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I’ve been chewing on this. Do give it some thought.

Who is the person you would share your sorrows with?

The friend you are closest to? The one whom you meet up the most frequently? The one who listens to you the most?

For me, I would pick the friend I’m most comfortable with…

Then the second question:

Who is the person you would share your joy with, first?

Generally, we would love to share our joy with everyone; the people whom we see, whoever that cross our path while we receive the joyous news. Hence I added the word “first”. When you know you aced your national exams, received an award or won a medal, who is the first person you would dial on your mobile phone to share the news with? That person would be different from the rest.

I think I would share it to the person that will rejoice with me the most…

I pray this makes you more aware of those who are important to you.

The distance people would go for the ones they love…

Candles: $2.00, Male Escorts: $15, Expression on Shirley’s face: Priceless

On Tuesday, April 22, 2008 ; 10:44 AM
Xiangyu wrote:

Inspired by 1 peter 3 :15, which urges us to

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

So here i am, i am going to challenge you ! yes you reading my post. If you have an online journal, post about YOUR reason for the hope that YOU HAVE. Otherwise, please leave a tag to tell me about it. I’m really very interested to know…seriously!

Tell me, what your convictions are and why are you so sure of Jesus?

I can tell you guys why I’m so sure of Jesus, but I hope I never have to tell you of my convictions again. If it can’t be seen, then it means that I’ve failed to live them out. (See the post on Rhetorical Lives)

My walk with God has came to a point where I can never deny his existence. It’s not yet deep, but its deep enough to confirm that fact. It’s just like a child who is certain that he has a Dad, even though he may not know everything about his dad.

I have studied Him with knowledge and experienced Him with encounters. I would compare his existence to that of the Australia continent; I’ve not only seen it on the atlas, but I have set foot on it.

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.
-C.S. Lewis

If I ever do backslide, I cannot hope to escape with the plead of ignorance. I cannot say things such as “I’m not sure whether God is real.” or “I’m having doubts about my faith in Him.”

If I ever do backslide, it can only mean I have degenerated to the state of stubborn self denial where I know God, but I just don’t want to serve Him. It doesn’t make him any less real, just like how sticking my head into the ground doesn’t switch off the lights.

Don’t ever perform the ridiculous “Ostrich Maneuver”.

How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.
-Abraham Lincoln

Imagine if you have 5 minutes with any person in the world, living in any era, and you are allowed to ask him or her only one question, what would it be?

Bill Hybels. Rick Warren. George Bush. Mother Theresa. Andy Stanley. John Ortberg. CS Lewis. Bill Gates. Bono. Lee Kuan Yew. Billy Graham. George Soros. Warren Buffet. Ravi Zacharias. Hillary Clinton. Barack Obama. Adolf Hitler. Mao Zedong. Donald Trump. Angelina Jolie. Martin Luther King Jr. John Wesley.

What are your convictions?

These beliefs alter destinies. It determines how these people lived their lives. Given that the life is lived proper and consistent, this question becomes rhetorical.

No one doubted Hitler’s conviction, he wrote it in the war. You can’t miss Chris, Torch & Shirley’s convictions*; it’s penned down with their lives!

I pray that question remains rhetorical in my life.

PS: For those who want a copy of the sharing of their convictions they did in Careleader’s Meeting, drop me a comment with your email address and I will mail it to you. I couldn’t seem to host the files online…

Disclaimer: I’m not an Obama supporter; I’m a Singaporean for goodness’s sake! However, this guy said something that really stirred the inner recesses of my heart

People often ask why I liked Superman that much. I kept telling them its a symbolic representation of the power I wanted from God, but I never really did explain it thoroughly.

Well, like any other idealistic youngster, I wanted to change the world for the better. It took no doctorate or religious brainwashing for me to realize that the world is screwed up. I am sick of the injustice present in the world. I cannot stand by and permit evil to take its course. My conscience would not allow me to commit inaction. I should not, I will not and I must not. In that aspect, I totally agree with Bonhoeffer.

“If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders,” Dietrich Bonhoeffer explained to his sister, “then I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try and wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

The German theologian, a pacifist, was attempting to convey why he had joined with others to plot an unsuccessful assassination of Adolf Hitler. The most extreme ambition is to attempt revolution. Bonhoeffer tried and failed and was executed on April 9, 1945, as a result.

Perhaps I might need to start a revolution, create a revival, raise a riot, by any methods, using any means. I do not fear hard work, but I only fear helplessness in stamping out evil.

Hence I came to a conclusion. To have any visible and impressionable impact on this world, we will need power. We will require as much power as possible, as much power as we can get and we cannot be ashamed to ask for it. Without it, there can be no hope of a change. No hope of a significant change.

Therefore I strived for power, or positions of power. I wanted to be a politician; perhaps I can redirect a country. I wanted to be rich businessman; perhaps currency can readjust the world’s trajectory. In that sense, I would love to be an “Obama” - Someone who asked for power so that he can change the world.

“…because good intentions were not enough. We’re not fortified with political power… and political will.“
-Barack Obama’s Speech in Youngstown [1.00-1.08]

However, as I mature in Christ, I have come to understand that secular power is not enough. Policies cannot change our human condition. Legislation cannot stop us. Economy cannot save us. Education cannot mould us. We are still greedy for money, unkind to the minority. We are still committing murders, starting wars. We are still poor in spirit. I have come to realize, what we need exactly is actually the redemptive power of Christ. If you know the history of this term, you would know its irony from its usage by the predecessors. Yet my limited vocabulary can express it in no other forms.

Christ is our “Final Solution“.

There are instances where being vocal and proactive has nothing to do with personality. Even the most phlegmatic person would voice out his hunger. Hence, the deciding factor is not personality, but desire.

Main Entry: desire
Definition: want
Synonyms: admiration, ambition, appetite, ardor, aspiration, attraction, avidity, concupiscence, covetousness, craving, craze, cupidity, devotion, doting, eagerness, fancy, fascination, fervor, fondness, frenzy, greed, hunger, inclination, infatuation, lasciviousness, lechery, libido, liking, longing, love, lust, mania, motive, need, passion, predilection, proclivity, propensity, rapaciousness, rapture, ravenousness, relish, salacity, solicitude, thirst, urge, voracity, will, wish, yearning

Do you want God?

What many men seek is often under their nose. But for some the unknown is too hard to resist.
-Eragon, Uncle Garrow

Sometimes, it always seems that…
the past is regrettable,
the present unappreciated,
and the future enticing.

I need to learn to have earthly satisfaction and holy discontentment.