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)