Statistically speaking, there are more unbelievers than there are believers in Christ.
And of those who believe there are less who choose to accept Him as savior and king.
So, the devil wins more souls than heaven.
How does God win the war again? :(
wrtgfdg
As posted by Anonymous
Interesting. My first spam comment. Should I approve or reject it? Or just leave it to rot in my inbox?
On another note, the empower ministry thing was nice, and unsettling in a way. Nice to see that most of them enjoyed the meal (yeah, there was this guy that kept going on and on about how the chicken wasn't "natural" like what his wife got for him long ago - she went direct to the slaughterhouse to get them - but he just kept asking for more chicken! =p), and unsettling to see a 14 year old girl and her boyfriend among the homeless. Also, the fact that I couldn't quite get common ground to chat about with some of them was quite bad. Interestingly, the "chicken" guy was sitting on my right, which contrasted his parrot-y personality with the very quiet guy on my left.
Oh well..
Time for bed. Been doing stuff related to this since I woke up in the morning til now. =p Good night world!
Romans 8:28-31
Predestination.
What is a destination? It is the end point of a journey. Many times people have asked, does the means justify the ends? How about the other way around? Does the ends justify the means? But that's not really what I want to delve into right now.
What I want to ask is this: Is the ends the means?
And so, is the destination the journey?
Clearly that is not so.
Pre- is a suffix that just gives the meaning of "before". Like prehistoric, the era before recorded history. Like predate, the time before that particular date. Like predestination, knowing what happens in the end before it happens.
So, predestination is not fate. It is not a fixed timeline, where what we are bound to do has been dictated by God or anybody else.
Ie. God willing or not, what we do or do not is solely our responsibility. Our decision. Our action. (Or inaction). In essence, we have free will, and with that privilege entails responsibility for what we do or do not do with it.
So we are not bound by fate. Partial answer to my questions earlier on.
Shall wait till two weeks later. Hopefully Pastor Tim will finally move on and cover Romans 9.
PS. What a powerful idea right? "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Ultimately, victory lies with God, and so victory lies with those who are with God. Those who love God. Who fear God. Who are heirs of God. Cool!
PPS. "What if your father lived forever? What if he never grew old, never weakened, but instead grew stronger with every passing day? What would you do for him? What would be your obligations?
Assume your obligation as His rightful heir and accept your inheritance."
WOW! That's what our obligations are? Accept our inheritance? Sign me up. =)
Romans 9:15-23
Can somebody please explain these verses to me?
God, as the creator of all things, certainly possesses the right to act as He wishes, including softening or hardening some of us, or raising some people up in a manner so that He can manifest His glory.
However, does this in fact show pre-destination? A sense that we are bound by what some have termed fate, which in these passages is illustrated by the fact that we are brought up in ways that God wills. If we are so bound by fate, it would mean an exclusion of the existence of free will. That no matter what we decide, whether by our volition, or to test God/circumstances/these verses, we are headed down a path that is fixed. In fact it could be argued that in that case you can't really blame sinners, because they were fated to sin. Like the Pharoah who had his heart hardened by God, does this mean that it's "not his (Pharoah's) fault"? After all, God did harden his heart.
And if God did raise some people up to sin, does that make Him a cruel God? How can this be reconciled with the fact that God is a just and good God? (Yup, I'm still holding on to the belief that God is good.) It IS definitely quite fearful if God is not a good God. Just take a look at Ergo Proxy. The PROXIES, believed by the people to be Gods, were not quite benevolent nor good. Ophelia PROXY slaughtered the whole city just because she wasn't accepted by its people; Senekisu PROXY was insane and let the survivors of her city be stuck in a meaningless war against androids before slaughtering them all; Proxy 1 who decimated most of the other cities by launching ICBMs just so he could take revenge on the original humans, that race which created the PROXIES. Yet that is not a true parallel, for after all PROXIES were not Gods, nor were the original humans Gods themselves. Steps could be taken, rational thought called upon to devise ways to escape from their fate (although the future was quite bleak). If God were to be cruel, there is NOTHING that we can do to escape or take revenge.
But anyway, can somebody just explain those verses? I'd just want to know how they can be reconciled to my beliefs that God is good, and that we have free will to forge our future.
On a completely random note, does anybody know of any jobs that I can take for just ONE week? Specifically the 2nd week of June, since I'm free and most other people are busy with their exams. If there is could you tell me ASAP? I need to apply for my working visa, since it'll be worthless until next winter and totally not worth the price if I can't get a job for this period. Thanks!
If wearer is the person who wears something, and slipper is something you slip on,
then what is Easter?
The thing east of west?
But then it is many other things.
It is a time to remember that Christ rose up from the dead. And this certainly isn't any trivial thing. How many people have you ever known to revive..after being dead for 3 days?! This, together with Jesus' and other prophets' predictions, most certainly assure me of the existence of God. =)
It is also a great day, for it is one of the big events that lead (me) to (you). I thank God for that, and have never regretted.
Plus, it's also a reason to have a whole week of holidays here. =p
Happy Easter people!
Heard of them? They're the group that produces albums of Christian songs that are famous worldwide, at least in less traditional churches.
Now I can proudly say..
Been there, done that, got me a free cd..
Haha..lol..it's not the "main" branch or anything, but planetshakers city church was quite energy-filled, what I'd expect of any of their branches. And it was their 3rd anniversary too. First-timers got a free album and some Tim Tams and Subway munchies.
How cool can that be?! And you get a lot of exercise..from the walking there parts, the praise and worship sessions, and the run/walk back parts. Well, you get the idea.
And yeah, the jeans salespeople have just got it sooooo wrong. My buy-a-one-size-larger-than-you-currently-are-because-you'd-probably-turn-fat jeans are starting to slide down. How come everytime I go out to study my weight drops? I should seriously consider patenting this method as a foolproof weight-loss, I mean weight management program. [Yeah, the more politically correct term? =p]
And my uni wireless is finally up and running. Hopefully the webcam will not let me down like this one did.
Just saw something on the net..
It's called 4 steps to God
Basically just the basics of why and how to be a Christian. Not a bad idea this.. =)
常常感恩
常常夸胜
常常祝福
Always be thankful
Always be victorious in Christ
Always be a blessing
In personal life, family and the marketplace..
Be a warrior of Light.
Yeah!
Here's a little something for the Aspirers. Happy 23rd anniversary! And to commemorate this, an outdoor BBQ will be held =p
Ticket prices are RM2 [only], and the venue is the parking lot of Agape. It's going on tonight, from 7 to 9 pm. Interested parties are encouraged to turn up. Don't worry about not yet getting tickets..you can just buy on the spot. But hurry! There are already 100+ people who have bought their tickets, so don't dilly-dally!
Might as well find a way to stave off the lethargy for a little while longer.
Went to church office yesterday to help out N. Supposed to be a morning thing. Turned out it was more of like a 9-5 job. Actually, barring slight delays and rounding off the minutes, it WAS a 9-5 job. Haha..
Except that instead of pushing paper, we were cutting paper. And cardboard. For doorgifts.
So, ladies, please don't waste our efforts! Believe me, the doorgift looks superb! [Haha, don't worry, no biasness here. I wasn't the one who made the prototype, and most certainly did not have a big part in putting it all together. Just menial jobs=p]
The seemingly simple action of getting lunch taught me a whole load of things. Which, hopefully, will be indexed by my memory-retrieval system for future reference =p
Simply put:
1) Be more aggresive and stubborn on the road. Especially if you're looking for a place to park in town. Once you feel that you want to check out an alley for a possible parking lot, immediately work on getting your ride there. Pronto! Unless you are ready to give up the lot or you plan to emulate the famous tortoise that bribed the hare to have a nice, long nap.
2) Maintain, if not improve Chinese proficiency. Especially the reading part. The alternative is to swear off Chinese stalls and the excellent food there when there are no proficient Chinese speaking friends around.
3) Once Chinese is getting better, learn names of nice food. Or risk starving to death when girlfriend/boyfriend/spouse refuses to order food when not in the mood.
4) Bring along some snacks to stave off starvation in case last part of point 3 ever comes to pass. Or prepare excuses to change location to the nearest Italian/steak/any non-Chinese speaking food places.
5) Singapore street is so named because..
of..
..
certain reasons.
Yup.
6) Min fan gou is really simple to prepare on your own. As is green bean rice. And a whole lot of un-superhighclassed chinese food.
7) Agapeline has recipes! Yum~ brownies..
There's also this point 8 thingy? But not sure if it's valid.
"Don't even try to understand a girl. Especially your girlfriend. Just love her."
Hmm..deep.
But how do you love somebody if you do not understand the person? Should I be contented with just knowing the shell of people I love?
I wouldn't know and love what goes on within a person and the person's thoughts. Since all those are, in medical terms, deep to the outer part, wouldn't that make me a shallow hal?
Of course not. I'm not called hal.
Lol..
Former Health Minister Datuk Chua Jui Ming's son Damien was here in church today. He shared about his experiences of his walk with Christ [being fanatic was the word he used, I believe], and also about the kidnapping that happened a few years back. Seems that God really sent an angel of protection to him, literally.
In short, have a strong faith that God will always be with us, and that everything works according to His plan for the good of all those who love Him. Also, he was really funny. Makes for a good orator. =p
Speaking of God's plan, it just simply talks of God knowing all events throughout our timeline, whether in the past, present or future. In other words, it does not eliminate our free will [determinism or predestined argument], since God only knows the all the events in time but does not control it. That's only logical. Thanks to N for this piece of info. Seems I knew the answer to that all along but in a different context. Haha..As to why it's called a plan, I have no idea [We see only in part, therefore the mirror is darkened. And if I knew everything that would make me God]. Gotta follow up on that. Any leads anybody?
Enough of that for now. IMHO, it's quite hard to argue religion logically to atheists. To us, faith is the foundation for our beliefs, but by human logic, it is just another circular argument. Doesn't mean that it's wrong or anything, just that in a logical argument, it is worthless since something in your argument is used to defend your argument. Oh well..
On another note, this is quite interesting. Sortoise's is so famous [or infamous? =p] that his last name is officially a censored word on tagboards worldwide. Don't believe me? Try it out. Comes out as 1*beep*2
Thank God his girlfriend is not yet corrupted. Her name still appears well on taggys =)
Ok, enough delays. Let the sand cover my head, and the sandman snatch me away from the realities of this world.
I welcome thee, sleep..
*snores*
Happy Birthday FCBC! Yes, FCBC has been in existance for the past 20 years. As old as some people I know. And how far has it come! Tens of thousands of members now! Hallelujah!
Heard that all present were given balloons to blow.
Thank God for all that He has done for the church. May He do so much more and let the fields be white and ripe for the harvest! Glory to God, and may He open the floodgates of Heaven, showering all of FCBC with blessings abundantly.
Ah, I miss that place.
Just another random post that is actually not-so-random.
Kind of like that time when somebody said, "I'm secretly not gay."
Or something.
Haha.
Just want to thank God.
What for?
Haha..full exhaustive list would be just like the name implies. Exhaustive. Haha.
So here's a short one.
Thank God for
~ closing my doors. Usually only gentlemen would do that. Not does it show good manners, it also directs the person who just went through that particular door to the only door left opening. Kind of makes things easier on the mind. No more of that o.0-oh-my-goodness-this-is-a-real-dilemma-i'm-getting-hysterical-and-confused-which-option-shuould-i-choose situations.
~ allowing certain key events to occur. Helps to make life interesting since we can always look back on those events became key events in our lives. Not to mention showing us who are our true friends.
~ working in mysterious ways. Allows me to feel the suspense lacking in most new horror shows, notably the scary movies.
~ hindsight. Without this biased judge we wouldn't understand the mysterious ways of God that has already occured.
~ gratitude. Without which we would not appreciate the good things God has done for us, or to act upon the results of our hindsight.
~ a loving family. Who are my earthly pillars of support, giving me guidance and strength. Not to mention discipline. Haha..
~ super powers, simply called "a tolerable memory". [Hey, don't blame me! All the superheroes of the past took the cool names. Like Laser eyesight, anti-gravity etc etc] With this super power, I am now a super hero! Lol..watch me activate it..
and hey presto!
I can remember my good friends, the people God placed in my life to make it a better one, people who understand and care for me! Haha..Now that I remember my good friends, I need to..uh, I..need..to..need..Where was I?
~ good friends. OHYES, I wanted to thank God for good friends. =) Hmm, seems like I got to learn how to control my super power. Hehe..Thank God for good friends who are there for me.
~ conscience. Which is telling me to stop now and go back to study. Haha. Gotta obey it!
So, those are just part of the things I'm thankful for. For a complete list, please consult www.signius'sbrain.com
That's all folks.
Cheers!
Haha..here's a relatively old topic here..Stress
How, exactly, do you cope with stress?
No prizes or anything for those who get the right answer, since there's really no absolute right answer =P
Nevertheless, I'm interested..how exactly do people cope with stress? Successfully, I mean..not that interested in methods that ultimately result in what the chinese would term as 怒发冲冠. Roughly translated as so angry that when rage erupts, it just rushes through the scalp. Ok, that's a literal translation..haha..It's more like extreme rage. Blowing your top. Gone cuckoo. Take your pick. [Incidently, if you can't read the chinese text, please click View -> Character encoding -> Unicode (UTF - 8). For Internet Explorer users, please click View -> Encoding -> Unicode (UTF - 8), read the blog, then click on the Firefox ad on the right panel to get an entirely FREE copy of Mozilla Firefox. It's a super nice browser to use, not to mention being so much more safer than IE. Yes, I do get paid a fraction of a cent for each user that installs Firefox, but that's really peanuts. I do this only because I believe in Firefox more than IE. So there]
Anyway, comments are welcome. Only things I can think of are such:
Know that you are stressed. 知自知比，百战百胜. Know thyself, or rather, know what's bugging you. Haha..
Identify the source of stress. This is critical. Really. The key to tackling any problem is to tackle the root of the problem. Simple application of the principle of cause and effect. Remove the cause and you remove the effect, in this case it happens to be stress. And this action will result in a reaction, which is removal of stress for you.
Brainstorm ideas to either a) Remove the source, or b) modify your actions or the source so that there is less of an effect on you, or in a worst-case scenario c) remove yourself from that environment that generates such an unbearable amount of stress.
Then take the most appropriate action.
However, just coping with stress this way is quite one-minded and not very effective in the long run, I think. Like the emerging branch of preventive medicine, there should be preventive steps taken to avoid such situations from arising in the future. Or, at the least, minimize its effects. Like the speaker from No Apologies said, the best way to solve a problem is to NOT get into the situation in the first place=) Anyway, back to the issue, one should be prepared for stressful situations. Like the patients who are told by doctors what to expect will report less pain after the procedure, those who are prepared for stressful situations should be less prone to its ill-effects.
Anyway, that's what I think. Can't verify the usefulness of all those methods though-_-"
So that's where you, the reader, comes in. Comment and leave your thoughts. Maybe something you post here will shed new light on better stress management techniques. =)
Ok, time to go and re-enter stressful times. After all, a little of healthy stress keeps us fit, in an ironic and paradoxical way.
Check out the link where it says "quitting so soon?". Agape recently revamped their webiste! Cool! It's so much better now. Refreshing in a way=)
Too bad my web skills are zilch-_-" Sorry tananne, didn't mean to mislead you.
Btw, it's pronounced as Ah-Gah-Peh, instead of A-gape..just for your info=)
