My Room

I don't completely agree with every detail that he says, but I am in complete agreement with the essence of what he's saying as well as the attitude/spirit he says it with.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=93757201891&ref=nf#/video/video.php?v=93757201891

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=93757201891&ref=nf#/video/video.php?v=93757201891

Thanks Jesus, for this man and his message in this day and age.

The Game with Minutes has been slowly but steadily improving. It's much like hearing the volume of a faint piece of beautiful/peaceful/placid music in the background of a room slowly but steadily increase. Frank Laubach is the man. I choose to spend the rest of my life playing this game. I am somewhat convinced that if I were not in East Asia, I would not have seriously started playing the game.






***






I'm heading back to EA in a few weeks. I'm in the process of re-raising support to go. It's somewhat of a challenge cuz some ppl who supported me last year can't do it again this year due to their own various reasons. Something interesting is happening though. I have a lot more peace about the money coming in this year than last year. Last year, I was pretty worried at times. But this year, although I'm not completely calm about it, there is a sense of peace about things. Much like the background music of peaceful/tranquil music in a room rather than an intense/sharp feeling of it, the latter which I'm convinced is not what a follower of Christ should pursue.

The mystical power of the Holy Spirit accessed through the Game with Minutes






***






I really think God is up to something here in Toronto. I don't say those words lightly. Frankly, before this year, I didn't really believe it.

While I was in East Asia, I received something like a vision of what God wants me to start in within the Toronto Chinese Christian community (doesn't necessarily have to be Chinese Christians, but that's where I have most of my connections, so that's where I think I should start it).

This summer, for the couple weeks I have been back so far, I started to tell some people about it. So far, the people I have told (with one exception), are on board with it. The amazing thing is, it seems that God has thrown some people in my path, who I weren't expecting to meet up with (cuz I didn't know they existed previously). These people just seem like pieces of the puzzle to form a fuller picture of what I believe God has called me to start.

I'm actually really excited to pursue this thing. But I have a year to grow first. I need another year of massive spiritual greenhouse growth in East Asia. Then I feel ready to start something.

These "previews" that I've seen that God has pieced together for this story of contributing towards the revival of Toronto excite me. I have seen the trailer this summer and I can't wait to be in the full screening when I get back next year.

Jesus is such an amazing director!

Once again, the mystical power of the Holy Spirit accessed through the Game with Minutes.


These words are from Frank Laubach himself after he played the Game with Minutes about 2 months.

"And I must witness that people outside are treating me differently. Obstacles
which I once would have regarded as insurmountable are melting away like
a mirage. People are becoming friendly who suspected or neglected me. I
feel, I feel like one who has had his violin out of tune with the orchestra and
at last is in harmony with the music of the universe."

I must say, I can't FULLY understand first-hand what he felt like when he penned those words to his father in 1930. However, I can say that I am not completely foreign to that feeling myself after playing for a few months. Especially after seeing the "preview"/"trailer" of what God's up to in Toronto next summer, I can say I can relate on a first-hand basis how he felt a little bit.

I'm kinda back!

Well.. Kinda.. I might post something or two in the summer while I'm here.

Stay tuned for some possible updates!

Not sure who still reads this thing. Sorry, but I've been gone for about a month now. I don't think I'll be updating this thing while I'm here. Perhaps I'll continue when I get back. For those of you who know where I am, you know. For those of you who don't. Ummm, you can ask me through other means. For those of you who know where I am but want updates, contact me in some other way and I'll put you on the list of updates.

It's been fun philosophically dicking around here. Until next time.

Today was good to get out of the house and see some friends. Was alone for a few days in the house recovering from the worst infection my lungs have ever come across. Man.... it was so tough a few days ago. I don't ever recall in my whole life how hard breathing was. Praise God for the start of a recovery.









***







Lord, you have already broken her. Both emotionally, and literally. Not sure if she's broken spiritually. She still has not repented.

A big accident just occurred. She screamed in pain. My heart broke for her. Really. It did.

But... I prayed to the Lord to break her even more... to do WHATEVER is necessary for her to repent and submit to Him. I don't care what you do Lord. Whether you chop off her legs, chop off her arms... I don't care WHAT you do Lord... do WHATEVER you need to break her enough so that she'll submit to you in repentance finally. God forbid, but if God wills, even if you have to paralyze her Lord... in order for her to submit to you, do it Lord. She as stiff-necked as a spiritual mannequin. Lord, if you have to, make her a physical mannequin so that she can be spiritually alive.

C.S. Lewis said that the surest journey to hell is a quiet, undisturbed one that is slowly oblivious towards walking toward it. Oh Lord... please cause disturbance... don't let her walk down that quiet and undisturbed path that is sure to lead to hell.

These are the days where I truly wished Calvinism were true (I'm serious when I'm writing this now).

Lord... do whatever it takes to break her to the point where she'll finally bow down before you and find everlasting joy, peace, and love that lasts for eternity.








***







This morning when I boarded the bus, I saw a metro newspaper lying on a seat. Having nothing better to do, I used the tips of my fingers to flip through it carefully (man, I'd really read the newspaper more if it weren't so dirty. I mean.. physically. I wonder whether the blackening of the fingertips is from the dirt ink, or the dirty articles that dig dirt on Sarah Palin's daughter.

Anyways, I got to this page where it showed 100 of the soldier-war heroes who have died serving Canada in Afghanistan. I looked at a handful of the faces. I don't know why... but something hit me. Something cut right into my heart. I felt so sad that these Canadian heroes had to die in the battlefield... so sacrificial... to get out of their comfort zone, and suffer intense discomfort, bad living conditions, incessant alertness/vigilance of enemy and danger, and way more. I had compassion for their families...

Experiencing suffering yourself (even just a little in comparison to fighting a war in afghanistan, where pictures will not suffice to express reality there), as well as watching it in your own environment right in front of your eyes really changes how you relate to fellow sufferers you see or read in the media. At least for me. Experientially comprehending what suffering actually feels like first hand bestows upon the sufferer huge empathic capacity to enter into the suffering world of another.

As a result from looking at the faces of a handful of those 100 Canadian soldiers fighting for the oppressed in Afghanistan... I first cried in my heart, then my body was about to follow suit. My eyes had the urge to let some tears out. I couldn't believe it! I was about to cry! I moved my eyes away from the page, partly trying to understand why my reaction was so intense compared to myself normally, partly trying to suppress those tears.

As C.S. Lewis said, war helps people focus on more important things in life rather than the trivial. These soldiers had meaning in what they sacrificed for.

(paraphrased)"You have the choice Peter Petrelli, to choose a life that has happiness, or choose a life that has meaning"-Linderman from Heroes

Justice has been served this past week.

Too long have you thought you deserved everything you have now.

Too long have you believed people should treat you like a princess

Too long have you remained childish in your immaturity

Too long have you failed to be disciplined by your parents who loved you too little to feel the pain of the consequences of impulsive and selfish decisions as well as narcissistic attitudes

Too long have you revolved the whole world around yourself. For someone in their mid-20s. Man that is evil.

Too long have you felt no remorse for the selfish sins you have committed without any ounce of regret. Even your average atheist in North America would illogically, yet legitimately feel at least a drop of guilty conscience for your extravagant selfishness.

Too long. Too long.

You have made mistakes like everyone. But you do not even regret or have any human conscience that yells some sense into you when you wrong others. Since you have failed to repent after so many years of blatant wrong-doing without any hint of contrition, justice has been served this week.

Your human father and mother would not discipline you when you did non-negotiably wrong-acts. There was a gracious time of patience. Now the heavenly father has done what your earthly father should have done a long time ago. Discipline you severely. This week, justice spoke.

There is still time to repent and come to Jesus and submit to him. You have been raised up in a Christian family all your life. You went to a Christian elementary school, your parents brought you to a church, they were non-abusive (except for the abuse of allowing one of their children to unrestrainingly deteriorate in loss of love due to self-love). Yet you still refuse to repent and ditch your lifestyle that is clearly self-destructive to any objective viewer of your life. Your narcissistic choices don't even leave you happy. Be honest with yourself.

Refuse to repent and more justice will come. Repent now, and all the injustices you have layed upon all the other objects human beings you have encountered in your life will be forgiven, and you will have a brand new life.

Oh Lord... how long t'il you release the father and mother from their oppressive child?


...


Oh Lord, have I gone to far in my indignation?









***








edit 9:53pm

Oh Lord... forgive me.. a sinner.

Os Guinness is cool. We need more Christians like him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESFDgtJfeok

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87IjVPaYmVY&feature=related

He makes good points. For those non-believers who are spiritually hungry, interested and open towards hearing the gospel, we should go right into the gospel with them. However, for those who are not immediately spiritually hungry, interested, and open, go to right into the gospel, although that would have good intentions, would be unwise. At least I think so. The hard work of pre-evangelism needs to be done. Wisely phrased and positioned questions can unlock the floodgates of the heart to pursue and yearn for something more deeply satisfying than what they have now. It takes skill to do that. Not that the Spirit won`t work within limits, but we Christians have to do our part to find out how the Spirit works best.

When people asked Jesus questions in the gospel, he didn`t always just to straight towards mentioning the fact that his counterpart(s) were sinful pagans and needed to repent, but he entered their train of thought to address them where they were thinking, and helped them to arrive at truth in the specific topic they asked him about.

I don`t have pleasure saying the following, but a lot of Christian authors and speakers don`t help relatively mature Christians dig deeper into biblical truth and its implications into the 21st century. They say what non-believing pagans have to hear - the gospel. But for those believers established into the pathway of discipleship for, I don`t know... let`s say a decade, they are left hungry, wanting deeper spiritual truth.

Now, I recognize that as Christians, we need to be reminded of the basics from time to time. At the same time, I believe God expects his children to learn more and more about him. After all, he created the desire for some of us to dig deeper into Christian spiritual knowledge. In this day and age, you`ll get a lot of the Christian authors and speakers who teach the basics, and maybe a little more a lot. But finding ones who dip really deep are hard. So for myself, once I find them, I stick to them like glue. In my mind, I position them as the Justice league of Christian philosophy. Since its so hard to find these `heroes`, I place them in a league. In an ideal world, where we would have unlimited time, energy, and resources, we could read all the Christian books out there to get the good and the bad out of all the authors. However, since we have limited time and energy, we have to be selective in our book reading to not read useless stuff. And those who belong to the Justice League of Christian philosophy are likely to read, quote, reference others who are in the same `league`, pun intended.

If someone is just going to merely paraphrase scripture, its not much different from just reading the Bible itself on your own time. However, someone helps you glance scripture at an angle you never considered, it is very enlightening indeed.

What do these Justice League Christians do? They help you arrive at implications of Biblical truth that you would not have arrived at yourself. They help you define biblical terms and concepts in more detail. They explain and clarify your Christian thinking. They help you understand the whys of life in a Christian perspective. They use logic to reason why alternative worldviews inadequately explain certain things in life as opposed to the Christian worldview. They help you understand human nature to help conform it to Christ more.

I read some A.W. Tozer yesterday. This guy recently joined my `justice league`. Cuz he actually says some serious things.


Someone may fear that we are magnifying private religion out of all proportion, that the `us` of New Tetsament is being displayed by a selfish `I`. Has it ever occurred to you that one hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each otherÉ They are of one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard to which one must individually bow. So one hundred worshipers meeting together, each one looking away to Christ, are in heart nearer to each other than they could possibly be were they to become `unity` conscious and turn their eyes away from God to strive for closer fellowship. Social religion is perfected when private religion is purified. The body becomes stronger as its members become healthier. The whole church of God gains when the members that compose it begin to seek a better and a higher life.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p81_kAFdyr8

man, brown people are awesome.

Dinesh D'souza is the man.

I just watched this debate and it was entertaining.

Dinesh is just so good. He is such a good speaker with his use of language. His command of the English language is superb. Man... when he went (he was the 2nd speaker), not only was I digesting his content, but I also tried to analyze his conscientious constructions of words to present his arguments. Man... the more I try to improve my own ability in writing, speaking, explaining, persuading, and communicating, the more and more I appreciate such a marvelously high level of it when it is demonstrated. Kinda like how one appreciates more the fight scenes of jackie chan, jet li, and tony jaa when they take their first week of martial arts training. Or how someone admires Tiger Woods or Roger Federer a lot more when they first pick up a golf club or a tennis racquet. Man... dinesh, how is your English so sexy. Your content is wicked too.

How come brown scholars have such amazing English skills?

Why is it so hard to find a good, healthy, and civil debate?

Why must so many people get emotionally defensive when they intellectually defend their ideas? Why must they raise their voices as if that would increase the logical coherence of their arguments? Why must the one whom they are disagreeing with be regarded as an enemy? Why must there be mud-slinging a lot of the time?

I just got in 3 debates with 3 Christians (well, one's nominally Christian) at a dinner table. Why must have they gotten heated?

Why can't we just calmly and civily engage in discussions of disagreement with love? It happened in the C4C STINT orientation with other fellow Christians who love the Lord. Why is it so hard to find enriching discussions of disagreement with others?

Sigh....

Tonight got pretty heated. I tried to stay calm on my part, but due to feedback, I may have crossed some lines. In retrospect, I think I did. Although I honestly thought I wasn't the one to initiate raising my voice or the emotional meter.

I feel a sense of guilt within me now. Should I feel guilty though? Is this guilt deserved? Or is it a feeling that hovers naturally over my mind in the aftermath of a heated argument due to numerous past associations where I did deserve the guilt for fueling the heat in an argument myself? Judging myself can be a tricky thing. I can scarcely say that I am successfully objective in my self-analysis most of the time. I'm a human. Therefore I have an infinite knack for rationalizing my questionable behaviour. But then again, is it true that I was the one in the right sometimes?

Should I feel guilty for what happened tonight? And if the answer is yes, how much guilt should I feel? I feel that the ones responsible for emotionally heating the argument were the others. But then again, that's an assessment made with all my subjective/self-favouring favouritism locked into the analysis. It's hard to get that favouritism out of the way when judging oneself.

I think I should apologize though. Maybe even if I didn't heat the argument up, I maintained it and therefore was a consumer of the heat. I condoned the tension by perpetuating the uncivil discussion.

But seriously though, why can't us Christians have civil disagreeing discussions without getting heated? It can be potentially very enlightening to discuss clashing ideas, as well as being very fun, and it can even foster a friendship not in spite of disagreement, but because of it if both parties are united in Christ. I think of Orvin and Leemarc, 2 Calvinists, who I love to discuss our soteriological disagreements with. It doesn't get heated, I hear interesting arguments from a perspective that I disagree with, respect is mutual, and even some humour gets tossed in without any attacks being personal (unless of course we're jovially joking around with each other, which we do). I love our respectful/enriching/civil discussions. It's hard to find people who are so safe to conversationally disagree with (even, and in some cases especially among other Christians, I'm not talking about blatant fundamental heresy, which deserves a bashing though).

sigh...












***










I leave for East Asia on September the 12th.

I think the arts (movies, paintings, novels) can express the idea of sin really comprehensively in ways mere technical definitions fail to outline sometimes.

I watched a bit of the fellowship of the ring again today. The way how evil is pictured in corrupting humans of the past N stuff. A bible dictionary just doesn't have the same effect.









***







Fundraising for my 11-month mission trip to East Asia was definitely a growth experience.

In the beginning, although I was kinda daunted, cuz 38,000 (yes there are 3 zeros, not 2) seems unrealistic to raise in a few months. But I consoled myself somewhat by thinking to myself that I "knew people", and that all the christian connections within the Tdot that I formed all these years would greatly help me.

The first few weeks was brutal. The money was coming in very slowly and it was a devastating experience. I was actually starting to think that I might not be able to go anymore because of financial reasons. I felt pretty desperate. I asked a lot of my friends to pray for me in that respect.

It was a pretty humbling experience. My heart felt that I really needed to rely on God 100% for this to happen, and that my own "connections" in themselves wouldn't suffice.

A few weeks later, I was surprised with the overflow of money that was just coming through. I was like... what the heck? All of a sudden, the money's just coming by itself. I experienced God's grace and providence again.

I had a few VERY BIG surprises along the way. I'll just share a couple. I have to say that mission support raising can be a pretty surprising process for the missionary. Things don't always go as expected. Exceptions aren't always exceptional anymore. Sometimes, the people who you think can and therefore will give you a lot end up giving you very little. Sometimes, the people who you think can't and therefore cannot afford to give you a lot end up giving you a ton.

Example 1:
I presented the ministry to my 3 TC friends Chung, Steve, and Jermaine one night. All my age, which means people who are not well-established in a career yet. They combined to offer me $300 a month equalling $3600. Wow. I was just blown away.

Example 2:
I asked one of my old highschool friends who I haven't seen in a long while (prolly since highschool if I remember correctly), Lisa. She graduated from McMaster and is now in Waterloo for pharmacy school. When I was done doing the presentation to her at Tim Hortons, she gave me a cheque. I looked at it. I couldn't believe my eyes. $2000. To this day, I still couldn't understand the generosity. I was completely taken away. Crazy.

God provides. Sometimes, we're in for a surprise.

If any of you guys are thinking of funding for missions, don't worry, just do your part and God will provide. Last year, we had to raise $4600 for a 6-week trip to East Asia. I was daunted back then. Now, I see $4600 as peanuts.

Now, it's time for another trust-in-God adventure. The visa issue! We're having big trouble getting our visas into the country cuz the government's kinda weird. I've been praying everyday that our team can get them in time. Please join us in our prayers to our Father to get us those visas in.

I love it when Christian philosophy combines with Christian theology.


""Come on, group," I urged. "A question is on the table. What is the point of sex?"

"The point?" asked Peter.

"The point! What is it for? What is its purpose? "

"That's obvious," he said. "Pleasure."

"No," I said, "Pleasure is great, but it comes as a byproduct of doing things that are more important than pleasure. What happens when you pursue it for its own sake?"

"It disappears," said the tall girl. "My sorority sister is 'doing it' more and more but enjoying it less and less."

"That's called 'empty' sex," I said. "If pleasure isn't the purpose, what else might the purpose be?"

"Love?" asked Mary.

"Depends on what you mean."

"You know, romantic feelings."

"If it's feelings we're talking about, we're in the same blind alley as with pleasure. Feelings are by-products. They don't make sense as goals. Besides, promiscuity destroys romance."


That's what I'm talking about.

More from this sexy article








***







If you have the time, PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ PLZ pray for my East Asia missionary team. The biggset prayer request we have now is that God would help us get our student visas into the country. It's getting hard to get visas there. PLZ PLZ PLZ pray for us!!!

This Anderson Cooper special was kinda scary. Some of the stuff I saw "wtfrick"ed me out of my socks. Oh man.

I just wish mor eppl read their bibles. False doctrines such as the prosperity gospel doesn't piss me off because a few "turkeys" have their own ideas about Christianity (although that isn't good), but because they trick the masses into big life-destroying lies. I don't even understand how those "pastors" like Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar can preach their prosperity theology for so many years, conscience wise. If they just read the Bible, they'd see how it doesn't support the prosperity theology at all. First of all, exegetically, it's clearly bankrupt. Comparing with Christ, Christ wasn't monetarily rich, he wasn't well off financially. So how that's completely off the script. Then philosophically... it's just philosophically gay. Getting rich to fight greed (which becoming like Christ should reverse).

Sometimes I'm really curious whether Joel Osteen and Creflo Dollar really think they're teaching truth, and biblical ideas. Their either really genuinely misguided, or preying on the ignorant with blatantly evil intent.



I was in the mood for some Driscoll today.

I saw this

I think the personality of a pastor really flows out through their preaching. Yes, what really matters is what the Bible says. But the attitude of a pastor's preaching can flesh out and give life to what the text says in a way that would be different if a robot read preached the text.

Marc Driscoll is actually a really funny guy. I don't really know too many other preachers who can make me laugh out loud literally and energetically.

I don't trust movie critics. A lot of the times, they say give unreliable predictions of whether or not I will personally enjoy a movie.

When it comes to giving advice, "insight", and opinions on whether a movie is enjoyable, I don't believe the only legitimate input can be made from an "elite" minority in society. I mean c'mon. When it comes to whether a movie will be enjoyable or not to an individual, who knows the individual better than himself/herself? When it comes to personal taste/liking, everyone's an "expert" on what they themselves distinctly like. And critics, who are other individuals who enjoy different things should not be an "expert" on what other individuals like.

When it comes to fields like science, history, philosophy, and even theology (excluding radical emergent church theology which is highly figuratively [sometimes literally] gay) etc. we do, in fact need "experts" (people who devote their lives towards discovering, understanding, and diggin deeper into those fields of truth. That's cuz what they study is objectively true, regardless of any individual's opinions. Facts are facts, no matter how much ppl enjoy them

What I don't understand myself is, why do we have these "professional jobs" of movie critics, who are paid a full-time salary of expressing their individual tastes about movies. Okay, I'm sure there are some "objective" things you can say about the movie, but a lot of the enjoyment of a film is subjective. My point though, is that when it comes to personal enjoyment of movies, one does not need to do intense, vigorous, and consciously dedicated research to write a thesis on what will entertain someone. Noone really needs to do research on whether they prefer green over yellow, or red over blue. Why do these movie critics get paid a full-salary to state that they prefer green over yellow?

Once again, I have no problem with ppl expressing their personal opinions on movies. I also think that some opinions are based on more careful thought and contemplation of the self experiencing entertainment than others. I just question why people receive a salary for doing so.

If I were an Oscar meyer weiner-nominating critic, I would nominate The Replacements, National Treasure 1, and Transformers to receive oscars, for I myself was entertained the most by watching them. I give each 5 stars.

These past two days (monday and tuesday) I had some strong emotions. Whenever I meet up with a big portion of my 2007 EA sports mission team, I get these subsequent emotions that seem to dominate my heart. Something about those 6 weeks just seemed so mystically satisfying and divinely wondrous. I'm sure all other 9 members of the team feel the same way.

So I had that contributing to the melting pot of feelings.

Then I had the whole "I just graduated. WOW. Real world time!" feel surge all into me. Sure, the university life had crapiness to it : studying for mid-terms and exams was torture. It is just soooo tough for me to just sit by a desk for 6+ hours to review information interpreted in an athiestic lens. I mean c'mon now, atheism's retarded. At least have a deist worldview c'mon ppl. I don't know if its just me, but it seems during mid-term study time, I have the biggest craving to read Christian books. I don't fully know why.

Aside from the unpleasant week or two of mid-terms, the social life of university was freakin' awesome. Just conveniently meeting up with friends on campus, getting refreshed with Christian friends etc. I loved it. It's gone. I realize I'm going to be going on STINT and living with several other Christians for a whole year (which I am absolutely stoked about doing), but it'll be a shift in my personal subjective experience of my own social structure/patterns. Last time this major "Copernican" (hopefully I used that word correctly, although it's a little "kua jeung" to use it in this context tee hee) shift happened in my experiential social structure was the transition from highschool to university. It killed me first semester. Then I got used to it, and I started to like it.

I think what was causing the emotions a lot was just the fact that my soul's realizing the quickness of life, along with all its transient patterns that take a major shift in structure as one moves on to the next lifestage. That's bound to happen in this society.

Holy crap. 5 years gone just like that. Is there such thing as a quarter life crisis? If so, I felt it in the past 2 days. I had to put a leash on my emotions.

I actually laid in bed one of the afternoons mornings of this week when I naturally woke up with this feeling in the background of my soul. I just reminisced on my life within the past 10 years. since the end of jr. high t'il now. I reflected on each year and what social crowd, social groups I hung out with, as well as who were my best friends. I've changed a lot. So fast. Life is but a vapour or something - James.









***








My Chinese has definitely improved a lot ever since last year summer time. Both Mandarin and Cantonese. I'm nowhere near fluent, but I can say some stuff now. If someone were to drop me off in a helicopter randomly on a land where ppl only spoke Chinese, I'd survive (both physically and socially) and I'd be able to get around and eventually fully adapt. I think.

Which dialect do I speak better now? I'm not sure. There are some days where I think I speak Cantonese better, then there are some days I speak Mandarin better.

In terms of Cantonese, the language is definitely more reflexively delivered, just like how your foot kicks when the doctor hits below the kneecap with a hammer. I don't have to think too much about sentence structure/sentence construction, and everyday all-around vocab. However, when it comes to more complex abstract propositions, it is weaker.

Mandarin for me is the opposite in general. When I construct a sentence, I have to consciously think of sentence structure and mechanically form sentences I hope are error-free. Sometimes the mechanism malfunctions. However, in comparison to Cantonese, I think I know more broader vocab in terms of "academic vocabulary" and can articulate more clearly abstract propositions (although in absolute terms, my academic vocabulary is far from sufficient, still a lot of words I don't know, this is just in comparison). Also, for Mandarin, since I didn't grow up with it being spoken in my household, there are a lot of everyday words that I don't know.

Learning both has definitely been an advantage. My mind has more "connections" made in its lexicon of vocabulary, since there are two entries of each lexicon for each dialect, and if I forgot one in my consciousness, sometimes I just say the other pronunciation in my head and it comes right back to me. Also, if I've never heard a word before, I can sometimes guess the pronunciation based on the translational sound patterns (although you can't guess it 100%, you can arrive at a percentage over 50%), and when I hear a word I haven't heard before, my mind sometimes "finds" the word for me from the other dialect's lexicon and tells me what that person's saying in the freshly heard dialect. Free vocabulary.

My long term goal is to be able to communicate C.S. Lewis, Ravi Zacharias, and Dallas Willard concepts/ideas in Chinese. I don't just want a "rough" translation where the concept becomes more vague in Chinese than English (what happens to a lot of translation of abstract stuff), but I want to be able to translate it in Chinese in a way that does not compromise the profound substance of the life-changing ideas. And ideas are very powerful. Over these past 5 years in university, I'm learning more and more how much more powerful the pen is than the sword. Just like one of the themes in the awesome movie V for Vendetta, you can kill a person but you can't kill an idea.

I call this "project Ravi Zacharize the Chinese language".

I was encouraged today. I was talking to one of the China-immigrant-highschool kids today where I'm volunteering now. We talked about some spiritual things casually and naturally. I was able to talk with him somewhat about the gospel in Chinese. There were a couple of things I didn't know how to say exactly, so I had to go to a counselor (who was fluent in both languages) to help me translate, but yea, I was abel to have a pretty decent spiritual conversation with him in Chinese.








***







"Just as strength is a man's charm, charm is a woman's strength" - Ravi Zacharias.

Maybe someday, when the circumstances are suitable to ask you out.

This
stuff
is
intense

Glenn Beck. This guy is the freakin' bomb.

Not afraid to tell it like it is. Hates political correctness and bashes it unabashedly. Humourous political commentary. Conservative. Not afraid of bringing up controversy for the sake of informing the public. His wake-up-America warnings expressed through common sense flavoured sarcasm. Also personally, I love his personality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqMBUn6E3lo&feature=related

About the war in Iraq. The other side of the story rarely spoken.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-JbRH2morI

Dissin' up some of the liberal media.

These following two videos are so freakin' hilarious, they made me laugh so hard. He talks about radical islam/terrorism. Something about this guy that's so jokes on serious topics. Why can't a politician speak unabashedly on stuff like this guy?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtG7-0mKG4c&feature=related

you dao li.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNOX3bWMeAk&feature=related

This video made me laugh so hard I actually cried. Tears were actually forming out of my eyes and I actually had to take a tissue to wipe the water. It was just too funny. Holy crap.

I need to find someone in my life like Glenn Beck.

Keep doing what you're doing man! I love you!

Glenn Beck baby

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuw7rjEJBsM&feature=user

I'm gonna have to say that I agree with Chuck on this one.

It is DEFINITELY possible to kill someone and not violate the laws of love that Jesus commands us to do. Just war as Augustine thought of. When it comes to war, you can't always look at things in terms of how you can get away with zero casualties, both on your side and the "evil" side. Sometimes, certain situations are so screwed up that a country needs to intervene with force to prevent things from getting more screwed up. It is then not a question of how we can have zero people die. The question is how we can have less people die. It is for sure that some people are going to die. The question is, which option will make things the lesser of two evils, where less lives are taken away.

If you don't kill the killer, the killer will kill more and more people. If you're a cop, and you're confronted with a robber who holds 5 people hostage, and the only way to save the 5 people is to shoot the killer in the head, it would be the right thing to do. Not desirable at all. But the hard right thing to do.

Same with with a just war on an international level (although with much more complexity/complications).

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone." - Romans 12:18

Paul doesn't say "you should always live at peace with everyone". When he wrote the word "if", it is implying that it is possible that there will come a time and place where it is not possible to live at peace with everyone, because sitting on the fence as a peacemaker will cause more harm than good in the long-run.

Greg Boyd needs to lay off Bush. He needs to stop reading the headlines of popular newspapers about the war in iraq, and read some independent reports from the locals there who are non-reporters-of-big-newspapers-or-magazines. I've heard stories from non-journalists saying that the locals there are so thankful that Bush came in, cuz if he didn't things would be much worse. Some, I heard, were saying [in their own language] "why the frick didn't he come earlier?". You wouldn't hear that from filtered stories of The Toronto Star, or the New York Times.

Once again, not a zero-casualty solution, but a lesser of two evils solution.

I'm not saying that every American soldier's fighting on the battlefields for the right motives, and that the rationale of the ends in a just-war never trick the heart in the means. I'm just saying that the idea of "loving" people as always making them immediately happy is not biblical. Loving people according to the Bible is what's doing what's best for them. Jesus didn't make everyone he encountered immediately happy. He pissed some ppl off. But he never sinned. He did everything out of love. He did what's best for them wehther he made them immediately happy, or annoyed and pissed 'em off.

I think J.P. Moreland's article does a good job on the subject.

Here are a couple excerpts:

Jesus' teachings about forgiveness, loving your enemies and turning the other cheek were not meant as social ethics for the state but as private ethics for the individual. Moreover, they were guides to becoming a certain sort of person — kind and compassionate, ready to forgive; but they did not offset the need for justice and protecting the innocent with force as a last resort.

We hold the mistaken notion that we have to hate or be angry with someone to exact justice and punishment on them. But nothing could be further from the truth in God's case, and even in our own.

Greg Boyd thinks that a lot of these soldiers have an Americanized definition of a justified war conducted without loving enemies. I think he's failing to observe though, that he's holding them accountable to an Americanized definition of what "love" is supposed to be.

God's doin' serious stuff in China right now. The spiritual change in it is so crazy, the only rational explanation is the supernatural power of God.

I've been watching this documentary thing called The Cross:Jesus in China.

You can watch it here:

http://www.chinasoul.com/e/e-va.htm.

I'm referring specifically to:

1) Seeds of Blood
2) The Bitter Cup
3) Spring of Life
4) Canaan Hymn

Tim, this entry's basically for you lol.

Watch and get a taste of what the North American church is severely lacking.

GO CHINA GO! The future baby. Can't wait to see how you're gonna turn out in 10 years.

I have to admit, there are some hidden blessings involved in this whole period of support raising for 38k. One of them is having an excuse to chill and catch up with my old friends who I haven't seen in a long while, who I otherwise would not have a reason to call 'em up N meet with them again.

The "excuse" is partnering in a cause that is greater than us two (me and whoever long-lost friend I meet up with again). Therefore, the chilling time becomes meaningful, because when friends just chill purely for the sake of each other, meaningfulness in the chilling can only go so far. But when friends chill for a sake that transcends them, it is awesome. I am convinced, in my 22 years of living that Great Commission partners experience the deepest friendships one can ever experience this side of eternity. Not just Great Commission partners in name, cuz anyone can label themselves anything, but Great Commission partners in action.

I have to admit though... it's been busy. This is a different type of busyness than a 9-5 job of busyness. This type of busyness is like a "got tons of little things and reminders you have to take care of whenever you want within a specific time period" busyness, where you don't get to work hard and play hard for a considerably extended period of time without transitioning to the other soon.

I NEED MY FREE TIME. Okay, I'm speaking from my heart here. I know that all the time I have is a gift from God, but I haven't had too many times recently, where I could just relax, and do my own thing without having a mental "things to do" list in the backburner of my mind following my thoughts like a shadow.

It was cool to have an adventure with Brian Yee eating all-you-can-eat-sushi yesterday though. HEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE