Devotion Blog 1 -- Temptation

1 Corinthians 10:13

New American Standard Bible (NASB)

¹³ No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

Excerpt from BibleGateway.com

Daily Devotions from InTouch Ministries

It makes me think about all those times that I have fallen into sin, one time after another. The process of committing a sin outlined in today's devotion states that we all begin falling into this horrid spiral with something simple like a glance. Then we have this desire to sin brewing within us. A choice must be made by us as to whether we continue to allow this desire to grow or not? Should we choose the wrong path, we are so enticed that we commit that act of sin.

Reflecting on today's Bible verse (1 Cor 10:13), Paul explicitly states it for us that when we are tempted, the act of sinning against God is an intentional act. It's a choice that we make. I have to ability to say to myself- Ok, this is sin, and it will damage my relationship with God, it is wrong, I must stop- and like what was said in the devotion: we can stop the momentum [of sin] at any time and we can take the way of escape.

Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you so much for blessing me with this reminder. That because You are so faithful and loving, that even in temptations You give me the ability to endure and escape it. I pray that You make me ever so sensitive to the slightest hints that I am beginning to fall into enticements and temptations. So that I may put an end to these sinful chain of events. Thank you for listening to my prayer. In Jesus Name I pray, Amen.

A Month in Hong Kong -- Day 6 to 7

Finally getting that hang of how transportation works in Hong Kong. I can now work my way around the MTR stations AND travel around with my limited knowledge of bus routes. Of course, Google Maps is an amazing tool when it comes to these things- oh I love technology these days! It's now a matter of until I've fully convinced my Grandparents that I am capable of maneuvering around this small but densely populated city.

What amazes me most about this city is just how many people there are! Okay, so it seems pretty obvious right? But from a transportation point of view, what I see is that no matter where I look in terms of bus stops, MTR stations, shuttle bus stops- there are always people lining up and waiting to be picked up. I mean, this city is so large that there are always people travelling from A to B continuously. When I was living in Adelaide (Australia), buses are never full in off-peak hours; but here it's a totally different story. Not only that, the buses and trains here come so often (max 15 min wait for bus or max 4 min wait for MTR). It's almost a convenience-dream-come-true!

Anyhow, I was walking by Kowloon City and found the apartment where my dad and my granddad use to live. It got renovated a few years back (after my granddad moved out) and it looks nothing like it use to! One by one the buildings in the streets are either getting renovated or demolished to build new and taller ones. Though, it is pleasing to see that the old flower shop and auto-repair shop is still open adjacent to where I live. So many memories are etched into these buildings, I can almost recollect the times when I was a kid and I had to walk along the streets with my parents to my grandparent's place. In a sense, I have this melancholy feeling that what I've once known is slowly passing away; but then you sort of understand that if this remaking of the street doesn't happen, the city will only become progressively run down. It's also because of this reason that I'm starting to love photography- I find that being able to capture a moment in time becomes priceless. People change, places change and emotions change- but if you are able to freeze just that moment of joy, happiness, sadness, regret, awe, you'll be able to look back and remake the past that has shaped you throughout the years.

Enough rambling now, hope I didn't bore you too much. Haha.

Ciao, Chu

A Month in Hong Kong -- Day 3 to 5

The last three days have been quite busy (which partially explains this collaborated post)- filled with relative visiting, sightseeing and camera hunting. It's great to see my grandparents alive and well; but every time I see them I always get the feeling that their health is on a slow decline... I guess we'll all go through that period some time in our life and it's really up to us to make the most of our time with our elderly and the time while we're young. One would hope that when we reach this stage, we would have little or no regret of the time that we've spent on the various activities throughout the years.

On a brighter note, I've plenty of fun wandering around aimlessly through a few suburbs around Hong Kong: Central, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok to name a few. What startles me most is the rapid pace with which Hong Kong is developing- what once was flat land is now filled with closely packed buildings; and what once were old houses of the 40s have been demolished and replaced by new buildings of heights several times that of the original building! Some lesser developed suburbs have this unique juxtaposition of ancient buildings and lavishly modern skyscrapers adjacent to each other. Tried taking a few picture, but my camera didn't like the cloudy lighting, so I ended up with excessively blurred images that are beyond rescue by photoshop.

Blurred images and poor low light photography are one of the reasons for moving on from my Samsung ES70 Point and Shoot to a more beef-ier Canon 60D DLSR. I mean, the camera is really compact and great for general shooting still scenes or in locations abundant of light (in fact, it can produce some pretty amazing images under the right conditions-- check out my photo blog: Photos on the Orange Wall). Still haven't bought it yet but after going to the Canon Showroom at iSquare Tsim Sha Tsui I'm fairly sure it's the model I'm after: not too expensive but has enough juice to shoot in various locations and conditions. At the moment, I'm still in search of a cheap and decent deal/bundle... hopefully I'll stumble upon something nice ^_^

Anyway, I guess that summarizes the last few days pretty decently-- well, save for the full-on yumcha and food for my palate.

Ciao, Chu

A Month in Hong Kong -- Day 2

It's Sunday! Woke up nice and early at 7:30am to attend Church with Grandparents. Had an interesting experience for a Sunday service having little exposure to Catholic church services in the past. Closing my eyes for prayer is some second nature to me- it really helps me rid of the distracting sights that surround me and really focus on my conversation with God; however, I found it hard to adapt to reading prayers off a projector screen- it didn't feel as if I'm engaging in anything spiritual though it felt like saying poetry. 

The sermon was on Jesus Christ's first miracle, turning water into wine, the pastor focused on a few thing, the  first being the importance of listening to Christ's instruction for us. Instructions can be rather absurd, for instance in this passage, Jesus basically told the men to put water into ordinary jars (that would have held water for Jews to clean their hands) and then draw stuff out of it- the stuff which would be wine. I guess when we get these seemingly illogical instructions from God, it really does test our faith in Him. Various other examples such as God's plan for Joshua to bring down Jericho require this "test of faith". Do we really trust God to the point that I would do these seemingly weird things?

The pastor then goes on to illustrating Mary's awareness for the needs of others and how we too should be aware of the needs of others and to act accordingly. The mass then progresses into a more... controversial concept of Mary's ability to tell Jesus Christ what to do and that we should pray to Mary to intercede for us. I have to say that such is not true and un-biblical. I think these articles elicit a good discussion of this matter. Having no real training in ministry, I don't think it would be right for me to start rambling on...:
http://www.gotquestions.org/Hail-Mary.html
http://www.gotquestions.org/prayer-saints-Mary.html


Aside from church, I had another wonderful yumcha with my other grandma (father's side) and Aunt. Though the food was not as appetizing (I think the restaurant chef has changed as the last time I was there, the food was a lot better), we had a fruitful conversation and catch up.

And that was pretty much my day. Went home to do some more photoshopping (photo blog this way --> orangewallphotography.blogspot.com) and eating... and indulging in Youtube videos... yea :D

Ciao, Chu

A Month in Hong Kong -- Day 1

Asthma's been bad. Quite sick of it really-- it's as if my asthmatic attacks are withdrawal symptoms from a ventonlin addiction... Wake up... two puffs... Afternoon... two puffs... Before bed... two puffs... I pray that this will leave me soon.


Had a sumptuous breakfast of yumcha, yumcha and more yumcha. On the 13th floor of the Megabox Shopping Centre, there's a really nice restaurant called 德興 (de hing) which made really nice dim sim. The 蝦餃 were large- the size of a pingpong ball. The 腸粉 was really smooth with the prawns bring extra succulent. Everything was nice. Even the view was nice- a complete panara lookout across the Hong Kong Habour! Defs recommend it.

After that, window shopping at Telford Plaza Shopping centre (bought a new shaver :D ).

And now I sit here with bloody dust in my left eye, trying to work out depth of field with 1 eye :)
Anyway, church tomorrow 8am. Have a good night ;)
Chill, Chu

A Month in Hong Kong -- Day 0

Arrived in Hong Kong at about 11:00pm HK time. All's good thus far- Thank God for that. Having never travelled overseas by myself before, it was good to have some  company with a bro and sis from fellowship. 


Nothing much happened on the plane: watched Looper (with Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bruce Willis), Perks of Being a Wallflower (Emma Watson) as well as Hotel Transylvania (Adam Sandler). They were are nice films (save for the latter most whose ending seemed a bit too rushed) and I thoroughly enjoyed them. 

I also had a nice chat with the lady (her name was Jane) sitting next to me on my trip from Adelaide the Singapore. One thing that I confirmed once again is that when conversations get awkward- weather talk is the best way to go ;)
Had a nice walk around+window shopping at the terminal 3 Changi Airport (WIFI no longer requires a key from the info desk) before embarking on my final leg of my journey.


Having exhausted the list of "movies I want to watch" I decided to make good use of my time and listened to 2 Dr Stanley sermons. I also learnt a bit of Korean since there's now a program on the plane to do so. I can count to 100, say days of the week, time, basic terminology and whatnot that Ill probably forget before the end of this trip XD let's see...

Yong, il, ee, sam, sa, o, jook, chil, Pam, ju, sip, sim il...

Anyway, arrived in HK, love to see that my finger print access to my HKID card still works and I was out. Had a bit of a cock up when I couldn't recognize grandma and she couldn't recognize me; so I spent 20 mins wandering between the two arrival hall before finding them.

Got back to the home of my grandparents- first thing = devour 3 deliciously fresh egg-custard tarts XD And weren't they were good. Certainly missed the taste.

Weather-wise, I quite like it here. It's about 12 C right now- it's not exactly chilly but it's nice. Definitely a billion times better than the hit humid climate that I've experienced on my previous visits to HK.

Tomorrow should be a fully packed day of yumcha. Fun :D

So yea, here I am, writing what appears to be the first entry to my raw journal of HK :D happy!

Chill,

Chu