The Forerunner Times

"A life journal by Nathan J. Elias, called under God's grace to be His forerunner and restorer for His glory."

This is what happens if Jesus was put into a Final Fantasy VII: Jerusalem world…

Haha, glad to know that Jesus isn’t like that. Maybe He got an infinite MP pool in reality?

Nah… He doesn’t have an MP pool in the beginning. First, miracle is not magic. And as He’s the Son of God, Creator of the Universe, He can do all things incomprehensible, with power beyond measure. But He chose to step down and live as a human, no? That’s the amazing thing about it. Video game speaking, what if you were a character with an infinite HP pool and suddenly you’re put into a situation where they limit your HP to, say, 777? Can you do that?

For the unlimited has been put into limited, into a vessel of man… so glad He did that for me, and for you too.

And no, He didn’t have either Life or Phoenix Down on Him when He was resurrected….

This is a case where a ringtone can get so damn annoying…

I’m sure you all know about that infamous movie Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift. Critics hated it, but the people love it. And that song with the ethnic accent, Teriyaki Boyz’s Tokyo Drift was one of the best soundtracks we must have ever heard. But when everyone starts using it as their ringtones, disasters and confusion happen.

Imagine if the mp3 of the song is quickly circulating around the campus (dunno how can it spread so quick though, I only shared it to one person) and then everybody starts using it. Including me, I think there’s maybe 5 or 6 people in my class who used the same ringtone. Yesterday, when some students were talking with the lecturer after the class about a project, suddenly someone’s phone rings that tone. Then everybody seems to be looking at their phones (or some just touch it to check whether it vibrates or not). Lucky it only happened once so far for me, but if it happpens everyday, you know you’ll just gotta have to switch ringtones.

When was the last time something like this happened? Can’t remember.
It’s a marvel how that song can become so quickly popular, though some love it and some hate it.

Resource to Read:
1 Corinthians 12

The Present Churches
Today in the world we see a large number of denominations. While every one of these churches are actually Christian churches, as there are differences in teaching, ministries and gifts, some has grown into resenting one another, saying that the other denomination is not of Christ and of evil. While there ARE false churches and false prophets, measures should be taken not to quickly condemn other churches that they are not Christian.

Churches today have a large range of spiritual gifts:
- Some are given to teaching others, i.e. the Reformed churches and Calvins
- Some are given more on the spirit matters, i.e. Charismatic and Pentecostal
- Some are given more to love and people outreach, i.e. my church
- etc.

The problem comes when these churches fall into making themselves exclusive and branding others unrighteous, where there is actually a greater calling for all and each one of them in God’s larger plan.

What did Paul say?
The fact that there is difference in the gifts granted by GOD are given on the first part of 1 Corinthians 12 (vv. 4-11), note the importance of acknowledging that “There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. There are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. This should form the basis of how we look at other churches and their own gifts.

The problem about accusing others that they are wrong have also already been stated by Paul ever since then in the second part of his writing (vv. 15-20). Now let’s change the words a bit. The church who have the gift of tongues cannot say to the church who cannot, “I have no need of you” or “because you cannot speak in tongues, you are not of the body”. Or the church who have greater understanding of the Scripture “I have no need of you” or “because you do not have greater understanding of the Scripture, you are not of the body”. But isn’t this what we see is happening now?

How great would it become for the churches if we want to acknowledge each other and accept each others as brethrens! If you remember an army, there are a lot of types of soldiers. There are infantry, snipers, medic, artilerry etc. Imagine if there was no medic, what would you do if someone is injured? Imagine if all was infantry, what would you do if the enemy uses long range weaponry?

We should remember that our arch-enemy is the master of tricks and master of lies, he has many strategies in his arsenal. Shouldn’t we be thankful that the LORD has seen through all this and given us versatility? If all were Scripture-learners, what would we do with spiritual/demonic attacks? If all were spirit-realm focusing, how can we give a reply to those who attack us by knowledge and words (i.e. atheists)? Each one of us has been given our own tasks in this world and in no way we should resent another from being different from us.

What does this mean to you?
There are no “the best or the rightmost church”. Your church should be the one related to your own gifts and callings. Meditate on it and ask God for guidance through prayer and fasting. Ask Him to place you where He wants you to be. Personally I found out that my church in Indonesia has suited me well as it give me the chance to grow on my talents, which are in music and learning Scripture (and probably writing as well). It may take a few jumping around before you find the place you belong, but believe that the LORD knows the best for you.

Remember, nothing good comes from exclusivism. I was an exclusivist and that made me an anti-this-church and anti-that-church. But now, I am an anti-exclusivism which made me open to all kinds of churches and denomination. I can go to any service and worship the LORD, but if we are talking about a church to stay and be a member on, it IS true that not just every church can be where you belong. Sadly people take this as “if I fit in this church it must mean that the others are wrong”.

Do not think like this, as different people do require different churches. It is why people say they can grow in church A but not in church B, but it does not mean that church B is wrong. It merely means that your talents, gifts, mission and vision fits with that of church A, thus the church is able to nurture your spiritual growth. Church B might fit someone else, and bring blessing to others. The ideal church would be one that can fit all kinds of people and bless every people, but honestly I think we would never see that until Christ returns…

Note:
This is by no means correct, as this is my personal interpretation. Discussions and feedbacks would be very welcomed for us to learn more on this. Also please spend a minute to vote on the poll, it’s on the right.

Taken from Inex’s blog.

1. Think of the first word that comes to mind when you think of me.
2. Run a Google Image search on that word.
3. Reply to this entry and post one of the pictures from your search, but don’t tell me what the word was until I ask.
4. Put this in your journal/blog and I’ll reply with one for you.

Well? Go! BTW, happy Independence Day for Indonesian people who’s reading this.

Before I start my main post, let’s check my deadlines for this term:
• August 25^th, 2006: Marketing Management - Study Case on Cathay Pacific Airlines
• August 28^th, 2006: Accounting for Managers - Financial Plan
• September 1^st, 2006: Marketing Management - Marketing Plan

Now that’s taken care of, let’s start the main post subject here.

My mom (most likely with my father too, don’t know about the rest of the family) will come here to Singapore on August 24^th to have an ovarian cyst lift-up operation in Gleneagles Hospital. The operation itself will be most likely scheduled for August 25^th, but looking at that schedule, I wonder if I can spend a full day on the hospital and that’s quite sad. Most probably I would only be able to visit during the nights, when there are no longer teammates pestering me about the assignments. On 25^th though, the first assignment would already be handed in during the day, and I am sure the Financial Plan is not difficult enough that I have to spend too much time on 25^th for that until the evening, I’m sure I can finish it before that. In the worst case though, I still have 26^th, and I will make sure that day’s totally free for my family. On 27^th if there’s nothing wrong they will be going home already, so I can’t wait until Sunday to pay a visit.

Now, I don’t know the severity or the risks associated with this kind of operation, as I’ve never followed all of this, except taking my mom to the doctor a few times (with no apparent real results). All I can ask now is for your prayer help. It’s next week and knowing my mom, I know she’ll be quite a bit stressed at the moment and will need some mental preparation for this. Let’s pray that all will turn out okay and God will heal my mother with this.

Ever knew how it feels to be at a wrong place at a wrong time? Well, I did, just today. And before someone ask, no, I DID NOT take the picture above. In fact, it was what I was avoiding. That’s the wrong place to be today.

It started on a normal Saturday afternoon where three folks including me was just going to spend a quiet afternoon to watch a movie, walk and eat some food. We went to Tiong Bahru Plaza at 5 pm to watch Dragon Tiger Gate (Long Hu Men, yes, that comic book you read in Indonesia too). As the movie ended shortly before 7 pm, it was too early to go home, so we decided to go take a walk to Esplanade Bay and eat there. What we didn’t know… it was the wrong place to be today…

When we went by MRT to City Hall, we already noticed something was wrong. Okay, it was weekend. MRTs are usually full on weekends but NOT this full. We even have to wait one more train because the first one was too full for us to get in. When we arrived at City Hall MRT, we still didn’t know what was happening and kept walking to Esplanade Bay, until we saw there were likely some hundreds of thousand people in there! Then we realized Singapore just had its National Day on the 9th… and this… must be the fireworks party everyone in Singapore are waiting for. About more than 100,000 people (maybe we saw 200,000 to 250,000 in fact) sit in the ground with their blankets, waiting for the fireworks. Because we didn’t want to see it, we decided to move away from there.

We had to go against the tides and waves of people. Everyone wanted to go to Esplanade, while we were moving away from there. We reached the Marina Square, but ALL (yes, literally ALL) restaurant and eating places were full, so we in the end decided to take a long long walk away from Marina Square all the way to Funan. During the walk we were so hungry so when we saw ice cream peddlers, we stopped, twice, to buy ice creams to stuff our stomaches for a moment.

In the end, we arrived at Sushi Don at the bottom of Funan. We ordered a nice dinner of Japanese food and enjoyed a nice Saturday night afterwards, talking about many things that are happening around us, from politics to fun. The place was cozy, so we managed to enjoy ourself for about two hours, then we departed and go home by MRT in our separate ways.

Morale of the Story:
ALWAYS STAY HOME DURING NATIONAL DAY OR FIREWORK DISPLAYS… or go away from Esplanade area.