "Top Ten Things to Think About If You Want to Change the World". this website is interesting in the way it shows on how it motivates us to spark the change. a little crucial addition should be added in this article is that it is impossible if we do not team up with God! so we should start with our relationship with God, then make the change in ourselves to change the world!

"Joining forces" with God is highly important because without God's involvement, we would

never do anything great. This past week, I volunteered in serving VBS' Hero HeadQuarter and it has been super awesome! one of the theme songs which is really awesome says that "I want to make a difference, I want the world to change. I want to show Your Kindness, in unexpected ways. When people get to know me, I want to show them You. In every word I speak in everything I do. I want to make a difference, oh yeah".. even the little kids as young as four years old are taught that they could make a difference by being a Godly Hero by first teaming up with God, then they could do acts of kindness towards people around them.

when cutting the arts and crafts for the first day, this phrase on the craft spoke loudly to my heart:

"May the people I see, see Jesus in me".. Have people we met really saw Jesus in us? or they saw us just like another ordinary passerby without seeing any difference in our life. Matthew 5:16 says for our light to so shine before men so that they could see our good work and glorify Our Father in Heaven. if they see our work and it didn't reflect Father God, what is the use of our work then?

I don't know, but these days, i'm committed that I want to make my days count by showing the world what a teenager should be. Not only being only outwardly fashionable, but empty inside. but it's about our CONTRIBUTION to our society. How much we have bless them and how much we have make a change to our community. Don't let our presence be wasted that the world with or without us is just the same. We make this world to be nice to live in! be the ONE as Israel Houghton would sing "the Power of One!" :D

light up the world, and spread the love =)

- Natasha Crescentia

junior year season finale

2010-06-12T23:02:00.006+08:00

here i am, my junior year officially ended today. today is the last day of school. we made it guys! the school year has not been easy with all the high school dramas, all the physical, mental, and also spiritual ups and downs. there are so many time when i just felt "oh goodness, will i survive this?" and yes, due to God's faithfulness and grace, we are able to complete this school year wonderfully. (:

this school year has been so remarkable and i really felt that I'm growing so much rather than who I was back in the first day of my junior year. I got my mindset changed, my perspective renewed, my passion recharged, my spirit reawakened, and those kinds of growth. I would really dedicate those growth first to God, then also to my family, teachers, classmates and all other friends who had made that possible. Either it is through encouragements, experiences, or frictions, I am thankful for everything for it had helped me grow.

the ending of this school year is also, I should say, pretty memorable. the last week of school was filled with tough exams like humanities oral exam, literature, and math, but it worths. (: well i don't know the grades yet but at least i felt somehow confident about it. hehehe. and today was the last day and it was Spelling Bee and Awards' Day. yeah i lost spelling bee by the word "pachyderm" *whoa* hahaha. but thank God (and also a big thank you to my teachers), i won one of the awards [ah, i don't wanna mention here] hahaha.

my race as a junior is over. but yet another race is waiting for me ahead and greater challenges await me in my senior year. I recall last year my principal said "greater level, greater devil" but no matter what happens, I know i need not to worry because it's the God in me that I depend on. More responsibilities, more blessings, and greater opportunities will definitely come to my way, and what I need to do is to keep my attitude right and doing what is right. It will NOT be easy, i know it for sure. but i recall one of my conversations with my friend and I said this "The higher we climb, the stronger the wind, but the better the view" We would not need to be afraid to face whatever is ahead of us, because we know that the end is worth the wait and effort.

for all of you out there, here's a word of encouragement: just as God never give up on you, do not give up on yourself on others. We all deserve second chances, so we just need to go ahead and pick ourselves right back up when we fall.

Senior year is gonna be awesome! let's do it, Seniors of 2011!

Dadap Community Service

2010-06-10T19:23:00.006+08:00

Sunday, June 6, 2010 might be an ordinary day for most people Jakarta. But it was surely not an ordinary day for the Dadap kids. 350 kids are getting foods, chocolate, fruits, and dolls. Is this a special day only for them? no it was not, because it was also a special day for MSA volunteers.

so yes, MSA highschoolers are invited to serve in participating to give out the food for these Dadap kids. in my mind when i first heard of this, i was like, oh yeah gonna be fun in seeing those adorable kids getting blessed. and indeed, my expectation was fulfilled! this trip has been an awesome experience to serve the needy kids in Dadap, a slum area where the surrounding is, I should say, not morally supportive for the children's character and physical growth. Along the way, in every 10 meter was at least one cafe on one side of the road, and another one across the street. And the roads were flooded with dirty water and were in bad condition. I wonder, how could these kids still could smile despite of this condition, and not to mention scarce education.

These 350 kids are organized and divided into 10 groups, led and co-led by MSA highschoolers also. it is wonderful and heartwarming to see those usually-wild kids brought into order. They ought to queue to get into six stations each to get fruits, doll, rice box, milk, vitamin, and chocolate bars. Their eyes beam and glimmered with joy as they said (or we taught them to say) "thank you" upon receiving. These kids are so precious, and they might not have realized it. And I am really glad to be one of the channels of blessings for them to realize that indeed someone love and care for them.

This community service has been an eye-opening experience for me to realize that this is just one area of Indonesia. And there are still many more places with kids like them. Unfortunate kids waiting in hope for someone show them what true love is all about. What we gave to them like the foods, may only last for a few days. But i believe, the feeling of "being loved" and the joy of receiving the blessings through this community service will definitely being cherished by them for their life.

I am really grateful for this opportunity, and i really look forward to serve more in this kind of community service. It is unfair if i just keep all these blessings to myself and withhold what I can give to them. (:

"People will forget what you said and did, but they will never forget how you made them feel"

- Maya Angelou

William Arthur Ward's Quotes

2010-06-04T18:50:00.006+08:00

Meet my new favorite writer to quote:

William Arthur Ward (1921 – 1994)

[sadly he died the year i was born. :'( ]

“A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.”

“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work.”

“Four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently.”

“Leadership is based on inspiration, not domination; on cooperation, not intimidation.”

"We must be silent before we can listen. We must listen before we can learn. We must learn before we can prepare. We must prepare before we can serve. We must serve before we can lead.

“Greatness is not found in possessions, power, position, or prestige. It is discovered in goodness, humility, service, and character.”

“We can throw stones, complain about them, stumble on them, climb over them, or build with them”

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”

“The price of excellence is discipline. The cost of mediocrity is disappointment.”

“A friend is one with whom you are comfortable, to whom you are loyal, through whom you are blessed, and for whom you are grateful.”

“We are more than what we do . . . much more than what we accomplish . . . far more than what we possess.”

“Forgiveness is the key that unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hate. It is a power that breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness.”

“Three keys to more abundant living: caring about others, daring for others, sharing with others.”

“Faith sees a beautiful blossom in a bulb, a lovely garden in a seed, and a giant oak in an acorn.”

“Love is more than a noun -- it is a verb; it is more than a feeling -- it is caring, sharing, helping, sacrificing.”

"Learn and grow all you can; serve and befriend all you can; enrich and inspire all you can."

Statement Notes #10

2010-05-26T22:19:00.002+08:00

God's faithfulness is way too great for us to ever think of giving up

3 event-packed days!

2010-05-22T09:46:00.004+08:00

these past three days have been amazing, that so many things happened! let me track it backward and tell you what happen.. ;)

Yesterday (May 21, 2010)

SENIOR GRADUATION DAY. wow, my fellow seniors have finished their high school years and now they are proceeding to their next stage of life. i'm immensely proud of them on how the seniors have been wonderful role models to all of the student body and the school family. Their hard works have definitely paid off, and i'm so gonna miss them. especially my girls, you all look fabulous last night at the banquet! congratulations to all the graduated seniors, and it's my turn next year, weehee.. ;) the juniors had been preparing a senior book to an assigned senior and gave the speech last night during the banquet. My assigned-senior, Bella was the first one to be called out and so i was extremely nervous on my speech and the fact that i stumbled a lot, ugf sorry people. but ohwells, things turning out great with me and my hair curls and thick makeup last night. had to rush out to the beauty salon right between the ceremony and the banquet, coming up a little bit late than the juniors are told to gather up but all is well ;) high heels are also a major suffering last night, toes hurting here and there, but thankfully most of the rest of the events are spent sitting down, so yeah. I'm so inspired from this banquet and I believe the next seniors are going to rock out even more! once again, congratulations seniors! all the best! :D

Thursday, May 20, 2010

SICK DAY. I woke up fine at 7AM but as I started to get going, i started to felt a major headache and feverish feeling. I slept awhile and the pain grows even stronger. due to this sickness i was in extreme weakness that i was not able to attend the last humanities tutorial of the semester, since next week was exam already. but alright, i had better stayed home or else i would also not be coming to the banquet the day after, as i had mentioned above. i felt better after sleeping throughout the day. but like around 7.30PM, the fever returned even more and i'm struggling to stay warm despite of being in a room with no air conditioner, and staying beneath 3 layers of blanket with jacket and socks on. Geez, even in Macau during winter was not as cold as this. Thank God, i'm too tired afterwards so i just slept it off and the pain was gone the next morning. God is good! :)

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

COMMUNITY SERVICE. this is actually an ordinary wednesday, but i did something i had never done. So actually, on wednesdays, i have a free time on my first two school periods. I usually join Chemistry "O" Level's class just for the sake of listening to add some knowledge rather than nothing. But i have not been joining Chem O lately, and therefore i'm wondering on what to do in my free time. Then i met my senior girls who are soon-to-graduate by then, and they are about to proceed to do community service to help out teaching the K students. I had a spark of idea to join their community service. then i asked permission from my form teacher and she happily consent to my appeal. And so, i was assigned to a pre-k (k2, 2 years old) class with two of the girls. WOW, the kids are CUTENESS to the seventh power or so. hahahha. these little tykes are so innocent yet by the young age, they are so trained to obey. I believe in my heart that if they continue to be trained this way, they are so gonna be a ready awesome leader for this nation! Imagine this, these K2 students were learning about math, introduced to the number 1-5. But before the class, they were introduced to the purpose of math. Even if you ask the adults, we may give lofty reasons about why we are supposed to learn math. We usually say "to be able to count money" "so we don't get cheated in business" and sorts of reasons. But we couldn't teach that to 2 years-old students riiightt.. and i was really inspired and impressed upon what the teacher said about math. these k2 students were taught that "we are learning math so that we could count our blessings!" goodness, this is a really eye-opening experience because we are so much focusing on ourselves most of the times that we forgot to count our blessings. Aside from having fun with these honest kids, I do personally learn alot from them. They are so sweeeet and I couldn't wait till my next opportunity to do more community services like this.

Wow oh wow, these three days have been such life-changing! especially on the wednesday and friday.. i know these had not been coincidences but we're guided from day by day through His grace that we would be able to face whatever we need to face. it's by grace and grace alone i can live until this very day.

More to come,

Natasha C. The

Statement Notes #9

2010-05-04T10:59:00.003+08:00

the glorious joy of victory is not accomplished by doing new things, but by proving to others that you're able to do what they say you cannot do.

The Battle is the Lord's

2010-05-02T20:46:00.005+08:00

based on my next-to-last blog post, you know the book I had been reading lately is "On Every Side" by Karen Kingsbury right? :) this book turns out to be awesome, and speaking so much into our personal life. This book talks about the conflict of a man (Jordan Riley) regarding to his belief with God. through his struggles, he was also faced that he had to face a religious opposition against his childhood best friend/lover. Riley's backslide against God was due to his bitterness, but later in the story he was able to manage the wall that he has built around his heart. [am really holding myself to retell you the exact story, don't wanna be a spoiler to those who haven't read the book. encouraging you all to read! :)]

being a spoiler is not exactly the main point of this blog post though. i'm share what i learn most about this book. this book had spoken to me about surrendering to God and knowing that "the Battle is the Lord's" There are some decisions and challenges that both Joshua Nunn and Faith Evans, other characters in the book, were challenged to overcome. They had been faced with a decision to make, and they wavered in their thoughts in regard to move forward or not. But God told them and remind them constantly to "be strong and courageous" because God will go before them and show them what to do. This decision to be made was not the decision between chocolate or vanilla ice cream. the decision they made was between the fate of their life, and it will affect the course of their life. But really, God wanted His people to surrender everything into His hand, to trust Him that He will be the one who fight the battle, and we ought not to worry coz God has the best plan for our life.

what convicted me the most is what usually my reaction is to God. how often i doubt God for what He can do. I forced things my way, want things my way, and even did things my way, because i did not see a way out in God's light. it's actually that i have to dig a little deeper to believe that I ought to surrender to God in every particle of my life, that not every scintilla of our life is governed by our own will apart from God.

This book's story has proven us that life is made possible when we surrender things to God. Opportunities come on their ways when we see it through God's eyes, because God will be the One that open the doors of blessings to us when we come to Him. reach out to Him, and trust Him. taste and see His goodness, because everything will be all right :)

do not be weary; do not lament in sorrow. Surrender your life to God, and trust that He HAS the total control. what i learn in school is that the Israelites has a special covenant with God, with God that becomes the determining party. Every decree starts from God, and the Israel approach God with their own terms. That is the secret key of success of the Jews; because they have the total dependency on God.

as my conclusion, life's beautiful when you know how to live it. Though the sorrows may last for the night, the joy comes in the morning! Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, coz you know that all things work for good for those who love the Lord. stay true to God, and He will open doors of opportunities for You to become more than a conqueror! :)

much love ♡,

Natasha The

a verse to close:

^{1 Sam 17:47:} "All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD's, and he will give all of you into our hands."

a song to remind you:

The Battle is the Lord's - Yolanda Adams

remember that all things work

they're not gonna be all good

but they're gonna work according to God's purpose and His holy Will

no matter what, no matter what you're going through

remember God sees all and He knows all

and all He wants to do is use you

for this Battle is not yours, it's the Lord's

world-wide blessing

2010-05-02T19:14:00.001+08:00

in 2007 i forgot, there was this Rebirth conference I remembered I was challenged to write five goals I want to accomplish in my future. and I began to write my lofty goals, and one of them is to "speak, be heard, and spread influence to nations". in 2008, God has revealed to me about His promise to Abraham: "Through me shall all nations of the earth be blessed."

back then, I was thinking of lofty thoughts and impossible dreams, that it would not be possible till i was in my twenties or thirties or some older years. i never thought of a way on how will i become a blessings unto nations in my teenage years, coz i do not have any power or influence; moreover being a world-wide blessing is so beyond my reach.

but tonight, i discovered the answer: through this blog. some time ago, i put on a blog gadget called feedjit to check out where in the world are my blog readers. and amazingly, they really come from various nations! the States, London, European nations, Australia, and other countries that even I sometimes do not know where they are. wow, it has been so amazing on God's been working and fulfilling His promises. Though it is not right away, yet He never forgets what He said. :) What a Mighty and Faithful God we serve! I am thankful for the Covenant He kept, that He never failed us and never forgot what He had promised to us. though it may seemed to tarry, He is a truly faithful God and there is no reason why we should doubt Him.

keep reading this blog, and share it to your friends and relatives. let the world know that HE is GOD and HE is GOOD!

#nowreading: On Every Side

2010-04-29T10:08:00.005+08:00

my current #nowreading :)

as usual, from my favorite author, Karen Kingsbury

special thanks: Aletheia.

thankyou for lending me Kingsbury's awesome books! =)

Can't Give Up Now - Mary Mary

2010-04-10T12:57:00.008+08:00

A very inspiring song by Mary Mary entitled "Can't Give Up Now" can't post the song somehow. so here are the lyrics. enjoy and be blessed! whatever you are going through, you know whom you can count on. He'll be there :)

Can't Give Up Now by Mary Mary

There will be mountains that I will have to climb

And there will be battles that I will have to fight

But victory or defeat, it's up to me to decide

But how can I expect to win If I never try.

I just can't give up now

I've come too far from where I started from

Nobody told me the road would be easy

and I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me

Never said there wouldn't be trials

Never said I would't fall

Never said that everything would go the way I want it to go

But when my back is against the wall

And i feel all hope is gone,

I'll just lift my head up to the sky

And say help me to be strong

I just can't give up now

I've come too far from where I started from

Nobody told me the road would be easy

and I don't believe He brought me this far to leave me

No you didn't bring me out here to leave me lonely

Even when I can't see clearly

I know that you are with me(so I can't)

I just can't give up now

I've come too far from where I started from

Nobody told me the road would be easy

and I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me

Taking Things for Granted

2010-04-07T14:03:00.010+08:00

Matthew 12:41-42

⁴¹ “The people of Nineveh will stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for they repented of their sins at the preaching of Jonah. Now someone greater than Jonah is here—but you refuse to repent. ⁴² The queen of Sheba will also stand up against this generation on judgment day and condemn it, for she came from a distant land to hear the wisdom of Solomon. Now someone greater than Solomon is here—but you refuse to listen.

We, especially the young generation, have the tendency to take things for granted. Food, water, clothes, education, justice, love, freedom, family, and many more. We think that it is "the way things should be" so we just accept it and even waste it without any care most of the times. We did not realize that people in the past had worked hard only to have it. And for us just to squander it in a way, it is selfish for us to think that way.

Similar to the case of Jonah and Solomon. The people in Nineveh would be mad to see the generation who refuse to repent being served by Jesus, someone greater than Jonah. While the Nineveh people had to go and listen to Jonah in order for their repentance. Queen Sheba would also be mad to the generation who refuse to listen to the wisdom of Jesus. While Queen Sheba herself had to make a distant journey just to hear the wisdom of Solomon. The generation was less appreciative of Jesus and His Wisdom while people long ago had strived to earn it.

To the case of the modern world, we find ourselves in complacency of the luxury of living. We abuse the freedom of justice, worship, and education. We rarely recognize who has fight for the things we get. I got constantly reminded at school on "how much things we have now are not free, someone had fight for those things.". By realizing that, we would honor what we have today. In the case of education or worship, a lot of people in Indonesia had to walk miles away from their home just to get proper education and proper place for worship. but we that have all the access to go to school and church, sometimes were too selfish that we make excuses not to go. It is because we do not have to pay for it, that we do not appreciate the price. if we had to work for it, we would definitely appreciate what we have.

A way to be appreciative to the things we have is to identify our benefactors. Is it the past heroes that give freedom to this nation, is it our parents who had worked hard for us to get food, water and all the facilities. Is it our leaders that have bring our life to who we are now, that we do not have the will to give up our works and our life, because we know others had worked hard to support us and encourage us till we are who we are today.

With this kind of concept in mind, we are reassured that our life should be filled with gratitude of all the things that had been done in our life. And we should also work hard for the sake of our next generation so they can live not in a burdensome situation, but we let them enjoy the fruit of our work. We live a legacy that they can enjoy, and they can enjoy it in remembrance of all our hard work and never take things for granted anymore.

thankyou for all my life's personal heroes. my nation's heroes. my education heroes. my faith heroes. and mostly, thankyou to the Sovereign Lord of all.

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well”

- Voltaire

Easter Experience

2010-04-05T10:49:00.004+08:00

a monday greeting from jakarta to the bloggerworld. :)

happy easter all! forever grateful for His sacrifice on the Cross for our all our sake. all our debts. all our burden. all our pains. and all our worries. He bear it all for us! Guess what is my theme song for this easter? You are My King (Amazing Love) i have become a big fan of this song when i was in 6th grade (5 years ago) i guess, but this song springs back up into my mind this easter. and Indeed, His love is so amazing. And it is our joy to honor Him in all we do, for He had done too much, exceeding all capacity. one of the easter tweet that blessed me a lot is a tweet from Sidney Mohede "God took the worst thing that man could do to His Son, & transformed it into the best thing He could do for man". being crucified is exactly one of the cruel-est thing on earth yet He did it, for you and me.

Personally, I have never been excited about Easter since I was little. I have no idea why, but the easter egg hunt, easter egg painting, and such activities never bring excitement such as Christmas excitement might bring. Yes, i love Christmas due to its 'homey' spirit. But easter, there was nothing about it except a cloud of gloom which transformed into a leap of joy for God has risen. I had just realized my feeling about easter yesterday, yes this feeling. But when i pondered about it, I realized on how much I have been so much self-centered about Easter. I see it as "activities that please me" and how much fun I would have throughout the celebration and such. I did not see the REAL meaning of Easter. I had been contemplating and enjoying myself to think about the real meaning about Christmas. but HEY, it's Easter that saved me from all my darkest sins!

I reflected upon this, and I realized that His sacrifices had been TOO GREAT even for me to consider about my personal pleasure. and sooo, I decided to change my perspective. Stop being so self-centered about Easter. despite all the 'tragedies' that might happen. [lol tragedies, over the top much]. but yes, Easter means a lot much more than myself. Sacrifice, True Love, and The Spirit of Giving. That's what Easter is all about.

"The Son of God became a man to enable men to become the sons of God." -C.S. Lewis

May we all be blessed in this easter.. :]

much love,

natashacthe

#nowreading:

2010-03-25T11:18:00.005+08:00

The Last Song by Nicholas Sparks.

yes i know, i'm in the tip of my busyness. but i got to make time to let myself have some pleasure reading. or else, i would be on the verge of going nuts probably. But seriously, this book is a wonderful book, though i'm just reading on the first few chapters. :)

my extreme busyness was due to sports day and it will end on this upcoming tuesday (march 30th). phewww, finally! so, after that... one of my favorite elements of school: HOLIDAY! :D like a two-weeks break for easter holiday, then up to resume school with a little bit more than 1.5 months left before the summer holiday and so called SENIOR YEAR! hahhaa.

alrightey, gotta go back to my busyness and my reading. some school homework to catch up also.

blog you later! *hugs*

-tash.

Ignorance.

2010-03-18T12:12:00.004+08:00

"Ignorance, when it is voluntary, is criminal; and he may properly be charged with evil who refused to learn how he might prevent it."

- Samuel Johnson, in The History of Rasellas, Prince of Abissinia.

hang on,

2010-03-12T21:38:00.004+08:00

for i know,

that the fight i'm doing

is not in vain.

i'm doing it for God

and for the greater future

that is in store for me.

i'm gonna be pressing on,

holding on,

moving on.

no matter how hard,

how pressurizing,

and how impossible.

Life's good even at times when it seems not to be. The trials, tribulations, sorrows, and pains, all will worth at the end when we endure our journey and finish the race. There's nothing too hard, too difficult, too burdensome. Whenever we are faced with the situation when we would say "ah there's no use for me to go on, i'll just give up"; tell yourself to say no! Coz it's the greater things ahead that will keep us from hanging on. And we can look around and see how our closest people have been supporting us and loving us in a way; that it seems impossible for us to give up coz we would let them down.

my message for the day: HANG ON.

no matter how much the world seems to be against you,

no matter how angry you can be,

no matter how much injustice was done toward you,

stick a smile and tell life that you're gonna make it through victoriously. :)

Statement Notes #8

2010-03-11T15:56:00.002+08:00

it is impossible to live without breathing.

But the irony is,

that most people are breathing; without living.

Statement Notes #7

2010-03-11T15:54:00.000+08:00

no matter how long it took, something that's worth having is worth waiting. the best for the best! :)

2010-02-26T17:23:00.002+08:00

Hey all!

here's a video regarding the CIBFest 2009 that I joined and happened to win for the Most Impacting Blog category. (: click the link here:http://jawaban.com/news/news/detail_video.php?id_news=091023135242 to watch the video on how the event went, alright.. :)

heads up for the greater future!

- natashacthe.

#nowreading: Attitude 101

2010-02-25T10:31:00.005+08:00

Oh by the way,

i'm reading "Attitude 101" by John C. Maxwell. Inspiring, wonderful, helpful!

Highly Recommended!

a hello from jakarta

2010-02-25T10:19:00.005+08:00

Hello Bloggerians!

ohh goodness, it's been quite a while that i haven't blog! pardon me for that! life has been keeping me busy, that's why i had been abandoning my blog. nyeeh, i was pretty sad actually since that my actual new year's resolution has been "to blog at least around 7 posts in a month" but two months had passed and i failed! huhu. :P ohwell, there's 10 more months to go, and i will try to blog as much as i can okaaay. :D you might be wondering, what had kept me busy away from blogging? yes, school. with sports day and the usual study load in my junior year; juggling between responsibilities had kept me busy. Haha. And lately, i don't feel like turning on my computer so yeah, pardon me bloggerians! :P And i'm quite absorbed with my personal life recently so that it had been too much.

What brings me back into the blog world now? well, i haven't forgotten the blog world actually, it was on my mind quite often. :D BUT, yesterday my literature teacher talked in class about my blogging and such. and she asked me if i'm still blogging. I answered it the way i told you guys, that i was not blogging lately due to the busyness i've been having. But that question quite strikes me and kindled up more of my desire to blog again, to at least give an update to my reader. :P so yeaah here i am!

check on y'all later bloggerians! know that you are forever in my mind! :P

love love love,

nat.tash.sha.the.

truths for talent.

2010-02-07T23:44:00.004+08:00

13 key Truths to Maximize Your Talent:

1. Belief lifts your talent.

2. Passion energizes your talent.

3. Initiative activates your talent.

4. Focus directs your talent.

5. Preparation positions your talent.

6. Practice sharpens your talent.

7. Perseverance sustains your talent.

8. Courage tests your talent.

9. Teachability expands your talent.

10. Character protects your talent.

11. Relationships influence your talent.

12. Responsibility strengthens your talent.

13. Teamwork multiplies your talent.

taken from: Why Talent Isn't Enough? in Joyce Meyer's Enjoying Everyday Life November 2009. written by John C. Maxwell.

"The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success." - Irving Berlin

"Talent for talent's sake is a bauble and a show. Talent working with joy in the cause of universal truth lifts the possessor to a new power as a benefactor." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Statement Notes #6

2010-02-07T21:13:00.004+08:00

"your family might not be the perfect one you know. But it is the perfect one you will need to grow."

january 2010's quotes!

2010-01-25T23:00:00.004+08:00

i'm in the mood of quotes, so here we go! :) more coming when i found more yaa.. let me know if you have other good quotes (comment or email would be nice either way hehe)

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?" - Abraham Lincoln

"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocre minds." - Albert Einstein

"A friend to all is a friend to none." - Aristotle

"You're always going to be a product of what your influences are." - Barry Zito

"Well done is better than well said." - Benjamin Franklin

"Be civil to all; sociable to many; familiar with few; friend to one; enemy to none." - Benjamin Franklin

"Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late." - Benjamin Franklin

"Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment." - Benjamin Franklin

"If man hasn't discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us." - Helen Keller

"When a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it." - Howe, E. W.

"Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose." - Hsieh Tehyi

"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato

Who am I - Casting Crowns

2010-01-21T13:25:00.003+08:00

Who am I - Casting Crowns
Who am I? That the Lord of all the earth,Would care to know my name,Would care to feel my hurt.Who am I? That the bright and morning star,Would choose to light the way,For my ever wandering heart.
Bridge:Not because of who I am,But because of what you've done.Not because of what I've done,But because of who you are.
Chorus:I am a flower quickly fading,Here today and gone tomorrow,A wave tossed in the ocean,A vapor in the wind.Still you hear me when I'm calling,Lord, you catch me when I'm falling,And you've told me who I am.I am yours.I am yours.
Who am I? That the eyes that see my sinWould look on me with loveAnd watch me rise again.Who am I? That the voice that calmed the sea,Would call out through the rain,And calm the storm in me.

Whom shall I fear

I am yours..

I've got to admit that this is one of my ultimate favorite songs. This song reminds me that we deserve nothing of His love, we do nothing that makes us worth in His eyes. but it is out of His love and His care for us that He would do so much for us. i was deeply strucked when i heard the second verse "That the eyes that see my sin, Would look on me with love, And watch me rise again." yeah, it is only God who knows our bad we are inside, but it is only Him that loves us despite no matter how sinful we are. The God of Universe living inside of us, it does not make any sense. BUT, He does it; He does love everyone of us, no matter how the least bit we think of ourselves. We do not deserve any of His attention really; But we could not live without His attention. In the midst of this vast world, God even bothers to hear our prayer, and to wait for us when we go astray. Whom shall we fear when we have this awesome God? No one! because we are Yours. Who am I without the Lord God Almighty. Thankyou Casting Crowns for making this wonderful song, be blessed y'all! :)

no matter what

2010-01-08T11:46:00.006+08:00

Isaiah 42:3

- New Living Translation

He will not crush the weakest reed
or put out a flickering candle.
He will bring justice to all who have been wronged.

- The Message

He won't brush aside the bruised and the hurt
and he won't disregard the small and insignificant,
but he'll steadily and firmly set things right.

Whatever your situation may be,

maybe you are not as strong as before in faith,

maybe you feel so worthless and insignificant,

maybe you are in the brim of giving up,

Remember that God never give up on you.

He cares, He works His ways.

Wait, watch, and learn.

He'll set things straight.

No matter what,

You are precious, You are loved. :)

UX's Takkan Pernah Sendiri, derived from the verse Isaiah 42:3. enjoy!

Hello 2010!

2010-01-01T10:24:00.002+08:00

When the time strikes twelve,
We celebrate.
Not Cinderella coming home,
Not the food is cooked,
But it's the New Year that comes.

Along with this new year,
New things also come up.
New challenges,
New opportunities,
New blessings.

We encounter with more people,
Encouraging or not.
We experience a lot more,
Good or bad.
These make a remarkable year.

However we shall not forget,
This new year is a reminder
That God is Faithful and True.
New mercies, new grace.
Overflowing our way.

2010 shall be a remarkable year
When we know how to go through it.
Welcome the year with an open heart,
Through that we shall enjoy it.
It's a new year, a new level.

Goodbye 2009, Hello 2010.
We cherish every moment in 2009
And we want to make it better in 2010.
New Year, New Annointing, New Hope!
A blessed year coming our way! :)

Much love,
Natasha The :)
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

As 2010 approaches..

2009-12-31T23:37:00.003+08:00

Dear bloggerians..

Hey it's new year! 2009 is on the edge.. 2010 is approaching! Woohoo! How has your 2009 been? Pretty rough? Ohwell it's alright. We all have those so-called up-and-downs on 2009. We may regret some aspects, but ohwell we learnt our lessons right? :)

I just wanna emphasize that whatever wrong we have done. It is okay. We do fail, but we just had to get up again. ;) we want to make sure that we start 2010 by having making peace with our past. We couldn't start off a new chapter without us closing the previous chapter rightly, that's what I learnt in the recent book I read: Shades of Blue (Karen Kingsbury). When we did not settle our past, we would have time looking forward to our future, because our perspective will be clouded and that past will continue to haunt us in a way.

What we need to do, is that we make peace with our past. Like Israel Houghton's Moving Forward song says "I'm not going back, I'm moving ahead. I'm here to declare to you my past is over. With you, things are made new." We need to declare that our past will not continue to bug our future, we are over with it. We have learnt our lesson well, and that's it - case closed.

We all definitely want 2010 to be waaay better than 2009. It is only can be done by us starting it rightly. There's still a couple of hours left before midnight; and though you may prolly read this when it's 2010 already, it's okay. Never too late right.. We wanna ace this 2010 so that it is indeed a very remarkable year. By settling our past, our 2009, we would be able to face 2010 with our heads up. That whatever challenge would come to our way, it would not be able to steal our joy! We may continue to do right in every ways, and we would stick to be Christ-like in our deeds and words.

This morning, God gave me a verse exactly right to start this year. It's His promise that we should keep moving forward, and we should grow from strength to strength. We have a great God, and we shall prevail in His might!

Job 17:9
"The righteous keep moving forward,
and those with clean hands become stronger and stronger."

I'm thankful to God for 2009. He has given me a lot of experiences, good and bad. He has given me people around me, to be a company, to mentor my growth, and to be someone who sharpens me as well. Thankyou you all who has been with me all these times. Couldn't do it without you. I would also give my thanks to my blog readers whereever you are. Continue reading, and stay in His blessing ya..

Let's make 2010 one of the best years of our life. Nothing is impossible! I believe that we all are gonna be extraordinary achievers this year. God bless us everyone. And I wish you all a very blessed new year!

Much love, care, and blessings!
- Natasha The -
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone from Sinyal Bagus XL, Nyambung Teruuusss...!

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-25T11:29:00.003+08:00

Heyoo Bloggerians! :)

Merry Christmas! May we continually cherish and remember the reason for this season, that Jesus Christ was born more than 2000 years ago, to save us humankind. O come let us adore Him, for He is worthy to be praised. In Exelsis Deo!

God bless us, everyone!

A Time to Dance -- an eagle knows..

2009-12-21T17:17:00.010+08:00

Hello Bloggerians, how are you? Christmas is approaching, eh? in 4 days! make sure you all are wrapped up in your nicest behaviors, coz santa is coming your way! =) keep the joyous spirit of Christmas inside, coz it's Christmas in the heart that puts Christmas in the air. :)

i just finished reading a book of my very own favorite author, Karen

Kingsbury (yes, reading more of her books! :P) This time, it is entitled "A Time to Dance". Again, a wonderful book was presented by her. This time, the stor

y revolves around Reconciliation. Let me try to give you a review and a summary of the story. So, here goes the couple of John and Abby Reynolds. Being married for 21 years, they discovered that they have grew apart from their first love, and each of them were not the person they usually know and love. Abby was too busy handling the children, and John was too busy with his profession as a school coach. When love grew bitter between them, another figure appeared to disrupt the situation, Charlene Denton. She was a teacher where John taught, and they started to get involved in a closer relationship, in which John cared more about Charlene rather than he did to Abby. And thereby, they felt that divorce was inevitable. When one morning, Abby and John decided to break the news to their three children, their oldest daughter announced her engagement. Nothing could grow worse than knowing that Nicole had been looking up to her parents about marriage, thinking that everything was perfectly fine between them, and strong love was heartfelt until twenty one years of marriage. Abby and John had no choice, but to postpone their announcement, until at least after the wedding is done, which is for the next six months. During that six months, Abby and John struggled in their decisions and attitudes toward each other; and finally they found the solution of reconciliation, right on the verge of them truly setting apart. One element that brought this couple to the point of realization is the illustration of eagle, in which Kade (the second child) wrote a senior report about. and i would like to share that illustration of eagle here.

"The eagle allows the storm to take him to a higher place. The eagle doesn't flap around like chickens and crows and sparrows. It waits patiently on the rock for the thermal currents, and only then does it take flight. Not by its own effort, but by the effort of the wind beneath its wings. While other birds were taking cover, the eagle was soaring. An eagle would never fight against the storms of life.

The eagle eats only life-giving food. When he eats something that makes him sick, he flies to the highest rock he can find and lays spread eagle with his wings out against the surface of the rock. He stays there until the sun draws out the poison, freeing him to fly with the other eagles."

An eagle knows that he can fly higher with the storm. An eagle knows that flapping like a chicken would not bring him to a higher place. An eagle knows the perfect timing for him to fly, no matter what others say. An eagle knows that he needs good foods to keep him strong. An eagle knows when he gets a poison, he needs to get a cure for himself. An eagle knows that the only antidote for that poison is to fly to the highest rock, to be alone, and to lay with wings spread out. An eagle knows that he needs to surrender everything for him to be cured. An eagle knows that he needs a greater power like the sun to absorb the poison, because he couldn't do it all by himself. And finally, an eagle knows that when he is healed, he would be able to fly back with the other eagles, coming out stronger. An eagle knows it all.

There are times when we need to be alone, just between us and God. Other interferences might just be as bad as the problem for the moment. But, be an eagle. Get rid of those poison, soar above the storm! :)

It's never too late to turn back. It's never too late to fly back up again. But you need to first get rid of those poisons within you. Revelation 2:5 would say that "Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don't repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches." (NLT). You need to fly back to your First Love with God. Return to Him, Ask for Forgiveness. There is never too late in Him, because He is a Faithful God. No matter how deep you have fallen, He is always there to help us, as long as we want to lay bare our life, and let Him drained all our sins, as He had done so on the cross.

I suggest you all to read this book if possible. It's too wonderful to be missed out. For MSA students who are interested, you can borrow this book in the library, just like what i did. :) it's available on shelf 19C.. May you all be blessed.

Let every thing that has breath praises the Lord Almighty!

still in awe, still in love with Him.

-Natasha C. The

Christmas: the celebration of the GIVER of LIFE

2009-12-16T13:36:00.004+08:00

CHRISTMAS..

The time to celebrate,
the giver of life.
Though life may not be
as pleasant at times.
There are more things,
that you can thank about in life.
The people around you,
The experiences you got.
These all put you in the state you are now.

it's all because of Him.
That He was sent and born to the earth,
later He died and rose again.
Only so that we can have an abundant life.
Remember life, Remember Him.
Enjoy life, Savor His goodness.
No life could be fruitful without Him.
Because He is,
THE GIVER OF LIFE.

a look-back at Life.

2009-12-14T22:44:00.006+08:00

hello bloggerians!

i'm glad to declare that exams are over. and holiday is heree! :) Christmas will be coming in 11 days.. oh wow!

how are you all coping with life? I know that life won't get easy on you. It also does not get easy on me. But just hang on, coz we know that the best is yet to come. we do not just give up simply because things are too difficult at hand. We know that we serve for the Greater Purpose, that we want to attain. All we do, is that we rely on God, for in Him alone, we could find our true strength. Human has its limits. Friends can back down from your life. But God is always there no matter what. No matter how long we have turned our back against Him, He is there. To human understanding, it does not make sense. Why would someone wait for you to change so long. How much patience does He have, that makes Him want to wait for you to turn back to Him. It's just the matter of our decision, to look at Him or not.

When we turn our life against Him, we are only facing our shadows. We couldn't see much, except ourselves in a big black shade. And we all would find this discouraging enough, even for us to back down from our original determination. But remember, stay hold, stay put, stay strong. There is no problem in life that we cannot face. All we have to do is to look UP. He is the source, He is the solution. Stop looking at the limits of your life, but look at how LIMITLESS our God is. He can move the mountains, He can part the sea, He can calm the raging storms. What else? Your problem is small, because you are BIG to Him. You mean more than the world to God. Stop focusing on how small you are compared to the universe. You should see in the way, that God has made things so beautiful and wonderous, for YOU alone! He died on the cross, personally for you. Even if there is only you living on this planet earth. Even if there is only one Natasha The on this earth. He would still die for my sins. and He would still die for you as well.

His love is too amazing. That it is too great to escape our thoughts. Never worry about how you are going to be taken care of. He just care about you too much. Too much, that He would not let you got deserted. He loves you just the way you are.

As Christmas approaches, let us remember that our life is amazing, because He has entered in our life. He made so many beautiful things in our life, and put so many awesome influential people. Let us recognize them, and let us be grateful for everything that we have. We shall count our blessings, for it is the way that we are going to feel that we are blessed, so that we can be a blessing for others.

Christ is the center of this Christmas. Our life is His. and this season is also His.
Let us rejoice, for we know that a Savior was born. And that child is Jesus Christ our Lord. More than two thousand years ago, miracle happened in a Bethlehem barn. And two thousand years later, miracle still happen. No longer in a barn, but in each and every heart on you.

An early merry Christmas. Let your life be filled with cheer.
Stay blessed, you are loved. :)
- Natasha The -

Statement Note #5

2009-12-13T10:04:00.000+08:00

You may think
that you're made for this world
But you should know
That the world was created for you!

Statement Note #4

2009-12-07T17:51:00.002+08:00

Maximize your life like there is no tomorrow.
Learn from your past like there is a thousand tomorrows.
Live today as it is, the God-given present. :)

Statement Note #3

2009-12-06T20:43:00.003+08:00

Nevermind the failure,
Nevermind the loss,
Nevermind what has gone,
Nevermind what you don't have.
For now is the time,
It's time to Move Forward.

Statement Note #2

2009-12-04T20:54:00.002+08:00

The God who parted the Red Sea.

The God who turned water into wine.

The God who made the blind to see.

That same God lives in me.

Statement Note #1

2009-12-03T10:28:00.002+08:00

"He has been with me to kill the lions and the bears. There is no reason for Him not to help me to kill my Goliaths. He is Able!"

an introduction to Statement Notes

2009-12-03T10:20:00.003+08:00

one day before my exam... but suddenly i got inspired. :)

okay, lemme introduce you to one of my blogging features now: Statement Notes! :P

the concept is like the sticky note (also known as post-it notes) you sticked on your book, refrigerator, and such.. but in context of this blog, i may just put up a quote or a short statement in a post. it's time to get inspired! :)

don't worry though, i'm still going to make the usual posts. but amidst of this sometimes busyness of mine, a Statement Note will be okay, right? ;)

okay, so, you'll see Statement Notes coming up soon ya.. while i'm going to study for my exams coming up. oh, and my exam will end on December 11. so yeah.. i'm going to face and ace those!

see ya, bloggerworld.. love.

iTash - Natasha The

bye-bye comfort

2009-11-23T22:49:00.008+08:00

Hello bloggerians.. ;) Forgive me for not posting often for quite a while. It's pretty hectic out here.. hehe. I'm here also to let y'all know that i might not post as often also in the upcoming weeks, since i would be having the mid-term exams at school. i'm at the point of my last two years in highschool, so acing the exams would be wonderful. ;) pray for me and my friends for the upcoming exams yaa.. May God be glorified in our studies as well.. =D

alright.. one meaningful Bible verse:

John 12:24 - "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain."

How long does it take you to think to endure tough circumstances?

for me, i admit, it's long enough. my human nature tends to let me think on the 'plus-minus' of doing things, on how to remain being comfortable, and on how those things will benefit me in the long-run, so and so. but these days, i'm getting reminded on how i'm supposed to make a sacrifice for others, and also how to just break free from what i am pleased with. i need to get out of my comfort zone, and live to bless others. Yes, i know it hurts. Just as a grain of wheat that falls and dies, it won't be pleasant.

Consider yourself to be a seed, say an apple tree. From a seed to be an apple tree, what needs to be done? planted, exactly. How do you think it feels to be underground? with the humidity, soil, and earthworms, those conditions sound pretty buggering. but, when a seed undergoes the rooting process, it grows to become a large apple tree, producing apples that are healthy for us to eat. Without it first undergo the 'painful, unpleasant process', an apple tree will not be so.

Life cannot stay to be pleasant and complacent. It needs to move on. There are times in life when things just fell into places, and fitting in so perfectly without any meaningful troubles. And I believe we all want to stay at that position. But on that position, is the position when we would not grow. We had to admit that pressure and problems are the ones that make us stronger. As horrifying as it sounds, we need to die to ourselves, so that we could live a productive life. A productive life not only to enrich ourselves, but also to enrich others as well.

Break free from all the pleasantness. Realize that when you are being so comfortable, you are being so vulnerable for enemy's attacks. So, the only way to protect yourself from the enemy's attack attempt is by breaking free of the comfort zone yourself. look for ways to help others, to sacrifice to them, or just to enrich their lives. A seed will only be a seed if it is not planted. But once it is planted, rooted, and grow, it will bless so many lives around.

Make your life impacting, by contributing small things to your society. It may not be the things that count, but it is your heart and it's desire and sincerity for it. We know that we for sure want to bless the ones around us. it start with us, with oneself. Because self-government is the highest and most important form of authority, out of which, major reformation could not be done. Say bye-bye to comfort zone, and say hello to challenges. Get ready for your next season of life, by going to the next level!

a quote to close with: "You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who cannot pay you back." - John Bunyan

*this blog post is inspired from Ps. Kong Hee's article on Nov 20 on "Live to Give".

**sorry for not posting any picture for this post. The Blogger site has not been cooperating well to publish any picture throughout the day. hopefully it will cooperate soon, so that i could post one up. :)

okay bloggerians.. again, pardon me for my late posts yah. will definitely post after all the exams and Christmas hype and busy-ness are over. ;) please keep me in prayer. :)

much love,

Natasha C. The :)

be a David

2009-11-12T12:25:00.004+08:00

"David continued to succeed in everything he did, for the Lord was with him." - 1 Sam 19:14

His love

2009-11-11T07:07:00.005+08:00

it is out of His love,

that He heals the sick.

it is out of His love,

that He raises the dead.

it is out of His love,

that He died on the cross.

for who can fathom,

the depth of His love

beyond our thoughts,

beyond our imagination,

beyond our eyes,

beyond our limitation.

we are not forgotten,

it's only by His love.

we are not forsaken,

it's only by His love.

we are forgiven,

it's all by His love, eternal love.

His love, for you and me.

indescribable,

uncomparable,

supernatural.

God's love, endureth forever. ♥

the school of life.

2009-11-02T19:02:00.005+08:00

"Life is like a school. God is your principal. Experience is your teacher. The Bible is your curriculum. And the problems in life are your tests."

I came across with this quote this morning. It is interesting on how our mind works, that suddenly we can come up with our own quote. :) well yeah, the 'experience is the teacher' part is of course not mine.. but the rest is pretty much mine.. ;)

So, I was thinking on how people viewed their life. Apart from the saying that experience is the best teacher, we need to make sure that the experience we learn from is beneficial, and therefore it needs to be guided by the principal, God Himself. But this experience also have to be aligned with the Truth, which is the Bible, which makes the Truth as the curriculum. And since life is like a school, God as the principal, Experience is the teacher, and the Bible is the curriculum, definitely there will be tests along the way. And those tests will be the problems that come into your life. When you look at life this way, isn't interesting? ;)

well, don't look at school with such a horror. All of us can admit that we do have fun in school as well right? but at school, it is not only about having fun, it is also about learning the points and making life worth living. It is the same with our life, we can have fun, but fun cannot be our center focus. We need to balance the fun we got with the lessons that we need to obtain and learn in life. And also, school is not only about having A's.. It is great to have those good marks, but it is not the point. Those grades are only the proof of your hard work. In life, also, other's remarks are not our objectives. The point is that we do what is right, and we bless others in our actions. If others do not commend us for what we do, it is okay. But if we got praised, to God be the glory, coz He had allowed us to do those things and the praise is only an additional point or proof. Our objective should not be from the external force, on how others will view us or on how much we will get the 'good grades' or the 'good remarks from people'. But we will be graded on how much we learn from life, and from what we learn, how much we have applied it and inspire people with what we do.

Life is fun, when you know how to enjoy doing the right things. :)
Live your life, learn from your mistakes, and rise above your circumstances!
Life is about learning, and we are learning it through God's ways.

you like it or not, this is me.

2009-10-22T12:49:00.006+08:00

"Obviously, I'm not trying to win the approval of people, but of God. If pleasing people were my goal, I would not be Christ's servant." Galations 1:10, NLT

you can never please everyone. period. no matter how good you are, no matter how talented you are, there will be someone who is up against you. Look around. If you have no enemy around you, it means that YOU are in trouble. Paul Newman once said that: "If you don't have enemies, you don't have character."

there are too many people in the world! to please everyone, it's simply just impossible. you hold on to your principles, some other people will despise you. you may be good to one person, but you will look incredibly bad to another. and if you try to please one person, the other person will despise you. and it will continue to bring you into such situation of insecurity.

it is useless for you to look for other's approval. if you know that you are doing the right thing and God approves that, it doesn't matter if the whole world is up against you. with God on your side, everything is enough and you are on the winning side. why worry about others' opinion. By the time your principle is proven, they will change their perspective and look up upon you. It is just a matter of time that the truth will be revealed.

no matter how good you are, no matter how wise you are, no matter how influential you are, someone is up against you. it is your decision, whether to prove yourself to these individuals and end up with yourself losing your identity, or sticking with your Godly principle, to show that God is able to do greater things.

there are too many types of people in the world, with their different expectations. and when you try to fulfill each of their expectation, until the time runs out and you soon die, you will never be able to please them. stay as who you are, retain your identity in Christ Jesus, and continue moving forward. let no one stop you because of your limitation or your failure on their eyes. Take hold of your life, or else somebody else will take hold of it.

continue doing what is right, stay strong, stay unique. :) God bless!

sunshine, just beyond the clouds..

2009-10-19T23:57:00.009+08:00

"There will always be sunshine, just beyond the clouds, in a rainstorm and in life."

"Your limitation is nothing more than a layer of clouds. Clouds that cover up

a very bright sunshine."

I found these quotes as I was reading a wonderful book by Karen Kingsbury,

entitled Just Beyond the Clouds. This book is actually about a boy who had a down-syndrome, how he went on with his life, with a very protective brother, and a romance-partner who also had a down syndrome. This story is just so beautiful on having another perspective for us not to see only through our clouded perspective, but we could see just beyond the clouds.

Even though we may be born as someone normal, without a down-syndrome or any other physical defect, but i am assured that we all have a weakness or character defect. And that weakness and character defect will be our limitation to move on. But often times, we only see that weakness as our boundary, that we cannot trespass it because it is just how things are meant to be. Actually, we should be able that there is something greater than our limitation. Maybe you are not born with a musical skill, but you are good with your rhetorical skill. Maybe you are not good with physics, but you are good in painting. God is a fair God, and He will not really give a person with zero talent at all. Even in the talent parable, God still give us at least one talent that we can make the most of it.

Most of the times, we are only focused to our limitation that we are unable to see our strength. But God wants us to focus with our strength, that we can do more than what we can imagine, because Christ lives inside of us. Nevermind our limitation, nevermind our incapabilities, as long as we are having the right attitude, doing the right action for the right purpose, everything is POSSIBLE! No matter how things seem to be impossible, no matter how situations can seem to never turn out for good, there is always a sunshine beyond that storm clouds. All we need to do is to keep on having the proper response in life, by staying with our proper attitude, and also keeping our faith in God, and surrendering everything unto His Hands.

If with God, every single thing is possible, why should we keep any thought in our mind that will limit our ability? When the time shall come, the cloud shall be done away, and there you go, a bright sunshine of life. This is a happy-ending story, and I want you all to believe that God has an awesome plan for us. All we need to do is just to rely on Him, and everything will turn out for good, for those who love Him. :)

there will always be sunshine, just beyond the clouds...

natashacthe

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