4 kinds of Faith by Stephen Tong

Hebrews 11:

  1. natural faith (天然的) - on Existence of God
  2. 信道從聽到來的信心
  3. 主托福做主工的信心恩賜
  4. 每天依靠上帝義人必因信得生的信心
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Zebra ZXP Series 1 ID Card Printer

Ribbon for it is ZEBRA 800011-140 YMCKO Color Ribbon Full Color (Not 800011-147 half color).

Specs for PVC ID Card: pvc card cr80 .30 mil

This is for my NYGC Work.

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Bible Study: 1 Corinthians

I started this, even though I'm yet to seriously begin the study on this, because of issues such as head coverings (Chapter 11), etc.

Posted in Theologization | 10 Comments

Worthy Endgames in Chess

Some interesting ones through my chess.com puzzles:

1500 LEVEL:

2100 LEVEL:

2200 LEVEL:

2300 LEVEL:

2400 LEVEL:

2500 LEVEL:

This one answers the question I had asked before: Why bother promoting to rook or bishop instead of queen? Especially to avoid a stalemate in a winning game, if not the only reason.

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Aquarium Update - 4/2/2023

Current parameters prior to water change:

Temperature: (Ideal 73-84 F)
sticker: 69.9 F = 21.06 C

Salinity: (Ideal 34-36ppt / 1.023 to 1.028sg)
36.5 ppt / 1.0267 specific gravity (Converter)

Copper: (Ideal < 0.2 ppm)
0.14 ppm

Ammonia: (Ideal 0 ppm)
Not tested

Nitrite: (Ideal < 0.2 ppm)
Tetra Strip test: 0

Nitrate: (Ideal <5 ppm)
Tetra Strip test: 30ish ppm

Alkalinity: (Ideal 8 - 12 dkH)
Hanna: 183 ppm = 10.248 dkH

pH: (Ideal 7.8 and 8.5)
Hanna: 8.6

Calcium: (Ideal between 380-450ppm)
Hanna: 418 ppm

Phosphate: (Ideal SPS 0.01-0.05ppm, stony corals <0.1ppm, generally <0.25ppm)
Hanna: >2.50 ppm (exceeded range limit)

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Sunday Service - On Worship - Critique on Musicology

On John 4:19-26

Suddenly I was given from the sermon clarity about last Friday's Bible study on Rev. 11:5-6. That the power/authority given to the two witnesses, was the kind that grants us opportunity to see God at work. Not men at work, but through men of God. Therefore, one must refer to Elijah and Moses when context of those two verses are considered. The context must never be of independent interpretation as John MacArthur did it as well as his fellow dispensationalists. I will copy this to my Bible study note in Revelation.

I told Nadia that it was great that the pastor mentioned Mary vs. Martha in his sermon. For what Mary did was not only worship but the best kind: Listening to preaching.

However, when praise music was brought up, true that the Bible has not specified the style of music, at least not directly, but it is more of a general revelation concern than special one. The science of music is important. I therefore would push the analogy of English, English literature, like music, is a form of art and therefore must abide by some principles. The English aficionados would understand: We must strive for grammatical accuracy, the right style of English literary skills for the right kind of context, I would even stress proper pronunciation and even accent! They all matter. Likewise music. To say that musical style doesn't matter, is like saying one should not study the genres in English literature. And to turn a major piece into a minor piece, is like in the sermon, the pastor inserted the phrase "you dig?" for no contextual reason at all, and call that okay.

In fact, if I must, I would ask those who often times claim that they see all styles of music equally, to tell me how they rate these music, what points they would give for each, what are the pieces they don't like (I would stress that I am not interested in music they like), etc. To provoke, to force them out of disingenuity, And no matter how they respond, it would be so telling of them, they cannot avoid nor escape it. Should they choose not to answer, that's obvious too what they are, the rebellious soul deep down, there is no way out. Here I am not referring to this pastor, but many others who have claimed a kind of neutrality while they should know better given their background and surrounding.

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Learning French Language

A good place to start with French Grammar: https://www.elearningfrench.com/learn-french-grammar-online-free.html

Frenchtoday.com also has quite a few great beginner's guide on grammars and stuff.

Films for learning French:

The 7 Lives of Lea / Les 7 vies de Léa (2022) on Netflix

Spoiled Brats / Pourris gâtés (2021) on Netflix

Wingwomen / Voleuses (2023) on Netflix

Lupin (2021) on Netflix

Posted in Vocabularies | 2 Comments

Weekly Reflection

3/28/2023

Learned new trick: Showing Calendar as a folder in Outlook App. Was forced to deal with this when my boss Scott was having issue finding it. Apparently there's this "Folder List" when right clicking on the Mail-Calendar-Tasks panel, that gives a new layout the to left panel so that in addition to the calendar view, mail/inbox view, there's this mail/folders view which includes calendar, contacts, tasks, everything as folders in one panel along with the inbox folders.

Twitter source code leaked on Github, looking for "culprit". I find this very funny because it is the "conservative" (sort of) capitalists (Ben Shapiro's kind) vs. the liberal "socialists". One upheld the copyright of intellectual "properties" in guise of moral code; the other treated these in guise of loyalty. And now the two clash and their worldviews get swapped. For better or worse, I find it too funny to figure out right now because it's really none of my business at the moment, let these two extremists clean up their own messes.

3/27/2023 Received Nadia's gift today: Sony Swimmer's headphones/Walkman. Since bluetooth, as a wireless technology, cannot go through water, the only solution is to have a mp3 headset which preloads mp3 files before use. I've loaded "The Impeccability of Christ" from 2018 of the Reformed Forum podcast. Ready and excited to use it for the first time in my next swim. Not today, because it wasn't charged.

After today's swim, I then went to eat at the only Taiwanese Restaurant I know in Edison: Edison Noodle House. We've ate there before and the service wasn't great. The food didn't leave much impression. I just had to make sure today by myself. 肉羹米粉 (Taiwan park Thick Soup with Rice Noodle $13.83 including tips - I chose 18%) Broth taste is blend. Didn't seem authentic enough.

Brandan Robertson - a progressive young "pastor" who's gained more and more traction on youtube and the interests of many "apologists" (I use quote on apologists because I don't believe in the official title of it, the proper term would be preacher, biblically speaking. These apologists are usually not reformed, but I do give them credit for actually doing some evangelical work more than the reformed):

It is interesting, after knowing that he became Christian at 12 in a Baptist church, that together with the late Harry Emerson Fosdick, that the Baptists seem to produce quite a number of progressive folks. I wonder if this has anything to do with their fundamental background. And I'm not considering the "human nature of Christ is uncreated" error most Baptists hold to.

Got an abandoned SPG PC Dell Optiplex 9020 (Win 10 pro, Intel i7, 16GB Ram, 500GB SSD) from work for a church brother. Though not heavy, it was bulky enough to carry home in a big plastic bag. Yet, I managed to stop by my favorite noodle soup house on 27th Street, as well as making a stop at NYGC after that for some PC setup that Tuesday night. It wasn't until today, a Saturday, when I tested the PC, that I realized that it failed to turn on. I thought it was the PSU (I almost bought the $37 replacement unit from Amazon), but thanks to Youtube, that blinking orange light on the power button could also just mean memory chips needed to be reseated or that the CMOS battery was gone. I dealt them both and it's working now. Could have done it last night because the Windows Update 1-2 hours was just not worth my time.

I thought David Tong would lunch with me today but he never got back to me as he promised yesterday. So I just had to puasa for lunch today. Though I would take him as a busy man by means of benefit of the doubt, I do notice interesting comparison between him and Alex. Alex broke up with Stephen Tong due to complicated reason yet he is willing to communicate with anyone in private; While David seems to be "busy" enough to ignore any private contact as much as he could. Well, at least to me. I don't know how he fellowship with others at a more personal level. The only other possibility I could think of is that he had a misconception of me in way that would distant himself from me, for that, I know not the cause except from the likes of Laura Lin. But this is theory too far fetched to consider at this point. In conclusion, despite their connections with Stephen Tong and his influence, Alex has both brain and heart, while David appears to be only the brain. That said, I do look forward to fellowship with both of them. Separately or together.

Interestingly, David Tong replied at night to apologized for forgetting it. It seemed surprisingly sincere. So we shall see. There is no intention of testing him, I just wanted to make sure we are on the same page with each of our own ministries.

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On Church Worship - Music

At GCC, we have a worship team. I do not think the pieces chosen were of "reformed" nature, despite the insistence of it by the one choosing the pieces. These are modern pieces that appear to not take the composition seriously in the sacred, biblical sense in my view. Though I won't go as far as unbiblical. It doesn't necessarily mean they are against the Bible, though they maybe threading between a fine line between Godly and unholy. These are composed by groups like CityAlight, Sovereign Grace, etc. focusing on "reformed" lyrics but nothing about the music and melody as if they are liberal about them. Therefore, they do not heed the warnings from the golden calf exodus and the fact that all things are made after its kind, including musical style, instruments, etc. Their musical style, as far as I can tell in my limited but earnest learning in music, is closer to new age and pop. In that sense, they follow suit the Israelites who presented the golden calf as their own way of sacrifice and worship to God, these modern composers present their pop culture musical style to God.

I certainly have learned much from David Chin's 陳子虔博士 workshop on Bach 漫談音樂與信仰: (simply just google/youtube search for 陳子虔 for more)

That said, what shall I do. Do I quit the team? I had previously said to Nadia that if Tom quits, I quit. But then when she publicized it, I think I must address to difference: That my reason for quitting would be independent of Tom's. Despite difference perhaps even in theology, I believe Tom was close enough to the reformed faith, though at times I do not agree with his assessment of musical choice: i.e. his rejection of "Mary did you know" as Roman Catholic's veneration of Mary, etc. But like many English churches in NJ, I notice that you cannot do without guitars. As if every musicians here were raised in a rock star's footsteps.

So I shall remain. For guitars, rock stars, mostly draw their inspiration from Bach, who drew his discovery out of his piety to God. I best remain to trouble myself in learning the secrets of music, but with caution: So should Tom depart, my days in the team are numbered as well.

Posted in Music, Theologization | 1 Comment

Why Opponents in Debate Misrepresent Your View

When that happens, there's only two possibilities:

  1. You miscommunicated, lack of linguistic clarity
  2. Your opponents do not have the mental capacity to understand your clear presentation.

There is no third possibility.

For #1. It can be dismissed if they do not wish to confirm opponent's view and more focused on talking about their own view.

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