We are a private Christian school in Semarang whose education is based on the love of Christ, in the learning activities of our students is almost 100% of tuition payment fund students of our poor economy. In fact many of our students who need scholarships for education. Through this blog we are thanks if you want to provide assistance to our students who need scholarships, and we are grateful if you provide any information about who can we contact to provide scholarships to our students.

SMA Masehi 1 PSAK Semarang – Indonesia

Jl. Pasir Mas Raya No. 1 Tanah Mas Semarang

Kode Pos : 50178

Telp.         : 024-3549781

Fax.          : 024-3549781

Headmaster                  : Dra. Rumanti Budiastuti

Design & Created        : Joedhy Kristianto

Alumni ‘98

Say hello……………..Alumni’98 , Guru & Karyawan SMA Masehi 1 PSAK

Pembukaan Pepenkris Yayasan PSAK Semarang 2009

Selamat Datang Peserta Pepenkris 2009

Lha ini Bu Efi, Mas Joedhy dan Keluarga Besar SMA Masehi 1 PSAK Semarang

It’s the little things that make up life.  Or better … it’s the seemingly small things that make up the foundation of our spiritual life.  The bedrock of relationship with God begins and ends with basic principles.  Prayer … consuming His Word … prayer … meditating on His Word … prayer … recognition and praise of the all we learn of Him to be, as we grow in Him … prayer … submitting ourselves moment by moment in genuine obedience to His will … and prayer.

Having just married — my wife and I were talking recently about the oddities surrounding shared relationships.  Noting how the dynamics shift when a third person is added to an existing relationship.  It is one thing to have relationship with another person; but when a third person is included it can impact the initial relationship in sweeping ways.  The new addition can bless and enhance the dynamic … or dampen it – depending on what they add to the mix.  C.S. Lewis speaks to this a bit in his text, “The Four Loves.”

Our conversation stemmed from consideration of our respective relationships with God.  How inclusion of the other in that relationship generated a modified posture, in relationship to God.  Not necessarily different from our personal postures … but broadened, as it involved the natural re-posturing to accommodate the presence of the other, in our approach to God in shared times of prayer and the like.

I have always held it best to keep things simple in my own relationship with God.  For instance, I rarely consult commentaries on biblical interpretation believing God’s Word was written [first] for me (or us, individually) to receive and not for [primarily] others to interpret for me.  My relationship with God has to be worked out by me – as His Word tells me.  I have stumbled and fumbled my way through growing in God, my entire life.  I believe to ask for input and counsel from those more mature in their faith is only wisdom.  I believe to only feel confident in stepping forward in matters of faith after a more mature believer has agreed, in the proposed direction … is to communicate little or no personal spiritual growth, at all.

In looking to grow a shared life of prayer … my wife and I kept it simple.  Last night, as we took the dogs for a walk … we simply, spoke our hearts, cares, concerns, and praises to the God we know … the God we love … and the God we share … out loud, as we strolled down the road … together.  Keeping it simple … we lifted our hearts to His.  What a blessing to contemplate the reception of our collective prayers … by our shared God.

In an effort to provide some various viewpoints on common topics important to men, we will host a Blog Carnival the first week of every month.  For those who may not know what a “Blog Carnival” is, it is simply a collection of submitted blog posts on a particular topic or forum.

This month, we have a host of topics from personal finance to being a dad to… well, let’s just get started.

Redistribution of Wealth- Is it Biblical?

This post is from Steven Toschlog who works as an accountant in Richmond, Indiana.  Wealth redistribution is a hot political topic these days. Some argue President Obama’s economic policies are essentially moving money from one group of people to another by raising and lower taxes accordingly. The term “wealth redistribution”, equated to socialism by some, could be defined as taking money from the rich and giving it to the middle class or poor. Whether you agree with this definition of wealth redistribution or the use of the term itself, Jesus Himself supports it, but in reverse…. Read more by clicking here.

A Father’s Love

This is post, although relatively short, is a great read for fathers.  Perhaps one of my favorite portions of this post states: “The truly amazing thing is that God loves us even more than we can love our own children.  I often sit and think about how remarkable that really is.  His love for us is unending.  He gave his life on the cross so that we could be free to have a life in heaven with him.”  To continue reading this great article, click here.

Parenting Spiritual Champions

Another post related to Christian Dads is this one from Legacy Dad.  This blog post looks at some real world statistics on parents who have raised Spiritual Champions.-children who are now adults and consider themselves active, saved Christians who are still working on spiritual growth as young adults or parents themselves.  This is a must read for fathers wanting to get some tips for raising their own Christian Warriors.  To enjoy this great read, click here.

Fatherly Guilt

I know I struggle with fatherly guilt.  In this post from Different Frequencies Same Radio, the dynamics of how we, as fathers, spend time with our wives and kids is discussed.  I know any dad would be able to identify with the points in this great article.  Click here to read more.

Joseph-Father of Jesus

Talk about a tough fatherly role… imagine being Joseph, asked to be the fatherly role model for Christ.  No pressure there!  In this post from Bible SEO, there are great points about Joseph’s life and all of us could stand to walk in his footsteps.  This is a great format for male readers… click here to read more.

A Simple Word

I am constantly convicted on my choice and use of words.  In this post from Vida Nueva Christian Ministries, the post goes over some great key points to consider when using words.  I know this will be one I choose to refer back to often, I hope you will too.  Click here to read this great post.

How to Overcome Temptation

Yet another great post from Bible SEO.  The title says enough.  If you like a systematic style of reading and studying God’s word, this blog is a great resource.  Click here to read this particular blog post.

Have new posts delivered right to your email, click here.
Subscribe to Christian Men-Christian Warriors by Email

About the Writer:

Trent Cotton has spent a number of years in management and business consulting. After spending some time in the field, he joined the HR department, beginning in recruiting and eventually serving as the Department Head of HR for one of the major lines of business. With such a varied background, he works to bring all of these together to help churches and other Christian organizations incorporate some common business practices into their ministries to enable them to better serve the Kingdom. He currently works for SourcePointe, an HR Outsourcing Agency while continuing to own and operate Christian Management Consulting as a ministry. In his free time, he also writes a lot on Church Development as a Church Consultant.

In an effort to provide some various viewpoints on common topics important to men, we will host a Blog Carnival the first week of every month.  For those who may not know what a “Blog Carnival” is, it is simply a collection of submitted blog posts on a particular topic or forum.

This month, we have a host of topics from personal finance to being a dad to… well, let’s just get started.

Redistribution of Wealth- Is it Biblical?

This post is from Steven Toschlog who works as an accountant in Richmond, Indiana.  Wealth redistribution is a hot political topic these days. Some argue President Obama’s economic policies are essentially moving money from one group of people to another by raising and lower taxes accordingly. The term “wealth redistribution”, equated to socialism by some, could be defined as taking money from the rich and giving it to the middle class or poor. Whether you agree with this definition of wealth redistribution or the use of the term itself, Jesus Himself supports it, but in reverse…. Read more by clicking here.

A Father’s Love

This is post, although relatively short, is a great read for fathers.  Perhaps one of my favorite portions of this post states: “The truly amazing thing is that God loves us even more than we can love our own children.  I often sit and think about how remarkable that really is.  His love for us is unending.  He gave his life on the cross so that we could be free to have a life in heaven with him.”  To continue reading this great article, click here.

Parenting Spiritual Champions

Another post related to Christian Dads is this one from Legacy Dad.  This blog post looks at some real world statistics on parents who have raised Spiritual Champions.-children who are now adults and consider themselves active, saved Christians who are still working on spiritual growth as young adults or parents themselves.  This is a must read for fathers wanting to get some tips for raising their own Christian Warriors.  To enjoy this great read, click here.

Fatherly Guilt

I know I struggle with fatherly guilt.  In this post from Different Frequencies Same Radio, the dynamics of how we, as fathers, spend time with our wives and kids is discussed.  I know any dad would be able to identify with the points in this great article.  Click here to read more.

Joseph-Father of Jesus

Talk about a tough fatherly role… imagine being Joseph, asked to be the fatherly role model for Christ.  No pressure there!  In this post from Bible SEO, there are great points about Joseph’s life and all of us could stand to walk in his footsteps.  This is a great format for male readers… click here to read more.

A Simple Word

I am constantly convicted on my choice and use of words.  In this post from Vida Nueva Christian Ministries, the post goes over some great key points to consider when using words.  I know this will be one I choose to refer back to often, I hope you will too.  Click here to read this great post.

How to Overcome Temptation

Yet another great post from Bible SEO.  The title says enough.  If you like a systematic style of reading and studying God’s word, this blog is a great resource.  Click here to read this particular blog post.

Have new posts delivered right to your email, click here.
Subscribe to Christian Men-Christian Warriors by Email

About the Writer:

Trent Cotton has spent a number of years in management and business consulting. After spending some time in the field, he joined the HR department, beginning in recruiting and eventually serving as the Department Head of HR for one of the major lines of business. With such a varied background, he works to bring all of these together to help churches and other Christian organizations incorporate some common business practices into their ministries to enable them to better serve the Kingdom. He currently works for SourcePointe, an HR Outsourcing Agency while continuing to own and operate Christian Management Consulting as a ministry. In his free time, he also writes a lot on Church Development as a Church Consultant.

This post will probably be changing as time passes and I learn more about relationships.

The goal

The goal of my opposite-sex friendships (hereafter just “friendships”) is for me to build up the skills of Christian women by exchanging training materials to work through, and monitoring progress. The training materials for friendship are centered around apologetics, with some conservative policy, as well. The friendships are beneficial to God because we are building each other up, and it also provides a context for us to evaluate changing to a courtship.

Most of my relationships with Christian women will never enter into the friendship phase because virtually none of them even care for apologetics. But some Christian women have shown an interest in apologetics and conservative policy and that’s what gets the friendship going.

I basically think about this friendship-courtship distinction as a continuum where passing through the gate from friendship to courtship is dependent on progress in sharing my vision with her and having her take appropriate steps to recognize and contribute to my vision. When a female Christian friend begins to contribute to my overall life vision, that’s the point at which we consider changing to a courtship.

Marriage

I am open to marrying any chaste female Christian. The grounds for the decision to marry are that the marriage would provide a better benefit to God in terms of his purposes in the world than if we continued to work separately. In particular, I am looking for my prospective mate to demonstrate her commitment to my four-pronged vision for serving God in the most effective ways. (See below)

I am also interested in whether she understands the challenges facing men and male needs, especially in areas like feminism, big government, no-fault divorce, child custody, etc. But I am also interested in her views in areas like chastity, modesty, grooming, physical fitness and expected frequency of marital sex. She must also recognize standards of chastity, chivalry and romance and participate in standard activities like letter-writing.

My vision

My vision involves operations in 4 areas:

The university:

• get a PhD and teach in the university as a publicly-identified Christian OR no PhD, but teach in a community college
• fund Christian scholars to lecture and debate at the university
• fund research by intelligent design scholars
• raise brilliant home-schooled children who can get PhDs and go on to impact the university

The church

• bring scholars in to lecture and especially to debate in the church, and sponsor these events
• teach adult Sunday school classes in apologetics (i.e. – show debates and discuss them, read books and discuss them)
• find a wife who can help with these goals

The workplace

• study apologetics and engage co-workers in discussions at lunch if they are interested
• operate a library to lend out lectures and debates to those who are interested
• give co-workers gifts at Christmas like DVDs on intelligent design or debates
• put things in my office to declare myself as a thoughtful Christian
• find a wife who can be hospitable, prepare meals and host discussions in our home

The public square

• blog: inform and educate Christians about economic and public policies that affect our liberty
• donate to Christian politicians who reflect my priorities
• donate to other Christians who engage in debates on abortion, Islam, etc.
• run for office after kids are grown-up
• encourage wife to run for office after kids are grown-up
• encourage kids to run for office after they retire from teaching at the universities

Yes, this is my whole evil plan, which I basically execute alone, but employing various agents, whose identities are secret, as is mine. If a Christian woman is interested in having me assist her with learning apologetics and stuff, so she can serve God better, that’s called a friendship. If she starts to inquire about my vision and begins to show real recognition and support for it, that’s called a courtship.

The main thing is that God’s goals are always the center of our interactions. Marriage is not the end goal of the relationship. God’s goals in the world are the end. Marriage is just a possible means to that end. Being a good husband is a means to that end. Even being a good father is a means to that end.

The rules

Here are my rules for dealing with Christian women:

1. No touching during friendship or courtship. This rule holds until the engagement day, where a kiss is permitted, but nothing more. The reason for this rule is to avoid losing 1) the ability to focus on my plan instead of women, and 2) the ability to evaluate Christian women objectively and dispassionately.
2. No being together by ourselves in non-public places without a chaperone. This applies to friendship and courtship.
3. The friendship advances by exchanging and executing tasks that help us both to be more effective Christians. For example, listening to lectures together and stopping the lecture to discuss things, and then writing about the lecture afterward.
4. The courtship advances by exchanging and executing tasks related to my vision. For example, we arrange a viewing of a debate or lecture DVD at her church and then jointly take questions from the audience.
5. Gifts exchange is allowed during the friendship, but no tokens can be given to me.
6. Token exchange (e.g. – a lady’s handkerchief with her colors), is reserved to mark the beginning of courtship. I have to carry it with me whenever I fight, and give reports to her on how I did. She can withdraw it, ending the courtship. I can also return it, ending the courtship. I can only carry one token at a time.
7. Parents should be kept informed about the progress of friendships and courtships.
8. Her parents have the right to engage me in discussions about my views on apologetics, etc. at any time during the friendship or courtship, but they do not have the right to override my vision with their vision.
9. It helps me if women dress modestly, because I am more comfortable when a woman tries to attract me using non-physical approaches, like words. I resent it when women try to attract me using sex appeal instead of words. I like being in control of myself. Sex appeal is strictly for after the wedding. There are a million ways for a Christian woman to knock a Christian man off his feet just by taking an interest in things like apologetics and economics. The trick is to find a man who cares about being friends with God.
10. I am looking to court someone who already has the skills to assist me with my vision, or who demonstrates a willingness to develop them, or who is able to persuade me that other skills are an even better match for my vision.

These are guidelines that I try to communicate to women to help us to constrain our relationship to serve God’s goals. These are all subject to discussion and debate, of course.

I think that one of the effects of these rules is to take the pressure to be “sexy” off of women. And to remove sex from the equation entirely – there is no room for clumsy groping in the back seat of a car in this operation. Instead, a woman wins the heart of a man if she is willing to listen to him, learn about his needs as a man, and his vision to serve God, and then work hard to recognize and support all that.

Sample activities

In a friendship, the first steps are going to involve a lot of studying and talking. For example, it is not uncommon for me to spend 2-6 hours just talking to a Christian woman about spiritual things. We do independent studies around things like reading the same books, listening to the same lectures, or even doing the political compass or resurrection questionnaires together. Individual tasks for me from her might include Bible reading, church attending, bringing her resources that she asks for, writing about my feelings and experiences, etc.

I believe in exchanging tasks so that the woman gets into the pattern of getting outside her own needs and thinking about her obligations to me. My concern is that a lot of women have a fairy tale view of marriage. She picks a man for superficial reasons and hopes to change him later. This leads women to ignore male needs and the man’s vision prior to marriage. The man is tricked into the marriage by pre-marital sexual activity.

Unfortunately choosing a bad man and then tricking him with sex doesn’t work to keep that man as her appearance fades. This is particularly bad for women whose self-esteem is tied to appearance. And I think that is a major reason why women are so interested in no-fault divorce and massive government social programs – to relieve them of the burden of having to choose the right man and having to work to win him and having to work to keep him.

Real men find big government very discouraging, which is why men are not interested in marriage any more. The prospect of facing activist family courts run by feminists is too much for thoughtful men to contemplate. Men can’t support a family on a salary that is highly taxed to pay for things like VAWA or welfare programs, or single-payer health care. Men also don’t want to lose access to their kids based on fake charges of domestic violence.

I know that these rules and procedures are going to strike a lot of you as odd, and some of you are going to stop reading my blog because I am just too weird. Well, I think you should just snicker at me and keep reading. After all, someone has to be different. The only people really in a position to judge whether this is working are my female Christian friends, and God. I myself am very happy with these rules because they help me to put God first.

Related posts

• What Christian men want from Christian women… in paintings!
• What should wives do when they are not in the mood for sex?
• Why Christian men should be chaste
• Should Christians marry non-Christians?
• Purposeful parenting today
• Marriage tips part 1
• Marriage tips part 2
• Unfair child custody laws
• Why fiscal conservatives should care about marriage
• How Democrat policies discourage marriage: Part 1 (big government) is here and Part 2 (same-sex marriage) is here and Part 3 (No fault divorce) is here.

Neil has a related post on complementarian marriage (which is my view).