I saw this quote recently off Ting Ting's blog and it spurred some thoughts in my mind.

"If Satan reminds you about your past, remind him about his future."

No condemnation for those who are in Christ right? That is because we have been offered forgiveness by the blood of Christ. What is forgiveness to you? It seems like a sort of reset button to me. It allows us to start on a clean slate. Actually to be frank, when I first started out as a Christian, I though forgiveness was no big deal. It was something like a tool that allows this sinner into heaven. Cause it is common sense that no human with sin on Him is allowed to enter the perfect place. Hence this forgiveness is a sort of shower that keeps cleansing us. And we have to keep asking for forgiveness because we never know when we will die. If we died with an unrepentant heart, we may just fail to qualify for entry into heaven. Basically in simple terms, it is more of an afterlife consideration.

However, recently I just had a change of worldview. Forgiveness is as relevant in our life on earth as much as it is relevant for life in heaven. Have you ever done something so bad that you just want to press the reset button? Just like if a painting have gone awfully wrong, we can always tear up the paper and repaint. If a computer is screwed, we can reboot; in extreme case, we can reformat. Even a badly scored exam can be retaken. What about a damaged human life? The previous examples are all concerning objects, but what sort of a "RE-verb*" can we use to fixed the damaged human life?

I believe forgiveness is the key. It is the reset button for the damage that one human did to another of its kind. It is fundamentally used to repair the hurt caused, the brokenness in the relationship. And obviously, all hurt must be caused when we are still on earth, not in heaven. People desire a reset very much. Just like how people migrate to other countries to start on a clean slate, how people celebrate New Year, and how people changes jobs, life stations and environments. It is all about finding new hope in a unblemished record book. Nothing is known about them, nothing is held against them. Its a new chance to set things right.

Well, we all know that with limited amount of cash, chances and common sense, we cannot keep changing environment. Eventually, we just have to put up with mistakes. These however can be washed away with the reset button of forgiveness. However, this leads us to a problem. How can an imperfect human being dispense perfect forgiveness? This leads me to pessimistic thinking of that the age old idea "forgive and forget" is just a beautiful but empty notion. We all know that things cannot be the same ever again. Some hurts cannot be erased, some scars are permanent. How do we account for that portion? Even the church is not perfect, since imperfect people make up the church. A number of people do leave church not because they wish to leave God, but because they feel that they have screwed up so much in that church that they only way to move on is to change a church environment because of the stigma that is attached to them. Sad, but it is true. It is hypocritical because Christians are supposed to be a forgiving lot, but then at the same time it is understandable because we are an imperfect lot as well. God is supposed to be the answer in this gaping hole problem. I can understand how He can completely and perfectly forgive us for the sins we done against Him since the sin is committed against him. But how does He helps us to completely and perfectly forgive the people that have hurt us, and vice-versa-lly*, to help the people we have hurt to completely and perfectly forgive us when He is not directly involved?

In the words of a typical Singaporean:

So How?

*imaginary words






Please let me press the reset button.

[Adventures on the 2nd Day of CNY]

Warning: Image Heavy Content Ahead

The Good Lookings...

2nd Stop: Angela's house. She is trying to kiss the cam. Haha.


Ok ok. Take properly this time. (Elise is trying to sniff the chair though)

OK OK. REALLY TAKE PROPERLY. Elise and the dang Wilson (look at the size of that thing!) that me and Samuel had to carry though the whole orchard. Don't ask why.

VPJ... ask her what it stands for.

Outside Harry's house. Note: This pic was taken cause VPJ insisted that my camera was lousier then her's.

David and Goliath. This cute little boy was wrecking my majong game by sitting on me 50% of the time. The remaining 50% was tahan-ed by our dear Goliath.

Little Long Ting Guan having a try at majong. He can really play I tell you.

The End: Hp ran out of batt. =X

[Probability]

Something I realised while talking to the Fairfield guys today. 99% chance of success for an incident to occur never really guarantees anything as much as 1% chance of success.

Let's take the example of shooting a basketball:

99% chance of scoring would mean 99 out of a 100 tries
That may be 100 shots and 99 scored (Balls shot in any order)
Then again, it can also be that the first 100 balls are missed, but the next 9900 shots are scored.

1% chance of scoring would mean 1 out of a 100 tries
That may be 100 shots and 1 scores. (Balls shot in any order)
Then again, it can also be that the first 100 balls are scored, but the next 9900 shots are missed.

1% does not need to happen in the 1st hundred. You can shoot 200 balls and the scored ones are positioned at 101th and 102th. Statically however, on paper it all appears as the same. 1 out of a 100 or 1%.

Hence there is no certainty that 99% chance is guaranteed a sure success as much as the 1% on the first try. It is anyone's guess. Nothing is certain in life. Everything has an element of chance in it. For Christians, they call it divine intervention. For the rest, they call it luck. Would like to end with this quote I came across a long time ago.



"That is why I hate probability! Cause in the end, it's either 0 or 1. It either happens, or it doesn't."
-a beloved friend

[Walking with God and friends]

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a step. Christianity is such a journey. It begins with your conversion, ends with your death. Just as with a typical journey, you normally cannot see your destination from where you stand; if you can, your journey is probably far from exciting.

I saw my starting point, I have not seen my finishing line yet. I do not know how the end looks like, neither do I have a faintest impression of the things that will be there.

But one thing I know for sure: I will see people whom I call "my friends".

---------------------------- I love the spirit behind this picture.

----------------->This is Stacy Kohut.

------------------------>This is for real.

----------------------------->This is insane.

----------------------------------->Impossible is Nothing.

Seems like the true handicaps are not in the body, but in the mind.

Some of us may have been living a life more handicapped then him.

Are you guilty?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HebV8W8qFJ0&mode=related&search

go watch.

[Petals Around the Rose] - Warning! Not for the short-tempered

Go play this. Find the solution, don't tell the answer. I got it within 3 mins.
Tip: Don't type in the answer, just keep clicking CHECK and see the pattern.

http://www.yossman.net/archives/petals-around-the-rose/petals-around-the-rose--game/

Some may give up quickly because of the statements said below in the website, where as some may boast about their intellect. However this interesting test really indicate something of importance:

"The game can be used as an example of how different people look at the world differently, and how these different ways of looking can yield different answers. ..... The problem is how we define the problem."

[About sleep] - A self discovered truth i discovered while chatting, it made struck me even as I typed it out.


zachary says:
its a sort of escapism.

zachary says:
sleep I mean.

zachary says:
but I recently realized its not a fool-proof plan.

zachary says:
even despair can creep into our only route of escape.

zachary says:
we can have our dreams tainted with sadness and anger - the very things we trying to run away from.

When we dream, we are not dreaming about how big our dreams can be, but how big our God is.

(If you don't understand, you can come ask me personally to explain.)

Check out my favourite speed demon.

[Something meaningful from a friend's blog]

do you still dream?

or have you been so afflicted by the system

that the perspectives of pragmatism and realism

is slowly feasting on those dreams?

[Osama, the US left and me]

THE STRAITS TIMES THURSDAY FEBRUARY 1 2007

Background Info:
It is an article responding to the reviews that spawn from the book "The Enemy At home" written by Dinesh D'Souza. He is an immigrant from India currently living in the US. In his book, He points out that US only have themselves to blame for the attacks by Osama. This except is a reflection of his personal thoughts and his defense.

Do take the time to read. It has a very interesting take on the reason for war. One of the first of its kind I came across. Of course, perhaps I am very under-read but still, it is a must read. I have the whole original article so if you people are interested, can get from me. For the except, click the link below

http://www.geocities.com/thisismycry/newspapercutting.jpg

What is impossible with men is possible with God

[Luke18:27]

Jan's over, Feb has started, excuses has ran out... Back to the same old self.

[Trial of "One-Eyed Dragon" aka Tan Chor Jin]

A rather amusing piece of article that I found on the 30th Jan's The Straits Times in the Home section. I find it very entertaining not only because of the accused's interesting antics in the courtroom but in case if anyone of you did not realised, this (suspected/non-christian/convicted)* murderer is asking God** to bless the christian instead. Talk about irony!

However undernearth all these humour, I unearthed a fundamental worldview which is held by most people.

Did you ever realise that Christians are always made to be the standard model of comparision for a person with good morals? It is that natural for someone to sneer at a person's bad behavior and then ask - Is he a Christian? In worse scenarios, if the person actually turns out to be a believer in Christ, then his behavior would not be tolerated regardless of the fact whether or not the someone believes in Christ himself. In the same fashion, a person that is not Christian seems to get off the hook easier; it is as though as it acts as some sort of undefinable excuse or something.

4 Implications for a Christian from this:

1) Morals fundamentally accepted and similar to everyone besides the weirdo who are fighting to escape the gallows.

2) The religion that placed under scutiny is usually Christianity. ( I never heard anyone defending themselves from the death sentences using the concepts of Buddism. Perhaps the judge would in turn just console them with the idea of reincarnation. Haha! )

3) People are keeping an eye on Christians all the time. When God talked about salt and light, He clearly was not joking.

4) Morals are called into play even when its user disregards the idea of Christianity or any other religion.

Doesn't these kind of things ever makes you wonder sometimes....





Who made all these morals?





*Delete where approprieate
**Curiosity makes me want to ask: Which God?