Job 10:9-12
Remember, please, that You have made me like clay. And would You turn me into dust again?
10 Did You not pour me out like milk, and curdle me like cheese?
11 Skin and flesh you put on me, and wove me with bones and sinews.
12 Life and kindness You have bestowed on me, and Your visitation has preserved my spirit.
YHVH has blessed us so much with the ability to milk our own cows and make our own cheese.
There is a HUGE difference between the milk you buy in the states at your local store
and fresh, straight-from-the-cow milk, not so much in taste(even though there is a BIG difference),
but rather in quality and in nutrition as well. The stuff you buy at the store is
ULTRA-homogenized and sometimes even worst, ULTRA-pasteurized(NO GOOD for cheese making!!!)
Anyway, we like making cheese. We would like to make many different cheeses, but since
we don’t have all the necessary tools(like a thermometer), we can’t.
However, there are cheeses that we can make here, and one of those cheeses are made
from a dear husband and wife halfway down the mountain. They are a very sweet couple and love
to read and study YAH’s Word. They also have a bunch of cows and get a LOT of milk, SOOOOO….
THEY MAKE CHEESE!!! This cheese that they make is what some would call here ‘Tico Cheese’. However, just like any cheese, or rather put, ANYTHING anyone does or makes, they will do
it just a bit different then the next person. We have probably had 7 different types of tico cheese
just from the couple of families that we know in Costa Rica. In fact, every time you make cheese,
it will turn out just a little different, even if you do it exactly the same every time!
Anyway, here is how they made cheese!
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The 1st thing you do of course is milk the cow(LOL). We don’t have a picture of them
doing it but here is Christopher with the cow getting ready to milk.
Once you get the milk, you can do 2 things to it. You can either make cheese right away,
or wait for 8-12 hours until the cream has settled to the top. Now, if you take the cream off the top,
you can make butter or cream cheese or sour cream or etc.., but if you do it will
decrease how much cheese you make. So sometimes we take the cream off and sometimes we don’t.
Now, in this cheese, there is no fancy starters or mixers or really any of that stuff.
All that you need to begin to make it into cheese is rennet.
When we were thinking about writing this post, Christian made an amazing point
about how our lives are in fact very similar to this cheese:
Our lives are very similar to this cheese. Just like the milk, we appear to look white,
we appear to be clean. But just like the milk, we are mixed in with this dirty, yucky sin,
and we may not even know it. But just like the rennet(which is a reddish color),
the blood of Yahshua allows us to be able to separate from the dirty, yucky sin.
Next we have to wait about 30 minutes for the cheese to set. Just as the milk takes time to
become cheese, so we take time to cleanse ourselves from the unrighteousness of this world. It isn’t an overnight thing. It takes time to become that perfect, white, set-apart person that YHVH wants us to be.
But little by little, day by day, YHVH through the blood of Yahshua changes us and begins to make us holy.
Once the cheese has set, we have to mix the milk around, and then put
boiling water into the cheese and let it settle to the bottom and come together.
And just like that cheese having to be mixed and stirred and have boiling water poured on it,
so we have to go through tests, trials, and tribulations. We have to be shaken so that
we can be made better, so that we can become more like what YHVH wants to be day by day.
Then, after the cheese has set, we have to cut the cheese into 4th’s, take one of these pieces of cheese,
and then squeeze as much whey as we can. We will see an amazing thing that happens later.
Then the cheese has to be cut up in your hands to about pin-size pieces.
After that, we put salt in it. And just like the cheese has to
have salt in it to have flavor, so we are to have salt in our lives. Yahshua said:
Matthew 5:13
“You are the salt of the earth, but if the salt becomes tasteless, how shall it be seasoned?
For it is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and to be trodden down by men.
Without salt, cheese is bland and not very good.
And without salt in our lives, we are not useful for YHVH’s purpose.
Amen!
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Before we go on, we want to say that this couple has been very gracious to us.
They love to speak and study the Word of YHVH. But because they like to
study so much and like to ask questions, they have gotten in trouble with their church.
They see how their church isn’t preaching YHVH’s Word and that the church is
falling well short of where the Scriptures teach that they should be. But just like any people
here that we have preached to, they do not want to leave the church because they
feel like they have a duty to go to the church. Pray that the blinders can be completely
taken away from their eyes and pray that they can be able to take off the holding that their church
has on them. Pray that they can learn how to follow YHVH fully. They love to study YHVH’s Word,
so just pray that they can come to embrace and fully see what is in the Scriptures.
This is a really interesting press that they made. All it is 4 pieces of wood made into a box,
another piece of wood for the ‘follower’, which helps squeeze the cheese, and 2 2x4 pieces of wood.
Then, on the end of the top 2x4, they have a notch that they made into the end of the wood and put
a sack filled with rocks and press it down! It’s that easy! Most of the presses we see online are
either very fancy, very expensive, or both. This was an easy press that cost almost NOTHING to build!
Next you put the cheese into the box, press it flat with your hand,
put the follower on it, and then put the press with the sack of rocks on it.
Let it sit 12 hours or overnight and TaDa! You have made Tico Cheese!
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Now, if you paid attention, you would have seen how the cheese
was pressed twice, once with your hands and once with the press. This is really cool.
Did you know that we are and will be separated from this world twice?
The 1st time happened when we accept the blood of Yahshua. When we accept the
blood of Yahshua, we are Spiritually separated from this world, as Yahshua says:
John 15:19
“If you were of the world, the world would love its own.
But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out
of the world, for that reason the world hates you.
The 2nd time we will be separated from this world is when YHVH
creates a New Heaven and a New Earth. There we will be physically separated
from this world and the whole Earth will be re-made and perfected. There no man will sin.
We will become perfect, set-apart, and white(clean), without spot or blemish!!!!!
Revelation 21:1-5
And I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth, for the former heaven
and the former earth had passed away, and the sea is no more.
2 And I, Yohanan, saw the set-apart city, renewed Yerushalayim, coming down
out of the heaven from Elohim, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the heaven saying, “See, the Booth of Elohim is with men,
and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and Elohim Himself shall be with them and be their Elohim.
4 “And Elohim shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall be no more death,
nor mourning, nor crying. And there shall be no more pain, for the former matters have passed away.”
5 And He who was sitting on the throne said, “See, I make all matters new.”
And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and trustworthy.
HALLELUYAH!!
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And here is the finished product!
May YHVH bless you and may we one day be
able to have ‘Cheesy Fellowship’ together too!
Until next time…
Shalom!
The Montanez Family
Servants and Emissaries of Yahshua, Children of YHVH
HalleluYAH!
P.S. Someone just asked me where we got the rennet to make this cheese. I know that in Costa Rica you can get it at most supermarkets but I
don't believe it will be quite so easy in the states.
There is an
amazing place online called 'New England Cheesemaking Supply Company.
They
have EVERYTHING you could possibly find to make just about any cheese
you want.
They also have all the cultures, rennets, and things like that
to make things like yogurt, sour cream, kefir, etc.
Hope that this helps!
