Currently Reading Chosen by God By R. C. Sproul see related

Pikachu, I choose you!

I recently finished the Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and there was one chapter that really stood out to me. It is quite encouraging to me and thought I'd share.

To Jews in the the New Testament, education was the key to survival and the Torah was memorized by the age of 10 under the schooling of a rabbi. Those students that exceled went on to memorize the remainder of the books in the Old Testament until about the age of 14-15. Then the best of the best went on to seek discipleship from a rabbi. Rabbis would grill these boys because they wanted to know if the teenager could do what they could and did not want to waste their time training someone who couldn't be like them. This whole system was dependent on the rabbi having faith in his disciple. Jesus was such a rabbi.

"A rabbi would only pick a disciple who he thought could actually do what he was doing. Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus' life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No because of how capable they are. He sees what they could be and could do, when they fall short, it provokes him to no end. It isn't their failure that's the problem; it's their greatness. They don't realize what they are capable of."

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you. (Matthew 17:20)

This made me think about how God sees us. He sees something in us that we don't even see in ourselves and that we are capable of doing great things. We are taught to have faith in Jesus but also the author points out that Jesus has faith in us as well. All this time, my thought has been that I am a wicked sinner in need of His grace, and to be dependent on Him. Yes ... but I am floored by this point that our almighty God believes in us as well. We have potential to follow in Jesus' footsteps. Our Father sees it in us, but do we see it in ourselves? Are we using our own weaknesses as an excuse to not follow Him fully? How many times have I declined the call because I never grew up in a church or felt I didn't have enough knowledge of the bible? Jesus did not choose the best of the best to become His disciples. He choose fishermen, part of the "not-good-enoughs".

You did not choose me, but I chose you ... (John 15:16)

Anyways, cool stuff. This was an easy read to pickup for some interesting viewpoints on Christianity.

Currently Listening Upstairs By Shane & Shane see related

The Gene Machine

Last night I had dinner at Dave and Buster's in Times Square for the first time. Our men's fellowship group was celebrating Andrew's belated birthday. After a pretty good philly cheesesteak and some interesting conversation and sharing, I came across this device ... The Gene Machine. This machine apparently predicts what the couple's baby will look like. Have you ever wondered what you and so and so's child would look like? So I finally cracked and gave in. How accurate do you think the results are?

Currently Reading Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith (Cover Image May Vary) By Rob Bell see related

It's been awhile Xanga World, but I guess I will give an update ...

I was utterly bored this weekend going to Atlantic City for a day this weekend because I do not gamble. It was my friend/manager's 30th birthday. What we do for friends! I did get to try Bobby Flay's Steakhouse there.

It has a modern and trendy decor like Mesa Grill in Vegas (haven't been in NYC). I ordered the Spicy Southwest Ribeye. The sauce was quite spicy! =) but the steak itself prepared medium rare was still kinda tough and chewy in the middle of the steak. I thought ribeye was the more softer area and had good flavor.

The boardwalk was nice to stroll across even though the casinos looks so old and worn down. It was suprisingly warm on Friday and you can smell the sea water coming from the ocean. What I found ridiculous is the boardwalk "taxi" that's there. You basically sit in a cart with a roof and plastic covering and someone will push it from the outside. It would be so lazy to ride one. 5 bucks for a ride? No thanks! I will walk and enjoy the fresh air.

Yesterday I tried my substitute for Peter Luger's here in the city that allows you to use a credit card, ... Wolfgang Steakhouse. Yes this was the weekend for a steak! I think I will hold off the red meat for awhile. The chef's gotta be the same because the menu and taste is so similar down to the sauce but packaged under the Wolfgang name.

Once again, I need to make an important decision within the next 2 months. Life never gets boring, does it? Really praying for discernment during this time and may it be His will that I am submitting to.

It's been awhile since I did an update and thought I'd catch up. Thanks goes to Ling and Jared for the Canada pics!

I recently visited Vancouver and went to Whistler for snowboarding. Vancouver is a beautiful city. There are a lot of Asians though, it seemed like more than San Francisco. All the retail stores downtown were filled with Asian sales people. The Chinatown and KTown were all strip malls. There also seems to be a lot of Asian churches up there as well. They have a beautiful park up there called Stanley Park which would be awesome for running. The seafood is soooo good up there and Whistler is only 1-2 hour drive away. Residents are nice and friendly and seems less packed and little traffic. Hmm...next destination? =)

The dimsum was simply some of the best I ever had. Better than San Francisco and maybe rivals HK? It definitely puts NYC dimsum to shame. The shrimps they use are huge and any seafood dish was really fresh and yummy. I love the scallop cherng fun there. Didn't think it would work but was delicious.

This is in front of the totem poles in Stanley Park. We got to Vancouver and left just in time. The next day snow hit hard there and there were blackouts all along this area.

Robinson Street is their downtown area and it was a cool place. Customer service is great there. Here is a pic goofing off at Roots. Be wery wery quiet, I'm huntin' wabbit ...Those silly Americans!

Onto the slopes ... Man Whistler is soooo huge! We were snowboarding for 3 days and didn't cover even half of the 2 mountains up there. We were praying for snow and got 2 days worth. Hahah...the powder went up to our knees. I got stuck a lot and just rode the board like a sled to get thru those parts. The runs there were so long. I had to rest a lot in between. It's breathtaking at the the top though. It took 3 lifts to get up there. And you can even hike up higher and go down the glacier. Regrettably, we didn't get a chance to do that but there's always next time! So I ended up with bloodied up shins, bruised up ankles, a pain in my right side that won't go away. Was it worth it? Oh yeah!! .... (So to not discourage future boarders, you only really get hurt trying to do tricks. Just keep a helmet on and you'll be okay)

At the Tree Fort...It was closed but we went up there and rode the slides down anyway =)

Some pics up top..

Yesterday on Christmas Eve, we had a Christmas party for the kids. Haha...Thanks to her shopping skills, Kim did an awesome job getting the gifts. The kids were very ecstatic when they opened their gifts. But it's difficult to get these little buggers to hold still for a picture. Haha Erin loves to pose...future princess/diva =)

It's during these times that I miss friends, family, and the West Coast the most. Also, with the recent passing of an aunt a few days ago and the tragedy that happened to 2 of my closest friends' family this year, I don't feel too joyous inside. I just try my best to keep putting my faith and trust in God and His plans. He is continuing to provide and watching my back. I was fortunate to have places to go during Christmas and the New Years!

Have a Merry Christmas all!

This was my first race ever and it was a half marathon even.  Yuck ... Well not bad, considering I was the kid in school that could not run and always finished last running 1 mile in gym class. I was out cold last night for 13 hours straight and I'm still tired and limping.