I12Know's Xanga

Good News Begins, Pt.3 and 4

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 20:43:39 GMT

For those of you who misses the sermons, here are the next two in our series "Genesis1: Good News Begins"

http://tinyurl.com/GoodNewsBegins03-Culture - I also reccomend the book "Culture Making" on the subject (the first 5 chapters are free from that site).

http://tinyurl.com/GoodNewsBegins04-Marriage

And if you want the whole series, try this link as we update it: http://tinyurl.com/GoodNewsBegins

While you are enjoying the message on marriage, may I reccommend this post here: How Not to Get Divorced (some thoughts from a Christian perspective) - and Jenney really likes John Piper's mom example in marriage.

Suing the people who save your life

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 15:12:22 GMT

I was listen to the radio talk show "Handle on The Law" today - where Bill Handle gave marginal legal advices to people who call in - and I cannot believe this conversation: a lady Mariann from Iowa called Bill and asked if she can sue the hospital, because she had a heart-attack. She was brain dead and they resucistate her. She got out-of-body experience and all that, and still want to milk the hospital, eventhough they saved her life!

This is just top my ist of the absurds - and hearing her lived on the radio was just amazing!

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Sat, 27 Sep 2008 04:16:00 GMT

As I was preparing for the message this weekend, I was reminded by this quote:

When people gather at the foot of a pulpit, they are hungry. High above the cries of babies, the clearing of throats, the sound of people turning the pages of their Bibles, you'll hear roaring stomachs. So you can be sure that your listeners won't settle for crumbs. They want a whole loaf of bread. They've come expecting you to cook up something of which they've never heard or dreamed. No leftovers! Their ears are wide open, but their mouths even wider. They sit there waiting for you to place something special on their tongues—something to digest that will go straight to their hearts, not their stomachs.

It's a tough job to fulfill that order. But it forced preachers like me to wrestle much more with what God wants us to proclaim to His people. In the course of that struggling, we confer with others prayerfully through commentaries, books, emails, blogs, sermons, etc. This week, that process forced me to Andy Crouch's insights on Culture. Even the free chapters on the web were just mind blowing: http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3394

On the Collapsing of the Market - Pt.2

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:01:56 GMT

This is insane:

The US leaders have made promises to the American people that they can't possibly keep: Our government faces future liabilities of at least $53 trillion—that's trillion with a "T." This includes entitlements, government pensions, Medicare, and other promises we have made. It's $175,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.

We should learn to get only what we can afford. Live within our means.

Good News Begins sermons 1 & 2

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:25:38 GMT

For those of you who misses the sermons, here are the MP3s:

http://tinyurl.com/GoodNewsBegins01-Creation

http://tinyurl.com/GoodNewsBegins02-WorknRest

Rev. Nathan Ho was just truly astounding in the last one!

Good Bye Jennifer

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 12:52:59 GMT

Two years ago after Ignite conference 06, I went to your house to pick up Timmy, I found you crying in the arms of your neighbor. Your mom and dad, grandma and grandpa were no where to be found. They left you and Timmy to the next door neighbor while they were rushing David to the hospital.

That night Jenney and I were on our way home but my wife changed her mind and wanted to sleep at your house instead to keep your family in company. It was God’s providence. For if we weren’t there that night, Child Protective Services had taken you away for good. That night, you came home with us as our foster child. You were 15 months then.

The tragedy has been going on for a while now. Your dad was arrested right before your eyes. You were too young to know. But Timmy was frightened. Your brother was placed in a disabled group home. Your mom was forced away from her home in order to prove that she is concerned for her children.

I remembered your reaction in those first few days. You hated us. You came to church and hold on to anyone else but us. Since in your little mind, we were the same people who separated your family. You have no idea what sort of trials we put ourselves in for your sake.

The first few months were hell. CPS allowed 8 hours a week visitation right between you and your mom. And most day we packed our family on a 40 minutes trip to grandma’s house just so you can see your mom. You have no idea how painful it is when I heard Timmy asked wearily, “Why can’t we have dinner at our house and have to eat dinner at grandma’s all the time.”

And your incessant cries late at night felt like never stopping. We slept a few times, you and me, in the van, in order for you to learn some proper routines. You were such a spoiled brat. And it's hard to un-spoil an 18 months old.

But then in times, you were raised with much more structures and supports. And the Christian Day Care and Pre-school did such an awesome job of teaching you too.

We got your mom the best lawyer to fight Child Protective Services to regain custody of both you and your brother. We go head to head with the evil agency, blow for blow, through much up and down. We and your aunt Becky were with your mom at every single court date, every single doctor’s appointment for your brother.

Finally last year we got your brother home with us. And shortly there after your mom moved in and looked after her children as well.

Sometimes we wish that your mom would just abandon the whole thing, then we would be taken care of you for good. But your mom’s stubbornness is beyond measure. It’s a good thing because she would be persistent in pursuing her kids. But it’s also a big problem since she would not listen to anyone including us.

You are also naturally stubborn too. I can already see your 3 years-old defiance stance against your mom. And with your dad not around, I am not even sure what would your future hold.

Now that we are selling house, your mom has to move to her brother’s place. We are saying farewell to you. Last night Timmy was crying himself to sleep since he misses you a lot. “I like Jennifer.” He said. Aunt Becky was crying too. Even your teachers at the school missed you. “Will she still be going to another preschool?” They asked. I just shook my head, “I don’t know” with much hesitation.

Today I was helping your mom moved to your uncle’s place. I saw where you will be sleeping with your mom and David tonight. Perhaps your mom will hold you tight and she will cry a lot. She might even hated Fate, which charged this horrible course for her and her children.

But don’t listen to her. One of my seminary friends who grew up from a project told me once, “I’ve always told my boys from the hood: you gotta get that victim mentality out of your head! Once you think that you are a victim, you shift the blame and the responsibility entirely to someone else, and you will no longer strive to get out of the misery!”

I am sad because I know that children of the poor will be at risk 300% more than other children, just because of their background status. I am sad because we have made some good options available for your mom, but she was just too stubborn, too lazy, and too foolish to attain. Tim Keller taught that sometimes we could have the best intention to help the poor, but then without wisdom they are ending up worse than they did before. Your mom now gets a bigger income from the government compares to her nail salon day. I am sad because she is resting on that. I am sad because at the end you will lose out in this situation, although you are completely innocent.

I am just so sad.

I guess the only thing I could do is continue to pray and continue to hope. We will continue to pick you up for church on Sundays (hopefully your mom would get you dressed and ready on times). We will continue to bring you to visit your dad so that you guys can keep up the relationships. Timmy and I were just praying for you and your family again tonight. I pray that one day, when our King returns, all the sad things will become untrue. Yes, all of it. Until then, I commit your future in His hand.

Ignite08: on College Evangelism

Sat, 20 Sep 2008 15:44:54 GMT

Ignite is an annual evangelism conference for Intervarsity in California (and UNLV). I first discovered Ignite in 2005. It was the first time I met Doug – Gary’s former IV boss. This year Doug gave a similar message like back then, but it is great for me to hear some more update on his student convert Mark. Who would have known then that a humbling wrestling match would have now changed the lives of 9 million people in India through micro-financing? What a story about the power of the Gospel seed, fully grown into a tree and become home for the birds (Mk.4)

The Friday night session alone was worth the $25 cost of the conference. Doug was as effective as ever. The skit on International Evangelism Olympic was great. It reminded me that the icing would always make the cake more appealing. I pray that we would have the same passion and creativity into our worship services. I also really admire the way the Prayer Leader applying the Word to the audience. I have seen that role in IV conferences since Urbana 90; and it helps people process the message a great deal. Did you also notice how the Prayer Leader applied the message to each audience category? Very well thought out.

The next morning I had a meeting so I didn’t catch James Choung message. After his book 2 years ago, he is now fairly well known. Christianity Today recently had an article on him and his breakthrough evangelism tool using the 4 circles. [In short, I think he is out of range for us to invite him as speaker ]

At the conference, I attended a workshop with Mary Poplin, a Christian professor, who covered the 3 prevalent world views in the university quite well: scientific naturalism, secular humanism, and (interestingly enough) pantheism. The professor was working on the field with Mother Teresa for three years (she even wrote a book about it) and so it really interesting to hear her talk. She made me think that my believing colleagues should meet for lunch more openly on campus just like they do.

The second workshop I attended was led by Wendi Marchena on the topic of following up new members. What made the session fascinating to me is instead of talking about what curriculum you should use (like the same workshop did in 2006), she talked about how to use an excel database to track follow-up effort, and doing some analysis with the data collected. Perhaps getting the right curriculum is not as important as having someone mentoring new members as soon as possible.

At the end of the workshop, I approached Wendi and asked her, “Could you also track visitors the same way you track new members? Would you then have even better effective outreach?” I was blown away by her response: “We can’t really track visitors. Our large group meeting on campus is over 500 people. That’s why we only track people who make decisions.” Wow. Talking about the harvest.

Overall Ignite was a great annual conference. I wish that more people from our Viet churches would attend. Then perhaps we can take advantage of their Campus’s strategy time and have our own church strategy as well. May be that should be something VAY should look into.

On the Collapsing of the Market

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 16:37:00 GMT

Many of us may be too young to understand the impact of the market crash this week. While the details are hard to understand, I found Chuck Colson's summary worthwhile:

Michael Novak, the great theologian, has said that Western democratic capitalism is like a three-legged stool, resting on political freedom, economic freedom, and moral restraint. Take away moral restraint, and the stool collapses.
Look at how we reached this crisis: Sensing easy money, Wall Street bundled up mortgages without regard to risk, sold them off, and made a big profit. Risky, even dangerous mortgages were then being offered to people who had little chance of paying them off. And when the housing market slowed and house values went down, the mortgage market began to collapse like—dare I say it—a house of cards.

We are still continuing with the sale of our house. If it went through, we will know that God is really behind it. Right?

We put our house on sale

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 06:20:54 GMT

I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings. – Jesus, Luke 16:9

Last Sunday Rev. Thomas Stebbins preached from this passage on the Parable of the Shrewd Manager. This verse jumped out at me because as it speaks into our situation.

We are putting the house up for sale. We hope to be able to move closer to church, into the heart of Orange County. Jenney and I had several discussions about this. We also prayed and consulted with people (even though I know that TK have always wanted that). We checked and re-checked our motives. We weighed the pros and cons and considered the implication of taking on another mortgage.

Some people want to use their money for nice cars. Some want to use it for vacations. We want a place that we could “gain friends for ourselves”. May be we could even share our home with people whom we invested in as well.

Living too far from people and it is hard to do life together. When I have counseling sessions, it is too far for couple to come. When we have small groups, some had to drive forever to get here. And Jenney won’t be able to coach anyone on her cooking techniques.

So we are committing to sell. But we are also praying that God could stop us too, if it is not in His will. After all, it’s His money.

Please keep us in your prayer.

Before and After - Pt. 2

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 05:50:21 GMT

I haven't blogged for awhile. Things have been busy. Finally our offices moved to the new Data Center too.

Here's the picture of my old cubicle:

I had to come in to work last week on Saturday and Sunday to clear all the stuff. I threw out half a dumpster worth of stuff. Even though I only camped at that cubicle for the last 10 years, I also had a lot of stuff over the last 20 years I work there.

Here is my office after I finished unpacking today:

The picture looks dark because it was against the light. But the funny thing is that I chose to have my back against the windows to create a cramping atmosphere. This is because I am so used to the cramp cubicle. And the reason I chose the cramp cubicle when other subordinates even have bigger cubicle than me is because the 10 years before that my office is in a wiring closet in the corner of the old library.

I guess eventually I will adjust.

In the mean time, have you notice that whenever there is an office scene in the movie, the manager always have his back to the window too. How weird.