Our 14th Anniversary

Today's our 14th wedding anniversary. How time flies.

No essay can ever capture our story together
No page can summarize our stuggles ever.
No phrase can snapshot our plans and our hopes
No paragraph can highlight our intertwined hearts
No sentence can define our marriage
No commas can pause our mindfulness of each other
No question mark will cast a doubt of our inner love
No words can paint what God has done in our lives
No one but God, can understand how much we love each other.

Nothing, absolutely nothing will ever mean anything, if God has not brought us together and keep us together in the past, in the present and in the future.

Gloria in Excelsis Deo
(Glory to God on High in latin)

Kian Seng and Mary

On lawsuits within the church

Painful it is. Church disputes. Heartbreaking it is, infighting among members of the common body professing they are faithful to God. Devastating when the lawsuits it leads to, draws public attention.

Ever wonder why Paul is so adamant about not having lawsuits in the Church? He wrote to the Corinthians:

1 Cor 6:3 Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life?
1Cor. 6:4 So if you have law courts dealing with matters of this life, do you appoint them as judges who are of no account in the church?
1Cor. 6:5 I say this to your shame. Is it so, that there is not among you one wise man who will be able to decide between his brethren,
1Cor. 6:6 but brother goes to law with brother, and that before unbelievers?

I read about a lawsuit currently in progress in the court regarding a church member angry about being 'ex-communicated' from the church for 6 months due to a theological disagreement. Without other recourse, he decided to take the church to court. In situations like this, some people blame the leadership, while others blame the church member.

A) THE LEADERSHIP
- that they are too authoritarian. They are not 'open' enough with the dissenting church member who takes them to law courts.
- they failed in their duties to show love to the flock like a Protective Shepherd over the sheep
- they abuse their powers of leadership

B) THE DISSENTING CHURCH MEMBER
- that he is not submissive enough to authority
- for initiating the lawsuit in the first place
- for the lack of self-control, choosing to air one's grievances at the expense of the whole body of the church concerned

While many will fall into either of these 2 categories, some even both, reading 1 Cor 6 shows me that neither of these is as serious as the failure of the whole community to mediate between the two groups. 'Is there not among you one wise man' in that church? The Church has been blessed richly with many talented individuals. There are people trained in many kinds of skills, including the law and skills of mediation. What happened to the 'wise men' of the church? Are they too busy with their own careers? Are they too afraid to get their feet wet? Are they too afraid to step in and spend time understanding the issues behind the 2 dissenting parties? Where are the wise men of the church?

We Need the Wise Men to Mediate NOW!
Be not deceived. This case is not simply a case of the KJV translation or not. It is not a matter of submission to authority or not. It is simply the test of the will of the church to be united in seeing the church having the political will to stick together.

Here, it is easy to draw our lines. That the church that is embroiled in this lawsuit is simply that church concerned. I will venture to suggest that the church to be involved is the universal church concerned. So all Methodist churches, all Episcopalian churches, all Presbyterian churches, all Evangelical Free Churches out there, and all of you churches who claim that unity in the church is important, this lawsuit concerns not just them. It concerns YOU! Where are the wise men of the church? Where are the wise men of the UNIVERSAL church? Step in and mediate. Do it quickly. Do it now! The true test of the unity of the church is not in the 'truths' argued for. The true test is in the actions one take in the practice of love. Wise men of the churches, come together. Use your skills. Use your wisdom. Where are the wise men of the church?

If there is enough of you willing to be humbled or ridiculed for the sake of the unity of the church, there is hope. If there is a majority of you choosing to retain 'one's respectability' by not getting involved, it will be sad. Wise men of the churches, we need you now.


kianseng

Risks of Using Wikipedia

It used to be, when I was curious about anything, I will search for it using a keyword search on Google, and then try to select the ‘most appropriate’ description from the many links returned. It does takes time and effort to sieve through non relevant information. However, times has changed as more marketers are beginning to address this niche of people who are information hungry and does not want to search the whole world from A-Z when all they wanted is a basic understanding or the word say: “robustious” or “denizen”, or all they wanted to know about Antelopes.

Wikipedia is increasingly an online Encyclopedia that is gaining not only popularity but public acceptance. More and more research students are quoting in their papers information from Wikipedia. I have been using Wikipedia simply because it looks like a one-stop Information Shop for anything I wanted to know. However, one of the supposed power of Wikipedia is the ease and frequency of changes one can make to the online database. For example, St Augustine is born in the year 354. What if someone else decide to play a prank and change it to the year 1354? The poor student who happens to refer to Wikipedia at that time, will have thought that Augustine is born in the Middle Ages! The Wikipedia people says that wrong information can be corrected very quickly. My reply: 'What applies to corrections, also applies to vandalism.' The Wikipedia technology framework does not know how to tell the difference between truth and falsehood! Another example of the ease of vandalism was the replacement of the picture of the evil Lord Sith of Star Wars, with the picture of the current Pope!

Complaints about quality and reliability of Wikipedia information continue to rise. Yet the number of users and adherents is growing. Rather than a blanket call for a ban, my feel is that for a general initial appreciation of any knowledge, you can try out Wikipedia. Just make sure that it does NOT become the bible or the ONLY source of information. Above all, check it with discernment.

Follow the links below
1) A video by Colbert on Wikipedia. Scathing remarks under the guise of humor. (link)
2) Wikipedia problems (link)
3) Wikipedia founder admits to ’serious problems’ (link)
4) A study on lies and truth on Wikipedia (link)
5) Wikipedia themselves admit on their pages but chose to trumpet them as strengths (link)
6) Wiki people replies to common objections (link)
7) Will Wikipedia Change history? (link)

Again I would like to reiterate. Doing a search on Wikipedia for basic introductory understanding is ok. To base one’s research on it, or to use it as the main source of information is NOT ok. It is like putting hearsay and call it truth simply by posting it on Wikipedia. We need to continue to battle for truth. This battle is now increasingly in the Internet domain.

kianseng

Papers completed, 2 sermons next...

What a relief. Completing papers gives a nice feeling. Completed all my requirements for the Christian Spirituality and the Theology of the Arts papers. Now I can refocus my attention on my History audio and my sermons for the next 2 weeks.

My main point for the first sermon is aptly captured by Oswald Chambers:

"Holiness, not happiness is the chief end of man."

In preparation for my 2nd sermon, I will be going to the mountain after my 1st sermon. How can I preach a sermon on holiness if I do not meet up with God, the Holiness Divine.

kianseng

The View from the Church @ FBC Watertown

As the press continues to bombard First Baptist Church @ Watertown, let us pray that wisdom will prevail among all. The woman getting 'fired' is not the main point now. The main issue is public and press relations.

Here is the news release from the Church's web site.

1) From the pastor

2) From the Diaconate Board

3) The Church web site.

4) The Church blog site.

Woman 'Fired' from Church

Here is another proof that proper theological education is crucial for the health of the church. Mary Lambert, 81, who have been teaching Sunday School faithfully at her church was suddenly fired from her church simply because her pastor interpreted the First Epistle to Timothy, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she is to keep silent.".

Read more about it here.

Certainly, if this verse is interpreted to the letter, we have to grapple with how the word teaching is to be defined. Not all men is learned enough to teach all women. There are women who are more knowledgeable and better teachers than men. It will be a shame for any church, no matter how well-intentioned, to foolishly apply this verse to the letter without considering the context.

kianseng

Weekend @ The PNE

So we finally went to the PNE, Greater Vancouver's so called 'Best entertainment in Canada." Well, we did not go because it is best. We went because the entrance fee was free. Without the free passes, it would have set us back by at least 60CAD for the whole family. Yet, in spite of this initial savings, we still spent about 100CAD for the rides, monster cotton candy and popcorn. More than 92000 people turned up on the opening day (19 Aug 2006).

We were toying between buying the expensive fare passes for all vs buying individual coupons for rides which limits our number of rides but cheaper fares upfront. After seeing the immense crowds and queues, we decided against buying the passes as multiple rides require multiple queues. So the two older kids went for rides on the Roller Coaster, the Cockscrew, Hell's Gate, the Inverter and the Enterprise. My wife took the little one for a reduced fare pass which enabled one parent to ride for free. My wife is simply brilliant with her sums. I couldn't have thought of that. I reminisced on the times my dad brought me on the roller coaster rides. It was fun then. Now the fun is to watch my kids enjoying themselves. More importantly, I enjoyed seeing how the older brother and sister accompanying and caring for each other. This building up of brother sister relationship is more uniquely developed without the parent around. Though the roller coaster ride takes about 90 seconds, I think the memories collected will last much more than that. Pictures later.

Did we do anything together then? On Sunday, we build little trenches on the beach. Life lessons on simple pleasures.

kianseng