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What started with watching Kurosawa’s - Seven Samurai whilst I was flat on my back sick the other week has turned into a revival of my ongoing interest in Japan. Last night I saw the triptych Tokyo! which whilst being odd was certainly rewarding - more on that later. Then this morning care of (the Firefox crashing) TOKYOMANGO I came across these short films by Kosai Sekine and had to share.

This first one is called Right Place and perfect for those with anally retentive/OCD tendencies:

This second mesmerizing video clip is a kaleidoscopic look at Tokyo:

Tokyo! was certainly an interesting set of films where the common thread was the city. After experiencing what it’s like to be a gaijin (foreginer) for a month in Japan, I found that I was better able to understand what many of the underlying messages of the films were. If you were to just watch these films without any  understanding of Japanese culture then I’m sure that there’s still something of interest in each but they’re quite rich in symbols to those with some exposure or interest in Japanese culture.

Also I’d recommend anyone with an interest in film to get a full special edition copy of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. The one I got had the full length film which apparently has been hard to get until recently. Then it had 2 commentary tracks from people that whilst sounding like a media student’s dissertaiton offered some great additional information on the background of the film and it’s creators. It also unpacks some of the secondary messages and cultural etiquette.

Then there was a 2 hour interview with Kurosawa and another biographical documentary of Kurosawa. It was relly quite rewarding to see what he achieved in his life, how he went about it and his insights on film and artistic expression. If there were a few simple take home points it was:

- Directors need to write. Whilst there is the art of actual production, writing is the staple.
- Writing regularly is beneficial.
- If a film (or product) is driven by financial motives rather than artistic the outcome is usually bad.
- Extreme experiences are the basis upon which we can form our values and future expression
- Timing and pacing are of great value in film. It’s essentially the difference between a book and a film.
- Music for film is different to music for the sake of music.

I then watched a few episodes of a recent anime adaption of the Seven Samurai and one could immediately see the changes in values and culture (and also the trivialness) of Japanese popular culture. Kurosawa’s original film had a depth and understanding of his immediate culture and that of humanity that is very hard to replicate or rarely do we see it in popular films today.

It does inspire me to delve into how we express what humanity is in the face of a rapidly changing culture. There is the constant need to analyse the culture around us and reveal it against that which it timeless.

Been meaning to blog more and thought that it was about time for a new skin. Can’t take credit for this one because I just grabbed it from Smashing Magazine/Design Disease. It’s a case of being capable of making it from scratch but when someone else knows it so much better why not use their handiwork.

Hoping to have more posts up here soon!

I think I only just came to the realisation that culture is swinging towards a yet further liberal position as a whole. I’ve generally held the position that people are corrupt no matter the time period and that what happens openly in society itself just changes. I’m slightly rethinking that since what happens in the open places of a society is intimately reflecting , and ultimately also directing, the individuals.

There’s an interesting chain to why I’m rethinking this.

I’m at a conference which whilst priding itself on being a free-thinking innovative brain storm for the interactive industry has a number of sessions that one would think to be slightly out of place since they are focused on or prominently feature sex. Sure sex is an integral part of life yet it’s the deviant nature of how it’s included here. One talk is on protecting our sexual privacy online (presumably so you can do what you like in a second life), another on the rules governing porn in this new web age, another that whilst being focused on interaction design uses sex toys as the case study to mention a few.

I think what really banged this cultural shift home is that in a session I attended, a behind the scenes look at the Onion (which is a contemporary of Australia’s own Chaser), showed a clip that’s censored from their live site (which I swear the Chaser guys have done too but maybe not as far) where a news anchor quizzes a ’specialist’ about the increasing amount of sex in the media as they roll through some stock of sexual imagery. It made use of a common comic device of the irony having people discussing the evils of something whilst they perpetrate it themselves. They also used a sense of ascension to it by raising the level of inappropriateness of the imagery. Now what got me wasn’t how this was so inappropriate (I must say that I’d had this false conception that Americans are so conservative that it wouldn’t go beyond what you’d see on the Chaser) but moreover how people found it so funny. I probably spent more time studying the room as what would be considered as imagery that was increasingly sexually perverse was gaining more and more laughs. At no point did the room ease into a state with a few guys laughing over a silent majority. What this meant was that this imagery was familiar to the majority of the room so much that they could derive humour from its escalating perversion, since it was setting an expectation that it continued to meet.

What I found shocking was the familiarity. Sure at an arts conference you’re going to find more than your average bunch of liberal minded folk yet to have the majority of a crowd being so familiar with such perverse imagery was not my expectation. I guess it just rings home the roll of stats presented by a wide variety of sources about the prevalence of America’s (and since it is just the same in many ways - Australia’s) porn culture. Sure I can see it’s attraction and understand why it’s so large a market yet I also know how destructive it is.

I can’t say that I’m above anyone in my moral standing but it just makes me long for monogamy and makes me want to run from anything as crude and dysfunctional as what is held up for fulfilment. I know the ruinous consequences of any amazing aspect of life that is ruled by desires and that it is not the removal of such desires but placing them in submission in worship to their Creator that truly fulfills.

I’m all too aware of my folly for accepting cheap substitutes but it does pain me to see others unwittingly yet adamantly traversing the path to diminishing fulfillment in which it it will eventually cease all together.

How do you wake people up to a set of affections that’s going to kill them, where they’re like frogs in heating water? I know the answer is the Gospel but how do you tell them without it just being ignored? I guess it has to connect with their understanding of their unmet satisfaction whilst not promising that by acting a certain way you’ll have ultimate fulfillment since Christ says he will be our fill. He said that he who believes in him shall never thirst again. John’s revelation of heaven is that those who have faith in Christ now shall hunger no more nor thirst. It is my understanding that the usage of thirst in these passages relates directly to our personal spiritual fulfillment, the one we unsuccessfully seek to be met by things of this world. It is yet so hard to believe sometimes, to not tell yourself that you need the vain experiences of this world to meet your burning desires but that it is Christ that fills these. Whilst I think that this is what we are to constantly grapple with for our lives on this earth I want to do it, since I want to experience the fullness that Christ speaks of as without him I don’t have a hope on this earth. Also when I do use what I’ve been given by him in worship of him, including my sexuality, it’s then unlocked to be fulfilling in a way that it couldn’t be otherwise.

I want to see people being fulfilled and I’m eager to see the cultural renewal that comes when people are given the grace to experience the satisfaction that is Christ.

Well I realise that this might not sound all that amazing to most but I made it to Seattle, which in being part of the US of A means I’ve accomplished something I’ve dreamed of as a child. Woot!

Hmm. The first thing that surprised me is how much it’s like Melbourne. It’s population is about the same and the downtown has a similar feel to it. I’ve been up in Fremont which is also a lot like Fitzroy, boutique indie style shops mixed with a lot more chic places to eat all with it’s anti-authority feel (including their statue of Lenin) and the odd exhibitionist homeless person to boot. Yeah Fitzroy it is.

Now since I’m autophile I’ve been paying a keen eye to what’s on the streets and yes it’s big. There are loads of trucks and 4WD/SUVs. I mean loads and they’re very industrial. Form follows function and also rather inefficient. Big motors, big noise for not really doing all that much. Like what I can’t get over is how they have these tiny buses yet they’re very wide and have the proportions of a bodybuilder. An old Toyota town minibus would do the job just as well yet I’m guessing for less cost financially and environmentally. What I do like are new Mustangs, Vipers other forms of American Muscle thundering themselves around. Also love to see our Commodore’s being given grand handbrake turn showings on adverts here as the Pontiac G8. There’s a rumour running around that Ford’s new CEO loves the Falcon enough that he’s going to be using that as his personal ride.

Now here the mass transit should really be called micro-transit because there’s pretty much little coverage of trains, buses and no subway or even an link out to the airport. On a different note the airport is a visual abomination looking like it was designed by someone who specialises in concentration camps but in Seattle they do like their planes. There’s almost one in the sky whenever you look especially the sea based variety with the pontoons projecting from the bottom. It does have good reason too since most of the world’s airliners originate from  hometown icon Boeing.

Seattle’s urban layout is according to a grid and whilst occasionally alters to suit the terrain the terrain is very much subject to it. That’s certainly a task with the rolling hills and abundance of watercourses that are often passed over with trusses and drawbridges. It really does look like Sim City. Architecture is unfortunately not all that adventurous and very utilitarian with traditional forms as a surface treatment. Wood abounds in these parts thus too cladding. If it could be done for the same cost yet with some clean lines and nice form, it’s not. Seen the odd Frank Lloyd Wright knock off but they lack any of the glory he bestowed on his designs. Yet it is amazing to be able to look out across this city and see it teeming with so much life.

It really is a city shaped by it’s industries, where it flaunts it’s difference to the rest of America (as I’ve heard someone say it’s the closest the US gets to Canada) and holds tight to autonomy and free thought. Ok that’s my first impression. Let you know more later!

It’s been 3 weeks since I disrupted small group because I disagreed with what John Chiong was teaching that night - in short “Name it - claim it” theology. I had come with the intention to leave the group at the end of the night giving an account for my reason yet it became apparent that I was going to be denying my responsibility to challenge false doctrine. Something that when I did, I did a shithouse job of it. I need to apologise for how I made a mockery of the truth for allowing my personality into the argument. If it’s my distrust of authority, my lack of humility, my thriving in conflict then for that I apologise. Yet if it’s confronting to be told that such teaching as “Claiming blessing (school marks or promotions) because you’re God’s children” is the type of false gospel that Paul warns against, I do not apologise at all because “Name it-Claim it” belittles God and has nothing to do with him. What really amazed me was how blind we had become such teachings, myself included.

For the period through which I was attending COOS I went along to the Sonic Edge Cell on Wednesday’s and the Saturday Night Youth Service which the majority of the Sonic Edge people attended and also the monthly Sonic Edge MSG meeting. I’m very thankful for the way I was welcomed in. I deeply identify with these guys because I grew up in a similar music culture in Adelaide and it’s comprised of a great bunch of people. Marcus went out of his way from my initial contact through a myspace message to help out and make me feel at home. I really appreciate it still.

I came to Church of Our Saviour (COOS) in mid-september and chose to stop attending just prior to Christmas after having discussions with John Chiong and Jennifer Heng. Both discussions centred on my interest as to why we didn’t hear very much about Jesus at church and when we did it was really in passing or “In Jesus name”, that kind of thing. Both leaders retorted that they believed they had and that they couldn’t teach the Gospel every week and that people needed meat. John went as far as saying people would leave if the Gospel was preached every week since they need something more.

Upon hearing this it immediately revealed something to me which I found to be huge, that somehow in the mix the Gospel had been shuffled to a role of getting people in the door of Christianity and then the real transformation of life would begin as we conducted our lives according to God. I’m not sure where or how it started but I believe this is the conviction of the leadership at COOS. I’ve repeatedly listened back through the Podcast to sermons preached by a variety of leaders and to make sure I’m hearing what the teaching is saying. I’ve appealled to John Chiong and Jennifer Heng to further explain themselves, I’ve even gone as far as contacting the administration to speak to Mr. Hong yet they didn’t reply.

Unfortunately that perspective is false. The Gospel is the centre of the Christian faith and absolutely nothing else. The meat that Paul was talking of was that of Jesus Christ’s mutilated, defiled body dripping blood and dying a murderous death on a cross to appease God’s wrath for your sin. That sin is not your school marks. In that act he allowed you for the first time to be directly in touch with God through faith because without Christ’s atonement you are vile and utterly depraved to God. That act that Christ did, did not make you perfect. Nor will it allow you to become even close to perfection in this life. Since Christ took the fall for all sin yet since He is completely holy He is able to impute his righteousness before God to those who He desires, which the bible says is those who truly believe in him. That’s a massive step. Not one that you can be talked through by repeating the “sinner’s prayer” because it’s about you believing that Jesus Christ is who He said He is. You can only come to understand what the righteousness you have on your own is worth when you look into who Christ is and what He did. He is perfect and holds true righteousness that is imparted to you in grace. Your personal righteousness, the one you attempt on your own, is shit (Phil 3:9). It’s a load that you leave behind in the toilet. That is your righteousness before God. Through the prophet Isaiah God declared any attempt of yourself at righteousness as a filthy rag. As in a girl’s bloody tampon. Dwell upon that for a moment, that is what every attempt of you to make God love you is. That is what every attempt to do something good so that God blesses you or loves you more looks like.

It smacked me across the face like a cold punch and there is no way at all, absolutely none, that I could follow through with Jennifer Heng’s repeated calls “not to give up because you’re worth it”. To the contrary that’s all I could do, fall on my face in shame over the state of my heart. My flesh, my innate broken heart, wills against God’s. It uses every single desire that God gave me for good against him as it attempts to find fulfilment in every place but him. It seeks to heap honour upon myself for every act. It seeks to exchange the truth in His words to endorse my sins, of which “Name it - claim it” is yet just another form. Even though He is the only thing that can save me, my heart seeks to place the value only He deserves upon things that will not save. My mind dwells upon the vain fulfillment my functional saviours will bring that only results in my death.

As I crawl on my face which is not even honourable to be lifted before my creator. I cry out for mercy, my voice raspingly bleats out my repentance. Overwhelmed with shame before him who is utterly holy, yet is lovingly gracious, he then bestows his righteousness upon me no matter what I have done, what I do today and tomorrow. I just can’t sing along with the lyrics “I love you endlessly” since I know my humanity cannot make such a boast (Mark 14:29-31). I am limited, I am sinful, yet I am in awe of my Saviour’s love.

I’m amazed that such a creator then places new desires in my heart that begin my transformation into that like Christ. He begins to renew my mind through the gift of faith in Jesus Christ, which is accompanied by his Holy Spirit, that compels me to do his bidding upon this earth yet this transformation does not occur overnight or entirely by my own hand since it’s only as I dwell up on Christ that I then have my affections changed one by one to pursuing the Christ that gives life.

Since I haven’t heard even a hint of such words preached at Church of our Saviour yet oppositely such aberrations of God’s word and teachings that endorse sinfulness or deny God’s supremacy I can no longer attend such a church.

I believe at the core of this lies a very low view of scripture that interprets things through the desires of those preaching, listening or to fit the cultural context rather than seeking what God is actually saying. This is a matter of experience shaping our doctrines rather than the infallible word of God to which nothing can be added or detracted.

There are a number of things that have alerted me to understanding that what is preached at COOS is not quite right.

-There have been teachers that say they need to be filled with the Holy Spirit separate to faith in Christ.
The Biblical standpoint is that the Holy Spirit is imparted upon faith in Christ not in a separate situation. Any other teaching would be false and misleading. See Baptism and Fullness by John Stott.

-I’ve repeatedly heard preaching that some spiritual gifts (separate to Salvation) are given by another with that gift.
The Holy Spirit is the medium through which God gives the gifts. No man is involved other than Jesus Christ. God gives as he wills. Everyone who believes in Christ gets gifts but not all are given the same gifts since they are for the edification of the Church, the integration of the body of Christ.

-The usage of tongues discounts Paul’s teachings in 1 Corinthians to not being applicable to COOS as somehow they are “different”.
1 Corinthians 12-14 outlines teaching on how tongues is to be used in the Church as a whole (along with a lot of other things about what the church is to do) yet I have been told that for reasons from either the Corinthians being nut jobs who just talk in tongues all the time through to the fact that people can’t exegetically reconcile the latter section about women being slient unless it’s literal thereby writing off the whole book (which I would contest it’s not and just some basic comprehension by reading the whole thing in context clears it up). For the exact reason that Paul stipulates in that passage, the confusion of those not part of that church, a friend I brought was certainly turned off by the irreverent use of tongues at COOS. I’ve also been told that tongues is never used as preaching yet ministers regularly trails off into tongues toward the end of sermons and I have absolutely no idea what they are saying especially since they doesn’t translate. All I can understand is that it’s building an image of themselves as the Holy Spirit inspired leader who then proclaims “God’s word” (usually prophecy) which I don’t believe is right. Either way at COOS this gift is a clanging symbol because it’s not being exercised in love for the edification of the Church.

-Basically teaching a self-reliant relationship with God
When Jenn Heng gave her 3 point sermon on Nehemiah 2 she made the points - Admit you’re wrong, weak & worth it. It belittled sin down to “being wrong” and that was equal to you being discouraged (even Jesus was so that wasn’t sin). Also far more time was spent explaining to admit your failings to your friends and family, sin and God only got a very nominal mention as she read from the passage, it wasn’t even a point. She constructed a concept of self-esteem which leveraged the situation of Christ’s death for our personal worth since he did that must mean we’re worth it. That makes me really uncomfortable without also revealing that Christ died because it was also for God’s glory. It’s like Jenn was using the effect to determine the cause rather than the cause then effect. In the same sermon series there was a quote “How could you do this to me. I’ve served you all of my life and this happened….” attributed as Darlene Zschech’s reaction to her miscarriage, the attitude was just a side point to a story that focused on her choice to then worship God by singing a song. It’s actually great to hear her praising God in the middle such a situation but that left us with a concept that we deserve something for serving God. I’d be far more comfortable with saying God’s way of using this really painful situation was to reveal that no matter what we do he’s our fulfilment and doesn’t owe us anything. So in the midst of that we totally need to praise Him. I felt cheated that the crowd was left to think that God does owe us something.

- Not teaching what is in the Bible
Jennifer Heng preached a 4 week series on Nehemiah that was completely based around the fact that we, as in you and I, are the equivalent city of Jerusalem that needs rebuilding and that by looking at the deeds Nehemiah did that we too can be restored. I have argued that a correct reading of that passage is that the City of God, Jerusalem, has an equivalent in the New Testament of the Church and that we, Christian individuals, are the dwelling place of God care of Jesus death on the Cross and the subsequent gift of the Holy Spirit upon faith. So that would mean Nehemiah is actually about the reconstruction of the church using the existing rubble (us). Sure that God wants to sanctify and transform us yet that is not what that passage is about. At the core we are rubble and broken people that the only reason that together we are viewed as a beautiful city by God is through Christ’s atoning sacrifice. Thus the life application of Nehemiah is around the construction of a church not our personal transformation through persevering with our worldly struggles. Now it’d be different if the whole sermon was a character study on all of Nehemiah’s Godly qualities that we should aspire to learn from but it wasn’t (even then without the Gospel link it’s not Christian teaching - you may as well get along to your local Mosque or Synagogue). Just the problem is that in the sermons that were preached only the suitable qualities were picked for supporting the lifestyle of a Singaporean school student. That’s not preaching from the Bible. That’s adapting the Bible to your ideology.

-Derek Hong believes his word is equal to the Bible
In a sermon that Derek Hong preached at the beginning of 2008 “Getting the most out of Church” (title alone sent shudders down my spine) he preached from Proverbs 4:20-27. To paraphrase what Solomon wrote as God breathed instruction - listen to my words that you’ll find throughout this passage and you’ll be righteous. Derek then took that passage and said that his word being preached from the pulpit is indeed such “words” and then gave a number of directives to maximise your benefit from church; which is apparently is turning up to church on time, avoiding conflict on the way and taking notes. Unfortunately for Derek it’s heretical to then place yourself in the Author’s role to say that your sermon is God breathed instruction since it clearly wasn’t since only one of those three things even remotely appears in the bible and I have to say that really it was a load of rubbish since turning up to church with a selfish consumer attitude is a massive mistake.

- Misuse of prophetic gifts
At the end of the same sermon Derek Hong then called people, through a prophecy, to come to the front who have a demon in them that makes them fall asleep when reading their bible. That is not edifying the church. That is using fear to control people. That’s what demagogues do. I personally think the appropriate way to use such a gift if you did receive such a prophecy, since demons torment people so they theoretically could (yet I’m still skeptical), is to then ask people to come to the front with the aforementioned issue and not introduce demons into it at all and then deal with that when praying for them if that is indeed what the issue is. Also I didn’t see any deliberation with other church leaders to give me confidence that this wasn’t just something he made up. I didn’t see love being exercised there at all.

- Derek Hong teaches that he can release God’s forgiveness
In a sermon preached on the first weekend in Feb 2008 Derek told of a story where someone came to repent to him for acting against God. Derek said that he then released God’s forgiveness to him. What? Only Jesus Christ can forgive our sin. Now I’ll assume that he really meant that he was expressing to this guy that Jesus forgives him but these small comments are really important since they can completely mislead people. There also are other situations where such wordings leave the glory of healing upon individuals and not Christ.

-COOS’s approach to sin (the Homosexuality position)
The church has chosen to single out the sin of sexual immorality with a focus purely on Homosexuality in a way that is contrary to Jesus own teachings on Sin. I do not at all disagree that the church of today’s world faces a challenge in engaging culture as it’s mores have changed to endorse Homosexuality as as lifestyle, yet stigmatising it as a sin above others contradicts what Jesus taught on Sin in Matthew 7:1-5:

“1Judge not, that you be not judged. 2sFor with the judgment you pronounce you will be judged, and twith the measure you use it will be measured to you. 3Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but udo not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 5You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye”

When Homosexuality is discussed it is done so in a very judgemental manner which can be summarised by this quote from the COOS Statement: “Homosexual practice is contrary to God’s Word”. That could be casually rendered in the form “because God said so”.

It therein fails to bring sexuality under the Gospel as a part of our fallen character to be renewed. It fails to start with Jesus prior to creation and God then creating gender and marriage and His declaration that this is good. It fails to show that it is indeed this form of sexuality that is sanctioned by God for our joy and his glory. It fails to show that when our forefathers sinned it forever distorted history, corrupting all that was good. Thus it fails to glorify Christ when he died for our sin so we can be restored to God and through relationship with him experience the full joy of transforming our desires and will to his.

In a sermon on the topic that one can find on the website Shawn Tay’s guide to gay proofing your kids was subjective, experiential “advice” which I think was wrong to teach, since a parent cannot control a child’s sin. The true focus of the sermon was reducing the shame that parents experience for having children with “sensitive” tendencies, that according to Mr. Tay, are more likely to become gay. The content then descended into lifestyle related gender misconceptions (eg. Don’t let your boys play with dolls) which actually leads people to confusion about their sexuality as it it inflates false gender stereotypes (this sort of perspective went the way of shock-therapy long ago). Not only was this painted as the reason as to why one becomes gay but it was also totally focused on male homosexuality yet applied to homosexuality as a whole (as each gender has very different reasons for undertaking). It also left the whole matter of sexual abuse out of the discussion, which in my experience is the most common predisposition to sexual confusion. It was completely preached out of Mr. Tay’s personal experience of his childhood and what he attributes with confusing his sexuality yet applied to all.

The real criticism was that absolutely none of it was Biblically based and it never said that people chose to deal with their desires in a sinful way by not submitting it to Christ so desiring after fulfillment elsewhere thus depriving Him of his deserved glory. It did not ever mention parents taking responsibility for their children’s spiritual growth and teaching them about Jesus Christ as the best thing you can do to see your children grow healthily into maturity.

In the same sermon Derek Hong’s tirade about a gay supremacy movement with an agenda to legally force churches to employ them was an abuse of office since it was merely scare mongering and was only going to create hostility from those in attendance toward those who call themselves homosexual. I do not think that through the way it was handled that anyone in attendance would have been motivated to love all people of all nations with the heart of Christ (since the case in point was supposedly occurring in the US not even Singapore).

The Church website places Homosexuality as of higher importance than the Church’s belief statement (thus Jesus), Ministries, Sermons and Testimonies according to the menu structure. There are no church statements on Hetrosexuality, Greed, overworking to feed your functional saviour, materialism or the heresy of prosperity doctrine. If Homosexuality is equal to other sins as the statement disclaimers at the end then why aren’t other statements there? But such statements in themselves are deeply flawed for they cast a vision of works above grace.

Also none of the testimonies linked to from that Homosexuality statement page attribute Jesus Christ with their Salvation. However their cultural change, the church environment or the Choices program is responsible for their functional salvation: hetrosexuality and the acceptance of a community (and probably their parents and greater culture). The Homosexuality statement itself calls people to be saved for comfort and strength not because of Christ himself.

Not only is this approach defaming the name of Christ by maligning his name with hollow teachings and lifting the self-righteous sin stained lives of COOS members above those of fellow sinners, it is a massive turn off to those outside the church that creates a stumbling block to the clear reception of the Gospel. The way that COOS approaches the issue is most likely to be read by most people as “I can’t go to God because I’m Gay” or “God hates me because I’m Gay” since they fail to integrate the Gospel into their stance. It’s a massive irony that COOS is willing to proclaim to the homosexual community “you can change” yet not be willing to incorporate that into the message for themselves.

It’s the sort of hypocrisy that Christ called the Pharisees to:

Matthew 23:13-15
13“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people’s faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. 15Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.”

Now the big question is why is homosexuality such an issue at COOS? Is it just because it’s the one sin they’ve chosen to highlight to make their community feel better about themselves alone as they appear to be one of the few churches in Singapore that gives it any airtime. Yet I think it runs deeper because you usually make such sins important since your church is really struggling with other endemic sin.

So I close rebuking the leadership from straying from the teaching of the Gospel and call for those who are committed to this community to call their leadership to theological reformation.

For those who are not committed to Church of Our Savior in the wake of the uncertainty surrounding Sonic Edge get your ass into a church that cares about the centrality of the Gospel, which includes staying true to the Bible and Jesus teachings. Do not prioritise churches by criteria like how good the music is, potential life partners, if the sermons make you feel all warm and fuzzy and whether they say “the presence of God is moving here”. Look for the true signs and that it is indeed the triune God, who’s defining feature is Jesus not us, that gets all of the glory out of every song, every sermon, every testimony and every word. Look for preaching of Christ and Christ crucified and leaders who aren’t afraid of Sin, Hell and explaining the great love Jesus had to choose us out of that.

Once again I apologise for my pride and lack of humility that I displayed in the way that I interrupted the small group and please bring it to my attention if you think there things I need to rectify.

I really feel that we as a global Church do not educate people on what the decision they are making is before we ask them to make it. This results in people having an ill formed image of God that they commit to so when that image is expanded upon in their Christian walk then they run into difficulty understanding how what they are learning fits next to what they believe. Also there is so much peripheral teaching within the Church and the rest of this world that doesn’t align with the Gospel that often the Gospel takes a secondary position to that in their priorities.

when are you going to get dry?
can you ever stay dry?
every swig you put away
drives the ever deeper the pain
As I stand here outside this life looking in
my eyes obscured by tears rolling from the damage I see
If you need some empathy you’ve got it
If you need attention you’ve got it

If you need some empathy you’ve had it
If you need attention you’ve had it
It wasn’t enough for you
Now it’s time to walk away

Ok this has been a long time coming but I’m so disappointed with Singapore’s drivers. After catching cabs and buses around I know too well why the MRT is so popular.

For a country with some well constructed and maintained roads the drivers certainly don’t match. They just don’t know what they’re doing half the time drifting in and out of lanes, they’ll suddenly slow to a crawl in the right lane of a freeway without reason and completely ignore roadsigns and do whatever they feel like merely because they’re oblivious and not paying attention. This happens in Australia every so often but they do this all of the time here.

Now the thing that gets to me the most is that people aren’t taught how to operate the simple controls of a car properly. I live near a driving school and the instructors never have them at full speed, they’re always going 10-20kph where I’m from you’re expected to do the speed limit from your first lessson on the road, none of this pussy footing around.

Singaporean drivers seem to think that the brake and accelorator are digital on/off inputs. So follows are some basic diagrams and pointers for those uninitiated:

Now at driving school I was taught to brake like the diagram above. Good braking is like a good poo. It’s tapered at both ends. Now for the most part accelerating is the same and you can replace the words brake with accelerating in most of my diagrams. Now I’m talking for the everyday operation of vehicles on the road that this is the desired pattern for braking and accelerating. Come raceday you’ll find all sorts of other things going on through the pedals, heel and toeing, trailbraking, double declutching, flat changes but you need not know any of those just to drive your auto-econobox around Singapore.

Ok so jump in a bus, train or taxi in Singapore and you’ll experience braking and acceleration per the diagram below.

Now that’s not a seismic graph from an earthquake but how your average Singaporean brakes. They jolt the pedal the full amount repeatedly on and off until all the passengers are scattered all over the floor or your neck is feeling like you’ve been to a Bon Jovi concert. So they erratically pump the pedal and think they’ve slowed enough, that’s the pause in the middle and then go crazy again. Basically when you get on public transport grab the nearest pole and hold on tight so you’ll be ok when the driver decides he wants to do his best Eddie Van Halen impression (or have an epileptic fit, whichever you find more appropriate). As you alight the bus take a deep breath before the doors open to prevent being overcome by the smell of molten asbestos.

It would seem that not everyone here drives in the manner above consistently yet there is an entirely different form of braking that’s worth a mention.

This should be called Horror Movie braking since things slowly get more and more tense then all of a sudden blam! you’re launched through the windscreen. It’s the worst on public transport because you’re slowly moving to the tips of your toes trying to stay upright and then they spike the brake and you’ve found yourself in some auntie’s lap.

Gears are another matter all together since drivers here seriously don’t understand how things really work. There’s rarely been a taxi ride that the driver hasn’t tried taking off from a set of lights in 3rd gear and you can hear the poor little motor choking as it tries to put out the torque to get you moving. It’s funny that they love their turbos so much here, even though you can only get to boost when you’ve picked the right gear. Although too much power makes for bad driving too as I saw some tool riding the clutch in his Lambo for the length of a road the other night. If you buy something like that learn to drive it.

When it comes to understanding road holding Taxi drivers are quite scary since they drive the same in the wet as the dry and attack corners like Schumacher on acid. Although one taxi driver I was with takes the cake when he first dropped me at the goods entrance to a mall and had difficulty going up the tiled incline to get to it. It was wet and he hesitated when he first turned in and then proceeded to just keep applying more power and wondered by the car wasn’t moving. He said something in Chinese which I think must have been “what the hell is going on” from the look on his face. He rolled back down and let me out as I walked past the two rich black ones he’d left on the white tiles.

The other day I saw a driving school car break down in the middle lane of a road, coolant was pissing out the bottom of it. Another driving school car, driven by a student who was directed by the instructor to stop next to the broken car in the remaining lane. Traffic ground to a halt as the instructor then hopped out and began walking around the car talking and gesturing. I offered to help push the car off the road but was refused and then they first tried pushing the car in Park, not once did they look under the car or hood. Yeah I’d feel confident learning from those guys.

So yeah don’t come to Singapore expecting to find driving any fun.

A Study in Contraditions

Australian PM-elect seen as a ‘glass that holds our hopes’

A MAN of obscure beginnings turned leader of a continent. A left-winger from one of Australia’s most conservative states. A pious Christian who got drunk in a New York strip club.

Australia’s Prime Minister-elect Kevin Rudd - who led his Labor Party to a sweeping victory over outgoing PM John Howard in Saturday’s general elections - is a study in contradictions.

Intelligent and articulate, the 50-year old Mr Rudd’s first words to the Australian public as PM-elect were “Okay guys” as he gestured for quiet.

The boy who grew up to become a left-wing leader from Queensland was born to a farmer who was a member of the conservative Country Party. His father’s death in a car accident in 1969 left the family reliant on the charity of relatives and neighbours - a period that shaped his socialist leanings.

Now after a meteoric rise from obscurity, Mr Rudd - a former diplomat who spent 10 years as a state bureaucrat - is a public figure whom Australia and the world is still getting to know. And the question on their minds: Can he deliver?

——-

That’s the opening excerpt from this free newspaper, Today which is delivered to your doorstep for free each day, that is akin to the MX newpaper in Melbourne . It’s trash and propaganda most of the time but often if there’s a big story they’ll cover it. To their credit, Kevin Rudd’s win in the Australian Election was front page news unlike the full page adverts of the last week. (It’s also the first paper I’ve seen to have advertising impinging visually on editorial content).

Interesting to see how people in other places in the world want to spin Australia’s news. Singapore being a capitalist focused non-democratic state didn’t mind spinning this later in the article “Mr Rudd’s pledge to revoke Mr Howard’s controversial labour laws….because of the perception that the laws erode worker rights.”

It’s a bit sad that Singaporeans don’t get to hear the real state of play but what’s worse is they don’t really care. Kinda sounds like another country I know….

In the face of this world’s graft and injustice
I’ll praise You
Through shit and sorrow
You’re still greater than anything that of this world
Your authority is supreme in my impotence
Your justice is peerless to my corruption

With you there’s nothing to expose because you know it all

I know her approval won’t save me
I know his acceptance won’t either
I know their praise matters not since they can’t fulfill the depths of love that this heart needs.
Only You are great enough to uphold this life of your creation

When I feel ashamed of my life
You will still Love me
When I fear my own negligence
You still Love me
When I’m overcome with insolence
You still Love me

You are faithful when all the people of this world cut and run
You are steadfast when all my success tastes bitter
You are unswerving when I lose faith

Crash my heart
Rebuild it a new

Sometimes (rarely) lyrics to songs do a better job of expressing feelings than the gaping whole in my face. Now all these songs are a from when I was in school and funnily enough one was written in part by a classmate. Yet sometimes the lyrics don’t reach fruition until long after the song has lost it’s concurrence. That said the Seraph’s track is timeless and that’s why one day I want it played at my funeral.

Seraph’s Coal - Long Distance Call

There is a way
That seems right to a Man
But in the end leads to destruction
There is a means
A means set to it’s end
Fulfilment found finds destruction.
And there’s no other way
Within distance of our Reasoning
And there’s no other way
Save sweet surrender,
Every tower that we build
In the name of Mind and power of Man
Will be levelled to the ground
Leaving us render, a call for sweet surrender.
Remember the thoughts of yester-Man
easy come, easy go, easy gone.

STR - Never The Less

Through all that I’ve accomplished, what have I learned
to stop the suffering that I still cause
Living by example but falling short
of what you called me to be
and now I say
what’s meant to be is not reality
just fantasy

And now the promised life I strive for
A better life than what we had before
To know that I will fall down, on my knees (I’m falling)
And it never seems to end
And now I fall down, on my knees (I’m falling)
To know one day my hopelessness will end

And yes I fall but it never seems to….

Emery - Ponytail Parades

three sleepless nights
this isn’t how its supposed to be
but you’re so good at taking your time to get back to me
and i will wait for you forever
if you would just ask me
and i thought that i could change you, but you’ve changed me

it doesn’t feel right holding someone elses hand
together on phone lines, living at two opposite ends
it scares me to think that you could find takers other than me
and better than me

but your head is elsewhere and i’m talking enough for the both of us
when will you see? it’s not (it’s not) so easy for me

But youre careless (i fall from ) and whisper (your eyes)
(i trusted) insulting and bruising (i thought that you said forever)
and i thought that you said things were improving
these laces are untied, but my feet are walking away.walking away.
(laces .. are .. untied .. but my feet .. are walking away)

i never thought that you could say these words, is this really happening?
i never thought that you could say these words, is this really happening?
(don’t say ..)
i never thought that you could say these words, is this really happening?
(don’t say that we ..)
i never thought that you could say these words, is this really happening?
(don’t say that we can still be .. )
i never thought that you could say these words, is this really happening?
(don’t say that we can still be friends.. )

how can you take all these days?
(what is inside me, what have i done?)

and throw them away
(is this the only way that you’ll notice me?)

as i sit here waiting for you.
(dead words for closed ears all this is sung for you)

i stay up nights
(if youre still pretending this is whats right)

until stars leave the sky
(why cant you look at me can you only see)

knowing what my dreams take away
(one side your side, can take away)
And given that the two Adelaide bands have long since broken up I’m going to stick their Mp3’s here under the condition that you only listen to them once and delete them (and there’s only here for a little while eg. a week or until Dan or Josh tell me to get rid of them.) Emery you can get on their purevolume.com page and hell even download it there for free.

STR - Never the Less

Seraphs Coal - Long Distance Call

He was probably the last person you’d want to listen to talk about sex. I’d found my way at the last minute to the 5pm young adults meeting held at the St. Andrews Anglican in the centre of City district and the talk was being given by a middle aged Indian man, yeah as far away from my expectation could be. As I squirmed away in the pew the second floor of this subterranean church building that had been rather eloquently constructed in the grounds next to the grand old cathedral, I became intrigued as he laid a framework for what Christian sexuality looks like. It was simple yet on the other hand it had a lot of weight behind it.

The things of note that I took away from it is that when looking at what sexuality should look like was the re-integration of the body into our concept of our identity with Christ (so our relationship with Christ isn’t just spiritual, ok something that Willard spends a long time explaining in Renovation of the Heart) and secondly that our sexuality needs to be viewed through loving (which I read as: healthy God glorifying) relationships, that’s all of them of all gender combinations. When working from the concept that our sexuality was created perfect yet it’s been corrupted. Sexuality without a external anchor becomes a self-centred act that can be restored through the way we bring our lives to Christ. For some reason typing this here makes me realise it’s nothing I haven’t heard before just there’s something different about the way I heard it today.

Something I always struggle with is discussing sexuality with people without a similar faith as myself yet they still experience the painful and unfulfilling side of it. If loving relationships are the crux of the matter then you can’t be experiencing the destructive side of it without your relationship being unloving. Ouch really starts getting messy here. From what I’ve experienced through to what I’ve discussed with Christians, non-Christians and hell even rapists is that sexuality is really one of the most important parts of our character and defines how we relate to and perceive those around us. It’s something that I want to see transformed in my life more than most!

Well I’ve been in Singapore for a few days and I’m trying to get settled but it’s really hard. My only point of reference is the Philips office whereas every other time I’ve moved I’ve always made contact with a church prior to arriving and that made a huge difference.

One of the recommendations that I had was to head to City Harvest (Singapore’s biggest church) because it has great worship and “the spirit of God is moving there”. Hey I love great worship times as much as the next guy but it’s something that it’s style comes down to taste thus it’s not critical to choice. Also given that sometimes “feeling the spirit of God” can just come down to what you ate before you went to church that’s neither a good selection criteria. Hey I need to feel good about a place but then if you’re willing to overlook that it’s not really challenging you because it makes you feel good then that’s not right.

So to get some better understandings of what these churches are on about I’ve been listening to sermons online which is such a good help. It helps you to understand what the leaders in the church are really focused on. I listened to one entitled “money, marriage & mortgage” by Kong Hee from City Harvest and it was a hour long investment seminar without one reference to Christ. It was also littered with subjective statements of “truth” that had no biblical or even quantitative basis. Sure there was some good points about using money but when you exhort people to budget and then round out with a story of throwing everything you’ve got into the offering, encouraging people to do likewise, you’ve got some problems. A fair statement about Singapore would be that the national objective is improving their status and financial position so if you’ve got a church (or should I say churches) that feed that then you’re going to be popular, which unfortunately discipleship of Christ isn’t. Don’t know how you can spend an hour telling us that “Our God is a debt cancelling God.” and not mention the real debt that Christ cancelled when he took the fall for us.

Something that I’ve become aware of after doing MTP and other work with Mark at Christ Church is how groups need tasks to unify around. Whilst I only have a juvenile understanding of such group dynamics it’s clear that all too often churches fall into the trap of spending their piety focused on building programs, bringing about the full reformation of the state of Israel (so Jesus can come back…), single handedly saving the world for Christ, ending global poverty, defending their group from dissolution or appeasing God through ritual acts. Whether or not doing these things are right or wrong isn’t the point of this discussion but when they become the core objective of the church and not the pursuit of lives lived in relationship with Christ is when they actually stop operating as a church, they’re just community programs with a spiritual bent.

I really want to want to find a Church, I’m sure they’re here but I’m starting to wonder how you find one and a group of like minded, similarly aged and interested people who are of a culture I can relate to if they don’t even have a website. Where do the international knowledge professionals who don’t want to be consumed with their lives and rather who want to be disciples of Christ meet in Singapore?

Ok enough about trying to find a church. My real problem at hand is trying to find a house. I’m more than a little miffed that it would seem that Singapore’s real estate industry doesn’t know what a 1 bedroom apartment or something smaller than 800sq ft is because I would more than happily trade that space so I can get closer to work! I’ve been left with a choice, live an hour away from work in a nice apartment or live half hour away in something that I’m just not going to be comfortable in without dropping a lot of cash on dressing up. So this is where my question about church is fair and valid as I don’t want to have to travel >1 hour to just get to church on a Sunday. Also why haven’t Singaporean Churches got evening services! What’s up with that! (correction: Charlotte pointed me to one but hey it’s just one!)

Ok as much as Singapore gets praise for thinking about infrastructure they waste so much space on things that appear to have been culturalised in their financial growth. One example is privately developed condominiums. The state housing (HDB) is better planned for building communities with sections set aside for shops, clinics, markets and easy access to transport. Condo’s on the other hand are often designed around plusher looks and ego stroking features; kitsch themes, pools, gyms, courts (tho not basketball) and leave the other (read: real) needs of a residential location to the regions surrounding the complex which may or may not be just more condo’s. As a foreigner you’re stuck with the Condos and really they’re getting just getting more features and fancier, whilst reducing the size of an apartment and without adding what you really want; easy access to the other parts of your life with a unique environment that’s developed by the people living there. These developments are the Singaporean equivalent to the gated satellite towns being developed in Australia that lack any real culture. It’s part of our security, comfort and out-sourcing attitude that’s just pushing us further away from genuine relationships with other people. Someone I was talking to tonight made a good comment that these places are for people who have families and thus you don’t need to travel around and meet people because you want to live in your own bubble. Being young and single I can’t think of anything worse.

One thing I’ve noticed about the HDB flats is the big spacious labyrinths of concrete around the grounds of each complex. It amazes me as if we built these things in Australia, they’d become “ghettos” (in the American usage, I don’t think Warsaw could happen there!) as people would end up loitering around getting into trouble yet here they’re squeaky clean assumedly due to the strong arm of the law.

So I’m trying to figure out what’s the lesser of two evils; Spending 2 hours travelling to work, to Church & to spend time with friends or living in an apartment that makes me feel depressed. Rather than making a choice for the better it seems like which one is going to make me feel less crap!

Ok it’s time for an official announcement.

My visa application has been accepted by the Singapore govt. to take up a role with Philips Design (yes the people who make TVs, Lights and CT Scanners) for the role of Senior Designer, Visual Interface focused on Consumer Electronics (TV, DVD/PVR and Remotes). The dead simple way of explaining what I’ll be doing is  designing what happens on the screen when you press a button on the remote. The fancy sounding version is I’ll be working with the interaction design team to devise simpler and more elegant ways of navigating your media.

It’s a 3 year contract and I’ll be moving there on the 12th of Sept after some time out in Adelaide. It’s an awesome opportunity so I’m happy to be taking it up.

Now it would also be true to say that I’ve got a lot of nerves about this, a lot more than any other move after things went so bad in HK. Deep down I do want this, I wouldn’t have fought so hard to get  the interview otherwise but I’m also freaking scared. It’s certainly something worth feeling great about and praising God for just I’d still appreciate prayer for my knotted heart at the moment.

I hope to catch up with as many of you as I can before I head off on the next leg of my life!

I’m so thankful that I serve a creator who’s greatest delight is taking what was once barren, desolate and neglected, and to then restore them beyond their first creation. What was once a place of shame and depression is now smarting with beauty and radiance. Although such amazing transformation is never forced upon the recipient, it can only occur when the poverty and destruction is offered in full clarity of what it is. No matter how it may try the broken place can never rebuild itself under it’s own power, as how can what is failed beget righteousness alone. Oh how wonderful it is to walk in this city renovated from abandon. It’s just peaceful.

Dear Father, I have experienced the selfishness of others as they’ve sought to fulfill their insecurities through the lives of others. I’d dearly ask that you wont allow these sins to go on unpunished. For it is not vengance I seek but I long to see their cycle broken. Lord stand for the oppressed and bring these sins to the full awareness of their perpetrators. These people have been making victims of your children. So I call upon you to arise and bring justice. I do long to see you bring these people back to you, yet if that is not your will then I know your perfect justice and love will see to the payment of these misdeeds.

My creator, I come to you in petition once more.

I have cast my eyes upon this world and again have been filled with sorrow. For all we strive for and celebrate is yet but a glimmer of the world you concieved. Alongside your beauty and elegant design we have sought to build our own and it is nothing but a cheap imitaion. We applaud our own accomplishments through which we seek to further our own miniscule fame and glory. How I long for you to bring yourself to us so we can see that all we hold dear is just a falicy of mind. I long for you to bring down your justice. Lord vanquish evil. Lord reconcile the people of this world to you. Let us not strive for the vanity of life apart from you.

My heart has been lain open
I’m staring my brokeness in the face
How could I be so proud to think that I could build your kingdom without you
How could I think I could love without it flowing from you
I am fallen and I can’t understand it
All I need to realise is that I’m nothing but dust without you
With the tears streaming, I’m staring you in the face
There’s no good reason that you should accept me
But you do
Whilst you dearly care what I do, it’s not the basis of your love for me
I long for what I do to be good in your eyes
Yet I know that it’s so far from reality
Daily I act to the contrary
In an affront to the grace you offer
Oh restore me
Bring my acts under yours
Yet I’ve cried out for your name as I act in vain
Help me.
I want to be with you.
How I wish that fulfilled eternity started today.
Bring into the here and now a piece of that future in this sullen heart.
Love me now, wholly, compassionately in pure bliss.

He was sprawled face down in the centre of one of the busiest junctions in the city. Ahead of him sat a tattered box void of any markings or instruction, it’s purpose was obvious purely by placement. Around it’s floor was scattered but a few coins. Certainly no treasure. As he lay there he was the antithesis of his environment as the city’s tallest building towered above. Rushing by in their personal race, professionals paid not a glance of attention to this conspicuous display of need. I was captured by the futility of this gesture. It was clear that what this man truly needed, not one of his ignorers could supply for they too almost certainly suffer from the same basic need as they were pursing the riches of this world in a vain attempt at it’s fulfillment. I’ve been considering the parable of the good samaritan lately and realised how much this man’s circumstance was different to that man as laying on the road yet a deeper truth became apparent. The standard response of the voices of social justice cry that we should fee and clothe this man. Yet he was someone that needs love - not another well intentioned handout. What broke my heart as I walked by was how I too was void of this love.

I can’t sleep and I blame you. It’s 4 in the morning and I’m staring at the roof again. All I can think about is what you said to me. My emotions have me in a right state that even the soothing rain can’t put this baby to sleep. I roll over again in some vain attempt to shake this splinter from my mind but it seems I’ve just driven it further in. Images of you are just playing like some slideshow in my imagination to the soundtrack of the settling spray thrown up by yet another passing car. Even this can’t distract my burning mind. Oh do I wish that for but a moment my mind would forget you so I could finally bid farewell to this day and slumber my way into tomorrow.