Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Video Test
This is a video test
Monday, January 23, 2006
A New Beginning
Due to some personal stuff I'm going through. I've decided to shut down this blog. Yes, after 3 years and 266 posts later, I'm shutting down 'A Warrior's Journey.'
By no means is this warrior's journey complete, in fact it has only begun to intensify and get serious. I know there are some people back home in Singapore who use this blog as a means of being updated about my life. (Yes, all 4 of you.) I thank you for your concern and your prayers. And yes, the few OCFers who snoop around my blog occasionally, though only Sam tags my board, I mean you as well. What I have decided to do is this.
I will create a mailing list and begin writing a monthly newsletter. If I'm going to be a crusade staff, I better get use to writing regularly for my supporters right? You can contact me via email or comment on this post with your email and I will add it to my mailing list. Inside the newsletter will be updates on my life in Australia and what God has been doing in my life and in my ministry.
Thank you for being a part of my life and well, I don't think this is the last blog I'll ever have, till the time comes for me to blog again, bye bye cyberspace~
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." - 2nd Corinthians 5:14,15.
By no means is this warrior's journey complete, in fact it has only begun to intensify and get serious. I know there are some people back home in Singapore who use this blog as a means of being updated about my life. (Yes, all 4 of you.) I thank you for your concern and your prayers. And yes, the few OCFers who snoop around my blog occasionally, though only Sam tags my board, I mean you as well. What I have decided to do is this.
I will create a mailing list and begin writing a monthly newsletter. If I'm going to be a crusade staff, I better get use to writing regularly for my supporters right? You can contact me via email or comment on this post with your email and I will add it to my mailing list. Inside the newsletter will be updates on my life in Australia and what God has been doing in my life and in my ministry.
Thank you for being a part of my life and well, I don't think this is the last blog I'll ever have, till the time comes for me to blog again, bye bye cyberspace~
"For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." - 2nd Corinthians 5:14,15.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Are you dangerous?
"We are so utterly ordinary, so commonplace, while we profess to know a Power the Twentieth Century does not reckon with. But we are 'harmless,' and therefore unharmed. We are spiritual pacifists, non-militants, conscientious objectors in this battle-to-the-death with principalities and powers in high places. Meekness must be had for contact with men, but brass, outspoken boldness is required to take part in the comradeship of the Cross. We are 'sideliners' -- coaching and criticizing the real wrestlers while content to sit by and leave the enemies of God unchallenged. The world cannot hate us, we are too much like its own. Oh that God would make us dangerous!" - Jim Elliot, missionary to Ecuador.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Discrimination
Everyone faces a form of discrimination somewhere along the years of their life. Some have it worse than others, due to the choices they make in life, or the family they have been born into, or simply, as they think, when they were born that way. Is discrimination wrong? If it is wrong, WHY is it wrong? We, as Christians, all know that discrimination is wrong because Jesus doesn't discriminate and abhors the Pharisees who do.
Why then, does the secular world think discrimination is wrong? On what basis does the world think that discrimination is wrong? Is it something inherently wrong? Where do you draw your 'moral code' from?
Why then, does the secular world think discrimination is wrong? On what basis does the world think that discrimination is wrong? Is it something inherently wrong? Where do you draw your 'moral code' from?
Monday, January 16, 2006
Boundaries
I've been reading this book, Boundaries, by Dr Henry Cloud and Dr John Townsend, both popular authors and speakers and practicing doctors. As the book title suggests, this is a book about boundaries. Physical, spiritual, emotional. They define us. They define who we are and who we are not. I particularly like this except which I feel is very relevant to a close friend of mine.
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The parents of a twenty-five year old man came to see me with a common request. They wanted me to 'fix' their son, Bill. When I asked where Bill was, they answered, "Oh, he didn't want to come."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well he doesn't think he has a problem," they replied.
"Maybe he's right," I said to their surprise. "Tell me about it."
They recited a history of problems that had begun at a very young age. Bill had never been "quite up to snuff" in their eyes. In recent years he had exhibited problems with drugs and an inability to stay in school and find a career.
It was apparent that they loved their son very much and were heartbroken over the way he was living. They had tried everything they know to get him to change and live a responsible life, but all had failed. He was still using drugs, avoiding responsibility and keeping questionable company.
They told me that they had always given him everything he needed. He had plenty of money at school so "he wouldn't have to work and he would have plenty of time for study and a social life." When he flunked out of one school, or stopped going to classes, they were more than happy to do everything the could to get him into another school, "where it might be better for him."
After they had talked for a while, I responded: "I think your son is right. He doesn't have a problem."
You could have mistaken their expression for a snapshot; they stared at me in disbelief for a full minute. Finally the father said, "Did I hear you right? You don't think he has a problem?"
"That's correct," I said. "He doesn't have a problem. You do. He can do pretty much whatever he wants, no problem. You pay, you fret, you worry, you plan, you exert energy to keep him going. He doesn't have a problem because you have taken it away from him. Those things should be his problems but as it now stands, they are yours. Would you like for me to help you help him to have some problems?"
They looked at me like I was crazy, but some lights were beginning to go on in their heads. "What do you mean, 'help him have some problems'?" his mother asked. "Well," I explained, "I think that the solution to this problem would be to clarify some boundaries so that his actions cause him problems and not you."
"What do you mean, 'boundaries'?" the father asked.
"Look at it this way. It is as if he's your neighbor, who never waters his lawn. But, whenever you turn on your sprinkler system, the water falls on his lawn. Your grass is turning brown and dying, but Bill looks down at his green grass and thinks to himself, 'My yard is doing fine.' That is how your son's life is. He doesn't study, or plan, or work, yet he has a nice place to live, plenty of money, and all the rights of a family member who is doing his part.
If you would define the property lines a little better, if you would fix the sprinkler system so that the water would fall on your own lawn, and if he didn't water his own lawn, he would have to live in dirt. He might not like that after a while.
As it stands now, he is irresponsible and happy, and you are responsible and miserable. A little boundary clarification would do the trick. You need some fences to keep his problems out of your yard and in his, where they belong."
"Isn't it a a bit cruel, just to stop helping like that?" the father asked.
"Has helping him helped?" I asked.
His look told me that he was beginning to understand.
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===============================================================
The parents of a twenty-five year old man came to see me with a common request. They wanted me to 'fix' their son, Bill. When I asked where Bill was, they answered, "Oh, he didn't want to come."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well he doesn't think he has a problem," they replied.
"Maybe he's right," I said to their surprise. "Tell me about it."
They recited a history of problems that had begun at a very young age. Bill had never been "quite up to snuff" in their eyes. In recent years he had exhibited problems with drugs and an inability to stay in school and find a career.
It was apparent that they loved their son very much and were heartbroken over the way he was living. They had tried everything they know to get him to change and live a responsible life, but all had failed. He was still using drugs, avoiding responsibility and keeping questionable company.
They told me that they had always given him everything he needed. He had plenty of money at school so "he wouldn't have to work and he would have plenty of time for study and a social life." When he flunked out of one school, or stopped going to classes, they were more than happy to do everything the could to get him into another school, "where it might be better for him."
After they had talked for a while, I responded: "I think your son is right. He doesn't have a problem."
You could have mistaken their expression for a snapshot; they stared at me in disbelief for a full minute. Finally the father said, "Did I hear you right? You don't think he has a problem?"
"That's correct," I said. "He doesn't have a problem. You do. He can do pretty much whatever he wants, no problem. You pay, you fret, you worry, you plan, you exert energy to keep him going. He doesn't have a problem because you have taken it away from him. Those things should be his problems but as it now stands, they are yours. Would you like for me to help you help him to have some problems?"
They looked at me like I was crazy, but some lights were beginning to go on in their heads. "What do you mean, 'help him have some problems'?" his mother asked. "Well," I explained, "I think that the solution to this problem would be to clarify some boundaries so that his actions cause him problems and not you."
"What do you mean, 'boundaries'?" the father asked.
"Look at it this way. It is as if he's your neighbor, who never waters his lawn. But, whenever you turn on your sprinkler system, the water falls on his lawn. Your grass is turning brown and dying, but Bill looks down at his green grass and thinks to himself, 'My yard is doing fine.' That is how your son's life is. He doesn't study, or plan, or work, yet he has a nice place to live, plenty of money, and all the rights of a family member who is doing his part.
If you would define the property lines a little better, if you would fix the sprinkler system so that the water would fall on your own lawn, and if he didn't water his own lawn, he would have to live in dirt. He might not like that after a while.
As it stands now, he is irresponsible and happy, and you are responsible and miserable. A little boundary clarification would do the trick. You need some fences to keep his problems out of your yard and in his, where they belong."
"Isn't it a a bit cruel, just to stop helping like that?" the father asked.
"Has helping him helped?" I asked.
His look told me that he was beginning to understand.
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