Posted by: thaishin | December 17, 2009

Sin, Guilt, Grace

Our God is a holy God and hates sin.  He has an absolute and highest standard of holiness that any human attempts to reach it fails. That is because human beings are by nature sinful and can never reach God’s standard of holiness. God hates our sins but loves us as a person. Hence, it is necessary that a christian acknowledges and confesses his/her sins  in Christ name when he/she sin against the Holy one of Israel in thought, speech and action in order to draw closer to God.

The natural reaction to acknowledging and confessing our sins is guilt. If it lingers, it is counter productive to our spiritual growth. We need to be objective and honest to ourselves in order to detect sin in ourselves. But after acknowledging and confessing it, the goodness and grace of God should always come after that to dispel the lingering guilt. The goodness and grace of God displaces the guilt. We can experience the goodness and grace of God only if we put ourselves in Christ’s shoes and feel the pain of the nails that went through his hands and feet. Only when we feel grateful to what Christ did on the cross for us will we understand the length, breadth and depth of God’s love for us and constantly pin our hopes on the goodness and grace of God. And our hopes are not in vain because of the resurrection of Christ where our greatest fears of death are put to rest and we can conquer all circumstances that life throw at us. Where there is no more fear, nothing in this world can shift our loyalty from Christ.

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Posted by: thaishin | November 26, 2009

Difference in Genealogy of Jesus in Matthew and Luke

Question:

Luke 3:23-37
excerpt
the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz – niv

Matthew 1: 1-16
excerpt
Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife, Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah, – niv

Both passages are consistent for genealogy before David. Matthew stop at Abraham but Luke went on to Adam. But both passage seems to differ for genealogy after David. There is no mention of Solomon in Luke.

Is there an error here?

Answer from Pastor Brian Ingalls:

There’s a really solid answer for this on the website “gotquestions.org” which makes some good points, like this one:
Some point to these differences as evidence of errors in the Bible. However, the Jews were meticulous record keepers, especially in regard to genealogies. It is inconceivable that Matthew and Luke could build two entirely contradictory genealogies of the same lineage. Again, from David through Jesus, the genealogies are completely different. Even the reference to Shealtiel and Zerubbabel likely refer to different individuals of the same names. Matthew gives Shealtiel’s father as Jeconiah while Luke gives Shealtiel’s father as Neri. It would be normal for a man named Shealtiel to name his son Zerubbabel in light of the famous individuals of those names (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah).

It was probably just a case of Matthew tracing Jesus lineage through Joseph, which would have been the legal, Jewish way of doing things.  Luke on the other hand, probably traced the lineage through Mary which was something the Greeks did occasionally, and more probably because Mary was a real mother, while Joseph (because of the virgin birth) really wasn’t the father.  Both Mary and Joseph were descendants from David, so giving both genealogies was a way to show Jesus’ heritage could not be challenged either way.

Here’s how gotquestions explained it:
…most conservative Bible scholars assume Luke is recording Mary’s genealogy and Matthew is recording Joseph’s. Matthew is following the line of Joseph (Jesus’ legal father), through David’s son Solomon, while Luke is following the line of Mary (Jesus’ blood relative), though David’s son Nathan. There was no Greek word for “son-in-law,” and Joseph would have been considered a son of Heli through marrying Heli’s daughter Mary. Through either line, Jesus is a descendant of David and therefore eligible to be the Messiah. Tracing a genealogy through the mother’s side is unusual, but so was the virgin birth. Luke’s explanation is that Jesus was the son of Joseph, “so it was thought” (Luke 3:23).

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Posted by: thaishin | November 8, 2009

Lunch and Dinner

My son is 4 years old now. I have been feeding him personally while he is taking lunch and dinner until recently. He is still developing his fine motor skills and I figure we should give him more exercise of his fine motor skills by letting him feed himself. It is a bit late but better late than never.

The problem of letting him eat himself is the worry that he is not eating enough. At least if I feed him, I control how much food he eats. I guess I can half let him eat himself and half feed him. That way he practice his fine motor skills and I can force him to finish his food if there is still some food left.

I also have problem occupying him meaningfully when he is not going to school. He watches TV most of the time, Nickelodeon and cartoon network. Dora Explorer, Diego, Max and Ruby, Ni Hao Kai Lan etc and He loves watching spongebob. Nowadays, when taking his meals, I will switch off the TV so that he concentrates on his meals. My friends, if you are able to engage your preschool kids off TV, let me know how. I learnt about phonics from a Montessori teacher and is teaching him about the sound each letter makes and he manage to read 4 books from the Fitzroy reader series using this phonics method from Montessori.  These I do when he takes break from TV.

Used to be that I have to appeal to his taste when he was younger because if he does not like the food, he does not eat it. Now, I can force him to try new food and he usually listens to me. At least if he likes the food, he will continue to eat it. The important thing is he tries the food.

His usual staple now includes macaroni and cheese, rice with chicken nuggets and fish sticks, rice with scrambled egg, rice with 2 length of sausages, 4 hard-boiled eggs, 2 or 3 pancakes, bread with butter, instant noodles,  subway soups like broccoli with cheddar cheese, dumpling soup, chicken soup etc, hotdog with bread, spaghetti, pizza, rice with roasted chicken, pretzels. I am trying to let him try more food if possible.

It is a God-given responsibility of mine to feed him, clothe him and take good care of him as he is my son. I learnt from a radio broadcast that just as God the father gave man structure to his environment, parents also need to provide structure to their children in their daily routines. I guess that I need to do that and more. Nurturing my son will be my greater responsibility other than the role of a care giver.

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Posted by: thaishin | September 23, 2009

A Slow Leak and a Recall

The Slow Leak:

For the past few weeks, the low tire pressure warning light came on in my 2009 Toyota Corolla for  a couple of times. After I top up the tire pressure, the warning light will come on  after a few days.  A family friend of ours who is a mechanic inspected the tires for us and found that a screw was embedded in our left rear tire. He told us that there is probably a slow leak in tire pressure.  We asked how it can be repaired. He said it could be repaired by a plug or a patch. A plug will take around half an hour and may come off after continuous and constant driving through difficult terrain. We asked for a quote from a repair shop and they quoted us 12 bucks. A patch will take an hour and is more durable. We asked for  a quote from another repair shop and they say it cost 30 bucks. And they say its a plug patch. So, we went for the plug patch. They took off the wheel from the car and removed the tire from the rim. They took out the screw, make a through hole of the puncture, grind the inside, put some glue on it, and apply a circular patch from the inside and seal the puncture.

The recall:

A few weeks back, I read an article that reported that there was a recall on certain 2009-2010 Corolla and Corolla Matrix relating to the brake system vacuum port.

I just received the recall notice on Monday and made an appointment with the nearest Toyota dealer to have it fixed.

The condition: If the vehicle is operated in extremely low temperatures, there is a possibility that condensed moisture from a positive crankcase ventilation (PCV) port may seep into the brake system vacuum port and freeze. The port is located inside the intake manifold and provides vacuum assist for the brakes. Should this condition continue, ice may slowly accumulate at the port and in the worst case, ultimately plug the port. As a result, power assist to the brakes would gradually decrease (eventually to zero), and the increased pedal pressure required could lead to greater vehicle stopping distances, which may increase the risk of a crash. The Toyota dealer will install a newly designed intake air connector which will relocate the brake system vacuum port at no charge to the vehicle owners.

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Posted by: thaishin | September 9, 2009

About language, health insurance

These words were new to me:

Sucker is lollipop.

Flash light refers to torch light.

Gas refers to petrol.

Americans pronounce diaper as di-per.

Experience with american health insurance:

There was a time when my son and I did not have health insurance in the previous year and my son was running a fever. So, I picked up the phone and called a nearby clinic and asked how much would it cost to treat the sickness without health insurance. The answer: one hundred plus dollars. So, we ended up in a will county health department and ended up paying seventy plus dollars for treatment. Eventually, we bought health insurance for my son and I.

Health insurance is a must in US. Just in case when there is an illness or need for hospitalization, we need health insurance so that we don’t have to fork out a huge sum of money upfront. I heard from the news that there are many americans who go bankrupt because of an illness, even for those with health insurance because their illness was not covered in their health insurance.

We pray that God will grant us good health

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Posted by: thaishin | August 20, 2009

Sense of importance

Another blog theme came to my mind while I was washing my dishes. About a sense of importance. And it is about washing dishes and cooking. Most of the time, my wife is the one who cooks while I am the one who washes the dishes. Thoughts came to my mind that what she is doing something value added while I am not. She contributes to the fulfillment of our tummies while I am doing a menial task of cleaning up the mess. As we talked about it, my wife pointed out that we are just doing what we are best at doing, not about who is doing the more important task. Granted washing dishes is menial while cooking seems more prestigious. After all, you heard of cooking competitions to select the best chef but not competition of who best washes the dishes. But that should not make me feel less important because washing dishes is a chore that has to be done and it’s a matter of dividing the household chores to whoever does it best.

Our sense of importance should not be based on what we do or not do or not even on what we are able to do or not able to do. If God sends his Son to die on the cross to die for me, doesn’t that make me a very important person? I am important to God and that’s what counts.

John 3

16“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. – niv

16For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. -kjv

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Posted by: thaishin | July 23, 2009

Introducing grace to my son

We were doing some shopping at a nearby mall and were on our way to another place when my 3 year old ran to the middle of the road in the car park. We could see some cars driving into the parking lot and our son was happily making some actions as he dances in the middle of the road. We called to him but he refused to listen. We quickly pulled him to one side and as we make our way to our car, I told him that I will punish him when we get home. He cried out of fear for the punishment for he knows when I say I will punish him, I will punish him.

Inside the car, he was still crying. This went on for some time. Finally, I told him: I will pardon him this time but only because of Jesus. My son deserves to be punished by disobeying my command and dancing in the middle of the road. If I go according to the book, I would have punished him when he gets home. But I went according to grace and he was pardoned. I gave him what he did not deserve, pardoning him because of Jesus. Hopefully, he will associate Jesus with grace.

In fact, Jesus is grace in the flesh. Our heavenly Father in heaven giving us what we do not deserve – Jesus His Son dying on the cross for us so that man may be reconciled to God. Sounds complicated but really it is simple. God is so holy that man in his sinfulness will die if God appears to us. God is such a just God that His wrath is upon us if he sees our sinfulness and we are separated from Him because of our sinfulness. But, God loves us so much that He sends His Son to die on the cross for us, so that Jesus pays the penalty of our sins and man is reconciled to God via Jesus. That is grace.

Ephesians 2

niv:-

8For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9not by works, so that no one can boast.

kjv:

8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast.

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Posted by: thaishin | July 15, 2009

Eulogy for my grandma

My grandma passed away on the 9th of June 2009 at age 89.

My cousin read a eulogy for her at

http://jeremiahwoon.blogspot.com/2009_06_01_archive.html

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Posted by: thaishin | July 3, 2009

Fulfilment of Prophecy (I)

Jeremiah 33:15

15 ” ‘In those days and at that time I will make a righteous Branch sprout from David’s line; he will do what is just and right in the land. -niv

15In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. -kjv

Meditations:

1) The Branch is referring to Jesus.

2) Jeremiah is an old testament book written way before Jesus was born.

3) Jeremiah 33:15 is prophecy fulfilled

4) Jesus is a descendant of King David

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Posted by: thaishin | June 25, 2009

Dependency fosters closer relationship

I discovered something: The more independent we become,  the more isolated we become. At least that is true  for me as I am not a people person nor do I organize activities for people nor do I probe my nose into other people’s matters.

Last winter, my son was about to go to preschool but we had no car. Then, our neighbors just bought a car and they were willing to lend it to us for my son’s trip to preschool every tuesdays and thursdays and also for trips to the groceries. They had to sacrifice mileage on their car and sometimes they have to accommodate to us as they needed the car also.  But the dependency of the usage of their car let us have more interaction. We talked about our family relationships, about the relative recovering from stroke , about sibling working in the bank and more. We got to exchange information and got to know each other’s family better. Ever since we bought our car, our families don’t interact that often and hence are farther apart.

For me, being independent means I am more dependent on myself, my abilities, my possessions etc. Less opportunity to interact with my friends, less growth in the respective relationships. On the contrary, my dependency of some sort on my friends  draw me closer to them.

Similarly, to grow as a christian, we need to be more dependent on Christ, more dependent on the bible. Dependent on Christ/God to lead us, dependent on the bible to provide us with instructions. Then we will have a closer relationship with Christ/God.

Proverbs 3:5-6

niv:

5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

6 in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.

kjv:

5Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

6In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

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