"Condemned one, be brave!..."

Was too tired to post yesterday after the party...

10 Feburary 2007
John of Arcadium...

Today, not many people turned up for training. Most of the juniors turned up, but only a few seniors did the same; only two from Year 2 (including me). So racing 8k along with Joon Sin seemed quite easy. Tsk tsk.

After training, I quickly made my way back home, washed up, ate a quick lunch and went out again to John's house for his birthday party. I didn't really know his address, so I had to deduce which house he lived in based on prior knoledge. So it went something like this:

1) John lived near Nanyang.
Ans: Go to Coronation area.

2) At John's house warming, I remember that the house was plainly designd, unlike the other half of the area which was urbanly designed.
Ans: Go to the area with plain houses.

3) John once mentioned about the fact that since he lives near cross junctions, he heard 7 accidents in just his first month of stay.
Ans: Go check the houses within cross junction.

4) After parking the car, my family entered the house for the house warming through a side walkway on the right of the house.
Ans: Limit the houses to those at left turns, facing the direction of the houses themselves.

5) For the buffet at the house warming, the buffet items were on the parkway, and we had to eat at the garden a couple of meters higher than the parkway.
Ans: Look for the house with a parkway and a garden held a couple of meters or so higher.

Once I found the house with the most desired traits, I nervously pressed the bell and asked if I was correct. And so I was! Hooray! Welcomed in by a concerned maid, I was told to go up the stairs to find the rest of the people. So I walked up the stairs and lo and behold, the full crewwas there! It took some time for John to recognise me, I guess, but when I entered the glass-walled study room, everyone saw me and welcomed me with shouts of "Miggy!"s. I shook a few hands and then watched as they resumed their games on their computers. Apparently, they all brought their Tablet PCs along with them and were playing all the different games I've learnt of from them and games which I've yet to understand. So for the next 4 or so hours, I;
a) Watched the others play their games.
b) Read an Archie Comic that was apparently standing on one of the desks.
c) Borrowing one of the computers to look around in the internet.
d) Practicing the piano with one of the pianos downstairs.
e) Watching most of the other guys try to torture Kevin with the ways of the Ninja.

While I was doing c), I decided to look into other people's blogs. It was then that I saw another one of Tim's emotional posts about feeling quite miserable. Turns out that one of the causes of the misery was none other than a question I posted in my blog. The question about dieing in front of my friends. He answered his version of the question, and felt very doubtful of himself, thinkinhg that no one would go forward to save him.

Then I found out that before it reached Tim, it went to Ben's blog! I checked it out and saw how he responded. Said he was shocked to see me type something like that, but I guess he took the question the right way round. I never realised how philosophical the question could actually get. I always saw it in the point of the victim, I never realised how it'd have lloked like from the point of the victim's friend. But now, I say that I shouldn't be bothered with the question AT ALL! God has a plan for me, whether in good times or in bad ones, and no question of how my death would be like is gonna stop me from believing that! God has truely blessed me with such good friends and I will not doubt that as long as God reigns, which is FOREVAH!!! AMEN!!!

So coming back to the party, after the four hours, dinner arrived! We all rushed down to grab the stuff we ordered. On the box was the phrase, 'This stall is highly recommended'. Ironically;
I. The fries weren't even salty. You can't even call them fries! They're just sticks of potatoes deep fried in oil to be made just as unhealthy as the real thing.
II. They poured baked beans all over the food. I understand that in a take-away, they ussually mix up the elements to make good use of space. But please! There are some foods that do not, or cannot, require the mixing with beans!
III. The beef is so tough. Now, we all know that beef IS suppose to be tough, but THIS is ridiculous! I mean... nevermind. Aik Leng is having fun with the meat already...

After a quick dinner, they all quickly rushed upstairs again, just to continue playing a few more rounds of gaming. Then I was suppose to go soon, so they brought the cake-cutting event earlier. We first had photo taking, followed by singing Happy Birthday, cutting the cake, eating the cake, eating more of the cake and finally running back upstairs to play more. Ah, well. By the time I got back home, it was 11 in the evening, so i quickly Knozzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...................

11 Feburary 2007
"Condemned one, be brave!..."

Today, my Mom and I wern't suppose to go to church today - Dad reaffirmed the once-in-a-fortnight rule again - but Mom, somehow by the Grace of God, convinced him to let us go today and let us not go next week. Praise the Lord...

Today's sermon was about condemnation and how it can destroy, and even kill, us.

To put things simple, let's imagine you and your bestest best friend meet up and the both of you decide to go for a movie or two the next day. After agreeing, you decide to borrow money from your friend for 'personal' reasons, giving him a garuntee that you'd pay him back when you see each other again tomorrow, and so he/she willingly gives you the money. Besides, the amount of money is good enough for one movie ticket, so once you give him/her back the money, he/she can pay it straight for his/her ticket. But somehow in themiddle of the night, you 'misplaced' the money. You know that for your own reasons you can't pay him back an so you start to panick.

On the day of the movie, you decide not to go in fear that you'd be reprimanded by your friend. But after 10 minutes of the arranged meeting time, your friend calls you up, asking for where you are. You painfully tell him the truth, and expect your friend to yell back at you. But instead, he/she says, "Don't worry, lah! I cover everything oledi! Now can we watch the movie?" Knowing that you've been forgiven, and that you don't have to pay back, you agree to come for the next movie.

When the both of you meet up, your friend still offers to pay for the tickets, the snacks and even the lunch that was by now an hour off schedule. But throughout the movie, you keep feeling guilty that you made your friend loose out in $___.__. Time after time, you tell your friend that you really feel that you should pay him backand you try to give him all that you can give for the time being, but he/she persists and demands that you just sit back and enjoy the show.

Now, in the same way, we've all got to agree that we've one way or another cheated on our trust with God. And many a times we think that God hates us for what we've done and is far from forgiving our actions. We may think that an action that we've done could have been more insultive to God than others and try to run away from God as you can tell He'd have His revenge on you. But that is so not His way. Instead, He used His only Son, sinless and pure, just to pay up for what we needed to suffer. And in the end, we all enjoy each other's presence with the Lord and manifest in His fruitful blessings.

But then condemnation comes along to try to make you look down at yourself, saying that you're unworthy of the blessings that God has prepared for you after doing _____ or ______. As such, if you believe the condemnation, you end up panicking and stop enjoying the things God places in front of you. The truth is, if we we so perfect that we could avoid doing the 'bad actions' by ourselves, 1) Jesus died for nothing and 2) God's grace would be for nothing. Through God's grace, Jesus died on the cross to pay the devil all the sufferings man deserved, deserves and will deserve, so that once paid, sin has no rights to condemn you anymore, and so you have nothing to worry about the next time you 'sin'. Just remember that a) it was paid for already, b) all you have to do is believe it was paid for already and c) sit back, relax and enjoy the life God is about to reward you with.

Scriptures to refer to:
2 Corinthains 5:17-21
Romans 4:13-16
Hebrews 10:1-4/11-14