The past 2 weeks have been about pondering, discussing and digesting issues about translations, preaching, doctrines and practices and that inevitably leads to people who are particular about precision, chronology and other debatable issues. While all these are insightful opportunities to grow and develop as a minister, I will not forget to return to a simple belief of a God who loves me enough to die for me.

Reading parts of "Orthodoxy" by G.K.Chesterton again this morning and remember Rich's song based on the Apostle's Creed. He sings a truth that affects us all as believers "I believe what I believe that makes me what I am. I did not make it but He is making me". Yes, we could never make it in our faith but it is He who is the one making us. So to have religion without the indwelling Christ, the Word without the Spirit and hearing of His voice without the Spirit's conviction to do what it says.. is futile and not worth pursuing.

So often I'm challenged to the authenticity of my personal belief because it inevitably affects how my life turns out. That in turn affects my family and those people closed to me. Haven't all of us taken some stuff away and added some into our belief that resulted in a more complicated and less than great Christ empowered life?

I'm a modern man and having a life purpose of passing down our legacy to the next generation, I will stand for progress and doing ministry that bring relevance to people of today's culture. However the legacy I wish to pass down isn't a legacy of progress, tradition or complication, but just of simple truth and that lived out. I will not leave things that leads to structures and rules, the declination of honor and other stuff that is unprofitable for everyone.

Only a small percentage of people will be theologians and people with deep understanding to engage in religious debates. The rest are just people needing God's grace and a loving hand of guidance. People may call me a simpleton but its the simple theological doctrine as expressed in the Apostle Creed that got me to love & follow God when I accepted Him in a Chinese Christian Church 20+ years ago in Perth. And it'll be based on these simple theological belief that I will live my life and lead the ministry.

The Apostle's Creed expresses the essence of my belief. It's pure vanilla but powerful enough to transform my life and those whom I have the privilege to serve with. I'll probably go for toppings, later and sparingly.

Apostle's Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Maker of heaven and earth:
And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
Born of the Virgin Mary,
Suffered under Pontius Pilate,
Was crucified, dead, and buried:
He descended into hell;
The third day he rose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
The Holy Catholic Church;
The Communion of Saints;
The Forgiveness of sins;
The Resurrection of the body,
And the Life everlasting.
Amen.

I always remember 2 ragammufin fact...

To always keep myself humble. And I will always recall Rich's illustration that God used donkeys in the past and has been using donkeys every since and we ought not to think too highly of ourselves when God decides to use us.

Another fact is that people has always been using the bible through the centuries to proof that he/she is right and others wrong when actually God is really using the bible to proof that He is right and everyone of us is merely guessing. I want to know what to avoid and what to devote my life to.

Forgotten how ministering this song by Rich is. Just listened to it again and am reminded that once a ragamuffin, always a ragamuffin. Maybe a good time to dig out my copy of Rich Mullin's biography and Brennan Manning's Ragamuffin Gospel.

Often God brings you to encounter stuff that resonate with who you are and inspires you towards what you are to do on earth and it will always provide an enduring source of inspiration in the course of life. God has great sense of wonder and pours it out into this side of life for us.

After months (or is it years) of toying with ideas how to get Ragsstudio.com up again after it crashed out a few months/years ago, I have finally found a new purpose for Ragsstudio.com. It'll just be space for Work, Pray & Play, inspired by the Franciscan order's motto of work and pray with the added 'play',

I just want to be faithful with what's been given to me so that I can bless the world. Who doesn't actually? Just that I want to act on it. The vision of me doing something with my 'creative hands' hasn't come to pass but I figure I should do something. Anything. This is what will make me happy. It's crazy, but its fun and I believe in just doing things for fun because more work gets done with fun than without it. And we do take ourselves too seriously sometimes, we worry about too many things... so just want to cut the crap of serious things.

So the new purpose of Ragsstudio.com is pretty counter cultural.  It's an anti-website, its anti-getting. I just want to give and do something that really help people. I hope it can. Maybe it can't. It doesn't matter. As long as its work and I can express myself and its fun.

Let's keep doing it. I commit it to God to allow me to have fun and help. Visit Ragsstudio.com

I found an old graphic. It states one of my life motto


Work = We are created for such a thing.
Play = That's how work should be.
Pray = Fuels the work and brings it to a place call 'triumph'

I'm using it in for my Facebook & Google plus accounts

Book 1: Francis Chan's Forgotten God. I am embarassed to say that I have never read a Francis Chan book. Now I've repented and downloaded this baby. Francis Chan is Asian American and he pastors a huge church but still goes radically small to connect each person back to God. I like everything about him, even his hairstyle (or the lack of it), especially love his love for God.



Book 2: Derek Sivers' 40 Lessons for a New Kind of Enterprenuer. Derek Sivers is authentic, he's anti-ordinary and most importantly he cares. He personally replied my question about children's ministry. He is not in children's ministry but I asked anyway... And he replied anyway.

Got these 2 classic rock LPs



They are second hand vinyls and love playing them on my old Pioneer turntable because it reminds me a lot of my childhood listening to music. It gives me the warm fuzzy feeling.

This morning was spent with the family. Mei Si cooked breakfast, I was helping Chern Han with his fingerpainting homework and Mag with May Ann's PSLE preparation.

Everything we do now for them becomes memories for them in the future. It is wise to invest in good warm fuzzy memories

Stress is a funny thing. You can't do anything with it except to get rid of it. And when you do de-stress, you may as well learn about what causes it in the first place.

Stress is just the right time to learn what causes it and do things better next time.

"God loves people so much!"

We cannot not fully understand what that statement means....

Maybe we can if we were there on that day in Calvary where Jesus hung on the cross. Even then, probably not, as people thought he was a lunatic, a criminal and someone less.

Maybe we can understand if we were there to see the empty tomb. Hmmm... even then, perhaps as there were so few who did and even if we were that few, we would have dismissed it and not know the significance of it

Maybe we can when we were there during the Pentecost to experience the power from on high. ... But on second thought, perhaps not, as I could have taken it as just a spiritual experience but be unfaithful to it as nothing is felt after that.

OK ... now maybe the best way to understand it is not to be where it has happened in history. Maybe the best place and time to is in the present, in the now!

With the bible his Holy word in our hand and the move of His Spirit in the church we belong to. Maybe now is the best time to understand and experience "God loves people so much". We are the church of God today with his complete power and authority!