Mary Magdalene

It's pretty cool that we sinners can annoint Jesus too... with our tears and perfume...

It's also pretty interesting that it's the women who were the first the help support Christ's ministry... the similar trend is still continuing even in churches of today... there are just more women than men in churches.

It's the women who led humanity away from God in the beginning... and now it's again women who led humanity back to God. Man failed to led Eve from sinning... and men seems to continue to failed to come back to God... How can we men be more like men? How can we be more like You O Lord... to be able to become proper Godly leaders... make us more like You Lord! Like Brother GD said, help us buy more gold refined by fire... store up more treasures in heaven..., help us keep our robes white as snow... and open up our eyes so that Your light can drive away the darkness that's inside of us... We want to shine for You Lord. Make us more like You so that when people see us... they can see You and Your glory thru us!

(Luke 7:36-8:3)

Simeon and Anna

They were the propets who prophesied in the LORD's temple about Jesus as baby Jesus was presented to the LORD...

God has also blessed us with prophets such as Brother GD and Sister Prophet in our lives today too!!! 2 weeks ago, we missed their prayer meeting because wife and I were in a fight... so it was more important for us to sort ourselves out first instead of going to prayer meetings I guess...

We have sorted ourselves out somewhat..., but now, apparently stupid satan is using other means to attack my wife once again... this time it's thru her computer!!! She was so pissed about how lousy her computer is... and how lousy Apple's service was... and how lousy the Chinese people are who put her computer together...that she couldn't even sleep very well!!!

I tried my best to comfort her, by giving her physical comfort... emotional comfort and by telling some cold jokes to divert her attention a bit..., it's much easier to comfort somebody when that somebody's not mad at me... ;)

Anyway, my dear wife, if you're reading this, I hope you'll try to forgive Apple... forgive those folks in the Apple store... and forgive the Chinese people who've put your computer together. Yes, your anger is justifiable. However, don't let it consume you. It's only a freaking computer. Stop focusing on the bad things in life.... and start focusing on the good things in life! Your lousy computer at least is still working! You also still have your lousy cat! You still have your lousy husband! And you also still have Jesus! Hope you can find comfort in knowing that we love you very much!

In the name of my Lord Jesus, I command that evil firy anger spirit to leave my wife!!!! YEAH!!! Peace! :)

(Luke 2:21-38)

Glory in the highest!!!

Is what the angels sang when they told the night-shift shepherds about the birth of Christ. Isn't it weird that God always picked the people in low earthly positions to preach the gospel? Using Nick to preach His name for example...

Regardless of whether if we're in a low position or a high position, may we continue to preach His love and greatness to those around us.

(Luke 2:8-20)

Relaxing Thanksgiving weekend...

Thank God that we had a long Thanksgiving weekend so that I can catch up on some lost sleep!!! So that I can have the energy to deal with issues at work...

Didn't do much during the long weekend though, but it was still enjoyable nonetheless! Hope wife felt the same too! ;) We saw a movie called Dan in Real Life, it's not too bad. I liked it. It's a funny and heartwarming movie...

Other than relaxing, we also ate quite a lot too! With family and friends...

Interesting note was that mom emailed us a link of a limbless guy named Nick. I've heard of this guy before..., but his life is still very inspiring nonetheless. He talked about God won't always take away troubles, but for sure He'll be with us to help us thru our troubles! He's actually a pretty good preacher too! I found this on the Crystal Cathedral site: Nick Interestingly Pastor Jim also talked about a similar theme on Sunday. He talked about whenever we are going thru hell..., DON'T STOP!!! Keep going until you get thru it!!! God doesn't help us by eliminating our troubles, but God helps us to get thru our troubles. Nick also talked about the biggest disability isn't having no arms and legs..., but the biggest disability is guilt and fear. Whenever guilt and fear trips us..., we often won't feel like getting back up again. Figuring what's the point? We'd probably all feel like saying amen to what Job's wife said..., 'let's just curse God and die... and get it over with..."

But thanks be to our God for giving us continual strength to go on... so that we don't stop and die in hell! May God also give us the wisdom to know where to put the cross on our problems... to help us fix out problems... to transform us from bitter water into living water!

And I just found out that I screwed up on my scripture reading order... after reading Zechariah, I got him confused with Zacchaeus! So anyway, I'm going back from Andrew(day96) to Mary(day85)! ;) And Mary said,

Luke 1
46 我 心 尊 主 為 大 ；
47 我 靈 以 神 我 的 救 主 為 樂 ；
48 因 為 他 顧 念 他 使 女 的 卑 微 ； 從 今 以 後 ， 萬 代 要 稱 我 有 福 。
49 那 有 權 能 的 ， 為 我 成 就 了 大 事 ； 他 的 名 為 聖 。
50 他 憐 憫 敬 畏 他 的 人 ， 直 到 世 世 代 代 。
51 他 用 膀 臂 施 展 大 能 ； 那 狂 傲 的 人 正 心 裡 妄 想 就 被 他 趕 散 了 。
52 他 叫 有 權 柄 的 失 位 ， 叫 卑 賤 的 升 高 ；
53 叫 飢 餓 的 得 飽 美 食 ， 叫 富 足 的 空 手 回 去 。
54 他 扶 助 了 他 的 僕 人 以 色 列 ，
55 為 要 記 念 亞 伯 拉 罕 和 他 的 後 裔 ， 施 憐 憫 直 到 永 遠

(Luke 1:26-56,Luke 2:1-7)

Thanks NASA for giving us more time! ;)

Yeah, just found out that NASA has surprisingly agreed to give us more time(until end of next month instead of end of this month) to sort out our problems... so hopefully we can be better prepared to solve our problems... bad thing is that next week is going to be busy again, but thank God that we have the coming of this long Thanksgiving weekend so that we can be well rested!!! :)

Anyway, today's scripture reading was about Andrew. Probably one of the insignificant disciples..., the brother of Peter. Andrew led Peter to Jesus. Andrew also led the little boy who had the fish and the bread to Jesus. Andrew is basically the middle man for people with the true Middle Man of God! ;) I think this is basically what being Christian is about... just to be a mediator between folks... and to bring them together... and people most likely wouldn't recognize you for your work.

We all simply have the tendency to split up. It's a lot easier to just split up instead of continue to work together to solve problems. It's just much easier to hate our enemies than to love our enemies. Is loving our enemy a suggestion or a commandment? Is it a sin to NOT love our enemy? Last night I also had a discussion with wife... wondering if it is a "sin" to NOT do what Jesus said we should do. For example, for sure Jesus said to NOT worry. So is worrying a sin? Is Christ our Lord merely suggesting that we should love our enemy or we should not worry? Or is Christ our Lord actually "commanding" us to love our enemies and to not worry?

Regardless if it's a sin or not, we just shouldn't do those things... anyway, I'm rambling on..., gotta get back to work! ;)

(John 1:35-42,John 6:1-13,John 12:20-36)

Another busy day at work...

But I think I can finally catch a breather for a while... fingers crossed! ;)

Today's scripture reading was about Cleopas, one of the followers of Jesus I think..., it's interesting that he wasn't able to recognize the resurrected Jesus!!! I think even the disciples weren't able to immediately recognize Jesus... I wonder why this is.... Perhaps our resurrected bodies will be really different! ;) However, they were able to 'feel' Jesus though. One could feel the heart burning when interacting with Jesus..., Jesus must have certain mannerism which sets him apart from other people. May we all be more Christ-like with our mannerism... so that people can no longer recognizes us except the spirit of Christ who dwells within! :)

(Luke 24)

Still busy with troubles...

But at least troubles at home is under control at the moment! ;) There's just more trouble at work for now... hopefully I can help solve this problem by month's end, so that I can be a HERO at helping the company to save $10 million!!!!

Last Sunday, Pastor Jim talked about how we can persevere under trouble and continue to do what's right like Joseph. Of course when troubles hit us, when somebody wronged us, it's going to bother us, it's going to hurt. Nobody likes trouble! But throwing a fit at those trouble's not goint to help anybody anyway. All we can do is trust God that He allowed it to happen for good... He allowed it to happen so that we can learn a lesson.

Today's scripture reading is about that thief on the cross next to Jesus. Anyway, I find it funny that the other thief could still find time to insult Christ... Typical atheistic response... prove to me you're God... or show God to me... then I'll believe! The other thief is quite amazing too..., how can a person believe a crucified Christ to be a Savior? He appeared to be unable to save himself... even the disciples have fled and denied Jesus..., why would he still bother to believe in Jesus? The thieves were polar opposites.

Also, one interesting thing I've noticed is that when you have 3 people nailed on the cross..., you can get the chinese word 'come'. God's invitation for the Chinese people to 'come' into His kingdom..., I always thought that was cool.

(Luke 23:26-43)

Physical fruits!!!

Spirituality is sometimes way too abstract for people... what is love? what is joy? What are those spiritual fruits? However, we all know what's an apple, pear, or banana, right? ;)

Anyway, what's amazing is that the love of my life and myself are both not that much of a fruit lover. I don't regularly eat fruits... and nor do my wife. However, recently Boeing and Mayo Clinic has teamed up to care for employee's health. We even got a $100 gift certificate just for participating on some online health survey... and the people at Mayo clinic even went as far as calling us to help steer us on a more healthy path. The person I spoke to plan on coaching me to eat healthier, and to exercise for 6 months so that I can lost some weight.

And the end result is that we are eating more fruits, and wife is already experiencing some differences/benefits of our healthier eating! Thank God for them!!!

In retrospect, what is wrong with these people? Not only are they not getting paid by us, they actually gave us $100!!!!!!! Are they stupid or something? ;)

So I did some research. About Mayo Clinic: It is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,300 physicians, scientists and researchers and 46,000 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has sites in Rochester, Minn., Jacksonville, Fla., and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz. Collectively, the three locations treat more than half a million people each year.

So how did they get started? Perhaps it was fate, perhaps happenstance or maybe even luck. Whatever you decide, this is certainly a story about being at the right place at the right time -- a moment in history when scientific discovery made possible the creation of modern medicine. It's also a story of an extraordinary family -- Dr. William Worrall Mayo, a frontier doctor, and his two sons, Dr. William J. Mayo and Dr. Charles H. Mayo, and the great institution they built, Mayo Clinic. It's the story of a deadly tornado and the partnership that evolved between the Mayo family and the Sisters of Saint Francis. It's a story about unusual dedication, willingness to face a hostile and harsh environment, a story of discovery, sharing, collaboration, selflessness and generosity. It's also a story of how people came together in a small town on the edge of America's Great Plains and built the first integrated medical practice and how that practice developed a model dedicated to providing the best care to every patient every day.

Anyway, I've decided that they are doing God's work! Yes!!! Thank YOU LORD!!!! :)

Today's scripture reading is about Zechariah, father of John the Baptist. I really like his prayer:

Luke 1
68 主 ─ 以 色 列 的 神 是 應 當 稱 頌 的 ！ 因 他 眷 顧 他 的 百 姓 ， 為 他 們 施 行 救 贖 ，
69 在 他 僕 人 大 衛 家 中 ， 為 我 們 興 起 了 拯 救 的 角 ，
70 正 如 主 藉 著 從 創 世 以 來 聖 先 知 的 口 所 說 的 話 ，
71 拯 救 我 們 脫 離 仇 敵 和 一 切 恨 我 們 之 人 的 手 ，
72 向 我 們 列 祖 施 憐 憫 ， 記 念 他 的 聖 約 ─
73 就 是 他 對 我 們 祖 宗 亞 伯 拉 罕 所 起 的 誓 ─
74 叫 我 們 既 從 仇 敵 手 中 被 救 出 來 ，
75 就 可 以 終 身 在 他 面 前 ， 坦 然 無 懼 的 用 聖 潔 、 公 義 事 奉 他 。
76 孩 子 阿 ！ 你 要 稱 為 至 高 者 的 先 知 ； 因 為 你 要 行 在 主 的 前 面 ， 預 備 他 的 道 路 ，
77 叫 他 的 百 姓 因 罪 得 赦 ， 就 知 道 救 恩 。
78 因 我 們 神 憐 憫 的 心 腸 ， 叫 清 晨 的 日 光 從 高 天 臨 到 我 們 ，
79 要 照 亮 坐 在 黑 暗 中 死 蔭 裡 的 人 ， 把 我 們 的 腳 引 到 平 安 的 路 上 。

We ought to be grateful to be able to enjoy fruits, we also ought to produce fruits so that other may enjoy the same things we've enjoyed! May we all be very very fruitful, both physically and spiritually!!! :)

(Luke 1:1-25,57-80)

Troubles...

It's interesting that they usually all come together... at work... at home, of course if it's a problem that I can help solve, I will try my best to solve it. However, if sometimes it's out of my control, then of course I'd just hold on tight and wait for it to blow over.

Yesterday Tigran came to have lunch with me and Daniel. We haven't gotten together for a while... and yeah, we talked about various troubles. About how he wants to be a partner of the firm, but at the same time he admits that his heart isn't in it. He grinned and said... 'am I selling my soul?' He also talked about a lot of messed up lives of his law firm friends. I think he's beginning to miss his old boring engineering nerdy friends! ;)

Of course there's also trouble at home... and we even skipped praying meeting to deal with our problems! It's the right thing to do of course, if we cannot make peace with others, how can we possibly be at peace with God? So we stayed home to talk and to try to come up with specific ways to avoid similar problems in the future! Solutions we've come up with are:

1) When wife's face is upset, I have to speak up and ask, 'What is the problem?' Looking at her wish for her to talk is not going to work. I have to initiate the conversation first. I've also conveyed that it's useless to expect me to automatically know the problem... whatever is bothering her, I have to initiate to ask and then she has to just tell me. I will try my best to help, but surely I won't be able to be that helpful 100% of the time, but anyway, at least we'll be able to reduce some problems for now instead of allow the fire of anger continue to burn out of control!!! ;)

2) We've also decided that there shall be no more than 2 family dinners every month. I totally understand that wife's family doesn't have these types of regular family dinners except perhaps the annual vacations, but my family has these regular gatherings, but no annual vacations... it's two different families and we do have to learn to accept and respect each other's families' traditions.

3) I think the biggest problem of all is financial problems. I feel obligated to support my parents, but providing them with such security of course is at the expense of giving my own wife insecurities. This is similar to the 'family gathering' type of deal... of course I'm willing to cut down, for sure that will eventually happen when my parents are old enough to collect social security. I will certainly try my best to give my wife more sense of security, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to make my parents feel insecure about their day to day living. I honestly don't believe I'm spoiling my parents, I know when to tell them enough is enough!!! All I know is that we are not really that poor. Besides the money in the bank, I do have 401k savings, there's also value in the house... we're not exactly 'poor' or THAT insecure. But of course I need to help smooth things out better. This for sure will take some more time... hopefully we'll figure this out before the end of the year... so that everybody can be happy.

4) We've also decided that we will do something new and interesting all by ourselves at least once a month... and this is something I will take the initiative of making it happen.

Anyway, basically those are the corrective actions we came up with last nite. Surely they won't eliminate all problems, but hopefully they can help us thru some problems... wife is very goal oriented... and I've explained to the love of my life that the only goal for marriage is to love each other until one of us is dead. I honestly don't believe goals for marriage is to just eat with in-laws twice a month, or to have enough money so that we can freely spend or save however we want..., a successful marriage also isn't about how big of a house we have or how expensive the cars we drive... even if we don't ever have children doesn't mean we have a failed marriage... a successful marriage is basically just loving each other. Yes, love is very abstract. What is love? How can we measure that? How do we know if we're achieving our goals?

I don't know. ;)

All I know is that Jesus is on this love boat with us. Regardless of whether if I steered this boat wrong and ended up in a storm... or if we just can't possibly avoid the storm... as long if God is with us... even if our boat sank... I'm still not going to worry about the problems. If I can deal with the problem, sure, I'm willing to deal, but if I can't do anything to help..., then I'm just not going to worry about it. Only thing I have to worry about is if Jesus is not on this boat with us.

Today's scripture reading is about the blind man and the widow.

Blind man has faith that Jesus can save and heal him. Of course his blindness isn't going away until Jesus gives the word! But are we like that blind man? To have sufficient faith to continue to bug God about problems? To continue to have faith even when God's forcing you to wait thru your troubles? To never give up even when problems just aren't going away at the moment? Do you have the faith in God? Do you have hope for a brighter future... that for sure God will answer our prayers?

Regarding the poor widow who gave it all..., yeah, it's always easier to give it all when we have little I suppose. But the moral of the story is that we ought to find security in God not to find security based on our bank accounts or whatever earthly means..., this is how we can sleep thru the storms. ;)

Anyway, if we have a right attitudes. If we are full of love, troubles in the world can really make life more 'interesting'. It is also thru troubles that we can experience God more... of course I'm not suggesting that we go create trouble, I'm just saying we shouldn't allow troubles to get us down... to lose faith, to lose hope, or to lose our love for one another.

(Mark 10:46-52)
(Mark 12:41-44)

Problem solving...

Today, I'm starting a new short-term assignment trying to identify and solve a problem for the heat shield for the future space shuttle. Of course, it actually won't be a shuttle, it's just a capsule like the one back in Apollo moonlanding days. NASA figure that's just cheaper than to maintain the shuttle. Anyway, I have until the end of month to help out... and if we fail, I think NASA is just going to cancel on us and go to another vendor... Hmm... May God help me help Boeing find the cause so that we can move forward!!!

There's also problem at home too! But of course it's the same problems Pastor Su has long identified. Will problems simply disappear? Pastor Su never promise that. Jesus never promised that. So what should I do? I don't know. All I can count on is Jesus helping us thru our problems.

Am I avoiding the problems and allowing to get worse? I dunno..., maybe. But if Jesus can sleep thru a storm, why shouldn't I be more like Jesus?

Today's scripture reading is about that rich young man..., who wanted to know what must one DO to inherit eternal life? This young man is basically a very decent human being. He has kept the laws of God pretty perfectly... except that he's grabbing onto money too tightly and he cannot trust Jesus wholeheartedly enough to just faithfully follow him.

Do we need money to live? OF COURSE we do!!! However, do we need it more than Jesus? Of course we shouldn't fantasize Jesus giving us huge sums of money, but shouldn't we trust that Jesus would provide for us in ways that's more than sufficient?

Of course although it is more blessed to give than to receive, I do know when not to give. I do know when to draw the line. But of course where I draw the line is different than where my wife draws the line... and because we draw our lines at different places, we end up with disagreements. We both need to learn to figue out a line that we are both okay with..., this will most likely require some sacrifice on both of our parts.

If the rich young man loves Jesus and the poor, of course he'll have no problem giving away his fortune to follow Jesus. Likewise if wife and I love each other, surely we'll be able to sacrifice for each other and eventually reach that line we're both happy with. Lord Jesus, we've made a commitment to follow you no matter what, we've also made a commitment to stick with each other no matter what. I know our marriage will be a blessed and successful one! Besides just the 'commitments', help us Lord to love You and each other more each day! Help us change to become more like You. Protect us Lord God from evil attacks! We pray in Jesus' name!

(Mark 10:17-31)

More blessed to give than to receive...

Yep, over the weekend, we've officially invited our very first house guests over for dinner! Nancy and Katty enjoyed their shabu, and I hope next time around, we'll be able to dine with their boyfriends soon! ;)

Pastor Jim on Sunday, wrapped up the series on Heros. He wants us to stand for what is right and true... and to stand for those who cannot stand for themselves. He used Daniel and his friends as examples. They were okay with whatever Babylonian requests, changing their names..., receiving a Babylonian education..., however they drew the line at lifestyle changes. They insist on not eating what they're not suppose to eat... they insist on not bowing down to worship other gods..., they insist on pray at their regular schedules... and no amount of persecutions can change their minds. May we all be able to stand as firmly as Daniel and his friends... so that we may be able to receive the full measure of God's blessing...

And today, I saw it in Yahoo news that some unknown hero donated $100 million to a town that is in need of help... All of the charitible organizations in the area got a few million dollars... a lot of prayers are answered unexpectedly I guess... we don't know the donor's motives and why he insist on having a 'secret identity', but whatever... thank God for this guy! :)

Today's scripture reading is about a gentile women who begged Jesus to save her daughter. Jesus initially refused for Jesus wanted to feed the children(Jews) first and then to the dogs(gentiles). But this woman wouldn't take no for an answer... and continued to beg... and stated that even dogs get the left over crumbs after the children... With such faith and humility of course the merciful Jesus wouldn't insist on saying no! ;) May we all be as faithful and humble as this gentile woman. To always have faith, and to be ever hopeful... most importantly of course is LOVE!!!! :)

(Mark 7:24-30)

Test result!

Today I took a day off because doctor wanted to show me my physical test results..., and it turned out I'm almost perfectly healthy! ;) Everything is normal except some kind of ALT enzyme level being a little high. I had a similar problem with the Red Cross when I donated blood in 1995..., they turned my blood down for the same problem, but later on, my level returned to normal again... but it appears this is an on again off again problem. Anyway, doctor want me to check the level again in February cause my elevated level could simply be alcohocl consumption(which I don't remember having the night before), but I guess I just might be too tired? Dunno, hopefully it'll return to normal again by then.

Today's scripture reading is about Jairus, a synagogue ruler with a very sich daughter. She actually died before Jesus go to her. But of course Jesus not only healed her but revived her from the dead. The most interesting thing is that Jesus only took the people who are most faithful with him. He even kicked out all the people who were wailing for the dead little girl... I guess who ever laughed at Jesus, he kicked them out. So I guess in order for us to do God's work, we all better just work with those who are really faithful. People of little faith could actually impede the work of God? Of course that's probably not totally true, I think Jesus raised Lazarus while people with little or no faith were present?

Anyway, suffice to say faith is necessary. That bleeding women had faith. If only I can grab hold of Christ's cloth, my ALT level for sure would return to normal too! ;)

(Mark 5:21-43)

Passover Seder

Passover Seder is a Jewish ritual feast held on the first day of Passover. I learned about this while I was listening to the radio while driving home. Besides eating of the lamb, there are also 3 pieces of Matzah breads. The Matzah bread is pricked(pierced) and also lots of stripes on it... primarily for making sure that the bread doesn't rise. (God allowed only unleavened bread) And the Jews would only take the middle one of the three and then break it. And the adults would hide the bigger piece for little children to find..., and it would turn out to be a fun and joyful game for the little kids... kinda like our Easter Egg hunt I guess.

Anyway, the pastor over the radio of course pointed out the remarkable similarity between this Jewish tradition... and with Jesus! Jesus is the 2nd person of the Trinity and he was pierced and striked... and broken for us. Of course people at the time also had trouble finding Jesus body for a while... and then joyfully, the women and the disciples find him!

We all know Jesus came as the lamb of God, and it is because of his blood that our judgements can be passed over..., amazingly that Jesus is also the Matzah bread... actually, we do know that he's also the bread of life I guess... Anyway, I just found this Jewish ritual to be extremely cool! ;)

Today's scripture reading is about Judas. I wonder if Judas did what he did in order to force Jesus to really show his true powers... or did Judas really did what he did for 30 pieces of silver? Anyway, whatever his motives were, I guess we won't really know for sure... only God knows... and did he repent or he simply regretted what he had done? Again, I guess we won't really know for sure at this poing until later! Only Lord knows. I suppose a lesson that can be learned is that we should test God or sell God short... and if we've done something wrong, we ought to really repent... God with His infinite mercy and grace for sure would be willing to passover His judgements on us if we genuinely repent.

(Mark 3:19,Mark 14:3-11,43-49)

Yahoo!!!

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang was verbally lashed on by US lawmakers for providing Chinese government info which lead to a dissident's arrest. Oh well, what is Yahoo to do? To protect the identigy of one man... or losing the entire Chinese market? If Homeland Security asks Yahoo for info regarding terrorism, would the US lawmakers lash out again? Of course not. It's always easier to be judgemental of others..., but when it comes to ourselves, then those same standards all of a sudden no longer applys! ;)

Yahoo certainly should have more backbone..., set up a procedure in place in order to figure out what is the right thing to do..., instead of just give in to government's request. But anyway, I'm not Jerry Yang... and I'm glad I'm not him... and not in the spot light because of this. May God make Yahoo and China work together for the benefit of all who love God in China... or around the world!

Anywho, today's scripture reading was about John the Baptist. This guy was also a dissident in the eys of the authorities. He was also jailed... and eventually beheaded over the dumbest reasons. Even his cousin, his Lord, the Way, Truth and Life eventually got convicted by the authorities and eventually crucified for no good reasons. It's all pretty senseless at the time, but 2000 years afterwards, we can see more clearly that God allowed those bad things to happen for our benefit.

(Mark 1:1-11,Mark 2:18-22,Mark 6:14-29)

The Great Wheel of China!

What a crazy idea..., at least the Great Wall of China served some purpose... I suppose the only purpose for this is to attract more tourists? But would tourists really be attracted by this?!?!? Anyway, hope everything goes well with it.

Last nite, I also finally managed to write some thank you cards for those who came to our wedding. Should've had this done long ago, but although spirit is willing, my flesh is weak..., but even with a headache, I figured enough is enough... I better get these cards done before Thanksgiving arrives! May the Lord strengthen me more and more so that I can manage to overcome my weak and lazy, video game playing and TV watching flesh!!!!

Today's scripture reading is about Joseph of Arimathea. The guy who retrieved Christ's dead body, wrapped it up and put it into his own new tomb. It's interesting that this disciple of Christ is stupid enough to continue to be a disciple even after his Lord is dead. Every other disciple has fled and went into hiding, but not this guy! Kinda like Mother Teresa, who continued to do be a disciple even after her Lord went silent on her... May we all be able to love Jesus this way.

(Matthew 27:32-61)

Looking up into the future!

DARPA(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sponsored dirt-road robot races in 2004 and 2005, but this year's urban challenge is much harder... requiring robo-cars to obey all California traffic laws! Anyway, Carnegie Mellon University of Pittsburgh won first place and $2 million! Stanford and Virginia Tech came in 2nd and 3rd. Development of these robot drivers are meant to eventually drive military supply vehicles so that no human soldiers had to risk their lives making deliveries on the frontline. Also, hopefully eventually it can drive us commercially... perhaps making the roads even safer! But of course, I'd still rather drive my car myself... unless if I'm really sleepy or something.

Anyway, over the weekend, once again, we didn't do much, but we did quite a bit at home though! I think we can stop going out to have shabu-shabu now! We can have it better and cheaper at home!!!! Our home is also slowly looking more and more like a home now! Other than a bed frame, I think we pretty much got everything covered! You can check out my wife's blog for detail pics! ;)

On Sunday, it's pretty cool to run into Howard at church. Wonder what's up with him and that girl..., hopefully he'll be able to take that girl to Jesus! ;) Anyway, last Sunday's sermon is again hero related. How Jesus are unlike other superheros... that he can arrive seemingly 'late', but still save the day!!! One thing that caught my attention was Pastor Jim's explaining of Jesus raising Lazarous. Most of us would focus our attention on the problem(at that tomb where Lazarous is), but only Jesus would actually look up to his Father!

How many Christians can really do that? To simply look up when problem arises... and not with an attitude of denial of problem of course, but to actually face the problem, and then look up to see the 'invisible' God! Today's scripture reading was about Peter... and it's also encouraging:

1 Peter 1
5 你 們 這 因 信 蒙 神 能 力 保 守 的 人 ， 必 能 得 著 所 預 備 、 到 末 世 要 顯 現 的 救 恩 。
6 因 此 ， 你 們 是 大 有 喜 樂 ； 但 如 今 ， 在 百 般 的 試 煉 中 暫 時 憂 愁 ，
7 叫 你 們 的 信 心 既 被 試 驗 ， 就 比 那 被 火 試 驗 仍 然 能 壞 的 金 子 更 顯 寶 貴 ， 可 以 在 耶 穌 基 督 顯 現 的 時 候 得 著 稱 讚 、 榮 耀 、 尊 貴 。
8 你 們 雖 然 沒 有 見 過 他 ， 卻 是 愛 他 ； 如 今 雖 不 得 看 見 ， 卻 因 信 他 就 有 說 不 出 來 、 滿 有 榮 光 的 大 喜 樂 ；
9 並 且 得 著 你 們 信 心 的 果 效 ， 就 是 靈 魂 的 救 恩 。

Lord Jesus is the Super Hero of Super Heros! ;)

(Matthew 26:20-75,1 Peter 1-2)

The secret for lasting relationships...

Yesterday as I was trying to drive to buy lunch, my car just won't start. So I called my friend Daniel to help me push it and see if my car would still start up... and it did! So I figure it's probably the starter that need to be replaced. So I offered Dan free lunch just so that he can help me push start the car again when we leave... cool thing about stick shift cars, they can be push started in the event of dead battery or bad starter.... anyway, as it turned out, my car didn't have bad starter, it's the battery going bad. Probably cause by old age... and the fact that I have a beeping alarm thing going on with my car sometimes going on non-stop, that's probably what hurt the battery... Anyway, after $70, my old Civic is good as new again! ;) It's amazing how tough this little Civic is with nearly 300,000 miles!!!!

Of course besides having long lasting relationships with my cars, God also want us to have good relationships with Him and with each other. It's weird how the wife and I got into a pretty deep discussion of relationships. I was sharing with her the 'secrets' I learn about relationships... and how it sort of led me to Christianity. I'm not sure how true those 'secrets' are, but for sure they match the biblical truths very well. It all started by us trying to define what romance is all about... anyway, I think romance is basically planned spontaneity. It feels totally spontanious and natural and smooth that you don't even realize that it's an carefully planned and orchestrated event. If a guy can make a gal feel that way... to have her pleasantly surprised... to have her feel very adventurous, yet still very safe... not going out of control or anything... this is how a girl might feel like she's being 'romanced'. Of course this is all easier said than done! ;)

Still, I believe God "romances" all often..., He would make things happen in a way that feels very spontaneous and natural and people usually won't appreciate the effort God put into planning it!!! The creation of heavens and earth for example, is something most of us take for granted. Like I told my wife, people with low interest levels for sure will take your romances for granted...

Anyway, today's reading is about Sadducees, those people error because they don't know the scripture properly nor the power of God. They are folks with low interest level for God in their hearts. Seriously, what is the ultimate 'secret' for long lasting meaningful relationships? It is to love. To love God and to love each other. Without love, there's just no way in hell that we can have long lasting relationships with anyone or anything...

(Matthew 22:23-46)