Journal of Reflections on His lost Kingdom

Now that's a can of worms...

2006-12-14T18:46:00.000-05:00

...we shouldn't have opened -yahoo news

"Left Behind: Eternal Forces," is a teen-rated PC strategy game based on the wildly popular "Left Behind" Christian book series created by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins.

The game is set in New York City after millions of Christians have been transported to heaven.

Players are charged with recruiting, and converting, an army that will engage in physical and spiritual warfare with the antichrist and his evil followers.
The critics describe it as "a violent video game in which born-again Christians aim to convert or kill those who don't adhere to their extreme ideology."

"After you kill somebody you need to recharge your soul points and to do that you need to bend down in prayer. ... I think the message is extremely clear," said Clark Stevens, co-director of Campaign to Defend the Constitution.
"There is killing of course, it is a video game. But the basis of the game is spiritual welfare," said Troy Lyndon, CEO of Left Behind Games Inc.
"The antichrist is the main bad guy and so you are dealing with his henchmen. Both sides are trying to win the hearts and the minds of people who are not on either side," Lyndon, who describes himself as a "follower of Christ," told Reuters.

Is there something You are trying to tell me?

2006-12-07T02:49:00.000-05:00

Today i come across with 3 questions

What is invisible but most valuable to me?
What have I tamed or been tamed (creating ties) ?
What is the "matter of consequence" in my life?

Well! The first one is easy. God is the most valuable to me, and His Words, which entails to me several significant ideals of life, including Love, Faith, Hope, social justice, human mercy, and others. Ideals are fitting invisible concepts that helps me find meaning in life. But on a personal level... well... i can only fall back on some gifts of small affection from children that i know.

What are we to tame? Hmm... it reminds me, was it William Blake? "Habits are either best of servants of worst of masters"... this says a lot.

I think there are two kinds of "consequences" to our lives. Immediate, and eternal. Did you do PDL? Rick Warren writes "Every act of our lives strikes some chord that will vibrate in eternity" (p.38)

I happen to be reflecting something that perhaps respond to 'The Geographer' in an indirect way. You can be the judge. See regards to Jeanne Bishop here and here.

Providence!!!

2006-11-28T22:24:00.000-05:00

it's spelled providence for a reason. Today i put my application for seminary into the mail box and sent it on its way. Tonight i heard from a friend, whom i met in Venezuela, telling me that they have a place for me to stay in Calgary (which is where i am going).

by the way have you heard how difficult it is for students to resolve housing in the now-prospering Calgary?

How do people know?! they don't! God knows your way to Him and He paves it well!

Christian student, secular university

2006-11-27T02:45:00.000-05:00

Top ten tipsters from Calvin Seerveld, great guy. A must*read for every Christian student.

I testify that no.2 and no.3 are quite true.
no.4 is very important, it will do you great good, i recommend it too
no.6 will shape a great mind out of you
pray for no.7
no.8 is a challenge that every Christian must come through, best take it up in youth.

so like,

2006-11-27T02:16:00.000-05:00

we made it on the local newspaper, hahaha

Hydro loss forces students to hotels

interesting blogs i came across

2006-09-27T23:08:00.000-04:00

how to prepare for preaching

and...

the mirage of manly Christianity!

(cross-posted via smartChristian.com)

A final revelation | too soon, too late

2006-09-13T21:41:00.000-04:00

At this point of my education, i've come to realize that i am rather unfit for the purpose of becoming a professional philosopher. i'm aware of a limitation in the quantity (yes quantity) of my thinking patterns in doing analysis. And for what it's worth, the philosophical 'horsepower'. It's probably too young for to draw this conclusion. But somehow i do not foresee myself pursuing this particular kind of mentality milestone. In anycase, i would like to acknowledge the magnitude of creativity in the minds of philosophers. My pastor has acknowledged and hinted to me that philosophers are the smallest circle of elites that has the least to do with our world - to a certain extent. However, any breakthrough will exert itself so tremendously over our reality that it cannot help but to reshape everything. Every culture and century (including the one in which you live in) has more or less proceeded with some degree of major philosophical paradigm shift. Now, whether it has been fitting or good in light of the Christian worldview, that's a wholly different issue. But there is a proper homage due for philosophy, or the lack thereof in our societies.

In the plentiful conversations and discussions that i have had with my prof. over the years, i have come to see how he has challeneged the varying positions that i try to establish from many different angles, perspectives, and well-established traditions, most of which he doesn't believe in or follow for himself. If my interest in such dialogues does not diminish over time (which it probably will), perhaps i should revisit philosophy once again decades later. Strange to see how this blog (and its author) evolve from psychology all the way across through philosophy to pure theology. I think i now know why God brought me here.

But i feel that it's too soon to leave this place. There is still much to learn, and uncover from the lectures of many professors here, some of whom i have hardly met at all save their names and faces. Which is rather unfortunate. And for the first time (in my last semester here) i have taken my religion courses here seriously for my own interest and out of the context of my academic requirement. Oh my what regret do i have... I only wish i had taken more of them sooner (after the wish that education were free) well too late for that now. I wish i could return here one day to take some more courses under several profs here (again, after the wish of a free education), namely in the departments of religion, most definitely music, literature, and perhaps theatrical arts.

like old times

2006-08-28T21:09:00.000-04:00

What a fine time right before the start of a new school year to rediscover my appreciation for books and music. I find myself reading old books that i've already read, and plunge into deep thoughts once again with familiar melodies that were once my unbreakable obsession. All thanks to this youtube her. But sometimes i wonder if such broadcasting goes too far as a form of piracy. But then again, if i could even find out where these can be found, i would gladly make a purchase.

Glen Gould, a Canadian who resided in Toronto most of his life, died exactly one year and a day before i was born. He was what you would call an odd-ball, abnormal, queer, or downright weird. Glen Gould is a stubborn man whose legacy is haunted by controversial diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder or asperger syndrome, a distant cousin of autism. Again, why are geniuses so often plagued by such oddities of diseases. I surrender my utmost admiration and appreciation to his unique musical interpretation and uncanny dexterity in his skills.
The video is a recording of his playing through Goldberg Variation 18-24. The song is roughly 50 minutes in length, this is but a small portion. This is probably done late in his life close to the 80's. In the 1955 recording he had gone through the song within 38 minutes mark. So just imagine his fingers dancing 2X fast-forward of what you see here! His babbling that you see during the performance is him humming a mostly different melody in harmony with the song.

farewell~ dear friends

2006-08-07T00:08:00.000-04:00

Tonight was the farewell party for Alan and Sally. When it was my turn to sign the card, so many things came up that i had no room to write for. The truth is i didn't really know what to write or how. And yet there is so much i wanted to say and had to say.
So Alan, Sally, you two have been such a tremendous blessing to me. If my life were a movie, you are definitely main characters that cannot be excused. Because it was through you that Chirst has came to me. You were the first ones that have brought me so close to the LORD our God. You have been patient with me, merciful, forgiving, and full of love, and i now know and see that it was the great love of Jesus Christ that lives in you both. it came to me, and you came to me.

It's such a tragedy that friendship is so limited by time and space. I wish we can share all the moments we had together again some day. Everything from how we first met, how young and foolish i once was, how surprising it is to find out you were dating, all the fights you two get in, and i'm like in the middle, and then how we supported each other in tough times, and not so tough times. Look! now you're married and off you go!

As we grew up together, i see so many blessings of the LORD flourish in you. Nothing delights me more to see Christian scholars rise up, especially in the science field. You have served the LORD and his people all around NCAC. You've been a contribution to us from the pulpit to the committee. And now you are blessed with each other in marriage. But guess what! I am confident in the LORD that He shall bring out more blessings and add on to the life that you two share. So, as a note to you, Alan, and Sally, and to keep me accountable; here this shall be my prayer for you every time i think of you.

our Heavenly Father, i thank you for Alan and Sally in how you have blessed and nurture them. Because i have seen your beautiful works in their lives. my LORD i ask that you will never forsake them, because you are their God, and they rely on you wholly. i ask that you keep them safe in every place that they go, bless them with joy and peacefulness despite the new environment. Help them adjust for the new life that they now take up as a family. Permit them to find a new church where they may call home, and embrace them every time they come near you. As it is said, Blessed are the merciful, and blessed they shall be! because they have been good to me, and i ask that you bless them in the same way as they have for me. My LORD, continue to use them for your good works, save them and guide them as a family. As for Alan, grant him wisdom, so that he may put it to good use. Glorifying your Name by any means. Grant him brilliant intelligence so that he may better mankind in his profession, and he shall know that his achievement has been your gift. As for Sally, teach her to honor this family for your sake, bless her with skill and education that she may benefit from, and continue to serve you whole-heartedly. Amen.

The truth is, as i shifted over to the english congregation, i miss you, too, from time to time, and wondered what Galilee is up to. Now i have to wonder how different we will look next time we meet. Alan, you will either gain weight for being at 30, or needing glasses for reading too much, haha.

note to self - on Vinson

2006-07-29T23:18:00.000-04:00

Vinson is a 6 or 7 year old child that i met in VBS of 2006. He is the first kid that i miss after VBS, why? beacuse he needs Jesus the most out of the whole summer camp. No doubt he is different. Most of the other children are afraid of him. Partly because he doesn't obey any teacher or any adult, and does not hesitate to declare his hostility to anyone by hitting and running. That scares the children. He derives a twisted pleasure from tickling other people's private parts, and pretending to be dead. i can never forget the grin on his face, the moment after people pass by ignoring him, he would have thought the passer-by thought him dead and left him, and be content with it.
Alan is correct, he is too smart. i feel that he has the 'social intellingence' that is equivalent of a 10 or 12 yr-old. He easily avoids questions that he does not want to answer. he tries to take the lead in conversation, and manipulate others to play with him. On top of that, he has all the other 'bad-boy' traits such as physically violent, selfish, and so forth.
---
In the process of talking to him, i find him intensely attracted to and obsessed with the concept of death. He loves to be dead, and others to think that he is dead. He talks of his daddy being 'already dead', as if he has already achieved something. The phrase he uses most often is 'then i can be dead forever'. I've met his father, a man who is always looking confused. I asked him about life. He spoke of something about winter and snowfall. I couldn't make out anything else amongst the mumbling.

The second time i met him he was no different, only this time he has a best friend, and it is Jesus. I told him about the gospel, everything in his own analogy of good guys and bad, toys and soldiers, except in the salvation on the cross. Jesus died for us, and Jesus died for him. He struggles to understand this, i explained it to him. But he continued to look confused. He asked me many times and continue to bring our conversation back to this topic. He tries to understand but couldn't, because he lives in a world of cartoon heroes and villians. And in cartoons, there are no sacrifices like the one committed to by Jesus.

(note to self: write more on how he hits me and hate me when i talk about him joining Jesus)

it's most unfortunate that i had too few opportunities to talk with him. This whole occuation of meeting with him makes me sit back to weigh out between psychology and ministry. Because i have been told he has been getting professional psychiatric help

Note to self

2006-07-03T02:30:00.000-04:00

-read from Beyond the pulpit
-clean up the side-bar, too many links don't work anymore!

Sunday is the day

2006-07-01T23:42:00.000-04:00

y'kno... that other day i was gonna say good-night to the LORD my God, but then, what the heck, it's morning on the other side of the world. He's probably still busy or something. and He probably doesn't sleep, or does He? well He did rest on that day.

which really made me think about the whole point of a Sunday. It should be the day where we have our amazing God take a break and we say, 'k God just sit back and chill out for a while, we got some songs and music that we thought are pretty nice, and other things we wanna be thankful for, so catch your breath before answering our waves upon waves of prayers and healing requests.' i mean fo' real, how many prayers do you think God resopnds on a weekly basis? And Jesus too, give the old Man a break, will ya?

So it's true, please be punctual for Sunday service. it's not so hard to be on time, and sing a few songs to make his week end with a little sugar on top. Don't just come to take the sermon with you, It's the least that we could do to give back a little something. If we can't even make it for the worship part of it, God probably won't even be happy to begin with for the week to come, neither are the pastors :P

It is amazing...

2006-06-24T23:11:00.000-04:00

It is amazing that God still listen to our prayers, heal our sickness, comfort our sorrow, and be our God, despite such a long history of our rebellions, corruptions, distortions, deprivation and depravity.

His patience and mercy has lasted for hundreds of thousands of years, just as His faithfulness and kindness has lived with all generations through it. His Holiness is shown through His perseverance in being our God.

And after so many centries, He is still the same Brilliantly Perfect God that He once was countless ages ago. But this day, He has displayed His Glory to me. Not to another Ricky who lived centuries ago in the far east, not to the widow who was thrown into a furnace, not to a soldier who held on to his spear to defend his nation, not to the workers of threshing floor, not to the man who built an ark for survival, nor to children who had once rushed across the dry grounds of the Jordan river. But this day, He has dispalyed His Glory to me.

And His Holy Perfection continues to shine before my eyes, like the same Holiness He had on the day He created the stars. And today, He is my God.

dear God,

2006-04-22T00:25:00.000-04:00

(these are from some of your children~)

yea You'r the best God there is~ Amen!

come to think of it, staples are pretty neat invention, don't you think?

Evangelical Outpost...

2006-04-13T22:36:00.000-04:00

...has some of the most interesting articles and discussions.

Lincoln's 5-legged dog: the case against redefining marriage.
Abraham Lincoln was fond of asking, “If you call a dog’s tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?” “Five,” his audience would invariably answer. “No,” he would politely respond,” the correct answer is four. Calling a tail a leg does not make it a leg.”

Jesus, tongue piercing and the culture war
"Let Jesus be our teacher on what ought to outrage us [as individual expression and authenticity], but more importantly, on how we ought to treat those who advertise themselves through various rituals as being the “excluded individuals” religious people dislike the most."

What is the Gospel?
...because of doctrinal deficiencies expressed in American evangelicalism, we can’t assume that the gospel is clearly understood...
...The most serious threat to the gospel is, therefore, the attempts to limit the gospel about Jesus to ... a million other “nutshells.”
...The good news about Jesus is not limited to what he is now doing in our own lives. The good news about Jesus has no limits; it is what he did yesterday, what he is doing today, and what he will do forever. The news about Jesus Christ is a song that preceded the foundation of the earth and will be joyfully and everlastingly sung in the new creation.

from nothing to something

2006-04-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

My life is absolutely worthless with no meaing or purpose, if it weren't for my friends, the strangers that i meet, and all people of the LORD. Without you, or them, my life is nothing but misery. Like a zero on the number line. It is only through encouraging and loving others that i find meaning in living. So i'm forced to agree with Albert Einstein in saying
"Life isn't worth living unless it's lived for someone else."
Firstly for Christ my King, the people around me, the people whom i have met, and lastly myself.
And much like the number zero, its presence makes all other numbers into something, and having a value greater than zero, even though the zero has no value in itself.
And so this day i yearn to serve Him and His people all the more, only to stay alive.
...

I still find it too amazing that God has picked up my life and fashioned it in His ways when i threw it away, so long ago...

Is this "cute" ???

2006-04-09T23:38:00.000-04:00

I love playing with kids, it's just lots of fun. Today i was playing with Irene and Anju. Irene is pretty rough, she has to have it her way or she will yell violently that you must. she tries to jump up on my back for a piggy-back ride, force her way to sit on my lap, pulling on my shirt/arms, among other nasty things. most of the times it actually hurts by the way she push-and-pull me. Just when i couldn't take it any longer, Anju would come along trying to pull her away saying "stop it~ you're hurting him~" But i was at first playing with Anju, Irene barged in when she wanted all the fun. This was the second time Anju has done this for me.
It was so heart-warming to have a child try to protect me, (even though it was hardly effective :P ). She is such a wonderful child, I think i'm feeling some kind of 'love'.
I wrote this in my blog because i think i will want to look back and remember today

John D. Barrow - the next Newton?

2006-04-05T19:21:00.000-04:00

It's nice to see Christian scientists excel.
Cambridge University cosmologist and mathematician John Barrow was awarded $1.6-million Sir John Templeton prize, which is the same prize won by Mother Teresa and Rev. Billy Graham, and worth more than the Nobel Pirze of 1.5million. Barrow is the leading proponent in the notion where religion best explains the existence and creation of the universe.

"the anthropic principle is that the universe is "just right" for life on Earth. Because if it were a little bigger or smaller, a little colder or warmer, a little younger or older, then life wouldn't exist. [The recent scientists] have found, he says, a universe not only bigger than was once thought, but getting bigger.

...because the universe is expanding, it must be at least 10 billion light years in size. We could not exist in a universe that was significantly smaller."

Again, this is a revival of another footnote to the Greeks, namely Aristotle's notion of First Mover. Of course, the clash between science and religion is warranted for. Barrow's notion has enfuriate plenty of his colleagues. Here are some notable quotes in which Barrow expresses his views on science and religion, which i share with and have bluntly articulate in a recent discussion.

"the two fields do not contradict as long as each is kept in its own sphere. "[The Bible] is not attempting to explain the [science] of the origin of the earth," he says, "any more than we would use a physics textbook to try to tell people how they should act. That was not the purpose of the Bible, or scriptures in other traditions, and there is a long history of disasters following this type of literal interpretation of the textual materials.""

Barrow says scientific discoveries do not threaten religion because God does not fill in the gaps of unanswered scientific questions. Instead, he says, widely accepted theological views see God as having an all-encompassing and sustaining role in the broader theoretical questions of the universe.

Barrow also criticizes US's difficulty in accepting the intelligent design theory lies in its lack of education in religion, in which the European takes a different approach.

I should try and get acquainted with some of his works, and i definitely look forward to more publications from him.
There's a globe and mail article here on the award, and another on Christian Science Monitor. If you'r interested and have time for only one article, read the one from CSM. It's very interesting.

#2: jealous?

2006-03-30T23:43:00.000-05:00

Today i thought about jealousy. I think it's a profound concept. Is it natural? Or is it a sin? I am going to argue that it lies in the intention behind the state of being jealous.
When we talk about jealousy, the most common cultural context is being jealous of others for some kind of posession: Jealousy of the rich, jealous of fame, for respect, for being popular, or fortune. "why does he have hair and i have to be bald?", "why is she so lazy and talented and i am so hard-working and unachieving?".
But God has made us to be who we are according to who He desires each of us to be. He has given us all that we ever need to begin with. Being jealous of others not only disrespect God's sincere and unique design for each of us, but also challenges His authority in our lives by coveting others.

On the other hand, there is this

You shall not make for yourself an idol...You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God...

This is one of those passages where you must read and understand the message as a whole and not reduce into smaller parts. God becomes jealous when we love other things (which He created alongside creating us) more than we love Him Himself. It's like saying "Here i have created all these things for you, put you in a safe environemnt, guard you in the family i provided you, endowed you with education, yet why do you love these things more than you do for Me? Why do you love the world, their stars and idols, cars and parties, materialistic costly temporal things? Why do you not love Me?!"
It also made beome aware of how loosely we use the word 'love'. Too often too loosely.
I find it almost comforting that God cares for how much i love Him to such a degree that He will become jealous if i turn away. It also shows how gentle a Master He is. That though i'm able to turn from Him and provoke His anger, i dare not. For this reason, i'm more than happy to keep the #2 commandment.

still 'swimming'

2006-03-21T20:21:00.000-05:00

Of late i've been running outta ideas to run my blog on. Mainly because the courses i take right now is quite 'black and white' under the Christian spectacle. Well, but i always enjoy reading others' blogs. this is afterall a journal kinda thing, So i like to cite down things i've read that inspire me, and hopefully visitors (if there are any) who come through here will have a treat as i had. That's what Christians do, right? Pointing others to the right direction.

"If you seek power before service, you'll neither get power, nor serve. If you seek to serve people more than to gain power, you will not only serve people, you will gain influence."
- Tim Keller

"Reading the Bible, like swimming, is not easy until you know how. And you cannot read the Bible rightly if you are in a hurry. But once you take the time to learn how, no matter how evil you have been and are, God will speak to you and with you."
- Calvin Seerveld

(cited from Gideon Strauss)

marital counseling - today's seminar

2006-03-15T09:46:00.000-05:00

'romantic love' - when you are passionately wanting the other person.
'the power struggle' - when you want the other person to satsify you.
'REAL love' - when you can think of the other person above yourself and want the best for them.

Well this goes all the way back to the Greeks. Plato prolly said it better too. just to put it out there, nothi'n new.

what you may hear therapists say a lot

"you can be right, or you can be in relationship, take your pick"
(men, lol.)

"love is blind, and marriage is cure"
unfortunately, or fortunately, this is true.

Something called Imago Therapy, specifically. This is a very good inventory skill to have under any social worker's belt, you may want to look into this more.

Generation Next >>

2006-02-16T15:49:00.000-05:00

Touch screens can now handle multiple input simultaneously.
imagine the possibilities

cited from joystiq.com

Random Amusement in the _other garden of God

2006-02-14T17:40:00.000-05:00

Source: Russia aims to mine the moon for Helium3 as "the ideal fuel for the future" by the year 2020.

Sevastyanov predicted that nuclear reactors capable of running on Helium 3 would soon be developed and boasted that just one ton of the isotope would generate as much energy as 14 million tons of oil.

"Ten tons of Helium 3 would be enough to meet the yearly energy needs of Russia," he added.

...There are practically no reserves of Helium (3) on the Earth. On the moon, there are between one million and 500 million tons, according to various estimates."

Helium 3's chief advantage is that it is not radioactive and is therefore non-polluting so there would not be a problem disposing of it after it had been used. It is not without its skeptics, though, who argue that it will be too costly and impractical to develop.

that's the gist of it. i wonder what kind of world we will live in by then. maybe cars will finally fly.

STM Sharing, Finally ~ (the more personal part)

2006-02-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

i'm back. this STM to venezeula has been a mind-blowing experience for me.

First of all i want to thank God for this trip. Because i can see very clearly why he pulled me out of school to do this. He led me through places that i needed to see, paths i needed to walk through, and events that i needed to experience

I spent one whole week travelling and working and plenty of talking with pastors. For the first time in my life i see what it means to do full-time ministry. I slowly come to understand the kind of requirements, committments, and things that are important to a minister. I also realize that i am incompetent in many many ways. if i am to respond to this call and truly become a minister for God, i have to come through all these challenges and lessons. I have but a small taste of what is required of me, but the comprehension of what's more than what i had just experienced is enough to make me cry.

For the first time i was rejeted and ridiculed at for my faith, and took the blows even though i could've fought back in arguments. For the first time i had to sit by quietly when others mock my Glorious LORD God. For the first time i have met a man who was abducted for ransome just 3 days before his wedding. For the first time i see a hospitalized old man who lost his son 3 months ago and suffered a severe stroke, having not even the ability express his faith either by words or motion. For the first time i met a man who witnessed another man being possessed by demons, and healed in the name Christ Jesus. (and i spent half the week sleeping at where that man was possessed and healed, haha..)

I have also realized that, though rough as it is, this is the kind of job that i have been looking for, and the kind that i love and have passion for, and want to committ the rest of my life to. Which is great, because God has affirmed my faith in Him.

I cannot sum up all the things that i have learned in this trip, nor can i describe some of the remaining trials that i see in the future. God has taught me a few invaluable lessons that must make an impact on the rest of my life. But more importantly, He showed me what else i need to achieve with his help in order to serve Him competently.

---

I also want to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone who has been praying for all of us. I can be certain that He has answered all your prayers, be it our safety, our health, our good works, our enduring faith, among other things. Thank you.

---

and due to limited supply of the pink bulletin insert during service, here's what i wrote for the congreation, and what i really want you to read :P

I praise the LORD joyously, for by His will He has indeed responded to all our prayers concerning this STM, and I am certain He has fulfilled yours also. Even though it was merely ten days, God has faithfully led, guarded, provided, employed, and encouraged every one of us who committed to this STM.

Just as it was shown in the book of Acts, the most miraculous wonders of God can often be found in places where Christian churches are most needed, and Venezuela is one of such places. The countless amazing testimonies given by the local brothers and sisters have strengthened us, and in turn, we were also driven to reach out to the local community with the Gospel of Christ more courageously. To preach the gospel in Venezuela is a difficult task, and there are many social and even political reasons. The general outlook there is greatly materialistic, and it is especially so with the Chinese-speaking Asians whom we focused on. The people work 6-and-a-half days a week. Robberies, briberies, and ransom are as casual as bad weather in the sky. It is a land in which money can seemingly earn and protect one from anything on earth.

As difficult as the task was, God delivered us all. He helped us catch the right plane, led us through a host of local and linguistic obstacles, kept us from harm’s way, put words into our mouths for the sake of His Name (be it on the stage or off), and even fed us abundantly~ But more importantly, He sent us to the parts where His Word was needed the most, namely during the visitations and our Sunday worship program.

From a personal perspective, I now know it was the right decision to pull myself out of school for one week to do this. These 10 days of remote ministry has made me understand what it truly means to do full-time ministry, work for my God, live out my life to follow Christ, and serve the people of His Kingdom. God has showed me exactly what I needed to see and experience it for myself and it came at the perfect moment. I have also come to know that this is what I have passion for, and commit myself to; thus reaffirming my faith and decision to respond His call in ministry.

Perhaps from reading this, you will see that there are too many things to be thankful for in this STM. I believe every STM has its own set of wonders provided by God, and a good host of experiences and lessons to the ones who will commit to it. It is also a big step to bridging a closer relationship to the LORD our God. It is a role in which we glorify our God, that others may benefit from it, and we cultivating ourselves in Christ. What’s there to lose? So allow me to sincerely encourage you, dear brothers and sisters, to step up at every chance you have to serve our God in short term missions.

Jubilee 2006

2006-02-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

i soooooooooooooo wish i get to go... too bad it's in Pittsburgh, PA.... sigh....
early bird deadline is this saturday
every workshop looks so interesting, i mean, Christian architecture?! medicine? and even advertising?! and i'm really impressed w/ that title under vidoegames

Jubilee 2006

If you are a college student and have not yet registered for the big Jubilee 2006 student conference Imagine the Kingdom, do so now! Here are just some of the workshops, each of which I think would be worth the price of admission all on their own:

Art
Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin
“Art, Faith and Warhol: Journeying Between the Modern and the Postmodern”

Theology
Vincent Bacote
“The Church's First Great Commission”
“Toward Understanding & Appropriating A Rich Tradition”

Business
Katherine Leary
“Shaping the Culture that Shapes You”
“Moments of Truth Unveil the Motives of the Heart”

Philosophy
Esther Lightcap Meek
“Longing to Know: Epistemology for Ordinary People ”
“Inviting the Real: Epistemological Etiquette”

sexuality and chastity
Lauren Winner
“Real Sex: The Naked Truth about Chastity”

Architecture & Urban Design
David Greusel, AIA
“Redeeming the Built Environment: A Gospel of Architecture”

Medicine
John Patrick, MD
“Every Patient Inhabits a Story: Narrative Ethics and Medicine”
“Meaning and Purpose in Medicine”

Academic Discipleship
Derek Melleby and Don Opitz
“The Outrageous Idea of Academic Faithfulness”

Computer Design
Bill Slease
“Video Games: Changing the Day, One World at a Time”

Advertising
Sam Van Eman
“On Earth as It is In Advertising”
“To be in the advertising world and not of it”

schooling~...

2006-01-31T21:39:00.000-05:00

This is my last year at Redeemer, if all goes well, i should graduate by the end of December 06. It just occured to me that i will miss Redeemer a lot. Not for the people here (coz i have no friends here anyway :P), not for the environment (coz it's so boring here with just trees and HWY), not for the ball team (coz i'm gonna play for a different team again! i promise!), but for the education that i've experienced here.

It occured to me today that i may soon have to part with the freedom of expression and the encouraged rights of challenging of theories/doctrines that is given to me here at Redeemer when i leave to go to CTS. Engaging and interacting with other theories and notions, trying to take them apart and destroy them, and have my own opinions presented and pummeled has been by far the greatest part of my experience here at Redeemer. It is a luxury that i've longed for so long since highschool, and has come and gone just like that, and i am certain that i will miss this kind of academic community dearly. why do i say that? because as soon as i step into CTS, i have no plan whatsoever to challenge the notion of Trinity, or what have you. But hey, maybe i'll put myself in the department taking apart the cults :P
---
about my STM to Venezuela, there's so much i want to share with everyone, but that will have to wait, coz we will probably show something on the Sunday after, and u might see something in the bulletin. So i'll write in about that later to keep it all in sync~
---
I will probably have to retire from blogging too much for the next long while... unfortunately, because i have 2 courses that is in the format of internet forum, so i should spend more time there instead of here.

STM prayer request

2005-12-26T13:59:00.000-05:00

dear friends,
I am part of the STM team that my church will send to Venuzeula from Jan.13 to 23rd. Our team consists of 4 members, myself, two other gentlemen, and our pastor. These are some of the prayers that we share as a team, and hopefully i can update it periodically in the coming weeks. Thanks for reading and praying for us.
-We have generally forumulated a schedule for our entire stay, but there are still many things to prepare for, so we are not ready yet, of course.
-Because we arrive on a Sunday morning, as soon as we land, we will have to go right into our Sunday program joining the local church
-We only have 2 rehersals for our programs prior to our flight, so we must work efficiently to be ready for the first thing we get off the plane.
-We will have many outreach and visitation, we pray that we get to reach as many people as we can and have a good time getting to know the local people and fit in culturally.
-We are uncertain of what kind of specific task or challenges that we will meet, so we pray that we can all be flexible and capable with God's help, and work cooperatively and successfully as a team.
-Every town has its own good and bad. We pray for our safety and health throughout this missions trip, which is sent for the sake of Glory of God Himself.
-As of now, our team members have not yet received the proper vaccination for this trip, so we pray that this will work out smoothly and quickly.

Appreciation in fragments of memories

2005-12-15T23:20:00.000-05:00

I never went to elementary school here, coz i grew up in hong kong. But in any case, i think being a school janitor here in the american society will probably earn a better status or are more dignified than they in hong kong. In HK schools there's always this stereotype that janitors are always (por-por or sum-sum) old-age ladies who can hardly do much but still go to work for that little more money to go on.
But you know what, something struck me today, and i think they're so full of grace and mercy. I don't know if this is the right way to say it. Because they have to put up with our throw-up and poo on an almost daily basis, and when we, the kids, make a mess, we just run off and back to class whatever we were doing in the court like nothing happened. and we were all little brats too fortunate living our lives to know what hard work is. But they never frown or blame or anythin' at it, and i feel a shine of kindness and forgiveness coming from them. When they step in to clean up and all, it's an expression i don't know how to describe. It's such a Christ-like character, so humble even though we're just so... unaware ungrateful and what not.
i wish i can go back to thank them all. yea all of them, at my school at least.

for my true testimonial story of 'horror', please see here
(yea so this is what came to mind when i was taking crap today haha)

Corresponding

2005-12-12T00:48:00.000-05:00

Mr. Harris from The Round Table wrote something very moving about the Love of God, and i really want to put up a link to it. Unforunately, there seems to be no perma-link for any entry. So here i excerpt the whole thing. I want to put this in here because, first of all, i think remebering this is worthwhile, and second, i think it relates to many blogs that i have previously written.

to know real love

"For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man unclean." Matthew 15:19-20

The heart is the polluted fountain from whence all the muddy streams of evil conduct flow! The heart is the great storehouse of iniquity! Men sometimes make excuse for their evil deeds, by saying that they have good hearts at the bottom. This, however, is an awful mistake, for every man's heart, not excepting the most wicked, is really worse than his conduct!
Men think little of sin--but does God?
What turned Adam and Eve out of paradise? Sin!
What drowned the old world in the flood? Sin!
What brought disease, accidents, toil, care, war,pestilence, and famine into the world? Sin!
What has converted the world into one great burying-place of its inhabitants? Sin!
What lights the flames of hell? Sin!
What crucified the Lord of life and glory? Sin!
What then must sin be? Who but God, and what but His infinite mind--can conceive of its evil nature?
~John Angell James

If you're having trouble knowing the love of God, maybe it's because you don't know your own depravity. Only against the backdrop of complete, grotesque, darkness, will the Light of Glory shine brightly in your heart and be reflected, as the moon reflects the sun but has no glory of its own, upon the world around you. What was it that caused you to first repent? Was it by seeing your righteousness that you turned to Christ? Was it your own goodness that sent you to the foot of the cross? Or was it because God opened your eyes to the utter helplessness, perverseness, deceitfulness, and darkness of your own heart in need of a Saviour? For Christ did not come to save the healthy, but the uncurably sick. Believer, quit diminishing the power of the cross and the love of your Father by deceiving yourself into thinking that you are somehow good! Dare to make God the almighty God that he is, and the love of Christ the compelling love that it is! Your sin is too much for you to bear!!

That's why He died for you!

True?

2005-12-10T00:02:00.000-05:00

Today's profound question is:

What do you believe to be true, even though you cannot prove it ?

//*my personal response follows
well first of all, there's my God. But this is a VERY dangerous expression. strictly speaking, God is unprovable because He is the Unmoved Mover. Carl Jung says that anything requiring 'belief' is too insignificant to be God. So in that sense, God isn't unprovable, He doesn't need to be proved!

God has always been watching me intently every moment.

My parents are my parents. Never done a blood test, are they really my real parents? am i adopted? but duh~, it became pretty obvious as i was growing up

History, simply put. Every recorded event from Jesus' ministry to Hitler's ruthless reign.

Socrates received a revelation from the Biblical God prior to his pilgrimage.
Aquinas received a revlation from the Biblical God prior to his death.

Then of course there is ... Love~ ~ ~
But then if you ask me, Faith Hope and Love are 3 best and most important things in life that can never be proved, along with all the other good things in life.
*//

I almost wanted to put down 'prayer', but that can be proved actually, coz things happen afterwards :P

dear Reader,
What are things that you believe in even though it cannot be proven?

Ongoing discussion on homosexuality

2005-12-05T16:35:00.000-05:00

gord has put up some of his responses and expressed his views on our previous discussion regarding homosexuality and sin. It can be found here.

As for 'ontological knowledge of the world does not lead to a closer relationship w/ God'.
I must confess that ontological knowledge played a big part in my own conversion. A more apt way to say is that the world *told me about God, but such 'knowledge' or 'learning' about it did not *relate me to God *directly, i believe (and here is my *belief) that true relationship requires committment.

The Times of Great Minds

2005-12-05T15:54:00.000-05:00

I have a wish, well, sort of.
There are many great thinkers known throughout history, but only a few are born to the world once every few centuries. I wonder, what fate dictates them to come in to this world, and leave behind such a great impact. Some of the commendable ones who i remember are Plato, Augustine, Aquinas, Dante Alighieri, Beethoven, Kierkegaard, Kant, Abraham Kuyper. My goodness, how the writings of these scholars have amazed me! These are some of the great minds who had forever shifted the paradigm of dicipline which they pursued in. I wonder if there will be a name to be remembered in this current century which i live in.
I only wish to live in a time of a great mind of a dicipline that i train in coming forth to push the world forward. Unfortunately, i think i just missed one, namely Herman Dooyeweerd(1894-1977). Boy is that unfortunate. (hey Tony do you have my book still?)
I only wish to witness the concise development of thoughts and cultural evolution in its magnified form.

Response to Kairos

2005-11-30T17:33:00.000-05:00

I’m writing in response to this particular post I found on the blog named kairos concerning the current issues of homosexuals and the church.

First of all, I think the short article clearly sketched out the problems between doctrinal traditions and the cardinal commandment of charity given by Jesus Christ. Homosexuality has become an issue of focus in our culture today. The church has a long tradition of rejecting such practice as a sin. The most obvious response to this, I believe, is the classic ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ outlook. The remaining question is how, and to what extent we allow it.

If anyone is to compare our current homosexual issues with the tragic biography of Galileo’s case, there are some very significant and crucial distinctions that must be made if this comparison is to stand.
From what I gather, the short article seems to propose that we keep an open point of view to the interpretation of scriptures, which is naturally a good advice in any case. The reason to this may be that different experiences lead to very different interpretations.
The question I must raise is, whether there are other ways to interpret the constitution of marriage and the scared relationship shared between man and woman within Biblical bounds. Some say, ‘we don’t know’, and this response has good basis according to Galileo’s case.
But here is the distinction I speak of that is very important within this context of comparison. Sexual orientation is a moral value, while Galileo’s case was an empirical means of knowledge.

Other than the book of Joshua, Galileo’s opposing case was also based on Pslams 50:1. Though I am in no position to criticize, the treatment given by the Church to Galileo was indeed quite harsh. It may not have been reasonable, but it’s to an extent logical given the time of rising heresies and lack of Biblical understanding in the general public (lack of translations).
The first significant distinction that will fit better in today’s cultural context is that ontological knowledge of the world does not lead to a closer relationship with God. That means, given the goal of the Bible being written was to reconcile the relationship between man and God, this ontological knowledge which Galileo and the Church were wrestling on is indeed of lesser significance comparing all else that the Bible speaks of. Interpretation is thus given a lesser priority.
The interpretive difficulties to which Galileo ran in were diverse. There is at least the poetic context, and also the appraisal context. The way to defend this is that the author of the text did not intend to express a realistic part of the world, but rather a metaphorical expression to offer praises. This is also to say that the author did not intend to speak an ontological truth, so the reader must not regard it so (but this is what the church did).

On the other hand, moral uprighted-ness defines the way a Christian lives. This is especially apparent through the Gospel and New Testament. Faith without deed is a dead faith, and this is a warning. Consequently, God demands acts of prove (in this case, moral practice) to show our faith. On linguistic terms, the word ‘homosexual’ was not derived way back in the Old Testament. The more fitting description had been sexual immorality. Homosexuality has been a problematic issue since the time of Sodom.
So it comes back to my proposition. Is there truly another way to interpret God’s command as to the constitution of marriage and the natural sexual orientation of human being? To this I say no. I say this because a command from God is based on His specific preference, and it is to us moral in nature. As in contrast to Galileo’s case, this distinction of our guiding moral code marks us as the people of God. In other words, if you really find out one day the path of the moon or what’s inside the sun, can such knowledge directly lead you closer to God? Or does it make you a Christian in any way? So i think Galileo’s case cannot be compared to the issue of homosexuality in the most neatly way.

And to a second note I must add.
I must humbly confess that i deem the statement “everyone is entitled to their own opinion” and its implication rather unfair, and especially to God. What of God’s opinion? What of His preference to how we live. In some cases, it may not be a good idea to confuse God’s stance toward certain issue as identical to the stance of a church, and likewise, the stance of a particular pastor that may allow or restrict certain practices, or any other traditions lined up to them. These are some of the things we must be very careful with. On the other hand, the Christian creed does not necessarily seem to contradict with homosexuals. Because we know God loves homosexuals (and most truly He does), but God hates homosexuality simply because He is Holy.

MVL of 2005

2005-11-25T12:54:00.000-05:00

Another year's end is fastly approaching. It's a good idea to recite what important things have i learned in the past 12 months. The most valuable lesson of 2005 came from the book of Job, specifically 40:4-5.

³Then Job answered the LORD and said,
⁴"Behold, I am insignificant; what can I reply to You?
I lay my hand on my mouth.
⁵"Once I have spoken, and I will not answer;
Even twice, and I will add nothing more."

The commentary that came with my Bible explains this incident in summary.

Against the background of cosmic wonder, Job recognizes divine silence about human beings and perceives the futility of greatness, even moral execllece.

Man is but a speck of dust before the Face of God. Perhaps moral excellence may contrast our Christian characters against the falleness of the world in this age; however, what we call 'virtuously good deeds' are but a norm to God.

Reading of a book

2005-11-25T12:51:00.000-05:00

Because I have always found Mr Dekker's journal to be quite amusing, i'd like to note down his excerpt in here.

You read a book, and then you find it's reading you...

Every so often the Reader stumbles across a passage the describes him exactly. This is from Foucault's Pendulum:

"You live on the surface," Lia told me years later. "You sometimes seem profound, but it's only because you piece a lot of surfaces together to create the impression of depth, solidity. That solidity would collapse if you tried to stand it up."

Enlightening comment from an atheist

2005-11-22T14:04:00.000-05:00

"God is a comedian playing to an audience too afraid to laugh." -Voltaire

my God is a God, but He is also a good Friend. I wonder, when was the last time i shared humourous laughers with my Friend.

my God has spectacular characters, He says the most intriguing things, so much so sometimes it throws you off.

my God is a very playful God. with His Word and Mighty Hands, He has crafted the funniest things, including underwater-walking-flower.

my God is full of surprises, he shows me the countless wonders and let me experience unexplainable feelings.

Not the riches of all nations nor the fame of all hisotrical ages can turn my heart away from my God.

A Big Deal !!!

2005-11-17T14:29:00.000-05:00

Has the video game hype ever been such a big deal? MS's X-BOX and SONY's PlayStation 3 are competing very hard this year. Now that the X-BOX 360 is out, look at the kind of things you are getting out of the packing. It's like dismantling a nuclear warhead. Not only are they more expensive than ever (USD399-499), the technology that went into these entertainment electronics have computing power far beyond your expectation.

See Unpacking the X-360 on Joystiq for more pictures.

US Army propoganda ?

2005-11-16T15:02:00.000-05:00

The US Army is currently considering publishing comic books for the middle-eastern regions. This Friday my faculty will hold a discussion in regards to social psychology, psychological warfare, and political propaganda.

You may well know that Captain America had roughly the same roots of production. As the name implies, he was a national hero, and villain was none other than Adolf Hitler.

(who's Bucky?!)

Homage to The Matrix

2005-11-16T14:59:00.000-05:00

The Matrix was a good movie in quite a few ways, but not so in others...

The first most apparent is how the movie was filmed. Most of the kung-fu scenes weren't entierly bad. Not to mention the bullet-time motion capture where Neo dodged the gun-shots in 360 slow-mo. Then there are those super cool looking dress-code of the crew, pitch black shadowy with shades.

The Matrix makes plenty of literal and philosophical references. The first obvious one was probably the 'rabbit hole' and 'wonderland', that was how Neo was introduced to the real world. Ironically, Neo found the real world rather than wonderland through the rabbit hole.
Plenty of the names make a reference to the Greek mythology. Morpheus denotes a man who wears sandals with wings on his feet, which allows him to fly between two worlds at very quick speed. The Oracle is undoubtly referring to the Oracle of Delphi who named Socrates as the wisest man for he knew that he himself knows nothing
The problem of free will and fatalism is addressed in The Matrix: Reloaded. But the most impressive theme is probably Descartes' Evil Genius Hypothesis being neatly incorporated into the architecture of the Matrix and the real world. This hypothesis suppose that a creator has made the world as consciousness of thoughts and nothing more. All that are being perceived do not exist, but are merely 'perceived' by the consciousness because neural signals are beind fed by a evil genius, or a 'god'. and that, in the movie, is the Matrix, and the architect in respectively the 'god'. Through this hypothesis Descartes had later formulated the famous quote "I think; therefore I am/[exist]"

On academic grounds, The Matrix succeeds to merge Christianity and Buddhsim in a story form of one holistic worldview.
Neo is not the one. The crew of 3 main characters are 'the one'. The character of Trinity explains everything, where Morphesus as the father brought Neo out of the Matrix. Neo thus became the son. Neo offered up his life in the machine world during last episode and died to redeem peace for mankind. But history will repeat itself, as Oracle concluded at the very end. The 7th time of re-insertion of the people of Zion and war will wage again. This illustrates the reincarnation aspect of Buddhism, and in turn explain the Frenchman who held the keymaker as such a materialistic and sensual bastard.

But on a personal note, The Matrix is nothing much less than blasphemy. I strongly believe in Divine Providence. Especially after seeing how some of the Chrstian movies within my culture got made and produced so smoothly despite of a ridiculous amount of obstacles. Things always end up well for Christian movies.

The Matrix had a lot of problems. The actress who played the Oracle died (by cancer if i recall correctly) after making of the first one. Link, pilot of the Neb, simply went missing and no one in the world could locate him. Reeves, who played Neo, his father was facing terminal illness before the making of the Reloaded.

New-found Love #99

2005-11-14T20:58:00.000-05:00

99.Textual difference across OT and NT with contextual coherence.
This is another thing i love about the Bible. It's so amazing that God's Truth transcend time and space. One of pastor Man's sermon from last month has this illustrated. It was on the chinese side, and if i recall correctly he preached the same sermon for the english side too.

He compared how in the OT the Isarelites' priesthood as a mediator between God and his people and that the Temple (Tabernacle?) is the residing place of God | with NT's notion that each of our body is a temple of God, and that Christ as a manifestation of God who lives in us. Thus in this age each of us is a 'mobile church' so to speak, and we are free to preach, pray, or intercede anywhere we want as he pleases.

I've found another one through reading Numbers! But I don't have a Bible here, so i will write in later.

For old time's sake, i'm so close to completing the list of 100 things i love! But i found out last week from Prof. Koyzis that Prof. Strauss has his students make this list to sort out the priorities. So i practically fail, beacuse my list is currently in alaphbetical order...

This is a practical manifest of Aristotle's notion of virtue, where he spoke in Nicomachean Ethics that "the character of a man is marked by his priority of what he loves." So naturally, God should come first, for the Christians at least.

Love is ...

2005-10-31T18:06:00.000-05:00

Quoted from Renovation of the Heart: Putting on the Character of Christ by Dallas Willard and Randy Frazee.

"Love, we hear, is paient and kind. Then we mistakenly try to be loving by acting patiently and kindly - and quickly fail. We should always do the best we can in action, of course; but little progress is to be made in that arean until we advance in love itself - the genuine inner readiness and longing to secure the good of others."

Found posted on Mr. Cheung's journal.

'Where is God?' you say

2005-10-31T17:49:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the M51 Whirlpool Galaxy, from the Hubble Gallery

-Corresponded from the Mr. Dekker's journal.

Ancient Greek and Christianity on Virtues

2005-10-16T00:57:00.000-04:00

It seems that not a single generation of people can ever escape the influence of Ancient Greek philosophy. Every notion from the dichotomy of body and soul, and meaning of virtue and justice, to academic institutions. It is something naturally imprinted into the core of every culture.
Virtue, to Socrates, is of utmost importance. Through his speeches it is widely known that the unexamined life is one unworthy of living, and the first business of man is to take care of his soul. Socrates laid out the rules to question and define what is virtue, and every thinker has been pondering since for everafter.

Socrates proclaimed that he knows nothing of virtue, but only what it is not. Plato, his student, saw that justice means a man playing his role as a part of the society. Virtue is an unconceivable form in the higher realm beyond the material world. Aristotle sought that virtue is the practice of a mean between two extremes. For example, courage is the mean virtue between cowardice and rashness.

What i deem to be truly Virtue of Christian essence must borrow a shred of insight from all of the above three doctrines. Virtue is in itself indefinite, this is because of the sphere soverignty of God. The very definition of Virtue belongs to God alone, and it does not concern the things of the world, and is subject to His will. It can only be known through Divine revelation, both in the general application, such as commandments, and case-specific instructions, such as war of a nation or the calling of one's destiny. Therefore, neither side of extremes are trecherous, but rather possible to be virtuous under the discretion of Divine Justice. It was virtuous for Abraham to cease his knife over the neck of his son, and it was also virtuous for the Levites to strike down their fellow idolatrous brethren.

It has always seemed to me as though the Greek philosophers were on track to knowing the truth, if only they had knew about the Bibilical God in time. Incidentally, it was just 300 years prior to the coming of Christ. The philosophical teaching of Kong-Zi of China also flourished roughly 200 years prior to Christ's coming.

What in the name?! - take 2

2005-10-07T00:44:00.000-04:00

I had retitled this blog and named it "Journal of Relections on His lost Kingdom." The term 'lost' may denotes several meanings, and i cannot yet be certain on which i have settled.

I am enticed to say God has lost His Kingdom to the serpent. That is, however, not the case. God has allowed the serpent into the Garden of Eden, just as he had allowed satan to take control of the life of Job. Yet is it not lost? Has He not share His reign over the earth with the fallen one? Since the act of redeeming is an economical metaphor in nature, only that which is lost is in need of redemption.

His Kingdom is also lost in the sense of confusion. There is misguidance, vulnerability, and seemingly abandonment in the world today. Humanity continue to seek for aid from medicine for healing, from militia for peace, from psychology for comfort, from philosophy for truth, from science for explanations, from media for joy, from technology for security. That which is lost is in need of salvation.

Renaming this blog also means i have become more acquainted with His world. Even though the title has in fact become more generalized than before. I am fast approaching the end of my undergraduate program, and already i am turning away from my discipline of majors, psychology and philosophy.

What in the name?! - (take 1)

Christian Relativism?

2005-10-04T18:27:00.000-04:00

I am slowly more and more convinced that the Biblical God is and has all the answers to the world. Perhaps this is what Redeemer truly has to offer.
Upon leaving home for univeristy, my mind was clouded by infinite questions. Mainly definitive ones circling around controversial ideals. What is virtue, honor, love, justice. Too many of these had become clear to me all too quickly as i study my major disciplines of choice - psychology and philosophy - alongside with the Bible.
One of the major themes of apolomical [apologetics + polemics] defense against most of the other Asian philosophies is that there is an absolute standard. But is Christianity truly absolute? The True Divine, Biblical God, the unchangable deity acts to define the creational order and everything within it. Since God may freely shape this world according to His Word, it means that what is ideal depends on His command. Absoluteness of Christianity is relative to the Word of God, and the Word of God varies from case to case. The absolutness of Chrstianity being used as defense agains Asian philosophies is mainly existential in nature. On the other hand, I propose that there is a certain sense of Christian relativism in axiological and moral domain. Perahps this 'relativism' can easily translate into obedience.

Leadership Summit Day2 Recap

2005-08-13T23:02:00.000-04:00

Leadership Summit Day2 Recap

And i thought Day1 was amazing. This is in fact where LS shines. The program of Day2 is not only well organized, inspring, but also wholly consistent and exerts a force of inspiration and persuation in harmony. The day began with the confession of corporate world leader's experiences of successful careers, and concluded with the relation between the Grace of God and the condition of human life. I aniticipate there will be a calling tomorrow done by Bill Hybels.

Ken Blanchard & John Maxwell - Interviewed guest speakers (by Bill Hybels)

The three of them are very good friends. You may by now have noticed that we have slowly moved from individual sermons to open interviews. Therefore, it's difficult, once again, to draw out the inspiring high points of another man's life story. So I'm afraid it won't be as easy as point form summary anymore. The message regarding quality of leadership remains the same, but the method of presentation is already very different. It is not readily displayed to you. You must interpret the elements of influences that created such amazing stories, of which God is the author.

First of all, there was a very funny and contemporary interpretation of a particular chapter of the Bible. There are two characters, they were Paul and Andrew. Paul and Andrew were two of the audiences in the crowd when Jesus gave his teaching. Jesus commanded them to gather food, and they found five bread and two fishes. Jesus also told them to go on first to the boat, and challenged Paul to walk into and on the water. Note that Jesus was part of the play, but he was not acted out by anybody, i like that. Overall, it was a very funny play.
Bill then gave a very short breifing hinting the subject matter of the interviews at hand. Deciding to serve God is like jumping off a diving board into a pool of water. Once you jumped in, most likely you have not hit the spot which God had prepared for you. So you will try it out for a while, trying to match you spiritual gifts with the demands, and face some standard challenges. It may last months or as long as years. Then you move around again until you hit that very precise spot, where you will say from the depth of your heart [!] - I know this is what I am born for. This is my place in God's world, and this is what my life is meant to accomplish. However, in some other cases, this servant may dive in and hit right on the perfect spot. And God may say to you, 'here's another pool, come up out of there and jump in.'
[Rev. Stan Man had said to me, the more you refuse to go to such a way, the stronger God will push you to serve there]

Ken Blanchard has been a corporate business world leader. He holds a PhD in Education Leadership from Cornell University and is chief spiritual officer of The Ken Blanchard Companies. Early in his age, he was not a believer. He had not pay heed to Christinaity and it had never been a matter to him. Soonly after, his company rised very quickly, his career turned into pure success within an incredibly short amount of time. He was convinced it has not been mere coincident or fate. So he sought after God, knowing that He had done something with and about his life. Ken wanted to know why. He wanted to know why God had done this with him and gave him all of this. More importantly, he also wanted to know what does God want with him.
[wisdom begins with the fear of the Lord, Amen]
This is where and when Ken and Bill Hybels became good friends. Ken's life has been filled with blessings ever since. Bill confessed today that it has been his highest honor to be his most true firend and mentor.

- It is also a common mistake for leader to forget about learning. Once he had been 'chosen' and handed down all these responsibilities. Often he becomes so deeply plunged into the tasks he forgets to renew hiw knowledge and experiences with and about God.

John Maxwell "is known by many as America's authority on leadership. His one clear goal is to help people grow personally and develop as leaders." You will never see another man who is so whole-heartedly dedicated to up-lifting and encouraging the people around him to become more than what they are. From Bill's testimony, John would literally go around the whole quarters at a party, speaking to every individual in his way, greeting them out of good will and concern, and leave them fully pumped-up and inspired about life and their goals. In the past, John had faithfully served (i think) 18 years as a pastor in a local community church. Once he was invited to give a talk at a corporate business organization about training leaders. After the whole session someone raised a question about where he gets his ideas and inspirations from. John said after a pause, "you don't wanna know..." But they insist. So John repeatedly say "No really, you don't wanna know..." Until he finally proclaim "It was the Bible." The crowd is stunned. I imagine there were some dead silence in the air. He offered to stay behind and share his story of faith with them informally. 80% of the people stay behind, eventually 15% of those came to accept Christ. He told an account of several other similar incidents at various corners of the world. During the session, John had difficulty holding in all his tears at least twice. I was very moved.

- A leader must learn. To committ to learning, one must go out of his own comfort zone. You always get out of your comfort zone and it will always do you good, but be reminded not to go out of your gift zone.

Colleen Barrett - Interviewed Speaker

I can't write anything about this one. I slept through the WHOLE thing... Barrett is the president of Southwest Airline. As far as i know she has not yet accepted Christ. All i remember out of the corner of my eyes were two moderately funny commercial of Southwest and a video clip of Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents. The high point of her speech was a leader must always gives his service to his people. The leader put the people in front of himself. O yea, John made joke saying he's gonna write a book titled "Follow me, I'm right behind you"

Jack Groppel - Speaker 4

Groppel specializes in the science of human performance, helping professionals fully engage in high stress environments. He has had many clients ranging from FBI agents to NFL players. He is also a funny man. Groppel identified with the crowd the kind of stress we commonly run into, gave advices on how to neutralize them, and emphasized on management of your energy rather than your time.

- What he refers to as Full Engagement principles requires drawing on four distinct but connected dimensions of energy: phsical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The former of the four is foundational, while the latter is more significant.
- Groppel openly challenge the audience to open up and commit to make a change in his/her own life style for the greater good.
- the process starts with committing to ritual. He defines a ritual as a consciously awared act that is consistently prolonged.
- Aristotle was quoted. "We are what we continously do; Excellence, therefore, is not an act, but a habit."
- A ritual must evolve into a habit. Groppel defines a habit as an unawared act of maintenance and an effort balancing the stress and energy reserve of a person.

Henry Cloud - Speaker 5

Cloud is a Christian clinical psychologist who speaks internationally on biblical models of personality functioning and character growth. I have looked forward to this talk all day long. Unfortunately it was very short.

- Through a case study of one of his client as an example, Cloud identifies Grace as the sole element which is capable of healing and renewing of life of an individual.
- Anyone would become motivated as soon as he weighted out his current state of negative affairs with either 1) what he desires, 2) who he is, or 3) what he has to lose.

In his story was an elder of a church who has risk his health with /diabeties and obesity. To be an accountable friend, Cloud professes, one may challenge this elder to write a story, or paint a picture. To write a story about how a man will be remembered when he died of such unnecessarily fatal problems by the cause of uncontrollable and selective food intake. Or to paint a picture of a widow who must single-handedly raise the family with a full time job, maintaing house finances and spiritual nurture of two young daughters. Or write a story about a little girl growing up without the love a father, who should have and could have been guided her flawlessly to live the most honorable and faithful life for God, but she would instead look for the missing fatherly love from the boys she meet outside the home, and God knows of what breed they could be. This is the kind of Grace a friend may offer to his fellow

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

As you can see, the most colorful details of the LC events must be edited out. So with Bill Hybels' final comment challenging the auidence to reconsider and open up one's own heart about the Grace of God and the salvation he has to offer, this concludes Day2 of Leadership Summit.

After the whole day of LS, i got dropped off at church. I cleaned up the final mess left behind by VBS. Just all the wallpapers and stuff. Then the Friday Night group on the chinese side had a BBQ - Hong Kong style~. Gary and Anika joined us for a while. When it all finished i got home at 1...

NOTE: I made two small but significant edits in the Day1 recap.

Leadership Summit Day1 recap

2005-08-12T01:40:00.000-04:00

Leadership Summit Day1 Recap

Since i missed JMC, i signed myself up for Leadship Summit. JMC is probably more suitable for me. It's more about having a passion and conviction about the gospel and how we are related to our neighbourhood. I know Des and Gary went, and from what i heard it was a good experience for them. Leadership Summit, on the other hand, has a focus on the necessary committment, life style, and qualities that are crucial to the role of being good leader serving the people of your congregation, whether you volunteer to do so in a youth group or hold a paid position.

I plan to write a more proper review after the whole event has come to past. For now, i intend to jot some quick notes out of my head without too much introduction.

Bill Hybels - Speaker 1

- The biggest and most common mistake is to believe that the people exist and are there for the leader.
- A leader must be able to grasp a vision, perhaps an ideal. Like an ultimate goal envisioned, achieving it means wholly renewal of the spirit and mind of the people, i believe, and the formational structure of a church.
- A leader must suffer. A strong and good leader will and should suffer the most. He suffers from criticism, misunderstanding, heart-breaking experiences, turmoil, stress, and the list goes on.
- Because God suffers in the first place. He suffers the most and greatest pain, and seeks for people who are sensitive to the same threat or evil just as He is. He suffers to witness, to be blasphemed, to be hurt. Be it poverty or injustice, He suffers the greatest amount of pain.
- That's why each of us must seek out our own _Holy discontent_ in regards to our own society of this mordern age. It serves as a driving force, a living fire within us that pushes us forward inspite of discouragement and pain. The Holy Discontent of Moses was the oppression of the Israelites, slavery. And they were God's people. Moses suffered with God, and he was chosen.
- What is your Holy discontent today, about the world, about the people, about the culture unto which we are born.

Rick Warren - Speaker 2

No need for introduction here. I'm ashame to say i haven't read his book. What struck me though, was that he's just a reguarl pastor at a regular church. He grew up a farmer boy, likes to live a simple life. There is nothing new in his book, everything in this best-selling 200 million copy sold is just a mere re-run. According to himself, Warren currently dislikes this whole celebrity status thing, he gets phone calls from hollywood havard and what not, and is quite annoyed by them.

The 5 greatest problems of our world today according to Warren are:
- spiritual emptiness
- egocentric leaders
- poverty
- disease
- illiteracy
- With your Holy discontent clearly identified, there follows two important questions that must be related to it.
1) What is in your heart (regarding the circumstances, what do you want for it)
2) What is in your hands ...
- Two profound questions which God must and will always ask you are
1) What have you done with my son Jesus Christ, since He was sent to you by {Me}
2) What have you done with all that I have given you. (what isn't given by you O Lord...my sould my spirit my mind my intellect my skills my feelings my body my friends my burden my responsibilities my assests my chances my experience my whole my all my life)
- We closely approach the second reformation in the timeline of history of mankind. Are you willing to be part of the next reformation? The last reformation was about creed and belief. This one shall be about deed and behavior.
- To be leader within a congreation, you must put down the 'self', the 'income', and the 'influence' of your own. Just as Moses did when he laid down the staff by the burning bush. The staff was Moses' identity as a shepherd, his way of making a living, and ... and forgot this one... hmm... how did it go?
> but i know for certain God changes the people, i am but an instrument, the flute does not influence my audience, the wind which comes through makes music to the ears, that's where the influence is. i will come back to this one

Mosa Sono - Speaker 3

The pastor who tackled endless trials and discouragement to come through and establish the ever-blessed multi-cultural church with up to 8,000 regular attendants in Africa.

- A leader must be bold, strategic, informed, and one other quality he mentioned also, but i forgot. haha
- To see miracles, you must start with what you have. Never wait until a comfortable moment. (well by then it doesn't become a miracle any more does it)
- There is no waiting for a better day.

Eleanor Josaitis - Interviewed guest speaker

A fearless woman leader who witnessed the event of the 1967 Detroit riots, which inspired her to co-found the Focus: Hope organization. Focus: Hope Pledging to use "intelligent and practical action to overcome racism, poverty, and justice." The details were rather vague to me, but her life story was most compelling and inspiring... The current social circumstances, as you can see, was her Holy discontent.
I should stop here, it's difficult to write about another person's life. As i understand it, Focus: Hope is non-profit org. All i remember was, her five children didn't want to be involved and left her, her brother asked her not to use her maiden name because he is ashamed to be related to her.(speaking of irony). and received piles and piles of letters of utter hatred and criticism because of the 'racial diversity' which she supports.

-The leader always pays the price, suffered the most, sacrificed the most....

Curtis Sliwa - Interviewed guest speaker

He looks like Joey form Friends, but half way through i thought i was sitting in a talk show with Adam Sandler. This man is sooooooooo funny.... Anyways, please do read about him on the link. He is the founder of Guradian Angels in NYC. I'll write about him tomorrow.

------------------
Overall it's a good experience in any case. But i still think JMC was more appropriate for me. By the courtesy of Mr. David Tong, I am also reading The Living Reminder by Henri Nouwen. It's a book addressing the challenges and obstacles in ministry and the solutions to it. Why am i being thrown at with all these leadership and ministry materials all of a sudden at once. To be honest I am half afraid

Anyways back to day1 of LS. I woke up with this tremendous headache like my skull got split in 2. Being a naturalist, i hate taking pills. So i just went on with it but i brought tylenol with me to LC just in case. After Warren's session it feels like my brain is yanked out of palce so i had to pop the pill, after which i had lunch w/ the rest of our NCAC attendants. Then came the brutal struggle, i got so sleepy after the filling lunch and the pill i had such a hard time staying up during the sessions. But they were good sessions that were inspring. Other than myself, Rev. Man, Joanna, Eric Poon, and Alice Tse of NCAC were present at LC. The event was super great, and the worship was super super great, but myself, i was uber down, felt like dying in that back seat and dim light, o man...

so i should get some rest now, stay tunned.

Understanding myself

2005-08-06T03:53:00.000-04:00

2 kinds of activities that will ALWAYS make me VERY hungry within 30min.

Singing
and
Studying philosophy/psychology

even when it is right after dinner. I don't know why this happens
It's like 4AM right now, i've been working so hard and i'm just mad hungry right about now...

Notable quote

2005-08-04T23:45:00.000-04:00

Upon fumbling across the net for inspirations, i found a sharply disturbing quote on the blog of Barbara Nicolos.

"Theaters are the new Church of the Masses—where people sit huddled in the dark listening to people in the light tell them what it is to be human." —1930’s theater critic

I find it disturbing because i cannot fully deny this opinion with my utmost conscience. Given this quote to be spoken way over 70 years ago, it is all the more true in this modern age with the aid of advancing media and technology.

I, too, have from time to time fallen prey to the captivating silver screen hoping to enjoy a splendid presentation of remarkble portraits of ideals and characters. Man On Fire, Daens, and movies alike come to mind.

Perhaps it makes a good habit to have a Bible by your side while watching a movie. It would at least remind me of God's soverignty and providence over mankind.

SCOOOOORE!!!

2005-08-01T03:11:00.000-04:00

i took the 'which religion is right for you' quiz which i found on Mr. Dekker's journal. And here's the result

You scored as Christianity. Your views are most similar to those of Christianity. Do more research on Christianity and possibly consider being baptized and accepting Jesus, if you aren't already Christian.

Christianity is the second of the Abrahamic faiths; it follows Judaism and is followed by Islam. It differs in its belief of Jesus, as not a prophet nor historical figure, but as God in human form. The Holy Trinity is the concept that God takes three forms: the Father, the Son (Jesus), and the Holy Ghost (sometimes called Holy Spirit). Jesus taught the idea of instead of seeking revenge, one should love his or her neighbors and enemies. Christians believe that Jesus died on the cross to save humankind and forgive people's sins.

Christianity

100%

Judaism

71%

Buddhism

58%

Islam

33%

Hinduism

29%

Paganism

25%

agnosticism

Satanism

atheism

Which religion is the right one for you? (new version)
created with QuizFarm.com

Okay, I'm happy with the 100% Christianity, but 4% satanism?! what?!
Question47 is quite tricky...

A Strange Man

2005-07-22T22:36:00.000-04:00

By the encouragement of Tony, I am newly inspired to blog again.
I would like to introduce to him a strange man by the name of Ambrose Pierce. A writer of strange ideas and delusional logic. I have noticed him because much of his writings had cunningingly stir up a witty challenge to my faith in the creational order. For example, he wrote that:

"All are lunatics, but he who can analyze
his delusion is called a philosopher."

Fortunately, perhaps, he was not the most prominent or influential writer of his time. I regret to have bought his book The Devil's Dictionary, which was first published in 1906 under the title The Cynic's Word Book. In this book you may find defintions of words such as:

Falsehood, n. A truth to which the facts are loosely adjusted to an imperfect conformity.

Fanatic, n. One who overestimates the importance of convictions and undervalues the confort of an existence free from the impact of addled eggs and dead cats upon the human periphery.

Destiny, n. A tyrant's authority for crime and a fool's excuse for failure.

This book has been amusing to flip through for but a short while. It was not even worth my money, not to mention my time.

I would very much like to hear some comments on this strange man.

Monthly Inspirations

2005-06-08T10:38:00.000-04:00

Marching Orders.

The Duke of Wellington was once asked, "Is it any use to preach the Gospel to the Hindu?" The Duke said, "What are you marching orders?" "Oh!" was the reply, "our marching orders undoubtedly are to 'preach the gospel to every creature.' " "Very well," was the withering answer, "You must obey the command. You have nothing to do with results."
-T. Lloyd Williams.

Thank God for gravity!

2005-05-05T14:02:00.000-04:00

I would like to take this day to thank God for the creation of Gravity, for without it, there is...

no tomahawk or windmill dunk in basketball, or no basketball at all,
no corner kick goal or soccer,
no backflips in kung fu :P ...
no skate/snowboard tricks, etc.
nothing special in flying,
nothing wonderful in watching the sky, morning or night,
no way to feel curious about the moon,

and... probably no clowns in the world too, because they have nothing to juggle with, and that's bad... to some people...

Painful April

2005-04-12T19:19:00.000-04:00

The month of April means boredom, stress, and pressure. My condolences go out to all my friends who are students and teachers.
Personally, to me, it means no basketball, no leisure reading, no day-dreaming. It also means pulling the plug that connects me to the world (and all the cool stuff on the net) I'm going to take the next few weeks off of blogging. So, if you're reading this, thanks for visiting~, and come back in May.

By the way, i had a dream maybe few days ago and in the dream i bought this car and was driving it really happy :P

/*note for coming blogs: confessions on Holy Judgement psychology and evil */

on Love and Hate

2005-04-02T01:23:00.000-05:00

We are once again back to this grand topic. Love, and Hate. I believe both of these two elements play a major role in our lives, rather we recognize them to do so or not. I excerpt from Philosophical Poetry the following:

What [Love and Hate] have in common is an obsessive caring about someone (or something, I suppose). Not a caring for, mind you, but a caring about. Caring for someone or something implies that you try to help them in whatever way you can, make things easier for them. Caring about someone or something means simply paying attention to what happens to them, independent of what you do with that attention.

This short essay on Love and Hate is quite worth the while to read through... Andrew had even utilize a quote from Revelations 3:15-16.

The Way

2005-04-02T00:39:00.000-05:00

A poem found on Badri Pastimes.

Art , a way of seeing
Song , a way of saying
Dance, a way of moving

Failure, a way of learning
Success , a way of planning
Life, a way of experimenting

Love, a way of longing
God, a way of forgiving
Others, a way of satisfying

Family, a way of commiting
Foes, a way of dealing
Friends, a way of knowing

Self, alone the divine being

I particularly like the first stanza. It gets more provoking as it goes further down. And though I don't think i can agree to every single one of them. I'm not sure if the spaced comma's are typo.

Looking for...

2005-04-02T00:35:00.000-05:00

Philosophy blogs! Do you know blogs of philosophical/psychological nature? If you do, please suggest some to me.

Perhaps because I started my blog within the political/Christian community of my school, I seem to be directed in circles by the links of every blogs i've been to. And the profile search in the blog is just so nutty...

Entertaining Unawares

2005-04-01T13:19:00.000-05:00

Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

If you have the time for a very short short story, Mr. Dekker have written an intriguing read for you.

on Dreams

2005-03-29T09:35:00.000-05:00

I would really appreciate some feedback on this dream that I had a long time ago. It may be a little long, please bear with it.

I was with my friend, walking down a grand hallway built with red bricks and chandaliers hang high above. It's not very wide, and the windows are very high up far beyond reach. We were going for shopping and talking. Suddenly a man approached us.
He looked like english with a dark tan, his hair was black, straight and long, pressed down to his scalp. He had spectacles and a neat mustache. His eyes look hypnotized. He was tall, about 7 ft., but very lean.
When he approached us he walked sternly straight, and looked straight forward at his eye level. He spoke to us in a very normal voice despite the very odd apparence. I forget what he said, but he way trying to robbed us. At the time, I had no money on me, but my friend does, he brought out some big bucks because there was something cool in mind he wanted to buy.
I loudly declare, "Yo I got no money sorry, I guess you robbed the wrong guy today." He keeps pushing but i insist "Honest man, not a dime, you can't squeeze anything outta me."
The whole time he was speaking he remained the same posture, even when he approached us closer. We hit our back on the walls and he walked right up to us. His chest was right in front of my face, but he keeps looking into the void above my head. He grabbed my left shoulder with his left hand and spun me around forcefully. I shouted one last time "Yo! No money here, w'cha doing!".
He suddenly thrusted a stilettos (a very thin dagger or knife, usually wide and not too long) from his right hand into my lower back in the waist area. I grunted looking at my friend, and he was too scared to speak or move at all. I pressed my face into the wall and gripped with my fingers on the red bricks as i held the pain in. He held the knife with a very frim grip and did not move. Like a robot after shut-down. I was angry and were not about to give up the fight, in my mind i was thinking of a way to retaliate. He then yanked the whle knife upward vertically. Though the knife was thin, it didn't cut through me as i expcted it to, but it was tearing up my muscles without slicing through it. He was tall, so pulling the knife up was easy for him. I was on tip toe because the knife was carrying my weight upward. At this, it was tremendously painful, and I shouted really lound.

In the dream I shouted, but when i woke up from this my eyes shot wide awake in an instant. I was lying face down on my bed, looking to my right, which was opposite to the dierction which i looked in the dream at my friend. I tried to sit up, but my lower back was _hurting_!! I reached to check my waist and of course i wasn't bleeding. But it continued to hurt for several minutes, so I laid still for maybe five minutes.

Feels like a DejaVu from The Matrix, where Neo asks Morpheus "I thought it's not real." To which he replies "It's not, your mind makes it real."

Has anyone out there ever had or heard of such experiences? I seldom have dreams, hardly ever, and it was the one and only time that the pain of a dream carried into my body.

The devil's trick?

2005-03-29T09:06:00.000-05:00

Are we seeing a pattern of the devil's trickery in our social culture? All of a sudden we are seeing some sensitive issues regarding human rights to spring forth in the political forefront. There is at least the same-sex marriage and the Terri Schaivo case. Falsely done resolutions to either of these cases will lead to a major shift to the cultural development of our societies. Because in each of these they carry implications of certain moralistic values (or lack thereof).

I imagine the portrayal of this moment of political high times would fit perfectly into CS Lewis' fictional Screwtape Letters. In the fictional novel, we see devils cunningly set up irrelevant deceptions and interrupting events to achieve their higher goal towards corrupting the human souls. I feel that these arisen cultural issues are fine examples of what Lewis speak of.

I believe venturing into understanding the devil's trickery is a dangerous business. Lewis' book is merely fictional, but i find his description of the devil resembles quite well to the one shown to us through Genesis.

Are humans currently the subject of war which the fallen angels have waged against our God? In this context, what is our role then, in relation to and being in between God, His Angels, and the fallens. In the original creational norm, we are meant to 1) cultivate God's Kingdom, 2) give praises to His Glory. In the world affected by sin then, is all that we do simply sum up to 1) resisting temptations and 2) exercising our freedom correctly ?

I do not propose Christian fatalism, but the devils and the Angels are perhaps more influential to us than we realize them to be.

SermonAudio.com

2005-03-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

A link found on Mr. Kearn's blog. It is a database of countless sermons, you may search through by Bible verse, topic, speaker, or church and so forth. It seems a huge site with some complicated navigations, I should look over it another time.

Will you have a returning journey?

2005-03-22T21:31:00.000-05:00

The cover editorial of the current Virtue Magazine is one very inspring. Kroger utilizes Tolkien's story of the War of the Ring to illustrate our once peaceful Eden, our fallen world, and the 'returning journey'. I have excerpted the following.

We are all affected by change. Change is something that is happening all around us. Some for the better, much not.
There is one Sanctuary that does not change, that stays the same throughout all. Though He does not change, the world does. Yet Right and Wrong are the same, yesterday, today and tomorrow. What changes is the world’s perception of what is Right and what is Wrong. And it is that perception that needs to change for the better.
If we want there to be a return journey, we need to go and help that change. Ensure it’s for the better. Do what we can to change things ourselves. There are many ways we can do it, we just need to find them and make use of them. And if we don’t make use of them… “There won’t be a return journey, Sam.”

/Will you have a returning journey? Of course you do, but where to and how?

The Cross of the Millennium

2005-03-22T19:05:00.000-05:00

By Frederick Hart
Found posted on Evangelical Outpost.

Gospel through Lego

2005-03-16T20:10:00.000-05:00

Tired of reading through the Bible without pictures? Maybe the brick testament can help you out. It is a collection of the stories of the Bible retold in Lego forms. Very delightful~ This was found on John Dekker's journal.

And for the sake of your soul! Listen to John(the Baptist, not Dekker)!

Timelessness

2005-03-13T23:51:00.000-05:00

When I was looking at my bookshelves, I realized how many great books I have already brought under safe-keeping and yet to have start on. I also realized how much I was confined by the pressure of time, the notion of semesters and school years. The reason why I find holiday so enjoyable is because of the timelessness that I feel without the pressure of committing my time to something else more important and urgent, such like my education. During such free times I read carefreely relaxed, and I'm well aware that I absorb the materials far greater with ease. Everything just seems more enjoyable. There's so much to read for a life time, or more...

I need a holiday right about now...

Marriage matters to Canadian mosaic

2005-03-11T16:33:00.000-05:00

That is the title of the article written by Rev. Phil Reinders, which is found in The Calgary Herald. The article also addresses the general public.

To help Canada's dilemma on redefining marriage, Reinders quote from the Bible: "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial."

While the redefining of marriage can be seen as unlawful to the only Christians, Canadian citizens find themselves free to adjust traiditions which are bound to naturally evolve by historical means. it seems that this is the factor separating the Canadian Christians and the general public and thus causing such a deadlock. We have two groups of individuals living by two very distinct living principles. One being autonomous and the other being theonomous. Therefore the matters cannot be simply settled by outright dogmatic arguments.

Rev. Reinders was able to the see the over-laped region between the boundaries of these two sets of principles. This crossed region is a result of the society being subject to the general principles of the creational order established by God. He writes:

The wisdom in these words is the understanding that the exercise of freedom is not the only consideration: it is the starting line. We are then free to think and explore and imagine, free to reflect and be responsible, free to consider what is good and beneficial, better and best. The exercise of freedom is the beginning, then, of an act of discernment.

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that it is legally possible and permissible to redefine marriage in order to accommodate same-sex partnerships.
...
shouldn't the question now become, "Is the redefinition of marriage beneficial to Canadian society?" Isn't now the time to sift and weigh what is best and beneficial for building a good Canadian society?

I believe the above comments have found the way to rightly reconcile the dilemma with the general public of the Canadian society within the Christian context.

In warranting the rights of marriage to homosexuals, liberals have offended the traditional value of marriage to which the Christians have high regards. Perhaps the most disagreeable point in the redefinition of marriage is not in the act of redefining the sacred ceremonial practice itself. Despite their sexual orientation, the homosexuals have rigorously demand for their individual rights to constitute marriage on their own. The tremendous effort which they have put forth is astounding. This shows all the more their desire for something rightfully honorable.

If only I live in the States

2005-03-10T18:10:00.000-05:00

Or that I would travel through Missouri... I would definitely go flat out to buy this car...
edit:well what do you know, another show Supra for sale.

Animal Oddities | Take 2

2005-03-03T18:44:00.000-05:00

Speaking of Exploding whales last week or so... I guess this is where the pieces went. I wonder if you have to serve it cold, hmm..

Man!! There are SOOO many flavours to choose from, but garlic and tomato? Maybe I'll have a try at the oysters, haha.

Precision in ethics

2005-03-02T12:58:00.000-05:00

In the earlier post i mentioned the danger of dogmatic approach in attaining truth and values. Mr. Kearns has a recent post that is somewhat relevant to this. After all, one may realize in believing in the right things for the wrong reason.

Are apologetics still necessary?

2005-03-02T12:08:00.000-05:00

I found this via revisiting the 'Jesus the Logician' project on my side-bar. Every Thought Captive has this to say regarding apologetics. Here is a small excerpt.

They [as post-modernists] will argue that apologetics are unnecessary for one of two, or both of the following reasons. First, the culture has strayed so far from Modernism that people no longer respond to arguments, premises and conclusions. If you tried to “reason” with a pomo, you would not get anywhere. The second reason is that, again given postmodern assumptions, the process of arguing toward a notion of objective, absolute truth is a waste of time. There either is no transcultural truth, or we simply can’t know whether there is.

This, as i believe, is definitely not the case. Though i may admit that the nature of the way apologetics function had shifted somewhat dramatically since some centuries ago. I must say that it has its place of use and purposes among some non-believers. I propose to briefly discuss two issues at hand; the value of truth and how it comes about to post-modernists (hereafter pomo), and the place of apologetics in our pomo society.

I would argue the functions of apologetics had shifted, as in losing its original functional means, largely because of our libertarian outlook, by which we no longer require reason or rationale to support our instincts or desires. In turn, the pomo societal outlook could careless regarding the philosophical, or rational grounds of the Biblical God or the Gospel. We are moving into an age in which truth is a matter of subjective opinions, for the sake of humanistic freedom, without necessary rational truth or evidence. I'm inclined to be pursuaded that many young Christians fall prey to this. I don't have the materials here, but if i recall correctly, I think it was Jung saying "People demand the freedom of speech to make up for the freedom of thought which they avoid." This dogmatic approach to truth is relatively unhealthy. Because of this, apologetics can no longer make the impact that its intended to on the individuals.

A cure to this is proposed by the second part of Mr.Steiger's post, in which he suggests that

3.Christ said things like, “they will know you by your love…”
4.Therefore, trying to talk about truth is useless and what we should really be emphasizing is a person’s experience among the people of God.

But apologetics do continue to function regardless of the people's resistance. And here I want to point out that in this age, the apologetics no longer function adequately to defend atheistic criticism, but rather affirm the necessary foundation of faith in those who are searching for ratinoal truth in the Gospel. Just last year there was a session of apologetics in the youth group of Hamilton Chinese Alliance Church, and this is exactly how apologetics served such purpose.

Maiyahi~

2005-02-28T15:29:00.000-05:00

For a change of topic, I would like to introduce a joyous dancing cat to my fellow visitors. This is not exactly mindless entertainment. You are required to match your english vocabulary with the strangest imaginations of story telling along with the pictorial cues.

Maiyahi~

Still don't understand after watching it? This may help you out a bit. But that's not what they're saying, no.

My Ear Feels~

This is currently spreading rampantly on the net. If there is feedback i should bring some more in. It's just so funny.

Christian Nazi on campus?!

2005-02-28T15:19:00.000-05:00

As educational, inspiring, enjoyable, and intellectually stimulating as my Social Philosophy class can be, it's actually a very rough one to get through. Why? I will just tell a small part of a story i encountered few minutes ago.

A student throw down a green ringed-binder on the desk.
Another student sitting in the desk asked aloud, "This whole thing?!"
The student nodded on his way to the door hearing,
"man... Strauss is a Nazi.."

How can I not laugh out loud.

Right brain or left?

2005-02-28T12:47:00.000-05:00

Most people are gifted on only side of the brain hemisphere. I always wished i could being one of those people who are intellectual on both the left and right hemisphere of the brain, like Sir Isaac Newton himself. I always thought myself to be right-brain dominent, mainly because of my artistic appreciation, interest in psychology in abstract terms, and strange imaginations. Also, I've been failing math since I was in grade3 of elementary schools back in Hong Kong. My math test scores had always been either 48, 49, 51, or 53 out of 100 until i reached university. I gotta be a right-brainer!
Recently, two good friends of mine paid a visit to my site and comment that i may have "developed left brain". It never occurred to me that philosophy is really a left-brain thing.

Questions and Answers

2005-02-26T00:47:00.000-05:00

Ever since I was converted faithfully to follow Christ. I have had lesser and lesser puzzling questions to toy with. Understanding what the world is, what it meant to be, what it ought to be had all seem so clear all of a sudden. I'm sure this is very natural progress. What had surprised me even more is that as time has pass by, this 'understanding' has occur to me even more frequently at a deeper level. The world and _everything_ in it has become lesser mysterious and I'm convinced of its nature.

My once enjoyable hobby of pondering and 'philosophizing' (as some laymen insist to term it so) upon the puzzling questions of life and order has become lesser challenging. Everything seem to balance when I throw the notion of Creation, Fall, and Redemption into the equation.

All that there is left to ask is 'how'. The modal aspect of things as Dooyehweerd put it. For that i tend to turn to either Genesis 1-2 or the teaching of Christ for answers. As for the issues of Adiaphora, things which had not been taught of or mentioned in the Bible, that's the tricky part of living.

[snap! i lost train of thought... stupid MSN...]
my point is [zzz...zzz...]
[zzz...]

Animal oddities

2005-02-25T23:37:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine told me about an old dish they used to serve in some rural places in China. It's called 'dragon-tiger-phoenix' in a hot pot. Can anyone guess what the ingredients are? A hint is that one of them is something you eat quite often, the others are probably not. Feel free to make some guesses, i'll post the answer to it some while later.

A sad yet true story. It was on the news few years back. During winter a cat hid under the hood of a car and made it his home. The owner didn't know and drove away. The car overheated on the way, the cat got cooked during the trip and the driver died in the explosion... So please keep an eye on the thermo guage from time to time.

Have you heard of the exploding whales? There had been two cases. An external explosion in Florence back in the 70's, there's a video included, and an internal explosion in Taipei, Taiwan. Eeeewwww... but it's kinda funny, but ewww...

On public media and evil

2005-02-20T01:37:00.000-05:00

I've been encoutering more and more unethical themes in almost every aspect of our community. From advertisemets to community events in all types of media. Most of these play by the theme of either sexual appeal or violence. I went to the autoshow held in the Toronto Convention Centre today. I regret subscribing to those car-tuning magazines. Or should i say, i wish those car mags are all about just cars and nothing else.

On a side note, I fell in love with a custom Silvia with the driver's seat on the right side, and the license plate - 'ITS OVER'. Muwhaha! Too bad i forgot to take a picture of it.

Authentic Christian life ?

2005-02-13T01:25:00.000-05:00

A post I found on this fellow blogger by the name of Shimmer is very intriguing. Comments will come later.. Mr. John Dekker has a great say in his reponse in which he quoted from St. Francis. But can the Gospel really be preached without words? How is the message of the life and death of Christ and his personal relationship to our identity as sinners be told in actions?

On education

2005-02-13T00:57:00.000-05:00

Anyone has the capacity to be educated. It merely means being acquainted with certain areas of knowledge and applying it. If it doesn't come by time, devotion and experience offers an education of its own.

Some people suggest that a college offer more applicable life skill to survie in the working world than a university. To ponder on that, I find some truth in it. To be more specific, a college teaches you some skills to earn a living. A university equips you to become the pioneer of the society, to contribute to things and places unexplored. Take your pick.

Only those who deem knowledge and wisdom important enough will leap over one obstacle after another to become well educated.

"Some men are born great, some achieve greatness,
others get it as a graduation present."
-Robin Williams

On Love and Evil

2005-02-13T00:23:00.000-05:00

A follow-up on my previous post titled We are, what we love, what we are. It's all plainly inspired by the quote from Shakespeare which is included in that post.

It is easy to love the good, but it is even easier to fall in love with evil. Likewise, we seldom hate the good, but neither do we have the greatest disgust against evil.

I think we by large are desensitized of evil by the media or what not. You must have the feeling that sometimes everyone would gloss over the subject or make a little joke about it before passing by the awkward considerations.
Love is a virtue with neutral bearing/orientation. That's simple enough to undertasnd. Yet I'm afraid Shakespeare is right in that the sins we act holds the nature of evil in which we are fond of. We manifest what we love, both the good and the bad of each of us.

According to the Greek tradition, reaon is king. To go by logic, we must becareful of what or who we fall in love with. Knowing all the objects of our affection and the nature of them which captivates us would be the first grand step to becoming virtuous. And I believe the key to that would be self-humility. To admit to oneself that one has been fond of such evil.

Reason can draw a man into virtues, but can reason draw a man out of evil? I am a little skeptical on this. It could work, if you believe that evil is only and plainly the absence of good. I've read some time ago that "you cannot reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into". The next question is, do we have reasons for all that we do? Or do we forge suitable reasons for our desires?

As for my part, i say that no one ever chooses to do evil, but evil will always choose to take hold of you. If one should find himself to commit to evil intentions or something unethical, he is already drowned in that falsely directed love, or perhaps otherwise known as temptation. However, i find that the notion of temptation leaves little room for man's responsibilities to his quest and determination for virtues. Such was the case in Eden.

Count to 100 loves

2005-02-01T23:43:00.000-05:00

Yes... I'm still here despite the late hours of bright stars against the pitch black sky... Let's give a jump-start on this list of 100 loves. Hyperlinks and Alphabetical arrangement will come later after exactly one hundred lightning bolts have cleanly struck over my cerebral.

22.Aestheic form of archery and swordsmanship of various styles. (violence voided)
19.Alan & Sally. My best friends~
36.Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll.
57.Apple, both the taste of it and it's symbolic significance.
27.Aquinas, the works of.
52.Attending to concerts, operas, etc.
26.Augustine, the works of.
94.Banana, its flavor in many things.
28.Basketball. both streetball and authentic.
82.Basketball apparell, AND1, ATR, NBA, Adidas, Jordans.
96.the Beatitudes.
74.Beethoven's music, generally piano solo/concerto.
10.Beauty, Platonic, appreciating and enjoying elements of various facets of life.
53.Being inspired.
81.Biographical life stories
11.Books! The bigger the older the better. Ill-treated books kept for long years actually look beautiful to me.
51.Buying books, in a collective way also.
95.the Cactuar!, Cactuar!, Cactuar!!, Cactuar!!, Cactuar!!!.
72.Carefree conversations.
5.Capsule toys, Gundam.
21.Children. The innosence and purity of them.
77.Chilling fresh air.
64.Classical Greek mythologies.
80.my Collection of old cartoon/comic books from my younger years.
4.Committment, those demanding personal sacrifices, taking part in.
8.to Compose and be creative.
60.Dante Alighieri
70.Divina Comedia (trans. John Ciardi).
1.Divine, the Bibilical God.
93.Driving.
91.Eating, always enjoying a good meal.
6.Education, it only occured to me recently.
13.Elegance, a style of things, from writing to technical designs to a dress.
40.the Feeling after finishing a great deal of work.
79.Final Fantasy VII, in many aspects.
33.Fruits of the Spirit.
62.Games developed by Kenta Cho.
97.Genesis 1-3.
23.Goldberg Variations. Played by Glen Gould, 1982 recording.
88.Gustav Dore, particularly engravings for Divine Comedy.
67.Hannibal Lecter, the mysteries of him presented by Thomas Harris.
65.Hayao Miyazaki's creations.
69.Hobby Japan magazines.
44.Honest criticism.
54.Honor, to inspire and service of others.
16.Humor and ridiculously random laughing with friends.
58.Humorous anime/manga (Japanese cartoons etc.)
30.Imagination.
49.Intellectual discussions.
2.Inspirations, from things that don't make sense, then they become applicable to things that do.
61.Sir Isaac Newton.
98.Japanese raw fish~ yum~ sashimi~
78.J.R.R.Tolkien's amazing creativity.
75.J.S. Bach, the music of.
41.to Learn about things I don't know about.
7.to Love, the capacity to do so.
55.Making strange sketches.
29.to Meet new people.
63.Metaphorical themes within literature.
17.my Mother, Sylvia.
15.Music. Praise God for the creation of this creational dimension! It's more than just sounds and emotions!
18.New Covenant Alliance Church. My home church.
50.Notion of wisdom.
47.Peaceful sleeping...
84.People who are humrous, laughable, and playful.
73.People who read the Great Books with respect and attention.
35.Philosophy.
37.Playacting to be drunk with friends.
46.to Play the cello.
9.to Ponder and reflect on and try to make sense of the world as a creational order directed by God.
85.Praises giving to my personal God.
59.Pslams 23:1
90.Questions to which i have no answer.
31.Quotes. Short ones that say a lot.
42.to Read from other bloggers.
43.Reading to learn, to behold, and to appreciate humbly.
48.Reading/writing poetry.
86.Reading the book of Revelations in awe and fear and amazment.
66.Rembrandt, the art of.
76.Role-Playing Games developed by Japan, they usually have very moving stories.
38.Run really really fast in an open field.
83.Style. (let's leave it undefined)
87.Sermons by Rev. Stan Man of NCAC.
91.hot Shower during stressful hours.
68.Simple ideas that explain complicated matters.
14.to Sing.
71.South/Mid-Eastern food, I don't know why..
25.Socrates. (despite he being *ahem ugly in appearence)
45.the Sounds of a cello, preferably that with a rich and deeper tone.
99.Textual difference across OT and NT with contextual coherence.
34.Theology
39.Try to run or walk as far as I can in an open field with my eyes closed.
56.Virtues, Cardinal.
3.Virutes, Theological, or to be virtuous.
92.Visiting different parts of the world.
20.Vocational Bible School @ NCAC. Every joyous summer.
89.William Blake, the works of.
32.Wondering about the conditions of life in the lost Eden.

(take 3 almost there)
...That's it I'm too tired...

We are, what we love, what we are.

2005-02-01T22:56:00.000-05:00

Another post inspired by Prof. Strauss along with Augustine of Hippo. I have a strong conviction in the power of love. In this I do not underline it's ability in achieving great miracles between people on relational terms, but I emphasize it's grand capacity and ability shape and mold all things or beings that belong to higher order within creation. The definition of love here must transcent beyond the sense of 'social contract'. Perhaps I'm referring to a more platonic form. The admiring of certain Platonic forms or nature of things, like the elements involved in the act of living our lives.

To coin a quote from Augustine: "when there is a question as to whether a man is good, one does not ask what he believes, or what he hopes, but what he loves." Each of us is essentially a manifestation of what we love. From our choice of outer appearence to the scribble of sketches we make. Every form or act seems to me wired to our psyche, like an expression confessing and proclaiming "Look! This here is what I love, so be it as I please it to be!" We cannot be otherwise than what we love to be.
Man of different experiences love different things. Perhaps this is a result of our exercise of personal freedom to choose what we love, by which each of us beomces unique. This accounts for what we love, what we become.

Love is in general conceived as a good thing, but I do not say so in this regard for two reasons. For one, distorted or excessive love easily becomes idolatry. Even though idolatry is often relative to one's love for the Divine. i.e. so long as you love God more than you love this other thing, can you still be accused of idolatry?
For the second reason, I'm convinced that one can be in love with the wrong or unethical things. Violence is a good example. People demand action-packed films and video-games. There can be plenty of examples, for the love of crude humor done within the domain of verbal profanity or insult, of sexual portrayl, of malice, of hearing and tellling of gossips, of fraud, of gain, of superiority in form of domination over others. It becomes applicable and apparent, and then it becomes a manifestation. It is then very important that we be careful of what, or who, we love, or what we fall in love with. This accounts for we are what we love.

To borrow from Shakespeare, upon whose name bear the most foul and trecherous curses both in quality and quantity thanks to high school education, this should light some sparks for discussion before I come back.
"Few love to hear the sins they love to act."

The next question is to intergrate 'how' into all this.
/I just finished a paper, and the above post actually does look very disorganized and confusing even to myself. It's very late in the night already and i have a hard time concentrating on almost anything save for driving. I should come back for edits and write again on the nature of this love/admiring.

World Federalism an option?

2005-01-29T21:53:00.000-05:00

That is the title found under Prof. Koyzis' post. Apparently, there is such an organization known as the World Federalist Movement. They even claim to be an international citizen's movement. Strangely, why am I reminded of this particular book of the scriptures?

On political order and Christian responsibilities

2005-01-29T21:18:00.000-05:00

In such high times of political controversies, with issues surrounding public rights, personal ethics versus freedom, war and terrorism. Everything seems so vaguely defined with misleading implications and applications. My newest reading is a book edited by J. Skillen and R. McCarthy titled Political Order and the Plural Structure of Society. This is an excerpt from their commentaries regarding the writings of Goren Van Prinsterer.

He concludes that pious Protestants are mistaken to thinking of themselves as having an eternal destiny that entails litle responsibility for shaping the affairs of this world. That false dichotomy between spiritual destiny and earthly resonsibility was part of the problem inherent in the lukewram Protestantism of his day.
...
Christians really ought to see themselves as the people whom God has called to make history according to his will, Groen believes. Only wih such an attitude will Christianity truly flourish. As Groen gains insight into this simple truth, he begins to recognize that competing spirits - conflicting religious motives - are at work in teh shaping of history.
...
Groen urges fellow Christians to reread the Scriptures in order to understand the responsibility they have to shape the history of this world to the glory of God. Groen wants to heed the normative admonitions of the gospel which denounce the evils and injustices of the existing order.
...
To follow the Bible in reforming zeal requires the maintenance of what God has already done in history. Thus, Groen calls himself an antirevolutionary, opposing the revolutionaries and the liberals who have no interest in obeying God or in respecting God's historical providence.

In this context, political order can neither be good or bad, but simply the unfolding of God's providence. It is clear that the state is in conflict with the church, not to metion the pluralistic definitions of our Christian church along with all the other religions. I wonder if politicians ever find the Christian church a vigorous and rowdy bunch.

Random questions for Neo-Calvinism

2005-01-27T10:24:00.000-05:00

Here are some very interesting and mind-boggling questions posted by Mr. Kearns. One of which is

Are we certain that God didn't intend Greek ideas to spread through the west prior to the coming of Christ? If so, was this an oversight on His part? An unavoidable consequence of Alexander's conquests?

/ I would argue that no, we are uncertain. Partly because, in one of the dialogues, Socrates claimed to have had a godly vision which demands from him his pilgrimage. In turn it had led to the development of the platonic dualism.

... and the moral of that is

2005-01-24T13:47:00.000-05:00

Alice's Adventures In Wonderland is definitely among the favorite of my favorties. It's genre belong to more than just children literature with uncanny logic and philosophy hidden in its pages. We continuously see Alice politely put up with the ill-treatment and bad manners from the Lewis creatures.
Our challenge for today is quite a tough one. This is an excerpt from the conversation between Alice and the Duchess during the croquet game, while the Red Queen has been absent at the moment.

"Oh, I know," exclaimed Alice, who had not attended to this last remark. "[mustard is] a vegetable. It doesn't look like one, but it is."
"I quite agree with you," said the Duchess; "and the moral of that is - 'Be what you would seem to be' - or, if you'd like it put more simply - 'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise."
"I think I should understand that better," Alice said very politely, "if I had it written down: but I can't quite follow it as you say it."

Now that we have it written down, I wonder if anyone has ever gone through the trouble to decipher and verify the latter 'simplification' to concur with the formal. I have tried, but this challenge proves too complicated for my primitive cerebal, and I still can't quite follow the printed words.

The Virtue of Silence

2005-01-24T13:20:00.000-05:00

This is a very thought-provoking post from M.B. McClendon. I suggest anyone who claim to pursuit for virtues and do so seriously to read it in full. Here is part of her excerpt.

In his book, Celebration of Discipline, Richard Foster writes:
The tongue is our most powerful weapon of manipulation. A frantic stream of words flows from us because we are in a constant process of adjusting our public image. We fear so deeply what we think other people see in us, so we talk in order to straighten out their understanding. If I have done something wrong and discover that you know about it I will be very tempted to help you understand my action! Silence
is one of the deepest Disciplines of the Spirit simply because it puts the stopper on that. One of the fruits of silence is the freedom to let our justification rest entirely with God. We don't need to straighten others out.

/ This short post, I believe, demands humility and respect from both the reader and the writer herself. If you should have the courage to read it and reflect on it, it will hurt you deeply, when you have loved gossips and absent-mindedly take part in meaningless quarrels.

Our actions always speak for themselves and our inner most being. From the thrown fist, to the blink of our eyes. Those who are true to themselves, thus also to God, need no defense and would attempt no defense. But there is always some fault to make an excuse for in those who defend themselves and their actions with well-thought explanations.

Solace

2005-01-24T13:09:00.000-05:00

Even though Gideon Strauss' comment is short, I find it almost shocking in this truth.

... and I was reminded of the extent to which loss and loneliness shapes the lives of everyone, of the basic need for love and companionship, and of the crucial importance of the church's attending to the everyday heartbreak of ordinary people - what Abraham Kuyper with compassion and affection called the "kleyne luyden," the little folk

/ Everyone in agreement to this is demanded of some self-reflection.

O what's the point...

2005-01-21T13:31:00.000-05:00

This is a sadly apathetic and strangely valid argument I've read some years ago. I cannot recall from where did I read or hear this, but I'm certain these are the words.
"If practice makes perfect and nobody is, or can be, perfect, then why do we practice?"
It seems a valid inductive argument. I suppose anyone and everyone would oppose to its idea for many reasons. Certainly there are plenty of ways to overrule this by way of opinions. A passage from Romans, for example, would disapprove such a statement with authority. But aside from opinions, what can be the logical argument that flips this non-sense around? Please share your comments.

On the notion of Trinity

2005-01-21T13:29:00.000-05:00

A Severe Mercy is a wonderful story indeed. It is most fascinating and inspiring to read in many respects. In one part of the book, Van and Davy set out to clarify the mystery and ambiguity of the notion of Trinity of God and come through with a sanely logical explanation. The following is an excerpt of the conversation between the couple and a questioning student by the name of Richard. I have omitted plenty of phrases such as "Listen," "okay," "you see?" "Anyhow" and the likes for the pleasure of your reading.

'... You Christians always take refuge in mysteries.'
'Not at all,' I said. 'We aren't hiding behind a mystery in this, at least.'
'Well,' said Richard. 'Explain it in some way that makes sense.'
...
'We're talking about the Incarnation. Suppose I write [a book]- and I put myself in it. There I am, walking down the High, wearing a Jesus tie - in the book. And let's say i make up a loth of characters in it, and I, the character, say whatever I would say in the various situations that occur in my plot.'
...
'I am incarnate in my book. I am out here writing it, so I'm like God the Father. But it's really me in the book, too, isn't it? So that's Jesus, the Son, right? The me in the books speaks my words - and yet they are speeches that I've probably never made in real life, not being in those situations. And yet can't you see that it's really me?'
...
'I'm out here, being "the Author of all things" and I'm in the book, taking part in scenes of "drammer". Incarnate in my book. Now, the me in the book: he's all me, isn't he? And he's all character, too, isn't he? Like the doctrine: All God and All man. It makes sense, doesn't it? And one more thing: suppose the characters run away with the story - authors are always saying that that happens. It might be necessary, whatever I had originally intended, for me to get killed - um, crucified ... Anyhow - you see?'
'You win,' said Richard. 'It does make sense that way I'll have to think about it.'
'There's something else, though,' said Davy. 'The other characters - made-up ones. Invented ones. If Van invents characters, they'll all, even the bad ones, have something of Van in them, won't they? So, you see? We all have something of God in us - God's spirit - but only the One, Jesus, is God Incarnate. But God's Spirit in us... Well, that makes the Trinity, doesn't it? God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Actually I've never seen it so clearly myself. More tea?'

[more tea is good :P] I've never thought so grand a mystery of Trinity can be explained in the time of man, and done so simply. Vanauken have proved me wrong. Perhaps great things are meant to be explained by smaller ones. A bare grain of Truth can serve sufficiently to topple mountains of dispute and doubts, I suppose.

I'm in love ?! :p

2005-01-21T13:24:00.000-05:00

I am really excited and have high hopes for this blog site to draw plenty of criticisms and commentaries, and hopefully pave a runway for some lively discussions on various topics. It occur to me few days ago and I noticed that I'm quite happy with the site and keeps looking at it for rooms for improvement. So a part of Ykcir says 'What are you, stupid? Why do you have such obsessive affection and are so happy about just some little thing you made?' At this Ricky responds with a laugh saying 'you're right! It does sound pretty silly. But hey, why not?' Then I try to come up with an argument against this feeling of silliness. Well, God loves His creation dearly, does he not? Why can I not like my site (even though it's just a template :P) This seems to me quite reasonable. So i went a step further to try to compile a small parable to illustrate God's grace and His relationship to the his creation.

So this is the site I've made. I like it, I look at it often to see what I can do to make this a better place for my readers. Now what if a mean bean hacker come to my site and start making a mess? Mayhap he will change the settings of my site, make it look disorganized, add weird pictures, write a script to add massive pop-ups (oh don't we all hate pop-ups), or take out my writings, change my links, or put on juvenile titles and do illegal things under my name, or even write viruses in it. How would I feel when I find this out? I'd be pissed!! But I'd still like the site, only in a different way, the way not intended. Because I know the ill-doings of my site came from the hacker and his html-scripts, and not the site itself. I'd do what I can to protect the site from hackers by use of network protection, perhaps. Or I may implment complex codings to prevent from the hackers' to understand how to change my site. Or I may even hire a network specialist to protect my site from these evil hackers. Whatever it is, the point remains that I liked this website and I would do what i can do save it up, right? Such an example may, strangely, illustrate God's Love. I think the summing up of my feelings for such outcome of my site would not differentiate too much from God's feelings towards the fall of Adam and mankind. God's upset at the people's untended doing. His effort to Redeem us from the evil. His unconditional faith and grace to the people regardless to their sins and rebellious ways. This, I find, is very much like the example of my site, but in a different sense of course. This is how God personally loves every one of us. When implying to my site, does that mean I love this site ?!? :P Of course - not. I have not so much faith in technology anyways. And i think i will just swtich over to another web address to avoid the hacker without any obligations to my webmaster, haha.

On the unprovability of Divine

2005-01-21T13:22:00.000-05:00

The following is a letter written by C.S.Lewis to the conversion of his dear friend Sheldon Vanauken in regards to his struggle towards Christianity. Vanauken's fundamental dilemma is that one can't believe in Christ unless he has faith, but one can't have faith unless he believes in Christ. The 'leap' in to the believing in something (in this case, God) he wished to commit is answered by Lewis. The letters are published in A Severe Mercy:

As to why God doesn't make it demonstratively clear [about His existence]: are we sure that He is even interested in the kind of Theism which wd. be a compelled logical assent to a conslusive argument? Are we interested in it in personal matters? I demand from my friend a trust in my good faith which is certain without demonstrative proof. It wouldn't be confidence at all if he waited for rigorous proof. [...] The magnanimity, the generosity wh. will trust on a reasonable probability, is required of us. But supposing one believed and was wrong after all?
Why, then you wd. have paid the universe a compliment it doesn't deserve. Your error wd. even so be more interesting & important than the reality. And yet how cd. that be? How cd. an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger, better, subtler than itself?

Also, in the letter which follows:

A wish may lead to false beliefs, granted. But what does the existence of the wish suggest? At one time I was much impressed by Arnold's line 'Nor does the being hungry prove that we have bread.' But surely, tho' it doesn't prove that one particular man will get food, it does prove that there is such a thing as food! i.e. if we were a species that didn't normally eat, weren't designed to eat, wd. we feel hungry?

"What do you believe to be true, even though you can’t prove it?"

2005-01-19T17:25:00.000-05:00

This is found on the blog of Prof. Gideon Strauss. It is the Edge Annual Question of 2005, there are now 120 "third culture scientists and science-minded thinkers" that have provided some answers. (3 more since Prof Strauss' posting). They can be found at The World Question Center.

It seems that not too many of the answers offered surround the issue of prove of God. I would agree with Prof. Strauss that we cannot prove the majority of things in which we believe in. I haven't proof of my parents to be my actual parents, but many things simply seem apparent to me that they are parents. Of course, this is a different case because their parenthood can actually be proven by blood test or what not. A pseudo-Carteian argument then. Suppose that i doubt i have the funionality of my cerebal cortex or the whole of a brain. It cannot be proven that i am alike every other human being with a brain inside the cranium, if the only empericist way to prove of such is to crack my skull open to take a peak at the brain, and remove the cortex, or whichever part responsible for sanity.

Augstine distinguishd the difference of knowledge gather from faith and reasoning. That is to believe in order to understand, and to firstly understand in order to believe. Perhaps a more simple form of the same question on the edge here is plainly "In what do you have faith?". But would it not be strange to proclaim "I have faith in quantum physics!" ?

This, here, is quite intriguing a response from Pejmanesque. And i, too, ought to believe in True Love, despite of the conditions of our society.

I shall draw an agrument from C.S.Lewis in regards to this, but the book is not with me at the moment. So more on this later.

What in the name?!

2005-01-19T16:13:00.000-05:00

Some may be wondering why i chose the domain address to be reflectric.blogspot. It had sounded weird to me, too. Well, unfortunately ric.blogspot has been unjustly occupied by someone else sine a long time ago, i had to come up with a name quickly when i was signing up for this. I wanted to maintain r.i.c. in the address, so it was built around the purpose of this blog, to reflect on all things under the sun, along with other things above, beyond, behind the sun. But it doesn't sound so bad i guess.. reflec-tric~

On Lord of the Rings

2005-01-19T13:33:00.000-05:00

I read Fellowship of the Ring during the holiday. It was an enjoyable read of 500 pages in mere 20 days. Probably my thickest book to finish so quickly. I am surprised the movie hardly follows the story as told in the books. Aside that, I’ve found two apparent things to learn from LOTR.
Frodo was a hobbit. Only through the books have I learned the lowly position a hobbit in Middle-Earth. As the ring-bearer, he had achieve great things. Even man of small homage can achieve great things, that is obviously one of the stronger themes presented in LOTR. But Frodo had to pay a great risk, he left Shire behind believing that he will not return, he risked into lands uncharted, he tried to leave Sam behind so as not to jeopardize his good life, he even reached out to Gollum with a grain of mercy, who in end still betrayed him for the Evil of the Great Ring. There is a lot of courage found in such timid a creature. Frodo has always been looked down on since the beginning of the story, until the end, Aragorn speaks most truly to the four hobbits “My friends, you bow to no one.” Quite an adventure that is for the hobbits indeed, huh…
The other is the relationship between Frodo and the Ring. It was not so apparent in the movie until I read about the Evil manifested from the Ring. Again and again, Frodo was always tempted to put on the Ring for the sake of escaping perils he faced. Even though knowing that putting on the Ring would only mean defeat to himself and victory to the Shadows. In the stories there are times he failed, and there are times he escaped from such temptation. In the end, at the final moment inside the core of Mount Doom, he still gave in and was enchanted by the Force of Evil found in the Ring. Ironically, it was only his enemy Gollum who saved Frodo and the whole of humanity from the doom by biting his finger off. I think Christians have something to learn from this. Our strength of will is not so strong against the temptations of our daily activities. We easily give in to participate in things that we know are wrong. The negative impulse to lie, to steal, to betray, to immoral thoughts, to educate ourselves with falsely distorted portrayal of movies, music, talk shows, or what not, are always present. Like Frodo, often we may give in and declare defeat in ourselves only after the cause. The only way to victory is to stand strong in our will, strengthen our prudence. Yet the truth is, we always know this, and always remind ourselves of it. But in the moment of trials, all reasons betray us to the darker side. We simply do not see the reasons and benefits in holding to our positions of virtues, but only the cunningly presented offers of advantages, which are in end proved in vain. Such is the struggle of us Christians, as told by Paul in Romans, and depicted by Tolkien in his story of Frodo as the Ring bearer.
Sometimes, it is our enemies that serve us to our better end.
As mentioned by Prof. Platinga, we are not punished (by God) for our sins, we are simply punished by our sins.

The meaning of Life

2005-01-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

A while back a good friend of mine joined me in a car ride. It wasn't short and we had the chance to talk about plenty of things. I was half-stunt when asked "What have you come to realize about life by the years you have passed?" At the moment i was driving (*cough technically illegally) on the highway, so i gave little thoughts to my answer. VBS had been on my mind, so i thought of our responsibilities for the next generation. I think there is great meaning to life when we put an effort to make this world a better place. There is a general moral decline in the younger generation, and I think we as young adults or what not have a very significant role to play if we proclaim ourselves to be mature or "not a kid anymore". From the experiences of VBS, i realize that young adults can act as the links between children and the actualized adults. Because we at this age begin to have the stronger sense of moral and understanding in the purpose of things, and at the same time are still fun-loving, active, creative, and just love downright care-free craziness and joyous laughing. Therefore, in a sense, young adults can easily connect to both the age group higher and the one lower. I've had the honor to earn the respect of several kids from my VBS class, as i was told by Gary some while back. I realized that it was a golden oppurtunity for me to make a difference for the lives of others. A quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson [edit:]

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and edure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in other; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy cihld, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

would agree with me, but it escapes my mind at the moment with its lengthy composition.
But of course, that was only my immediate response during the drive. Turning back to the topic once again, I put some more thoughts into it. I remember some years ago I had come across with the quote

I don't know the meaning of Life, but to live it, is to give Life meaning

It seems, from my experience, to me that some children begin to question the meaning and purpose of life at a very young age. Some as young as 6. But this question is soon forgotten when our lives become dominated by the materialistic outlook. It is theoretical to say that children who have not the gifts and blessings of joy and the beauties of life provided by their family settings come sooner to the realization of these questions. It's difficult to define a specific, clear-cut goal or objective purpose in life, unless you have found the True Divine. But to put the religious focus aside for a moment, I still find life enjoyable and meaningful. The meaning of life is most appearent when we learn to appreciate the value and beauties of the virtuous things that we do. Such like sharing the love of charity with others, be he your friend or not, or the capacity to freely forgive a fault, be it great or small, with a smile, or to give generously simply for the better of others, or to see the lives of others flourish because you had been there to help, though as little as your help might have been. To love the moments of Life is to recognize the beauties in it. Yet this is much easier said than done, for such beauties are everywhere, and wherever they are at hidden. Even sufferings will show themselves to be blessings for a greater cause, if you look hard enough.

And to take this path of appreciation, one must eventually realize the presence of the True Divine in the structure of Life, creation, and its beauties.

This much i will write in here before my class.
I had not the chance to say more during the car ride before my friend and i move on to other intriguing topics, but if chance should come again, I shall tell of more my thoughts on such meanings to her.

My awakening to the nature of our social conditions

2005-01-18T21:36:00.000-05:00

I am currently taking Social Philosophy under Prof. Gideon Strauss. One night few days ago i had the opportunity to discuss with Gary about variuos notions of social order. He lent me a great deal of help by explaining to me what they are and what they mean. Perhaps even more helpful is the way he translated these terms and theories for me.
This social philosophy course is my first dealing ever with an academic study social structure. (save for Poli-Sci 101, in which i had little interest back then). Once when i was in highschool i confess to a friend of mine how i find disgust at the mention of politics. He loudly proclaimed to me "Of course! You're religious!". What his implications were i cannot tell. But most certainly he was quite wrong.
Until recently, i had pay little or no heed to the importance of politics. Slowly and more convincingly i realize that the orderly society in which we live in is quite young and more subject to change than it seems. This calls for Christians to actively participate in governing and maintaining our societies.
But then what can be deem to be a mature social order? Has there ever been a successful one? Be it capitalism or communism, it seems to me that every social order, with its own unique features and flaws, must eventually fail, thanks to the sinful and immperfect nature found in the vast populations gathered, either by revolutions, rebellions, or corruption. The following is quoted from Henry Louis Mencken:

"The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think
things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and
taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government
he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic,
he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to
spread discontent among those who are."

Certainly, that doesn't mean we as Christians can just sit back and let God run the countries with his selected pagans in the congresses or parliaments. But I've seen the failure, (or the good way that doesn't work), of a pastoral politician portrayed in the movie Daens. So the next theoretical question pops up: What is the goal and the role of the current Neo-Calvinist political leaders, if or when they do become the leaders. Because the minority of Christians can in no way win over the majority of pagans or atheists.
There is another issue at hand for the Neo-Calvinists. The proudly embraced liberalism of the America is obviously driving our societies downhill in every direction. In the name of freedom, the citizens by large are abusing their rights in making their demands. There is gay marriage, teens suing their parents for invasion of privacy, and loads of crimes evolving into something socially acceptable by the route of liberlism. On the theological perspective, as explained by my Pastor, these are things that are deem to occur eventually before the second coming of Christ, as reveled in the Gospels and most of Revelations. So does that mean we know that these evils will likely prevail until the Judgement Day, and that our effort in mataining a Biblical-oriented social order ought to be fruitless? If i were right about the moral decline that were brought on by liberalism, is our current mission to knock down Liberalism? But this would mean that every other political order ought to be knocked down until the sacred scriptures is left standing alone on the floor of politics. Of course, i do not believe that the job of neo-calvinists is to bring down all these social orders. But these questions need some answers. I am far from being educated in the field of politics and social order, perhaps i will come to another enlightenment by the end of this course led by Prof. Strauss.
edit: a thought occur to me late last night. Could this be what the Dialogical Coffee House, with its theme being "What's Next", is about? hhmm, i should venture to find out.

A good turn of path

2005-01-18T19:07:00.000-05:00

I've spent the last two hours or so toying with my profiles and the blogger helps. And seeing all the html codings make me sick! I'm glad i turned away from programming and the likes when i left high school. But i'm afraid i'll yet have another turn to make from my current majors if or when i graduate from RUC..

I'm still trying to figure out the code for the simplest function, LINKS!
This is a test

A New Beginning!

2005-01-18T10:01:00.000-05:00

So I've done it! My first web space, inspired by my professor and some fellow students. I believe there will be plenty of postings from time to time. This should prove useful, but there's a whole bunch of functions on blogger i don't know how to take advantage of. It's gonna take some while to do it right.