Pleasing Sacrifice: The Bacon and the Egg

So the rector of St. Ebbes was saying today:

"You know, according to Romans, we are to present our lives as a pleasing sacrifice to God; it's the age old-argument between the pig and the chicken on exactly who makes the larger contribution to traditional English breakfast! The chicken says, "I give my eggs," but the pig says, "I give the whole of myself for those Brits!"

To which of course, the entire assembly broke out into laughter, which kind of made my face brighten up after a serious sermon. :)

But yes, we are to offer our lives as a pleasing sacrifice. Why? Because it's in view of what God has done for us! I can't really remember the details of the sermon anymore, but I finally understood what Paul meant when he said that because of the Jews' disobedience we experience God's mercy. It was not without experiential reason that Paul said that, because whenever Paul stepped into a synagogue to preach, he was chased out by the Jews. And so he brought the good news to the Gentiles.

Gentiles. That's you, me and probably everyone in Singapore who's reading this! :) That's good news! But because of us, the Jews will also see God's grace working in and through us. :) Makes lots of sense now!

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I've been rather busy lately, hanging out with my coursemates, trying to keep up with my work and readings and factoring everything else in seems quite tough.

But on Friday night I went for pizza with Phillip and I had a very good spiritual conversation with him. :) I had the Cairo pizza: [cf 3 November 2010's post]

And well, that's all I guess, quite tired to update. Toodles! :)

Be Still: 静默

Here's the English translation for those of you who don't understand Chinese (it's my own translation so it won't fit that well):

Intro (and Chorus):

The whole earth sings Your praises,
Mighty are Your works
You are my defender
And I will be still before You.
 
I will obey You Lord,
You who are clothed in dignity,
I will seek shelter under Your wings.

Verse:

You told the waves, 'Be Still'.
Jesus, your glory was shown 
When you turned water to wine.


All glory to You,
Worthy of all praise,
Jesus you are the revelation.


Take some time to seek God today, and be still before Him. And know that He is God.


Psalm 46:10 - "Be still and know that I am God."


 

Grandeur: Grand Duh!

Apparently some people want to know what I'm learning for Statistical Mechanics right now, so I've succinctly constructed what I've learnt in the past four years in NUS:

The Canonical Ensemble

Essentially, that's all I've learnt. But now I've to learn this:

The Grand Canonical Ensemble

Save me! :(

Toodles!

La Mexicaine: Yummy!

My mei commented that all I ever blog about is food, God, and more food! Haha. I promise after today I'll try to take more pictures of the scenery and people, haha, so do bear with me!

Autumn's finally setting in, with all the falling leaves of end October; I took this on the way to the PTCL this morning:

Autumn's Falling Leaves

For lunch, I decided to bring Jed and Debayan to the covered market for some good chow! I mean, college food is nice, but having it everyday can be quite boring, so I thought we should go down to the market to get some real and piping hot food!

We decided, at Jed's request to go to the creperie (a place that sells crepes) and boy did we get a surprise treat:

Michel's Creperie

The menu looked pretty good, delicious, and it was cheap enough! The variety though, was lacking:

The Crepe-y Menu

So here's Jed's La Norvegiane before he devoured it:

La Norvegian: Baby Spinach, Smoked Salmon and Cheese

I chose the La Mexicaine because I wanted something with a stronger flavour to add kick to my day, and I was quite satisfied with it:

YYK With His La Mexicaine

That's the thick Electrons and Phonons book that belonged to the late Coulson Professor of Theoretical Chemistry (1972-1974), Charles Alfred Coulson and that's Jed holding it up! Haha. I look quite happy with the food, no? And here's what it looks like, simply awesome:

My Crepe

We bummed around the market, and there were lots of cheap seafood - especially oysters:

Fresh Oysters

And then I brought Jed and Debayan home to play some guitar (Jason Mraz!) and I found out that Jed has a really good voice! He sings with quite a clear voice! And after some jamming, and of course, after some Ben's Cookies that I bought yesterday, they left for home to nap.

Well, that's all for today folks, toodles! :) I promise that I won't keep blogging about food, haha!

Corpus Christ: The Body of Christ

Before I go into a photo frenzy, here's an interesting story behind the coat of arms of Corpus Christ College in Oxford. The coat of arms bears three pelicans - that's right, the bird. Why is the pelican the mark of Christ when we all know that it's the cross?

Well Corpus Christi means the 'body of Christ', and most certainly the cross can't represent the Lord's body, can it? But why then the pelican? Well, the story goes like this - Oxford bird lovers observed that pelicans feed their young; at that time, no one knew that pelicans stored food in their mouths to give to their young, so when the academics saw food come out of the pelicans' beaks for their young, they thought that the pelican gnawed its own flesh for its young.

Such sacrificial spirit they thought, and this reminded them of the Lord's love for us. And so now the mark of the pelican is upon Corpus Christi College to remind us of how the Lord Jesus gave us His blood and flesh.

Coat of Arms and College Mascot, Corpus Christi

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As usual, I won't be blogging much so I'll let the photos do the talking. And so I woke up later today to get more rest - I had a hearty breakfast of sultanna croissants today:

Sultanna Croissants

I made my way down to Ben's Cookies at the Covered Market to get a tin of the famous cookies everyone's been telling me about; I got a tin of 8 for £11 (quite a hefty sum for cookies!) and I intend to share it with my coursemates tomorrow:

 

Ben's Cookies at Covered Market

Busy Baker Lady

Cookie Selection

Then I met Benjamin and David, who brought me to Corpus Christi for lunch; it's David's college and today he treated us to lunch! What a nice guy eh? And on the way we stopped by his old college apartment where he used to live when he was an undergraduate 7 years ago (he's a PhD student now):

David's Old Apartment at Corpus Christi

Magpie Lane

Merton College Entrance

Merton College is where all the really smart undergraduates live - apparently only the elite with high 'A' Level scores live here, haha! And then we made our way to the dining hall, much to the snapping delight of Benjamin:

Benjamin in a Photo Frenzy

David and His Cutlery

David was more calm and composed and laid out his food calmly, haha! And he commented on how much the both of us take photos everywhere:

Benjamin (left) and David (right)

We had this pork loin served with brown sauce and zucchini (they call it corgettes or something) for lunch with roasted potatoes, quite a delight:

Roasted Potatoes and Pork Loin with
Corgettes and Brown Sauce

David's Pudding

David had a pudding, which I traded for a banana, haha - it's too rich for me! But after lunch, I took out the cookies and shared it with them:

The Cookies

Cookie Tin

Cookie Monsters!

Peanut Butter Delight

Benjamin's Triple Chocolate Delight

Benjamin chose the richest cookie of them all, the Triple Chocolate Chip Delight! And I got a wet, moist and lovely peanut butter cookie:

Peanut Butter Cookie

We took a stroll around the courtyards, which was lovely; we made our way into the gardens eventually:

Courtyard, Corpus Christi

Garden, Corpus Christi

Autumn Leaves

Autumn Tree

Benjamin the Photographer

We managed to take a group shot (a.k.a. zi pai - 自拍):

Benjamin (left), Yong Kiat (middle) and David (right)

And cool, you can study in the gardens:

Garden Bench

And much of the hour was spent walking through some nice scenery:

Garden, Bush View

A Garden of Christ Church

Aerial View, Garden of Christ Church

Benjamin was in a good mood today:

Clouds Above a Man

And well, the trees are all turning brown and nicely yellow:

Advent of Autumn

And this my friends, is Oxford Cathedral, which is the chapel of Corpus Christi:

Oxford Cathedral, Corpus Christi

The blue skies were really nice, and I took a snapshot of the mascot of the college:

The Pelican, Corpus Christi Mascot

Some random girls were hanging around the pillar:

Random Girls

And the tour ended when David went to check his mailbox:

David and His Mail

Well, that's all for today folks! Toodles!

Wherefore: Whenceforth?

And so the old adage goes:

So tell me the way where I should go: to the left yonder where
there's nothing right, or to the right where nothing is left?

Does that sound like our Christian walk sometimes? When we proceed in the direction we know we must go, it just seems like nothing's left for us because the whole world's going so fast. When we proceed in the direction we know we must not go, nothing seems to go right either.

What should we do in such circumstances? If you ask me, I'm not going to be all holier-than-thou and tell you: Of course you should pick the right way!

Why? Because I myself find it hard sometimes to pick the right way. But I'll keep trying because I know that sanctification is ongoing. :) I know that submission isn't easy when our flesh goes against God, I know that doing the right thing isn't the natural thing because my flesh is fallen. 

But I know God appeals to my will, just as much as there's Grace. And so I must exercise my will in an act of volition. I may fall along the way, but it's fine, really, as long as there's Grace - because God allows me to keep growing and going back to Him.

And so I mustn't turn back along the path to the Wicket Gate. :)

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I read Christlike by Bill Hull today, and I've gotten to Chapter 3 - I was praying and asking God: "Teach me how to love my friends in Oxford and especially my coursemates, teach me from this book Lord""""". And the interesting thing was, minutes after reading into Chapter 2, my heart was struck by what I read. It goes something like this:

When people say to themselves, 'Oh, you know, I don't think I'm prepared to do this yet, I'll wait for God to make me grow to that stage before I do it, you know, I'm not there yet.' But you must understand, these things are intentional and they must be so because the flesh goes against everything God has in mind.

And I went on to read:

Walking with Christ comes with a stigma and sacrifice. Yes, a sacrifice! 

And it just hit me: I probably am not willing to make the sacrifice, that's why I feel so frustrated. Was I prepared for a sacrifice for God? Was I thinking that I'd just go along my life's path in Oxford without sacrificing anything?

I need to invest more time and effort in people. And then I went on to read:

It's ironic how Christians spend so much time being the church and in the church, they have no more strength, courage and time to go out in the world. Look at the number of non-Christians you can really bless, share your life with and befriend!

And at once I knew that the Lord had placed me in a favourable position - I've been given a small and easily manageable harvest field, surely two coursemates is not too much for me to handle? I've no intention to convert them into Christians, but I have a good mind to bless them, to share my life with them and to be their friend, for that is what Christ has called me to do.

I'm very sure the Gospel will flow through me as long as I live it.

And so am I living it? Am I just trying to be a better person - is that what God promises me, to get me on some moral high horse? Or should I let God change me into a different person?

Different, and not just better. I need to understand that.

So how should I go about my journey in Oxford? It's my third week here already, and God has blessed me immensely through friends, wisdom, health, sufficiency and courage. Am I not in good stead and have found good favour with the Lord?

Lord I do not know how to go about anything, what to do - I only know why. Will You teach me in the way to go, to go towards the right where nothing is left. For I'd rather have nothing left than have nothing right.

Teach me Father, this I pray, with thanksgiving and patience, Amen.

Thermodynamics: The Noob Version

Mr Ng Boon Leong reminded me today of the basic tenets of Thermodynamics, in more subtle terms:

First Law: You can never win, and you break even at most.

Second Law: In real life, you usually never break even and always lose.

Third Law: When you're cold, you stop moving.
Unless you don't like your neighbours, somehow.

Zeroth Law: The friend of your friend is your friend too.

I made up the third and the zeroth. Have a go, it's quite fun. :)

Toodles!

Three Times the Food: Three Times the Joy!

Yes I know, I'm always blogging about food, the kitchen and well, more food - but I'm always helping out in the kitchen, what do you expect? Haha! I went to help out at the St. Ebbes kitchen last evening, to cook for the i-Focus bible study group (I'll just call it i-Focus from now on) - well, I didn't get to do much but to serve and wash the fruits, add the tomatoes into the curry, taste and stir, and cook the rice and cut the cakes - because even though I went two hours earlier, Lottie already added all the things into the pot!

But somehow the church still thanked me profusely even though I think Lottie did most of the work! I must make up for it! Next time then!

So what did we cook last night? Well, we had Thai Red Curry (every Monday is Asian Food day!):

Thai Red Curry in the Making

The curry looked pretty, well, yellowish at the start - and interestingly, they make the curry red here by adding not more chilli or curry paste, but more tomatoes! And here's Franz with his fast hands cutting up the cakes:

Franz and His Cakes

And here's Christine, a fellow Singaporean PSC scholar reading Law, Year 1 - and I guess the PSC talk just came naturally with her:

Christine, PSC Scholar, Year 1, Law Student

And because I was too hungry, Franz gave me his Turkish Delight, which didn't really go well with me but oh well, it was filling:

Turkish Delight

And that's them having their philosophical discussion about... something: 

Christine (left) and Franz (right)

Thai Red Curry

And here's the finished product, Thai Red Curry! It does look red now, doesn't it? Thanks to the tomatoes - which resulted in a rather sweet and tangy curry though.

And here's my i-Focus cell group:

Front (from left): Yong Kiat, Franz, Siu Yau, Benajmin, Man Kuan
Back (from left): John, Wes, Chris, David, Emmanuel

And look what's happening this Friday at St. Ebbes! I'm not going for such a posh event though:

American Nosh Meets Oxford Posh

And here's Franz drawing a rainbow on my bible study notebook:

Franz the Artist

And on Sunday, Franz came over and he drew me a... thing on my whiteboard:

Franz's Masterpiece

Well well, looks like he's a budding artist after all eh? :)

And well, I've got a video that totally describes my Sunday afternoon - I had apple strudel and apple crumble at David's house, and it was awesome! I think I like the fellowship but I guess I need to invest more time and effort in knowing them more too, and to pray for them:

David Lighting Up the Fireplace

He has a fireplace in his living room, how cool and awesome is that? :) And then the apple strudel was pretty nice too:

Apple Strudel from Tesco's

And while we waited for it to bake, we played Cranium:

Cranium!

And in all its glory, my apple crumble:

Apple Crumble with Vanilla Ice Cream

And the i-Focus cell seemed pretty satisfied:

i-Focus Cell

I had another serving of ice cream because it's been a while since I had ice cream:

Vanilla Ice Cream

On the way out, I saw the most interesting lane ever:

Turn Again Lane

By golly, it was right - I had to turn again indeed! :)

David's Backyard

Oh oh, before I forget, David had a rather nice backyard! :) Looks quite serene and peaceful. And when we left his house, we passed by the River Thames, with the ducks:

Ducks by the Thames

And the bridge:

Bridge Over Troubled Waters

River Thames

And when I got back home, I rested a while, and then it was dinner time! So I went to cook with my neighbours:

Marco with His Weird Look

We essentially cooked a simple pasta with a tomato-based sauce and cheddar cheese:

Chiara's Masterpiece

And here's a better shot:

Pasta Joy

And here was our Italian chef of the night, Chiara Toniolo:

Chiara With Her Pasta

Shi Hui, this Malaysian graduate fresher, cooked some chicken curry for us! Man! I love curry:

Chicken Curry

And here's a random shot of Chiara:

Chiara Toniolo

Well, so what did I have for breakfast since lunch and dinner were so good? Well, I had Maple and Pecan Danish:

Maple and Pecan Danish

And just look at the maple syrup thingum inside:

Maple Goodness

Well, that's all folks! Toodles! :)