提升免疫。
It is said that Mushrooms like the Brazil Mushrooms or 靈芝 are good at raising the immune system which is effective at attacking cancer cells in the blood streams.
Genesis 3:24 has been a mystery, just like Jesus' writing in John 8:6.
I still don't know what the flaming sword that turned every way is like. My best guess now, is that it is an volcanic erruption. Shooting up lava like a flaming sword, turning every way affecting surrounding vicinity.
Impressive. Especially when he (Dale Henderson) said, when someone insisting on giving him money, it made him feel bad.
Last night at 7:30pm, I went to the service at Mdison Avenue Presbyterian Church.
I was going to find an evening church, fellowship wise, a balance, because I cannot be yoked by the hypocrites of the former excercising their authority foolishly with no regard to profiting the members spiritually.
I had thought about Time Square Church. At least the integrity of these charismatics are well placed. However, the fact that the pentecostal belief in a "second baptism" is troubling enough for me to be on super alert.
Not many evening services, not even in New York. It's amazing I found this presbyterian one. Although, they only have not more than 10 congregants at night, since the major services are held during the day. This will be fine for now.
Now, I can truly say, the world is my parish. Now I won't be bothered by the selfishness of the former and I am grateful that I can now be more disciplined as planned.
I must have been slacking in the Great Commission that God is using this to teach me a lesson.
I will categorize this entry as Reflection, because much caution is required or one can easily be swayed towards unholy anger, false doctrine, etc.
Yesterday after church, during lunch, I was handed (indirectly - probably ordered by the pastor) an envelop with my name and "STEMI" with $10 note.
I had previously told the pastor that I cannot except anything when she was going to give me a lot more than that a while back. Not only because we did not settle on such agreement (that I was commanded by her to co-work, where I cannot disobey any order), but I had also not made any offering to the rally yet.
I had read the Hudson Taylor autobiography "To China with Love" where he described an incident during the founding of the China Inland Mission (CIM). I admired him when one time, in England, he was invited to deliver a sermon/message in a village and he had made the host agreed and printed in the brochure that no giving of any kind must be made (people, especially the rich ones cannot just be thinking about money giving to satisfy their spiritual duty). The consequence was as expected, some still gave ignoring the statement and the host later argued with him about that after his talk despite what had agreed upon earlier. But what was troubling me was that when the host came back to him the next day telling him how he had learned something about Taylor's principle, he himself wrote a check of 500 and said this is all he could do. Taylor received it and all that have been collected the previous night. True, he had learned the lesson and proven a point with his check; however, I believe Taylor could still hold to his principle. At one point I even wondered if the host was doing all that just to clear his guilt and burden to unload all the money that was given him the night before. After all, one should not break one's promise or take full responsibility without swaying the other party's decision.
I do believe Hudson Taylor was strong in principle. Perhaps at times, we are too easily troubled by one's persistence that it weakens our principles.
I wasn't sure of that until yesterday. When I decided to walk to the garbage can with my finished cup, tore the envelop with the bill in it into halves and dumped it. The bill was harder to tear, interestingly, so it was quite obviously displayed, not my intention, but I see no need to hide it. I doubt anybody saw it, but if anything, if they look at the garbage can careful enough, they would see the torn bill with my name on it. Perhaps they did and kept quiet. I wish they did, those who are involved. But no matter. My only regret is that I should have done such immediately instead of waiting for finishing my tea and some laptop work, because no one, if any, would have been given the slightest hint that I accepted the envelop.
One may think I find $10 too small an amount and got angry. Had they found out and confronted me, I would have replied: "You should thank God that it is only $10, otherwise, it would be a larger waste and a shame".
Of course, I would also expect some self-righteous jealous type to quote Title 18, Section 333 of the United States Code. Let them. Because if I had done anything else, there is no lesson, there is no price paid for it. More "human" money will be spent, I can obey the law and pay the fine, imprisonment if necessary. But my Lord, my sole provider, has unlimited riches.
To the heavens, my conscience is clear. I served the Lord with all, I recognized his servant Dr. Tong, I obeyed those in Moses' seat, I do not associate myself with the fake preachers.
I do this to make a stand on principle. After that, charity is the next move, according to wisdom. To tear, to show disassociation of myself from them, to give to charity to show wisdom.
I had a feeling that's Paul Washer's view, but wasn't sure until I stumble upon this video while looking for his connection to The Lausanne Movement (which I found none by the way, at least not yet).
When asked about Worship, he noted:
1. the book of Psalms as book of worship.
2. A worship leader must be a theologian. Our singing ought to be theological. Conform to scripture. Fear of God shown.
3. Many love to make young boy with a guitar and sings well to lead. Not realizing God killed two worship leaders in Leviticus.
4. Worship must be didactic. Colossians 3:16.
5. Not all but a lot of modern music follows not these principles. As they are only about feeling in disguise of worship. Celebration of flesh, excercise of emotions. Only feeling the presence of God during those high musical moments, which is not presence of God but emotion. In contrast to godly members of God in "boring" worship.
It is therefore not overstating when he said a worship leader must be even more holy than preachers.
I hired an unemployed friend from church as proctor for the TOEFL iBT exam I am administrating. Cash deal, of course. Not much, 4-5 days a month.
After a while, as a friend, she told me she was willing to do it for free. I refused and admonished with the principle of all workers are to be paid. Also, it would not be fair to those who wanted the job.
Her satisfaction from working for free comes not just from being my friend, but also the fact that she's receiving federal unemployment fund. How have the U.S. Government corrupted its nation? The integrity, the discipline, all virtues destroyed in the weak.
I've made this summary of Shem's lineage from Genesis 11:
I
believe the Biblical geneology in this chapter to be as plain as that of
Genesis 5. Nothing complex like that of Matthew 1 & Luke 3. If one
could be stated to live hundreds of years, there's no need to suggest
there are missing generations not mentioned in between as some would
like to imagine. Just as the fact that if numbers like 403 is mentioned,
I see no reason to feel there's any rounding of number used in the
account of any of their ages.
(From Genesis 17, we know that Abraham begat Isaac at age 100 years)
Shem Begat Arphaxad at 100. He lived 500 more years.
Arphaxad begat Salah at 35. Lived 403 more.
Salah begat Eber at 30. Lived 403 more.
Eber begat Peleg at 34. Lived 430 more.
Peleg begat Reu at 30. Lived 209 more.
Reu begat Serug at 32. Lived 207 more.
Serug begat Nahor at 30. Lived 200 more.
Nahor begat Terah at 29. Lived 119 more.
Terah
begat sons at 70 (Abraham at 130, for calculating his death and Abram's
depature at 75 in Gen. 12 and Stephen's account in Acts 7, thus putting
Abram not the first but perhaps the last, as agreed by Albert Barnes
and Matthew Henry but ignored by Keil & Delitzsch). He died at age
205.
Abraham begat Isaac at 100. Died at 175. This makes Shem 490 when Isaac was born, 110 years before his death at 600.
Of
course, according to the Targums (Jonathan & Jerusalem), thanks to
John Gill's note, the Jews believe that Isaac went to the "School of
Shem" in Genesis 24:62.
I reserve my opinion here. But beyond the
fact that Shem was still alive, I can only find it interesting if Shem,
Isaac's great great great....grandfather, had talked with Isaac. From
here to anything more creative, is beyond what is given.
Of
course, I would also like to note that it is interesting how most would
bear children at around age 30. Except Shem, Terah and Abram. While it
could be possible Terah had children before the 3 brothers, I doubt it.
And Abram couldn't have children with Sara for she was barren until 90.
So,
on a different topic, I do wander, since Genesis 5 accounts for much
older age to have children (I believe most were first born), if there is
a gap of an ideal age to bear children? If such gap was real, did the
ancients practise such out of wisdom? or something else? Granted, the
shorter men's lifespan becomes, the earlier they begat offsprings. But
what would stop the ancients from having their youngs earlier? I doubt
that biological maturity is the issue here.
Someone who does not love sinners, cannot be in the right mind to love to preach the Gospel.
One cannot ask someone who does not love to preach the Gospel to organize a rally event, whether he/she has the status of a pastor/preacher or not. Because that would mean asking someone who does not love sinners to do the crucial commission.
Therefore, one must discern, when co-working with anyone in our Lord's great commission, that the person shows more proof of labor in the Gospel himself/herself than proof of labor in the labor of the Gospel.
A month had gone by. Little did I know what big events had happened
during the time of the rally. Like the trapping of the Chilean miners
incident. Of which the rescue was still on going and the 33 miners had
lived in isolation from the rest of the world for about a month now,
half way through freedom. I wonder who in the rally was aware of it.
So here I am, as I have promised myself to continue the afterthough.
I
forgot to mention in part 1, that it was interesting having Dr. Tong to
conduct the choir for "Worthy is the Lamb - Amen" of the Messiah.
Interesting because, not only we had little rehearsals prior to the
event (4-5 times), now we had to deal with a different conductor, with
only one short trial a night before. I won't complain, not in this case.
Because it is more than just a concert performance, it is about a
preacher of God showing the world directly the beauty of Handel's
Messiah, a blessing from God. "Amen" is the hardest piece, I believe,
not just in the Messiah, but of all the pieces we sang. Hardest because
one could easily be lost in his/her section due to the most confusing
but beautiful counterpoint I've ever experienced. But despite the
confusion, I thank God for my previous experience in OSNY which had
trained me to be very attentive to every parts (though there's still
room for improvement for myself) to help me stay on track.
I
liked singing in that choir because I was singing with confidence in a
concert hall for the first time. Nevertheless, I was less impressed by
the fact that I could hear myself all the time, very clearly, in
contrast to my experience with OSNY. I imagined they (OSNY) saved their
voices during the rehearsals and blasted out during the real performance
I could hardly hear myself and I was afraid to be confident to avoid
some embarrassing mistakes.
I think Dr. Tong find us singing too softly.
Over
the past few weeks, I am gradually convinced that I should be on the
alert of not mixing any of my called ministry with the Ameristians.
After looking back at how Rev. Lin stopped me from preaching, to how
awful her supervision of the rally was done. Awful due to the sole
control of Rev. Lin. I'm sure, like many Ameristians, she would prefer
to think it as a "congregationally" planned event. Thus, it is no one
single person's fault. This kind of "I'm just the overseer and any fault
must also be covered by all the co-working staffs" attitude is
something I must stay away from with whatever authority is given me. If
Joseph could rely on God and manage a whole ancient empire without
blaming his responsibility on anyone else, I'm sure with God's help, I
do not need a diseased part such as Rev. Lin. It is better she be like
king Saul, and I, David. Taking no credit from her but God and other
God's true servants.
Why has it come to this, why is it so hard
for any evangelical rally in the cities, which have high populations,
but not proportionally balanced outcome.
For the Chinese here, is
the use of the term "慕道友". Rev. Lin loves to use this term. Perhaps the
older Chinese do also. Where is such a verse in the Bible? Not even
such notion. One is either a Christian or he is not. There's no such
thing as in between position, like he's neither good nor bad. What are
these preachers afraid of? As if by calling them such, they are granted
"half" membership in the Kingdom of God, that they do not have to face
the labor of birth as one is needed in repentance of their sins? "All
right, your next step is just say YES to everything the church pastor
confirms with you in public"...any problem with their later beliefs-it's
their problem because they've said YES already-I'd just help as much as
I can.
How irresponsible. Thus, the problem is not the
non-Christians here in the city. The problem comes from those who
professed to be Christians, those who have upgraded their status from
"慕道友" to believers without any personal breakthrough in the Lord, those
who have helped them in such upgrade. Their piety, is a committive one, a
social driven one, not a personal one with the Truth.
I must say,
there is much for me to learn from. I remembered when my dad told me
how Rev. Tong scolded those in Penang when they didn't bring their
non-Christians. It was a different scene in New York City. When asked
how many Christians, almost all raised their hands, and they laughed, at
themselves. Rev. Tong didn't show any sign of anger, but responded
differently, how, I've forgotten. Perhaps he was tired, perhaps it was a
situation I am yet unaware of. I give this great mentor of mine plenty
benefit of doubt. Though I am not oblivous of my Lord principles.
I
cannot comment too much on the content of the rally, the message,
because as a choir member, I am not present for that all the time.
I
hope Rev. Tong comes back. I have no problem co-working with Rev. Lin
again, if she commands. I will be more prepared, more responsible, evangelical-wise.
