Ok so I have been tagged by none other Miss Katie V. and it seems like a fun deal. Here is the tagging activity:

-grab the nearest book to me,
-turn to page 123,
-read 4 lines down
-record the next 3 lines
-tag 3 people

“…of fragrant cane; twelve and a half pounds of cassia — using the standard Sanctuary weight for all of them — and a gallon of olive oil. Make these into a holy anointing oil, a perfumer’s skillful blend.”

This comes from Exodus 30:22b-25 of the The Message: Remix Bible by Eugene Peterson (The Bible in Contemporary Language). I haven’t read too much Old Testament stuff from The Message version yet, this would be among the first passages. The passage, which starts with “God spoke to Moses: ‘Take the best spices: twelve and a half pounds of liquid myrhh; half that much, six and a quarter pounds, of fragrant cinnamon; six and a quarter pounds…” seems to be speaking about a literal oil that was used for anointing various things in the Jewish Tabernacle of ancient days as well as anointing Aaron and his sons, the Levite priests. It seems like a recipe for what God deems to represent “holiness”, to be set apart and used only for the extremely special things and people God sets apart.

Twelve and a half pounds of liquid myrrh seems like quite a lot of a very expensive perfume/liquid. God isn’t just asking for some water and a spray bottle. That was probably a few decades of a worker’s salary to be poured over a few objects or over some priests (don’t forget inflation). If I interpret the way God uses the Old Testament to point towards Jesus, He is demonstrating that to be made holy and consecrated, it is extremely costly. The outpouring of Jesus and his sacrifice to make us holy was not a cheap decision. Although God is capable of anything, the notion that Jesus took all of the world’s sin on himself so that he would be sin himself, to be THE separation from God and also separated from God, that is awe-inspiring.

Gradually God’s word can help us more and more, to understand the grace we have received as children of God. I think it is necessary to relate this to the Bible verse that is currently plastered across my bedroom wall: “May you have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, how deep His love is. May you experience the love of Christ though it is too great to understand fully, then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:18-19

Here are the people that I tag to join in this madness!
Mui - my little sister
Mike
Josh

January 30, 2007. It has been a full day. Full of excitement. It’s way too late past my bedtime but I want to record it.

Started with my regular swimming. The first day of the week since Sunday night I didn’t sleep very early so I slept in. Good swimming, I’m starting to be able to do 3 laps without taking a break.

Set up the Campus for Christ table in the UC near the north doors by the elevators — a horrible spot because it was absolutely cold. But a wonderful spot if you want to get publicity. Ironically we were right across from the Islam Awareness Week booth and the Breast Cancer Self-examination information table. And next to us was a gentleman selling flags of various countries and causes. I met: Moneena, Mike, Eric.

After going with Graham to talk to a random guy about spiritual things (he was very open to hearing about Jesus, even though he needed to head to a class), I sat at the C4C table for most of the day. Multiple groups of people were asking the same questions about our events, especially one poster that frustrated people since it was posing a question about atheism and Stalin and Hitler. Some people were offended and asked very big questions, and I would say that throughout the day the same questions needed answering — atheism, the appeal to a moral code, moral right/wrong of murdering millions of people, personal morality, etc. If you want to have an effective way of engaging with your university campus, one way is to just put up a sign stating that you are part of Campus for Christ and I guarantee you that some people will come up to you and talk to you. Some people will even be bold enough to say you are offending them.

If someone’s personal “religious” beliefs are offending you, but they aren’t forcing you to believe them or agree with them, then on what grounds do they have to be told to stop? As a charter of rights and freedom, it is someone’s right to practice their beliefs and to speak freely. The university should be a place where different ideologies and belief systems can be discussed and debated and shared.

If you disagree with me, let’s talk about it.

In the evening we had two events running concurrently; I would say it was exciting and historic. To the “The Secret to Having Amazing Sex” lecture given by Graham and organized by Shane, we had over 60 people come out from East Rez. To the “Can Man Live without God?” lecture organized and given by Andrew Roz, we had over 50 people attend. The matters were discussed, afterwards debated (heatedly, in some cases) and I pray that relationships will be built up and more will be challenged about what they fundamentally believe.

Specific prayer items: 3 missionary kids-turned atheists would come to pray to receive Christ by the end of the semester. A friend of mine (name withheld) will pray to receive Christ by the end of the week. Weekly meeting attendance by the end of the semester - 200 people.

My personal dream: seeing the Gryphon Dome packed out with people for an event put on by Campus for Christ. That the visibility of C4C on campus will increase dramatically and every student, every year will have multiple chances to understand fully how they can know God personally and lead a Spirit-filled satisfied Christian life.

This morning I had an extremely vivid dream and it has totally thrown me off all day. Perhaps getting it out and processing it will help.

In my dream, I was at a sort of intra-university conference, a small one, similar to the Festival of Planning (FOP) that we have for MacGuelpherloo. For some reason, it was held at some sort of complex that housed many hockey arenas. While many people were meeting up for a main session portion, I was alone in my room and refused to go. Something had happened to me, perhaps to my physical appearance, and I felt really lonely. As in the absolute pits of loneliness. Other people were trying to get me to join them in various activities with them, but I refused that also, on the premise that I was feeling too lonely. At some point I summoned up enough courage to join a group and really confessed that loneliness to them. And then near the end of my dream, I saw a girl who is from my church back home, and in reality she is studying at Guelph in first year. Somehow, I found out that she was feeling very lonely too.

I woke up actually pretty freaked out. I’m not sure what your worst dream/nightmare was, but I guess there’s always the possibility of having a worse one. As a child I always had nightmares to go with my sleep-walking and sleep-talking. Nowadays I don’t sleepwalk, but sometimes I still sleep-talk. And I don’t think I remember a single dream where something funny happened. I’ve had good dreams but usually my dreams feature something really horrible happening to me or to someone else.

Do I actually fear loneliness? I think a substantial part of me really does fear loneliness. The dream was an illustration about how it’s possible to be lonely even with lots of people around. In my opinion, one of the most scary things that could happen is to be stranded alone in a boat or swimming in the water in the middle of a large body of water where there’s absolutely no land on the horizon or people nearby. That’s something I’ve given some thought towards. I think in that situation I would know what to do… as a reaction to survive. But the loneliness of that environment would kill me.

One attitude I’ve been trying to cultivate, even before the lonely dream, is that of contentment in being single right now. Because I know and I’ve read in many books that only God can satisfy my deepest loneliness (and that a girlfriend or spouse cannot), I have strived to go about each day being satisfied with who I am right now, who I have around me, and the responsibilities that come with my current position.

I know I’m not the only one who think about loneliness. I can’t be the only one… if I were, that would be quite isolating. But I’m really not sure if I’ve laid this issue down at the throne of God.

Is it dying hair or dyeing hair? I’m not sure, and Firefox 1.xx doesn’t have spell check… the new 2.xx version does, and I’m going to be using that more now, since my laptop has been fixed and I have it back.

Here is the thought on an observation I’ve had for a few years. Frequently, when a girl likes a guy, she dyes her hair. Or she gets a hair cut. Or changes her hair style. I witnessed this in first year for the first time when I noticed a girl in my environmental science class do this. She obviously liked a guy, and she would try to sit next to him in class all the time. Soon she changed her hair up. I can’t remember if it was dyed or just cut.

I have witnessed a few other times too. Here is the question, have you known other girls who have dyed their hair at about the same time as when they like a guy? I know that this is definitely not the only reason why a girl would dye her hair, there are other reasons. However, I think there is enough observation in my perspective to lay a substantive claim that sometimes, girls will dye their hair when they like a guy. It’s weird. And I’m not talking “I will dye my hair to make him notice”, but subconsciously.

Perhaps they are trying to do something different to elicit a compliment. Perhaps she hasn’t received the “hi, how are ~you~ today?” so she does something different in hopes he will notice. Maybe she is testing his response, so that she knows he really likes her if he says it looks nice.

Tip for girls: don’t dye your hair if you expect a guy to say something. We are too dumb to notice sometimes, and if we aren’t too dumb to notice, we don’t want to say the wrong thing. Because maybe if we say something, the girl will be like “uh… I had my hair dyed about a week ago” or “I didn’t get it dyed, I only got low-lights” or “are you trying to tell me that my hair didn’t look nice before?” The guy would rather comment on something safer.

(I’m not saying that your hair looks bad)

Today was the first day I’ve gone swimming in the morning. My plan was to not tell hardly anyone, but I feel like I need to at least record it in the good ol’ blog. My intention is to go swimming everyday at 7:30am at the Athletic Centre. Yesterday I wanted to but I ended up spending 30 minutes in the morning looking for my padlock and then it was just too late to go. This morning I left the house at the right time and then realized about half-way through my bike to school that I had forgotten to bring the padlock that I found yesterday. Determined to still go swimming, I rented a day-lock from the AC and a towel.

I suck at swimming. I don’t really know how to breathe properly so that I’m not out of breath after every lap. To help myself regulate my breathing better, I was doing a lot of backstrokes. I need to take this swimming thing slowly and steadily.

After I got out of the pool and returned to the locker, I found out that I had forgotten the combo to the rental lock. I literally stood there for 20 minutes trying every possibility close to what I had thought. The locker number I had chosen was even supposed to remind me about the combo. But it didn’t happen. So I had to walk to the desk and ask the guy there for help. Fortunately it was someone I knew so it wasn’t too embarrassing.

The same stuff happened for the remainder of the day: sitting at the stairs, doing my devos, going to the servant team meeting, eating lunch, etc. As I was about to leave to head home late in the afternoon, a guy approached me at the UC stairs and started talking to me.

I recognized him as someone who had gone to the weekly meeting previously. Apparently he wanted to get connected to the movement and involved with C4C. He had indicated to talk more about the Spirit-filled life on a comment card and I had emailed him earlier (although he had never responded). So right there I figured I had some time and we could go over the Satisfied booklet in the caf. I ran up to the clubs office, picked up a couple booklets and a C4C explanation pamphlet, and we sat down in the caf area and just chatted about things.

Well I ended up going through the whole Satisfied booklet with him, and it was just what he needed. When we came across the page with the 3 circles (never received Christ, Spirit-filled Christian, worldly Christian), he immediately pointed to the third circle, the worldly Christian. When we arrived at the prayer section, I read it out loud first, and asked him how what he thought about it. After reading it out in depth for himself in his mind, he decided that was what he wanted. So he proceeded to read it out loud as his prayer! It was pretty cool stuff!

I would have to say that this is the first time I’ve ever gone through a whole booklet with someone who actually responded to it. That includes the 4 Spiritual Laws (Knowing God Personally) and the Satisfied booklet (Spirit-filled life). The first time… I’m pretty excited (in the Silas way by which I kind of smile and tell a few people and such). So I’m really glad that I took the time to just explain it all clearly (essentially read the booklet out loud) and emphasized the fact/faith/feeling train. I’m glad that in my DG last week we really went in depth about the Spirit-filled life.

And I’m glad that it’s by faith we have been saved, not by works, so that not a single one of us can boast. Otherwise, we would try to accept credit for these kinds of things! But no, only God can change people’s hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can nudge people to want to life full lives. All I can do is share what I know with others. It’s nice this way, there really isn’t any pressure on me over the results! I just remain faithful by sharing the good news, and let God do the rest. He promised that he’s faithful to that.