My Journal

Hari Pentacosta

Indonesian Version:

Pembacaan Alkitab: Yohanes 14:15-19

It appeared that Tong was referring to Ravi Zacharias, about not following problem preachers, but the name is not mentioned.

To the thief on the cross, Christ said not that day, but TODAY, not remember, but to SAVE. Luke 23:43

Test the Spirit of truth 1 John 4:1

Chinese Version:

Hiatus on the 7 churches of Revelation.
五旬节，即基督教的圣灵降临日

Tong focused on the conversion of the crucifix thief. How great his faith is. The first to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Why Jesus said "do not touch me" because he has yet gone to the Father? Because it shows that we can no longer hold him, delay him. John 20:17

Thus, Parakletos comes. Anyone else better? Greater comforter? Greater helper? Greater leader?

How the Holy Spirit lead us? The Spirit of Truth, by God's word, by the truth.

Post sermon, Tong shared of their plan to drive to Semarang for the open ceremony of the church there, also, briefly mentioned the success of other branches in Solo, etc.

Alex Tseng vs. David Tong: Theologically and character-wise, David's on the conservative side; Alex is not, though he may try pretend to be. Evangelically, Alex is more open than David in engaging the culture; while David maybe more evangelical than Alex, but he does not make enough external contacts himself to be effective, perhaps due to fear and a protected upbringing, so he substitutes this with hard labor (i.e. driving here and there tirelessly to serve), which I consider maybe of the influence of the Uzzah's ministry employed by Rev. Laura Lin who probably got it from Bill Gothard.

Got a clip of David Tong's speech on Marriage on Facebook, where he mentioned about needing to host marriage ceremony in the church. I agree. Although, we may differ in the reason for it. For David, he focused on the attendees who would be the congregants, the fellowship of brothers and sisters; I however, focus on the covenant with God, the importance of the House of God, which inevitably connects to the fellowship of believers. In David's reasoning, if you marry in Bali, then you are more into inviting your friends and family rather than your church members. Therefore, his reasoning is flawed. Of course, David and I probably both agree on disagreeing with Alex, who married in Bali and even attempted to defend it by saying that the likes of us would be practicing Roman Catholicism, making marriage a sacrament. I can respond to this very easily, if it's a sacrament, then lots of married couples who converted would need to redo their ceremonies, therefore we don't treat marriage as a sacrament. But as a covenant that is serious before God in time and place and people.

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.