Burnt, Grain, and Fellowship(Peace) offerings!

Today's scripture reading talked about 3 different kind of offerings. Not really sure when people should offer those offerings though. All I know is that burnt offering is likely all burnt up into smoke... or dust. Basically given all up to God. And it's restricted to male animals only. Grain offerings are probably something similar... except it's vegetarian. Possibly devised for farmers who don't have animals or enough animals to give? What's interesting is that God still want people to add oil and salt onto it. And the 3rd fellowship or peace offering is something similar to burnt offering except people can use either male of female animals. Not only that, the offerings can be BBQed as food for people to eat! It's just that we can't eat blood or the fat! Fat is reserved for God.

Hmm... it's interesting that God likes fatty and salty food too. No wonder humans also like to eat fatty and salty food... like Father like son I guess! ;) Except too much fatty and salty food is bad for us! This is probably why God said we shouldn't have them... not because God wants to be stingy and keep it all for Himself, but they're really not that good for us!

Anyway, apparently God offered us a fellowship/peace offering too. Jesus Christ was the lamb offered up for us... and God invited us to eat that lamb up! Hmm... our Lord sure is tasty! ;) Well, the only fat I have to offer in return is stored in my belly. May my exercise routine be sufficient to burn it up for God! ;)

Speaking of fat/oil..., gas prices is really getting ridiculously high. There is a possible price manipulation going on, hope the investigation can quickly stabilize things and not let it get out of control as the dot com crisis, electricity crisis... and the mortgage crisis...

I think starting from today, I'm going to keep monitoring these things and see how they move up/down over time... ;)

(Lev 1-3, 173.6 lb, $4.359/gallon)

WWJP?

Last night at brother GD's prayer meeting, he taught us how to pray like Jesus does...

Yeah, I have to admit that most of the time we have self-center prayers... I need this... I need that..., but yeah, considering those victims all around the world, surely they have much bigger needs than me! Yeah, I do pray for them occasionally, I also donated a little bit of money... not sure if that's good enough, but that's the best I can do for now...

Anyway, yeah, often times I do also pray for unity between God and between the people who I love... I do also pray for God to protect us... I also do pray that my parents can eventually receive the truth..., but I think I'm lacking in using the Word to sanctify ourselves during prayers... Well, I think compared to Jesus, the worst part about my prayer is that it seems I've completed so little for God... Well, I suppose I've done stuffs for God, I just hope those are the kind of stuffs He actually want me to do... and when I'm not sure what to do, I can only assume praying to Him is something He'd be please with..., right God? ;)

Today's reading was about Isrealites finally completing the tabernacle... about how they can see God with them... as cloud by day and fire by night. How reassuring to be able to 'see' God's presence. But of course we all know that still didn't quite work out for them... Miracles wouldn't work... Being with them wouldn't work... Our necks are indeed stiff... and our hearts are indeed hardened... None of the stuffs on the outside can be of any help if on the inside, we're messed up.

So I pray that God can just do miracles inside our hearts. Sanctify us. Help us set up that tent in our hearts so that you can truly dwell in it. No, we don't want to wander around aimlessly for decades in the middle of nowhere... May Lord Jesus interceed for us too at Father's right hand. I look forward to chasing You around in the promiseland for all eternity! ;) Of course I hope that everyone that I know... I knew... that I'm gonna know will also be there. I pray in Jesus' name.

(Exodus 37-40)

Energy crisis...

Every week, it seems gas prices are climbing steadily... with the weakened economy combined with high fuel cost, pretty much every sector is hurting... outlook at the near future certainly doesn't look that bright. Hope we won't return to the high inflation, low growth time of the 70's.... and surprisingly home prices for April actually went up a bit after a huge dip during March... wonder what's it gonna be like for May...

At least I found some encouraging words from today's reading:

Ex 34:10 Then the LORD said: "I am making a covenant with you. Before all your people I will do wonders never before done in any nation in all the world. The people you live among will see how awesome is the work that I, the LORD, will do for you. 11 Obey what I command you today. I will drive out before you the Amorites, Canaanites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. 12 Be careful not to make a treaty with those who live in the land where you are going, or they will be a snare among you.

Even after all the evils the Jews did in God's eyes, God continued to be merciful..., but of course Moses interceeded for them often... so yeah, I better do a better job obeying God's will... and pray more often I guess. What else can I do about a world which I have little or no control over?

So I hope I can have a face that glows with radiance like Moses! ;) May God show me His glory... and may God use me so that people around me can also get a glimpse of His glory!

(Exodus 34-36)

Memorable weekend or not so memorable weekend?

Yesterday I read about the priestly garment... I suppose a picture is worth a thousand words!

Anyway, last weekend was Memorial Weekend, first long weekend of the year. Cool thing was that once again God has given me a chance to be a modern day 'priest'... to play bass with the LoFo worship team led by Jay.

Haven't played for a long time really showed..., but I suppose it's not like I had always been mistake free before! ;) Anyway, really honored by the opportunity, but LoFo still really isn't home for us. Lots of friends there, but not sure if it can ever be a spritual home for us... Does Jay even see it as 'home' for him? We'll just have to wait and see I suppose. I don't mind helping out a brother whenever I can be of help, but I'd prefer to help God instead... instead of just moving around with Jay... Anyway, may God help us find a home...

And Today's scripture reading was about while Moses was gone, the Israelites just went nuts and turned to the golden calf. What are they suppose to do? Their leader was gone! God wasn't with them... so they have to do something, right?

In this world, I'm sure lack of leadership can be commonplace... whether at work, at home or even at church. When we don't know what to do, what are we suppose to do? Just complain... or persuade the leadership to do whatever?

One of the songs we led during worship was "Be Still". Yep, sometimes we just need to learn to be still and wait until God shows us what to do and where to go. Moses asked God to show him His glory. May I catch a glimpse of it too? So that God's glory may hopefully be reflected off of me somehow... and help those around me to be able to have more faith, more hope, and more love!!! :)

Yeah, although most of the long weekend went well, but things went crashing down when mom made a last minute invite for Monday evening... Mom's inability to take no for an answer, wife's inability to accept last minute invites... and my inability to communicate properly in a way can all be categorize as 'satanic attcks' I guess. We ended up not going to the museum as we planned in order to resolve some problems..., God was merciful I suppose, the situation was diffused... and we didn't allow satan's scheme to destroy our relationships with one another! Praise the LORD!

However, may God continue to soften our necks and hearts so that we may all turn to Him and follow Him... May God continue to show us the way... and show us His glory! :)

(Exodus 28-33)

I pray, I pray, I pray, pray, pray!!!

Last night's bible study didn't go very well. I don't know what else to do except to continue to pray for God to give me wisdom and patience to know what to say and do..., and may God also help mom to soften her heart more I suppose.

Anyway, today's reading was about God's instruction on how to build the tabernacle. And I also googled for some images of the tabernacles...

Interestingly, I found out that there was a guy name Larkin, taught that God had created man in His image and that this image was reflected in the way that God set up the tabernacle.

The Outer Court = Body
The Holy Place = Mind
The Holy of Holies = Man's Spirit

For whatever reasons, satan can come before the throne of God such as in Job, making wager with God... Also in Zecharia 3:1... so it seems unless God said so, satan can be almost anywhere accusing us, tempting us, making us feel bad...

Of course if Holy Spirit lives in us, naturally satan wouldn't be able to take over us fully unlike other unbelievers who can be demon possessed fully..., but still believers can still unwittingly allow satan to roam around in their minds... and bodies.

I think as long as we're living on earth, satan is already roaming around in our 'outer courts'(flesh) already... waiting to enter into the Holy Place(our minds) Do we have the will power to prevent him from entering? Hope so. But what's the best weapon against Satan's attacks? (Besides sticking together with love and don't let anything get in between as suggested in my previous blog entry?)

Jesus has taught us to simply watch and pray to God. (Mat 26:41)

At times when I don't know what else to do, may Holy Spirit strengthen me continue to watch and pray!

At least some sort of good news, the HR people at AV called back and sent me some questions... if this email interview goes well, then perhaps we'll schedule a real interview. So at least this ad isn't a fake ad I guess. I'm kinda excited, but then again the fact that they're located at simi valley is kinda annoying... Oh well, whatever, may God lead the way. If this is good for me, may God open the door for me... if this is not really from God, then let's not waste anymore time after this email interview... I pray in Jesus' name! :)

(Gen 25-27)

Luck favors the prepared mind...

That's a quote I saw in a book I'm reading now... it's called Symmetry: A Journey in the Patterns of Nature. I'm not sure if the author is a Christian or even a theist, but interestingly he started his book at Sinai... at the age of 40. Mathematicians also weren't so popular few hundred years back too... St. Augustine also saw mathematicians as folks who made convenant with the devil..., but later on, some seem to think St. Augustine was referring to astrologers..., but anyway, fact is that mathematicians back then had it difficult... plus, sometimes the secrecy of their work and people's inability to understand what the heck they're doing also didn't help them too much.

Anyway, after reading a bunch of stuff about symmetry, I began to try to create symmetrical shapes out of little hearts myself... basically to come up with some designs for the next EP... I was thinking of using heart shape objects to form a star of David. So far, it doesn't look all that cool yet, but just keep on trying... ;) I also accidentally found some info on the web regarding how one can disect scripture mathematically and form a bunch of symmetrical shapes... including the star of David... Pretty weird. I think mathematics is probably the only field of science abstract enough to perhaps eventually find God! ;)

And if there is a God, certainly there wouldn't be anymore 'luck'! ;) So I think God favors the prepared mind. As in today's scripture reading, God prepares stuffs on His side, but we also need to make preparations too! Only when everyone's prepared, then God's favor/blessings can come thru. The Law is only part of the preparation... and then building up to a climatic end to Jesus dying on the cross. At this point is time, it's basically all up to us to get ready and get things done!

Of course often we mortal humans lack the patience. Who can endure these thousands of years of preparations? It's easy for us to say the Jews can't stand the heat in the desert..., how can they be so unfaithful after witnessing so many miracles? But if we were in their shoes, how would we like it if we were the one's wandering around in nowhere for 40 years?

But then again, did God pre-planed their 40 years of wandering around? Of course not. God only did so because the Jews were unprepared.

Often times we may be wandering around in our lives too. Is it because we are also caught 'unprepared'? God has put me in this particular situation, what is He preparing me for? If I prepare and get ready, then we enter into the promiseland. If I refuse to obey, then I perish and die like the Jews did during those 40 years. Of course there could also be cases such as Jobs, he didn't do anything wrong... nor does he know what to prepare for..., but luckily he loves God... since God makes all things work together to benefit those who love Him! So Job benefitted in the end. If Job didn't love God, then surely he'd probably take his wife's suggestion to just curse God and die...

Anyway, may God continue to guide me and help me get properly prepared. Nowadays, the only time of day I feel most at peace and relaxing is during our lying on the bed-time. I think God is with us during those times... even the little cat can feel so peaceful and relaxed..., but of course it's also very easy to get satan to join us too... this has happened numerous times... and when he comes to join us... conversation with the wife tend to go south... and nobody end up getting any sleep! But thank God that this hasn't happen for a while now! ;) As long as we stick close to God and stick close to each other, there'll be no room left for satan to hang around! :p

(Gen 22~24)

Laying down the laws...

Today's reading was about God giving the Jews the 10 commandments at Mt. Sinai. Yeah, nobody can really meet all of the laws laid down by God, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't still obey them as much as humanly possible. I think this is similar to goal setting. We may not achieve all of our goals or dreams, but to not have them at all or to given them up completely certainly won't help us live our lives any better.

After setting some goals this weekend, I really do want to get involved with creating 'stuffs' at work! ;) Yeah, quite often at work, we'd be introduced into a program at the half way point... usually it's to clean up messes... at other times, we could be starting something..., and then due to forces beyond our control, the program gets cancelled. Plus, at bigger companies, there are way more politics at work too... So something 'inspired' me to just surf Monster.com and I found the job posting at a relative small company which happens to want people with my experience. With smaller companies... and smaller programs, for sure it'll be much easier to see things thru from beginning to the end I think. I like the feeling of starting and finish something. Back in school, I really enjoy helping building our school's solar car from scratch... and then seeing it win pole position 9 months down the road. That was quite satisfying!

Anyway, is this God opening a new door for me? I've made the attempt to open that door, if what's behind the door sucks, may God hold it shut for me! But of course I hope this is an opportunity presented to me by God! Well, we'll see. ;)

(Gen 19-21)

Grumpy old Jews...

Last night at the super market parking lot, we saw a couple of grumpy old men... with one of them almost ran over the other one with the truck...

Anyway, I wonder why people get grumpy. How can we get less grumpy?

During today's reading, the Jews were grumpy too. Although God just saved them from the Egyptians..., they continue to complain about lack of food... after there's food to eat... they continue to complain about lack of water... After they've been thru all the miracles, it's like they can't remember the works of God... and continue to believe that they're all going to die instead of believing that God can really save them.

As a follower of Christ, may God help me to never end up that way... may God continue to strengthen my faith... and may I never forget about all the cool things He has done for me! :)

Of course this is what must be done in order for me to become a good leader/husband too. Moses lifting up his staff during a battle is probably indicative of leaders praying... dependence on God too. Leaders can't possibly do everything, but at the very minimum, he ought to organize things... and then delegate to appropriate people to get it done. Such as asking Joshua to lead the battle... and Jethro's suggestion of finding qualified people to help share the load instead of working himself to death..., but of course most importantly, the leader has to have a good relationship with God. It's not just delegate and then do nothing... Moses is a friend of God probably because he talks to God a lot!

Hopefully God considers me a friend too! That's probably the most important ingrediant I must have in order to be a great leader/husband. As for the rest of the missing ingredients, surely God will provide them in due time! Of course I will have to lift my hand up to receive it, no matter how tiring things get! ;)

(Gen 16-18)

Interesting weekend...

No, this weekend we didn't do anything exciting or went anywhere all that interesting... ;) However, it really has been quite a rollercoaster ride nevertheless...

It's been happening more frequently than usual lately, that is wife and I would start talking about things... and then inevitably the converstaion would slowly drift negatively... and going down hill... no matter what we were talking about originally, things tend to end up coming back to the same old issues again and again... and at some of the issues, we just cannot see eye to eye. I just cannot agree with her and she just cannot agree with me.

For me, that's cool. People are entitled to their own opinions. I can agree to disagree with people without allowing disagreements to ruin my relationship with them. However, wife cannot do that. Whenever this happens, I can sense a huge thick wall coming down in between me and my wife. Wife not only would end up sleepless, but also couldn't bear to sleep with me.

Whenever this happens, I'm really not sure what to do. By talking about it, we cannot reach an agreement. By not talking about it, I come off as insenstive, not knowing how to comfort her. By trying to comfort her, I sometimes just don't say the right things...

Of course the best course of action is to just talk to God about it.

Saturday was supposedly some sort of revival prayer day with a bunch of chinese churches united together to pray for revival. But on that day, I was basically praying for survival! Not only was wife so annoyed to sleep by my side in the evening, she even felt like going out by herself during the day for couple of hours...

Anyway, God was merciful on us, after wife got a little breather, when she returned, things finally began to feel like it's getting better. We also made some mutual and personal goals together that evening so that we both can improve together...

On Sunday, Faith got a guest speaker, Pastor Phil... he talked about how we ought to see things not only from a personal perspective, but also a generational and eternal perspective. Are we leaving a legacy that can positively impact our future generations? Only by looking at things from all those different persepectives can things begin to make sense. He also said something that shocked Jack... which was that marriage isn't about happiness. If you think getting marry can bring your more happiness, then surely you will be disappointed! However, only by knowing this truth, now you can begin to have a chance of being truly happy in a marriage! ;) Very paradoxical... just as Christ said one must lose his life in order to save it...

While wife and I were setting our goals on Saturday, I sorta said I want to leave a legacy of being loving husband and father... and perhaps create and build something cool and beneficial to mankind before I die. Wife desires a legacy of creating cool and wonderful music.... so I hope our goals are in line with what God has in mind for us... if not, hey, please let us know, okay Lord Jesus? ;)

Later on that day, we also attended Louie and Vicky's wedding. They genuinely looked happy together and they do have this 'husband and wife' look. They also look like they are enjoying the fellowship of their new church... I do hope that they continue to remember to walk together with God and may their marriage be filled with not only happiness but also full of God's blessings.

Today's reading was about Moses leading the Jews to cross the Red Sea. Honestly this weekend got me feeling like being stucked in between the red sea and the Egyptian army pursuing me to kill me. I was actually kinda worry for my own marriage for a while... was wondering perhaps I'll be attending Louie's wedding alone? Or perhaps attending the wedding with wife being mad at me or in a bad mood...

But thanks be to God that he has opened up a way for us. We actually quite enjoy our Sunday together. We even danced a bit in Louie's wedding, consider that wife hates dancing... ;)

God is so good. We've survived, will the revival be near? God help us! :)

(Gen 13-15)

Gay marriage...

Californians just cannot make up their minds about gay marriages... California can be really messed up... cause not only do we have state law makers, court can intervene, governor can veto, even the people can vote on propositions directly without going thru law makers..., but then of course court can toss away propositions of the people too..

Anyway, bottomline is that as of now, california court has decided to allow gay marriages eventhough we already have laws in place giving same sex couple the same exact rights as married couples.

It's very interesting how heterosexuals are now so afraid of committing to marriage, yet, homosexuals can't wait to get married! I guess we always want what we can't have... as soon as we have it, we probably won't want it anymore! ;)

Anyway, all I can say is that at least having a monogamous gay couple is better than gay people having sex with bunch of different people..., but of course will the gay people really honor their marriage agreement to not commit adultery?

Whatever, at least some good news today. Lucas Ortega was born early this morning. Finally..., this little kid probably was dreading coming into this crazy world..., but I have to be fair that this world is still a wonderful world.

This world just just like that glass with half glass of water. We can be gay(happy) living in it or we can be mad. The choice is ours. Make the wrong choices like Pharoh, then you will suffer. But then, did Pharoh really have a choice? Didn't God hardened his heart? Do homosexuals have a choice? They never asked to be born that way?

Truthfully, of course we all know Pharoh's being mean. Homosexuality is just plain un-natural. However, we can still graciously let them be who they want to be as long as we don't participate in their wrongdoing. This is like what Pastor Jim said, "to cooperate as much as we can, but to never compromise ourselves." I sympathize with Pharoh and gay people, I can certainly understand how they feel..., and I'm glad I'm not really in their shoes.

If I were really in their shoes, will I really be able to choose to do that right thing?

If I were in Jesus' shoes, will I really drink up that bitter cup as if I were drinking Coca-Cola?

May I live out my answers instead of just answering them on paper(Or on a blog)! ;)

May God help me to be able to live a life that can make Him proud! :)

(Gen 10-12)

A harden heart...

I can't believe there can now be as much as 50,000 people dead in China due to that earthquake! There really seemed to be a lot more natural disasters than usual lately... May God be merciful to us...

Today's scripture reading was about Moses asking Pharoh to let God's people go...

Even as Christians, don't we all have a little 'pharoh' in our hearts? Often times there'll be occasions when we simply can't and don't want to do whatever it is that God wants us to do? Of course God with His infinite mercy and grace would give us opportunities to repent and soften our hearts..., but of coruse infinite mercy and grace doesn't mean we will be allowed to do screw up for all eternity.

I think inside our hearts, there's a little Moses and little Pharoh in all of us. May our little Moses win! May our little Pharoh be smarter so that we can avoid disasters...

And according to scriptures, God hardened Pharoh's heart too... so naturally, God should also have the ability to soften our hearts if He wants... so I pray that God can soften our hearts so that we can all do what's right right away!

Doubts...

We all have them. We have them because we've experienced things that happened that crush our hopes. And unlike Obama's book title, we don't always have that audacity to hope...

I think I'm a man who's fairly faithful, hopeful and loving in God. However, on a personal level, I'm not really all that faithful to myself. I don't always do what I want to do... and I often do things that I don't really want to do. I'm also not very hopeful of myself..., I think I have improved, but I can certainly still use some more self confidence...

Anyway, today's reading of Moses was encouraging in a way that Moses himself have doubts about himself a lot too! God was indeed patient and kind with Moses! ;)

Having no faith in self is understandable... as long as there's still faith in God, we can still be okay! We just have to learn to not go by what is visible all the time I guess. There is this invisible realm out there... such as we can only see visible light, but not radio waves or microwaves... we can only hear certain ranges of sound, once it's too low or too high, we simply won't hear it anymore. Doesn't mean those things won't matter to us? Of course not.

Currently I'm reading a new book by some mathematician. He's talking about some monsterous symmetrical shape that exists in some 693,xxxth dimension... I cannot even visualize things beyond 3 dimensional space... and there they are attempting to unlock all the basic fundamental symmetrical shape there can possibly exist... actually they did already. Just as chemists have their periodic table for elements, these mathematicians have figured out the fundamental symmetric shapes!

I still don't quite get it, but it's kinda intereting. Wikipedia has a good explanation of the 'hypercubes' existing in various dimensions of space. We all know a cube in our 3rd dimension. Square would be a 'cube' in 2 dimension. In 1-D space, a 'cube' is just a line. In 0-D space, cube is just a point...

In 4th dimension, it looks somewhat like this:



I doubt I'll ever be able to properly visualize this cube, but anyway, I have faith that in 4-D space, that's what it looks like! ;)

(Exodus 4-6)

Belief in God 'childish,' Jews not chosen people...

Einstein's letter recently revealed that he doesn't really believe in the God of his people. Einstein is probably classified as an agnostic... he's just not sure what to believe. Things in the universe is just too miraculous to be random, yet, he doesn't really believe in the Jewish God.

He can still live a good life I suppose. Scientific community gained because of him. I still admire his personal philosophy and that's why I have one of his quotes as by blog title... of course I do hope I'll be able to see Einstein in heaven...

Anyway, the funny thing is, doesn't matter what's going on, God seems to be able to use them no matter what! What Einstein said is indeed correct. We have to be "childish" or actually 'child-like' in order to believe in God. Jews are indeed not the chosen people... for otherwise they wouldn't crucify Christ! Whether or not if a person's a Jew is all a matter of 'faith'. ;)

Moses thought he's a Jew, relied on himself and his own abilities to do things to help other Jews... he had good motives, but things nevertheless didn't work out exactly the way Moses wanted... he ended up having to flee... run away into hiding!!!

I think Moses probably knew that he's "special", a man of influence, capable of delivering the Jewish people... kinda like Queen Esther! But of course Moses never wait upon the Lord when he did what he did... and ended up screwing things up..., but the amazing thing is that God can still carry out His plan even with all the messes. God can still use Moses when Moses is ready to be used...

And God uses us whether if we're willing or unwilling, but of course preferrably, I'd like to be used willingly. ;) Yes, may Your will be done... and may God help us align our wills with His...

(Exodus 1-3)

Home court advantage...

This Mother's day weekend, Pastor Jim's wife ended up delivering the sermon. She's not a very good speaker, her message is also simple... and repetitive, but she speaks the truth. She talked about the importance of the "home court advantage"... such as with any sports, teams tend to do well when playing at their home stadiums... this is because of the loving support of the fans at home! So she's using that to stress the importance of our homes and our church home. She also wants us to know that God is our biggest fan and is always cheering for us and supporting us along the way...

It's kinda funny that she used this analogy when I just earlier posted in wife's blog about how God wants us to play the game of love well! ;)

How can we play it well? Training, I suppose. How do we train? I don't know. I don't really have all the winning strategies, but I suppose we can just play and have fun and learn as we go along!

Yes, sometimes our earthly homes can be messed up. Yes, sometimes even our church homes can be messed up too! There are plenty of messed up things on earth. So what do we do? Should we just pack up and leave and sign with a new and better team? Sure, that's the logical thing to do. However, in the game of love, it's really beyond logic! When is the time to simply move on? When is it time for us to keep at it to try to rebuild some messed up thing up?

These are questions we'll have to answer for ourselves... and to God.

Of course our ultimate home is in heaven. Unfortunately at this time, we're far away from that home... So just like ball players... sometimes they DON'T have that home court advantage... sometimes they have to play away from home..., but that's okay. Away from home doesn't mean we'll always lose. Plus, lucky for us that our biggest Fan and Support can be everywhere and anywhere... so we can always play to win no matter what! ;) Our primary objective is to play at some messed up place... and then make it a new home for us and for those around us.

Our natural tendency is to mess up, but a great player of this game of love is all about building up. Am I building up more or am I messing up more? Well, my only strategy at this point is to continue to build more and mess less... someday, I'll be a great lover! ;)

Today's scriptural reading... Jacob was buried back 'home'. Joseph also requested that he be buried back 'home' too. We've all been thru a lot... and people may not always know what we've been thru, but I hope we all can find ourselves a way back home.

(Gen 47-50)

Relaxing and reflecting...

Had a decent and relatively short bible study on thursday nite... thank God that these studies are going fairly smoothly lately...

However, later on, wife and I got into a discussion while we're in bed regarding some comments I posted in her blog... about my belief that we can be anybody's 'true love' provided that both persons are committed to make that happen... Anyway, that discussion slowly got out of control... one theological thing led to another... she ended up unable to sleep... she just could get the wheels in her brain to stop turning!!!

Anyway, the lesson we learn that night was that in the future, after we say our prayers, we should just be still and be quiet and goto sleep. ;)

I did manage to get some sleep, but I decided to take Friday off anyway... just so we can both take it easy a bit... again, thank God for a job that can allow me the luxury to take days off whenever I want!

At the end of the day, we saw the movie Groundhog Day. It a very funny movie and I think also very secretly spiritual at the same time. I can only hope wife also gets the message of the movie... ;)

Friday's scriptural reading was about Joseph reuniting with his brothers and eventually his father. After all the pain and suffering God had supposedly subject Joseph under, finally, we have a happy ending. If there is a God, if we walk with God, our pain and sufferings will surely not go in vain. We'll all experience pain and sufferings, that's a given, after we fall, how do we get back up? We'll have to want to get back up... and we'll need God's help.

In the movie Groundhog Day, the character Phil finally figured out life isn't about selfish ambitions... he figured killing himself is pointless too..., but of course even after he has figured it out, he's still powerless to not to repeat that same old day over and over again... until that Somebody from a higher authority finally allowed him to see tomorrow...

So may we all learn what we're suppose to learn... and may God help deliver us as soon as heavenly possible! ;)

(Gen 43-46)

President Obama?

I'm nearly done with Obama's book..., and the nomination process of the democratic party is probably nearly done too. So far it's still not a 100% sure thing yet, but all indicators point to Obama ending up as the likely winner over Clinton.

I think Obama is right for the job... because at least he's been thru living regular kinda lives. He didn't come from a rich family... he has actually worked at Baskin Robins when he was younger... he must've looked dorky with their uniforms selling ice cream! ;) Unlike most modern US presidents, I don't really think they know exactly what's it like to be 'regular'... what's it like to be middle class Americans... Further, Obama has been around..., raised in Indonesia... he has seen first hand how people of other nations look at the USA. How the Indonesians eventually developed more and more hatred for the USA... So given that he knows what's it like to be an average American... and he knows what's it like to be non-American... I think he should be able to do a good job of solving domestic and international issues currently facing the US today.

There are couple of things that I'm not sure about him is that he is indeed real short on experience. Furthermore, I don't understand how such an 'inexperience' politician can end up raising more campaign money than the experienced Clintons!!! Is somebody else backing him? Nobody saw him coming initially... I hope that 'somebody' who's backing him is "God", otherwise he really does seem too good to be true!

Another thing I find disturbing about Obama is that he asked for permission for that first kiss from his now wife! Yeah, gentleman has to be gentle and respectful, surely we shouldn't be forcing a kiss on a gal, but to ask for permission? Anyway, I suppose that's not a great sin, but just lame... ;)

I never asked my wife. When a girl is ready, surely it's easy to tell. When a girl is not ready, surely that's easy to tell too. If the woman is really good and making it difficult to tell... or if the guy is just too stupid to figure out..., you can still just go for it... and one way or another, you'll be able to tell whether or not if a girl likes you! She'll either kiss you back... or turn away... or slap you! Anyway, I personally think asking for permission to kiss is just wimpy. Of course some gals may find such wimpy guys cute, but a man's gotta be a man, not a cute puppy, right?

I hope Obama is not as wimpy as I think...

Joseph can also appear very wimpy most of the time... Begged for his life and still got sold as slave by his bros... got thrown in jail because of his boss' wife... begged the cup bearer to remember him for interpretting dreams..., but the cup bearer still forgot... from a worldly perspective, he indeed seems wimpy, but we all know spiritually, he is strong because he walks with God. In a way, I suppose it'd difficult to tell at the time whether if someone is wimpy or humble I suppose. Only time well tell.

(Gen 40-42)

How should we fight?

Wow, that cyclone sure was deadly... as much as 100,000 could be dead!!! But of course, hopefully there'll still be some sort of silverlining out of it... Same with the tsunamis and 9-11... although tragic, they did bring out the best in people. Forcing folks to forget about their petty differences and begin to see what is really important... Burmese government has be super authoritarian and isolationists... perhaps this cyclone can bring about some change... May God be with them by helping them to overcome their hardships.

Back in the U.S., Mrs Clinton just refuse to give up, even lent herself $6 million in order to keep her campaign going. I suppose she's just hoping and praying that some sort of disaster happens to Obama that makes him no longer electable. Why waste money like that? If Obama does indeed screw up or unable to run for some reason, surely she will automatically be the next in line! She's a fighter I suppose.

Today's reading was about Joseph. I think my personality is more like Joseph than any of the earlier bible characters! Yeah, we just go with the flow... roll with the punches. Yeah, of course we don't like it when bad things happens to us... and although we don't really directly fight back, but I think in our heart, we're pretty strong fighters. Even before I knew God, I know that in this world, we can lose everything, but it's super important to not to lose heart. And even when I didn't know God, I believe God still had been gracious to me. I was never raised in a perfect environment... and I also have to admit, often times I had been lazy too..., but so far, I turned out okay, right? ;) Of course I can be better, but I'm thankful for what I have now. Surely, lots of folks are worse off than me in lots of ways...

Anyway, I just hope that people will eventually notice me as if they notice Joseph... knowing that he is blessed and God is with Him. Yeah, I'm doing alright, but I want to be better. I want to be more like Joseph... and I want to be fight for Christ!

(Gen 37-39)

RIP Super Aguri

Super Aguri has officially ran out of money... so they're out of Formula 1as of today.

My favorite Japanese driver, Takuma Sato, who shares the same birthday with me is now out of a job... :( Hopefully he can find a new ride soon.

Team boss Aguri Suzuki is noteably upset over the politics of F-1..., he said he just wanted to race..., but lately all the politics and money issues are really wearing him out. But at least he has realized one of his dreams.

Yeah, I've had dreams of being an F-1 driver..., at this point in time, perhaps I could realize the dream of owning an F-1 team... if God intervened on my behalf! :D Yeah, even if it's a low budget team such as Super Aguri! Super Aguri has actually done quite well over the past couple of years... considering their limited budget... sigh... quite sad.

Of course there are even sadder events than this... that is the cyclone at Burma... or Myanmar... It's interesting that on Wikipedia, Myanmar is a name under dispute... so far it's still Burma, not sure what the problems is exactly. Supposedly Myanmar is the official written name, but Burma is still the oral name... the local people also doesn't like the current militants in charge... anyway, based on this name dispute alone, we can probably tell that this nation isn't all that stable. Hopefully this disaster can help bring people over there closer together...

Today's scripture reading was about Jacob's daughter Dinah... who was defiled, but at least the 'defiler' has the decency to want to marry her. I suppose they were pretty genuine in wanting to marry Dinah... so Jacob's family deceitfully make agreements... and just when they let their guard down... Jacob's family slaughtered them.

It's basically one messed up situation after another. No wonder the Middle East is so messed up now. Of course people outside of middle east are not immuned too. Often we are caught in one messed up situation after another too. Yeah, it's depressing...

BUT, there's a Way out! God provided us that Way for us to follow... and if we follow it with all of our heart, mind, and strength... and if we also love each other as we love ourselves... then we'll be able to minimize messing up situations. Even if we're stucked in this messed up situation, we can learn to stop that vicious cycle.

So rest in peace, you super ugly old man... and hello, the born again new man! :)

(Gen 34-36)

Struggling...

House hunting is really hard. Still can't find anything that we both like in the price range we're looking for... not much we can do except to pray and wait I guess...

The only new thing we did was perhaps cooking sukiyaki for the first time. With all fresh ingredients... well, the meat isn't that fresh, it's been in the freezer for a while... we bought it on sale thinking that it's for shabu... anyway, as not fresh as they are, our sukiyaki still tasted pretty good! It's really amazing how the Japanese figured out how to cut beef for shabu... and for sukiyaki differently. Sukiyaki meat really isn't ideal for shabu... we know, cause we tried. And when prepared as sukiyaki, then everything's cool! I still don't quite understand why, but whatever, just enjoy the food! ;) Wife also gained some weight because of the sukiyaki eventhough she's sick with cold. ;)

We also saw couple of interesting documentaries over Netflix... One of them was about Les Paul, a great guitar player and the inventor electric guitar and mulit-track recording. Guy is 90 years old and can still play, wow. A lot of what Jacob is doing right now owe a lot to this guy too.... of course today, everything is digital, Les was living in analogue days...

And interstingly Les has a wife who's a singer... the Les isn't afraid of letting her being the star... their partnership was wonderful, almost perfect! But then again, they still end up seperated after all those years...

What can make a marriage work? Surely only the kind with the love that never fails... with the kind of love that's from God can truly work out. As Pastor Jim continued on with his 'worship series'..., yeah, if we don't live for God, whatever should we live for? Everything in this world is temporary, but only God's love endures forever!

Today's read was about Jacob still... about how he reconciled with his uncle and then eventually Jacob. Jacob for sure did some bad things... and other people in that story also have done some bad things too, but once again, God has demonstrated how He can use those bad things to turn things around and let them benefit from it. But the key is, the promise of 'benefit' is reserved only for those who love God. We have to cling to God as Jacob did. Isreal means "struggles with God". We'll all have our different struggles with God, God wants us to win... to be more than conquerors. Of course God doesn't want us to conquer Him, but God wants us to conquer our oldselves. Can I overcome my old self? I dunno. However, if I cling to God as Jacob did, of course the answer will be 'YES'!!! May someday God calls me 'Israel' too! ;)

(Gen 31-33 )

May God help us!

Yeah! We're finally done mixing the 4 songs with Jacob. Feel bad for Jacob having to endure that little garage for much longer than us... that computer was very annoying too... kept on running out of computing power at times..., but at last, God's grace was sufficient! As difficult and tiring as it was, we're done! Of course there's more work to be done..., but it's probably good for wife to get well rested since she's now sick with somekind of cold... hopefully she'll get better soon. I better be careful to boost up my immunity with vitamin C and plenty of rest in order to avoid whatever she's having. May God help me on that... ;)

We also need God's help on the house hunting thing too! We've made an offer on a cheap bank owned house, but so far, bank is taking their sweet time since none of the offers are what they hoped for... we also attempted to offer another cool house, but apparently lots of other folks thought that house was cool too... so the agent is already flooded with offers and didn't even want to talk to us. So I guess there are still plenty of potential buyers out there..., they're all just waiting and seeing how low will the prices go... of course when a 'cool' house goes on the market, it can still be sold pretty quickly. Anyway, we'll just have to learn to wait in the Lord during house hunting I suppose! May God help us!

Today's reading was more about Jacob. He dreamed about a ladder and realized that Bethel is a blessed place and he didn't even realized it before! Is our City of the Angels also a blessed place? I think so. There are places in America that has recently experienced earthquakes, tornados, and flood... of course we sometimes still get fires... and we're pretty sure that we'll be getting an earthquake too, but so far so good. No fireballs from heaven just yet! ;) May we be righteous with our lives so that God will show mercy on us and on Los Angeles..., but other than that, I hope that God will help bring forth another revival!!!

And the thing I found funny about today's reading was Leah and Rachel's child bearing competition! They were surely very obedient to God and being very fruitful and multiplying very quickly! ;) Jacob was also very scheming at breeding the sheeps so that he can get all the best sheeps and leave the weak ones for his uncle... as payback!

Anyway, may God also help us becoming more fruitful and multiplying too, but may we do so with the correct motivations... with proper attitude. To do things out of love, instead of doing things just as some sort of competition or doing things to get even. May God help us do things right!

(Gen 28-30)

Isn't it amazing?

It's quite amazing Abraham, at such an old age, can still have so many children with his 2nd wife, keturah. It's also quite amazing that Isaac, like father like son, also tried to pass off his wife as his sister in order to save his own butt. At least Abrahams has good excuse, Sarah was indeed his sister, or half sister. Rebekah at most is just a cousin of Isaac... It's also amazing to me that Isaac couldn't think of anything else to bless Esau with...

Anyway, comparing myself to Esau and Jacob... in certain areas, I think I can be like Esau. When I'm tired and hungry, I think I just might sell my birthright. Hey, I'm not a first born anyway! ;) Of course I also wouldn't be like Jacob to try to trick my brother to give it up...

I think I need to learn to not see things so 'lightly' as Esau sometimes. Instead of shrugging my shoulders and go whatever..., I need to be more like Jacob to really grab hold of things that are important. May God help me see the important things in life... so that I'd know when to grab on and when to let go.

Last night, Jacob, our friend, finished mixing the song that I sang..., like I said, my original assessment of my original performance was probably just a 65%. After autotuned, it's barely 70%. After all the fine turing and fixing by Jacob, it's probably getting close to 80%! ;)

The song is really too hard for me, not sure if I can really perform that song LIVE on stage. I tried my best and gave my best. Hope God is pleased, that's all that matters...

It's amazing that God has used me to actually perform on stage..., it also amazing that God has given me a chance to become a recording artist! ;)

It's even more amazing that we bought 6 scoops of ice cream for only $1.86! (Thank God for the treats!) And upon asking the Baskin Robins folks, we found out that each scoop of ice cream is only 1 cent!!! Out of the 31 cents/scoop, probably 30 goes to fire fighters charity... and 1 cent to cover the cost of ice cream.

Unbelievable.
(Gen 25-27)