Video: http://http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JOoNOs8Ql28

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JOoNOs8Ql28

I have always enjoyed watching people dance, and enjoy some dancing myself. It is really a special 'intelligence', of the physical in tandem with the mental, the ability to move to rhythm in speed, in grace and in athletic motion (poetry in motion?).  Wish I could be that nimble and fast! Dancing is always a part of celelbration, it is also a form of worship, the offering of one's bodily expression of joy,in abandonment of constraint and adoration of God.

Anyway, enjoy!

   I wrote this in Jan 2010,  my first-ever blog entry. I am posting this again , with the addition of the parable told by Jesus, because I feel the same way as when I first read it, two and a half years ago: spiritual matters are of utmost importance.

  " What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world but loses his soul?"  

A king sent for his jester one day and presented him with a stick, and said " Take this stick and keep it until you find a bigger fool than yourself.'   

 When he was dying, the king sent for his jester. " I am going away, said the king. "Where to, Sire?' asked the jester." To another country."replied the king.

" What preparations have you made, your majesty, for this journey and for living there?"

"None," was the answer.  The jester handed  the king the stick, " Take this back," he said. "I found a bigger fool than myself, for I only trifle with the things of this world, while you trifle with things of eternity." 

I pray, my readers, you and I have some wisdom to know what  and how to prepare.

Peace and Joy to you!   

            We have talked about the different kinds of love and relations. So how do we show love? What should real love result in?  

The famous 'love' passage in the New Testament reads like this:

1 Corinthians 13

 ¹ If I speak in the tongues^[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,^[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.

 ⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 ⁸ Love never fails.

Are we able to express our love like the description from verses 4 to 8 ? Quite a list, isn't it? I doubt very much that we can. However, I believe that the love of God enables, changes us so that more and more we are able to show our love as described by St. Paul of Tarsus.

For a few days, I had in my mind that I would write something about 'love', then on Sunday, I heard a sermon on the same topic!   

'Love' as used so often in certain cultures, less so in Asian context, embraces friendship plus camaridarie, besides the deeper relationships. With globalization, many younger Asians do use "I love you" liberally. 

C S Lewis wrote a book, " The Four Loves", and he surmised the 4 kinds of love:

2 Philia – friendship platonic as contrasted with below.

3 Eros – romance  ( I am sure he meant between members of different genders). This, as portrayed in entertainment,  is so "free and easy". It cheapens the intimacy that is meant to be nurtured and cultivated with commitment. This love must be embraced with respect and commitment, not mere physical pleasure without limit nor consequence. The psychological effect of such callous encounters surely must be damaging.

4 Agape – unconditional love "Agape – unconditional love Charity (agapē,) is the love that brings forth caring regardless of the circumstance. Lewis recognizes this as the greatest of loves, and sees it as a specifically Christian virtue. The chapter on the subject focuses on the need of subordinating the natural loves to the love of God, who is full of charitable love."

This is the form of love we human beings are least capable of.  We often withold love because of displeasure/ anger, example when children don't do well in school, they are often belittled, as adults we give others the 'silent treatment', we become possessive and jealous, etc. This love should seek the greater good of the object of our love. This is the love that God gives and want us to have for each other.

In other words, we are more able to show this kind of love when the love of God is in us, when we have a relationship with our God.           

Because He Lives, I can face tomorrow.
Video: http://youtu.be/4M-zwE33zHA

This is a song I learnt more than 2 decades ago, when I first started to attend church services, and at that time, recovering from a time of depression, tears would come as I sang the chorus," Because He lives..." 

 Circumstances are much changed today, but in a time of remembering that the grave could not contain the Son of God, and that Jesus rose from the dead, I still recall the chorus clearly, and I sing it now with gusto and  gratitude . Yes, I had faced my bleak tomorrows then,  and now I face more tomorrows, but in calmness and with "the  peace beyond understanding', as promised by Jesus to his followers.

应他活着

http://youtu.be/Mgn-B5whWqM