The reflecting theologian

Beer Quotes by Notables ... Sometimes when I reflect on all the beer I drink, I feel ashamed.Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. I think, "It is better to drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." -- Babe Ruth When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. -- Paul Hornung 24 hours in a day, 24 beers in a case. Coincidence? I think not. -- H.L. Mencken When we drink, we get drunk. When we get drunk, we fall asleep. When we fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. So, let’s all get drunk and go to heaven! -- George Bernard Shaw Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. -- Benjamin Franklin Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was ...

A pilot is flying a small, single-engine, charter plane with a couple of really important executives on board into Seattle airport. There is fog so thick that visibility is 40 feet, and his instruments are out. He circles looking for a landmark and after an hour, he is low on fuel and his passengers are very nervous. At last, through a small opening in the fog he sees a tall building with one guy working alone on the fifth floor. Circling, the pilot banks and shouts through his open window: "Hey, where am I?". The solitary office worker replies: "You're in an airplane.". The pilot immediately executes a swift 275 degree turn and executes a perfect blind landing on the airport's runway five miles away. Just as the plane stops, the engines cough and die from lack of fuel. The stunned passengers ask the pilot how he did it. "Elementary," replies the pilot, "I asked the guy in that building a simple question. The answer he gave me was 100% correct...

Honestly speaking, I sometimes ask myself why I decided to go through all these things. You see, a peril of being in a leadership position is that you get shit sometimes. The peril of being in a leadership position in church is that there is emotional backlash, depending what your people go through. Reflecting over the past few days, I was just thinking that when people in my cg or people whom I am leading and overseeing are experiencing some downtimes, or having some sort of a struggle which may be due to whatever reason, I often suffer as much, if not more, emotionally than I would like to. I don't enjoy it and sometimes, I would rather pay someone else to go through it for me. This is the peril but also I think, the most rewarding of being in a leadership position, that we have the privilege to go through with the people the struggles they are facing and doing whatever things within our means to help them and guide them. This is not just exclusive to leaders, but they often ...

In a certain suburban neighborhood, there were two brothers, 8 and 10 years old, who were exceedingly mischievious. Whenever something went wrong in the neighborhood, it turned out they had a hand in it. Their parents were at their wits’ end trying to control them. Hearing about a minister nearby who worked with delinquent boys, the mother suggested to the father that they ask the minister to talk with the boys. The father agreed. The mother went to the minister and made her request. He agreed, but said he wanted to see the younger boy first and alone. So the mother sent him to the minister. The minister sat the boy down on the other side of his huge, impressive desk. For about five minutes they just sat and stared at each other. Finally, the minister pointed his forefinger at the boy and asked, "Where is God?" The boy looked under the desk, in the corners of the room, all around, but said nothing. Again, louder, the minister pointed at the boy and asked, "Where ...

I have been listening to this song for the past few days. It is a nice song, as with other songs sung by all these chinese PnW bands. It is nice to me especially since my heart language is Chinese and these lyrics are made especially meaningful when expressed in Chinese.

A man has 6 items in his bathroom: a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of Dial soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 437. A man would not be able to identify most of these items.

No, Windows is not a virus. Here's what viruses do: 1. They replicate quickly. ... Okay, Windows does that. 2. Viruses use up valuable system resources, slowing down the system as they do so. ... Okay, Windows does that. 3. Viruses will, from time to time, trash your hard disk. ... Okay, Windows does that too. 4. Viruses are usually carried, unknown to the user, along with valuable programs and systems. ... Sigh.. Windows does that, too. 5. Viruses will occasionally make the user suspect their system is too slow (see 2) and the user will buy new hardware. ... Yup, Windows does that, too. Until now it seems Windows is a virus but there are fundamental differences: Viruses are well supported by their authors, are running on most systems, their program code is fast, compact and efficient and they tend to become more sophisticated as they mature. So Windows is not a virus. ... It's a bug.

But we want to delude ourselves that love is the root. It isn't. It is only the branches. The root is beyond love, a naked kind of isolation, an isolated me, that does not meet and mingle, and never can.'  - D.H Lawrence, Women in Love I had a comment from my previous post asking me why I had not wanted to go ahead to search for a potential life partner who is willing to share the burden. I think, in the context of addressing the issue of loneliness, this is not solving the root of the issue. As D.H Lawrence pointed out (and I dun think he is a devout believer himself but I think he understood), the root is beyond love, is beyond finding companionship. As Ps Jeff likes to say also, you dun find someone for companionship because you are lonely, as two lonely persons will come together to form one lonely couple. After reading Ravi Zacharias and a little on C.S Lewis, together with some reflections of my own, I have come to believe Ravi Zacharias' conclusion about loneliness...

你是我的主.引我走正義路. 高山或低谷.都是你在保護. 萬人中唯獨.你愛我認識我. 永遠不變的應許.這一生都是祝福. 一步又一步.這是恩典之路. 你愛.你手.將我緊緊抓住. 一步又一步.這是盼望之路. 你愛.你手.牽引我走這人生路

TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income. ENRON VENTURE CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank, then execute a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by the majority shareholder who sells, the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on one more. Sell one cow to buy a new president of the United States, leaving you with nine cows. No balance sheet provided with the release. The public buys your bull. AN AMERICAN CORPORATION: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the m...

http://naynauh.blogspot.com/2008/01/mystery-of-loneliness.html 2 plus years back, I posted some thoughts on the mystery of loneliness. Indeed, this is not an easy topic to tackle for a Christian. The very core issue for most of us is that God promises us that He will be with us always, and yet we feel lonely. After serving in church for so many years, perhaps I can say that loneliness is an inevitable part of serving. And I am not mincing my words nor am I kidding. I have come to realise that the loneliest person is the person who does the will of God wholeheartedly, and by that I am sure I am not only referring to myself. And of course, I am not sure how generalised this statement is. But I really feel that those who really believe in the cause of the church are lonely in their pursuit and their service to God. This sounds strange but this is the result of a reflection I was doing on the bus just earlier. It is easy to say that someone who serve and believe in God's Great Co...

Lately I have been pondering on some funny thoughts. You see, the practice of Christianity or any religions in any sense comes with boundaries/guidelines/rules/principles or whatever you want to call it. These are supposed to guide us and direct us in our living. In actual fact, any major world religion will have moral guidelines which instruct us what to do or what not to do. In Christianity, we know that at the very basic, there are two things which we need to obey: love God, love people. Expanding this out and we get the ten commandments. As a follower of Christ and as someone who desires to honor God, the wish to keep within these boundaries is of course a strong one. Now, I am just pondering what if I decide to disregard these rules/boundaries and decide to transgress wilfully. We know that as Christians, we still continue to sin anyway and sin is anything that falls short of the standard of God. Eventually, whether consciously or subconsciously, we will transgress the boundarie...

Top 10 funny store signs 1.Outside a muffler shop: "No appointment necessary, we hear you coming." 2.Outside a hotel: "Help! We need inn-experienced people." 3.On a desk in a reception room: "We shoot every 3rd salesman , and the 2nd one just left." 4.In a veterinarians waiting room: "Be back in 5 minutes, Sit ! Stay!" 5.At the electric company: "We would be de-lighted if you send in your bill. However, if you don’t you will be." 6.On the door of a computer store: "Out for a quick byte." 7.In a restaurant window: "Don’t stand there and be hungry, come on in and get fed up." 8.Inside a bowling alley: "Please be quiet, we need to hear a pin drop." 9.In the front yard of a funeral home: "Drive carefully, we’ll wait." 10.In a counselors office: "Growing old is mandatory, growing wise is optional.