Wednesday, 08 July 2009

  • Currently
    Parables of Jesus, The: A Guide to Understanding and Applying the Stories Jesus Taught
    By R. T. Kendall
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    Dead Celebrities & Me

    "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5)
    Once upon a time there was a kid who grew to be an amazing musician. His ascent to fame started in Motown, where he was a part of many hit songs and records that we still listen and love today. Then he went solo and made a landmark album that was so groundbreaking that it completely revolutionized his genre of music. His artistry influenced so many musicians that everyone wanted to be like him. However, while he was at his peak musically, his personal life started to crumble. He went through failed marriages, was diagnosed with mental disorder, exhibited lots of eccentric behaviors, engaged in a long period of substance abuse, spent away much of his money, and lived a reclusive life before his tragic death. After his death, a star-studded memorial service was held in which his former friends celebrated his life and artistry.

    The person I'm talking about is Jaco Pastorius (1951-1987). Who is that, you may ask? If you are a bass player, you would probably know Jaco as one of the greatest bass player that ever lived. His self-titled album revolutionized bass playing, and his songs still amaze many who hear him until this day. But despite his brilliance, he was a lost soul in the last few years of his life, and he died beaten to death outside a bar after a night of binge drinking.

    Jaco's story somehow sounds eerily similar to the the life and death of many celebrities, including recent dead celebrities like Michael Jackson and (to a lesser degree) Steve McNair. When a brilliant person passes away, people usually say things like "I choose to remember so-and-so as an amazing person who contributed so much beauty to the world" or something like that. However, I think that with the passage of time, people will inevitably forget about the messy stuff in a dead celebrity's life, and all that's left are the good memories. That's ok, that's natural, but when a celebrity dies, I "choose" to try to learn from the celebrity's failures from his/her life while the memory is still fresh and untainted.

    Last week, after learning of Michael Jackson's death, I tweeted that "Michael Jackson's death tells me that some people die and leave behind a lot of debt, bad influences, and another example of a life wasted"... I should have known that a 140-character limit on Twitter is not going to be enough to talk about such a complicated thing as someone's life, and I received a few responses via Twitter and Facebook, one of which was a particularly angry response saying how I can talk about a dead person that way.

    The truth is, like I said, I was trying to learn lessons from Michael Jackson. In fact, I really love Michael Jackson's music -- one of the reasons I love English songs so much while growing up in Hong Kong was artists like Michael Jackson. But today I look at him again with fresh eyes. One day my family was at a friend's house, and they were playing old Michael Jackson music videos on the TV. When I saw that my     3-year-old son Chase was watching those dance moves by Michael Jackson where he was thrusting his groin area toward the girls and incorporating "grabbing his crotch" as a part of the dance moves, I had to ask my friend to turn off the TV immediately. Until that day, I hadn't realized how obscene Michael Jackson's dance moves were.

    In fact, Wikipedia's entry on Michael Jackson said that he probably had a condition known as "body dysmorphic disorder, a psychological condition whereby the sufferer has no concept of how he is perceived by others." That's a terrible condition to have, and it probably explains why he could be such an "entertainer," because he could dangle a baby outside a window or danced on top of a car in the middle of his child molestation trial. I feel sad for Michael Jackson, because I can imagine how he struggles with his own identity, leading him to undergo numerous cosmetic operations and just feeling lost in the world.

    I'm also reminded of a passage in Luke 13:1-5, where someone asked Jesus about some current events (during that time) about some people dying. Jesus' response was a table-turning response: "I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish." (Luke 13:5) The reflection of the recent celebrities deaths for me is that I need to watch my own life too. At times, I feel like I abused my liberties and sinned against God, and at times I've been living as a lost soul. So I guess learning about and thinking about dead celebrities is a good thing for me -- because it's a lesson that I also need to watch how I live my life and my legacy to my children and to this world.

Sunday, 05 July 2009

Monday, 29 June 2009

Monday, 15 June 2009

Friday, 12 June 2009

  • Currently
    Frost/Nixon
    By Frank Langella, Michael Sheen, Sam Rockwell, Kevin Bacon, Matthew Macfadyen
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    The Bible Makes Us Look Stupid

    Acts 1:3 After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

    Acts 1:4 On one occasion, while he was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.

    Acts 1:5 For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

    Acts 1:6 So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"


    In Acts 1:3, Jesus spent 40 days talking with the disciples about the kingdom of God, but then 3 verses later, the disciples asked Jesus a stupid question about the "kingdom," as if they have not learned anything from the last 40 days! I thought, why would Luke, the author of Acts, record such an embarrassing incident about himself and his fellow disciples? I think Luke is not ashamed to tell us that we are stupid people, even when we're in the presence of the Lord, we seldom really get it. It's a good thing that, from time to time, the Bible reminds us that we're stubborn and stupid people.


Wednesday, 10 June 2009

  • Currently
    Life Light Up
    By Christy Nockels
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    Text Of Our Sharing At Church On June 7

    Wendy and I had a short 5-minute sharing during the Sunday worship service on June 7. The main purpose was to encourage brothers and sisters to sign up for a marriage enrichment camp this July. But I think the sharing might have wider appeal, so I'm posting it here since it might be interesting to you:


    My name is Tim and this is my wife Wendy. We have two children, Chase, 3 years old, and River, 7 months old. We've been married 9 years and 10 months, and we're about to celebrate our 10 year anniversary next month. We're happy to share about the upcoming marriage enrichment camp.

    Over the past 10 years of marriage we went through a lot of things, including some tough times when the two of us came very close to separating. About 7 years ago, Wendy started telling me weird things, like "I wish I was single" or "If I start over, I would not get married." At that time, I did not think much of it. But now I realize that it's something very much true with husbands and wives. Even while the wife is suffering silently inside battling her disappointments with the martial relationship, the husband would think everything is just fine; and that was how I was at the time.

    At that time both of us were heavily involved in both church ministries and parachurch ministries. But we neglected to spending time to building up our relationship in the home. We should not just be Christians when we "serve" or "go to church." First and foremost, Christ's command for us to love one another needs to be lived out in the home. Someone once said, "我們正常生活的中心就是我們屬靈生活的中心", and this certainly applies to living out our faith in our workplaces and in our homes and in our marriages. And if being busy at church interferes with that, we really should re-examine our priorities.

    The Bible says that wives should submit to the husband, and the husband should love his wife as himself. But this is all very unnatural to us humans. Would any of you wives wake up in the morning and just choose to be gladly submissive to your husband? Or would any of you husbands wake up in the morning and just choose to care for your wife's needs just as importantly as your own? We are all inherently selfish people, we prefer too much to hide from conflict instead of dealing with issues, and we tend to hide our feelings instead of having open communication. This is why we need help to learn and improve in our marriage relationships.

    So here's a challenge for you: Tonight, ask your spouse to rate, on a scale of 1-10, how satisfied he/she is in this marriage. And if you feel more daring, ask, "If you could do it over again, would you have married me?" If the answer is not satisfactory, it may not be a bad thing; it's just a signal that something needs to be worked on in the marriage. The upcoming marriage enrichment camp is an opportunity for you to discuss the issues you can work on, and there are other couples who can offer support. We hope you'll all consider going to this camp.



Monday, 08 June 2009

Friday, 05 June 2009

Wednesday, 03 June 2009

Thursday, 28 May 2009

  • Currently
    Love Is Against the Grain
    By Dime Store Prophets
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    I Just Decided To Stop Watching J&K+8

    This has been quite a week. On Monday I wrote a blog post recommending people to watch Jon & Kate Plus 8, but today I've just decided to stop watching the show.

    What happened is that I realized more and more that, when I was watching the show, it was like I was watching animals at a zoo. You know how at a zoo, you go up to where some animals are, and you go, "Wow, look the tiger just pranced out...... look the bear just lied down in front of us...... look the monkey just scratched his back......" Any of those actions would normally be a boring, ordinary everyday thing, but because we invested the time and money to go to the zoo to see the animals, we blew those ordinary things out of proportion. I have to ask myself whether this is healthy behavior.

    But this is not just a point of consideration for the viewers, but the viewees. Reality TV used to be about game shows like Survivor. At least, for those shows, there's a definite end game that you can look forward to, when you're done with being in the limelight. But with a show like J&K+8, it seems like there's no end in sight. Their lives are inseparable from a TV show. I watched Monday night's Season 5 premiere on YouTube and noticed that the kids have become very withdrawn. And Jon and Kate's lives have become unnatural, and whether they're aware of it or not, they are living and breathing their lives for the sake of their TV audience. Reality is manipulated to be made more appealing.

    I have to admit that, having edited documentary-style videos for my kids and for other people, that I have used techniques in my video editing to bend reality. I felt immense guilty pleasure and power in being able to put a clip before another when they really occurred in the reverse order in reality -- I did time rearranging so that the "story" can be told in a more appealing way. Also, in my kids' videos, the kids seem to smile a lot more and talk a lot more, because I cut out the boring stuff and just leave the highlights in the final video. After doing this for a while, I would even be able to justify myself to twist the reality with my "superior video editing skills" -- and, yes, I even admit to have done some reality twisting on a couple of occasions in my videos.

    Anyway, as of now, I'm no longer watching Jon & Kate plus Eight... I also need to repent of my video editing sins... and also I wish J&K the best and hopefully they'll work out their marriage and family issues and put their trusts in God and not TV ratings...