Monday, March 26, 2007

HS

John 16

THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, the “Counselor” or Paraclete, is dependent on Jesus’ “going away,” i.e., his death by crucifixion, subsequent resurrection, and exaltation (John 16:7; cf. 7:37 - 39). This raises important questions about the relationship between the Spirit’s role under the old covenant, before the cross, and his role this side of it. That is worthy of careful probing. Here, however, John’s emphasis on the Spirit’s work must be made clear.

At the end of John 15, the Counselor, we are told, will bear witness to Jesus, and to this task to which the disciples of Jesus will lend their voices (15:26 - 27). The prime witness falls to the Spirit. In John 16:8 - 11, the Counselor convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He does so because Jesus is returning to the Father and no longer exercises the role of convicting people himself.

If the Holy Spirit bears witness to Jesus in 16:8 - 11, in 16:12 - 15 he brings glory to Jesus by unpacking Christ to those who attended the Last Supper (the “you” in v. 12 cannot easily be taken in any other way, and controls the other instances of “you” in the rest of the paragraph; cf. also 14:26). As Jesus is not independent of his Father, but speaks only what the Father gives him to say (5:16 - 30), so the Spirit is not independent of the Father and the Son: “He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears” (16:13). His focus is Jesus: “He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you” (16:14). And of course, even here what belongs to Jesus comes from the Father: “All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (16:15).

The reason why Jesus himself has not unpacked everything about himself and his mission to the disciples is that they are not yet ready to bear it (16:12). Even this late in their discipleship, they cannot quite integrate in their own minds the notion of a King - Messiah and the notion of a Suffering Messiah. Until that point is firmly nailed down, the way they read their Scriptures — what we call the Old Testament — will be so skewed by political and royal aspirations that they are not going to get it right.

How much of the Spirit’s work focuses on Jesus Christ — bearing witness to him, continuing certain aspects of his ministry, unpacking his significance!


Copyright 2007 D.A. Carson

On behalf of Dr. Carson and ChristWay Media,
Maurice "Moe" Bergeron
List Manager

D.A. Carson's Itinerary for 2007 is posted at
http://christwaymedia.com/itinerary.htm

Friday, March 23, 2007

Java Tutorials

If only they had this when we were in year 2... =O

http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/index.html

Project Timothy Events 2007



Upcoming Events 2007

Date

Speakers

Events

Venue

Jan 16 – 17, 2007

(Tue-Wed morning)

William Taylor, Rector,

St Helens Bishopsgate (London, UK)

Expository Preaching Workshop: “Preaching Epistles: 2 Corinthians”

Free Christian Church of Singapore





Mar 20-22, 2007

(Tue-Thur morning)

David Jackman,

President, The Proclamation Trust (UK)

Expository Preaching Workshop: “Preaching Old Testament Prophets: Isaiah”

Bethesda Bukit Arang Church

Mar 21-22, 2007

(Tue-Wed evening)

David Jackman,

President, The Proclamation Trust (UK)

Evening Expositions: “Isaiah – Behold Your God”

Orchard Road Presbyterian Church

Mar 23-25, 2007

(Fri-Sun)

David Jackman,

President, The Proclamation Trust (UK)

Ministry Matters Weekend Conference

The Gallery Hotel





July 12, 2007 (Thur), 7.30pm-9.30pm

Mike Raiter,
Principal,

Bible College of Victoria (Australia)

STEP Training: “Preaching that Connects”

Venue to be confirmed by Lincoln

July 13-15, 2007

(Fri-Sun)

Mike Raiter,
Principal,

Bible College of Victoria (Australia)

Project Timothy Bible Conference – “Money No Enough – Wealth & the Christian”

Prince George’s Park Residences, NUS





Oct 26 – 27, 2007

(Fri & Sat morning)

D A Carson,

Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (USA)

Expository Preaching Workshop: “Preaching Old Testament Narrative: Nehemiah”

Singapore Bible College

Oct 26 – 27, 2007

(Fri & Sat evening)

D A Carson,

Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (USA)

Evening Expositions: “The Triumph & Failure of Reformation” (Nehemiah)

Singapore Bible College

About Project Timothy

PT is an independent and inter-denominational organization which aims to increase bible literacy, encourage expository preaching and equip Christians to read, understand and teach the Bible. PT is registered with the Registry of Societies in Singapore. PT works in partnership with other like-minded evangelical churches / organisations both in Singapore and overseas to organise and execute its mission objectives.

Contact: www.projecttimothy.com or enquiries@projecttimothy.com

Letter

Happened to read again a letter Denesh sent some time back as I was clearing up my mailbox (have not read my email for 2-3 days!). Very encouraging...just to share here lah.

-----------------------------

Dear STEPers,

Greetings in the Lord Jesus Christ!

I just started reading through 1 Corinthians the other day and it struck me again how we have everything in Christ. Just listen to these amazing words:

"4 I always thank God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. 5 For in him you have been enriched in every way-- in all your speaking and in all your knowledge-- 6 because our testimony about Christ was confirmed in you. 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." (1 Cor 1:4-9)


That's mind-blowing stuff, isn't it? That in Christ we have:

  • Been enriched in every way – that's all our speaking and all our knowledge (v5)
  • The lack of no spiritual gift (v7)
  • The assurance of being kept strong and blameless to the end (v8)
  • A God who is faithful (v9)

I don't know how your year has started and how it might shape up but I want to encourage you to look up and not forget that empowered by His word and the indwelling of Christ, we have all the resources we need to tackle whatever may come our way this year and indeed every year. So as you serve Him this year, depend wholeheartedly on Christ, draw richly from His word and don't lose heart! For you lack nothing in the Lord Jesus Christ – and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

It has been a great encouragement to Deborah and I to have had the chance to catch up with you all again and to hear about how your year has gone. We are still amazed at how you are persevering on in ministry, sometimes in quite trying circumstances. Our prayer for you is that you will not lose heart and you will not run out of steam. And the only way you can do that is if you keep focused on who we are in Christ and keep the main thing – the word at the center of your life, relationships/marriage and ministry – the main thing.

This has been a significant year for PT with the start of STEP and the Day Away. As the rest of you might have heard, the Day Away was a great time as we gathered under the word and soaked in what God was saying to us from Isa 40, Titus 2 (for the women) and the Jacuzzi (the boys had their praying and sharing time in the Jacuzzi)! I do hope we can do that again as it will help us to keep in close partnership and help us to refocus on our own priorities and how STEP can keep on helping us in our local ministries at church, university etc.

As for the rest of 2007 as a whole, there are two more STEP events I hope you will be able to come for and so be better equipped to serve God in your local context:

  • March 24-25: Ministry Matters Weekend (David Jackman)
  • July 12: STEP Training – "Preaching that Connects" (Mike Raiter)

Depending on how our year-end schedules look like, we will try to sort out details of the next STEP Day Away later on in the year. I will also pray that you guys will be able to meet up more regularly to pray and encourage one another in ministry.

Of course apart from these STEP-specific training events, I also hope that you will be praying for and inviting many to come for the other PT events this year. With David Jackman (March), Mike Raiter (July) and Don Carson (Oct) coming to minister to us, it promises to be a real feast of a year (please see the attachment for all the details). It would be so beneficial to your ministries for you to bring your youth group, bible study group, lay leaders, pastors etc. to the PT events so that they can hear the Bible expounded for themselves and catch on to our like-mindedness.

Till we next see each other again, let us continue to keep each other and all our ministries in prayer as we labour with His strength, by His Spirit, for the extension of His Kingdom and the sake of His glory.

Your partner in Christ,
Denesh Divyanathan

FYP Report Done

The initial madness is over, the report has been finished. Thank God... =)

...and to those who showed concern in any way!

The madness doesn't end here though, the deadlines and exams are all coming up!

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Pray

Dear reader,

If we belong to the same family under Christ, please pray for me..
Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.
(James 1:2-5, ESV)
That I'll seek wisdom, knowing and doing what's right, and that I'll persevere through this trying time...

Monday, March 12, 2007

FYP (partial) product


Have had quite an experience in doing my FYP, finding out about the techniques and knowledge needed to do it. It's supposed to be a webcam document scanner, where we use a webcam to scan in a document (duh). Here're some of the pictures I took with it whilst testing the basic prototype.

What you see here is the test, done under PERFECT conditions. The real thing doesn't work THAT well, yet?





Although it's designed for scanning in documents, some 'fun' things can be scanned in also, like the Windows XP login screen and part of my Gmail inbox.


And surprisingly, it works pretty well when used in non-text scenarios, like looking aroung the school library lol. I guess it's because the problem of perspective disappears when looking at faraway objects, making it easier for the computer to find a place to stitch the pictures.

Sunday, March 11, 2007

Mental Constipation

A lot of thoughts, but can't seem to bring them out somehow..

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Fat?

(click on picture for full sized view)

It sickens me to see how perfectly healthy people (or those who're not so well already) around go all "crazy" about trying to lose weight and all, at the expense of their health. The most common one is when they just try to (or sometimes, "conveniently") stop eating at times when they should be.

Even for a Christian, we know that looks isn't the most important thing, and that even looking nice doesn't mean having a stick-thin figure, but many still act as if it is.

I think one way to help is to not to do or say anything that makes people think like this. But especially so, we need to keep going back to Christ, from the Word. For this is the only way to what is truly good, and the only way to continue on the path that we've been set on.
Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives-- when they see your respectful and pure conduct. Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair, the wearing of gold, or the putting on of clothing-- but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
(1Pe 3:1-7, ESV)

Monday, March 05, 2007

Leng Xiao Hua


My friends saw my wallpaper as I was booting up my laptop. The following conversation ensued:

F: What's that thing beside the giraffe?

Me: Oh that's a coconut tree.

F: Oh..then where's the mouse?

Me: (immediately moves the mouse cursor) There!

F, D: .......

D: It's very cold here...

Nokia N93 Hokkien version

There's a Nokia N93 TV ad that came up a while ago....


Now, there's a hokkien version =D