Elements of encouragement - CCF Sharing Night (W10)

Last official CCF Sharing Night. It has been a short 5 years.

JC (8.00p)

• Places with natural disasters, crying out to help
• Wonder what we as Christians should do
• Personally feels that he should enter higher education
• God doesn’t need you for His glory’s sake, but make use of what you are given
• Keep an eye out for the hunger and the sin. When you’re aware, the burden is very great
• There is a lot of alternative beliefs that causes people to feel self-righteous
• God uses the weak to humble the strong
• God doesn’t need short term missions. People near by needs Christ too

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light

-Matthew 11.30

CY (8.11p)

• We are all unique
• Can be very harsh/judgmental on self and others
• Applied to Optometry, God said no
• Thought about a 4^th year thesis, asked some people about it
• Was told by a TA who remembered him and told him that [the TA] was just thinking of recommending him for the thesis position
• God works in many ways
• Avalon – Stay lyrics

SH (8.18p)

• Have been with CCF for 5 years
• Stick with this family, great to see faces that you recognize continuously
• Continue to be part of this family
• God is funny
• Be specific in your prayers
• Pray that you will be used
• Be bold in all situation, you don’t know what kind of difference you are making in others

DM (8.21p)

• Christianity is not a joke
• Was very good at playing Christian at the appropriate times
• Easy to compromise Christian principle, and live Christianly on the side, instead of upfront
• Non-Christians tends to think that Christianity is easy, but it really isn’t
• God will lead you. Do you believe that He has your best interests in mind
  
  
  Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
  
  
  
  - Philippian 3.12-14
  
  
  
  
  
• Looking back, would you say that you wished that you were bold for God? Don’t want to regret your time here. Want to be able to say to God that you lived for Him, everyday, and that you gave it your all

AE (8.31p)

• Can’t believe that I’m here, the last sharing night
• Search actively and participate in a fellowship
• It’s possible to be in a fellowship but not really. Have to connect with people and make it your home. Don’t settle with shallow conversations
• University is hard. A lot of different opinions around you. Need to have a foundation, that you can come back to.

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work:

If one falls down, his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!

Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

- Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

• Exchange to Singapore: first time was away from any spiritual home
• Very hard to live Christianly without any support. Get Christian support, so you don’t falter easy. Chord of 3 strands is not easily broken
• DG is pretty good. Get into one

MN (8.39p)

• Money management and tithing
• What happens when you set goals and reaches it?
• Seems meaningless without God. Materialistic-based goals tends to feel useless, at the end of the day

JC (video)

• Didn’t get into optometry in third year
• Came back for fourth year, got to do frosh cell and various servings
• Life is like a video game. You don’t know what’s coming up. There’s a lot more to level up in
• Realized that he needed to know more, to hunger more for God. Can’t hide real hunger of God from the world

Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth. This then is how we know that we belong to the truth, and how we set our hearts at rest in his presence whenever our hearts condemn us. For God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything.

- 1 John 3:18-20

• If it’s in His will, it will be done

Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said,
"Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

So we say with confidence,
"The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"

- Hebrews 13.5-6

JN (9.19p)

• Motivation and goals

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

- Hebrews 12.2

• Very important to be able to preach the Gospel to yourself every day. Reflect and remember what Jesus did.
• Jesus was suffering and stressed and scared, and was fully human, but kept on going because His goal, His love for us
• Matthew 13 – Are you giving up everything to focus on God?
• Keep the Gospel central. Don’t lose sight of it
• Weak without God

M (9.24p)

• Relationship with people (ie parents) have been getting better
• Once started working, become more appreciative of parents
• Gotten closer to CCF also, thanks to DG
• Only have a certain amount of time, so spend it with people that would better you

EW (9.29p)

• A year or so ago, I noticed that every time I hit a low, it was very sucky
• What to do in these situations?
• Was essentially living by herself in Hamilton
• How could her, a Committee member, be going through such hard times? Whereas hearing about how God is working awesomely through people
• Who is God to us? Do we really believe that God is love, peace, salvation and comfort?
• How do we live that out? Remember that there will be good and bad times
• If you are seeking out God daily, there is no doubt that He will meet you, because He has promised you
• If you believe that God died for you, then you have no excuse not to worship in all situations

VN (9.35p)

• Want to say thank you to CCF
• Has been a blessing

KC (9.36p)

• CCF has been great
• Learn to live uncomfortably. We are challenged to do so as Christians. Look to Moses or Gideon; they didn’t want to do what they were called to do, but as we know, God led them to do great things. Talk to people. Expand out of your circle

CM (9.38p)

• Spiritual high from fall retreat -> but crashed afterwards
• Love you God, love your neighbor
• Tend to judge a lot
• Romans 2 – Only God can judge
• Not just about loving strangers. It’s much harder to love the people you know and don’t like

JC (9.45p)

• Give up frustrating things up to God
• Strive to not complain. Learn to see the good and the bad. God teaches us many lessons through these things.
• “A person who is all smiles is most beautiful”
• God has a plan for you. Whatever path you take, He has a way to make it beautiful

AM (9.48p)

We hear that some among you are idle. They are not busy; they are busybodies.

- 2 Thessalonians 3:11

• Praying is important. Think about your parents and their constant prayer for you
• Enjoy time with your parents. They won’t be around forever. Get to know them.

MW J. (9.53p)

• Know that he has changed, but not sure what caused it
• Theme of WR: Actively live out your faith
• Was happy that WR was set so early -> set the stage for the term
• Being challenged about discipline
• What does it mean to live out your faith on your day-to-day life
• Didn’t feel connected with what he was reading in the Bible
• Forcing time to spend time with the Lord in prayer and what not made him feel better
• Was changed. Wasn’t instantaneous. A little every day.
• Whatever you shift up over God becomes your idle

JL (10.37p)

• Remember Lifesong, CCF is capable of some pretty awesome things
• Failing 3B
• Sucks to fail a term
• Left behind
• Don’t give up, no matter how bad things got
• In desperation, God is always there
• But somehow avoided the recession
• Failure comes at us from all directions
• In success, we might forget about God. Don’t forget God
• CCF Theme Song

W (10.50p)

• Got oil anointing at Urbana
• Thought about doing ministry work, but under parental influence, entered engineering
• Felt like he betrayed God, but was told that it’s okay
• What God really wants is a response. Here I am, send me
• Prayed for signs regarding a girl and got them
• Started going out with the girl, but they broke up because she wanted to focus on God
• Burned out after that, but learned and grew
• Our ultimate test: praising Him even in the hard times. Especially in the hard times
• Psalms 42 – verses of encouragement

AT (11.06p)

• Pray to be broken down and reconstructed again
• Voddie Baucham: Brokenness is necessary in the Christian life. Brokenness is when you realize that you need God
• CTI: Going to Asia

M (11.09p)

• Had a close Christian brother who fell away from each other
• Conflicts, misunderstanding
• Move to solve conflicts. Don’t ignore them
• Didn’t feel good, but started meeting with him regularly. Felt fake at first, but got better with more and more sharing
• DG was helpful and supportive
• God is good and faithful, and grants amazing joy
• James 1

SD (11.18pm)

• Isaiah 40
• Easy to lose focus of how great God is
• Get too caught up in thinking that God is our friend and whatnot, and not that He is the Judge of the universe
• Everything in this university emits light, reflects light or only absorbs light. God is the emitter. What are we?
• Had issues with girlfriend -> prayed and lifted it to God -> realized that it doesn’t really matter, and seemed very small once put into perspectives with God

ML (11.26p)

• Went into ER, due to chest pains -> panic attack -> faints
• Doctors don’t know what the problem is
• Withdraw from the term? What should she do? Doesn’t know -> praying about it
• Thank you for the support
  

JT (11.36p)

• In 1B, wanted to keep scholarship, but got sick during exams
• Westcourt (Bily, Jon Lo and Jorge) took care of them over the time period -> felt community
• This led to him doing the same when he took over Westcourt
• Matthew 25.31-46 – Sheep and goats
• If I have inspired you with any sort of caring, carry on the same thing

RB (11.41p)

• Nothing really epic, except for FF13. And DG, I guess
• Verses against complaining -> but how much of what we talk about is complaints?
• Complains about doing very little at work, but really should feel to be thankful, since she actually has work
• Stop complaining for a day and see what difference that would make

SH (11.45p)

• God brings you though many things
• WR was a highlight, serving with the worship team -> was intense
• Recognizing that Christians don’t have it all together necessarily
• Expanded out of comfort zone -> led a Bible study group
• But started thinking about worries and difficulties and past failures
• Didn’t feel that he can lead properly -> Exodus 3 (Calling of Moses)

A (12.04a)

• Don’t sit around and do nothing
• Realized how much God blesses us, amazing opportunities

T (12.06a)

• At WR, realized that this is a special group -> feel that they really care about God
• Thought about the Tower of Babel...if unity of people who didn’t care about God could cause God to worry, what would a united Christian group be able to do?

JK (12.09a)

• Upperyears serving is inspiring -> felt love received from them
• What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?

JL (12.10a)

• God loves this fellowship, and God shows His love through this fellowship
• Just tonight, there was many examples and stories shared that backs that up
• How should we respond to a faithful God?
• Back in the day, his dad’s Winnipeg CCF has the Christian Soldier car (only goes forward)
• As a Christian, there is only one direction to go, and that is forward
• God will continue to work as long as you continue to seek Him
• Be strong. Be courageous. Go forward

SC (12.22a)

• Haven’t been doing so well this term, about academics, parents and emotionally
• Don’t know where she is being led, even though she used to be really good at hearing God
• Usually, a lot of people around you are going through similar things that you are. Even if there isn’t, God understands
• Seek God in prayer and worship and sermons
• Thankful for sisters that she can be transparent with
• Romans 8.28-39 – even in hardship, God is working
• He who began good work will bring it to completion

MMC (12.35a)

• Struggling with “love the Lord with all your heart, with all your strength, with all your might”
• When you act in love, the other person can feel it
• Are you really giving your all to God? Are you really focused on Him?
• If He asks you if He is everything, and you reply with “uhh...maybe”, then you’re not doing it
• If you truly understand God’s love, then your answer wouldn’t just be “uhh maybe”

AW (12.42a)

Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.

- Hebrews 12.7-11

• This life isn’t about you
• Sometimes wish that we only have to learn lessons once and be done with it
• Put all your efforts into eliminating sin, or else it will eliminate you

KW (12.47a)

• Talking about worship at Westcourt
• Is reading the Bible or praying during musical worship still worship? Yes, of course
• What about having normal music mixed in with worship songs?
• Are you only a Sunday Christian? That’s just a foolish sacrifice
• Do you only sing because everyone else is?
• When you are worshiping, are you only thinking about God? What is worship? Who are you worshiping?

MW (12.52a)

• What God do you worship? How well do you know Him?
• Do you praise Him in both your highs and lows? When you have nothing else, would you still hold onto God?
• Job: The Lord gives and the Lord takes away
• If you lost everything, would you still onto God? Do you worship a God that serves you? Or do you worship a God that is glorified in everything?

JH (12.57a)

• Thought she had a solid foundation, but faltered totally after coming to university
• Felt that she conformed to the world -> too ashamed to stand before God
• Other people who saw her do these things questioned her Christianity
• Urbana showed that she was being a passive Christian
• Parents are quite a blessing -> new years resolution is to honour your parents more
• If you love your parents, let them know
• Look past little personal things and don’t be selfish
• Don’t lose sight with who is the slave and who is the Master
• Prayer is important. Need to pray with faith
• Ecclesiastes 5.2 – Let your words be few

HL (1.08a)

• After reading the Gospels, you Act it out
• CCF in the 1980s: they had 300+ members, with Saturday preaching fellowships. CCF is declining, and the older generation (previous CCF generations) was not happy
• Forgave the people (prof/coordinator) who failed them in first year
• Last year at Food Cell, no one showed up. Was asked, why do you serve? It is a thankless job, and suppose to be. It is not about us. It is about God
• Pray for everything
• If God is for us, who can be against us?

PC (1.20a)

• More detailed post, found here
• Double check everything with Scripture

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

- 1 John 2.15-17

• A worldly tone has been set in the Christian environment
• Christians are suppose to be set apart and different from the people around them (Deuteronomy 4.1-14)
• But Israel failed to be set apart
• Are we just doing the same type of things as non-Christians are? Are we different?
• A newcomer to CCF: “members of CCF can be seen plastered all over Facebook, acting like drunkards, players and sluts”
• “In the world, not of world” -> Daniel stood apart, even though he was in a foreign environment
• The only real difference between now and the past is that their idols are physical and ours are not
• What you take in, watch, think about (you are what you eat)...maybe that’s why our prayer life is in shambles
• Don’t justify sin. The stuff taught in the Bible is not optional
• “Are we Christians?”

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test?

- 2 Corinthians 13.5

May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

- Galatian 6.14

• Has your faith cost you anything? Reputation? Etc. It should be.
• What are the fruits you are producing?

Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

- Matthew 7.21

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

- Matthew 7.13-14

JQ (1.39a)

• CCF has been transforming
• As eldest in the family, takes on the role of the duty achievers
• Doing little things doesn’t really matter. What is your motivation?
• Why do you do devotions?
• Do we focus too much on logistics and the event?
• Aim to grow into the likeness of Christ
• Invest in people
• Be sensitive to the Spirit
• Life is tough. Learn to rejoice.

Thoughts

Haaa. A going rate of 1 post/month. Sighs. School has been time consuming, to say the least. A few quick thoughts about Jesus, before I run off to CIVE460.

What is the difference between Jesus-minded and being Christianly-minded?

Theoretically, it should be the same thing. But as I realize more and more, there are a lot of confusion about Christians. But only a handful of thoughts about Jesus. You either think He's God...or He's crazy. Even historians thinks He existed. I've been encouraged to think more about Christ-ly things and less about Christianly things.

It is very hard to tell the difference between the church (man's implementation) and the Church (how it should be). But what people see is the church. They're not reading our book to tell us why we're screwing up. WE have to read our book and tell us why we're screwing up.

Matthew 7

I recently heard a sermon on Matthew 7. It wasn't anything new. I know very well there is a chance that I will stand before Him and be told "be gone". The passage into Heaven is not a right. It is a privledge. A privledge that is decided by Christ alone. You don't argue with Christ about passage into a sinless realm unless, of course, you are also sinless. But I'm not, so at Christ's mercy I must stand. The sermon surprised me not because the pastor told the audience that Matt 7 is a hard passage...but because he said many people feel that Christianity is about praying the prayer once, and go on with their lives as if nothing has happened.

Now...an encounter with the Spirit isn't something I can say that has happened too much with me. Certainly nothing dramatic, like running into a logging truck. But wouldn't common sense itself tell you that a life-changing event like conversion into another faith would have to change more than...nothing? That was upsetting to hear.

Reading the Bible

It's one of those things where "oh, I know I should do more" but don't. I've been there. I'm still there. I'm a student. Life is busy. We're always on a rush. But if we call ourselves scientists, and take pride in our understanding of organic chemistry, human physiology and quantum physics...if we call ourselves mathematicians (even applied ones!) and take pride in our ability to integrate over fields and complex planes...if we call ourselves [insert 'anime-watcher', 'chef', 'board-game player'] and am proud of our abilities and knowledge...why is it that we care so little about the Word?

I once attempted to read through the Bible cover-to-cover. I got through about 2/5 of the OT. I can assure you that the OT isn't just a collection of dusty old laws. It is an epic about how God pushes people to certain places, to do certain things. It is about God moving in lives of ordinary people (trust me, Moses was super-ordinary), to do big things. Yes, it is sometimes hard to relate directly, due to cultural differences...but we can be encouraged by their testimonies too. I've started again. Somewhere in Lev. Don't steal sheep, guys. You'll have to pay back an extra sheep.

Where is God in my life

I often ask that. When I'm scurrying around from class to class, meeting deadlines after deadlines. Trying to get all the logistics to work together and talk to all the people I need to talk to...it's often easy to lose track of ourselves. This is what you can do:

1) Take some breaks. Strangely, I now find grocery shopping and dish washing relaxing. Maybe it's cuz it's away from my eternally-on LCD monitor, and my "Gmail (1)" window.

2) I was once challenged with..."instead of asking that, why don't you ask, 'where am I in God's plans'"? Shift the focus off of us, and onto God. I'll pull from a Relient K song, and say that changing perspectives can change much.

Living out your faith

One of my biggest struggles has always been converting knowledge into application. I've written about this a few times, but it keeps coming up (so I guess I just gotta keep writing about it).

Engineering
The very definition of engineering ("the application of science and mathematics...") is one of application. We learn (often what appears to be useless) mathematics (give me one useful real-life application of linear algebra...or vector calculus...) and science...the concept of how components fit together and what theory to apply where...endless amounts of textbook reading and practice problems. I was told that 3A/B would be the hardest terms of my electrical undergraduate career. That wasn't quite right...

Fourth Year Design, where we are quite literally thrown into the fire, is one of the most difficult things I had to attempt in Engineering. Here, I had to dip into resources that I found on my own (first fray into journal articles), make assumptions and attempt to justify them...in fact, our FYD adviser told us that as long as we realize that 1) reality is not as straightforward as theory and 2) sensors are not ideal, we would've gotten alot out of FYD. I think we're doing pretty good. FYD is living proof that Murphy's law is true...

So even though I do decent at school (somehow...), the leap to application is nevertheless rather difficult.

Psychology
I could apply the same thing to psych. I enjoy psychology. I took both undergrad social psychology courses offered at Waterloo. It's one of the few textbooks I didn't mind reading. Yet, the people who interact with me on a regular basis will tell you that I could definitely use a bit more tact, and a bit less social awkwardness.

The other day, in the midst of a CCF event, I lashed out (spoke in a rather angry/serious tone and used some pretty harsh languages) at a friend, a Psychology major, because of some logistical issues. Being focused on the logistics, I wasn't thinking about interpersonal conflict resolution techniques or the fact she's stressed about running the event. Nor, I bet, she was thinking about my obvious narrow-minded focus on logistics and irrational comments. And so, even though we both had alot of theoretical psychology under our belts, the confrontation still ended badly (no worries, things are okay now). Theory didn't help all that much.

So...what's your point?
Don't get me wrong. I value knowledge. I think it's really important to learn about theories and to be able to explain things. I like learning about biology and physics. But knowing that insulin causes sugar uptake into cells does not help me with real life very much...unless I'm helping a Type 1 diabetic administering his insulin shots. Knowing that epinephrine will cause vasodilation (expansion of blood vessels) isn't very useful either...unless I'm helping someone find his Epipen.

Living your faith
UWCCF's theme revolves around living out my faith. What does that really mean? It means that, at some point, reading commentaries and listening to sermons doesn't cut it. The other day, I was listening to Mark Driscoll talk about the necessity for discipline and reading John MacArthur write about the origin of pain and evil. Yes, God disciplines His children and has greater purposes than we can imagine...but I can promise you that if you said "God is sovereign" to a Christan who just lost his dad to cancer, you're not helping . You'll be taken aside and lectured about being insensitive.

But...my theory tells me that "the truth set you free"...

And yes. Yes it does. But we're called to be loving as well. Belittling one's pain with a strong-arm answer is not very loving. Offer your prayer. Say that you're sorry. And stop there. Because "God needed him more than you did" is a very poor thing to say to a grieving person, no matter how close that is to the truth.

The importance of reading the Word, listening to sermons and partaking in discussions cannot be understated (this is coming from a guy that listens to sermons as he walks to school. haha). But what I am given is useless if I'm not bringing the good news (or, teaching...*hint hint* to all you potential bible study leaders out there). To bind up the brokenhearted (Caring ministry, anyone?). In spirit and in truth. To set the captives free (and of course, outreach).

It's difficult, because it means I need to get deeper than "yo, what's up" with the people I see everyday. Or to admit that I don't know everything, and must look up and learn. Or to question people when they walk by on Clubs day, when they say "oh, I'm not religious". It means I'm not number one. It means I must learn (and re-learn) to be humble. It means I need to pray more.

Because living out your faith isn't just about reading and thinking. Nor is it only about being considerate and a nice guy. In order to live out one's faith, one must understand the multidimensionalness of Christianity. The full extent of what we're called to do. To seek discipleship. And to bring others to seek discipleship. And to bring Him glory.

Significance of Apologetics

Apologetics, Greek for 'in defense', is a branch of theology dedicated to defending the Christian faith. Knowledge of apologetics is of utmost importance, because we have two groups of people that we must defend our faith against: ourselves, and everyone else.

Defending myself against me

Doubt is a very powerful force. I am my loudest critic. It is evident that we are commended for our faith. In fact, Abraham is often cited as the first use of the word righteousness in the OT:

[God] took [Abram] outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

- Genesis 15.5-6

This citation is repeated a few more times by NT authors, such as Paul and James. Doubt plays against faith. Without faith, why would one be obedient? Now, I am not advocating blind faith. The concept of blind faith plays directly against the Parable of the Talent (yes, knowledge and ability to think is a talent), giving rise to the importance of knowing your faith and what you believe in and the implications of what science is discovering.

What is truth?

- John 18.38a

Indeed, commentators note that Pilate was ignorant of the fact that Truth was right before him. Blind faith implies that you don't know know if you're chasing after a truth or a lie. How would know if you don't look into the circumstances, the assumptions and the background of the stories that you read? Apologetics is not about memorizing stock answers to stock questions. It is about knowing what I believe in. Important life questions like "why is there pain and suffering?" and "what is the meaning of life?" is easy to read on paper, but difficult to answer when you yourself are suffering. I must be able to defend myself against myself.

Defending Christianity before others

This could come in all sorts of forms. Elijah's account on Mount Carmel isn't quite what I have in mind, but I guess it could work...

We are called to spread the Word. The stigma of Christianity is quite heavy at times, as we need to bear the burden of the people that came before us. What might this include?

• Catholic priests and sexual assault cases (recent news articles)
• Hypocrisy of the modern church (personal ancedocial examples) and other failings of the institutional church
• The Jesus Seminar (first heard of it from Case for Christ by Lee Strobel)
• The common misassumption that Christans blatantly disagrees with science on major theories such as evolution and thus are ignorant of scientific development and evidence (YEC definitely leaves much to desire) and are backward and old-fashioned
• The assumption that Christians "projects" people and only has conversion on their agenda when conversing with non-Christians
• That Christians are a bunch of crazies that doesn't believe in blood transfusion

And the list goes on. At least we don't have an government that'd accuse us of burning down the city...but yes. It becomes our role to overcome these stigmas and prove that yes, we're logical and normal human beings.

But questions would come. Whether it's about...

• morality (CS Lewis' moral compass)
• rationale for stance of policy, such as homosexual marriage
• rationale for living style
• thoughts about current events
• historical accuracy of the Bible (largest stash of intact manuscripts vs other ancient historical documents)
• scientific theories
• religious beliefs

"I don't know" is generally not very impressive. People seems to be surprised that I have first aid training, that I have general biology/psychology knowledge and that I like baking. I've gotten a few "wait, what program are you in again?" ... the point is that I like biology/psychology (I may have very well opted for medicine or a psychology major had I decided against engineering) and thus took steps to learn about them. Granted, the average Christian dude isn't going to care about the Big Bang Theory, but perhaps he should care if he believes in a literal vs figurative translation of Genesis 1-3 (and all its implications). Or why he should disagree with homosexuality (is it actually bad?). It has been raised in BC that, since same-sex marriage is allowed, why shouldn't polygamy be allowed (is THAT bad?)?

Or why he thinks he is saved?

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?' Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'

- Matthew 7.21-23

Probably one of the harder verses in the Sermon on the Mount (recall that the Sermon on the Mount is delivered to Jewish believers, not random Gentiles). If even Christ would say this about people who thinks are Christians...well. One would need to be very sure that he's in the right place...

Some Apologetics Materials

Mere Christianity by CS Lewis is an excellent first-read for anyone mildly interested in anything apologetics related. Materials by Ravi Zacharias (RZIM) is also very good. I've read a few things by Lee Strobel (ie Case for Christ), which was an interesting read.

Cats

So over the Christmas break, I offered to take care of the Lester boys' cat, Schrodinger. Even though I've never owned a pet, I was told that cats are fairly low maintenance. How bad can it be?

Cat-sitting 101

Assuming that all the materials are there already, I was told about three things:

Food - Schro is fed this combination of ... supposedly dried up pork and various other meats. Sounds a bit sketchy, but cat food companies know a whole lot more about cats than I do. He goes through about a bowl a day. I was told that cats never overeat (unlike stupid humans at all-you-can-eat sushi bars). Interestingly, they really shouldn't drink cow milk, since, you know, it's from a cow and cat stomaches doesn't like that too much, even though we see it on TV all the time. One could note why humans can drink cow milk and be okay...mmm...but then, humans eat everything. Come on. Just look at Chinese people...

One deviation I did make for Schro's catfood diet is I fed him haddock. I saw some cheap haddock on sale (and after checking with the cat's extensive 'do-not-feed' list), I went ahead and gave him some. He took three bites, and promptly fell asleep. Talk about itis...

But when I woke up the next day, he ended up eating all fish I gave him. Maybe he's shy. But (see section about litter)...

Water - Fairly straight forward. I give him a bowl of water. I add more when it's low. I rinse it. Maybe I should've tried giving him orange juice...

Litter - Perhaps the most 'interesting' part of cat-sitting technology I was introduced to. Cat litter, which appears to be small little rocks (the label claims it's advance technology) that Schro can sit in and take a nice #1 or #2, whichever suits his fancy. My job regarding this involves...walking Schro's litterbox over to a garbage can, and using a pooper-scooper, dump his crap into the garbage can. Now...somehow, his catly by-products sticks to the litter, making large rock-like objects that I need to remove. I guess cats can't be trained to use toilets.

I've noticed that, whenever Schro is extra jumpy or extra affectionate, it's not usually because he hasn't seen people around for a while...because as soon as I change his litter, he does his business. Now, I'm sure parts of his urgent purring whenever I open the door has to do with wanting other animate objects moving around in the same spatial region, but given that he reverted back to his hand biting ways right after I scoop his poo... well.

What have I learned?

Physical Interactions - The cat likes to claw, and he likes to bite. And be purring while he's at it. So he ENJOYS biting people. You know life would be bad when the first question I got from his owners the day after they left was "have you been bitten alive yet?"...so gloves are rather beneficial. I've also observed that the cat likes dangly things, and have clawed long hair, scarfs and stray shoelaces. I've had a bit of fun, throwing threads across the room and watch him bolt after it. He, however, doesn't like to bring it back.

Cat Hair - It sticks to everything. I think if I lost hair at that rate, I'd be bald -_-

Sleeping Cycles - He sleeps alot. He seems to have taken a liking to shoulder bags, because I see him curled up on Keith's and my shoulder bag quite often.

Conclusion
The cat is certainly alive. I probably wouldn't mind a cat in the future, if it wasn't for all the cat hair on my stuff. Certainly one that is less anxious to get his claws and fangs into my arms.