My day like science fiction?

Talking about connectedness versus coincidence, I was working on some figures with my staff yesterday and an eerie thing happened.

We did two separate and unrelated calculations--I repeat, separate and unrelated--and we came up with the exact same figure.

1,206,415.49

Now, what is the probability of that happening? (My math skills has deteriorated to just the plus
-minus-times-divide kind, so I don't know the answer to that question.)

My day like science fiction? That's alright, as long as it is not the horror genre.

Oh dear...my neighbour's dogs are howling right now, as I write. I'm serious. I. Am. Not. Kidding.

pearlie

Pray and help support foreign workers

Our CG was pleased to have Franklin and Sapana from the Nepalese Migrant Unity Network (NeMUN) to join us for fellowship. They shared with us the ministry they are in to support Nepalese individuals who migrate to other countries for work and the families whom they left behind.

The popular countries for them to go to are Malaysia, UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Nepal is a landlocked country with limited resources and work opportunities.

Life for them is hard, both for the migrants and their families. What disturbed me most is that everyday, at least five of them returned to Nepal dead. Five. Everyday.

Most of them die in their sleep. They have no idea why. I just did a quick check through Google, and found several causes of such deaths:
1. Sleep Apnea: Breathing Stops During Sleep
2. SADS: Sudden Arrhythmia Death Syndrome
3. Sudden Unexplained Nocturnal Death Syndrome: Bangungot
4. Blood Clotting¹

But one thing they know, they work long hours and they work hard. Add stress to work and family pressures to long hard hours to loneliness in a foreign land will certainly bring us to a lethal concoction of high risk living.

I feel so sad for them.

The next time you meet any foreign workers in your midst, give them a good word, give them some of your time to get to know them. Allow them to share with you their lives and help them build connections with people who really care. Say a prayer for them. Support organisations like NeMUN.

For more information on NeMUN, check them out here.

pearlie
1 Source: Health Booklet

World War Z ★★★★☆

I told myself not to watch TV but I did, again. And I watched a movie I world never have wanted to watch. The only zombies I didn't mind were those in Plants vs. Zombies. I couldn't and wouldn't watch The Walking Dead. When I started on World War Z, I told myself I can stop anytime. I didn't. It was quite an interesting watch and the zombies were not too horrible to look at.


World War Z (2012)

What was intriguing was Peter Capaldi being casted as a WHO doctor and apparently six weeks later, he was announced as the twelfth doctor in Doctor Who. Was his casting in World War Z deliberate? Possible.



In addition, it was nice to see Ruth Negga also as a WHO doctor. She is Raina a.k.a. the Flower Girl in Agents of SHIELD. I didn't really like her there though, which proves that she played the villain character quite well.

Talking about Doctor Who, I don't think I have blogged about it at all. It is my all-time favorite series, the newer doctors beginning with the ninth doctor played by Christopher Eccleston. Most probably when I was glued to this series, I was undergoing a lapse in my blogging. So, you might read about it hear from now on. (Consider yourself warned.)

pearlie

All things bright and beautiful

We practiced a difficult song in Grace Notes today.

They however did it with perfection :


pearlie

Attempts at brainstorming

This seems to be a week of "storms", beginning with Sunday's sermon on life storms and now into brainstorming at work.

What we call a brainstorm however, is mostly just a more intense and focused discussion. Based on my short reading and research, it is popularized by Alex Faickney Osborn in his 1953 book, Applied Imagination, and what we did was a far cry from what it's suppose to be.

Here is what Wikipedia says:

Osborn claimed that two principles contribute to "ideative efficacy," these being :

1. Defer judgment,
2. Reach for quantity.

Following these two principles were his four general rules of brainstorming, established with intention to :

- reduce social inhibitions among group members,
- stimulate idea generation
- increase overall creativity of the group.

1. Focus on quantity: This rule is a means of enhancing divergent production, aiming to facilitate problem solving through the maxim quantity breeds quality. The assumption is that the greater the number of ideas generated, the greater the chance of producing a radical and effective solution.

2. Withhold criticism: In brainstorming, criticism of ideas generated should be put 'on hold'. Instead, participants should focus on extending or adding to ideas, reserving criticism for a later 'critical stage' of the process. By suspending judgment, participants will feel free to generate unusual ideas.

3. Welcome unusual ideas: To get a good and long list of ideas, unusual ideas are welcomed. They can be generated by looking from new perspectives and suspending assumptions. These new ways of thinking may provide better solutions.

4. Combine and improve ideas: Good ideas may be combined to form a single better good idea, as suggested by the slogan "1+1=3". It is believed to stimulate the building of ideas by a process of association.

I suppose we did meet #1 but not #2 because ideas were struck down, sadly. (OK, most were mine.) We did kind of have #3 though they were not really that off-beat.

And now it is my job to consolidate the ideas. Though, isn't that part of brainstorming and should be done in the team?

pearlie

Singing Movies

Alright, I have to confess that I spent the weekend watching TV. Not a single book was touched.

All is not lost though when I happened on this endearing movie, Song for Marion.


Song for Marion (2012)
It is about an elderly couple where the wife who is terminally ill spends a lot of her remaining time and energy in a choir. The husband grudgingly abides with his wife's wishes and when she passes on, he tries to find it in him to move on and found some hope in the same choir his wife joined. It was a touching movie. I simply have a penchant for movies with choir competitions. I love watching them practice and then go into the competition as the obvious under-dogs. And these elderly folks, they can definitely sing.

I then realised that there are several music movies or more in particular singing movies that I really love. I have watched these five movies many times over, every single one of them.


Sister Act (1992)
It all began with Sister Act, the quintessential choir movie. It was entertaining and amusing to watch nuns bringing life to church hymns and who can forget the almost deaf pianist.


Music and Lyrics (2007)
There are no choirs in this movie but I like it because it's about a fledging writer on how she came out as a lyricist and a has-been 80s singer on how he came back to the lime light. My favorite scene was his solo piece where he sang to her to "Don't Write Me Off Just Yet."


Burlesque (2010)
Like I said, I love movies about under-dogs and this movie is exactly just that, on how a nobody became the lead in a Burlesque production.


Pitch Perfect (2012)
This movie is a Sister Act remake, without the nuns. I could watch this over and over again and enjoy the musical scenes as they prep for competitions after competitions. What's interesting about this movie is how they mash songs together, which is just brilliant.


Sound of Music (1965)
Ah, how could anyone not include this in the list. I practically grew up with it. I know every song by hard, except The Lonely Goatherd, which I could never remember the words to. I don't understand why.

I look forward to more such movies. Pitch Perfect 2 is coming soon and I hope it will be just as good if not better.

pearlie

Jesus walks on water

The sermon this morning was preached based on the popular passage of Jesus walking on water - Matthew 14:22-33.

As pastor preached, I soon had three questions:
1. Why did Jesus walk on water? Why didn't he just wait for the disciples to come back?
2. Why did Peter walk on water? There seem to be no purpose for him to do so.
3. Before he came walking on water, Jesus went up alone to the mountain to pray. I ask a most fundamental question, why did Jesus pray?

Why did Jesus walk on water?
The disciples were caught in a storm. Interestingly, Jesus had insisted that they get into the boat knowing that there will be a storm. He may have done it to teach them faith. Jesus then came walking on water in the midst of the storm - he was in the storm, in full control of it. The lesson is this - in our lives as Christians, we will find ourselves in life-storms, big and small. Be rest assured that Jesus is in them, and he is in control. Trust in him. You may not see him in the tumultuous times of your life, (the disciples thought they saw a ghost!) but he is there.

Why did Peter walk on water?
Really, why? There is no reason to. I checked the commentary I have and the author said, "If we take the narrative as historical, it is difficult to know what lay behind Peter’s request. It may be that Peter wanted to participate with Jesus in this miracle as he had in the preceding one [feeding of the five thousand]. Perhaps it was no more than impulsiveness or the desire to do something excitingly dangerous—to have a once-in-a-lifetime experience—which appealed to him. The impossible would be possible through the power of Jesus. Thus Peter’s request is based upon faith in Jesus and not upon an uncertainty about whether the apparition really was Jesus (this reality is assumed in the protasis of the condition)."¹ In application, I see that we should actually walk the storms of life in faith with Jesus because he is right there with us!

Why did Jesus pray?
This is a very fundamental question but it came to me and I decided to put aside my pat answers and really think about why Jesus made it a point to pray. He is fully God himself and he knows what will happen. That leaves us with only one reason why he prayed - his communion with the Father. The Father, the Son and the Spirit are so close in the Trinitarian relationship that when Jesus became human and was apart, he often recluse himself to spend time in the relationship. And this is exactly what we his children are called to do - to abide in Jesus and to remain in him. This is why we pray, not for the asking, but the communion with God.

pearlie
1 Donald A. Hagner, Matthew, Word Biblical Commentary

My dream house

I desire to spend the weekend in quiet rest and what better to do than either a book or a movie. And where better than to do it in the comfort of home.

This however, is how my dream house would look like with a double storey library. Ahh...how I wish...


And now that I'm growing into a fledging movie buff, I'm wishing for a wall-size screen.


Well, these are dreams to remain as dreams. I'm contented and thankful with what I have.

I like to dream though.

pearlie

My day in connectedness

I had wanted to blog about my #1 Gallup theme Connectedness but I couldn't quite put it in place until now.

People with the Connectedness theme do not really take coincidences as given. We can almost believe that coincidences does not exist. Everything happens for a reason and almost everything and everyone is connected in one way or another.

Something quite significant happened with my #1 and #2 themes today - Connectedness and Intellection.

I was blogging yesterday about my exceptionally busy start to the new year at work and these two words came to mind as I wrote. I do experience cases where words I seldom or may have never used just come and I would wonder where it came from.

Two simple words - let up - not used so frequently to me and when it came to me yesterday, I did check the dictionary to ensure I was using it accurately. I was. I had described the fact that my busy days would not let up and with that, I'm almost drowning.

That was yesterday.

This morning, as I was doing my devotion, the same two words was used in the materials I was reading.

I was reading on Isaiah 33 where the prophet was lamenting on the stubbornness of the Israelites who would not obey or trust in God.

The Assyrians were coming against them but they disobeyed God and looked to the Egyptians to save them. It was like going back to their slave masters for freedom. What irony.

When the Egyptians were of no help, they thought the could buy the Assyrians off. They withdrew money from the treasury, stripped bare the temple doors of gold to be given to the Assyrians to leave them alone. The author rightly stated that it was humiliating to Judah and doubly dishonoring to God. The people treated God as their worthless ally and then make God pay for their disloyalty!

Then the author said, "But they don’t see it that way. Not yet. What they see is hope: “Finally those Assyrians will let up on us! This will all be over soon.” So there goes God’s money, God’s honor, and their integrity in the form of payment to the Assyrian mafia." (emphasis mine)

When I read that sentence, it stopped me short. I felt that this was no simple coincidence, there must be something to it and I immediately asked the Lord what the lesson here for me would be.

It was a simple connection.

My busy days were not letting up. The Assyrians were not letting up. The Israelites had not trusted God. Have I trusted God? I was complaining. I was frustrated.

I reassessed my situation and realised that my busyness may never let up, however much I complain. What I need to do instead is to trust in God. That it is not by might, nor by power but by His Spirit.

As a result, when I committed it all to Him, I had more fun at work today in spite of my busyness. So much so that I was contented to stay back late into the evening in order to clear my inbox before I call it a day, before I call it a week.

I thank God for his promptings. I thank God for his everlasting Word that will never fail us.

He is faithful and good.

pearlie
Source: 'Isaiah: God Saves Sinners' by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., R.Kent Hughes, General Editor

Lost to my heart and mind

I checked out the Mandarin word for busy, mang, and I thought it was so interesting.

I have been extremely busy since I started work this year and it hasn't let up. I have had back to back meetings almost everyday for the past three weeks. I was in meetings today from 9:30am to 7:00pm, right through lunch. I don't like it that I haven't had time at all to think or mull, hence no time to practice my Intellection (#2 in my Gallup strength sequence).

When I checked the word mang, I found out that the word is made up of two parts, "heart" and "lost". As much as "lost" is only phonetic, and I most probably am wrong in this, it seems that being busy is being lost in heart and mind. I am so busy that I don't have the time for my heart and my mind. I am lost to it.

Ah, no wonder I don't like it.

pearlie
Source: zhongwen.com

Penpals then and penpals now

What's the difference between penpals then and penpals now?

It used to take weeks or even months to get a letter from them that friendships can last a long time, if not a lifetime, whereas it only takes minutes now, at most a day that you'd run out of things to write in about a week.

pearlie

Oh my head...

(click on infographics for larger view)

pearlie

The Providence of God

I am reading another book on prayer where I am trying out what the author calls a prayer-launcher, i.e. a way to launch us into frequent praying. (I will do a book review when I finish the book, it is good.)

One of the prayer-launcher suggested was to praise God on his attributes. He suggested we pray on three attributes a day, but for a start, I thought I'll try praying an attribute a week. Praying, meditating and praising God for who he is.

One attribute that stood out for me is the providence of God. I'm ever thankful to him who has provided for me in my times of need and times of good. He is faithful and loving, knowing exactly what I need and how much of what I need is good for me. He holds the whole world in his hands, he has everything in his hands.

However, what's interesting was that I've inadvertently stumbled into another much debated topic of theology. I didn't realise that the Providence of God is usually discussed with the Sovereignty of God, and as one is tied to another, it stumbled along to another theological topic: Molinism. I thought I've had enough of theology with the Calvinism-Arminianism debate and now there another one.

I shan't delve much into it but to meditate in the providence of God. I found a link to this very useful journal article (warning: it's a long article, I've not finished reading it yet) in the Society of Evangelical Arminians site:

Robert E. Picirilli, “Toward a Non-Deterministic Theology of Divine Providence,” Journal for Baptist Theology and Ministry (Spring 2014) Volume 11.1, 38-61.

pearlie

Deep and comforting Psalms

Today's sermon was based on Psalm 42, one of my favourites, with a most beloved refrain:

Why are you cast down,
O my soul,
and why are you
in turmoil within me?
Hope in God;
for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

The main sermon points were two: (1) like the Psalmist, be honest in our emotions with God in our worship and prayer, and (2) in our deepest hole of depression, there is hope in God.

I checked my Logos library and found this book I didn't realise I bought. It will be a good read. Walter Brueggemann is an excellent scholar and writer.


Spirituality of the Psalms
by Walter Brueggemann

I love his introduction of the Psalms:

The Psalms are a strange literature to study. They appear to be straightforward and obvious. They are not obscure, technical, or complicated. Yet, when one leaves off study of them, one is aware that the unresolved fascination endures. Any comment upon them is inevitably partial and provisional. That is certainly true of such a limited manuscript as this. The reason for the partial, provisional character of this study is not simply because of such limitations, but because of the nature of the material. There is simply more than can be touched and handled. So one finishes with a sense of inadequacy, of not probing enough. That, of course, is why the Psalms continue to nourish and nurture long after our interpretation has run its course. We are aware that the claims of the literature have not been exhausted.

Ah, I am accumulating more and more books to read and I shall not start too many at one go. I already have three books I am currently reading now. I had better finish reading at least one of them before I start on this. But I certainly look forward to it.

I read somewhere or was told that the Psalms are usually appreciated by the more matured. It is when we have encountered much in life, these words of the Psalmist speak to the very depth of our hearts, lamenting to God, seeking his presence, trusting his counsel and praising his faithfulness and sovereignty.

Let all who has breath praise the Lord.

pearlie

A Thousand Words #162

pearlie

Tough Week

It was a tough week, emotional and difficult. I am not free to say much here. There wasn't a death or a discovery of a terminal illness, but to a certain extent it is quite close to such, in an emotional and spiritual sense. I tried to blog about other things but this really filled up my week, and I can't dismiss it. Therefore, to keep to my blogging purposes to have a public journal of my days, this has to be mentioned, but with no details. Just my thoughts and emotions.

I have experienced the Kubler-Ross Grief Model in just a span of five days--denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, which I would re-word as disbelief, anger, weighing options, and sadness with feeling of resignation.

Yes, that would surmise what I went through in the past few days. What a way to start the new year, but there it is. I pray for God's mercy and grace for all of us. I am thankful and grateful that God is sovereign, faithful, loving and just. In spite of the monstrosity of humanity, He is good.

pearlie

Book Review: Devotional Warm-ups for the Church Choir

Grace Notes began our weekly practice this year last week on 7th January and it was decided that I take up all the devotional slots this round. We usually start with a short devotion to keep ourselves, the group and our ministry secured in the Word of God.

So far we have used materials ranging from Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest to sharing from any passage of choice from Scripture to sharing on any songs the group has done over the years and what it meant to us.

I was a bit lost as to what else to use when I found this book:


Devotional Warm-ups for the Church Choir: Preparing to Lead Others in Worship
by Kenneth W. Osbeck

It was an excellent find. The book starts with a section on "The Marvel of the Human Voice". Every chapter comes complete with a Scripture passage/verse, devotional reading, group discussion questions and concluding thought.

I especially like the group discussion questions. They are quite deep and they make us think. In the past two readings, there were at least a two-minute silence both times after I read out the questions. I let the pregnant silence be as the group think and mull over them. After some thoughts, we did have good discussions and the choir director will close with her thoughts before we move on to vocalisation and singing.

I certainly look forward to it now and learn from Scripture and each other on our ministry as a Christian choral group.

pearlie

We are not residents but pilgrims

Ortlund completes the third section on "The Supremacy of God Over the Nations" on Isaiah 24:1-27:13, where he pointed out that "Isaiah is concluding another major section in his book. Chapters 1-12 reveal God’s saving purpose for Judah and Israel. Chapters 13-27 reveal his saving purpose for the whole world."


City of God
by Saint Augustine

And here is where he referred to Augustine's work on the City of God, where there are two groups of people, or two cities. One is the city of man, a city against God and the second is the city of God. The former will fall, without a doubt, the latter will last forever.

Augustine said, "Two cities have been formed by two loves: the earthly by the love of self, even to the contempt of God; the heavenly by the love of God, even to the contempt of self. The former, in a word, glories in itself, the latter in the Lord. For the one seeks glory from men; but the greater glory of the other is God, the witness of conscience. The one lifts up its head in its own glory; the other says to its God, “You are my glory, and the lifter up of my head.”"

Aa such, Ortlund concluded in this chapter to "stop living like a resident, and learn what it means to live like a pilgrim."

I have purchased Augustine's City of God a long time ago but have not found the time to read it. It's time I did, though it will be a big challenge--the book is a huge tome and it will take me a long, long time to finish it but I think it will be worth an attempt.

pearlie

Source: Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word, by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., R.Kent Hughes, General Editor

He is the Redeemer and we the redeemed

As I continued reading the next chapter on "The Supremacy of God Over the Nations II" based on Isaiah 21:1-23:18, Ortlund referred to the classic fiction written in 1850 by Nathaniel Hawthorne entitled The Scarlet Letter.

I haven't read this book before but what Ortlund said made me think.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a story of the controlling power of shame.

In Puritan Boston the minister, Mr. Dimmesdale, commits adultery with Hester Prynne. She bears a child, and the community ostracizes her by sentencing her to wear a scarlet A, for “Adulteress,” the rest of her life. Her sin is made obvious to all. But Mr. Dimmesdale conceals his sin. He keeps up an appearance of rectitude, but within he is tortured with guilt. After seven years he finally makes a dramatic public confession, tearing open his shirt to reveal his own scarlet A etched into his very flesh, infinitely more painful than Hester’s embroidered accusation.

What saddens me when I read The Scarlet Letter is that no one in this story understands redemption. No one understands that public disgrace has no benefit and that private hypocrisy only binds us to our sins. No one in this story has hope, because no one sees how God is able to create beauty out of the wreckage we create. The place where sin enters in is where God himself enters in with redeeming grace. When I read this book I wish I could step inside it and say to Mr. Dimmesdale and Hester and everyone there, “It doesn’t have to be like this.” But I can say to you, “It doesn’t have to be like this. You don’t have to be controlled by shame and hypocrisy. Your past is unchangeable in fact but beautiful in potential, because there is a Redeemer.”

Isaiah is teaching us to see with prophetic eyes. He wants to give us a sense of God as we live in this world...He sees a redeeming God at work in a deeply troubled world.

Ortlund gave an exposition of the passages on Babylon, Edom and Tyre. Babylon was a "desert off the sea", a play of words on utter wilderness. Edom was silent with not a single word of hope and Tyre was seductive, a prostitute out hustling the nations. Judgement will be upon these nations.

Ortlund then says:

Everyone has something to be ashamed of. But God is a Redeemer. He wants us to become his pure bride in the New Jerusalem. The only thing is, we cannot retain our shame and hypocrisy. No unclean thing enters there. The shame that has defined us must be redeemed. And our stories of despair can be lifted into his story of redemption. Every last petty souvenir of Tyre can be redeemed into something beautiful for God.

It is definitely easier said than done. If I use the same example Ortlund used, adultery, it is amongst the most hurtful and shameful sin which causes broken lives and broken relationships. Don't think that you are above it, that you are strong enough to avert adultery, that it will never happen to you. We are weak, and only in God can we be strong.

But even in the ugliness of sin, there is hope in our God who redeems.

We will still face our past and its consequences but our God is the Redeemer and we the redeemed. "Every last petty souvenir of Tyre can be redeemed into something beautiful for God."

pearlie

Source: Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., R.Kent Hughes, General Editor

Jesus is worth everything

I read this in my morning devotion today, and it spoke to me. I hope that it does you.

God is calling us to look away from the little world we have made to the One who made us. God is calling us to stop putting our hope in what we can do and start putting our hope in the divine Doer. Regard him with desire and glad expectation, and you will discover that he is enough. Reject everything incompatible with him — the idolatrous altars of your heart. If you will suffer the loss of all things to gain Christ, he will make you too happy to care. That is faith, and God is calling you to live by that faith. Stop trusting in your own altars of incense. Let Christ alone be your sweet incense before a holy God. Reject yourself. Embrace Christ as your offering acceptable to God, and he will accept you without your own works-righteousness. No matter what you lose in order to gain Christ, don’t worry about it. He’s worth everything.
~ "The Supremacy of God Over the Nations I, Isaiah 13:1-20:6", Isaiah: God Saves Sinners, Preaching the Word by Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr., R.Kent Hughes, General Editor

pearlie

A Knack for Losing Things

by Paul Dickey

The art of losing isn’t hard to master.
—Elizabeth Bishop, “One Art”

What has been lost along my careless way
will not come back to me another day,
and let’s be frank, it often will not do
to keep a useful thing its use past due.

Whether a love, or say, a fountain pen,
some things I have today, I won’t again.
Please, if I lose a button, don’t advise
because if I were then to realize,

I’d stop and stay behind too long to look
for what I should not find. The time it took
I could have used to buy a newer shirt,
not stoop to pick up what is claimed by dirt.

Every day a few things loved are lost.
To get them back comes at a greater cost.

–from Rattle #32, Winter 2009
Tribute to the Sonnet

pearlie

A Crazy Week Indeed

I had an unbelievable week with non-stop meetings and appointments and deadlines and I am still feeling it though it's now the weekend.

It's one of those times when I dread the weekend because the week is just around the corner.

This reminds me so much of the Qoheleth's complaint:

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,
vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

What does man gain by all the toil
at which he toils under the sun?
A generation goes,
and a generation comes,
but the earth remains forever.

The sun rises, and the sun goes down,
and hastens to the place where it rises.
The wind blows to the south
and goes around to the north;
around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.
All streams run to the sea,
but the sea is not full;
to the place where the streams flow,
there they flow again.

All things are full of weariness;
a man cannot utter it;
the eye is not satisfied with seeing,
nor the ear filled with hearing.
What has been is what will be,
and what has been done is what will be done,
and there is nothing new under the sun.
Is there a thing of which it is said,
"See, this is new"?
It has been already in the ages before us.
There is no remembrance of former things,
nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after.
~ Ecclesiastes 1:2-11

pearlie

Psalty's Not By Might

When I was driving to work today, this song came to mind. Have you experienced that songs you learnt when you were young comes back to you very easily? I found myself singing the chorus and verse one of the song without any effort. I remembered every single word.

And it was a very apt song for me today, as I do need to remind myself that it is really not by might nor by power, but by his Spirit.



pearlie

Big Frog Jumping on the Road

I was invited to a free 2-day conference that apparently cost more than RM2,000 of which I have agreed to attend, until I gave it more thought this morning.

A Cantonese proverb came to mind: gam dai go gap la choei gai tiu, literally translated to--is there ever a big frog jumping about on the road. It simply means--there is no free lunch.

With that, I sent an email to cancel.

I then came across this very interesting art piece created by a 阿塗(Ah To), who is a graphic designer and part-time cartoonist concerned about the survival of Cantonese in Canton and Hong Kong. He published a painting called "The Great Canton and Hong Kong Proverbs” in Hong Kong independent media “Passion Times“. The painting contains illustrations of 81 Cantonese proverbs. Apparently, he imitated a Dutch artist Pieter Bruegel, who in 1599 created the oil painting “Netherlandish Proverbs” that illustrated Dutch proverbs to propagate Dutch culture.


(Click to enlarge)

I have found several interesting proverbs that I know in the painting, and will be learning many more. Refer here if you would like to check them out.

Do you see the big frog?

pearlie

Appam with sweet milk

I haven't had appam with a bowl of sweetened milk for a long, long time and it was nice to have it again.

My kind of comfort food.

pearlie
Photo source: here

It's a small, small world

I just found out that my new staff is my good old friend's first cousin. Wow...it is really a small world. What are the odds?

I've known my friend from church for maybe 15 years or so and I've hired my staff through a recruitment firm 2 months ago.

And I keep experiencing these kind of coincidences lately. Is it a sign?

pearlie

My God, My Refuge

As I begin the day with my so-called scheduled and planned prayer times, I was drawn to Psalms 16 and decided I will pray this psalm, for the whole month, if possible. And what's amazing is that, it is no coincidence that the closing psalm for my evening prayer or Compline today in my Daily Prayer app is this very psalm.

I began with the first verse this morning: Preserve me O God, for in you I take refuge.

As I meditated and thought about it, I realized that a refuge is only required in situations of strife, oppression, persecution and war. It is such a reality in our lives as we live for Christ that we are in such a situation. And how we need to take refuge in Jesus.

Moreover, I also realized that refuge places are in fact open to abuse and destruction, whilst keeping the people safe within its walls. And Jesus went through death for us in order to save us from our sins. He died that we may live.

And as I take refuge in him and seek to abide in him, I commit myself to Jesus as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to him. I depend on him for sustenance and preservation and life.

Amen.

pearlie

My 2015 Goal: A Year of Fervent Prayer

Ok, I'm at the moment quite gung-ho in my wanting to be serious about prayer. I only hope it can be sustained throughout the year and throughout my life.

From yesterday's post, I've actually finished reading Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God, it's not long, and I loved it! It will be useful to refer frequently to what I have highlighted to remind me to always live from the center of Christ.


A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers
by D.A. Carson

I've also just started reading D.A. Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation, albeit from a print copy, which will be a challenge. And since I've named my 2015 goal as A Year of Fervent Prayer, I would like to post my learning on prayer as much as I can here.

My first lesson comes from a section in Chapter 1 Lessons from the School of Prayer: much praying is not done because we do not plan to pray.

This is an important as well as a difficult lesson for me because I'm not a good planner and worse than that I'm weakest as far as discipline is concerned (#34 in my Gallup Strength theme sequence). However, since I have used my Maximizer (a strong #7) successfully in making me go to the gym every workday in most of 2014, I will also use it to help me to plan my prayer and to keep the schedule, which I suspect will still not be so fixed or scheduled.

Carson said, "We do not drift into spiritual life; we do not drift into disciplined prayer. We will not grow in prayer unless we plan to pray. That means we must self-consciously set aside time to do nothing but pray...Wise planning will ensure that we devote ourselves to prayer often, even if for brief periods: it is better to pray often with brevity than rarely but at length. But the worst option is simply not to pray--and that will be the controlling pattern unless we plan to pray. If we intend to change our habits, we must start here."

With that, I want to start small and this is what I plan:
1. Say a brief prayer the moment I wake up before I get out of bed
2. Pray when I'm commuting alone
3. Begin every workday with 15 minutes of prayer (need to find a place though since I'll surely be disturbed in my cubicle)
4. Spend 15 minutes in prayer before I retire in bed at the day's end

Ooh...that sounds like a lot! I'll see how I will fare and will give a report in a week's time.

It will however be a good thing to be reminded of what Brother Lawrence said in his Ninth Letter of The Practice of the Presence of God: "One does not become holy all at once."

And Carson says this, "If God is the one 'who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose' (Phil 2:3), then of course he is the God who by his Spirit helps us in our praying."

Amen to that!

pearlie

Book Reviews: A Wrinkle In Time & The Art of Biblical Prayer

A Wrinkle in Time
by Madeleine L'Engle

After closing off 2014 with a good number of books I read, I thought I'd find something light but interesting to begin 2015 with and found A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. I knew it to be a children's book but L'Engle did say "because it deals overtly with the problem of evil, and it was really difficult for children, and was it a children's or an adults' book, anyhow?"¹

It was indeed a good and entertaining read. I did say once that I find it a bit harder to read science fiction because it takes too much effort to imagine scenes to my satisfaction but it was alright with this one.

The plot is about a family of geniuses. It was quite fun reading the dialogs of a five year old genius with his elder sister. The father did not come home one day and soon it was five years since he disappeared. The two children soon found themselves traveling through space and time looking for him, through the tesserect.

I first got to know about the tesseract from The Avengers as an ancient Asgardian artifact of unimaginable power. Now that I see it again in this book, I began to check it out. Anyway, to make it simple, the tesseract is to the cube as the cube is to the square.²

L'Engle is a Christian writer and in comparison with C.S. Lewis, she is more explicit with it. She quotes Scripture verses in this book but I find it quite odd for alien beings to quote the Bible.


The Art of Biblical Prayer
by J.W. Rogerson

In my so-called New Year resolution to grow in my prayer life, I found this book, The Art of Biblical Prayer by J.W. Rogerson, through this review and bought a copy. It's not long, I finished it within the day.

It was an okay read. I agree with some of his points, learnt a few things which did change my thoughts a bit with one that will get me into thinking about it further but I disagree with some of his biblical interpretations and theology, the main one being his take on the Old Testament narratives.

He said, "We are not dealing with actual historical people in historical situations. We are dealing with the cultural memory of spiritual realities, that are given expression in the form of stories. The speeches of Abraham and Moses that have just been outlined are examples of the narrative formulation of spiritual realities."

I did not see that coming. I was aware that he is an Anglican and I will surely have some issues with his theology, but I did not expect this. To me, the people especially the patriarchs were historical figures and they were historical situations that actually happened.

What I liked about the book however, was his chapter.on petitions and supplication prayer, which I found very helpful and would benefit with another reading of it.

And what I found interesting was his inclusion of prayers for the dead, which is new to me and which I thought should not be part of our daily prayers. I still don't, he is reluctant, but I found it most interesting and should deserve some serious thoughts. He said, "If it was our practice to pray for our family and friends while they were alive, why should we stop once they die? If, during their lifetime, we commended them to a loving God, why should we not do so if we believe them to have entered God’s nearer presence?"

This book did not really satisfy me in my search for a good book on prayer. Maybe I should read D.A. Carson's A Call to Spiritual Reformation again though I don't have the electronic copy, which will be a drag. Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God may also be a good idea since I'm one who finds out extremely hard to have a fixed scheduled time for prayer.

Do you have any good books on prayer you can recommend me?

pearlie

Source:
1 I'm-possible.info: Hypercube
2 Wikipedia: A Wrinkle in Time

A Thousand Words #161

pearlie

Happy New Year 2015

Truth be told, I didn't want the old year to end but God in his graciousness has brought us to a brand new year. I pray that it will be a great year ahead, and may his everlasting love and presence be with us all.

And new year resolutions? I'm never good in them anyway but if I were to have one, I'd need to grow in my prayer life and be closer to God and to my own family.

pearlie