Thank you Jesus

I have been reading the Old Testament starting from Genesis with the goal to go through the entire Old Testament. In the past, I often skipped the "boring" parts, so I have not read books like Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.

So as I was reading a couple of days ago, there is this prophecy that Jacob made to his son Judah:

"The scepter will not depart from Judah,
    nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet,
until he comes to whom it belongs
    and the obedience of the nations is his." - Genesis 49:10

It is a prophecy about the Messiah, who will come from the line of Judah. This is not the earliest prophecy about Christ, but I still think it is quite awesome that God has planned everything so perfectly according to His good will. There are many prophecies about Christ, that He will be born from a virgin, that He will be born in Bethlehem, that He will take away our sorrows and give up His life for our transgressions. It's just amazing that God planned this with such accuracy, showing that He is truly sovereign, in control, and all-powerful. But, God did not have to go through all this, and it will be ok to leave humans as they are, but God is rich in grace, that He sent Jesus to die for us. God is the one who initiated everything, we didn't do anything to deserve it. Intense.

As I was reading through Exodus, it is kind of disappointing to see the Israelites complaining against Moses (and eventually against God) when they were in the desert without water or food. God has just owned the Egyptians in the most spectacular way possible, and delivered them from the harsh slavery, but they tend to forget God's awesomeness so easily. But that actually reminds me of myself since it is so easy to forget about how good God is, and I start to complain about uncertainties in my life, and act sinfully even though He has just blessed me recently. The more I think about that, the larger God's grace becomes.

Christmas is a good reminder of the grace that is in Christ Jesus. It's definitely a great time to spend joyfully with close relatives and friends. I have chosen to spend some days in solitude because I really need the personal time with God, to ponder and be marveled at His immeasurable grace. It is a good time for me to rest, to get recharged, to reflect about my life, and to set goals for the near future. This is really helpful since work life has been considerably busy and draining. I have also set some time to catch up with family and close friends via skype since life becomes so busy that if one is not intentional, it is really hard to keep up with relationships.

Christmas is such a joyful times. All for the praise of His glory. Thank you Jesus.

by Faith

"Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." - Hebrews 11:1

This coming week is a very busy one for me at work, and I really feel uneasy. I usually can handle stressful situations ok, but somehow this time I feel very vulnerable. The nature of the work I am doing now is fairly new to me, and definitely I feel quite inadequate. I think it is probably not a big deal in the big picture of things, but my weak self is stumbling at it.

I have the intellectual understanding that having faith in God will give us hope and reassurance, but to actually live it out is harder than it sounds. But in this weakness, I know that God's grace will be better demonstrated, so I just have to step it up by faith.

In grad cell, a couple of weeks ago we did a bible study on Hebrews 11, and it starts with a brief definition of faith, and then it includes many small stores of great characters like Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Abel, etc. I learn in Sunday school that Jewish people likes to define things with stories (as opposed to facts), so this is an example of how faith is explained with stories. If you look carefully at each story, you get to learn more about what faith really is.

As always, I randomly mentioned some illustrations on how to explain faith in other disciplines.

Engineering:
Engineers are really lazy so we like to explain things with formula, and just plug in the number and get the results. To be even more lazier, we can re-use an existing formula that starts with "F" (for faith), like the second Newton law:

F = ma (Force equals to mass times acceleration)
Fc = mac (small modification to centripetal force equals to mass times centripetal acceleration)

This can also translates into "Faith in Christ is equal to much assurance in Christ".

Science:
There is a condition called myopia (or nearsightedness) where the individual cannot see well things from afar because the light rays converges too early like in the first picture:

In the second picture a double concave lens is used to correct the rays so that the rays converges at the right point.

When we do not see things, we are uncertain and feel stressed. But faith is like the corrective lens that allows us to see that God is control and we reassured.

 Accounting:
So accountants have to balance long list of assets and liabilities. It is an arduous jobs, and many work overtime.

Most of the times, we don't know how it works or how they do it. But we know they will get it done. So faith is like this kind of trust.

conforming and comparing

This term there are 2 new housemates who joined, and one of them had a Mickey mouse mug. And it happens that I also own one. So we were joking around that the Mickey mouse mug should be the "sign" that makes us belong to this house. Not too long after, another housemate bought a Mickey mouse mug as well. So 3 out of 5 housemates have it:

So we continue "pressuring" the remaining two guys to get a mug. But they have been resisting. And just recently one of them fell to the peer-pressure, and got a nice mug:

We kind of joke around that the requirements of the mug has to be either blue or red color =P, so it does not count haha. Anyways, we were tolerant with it, so he is part of the gang now. So we are still waiting on the last housemate who is quite firm in his decision of not wanting to conform to our "standards". (I think he is just too lazy to get a new mug...).

There are two major things I want to talk with this silly illustration.

conforming

It is very easy to conform to the behavior of other people, because we are relational beings who wants to be loved and accepted by other relational beings. In conforming, we believe that we will find acceptance and approval from our peers, and this creates a sense of belonging. This can include things like fashion and trends, for example: getting a super nice smartphone. (I am not saying that getting a nice smartphone is bad, I am just giving an example. And me not having a smartphone does not make me a better person). So most people have a smartphone now, some have it because they do need its functionality, others have it because they just want to experiment with it, but there are also others who gets one because everyone else has one. I think it is important to question ourselves why we are purchasing it because we are called to do everything for God's glory (1 Cor. 10:31). There is nothing wrong with getting one, but ask yourself what is the reason behind getting one, is it because I feel cooler if I have one? or so that everyone else will not look down on my old Nokia phone?

Back to my point, human beings long for relationship (not specifically speaking about a romantic one) and I believe this is part of God's design, that we will live in community with others, and not live in isolation in a cave or in a monastery. So the pursuit of wanting to be loved and accepted is a valid one, but we tend to forget that we are already loved and accepted by our Heavenly Father even when we are sinners, and sent Christ to die for us (Romans 5:8). We have already been accepted by the Almighty Creator of the universe, so there is little point in striving to get acceptance from others.

comparing

The other danger is to compare ourselves with others (I posted something about this before: http://koinowarrior.blogspot.ca/2010/05/you-are-you.html). We are surrounded by many peers, and some of them excel in academics, some of them in sports, and some of them in ministry work, and some of them have a pretty good job, etc. When we don't perform as well as others, it is easy to feel inferior and then we strive very hard (like really hard) to become this better person. Aiming to becoming better is good, but the issue here is that we are valuing ourselves based on our achievements and performance, so it is all about me. It is about my own efforts, and this is self-defeating because we are not perfect so we will fail in many regards and we will never be satisfied. Also, there will always be someone who is better than you, that is just the reality of things.

We should value ourselves based on our identity with Christ. He had given his own life to die on the cross for us, so now that we are saved, we are also children of God, with so much love poured on us (1 John 3, Ephesians 1). Man, we are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessings in Christ (Ephesians 1:3). We are referred as "dearly loved" (Ephesians 5:1, Colossians 3:12). So there is no need to prove yourself that you are loved by your own effort, because the Eternal God (from everlasting to everlasting) loves you already despite that we are sinful creatures. I feel like unable to really describe God's love, so gonna quote part of the hymn "love of God is greater far":


To write the love of God above
  Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole,
  Though stretched from sky to sky.

So we should strive to pursue excellency and become better not to find our worth on its achievements, but as a response to the great love of God, and be convinced that we can be fully satisfied in Him (when God is most  glorified according to John Piper) even if we cannot achieve anything.


So yeah, our last housemate is still our good brother even if the does not get the Mickey mouse mug. But he is missing out.

Tribute to CLASH

This past weekend was  very joyful to witness a dear sister and brother being united as one in the Lord under the covenant of marriage. It was a bit emotional for me since I know both parties for at least 6 years and we have share good times serving together in CCF. I really appreciate the relationship I have with each of them.

Caring - for you genuinely care for your brothers and sisters
Loving - you love the things you do (ministry and school), above all you love God
Ardently hopeful - the hope you have in the Lord is of great worth
Royal - for you are a princess

Admirable - for you pursue what is honorable and noble
Supportive -  your support for the CCF  ministries was invaluable
Heart for God -a man who seeks the Lord's heart in prayer

I am confident that they will continue to glorify our great God. 

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. - Ephesians 5:25-33

Butterfly and cat

On my undergrad convocation, I was given a folder with my undergrad diploma, and inside it was also a letter from a famous professor from the Electrical and Computer Engineering department. This letter is about a story of a butterfly. Basically, it talks about a butterfly struggling to get out of the cocoon.

So the butterfly struggled for several hours to to its body through a little hold of a cocoon, and a man was observing. And the man decided to take a pair of scissors to help the butterfly get out of it. But the butterfly had a small body and wrinkled wings. And the butterfly could not fly, but for the rest of its life it had to crawl. Apparently, the process of the butterfly struggling to get out of the cocoon is a way to force fluid from the body of the butterfly to is wings so that it can fly.

Basically, the point is that Engineering is a very tough where all students faced many struggles. But the struggles are what we need in life to form our character. 

To a certain extent, this sounds very biblical because suffering and trials are ways in which God refine our faith in Him, making us more dependent on Him, and molding our character to be like Christ. That's why it is considered to be a joy to go through suffering (James 1:2-4 and 1 Peter 1:6-7).

Even though I complained about school many times, I realize that there are many important skills I learned. And it is not so much about the theory of technicalities about the courses, but more in certain sets of skills:

• retaining information in very short amount of time
• managing stress in crunch weeks
• prioritizing among many deliverable (assignments, projects, tasks, exams, etc)
• organizing my time

And now that I am full-time working, I can definitely see the benefits of my education (even though I had very tough days during the process of getting that education, especially a 3 consecutive all-nighter).

This brings me to an anime that is very relaxing, called Aria. It is really relaxing, and it took me a very long time to finish it because I was not able to watch more than 2-3 episodes a day. But the quality of the series is great because it has great character development, neat character interaction (the setting is a character itself), and gorgeous animation.

There is this female gondolier (person who "drives" gondolas) named Alicia who is like the nicest character in all anime history. And she has a fat cat that is kinda dumb. And there is a scene in the cafeteria where she makes the cat deliver a candy to kids from a different table (which is a fairly complex task for the cat). And it takes a while for the cat to deliver the candy. Then another gondolier comes and ask why she is not helping the cat (or at least guiding the cat to the kids' table). Alicia's reply is that even though it might be easier (and take less time) if she helps the cat, she wants the cat to learn and feel rewarded for such difficult task. She believes that's the best for the cat.

School is challenging, and life is very challenging, with much struggles and trials. But we have faith in that God is sovereign over everything and that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). Even though we might not realize at the moment of the trial, God is purposefully using every situation for our own good.

more than conquerors

 "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.
 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written:


   “For your sake we face death all day long; 
   we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”


 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:28-39

This is one beast passage from the bible. Verse 28 is probably one of the most quoted verses I have seen. This passage has a lot of meat to chew, so I want to share a bit about "more than conquerors".

Pages 96-97 from the book Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper provides a great commentary about what "more than conqueror" means.

Basically, trouble, hardships, persecution, famine and sword might have the aim to make us fall away from God. When things are difficult, there might be thoughts of wanting to give up living for God. Victory occurs when we remain in the Lord, because Jesus' love is so intense. So the idea of being a "conqueror" means that the enemy is defeated (Christ's love endures and affliction does not separate me from God). But how about "more than conquerors"?

The idea is that,"more than conquerors" subjugates his enemy, making the enemy serve the conqueror's purposes. So, the afflictions do not just get owned by Christ's love, but the afflictions are actually making us realize how much bigger Christ's love is and propelling a bigger desire to remain in Christ's love. Indeed, how great is our God!

One time, I was studying at the SLC, and Bily asked me to get a fork from Timmy's or turnkey so that he can eat his lunch. But I was a bit out of it that day and brought him a spoon instead. While we're chatting online (we were in different tables, and it is quiet study room) he was telling me how hard it is to eat the meat with the spoon. Then he said, "but, there is victory in Christ =)". Yeah, this is kinda random, but even in small issues like this, we can remember that we have an assured victory in Christ, and that His love for us is as high as the heavens are above the earth (Psalm 103:11).

watchmen

"I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, 
   and in his word I put my hope. 
 My soul waits for the Lord 
   more than watchmen wait for the morning, 
   more than watchmen wait for the morning."
                                               - Psalm 130:5-6

I know it's exam season, and many people are going all out in their studies. It might be a time of relaxation or excitement for some, but it might be a time of worries and emotional fatigue for others. I guess sometimes, besides the stress of exams there might be other things (relationships, work situation, family, etc) that might add to the burden. It is not easy to be an university student, there are many things that come bombarding at you.

Even though, we know in our heads that these things are so small in comparison to other things in life and that in 10 years most of these worries will not matter much, we still tend to get caught on these worries and fatigue. It is part of being human, and shows how much we need God, how much we need to be soaked in His presence.

Everyday as we wake up, let's remember the goodness of the Lord, because there is joy when we think about the Lord, and we realize that how can we keep from singing His praise. Let's focus on God, giving our first priority to Him. Let our souls wait for the Lord, more than watchmen wait for the morning.

I had a tough 3A term (winter 2008), serving in committee as a Program Coordinator, having the hardest term academically (3A is killer for ECE) and dealing with some emotional strain. Adding on that, being in committee that term was particularly challenging, and I was just recovering from some burnt out period. It was God who sustained me and provided me with joy to persevere in spite of the turbulent waters.

Here are some words of encouragement.

True Greatness

About 1.5 years ago, I wrote an article entitled "True Greatness" for the CCF Fall 2008 Insight newsletter (page 12). I attempted (with God's grace) to express what I understand about the paradox of what God calls "great" in contrast to the world's views. I briefly extrapolated to include what God considers as truly great men and truly beautiful women.

Recently, a sister shared this link from a blog post that talks about the true beauty of a woman. Pretty intense.

God is too intense ("geng" in canto), and His calling and standards are details of the rich and abundant life that God has intended for us to live, which is truly beautiful. And with this beauty, Christ is exalted, glorifying our Father in heaven.

Pillar of support

I enjoy watching the anime Prince of Tennis. It is quite entertaining, and it is a living proof of how the physics I learned in class doesn't apply at all. But yeah, there is a phrase that I am attached with from this series, and I remembered including it (with proper reference) in a serious email that I wrote about CCF:

"Become a pillar of support..."

Basically, the about-to-leave captain says this to the freshman to encourage and challenge him to become an integral part of the tennis team.

As a about-to-leave leader, I feel very compelled to say that same phrase especially to the younger members of CCF. If you consider CCF as your family in Waterloo, I challenge you to become an integral member of this family. To generalize, become an integral member of your local Christian community.

Don't be just a bystander or someone who just attends, but be someone who gets involved, who actively engages, who gets to know other members of the family. Exercise the gifts that the Holy Spirit has given you in the place that God has placed you in to manifest more and more the new life in Christ Jesus.

It is very rewarding to actively partake in a community because we learn how to love, we are encouraged and challenged, we learned to be humble and vulnerable through the invaluable relationships we formed. God can use this community to mold us and make us realize the potential and the privilege we have to co-partner in His Kingdom. All for the praise and glory to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Become CCF's pillar of support.

(this video is automatically time-stamped at 4:15m)

Words of Hope

I know that it is exam time, and usually it is a challenging period. But looking to what life can offer in the future, it might not be as challenging as it seems... but nevertheless, I just want to share these encouraging words that I found from an anonymous source. Persevere with joy!

"Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength." - Nehemiah 8:10

May God make your year a happy one!

Not by shielding your from all sorrows and pain,

But by strengthening you to bear it, as it comes;

Not by making your path easy,

But by making you sturdy to travel any path;

Not by taking hardships from you,

But by taking fear from your heart;

Not by granting you unbroken sunshine,

But by keeping your face bright, even in the shadows;

Not by making your life always pleasant,

But by showing you when people and their causes need you most,

And by making you anxious to be there to help.

God’s love, peace, hope and joy to you for the year ahead.

Anonymous