HAPPY (?) BIRTHDAY ALPHONSUS
Good and bad things happen to people on their birthdays. Mine saw rotten eggs and expired milk. The zone supervisor of Murdoch certainly experienced his share of love.
RENEWING YOUR MIND
I gave the edification for the very first time during cell group yesterday. It was exhilarating and fulfilling. Edification also means preaching the word. In literal terms, it is basically edifying someone through the use of biblical principles and teachings.
I spent the night before crafting out the message from scratch. It was like making curry from the raw ingredients as opposed to ready-made ones you buy from the supermarkets. Hence, there was a sense of self-satisfaction and also a greater sense of conviction as I gave the word. The message was about the renewing of the mind as based on Romans 12:1-2. It was a simple yet such a powerful message. And I’m eager to give a summary of what was spoken about yesterday.
The main idea of the message is to handle pressures and expectations in life the ‘God-way’ through embracing God’s word. I taught that an individual is faced with all sorts of pressures and temptations everyday and how he manages it will determine his thought life, decision making, response to situations, values & standards and self-esteem.
Three common pressures that most people face:
- The inclination to please people so as to obtain acceptance or love. In the midst of doing so, one often experience a conflict of interest amongst people who differ in their attitudes and beliefs.
- The inclination to look better than others (via physical appearance, work performances, fame) to obtain self-security. This becomes dangerous when one’s identity, life’s purpose, security are subjected to the perception of others.
- The inclination to acquire materials so as to obtain self-worth. This happens when one measures himself based on the fatness of his bank account. But Bill gates is worth forty billion.
How one handles these pressures are crucial because they will either:
- Make or break you in life
- Cause you to have a healthy perspective on life or a warped mindset
- Cause you to become vibrant, positive and passionate or miserable, depressed, easily upset and perpetually complaining
The solution is found in Romans 12:2 – Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
I expound on this verse and derive three main points:
- There is a pattern of the world. And it is important for the believer to identify it.
- Transformation is personal. It is a personal decision that not one cell leader, pastor or even Christ Jesus himself can make for the believer.
- A promise of blessing is awarded. The believer, having obeyed can testify to God’s good, pleasing and perfect will.
There are three parts to this verse – the problem (pattern of the world), the solution (transformation) and the reward (the blessings). It’s pretty straight forward isn’t it?
Transformation involves the renewing of one’s mind and can be summed in three steps.
- Knowing the word of God -not just the God of the word.
You can’t develop the right thinking unless you first know exactly what you should be thinking right about. Hence the importance of devotional time. - Embracing biblical principles and putting away negative qualities
Use the word of God as a filter. What the world says that does not align itself to God’s principles is better off thrown away. - Tap on the Holy Spirit
An intellectual decision to change is not effective. You need a co-partnering with the Holy Spirit for genuine transformation to occur.
Some examples when dealing with pressures, temptations and expectations
- World says: You’ll never survive in this global economic crisis.
You fend off this fallacy and lie with Philippians 4:19: Jehovah Jireh my provider – God will meet all my needs! - World says: Nobody loves or care about you. You’re fat and ugly.
You fend off this fallacy and lie with Jeremiah 31:3 and Pslam 139: God loves me with an everlasting love and I’m fearfully and wonderfully made. - World says: You’ll never succeed. This task is too difficult for you.
You fend off this fallacy and lie with 2 Timonthy 1:7 and Luke 18:27: God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power, love and self-discipline. Things which are impossible with man is possible with God.
Well, that’s pretty much the main points which I spoke about. I was so encouraged when a member feedback to me that the message spoke to him. Then, I knew that all sacrifice spent on preparing this was worth it.
THE AUSSIE LIFE AGAIN
William reminded me that my blog is alive, hence I decided to put up this entry. As the title suggest, I’m back to the Aussie life again. Tonight is the warmest night ever – fourteen degrees Celsius. It was four when I arrived two weeks ago.
Anyhow, here are some of my favourite shots taken recently.
Charlene checking out my inbox.
Pizza at Alphonsus’s with the freshies.
With Cassie. Everyone thinks she’s darn hot but I think Charlene’s better.
Outside the bubble-tea store with the German freshies! A cup of bubble-tea here can cost four bucks.
Sneaky Jo with her King of Hearts. The game allows the bearer to issue a forfeit.
SINGAPORE ESPLANADE
The term Photography is understood from photo, meaning light and graphy, painting. Hence, photography is also known as light painting. A couple of days ago, we went to the Esplanade to take some pictures at night. The equipments were my trusty Nikon D90, Nikon 18-200mm, Tamron 17-50mm and a twenty five dollar cheapo tripod which almost killed my camera.
I’ve been taking photos for over six months and these are what I’ve observed: Anyone with a budget and a good set of knowledge can take good photos. You do not need a tremendous pool of talent since skills are typically acquired through personal experience and individual learning. Of course, humility, diligence and the ability to exercise common sense are important traits to develop.
This shot was taken at the steps next to the outdoor stage. I used a 0.6 second exposure time which caused the waters to look pretty clear. The horizons were a little tilted though.
The same shot but with a zoom, an out-of-focus and sepia treatment applied. I usually employ a sepia effect when the colours are crappie. Trick!
A similar shot to the first but with a 20 second exposure time. Notice how the waters look different?
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NOT READY READING C DRIVE
A friend posted this photo on facebook and I thought I thought this was kinda funny! Picture was taken in a MRT station.
KELMO FAN SITE
After many hours, I finally made some progress on facebook!
Join the KELMO fan site to hear some of my songs!
Ping has been pushing me to record more songs mainly because I’ve been pretty complacent after producing the first album. Ha. I promise myself that I must produce the next compilation before next year!
Some listings to anticipate:
- Alan Chong Song
- Bedtime Story
- Seventeen
- Gotta Ask Her
- Christmas Gift
- Guitar Instrumental (Untitled still)
- And I Wonder
- There I’ll Be
And I’m currently mastering Logic Express 8!
GENTING
I’m beginning to prefer using my Nikkor 18-200mm F/3.5-5.6 over the Tamron 17-50mm F/2.8. During my Genting trip, I brought only the former, the Nikkor 50mm F/1.8 and my SB600 with new yummlicious Sanyo Eneloop batteries that cost me S$60! Everything is so expensive – O-M-G! The low self-discharge NiMH batteries are reported to be able to retain its charge to about 70 to 85% of their capacity after one year of use – so in a way, I’ll be saving money and the inconvenience of buying new batteries in the long run.
Caution: This post is going to be bandwidth heavy!
Shot was taken out of a window outside Highland hotel. Scenery was beautiful as the sun was setting. The time was approximately 6.30PM. The hotel’s window had a lock which didn’t allow me to open the window fully but I still manage to slide my fat lens across an opening to capture this. The coolness of the air added a punch to the whole experience. Wicked!
To the left of the moutains (previous image) were these blocks of hotel apartments. The cable car lines stretched all the way down to Kuala Lumpur and take those narrow roads alongside the moutain and you’ll be literally living life on the edge! I like the nice contrast between the green foregrounds and the blue backgrounds of the the skies and moutains (or hills?).
JULY ALREADY
It’s July already. I’m afraid I won’t be able to come up with the new compilation before I go. Neverthless, that gives me more time to fine-tune my music in Australia while I embark on my Sound module next semester. I’ll squeeze the lecturer dry with all my queries and hopefully master Logic Express, Nuendo or something. Here’s a cool shot of my bro taken by Chad’s most trusted Canon EOS 1D-Mark II. As the shot was taken in rather dim lighting, I must say that the 35mm F/2 did a pretty good job. Colours were not so vivid hence I applied a black/white template to make the pictures look more emo/vintage/indie whatever younglings , as coined by Ping would like to call it.
I don’t know but since when the word ‘youngsters’ has evolved into ‘younglings’? It reminds me of the Starcraft’s grotesque zerglings though.
I also don’t understand why people are apologetic when they do not update their blogs – I prefer calling it weblogs actually. From time to time, I’ll chance upon statements like,
“I’m so sorry I’ve not updated for so long!” or
“Feels like a century since my last update, I’m terribly sorry because I have been so busy”
It seems like bloggers have subconsciously subjected themselves to an obligation to entertain their readers like a weekly magazine. I make no apologies though I was inclined to do so after discovering that the previous post was published a month ago. During the recent months, I’ve been taking lots of photos as attested by my facebook gallery – I have more than a hundred albums! And my D90’s shuttercount has crossed over 18,000! That is pretty insane considering I only bought my camera just six months ago. For those who are wondering, a camera’s shuttercount tells you how extensive a camera has been used. Each shot you take piles on to the statistics, so technically, I’ve clicked over eighteen thousand times!
I got this information from the site – http://regex.info/exif.cgi/exif.cgi Tells you everything you need to know about your shot such as lens type, exposure program, hyperfocal distance and lots more. Check it out!
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