I left my heart at Tong Cheng

Can't wait to show you the faces of these lovely students from Tong Cheng.

A tale of two sisters

These two people are not siblings nor do they know each other. They are my friends and sisters-in-Christ. :)

Thank God for Mady, a Anhui veteran who went there last year to teach English. She has an easy-going character and excellent attitude. She reminded me that our purpose there is to build relationship & to get to know the students. The lesson topics are therefore something to generate dialogues ... in English. And she reminded me to focus on God and his goodness, not my worries and anxieties.

Thank God for Kammie. She's a teacher by trade, well, a very smart person. She gave many brilliant and practical suggestions to make my lesson plans so much more fun and less painful to teach!

Thanks, You, you, and you.

Luke's narrative: Jesus' teaching on prayer

I read Luke 11:1-13 today. Here're what I observe:

1. His account of Jesus' teaching on prayer is much concise and compact (cf. the longer passage in Matthew 6-7)
   
2. In this version of the Lord's Prayer
   
   
   
   • God’s Name (his Honor, Kingdom, & Will) comes first (v.2)
     
   • It's not only OK but important to ask for our daily needs (v.3) -- important enough to warrant being mentioned.
     
   • The correlation of forgiveness--between God and me, & between me and others--is noted (v.4)
     
     
     
     • God's forgiveness of our sins is contingent
       upon ( too strong a word?) our forgiveness of others who wrong us
       
     
     
   • God gives us the Holy Spirit when we ask (v.13)
     
     
     
     • v.13 should be understood in the context of Luke 11:1-13, as the NIV editors suggest. The sudden mentioning of the "Holy Spirit" would otherwise be difficult to comprehend.
       
     • Comparing this passage with the more spreadout fragments in Mt 6:5-18, 25-34 and 7:7-11 helps us appreciate the correlation of v.1 and v.13 in Luke's narrative.
       
     • "Boldness" or "persistence" (v.8), the assurance of "ask and it will be given to you...," and giving "the Holy Spirit to those who ask him" are all parts of Jesus' answer to the disciple's request in v.1. (Chris Tomokiyo pointed out that here the quesiton is to "teach us to pray," not "teach us how to pray."

My prayer today is, first thing first:

1. In light of some brothers/sisters who're facing health crises, I pray that God’s Name be glorified and He gives them strength to triumph over.
2. Re: CSAF election in August, God’s Name be glorified as brothers and sisters show obedience and openness to His lead, not insisting of pleasing oneself.
3. God’s Name be glorified through me and our teams during our Anhui trip.

(I'm not a Bible scholar nor have I studied any Bible commentary. I just read the Scripture everyday and would like to share my thoughts.)

Tong Cheng, Anhui?

We'll all fly to Hefei (合肥) first. Then our team will travel to Tong Cheng (桐城), south of Hefei. (Click on the bottom map, then click again to enlarge it.)

Other teams will travel to Wuhu (蕪湖, 4 o'clock position in relation to Hefei), Susong (宿松, 7.30 position), & Xiu-ning (休寧, 5 o'clock, very close to Huang Shan - the Yellow Mountain).

叫好叫座的一台戲

聖經話我地基督徒係響世上寄居既「客旅」（彼前二11），活響世上就好似「一台戲」（林前四9），有D叫好叫座、有D叫好不叫座、有D叫座不叫好、有D就既不叫好也不叫座。上帝俾我份劇本係點我真係唔多sure，但係我會盡力演好佢...

A brother in Christ (we went to the same church back in HK) wrote this in his blog.

For me, to tell if my show "叫座" 不難, but to discern if it's "叫好"就有些難度.

I debated whether to praise brothers/sisters (i.e. "叫座"), as God should be their only Judge (i.e. "叫好"). Yet, as fellow pilgrim of the journey in this world, I want to cheer YOU on, my dear brothers and sisters. May your shows 叫好也叫座.

Beach bbq afterthought

昨天在团契小组 beach BBQ 中, 我体会到圣经对基督徒的教训: 激发爱心, 勉励行
善 (来10:24)。

- 我看见有姊妹自己工作已忙得不得了, 但仍 weekly 花时间帮另一位久未出现教

会的姊妹. 她不judge弟兄姊妹不出席聚会, 默默做关心人的工作。

- 我又看见有姊妹帮一位单亲妈妈看管小孩们在海滩嬉水, 上水后也很自然
地继续照顾她和她的小孩们取食物用晚膳。

这一天的聚会,并不是outreach, 我原本亦只是抱著relax 的心态去海滩玩的。 但
见到
这些爱心善行,也就被感化过来, 希望能帮上一点点忙, 行善一番。

仔细想想, 团契的目的不就是这样的彼此"激发爱心, 勉励行善" 吗?

Thank God for 团契小组 and 弟兄姊妹.

Music talk: 彩虹下的約定

In my discipline of study (i.e. musicology), we view musical works as cultural product. I'd like to think that we appreciate music through understanding and interpreting it in its historical and cultural context. Now, to some of my friends, the word "history" means digging into something irrelevant and that happened long time ago. If you think that too, read on.

The idea of death and dying was commonly used as a euphemism for love consummation in the 16th- & 17th-c. English literature. Religious writers and poets were inspired to use this metaphor to denote spiritual union. Famous examples include George Herbert, John Donne, and Richard Crashaw. A number of musical works by Henry Purcell (1659-1695) also play with this metaphor.

Now, back to the present. Let's take a look at the SOP (Stream of Praise) song "彩虹下的約定" (The Covenant under the Rainbow). The subject of the song is the convenant between God and man, as 歌詞中的"與祢有約, 是永恆的約" 的 "祢" refers to God. The SOP Vol.5 CD cover states as much, "在詩歌中體驗造物主對人永恆不變的愛."

However, this is not its only source of meaning. Since once the music is published, the meaning of the song is no longer limited by the author's original intent but rather open to the public's reading and re-reading. "彩虹下的約定" has often been sung in weddings, and the idea of love covenant is used to depict that of the bride and bridegroom. In addition to being sung in weddings, "彩虹下的約定" has also been performed in funerals (and may be more so since the Christian movie "天作之盒"). Thus "約定" may also mean both the convenant of the bride and the groom, and that of the dead and God. Thus, like Henry Purcell's works, "彩虹下的約定" serves as yet another conflation of "death and dying" & the ultimate union of Christ and man.

Hope you enjoy reading this piece of music talk -- sort of.

怕死

My dissertation deals with the music of Henry Purcell, a 17th-century English composer. Because a large percentage of Purcell's domestic sacred songs revolves around the subject of "death and dying," I did a fair amount of research and discuss this subject in one of my chapters. I read works of primary and secondary sources, which reveal how people back in the 13th- to the 17th-century viewed and confronted this inevitability.

Interestingly, Paul E. Little's 3-page discussion in How to Give Away Your Faith, written in the 20th century, contains similar insight: "Death ceases to be an unknown...it is simply the servant that ushers us into the presence of the living God whom we love." Below is my green attempt to translate snippets from these 3 pages:

主耶稣能替人解决死亡所带来的恐惧。 当我们年青力壮的时候，「死亡」好像只是一个学术讨论题目；因为我们不认为死亡很快会到访，所以也不太思想这问题。 在约翰福音11：25 《环球圣经新译本》，耶稣对于「死亡」的回应是，「我就是复活和生命；信我的人，虽然死了，也要活著。」 当我们认识主耶稣，与他有实在的关系(personal experience), 他能解决死亡所带来给我们的恐惧。

死亡不再是 an unknown， 而是一"过度"将我们带到永活的神跟前。就凭著这认知， 保罗挑战的写以下几句话： 「死亡啊！你的胜利在哪里？死亡啊！你的毒刺在哪里？」 (林前15：55)《新译本》。对于死亡， 我们可以期望一极 dynamic 的经历。

当然，我们现在也只是纸上谈兵. 笔者(Paul E. Little)分享他几年前经历心脏手术的心路历程： 虽然一宗心脏手术有不错的成功率, 但是病人也可因为74个出错机会中的任何一个出错而死亡. 我永不会忘记--做手术的那早上,一股完全是从外头来的喜乐和平安涌进我心里。   如果我曾想过, 当面对死亡时候, 「正面思想」(positive thinking)可能「变出」平安, 这想法从那天起便烟烧云散了。**  我知道在我里头没有这能力去面对生命危机 ... 那早上的经历让我确定「主耶稣能替人解决死亡带来的恐惧」的事实。

正因为主耶稣确实胜过死亡和解决它带来的恐惧, 任何人要解决「怕死」 的问题, 就要相信,接受主耶稣成为他/她的个人救主。


** Little 写得好! Even tho' I still 纸上谈兵 -- or not, see music spec. for my big day -- I believe that when death comes closer as a personal reality, I am able to prove the Antidote true!

如何相信,接受耶穌成為個人救主?
请按此读英文解释, 按此读简体中文, 按此讀繁體中文.

My 靈程日誌 & its evolution

I'm about to start a new 靈修筆記, & this would either be my 3rd, if not my 4th one. At the beginning, an entry only consisted of the date, scriptural passage, bible verse/ phrase(s) for meditation, and insight. Pretty generic, not something tailor-made for my quiet time, which was still taking shape. Once in a while, I wrote down a prayer -- my response or simply free thoughts after reading the Scripture.

About 2-3 years ago, our fellowship (CSAF) inaugurated a Pray & Share meeting. (It was and is still conducted once a month.) At the first meeting, everyone was given a yellow booklet as a makeshift prayer journal. Even tho' its look wasn't attractive, I used it and kept using it to record important prayer requests (for others and for myself), whether God answered them, and how. The pages were filled up after two years.

I have then continued to jot down significant prayers using the back of my devotion journal. While I wrote down "ordinary" devotional entry starting from the front almost everyday, the prayer journal may be considered "extraordinary" -- the interval of this part of entries varies from once a week to once a month. Though recorded irregularly, they help me see God's hands persistently. Since my memory functions poorly, I don't remember all the things I've asked God, especially not in detail. These entries not only remind me but frequently amaze me -- how God answers prayers according to my specifications! Even tho' sometimes He doesn't agree with me on certain specific, He still answers. Writing things down help me notice the hands of God big time!!!!

Now as I'm filling the last inch of space in my current journal, where the ordinary and extraordinary have crossed path, I am ready to start my new journal as a prayer journal (禱告筆記). Hopefully it's not just filled with requests. (Imagine all the lover letters between two people -- won't it be mortifying if they're filled with to-do-lists!)

In Open Hands, the author Henri Nouwen mentions "Journal of Gratitude." My prayer journal will also be a journal of gratitude and of other experience. I'm getting a clearer sense of my spiritual pulse.

My commencement at UCLA

i went and i'm glad i did! given only a limited number of seat tickets, i invited 5 people to go -- dad, mom, esther, kammie, and monica. normally i wouldn't feel comfortable inconveniencing people like this -- who would want to sit through the 2-hour ceremony watching several hundred strangers walk across the stage and get their hoods put on? but my family and friends seemed genuinely happy for me and enjoyed sharing the moment ...
The picture at left shows UCLA chancellor & faculty members in their colorful gowns, ready to start the show.





Mitchell Morris (left), member on my dissertation committee; Susan McClary (center), chair of the committee & my dear mentor; and Rob Walser (right), the department chair. You wouldn't imagine how great yet personable, understanding, & generous Susan is by just reading her works; you'll have to work with her to find out!

My colleagues, Andy and Olivia. Q.: Why's Olivia's gown blue and ours black? Ans.: she bought hers, Andy and I rented ours :(





My folks and guests. You can figure out which is which, right?