The Discussion Is Continued by Mom!

Picture taken just before lift off of the right tower there...haha.

My mom is so cool. Just after having a deep discussion on the matter of which to do - be yourself, or be a Roman (in a Roman land) with some friends (over some ice cream, mind you), I get home and find this in my inbox from my mother. She had no idea i've been thinking and chatting with people recently about this same said topic. Hey mom, love ya! What you sent was spot on and totally a move of the Holy Spirit. Still...there is that nagging issue of abandoning one's own personality and characteristics when in an environment that doesn't understand or relate to those same said traits. Of course, this passage of scripture and prayer go much, much deeper than the surface level of the question at hand and thus answers the question for all intents and purposes. Still, though....I have questions...


When I am with the Jews, I become one of them so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with those who follow the Jewish laws, I do the same, even though I am not subject to the law, so that I can bring them to Christ. When I am with the Gentiles who do not have the Jewish law, I fit in with them as much as I can. In this way, I gain their confidence and bring them to Christ. But I do not discard the law of God; I obey the law of Christ. When I am with those who are oppressed, I share their oppression so that I might bring them to Christ. Yes, I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ. (1 Cor 9:20-22 NLT)

Prayer: LORD, help me find common ground to reach others with the message of Your grace, mercy, and salvation. I need Your wisdom to know how far to go to identify with them, yet not compromise my integrity or our relationship. In every opportunity I encounter, help me clearly recognize Your leadership and follow Your dir ections with courage and confidence. In Jesus' name, Amen.

Outta site, outta mind....outta heart, gone.

A view somewhere around my house in America

I just finished viewing most of my family's blogs, myspaces, etc. Here are some things I found...

Pictures of:
- my new cousins, nieces, and nephews who I've never met
- my grandparents house in which 3 generations lived. One where I have fond memories of drinking my grandmother's Cool-Aid, watching my grandfather play Nintendo (after preaching that Sunday...he's so cool), and my sister, cuzs, aunts, and uncles just relaxing for the rest of the day in the 10+ rooms of their late 1800 house
- my father and his motorcycle chillin at a BBQ...I think he's surgically attached to his bike
- my aunts and uncles having fun
- my family visiting my grandfather in the hospital
- my moms talking to some person (who's back is to the camera...)
- the old parking lot in my grandparents home where we used to eat sunday after sunday as a big family
- my cousins all grown up and living large in college, about to graduate (will probably miss their graduation...) (dude...)
- my old church that I spent from 0 yrs to 23 yrs old in. The evangelists, the ministers, the adults who guided me in the ways of God. People who I've never met the likes of since. They taught me the sacredness of this faith in Christ.
- the altar in my church where I got the Holy Ghost...and my grandfather standing in the pulpit exhorting us to live holy, powerful, and radical lives in Christ
- my large family hugging, kissing, and laughing with one another
- my cousin on her first flying lesson high up in the sky
- my nieces, who I don't, giving my grandpops a massage in the hospital bed

A couple of months ago one of the children in my church here in Singapore was chatting with me online. They asked,
"Are you homesick? Do you get homesick?"
I replied,
"Sometimes...yes. Of course."
(she paused after that for a little while...and then)
"Well, just don't think about home, and you won't be sick!"

My pause after that was much, much longer....

Got Love?

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Now I may faith to make mountains fall, but if I lack love then I am nothing at all,

I can give away everything I possess, but am without love then I have no happiness,

I know I'm imperfect, and not without sin, but now that I'm older all childish things end...

Must Be Yourself In Foreign Land -or- When In Rome Do As Romans

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In my eyes I see a blur of things that others see so clearly,

in my strength I run away from things that cause my heart to fear.

Back and forth and back again unto the place where I began,

maybe I'm making this much harder than it is.

The 'ol Church Bulletin

These came with the disclaimer: "These sentences actually appeared in church bulletins and were announced in church services. Some old, some not." How true that is, I dunno. But I sure laughed my head off with some of 'em!

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

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The sermon this morning: "Jesus Walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."
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Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.
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Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.
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The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been canceled due to a conflict.
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Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.
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Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.
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Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.
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For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery downstairs .
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Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.
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The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."
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Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days!
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A bean supper will be held on Tuesday evening in the church hall. Music will follow..
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At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?"
Come early and listen to our choir practice.
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Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.
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Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.
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Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.
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The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.
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Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow.
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The ladies of the Church have cast off clothing of every kind.They may be seen in the basement on Friday afternoon.
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This evening at 7 PM there will be a hymn singing in the park across from the Church.
Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin.
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Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.
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The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.
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Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.
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The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.
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Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance .
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The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours"

I'm beginning to love this man...

...cause he writes how I think. Arg, now if I could only write like I think...

The reason why it can never succeed is this. God made us: invented us as a man invents an engine. A car is made to run on petrol, and it would not run properly on anything else. Now God designed the human machine to run on Himself. He Himself is the fuel our spirits were designed to burn, or the food our spirits were designed to feed on. There is no other. That is why it is just no good asking God to make us happy in our own way without bothering about religion*. God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing. - C.S. Lewis, "Mere Christianity"

*let the reader understand that Mr. Lewis was most probably refering to the entire notion of a man's relationship [way of relating to God] with God when using the word "religion" in this passage.

I give up...

It is when the voices of both friend and foe become distant that I

I clearly hear the Voice behind them...calling. Speaking...listening.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want....

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

The Fellowship of the Unashamed

I am part of the Fellowship of the Unashamed. The die has been cast. I have stepped over the line. The decision has been made. I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, back away or be still.
My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure. I am finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, chintzy giving, and dwarfed goals.
I no longer need pre-eminence, prosperity, position, plaudits, or popularity. I now live by presence, lean by faith, love by patience, lift by prayer, and labor by power. My pace is set, my destiny is Heaven. My road is narrow, my way is rough, my companions are few, yet my Guide reliable, my mission clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, deterred, lured away, turned back, diluted, or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate at the table of an enemy, ponder at the pool of popularity, or meander in the maze of mediocrity.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until heaven returns, give until I drop, preach until all know, and work until He comes. And when he comes to get his own, He will have no problem recognizing me.

It's the Thought That Counts

What a funny picture

Who Are You? Where are you?

I've been feeling like this guy for the past 2 years.

One of these days, God's going to say, "This way," and it's

on to the next adventure...

A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. For in being what God means it to be it is obeying Him…. The more a tree is like itself, the more it is like Him…. This particular tree will give glory to God by spreading out its roots in the earth and raising its branches into the air and the light in a way that no other tree before or after it ever did or will do….


The special clumsy beauty of this particular colt on this April day in this field under these clouds is a holiness consecrated to God by His own creative wisdom and it declares the glory of God. The pale flowers of the dogwood outside this window are saints. The little yellow flowers that nobody notices on the edge of that road are saints looking up into the face of God. This leaf has it own texture and its own pattern of veins and its own holy shape, and the bass and trout hiding in the deep pools of the river are canonised by their beauty and their strength. The lakes hidden among the hills are saints, and the sea too is a saint who praises God without interruption in her majestic dance.


The great, gashed, half-naked mountain is another of God's saints. There is no other like him. He is alone in his own character; nothing else in the world ever did or ever will imitate God in quite the same way. That is his sanctity…. For me to be a saint means to be myself. Therefore the problem of sanctity and salvation is in fact the problem of finding out who I am and of discovering my true self.


Trees and animals have no problem. God makes them what they are without consulting them, and they are perfectly satisfied. With us it is different. God leaves us free to be whatever we like. We can be ourselves or not, as we please. We are at liberty to be real, or to be unreal. We may be true or false, the choice is ours. We may wear now one mask and now another, and never, if we so desire, appear with our own true face. But we cannot make these choices with impunity. Causes have effects, and if we lie to ourselves and to others, then we cannot expect to find truth and reality whenever we happen to want them. If we have chosen the way of falsity we must not be surprised that truth eludes us when we finally come to need it! Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny….


The seeds that are planted in my liberty at every moment, by God's will, are the seeds of my own identity, my own reality, my own happiness, my own sanctity…. Every one of us is shadowed by an illusory person: a false self. This is the person that I want myself to be but who cannot exist, because God does not know anything about him. And to be unknown to God is altogether too much privacy. My false and private self is the one who wants to exist outside the reach of God's will and God's love - outside of reality and outside of life. And such a self cannot help but be an illusion. We are not very good at recognising illusions, least of all the ones we cherish about ourselves - the ones we are born with and which feed the roots of sin. For most of the people in the world, there is no greater subjective reality than this false self of theirs, which cannot exist. A life devoted to the cult of this shadow is what is called a life of sin.


All sin starts from the assumption that my false self, the self that exists only in my own egocentric desires, is the fundamental reality of life to which everything else in the universe is ordered. Thus I use up my life in the desire for pleasures and the thirst for experiences, for power, honour, knowledge and love, to clothe this false self and construct its nothingness into something objectively real. And I wind experiences around myself and cover myself with pleasures and glory like bandages in order to make myself perceptible to myself and to the world, as if I were an invisible body that could only become visible when something visible covered its surface….


-THOMAS MERTON

I Love Dogs

Ok, what in the WORLD is going on in this picture? The kid looks as if he's going to cry, holding his dog. Is the dog about to go to the meat factory and get "processed"? I mean, look at those meat sticks in the lower right...are those pictures of other nameless dogs who left their little boy owners dog-less? Perhaps the boy realizes that his little pup is next...I wonder who was the dude in charge of advertising for this piece. I wonder how that stuff tastes....

Sights for Sore Eyes

If you've never experienced it, you just won't understand...

...but if you ever get the chance to experience it, don't pass it up for anything.

Snow, that is...

NEW MCUBE AGM PHOTOS UPLOADED

I love my Sony Ericsson phone :-)

I JUST UPLOADED NEW PHOTOS OF THE MCUBE'S AGM. CLICK ON THE LINK OVER THERE UNDER THE CBOX TO ENJOY STRANGE AND TRUE CONTRAPTIONS OF OUR BEAUTIFUL AND HANDSOME CREW MEMBERS.

Audio DeFreuincialosalambadihama

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I think that's the name of the group...? 

 Yea, we had fun back in the day...looking forward to many more "blooper" days ahead.  I think the kids should hear all of these one day!

....

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you: The Laugh Song

Survival Music

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I like Hillsongs...but sometimes my spirit needs more.  This girl sang her heart out, and anointed thousands of other hearts in the process.

 More than that, this song and version of it carried me over some of the most terrible, monstrous mountains and darkest, friend-forsaken valleys over the years.  It was true then, and it remains a familiar truth now.  May it be an encouragement and provocation to go forward, dear reader!

The race is not given, to the swift, nor to the strong…

But to the one that endureth, until the end!

They’ll be problems, and sometimes you walk alone.

But I know, that I know, that I know…things will work out, yes they will...

            ...For the good of them who loves the Lord!

Eyes have not seen, and neither have ears heard.

The things God has prepared for them that love Him!

Sometimes you may have to cry,

sometimes you may have to walk alone.

But I know, that I know, that I know, things will work out, yes they will...

            ...For the good of them who loves the Lord!

No matter what the problem, you can’t solve it.

They will come, but don’t you worry!

It will work out, for the good of them who love the Lord. (x2)

 

God's Constant Position Towards Us

...taken at the Esplande...

The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those

whose hearts are fully committed to him. (2 Chronicles 16:9)

Truly, the Lord's hand has not become short, so that he is unable to give salvation;

and his ear is not shut from hearing. (Isaiah 59:1)

Thank God for God.

The Power of Names

Adam's first attempt at naming the animals. Notice the horse's expression, not to mention God's...

So I'm preparing slides for a bible study I'm starting soon, and I came across this picture.

I have a friend who enjoys naming...well, things.

Lest she think this is weird (I don't, and I'm sure she doesn't, but sometimes age does something to ones enjoyment of the simple pleasures in life), I submit this photo as a reminder: man was given the power to name everything around him! So, name your thumbdrive boldly! Laptops, beware the forthcoming surname! Pencils, expect to be bestowed with a name above every other name given to a writing utensil!

Haha...this photo's for you sis!...(I shall not name names)

The Power Of Words

Lord knows I'm not there yet...but I'm trying....I'm aiming....I'm trying.

Speech is the mirror of the soul; as a man speaks, so he is. --Publilius Syrus

The trouble with talking too fast is you may say something you haven't thought of yet. --Ann Landers

Most conversations are simply monologues delivered in the presence of a witness. --Margaret Millar

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. --Abigail Adams

We do not need to proselytise either by our speech or by our writing. We can only do so really with our lives. --Mahatma Gandhi

But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned. –Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:36-38)

When you are arguing with a fool, make sure he isn't doing the same thing. —Unknown

I am annoyed by individuals who are embarrassed by pauses in a conversation. To me, every conversational pause refreshes. --George Sanders

Great minds talk about ideas, Average minds talk about things, Small minds talk about other people. --Unknown

The bitterest tears shed over graves are for words left unsaid and deeds left undone.--Harriet Beecher Stowe

Never miss a good chance to shut up. –Will Rogers

Can you tell I love kids...

Some shopping center in Singapore when a super famous singer was signing her signature about some song she sang on a CD that was selling fantastically swell. I didn't buy one.

A first grade teacher collected old, well known proverbs. She gave each child in her class the first half of the proverb, then had the children complete the phrase.
As you shall make your bed so shall you……mess it up.
Better be safe than…….punch a 5th grader.
Strike while the…….bug is close.
It’s always darkest before…….daylight savings time.
You can lead a horse to water but…….how?
Don’t bite the hand that…….looks dirty.
A miss is as good as a…….Mr.
You can’t teach an old dog new…….math.
If you lie down with the dogs, you’ll……stink in the morning.
The pen is mightier than the…….pigs.
An idle mind is…….the best way to relax.
Where there’s smoke, there’s…….pollution.
Happy the bride who……gets all the presents.
A penny saved is…….not much.
Two’s company, three’s…….the musketeers.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you; cry and…….you have to blow your nose.
Children should be seen and not…….spanked or grounded.
When the blind leadeth the blind…….get out of the way.

On a more serious note, a defining quote for the moment in my life:

About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won't like you at all.
Rita Mae Brown