The PCA was founded in 1973 after many conservatives left the progressive Presbyterian Church in the United States (PCUS), which is often called the “Southern Presbyterian church.” The OPC was founded in 1936 out of the Presbyterian Church (USA), the mainline Presbyterian body of the north.
PCA = More evangelical. Missionaries do their own fundraising.
OPC = More as a pilgrim. It appears that Van Til (or so they claim) considered modern evangelism as Arminianism. I think it's taking it too far, since Van Til also went out to preach on the streets. Missionaries fully supported by the church/denomination.
So this is why I don't sense the OPC really do evangelism and even objected to it.
Not long ago, thanks to Alex, I joined the virtual workshop presented by David Chin, a Malaysian, who is a conductor, on St. Matthew's Passion by Bach. It's a great introductory into this fantastic work of Bach. Good thing I recorded it, as it's been since taken down due to his request for copyright. I don't have a good memory so I cannot abide by this copyright nonsense especially when it was a great presentation!
Bach was indeed a great theologian, a product Luther's Reformation.
This prompted my interest to look further into the piece:
I want to find a Youtube recording of the work with subtitles: English & German, with the hope of learning not just to sing, but German as well. But since I cannot find one, this is the best I can go with, below is the German subtitled version (I don't care to discern different conductors at this point like Alex, don't think I ever will):
And the Interlinear translation between German and English, this is the one I could find at this time:
Lord, quickly come! That is implied from Rev. 22:20. The Fundamentalists such as Janet Mefferd often use this phrase in her prayers in a annoying tone, that's the dispensationalist talk. One could be tempted to hate that phrase not knowing the biblical reference, because although we do not pray this such that we find mankind despicable, but we long to be with our Lord with the lessons we suffered through Him.
So when the pastor mentioned this in the end of the service, I looked it up. Stephen Tong confirmed this in his Ephesians 1:11-14 lecture series. Most commentaries are on board as well.
We had a guest speaker, Bruce, from Mission to the World, for Sunday school, service and fellowship meal sharing. His 20+ years of mission field work in France was interesting. I had not known how Muslim the south of France has become, particularly in the city of Nimes, where he stayed. MTW has a rule of living with the people, so essentially they would live in the poor project community. However, what I did not get clearly was how their mission works are done, was it only cafe talk only, where is the risk of life, etc. Bruce gave a brief overview of church history from Morocco to Tunisia and some info about Islam. At lunch time, he shared testimony of 3 people he encountered. It was hard for him to follow up with certain individuals, which led me to wonder and even brought it privately to him, whether the fact that they do not follow discipleship with him consistently was due to the fact that they do not see him as someone they would trust, someone who's living among them is mere superficial, temporary, and when things gets tough, he could just leave and enjoy his home in Pennsylvania, USA. Who would trust living and depending on someone like that in the poor community? I asked politely, "...that I hope you could debunk". He politely tried to debunk my theory. Suggesting that another possibilities are: busy in work (Satan's work schedule...something like that), fear of being identified as infidels of Islam. I did not have enough time to ask him of the life risk, as I do not want to delay too long for him. I tried to only ask him questions directed at his own experience, and not what he knows about Islam or history or the Berber's education level or basically what I already know or could search from the Internet, which are what others usually ask as well as what he focused more on telling.
Missionaries from America don't easily impress me. Particularly the ones that return to America as a "break". I have no problem with those who "retire" back home at an old age like Mabel Williamson, but I am skeptical of those who appear to mix missionary work with business vacation. In today's case, I cannot conclude either, due to lack of information. I took as much materials he's printed as I could, about MTW and the Muslim/Berber outreach program, to know more about how American missionaries function, particularly in Muslim countries or rather, communities.
At Fellowship Meal, I asked Pastor Chris who are his favorite theologians/preachers: Martyn Lloyd Jones, J. C. Ryle, R.C. Sproul, B. B. Warfield, Calvin [this is understatement], Joel Beeke, Bob Jones Jr., and pretty much all the reformers he said.
I'm looking into for because of interest in things like creating A.I. for stock, forex, etc. And this young genius-but-foul-mouthed-weirdo whom I follow, just created a funny video:
Long story short: He gave his goldfish $50k to trade stock, and made $1000+ in the end, tried to sell his gold fish to investors, nobody wanted it, so he used the $1000 to upgrade his goldfish's tank and the aquarium store cashier kept the change. Of course, the "goldfish" technology behind it was actually webscrapping from WallStreetBets on Reddit (the folks that crushed investors in GameStop) and the goldfish merely "picked" which side of the tank to swim to which translate to which of the two best options to trade. So the goldfish is essentially just a minor excuse to show off Michael Reeves' data science programming skill.
We did oil change today, at Edison Pep Boys (the one nearest to us in South Amboy was understaffed and they refused service, hence no Bubba meal). We ate at Penang Restaurant, drinks from Gongcha.
They were supposed to get the right signal lights (blinking too fast) fixed, but for some reason allegedly miscommunication, they only replaced the bulb, front one, and not what they thought would be relay problem, claiming that the front bulb wasn't working. I didn't check before so I couldn't be sure what they said was true or not. Could only take their word for it.
They also wanted to do air+cabin filters replacement ($30-$40) and brake flush ($70), supposedly a thing to do every so many miles. I had to look these up.
I think all these I could probably do myself. Below is the oil/oil filter change instruction I found for the exact model we have.
And the video below is the signal relay replacement (assuming the problem is the relay) I have not tried this:
And this one is for Brake flush of the same model, again, not tested, check comments for a better picture of their method:
This guide shows how to change the oil and oil filter for Honda CR-V 2012-2016 models.
Keeping the engine healthy is critical in getting good life out of your vehicle. Part of maintaining engine health is replacing the oil and oil filter on a regular basis. Honda CR-V 2012-2016 models need to have their engine oil and oil filters replaced every 7,500 miles or 12 months. If your car has high mileage then it’s suggested to replace the oil with a high mileage full synthetic. Most parts and tools listed can be found at a local auto supply store or purchased from an auto supply store online.
Replace the drain bolt with a new drain bolt gasket (crush washer); Honda Washer, Drain Plug (14MM) 94109-14000. Use the 17mm socket wrench to tighten.
About two days ago, Will Smith slapped Chris Rock on Oscar event when Rock made a remark to Jada, Will's wife, bald condition by suggesting that she'll be in G.I. Jane 2 movie, which Demi Moore played a soldier with shaved head.
Social media went crazy. Everyone's posting it on Facebook, giving their own take of it. Debating moral values. I didn't. Because simply, it was a vain thing to do.
I believe I watch movies more than most of them, however, it is important to tell the difference between art and reality. The actors/comedians' works, are arts, arts are distinguished from the actors' real lives. It appears that many though obviously aware, but constantly fail to make such distinctions. So there are some who called Will "an important role model" who needs to watch himself. I fail to see where this role model comes from? From the good movies they played in? Those were written by someone else, directed by someone else. These actors are only providing talents in the best imitation possible, and often times those imitation affected their own lives negatively. In fact, I don't see how it could affect them positively for hypocrisy.
There's debates about verbal abuse vs. physical assault, which unfortunately, came from some Christians would couldn't recognize sin of motive - If you hate, you have committed murder. Christian view of sinful acts, is very very different from the secular or pagan cultures, and we must make it known as good witnesses of Him who blesses us so.
There's call to Will's initial laugh at Chris' joke of Jada, making Will's action questionable. What Will had suffered from his wife being with another man who's her son's friend and her lifestyle of unconventional monogamy. Thus, Will may not be the Will you see in movies.
Then the aftermath was Will instagramed an apology to Chris a day later. Chris never pressed charges, to many's admiration, and his comedy show ticket sales went through the roof.
Conclusion:
Chris needs to be more sensitive. The joke may still work, perhaps ask for permission first. If it's impromptu and fails, maybe apologize instantly.
Jada needs to learn how to take a joke in which situation she's in. She's went through it with laughter before.
Will needs to use wisdom. Hand signals, or talk rather than slap. He could grab the mic. He should apologize in person, or rather, be truly repentant.
Last but not least, this is not something I would be keen to debate or discuss on social media or even much anywhere for one single reason: This is a problem for the vain seekers, fame pursuers, and lovers of money and power. Not my problem. They have itchy ears, let them have it.
I thought I had written this, but I couldn't find it. So here it is, the extreme Baptists have tried to force upon us that baptism by sprinkling was a later mode, in 2nd or 3rd century, though there's no clear evidence in what mode was used in the early church. They are correlating cases where in 2, 3rd century, there are heretical views of trying to save babies, etc. by baptism and hence they invented sprinkling, etc. Those cannot be reason to generalize the entire history of how sprinkling comes about.
Cornice Block with Relief Showing the Baptism of Pharaoh
This block originally formed part of a screen wall that connected the four front columns and the sidewalls of the temple of Harendotes ("Horus the Avenger") on the island of Philae. The relief represents the "Baptism of Pharaoh," a purification ritual that was part of Egyptian coronation ceremonies. The gods Horus (not preserved) and the ibis-headed Thoth poured water-here represented by streams of ankh (life) and was (dominion) hieroglyphs-over the head of the king. The pharaoh whose head is partially preserved is a Claudian emperor, most probably either Claudius or Nero.
This is not about comparing Christianity with Pagan religion, but about how the word baptizo was understood in as original as possible the proper language, time, culture and context; which is what the proponent of submersion baptism kept using to support their claim. Egypt would be rather Hellenistic by then, so I THINK, the Greek word baptizo is linked to the piece of art above. I have not done further investigation on it, but I am satisfied about it for now. If I could, I would ask the curator on this where the get the word/idea of "baptism" from this carving.
On confronting this debate, I would just settle with unknown. I go with sprinkler because of the closest cultural reference above.
Many stick around Rev. Stephen Tong because of his fame. Some because of what they could learn from him, but nonetheless, the desire to know someone famous is still there. So they worry about others rival them in such seeking. I on the other hand, am not. But I hardly find anyone like me. I have zero interest in the fame of it, though some may think I should at least have a miniscule desire for it. I do have the desire to be better than Tong, but those who are like that, either do not want to follow Tong, not let others know that they are secretly following Tong, or actually made Tong his/her enemy, secretly or not. So I am not like them either. And I think Tong's son David has met too diverse creeps like these to make any of this matter, much less to know me.
The American Reformed Christians love to talk about rest. Sabbath. They worship it like a hedonist. Alex once called Tong's squeezism unbiblical and against the Sabbath rest. In spite of theological argument with them, I would say this: A true hedonist and a truly Sabbath man is thus distinguished: In how they truly care for others, especially in their Sabbath rest. Of course, by this measure, I have observed the the above mentioned ones have all failed. Emphasis on what they do in their leisure: more for self? or for others.
In San Diego, a Chinese woman, Yan Li, 47, professor of some sort according to 老尤, got served eviction notice by a cop, she was also known to threaten her building manager with knife before, so I think she's emotionally unstable, made the cop "nervous", but I think he was on an ego trip, because he already served her the paper, he could just leave, but he saw her knife and got on power trip to shout at her to drop her knife at his gun point. She got angry and probably nervous at what she probably truly believe he was a fake cop, and tried to defend herself. The cop called in more cops and a K9, things got into chaos and one of the cops (I think it was the same server, got stabbed, which I think is light injuries because he got discharged from hospital very quickly, and Yan Li was killed by the cops on the scene with multiple gun shots. The lesson from her point of view, I would say is: Hide your knife well, very well, especially in front of uniforms, beware of ego trips in cops, if they are really cops, and be quick to draw your knife for necessity situation such as real intruders. I think the cop should be reprimanded if not more severe punishment, but I also don't want this to discourage good cops from bravely subduing dangerous criminals, given the situation in California thanks to the stupidity of liberal politicians.
I paid for this subscription (around $54/annual) since it's the closest to the pedagogy I had always hoped for. Using movies to teach language. There less than 10 languages but it has enough, I would do the common ones like Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Korean, etc.
