reincarnation

After the last conversation, one of my friends brought the book she said had convinced her of reincarnation. It was in Chinese, but it was a Chinese translation of a Western author, so I knew I could get the gist of it from Amazon reviews or even go read it at an English bookstore. Our class was just starting, though, and how to deal with it without having read it?

I knew that regardless of what the author's experiences were and what interpretation he put on those experiences, Jesus, on the other hand, had already demonstrated his credibility by rising from the dead. Assuming Jesus rose from the dead and has complete power over life and death, I figured he could be completely trusted on anything he had to say about the afterlife. Regardless of what any multitude of people may be able to say about "past lives" while under hypnosis, you can't beat rising from the dead, and being able to raise other people on command, for sheer authority on the subject.

I don't remember how much of this I communicated right away to my two friends but I did say, "Let's see what Jesus had to say on the subject," and took them to Luke 16:19-31, the story Jesus told of the rich man and the poor man who both died and went to Hades, but ended up on different sides.

"Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table ; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.

"Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried. In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.'

"But Abraham said, 'Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'

"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house - for I have five brothers - in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.'

"But Abraham said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.'

"But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!'

"But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.'" (Luke 16:19-31, NASV)

Even if we assume for the sake of argument that reincarnation is true, it obviously doesn't work for some people, and you're still back to wondering if you'll get another chance or go straight to the bad place. You're NOT GUARANTEED A SECOND CHANCE.

(And yes, we reviewed how Hades is the waiting place before the judgment, and no humans have gone on to heaven or hell yet.)

Just in case someone still thinks this is referring to a temporary punishment between multiple lives on earth, Matthew 25:31-46 is something else Jesus had to say about the afterlife:

"But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left.

"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 'For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.'

"Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?'

"The King will answer and say to them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.'

"Then He will also say to those on His left, 'Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.'

"Then they themselves also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?'

"Then He will answer them, 'Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.' These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46, NASV)

Regardless of what you believe about reincarnation Jesus is still coming back at an event when every eye will see him and every knee will bow before him (Romans 14:10b-11). So even if reincarnation is true, when Jesus comes back, all those second chances run out. And there are still going to be some people on his right and some people on his left.

Furthermore, the punishment after that judgment is eternal and can not possibly be construed as some temporary punishment between lives. Considering that the earth and it's works will be burned up at the second coming, it would be a little difficult to reincarnate back to earth anyway.

(Another point I heard later but didn't get to share with them is that if the "eternal punishment" is temporary, then the "eternal life" would have to be temporary, as well.)

"So," I said, "I don't know what is in your book, but if Jesus wasn't a liar or mistaken, then you have to reconcile anything you read in that book with what Jesus said about life after death."

Then we read Paul's speech on Mar's Hill in Acts 17:

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols. So he was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. And also some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, "What would this idle babbler wish to say?" Others, "He seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities," - because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears; so we want to know what these things mean." (Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting there used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new.)

So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, "Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.' Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things; and He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their habitation, that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, 'For we also are His children.' Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead." (Acts 17:16-31, NASV)

Once again it says he has appointed a day when someone will judge the world in righteousness, and he's given proof as to who it is by raising him from the dead. "Jesus, right?" said Friend 2.

Then we read the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 15. The ending of it hadn't made sense until they'd read the whole interesting chapter (you can click there to read it), which, and this is why I love studying Bible with them, they were fascinated by. Here's just the conclusion:

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, "DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory. "O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR VICTORY? O DEATH, WHERE IS YOUR STING?" The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:51-58, NASV)

Alas, that's about all the discussion I had time to jot down after class, but I remember we read 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 as well:

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, NASV)

There were many more places I wanted to show them in the Bible but our time was up.

what standard

Last month I was having a free-for-all discussion with two very good friends I've known for years. These are the bits I could remember afterward. (Also, we were speaking in Chinese.)

Friend 1: I believe in reincarnation.
Me: So you don't believe in hell?
Friend 1: Yes, I do.
Me: No because if you do wrong you have countless lives to get it right, why would you ever go to hell?
Friend 2: No you go to hell when you die, then you come back as an animal.
Me: So hell is only temporary?
Friend 1: That's what I've never understood. How could you learn to do better if you come back as an animal?
Friend 2: Animals have their own "right way" that they are supposed to follow.

........................................................

Friend 1: Why are you saying I can do all these good works and still go to hell [just because I'm not a christian]? It's not fair.
Me: It's a matter of authority. Who gets to define what good works are? God's just saying 1) let me define what true good is and what true bad is. And 2) let me tell you how to take care of your sin.*

* We had already talked about this in previous conversations: According to the Bible we were created for good works, so good works are only what we're supposed to be doing anyway, they can't make up for our lapses, anymore than you can tell a policeman "But look at all the traffic lights I didn't run!" or "I might have murdered, but I didn't steal!" It's not the good works that are the problem, it's the lapses if good works aren't allowed to cover for them. It's not for our good works but for our transgressions that Jesus came to be the solution.

And Jesus is not going to be the solution unless you accept his kingship, to tell you how to live your life after he saves you from death. I mean if you saved a murderer from death wouldn't you be sort of ticked off if he went back to murdering? It's easy to see this with a murderer but the least hint of crookedness presents the same problem to God.

We had also looked at the story of Cornelius. God saw all the good works he was doing, the alms he was giving to the poor, and sends an angel to ... tell him he's all right? No, to get him to send for Peter to come tell him how to be saved from his sins. Because it would have been a pity for Cornelius to go to hell after all his good works. It wasn't his good works Cornelius needed Jesus for, it was for his lapses. His good works weren't going to cover them.

........................................................

Friend 1: People have freedom of choice. There are all these different religions and standards out there. Don't be offended, but when you choose a particular religion, you close yourself off to all the rest. You have to say everybody else's way is wrong. But people have free choice. Why do you have to be the only ones right? ....
Me: .... You can say 2 + 2 = 4 without it cutting into anybody's free choice. Will suddenly murdering someone for no reason at all EVER be right?
Friend 1: No.
Me: There you go. It's possible to have an absolute without doing violence to anyone's free choice.

........................................................

Me: So you don't believe Jesus is God's only son?
Friend 2: I didn't say that. I believe he is.
Me: But you said you don't believe in a judgment. Jesus said there's going to be a judgment.
Friend 2: OK, maybe there will be a judgment.
Me: OK, then we need to ask this question: what standard is he going to use to judge us?

Here's the next conversation we had.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

(I realize this particular conversation did not address some rather pertinent questions - in random order off the top of my head:

Is Jesus the Son of God?
Does God exist?
Could we prove God exists?
Did God communicate with us?
Is there anything he wants to do?
Is the Bible completely accurate?
Is the Bible something man made up or God-inspired?
Did we evolve or was the universe created in seven literal days?

But we have or haven't discussed those things in the past and as it comes up in the future I hope to post about it.)

the transliteration of Eve

(on Facebook recently)

Sapphirelinger:

Just now learned how to write "Eve" in Chinese. They transliterate it which means they just choose characters for the similarity in sound rather than properly translate it. The characters they chose were "summer" and "baby" or in other words Eve was a "Summer Babe". This is too funny.

Aunt J:

I always suspected this of Eve, actually.

Gramma:

I am sure ONE man in the world thought so!!! Imagine what Adam must have thought the first time he saw that 'perfect' woman in front of him!!! A never before seen 'creature' - presented to him by the Creator of the universe, his 'good friend' and 'doctor' - proclaimed by that ONE - as WIFE!!!!! HIS WIFE!!!!! HIS COMPANION FOR LIFE!!!!
Marriage is wonderful and God given!!!!

Sapphireslinger:

Anybody who really knows Chinese, feel free to weigh in on this too.

Sapphireslinger:

The romanization for Eve's name is "Xia Wa" or "Hsia Wa" depending on which system you use, (that's Shyah Wah for Americans). If this same "wa" is repeated twice it becomes the word for "doll". So was Eve also a "Summer Doll"?

Sapphireslinger:

Meanwhile don't quote me in any church bulletins :)

Gramma:

Um, gets better by each comment you make!! And the climate in the garden would definitely fit the name AND the picture!!!

Sapphireslinger:

The transliteration "Xia Wa" may not sound like "Eve" but I'm guessing they were trying to match the sounds of the original Hebrew, not the English. After all, the Chinese "Ye Su" (yeh-soo) sounds a lot more like the Hebrew "Yeshua" than the English "Jesus".

Sapphireslinger:

I never realized until now why the Chinese word for Jesus was "Ye Su".

Gramma:

The Cherokee word for Jesus sounds so much like the Chinese, but then the American Indian IS Asian in ancestry! That is interesting!

Gramma:

Remember singing in Cherokee when Granddad preached for the church there?

Sapphireslinger:

It was all Greek to me.

Sapphireslinger:

If the Chinese and the Cherokee were both trying to approximate the Hebrew sounds at translation time then those words would all be similar.

Gramma:

Yes, but beautiful 'Greek' - those words were very phonetically poetic!

Sapphireslinger:

And don't we often put an English "J" for Hebrew "Y"s and vice versa? Like Jehovah for Yahweh and Jesus for Yeshua. So if you discount the J-Y mix-up, they would be more similar than at first glance?

Sapphireslinger:

Something else to consider about the name Xia Wa: in my experience when somebody comes to that name who is reading that story for the first time, they often go, "Xia Wa ... oh that's just like Nu Wa the first woman." So they have their own story of the first woman passed down from when they split off from Noah, and the names are similar.

Sapphireslinger:

But don't ask me what the story is, or what the Chinese characters are for Nu Wa. I do hope somebody knowledgeable chimes in. Ask Joyce.

Sapphireslinger:

At least I think it's Nu Wa. Getting increasingly fuzzy here.

Joyce:

wow.. 夏娃

Sapphireslinger:

夏 is summer and consists of these two pictographs: 1. 頁 (which now means a page (in a book) but originally meant a person walking because it is itself made up of two pictographs abbreviated - 首 meaning head and 儿 being 2 legs) and 2. This second pictograph I can't find to copy and paste but it means to walk slowly. In other words the word for summer is represented by a person walking slowly (because of the heat is how I remembered it) or it could be sauntering to enjoy a beautiful summer day.

Sapphireslinger:

娃 (Wa or wah) is baby and consists of two pictographs: 1. 女 meaning woman and 2. 圭 which is two 土 (earth/dust) pictographs stacked on top of each other and originally meaning feudal lands but the dictionary says 圭 is used mostly for the phonics of it, which I couldn't understand at first because 圭 is "gui" but then I saw many other words with 圭 in them are also pronounced "wa". So if you think about it the word for baby is represented by a woman with a "Waaaah!" beside her.

Gramma:

I think you are wrong on this statement:

'So they have their own story of the first woman passed down from when they split off from Noah, and the names are similar.'

They had the same language when they split from Noah. It wasn't until the tower of Babylon that their language changed. Remember? However, after that, there may have been similarities in the different languages as they expressed the words for Adam and Eve.

However, if that is what you meant, you were right.

Sapphireslinger:

You're absolutely right. I should have said Tower of Babel.

** ** ** **

Footnotes:

These are only some of the comments.

I took two words out of the comments to redact a name.

If you want to friend me after reading this, I'm sort of trying to keep Facebook for people I've actually met face-to-face, because I'm more likely to let my mouth run away with me if I can delude myself that only my relatives will notice. If it's any good, I'll gladly post it here on Sapphireslinger.

It also works the other way around. If an article is born full-fledged I'll post it here right away and merely use Facebook to alert people.

Hello Kitty Dolls, or All I Want Is My Time

It took me six hours to write that last post, lost in a haze of thinking, happy writing, looking up links and wrestling with pics. I got up at 6 and was only done with the post by about 12. Now I wish my brain worked faster but here's the point:

If I was a working girl, where would I have gotten the time to go on and write up my journal (1 hour), read Bible and write the articles it makes me think of (1 hour), answer urgent e-mails (1 hour), tackle urgent todo's and creative projects (the rest of the day), contribute a dish* to the lunch I get to eat every day with my cousin, aunt, and Gramma (2 hours), wash clothes, clean ONE thing, keep up with my workout and stay outside in the sweet Georgia air for 1 hour, spend 30 minutes a day learning one language after another, or read even 5 of the websites I want to keep up with and comment on and perhaps write an article in response (1 hour), learn to sew the clothes I crave that I can't find anywhere (1 afternoon), and what about having time for people, or a food garden? What about cutting everything off at 7 PM and watching a movie for two hours before going to bed so that I'm not typing on a creative high into the wee hours of the morning? Not to mention that when I get back to Taiwan I'll be teaching Bible (x hours) and taking my baby sister to the university library every day (2 hours). And I'm not even married with kids to homeschool yet.

I couldn't make it through half of that even with the whole day to call my own.

But feminists say I would be better fulfilled with my time tied up in an office organizing some company's paperwork or answering the telephone. They say at least I would have my own paycheck ... on my feet all day serving people junk food at fast food restaurants or working in a factory putting out Hello Kitty dolls (I'd rather break my back plowing).

I found Virginia's Woolf's diaries so boring I couldn't finish them, but one thing that impressed me was how much she got to sit around reading and writing all day. I don't think Rosie the Riveter was a step up for womankind.

-----------------------------------------------
* Hasn't happened yet. But at least I give killer head massages.

Tennessee v. Scotland

Update: It seemed to me that this article could be taken as bashing Tennessee and I just want to make it clear that Tennessee and Scotland are my two favorite places in the world.

1. My grandfather grew up in the mountains of Tennessee and as a boy would often disappear into them for the whole day with just his gun and his dog.

2. I live in Taiwan and every time the Chinese ask where I'm from, I say America, and they say where in America, and I always say Tennessee because that's where I identify with, where the largest part of my ancestors came from, even though most of my relatives are now scattered over Georgia and Florida. We were in Tennessee a lot during some of the vividest years of my childhood 8-9 and 13-14 and we stayed in many people's homes all over eastern Tennessee, Chattanooga, South Pittsburg, Jasper, Viola, Rockcliffe, etc. Driving over Monteagle always excited me, because I knew we were going to stay either with my great grandmother or my aunt and uncle or my great aunt and uncle. My great grandmother's house was thick with suggested memories floating around the hazy silent air of those huge cold rooms still furnished as they must have been a hundred years ago. I devoured the old magazines up in the attic bedrooms and looked longingly at the gorgeous hills outside. Thankfully the poem I wrote then is not at hand to torture you with, but it was something about imaginary boundaries that couldn't be seen and begging the wind to take me with it and set me free. Mind you, one of my mom's missions in life was to get us out walking in the mountains whenever she could but it wasn't always like you could step out the front door and take off on foot to wherever you wanted to go.

Excuses for seeming to prefer Scotland:

1. So Tennessee forever, but before my ancestors came to Tennessee they were Scotch Irish and Scotland is the only place that felt like it was throbbing through my bones as I walked it.

2. Scotland has a deeply engrained tradition of letting people walk wherever they want all over the land. Can you leave your front door and walk in a straight line over countless people's properties in Tennessee? Therefore any discussion of where to retire so as to easily get a healthy walk everyday and not wear a rut around your house if you didn't have a car would have to include Scotland.

Here's my original article:

Someone asked me recently what I thought about retiring in Tennessee versus Scotland, because they knew I had been to Scotland back in 2001.

After a few weeks here are my thoughts:

Tennessee - beautiful but you can barely walk anywhere because everyone's property is guarded by chows. At least that's what my grampa said when we wanted to go enjoy nature in Cherokee, North Carolina. You had to DRIVE to a designated forest walk. (I have nothing against driving but I don't have a car and probably never will.) He said that about Cherokee, but I'm assuming Tennessee is the same. (This also seems to be the case in small-town Georgia, only thankfully we were in a van when we got chased by pit bulls down the road.)

When we stayed with my great-grandmother near Viola, Tennessee, in an old columned house on top of a gorgeous hill, the gorgeous Tennessee scenery stretching in every direction was untouchable ... we could only walk on our own property. Again, there was a mountain trail to walk on ... if you drove to it.

Half the point of healthy country living is being able to walk through it. Tennessee does not make it easy to step outside your door and walk for hours.

Now in Skye, Scotland you can step outside your door and run shrieking for miles all over the hills. And it's not 20-minute trails. There are 3-hour, 5-hour, 8-hour and 10-hour trails all over the island. 94 of them. Browse and weep: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/skye/ (Be sure to click on the area and then the individual walks to see the photos.) I wanted to die with happiness walking there. I cannot say I have ever felt in such extremities walking in Tennessee, though I have been full of happiness DRIVING through Tennessee.



Scotland is a walker's paradise with a tradition of access to most land:

Rights of way are less extensive in Scotland than in England and Wales because there is a tradition of access to most land. Rights of way do exist, but there is no legal obligation on local authorities to record them, so they don’t appear on Ordnance Survey maps, though paths and tracks are shown on these maps as geographical features and you have a right to walk on most of these. (Ramblers)

I just love Scotland, open to all who want to walk their hearts out.

Look at the 41 walks right next door to Skye in Kintail and Lochalsh: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/kintail/ Look what they've got all over the highlands: http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/ Or Google "walks" and "(name of place you were planning to move to)" and research it. Even Edinburgh with its castle and closes has a gigantic mountain park overlooking the city. And paths beside the weir winding through nooks and gardens all through the city.

When I returned from Scotland I looked up every hiking and biking trail in Scotland, wove them into one big trail on a map, planned out each day ... and it would take me six months to do it all. I dream.

But what if you want to live in both Tennessee and Scotland? How to afford the air fare switching back and forth every 6 months? See if you can make do with tiniest possible house and property in each place. I've always thought a great house had little to do with size and everything to do with smart design and ratio of windows to wall, how much it takes the outdoors in. The tiny homes on Google Image Search will make you drool, and then your head will explode.

Now, a lot more goes into choosing a place to retire than the ability to go walking everyday from your doorstep. How available is the church? How available do you need to be for family and grandkids? On the other hand, living in two worlds is an eye-opening education for anybody, not to mention any kids still in the nest.

You'll treasure your own country more dearly, coming back to it and seeing it from a contrast.

At the same time, if you've ever wanted the mental freedom to leave at a moment's notice, knowing you'll feel comfortable in either place, a second home in an adopted country will give you and your kids a facility of mobility and the peace of mind of having options and having tried it out. (It will not however give you the peace of avoiding airplanes ... unless you feel perfectly safe letting God determine the hour of your departure.)

Updated ending: Obviously I feel the best scenario would be to live in both Tennessee and Scotland if at all possible, but I would of course visit first and try out walks in both places before deciding where to move.

After 8 years away ... back in the USA .. Day 3

This trip was made possible by my dad (and beyond him all the people who sacrifice to keep us teaching Bible in Taiwan), who surprised me with a ticket to the States to go back and see my relatives whom I hadn't seen in 8 years.

Thursday, 16 September 2010 (Day 3)

At 10 AM we went for a short walk on the trail near their house ... Here is Uncle George saying hi to us as we set out ...




Joyce's photo


Joyce's photo





At my uncle's office ...




Joyce's photo

Riding back on the tailgate (do not try this at home) ...


Joyce's photo


Joyce's photo

... for lunch ...


Joyce's photo

... and laptopping ...



Then we drove the hour and a half to my Gramma's - Uncle George, Joyce and I talking the whole way. As soon as I got out of the car, my Aunt Jeannie hugged me tight and then said she thought that Gramma was waiting for me in the house. After hugging Gramma, the next thing I knew Keri, who had come in behind me, said, "Well, do I get a hug?" and squeezed me to her. Keri is the cousin who went with me to Scotland in 2001. Here we are talking afterward ...


Joyce's photo


Joyce's photo

Me and my gramma and cousin looking at the Chinese pastries Joyce brought:


Joyce's photo

Around the table over spaghetti ... they kept saying funny things, but I wasn't used to taking video yet ...




Joyce's photo


Joyce's photo

Gramma showed Joyce and me the movie August Rush that night.

Other posts in this series:

Day 1
Day 2
You are here: Day 3

If you would like me to share with a ladies' class or a girls' class, pictures of what we do in Taiwan, and show how some of the Chinese characters are related to the ancient Bible stories, attesting to the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and showing that the God of the ancient Chinese was the God of the Bible ... drop me a comment and I'll contact you next time I'm in the States.

If you would like to help me make future trips back to the States for reporting and visiting my relatives, you may send a check made out to CHINA MISSION FUND (and earmarked "For Natasha's Travel & Working Fund").

CHINA MISSION FUND
Church of Christ
P.O. Box 7341
Paducah, KY 42002-7341

Or if you would like to contribute to my father's work, which is far more important because it keeps us all teaching Bible in Taiwan, just omit the earmarking.

I do not get a salary. I live with my parents and teach Bible to 15 people a week. Sharing the Bible is my life. I would be doing this regardless of whether I was a missionary or not and I expect that I'll be startling some Bible students by popping off in the middle of a Bible discussion at the age of 90. But I have been very blessed to have my father, mother, brothers, and sister with me in Taiwan all these years. So contributing to my father's work ultimately helps me teach Bible as well.

Brother Jim Phillips is the preacher at the church that maintains the China Mission Fund for us. If you would like to call him, you may do so at 1-270-527-7580.

After 8 years away ... back in the USA .. Day 2

This trip was made possible by my dad (and beyond him all the people who sacrifice to keep us teaching Bible in Taiwan), who surprised me with a ticket to the States to go back and see my relatives whom I hadn't seen in 8 years.

Wednesday, 15 September 2010 (Day 2)

Uncle George came to pick me up in the darkness of the early morning, and I hugged him as soon as he got inside the chain link fence. In the car I read the directions aloud to him that he had printed out for getting back to the airport. We were going to pick up my neighbor (and sister in Christ) Joyce who was flying in from visiting her brother in San Francisco.

I met Joyce's mom probably about 2 years ago in Taiwan. She went to the same exercise class I attended and stayed quite a few times for the Bible class I held afterward. She brought her daughter Joyce over to meet me when she was home on vacation and Joyce came to worship with us the next week. She was Methodist at the time and of course I got my dad to explain to her that she wasn't a christian until she had been immersed into Christ. She went away mad and we didn't see her for a few weeks. I thought she had gone back to Taipei and wrote her a long e-mail with all the Bible verses on immersion and she wrote back and said she just wanted to talk about other stuff.

Actually, she was living a block away from us and she couldn't forget what we'd told her, at the same time thinking we looked so normal. "They don't act crazy," she thought.

So about a month later she started studying Bible with us, and to this day she has one of the most tenaciously energetic minds I am fortunate to get to see often. She's cute and adorable and likes her privacy, yet she will write that letter, send off that box, fix up that website, ask that question, and discuss the scriptures with yet another new friend she's made on facebook, she eats and drinks Bible studies, and she's studying to be lawyer.

She was immersed into Christ last year and being on facebook so much, was soon corresponding with my relatives far more than I did. (I used to be a very lazy letter writer.) She became good friends with my gramma and when her parents decided to fly her to her brother's wedding in California, she arranged to fly out to Georgia and see my gramma for 2 weeks.

And that's why I'm here, still taking a moment every day to realize I'm actually here with people I only thought about seeing for years. I guess my dad thought it was an appropriate time to send me back to see my gramma as well. I will never be able to scratch his head enough when I get back.



After picking Joyce up, I sat in the back seat with her and 2 hours later we were in the country by the little town of Dearing with a cat and a dog and pine trees all around and rolling grass by a lake:





Joyce's photo



Aunt Melissa looking up a recipe ...



... for the most fabulous creamy wild rice soup. She made it according to this recipe but changed it by cooking onion, 2 carrots chopped, 1 celery chopped, and 2 garlic cloves in olive oil, and using milk instead of heavy cream ...



... with pickled okra and cornbread and oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies:



Uncle George explaining canning:



Then we all napped. Here's a pic of the gorgeous bedroom ...


Joyce's photo

I woke up after another 3-hour sleep cycle to look at pictures. Here's my Gramma when she was 15 or 16:



Leaving for Wednesday Night Bible Study:


Joyce's photo



Joyce with some of the sisters:




Joyce's photo

One thing Uncle George had mentioned to me that morning while we were still driving back to the airport, was how glad he was that their church had finally gotten elders. He had not realized the difference that following God's pattern and having elders would make in the health and growth of a church. After that he started noticing the difference wherever he looked in other congregations as well.

And I thought of all our struggling congregations in Taiwan, not one of which has an eldership because we don't even have enough men to choose from. So, to all my married brothers and sisters in Taiwan ... please raise your children to be elders:

1 It is a trustworthy statement : if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money. 4 He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity 5 (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God ?), 6 and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into the condemnation incurred by the devil. 7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. (1 Timothy 3:1-7)

And all you single ladies, there's a FREE Four Seas School of Preaching in Singapore, a great place to find a guy also interested in the Bible. If you don't find someone there, hey, there's a Florida School of Preaching, an East Tennessee School of Preaching, etc.

We're the only (New Testament) church in a huge city. We can barely serve the people in our district much less all the other districts in this city. People might be willing to study with me if they only have to drive 15 minutes, but 60 minutes is enough to discourage most for the casual Bible study. And what about the towns 3 hours south of us who have nobody?

So please, all you christians in the USA, please raise your children to go to a sound Bible school and come over here as missionaries. They don't have to come permanently but if they could spare a few years getting a self-operating church up as soon as possible, that could thrive when they leave, that would be fantastic. I really do think the Chinese themselves make some of the most wonderful preachers in their own culture, but they need, all those without Christ need, someone to get them started.

On a more general topic: I could never understand people leaving the church because they felt there weren't enough members or a big enough youth group. If they were just switching between congregations, fine, but to stop attending? Doesn't that make it even worse for the ones who are left? "Ask not what your country can do for you, but ask what you can do for your country." (JFK) Isn't that the whole point of being a missionary? To go where there is no church and start one?

OK, off my soapbox. Next post: seeing my grandmother who I hadn't seen in 8 years!

2010.10.25 Update: I rewrote the part about Joyce because she had not actually gone back to Taipei like I thought. See her comment.

Other posts in this series:

Day 1
You are here: Day 2
Day 3

------------------------------

I am presently in the States. If you would like me to share with a ladies' class or a girls' class, pictures of what we do in Taiwan, and show how some of the Chinese characters are related to the ancient Bible stories, attesting to the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and showing that the God of the ancient Chinese was the God of the Bible ... call 1-912-388-1952

If you would like to help me make future trips back to the States for reporting and visiting my relatives, you may send a check made out to CHINA MISSION FUND (and earmarked "For Natasha's Travel & Working Fund").

CHINA MISSION FUND
Church of Christ
P.O. Box 7341
Paducah, KY 42002-7341

Or if you would like to contribute to my father's work, which is far more important because it keeps us all teaching Bible in Taiwan, just omit the earmarking.

I do not get a salary. I live with my parents and teach Bible to 15 people a week. Sharing the Bible is my life. I would be doing this regardless of whether I was a missionary or not and I expect that I'll be startling some Bible students by popping off in the middle of a Bible discussion at the age of 90. But I have been very blessed to have my father, mother, brothers, and sister with me in Taiwan all these years. So contributing to my father's work ultimately helps me teach Bible as well.

Brother Jim Phillips is the preacher at the church that maintains the China Mission Fund for us. If you would like to call him, you may do so at 1-270-527-7580.

After 8 years away ... back in the USA ... Day 1

This trip was made possible by my dad (and beyond him all those who sacrifice to keep us teaching Bible in Taiwan) who surprised me with a ticket to the States to go back and see my relatives whom I hadn't seen in 8 years.

Tuesday, 14 September 2010

I had been packing all month and all week just so I could get to bed early on these last few days, but I had only had 3 hours of sleep when I got up at 4:20 AM.

I remember being so afraid I was going to miss my entire TWD$44,000 flight, that I only gave a cursory last check of my packing list and forgot the charcoal for upset stomach, and the book on ancient Chinese characters showing evidence of the early Bible stories (Tower of Babel and before), but nothing serious like my ID or plane ticket.

My brother and I were out the door only a little after 5 AM. I like being able to scratch his head and talk with him in the car, but for the first time I was nervous at his ability to get me places fast on the now rain-slick roads. As it turned out I waited half an hour in the departure lounge anyway.

I was flying from Kaohsiung to Taoyuan to Tokyo to Chicago to Atlanta - four sets of take-offs and landings, the most dangerous part of flying. Usually I pray so hard I fell asleep during the landing on my last trip, but I was not nearly so scared this time, having been "scolded" by Sister Baby in Singapore, and having experienced the Wang family's dismissive attitude toward it as just going home early. So I had my brain set as considering that I was definitely going home one way or another - either back to America to see my relatives, or back to heaven to see God, which really wasn't so bad when I stopped to think of it.

I have this thing about fireballs. Don't like them. But I found if I viewed them as fantasy fiction like Meg Ryan jumping off the bridge in Kate & Leopold, or in this case God saying, "I need to speak to you a minute. Step right this way, through this fireball here" and I have to go through something to materialize on the other side -- then the flight was a lot more enjoyable. Christians are so lucky to have real-life fantasy.

(Please, I'm talking about overcoming a fear of flying here. Don't put me on a no-fly list.) 

My imagination can be inconvenient, as when it gives me the willies to swim alone in a swimming pool because all my brain wants to think about is a white shark in there with me, but I generally prefer to tell my brain what to feel, and trust God for the rest. For instance, we often have earthquakes in Taiwan, so what I prayed every night was more or less: "God please give me this one night peaceful to enjoy my bed. Tomorrow I might be covered in rubble, but I'm going to enjoy tonight. Because if it comes tomorrow it still doesn't mean it should have spoiled all the other 364 nights when I was wondering if it would come but it didn't. And if we do have one, after a reasonable 10 minutes outside waiting for aftershocks, please help me get right back to sleep and not wait around re-living what it just felt like." And I sleep wonderfully all the time, thank God.

Anyway back to the trip, on the flight to Tokyo there was a teenage girl in the window seat all dressed up in a flouncy Bo Peep outfit with at least 2 stuffed animals attached to her outfit and carrying a third tucked under her arm. I assumed she was Japanese because they tend to dress with more flair.

I had purposely reserved an aisle seat for the 11 hour flight from Tokyo to Chicago so that I could get up all I wanted to use the restroom and exercise without bothering anyone.

I had a bottle of water that I kept refilling at the back of the plane so I wouldn't have to bother the flight attendants for countless cups. I added a gram of C each time to combat the radiation at that altitude.

And I finally got up the nerve to exercise in the empty gallery at the back of the plane, doing Tai-Chi kicks and stretches, with yoga splits and back-bends and bend-overs, till I was warm and loose.

That was the best I've felt on a plane trip. Even though I eventually got so tired by the time I was on the flight from Chicago to Atlanta that the hand holding my very exciting Terry Brooks book would suddenly drop to my lap every page or so, still, in the following days it was the first time in my life I have had zero jetlag after flying half way around the world.

2 months ago I was going to bed at 8 and getting up at 3 in the morning. When I found out I was going to the States and started cramming Spanish, I was going to bed between 10 and 12 and getting up at 6. Then the last week, I was staying up till two in the morning (and taking COQ10 every night which did wonders for my oxygen levels and fatigue) to make sure everything would be packed in time for me to get some real sleep, which never happened, but when I finally got to bed again in the States even though I only got 3 hours again, mis-setting my alarm clock and having to get up in time anyway for Uncle George to pick me up in the morning, still that 3 hours was luxury compared to the famine of sleep on the airplane and since it was all in sleep cycle segments I felt normal and as aware as if I was still back in Taiwan. I also had no breakup of self-identity or exaggerated foot-in-mouth disease while traveling, for the first time in my life I was as put together and enjoying the flow as if I was entertaining people in my own home. Maybe it had to do, not only with having eased into traveling by having gone to Singapore 2 months before and then the camp retreat and Tracy coming to help out a few weekends and learning to deal with getting things done by keeping a fluid list on my desktop, and the self-awareness and exercise on the the plane, but also with meeting up with Joyce the next morning in Atlanta, her familiar face grounding me? Ironically, it was also the first time in years that I didn't take any melatonin or pills for jetlag during a trip.

Anyhow back to the trip. On the 11 hour flight from Tokyo to Chicago I sat next to another teenager with a stuffed animal. She had a little bear which she kept on her lap, smoothing it's ears and face with her fingers and sitting it in her lap, putting her glasses on it, and later using it as a pillow on her shoulder.

They showed the new Karate Kid with an adorable Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan.

The next movie looked boring, about some city girl in France and we were eating anyway, but when I put the headphones back on I was fascinated by the heroine's conversation, every expression and sentence out of her mouth was so perfectly natural that I was mentally repeating every line and intonation after her as if I was trying to learn a new language, and I made a mental note to find the movie later so I could do it all over again. Found out weeks later it was Letters to Juliet.

When I got off the plane in Chicago the carpeted hallways smelled like potpourri.

The Forest Park Church of Christ in Atlanta kindly let me stay in one of their guesthouses so I could crash for the night before my Uncle George picked me up the next morning to go get Joyce from the airport. Brother Eddy Bettis and his son picked me up from the airport to take me to the guesthouse.

Brother Eddy Bettis and his son

I slept really well because I just do, and also because any time I had needed sleep on the airplane (taking care to micro-catnap so I wouldn't get loopy) I would just imagine how it had felt deliciously stretching out on my own bed in Taiwan. For some reason it had been super comfortable that last night and I kept the memory of it stored like a bubble in my brain as if I could climb in there and go to sleep.

Other posts in this series:

You are here: Day 1
Day 2
Day 3

* * *   * * *   * * *
I am presently in the States. If you would like me to share with a ladies' class or a girls' class, pictures of what we do in Taiwan, and show how some of the Chinese characters are related to the ancient Bible stories, attesting to the historicity of the first 11 chapters of Genesis, and showing that the God of the ancient Chinese was the God of the Bible ... call 1-912-388-1952

If you would like to help me make future trips back to the States for reporting and visiting my relatives, you may send a check made out to CHINA MISSION FUND (and earmarked "For Natasha's Travel & Working Fund").

CHINA MISSION FUND
Church of Christ
P.O. Box 7341
Paducah, KY 42002-7341

Or if you would like to contribute to my father's work, which is far more important because it keeps us all teaching Bible in Taiwan, just omit the earmarking.

I do not get a salary. I live with my parents and teach Bible to 15 people a week. Sharing the Bible is my life. I would be doing this regardless of whether I was a missionary or not and I expect that I'll be startling some Bible students by popping off in the middle of a Bible discussion at the age of 90. But I have been very blessed to have my father, mother, brothers, and sister with me in Taiwan all these years. So contributing to my father's work ultimately helps me teach Bible as well.

Brother Jim Phillips is the preacher at the church that maintains the China Mission Fund for us. If you would like to call him, you may do so at 1-270-527-7580.

singing on the walk

Our neighbors had two young relatives came to stay with them a few weeks and they rang the doorbell almost every day so I taught them to sing gospel songs and asked them questions in between like "What are the five things we do in worship every Sunday?"

Another time they said they were Catholic and I said we must follow the Bible but the pope is nowhere in the Bible. I explained how every church managed itself with its own group of elders to lead it and we read the requirements for a good elder out of 1 Timothy 3.

Here they are singing gospel songs from memory as we walked to the university pond one day:

Why I haven't posted in five months

Five months ago I was about to post an article when I realized one of the paragraphs really needed to be expanded into its own article. Meanwhile the days kept flowing by, leaving me with ever more events and ideas to blog about, but would I skip the post clogging the stream? No, alas, I wanted my posts to be published in order; so as I froze with writer's block, I eventually gave up under the overwhelming backlog.

From now on I'm going to try posting helter-skelter. If I'm stuck on a post I'll put it aside for the moment and go on to the next. If I have an exciting day or epiphany I'll post it right away no matter how much backlog may be waiting. Let's see what happens.

Whether or not you believe in self-defence, Surviving in Argentina's post on a home invasion reminds us all to be careful when answering the door.

What I've Been Reading - February Week 1

Here's an excerpt from James Corbett's The WHO Global Tax Proposals which I hope intrigues you to click on the whole article:

In 1996, the Philippine Medical Association concluded that tetanus vaccines administered as a part of a WHO vaccination program in that country contained hCG. Women who had taken the vaccine and suffered miscarriage shortly thereafter were found to have had the hCG anti-bodies. That the hCG could have accidentally ended up in the tetanus vaccines is almost unthinkable, especially since tetanus toxoids in particular have been known as ideal carriers for the hormone since at least 1980. In 2004, independent testing of a polio vaccine being administered by UNICEF found sterilizing agents had been added to those vaccines as well. In Thailand, the tetanus vaccine is routinely administered to women during pregnancy, often resulting in spontaneous abortions.

Those last two links are especially interesting.

I'm only mentioning this because:

1) Truth always sets you free.
2) You won't unwittingly hurt others or be hurt yourself.

But because the Bible says to be happy, here's another link that will put all that into perspective and that has always made the world faaaade away for me: You can watch Johnny Ramsay's The Power and Privilege of Preaching online here. If you don't have much time, try 5 minutes.

Photos - Monday 18 January 2010

At a food court in a department store with my little sister.



On the bus home.



Took J. R. R. Tolkien's little gem of a story Farmer Giles of Ham on the subway and bus for it's yearly read. Fresh all over again.

If anyone knows where to read it online, preferably illustrated, let me know in the comments and I'll put a link here.

Photos - Sunday 17 January 2010

Photos - Sunday 10 January 2010

The Great Global Warming Swindle Part 1 - ESL

A break from the back posts I'm trying to get caught up on ...

January and February are usually the coldest months here in Taiwan. Every winter I have to live with the constant pain of cold in my hands while typing. But this year I can't remember it happening once, and February 10 I went to bed with my windows wide open and no cover though it got nippy in the early morning. This has never happened to me in the past decade. All the next day was too hot even for the spring weather that will show up in March and we even turned the fan on. I don't like to think what the coming summer is going to feel like.  Today as I write this it's turned cold again and the weather is supposed to fall 10 degrees Celsius. Never thought I'd hurrah for that.

So is it man-made CO2 or a natural sun cycle causing climate change? I incline toward the latter because:

1) According to The Great Global Warming Swindle video, temperature leads CO2 with an 800 year lag to show which one changes first. The sun cycle heats the earth, which gradually warms the oceans, releasing their CO2. The heat releases the CO2, the CO2 doesn't cause the heat.

2) Animals and bacteria put out 150 gigatonnes of CO2 every year compared to a mere 6.5 gigatonnes due to humans. Decaying leaves are supposed to put out an even larger amount, and dwarfing all of that is the CO2 put out by the oceans.

So we can shut down every factory and economy and it's not going to stop the much huger amount of CO2 being put out by nature. I still hate pollution though ... do I have some nascent posts on that.

The following video is English audio with Chinese subtitles.



If you like this film and want to use it to learn or teach English, see the vocabulary list below of some of the harder words with their (Traditional) Chinese translations. Feel free to correct the translations in the comments, or take this list for your own website.

Or if you just want to watch the rest of the videos without learning English, here are the rest of the links:

The Great Global Warming Swindle 全球暖化是真是假 Part 2
Al Gore's movie "An Inconvenient Truth" is addressed here:
The Great Global Warming Swindle 全球暖化是真是假 Part 3
The Great Global Warming Swindle 全球暖化是真是假 Part 4
The Great Global Warming Swindle 全球暖化是真是假 Part 5
The Great Global Warming Swindle 全球暖化是真是假 Part 6

imagine 設想
reason 緣故
global warming 全球暖化
alarm 驚動
propaganda 宣傳
evidence 證據
greenhouse gasses 溫室氣體
climate 氣候
increase 增長
temperature 溫度
ice core record [can't find translation]
fundamental 基本
assumption 臆測
theory 理論
moral 道德
political 政治
campaigners 競選活動
debate 辯論
criticism 批評
rigorous 嚴謹
illegitimate
carbon dioxide = CO2
swindle 騙局
media 輿論界
apocalyptic [can't find translation]
politicians 政治家
intolerance 不寬容
dissenting 異議的
criminals 罪犯
politically incorrect [can't find translation]
orthodoxy 正統
frenzy 瘋狂
shriller [can't find translation]
geological timeframe 地質時間表
suspect 懷疑
concensus [can't find translation]
catastrophic 災難的
IPCC United nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
bibliographies 目錄學
polemic 論戰
resign 辭職
author 作家
ideology 意識形態
environmental movement 環保運動
activist [can't find translation]
influential 有影響
distortion 弄歪
funding 資金
vested interest 既得利益
panic 驚慌
bureaucratic 僚官
bandwagon = popular campaign [can't find translation]
farrago [can't find translation]
censorship [can't find translation]
intimidation 恫嚇
fury 暴怒
invoking [can't find translation]
hinder 妨礙
vital 重要
industrial progress 產業進步
developing world 發展國家
cautionary 警告的
defining idea [couldn't find translation]
heretic 異教徒
inquiry 調查
expert 專家
tropical forests 雨林 (?)
ice sheets 冰蓋
plunge 跳進
cold spell [couldn't find translation]
climatologists 氣候學家
illustrations 插圖
Thames [can't find translation]

This list is only for Part 1. If you used it to learn or teach English and want to go on with Part 2, let me know in the comments and I'll do up that post. (The comments are moderated, so I'll know the very next time I check my e-mail.)

Bible Class - Friday 08 January 2010

Linda and I studying Wesley Simons' Denominational Doctrines in the art museum.

what I've been reading

Another excerpt from Bob Chapman's The International Forecaster (This would be the December 23, 2009 issue):

INTERPOL, an international law enforcement agency, has just been granted complete and utter "diplomatic immunity" within the borders of the United States, courtesy of Obama. They are not subject to any Constitutional limitations within the United States. Good luck filing for discovery, documents, witnesses or subpoenas against a police force that is operating outside of the Constitution in your own country! You can't sue them. Their records can't be searched. They are not subject to FOIA requests. You probably won't even know the name of the agent prosecuting you if INTERPOL comes to visit. And they don't have to tell you either.

Obama gave INTERPOL immunity from the Constitution on Dec 16! http://marionsword.spaces.live.com/blog/cns%211B80DAF0A76159D5%211346.entry

what I've been reading - ferfal

Here's a new website I've added to the favorites I read all the time: Surviving In Argentina. Here's how it was introduced by a subscriber in Bob Chapman's International Forecaster (which I also read all the time):

Bob,
Many people are looking for answers to the question of "what do I do to prepare for a financial collapse?" I would recommend that the subscribers read the book Surviving the Economic Collapse by Fernando Ferfal Aguirre. He lives in Argentina and went through the collapse of 2001. He describes what happened, how life in general has changed and things you can do to prepare for a similar occurrence. I have read many "survival manuals", and most end up in an Armageddon/Road Warrior scenarios. FerFal's book deals with what has actually happened there, and what you need to be aware of in the event of a collapse. Reading his book has changed my mind on many issues that I thought of as conventional wisdom when it comes to surviving a collapse. He also has a blog site with lots of good information.

As usual, I don't agree with everything on the website, so take the meat and leave the bones. A few things have always ticked me off in The International Forecaster as well, and some day I will post some percolating rants. But until then ... enjoy the good stuff.

I've already told you how and why in my 7 AM Bible classes with a few of the ladies at the exercise center the first thing we do is read a paragraph of Wesley Simons' Denominational Doctrines series.

The second thing we do is memorize another verse from the Gospel of John that emphasizes the supremacy of Jesus. For instance, that same week we got to this verse:

The Father loves the Son
and has given all things into His hand.

He who believes in the Son has eternal life;
but he who does not obey the Son will not see life,
but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 3:35-36

父 愛 子 ， 已 將 萬 有 交 在 他 手 裡 。

信 子 的 人 有 永 生 ；
不 信 子 的 人 得 不 著 永 生 ,
神 的 震 怒 常 在 他 身 上 。

約 翰 3:35-36

I said, "He's speaking so sternly because Jesus' position is so high. Think about the universe, how many billions of stars and planets. The Creator of all that sent his only son, to our planet. Not only that, but he died for us. We have to be filial to Jesus." [It sounds better in Chinese.]

The Chinese are big on filial piety. Historically, their whole society is based on maintaining the 5 correct relationships: emperor to subject, parent to child, elder brother to younger brother, husband to wife, older friends to younger friends. So if Jesus is the only son of the creator of the universe, they owe him filial obedience in spades.

I'll go ahead and mention the third thing we do in that class (and their favorite): watching The Gospel of John movie on my laptop and briefly stopping every subtitle so they can read it in English and tell me what it means.

Life is fun! Thank you, everybody that attends that class!

Photos: Friday to Sunday January 1 - 3

Bible Conversations

Every Tuesday and Thursday I go to exercise class an hour early and teach 3 - 4 ladies the Bible using English.

One thing we do at the very beginning is read a paragraph or two from Wesley Simon's Denominational Doctrines series, so that when they do get serious about christianity, they know they can't walk into the first group that calls itself christian unless the church is actually doing things according to the Bible, or what's the point in calling yourself a christian?

I think it was this paragraph we were reading the other week:

Now, let’s notice first of all that the Bible speaks of a falling away. See, this did not catch God by surprise. Old Satan is not dumb. Satan is very slick. For instance, in the garden, when God put Adam and Eve there, told them what to do, what not to do, I want you to notice Old Satan came along and what does he do? He changes God’s Word. That’s what he’s doing now with all these different religious groups. He’s changing God’s Word.

先注意聖經有提到離開正道這件事，這並沒有嚇到上帝。撒但不笨，他很狡猾。例如說，當上帝放亞當、夏娃在伊甸園，告訴他們要做什麼、而不要做什麼時，我要你注意撒但來了而他做什麼呢？他改變上帝的話，他現在也對所有不同教會團體做這樣的事，改變上帝的話。

(Watch the whole lesson here.)

And to make it real simple I said, "Look, the fewer rules the better, right? Who wants more and more rules? But if we have too few rules society would descend into chaos. So God has already given us the perfect amount of rules, suitable for all generations and we can't add to or take away from that."

Sunday Pics 2009.12.14

what I've been reading - December 2009 2nd Week

This is why you shouldn't keep all your savings in cash or in a bank:

From Bob Chapman's The International Forecaster 2009.12.05:

How could they exploit those accounting rules? Let's suppose that Central Bank A wants to decorate its balance sheet by building up its gold reserves and purchases 10 tons of gold in the gold market (perhaps from a producer, another central bank or a bullion bank) and then immediately leases the same 10 tons of gold to Bullion Bank A, which then sells the gold to Central Bank B, which then leases the gold to Bullion Bank B, which then sells the gold to a jewelry corporation, which turns out to be nothing more than a front company for an Illuminist crime family's gold accumulation schemes. They make a few pieces of jewelry and then send the rest to the smelters to make special bars for the Illuminist crime family. So now both Central Bank A and Central Bank B show the same 10 tons of gold as reserves on their books, even though neither one has possession of the gold, which has been sold into the Illuminist's private stash via its front company, which sale the GFMS treats as a jewelry sale when it was really for investment purposes. The chain of central and bullion banks that purchase, then lease, then sell, then lease again, then sell again could theoretically go on ad infinitum until a non-bank party like the "jewelry company" buys the gold and takes it off the market. You could say that the gold has been "ping-ponged."

(Note: We'll discuss the lease issues a little further down).

Now let's change the example a little. Let's say that the Fed gave Deutsche Bank a gold swap IOU for 10 tons of Fort Knox US gold in exchange for its cash value, and that Deutsche Bank sold 10 tons of their own gold to Central Bank A at the request of the Fed. This swap arrangement is used so no one knows that it is really the Fed that is dumping gold on the market instead of Deutsche Bank. Note that Deutsche Bank's cash position has not changed, as the money it gave the Fed for the gold IOU has been replaced by the proceeds of sale, or perhaps the proceeds from the bullion sale were used to pay the Fed for the gold IOU. In any case, the Fed and Treasury Department still carry the gold bullion backing the 10 ton gold IOU to Deutsche Bank on their books because the gold has been swapped instead of sold (yet another fiction) with a promise to redeem the gold IOU given to Deutsche Bank in the future, or to cough up the gold instead, while Deutsche Bank shows no change in its gold reserves because the Fed IOU for 10 tons of paper gold is now carried instead of its 10 tons of physical gold bullion which was sold to Central Bank A. Deutsche Bank can get away with this because IMF rules do not require central banks to distinguish between physical gold and paper gold on their balance sheets, but allow them to carry both types of gold reserves as one line item. Note that as per our example, the gold is now in an Illuminist crime family's coffers after being "ping-ponged."

Fascinating? Click "Read More" to read the next 4 paragraphs.

favorite quotes

Here are all the quotes that are randomly rotated at the top of my sidebar. I'll update this page every time I add a quote:

"As the desert first teaches men to love water, or as absence first reveals affection there rose up against this background of the sour and the crooked some kind of vision of the sweet and the straight. Something else - something he vaguely called the Normal apparently existed.... But there it was - solid massive, with a shape of its own, almost like something you could touch, or eat, or fall in love with. It was all mixed up with Jane and fried eggs and soap and sunlight and the rooks cawing at Cure Hardy and the thought that, somewhere outside, daylight was going on at that moment." (That Hideous Strength, C.S.Lewis)

"So teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom." (Ps 90:12) 求 你 指 教 我 們 怎 樣 數 算 自 己 的 日 子 、 好 叫 我 們 得 著 智 慧 的 心 。(詩 篇 90:12)

"But we will meet them in battle nonetheless." (Theoden, ROTK)

"... the preposterous truth that all really depended on their actions; and far away in time Horatius stood on the bridge, and Constantine settled in his mind whether he would or would not embrace the new religion, and Eve herself stood looking on the forbidden fruit and the Heaven of Heavens waited on her decision." (That Hideous Strength)

"One joy was expected and another is given. But this I had never noticed before - that the very moment of the finding there is in the mind a kind of thrusting back or setting aside. The picture of the fruit you have not found is still, for a moment, before you. And if you wished ... you could keep it there. You could send your soul after the good you had expected, instead of turning it to the good you had got. You could refuse the real good; you could make the real fruit taste insipid by thinking of the other." (Perelandra)

"Some women assume that child care is mind-numbing, spirit-killing drudgery, and that only work outside the home is fulfilling. These are not necessarily statements that women would come up with spontaneously, in the absence of feminist tutoring....It took me an embarrassingly long time to realize that my two children needed me at home more than they needed anything my income would buy for them. It took even longer for me to realize that placing my intellect at the service of my family was a greater challenge than my ordinary life as a university professor. I had accepted far more feminist premises than I had realized."(Why the Market Can't Raise Our Children for Us, The American Enterprise, May/June 1998)

"If I might lend a machete to your intellectual thicket ... " (Jack Sparrow)

"I never look at you but there's some new virtue born in me, some new courage. Do you begin to understand a little? Can you feel my soul, there in the darkness, breathe on you?" (Cyrano de Bergerac)

"Talent does what it can; genius does what it must." (Edward Bulwer-Lytton)

"The crocodile passed him, but not another living thing, not a sound, not a movement; and yet he knew well that sudden death might be at the next tree, or stalking him from behind. He swore this terrible oath: 'Hook or me this time.' Now he crawled forward like a snake, and again erect, he darted across a space on which the moonlight played, one finger on his lip and his dagger at the ready. He was frightfully happy." (Peter Pan)

"Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremour ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea ... Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, 'To die will be an awfully big adventure.'" (Peter Pan)

"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." (Gandalf)

"... a soul clothed in shining armor, hung with deeds for decorations, twirling--thus--a bristling wit, and swinging at my side courage, and on the stones of this old town making the sharp truth ring, like golden spurs!" (Cyrano de Bergerac)

"... too often, 'as long as we both shall live' is replaced with 'as long as we both shall love.'" (Michael Ross)

"A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day." (Aragorn, ROTK)

"Not well? What is illness to the body of a knight-errant? What matter wounds? For each time he falls, he shall rise again, and woe to the wicked." (Don Quixote, Man of La Mancha) This is the movie, not the book.

"When life hands you a lemon, just suck on that lemon and say, 'Oh, yes, lemons. I love lemons. What else have you got?'" (Henry Rollins)

"My arrogance, sir, extends just as far as my conscience demands." (Chariots of Fire)

"JACK SPARROW: One question about your business, boy, or there's no use going: This girl... how far are you willing to go to save her? WILL TURNER: I'd die for her. JACK SPARROW: Oh good. No worries then."

"RITTER: You are SUCH a Boy Scout! You see everything in black and white! JACK RYAN: No, no, no! Not black and white, Ritter, RIGHT and WRONG!" (Clear and Present Danger)

"Stephen is my name. I'm the most wanted man on my island, except I'm not on my island, of course. More's the pity." (Braveheart)

"BUTTERCUP: We'll never survive. WESTLEY: Nonsense. You're only saying that because no one ever has." (Princess Bride)

"INIGO MONTOYA: .... Let me sum up. Buttercup is marry Humperdinck in a little less than half an hour. So all we have to do is get in, break up the wedding, steal the princess, make our escape... after I kill Count Rugen. WESTLEY: That doesn't leave much time for dilly-dallying." (Princess Bride)

" ... a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again ... " (Proverbs 24:16) 為義人雖七次跌倒 、仍必興起 - 箴言 24:16

"People are not born in an infant-school, anymore than they die in an undertaker's shop." (G. K. Chesterton)

"The weather doesn’t stop drag queens from wearing skirts or dresses; it only stops women." (www.womenandmarriage.org)

"BUTTERCUP: You're the Dread Pirate Roberts, admit it. WESTLEY: With pride. What can I do for you? BUTTERCUP: You can die slowly, cut into a thousand pieces. WESTLEY: Tsk, tsk. That's hardly complementary Highness. Why loose your venom on me? BUTTERCUP: You killed my love. WESTLEY: It's possible. I kill a lot of people." (Princess Bride)

"Now, I know some men are abusers and women will benefit from the ability to stay away from them. But most men don't abuse their wives, never did and never will! I have a wonderful husband, but suppose in theory there's a chance he will abuse me, or walk out on me. Should I invest in career and earn my own income, and be proudly self-supportive? Maybe in a few years indeed some terrible tragedy will happen in our family and I will say, oh, good that at least I have my career to fall back on. However I think it's more probable I'll wake up in twenty years and realize I have given up on my dream of giving my all to my family and living a peaceful life at home - for no good reason... " ("Domestic Felicity" ccostello.blogspot.com)

The choice isn't, "Rules or no rules?" The choice is, "Rules made and enforced by voluntary contractual arrangements, or rules made and enforced by coercive agencies that can't go out of business?" (Robert P. Murphy)  http://mises.org/daily/3946

The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. Tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peace-makers for lack of patriotism and for exposing the country to danger. (Nazi leader Herman Goering)

“Experience hath shown, that even under the best forms of govt, those entrusted with power have, in time, & by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny”—Thomas Jefferson.