Restoration!

Yeah! The last of the credit bureaus has finally cleared my name! I'm no longer responsible for the medical bills incurred by my so called daughter! ;) My good name has been restored!!! It's really a lame case of identity theft, the collection agencies don't even have my name right. Why was I made responsible is really beyond me..., but what people did wrongly, God used it for good! The delay of house purchase actually has saved us some money! :) The condo we've made offer on originally is still on the market and it's now few thousand cheaper. Now I'm just wondering if God simply delayed our purchase to save a few bucks... or perhaps God didn't want us to buy that condo? If not, surely God will help us find another better property, right? Better keep our eyes opened!

Last night's prayer meeting, Brother GD taught us how to avoid being dry and weak... he mentioned several points, but I didn't take notes so I don't remembered it all... ;) But in a nutshell, basically we need to stay in God's love. Draw close to Him and He'll draw close to you. Only by staying connected to the true vine, can our branches be restored. God will give us strengths to do all things! Today's scripture reading, there was a passage in chapter 30:17 that popped out because Pastor Dawn talked about it on Sunday... saying that David fought hard from dusk til the evening of next day to recover everything the Amalekites taken... God is indeed the God of restoration. God can certainly do His miraculous deeds to restore stuffs instantly, but often God wants us to learn the lessons for ourselves. No pain, no gain. Sometimes pain is caused unjustly by others, but often pain can also be caused by our own screw ups! Whether it's caused by others or ourselves, it doesn't matter. God can turn things around for good. Of course in the case of it being our own screw ups, we gotta face it head on... and it may not be easy, but God will strengthen us and give us what we need in order to deal with it as God helped David to recover what he lost. We just gotta never lose faith, hope or love and keep marching on! Naomi and Ruth got thru their troubles that way. Job got thru his troubles that way too. Lots of bible characters got thru their troubles that way... and then end up a better person later on.

Satan can be quite convincing using sophistry to cause us to lose faith, hope and love when things don't look very good at the moment. May God give us all wisdom to be able to see thru satan's lies so that if we ever lose faith, we'll lose faith in satan! ;)

(1 Sam 22-31, 174.0 lbs, $4.019)

Lovely end!

Olympics has come to a close. Hopefully China won't end up like Athens..., in just 4 years, new facilities have dilapidated away... Anyway, whatever happened, China has succeeded in refreshing its image as a major up and coming modern nation. For sure China has impressed the world, but the world also can still see China's fakeness. Such as the lip sync girl singer... and the underage gymnists, etc. However, the world at large is pretty fake too. China is simply playing along, showing the world that it can be just like them! ;)

May God someday transform China from within, transform China in a way that money can't buy. May China be able to not only win gold medals that'll perish, but also prizes from heaven that'll last forever!

I think F-1 had a 3 week break because of Olympics. Finally F-1 cars are now back again! However, the race in Spain was pretty boring though. Spain as a nation seem pretty boring to me. The only thing I'm interested in seeing is Alhambra in Granada(pictured)! And this is only because I live in Alhambra! Maybe someday I'll go there, to find all 17 or 19 maximum possible symmetrical tile patterns! ;)

Pastor Jim probably went to China for the Olympics. He's still out last Sunday, so it was pastor Dawn who gave us the sermon. It's intersting that she talked more about setting free... how we ought to create a safe haven for others, not to condemn others and treat others gracefully and truthfully. Wife was telling me earlier that people often find it safe to divulge dark secrets to her for whatever reasons. Probably because people know that it's safe to tell her all those things..., but it interesting that I feel the opposite. I feel like wife can condemn me sometimes! ;) But of course I later on realize that she's just telling me the truth that perhaps I'm not aware of!

Anyway, may God continue to work in my household so that we can make it a better sanctuary, be full of grace and truth. Only love can cover multitude of sins, only love can transform us sinners into being holy. It sure would be nice if we can all love one another like David and Jonathan! :)

(1 Samuel 19-21, 173.8 lbs, $4.059)

Thank God on a Friday! ;)

Have been watching less Olympics this week, but that didn't seem to free up more time for me for some reason. Been busy at work, been busy at home too... and sometimes I have to get busy working at home... It's been a busy week, but I didn't feel very productive at work though.

Thank God that I had a little break thru today and got one of my projects done. It sure is annoying when sometimes you try this... and try that... and it just doesn't seem to work!!! Today is supposedly Daniel's 13th year anniversary at Boeing. So he wanted to go have Shabu for lunch. I didn't really want to go because it's pricey and I know I'll eat a lot and gain weight..., but figured what the heck. Anyway, it turn out that we kept on hitting traffic on the freeway, red lights and constructions on the surface streets..., and the killer was there is a wait at the shabu place!!! So after all that, we didn't get to have shabu. Dan was very disappointed of course, but in a way I was relieved. God probably knows that I shouldn't eat that much! ;)

Anyway, besides life's obstacles, we have to admit that it also feels great when you make a break thru and overcome a challenge! There was a huge sigh of relief when I finally got one my things to work! Plus, God has helped us having pretty good bible studies with parents for a while too! Most amazing thing is that wife and I haven't been that pissed off at each other for a whopping 23 days now! That's according to my blog... and I don't even remember what we were fighting about on July 31st.... love keep no record of wrongs, right? But of course I better remember never to repeat my wrongs... ;)

Anywho, just want to give thanks to my God and hope that we'll continue on with our blessed lives! ;) May thankful and loving thoughts become such an idée fixe for all of us... that there won't be room for anything else for our minds to think about!!!

Have also been reading quite a bit about Saul lately. This guy started out so well. He even seemed very humble at the very beginning. Obviously this guy was good enough for God to chose him..., but I wonder exactly what happened to him that made him changed... I suppose he simply changed his focus from God to more of himself as the years went by... may we never make the same mistake!

(1 Sam 10~18, 173.6 lbs, $4.059)

Vindicated!

Today I made a call to Transunion, one of the three credit bureaus, and found out that I'm no longer responsible for those 2 collection notices made by my secret daughter! I'm now 'set freed' from that obligation! Yeah!!!! ;)

God is indeed a God who makes all things work together for the benefit of those who love Him. Wife just informed me yesterday that the condo we offered just went down in price... it is now $2000 below our original offer!!! So it's good that this delay happened to us I suppose. At least we've saved $2000! And the word is out that housing market might continue to decline... and a major US bank will probably fail within the next few months... crazy economic times! Anywho, we ought to just keep on trust in God to get us thru these tough times I guess. Today's scripture talked about Ebenezer, the stone of help, how God has helped us thus far as we repent and return to God.

I suppose we human beings are peregrine by nature, hopefully we'll all realize how good God is and settle down soon... Tonite, we also had a little chat with Pastor Zo... the guy sure is an odd ball pastor, he was telling us God doesn't really cared to be praised, what's more important than praising is that we change ourselves, live out the life and love of Christ, that's the ultimate kind of praise rather than just singing and paying lip service to God! Hmm..., anyway, may God use him to advance His will and bless his family! :)

(1 Samuel 7-9, 174.2 lbs, $4.099)

8 Golds!

Michale Phelps' 8 gold medals are indeed awe inspiring. For sure luck, or God, is on his side too! ;) I think after swimming, I won't be too interested in Olympics much anymore, watching them swim really brought back some memories of high school swim meet days! Anyway, it was 36 years ago when Mark Spitz won 7 golds, wonder how many more years will another athlete win 9 golds in the Olympics!

And as exciting as it was watching the Olympics, I wasn't feeling too well over the weekend for whatever reasons. Wish I know the cause of my problem... perhaps it was because of seeing way too many dead people in Body World! ;) Was hoping to capture some cool pictures at that exhibit, but they don't allow it. But oh well, maybe that's a good thing. Why keep pictures of dead people anyway. And luckily after a good night's sleep, I felt a lot better the following day!

On Sunday, pastor Jim is still not back, it was first time we heard pastor Kelly preach. I think he's in charge of the set-free ministry at Faith Community Church. Helping the addicts kick their bad habits and the wounded to heal past hurts. He talked about 4 basic things that necessary for all of us to be set free:

1) thru prayer- we have to admit to self and to God that we need help! We have to learn to depend on God and pick up our crosses to follow Jesus daily... just focus one day at a time...

2)thru insight- know that anger is caused by past wrongs... and fear is cause by future uncertainties. Only way to get pass anger is to forgive..., forget about what should've happened. Just let it go. And use our fears to develop our faith and trust in God. That leap of faith can be scary, but don't let fear immobilize us!

3) thru support- confess not only to God but also one another. Help keep each other accountable! Help encourage and support one another with grace and truth!

4) thru right choices- this is self explanatory I guess...

Right now, wife and I have been in our own 'set free' program for a while now! The day we die will be that day we'll truly be free! That'll be the day we meet our Lord, who is the Truth and the truth shall set us free!!! ;)

Scripture reading for the past couple days had been the begining of Samuel. I guess God had tolerated enough thru the period of Judges... and decided to raise up Samuel. It's just so cool to be able to hear God directly like that..., but then again, I wonder if I'd be able to obey or be happy with everything God says to me... hmm... maybe that's why God doesn't speak directly to me... Yet? ;) Need to develop myself more, so that I will be able to win some gold medals from God in the race called life! Yeah, may the love of God be reified with my life! :)

(1 Sam 1-6, 174.0 lbs, $4.099)

The lady in red...

Last night's prayer meeting with brother GD, he surprised us with a special vision for wife... saying that he saw wife wearing red... or slowing turning red... and wife was moved into tears... and he saw her in a house, initially with few people... and then lots of people... apparently kneeling down as if praying or repenting. We're not quite sure what all this means, but brother GD belives the red of course symbolizes the blood of Christ... and I guess we're going to buy a house and perhaps God will use wife to save alotta souls? ;)

Today, Howard brought the freshly off the press EP2 CDs. Hopefully God will use TG music to help save some souls! :)

Yesterday's scripture reading was near the end of book of Judges, it was pretty bloody too. It talked about a levite's wife getting raped and killed. Israelites really got pretty pathetic at those times... Today's reading was about Ruth. One of my favorite stories in the Bible. Ruth is the type of the person who'd stick to Naomi no matter what happens. I've told wife many times that we ought to never allow problems to drive us apart too! But of course Naomi wasn't the one causing problems for Ruth, I, on the other hand, can cause trouble for wife sometimes! ;)

But that's no the point, the point is we ought to love each other no matter what! Of course, I ought to change myself for the better if I really do love my wife... likewise, we ought to really change ourselves and become more holy if we really do love God! We most definitely don't want to cause Jesus to develope trichotillomania! ;)

(Judges 19-21, Ruth, 174.2 lbs, $4.159)

Olympic watch...

Not sure if any of the events can ever top what Jason Lazek did, but I still couldn't help myself from watching too much of the Olympics anyway! It's the first time ever I'm getting a high definition look at modern China, plus, I'm really impressed with Asians in general, they're winning more and more medals than I thought they could! Korea is #3 in the medal counts! I'm shocked!!! ;)

Anyway, perhaps I'm watching too many swimming events, lately, I'm becoming more like wife, retaining more water than before! I'm not sure if I gained a whole lot of weight, but for sure I'm having difficulty putting on my wedding band for whatever reasons... Olympics just don't go well with wedding bands or something... there was an American beach volley ball player who lost her wedding band while competing, but luckily they found it later! ;)

Today's reading was more of Samson, how he finished his life. I guess this is a guy who didn't do his race in life well, but at least he finished it with a bang! I wonder if Jason Lazek prayed to get that extra burst of energy..., I digged a bit on the net and I wasn't able to find anything regarding Lazek's faith at all... except that he's a Jew. Anywho, I also read about that Micah's idol thing. It's a weird little story and I'm still not quite sure what it all means. I don't even recall ever reading this story in the bible... weird. ;)

(Judge 16-18, 174.6 lbs, $4.199)

8-8-08

This weekend we attended a wedding of Eddie, a friend of wife... we thought it's going to be a small wedding, but it was in fact quite large! I've never been to a morning... and then reception during lunch kind of wedding. It was also kinda long... from 11 til 3pm and kinda still going... but overall it was quite nice. During worship, it was almost as if we're attending one of the church services. The songs were simply and familiar, yet I was still quite moved. Wife mentioned pretty much all of his family and friends are Christians... how cool is that? Also during the reception, the server at Twin Palms were so nice that I had endless number of cokes to drink. These 2 things alone will cause me to rate Eddies wedding as the best ever! ;)

This weekend is also the Olympics. The opening was quite good. China really put up quite a show for the world. Chinese emphasized the ideal 'peace', but paradoxically China is struggling with peace even within its territory. May China one day turn its focus more on love, more specifically the love of God. Anyway, I've been watching some swimming races... kinda miss my old high school swimming days... and Jason Lezak, a 32 yr old, did an amazing performance comparable to that of David killing Goliath and helped the Americans win the gold in 400m relay! Woohoo!!!

And Pastor Jim was out fishing this sunday, so there a guest pastor Pastor Keith, who wife doesn't even remember, talked about how we can preserve ourselves in Christ based on the book of Jude. Basically there are 4 things:

1) Build up yourself- We gotta become our own favorite preacher... preaching to ourselves the Word! Initially I thought he's some sort of faith teacher, teaching us to just speak it and make it happen..., but I'm glad that's not what he meant. Basically, we do have to become our own preacher... our own cheerleader. Cause otherwise, if someday we were stucked in the middle of nowhere when satan come tempt us, how are we going to be able to defend for ourselves? Jesus spoke the Word to drive away temptations. We, too, can use God's Word to encourage ourselves at times of need!

2)Pray up yourself- we gotta not just pray to God before meals... do we chitchat regularly? Do we pray in the spirit? Anyway, I don't speak in tongues, but I suppose if we are mindful of God as often as we possibly can even during daily routines, that ought to be pretty good! ;)

3) Keep up yourself- we gotta be able to keep ourselves in His love. Action also is always louder than just words...

4) Look up yourself!!! Yes, always look up to Jesus... look up to him as if Jesus is coming back today!!! This type of attitude will for sure transform and renew our minds!!!

Pastor Keith is pretty interesting that he'd always cry during altar calls. Not sure if he's for real or not... I personally don't really like these travelling pastors... especially when they only travel to big rich churches..., but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt I guess. At least I like his preaching! ;)

Anyway, I was also reading about Samson. If Samson would follow pastor Keith's advice, surely he would've been a much better judge. Then again, maybe God meant it this way... if Samson were more godly, maybe he would've have fought toe Philistines the way he did... whatever...

(Judges 13-15, 174.4 lbs, $4.219)

Burning the midnight oil...

I'm here burning the midnight oil trying to meet some deadline at work. Thank God I finished now at 3:30am intead of having to stay up ALL night! ;)

I'm really too old for this, but at least this is occassional and not happening regularly. Plus, I'm getting paid extra! In a slowed economy of today, I suppose it's a blessing to have extra work!

Today, I'm reading more on Judges. It's really not a very pleasant book to read. Israelites were just being disobedient... and even the judges are kinda messed up... with Jephthah making stupid vows to sacrifice whatever came out of his door... which he ended up sacrificing his beloved daughter. If God is going to deliver something to us, does God really need us to sacrifice somebody else? Why not sacrifice self instead?

Anyway, luckily I'm also reading about another more interesting book that we brought back from taiwan. It's a small little book that talked about paradox of life in the book of Ecclesiastes... it's really a short wonderful book and I think I'm going to review a few times just to get a better understanding...

Today, I read a passage which I thought was really cool: "達人的弔詭: 他珍惜今生,更看重來世. 他做最悲觀的打算,也做最樂觀的預期. 他同意所羅門的虛空論,也羨慕雅歌的愛情觀.在喪禮中哀歌,也能再婚宴中喜酒.患難不能困住他,幸福也不能迷惑他. 他夠悲觀,所以能處芻吉避兇; 他夠樂觀,所以他的生命沒有停怠不前. 在人生最後一刻, 他對生命有不捨的眷戀,也有放手的瀟灑...

If only we all could live such paradoxical life, there'd be no period of Judges on earth...

(Judges 10-12, 175.0 lbs, $4.259)

Weird phone calls...

Recently, I've been getting a bunch of international calls, at first, I thought it's from taiwan, but now, after careful investigation by wife, it's apparantly from Shanghai China! I have no clue who has been calling me. The person also doesn't bother leaving me a voicemail. Why would a person make international calls again and again and never leave a voice mail message? Hmm...

As far as I know, only Pastor Lau would call but never leave any messages. But calls weren't from Hong Kong thought...

Wife was jokingly asking me if it's my 2nd wife in China? Luckily I don't travel that frequently to China as Jay or Louie, in fact, I've never even been to China, otherwise for sure wife wouldn't be asking me about that "jokingly"! ;)

Unless someone dialed a wrong number, who could this be? My voicemail used to only have a standard greeting listing my number, now I've added my name. Next time when the caller call, he should know that he has reached the right or wrong number I guess.

Perhaps it's the ex-girlfriend of mine..., cause who else in asia could have my phone number? Supposedly she married some guy and moved to China, so it could be her. But anyway, whoever it is, I think I'm just not going to pick it up unless if the caller leaves a message.

Today's reading was about end of Gideon's life. I really like Gideon's story earlier on, but it's sad the things ended so badly for him and his family. He didn't want to be king of Israel, but he sure lived as a king nevertheless. He also had many wives and therefore many children. Perhaps he was indulging himself too much... with riches and with women... and by having too many kids, that could be a problem? One of his children, Abimelech , was a major source of problem... Gideon is probably a prototype of David! ;) Both are cool guys, but later on just lost it with riches and women... and their trouble making children.

Hmm..., my daughter Ana is also making trouble for me with my credit report!!! May God help fix me problem please!!!

(Judges 7-9, 174 lbs, $4.279)

Relatively uneventful day...

Today is a relatively uneventful day..., just busying working at work and even some more working at home. But today is still a great day because I didn't screw up that much and wife didn't get made at me for anything at all! ;)

Today's reading was more about judges, Deborah and Gideon. I personally don't really enjoy reading Judges... during that time, things just appear so messed up... kinda like the world of today I suppose... an uneventful period of time..., but of course there can still be eventful happenings where God does something cool. May that happen to me someday. :)

(Judges 4-6, 173.2 lbs, $4.339)

Selah!

Wife was really looking forward to her new camera on Friday and asked me to pick it up from my parent's house, but unfortunately I totally forgot about that... so naturally that really disappointed her and sorta ruined the whole evening for us that Friday... To her, she couldn't believe how I can be so inconsiderate and forgetful? Don't I know she's really looking foward to this? How can I forget after repeated reminders?

Well, I just forgot... I don't want to forget, I didn't mean to forget, but I forgot anyway. Sigh... How can I do that? Why did I do that? I don't know..., but may God help me become more attentive and more mindful of things...

Anyway, God did help me comfort wife better I suppose. Earlier on in our relationship, I couldn't even comfort my wife properly. At least wife's angry period is getting shorter and shorter... hmm, not sure if it's I'm improving as a comforter or perhaps God has also helped wife deal with anger better? Perhaps it's paradoxically BOTH! ;)

練愛 is so hard..., but we gotta keep on practicing I suppose! Only with practicing can we hope to ever make it 'perfect'!

Anyway, so the next day, After wife and I feel all better, we visited the LA Arboretum to play with our new toy! I just took one picture, which is shown below..., with manual zoom and focus! Wow, I'm such a talented photographer! ;)

We also treated dad with a steak dinner on Saturday too, but too bad our steaks didn't sizzle like Ruth Chris's for whatever reasons..., but at least I've finally successfully made french fries this time... I've failed that many times before! ;)

Anyway, Pastor Jim gave a sermon that kinda spoke to my heart today. He said joy is proportional to the level of our trust and knowledge of God. Quite often in this world, as we look around, we may be distressed; as we look within ourselves, we may get depressed; only when we look up to God, we may feel at rest. Can we be still and know that God is God and He is in control? We know that God makes all things, both good and bad, happen so that those who love Him can be benefitted... of course when bad things happen, it could be other people's fault... such as when Joseph experienced bad things, it's not really his own doing... when Jesus was crucified, it wasn't his fault..., but in real life, sometimes bad things happen because we screwed up! Well, hopefully we can all screw up less and less so that we can all make it less painful for others... and hopefully that we can increase our tolerance for pain so that when others cause pain, we can be more like Joseph... more like Christ! Bottomline is that we all need to learn to just be still and know that He is God. Selah! <===(unknown Hebrew word probably means pause, be still...) (Judges 1-3, 175.0 lbs, $4.359 )