one step at a time

this pic was taken by hansen (brother). he's back to sydney for a longer term having been in shanghai for the past two years. please pray that he may come to know God, and for opportunities to share Christ with him as he's staying with us in the meantime. he'll be back to indo by the end of december for his wedding in jan 07, then fly back here with wife to settle in sydney. it says a lot, getting a job, getting married, settling down. life is a journey, we don't get to see the whole plane (even only half of a wing), but there's a destination to get by at the end of the day. where to?

ps. did i appear to be sentimental these days? blame it on triana, she gives me too much inspiration to start with :)

Read more...

rock.of.ages

Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee;
Let the water and the blood,
From Thy wounded side which flowed,
Be of sin the double cure;
Save from wrath and make me pure.

Not the labor of my hands
Can fulfill Thy law’s demands;
Could my zeal no respite know,
Could my tears forever flow,
All for sin could not atone;
Thou must save, and Thou alone.

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to the cross I cling;
Naked, come to Thee for dress;
Helpless look to Thee for grace;
Foul, I to the fountain fly;
Wash me, Savior, or I die.

While I draw this fleeting breath,
When mine eyes shall close in death,
When I soar to worlds unknown,
See Thee on Thy judgment throne,
Rock of Ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.

[this song says a lot, that i'm only a temp here, and Christ is my Rock of Ages! - thanks for messages and phone calls. God Bless.]

Read more...

these for free..

as of late, i think there are a few of things that i'd love to post. they've all been compressed in my tiny little short term memory, however. i hope i won't lose them for sometime. i will.

last-in, first-out, i had an enjoyable yet therapeutic chats with mar over lunch this afternoon. i guess what's theraupetic lies in the fact that there was an active listening involved throughout. it made the convos wired right the start. more to that, there's a degree of trust to depend on, therefore the openness. so, there were some frustrations, some revelling, some constructive ones all mixed together like a roller-coaster of hi-lo lights of reflections and looking-forwards. thank God for time, friend and a god-talk!

..when you're a cn anyway

ps. i received my early birthday present today before we parted (see the pic above, minus the guitar off course, and a free-lunch ;).

Read more...

caleb courtesy of dad!

Read more...

holy smorgasbord..

short answers:

• what is apologetics?
• how do the three frameworks in apologetics work together?
• how important are experiences in apologetics?
• if personal approach is so important, why bother with all the theories?
• what is truth?
• how helpful is the traditional approach to knowing the existence of God?
• what is the place of Jesus in apologetics?
• [can't remember another question]

essays:

• discuss the challenges and opportunities for christianity as a result of post-modernism.
• pick a person whom you have been trying to reach out to. discuss where they are in term of spiritual life and outline your next steps to introduce God to the person.

Read more...

*

well, it's a relieve that the exam was over on paper :)

a couple of things learnt from the subject are:

• apolegetics can't be replacing evangelism. it doesn't get people closer to God. in fact, the ironic goal is to do apolegetics as soon as possible and to move on to evangelism having removed the barriers to faith.
• best apologetics pratice is to be as mature cn as possible. it implies studying God's word and knowing the worldviews that people are holding on to in order to offer the cn alternative.
• apologetics has its place in defending the christian faith, but intelligence is not an end issue in itself, rather spiritual blindness cultivated by sin (i.e. rejecting God thus suppresing truth). therefore, prayer is so important and winning an argument is not so important.
• a good balance in term of approaches integrates three main frameworks name pre-supposionalist, evidentialist, and experientialist to arrive at a comprehensive truth on christianity.
• pre-suppositionalist challenges the wrong pre-suppositions (i.e. known assumptions) as barriers to faith. it starts with faith in order to believe (faith over reason or faith that).
• evidentialist accumulates known facts to give content to faith. it holds non-cn to be accountable, to understand in order to believe (reason over faith) .
• experientialist brings truth to person that leads to personal commitment starting from a genuine conversion (faith in).
• three layers of consideration in apologetics include theological, contextual and personal layers.
• theological layer includes knowing God's view and your view.
• contextual layer includes knowing the broader worldviews.
• personal layer includes knowing particular views held by a person (what and why).

granted, there's more to it than just an exam!

Read more...

there's more to it than just an exam *

i realised yesterday that it would be an exam next wednesday instead of the next two weeks. that's because there was a class when it used to be one week off had the rule been followed. it means i won't have much time to review since wkc will be on this weekends. he.tehehe. but i guess, my exam mentality has been changed compared to during high school. i still hate exam though. it's just that it has now been becoming a bit more enjoyable than sickening as was the past. may be i'll have a peak on the notes during the convention free time. boo!

* i suppose i'd like to say more later.

Read more...