The reflecting theologian

Why Christmas crossroad? In some ways, these days, it has been a bit difficult sometime to really sit down and blog. I guess I have arrived at the stage that when I blog, I want to organise my thoughts and come out with a really good post, or at least one that satisfactorily expresses out my emotions. That's why nowadays it takes me a long while to blog in one post. Christmas crossroad? Christmas is coming, and as a Christ follower, it's definitely a season to look forward to. Someone whom I know once said to me, "Christmas is coming, so what?" I would say it mean a lot. Symbolically, it represents the day God sent His one and only Son to the world, the day when Jesus was born. Why symbolically? Because this is not really the day He was born, but can count it in, since we would need an occasion to commemorate this historical event. In some way, you know that Christmas, as a religious festival, is way off different from other holidays we have in Singapore. It is perhap...

I'm figuring out figures for my venture project right now... Still trying to write my leadership project on Steve Jobs... seems that the group is not that dynamics. Got 2 more essays due at around the same time... Wondering what's next? Stressed up?

I have been recently thinking about the multi-cultural and multi-racial nature of Singapore. Despite being an active grassroot leader for the past few years, and not being exactly disapproving of what the government is doing in the country, and being supportive of the PAP government, I finally come to the conclusion that despite our government's best effort, Singapore's multi-cultural nature does have its dark side after all. It's not that serious, and does not affect majority of the Singaporeans but this aspect is something I have observed based on my own identity as a grassroot leader. And this aspect is apparent in grassroot activities more than anything else. And it is that grassroot activities are more than often not Christian-friendly. I understand that it may sound radical and it might even get me into trouble. But I would say that there is justification to this and this is also some reasons why grassroot organisation as a whole, may not be adequate to reach out to t...

*This may be one of my strongest post so far in this blog. Recently, there had been a lot of hooha about the penal code S377A. In case people dun know what is it about, I quote to you here: "377A. Any male person who, in public or private, commits, or abets the commission of, or procures or attempts to procure the commission by any male person of, any act of gross indecency with another male person, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to 2 years." So what's the issue? People have been appealing online to ask the government to repeal this piece of penal code. And it's all about 'equal rights'... or is it? I have to clarify at this point that I'm not against homosexuals, as a Christian, it is Christ's command that I do my best not to condemn them. But it is His command that I condemn sins, and homosexuality is a sin. Why? And I quote from the best selling book of all time: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven agains...

Recently I have been asked of this question if I am conscious of God in my life. The context of this question lies in the fact that God is a spiritual being whom we can't tangibly interact with. Take it this way, with our friends around us, we are able to interact with them and we know that they are interacting with us, and therefore we are conscious of their presence. In the case of God, we interact with Him, a lot of times, we dun know how He is going to interact with us. Human beings behave as such, that we tend not to be conscious of anything tangible. And this is the fact. However, God wants us to seek Him all the time, and consciousness of God and His Holy Spirit is perhaps something we need in order to lead a holy life that is pleasing to His eyes. And of course, such consciousness is also required for us to improve our personal relationship with God, as we cannot build relationship with someone we are not conscious of. Perhaps the first step starts with knowing for certain ...

As they led him away, they seized Simon from Cyrene, who was on his way in from the country, and put the cross on him and made him carry it behind Jesus. - Luke 23:26 I wonder how Simon of Cyrene had felt when he was carrying the cross with Jesus on that day? Hmm...

Power theory states that there are 5 kinds of powers that a leader can use to influence his followers. They are referent, coercive, legitimate, reward and expert power. Referent Power means the power or ability of individuals to attract others and build loyalty. It's based on the charisma and interpersonal skills of the power holder. Here the person under power desires to identify with these personal qualities, and gains satisfaction from being an accepted follower. Nationalism or Patriotism counts towards an intangible sort of referent power as well. For example, soldiers fight in wars to defend the honour of the country. This is the second least obvious power, but the most effective. Coercive Power means the application of negative influences onto employees. It might refer to the ability to demote or to withhold other rewards. It's the desire for valued rewards or the fear of having them withheld that ensures the obedience of those under power. Coercive Power tends to be the ...

Just now I was travelling from my student's place back to my home. Along the way, I suddenly thought of my cg...or rather not my current cg but my ex-cg, the time when I first joined NUSA3. It was like that: The time this picture was taken, the two sisters standing beside Jessie were not even believers yet. This was how NUSA3 used to look like. That time only me, QP, Robert, Ed, RF and Jessie and Christine (who is not in the picture???). If I never remember wrongly, Yi Shyan joined us the week after this picture was taken. This was followed by Ziwei. Well, you can never forget how your very first cg looks like at the very beginning. The rest was history. The cg grew over the months, together with the NUS ministry and in the end, there was a restructuring, less than a year after this picture was taken. At the point of that restructuring, Robert and RF have already moved on. The cg has changed face couple of times, with Shuyi, Ashleigh and Lishan joining us during UniCamp 2006, then ...

I have reformatted my Linux twice the past few days, and finally I got the look I want... though I must say, I'm still exploring the new look. I have yet reinstalled my old files into the system since Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon is going to be released in a few weeks time. But now, a new look, I have installed avant-window-navigator which suddenly works fine in my laptop. Finally I got a cool dock in my desktop. For effects, I have turned to compiz-fusion instead of beryl, particularly since compiz has already merged with beryl, and compiz-fusion is going to be the next big thing. It has a lot of cool effects such as: I have placed my bottom panel at the side, so that it will not interfere with the look of my awn, but I'm still thinking whether should I delete the panel altogether or not. I'm still using gaim, though my brother recommended me aMSN, but the version for Linux still looks a bit crude for my liking. I also changed the gtk theme so that the whole thing looks like xgl, a...