AGAPE. Editors Note. Silver Anniversary 2008

25 2 5tthh Anniversary ry Edition Editio d

Editors Note

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wenty-five years old is an age that most would deem as the time when one officially reaches “adulthood”. But are we truly “adult” in our thinking and our faith? Or is it just a number signaling how old the walls of this church are? The Church is an institution initiated by God Himself to fulfill our needs as Christian people for fellowship and companionship through our time on earth. With full realization of this, the special anniversary issue themed “God, The World, and I” is created with a goal to educate Christians on cultivating Godly relationships with not only other Christians (fellow congregation members), but also our non-Christian friends, our family, and our future spouses. Humans are social creatures and we are relational beings. Like us, our faith is not a solo pursuit. Perhaps this may be the most important reason why God ordained the Church to be built, to be the closest physical resemblance to Heaven and to act as a source of strength and hope until His Second Coming. In this issue, we introduce a new permanent section called “Christians around the World” to encourage awareness of God’s hands in every nation worldwide. Our first article will feature China’s growing Christian ministry. We also have other new interesting articles shedding light on current popular youth culture Youtube featured under our Youth Section called “What’s More Interesting than Youtube” to help us older folks catch up with today’s technological age! These new articles encourage awareness of what is going on in our world today and how we must be aware of them to deal with them in a manner pleasing our Lord. We also feature many new articles such as: “Relating Women with Men” and a “Diagnosis on Gossip” that may spark new thought and discussion. With the coming of age, we of Agape would like to do all we can to equip you and publish writings that will encourage, educate, and equip us for Godly-living. We encourage involvement of the congregation through comments and contributions. For questions or comments, feel free to contact us through the information below. We wish you a Happy Birthday Azusa, and may God bless you!

Agape team

Email: [email protected]

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Agape » Anniversary 2008

AGAPE Silver Anniversary 2008

Advisors: Daniel Loe Ev. Wilson Suwanto Editors: Janice Atmadja Merissa Halim Linda Lukminto Debbie Wang Linda Yusuf Layout: Harold Doryumu Eva Leony Irma Prasetyo Alvin Sugianto Vincent Yobeanto Buddy Yusuf Contributors: Yesaya Adidjaja Bina Kusnohadi Rev. Saumiman Saud Ev. Dedy Sutendi Ev. Wilson Suwanto Maggie Tewuh Printing: Semiwati Oei Production of IEC Azusa: 539 N. Sunset Ave. Azusa, CA 91702 Phone: (626) 812-0326 http://www.gii-usa.org

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Reverends’ Thank-You Reve Th k Y

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D Untuk Doa U t k Gerejaku G

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God, the th he World, and I

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Con Congratulation g Reverend Wilson Suwanto

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Sp Spiritual pi Disciplines as the Journey...

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What is Sin? W Wh

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SStop Dating the Church St

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Personal Relationship with the Church... P Pe

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A Diagnosis of Gossip

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Relating Women With Men R Re

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Graduates 2008 G Gr

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Love I Lo o Jesus But I Don’t Read the Bible

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Help Helping pin Our Children to Build a Personal...

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Recipe: Cajun C Chicken Pasta & Creme Brulee

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C California lif i 4 Sale S

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Christians in China Chris

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Christians’ Attitude Toward Non-Christians Chris

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William Carey, Father of Modern Missions Willia

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Now and Then (The Interview)

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What’s More Interesting on The Internet Than Youtube&Facebook What

Agape » Anniversary 2008 08 8

and Fun Facts about IEC Loss Angeles

1983

- This is when the Indonesian Evangelical Church (Gereja Injili Indonesia) first came into existence. However, the birth of this church took much planning and much praying. Reverend Kristianto Hosea, came to the United States in June 1979 from Indonesia after going to Malang Seminary, to attend school at Azusa Pacific University where he obtained his Bachelors of Arts degree, Master of Arts degree in Religion, and a Masters of Arts degree in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling at Azusa Pacific University. From his youth, Reverend Hosea knew he was called to be pastor in a church, but the question was where he would do so. Originally, Rev. Hosea was asked to go to New Jersey to help Dr. Reverend Moses Yang and his church, replacing Rev. Hasan Sutanto. However, Pastor Hosea decided his only options would be to stay here in Los Angeles or go back to Indonesia to pastor a church. In January 1983, while praying late at night, he received a phone call around midnight (3A.M. eastern time) from Reverend Dr. Moses Yang, the founder and president of the Christian Evangelical Mission (presently called EMSI—Evangelical Mission Seminary International) stationed in New Jersey, saying that if it is the will of God, they could try to start a new church here in Los Angeles. Rev. Dr. Moses Yang then came to Los Angeles to survey the area and see the potential. He approved, and in March 1983, the first Bible study started in the Recreation Building of Azusa Pacific University with 10 people. On the second Sunday of September, the Indonesian Evangelical Church had its first official Sunday service. The Indonesian Evangelical Church started out with 29 adults and 3 children, where the Sunday school met outside on the grass. From the very first Sunday the church started, congregations enjoy lunch after service, with chicken curry (kare ayam) being the first meal ever served; hence this lunch tradition has been going on ever since. 2008- With the growing number of our congregations and the Sunday school kids, we felt so blessed that God has given an opportunity to expand our church building and set the perfect time for us to purchase the house next to our building; which was bought with an affordable price. The house was remodeled and is used to hold Sunday school services. In May 2008, the building was dedicated for its use. The unique and fun thing about our church is that we are so full of traditions and food! Our traditions have been kept since the previous generations until now. Such traditions are Father’s and Mother’s Day Celebrations, Christmas Caroling, Christmas Drama, Sunday School Christmas Drama, Cantatas (Easter, Anniversary, and Christmas), Cooking Competitions, Retreat, even we keep the traditions of celebrating the church “Generals’ 80th Birthdays.” Along with these events, food is always served. Food! Food! Food! It is the fellowship that makes us bond with each other and feel more like one big family. In every event, we won’t miss out on food. Likely, we’ve always had, as a tradition, a ‘four legged turkey’ aka barbeque pork (babi panggang) for every Thanksgiving Sunday service.

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1983 T Th hhee First Fellowshipp at APU U Recreation Buildingg

19991 First Building Dedication

2008 New Building Dediccattio on

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Agape Agap Ag ape » Anniversary Anni An nive versa vers rrssar ary 2008 20 2 00 08 8

T H E N & NOW 19 983 First Deacons

2008 Deacons D

2008 Sundayy School VBS 19985 Sunday School

1983 First Lunch

1988 Roast Pork

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celebrating the 25th anniversary of our church, what thoughts should we have and what actions should we do? There are three things that are of the utmost importance that we must do, which are: 1. Give thanks for the hand of God. IEC Azusa was built by the hand of God who is allpowerful. The hand of God built the church through prayer- prayer that is unrelenting and a faith that is genuine. The birth of IEC Azusa was according to the will and plan of God Himself. That is why we must, with all of our hearts praise Him. If not through the will of God, the growth of our church is certainly not possible. Psalm 127:1 said; “If not for God who built our house, futile it is the efforts of the person who built it.” Because of that must we never stop praising Him who has blessed us with IEC Azusa who are truly unworthy of receiving it. 2. Give thanks to Him for His protection and guidance IEC Azusa has now reached 25 years in establishment. In those 25 years, IEC Azusa remained under the watchful eye and protection of the Lord Himself. Eventhough we’ve never thought that in 25 years we will have experienced many obstacles similar to a hardhitting typhoon and rain. Even so God never left us or abandoned us. Instead, He guarded His church. In what ways has God kept IEC Azusa? For 25 years, God nurtured IEC Azusa like the apple of His own eye just like what Psalms 17:8 said: “ Keep us like the apple of your

eye and hide me under Your wings.” Because of this, let us ceaselessly, with a genuine heart, praise Him. 3. Give thanks to Himl for His Blessings. For 25 years IEC Azusa was blessed by God with both physical and mental health. There were many brothers and sisters that returned to Indonesia bringing blessings- both physical and eternal blessings. Once again we must give God the glory for all the blessings we received in our lives. Ephisians 1:3 said: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In the end, we truly are thankful to the Lord because he built IEC Azusa with His mighty hand, and His own eyes are the one that guards and protects us along with blessing us with all kinds of Heavenly blessings. Let us always praise Him who according to the Word of God written in 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

Rev. K. Hosea’s Family (Then) 7


Rev. K. Hosea & Wife (Now)

Didalam d l rangka k merayakan k Hut GII Azusa yang ke k 25 tahun ini, hal apakah yang sangat penting yang harus kita pikirkan dan kita perbuat? Ada tiga hal yang sangat penting yang harus kita lakukan, yaitu; I. Bersyukur atas Tangan Tuhan. GII Azusa didirikan oleh Tangan Tuhan yang berkuasa. Tangan Tuhan mendirikan gereja Azusa melalui doa – doa yang tekun dan iman yang sungguh – sungguh. Lahirnya GII Azusa adalah atas kehendak dan rencana Tuhan sendiri. Oleh sebab itu haruslah kita dengan sepenuh hati dan haruslah sangat bersyukur sekali kepada Nya. Jikalau bukan kehendak Tuhan dan rencanaNya, tidaklah mungkin akan lahir GII Azusa. Mazmur 127:1 mengatakan; “Jikalau bukan Tuhan yang membangun rumah, sia – sia lah usaha orang yang membangunnya.” Karena itu haruslah kita tanpa henti bersyukur kepada Tuhan yang telah mengaruniakan GII Azusa kepada kita, yang sebenarnya tidak berlayak untuk menerimanya. Bersyukur atas Mata Tuhan. II. GII Azusa saat ini telah mencapai usia 25 tahun. Selama dua puluh lima tahun ini GII Azusa tetap di jaga dan di lindungi oleh Tuhan sendiri. Meskipun tidak 8


kita kki pungkiri bahwa selama dua puluh lima lim tahun ini kita mengalami banyak tantangan, seperti angin taufan dan hutta jan jja deras yang datang dan menimpa kita. Akan Ak tetapi Tuhan tidak pernah meningA galkan atau membiarkannya, sebaliknya ga g Dia Dia ttetap melindungi dan menjaga gereja cara Tuhan memelij Nya. ya. Bagaimakah B Ba hara Azusa? haara GII Azus h zusa Selama SSe elama dua puluh pulu uluh lima tahun Tuhan telah Azusa bak Biji MataNlah memelihara GIII Az A ya yang di kutip dari ya sendiri. seperti apaa ya Mazmur mengatakan; M 17:8 yang mengata ata “Peliharakanlah ““P Peliharakanlah aku seperti biji mata, dan sembunyikan naungan sse embunyikan lah aku dalam n sayapMu. ssaayapMu.” Oleh Oleh sebab itu haruslah kita setiap p hari bersyukur Tuhan dengan setulus hati. b k kepada k III. Bersyukur atas Berkat Tuhan. Selama 25 tahun GII Azusa telah di berkati oleh Tuhan dengan berkat jasmani dan berkat kekal yang berkelimpahan. Banyak saudara – saudari kita yang telah kembali ke Indonesia dengan membawa berkat – berkat jasmani dan berkat – berkat yang kekal. Karena itu sekali lagi sepatutnyalah kita selalu bersyukur dengan tidak putus – putus atas berkat – berkatNya yang telah kita terima didalam kehidupan kita. Efesus 1:3 mengatakan; “Terpujilah Allah dan Bapa Tuhan kita Yesus Kristus yang dalam Kristus telah mengaruniakan kita segala berkat rohani didalam Surga.” Akhir kata, kita sungguh – sungguh sangat bersyu bersyuukur kepada Tuhan karena dia mendirikan GII Azus Azusa, us dengan TanganNya yang berkuasa, dan Mata Tuh Tuhan Tu sendiri yang telah dan tetap menjaga kita, serta rta dengan segala Berkat Surgawi yang telah di berikan keberi eri pada kita. Biarlah kita harus selalu menguca mengucapkan syuuca kur menurut Firman Tuhan yang tercantu tercantum ntu didalam I Tesalonika 5 : 18; “Mengucap syukurlah dalam segala sega ega hal, sebab itulah yang di kehendaki Allah dida didalam Kristus Yesus bagi idal kamu.”

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IEC-LA’s 25th Anniversary First of all, on behalf of Evangelical Christian Mission Synod of the West Coast, I would like to say Happy 25th Anniversary to Indonesian Evangelical Church Los Angeles; and congratulations to Ev. Wilson Suwanto for being inaugurated as a pastor in IEC Los Angeles. Looking back and reminiscing what God has done in this church, there are a couple of things we should be thankful for: 1. Praise God the All-loving and Almighty who has led and blessed IEC Los Angeles through struggles servicing for a quarter of a century long! Even though journey of serving during these 25 years is not easy and it is full of challenge and difficulty; however, God’s blessing and protection has always accompanied this church. 2. Praise God, because He has started a noble task through Rev. Moses Yang, Rev. Kristanto Hosea and colleagues who share the same struggles to build His church in this place and He continue to complete His work until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). 3. Praise God, because IEC Los Angeles started from 10 people and grow into hundreds of congregations; from renting the building of Azusa Pacific University to having its own building; from the first generation develops to the second generation; and started with service in only one language (in Indonesian) and grows into having services in three languages (in Indonesian, English, and Mandarin). This is all a gift from God! 4. Praise God, watching the first generation that pioneered this church is still faithfully serving to this day. And the second generation has risen to continue and develop service in this church. Besides those, God provides servants who are of one mind and helping each other endure burden to extend the work of God. In order to celebrate this 25th anniversary, we are really longing to count one by one God’s overflowing blessing that has been poured in this church, however, with our definite vocabulary, it’s impossible for us to express and describe all of it. Accordingly, we can only quote Apostle Paul from the scripture Rome 11:36 which concludes “for Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Amen.”

Rev. Stephen Hosea President of the ECM Synod of the West Coast

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HUT ke 25 GII-LA Pertama-tama, atas nama Sinode Misi Kristen Injili di Pantai Barat America saya mengucapkan Selamat Ulang Tahun ke 25 kepada Gereja Injili Indonesia Los Angeles dan Selamat kepada Ev. Wilson Suwanto yang dilantik menjadi pendeta GII Los Angeles. Melihat dan mengenang kembali apa yang Allah lakukan didalam gereja ini, ada beberapa hal yang patut kita bersyukur: 1. Puji syukur kepada Allah yg Maha kasih dan Maha kuasa yg telah memimpin dan memberkati GII Los Angeles melewati perjuangan pelayanan selama seperempat abad lamanya! Memang, perjalanan pelayanan selama 25 tahun ini tidak mudah dan penuh dengan tantangan dan kesulitan, namun berkat dan pemeliharaan Allah senantiasa menyertai gereja ini. 2. Puji syukur kepada Allah, karena Ia yang memulai pekerjaan yang baik melalui Pdt. Moses Yang, Pdt. Kristianto Hosea dan rekan-rekan seperjuangan untuk membangun gerejaNya di tempat ini dan Ia tetap meneruskan pekerjaaanNya sampai pada hari kedatangan AnakNya. (Filipi 1:6) 3. Puji syukur kepada Allah, karena GII Los Angeles dimulai dari 10 orang bertumbuh menjadi ratusan orang; dimulai dengan menyewa gedung Azusa Pacific University sampai memiliki gedung gereja sendiri; dimulai dari generasi pertama berkembang ke generasi yg kedua; dan dimulai dengan kebaktian dalam satu bahasa (bahasa Indonesia) bertumbuh menjadi kebaktian dalam tiga bahasa (bahasa Indonesia, English dan Mandarin). Ini semuanya adalah anugrah Allah! 4. Puji syukur kepada Allah, melihat generasi yang pertama yg merintis gereja ini masih tetap setia melayani sampai pada hari ini. Dan generasi yang kedua sudah bangkit untuk meneruskan dan menggembangkan pelayanan di gereja ini. Di samping itu pula, Allah menyediakan hamba-hamba Tuhan yg bersehati dan bahu membahu memikul beban bersama untuk meluaskan pekerjaan Allah. Dalam rangka merayakan HUT ke 25 ini, kita sangat rindu dapat menghitung satu persatu rahmat Allah yg melimpah yg telah dicurahkan didalam gereja ini, namun dengan kata-kata kita yang terbatas tidak mungkin untuk kita mengucapkan dan melukiskan seluruhnya. Oleh sebab itu, kita hanya dapat memakai ucapan Rasul Paulus dalam Kitab Roma 11:36 menyimpulkan bahwa “segala sesuatu adalah dari Dia, dan oleh Dia, dan kepada Dia: Bagi Dialah kemuliaan sampai selama-lamanya!”

Pdt. Stephen Hosea President of ECM of the West Coast 10


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Walking Together on the Blessed Path By Rev. Moses Yang Founder of EMSI

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September 12, 1983, Indonesian Evangelical Church in Los Angeles was established. During the past twenty five years, God has led and blessed our sister church. Thank the Lord that during all these years, pastors, coworkers, brothers and sisters have been working together in harmony. Much of God’s work has been successful and made possible by all the loving brothers’ and sisters’ prayers, efforts, and perseverance in the ministry. I would like to give this verse as an encouragement: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed” (Amos 3:3) My hope is that we can continue to support one another and walk the spiritual journey together. May God help us to strive wholeheartedly toward the following five goals: church establishment, discipleship, gospel outreach, loyal devotion to EMSI’s ministries, and unity in the Lord. In the future years, my prayer is that we can continue to work together in harmony for the cause of the gospel, share the same mission burden, and ultimately walk together along God’s prepared path of blessings for us!

Berjalan Bersama di Jalan Berkat Oleh Rev. Moses Yang Founder of EMSI

Pada

September 12, 1983, didirikanlah Gereja Injili Indonesia di Los Angeles. Selama dua puluh lima tahun, Tuhan telah memimpin dan memberkati cabang gereja kita ini. Terima kasih kepada Tuhan karena selama ini pendeta-pendata, teman-teman sekerja, dan juga saurdara-saudari telah bekerja bersama dengan harmonis. Banyak perkerjaan Tuhan yang telah berhasil dan boleh terjadi oleh karena doa-doa, upaya, dan ketekunan di dalam pelayanan saudara-saudari yang terkasih. Saya ingin memberikan ayat ini sebagai kata-kata dorongan. “Berjalankah dua orang bersama-sama, jika mereka belum berjanji?” (Amos 3:3) Harapan saya adalah kita bisa terus saling membantu satu dengan yang lain dan berjalan bersama di perjalanan rohani. Kiranya Tuhan membantu kita untuk berusaha keras dengan setulusnya ke arah lima gol berikut ini: pendirian gereja, pemuridan, penjangkauan Firman keluar, pengabdian yang setia kepada ministri EMSI, dan kesatuan di dalam Tuhan. Di masa yang mendatang, doa saya adalah kita bisa terus bekerja sama dengan harmonis untuk penginjilan, berbagi beban misi, dan juga berjalan bersama di jalan berkat yang telah disediakan Tuhan untuk kita!

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Ag A Agape ga ap pe » Anniversary An nni n ve verssar aryy 2008 2008 20 08

Ya Tuhan Tak terasa sudah Dua puluh lima tahun tanpa lelah Kau sudah menggembalakan gerejaMu Ya Tuhan Tak terasa sudah Masa remaja bak angin senja Menerbangkan kami kepintu kedewasaan Ya Tuhan Tolong kami Tolong gerejaMu Untuk tidak melupakan bimbinganMu Tuntunan Tangan KasihMu Pengajaran FirmanMu Ya Tuhan Tolong kami Tolong jemaatMu Untuk tidak merasa kami sudah cukup dewasa Sehingga kami melepaskan tuntunanMu Ingin berjalan sendiri Ya Tuhan Ajar kami Berikan kami hikmat Surgawi Berikan kami selalu hati seorang murid Untuk selalu bercermin pada FirmanMu Ya Tuhan Ajar kami Berikan kami hati seorang anak Yang selalu merindukan bimbinganMu Dan selalu mau bersandar padaMu Selalu tidak mau jauh dariMu Disetiap jalan hidup kami 12


Ya Tuhan Kuatkan kami Untuk berani menaiki tangga kedewasaan Yang penuh tanggung jawab dan pengorbanan Untuk memuliakan Injil Tuhan Mengobarkan Api penginjilan Memberitakan Kabar Keselamatan Bukan hanya dengan perkataan Tapi juga dengan perbuatan Karena kami ini adalah Cermin– Cermin kehidupan Dari semua Firman Tuhan Yang telah Kau limpahkan Selama kami dalam penggemblengan Firman Dan pertumbuhan di dalam anugerah dan berkat Tuhan Ya Tuhan Doa kami Jangan biarkan kami Menjadi orang yang lupa diri Dan tak tahu berterima kasih Jangan biarkan kami menyia–nyiakan Masa hidup kami ini Dengan perbuatan yang tak berpadanan dengan FirmanMu Yang telah kami terima selama hidup kami ini Jangan biarkan kami Mempermalukan namaMu Jangan biarkan kami menodai KesucianMu Jangan biarkan kami mendukakan Roh SuciMU Jangan biarkan kami membuat

By Daniel Loe dunia ini menjadi semakin suram Jangan biarkan kami memadamkan suluh-suluh Keselamatan yang telah Kau kobarkan Dengan darah–darah martyr– martyrMu Ya Tuhan Doa kami Berikan kami kesempatan membuat Pelita Keselamatan ini semakin berkobar Biarkan kami menjadi obor–obor yang hidup Yang jelas terlihat oleh dunia yang telah tersesat di dalam kegelapan Biarkan kami menjadi tangan–tangan yang terulur Yang menarik mereka yang terbenam di dalam lautan kenajisan dan kenistaan Biarkan hidup kami ini, Biarkan gerejaMu ini, Biarkan jemaatMu ini, Menyenangkan HatiMu Dengan mengorbankan hidup kami ini Sekali lagi Pada abad ini Menjadi sarana Keselamatan Bagi dunia yang telah berlumuran oleh noda dan dosa ini

God, the World, and I By AGAPE

At this spiritual age, we want to learn how to surrender our lives to God all the time and not exclusive to hard times. As young adults at this age, there are many temptations and challenges coming from the world that sometimes hinders us from seeking God’s ways. But, all these temptations and challenges can be an opportunity for us to learn about God. We will also look at the contrast between worldly and Godly thinking and see how our church will stand as our dwelling place from the world. In addition, at this spiritual age, we should also learn on how to stop looking at life from the world’s perspective. For our model of spiritual maturity, we want to look at Job, in the Book of Job, whom was known as the most prosperous and the greatest man in his region before a great tragedy struck him (Job 1). Some of us would also wonder if we personally are in the right position of spiritual maturity or if we are lagging behind than we should be. As we go along the article, we can check on some of the points to see if we have understood and done them; as we know, knowledge without action is futile. Surrendering Our Lives to Him---Letting in the Book of Job, whom God referred as the most Ourselves to have a Taste of God righteous man and faithful servant (Job 1:8), lost everything he had: his children, servants, properties, There might be some people claiming themselves fame, and health--the emotional, financial, and physical to be Christians, and yet they boast that they never destructions that Satan caused in accord with God’s suffered or faced hard times in their lives because will (Job 1-2). So, why does God allow this tragedy to they have been so faithful and right in God’s eyes. happen to Greg or Job? Many of us know the answer On the other side, we might question their beliefs right away that God wants to discipline and test our because that’s not what Christianity teaches.As some faith. So, how can of us know, Harvest senior pastor, Greg Laurie had these such sufferings just in mourn for the death of his eldest son due be used to discipline to a car accident. Greg admitted that losing a child us? The Sunday after was the worst thing a parent could go through. For the tragedy in Greg’s a pastor who has been so faithful to God, brought family, a guest speaker many lives to God, and even carried out many funeral to the Sunday service services, in worldly view, God is not being fair. But, we by the name of Don as Christians know that hard times are essential in McClure, jokingly said our lives to seek God’s way. Similar to Greg’s situation, that we Christians 13


had to learn everything twice--setting an example of this he went on, “Sometimes we say to God: God help me understand the power of resurrection. Then, you go to Bible study, pull up your lecture notes, and then you come back to God saying ‘This is great God. I’ve learned it now.’ But God says, ‘No, My child. You haven’t learned it.’ And, you argued with God, ‘Yes, I have learned it.’ Then, He repeated, ‘No, you haven’t My child. You’ve just learned the theory. You haven’t even had the taste of it.’” This illustration teaches us that there are many things that we know of God only by theory, but we actually have never experienced it in our lives. Perhaps, we can give a sharing and say to other people about how awesome God’s love is, but we never feel suffered in our lives.Through sufferings, God’s love is overflowed over us (and we will come back to this topic later). Similar to this, we have a limited understanding about surrendering our lives to God. If we face a little problem that’s easy to be solved by our own, we tend to not look for God and surrender, and if we face a very big problem and we have no idea of how to solve the problem, then it’s time for us to look for God. Isn’t this what we have been doing all the while? If our lives are going smoothly, we tend to not seek God’s way and forget to surrender ourselves to Him. We tend to wait until we are struck with great problems, then we realized that we need to seek God’s way and surrender. At the end of Job’s book, he admitted that he only heard about God but didn’t know Him personally until then, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now my eye sees You.” (Job 42:5; NKJV) Here, Job, who previously knew God only by knowledge, nowledge, was able to know God personally through the sufferings in his life. And, let’s take a moment here to look at Job’s sufferings more deeply. Job actually lost everything he had previously: his children, wealth, fame, and even his health. So, basically at this point, he was left alone (actually, his wife was still alive, but she was not supporting his faith). So now, imagine Job at this point alone spiritually and physically. Imagine him sitting alone on the ground along the streets with boils filled from his head to toe as the Book of Job says,“So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD, and struck Job with painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And he took for himself a 14


potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes.” (Job 2:7-8) Sitting alone with no more dependability to walk through his worst situations, Job could only surrender supernaturally to a higher power (God) that he had never had a sense before--letting himself to have a taste of God. Hopefully at this point of spiritual age, we as the children of God are letting ourselves to experience God personally as we continue to surrender our lives to God at all time. Thinking Godly positive---Thinking outside the World.

The world or other religions teach that if we suffer it’s because god is punishing us because of our sins. In an attempt to give comfort to Job, who at that point was looking for an answer to his tragedy, his closest friends admonished him into confessing some of his (non-existent) sins--they kept repeating, in many chapters of the Book of Job, that Job’s sufferings were the result of wickedness in his life (one example: Job 22:4-11). The fact is that his friends were wrong, Job’s hands were cleaned, and he shunned evil (Job 1:1, 8). Job’s friends were thinking like the world, so God rebuked them, “… that the LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has.’” (Job 42:7; NKJV) It is shown here that worldly thought is trying to deceit us from the truth, especially when we are looking for answers and solutions to our problems. As Christians, we should also take a note that there are two kinds of sufferings. The first kind is the kind of sufferings caused by the consequences of our sin. And, the second kind is Job’s kind of suffering. We need to pay close attention to the cause of our sufferings, whether it was from our sin or not, because Satan will use all his wicked ways to fail us in times of sufferings. He might try to make us to become abounded by our sins or he might try to deceit us from the truth

about God as in Job’s kind of suffering. To overcome our sufferings/hard times, it is easier if we know the original cause of it; but, we have to be honest here with ourselves and with God. The next thing we can do as we are trying to overcome our sufferings is thinking Godly positive, but many of you will ask, “What does it mean to think Godly positive in these situations?” Let’s take a look at the next paragraph. We want to look at hard times from a positive point of view--that sufferings and hard times are a good opportunity that God has given us. Job’s suffering was an opportunity for him to learn about God’s sovereignty. Through sufferings, Job was able to learn that death is not the end of everything (Job 19:2527), to discover that God would rescue him (Job 14:13-17), and to know that God is wonderful (Job 26:5-14). (Taken from unknown source) We too, if we are experiencing sufferings in our lives, want to take them as an opportunity to learn about God’s sovereignty. We also want to take our problems as an opportunity to grow spiritually, mentally, and morally. If we learn that our suffering is caused by our own sin, then we need to be responsible for it as we know every sin has its consequences. With overcoming the consequences, we can learn how to grow in terms of our moral and mental issues. From the embarrassment, shame, and disappointments of our sin, we would not want to fall into that sin again, would we? But, if we eventually fall again into the same sin, then we haven’t really repented of our sin and learn from it. On the other hand, if we are at Job’s position, our faith is then being tested.We need to draw ourselves close to God and be patient to see what God’s plan for us. Really, patient is the essence here. Off course, it’s easy for us now to look at Job’s suffering because we already know the happy ending of the story--God blessed him twice than what he possessed before (Job 42:10). But, does Job know the answers of why he suffered at that moment? No, he has no clue at all, and in fact, he felt like God was not giving Him an answer, “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him.” (Job 23:8-9; NIV).

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Job was implying that he didn’t feel God’s presence, even though he is trying his best to look for Him. Sometimes, in our hard times, we feel like Job, we pray and pray then we read the Scriptures or we did everything we can to find some answers from God, but we just feel like God is not present to give us some answers. But, what if God says the answer is ‘Wait’ or ‘Be patient’! Even though he didn’t find God’s answers, Job remained faithful to Him as his faith was being tested. Job continued on with verse 10, “But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.” (Job 23:10-12; NIV) Isn’t it wonderful to see how faithful and optimistic Job was in his hard times! Job was being optimistic-he was able to think the best possibility out of the worst of his situations (that he would become as pure as gold if it were true God was testing him). Job, who can be roughly said as a previously rich, famous man that became a poor man, a ‘nobody,’ and an ill person, can be positive about his problems. What about us? Are we still grumpy at a little problem we are facing now? Or, are we becoming indifferent to God because of the heavy burdens to our problems? Why don’t we look at the bright side like Job did? In addition, we also want to take our sufferings as another opportunity to experience God’s grandeur love. In the case of the first kind of sufferings, we can know how expensive Jesus’ cross is by realizing our sinful nature, and yet, God was able to pay it all with His grandeur love! In the case of the second kind of sufferings, we can see that God already has the solution to our problems and is trying to prepare us for a bigger blessing as long as we are ready to receive it. It is ironic to say but true that through suffering we can know that God loves us dearly. Every good parent hopes their children to grow up and be ready as the children are given more things to be responsible for. Would we still consider of giving our kid a motor bike for his present even though we know that he is clumsy? No, he would get himself into an auto accident if we do! God, our heavenly Father is like this

good parent; He wants us to grow up and be prepared as we are entrusted with more of His blessings. These are why God allows sufferings in this world because they are good opportunities that God has given us. It is usually only the good times that we can refer as an opportunity. But now, we can also refer the bad times as an opportunity. So, get the idea of thinking Godly positive?! At this spiritual age, we want to stop looking at life from the world’s point of view. Instead, we want to be able to look at it from God’s point of view--thinking outside the world. From the world’s perspective, we are the world’s possession, and therefore, we ought to possess things in this world.And, we as the children of God, sometimes are tempted to possess things in this world, too. So, what happen if we possess much of the things in the world and think that they are so much worthy? We are then fulfilling our lives with too much of false hope. Sometimes, we Christians wonder why God allows the most precious someone or something taken away from us or allows us to be in the most moments that we don’t want to deal with. Even Job, the most righteous man couldn’t avoid the temptation to possess things in the world, he moaned with disappointments when all of his possessions vanished, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.” (Job 3:25; NKJV) As we may know, burnt offerings in those days were sins, and used to purify and cleanse sinners from their sins this is what Job was doing regularly. As a father, Job loved his children so much, and he was trying to overly Job’s number one fear is that his children will be taken away from him, “And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, ‘It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.’Thus Job did regularly.” (Job 1:4-5; NKJV)

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protect his children. With the false knowledge about God, Job diligently offered burnt offerings to God to prevent his children from being taken away in case they had sinned against God. He doesn’t know all the while Satan was causing his sufferings, and he was roaming into the world and noting Job’s behavior (Job 1:7-8). For those who watched the latest Batman movie The Dark Knight or know the heroic superhero named Batman, there was one scene toward the end of the movie where the bad guy named Joker captured the police commissioner’s or Gordon’s family members that were being tied up. Joker initiated to make the one, whom Gordon loved most, to be his hostage. To test this, Joker started off with Gordon’s wife by putting her life in danger while watching his reaction to it. Joker with his knife pressing on her neck was able to get a quick respond from Gordon, who was trying to protect his wife by negotiating with Joker. Joker, who then moved his knife toward Gordon’s daughter, now found Gordon negotiating with more options as the substitutes for his daughter. When the turn came to his son, Gordon cried louder to stop what Joker was doing. By Gordon’s strong reaction to the danger of his son, Joker finally found the perfect hostage, Gordon’s son. Likely, Satan can tell if we adore someone or something too much. And, God knew already if we put too much of our love into the things in the world, when we eventually someday lose them, we would put the blame on God and becoming indifferent to Him because of our disappointments. He had warned us in His Tenth Commandments to avoid any idol and to put Him first in everything. In his book’s ‘No-Nonsense Dating,’ Ronn Elmore says, “Love isn’t about meeting a need. All your needs are fulfilled in your relationship with the living God. So if God is supplying all your needs, then everything else must be a want. You need food. You need air. You need salvation. But you want a companion.You want a relationship.You want someone on this planet to know you and love you in spite of what they know about you.” Elmore reminds that even in relationships, God should be put first, then he continued, “So, here’s the big difference between want and need: If I recognize that I don’t need you, then I’m free to love you in a responsible way…Making an idol of another human is a sin. Make Jesus the Lover of your soul and you’ll be free to love another human being in a way that will set you both free from any hint of idol worship.” Elmore is saying that relationships and love are free

but must still be done in a responsible way. By this, he is implying that we don’t own our relationships nor do we own the people we love because God owns them. Therefore, we don’t want to be the world’s possessions and be obsessed with the things in the world. Instead, we should always remind ourselves that we are God’s possessions, and that we want to be obsessed only with God. Improving Character.

Our

Inner

Beauty---Godly

Our outer values are temporary while our inner values are eternal. For example, wealth, look, fame, and health are dispersible as they can vanish slowly with time. On the other hand, our Godly characters such as righteousness, holiness, kindness, honesty, and loving will be planted in us eternally. The world, like the owner (Satan), is so deceitful into making us think that investing on the things that can seen such us our outer values are more important than investing on the things that’s invisible inside us such us our inner values. Many Christians today are spending so much of their time to invest on wealth and fame, while they don’t have the time to have a regular devotional time with God or they don’t have the time to get involve in the church activities. Or that, many Christians today are spending so much of their time and money to invest on their outer look, especially for the ladies. They try to make themselves look more trendy and beautiful on the outside, while they don’t know how to maintain a good family or a good relationship because they never have enough time to read the Bible or family/relationship base Christians books. But if we take a moment to think about this, are these outer values are really worth the cost of 17


our time and money as we are living our lives as Christians? If for example we face a situation like Job, our properties, fame, children, and health vanished due to some reasons, and what more left on us is--we can say it roughly is our inner values. But what’s the worth of our inner value that now it can support our lives? Let’s look at Job, whose inner value is pure and dependable. Satan thought Job’s wealth and fame was the reason that he was righteous and faithful to God, “So Satan answered the LORD and said, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing?... You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!’ ” (Job 1:9-11; NKJV) Satan was wrong about Job. Job surely was in mourn, but he did not sin nor insult God (Job 1:20-22; 2:9-10). How is this possible for someone who was struck with great sufferings? It’s because Job had been bringing up his Godly characters as he truly is--he had a pure and true inner beauty. It turned out that Job’s inner values paid so much to his sufferings and hard times. It helped him to face his problems more easy by preventing himself to create more troubles. He did not sin against God or create some disputes with his wife or his neighbor/ relatives. Maybe at this point, it is still hard for us to see the importance of our inner values, so then we want to explore more of Job’s Godly characters using an inverted figure of Job. Now imagine this, what if Job’s character was now being inverted? If Job were not a peacemaker, righteous, honest, and nice man but rather a troublemaker, grumpy, and harsh man. In that case, we could imagine Job easily became so angry at God and cursed Him--which meant he had just committed an unforgettable sin and also meant that he were not ready for God’s leading. We could also imagine Job creating some disputes with his neighbors/relatives (maybe in today’s term his church friends) as he became cynical to them or imagine Job creating some disputes with his wife and left her (in today’s term divorce her), but Job did none of this things. At the end, Job received many helps from his relatives, and not to mention he was blessed with the most beautiful daughters (Job 42:11,15). Imagine if he had divorced his wife!! So then, what about us? How much is our inner value worth? Are we still cynical to the people around us when we are facing problems or hard times? Or, are we still thinking to leave out our responsibility as a parent, spouse, church activist,

or perhaps as a congregation when problems or hard times come in the relationship? We should bear the hard times and problems. But, it will be easier for us to walk through the hard times if we have inner values, such as patient, perseverance, etc. If we think we need to build our inner values, we can get started as of now.We can start by reading the Bible diligently, having regular devotional time, reading Christian based books, and having more quality time with our family and Christians friends. And, if we don’t like reading books, as an alternative, we can get involved with the websites that post some broadcasted Bible study or more of ongoing Christians issues (For more information on the websites, see ‘What’s More Interesting on the Internet than YouTube’ page). Making the Church Our Dwelling Place---Keep ing a Good Relationship with the Flocks and the Shepherd.

cannot afford it anymore? Would we keep going to plunge ourselves into the world of competitions for the sake of making ourselves look more beautiful or more famous? No, we would be in debt, which if we do, it will create problems for us later in the future! And, notice this--there’s always someone better than us! There’s always someone prettier or more handsome than us, there’s always someone richer than us, and there’s always someone more famous than us! Like a sheep, we easily get astray from our path/focus. Therefore, we want to keep ourselves close to the flocks and to the shepherd as we are walking together on the same path with encouraging and influencing each other with (healthy) positive things. Some of us may say there’s no difference between the people at church and the people outside church. We want to look twice before we said it again. Look again closely. As Christians, we at least know about unconditional love and are abided by the tenth commandments. But if some of us still insist that there’s no difference, then we should look at ourselves. Have we become involved with the church and with God? Have we had a close relationship with them? If we are not, then it’s not too late to get involved with the church’s people and its activity. And, see for ourselves the difference between the people inside and the people outside church.

Many of us feel relieved when the weekend comes. For five days, we have been out dealing with the pressure and craziness from the world, and finally, on As we have seen from the paragraphs above, we are the weekend, we are able to come to our dwelling being reminded that the world is full of deceit. As we place, the church--it’s not referring to the building but have seen from Job’s trials, the world can make us to the fellowship with the people. Therefore, won’t feeling down and dissatisfied, and now we want to see we desire to have a church with a good environment the effect of the world that can also make us feeling and be able to worship God freely? We all have pressured. Nowadays, competitions are everywhere noticed about this one fact about our church, IEC as people are trying to be better and even the best Azusa, is that it’s a big family where its children come in terms of outer values. The world is full of many from a diversity of region of Indonesia and ethnic tiring and pressuring competitions of style, wealth, groups. And that, how we talk, how we express our fame, and so on. The pressure from the competition ideas, how we show our affection, how we joke, and itself usually becomes a temptation for us. If we are even how we value certain things are different. But not better than our worldly friends, we are usually sadly, these differences within us sometimes create tempted to spend more time on improving ourselves some misinterpretation that can lead to a little until we are like them. It tempts us into buying the dispute among us.What we want to do to avoid such newest luxury car, it tempts us into buying the newest misinterpretations is that we should and many of us fashion trend, and it even tempts us into getting plastic have done it to love them unconditionally, but what surgeries--usually ladies are more prone to the latter we sometimes leave out in this unconditional love is two examples. But, what if we come at the point we RESPECT and ACCEPTANCE. Can we love 18


someone but not respecting and accepting them as they are? Can we love our disable kid but we are giving him/her away? Not really!! If this is what we have been doing to our church friends then we need to introspect ourselves. And, ask ourselves this: is it really unconditional love or routinely done love that we have been showing them all the while? If our answer ‘yes, it is indeed unconditional love,’ and can we answer this now: can we accept and respect these church people who have a way of saying things that seem so harsh with a quick sound pitch, or those church people who value others’ opinion better than their own before making a decision that makes us became impatient about it, or these church people who express their ideas after first thinking of it maturely, or those church people who give the minimal according to their expenses as a way to show their love or kindness, or these church people who utter jokes that attack on our weaknesses without intention? And maybe, at these point, some of us would still not be convinced to accept and respect these people since we ‘suspect’ we know their ‘bad’ intentions or for whatever reasons, we would say, “But, what I suspect of them is true that they are not as sincere or as mature or as this or that because I’ve known the real them from my past experiences or knowledge.” But, it doesn’t mean that we could judge them and influence ourselves with negative things about them. If we continue thinking and reacting this same way as ever before, isn’t it the same as we are not encouraging ourselves and them to grow up? We should as Christians continually and as always be nourished and grow to be Christ-like. In addition to this, we want to start looking at our listeners before we are saying or joking about things in case we are attacking on their weakness. Taking one or two more seconds to think concerning our listeners is better than a lifetime remembering the offense that we say. Moreover, if we encounter things from our church friends that bother our feelings, we should learn to not talk behind their back as this will give a big negative impact on the listeners, whom will eventually judge these persons based on our negative perspectives. In a case like this, why don’t we learn to just leave it all up to God? Or, why don’t we just pray for them, encourage them, give them a gentle comfort, or better yet, be their real friends who understand their real thoughts, worry/ fear, and background? Just remember, God creates 19


human beings with different types of personalities-we won’t find someone exactly like us--and this is the beauty of God’s creation is when Christians are living in harmony. Just like He created a man and a woman, two totally different individuals but when they come together in harmony, nothing can beat that! As we are getting older, we have our own perception of things around us. Similarly, as we are nourished under the Word of God and under the experience that God has given us, we might think that we have learned enough. However, it is still important to RESPECT our Pastors as they are our shepherds in this world. We want to listen more to their opinions, concerns, and instructions as they are trying to give the best for us. Keeping a good relationship with our church friends and pastors give us hope and the strength when we come back to face the world on the next five days of the week. As a closing statement, it is also very important for us to keep praying for our pastors and fellow Christians as we are walking hand in hand with them. May this become a blessing to the congregation as we are entering the maturity age of 25th years of age!

Happy 25th Birthday, IEC Azusa!!

God, the World, and I Oleh AGAPE

Di umur rohani ini, kita mau belajar untuk menyerahkan hidup kita kepada Tuhan setiap saat dan bukan esklusif kepada saat-saat yang susah. Sebagai pemuda rohani di umur ini, banyak godaan dan tantangan dari dunia yang terkadang menghalangi kita untuk melihat jalan Tuhan. Tetapi, semua godaan dan tantangan ini bisa menjadi hal yang baik kalau kita melihatnya dengan pandangan yang positif yang akan kita lihat nanti---sebagai petunjuk kita bisa melihat mereka sebagai suatu kesempatan untuk belajar. Kita juga akan melihat perbedaan antara pemikiran dunia dan surgawi dan melihat bertapa pentingnya gereja berdiri sebagai tempat perlindungan kita dari dunia ini. Sebagai tambahan, di umur rohani ini, kita juga harus belajar untuk melihat hidup dari sudut pandang Tuhan. Sebagai contoh kedewasaan rohani, kita ingin melihat kepada Ayub, yang mana dikenal sebagai orang terkaya dan terhebat di daerahnya sebelum dia tertimpa tragedi yang amat besar (Ayub 1). Beberapa dari kita juga akan bertanya secara pribadi jikalau kita sudah berada di posisi kedewasaan rohani atau sedang terbelakang. Sewaktu kita membaca artikel ini, kita bisa memeriksa diri kita kalau kita sudah memahami dan melakukannya; seperti yang kita ketahui pengetahuan tanpa perbuatan adalah sia-sia. Menyerahkan Hidup Kita kepada Tuhan--- yang begitu setia kepada Tuhan, yang telah membawa Merasakan Kehadiran Tuhan secara Pribadi. banyak jiwa kepada keselamatan, dan membawakan banyak upacara pemakaman, di mata dunia, Tuhan itu Memang ada orang yang mengaku dirinya Kristen, tidak adil. Seperti situasi Greg, kalau kita membaca dan membanggakan dirinya kalau mereka tidak Buku Ayub, seseorang yang Tuhan sebut sebagai orang pernah mengalami penderitaan karena Tuhan yang paling saleh dan selalu memberkati mereka. Di lain pihak, kita akan jujur serta hambaNya menanyakan imam kepercayaan mereka karena kita yang setia (Ayub 1:8), tahu bahwah Kristen tidak mengajarkan seperti itu. kehilangan semua yand Seperti beberapa dari kita sudah ketahui, pendeta dia miliki:anak-anaknya, senior dari gereja Harvest, Greg Laurie baru-baru b u d a k - b u d a k n y a , kekayaannya, ini berduka cita karena kematian anak laki-laki yang harta dan sulung karena kecelakaan mobil. Greg mengakui bahwa kemasyuran, kehilangan seorang anak adalah pengalaman yang juga kesehatannya--sangat buruk seseorang ayah bisa alami. Bagi pendeta kehancuran secara 20


emosi, finansil, dan fisik yang disebabkan oleh Iblis (dengan seijin dari Tuhan). Jadi, kenapa Tuhan membiarkan tragedi ini menimpa Greg atau Ayub? (Ayub 1:1,8). Hari minggu setelah kemalangan yang menimpa keluarga Greg, pembicara tamu kepada jemaat Harvest yang bernama Don McClure, dengan bercanda berkata bahwa kita ini sebagai orang Kristen selalu belajar semua hal dua kali---dengan contoh dia melanjutkan, “Seringkali kita berkata kepada Tuhan: Tuhan ajarilah hamba-Mu ini untuk mengerti the power of resurrection (kekuasaan dari kebangkitan Yesus). Lalu, kamu pergi belajar mendalami Alkitab, mencari artinya di catatan-catatan, dan kamu kembali kepada Tuhan dengan berkata, ‘Ini sangatlah baik Tuhan, saya telah mengerti sekarang.’ Tetapi Tuhan berkata, ‘Belum, anakKu. Kamu belum mengertinya.’ Dan, kamu membantah, ‘Sudah! Saya sudah mengerti.’ Lalu, Dia mengulangi perkataannya, ‘Tidak anakKu, kamu belum mengerti. Yang baru saja kamu pelajari adalah theorinya. Kamu belum pernah merasakannnya sekalipun.’” Ilustrasi ini mengajarkan kita kepada banyak hal-hal tentang Tuhan yang yang kita ketahui melalui pemahaman saja tetapi kita tidak pernah merasakannya sendiri. Kita mungkin bisa memberikan sharing dan berkata kepada orang lain tentang bertapa besarnya kasih Tuhan tetapi kita sendiri belum pernah merasakan penderitaan. Karena melalui penderitaan, kasih Tuhan tercurahan kepada kita (dan kita akan kembali lagi ke topic ini nanti). Serupa dengan ini, pengetahuan tentang hal berserah dihidup kita terbatas. Kalau kita mempunyai masalah kecil dan yang bisa kita selesaikan sendiri, kita cenderung untuk tidak mencari Tuhan dan berserah, dan kalau kita mempunyai masalah yang sangat besar yang kita sama sekali tidak tahu jalan keluarnya, kita baru mencari Tuhan dan berserah. Bukankan begitu? Diakhir Bukunya, Ayub mengakui bahwa dia hanya pernah mendengar tentang Tuhan, tetapi tidak mengetahui Dia secara pribadi, “Hanya dari kata orang saja aku mendengar tentang Engkau, tetapi sekarang mataku sendiri memandang Engkau.” (Ayub, 42:5) Disini, Ayub, yang dulunya mengenal Tuhan hanya dengan sepengetahuannya belaka, sekarang bisa mengenal Tuhan secara pribadi melalui penderitaan di hidupnya. Dan, marilah kita mengambil waktu sesaat untuk melihat penderitaan Ayub lebih dalam. Ayub 21


sebenarnya kehilangan semua milik kepunyaannya: anak-anaknya, kekayaannya, kemasyurannya, dan juga kesehatannya. Jadi sebenarnya di saat ini, Ayub ditinggalkan seorang sendiri (sebenarnnya, istri Ayub masih hidup, tetapi dia tidak mendukung imam kepercayaannya). Jadi bayangkan Ayub di saat ini sedang sendirian dalam rohani dan badani. Bayangkan dia sedang duduk sendirian di tengah jalan dengan barah yang memenuhi sekujur tubuhnya dari atas kepala sampai kaki seperti yang buku Ayub katakan, “Kemudian Iblis pergi dari hadapan TUHAN, lalu ditimpanya Ayub dengan barah yang busuk dari telapak kakinya sampai ke batu kepalanya. Lalu Ayub mengambil sekeping beling untuk menggaruk-garuk badannya, sambil duduk di tengah-tengah abu.” (Ayub 2:7-8) Dengan tidak ada lagi yang bisa diandalkan untuk menghadapi situasinya yang sangat buruk, Ayub hanya bisa berserah secara supernatural kepada kekusaan yang lebih tinggi yang dia belum pernah rasakan sebelumnya---merasakan Tuhan dengan dirinya sendiri. Terkadang, kita sama seperti Ayub menunggu sampai hari-hari yang sangat susah datang ke dalam hidup kita, baru kita mau menyerahkan hidup kita kepada Tuhan. Dengan penuh harapan di umur rohani ini, kita sebagai anak-anak Tuhan bisa terus menyerahkan hidup kita kepada Tuhan setiap saat, bukan esklusif di hari-hari yang susah. Berpikir secara positif---Berpikir diluar Dunia.

Dunia atau agama-agama lain mengajarkan kalau kita mengalami penderitaan itu karena Tuhan sedang menghukum kita oleh karena dosa-dosa kita. Dalam usaha mereka untuk menghibur Ayub, yang pada waktu itu sedang mencari jawaban atas tragedinya, teman-teman terdekatnya menegur dia untuk mengaku akan segala dosa-dosanya (yang tidak benar kenyataanya)---mereka mengulangi perkataan mereka di beberapa bagian di Buku Ayub, bahwa penderitaan Ayub dikarenakan oleh kejahatan di dalam hidupnya

(salah satu contoh: Ayub 22:4-11). Kebenerannya adalah teman-teman Ayub salah, tangan Ayub bersih dan tidak bercela, dan dia menjauhi kejahatan (Ayub 1:1, 8). Teman-teman Ayub berpikir seperti dunia, lalu Tuhan menegur mereka dengan keras, “… maka firman Tuhan kepada Elifas, orang Teman: ‘MurkaKu menyala terhadap engkau dan terhadap kedua sahabatmu, karena kamu tidak bekata benar tentang Aku seperti hamba-Ku Ayub.’” (Ayub 42:7) Disini kita bisa melihat bahwa pandangan dan pemikiran dunia bisa menjatuhkan dan mengecewakan kita, terutama ketika kita sedang mencari jawaban dan jalan keluar kepada masalah-masalah kita. Sebagai Kristen, kita tahu bahwa Iblis-lah penyebab penderitaan sementaraTuhan mempunyai kekuatan untuk membiarkan itu terjadi (menurut kehendakNya), tetapi kita juga harus mengetahui kalau ada dua jenis penderitaan. Jenis penderitaan yang pertama adalah ketika penderitaan itu datang karena akibat dari dosa kita sendiri. Dan, jenis penderitaan yang kedua adalah penderitaan yang Ayub alami. Kita perlu benar-benar memperhatikan kepada alasan atas penderitaan kita, apakah itu datang dari akibat dosa kita atau bukan karena Iblis akan menggunakan semua caranya yang licik untuk membuat kita jatuh di waktu penderitaan kita. Dia mungkin akan mencoba membuat kita terikat kepada dosa-dosa kita atau dia mungkin akan mencoba untuk menipu kita untuk menjauhi Tuhan seperti di waktu Ayub. Untuk mengatasi penderitaan/ kesusahan-kesusahan kita, lebih gampang jika kita mengetahui penyebabnya dahulu; tetapi, kita harus jujur disini kepada diri kita sendiri dan kepada Tuhan. Hal selanjutnya yang harus kita lakukan sewaktu mengatasi penderitaan kita adalah berpikir secara Godly positif, tetapi banyak dari kita akan bertanya, “Apakah yang dimaksud dengan berpikir secara Godly positif di dalam situasi ini?” Mari kita lihat kepada paragraph selanjutnya. Banyak dari kita sudah mengetahui bahwa Tuhan mengijinkan penderitaan untuk membentuk dan mendisiplin kita, dan kita juga mau melihat penderitaan dari sisi positif yang lain. Kita mau melihat penderitaan kita sebagai suatu kesempatan yang baik yang Tuhan telah berikan untuk kita. Penderitaan Ayub adalah sebuah kesempatan untuk dia belajar tentang kedaulatan Tuhan. Melalui penderitaan, Ayub dapat belajar bahwa kematian bukanlah akhir dari segalanya (Ayub 19:25-27), menemukan bahwa Tuhan akan 22


menyelamatkan dia (Ayub 14:13-17), dan mengetahui bahwa Tuhan sangat hebat (Ayub 26:5-14). (Diambil dari unknown source) Kita juga mau seperti Ayub, menganggap penderitaan kita sebagai kesempatan untuk mempelajari kedaulatan Tuhan. Kita juga mau menganggap penderitaan kita sebagai suatu kesempatan untuk bertumbuh secara rohani, batin (mental), dan moral. Kalau kita mengetahui penderitaan itu datang dari akibat dosa kita, kita perlu bertanggung jawab seperti yang kita ketahui setiap dosa ada akibatnya. Dengan mengatasi akibat dosa, kita bisa belajar untuk bertumbuh di dalam isu-isu moral dan mental. Dari kemaluan dan kekecewaan akibat dosa kita, kita tidak ingin jatuh kepada dosa itu lagi, maukah kita? Tetapi, jika kita akhirnya jatuh lagi kepada dosa yang sama, maka kita belum benar-benar mengaku dosa kita dan belajar darinya. Di sisi yang lain, kalau kita berada di posisi Ayub, iman kepercayaan kita sedang dicobai. Kita perlu mendekatkan diri kepada Tuhan dan bersabar untuk melihat rencana Tuhan untuk kita. Sungguh, kesabaraan adalah terpenting dalam hal ini. Tentu saja, itu mudah untuk melihat masalah Ayub sekarang karena kita sudah mengetahui akhir yang bahagia daripada cerita ini---Tuhan memberkati dia dua kali lipat daripada sebelumnya (Ayub 42:10). Tetapi, tahukah Ayub akan jawaban kepada kesulitan dia di waktu itu? Tidak, dia tidak ada gambaran sama sekali, dan malahan dia merasa sepertinya Tuhan tidak memberikan dia jawaban, “Sesungguhnya, kalau aka berjalan ke timur, Ia tidak di sana; atau ke barat, tidak kudapati Dia; di utara kucari Dia, Ia tidak tampak, aku berpaling ke selatan, aku tidak melihat Dia.” (Ayub 23:8-9) b menyatakan secara tidak langsung kalau dia tidak Ayub merasakan kehadiran Tuhan, walaupun dia berusaha keras untuk mencariNya. Terkadang, di waktu susah, kita merasa seperti Ayub, kita berdoa dan berdoa lalu membaca Alkitab atau kita berusaha sebisa mungkin untuk mendapatkan jawaban dari Tuhan, tetapi kita hanya merasa Tuhan tidak hadir untuk memberikan jawaban. Tetapi, bagaimana kalau Tuhan menjawab ‘tunggu’ atau ‘bersabarlah’! Walaupun Ayub tidak menemuka jawaban Tuhan, namun Ayub tetap setia kepadaNya sewaktu imam kepercayaannya dicobai. Ayub melanjutkan perkataannya dengan ayat ke 10,

“Karena Ia tahu jalan hidupku; seandainya Ia menguji aku, aku akan timbul seperti emas, Kakiku tetap mengikuti jejak-Nya. aku menuruti jalan-Nya dan tidak menyimpang. Perintah dari bibir-Nya tidak kulanggar, dalam sanubariku kusimpan ucapan mulut-Nya.” (Ayub 23:10-12) Bertapa indahnya melihat Ayub yang begitu setia dan optimis di waktu penderitaannya! Ayub yang optimis bisa berpikir kepada hal yang sangat baik dari penderitaan dia yaitu dia akan timbul seperti emas jika benar Tuhan sedang menguji dia. Ayub, yang secara terang bilang bisa dikatakan sebagai orang yang dulunya terkaya dan termasyur yang menjadi orang yang miskin, yang tidak dikenal, dan yang sakit, bisa berpikiran positif tentang masalahnya. Bagaimana dengan kita? Apakah kita masih kesal dengan masalah kecil yang kita hadapi sekarang? Atau, masihkan kita menjadi acuh tak acuh kepada Tuhan karena beratnya beban dari masalah yang kita tanggung sekarang? Mengapakah kita tidak melihat kepada sisi cemerlangnya seperti Ayub? Sebagai tambahan, kita juga mau menganggap penderitaan kita suatu kesempatan untuk merasakan kebesaran akan kasih Tuhan. Di dalam kasus penderitaan jenis yang pertama, kita bisa mengetahui bertapa mahalnya salib Tuhan Yesus dengan menyadari nature dari pada dosa kita, dan lagi, Tuhan bisa membayarnya dengan lunas melalui kebesaran kasihNya. Di dalam kasus penderitaan yang kedua, kita bisa melihat bahwa Tuhan sudah mempersiapkan solusi kepada masalah kita dan sedang mempersiapkan kita untuk berkat yang lebih besar selama kita siap untuk menerimanya. Sangat ironis untuk dikatakan, tetapi benar bahwa melalui penderitaan kita bisa mengetahui bahwa Tuhan sangat mengasihi kita. Setiap orang tua yang baik selalu ingin anak-anaknya betumbuh dan menjadi siap sewaktu anak-anaknya diberikan lebih banyak hal-hal untuk di tanggung jawabkan. Akankah kita memberikan anak kita sepeda motor untuk hari jadinya walaupun kita tahu bahwa dia bukanlah seorang yang berwaspada? Tidak, dia akan terlibat kecelakaan lalu lintas kalau kita berikan! Tuhan, Allah Bapa kita seperti orang tua yang baik ini; Dia mau kita bertumbuh dan menjadi siap untuk dipercayakan dengan berkat yang lebih. Semuanya ini adalah alasannya kenapa Tuhan 23


mengijinkan m penderitaan di dunia ini karena itu adalah kesempatan ke baik yang Tuhan berikan untuk kita. Bi Biasanya hanya waktu-waktu yang baik yang bisa kita an anggap sebagai kesempatan. Tetapi sekarang, kita juga bi menganggap waktu-waktu yang susah sebagai bisa ke kesempatan. Jadi, sudahkah kita mengerti bagaimana berpikiran Godly positif?! be Di D umur rohani yang sekarang ini, kita mau berhenti m melihat hidup dari pandangan dunia. Sebaliknya, kita m menjadi bisa melihatnya dari pandangan Tuhanmau --berpikir diluar dunia. Dari pandangan dunia, kita adalah milik kepunyaan dunia, maka dari itu, kita juga seharusnya memiliki hal-hal yang berada di dunia ini. Maka,apa yang terjadi jikalau kita mem-possess/memiliki kebanyakan dari hal-hal di dunia ini dengan berpikiran bertapa berharganya mereka? Maka kita memenuhi hidup kita dengan banyak pengharapan-pengharapan yang salah. Kadangkala, kita sebagai Kristen bertanya kenapa Tuhan membiarkan seseorang atau sesuatu yang sangat kita hargai diambil atau membiarkan kita berada di suatu situasi yang sangat ingin kita luputkan. Bahkan Ayub, orang yang paling saleh dan benar, tidak luput dari godaan untuk memiliki hal-hal di dunia ini, dia mengeluh dengan kekecewaan ketika semua milik kepunyaannya lenyap, “Karena yang kutakutkan, itulah yang menimpa aku, dan yang kucemaskan itulah yang mendatangi aku.” (Ayub 3:25) Dan lagi, ketakutan Ayub yang paling besar adalah jikalau anak-anaknya diambil daripadanya, “Anak-anaknya yang lelaki biasa mengadakan pesta dirumah mereka masing-masing menurut giliran dan ketiga saudara perempuan mereka diundang untuk makan dan minum bersama-sama mereka. setiap kali, apabila hari-hari pesta telah berlalu, Ayub memanggi mereka, dan menguduskan mereka; keesokan harinya, pagi-pagi, bangunlah Ayub, lalu mempersembahkan korban bakaran sebanyak jumlah mereka sekalian, sebab pikirnya: ‘Mungkin anak-anakku sudah berbuat dosa dan telah mengutuki Allah di dalam hati.’ Demikianlah dilakukan Ayub senantiasa.” (Ayub 1:4-5)

Seperti yang kita ketahui, korban bakaran di jaman Ayub digunakan untuk menyucikan dan membersihkan manusia dari pada dosa-dosa mereka, dan ini dilakukan Ayub senantiasa. Sebagai ayah, Ayub sangat mencintai anak-anaknya, dan dia terlalu berusaha menjaga anak-anaknya. Dengan pengetahuan yang salah tentang Tuhan, Ayub rajin mempersembahkan korban bakaran kepada Tuhan untuk menghindari anak-anaknya diambil kalau-kalau mereka telah berdosa kepada Tuhan. Ayub tidak tahu selama ini Iblis-lah penyebab penderitaan dia, dan dia (Iblis) menjelajah di dunia dan memperhatikan kebiasaan Ayub (Ayub 1:7-8). Untuk yang sudah melihat film Batman yang paling baru The Dark Knight atau yang tahu figur pahlawan yang bernama Batman, ada satu scene diakhir film ini dimana si penjahat bernama Joker berhasil menangkap anggota keluarga daripada si polisi bernama Gordon dan keadaan mereka sedang terikat. Joker ingin mengambil salah satu dari anggota keluarga Gordon untuk menjadi tahanannya, dan dia hanya ingin menahan orang yang paling di cintai Gordon. Untuk menguji ini, Joker memulai dengan istri dari si Gordon dengan menaruh hidup istrinya dalam bahaya sewaktu Joker memperhatikan reaksi dari Gordon. Joker dengan menekankan senjata pisaunya ke leher istrinya mendapatkan reaksi yang cepat dari Gordon, yang sedang berusaha menyelamatkan nyawa istrinya dengan bernegosiasi dengan Joker. Joker, yang memindahkan senjatanya kearah anak perempuan Gordon, sekarang mendapatkan Gordon bernegosiasi dengan lebih banyak pilihan sebagai ganti anak perempuannya. Ketika gilirannya datang kepada anak laki-lakinya, Gordon berteriak dengan kuat untuk memberhentikan kelakuan Joker. Dengan reaksi Gordon yang sangat kuat kepada bahaya nyawa anak laki-lakinya, Joker akhirnya menemukan tawanan yang tepat, anak laki-laki Gordon. Seperti ini, Iblis bisa melihat kalau kita memuja seseorang atau sesuatu berlebihan. Dan, Tuhan juga sudah mengetahuinya jikalau kita menaruh hati kita yang berlebihan kepada hal-hal di dunia, ketika akhirnya kita kehilangan mereka, kita akan menaruh kesalahan kepada Tuhan dan menjadi acuh tak acuh kepadaNya karena kekecewaan kita. Dia telah memperingati kita di kesepuluh hukum-Nya untuk menjauhi halhal yang berhala dan menjadikan Dia yang pertama disegala hal. Di dalam bukunya ‘No-Nonsense Dating,’ Ronn Elmore berkata, “Cinta bukanlah halnya untuk memenuhi keperluan. Semua keperluan anda dipenuhi 24


dengan hubungan kita dengan Tuhan yang hidup. Jadi kalau Tuhan sedang membekali kita dengan segala yang kita perlu, lalu hal-hal yang lain menjadi keinginan.Anda perlu makanan.Anda perlu udara.Anda perlu salvation. Tetapi Anda menginginkan seorang pendamping. Anda menginginkan hubungan. Anda menginginkan seseorang di planet ini yang bisa anda kenal dan cintai tidak peduli apa yang mereka ketahui tentang anda.” Elmore memperingatkan bahkan di dalam hubungan manusia, Tuhan harus menjadi yang pertama, lalu dia melanjutkan, “Jadi, inilah perbedaan yang besar antara ingin dan perlu: Kalau saya menyadari bahwa saya tidak memerlukan anda, maka saya bebas untuk mencintai anda dengan cara yang bertanggung jawab…Membuat seseorang menjadi idola kita adalah dosa. Jadikanlah Yesus cinta sejati anda maka anda akan menjadi bebas untuk mencintai manusia lain dengan cara yang benar yaitu yang membuat kalian bebas dari isyarat pemujaan idola.” Elmore mengatakan bahwa hubungan dan cinta adalah free tetapi harus tetap dilakukan dengan cara yang bertanggung jawab. Secara tidak langsung, dia menyatakan bahwa kita harus menghindari dari hal mem-possess orang yang kita cintai karena Tuhanlah pemiliki mereka. Maka dari itu, kita tidak mau dipossess oleh dunia dan ter-obsessi dengan hal-hal di dunia. Sebaliknya, kita harus selalu mengingatkan diri kita sendiri bahwa kita adalah milik kepunyaan Tuhan, dan bahwa kita mau ter-obsessi hanya kepada Tuhan. Tingkatkan Nilai Diri Kita---Godly Karakter. Nilai diluar kita (outer values) adalah sementara, dan nilai didalam diri kita (inner values) adalah selamanya. Sebagai contoh, kekayaan, kecantikan, dan kesehatan adalah hal-hal yang bisa lenyap, dan kita tidak akan membawa hal-hal ini ke Surga ketika waktu kita dipanggil oleh Tuhan. Di lain pihak, Godly karakter kita seperti kesalehan, kesucian, kebaikan, kejujuran, dan kasih dapat tertanam di diri kita selamanya. Dunia ini, seperti pemiliknya (Iblis), sangat menipu kita untuk berpikiran bahwa menginvestasikan diri kita kepada hal-hal yang dapat kelihatan seperti outer values lebih penting daripada hal-hal yang didalam seseorang inner values. Banyak orang Kristen sekarang yang mengeluarkan banyak waktu untuk menginvestasikan diri mereka untuk kekayaan dan kemasyuran, sementara mereka tidak mempunyai waktu untuk menjalankan renungan harian dengan regular atau mereka tidak mempunyai waktu untuk melibatkan

diri di aktiviti gereja. Atau, banyak orang Kristen hari ini yang mengeluarkan banyak uang mereka untuk investasi kepada penampilan mereka, terutama bagi para perempuan. Mereka mencoba untuk membuat diri mereka kelihatan lebih trendi dan cantik dari luar. sementara mereka tidak tahu bagaimana menjaga hubungan keluarga dengan baik karena mereka tidak mempunyai waktu untuk membaca Alkitab atau buku-buku Kristen yang lain yang bisa mengajarkan berhubungan dengan baik.Tetapi bila kita mengambil sejenak untuk berpikir, apakah nilai-nilai diluar begitu berharga untuk waktu dan uang kita sewaktu kita hidup sebagai Kristen? Misalnya saja kita menghadapi situasi seperti Ayub, kekayaan, harta-benda, kemasyuran kita, anak-anak, dan kesehatan kita lenyap disebabkan suatu alasan, dan yang tertinggal didalam diri kita adalah---kita bisa mengatakannya terang bilang adalah nilai-nilai diri kita. Lihatlah kepada Ayub yang mempunyai nilai diri yang suci dan bisa diandalkan. Iblis mengira bahwa kekayaan dan kemasyuran Ayub-lah yang menjadi alasan kenapa dia begitu saleh dan setia kepada Tuhan, “Lalu jawab Iblis kepada Tuhan: ‘Apakah dengantidak medapat apaapa Ayub akan takut akan Allah? Bukankah Engkau yang membuat pagar sekeliling dia dan rumahnya serta segala yang dimilikinya? Apa yang dikerjakannya telah Kauberkati dan apa yang dimilikinya makin bertambah di negeri itu.Tetapi ulurkanlah tangan-Mu dan jamahlah segala yang dipunyainya, ia pasti mengutuki Engkau dihadapan-Mu.’” (Ayub 1:9-11) Tetapi tentu saja, Iblis salah tentang Ayub.Ayub tentu saja berduka cita, tetapi dia tidak berdosa dan menghujat Tuhan (Ayub 1:2022; 2:9-10). Bagaimana mungkin bisa untuk seseorang yang terpukul oleh penderitaan yang begitu besar? Ini karena Ayub selama ini dengan tulus telah membawa dirinya dengan Godly karakter---Ayub memiliki inner beauty yang begitu suci dan sejati. Pada akhirnya, nilai diri Ayub-lah yang membayar kepada penderitaannya dan kesusahan-kesusahannya. Nilai diri Ayub ini-lah yang membantu dia untuk menghadapi masalah25


masalahnya menjadi lebih mudah dengan mencegahnya untuk membuat masalah-masalah baru. Dia tidak berdosa ataupun membuat masalah dengan istirnya atau tetangganya/sanak keluarganya. Mungkin saat ini, masih sulit buat kita untuk melihat pentingnya nilai diri kita, maka kita mau melihat Godly karakter Ayub lebih dalam lagi dengan menggunakan pembalikan figur Ayub. Bayangkan, apa yang akan terjadi jikalau karakter Ayub sekarang diputar balik? Jikalau Ayub bukanlah seseorang pendamai, saleh, jujur, dan baik, tetapi sebaliknya Ayub adalah seseorang yang pembuat masalah, pemarah, dan kasar. Di dalam kasus ini, kita bisa membayangkan Ayub gampang menjadi marah kepada Tuhan dan menghujat Dia---yang artinya Ayub telah melakukan dosa yang sangat buruk dan juga dia telah menyatakan ketidak-siapan dirinya akan pimpinan Tuhan. Kita juga bisa dengan gampang membayangkan Ayub membuat masalah kepada istri dan tetangganya/sanak familinya (atau dalam istilah jaman sekarang adalah teman-teman gerejanya) saat dia menjadi sinis kepada mereka atau membayangkan Ayub yang membuat masalah dengan istrinya dan pada akhirnya dapat meninggalkannya (dalam istilah jaman sekarang menceraikan istrinya), tetapi Ayub tidak melakukan satupun dari hal ini. Pada akhirnya, Ayub menerima banyak pertolongan dari sanak saudara dan kenalannya, dan tanpa mengatakan dia diberkati dengan anak-anak perempuan yang sangat cantik (Ayub 42:11,15). Bayangkan kalau dia akhirnya menceraikan istrinya!! Bagaimana dengan kita sendiri? Berapakah harga nilai diri kita? Apakah kita masih sinis kepada orang-orang disekitar kita ketika kita menghadapi masalah dan kesusahan? Atau masikah kita berencana untuk meninggalkan tanggung jawab kita sebagai orang tua, suami-istri, aktivis gereja, ataupun sebagai jemaat gereja ketika kita banyak masalah? Kita seharusnya bertahan dalam kesusahan kita dengan inner value kita, seperti kesabaran dan ketekunan. Kalau kita merasa kita perlu membangun nilai diri kita, kita bisa memulai dari sekarang. Kita bisa memulai dengan membaca Alkitab dengan tekun, menjalankan renungan harian dengan regular, membaca buku-buku Kristen, dan mempunyai lebih banyak waktu yang berharga dengan keluarga dan teman Kristiani kita. Kalau kita tidak suka membaca, ada beberapa website yang menyediakan pemutaran video tentang Bible study atau isu-isu kekristenan (untuk keterangan lebih lanjut bisa disimak di halaman ‘What’s More Interesting on the Internet than Youtube’).

Membuat Gereja sebagai Tempat Berteduh Kita---Menjaga Relasi yang Baik dengan Kawanan-Kawanan and Gembalanya.

Seperti yang telah kita lihat di paragraf-paragraf di atas, kita diingatkan kembali bahwa dunia ini penuh dengan tipu muslihat. Seperti halnya Ayub, dunia bisa membuat kita menjatuhkan dan mengecewakan kita, dan sekarang kita ingin melihat dampak dari dunia yang juga bisa membuat kita merasa tertekan. Sekarang ini, kompetisi ada dimana-mana karena orang-orang mencoba menjadi lebih baik dan lebih lagi menjadi yang terbaik dalam perihal (outer values) nilai luar. Dunia ini penuh dengan banyak kompetisi-kompetisi yang melelahkan, seperti kompetisi style, kekayaan, kemasyuran, dan masih banyak lagi. Tekanan dari kompetisi itu sendiri biasanya menjadi godaan untuk kita. Jikalau kita tidak lebih baik dari teman duniawi kita, kita biasanya tergoda untuk menghabiskan lebih banyak waktu untuk memperbaiki diri sampai kita menjadi seperti mereka. Ini menggoda kita untuk membeli mobil luxury terbaru, ini menggoda kita untuk membeli fashion trend yang terbaru, dan ini bahkan menggoda kita untuk menjalankan operasi plastik demi kecantikan---biasanya perempuan yang lebih cenderung melakukan kedua contoh yang terakhir. Tetapi, apakah yang akan terjadi jikalau kita mencapai titik dimana kita tidak bisa mengeluarkan biaya lebih untuk hal-hal seperti ini? Akankan kita tetap melanjutkannya hanya untuk membuat diri kita menjadi kelihatan lebih cantik atau lebih terkenal? Tidak, kalau ini terjadi akan menjadi masalah kita nanti di masa mendatang! Dan, perhatikan ini---selalu saja ada orang yang lebih baik daripada kita! Selalu saja ada orang yang lebih cantik atau tampan dari kita, selalu saja ada orang yang lebih kaya dari kita, dan selalu saja ada orang yang lebih terkenal dari pada kita! Seperti domba, kita mudah menyimpang dari jalan kita yang 26


sebenarnya. Maka dari itu, bertapa pentingnya untuk menjaga diri kita dekat kepada kawanan dan gembala kita sewaktu kita berjalan bersama dengan mereka dengan mendukung dan mempengaruhi satu dengan yang lain dengan hal-hal yang sehat dan positif. Beberapa dari kita akan berkata tidak ada bedanya antara orang-orang gereja dengan orang-orang di luar gereja. Kita mau lihat untuk kedua kalinya sebelum kita mengulangin apa yang kita katakan itu. Lihatlah lagi dengan teliti! Sebagai Kristen, setidaknya kita mengenal cinta tanpa bersyarat dan kita mengenal kesepuluh hukum Tuhan. Tetapi jikalau beberapa dari kita tetap berikeras kalau tidak ada perbedaannya,maka kita perlu melihat kepada diri kita sendiri. Apakah kita sudah terlibat dengan gereja ini dan dengan Tuhan? Apakah kita mempunyai hubungan yang dekat dengan kedua hal ini? Kalau kita belum, maka belumlah juga terlambat untuk menjadi terlibat dengan orang-orang gereja dan acara-acaranya. Dan, lihatlah dengan mata kita sendiri perbedaan antara orang-orang di gereja dan orang-orang di luar gereja. Banyak dari kita merasakan lega ketika akhir pekan tiba. Selama lima hari, kita telah menjadi capai berurusan dengan tekanan dan kekacauan dari dunia, dan akhirnya, di hari pekan, kita bisa datang ke tempat perlindungan kita, gereja kita---ini tidak menyatakan kepada bangunan tetapi kepada perhimpunan dengan orang-orangnya. Maka dari itu, tidakkah kita menginginkan gereja yang mempunyai lingkungan yang baik dan membuat kita bisa memuji Tuhan dengan bebas? Kita semua telah memperhatikan satu fakta tentang gereja kita ini, GII Azusa, yaitu gereja yang bisa dikatakan sebagai keluarga besar dimana anak-anaknya terdiri dari orang-orang Indonesia yang berasal dari berbagai macam daerah/provinsi dan selain itu juga ada suku lainnya. Dan, cara kita berbicara, cara kita mengekspresikan ide kita, cara kita memperlihatkan kasih, cara kita bercanda, dan juga cara kita menghargai hal-hal tertentu berbeda. Tetapi sangat menyedihkan, terkadang perbedaan-perbedaan ini membuat kita salah mengartikan maksud mereka yang kadang juga mengantar kepada keributan kecil diantara kita. Yang mau kita lakukan untuk menghindari salah pengertian ini adalah kita harus dan banyak dari kita sudah melakukannya yaitu mengasihi mereka dengan tidak bersyarat (unconditional love). Tetapi, kadang ada dua hal yang penting yang kita abaikan dari unconditional love ini yaitu RESPECT (hormat) dan ACCEPTANCE

(menerima mereka apa adanya). Bisakah kita mencintai seseorang tetapi tidak menghormati dan menerima mereka apa adanya? Bisakah kita mencintai anak kita yang cacat tetapi sebenarnya kita berencana memberikannya kepada orang lain? Tidak demikian!! Jikalau ini yang sedang kita lakukan kepada temanteman sesama gereja kita maka kita perlu mengkoreksi diri. Dan, bertanya kepada diri kita sendiri: apakah ini benar-benar mengasihi mereka tanpa bersyarat atau karena kebiasaan kita saja kita dapat menunjukan kasih kepada teman sesama kita selama ini? Jiikalau kita dapat menjawa ‘iya, ini sebenarnya kasih tanpa bersyarat,’ dan dapatkan kita menjawab pertanyaan-pertanyaan berikut ini: bisakah kita menerima dan menghormati teman-teman gereja kita yang mempunyai kebisaan untuk berbicara dengan nada yang cepat dan lantang yang terkadang kelihataan kasar, atau teman-teman gereja kita yang menghargai pendapat orang lain melebihi pendapatnya sendiri sebelum membuat sebuah decision yang terkadang membuat kita tidak bersabar, atau teman-teman gereja kita yang mempunyai kebiasaan mengekspresikan pendapatnya setelah memikirkannya matang-matang, atau temanteman gereja kita yang mempunyai kebiasaan memberi seminimal mungkin seiring dengan pengeluaraannya ketika mereka menunjukan kasih dan kebaikannya, atau teman-teman gereja kita yang mengucapkan gurauannya yang menyerang kelemahan kita tanpa disengaja? Dan mungkin, di saat ini, beberapa dari kita belum diyakinkan untuk menerima dan menghormati orang-orang ini sejak kita ‘menduga’ kita sudah mengetahui tujuan mereka yang ‘buruk’ atau karena alasan yang lainnya, kita berkata,“Tetapi yang saya lihat dari mereka benar karena mereka tidak setulus dan sedewasa atau karena ini atau karena itu dan karena saya telah mengenal mereka dari pengalaman dan pengetahuan saya yang dulu.” Tetapi, itu tidak berarti kita bisa menghakimi mereka dan mempengaruhi diri kita dengan keburukan mereka. Kalau kita berpikiran dan bereaksi kepada mereka dengan seperti ini terus, bukankah ini sama dengan tidak mendorong diri kita dan mereka untuk bertumbuh? Kita seharusnya sebagai Kristen terus menerus dan selalu dipupuk untuk bertumbuh menjadi lebih seperti Tuhan kita. Sebagai tambahan, kita juga mau mulai memperhatikan kepada pendengar kita sebelum kita mengatakan sesuatu atau bercanda supaya kita dapat berjaga-jaga untuk tidak menyerang kelemahan mereka. Mengambil satu atau dua detik untuk memikirkan pendengar kita lebih baik 27


dari pada seumur hidup mengingat kata-kata pahit yang kita katakan. Lebih dari itu, jikalau kita menghadapi halhal dari teman gereja kita yang menyinggung perasaan kita, kita seharunya belajar untuk tidak membicarakan mereka dibelakang karena ini akan memberikan pengaruh negatif yang besar bagi teman kita yang mendengarnya, yang akan pada akhirnya menghakimi orang-orang ini berdasarkan padangan negatif kita. Di dalam hal seperti ini, kenapakah kita tidak belajar untuk meninggalkannya kepada Tuhan? Atau, kenapakah kita tidak berdoa untuk mereka, memberi dorongan mereka, memberikan mereka penghiburan, atau lebih baik lagi, jika kita menjadi teman baik mereka yang mengerti jalan pikiran, kekhawatiran, dan latar belakang mereka? Ingatlah Tuhan menciptakan manusia dengan personaliti yang bermacam-macam--kita tidak mungkin mendapat seseorang yang mirip sekali dengan kita---dan inilah indahnya ciptaan Tuhan ketika orang Kristen hidup bersama dengan harmonis. Seperti halnya Dia menciptakan lelaki dan perempuan, dua individu yang sangat bertolak belakang tetapi ketika mereka akhinya hidup dengan harmonis, tidak ada yang bisa mengalahkan ini! Sewaktu kita bertumbuh dewasa, kita mempunyai tanggapan sendiri tentang segala hal. Serupa dengan ini, sewaktu kita dipupuk dengan Firman Tuhan dan dengan pengalaman yang Tuhan telah berikan, kita mungkin akan berpikiran kalau kita sudah cukup mengetahui.Tetapi, sangatlah penting untuk senantiasa MENGHORMATI pendeta-pendeta kita karena mereka adalah gembala kita di dunia ini. Kita ingin lebih mendengarkan pendapat, perhatian, dan pengajaran mereka sewaktu mereka mencoba memberikan yang terbaik untuk kita. Menjaga hubungan yang baik dengan teman-teman gereja kita dan pendeta-pendeta kita memberikan kita harapan dan kekuatan ketika kita kembali lagi untuk menghadapi dunia sepanjang lima hari yang mendatang. Sebagai kata penutup, sangatlah penting bagi kita untuk senantiasa selalu berdoa untuk pendeta-pendeta dan teman-teman Kristiani kita sewaktu kita berjalan bersama dengan mereka. Kiranya ini menjadi berkat untuk jemaat sewaktu kita sewaktu memasuki umur kedewasaan yang kedua puluh lima!

Congratulation Reverend Wilson Suwanto E Wilson Suwanto along with his wife, Julia Ev. Ev SSu Suwanto, have started serving at IEC-LA as our yyo youth pastor, since January 2002. Before serviin ing at IEC-LA, Ev. Wilson has served the Lord aat Reformed Evangelical Theological Seminary iin Jakarta, Indonesia as the university instructor. FFo For almost two years, he taught the New Testta tament, history and philosophy of Christianity, G Greek and Hebrew languages, and methods of rre research. Later when asked by one of the deacco cons to serve at IEC-LA for the year of 2002, he aac accepted the invitation. He was glad that God lle led him to serve in this church because he was aab able to function according to the talent that God hha has given him. He was able to see God’s leadRev. Suwanto Family 2008 iing in every step of the way. Through these past years, God has helped him to pass through every obstacle in his ministry, from inside as well from outside. By this, he knows that this is not his personal predetermination, but instead it was God’s will. If something is the will of God, no one can fail it. This is the conviction of his faith, and this is what God promises to His children. Ev. Wilson got his Bachelor Degree in Theology at Reformed Evangelical Theological Seminary of Jakarta, attending the university from 1994 to 1999. In January 2003, while kept serving as the youth pastor here at IEC-LA, he continued his theology study at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena and graduated in June 2006 with an M.A. degree in Theology and Biblical Studies. The reason that he chose this major was the possibility it offers at further study. While diligently serving and caring for the congregation at IEC-LA with his wife actively serving in the Sunday School, the family was blessed with two children. The boys are called Joel and John. On September 21, 2008, the day of our church 25th anniversary celebration, the ceremony of the ordination of Ev. Wilson Suwanto ssed as a pastor. is also held. From that day on, he is to be addressed Reverend Wilson’s vision for being a pastor is to spread the whole truth about God, remain faithful to His Word, and equip the congregation with the right attitude and Biblical knowledge according to the Bible. As a shepherd of God, a pastor has to be Christ-centered because this is the basis of God’s calling. Reverend Wilson’s hope for our church is that we will always be reformed, to think of and pray for the Kingdom of Heaven in terms of spreading God’s work to every nation, and let Christ be God above the church and in every aspect of our life. He also hopes for the congregation learns to love God’s Words, be thirst of God’ss Words, and always grow ever more Christ-likee so that we will have a Christian worldview andd Biblical value» system planted 28 Agape Anniversary 2008in our hearts.

Spiritual Disciplines as the Journey in Spiritual Formation By Ev. Dedy S. Ginta

Disciplines is not a popular termin our cultures. Quaker writer Richard Foster’s invitation to the “celebration of discipline” is a radical call to a largely undisciplined and comfort-seeking culture. Our avoidance of discipline is another symptom of the pursuit of instant gratification which characterizes our culture. Instant fulfillment of needs and desires allows no time for the long and rigorous path of disciplines. Yet it is this path that brings true and lasting fulfillment, not the brief and fleeting appearances of fulfillment that disappear in the next moment. While the avoidance of discipline characterizes much of our culture, the acceptance of disciplines can also be symptomatic of brokenness. There are those for whom disciplines become a rigid structure of life that allows no room for divine serendipities or graced interruptions of the disciplines. There are those for whom disciplines become such a fixed order of being and doing that the possibility of changes in the pattern become unthinkable. There are those for whom the disciplines become the total content of their relationship with God, and works righteousness the shape of their spirituality. We also practice spiritual discipline ‘with fear and trembling’ because of the strong temptation to pervert the disciplines.We 29


may exercise spiritual disciplines to attempt to win God’s favor or to get God to do what we think ought to be done in our lives. We may practice the disciplines in the delusion that we are transforming ourselves into the image of Christ by our own efforts. We may engage in the disciplines to impress others with the seriousness of our spirituality, or simply to win acceptance by others. The very personalized spiritual disciplines to which God calls us are an integral part of the classical spiritual disciplines of the Christian tradition: prayer, spiritual reading, liturgy. These classical spiritual disciplines of the body of Christ form the scaffolding, the structure, the support network within which we then exercise the distinctive, personalized disciplines into which the Spirit of God leads each of us as we journey toward wholeness in Christ. We tend to think of the classical spiritual disciplines of the body of Christ as secondary or even optional to the “real” spirituality of our own private spiritual disciplines. But the classical disciplines serve to bring our lives into, and hold our lives in, God’s environment for wholeness in Christ, so that the “treatment” of our individual disciplines can be fully effective. Prayer

The consideration of prayer as a classical disciplines of the Christian tradition brings us up against the functional priorities of our culture. We tend to think of prayer as something we do in order to produce the results we believe are needed or, rather, to get God to produce the results. We are more interested in knowing what works and developing the skills that will ensure that our prayers are effective. As a result, our prayer tends to be a shopping list of things to be accomplished, an attempt to manipulate the symptoms of our lives without really entering into a deep, vital, transforming relationship with God in the midst of what we think we need (usually forgetting that “your Father knows what you need before you ask him (Matt 6:8) and in the midst of the symptoms of our lives (usually forgetting that “in everything God works together for good with those who love him” [Rom 8:28]). Hearing or listening is a good metaphor for prayer. The good pray-er is above all a good listener. Prayer is dialogue; it is a personal encounter in love. When we communicate with someone we care about, we speak and we listen. But even our speaking is responsive: what we say depends upon what the other person has said to us. Otherwise we don’t have real dialogue, but rather two monologues running along side by

side. In the past we have catalogued prayer under four headings: adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and supplication (or petition)- easy to remember because the initial letters spell “acts.” This is helpful in that it makes clear that there is much more to prayer than merely asking for things (supplication). But we have seen that we need to go deeper than “acts” of our own to get to the real meaning of prayer. Prayer is essentially a dialogic encounter between God and man; and since God is Lord, he alone can initiate the encounter. Prayer, is a dialogue, an encounter between two persons. What man does or says is an integral part of prayer, since even God cannot speak with us unless we also speak. Even God cannot enter into dialogue with a man who is interiorly deaf and mute. The goal of prayer is the encounter with God in love. Spiritual Reading The classical spiritual discipline of spiritual reading brings us into conflict with the informational priorities of our culture. Our age has been called the information age, and the advent of personal computers coupled with modems has served to expand almost infinitely the amount of information available to us and required for effective performance in the world. Information has become power. The person or group processing the best information is in a position to control their world of activity and interest. But this “controlling” aspect of our approach to information becomes a debilitating bondage when we approach spiritual

reading. Spiritual reading is the discipline of openness to encounter God through the writings of the mothers and fathers of the church, beginning with the Scriptures. In spiritual reading the text becomes a means of grace through which we encounter the God who has spoken us forth into being and who continues to speak to us to shape us in the image of Christ for others. In brief, the text opens us to God’s control of our lives for God’s purposes. This is a radical reversal of the dynamics of an informational enables us to impose our purposes upon the world of our activities. Unfortunately, we have been trained to be informational readers, not spiritual readers. When we do informational reading, we exercise almost total and complete control over the text. We usually select the material we are going to read. We read the text with our own agenda already in place, knowing in advance what we expect to receive, what problems we want the text to solve for us. We read the text as rapidly as possible, to amass as much information as we can in as little time as possible. Spiritual or formational reading is the exact opposite of informational reading. Spiritual reading is entered into the best, perhaps, when the text is chosen for us. This way we begin by yielding control to someone or something outside of our agenda. This facilitates one of the primary purposes of spiritual reading- to allow the text to have control over us and become a place to encounter with God. Instead of the text being an object controlled by us, the text becomes the subject; we, in turn,

become the “object” addressed by God through the text. Instead of coming to the text with our agenda, we come in a posture of openness to God’s agenda. We read attentively, seeking not to cover as much as possible but to plumb the depths of our being and doing. Rather than an analytical approach, we take a contemplative posture that is open to ambiguity and mystery. The final goal of spiritual reading is to be mastered by God for the fulfillment of God’s purposes in us and through us. The Components of Disciplines There are some other classical disciplines such as: worship, daily office, study, fasting and retreat. Worship, whether corporate or individual is the practice of regularly seeking to bring the complete focus of our being upon God. It is the discipline of returning to the true center of our individual and corporate existence as God’s people. The pressures of life and the assaults of the fallen world constantly blur our focus and tend to shift us away from our center in God. Worship is the means by which we recover over our focus and return to our center.The quality and consistency of our worship will determine how well we are able to live Christ-centered lives in the world. Daily Office is regular and consistent daily behaviors that remind us whose we are and renew us in our discipleship. These may be as elaborate and complex as monastic hours of personal and corporate prayer or as simple as a daily time of personal devotion. A daily office might include such elements as personal quiet time with 30

God (or several such times during the day-morning, midday, evening or a combination); prayers before meals, moments of prayer dispersed through the day at planned points; gathering with others daily for worship, prayer, Bible study, Christian fellowship. Whatever the form of our daily office, we need such a discipline if we are to live our lives in a growing experience of the wholeness of Christ and in increasing faithfulness as God’s persons for others. Study is essential for the Christian’s growth toward wholeness in Christ for the sake of others. Without disciplined growth in our knowledge and experience of God, ourselves, others and the world around us, we are handicapped in our growth toward wholeness in Christ and our ability to be God’s person for others. The discipline of individual and corporate study keeps us aware of our growth needs, alert to the vital issues of the world around us and sensitized to what God is doing to grow us up into Christ and call us forth to be agents of grace in the midst of the world’s issues. With the discipline of study, however, we must be alert to the temptation to enter into the discipline as a means to help us exert greater control over our lives, the lives of others and the problems of the world. The liturgy of study, as with all the elements of liturgy, is a means of offering ourselves to God, willing for God to do with us as God chooses. Fasting involves far more than abstaining from food, although such abstention is certainly called for in the midst of a gluttonous and overweight culture. The essence of fasting is the separation 31


of ourselves from something in order to offer ourselves in greater measures to God. While what we fast from may be detrimental to our life or our relationship with God, generally the point of fasting is to separate ourselves temporarily or permanently from something that is normally a good and proper part of human life. Retreat is the discipline of setting apart a time, individually or corporately, to step aside from the normal flow of life and give God our full and undivided attention. While the disciplines of prayer, spiritual reading, worship, daily office, study and fasting all serve as means to clarify the focus of our life in Christ and keep us centered as citizens of God’s new order of being, we also need special times in which we allow God to help us reevaluate the whole structure of our life in Christ.We need to stand aside from our discipleship so as to be able to see more clearly the direction in which we are going and the course corrections God would have us make. It is possible for the practice of the classical disciplines itself to become a subtle form of works righteousness in which we come to think that by our faithful exercise of the disciplines we are transforming ourselves into the image of Christ.We need to take times to stand aside and allow God to show us what we are doing and what we ought to be doing. In conclusion, we must remember that these classical disciplines of the Christian tradition are the support structure within which we offer the very personalized disciplines through which God will work to bring our brokenness into

wholeness, our deadness into life and our bondage into freedom. It is to the personal disciplines that we now turn. References: Dallas Willard and Jan Johnson, Renovation of the Heart in Daily Practice. M. Robert Mulholland, Invitation to a Journey. Adele Ahlberg Calhoun, Spiritual Disciplines Handbook.

DisiplinDisiplin Rohani sebagai suatu Formasi Perjalanan Rohani Oleh: Ev. Dedy S. Ginta Disiplin bukanlah suatu istilah yang populer dalam kebudayaan kita. Penulis Quaker Richard Foster merujuk “perayaan dari disiplin” sebagai suatu panggilan yang radikal terhadap suatu kebudayaan yang tidak mempunyai disiplin dan yang hanya mencari kenyamanan saja. Kecenderungan kita untuk menghindari disiplin merupakan gejala lain dalam mencari suatu kepuasan adalah gambaran daripada kebudayaan kita. Pemenuhan kebutuhan dan kepuasan secara instant tidak akan membangun jalan menuju suatu disiplin secara

menyeluruh. Bagaimanapun, ini adalah suatu jalan yang membawa kepuasan yang sejati dan tahan lama, bukan suatu kepuasan yang timbul hanya untuk waktu singkat dan sementara yang lalu sirna pada saat berikutnya. Di satu pihak, menghindari disiplin adalah suatu gambaran dari karakter kebudayaan kita, di pihak lain penerimaan disiplin bisa juga merupakan indikasi dari suatu kebobrokan.Ada orang yang oleh karena disiplin mereka, mereka menjadi suatu struktur kehidupan yang kaku yang tidak membiarkan suatu ruangan untuk campur tangan Tuhan dimana tangan Tuhan yang penuh anugerah itu mengacaukan disiplin tersebut. Ada orang yang menjalankan disiplin tersebut dengan begitu kakunya dimana tidak terpikirkan lagi untuk melakukan kemungkinan-kemungkinan untuk berubah. Ada juga orang yang karena kedisiplinannya menjadi puas akan hubungan mereka dengan Tuhan dan bekerja sebaik-baiknya untuk kerohanian mereka. Kita juga melatih disiplin rohani “dengan rasa takut dan gentar” karena godaan-godaan yang begitu kuatnya untuk merusak disiplin itu. Kita mungkin melatih disiplin rohani dalam usaha kita untuk mendapatkan kasih Tuhan atau membuat Tuhan melakukan apa yang kita inginkan dalam hidup kita. Kita mungkin melatih disiplin dalam bayang-bayang dimana kita menjadikan diri kita ke dalam rupa Kristus dengan upaya kita sendiri. Kita mungkin menjalankan disiplin itu untuk memberikan kesan yang baik kepada orang lain atas keseriusan kita akan rohani kita atau hanya untuk diterima oleh yang lainnya. Disiplin rohani secara prib-

adi dimana Tuhan memanggil kita sebagai suatu integrasi dari disiplin rohani dari tradisi orang Kristen adalah: doa, buku bacaan rohani, dan liturgy. Disiplin-disiplin rohani sebagai tubuh Kristus membentuk rancangan bangunan, struktur dan jaringan penunjang dimana kita melatih keunikan dan disiplin pribadi di dalamnya dimana Roh Tuhan akan membawa setiap kita berjalan menuju keutuhan dalam Kristus. Kita cenderung berpikir bahwa disiplin rohani secara klasik sebagai tubuh Kristus adalah hal yang kurang penting (bukan utama) bahkan sebagai pilihan terhadap “rohani sesungguhnya” dari disiplin rohani kita secara pribadi. Disiplin-disiplin klasik tersebut tujuannya adalah membawa hidup kita ke dalam lingkungan dalam Tuhan dan keutuhan di dalam Kristus, sehingga “perlakuan” dari disiplin pribadi kita bisa berjalan secara efektif. Doa Pertimbangan daripada doa sebagai disiplin klasik daripada tradisi Kristen membawa kita melawan prioritas-prioritas fungsional dari kebudayaan kita. Kita cenderung berpikir bahwa doa sebagai sesuatu yang kita lakukan untuk membuahkan hasil-hasil yang kita perlukan atau lebih membuat Tuhan membuahkan hasil. Kita lebih tertarik dalam hal mengenal apa yang dapat berfungsi dan mengembangkan keahlian-keahlian yang dapat memastikan doa-doa kita adalah efektif. Sebagai akibatnya, doa kita cenderung merupakan suatu daftar belanjaan dari hal-hal yang harus kita capai, suatu usaha untuk memanipulasi gejala-gejala dalam kehidupan kita tanpa benar-benar masuk ke dalam suatu hubungan

dengan Tuhan yang dalam, vital, dan mempunyai kemampuan untuk mengubah daripada apa yang kita pikir kita perlukan (seringkali kita lupa bahwa Bapa kita tahu apa yang terbaik buat kita sebelum kita minta (Matt 6:8) dan di antara gejala-gejala dalam hidup kita (biasanya kita lupa bahwa “Allah turut bekerja dalam segala sesuatu untuk mendatangkan kebaikan bagi mereka yang mengasihi Dia” (Roma 8:28). Mendengarkan atau menyimak adalah perumpamaan yang bagus untuk doa. Doa yang benar adalah bukan hanya menjadi seorang pendengar yang baik. Doa adalah dialog; ini adalah pertemuan pribadi di dalam kasih. Pada saat kita berkomunikasi dengan seseorang yang kita perduli, kita berbicara dan kita mendengarkan. Walaupun percakapan kita itu responsive/ada tanggapan, apa yang kita katakana tergantung dari apa yang dikatakan oleh lawan bicara kita. Jika tidak, kita tidak akan memiliki percakapan yang nyata, hanya merupakan pembicaraan satu arah (monolog) yang berjalan beriringan. Pada waktu yang lalu, kita mempunyai 4 judul daftar doa: Pengaguman (adoration), Pertobatan (contrition), Pengucapan Syukur (thanksgiving), dan Permohonan (supplication) – gampang untuk diingat karena huruf depan keempat kata (dalam bahasa Inggris) tersebut jika digabung akan membentuk “acts”. Ini sangat membantu untuk mengingat bahwa dalam doa tidak hanya berisikan permohonan. Kita telah melihat bahwa kita harus menyimak lebih dalam lagi dari pada sekedar “acts” untuk mendapatkan arti doa yang sesungguhnya. Doa adalah hal yang penting dalam pertemuan yang terjadi pada saat ter32

jadi percakapan antara Tuhan dan manusia, dimana Tuhan adalah Tuan dimana hanya Dia sajalah yang dapat memulai pertemuan tersebut. Doa adalah suatu dialog, pertemuan antara dua orang. Apa yang dilakukan atau dikatakan adalah suatu bagian yang terpisahkan dari doa karena Tuhan tidak dapat berbicara dengan kita kecuali kita juga berbicara. Bahkan Tuhan pun tidak dapat berbicara pada orang yang di dalamnya bisu dan tuli. Tujuan dari doa adalah pertemuan dengan Tuhan dalam kasihNya. Buku Bacaan rohani Disiplin secara klasik yang didapat dari bacaan-bacaan rohani membawa kita pada konflik dengan prioritas yang bersifat informative dalam kebudayaan kita. Jaman kita dikenal dengan jaman informasi dan penemuan computer ditambah dengan modemnya menyediakan informasi yang hampir tidak terbatas untuk kita dimana informasi ini sangat diperlukan untuk berfungsi secara efektif di dunia ini. Informasi telah menjadi suatu kekuatan. Orang atau kelompok yang memproses informasi yang paling mutakhir adalah mereka yang berada di posisi yang dapat mengontrol kepentingan dan aktifitas dalam dunia mereka. Tetapi aspek “mengontrol” daripada perolehan informasi ini menjadi suatu ikatan yang lemah pada saat kita berbicara mengenai bacaan-bacaan rohani. Bacaanbacaan rohani merupakan suatu disiplin dari keterbukaan dalam pertemuan dengan Tuhan melalui tulisan-tulisan dari para bapak dan ibu dari gereja kita yang dimulai dari Alkitab. Dalam pembacaan tulisan rohani, kalimat dari bacaan tersebut mengandung arti yang 33


mempunyai anugerah dimana kita dapat bertemu dengan Tuhan yang terus menerus berbicara kepada kita untuk membentuk kita ke dalam rupa Kristus agar bermanfaat bagi sesama kita. Secara garis besar, kalimat dalam bacaan rohani membuka diri kita kepada kuasa Tuhan dalam hidup kita untuk mencapai tujuan Tuhan. Ini adalah pernyataan yang radikal yang berlawanan dengan informasi sekuler yang kita dapatkan untuk mencapai tujuan kita di dunia ini. Sayangnya, kita telah terlatih sebagai pembaca informative, bukan pembaca rohani. Pada saat kita membaca bacaan yang bersifat informative, kita melakukan control kita secara hampir keseluruhan dan lengkap yang kita dapatkan dari kalimat dalam bacaan tersebut. Kita biasanya memilih terlebih dahulu materi yang akan kita baca. Kita membaca kalimatkalimat dalam bacaan itu dengan membawa agenda kita sendiri, tahu terlebih dahulu apa yang akan kita terima, jawaban apa yang akan kita dapatkan dari bacaan tersebut atas persoalan yang kita hadapi. Kita membacanya dengan secepat mungkin, mengumpulkan sebanyak mungkin informasi dalam waktu yang sesingkat-singkatnya. Bacaan-bacaan Rohani atau Non Informatif adalah bertolak belakang dengan Bacaan Informatif. Bacaan Rohani akan sangat efektif apabila kita menemukan kalimat dalam bacaan tersebut telah dipilih secara khusus untuk kita. Dengan cara ini kita mulai menyerahkan control kita kepada orang atau kuasa yang lain di luar agenda kita. Fasilitas ini adalah tujuan utama dari membaca buku-buku rohani – untuk membiarkan kalimat dalam buku tersebut mengontrol kita

dan menjadi suatu sarana untuk berhubungan dengan Tuhan. Kalimat-kalimat dalam buku rohani itu akan menjadi subyek yang mengontrol kita dan bukan obyek yang dikontrol oleh kita; kita sebaliknya merupakan obyek yang ditetapkan oleh Tuhan melalui kalimat-kalimat dalam bacaan tersebut. Pada saat kita membaca buku-bukr rohani, kita tidak membawa agenda kita, melainkan kita datang ke dalam agenda Tuhan dengan sikap terbuka. Kita menyimak pada saat kita membaca, mencari informasi sebanyak-banyaknya bukan untuk mendapat input sebanyak mungkin melainkan untuk menyelidiki titik terendah dari keberadaan dan kelakuan kita. Kita mengambil sikap dan pendekatan yang instropektif dimana terdapat ketidakpastian dan misteri dan bukannya pendekatan secara analitis. Tujuan akhir dari membaca bukubuku rohani adalah disempurnakan oleh Tuhan sebagai alatNya untuk mencapai tujuan Tuhan melalui kita. Unsur-unsur dari disiplin Ada beberapa disiplin klasik lainnya yaitu: penyembahan, kebiasaan sehari-hari, belajar, berpuasa dan retreat. Penyembahan,baik secara bersamasama maupun pribadi adalah latihan untuk mencari secara teratur yang membawa diri kita untuk benar-benar fokus di hadapan Tuhan. Ini adalah disiplin yang membawa diri kita kembali kepada pusat dari keberadaan diri kita secara pribadi atau pun kolektif sebagai anak-anak Tuhan.Tekanan hidup dan serangan dari dunia yang telah jatuh ini se-

cara konstan mengaburkan fokus kita dan cenderung membawa kita jauh dari fokus kita kepada Tuhan. Penyembahan ditujukan agar kita dapat memulihkan dan mengembalikan fokus kita pada Tuhan. Kualitas dan n dari penyembahan kita akan menentukan bagaimana kita dapat hidup dimana Kristus adalah pusat dari kehidupan kita. Kebiasaan sehari-hari, adalah tingkah laku secara teratur dan konsisten yang mengingatkan kita kembali siapakah kita dan memperbaharui kita dalam disiplin kita. Ini mungkin akan sedetail, sekompleks doa secara pribadi maupun kolektif ataupun sesederhana saat teduh pribadi kita dengan Tuhan. Kebiasaan sehari-hari dapat meliputi elemen-elemen seperti saat teduh kita dengan Tuhan secara pribadi (atau beberapa kali dalam sehari, di pagi hari, siang hari, malam hari ataupun kombinasi dari waktu-waktu tersebut); doa sebelum makan, doa khusus yang terpisah dalam acara-acara tertentu yang telah direncanakan, persekutuan dengan sesama anak Tuhan dalam doa, penyembahan dan pendalaman alkitab. Apapun bentuk dari kebiasaan hidup kita sehari-hari, kita memerlukan suatu disiplin jika kita ingin hidup dalam pengalaman yang bertumbuh dalam keutuhan Kristus dan menambah iman dan kesetian kita sebagai anak-anak Tuhan untuk sesama kita. Belajar, adalah sangat penting bagi pertumbuhan orang Kristen dalam keutuhan Kristus untuk kebaikan sesama kita. Tanpa disiplin, pertumbuhan di dalam pengetahuan dan pengalaman akan Tuhan, diri kita sendiri, orang lain dan dunia sekitar kita, akan membuat kita merasa pincang dalam pertumbuhan kita menuju keutuhan

akan Kristus dan peran kita sebagai anak Tuhan bagi orang lain. Disiplin dari belajar secara pribadi dan kelompok membuat kita menyadari akan kebutuhan akan pertumbuhan kita, waspada akan masalahmasalah penting di dunia ini dan peka terhadap pekerjaan Tuhan untuk membuat kita bertumbuh dalam Kristus dan memanggil kita untuk menjadi wakil Tuhan dalam anugrahNya di tengah-tengah dunia dan masalah yang terdapat di dalamnya. Dengan disiplin dalam study, bagaimanapun kita harus waspada terhadap godaan dalam menerapkan disiplin sebagai suatu alat untuk melatih kita dalam pengontrolan hidup kita, hidup orang lain dan masalah-masalah dalam dunia ini. Liturgy dari belajar dengan semua bagian-bagian dalam liturgy merupakan suatu alat untuk mempersembahkan diri kita kepada Tuhan, rela membiarkan Tuhan melakukan apapun pada diri kita sesuai dengan pilihan Tuhan. Berpuasa, mempunyai makna yang lebih jauh dari sekedar menjauhkan diri dari makanan, walaupun hal ini sangat dibutuhkan dalam masyarakat yang mengalami masalah berat badan, over weight ini. Arti penting dari berpuasa adalah memisahkan diri kita dari sesuatu untuk mempersembahkan diri kita kepada Tuhan. Hati-hati dengan apa yang kita puasakan karena hal ini bisa merusak/berbahaya bag hidup kita atau hubungan kita dengan Tuhan. Pada umumnya inti dari berpuasa adalah memisahkan diri kita untuk sementara atau selamanya dari sesuatu yang biasanya baik dan selayaknya dalam hidup manusia. Retreat, adalah disiplin yang ditetapkan dalam memisahkan waktu baik secara individual

ataupun secara kelompok, yaitu untuk menarik diri dari alur normal kehidupan dan memberikan Tuhan perhatian kita secara penuh dan tidak terpecah. Pada saat disiplin dari doa, bacaan buku rohani, penyembahan, kebiasaan seharihari, belajar dan berpuasa dilakukan dengan tujuan untuk mengklarifikasikan focus hidup kita dalam Kristus dan membuatkan kita terpusat sebagai warga negara Tuhan yang baru, kita juga memerlukan waktu khusus dimana kita membiarkan Tuhan untuk membantu kita mengevaluasi struktur kehidupan kita secara keseluruhan dalam Kristus. Kita harus keluar dari hidup kita sebagai murid untuk melihat arah hidup kita secara lebih jelas dan koreksi-koreksi dari yang Tuhan mau kita lakukan dalam hidup kita. Ini mungkin adalah sebagai bentuk latihan bagi disiplindisiplin secara klasik sendiri sebagai suatu bentuk yang tersamar dari pekerjaan-pekerjaan yang benar dimana akan membuat kita berpikir oleh karena kita kesetiaan kita dalam melatih disiplin-disiplin tersebut, kita merubah diri kita ke dalam citra dan gambar Kristus. Kita perlu mengambil waktu untuk menarik diri dan membiarkan Tuhan menunjukkan kita apa yang sedang kita kerjakan dan apa yang seharusnya kita kerjakan. Kesimpulannya, kita harus mengingat bahwa disiplin-disiplin secara klasik dari tradisi Kekristenan ini adalah struktur penyanggah dimana kita menawarkan disiplin secara pribadi dimana Tuhan akan bekerja untuk merubah kita yang tidak utuh menjadi utuh kembali, kita yang telah mati menjadi hidup kembali, kita yang terikat menjadi bebas. Ini adalah disiplin pribadi kita . 34

What Is Sin? By: Ev. Wilson Suwanto

In today’s generation, the term “sin” is rarely heard. It’s like the term sin will be an insult to the person who’s done wrongdoings. Most of the time, instead, we hear the term “weakness,” “shortcoming,” “psychological disorder,” or even “personality defect.” Whatever the term is, this generation tries to eliminate the element of responsibility from mankind. If sin is a psychological disorder or personality defect, the blame is not at the person because he is born like that; therefore, he is freed from punishment and responsibility.

violation to God’s laws. When a person lies to his fellow, he isn’t only harming his fellow, but he also has sinned against the Holy God who says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor” (Exodus 20:16). Sin should always be seen in relation to God. Paul says that if we become a stumbling block to our fellow Christians who are weak morally, we have sinned against Christ who has given them salvation. “But when ye so against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, ye sin against Christ” (1 Corinthians 8:12).

The Bible explicitly says that no one can escape from his resposibility. It says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10, KJV). It means that no one can escape from the day of judgement. Everyone will be asked for their resposibility in front of the Holy God.

Sin involves three aspects: mind, action, and nature. In the aspect of mind, we have sinned when we just start having a desire for

Sin is a disobedience to God’s commandments. That means God has given mankind rules to follow, and a violation to His rules is considered as sin. The Bible says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners ...” (Rome 5:19). Sin is not just a violation to government’s laws or man’s laws, instead, it is also a 35


something or someone that is not ours -- God’s tenth commandment. In the aspect of action, sin reveals itself in the form of action that destroys the work of God, the life of our fellow, or even sometimes ourselves. By nature, everyone has sinned ever since they were born. “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother coceive me” (Psalm 51:5). Acknowledging and confessing our sins to God is a very important step. Only with repenting of our sins, we can appreciate God’s grace that He has given us. Only with this, we can appreciate the heavy burden He carried when He was on that cross.

Apa Itu Dosa?

By: Ev. Wilson Suwanto

Tuhan yang berkata, “Jangan berdusta” (Kel. 20:16). Dosa harus senantiasa dilihat dalam relasi dengan Tuhan. Paulus berkata bahwa kalau kita menjadi batu sandungan kepada saudara seiman yang lemah, kita telah berdosa kepada Kristus yang menebus jiwa mereka. “Jika engkau secara demikian berdosa terhadap saudara-saudaramu dan melukai hati nurani mereka yang lemah, engkau pada hakekatnya berdosa terhadap Kristus” (1 Korintus 8:12).

Zaman sekarang, istilah “dosa” jarang terdengar di tempat-tempat umum. Seolah-olah, istilah dosa ini akan menyinggung hati orang yang mendengarnya. Kita lebih sering mendengar istilah “kelemahan,” atau “masalah psikologi.” Bahkan ada yang menggunakan istilah “cacat kepribadian.” Apapun istilahnya, zaman ini berusaha membuang elemen tanggung-jawab dari manusia. Kalau itu berupa penyakit psikologis atau cacat kepribadian, itu bukan salah orang itu. Memang ia terlahir demikian, jadi tidak perlu dihukum atau dituntut tanggungjawab. Alkitab menegaskan bahwa tidak ada seorang pun yang bisa lari dari tanggung-jawab kepada Tuhan. Alkitab berkata, “Sebab kita semua harus menghadap takhta pengadilan Kristus, supaya setiap orang memperoleh apa 36


yang patut diterimanya, sesuai dengan yang dilakukannya dalam hidupnya ini, baik ataupun jahat ” (2 Kor. 5:10). Artinya, tidak ada seorangpun yang bisa melarikan diri dari hari penghakiman. Setiap orang akan dituntut pertanggungjawaban oleh Tuhan. Dosa adalah pelanggaran terhadap hukum Tuhan. Artinya, Tuhan telah memberikan hukum untuk ditaati. Pelanggaran terhadap hukum itu adalah dosa. “Jadi sama seperti oleh ketidaktaatan satu orang semua orang telah menjadi orang berdosa ...” (Roma 5:19). Dosa bukan sekedar melanggar hukum negara atau hukum manusia, melainkan pelanggaran terhadap hukum Tuhan sendiri. Ketika seseorang berbohong kepada sesamanya, ia bukan sekedar merugikan sesamanya itu, melainkan ia berdosa kepada

Dosa melibatkan tiga aspek: hati/pikiran, perbuatan, dan kodrat/natur. Dalam aspek pikiran, kita berdosa ketika kita baru menginginkan sesuatu atau seseorang yang bukan milik kita -perintah Tuhan yang ke-10. Dalam aspek perbuatan, dosa menyatakan diri dalam bentuk perbuatan yang menghancurkan pekerjaan Tuhan atau hidup sesama kita, bahkan diri sendiri. Dalam kodrat, setiap orang lahir di bawah kuasa dosa. “Dalam kesalahan aku diperanakkan, dalam dosa aku dikandung ibuku” (Mazmur 51:5). Mengakui fakta dosa dan mengakui dosa-dosa kita di hadapan Tuhan adalah langkah yang sangat penting. Hanya dengan penyesalan yang dalam akan dosa-dosa kita, kita dapat menghargai anugerah keselamatan yang diberikan Tuhan kepada kita. Hanya dengan demikian, kita bisa menghargai beratnya penderitaan Tuhan di atas salib.

Stop Dating The Church Book Author: Joshua Harris Introduction: Janice Atmadja Book Summary & Review by Donald Kim

Happy Birthday Azusa! In honor of the church’s our church. Let us not harden our hearts. Let us fall anniversary, I felt it most appropriate to do a book review on Joshua Harris’, enlightening book on the Christian relationship with the Church called Stop Dating the Church. His book is not only relevant to our exploration of the Christians’ relationship with the outside world. It encourages all of us, new and “old” Christians alike, to renew our dedication to the most visible and tangible representative of heaven on earth, the Body of Christ—the Church. In this book, Joshua Harris put a special emphasis on the local church instead of the universal Church. Oftentimes in the midst of world-missionary fervor, we forget about the growth of our very own local church. Harris asserts that we must take a firm stand in God’s commandment for us to be an active and contributing member of the local church. And we must do it willingly, not only as professed Christians, but as his adopted children, inheritors of His Kingdom. He wants us to commit ourselves to the Body of Christ. Let’s face it Christians on denial, (I was one myself), we need support. We need the Church, the gathering of a body of Believers, to help us maintain this fight for joy and, most importantly, contentment in Him and Him alone. Do we even truly know the meaning of “church” and why God so emphasized for us to fellowship with other believers? Why is it not okay for us to grow by ourselves? Surely, God would help you grow without depending on other people…Didn’t God say that He alone is enough? These questions oftentimes come to many Christians who are wraught with confusion and disillusionment about the meaning and purpose of the Church resulting in a lack of love for His Body (the Church). This book will help you sort out those confusions. To help me, Mr. Donald Kim from Fort Worth, Texas (creator of http://donaldkim.wordpress.com/), has graciously allowed Agape to print his summary of the book. So let us stop merely “dating” 37


in love with the body of Christ just as Jesus did when He called the church His beautiful Bride in white. Let us commit!

The brief summary below will give you a glimpse of the book. There are much detail omitted in the summary like references to specific Bible verses that Harris quotes to further emphasize his biblical teachings, but this will leave you thirsting for more.

“Stop Dating the Church: Fall in Love with the Church of God”A Book Review by Donald Kim Joshua Harris, in the past, has been writing on relationships, particularly those of single dating relationships. In I Kissed Dating Goodbye, he presents the case that single people should not be involved in “directionless relationships that were romantic and physical.” In this book, his message is similar but in a different context—the local church. His message is simple: “stop treating the local church frivolously with no intentions of moving forward towards a commitment.” The characteristics of church-daters: me-centered and critical.

In chapter one, Harris is keen to identify the reasons that have made a real and honest commitment to the church impossible: 1) We treat the church with a consumer mentality.We want the “best product for the price of Sunday morning.” 2) We are disillusioned with the church.

In chapter two, Harris puts the church in perspective, viz. heavenly perspective, through an exposition of Eph 5:25-32. The interesting observation that Harris makes about this passage is the dynamic relationship between the husband and wife, which correlates

In chapter four, Harris offers seven points for joining a church: 1. You join. 2. You make the church a priority. 3. You try to make your pastor’s job a joy. 4. You find ways to serve. 5. You give. 6. You connect with people. 7. You share your passion. In chapter five are ten questions for choosing the

with Christ and the church.This is the profound mystery found in God’s undying pursuit of the church. As explained in Eph 3:9-11, the heavenly rulers look down in awe of this magnificent display of glory.

In chapter three is the explanation for why we need the church. Spurgeon puts it simply: “not joining the church is disobedience.” There are three ordinances that a church is called to keep: baptism, Lord’s Supper, and discipline. The church is called to grow together as a community with its identification of these ordinances. John Piper’s take: “Sanctification is a community project.” Mark Dever’s one-liner: “If you are not a member of the church your regularly attend, you may well be going to hell.” Dever’s point is not that everyone should be on a church roster, but rather his purpose to emphasize the local church as the place where our life in Christ is lived out. Harris makes his point clear: “Only when you and I reject self-centeredness, prideful independence, and a critical spirit can the beauty of the local church come into focus.”

“right” church: 1. Is this a church where God’s Word is faithfully taught? 2. Is this a church where sound doctrine matters? 3. Is this a church in which the gospel is cherished and clearly proclaimed? 4. Is this a church committed to reaching nonChristians with the gospel? 5. Is this a church whose leaders are characterized by humility and integrity? 6. Is this a church where people strive to live by God’s Word? 7. Is this a church where I can find and cultivate godly relationships? 8. Is this a church where members are challenged to serve? 9. Is this a church that is willing to kick me out? 10. Is this a church I’m willing to join “as is” with enthusiasm and faith in God? The last two chapters provide some concrete steps for getting out of the trappings of cynicism towards a healthy relationship with a local church. Overall, Harris’ insights are provocative to spur any Christian disenchanted with the local body to reconsider the implications of committing to the church in a new and profound way.

A Book Review by Donald Kim

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by: Rev. Saumiman Saud* *The writer is an alumni of Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara (SAAT), Malang. Currently, he is serving in IEC Seattle. He can be reached through email in [email protected] or through his personal website: Http://www.saumimansaud. org. This article is written in honor of the Silver Anniversary of IEC Los Angeles

understanding and a true Christian fellowship, such programs will be meaningless. Such fellowship programs become merely a time to hang out and hear the latest gossip. Our Bible clearly emphasizes what it takes and how it should be to have a good fellowship.

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1. Harmony is created through mutual love

healthy church is a church whose parishioners have a good relationship with the Lord. To keep that essential tight bond with one another, the congregation of Christ must faithfully fellowship, pray, and read His Word. There is no shortcut to it. Such a relationship is a process that must progress with each passing day. Our relationship with others in the body of Christ is a similar process. If our relationship with God is not doing well, then our relationship with others will not be satisfactory either. Therefore, the key to harmony and peace with others lies in our relationship with God personally. Our personal relationships with others in church are very different from our relationships with people in the secular world. Truthfully, the secular world also offers us a chance to cultivate a “good” relationship, but the difference is that such friendships are established under secular common sense rules: If we treat others well, then they will treat us well in return. Christianity actually teaches something more that simple reciprocity. If others harm us, we must still treat them well; we must return evil with good, with the unconditional love that the Lord Jesus has shown for us. Our hectic work schedules or long distances between the congregations’ houses can affect our personal relationships with other church members. As a result, the fellowship in church becomes distant, and many of the members do not know one another. Meanwhile, the active members of the church are often only the ones who live close to the church and whose job is not too demanding or tiring. This is why recently churches have initiated small group fellowships or regional fellowships, in order to overcome the distance problem. While it is tempting for a church to make all of their programs simply for the purpose of strengthening bonding within the church, without an attempt to build a spiritual 39


Mutual love in this case does not mean mere sympathy or sweet words; mutual love must be followed by “action” as stated by John the apostle in John 3:18: “Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.” (NIV) Love comes from people who are truly willing to give their heart to others. It is not enough to accept this merely as a concept. Pragmatically, when we see others in need, we should spontaneously help them, whether be it a moral support or monetary support. Actions, rather than simply emotions of mutual love are the marks of true followers of Christ.

2. Harmony is created through mutual service A famous philosopher could write grandiose words, filling thick books which give endless advice on how to raise your child without ever having raised one himself. Words and actions do not always go together. We respect Christ because he is the ideal example of both. He humbles Himself like a servant as He tells others to do the same, wearing the clothes of a servant and washing the feet of His disciples. “I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.” (John 13:15; NIV) Let us look at the Apostle Paul’s emphasis in Philippians 2:6-7: “6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” Verse 6 emphasizes that Jesus is “in very nature God.” In Greek, the aforementioned quote was actually preceded by “to be”

(thus translated ‘being’ in the likeness of God). The word used was ‘hyparchon’ (to continuously be), not ‘on’ (being). In other words, Christ has always been in the likeness of God. Even with such a high status, Christ has become a servant to His disciples. It would be ideal if a true mutual service could take place in church when no one ever said: “That’s not my problem,” “I’m not the deacon,” “That’s the pastor’s job,” “I’m not getting paid,” etc. True servitude comes from our love for others. If mutual service is not accompanied by love, then the church is simply a worldly social organization.

3. Harmony is created through helping each other The Lord does not want us to be selfish and individualistic, and this is why we should not ignore the tasks of God, which include testifying, having fellowship, and serving (Marturia, Koinonia, and Diakonia). Helping one another is certainly one of them as well. But what can we do to encourage others to reach out? If a church has love, and the members know they can depend upon one another, then they will not be shy or afraid to share their burdens and problems so that others can help and pray for them. “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” (Galatians 6:2; NIV) To carry one another’s burdens and provide help when needed is very important for people to create a healthy, balanced church. The knowledge that you are not alone, that others are praying for your happiness, allows one to endure hardship more easily. Christian life becomes lighter, and Christ’s love reproduces itself when those who have been helped are inspired to help others.

4. Harmony is created through forgiveness

“Even church is a place where we can encounter unpleasant events.”

The acts of forgiveness and being forgiven are supposed to be routine at church. However, we are not perfect. This imperfection can give us long-life conflicts. Conflict often happens between two close people. This is why betrayal can hurt so much. An old proverb says that it is our loved ones that can hurt us the most, not our enemies. Even church is a place where we can encounter unpleasant events. This happens not because Jesus is punishing us for our sins by making others be unkind to us, but because His children are often immature and do not act like Christ. In the words of Ephesians 4:31-32, it says, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (NIV)

5. Harmony is created through prayer The concept of the Christian faith can be seen through how disciplined one is in prayer. However, it is strange that in many churches, the prayer group is the smallest commission and the least expanding one at church, even though everyone knows that the power of prayer is great. Our Christian life is full of challenges; therefore, we need strength from the Lord. We can gain the strength through prayer. “The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (James 5:16b; NIV) I often find church members who confide and ask to be prayed for, while they themselves never attended the prayer meetings. If we realize that prayer is very important and powerful, why are we still depending on others to pray for us? Why won’t we personally come and pray to God as well? It is not easy to live in a foreign country, especially if our family is not with us. There are many things we are unable to share with people other than our families while others might find it difficult to understand us. Even when members of a family get together, they may be too busy to listen to each other’s problems. We must not let a similar problem happen in our church because then many people may become deeply stressed out and depressed without anyone realizing it. Praying to the Lord proves to be the sole effective key to piercing through the problem. 40

James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” (NIV) As children of God, we need to set aside some time to pray for each other, because the challenges and problems in life will never cease. Every day, we are faced with new difficulties, tempting us to sin.

6. Harmony is created through counseling and teaching one another To learn from others in church is very important, but this will not be effective unless Christians already know the Word of God well. Romans 5:14 says, “I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.”(NIV) Here, “full of goodness” means that what we have learned can be used in turn to instruct and help others. Such advice is one form of the Word of God. You are not asked to become a spy, or a policeman, intentionally searching for and recording each other’s sins. Do not assume that you know everything after learning a little about the Word of God. This is not constructive criticism, but merely criticism. If you are given a chance to give advice to others, let your advice be full of grace, to build that person, not to trodden him down. Children of God need to reflect themselves and ask for God’s wisdom before giving advice to others. In addition, God’s children must be humble when given advice from others. Do not judge yourself or your opinion to be better than others. If today you look innocent, it may be because your secrets have not been revealed yet, or you have not been tempted as fully as others. It is crucial to counsel one another without adopting a position of superiority.

7. Harmony is created through mutual comforting Encouraging one another is not an easy task because every one of us has a very different walk of life. When we are happy, rich, healthy, it is easy to comfort those in need, but they may feel we cannot appreciate their situation. When we are having problems ourselves, it is difficult to comfort others because we are focused on our own challenges. Paul emphasizes giving comfort to others, especially in his pastoral letters, such as the ones he wrote to the Thessalonians and Philippians, even though Paul himself was in jail at the time. Paul instructs the people, “Therefore, encourage 41


each other with these words” (I Thessalonians 4:18; NIV) Indeed, often we may say many unkind things without thinking. This is why we must be careful with our words. We have to think about whether what we will say will bring blessings to others or not. If we wish to have a good relationship with others, then our words must be encouraging and comforting. People will not be as ready to listen to someone who has been unkind to them in the past. Children of God are tired of being oppressed by the secular world with its stresses. Fellowship should be a refuge from this, a place where their faith can be strengthened, not where they will encounter yet another stressful situation. Despite all of our effort, there can be no perfect church in this world because no Christian can be perfect. If today you hear of a perfect church in L.A., avoid it. Why? If the church is indeed perfect, your presence in that church will make that church imperfect. For twenty-five years, even with all her shortcomings, the Indonesian Evangelical Church in L.A. has stood strong. We must be grateful to the Lord, because He has been willing to use His imperfect children to do perfect service. God’s blessings for us have not stopped till this day. I’m sure that everything is due to this harmonious relationship we have striven for. Therefore, let us hold hands, uphold and keep what is good, and cast away what is bad, so that we can step forward into a church full of hope. Amen.

(Washington, Lynnwood, May 2008)

oleh: Rev. Saumiman Saud* *Penulis adalah alumni Seminari Alkitab Asia Tenggara (SAAT), Malang. Saat ini, beliau melayani di Gereja Injili Indonesia Seattle. Beliau dapat dihubungi via email [email protected] atau kunjungi website pribadinya di http:///www.saumimansaud.org. Artikel ini ditulis dalam rangka HUT-25 Gereja Injili Indonesia Los Angeles

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ereja yang sehat adalah gereja yang jemaatnya memiliki relasi yang baik dengan Tuhan. Untuk menjalin ikatan yang erat itu maka jemaat Tuhan harus senantiasa bersekutu, berdoa, dan membaca firman-Nya. Tidak ada jalan pintas untuk menciptakan relasi baik ini, perlu adanya suatu proses, dan itu berlangsung setiap hari. Demikian juga relasi kita secara pribadi sebagai anggota tubuh Kristus dengan gereja dalam arti tubuh Kristus atau persekutuan orang-orang di dalamnya. Jika relasi kita dengan Tuhan tidak beres, maka hubungan kita dengan sesama pasti tidak beres juga. Jadi sebenarnya kunci utama supaya kita dapat menjalin hubungan yang harmonis dengan sesama terletak pada bagaimana hubungan kita dengan Tuhan secara pribadi. Relasi pribadi di gereja dengan jemaat berbeda dengan relasi kita dengan sesama di dunia sekuler. Dunia sekuler sebenarnya juga menawarkan relasi yang baik, namun perbedaannya terletak pada syarat-syarat secara manusiawi. Jika relasi kita baik dengan orang lain, sudah pasti secara normal orang lain juga baik dengan kita. Kekristenan justru mengajarkannya berbeda. Walaupun orang lain itu relasinya tidak menunjukkan gelagat kebaikan terhadap kita, namun kita tetap saja harus membalasnya dengan kebaikan. Inilah yang bisanya disebut dengan kasih tanpa syarat (unconditional love), seperti yang telah Tuhan Yesus kerjakan buat kita. Kesibukan kerja di sana-sini atau rumah yang berjauhan sangat mempengaruhi relasi pribadi seseorang dengan jemaat di gereja. Akibatnya, persekutuan sesama jemaat menjadi renggang, bahkan ada yang tidak saling kenal walaupun satu gereja. Sementara itu, yang aktif hanya mereka yang memang rumahnya dekat dengan gereja dan pekerjaannya tidak begitu sibuk bila akhir pekan. Itu sebabnya belakangan ini di gereja-gereja muncul persekutuan dalam bentuk kelompok-kelompok kecil atau persekutuan wilayah, tujuannya agar mereka yang tidak terjangkau dalam kelompok besar dapat dipantau melalui kelompok kecil ini. 42


Memang gereja dapat saja membuat segala program untuk mempererat relasi sesama anggota jemaat, namun tanpa dibarengi pemahaman dan pengenalan akan makna persekutuan Kristen yang benar, maka tidak jelas pula apa artinya persekutuan itu. Akibatnya persekutuan dianggap sebagai ajang gossip, makan-makan, dan ngobrol yang tidak menentu tujuannya. Alkitab kita sangat jelas sekali menekankan tentang apa saja yang seharusnya dilakukan dalam sebuah persekutuan itu sehingga tercipta relasi yang indah dan harmonis.

1. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling mengasihi Mengasihi yang dimaksud di sini bukan sekadar rasa simpati atau kata-kata manis di bibir saja namun kasih itu harus diwujudkan di dalam “perbuatan” atau “tindakan” seperti yang dinasihati oleh Yohanes, “Anak-anakku, marilah kita mengasihi bukan dengan perkataan atau dengan lidah, tetapi dengan perbuatan dan dalam kebenaran.” (1 Yohanes 3:18) Tindakan mengasihi akan terwujud apabila seseorang dengan rela memberikan hati dan perhatiannya kepada orang lain. Tidak cukup hanya di situ, tindakan praktisnya adalah bila kita melihat saudara kita membutuhkan maka kita secara spontan membantunya berupa moril dan materil. Wujud nyata saling mengasihi yang demikian merupakan tanda bahwa orang-orang percaya benar-benar adalah pengikut Kristus yang sejati.

2. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling melayani Seorang ahli filsafat yang terkenal dapat saja menulis dengan kata-kata muluk melalui buku yang tebal tentang tips bagaimana mendidik anak walaupun ia sendiri tidak pernah mengurus anak-anaknya; perkataannya dan perbuatannya tidak sejalan. Tidak dapat dipungkiri lagi bahwa hanya Tuhan Yesus adalah satu-satunya teladan kita dalam pelayanan. Ia merendahkan diri-Nya sama seperti seorang hamba dengan suka-rela menanggalkan jubah kebesaran-Nya dan mengenakan pakaian seorang hamba, dan Ia juga rela membasuh kaki murid-muridNya. Ia berkata, “Sebab Aku telah memberikan suatu

teladan kepada kamu, supaya kamu juga berbuat sama seperti yang telah Kuperbuat kepadamu.” (Yohanes 13:15) Coba lihat penekanan rasul Paulus dalam Filipi 2:6-7, “6Yang walaupun dalam rupa Allah, tidak menganggap kesetaraan dengan Allah itu sebagai milik yang harus dipertahankan, 7melainkan telah mengosongkan diri-Nya sendiri, dan mengambil rupa seorang hamba, dan menjadi sama dengan manusia.” Ayat 6 menekankan bahwa Yesus “dalam rupa Allah” yang di dalam bahasa Yunaninya didahului dengan kata “berada” (jadi terjemahannya berada dalam rupa Allah); kata yang dipakai adalah “hyparchon” (terus menerus berada) dan bukan kata “on” (sedang berada). Maksudnya adalah Kristus senantiasa telah di dalam rupa Allah dengan pengertian sampai sekarang masih tetap demikian. Nah, Kristus yang demikian pernah mempraktekkan diri seperti seorang hamba yang melayani murid-murid-Nya sendiri. Bila saling melayani terwujud di dalam gereja betapa indah sekali. Kita tidak akan pernah mendengar lagi orang-orang yang berkata: “Itu bukan urusanku,” “Saya bukan majelis,” “Itu tugas pendeta,” “Saya tidak di gaji,” dan sebagainya. Pelayanan yang sesungguhnya adalah akibat dari kita meresponi kasih. Jika saling melayani itu tidak disertai dengan kasih maka gereja tidak ada bedanya dengan lembaga sosial.

3. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling menanggung beban Tuhan tidak menginginkan kita hidup egois atau menyendiri, oleh sebab itu tugas gereja yang sangat penting adalah bersaksi, bersekutu, dan melayani (Marturia, Koinonia dan Diakonia) tidak boleh diabaikan. Menanggung beban merupakan salah satu wujudnya. Namun, apa saja yang dapat dilakukan? Jika gereja memiliki kasih dan saling melayani, maka anggota jemaatnya tidak sungkan untuk menceritakan pergumulan yang dialaminya untuk didoakan dan untuk ditolong karena ia tahu jelas kasusnya tidak bakal diangkat menjadi ajang gossip. “Hendaklah kalian saling membantu menanggung beban orang, supaya dengan demikian kalian mentaati perintah Kristus.” (Galatia 6:2, BIS ) Saling menanggung beban itu penting supaya tercipta keseimbangan di dalam jemaat Tuhan, termasuk kerohanian mereka. Dengan membagikan beban pergumulan, problema, atau persoalan kepada orang lain baik untuk di doakan atau ditolong, maka seorang jemaat itu tidak perlu menanggung sendiri masalahnya. Kehidupan kekristenanpun terasa lebih nikmat dan awet. Dengan demikian, yang disebut suka-cita dalam Kristus itu boleh 43


terwujud.

4. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling mengampuni Mengampuni dan diampuni adalah hal yang seharusnya terlihat dalam sebuah gereja. Manusia itu tidak sempurna namun jangan gara-gara ketidaksempurnaan ini sehingga tercipta musuh seumur hidup. Konflik itu biasanya terjadi karena kita sudah akrab, dan hasilnya sangat menyakitkan. Ada pepatah mengatakan bahwa hal yang paling menyakitkan kita adalah tatkala orangorang yang kita kasihi itu menyakiti kita. Gereja merupakan satu-satunya tempat yang sangat rentan terjadi hal-hal yang menyakitkan. Semua itu terjadi bukan karena Tuhan Yesus tidak mengasih kita, tetapi karena tindakan anak-anak Tuhan yang belum dewasa dan yang sikapnya tidak meneladani Kristus. Efesus 4:31 mencatat, “Hilangkanlah segala perasaan sakit hati, dendam, dan marah. Jangan lagi berteriak-teriak dan memaki-maki. Jangan lagi ada perasaan benci atau perasaan lain semacam itu. Sebaliknya, hendaklah kalian baik hati dan berbelaskasihan seorang terhadap yang lain, dan saling mengampuni sama seperti Allah pun mengampuni kalian melalui Kristus.”

5. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling mendoakan Konsep iman kepercayaan Kristen akan terlihat melalui seberapa tekunnya seseorang berdoa. Namun heran sekali, ada banyak gereja - komisi yang paling sulit bertambah anggotanya adalah komisi doa; padahal semua orang tahu doa itu memilki kuasa yang dahsyat. Jalan kehidupan kekristenan kita senantiasa menghadapi tantangan, itu sebabnya diperlukan kekuatan dari Tuhan. Satu-satunya cara adalah melalui doa. “Doa orang benar, bila dengan yakin didoakan sangat besar kuasanya.” (Yakobus 5:16b) Saya sering menemukan jemaat Tuhan yang menitip masalahnya untuk di doakan sementara dia sendiri tidak datang dalam persekutuan doa tersebut. Jika kita sadar bahwa doa itu penting dan berkuasa, masihkah kita menitipnya pada orang lain? Mengapa kita tidak mau melibatkan diri secara pribadi berdoa? Hidup di negeri perantauan tidak gampang, apalagi sanak saudara jauh dari sisi kita. Banyak hal yang merupakan persoalan hidup ini kadang sulit diceritakan kepada orang lain karena sangat sulit ditemukan mereka yang mau memahami, peduli, dan mengerti keadaan kita. Kesibukan dalam keluarga dan pekerjaan masingmasing sudah cukup, maka persoalan lain sebisanya dihindari. Jika keadaaan itu muncul di gereja tentu bahaya

sekali sebab akan terjadi seseorang itu bergumul dan stress sendiri tanpa diketahui dan pertolongan orang lain. Berdoa pada Tuhan adalah kunci rahasia pemecahan masalah yang paling jitu. “Sebab itu, hendaklah kalian saling mengakui kesalahan dan saling mendoakan, supaya kalian disembuhkan. Doa orang yang menuruti kemauan Allah, mempunyai kuasa yang besar.” (Yakobus 5:16) Oleh sebab itu, kita sebagai anak Tuhan perlu mengambil waktu saling mendoakan sebab tantangan dan godaan itu berlangsung setiap hari dan selalu mengancam serta hendak menjatuhkan kita.

6. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling menasihati Belajar satu dengan yang lain di dalam gerreja itu sangat penting sekali namun semua ini tidak dapat dilaksanakan jika orang-orang percaya tidak dibekali firman Tuhan. “Saudara-saudaraku! Saya yakin bahwa ada banyak sekali hal yang baik padamu. Kalian pun mengetahui segala-galanya dan dapat mengajar satu sama lain juga.” (Roma 15:14) Kata “banyak sekali hal yang baik padamu” itu berarti apa yang sudah kita terima dan pelajari tersebut dapat dipakai untuk menolong orang lain melalui nasihat kita; jadi nasihat yang diberikan itu berupa firman Tuhan. Anda tidak diminta menjadi mata-mata atau polisi yang sengaja mencari dan mencatat kesalahan orang lain. Janganlah karena pernah belajar sedikit firman Tuhan lalu menganggap telah mengetahui segalanya. Anda bukannya memberi nasihat, tetapi jadi mengkritik dan memprotes sana-sini. Namun, jika memang anda diberi kesempatan untuk memberi nasihat, berilah nasihat dengan penuh kasih yang artinya bukan untuk menjatuhkan orang tersebut tetapi justru membuat orang itu bertambah sukses dan berhasil dalam kehidupan kekeristenannya. Anak-anak Tuhan perlu bercermin diri dan minta hikmat dari Tuhan sebelum menasihati orang lain, sebaliknya anak-anak Tuhan harus rendah hati apabila menerima nasihat itu. Ingatlah bahwa anda tidak lebih baik dari orang lain, jika hari ini anda belum terlihat bersalah, kemungkinan kesalahan anda belum terungkap. Oleh karena itu, sejak dini saling menasihati untuk menguatkan satu dengan yang lain sangat diperlukan oleh anakanak Tuhan.

7. Relasi harmonis tercipta melalui saling menghiburkan 44


Saling memberikan penghiburan bukan suatu hal yang mudah, soalnya kita sebagai manusia memiliki hidup yang berliku-liku. Tatkala kita senang, bahagia, kaya, sehat, mungkin kita dapat dengan gampang menghibur orang lain namun apa yang terjadi tatkala kita juga berada pada posisi yang sulit. Rasul Paulus selalu menekankan masalah memberikan penghiburan ini, terutama di dalam surat-surat pastoralnya, misalnya surat Tesalonika dan Filipi; padahal kondisi Paulus sewaktu menulis surat itu berada di dalam penjara. Paulus mengatakan, “hiburkanlah seorang akan yang lain dengan perkataan-perkataan ini.” (1 Tesalonika 4:18) Memang perkataan yang keluar dari mulut kita kadang sangat berbahaya; oleh sebab itu, setiap perkataan kita perlu dipikirkan matang-matang. Apakah perkataan kita menjadi berkat atau malah menjatuhkan iman seseorang? Bila kita hendak memiliki relasi yang harmonis maka kata-kata yang keluar dari mulut kita semestinya yang menguatkan dan menghiburkan. Anak-anak Tuhan sudah begitu capek dan lelah serta tertekan di dunia sekuler dengan segala pekerjaan, sekolah, dan kehidupan, maka di dalam persekutuan umat Tuhan mereka memerperlukan sesuatu yang menguatkan iman kepercayaan mereka bukan yang menambahkan tekanan kepada diri mereka. Di dunia ini, tidak ada gereja yang sempurna karena anak-anak Tuhan memang tidak ada yang sempurna. Jika hari ini anda mendengar berita bahwa di Los Angeles ada gereja yang sempurna, maka anda dianjurkan supaya tidak berbakti di sana? Tentu anda bertanya mengapa? Karena kehadiran anda akan membuat gereja itu menjadi tidak sempurna; karena anda sendiri tidak sempurna. Duapuluh lima tahun cikal bakal Gereja Injili Indonesia Los Angeles berdiri, dengan segala kelebihan dan kekurangan yang ada. Kita patut bersyukur kepada Tuhan karena Dia mau memakai anak-anak-Nya yang tidak sempurna ini untuk mengerjakan suatu tugas pelayanan yang sempurna sehingga berkat-berkat Tuhan hingga hari ini tidak pernah habis. Saya yakin semua ini dapat berjalan karena adanya relasi yang harmonis ini. Oleh sebab itu, marilah kita bergandengan tangan bersama, tingkatkan, dan pertahankan segala yang baik. Buanglah hal-hal yang tidak berguna supaya kita melangkah ke depan - menuju kepada gereja yang penuh harapan. Amin. (Lynnwood, Washington; Mei 2008)

“For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart…every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned” (Matthew 12:34b-37; NASB).

Gossip...

A Diagnosis of Gossip in the Church By Margaret Tewuh

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ome people say that they just like to talk about others or gossip and cannot control their tongues. Actually, the tongue is control by the nerve impulse in the brain and is activated by the thought process. Therefore, normal individuals with no neural disease can control their tongues. It is just the matter of whether they want to control it or not. NO MORE EXCUSES. They have to be admitted immediately for treatment. History of leading to admission: These are females and males patients being admitted to the Indonesian Evangelical Church at 10:30 AM on September 9, 1983. They complained about the pastors, boring church programs, boring music, uncontrollable impulses of talking and clapping hands during sermons, long sermons, and also complained about other church members gossiping about them. Their needs are not being met. Diagnosis: • Ineffective emotional coping due to a disturbed thought process. • High risk of committing a crime of destroying a church member’s reputation due to an uncontrollable tongue as evidenced by gossiping. • High risk of bringing a division to the church due to unsatisfied needs and an uncontrollable tongue.

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High risk of causing a decrease in church attendance due to hurting other people’s feeling as evidenced by gossiping. Ineffective Christians by inability to be witnesses to Jesus Christ as evidenced by gossiping. High risk of being farther away from God due to no personal growth as evidence of gossiping. High risk of an environmental toxic due to the spreading of infectious rumors as evidenced by gossiping.

Goal: Stop gossiping by the end of this year. Interventions: • Start helping other church member to meet their needs through action, not just talk. • Take a balance diet by reading the Bible and praying daily. • Find one’s purpose in life. • Do creative activities or hobbies. • Do breathing exercise by singing praises to God daily. • Do physical exercises to strengthen the mind and the body. Evaluation: When the goal is met, patients are spreading the GOSPEL instead of GOSSIP.

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29;NIV).

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...pissoG Diagnosa Gossip di Gereja

Oleh Margaret Tewuh

“Karena yang diucapkan mulut meluap dari hati… Setiap kata sia-sia yang diucapkan orang harus dipertanggungjawabkannya pada hari penghakiman. Karena menurut ucapanmu engkau akan dibernarkan, dan menurut ucapanmu pula engkau akan dihukum” (Matius 12:34b-37)

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eberapa orang berkata bahwa mereka hanya suka membicarakan tentang orang lain atau bergosip dan tidak bisa mengendalikan lidah mereka. Sebenarnya, lidah itu dikendalikan oleh rangsangan saraf dalam otak dan diaktifkan oleh proses pikiran. Oleh sebab itu, individu yang normal tanpa penyakit saraf bisa mengendalikan lidah mereka. Ini hanya masalah apakah mereka mau mengendalikan diri sendiri atau tidak. TIDAK ADA ALASAN LAGI. Mereka harus segera dibawa untuk perawatan. Sejarah pendaftaran: Ini adalah pasien perempuan dan laki-laki didaftarkan ke Gereja Injili Indonesia jam 10:30 pagi tanggal 9 September 1983. Mereka mengeluh tentang pendeta, acara gereja yang membosankan, music yang membosankan, dorongan yang tak terkendali untuk berbicara dan bertepuk tangan saat khotbah, khotbah yang panjang, dan mereka juga mengeluh tentang anggota gereja yang lain bergosip tentang mereka. Kebutuhan mereka tidak terpenuhi. Diagnosa: • Mengatasi emosi secara tidak efektif yang disebabkan oleh proses pikiran yang terganggu. • Resiko tinggi atas melakukan tindakan kejahatan berupakan penghinaan reputasi anggota gereja yang lain yang diakibatkan dari lidah yang tak terkendali berhubungan dengan bergosip. • Resiko tinggi atas membawa pemisahan dalam gereja diakibatkan oleh kebutuhan yang tidak dipenuhi dan lidah tidak terkendali.

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•

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Resiko tinggi atas meyebabkan penurunan dalam jumlah kehadiran gereja diakibatkan oleh menyakiti perasaan orang lain berhubungan dengan bergosip. Orang Kristen yang tidak berguna diakibatkan oleh ketidakmampuan menjadi saksi bagi Yesus Kristus terbukti dengan bergosip. Resiko tinggi menjadi lebih jauh dari Tuhan tanpa pertumbuhan pribadi sebagai akibat bergosip. Resiko tinggi akan racun yang disebabkan oleh penyebaran infeksi rumor yang menjangkit di lingkungan terbukti dengan bergosip.

Tujuan: Berhenti bergosip pada akhir tahun ini. Campur tangan: • Mulai membantu sesama anggota gereja memenuhi kebutuhan masing-masing melalui tindakan, bukan hanya dengan perkataan. • Jaga keseimbangan pola makan dengan membaca Alkitab dan berdoa sehari-hari. • Temukan tujuan dalam hidup. • Cari aktivitas yang kreatif atau hobi. • Lakukan latihan pernafasan dengan menyanyikan pujian kepada Tuhan sehari-hari • Lakukan olahraga jasmani untuk memperkuat batin dan tubuh. Evaluasi: Ketika tujuan sudah tercapai, pasien menyebarkan INJIL bukan GOSSIP.

“Janganlah ada perkataan kotor keluar dari mulutmu, tetapi pakailah perkataan yang baik untuk membangun, di mana perlu, supaya mereka yang mendengarkannya, beroleh kasih karunia.” (Efesus 4:29) 46

Relationships, Relationships…

Relating Women With Men By Janice Atmadja

1992 Song Dedication on the 9th Anniversary

HAlthough this article is perhaps more aimed towards the youth and the women population, this article remains to be helpful and suitable for everyone, especially when dealing with questions regarding the nature of the opposite sex and how that influences our choices in whom we date and who we enter into courtship with. HThis article is based on a summary of a Women’s Tea Time event held by my pastor’s wife from San Diego Harvest Church, the church that I call home while I am in San Diego. Mrs. Dahlia Warda is a woman after God’s own heart and the story of the romance between her and my pastor, Pastor Jeff Warda, has always touched my heart and encouraged me to wait for my own perfect romance. Yes, this may sound “cheesy”, but it’s true that God intended the best for us, especially in our romantic life. All we need to do is be patient 47


and trust in Him to provide, while preparing ourselves to be women after God’s own heart above all else, even our own desires for a life-partner. HMrs. Dahlia Warda is the mother of Daniel Warda and wife to Pastor Jeff Warda who has served as a shepherd in Harvest Church for five years now. She has spoken in numerous women retreats about the subject of Godly relationships and has counseled the women of Harvest alongside Pastor Jeff to allow us to be the growing ministry we are today. HHarvest Church San Diego is a unified body of believers, who are committed to the biblical mandates of worship, study, service, fellowship and evangelism, to the end that Jesus Christ will be exalted and God will be glorified.

HThere have been many books written on the “evils” of dating. There are also plenty of books that advice us how to have a godly relationship with a potential future spouse. This leads me to the following questions. Considering all these books on how to “relate”, is there then a special way that we must also relate to men as friends, the step that infamously comes before “dating”? Are there things we should do as women to help our men overcome temptations and lead them to the way of God? What should we understand about them to help us relate to them the way God wants us to relate to them? Are relationships even as complicated as everyone says? Or is everything really much simpler than I thought? I invite you to explore these questions with me and answer them yourself with the help of God.

How did God Intend for Men and Women to Relate to Each Other?

HIn the beginning of time, when God made the earth and us perfectly in His image, the relationship between Adam and Eve was perfect. Eve was made from Adam’s rib to be his equal and to be his helper. However, because of sin, the relationship between men and women became that of an adver-http://www.harvestsd.com/ sarial relationship, a relationship driven by the search for power. harvest.html Genesis 3:16 said of Eve, “Your de

1994 Funny Skit

sire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” Men and women relate as enemies after the fall. It becomes a fight to make one dependent on the other. Men and women equally manipulate the other to get what they want, and the fight arises in full view today. HEspecially for women, we are surrounded by dependency on men because this relationship we have with men, a relationship between enemies, makes us use and look for power from the one who has more power as God had intended, the men. HGirls and women, these instances will prove to be our downfall when we seek a relationship with men: • When we have the strongest physical attraction to them -Ideally, Dahlia said, our attraction level to men from 1-10 (10 being the highest), should be a 3-5 for us to have a clear head and a God-centered relationship. Of course, this point is disputable and is different for everyone. • When we are the least ourselves and have an adversarial 48


ing about what others think about the man you choose. This requires us to pay attention to what makes us attracted to him and even put our own preconceived preferences aside. Focus on what we like about him, (because oftentimes God does not bring us our physically “ideal” man of our dreams to be our life-partners) and ignore what the rest of the world has to say. It is only important to God and you what you think about him. Question: So how do we break this enmity? How do we break attitude with them the tradition of adversarial reHWhen a man is just physically lationships? attracted to you, he is one to be afraid of. They are in what Dahlia HThis becomes a journey of called, the “take mode” which trusting the Lord with our hearts. gives you: “the hibby-jiibbies”, and We must change our approaches the hibby-jibbies are right! What on relationships from that of a sincan we do in this case? Run away ful nature to one in the nature of in the other direction! Girls, God. a true Christian man looking to build a true God-centered rela- Philosophies of Dating tionship with you will be attracted for the Christian Womto your spiritual qualities above all else. A Christian man will provide an. for all your needs, not what you want, but what you NEED. Money Dating, for the Christian woman, is doesn’t make anybody happy. That the sorting out process to single is a well-known fact that is not out which man you should enter well accepted. So…how do we into courtship with. Dating is the process of sorting, while courtship find him? H The answer- Give up the con- is the “dance” and the procession cern of what others will think with the goal of marriage in mind of your man. This is actually Make no mistake though. Datharder than we think; especially ing is also done with the goal of when being done in a world full of marriage under God. An “okay” in expectations that confuses even dating does not mean you are alus. I’m not saying for us to make a lowed to negligently date “around” choice between defending, adher- to pick and choose the criteria for ing, or giving up the labeled “tra- the guy you want to have a courtditional” roles of men and women ship with. Before you date anyone, many often associate with a bad there are philosophies of dating connotation. I am simply asking that you should really take into you to do what it says: stop think- heart and consider as a Christian woman. We

must also look for qualities of our date (before we go out with him), that enhances the goal of God for your lives so without saying, the man must, first and foremost, be a man after God’s own heart.

To do before we begin dating: 1. Read This Idea Below: Contentment and happiness depends on God, not men.This, ladies, is a very very very important point to understand, internalize, and live by. As women, we don’t have to emasculate men for them to provide for you. It is by nature that they love to protect, to give, and to guide you. Surrender to that role. It does not mean at all minimizing the value of yourself. Simply give up emasculating men and expecting them to live by your interpretation of what is “manly” or what is not, what is “desirable” or what is not. Stop interpreting everything they do from your point of view as a woman. It is hard to accept (and I know this) that we women do think and interpret actions differently than men. This is not at all bad! God created us this way, to think many things at once, to be almost scatter-brained, for a reason. He made us gentler for a reason. Do not conform to the world’s ideas of masculine/feminine duality or the concept of the “modern” woman vs. the modern man. Think only of God’s commandment and His approval of your relationship. Women, do not take everything personally. These are words of advice from Dahlia. Have a set criteria 2.

as : a believer, a man who loves the example, things that you definitely must have or cannot stand in a Lord. man. For example: faithfulness, selfHHave these four subqualities motivated, and self-controlled. added to your non-negotiable as HRelationships are the expresthey are fruits of the perseverance sion of who you are as a believer. in the character of a true God- An authentic, sincere relationship in which you are yourself allows pursuing man: for an open and honest interaci. Trustworthy The definition of partnership is tion that is both transparent to the persons on the same side of the outside world and God-glorifying. team, with equal shares in the HThis is where dating and court“risk”. We can’t create a partnership differs and why courtship is ship if we do not trust him. When better than mere secular “dating”. we trust someone, that person In dating both men and women must undoubtedly have integrity make an effort of continuing the and reliability. So the important relationship and there is a standard question becomes: Do you trust of politeness. In courtship, there is still that standard of politeness him? but less obstacles to put aside the ii. Strength Not physical, but spiritual strength! desire to merely please the other This is important as the man will person as you are both in it for a be the leader, both in your home long-term goal, marriage. and in your spiritual life. Does he

has strength in spirit?

iii. Integrity This is the quality that’ll make you feel SAFE. Integrity is the sign that a man knows himself and abides by it. Strength and integrity come together. One sign of integrity is him owning up to what he did wrong. This is why, women, it is so important for us to be who we really are around them so that he may understand you and see what you need. iv. Confidence, Positive confidence (not arrogance!) in himself and in his abilities Last, but not least. All four qualities are stems from a man who walks with God. Looking for these four qualities should aid in your determining the true man of God. of who we want to be in a HIn addition to the four qualities listed above, it is helpful to add relationship with. Know your “non-negotiable” such another three of your own. For 49


Stop strategizing! Express who you are!

3.

Stop getting ready resources before prior engagement to the enemy. Instead, make your true selves be known! HI understand that this is a lifechanging concept, but read them all: 1. Stop reacting to what you think someone else wants. 2. Stop being careful and concealing things. 3. Stop adapting your conduct to please other people. If the man should not like who you are and leaves, he is actually doing you a favor. Be a person who is being reacted to instead of the other way around. Start expressing! 4. This final step relates to your authenticity to relationships. Know the answer to these questions. a. What are you really up to?

2007 Valentine’s Night

(What do you want from this relationship?) b. Where do you want the relationship to end up at? c. What are your deal-breakers in your relationship? Don’t wait to say the deal-breaker until you can manipulate the relationship. Relationships sink from the holes that were in them from the very beginning. HAs Christian women, among our list of “should-be-discussed” dealbreakers should be the following: 1. If he is not a Christian 2. If you disagree on whether to have children or not. Even disagreeing on the number of children may be a potential important deal-breaker. 3. Lifestyle choices 4. When to get married For men, there is a concept called “ready for marriage” that we as women do not understand because women are driven towards marriage. Yes, that’s right women, you saw it correctly. We are created this way and driven towards marriage. HSo what should we think about after the deal-breakers, and the 50


qualities, and etc….. 1. What are you willing to provide in a relationship? 2. What are you hoping to provide in a relationship? 3. What do you want to receive? HDiscuss these questions openly with your potential boyfriend or girlfriend. Determine the answers to these questions BEFORE you start ANY relationship. These are things that are true and important to you and who you are. This is why answering these questions are important. HSometimes it is necessary to tell him from the very beginning to not waste your time. Don’t waste your time, and don’t waste your heart. This is where he should shine as a leader in the relationship, by bringing up this conversation! However, if he does not bring it up, YOU SHOULD BRING IT UP! HBe clear in the relationship from the very beginning and end the relationship immediately as soon as you know that this man is not for you. We women have this strange idea that if we are not authentic, we won’t be hurt.This is UNNECESSARY LONGSUFFER-

ING HURT that will not allow you to have ANY REAL relationship. Everything wonderful that happened between men and women is because someone was vulnerable. Authenticity without risk is not possible, and so, with this final message, a prayer of strength and God’s guidance as well as wisdom is the last, but not least, absolutely necessary action before you take that next step into dating and courtship. HWe thank you for your attention on this very special edition on various relationships of the Christian, and article especially contributed for this: Relating Women With Men. I pray that this has been helpful and should you have further questions regarding the article or anything else, please feel free to contact me, and I will forward your questions to Mrs. Dahlia Warda. Janice Atmadja (909) 896-1181 [email protected]

Chapel HSanta Fe Christian School 838 Academy Dr. Solana beach, CA 92075 Church office H531 Stevens Ave. West Suite B Solana Beach, CA 92075 858-523-9768 telephone 858-523-9763 email Pastor Jeff Warda at [email protected]

Graduates on a Roll Class of 2008

As our church grows and gets older, so does its congregations. Several youth of IEC are also growing up as they enter a new chapter in their lives…. COLLEGE!!! These college-bound youths are willing to share with the rest of us what they are looking forward to in college.

David Soendjojo College: UC Berkeley Major: Chemical Engineering Experience you gain from high school: never give up Experience you want to gain from college: I don’t know… Things I’ll have most difficulty with in college: being away from home Favorite Quote: Common sense is not so common. Shout out: your face

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Mabel Tjioe College: Pasadena City College Major: Accounting Experience you gain from high school: High school is boring Experience you want to gain from college: straight A’s Things I’ll have most difficulty with in college: staying up late to do homework Favorite Quote: aim for the moon because if you fail to aim for it, you will fall down to one of the stars Shout out: I owe you love.

Jennifer Tjong College: UCSD Major:Visual Arts Experience you gain from high school: don’t plan, let God plan for you Experience you want to gain from college: God’s faithfulness and more of mine Things I’ll have most difficulty with in college: probably not helping people Favorite Quote: I like walking in the rain, because no one knows I’m crying Shout out: I love you, Mom and Dad!!

Debbie Wang Tesia Trisnadi Rachel Jao College: UCSD Major: Bio/Chemistry Experience you gain from high school: Life isn’t easy and sometimes when you feel like giving up, you shouldn’t; just trust in God in your problem, cause God will make a way. Experience you want to gain from college: I want to meet new people and experience different aspects of college. I want to experience freedom of doing things on my own. Things I’ll have most difficulty with in college: not being used to living by myself and being in a new environment. Favorite Quote: proverbs 3:5-6 Shout out: to my family, thanks for supporting me through everything. I love you so much

College: Mt. SAC, transfer to APU Major: Nursing Experience you gain from high school: Don’t change to fit in with other people and keep your mouth shut no matter what Experience you want to gain from college: to become more responsible and be more mature Things I’ll have most difficulty with in college: not being friends with everyone Favorite Quote: do not worry about anything, but pray about everything Shout out: Thank you Mom and Dad, for helping me with everything that I’ve been through… Yes, thanks Andrew.

College: UCR Major: Psychology Experience you gained from high school: God will never fail you. Experience you want to gain from college: Being more independent and responsible. Things you’ll have most difficulty with in college: Living without my parents' home-cooked meal and getting enough sleep. Favorite Quote: If you judge people, you have no time to love them. Shout Out: Good luck for those who are taking SATs and APs in the future.

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I Love Jesus but I Don’t Read the Bible By Isaiah Adidjaja

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ho is the first President of the United States? If you’re a product of American education system you will know the answer is George Washington. What is the value of x in the following equation: 2x + 10 = 20? Probably all high school students would know that x = 5. Now, for the million dollar question, what is the interpretation of John 3:16? If your answer begins with the phrase ‘I think’, there is a likelihood that you’re not 100 percent sure of the answer. The Bible says “All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). If the word of God has this transforming power to change a person’s life, how many of us take time to really study God’s word? All of us, whether we are in school or have finished school, young or old, still study about something. If you are in school, you may be studying Calculus, Chemistry, Physics, or English literature. If you have finished school, you may be studying how to assemble the cabinet that you just bought from IKEA, how to play the latest video game, or how to cook a certain dish. The fact is we continuously learn new things in our lives. The question remains: is learning to read the Bible, for all it is worth, one of them? Some of you might say that the Bible is so hard to understand. You might have attended a Bible study where you tried to learn a passage and ended up with people in the group giving different answers. Rather than learning something, you left with confusion and 53


more questions. Bible study is not a study of others’ opinion of the Bible but rather is a study of one true interpretation that God wants His children to know so our lives can be transformed by that knowledge. Bible study will last your entire lifetime. It does not end when you finish all 66 books in the Bible. The Bible is so rich in truth because of who the Author is. You will understand its richness when you begin studying.

Interpretation vs. Application Many times when we study the Bible we are confused between interpretation and application. For example, let’s take Matthew 28:18-20, And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying,“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” The interpretation of this passage is that Jesus was declaring His authority or Lordship over heaven and earth, the assurance that His disciples needed because their faith had been shaken when Jesus was

captured and crucified. There was also fear of the chief priests and the Jews, people of authority who had conspired to kill Jesus. Jesus’ resurrection validated His authority. The disciples could rest assured that Jesus indeed has authority over heaven and earth as Jesus commissioned them for a very dangerous task. The command was to go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded them. The disciples would be persecuted, rejected, even killed because of this command. As One with authority, Jesus gave them a promise that He is always with them, even to the end of the age. The application of this passage is different for each different individual. As we study our Bible, we should always ask for the Holy Spirit to illumine our hearts to teach us the truth about Himself that He wants us to learn so we can apply it in our lives. Upon reading this passage the Holy Spirit might be speaking to a person to go to China on a mission trip. Another might be a call to full time ministry, or some might be a reminder to start spreading the good news to their friends. The interpretation is one but the applications vary.

But it’s so hard… Reading the Bible requires effort because God communicates to us through His word in the Bible. Any good communication always requires effort. I have a three year old and a two year old niece. When I communicate to my three year old niece, I have to use her vocabulary for her to understand me and I have to learn her words to understand her. My three year old niece used the word “awi” for pain. I didn’t know what it meant until I saw her hurt her little finger and started yelling “awi.” I cannot use the word “awi” for the word pain to my friends. If I do so, they wouldn’t understand me and think that I’m a lunatic. My two year old niece is the same. She uses musical tunes that she learned to communicate her answer. Every time I ask her what colors found in the rainbow, she would answer by singing a jingle. Because she is still learning to properly pronounce words I couldn’t 54


quite understand what she said but knowing the jingle helps me understand her answer. Reading the Bible for all it is worth requires our time and effort as we study God’s word so we can understand what He is trying to communicate to us. Studying the Bible is not done once a week at Bible study but it is an everyday lifestyle that you develop by disciplining yourself as you seek to know the marvelous Creator who loves you so much. One study is learning the different literary styles in the Bible. We wouldn’t read a mystery novel in the same light as reading a biography. The same can be said about the Bible. We read the Psalms differently than we would read the two books of Kings. The book of Psalms is poetic compared to the historical narrative in the books of Kings. Understanding the literary style helps us to understand the intent of the book that we are reading. The Bible contains metaphors, similes, figures of speech, and other literary forms just as we use metaphors, similes, figures of speech, and other literary forms in our communication. Jesus Himself spoke in parables and used different metaphors in His teaching. When Jesus says, “I am the true vine” (John 15:1), we are not to think that He is a grape plant. Rather, He is using a metaphor that His disciples could relate as He is teaching them about the relationship between them and God and by being Jesus’ disciples they ought to bear fruits for God.

Context, context, context Have you ever been misunderstood because what you said was taken out of context and it created a negative effect on you? If you read a newspaper headline that says, “Isaiah broke the window to take some prestigious trophies from the cabinet.” It would be silly to conclude that I’m a thief without reading the entire story to learn what really went on, unless if you have some grudges toward me. If the story explains that there

was a fire in an elderly woman’s home and the elderly woman asked me if I could go back and take some of the trophies that belonged to her late husband then I would look like a hero rather than a thief for breaking the window to take the trophies for her. Context is important in any form of communication including reading the Bible. You would not want to start reading a book in the middle or start watching a movie with 35 minutes left. You would want to start from the beginning so you can understand the context of the book or the movie. One of my professors used to remind us to never read a Bible verse. We should memorize Bible verses but knowing a verse by itself without knowing the entire passage that explains the verse will probably not enhance your spiritual growth because you miss out on the true intention that God is trying to communicate through that verse. Here is a good example of a verse that is often taken out of context:

From its context, verse 20 is not talking about two or three people gathered together for a church service. The context is spiritual discipline within the body of Christ. Jesus is appealing to the Old Testament mandate for two or three witnesses to confirm a testimony (Deut. 19:15). Therefore, the two or three who gather in His name (not for a church service) to rebuke a sinning brother/sister are approved by God (v. 20). It is never easy to bring a sinning member in the church before the entire congregation to excommunicate him/her from the fellowship after failed attempts to rebuke him/her privately. However, God’s promise of His presence ensures that He approves the action taken.

Spiritual Transformation

It is important to remember time and time again that “For where two or three have gathered together in My as you read and study the Bible to ask the Holy Spirit name, I am there in their midst” (Matthew 18:20) to illumine your heart so your life can be transformed by the truth that is being revealed to you. Having We probably have heard this verse being used in a head knowledge is useless without being able to worship service, Bible study, or prayer meeting where apply that knowledge in your life. Just knowing the only a few people showed up and the Pastor used this Bible without experiencing the transforming power verse to comfort the few people that came because all of God would be meaningless as you deepen your it takes is two or three individuals to gather together relationship with Him. to have Jesus in their midst. Although, there are other verses that are better suited for this situation, this is If you love God, why wouldn’t you want to spend not one of them. The context of this verse begins more time reading God’s word to know more about in verse 15 and let’s read the entire context of this Him who can transform your life? Why wouldn’t you verse: want to know more about God who loves you and has a plan for you life? If you love somebody, wouldn’t “If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; you want to spend time to know more about that if he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he person? Do you love God enough to want to know does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so Him more? that BY THE MOUTH OF TWO OR THREE WITNESSES EVERY FACT MAY BE CONFIRMED. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. Truly I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18:15-20) 55


2003 Choir on 20th Anniversary

1986 Choir

1993 3 Ch Choir h i on 10th Anniversary

Church Choir

2008 1985

Mother’s Day 1999

Father’s Day 1986

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Agape A Ag ga ap pe » Anniversary An A nni nn niive vve ersa arrryy 2008 20 2 00 08 8

2008 Father’s ther’s Day

Here is a fact hard to accept: “YOUNG TEENS OFTEN DON’T FEEL THE NECESSITY TO STUDY THE BIBLE BY THEMSELVES IN THEIR OWN QUIET TIME. WE HAVEN’T SEEN OUR TEENS TAKE MUCH INITIATIVE UNTIL THEY REACH HIGHSCHOOL AGE.”

Helping Our

Children

to Build a Personal Relationship with

Christ T

in This ‘Crazy-Mixed-Up World’ Summarized by Jan Janice Atmadja | Article contribution by Mrs. Bina Kusnohadi

he desire for personal Bible study comes when d.The Scriptures are God’s Word and serve as my they are more independent and are able to see the daily guide. need to develop their relationship with God; so e. Nothing is more thrilling than fulfilling God’s helping our teen to realize that becomes a task we command in my life. should undertake as Christian parents. It is important f. I will pass on a godly legacy to the next to begin this when they are young, as they absorb generation. more when they are younger. If it is too late, then 2. Participation in the life of a church is a must. there are still ways parents can involve themselves 3. Setting standards for appropriate clothes for in their children’s life as to direct them as much as church is important because the church is an possible to the light of Christ. opportunity to participate in a formal time of worship. A couple key-points to emphasize with growing teens: Help your teen accomplish these mindsets 1. Help your child develop these convictions as they beginning with developing a Christian mindset grow and experience the outside world: in school and life! a. Jesus Christ must be my Savior and Lord b. Regular prayer must be a crucial part of my According to Dennis and Barbara Rainey, writers of daily life “Helping Your Child Develop a Growing Relationship c. I must be the same person in private that I am with Christ”, there are two roles that children play at in public. school as: a mission-field or a missionary. Mission57


field teenagers are those seeking approval from their peers, while the missionary teen reaches out to his peers.We as parents may become fellow missionaries with our child by starting a ministry in schools or involving yourself in the high school Christian club of Campus Crusade. Another way of having activities with your child is to go to a youth conference together for example the “Something’s Happening USA” youth congress organized by a Christian organization focused on teens called the Student Venture.You may also go on a short-term mission with your child to enable them to learn both the joy and the sacrifices of being a missionary. So then…why is it important for us as parents to involve ourselves with our kids? 1. Kids take their cues from us. 2. We must be living examples of faithful individuals throughout the day, the week, and throughout our lives because they best learn from their environment.

To respond to the Bible stories, other than seeing their parents be the example of living Christianity, children need options in which to express their knowledge and understanding. We, as parents must be wary and utilize that to engage them in Christian living. Children, especially in elementary grades, ask important questions especially the why question. We should not reply to them with superficial or simple answers. Instead, saying I don’t know sometimes might be wise and is fine. As the Scriptures said in 1Corinthians 1:25 -“The foolishness of God is wiser than the wisest man.” For example, if a child asks why Pharaoh allowed Joseph to be imprisoned or his brothers to sell him to Egypt, this then becomes an opportunity for us to talk about how God has a plan for every life. God moves in a child as He does in ‘grown-ups’. “Teachers and parents can help by providing an example of what it means to be a Christian, by explaining the plan of salvation, by listening to your children, and by watching for the time when the Holy Spirit moves.” (McComas)

Childhood is a critical time, and God uses What actions can we take to help direct them children in His own ways.We don’t have to wait to Christ? for them to ‘mature’ before talking to them 1. By referencing the Bible and having conversations about God. It is crucial for us as parents to about the Lord. (The younger the child learns, the involve ourselves with our children and invest more they absorb) them in Christ now. 2. Reading them the Bible. A recommendation from Allie McComas, author of “God Loves Me! Children’s Spiritual Growth Depends on Parents: A word about our sources: Egermeier’s Bible Story Book” 3. Encourage children to ask questions and discuss Dennis and Barbara Rainey are co-founders of Family devotionals and personal experiences during Life, a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ whose mission it is to effectively develop godly marriages and dinner time or in daily conversations. families who change the world one home at a time. From christianbook.com- Dennis & Barbara Rainey How must we prepare to share the Word with our kids? “God Loves Me! Children’s Spiritual Growth Depends We must be in the Word and study it for ourselves on Parents” by Alice McComas. Alice McComas is a so that we may teach them. Sharing our firsthand fun-loving, Christian wife and mother of three. This knowledge of Him with our kids is another great way former school teacher enjoys writing articles highfor children to be able to comprehend things of the lighting the humor that can be found in everyday life. spirit as Jesus said in Luke 18:17- “Anyone who will She has been writing poetry and children fiction for not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will nineteen years and recently finished her first young adult novel. never enter it.” “Spiritual Growth in Children” from LifeWay Chris“Telling is not the same as teaching.” tian Resources established by the Southern Baptist Providing an example is absolutely necessary to Convention in 1981 to assist churches and believers provide the best environment for children to learn. to evangelize the world about Christ. 58


Membantu anak kita dalam membangun hubungan kepribadian dengan Kristus di dunia yang kacau ini

Ringkasan dari Janice Atmadja | Kontribusi artikel dari Ibu Bina Kusnohadi

Ini adalah satu fakta yang sulit untuk diterima: “ANAK REMAJA SERING TIDAK MELIHAT PERLUNYA BELAJAR ALKITAB SENDIRI DI SAAT TEDUH. KITA TIDAK MELIHAT REMAJA KITA MENGAMBIL INISIATIF SAMPAI MEREKA MENCAPAI UMUR SMA.”

K

emauan untuk belajar Alkitab sendiri datang ketika mereka merasa lebih mandiri dan bisa melihat kebutuhan untuk membangun hubungan mereka dengan Tuhan; dengan demikian membantu remaja kita menyadari hal ini adalah satu tugas yang kita harus lakukan sebagai orang tua Kristen. Memulai proses ini penting semenjak mereka masih muda karena akan lebih mudah bagi mereka untuk menangkap sesuatu dalam hidupnya. Jikalau agak terlambat, masih ada jalan bagi orang tua untuk dapat melibatkan diri sebanyak mungkin dalam mengarahkan hidup mereka ke cahaya Kristus. Beberapa inti untuk ditekankan kepada remaja dalam masa pertumbuhannya: 1. Bantulah anak anda memperkembangkan pendiriannya di bawah ini selama mereka bertumbuh dan mengalami dunia luar : a. Jesus Kristus adalah penyelamat dan Tuhan saya b. Doa secara regular adalah bagian penting dalam kehidupan saya sehari-hari c.Saya harus menjadi orang yang mempunyai pribadi yang sama sewaktu di rumah dan di masyarakat. d. Alkitab adalah kata-kata Tuhan dan merupakan pegangan hidup saya. e. Tidak ada hal yang lebih memuaskan daripada memenuhi perintah Allah dalam hidup saya. f. Saya akan mewarisi kesalehan kepada generasi selanjutnya. 2. Partisipasi dalam kehidupan gereja adalah kewajiban.

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3. Membuat standar untuk pakaian yang pantas dipakai ke gereja merupakan kepentingan, karena gereja adalah kesempatan untuk berpartisipasi dalam ibadah yang formal. Bantu anak anda mencapai angan-angan ini dimulai dengan membangun Kekristenan dalam hidup dan sekolah! Menurut Dennis dan Barbara Rainey, penulis buku “Helping Your Child Develop a Growing Relationship with Christ”, ada dua peran yand anakanak mainkan di sekolah: sebagai lapangan misi atau sebagai utusan Injil. Lapangan misi adalah remaja yang mengikuti cara kawan-kawannya, sementara utusan Injil menginjili kawankawannya. Kita sebagai orang tua bisa menjadi penginjil bersama anak kita dengan memulai pelayanan di sekolah atau melibatkan diri kita dalam klub Kristen sekolah di Campus Crusade. Cara lain untuk beraktivitas dengan anak kita adalah untuk pergi ke seminar remaja, contohnya congress pemuda “Something’s Happening USA” yang diselenggarakan oleh organisasi Kristen yang berfokus kepada remaja dalam Student Venture. Anda juga bisa pergi ke misi sementara bersama anak untuk memungkinkan mereka belajar sukacita dan pengorbanan dalam penginjilan. Kemudian… mengapa ini penting bagi kita

sebagai orangtua bersama anak?

diri manusia.” Contohnya, jika seorang anak menanyakan mengapa Firaun memperbolehkan Yusuf untuk dipenjarakan atau dijual oleh saudara-saudaranya ke 1. Anak meniru bimbingan orangtua. Mesir; ini adalah kesempatan untuk kita membicarakan 2. Kita harus menjadi contoh pribadi beriman tentang bagaimana Tuhan mempunyai rencana dalam sepajang hari, minggu, dan selama hidup kita karena setiap kehidupan. Tuhan bekerja di dalam anak kecil mereka belajar terbaik dari lingkungan mereka. seperti di dalam orang dewasa. “Guru dan orang tua dapat membantu dengan memberikan contoh tentang Apa yang bisa kita lakukan untuk membantu arti menjadi orang Kristen, dengan menjelaskan mengarahkan mereka ke Kristus? rencana keselamatan, mendengarkan pendapat anak1. Melalui refrensi Alkitab dan pembicaraan tentang anak, dan mengamati di waktunya Roh Kudus bekerja.” Tuhan. (Semakin muda mereka belajar, semakin (McComas) banyak mereka tahu) 2. MembacakanAlkitab kepada mereka.Rekomendasi Masa kecil adalah masa yang genting, danTuhan dari Allie McComas, pengarang buku “God Loves menggunakan anak-anak dengan caraNya Me! Children’s Spiritual Growth Depends on sendiri. Kita tidak perlu menunggu mereka Parents: Egermeier’s Bible Story Book” ‘bertumbuh’ untuk berbicara kepada mereka 3. Mendorong anak untuk menanyakan dan tentang Tuhan. Ini sangat penting bagi orang membicarakan renungan dan pengalaman pribadi tua untuk melibatkan diri dengan anak kita saat makan malam atau percakapan sehari-hari. dan menanam mereka dalam Kristus mulai sekarang. Bagaimanakah seharusnya cara kita menyiapkan Firman dengan anak? Kita harus belajar dan mengerti Firman Tuhan supaya kita bisa mengajarkan mereka. Berbagi pengetahuan kita tentang Tuhan bersama anak merupakan salah satu cara untuk anak supaya mereka bisa memahami hal-hal rohani seperti apa yang Tuhan Yesus katakan Sumber: dalam Lukas 18:17- “Sesungguhnya barangsiapa tidak menyambut kerajaan Allah seperti seorang anak kecil, Dennis dan Barbara Rainey adalah pendiri Family Life, ia tidak akan masuk ke dalamnya.” pelayanan dalam Campus Crusade for Christ yang mempunyai misi untuk membangun secara efektif “Memberitahu tidak sama dengan mengajar.” pernikahan dan keluarga Kristen yang merubah dunia Orang tua perlu memberikan contoh untuk mulai dari satu rumah per satu. menyediakan anak untuk belajar di lingkungan terbaik. Dari christianbook.com – Dennis & Barbara Rainey Untuk menanggapi cerita-cerita Alkitab, selain melihat orangtua mereka menjadi contoh hidup kekristenan, “God Loves Me! Children’s Spiritual Growth Depends anak-anak perlu kebebasan untuk mengungkapkan on Parents” oleh Alice McComas. Alice McComas pengetahuan dan pengertian mereka. Kita sebagai adalah seorang istri Kristen dan ibu dari tiga anak. orang tua harus waspada dan menggunakan Mantan guru sekolah ini menikmati menulis artikel kewaspadaan kita untuk mengikut sertakan mereka yang menyoroti humor dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. dalam kehidupan Kristen. Anak-anak, terutama kelas Beliau telah mengarang puisi dan fiksi anak-anak sekolah dasar, sering menanyakan pertanyan penting, selama 19 tahun dan baru saja menyelesaikan novel khususnya pertanyaan “mengapa.” Kita sebaiknya pemuda yang pertama. tidak menjawab pertanyaan mereka dengan jawaban yang sulit atau sederhana. Menjawab dengan “tidak “Spiritual Growth in Children” dari LifeWay Christian tahu” terkadang merupakan jawaban bijak dan lebih Resources didirikan oleh Southern Baptist Convention baik. Seperti dalam Firman 1 Korintus 1:25 - “Sebab tahun 1981 untuk membantu gereja-gereja dan orangyang bodoh dari Allah lebih besar hikmatnya dari pada orang percaya menginjil dunia tentang Kristus. 60

untuk


melibatkan

1994 Cooking

Competition

2008 Cooking Competition

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Agape Ag gap ape » Anniversary Ann An niiivvve erssar ary 2008 20 008 08

Recipe Cajun Chicken Pasta

Elegantly Easy Creme Brulee

SERVE : 4 people PREP TIME : 20 Min COOK TIME : 20 Min TOTAL TIME: 40 Min

SERVE: 4-6 people

INGREDIENTS • 1/2 pound linguine pasta • 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves • 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon Cajun seasoning • 1/4 cup butter • 2 red bell pepper, sliced • 2 green bell pepper, sliced • 8 fresh mushrooms, sliced • 2 green onion, chopped • 2 cups heavy cream • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil • 1/2 teaspoon lemon pepper • 1/2 teaspoon salt • 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder • 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese DIRECTIONS 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add pasta and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain. 2. Place the chicken and the Cajun seasoning in a plastic bag. Shake to coat. In a large skillet over medium heat, saute the chicken in butter or margarine until almost tender (5 to 7 minutes). 3. Add the red bell pepper, green bell pepper, mushrooms and green onion. Saute and stir for 2 to 3 minutes. Reduce heat. 4. Add the cream, basil, lemon pepper, salt, garlic powder and ground black pepper. Heat through. Add the cooked linguine, toss and heat through. Sprinkle with grated Parmesan cheese and serve.

INGREDIENTS • 8 egg yolks • 1/3 cup granulated white sugar • 2 cups heavy cream • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract • 1/4 cup granulated white sugar (for the caramelized tops) DIRECTIONS 1. Preheat oven to 300ºF. 2. In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. 3. Add cream and vanilla, and continue to whisk until well blended. 4. Strain into a large bowl, skimming off any foam or bubbles. 5. Divide mixture among 4-6 ramekins or custard cups. 6. Place ramekins in a water bath (large pan filled with 1 or 2 inches of hot water) 7. Bake until set around the edges, but still loose in the center, about 50 to 60 minutes. 8. Remove from oven and leave in the water bath until cooled. 9. Remove cups from water bath and chill for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. 10. When ready to serve, sprinkle about 2 teaspoons of sugar over each custard. For best results, use a small, hand-held torch to melt sugar. If you don’t have a torch, place under the broiler until sugar melts. Re-chill custards for a few minutes before serving.

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cajun-Chicken-Pasta/ http://www.cremebrulee.com/creme.htm Detail.aspx 62


Perekonomian di California semakin memburuk. Bisnis real estate sudah hampir sepuluh tahun jatuh. Banyak rumah–rumah yang ditinggalkan oleh para pemiliknya ataupun yang ditelantarkan oleh bank dan pemerintah oleh karena daerah yang tidak bagus sehingga kalau bank atau pemerintah mendandani rumah itu tetap saja setelah satu atau dua tahun tetap tidak ada pembelinya maka rumah itu akan menjadi kumuh kembali. Sehingga realtor, banker, atau pemerintah cuma akan membuang uang, tenaga, dan waktu.

Kemanakah penduduk California ini? Dimanakah Hollywood? Dimanakah julukan Los Angeles sebagai surga makanan ataupun San Franscisco sebagai tempat yang paling cool dan indah di California selama ini? Sejak tahun 2006, California sudah mulai menunjukan gejala–gejala bahwa masa jaya Los Angeles dan San Francisco mulai menurun dan pudar. Begitu juga dengan dunia perfilman atau hiburan sudah mulai keropos sejak tahun Millenium dimulai apalagi sejak ada DVD, VCD dan CD bajakan yang harganya cuma sekitar satu atau dua dollar dan mudah dijangkau di Downtown, Chinatown, atau di persimpangan jalan besar. Semua bajakan–bajakan ini merajalela di pasaran, dan pemerintah tidak mengambil tindakkan apa–apa. Belum lagi semua Union, seperti SAG, AFTRA, Equty, dan semua bentuk Union yang lain berkali–kali mengadakan aksi mogok menuntut bayaran yang lebih tinggi. Sehingga ini membuat pada mulanya bisnis perfilman tersenda– sendat. Sehingga rakyat menjadi terbiasa nonton DVD yang lama atau film–film asing yang memberikan udara dan atmosphere yang lebih segar daripada cuma made in Hollywood yang cuma berkisar pada drug abuse, gangsters, atau korupsi di bidang pemerintahan. Penonton sudah jenuh dengan semua aneka ragam film yang ujung–ujungnya cuma berkisar seputar masalah duniawi yang tidak benar. Tidak heran banyak producer–producer yang berputar haluan untuk melakukan bisnis yang lain. Sehingga pada akhirnya ke-glamour-an Hollywood telah pudar hancur. Walk of Fame sepanjang 63


Hollywood Blvd. telah hancur berlubang-lubang, dan semua nama-nama bintang film besar yang tercetak di sepanjang jalan Hollywood Blvd tsb. dicungkil oleh para gelandangan dan gangster. Batu–batu granite di sepanjang Hollywood Blvd. tersebut banyak yang berpindah kerumah–rumah rakyat untuk menjadi lantai di rumah mereka karena mereka tidak mempunyai uang untuk membangun rumah mereka yang hancur atau retak karena gempa bumi yang sering pula terjadi di California akhir–akhir ini. Hollywood cuma tinggal nama saja, dan malahan yang saat ini sedang menanjak dan naik daun adalah Bollywood alias Bombaywood. Yang mana film–film mereka banyak disukai karena di dalam film mereka banyak diajarkan cara–cara Yoga yang bisa diterapkan langsung di dalam kehidupan manusia pada masa kini untuk menenangkan pikiran dari anxiety modern yang telah melanda dunia. Sejak Iran, North Korea, dan China berlomba–lombah menciptakan senjata nuklir dan dengan diam–diam melakukan percobaan di dalam tanah atau di dasar lautan maka sampah–sampah nuklir itu akhirnya mengkotori seluruh dunia dan menumpuk di United States dan California khususnya. (karena pembuangan sisa bahan-–bahan kimia dari factory–factory yang ada, plus gubernur setempat pun sudah gampang disogok dengan jutaan dollar untuk membiarkan sampah–sampah liar ini dibuang ke lautan dan danau di sepanjang California) Tidak heran kalau segala macam penyakit baru mulai berjangkitan dimana para dokter dan ahli

medis tidak dapat menemukan penangkalnya. Jangan kata penyakit yang ditimbulkan akibat senjata nuklir ini, penyakit Aids yang sudah puluhan tahun digumuli oleh para ahli-ahli kesehatan pun masih belum didapatkan obat yang benar-benar jitu. Banyak rakyat yang meninggal dengan terlantar di rumah–rumah sakit yang dijubeli dengan orang–orang yang sakit, para homeless, dan para illegal immigrant yang tidak mempunyai asuransi kesehatan. Gambaran yang menakutkan mulai tercipta di Amerika, di California khususnya. Ini membuat para penduduk setempat sadar dan mulai urbanisasi ke Midwest atau East Coast, dimana udaranya lebih bersih sehingga masih banyak oksigen–oksigen yang bergantungan di udara yang bisa dihirup dengan cuma–cuma oleh manusia tanpa harus membayar dengan harga yang mahal kalau sudah diolah ke dalam tabung yang dijual oleh rumah sakit. Pihak Asuransi banyak yang pailit sehingga semua bentuk claims akan banyak makan waktu, bahkan bisa berlarut–larut karena terlalu banyak orang yang sakit karena musibah ataupun kecelakaan sehingga perusahan Asuransi hampir tidak bisa mendapatkan untung yang bisa mencukupi budget dan salary untuk karywan mereka karena terlalu banyak claims. Disamping itu, tidak sedikit clients yang quit karena mereka jobless. Washington DC juga sudah kepusingan dengan masalah–masalah antar negara, PBB yang sekarang sudah tidak ada wibawanya lagi. Mereka tidak bisa berbuat apa–apa lagi ketika Iran, North Korea, dan China dengan terang–terangan melipat gandakan Nuclear Mass Weapon. President United States pusing bernegosiasi dengan pihak Afganistan dan Pakistan yang menyandera Army dan tentara yang bertugas disana. Negara sedang dalam keadaan deficit, ressesi, dan inflasi yang jauh lebih parah dibandingkan pada jaman Franklin D. Rosevelt, Presiden yang sebelumnya kedapatan bunuh diri karena tidak dapat meng-handle tanggung-jawab dan tekanan yang bertubi–tubi dari dalam dan luar negeri sehingga dengan mata gelap President menghabiskan nyawanya dengan memasang bomb di mobilnya sendiri. Sewaktu hal ini terjadi pihak Senat berusaha menutup–nutupi suicide ini dengan

mengatakan bahwa President menjadi korban terrorist. Walaupun telah kedapatan a little note dari President buat keluarganya, tetapi tetap saja pihak CIA mengatakan bahwa President menjadi korban pembunuhan para terrorist. Masalah–masalah inilah yang telah membuat President yang bertugas ini mengabaikan himbauan dari Gubernur California untuk meminta kiriman uang dan suntikan–suntikan yang tidak sedikit untuk membangun California kembali. Masalah politik sekarang bukanlah masalah yang kebenarannya 50/50 menjadi dugaan para rakyat seperti masa–masa sebelum millenium. Pada masa sekarang inilah, rakyat hampir mengetahui semua gerak–gerik dan tindakan yang akan diambil oleh pemerintah. Sehingga masalah pengabaian pembangunan kembali California inilah yang telah membuat orang berbondong-bondong berurbanisasi ke EastCoast dan Midwest. Bahkan, orang–orang kaya banyak yang berimmigrasi ke Eropa Timur karena disana mereka merasa lebih aman. Memang di Eropa timur banyak negara–negara Komunis dan sarangnya para Terrorist, tapi dengan tinggal diantara mereka itulah mereka menjadi bebas dari ancaman dan terhindar dari kepingan–kepingan sampah nuklir yang sewaktu–waktu bisa menghantam Amerika. Hari ini begitu tiba di kantornya, Gubernur California memanggil semua Staffnya untuk mengadakan rapat darurat. Pagi ini, ketika gubernur bangun tidur secara tiba-tiba, timbul ide di benaknya. Ide yang sangat bagus, yang bisa dipakai sebagai ujung tombak untuk menyerang President dan House Representatives. Semua Staff Gubernur ini sebenarnya mangkel dan marah pada atasan mereka ini. Mereka semua sudah jemu kerja di kantor kegubernuran ini, tetapi mereka tidak berani berhenti bekerja karena mereka tahu bahwa mereka tidak akan bisa berbuat apa–apa kalau mereka quit pekerjaan mereka ini dan sudah pasti tidak akan ada lowongan kerja diluar, kecuali menjadi drug dealer atau pindah ke tempat lain atau ke luar negeri. “Begini saudara-saudara...,” Gubernur membuka ra64

pat darurat ini. Lalu dengan jelas dan tegas, gubernur mengatakan bahwa dia membutuhkan dukungan yang seratus persen dari semua orang yang bekerja di kantor Gubernur di Sacramento tsb. Ternyata, Gubernur akan memberikan ULTIMATUM kepada Washington D.C. dan H.R. bahwa kalau pusat tidak segera ambil tindakan untuk membantu California ini, maka mereka berkeputusan bahwa mereka akan menyatakan lepas dari pusat dan mereka ingin membangun Negara sendiri. Tindakan itu akan diambil oleh semua orang yang masih tinggal di California ini, selanjutnya gubernur mengatakan sebelum California ini benar-benar di-abandon oleh dunia dan menjadi tanah kosong, maka Gubernur mengusulkan untuk menjual California ini kepada negara manapun yang mampu membayar harga yang ditawarkan. Semua orang kaget sewaktu gubernur mencetuskan ide ini, dan banyak suara menggerutu dan keluhan dilontarkan kepada gubernur. Tetapi gebernur menenangkan mereka dengan mengatakan bahwa dia bukan menjual California selamanya, akan tetapi dia hanya ingin menyewakan California ini untuk menjadi negara Coloni dari siapa pun yang bersedia “mengcolonize” California ini, seperti halnya dahulu China, menjual Hongkong kepada negara Inggris untuk menjadikan Hongkong Koloni Inggris. “Lihat..., nyatanya setelah beratus tahun menjadi koloni Inggris, Hongkong menjadi maju dan terkenal…” “Sekarang kita lagi butuh uang dan pusat dengan jelas–jelas tidak peduli kepada kita yang tinggal di California ini, mau kalian punah bersama–sama dengan tanah California ini kalau kita sudah tidak mempunyai uang untuk melakukan apapun, apalagi membangun kejayaan California seperti dulu lagi... Hah, kalian cuma bermimpi.. doang kalau tidak ada budget sama sekali...” Akhirnya setelah dijelaskan panjang lebar, semua sepakat dengan usul gubernur. Gubernur langsung mengirim fax ke Oval building tepatnya ke meja President langsung dan meminta President untuk segera menelpon ke Sacramento. Di Washington D.C., President juga mengadakan rapat darurat menunjukan fax dari California, lalu President dengan speaker phone langsung menelpon ke Sacramento. “Apa yang kau lakukan...bung, apa kau mau 65


menciptakan perang saudara kembali...pusat bukannya tidak ingin membantu California, kami juga sudah tidak mempunyai dana cadangan untuk membangun California. Kami tidak mau apa yang dialami oleh California akan dialami oleh states yang lain kalau kami memaksakan menyediakan dana untuk California.” “Benar bapak President, kami mengerti kalau negara mencetak uang tanpa alasan buat California akan terjadi deflasi, akan tetapi usulku adalah untuk mendapatkan uang dari luar...itulah satu–satunya cara yang akan menyelamatkan California bahkan mungkin seluruh United States.” President diam sebentar, hati kecilnya menyetujui usul gubernur California, bahkan dia mengutuk dirinya sendiri kenapa dia tidak bisa berpikir kesana, kenapa otaknya di bekukan dengan urusan–urusan yang tidak ada jalan keluarnya ini.“Akan tetapi...apa kata Gubernur State yang lain kalau kami menuruti usulmu…dan apa kata dunia nanti…kalau hal ini benar terjadi?” “Bapak President, siapakah dunia itu? PBB kah? Eropahkah? Lihatlah pada masa ini siapakah yang peduli dengan apa yang dilakukan oleh negara lain? Semua negara–negara besar sibuk dengan senjata nuklir mereka. Negara–negara Arab sibuk dengan minyak mereka dan urusan terrorist mereka....yang penting sekarang ini selamatkan dahulu California sebelum California menjadi bahan tertawaan para musuh–musuh Amerika...” President diam, semua yang ada di conference room diam. Lalu setelah kesenjangan terjadi sejenak, President berkata, “…baik besok aku akan terbang ke Sacramento. Kita akan membicarakan hal ini lebih detail lagi dan sekarang aku dan House Representatives akan mengadakan rapat lagi.” Hubungan via telepon di putuskan, semua bernafas lega. Lalu masing-masing kantor sibuk rapat kembali. President dan H.R. dengan serius membahas masalah ini, demikian juga dengan Sacramento. Setelah mereka pada dasarnya menyetujui usul yang bagus ini, kini mereka dihadapkan kepada masalah siapa yang mau membeli California? Atau kepada siapakah mereka har-

us menjual atau menyewakan California ini? Dan, untuk berapa lamakah California ini dijual atau disewakan? Jam 10 pagi, President dan beberapa kaki tangannya sudah mendarat di Sacramento. Kedatangan yang mendadak ini telah membuat para wartawan dan stasiun TV memberikan headline “Another Breaking News from California.” Para Security Negara melarang para wartawan ini untuk meliput lebih lanjut. Mereka akan diberitahu pada waktunya, demikian kata Juru bicara negara. Rapat kali ini antara gubernur dan staff tingkat atas serta rombongan dari pusat saja. Mereka langsung ke permasalahnya, yaitu kepada siapa mereka akan menjual California dan untuk berapa lama mereka akan menyewakan California? Lalu satu–persatu mereka memasang list dari negara–negara yang saat ini mempunyai ekonomi yang stabil dan mantap, ternyata mereka cuma mempunyai beberapa pilihan saja yaitu calon pembeli California yang memenuhi syarat cuma China, Arab (termasuk Iran), dan satu negara Komunis yang kuat. Mereka mulai meneliti untung dan rugi kalau mereka menyewakan California kepada China. “kalau pembelinya China,…California tidak mungkin menjadi semakin maju…dan culture kita akan berubah total, disamping itu kalian tahu sendiri, orang Chinese itu tidak bisa ditebak…dan yang paling membahayakan adalah mereka itu licik dan licin…lalu kalau dijual kepada orang Komunis…ini akan lebih parah lagi…komunis kan mempunyai paham semua harta milik negara, meskipun kita bisa bikin perjanjian tapi kalau mereka sudah masuk

“Aku yakin begitu Chinese ini menjejakan kaki mereka disini, maka semua bisnis di California ini akan hidup kembali.”

kesini…bisa–bisa bukan kita mendapatkan untung malah kita yang akan disedot oleh mereka. Kalian bisa lihatlah kalau nge-deal dengan komunis dari permulaan saja sudah ketahuan mereka itu tidak bisa dipercaya. Lalu negara Arab,…mereka ini kadang–kala tidak realistik, moody kalau aku boleh katakan…plus mereka itu kebanyakan “Terrorist.” Gubernur California menyangkal semua pandangan negative dari kepala negara. “Apa yang bapak President katakan mungkin ada benarnya…tapi kita belum melihat dari segi positive-nya…sekarang coba kita lihat… kalau pembelinya Chinese, mereka ini orang pintar, jenius, mereka nomor satu didalam menciptakan bisnis, mulai dari tidak ada sampai menjadi berlimpah–limpah. Nah, orang–orang yang seperti inilah yang dibutuhkan untuk membangun California kembali. Aku yakin begitu Chinese ini menjejakan kaki mereka disini, maka semua bisnis di California ini akan hidup kembali. Bisnis yang mereka lakukan akan mengalir ke states yang lainnya, dan itu akan memberikan suntikan tambahan buat kita juga. Disamping itu orang–orang Chinese ini berpenampilan sopan dan rapi apalagi kaum wanitanya, bukankah hal ini akan membuat California menjadi Classic dan anggun dengan hadirnya wanita–wanita cantik berbadan langsing, bermata sipit, dan berkulit kuning langsat seperti gadis–gadis Chinese ini. Akan jauh bedanya bila dibandingkan dengan gadis–gadis Amerika yang kebanyakan overweight ini.” “Sekarang kalau pembelinya orang Arab… aku tidak pungkiri kalau mereka ini banyak duitnya, tetapi benar seperti kata bapak President, bahwa mereka kebanyakan terrorist, akan tetapi… kalau mereka mengkolonize California…kita justru akan menjadi aman…hidup berdampingan dengan mereka, mereka akan menanamkan bisnis mereka di sini, keluarga mereka disini…jadi kalau kita tinggal berdampingan dengan terrorist itu sendiri siapakah yang akan mengancam dan men-teror kita? Siapa tahu dengan langkah ini kita justru akan menciptakan kedamaian dunia… Nah, kalau pembelinya Komunis dari Eropa Timur, memang aku sangsikan California akan lebih baik ditangan mereka, malah aku kuatir bisa–bisa California dijadikan camp pengasingan bahkan dijadikan tempat pembuangan tahanan–tahanan mereka.” 66

“Kurang ajar…” President United States ini ngedumel dalam hati dan iri dengan kecerdasan gubernur California ini. Dan, yang membuat President ini semakin marah adalah dia harus menyetujui lagi pandangan Gubernur yang kelihatannya bisa menjadi calon president yang akan datang. “Semprulll ini orang,” katanya lagi dalam hati. Padahal dia mulai berpikir kalau benar California sukses di sewakan, dia akan menyewakan lagi Wyoming yang seperti tempat jin buang anak dan jarang immigrant mau tinggal di sana. Kalau dia bisa menjadi president pada pemilu mendatang, dia sudah merencanakan bisa dapat uang sampingan dari hasil ‘leasing’ states-states berikutnya. Tapi “Aaahhh” president mendesah di dalam hatinya, “Kelihatannya Gubernur California ini bisa–bisa diminta mencalonkan diri buat pemilu yang akan datang…Aaah nasib-nasib..... padahal aku sudah merencanakan pensiun di Swiss atau di Lexemburg…” “Bagaimana bapak President dengan komentar saya…” gubernur California bertanya kepada President yang sedang bengong–bengong memikirkan nasibnya yang lagi apes menurutnya. “Ooooh…yeah…yeah…aku setuju dengan pandanganmu. Tentang calon pembeli California ini…benarkan Gentlemen?” President United

67


States ini meminta persetujuan dari anggota staff yang hadir bersama dengannya di rapat itu. Semua staff dari DC menyetujui President. “Nah, sudah jelas calon pembeli California ini either Chinese atau Arab. Sekarang hasil meeting ini akan aku bawa ke pusat dan kami akan mengadakan rapat gabungan para congress mengenai masalah ini. Karena masih banyak langkah yang harus kita pikirkan dan kita ambil dan belum tentu juga di setujui oleh congress atau HR, meskipun aku bisa mem-veto-nya. Nah, aku ingin bertanya kepadamu gubernur California, apa kau ada ide…bagaimana caranya menawarkan kepada kedua calon pembeli ini secara halus tanpa mempermalukan negara kita ini?” “Wah untuk hal itu belum saya pikirkan tuh bapak President…” “Yah sudah pasti kau belum bisa memikirkan hal ini karena ini bukan levelmu atau ini belum levelmu…” (dalam hati President ini tertawa...’rasain lu’…elu kira elu aja yang bisa punya ide cemerlang). “Cukup sudah dengan idemu yang bagus itu kini biarkanlah aku dan staffku akan memecahkan masalah ini. Sekaligus aku ingin memberitahukan kau bahwa selama kami sedang

“Lebih baik daripada kalau dibocori oleh orang lain dengan kata yang lebih menyakitkan.”

“Kalau aku tidak peduli kenapa aku dan staffku terbang dari D.C. ke Sacramento ini…, tidakkah kalian lihat itu semua?”

membahas masalah ini…kau harus tetap mempertahankan California dan usahakanlah sekeras mungkin bagaimana caranya kalau bisa California jangan dijual… dan jangan punya pikiran macam–macam lagi yah apalagi ingin bikin negara sendiri…mengerti…kah kau?” President dengan tegas bertanya kepada Gubernur California.

“Berikan kami specific answer bapak President...”

“iya bapak President aku mengerti....” Di pelataran luar kantor gubernur di Sacramento itu sudah dipenuhi oleh para wartawan dan crew–crew TV yang ingin tahu apa yang sebenarnya telah dirapatkan oleh President dan Gubernur California ini. Sepanjang sejarah berdirinya America belum pernah terjadi hal yang mendadak seperti ini. Apakah ini ada hubungan dengan keamanan California yang semakin lama semakin ditinggalkan oleh rakyat ataupun oleh orang yang menanam saham. “Bapak President…apakah kedatanganmu ke Sacramento ini ada hubungan dengan keamanan California ini atau United States,” seorang wartawan berteriak bertanya kepada President sewaktu President United States terlihat keluar dari kantor Gubernur. “Benarkah…berita–berita angin yang mengatakan bahwa Iran akan membidikkan senjata Nuklir-nya ke California ini?” seorang wartawan TV bertanya kepada President. “Apakah kalian peduli akan California…atau kalian cuma haus berita saja hah?” President bertanya balik kepada para wartawan. “Kalau bapak President peduli dengan California, kenapa California di-abandon-kan oleh bapak sendiri?” wartawan tidak kalah sengitnya berbalik menyerang President.

“Kalau bapak President care dengan California.. apa buktinya dan tindakkan apa yang bapak mau ambil?” “Aku akan mengusahakan cara apapun untuk membangun California kembali!”

“Apakah kau mempunyai uang?” “Loh apa hubungannya jika aku mempunyai uang atau tidak dengan masa depan California…jangan berbelit– belit dong bapak President!” “Jelas ada hubungannya dengan uang…If California for Sale…do you have enough money to buy it? Begitu mendengar jawaban itu semua yang hadir terkejut, Gubernur dan staffnya hampir pingsan ketika mendengar komentar President, begitu juga dengan staff dari D.C. yang mengikuti President tidak percaya dengan apa yang baru saja didengarnya. Setelah berkata demikian President melangkah lebih cepat lagi ke arah Limo yang akan membawa President ke Air One yang akan membawa President terbang kembali ke D.C. Para Wartawan berlari memburu President dan memberondongnya dengan pertanyaan–pertanyaan tentang “California 4 Sale.” Di dalam Limo, jubir bertanya kepada President kenapa dia mencetuskan hal itu? President berkata, “Lebih baik daripada kalau dibocori oleh orang lain dengan kata yang lebih menyakitkan. I did it in purpose…aku ingin para wartawan itu yang menjadi iklan kita kepada dunia…sebelum hal penjualan California ini terjadi para wartawan terus akan berspekulasi tentang penjualan California ini…sehingga berita ini menjadi berita yang bisa membuat dunia bahkan mungkin lama-kelamaan orang tidak peduli akan hal ini. Nah, bila Congress dan H.R. menyetujui mengenai California 4 Sale ini, dan transaksi penjualan terjadi, maka hal ini bukanlah hal yang baru atau yang menggoncangkan dunia. Sehingga dimata dunia, kita tidak kelihatan begitu jatuh atau miskin.” 68

1999 Christmas Cantata

1995 Easter Cantata

2006 Christmas Drama 20

1998 Christmas Drama

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1996 Christmas Drama Titled ‘Suci Sang Pragawati’

1984 The First Christmas Drama (Rev. Hosea as usual openned with an introduction)

1986 Christmas Drama 2003 Vocal Group 1983 Vocal Group

70 70

Agape Ag A gap ape » Anniversary An A nni nive vers ve rrssa arry 2008 2008 20 08

Christians in China As some of us know, Christianity is one of the great-

l FFor example, l the establishment of short-lived cults. there was a Chinese cult named Taiping Kingdom (Taiping means ‘heavenly peace’) lasted from 1850 to 1864. The founder of this cult was a fellow from Guandong province by the name of Hong Xiuquang whose idea came from reading missionaries’ tracts about Jesus Christ and that later claimed of having a vision that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. And hence, the cult of Taiping Kingdom came from. Its main purpose of the establishment was to bring peace to China especially to benefit the peasants by cleansing the corrupt feudal system of the Qing dynasty.3 This revolutionary movement resulted in the killing over 20 millions of Chinese. Next is the most shocking cult movement in the Chinese history called the cult of Mao founded by Mao Tse-Tung. This secular religion in china result in the greatest mass murderer in the historic record of mankind killing 60 millions human beings as listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

est growing religions in China these past years. But, this is not because China has just recently opened its door to Christian missionaries. In fact, according to Wilfred Wong, a parliamentary officer for the Jubilee Campaign, China still feels estranged and threatened by foreigners or any popular ideology that’s different than theirs. Actually, since the modern age, Christian missionaries from Europe and America had started to plant Christianity seeds in China, but the country just seemed to bear few fruits.1 And today, in spite of many restrictions on its religious practice in the country, we are starting to see that a big harvest is coming soon in China and from China. Along with this article, we should also reminded ourselves that none of our work in God will be in vain although we feel that the work seems pointless or not bearing any fruits, as Apostle Paul says, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” None of these religious sects in China lasted long, (1 Corinthians 15:58; NIV) and they ironically did not provide peace within its Before we go on with the article, let’s start off with an- country and the world, instead they brought wars swering this question to check our knowledge about and genocides. So, is there a religion that can provide the Chinese: In general, Americans and Europeans are the Chinese with a source of spiritual fulfillment and known to be Christians. Arabs are Moslems, and Indi- at the same time is able to create peace within the country and with the rest of the world. It may be too ans are Hindus. And, the Chinese are ______? soon but not too early to say yes--and the possibility If we have trouble filling in the blank, it may be be- is called Christianity. cause the answer is blank. As a matter of fact, the 4 Chinese has been the least religious one. We know Three-Self Patriotic Movement and the 5 that Daoism, Chinese Buddhism, and Confucianism House Churches are more like a rationalistic kind of religions that’s The Chinese constitution says, “Citizens of the Peolacking a personal relationship with a higher deity. ple’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious Their worships and prayers are only individualized to belief,” implying its people are free to worship any their ancestor spirits.2 religion as they wish. However, up until today, some However, there are many failed attempts in overcom- Christians are still reporting that their religious pracing the Chinese lack of spiritual fulfillment that led to tice is restricted by the states. According to Wilfred 71


Wong, a parliamentary officer, the reason to the restriction is that China’s new generation leaders is trying to consolidate control of the country as it goes through rapid social and economic changes, and it feel threatened by any popular ideology that’s different than their own. In addition, he said, “The perception that China’s Christians have close links with the West adds to their plight.”

“Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief” Chinese constitution

believe, but you can’t evangelize. But that is a natural act for Christians. The Bible commands us to preach the Gospel.” Here, we see what the Chinese constitution says and the reality are different. However, God is still working on China. As we know, there is a great number of Chinese Christian converts in China, and the number is still growing. In his book “Jesus in Beijing” (Regnery, 2003), David Aikman estimates the number of practicing Christians in China were over 80 millions and predicts that within three decades by 2033 this number will quintuple to about 400 milllions Christian Chinese.This would make China to have the largest Christian population in the world.This would also mean that the underground Christian house churches are about to reach its critical mass in spite of the restriction to evangelize. With this, Aikman is suggesting that “a Christian view of the world will be the dominant worldview within China’s political and cultural establishment.” Aikman sees the Christianization in China as happening concurrently with China’s becoming a global power, such that it will exercise power as responsibly and benevolently as has the United States.2

The Christian religious practice is restricted with a movement called Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). It was started during Mao Tse Tung time, it was first intended to bring all Christians dominations to unite under TSPM control. Until today, TSPM are still in control of the churches. It is such that the TSPM decides what buildings can be used for church services, which pastors can preach and what areas can be traveled to spread religion. Church activities are restricted to Sunday services. No mid-week meetings. No Bible studies. No gatherings in private homes. Religious activities are outlawed outside of church buildings. No one under 18 may be evangelized or baptized. Members are allowed no contact with overseas church groups and forbidden to read foreign Christian literature, listen to foreign Christian However, up to this day, most members of unregtapes or tune in to gospel radio broadcasts. Most of istered churches must meet secretly in abandoned building, and even caves, their need of prayers, Bibles, all, the State is the head of the Church. and training is strongly needed and virtually insatiable. As a result to this, many Christians chose to abandon And here in America, we can take our part of ChrisTSPM churches and began to meet secretly in their tianization in China by giving a support (financially or homes and formed what is known as house church- spiritually--praying with a hope that this prediction is es--unregistered churches.The majority of Christians intended to be God’s will). in China are in house churches. Despite TSPM rules, these Christians preach, worship, and evangelize, risk- Chinese Christian Crusade ing the loss of their jobs and houses, imprisonment, Take a note of this, folks:The next Christian Crusades torture, and even death. A testimony from Peter Xu will be conducted by the Chinese! Yongze, the founder of a house church during one of his five jail sentences on account of his Christi- This crusade even has a formal name “The Back to anity belief: “They hung me up across an iron gate, Jerusalem Movement.” It has been organized by the then they yanked open the gate and my whole body Chinese Evangelical Protestant leaders with the inlifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like tention of sending out a minimum of 100,000 Chinese that for four hours.” Mr. Xu added, “They say you can Christian missionaries over the next 10-20 years to 72


Wong, a parliamentary officer, the reason to the restriction is that China’s new generation leaders is trying to consolidate control of the country as it goes through rapid social and economic changes, and it feel threatened by any popular ideology that’s different than their own. In addition, he said, “The perception that China’s Christians have close links with the West adds to their plight.”

“Citizens of the People’s Republic of China enjoy freedom of religious belief” Chinese constitution

believe, but you can’t evangelize. But that is a natural act for Christians. The Bible commands us to preach the Gospel.” Here, we see what the Chinese constitution says and the reality are different. However, God is still working on China. As we know, there is a great number of Chinese Christian converts in China, and the number is still growing. In his book “Jesus in Beijing” (Regnery, 2003), David Aikman estimates the number of practicing Christians in China were over 80 millions and predicts that within three decades by 2033 this number will quintuple to about 400 milllions Christian Chinese.This would make China to have the largest Christian population in the world.This would also mean that the underground Christian house churches are about to reach its critical mass in spite of the restriction to evangelize. With this, Aikman is suggesting that “a Christian view of the world will be the dominant worldview within China’s political and cultural establishment.” Aikman sees the Christianization in China as happening concurrently with China’s becoming a global power, such that it will exercise power as responsibly and benevolently as has the United States.2

The Christian religious practice is restricted with a movement called Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM). It was started during Mao Tse Tung time, it was first intended to bring all Christians dominations to unite under TSPM control. Until today, TSPM are still in control of the churches. It is such that the TSPM decides what buildings can be used for church services, which pastors can preach and what areas can be traveled to spread religion. Church activities are restricted to Sunday services. No mid-week meetings. No Bible studies. No gatherings in private homes. Religious activities are outlawed outside of church buildings. No one under 18 may be evangelized or baptized. Members are allowed no contact with overseas church groups and forbidden to read foreign Christian literature, listen to foreign Christian However, up to this day, most members of unregtapes or tune in to gospel radio broadcasts. Most of istered churches must meet secretly in abandoned building, and even caves, their need of prayers, Bibles, all, the State is the head of the Church. and training is strongly needed and virtually insatiable. As a result to this, many Christians chose to abandon And here in America, we can take our part of ChrisTSPM churches and began to meet secretly in their tianization in China by giving a support (financially or homes and formed what is known as house church- spiritually--praying with a hope that this prediction is es--unregistered churches.The majority of Christians intended to be God’s will). in China are in house churches. Despite TSPM rules, these Christians preach, worship, and evangelize, risk- Chinese Christian Crusade ing the loss of their jobs and houses, imprisonment, Take a note of this, folks:The next Christian Crusades torture, and even death. A testimony from Peter Xu will be conducted by the Chinese! Yongze, the founder of a house church during one of his five jail sentences on account of his Christi- This crusade even has a formal name “The Back to anity belief: “They hung me up across an iron gate, Jerusalem Movement.” It has been organized by the then they yanked open the gate and my whole body Chinese Evangelical Protestant leaders with the inlifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like tention of sending out a minimum of 100,000 Chinese that for four hours.” Mr. Xu added, “They say you can Christian missionaries over the next 10-20 years to 73


God is showing His will in this perfect moment and that He is able to work even through those unbelievers. “This is a major and exciting opportunity. We are privileged to be able to support the Church in China in the publishing of the Bible during the Olympics,” Although the Olympic Bible contains only the four says James Catford, chief executive of the Bible SoGospels, this is considered a perfect choice because ciety. this is where the central of the Gospel of the resurrection and the teachings of Jesus Christ lay. The four Let us continue to pray for China as God is workGospels are a symbol and a proclamation that Bible ing to move the hearts of its people. Also, let us be is not forbidden to revolve in this communist coun- encouraged to help plant the seed of Christianity to try. We do not need to think far that the Chinese unbelievers anywhere we are and will be because government has converted. We know how deep the nothing for God’s work will be in vain. ideology of communism rooted in this country. Some References: of us might see these acts cynically: the printing of 1 http://www.yutopian.com/religion/ 2 the Bible is just a way of “marketing, public relation, Jack Wheeler is Editor of ToThePoint™, a geopolitical analysis service at (www.tothepointnews.com) http://archive.newsmax. propaganda” of China for the sake of the success of com/archives/articles/2003/12/8/132707.shtml 2 http://chinaaid.org/persecution/the-underground-church/ the Olympic. 3 society. This action should then put pay to rumors started by overseas agencies saying the Chinese authorities would not make the Bible available at the Games.

Whatever the reason is, let us look at the other dimension that this is not just the greatness of Hu Jintao as the current China’s leader. Nevertheless, there’s interference from a higher power that is our Lord, where in the Olympic on-going event the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ will be glorified. Presumably,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiping_Rebellion http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3993857.stm 5 http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/08/ content_7034886.htm 6 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/more_sport/article2835638.ece 7 http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/olympics/2008-07/07/ content_6822978.htm 8 http://www.cross-written.com/kabar-baik-olympic-bible-136. html 4

1992 80th Birthday 2008 Mr.Yusran 80th Birthday

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Agape A Ag ga ap pe » Anniversary An A nni nive erssar ary 2008 2008 200 20 08

Respect Christians’ Attitude Toward Non - Christians By Ev. Wilson Suwanto A question that always comes up: If a Christian is already paid full in price and definetly will go to heaven, why don’t God just send these believers to Heaven? Why he or she has to keep living in this world when there is even a possibility for him or her to fall into sin? Won’t sin saden God even more? Why are we still living in this world? Even though God knows we will be tempeted and eventually fall into sin, God is not directly sending us to heaven. And, He has obvious reason and purpose of why He keeps us living in this world. The answer can be found in Jesus’ sermon on the mount when He says: 13 ”You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16). In other words, we are here in this world it’s not because of a coincidence. We are here in this world because we are in a mission. Missionary means God sends us with a reason or a purpose, which is to affect this world with a good influence. Likewise, salt influences the taste of the food. We are in a mission to lite the dark world.

basic idea, we’ll know our role or task toward other people, especially non-Christians. RESPECT God commands every believers to respect their parents (Genesis 20:12). Maybe, some of our parents have not yet receive Christ, and their eyes can be open once they witness the beautiful testimonies from their own child if they are filled with respect. We are not supposed to show respect only to our parents but also to everyone, including the government. Peter said: “Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king” (1 Peter 2:17). The terminology of respect (timao) means to give the proper price or value of something. If this applies to men, respect means to give the proper value to another person as the image of God. This task is not always easy. There are some actions from certain people that should not be honored. However, God calls us to show respect, not to correct the wrongs. We can respect a person without having to respect what he has done.

MODEL “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you...” (Matthew 7:12). In this verse, Jesus implies that there is a law of justice placed in this universe. Even non-Christians recognize this law that is given by the Creator. However, there is a difference, where Christians are encouraged to be active in setting good examples to other people. Christians won’t wait for other people to do good onto them first, instead they will actively setting good examples. With this, they fulfill the standard Therefore, as a Christian, one has to realize that he of God’s law in this world. or she is on a mission. He/She should not have the attitude of living just to pass by the days until he This World is like a jungle. Men are competing and takes his last breath. Also, he should not live to just eliminating each other. When a Christian is followearn money or build a family. Instead, he should live ing the golden rules from God, he is offering anothto carry out God’s mission. With understanding this er alternative to non-Christians. As if, he is saying, 75


Love

“Hi Friend, you do not have to live by following the law of the jungle. We can start loving and respect- others from sinning against God. ing each other, istead of destroying or failing each TRUTH other.” There is a non-Christian complaining about his Christian friend: “My friend says that he is a ChrisLOVE “And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as your- tian, but he often doesn’t keep his promise. Not self” (Matthew 22:39). Once again, Jesus reminds only that, he doesn’t even want to apologize.” This us that man is not supposed to live for himself. He kind of comment makes us speculate ourselves. As should not love himself only. He ought to love other a Christian, are we living in the truth? The truth is people as if he has loved himself. The reason: we all broad, but at least, the truth is not a “lie.” are God’s creation. This is something that cannot be When non-Christians see that we keep our promises bargained; therefore, it is called “the law.” or that we sincerely and humbly apologize for our Jesus doesn’t command Christians to love one an- failure of keeping the promise, they will realize that other with non-Christians. A non-Christian has not we live according to the truth. As much as possible, yet understood God’s love. How can they be claimed we live according to the standard of the truth. And, to love one another? Therefore, Jesus reminds us: if we fail, we admit our mistake. Why do we have to If we return the love of those who first loved us, admit our mistakes? It is because we have the stanthen we are no different than nonbelievers. God’s dard of the truth. love or AGAPE love is different in the sense that it is an active and unconditional love. If we love oth- Sadly, many Christians live as if there is no standard. ers like we have loved ourselves, nonbelievers will This becomes a stumbling block to non-Christians. feel God’s presence in our love. That is what our task They live in lie and inconsistency. Someone who lives in the truth, although they are not perfect, they should be. definitely are trustworthy. The trustworthy character of a Christian will give him the power to proclaim WISDOM AND SINCERITY “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Christ. Non-Christians would say: “If this Christian is Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent trustworthy, for sure his proclamation of Jesus is as doves” (Matthew 10:16). Christians are called to also trustworthy. I will consider his words.” Once we love others, but this doesn’t mean we let other peo- lost our trustworthiness, it will take us some time to ple take an advantage of us. Christ reminds us that regain others’ trust. And, it will take some time for us around us are wolves; however, He clearly states to be useful for the work of God. that we are sheep. We cannot turn into wolves. As sheep, we are very weak as compared to wolves. Remember, we are here living in this world because However, Jesus wants us to learn to be wise like the we are on God’s mission. God sent us equipped with snakes but not becoming a poison for other people. resources: the attitude of respect, a good model, On the other hand, Jesus wants us to be as genuine love, wisdom and sincerity, and truth. With these and pure as a dove but not becoming easy to be equipments, other people will see that Christians are men who are going to eternity with God. And, caught. they do not put their hope to this temporary world. When non-Christians see there are wisdom and This attitude will have a very strong pull to worldly sincerity in us, they will know that there’s a balance people who live without direction and future. This that can only be found inside Christians. They will attitude will open a wide door to evangelism. Let us learn to understand that Christians are obeying then live according to our call. Someone, so that they do not dare to inflict a loss on other people. Not only that, a Christian will not let him to be taken advantage of. Not because of his ego or his pride, but because he wants to prevent

Truth

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Kasih Sikap Kristen Terhadap Sesama Manusia Oleh Ev. Wilson Suwanto Sebuah pertanyaan yang selalu muncul: kalau orang Kristen sudah diselamatkan dan pasti masuk surga, mengapa Tuhan tidak langsung memindahkan orang percaya ke sorga? Mengapa ia harus hidup dalam dunia, bahkan bisa jatuh dalam dosa? Bukankah ini malah menyedihkan hati Tuhan? Mengapa kita masih ada di dalam dunia ini? Sekalipun Tuhan tahu kita akan dicobai dan jatuh dalam dosa, Tuhan tidak langsung memindahkan kita ke sorga. Dan, Ia mempunyai alasan dan tujuan yang jelas, mengapa Ia masih membiarkan kita hidup dalam dunia. Jawabannya dapat ditemukan dalam khotbah Yesus di bukit ketika Ia berkata: 13”Kamu adalah garam dunia. Jika garam itu menjadi tawar, dengan apakah ia diasinkan? Tidak ada lagi gunanya selain dibuang dan diinjak orang. 14Kamu adalah terang dunia. Kota yang terletak di atas gunung tidak mungkin tersembunyi. 15Lagipula orang tidak menyalakan pelita lalu meletakkannya di bawah gantang, melainkan di atas kaki dian sehingga menerangi semua orang di dalam rumah itu. 16Demikianlah hendaknya terangmu bercahaya di depan orang, supaya mereka melihat perbuatanmu yang baik dan memuliakan Bapamu yang di sorga” (Matius 5:13-16). Dengan kata lain, kita hidup dalam dunia bukan karena kebetulan atau sekedar dibiarkan bernafas oleh Tuhan. Kita ada di dunia karena diutus oleh Tuhan. Diutus berarti dikirim dengan satu misi atau tujuan, yaitu: mempengaruhi dunia ini dengan pengaruh yang baik, seperti garam mempengaruhi rasa makanan. Kita diutus untuk memancarkan terang di dunia yang gelap. Itu sebabnya, seorang Kristen harus menyadari akan pengutusan ini. Ia bukan hidup di dunia sekedar untuk melewati hari-hari sampai ia menghembuskan nafas terakhir. Ia bukan hidup sekedar untuk mencari nafkah atau membangun keluarga. Ia hidup untuk menjalankan misi dari Tuhan. Dengan dasar penger77


tian inilah, kita bisa menemukan apa peranan atau tugas kita terhadap sesama manusia, khususnya, yang bukan Kristen. HORMAT Tuhan berkata supaya setiap orang percaya menghormati orang-tuanya (Kel. 20:12). Tidak sedikit orang-tua yang belum percaya kepada Tuhan, dan mereka bisa melihat kesaksian yang indah dari seorang Kristen (anaknya sendiri) jika mereka penuh dengan hormat. Bukan hanya orang-tua, tetapi juga semua orang, bahkan pemerintah sekalipun. Petrus berkata: “Hormatilah semua orang, kasihilah saudara-saudaramu, takutlah akan Allah, hormatilah raja!” (1 Peter 2:17). Alkitab tidak menyuruh kita hanya menghormati orang Kristen saja, melainkan semua orang. Istilah hormat (timao) berarti memberikan harga atau nilai yang sepantasnya bagi sesuatu. Kalau diterapkan kepada manusia, hormat berarti memberikan nilai yang sepantasnya kepada manusia lain sebagai gambar dan rupa Allah. Memang hal ini tidak selalu mudah. Ada tindakan orang-orang tertentu yang tidak patut dihormati. Namun Tuhan memanggil kita untuk menunjukkan hormat, bukan membenarkan perbuatan yang tidak benar. Kita bisa menghormati seseorang tanpa harus menghormati apa yang ia perbuat. TELADAN “Segala sesuatu yang kamu kehendaki supaya orang perbuat kepadamu, perbuatlah demikian juga kepada mereka...” (Matius 7:12). Dalam ayat ini, Tuhan Yesus mengatakan secara tidak langsung bahwa ada hukum keadilan yang ditaruh di alam semesta. Bahkan orang non-Kristen pun mengetahui hukum alam yang diberikan Sang Pencipta ini. Namun ada sesuatu yang berbeda dalam hukum ini, dimana orang Kristen didorong untuk aktif memberikan contoh/teladan bagi orang-orang lain. Orang Kristen tidak menunggu orang lain berbuat baik kepada mereka, melainkan secara aktif memberikan contoh yang baik. Dengan demikian, ia menghadirkan standard hukum Tuhan di dalam dunia ini. Dunia ini adalah seperti hutan rimba. Manusia menjatuhkan dan menyingkirkan sesamanya. Ketika seorang Kristen mengikuti perintah emas dari Tuhan Yesus ini, ia sedang menawarkan alternatif lain kepada orang-orang non-Kristen. Seolah-olah ia berkata: “Hai

teman, anda tidak harus hidup dengan hukum rimba. Kita bisa saling mengasihi dan menghormati, tidak harus mencelakakan dan menjatuhkan.” KASIH “Dan hukum yang kedua, yang sama dengan itu, ialah: Kasihilah sesamamu manusia seperti dirimu sendiri” (Matius 22:39). Sekali lagi, Yesus mengingatkan kita bahwa manusia tidak boleh hidup untuk dirinya sendiri. Ia tidak boleh mengasihi hanya dirinya saja. Ia harus mengasihi orang lain seperti ia telah mengasihi dirinya sendiri. Alasannya: kita adalah sesama ciptaan Tuhan. Ini adalah sesuatu yang tidak bisa ditawar-tawar. Karena itu tidak heran ini disebut dengan “hukum.” Yesus tidak memerintahkan orang Kristen agar saling mengasihi dengan orang non-Kristen. Seorang non-Kristen belum mengerti kasih Tuhan. Bagaimana bisa dituntut mengasihi sesama? Maka Yesus mengingatkan: Kalau kita mengasihi orang yang mengasihi kita, maka kita tidak ada bedanya dengan orang lain. Perbedaan kasih Kristen adalah bahwa kasih itu bersifat aktif dan tanpa syarat. Jika kita mengasihi sesama seperti diri sendiri, orang akan melihat kehadiran Tuhan dalam kasih kita. Inilah tugas kita. HIKMAT DAN KETULUSAN “Lihat, Aku mengutus kamu seperti domba ke tengahtengah serigala, sebab itu hendaklah kamu cerdik seperti ular dan tulus seperti merpati” (Matius 10:16). Orang Kristen dipanggil untuk mengasihi, tetapi tidak berarti membiarkan diri diinjak-injak orang lain. Kristus memperingatkan bahwa sekeliling kita adalah serigala. Namun Ia menegaskan bahwa kita adalah domba. Kita tidak boleh ikut menjadi serigala. Sebagai domba, memang kita sangat lemah. Namun Yesus meminta kita belajar berhikmat seperti ular, namun tidak menjadi racun bagi orang lain. Sebaliknya juga, Yesus menyuruh kita tulus seperti merpati, namun tidak mudah terperangkap. Ketika orang non-Kristen melihat bahwa kita memiliki hikmat dan ketulusan, mereka tahu ada sesuatu keseimbangan yang hanya bisa ditemukan dalam orangorang yang percaya pada Tuhan. Mereka akan belajar mengerti bahwa seorang Kristen adalah seorang yang tunduk pada Seseorang, sehingga ia tidak berani merugikan orang lain. Bukan hanya itu, seorang Kristen juga tidak mau membiarkan orang lain menginjak-injak haknya. Bukan karena ia egois atau tidak mau rugi, 78


tetapi ia ingin mencegah orang lain berbuat dosa terhadap Tuhan, dan dengan demikian, menumpukkan penghakiman dan penghukuman Tuhan atas orang tersebut. KEBENARAN Ada orang non-Kristen mengeluh tentang teman yang Kristen: “Memang ia seorang Kristen, tetapi seringkali tidak menepati janji. Sesudah itu, tidak minta maaf lagi.” Komentar demikian membuat kita memeriksa diri. Apakah sebagai orang Kristen, kita hidup dalam kebenaran? Kebenaran itu memang luas, tetapi paling sedikit kebenaran berarti “bukan dusta.” Ketika orang non-Kristen melihat bahwa kita menepati janji, atau dengan tulus dan rendah hati meminta maaf jika kita gagal menepati janji, mereka akan sadar bahwa kita hidup berdasarkan kebenaran. Kita sedapat mungkin hidup menurut standard kebenaran, dan jika kita gagal, kita mengaku salah. Mengapa mengaku salah? Sebab kita mempunyai standard kebenaran. Sayang sekali banyak orang Kristen hidup seolah-olah tidak ada standard. Ini menjadi batu sandungan untuk orang non-Kristen. Mereka hidup di dalam dusta dan inkonsistensi. Seorang yang hidup dalam kebenaran, memang tidak sempurna, tetapi bisa dipercaya. Sifat trustworthy seorang Kristen akan memberinya kuasa untuk berbicara tentang Kristus. Kata orang non-Kristen: “Jika orang Kristen itu trustworthy, tentu kata-katanya tentang Injil juga trustworthy. Saya akan mempertimbangkan kata-katanya.” Sekali kita kehilangan trustworthiness kita, entah berapa lama bisa memulihkan rasa percaya orang. Dan, entah berapa lama kita bisa kembali berguna untuk pekerjaan Tuhan. Ingatlah bahwa kita hidup dan bernafas karena kita diutus Tuhan ke dalam dunia ini. Tuhan mengutus kita dengan memberikan perlengkapan, yaitu: sikap hormat, teladan, kasih, hikmat dan ketulusan, dan kebenaran. Dengan perlengkapan ini, orang lain akan melihat bahwa orang-orang Kristen adalah umat yang sedang berjalan menuju kekekalan bersama Tuhan. Mereka tidak menaruh pengharapan kepada dunia yang sementara ini. Sikap ini akan memiliki daya tarik yang sangat kuat bagi orang-orang dunia ini, yang hidup tanpa arah dan masa depan. Sikap ini membuka pintu yang lebar bagi penginjilan. Mari kita hidup sepadan dengan panggilan kita.

Kebenaran

WILLIAM CAREY THE FATHER OF MODERN MISSIONS Edited from the original writing of Diana Wiring http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com

“E

xpect great things from God; attempt great things for God”

All these, as well as other startling contrasts, were part of the story of William Carey, one of the most amazing people in all history.

...Imagine living the first thirty-two years of your life without traveling more than thirty miles—then traveling tens of thousands of miles, to the other side of the world, to live the rest of your life! ...Imagine that you had a formal education only until you were twelve years old—then being made a university professor because you were so qualified to teach the Sanskrit and Bengali languages! ...Imagine dreaming of swashbuckling adventures as a poor, land-locked boy—then, as an adult, clearing the jungle to make room for a hut, while others fled because of man-eating tigers! ...Imagine writing a book about the call of God to Christians of all times to go throughout the world to share the Gospel—then becoming the first Englishman in modern history to answer that call! 79


WILL WILL WI LLIA AM CA AREEY (A Aug ugus gus ustt 17,, 17 17 1761 61-- Ju 61 une e 9 9,, 18 1834 834 34)) w s a Baapt wa p is istt miss miiss ssiio iona iona nary ryy tto o Indi Indi In diaa an nd sp pen entt an act ctiiv ive fo ive fort fort r yy on one e y ar ye arss se erv rviin ing the ing th he Lo L rd d in In Ind dia, dia, di a, iinnclud udin din ing g tr tran ansl an slatting slat iin ng th the he Sc Scri ript ri ptur pt ptur ures es.. es Care Ca Care reyy ne eve verr re retu turn tu rned d to En Englan Engl glan gl and d. d. He’s He ’s w wel ellellel l-k -kn know kno own as o own one ne o off th the he gi gi gian nts o off th the e miss misssio mi ionary iona naaryy tra railill to th the he Paci Pa Paci cifi cifi ficc Oc Ocea Ocea ean. n. LLik ike ik e th the he ea earl rly ly di disc disc s iiples ples pl es,, Ca Care Care reyy ha had th had the e co comp mp pas a si sion ion o to shar sh shar are th the he Go Gosp Gosp pel to th the he wh whol hol ole e naation o and d hen ence ce got the e tit itle le as th le the e “ffat athe her off mod her he oder der ern n mi miss iss ssio ions io nss.” William was born near Northampton, England in 1761 to a poor family of weavers. When William was six, however, his father was given the job of clerk at the Church of St. James the Great. This was an auspicious change because it meant that not only did the family have more money and a nicer home, but William could now attend the church school. One of the greatest joys to William was that he had access to many books, which fired his active imagination about geography, history, and adventure.

In fact, he was given the nickname “Columbus” because he often pretended to be the great explorer of the New World! He also loved to read the newspaper accounts about the adventures of Captain ab Cook1 on the Pacific Ocean, and Co eventually, he would utilize the ev discoveries Captain Cook had di made as he taught others about m different islands, continents, and di people. pe One day, in perusing some books O left by his sea-faring uncle, Willef liam found one about plants that lia contained words in a different co language. His father was able to la tell te that the language was Latin, but bu he did not understand it himself. se Yet, there was an old Latin grammar on the bookshelf, so he gr dusted it off and gave it to William. Within a couple of months, William could not only read the book, he could also speak Latin though he had to hold conversations with himself, as no one else around spoke the language! At the age of twelve, students at the church school had either to go on for further education or get a job. As William’s parents could not afford to send him to study, he had no choice but to go to work. Since William loved working with plants

and being outside, he was thrilled to have the opportunity to work on a farm as a laborer. However, he developed an intense, painful rash from being out in the sun— not a good sign for a budding gardener! He toughed it out for two years, but the pain was so intense that he finally had to quit. Next, he was formally apprenticed for seven years to a man who made shoes in a town eight miles away. As a fourteen-year-old, he bid his family goodbye and walked to his new dwelling and new job. In this new surrounding, William learned not only how to make shoes, but he learned new languages as well. His boss did not mind if William had a book open above his workbench as long as the work was completed in a timely way, so he pursued the study of Greek, Hebrew, French, Italian, and Dutch! It was not only a time to learn languages; however, it was also a time to learn a significant lesson in honesty concerning money. William was sent to collect payment from the blacksmith for a pair of shoes, and since it was Christmas time, the blacksmith offered the poor apprentice a gift of money. It was such a joy to William because the shilling he received would enable him to buy a quill pen. When he discovered that the shilling he was given was counterfeit, he made the foolish decision to trade the good shilling he received as payment for the shoes for his counterfeit shilling in order to purchase the pen. William had not realized that his boss would send the counterfeit shilling right back to the blacksmith and demand full payment for the shoes. This, of course, brought the whole

story to the surface. William was revealed as the thief, but was mercifully not sent to the magistrate (which could have easily resulted in having him shipped to the West Indies as punishment!). It was one of the significant events leading William to his realization that he was a sinner, in great need of a Savior. 2 This was the time of the American Revolution, a time of greatly divided opinion among the people of England. Most people followed the lead of King George III in seeing the American colonists as rebels in need of defeat, while many of the townspeople in William’s village believed that the need was for a new king! When King George III called for a national day of prayer on February 10, 1779, so that the entire nation would pray in the Church of England for the defeat of the Americans, William had no mind to obey this directive. Instead, he attended a Dissenter’s3 prayer meeting, which had an entirely different motive— they were praying for the revolutionaries to win! This was William’s first taste of the Dissenting Church, and he grew to love it. In spite of the financial difficulties of being a mere apprentice, William decided to marry Dorothy Plackett, a Dissenter, when he was nineteen. In the second year of their marriage, he began preaching part-time at a Dissenting church eight miles away. The congregation was so poor; they could not even afford the leather to replace the shoes William was wearing out as he walked back and forth to serve them! Tragically, this all-encompassing poverty was largely responsible for

the death of William’s first-born daughter, Ann. Even more tragically, Dorothy was plunged into a deep depression, from which she never truly recovered.4 Carey’s preaching became well known throughout the area, and eventually he was offered a position as a full-time pastor and schoolmaster. Though it didn’t pay any better than his shoemaking, it allowed him greater time for study. To many, Cook’s Journal was a thrilling story of adventure, but to Carey it was a revelation of human need!5 As he taught students geography in the school, he was more and more aware of the vast numbers of people around the world who had never heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his heart was increasingly moved by their plight. This was an unusual viewpoint for a man of his day. The majority of ministers in England believed that Jesus’ command to go and preach the gospel to every creature was given solely to the twelve disciples, and that after they died, that commandment was no longer applicable. However, Carey studied the Scriptures intently, as well as studying Church history, and he became convinced that the command to “go” was still in effect. As a result of his studies, Carey wrote a book entitled ‘An enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen in which the religious state of the different nations of the world, the success of former undertakings, and the practicability of further undertakings are considered.’ Long titles were more popular in that day, 80

but this was long even by their standards! This well-researched, well-written book was the most comprehensive book on history, religion, and geography up to that time. It provided an incredible insight into the needs of unreached people and practical suggestions for reaching them. On May 30, 1792, in the same year after the enthusiasm of this book aroused some attention among Christians, he was invited to preach at a ministerial gathering.6 Preaching out of Isaiah 54:2-3, Carey put forth two thoughts that summed up his ministry and have since become an incredible missionary motto, “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”7 Step by step, God led Carey to break through with His vision. Months later after his sermon, Carey at the age of thirty-one, on October 2, 1792, was called to meet with the other eleven ministers inside a widow’s home and formed the first English missionary society, “The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel to the Heathen” (later renamed to the “Baptist Missionary Society”). The society then concerned with practical matters such as raising funds, as well as deciding where they would direct their efforts.8 As the group met and prayed, they met Dr. John Thomas, who had just returned from four years as a doctor for the East India Company in the Bengal region of India. He had become a Christian in Calcutta, and he was eager to return as a missionary to serve the urgent needs of the people there. At the moment, he was currently in England raising funds. As he agreed to represent the missionary soci81


ety, he told them that if a partner would go with him, they could accomplish far more than one man alone. Carey knew this was the moment he had been working toward for many years. “I will go.” Despite the difficulties of a young family, a wife who struggled with depression, lack of finances, and the total unknown, Carey was ready to answer the call to “Go.” After many trials, including his wife’s categorical refusal to go with him (though she changed her mind just before they got on the ship!), William Carey sailed to India. Their adventures there included jumping ship upon arrival in order to avoid the East India Company, (who would never give missionaries permission to work among the native people), running out of money in Calcutta (Dr. Thomas had a habit of living high on the hog, and spent everything within weeks), being given a plot of uncleared land in a tiger-infested jungle which was their only source of food and shelter, a twenty-two day boat trip with a regular

temperature of 120 degrees up an alligator-infested river and much, much more. Eventually, however, several missionary families joined the Careys in the city of Serampore, where they set up a printing press to print the Scriptures in the many languages of India. At this point in his life, after all his experiences in language learning, in preaching, in writing, and in traveling, the design of God in this man came to fruition. His remarkable ability to use words, not only in his own language, but also in every language he came into contact with. Carey was gifted with what is called the Linguistic Intelligence—being “word-smart”— is the ability to work with words. Because of this intelligence in his life, Carey was able to quickly learn Bengali, and with more difficulty, Sanskrit (the ancient language used in the religious writings of India). He labored to translate the New Testament into Bengali and Sanskrit, which were then printed on the mission’s printing press.

Having the Word of God in their own language made a huge impact on the people of that region: doors began to open, hearts began to respond and lives began to change. After 7 years of missionary with no native convert, in the year of 1800, Carey finally baptized the first Hindu Protestant convert—a tremendously significant event, which caused rioting in the city. He also translated the Scriptures into 44 languages, produced grammars and dictionaries for the Indian people, founded 26 churches and 126 schools, ended the native traditional practice of Sati (Sutee)9, organized India’s first medical mission, savings bank, seminary, Indian girls’ school and ethnic language newspaper! At the point when the British governor-general of Calcutta, Lord Wellesley, opened Fort William College (modeled after Cambridge and Oxford), he needed someone to teach English students the languages of the local people. The one Englishman in the entire region who was qualified to do this was William Carey. However, when the position was originally offered

him, Carey thought it was a joke! Imagine someone who had left school at the age of twelve teaching on the university level. Lord Wellesley convinced Carey that he was the man for the job, and by the Lord’s grace, another door for ministry was opened. Yet through these many accomplishments, William Carey remained humble and gave all glory and honor where it was due, the Lord. Saying to a friend shortly before his death, “Mr. Duff, you have been speaking about Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey. When I am gone say nothing about Dr. Carey—speak about Dr. Carey’s Savior.” William Carey shows one the prime example of a man of faith, one willing to attempt great things for God and expecting to see God do a mighty work.10 Isn’t it amazing what God’s design can produce in and through a person’s life? William Carey, one of the world’s most accomplished linguists, gave the Bible—the Word of God—to more of the earth’s inhabitants than any other man has! Maybe, we do not have a vision for missionary as great as William Carey’s, and sometimes,

we feel afraid or embarrassed to share the Gospel to unbelievers, but God sees the willingness in our heart, and He will add unto us the strength that we need. The Bible says that God sees the heart of men, “…The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (2 Samuel 16:7; NIV) More to this, the Bible also says that He will give us the strength if we are truly committed to Him, “For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” (2 Chronicles 16:9; NIV) With this said, without having to carry out missionary to other countries, we can also be God’s amazing vessel by having our own missionary at our very own community, like in our work place, our school, our home or dorm, and anywhere you can think of—many in these places haven’t even reached and saved, yet. May God bless each and every one of us who listens to His command to “Go”—like William Carey!

On Footers note: 1Captain James Cook was an English explorer, navigator, and cartographer. During Carey’s life time, he made three voyages to the Pacific Ocean: first voyage (1768-71), second voyage (1772-75), and last voyage (1776-79). He inspired little William to explore the New World. <Wikipedia.com> 2His introduction to Christ was also thanks to another young apprentice to their master by the name of John Warr, who had Christ-like love. He invited William to attend prayer meetings; William finally converted to Christianity and got baptized in 1783. <”The Father of Modern Missions” by Rit Nosotro; http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/bios/b3careyw.htm> 3Dissenter - one who refuses to accept the doctrines or usages of an established or a national church, especially a Protestant who dissents from the Church of England. 4Dorothy Plackett Carey was a faithful and devoted wife, but sadly she did not share the passion he had for missions. 5Inserted to the original article from “William Carey: Missionary-Evangelist” by Fred Barlow. 6Carey used his preaching on May 30, 1792 as his pro-missionary sermon. It is also well-known as the Deathless Sermon. <Wikipedia.com> 7Inserted from ”The Father of Modern Missions” by Rit Nosotro. 8Inserted from <Wikipedia.com> 9Sati was the burning of an Indian widow in the funeral of her husband and was prohibited in 1829 through Carey’s diligent efforts. <”William Carey: The Father of Modern Missions” by Galen B. Royer; http://www.wholesomewords.org/missions/bcarey3.html> 10Miller, Basil, “William Carey: The Father of Modern Missions,” Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, 1980. Recommended Book: Travel with William Carey: The Missionary to India Who Attempted Great Things for God by Paul Pease. England: Day One Publications, ©2005. ISBN 1903087767. Biography and travel guide. 128 pages.

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WILLIAM CAREY BAPA MISI MODERN Diedit dari tulisan asli oleh Diana Wiring: http://www.thehomeschoolmagazine.com

“H

arapkanlah hal yang besar dari Tuhan; Usahakanlah hal yang besar untuk Tuhan”

…Bayangkan selama tiga puluh dua tahun pertama di dalam hidupmu tidak pernah berjalan lebih dari tiga puluh mil—kemudian travel lebih dari sepuluh ribu mil, kesebelah bumi yang lain, untuk tinggal disana sampai sisa hidupmu! ….Bayangkan jikalau anda mendapat pendidikan yang resmi hanya sampai umur dua belas tahun—kemudian dijadikan dosen universitas karena anda memenuhi syarat untuk mengajar bahasa Sanskrit dan Bengali! …Bayangkan memimpikan petualangan mengarungi lautan sebagai anak laki-laki miskin yang dikelilingi daratan—kemudian, di hari dewasamu, membersihkan hutan belantara untuk membuat sebuah gubuk, sementara orang lain melarikan diri karena macan buas! …Bayangkan menuliskan sebuah buku tentang panggilan Tuhan 83


kepada umat Kristen untuk menyebarluaskan injil keselamatan—kemudian menjadi orang English pertama di sepanjang sejarah modern untuk menjawab panggilan itu! Semua ini, termasuk kejadiankejadian lain yang mengherankan, adalah bagian cerita dari salah satu orang-orang yang menakjubkan di sepanjang sejarah, bernama William Carey. WIL ILLI LLIIAM MC CAR AR REY (Au ugu g st 17, 17 17 1761 761 1- June Ju une 9 9,, 18 1834 834 34) 34) adal ad a ah al hm mis issio iona nari na riis Ba Bapt p is kke pt e In Indi diaa di dan da n me mela laya la y nii Tuh ya uhan han d den enga en g n ak ga ak-tiv di disa isa sana naa sel elam lam amaa em empa p t pu pa pulu luh lu h saatu tah ahun hun un,, te term rmas rm asuk as ukk m men ente en terj te rjjee mah ma hkan A hkan hk Alk l it lk itab tab. ab b. Ca Care Care reyy ti tida tida dak ak pe p rnah na h ke kemb kemb mbal ali ke al ali ke n neg eg ger erii asal alny lnyya, a, In ngg griis. s. D Dia iaa dikken e all b baaik aik se ai seba b ba g i sa ga salla lah sa lah s tu ora rang ng g bes esar ar yan ang g meni me ning ni ng gga g lkan lkkan a jejjakk kke e Sa Samu Samu mud dra dra dr Paasi sifi fik. fi k SSep k. ep per e tii m mur urid ur rid id-m id-m mur u id d Yee su us ya y ng g per erta tama ta ma,, Ca ma Care Care r y me memm mp nyyaii d pu dor oron or onga on g n hatii u ga unt ntukk meny me nyyeb ebar bar a lu luas askka as kan In kan Injij l ke Inji ke seg gal ala la p ju pe juru ru ud dun unia un ia d ia dan an sseb eb bab b itu ud diia ia mend me ndap dap pat jul uluk lukan ukkan “ba “ba bapa p m pa mis isii is m de mo dern dern rn..”

William lahir di suatu desa kecil dekat Northampton, Inggris tahun 1761 kepada sepasang suami-istri penenun yang miskin. Ketika William berumur enam tahun, ayahnya diberikan jabatan sebagai penjabat gereja di gereja St. James the Great. Ini merupakan suatu perubahan yang menguntungkan karena ini berarti bukan hanya keluarganya mempunyai penghasilan tambahan dan rumah yang lebih baik, tetapi William juga bisa mengikuti sekolah dari gereja tersebut. Salah sa satu kebahagiannya yang amat sa sangat untuk William adalah dia m mempunyai akses kepada banyak bu buku-buku yang bisa mengkorba bar-korbarkan imaginasinya tenta tang ilmu pengetahuan seperti ge geografi, sejarah, dan petualanga gan. Sebenarnya, dia dijuluki “Colu lumbus” karena dia sering beraksi se seperti seorang penjelajah Dunia Baru yg hebat! Dia juga menyukai Ba berita koran tentang petualangan be Kaptain Cook1 ke Samudra PasKa ifik, k dan akhirnya, dia memakai penemuan dari Kaptain Cook unpe tuk mengajar orang lain tentang tu pulau-pulau, benua-benua, dan pu suku-suku yang berbeda. su

Suatu hari, ketika mengamati buku-buku yang ditinggalkan pamannya, William menemukan sebuah buku tentang tumbuhtumbuhan yang ditulis dalam suatu bahasa asing. Ayahnya bisa mengenali bahwa itu adalah bahasa Latin tapi tidak mengertinya. Namun, terdapat tata bahasa Latin kuno di rak buku, lalu dia mengebaskan-ngebaskan debu dan memberikannya kepada William. Dalam waktu beberapa bulan, William bukan hanya bisa membaca buku itu, tetapi dia juga bisa berkata-kata di bahasa Latin walaupun lawan bicaranya adalah dirinya sendiri sebagaimana orang disekitarnya tidak ada yang berbicara Latin! Di saat umur dua belas tahun, murid-murid di sekolahnya harus memilih untuk meneruskan sekolah atau mulai bekerja. Karena orang tua William tidak mampu membiayainya untuk sekolah lebih tinggi, dia tidak mempunyai pilihan lain tetapi untuk bekerja. Sejak William menyukai tanamantanaman, dia sangat bergembira mempunyai kesempatan untuk menjadi buruh di ladang. Tetapi, dia menemukan bercak-bercak yang menyakitkan pada kulitnya disebabkan berdiri terlalu lama dibawah matahari. Walaupun, dia sempat bertahan untuk dua tahun, tetapi penyakitnya bertambah parah yang akhirnya membuat dia terpaksa berhenti. Kemudian, ayahnya memagangkan dia kepada seorang tukang sepatu di suatu kota yang jauhnya delapan mil. Sebagai anak yang berumur empat belas tahun, dia harus meninggalkan keluargannya dan berjalan ke tempat tinggal dan pekerjaan yang baru. Di keadaan sekitar yang baru ini, William bukan hanya belajar ba-

gaimana untuk membuat sepatu, tetapi ia juga belajar bahasa-bahasa asing yang baru. Dengan majikan yang tidak keberatan kalau William bekerja dengan sebuah buku terbuka selama pekerjaannya selesai dengan tepat waktu, dia menguasai bahasa Yunani, Ibrani, Prancis, Itali, dan Belanda! Ini bukan hanya waktu untuk mempelajari berbagai macam bahasa; tetapi, juga waktunya untuk mempelajari pelajaran yang penting mengenai kejujuran dalam hal keuangan. Suatu saat, William dikirim untuk menagih bayaran sepasang sepatu kepada seorang pandai besi, dan waktu itu adalah hari Natal, si pandai besi itu menawarkan magang yang miskin ini sebuah hadiah uang. Itu merupakan suatu kebahagiaan yang sangat untuk William karena dia mengingikan pen bulu angsa. Ketika dia menyadari uang itu palsu, dia membuat sebuah keputusan yang bodoh yaitu menukarkan uang asli majikannya dengan uang palsu itu. William tidak menyangka bahwa majikannya akan mengirim balik uang palsu itu dan menagih harga penuh sepatu itu kepada pandai besi. Akhirnya, kejadian penukaran uang itu ketahuan. William dianggap sebagai pencuri, tetapi untungnya dia tidak dikirim ke hakim (yang mungkin akan membuat dirinya di kirim ke West Indies/India Barat sebagai hukuman!). Ini adalah salah satu kejadian yang menuntun Wiliam kepada Tuhan dalam kesadarannya bahwa dia adalah seorang bedosa yang memerlukan Juru Selamat.2 Waktu itu adalah revolusi negara Amerika, waktu dimana juga banyak pendapat yang berbeda-beda diantara orang-orang Inggris.

Kebanyakan orang mengikuti pimpinan Raja George ke 3 untuk mengalahkan Amerika si Pemberontak, saat itu juga banyak penduduk di desa William yang percaya bahwa mereka memerlukan raja pengganti! Ketika Raja George ke 3 memanggil seluruh warga negara Ingriss untuk menjalankan hari doa nasional pada February 10, 1779, supaya semua orang Inggris berdoa bersama untuk mengalahkan Amerika, akan tetapi William tidak mempunyai pikiran untuk mematuhi pengarahan ini. Sebaliknya, dia mengikuti kebaktian doa orang Dissenter3, yang motivasinya bertolak belakang—mereka mendoakan Amerika untuk menang dalam pertempuran! Ini adalah pertama kalinya William ikut terlibat dalam gereja Dissenter, dan dia menjadi suka dengan kebaktiannya. Walaupun dalam kesusahan keuangan karena penghasilannya hanya sebagai magang, William memutuskan untuk menikahi Dorothy Plackett, seorang Dissenter, sewaktu ia berumur sembilan belas tahun. Di tahun kedua pernikahan mereka, William mulai berkothbah sebagian waktu di sebuah gereja Dissenter yang jauhnya delapan mil. Jemaat sangat miskin; mereka tidak sanggup memberikan kulit untuk menggantikan sepatu William yang sudah rusak sewaktu dia pulang dan pergi untuk melayani mereka! Sangat tragis, kemiskinan sepasang suami-istri muda ini menyebabkan mereka kehilangan anak perempuan mereka yang pertama, Ann. Lebih tragis lagi, Dorothy jatuh di dalam depresi yang sangat dalam dimana dia tidak pernah mendapat kesembuhan yang pulih setelahnya.4 84

Kothbah Carey semakin terkenal di seluruh daerah sekitar, dan akhirnya dia mendapat tawaran posisi penuh sebagai pendeta dan guru. Walaupun itu tidak membayar lebih baik daripada membuat sepatu, tetapi itu memberikan dia waktu yang lebih banyak untuk belajar. Untuk kebanyakan orang, buku harian Kaptain Cook hanya sebagai cerita petualangan yang mengejutkan, tetapi untuk Carey itu merupakan sebuah pengungkapan atas keperluan manusia!5 Sewaktu dia mengajar muridnya geografi, makin hari dia makin sadar bahwa sejumlah orang di seluruh dunia belum pernah mendengarkan kabar Injil keselamatan Tuhan Yesus, dan hatinya makin tergerak oleh keadaan mereka. Ini adalah pandangan yang luar biasa bagi seorang pria di jamannya. Mayoritas pendeta-pendeta di Inggris percaya bahwa perintah Tuhan Yesus untuk pergi dan menyebarkan injil kepada semua makluk di bumi hanya diberikan kepada kedua belas murid, dan setelah mereka tiada, perintah ini tidak lagi berlaku. Tetapi, Carey mempelajari Firman Tuhan dengan seksama dan juga mempelajari sejarah gereja, dan dia menjadi yakin bahwa perintah “pergi” masih berlaku sampai sekarang. Alhasil dari belajarnya, Carey menulis sebuah buku berjudul ‘An enquiry into the obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen in which the religious state of the different nations of the world, the success of former undertakings, and the practicability of further undertakings are considered.’ Panjangnya nama buku membuat buku semakin populer pada jaman itu, tapi nama buku ini 85


lebih panjang daripada biasanya! Buku yang termasuk diteliti dan ditulis dengan baik ini mencangkup banyak hal dalam hal sejarah, agama, dan geografi sampai pada waktu itu. Buku ini menyediakan wawasan yang luar biasa ke dalam keperluan orang-orang yang belum percaya dan saran-saran yang praktis untuk menjangkau mereka. Pada May 30, 1792, di tahun yang sama setelah keberhasilan dari penerbitan buku itu membangkitkan perhatian dari umat Kristen, dia diundang untuk berkothbah di antara perkumpulan pendetapendeta.6 Berkothbah dari Yesaya 54:2-3, Carey menaruh dua pemikiran yang meringkaskan inti dari pelayanan dia dan sejak saat itu menjadi sebuah motto missionari yang luar biasa yaitu: “Harapkan hal yang besar dari Tuhan; Usahakan hal yang besar untuk Tuhan.”7 Selangkah demi selangkah, Tuhan menyertai Carey untuk menjalankan kehedak-Nya. Beberapa bulan setelah ini, Carey, di umur tiga puluh satu tahun, pada October 2, 1792, dipanggil untuk bertemu dengan kesebelas pendeta yang lain untuk berkumpul di rumah seorang janda, dan mereka mendirikan sebuah kelompok pengabaran injil orang Inggris yang pertama, “The Particular Baptist Society for Propagating the Gospel to the Heathen” (yang nanti namanya diubah menjadi the “Baptist Missionary Society”). Kelompok ini mendiskusikan masalah pratikal seperti dana, kemana mereka akan memulai, dan sebagainya.8 Ketika perkumpulan itu berkumpul dan berdoa bersama, mereka bertemu dengan Dr. John Thom-

as, yang baru saja kembali dari pelayanannya untuk East India Company selama empat tahun sebagai dokter di Bengal, India. Dia juga menjadi Kristen selama di Calcutta dan berantisipasi untuk kembali kesana kali ini untuk mengkabarkan injil kepada penduduk asli. Sewaktu itu dia sedang berada di Inggris untuk mengumpulkan dana. Sewaktu dia bersedia untuk pergi, dia berkata alangkah baiknya jikalau ada seorang yang lain yang akan pergi bersama dengan dia karena mereka akan mencangkup lebih banyak hasil daripada satu orang sendiri. Carey tahu bahwa ini adalah kesempatan yang sedang dia usahakan selama bertahun-tahun. “Aku akan pergi.” Walaupun, kesusahan keluarga muda ini, istri yang berjuang melawan depresi, dana yang kurang, dan hal-hal lain yang tidak bisa dibayangkan, Carey siap untuk menjawab panggilan untuk “pergi.” Setelah beberapa kali percobaan, termasuk istrinya yang menolak untuk pergi dengan dia (walaupun pada akhirnya dia berubah pikiran tepat sebelum mereka naik ke perahu!), William Carey berlayar ke India. Pertulangan mereka disana mencangkupi loncat dari kapal laut sesampainya untuk menghindari East India Company (yang melarang memberikan ijin untuk bekerja diantar penduduk asli), kehabisan uang di Calcutta (Dr. Thomas mempunyai kebiasaan buruk dengan uang yang ditangannya dan menghabiskan semuanya dalam waktu beberapa minggu), menghadapi keadaan yang asing ditengah-tengah hutan belantara yang berkumpulan macan-macan, dua puluh dua hari berlayar dengan panas 120

degrees di sungai yang dikelilingi buaya-buaya, dan banyak pengalaman-pengalaman yang lainnya. Pada akhirnya, beberapa missionari dari Inggris bergabung dengan kelompok Carey ini di kota Serampore, dimana mereka memasang mesin cetak untuk mencetak Alkitab di berbagai macam bahasa India. Di titik hidup dia ini, setelah semua pengalaman-pengalaman yang dialaminya dalam belajar bahasa, berkothbah, menulis, dan berpergian, rancangan Tuhan atas pria ini mulai menghasilkan buah. Kemampuannya yang luar biasa untuk memakai kata-kata, bukan hanya di bahasa dia sendiri, tetapi juga di setiap bahasa yang dia ketemui. Karena bakat yang diberikan kepadanya ini, Carey bisa mempelajari dengan cepat bahasa Bengali, dan dengan kesulitan, Sankrit (bahasa kuno yang dipakai untuk tulisan-tulisan beragama orang India). Dia bekerja keras untuk menterjemahkan buku Perjanjian Baru ke bahasa Bengali dan Sanskrit. Adanya Firman Tuhan dibahasa mereka sendiri menghasilkan dampak yang besar kepada orang-orang disekitar daerah itu: pintu-pintu mulai terbuka, hati pendudukpenduduk mulai menanggapi, dan hidup penduduk-penduduk mulai berubah. Setelah 7 tahun pengabaran injil tanpa seorang penduduk asli yang percaya, di tahun 1800, Carey akhirnya menjalakan baptisan kepada seorang Hindu protestan yang pertama—kejadian yang besar sekali, yang mana menyebabkan huru-hara di kota itu. Dia juga yang menterjemahkan Alkitab ke dalam 44 bahasa, memproduksi tata bahasa dan

kamus untuk orang-orang India, mendirikan 26 gereja dan 126 sekolah, mengakhiri tradisi penduduk untuk mempraktekan Sati (Sutee)9, mengorganisasikan misi medis India yang pertama, bank saving, seminari-seminari, sekolah khusus perempuan India dan koran etnis! Di titik ini sewaktu gubernur jendral Inggris di Calcutta, Lord Wellesley, membuka Fort William College (dimodel mengikuti Cambridge dan Oxford), dia memerlukan seseorang yang bisa mengajar murid-murid Inggris bahasa penduduk local. Satu-satunya orang Inggris diseluruh daerah itu yang memenuhi syarat untuk tugas ini adalah William Carey. Tetapi, sewaktu posisi ini ditawarkan kepadanya, Carey mengira ini adalah suatu lelucon! Bayangkan seseorang yang meninggalkan sekolah sewaktu dia berumur dua belas tahun mengajar di tingkat universitas. Lord Wellesley akhirnya dapat meyakinkan Carey bahwa dia adalah orang yang pantas untuk pekerjaan ini, dan dengan kasih Tuhan, pintu ministri yang lain telah terbuka. Dengan banyak hasil pekerjaannya yang sukses, William Carey tetap rendah hati dan mengembalikan semua kemuliaan dan hormat kepada yang seharusnya, yaitu Tuhan. Berkatalah ia kepada seorang teman sebelum dia meninggal. “Mister Duff, apakah anda sedang bercerita tentang Dr. Carey, Dr. Carey? Sewaktu saya pergi sama sekali tidak berkata apa-apa lagi tentang Dr. Carey— berceritalah tentang penyelamat Dr. Carey.” William Carey menunjukan salah satu contoh yang terbaik untuk seorang yang setia, seseorang yang bersedia untuk

meraih hal yang besar untuk Tuhan dan berharap untuk melihat Tuhan melakukan hal yang besar.10 Tidakkah ini menakjubkan melihat apa yang Tuhan ciptakan bisa lakukan melalui hidup seseorang? William Carey, salah satu ahli bahasa yang sukses di dunia, memberikan Alkitab—Firman Tuhan—kepada penduduk di dunia lebih banyak dari pada orang lain yang pernah hidup! Mungkin, kita tidak mempunyai rencana untuk misi sebesar William Carey, dan kadangkala, kita merasa takut dan tidak pede untuk mengabarkan Injil kepada orang yang belum percaya, tetapi Tuhan melihat kemauan hati kita, dan Dia sendiri yang akan menambahkan apapun kekuatan yang kita perlu. Alkitab mengatakan bahwa Tuhan melihat hati kita, “…Bukan yang dilihat manusia dilihat Allah; manusia melihat apa yang di depan mata, tetapi TUHAN melihat hati.” (2 Samuel 16:7) Lebih dari itu, Alkitab juga mengatakan bahwa Tuhan akan memberikan kita kekuatan bila kita benar-benar besungguh hati terhadap Dia, “Karena mata TUHAN menjelajah seluruh bumi untuk melimpahkan kekuatan-Nya kepada mereka yang bersungguh hati terhadap Dia.” (2 Tawarikh 16:9) Dengan ini dikatakan, tanpa harus pergi mengabarkan Injil keluar negeri, kita juga bisa menjadi alat Tuhan yang menakjubkan dengan menjalankan misi kita di lingkungan kita sendiri, seperti di tempat pekerjaan, di sekolah, di rumah atau di tempat kost, dan dimana saja kita berada—karena banyak orang di tempat-tempat ini yang belum pernah mendengar Injil Tuhan dan mendapatkan keselamatan. Kiranya Tuhan memberkati setiap dari kita yang menanggapi perintah-Nya untuk “Pergi”—seperti William Carey! 86

(The Interview)

L

ooking back to 25 years ago, this church was practically brand new; compared to what our church was then, significant changes have occurred during the years that passed by. People come and go, but some of the congregations have been members of our church since it first started 25 years ago; and they are willing to share their anecdote with the rest of us.

Edgar Kusnohadi What kind of progress have you seen in this church from then until now? A big one, from having no building to having one, from having only 20 congregations until 250-ish, what else…. From only 5 Sunday school kids until it’s a lot like now. What makes you stay in this church until now? I stay in this church because it becomes my family. I become very comfortable with this church. I have been serving here since then and I have no desire to move to anywhere else. How does this church help you go through your struggles? We have lots of advice from Rev. Hosea as a spiritual dad and fellowship with others keep us strong passing through our struggles. Unforgettable memories: We get married here and much more memories. Message for the congregations: Continue to serve the Lord at our church, make our church better and grow in Christ. Her wi Tr isnadi What kind of progress have you seen in this church from then until now? There are more church events for family outing than it used to be. Usually it was only retreats. More people join activities and youths of age 12 and up take part in ministry, activities, cleaning, etc. What makes you stay in this church until now? Pastor Hosea and Ci Paula are living examples of good Christian. I can feel God’s love through them. God’s love is so real in their daily life. I want to experience the same thing like them and follow their steps. How does this church help you go through your struggles? Adult fellowship every Saturday once a month and Friday night prayer meetings; without those 2, I’ll feel alone and rejected in my struggles. Unforgettable memories: One time I visited Pastor Hosea in his home. He cooked kwetiau (horfun) for me from scratch and we ate together with Ci Paula. I think it’s a very special thing to do for a pastor. Message for the congregations: Do not exclude yourself from church whenever you are struggling, look for God during your hard times. Angelia Sidarta What kind of progress have you seen in this church from then until now? Sunday school has improved. When I started joining Sunday school, there were just 2 kids. We also started English fellowship. What makes you stay in this church until now? Because of the family environment that still exists and the Sunday school program How does this church help you go through your struggles? I think it’s the people in this church that help me. To me church is the people in it, not just the building. Unforgettable memories: I think each year is filled with unforgettable memories from different people and different generation. Message for the congregations: If we continue to unite as a family, we will flourish and prevail in Christ. 87


2008 Sunday School Performance on Mother’s Day

2007 Sunday School Christmas Performance

1988 5th Anniversary Sunday School Singing

1985 Easter Sunday School Performace

2008

IEC-LA Expecting gM Mothers otth hers L Li Lining ining u up pb by yD DueDate ueDate

NT 88 88

Agape A Ag gap ape » Anniversary Ann An niivve errs sa arry 2008 200 20 08 8

Our Church Tradition is amazing right?! We even have similar picture of the mothers now as we did back then!!

1995

What is More interesting on the internet than

&

Do we sometimes forget that God always has His eyes on us, watching us? Or do we sometimes forget the purpose of our life? These may be why we sometimes, do extra unnecessary things in our daily life.We either go home from school or work, and the first thing we do is open the computer to see who’s online in our messenger list. We check our emails, and then, here it comes, we go to YouTube or even worse, Facebook! Facebook is the largest connected community available. It also comes in many languages: Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Indonesian, etc. There are too many applications that we don’t even have time to apply to all of them. Ever wonder why they let us apply? Perhaps, to make them feel like reality. First we apply and then we are committed to the application. So below, we provide a number of alternatives to avoid things such browsing Facebook for too long. We can try to learn God’s word and apply them to different applications; several exciting subjects include such examples as creation science, learning God’s word by the books, and watching positive videos at GodTube.

GodTube (http://www.GodTube.com)

Similar to YouTube, GodTube is a free video sharing website but with positive influences.

Harvest New Beginning Radio (http://www.harvest.org/radio/) Brought by Greg Laurie

Although the program is named the new beginning radio, it’s not only for new believers. It is also suitable for Christians who has been years “growing up”. Greg’s topical teaching from the Bible changes weekly. With his funny and great life stories as implications, he makes the teaching interesting and easy to follow. It is also good to share the program with your unbelieving friends or relatives. It is broadcasted from Monday to Friday at KWAVE radio station at 11:00 o’clock. For those who miss this radio program, you can still catch up with Greg’s teaching at the website above. In Harvest.org, you can find also his Sunday’s sermon.

AIG Creation Science (http://www.answersingenesis.org/) & Creation Science Evangelism (http://www.Dr.Dino.com)

As the world delves towards atheism, more and more unbelievers are wondering about their origin. Hence more people believe in the theory of the origin of life (evolution) opposite our Christian belief. This is a very challenging debate aroused between evolutionists and creationists. This question is especially challenging to teenagers and young people, who tended to be more exposed to the evolution belief when they are in college. So if we want to learn more on how to answers questions of our belief in creation or possibly counter their belief in evolution, Ken Ham from AIG association and Kent Hovind, provide a very good video as reference.

(http://the18inchgap.net/)

This website is created by our brothers and sisters in Christ here at IEC Azusa (LA). It provides a support community for Christians through media. It is also a great introductory site for non-Christians to familiarize themselves with our church and beliefs. Some features that they may want to check out is the updated blog that contains the writings of some of our youth church-members, pictures, as well as shortened versions of sermons or topical messages relevant to the struggles of today’s Christians. As Christians, we know that we are susceptible to temptation, but we always have a choice. We can always choose to do things that are beneficial to our Christian faith or the opposite. Moreover, we should know that knowing God’s word is more important than knowing what’s going on in our network. Perhaps someday we might be in need of the knowledge to encounter a challenging unbeliever. May this become a blessing to you! 89


w w w.GII-USA.org/AGAPE/PHP

AGAPE. Editors Note. Silver Anniversary 2008

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