When guys talk for long hours, it is usually about 2 main things (well in reality it's 3), it's either something very serious and academic (like theological arguments about free-will vs predestination, how to live life, etc) or things that we treasure from our childhood. For example, after a CCF night there were 2 guys and me who stayed in the room until 11pm talking about Dragon Ball Z. We were talking about the correct order of the succession of events in the Majin Boo arc (like in what order were the good guys eaten by Boo). It was fun times!
I remember once I also had a debate with a friend regarding Pokemon game. We were debating about what psychic attack was the most powerful, between "Psybeam" and "Psychic". I thought it was "Psybeam", but I was wrong. Just recently, 2 housemates and I were in living room area and started to talk for more than an hour about Pokemon game, and debating which Pokemons and which types of Pokemon were the strongest, and which moves were the coolest. And we realized that we are missing something important. Basically we have another housemate (who was already asleep by then), and he knows about Pokemon. Like he is like a walking encyclopedia about the subject. We know that this housemate is the "authoritative" voice to resolve any disagreement. The next day we talked to him, and the sheer of information he knows about the subject is actually quite scary...
So it is really important to have an authoritative voice in the way we live, and we find it in the Bible. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to understand that the Scripture is a treasure for a believer because God reveals Himself to us through the Word, and we can learn more about Him, about the great mercies of God despite our sinful nature, we can learn about what a holy life looks like, we can learn wisdom in how to handle situations. It is so good!
Many times, when we go to a church and listen to the preacher, it is easy just to absorb everything and take it for granted that what he is speaking is absolutely truth. Also, the ways the church do things we think it is always correct. I think we have to always validate these things with the Bible. (I am not discrediting the preachers or the church, but it is a safeguard for each of us because we humans can easily made mistakes).
I was watching a clip with my housemate about "Francis Schaeffer" titled "How should we then live" and it gave a historical overview of how the church evolved from the early church up to the middle ages. During the early church times, the service was focused on speaking about he truth of the Scripture, mainly Christ. But as times went by, other things gain authority in the church other than the Bible like the things that the priest will say (like the Pope) and traditions. These became sources of truth (regarding how to live and even about salvation) and corrupted the church until the Reformation. And one of the main points of the Reformation is "Sola Scriptura" which states that the Bible is the supreme authority for a believer regarding the aspects of salvation and holiness.
So whenever we discuss about various topics or make decisions about life, let's always refer to the Scripture.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Monday, October 15, 2012
Warren speaking about influence
From the Resurgence Conference recap (http://theresurgence.com/2012/10/09/day-1-at-r12-a-recap), Rick Warren spoke about influence, and I like the main points from the recap because it resonates from what I have learned in the past years about leadership from a Christian context. These are his main points and I added my comments regarding each of them:
“The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who don’t have influence.”
“The pathway to influence is service.”
“Forgiveness is instant. Trust is earned over time.”
“The price of influence is criticism.”
“The leader’s role is to help others use their influence wisely.”
“The purpose of influence is to speak up for those who don’t have influence.”
- Leadership is about doing something for the people you're leading (Nehemiah 5)
- It is not about over-lording them, but to serve them
“The pathway to influence is service.”
- Jesus, the Lord we follow showed us that to lead is to serve (Matthew 20:26)
- To impact others, it not just about words, but also deeds of love (1 John 3:18)
“Forgiveness is instant. Trust is earned over time.”
- Leaders are humans and will make mistake, so need to be repentant and transparent about our shortcomings
- To earn trust from others, leaders need show a character of integrity and proven track of record from past experiences
“The price of influence is criticism.”
- Never can get approval from everyone, even Jesus was not approved by His own people (Luke 15:1-2)
- There is a cost of leading, besides time and energy spent, there will be people who will oppose (Nehemiah 4)
“The leader’s role is to help others use their influence wisely.”
- Leading is not about doing everything yourself, so that you end up all exhausted (Exodus 18)
- Leading is also about developing new leaders (John 21:15-19)
Friday, October 12, 2012
who do you think you are
This is a very common line from one of the greatest anime Gurren Lagaan, and it is an expression (like an outcry) of challenge and courage when fighting against enemies. One of the premise of this anime show is to overcome fear and find courage to confront our enemies, hence I consider it as the most manliness show I have seen. And I say this phrase quite often when young people are jokingly "disrespecting" the older people haha.
So my housemate jokingly recommended me this book from Mark Driscoll: http://store.theresurgence.com/products/who-do-you-think-you-are
I haven't bought it yet, but I am thinking about it (well I have this self-imposing rule that I cannot buy any more books until I finish reading a good number of the books I have). But the question "who do you think you are" is really a good question for each of us to ask ourselves.
I don't intend to target this question in its full entirety, but I want to emphasize an aspect of it that has affected me (I believe that it is a common syndrome among Chinese Christians from a conservative background).
I am Chinese, and became Christian around the age of 16, and I attended a Chinese Christian church which was fairly conservative. So I think the mix of my culture and the church environment influenced me in valuing hard work (in both serving and studying). This is actually a very good thing. But there is also a dangerous side about it because I valued myself based on the things I do (my works), and on how well I performed. My view of God was more of a supreme commander that I am serving for (like 2 Timothy 2:4), but did not understand how I can view Him as a heavenly Father.
Hence, during many times the motivation for me to serve was based solely on duty, and not so much based on the compulsion of His fatherly love towards me. Just to clarify, duty is needed (Like 17), and it is helpful to develop discipline, but the presence of a willing and loving response because of God's love is also necessarily. In some ways, I think I was trying to earn God's love through my dutiful service. This is kinda parallel with a good child trying to earn his parent's love and approval through school and life achievements. It does not seem a bad thing at first sight, but the issue of identity is at stake here.
A brother of mine told me these words "Your good work will not make God love you more, and your flaws will not make God love you less" which really spoke to me. I started to realize more of our identity in Christ, that our value is not based on how good we are, but that God has loved us so much (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16) that He has gave His only Son to die for our sins. It is by grace that we have been saved not by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Hence, we are dearly loved children of God (1 John 3:1) and we can be reassured by the Holy Spirit that there is not anything that will separate us from this love that is in Christ (Romans 8:31-39). This is all because God is so good, so glory and praise be unto His name!
So whenever we feel stressed, insecure, disappointed, angry, etc... ask yourself "who do you think you are?" The Almighty Creator, King of kings, Lord of lords, the Maker of heaven and earth loves you despite our faults, dear child of God.
So my housemate jokingly recommended me this book from Mark Driscoll: http://store.theresurgence.com/products/who-do-you-think-you-are
I haven't bought it yet, but I am thinking about it (well I have this self-imposing rule that I cannot buy any more books until I finish reading a good number of the books I have). But the question "who do you think you are" is really a good question for each of us to ask ourselves.
I don't intend to target this question in its full entirety, but I want to emphasize an aspect of it that has affected me (I believe that it is a common syndrome among Chinese Christians from a conservative background).
I am Chinese, and became Christian around the age of 16, and I attended a Chinese Christian church which was fairly conservative. So I think the mix of my culture and the church environment influenced me in valuing hard work (in both serving and studying). This is actually a very good thing. But there is also a dangerous side about it because I valued myself based on the things I do (my works), and on how well I performed. My view of God was more of a supreme commander that I am serving for (like 2 Timothy 2:4), but did not understand how I can view Him as a heavenly Father.
Hence, during many times the motivation for me to serve was based solely on duty, and not so much based on the compulsion of His fatherly love towards me. Just to clarify, duty is needed (Like 17), and it is helpful to develop discipline, but the presence of a willing and loving response because of God's love is also necessarily. In some ways, I think I was trying to earn God's love through my dutiful service. This is kinda parallel with a good child trying to earn his parent's love and approval through school and life achievements. It does not seem a bad thing at first sight, but the issue of identity is at stake here.
A brother of mine told me these words "Your good work will not make God love you more, and your flaws will not make God love you less" which really spoke to me. I started to realize more of our identity in Christ, that our value is not based on how good we are, but that God has loved us so much (John 3:16, 1 John 3:16) that He has gave His only Son to die for our sins. It is by grace that we have been saved not by our works (Ephesians 2:8-9). Hence, we are dearly loved children of God (1 John 3:1) and we can be reassured by the Holy Spirit that there is not anything that will separate us from this love that is in Christ (Romans 8:31-39). This is all because God is so good, so glory and praise be unto His name!
So whenever we feel stressed, insecure, disappointed, angry, etc... ask yourself "who do you think you are?" The Almighty Creator, King of kings, Lord of lords, the Maker of heaven and earth loves you despite our faults, dear child of God.
Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Resistant to change
Many people know that I am like a dinosaur (as on old and obsolete) in technology, and do not yet use a smartphone. I recognize the many advantages and cool stuff you can do with smartphones, bu on my current lifestyle I really don't see a need for one.
Just for fun, I have listed all the cellphones I have owned, and they are all Nokia:
1. Nokia 6110
2. Nokia 8250
3. Nokia 8210
3a. Nokia 1208
I was thinking I could write a post about loyalty, but I decided to write about being resistant to change. In many ways we tend to be naturally resistant to change because it is nice to deal with what is familiar or with what is comfortable. Like living int he same apartment for the last two years have been quite nice because I am very used to the place it has become familiar enough as a "home".
On the other hand, there is also a sense of close-mindedness and pride that could impede someone from changing how he/she does things. For example, part of the reason why I don't have a smartphone could be attributed to some pride in me in wanting to rebel against the common trend as well my close-mindedness to see the smartphone has a beneficial tool. To extend the example, I came from a fairly conservative Chinese church and remembered vividly how my pastors were quite resistant when one of our worship members wanted to introduce some contemporary Christian songs into fellowship and worship service.
On my early experience serving at CCF, many of the ministries (cell groups, evangelistical meetings, committee) and methodologies to do ministry were done without much questioning (as in we do this because this is what has been done in the past until now). So a lot of these ministries become more driven by tradition rather than a vision from God.
One of the common examples is Lifesong (which is a huge drama production evangelistical meeting), which had much success in the early 2000s. But at the time when I was serving in CCF committee, it had become like "a thing" that we do every term, and people has forgotten the real reason of this event which is to evangelize our circle of friends. And when the committee (which I was part of) decided to stop having Lifesong every term, there were definitely some voices against this idea. I am not justifying that this was the correct decision (only Gold can tell), but I am voicing out that we need to open-minded in terms of ministry methodologies and re-evaluate the reasons why these ministries exist.
Sometimes change is necessarily in order to be more effective in the Kingdom work. One example is the use of the Internet to promote Christian doctrines (through online sermons, pastor's blogs, twitters, etc).
When Jesus was ministering on earth, He was doing something revolutionary which was not done before. Most religious people at that time took pride on their biblical knowledge, but looked down upon the sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, basically people outside their religious circle. But Jesus intentionally invested time on them, setting a model of evangelism that caused much anger towards the Pharisees who were resistant to accept this change.
Just for fun, I have listed all the cellphones I have owned, and they are all Nokia:
1. Nokia 6110
- Specs: link here
- Period of use: ~2000-01
- Reason to terminate: dropped it in the toilet
- Pros: first time exposed to snake game
- Cons: not water resistant
2. Nokia 8250
- Specs: link here
- Period of use: 2001-2004
- Reason to terminate: moved to Canada (it is still working!)
- Pros: blue light is so cool, specially at night, and it is small and light
- Cons: trouble with the screen (dead pixels)
3. Nokia 8210
- Specs: link here
- Period of use: 2005-2010 (second hand from my cousin)
- Reason to terminate: I got a job
- Pros: indestructible
- Cons: cannot send text messages to more than one recipient
3a. Nokia 1208
- Specs: link here
- Period of use: 2008 Winter work term at US
- Reason to terminate: gave it to my brother
- Pros: cheap ($19 on Prepaid)
- Cons: a bit too thick
4. Nokia 5310
- Specs: link here
- Period of use: 2010-present
- Reason to terminate: N/A
- Pros: color screen!
- Cons: takes time to load contacts after reboot
I was thinking I could write a post about loyalty, but I decided to write about being resistant to change. In many ways we tend to be naturally resistant to change because it is nice to deal with what is familiar or with what is comfortable. Like living int he same apartment for the last two years have been quite nice because I am very used to the place it has become familiar enough as a "home".
On the other hand, there is also a sense of close-mindedness and pride that could impede someone from changing how he/she does things. For example, part of the reason why I don't have a smartphone could be attributed to some pride in me in wanting to rebel against the common trend as well my close-mindedness to see the smartphone has a beneficial tool. To extend the example, I came from a fairly conservative Chinese church and remembered vividly how my pastors were quite resistant when one of our worship members wanted to introduce some contemporary Christian songs into fellowship and worship service.
On my early experience serving at CCF, many of the ministries (cell groups, evangelistical meetings, committee) and methodologies to do ministry were done without much questioning (as in we do this because this is what has been done in the past until now). So a lot of these ministries become more driven by tradition rather than a vision from God.
One of the common examples is Lifesong (which is a huge drama production evangelistical meeting), which had much success in the early 2000s. But at the time when I was serving in CCF committee, it had become like "a thing" that we do every term, and people has forgotten the real reason of this event which is to evangelize our circle of friends. And when the committee (which I was part of) decided to stop having Lifesong every term, there were definitely some voices against this idea. I am not justifying that this was the correct decision (only Gold can tell), but I am voicing out that we need to open-minded in terms of ministry methodologies and re-evaluate the reasons why these ministries exist.
Sometimes change is necessarily in order to be more effective in the Kingdom work. One example is the use of the Internet to promote Christian doctrines (through online sermons, pastor's blogs, twitters, etc).
When Jesus was ministering on earth, He was doing something revolutionary which was not done before. Most religious people at that time took pride on their biblical knowledge, but looked down upon the sinners, tax collectors, prostitutes, basically people outside their religious circle. But Jesus intentionally invested time on them, setting a model of evangelism that caused much anger towards the Pharisees who were resistant to accept this change.
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