My Journal

https://bcn.stemi.id/ Bible Camp , I just daftar. Saved to my OneDrive screenshot of the ID and password which apparently they started to require this time.

Pak Tong invited Michael Densmoor daughter who graduated from Maryland in Opera to sing, O Divine Redeemer.

Richest royal - Thailand, not Queen of England.

Biggest Castle of the world in Myanmar.

My take: v. 7,8 door that opened cannot be closed. Interesting, usually only closed door that cannot be open, not the other way around unless the door's broken. I imagine that it has to do with disabled doors, abandoned, publicly available to his audience.

Chinese Version:

Invited Michael Densmoor's daughter Amanda Densmoor to sing O Divine Redeemer by Charles Gounod.

Tong: If Densmoor's family were to stay in America, they (the daughters) would have been corrupted. That it is God's blessings for Michael D. to remain in Indonesia.

Tong mentioned David's purchase of Araunah & Ornan's land, linking it to the story of the brotherly love that should be attributed to the legendary origin of Jerusalem. I think. But Tong focused on David's purchasing the land this time. Merely mentioned that Araunah and Ornan were famous for their brotherly love in various traditions. Abraham waited 500 years to get the promised land. Not taken anytime you want, but by God's time.

Origin of Philadelphia: Attalus II & Eumenes II's brotherly love. Not common for royalties.

Many who couldn't trust in God and complained, like the Israelites who exiled 40 (38) years of journey what could have been only 3 days.

Romans 3:21 righteousness APART from the law...When Moses (representing the law) and Elijah (representing the prophets) testified Christ on mount Hermon. Tong believes Mt. Hermon rather than the others (i.e. Mt. Tabor, etc.)

v. 7, 8: What's with the door? it means the opportunity of the Gospel - be it opportunity to preach or opportunity to listen, is limited and not in our control.

According to Didache, one must provide an evangelical servant of the Lord said that he wants to live at your place, but if more than 3 days, he is a false prophet. Didache, from the first 2 centuries, also known as The Lord's Teaching Through the Twelve Apostles to the Nations.

Tong shared the "fake" ones in his experience in Canada, a preacher made Tong buy shoes worth $270USD. Some pastor in Indonesia had people bought thousands of dollar batik, no one wants to welcome him after that.

How long did Elijah stayed? Until the famine was over. Miracle blessed the widow.

Tong sold his precision Rolex watch to buy airplane tickets for preaching back in the days.

Despite bringing up 说文 as the oldest source to debunk many "Christianization of" Chinese characters, some would say, well doesn't matter where it comes from but it seems to work with the Christianization of those characters, but that's just Uzzah's ministry once again isn't it? Some would even want to say, well, you might never know, that 说文 "could" be wrong! But that's only begging the question. I could easily say, oh I know...get this, Do you know that God's name, YHWH, was actually planted in everyone's lips? When most of us got shocked or accidentally bumped into, we are likely to exclaim...YAWWAH!! It's actually God name we're calling!!!

Woke up today, thought about back when I was in Arkansas, some are truly caring (usually the older generation) some merely have the appearance of loving.

I think the bad Western Christian influence is, treating pity as love. The line is blurred.

Pity would not last; love does.
Pity is not truly self-sacrificial; love is.
Pity is always looking down ultimately; love never.

There are more pity confused as love than there are love mistaken as pity.

I also thought about my wife and her brother. I think there was a case where love may have been treated as pity, love I say, because is more prominent within a family than pity, but if it truly was love, then the only excuse to treat it as pity is pride. The pride so great that one does not even truly see the love of a family member, or worst, does not see one as a family member.

How to distinguish love from pity, especially one that is outside of family bound? One way, the best way, against Ameristians (or Western influenced Christians) is when you see the initiative care is given where there's no need for such care. The stronger the insistence of such care, the better to stay away from such. True, they may use excuses that this is "FOR THE LORD", but that can easily be discerned. If it is truly for the Lord, it is for the church, not for friendship or some other non-church related matter. If it is truly for the church, then it is a little better, but perhaps discernment of true motive in that one would take more time, but it is minor, so I wouldn't bother about it too much, because in the end, no matter it was done in pity or not, God be praised.

Back to the topic of Uzzah, it is rather interesting. I came to an irrefutable conclusion of Laura Lin's servitude being similar to that of Bill Gothard, which is the Uzzah's servitude. Now, they may say, knowing Lin, I bet she would say: "But the ark was supported because of Uzzah, regardless, wasn't it?" My best response would be: "Therefore, we must never replace that ark, let Uzzah be replaced, let the same ark be carried by proper means, but never stand beside Uzzah."

JFBC - https://www.johnsonferry.org/

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Georgia. Heard him said it in today's podcast, when he compared himself to Ravi Zacharias' fall which may have been contributed by Ravi's non-association with any local church.

Votum: Mazmur 66:20

Pembacaan Alkitab: Lukas 11:5-13

v. 1: 7 Spirits doesn't mean God has 7 spirits. But that there are 7 fungsi & sifat of the Holy Spirit. 7 Stars = all churches in the world.
Isaiah 11:1-4

Chinese Version:

Sardis located on the high area, therefore the residents had no fear of war for it was hard to be attacked. However, because of complacency, they were defeated.

Therefore, in v.2 Jesus called them to be "watchful".

A famous person from Sardis, Aesop. Tall, ugly, full of wisdom. Wanted freedom, but his master loved to keep him and tricked him into laboring for his freedom. After realizing he was tricked, he committed suicide by jumping into his death from high ground.

Aesop, once served his master's party with all kinds of tongues twice for opposing reasons: greatness vs. wickedness of a person's tongue.

My note: I'm not sure where Tong got his version of Aesop's death. Traditionally Aesop's killed by Delphi people who were insulted by him, thrown him from a cliff. He lived around 600-500 BC. It was said that he obtained his freedom and served as advisers to kings. In fact, one of his fables, The Old Man and Death, proved against the notion of suicide. Perhaps Tong was remembering the wrong person.

Important: v.1 按名你是活的，其实是死的. Alive but dead church. [名存实亡]

3 kinds of death in the Bible: body, spiritual, and eternal death in hell.

Tong: The Lazarus parable is not parable but a real event.

v. 3 Why Jesus made himself to be a thief?
1. He comes without announcement
2. He takes that which is valuable to him (not you). He'll take those whom he loves, who he sees worthy. Not who you like.

v. 3-4, like the bride in white, protective of her dress/garments, this is a very important verse. We must have this same attitude of holiness.

Bagaimana tahu pendeta/gereja yang baik?

• Takes time to see what is true, real or fake.
• Which Teaching is more important: Benar atau Dalam [in rhetoric]? Benar is the answer.
• Talked about Bernie Madoff on ethic.
• Prof. Harvard yang ajar etika, tidak beretika.
  My take: Luke 6:45b "For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks"
  My take: Knowledge vs. Wisdom - Though both requires the fear of God, but they are not the same. "perhaps" Knowledge is the product of Wisdom. Knowledge can be copied, thus it is not true - true knowledge. Such is the game of many theologians and professors in academic, copying knowledge from others. Wisdom cannot be copied.

The effect of atomic destruction in Japan was shown. Should show before vs. after photos.

Tong's definition on v. 26: 得胜 (overcomer, winner): One who takes part in the fruit of the salvation of Christ.

v. 27 vs. Psa 2: Iron rod, ruling orang Kristian.

Chinese version (I started to listen to the Chinese version in the train, instead of walking on NYC streets, so that I can take notes):

Cellist Dani Kurnia Ramadhan praised by Tong. Hosting concert with Saint Saens' Cello Concerto 1.

Bach's St. Matthew's Passions was rediscovered by Mendelssohn 100 years later from the music sheets used to wrap a butcher's products. Bach's Passion was favored most by Japanese. Conductor Masaaki Suzuki was a reformed Christian whom Tong invited once.

教会两种人：忠心 vs. 背叛

和合本 （1914）之前，深文理 -> 浅文理. 和合本， easiest to understand, by 94 missionaries in China. Importance linked to greatest population in the world. This motivates me to look into the history of Chinese interpretations of the Bible.

Indonesian version: Ejaan Baru. Made by Indonesians who from earlier version translated by the Dutch, thought they needed a better Indonesian terminologies. Now the translations have lowered their standards.

v. 24: Preachers with depth of knowledge favored = Deep things of Satan. Because these preachers have corrupted ethics.

Aesop mentioned. Ugly, big and tall. 伊索寓言. 因主人骗他白为了自由劳力，从山上跳下自尽。深奥道理，不是保罗的深文，而是耶稣简单比喻来的。

Tong value those faculties who could do better than those who only could talk.

Matthew 11:29-30 Is the lesson on learning from the life of Christ, not just talk.

The incarnation of Christ is the simplification of God's deep mystery. Thus, Martin Luther and the reformations also followed the same by making Bible accessible to the public. Now German literature is based on Martin Luther's German translation of the Bible.

Now the problem of preachers is they kept preaching deeper, making the pulpit more distant for the congregants.

Tong: (against Rev. Laura Lin's theology) one must serve with JOY!

If you feel heavy from the burden of your service in Christ, then something's wrong. Bach's
tune for Jesus' yolk is easy, is really light, though hard to sing in tune for it's mysterious depth discovered by Bach. Contrast with Handel's "His Yoke is Easy" in Messiah. It is the most free and the highest pitch (Bflat) in all the music, and light piece in Messiah - expression contains sudden happiness, reliefs. Indeed God has applied His mysterious depth in such music.

When you serve the Lord you are never alone, you are serving with Christ. The Yoke across two cows with a balancing central plank forms a cross. Something is wrong with your service if you feel you cannot do it anymore.

Tong testifying his own hardship journeys (carrying big cases of artifacts on the bus, etc.) in joy rather than complaining how hard it is.

教会两种基督徒:失败的 vs 得胜的
失败的: 犯奸淫, 不忠于上帝, 接受邪恶的教训, 同世界妥协.

西方曰: 历史是得胜者所写出来的. 东方曰 (Tong: 中国历史很诚实的话): 胜者为王,败者为寇.
但神得道不是如此: 耶稣的得胜 = 为主牺牲.

得胜定义: 凡在基督救赎果效里面有份的人,就是得胜; 没有份的人, 就是失败者.
耶稣为何死? 1. 替罪人的罪而死, 2. 为上帝旨意而死, 3. 为打败魔鬼而死. 你胜过罪恶吗? 胜过撒旦吗? 胜过死亡吗? 若有份, 你就是得胜的.

Those who die with Christ, can therefore live with Christ, can therefore rule with Christ with iron rod.