Sengkang to Bishan to Esplanade

Well, this is what happened to me after I cycled from Sengkang to Bishan to Esplanade. Knocking out at the Singapore River side. Tell you more in my next entry...

"So when are you buying a car?"

This was one question which was posed to me during my gathering with old army friends. My response, "huh? I haven't even start working yet lor and you all want me to carry this financial burden straightaway? And besides, I have absolutely zero knowledge about cars although I got a driving license since 1999."

Oh yes, my driving license is and still collecting dust at home. I have never brought it out since the day that I was "banned" from riding. Furthermore, I have given up all my plans to upgrade it and so there it is in my drawer collecting dust.

Buying cars? haha, think I don't need at the moment lah. My future workplace is quite near my house. It is probably just about 20 min bus ride away so why should I buy one? In addition, buying one is easy but supporting one is a burden. Why don't I just use all the money for supporting God's ministries and my family instead? There was a comment by one of my army friends that he would rather spend all his money on his girl then on a car. Hmm, quite true. hehe.

Learnt something from God during quiet time today. The passage which I was reading through was Luke 16:19-31. If you do not have a bible with you, here is what it says:

The Rich Man and Lazarus "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

"The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.'

"But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.'

"He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' " 'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.'

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' "

This passage is not actually saying that all rich people will definitely go to hell. It is actually telling us to treasure only the things which matters. A car does not really matter in life. What really matters to us is the Word of God. That is the Bible. As a matter of fact, the Bible is about 3506 years old. If you are into antiques, you may be most glad to take possession of this super antique thing. However, it is not for you to auction it but to obey it with all your hearts. God is really looking into my heart. The Word of God is here with me. What matters is, "Am I always ready to obey it with all my heart?"

If you have noticed, the passage ended with a warning. That is if you do not listen to Moses and the Prophets (which literally means the Old Testament or the Scriptures or the Word of God), you will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead. Christ Himself has been risen from the dead but there are still people who are not convinced. There can be only one reason for it - You need to listen to the Word of God.

Goal

What is a goal?

• noun 1 (in soccer, rugby, etc.) a pair of posts linked by a crossbar and forming a space into or over which the ball has to be sent to score. 2 an instance of sending the ball into or over a goal. 3 an aim or desired result. (AskOxford)

When my friend is asked recently what is his goal in life, he thought for a while and then shakes his head to tell us that he does not know what his goal is. He does not know what does he want to do in life. Then, my friend starting to probe him further by asking him what does he like besides women, money and cars. He still does not know.

My goal in life? For me, it is to be an engineer. I have aspired to be an engineer since my secondary school days. I remembered that when I was still in secondary one, my classmate (sorry, not Albert. I got other classmates besides him, ok? haha) questioned me about my ambition. At that time, I replied plainly that I want to be an engineer. I want to be an useful person and in my view, engineers are very useful people because they make our lives easier by making useful things. Without engineers, you may even have difficult finding a place to rest and live. haha, a bit exaggerating lah.

When I reached secondary two, I realised that there are many different types of engineers. Therefore, I started to think carefully which type of engineers do I want to be. Eventually, you all know the answer right, I went into Electronics. I feel that at least I like logic gates (they look logical to me) and I said to myself, "Why not?" Today, I am an electronic engineer. Okay, not yet but soon to be in another eleven days or so. This is my aim. This is my desired result.

Just like there are many different types of engineers, there are many different type of goals. As of today or rather about five years ago, I have reached another goal in my life. What is it? It is found in 1 Peter 1:8-9.

Though I have not seen Jesus, I love him; and even though I do not see him now, I believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for I am receiving the goal of my faith, the salvation of my soul. (verses modified for personal application)

Just like I am glad to have reached my goal of becoming an engineer, I am glad to know that I am receiving the goal of my faith which is the salvation of my soul. Developing a relationship with Jesus to me takes time. Right from the beginning, it is relational. If you have not realised, we are all in relationships. Be in BGR (I know you may be thinking of this straightaway), family, friends, bosses, colleagues or classmates. It is all relational. The same is with befriending Jesus.

I feel honoured to know a truest and dearest Friend who has guided and taught me many things in life. =)

cs code - 'qci ot kcab'

Decode the cs code and you will be chatting with cs right away.

But wait, you need a second code first. Okay, here it is... =)

99329952

You will be authorised upon decoding the cs code and 'OH OH', you are in!

“Going Public With Your Faith” Thoughts

As I was reading Chapter 2 of this book today, I was in awe of the main point which the two authors are driving at, which as a matter of fact is the theme of this whole book – to go out into the secular world so that you can be witnessing to the numerous souls who are still being blinded by the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4).

I strongly feel God’s timing for the various events which came across my life during this year. This year is in fact a very, very eventful year for me. (Note that I have used up two ‘very’ to express the intensity). Indeed, at the beginning of this year 2006, I made up two new year resolutions for myself. One of them never been realized due to my own disobedience to God (Sorry, Father). The other one sort of been realized halfway. It can be considered done or not done. Okay, this second resolution can be shared which is to run a full marathon.

A full marathon which is 42.195 km. Yes, a full one… Why I say it is sort of been realized halfway is because I did not run the full marathon in one shot but done it in installments. That is I ran 21.1 km for Army Half Marathon (AHM) on 27 August and will be doing another 21.1 km on 3 Dec for Singapore Standard Chartered Marathon. So all in all, I did run a full marathon after all. Haha. Okay, I cheated. I promise as of this entry that I will run a full marathon definitely next year 2007, ok?

Yes, this year is indeed eventful because first of all, I need to clear my final year project (fyp) and final year modules to make sure that I can graduate in time in June. Furthermore, I need to make sure that my parents attend my convocation smoothly and all. Also I have to go back to serve the Army for another four months plus to complete my NS liabilities. In addition, I have to make one major decision and that is either to serve God full time in ministry or to go out into the working world.

This book, “Going Public With Your Faith” teaches and encourages people not to have the mindset of working in secular jobs means wasting your time and fades in comparison to serving God full-time in ministry. It really educates me about the distorted beliefs which I have been harbouring since 2004. I have always thought that in order not to waste my life, I need to be serving God full-time either in campus ministry, bible studies, prayer sessions or many other Christian ministries. However reading this book makes me realize that in fact doing your normal secular jobs is not wasting your life at all. You are actually going out to God’s harvest field at the workplace which is actually not smaller in comparison to the campus ministry or in fact a bigger scope of area!

Going on to working life will mark a brand new chapter and beginning of my life. Entering into my company (have found a job) will mean building relations with my colleagues and learning new things in a brand new and unfamiliar environment. It will take time to adapt and I will definitely face a lot of changes to my life. Like what one of my brothers says, “There are three events which will cause stress to your life. They are, firstly changing job, secondly, getting married and lastly, moving house.” However, one major thing remains. My God is still asking me to reach out for Him and be His witness no matter where I go. He guarantees that He will be with me till the end of the age. Oh, what can I say? I can only tell Him with all my sincerity :

感谢主！

Learn - 学

"How do you learn?" was one of the numerous questions which was posed to me during my job interviews. Deep inside me, I was also thinking about how to answer this question. How do I learn? My mind went all the way back to my primary school days on how do I learn new words, numbers and how do I count all the beads on my teacher's string below the class blackboard to learn addition and subtraction? Do I learn well by myself or do I need someone to guide or rather spoon-feed me? These were the questions flooding my mind.

As acquired in a motivational course attended during my poly days, our brain learns new knowledge or things through making new neuro connections. Once a new thing is learnt, a new neuro connection is made inside your brain tissues. Hence, the more neuro connections you have, the more things you have learnt. However, you need constant and effective repetitions in order to firm up the new neuro connection. That is without so called enough training, you will lose the new neuro connection over time.

I need to learn many things especially when I am going into my new job as an engineer soon in about three weeks time. Be it relational things like building new friendships with new colleagues or technical things like fabricating a defect-free wafer using the least amount of time, learning is a never-ending process. I believe in my parents' time, blogging is not even born yet. Therefore, if I really want to read my parents' blog, they will have to pick up or learn about blogging first. Even with their many years of life experiences, there will always be something new to learn. To them at this moment, blogging is something which they have never known in their lives and if they want to blog, they will have to learn.

At this moment right now, I am attempting to learn guitar. I mentioned attempting because I faced many difficulties when learning so I cannot say that I am learning but just attempting to learn. Hopefully over time, I will be able to say that I am learning as I do up the training and repetition portion to form this new neuro connection in my brain for guitar. =)

Learn, unlearn and relearn are some words which you may have come across during one of those motivational courses. On the other hand, why am I writing a blog entry on learning? This is because I want to tell all my blog readers that I need to indeed learn from my mistakes. While learning new things involve just making that required neuro connection, learning from my mistakes require loosing that formed neuro connection and vow never to repeat the mistaking connection ever again. I believe I need that and it is sometimes called unlearn to me. Relearning really involves performing something new or doing that same thing without the mistakes committed before.

I need to learn from my mistake of disobeying God at times. Unlearning my disobedience in order to put on the relearning of obedience to Him. God, I am sorry that I have disobeyed You. Pls discipline me so that I can truly learn from my mistakes. Thanks, Heavenly Father.

人健人爱

This is something which I picked up from my Physical Training Instructor (PTI) during my unit's healthy lifestyle programmes. Maybe I just share with my blog readers. =)

Keep fit by adopting the F.I.T.T. rule

Frequency :
Exercise three to five times a week.

Intensity :
Generally, you should exercise at 75 per cent and above of your Maximum Heart Rate (MHR). Let's assume that your potential MHR is 220 beats per minute (bpm). You should try to achieve the Target Heart Rate (THR) during your exercise. To calculate THR, use this formula: (220 - your age) x 75 %. For example, if you are 30 years old, your THR is (220-30) x 0.75 = 142.5 bpm.

Type : Often people stop exercising because they find it boring. Hence, vary your exercise regime. Try swimming, jogging and playing a sport.

Time : Set aside time to exercise for at least 40 minutes each session - 10 minutes for warming up, at least 20 minutes exercising, and 10 minutes cooling down.

Okay, I am meeting my contact for a time of healthy lifestyle tomorrow morning. Learning to keep fit so that I can serve God more effectively. Haha and my favourite line when I was caught jogging in school last time was, "Healthy Body, Healthy Mind!"

What does it mean when Christians say the Bible is inspired?

An Article by Gregory Koukl

God doesn't give autographs. What I mean by that is that God doesn't allow us, or apparently hasn't in His sovereignty, to keep the autographs of the writings of the Bible. I am tempted to say the original autographs, but the autograph is an original so that would be like saying the original original. In other words, those things that the Apostles actually penned, which copies were made of to disperse around the Mediterranean region and then be copied and recopied, etc.--Greek copies of which we have some 5,366 plus now, and in addition, the Aramaic and Coptic and Latin Vulgate. We have lots of different copies to make comparisons to see if what we have now is accurate.

That's actually a separate question, by the way. The question of lower criticism, or textual criticism is, have the documents been passed on in an accurate fashion? We have a transcript on that issue called "Is the New Testament Text Reliable?"

But the question can be raised, why didn't God allow us to have the autographs, the originals? I guess I need to back up here a moment and talk about inspiration because this whole question that I want to approach here is grounded in the idea of inspiration. It's really important that you understand precisely what we mean when we say that God inspired the Scripture. Let's just take the claim at face value right now. I won't defend the notion; that's a different issue. What it means is that God worked in a supernatural way such that those who were actually doing the writing wrote down precisely what God wanted them to write. He was moving through a human individual.

It was not automatic writing. It wasn't like Paul was in a trance writing away with his eyes glued opened and someone asked, "What are you writing?" And he said, "I don't know, it's Greek to me." That isn't what happened. He was writing like you would a letter. You can read letters from different writers and they have their own personality in the letter. They may have used research like Luke did, interviewed other people, compiled information. They might have even borrowed from secular sources. That seems to have happened in the book of Proverbs.

The point is, when we say it's inspired we mean that whatever the words were that were written down, these were the precise words that God wanted to have written down. God worked powerfully through those people such that their words were God's words and God's words were their words. That's why we call the Scripture the Word of God, even though they may be the words of Peter or Paul or John or the Prophets. They are still the word of God because God was working in a concursive way. He was writing together with them, in a sense. We call this operation inspiration.

What we mean by this, for example in the case of the New Testament, is that these are the particular words in the Greek language that most precisely reflect the meanings that God wanted to convey. Notice I used two terms there: words and meanings. In others words, the very words are the out-breathing of God. Technically they are not inspired; they are expired. I don't mean they are dead. They are theopneustus , "the breathing of God." "God-breathed" is what that means, literally. So now we have the words flowing from the pens of Peter and Paul and Moses and the Prophets that are the particular words that God chose to express His thoughts to us, but we don't have in our possession the inspired original words. No problem. That's actually a good thing.

Think for just a moment what a word is. Let's take the word table . The meaning signified by the word table or by the sound table is not the letters on the page or the sound itself. The meaning is something other than that. When we utter the word table, what we mean is, "that thing out there with four legs and a flat top." We can even point to it and say That, right there. So the sound or the written word signifies a particular object and this signify relation, this pointing to business that is caught up between the word we utter and the thing that we are pointing at, this is what we call meaning.

Words convey meaning and God chose very specific words. He inspired them in order to convey particular meanings. The word points to something out there in the world. In other words, sometimes the meaning of the word is a physical object like table. Other times it is not physical--love, for example. The point that I'm making is that we can have two tangible things--a sound or a written word--on a page that points to another tangible thing--the table for example--but that pointing to is not something tangible. The meaning is not physical.

Now stay with me for a moment, because this is all going to cash out in a very important way. First of all, think of this. It's not just the meanings of the Bible that are inspired. When I gave you our definition of inspiration which seems to be the biblical teaching on the issue, we're not talking about the meanings that are inspired. It's the words themselves--the Greek words. 2 Timothy 3:16 says "all graphe is inspired", all Scripture. What are the graphe ? The writings. All the writings are inspired.

We've been talking about the fact that there's a big difference between the word and the meaning. For example, the word could change. You might say table in English, or mesa in Spanish or tdoe in Thai--but it's still table. The word changes but the meaning is the same. The meaning is fixed. The words can change, but the meaning stays the same. Meanings are static and words can change to identify the meanings.

This difference identifies the distinction between what is called a type and a token. The meaning of the word is the type. It's the thing itself. The token is the t-a-b-l-e that signifies the meaning. The type doesn't change. The meaning or the type is a universal. It can be in more than one place at one time. The same meaning of table can be in mesa or tdoe and table at the same time. The different tokens have the same meaning but it takes different forms. The words are the particulars, the tokens, the examples, in a sense.

So, the simple rule is there is one type, many tokens. The type is not tangible, the tokens are. Meanings give the words meanings.

If you write table on the board three times, how many words are on the board? Well, it's not entirely clear how many there are. There are three words, and there is one word, meaning that there are three tokens--the token table three times, but only one type. One meaning is represented there, but there are three different tokens of that meaning on the board.

*********
God has chosen a particular set of tokens in words recorded in the Scriptures that can be communicated equally to everyone.

Therefore everybody has the same shot at the truth.

*********

How does all this relate to the issue of Scripture and the original documents? There's a couple of conclusions we can draw. First is that the only way we can really communicate meaning is by using some kind of token of it--in this case, words. It can be a spoken word or a written word or sign language or some kind of token which communicates meaning. This is why it is so critical that it is not the meanings only that are inspired in Scripture but the tokens themselves, the writings, the words. If you lose the tokens, if you can't count on the tokens, then we don't have access to the meanings either. Another way of putting it is, how can you get inspired meanings without inspired words? Yet there are some people who hold that it is not the words that are inspired. The words can be fallible, but it's the meanings that are the things that really count.

But how do you get one without the other? You've got to have some fixed point from which to depart. You've got to have the words--the tokens--which are a point of public access to the meanings. All of us can see the same word there. In this case, the fixed point is the words in the original manuscripts in the Greek, and God has given those things as a fixed point, particular tokens so that we can work with those tokens to get at the meaning. That's what we do when we do biblical interpretation.

Another advantage is that meanings themselves aren't reproducible. Only tokens are reproducible. So it makes sense that we have a Bible that is given to us in tokens. That is, written words which allow us to reproduce the tokens so that the meaning carried with the tokens can be transferred as well. Some people ask, Why doesn't God just speak to me? Why doesn't He just show himself to me? In a way He has. He has spoken. But to avoid showing Himself to every single person in some kind of special and unique fashion that may be confusing or misleading, God has chosen a particular set of tokens in words recorded in the Scriptures that can be communicated equally to everyone. Therefore everybody has the same shot at the truth. They have this shot through a fixed medium of the particular words that God has chosen. You can see how helpful this makes things, can't you? It deals decisively with the problem of each person having to interpret his own individual subjective revelation that is not tied to something objective like a text--words.

Think for a moment if you were the owner of a company and you wanted all your employees to be very, very clear on a set of principles that you had for running the company. You wouldn't simply emote your desires and hope that all of your employees picked up your vibes. You'd want each employee to understand you so you would articulate your thoughts as precisely as possible through the tokens of words and expect each employee to read the same words in order to get your meaning clear. Right? That's exactly what God has done.

There's another tremendous advantage to this, by the way. If God were to give us such a memo, such a revelation, it would be a very valuable revelation, right? How do you protect such a revelation? God writes through someone His divine word on a piece of paper. How do you protect that? How do you guard against its destruction. If it's only one copy and it was destroyed, bang and it's gone. When it gets destroyed, we are back in the dark again.

Or even more importantly, how do you guard against it being changed or tampered with or corrupted by someone? It's one thing not to have any record at all and then everyone's in the dark. It's another thing altogether to have a spurious record, a faulty record giving commands from God that are not from God at all. That's worse.

Well, the way God handled that is to solve both problems by allowing the original to be destroyed. How does that solve the problem? He made sure there were thousands and then millions of copies. So many copies that they could not all be destroyed.

That's why I don't get it when some claim that the early church took out all the references from the Bible about reincarnation. Some claim that the Council of Nicea took out all the references to reincarnation, that it was originally in the Bible. First of all, how would anybody know that if it was taken a millennium and a half ago? How would you even know that it used to be there and now it's not there any more? Would you find eraser marks or something?

Then there's another problem. How is the church going to gather up the thousands of manuscripts that are being circulated all over the Mediterranean--actually there were tens of thousands; only thousands have survived--and expunge every reference in the Bible to reincarnation? Well, they can't do it when there are thousands of copies, but if there was only one they could. They could take it out and they could rewrite it. They could pretend that what they changed was really the original. That is, I think, one of the reasons God has allowed such a thing. If you had only the original, that could be done. But when you have thousands of copies it can't be done.

The Scriptures become dispersed abroad to all peoples in an objective form so that everyone gets the same thing in a way that protects the document from ever being forged or falsified. That can be done because even the original represents meaning through words as tokens and the tokens can be copied. They can be reproduced such that the copy of the token is the same as the original token. Just like the three words table on the board. They are the same as each other. So if we have a copy using the exact same tokens as the autograph, we essentially have the autograph. The same tokens convey the same meanings that are behind them.

In one sense, the original tokens are gone, the autograph is gone. But if we demonstrate that our present copies are accurate copies then it's fair to say that in regards to the tokens we have millions of originals all over the world. By golly, that's a pretty good system.

My NIV Study Bible

I got myself this bible today. I feel that I really need to do a serious study of God's Word. Hence, despite the expensive price of this bible (as you can see), I still bought it without a second thought. Somemore when I asked the staff for a brand new copy, she was like very shocked and told me that all the copies at the shelf are new copies. However in the end, she still gave me a new copy but she thought that I wanted a new copy because the plastic cover of the box came off and told me that even for this new copy, the plastic cover still came off. Haha, but I told her that I will accept this copy because the bible itself is wrapped in a plastic sheet. I wanted a new bible instead of the box. I was so fussy. (so bad of me, feel so regretful of my actions)

Eventually, I paid for the new bible and the book, "Going Public with Your Faith" and went back home.

My Model Bike

Galatians 5:24

"Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires." - Galatians 5:24

I came upon this verse while doing my quiet time at 5.15am yesterday morning. Somehow God spoke to me through this verse, asking me deep into my heart, "Before you go into your habitual sins again, think about My Words, 'Do you belong to Me?' " I heard Him and immediately I knew that one fact which is never false - I belong to Christ Jesus.

From that very moment when He hung there and bled for me, He has redeemed me. He has given me the right to come into His courts. He is my big brother in front of our Heavenly Father. Let me always remember that I belong to Him and not only that, I have also crucified my sinful nature with its passions and desires to the Cross together with Him.

What does it mean to crucify? It means, at least to me, that my sinful nature with its passions and desires is dead. What is dead? Dead means the following:
• adjective 1 no longer alive. 2 (of a part of the body) numb. 3 displaying no emotion. 4 no longer relevant or important. 5 lacking activity or excitement. 6 devoid of living things. 7 (of equipment) not functioning. 8 complete; absolute: dead silence. (quoted from AskOxford)

My sinful nature is no longer alive! It is numb, displaying no emotion, no longer relevant or important, lacking activity or excitement, devoid of living things, not functioning, absolute non existence.

I struggled as a matter of fact starting from last night till this morning... Almost went back to my old sinful ways again but God's Word has spoken. A big confronting question from Him came upon me before I succumb back to my old ways - Do you belong to Christ Jesus? If you do, your sinful nature is already dead! Why are you going back to a dead state again?

Yes, I belong to Christ and I am certain that I am His child. To be His child means that I must have crucified my sinful nature with its passions and desires and pronounced it dead. This is the prerequisite. I must have done this before I can belong to Christ. It is required as a prior condition.

Thank You for the Cross and may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. 谢谢主！

一毛钱的咖啡

今天，我喝了一杯一毛钱的咖啡。为什么只须一毛钱呢？因为朋友欠我五毛钱。

就这么简单。是的。

钱是不是很重要？钱的价值是什么呢？

钱的价值是我们人所一致同意而订下的一种交易的工具吧了。所以朋友，不要被它所盲目。自己赚够养活自己与家人就足够了。

是真的。

不妨静静地思考一下儿吧。

Galatians 6:14

Throughout the whole of last week, I was meditating upon this verse which came upon my mind after reading two books namely, "The Cross of Christ" by John Stott and "Don't waste your life" by John Piper. What does this verse say? If you are too lazy to flip your bible to find out what it says, you can always copy my entry title and paste it onto the Biblegateway search bar located on my sidebar. Haha.

Ok, here is what it says:
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord, Jesus Christ through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." ~Gal 6:14~

What is boast? Boast is to talk about oneself with excessive pride. The verse to me is telling me that if you ever want to boast, boast in the cross of Christ where I have crucified myself to the cross with Him and no longer of this world. My old self is now dead and the new life that I live now is all by the grace of Christ. The old has gone and the new has come! (2 Cor 5:17). I have became a new creation in Christ.

The cross to the others is a symbol of defeat, shame and foolishness. 1 Cor 1:18 says it very well that for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. The cross is the power of God! The cross is where my old self is being crucified together with Christ and I am no longer under the bondage and control of sin. This is precisely what I want to boast to others and definitely not my money, fame or power.

This verse cannot be dimissed as Pauline idiosyncrasy. For, as we have known as Christians, the cross was central to the mind of Christ, and has always been central to the faith of the church. Firstly, to glory or boast in the cross is to see it as the way of acceptance with God. The most important of all questions is how we, as lost and guilty sinners, may stand before a just and holy God. It was to answer this question loud and clear that Paul, in the passionate heat of his controversy with the Judaizers, dashed off his letter to the Galatians. Like them some people today still trust in their own merits. But God forbid that we should boast except in the cross. The cross excludes all other kinds of boasting (Rom 3:27).

Secondly, to glory or boast in the cross is to see it as the pattern of our self-denial. Although Paul writes of only one cross ('the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ'), he refers to two crucifixions, even three. On the same cross on which our Lord Jesus Christ was himself crucified, 'the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.' The 'world' thus crucified (repudiated) does not of course mean the people of the world (for we are called to love and serve them), but the values of the world, its godless materialism, vanity and hypocrisy (for we are told not love these, but to reject them). The 'flesh' has already been crucified (5:24); now 'the world' joins it on the cross. We ought to keep the two main crucifixions of 6:14 in close relation to each other - Christ's and ours. For they are not two, but one. It is only the sight of Christ's cross which will make us willing, and even anxious, to take up ours. It is only then that we shall be able with integrity to repeat Paul's words after him that we glory in nothing but the cross.

I feel many times people are not ready to put their faith in Christ because they have not fully understood the Cross. Remembering what apostle Peter has said, "But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have..." (1 Peter 3:15), let us boast in nothing else but only in the Cross of Christ so that we can be always ready to tell others about the hope we have and bring Christ to them.

Let Galatians 6:14 be my key verse in my Christian life as I continue to meditate upon it daily and focus on Christ alone.

Run For Hope

One more week to "Run For Hope". As I complete this race of 9 km, let me think about how I can be really creating hope for the Cancer patients. I really feel that I can do much more for the less fortunate. As I step into the working life, let me really learn how to focus on the less fortunate and be touching lives. =)

The Long Silence

At the end of time, billions of people were scattered on a great plain before God's throne.

Most shrank back from the brillant light before them. But some groups near the front talked back heatedly - not with cringing shame, but with belligerence.

'Can God judge us? How can he know about suffering?' snapped a pert young brunette. She ripped open a sleeve to reveal a tattooed number from a Nazi concentration camp. 'We endured terror... beatings... torture... death!'

In another group, a Negro boy lowered his collar. 'What about this?' he demanded, showing an ugly rope burn. 'Lynched ... for no crime but being black!'

In another crowd, a pregnant schoolgirl with sullen eyes. 'Why should I suffer?' she murmured, 'It wasn't my fault.'

Far out across the plain there were hundreds of such groups. Each had a complaint against God for the evil and suffering he permitted in his world. How lucky God was to live in heaven where all was sweetness and light, where there was no weeping or fear, no hunger or hatred. What did God know of all that man had been forced to endure in this world? For God leads a pretty sheltered life, they said.

So each of these groups sent forth their leader, chosen because he had suffered the most. A Jew, a Negro, a person from Hiroshima, a horribly deformed arthritic, a thalidomide child. In the centre of the plain they consulted with each other. At last they were ready to present their case. It was rather clever.

Before God could be qualified to be their judge, he must endure what they had endured. Their decision was that God should be sentenced to live on earth - as a man!

'Let him be born a Jew. Let the legitimacy of his birth be doubted. Give him a work so difficult that even his family will think him out of his mind when he tries to do it. Let him be betrayed by his closest friends. Let him face false charges, be tried by a prejudiced jury and convicted by a cowardly judge. Let him be tortured.

'At the last, let him see what it means to be terribly alone. Then let him die. Let him die so that there can be no doubt that he died. Let there be a great host of witnesses to verify it.'

As each leader announced his portion of the sentence, there was a long silence. No-one uttered another word. No-one moved. For suddenly all knew that God had already served his sentence.

******

I turned to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in God-forsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross which symbolizes divine suffering. 'The Cross of Christ ... is God's only self-justification in such a world' as ours.

This God whom is mentioned all along in this entry is my Lord, Christ Jesus.

Above article is solely adapted from "The Cross of Christ" by John Stott and "Justification of God" by P. T. Forsyth

谢谢天父

I am writing this entry of thanksgiving to my Lord, Jesus for seeing me through the many issues that had happened to me over these years. Years before knowing Him and years after knowing Him. Many things happened and at those moments, I do not really understand why they had to happen to me. I struggled, cried my hearts out, slapped myself, called up various helplines and even have suicidal thoughts coming to my mind frequently. Those were the years before knowing my Heavenly Father and 1998 was the darkest year of my life. I underwent a great turmoil of stress and my family was the only mental support who really saw me through it all.

However in that year, God was also there with me. Even though at that time, I did not know Him but He was there. During my recuperation, images of the Cross kept flooding my mind. I did not really understand who Christ is but He came into my presence and slowly revealed Himself to me through a Lego set consisting of simple pipelines. With absolutely nobody speaking or sharing to me who Christ is yet I knew at that time He hung on the cross, enduring the pain on His body. I did not know how I can know Him closer at that moment. And that was in 1998.

I really thank God for who He really is and His great unconditional love for me. Indeed what the Bible says is true. We love because He first loved us. (1 John 4:19) If He has never loved us and shown His love by His actions, how will we know what is love and how to love? That is why I treasure this relationship which I have with Him. As I am still learning how to love Him back more each day, He has showered His love upon me day after day faithfully and unceasingly. Many times, absolutely countless of times, I have sinned against Him and let Him down again and again but yet as I reflect upon the Cross, I know that He has covered my sins with His Blood. He sees me through every day of my life and is always here with me.

Today as I approach the fifth year of knowing Christ next month, I realised that I can never finish documenting the many things that happened and how His Amazing Grace has seen me through it all. Indeed, I will like to submit myself first to Him and involve Him in every decision I make in every aspect of my life. I can sense His presence with me every moment as I breathe this breath of life He has given me. Thank you, Lord. I will like to remind myself too not to give thanks to Him only when things are going my way but to give thanks in everything because this is God's will for me in Christ Jesus. (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

Father God, I will also like to take this opportunity to confess whatever sins which I have commited against You. Pls forgive me and bring me back into fellowship with You once again. Allow me to call upon Your Name to live a life of repentance. Let me build a closer relationship with you each day and allow me to know you better through every minute of my life.

Thank You for revealing Yourself to me because I understand that we cannot never come into knowledge of You unless You reveal Yourself to us. And I pray that You can also reveal Yourself to my family members: My dad, my mom and my sister. Pls have mercy upon them and let your grace and truth shine into their darkest area of their lives. Thank You, Abba Father!

SFF 2006 - Italy

~All photographs are copyrights of Mr Chen Wei Hao~

SFF 2006 - Singapore

~All photographs are copyrights of Mr Chen Wei Hao~

SFF 2006 - New Caledonia

~All photographs are copyrights of Mr Chen Wei Hao~

SFF 2006 - France

~All photographs are copyrights of Mr Chen Wei Hao~

Throwing Mortarboard Time!

It is so hilarious. Everyone is throwing their mortarboards for the sake of taking this photo but nobody is looking in front. All are looking at where their mortarboard is! haha. =)

By the way, if you want to view all the photos taken at the Esplanade, you can logon to this link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/edsoh98/RekindlingConvocationMoments

Pls do not expect too high a standard of the photos, ok?
We are not professional photographers... hehe.

Rekindling Convo Moments

Today is 2 Sep 2006. One week after AHM and this evening I am back here again at Esplanade Drive with my friends. The purpose? To rekindle our convocation moments. I think I am also recce-ing the ground for all my fellow brothers and sisters which spots to take photos are the best so that next year TPBC graduates can gather here to take photos! haha. =) Waiting patiently for the rest to graduate soon...

Actually while we were taking photos, there were three groups of different tourists who came up to ask if they can take photos with us. We were like, "wow, we are becoming some kind of tourists' attraction is it?" haha. Anyway, we obliged and took photos with them free of charge. haha... so funny.

Okay, after all the quality control (QC), here is one photo which I feel is the best among all lah.

So enjoy lor... :)