戀愛(練愛)

Last night, wife sorta got upset at me due to me screwing up again... however, this situation didn't continue to escalate as before! Thank God I'm a bit more wiser or something... ;) I was amazingly able to carry on sufficiently good conversation to help steer wife's mood to become better and better! This is something I have never done before, so I guess there has been some improvement on my part... I'm still quite amazed by what happened! And of course some improvement on wife's part too! ;) Conclusion of our talk was that I better continue to practice to be a better communicator, to be more attentive... to be a better husband basically! And for wife, she just need to learn to practice how to love!

Anyway, it's really interesting that God put me and wife together..., I'm really 'grace', and she's more like 'truth'. I really need to learn to do things right in accordance to the truth..., and she really need to learn to be more graceful and loving. Lord Jesus Christ is paradoxically full of both grace and truth, may we become more like him over time...

Today we had dinner with not only Jack, but also Katty and Howard. Howard was jokingly asking wife and I if we are still in love(戀愛). I said of course! But we're more like practicing how to love(練愛)! Practice makes perfect! ;)

Today's reading was about Joshua, well advanced in the years, encouraging the Jews to keep their convenant with God... reminding them that their obedience or disobedience will bring either blessings or curses!!! Of course the Jews proclaimed that they will serve the Lord!

But when the period of Judges come, Jews clearly showed how the spirit might be willing, but the flesh is weak. May God help us guard against our weak flesh. May we be able to continue to obey and receive blessings... instead of screwing up. Most importantly, we need to continue to practice loving God and others to the very end no matter what happens!

Strengthen us O God! :)

(Josh 22-24; 174.0 lbs; $4.359)

Earthquake!!!

Today we had an earthquake. Haven't had one for a while, so it was kinda fun! ;) Luckily it wasn't so big to cause any significant damage. I was hoping to be able get the rest of the day off because of earthquake, but oh well, that didn't happen...

Because Daniel biked to work today, after the earthquake hit, all he wanted to do is to go home to check on his wife and son quickly... so I drove him home and he treated me lunch. Besides free lunch, I also tasted a chocolate cake baked by Dan for his wife's birthday. It was really good! It was also the first time to finally meet his baby! He's pretty cute, but I'm still not sure which parent does the baby look like! ;)

Anyway, nothing much happened today other than the earthquake I guess... scripture reading was once again about dividing up the land for the Jews.... except it also talked about the city of refuge and the town for Levites... I guess God had to be real clear about this so that the tribes won't fight each other later on about it, huh? ;)

(Josh 19-21, 173.8 lbs, $4.399)

Spirit filled?

Once again work has been busy. In harsh economic times, I suppose that's good. Wife has been sore and in pain all over her body lately... she's claiming that this is getter worse and worse as she's getting older...

Mom emailed us Dad's sermon pretty much every week, this week's kinda interesting... how when we're young, we dream to soar like eagle, as we get older, we just want to run... and as we get really old, we just want to be able to walk! ;) These are actually promises of God, if we prepare ourselves properly and when the right time comes, God is going to do what He promised to do. Real world might cause us to fall instead of soar, to trip while we run, to cripple us so that we can't even walk, but do we have faith in God? Hope for our future? Most importantly, do we have love?

Anyway, scripture reading was talking about allotment of land to Israelites again. I wonder what will be my allotment? ;) And I also found a coupon from "Spirit" Honda to do maintenance work on my S2000. May Spirit of God continue to do work on me too! ;)

(Josh 16-18, 173.8 lbs, $4.399)

In Spirit and Truth!

This weekend had been another relative boring weekend which we ended up not doing much. We saw some more properties, rehearsed on Saturday and helped Jay out with praise and worship on Sunday... and the weekend was pretty much over...

As boring as it was, I think wife and I still enjoyed each other's company... I played the video game for a long time actually, but wife wasn't that upset with me! ;) Cool thing was that, for the first time in my life, I now own a Ferrari(in the game)! Yeah! Another notable cool thing was just when I was 'inspired' to strum around the guitar to mess around a bit..., my playing actually inspired wife to write a new song! Wow!

Anyway, defeating the enemy has certainly been nice, but as the scripture reading continues... there are actually more land to be taken still... so of course the job is not done yet. With my optimistic attitude, glass half full isn't really full yet, okay? Let's keep going!

Pastor Chen's sermon was kinda interesting today. He talked about how we ought to live out Christ's glory... with Spirit and the Truth. He's saying they're like our left foot and right foot. Truth alone will only get us to run around in circles, likewise, if we operate on Spirit alone... Only with both "feet" operating together can we walk forward!!!

May me and my house worship and follow the Lord in Spirit and in Truth all the time! Help me God! :)

(Josh 13-15, 174.0 lbs, $4.519)

Defeating the enemy!

Yesterday at work late afternoon, I developed a headache. And getting wife all pissed off later on in the evening... so that she couldn't sleep... and having to stay up to try to comfort her until wee hours in the morning most certainly didn't help my headache any better. I wonder if I could sense a storm coming before hand now that I'm looking back...

Anyway, surprisingly having gotten very little sleep, I wasn't very tired at all at work today. My headache also was gone after just sleeping couple of hours... and sure enough, situation with wife seemed to have turned much better now... still have much room for improvement of course, but at least wife was able to detect some improvements from me so that at least she can have a bit more audacity to hope that we're going to have a great future together! ;)

I suppose this is what spritual attack felt like and what God with us felt like! :)

Today's reading talked about God made the sun stand still... I suppose God also let the moon stood still for me so that I can still get a full night's sleep after only sleeping a few hours! ;) There were also stories about Joshua defeating whole bunch of kings in battle.

Thanks be to my God that I've defeated a few kings myself today. Halleluja! :)

(Josh 10-12, 174.0 lbs, $4.519)

Becoming an effective instrument!

Called Pastor Zo during lunch today..., it turned out that he really wanted a steady job so that his wife can have medical insurance. Those small chinese churches, ministries, seminaries just can't afford to hire people full time nowadays due to lack of money. Sign of the time I suppose. I told Pastor Zo his chances of getting into Boeing is probably pretty slim, given that we lost a number of big contracts and his lack of experience for the past 20 years... sigh, may God help Pastor Zo find a way... Pastor Zo's pretty cool... eventhough I couldn't really help him much, he'd still offer to me whatever he's got! Such as taking me to Huntington Library... he's some sort of research scholar or something so he can get in for free now. I haven't been to the Huntington Library for years, I've been too cheap to go, but I've heard it has made a lot of changes, perhaps someday I'll take up his offer with Pastor Zo as a tour guide! ;)

There's also brother GD's prayer meeting in the evening. On our way over, wife was simply trying to vent out her frustration regarding one of her current project... I offered some 'suggestions' to try to help her avoid these problems in the future, but I guess I should've known better that she didn't really want advice, but just some comforting words. I didn't even realize I've made a mistake until it's too late... and she got even more frustrated going to prayer meeting. Not a good start for a prayer meeting at all...

Anyway, today's topic was about how we can be used as God's instrument. I've also shared some of my experience where I thought I'm not a very effective instrument for God to use at times... Often times I mean well, but the result is just not what I was expecting... or not what I think God really wants. I'm not a very good witness within my parents. Incident with wife is another clear example of how ineffective I can be sometimes...

I'm hoping that my experiences will help me learn to do better, but then it's not like it's the first time wife complained about my inability to comfort. I do find that often times I'd repeat my mistakes without even knowing it at the time... When will I ever learn O God? I need wisdom. Lord, you promised that is something you'd freely give to us, right?

Anyway, today's scripture reading kinda answered the question I think. Gibeonites tricked Joshua into making a pact with them. Israelites thought these people are from a far away land and since they really seemed like they fear the LORD too, Israelites simply went ahead and make a pact to not destroy them without inquire the LORD about this matter. Whenever we place too much confidence on self, I think that's what'd get us into trouble. "I" mean well. "I" thought I'm doing good... or doing whatever for God..., but did I ever asked God about them? I'd typically consult God on major decisions, such as marriage, or buying a home, but I suppose I need to learn to rely on God even on the little things too. So I won't be "tricked" into doing the wrong things... Can I be a more effective instrument for You, LORD? Yeah? Thanks! :)

(Josh 7-9, 175.2 lbs, $4.559)

Cancelling escrow...

I've actually called the hospitals themselves..., and sure enough, they think I'm the father of this little girl named Ana. I was hoping that the hospital can clear my name, but I guess not. Chihlin said I will have to pay those collections in order to get a loan, but there's no guarantee that they'll refund me the money after I cleared my name... so for sure we probably won't be able to resolve this issue anytime soon, so we're cancelling escrow for now... it's funny the seller of the Condo is named Ana too. Too man Anas! ;)

Yeah, we can only hope that this is God's way of helping us avoiding buying a bad condo... or perhaps God is preparing a better home for us! :D

And today out of the blue, Pastor Zo called and ask if Boeing's interested in hiring? I only got his voicemail message because he called while I was on the phone with one of the hospitals... I returned his call this evening and he didn't pick up... Anyway, I guess I'll try call him back tomorrow... But it's not like I can really help him finding a job! Boeing isn't in a hiring mode anyway. Not to mentioned that Pastor Zo has only ministry experience for the past 20 years... I think he's probably finished his PhD... so Lord God, what would you like your servant to be doing? Do you really want him to be doing engineering?

Today's reading was about Joshua taking down Jericho. God's way is indeed weird and mysterious, but hopefully we can be like Joshua... to be able to at least know what God would like us to do? May God be with us...

(Josh 4-6, 175.4 lbs, $4.579)

Stupid collections...

Not sure why there are two hospitals claiming that I owe them money... and my credit report is screwed up thanks to them. To clean it up, it'll likely take a month of waiting for investigation. We've started the process already..., hopefully it won't take that long. But not sure if the bank selling house is willing to wait for us though... Anyway, maybe we'll just back out and clear everything up before we get back into the market again... so that we won't have to pay extra for our loan and pay for collections we don't owe! Perhaps this is God's way of stopping us from getting that particular condo?

Anyway, the credit bureau is really irresponsible to be so quick to place those 2 collections against me... when it's clear those people don't even have my name straight. Wife is say we should sue them! For making us lose out on buying a house!!! Can we do that, Lord? ;) Why do we need 3 credit bureaus anyway? God should just shut Transunion and Equifax down!!!

Today's reading was about Joshua and Rahab! Rahab reminded me of how sometimes it is okay to 'lie'! Pastor Jim also talked about how some people lied to the Nazis about hiding Jews... of course we shouldn't try to find excuses whenever we lie, but where is that fine line between lying for God(good) and compromising our integrity? How can we know for sure that God is cool with us lying? How can we know for sure that sometimes God allowed bad things to happen to us so that we won't get our condo for a good reason?

At the time, I suppose it's always very difficult to know for sure, heck, we might even never know for sure..., but we'll just have to believe it I guess! ;)

Another thing kinda hard to believe is that I'm gaining weight again!!! Oh Lord, help me lose weight!!!

(Josh 1-3, 176.3 lbs, $4.579)

What's to fear?

A lot seemed to have happend over the past few days...

The bank has finally agreed to sell us the condo, but now the trouble seems that I have some weird record on my credit report that needs to be cleared up... hopefully that can be taken care of soon so that I can get a good interest rate for my loan...

We also managed to successfully reproduce the sizzling steak on the plate trick like Ruth Chris'..., our meat is still not as tender, but oh well, surely they're using more expensive meat! ;)

Wife and I also figured out an way to help cure my forgetfulness..., by reducing playstation time by an hour... (I have a maximum 5 hr quota/week!) So hopefully that works out good for everyone! ;)

Tonite we also celebrated my brother's 40th birthday at parents house. Probably ate too much, also brought alot of stuff home... we also learned a couple of new recipes... we'll see how those turn out!

Anyway, today Pastor Jim's sermon was kinda interesting... he talked about pits... he even used auto racing as example! Explaining that like race cars, pitstops are necessary for us to go further down the road! Some pits we may slip into, by sinning perhaps..., some pits in life we might be thrown into due to various circumstances not within our control... and the last was the kind of the pit where we should jump into! The example he used was Benaiah son of Jehoiada (2 Samuel 23:20), who chased lions into the pit and kill it! The kind of pit, pastor Jim explained, is a pit where our greatest fear and our greatest dream is in... in order to true realize our full potential, we sometime gotta just jump in this pit to face and fight our fear. Bottomline is that all these pits of life have a similar purpose... which is that what doesn't kill you, will make you stronger!

As children of God, since there's no way we can possibly be truly killed..., I suppose we all should jump into these pits so that we can become better! But may God be with us though! ;) Today's scripture reading was about Joshua taking over after Moses. Moses also encouraged him to be strong and courageous! Sure, we can all have fear, what's important is that we also have courage to face it and to conquor whatever it is we fear! If God is with us, what can be against us?

(Deut 31-34, 174.2 lbs(Friday weight), $4.599)

What are we living for?

We went to bed so early last night, gave wife a massage but too bad it's no longer as helpful as before... she didn't sleep that well still... but at least I got some well needed rest! ;) I slept in late the nite before...

Our prayer life is getting kinda repetitive too... it almost seems like we're praying for the same things day in and day out... so we prayed for new and exciting stuffs! ;) But even if we do have new and exciting stuffs... all stuffs will get old over time, right? But luckily the infinite God won't ever run out of new stuffs for us, right? ;) Or are we just living for 'stuffs'? What are we really living our lives for? Hmm....

Yesterday's scripture reading was about blessings and the curses again... as long as we live our lives obeying God's commands, to love Him and to love each other, surely we will be blessed... with lots of new stuffs as consequence too! So may God help us to live the right way!

(Deut 28-30, 174.6 lbs $4.639)

I can see clearly now!

The continuing of troubled US economy... deflation of the dollar against the Euros...(now 1 US dollar is 1.6 Euros!!!) With such high fuel price, demand for oil is finally easying... oil dropped $6 on future trading... biggest one day drop for the past couple of decades!

Everything's so volatile... huge spikes of ups and downs... wonder when it'll stabilize...

On the home front, we finally got our HDMI cable. At stores, it costs $50. PS3 didn't even bother giving us that HD cable... just the regular cable, probably because of the additional cost. But amazingly wife found a cable for like $2!!! Works fine! Can't believe the price difference of these things...

Resolution difference is amazing too! I have never driven with such clarity!!! Yeah! Thank God... and thanks to my wife! ;)

(Deut 25-27, 174.6 lbs, $4.649)

Just don't be so careless!

Last nite we went looking at a new condo that just went on market. Not too bad, but a bit pricier than the condo we offered... if it's cheaper, perhaps we'll consider it, but not sure if the seller's willing to go much cheaper...

Also trying to get rid of my extra unused credit cards... I think I probably have too many credit card accounts opened... not really sure if this is good or bad for my credit, but might as well, reduce their numbers I guess...

Interesting note from reading my blog entry yesterday..., I seemed to have made lots of typos!!! I was even weighing as much as 184 lbs!!! O my God, help me be not so careless at home and at work please!!! Help me change O God!

(Deut 22-24, 174.6 lb, $4.649)

Just do it!

This weekend we took a break from looking at houses, but I think we really should've continued on anyway... because there's no guarantee that the bank's going to sell us the short-selled home we offered anyway! But anyway, I suppose it was a good break from house hunting too. We've been looking for a house for nearly every weekend...

So on Saturday, we visited the newly opened 'mall/apartment combo thing' called Americana as suggested by Howard. It's actually very nice. Look like downtown Disney with lots of expensive stores. It has a cool fountain designed by Howard's company. Everything was just fine and dandy except after we visited the bookstore. To make long story short, we went our sperate ways in the store... and as I finished reading the website related stuffs and went to where wife suppose to be... I couldn't find her. So I just proceeded to the magazine section at the front door and thought for sure she'll be able to see me there... and then I was reading a special article dedicated for Lincoln... talked about how he used biblical phrases to write his famous speech... talked about how human he really is... about how he came from a poor family background, sometimes even used dirty politics to win elections... about how he suffer from depression...

Anyway, so I lost track of time and for whatever reason couldn't hear or feel my phone when wife was calling me... so naturally wife got real worried and real upset at me for being such an airhead...

So the otherwise nice weekend was marred by this ugly incidence. But what's really cool is that I think wife's temper is really improving now. For sure she doesn't hold on to her anger as long as she used to. It is now my turn to become less of an airhead than I used to! ;)

Pastor Jim's sermon was also talking about how 'brain dead' of a society we've become. We don't know a lot of thing. For sure I suffer from that sometimes..., but other times, I think I suffer from too much thinking too. But bottomline is that we ought to be 'doing' stuffs for God. As long as we know we're not doing illegal, immoral stuffs, just don't be afraid and just do things... and as long as our motives are pure, that's how God will bless us.

Anyway, so even after whatever dumb things I've done, may God continue to bless my marriage! May God also help me and teach me to become less dumb too! ;)

BTW, this weekend's attempt at making a steak like Ruth's Chris' failed. But it was still pretty good tasting..., we'll keep try try again! The bad part was that we seemed to gain weight eating steak this weekend whereas we used to lose weight eating steaks... not sure what happened... hmm...

(Deut 19-21, 174.6 lbs, $4.639)

Busy busy busy!

Work schedule has been kind busy lately. Getting kinda stressed out about it, but glad to be able to make more money though! ;) For the past few evenings, we've been sleeping in late too for various reasons. Tonite, Howard was finishing up with album cover design for EP2 after dinner. He just left at around 10-ish... anyway, glad the design is done though. I also played gran turismo for quite a while as a way to relief stress! ;)

Also, heard it thru the grapevine that our offer to the condo might come thru... we'll see how that goes I guess. If it's the right house, may God help it go thru quickly. If not, then yeah, let it not go thru at all!

(Deut 16-18, 172.8 lbs, $4.679)

Brother GD said, 'pray and be holy!'

That Ruth's Chris ribeye we had last nite for our anniversary dinner can even be tasted in the next morning! At least that has a good buttery after taste! ;) Excellent steaks, too bad it's just so expensive. I'm hoping to reproduce this when I prepare my steaks next time at home!

Anyway, just came back from brother GD's prayer meeting. Today we talked about how men ought not to lose our temper and to argue. (1 Tim 2:8) Most importantly of course is that Bro GD encouraged us to be intercessory prayers for EVERYONE!!!

Wow, that's hard. Well, we gotta do what God called us to do, right? Blessings or curses? Take your pick! ;) Of course we shouldn't be praying simply because we HAVE to. If we truly love God and love others, interceeding to God for others would come naturally and be piece of cake! So..., may God change our hearts...

Today's reading talked about freeing of slaves after 6 years of service. I was baptized in 2003, of course I believed before that... so I've been Christ's slave for almost 6 years now. Do I want to be free now... or do I still want to stay his slave for life? If I want to be slave to Christ for life... I'm suppose to have ear lobe pierced into the door... the heaven's door I suppose! That was kind of a weird passage or rule... wonder why that is?

Anyway, surprising good news is that after that huge beefy dinner, I'm now actually lighter!!! Weird. Also, gas prices have gone down a bit. Thank God! :)

(Deut 13-15, 172.8 lbs, $4.699)

788

Wow! It's been an year already. 787 was the date we got married. 787 was suppose to be the date Boeing delivers it's first 787! They showed the shell of the plane off a year ago, but 787 is still quite a ways from being delivered. At least it's now more than just a shell, power-on was a success during a recent test. So it's inching closer to actually taking flight.

Anyway, regarding my own marriage, there has certainly been lots and up and downs too! Overall, I think my marriage has certainly been a 'beneficial' one. God makes all things, both good and bad, happen for the benefit of those who love Him, right? ;) For sure any marriage will have the good and the bad for sure, but has it been a benefit for the person?

One thing about today's scripture reading that caught my attention, which was that God was both blessing and cursing the Jews. Obedience brings blessings, disobedeince brings curses! Relationship with God is a way is very similar to this marriage relationship I think! ;)

If there is love, marriage is definitely a blessing. If there's no love, marriage can definitely feel like a curse too! It's very difficult to stay marry and feel 'lukewarm' about the other person. By feeling just 'lukewarm' about your spouse, surely it'll start to feel like a 'curse' soon enough. The chinese saying which stated that when rowing a boat upstreams, if you don't go forward, you'd be going backwards. Relationships are like that.

May God, Who is love, be with us in every relationship that we have!
(Deut 10-12, 172.8 lbs, $4.719)

A short long weekend...

Long weekend was a nice break from the hectic work schedule, but too bad the weekend just wasn't long enough!!! This weekend I finally decided to take the time to fix the termite damaged house for my parents, but too bad it wasn't fully completed, but at least most of it is done! Something productive at least... unfortunately this means spending less time with the wife... so I now have to reset the number of consecutive happy days for the wife and can't go on to th next prime number! ;)

Lovely wife for sure has improved with her temper, although we were sorta arguing/fighting, but at least it didn't drag on and our discussions were quite constructive! It is now my turn to improve myself too! Com'on Billy, you can do it!!!! :D

Pastor Jim's sermon last Sunday was about how true liberty involves not only freedom to do whatever we want, but also to know our responsibilities too. We shouldn't abuse God's grace, we also shouldn't forget about Truth! Today's reading was also another reminder to not forget about God... and to not do stupid things such as worshipping the golden calf to anger Him.

Sigh..., why is it so easy for us to be so forgetful when times are good?

Anyway, today I also read something interesting from a book I'm reading recently... it contains a bunch of short stories from a surgeon. There was a quote in there I thought was really cool... that life is basically God's novel... we are the characters in the novel, how would we want God to write His stories? Of course we have a say regarding how the story goes too... I can only hope that my story turn out good! Will it be good O God? ;)

(Deut 7-9, 174.2 lbs, $4.739)

Happy Independece day!!! :)

Last nite we had bible study with parents, everything went pretty well... glad we're finally done studying Noah! I was also pleasantly surprised to find out that wife has ordered PS3 and my favorite game Granturismo for me! Wow!

So after a busy day at work, explaining how love works to Jack during dinner, doing bible study with parents, and then playing game later on in the evening = no time for blogging! ;)

Yesterday and today's scripture reading was basically about Moses reviewing what happend to the Israelites... and then reminding people to not forget about God. With busy work schedule... with PS3, yeah, it may be very easy for me to forget about God! ;) May God grant me sufficient self control so I don't become forgetful of God!!!!

(Deut 1-6, 173.6 lbs, $4.739)

Another busy day...

I think I suffered thru another mindless busy day at work..., at least I feel physically better today! Thank God! :) Anyway, at least a long weekend is coming soon! Hopefully I can get well rested then...

There doesn't seem to be any interesting news today. Even scripture reading is kinda boring today. It talked about boundary for Israel, how they ought to divide it up, how Levites should get their towns..., I guess the interesting thing is the city of refuge that God has set up for people who've sinned unintentionally. Those people must live there until the death of the High Priest. Kinda foreshadowing Jesus the High Priest... shelters us first... only after his death, then our sins are paid for? Anyway, I just thought it's interesting because I don't remember reading about this before for some reason... ;)

(Num 34-36, 174.0 lbs, $4.759)

Feeling stressed!

It's been kinda busy at work lately, trying to juggle multiple tasks at the same time, hopefully won't end up doing badly on all of them!!! Only good thing is overtime pay I guess, but I think my body is getting too stressed for it... anyway, may God help guide me thru this problem.

Also almost got a condo today, but not really sure exactly what the bank is thinking about our offer... and not sure how the market's gonna go..., but anyway, not going to worry too much about it. If it's going to be a good deal, surely God will help us get it... if not, then not! ;)

Today's reading was about Jews dividing the spoils after battling the Midianites. I don't quite get the significance of such event... perhaps the actually fighting men get to keep more of the spoils... they get half and the rest of the community gets the other half... of course God also better get His share... ;) Another story was about how the tribe of Reubenite and Gadite wanted land... and then also made pact to continue to fight with other tribes of Israel to drive out the people there until they inherit the land. What's most interesting to me was the words God said near the end:

55 " 'But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land, those you allow to remain will become barbs in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will give you trouble in the land where you will live. 56 And then I will do to you what I plan to do to them.' "

I suppose during modern days, for us, these 'inhabitants' would be our bad habits... or sin. If we don't get rid of them, not only will we miss out on God's promise, but bad things probably will end up happening! (Judgement!!!) Anyway, it's not helping me alleviating my stress Lord!!!!! Oh well! ;)

(Num 31-33, 174.0 lbs, $4.759)