7/20/2026 Monday
Who is closer to God: The one preaching in the pulpit or the one listening in the congregation? Nadia was once confronted by the Indonesian Pentecostal pastor long time ago in Elmhurst (of course, that pastor's point was to raise pastors higher) with the same question:
The Redemptive-Historical Connection by AI:
[ The South Flank Is Hit ] [ God Thunders Ownership ] [ The Foot Tramples Evil ]
Israel is routed and staggered. ───► God declares His absolute rule. ───► God promises ultimate victory.
Jesus is beaten and crucified. ───► Jesus claims "All authority is mine." ──► Satan is crushed under our feet.
v.1: God is angry against Israel. But we are not clear on what Israel did to wrong God. Some said it's a test, some said it's Israel's complacency (i.e. not guarding their southern border against Edomites).
Here we have a lot of free resources. Now, these resources are even online. 3D tools, virtual tours, maps, etc. I used Granola to attend their National Education Summit 2026 July 14-16 today virtually. I also archive this Granola notes on my Photos drive under 2026 Journal Media folder.
And here's my notes of the workshop on Beyond the Visit: Smithsonian Digital Tools:
Chat with meeting transcript: https://notes.granola.ai/t/e330347c-d42f-4800-8c6a-0855460705f2
the TGR Learning Lab, a major STEM education facility in West Philadelphia's Cobbs Creek area. Funded by Tiger Woods' foundation, the state-of-the-art makerspace features free access to cutting-edge 3D printers, drones, and engineering programs for local students and educators. [1, 2, 3, 4]
Key Details & Resources:
The other workshop I attended (but not fully paying attention on) was: Using Digital Games to Teach What Matters. Not much to gain from this one except for the website URL: https://ssec.si.edu/game-center
7/13/2026 Monday
New Jersey has officially become stupid by being the only state around the North Eastern States to require license and registration and insurance for operating E-Bikes and E-Scooters. For now, I think I'll just have to either make a trip to NJMVC or not ride these e-bikes at all in Jersey. Jersey and Hawaii are crazy about this stuff. Imagine having license plates on your bikes.
Here is the AI's answer, I have just scheduled an appointment with NJMVC for this Thursday 7/16 and I think I'll just register the Babymaker Pro, since the e-scooter is exempt from all these (Roadways up to 19 mph, Turbowheel Dart T9), and CARBO Model X USA requires insurance (at least $75/year):
I have a Turbowheel Dart T9 E-Scooter, A Babymaker Pro e-bike (pedal assist, 350W), and a CARBO Model X USA 250W motor folding e-bike. What are their requirements?
Under New Jersey’s strict 2026 micromobility laws, your three specific vehicles face very different legal requirements based on their top speeds, motor sizes, and throttle configurations. [1]
Here is exactly how the state classifies each of your models and what you must do to operate them legally:
🛴 Turbowheel Dart T9 E-Scooter
🚲 Babymaker Pro E-Bike (Pedal Assist, 350W)
🚲 CARBO Model X USA (250W Motor Folding E-Bike)
Summary Checklist for Your Fleet
| Vehicle | DMV Registration | Insurance Needed | Driver's License | Max NJ Speed Allowed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Turbowheel Dart T9 | Exempt ❌ | No ❌ | No ❌ | Roadways up to 19 mph |
| Babymaker Pro | Required | No ❌ | Required | Roadways up to 20 mph |
| CARBO Model X USA | Required | Yes | Required | Roadways up to 20 mph |
State Compliance Reminder
Please note that all riders on both your Babymaker Pro and CARBO Model X are legally required to wear a properly fitted helmet at all times. [1, 2]
If you need assistance finding an e-bike insurance carrier that satisfies New Jersey's motorized bicycle requirements for your CARBO Model X, let me know!
You said: Do I need helmets for all 3?
Yes, helmets are legally mandatory for all three of your vehicles in New Jersey, but the age requirements vary slightly.
Under New Jersey state law and South Amboy Ordinance 2026-02, the specific helmet rules for your fleet are:
Why You Should Wear One Anyway in South Amboy
Even though adults are exempt on the e-scooter, the South Amboy Police Department's progressive penalty system strictly targets micromobility safety violations. Wearing helmets across all three vehicles is the easiest way to avoid being stopped for an educational warning or a compliance check.
How to fail in apologetics: Frank Turek did it again in his rationalist vs. rationalist. His favorite line of argument: "If Christianity is true, would you believe it..." This is such a lame line, it's like asking "If God commands you to rape women, would you obey..." Where Turek fail here is defining what truth and God are with the atheist. His only conclusion for her is that she will go to hell (no different than Fundamentalists' argument) by his "logic". Also notice that Turek's incentive for salvation is really "going to Heaven" instead of reconciliation with God (i.e. not Gospel centered).
Friday: So Nadia and I drove 2 hours (pitstop at CAVA in Bridgewater, Nadia said they did not fill the bowl to full like in NY) to Kutztown University, PA for our first retreat of Crossroads church. We arrive late at 9PM, as expected due to Nadia's work hours. So we missed the first large group session (The compelling love of Christ - 2 Corinthians 5:14-21, basically on double imputations) at 7pm, but I had read ahead earlier, I wonder what they talked about in breakup session at Rickenbach Learning Center. Got keycard (for Dixon Hall dorm entrance and code on card for dorm room door). Room 309A. Shared same suite with Elder J.S. (perhaps there's some wisdom in matching suitemates with couples of different generations) As for Teams, I'm on Pastor Jeff's team and Nadia's in Christina H.'s team. After checking in at dorm, Nadia went straight to bed while I joined the snack hour in community room 112. Chat with some college folks (John, Julian, Daniel), Sam and Tim. Went back to room, told awoken Nadia about the 김밥 (gimbap) and she had me went back down to first floor again to bring her some. It was crowded in Room 112 with about 40+ people I would say, then later to about 20 folks. Apparently the kids have a very separate program and some college kids help serve them without having anything to do with the adults side of program except for worship time (large sessions).
It's 12:41 AM Saturday now, and I can hear Nadia snoring as I type, so I'll study ahead the morning's devotion for a bit and sleep. They encourage unplug, so I printed out both me and Nadia, AI notes, 4 pages, to all large session devotions. Nadia and I both found the AI notes very helpful, especially during Team Breakout sessions.
Update 7/13/2026 Monday Nadia and I are obviously home now, since yesterday. But I will complete this entry from memory.
Saturday Morning, we had breakfast at the South Dining Hall with Dan and Helen. Both Saturday and Sunday Morning breakfast actually. Great time of sharing. Nadia certainly enjoyed talking to them.
I would have to admit that I don't find the large group sessions by Dr. Edwards any of interest. Very textbook. Despite having lively rhetoric. We were provided photo gallery and recordings of the sessions after the retreat via email so I stored them in my Photo drive, while the retreat brochure and notes in my Backup drive. I'll also move/store the Astronomy project (only the 2010 draft was 100% found, but the astronomy slides are incomplete as I tried building them from scratch) in the same backup drive under Crossroads folder. Astronomy project sides I did 16 years ago is likely lost, the Bible Survey and Apologetics slides I did for CCCNY kids also suffered the same fate. I wish I would have sometime to rebuild them.
During Group photo, Lois approached me about being an Ambassador for Christ for Nadia in encouraging her to pray publicly. My mind was miles away at the moment I simply smiled and nodded my head. But later I thought, the short answer could have been just "maybe public speaking is just not for everyone."
Then we had group game, called scavenger hunt, where they combined men's teams and women's teams into 10 teams with the respective matching team numbers. Daniel who's on my team was clever enough to answer most questions: riddle about library, pictograms of the book of Daniel, etc. I suppose every group figured out all the answers. After dinner (sat with Troy and the guys from Pastor Joe's small group from last season), we get to watch the slides of the scavenger hunt answer photos of all teams, before the large group session starts in Rickenbach Learning Center. They were mostly funny and rather creative. Troy's group won, must have been because of his bluemen group photo.
But before dinner, a bunch of us went to tour Crystal Cave, as we previously arranged. I slept through most of the beginning 15 min tour video intro. All I know about the tour is Stalactites and Stalagmites. Robin once tried to conveyed to me something about God's beauty in caves, I wasn't sure what to answer then, and couldn't really respond when she mentioned it a second time the next day after service. But thanks to her initiative in communication, I thought about it, the fact that I could only imagine God's aesthetic in caves to be not the pillars and columns of the caves but the understanding of the long process of their formations. Unlike Galaxies and Nebulae, where the beautiful colors are obvious. I even double checked this with AI: Beauty forged in silence. I wouldn't really call it beauty forged in silence, but the beauty of silent forging.
We saw some milky white stalactites, sparkling flowstone walls (water sheets formed by rocky walls), draperies (cave bacon - water minerals trickling down from ceiling creating wavy sheets that hang down like folded curtains), green mosses due to cave lightings. Too bad we were no longer allowed to touch it these "beauties". It was said that visitors were allowed to break pieces off and bring home as good luck souvenirs decades ago.
My team shared rather personal stuff during the breakout, Pastor Jeff, my team leader, always led the ending prayer. We never really went off topic (questions provided along with the large sessions, weeks before the retreat, another sign of Crossroads' very well organized mentality).
The last Large Group session and Breakout on Saturday night ends with a sort of prayer meeting. We take turns praying for the person to our right, in our own teams. Nadia did not like that. Pastor Dan gave the topics to pray for, which were relevant to the theme of the sessions ending with a less "selfish" prayer for Crossroads and her mission to reach the Gospel to the neighbors and beyond, which both Nadia and I concurred very much later when we talked about it.
I shared my thoughts with Nadia about this prayer thing. That it's a paradox. While I certainly would hate for churches to stop having prayer meetings or prayer groups, the reason I don't usually join these prayer meetings (if I have a choice, Nadia said that she would quit this segment if there's a next time and go to her room, I don't think I could do the same, unless we just leave the retreat at the time, like some, with the "reason" of having other things to do such as preparing for the Sunday Service in Somerville), is because of the lack of evangelism I sense as a whole in the group, which is not necessarily on the pastors, but I just don't get that good impression, not even from Crossroads, despite the fact that I sense Pastor Dan seems to have the desire for Crossroads to do better in that direction. I told Nadia that this prayer style of praying to the person to your right (or left) is just a method, therefore it could have good or bad value out of it. Just like Stephen Tong's praying in unison method, some people find it motivating, some people find it annoying and distracting. The only trick for me to go through this is to concise my prayer so noticeably short (I really don't care about judgment around me at this point) that it's really is like about a sentence long. That's how I would balance my principle of dealing with prayer meetings that I did not sign up for.
After Sunday service (sermon by Dr. Edwards), we lunched (with James and Henry), packed, checked out, and drove home (stopped by Starbucks), arriving home around 2:30pm. The whole trip takes about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Not too bad. I wrote in the survey that everything was great except that we need more interactive time with the speaker. I didn't put it down but I really didn't like the idea that Edwards just go back to his hotel every time he's done "preaching". I told Nadia that I think that if I were Edwards, I would insist on living with others in the dorms instead of hotel, even if all is provided. But that's just me. So I cannot blame the church for desiring to treat the preacher well, but I wouldn't accept this just as King David wouldn't accept the costly imported water from the well of Bethlehem his hometown. (2 Samuel 23:15-17). Members of this church are not just smart in general, but very caring or helpful for the church body. Johnny even heated a plate of Gimbap for me to bring to Nadia initiatively the next day after I had him helped me unlock the door to the fridge the first night, for Nadia. He's also the host of the group game, and who knows what else he did for the retreat. I'm sure many others assigned to the tasks served responsibly and caringly as well. Something for me to reflect upon.
If Psalm 58 is an indictment of corrupt judges sitting in a courtroom, Psalm 59 takes us directly to the streets. It is an intense, fast-paced prayer of survival written when King Saul sent assassins to watch David’s house in order to kill him in the morning (1 Samuel 19).
v.4: Awake - It's interesting that we can pray like that, without being mistaken as if we think God is sleeping, for Psalm 121 explicitly tells us that He who keeps Israel "will neither slumber nor sleep." Here, David is entering a legal plea: "Lord, examine my innocence!"
As a side note, I prompted the question to pastor Ragusa of MeRF regarding how David succeeded where we fail, as in David held on to God's promise for him to be king (I alluded to the fact that GCC's pastor Chris once implied that David should not be king because man should not rule over other men, only Jesus is King), while if we were in David's shoes, we Christians today would generally say, oh wow, this challenge is too great, it must not be what God wanted, maybe I heard wrong, let's forget about becoming a king and just live a peaceful shepherd's life in a farm. The response I got was some misunderstanding about David ought not to be king using his own means using earthly means, or that whether one is serving God in jobs without going directly into ministries. I am beginning to wonder how Western Seminaries train these preachers. That they could only do textbook answers with the Bible, they cannot provide living answers from a living Bible. AI really speeds up the research process: These pastors did not get the discernment of rule vs. servant leadership (stewardship, rather than domination). So we are meant to be kings and kings are not about ruling over other men. The misunderstanding of this is simply escapism masked as piety. The presence of an obstacle does not mean the absence of God's calling.
v.6, 7, 14, 16: The contrasts of nighttime plotting and Morning praise to God.
[ The Night of Terror ] [ The Morning of Deliverance ]
Assassins surround David's house. ───► The sun rises, the trap fails, David sings.
Soldiers guard Jesus' tomb. ───► The stone rolls away, death is defeated, Christ rises.
v.6 vs. v.14 refrain - David repeats the dog metaphor, but with a massive shift in tone. The first time, the dogs were terrifying stalkers. This time, it is a statement of their pathetic destiny: “Each evening they return, howling like dogs... They wander about for food and growl if they do not get their fill.” They are reduced from lethal hunters to miserable, starving scavengers.
v.7-8: They think God knows not, the assassins snarling in the shadows, but God is watching them and laughing from His throne.
7/7/2026 Tuesday
Joel Penton, LifeWise Academy used 1952 Supreme Court ruling Zorach v. Clauson to uphold the legality of "release time" religious instruction for public schools. This way they could target students at high school level and below, rather than college students which are targeted by more Christian ministries. Thanks to Allie Beth Stuckey's interview:
This is not about banning Bible (ABS got the title wrong - click bait much?). This is also not about Bible reading or prayer in public schools which like J. Gresham Machen, I oppose to (threats to liberty, sterilizing the Gospel, despising parental/Christian institutions). This is just about working with the community (parents) and schools to allow students an extracurricular religious study time by an organization (LifeWise) that is private but legitimately recognized in public eyes. However, this started in only a few states (Ohio & Indiana, etc.) and other states may reject this (not agreeing to students leaving campus during school hours).
As for after school hours, there's another landmark Supreme Court case 2001: Good News Club v. Milford Central School, which ruled that local authorities and schools have very little say in stopping the students from joining an after-school religious program.
However, I think since this still needs to be done by an organized institution, there's still plenty of harvest done by individuals in evangelizing to high schoolers in public space. Which is something I am still looking into.
7/6/2026 Monday
Crossroads church took on my offer of astronomy 101 for this coming weekend's retreat, which Nadia and I shall join for the first time at Kutztown PA by this church. I spoke to them casually a couple of months ago but have only gotten the email about their decision today. I thought they gave up on the idea. However, the weather and the sky do not seem to be doing well in those days. Cloudy, possible rain. As for celestial objects, the Moon being the only attraction, Mars is there but who wants to see just a red dot as an introduction to astronomy. I told them I could try do a slideshow workshop on astronomy. They liked the idea, but due to the logistic on campus (projector, etc.) and the fact that I'm going in this blind (no idea of what this retreat is going to be like as it's my first time), we'll decide on this the last minute. I also realized that I can't find my old astronomy 101 material for CCCNY back then, there goes with my slides for the younger Sunday School on apologetics, Bible survey, etc. I can't believe this! I think I was wiser back then, so it's is sort of like a lost of ancient wisdom - even if I am to rebuild these materials from scratch now.
7/5/2026 Sunday
Pastor Dan preached on Numbers 15: Freed to Worship. He brought up the fact that Caleb wasn't really Jewish - Because of his Kenizzite designation (Joshua 14:6, Numbers 32:12). Though Scripture isn't quite clear on this. Caleb is presented as part of the tribe of Judah (Number 13:6), AI Overview:
On the way back, we (Nadia, Willy and I) had an interesting discussion on friendship. It would appear that Willy has no discernment of the difference between friendship and neighbor (waking up at 4am for someone). Being neighborly is the responsibility of all human: Help the truly needy, warn the misleading, and do not enable the exploiting (the latter part is probably not in Willy's vocabulary either, and possibly the reason he, and others like him, couldn't discern the two). Though being neighborly can be costly/sacrificial, which Jesus placed as greatest love in laying down one's life for a friend (John 15:13-15), friendship is neither the same as neighborly nor mutually exclusive from it. In friendship, there's something shared mutually: life, time, interest, etc.
Neighbor is a moral category. Friend is a relational category.
It's so bad. It's so shallow. No, I'm not talking about the 2025 anime movie by SONY that plays on Netflix: KPop Demon Hunters. I'm talking about some Christian takes on it. I'll just use one example for my critics of other Christians' view on this, Allie Beth Stuckey's, as I think at least she's the thoughtful type on issues from a fundamentalist's perspective, I'll draw my criticism of the popular Christian take on this largely from Allie's take:
The other Christians have a mixed love-hate opinions on it which I wouldn't go over too much. Basically they love the fight of good vs. evil, the sacrificial salvation ideology, etc.
But first, my own take on the movie. Two things that strike me as old but not recognized by the majority are 1. worship music, 2. the true value of sacrifice.
Rumi, basically the half-demon half human messiah figure. Now fundamentalists would cringe at the coinage of "demon" and "messiah". I don't relate this to the sinless Messiah. Just some main hero. Her demon side can be seen just as human sinfulness, there's no need to analogize this into supernatural involvement. The same goes to Jinu.
Now the idea that bad humans turn into demons (or ghosts/evil spirits) is not a new thing. Nor necessarily a Buddhist/Oriental thing (The Grudge movie, Japanese folklores, etc.), but of Gnostic traditions and Eastern Orthodoxy (viewing sin as a disease).
If 58 is the continuation of 57, then here we see David stepping out of the refuge of his cave hiding and challenge the corruption of his attackers (i.e. Saul's army) head on.
Many label this Psalm as one of those imprecatory Psalm. Verses 6-9 show David's fierce visceral judgment against the wicked.
v1.: The usage of Elim (mighty lords)
偷梁换柱：指暗中替换关键部分以达到蒙混目的。
I like this 成語。Reminds me of the times I had to deal with fundamentalist folks like Keith Graham, the latest being on the concept of "Universe" and "Cosmos", which Keith using conditional anachronistic terminology (cosmos being the modern universe rather than the solar system) to accuse Galileo of being wrong about his heliocentric system.
「顧左右而言他」這個成語出自《孟子·梁惠王下》，意思是看著兩旁的人，說別的話。常用來形容人無法回答或不願面對問題時，有意避開主題，用別的話題來搪塞。 [1]
Pasting the full conversation here just in case:
Keith:
On this date (June 22) A.D. 1633, the papacy forced Galileo to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the universe.
If the universe is infinite, both Galileo and his opponents are wrong because the idea of centrality is meaningless for an infinite universe!
But though our puny science cannot find its limits, the universe is not infinite. It is a finite creation of the eternal, omnipotent Creator God Whose only "limit" is the perfection of His divine nature in all its unified attributes.
And God took humanity to Himself in a special way. That would be the incarnation of the Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son. After Jesus had made purification for the sins of His people and risen from the dead (never successfully refuted; no remains ever found), He was seen ascending upward from the Earth and out of sight of those who saw that.
Wherever Jesus Christ is now is the spiritual center of the all things, whether or not there is some point among the galaxies that might be determined to be physically central to the cosmos.
Me:
The 1633 affair was concerning the solar system, not the universe in the 20th century sense.
To call Galileo wrong by changing the vocabulary of his time using modern terminologies is like saying the whole planet, even the Chinese, Americans and Mexicans were taxed in Jesus' time because the Bible says Caesar Augustus decreed that ALL THE WORLD should be taxed - and oh by the way, only Jesus is King and the greatest one.
Or basically like saying: Ancient navigators often lost at seas because they didn't have portable batteries to charge their GPS, so the idea of GPS is meaningless if you don't even have the batteries to charge it - Only God is the true source of power!
Keith:
Timothy Law you are right as far as the scheme for which Galileo argued. By the use of the term "solar system" you are essentially identifying that scheme.
However, scripture "centralized" Earth in the sense that the sun, the moon, and the stars (including the wandering ones we call planets, and we can reasonably include comets et. al. in the star category) all had an Earthward purpose.
We can use a simple hand held compass to create a circle with a central point. Imagine the circle spinning and you've got a sphere with a central point. But do we know the central point of the entire cosmos?
If not, how can one claim that the Earth, the sun, or some point within the so-called Milky Way galaxy is "central" in any meaningful way, even if we can discover how bodies within the cosmos move in relation to one another?
To keep us in the godly mindset to which the 131st Psalm exhorts us, let's consider a couple of the inspired, infallible, inerrant Bible's accounts of miraculous events:
1. Joshua 10:12-14. The sun "stands still...and doesn't go down for about a whole day."
2. 2 Kings 20:8-11. The shadow on a SUNdial goes BACK ten degrees.
Whether conceived in the 17th or any other century, any astrophysical model which ispo facto must deny or scoff at these historical wonders is in error.
Me:
Keith Graham So nobody's is claiming the kind of geometric center you are talking about. To insist on that is bordering slander, unless you bring in some wacko nobody recognizes to stand trial.
For any man of letters, we know that theological/literary centrality does not equate geometric/physical centrality. Just because God created the universe with an "Earthward" purpose, does not mean Earth is the physical pivot point of the cosmos. Spiritual importance does not equal geometric centrality. To not see this is to punish the blessing (i.e. creativity) God breathed in man and even to limit God's sovereignty. Implying that God is bound by human definitions of geography and geometry to show favor.
Miracles don't break honest understanding of God's general revelation. Acknowledging that the Earth moves around the Sun does not mean God couldn't miraculously pause that movement in the days of Joshua. In fact, God demanded this kind of discernment from Job until he repented, Jesus mocked the slacking away from natural application due to this false dichotomy in Matthew 16:2. We can say God is sovereign over His laws and creation, but it is wrong to imply God a liar.
Keith:
Timothy Law So where's our argument?
I never denied that Earth orbits the sun by asserting the Earthward purpose of the heavenly bodies. Do you agree that a geometric/physical "center" of the entire cosmos cannot be determined?
Me:
Keith Graham I believe you called Galileo's heliocentric system wrong by twisting his definition of terms. Hence the argument. You want to both accept and deny something at the same time. Classic Ken Ham move. It's like saying 2+2 = 4, but by God, 2+2 can also not equal 4 but 5, therefore both Tim and that kid who answered 5 are wrong, if the equal sign can have infinite meaning, viz. "both Galileo and his opponents are wrong".
Which essentially means you're the only (and only those who agree with you) right one no matter what because only your version of sola scriptura is correct. This was actually how the Roman Church erred...in their denial of the noetic effect of sin.
As for a geometric center of the cosmos as we define it today, nobody (not even Galileo) is claiming that basing on the current model of the universe, it is as uneducated as asking a child to determine the center of a balloon on its surface, or asking to determine the four corners of a ball. So there really is no need to go down that road, because it's an embarrassment. Just because we can utter words doesn't mean we must validate any series of words to be meaningful, as someone wise once said "The ability to speak does not make you intelligent", cool quote, you like? I can play it for you here.
Keith:
No, I'm asserting that anybody is wrong if they assert that any point in the cosmos is central. And "the current model of the universe" is just that...a conjecture about its structure (and one that usually includes a cosmogony contradicts Scripture's Earthward focus and time of origin.)
(And see above, I did note that Galileo's scheme related to what is called the "solar system," not the entire cosmos.)
Me:
Keith Graham As I've mentioned before, it is embarrassing to make that kind of assertion.
It's like saying "IF THE UNIVERSE is infinite, then both Keith and Joe are wrong about a wheel having a center - oh...what I meant was if the wheel is the universe...and now that I'm being caught, I shall note that I recognize Keith's scheme relates to what is called a steering wheel, not the entire cosmos...". It's really bad English to be honest on top of a very irresponsible communication motive.
As for your flaw in Scripture's Earthward focus, I've already given my rebuttal above regarding the confusion of literary/spiritual vs. geometric/physical.
As for your remarks on conjectures, I've already commented before regarding noetic effect of sin, so if you don't get that, I think I need not pursue this one further, lest you think anyone smarter than YOU is proving themselves smarter than GOD.
Just to add, the Chinese has an idiom(s) for just what you were attempting: 偷梁换柱 (顧左右而言他). Feel free to look them up.
