12/1/13

                                  

(Note: I have a lot of grammatical or spelling mistakes, so bear with it! =) )

My Martial arts teacher's teacher just came to Singapore a week ago and I was taught how to use move using sticks and knives in ways I never thought possible. The Filipino Kali system uses a lot of Triangular movements, oh yeah, do not mistake Kali for the indian god, Kali is a Filipino term which means "to Cut". I don't worship any God except Jesus Christ. Kali was created by the Filipinos when Conquistadors invaded them, this system practices a lot of drills and movements which are imminently transferable, meaning; The moves I use in sticks are the same as the ones I use with a sword or blade, same movement patterns but refined for each tool/weapon. I feel quite fulfilled when I am able to execute the moves well as I found out that I have low "body iq"/Kinematic awareness. I cannot catch or recognize movements unless I do shit loads of it! =)

My teacher's teacher is a man call Mark Edward Stewart, his 52 but moves like a 16 year old! Fast and deadly! All the moves he showed were deadly but so attractive to me! =) Making me a full blooded combat soldier! Kali is scary because they use a lot of techniques which amputates or slashes the arteries, completely putting the threat to oblivion. I know that in Singapore, it's quite hard for me to use them as there are not many threats where I come from, I won't destroy anyone's limb in Church...duh! HAHA!

Had a fruitful discussion with Sifu Mark, I'm glad I was able to clear some thoughts he had about Christianity, though not completely but some of the questions asked. I guess God is putting me in places where I hang out a lot with people in the fitness or combat industry, and I hope that I can bless them wherever I can. Oh and Sifu said something interesting! Sifu :"Elvis, you like Martial arts and you do Engineering, why don't you do Security systems, it's a lot of money in there." A church elder also shared about that a few months ago so it's like a Dejavu. I like business, engineering and martial arts, it seems God can use whatever knowledge I have to bless me and His people, so at the end of the day; I don't know what I am going to do in the future but I know I can have a prosperous future in Jesus!

After the Martial arts sessions I had with sifu, I went to watch a movie call "Young and Dangerous Reloaded", it's a remake of the 1996 version. In the Young and Dangerous series there are many scenes where Christians were involved, apparently there's Pastor whose daughter was one of the gangsters and he condoned to it.

I do not know why but it seems to me that Christians are displayed through the Media in 2 ways:
1) Party popper or 2) Worldly. They are either the people who are old fashioned and hypocritical or they are showed to be the same as the world, claiming to be godly but doing all the wrong things.

To me, Christians are supposed to be wise like Jesus! Having God's wisdom in settling matters and yet have Godly values. But, how difficult is that without His grace? Very!

I think somehow, we have lost the idea of how a Christian show be like. The only way to get it back is to read His word. By examining the life of Jesus Christ, we can know the expectations.

I will expound on that at a later time, I am going to sleep now! =)

Regards,
Elijah Wan.

2013

In the past, when I read Ravi Zacharias' books, I just thought that he was able to write subjects in a very personal manner. But, recently I started to see how the things he wrote was accurate in real life basis. I believe that many of us heard of atrocities committed in 2012. The most recent one being the case of the Indian medical student. I see that without God, there are seriously no incentives to remain moral. One could kill, rape or steal without any conflict of conscience and one does not suffer Spiritual consequences. However, I'm not saying that Atheists are killers, rapists or thieves, I'm saying that there aren't good reasons for them not to. A lot of prominent Atheists and Evolutionists are using other types of reasoning for Morality, but I think it can't hold water without God. By stating reasons to be moral, one subliminally acknowledge a moral law giver; I know that it's wrong to beat the red light because there are traffic laws to keep things in order.

 I saw a video posted by a brother from church after the shooting in America, it's heading:"Where was God during the killing?" The host replied:"Where was God in all these? For 50 years we have systematically have God removed from the institutions...etc, we escorted Him out of our culture and was shocked when we found out how our culture became without Him."

I see the world degenerating and the importance of God. I also started to see how important our roles as His children are. Again I'm not claiming superiority, but rather I'm showing why there are adequate reasons to believe in  God. 

The progressive question to ask is:"So which God should I follow?". The wrong type of beliefs produces detrimental effects. For me, I worship and serve Jesus Christ Son of God. Father,Son and Holy Spirit 3 in 1! 

There are various religions in the world, but I find poly-syntheism to be immensely popular. These type of religion claims that they have Jesus,buddha,muhammad....etc mixed into one. 

But, Jesus said “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:6, English Standard Version). Jesus claimed to be God and He could substantiate it, like the old saying:"Talk the Talk and Walk the Walk!"

Well, with my views with regards to morality and God strengthened in 2012 I began think of other things. I share similar humanistic views as Erasmus who was a great Bible translator, oh do note that the definition of a humanist in the past is different from modern interpretations. 

A humanist in the past was someone who believe that God has endowed gifts to each individual, who by cultivating them could also glorify God. With that, I'm constantly on the look out for what I display talent in, so that, I can develop it to the next level.

In recent years, I stop reading "self-help" books, what is there to help? What is there to build? I rather get my help from the Holy Spirit.

 I prefer books which teaches me how to think, not what to think but rather; How! I believe that elites in their field, be it sports, math, science...etc have a certain framework or way to process information. If I could replicate that, I am able to achieve succinctly similar results, though not completely but to a certain degree.

If I know how Bruce Lee trains, I know I could never be like Bruce Lee, but I SHOULD be able to replicate a neat level of skill! WADAAAA! I want WADDA Water! Oh yes, I still train in Martial arts, primarily Filipino Martial arts! Who knows? Maybe I will go to the Philippines for missions.

The thing is; I want to know what God wants me to know and what the situation demands. I know that in 3 months time I will be enrolled in an Engineering school, so, I'm meeting up with all the brothers from NS ministry to learn maths. I interviewed many of them to learn how their brain process data from the questions they see. I find it super helpful, as I "copied" them, I was able to figure out how to solve the questions! 

I don't know how well I'll do in Singapore Polytechnic, but if God allows, I want to go up on stage, to the highest place and say :"Today, I stand here because of God's Amazing Grace!"

Even if I don't do well, I know God is with me! If I do well, I know God is with me!

AMEN! 

Something to Excel in!

I couldn't really sleep last night as I was reflecting on myself. I saw that I wasted loads of time doing meaningless things; things like surfing the net for 4-5 hours a day, watching TV and Facebooking. I seem to have thrown it all away, and I think God is making me re-think about the concept of time. I'm 23 this year, and I have grown out of my teenage years, I really want to be good at something. I want to be good not because of pride or ego problems, it's just that between now and till the time I go back to Heaven I still have another 40-50 years, I don't want to live mundanely. I want to look back in retrospect and say: "Hey, praise God, I was good with this thing! I didn't waste my life away!"
 
I did an analysis, and I find that I was really good at one thing at one point of my life. I was really good with guitars! I even got a Grade 8 certification from Yamaha Music School, but I didn't know why I stopped. I guess, I was probably too bored and I wanted to do more sports. I was never good at martial arts; I guess I forced myself to engage in it, probably because I felt weak. I just couldn't find an art suitable for me, till recently, when I found out about a Filipino art call Arnis (stick fighting).
 
Personally, I think there are 2 things which a man should do regardless of what they are good at; 1) Fitness: I think a man should train up for fitness, either through the gym or through circuit training. A man has to be fit to take care of himself and the family, a weak man is incomplete. 2) Self-defence: Like I said earlier, a man must take care of his family, and also to protect them. A man who can't fight is also incomplete! I heard a Pastor say that Jesus was actually Muscular! He was a carpenter and in those days, carpenters had to manoeuvre heavy items.
 
So, Fitness and Self-defence are the two things I will do till the day I die. The thing is, I still haven’t found the thing I can achieve greatness in. I may do those two things which I think all men should do, but I may not be extremely proficient in it. I want to know what I can do well and invest my time in it. Though people may say the opposite, that find what I like then invest time in it. To me, if I can’t excel in it, why should I even put time into it?
 
I see a lot of people taking up hobbies which they will probably never be good at, if they have the time, money and interest then fair enough. I know I am going to have time and money when I have God, but I know that He has put in me a certain talent which when developed will bring me a lot of joy.
 
I started contemplating about guitars again; I passed my Ibanez Prestige worth 1.8K to Matthias. I may want to sell it to him and use the money to build a custom Stratocaster and start playing again. Oh well, I need to think more clearly with what I want as I have not much time to waste.
 
Do help me pray for wisdom to see! =)

 

Lessons learnt from a Christian Wedding

Recently, I attended a Christian Wedding of a very dear brother whose quite a prominent character in the Fitness community. In fact, his the Singaporean pioneer of this revolutionary body weight method call Tactical Fitness or "Tacfit" for short. And I enjoyed myself through out the wedding, he  has a very humble and kind persona, one who is very genuine. I'm glad he found someone(a lady of course!) whose as committed in Christ =)!

 The food was superb, as "meaty" as it gets! He probably thought of gym blokes like us when he placed the order for food.

There was a sermon scheduled in the midst of the wedding. When the pastor said that a man and woman does not need to heed to their parents after getting married, I was like :"Hallelujah!". Of course, in context it means that when a person marries his fiance, they do not need to be bothered so much by their parent's advise or comments though they could analyse them and still pay their dues as a filial son or daughter. One of the problems I notice in many families is when the man or woman is unable to "cut-off" from their own families. A sister in church once shared that her husband was so influenced by his dad and mum that it caused a lot of conflicts when they go about making certain decisions together.

I'm not saying that one should cut off all ties in cold blood(though Douglas knows that I train to be a cold blooded killer), but one has to create a new family, that the decisions made in this new family is independent from their old one. Of course, like I said earlier, we can take advice and suggestions, but we should know that what ever we do as a new family is our own business.

I want you guys to know that I do love my mum and dad, but I know that it's my responsibility to act out as a father and head of the house when I marry my girl friend. And the future decisions I make with my wife is as one flesh.

We need to learn how to think for ourselves and to take other people's decisions into account wisely.

The second part of the sermon was about the dangers of committing without knowing the significance of marriage. The pastor suddenly shout out:"Divorce is TREACHERY!", I was a little bit shocked because I know that there must be people in the wedding who had experienced a failed marriage, I wonder how they would feel by listening to this.

Somehow, this incident made me think of three questions; 1) Were the words the pastor was using too "serious" or "dampening" for this joyous occasion? 2) If I was a pastor, how can I deliver my message(or any sermon) in a proper and tactful manner? The third question applies more directly to Christians, 3) How do we Christians draw the line between being tactful and being weak? Jesus spoke in very serious tones in multiple occasions and He was not weak in delivering His point.

The first thing I have to establish is that, the church was probably more conservative, I know there's no denomination but it's very Presbyterian like. I was personally from a Bible Presbyterian church, so I know the pastors can be very straight to the point. There is nothing wrong with a person's personal preference in churches or denominations, as long as the creed is the same, what I mean is the beliefs which are similar across all denominations. Things like; We believe in Jesus as the Son of God, who came into this world to fulfil the law and sacrificed Himself so we can have the forgiveness of sin, the bible is the inerrant word of God, we believe in One God who is in 3 persons (Father,Son,Holy Spirit)...etc . There's nothing wrong in preferences, it's just like coffee, some like Starbucks but I like a cup of iced Hainan Coffee. I think Paul the Apostle made a good point with regards to Relevance, to be relevant in the current world without being too arbitrary (read his writings with regards to tongues and prophecy).

Perhaps, it would be wiser that we modern Christians choose our words carefully unless the situation demands us to step up and use harsher words to bring about a point.

I quite like the church though, but I know that stepping into a traditional themed church would mean that the language used would be more archaic and the message; straight to the point. As I said, it's all preferences, some people like churches who are more straight forward and others more "rockish"? I don't know the words to represent modern churches though haha! Though I think that at that particular occasion, the words could have been toned down a bit, but yes, the pastor did have a point to make. Which is the significance of marriage. So that is that. I respect the pastor in the way he should be respected

2nd question: If I was a pastor, how can I deliver my message(or any sermon) in a proper and tactful manner?

I think it also boils down to why we want to be tactful. We want to be tactful not because we are weak or shameful but because we want to bring people in to listen to the gospel. How can lives be touched if the first thing you say puts people off? I think I would respond in a different manner because of my personality. Some pastors believe in using very harsh words (listen to Paul Washer), others would use words that are too "kiddy". I think there should be a balance, I've seen pastors being able to pull it off.

3rd: I think being a Christian is a dangerous affair, we are constantly being judged by people. People are waiting for the moment in which we fall and :"Aha! I caught you!". Haha! But then again, what is the the defination of Christianity? We are not robots whose only mission is to do good, we are human beings, influenced by emotions and blood. We will fail but we know that God is there to lift us up again. We don't have to live in a cave. I think as I said earlier, being tactful is being able to draw people in without putting them off and telling them why. Being weak, is being afraid of saying a point and thinking that it would make you look stupid. Yes, there are super intelligent scholars out there who could probably own us in any debate buy using complex theorms which we with our limited intelligence could never understand, but, that does not mean we cannot fight for Christianity. I don't mean the Jihad type of fighting, I mean to fight for love and knowing that even though you lose in a debate, you still show the love tonight.

Regards,
ElvEli1