A Truck vs. A Shadow

"Would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow?"

It was the 50s, and Donald Grey Barnhouse, a famous bible teacher, had just lost his wife to cancer when she was in her thirties. On the way to the funeral eldest daughter had asked him, "If Jesus died for our sins why do we still die?"

At that moment he looked out the window and saw a truck and its shadow go by. Barnhouse turned to her daughter and asked, "Tell me sweetheart, would you rather be run over by the truck or by its shadow?"

"Well of course by the shadow," she replied, "the truck would hurt but the shadow would not

Barnhouse nodded and said, "That is exactly what Jesus Christ has done for you and for me. The truck of God's judgement went over him, only the shadow of death goes over you and me now. There is nothing to fear."

Jesus didn't just come come to talk, but he came to give true hope.

He didn't talk about coming in another life, but once to die and then judgement.

He came to give us the purpose and meaning in life.

He came to offer a relationship and a bridge, a relationship with God the Father the Son and the Spirit, by having that sin paid for, the sin that is real and that requires true forgiveness.

(Fragments from RZIM, India Vision Q&A by Ravi Zacharias)

"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and belives in me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6)

I want to....More creative writing

Here's a couple more writing exercises that I thought were genius on the grammar 'I want to...' by 8th graders.

The first one is written by a boy called Moue

1. In 2 years, I'm going to be 15 years old.
I want to go to Onahama High School.

2. In 5 years, I'm going to 18 years old.
I want to work at Seven Eleven. (Convenience store)

3. In 7 years, I'm going to be 20 years old.
I want to work at Ministop. (Another convenience store)

4. In 12 years, I'm going to be 25 years old.
I want to get 1000000000000000 yen.

5. In 22 years, I'm going to be 35 years old.
I want to marry Naoya. (His classmate)

6. In 37 years, I'm going to be 50 years old.
I want to change the world.

7. In 47 years, I'm going to be 60 years old.
I want to go to heaven.

8. In 1000 years, I'm going to be 1013 years old.
I want to be reborn.


This is what Naoya wrote:

1. In 2 years, I'm going to be 15 years old.
I want to go to Taira Technical High School.

2. In 5 years, I'm going to 18 years old.
I want to Graduate from Taira Technical High School.

3. In 7 years, I'm going to be 20 years old.
I want to drive.

4. In 12 years, I'm going to be 25 years old.
I want to be a woman.

5. In 22 years, I'm going to be 35 years old.
I want to marry Moue. (boy mentioned above)

6. In 37 years, I'm going to be 50 years old.
I want to die with Moue.

7. In 47 years, I'm going to be 60 years old.
I want to be reborn.

8. In 1000 years, I'm going to be 1013 years old.
I want to be a goddess.


LLLLLOOOOOLLLLLLL

I love my boys.

On The 'Desiring God' Blog

Those who say that 'all religions are true' or 'all religions lead to the same thing' or 'all religions are one' either don't know what the words 'religion' or 'same' or 'true' mean, or they shamelessly make such assumptions and conclusions without actually delving into or even making a slight effort to understand the fundamental basis of said 'religions'.

*I use the word 'religion' here in terms of what the secular world might call religion, although I personally don't think Christianity is in fact defined as 'religion'.

Jesus and Buddha on Happiness
June 19, 2008 | By: Jon Bloom
Category: Commentary

Greatly disturbed by the suffering he saw in the world, 29-year-old Prince Guatama Siddhartha (563-483 BC), who was later called the Buddha (enlightened one), left his wife and young child and set out on a search for the meaning of life.

What struck him was the impermanence of the world—nothing lasted. In spite of this, people were attached to impermanent things. They desired to hold on to life, health, possessions, and each other. But life, health, possessions and people pass away. This, he reasoned, was the cause of human suffering. Therefore, he concluded that if he could kill desire his suffering would cease and he would be happy.

But the Buddha did desire something: lasting happiness. Ironically, it was this great desire that fueled his philosophy of killing desire.

There is a vacuous absence of God in the Buddha’s pursuit of desire-less joy. He didn’t say much about God’s existence. To him, God was irrelevant to human happiness. Rather, happiness was being free from desire-induced suffering and reincarnation. It was the blissful end of individual existence—the sweet annihilation that is Nirvana.

How different are Jesus’ answers from the Buddha’s. When a rich young man, not so different from the rich young Guatama, sought out Jesus’ direction for eternal happiness, Jesus replied,

You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me. (Mark 10:21).

Note that Jesus did instruct the man to become detached from his possessions, but he did not mean a Buddhist detachment. The Buddha taught that nothing lasts, so be attached to nothing. Jesus taught that One Thing lasts, so at all cost, be attached to that!

The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. (Matthew 13:45)

Jesus knows that our desire for happiness is designed by God and so is our desire for permanence. They are not evil. Here is what is evil:

Be appalled, O heavens, at this; be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:12-13)

We are designed to be satisfied with the one eternal, permanent God. Evil is when we believe that God will not satisfy us and therefore pursue happiness in transient things. That’s the essence of sin.

Jesus and the Buddha agree that pursuing happiness in transient things is futile, but they direct us to opposite solutions. The Buddha says satisfaction is treasuring nothing. Jesus says it is treasuring God. In treasuring God we end up receiving all things. In treasuring no thing we end up with, well, nothing.

Which, of course, is why we are not Desiring Nothing Ministries.

Britain's Got Patriotism...?

(This post was written a while ago....but never published it....)

Being in Japan, 6000 miles away from Britain, has not stopped me from following closely to the much talked about Britain's Got Talent (mostly thanks to listening to BBC Radio 1 and keep hearing Susan Boyle this Susan Boyle that...). I absolutely loved it. The whole show. It was brilliant. The range of talents, acts, ages, interests, skin colour...

And I was totally content that Diversity won. They weren't perfect, but Boyle wasn't either. No one is. The point is, Boyle has practically won already, by securing contracts with theatre productions even before the BGT Final. Diversity, if they hadn't won, would have been forgotten by the British public in less than 2 hours after the Final.

Anyway, what caught my attention throughout the whole show wasn't just the talent, but how all the contestants who were interviewed all echoed a common theme: Patriotism. Perhaps not the Oath-taking, flag-saluting, anthem-singing kind, but when asked what it would mean to win the show or get to the royal variety show...etc. almost all said something about how wonderful it would be to perform in front of the Queen; what an honour it would be to sing in front of the Queen, it would be great to perform in front of the Royal Family...whatever the talent, most echoed such similar ambitions, as they marched on to the audition on a stage that was dazzling with Union Jack colours. Commentators as well, saying how wonderful it is to uncover raw home-made British talent from your mother's hometown's local church or community centre etc. Yes I quite agree. Just like the encouragement of consumption of local farm produce is increasingly popular, why shouldn't we encourage more appreciation of more local talent eh?

On TV

During a morning breakfast programme on Japanese TV they showed a few societal statistics and surveys taken from the 1980s all the way to early 21st century, and one of the survey questions was 'How important is religion in life?'

I know the picture isn't very big but in short, the red line (decreasing) illustrates the trend for those who answered 'Very or quite important'. The blue line (increasing) illustrates the trend for 'Not really & not at all important'.

I somehow doubt that the people surveyed had the same idea of 'religion' as the pastor at Taira Church on Sunday did, who said, ' "Religion" is what WE humans have to do in order to be saved; whereas "the Gospel" is what GOD had to do in order for humans to be saved'.