PERPULUHAN: ALKITABIAH TETAPI BUKAN KEKRISTENAN

TITHES AND CLERGY SALARIES
(PERPULUHAN DAN GAJI KEPENDETAAN)

Sebab kami tidak sama dengan banyak orang lain yang mencari keuntungan dari firman Allah. Sebaliknya dalam Kristus kami berbicara sebagaimana mestinya dengan maksud-maksud murni atas perintah Allah dan di hadapan-Nya.
2 Korintus 2:17

Bolehkah manusia menipu Allah? Namun kamu menipu Aku. Tetapi kamu berkata: "Dengan cara bagaimanakah kami menipu Engkau?" mengenai persembahan persepuluhan dan persembahan khusus! Kamu telah kena kutuk, tetapi kamu masih menipu Aku, ya kamu seluruh bangsa! Bawalah seluruh persembahan persepuluhan itu ke dalam rumah perbendaharaan, supaya ada persediaan makanan di rumah-Ku dan ujilah Aku, firman TUHAN semesta alam, apakah Aku tidak membukakan bagimu tingkap-tingkap langit dan mencurahkan berkat kepadamu sampai berkelimpahan.
Maleakhi 3:8-10

Bagian dari kitab Maleakhi tersebut menjadi teks favorit bagi banyak pendeta, khususnya ketika persembahan dan pemberian di gereja berkurang. Jika kita punya waktu untuk memperhatikan gereja modern maka kita akan mendengar bagian dari kitab Maleakhi tadi sering "bergemuruh" dari mimbar. Pertimbangkan retorika yang sering kita dengar ini: "Allah memerintahkanmu membayar perpuluhan dengan setia. Jika kamu tidak memberi perpuluhan maka kamu sedang merampok Allah dan menempatkanmu di bawah kutuk. Akankah kita ulangi bersama mengucapkan "doktrin perpuluhan?" Perpuluhan milik Tuhan. Di dalam kebenaran kita pelajari, di dalam iman kita percaya, dan di dalam sukacita kita memberikannya. Perpuluhan! Dan persembahanmu diperlukan jika pekerjaan Tuhan ingin jalan terus ("pekerjaan Tuhan di sini tentu artinya adalah gaji staf kependetaan dan pembayaran listrik bulanan gedung gereja"). Apa akibat dari tekanan ini? Umat Tuhan merasa bersalah jika tidak memberikannya. Ketika mereka melakukannya mereka merasa membuat Tuhan senang lalu mereka dapat mengharapkan Dia untuk memberkati secara finansial. Ketika mereka gagal akan merasa jadi tidak taat dan kutuk finansial membayangi mereka. Tetapi marilah kita mundur ke belakang dan bertanya: "Apakah Alkitab mengajarkan kita tentang perpuluhan? Dan …. Apakah kita diwajibkan secara rohani untuk mendanai pendeta dan stafnya?" jawaban dari dua pertanyaan itu mengejutkan (jika Anda seorang pendeta, ini menarik perhatian, maka Anda mungkin akan mencabut hatimu dan mengobatinya sekarang).

Apakah perpuluhan alkitabiah?

Perpuluhan muncul di dalam Alkitab. Maka, ya, perpuluhan adalah alkitabiah. Tetapi ini bukanlah kekristenan. Perpuluhan adalah milik bangsa Israel kuno. Ini secara esensial merupakan pajak pendapatan mereka. Anda tidak pernah menemukan perpuluhan oleh kekristenan abad I dalam Perjanjian Baru.

Banyak orang Kristen tidak memiliki ide tentang apa yang Alkitab ajarkan mengenai perpuluhan maka marilah kita melihat hal tersebut. Kata "perpuluhan" secara sederhana artinya sepersepuluh bagian. Tuhan mengenalkan tiga macam perpuluhan bagi Israel sebagai bagian dari sistem perpajakan mereka yaitu :

• Perpuluhan hasil dari tanah untuk men-support orang-orang Lewi yang tidak memiliki warisan di Kanaan.
• Perpuluhan dari hasil tanah untuk mensponsori festival-festival keagamaan di Yerusalem. Jika hasil tanah pertanian tersebut sangat berat untuk dijinjing ke Yerusalem maka mereka dapat merubahnya menjadi uang.
• Perpuluhan dari hasil tanah yang dikumpulkan setiap tiga tahun untuk orang- orang Lewi lokal, yatim piatu, orang asing dan janda-janda.

Ini adalah perpuluhan alkitabiah. Memperhatikan bahwa Allah memerintahkan Israel untuk memberikan 23,3% dari pendapatan mereka tiap tahun maka sepertinya bertentangan dengan pemberian10% (20% per tahun dan 10% setiap tiga tahun = 23,3% per tahun...Allah telah memerintahkan 3 macam perpuluhan … Nehemia 12: 44, Maleakhi 3:8-12, Ibrani 7:5).

Perpuluhan itu dari hasil tanah yaitu benih, buah atau hewan ternak. Itu adalah hasil tanah bukan uang. Sebuah pararel yang jelas dapat dilihat antara sistem perpuluhan Israel dan sistem perpajakan modern yang sekarang ada di Amerika. Israel diwajibkan untuk mendukung pekerja-pekerja nasional mereka (imam-imam), hari-hari suci mereka (festival-festival), dan orang-orang miskin di tempat mereka (orang asing, janda dan yatim piatu) dengan perpuluhan tahunan mereka. Kebanyakan sistem-sistem pajak modern memiliki tujuan yang sama dengan itu.

Bersama kematian Yesus, semua upacara dan simbol-simbol agama yang dimiliki orang Yahudi telah dipakukan pada salib-Nya dan dikuburkan … tidak pernah muncul lagi untuk menghukum kita. Dengan alasan ini kita tidak pernah melihat orang-orang Kristen memberikan perpuluhan di dalam Perjanjian Baru. Tidak pernah kita melihat mereka mempersembahkan kambing domba untuk menutupi dosa-dosa mereka. Paulus menulis, "Kamu juga, meskipun dahulu mati oleh pelanggaranmu dan oleh karena tidak disunat secara lahiriah, telah dihidupkan Allah bersama-sama dengan Dia, sesudah Ia mengampuni segala pelanggaran kita, dengan menghapuskan surat hutang, yang oleh ketentuan-ketentuan hukum mendakwa dan mengancam kita. Dan itu ditiadakan-Nya dengan memakukannya pada kayu salib: Ia telah melucuti pemerintah-pemerintah dan penguasa-penguasa dan menjadikan mereka tontonan umum dalam kemenangan-Nya atas mereka. Karena itu janganlah kamu biarkan orang menghukum kamu mengenai makanan dan minuman atau mengenai hari raya, bulan baru ataupun hari sabat; semuanya itu hanyalah bayangan dari apa yang harus datang, sedang wujudnya ialah Kristus." Kolose 2:13-17

Perpuluhan dimiliki secara eksklusif oleh Israel di bawah hukum Taurat. Soal pengelolaan keuangan, kita melihat orang-orang kudus abad pertama memberi dengan gembira sesuai kemampuan mereka bukan tanggung jawab yang keluar dari sebuah perintah (ini jelas tertulis di 2 Korintus 8:3-13, 9:5-12. Paulus menulis tentang pemberian: Beri sesuai kemampuan dan kekayaan). Pemberian di gereja mula-mula adalah sukarela dan yang diuntungkan dari pemberian tersebut adalah orang miskin, yatim piatu, orang sakit, janda-janda, orang-orang di penjara dan orang-orang asing.

Saya dapat mendengarkan sekarang ini keberatan-keberatan seperti: "Tapi bagaimana dengan Abraham? Dia hidup sebelum hukum Taurat. Dan kita melihat dia memberikan perpuluhan kepada Imam Besar Melkisedek. Apakah ini tidak terbalik dengan argumen Anda bahwa perpuluhan adalah bagian dari hukum Taurat?". Ada tiga hal yang seperti menjelaskan hal tersebut. Pertama, perpuluhan Abraham adalah sukarela sepenuhnya. Bukan sesuatu yang diwajibkan. Allah tidak pernah memerintahkannya seperti Dia memerintahkan perpuluhan kepada Israel. Kedua, perpuluhan Abraham berasal dari jarahan yang dia peroleh dari pertempurannya. Dia tidak memberikan perpuluhan dari pendapatan rejekinya sendiri atau kekayaannya. Tindakan perpuluhan Abraham tersebut sama seperti kalau Anda memenangkan lotere, sebuah mega jackpot, atau penerimaan sebuah bonus dari pekerjaan, lalu diberikan sepersepuluhnya. Ketiga, dan yang paling penting, perpuluhan Abraham tersebut hanya sekali terjadi di sepanjang 175 tahun hidupnya di muka bumi. Kita tidak punya bukti bahwa dia kembali melakukan hal tersebut. Konsekuensinya jika kita menggunakan Abraham sebagai sebuah pembuktian untuk argumen kita bahwa orang-orang Kristen harus memberikan perpuluhan, maka kita hanya diharuskan memberikan perpuluhan sekali saja!

Ini membawa kita kembali kepada teks yang seringkali dikutip dalam Maleakhi 3. Apakah yang Allah katakan disana? Kutipan ini menunjukkan kepada bangsa Israel kuno dimana mereka ada dibawah hukum Taurat. Saat itu umat Tuhan menahan perpuluhan dan persembahan mereka. Bayangkan apa yang akan terjadi jika sebagian besar orang Amerika menolak membayar sebagian besar pajak pendapatan mereka. Hukum Amerika memandang hal tersebut sebagai perampasan atau perampokan. Maka kesalahan tersebut akan ditindaklanjuti dengan hukuman oleh pemerintah karena pencurian tersebut. Hal yang sama, ketika Israel menahan pajak (perpuluhan mereka) maka mereka sedang mencuri dari Allah yang telah mewajibkan sistem perpuluhan tersebut. Tuhan lalu memerintahkan umat-Nya untuk membawa perpuluhan mereka ke dalam rumah perbekalan/persediaan. Rumah perbekalan/persediaan tersebut lokasinya ada dalam ruangan bait suci. Ruangan tersebut disediakan untuk menyimpan perpuluhan (yang adalah produk dan hasil- hasil pertanian, bukan uang) untuk men-support orang Lewi, orang miskin, orang asing dan para janda. Tuhan memberi peringatan dalam Maleakhi 3:5 dengan berkata bahwa Dia akan menghukum orang yang menindas para janda, anak piatu dan orang asing. Dia berkata: "Aku akan mendekati kamu untuk menghakimi dan akan segera menjadi saksi terhadap tukang-tukang sihir, orang-orang berzinah dan orang-orang yang bersumpah dusta dan terhadap orang-orang yang menindas orang upahan, janda dan anak piatu, dan yang mendesak ke samping orang asing, dengan tidak takut kepada-Ku, firman Tuhan semesta alam."

Janda-janda, anak piatu dan orang asing adalah mereka yang paling berhak menerima perpuluhan. Karena Israel menahan perpuluhan mereka maka mereka bersalah telah menindas tiga kelompok orang tersebut. Di dalam hati Allah Maleakhi 3:10 merupakan penindasan kepada orang miskin.

Berapa banyak pengkhotbah-pengkhotbah yang telah Anda dengar membukakan poin tersebut ketika mereka bicara panjang lebar tentang Maleakhi 3 tersebut? Perpuluhan memiliki tujuan untuk mendukung janda-janda, anak piatu, orang asing dan orang Lewi yang termasuk kelompok yang tidak memiliki apa-apa. Inilah pandangan firman Allah mengenai Maleakhi 3.

Asal-usul perpuluhan dan gaji pendeta

Cyprian (200-258) adalah orang Kristen pertama yang menulis tentang praktek dukungan keuangan terhadap kependetaan (clergy). Dia berargumentasi bahwa imam-imam Lewi-lah yang di dukung oleh perpuluhan, maka kependetaan Kristen akan di dukung juga oleh perpuluhan tetapi sesungguhnya ini merupakan kesalahan pemikiran. Hari ini, sistem keimamatan Lewi telah dihapus. Kita semua sekarang adalah imam maka jika seorang imam menerima perpuluhan maka orang Kristen akan memberikan perpuluhan satu sama lain. Pendapat dari Cyprian sangat luar biasa pada zaman itu dan tidak disuarakan oleh kekristenan pada umumnya sampai beberapa lama kemudian. Selain Cyprian tidak ada penulis Kristen sebelum Constantine yang pernah menggunakan Perjanjian Lama sebagai referensi untuk menyokong pandangan perpuluhan. Hal tersebut tidak ditemukan sampai pada abad ke-empat. 300 tahun setelah Kristus, beberapa pemimpin Kristen mulai mendukung pandangan mengenai perpuluhan sebagai sebuah praktek kekristenan untuk mendukung kaum clergi (kependetaan) tetapi ini pun tidak tersebar luas di antara orang-orang Kristen sampai abad ke-delapan. Seorang terpelajar pernah berkata, "Selama 700 tahun pertama perpuluhan sukar dijelaskan". Peta sejarah perpuluhan Kristen adalah sebuah pelajaran yang menarik. Perpuluhan telah berkembang secara perlahan dari negara kepada gereja. Pemberian perpuluhan dari hasil-hasil pertanian yang diperoleh seseorang adalah pembayaran pinjaman yang lazim untuk tanah-tanah yang disewakan di Eropa Barat. Gereja mengembangkan kepemilikan tanahnya melintasi Eropa; sepuluh persen dari biaya sewa tanah diberikan kepada gereja. Ini telah memberikan kepada peraturan "10% ongkos sewa tanah" sebuah makna yang baru. Ini diidentifikasikan dengan perpuluhan keimamatan Lewi. Konsekuensinya, perpuluhan Kristen sebagai sebuah adat atau kebiasaan yang didasarkan atas sebuah gabungan praktek Perjanjian Lama dan institusi dunia. Pada abad ke-delapan perpuluhan diharuskan oleh hukum dan banyak tempat di Eropa Barat. Akhir abad ke-sepuluh pembedaan perpuluhan sebagai sebuah ongkos sewa dan sebuah persyaratan moral didukung oleh Perjanjian Lama telah dihilangkan. Perpuluhan menjadi diwajibkan ke seluruh kekristenan Eropa. Sebelum abad ke-delapan perpuluhan dipraktekkan sebagai pemberian sukarela. Tetapi pada akhir abad ke-sepuluh dipindahkan ke dalam sebuah persyaratan legal untuk mendanai gereja pemerintah … diminta oleh klergi dan dikuatkan oleh otoritas sekuler! Syukurlah banyak gereja-gereja modern menghapuskan perpuluhan sebagai persyaratan legal. Tetapi praktek perpuluhan hari ini tetap saja sebanyak ketika hal tersebut mengikat secara legal di masa yang lalu. Tentu Anda tidak akan dihukum secara fisik jika gagal memberi perpuluhan. Tetapi jika engkau bukan seorang pemberi perpuluhan maka di banyak gereja-gereja modern Anda akan disingkirkan dari posisi pelayanan. Dan Anda akan selamanya dipersalahkan dari mimbar.

Selama tiga abad pertama, pelayan-pelayan Tuhan tidak menerima gaji tetapi ketika Constantine muncul, dia mewajibkan praktek pembayaran gaji tetap kepada kependetaan dari dana-dana gereja dan pemerintahan serta kekayaan kerajaan. Jadi lahirlah gaji kependetaan, sebuah praktek berbahaya yang tidak mempunyai akar dalam Perjanjian Baru.

Akar dari segala kejahatan

Jika seorang pemercaya berharap memberikan perpuluhan karena keputusan atau keyakinan pribadi, itu lebih baik. Perpuluhan menjadi sebuah masalah ketika dikatakan sebagai perintah Allah yang mengikat setiap orang percaya.

Perintah perpuluhan sama dengan penindasan terhadap orang miskin. Tidak sedikit orang-orang Kristen yang miskin yang merasa jatuh kepada kemiskinan lebih parah lagi sebab mereka telah mengatakan bahwa jika mereka tidak memberikan perpuluhan, mereka sedang mencuri milik Allah. Ketika perpuluhan dikatakan sebagai perintah Tuhan, orang-orang Kristen yang tidak dapat memenuhi perintah tersebut akan merasa bersalah dan jatuh ke dalam kemiskinan lebih dalam lagi. Ini menyebabkan perpuluhan telah menjauhkan Injil untuk menjadi "berita baik untuk orang miskin". Bukannya menjadi berita baik malahan menjadi beban berat. Bukannya kemerdekaan, hal tersebut malah menjadi penindasan. Kita cenderung melupakan bahwa perpuluhan yang asli yang ditetapkan Allah untuk orang Israel sebenarnya untuk mendatangkan keuntungan untuk orang Israel, bukannya untuk melukai mereka.

Sebaliknya, perpuluhan modern adalah berita baik untuk orang kaya. Bagi seseorang yang berpenghasilan tinggi, 10% adalah jumlah yang sedikit. Pemberian perpuluhan akan menenangkan hati orang kaya dan hal tersebut tidak akan mempengaruhi gaya hidup mereka. Tidak sedikit orang Kristen yang makmur diperdaya kepada pemikiran bahwa mereka "sedang taat kepada Allah" sebab mereka melemparkan 10% saja dari pendapatan mereka ke dalam kantong persembahan. Tetapi Allah memiliki pandangan yang berbeda tentang persembahan. Dalam perumpamaan janda yang miskin, dalam Lukas 21:1-4 dikatakan: Ketika Yesus mengangkat muka-Nya, Ia melihat orang-orang kaya memasukkan persembahan mereka ke dalam peti persembahan. Ia melihat juga seorang janda miskin memasukkan 2 peser ke dalam peti itu. Lalu Ia berkata: "Aku berkata kepadamu, sesungguhnya janda miskin ini memberi lebih banyak dari pada semua orang itu. Sebab mereka semua memberi persembahannya dari kelimpahannya, tetapi janda ini memberi dari kekurangannya, bahkan ia memberi seluruh nafkahnya."

Sungguh menyedihkan, perpuluhan sering ditampilkan sebagai sebuah kertas lakmus penguji bagi kepemimpinan. Jika Anda adalah seorang Kristen yang baik, Anda akan memberikan perpuluhan. Tetapi ini adalah sebuah penerapan yang palsu. Perpuluhan bukan tanda dari penyembahan Kristen. Jika perpuluhan adalah tanda kekristenan, seluruh orang Kristen pada abad pertama akan dihukum karena tidak taat.

Akar lama dibalik penekanan perpuluhan dalam gereja modern adalah gaji kependetaan. Tidak sedikit gembala-gembala merasa bahwa mereka harus mengkhotbahkan perpuluhan untuk mengingatkan jemaat mereka tentang kewajiban- kewajibannya mendukung gembala dan program-programnya. Dan mereka akan menggunakan janji berkat keuangan atau ketakutan akan kutuk keuangan untuk memastikan perpuluhan jalan terus.

Perpuluhan modern sama dengan sebuah lotere Kristen. "Bayar perpuluhan dan Allah akan memberimu kembali banyak uang. Tolak perpuluhan, dan Allah akan menghukummu." Banyak pemikiran-pemikiran yang merobek dan mengoyak jantung dari berita baik Injil. Hal yang sama dapat dikatakan tentang gaji kependetaan. Ini bukan nilai Perjanjian Baru. Pada kenyataannya clergi salary (gaji kependetaan) cenderung berlawanan dengan seluruh watak Perjanjian Baru. Penatua-penatua (gembala-gembala) pada abad pertama tidak pernah digaji, mereka orang-orang yang mempunyai pekerjaan dan profesi. Mereka memberi kepada jemaat bukan mengambil dari mereka.

Penggajian gembala-gembala membuat mereka menjadi profesional-profesional yang dibayar. Ini mengangkat mereka melampaui umat Allah yang lain. Ini menciptakan sebuah kasta kependetaan yang memutarbalikkan kehidupan Tubuh Kristus ke dalam sebuah bisnis. Sejak gembala dan stafnya dibayar untuk melayani , mereka menjadi profesional bayaran. Segala perilaku gereja masuk dalam sebuah tingkat ketergantungan yang pasif. Jika setiap orang Kristen dipanggil untuk berfungsi sebagai imam-imam dalam rumah Tuhan (dan mereka diijinkan untuk menggunakan panggilan itu), pertanyaan yang segera muncul: Apakah kita harus membayar pastor-pastor kita? Tetapi hari ini, dalam keimamatan yang pasif, banyak pertanyaan-pertanyaan tidak pernah muncul. Sebaliknya ketika gereja berfungsi sebagaimana seharusnya, kependetaan profesional menjadi tidak perlu. Tiba-tiba pemikiran yang mengatakan, "itu adalah pekerjaan pendeta" terlihat tidak alkitabiah. Sebuah kependetaan profesional akan mendorong pengembangan pemikiran salah bahwa firman Allah digolongkan sebagai hal yang hanya dapat di handle oleh orang- orang yang ahli saja.

Membayar seorang pendeta atau gembala juga akan mendorongnya menjadi seorang "man-pleaser" (asal orang lain senang). Ini membuat dia menjadi budak manusia. "Kupon makan"-nya bergantung seberapa baik dia menyenangkan jemaatnya. Jadi dia tidak bebas untuk bicara tanpa takut bahwa dia akan kehilangan pemberi-pemberi perpuluhan. Bahaya lebih jauh lagi dari sistem penggajian pendeta adalah kecenderungan menghasilkan manusia-manusia yang tidak memiliki banyak keahlian. Sayang sekali banyak umat Tuhan sangat polos dan tidak mengerti tentang kekuasaan yang berlebihan dari sistem kependetaan. Allah tidak pernah mengharapkan lembaga kependetaan yang profesional untuk eksis. Tidak ada mandat atau penegasan alkitabiah mengenai hal tersebut. Pada kenyataannya tidak mungkin menyusun sebuah pembelaan alkitabiah untuk itu.

Seringkali para usher dipilih untuk menangani pengumpulan keuangan selama kebaktian berlangsung. Mereka menyodorkan "kantong persembahan" kepada jemaat. Praktek mengedarkan kantong persembahan tersebut dimulai pada tahun 1662 meskipun peti persembahan dan piring persembahan telah ada sebelum itu. Usher bermula dari Ratu Elizabeth I (1553-1603) yang pada waktu itu mengorganisasikan kembali liturgi gereja di Inggris. Para usher memiliki tugas mengawasi orang-orang duduk, mengumpulkan persembahan dan mencatat siapa yang telah mengambil perjamuan suci. Yang ada lebih dulu dari usher adalah "kuli pengangkut" (sama dengan "porter" gereja). Porter-porter itu memiliki tugas mengawasi penguncian dan pembukaan pintu gereja, menjaga bangunan dan mengawasi peraturan umum bagi para diaken.

Kesimpulan

Perpuluhan, sekalipun alkitabiah, bukan kekristenan. Yesus Kristus tidak menyatakan hal itu. Kekristenan abad pertama tidak melakukan hal tersebut dan selama 300 tahun umat Allah tidak mempraktekkannya. Perpuluhan tidak menjadi praktek yang diterima meluas di kalangan kekristenan sampai abad ke-delapan. Pemberian di dalam Perjanjian Baru adalah sesuai kemampuan seseorang. Orang- orang Kristen memberikan pertolongan kepada orang-orang percaya yang lain dan juga mendukung pekerja-pekerja apostolik, mendanai perjalanan dan perintisan jemaat. Satu dari kesaksian yang paling terkenal dari gereja mula-mula adalah betapa murah hatinya orang-orang Kristen terhadap orang miskin dan orang-orang yang dalam kebutuhan. Inilah yang membuat orang-orang luar, termasuk filsuf Galen, untuk melihat hal yang mengagumkan, kekuatan yang menarik dari gereja mula-mula dan berkata: "Lihatlah mereka mengasihi satu sama lain".

Perpuluhan hanya disebutkan 4 kali dalam Perjanjian Baru tetapi tidak satu pun dari konteks itu diaplikasikan kepada kekristenan. Sekali lagi, perpuluhan merupakan bagian dari Perjanjian Lama dimana sistem perpajakan dibutuhkan untuk mendukung orang miskin dan dalam masa dimana sebuah keimamatan dipisahkan secara khusus untuk melayani Tuhan. Bersama dengan kedatangan Yesus Kristus ada sebuah "perubahan hukum"--yang tua "dibatalkan" dan menjadi usang oleh karena yang baru.

Kita semua sekarang adalah imam, bebas berfungsi di dalam rumah Allah. Hukum Taurat, keimamatan yang lama, dan perpuluhan semuanya telah disalibkan. Tidak ada lagi sekarang tirai bait Allah, pajak rumah Allah atau pun keimamatan khusus yang berdiri di antara Allah dan manusia.
Anda, orang-orang Kristen, telah dibebaskan dari perbudakan perpuluhan dan dari kewajiban untuk mendukung sistem klergi yang tidak alkitabiah.

Judul: PAGAN CHRISTIANITY (The Origins of Our Modern Church Practices)
Pengarang: Frank Viola
Penerbit: Present Testimony Ministry
Halaman: bab 7 "Tithes and Clergy Salaries" -- (217-229)


* Diambil dari Website Cornelius Wing

Ada Kemajuannn ^.^

Barusan kelar les vokal... 

Kali ini ga frustasi kayak waktu les pertama kali minggu lalu hahahaha... 

Soalnya udah bisa nafas diafragma... 

Ya udah tau nafas diafragma itu kayak gimana hehehe... 

Tinggal harus sering latian biar terbiasa.  

Trus tadi diajarin juga pake suara falset, ini juga kudu sering dilatih. 

Trus diajarin vokal-nya supaya ga fals pake "aeieaeieaeiea..." dari nada rendah sampe makin tinggi.  

Jadi semangat!!! ^o^  

Abis ini tiap pulang kantor mau latian ah dari jam 5 sampe jam 6, pas anak-anak kos laen blom pulang ke kos 'n pas karyawan-karyawan kantornya cik Landri udah pulang dari sini hehehe...  

Way to go to myself! Hihihihi...

Pengen Nokia E72

Asli aku naksir abiez ama Nokia N-72 ^o^
Gimana ga pengen kalo semuanya komplit plit...
Pertama naksir karna keypad-nya lengkap, jadi kalo ngetik kan enak bisa cepet.
Tapi baca fitur-fitur 'n spesifikasi yang laennya jadi ga heran juga kalo banyak orang ngincer E-72

Barusan di-launching tanggal cantik bulan kemaren (9 September 2009).
Harga masih 5 jeti lebih... (-_-")
Ga heran juga kalo disebut-sebut sebagai saingat berat si BB (BlackBerry)
Asli mupeng nih hehehehe....

Nokia E72 warna Topaz Brown
...atau item aja yah?
Mauuuuuuu.....

It Will Have Been 6 Years

It will have been 6 years this December...

Aku dah kerja buat orang lain selama 6 tahun pas nyampe akhir tahun ini. Aku kan pertama kali kerja di CBN Lippo Cikarang mulai Januari 2005, waktu itu beberapa bulan awal masih magang plus juga abis itu sempet status kontrak sebelum akhirnya jadi karyawan tetap.  

Di Perjanjian Lama kan ada tuh aturan kalo setelah 6 tahun budak harus dibebaskan dari kewajibannya, menjadi orang bebas bukan budak atau hamba orang lain lagi. Ni obrolan pas aku 'n Melisa maen ke rumah ce Iin Minggu lalu. Jadi termotivasi and mikir juga siy... 

Sebenernya keinginan buat ga kerja karyawan lagi tu udah ada belakangan, kayaknya mulai tahun ini deh... Pengen kerja sendiri atau joinan bikin usaha apa gitu ama siapa gitu... 'Coz aku ngerasa kayaknya waktu kerja buat orang lain-nya udah cukup... 

It's time I learn something new, time to step ahead... walo masih blom tau pasti detailnya bakal kayak gimana. Aku masih doain ini. Yang jelas I want to be a better person, with better character and also skills. I guess I also need new routines.... 

But until the time has come for those things, I will keep walking forward, trying to do my best in my current position right now and keep a hopeful + grateful heart. 

Holy Spirit, guide me along the way...

Soes Goreng Makaroni Keju

Ingredients:
* 75 gram margarin
* 200 ml air
* 1/2 sendok teh garam
* 125 gram tepung terigu protein sedang
* 3 butir telur
* 1/2 sendok teh baking powder
* 50 gram keju cheddar mudah meleleh, dipotong kotak-kotak kecil
* 2 buah sosis ayam, dipotong kotak kecil
* 1/4 sendok teh garam
* 1/4 sendok teh merica bubuk
* 100 gram makaroni, direbus
* minyak untuk menggoreng

Resep Bahan Pelengkap Soes Goreng Makaroni Keju :

* 100 gram saus tomat
* 100 gram saus sambal


Directions:
1. Panaskan margarin, air, dan garam sampai mendidih. Tambahkan tepung terigu. Aduk sampai bergumpal.
2. Masukkan telur dan baking powder. Kocok rata. Tambahkan keju cheddar, sosis ayam, garam, dan merica bubuk. Aduk rata. Masukkan makaroni. Aduk rata.
3. Bentuk bulat-bulat dengan sendok.
4. Goreng dalam minyak yang sudah dipanaskan di atas api sedang sampai matang.
5. Sajikan dengan pelengkap.

Les Vokal Perdana

Haizzz... Akhirnya tadi les vokal privat perdana ama mbak Fe (ternyata dia masih 22 tahun loh hehehe...). Tadi dia dateng jam 5 sesuai janji sampe jam 6 lebih. Latiannya di ruang TV sebelah kamarku. Untungnya kan jam segitu anak-anak kos laen blom pada pulang. 

Waktunya tu pas banget, kan jam 5 semua pegawai kantor cik Landri di bawah udah pulang, sementara anak-anak kos laen baru pada pulang jam 6 ke atas. Jadi rada free deh, paling yang denger latiannya cuman cik landri ama pembantu kos hehehe... Emang kalo dari Tuhan itu serba pas deh hehehe... Thank You Dad ^.^  

Huih susahnya tadi latian pake diafragma... maybe blom terbiasa aja kali yah... Makanya kudu sering latian ni... 

Planning palingan kalo pulang kantor latian sebelum anak-anak kos laen pulang... ya antara jam 5 - jam 6 an gitu. Tadi sempet kepikir apa tiap jam makan siang pulang buat latian, tapi jadi inget kalo masih ada karyawan kantornya cik Landri... Yaudah kayaknya paling pas latiannya sore deh setelah aku pulang kantor 'n sebelum anak-anak kos laen pulang ke kos.  

Aku pengen bisaaaa!!! 

Jiayouuuuu!!!! 

Ganbatte Kudasai!!!!  

PASTI BISA !!!!! 

Holy Spirit help me please... ^.^

Me Singing "I Feel Good"

This Sunday ::: Getaway and Thinking

Yup! Hari ini kan ga ada oikos, jadi tadi siang aku maen ke rumah Momon (temen komsel), makan nasgor bikinan dia trus jalan-jalan naek motor hihihihi...

Pertama kita ke Carrefour PanjangJiwo coz dia cuman mau ngecek ATM doang, trus ke Bilka bentar, trus ke Zanggrandi (termasuk salah satu kuliner khas di Surabaya), trus ke Mirota (toko 4 lantai jual semua barang-barang khas Indonesia, di sana berasa lagi pergi ke Jogja hehehe...), trus ke Elizabeth (one of bags famous brand). Mirota ama Elizabeth itu sama-sama di jalan Gubeng. Then ke Carrefour PanjangJiwo lagi terakhir sebelon nganterin Momon balik ke rumahnya. Asik banget hihihi... Baru nyampe kos jam 19:30.

Tadi di Elizabeth beli celana jeans selutut buat ntar dipake ke Bali pas Desember ke sana ama Kezia, mumpung nemu celana jeans pendek yang pas banget, bahannya juga rada lentur ga kaku, harganya 80 rebu, jadi langsung deh hehehe.... secara kalo lagi butuh beli celana jeans jarang bisa langsung nemu yang pas kayak gitu.

Di Zanggrandi asli aku memuaskan hasrat hahaha... makan noodle ice cream ama milkshake coklat hihihihi.... secara jarang-jarang banget bisa ke sana, udah lama juga ga makan ice cream, enak banget soalnya Surabaya lagi panas hawanya, sumuk abiez... Nongkrong di Zanggrandi sambil ngobrol-ngobrol ama Momon... dikuatkan lagi untuk teteup percaya bahwa future mate itu masih akan datang... Kah Ming Soon hihihihi... Ya ga cuman ngobrol soal itu doang siy, banyak yang laen juga...

Udah lama banget ga nemu temen jalan yang enak kayak dulu pas kuliah hehehe... Kita dah planning ntar kalo bisa jalan-jalan lagi bakal ke mana aja hehehehe... Asik asik... ^o^ Soalnya asli belakangan dah beberapa bulan ini aku boring banget... pengen ngelakuin banyak hal yang fresh, yang baru... Pengen kerjaan baru juga siy hehehe...

Trus... barusan nemu pas googling les vokal... bener-bener pas kayak yang aku pengen 'n yang cocok ama kondisiku... Aku kan kerja kantor... jadi pengennya les vokal yang fleksibel soalnya aku pernah tanya ke tempat les vokal Purwacaraka kalo ga salah, mereka jam lesnya tuh siang, jadi kan aku ga bisa. So yang aku pikir bisa pas ama aku tuh:
- jam les vokal bisa di atas jam 5 sore
- gurunya cewek (ni karna aku pikir bakal lebih nyaman aja)
- kalo bisa seh dateng ke kos, privat gitu, biar praktis plus bisa fokus ke aku ;p
Nah yang aku temuin tu memenuhin semuanya. Sekarang jadi lagi mikir nih jadi beneran les vokal apa ga hihihihi... Papaku siy udah acc, dia bilang kalo mau les vokal gapapa, mumpung masih bisa belajar belajar apa aja yang aku pengen...

Thinking thinking deh...

Sweetest Memory

When I thought about what is the sweetest memory in my childhood, I instantly remember about my grandpa (in memoriam)... It's not that the others (my mom, dad and grandma) didn't love me well, it's just that my grandpa left such a sweet and unforgettable memory in this little girl's mind.

He is the one who picked me up from school when I was in first grades of primary school.
He is the one who read me English fairy tale books and translated them, lately I realized maybe it has triggered my interest in English :)
He is the one who accompanied me singing songs from my Sunday school (literally, he sang together with me), sometimes he mimicked me singing :).
Sometimes he accompany me when I have to stay late at night to study for tomorrow's exam.
I saw him treated my grandma so good... I have once wished I wanted to have a husband like him in the future...   

Sometimes I wish he is still here on earth... I miss him...
At least he had become a right man figure to me
Guess I will have a husband with good traits like him :)

About Dreaming

Dreams: are they just a lust of our mind or are they really exist and need to be fulfilled?
I don't get it... (-_-")

Lately I'm dreaming of traveling abroad... This is a bit weird, considering that I have never wished that I would go abroad in the past, at all... I was just content with my city and my country, while some people I know really want to go abroad for vacation. But now I feel the same desire (-_-")

Sometimes I still don't understand, are certain dreams really need to be fulfilled (we must strive and try everything legal to pursue them) or they are just merely temporary lusts? Yes, lust... 'Cause they might be born in our mind out of a boredom, or just as an expression of our deepest wish to be "free"? Free from everyday routines and tasks... to refresh our mind and soul, to feel and experience the new environment, meet new people, learn new culture... even if it's just for a while...

I guess that maybe sometimes people need to add new vocabularies to the brain, fresh perspectives, to refresh our "human library"... to feed our thirst of new knowledge...

...at least that's the way I feel...

But unfortunately, not everyone can get their dreams to go traveling... They stumbled upon the costs, their family, their current job, all things that make their dreams harder to reach.

Then I think... if our life is not about us but about God (because we are His possession), I'm questioning are those kind of dreams worth to be pursued?

Certainly, if I think about the wholeness of life, like it is written in Ecclesiastes, everything is meaningless... it's true. 'Cause no matter how much we can get, no matter how great is our pride, no matter how many places we can visit and "conqueror", anything you name it... at the end, they will be all meaningless... because our true life is not meant for this temporary world, but later, in the eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11)... That's why we can never be satisfied with the earthly things...

But another perspective, through all the process to achieve and experience our dreams, we can learn about His love, His almighty power, we can learn how to relate with God and also with other people the right way... Isn't that what God wants us to experience? Isn't that what God's goal for us to achieve? He wants us to be more alike with Him and also make every people His disciples. How we can fulfill God's goal in our life? By relating with God and others...

...and traveling is just one way among so many other ways...

Hmmm... I wish I can go travel to everywhere someday... not for the sake of traveling itself, but for a deeper purpose...

Me Singing "She Will Be Loved"

Free Sunday - Blog Update

Happy Sunday! For me it's lazy Sunday hahaha... Not really lazy siy, secara ntar juga mau pergi keluar buat belanja beli buah di Sinar terdekat ama juga sekalian ngelus-ngelus hamster 'n kelinci yang dijual di sana hehehe... They are so cute =p Ngegemesin hehehe...

This week I joined Interpals, recommended by my penpal from Thailand, just for searching another penpals =p Kayaknya enak aja email-email-an ama orang dari negara-negara laen, sekalian ngebiasain diri Inggris-an.

Btw, kayaknya aku dah ga produktif lagi jadi blogger yah hihihi... Secara postingan yang original udah tambah dikit 'n banyak postingan copy-paste. Nggak juga siy. Aku masih ngeblog, cuman terakhir kan aku sempet penasaran ama fitur baru di Wordpress.com, jadinya aku bikin blog baru 'n keterusan di sana hahaha...

Aku emang ga woro-woro alamat blog Wordpress yang baru, coz I think I need a little privacy, apa yah, sebenernya isinya juga ga rahasia-rahasia banget, cuman berasa lebih bebas aja nulisnya, mau cuman curhat ga penting atau apapun bisa aku tumpahin smua di sana. It's available on the internet, orang laen juga masih bisa baca, cuman aku setting ga termasuk di hasil pencarian Google. Jadi otomatis yang bisa nyampe sana ya cuman orang yang udah tau alamat blogku =p

Tapi kalo misalnya aku mau ngebagiin something yang bisa ngasih inspirasi atau copy paste artikel-artikel yang memberkati, bakal tetep aku posting ke sini kok.

Talking about blog's privacy, ada temenku yang dulu juga punya blog di Wordpress, orang-orang kantornya beberapa udah tau, sekarang di-private-in blognya jadi kalo mau baca kudu pake password. Ya otomatis yang bisa baca cuman yang udah dikasih password hehehe... Iya emang rada ga enak juga siy yah kalo orang kantor tau isi blog kita =p Orang-orang kantorku yang dulu banyak yang udah tau cuman aku cuek-cuek aja, apalagi sekarang kan dah ga sekantor ama mereka, lagian they are all my friends.

Ini karna aku dah lama sempet ga terbiasa nulis. Makanya aku butuh 1 blog yang bebas dari orang-orang laen, biar istilahnya bisa ngasih kesempatan yang seluas-luasnya ke aku buat ber-ekspresi (ceilah hahahaha...) Ga ber-ekspresi yang gimana juga siy, pokoknya pas nulis tu bisa bebas aja. Ga pake mikir "duh ntar kalo mereka / si ini / si itu baca blogku gimana yah?" so I choose to add "freedom in blogging" by making the new Wordpress blog hahaha...

Enak juga nih ngeblog panjang kayak gini... ditemani lagunya si Taylor Swift ama angin semilir... Kamar kosku kan di lantai 2, lumayan sejuk, kalo pagi masih bisa denger suara burung berkicau-kicau (tuh ada bunyinya hehehe)... Sedappp...

So, happy Sunday everyone!
...and happy blogging! ^.^

The Screwtape Letters - Chapter One

The Screwtape Letters is a work of Christian apologetics by C. S. Lewis, first published in book form in 1942. The story takes the form of a series of letters from a senior demon, Screwtape, to his nephew, a junior tempter named Wormwood, so as to advise him on methods of securing the damnation of an earthly man, known only as "the Patient."

Screwtape (along with his trusted scribe Toadpipe) holds an administrative post in the bureaucracy ("Lowerarchy") of Hell, and acts more as a mentor than a supervisor to Wormwood, the inexperienced tempter; almost every letter ends with the signature, "Your affectionate uncle, Screwtape." In the body of the thirty-one letters which make up the book, Screwtape gives Wormwood detailed advice on various methods of undermining faith and promoting sin in his Patient, interspersed with observations on human nature and Christian doctrine.

In The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis provides a series of lessons in the importance of taking a deliberate role in living out Christian faith by portraying a typical human life, with all its temptations and failings, as seen from the demon/devil's viewpoint. Wormwood and Screwtape live in a peculiarly morally reversed world, where individual benefit and greed are seen as the greatest good, and neither demon is capable of comprehending or acknowledging true human virtue when he sees it.

Characters
Screwtape – old, wise demon, the uncle of Wormwood
Wormwood – nephew of Screwtape and novice demon who is being trained by Screwtape to help in causing a young man to lose his soul
“Our Father Below” – Satan
“The Enemy” – God
the patient – the young man who is the object of Wormwood’s mission
the old lady – the patient’s mother
Glubose – the demon who is assigned to the “old lady”
Slumtrimpet – demon in charge of the patient’s “young woman”

CHAPTER 1

MY DEAR WORMWOOD,

I note what you say about guiding our patient's reading and taking care that he sees a good deal of his materialist friend. But are you not being a trifle naïf? It sounds as if you supposed that argument was the way to keep him out of the Enemy's clutches. That might have been so if he had lived a few centuries earlier. At that time the humans still knew pretty well when a thing was proved and when it was not; and if it was proved they really believed it. They still connected thinking with doing and were prepared to alter their way of life as the result of a chain of reasoning. But what with the weekly press and other such weapons we have largely altered that. Your man has been accustomed, ever since he was a boy, to have a dozen incompatible philosophies dancing about together inside his head. He doesn't think of doctrines as primarily "true" of "false", but as "academic" or "practical", "outworn" or "contemporary", "conventional" or "ruthless". Jargon, not argument, is your best ally in keeping him from the Church. Don't waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think it is strong, or stark, or courageous—that it is the philosophy of the future. That's the sort of thing he cares about.

The trouble about argument is that it moves the whole struggle onto the Enemy's own ground. He can argue too; whereas in really practical propaganda of the kind I am suggesting He has been shown for centuries to be greatly the inferior of Our Father Below. By the very act of arguing, you awake the patient's reason; and once it is awake, who can foresee the result? Even if a particular train of thought can be twisted so as to end in our favour, you will find that you have been strengthening in your patient the fatal habit of attending to universal issues and withdrawing his attention from the stream of immediate sense experiences. Your business is to fix his attention on the stream. Teach him to call it "real life" and don't let him ask what he means by "real".

Remember, he is not, like you, a pure spirit. Never having been a human (Oh that abominable advantage of the Enemy's!) you don't realise how enslaved they are to the pressure of the ordinary. I once had a patient, a sound atheist, who used to read in the British Museum. One day, as he sat reading, I saw a train of thought in his mind beginning to go the wrong way. The Enemy, of course, was at his elbow in a moment. Before I knew where I was I saw my twenty years' work beginning to totter. If I had lost my head and begun to attempt a defence by argument I should have been undone. But I was not such a fool. I struck instantly at the part of the man which I had best under my control and suggested that it was just about time he had some lunch. The Enemy presumably made the counter-suggestion (you know how one can never quite overhear What He says to them?) that this was more important than lunch.

At least I think that must have been His line for when I said "Quite. In fact much too important to tackle it the end of a morning", the patient brightened up considerably; and by the time I had added "Much better come back after lunch and go into it with a fresh mind", he was already half way to the door. Once he was in the street the battle was won. I showed him a newsboy shouting the midday paper, and a No. 73 bus going past, and before he reached the bottom of the steps I had got into him an unalterable conviction that, whatever odd ideas might come into a man's head when he was shut up alone with his books, a healthy dose of "real life" (by which he meant the bus and the newsboy) was enough to show him that all "that sort of thing" just couldn't be true. He knew he'd had a narrow escape and in later years was fond of talking about "that inarticulate sense for actuality which is our ultimate safeguard against the aberrations of mere logic". He is now safe in Our Father's house.

You begin to see the point? Thanks to processes which we set at work in them centuries ago, they find it all but impossible to believe in the unfamiliar while the familiar is before their eyes. Keep pressing home on him the ordinariness of things. Above all, do not attempt to use science (I mean, the real sciences) as a defence against Christianity. They will positively encourage him to think about realities he can't touch and see. There have been sad cases among the modern physicists. If he must dabble in science, keep him on economics and sociology; don't let him get away from that invaluable "real life". But the best of all is to let him read no science but to give him a grand general idea that he knows it all and that everything he happens to have picked up in casual talk and reading is "the results of modem investigation". Do remember you are there to fuddle him. From the way some of you young fiends talk, anyone would suppose it was our job to teach!

Your affectionate uncle
SCREWTAPE

Memories

I thought I've had enough of you
Thought I wouldn't be missing you this much
Yes... you...
The ones dancing around in my mind

Time had taken me away from you
And everytime I remember you
The warmth of love and the little things that had happened
Make me want to re-write the past once again

I thought I've forgotten about you
Thought you had dumped in the garbage
Yes... you...
The ones leaving scar in my heart

Time had taken me away from you
And how I want to leave you right there
But you just can't...
Because you're also part of my journey

All of you...
You made me learn about love
You made me learn about forgiving
You made me see my God within my previous foot prints

Sweet...
Bitter...
It doesn't really matter anyway...

N-O  R-E-G-R-E-T
'cause I know that He was with me along the way

It's the one that truly matters...

(by Fay)

Nagasari

Ingredients:
- Tepung beras 200 ml
- Santan kental dari ½ butir kelapa 250 ml
- Santan encer dari ½ butir kelapa 550
- Gula pasir 200 g
- Daun pandan 1 lembar
- Vanili pasta/bubuk vanili ¼ sdt
- Garam halus ½ sdt
- Pisang raja, potong membulat setebal 1 cm 5 buah
- Daun pisang untuk membungkus

Directions:
1. Larutkan tepung beras dengan 250 ml santan kental. Aduk rata, sisihkan.

2. Panaskan santan encer, gula, daun pandan, garam dan vanili. Masak hingga mendidih. Angkat, saring.

3. Tambahkan larutan tepung beras sedikit demi sedikit ke atas santan panas sambil diaduk-aduk. Masak di atas api sedang hingga setengah matang. Angkat.

4. Ambil daun pisang, masukkan 1 sendok makan adonan, peri satu potongan pisang, tutup kembali dengan satu sendok makan adonan. Bungkus seperti melipat amplop. Lakukan hingga adonan habis.

5. Kukus kue dengan api besar selama 20 menit atau hingga kue matang. Angkat, dinginkan. Atur di dalam piring saji. hidangkan.

Kue Karamel

Ingredients:
- 6 bh telur ayam
- 6 sm mentega
- 1 st soda
- 2 gls Gula pasir
- 2 gls air
- Vanila secukupnya
- 1/3 klng Susu kental
- 2 gls terigu


Directions:
- 1 gls Gula digongseng sampai menjadi karamel lalu masukan air masak sampai mendidih lalu angkat dan dinginkan.
- Telur dikocok dengan 1 gls gula jangan sampai kembang lalu masukan susu, mentega, soda dan masukan terigu sedikit demi sedikit aduk sampai rata lalu terakhir masukan karamel aduk kembali samapi tercampur rata semuanya.
- Panggang hingga masak

Kue Keju Bakar

Ingredients:
- 4 bh Kuning telur ayam
- 1 bh Putih telur ayam
- 500 gr mentega
- 2 00 gr Room Butter
- 50 gr tepung Maizena
- 250 gr Keju diparut halus
- 100 gr Susu bubuk
- 1 kg terigu

Directions:
- Kocok Room Butter dan telur sampai kembang dan putih, masukan keju parut lalu aduk hingga rata.
- Kemudian campur menjadi satu terigu, susu bubuk dan tepung maizena aduk sampai rata.
- Setelah itu masukan ke adonan telur sedikit demi sedikit
- Setelah tercampur semua dengan rata , maka mulailah dicetak sesuai selera setelah itu panggang sampai matang.

Puff Pastry Gulung

Ingredients:
- 1 sdt minyak untuk menumis
- 75 g bawang bombay, cincang halus
- 2 siung bawang putih, cincang halus
- 1/2 sdt kunyit bubuk
- 1/2 sdt jintan bubuk
- 1/2 sdt garam
- 1 sdm saus sambal manis botolan
- 2 sdm selai kacang kasar (chuncky)
- 50 g kacang tanah panggang, cincang
- 500 g puff pastry, gilas hingga setebal 1/2 cm, siap pakai

Directions:
1. Panaskan minyak, tumis bawang bombay dan bawang putih hingga layu dan harum.
2. Tambahkan semua bumbu, saus sambal, dan selai kacang. Aduk rata.
3. Masak hingga mendidih dan mengental. Angkat.
4. Ambil satu lembar puff pastry, olesi bumbu kacang. Gulung sambil agak padatkan. Potong-potong melintang setebal 2 cm. Letakkan dalam loyang bersemir mentega. Panggang dalam oven panas suhu180 C selama 20 menit hingga matang berwarna kecokelatan dan renyah. Angkat. Sajikan.

Lapis Keju

Ingredients:
- 60 gr tepung terigu
- 125 gr mentega
- 85 gr gula halus
- 9 bh kuning telur
- 4 bh putih telur
- ½ sdt panili bubuk
- 75 gr keju

Directions:
Resep Cara membuat:
- Mentega dikocok sampai putih, keju diparut.
- Kuning telur, gula dan panili dikocok sampai putih dan gula hancur.
- Mentega dimasukkan perlahan – lahan dan diaduk dengan sendok kayu sampai tercampur rata.
- Tepung dimasukkan sedikit demi sedikit dan resep diaduk perlahan – lahan sampai rata.
- Putih telur dikocok sampai kaku, lalu dicampurkan perlahan – lahan keadonan resep tadi.

Resep Cara membakar :
- Cetakan dioles dengan mentega dan dialasi dengan kertas roti, lalu tuangkan resep ke dalam cetakan 1/3 bagian dari adonan resep.
- Atasnya ditaburi dengan 1/3 bagian dari keju lalu dibakar dalam oven panas dengan api bawah dan atas sampai kuning dan matang.
- Ditekan – tekan perlahan – lahan dengan punggung sendok atau dasar gelas yang sudah dioles dengan resep mentega.
- Diberi lagi sepertiga bagian adonan, taburi kembali dengan 1/3 dari keju dan dibakar seperti lapisan resep pertama.
- Lalu tuangkan adonan resep untuk lapisan terakhir seperti pada lapisan pertama dan kedua begitu juga dibakar seperti pada lapisan pertama dan kedua.

Cake Tape

Ingredients:
- 175 gr tepung terigu
- 225 gr margarin
- 225 gula halus
- 5 bh telur ayam
- 200 gr tape singkong
- ½ sdt panili bubuk

Directions:
- Tape dibuang seratnya lalu dihaluskan dengan garpu
- Gula halus diayak lalu kocok dengan mentega sampai putih.
- Kuning telur dimasukkan satu per satu lalu kocok samapi putih dan gula hancur
- Tape dimasukkan dan aduk perlahan – lahan dengan sendok kayu sampai rata.
- Tepung terigu dicampur dengan panili, lalu masukkan secara perlahan – lahan ke dalam adonan secara teratur.
- Putih telur dikocok sampai kaku lalu masukkan dalam adonan dan diaduk secara perlahan – lahan sampai rata.
- Masukan adonan kedalam cetakan yang telah diolesi mentega dan dialasi dengan kertas roti, lalu bakar dalam oven panas dengan api sedang selama 1 jam sampai kuning dan matang.

Brownie Pudding

Description:
Puding, brownies, dan cake. Ya itulah paduan istimewa dalam mangkuk ini. Disajikan hangat dengan krim segar dan cokelat serut, rasanya sangat luar biasa. Bisa dinikmati dengan es krim vanili atau siraman saus cokelat yang pekat. Hmm...yummy!

Ingredients:
- 200 g dark cooking chocolate, cincang
- 120 g mentega tawar
- 4 butir telur ayam
- 200 g gula pasir
- 1 sdt rhum baker, jika suka

Ayak jadi satu:
- 75 g tepung terigu
- 1/2 sdt baking powder
- 10 g cokelat bubuk

Pelengkap: Krim kocok cokelat serut

Directions:
- Tim cokelat dan mentega hingga leleh. Angkat, biarkan hingga agak dingin.
- Kocok telur hingga berbuih, tambahkan gula sedikit-sedikit sambil kocok hingga pucat dan kental.
- Masukkan larutan cokelat, aduk hingga rata.
- Tambahkan campuran terigu, aduk rata.
- Tuang ke dalam 8 buah mangkuk kecil yang sudah disemir mentega.
- Panggang dalam oven panas 180 C selama 30 menit.
- Angkat, biarkan hingga agak dingin.
- Beri Pelengkapnya. Sajikan segera

Sambal Ebi Kacang

Description:
Sambal yang gurih pedas ini cocok untuk taburan lontong opor atau ketupat sayur. Rasanya pedas, gurih dan renyah serta aromanya sangat harum. Tambahkan jumlah cabainya jika suka rasa pedas yang lebih menggigit!

Ingredients:
- 4 sdm minyak untuk menumis
- 2 lembar daun jeruk purut, iris halus
- 250 g ebi, sangrai hingga agak kering, tumbuk halus
- 1 sdm air jeruk nipis
- 100 g kacang tanah, kupas, seduh air panas dan garam, tiriskan, goreng sampai kering
- 2 sdm bawang merah goreng

Bumbu, haluskan:
- 8 buah cabai merah
- 5 siung bawang putih
- 2 sdm gula merah
- 1 sdt garam

Directions:
- Tumis bumbu halus dan daun jeruk purut sampai harum dan matang.
- Masukkan ebi tumbuk, kecilkan api, sangrai sampai kering.
- Masukkan air jeruk nipis, aduk kembali sampai kering.
- Masukkan kacang tanah goreng dan bawang merah goreng, aduk rata. Angkat, biarkan uapnya hilang.
- Taruh dalam wadah bertutup rapat.

Omelet Roti

Description:
Yang ini memang agak berbeda karena roti tawar diolah sebagai bahan omelet. Soal rasa? Jangan ragu untuk mencoba. Aroma segar jamur, bawang dan kacang polong memberi sensasi lezat yang unik. Jika suka, taburkan keju parut sebelum disajikan.

Ingredients:
- 3 butir telur ayam
- 50 ml susu segar
- 3 lembar roti tawar, potong 2 x 2 cm
- 1 sdm kacang polong beku
- 50 gr udang kupas, rebus, potong kecil
- 2 buah jamur shitake, iris tipis
- 20 g bawang Bombay, iris tipis, tumis

Bumbu:
- 1 sdt mustard pasta
- 1/2 sdt merica bubuk
- 1 sdt garam

Taburan:
- keju parut sesuai selera

Directions:
- Kocok telur, susu dan Bumbu hingga rata.
- Masukkan roti, kacang polong, udang, jamur, paprika dan bawang Bombay, aduk rata.
- Panaskan 1 sdm minyak dalam wajan antilengket.
- Tuangkan adonan roti. Masak hingga bagian bawahnya kering.
- Balikkan, masak hingga matang.
- Angkat, sajikan hangat, taburkan keju parut di atasnya.

Overcoming Shame and Fear of Failure

Jabez

Pada saat saudaranya puas dengan keterbatasannya, Jabez inginkan lebih untuk melayani Tuhan dengan segenap hatinya. Tapi Jabez punya masalah yaitu ketidakmampuan emosional maupun fisikal. "Jabez" itu artinya kesakitan. Kata "Jabez" itu artinya kosong atau hampa. Jabez harus bergumul dengan perasaan tidak diinginkan dan ditolak.

Merasa malu dan tidak dikasihi merupakan tantangan yang besar dalam hidupnya. Dia sadar akan ketidaklayakannya sehingga dia mengalami depresi. Namun Jabez berhasil mengatasi rasa malunya itu. Jabez merintis suatu kota bernama kota Jabez dan membangkitkan suatu generasi yang bisa memelihara firman Tuhan sampai jamannya Ezra.

Pada saat kita merasa terkutuk dan malu, maka kita akan menyerah untuk masa depan kita. Menghadapi masalah malu, tidak hanya sekali dalam hidup kita. Menghadapi trauma masa lalu, harus terus dilakukan kalau kita ingin melakukan perkara-perkara besar. Lihat saja dalam alkitab hamba-hamba Tuhan yang sukses:

1.Yusuf
Yusuf ditolak dan tidak diinginkan oleh saudara2nya dalam keluarga. Dituduh dan difitnah bahwa dia memperkosa dan dimasukkan dalam penjara. Bisa dibayangkan betapa dia merasa tertotak dan malu. Tapi dia berhasil menghancurinnya dan menjadi perdana menteri di Mesir.

2.Abraham
Dimana dia tidak percaya kepada Tuhan pertamanya tentang anaknya. Begitu lemahnya, bahkan berbohong sarah bukan istrinya waktu bertanya. Tapi sebaliknya Tuhan masih menginginkannya contoh menjadi Imam. Harusnya malu Abraham, bagaimana mungkin dipakai oleh Tuhan. Tapi Abraham berhasil melampaui rasa malu itu, dan menjadi bapak imam percaya.

3.Musa
Seorang pembunuh dan seorang pelarian. Datang dan turun dari gunungnyna Tuhan. Dan dikatakan hai oleh orang Israel jangan membunuh. Siapa kamu Musa kasih kami perintah itu? Harusnya kamu malu mengatakan itu, karena kamu seorang pembunuh? Jangan kasih tau kami apa yang harus kamiu lakukan. Namun Musa harus melampaui masa lalu itu untuk menjadi pahlawan dalam iman.

4.Daud
Daud orang yang disebut paling dekat dengan hati Tuhan. Bayangkan Daud menjadi penjinah dan membunuh. Dan Tuhan mengambil putra yang pertama. Daud harusnya malu, dia tidak layak jadi raja. Namun dia harus melampaui rasa malu itu untuk mengejar dan mencari Tuhan. Bahwa Daud harus mendapatkan putra kedua, agar bisa menguasai dan memerintah di Israel.

5.Simon Petrus
Menyangkal Kristus dihadapan Yesus 3x. Salah satu terjemahan, dikatakan bahkan dia mengutukin nama Tuhan. Namun Yesus tidak datang dengan kalimat, "kamu seorang pengecut, harusnya kamu gagal Simon!". Namun Yesus berkata, "Petrus, apakah kamu mengasihi Aku? Berikan makanan kepada domba2Ku dan gembalakan mereka." Dan 50 hari kemudian Simon Petrus membangun sebuah gereja.

Setiap orang harus berurusan dengan masa lalu mereka. Ahli ilmu jiwa mengatakan, rasa malu adalah hal yang paling parah bisa menghancurkan kehidupan manusia yang paling sulit dihadapin. Rasa malu membuat kita merasa tidak layak. Bahwa Tuhan tidak mengasihi saya. Saya tidak layak untuk Tuhan. Bahkan mungkin, anda mulai percaya dengan diri anda, saya adalah orang yang bodoh, saya orang yang gagal.

Rasa malu membuat anda selalu menyalahkan diri anda atas setiap apa yang terjadi. Kita begitu takut untuk kehilangan muka. Begitu takut tidak bisa berpenampilan baik dihadapan teman-teman kita dan keluarga kita. Kalau belum berhasil, kita merasa malu dihadapan keluarga.

Ada 3 tantangan rasa malu yang harus dihancurkan dalam hidup kita:

1. Rasa malu yang diwariskan
Karena kita dilahirkan dalam kehidapan umat manusia, yang jatuh dalam dosa. Diatas kayu salib Yesus telah mengambil rasa malu itu.

2. Rasa malu yang coba ditempelkan oleh orang kepada anda
Mungkin karena masalalumu, mungkin seperti Jabez.
Ketika Yesus datang, bisa saja dia datang sebagai Tuhan yang perkasa yang menghancurkan dunia ini. Tapi untuk menjadi seorang juruselamat dia harus dilahirkan daari seorang darah. Anda bisa bayangkan bagaimana Yesus dilahirkan oleh wanita perawan dan orang2 bisa menertawakan dia, dll. Bahkan saudaranya laki2 tidak percaya padanya. Dia ditolak oleh saudaranya, jemaatnya, bahkan dikota dimana dia berada. Bahkan perampok yang disalibkan itu menertawakan

3. Rasa malu yang sesungguhnya
Karena kesalahan yang anda lakukan. Kadang-kadang anda merasa begitu bersalah dan berdosa.


Be blessed,
Kotbah by Kong Hee

(Taken from Suwandi Tanha's Note on Facebook)

Only Hope - My Prayer Now

There's a song that's inside of my soul.
It's the one that I've tried to write over and over again
I'm awake in the infinite cold.
But You sing to me over and over and over again.

So, I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I know now You're my only hope.

Sing to me the song of the stars.
Of Your galaxy dancing and laughing and laughing again.
When it feels like my dreams are so far
Sing to me of the plans that You have for me over again.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I know now, You're my only hope.

I give You my destiny.
I'm giving You all of me.
I want Your symphony, singing in all that I am
At the top of my lungs, I'm giving it back.

So I lay my head back down.
And I lift my hands and pray
To be only Yours, I pray, to be only Yours
I pray, to be only Yours
I know now You're my only hope.

His Answer for Me

(by Max Lucado - from HERE)

Addressing the common fear of insignificance, Lucado said, "I really believe that the Amazon River out of which all other fears flow is this one. And that is the fear that I don't matter to God. And because I don't matter to God, I don't matter to anyone else. And my life has no purpose. We fear nothingness ... We fear coming and going and no one knowing."

He continued, "The big message of Jesus in one of his 'do not fear statements' is... Don't be afraid. You are worth more than all the sparrows. The very hairs of your head are numbered.

He knows more about you than you know about Him.

How can you know that you matter?
Look at the story of God who became a human being ... because He loves us.

------------------------------------

Yesterday and this morning I feel useless and unworthy because of some things that I'm going through right now. I feel I'm not good enough for Him and for everyone. I asked for His answer, and He gave it to me through unpredictable ways...

One of His answer is the whole paragraphs I quoted above...
You know what, I accidentally found that article when I was (-again- accidentally) searching for Max Lucado's new book...

Another answer (for another matter) He gave through a friend's encouragement (when we were chatting on Yahoo Messenger)...

Waw...
Thank Youuuuuu God... ^.^

Winners Never Quit???

(By Dan Miller)

We’ve all heard the old adage, “Winners never quit, quitters never win.”  Is that really true?  Does that mean that if you’re driving from Detroit to Miami and you suddenly realize you’re actually headed for Savannah you would simply continue on?  Or even speed up?  Or just “try harder?” Of course not – you would immediately correct your direction, even if it meant going back to Atlanta to get back on the right road. 

Why is it that in jobs or businesses people often believe that if they just persist, somehow things will get better?  And that they need to be loyal and never show signs of “giving up?”  

In this week’s 48 Days Podcast I answered this question from Margaret:
“I would like to know what to do when you are working so hard and everything seems to continue to fail. Do you change plans or what?”

Quitting a job does not mean that you’re quitting your commitment to provide for your family.  Quitting a business does not mean that you are walking away from the thrill of controlling your time and income.  Quitting a ministry or non-profit organization does not mean that you’ve given up on your desire to change the world or help the less fortunate. 

Your job, business or ministry are just tactics to accomplish your bigger vision.  Your “purpose” or “calling” define the big goal.  If your job is clearly a dead end, it makes perfect sense to quit, take your skills to a better fit and release your ability to provide for your family.  If your business is failing, learn from the experience and start in a new direction.  I constantly have areas in my business and personal life that are on the bubble.  If they are not proven successful in a very specific period of time – they’re gone – I quit but keep moving on to success in other ways.
  
Here are my recommendations:

• If your job provides nothing for you but a meager paycheck, plan to quit and be gone in the next 30 days.
• If you have been running your business for one year and after expenses it’s only netting you $500 a month, quit and find a new venture.
• If you started a non-profit and after two years you find that you are spending 80% of your time on administrative work and have no real economic model for continuing, consider linking arms with an established organization.

 Winners quit – they quit quickly and often.  Yes I know we hear that quote about nothing matters but persistence, but if you are a duck trying to climb a tree, all persistence will get you is web feet that are to sore to even swim well.  Have the maturity and guts to quit the ineffective things in your life. 

While we’re at it, ask yourself if these well-known adages are always true:

1. The customer is always right
2. Everything happens for a reason
3. Never judge a book by its cover
4. You can’t teach an old dog new tricks
5. Absence makes the heart grow fonder
6. Better be safe than sorry
7. Good fences make good neighbors
8. You can’t have your cake and eat it too

Don’t let commonly accepted clichés misdirect you from the unique path you are on.

Life Support

(by Brenna Kate Simonds - Boundless)

One afternoon, I thought, "I think I'm bored." Then I thought, "Is that really possible — being the mom of a very active toddler?" Then I thought maybe I was depressed. After sitting down and having a good cry, I figured out what I was actually feeling.

I was lonely.

I had recently had a miscarriage. If you had asked me a month before that loss if I had a good support system, friends I could call if I needed something, I would have absolutely said yes.

But having the miscarriage changed something. I had plenty of people who e-mailed me after the miscarriage to say they were available if I needed anything, or that they had been through something similar. I did follow up with two of these people and tried to connect, but that never happened.

Maybe it was pride, or shame, or just plain grief, but I couldn't seem to reach out to others.

I think everyone struggles with disconnect. It seems to have gotten worse now that you don't have to pick up the phone, write a letter or make a coffee date to connect with someone. The age of message boards, e-mail and Facebook gives me this false sense of security, that I have all these friends and I know what's going on with them and they know what's going on with me — people I rarely or never see for any kind of "face-to-face" interaction.

I've come to realize that's not what Jesus had in mind when He talked about sharing life with other believers.

The tragedy of the miscarriage sent me in search of what it looks like to have a sufficient support system in one's life, as well as what some of the obstacles to that are. This is something I had been thinking about for a long time in the ministry I do with those dealing with sexual brokenness. We are constantly emphasizing the need to be connected with other Christians, specifically as we grow in our faith.

One day, a ministry participant asked me point-blank, "So how do I make friends? How exactly can I get connected?" To those of you who have experienced the disconnect and loneliness that I just shared, you already know it's a more challenging question than it initially appears to be. So I set out to practice what I preached and find some tangible ways to connect.

Even before Facebook, our society for quite some time has tended to breed isolation, independence and individualism. In my curiosity to discover the origin of this disconnect, I came across an anthropology book that studied familial trends in the United States. The anthropologist concluded:

A pervasive theme of American child-rearing ideology is independence, which can be considered under three headings: separateness, self-sufficiency, and self-confidence. The emphasis on separateness begins at birth among middle-class Americans, with the allocation of a separate room to the neonate, requiring him to sleep in his own bed removed from others in the family.

The author goes on to say,

Parents begin to emphasize sharing only after the child has become habituated to eating, sleeping and being comforted alone, on his own terms, and with his own properties — which he has become reluctant to give up. (From Childhood Socialization: Comparative Studies of Parenting, Learning and Educational Change by Robert A. LeVine)

It's no wonder we struggle to connect! To admit we might need others is seen as weak. Pick yourself up by your boot straps, take the bull by the horns, pull yourself together — all of these clichés reinforce the belief that we need to take care of and fix ourselves.

This train of thought breaks down when the rubber hits the road, and can result not only in loneliness and frustration as we try to meet all our own needs, but also in increased illness. In the Alameda County Study, researchers followed 7,000 people over the course of nine years. The most isolated people were three times more likely to die than those with strong relational connections. Three times!

Another study was done where 276 people were infected with a virus that produces the common cold. People with strong emotional connections did four times better fighting off illness than those who were more isolated. As one of my favorite speakers, Sy Rogers, would say: "True for the body, true for the soul." How we work biologically can be a direct analogy to how we work emotionally, relationally and spiritually.

There have been many times when being in relationship with others has positively changed me. I think of my first Bible study leader. The first time we met for lunch, I told her everything about me — my struggles with same-sex attractions, self-injury, disordered eating, and so on. I fully expected her to be disgusted and run out of the restaurant. But she did exactly the opposite. She lovingly welcomed me not only to Bible study, but also into her life. Through her, I learned that I could truly love a woman, be in close friendship with her and not be tempted to be in a sexual relationship with her.

I think of my therapist of three years. She continually reminded me of who I was in Christ, and gently challenged my faulty ways of thinking. My friend Judy taught me how to really experience the depth of grace.

I need people. Think of Jesus. In a mystery we can't completely understand, He was fully God and fully man, with all the power and knowledge of God, and with all the needs and temptations that we have. Yet there were times when He specifically requested that the disciples, and in particular John, James and Peter, accompany Him somewhere, pray with Him, just be with Him. If He needed people, then I certainly need people.

So we know we need to be connected. How do we get connected?

Remember that no one is normal. Normal is a setting on the dryer. It's a hair type or a skin type at the drug store. I used to be afraid of people who appeared to be "normal"; I was sure they wouldn't be able to relate to any of my weird, "out there" problems.

Then I realized when actually getting to know some people I thought were "normal," that everyone has something they'd prefer to hide. After all, people in the Bible aren't "normal" either. I'm fairly certain that even those who managed to not slip up too bad were not viewed as "normal" in their day. Truly connecting is accepting people "as is," as they come, and asking them to do the same.

Meet people in groups

Imagining walking up to someone and asking them to hang out can be intimidating, even to this extrovert. Soon after the miscarriage, my husband and I joined a small group, with toddler in tow. It was one married couple, singles who were recent college graduates, and one older woman, and us. They were very accommodating of us and our child.

I also started having moms groups in my home. I went through my e-mail address book, and invited every woman who was a mom, no matter what her age. I also helped organize a gathering of moms from my online moms group.

Maybe your church has some small groups based on common interests. If not, you could start one. Meeting people in groups helps me to get a feel for different people. I'm drawn to people who are honest, who don't worry about what other people might think, who seem comfortable in their own skin.

In groups, we can look for people who are healthily vulnerable. Jesus was transparent, but there was a level of transparency He reserved only for certain people in His life. Not everyone needs to know all our business, but a few people need to know most of it. Find people who are not afraid to be weak, who talk about sin and struggle in an honest and redemptive way.

Make relationships top priority

As I tried to reach out after the miscarriage, I found that people, myself included, really struggle with living a life where trying to have coffee with a friend doesn't requires planning three months in advance. If I really want to connect with people, I need to make room in my life and my schedule for them.

This is an increasing challenge with every life change. In college, it's easier to connect because you live and study with the same people every day. Then you graduate and have to be more even more purposeful about finding time to connect. Then add marriage and family to the mix, and it gets even crazier.

My husband and I have had to get more creative in connecting. We try to invite people over for meals. Eating is something we have to do anyway. Don't be afraid to use your imagination when trying to make relationships top priority.

I need more than a single best friend

After the miscarriage, I realized that of the three people I considered to be my closest friends, only one lived within a reasonable distance from me. In their book Boundaries, Cloud and Townsend write,

We all need more than God and a best friend. We need a group of supportive relationships. The reason is simple: Having more than one person in our lives allows our friends to be human. To be busy. To be unavailable at times. To hurt and have problems of their own. To have time alone.

Jesus had 12 good friends, His Apostles, but He also had three intimate friends whom He took with Him certain places, such as the transfiguration, and the raising to life of the dead girl in Mark 5. At the Garden of Gethsemane, He had the nine other disciples sit at a distance while Peter, John and James went further into the garden with Him.

Be realistic

Friendships take time, and they take work. Disagreements are an ordinary part of relating, and yet people tend to run at the first sign of conflict. I recently heard a pastor say, "If you agree with someone 100 percent of the time, one of you is unnecessary." I've found I need my friendships to be secure and valuable enough to be worth the discomfort of honesty and disagreement.

Even Jesus' intimate friends displayed human failings, such as Peter denying he even knew Jesus. Jesus was patient, and Jesus forgave. He expected His friend to be human, and humans make mistakes.

John 10:10 says "the thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." I have a real enemy, whose purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. It's interesting to me that part of his first assignment was to break the perfect relationship that Adam and Eve had, not only with God, but with each other.

The enemy doesn't want me to have real relationships. Within a few days of having two moms groups at my home, my son got horribly sick for two weeks, probably a bug he picked up from one of the kids who came over. The enemy tried to discourage me with thoughts like, "That's what you get for having all those germs in your home!" That's when I need to start praying. I remind myself that in this age of false connections and pseudo friendships, I've yet to meet someone who doesn't struggle with finding solid, meaningful friendships.

Relationships take risks, they take time, but I need them in order to thrive. Following Jesus' example gives me courage to persevere in pursuing the kinds of relationships that Jesus had.

What Kind of Daddy Do You Have?

(by Bo Sanchez)

A college student in Manila called up his Mom in the province.
“Mom, I need money,” he asked. “Can you send money over please?”
“Sure,” the mother said. “By the way, there’s a Math textbook you left here at home. I’ll send it over with the money.”
“Uh, oh yeah, Ok,” her son answered.
His mother sent the money and the book.

Later that day, the father asked his wife, “How much money did you send?”
She said, “I sent two checks. One was a P1000 check and the other was a P100,000 check.”
“What?” cried the father in shock. “That’s huge!”
His wife smiled. “That’s okay Honey. I taped the P1000 check on the cover of his Math textbook. I then inserted the P100,000 check somewhere in chapter 25 of his Math textbook. Believe me, he won’t find it.”

Your relationship with God is like a Math textbook. Because I believe the biggest blessings of God for your life are in “chapter 25” - when you go beyond the surface and go deeper in this relationship with God.

My goal today is to bring you to chapter 25 in your relationship with God.
Let me tell you how.
I want to start a new series today I’ll playfully call, OMG! If you don’t know what that means, LOL. (For those my age who didn’t grow up with chat and IM and facebook: OMG! means Oh my God and LOL means Laugh out loud.) For the next five weeks, I want to help you get to know God more—which will deepen your trust in Him. And the more you trust Him, the more you’ll be open to His blessings for your life.

I’ve met a lot of people who don’t trust God because they don’t know Him. They’re confused with misrepresentations of who God is.
Here’s what I learned: Your problems are big because your God is small.

Before Anything Else, God Is Daddy

I just arrived from the US the other day.
It was my shortest trip ever: Four days!
But I had to do it.
I was there to meet a very special man who was a spiritual mentor to Presidents, Kings, Prime Ministers, and other heads of government. In other words, he disciples them to follow Jesus. He’s awesome.

This spiritual giant has been working in the United Nations for the past 25 years. Each month, he holds 30+ face-to-face meetings with heads of government, ambassadors, and other high-level officials, guiding them how to lead their country using the Bible. So for three whole days, I sat around his table (we were just four students—myself, two bishops, and a secretary general) to learn one thing: How to disciple Heads of States. It was mind-blowing.

So on my way back, I felt very important too.
I mean, how couldn’t I?
I spent three days with a guy who takes phone calls from Presidents and Prime Ministers before he has breakfast. How cool is that?

But the moment my plane landed in Manila, everything became clear to me. I knew the first Heads of States I would meet. That entire day, upon arriving from the airport, I spent time with the two Kings who’ve conquered my heart since I saw them: My two boys—ages 9 and 4.

Together, we did very high-level, critical, world-changing, life-altering work.
We drew robots and airplanes.
We played with little cars.
We played a video game (I lost, as usual).
We jumped around the coach.

Why did I spend the entire day with them?
Because I believe that before I’m a preacher, writer, leader, missionary, and businessman, I’m a father.

And I suspect that God will say the same thing. This is just my personal opinion. I think before God is supreme judge and king of kings of the entire universe, He’s a Father. That’s why when someone asked Jesus, “Teach us how to pray,” He answered, “Say this: Our Father…”

The original word that Jesus used for “Father” is Abba, which doesn’t really translate to Father but Daddy or Papa. It was what a little baby would call his father.

But as I played with my boys yesterday, I began to think of all the other children who don’t experience what they experience. And I believe that one of the reasons why we don’t know God as Father is because of the wrong fatherhood we’ve experienced. Specifically, I thought of four of my friends: Emmanuel, Grace, Dulce, and Fides. I’ve changed their names to protect their privacy. But unfortunately, their stories are true.

Invisible Fathers

My friend Emmanuel’s father was a lawyer. Later on, he became a judge and was promoted all the way to the Supreme Court. Emmanuel was proud of his father. But when our conversations became intimate, he’d tear up, and tell me that he rarely saw his father. When he woke up, his father was rushing out for his breakfast meetings. In the evenings, his father wasn’t home yet.

Emmanuel grew up knowing his father was an important man doing very important things. But as he grew up, he realized he wasn’t one of these important things his father did. Years later, Emmanuel came to know God in a personal way. Yet for years, he wondered how important he really was in God’s heart.

Autistic Fathers

Some fathers are physically present at home.
But they don’t engage their kids.
Instead, they’re wrapped up in their own world. Either watching TV or surfing the web. That’s why I call them autistic fathers.

Many years ago, I met Grace. She told me that as a child, her goal in life was to make her father smile at her. Because he never did. Oh, she would find him laughing with his barkada. But never to her.

One day, she came home with very high grades on her report card. In her heart, she hoped that perhaps today, he would smile at her. But when she gave him the report card, all her father did was look at it for two seconds, grunt, tossed it back, and went back watching TV.
Not one word of affirmation or appreciation.
Her little heart was crushed.

For years, Grace had a hard time imagining that God was pleased with her. She always imagined God having a perpetual frown on his face.

Cruel Fathers

Dulce’s father is the most barbaric father I’ve ever heard of in my life.
When she was 3 years old, he raped her.

Years later, she always had this nightmare of her head being pushed into a toilet bowl. She realized why. Because her father warned her not to tell anyone of the rape or he’d drown her in the toilet.

For the next ten years, for the slightest mistakes (such as a spilled glass of milk), her father would whip her with his belt until blood flowed. When he was lashing her, her mother would tell him, “Don’t hit her below the knees!” So that the wounds would be covered by her skirt.

He would then grab her ankles, hang her upside down, and bang her head on the floor. He would do this for thirty minutes until she stopped crying and was a lifeless rag in his hands. He would do this each week for ten long years.

Here’s the absurd fact of this story: Until the day he died, her father was an elder and deacon in church. To everyone else, he was an angel. Upon arriving home, he was the devil incarnate - and no one knew.

Dulce is now an adult but suffers massive physical, emotional, and spiritual torments. She has gone through 9 surgeries in various parts of her body. Her doctors discovered micro-strokes in her brain, caused by the head banging she suffered as a child. But her emotional pain was even more severe than her physical pain.

I’m happy to say that Dulce enjoys an intimate relationship with God. God has healed and continues to heal her. But it took years of healing and learning to trust a tender loving Father.

Unfaithful Father

Fides was still a small child when she saw her father walk out of their house carrying his suitcase. At that time, she didn’t know that he was abandoning her, her mother, and her two brothers for another woman.

Unlike her brothers who rebelled and got into drugs, Fides became even more obedient. She became even more responsible. Her school grades shot to the moon. Everyone praised her for being such a good girl.

Later on, Fides realized she blamed herself for the separation of her parents. Inexplicably, she believed that if she were only a better girl, her father would have never left. And for years, she secretly hoped that if she became that better girl, perhaps her father would come back.

For years, Fides’ relationship with God was also about buying His love. She would always try to be good to try to please Him—so He would love her. She had this constant fear that if she made one mistake, God would abandon her too.

May The Real God The Father Please Stand Up?

For many Christians, it’s so much easier to pray to Jesus. After all, He died for our sins. He’s the sweet one. The Father was the mean guy who sent Jesus to die on the cross.

And for many Catholics, it’s so much easier to pray to Mother Mary than to God the Father. Because they believe Mary is more merciful than God. If you can’t go through the front door, go to the back door - Mary has the key.
Which is utterly preposterous.

We have these difficulties because we don’t know who the Father really is.
The Father and the Son are one. And Mother Mary is a beautiful reflection of God’s love for us.
May the real God The Father please stand up?

I changed the names of our four real-life characters. I chose each name deliberately to show you who God the Father is: He is Emmanuel, Grace, Dulce, and Fides.

Daddy Is Emmanuel

A tribe in Africa had a very scary manhood ritual.
When a boy turned 12, the entire community gathered around him for this once-in-a-life-time chanting and dancing ceremony. The elderly women painted red die on his face. His mother gave him a beaded necklace. And the tribal chieftain handed him a long knife with a carved wooden handle.

By nightfall, he was blindfolded and led by six men into the middle of the forest. Once deep inside, the men left him. Alone. In total pitch darkness. The instruction was simple. Survive until dawn, and he gets accepted as a real man in the tribe. But the young boy knew very well that the forest was an incredibly dangerous place. It was the home of tigers. Snakes. Bears. Hyenas.

And so for the entire night, this scrawny little 12-year-old boy was now all alone in the forest. The entire night, he held his knife trembling in his hand. Not for one moment could he rest.   Try as he might, his eyes could see nothing but shadows around him. In his imagination, every little sound—even a leaf swaying in the wind—was a wild animal ready to pounce on him at any moment. The whole night, he could hear his heart pounding in his chest.

When his terror overwhelmed him, tears ran down his cheeks. He wanted to shout, “I’m just a little boy! I’m not ready yet to be a man!” But who could hear him now? He was all alone. But after many hours of fighting his fear and exhaustion, his eyes could see more clearly. Dawn was approaching. The first shafts of sunlight pierced through the thick canopy of leaves above him. That was when the little boy felt something move behind him.

In terror, he turned around.
And there, standing tall on a rock behind him, was the towering figure of a fierce-looking man holding a long spear.
The boy shouted, “Daddy!”
The father smiled.
“When did you arrive?” the boy asked, “Are you here to pick me up?”

The father said, “Before you arrived last night, I was already here. I stood guard, protecting you the whole time. I never left you for one moment, my son.” Daddy is Emmanuel - which means God with us.

Friend, I don’t know what darkness you’re going through right now. Perhaps you’re praying for your child who is on drugs. Or your husband is having an affair. Or you’re having financial problems right now. Remember that in your darkness, God is with you. He will never leave or abandon you. When you’re in pain, God embraces you and feels your pain. He weeps with you. Because Daddy is Emmanuel.

Daddy is Grace

When I think of Grace giving her very high report card to her father - and all he did was grunt - I remember my own experience with my report card. When I was in grade school, my report card had red marks. (At least, it was colored. Yours was just black and white.) Because I failed in Math and Pilipino.

That day, I went up to Mom and showed her my report card.
All she said was, “Show it to your father.”
Gulp. Oh boy.   I walked up to Dad and gave it to him.
He read it, nodded his head, and handed it back to me, and said, “Son, just study some more.”
No spanking. No scolding. No disapproval.
He then said, “Let’s eat.”
That’s why for the rest of my academic life, I kept failing. (Hehe...)

I guess Dad knew that my brilliance wasn’t in academics. It would bloom elsewhere. (Ahem.)
I thank God for having parents who loved me whether I performed in school or not. They just loved me, period. Unconditionally.
Daddy means Grace. Grace means gift.

Two weeks ago, my son Bene came up to me and showed me his Math exam. He was sad because out of 100 points, he got 92. I couldn’t help but laugh. Because if I got 92, my mother would have fainted.   Because when I was a kid, out of 100 points, I would get 36. One time, I got 28. I would show those test papers to Dad. And all he’d say was, “Just do better next time.”

Grace means “free gift”.

Here’s my point: You don’t have to please God so that He loves you. He loves you as you are. He accepts you totally. I don’t care what sin you committed. I don’t care how many times you’ve done it. God loves you and will forgive you of your sins. It will be this love that will bring you to repentance and a new life. Because Daddy is grace.

Daddy Is Dulce

Dulce means sweet.
I believe God is the sweetest Daddy in the world.
A few years ago, I was in a preaching tour in the US.

I remember one big event. After the last song, I was signing my books. There was an unusually long line of people who wanted my autograph.  In front of me were four ushers telling people to wait for their turn.

That was when someone ran past the long line of people, squeezed himself in between the ushers, and ducked underneath the table. He then climbed on my lap, handed me a bottle of water, and said, “Please open, Daddy. I’m thirsty.” Bene was four years old at that time.

Obviously, I stopped signing books and opened his bottle.
How could Bene do that? Because he was my son and I was his Daddy.
He was confident that I wouldn’t reject him. He knew that I loved him more than the entire world.

This is what Jesus meant when he taught us the “Our Father”.
Like Bene, we too can run to God, climb on his lap, and ask for what we need.
Because Daddy is dulce.

Daddy Is Fides

I like to believe I’m a good father.
But I’m nothing compared to Dick Hoyt and his love for his son Rick.
In 1962, while baby Rick was in the womb of his mother, he was strangled by the umbilical cord—causing a lack of oxygen in his brain. He suffered cerebral palsy and couldn’t speak or control his arms or legs.

As an eight month old baby, doctors told Dick and his wife Judy to place the child in an institution. “Because he was going to be a vegetable all his life,” they said. But the parents refused and brought him home. Dick promised that he would try to give his son as normal a life as possible.

Fast forward today: Dick learned that Rick loved sports. After a lot of pain and exercise (Dick wasn’t athletic), he pushed Rick in a wheelchair in a 5 kilometer run. After the Run, Rick said that while he was in the race, he didn’t feel an invalid.

That was the start of a great adventure. Today, this father-and-son team has participated in 66 marathons and 229 triathlons.
While running, Dick would push his son in a wheelchair.
While swimming, Dick would pull him in a rubber boat.
While biking, Dick would carry him at the front of his bike.
When I watched the life of Dick and Rick Hoyt, I saw a glimpse of God’s love. This is the Father’s love for you.

I don’t know about you, but I must admit that I’m handicapped in many areas of my life. I’ve got weaknesses I still battle to this day. But in this adventure called life, I’ve experienced my God pushing me, pulling me, and carrying me in his arms. I know God does the same to you.

Fides means faith. The root word for faithfulness.
God has faith in you. He believes in you.
Daddy is fides.

Next week, I’ll talk about God as Leader.
May your dreams come true,

Bo Sanchez