Love is such a strange thing

Love...is such a strange thing. Some time ago, (I think about 1 year ago) I listened to this chinese song called 為你寫詩-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML1R6wl_dlE&feature=related When translated it means 'write a poem for you'. I don't know why I like that song so much but ever since then it has become my ringtone. The first phrase of the song is 'love is such a strange thing'. Now that I think of it again, love is really a strange thing. As the song will tell later on, (if you understand mandarin) love makes you do impossible things. In the song the author writes that because of love, he learned how to play piano, learn how to write love poem, learn how to sing love songs and even went crazy! XD

Why is love so powerful that it can make us do funny things even? I remember when i was in first year in law school, I did many stupid things for love. Sadly, it din't work out and I was left with a huge scar in my heart. And then in second year I did the same thing again (why o why are you so stupid Jason??) Anyway, I have learnt my lesson and I'm very cautious now. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself because I really cant take it anymore!!!! God please help me to love again!

And that leads me to why is it that God shows love to us by sending Jesus to die for our sins?? Isn't it strange that you have to send your loved ones to die for your own creation? The answer? Sacrificial love. Some call it Grace. Sometimes I just stop asking and just praise God for his wonderful love for us. We are all sinners, unworthy of anything at all from God but still he loves us, just like how a father loves his child.

So what is love anyway? The Bible provides an answer in 1 Corinthians 13.

"Love is patient and kind,

love does not envy or boast,

it is not arrogant or rude,

it does not insist on its own way,

it is not irritable or resentful,

it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.

Love bears all things, hopes all things, believe all things, endure all things,

Love never ends,

...so now faith, hope and love abide, these three;

but the greatest of these is love."

Thank you Lord for your Love!!!

P.S. I want to dedicate this post to my friend Beatrice. Beatrice, please take care ya =) *hugs*

淚海

愛已不能動　還有什麼值得我心痛

想你的天空　下起雨來 沒人心疼的黑夜

臉頰兩行鹹鹹的淚水 是你　哦是你

讓我望穿淚水　肝腸寸斷

你怎麼捨得讓我的淚流向海 付出的感情永遠　找不回來

你怎麼捨得讓我的愛流向海 傷心的往事一幕幕就像潮水 將我淹埋

閉上了雙眼　還看見和你的纏綿

眼角的淚水　洗不去心中 一遍一遍的誓言

Things you don't know about me

10 Things you don't know about me:

1. I like to read.

2. I hate it when people give me something that I don't want.

3. I find clowns amusing.

4. My favorite cake is banana cheese cake.

5. I snore when I sleep.

6. My ambition is to be a lawyer.

7. I love to sing karaoke.

8. I hate dogs.

9. I am quite hardworking.

10. I can sing very well.

If you know me, you will know that the 10 things above is not true at all. =p

Student Exchange Program to Thailand

First of all, I would like to apologize for not updating my blog for soooo long. (Shona and Bernice, don't be mad ya)

So what is so special about this student exchange program(SEP)? ITS FUN thats why!!! Its like an all paid(okla, almost) trip for holiday! My faculty started this exchange program last year and there were three universities from Thailand, China and Indonesia who were involved. And I was selected to go for the SEP in Thailand, the land of smiles! =) The duration of the SEP is about a month.

We left for Thailand on the 10th of Dec 2010. The University that I stayed in is called Prince of Songkla University which was situated in Hat Yai, South of Thailand. When we reached there(there were 20 of us in total), we were welcomed warmly by the Thai students and 2 faculty staffs, P'jeab and Arjan(Teacher) Joy.

I love their university! They even have a science museum with a statue of a dinosaur! And they have a big lake near the guest house where we were staying. The guest house was very comfortable but the toilet is kinda small.(When i say small, its really small)

The students there are very friendly even though their English is not that good. I learned a lot about the Thai culture and its people. During the first week, we visited a few places like the floating market and the flea market(shopping!!!) I shall not talk about the academic activities because its boring =p But I like the Thai language class because it was conducted by the Thai students. Thai girls are so cute!!!

At the end of the week, we had a cultural performance and yours truly had to dance and sing! Dancing was ok but the singing part was a nightmare for me =( The Thai students performance were way better than us. They even have a gay dance!

During the second week, we did nothing much except attending classes. Then at the end of the second week, we packed our bags and went for a study trip(more like shopping trip) to Bangkok!!!! The journey took almost 18 hours (@.@) because the bus had some problems. Ohya, I celebrated Christmas on the bus by eating some chocolate, Whee~

The Hotel that we stayed in Bangkok was super awesome! Very comfortable^^ We went to many places like the Emerald Buddha palace, the theme park, the Parliament, the Supreme Court, the famous JJ Market and many more shopping malls. I shopped until I got broke =s We then came back to Hat Yai on the 5th day.

On New year's eve, we celebrated the coming new year by watching fire works. One funny thing happen though, before the countdown, suddenly the crowd was running and when we saw them running we also panicked and ran. Then later when we have stopped running, we found out that there was nothing wrong actually. Some of us thought is was a bomb scare but apparently it was just some people fighting =.=!

Thailand was indeed a wonderful experience and I had a good time there. Wish I could stay there longer =\ Thank you amazing Thailand!!!! =)

Here are some pics for your viewing pleasure:

The airplane that I sat.

Local transport taxi aka "tuk tuk"
Floating Market
My discussion group
Cultural Night
Songkla beach
Jumping for joy at the high steps of a Buddhist temple
Siam Paragon, one of the famous shopping malls in Bangkok
The emerald Buddha Palace

Justice Pao

Today was my second time watching an accident happened right in front of my eyes. It happened around 10.10am. Between a car and a motorcycle. (That time I was riding a bicycle on my way to my friend, KY's house.) The motorcyclist was wrong because it was moving in the wrong lane and the driver din't noticed her when she turned left. Thank God there was no other cars around and she was not injured very badly but I felt very sad for her =( There were a number of people(there was a roadside durian stall nearby) who came to help her and carried her besides the road and called ambulance for her. I tried to help her by bringing her things for her. The driver who banged her was a woman and the first thing that she did was shouted at the girl. I thought: Helloooo! She is on the ground crying in pain and the first thing you do is shout at her?! Sigh, this kind of people also got=.=!

Sad thing aside, I went to play badminton that morning with my badminton 'kakis'. I really like playing badminton with them as this was a time where we can enjoy a good game together. Thank you my best friends^_^ you know who you are ;-) Another sad thing is that KY lost his motorcycle keys and we tried to find it everywhere but still no sign of it. In the end KY's dad came and brought him his spare keys. I felt so sorry for him as there were other keys attached to his motorcycle keys...

In the evening I was lazing around at home and I on the TV to see if there was any good programmes to watch. In the end, I decided to watch 'Justice Pao' on TV2. For those who don't know who is Justice Pao, he is a famous judge during the Song Dynasty. He is famous because he is not partial and fair when he decides a case. He has unique facial feature, a crescent on his forehead. And that show is in mandarin.

In that particular episode, the King's mother was sad when her son did not come and received her when she returned to the palace. When the King knew about it, he wanted to make amends so he asked her to come to his royal palace. The King and his advisors were there including Justice Pao. When the King's mother finally came, she came in with her eyes closed. The King was puzzled and asked her: "Mother, why are you not opening your eyes and look at me? Is there a problem with your eyes?" And she replied:"There is no problem at all. I did not open my eyes because when I came back you did not received me and you did not even look at me. You have not acknowledge me as your mother so how can I look at you now and acknowledge you as my son? I am not your mother and you are not my son!" From this the King quickly bowed down(when the King bowed down, everyone in the room also bowed with him) in front of her and begged for her forgiveness.

The King's mother shed a few tears and finally opened her eyes for just a few seconds. Then she quickly closed back and said:"No... how can I forgive you so easily? This does not do justice for the countless mothers in the world. If I had forgiven you so easily, then no mother would dare to give birth to a child anymore. I have suffered labour for you in my belly for 10 months, I was accused falsely, rejected by my household, betrayed, persecuted, and cast out to live outside of the palace for many years... I suffered so much... and everything that I did, it was for you." When she said this, a few of the officials around the king was already shedding tears. The king then begged her to punish him and promised her that he will accept any punishment.

The king's mother thought for a while and saw Justice Pao in the corner and asked him:"Will you judge for me the punishment for a son who was not filial to his mother?" Justice Pao was stunned. The king told Justice Pao to do as she said. Justice Pao then went back and thought about it but couldn't seem to find a solution to the problem because haven't in the history of the chinese that a king is punished before. He sought the advice of a wise counsellor and he got the answer.

The next day, Justice Pao and the King and his mother was in court. The law at that time states that if a son is not filial to his parents, he will be punished either by imprisonment or be whipped. It is also stated that every man is equal in the sight of law, so even a king can be punished like a normal citizen. The punishment would also be the same. And he gave the judgement that the King be whipped 20 times! Hearing this, the King's mother was stunned and from the show you can see that she feared for her son. The King remain calm and accepted the decision. However, Justice Pao said since the law states that no officer can whip the king, he ordered that the King's royal robes be removed and whipped. After this decision the mother forgave the King and they were happy again.

So that's the end of the story, sorry if I din't translate it that well but I think you would understand better if you watch it. I can only hope and pray that judges in Malaysia can be partial and fair and not be political in their judgments... (sigh)

P.S. Sorry ya no pictures to show =p

Motive of Our Commitment

At last I am back in my dear old hometown, Bukit Mertajam for the Raya break! Took a night train and arrived at 5am this morning. Felt kinda sad that I will have to go back to KL on the 9th of Sept because my parents are going down at that time so I have to follow them.(which means I will only be in Penang for like 4 days only >_<) After reaching home, I had 2 hours of sleep before being woken up for church.

Today's church sermon was so good that I decided to put it in my post! And the sermon was preached by non other than Pastor Khoo himself. =) The passage today was taken from Romans 12:1(Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.) The title is 'Motive of Our Commitment'. He started by saying that people can be committed to certain things(e.g. work) for various reasons. Those various reasons are:

a) Commitment out of fear

-he gave the example that some people study hard because of the fear of the word 'F'. If you know what I mean ;-) He said that even Christians do that. They often have this paganistic view of God. And they think if they do something wrong God will punish them. And that we tend to see every problem as a punishment from God.

b) Commitment with ulterior motives

-Often than not a worker is committed to his company because he wants to get a promotion. In the same way, many people worship their God in the hope that God will bless them materially, or give them good health, etc.

c)Commitment as payment of vows

-Sometimes we 'bargain' with God and when God fulfilled it, we then return our part of the bargain. For exp, "If God heal my illness, I will serve Him for three years."

However, those reasons should not be the motive of our commitment! According to Paul, his answer is THE MERCIES OF GOD! Our commitment should be motivated by a deep gratitude to God for his mercies. But why did Paul used the word 'appealed'? That is because commitment must come from a WILLING heart! Real commitment cannot be forced.

Then Ps. Khoo gave an illustration which I think is really good. Here goes: One guy asked a missionary this:"Why do you, a good man, give up everything for God?" The missionary replied:"First of all you made two mistake in your question. The first mistake is that you call me a good man. Now if you know how sinful I am, all the lies that I have told, all those wrong things that I have done and how I still struggle each day with sin, you won't be saying I'm a good man. Your second mistake is what have I given compare to what God has given me?"

There are times when we think that we have served enough. And when we start to think that God owes us something, we become calculative. "We have done so much, why are we not receiving anything?"

Then Ps. Khoo moved to the second part: 'The method of our commitment'

1)Present your bodies to God.

-but why 'bodies' and not just 'yourself'? Answer: Commitment is using our physical bodies for God's purposes.

Third part: "The manner of our commitment"

The Greek translations reads: Present your bodies as a sacrifice - living, holy and acceptable to God.

1) We should be throbbing with life for God.

-Our mind should be actively thinking of God's work.

2)It should be Holy, that is set apart equal for God exclusively.

-In other words, we cannot serve 2 masters.

-Ps. Khoo gave us the example of a husband and wife. He then asked: "Who among you would like to share your spouse with another person?" Of course you would not want that. In fact, you would demand that your spouse belong to you exclusively! So is it unreasonable for God to expect this commitment? God is not that harsh. He does not file for a divorce. Instead He still loves us just the way we are=)

3)It should be acceptable to God, that is, doing what God wants us to do.

-We do what our boss tells us to do but we give God lesser than that.

-Therefore, we should do what our Master requires us to do.

Conclusion:

When you think of what he has done for you is this too much to ask? this got me thinking about my commitment to God. Am I serious towards Him? Am I putting my whole mind and body and soul for God?

Anyway, after church, I met up with Beatrice for lunch. Had a good chat=) Then, I followed my parents for shopping in Jusco, Seberang Perai. So in another conclusion, IT'S GOOD TO BE BACK!!! ^_^