Maybe it's Maybelline.

Or maybe it's reverse culture shock.

Or maybe it's just stress.

Out of all the times I came back to visit HK, I've never felt so stressed by the city itself.

Perhaps its the 3 construction sites surrounding the apartment.

Perhaps its the humidity causing my hair to be constantly frizzy.

Perhaps its the gloomy cloudy wet cool weather making it difficult to choose what to wear everyday.

Or perhaps its how there are so many people, how so many of them seem so impatient and rude and loud and angry.

Or perhaps its how everything seems so crammed and crowded and suffocating and never-stopping.

I'm not saying I don't love HK anymore. But I am definitely looking forward to going back to Japan.

...when I am weak, he is strong...

I'm only guessing that that can be applied to my week.

It's been a hectic and stressful and tiring week. The stress of certain tasks, people, places have been negatively affecting my Christmas spirit-ness.

And there was only one line that played over and over in my mind...

"For when I am weak, then I am strong." 2 Cor 12:10

Fire

Report in last week's Taira Christ Gospel Church bulletin

On Sunday December 13th, at about 11:30pm after everyone went home from the evening service, a fire started in the kitchen of Mrs Nomura's house, only 3 metres away from the church's worship area (chapel). Shortly after, the propane gas cylinder in her kitchen exploded. The fire immediately spread to the church's chapel. [...]

3 single men were living in the church building when the fire started next door. Brother Hayashi was asleep, whereas the other two had not slept yet. Brother Hayashi, who was woken up by the noise of the explosion, thought someone was making noise and causing trouble in the chapel. Just as he went downstairs to check, Mr. Igari was coming out of the prayer room, and the two saw the window all red with fire, and went outside and saw the house next door all up in flames. Brother Hayashi called 119 at 11:57am, and at 12:00am called Pastor Mori's house. He quickly went back up to the second floor and escaped with Mr. Saito. The three men were completely fine and not at all injured.

When the firefighters arrived at the scene, Mrs. Nomura's house was in great flames, and any amount of water to put out the fire was useless. Pastor Mori got to the scene at 12:07am, and couldn't help but simply watch the church go up in flames. The fire was finally put out at about 2:30am, and the three men were moved to Pastor Mori's house.

The next day, from about 8am onwards, many people, from church members to pastors and members of other churches, and even non-christians came to see the situation at the church - a total of about 20 people. They broke through the barriers set up by the firefighters and immediately started clearing up the place. [...]

Even though the firefighters had tried to put out the fire for 2 and a half hours, most of the church was burned. The prayer room and the pastor's office on the 1st floor were the only rooms that weren't burnt. The kitchen wasn't burnt either, but the gas caused great damage.

Unfortunately, Mrs. Nomura's body was found. But by the grace of God none of the church members were hurt. As you may know, the church building's foundations has been sinking ever since the big block of flats behind it was built; and it's already no surprise that the floor has been slowly coming off due to moisure and mould. [...]

The church has fire insurance, and all the equipment also has insurance on it, so it is expected that we will get money from both insurance parties for this fire incident. And this is how God will give us the church a new chapel. Pastor Mori feels that God is strongly pushing on our backs and pushing us to move forwards. Us as a church should repent for those things we need repentence for, stand firm in most holy faith, pray fervently by the Spirit, wait eagerly for God's love and for Christ himself, and believe that we will be raised up in our thirst for Him.


(There were some bits I didn't quite know how to translate..but I made sure I did all the important stuff.)

(Also, prayers will be much appreciated. Thanks.)

In love with the Buble

Having been cut off from the world (aka internet) for a week, I spent most of today catching up with the 3 most important things of the week - in no particular order - Email, Facebook, and The X Factor.

And that was how I found my dream man type - Michael Buble. Wow. His performance with Stacey Solomon can make anyone melt. He was so graceful and just so nice and so smooooooth.





And then so I decided to youtube his other videos...






SWOOOOOOOOOON

....and last but not least.....!!

I JUST realised I forgot to mention the most IMPORTANT thing that should come at the end of my last post - God promises restoration!! How silly of me to forget. (And yes I apologise there's even more to my long-winded post)

At ANY point in the Bible where God says he'll bring disaster and destruction, it is always accompanied by the promise of restoration and healing. Continuing with Ezekiel 20:40-44 which basically says: One day, Israel will turn back to God and serve Him; and God will accept them as a lovely aroma and bring them back from where they are scattered (where they don't belong); and they will know that He is the Lord, as He brings them back to the land that He promised to their forefathers. And there they will be sorry for the horrible stuff that they did, and know that He is the true God.

Also in Jeremiah 32:36-41 (which I used a few posts earlier) which basically says: God will gather them back into their land and keep them safe; He will give them one heart and be with them and do them good and put the fear of God in them for their own good so that they won't turn away and do stupid things again. And God will rejoice over them and plant them with all His heart and soul!!

His promises and grace (which we don't deserve) outweigh his wrath and anger (which we do deserve) so much that we really have no reason to argue that God is some kind of a killing machine. Furthermore, Skeptics and atheists always selectively pick out such revelations of justice and retribution in the Bible whilst ignoring the big picture into which it fits and by which it gains its purpose.

The 'bloody' Old Testament

I came across this blog post titled "How Many Has God Killed? (Complete list and estimated total)" on some random blog which reminded me of a post that I wrote (but never finished & published) a few months back.

I think the question raised is not the right one - the question we should be asking is WHY has God killed so many? If you read through the Old Testament it is indeed pretty bloody and one might even ask did God really order all this 'genocide' on his own people Israel and the surrounding nations?


Israel - God's chosen nation

Israel was the chosen nation. But why? God chose this tiny nation that was bullied by all its neighboring super powers. Yet it was his little maiden of his eye. unmerited love from God.
Ezekiel 16:1-14 - Basically says this: Israel was just like a helpless little baby girl who was forgotten and looked down upon and not repected. But God took her into his arms, took care of her, fed her, helped her grow up, taught her how to live, lavished her with clothing and jewels and perfumes and expensive things. She became very beautiful - she "grew up and developed and became the most beautiful of jewels". All because of what God did and not because Israel was worth it.


The proportion of the blessing was even greater than proportion of judgment

In the bible, whenever people followed God's laws and ways and loved him and listened to him (which wasn't very often), they lived peacefully (which wasn't very often). Skeptics and people who try to denounce the Bible because of its violence often don't see (or deliberately ignore) the overflowing richness of God's blessings and mercy.

Ezekiel 20:6-22 basically says this: The Lord promised to bring them out of Egypt (where they were being enslaved and treated nastily) to a land of their own, and land 'flowing with milk and honey' (i.e. abundantly rich), and He told them to rid themselves of idols and vile images (images that turned people's attention away from God). But they didn't. They continued to make and worship ugly things and idols that did not please God (and they knew that God didn't like that stuff perfectly well but they did it anyway). And so God said that He's not going to tolerate this crap and said he'd pour out his anger and destroy this poeple. BUT He didn't. He spared them out of love and mercy. And He rescued them out of Egypt anyway. And whilst in the desert God provided food and things they needed and laws to live by (so they won't feel lost and know what's good for them and won't argue with each other), but they still rebelled against Him in the desert by not following his decrees and rejecting his laws and made idols. And so God said that He's not going to tolerate this crap and said he'd pour out his anger and destroy this poeple. BUT He didn't. He spared them out of love and mercy. (Do you begin to see a pattern here?) He looked on them with pity and did not destroy them or put an end to them in the desert. So he told their children to be good and keep his laws, unlike their fathers who have gone bad. But these kids also rebelled and went nuts. And so God said that He's not going to tolerate this crap and said he'd pour out his anger and destroy this poeple. BUT He didn't. He spared them out of love and mercy.

To God who loved and cherished Israel so much to regard her as the most precious jewel in His eyes, it must hurt Him so much to see her being so rebellious and ungrateful. The ultimate tragedy is her rejection of His power and love and mercy, not the loss of life.


God (basically) said, "when you follow me, you will be blessed; when you turn away, you will be cursed." (Deuteronomy 28)

The judgment and horrific loss of life must always been seen under this context reality (of Deut 28), i.e. the reality of such literal, such dramatic manifestation of God's promise. When the demonstration of God's miracles and blessings and presence is so dramatic and powerful, then the curses of God's judgement must also be as terrible. Death is a grim reminder of the nature of sin - horrific, despised, feared.

God revealed CLEARLY his laws and decrees to his people. Thus when they deliberately choose to reject his revelations, they didn't have the right to complain of what of dramatic judgement.
"To whom much is given, much shall be required" - Luke 12:48.

Skeptics and athiests often misunderstand the meaning of a "perfect God" that Christians talk about and thus aren't able to accept a God that seems to endorse killing and sends disasters to innocent people. A perfect God does NOT mean an all-tolerating God. A perfect God must reign with perfect justice and justice involves getting punished for wrongdoings according to the framework of absolute laws - laws that only a perfect God can impose.

God is The Absolute
When we take a life, we are wrong cos we can't restore it, but God can. He is the maker of absolutely everything and the ruler of absolutely everyone, and thus has the absolute rights of ownership over all people and places.

As living beings we can never really understand death, but God does. But we can know that death has its tragedy but also amazing hope if we put our faith in Him. To the believer, God gives hope and confidence to pull us through in the face of death.

Define Majestic

On the way to Yamanaka-ko, going through Yamanashi prefecture, we said hello to Mr. Fuji. He was naked without his usual visage of clouds. And he looked grand. Majestic, even. Good thing I went on a highway bus and not in a car with fellow foreigners who probably would have been captivated by Fuji and not looked at the road and crashed us. And I would have prbably died. Again. So THANK GOD (AGAIN) THAT I DIDN'T DIE or else I wouldn't have been able to write this post. :D

Yamanaka-ko (lake) is one of the Fuji Five Lakes (Fujigoko), an area located at the base of north Fuji in Yamanashi Prefecture. The name Fuji Five Lakes comes from the fact that there are five lakes formed by previous eruptions of Fuji.

And when I go back to Yamanashi again, it will be to ride this. And 2 other similarly whopping massive roller-coasters. YES.

(These photos were taken by my mobile)