Friska Notes

Ah, I am always blessed in my church Sunday service. Last Sunday, we read Luke 10:25-37 about a question a young man gave to Jesus: "Who is our neighbor?" to inherit eternal life.

Jesus always wants to know us more by not directly answering the question but by asking another question, "What is written in the law? How readest thou?" He asked, what is written in the (Jewish) law and how is your comprehension about it, what you have read about it? Interesting, isn't it?

Know Yourself

How many minutes do we spend reading the bible or having the thirst to learn more about God? Do we feel enough just visiting the church on Sunday, listening to the preacher, and taking the message as motivational training? 

My latest writing mostly talks about, ask, and you will find, my experience having the bible studies and my encounter with three churches as my path to be more like Jesus. My previous post was about knowing yourself, and in a way, to understand yourself, you need to understand where you are coming from, what you are doing here on Earth, and what your purpose is to be here, on Earth. 

And to understand these all things, you need to back to your root. If you believe in God, then it is a good starting point. You can ask yourself, why do you believe in God? Why do you practice any religious tradition, etc? Do you do that because your parents telling you to do that? Or just because everyone else in the family has this same religion? 

Do you feel fed up with this hypocrisy and tend to choose to be an agnostic/atheist without anyone knowing? (FYI, In Indonesia, you need to select at least one religion, or else you are breaking the law. I am serious; this is not a joke). 

You can choose the not-so-easy way by asking these complicated questions to yourself and trying to find the answers, or just being ignorant and leaving everything else out there. In my case, I have been looking for a solution to my questions for five years, and I believe it will be a lifelong lesson.

And the easiest way for everyone to begin is to read their Bible. 

The Bible Version 

Unfortunately, I do not know what happened in Indonesia, but we have the standard Bible in Bahasa Indonesia. Why do I mean with the standard Bible? It is only printed without any details for the commentary in the footnotes. 

Reading the Bible by yourself usually is not easy. First, the Bible in Bahasa Indonesia typically uses a different meaning than the English version. Even the Bible has a lot of English version translations. What will happen with the Bahasa Indonesia version, where our Bahasa Indonesia words are also limited in vocabulary? 

The more you read it yourself without the guide, then you will be confused. You will have many questions but none to help explain the answers to you. Therefore, you need guidance in reading your Bible. Usually, having a bible studies group in the church will be very helpful. However, based on my life experience, after 30 years more church service, only a church in Singapore can answer my need to have the depth of bible studies. What happens with churches in Indonesia? 

Rolling in the Deep 

The problem in Indonesia, people are not comfortable when someone questions their faith and religion, including if you ask yourself. I find it ridiculous. To who else can you be the most honest about the true you if it is not yourself? That is the core question, to know yourself. 

Therefore in most churches in Indonesia, if people have a bible study, usually they will learn one part of the Bible to be discussed. Maybe one or two people will testify about what happened in their life and how God blessed them. But, let's put it straight if someone can be confident to explain why Jesus is God and Savior, not just because of faith? 

How can you make it accountable and have strong reasoning about Jesus as God and savior? I would not say that faith is not enough. Faith is enough for us, but we need to feed our minds. How can you be confident to be there in the materialistic world between the wolves if you can't have a solid ground about it? 

I never find any church as crazy as my church in Singapore, which lets their church member have the wild question session in our bible studies group, ask anything, let me repeat, ANYTHING you find weird while reading your Bible. 

Why is our pastor that confident? And he can explain almost everything based on the Scripture, not only answering, "Because I have a faith." Moreover, he appreciates every weird question we have and guides us patiently to learn about God's Words. The most important thing is that if there is a matter about the church denomination's beliefs, he never states the ULTIMATE answer and points out that other churches are wrong. He answered, "This is what we believe as Presbyterian." That's all. 

And he is not a person who takes a phrase or two from the Bible to support the answer. He shows the whole part of the Scripture and even gives us a reference to which book or based on whose scholar can help that view. This amazing man is truly become a blessing for us, especially me. Even though I am not a Singaporean, somehow, God answered my prayer and guided me to go to that church! 

FYI, he has a postdoctoral degree in Theology from Trinity College in the USA. He used his brain well and was a dean at Singapore Bible College. Teaching is one of his callings. 

Learning about the Core 

Now, my reflection, what happened in Indonesia? What makes us left behind in unity as Christians in Indonesia? We have a lot of denominations here in Indonesia, and kinds of churches based on local tribes, and everyone has their doctrines and bible school, which say their truth is the ULTIMATE truth. Period. 

This is weird, where Christians are more open to unbelievers than the same Christians but come from different denominations. Who made the curriculum in pastoral education? That is a big question why we can't make a curriculum that can bridge the gap between the church denominations? 

Everyone needs to point out that my denomination has the ULTIMATE truth, and you are not. Why could not you answer calmly, this is what we believe as this denomination, but we are on the same ground as Christian, that we are loved and saved by the grace of Jesus Christ. 

In the worse case, the church is not brave enough to encourage the young people criticize what they have read in the Bible. You need to read and have faith 100% in it—no need to use your brain. No wonder many Jesus' followers left their faith or married the unbelievers because they had no idea about the core of being Jesus' followers. Why is it so precious and irreplaceable by anything in the world? 

Prepare the Pathway 

Allow the kids to ask questions, and give them the confidence to ask anything from the Bible. You, as adults, need to equip yourself and put some effort into finding yourself first; therefore, you can provide the pathway for anyone who asks the same questions. 

Read your Bible 

In my case, I am blessed to be able to have my Bible with commentary, which is constructive in understanding the bible context while I read it. 

Find a Bible Study Group

I would not recommend having the independent bible study group. But find someone who is a scholar—a pastor who learned the Scripture for years and is wise. 

"Because what is the point of knowing who Jesus is, but you can't be a blessing to someone else and do not give a positive impact in your community?" This is what my pastor usually said. 

Back to Jesus' question, before you ask a question to God, ask yourself first, Have you read the Bible? How much effort do you give to know Jesus more? 

God bless you, and please, open your Bible. 

Jakarta, 15 July 2022.