Ravi Zacharias

“Communicating Truth in a Pluralistic Community”

Summary of the Seminar

At the door Versailles University, Paris, it is written: “It is great to have freedom of thought, but it is greater to have the right kind of thinking.” A survey was held for the students about this campus motto. Surprisingly, 51% of them disagree with this, 31% say they don’t know about this, and the rest of the students say they don’t want to know about this. As a apologist, Ravi has travelled around the world to answer questions from different kinds of people. There were seminars, open discussions, broadcasting, to name a few of the activities of RZIM in the apologetics field.

It is no secret that some people ask questions which they don’t want to truly hear the answer. In fact, apologetics is answering the questions of life. Putting it plain, what people pursuit in their life is the truth that they believe in. As Sir Winston Churchill once said that the most valuable pursuit is the truth, and because it is overly valuable, it is often covered with lies. Pontius Pilate asked Jesus what truth is, but never expected the answer. He was too full with his own agenda.

There are two components in testing the truth:

-correspondence theory of truth

-coherence theory of truth.

Correspondence theory of truth assures that when somebody makes a statement, it is harmonized with the reality. As for the coherence theory of truth, the answers of the questions must be consistent if put together. Take for example the statement of Jesus which said that he is the way, the truth, and life. Does that statement fulfill both of the theories of truth?

When Jesus testified about himself, actually he was fulfilling all the prophecies in the Scripture. There are 66 books in the Bible which have correspondence of truth with the reality (because the Bible is also the book of history and geography) and also have the aspect of coherence with one another.

Go to the book of Daniel (600 B.C.) prophesied about the coming of the Christ. Also, go to the book of Joel. They all refer to the coming of an individual of Christ. Since the Bible is the historical and geographical book, it must be able to be tested whether this is truth or not. If the Bible is truth, it will fulfill the aspects of logical consistency, empi

rical adequacy, and experience relevance.

There are four basic questions of human beings which will finally form the worldview:

The origin of all the universe

The meaning of life

The morality

The destiny of life

Atheists have been focusing on the theory of origin, which is theory of Big Bang. They cannot deal with the other basic questions of life: the meaning of life, morality, and the destiny of life. But how can you build your worldview by solely depend on an unidentified answer on the question of the origin of all the universe?

For us, Christians, we build our worldview based on the Word of God. We believe that we are not the product of evolution. God has a plan for each of us. He has created us according to His image to fulfill His calling for us. Our morality is based on His Godly character. He has prepared heaven for the people that He called so that after the death, we can always be together with Him.

We, Christians, need to be learning so that we will not suffer conceptual bankruptcy. There must be process of thinking that cause an idea to come to our minds. Process of thinking will require us to raise questions of life. Therefore, we need to be sure that God is the ultimate answer of all our questions. If we refuse to learn, we can miss the chance to point people to Christ. Therefore Paul asked for three things when he was imprisoned: clothes, books, and parchment. The first is to warmth the body; the second and the last is to warmth the soul and the spirit. They are required for giving us a sound and healthy mind, body, and soul.

The 4 steps of apologetic, which are: identification, translation, persuasion, and justification will help us to evangelise people around us. Identification means to identify ourselves with our audience. Translation require our ability so that our audience could understand our message according to their language and cultural context. In the persuasion stage, we may be using historical anecdote, illustration, and stories to convince our audience. But remember that we are not the one who can change others, it is the Holy Spirit that works through us to help the other person to change. Apologetic is talking about the defence of the Christian faith, not only to expose the truth to become clear, but we need to bring it in a manner that is acceptable for our listeners (not only the substance that matters, but the manners as well).

In the realm of philosophy, the levels are divided into three: arguments, stories / arts, and application. See Acts 9: 22, 17:17, 18:4, 19: 8-11 as the references of how Paul would perform his defense on his Christian faith.

DR. BRACK ETT, OFFICE UPSTAIRS

Doc Brackett

Damon Runyon (1880-1946)

Doc Bracken was a dedicated doctor whose memory lived in the hearts of all who knew him and remembered his unselfish deeds.

Doc Bracken didn’t have black whiskers.

Nonetheless, he was a fine man.

He doctored in Our Town for many years. He doctored more people than any other doctor in Our Town but made less money.

That was because Doc Brackett was always doctoring poor people, who had no money to pay.

He would get up in the middle of the coldest night and ride twenty miles to doctor a sick woman, or child, or to patch up some fellow who got hurt.

Everybody in Our Town knew Doc Brackett’s office over Rice’s clothing store. It was up a narrow flight of stairs. His office was always filled with people. A sign at the foot of the stairs said: DR. BRACK ETT, OFFICE UPSTAIRS.

Doc Brackett was a bachelor. He was once supposed to marry Miss Elvira Cromwell, the daughter of old Junius Cromwell, the banker, but on the day the wedding was supposed to take place Doc Brackett got a call to go out into the country and doctor a Mexican child.

Miss Elvira got sore at him and called off the wedding. She said that a man who would think more of a Mexican child than of his wedding was no good. Many women in Our Town agreed with Miss Elvira Cromwell, but the parents of the Mexican child were not.

For forty uears, the lame, and the halt, and the blind of Our Town had climbed up and down the stairs to Doc Bracken’s office...

He never turned away anybody.

He lived to be seventy years old, and then one day he keeled over on the sofa in his office and died. By ths time his black hair turned white.

Doc Brackett had one of the biggest funerals ever seen in Our Town. Everybody went to pay their last respects when he was laid out in Gruber’s undertaking parlors. He was buried in Riverview Cemetery.

There was talk of raising money to put a nice tombstone on Doc Brackett’s grave as a memorial. The talk got as far as arguing about what should be carved on the stone about him. Some thought poetry would be very nice. Doc Brackett! Hated poetry, the matter dragged along and nothing whatever was done.

Then one day George Gruber, the undertaker, said that Doc Brackett’s memorial was already over his grave, with an ephitaph and all. George Gruber said the Mexican parents of the child Doc Brackett saved years ago had worred about him having no tombstone.

They had no money themselves, so they took the sign from the foot of the stairs at Doc Brackett’s office and stuck it over his grave. It read, DR. BRACK ETT, OFFICE UPSTAIRS

Our Generation by Jordan Nichols

Fl -y

FLY 

All this doubt

trying to work it out

could you lay it down

for now

it's good to think

but it's good to drink

from this living stream

so why

Why don't you fly

free your mind

to all this splendor

why don't you fly

to the Arms

that save

You can come

while your heart feels numb

you could just lie down

and rest

Or lift your eyes

to the open sky

we could come alive

and FLY 

 

-This song lyric is taken from Michael Gungor Band - Fly

Nana korobi, ya oki.

Ada suatu pepatah yang saya sukai,yang berbunyi seperti ini: “Nana korobi, ya oki.”

Sebuah filosofi Jepang yang juga memiliki suatu pandangan makna yang super yaitu: "Fall seven times, get up eight."

Siapa yang tidak pernah jatuh? Siapa yang selalu menang dan sukses di dunia ini?  Kita ambil contoh sederhana dari proses belajar bersepeda. Sekalipun kita diajarkan bersepeda roda dua secara baik oleh instruktur sebaik apapun, adalah sudah barang tentu, sebagai murid, kita berkesempatan hilang keseimbangan dan jatuh. Sakit? Pasti! Kapok? Itu pilihan…

Menyoroti cerita sukses seorang Bob Sadino dalam sebuah bidang wirausaha tidak serta merta berarti orang tersebut tak pernah gagal. Suatu kali ketika saya menonton acara di channel Metro TV, saya menonton pak Bob bercerita tentang pengalamannya berwirausaha yang penuh dengan jatuh bangun. 

See? Jatuh bangun adalah makanan orang yang ingin sukses.

Berkaca pada pengalaman pribadi, saya merupakan orang yang bukan tidak pernah gagal. Malah sebaliknya, saya sering kali harus menelan ‘pil pahit’ kegagalan sebelum akhirnya dapat sukses di dalam fase-fase tertentu dalam hidup saya. Agaknya pas apabila saya sedikit share pengalaman pribadi saya pada saat berkuliah di salah satu universitas Katolik unggulan di Jakarta.

Suatu kali saya mendaftarkan diri saya mengikuti program pertukaran pelajar ke negara tujuan Amerika Serikat. Persiapan yang dilakukan agaknya memakan waktu dan tenaga saya selama kurang lebih dua bulan. Saya sangat ingin pergi untuk belajar ke AS karena saya ingin menambah pengalaman saya ke sana. Melalui proses yang panjang untuk mengumpulkan dan melengkapi berkas-berkas dokumen yang diperlukan seperti surat rekomendasi dari dosen-dosen pengajar, sampai test bahasa yang harus dilalui membutuhkan pengorbanan yang besar bagi saya. Namun, harapan saya yang besar itu harus pupus karena saya tidak masuk seleksi tahap awal. Saya sungguh kecewa dan merasa gagal.

Kisah terjatuh namun bangkit lagi. (kayak lagu melayuuu… Aku terjatuh dan tak bisa bangkit lagi.. hehe) Tapi saya belum menyerah, saya mencoba peruntungan saya di dalam ajang Putra-putri berprestasi mahasiswa dan masuk ke dalam 10 besar. Bangga sekali rasanya dapat mengharumkan nama keluarga dan juga almamater. Meskipun tidak menjadi pemenang pertama, saya sangat menghargai pengalaman tersebut. 

Kisah itu adalah sebagian kisah-kisah pahit-manis (bitter-sweet) dalam menyelesaikan Strata 1 saya di fakultas keguruan dan ilmu pendidikan. Pada akhir tahun 2011, oleh kasih karunia Tuhan Yesus,saya menyelesaikan pendidikan saya di Atma Jaya dengan predikat magna-cumlaude. Dan mengapa saya katakan oleh kasih karunia-Nya? Sebab hanya 3 orang saja dari sekitar 200 lulusan dari FKIP yang mendapat penghargaan berupa cincin emas, namun menurut cerita dari Wakil Dekan yang pada saat itu menganugerahkan penghargaan tsb, diputuskanlah bahwa saya adalah salah seorang dari 3 orang yang beruntung tersebut. Katakanlah beruntung, karena ada pepatah kuno mengatakan bahwa sebenarnya keberuntungan adalah hasil karya tangan Tuhan yang ogah membubuhkan ‘tanda tangan-Nya’. Entah bagaimana ceritanya, meskipun ada empat orang lainnya yang memiliki IPK (indeks prestasi kumulatif) hampir setara dengan saya atau katakanlah lebih tinggi beberapa poin, tapi hasil musyawarah dewan pengajar dan dekan memutuskan bahwa saya pula lah yang berhak menerima penghargaan tersebut.

Demikian saya memandangnya, dalam setiap situasi yang saya hadapi, saya menganggapnya sebagai cara Tuhan menenun karya maha agung. Seperti halnya seorang penenun yang bekerja siang dan malam untuk menjadikan benang-benang terajut menjadi suatu kain tenun yang indah yang bernilai tinggi, dengan cara seperti itulah Tuhan mengerjakan apa yang sedang Ia perlu kerjakan di dalam hidup saya. Hari ini, saya baru sembuh dari sakit typhus dan jujur saja saya masih 3L (lemah, letih, lesu) … -_- 

Pengennya sih bobok2an terus, tapi udah hampir seminggu aja bedrest di rumah, hari ini saya ngantor. Menyemangati diri sendiri, ayoo Esther .. “Nana korobi, ya oki.” *nyeduhh tehh dulu ahh*

BERTULUS-KARYALAH

Bertulus-karyalah

Dentuman musik

Mencari tempat di hati ini

Kadang dalam hidup

Tidak mendapat tempat sedikit pun

Terlalu tertambat kepada kebisingan sekitar

Kadang tercipta dentuman hangat dari siul2 kecilmu

Terkadang dentuman itu berhenti

Tersentak oleh kemuraman hati

Masih bisakah kita jujur untuk bermusik?

Ataukah sudah mustahil untuk bernyanyi dari hati?

Apakah suatu hari kita mampu membawa melodi ini melampaui bumi?

Mereka bilang bernyanyilah dari hati

Tapi yang jujur dari hati membuahkan kontroversi

Malah yang berpura-pura terapresiasi…

Maukah kau mengucap syair tanpa memaknainya?

Sudah lupakah kau begitu banyak jiwa yang tersentuh oleh tulusnya aliran musikmu?

Menciptalah…

Berkaryalah…

Bernyanyilah…

Bukan untuk sebuah pujian… tapi…

Kebanggaan

Karena engkaulah maha karya sang Maestro

Yang mencipta dengan terampil tulus tak bercela

SUCCEEDING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

SUCCEEDING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE

People working at the bottom of an organization usually have no choice concerning whom they work with. As a result, they often have to work with difficult people. In contrast, people at the top almost never have to work with difficult people because they get to choose who they work with. If someone they work with becomes difficult, they often let that person go or move him or her out.

For leaders in the middle, the road is different. They have some choice in the matter, but not complete control. They may not be able to get rid of difficult people, but they can often avoid working with them. But good leaders – ones who learn to lead up, across, and down – find a way to succeed with people who are hard to work with. Why do they do it? Because it benefits the organization. How do they do it? They work at finding common ground and connect with them. And instead of putting these difficult people in their place, they try to put themselves in their place.

(articles by John C. Maxwell)