The wedding prep has been filled with surprises and twists and turns at every corner. On some level I think that can be very scary, but it hasn’t been that way for us… yet. Hopefully never. We were at Dempsey Hill for tea the other day and decided to drop by Culina’s to pick up some wine crates. I don’t know why we didn’t do this earlier, but look at the wonders that wine crates can do with just a little creativity… and a lot of hard work.
No verse should be taken without its context so I’ll leave you (the reader) to read up on the context yourself. Romans 3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” A scary sentence isn’t it? When was the last time we showed that we feared God? Or do our daily actions speak otherwise. Some food for thought.
There have been some hot topic issues since the GE. Housing, foreigners, and income was the main ones. They still are, but I dare say that all have been recently overshadowed by public transport. The problems aren’t as bad as the December breakdowns, but they are certainly more frequent. Personally, I have lost all confidence in SMRT. The thing I abhor most apart from their incessant breakdowns is their continual lack of concern for their commuters. Isn’t it ironic that travelling is so difficult in such a small country? Or have I been deluded that travelling was ever convenient in our sovereign nation.
I was speaking with a colleague about career paths; whether the usual 2 year “waiting period” in the current job was a good gauge of when to look for a move. Well I’ve thought of an analogy from my generation that might hopefully help some others thinking about the same thing.
When we were young (13/14) we got handphones like 3210,3310,8210. We were excited and we texted and called everyone. Of course we knew there were some phones that were better than the rest like an 8210 was probably better than a 3210, but didnt mean that the 3210 user was any less happy using his phone next to the 8210 user. Over time, we figured out other features of the phone, caller id, call divert, snakes, short hand texting etc. Eventually we got tired of it for 2 reasons, one because we used up all the features that were cool to us and two because newer models were coming out.
Spent the past week driving to work to test out the situation and see whether it would be feasible. Conclusion? It may sound better, but it has its downsides. At the end of the day, I don’t think I’m very convinced yet that I should be driving to work everyday, though I feel that the day I feel that I “have” to drive to work everyday isn’t too far away.
The long work week past by pretty quickly, and it was nice to open the weekend with a FREE Corrine May concert. The concert wasn’t too bad. I think she has great talent in writing good lyrics for her songs, though after hearing about 10 of them, I felt that most of them ended about the same way, but what do I know? I’m not musically inclined. Can’t disagree that her songs make easy listening, and that she had some nice songs in her new album.
Looking forward to the weekend. It’s going to be a weekend of wedding filled events as usual, but it’ll be mostly for me. Suit fitting and wedding band buying.
Marine cove is now gone. The macs drive thru was the most convenient thing in the world, and now I’ll have to rely on 75-min delivery macs. Of course I can just pop into the shop, but it’s not quite the same ordering and waiting for your food in the car.
A thought came to mind during my quiet time the other day and I thought I’d better blog it down before I forget it. A lot has been on my plate lately; reports to write, wedding stuff to do, and thats pretty much all there is right now.
I was reading Acts 10 and Peter’s vision of the unclean animals in the blanket had a new meaning for me. In it’s original context, Peter was being taught a lesson; that God does not show favoritism. He was not to call anything impure that God had made clean, and we know that Christ paid the price for us. But today as Christians are we really looking at everybody purely?
I’ve been trying to make it a point to blog on a more consistent basis, though I’m not sure if anybody still reads this. But I’ve learnt that sometimes the best reader for my blog is me! Memories just keep coming back when I read my old blog. Think I have to find some way to keep a record of all those entries before they get wiped clean.
There’s no particular topic today, but I thought I’d direct some of you (if any at all) to my wedding blog. We’ve been blogging there occasionally on our wedding journey (which is very exciting).
It was reported recently that Campus Crusade on NUS had been asked to cease all its community activities after coming under fire for its careless recruiting of students for its mission trips to Thailand and Turkey. Before I begin my post, I urge all christians reading this to take a moment and pray.
While I’ll admit that there are some radical christians out there who could afford to be reigned in a bit, there are also the dormant christians who could use some nudging, but for the majority I believe we’re somewhere in between. What is scary is that the comments made by Campus Crusade could have come from someone in between.
As christians we are called to be zealous for Christ (Rom 12:11;Gal 4:18), not to be ashamed of the gospel (Mark 8:38). But is zeal all there is (or all there should be)? I think evangelism is great, it is the epitome of the great commission after all (Matt 28:19-20). I think it’s dangerous for christians to just read what they want in the bible and listen only to what feels right. Most would agree with this, but how many practice what they preach? Myself included, I wonder if our zeal is sometimes misconstrued as insensitive, or maybe not.
Two verses come to mind when I think about this issue. First, is Proverbs 19:2 “It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.” So much can be teased out of this verse. What is knowledge? What does zeal with knowledge look like? What is the link between zeal, knowledge, and being hasty and lost? Boy, I wish I could just carry on talking about this.
Second, Romans 12:18 “If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.” Simply put, don’t stir trouble.
So again, this begs the question. Where is the line where we can share the gospel zealously for Christ and where do we hold back and tread cautiously? Hypothesis testing in econometrics likes to come up with decision rules on how to decide what the best course of action is. I think in this scenario there is no decision rule because just as each individual is unique to God, so each method of evangelism to bring that non christian to God is unique. Ultimately, I still like to fall back on the advice of Peter in 1 Peter 3:14-16, “But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear; do not be frightened.” 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. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.”
I was doing my QT the other day and this verse just stuck with me throughout.
“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” Matthew 26:41
The word “so” tells more than meets the eye. We are not to watch and pray that we do not fall into temptation, but watch AND pray SO that we won’t fall into temptation. It places emphasis on the two action words before which cannot go one without the other. If we just watch and not pray then we won’t have the power to resist temptation. If we just pray and not watch how are we to know when temptation is here? How often is it that we just do one and not the other? Another interesting thing this verse tells us is that temptation has an element of spiritual warfare. Therefore, we need so much to pray (assuming we are already always watching). I believe that watching is more than just watching, like we watch a movie. But more watching like guards keep watch (all the time). Jesus summed it all up for us as Christians, “The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.” I know I feel that all the time.
Isn’t it refreshing to know God understands?
Had a work date at The Plain the other day. Felt quite good to be sitting in a cafe doing work. Reminds me of times in Melbourne, though I didn’t quite study in any cafes during my time there, but it still brought me back. Perhaps The Plain being run by someone from Melbourne had something to do with it. The owner was quite nice though, we didn’t have enough cash on us to foot the bill so he let us leave to the ATM to draw money and come back to pay.
On a separate topic, this church issue has been on my mind for quite a while. I know that most (if not none) of you will know what I am talking about because I’ve not voiced it out to most, and I intend to keep it that way (so just let me rant). I’ve always fancied a small church, but I think that more important than size is fellowship. And while fellowship among christians is always good, it will be great if relationships between christians run deeper than the surface. I guess in a small church that’s always easier. Not to take any credit away from big churches, but they do run a higher risk of… marginalization. Question is what should we do when that happens. I wish I had the answer to continue, but I guess this is where the tracks stop…
