I KNOW THERE WAS A GAP! BUT HEY I TOLD YOU GUYS TO EXPECT IT COMING!!
This is probably going to have the shortest diary, and the longest sermon summary and a medium sized devotion. This is also going to be the last post of the series "Sit. Walk. Stand.". Anyone sad to have this end? Anyone rejoicing to be free from this theology and Christian stuff?
Haha, I may be wrong, but most likely I have the correct hunches, like Kakashi Sensei XD!
MY new fave Two Steps From Hell song is Everlasting but with the Irish low whistle. If you have Spotify go check it out!!
Anyways, enough of what's going on now and more of what happened six days ago.
Alright! Lezz gooo!
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Day 4 19th May Friday
Session - Stand
So, we had breakfast, and sleep was better than all of the other nights combined. I don't know why, but it was just like that. Anyhow, I woke up feeling like I actually had enough sleep. Not to the point of being refreshed that some church leaders say one will experience at a retreat.
Breakfast was... right! How could I forget!? Breakfast was waffles! And it was sooooo good! Their homemade berry jam was amazing, there were whole raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries in the jam and it was just the right amount of sweet and sour. They had loads of whipped cream too!
Okay now I'm hungry.... and there is no food at home.... :'(
We then had our last session, since this was the very last day of our retreat. I will obviously get to the session later.
I stayed in the cabin for the hour and a half long team game, which was phobia and manhunt. I didn't join in because of my ankle, and granted I would not be able to run if I tried. I didn't see the point in getting tagged straight away just to sit down either.
So I stayed in the cabin, found out the toilets were clogged, I did some plumbing work and went back up my bunk and started doodling and doing the devotion. I also finished up packing my stuff(I had some time after breakfast because we finished fast).
We had a Subway-Esque lunch, it was pretty lit.
Then we had the rest of the waiting time for the bus to get here as free time. Me and my friends sat down on one of the outdoor benches and enjoyed the sun as well as each other's company while we swatted blackflies and watched the others play Ultimate Frisbee.
The bus got here on time, and we departed hoping that we would not get stranded at a McDonald's again.
That, by the grace of God, did not happen. Phew! But, a boy in my grade was being more noisy and obnoxious than ever, and all who were sitting around him (that includes me) which were obviously trying to get a few winks of sleep, were not able to do so.
I was drifting into sleep and then a sudden loud proclamation would come from the boy and make me awake again. It was like a living hell.
However, as we approached the remaining half hour of our journey home, one of my friends devised a plan for revenge. The boy was always talking about what he loves, and was inconsiderate to others and gave no craps on who liked what.
So, we would get his attention(he was being loud and annoying because no one would sit with him and no one was paying him any heed, so basically he was begging for attention), and start ranting about our favorite movies, music, video games, places to go on our bucket list, books etc and all that jazz.
I talked to him about Markiplier and Two Steps From Hell. My friend who initiated the plan started us off with an amazing presentation on the band Arctic Monkeys. Another friend talked about Harry Potter, another talked about swimming.
He would be uninterested after, like, two minutes and try to ignore us. But we wouldn't let him turn away from what we had to say, and we would reprimand him for being inconsiderate if he ever tried to even block out our voice. Basically, we were doing the same thing to him, giving him a taste of his own medicine.
When almost all of the people who had involved themselves in the plan had a turn to talk, we had arrived at school! The friend who had initiated the revenge exclaimed, "Man, revenge has never been so sweet!"
So there's that.
And thus ended the retreat!
Now, onto the session!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this scripture is Ephesians 6.
This is the only part of Stand.
To stand is to do something with all your might. But to delve even further, what is the meaning to do something with all your might?
We were given the example of Macbeth, which had a character - Young Silam - stand up to face Macbeth, he stood firmly and fought with all his might and he did not flee.
Another example is Jacques Plante, who was the first one to wear a mask to an ice hockey game. He did not waver under his coach's opinions or commands, but instead stood firm against what was dangerous and what was wrong, put on his mask and won the hockey game for Canada,
Those are all good examples that we can relate to, however, for a Christian to do something with all their might, they must be strong in the Lord and His mighty power and stand in His armor.
Now, you must be thinking, standing firmly and doing it with all your might sounds good and all, but what are we Christians standing against?
The answer is simple - the enemy.
The enemies of Christians are the devil, earthly authorities, and spiritual forces.
The name Satan alone means the opposer! Earthly authorities could be earthly sins, or the new expectations that I have written about in previous posts. Spiritual forces could be evil spirits or even temptation!
But, you must be saying, we are standing with all our might against these enemies but we do not have the strength to stand for much longer, where can we be protected and have strength to drive away the enemies?
The answer is very much a Sunday School answer, but it is most definitely true and applicable - the Armor of God.
All the pieces of the armor are the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, gospel readiness, the sword of Spirit and welp my notes on the official names of the armor end there. But, the main point is that we will be able to have a warlike imagery, with God as out sword and shield.
Another way of interpreting what the armor is is to imagine the attributes of God as actual pieces of armor. Some of these attributes are truth, righteousness, peace, faithfulness. Salvation is God's grace, God is the word i.e. the Bible.
And, you must be exclaiming that there are a lot of defensive "weapons", what happened to the offensive weapons????
Our weapons are the Bible and prayer. Prayer is actually an ongoing spiritual warfare that is waged almost every day. The Bible is technically the Sword of Spirit, where we can either strike Satan down with the true words of God, or we can protect others through the word of God.
In the end, it all comes back to Jesus. Not because it is cliche or a Sunday School answer, but because it is best and the truest and the only answer.
Jesus is the center and role model for our walk, where he is is also a goal and model for our position, and finally, he is the one who gives us the strength to stand with all our might.
Sit.
Walk.
Stand.
Do it, in the name of Christ.
I hope this series has benefited some of you in your spiritual journey or it has made you think deeper about scripture/your belief. If you aren't a believer, then I sincerely hope that you will discover the grace of God, and I really hope that it is through this series that you have discovered God.
If you have certain reflections, or if you want to know more about Christianity, then feel free to comment! Like, seriously! I wanna try and answer your questions!
I have decided not to do the devotion since there is actually very little content XD. But we did spend our small group time praying for each other, and that was amazing.
So..... darn I'm tired!
But thank you for sticking to this series!
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Friday, May 26, 2017
Wednesday, May 24, 2017
Sit. Walk. Stand (Part 4)
GUYS I HAVE NOT CHECKED MY TRAFFIC SOURCES IN A WHILE SO I DON'T KNOW IF THESE ARE APPEALING AT ALL!
I suck at intros.... oh well, y'all gotta bear with this now XD. I swear, these get shorter and shorter every time.
I really want ice cream, haha, but I don't want my aunt to drive me to McDonald's just for an Oreo McFlurry because that would be selfish and completely unnecessary. Dinner is in T minus 3 hours, so... not a good option to stuff myself with a good ol' McFlurry and not be able to eat the real food.
Why am I even ranting about my hunger?
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 3 18th Thursday
Session - Walk pt. 2
We all woke up lacking sleep. However, this day was the chillest day of them all. The session - which I will get to later - was right after breakfast and so everyone was more or less awake. The atmosphere of the session was way better than the night before.
Afterward, we did our first session of archery. I really liked this "coach", he was so chill and he had music and everything. However, one of the boys in my grade misinterpreted one of the signals the "coach" was giving and fired an arrow. He was banned from the range and was forced to sit down for the coming hour. My muscles were kinda sore from canoeing the day before, but still, I managed to get a few 16-20 points each turn.
I was admittedly just as rusty as everyone, although my season starts this SATURDAY!! So hyped XD.
Okay, back to the main thing...
Lunch was good, a much better selection than half burnt meatballs! Though I didn't really pay attention to what it was.
And then we had another archery session. But this "coach" was very easily distracted and we didn't get to shoot as much. Oh well, I wasn't really in the mood for more archery anyway.
Then, free time was my killer. Quite literally. So near our cabins is this place called Tube Hill, which in the winter will be covered in snow and one would sled down onto a frozen lake and onwards. But, it's the middle of May and there was no snow, just really overgrown grass.
I was half running down the steep slope to join my friends at the bottom, they took the same path and so I thought it was safe. The grass covered the hole which led to my injury, I stepped right into the hole, hard, and twisted my ankle really really badly. I thought it would be something minor but then taking off my right shoe got very difficult when I returned to our cabin.
Yup, it was swollen in two places.
It's not easy being a clumsy 15-year-old girl haha.
Well, I just sat on my friend's bed, a little too much in pain to go up to my bunk. And a series of me yelling for my friends not to get the teacher and my friends trying to over power me to get the teacher to hear them ensued for about 3 minutes.
I surrendered, and the teacher wrapped my ankle.
After the teacher left, a crazy half hour of banter dawned, I laughed so much my sides hurt even more!
Then, the storm which was predicted to roll in.... rolled in. When the rain and wind hit the camp I was immediately reminded of the typhoons in Hong Kong( I miss home :( )
And then there was a session of worship after supper. It was glorious. And I could most definitely feel the Holy Spirit working amongst us.
Then we had a campfire, where I had my very first s'more. It was very good, but perhaps a little too sweet for my taste. I would have just settled for graham crackers drizzled in chocolate, and have eaten our self-roasted marshmallows on an actual open fire (oops, it's not Christmas but shh.. wait, it's chestnuts not marshmallows in the carol...double oops on getting the name wrong) separately.
On the way to the campfire site, most of the boys in my grade were singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall, they replaced the beer with something called... shei... or something like that... it was very hard not to join in and it was very amusing to listen to. Once the song was finished our campfire had grown into a standard barbecue fire, perfect timing!
It was a very good day.
Now, onto the session!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 5.
This is part two of "Walk".
Last time we were preached to on how to walk it right. This session kinda has that, but more on other ways of walking it right.
We were immediately given a relatable example - being late to class.
Of course, we always have our reasons, our misunderstandings between the teacher and we. And so to take away that misunderstanding, we must walk in love and be children of light.
I'm not sure how that connects but... our speaker made it work so.... haha oh man I should not have been daydreaming.....
We have many cultural lures, some include the idols I shared last time, or it could be the cultural influence of the people around you. It is hard to walk in love in Hong Kong when everyone only cares about work and money and grades and no one cares for those who are in actual need.
To walk in love as children of light, we must make sacrifices. We were given the example of Bill and Melinda Gates who have pledged to a certain... pledge... that gives 98% of their fortune to others and 2% to their family/children.
Jesus did the same.
He is the King of Kings! He is the Lord of Lords! He could have chosen to be born in a palace with a hundred servants but he gave that up and was born literally in an animal feeding trough. Jesus walked in humility, he walked in love as well.
Most of all, he could always have refused to follow God's plan of salvation, but he chose to sacrifice his life for us sinners who do not deserve this grace, this deliverance.
Jesus is our ultimate role model to shape our walk after. And according to how he walked, we should also watch how we walk.
We closed with the example of a fellow brother in Christ whom my current school has prayed for, for two years. This pastor is still currently being held hostage in a country I will not disclose. He was a perfect example of how to walk in love and in light even though he could be cursing God at his situation.
So... Walk in love, as children of light.
I hoped that connected because my notes are super detached. I tried haha....
Onto the final part of this post! The devotion!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yup! This is the devotion! Drawing.
I didn't really draw a full picture unlike one of my friends, who sat atop Tube Hill the entire hour before breakfast and drew the lake from there.
I have a few snippets of the nature around me. I also twisted my ankle while going down to draw the five petal flower.
Well, it was pretty worth it.
Also, excuse the bad lighting.
I didn't really read the scripture for this devotion, which was Psalm 95-96(yes, the whole two chapters), but I just took this time and admired God's creation.
I encourage y'all to do it too! Wherever you are, you can draw a tree or your backyard or your schoolyard but just take a moment, quiet your heart, and breathe.
Okay, that's all for this post and I am still very much hungry
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I suck at intros.... oh well, y'all gotta bear with this now XD. I swear, these get shorter and shorter every time.
I really want ice cream, haha, but I don't want my aunt to drive me to McDonald's just for an Oreo McFlurry because that would be selfish and completely unnecessary. Dinner is in T minus 3 hours, so... not a good option to stuff myself with a good ol' McFlurry and not be able to eat the real food.
Why am I even ranting about my hunger?
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 3 18th Thursday
Session - Walk pt. 2
We all woke up lacking sleep. However, this day was the chillest day of them all. The session - which I will get to later - was right after breakfast and so everyone was more or less awake. The atmosphere of the session was way better than the night before.
Afterward, we did our first session of archery. I really liked this "coach", he was so chill and he had music and everything. However, one of the boys in my grade misinterpreted one of the signals the "coach" was giving and fired an arrow. He was banned from the range and was forced to sit down for the coming hour. My muscles were kinda sore from canoeing the day before, but still, I managed to get a few 16-20 points each turn.
I was admittedly just as rusty as everyone, although my season starts this SATURDAY!! So hyped XD.
Okay, back to the main thing...
Lunch was good, a much better selection than half burnt meatballs! Though I didn't really pay attention to what it was.
And then we had another archery session. But this "coach" was very easily distracted and we didn't get to shoot as much. Oh well, I wasn't really in the mood for more archery anyway.
Then, free time was my killer. Quite literally. So near our cabins is this place called Tube Hill, which in the winter will be covered in snow and one would sled down onto a frozen lake and onwards. But, it's the middle of May and there was no snow, just really overgrown grass.
I was half running down the steep slope to join my friends at the bottom, they took the same path and so I thought it was safe. The grass covered the hole which led to my injury, I stepped right into the hole, hard, and twisted my ankle really really badly. I thought it would be something minor but then taking off my right shoe got very difficult when I returned to our cabin.
Yup, it was swollen in two places.
It's not easy being a clumsy 15-year-old girl haha.
Well, I just sat on my friend's bed, a little too much in pain to go up to my bunk. And a series of me yelling for my friends not to get the teacher and my friends trying to over power me to get the teacher to hear them ensued for about 3 minutes.
I surrendered, and the teacher wrapped my ankle.
After the teacher left, a crazy half hour of banter dawned, I laughed so much my sides hurt even more!
Then, the storm which was predicted to roll in.... rolled in. When the rain and wind hit the camp I was immediately reminded of the typhoons in Hong Kong( I miss home :( )
And then there was a session of worship after supper. It was glorious. And I could most definitely feel the Holy Spirit working amongst us.
Then we had a campfire, where I had my very first s'more. It was very good, but perhaps a little too sweet for my taste. I would have just settled for graham crackers drizzled in chocolate, and have eaten our self-roasted marshmallows on an actual open fire (oops, it's not Christmas but shh.. wait, it's chestnuts not marshmallows in the carol...double oops on getting the name wrong) separately.
On the way to the campfire site, most of the boys in my grade were singing 100 bottles of beer on the wall, they replaced the beer with something called... shei... or something like that... it was very hard not to join in and it was very amusing to listen to. Once the song was finished our campfire had grown into a standard barbecue fire, perfect timing!
It was a very good day.
Now, onto the session!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 5.
This is part two of "Walk".
Last time we were preached to on how to walk it right. This session kinda has that, but more on other ways of walking it right.
We were immediately given a relatable example - being late to class.
Of course, we always have our reasons, our misunderstandings between the teacher and we. And so to take away that misunderstanding, we must walk in love and be children of light.
I'm not sure how that connects but... our speaker made it work so.... haha oh man I should not have been daydreaming.....
We have many cultural lures, some include the idols I shared last time, or it could be the cultural influence of the people around you. It is hard to walk in love in Hong Kong when everyone only cares about work and money and grades and no one cares for those who are in actual need.
To walk in love as children of light, we must make sacrifices. We were given the example of Bill and Melinda Gates who have pledged to a certain... pledge... that gives 98% of their fortune to others and 2% to their family/children.
Jesus did the same.
He is the King of Kings! He is the Lord of Lords! He could have chosen to be born in a palace with a hundred servants but he gave that up and was born literally in an animal feeding trough. Jesus walked in humility, he walked in love as well.
Most of all, he could always have refused to follow God's plan of salvation, but he chose to sacrifice his life for us sinners who do not deserve this grace, this deliverance.
Jesus is our ultimate role model to shape our walk after. And according to how he walked, we should also watch how we walk.
We closed with the example of a fellow brother in Christ whom my current school has prayed for, for two years. This pastor is still currently being held hostage in a country I will not disclose. He was a perfect example of how to walk in love and in light even though he could be cursing God at his situation.
So... Walk in love, as children of light.
I hoped that connected because my notes are super detached. I tried haha....
Onto the final part of this post! The devotion!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I didn't really draw a full picture unlike one of my friends, who sat atop Tube Hill the entire hour before breakfast and drew the lake from there.
I have a few snippets of the nature around me. I also twisted my ankle while going down to draw the five petal flower.
Well, it was pretty worth it.
Also, excuse the bad lighting.
I didn't really read the scripture for this devotion, which was Psalm 95-96(yes, the whole two chapters), but I just took this time and admired God's creation.
I encourage y'all to do it too! Wherever you are, you can draw a tree or your backyard or your schoolyard but just take a moment, quiet your heart, and breathe.
Okay, that's all for this post and I am still very much hungry
Stay tuned and
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
Sit. Walk. Stand (Part 3)
I CHECKED MY DEMOGRAPHICS LAST NIGHT AND HELLO READERS FROM RUSSIA!!!!!
This is the second session bit from Wednesday, a lot of people were nodding in this session because it was right before sleeping time. I was sandwiched between my two friends and both were nodding pretty hard. I was half listening half poking my friends back to reality!
So yeah! My sermon notes weren't so detailed so this post will be shorter. But I hope I can still get the point of the session across to those who want to listen!
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 2 17th May Wednesday
Session - Walk pt. 1
The passage for this session is Ephesians 4.
The theme of the next two posts is learning to walk it right, as in learning to walk our life right in Christ. How many of you guys have been subjected to earthly expectations?
Expectations such as WEALTH, FAME, BEAUTY, POWER. Most parents nowadays want their children to be able to achieve those four things(perhaps not beauty or fame so much) and so set up their child's life in such a way that they end up walking a path that is not right.
Some of you may be protesting and saying that the path is not incorrect, but necessary. Yes, it is necessary but when the expectations of the world become your idols, then that is not right.
In Ephesians 4, our speaker highlighted two words which were in Greek for us - peripateo and mataiotes. Any Greek readers? I would love to know how to pronounce the latter XD.
Why these two words though? It could be any other complicated Greek vocabulary. Peripateo means to walk, to behave, and to conduct one's life. Mataiotes is a word to describe something that is devoid of truth and appropriateness, perverseness or depravity. So when you put the words together(which Paul is describing some of the Ephesians) it means to walk in a way that is perverse or depraved of the light of God.
Basically, with less complex words, it means to walk in futility. And one should not walk in futility because it pulls one's path away from God.
It deviates from us trying to "walk it right".
Our speaker gave us the example of Brian Stewart's testimony. I don't really remember what he said... sorry.... I'll try and look for it though!
Oops, I can't find it, but it was vaguely about Brian Stewart of CBC News changing his walk to suit the path that God has given him.
So the first part of walking it right is not to walk in futility, or in other words, don't walk in the way the world has set you up to walk and don't bow to the idols that are the new earthly expectations that the world wants you to have in your life.
That sentence sounded very convoluted. There were small group questions, but I don't have them written down... actually, for all the coming posts, the small group questions will be replaced by devotions out teachers have given us.
So, Wednesday's devotion...
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for the devotion was Ephesians 3:14-21, and we were called to reflect on how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
This ties into yesterday's post on the session.
God has a plan for everyone, and he doesn't leave anyone out. His love is so infinite, and unimaginable and amazing that perhaps through these little deep posts of mine that I might be able to preach the gospel like this. Maybe God's plan for you is to be a Christian after reading this.
I don't know.
But I am sure that through checking my traffic demographics, you readers in Hong Kong and Canada and Russia and the USA are most likely to be "Gentiles", people who were excluded from the great plan of salvation.
But here we are, reading about this, and some of you I would assume that you are converted as opposed to us "Gentiles" being excluded from the Jewish culture because we aren't in the plan of God's love and grace.
Christ died for all, not just a single nation, a single culture, a single ethnicity. Christ died for the whole world, and that's pretty unthinkable. The world is so big, filled with so many people, however, God has counted every single hair on our head.
That is God's love for you and me and to those who have not yet come to know his name.
That is how wide and long and high and deep God's love is, it is as high as the sky and as deep as the Mariana Trench and as wide and long as infinity.
Are you ready to accept his love which will never run out?
Okay, that finishes day 2, for real!
Stay tuned
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This is the second session bit from Wednesday, a lot of people were nodding in this session because it was right before sleeping time. I was sandwiched between my two friends and both were nodding pretty hard. I was half listening half poking my friends back to reality!
So yeah! My sermon notes weren't so detailed so this post will be shorter. But I hope I can still get the point of the session across to those who want to listen!
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 2 17th May Wednesday
Session - Walk pt. 1
The passage for this session is Ephesians 4.
The theme of the next two posts is learning to walk it right, as in learning to walk our life right in Christ. How many of you guys have been subjected to earthly expectations?
Expectations such as WEALTH, FAME, BEAUTY, POWER. Most parents nowadays want their children to be able to achieve those four things(perhaps not beauty or fame so much) and so set up their child's life in such a way that they end up walking a path that is not right.
Some of you may be protesting and saying that the path is not incorrect, but necessary. Yes, it is necessary but when the expectations of the world become your idols, then that is not right.
In Ephesians 4, our speaker highlighted two words which were in Greek for us - peripateo and mataiotes. Any Greek readers? I would love to know how to pronounce the latter XD.
Why these two words though? It could be any other complicated Greek vocabulary. Peripateo means to walk, to behave, and to conduct one's life. Mataiotes is a word to describe something that is devoid of truth and appropriateness, perverseness or depravity. So when you put the words together(which Paul is describing some of the Ephesians) it means to walk in a way that is perverse or depraved of the light of God.
Basically, with less complex words, it means to walk in futility. And one should not walk in futility because it pulls one's path away from God.
It deviates from us trying to "walk it right".
Our speaker gave us the example of Brian Stewart's testimony. I don't really remember what he said... sorry.... I'll try and look for it though!
Oops, I can't find it, but it was vaguely about Brian Stewart of CBC News changing his walk to suit the path that God has given him.
So the first part of walking it right is not to walk in futility, or in other words, don't walk in the way the world has set you up to walk and don't bow to the idols that are the new earthly expectations that the world wants you to have in your life.
That sentence sounded very convoluted. There were small group questions, but I don't have them written down... actually, for all the coming posts, the small group questions will be replaced by devotions out teachers have given us.
So, Wednesday's devotion...
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for the devotion was Ephesians 3:14-21, and we were called to reflect on how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ.
This ties into yesterday's post on the session.
God has a plan for everyone, and he doesn't leave anyone out. His love is so infinite, and unimaginable and amazing that perhaps through these little deep posts of mine that I might be able to preach the gospel like this. Maybe God's plan for you is to be a Christian after reading this.
I don't know.
But I am sure that through checking my traffic demographics, you readers in Hong Kong and Canada and Russia and the USA are most likely to be "Gentiles", people who were excluded from the great plan of salvation.
But here we are, reading about this, and some of you I would assume that you are converted as opposed to us "Gentiles" being excluded from the Jewish culture because we aren't in the plan of God's love and grace.
Christ died for all, not just a single nation, a single culture, a single ethnicity. Christ died for the whole world, and that's pretty unthinkable. The world is so big, filled with so many people, however, God has counted every single hair on our head.
That is God's love for you and me and to those who have not yet come to know his name.
That is how wide and long and high and deep God's love is, it is as high as the sky and as deep as the Mariana Trench and as wide and long as infinity.
Are you ready to accept his love which will never run out?
Okay, that finishes day 2, for real!
Stay tuned
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Monday, May 22, 2017
Sit. Walk. Stand (Part 2)
A'IGHT!!!! PART TWO!!!!!! I HOPE THIS IS NOT BORING TO ANY OF YOU GUYS!!!!!!!
This day is the day where there were two sessions. This is the post where the events of day two will be told. Part three of this series will not have the diary!
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 2 17th May Wednesday
Session - Sit pt. 2
Sleep was admittedly not that great, but it was better than none. Breakfast wasn't too bad, they had some pretty good cereal selections, the hot meal was pretty good too. I think it was bacon and pancakes. Yup, definitely bacon and pancakes. the pancakes were a little on the burnt side but still good.
The first activity session, me and my friends went and did canoeing. It was a very nice day out, however, the wind was against us and so one of our canoeing destinations was canceled because we wouldn't have enough time to get there. It was going to be a waterfall. I wish we were able to go and enjoy the scenery but we couldn't, oh well, it doesn't matter.
Our canoe got grounded near an offshore island, and I volunteered to get off the canoe and push the boat back into the water. The water was so cold! It was super cold, and one of my feet had fallen asleep, so I almost fell into the water a couple of times. But after a bunch of pushing and shoving, teamwork and yelling about the water the canoe was off of the shallow lakebed and once again we could keep on going.
Canoeing was super fun, but my sides hurt after that, and laughing was a complete pain.
Then we had an island cookout, we didn't go to a legit island, we just stayed at the main campsite, but we ate stuff that was grilled over a fire(not really actually). Our food was packed in aluminum foil packages, and then they were placed over/around the fire. Our group's food was really burnt, I couldn't eat half of my food because it was literally burnt to the point where it was a blackened mess on the tin foil.
Then we had our session, which I will talk about later.
After the session, we had another activity time, we were gonna do archery(my sport XD) but it was taken off our list because we were sharing the camp with another school. So me and my friends went rock climbing, I didn't climb, I just watched and took photos of my friends. After that, we had free time until dinner.
I don't really remember what I did during free time, I think I just sat on my bunk and practiced my Chinese words in my notebook.
After that was a game of Capture the Flag, boring and intense at the same time. But neither team won because neither team could get to each other's flag.
That's basically it, now time for the session!!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 2.
This is part two of "Sit".
We were given a comparison between the garden of Eden, which represented life, and the fall of man(Genesis 2) which represented death. We were also asked in our small groups what was the first thing that came to mind when the term "Garden of Eden/ Eden" was said. A few of the words that came up were "perfect", "peaceful", "loving".
However, we all kinda missed one of the key words, one that was the main focus of this session.
"Alive".
How can we become alive after the fall? There is only one way, and that is in relevance to our position in Christ. We become alive in Him, we become alive with Him after He died on the cross for our sins. There is only life and life alone through Jesus.
Our second position is to be alive with Christ and to be seated with Him, We were then asked the question, how could we be sure of our position in Him, how secure is this position, how do we secure it etc.
Do we secure our position with christ through faith or works?
This contradictory question has been asked in my baptism class before, and truly one cannot exist without the other. Also, if you were wondering, the faith part comes from Ephesians while the works part comes from James.
The answer is faith and works. One cannot be without the other because both lead to grace, which then leads to salvation because salvation from sin is a gift of grace from God, it is one which we do not deserve.
What I mean by faith and works is that works come out of faith in God that you will be able to perform certain deeds when you trust in his name. But faith can also come out of works because your certain attidtude towards performing a certain act can show your faith and perhaps even strengthen it. So that is why both are important, none should be less than or more than each other, they are equally essential to grace and salvation.
Our third and last(at least in this series of sessions) position is to be united in Christ.
Once upon a time, Jews and Gentiles were divided. Gentiles were separated from the promise of salvation, however, Jesus mended this rift between the chosen nation - Israel - and the peoples of other nations as well.
If the above was not true and the rift was still here, I'm sure that I would not be allowed or even have heard of the gospel because I should be cast out of the plan of salvation since I am not a Jew. However, Jesus claims that all nations will be blessed, and there will be good news preached to all.
Once we were dead and divided because of sin, but not we are alive and united in Christ.
That is out ultimate position - to be seated with Him, to be under Him but protected by Him, and finally to be alive and united in Him.
p.s. You guys notice the prepositions there?
So, this concludes day two's first session and diary post. Feel free to write a reflection or ask questions(which I will try my best to answer) in the comments!
Stay tuned
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
This day is the day where there were two sessions. This is the post where the events of day two will be told. Part three of this series will not have the diary!
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 2 17th May Wednesday
Session - Sit pt. 2
Sleep was admittedly not that great, but it was better than none. Breakfast wasn't too bad, they had some pretty good cereal selections, the hot meal was pretty good too. I think it was bacon and pancakes. Yup, definitely bacon and pancakes. the pancakes were a little on the burnt side but still good.
The first activity session, me and my friends went and did canoeing. It was a very nice day out, however, the wind was against us and so one of our canoeing destinations was canceled because we wouldn't have enough time to get there. It was going to be a waterfall. I wish we were able to go and enjoy the scenery but we couldn't, oh well, it doesn't matter.
Our canoe got grounded near an offshore island, and I volunteered to get off the canoe and push the boat back into the water. The water was so cold! It was super cold, and one of my feet had fallen asleep, so I almost fell into the water a couple of times. But after a bunch of pushing and shoving, teamwork and yelling about the water the canoe was off of the shallow lakebed and once again we could keep on going.
Canoeing was super fun, but my sides hurt after that, and laughing was a complete pain.
Then we had an island cookout, we didn't go to a legit island, we just stayed at the main campsite, but we ate stuff that was grilled over a fire(not really actually). Our food was packed in aluminum foil packages, and then they were placed over/around the fire. Our group's food was really burnt, I couldn't eat half of my food because it was literally burnt to the point where it was a blackened mess on the tin foil.
Then we had our session, which I will talk about later.
After the session, we had another activity time, we were gonna do archery(my sport XD) but it was taken off our list because we were sharing the camp with another school. So me and my friends went rock climbing, I didn't climb, I just watched and took photos of my friends. After that, we had free time until dinner.
I don't really remember what I did during free time, I think I just sat on my bunk and practiced my Chinese words in my notebook.
After that was a game of Capture the Flag, boring and intense at the same time. But neither team won because neither team could get to each other's flag.
That's basically it, now time for the session!!
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 2.
This is part two of "Sit".
We were given a comparison between the garden of Eden, which represented life, and the fall of man(Genesis 2) which represented death. We were also asked in our small groups what was the first thing that came to mind when the term "Garden of Eden/ Eden" was said. A few of the words that came up were "perfect", "peaceful", "loving".
However, we all kinda missed one of the key words, one that was the main focus of this session.
"Alive".
How can we become alive after the fall? There is only one way, and that is in relevance to our position in Christ. We become alive in Him, we become alive with Him after He died on the cross for our sins. There is only life and life alone through Jesus.
Our second position is to be alive with Christ and to be seated with Him, We were then asked the question, how could we be sure of our position in Him, how secure is this position, how do we secure it etc.
Do we secure our position with christ through faith or works?
This contradictory question has been asked in my baptism class before, and truly one cannot exist without the other. Also, if you were wondering, the faith part comes from Ephesians while the works part comes from James.
The answer is faith and works. One cannot be without the other because both lead to grace, which then leads to salvation because salvation from sin is a gift of grace from God, it is one which we do not deserve.
What I mean by faith and works is that works come out of faith in God that you will be able to perform certain deeds when you trust in his name. But faith can also come out of works because your certain attidtude towards performing a certain act can show your faith and perhaps even strengthen it. So that is why both are important, none should be less than or more than each other, they are equally essential to grace and salvation.
Our third and last(at least in this series of sessions) position is to be united in Christ.
Once upon a time, Jews and Gentiles were divided. Gentiles were separated from the promise of salvation, however, Jesus mended this rift between the chosen nation - Israel - and the peoples of other nations as well.
If the above was not true and the rift was still here, I'm sure that I would not be allowed or even have heard of the gospel because I should be cast out of the plan of salvation since I am not a Jew. However, Jesus claims that all nations will be blessed, and there will be good news preached to all.
Once we were dead and divided because of sin, but not we are alive and united in Christ.
That is out ultimate position - to be seated with Him, to be under Him but protected by Him, and finally to be alive and united in Him.
p.s. You guys notice the prepositions there?
So, this concludes day two's first session and diary post. Feel free to write a reflection or ask questions(which I will try my best to answer) in the comments!
Stay tuned
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Sunday, May 21, 2017
Sit. Walk. Stand (Part 1)
HEYYYYY!!! I'M BACK FROM RETREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, hello people..... I be back, the glorious reprise of the reprise. Retreat has exhausted me XD, but that is not gonna stop me from sharing what I have learned or my thoughts with you guys.
This will be in five parts, technically one for each session we had. I will also describe what happened in that day. Since one of the days had two sessions, only one post on that day will have a description of what happened.
There will be links once all the posts are out, so one can read seamlessly between the days.
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1, 16th May Tuesday
Session - Sit pt.1
So, everything was going fine on the bus actually until we stopped about 30 minutes away from school to fix one of the windshield wipers. I don't know what was wrong with it, but it happened and we sat on couches in one of the ONroute stations and chilled for about 30 minutes.
We were already running late.
Then about another hour into driving, there was a huge bang and the back of the bus lifted off of the ground a little bit. Everyone was awake immediately, there was no need to say what had happened, the tire had literally exploded.
Slowly, we chugged like a train to the nearest plaza. There was a McDonald's there, as well as a dog park. We were stuck at the plaza for 5 hours. But, eventually, by the grace of God, we were on the road again soon,
My friends took pictures of the tire, it was shredded to shriveled plastic spaghetti strands, and there were bunches of torn wire coming out of it too.
It could have been much worse, but everyone was alive, and everything was safe(by that I mean our luggage).
The other vehicle had already arrived at camp three hours ago.
We got to Camp Mini Yo We just in time for dinner, which was 5:30.
So, now onto the session.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 1. In fact, the whole retreat was based on the book of Ephesians.
This is part one of "Sit".
To sit is to know our position in Christ. This quote from the soccer coach Vince Lombardi explains it a little bit, "Know your position. Learn to do it right. Do it with all your might."
Our speaker gave many examples, one of which was to mix up the positions of our worship team. Such as, getting the pianist to play the drums, the bassist to sing, and the guitarist to play the piano. It wouldn't work out at all! This also applies to any aspect of daily life, like sports teams or group projects, one does not simply walk into Mordor and not be Frodo.
We must therefore also know our position in church, and ultimately in God. If we switch up the positions mentioned above, then there will obviously be consequences. Those consequences could be the worship breaking down into a fight between the team, or the sports team losing points because no one is cooperating. However, if we mix up our place in Christ, then the consequences will be much much more astronomical than just someone getting angry because someone else was doing their part.
The consequence is life and death.
And this is our position in christ:
Christ is above us, we are always under him, we are subject to him, but we are also protected by him. We are children of God!
We also had some small group questions, but I didn't really fill it in. I just listened to other people's opinions and sharing. I will try and remember what I said, you may also try to answer the following in the comments if you want!
1.How would you describe your position/role in your family? In your group of friends? At school?
I believe I answered my position in regards to my role in the family. I may have two homes, but in every one of them I have become the IT person, I naturally become the one to fix internet problems, and answer questions to smartphone problems or features. So yeah, that's my position!
2. If someone asked you to count your blessings how would you do that? What would be on your list? What would be on top?
I don't think I answered every single question here, but I do kinda remember the collective answer of my small group. We didn't get to "how to count your blessings", but we did answer the other ones. The things on our list of blessings would be getting to Camp Mini Yo We safe and without anymore technical difficulties after the tire, being able to grow up in a christian family and being able to attend PCA. My top blessing was being able to come to Canada, because there could have always been that 50% chance that my parents would have decided that planning everything was too much and they would just give up and let me stay in HK. I'm glad and sad that they did that... but that is another tale for another time. :D
3. Reflect on your position in Christ. Now reflect on the prepositions of Ephesians 1. Do they make you feel secure?
Now, if you don't know what prepositions are, then, my friend, you were like me. But prepositions are words that describe how something is, like "in" or "with" or "without". Examples of prepositions in regards to making one feel secure would be " In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will..." or " In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit...". And our group concluded that we could feel absolutely secure in the promises of God, just by looking at the way Paul used the prepostitions!
So this concludes the first day of the retreat. I will most like get through three posts because it's long weekend the coming week, the last two might have a bit of a gap between them. But I will try and write consistently until I get through all of the days.
So I hope you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts, or my reflections. You are more than welcome to respond in the comments!
Stay tuned!
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
So, hello people..... I be back, the glorious reprise of the reprise. Retreat has exhausted me XD, but that is not gonna stop me from sharing what I have learned or my thoughts with you guys.
This will be in five parts, technically one for each session we had. I will also describe what happened in that day. Since one of the days had two sessions, only one post on that day will have a description of what happened.
There will be links once all the posts are out, so one can read seamlessly between the days.
Alright! Lezz gooo!!!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Day 1, 16th May Tuesday
Session - Sit pt.1
So, everything was going fine on the bus actually until we stopped about 30 minutes away from school to fix one of the windshield wipers. I don't know what was wrong with it, but it happened and we sat on couches in one of the ONroute stations and chilled for about 30 minutes.
We were already running late.
Then about another hour into driving, there was a huge bang and the back of the bus lifted off of the ground a little bit. Everyone was awake immediately, there was no need to say what had happened, the tire had literally exploded.
Slowly, we chugged like a train to the nearest plaza. There was a McDonald's there, as well as a dog park. We were stuck at the plaza for 5 hours. But, eventually, by the grace of God, we were on the road again soon,
My friends took pictures of the tire, it was shredded to shriveled plastic spaghetti strands, and there were bunches of torn wire coming out of it too.
It could have been much worse, but everyone was alive, and everything was safe(by that I mean our luggage).
The other vehicle had already arrived at camp three hours ago.
We got to Camp Mini Yo We just in time for dinner, which was 5:30.
So, now onto the session.
_________________________________________________________________________________
The passage for this session is Ephesians 1. In fact, the whole retreat was based on the book of Ephesians.
This is part one of "Sit".
To sit is to know our position in Christ. This quote from the soccer coach Vince Lombardi explains it a little bit, "Know your position. Learn to do it right. Do it with all your might."
Our speaker gave many examples, one of which was to mix up the positions of our worship team. Such as, getting the pianist to play the drums, the bassist to sing, and the guitarist to play the piano. It wouldn't work out at all! This also applies to any aspect of daily life, like sports teams or group projects, one does not simply walk into Mordor and not be Frodo.
We must therefore also know our position in church, and ultimately in God. If we switch up the positions mentioned above, then there will obviously be consequences. Those consequences could be the worship breaking down into a fight between the team, or the sports team losing points because no one is cooperating. However, if we mix up our place in Christ, then the consequences will be much much more astronomical than just someone getting angry because someone else was doing their part.
The consequence is life and death.
And this is our position in christ:
Christ is above us, we are always under him, we are subject to him, but we are also protected by him. We are children of God!
We also had some small group questions, but I didn't really fill it in. I just listened to other people's opinions and sharing. I will try and remember what I said, you may also try to answer the following in the comments if you want!
1.How would you describe your position/role in your family? In your group of friends? At school?
I believe I answered my position in regards to my role in the family. I may have two homes, but in every one of them I have become the IT person, I naturally become the one to fix internet problems, and answer questions to smartphone problems or features. So yeah, that's my position!
2. If someone asked you to count your blessings how would you do that? What would be on your list? What would be on top?
I don't think I answered every single question here, but I do kinda remember the collective answer of my small group. We didn't get to "how to count your blessings", but we did answer the other ones. The things on our list of blessings would be getting to Camp Mini Yo We safe and without anymore technical difficulties after the tire, being able to grow up in a christian family and being able to attend PCA. My top blessing was being able to come to Canada, because there could have always been that 50% chance that my parents would have decided that planning everything was too much and they would just give up and let me stay in HK. I'm glad and sad that they did that... but that is another tale for another time. :D
3. Reflect on your position in Christ. Now reflect on the prepositions of Ephesians 1. Do they make you feel secure?
Now, if you don't know what prepositions are, then, my friend, you were like me. But prepositions are words that describe how something is, like "in" or "with" or "without". Examples of prepositions in regards to making one feel secure would be " In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will..." or " In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit...". And our group concluded that we could feel absolutely secure in the promises of God, just by looking at the way Paul used the prepostitions!
So this concludes the first day of the retreat. I will most like get through three posts because it's long weekend the coming week, the last two might have a bit of a gap between them. But I will try and write consistently until I get through all of the days.
So I hope you guys enjoyed reading my thoughts, or my reflections. You are more than welcome to respond in the comments!
Stay tuned!
and BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
Retreat is tomorrow!!!!!!!!! And......
......I ACTUALLY CAN'T WAIT BUT MY GOSH I DO HOPE MY SOCIAL ANXIETY DOESN'T GET IN THE WAY!!!!!!!!
So, I don't think I have stated this here in my blog, truth be told, I have not written in a long time. So.... it is literally the meme : WHOOSH! I HAVE CRIPPLING ANXIETY AND SOCIAL ANXIETY!
Basically, my both my disorders have lessened, but I am not particularly close to the grade 11's in my school and I am very very afraid that I will NOT end up in a group with my friends. This is the greatest..... sigh.....
So(this is the third time I've said "so" in this post, huh!), I am hopin' with all me heart and all me soul and all me strength that all will be fine and I will be in a group with my friends.
Oh! And, I will not be posting any pictures on Instagram, but rather more I will be tagged in photos, so go to my account to see what photos I've been tagged in to get latest news/views/me looking like a grumpy cat/me looking like a witch.
Yay!!
BTW, handle is @k4china_the_wolf
Okay, cheers,
STAY TUNED AND
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!11
So, I don't think I have stated this here in my blog, truth be told, I have not written in a long time. So.... it is literally the meme : WHOOSH! I HAVE CRIPPLING ANXIETY AND SOCIAL ANXIETY!
Basically, my both my disorders have lessened, but I am not particularly close to the grade 11's in my school and I am very very afraid that I will NOT end up in a group with my friends. This is the greatest..... sigh.....
So(this is the third time I've said "so" in this post, huh!), I am hopin' with all me heart and all me soul and all me strength that all will be fine and I will be in a group with my friends.
Oh! And, I will not be posting any pictures on Instagram, but rather more I will be tagged in photos, so go to my account to see what photos I've been tagged in to get latest news/views/me looking like a grumpy cat/me looking like a witch.
Yay!!
BTW, handle is @k4china_the_wolf
Okay, cheers,
STAY TUNED AND
BYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!11
Monday, May 8, 2017
I be back...the reprise...
Hi everyone, thanks for sticking with this blog which I assure you will ACTUALLY really actually be updated more. But, fun and giggles aside, this blog will be meant for more... mature thoughts... if one must describe it.
However, not all fun or immature jokes will be lost! But.. yeah, just expect a little change in attitude towards my posts and a little change in the style...
Because honestly, I don't really remember how the posts used to go... sorry guys.
So yeah! There are some things that will never change, such as my outro, the font(which my friend said was an overrated one) and also the theme.
Yes, I am totally not bothered to change the theme because orange is a happy color and we all need some more happiness in our lives.
I also made a Tumblr account on a whim. Please do not look for me, and please do not kill me. Please do not follow me either because I just made it... on a whim.
I have a banquet later tonight, and then a bunch of tests, and then two back-to-back retreats. Busy. But the retreat week means that I will have no internet access and if you wanna follow my status or my updates you may follow my Instagram.
Yes... after 4 years of persuasion and nags(which fell on deaf ears for the entire time), I got Instagram. Yay, I'm hip with the kids!
Ugh....
Anyways, time to prep for the banquet. #Happy1othAnniversarySGBC
No hate pleze!
PEACE!!
Instagram:@k4china_the_wolf
However, not all fun or immature jokes will be lost! But.. yeah, just expect a little change in attitude towards my posts and a little change in the style...
Because honestly, I don't really remember how the posts used to go... sorry guys.
So yeah! There are some things that will never change, such as my outro, the font(which my friend said was an overrated one) and also the theme.
Yes, I am totally not bothered to change the theme because orange is a happy color and we all need some more happiness in our lives.
I also made a Tumblr account on a whim. Please do not look for me, and please do not kill me. Please do not follow me either because I just made it... on a whim.
I have a banquet later tonight, and then a bunch of tests, and then two back-to-back retreats. Busy. But the retreat week means that I will have no internet access and if you wanna follow my status or my updates you may follow my Instagram.
Yes... after 4 years of persuasion and nags(which fell on deaf ears for the entire time), I got Instagram. Yay, I'm hip with the kids!
Ugh....
Anyways, time to prep for the banquet. #Happy1othAnniversarySGBC
No hate pleze!
PEACE!!
Instagram:
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