Trip

Take care, people going to Cambodia.. The Lord be with you all and bless your work!

Serving..

In the house and out of doors
Washing shoes and scrubing floor
Washing ironing brewing tea
Sometimes making Hockien Mee

I do it all for Jesus
I do it all for Jesus
I do it all for Jesus
He've done so much for me


This is one point that came across quite strongly to me from today's sharing.. That even by cleaning toilets and peeling potatoes and searching, they are still in some ways, missionaries..

Wow.. When we are brewing tea, we are actually.. building God's Kingdom...


May I say to these 6 (and the other 300 odd) people... Well done!

Reverse Context

We always say that the context of a particular passage in scripture is important. And certainly it is, it provides the backdrop for whatever a passage says. However, there had been instances where people first give the passage a meaning, then form a possible context to give the passage that particular meaning. The key I must emphasis is to Form the context... This, I believe to be an erroneous method..

Let me cite an example. Remember David once said that he heard of an interpretation for the saying that it is easier for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven.. The interpretation went as such, that there was a gate, which was called the eye of a needle, and that the gate was very low, so the camel must first be unloaded before it can enter through that gate, and that this is a parallel to the rich man, who must unload his wealth before entering heaven.. Which sounds like good doctrine, since we do believe that material possessions must have no hold on us. Unfortunately, this gate does not seem to exist. At least, no one seems to have heard of it from any other source.. In other words, this seems to be a case where the interpretation precedes the context. The context was formed to give the interpretation. More likely, the hyperbolic meaning that it is really very very very difficult for rich people to enter heaven (for some reason expounded in the scripture before this)

The danger of this is twofold. Firstly, it is bad exegesis. That is plain enough. The other is that it misleads others, especially with an air of scholarship. We only know of this type of context by the works of other people. Unless you bother to check out where this information comes from, it is difficult for you to verify. (So please do verify if given a context to explain the passage).

As such, I tend to avoid using external context.. Unless I had checked that the context is true, I don't use them to explain a passage. What I do use is internal context though (ie: contextual information which we can find within scripture itself). For instance, John's description of Jesus as the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world is a reference to the Levitican practice of having a sacrificial lamb on the Day of Atonement to take away the sin of the nation; as opposed to, say, a description of Jesus as being very meek and humble (characteristics of lambs).

By the way, this is a problem I had with some of the study books.. They seem to be telling me the context from the text, but dressed up as interpreting the text from a context (from other sources)..

Dawn

Hey, whats wrong with having the entire cast having a collective total of 20? Its perfectly fine =p

Have parts of dry humor (totally my type) too =p

Study..

Cyrus and Torrey sparked this...

Anyone wants to study the Bible? This is how Torrey studied his..

1 Peter 1:1-2
Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
To God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

These verses teach:

1. This epistle was written by Peter.
2. The Peter who wrote this epistle was an apostle (missionary) of Jesus Christ
3. Peter delighted to think and speak of himself as one sent of Jesus Christ (by comparing 2 Peter1:1)
4. The name - Jesus Christ is used twice in these 2 verses. Its significance:
a. Savior
b. Anointed One.
c. Fulfiller of the messianic predictions of the Old Testament. It has special reference to the earthly reign of Christ.
5. This epistle was written to the elect, especially to the elect who are sojourners of the dispersion in Pontus, i.e., Paul's old field of labor.
6. Believers are:
a. Elect or chosen of God.
b. Foreknown of God.
c. Sanctified of the Spirit.
d. Sprinkled by the blood of Jesus Christ.
e. Sojourners or pilgrims on earth.
f. Subjects of multiplied grace.
g. Possessors of multiplied peace.
7. Election. Who are the elect? Believers. To what are they elect? Obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. According to what are they elect? The foreknowledge of God. In what are they elect? Sanctification of the Spirit. The test of election is obedience (Compare 2 Peter1:10) The work of the 3 persons of the Trinity in election are: The Father foreknows, Jesus Christ cleanses sin by His blood, and the Spirit sanctifies.
8. God is the Father of the elect.
9. The humanity of Christ is seen in the mention of His blood.
10. The reality of the body of Jesus Christ is seen in the mention of His blood.
11. It is by His blood and not by His example that Jesus Christ delivers from sin.
12. Peter's first and great wish and prayer for those to whom he wrote was that grace and peace might be multiplied.
13. It is not enough to have grace and peace. One should have multiplied grace and peace.
14. That one already has grace and peace is no reason to cease praying for them, but rather an incentive to prayer that they may have more grace and peace.
15. Grace precedes peace. Compare all passages where these words are found together.

......

How does one study like this??... These 2 verses are expounded on more than what I usually do for an entire chapter..

Walk

Abit late perhaps this post.. =p I am referring to the little walk we had last week. I had fun! Pity had to leave earlier though..

Other things I learnt:

1) Do not use Army running shorts for "other purposes". They are really really really short(s) =p

2) Mosquitoes do exist and they are annoying, but you can hardly see them

3) Cloudy weather is wonderful!

4) Cotton is better than dri fit (Fine, thats an opinion)

5) Singing does not lighten your load. Which is a good thing if you are feeling car sick in a church van =p

6) Singing is fun

7) You tend to tell everyone else what picture to take if you don't have a camera.


Muahahaha. I am so enlightened after the walk =p=p

Other things

Afterwards he (that is, Studd, one of Moody's converts) asked Moody: "I want to be straight with you. Now I am a Christian, shall I have to give up racing and shooting and hunting and theatres and balls?"

"Mr Studd, you've been straight with me, I will be straight with you. Racing means betting and betting means gambling. I don't see how a gambler is going to be a Christian. Do the other things as long as you like."

Studd pressed the point. what did Moody really advise about the theatre and cards?

"Mr Studd, you have children and people you love. You're now a saved man, you want to get them saved. God will give you some souls, and as soon as ever you have won a soul, you won't care about any of the other things."



So it is with every other thing man..

Bow

In "That Hideous Strength", the 3rd book of the Space Trilogy by C. S. Lewis, Merlin bowed before Ransom when they met. Merlin was a giant, a magician. Ransom is one who had went to Paradise (Venus or Perelana in the book) and came out of it totally changed. He became like uncorrupted Man, like one from Eden...

So shall we be. For is it not said, that we will one day "be like Gods". One whom we will be tempted to bow before and worship if we met today.

And is it not that every Wisdom and ability and strength shall one day bow before the greatest of all, Holiness..



PS: Err.. if you do not really understand these rambling, reading the trilogy might help to clarify =p Its hard to put ideas from 3 books into a short summery =p That "summery" will most likely overwhealm whatever it is that I wanted to say. =p

Steady

Hmmm.. Its not so much an exhilarating ride as a steady journey..

I think :P

Pocahontas

The world where dreams do come true and people live happily ever after. The world which looks at hopes and nature and beauty. No wonder people like them.. I like them too.. Some people will just dismiss them for being incontinent with the real world. Whatever the "real" world is like in their minds. Of course, Disney worlds are just really fairy tales, and many things probably won't turn out the same way. But I think that today's world has too little dreams and too little people looking at these ideas, not too much. Disney helps in so much as they lift people beyond the mundane to look at.. something more. (Though some parts do get a little cheesy and unrealistic even for me =p)

Alright, fine, I am biased :P I like dreaming :P

Then again, their music is really nice :P Love them.. :P

Oh ya, did I ever say this? I love musicals :P

Long and short..

I like the way CS Lewis puts it, that the dressing (most likely of a girl) is not a sin against Chasity, but it can be a sin against Charity when it breaches Propriety..

Interesting idea ;)