Walk Through The Journal Of Life

Is it important to journal? I really don’t know. It is kinda nice though. Because when the time comes, you get to look back at the silly things you’ve said, done, or been through. And you get to ask the hard question of whether you’ve grown. And you also get to be thankful to people and more importantly to God for helping you through, and being there all the way.

I’ve blogged for almost 9 years now. I don’t blog every day. Or every week. Or even every month. I’ve skipped a few months. If you scroll down on the right side, I have my previous blog posts arranged by month and year. And I counted, that’s 91 months of blogging right there. This post will be post number 554. I think. It’s been a great journey.

It’s super funny to read back on my old posts. And it’s nice to remember the glory days of blogging. Before Facebook, blogging was like the in thing. And hey, I’m so thankful that I saved all my posts from Xanga, because they closed down.

Sad thing is, that we post so much on Facebook, but we won’t be able to retrieve what we said. It’s like, we don’t have to take our words seriously on Facebook or Twitter. And when we do want to take it seriously, it’s really hard to find it back next time. That’s one of the most appreciative things I have about having a blog or website.

Here’s to blogging and to encouraging others to blog more too.

Bribing As Motivation 101

For those of you close minded people, I’d like to say one thing. Bribing works wonders! It’s true. If it’s not true, why would it be so popular? We know it’s true because we see it. It’s a quick way to get wanted results. That’s a good deal right? Speed + results! And if you’re good enough, you can hide your tracks. Problem with this: conscience.

So before i talk about anything, let’s google-define the word ‘bribe’: to persuade (someone) to act in one’s favor, typically illegally or dishonestly, by a gift of money or other inducement. Ah ok. So key words here are dishonest and illegal. So is ‘bribing’ your kids to study bad? No, because according to this, it’s not a bribe. Illegal bribes are easy to spot. They’re bribes in situations where bribing isn’t allowed by the law. Dishonest bribes are a bit harder to spot. Because of the unspoken rules. Generally, if there’s a queue to a counter, it’s understood that latecomers have to insert themselves in queue at the back of the line. We all understand that that’s fair. But maybe Mr. Aaron decides since there isn’t any law here that says to line up, I’ll just ask a favor (with the motivation of money) of the counter attendant to deal with me first. I am in a rush too. We all know that cutting line is bad, but mostly because it slows our queue. But it is still a dishonest gain right? Because according to the ethical scale embedded inside us, everyone has to have an equal opportunity. If a line is served according to how much money you can pump into bribing, then it’ll be rich first, and poor last (if ever). For me, a bribe is when it negatively effects other people. Which is the main reason why corporate laws on integrity are of big importance. Here are my thoughts, I think a bribe is a form of motivation. A bribe can be both positive motivation (reward) and negative motivation (threat/punishment). And they’re bad because they either break rules, or are against our conscience. But, is bribing a sin?

What does the bible say about bribing. Let me be honest, I was very confused/intrigued by what the God has to say about bribing. They seem to contradict. And the word of God CANNOT contradict, or else it isn’t God’s word. Proverbs 15:27 Greed brings grief to the whole family, but those who hate bribes will live. And Proverbs 17:8 A bribe is like a lucky charm; whoever gives one will prosper! Seems like on one hand, bribing is bad, on another bribing is good. I think we forget to think that bribing is an act. It doesn’t reveal the nature of the heart. To assure you, the evil nature of greed is addressed in the bible. Deuteronomy 16:19 You must never twist justice or show partiality. Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly. Exodus 23:8 “Take no bribes, for a bribe makes you ignore something that you clearly see. A bribe makes even a righteous person twist the truth. Proverbs 17:23 The wicked take secret bribes to pervert the course of justice. But the bible is also saying that bribing can be used for good. Proverbs 18:16 Giving a gift can open doors; it gives access to important people! Proverbs 21:14 A secret gift calms anger; a bribe under the table pacifies fury. So let’s get practical and REALLY ask, can bribing really be used for good?

Like I said, bribing is an act. It’s not an attitude. God will judge the attitude and intention of the heart. We can bribe to send an innocent person to jail. And we can pay a bribe to release a wrongly accused. We can contract a killer to kill our boss. And we can ‘contract’ an authority to see that a missionary’s visa is approved. Honestly, I hate bribes. I’m against it, but if my daughter was kidnapped and they asked for money, I’d be more than willing to participate in that bribe to keep my daughter safe. And I doubt I’ll feel bad. I think I’ll have peace in my conscience about the bribe. My sin would probably not be that I participated in a bribe, but that I have hate against the kidnappers. I know this sounds pretty unchristiany, but bribes is not a sin. Especially not if you’re the victim of the injustice. However, if you’re the one who’s asking for money to act unjustly, then the problem is greed. Then it’s a sin. If it’s an ‘opportunity’, well, you’ll have to look at the intention of your heart of why you’re agreeing. Guess what, I think Jesus would have participated in a bribe if he needed to.

Did Jesus do anything wrong during his time on earth? Contrary to popular belief, YES he did. It was so controversial, that moral codes and ethics were questioned. Tradition in a traditionally strong culture was shaken. People hated Jesus because of the rules he’s broken. Yet he dared to call himself King. Yet he dared to say that he’s the fulfillment of the word (wooooots). E.g. Luke 6:6-9 On another Sabbath day, a man with a deformed right hand was in the synagogue while Jesus was teaching. The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees watched Jesus closely. If he healed the man’s hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath. But Jesus knew their thoughts. He said to the man with the deformed hand, “Come and stand in front of everyone.”So the man came forward. Then Jesus said to his critics, “I have a question for you. Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?” So in the Torah (Jewish book of Law given by God) it was God’s law that the Sabbath day is made for rest. No work is to be done on that day. So the Jews started to make weird rules based on this Sabbath law. Eg. like you can’t walk past your neighbors house because walking is a lot of work. But Jesus came to earth to explain that the law is not a list of do’s and don’ts. The law is for the alignment heart and attitude, and for the growth of character.

Excerpted from Jesus’ sermon on the mount (Matt 5): … You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’ But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell…  You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So Jesus came to earth to explain that it’s not the action that breaks God’s law (and His heart). No, it’s our hearts and our attitude and our character that breaks the Law. If I was paying a ‘gift’ to be released from jail early, whether I sin or not will depend on why. Is it because I don’t want to face the consequences of my actions? Is it because I don’t want my family and friends to know what I did? Or is it because I felt that I’ve been wrongly accused and I don’t think that’s where God wants me to be at that moment? Ask yourself what is the intention of acting the briber or agreeing to be bribed? Greed? Fame? Compassion? Love? Shame? Pride? Laziness? When asking yourself, our conscience will come into play and help us. And the Holy Spirit works with and guides our conscience. With choosing the right action, will come peace and joy. Acting against it will result in uneasiness and fear. Yeah. I agree that these are such subjective emotions to be using to weigh our action. But with practice, we’ll be able to make decisions as close to what is righteous as possible. Sure, we’ll never be perfect, but we can always try, right?

I guess my conclusion can be this, the problem is not so much the act of bribing, but the attitude and intention of the heart. The Church tends to get very traditionalized that the act of worship becomes the focus of christian lives and teachings. That’s very Pharisaical isn’t it? Jesus said their clean acts are just an outward show. What’s more important is the internal attitude and character. Clean the inside and the outside will be clean as well.

RSS Feeds + Random Thoughts

For those of you who hasn’t fully realised it yet, it’s October. Beginning of the 4th quarter of 2013. Congratulations for those of you who have survived with me so far.

 

Anyways, first thing I’d like to rant about today is my WordPress RSS feed reader. For your information, an RSS feed is where I can follow updates by blogs, websites, or news, or whatever.

So, I use my WordPress Reader. All new posts or updates from blogs and websites I follow are supposed to appear on it. But I tell you, it’s slow. What I mean by that is that, 1st of all, it doesn’t appear immediately when updated. That’s actually okay. I don’t really mind as much. Except that some posts get MISSED! And then appear later on. Which means, yesterday I’ve scrolled through and read through my updates, let’s say I see 5 blog posts. But today, when I open my reader, I noticed that I’ve missed TWO posts. So there were supposed to be SEVEN posts yesterday. That’s a real inconvenience, since I’ll have to scroll through previous days just to see if I’ve missed some feeds. GOSH. WordPress, please create a more powerful reader tool. Thank you.

 

Secondly, I’d like to update you about my job status. Looking for a job is easy. I have lots of places resources to find out who’s looking for suitable candidates to fill up vacancies. Applying is a lot of work, but not a problem. No, the problem is that companies are not replying me! They aren’t even telling me if I failed to get the job! Come on. But keep praying for me people. Thanks. I believe God has a good plan for me.

 

Next, I shall talk about a nightmare I had. It wasn’t much of a nightmare, more like a scary dream. But yet it wasn’t really a scary dream, just a scary type of dream. Get my drift? It was about a trip. To the beach? (I put a question mark because my dreams are full of question marks. I have no idea why or what things are in my dream LOL.) I think it was a rocky / sandy / cave-y sort of beach. Yeah, there were caves. I think we camped in one. LOL. Hmmm… come to think of it, I think we started out as a normal camp. We were camping in wooden houses. And we went to the beach. And then camped there. In a cave. There were a lot of us. Youth + teenagers. It was fun, enjoying the view and the sand. Then came this girl, she surprised me, because she wasn’t supposed to be around town. Oh yeah, she was a friend of mine. Let’s name her Ms. So Ms came, and she didn’t say hi or wave at us friends. She walked pass us, straight to the back to a girl, who in real life is not close to her at all (LOL). And they hugged and talked. I felt bad. I didn’t like being rejected. LOL. Okay anyways, so I had some time to talk to her personally. I was like hey I missed you, thanks for coming. And she said something like we’re not really friends anymore, and used a really really bad metaphor, something about a plate (which I only realised DIDN’T MAKE ANY SENSE when I woke up, but in the dream it felt like a sword cutting through my heart). So I went to the nearest bookstore (yes a bookstore on the beach), and sat down and was emo. That’s the whole drama of my dream hahahaha. It’s the type of dream I hate the most because I get worked up emotionally when I wake up, but realise it’s a stupid nonsensical dream, and then I hate myself for getting worked up emotionally on such nonsense.

Anyways, do you have such dreams? Gosh am I weird?

Mellow?

So Recently

 

I haven’t been able to sleep well. I’ve had a non-stop runny-nose. I can’t think straight. I get disappointed with myself for silly little things. I’ve had a problematic stomach. I can’t be bothered to be productive. My right ear hurt. I take afternoon naps (now that’s extreme). I miss my friends. I get tired easily. I start every sentence with the word “I”. I’m even writing in a proper sentence structure with grammar and punctuation. Oh man, this is bad. Maybe it’s the haze.

So if you haven’t heard, Xanga is going to make some major changes. It’s either going to just close down entirely, or revamp Xanga through the WordPress engine to Xanga 2.0 or something like that. Actually I’m not too sure about what’s going to happen. But I do know that it’s going to affect me. Because I like it here.

I’m really going to miss this place. It’s been a fun ride. Just blabbering my thoughts to the public world and expecting the world to respond. I also use this place as a motivation to read. Thought that maybe if I read more, I had more to share about. It worked. This blog motivated me to think deep. This blog motivated me to think deep yet express and present it in a fun and acceptable manner. This blog allowed me to express my thoughts about controversial issues. Why do I sound like I’m writing a eulogy? Maybe because this place has been a part of me for such a long time. This is definitely an emotional attachment.

Either way, whether Xanga closes or whether it stays alive with 2.0, I’ve decided that I will take my thoughts and words and express it through WordPress. I’ve created an account (don’t try to guess my username or look for it) there in the past in the hopes of creating a formal blog where I could maybe write teachings or devotionals. More serious stuff instead of my usual messy thought-diarrhea’s. But I guess I’m just going to move there because this ship may sink/upgrade.

 

Dear XangaTeam,

It’s been a great journey. Hope you do great in your future endeavors.

God bless.

 

Acts 6

Wonder If You Noticed

 

i changed my layout a little bit.

widened the wideness of the my blog maincontent box.

also added a little more pink (only for the eyes that are MORE observant).

the more obvious one, is the size of my blog content fonts.

so now we dont have to ctrl+scroll to zoom into the words anymore.

 

anyways besides that…

 

 

 

Information Age No More

 

so most people see the 21st century as the information age.

i, however, have to disagree.

for me, today, the information age has passed.

 

why is it that even though information is at our fingertips,

we are still so stupid.

in fact we are more reliant on technology than ever.

so much that we use it to think and remember for us.

 

but more than that,

we let technology to do the thinking and remembering so much,

that we have to do something with our time.

and that is ENTERTAINMENT.

 

i believe we have entered the ENTERTAINMENT AGE.

think about it.

we now want everything fast and easy.

FOR OUR CONVENIENCE.

we combine work and play. (handphones and laptop and fb and media)

but in actual fact, work becomes an excuse and youtube, FB and games are the main reason we bought that iphone or S3.

everything now has to struggle to gain our attention, because there are so many things entertaining us.

or distracting us.

it’s so bad, that people now even EXPECT to be entertained (ever heard the complaint “so boringgggg”?).

 

anyways.

i was writing this not because its related to the topic of my devotion today.

but because it took me so long to actually get my devotion done. (cuz i was distracted by fb and youtube lol)

and after that, i opened this blog post writing page, and it took me an hour before i actually started typing.

yea. i’m guilty as charged.

BOOM

 

 

 

Verses 1-7

 

In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.

So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith.

 

first of all.

this is a good example of delegation.

we are humans. and we cant be everywhere doing everything, even though we’d like to.

 

this is also a good reminder that as we delegate, we should pray for those we delegate to, and bless them and even ask for anointing.

the act of empowerment can make a difference i guess.

even if the duty is as simple as waiting on tables.

 

secondly.

we see success in teamwork.

as the work was delegated, the Word could be spread, and the widows could be served,

of course the number of disciples in Jerusalem would increase rapidly.

we need to understand the role we each have, and not be too jealous of more glamorous roles.

 

look at Stephen.

in the second part of Acts 6 and in the whole of Acts 7, we see what an anointed and wise man he is.

YET, he was delegated to wait on tables!!

and the Twelve even recognized Stephen as full of faith and the Holy Spirit.

yet, he didnt complain for a more glamorous role like the ministry of the word.

he did his job and the church grew.

for a fully functioning body, each member of the body has to do his own role,

so that the whole body may move forward and/or play tennis.

and if they move with a synchronized purpose, the body may actually win that tennis game.

 

thirdly.

i asked myself, why?

why did the Twelve delegate responsibility based on that person being known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom?

you know, honestly, for me, logically, it would be more sensible to pick people to wait tables with other criterion;

like good leadership skills (cuz they prolly have to make teams).

like willing heart.

like hardworking people.

like kindness.

like honestly.

at least there is the criterion of wisdom.

 

for me, people known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom should be discipling, ministering, and reaching out (missionary).

not taking orders and cleaning the tables.

 

so why do YOU think God chose these people to wait tables?

let me know.

 

 

Tags!

 

 

so if you’ve noticed.

i’ve updated my Tags section of my xanga.

it is situated on the right sidebar.

below my profile.

and above the archive.

 

tags help you search through my xanga to find what topics i’ve talked about.

the BIGGER the tag, the more posts there are about that specific subject.

=)

 

enjoy.