My Journal

A few days ago, Rev. Lin of CCCNY asked me to be Stephen Tong's translator, because he is coming to CCCNY to preach this Sunday, due to the Concert Tour of GRII/STEMI. I thanked her for the honor but I rejected the offer due the fact that I've already promised Stephen (of my church at Grace) to take over the sound system for this week's service.

I do wonder, if Pak Tong was the one requesting to preach or Rev. Lin was the one asking him to. The latter seems more plausible, so this entry will presuppose that. If it's the former, it still wouldn't excuse the latter, for Rev. Lin could easily persuade otherwise, if she has any sense of preparation for the Glory instead of conservation of her buried talents: "Look Lord, this church still has its name after so many decades, lo, there thou hast that is thine." (Matthew 25:25)

At his age, Stephen Tong would still not mind to preach, even though he has said that he's done and it's time for new blood and for him to focus on using other means such as music for the glory of God. So I don't think he's at his prime to preach anymore according to his last rally here. Moreover, his goal this time is the concert, not preaching. A bad true cannot bear good fruit (Matthew 7:18). Therefore, not only would Rev. Lin not produce any heir (pun intended) for the new generation of preachers over all these years, she has no shame in asking an old retired man to preach, making Stephen Tong work double shifts (preach by morning, conduct by night). This shows how little she cares actually for the Kingdom of God. I mean, who asks her visiting 85 year old grandpa to mow the lawn when she had 40 years prior to prepare for it?

Nadia and I have left the church for more than a decade now, yet no one from that church even bothered to ask why. What sort of ministerial leadership is this in a church? They would rather conclude their own slander: "They left because Nadia doesn't understand Chinese" even though she's been there fore 4 years prior. Rev. Lin couldn't even get it right as to whose the one who decided the leave: I or Nadia.

One telltale sign of such hired hands (John 10:12), in today's churches, is to see what does the minister do when a church member leaves all of a sudden. The common hired hands response would be: "They left us because they have been seduced by Satan, by the world". As if the minister's own church is truer than anywhere else. Very self-centered isn't it? This seems to be a very common American Reformed church habit. So it's not just on Laura Lin. But Tim Ferguson of Westfield OPC, Paul Murphy of NYC MERF, etc. Murphy maybe worse than Lin on this as he would justify himself: "Well, if you didn't become our official member, why should I care about you? That's not in my job description, that's not what I'm paid for." According to the logic from some of his sermons. Ferguson would at least give a "holier than thou" call: "Are you coming back to church, no? ok. Bye". Murphy (above my paygrade justification) and Lin ("Oh it must be because Nadia making you leave our church right?" - slander justification) could compete with each other to see who wins the trophy of the most convincing hired hand.

Another sign is that they have no zeal for bringing the Gospel themselves to others outside of the church. They would love to support evangelical groups. Rev. Lin is the worst kind I've seen, that doing the gospel is an "undesirable" labor that is done in obedience, and such "unpleasant" command will be rewarded one day, due to the fulfilment of such "unwanted" task. Instead of emmanuel, reward is the ultimate goal in life for people like her. Some may not support (not called to do so, allegedly) gospel ministries themselves but at least they would affirm its importance, that we must do with pleasure, this is already a very low bar, bordering unconverted ministry, so Rev. Laura Lin's even worse than this.

Of course, what people like her will always convince themselves is: "But I have given my life for the Lord, oh Lord, Lord, have I not done all these in my life, for your NAME?!" (Matthew 7:22)

I haven't read the book, but summaries and reviews I've read show that this perhaps Keller's best work.

I'll use Daniel Im's summary for now, highlighting his famous quotes from the book:

• An idol is something we cannot live without. We must have it.
• Anything can serve as a counterfeit god, especially the very best things in life.
• Definition: An idol is anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God. Anything you seek to give you what only God can give. Anything that is so central and essential to your life, that should lose it, your life would feel hardly worth living.
• If I have that [idol], then I will feel like my life has meaning. Then I’ll know I have value. And I’ll feel significant and secure.
• The Bible uses three basic metaphors to talk about how people relate to the idols of their hearts: they love idols, trust idols, and obey idols. Spiritual adultery.
• Idols give us a sense of being in control and we can locate them by looking at our nightmares: What do we fear the most? What if we lost it would make life not worth living?
• Idols control us since we feel like we must have them or life is meaningless.
• Whatever controls us is our Lord. The person who seeks power is controlled by power. The person who seeks acceptance is controlled by the people he or she wants to please. We do not control ourselves, we are controlled by the lord of our lives.
• We will always be disappointed by idols, there are four things you can do: You can blame the things that are disappointing you and try to move on to better ones (that’s the way of continued idolatry and spiritual addiction), you can blame yourself and beat yourself (that’s the way of self loathing and shame), you can blame the world (that’s how you get hard, cynical, and empty), or you can reorient the entire focus of your life on God.
• Jesus warns people far more often about greed than about sex, yet almost no one thinks they’re guilty of it.
• Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers.
• There’s only one way to change at the heart level…and that’s through the gospel.
• One sign that you’ve made success an idol is the false sense of security it brings. The poor and the marginalized expect suffering. They know that life on this earth is nasty, brutish, and short. Successful people are much more shocked and overwhelmed by troubles: Life isn’t supposed to be this way.
• It’s a lust…a longing to be inside...Until you conquer the fear of being an outsider, an outsider you will remain ~ C.S. Lewis.
• It is impossible to understand a culture without discerning its idols.
• When you pray and hope for something and you don’t get it and you respond with explosive anger or deep despair, then you may have found your real god [idol].
• What are you looking to in order to justify yourself? It is a counterfeit god.
• You may know about the love of Christ with your head, but not your heart. How can that be remedied? This takes spiritual disciplines.
• Spiritual disciplines are forms of worship. And it is worship that is the final way to replace the idols of your heart. You can’t just get relief by figuring out your idols intellectually. You have to actually get the peace that Jesus gives…and that only comes when you worship. analysis can help you discover truths, but then you have to pray them into your heart. That takes time.

7/2/2025 Stephen Tong on Hebrews 5:13 凡只能吃奶的都不熟练仁义的道理，因为他是婴孩

Tong: Those who only preach the love of God, he has never truly loved his own church. Those who preach the righteousness of God, always come before God in holiness.

Tong: Why the pagans come before God in fear in the face of disasters while [childish] Christians, instead of "opportunity to suffer for God", blaming God, why? 不熟练仁义的道理. What did Paul say in Acts 24:25 before high officials, "...of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come!":

7/1/2025 So Tesla celebrated their first driverless Y-model car "delivery" service. This link includes the 3 minute video of the whole process. My only problem with this demo of theirs is how is the end transaction of so called "delivery" done? The end of the video only shows the arrival of destination where the crew claps and opened the driver's door. This is just a demo of robot/driverless auto driving from point A to point B. There were other videos of driverless taxi on Youtube already, chiefly pertaining to Waymo's self-driving taxies.

6/30/2025 I had another entry about this piece Czardas by Vittorio Monti, now again I'm reminded by the same Timothy Chooi, the famous part is around @2:00:

6/30/2025 Art of the day: "The Broad and the Narrow Way", English version of the German pietist image "Der schmale und der breite Weg", Print made by Anonymous artist, Published by Gawin Kirkham and Printed by the Headly Brothers, Issued in 1883, Lithograph on paper

This piece is referencing Matthew 7:13-14. When I saw this in my inbox I immediately was reminded of the same photo I took at Clyde's Deaconry, now in my 2023 General album: 20231014_160053.jpg. It was on sale for $10. I didn't buy. I didn't expect it to be a popular piece.

By Fr. Patrick van der Vorst, using Matthew 8:18-22 "Follow me" theme:

Our moralising print issued in 1883 offers a vivid allegorical panorama, illustrating the stark choice between worldly pleasure and virtuous living. The composition is divided into two contrasting paths. On the left, a grand, wide gate opens to the enticing road of earthly delights. Its path is smooth and alluring, but drawing crowds toward distant mountains consumed by fire and destruction. The sky above this side grows increasingly ominous, symbolising the ultimate ruin that follows a life of indulgence. In contrast, the right side presents a narrow, humble gate, barely noticeable, leading to a steep and arduous road. This path winds past a cross, traversing bridges, valleys, and rocky terrain, symbolising the trials of a virtuous life. Yet above it, the heavens glow with peace and light, revealing that this difficult road leads to eternal joy and union with God. The contrast between darkness and light in the sky above each path powerfully underscores the eternal consequences of our choice: to follow Christ or not.

6/29/2025 We have a missionary, Barry Schutter, who was from GCC long ago, whose work is in London, preaching at our church today. His Sunday School presentation was great, one of the few best from the list we have so far of missionary ministries our church support. Because it looks like he really go out there on the streets to do evangelism, an active role. His sermon also displayed such calling. They have this program called LEAP where they take visiting Christians such as us to experience their London ministry alongside them. His sermon was on the Great Commission of Matthew 28, and on the missionary John Gibson Paton.

I finally got the chance when the pastor has another round of congregant's choice of hymns today. I immediately shouted out #42. Which is the Charismatic favorite modern piece: El Shaddai. My favorite as well, which I discovered, surprisingly in our PCA hymnal the last time the pastor did this hymnals by request thing. I've practiced it on piano ever since. The funny thing is I wasn't aware that the pastor was unfamiliar with this piece (this is popular in the early 90s, mainly among Charismatics) so he was shocked as well @8:00 when most of the congregation (I wonder who) were able to sing this piece well enough. I also loved the way Patty played it on the piano.

Gn. stayed longer in the fellowship meal and helped clean out garbage, out of my expectation.

Nadia seems to think things are against her today: She talked to E. about Joy but failed to convince her that our church lacks caring heart as Joy would likely have put it.

Met some folks from the founding of this church, Ken & Linda (now at South Ridge Community Church in Clinton, probably non-denominational), and there could be others, who came to visit due to Barry Schutter. There's a family of new comers whom I've forgotten their names, I believe their baby's name was Calvin.