10/24/2024 I woke up today with an old film in mind, Life is Beautiful (1997). I thought of it because though a great art, it has no allusion to Christ or the true Christian life in it, obviously. So, it is a good point to show some shallow Christians, who love to argue that only Christians know how to enjoy life as if the rest of the world only know pain. This is not the end of the argument, but a means to begin a deeper discussion. I shouldn't even have to make this point, had I not recently hear such shallow talk in church. The Buddhists do charity very well as well. Other religions have selfless contributions as well.
GCC Bible Study on Proverbs 10:11-11:6:
@7:30 The pastor at least acknowledged the general truth of it, not absolutely. "when are they true, when are they maybe not true, when they are maybe abused", [I would fix this so: ...when do they seem not true...]. He just didn't seem to want to use the word "relatively", which is more apt. @9:25 Phil was wrong about not bringing out others' sin out of "grace". @10:25 Fr twisted verse 13 as "don't speak = wisdom". The pastor concluded with Fr on verses 11-13, as "blessed are the peacemakers" in err, perhaps fear of being "politically incorrect" and thus the justification of "don't judge" "don't cause tension" when situations may on the contrary, actually demand them, which would actually be more apt for these verses. @14:00 v.15, the pastor answered Phil shallowly by just calling that verse "just an observation", failing to see the wisdom in verse 15 - alone: i.e. do not focus on your poverty. This is a fail of their discussions for not getting the idea of relativistic knowledge. @21:50 Interesting that E quoted verse 17 using the LSB (John MacArthur's Legacy Standard Bible version): "...he that refuseth reproof erreth" (kjv) vs. "he who forsakes reproof makes himself wander about"(LSB) - there are plenty commentaries on the grammar of either translation. @24:50 pastor: "If you never stop talking, most of what you say is not worth saying" - again a fail in the distinction between absolute and relative. Thus, led to another err in R's response in Job's friends' case. @30:50 P mentioned about our words will be judged, P used his what I think is his erroneous "God will not touch on a believers' sins on judgment day" principle. @39:00 the pastor erroneously defined sluggard/lazy as selfishness. @44:40 Pastor critiquing sarcasm, those who keeps using jokes. I agree, in a funny way, because I think I know who he was talking about in church. @59:30 G asked a good challenge, as politely as he could - "I could come up with something that can counter these verses" - basically the problem of not distinguishing absolute and relative, which this group fails to grasp. I could use Proverbs 26:4 vs. 5 to tackle this issue. I also love the pastor's reaction, basically, don't be sorry G, everyone has these questions, you're just brave enough to ask it.
A note from a prayer, @1:08:00 P mentioned one of her student's "friend"? 6 year old, wants to die and wants the parents to die...I wonder if it's depression or demonic presence.
Reflection: I really need to study ahead before these Bible studies because I was too slow in catching up with their problematic discussion.
10/23/2024 Free books for designers.
So the French also has pig/pork blood in their cuisine, one called Boudin:
10/22/2024 Chinese Vocabulary on the 4 significance of the death of Christ, by Tong:
1. Substitutionary（代替性的死）
2. Redemptive（救贖性的死）
3. Propitiation (挽回性的死)
4. Reconciliation (複合性的死)
10/21/2024 What is Senior Software Engineer? I guess I'm not the only one who sees that today, developers are being labeled "senior" with minimal experience. The bureaucracy of big tech companies conveniently allows promotion for entry level programmers based on time of employment, rather than skills. I suppose this is what Jesus commanded about using unrighteous mammon (Luke 16): Not being like those parasites myself, but to exploit these loopholes for me to do better things.
Came across this link about Reformation Sites to visit in Europe. Mostly German sites. Rick Steves, famous travel guide, is apparently a member of a Lutheran church.
10/20/2024 Sunday School a pause on Gurnall's book on Armor of God, we talked about a Refresher Lesson on Understanding the law - Ceremonial, Judicial & Moral.
@22:00 On slavery, the pastor tried to justify Christian view of true slavery using Philemon. Though the relativistic contrast that he lacks would be Eph 6:5, etc. that commands slaves to remain slaves. This is not too important since no one's challenging this. He's only focusing on one side of the issue, that is, how is a human being treated, regardless of their status; not how should we keep our status in God honoring way. @29:40 N erroneously said that if everyone kept moral law then there's no necessity for most judicial law - a fail in understanding of purpose of the law (not to be righteous but to know we are sinners) and the foreshadowing of Christ, which the pastor already mentioned minutes before but I guess they both failed in such discernment of words. @33:00 P: "How do you keep a moral society? It's tricky because the Bible is written to the Church" - I think it's not tricky because the Bible is not written to just the Church, the Bible is written to all men, to give grace (both common and special) and to judge the reprobates. @36:10 On eating blood, shallow and may even be erroneous view on life is in the blood: "Your godship over the blood of animals" - The real answer should just simply be: Christ's blood is the only kind of blood we need, so be content. @40:15 on Tattoos - P: tattoos as scripture verse = Uzzah holding up the ark. I think it's a wrong correlation of verses. It's also contradicting the pastor's earlier comments few seconds before on not judging people with tattoos (@39:50). Tattoos are more on the conscience and science side of things, Uzzah's in the category of self-anointment. A good question against such err would be: So what should someone already with tattooed do with this?
@43:50 Pastor brought up Paul cursing the high priest as sarcasm. A vocabulary term I learn from the pastor: "dog whistling" = garnering support without provoking opposition. A kind of ultrasonic dog whistles concept which are audible to dogs but not humans. I can agree with the sarcasm. The pastor used this term as Paul's "non-apologizing response".
Later in the service, in the sermon on Revelation 8, the pastor gave a quick, shallow, fundamentalist response to questions like "Why do we pray?" - Because God said so. I was going for something like "relational dependency on God", but Nadia later told me of Pak Tong's answer: Because God wants us closer to God! Best answer so far. So I can conclude this way with Loyalty vs. Faithfulness: Loyalty - Don't want to hear any oppositions/challenges; Faithfulness - welcomes all, so that God is glorified.