vyctr's Xanga

Monday, October 06, 2008

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:31:39 GMT

o praise him

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Sat, 04 Oct 2008 16:59:26 GMT

offense of the cross, how to soften

http://poststop.wordpress.com/2006/10/31/peter-jensen-three-strategies-to-soften-the-offense-of-the-cross/

Saturday, July 05, 2008

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:21:32 GMT

now, even less

His righteousness was very very good. in fact any blame and anger for mens' deaths must be put on themselves for sinning so much. part of me was relieved that his physical suffering in his old age on earth was passed. but I wasn't happy that he was dead. There are only less than a handful people that i have the joy and previledge of knowing and befriending who have run the race and that I would be happy to hear that they have finished running and can finally rest in the prescence of our king and savior.

now, again

Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 18:50:51 GMT

needed, one thing

i recently have been reading entries to the revelife blog ring (which seems to be a group of believers who like to blog, but i dont understand it fully myself) because its been on the front xanga page. I just finished reading this one:

http://weblog.revelife.com/weblogitem.aspx?user=revelife&uid=660442281

about how a guy "lost" his faith in God. i thot i'd jot it down, so i'd remember it. as i was reading it, i felt really bad for the guy, he had sincerely sought God for what seemed like an incredibly long time, reading through the bible several times, and earnestly seeking the Lord, but he heard no answer and in his despair he finally stopped "believing".

And then I got to the last line, which says
"That was the last day that I spoke to God. I was eight years old."

I hope this doesn't sound arrogrant and that I'm putting down a guy's real life story, which I don't doubt to be sincere, especially since obviously the revelife people blogged it for reasons to encourage and uplift. Furthermore, I know I don't understand everything there is about the situation. Nor am I putting down the serious nature of topics about people who seek after God or apostasy, but seriously the first thing I thought after reading that was: what a joke.

the thoughts during this guys "seeking" period seemed so well developed. But does a spiritually unregenerate child less than 8, without the guidance of godly parents or a godly church have the ability to even partially understand the God of the bible and then base the rest of his life off what he concludes? It seems that this 8 year old guy's (and his older counterpart) understanding of God is similar to that of a genie in a magic lamp that does not grant wishes.

I think the reason that this made it here is that the account initially seemed so incredibly deep, but in the end it ended up being the incredibly deep thoughts of someone who was less than 8 years old. So perhaps what is most interesting about the post is not the content of what was written, but rather the way it was written. I hope that now he's older, he would consider some of the comments left, get his questions answered, and by the grace of God get saved. Praise God that He calls and saves wretches, of which i am one of the worst.

On another note, this is what the blog is similar to. it's as if I were to write something about how i spent many years seeking relationships with girls and I would befriend many, many ladies and grow intimately close with a bunch of them. The journey would be long and filled with sorrow, and finally the last one did not satisfy me for some arbitrary reason, and I swore off women forever.

Then as my last sentence i'd write:
"That was the last time I believed in women. I was 8 years old.
P.S. girls are yucky."

This feels like the most controversial post in the history of my xanga!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 19:07:18 GMT

NBC

Surf dudes with attitudes (Kinda groovy)
Laid back moods
Sky above, sand below (Good vibrations)
Feelin' mellow
Don't wake me up
Don't wanna stop

(Don't wake me up)
Don't wake me up if I'm dreaming (California dreams)
Just let me lay here in the sun
Until my dream is done

Palm trees, ocean breeze (Let's go cruising)
You and me
Salt air, sun bleached hair (Endless summer)
Take me there
Won't let it go
Want more and more

Noise and confusion
Tough times in the neighborhood
Let me keep my illusion
These dreams are good

It seems that when I spend a lot of time on xanga and the internet in general, I'm very happy and excited about something or things are not going so well. This is one of them days.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:07:15 GMT

not ok

Q: When is it ok to drink?

A: Lampshade on Lamp = OK to drink
Lampshade on Head = NOT OK to drink

and do not get drunk on wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit

Monday, June 09, 2008

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:51:00 GMT

man, iron

Cam: I thought I would create this, so that the people who read could know some cool bass lines, riffs, and licks. I'll start

Ironman.
E| 0-3-3-5-5-8-7-8-7-8-7-3-3-5-5-|
A|------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------------|
e|-------------------------------------------|

Smoke on the water.
E| 0-3-5-0-3-6-5-0-3-5-3-0-0|
A|------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------|
G|------------------------------------|
B|------------------------------------|
e|-------------------------------------|

Dave: Ummm...that's not how you play either of those songs.
Not even close.

Cam: sry about the crappy tabs guys, that's how my guitar teacher gave them to us.

Dave: No offense to you or your teacher but if I gave those tabs out to my students, I'd be just a little embarrassed.
Really, those songs are fairly easy to play in their correct form so I don't see the point of especially a teacher of all people handing out the "play incorrect single notes on the wound E string" versions.

Cam: Can you give us the correct versions?

Dave: "Iron Man" is all power chords and should go as follows:

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-4----7----7---9---9-----12---11---12---11---12---11---7---7---9---9-
-4----7----7---9---9-----12---11---12---11---12---11---7---7---9---9-
-2----5----5---7---7-----10----9----10---9-----10----9---5---5---7---7-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cam: Thanks!

Bill: My guitar teacher's iron man tab just said
Naahhhh nahhhh na na na. na-n-n-n-n-n-n-na na na.

Friday, June 06, 2008

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 18:38:37 GMT

measure, comfort above all

Let us equip ourselves against the accusations of Satan with this and similar passages of Holy Scripture. If he says, 'Thou shalt be damned,' you tell him: 'No, for I fly to Christ who gave Himself for my sins. In accusing me of being a damnable sinner, you are cutting your own throat, Satan. You are reminding me of God's fatherly goodness toward me, that He so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. In calling me a sinner, Satan, you really comfort me above measure.' With such heavenly cunning we are to meet the devil's craft and put from us the memory of sin."

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Tue, 20 May 2008 22:14:08 GMT

Mein Gott, zwei kilogram!

http://www.leftfield.org/%7Escott/misc/toilet.htm

Thursday, May 01, 2008

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:20:40 GMT

Hello, my grandfather just died

well, he died on Saturday and i've been thinking about it for the past couple of days. i was in florida for the cheer and dance worlds starting friday morning, and i got a message on my cell phone Sunday morning from my mom that said my grandfather went to the hospital saturday night and that I should call my grandmother. i heard it first thing in the morning around 7ish and because of the 3 hour time difference i thought i'd call her in the afternoon sometime when she got back home from church.

Around 5 pm est, i was following the shandong normal university team over to the indiana jones theatre after they had finished warming up and just reached the backstage where there were a few teams in front of them. my phone rang and it was andrew, he asked me if i heard any news about my grandfather and i realized that i hadn't had a chance to think about calling my grandma or mom back all day so i said, i heard he went to the hospital. and andrew told me i should call my mom and after a short pause, he said that my grandfather had gone to be with the Lord. i said i'd call my mother.

so with the cheer and dance music blaring from the stage, I called my mom and she told me that my grandfather passed away saturday night around 6:50 pm. after that i went and sat in the seats and watched the team perform. they did pretty good i think, i had seen their act while they were practicing the day before. i went back and forth between the warmup area and the performance area for the other teams for the rest of the afternoon.

after the competition, i walked around MGM studios with jean and we went on star tours and the great movie ride. while in line i finished a conversation about what is required to go to heaven from the afternoon and the biggest difference between christianity and every other religion in the whole world.

its interesting that this weekend the book i had brought with me was a collection of writings about the assurance of salvation. and i have been carefully considering my grandfather's salvation. i can look instrospectively at my own life and examine scripture and have a certain degree of assurance of my salvation. when i look at other people's lives and examine scripture, i have a significantly less certain degree of assurance of their salvation. this is of course not to say they are not saved, its just to say that i cannot examine other men's selves as well i can examine myself. Even when i think of great men and women of God, I certainly cannot know the certainty of their salvation as well as my own. So i can say confidently for myself, that i am extremely blessed and thankful for the incredible work and power of the cross.

This reminds of an account with chris petersen so many years ago. he was talking about his grandfather and how he could not "preach" him into heaven. I don't recall the exact details and i don't know if i understood what he was saying correctly at the time, but the impression that it left was that his grandfather requested him to preach at his funeral and that he could not with a clear conscience preach about where his grandfather was going.
the night after i got back from florida (tuesday night) i went to dinner with my mom, my uncle and aunt, and my grandma. my dad was still in macau and my mom and uncle were talking about plans for the funeral on saturday like where to eat and whos coming, etc. they talked about my great 2nd uncle (its pretty complicated) (whos the pastor at EFC Walnut, see http://chinese.efcwalnut.org/ or alternatively http://english.efcwalnut.org/) and how he would probably be preaching or maybe pastor ling. they talked about his brother whos a pastor somewhere else in socal. they talked about pastor Ye, who was a close family friend (who by the way married my uncle and his wife, but hey, i was candle lighter in the ceremony, so i'm the first guy to drop my stone and walk away). and with pastor ling and andrew, im thinking there will probably be a lot of preaching on saturday afternoon. but as i was sitting and eating my yang chow fried rice, i made a mental note that men do not enter heaven by preaching, but by crucifixion.

I received an interesting voice message on tuesday from a young friend whose spiritual life ive been praying for on and off for the past 3 years. He himself has been through quite a bit this past year and in his message he said he had heard about my grandfather and that he hopes everything is ok. he said not to worry and that God is control. now i can take this two ways, one way is that he is trying to console my anguish with good positive thoughts about God, similarly to how people would say "God bless America" after 9/11. The other way is to awkwardly encourage and edify me from the bottom of his heart his condolences and express his thoughts about the great sovereignty of God such that I would not be upset; that the same Father who sovereignly gave his Son over to death for my sake will not withold anything else that I would need. I imagine its a mixture of both. the message was certainly not something that I expected.

I am not upset about my grandfather's death. Perhaps it would be different if my mom or dad died, or maybe if my wife or children were to pass away (if i had them of course) and I would be angry or sad, but my first thoughts on that sunday afternoon was that God was very very good. and that his justice was very very good. and His righteousness was very very good. in fact any blame and anger for mens' deaths must be put on themselves for sinning so much. part of me was relieved that his physical suffering in his old age on earth was passed. but I wasn't happy that he was dead. There are only less than a handful people that i have the joy and previledge of knowing and befriending who have run the race and that I would be happy to hear that they have finished running and can finally rest in the prescence of our king and savior.