Our parents : p

p.s this is not a rant :P i was just sitting infront of my laptop and noticed things

So while sitting infront of my computer playing games today, i've noticed that my parents are usually the cause for my downfall in my christian walk.  Maybe you guys are different, or maybe we're the same, but my parents never talk about christianity much, even though they have both been baptized.  But their expectations for me always seem to be revolving around violin .. and some school/chores (mostly violin -_ -).  When i don't do well in either of them (mainly violin : o) my mom just tells me to do better or she'll take away my laptop.  I can't recall the last time they asked me about how my relationship with Christ was or anything.  Yeah : p that's what i think about my parents in a point of view, they're pretty nice in many other aspects but this is one aspect that's always on my mind. 

So what do you guys think about your parents?  Do they help you in any way shape or form in your Christian walk?

Brian Ching : p

All that I Need

I guess I'm learning what it means to realize that God is sufficient. Iunno, I feel like I'm comparing myself with others and wanting what they have as a Christian. For example, just seeing people so full of the Spirit and I do want that. There's nothing wrong with wanting that but I thnk for me, it goes to keeping my focus on others and not God. It started when I was watching a trailer for the 1040 documentary. I guess it goes again with comparing myself with these people who are so filled with the Spirit.

Gabe reminded me of a song, the lyrics go:

Your love is all that I need, all that I need, all that I need
Your love is all that I need, all that I need is You.

Just a reminder that God is all that I need, not to be "spiritual" or "so high and mighty" but yea, that's what I'm discovering.

Babies; Killing yourself to win

Baby Micah.
It's been a while since I've interacted with kids below grade 6 and more so babies. I realize there is a transformation that happens when my mom and dad are playing with him and it's something I can't quite do naturally yet. I can't lower myself to baby talking and just playing. There is too much going on in my mind and I know I'll figure it out when I have kids but it's weird for me to remember how different this baby is than all the other people i interact with. It's like how we ought to deal with Christians in different stages of development. We can't expect babies to be adults and shouldn't treat adults like babies.

So I was at Mcdonald's for breakfast because they have Monopoly. I realized, one of my main motivations for going there is, other than the food being cheaper than the alternative, is that I just want to win stuff. Then i realized that Mcdonald's is bad for me and I'm killing myself to win and there is a good chance that I won't win anything I care about anyway. It's like being at church or any relationship when you try to win a fight. you destroy so much to win and in the end you realize that winning was pointless to begin with since love overshadows all of that.


Also, so i'm a big noob, how do I just post the vid instead of the link?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1L4s0x-OfU

Unashamed And Heart of Worship

Just wanted to share with you guys two songs that have kind of highlighted my week and what I learned. It was also pretty cool seeing that they chose Heart of Worship at Dido on Friday. A blessing from God!

Heart of Worship - Matt Redman


Unashamed - Starfield





Basically yea these songs are my week and things within the song God has kind of taught me.

Questionzzz

Are we opening this blog to the rest of the grade or do you think we should? Please comment below

Bible study...

so...
here is my bible study...

The Faithfulness of God

What is Faithfulness?

Someone faithful is loyal, dependable, and firm in adhering to promises or observing duty. The Bible speaks of God’s faithfulness; it speaks in terms of eternity and perfection. If we apply our definition of faithfulness to God, we realize that he is dependable, trustworthy, loyal, reliable, and true to his word—always and forever.

Hebrews 6:18: “So God has given both his promise and his oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us.”

Deuteronomy 7:9: “Understand, therefore, that the Lord your God is indeed God. He is the faithful God who keeps his covenant for a thousand generations and lavishes his unfailing love on those who love him and obey his commands.”

Lamentations 3

What does the word “lament” mean?

A passionate expression of grief

What does Lamentations 3 have to do with God’s faithfulness?

Jeremiah expresses his sorrows on the Israelites because he was grieving about the punishment that was coming to them. But in verse 21, Jeremiah remembered the faithful love of the Lord never ends!

Why is Jeremiah so depressed?

Jeremiah is so depressed/sad because the Israelites, kings and leaders wouldn’t listen to God’s word. In Jeremiah 36-40, Jeremiah was dictating all the words the Lord had spoken to him while Baruch was writing them down on a scroll. The scroll was talking about God’s judgement on Israel, and Judah. The Lord was trying to get the people of Judah to turn from their wicked way; but when the people of Judah would not listen and turn from their wicked ways, God would punish them. But the king of Israel burned the scroll and wanted to kill Jeremiah.

How does God reveal his faithfulness?

Through His Creation

Examples: Psalm 119:90, Psalm 145:13-16

Through His People

Examples: Genesis 12: 1-3, Micah 7:20, Psalm 132:11, Matthew 16:18

Through His Spirit

Examples: John 14:15-18, Galatians 5:22:23

Through His Character

Example: Isaiah 25:1

Through His Son

Examples: Isaiah 11:5, Revelation 19:11

End

God is faithful to his Word, to his promises, to his people, and to his character because he cannot be otherwise. You can depend on him 100 percent of the time. He will never let you down. He may not do what you want him to do exactly when you want him to or even how you want him to. He may not orchestrate it in a way that you can understand it now or perhaps ever; but he will never let you down.

What does God’s faithfulness mean to you?

How could this knowledge of God’s faithfulness affect their daily life

Bible study...

Some Thoughts

Some thoughts in my mind are...

Is it bad to seek for pleasure?
Is it bad to seek for pleasure other than satisfaction from Christ?
Why do we watch TV or movies?
Is it bad to entertain ourselves?

These are just some questions that I have sometimes.

A Special Appeal

Do you guys want to send an email to the Grade in regards to inviting them to our Bible studies? Please respond by commenting below : )

It's Been A While

Yea, it's been a while since my last posting. But I'm writing this during careers class with less than 15 minutes left before the next bell. Iunno, I feel like sometimes I'm being more sucked into this world. Like, I feel like I'm not as resistant to everything like swearing and stuff as I should be. And the scary thing is today there was one point when people were swearing and I was laughing along with their jokes and actually felt pleasure in hearing swearing. Like iunno...everyone around me was talking about that apparently there is a party today and how people are going to get drunk and high and even things about guns. I've been feeling less resistant to this world and that is bad.

An example is when the national anthem is going on and people are just fooling around. And they don't realize that people have died so that we can hear that national anthem today. But why don't I realize that people are fooling around every second but ignorant of God who is hurting for them? Maybe because it's hard to realize it in my own life.

On another note, I watched a video a couple days ago called "God's Chisel". It touched me but maybe I'll share thoughts later.

i'm ballin'

lol~ i love saying that~ it sounds so funny. Anyway, so i was ballin' last night at it was a night where my team lost pretty badly all night. funny coming off last week where my team won the entire night. what's the difference, well obviously the players made a big difference. it was describing it to shirley. some players have certain disadvantages and it's important to recognize what they are before playing. It took me all night to figure out what our team should be doing and that's the weird part for me, how long it took me to recognize.

I was playing with Jeremy Lo. His obvious disadvantage, he's in grade 9. He thinks like a grade 9. Nothing he can really do about it. pushing down the court is always important. most people don't know how to count. they de-value solid fundamentals (mostly because they are still developing). He shift out of his zone too often and gambles on defense. One of the highlights of the night is when Jeremy schools the hell outta Matt though.

I was playing with Uncle Paul. His obvious disadvantage, he's old. There are certain stamina issues that comes with it. certain compatibility issues that comes with being in a different mind set and different play styles. it just makes him a little less predictable for the rest of our team.

I was playing with Ken. His obvious disadvantage is that he's not a cerebral player. Certain things that seem like common sense really aren't. It reminds me there is no such thing as common sense. At one point of the night i was reminded that perception is also relative. "stop ball" is not common to all people. knowing where the ball is was so foreign to ken i had to push him towards the guy with the ball. unfortunately i push ken into him :( my bad :S

I'm playing with me. Obvious disadvantages of just not being very good at this game. I don't really mean basketball, i mean figuring things out on the fly and leading. I've listed obvious, painfully obvious things about people that we all know. Still, it took me 2 hours to figure these things out and what to do with it. Iunno... it's weird to know that the game that i'm losing isn't just basketball, it's leadership as well. it's communication. it's reading people that i'm not doing. i like basketball. next week will be a better week.

10% what you say and 90% how you say it.

So I watched this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzqTFNfeDnE

And well it kinda got some of my friends who aren't necessarily Christians hyped and they thought it was pretty epic. And I just kinda was thinking why this would be, of course at the time I had not watched it and it felt like they were talking about the awesomest thing that ever happened and I slept through it. But after I watched it, something nathan said to me last night came to my head, (the title). And I thought, well there wasn't too much context or heart convicting stuff in the video, it was just epic and true - in other words, what was said wasn't really important (but it was) but the way it was delivered was magnificent. Why was it magnificent though? Because he knew Who he was talking about, the way he feels about Jesus, you can hear it in his voice and the way he speaks. And in the same way, I just thought, the way we speak, everything we do really does show something about our spiritual life, whether i'm sarcastic, or have a monotonous tone in my voice, if something really gets my voice going beyond monotony, shouldn't it be God? And I guess I'm just sorta thinking ish about the way i act at school, not only what i say, but how i say things too. yeah

waking like dying

I guess we're on the topic of sleeping and dreaming so I'll post this hear too...

So I woke up the other day and the feeling of waking up is almost always one i don't like. As I felt myself dragged outta bed it felt like what i imagine dying to feel like.

I guess this video is somehow appropriate:



I think dying and waking are very similar even in our spiritual life. being awake and aware inevitably incorporates the shedding and death of the sleeping self. I guess transitions are just that, going from life to life is like going from asleep to awake.

My morning

So today i didn't go to church because i wouldn't wake up and my family decided to leave me. But i have a reason for it...ish? I had this dream where i was in markville mall in the upper floor. Then something happened and somehow i realized that the world just ended? So in this aftermath, a bunch of events happened which i don't remember (actually i think i remember playing tag with you guys haha : p).  But after all that, some event that i actually remember that got me thinking happened.  I was in some bar like room and (this is very random) i was hungry. Then this guy who i know, and is usually not the type to do this sort of thing, gave me piece of bbq pork from his fan hup.  And this is when i actually woke up to a door slam noise and a car driving away : ).  So, while i was sitting in front of the computer thinking about what i should do, I thought about this scene and tried to see if it was telling me anything.  What i got from it is that people who have experienced God's almighty power will change? I'm still not sure what it's telling me yet, or if it's telling me anything at all (maybe it tells you something? i don't know : ] ). Yeah and that was pretty much my morning told at night time : ).

- Brian C