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2月27日 Thanks suetchian, sengkong, ruili, winnie, joanna and maybelle for making today a wonderful one to me =)
i guess today is the only day during this midterm break when i can really enjoy myself without being disturbed by school work.
the k-box session was fun =) we sang a wide variety of songs. 5 hours in k-box was not boring at all hehehe...... at first i was reluctant to go cos i couldnt sing any chinese songs at all and my friend told me that kbox mostly offer chinese songs, very few english songs. but fortunately, my qualm was unfounded. there are actually a wide selection of english songs as well =)
though many chinese songs were sung, i just hummed along and i had fun also somehow. I was familiar enough with most of the Jay Chou's songs since 2 of my previous roomates in my JC time (bengkim and kelvin) were big fans of Jay Chou. and i find that Jay Chou is a great musician, very prolific and creative. the tunes of most of his songs are pleasant to my ears as well. but i realise that it's not the singing or the songs that made my day, it was the company of my buddies =) very fun!!! Thanks for Maybelle who treated us for a dinner at Singapore Swimming Club. thanks for ur gesture of kindness.
by tmrw i have to get back to the endless piles of assignment again =(
Scheisse! this semester break is hardly a break for me. Schade!
2月24日 i am currently in love with Sister Acts songs =) they are oldies but goodies. i am excited that some of the songs will be used by KR Choir for the coming "Amplitude" Inter-hall choir and acapella concert. cool =)
From these songs, we can learn some things. We can come to GOD in praise & worship by simply being ourselves. God loves us for who we are. So, we don't need to wear "a robe of deceit and hypocrite". There is one scene where Whoopie Goldberg asks her students to take off all their robes and just express their loves for GOD in their "own style". Cool! =) and God loves our authentic expression of love for HIM. We have freedom to jump, dance and shout before HIM.
Secondly, this clip teaches us that church should be dynamic and evolving, keeping up with the trend and time. We have to meet the needs of today's young & new generation. Our God is a creative and dynamic GOD. So, we shd not limit the way or method we praise & worship HIM by following strictly some man-made church lithurgy, rituals or proceedings. Our Almighty GOD can take pleasure in us as well when we are doing "break-dance", rapping, singing rock musics and any other sorts of idiosyncrasy. it's not our actions that justifies us before GOD. It's our Heart Atttude towards HIM that justifies us before HIM.
In the BIBLE, Jesus rebukes the Pharysees who act and dress religiously in the public but yet their hearts are far away from HIM. Action doesn't justify us.
Jesus considered a beggar who gave a few cents for church offering (all the money that he has earned on that day) to be better than a rich man who offered thousands of dollars for show-off. So, Heart Attitude justifies us, not our actions. You can spend hours in church ministry. You can do all sorts of religious rituals dilligently everyday. But, if u dont have the right HEART ATTITUDE, all those actions are not pleasing to GOD.
Here i have some clips from sister acts. This movie was considered radical and unconventional in those times. Even today, I know some conservative churches that disallow people to show excessive expressions of love and joy to GOD, they consider mere hand-clapping as inappropriate. The nuns in the movie can really sing and groove =) So, sit back, relax and enjoy the show =)
John 4:23 (Amplified Bible)
23A time will come, however, indeed it is already here, when the true (genuine) worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth (reality); for the Father is seeking just such people as these as His worshippers.
2月22日
I came across the verse:
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
salms 19:1
and then I was lost in the rushing stream of my wild thought about the creation of the universe. I pondered about the beginning of mortality.
According to scientific perspective, the “big-bang” theory explains everything. Our universe originated from a massive explosion and the universe expanded until now. I am not sure about its details. Anyway, you can ‘google’ or ‘wiki’ it.
Moreover, scientific perspective believes that our existence occurs because of a series of coincidental and random events. It’s a coincidence that we are here on earth.
It so happens that the earth is located just nice away from sun.
It so happens that the earth has its atmosphere thick enough to protect living things.
It so happens that the Earth has all the necessary elements crucial for life eg. water, oxygen, minerals, etc.
It so happens that gravitational pull is 9.81 m/s^2 and many other “it so happens….”
Out of curiosity, I retrieved many facts from Wikipedia. The results:
radius of earth: 6360 km
radius of sun: 6.955×10^5 km = 695,500 km
distance of sun-earth: 1.496×10^8 km = 149,600,000 km
distance of sun-pluto: 38 x sun-earth
Within the radius of earth (6360 km), the fragile life on earth experiences 2 very extreme conditions. The north and south poles have deadly coldness, unfriendly to many species. Whereas, on the equatorial, we have desert with severe hotness and harsh environment with little water eg. Sahara desert. So, let’s imagine that we could shift the earth a little bit closer or a little bit away from the Sun, there could be hardly any living things on earth. And that particular shifting distance I am talking about is so insignificant as compared to Sun- Earth distance because of the following ratio:
radius of earth : radius of sun = 6,360 : 695,500 = 1:109
volume of earth : volume of sun = 1^3 : 109^3= 1 : 1.3x10^6
My Physics teacher ever told me last time that “ if the Sun is as big as our VJC school, the Earth we have is just as big as a tennis ball.”
radius of earth : distance of sun-earth = 6360 : 1.496×10^8
= 1 : 23522
radius of earth : distance of sun-pluto = 1 : (23522 x 38)
= 1 : 893836
Conclusion:
Let’s downscale our Earth to a tennis ball. And the radius of our Milky Way to 893,836 tennis balls.
Imagine if we have 893,836 tennis ball (sun-pluto distance with respect to size of earth) lined up in a straight line. The one end is where the Sun is, while the other end is where the Pluto is located. For life (at least the kind of life that we learn in our biology, not extra-terrestrial kind of life in sci-fi) to exist on earth, the earth must be positioned in exactly the 23,522th tennis ball out of 893,836. If we miss it by 1 tennis ball, the condition is too severe for life to exist.
So, our life on earth is so vulnerable. it's hard to believe if all were to happen by coincidence =)
This is only my eccentric thought =) . If you are confused, don’t bother to read it again, I guarantee you that you won’t find it in your final exams.
Finally, I come to a simple modest point that, our Universe doesn’t exist by a string of coincidences and random chances. There is a Creator whom I believe is GOD whom I come to know through Jesus Christ.
How great is our GOD beyond our human understanding. He is the unfathomable mastermind of the creation of the universe. The universe is created with such great
precisions and detailed accuracies which dispel and eliminate the notion of Coincidence.
"God doesn't play dice with the Universe." (Albert Einstein, one of the Greatest Scientist)
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (DAVID, The Great Psalmist)
Psalms 8:3-4
Much dreaming and many words are meaningless. Therefore stand in awe of God. (King Solomon, the Wise Man)
Ecclesiastes 5:7
It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.
Isaiah 45:12
My own hand laid the foundations of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens.
Isaiah 458:13
Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath; the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants die like flies. But my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail.
Isaiah 51:6
who is guilty? adam or eve?
One day the devil persuaded Eve, who happened to be alone, to take and eat the forbidden fruit which would lead to man’s fall to the endless pit of sin and death. Eve contemplated and gave the fruit to Adam, her husband. In the end, both of them ate the fruit and they broke God’s command. Due to their sinful acts, both of them were expelled from the Eden - the utopian World where sin, pain, fear and sadness didn’t exist and where God and man lived intimately – and thrown away into the world where we live now.
God's punishments to them:
14 So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this,
"Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'
"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."
16 To the woman he said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing;
with pain you will give birth to children.
Your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you."
I remember one Pastor in the church service I attended discussed the question “who is guilty and responsible for the curse that we ourselves and the entire generation of mankind suffer from now? Adam or Eve?” Well, we might easily drop the verdict upon Eve as the guilty party. After all, she was the first to touch the fruit. She failed to resist the devil’s temptation. She even brought “supposedly-innocent” Adam into picture and gave the forbidden fruit to him as well. Poor Eve.
But actually, if we examine the scripture closely, Adam was the main culprit. He had to receive heavier punishment for his guilt and failure.
Genesis 2: 15-18
15And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it.
16And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden;
17But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.
18Now the Lord God said, It is not good (sufficient, satisfactory) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.
So The Almighty God gave the command not to eat the forbidden fruit to Adam some time before He created Eve. So, the reason that Eve was so gullible to take the fruit was because Adam failed to pass the important message to her. Or if He did pass God’s command to his wife, he failed to emphasise the seriousness, the grim significance and importance of obeying God’s command.
In a book that I have read “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”, I learned that “girls want the guys to take the lead”. Is it true girls? (correct me if I’m wrong =) ) Anyway, as a man, we are supposed to lead the way, to initiate and plan things, to give direction. a husband has to take initiative to be a spiritual leader in the relationship. However, our greater responsibility as a leader in a relationship doesn’t make a man “more or better” than a woman. In contrast, a man has to be a servant for a woman. As Jesus said, the way to measure a leadership and greatness of someone is not by how much he is served, but how far/to what extent he is willing to serve others. Being a leader = being a servant.
That’s why Eve was not created from Adam’s upper body part so that she didn’t dominate him (not superior). Nor was Eve created from the lower part of Adam’s body so that she wasn’t dictated or controlled by him (not inferior). God took one of his ribs or a part of his side to create Eve who was a suitable, adapted and complementary helper for Adam (life’s partner). Thus, in God’s eyes, man and woman are equal. So, the additional responsibility that God has endowed upon man to be a leader is not to dominate woman, but rather to serve, sacrifice, protect and stand for her faithfully.
Unfortunately, Adam failed to be a good leader in the family. He failed to give the right direction and show God’s divine purpose to Eve. More importantly, he failed to be a good spiritual leader for her. His mistake led to grave punishment for them and their children, including us. A man’s failure in a relationship brings about dire consequences.
Therefore, I would like to appeal to all of my brothers, all my male counterparts out there. Let’s take this matter seriously, shall we? =) We have a lot of homework to do, a great responsibility to shoulder and a glorious purpose to fulfill. I myself still have a long way to become a capable leader. That’s the reason (apart from the fact that I’m a shy guy =) ) I never have any girlfriends or involve in any romantic relationship before. I am simply not ready yet. We need to train, grow and beat ourselves to become a capable and godly leader for our future family. Our sisters count on us and want us to take the lead and provide direction for a fruitful and purposeful relationship.
soli Deo gloria
Some Bible verses which speak about the secret of a happy and successful marriage:
1 Corinthians 11:3
3But I want you to know and realize that Christ is the Head of every man, the head of a woman is her husband, and the Head of Christ is God.
Ephesians 5:22-25 (Amplified Bible)
22Wives, be subject (be submissive and adapt yourselves) to your own husbands as [a service] to the Lord.
23For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the Head of the church, Himself the Savior of [His] body.
24As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
25Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
1 Peter 3:7 (The Message)
7The same goes for you husbands: Be good husbands to your wives. Honour them, delight in them. As women they lack some of your advantages (physically weaker). But in the new life of God's grace, you're equals. Treat your wives, then, as equals so your prayers don't run aground.
2月14日
Love is in the air. Happy V-day =)
I have read a book about relationship titled, ”I kissed dating goodbye.” First and foremost, in writing this article on dating, I have intended no offence or any malicious purposes whatsoever to anybody currently pursuing singlehood or any kinds of relationships alike. I am just sharing what I have learned from this humble book which, I think, is worth to ponder upon. =) After all, being a totally inexperienced soul in everything about love, dating & romance, I have no rights at all and am in no position to render judgments to anybody on this sensitive ground.
Here is what the book states. Dating is not sinful. It is our approach that makes it sinful. We should not pursue romance until we are ready to make a life-long commitment towards a holy matrimony. Many people are rushing to tie the knots in search of intimacy, security, pleasure and many other reasons. Unfortunately, they forget to base their relationships on strong well-defined commitments towards marriage. Such relationship is dangerous and sinful in God’s eyes.
So, you mean we can only date our partner when both of us are ready and strongly confident to eventually marry each other and have a well-defined commitment towards marriage in our romantic relationship?
Exactly. The key word here is COMMITMENT. We should not be dating anyone if the reason is anything else but to explore the possibility of long-term commitment towards holy matrimony. Because our hearts are fragile and meaningful romance and true love are too precious and dangerous to be treated as a trial-and-error game or hunting contest just to spend our pastime and dispel boredom. Intimacy is a by-product of the commitment-based love. Unfortunately, nowadays, people do the exact opposite. They seek intimacy first, hoping to build a strong commitment towards each other later on. Intimacy without commitment is defrauding and deceiving. Intimacy without time-tested-and-proven friendship is superficial.
But, how we know that he or she is the right person to marry without undergoing dating process?
In this case, friendship is the best environment to know each other’s true characters, personality and qualities. Dating creates an artificial environment that does not demand a person to accurately portray his or her positive and negative characteristics. In dating context, the guy and the girl both try to impress and convince one another that he/she is the best pick. They focus too much on the ‘plus points’ of each other, forgetting to examine closely the weaknesses of each other. The true colour of a person can only be seen most clearly in times of crisis, problems and struggle. Hardships and character-testing trials hardly exist in lovey-dovey romantic setting where couples often live in fantasy world. But they do happen very often in marriage setting where couples live in harsh and grim reality.
We can find the best restaurants in town through a trial-and-error method, but not with finding our true love or future life partner. For every failed or broken relationship, the price we have to pay is too dear beyond imagination. Every failed relationship costs us a portion of our hearts (depending on how much you surrender for that guy or girl) that cannot be restored to its original pristine condition. That particular portion might be lost, stolen and never returned. It might be scarred beyond recognition. Or it might be thrown and found in dirty and smelly puddle of bitterness, shame and deep remorse. So, how many failed relationships do u think necessary to find the successful one? We should strive to protect our heart seriously so that when the right moment arrives and we have found the missing piece of our heart, we can surrender our hearts intact, unblemished and holy as a perfect offering of love. The bible says in Proverbs 4:23 (Amplified Bible):
23 Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.
Now, I would like to make a personal confession. Though I never date any girl before, I am as sinful and shameful as anybody who likes to fool around with romance and love. I realize that I have, whether deliberately or not, flirted, sweet-talked and committed other sorts of tactless indirect persuasions with some girls that I ever had a crush on. For that, I apologise to all the girls who have been victims to my egocentric behavior and self-gratifying intentions. Some of you may think there is no harm to it, but the truth is that, it is totally wrong and sinful. As a guy, we should not play around with girls’ hearts. We are supposed to lead and provide the right direction in any relationship. (refer to my earlier post on Who is guilty? Adam or Eve?) Guys must be sincere and honest in our communications. No flirting. No hidden motives. Don’t arouse any inappropriate and premature feelings in our sisters’ hearts. Don’t start a fire, however small, that you don’t want or unable to take the responsibility to put out. Girls struggle with their emotions and their ears are their blindspots, so be careful what we say to them. Similarly, we, the guys, struggle with our sex drives and our blindspots are our eyes. So, girls can do a great favour to the guys by dressing appropriately and decently, too =)
Guys should guard girls’ hearts and purity and girls should guard their brothers’ eyes and purity. Happy Friendship Day! Love is in the air. Let’s learn to practise loving each other sincerely and generously =)
1 Corinthians 13:3-11 (New International Version)
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
“Real love is always fated. It has been arranged before time. It is the most meticulously prepared of coincidences. And fate, of course, is simply a secular term for the will of God, and coincidence for HIS grace. Two people learning to trust God. Two winding paths that God made straight. Two straight paths that He chose to cross at just the right time. The creator of romance, the Maker who arranged the first “boy meets girl” in the garden so very long ago, is still at work.” 2月10日
This year CNY was not so bad and boring to me as compared to previous years b’cos Rolf (26), the son of my host family during my german immersion 2007 in Switzerland came to visit us in Singapore. Before he arrived in Singapore, he had been staying in Indonesia for 2 weeks. He visited his aunt in Makassar and his other relatives in Jakarta. (Btw his mom is an Indonesian and his dad is a Swiss) Because Rolf was in Singapore, I spent most of the times going out with him and the other german immersion people. The experience was fabulous =) I am happy that he enjoyed his stay in Singapore. We, the german immersion gang, accompanied Rolf around Singapore visiting Marina Bay to see CNY countdown, NUS, Sentosa, Gleneagles Hospital where he was born and other tourists attractions. We even brought him to Johor Bahru (JB) since he was so eager to get a Msian Customs & Immigration stamp printed in his passport =)
Today, we just saw him off at Changi Airport. He was heading for Jakarta to spend the next 2 weeks with his Indonesian relatives before he returns to Beijing to continue his 1-year study-stint there. I noticed that his indon improved. Way to go Rolf =) His Chinese is undoubtedly commendable as he has been studying the language in Beijing International Studies Uni for 1 semester already. He is so multi-lingual, able to speak English, German, French, Indonesian and Chinese.
At Changi airport, we (Hari, willy, suetchian, rolf and me) had our last chatting session over hot chocolate talking about our future plans – our exchange programme in Swiss, our holiday plans, our next meet-ups and so on. The precious one hour was like a splitting second and, finally, farewell was inevitable. We took our last group pictures and each gave Rolf a brotherly hug.
I hate farewell.
As our seemingly-heavy hands waved high in the air and “auf Wiedersehen” uttered reluctantly, Rolf left us and moved on to the next chapter of his life. We stood transfixed momentarily. All the memories about the happy times we had spent together flooded our minds. It’s simply too short the time that we had together. Then, I turned away and walked off, realizing that we too had to move on. Auf Wiedersehen Rolf. Gute Reise und Viel Glück für dein Studium =)
Do not cry b’cos it ends. Smile b’cos it happened. 2月9日
Gong xi fa cai. Xing nian kuai le.
I wish u all a happy and prosperous year of Rat ahead =) Hopefully, we are not too caught up in the rat-race environment we are in and at the end of the day, we can emerge victorious in everything we do =)
On the new year’s eve day, my melancholic side really got the better of me. Somehow, I felt ‘blue’ all along. The University and Kent Ridge were gradually deserted as people began to go home and meet their families. I saw that people around me radiating almost-tangible excitement in this festive period. They were so eager and looking forward to enjoy the big celebration with their families and relatives. Honestly, I felt jealous and I missed my family. Wallowing in self-pity, I decided to go to Chinatown with Brian. Ironically, I still felt lonely in the midst of the noisy crowd and extravagant celebration. In the end, I went home early before the countdown cos I was too tired standing and felt bored after a while and simply couldn’t stand the wild crowd anymore. I guess nothing could replace the presence of our beloved families in such a festivity =)
Fortunately, the day 1 of the CNY was better, much better. Thanks to Willy Leonardi (we are in the same course chemical engine NUS) who invited me to his place for having a taste of CNY celebration among his family and relatives. That was awesome =) I really enjoyed myself – gongxi-ing people around me, chitchatting with your siblings, cousins, parents, uncles and aunties, learning to play Mahjong for the 1st time in my life (OMG
Mahjong is really fun. Why nobody tells me earlier? I think I got addicted alr =p), receiving hongbao, eating CNY goodies and food. It was simply the best CNY I ever had in Singapore =). Thanks dude for the invitation.
2月4日
On Saturday night, my friends and I took part in the night cycling organized by Arts faculty. There were me, Willy, Joanna, Suetchian, Winnie, Taidon, Jiemei and Michelle. It was fun. The race started at 9 pm until 6 am in the morning. Each team consists of 4 cyclists. All cyclists start and finish at East Coast. We formed 2 teams since there were 8 of us altogether. A day before the event, Maybelle fell sick. Fortunately, we managed to find a replacement just in time. We cycled from east coast. Somehow, along the way, our group grew bigger. My friend Cheryl, a thai girl, and her other 3 friends followed our group since they didn’t really know well around Singapore. I got to know Cheryl’s friends: Poh, Fai, and 1 girl I forget the name. They are dubbed the Thai group since they all have Thai backgrounds. So, now we had a big group of 12, parading on the street. =) Our first destination was the west part of Singapore. 1st station: Zouk. In each station we played some games to earn some points. After Zouk, we went to Holland Village, Buona Vista, Sixth Avenue, Newton.
There was a funny incident. =) We were supposed to find “the biggest building along the sixth avenue where no one lives in it.” Joanna had the idea that it was PM Goh’s house. We all agreed. When we reached there on Namly Ave, we were greeted by a puzzled-looking guard, instead of a Gamemaster. Apparently, we made mistake. We could have found the right house easily if we just went further down the Sixth Avenue. And, finally after completing the west zone, we moved to central zone. We cycled around the downtown. Youth Park, Orchard, Lau Pa Sat, Little India. Due to time constraint, we had to go back to East Coast before we reached the last checkpoint at Boat Quay.
To cut things short, all of us had fun that night. The feeling of tiredness did not really bother us during cycling since we enjoyed each other’s company and the race was challenging and fun. We didn’t really focus on winning the race since we knew that we could not match the ability of the more professional cyclists who also took part. But, that night, we did win our own race and games. We won new friends along the way. We won and enjoyed great companies of others. We won the self-confidence that we could finish the challenge set before us. It was indeed a night of fun and camaraderie. =) 2月3日 Actually, I've just created my own blog in friendster. To improve my blog's readership, perhaps I can make use of this Windows Space also to post my log. =)
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