我什麼地方對不起您？

《基督譴責》

我的人民啊！難道我虧負了您？
我什麼地方對不起您？請您答覆我。

我曾為您打擊了埃及，和他們的長子；
您卻鞭打了我，把我交付於異邦人。
我曾將法郎淹沒於紅海中，而把您從埃及領了出來；
您卻把我，交付於司祭長。

我的人民啊！難道我虧負了您？
我什麼地方對不起您？請您答覆我。

我曾在您的前面，分開了紅海；
您卻用長槍刺開了我的肋膀。
我曾在雲柱下，領導了您；
您卻把我解到比拉多衙門去。

我的人民啊！難道我虧負了您？
我什麼地方對不起您？請您答覆我。

到 了 一 個 地 方 ， 名 叫 髑 髏 地 ， 就 在 那 裡 把 耶 穌 釘 在 十 字 架 上 ，
又 釘 了 兩 個 犯 人 ： 一 個 在 左 邊 ， 一 個 在 右 邊 。(Luke 23:33)

忘記哭泣

It's been a while I haven't cried--so long that I forgot it's actually quite soothing --until last night.

As a segue of my ER incident, I accidentally wiped my eyes too hard in the middle of the night that irritated a lot of tears... *sigh*

And then in the morning when I woke up, I found my back is really painful and stiff. What happened to my body lately??

***

Dad called and said that his recent EKG result shows possible problems with his heart. All of a sudden I said to myself why I don't I leave earlier and spend some more time with parents before the school starts... but then on the other hand I still have a lot unfinished businesses I have to take care of before leaving. Hopefully dad will be OK.

***

Heard that the treatments were not constraining the cancer cells... how should I cheer you up in this case? I wanted to leave some words for you, but I wasn't able to find any proper words--should I encourage you to continue fighting? Or should I say that God is taking good care of you? Whatever I say, I know I'm just trying to cover up the reality...

***

And your hearing is impaired more and more by the tumor... whenever I picture how the tumor is going to alter your face.... my heart sinks.

***

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 6:23

We Walk By Faith, Not By Sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7

"Prayer is Not Optional"

Found this article from an Orthodox's website. Worth a read!

***

Every day I'm like entering a war room now... to get myself unwind from work I've decided to do some nature shooting tomorrow! It's time to take out my Hasselblad :-)

And then come back to worry about my IRS letter :(

***

Didn't have much preparation for the small group tonight--as usual. However every time we found something "meaningful" to "do" (although I always think that we're set the format of fellowship too rigid that we always think we need to "do" something to make it meaningful, but I think being there for one another is already a good fellowship).

Anyways, we met a new comer June. An interesting small group indeed. Unexpectedly we all shared our testimonies of how we became a Christian (and it's my first time hearing a lot of them!), and we look up some verses to deal with how not to worry about things.

As we gather in the name of him, I'm sure the spirit will guide us through!

***

Argh, loving one another is SOOOOO difficult, especially someone whome I DON't like. I quit. I just can't stand it.

***

Really like today's verse:

誰 能 使 我 們 與 基 督 的 愛 隔 絕 呢 ？ 難 道 是 患 難 麼 ？ 是 困 苦 麼 ？ 是 逼 迫 麼 ？ 是 飢 餓 麼 ？ 是 赤 身 露 體 麼 ？ 是 危 險 麼 ？ 是 刀 劍 麼 ？
然 而 ， 靠 著 愛 我 們 的 主 ， 在 這 一 切 的 事 上 已 經 得 勝 有 餘 了 。
Romans 8:35,37

I don't have 患 難, 困 苦, 逼 迫, 飢 餓, 赤 身 露 體, 危 險, 刀 劍 ....

It's that sin, that separates me from him.....

Sold!

The beautiful Flokati rug has just gone for a pretty good price (well, to both the buyer and me) :-) I posted it last night and there were already several inquiries as of this morning!

The sad time of parting with my collections over the past two years has come.... if I had a choice, I won't sell one single item! I spent lots of energy and time on researching these items, acquiring them from ebay, craigslist, and Good Will. I even paid for a rental truck once to get the stunning sofa downstairs, and got caught of speeding :-( Yup, speeding on an old Uhal truck!!

Every furniture and decor item has its own story to tell, and that feeling of opening the box and examining it from head to tail is still fresh...

****

Every time when Pastor Shiu gives sermon, I'm so touched and remained spiritually shocked for a long time (the last time was 這世界非我家？--認識神永恆的計劃).

Living a life bearing the image of Christ is never ever an easy thing, but I truely feel that power through pastor's.

****


Sigh... 這世界非我家... 這世界非我家....


***

Thanks for the gift! I wish that one day we could meet, although I don't really know who you are who fold this paper bird for me... it's also your life that touched me through the sharing, you know? Even though you don't know him yet, I'm sure you have that light shining in your heart that will guide you through and get to know him one day.

我

Reposted from this blog, haven't thought that I am so precious no matter what!

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我 (your name)，在基督裡是蒙悅納︰

我是神的兒子／兒女。(約一12)
我是基督的朋友。(約十五15)
我已被稱義。(羅五1)
我與主聯合，在靈裡與祂合一。(林前六17)
我是用重價買來的；我屬於神。(林前六20)
我是基督身體的肢體。(林前十二27)
我是聖徒。(弗一1)
我得著神兒女的名分。(弗一5)
我靠著聖靈可以直接來到神面前。(弗二18)
我蒙了救贖，所有罪惡已得赦免。(西一14)
我在基督裡已得完全。(西二10)

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我 (your name)，在基督裡是得穩妥︰

我永遠不再被定罪了。(羅八1-2)
我肯定萬事都互相效力。(羅八28)
我不再受控告了。(羅八33-34)
我不能與神的愛隔絕。(羅八35、38-39)
神堅立我、膏抹我，又在我身上蓋了印。(林前一21-22)
我深信神在我身上開展了的美好工作必會完成。(腓一6)
我是天上的公民。(腓三20)
我與基督一同藏在神裡面。(西三3)
神賜給我的，不是膽怯的靈，而是有能力、仁愛、自律的靈。(提後一7)
我可以蒙憐憫，得恩惠，作為及時的幫助。(來四16)
我是從神生的，那惡者不能碰我。(約壹五18)

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我 (your name)，在基督裡是有貢獻︰

我是世上的鹽和光。(太五13-14)
我是真葡萄樹的枝子，是傳遞祂生命的通道。(約十五1、5)
我蒙揀選及分派去結果子。(約十五16)
我是基督的見證人。(徒一8)
我是神的殿。(林前三16)
我是叫人與神和好的使者。(林後五17-20)
我是神的同工。(林後六1)
我與基督一同坐在天上。(弗二6)
我是神的工作。(弗二10)
我可以坦然無懼，滿有把握地進到神面前。(弗三12)
我靠著那加給我能力的基督，凡事都能作。(腓四13)

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浮世繪

Looking back to my banners, it's like telling a story of mine over the past year. Every banner represents a stage in life, it can be struggles, it can somehting that is delightful, something dull; and something colorful.

浮世：源自於佛教用語，意思指：繁華放任、卻又虛無短暫的塵世。(link)

So what's the purpose of life if it is so hopeless?

This week has been hectic. I've been working working working and working late till mid-midnight all the week, except Monday.... and didn't have dinner until after I got back home... and then start working again.

Finally I undersatnd why people can work 80+ hours per week: once you've passed a certain threshold, you'll want to stick with it :-)

One night when I was riding the last bus back home, Pastor Shiu's sermon about heaven suddenly popped up in my mind. What he mentioned wasn't anything new to me, but the insights was different.

I'm so glad that I have only one chance to live on this world, that I don't need to come back again.

Don't get me wrong, this world is indeed beautiful, since it's created by God!

But there is a better place out there, where we work, but don't need to OT; where we work, but don't need to be laid off; where I can pursue my "career", but don't need to worry about not having enough to feed my family.

Right now, I'm already living in the prototype of heaven :-)

所以美好

In response to 廿九几, I have one little 「情話」

因為生命可以豐盛，所以美好!

Just read Peter Wong's testimony from 《中信》, and was touched by his experience. Peter was my "marriage" counsellor more than a year ago, although we finally chose to break up instead of getting married. He can't see anything, but has the ability to see through our thoughts. One day he said to us, "Hum, why are you guys sitting so far apart away from each other?" That told us something... yeah, for some reasons every time we meet all three of us are sitting in triangle, trying to keep as much distant as possible...

****

Came across two articles about chef schools. It seems that getting into culinary schools is becoming a trend now, although the industry doesn't really need that many:

From Toronto Star: Prepping chefs
From The Albuquerque Tribune: Celebrity chefs inspire cravings for culinary jobs

It looks like a long education, like three years, is not something I really need. George Brown's one year program is enough.

****

It's really difficult to learn French, especially following those CD's. They're OK, but I think it's a bit over priced. For one thing, you wouldn't learn how to complete a sentece at the end of the course.

Hum, may be I can podcast some Cantonese lessons, and earn some referral commisions to various websites :-)

Fortunately, frenchpodclass.com seems to be very good, they even provide a transcript for each episode!

dailyfrenchpod.com is another site, but you need to pay a montly fee for the transcript. They fact that they concentrate on grammar is something you can't miss.

幸福何時敲門?

《The Pursuit of Happyness》 has a plot that is pretty easy to predict--you almost know what's going to happen next even without watching the trailer or summary. However, it's still a very touching story, not to mention that Will Smith did a very good job.

And the story was just in time when I was discouraged by a recent setback during the quest for my career.

In the movie, Chris lost his wife, and almost lost his son when he's approaching the bottom of his career because of an incorrect investment. His son and Chris needed to sleep in men's room since they got expelled from a motel because of long delayed rent. After that they lived in an emergency shelter every night.

However Chris never gave up. He wanted to give the best to his 5 year old. Unfortunately he didn't know where he's heading to. And when his son asked one day, "Where are we going?", all Chris can replied was, "You gotta trust me, all right?"

"I trust you." replied his son.

It was this trust that Chris hanged on to, and he worked hardly to earn a full time position as a stock broker.

I was thinking, what would I feel if I were Chris that all I had left with was a luggage that I had to carry to work every day? May be struggling in a kitchen some where around the world trying to wait for my break? What if all the bad luck kept happening to me, and I had a family to feed?

I don't know. But I surely will need the trust and encouragement from my loved ones.

Just like in the movie, when Chris' son, who suffered together with Chris every day, said to him, "You're a good poppa." It meant a lot, I mean a whole lot, to Chris.

I need your trust.

Some quotes that hit me:

Christopher Gardner: You gotta trust me, all right?
Christopher: I trust you.
Christopher Gardner: 'Cause I'm getting a better job

Christopher Gardner: [to his son] You got a dream, you gotta protect it. People can't do something themselves, they wanna tell you that you can't do it. You want something? Go get it. Period.

Christopher Gardner: Don't ever let someone tell you, you can't do something. Not even me.
Christopher Gardner: All right?
Christopher: All right.

I don't know what I'm going to choose, but in prayers I seek.

全因主的聖名，勞苦可得安靜；
行走於孤單困惑裡面有主傾聽。
全因主的聖名，愁心可得歡樂；
祈禱的必得勝，我以性命來做證！

犯了罪

Just read this blog 《末日誘惑》, pretty thought-provoking.

To be honest, if I were to accuse Christians I know of, I can point my finger to a lot of people.

Myself included.

因為世人都犯了罪， 虧缺了神的榮耀 (羅馬書 3:23)
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)

That said, the spreading of rumours, the finger pointing, the comparison, the teases, the boastful thoughts, the 虛偽, 表裡不一, and... all these add up kill a lot of Christians, and non-Christians.

Myself included.

I guess it's a good time in Christmas to rethink why and how the birth of Jesus relates to me. But no matter what, I'm thankful that I am blessed by something that happened 2000+ years ago.

****

A very touching blog about the story of 棋棋...

Yeah, it doesn't matter how long your life is!

What matters the most?

"跟隨主腳縱 ，活出超凡生命。"