Tuesday, 23 June 2009

  • Oxford

    “Welcome to the Mother Ship,” my colleague over here said as she greeted me in the office on Monday morning.

    I’m here in Oxford, UK for the week working in the main offices of Oxford University Press. I hope to have some photo updates if I can ever get over this jet-lag and/or get out of the office.

Thursday, 11 June 2009

Tuesday, 09 June 2009

  • Wired

    I am wired so oddly. We are all wired so incredibly differently. I wish I was wired a bit better than the way I am.

    At 4:18 this morning, Isabelle began to cry. I don’t know if it was the tumultuous thunderstorms or just that she’d gotten up at the same time the night before, but she was awake and needed to be held. We waited a few minutes (you should always give your baby a chance to soothe him/herself to sleep first), and Simone went to her room.

    I had put my head back down — knowing, though, that the 4:30 a.m. alarm would sound at any moment — but my thoughts raced. For some reason, I started thinking about my social security card....you know, the card you get when you’re born or (if emigrated) when you become a citizen? For years (almost a decade) and through 2 moves, I’ve kept my card with a stack of old receipts, bound together by a rubber band and tucked away in a file cabinet. It had been removed from a wallet and deposited directly into that file cabinet. Recently, Simone had been doing file clean-up and I started to panic: what if she saw that stack and took it for what it appeared to be, just a stack of very old receipts that needed to be shredded and tossed? Suddenly, from a melancholy and slow awakening, my heart began to pound and my head raced even more. What a way to wake up.

    Like I said, I wish I was wired just a little differently sometimes.

Wednesday, 27 May 2009

  • What the heck?

    So, I go away for a few months and come back to see . . . what the heck? How come the blog entry titles are no longer linked (and therefore a different font color and size)? They’re simply the bold version of the type for the blog body...which depending on the font you use, sometimes make it seem even smaller? How do I change the formatting of individual blog entry titles? When I was using Xanga regularly, Xanga used to improve with time, not get simplistic and worse, design wise. Grr....guess it’s my fault for being away for so long.

Wednesday, 11 March 2009

  • Reading the Bible

    Just something I want to share. As Pastor OJ taught Simone and me in the 2+ years of one-on-one Bible study, there is no such thing as a wasted word in the Bible. Recently, I started re-reading and studying the book of ROMANS, and just as OJ did when he went through EPHESIANS with us, I have been trying to truly comprehend every word and ask “what is it saying?”

    So, in a simple opening of Paul’s letter to the Romans, we find more than just a letter’s standard greeting in Paul’s words in ROMANS 1:1–7.

    1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, The verse establishes who Paul is. He not only serves Christ, he is a bond-servant, a servant indebted to Christ. He is “called” by God to be an apostle. What does it mean to be an apostle? Paul is not only a follower but a messenger of Christ’s teachings. Also, he is “set apart” from this world: he is to be different from this world. For what? The very purpose to preach the gospel of God. If you are a follower of Christ, are you also a messenger of God’s teachings?
    2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, This, as in everything in the New Testament and the life of Christ, is preordained by God, as taught by the prophets in the Old Testament.
    3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, What is Paul teaching? Of Jesus, the Son of God. Verses 3-5 establishes the relationship of Christ to Paul and to all of us: Jesus is born of the line of David (establishing His earthly kingship),
    4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, he is declared the Son of God with the power (God’s power) to overcome death (because He is holy);
    5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, it is through His death and resurrection that we have received God’s grace (mercy from the destruction due to our sins) for the purpose (as apostles—“called” followers—of Christ) to preach the gospel and bring about obedience in faith among all in and for His name.
    6 among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; In verse 6 we are reminded of our duty based on our brotherhood of Christians, the name of Christ which we have taken.
    7 to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Even in the (finally) actual greeting of verse 7—“Grace to you...”— Paul reiterates exactly who he is talking to: those who are “beloved” and “called as saints.” These are terms he uses repeatedly to address those who are believer/followers of Christ: you are saints because of the sanctification that can only occur through the work of the Holy Spirit (which comes only after acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior), the namesake, by the way, which Paul reiterates again at the end of the greeting and of this verse.

    Beautiful, isn’t this? Just as in this greeting, there is Truth in every morsel of the Bible. Not one word is wasted.

    For those Christians out there, never stop reading and studying God’s Word. Never let this world’s ways lead you to believe that you no longer need to be refreshed in our Lord’s enriching guidance through the book which He made certain we would have. It is (and should be) all we need. Enjoy your reading!