What's new so far

Sickening by this news on Google's stupidity: Google pays $3.8 millions to female employees and job applicants due to discrimination. What's sick? Workers/applicants demand equality. They'll never survive Jesus' world (Matthew 20:1-16). The employer decides on compensation, hiring, not the workers nor the applicants. Simply stupid. If there's truly discrimination, then go find job elsewhere, stupid yet again. I wonder if Google is just too rich to bother (after all $3.8Mil is just pennies for them), or they really bought into this nonsense? Definitely not both, otherwise, it just means that they are living too well, maybe I can have a piece of this cake too then.

Pennsylvania snow shoveling: 3 people got killed. Couples (James & Lisa Goy) dispute with neighbor (Jeffrey Spaide) across the street on where to dump the snow. Spaide went to get his gunS and killed the couple, then committed suicide himself. There are definitely crazies in the conservative/gun toting violent folks, despite some right wing's denial of such and when confronted with facts, they could only invent more denials. Conservatives way won't work. Love your neighbor, take initiatives to take the humble route even if it may sometime seems stupid. There's no need for war with neighbors. But when war demands, letting others live is suicidal. Although such is only at the command of God, not of men nor of man's idea of God's command, and such calling is so rare that most who claim it are false. God hatest him who loveth violence.

Question: Is gender differences transcendental?
This could prove or disprove sayings like "You men never...", "women, ..."; and also discredit transgenderism.

Posted in News, Questions, Reflection | Leave a comment

Sermon - Stephen Tong Sunday Service 01/31/2021 Matthew 7:15-20

Hymn: Come Thou Almighty King - Felice de Giardini

Hymn: O Love that Will Not Let Me Go - George Matheson, Albert L. Peace. St. Margaret

Hymn: It is well with my Soul - Horatio G. Spafford

v.16 My take on: Are grapes gathered from non-grape vines?
True, false prophets can steal the fruits of others, take their credits, however, it's not possible to hide one's true self from those who know one close and well enough. If you believe the falsehood, that just means you only care to look at the surface, as superficially as the rest of the world. Although this video is worth to look into, which is past 5 years of news and no more follow up found easily online (Of course, if it's true, it's a bit too much of stretch in the analogy, getting off topic):

Tong gave lesson on how to prune grape vine in Chinese session as well.

5 Connections of Christ to the Church in Reformed Doctrine:
1. Foundation of the Building
2. Shepherd and Sheep
3. Vine and Branches
4. Husband and Wife
5. Head and body

Greek Orthodox Church on Union with Christ:
1. Mysterious union
2. Organic union
3. Eternal union
4. Spiritual union

Tong mentioned 7 types of fruits (with Spiritual fruits being one of them). I think, detail was not given, must look up in past sermons. i.e. Fruit of labor, fruit of repentance, fruit of righteousness, Spiritual fruits (against which there are no law), etc.

For 7 types of fruits, this is the best I could find:

有一次我在三寶瓏(Kota Semarang)講基督所結的七種果子【編按:聖經列有的果子,如:福音的果子(羅1:13),成聖的果子(羅6:22),仁義的果子(林後9:10),聖靈的果子(加5:22),工夫的果子(腓1:22),嘴唇的果子(來13:15),行為的果子(西1:10)】,三教聯合的儒、道、佛人士驚訝於基督教真理的豐盛,因為在佛教中只有一種果子,就是行為的果子。我們要讓基督的智慧被彰顯出來,攻破仇敵的營壘,將人的心意奪回,使他們歸向上帝。我們看見聖經給我們的教訓太豐富了。許多時候,傳道人照抄文章,沒有好好把上帝真理豐盛的奧祕找出來,無形之中顯出自己的缺乏。但聖靈的九種果子使我們彰顯基督的豐盛。我們所結的果子就證明我們是怎樣的基督徒。如果一個基督徒是欺詐、惡毒的,就表明他沒有上帝的生命,因為有上帝真福音的品種,才有真道德的標準。今天的講道告訴我們誰是真的、誰是假的。如果裡面真與神發生關係,一定在外表表露出來,你要靠著聖靈的能力才能結出果子。聖靈是神與人之間流通的管子,使我們結果子表明上帝生命的品種的優良。

Hymn: The Solid Rock - Edward Mote, W.B. Bradbury

Posted in Theologization | 4 Comments

What's New so Far

GameStop, etc. Stocks Short Squeezed yesterday.

Here's my take with my limited understanding. It looks a joke in the economics world. The short story is, Stocks like GameStop (video game shops), AMC, BlackBerry, are not doing well in their profits, they are kind of outdated, so investment companies are short selling these stocks (Watch the movie "The Big Short (2015)" about a few smart people who figured out the world economics are going to collapse in 2008 and took advantage of it), but thanks to the Internet world, famous forums like the Reddit r/wallstreetbets group are ganging up against these short sellers and bought into these stocks to jack up the price, causing big lost for these short sells investors. Obviously, the owner of Reddit had this forum shutdown for a while and SEC supposed to investigate. Outcome will be uncertain.

What does this have to do with me? I used Robinhood account for my mom. A trading app that's heavily supported by Citadel LLC whose subbranch is Melvin Capital Management which short selled GME (GameStop) and is now suffering from the pranksters of wallstreetbets who are allegedly buying in these stocks using Robinhood, so Robinhood restricted trading in several stocks. This bad faith made me considering moving from Robinhood to other platform, such as MooMoo.

Stock Market's purpose is supposed to be for standardizing prices (properly value companies) and for companies to raise money by selling their stocks. I've asked for detail mechanisms of stock market but no one seems to be able to answer me that, either it's too secretive for them to share or they do not know. Now I know a little, after what wallstreetbets did. Because they exploited one of the loop holes I was trying to ascertain. Same kind of loop holes exploited by the smart ones during the world economic crash in 2008. I guess Biden's going to bail the "non-gambling" losers, as they did the hedge funds in 2007. I wonder how Bitcoins will do in light of this.

California's first death case after 2nd Covid-19 Vaccination

Health care worker Tim Zook of Orange County, who has high blood pressure, died in hours after 2nd Pfizer vaccination. Cause relating to vaccine is still under investigation. Many said it's likely not the vaccine, not sure if this is a panic prevention or for real.

Posted in Economics, News, Questions | Leave a comment

Bible Study: The Book of Isaiah

In the Redeemer's Men's fellowship, on the first chapter of Isaiah, the comparison was made to Karl Marx's "religion is the opiate of the masses". This reminds me that Stephen Tong once said that this is not originally from Marx, but from a famous Christian author, Charles Kingsley, who said, according to Tong: 所讲的一段痛责基督徒的话:「基督徒啊,你不要礼拜一到礼拜六活在犯罪行恶中,然后礼拜天到教会去麻醉自我。你以为周日到教会祷告求上帝赦免你,之后就可以继续不断从周一到周六又再犯罪;犯了六天的罪后,礼拜天又来求上帝再麻醉你吗?这样,宗教只有麻醉的作用,对你根本没帮助。」

But when I looked, I only found this, that is written 4 years after Marx's statement:
We have used the Bible as if it were a mere special constable's hand book, an opium dose for keeping beasts of burden patient while they were being overloaded, a mere book to keep the poor in order. ~ Charles Kingsley.

And apparently from the same last link, something other than Kingsley's famous quote predates Marx: Around 1797 there was a comment that was floating around: "Religion acts merely as an opiate." It appeared in the L'Historie de Juliette by the Marquis de Sade and in Novalis.

So I'm not sure of Tong got it right by saying Marx took it from Kingsley. Unless Kingsley said something more closely to Tong's quote and I cannot yet find online.

Here's the overview of Isaiah by the famous Bible Project:

In the first week's of the Men's Group (Which I failed yet again to join) material, social justice is emphasized and even questioned, though somehow the missing element is called "Social Gospel". 社会福音

I would like to respond to this (second week's material of the Men's group): it ought not to be said that obedience produces forgiveness. I would say: Obedience at the most results in God's acceptance, not forgiveness. Two very different things. Hence, this statement "it is also plain that God does not proclaim forgiveness to those who are unwilling to obey all the pleadings of the prophets" is a bit erred. Sort of a misunderstanding in the predestination department.

Interesting in this 2nd week's material, there's a call to "leave the defense or condemnation of white lies out of this..." hmm...I wasn't even thinking about it but now that it's mentioned, it peaked my interest in the debate of white lies. I've always wondered which direction the majority in the church is leaning. Apparently neutral in this incident. I've done a rather thorough argument condemning it before, especially when dealing with one of Pastor Paul Murphy's sermon, so I'm good.

However, it would seemed that the question of "why all societies forbid lying?" was brought up as a show that lying is the easiest and most obvious sin to tackle, even foundational. The way I see it, it's not foundational. It's just the quickest result following Kant's moral maxim. Other sins yields the same realizations by pagan societies, depending on level of wisdom, for example, "honor your parents", etc. Truth is the very essence of human communication and relationship.

Suddenly out of no where (I guess when I was wondering as manager of NYGC, how would I start a Christian fellowship), I thought of something to ask John Chen...his former CA company, did he started the fellowship in the company, how, what's the history?

Chapter 1:13-15 Good quote from Psalm 51:7 & Prov 28:9 by Drew of the Men's group leader.

Posted in Questions, Theologization | 11 Comments

Vocab: Taciturn

Kathy’s Word of the Week

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our CHRO

taciturn

Pronunciation:
tas-i-turn

Definition:
inclined to silence; reserved in speech; reluctant to join in conversation.

As used in a sentence:
By nature, she is a taciturn woman who keeps her thoughts to herself.

Posted in Vocabularies | Leave a comment

Sermon - Stephen Tong Sunday Service 01/24/2021 Matthew 7:13-14

Chinese session:
Best seller books don't mean they are good.

Tong: many regret electing Biden as president, because one of his official is gay saying "I'm glad my 'husband' is here..."
If America put into law these gender confusion, then the family will break.

The small gate has protocols to follow.

Spurgeon did not get ordained by big churches: Why can I find God, because he first put the seed of seeking Him in my heart.

Good durians can be detected by the stem of the fruit, the color and smell reflects the fruits; Wisdom of telling a person's inside is harder than judging by outward appearance.

Jesus said I'm the vine, you are the branches. The fruit of the tree is of the tree, not the branch.

The nutrient that flows from the tree to the branch is as the Holy Spirit.

John 10:9, Jesus said I am the door. No one else said that.

Know your place first, then you can obey. Those who don't obey because they have left their place.

Therefore being Christians is harder than being a non-Christians. Many thinks going to America they found the earthly heaven, but now America is now becoming worse than even China ethically.

Tong: Now America enter the wide gate. John Roberts of the U.S. supreme court justice, breaks the law using the law. Of the 9 justices, only 2 obey the law. One of the is a black man who was once scorned under Biden? (Obama?). More supporting abortion, gender confusion in toilet, etc. Now that Trump is not elected, it shows that America is now dominated by wicked lies and trickery. Tong said he is tempted to advise his members not to send kids to USA anymore, because all they care about is class-connections, financial advantage, not education of the true personality which is living for the truth, honesty, righteousness.

Christian Education is produce someone like Christ.

John Dewey, William James, Charles Piece these 3 influenced America in the 1920s with Pragmatism. In 1980s, Marxism penetrated American culture, focusing on materialism, economy as purpose, morality and Christ are unnecessary.

Reformed churches established Harvard and Yale. 80 years later, Harvard gone astray, thus Yale is established to counter that apostacy from Christ. Now GRII will attempt similar goal, one that is beyond current financial means. Now, Harvard and Yale sued Trump for not allowing Chinese students to come study. China sent chinese spies as students to learn the technologies. China's communism wants to remove religion and America, which is its obstacle now.

What then is the small gate and narrow path? That is according to Christ.

Tong: American politician Eric Swalwell, wooed by Chinese Mata hari - Fang Fang, Chinese spy who entered US as college student. Swalwell told Fang Fang all kinds of secrets, slept with her. Thanks to Biden, Swalwell's position is now secured. Many Chinese officials are morally corrupt, having affairs everywhere. Muslims are no exception, there's a tale that Muhammed was actually poisoned by one of his sex slave.

The wide gate: love of money, love of women.

Jesus did not get married because of his unique nature, an offspring is not allowed. Dan Brown exploited that with the relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene.

Tong: some say, I don't want to be Christians, cannot dance, cannot be drunken, cannot commit adultery, cannot be greedy, cannot lie, how can I make money.

My prayer: Lord, though the world is easy, the path of true joy is hard, make us the holy ones of God, according to the obedience of Christ our Lord and Savior. In thy precious Name Jesus Christ, Amen.

Tong encouraged those (Chinese session) troubled reach out to him to schedule a time to pray and seek God's will.

Posted in Theologization | Leave a comment

Remotely Wake from Sleep Mode

The Magic Packet really does work. So far it works for an HP computer, I believe I have set in its BIOS to Wake-on-Lan and all WOL options are turned on on NIC adapter (device manager), for the host computer.

Then when someone accidentally puts the computer to sleep (may even work with powered down pc as well), I just googled and installed a Magic Packet Sender freeware, entered IP, and VERY IMPORTANT, the MAC ADDRESS!!! of the remote computer, and click Send, voila it works!

Side note: How did I get MAC address remotely? I tried searching, using ARP -a, but this only gives you a table of active workstation addresses, not sure Windows keep a logs of workstations MAC addresses that are connected to it. So I thought, let's check the Router, and bingo! Some router keeps a log, perhaps briefly, of recently disconnected devices and thus, their MAC addresses as well.

Question will be if this is only working for certain computers like HP. I remember setting this WOL options in BIOS of other brands of PCs but failed, despite them having such WOL option.

Posted in Technical | Leave a comment

Vocab: Urbane


Kathy’s Word of the Week

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our CHRO

urbane

Pronunciation:
ur-beyn

Definition:
reflecting elegance, sophistication, etc., especially in expression:

As used in a sentence:
He maintained an urbane tone in his letters.

Posted in Vocabularies | Leave a comment

Sermon - Stephen Tong Sunday Service 01/17/2021 Matthew 7:12

Opening Hymn: https://hymnary.org/text/thanks_to_god_for_my_redeemer

2nd Hymn: https://hymnary.org/text/safe_in_the_arms_of_jesus

3rd Hymn: https://hymnary.org/text/gods_way_is_the_best_way_though_i_may_n

范仲淹: 先天下之憂而憂,後天下之樂而樂

Active vs. Passive good.

My note: Problem in today's America, the average are in the have, fewer have nots. Jesus' message here is ill-taken as a twisted motive: That I need something from others, so I do good unto them, so no one does it, for they think they are content, they prefer complacency, their pride prevented them. But the motive should not be so.

Immanuel Kant's "Act according to the maxim that you would wish all other rational people to follow, as if it were a universal law" My take is, though some say this is an improvement to the Golden Rule, it's rather a clarification of it, for in no way Jesus was referring to masochists nor sadists, obviously. The these sinners, it's been taken care already elsewhere in the Bible (Psalm 1:1, for example). This also shows that the Word of God is not trapped in human language.

My take of what's mentioned by Tong's habitual critique on Watchman Nee's "神叫我们犯律法", we are not questioning his motive being a wicked one, but after briefly searching this online, it appears that 倪柝声 fell for the Chinese fallacy: "不知者无罪", while the doctrine of the Bible is: 不知者有罪. Because there's no such thing as "不知者". Psalm 19:12. The fear of the LORD is required for this correction.

Last Hymn: https://hymnary.org/text/while_passing_through_this_world_of_sin

Chinese Service:

John Dewey, whose pragmatism ruined China, said something similar to the Bible: know the end result in order to decide how you act. Bible: Deu 32:29 唯愿他们有智慧,能明白这事,肯思念他们的结局!

君子求诸己,小人求诸人 - 孔子 Don't ask others to respect you, or you will be low class.

Why God sent the law?
Tong:

Negative function of the given law: Rom 3:18-20:
1. we not boast.
2. prostate before God in guilt.
3. Realize that we are helpless / be judged.

Positive function of the given law: Gal 3:24 ...训蒙的师傅...schoolmaster, guide...
In the OT, God gave the law as well as prophets. And they killed the prophets, that's it. The law taught: Love others as yourself; The Prophets taught: Repent yourself then you can contribute ethically in the society.
In the NT, law and prophets prepare the world for Christ. Love with the love of Christ from above. Christ raised our love higher than the "love others as yourself" shown in the OT.


Posted in Theologization | Leave a comment

Vocab: Hackneyed

Kathy’s Word of the Week

Weekly Brain Food brought to you by our CHRO

hackneyed

Pronunciation:
hak-need

Definition:
lacking in freshness or originality.

As used in a sentence:
Eventually, the phrase became so hackneyed that people stopped saying it.

Posted in Vocabularies | 1 Comment