February 28, 2004
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Thanks to da homies for posting on my last one... i majored in philosophy so i'm not all comedy. i know life is full of jokes... but its not a joke in and of itself. i LOVE Life and every minute is a gift from God, but i can't front anymore about how i really feel. i was always told i have to watch everything i do so its difficult to grasp what you really believe yourself... to know, what you're told you better believe or else you're going to go to hell. [that's not how my family presented it... i have the most loving family... but it is what it is.] all preacher's kids feel the pressure of being a plant in a greenhouse and everyone is watching you grow... and you betta not mess up! i CAN'T afford to care about how other Christians will view me. i've been worried about that my whole life. I have to be honest about how i see things right now... i'm always out to learn and grow... and i'm always going to believe in God because it makes sense and God created not only us but the logic to make sense of what is logical and what's not.
Make sense? there's a lot of people who don't challenge what doesn't make sense and they just say... well... here's some verses... and here's a contemporary Christian CD... like you can take two spiritual advil pills, and you'll be alright in the morning. i used to be one of those people. pious without knowing it. judgemental without showing it.
The bubble burst... and i'm speaking from the outside lookin in... this isn't meant to burst Your bubble.
MIRACLES.
not the movie. supernatural ones.
- Supernatural miracles that defy the laws of the universe are fundamentally different from good things that happen. supernatural is not spiritual things we can't see.
if we define miracles as things that normally don't happen, then TRAGIC things are miracles too. if we define conversion as a miracle. then many miracles happen everyday... to many different religions. we call them miracles because they're things that normally don't take place and they're positive. uncommon events can be bad as well, but they don't defy the laws of physics. conversion is a good thing... but it can be explained psychologically.
- i'm talking about Supernatural miracles. Other than the religious books that claim miracles written within their own books... do you personally know of any supernatural miracles that have happened to you? i'm not talking about magic tricks and illusions. i'm talking about real supernatural miracles... like a talking burning bush. water turning to wine. a stick turning into a snake. when David Copperfield and David Blaine do it... that ish is Not real. the same people who believe that... are the same people who pass around the "Bill Gates, Microsoft and AOL will track this email and send you money even though they won't know your home address just by you forwarding this email to 20 other suckas just like you... and oh yeah, this email is true because my lawyer told me so..."
it can be argued that all religious books use supernatural miracles to make their case that their religion is truly ordained by the True God. those miracles ceased after the book was written.
To be a Christian, it definitely does take faith. but there are many types of faith and many different religions.
The christian faith is a pure gift from God to the chosen ones. and coming from the context of the billions of people who weren't chosen through predestination to be eternally damned to hell... some who i personally knew and have already died... its hard for me to accept that faith... especially when its hard to distinguish buildings of weekend faith and a place that's used so similar people can hang out and rid themselves of a guilty conscience by singing some songs and feeling better about themselves. how is that different from any other religion or support group? i always hear some church peeps say... "my favorite part of church is singing the songs... i'm not really a sermon type person..." WHAT??? what kind of ignorant ish is that???
i understand presuppositional apologetics always refers back to the Bible... which makes sense when you're in the bubble. but when you're on the outside lookin in... its a circular argument. How do you know Jesus? through the bible? how do you know the bible is true? because it says so. A is true because B said so. How do you know B is true? because B said so. in any philosophical argument this is a slippery slope to stand on...
so it basically comes down to having complete faith that the bible is the complete word of God and ALL Supernatural miracles CEASED after the apostles. sorry, i don't believe that arms and legs are growing out of people in other countries. it never happens to those who say it here... always someone in ANOTHER country and we don't see it because we, as a country, have a lack of faith.
EVERYTHING in Life can be explained in different ways. many Christians will attribute all good things to God. which is right. God causes all good things. but what about the bad things? God ALLOWS the priest to molest a kid in CHURCH? why? God allows rapes. God allows murders, tortures, starvation, famine, disease, pain... why? we're not supposed to question why. Romans 9. who are we to question? we just have to accept and hey look at the bright side... at least we weren't born in N. Korea where 3 million are starving to death. finish your food! don't you know what's happening in N. Korea?
the means in which we are to know of God are written by those who recorded their story and wrote letters. These letters were deemed "holy" by the church and the scriptures themselves. OG Jews... Torah & Old Testament only. Then Christians added The New Testament. Jews said... What? you can't add MORE! There's the Catholic Bible. Then there's the Protestant bible. Martin Luther was like... Some of your views are wack! Then Mormons added ANOTHER testament and know the bible better than the Catholics and Protestants. the Protestants and Catholics told the Mormons... You can't add MORE! the Jehovah Witnesses know the bible better than Catholics and Protestants too. but Catholics and Protestants say... you guys are off the mark. meanwhile... tens of billions of Asians were dying following buddha, confucius, shinto, the yin, and the yang. yes, some of them could have acknowledged The Creator and lived a good life and some Christians argue they can still go to heaven this way even though Jesus says, no one can go to the Father except through him.
some were chosen to go to heaven. some just aren't chosen.
if your response to that... is just ... well read the bible. then you don't feel my pain. my world. the angst in my mind. what i struggle with in my mind.
as i'm trying to make people laugh and find a way to empower Asian Americans.
all i know is... i Do feel a calling from God and its to ease the suffering in N. Korea and do whatever it takes to free our brothers and sisters there from starving to death and being tortured. the more and more i think about it... listening to Helie Lee speak about what goes on there and her experiences of trying to free her uncle's family through China's border... and reading Adrian Hong's Xanga entries...
how do we sit idle here while the raving lunatic Kim Jong IL is killing off his own people and running the most closed off, secluded country in the world? Here's MY SunRISE policy... step one... Education. step two... World Vision. i'll explain later. step three. Discussion. step four... INVASION. Pressuring the U.S. Govermment to complete total annihilation of the current government and install a democratic goverment. some robots must die in order for the humans to live.
If American Christians live in a bubble of ignorant bliss... N. Koreans citizens live in a bubble of ignorant pain.
If God can use a sinful bastard like me to save N. Korea... i'm talkin about the whole shabang... pressure The US Government to go in there... take the government out... install a new goverment and allow them to 1) live a normal life 2) hear The Gospel...
that still wouldn't be Supernatural. but it would be AS Close to a supernatural miracle there would ever be. in my mind.
i pray for that miracle more than anything before i die.
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Comments (12)
anyone, even a sinner, can be used by God, no? we're all sinners... even unbelievers can be used by God. take charles templeton. reformed calvinism says once you're saved, you can't lose it. templeton spent his whole life preaching with billy graham, and then decided one day he wasn't going to believe anymore, and died an unsaved. pk, you believe. we can't all explain why or how, but we do. and God can and will use us. ugh, i sound so "holier than thou." hope it doesnt come off like that. anyway have fun at kascon. are you gonna head out to NYC afterwards? for ken?
amen brotha.
let's do it.
amen
well sed. tear. its like dont look at anyone on this earth if ur looking for perfection. look at Jesus... he's the one who led a perfect life. and only the ones with faith in christ jesus will be save. Today in church, my pasotr was talking about calvinism, and he was saying how God so loved the WORLD not only the elcted. anyways, good to know theres someone out there who cares about faith and salvation. I also dream that one day God wil use me to be a missinoary in N.KOrea. it will be awesome even to witness one person to be saved in that part of the country. and i also hope that one day N. and S will be united. its all our korean pepople's dream, no? well, nice to read this. by the way, the coment of superspark, i disagree with. because there is a bible verse that says, no one will be snatched a way from God, not even the wind, sea, angels, demons, and etc.... once u r a believer God doesnt t u unbelieve. u either dint beleive in the first place. Amen to everything u sed, brother. By the way, i found out about his site on a webring. Koreans!!!!!
I was doing some web surfing the other day and found some old links to the Tibetan Freedom Concert with the Beastie Boys and other artists a few years back. Have you considered using your talents as a producer and artist to put together a benefit to raise awareness to this crisis.
We have to do something, b/c our government is just standing off. Oil is more important than food!
wow. It has been a while that I believe a person when they talk/write about God even through a xanga. But I believe u. Maybe cuz u make it real.
hit home... thanks "some were chosen to go to heaven. some just aren't chosen. if your response to that... is just ... well read the bible. then you don't feel my pain. my world. the angst in my mind. what i struggle with in my mind."
PK, you and I have to have a long discussion sometime about religion and politics and how all of it mesh together. I maybe the happy go-lucky, goofy little cousin of your roommie, but I think we can have some edifying, rational, thought-provoking discussion that may not lead to conclusions but to some realiziations.
Let's talk next time. writing a long-winded comment on your xanga is not my definition of an intense two-way, thought-provoking dialogue.
there's one day i remember...12 years ago sometime, my vbs teacher told me he was married to ariel, the little mermaid. i remember my eyes widening and thinking..."is he really??"
i still remember you from that summer. though you were probably some 16-year old kid helping out with the lack of something better to do, you still made a difference as my teacher. you have been used...by Him..
whether in n. korea, america, africa, wherever...there is need everywhere..including my own life, your life, everyone's...
and i agree, korean-american christians take the most for granted i feel.
i am not my own..You are in control. "it is accomplished."
* you're gonna be at kascon rite?? you better say hi to me pk. i haven't seen you for like 2 years. *
yo I totally agree man...amen to that
By the way, from what I learned about presuppositional apologetics it all boils down to what your reference point is. What I mean by saying reference point is that all of our arguments they all start at one point (that being the reference point)...for instance Descartes started with that he knows that he exists and nothing can change that for him or where Humanism's reference point is that there is no God, and so on...but anyways the reference point for presuppositional apologetics is basically is there a God or is there no God. Once you believe either or then the argument takes that path...presuppositional apologetics obviously takes to that there is a God for it's reference point. Just to clarify...
man I remember I wanted to be a philosophy major and I was for awhile at UCLA cause you were one....too bad I saw the light and became a history major! Plato would have hated me for that since he hates history since it's always changing, but oh well! But yo...I'm reading a lot on my own classical philosophy and man i'm lovin it. take care..peace
good stuff pk
Preach.
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