In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

"I'll make him an offer he can't refuse."

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Things are getting busier by the day. Bay Beats in 2 weeks. Sonic Fest 2002 in a month. Busy, busy, sick, sick. *sigh*... One day, all of us will find rest together. We shall watch movies, feast, hang around, fellowship, lunch, relax, play games, chat. I pray that day will come soon - a day of recreation, a day during which God will grant us some physical healing in our tiredness... some refreshment is needed, both physically and spiritually.

I'm not complaining, you know. I'm just saying that sometimes, He does gives us some time for pleasure, as a kind of reward for work. I'm not saying that it's expected of Him either. It's something to keep our lowly human morale up. We need to stop all our work - complicated or otherwise - and smell the flowers. We need to stop by next to someone and say something nice to that person. We need to stop and appreciate His beauty in this world.

To simply bask in His glory.

Christmas is coming. Perhaps, then we can celebrate as brethen, to remember what God has done in our lives. Shall we not, then, rejoice simply because of that? I often feel like jumping up and shout and cheer and laugh because I know I've been saved and my name has been written down in His Book of Life. I am looking forward to the day when my name is being called out by the Lamb of God to be included in His presence. But until that day, I shall bask in His glory and enjoy the good He has given to this world thus far. It is our right as followers of Christ to claim the good that He has done. For if we do not claim that good, we do not consider ourselves worthy of Him. When we do not consider ourselves worthy of Him, then we cannot be saved because we do not believe that all our sins have been forgiven. He is the greatest, which makes us Christians great with Him, because those who cling on to Him, even the wretched, shall follow Him to glory.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

The Lord has given me word tonight and it is this:
"Because God loves us unconditionally, He loves us all equally."


Taken about 3 weeks on NYC's World Trade Center before September 11th.

i.

I remember very clearly that day when I was on top of the World Trade Center in New York City. It was also the same day we visited the American Museum of Natural History, Liberty Island, Greenwich Village and even passed by the Guggenheim Museum. It was cloudy day, and by the time this photo was taken, it was just about to rain. I was only on the top of the building (out in the open) for less than five minutes! All of us had to retreat down to the indoor viewing deck in which photography would be hopeless. In any case, this photo is my very first cityscape as a serious photographer. I'm quite proud of it even if any one of you think this photo is lousy.

Three weeks later, on the Eleventh of September, the startling news came. I remembered that this person called me to tell me about it. We both couldn't say anything. Speechless, I would say. It was the worst act of terror in all human history. Nothing beats this. In the modern world, there is no single deliberate terror attack on a bigger scale than this.

Sigh. If only we could dance all the horror away. I made it a point to remember the four days I had spent in New York City, and the rest of that East Coast American trip. Because the very next time I visit New York, it will never be the same as before.


ii.

"No one can have greater love than to lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. I shall no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know the master's business; I call you friends, because I have made known to you everything I have learnt from my Father." - John 15:12-15

The bible proclaims that the greatest act of love is to die for your friend. We know that Jesus died for us because, He says that we are His friends. This demonstration is undeniably the greatest and most profound evidence of love God has for us. By dying on the cross, God saved us from the darkness by nullifying all our sins. Obedience to Him does not mean that we are His servants. Jesus declared we are His friends if we do what He commands. As verse 15 puts it, He lets us into the mystery of God and so we are far higher than just being servants.

Therefore, do not think that we are mere servants to God. For even if a servant loves his master, his master still only treats him as a servant. We are more than servants to God, because He loves us unconditionally. If He simply sees us as servants, He will treat us only as servants, and tell us what to do without guiding us in the darkness.

So what do we do? Follow Jesus' commandment:

"This is my commandment: Love one another, as I have loved you." - John 15:12

The Hebrew concept of love involves a generous, responsive, active self-giving, modelled on that of God. The Israelite must love God with his whole being, and similarly to his neighbour. In John 15:12, Jesus extends this obligation to love all human beings, with Jesus' own selfless love as model. It is by our love for one another, that everyone will recognise us as His disciples.

Without love, St. Paul says that "I am no more than a gong booming or a cymbal clashing" (1 Cor 13:1). If we speak to each other, counsel a friend, give advice, or do anything that the Lord tells us to do, without sharing God's love for us, what we are doing means nothing at all. I feel that we must let God's love guide our actions from day to day. And that "they shall know we are Christians by our love". In 1 Cor 13:13, St. Paul tells us that of faith, hope and love, the greatest of them is love.

So please allow me to say this:

"I love you - every single one of you, my friends, as God loves me, without condition, without favour or prejudice. I love you all. Do not believe anyone who tells you that my love for you is base. I now declare to you that I love you, whether or not you love me. I want you to know that the love I bear you is the same special kind that God showers on all of us. Because I want to share God's love with all of you.

"Because God's love for me is complete, I love you all completely."

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

"Are you going to watch 'Harry's Secret and the Chamber Pots'?"



Check this out.

The following is a true story.

It was a Wednesday in 1994, Holy Week. I was doing my obligatory abstinence from any luxury. My baptism was the coming Saturday, during the Easter Vigil Mass. I was caught up in intense prayer, which centered around a certain dilema: a Christian name.

For those who have known me my whole life, I've carried with myself, with understandable reasons, several aliases. I was once David, because I saw David Copperfield a few times on TV. I thought I would like to fly like him. Then I was Kelvin, because Alvin was taken up by my favorite first cousin. Why Alvin? I was crazy over the cartoon Alvin and the Chipmunks. And I was Michael, because Michael Jackson was quick with his footwork. Then Joseph, because it was, what I thought, the coolest name in the bible, and that one day, I might marry someone who was carrying someone else's child... *wong*!

Being the intellectual that I was back then, I researched on Christian names... stuff of legends like Peter, Paul, Simon, Francis, Ignatius, so on, so on... I couldn't decide what I was going to call myself when the time came for me to be reborn. I looked up the phone directory (and as a result, made a few prank calls), the orbituary, history textbooks, books of saints... etc. Even prayed about it as I did on Holy Wednesday. No answer came to me. Vexing, huh?

The next day, Maundy Thursday, I suddenly got struck by one name. I was passing by the TV (was abstaining from watching it, but my dad wasn't Christian so he could watch all the TV he wanted), I heard the mention of "Christopher". Sounds alright. Sounds like a straight Christian name. I took it up... because it had the word "Christ" in it. Yes, Sis, you were right about the reason I took "Christopher" even if you don't remember it now. I didn't need to research it at all. I had decided, and God, with all His Majesty, was going to rename me "Christopher". And I, for that part, will take on the role of what the name meant.

When I was baptised, I still didn't know what the name meant. Only later did I find out that it was Greek for "Christ-bearer".

I did my research: Christopher was the traditional name of a giant (who later became a saint - St. Christopher) who ferried people across a huge and violent river. This is ironic. I am quite small-sized. Second: One day, a small little kid came up to him on the riverbank to ask him if he could fetch the kid across the river. He thought, Hey, that would be no problem. You're just a small kid, after all. So he lifted the kid onto his back. Suddenly, he felt that the kid was very heavy! The giant thought that this child must have been the heaviest person he had to carry. It's freaky, I know. But he proceeded to ferry the child across the river. It was a hard task. Several times, he almost went under but his pride and sense of duty as a river warden pushed him to work his way through to the other side. Finally, when they got to the far bank, he let the kid jump off his back. He was panting like mad, extremely tired. He looked at the kid and suddenly realised he was look at the face of Jesus! Georg F. Handel's Hallelujah Chorus comes to mind.

The Child Jesus said, "For here onwards, you are known as Christ-Bearer, because you have carried me on your back with the weight of the sins of the world on your back." Hearing this, the newly-named Christopher was healed of his fatigue and tiredness. So, for carrying Jesus for just a short while on the river, this uneducated giant became a saint and a patron of travellers. Funny, huh?

Not so. I lived by my name in the wrong context for seven years. All that time, I had accepted that because God had named me Christopher, I was to bear the sufferings of the world, which, in a short time, broke me and landed me in the realm of self-pity. Even when I wanted to pick myself up again, I had believed tat in order for God to forgive me for my sins, I had to go through continuous suffering for the rest of my life. I had to carry my own cross.

It was only a about 5 months ago did I realised that no one can take up the cross except Jesus, that I have no power to carry the cross without the Lord. God had released me from my self-begotten burdens at once, and I became free, more free than when I was baptised. All those years, I had been doing it all wrong. But now that God has enlightened me, I realised that the mistakes that I made were from the decisions that I made under the influence of my own name. Instead of living up to God's Will, I had taken my name as a idol. I had seen too much in my own name. I lost my focus for the Lord. So now, even though I'm still Christopher Michael Ong, I'm still a child of God and will always want, in endless streams, blessings from Him.

Thank you, Lord. You have pulled me out of darkness. I thank you. All this time, You have never forsaken me, but rather, You have sustained the life in me and brought me back to Your household. When I arrived, You, like a father of a prodigal child, celebrated with my brethen with the best meats and wine. You are great, Lord Jesus, and I love You forever! Amen.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.



Once, about four years ago, when I was walking across a bridge in Darling Harbour Sydney while reading a novel, I walked into a pillar. Ouch! Yes, I know. Kind of dumb. I wasn't even looking at some beautiful woman. It very much the same with our lives. Sometimes, we are so busy taking care of material things, wants and even fantasies, we become blinded by them and end up walking into something that could hurt us.

I refer to our walk with God. Today, I overheard a conversation about spiritual attacks from the devil. Someone suggested that a speaker be brought in to spread awareness of how to deal with attacks. A second person, however, said that even so, when we do not ground ourselves in Word, faith and prayer, when the attacks come, no matter how 'aware' we are after lessons or talks from anyone with spiritual experience, we become utterly defenceless against the attacks.

For the record, i would like to say that I find this true. It is only through our relationship with God that our spirit is being strengthened, that our defences against evil is being built up, that our discernment between good and evil is being developed.

But very often, things in our daily affairs distract us from seeing the light of Christ. I, for one, am a fairly materialistic person. Coupled with being somewhat selfish, I stray away from God and lose my focus, which is supposed to be on the Lord. When we lose focus on the Lord, our level of faith starts to degenerate due to the lack of 'maintenance'. This is when we 'walk into a wall', which we could not see coming, because we lost our focus. The result is that we cave in when spiritual attacks occur, because we can't seem to even recognise that we are being attacked.

So the question is whether or not we are doing our utmost in maintaining our relationship with God. Do we spend time commiting our daily affairs to Him? Or do we just simply take matters into our own hands and become obsessed about a problem and we cannot solve without Him? Because I can tell you that no problem can be solved without Him, for the lack of God means we become nothing.

I sense that there is a strong need for all of us to ground ourselves in Christ, for a time of reckoning is at hand. A great movement is about to take place when we, in Singapore especially, will be affected by God. This is a time during which the devil will becoming very aggressive, and therefore we must be on our guard. Be ready to take up the Double-Edged Sword and carry the Armour of Faith, for there is no god more powerful than the Almighty Lord Christ Jesus.

Lord Jesus,
You are my King and my God.
Nothing moves without your intent
Holy in the Most High!

I love you, Lord, so much!
And I know you love me too.
On account of this love for us,
You have forgiven us of our sins.

Lord, grant us the courage to
Take up the journey You set out for us.
Equip us with your Word and everlasting faith
So that we may claim the victory in which
You have laid out for us on that fateful day
When You hung from that Cross!

But most of all, Lord,
continue to love us and teach us
As You have always done.

Jesus! Jesus! I love you, Jesus!
Your Name shall be upon my lips every moment of my life! Amen!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Replacement DJ

"I want it to be very clean, and very tight, then I will feel very shiok!"
- Genshi, referring to his own DJ sets. (hur hur)


Courtesy of John C.

I had planned to spend my Sundays chilling out on my balcony, watching the rain fall smoking the four cigarettes that I promised to keep to a day. Or watch TV, or DVD, or go practice rack-focusing with my SLR, or blog, or whatever I felt like doing... I meant to relax. At 5+ in the late afternoon, while I was hooked on to a riveting American war drama (no, not Band of Brothers, though I heard the DVD set is due out tomorrow *hint*), my mobile rang from upstairs. I ran up to my room to pick it up before the fellow on the other side of the line gives up.

It was John Chiong.

"Chris, what are you doing tonight ah?"
"Dunno yet, what's up?"

Some DJ decided to boycott the Closing Festival at the Esplanade, and John was asking me to fill in the 2-hour slot.

"x-bucks."
"Okay."

So last minute. I had to pack my record bag, which involves some planning like what kind of music should I play, which track goes first, which ends the set, estimation of duration, mixing possibilities... all with no time to do a dry run on my own decks. Progressive house then, the easiest of them all to figure out... By the way, all these preparations usually takes me hours or days, depending on the importance of a set. For example, for the Sonic Edge DJ-led worship, Rueben and I work out which tracks to use for one whole month before Sonic Edge itself.

The Esplanade people seemed very thankful of my presence. I think it's because they didn't know what else to do. Can't blame them, they got so many things to do.

"As long as you make some noise can already," said one of them.

Cool... actually, not so cool. The decks and mixer were from Audiosports Proshop, which means, it's all Vestax. Sure, I love that mixer. It's a really nice and great mixer which I've always wanted from the time I started doing techno for real. But the decks... too many buttons... I had to screw up my first 20 minutes just to figure out how to turn off a Quartz Lock feature, with which I would have screwed up my entire 2 hours. But it's okay. It's alright. I figured out all the controls and saw the set through. On top of all these, they didn't provide the following: styli and slip mats. Standards demand that every venue has to provide the DJ with mixer, decks, styli and slip mats. The only things the DJ should bring are his/her records and his/her headset. Luckily, I brought my own styli but I still had to use two of my not-so-worthy records as slip mats (by the way, I read somewhere that records themselves are better slip mats than normal slipmats).

It wasn't hard to DJ for 2 hours. That's pretty common. In fact, I'm considered lucky to have two hours. Nowadays, small-time DJs get only a half-hour or, at the very most, 1-hour set. The problem was that I haven't done 2 hours straight in a long time, so it's a little strenuous on my concentration level and my back. Several times during the set, a few parents came up and asked me questions like "When is the show going to start?", "Can you start the show now?", "Can you turn down the volume?". My answers to each of these questions: "Check with the organiser, I'm not the organiser.", "Check with the organiser, I'm not the organiser." and "Check with the organiser, I'm not the organiser."

I'm pretty satisfied anyway, because just for appearing and making noise and not having to have to please anybody, I get x-bucks. Plus, I thought, after figuring out the controls of the decks, I did a pretty tight set, considering that I never practice at home anymore (even for fun), unless it's for Sonic Edge. John and I went to celebrate with a Japanese dinner, which I gladly gobbled down in hunger. After that, we stayed a little while more to catch the fireworks and fish monster show... pretty cool. Nice scenary. Pretty tired, I waited for a cab at the taxi stand for half and hour before I got one.

Finally. Can sleep in some more.

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam