PAL Flight PR861 (Oh how I love to tell the Story…)

…bound for CEBU is now ready for boarding. Not.

It’s 11:21 am and here I am at the Philippine-Airlines-only-dedicated-terminal A.K.A. NAIA2 waiting for the boarding of my flight to, yes, CEBU CITY! Oh, music to mine ears!

I’m really anxious to get to the country’s oldest city already. Been anxious fir months! It’s my first time to visit Cebu but that’s not why I am so excited.

The reason for my glee, what makes me oh so happy– oh the smile on my face, you should see–is because I will again be seeing my baby!

Yup, you read right! I’m really psyched about seeing my dear Dindin again after three long months! (she visited here in Manila last September for friends’ wedding) It really is not easy trying to maintain a long-term relationship and honestly I never imagined I’d be in one.

But whaddyaknow? Here I am in two long distance relationships and both are working just fine. Why? I guess it’s because while my Beloved and my beloved are far, yet they are near to me. Always in my heart.

If you have not guessed it yet, yes, the two long distance relationships I’ve been talking to you about is with (1) My Beloved Heavenly Father, and (2) with my beloved Dindin.

Yes, my relationship with my beloved is but a mere type of my eternal relationship with by Beloved Father and Redeemer! Oh, how marvelous is His wisdom and how abundant the manifestations of His love! That he would give me a heart that loves and longs for my beloved so that I may be reminded of the deeper and more profound yearning that I have to be with Him for ever! How I love Him because He had given me love, and the grace to love Him back!

Praise YHWH with me O you His people! Do you not see the marvel I’m that most glorious of phrases? ‘you HIS people’!

Oh we worship the most high God, He is our God and we are his people! But how could that be for He is a holy God and we are sinful offenders of His beautiful law? How could we be called the people of One whom we have spited, rebelled against, and infinitely offended?

The answer is Christ. The God-man. He pleaded guilty for all our offenses against our gracious Creator and King. And for that He suffered infinite punity. The punishment that was supposed to come to me–rebel, traitor, adulterer, ingrate–He took upon Himself, though He Himself never committed any wrong, and sin was never in his heart or ever proceeded from His speech. He suffered: Mocked, abused, tortured, spat at, flogged, nailed to the cross. Brutally murdered. Punished. Yet innocent.

“Jesus paid it all, all to Him must go,
Sim has left a crimson stain, He washed or white as snow.”

Think about that for a moment.

Testing WordPress on iPhone (writing offline)

Hello there blogoaphere! This is hoping that technology would help me curb my procrastination in blogging. The year is about to come to a close and i have to say thay it has been PHABUHLOUS! Praise God above who sovereignly governs all in all! soli Deo gloria!

Some Preliminary Observation Notes On Luke 15:1-2; 11-32

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him.

These people were attracted by the preaching of Jesus, why? What had He been talking about up to this point? Tax collectors are taken as a different group of people as sinners, why? Jesus does not shy away from them.

Wall Street Crisis

Got this in my email today… interesting read:

If you have difficulty understanding the current world financial situation, the following story might help———

Once upon a time in a village in India , a man announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10.

The villagers seeing there were many monkeys around, went out to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10, but, as the supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their efforts.

The man further announced that he would now buy at $20.
This renewed the efforts of the villagers and they started catching monkeys again. Soon the supply diminished even further and people started going back to their farms.
The offer rate increased to $25 and the supply of monkeys became so little that it was an effort to even see a monkey, let alone catch it!

The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50!
However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would now act as buyer, on his behalf.  In the absence of the man, the assistant told the villagers: ‘Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that the man has collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when he returns from the city, you can sell them back to him for $50.’

The villagers squeezed together their savings and bought all the monkeys.
Then they never saw the man or his assistant again, only monkeys everywhere!

Welcome to WALL STREET.

If you have peanuts, then you will get all the monkeys that you don’t need.

Have a nice monkey day

note :
If you don’t have peanuts, the monkey will eat you

The Law & Gospel in Smoking Tobacco

Smoking Spiritualized in Two Parts

A Poem by Ralph Erskine (1685-1752)

The following poem, the second Part of which was written by Mr. Erskine, is here insterted, to fill up this Page, as a proper Subject of Meditation to Smokers of Tobacco.

Smoking Spiritualized. In Two Parts. The first Part being an old Meditation upon Smoking Tobacco; the second, a new Addition to it, or Improvement of it.

Part One: The Law *

THIS Indian weed now wither’d quite,

Tho’ green at noon, cut down at night,

Shows thy decay;

All flesh is hay.

Thus think, and smoke tobacco.

He really does know his Bible eh?

The story is told of a very young Seminary graduate who was being interviewed by the Pulpit Committee of a certain church. The Chairman of the Committee, a leading elder in the church, said to the young man, “Son, what part of the Bible do you like the best?” And the young man replied, “Well, I guess I like the New Testament best.” To which the Chairman replied, “Well, why don’t you tell us a story, perhaps your favorite story, in the New Testament.” The young man said, “I think my favorite is the story of the Prodigal Son.” The Chairman asked him to tell the story so they would know how much Bible knowledge he had. And here is what he told them.

three sonnets

I

This early morn, as you seek the Lord’s face,
So apply your heart upon His true Word;
May God there meet you, in the secret place,
Filled with His Spirit, may His voice be heard.

Happy 16th birthday 朱文凡!

Called to Live in Antithesis to the World

Text: Romans 12:1-2 (esv)

¹ I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. ² Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The concept of antithesis is one that is perhaps familiar to most if not to all of us. In its most basic definition, antithesis simply means: the opposite of something. For example: the opposite of night is day, the opposite of right is wrong, and the opposite of good is evil. Thus we say that righteousness is in antithesis to, or is antithetical to wickedness. In fact we know that even in the Bible, we find many examples of antithesis: in Genesis for example, there are the sons of Cain and then there are the sons of Seth (Genesis 4-6), in Exodus we find on one hand Israel and on the other hand all the other nations (Exodus 19:5-6), the first Psalm contrasts for us the righteous and the wicked (Psalm 1), the book of Proverbs talks about the ways of the wise versus the ways of the foolish (Proverbs 1:7). Similarly, in the New Testament, the Lord Jesus Christ tells us about the saved and the lost (Matthew 18:11), the children of Abraham and the children of the devil (John 8:39-44). The Apostle Paul also, a few chapters before he writes our present text, in his letter to the young Christians in Rome, distinguished between the elect and the non-elect; the vessels of mercy and the vessels of wrath (Romans 9). Elsewhere, he talks to us about the difference between believers and unbelievers (1 Corinthians 6:6), practitioners of the wisdom of the world and of the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1-2). Thus we know that this Biblical concept of antithesis is something that is very real and very important, something that we as Christians must pay much attention to. Now as we venture to examine what our passage holds for us, it is very important for us to keep in mind this concept of opposites and how like water and oil, opposites can not and do not mix together.

To my High School Sunday School Students

My dear little children,

Greetings from Zamboanga city! It’s my second day here and there’s not much for me to do yet. Mondays and Tuesdays are “free” days as there are no ministries scheduled. However the rest of the week is quite hectic so do pray for me. On Wednesday evenings I will be sharing a devotional during the weekly prayer meeting and this would be in Chinese! golly. And then there’s YoungPro fellowship on Thursday evenings, youth fellowship on Saturday evenings, and college sunday school on sundays. Please remember me in prayers.

I hope that you are all still having your daily devotions diligently. Remember that it is for you own good. Continue also to memorize your catechism questions and Bible books of the OT.

As promised, here are a couple of links that i would recommend:

www.reformed.org – you can find the shorter catechism here

www.monergism.com – you can virtually find material about any topic in the bible here

www.desirringGod.org – this is the website of John Piper.

Till here for now, do drop me a line, comment or YM… i would try to reply ASAP.