Shanghai Community Fellowship (SCF) is on it’s second round of offering Alpha courses for new believers in Christ and share the gospel to unbelievers as well. The course’s objective is to tell people about the basics of Christianity, tell them who Jesus is and why He matters, and enjoy the company of new friends, over a rich discussion of Christianity issues, purpose of life and tasty food!

Alpha, means beginning and for this effort it also means…

A – Anyone is invited to join the course. (Well, in Shanghai, or may I say in China, only foreign passport holders are allowed to join unmonitored Church services.)

L – Learning and Laughter. It is possible to learn about the Christian faith and have fun at the same time.

P – Pasta and pudding. Eating a meal together gives people an opportunity to get to know each other

H – Helping one another. The small group gives you  a chance to discuss issues raised in the talks.

A – Ask anything. Alpha is a place where no question is regarded as too simple or too hostile.

So, why join Alpha? A while ago, Pastor Dale of SCF raise an important idea, an idea that kept me thinking and reflecting life on this world. He said…

“Whether you’re a Christian or not, we have never experienced a life without God. But if we try to imagine a world without God, it must be really so bad, that even God decided to care about you and me, that He is willing to give up His Son to die in my place so that I don’t have to suffer the same consequence.”

Come to think about it, if God is not in every detail of our lives everyday, how would our lives be? What will happen to the air we breath, our food, our environment, our health, people around us? Actually, how would the earth exist? A world without God is unimaginable, I guess it will be so difficult that even the description of hell is not enough to describe it.

The Bible said…

For God so love the world, that He gave His only Son that who so ever believes in Him, shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16

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

So how do we live with God in our lives and be saved?

ABCs of being saved

Accept: Accept that even with all our efforts to be perfectly holy, we fall short of the glory of God. Accept that we need God’s forgiveness.

Believe: That God’s gift of grace can only be realized by believing in Jesus Christ. He is the right person to talk to, as He is the way, the truth and the life.

Confess: Jesus is the leader of your life. You’ve let go of your sinful nature, as Jesus is now on the driver seat. You are a new creature, the old has gone, and the new has come.

A place without God is an unimaginable place that we don’t want to be. Learn about Christianity, it’s our relationship with Jesus, with God is our only way to be saved. Christianity does not offer you a set of rules to follow, it offers you total forgiveness, direct relationship with your creator, wisdom, and grace. Christianity is not about what you have to do, but about what has already done for you. You don’t want to be in a place where God isn’t, so think about it, be where Jesus is.

Opinion: Why Google has lost its mojo -- and why you should care

Another technology blog...

I just feel that I have to say something about it because I am in the technology industry, most specifically web.

I think it would be best of everyone, the advertisers, the people, and everybody else for Google to lose some shares to Microsoft or Yahoo. Yes, Google is good, but if it controls the advertising industry too much, the advertisers will be on the losing end. They will have the power to ask for more money and other companies are there just keep on trying. What I am saying here is that, Microsoft Windows is already ruling our desktops, we don't need another Windows that rules the Internet.

Don't get me wrong, I would never use another operating system apart from Windows, but the internet? It's suppose to be open and free for everyone. So, all the ambitious search engines there! It's your time to shine now that some people think that Google is starting to mature and become ordinary. Microsoft! Let's go and grab a big bite on that cookie!

I know nothing, except what everyone knows – if there when Grace dances, I should dance. – W.H. Auden.

I’ve finished reading Philip Yancey’s “What’s so Amazing about Grace?” and I am very thankful to my cousin who gave the book to me. To anyone who reads this blog, I would like to share a little reflection about every chapter in the next few weeks/months.

I am directly quoting Yancey’s book here to tell a story on how people today look at the Church, and Christians.

A prostitute came to me in wretched straits, homeless, sick, unable to buy food for her two-year-old daughter. Through sobs and tears, she told me she had been renting out her daughter – two years old! – to men interested in kinky sex. She made more renting out her daughter for an hour than she could earn on her own in a night. She had to do it she said, to support her own drug habit. I could hardly bear hearing her sordid story. For one thing, it made me legally liable – I’m required to report cases of child abuse. I had no idea what to say to this woman.

At last I asked if she had ever thought of going to church for help. I will never forget the look of pure, naive shock that crossed her face. “Church!” she cried. “Why would I ever go there? I was already feeling terrible about myself. They’d just make me feel worse.”

So this is what happened to us, Christians after Jesus Christ ascended to heaven. Jesus, while He was here approached everyone including prostitutes. Jesus was giving grace, but it seems like we, as Christians today, forgot about the most important contribution of Christianity – Grace.

Gordon MacDonald said, “The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You don’t need to become a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace.” As Yancey put it… the world is thirsting for grace, but where can it find it?

What’s wonderful in this book is that Yancey did not try to give a definition of grace. Instead, he showed us instances where grace should have been put into practice. He explained how God the Father, Jesus showed Grace to us, and explained the reason why we should give grace. Yancey’s book will put your thoughts into proper orientation in an attempt to make giving grace a habit and an ordinary task in your lives.

It seems weird that you will be seeing a technology blog on my page but today, I decided to blog about work. By the way, do anybody know I am a web developer? and that the browser you are using affects my work. Yes, you heard me right.

Netscape is the first browser in the world. People were using Netscape and just Netscape until Microsoft came in, bundled IE into their flagship operating system Windows. So, Netscape died, Mozilla Firefox was borned, and then Safari, Opera, Camino, and all the other browsers I might not have known. Basically, IE and Firefox are the 2 major browsers used in the world.

IE6 was quiet good compared to Firefox 1.0 but as Firefox release version 2.0, Microsoft lagged behind Mozilla’s technology. Firefox has been increasingly fast, reliable, safe, and stable while IE looks old, slow, buggy, insecure. Then, there was IE 7.0 which breaks some IE6 sites, and breaks some Firefox 2.0 site, but IE7.0 keeps IE at par with Firefox 2.0, however, Firefox 2.0 is still undeniably faster and more stable.

…and then IE 8 beta came out yesterday. It broke IE 7 sites, although it provided a way to render sites using IE 7 engine (which is no use for me as a developer) Microsoft is boasting of Developer tools that comes with IE 8 that will make life of web developers like me easier. But as I am thinking about it, it would actually make my life easier if IE 8 is completely compatible with Firefox 3.0, IE7.0, and if I am lucky IE6.

Imagine after IE8 comes out, we will be supporting IE8, IE7, IE6, Firefox 2.0 and Firefox 3.0. There are no problems with Firefox as 2.0 and 3.0 are quite compatible and I haven’t seen any breaking changes, but IE…it’s terrible!

So people, understand our work! We create websites for you to visit and enjoy. We create websites for advertisements and information. Always try to upgrade to the latest browsers available, so the old ones will be phased-out and we don’t have to worry about them anymore or as we move forward, more and more browsers will have to be supported and developer’s time will be spent on compatibility issues instead of new innovations.

To be fair, BROWSERS!!!! FIREFOX, and Internet Explorer!!! Can you just talk about it and use one engine? What the people want is just a stable, reliable, fast, and light-weight browser. We don’t actually care which company does it. For you to differentiate yourself, add features but leave the engine alone!

my work is all about browsers…

Why is the Mona lisa a priceless painting? Because Leonardo Da Vinci signed his name on it. It is what sets it apart from the other paintings.

We have a signature on ourselves as well. Our worth is not determined by our boss, our money, our physical appearance but by our maker, our creator – God. The signature in us that differentiates us from others is… “In Christ Jesus”, it sets us apart, and it’s God’s signature that you are cleanse with Jesus’ blood and you are perfected in grace by faith.

Awesome.

Create one yourself and ping me! :) http://www.wordle.net

Just this Wednesday, I feel so uncertain about my life and my future. Today, my devotion is about God’s faithfulness.

Psalm 71:3 Be to me a rock of refuge, to which I may continually come; you have given the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

The author continued by saying… Nobody really knows what’s going to happen in the future. Nobody can’t predict the future, but we can make the same call as Moses did in Psalm 90. If you are living a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, you can know that God will be there in your future, whatever it holds.

Lord, friends come and friends go, but You are always there. I praise You for Your faithfulness. No matter what happens to me, Your love is enough to comfort me. That’s awesome, Lord!

God made, Adam bit, Noah arked, Abraham split, Jacob fooled, Jospeh rules, Bush talked, Moses balked, Pharaoh plagued, People walked, Sea divided, Tablets guided, Promised landed, Saul freaked, David peeked, Prophets warned, Jesus born, God walked, Love talked, Anger crucified, Hope died, Love rose, Spirit flamed, Word spread, God remained. – Author, unknown.

I love this chapter from Philip Yancey's "What's so Amazing about Grace?"

It builds on the idea in the Old Testament which follows a ladder of hierarchy that separated common people from God, this one is not based on prestige but on "cleanness" or "holiness". People cannot just enter the house of God without cleansing themselves, and only the Highest priest can go into a special place where they say God resides.

When Jesus came to the world and died for our sins, He has canceled the "No Oddballs allowed" principle of the Old Testament and replaced it with a new rule of grace. "We're all oddballs, but God loves us, anyhow."

In actuality, the principle still lives but Jesus gave everyone a direct way to talk to God. His death broke down the temple barriers, dismantling the dividing walls of hostility that had separated categories of people.

Two ways Jesus' revolution of grace should affect us..

1. It affects our access to God.

We need not to approach God by a ladder of hierarchy, anxious about cleanliness issues. If God's kingdom had a "No oddballs allowed" sign posted, none of us could get in. Jesus came to demonstrate that a perfect and holy God welcomes pleas for help from a widow with two mites and a Roman centurion and a miserable publican and a thief on a cross. We need only call out "Abba" or failing that, simply groan. God has come that close.

2. It affects how I view "different" people.

We should be like a sun, extending grace to everybody around us, instead of being around forcing people to become like us. We're not perfect but Jesus gave us grace, that's what we should extend and contribute to everybody else who haven't known Jesus.

I was reading through the blog of Pastor Rusty, and I was really blessed and I decided to write my own definition of grace base on what I learned from my pastor and the book I’ve been reading recently (What’s so Amazing about Grace? by Philip Yancey)

Philip Yancey briefly describes grace as something that sets apart Christianity from the world. In a world where an eye for an eye is the rule, Christianity brings in an ideology where God has atoned all of our sins, done and haven’t done through the sacrificial death of the Son of Man who in God’s eyes never sinned, to take our place and bring us back to God.

Grace, a word that cannot be completely defined as a the real meaning of the word might escape its definition. To give you an idea of what it means, is that a man without doing anything can be loved, a man after offending another party can be forgiven, a country after killing a lot of the other country’s people was forgiven, and I, who commit small and big sins everyday can be saved and brought back to God without punishment.

I can always remember Pastor Peter Tanchi saying that God has already forgiven us and he always reminds me that God loves me period. He will never have to love me more, because he can never love me less. God loves me, that’s the bottomline. That’s what grace is, I know I don’t deserve God’s love, I know I am a sinner but I also understand that Jesus died for me on the cross and because of that all of my sins are forgiven and I am now deserving in God’s eye. I am deserving not because of my own effort and deeds but because God decided to atone my sins through another person. I am joyful because of this, God has gave me confidence and assurance that it will be good for me for all eternity.

It feels weird to receive something from a friend without giving something back, right? For example, in a Christmas party, an unexpected friend gives you a gift but you haven’t prepared anything for him. It’s a natural human instinct to make excuses and later on give that friend something for the sake of saying we were able to return a favor. I am like this. What else if I did something bad and someone forgave me without asking me anything in return. I would voluntarily do it! I think that’s what’s responding to grace is all about. We receive something we don’t deserve so we feel that we need to do something. We have a voice inside us saying that we want to extend God’s grace to other people and help God establish His Kingdom on earth, follow His commandments, and continuously build a relationship with Him.

Grace. Everytime I think about this word, I feel blessed that God is merciful and He allowed my sins to be forgiven and my sorrows be taken away. Grace.

Maybe a year ago (2007) in MOA Bowling Center :) These were the days!

*nung pwede pang mapagkamalang payat si marbee at medyo mas maputi pa ako

You can skip everything below the “-----------------------“ but here are the most important things…

Philippians 1:6-7 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Joy is the by-product of a Christ-Centered mind set. Confidence in the goodness of God, and that God will continue and complete His good work.

Philippians 1:21-23 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Joy is the by-product of focusing on Jesus and always putting Him first. Such that, we count everything that leads to being with Him as gain.

Philippians 2:5 Have this attitude in yourself which is also in Christ Jesus.

Joy is the by-product of becoming like Christ. Learning to resolve conflicts through humility. Eliminating self-centeredness and putting others first.

Joy is the by-product of serving others. We have received the grace from God and we are joyful to share this grace to other people. We didn’t deserve His mercy, but He sent His son to die on the cross and redeem all of us.

Joy is the by-product of holy living.

Joy is the by-product of humility.

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Christ Commission Fellowship (CCF) with Pastor Peter Tanchi started a series to study the Book of Philippians. This book is all about “JOY” and how Christians should act in the midst of joy stealers.

Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I say rejoice.

The book of Philippians reflects that we have a joyful God and it is also evidently spread across the Bible. John 15:11 says, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”

Genesis says that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Isaiah 65:18 says that God made us for joy, for gladness. That’s why we have to understand the heart of God to understand joy.

I mentioned what are joy stealers in my introduction, but what are they?

1. Wrong thinking – if we believe in lies, this will steal from us our joy.

Pastor Peter gave a personal example. He said, during Father’s day, his children always greet her Happy Father’s day. However, during this year one of her daughter after moving the US forgot greeting her. He was a bit grumpy during the day, of course being a father it feels a little bit depressing for your children to forget you once they started having a successful and comfortable independent lives. Instead of being grumpy, he prayed about it and just enjoyed the company of his family. The next day, her daughter sent a text message to him to greet him happy father’s day. It turns out that the Philippines is day ahead of the US so his daughter didn’t actually forget but it was just not Father’s day in the US the time it was Father’s day in the Philippines.

If Pastor Peter kept on thinking about why his daughter did not greet him, it would have destroyed his father’s day with his family.

2. People
3. Circumstances

Some people are just negative. Some circumstance are just too against what we want to happen. Always remember, God uses people and circumstance for our good. Don’t fail to pray about good and bad things that happen in our lives to understand the heart of God.

4. Self-Centeredness

5. Worries

Why do we worry? Because we don’t know how to play “Spritual Basketball”. According to Pastor Peter Tanchi, Spiritual Basketball is passing all our worries to God and trusting Him to bring all of it to the goal. But how do we usually play “Spiritual Basketball”, we pass the ball to Jesus in our prayers but we ask for the worries back and worry the whole day, the whole month, year, or maybe our lifetime. We don’t trust Him completely. This grabs us of our joy.

Believe that God will provide. Believe in God’s perfect provision.

6. Conflicts

Conflicts are natural but conflicts can work both ways. Devil loves conflicts because conflicts can divide churches, families, and friends. We should resolve conflict through humility. We should not let our pride keep us from accepting our mistakes and listening to what other people will say.

Philippians 1:6-7 For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

This verse reminds that real joy is focusing our belief, our hope, our goals on what will certainly happen in the future. It reminds us that God is good and He has started a good work in our lives, and He promised that He will continue doing so until Jesus Christ comes back.

I like this poem shared by Pastor Peter Tanchi about different levels of happiness.

If you want to be happy for 1 hour, take a nap.
If you want to be happy for a day, go fishing.
If you want to be happy for 3 months, go get married.
If you want to be happy for a lifetime, go help others.
If you want to be happy forever, go follow Jesus.

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Philippians 1:21-23 says… For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. But if I am to live in the flesh, this will mean fruitful albor for me; and I do not know which to choose. But I am hard pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better.

We should always keep this in mind… that to live is Christ and to die is gain. If we change the reason of living into anything else, it is where our problems begin. For example,

For me, to live is money and to die… means leaving it all behind.
For me, to live is fame and to die… means being forgotten.
For me, to live is power, to die… means to lose it all.
For me, to live is Christ, to die is gain. To die is to be with the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Joy is the by-product of serving others.

1. Respond to God’s grace.
2. Refuse to grumble.

Responding to God’s grace means we have to work-out our salvation. Keep in mind that the Bible uses the word, work-out and not work for. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our salvation and we just need to humble ourselves, accept that we are sinners, and we are saved by grace. But the Bible is also saying that we should work-out our salvation.

Pastor Peter Tanchi puts the difference between working out and working for this way… If you tell me that you will go to the gym to work-out, I will assume that you have a body to work-out. How would you work-out without a body? You can’t! You can’t work-out something you don’t have. Salvation is something we already gained the time we accept Jesus as our Lord and savior but we have to work-out our salvation.

The proof that we have really accepted God’s grace is our response to grace. You cannot depend on grace alone. You cannot be passive. You cannot be godly if you don’t work it out. It is the power of grace that makes you work for your salvation. In 1 Corinthians 15:10, Paul is saying that he is against God and Christians before he was changed. So after he was changed, he does the work of God not because of his own, but because of the grace of God. He received something he doesn’t deserve and it is in our human instincts to give back. This is the proof that we have completely understood what God’s grace means.

Again, we don’t have to work for our salvation. There is nothing we can do to make God love us more, because God loves us. He will never love us less, or more depending on what we’ll do for Him.

Refusing to grumble… Philippians 2:14-15

We have to refuse to grumble because by doing this we become the light of the universe. Grumbling and being joyful are exact opposites. So if we want to become really joyful, we have to refuse grumbling. The moment you start grumbling, you are like saying God, I don’t trust You. Do we want to say that? NO!

Fix your eyes on Jesus – He is the author and perfecter of Faith. He has began a good work with you and he will continue and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.

I congratulate anyone who read until this point. I hope that I was able to convey the messages of the book of Philippians to you as Pastor Peter Tanchi have blesed me through his messages. If you have any comments or questions, feel free to leave a note and it would really be great if we can discuss it. :D

Below the Surface

Psalm 92:5-6 How great are your works, O Lord! Your thoughts are very dept. The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this.

The article is talking about bacteria. We hate bacteria because it causes most of our disease but what we don’t usually remember is that 92% to 94% of these bacteria is in the soil and below the surface. They’re eating up junk and making the soil rich enough to support plants on the surface.

Come to think of it…God created every little detail in this planet and He never missed even a little. He is great God, He thinks about things that we humans can never imagine. We are blessed everyday.

That’s true not only in the world of nature but also in God’s work in human lives. Most of God’s work is done deep within us – in the unseen decisions, interests, motives. It is through His invisible Spirit that He gives us new spiritual life when He moves us to put faith in His Son. And Jesus. Without Him, without His work in our lives, we would be dead physically and spiritually.

Come to think of it, if we look into the microscope, we’ll see God’s majestic work in our lives. When God looks into a microscope and check our lives, what will He see?

World-View shopping

Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. (John 14:6)

Even with all the world-views around how to be happy, how to look young, what matters most is our relationship with God. This relationship will bring us joy, peace, patience, love, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. What is true will always always always remain true even if nobody believes it.

Music Therapy

Psalm 30:11-12 You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; you have loosed my sackcloth and cloth me with gladness, that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent…

This article is saying… “If you have a song in your heart sing it!”

I like what the hymnwriter named William Cowper wrote:

Sometimes a light surprises the Christian while he sings,
It is the Lord who rises with healings in His wings;
When comforts are declining He grants the soul again
A season of clear shining to cheer it after rain.

I am excitedly waiting for Sunday every week, because it is the time I can be together with a Christian community singing praises to Jesus, to God. This week, I have to miss church again as I have to visit the hospital later. I am sick.

The comment of Erica made me smile. She answered the question in my previous post with a direct "I don't know." Come to think of it, when I reflect back 2 months ago and think about life, I cannot remember anything very important that needs to be hurried. And it seems that when you ask yourself "Why was I in a hurry last month, last year, 2 years ago?" You will not remember why you always feel that you are in a hurry.

I think we live in a an instant world, we want everything to happen in a second. We want fast trains, we classify roads to fast-lane and slow-lanes, and we choose to drive on the fast one. We love fast food, instant coffee, instant noodles, instant messaging and so on. In fact, we love them so much that we're losing the essence of being. We lose the essence of why are exist, and why God created us.

Read the book of Philippians and be conscious how many times "Rejoice", "Joy" and other synonyms of that word has been mentioned. We are created by a joyful God, and you can see that in His creation. Flowers are colorful, a lot of animals are lovely, cuddly, and funny, the sky is blue, the waters are clear. God loves us. But because we are in always in a hurry, we don't get to chew our food well, we don't appreciate the blue skies anymore, we don't notice the small details in our everyday life.

In the book "The Life You've always Wanted", John Ortberg explained that most of us have the "Hurry-Sickness" We're always in a hurry, that we forget to be joyful. We miss our time with God, we miss our time to rejoice in God's creation. We are so preoccupied with everything in this world that we lose touch with the most important connection we have to make -- our lives and God's.

The book suggests to eliminate Hurry-Sickness, but in today's world, how?

Just want to share a video shared by my colleague... I love to travel and travel life of Matt is so so cool!