Category: What else?
What is Love?
WHAT IS LOVE?
“Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” ―Anaïs Nin
Anaïs Nin, whose wisdom on love knew no bounds, in A Literate Passion: Letters of Anaïs Nin & Henry Miller, 1932-1953: What is love but acceptance of the other, whatever he is.
“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that’s what you’ve given me. That’s what I’d hoped to give you forever.” ―Nicholas Sparks
“Love is a fire. But whether it is going to warm your hearth or burn down your house, you can never tell.” ―Joan Crawford
“I heard what you said. I’m not the silly romantic you think. I don’t want the heavens or the shooting stars. I don’t want gemstones or gold. I have those things already. I want…a steady hand. A kind soul. I want to fall asleep, and wake, knowing my heart is safe. I want to love, and be loved.” ―Shana Abe
“Anyone who loves in the expectation of being loved in return is wasting their time.” ―Paulo Coelho
“Love is a decision, it is a judgment, it is a promise. If love were only a feeling, there would be no basis for the promise to love each other forever. A feeling comes and it may go. How can I judge that it will stay forever, when my act does not involve judgment and decision.” ―Erich Fromm
“Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.” ―Deborah Reber
Katharine Hepburn in Me : Stories of My Life: Love has nothing to do with what you are expecting to get — only with what you are expecting to give — which is everything.
James Baldwin in The Price of the Ticket: Collected Non-fiction, 1948-1985: Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.
What is love to you?
How you see yourself?
Here is something funny to share. See my selfies with different makeup style? (I did not realize that they are so tiny when I made the collages…)How powerful! I don’t need to do makeup anymore, and my cell phone can fix it up for me. Just need to make sure I wash my face before I go out.
The point I want to state here is that we can’t really know God if we don’t know Him through Jesus; like you don’t see the real me if you are not standing in front of me. If you don’t spend time with me, you won’t know my personality. If you don’t spend time reading the Bible, you won’t recognize His voice. There are so many different stories in the old testament portray the Yehovah that beyond our understanding. But when Jesus came, everything fell into places.
Christian Book List
如果你想要更多的学习更多的阅读，我这里有一张之前我在上SoKM发的书单。希望能帮助到你：Christian Extra Reading List
照这个照片的那一周是Holy week. Easter. Daniel的讲道和展示非常的清晰明了。谢谢！那只小羊羔也选的很棒。可怜的小🐑
财富
这周，关于财富的话题源源不断地扑面而来。在团契里就在讨论雅各在财富上得到的恩典，他和舅舅拉班之间的尔虞我诈。在生活中就是又到了交信用卡和水电费的日子，但我没有足够的钱还账。然后便是妈妈赡养我汇钱给我，让我很内疚自己都这么大了还没有经济独立。而更内疚的是我还不情愿找工作。随之而来的是自己对自己挫败的反省，有一封不知道怎么回复的邮件和一个期盼又落空的心情。物色到好的房子但是没有那么多钱投资，想要做的业务又没有启动资金去运转。我想要地上的财富，我觉得地上的财富牵绊了我的脚步。 Continue reading
Claire in Worship Team
歌词有些许的改编 PDF版本的 Oceans 还有， Continue reading
Calling!
I highly recommend you to use biblegateway.com when you are reading the Bible. This website can displace many translations of the same book on the screen. I tried four different translations at the same time. The reason for you to have more than one translation is that you may have a better understanding of the verse. You don’t have to read all different translations, but you can have supplements when you run into questions. Same concept as the cross reference.
I felt like I should expand the explanations of cross reference, for those who just started to study the bible. 并且我觉得应该用中文来讲解，因为在美国的文化背景下，很多和圣经相关的知识都是代代相传，所以用英文讲解的意义不大。但在中国，圣经知识的普及并不是这样普遍。教育程度的差异大大的形成了两种基督徒学习圣经的方式。教育程度高的基督徒拥有训练好的学习方式，使他们可以追求对经文，对圣经，对整个基督教更加细致的理解，这和大多数学科尖端是一样的，精益求精变成了一种超越精神层次的追求。在这个端点的基督徒会运用他们的技能，大量的渴求外来的，外语的，甚至是希腊语的基督教相关的知识。教育程度低的基督徒往往局限在对于学习工具的使用上。比如他们不懂外语，学习资料就局限在中文的读物。比如说他们不擅长使用网络搜索，他们能了解的基督教相关的发展和前景就局限了在了本地教会。我说的是普遍状况，不是完全的归纳。这些相互影响的因素环环相扣，我们就会发现，在大城市，教育程度高的群体中，学习圣经的方式层出不穷。但在乡下农村教育程度极低的地区，圣经可能只是比律法多了一层含义：谁提出的要求，为什么提出，遵守后会有什么回报。
当然，不排开很多不同宗派的基督徒对于学习圣经的重视性，有些基督徒可能觉得读经只是可有可无的。基督教，这个信仰是每一个人和神的关系，是自己的选择，是自己的承诺。我觉得出于尊重，每个人做的决定，没有什么所谓的对错。我只希望能鼓励大家一起来读经，完成和神承诺了的事情。 就像是修一门课，你没有写完作业会很着急会很紧张。你最后上完了这门课会很有收获。为着你学到的知识和你完成的课业你可能会心满意足，完全不在意之前焦躁的过程。我希望2016年把圣经读一遍的过程也能是这样果实累累。
是的，写到最后，我还是没有讲解，什么是cross reference。 :DDDDD
“Hey Siri, what does cross reference mean?”
Oceans, Hillsong
Let’s try this song with Chinese Lyrics. Welcome all comments and suggestions!
歌词如下
Continue reading
交友與婚姻
婚姻是戀愛的墳墓嗎？我們教會的青年人，照著這教導而進入婚姻的，都異口同聲地說：婚姻是神所配合的，是神聖的、是美好的！這套信息幫助您預備自己適合進入婚姻， 也有實際的方法教您如何藉著禱告、觀察、或牧者及長輩的幫助，看到神為您所預備的那一位！
1 John 1
Before I share my thoughts about this passage, I would like to state a testimony. God spoke to me and instructed me to read the bible specifically. Really specific.. Really specific. . Really specific.! 重要的事情说三遍。 So, the whole story goes like this. This morning, I was trying to make a reading plan for one year Bible and searched and printed out a resources page (Click here for the calendar list if you are interested).. But the plan is for 2016, you know, I just saved a Word file and printed it out, and wait for 2016 to come. This afternoon, I visited a friend from the church (Mr. W) to pick up my pink 冰糖葫芦 pen. I told him that I was enjoying listening to sermons because they are interesting and easy to access. Just play a podcast while you are working, or tidying your room. He said reading Bible is more important than listening to sermons, and I should be spending more time reading the bible instead of listening to sermons. OK, I thought. But, God is not Ok with me just thinking ok. Later, during a conversation with another friend (Darling C), she felt that God is encouraging me to read the Bible, and she would like to be my reading inspector. When do you want to start, she asked. Today, I said, I am going to read 1 John 1-2. That is too long, she said, you need to be more focus. Then 1 John it is.
I opened the app Bible on my cell phone and started to listen to that passage while pasting the printed schedule on my notebook, my magnificent 2016 year plan. Sudden, a question comes to my mind, you see, 1 John is at the very end of the bible, and the bible plan I have instructed me to read old testament in the morning and new testament at night, which means… I looked through these papers in front of me.
Woo..
God, I heard you. I am going to read the Bible and hear what you want to say to me. Thank you for being so direct to me even I was complaining why I felt you don’t talk to me these days. Thank you!
———–华丽的分割线————
有很多可以分享的想法，这里只挑重点：
1 John 1: 5 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.
I recalled the time that I was so terrified after praying for a friend who was demonized. I thought the demon was going to come to me. Those two nights, I could not sleep. I found funny when I look back, how naive. I should have read the Bible earlier. I should try to seek God’s words earlier. I should know He is the light, in Him, why I am afraid of the darkness? Darkness should be afraid of Him.
1 John 1: 7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
This reminds me of the conversation I had with a classmate who claims that a good life is to enjoy the moment and have fun with the girls. A Christian life is never an easy life. I don’t want any of those images and those lifestyles. I want to be like Jesus, and I want to live the right way. I want to make God happy, and I know He teaches me the rules for my own good.
I pray that God could guide me walking in the light, teach me how to be a better person, prepare me to serve Him in the near future. In Jesus name, AMEN.
*Joy Life* 