My Bus Girl

As I talked about it here, I have a bus girl!  And today, she was there, and we took the bus together again :)
Touchdown, eye contact has been made.  I got to the bus stop a little late; I’m usually there before she is.  But today, we got there about the same time, or specifically, she got into the bus shelter before I did…I got there a bit huffing n puffing running a bit, and I restlessly said “Hey”… and she looked up at me and said “Morning”!!   Yeah hhahahaha

Some new info: she has a Sony Ericsson W600, using the black faceplate, using it as an mp3 player on her bus rides!  hehehe  she’s an SE girl!  Her purse is actually RLL–that is Lauren by Ralph Lauren.  And today, she wore a different jacket, a sign that spring has arrived!  It’s one of those furry at the hood ones… with a waist-length jacket, she was wearing different pants today too, a pair that showed off her figure a bit.  ok, i’m being a bit conservative in my language here!  I’ll just leave it at that…. I liked what I saw ;)
The goal: to say “Good morning” from now on =D

Starting off to be a good day even though I’m pretty tired…thanx bus girl!  (she better not find my blog lol, but then again if she did, she must know me, even tho I don’t know her. Muchly tempted today to take a pic of her…maybe next time.  Tomorrow?  or will it be Tuesday?  Seems like our schedules meet on Tues & Thurs.)

A mere shadow

[Read Colossians 2:16-23]

I really would love to talk about v.18-23 & the whole self-made religion thing, especially in light of the ‘emerging’ ways church and christianity is being done…but I’m quite tired & would rather direct you to an article by D.A. Carson on this developing concern(Excuse my rightwing-bias; I’m sure Ling-Ling can help us out with the other side of the story)

About v.16-17…

“Part of what the Colossians were going through was a judgment from people that were insisting they follow the Jewish Law. These Gentile Christians weren’t eating kosher foods, and weren’t following the Jewish calendar of holy days.

In reality, Paul could have simply said, “Look guys. The council at Jerusalem already decided that you Gentile Christians aren’t subject to the Jewish law.  As long as you abstain from meat sacrificed to idols and from blood and from what is strangled and from fornication (Acts 21:25), you’re fine.  But instead, He made a statement that is as deep as any in the entire Bible. He said that these things of Jewish Law…
Col. 2:17are a {mere} shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.

This is fascinating! What does it mean? Jesus told the Jews,
John 5:39 “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is these that bear witness of Me.”

(Pastor Ron Daniel)

God in Christ is the source of our faith, and thus our justification…we are saved by grace & justified through faith alone….Made righteous, given a right legal standing before God, acquitted of all our wrong doings once and for all.  And this righteousness is of God, and not of ourselves, for in our self-power and self-trying of striving to obey the law, we find ourselves complete miserable failures.  In our natural unregenerate state, we have no ability to approach God…and even as Christians, by our own strength and striving we cannot fulfill the requirements of His law, unable to perfectly obey what God commands of us.

But God already knew before the foundation of the world, that we cannot live out the Christian lives ourselves.  But God’s plan is this, to put the One who can live the Christian life, inside of the one who can’t live the Christian life, so that the One who can live the Christian life …will live the Christian life inside of the one who can’t live the Christian life!!

May it this be our goal: to stop trying & to start dying…to surrender to the power of Christ that is within us.

I think I found the 2!

To understand what the title exactly means, if you didn’t already, I suggest listening to Louie’s opening talk @ Passion06 (near the last 5 minutes of it), which is available here.

leah_miller.jpgI am soo very joking about that really, but it just felt soo good to say hahahaha!

I don’t know where I’ve been all this time, but apparently, this girl has been around for a while now…but dang, I think I’ll hafta watch more tv: she’s just soo hot and adorable, and she’s a blonde!

I know some of you out there dislike person’s who like her…well then, I guess add me to your list.

More info of this gorgeous MuchMusic personality is available here…and you can catch her on shows like MuchOnDemand, The It List, Much 911, as well as Video on Trial and the current SpringBreak06.  SpringBreak06 has some more candid real-life clips of her enjoying spring break in Florida…a must see;)

Anywayz, had a pretty good day today…all because my bus girl was taking the same bus today. (I recall having a similarily good day last Thursday!)  She usually gets on at the same bus stop as me, just outside my house, and taking the 7:52am 132Milner bus to STC together.  She’s Chinese, or at least Asian, and she’s wear’s this black wool coat everytime, and either wears black slacks or pine-stripe pants, carrying a little grey/white Guess handbag, and sometimes with black plastic-rimed glasses if she neglects her contacts.  Today she was carrying this big red Guess shopping bag full of God knows what, lots of stuff… Today she sat behind me.  Arriving at STC, she’s usually one of the first to get off the bus, rushing to get up to the Rapid Train, to head westbound to Kennedy. 

She prefers getting onto the very front of the RT train, usually standing by the door furthest front-left, but today she took a seat.  Once at Kennedy, I loose track of her coz it seems she prefers to sit at the back of the subway train, whereas I prefer to stay at the 2nd car from the front.  I’d follow her, but lol what’s the point…that’d really be stalking her if I did.

What’s weird is that after all this time of riding the same bus together (at least once a week since the beginning of this year), she always does not make eye contact, smile at me, or even make a peep of a sound of “hello” or “hi”, like every other regular rider I meet does.  Maybe there’s some unspoken tension between us.  After all, she’s a gal, and I’m a guy…and we’re both Asian’s around the same age.  If only she knew that I’ve previously only had a thing for younger gals, then she’d know there’s nothing to be worried about LOL!  (Coz yeh, by the looks of it, she commutes to work & seems to be done schooling).

Anwayz, that’s her. I don’t know her name, or her background; just that she lives on John Tabor Trail (at least she comes from that way).  Interesting young lady… As you can see, I am intrigued by her!  Like an enigma waiting to be understood hehehe:)  Looking forward to see if she’ll be on the morning bus again… wish I had a camera phone that wasn’t as obvious of a camera so I could sneak a pic or 3 for y’all readers! …oh well:(

Christian SPAM

I received the email below the other day, and this appeared to be the most Christian-like SPAM that I’ve ever seen!  It’s basically enticing you to be tricked into a money-stealing scheme that appears to be an easy gift of money to me at first :S  I am considering emailing this lady for her to give me $$$…if you want, you could spam her too! 

Feel free to distribute this to your SPAM list. 

From :  obed mark <obedm3773@hotmail.com>
Sent :  March 19, 2006 1:55:13 PM
Subject :  HELLO
Home Address:
No 3A Mohammed Avenue
Safat Kuwait

Dear Alex Leung

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, I am former Mrs. Fatima Aisha Alsabah, now Mrs. Obedin Ikenm, a widow to Late Sheik Mohammed Ikenm, I am 74years old, I am now a new Christian convert, suffering from long time cancer of the breast, from all indications, that my condition is really deteriorating and is quite obvious that I won’t live more than six months, because the cancer stage has gotten to a very bad point.

My late husband was killed during the Gulf war, and during the period of our marriage we couldn’t produce any child. My late husband was very wealthy and after his death, I inherited all his business and wealth. The doctor has advised me that I may not live for more than six months, so I now decided to divide part of this wealth, to contribute to the development of the church in Africa, America and Europe.

I am willing to donate the sum of $10.000,000.00 Million US Dollars to you to help the children of God and help in developing the Churches to see it’s Growth, and the less privileged people in the society. Please I want you to note that, this fund is laying in a Security Company, of which my lawyer will file in application for the change of ownership to your name or your ministry. Lastly I honestly pray that this money when Claimed by you will be used for the said purpose, because I have come to find out that wealth acquisition without Christ is vanity upon vanity. If you have to die says the Lord, keep fit and I will give you the crown of life. May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you.
My private mail box  is obedm333@yahoo.com .

I await your urgent reply.

Yours in Christ

Obedin Ikenm (Mrs)

Office 2007 Beta-1 Technical Refresh

So, the other day, after hearing about how the new Microsoft Office 2007 Beta-1 Technical Refresh released a couple weeks ago was putting a huge server load on Microsoft’s beta server, I was thinking what in the world is so special about this release that ALL the beta testers are getting it immediately!  So curious me, went abouts to download this myself…and first installed it on my desktop to makesure it’s not totally buggy…it wasn’t, and when I ran it for the first time, I was completely amazed by the new Ribbon UI.  (I never installed the original Beta-1)  

If you haven’t tried out the new “Office 12″, you should definitely give it a try (ahem, download it illegally)…the new UI is just amazing… soooo koool!!! LOL  People say it’s hard to learn how to use it, for everybody who’s used to the old “File/Edit/Insert” menu….but I gotta say, once u get used to where everything is on the Ribbon UI, it’ll be so much easier and faster to use Word / Excel / etc… Another kool feature I like is when u highlight some text that u wanna make bold/italics wutever, a mini floating menu fades into view at ur mouse pointer with the basic bold/italics/etc u use often; so intuitive & convenient, with one click and no need for Ctrl+B or dragging ur mouse up to the top menu for bolding!

I then went abouts to install it on Magalene, my laptop–and lo and behold, I’m not enjoying Office 2007!  Considering it is a beta, and I still have a few papers to finish before graduating, I probably shouldn’t be using this for my schoolwork…but what the heck!!  Seems pretty darn good to me, I’m not worried, and taking every precaution just in case something does happen.

So right now, on my laptop, I’m running 3 pieces of Microsoft Beta software:

  • Windows Live Messenger (I’m a “managed beta” tester for this! whatever this means!  If u need an Invite to use the new Messenger, email me, I’ve got some left)
  • Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview (Tabs system is IMHO better than Firefox’s, and the RSS feature in their “Favorites Center” is soo functional–i use it everyday along with the feeds I read thru my live.com homepage!  Double dose of RSS feeds!)
  • Office 2007 Professional (Very very sexy interface, very usable, but not publically available yet)

Along with my slick Vista-like Windows XP theme, I’m pretty proud of my shweet M$ setup…nice n functional, and doesn’t look like a Mac!  Oh, and of course, I use www.live.com as my homepage, and using Custom Domains to host my at sixsteps dot org email (still waiting to get transitioned from their hotmail servers to their mail.live servers).

Check out the screenshot below of my beta toys!

 

Time goes by

There are days when it feels like it takes forever for time to pass by…when u’re in the trenches of schoolwork, or just plain busyness/stress, and u just want it to be over quick.  And then there are days that just fly by so quickly u just wish u could press pause so u cud savour the moment.

Right now, it’s a mix of both.   It’s been a long week, with 2 midterms…But I got through them, I worked ‘harder’…and now, I’ve only 5 weeks of Ryerson University left.  Yes, that is 5 weeks including Final Exams…. I am done and done my schooling for my BA in Geographic Analysis after my last exam on Friday April 21!

I’ve had a lot of quiet time lately… a lot of times to myself.  I haven’t made much plans to meet friends for meals lately, or even to chill n catchup.  I’ve actively just let myself be more by myself…a lot of time to think, meditate, pray, to reminisce, to look back and remember how this journey to this point in life has been.  In looking forward, I see so much possibilities, it’s pretty clear in my life where I want to go and where God wants me to go, so I’ve no fear about life after graduation.  …It’s just that in looking forward, I also look back.  sighs… I look back and see what my past year, past 4 years has been like.  I think back on all the friends I’ve made, and how we’ve grown up and grown older together, and all that we have experienced as friends, as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And when I think back upon my life, I cry.  The more moments I look back on, I cry a bit more for every one.  They are tears of joy and thankfulness for all that we’ve been blessed with…but moreover, they are tears of sadness: the loss of friendship and contact that is eminent, the time and distance that will separate us.  It’s like, here today and gone tomorrow.  I feel like I’m–we–are at crossroads.  For the past few years, our lives have come together from so many different backgrounds to meet at this juncture, and soon enough, we will be going our separate ways.  At least I will be. 

The time we have together is drawing to an end.  For some, I won’t ever see you again, or talk to you much even…our lives crossed for a few moments and may not ever again.  For others, and especially those select few whom I cherish dearly, I really wish, hope and pray that our lives will be forever interwined intimately….I wish, hope, and pray…and still knowing that such likely will not happen.  Part of the reason is because we’re just doing such different things/living such different lives, and another part of it is me…I’m running towards some things in life (maybe ~sighs~ even running away from some things) and it breaks my heart to know that you won’t be a part of it…  Sacrifices that I’m gonna hafta make in order to truly be happy, to fulfill the calling God has put upon my life.

Maybe I’m naive, or too emotional…but I’ll be honest.  Our square, the 4 of us…I always hoped we could stay close friends for the rest of our lives together on this earth.  I promise you with everything I am, from the bottom of my heart–that I will make every effort to stay connected to our community faith that we’ve built up.  But as usual (I don’t know why it has to be like this), it’s not in my hands; I don’t have control over this…  I know God has control over all things, and has His will of decree that includes all of us..but He also has His will of command, and I know for sure that He calls us to never give up meeting with one another.

And so, I just pray for obedience.  Obedience for myself to obey Him…and for you, whomever you are, that is reading this: humble obedience.

Thanx to a friend and brother in Christ who shared this with me…u know who u are.  It’s helped me in understand the whole process…and so, if it could be edifying to my readers, I thought I’d post it.  I still wear my old CCF bracelet from last year’s Lent; I never really wore it during Lent 2005, but I’ve been wearing it continuously since Easter 2005.  Seeing how that wearing it along with my watch on my left hand kinda hinders me from typing on my lappy, I thought this was a double reminder:

To “let go” does not mean to stop caring;
it means I can’t do it for someone else.

To “let go” is not to cut myself off;
it is the realisation that I can’t control another.

To “let go” is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.

To “let go” is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.

To “let go” is not to try to change or blame another;
it is to make the most of myself.

To “let go” is not to care for,
but to care about.

To “let go” is not to “fix”,
but to be supportive.

To “let go” is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.

To “let go” is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own destinies.

To “let go” is not to be protective;
it is to permit another to face reality.

To “let go” is not to deny,
but to accept.

To “let go” is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but instead to search out my own shortcomings and to correct them.

To “let go” is not to is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes, and to cherish myself in it.

To “let go” is not to criticise and regulate anybody,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.

To “let go” is not to regret the past,
but to grow and to live for the future.

To “let go” is to fear less and to love more.

>There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.  We love because he first loved us. (1John 4:18-19 ESV) 

Perplexity and unsettlement

If I were to ask you, “What is the most urgent task facing evangelical Christians today?”, what would you say? 

J.I. Packer says that “one of the most urgent tasks facing evangelical Christendom today” is simply the recovery of the gospel.”

“Why so?,” you ask. Here’s his answer:

“There is no doubt that evangelicalism today is in a state of perplexity and unsettlement.  In such matters as the practice of evangelism, the teaching of holiness, the building up of local church life, the pastor’s dealing with souls and the exercise of discipline, there is evidence of widespread dissatisfaction with things as they are and of equally widespread uncertainly as to the road ahead.  This is a complex phenomenon, to which many factors have contributed; but, if we go to the root of the matter, we shall find that these perplexities are all ultimately due to our having lost our grip on the biblical gospel. Without realizing it, we have during the past century bartered that gospel for a substitute product which, though it looks similarly enough in points of detail, is as a whole a decidedly different thing.  Hence our troubles; for the substitute product does not answer the ends for which the authentic gospel has in past days proved itself so mighty.

“We would suggest that the reason lies in its own character and content.  It fails to make men God-centered in their thoughts and God-fearing in their hearts because this is not primarily what it is trying to do.  One way of stating the difference between it and the old gospel is to say that it is too exclusively concerned to be “helpful” to man— to bring peace, comfort, happiness, satisfaction— and too little concerned to glorify God.  The old gospel was “helpful,” too— more so, indeed, that is the new—but (so to speak) incidentally, for its first concern was always to give glory to God.  It was always and essentially a proclamation of divine sovereignty in mercy and judgment, a summons to bow down and worship the mighty Lord on whom man depends for all good, both in nature and in grace.  Its center of reference was unambiguously God.  But in the new gospel the center of reference is man.  This is just to say that the old gospel was religious in a way that the new gospel is not.  Whereas the chief aim of the old was to teach people to worship God, the concern of the new seems limited to making them feel better.  The subject of the old gospel was God and his ways with men; the subject of the new is man and the help God gives him.   There is a world of difference.  The whole perspective and emphasis of gospel preaching has changed.

J.I. Packer’s Introductory Essay to
John Owen’s The Death of Death in the Death of Christ.