6/16/2024 I think I'll start inserting Sunday Service/Sunday school in the Weekly journal rather than as a new entry. Just prioritizing what's important. The Sunday schools are still great in that I get to learn everyone's characters in fellowship, but due to the overall shallowness, I am taking another angle of how to deal with this. In Sunday School, last week's of survey on Song of Songs, J.S. mentioned that he doesn't get excited much, that excitement, the word asked in the pastor's notes, "what is exciting about the company of the one you love? Do we know this excitement with God? (Son 8:1-4 The Church Expresses love for Christ's Fellowship), J.S. defined it as: it never gets old. I think it's a shallow definition. Also, for J.S., I would say it's disingenuous to say he never gets excited much. He's probably thinking of the kind of excitement that's more pronounced in the charismatics/evangelical circle, jumping, dancing, enthusiastic in activities, showing zeal, etc. I say disingenuous because who laughed the loudest every time the pastor cracks a joke? J.S.
I answered these questions the pastor noted down in his sermon notes, in a provocative manner:
- Why are even Christians so short sighted when it comes to this world and the next...
ans: low IQ: Foolishness. - What is your greatest struggle with authority...
ans: proper interpretation of authority - Does your life proclaim the knowledge of God? How can you cause that to happen more clearly?
ans: Having I-Thou relationship with God
6/15/2024 GCC Men's fellowship led by Phil on Lamentations 3. My take of it is shallow, but then again, I lost interest in my attention, so I can't really tell what he was talking about, just that it was boring - just adding different words and adjectives to something everyone already knows: "God is in control", "this is glorious", "there's nothing that El Elyon is not capable of", etc. I thought he said "LL Young" in his pronunciation but he meant El Elyon (the Most High): Lam 3:35, 38, etc. He's probably trying to contrast Jeremiah's greatness in suffering and trying to use that reliance of God against the modernists and non-Christians. He spoke mostly so not much discussions until the end when some tried to chip in.
D asked @43:00 of Lam 3:21, what was being recalled by Jeremiah. I don't know if I had misunderstood the situation, as Phil and others tried to answer from their own, because the answers are simply in the next verses, literally.
@46:55 Clyde's response was interesting, which was fresh to me: on Psalms 137:4 - where Israel were taunted by their enemies the Babylonians to sing the Lord's song while they were weeping by the Babylonian rivers. However, Clyde's take of it was that the Israelites were too distress and blinded to see God and thus, not able to sing. I am with most commentators on this, that like Machen with his no support for "Bibles in public schools", the Lord's song is so sacred, and thus, not to be sung in any place, or at any time, and in any company; which would be but casting pearls before swine, and giving that which was holy to dogs (Matthew 7:6) ~ John Gill. Caldea was not worthy of the honor of having God's praises sung in it ~ John Calvin. These ancient commentators sure are way smarter than us.
@57:35 F: This election...God doesn't need my vote to help Him...I can sit and take an outsider's view of it...Sounds like F is more likely influenced by the extreme hyper-Calvinism: We do nothing, God does everything.
@59:05 C: The LORD is my shepherd - Phil's: That's eternal lord.
But that's just YHWH, not Adonai. Minor pick, no big deal.
I thought my Surface Laptop has a front camera and spent about 10 mins during Phil's talk trying to figure out how to take the front shot until I realized there's no front camera. So I took this with my phone, while he's not looking:
So bottom line, I don't share their fundamentalist narrow minded shallow view of certain people of God.
6/12/2024 Stephen Tong on different levels of miracle, the work of God, in his Hebrews series (Chapter 2):
How Taiwanese view living in Las Vegas (very good place to live, only one con: too hot From July-Sept):
6/11/2024 Online Payments 101 for Developer: Learn terminologies
BSF (Bible Study Fellowship) Timeline. The web timeline is interestingly designed with possibly cool frameworks.
SUNO: An AI that creates music based on description.
6/10/2024 Email Protection using SVG on the web. Against spambots.