Mercy and Grace

Thanks be to our God that we had a fun, interesting, wonderful weekend! :)

The most notable of course would be that my relationship with the love of my life has finally reached a 'new' level..., but it's not perfect yet... and Dr. Keith Herschey would say... 'practice makes perfect'! So more practice is needed.

I also practice my guitar a bit too. After watching the Super Star Million Dollar Sing contest thing, I felt like using my voice to praise God too!!! ;) Our cat doesn't like the guitar sound very much, or maybe it's my voice? Anyway, I just hope God doesn't find my praises annoying! ;)

Also had dinner with the same 'gang' that went to the concernt at Hollywood Bowl last nite. It was an enjoyable dinner, haven't had a get together ever since the wedding... I enjoyed hanging out with them, but I do find it disturbing that some of them actually had skipped church for few weeks now... Hmm.... Inviting to join us at Faith on Sunday also didn't help... and there are always some type of excuses... I don't know what we can do to help. Lord, can you help us? When people just feel discouraged... bored or whatever. What can we do to help?

Also, with most of relatives from taiwan heading back, mom will perhaps have more time to devote to God now? I will be preparing my first bible study based on Pastor Jim's sermon last sunday. Not sure if it's going to be series or a one time sermon, but it was basically explaining what is mercy and what is grace. Mercy is not giving us(punishments) what we deserve and grace is basically giving us(goodies)what we don't deserve. I have to admit previously, I thought the two are pretty close, it's very good of Pastor Jim to differentiate between the two! ;) Anyway, this ought to be a pretty good topic for beginners like mom... fingers crossed... and may God be both merciful and graceful to us!!!!

Oh, another intersting thing was the movie eternal sunshine and the spotless mind. Love of my life saw it already, but rented the DVD just for me... Would I choose to erase my heart-breaking past memories if possible? I think I'd have to say that for sure I won't want to do that. We are shaped by our experiences... and without those memories, then we cease to become who we are..., but what if the memories are super painful though? I suppose I won't blame others if they want theirs to be erased..., but that's like a wasted 'life lesson'. But then again, even if we don't forget, humans still tend to repeat history though... But anyway, it's just not right to 'play God' like that. If one truly wants to play God, perhaps we can choose to be merciful and graceful by forgetting other people's past failures.

In today's scriptural reading, Jephthah had a bad past which was not even his own fault. His dad had Jephthah with a hooker, what can he do? But people made sure he knows about it and even kicked him out of the family..., but then I'm not sure why all of a sudden they want him back later? Jephthah must've been a well known godly man? That's why at times of trouble, people actually wanted him to lead them out of trouble?

Also, another thing Jephthah is famous for is that we shouldn't make stupid vows! If I ever make a stupid vow suck as 'sacrifice a burnt offering to God with whatever walks out of that door', for sure I wouldn't honor it... and I'm sure the infinitely merciful and graceful God won't remember it too! ;) Even if something bad happens, at least this bad thing can only happen to me. Not sure why he had to kill his daughter... Anyway, I think the main moral of that part of the story is to simply not make stupid vows, right?

I think my wedding vow is it. I'm not making any more vows!!! Wait, is that also a form of vow too? Whatever... ;)

(Judges 11:1-12:7)