January 22, 2007

Jesus is not satisfied to lure us into obedience with images of lifegiving water. He will also draw us with promises of life-sustaining bread. “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger” (John 6:35). Jesus himself is the bread of heaven—the source and essence of everlasting life. He will draw us with promises of deliverance from perishing (John 3:16). The demand that we come to him is therefore like the demand of a father to his child in a burning window, “Jump to me!” Or like the demand of a rich, strong, tender, handsome husband to an unfaithful wife, “Come home!” Or like the demand of a rescue squad that finds you on the point of death, dehydrated after days in the desert, “Drink this!”

January 1, 2007
I was watching the 2006 KBS Drama Awards w/ my mom tonight and they had this category for being the most abused on TV. The winner seems to get slapped, kicked, and hair-pulled on a regular basis. I guess that's something you only see on Korean shows.

December 28, 2006
This Christmas has been a memorable one:

1. Sent parents off to HK Sunday morning for cousin's wedding
2. Went to FCBC's English service for the first time in my 10 years there
3. Played basketball w/ the boys after lunch, just like old times
4. Realized I should've brought down my hi tops; spraind my ankle
5. Spent Christmas Eve and part of Christmas morning in the Fountain Valley ER
6. Sent my sister to go post-Christmas shopping
7. Slept, ate chocolate, watched TV
8. Had ribs dinner w/ Grace, Jessica, Lydia, and Jeff
9. Had filet mignon and ribeye steak dinner w/ Grace & uncle
10. Postponed my test

Well here's a pictorial description of #4:

The left was as of Christmas day and the right was as of tonight. The inside is bruised too but not as bad. Praise God I didn't break my ankle, considering how badly I really sprained it (I sprained it in and then out). When the nurse asked me to rate the pain on a 1-10 scale, I gave it a 9; the next most painful experience in my life was my unbearable, near-death stomach pain that earned an 8 or 9. I can't imagine what it must've felt like to have a nail hammered through there, so I'm very thankful how (fast) it's healing. I can sorta walk on it. I also like how I can use this as an excuse to postpone my test, even though I don't think I would've studied that much more if this didn't happen. Overall, it's good that I didn't break anything, but bad that I can't go to Tahoe in January. A big shout out to my sister Grace for being really helpful and considerate this week. And just this week only, sigh.

November 17, 2006
About a month ago I spilled ground coffee all over the kitchen floor, so I used the vacuum and cleaned it up. Tonight I spilled sugar on the kitchen flooo, so again I used the vacuum to clean it up. But as I was vacuumming, I noticed there's this nice smell. Then I realized after five seconds that it was the smell of roasted coffee. Good stuff.

November 14, 2006
http://www.tofufestival.com/tofuindex/tofufest/entertainment/tofu_eating_contest/
why am I always late in finding out things? The grand prize was a free round trip to HK, including 11 nights of hotel, 22 meals, and a tour (!) of the Lee Kum Kee factory. All for eating a block of tofu. Wanna help me train for next year's? I'll start accepting donations of firm tofu... now.

In case you missed it on Allison's xanga, sincerely take a look at harvestofhope.org, even though you may already be supporting other ministries. There's something neat about buying an animal or supporting people in North Korea (so I'm biased), but really, flipping through the catalog really gives you a glimpse of so many needs in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. The catalogs are in the social hall by the way if you go to CI.

November 10, 2006
For those who have thought about their 2006 tax return (and who hasn't):



This just came out in Oct. On your 2006 individual return, you can claim a refund for taxes paid for long-distance calls on your home/cell phone from Mar 03 to Jul 06 (41 months). If you don't feel like digging up your old phone bills and file Form 8913, you can take the standard rate by claiming $30 on line 71 if you have 1 exemption, $40 for 2, $50 for 3, and $60 for 4 or more. This applies whether you take the standard or itemized deduction, on whatever version of 1040 you file. Don't forget! You can read more here.

November 05, 2006
Did you know if you put me with a 28 and a 19 year old, the sum of our ages would be 70 and the square of our ages would contain digits from 1-9 exactly just once?

Good thing that was just a math problem. In it were 3 people watching a boring football game and the 19 year old made that observation. Can you imagine if that was real?

A: hey guys you know what? I just realized that our ages add up to 70
B: uh, cool
A: yea I know, but what's more cool is if you square 'em up, you get all 9 digits just once! and no zeros!
B: (inhales, glances at C)
C: (nod to A) those are words