Posted by: thaishin | May 20, 2012

An example

Philippians 3:17

17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. -kjv

17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do -niv

Here, Paul is asking the philippian church to follow his example in living out the christian life, specifically regards to not to put confidence in the flesh and putting Jesus first. I have actually resolved in my heart that I do not want anybody to follow me but to follow Jesus. This is because I think that it is pride to want to have followers and pointing at myself most of the time. I need to point that somebody to Jesus instead. But come to think of it, in an earthly sense, I will at least need to set an example for my son because I am in close proximity to him and I can influence him by setting an example for him. This sets me thinking – in what ways do I want him to follow me. I think I will want to pass on to him the values that I hold and that can only be passed on by living it out in everyday life.

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Posted by: thaishin | May 11, 2012

Going to the end of himself

My son is able to express himself well enough in English. Well enough to be confident of his own abilities. Well enough to be proud of himself. But not well enough to experience God’s strength. To experience God’s strength, he has to come to the end of his own confidence in himself and know about his own inadequacies. Then I will come in to encourage him to depend on Jesus and depend on strength from God to power him instead of his own confidence. That’s the game plan.
So he will have to start on something new, something challenging to show his inadequacies. I hope to do that this summer to do something more difficult, more challenging so that his inadequacies will show.

Matthew 5:3
3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. -kjv

If he is able to be poor in spirit, then the strength of Jesus comes in. I intend to sign him up for basketball. He will continue to swim. He will read more difficult books. He will learn more mandarin. I hope these activities will push him to the limit to show his insufficiencies. Then Jesus comes in.

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Posted by: thaishin | May 1, 2012

Person and method

One thing I learned about the difference between God and men is that God recognizes the person and accomplishes His will through results via the person but men recognizes the method and attempts to accomplish their will through the method that gave results.

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Posted by: thaishin | April 27, 2012

With Door Guard

For a few months, there was this rust on the edge of the door on my left rear side of the car. This door was retrofitted due to an accident earlier and was the only door that showed rust at the edge. There was a warranty that came with the retrofit but excluded rust.
So I went to a repair shop and they recommended to install door guards on the car. I decided to install only on the door that showed rust. They quoted around 20 dollars for the job and offered to touch it up but I have to buy my own paint.
I bought the paint from the dealership for 9.86 USD and sent the car in for the repair. They filed off the rust, touch up with paint and applied a layer of clear and sealed the edge with a transparent door guard. The door guard is supposed to prevent water droplets with coming in contact with the edge of the door. The final cost: 21.75 USD.
There’s no warranty to the repair and the manager says it is a band aid repair. It is not a foolproof repair where the whole car door is sand blasted and painted which will come to hundreds of dollars.

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Posted by: thaishin | April 8, 2012

Hallelujah April 2012

Hallelujah, Jesus is risen and our Lord is alive!!!

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Posted by: thaishin | April 5, 2012

Remembering our Lord’s cross April 2012

Isaiah 53:3-6

3He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

6All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

kjv

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Posted by: thaishin | March 21, 2012

We are more probable to …

I ever met a non believer that knows that he is a sinner even though he has not accepted Christ yet. It takes a certain insight into yourself/myself to know that you/I are/am a sinner. Insight into oneself is to be aware of and observes the facts about your thoughts/feelings. One can only conclude that nothing good can come out of our natural thoughts/state. Without Christ, it is more probable that our thoughts are negative than positive. Without Christ, it is more probable that our thoughts/speech are critical than builds up. Without Christ, it is more probable that we are more selfish than giving. Without Christ, it is more probable that we are ungrateful than grateful. Without Christ, it is more probable that we are proud than humble. Without Christ, we are more probable to be less secure than feel secure. Without Christ, we are more probable to complain than to give thanks. Without Christ, we are more probable to self pity than to glorify God. Without Christ, we are more probable to be a pessimist than a realist optimist. Without Christ, we are more probable to be ruled by our feelings than principles. Without Christ, we are more probable to want to be loved than to love. Really, can Christ do so much work in us? Yes, He can if only you are willing to say yes I want to be changed by Jesus and start reading the bible.

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Posted by: thaishin | March 12, 2012

New brakes for front wheels

My toyota corolla already has a mileage of around 64k. In my most recent trip to the auto shop, they estimated the lininings of the front brake disc to be around 3 mm and they advised me to change the brakes. I got an estimate from them and they quoted me a price of 169 USD after discount. Their normal price is 189 USD. A second shop is running a promotion of the same type of brake job costing 99.99 USD. Upon further enquiry, they say my corolla is using ceramic disc and cost 10 bucks more for the job. So I went for the second offer. The normal price for the second shop is 169 USD. In addition, both shops also advised to clean and align the rear brakes. That cost 55 USD for the first shop and 32.99 USD for the second shop. If not adjusted, the rear brakes is not able to grip the wheels as well and the front brake will wear out faster.

The standard brake job from the second shop offers the following:
1) install new brake pads
2) resurface rotors
3) inspect brake components
Warranty: Lifetime parts warranty on brakes shoes and disc pads. 12 month, 12k miles labour warranty.

This is first time changing the front brakes since buying the car. I was told the rear brakes are still in good condition.

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Posted by: thaishin | March 8, 2012

Trimming Down

One of them did not accept my facebook friend’s request but he’s still posting in facebook. The other did not call back after I left a phone message having called him twice. The other did not write back my emails to him. These are real people that I have met face to face and have interacted with personally for a period of time. One of them is a church friend. Another a former neighbor and the other a friend I met in primary school. So I find myself trimming down my email contacts.
Sounds depressing. But it’s ok. It is a fact of life that we lose some friends as we journey on in life. Sometimes we do not know why they left and do not want to be contacted. I will still say hi to them if I met them again but to pursue deeper roots I don’t think so.
Could it be me? Maybe I could be a better friend but I have to admit I am not a very relational kind of person. But again in this life, how many true friends can we have? Or could it be because of changing circumstances? Then what has changed? But fact is they left without a word and it hurts.

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Posted by: thaishin | February 23, 2012

Loss of holiness

In my last post, I was talking about say this to mean that. When you say A to mean B, you are using part of the subconscious mind to verbalise the thought. The bible says that words are many, sin is not absent. How much more when you say A to mean B, you are sinning more. The problem with say A to mean B is this, sin is not absent and what’s worst is we will find it difficult to concretise it again. We are not able to recall and point to the specifics of the sin we have committed. As this happens, we are not able to confess our specific sins to Jesus and probably will remain unconfessed. As long as sin is in us, we lose our holiness. With sin and without holiness, God does not hear our prayers.

PS: I use the phrase sin accumulates in my first version of my post which I have since corrected – reference to the first comment by Harry

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