2006年8月26日星期六
OH gosh!! He is the man!!
Hungarian gypsy violinist, Roby Lakatos, playing Csárdás. He is acclaimed to be the "devil's fiddler."
Song Tittle: Czardas
(Sorry about the video. It's been taken down from youtube. You can try to youtube it yourself in www.youtube.com =)) )
Hungarian gypsy violinist, Roby Lakatos, playing Csárdás. He is acclaimed to be the "devil's fiddler."
Song Tittle: Czardas
(Sorry about the video. It's been taken down from youtube. You can try to youtube it yourself in www.youtube.com =)) )
what we could have been, 6:36 下午.
2006年8月24日星期四
Time is up!
How?! Hours and hours of studying seem futile.
Oh my... Ivan please wake up!
Knowing there isn't much time to waste and when it's time he has to be serious and concentrated, he just couldn't engage himself into serious work. Seriousness and concentration just fail him.
BADLY!
How?! Hours and hours of studying seem futile.
Oh my... Ivan please wake up!
Knowing there isn't much time to waste and when it's time he has to be serious and concentrated, he just couldn't engage himself into serious work. Seriousness and concentration just fail him.
BADLY!
what we could have been, 6:57 下午.
2006年8月17日星期四
Today let me take you through chapter 2 part 1 of “The Ascent to Truth”, which will be on how God protects us.
As often as not, people who possess with only a vague idea of what Christianity is will deem it as a religion that is full of rules and regulations, nothing less like a school with it’s own rules. You perhaps may think that I’m shielding my own religion just because I’m a Christian. Well, read on to find out why God is not full of rules but rather, full of love as I put forth to you evidently in the story below.
Chapter 2- Obey the Laws and Decrees – God knows better.
In the Old Testament, if you remember, there are books in the Bible on Laws that Christians, if you know, the Jews, should/will adhere. Again, there are another 3 categories that are entailed with it, specifically moral, civil and ceremonial laws.
DON’T be blown away by this! The total numbers of laws amount to 613 in all! (told you that it’s nothing like school rules. Hahaha.. ) By the way, check this out! (http://www.holyglory.us/documents/613_biblical_laws.htm), this is the link to the laws!
In the Old Testament, God did commanded about the many laws and definitely clearly stated his reasons why. He wants his people to obey so many laws and decrees; not to make life onerous, rather the opposite. Not denying the fact that the journey may be arduous and tiring, but thinking of saving our own salvations make it all worthwhile. In Deuteronomy 10: 12-15 says: “And now, O Isreal, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord youe God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I’m giving you today for your own good? 14To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is TODAY.”
Jeremiah 32: 39: “I will give them singleness of the heart and action, so that they will fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.”
There are a total of 12 major laws that I’ll be sharing with you. First 2 for today, Laws concerning Leprosy and Laws against touching the dead
Leviticus 13: 46 about a law commanding lepers to be segregated from the community: “As long as he has infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”
During the 1700s, leprosy epidemic raged in Norway. Only in the 1800s, it finally started to dwindle. But what stopped leprosy from spreading? God did. Why? Let me tell you. Quoting: “Leadership was taken by the church,” adds Dr.Rosen,”as the physicians had nothing to offer. The church took as it guiding principal the concept of contagion as embodied in the Old Testament. This idea and its practical consequences are defined with great clarity in the book of Leviticus. Once the condition of leprosy had been established, the patient was to be segregated and excluded from the community… It accomplished the first great feat in methodical eradication of the disease”.
See (http://www/gnmagazine.org/issues/gn47/biblewasright.htm)
Hence, God was right all along. =))
Moving on, laws against touching the dead.
Well… For this law, I’m quite bemused by it. Allow me to explain myself and share with you MORE after consulting someone who can equip me with more knowledge regarding it. Be rightttt back.
Hees.
As often as not, people who possess with only a vague idea of what Christianity is will deem it as a religion that is full of rules and regulations, nothing less like a school with it’s own rules. You perhaps may think that I’m shielding my own religion just because I’m a Christian. Well, read on to find out why God is not full of rules but rather, full of love as I put forth to you evidently in the story below.
Chapter 2- Obey the Laws and Decrees – God knows better.
In the Old Testament, if you remember, there are books in the Bible on Laws that Christians, if you know, the Jews, should/will adhere. Again, there are another 3 categories that are entailed with it, specifically moral, civil and ceremonial laws.
DON’T be blown away by this! The total numbers of laws amount to 613 in all! (told you that it’s nothing like school rules. Hahaha.. ) By the way, check this out! (http://www.holyglory.us/documents/613_biblical_laws.htm), this is the link to the laws!
In the Old Testament, God did commanded about the many laws and definitely clearly stated his reasons why. He wants his people to obey so many laws and decrees; not to make life onerous, rather the opposite. Not denying the fact that the journey may be arduous and tiring, but thinking of saving our own salvations make it all worthwhile. In Deuteronomy 10: 12-15 says: “And now, O Isreal, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord youe God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I’m giving you today for your own good? 14To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. 15Yet the Lord set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is TODAY.”
Jeremiah 32: 39: “I will give them singleness of the heart and action, so that they will fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them.”
There are a total of 12 major laws that I’ll be sharing with you. First 2 for today, Laws concerning Leprosy and Laws against touching the dead
Leviticus 13: 46 about a law commanding lepers to be segregated from the community: “As long as he has infection, he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.”
During the 1700s, leprosy epidemic raged in Norway. Only in the 1800s, it finally started to dwindle. But what stopped leprosy from spreading? God did. Why? Let me tell you. Quoting: “Leadership was taken by the church,” adds Dr.Rosen,”as the physicians had nothing to offer. The church took as it guiding principal the concept of contagion as embodied in the Old Testament. This idea and its practical consequences are defined with great clarity in the book of Leviticus. Once the condition of leprosy had been established, the patient was to be segregated and excluded from the community… It accomplished the first great feat in methodical eradication of the disease”.
See (http://www/gnmagazine.org/issues/gn47/biblewasright.htm)
Hence, God was right all along. =))
Moving on, laws against touching the dead.
Well… For this law, I’m quite bemused by it. Allow me to explain myself and share with you MORE after consulting someone who can equip me with more knowledge regarding it. Be rightttt back.
Hees.
what we could have been, 11:30 下午.
2006年8月15日星期二
My quiet entries will be based on "The Ascent to Truth", the deep teaching that John will be preaching for these 2 months.
Chapter 1: The Word of God - The Bible
If you didn't know, the Bible in the Old Testament is placed in three broad categories. Jesus mentions these categories in Luke 24:44, namely:
a) Law - Genesis, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy
bi)Former prophets - Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings
ii) Later prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets
c) Writings - Psalms, proverb, Job, Songs of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles.
New testament:
a) Five books of history - Matthew to Acts
b) Twenty one books of doctrine - Romans to Jude
c) One book of prophecy - Revelation
Have you wondered why every Christian believes in the Bible? Here's it.
The Bible has come far. For the New Testaments, in the beginning, it's only known to be manuscripts and it ca n be broken down to uncial and miniscule manuscripts. All in all here are over 5000 Greek manuscripts and over 10000 Latin ones, 9300 in other early version (some 2000 in Ethiopic, 4000 in Slavic etc). This brings the total to over 24000 manuscripts of the New Testament today. Besides, of the many manuscripts, it was proven facts as the 24000 manuscripts matched each other.
So again, you might be thinking why were there so many variations. Easy. English Language has changed. The different copies were caused by spelling changes, variations in grammar and slips of pen during copying process. Examples can be found in John 7:53, Mark 16: 9-20
Old Testament. The manuscripts of the Old Testament are not as vast as the New Testament, reason being, the Jewish scribes would any copies that were old or worn out and make new copies thereafter. The oldest Hebrew manuscript available is known as the Cairo Codex and is dated around AD 895. (There are still many other codexs)
Jesus said in Matt 5: 18:"I tell you the truth, untill heaven and earth disappears, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law untill everything is accomplished."
Bible was first written in Latin. Started off with John Wycliffe, a English educated man graduated from Oxford who translated the Latin Bible into English and found the teachings and practices in the churches were ridiculously wrong were ostracized and hunt down by people. This posed a real threat to the church as it would lose its monopoly of the Bible and its more shaky practices would be exposed as fraudulent. The church would not be able to justify its unbiblical finance centered doctrine of selling the forgiveness of one's sins or to receiving donations to purchase souls out of purgatory. The strength of hatred for Wycliffe was evident in the fact that fifty years after Wycliffe died, Pope Martin V ( 1417-1431) commanded that his grave be dug up and his bones crushed and dumped in the river. However, Wycliffe paved the way to the light.
Some 50 years later, Johann Gutenberg invented PRINT! (revision for EXAM! haha) Gutenberg worked on the Latin Bible and was finally published in 1456. Up next comes William Tyndale, known to be the true father of the English Bible, translated many different tongues into English. All done by 1534. At that time in England, translating Bibles into English is seemed to be heretical. Anyone found possessing and English Bibles will be convicted and put in prison or public execution. Sadly, Tyndale was caught and found guilty of heresy. 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake while he prayed, "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Thank God, he answered Tyndale's dying prayers as it became the desire of King James I(one) to have a copy of the Great Bible(it's named GREAT because it's really big in size and it's chained to the lectern, haha) in every church in the land. Later, he made "King James Version" which we are still familiar with.
The Bible has survived through many centuries of persecution, heresy and peach, with many twist and turns. It's available to us today, more readily then in any other century before. What a day we live in. The Bible survived from times of persecution to become what is now the best seller of all time.
1st Peter 1: 24-24: "For, all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flower falls 25but the word of God stand forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Having the word at our disposal means we should be even more careful to adhere all the fundamental teachings. Follow what the Bible says. Knowing, there are always rooms for variations, on matters where the Bible is silent, we still should not compromise on the basics, as it justifies in Proverb 30: 5-6: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
The parable of the Uzza and the Ark should serve a chronic reminder to us to obey the WORD.
See 1 Chronicles 13: 1-14, 15: 1-15
In this quiet time, we've touched on the history of the Bible and stated evidently why the Bible is the only book Christian will listen to. Also, we've learnt to believe, trust and rely in the Lord that he will guide us and prosper us. We also learnt that what we do should, we should refer back to the Bible. Look and dig into the Bible and see if what we do are right or wrong. If it's what God wants us to do.
Trust and Obey.
God-above-all.
Brothers and sisters of CCC, some factual materials may seem familiar to you because it's in the BOOK! ( no harm re-reading again!=)))
Hoping people who knows or don't know me, would get a chance to read it too. Thus, some exact words/evident by John is used.
Chapter 1: The Word of God - The Bible
If you didn't know, the Bible in the Old Testament is placed in three broad categories. Jesus mentions these categories in Luke 24:44, namely:
a) Law - Genesis, Leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy
bi)Former prophets - Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings
ii) Later prophets - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve books of the Minor Prophets
c) Writings - Psalms, proverb, Job, Songs of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, I and II Chronicles.
New testament:
a) Five books of history - Matthew to Acts
b) Twenty one books of doctrine - Romans to Jude
c) One book of prophecy - Revelation
Have you wondered why every Christian believes in the Bible? Here's it.
The Bible has come far. For the New Testaments, in the beginning, it's only known to be manuscripts and it ca n be broken down to uncial and miniscule manuscripts. All in all here are over 5000 Greek manuscripts and over 10000 Latin ones, 9300 in other early version (some 2000 in Ethiopic, 4000 in Slavic etc). This brings the total to over 24000 manuscripts of the New Testament today. Besides, of the many manuscripts, it was proven facts as the 24000 manuscripts matched each other.
So again, you might be thinking why were there so many variations. Easy. English Language has changed. The different copies were caused by spelling changes, variations in grammar and slips of pen during copying process. Examples can be found in John 7:53, Mark 16: 9-20
Old Testament. The manuscripts of the Old Testament are not as vast as the New Testament, reason being, the Jewish scribes would any copies that were old or worn out and make new copies thereafter. The oldest Hebrew manuscript available is known as the Cairo Codex and is dated around AD 895. (There are still many other codexs)
Jesus said in Matt 5: 18:"I tell you the truth, untill heaven and earth disappears, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law untill everything is accomplished."
Bible was first written in Latin. Started off with John Wycliffe, a English educated man graduated from Oxford who translated the Latin Bible into English and found the teachings and practices in the churches were ridiculously wrong were ostracized and hunt down by people. This posed a real threat to the church as it would lose its monopoly of the Bible and its more shaky practices would be exposed as fraudulent. The church would not be able to justify its unbiblical finance centered doctrine of selling the forgiveness of one's sins or to receiving donations to purchase souls out of purgatory. The strength of hatred for Wycliffe was evident in the fact that fifty years after Wycliffe died, Pope Martin V ( 1417-1431) commanded that his grave be dug up and his bones crushed and dumped in the river. However, Wycliffe paved the way to the light.
Some 50 years later, Johann Gutenberg invented PRINT! (revision for EXAM! haha) Gutenberg worked on the Latin Bible and was finally published in 1456. Up next comes William Tyndale, known to be the true father of the English Bible, translated many different tongues into English. All done by 1534. At that time in England, translating Bibles into English is seemed to be heretical. Anyone found possessing and English Bibles will be convicted and put in prison or public execution. Sadly, Tyndale was caught and found guilty of heresy. 1536, he was strangled and burned at the stake while he prayed, "Lord, open the eyes of the King of England."
Thank God, he answered Tyndale's dying prayers as it became the desire of King James I(one) to have a copy of the Great Bible(it's named GREAT because it's really big in size and it's chained to the lectern, haha) in every church in the land. Later, he made "King James Version" which we are still familiar with.
The Bible has survived through many centuries of persecution, heresy and peach, with many twist and turns. It's available to us today, more readily then in any other century before. What a day we live in. The Bible survived from times of persecution to become what is now the best seller of all time.
1st Peter 1: 24-24: "For, all men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flower falls 25but the word of God stand forever." And this is the word that was preached to you.
Having the word at our disposal means we should be even more careful to adhere all the fundamental teachings. Follow what the Bible says. Knowing, there are always rooms for variations, on matters where the Bible is silent, we still should not compromise on the basics, as it justifies in Proverb 30: 5-6: "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.
The parable of the Uzza and the Ark should serve a chronic reminder to us to obey the WORD.
See 1 Chronicles 13: 1-14, 15: 1-15
In this quiet time, we've touched on the history of the Bible and stated evidently why the Bible is the only book Christian will listen to. Also, we've learnt to believe, trust and rely in the Lord that he will guide us and prosper us. We also learnt that what we do should, we should refer back to the Bible. Look and dig into the Bible and see if what we do are right or wrong. If it's what God wants us to do.
Trust and Obey.
God-above-all.
Brothers and sisters of CCC, some factual materials may seem familiar to you because it's in the BOOK! ( no harm re-reading again!=)))
Hoping people who knows or don't know me, would get a chance to read it too. Thus, some exact words/evident by John is used.
what we could have been, 12:19 上午.
Now, I've decided to delicate this blog not only for reflection purposes but also my daily quiet time. I hope that by doing so, it would help me in doing my quiet time constantly, lest I start giving excuses. At the same time, I hope that people who visits my blog would somewhat be impact in anyway.
Remind me if you don't see any quiet time entries okay?!
Thanks
In everything I do I have great success, beacuse the Lord was with me. (1 Samuel 18:14
Remind me if you don't see any quiet time entries okay?!
Thanks
In everything I do I have great success, beacuse the Lord was with me. (1 Samuel 18:14
what we could have been, 12:08 上午.
2006年8月10日星期四
Everything went wrong... Really wrong..
A very long time ago, I heard of this story about this young boy, someone who was really timid and soft. But he was happy living this life like that. However, even till the age of a normal teenager, he still faces different kind of challenges. But many times, due to his low self-esteem and confidence, he just tries every possible way to shun away and avoid as much as he could. This boy would probably die if everyone on earth dies. He relied on those people around him so badly that he can be called a “JUNK”. His existence basically makes no difference. Not denying the fact that this boy still does have his own fortes and strengths. However, this boy would never volunteer himself to help unless asked to. Even he himself thinks that he is really worthless. Inferiority always creeps into his young conscious mind. All these wasn’t caused by anything, it’s just innate!
Only the appearance of this girl, his life changed. She constantly reminds him to be strong and bold. “Smack! Can you have some confidence in yourself!?”. A common phrase she would use to encourage or rebuke this boy with. Soon, this boy changed, he started to seem loud and outspoken, cheerful and always jovial. But all these are just masks put up. He knows that he HAS to change. He realized an essential need to be loud and playful. But this has caused him to suffer; it suffocates him. He knows it all, but he hated to return to his old self, someone who always lives behind some else’s shadow. So, he decided continued to carry and live behind this jovial and nonchalant-like mask. At this point of time, not to deny, his self-esteem and confidence level has indeed elevated much.
At the same time, this girl left him. Despite of that, he was still able to survive and live independently with the aid of the mask. He seems tough and strong. But deep inside, he is still timid as ever.
He shivers and trembles at every bold remarks and suggestions he gave. Every time when he does something, he tries his best to give the best he could because the inferior self always exist, he always think he isn’t good enough as compared to the rest. He WANTS the best for everyone. However, instead of doing good, it unfortunately BACKFIRED! People thought he was proud, and insensitive. This has slapped him flat onto the ground that forced him to think that he is a “JUNK” again. His self-esteem and confidence once again suffered.
Can this boy find his own identity? Is it better to live behind a shadow or a mask?
His friends told him:
Said: you're not the person we used to know.
Said: i feel you're over-confident.
Said: i feel so many times that so many ideas are rebuked.
Said: perhaps you dont feel it, perhaps it isnt true, but you have changed
Said: no longer as humble, no longer as willing to accept opinions of others, no longer as willing to just listen, no longer as ready to set aside time, no longer that simple innocent open brother
Said: instead, you are very conscious about your actions words YOU. you are eager to win all the time. you have become so inclined to want to fit into class. you are not so spiritual and god-above-everything
What should this boy do?
A very long time ago, I heard of this story about this young boy, someone who was really timid and soft. But he was happy living this life like that. However, even till the age of a normal teenager, he still faces different kind of challenges. But many times, due to his low self-esteem and confidence, he just tries every possible way to shun away and avoid as much as he could. This boy would probably die if everyone on earth dies. He relied on those people around him so badly that he can be called a “JUNK”. His existence basically makes no difference. Not denying the fact that this boy still does have his own fortes and strengths. However, this boy would never volunteer himself to help unless asked to. Even he himself thinks that he is really worthless. Inferiority always creeps into his young conscious mind. All these wasn’t caused by anything, it’s just innate!
Only the appearance of this girl, his life changed. She constantly reminds him to be strong and bold. “Smack! Can you have some confidence in yourself!?”. A common phrase she would use to encourage or rebuke this boy with. Soon, this boy changed, he started to seem loud and outspoken, cheerful and always jovial. But all these are just masks put up. He knows that he HAS to change. He realized an essential need to be loud and playful. But this has caused him to suffer; it suffocates him. He knows it all, but he hated to return to his old self, someone who always lives behind some else’s shadow. So, he decided continued to carry and live behind this jovial and nonchalant-like mask. At this point of time, not to deny, his self-esteem and confidence level has indeed elevated much.
At the same time, this girl left him. Despite of that, he was still able to survive and live independently with the aid of the mask. He seems tough and strong. But deep inside, he is still timid as ever.
He shivers and trembles at every bold remarks and suggestions he gave. Every time when he does something, he tries his best to give the best he could because the inferior self always exist, he always think he isn’t good enough as compared to the rest. He WANTS the best for everyone. However, instead of doing good, it unfortunately BACKFIRED! People thought he was proud, and insensitive. This has slapped him flat onto the ground that forced him to think that he is a “JUNK” again. His self-esteem and confidence once again suffered.
Can this boy find his own identity? Is it better to live behind a shadow or a mask?
His friends told him:
Said: you're not the person we used to know.
Said: i feel you're over-confident.
Said: i feel so many times that so many ideas are rebuked.
Said: perhaps you dont feel it, perhaps it isnt true, but you have changed
Said: no longer as humble, no longer as willing to accept opinions of others, no longer as willing to just listen, no longer as ready to set aside time, no longer that simple innocent open brother
Said: instead, you are very conscious about your actions words YOU. you are eager to win all the time. you have become so inclined to want to fit into class. you are not so spiritual and god-above-everything
What should this boy do?
what we could have been, 12:22 上午.
