Rehearsal

In a church far far away,

Pastor: And this is where you all stand. Make room! Lots of room for the couple!

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen shuffle about.

Pastor: The couple will stand here. This is the part where you have the Scripture Reader come up.

Harry: Oh, Richard, I forgot to ask. Can you be the Scripture Reader?

Me: CAN I!?!

QOD

"Speak when you are angry--and you will make the best speech you'll ever regret."

--Laurence J. Peter

Gender Analyzer

Fun with online tools.

Blog owner is most likely male or female...

Boys:

Alan - 100% male, 0% female

Richard - 99.6% male, 0.4% female

Vince - 96.6% male, 3.4% female

JC - 71.6% male, 28.4% female

Sam - 70.2% male, 29.8% female

Kevin - 51% male, 49% female

Girls:

Vinci - 72.3% female, 27.7% male

Eleasa - 55.5% male, 44.5% female

Joi - 70.9% male, 29.1% female

Bonnie - 96.9% male, 3.1% female

Kelly Girl - 97.6% male, 2.4% female

Elaine - 98.3% male, 1.7% female

Vicki - 99% male, 1% female

Pris - 99.6% male, 0.4% female

Interesting notes:

- The girls are very masculine in their way of writing. (lol, okay lies. I assume that the analyzer looks for certain words that indicate gender. (My post on marriage put me at 96% female.))

- Priscilla is the manliest girl.

- Kevin is the girliest man.

- Vinci is the only girl out of this group.

- Alan is all man.

- Yes, it was a boring lunch hour.

- Some people are even MORE bored than I.. ie. the devleoper of the tool ;)

The Lost

Not a lot of quality posts these days. I apologize.

I have been thinking a lot about two things: how we live as Christians and how to save the lost. The two have much overlap, although many will not see it right away.

As Christians, we are saved by His grace. As a product of His grace, we are to perform good works. It demonstrates the desposit of the Holy Spirit within us. We produce fruit to show that He is indeed working within us.

One would often go to the Fruit of the Spirit. Do we possess all of those character traits? Do we attempt to be holy for He is holy? Is our firstmost attitude towards others, a love that stems from God's love? We will come back to this.

Let us define the lost. When we think of lost, our thoughts are shifted towards the suffering souls in China, Iran, or the Congo. Yes, some are lost there. Or we think of that homeless person we walk by on the way to school each day. Yes, he is probably lost too. Or we think of people of different faiths: Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, Buddhists, etc.

Our view typically stops there. BUT!!! The lost is anyone who has not been saved by Christ and by Christ alone. That includes your athiest best-friend from high school, your catholic mother, and your agnostic brother. The people in your immediate vicinity are lost! Those closest to you could be lost, as well! Their destination has been determined just as yours has (that is if they are to continue on the same path).

In some ways we are very foolish in our understanding of the lost. For the homeless man knows that he has a need for being saved. The persecuted church is the church that grows, as Tertullian stated, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church". For all the missionaries we send into China, do we even consider the statistics? Christianity is growing in China and waning in Canada. An estimated 60-80 million Christians in China... 2x the ENTIRE population of Canada.

North America / Europe will be the next big mission fields. The people here are complacent. And when I say "the people", I am talking about Christians. For our lackluster approach to personal holiness betrays our supposed loyalty to our Lord and Saviour.

The non-Christians know it and observe it, too. They watch how we treat our brothers, non-Christians, and the homeless. They judge us, saying Christians cannot worship the true God or their lives would be radically different. And are they not right at least in this regard? They think wrongly that if we Christians who act so poorly are saved than they who are at least as good as us, must be saved.

For how many of us do offer ourselves as living sacrifices? Who among us takes up his cross daily? The very marks that are to distinguish us as sons and daughters of God are remarkably absent.

We need not fear for God is faithful and just. I see the beginnings of persecution in Canada. All you have to do is know what to read, observe what laws has changed, or feel out the opinion of the general public. Either this nation will turn back to Him and there will be revival or the Christians here will be persecuted and a stronger generation of Christians will take their place. God always triumphs.

So what about you?

Repent, and come back to the Lord. Is it so important to see the latest blockbuster movie, or go play golf, or play whatever video game? There are times for rest, but we have rested so much, our spiritual muscles are atrophied. Let Jesus reign in EVERY part of your life, that you may be a holy and blameless witness in everything that you do.

As for me, I fear these words. I know what good I want to do, but my flesh cries out to sin. I fear you, Lord, above all things. May my actions reflect these words.

:/

I miss our visitors from Paris, B.C., etc.

QOD

"Why do you want to hear God outside of His Word when you have not even started to obey what He has already revealed in His Word?"

Anonymous

QOD

"You are either a missionary or a mission field."

Rev. J. Wilson Kaan @ JMC '09

Spiritual Hunger

^"1Now we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. ²Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling.." 2nd Cor 5:1-2

I have been thinking a lot about sacrifice. In the past, I have forced myself to give up things. Spiritual discipline or so it would seem. I was earnest in my desire to be stronger, to seek Him greatly. Looking back, I did improve.

However, my small victories in holiness are dwarfed in comparison to the amount of sin in my life. I guess as one learns to understand God more, you realize how small, insignificant, and SINFUL you really are. So I try again, to reduce the sin in my life.... live my life as He would want me to.

It doesn't feel like enough. It is like I am running on 70% capacity. Where is the desire? Where is the HUNGER for you, Lord?

The Second Time I got Married.

Elaine, her fiance Dennis, JC, Sam, Ginny, and I decided it would be great to take our friends (Tsing, Gilles, Laurent) from Paris to authentic Korean BBQ.

So off we went. Hilarity ensues, our Paris friends are quite jovial. We spent a lot of time practicing how to speak butchered French. Time was also spent trying to guess one another's ages.

Elaine prods Tsing to ask THE question. Tsing passes to Gilles who stares me in the face and asks point-blank....

"How long have you and Ginny been married?"

I stared back at him.
Ginny and I looked at one another.
The table erupts into laughter.

Their evidence for our "marriage" was less than compelling...but, they have only been here for several days... so I can understand. I mean who wouldn't want to marry me?

And that was the second time I got married.

What is the first? That is a story for another day.

Pink

Thanks to dear friend Kelly, I always get a pink straw at Bubble Republic.

Apparently, Gmail has it in for me too... Every long thread with multiple participants... I end up getting the pink name.

o_O