Vesper Travels

Below is a drawing I did of Sineth, the 1st Grade teacher’s assistant, during my Art session (Portrait Drawing) with the Grade 1 sometime last January. Sineth liked it so much she begged me to give to her for her keeping. I told her I’d have it scanned first before I give it to her, but two months later, I still kept it.

Well, I finally got it scanned and about a couple of days ago, she told me she’s going to get married and invited me to her engagement party on Sunday. Well, now I have the perfect gift for her! I bought a frame for it today and I’m quite glad I waited this long before finally giving this little thing up from m possession.

For many months now I’ve been dying to buy myself an easel, but I always had to put that desire on hold. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore, I rushed to the school supplies store early this evening and finally got myself a nice wooden easel! Quite costly, but I think it’s well worth it!

Hopefully I could start painting soon. I want a creative outlet so bad and both May Ann and Ian are such inspirations at the moment. Ian has begun painting again, and May Ann, well, she is such an amazing artist! I wish I share her drive and passion for painting. I just now have to condition my mind to the task, regardless of my what current living situation/s may be.

So here’s to a new chapter in my creative growth — cheers!

p.s.

About the easel, although it doesn’t really seem necessary, I had to buy it in order that I may have some place to put my work/s on. My godson, who sometimes invade my room in a flurry, has a knack for just picking any random stuff out of my room and misplacing them, making it harder for me to clean up my room sometimes, so having an easel where I can put my work up, stuck good in place, or fastened tight with a paper clip on it will serve its purpose well. That means I can paint again without worrying about leaving it about my room and having my work thrashed by a 1-year-old.

SOMEBODY’S BIRTHDAY

Today is Christina’s 30th birthday. Wow, she’s 30!?

So I went out with her, and her diverse group of friends, for dinner at the same place where we celebrated Chinese New Year/Valentines Day — Chinese Noodle House! Dumplings for dinner again, people! Afterwards, we went on a river cruise along the Tonle River. I spent the night at Christina’s and went with her to Church the next day. We, along with a small group of people from last night, had lunch at Cafe 33.

It is quite an eventful weekend, and I thank the Lord for this.

****

PHILOSOPHY

But before I met up with Christina for dinner, I’ve spent the entire day listening to Bethinking.org’s audio lectures with regards to various Christian issues. It really is so great to have access to these resources.

The primary point of my interests deal with Philosophy. I have always taken a bit of interest in the discipline, as I’ve taken 9 units of Philosophy back in college (Ancient Greek Philosophy, Hermeneutics and Aesthetics) and 3 units of Introduction to Philosophy as part of my general education units.

Now, I am just extremely interested in Epistemology, which is a branch of Philosophy which seeks out certainty of claims, or the processes of knowing what’s true and real. Or something like that. And the Bible, and how we as people are certain that the claims of the Bible is true, is very much interconnected to this Philosophy. Or the process. And the lectures conducted under this topic is so remarkable that I’ve been introduced to contemporary philosophers I’ve encountered back in college, whose works have now stirred some interest in me to be read — Nietzche, Kant, Kierkegaard,  and Hegel. The discussion traces the beginnings of man’s search for Truth from Plato, to the liberalist view many Christians now dangerously hold thanks a lot to Schleiermacher. It was astounding to see how worldviews change, and how it affects Christian principles in the process.

So below are new terminologies I’ve heard before but have made better sense now to me:

a) Realists — believes ideas have separate existence

b) Nominalists — denies that ideas exist separately, and are anti-metaphysical

c) Liberalism — Christianity based on inner experience rather than public truth

d) Perspectivism — seeing all human knowledge as situational

e) Materialism — basically focused on the object; denies transcendence; led to Marxism

The basic conclusions of the lecture are the following:

a) ”If nothing transcends the known, we are doomed to epistemological pessimism,” which is true of our culture today. You take away the idea of a higher being, you put instead a doomed view of the world in its place. There could be no sense of purpose, and we would all be in danger of committing radical skepticism.

b) God remians significant in the realm of ideas, because ideas do not exist apart from God, rather, it reflects and symbolizes Him. Our God is rational and coherent, and most importantly, very personal.

*****

Ravi Zacharaias is amazing! I have been quite a skeptic about his writings, thinking he may be some kind of liberalist or something, but no! He is a remarkable speaker, very witty, and very well-versed in Philosophy — probably one of our contemporary apologists today.

I have the privilege of listening to his lecture about Culture. The man is loaded with amazing quotations from different Philosophers and Theologians! He knows his material well, and he delivers impressively — gripping his listeners by their very ears! Even mine!

I haven’t finished the lecture yet, but here are some quotes from the lecture about contemporary culture:

“We have become so erotic that normal drives don’t tempt us anymore.”

  

“Secularization where religious ideas and interpretations has lost their social significance seems like a very innocent idea when it starts off, but the logical outworking that loses the shame in the culture provides unmitigated evil.”

  

“[on Pluralization, "which is a competing number of worldviews available to its members and no one worldview is dominant"] If it is taken to mean Ethical Relativism, that’s where the danger signs begin to appear. That’s where you begin to see how evil begins to look almost unidentifiable.”

Quotes he quoted from other well-known literary figures:

“The tragedy of disbelieving in God is not that the person ends up believing nothing, alas!, it is much worse. He might end up believing anything!” ~ G.K. Chesterton

And here’s the best quote ever from Steve Turner — “Turner’s Creed”:

 

Creed
by Steve Turner

 

We believe in Marx, Freud and Darwin
We believe everything is OK
as long as you don’t hurt anyone
to the best of your definition of hurt,
and to the best of your knowledge.

  

We believe in sex before, during, and
after marriage.
We believe in the therapy of sin.
We believe that adultery is fun.
We believe that sodomy’s OK.
We believe that taboos are taboo.

We believe that everything’s getting better
despite evidence to the contrary.
The evidence must be investigated
And you can prove anything with evidence.

We believe there’s something in horoscopes
UFO’s and bent spoons.
Jesus was a good man just like Buddha,
Mohammed, and ourselves.
He was a good moral teacher though we think
His good morals were bad.

We believe that all religions are basically the same-
at least the one that we read was.
They all believe in love and goodness.
They only differ on matters of creation,
sin, heaven, hell, God, and salvation.

We believe that after death comes the Nothing
Because when you ask the dead what happens
they say nothing.
If death is not the end, if the dead have lied, then its
compulsory heaven for all
excepting perhaps
Hitler, Stalin, and Genghis Kahn

We believe in Masters and Johnson
What’s selected is average.
What’s average is normal.
What’s normal is good.

We believe in total disarmament.
We believe there are direct links between warfare and
bloodshed.
Americans should beat their guns into tractors .
And the Russians would be sure to follow.

We believe that man is essentially good.
It’s only his behavior that lets him down.
This is the fault of society.
Society is the fault of conditions.
Conditions are the fault of society.

We believe that each man must find the truth that
is right for him.
Reality will adapt accordingly.
The universe will readjust.
History will alter.
We believe that there is no absolute truth
excepting the truth
that there is no absolute truth.

 

 

We believe in the rejection of creeds,
And the flowering of individual thought.

If chance be
the Father of all flesh,
disaster is his rainbow in the sky
and when you hear:

State of Emergency!

Sniper Kills Ten!

Troops on Rampage!

Whites go Looting!

Bomb Blasts School!

It is but the sound of man worshipping his maker.

 

In fact, while I was at Christina’s, I found myself checking out their bookshelves and saw this book by Ravi Zacharaias called, “Jesus Among Other Gods: The Absolute Claims of the Christian Message,” and just reading the Introduction already gripped me! Here are some of the quotes that I strongly believe to be very true today, and something worth thinking about!

‘We are living in a time when sensitivities are at the surface, often vented with cutting words. Philosophically, you can believe anything, so long as you do not claim it to be true. Morally, you can practice anything, soo long as you do not claim that is it a “better” way. Religiously, you can hold to anything, so long as you do not bring Jesus Christ into it. If a spiritual idea is eastern, it is granted critical immmunity; if western, it is thoroughly criticized. …Such is the mood of the twentieth century.”

 

“A mood can be a dangerous state of mind, because it can crush reason under the weight of feeling. But that is precisely what I believe postmodernism best represents — a mood.”

 

“Moods change. Truth does not.”

 

I earnestly thank the Lord for existing apologists like him. Alleluia!

One of the best things that subscribing to hi-speed internet did for me is that I get to listen to audio/video presentations by our Church leaders, as well by other Christian apologists around the world.

One discussion in particular which I’ve spent some time listening to today is from Bethinking.org with Amy Orr-Ewing from Oxford University, discussing post-modernism and the Bible. There were some questions raised about the Bible’s relevance to post-modern times, and she has answered these questions quite impressively, in my opinion.

One of the questions raised was, how can the Bible be far superior than the Q’ran, or what makes it a better text than other religious/spiritual texts when you can’t really trust history because we weren’t there when it happened.  

It amazes me yet again that there’s just a vast vault of information out there which I am personally not aware of. But how Orr-Ewing answered the questions was astonishing. As I’ve already known, the Bible is based on first-hand and second-hand eye witness accounts, letters, census, government records, archaeology, and the fact that a couple of letters were written by fishermen makes the accounts based on Jesus Christ as sincere and genuine as ever. Which certainly establishes the New Testament as factual and consistent, without any propaganda to deceive whoever reads it, or whatsoever. This is how we come to know that a certain piece of history is not at all ‘fictitious.’

What I don’t know is that the Q’ran, which acknowledges the Bible as ‘true’, has got many details from the Old and New Testament incredibly messed up, especially by disclaiming the deity of Christ, and that the Islamic leader succeeding Muhammed after his death, Uthman, gathered the original manuscript of the Q’ran, and found plenty of variations among them, which led him to canonizing some texts and ordering all other existing texts to be destroyed. Hmmm… How interesting is that?

Of course, some of these texts survived or were hidden and salvaged during that time, and now, upon it’s rediscovery, it appears that there are hundreds of variations of the texts from the Q’ran, suggesting that the texts ‘evolved’. And the plot thickens! I wonder what those texts say or are all about.

******

I was also quite astonished how there are actually some people who say that the Bible must catch up to the times, that it is ‘outdated’ and no longer hold any relevance to post-modern times. This sounds very much to me like Huxley’s book “Brave New World” where Mustapha Pod claims that God is ‘old’ and therefore irrelevant! Now I’m seeing the book in a new light and may have to rewrite my reactions again.

The issue is based on homosexuality — that now that homosexuality is a widely accepted thing, then the Bible must keep up with the times and accept it too. This is where Orr-Ewing has impressed me with her answer. She argues that during the time Paul wrote the first chapter of Romans in which homosexuality was written of disagreeably, homosexuality was widespread and acceptable in Rome (so long as it was not done with children). So how is it relevant to our times? You tell me.

*******

I have no dreams of being an apologist, but it’s such a pleasure to know these things, and I seem to have such a knack, or interest to be informed about what I believe. Why is that? 

I thank the Lord for all these available resources. Since I find myself frequently linked to people from all walks of life — especially from non-Christian standpoints, it is refreshing to know there are sound answers to the questions they ask.

I’m up to one of my cooking experiments again. “It’s just Science to me,” as my friend put it, and I thought, why not fry vegetables in butter? Tell what I have done wrong.

I sauteed onion in butter and tossed in carrots, then broccoli, asparagus and red bell pepper last seasoned with salt and ground pepper. Why I chose these particular veggies is due to their colors. They look good enough to eat. I used the left over butter and sauteed onion and garlic wherein I fried my chicken seasoned with salt and ground pepper again. Now I discovered that I like my chicken cooked in butter.

Well, the veggies taste edible, and like I’ve said, I’m all about colors so I enjoy eating them at present, although I had hoped they’d be more aromatic and therefore better tasting. They’re not. But it’s tastes fine, although I feel that there’s something wrong with my ‘Science’. Can anybody help me figure out what it is?

Am I supposed to steam the veggies first? How do I do that without a steamer?

I realized that my roommate, Lady Spider (sex confirmed), is a Daddy Long Legs of the Pholcidae kind! Amazing!!! My own Dadd Long Legs in my room!

For more details about our story, read The Hanging Graveyard at LenJoson.com.

*****

As I write, I am listening to a Podcast from The Boundless Show (a Christian radio segment) talking about the controversial Superbowl ad by Focus on the Family (Christian webzine).

It’s about Pro-Life.

An American Football player’s mother (Pam Tebow) took a very bold move to promote life through a Superbowl Ad. This incited rage among the pro-abortionists, and the radio dj and her guests are glad that God seems to be doing something to bring about awareness regarding the issue in such a controversial way. Many findings are showing that a fetus is no longer just a bundle of tissues, rather, a living, breathing, feeling, heart-beating bundle of tissues within a mother’s womb. Did you know that a fetus have fingernails?

I am quite enthralled to hear all about what they have to say. I hope and pray the Philippines continue to make a stand against abortion and keep it illegal. And I could quite agree with one of the guest’s arguments about how “keeping the family together may prevent poverty,” which makes complete and utter sense, as broken families tend to ‘populate’ the world with their ’illegitimates’ (if ya know what I mean — just a manner of speaking) through varied, fleeting, and unrecognized romantic affairs.

There is a great need of moral upholstering in this world. It is such a mess!

This month (February) students from Ms. Scott’s class are now in mine (we switched). A former student of mine dropped this question loud enough for the class to hear after I asked for all their names (I’ve forgotten most of them, although their faces are very familiar).

Student: Do you still remember the names of your [students from] last year?

Me: Yes. They wouldn’t leave me alone.

*****

Student: Miss VJ, this is a robot. The robot kill the people. Then he eat the people. And then, the police catch him.

I was certainly amused. Forgive me if I applauded such creativity (or gore, if you insist on calling it that way). I told the kid he did a remarkable job and that I liked his story, and if he could please color it.

*****

Using pen markers, a child draws an interesting picture of an island with just one coconut tree on it, surrounded by blue wavy streaks indicating the sea.

Me: Well, ain’t that a pretty picture! It would be interesting to put another island in there, and maybe a smaller one somewhere…

Child: No. I make a city.

Me: A city? Oh, are you going to draw a bridge?

Child: Yes.

Me: Good idea! But why would people want to go on an empty island with just one coconut tree on it?

Child: They want to eat the coconuts. And then they cut the tree.

Me: Oh! Then there’s no more coconut tree! Are they going to wait for seven years for the tree to grow again?

Child: *grins at me*

I like to stimulate children intellectually, hahaha!

At a wedding reception, the bride makes her speech to her husband:

“May you never steal, lie or cheat.

“But if you must steal, then steal away my sorrows. And if you must lie, lie with me all the nights of my life. And if you must cheat, then please cheat death. Because I couldn’t live a day without you.”

~ From the movie “Leap Year”