My Journal

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.

Attic Camera - After I kept seeing the backyard neighbor's constant gatherings on their porch on their second floor balcony, usually for BBQ, with the whole crowd overlooking our backyard, today (Saturday), I've finally moved my attic camera towards the window, so that I can also happily view them back without being creepy. I had tried to be neighborly with them once, but they never opened the door when I knocked on it the first time long ago. I figured, this must be rental tenants. Now I have an incredibly good view overlooking their porch as well as their neighbor's swimming pool. Of course, my camera's goal is to view my backyard...eh...hem.

Browsing and thinking after some Facebook posts from people who are supposed to become great Christian leading figures, but are not. I'm basically talking about people like Alex, Michael, pastors' kids. There's one, probably, David Tong, who's leading a few projects, but I cannot be certain of the motive and position given to him, since he is the son of a great preacher, this one I can only wait...pray...observe. As for the rest, a lot of them, are rather disappointing. Some used to lead youth groups, but of course, they weren't really of reformed influence, so I don't put much hope there anyway. The goal is supposed to be great in Christian living, the light of the world, not being identical with secular or pagan community with the mere label of being called Christian or go serving in church every week. There's no Christian infusion in their lives. Both David and Michael are sort of on the right track, however, David and Michael both deserted their U.S. ministries...I don't know, perhaps until the situations or economics in Indonesia or Taiwan worsen in the future, it's unlikely they'll use their special passes to U.S. I'm imagining they both should have at least green card if not citizenship by now, at least that's what I've heard or observed so far. And if that is the case, I will be wise to stay away. But these two are definitely better the the rest, because they are in some ministries. Despite Michael's own faults, he's been through some, after all, it was people like Rev. Laura Lin who even privately called me to stay away from Rev. Stephen Tong when he was bringing Michael Liu here and there in New York, saying that otherwise, she would not support me or something (as if I needed her Uzzah style support). I'm sure David Tong probably had gone through similar struggle from people who were jealous of him or his people as well.

I need to focus less on the school I'm managing and more on other venture, most likely in the computing field. The hope is to have someone else trustworthy enough to pick this up and I'll even stay for I.T. Nadia's wish to turn it into Pak Tong's institute reminded me that this world is not for me. This is only for the business minded, if it's educational, it's likely secular only. The news of Bill Gates' divorce may intrigue many because this is a very very rich guy, but it's nothing new to me. I never look up to material wealth and shouldn't, and I even despise most of such who pursue it. So let them defend themselves with their money and fame on their divorces and what not, I really don't think they can walk through the needle's hole, much less a camel. The only examples of rich men of God are not like these, not even like most of those in the Charismatic churches (I don't know of any in other denominations, but if so, there's probably no difference either). It's not about how much you give. It's about how much you left remaining for yourself. The sum of a whole life style. For example, they'll have to do a lot more than my time spent pondering about theology, to really convince me otherwise. Otherwise, those donations or whatever giving they put out are no difference than one who doesn't need God - there are great Muslims, Buddhists who are rich and doing likewise. In fact, it would only show that if they align with these other religion ways, that perhaps they weren't Christian to begin with. Getting donations may be a blessings from the Lord, but the givers will be judged in a very different manner by God. The Lord may eventually say "I never knew you." It's like this, a rich so called "Christian" could one day say to the Lord: "Lord, look, I love you, but please excuse me from all these boring stuff with you, just support me and I will do my best to accumulate great profits and share with everyone", I imagine when they are being judged, God will reveal their true heart in such manner, and they will admit that they find God boring at times and desire themselves to have their own time apart from God, from time to time. They feel no remorse for quitting relationship with God for something they could enjoy just for themselves once a while - such as the pursuit of their own wealth, their own happiness, their own whatever.

Briefly glanced through churches in the neighborhood, particularly PCA, since there really aren't many reformed denominations around. PCA is less likely to be influenced by fundamentalists than OPC. Though we certainly don't want the ReVoice folks like Scott Sauls. Using the PCA directory, I've found 4 churches towards the West:
Good News Church: They are listed as "mission" instead of "church" in the directory, don't know what that means. But I think is a Korean populated church. They meet at The Wilberforce School which is near Princeton. They also have online live stream on Zoom which is in the weekly email you have to get them to email you.
Service is at 10:30am.

Redentor Presbyterian Church: Something's odd about this church. Their website listed their location in UK or Bronx, I don't know which and it seems to be in Portuguese.