Talked to my dad this morning, after some IT work for him. We talked about yesterday's attack on the Capitol by what's allegedly Trump supporters (Allegedly, that's what I am curious about).
If the attack is orchestrated by the opposite side (the Democrats, Antifa, BLM, etc.) then I wouldn't be surprise, because they are a rather twisted bunch, though it's interesting. After all, it provoked Facebook to ban Trump as well as the call to remove Trump from office now. When Joe dropped me off to the train station this morning, he said he felt sorry for Trump's family, grandchildren, I concur.
If it's by Pro-Trump, then obviously the far-right. Not very smart (which is why I am more inclined to believe this is the BLM hippies). Although, it seems that while the BLM choose attack civilians, the Capitol attackers believed themselves to be more principled, which is the kind of bureaucracy the Rightists usually solve their problems with.
The way I see it, as long as the Left and Right in America choose to speak over each other, then perhaps let there be war. Because in war, you cannot just fight over each other, you have to fight AGAINST each other. Without it, nothing is done, things just get worse. People would just move around in this great land, a vast land indeed, so running out of geographical location to settle in U.S.A. is certainly not a problem, there are plenty of cowards in American evangelical/reformed churches as well, though I cannot say the same to the internetworking between cities to maintain one single nation.
As we near the end of 2020, a few things crossed my mind which I had intended to write down but did not until now.
The U.S. Presidential election: I had thought Trump would win, but I don't know about this vote fraud thing, could be real, or maybe not, I cannot say definitely either way. Although, what's more important is the delusion the far right has as well as the left. Notice I don't really say the "Far" left, just left, they are the problem as well as the Far right. While many American pastors support Trump based on policies (I don't think much of the 'pastors' who would vote Democrats at this point, are they even real pastors?) not to mention the alternative would be on an atheistic path, the left based the presidential candidate on personality. Obviously, this was not possible at the time when personality of one cannot easily be publicized in something called the media. Be it true or fake news. So it looks like Joe Biden is going to be the president, it's ForBidden and his vice president Alamak...I meant, Kamala. Nonetheless, a president is still a president, I see the republicans are proven once more to be more open minded than the other side to congratulate Biden, people such as Bush, hoping to have find ways to reconcile and work together. The Democrats have not been known to do this, as their opponents are always viewed by them as wicked, evil, should never be associated with, not be treated as fellow humans, for they are baskets of deplorables.
On Covid19, I would not have thought that the country, and the whole world, would be affected in such a way for at least a year. While most preachers in U.S. preach about standing strong, asking God for help, showing love, Rev. Stephen Tong preached about examining the meaning of this all before God with humility. How we have taken things for granted until the pandemic hits. Countries like America are proven their true strength, ability and skills, be it weak or strong, it's God's hand forcing this out. Some proud ones would deny humility, calling it God's test or something, as they continue their sort of anti-mask movement to their own folly. I thank God for having this opportunity to worship remotely at GRII every Sunday since March/April of 2019. Also thanks to God for hardening the hearts of some pastors in the U.S. for not wanting to have a service online (for it is not biblical as they put it), so that I was persuaded to look to GRII. With my work, it's also a new thing. I'm sure many have enjoyed working from home (WFH) for years. I had envied it, but I finally get to experience it, thanks be to God. I never thought I would get this chance. I enjoyed it so much I really hope this pandemic would last as long as it could, or, perhaps there will be much chance to work from home.
With working two jobs, I wouldn't say a challenge, but it's definitely some struggle at times especially with NYGC facing renewal of licenses.
On theological matters, other than Covid related matters, I get to rejoin the Redeemer's Men's Fellowship on Tuesday Mornings 7AM, some times. I wasn't there much for the Revelations, but we're doing Jonah now. My favorite was Matt Mundy, an actor. I think I first saw him reading scriptures for Redeemer services and loved his read, I told Nadia, not knowing who this person was, that the reader was a professional. I get to reflect on the English history that relates to King Henry VIII and how politics used religion at the time when I watched the 3 series (The White Queen, the White Princess, The Spanish Princess) based on Philippa Gregory's novels. Quoting scriptural verses for their own understanding.
I also was able to take time from the WFH situation to read some of Ron Choong's articles which he kept emailing to us and I had not been able to find time to care enough to read. But still same old same old problems: He puts science over theology rather than the other way around. Here's a quick comment by quoting and I just do purple highlights on the problems without needing to comment on them:
LESSONS from HISTORY. If our 21st century beliefs are based on specific interpretations of the Bible by people who lived in prescientific times, influenced by what they knew, how can we revise their beliefs to represent our beliefs today? The history of the Bible itself gives us the clue. a) Jesus’ Bible consisted of books from the Old Testament. There was no New Testament until the 4th century. It took hundreds of years before the Church decided which of the many letters and books circulating around made the final cut of 27 New Testament writings. b) Jesus taught a revised interpretation of Jewish writings that were by his time over 1000 years old, some of which were accounts describing events that were 2000 years old. His disciples eventually wrote down their fresh interpretations which by the 4th century AD, became recognized by the Church as the New Testament. Thus the New Testament writings revised the beliefs of God fearers who interpreted the Old Testament writings. In practice, every sermon for the past 2000 years have been revisions of older interpretations. This is because the biblical texts did not anticipate every possible question we have today (such as stem cell research or IVF or organ donation) as well as future questions of tomorrow (perhaps of cloning our loved ones before they die, using technology to keep us alive indefinitely or choosing the attributes of our babies). Notice that many of our questions concern life, death and medical ethics? c) Each generation of believers ask questions of God that preceding generations did not even think about. Christians ought to hold on to doctrines (teachings) lightly and with a large dose of humility. How often have Christians hurt each other and even gone to war over interpretations of the Bible? Indeed all religious wars were fought over interpretations, never over God. This sobering fact ought to make us mindful of painting ourselves into a doctrinal corner. Let us learn to love and worship God for one reason only – because God is.
Other side things: I am taking a liking to this Uncle Roger on Youtube: A Malaysian living in UK and possibly divorced, which made me wonder about the truth in what Ravi Zacharias said about Malaysia being the highest divorce rate country
Hidup yang lemah vs. hidup yang limpah Kelimpahan: Yang bersyukur.
Many blessed by God, but not many give thanks. Luke 17:17
Acts 20:35 It is more blessed to give than to receive.
Love can never be kept until it is given; Life can never be perfect until it is shared.
老子：君子成人之美
Mandarin session:
我们都讨厌不懂得感恩的人。他们认为得到的恩典是应该的。
Biographies of Mozart and Beethoven mentioned. Mozart memorized court-restricted music and played it publicly, causing court summon. 7 year old Mozart told the queen he wanted to marry 16 year old Marie Antoinette. Beethoven's father followed Mozart's father's example to have Beethoven trained by Mozart. Mozart commended Beethoven: He will change the world.
Just came across this, if it's true, just goes to show it's not about man or the sinners, but God himself for He is always great and righteous and true! How Christians fellowship with one another in truth and love. How we relate to everyone in the world beyond all superficiality. All these matter not just with words and actions, but in true motive as well!
Before evening, we've given gifts to all but 1 intended neighbors, which would make 5 gifts in total: Joe, Zaira, "Frilet?" (new neighbor), Zach, and I'm missing Adam, which we'll try tomorrow.
Listened to GRII 2020 Christmas (25th) Mandarin+Indonesian Service on Youtube with Nana and Willy. I worried at first that this is going to be too long due to the side by side translation, which I have now come to frown upon (time wasting), but the message did finally get interesting gradually.
I did not record it. Should have. Hopefully they will put in the recording. I guess all of Pak Tong's should be recorded.
(Update: here is the official recording)
Mid session, our Christmas lights, I think, shorted the circuit. Good thing that our outdoor socket is GFI, so I don't need to check the breakers in the basement. My guess is due to this long night storm, mostly strong wind than rain, water must have gotten into one of the connectors of our Christmas light chains. Possibly the ones on the floor and there is one without proper covering which Nadia covered with plain food wrapping. I'll check this in the morning. Too much wind, too much rain, too dark right now.
Back to the sermon. Classic Tong rebuked a couple of people who played with his/her nails, fingers. Hopefully it's truly a rebuke on the attention deficit and not wrongly against those with good reason, but this kind of rebuke is rare and much needed.
Tong mentioned Jahja Ling after traveling from Los Angeles to NY, called him telling him that many American Christians listened to Tong's critic on U.S. politics (which is very crazy these years with Trump vs. Biden) and loved it because all news media in U.S. are so bias and fake. And that a pastor (NY?) is trying to work with Pak Tong to prepare a possible 5 session series on this kind of politics. I definitely will look forward to it. Willy asked if this pastor is Rev. Lin. I had thought of such for a split second but disregarded it until Willy asked. Then I gathered my thoughts again, and replied him that "it's possibly her, because if not, then shame on her!" Why? Because this kind of talk is so rare that it's superiorly important! And she would be one of the closest to Tong to do this. Which reminds me, that I should follow up on this with Tante Lyna. Of course, I must add that I don't really hold Jahja Ling nor Rev. Lin on any high regard because I know their focus is more on the reputation, not that they would admit it but it's a confusion of it with serving God that they have, so I'll leave it at that. They could probably spot a good opportunity in God's kingdom, like the old prophet in Bethel in 1Ki 13:11, that is all. But I could use this to my advantage, although I fear that this series may not happen if Tong is flooded with other burdens. If it does, I would have to record this myself as I fear these folks would cut out sensitive parts should they produce their own recordings.
At the end, I noticed that everyone sang We wish you a Merry Christmas, but Tong didn't sing, merely smiling...I think it's a smile. I wonder why? Too secular? Just want to observe others singing.
While this may work and I almost did this, I could just easily do it via Active Directory by right clicking Administrator in Users and reset password right away. Since I have and could sign in as another admin user. Then, it would just force the administrator to sign in for the required password change as somehow it would not allow such the active directory password to set directly for administrator. I used AnyDesk to remote in to the server to sign in as administrator.
But just in case we have to do the hard way and that the link I included above is broken:
Step 1: Create a Windows Server 2012 installation media in an accessible computer.
Step 2: Insert to the locked Windows Server 2012 computer and continually hit the boot key to enter BIOS. Setting your installation disk as the first boot option then press F10 to save and exit.
Step 3: Enter your language and other preferences and click on the Next button.
Step 4: After that, click on Repair your computer in the lower-left corner.
Step 5: In the Choose an option window, tap on Troubleshoot.
Step 6: When the Advanced options window shows you, click Command Prompt.
Step 7: Type the following commands and hit Enter key at the end of each line.
1. d:
2. CD windows\system32
3. ren utilman.exe utilman.exe.bak
4. ren cmd.exe utilman.exe
5. wpeutil reboot
Then your computer will automatically restart.
Step 8: In the Windows Server 2012 login screen, click on the Ease to access icon to open Utilman.exe. Run the net command to reset the Windows 2012 password and active the admin account.
net user administrator Admin123
net user administrator /active:yes
Then log in your Windows server with the new password Admin123. Finally, navigate to the Command Prompt in the installation disk to rename utilamn.exe to cmd.exe, and rename utilman.exe.bak to utilman.exe.
NOTE: If you have no permission to rename the utilman and cmd program, please repeat the Step 1-6 above and run the command lines below:
In the evening of last Wednesday 12/16. For about 2 days. Roughly 8" thick. Used the snow blower for the first time (bought right after we moved in in 2018) after the snow. Joe helped blown some off our lawn, we helped our other neighbor Z.
Anjing dihina juga disayang, paradox. Domba tidak dihina. Rev 22:15 dogs outside of the kingdom.
Anjing setia terhadap tuannya, tapi tak ada tulang. Tuan itu sebagai allah anjing. Kucing mau dilayan seperti allah. Because you give the dog, it will be loyal to you, why people like dogs? because a good partner that obeys you, even if your love is fake. Evaluation power of a dog is the worst. Man is best at classification of values.
If you find a talented person, quickly learn from him. It's stupid to throw away this opportunity. 孔子曰：“益者三友，损者三友：友直，友谅，友多闻，益矣；友便辟，友善柔，友便佞，损矣。”（《季氏》第十六）
Paling pintar zaman ini, Soren Kierkegaard. Most original thinking. But looked down by his peers. But his pen-name was well celebrated by them. Influenced many: Buber, Barth, etc.
Jangan beri anjing, maksudnya: yang tidak mengetahui, tidak berhak diberi.
Mentioned at around 1:46:00 online version: Order of the Will of God: Rencana (计划 decree), Mengatur semua (安排 arrangement), pimpim langkah (引导 guidance of the Holy Spirit), perbolehkan/diizinkan (许可 permission), biarkan (任凭 given away = Judas).
Chinese Version:
Dog is most despised as well as most loved. Closest to man, loyal. Luke 16:21 dog licking...loved.
Psa 49:20 Men who are like dogs (beasts) because they don't care to understand divine matters.
It is very wrong to treat dogs same level as man: viz. Those who are provoked by abuse of dogs more than abuse of man.
The justice viewed by many Arabian Muslims is mixed with vengeance.
Stephen Hawking's denial of God mentioned. (because science can explain, therefore no need God, bad use of the prophetic function of man.)
Tong questioned everyone: Did Jesus hope for Judas to change? (hint: go do what you want to do). Two reasons of Judas' apostlehood: So that others like Judas will have no excuse. Secondly, so that teachers will be comforted when they have Judas as student.
