3/21/2025 Painting mentioned by Stephen Tong:
Frederick McCubbin's The Pioneer in 1904, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, illustration of husband and wife starting a new life (left) - husband struggling while wife wondering their future, family (center) - new born baby, new generation by his parent's grave with the new city in the far background (right), Tong uses this to illustrate sabbath REST comes after hard work:
Painting of the day: Off, illustrating an apparent rejection by a young woman in a floral dress and straw hat:
Painted by Edmund Blair Leighton (1852-1922) Painted in 1899, Oil on canvas
Manchester Art Gallery, England. The artist is known for his pre-Raphaelite movement (due to the Nazarene movement/Christian Spiritual style painting: unrestricted by conventional academic poses of the likes of Raphael, Michelangelo) and painting style of women in medieval fashion yet popular appeal figure in romanticized scenes.
Painting of the day: The Rich man and Lazarus, drawing by Eugène Burnand (1850-1921), Drawn in 1899, Pencil and graphite on paper, Musée Eugène Burnand, Moudon. Burnand is the same artist that painted the famous Disciples Peter and John running to the Tomb 1889:
3/20/2025 Painting of the day: Saint Joseph and the Christ Child by Guido Reni (1575–1642). Painted in 1640, Oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston:
There are tons of contrast, bright baby, divine, authoritative, floating light, first fruit; old Joseph in the dark, fallen, hopeful, worshipful, happy, unburdened.
I feel that Guido's Joseph's kind of old. He should be in his 30s, so here is my photoshopped version, thanks to ChatGPT's 5-6 steps (duplicate layers, spot healing brush tool & clone stamp tool remove wrinkles and blend younger skin, Soft Brush tool paint hairs darker in new opaque layer, Dodge/Burn tool to brighten and darken areas), instructions, Guido will be proud:
Famous Chinese claiming to be Jesus' brother, Hong Xiuquan 洪秀全/Hong Huoxiu洪火秀 (1814-1864):
I backed up the above two videos in my Chinese Films drive Under folder: 太平天国 The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom/Intro by Youtuber Jared Madsen.
3/19/2025 I wasn't aware that Westminster Theological Seminar (WTS) on campus study is free. Many Chinese believers believe wrongly that you need a calling to go study at a seminar, and by calling the Chinese refers to calling to become a pastor, preacher, etc. (so I'm not speaking of some generic calling, i.e. calling to do any "christian" thing like picking up laundry). WTS dispelled this lie in #2:
3/18/2025 Christian art of the day: Franz Xaver Messerschmidt (German, 1736–1783). A Hypocrite and a Slanderer, ca. 1770–83. Tin alloy. The title was given after the sculptor's death, so his true intent for this piece remains speculative. This is one of nearly seventy head pieces, or Kopfstücke. Combination of realism and caricature.
Understand these 7 optical illusions to be a better designer.
A very light weight lookalike for classic Photoshop: Fedit on Github, single standalone exe file under 800KB. Not bad considering the size, and it's opensource.
3/17/2025 On how Christopher Yuan view heterosexuality: "Homosexuality is fully wrong, heterosexuality is not fully right, it's a secular Freudian concept..." My comment on FB:
I can agree with that, that heterosexuality is more of an American-Christian view, not THE Christian view, nevertheless, I would have to seriously question Yuan's fellowship/family living, Jesus was quick to reject the kind of celibate lifestyle American Christians are advocating for some today, having the right attraction does matter, just not the American way. So singleness is not the result nor an excuse of a superstitious view of the lack of attraction.
Work, face challenges triumphantly, and always enjoy the Sabbath Rest in the Lord of the Sabbath whom we long, not just saying "Lord, Quickly Come", obey the Sabbath DAY, and avoid trouble. To say, "Lord, quickly come" is twofold. One good, one bad. One treasures grace, the other abuses grace. One is to diligently examine one's own life in order meet the Lord in triumph; the other is enduring suffering elusively until meeting the Lord in bliss:
A curious look at a 3 hour history of Music Videos, from this article:
3/16/2025 Christian Art of the day is Scenes from the Life of Saint Patrick, Adriaen Collaert (1560-1618), St Patrick, 1603. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland. To know St. Patrick's brief story, this piece of art says it all. This site explains the art. It is a good site to learn the Latin of the art as well. St. Patrick is also known for his shamrock representation of the trinity to pagans.
Didache was covered in Sunday School. A brief survey by the pastor, may take two weeks. ChatGPT and others can easily summarize Didache very well:
@6:00 Pastor: The key is to know what's real.
I think that's not the issue, as all opposing parties at this point in general do sincerely believe their own views to be the truth. The issue is always been who's interpretation holds more water, more faithful to what's real/truth.
@15:20 on Chapter 4. Various Precepts: My child, him that speaks to you the word of God remember night and day; and you shall honour him as the Lord; for in the place whence lordly rule is uttered, there is the Lord...Pastor asked what is it, Kathy answered: Is it saying that you should honor the person that is teaching you, your pastor = the Lord. Paradoxical view: I'm not sure if anyone in the pastor worship mode gets this.
@22:50 on Chapter 7, Baptism. This is a fun one. 1. Running/living water and cold water is preferred. I looked up, seems to be signifying cleansing nature of the living water as well as a shocking effect (awakening the soul) of the cold water rather than the warm cozy type of water. @23:55 Patty, as I have been anticipating since previous chapter of the Didache, as attentive as she has always been, finally had to speak up from her Oneness church's point of view, that the formula of baptism should be in only Jesus' name and not the Trinity, according to their understanding of Acts. I was relieved when the pastor answered it properly with the formula Jesus gave. However, I think the pastor messed up in @24:50 by conflating Jesus with the Trinity: "...but if you're baptized into who He [Jesus, per Acts] is, and He is?! Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as well as Son?!, then that's Christian baptism..." But at least this part is tackled against Patty by the pastor, that Jesus commanded so. Hopefully she will eventually learned that Oneness actually rejects the Trinity as a whole rather than redefining the word trinity, which is her confusion of it all and the pastor's latter part didn't help much in that. As for Acts, I've already done an in-depth take in another entry. I've told Nadia enough that she was anticipating this as well. So that was how I teach Nadia, through much patience in the theology and pedagogy of time. I told Nadia later that what would bring me joy is for Patty to want to baptize "again" properly. We shall see, until then, I am not making any business out of this since my priority is the Gospel and I'm not an elder.
@28:00 Pouring of water was apparently okay for the apostles. This results in a rather comprehensive discussion of Baptist's view. I told Nadia that Eleni conveniently (as a reformed Baptist) sat this one out due to her cold. Tom even made the pastor went on and on about infant baptism. Pastor: I do not believe Pentecost fully immersed all 3000 people. I tried to get the pastor say more by asking him what would the best defense of a Baptist on this. After he danced around (on what the word baptism means), I pushed, and he said, ask a Baptist. I'll take this as he just humbly admitting he doesn't know. He should think further as I wasn't setting it out to be a gotcha question, but at this point, I'm fine with it already, not surprising to me anymore.