Ok Asian bros, the gauntlet's been thrown...we can surely do better than this!

Why Asian girls don't date Asian guys

Ok, I must also remember that I cannot be perfect, nor am I perfect. I must remember that I must strive for perfection while being content with the person who I am. It's almost an oxymoron, if you strive to become better all the time, how can you be satisfied with who you are? Well, basically, I must appreciate the gifts that the Lord has given me and strive to become a better person, a better Christian, a better servant, a better leader. But where to start?

I must remember... honor thy Father and Mother...honor thy Father and Mother... sometimes it's soo hard especially if you live with your Mom because the truth is, she'll never treat you like an adult. She'll call your cell when you're even 15 minutes late home because she's worried...which is sweet at first but when this happens over and over and over again, it gets to be somewhat annoying. Combine that with the fact that she is constantly on my case to finish my family's taxes which is no small feat. I mean we are talking the Form 706 here. Not some 1040EZ. I told her when this started that this would be a lot of work and would require a lot of time but she still does not heed. I mean here is what my book on Living Trusts ("The Living Trust" by Henry Abts) says about the Form 706, "The Federal Estate Tax Form 706 is one of the more comlicated tax forms and should be avoided if at all possible. This form consists of eighteen pages of varous forms, schedules and instructions. The basic Form 7-6 consists of three very complex pages of information needed by the IRS; it is followed by Schedules A through P." Basically, one tough form... just wish she could lay off a little and let me work on it.

LAW OF THE LAND
Girl's Christianity potential factor
in arguments before entire court

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Posted: July 9, 2002
By Diana Lynne
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© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com

The judge who rendered the controversial opinion for the U.S. Ninth
Circuit Court of Appeals - that "under God" in the Pledge
of Allegiance is unconstitutional - will not have the last word.

A Justice Department official who does not wish to be named tells
WorldNetDaily the U.S. solicitor general has decided to
authorize a rehearing before the full court, essentially giving the
government a green light to appeal the three-judge decision
before it had even filed a request to do so.

Justice spokesman Charles Miller said he could not confirm the
information but added, "Attorney General John Ashcroft stated
the Justice Department would request a rehearing en banc by the full Ninth
Circuit. He's the boss of the solicitor general. So I'm
assuming the solicitor general will approve of it."

The government has until early August to file the request. In the
meantime, WorldNetDaily has learned the recent revelation
that the daughter of the plaintiff is a churchgoing Christian who
voluntarily says 'under God' in the pledge may potentially help the
government's case.

As WorldNetDaily reported last week, Sacramento atheist activist
Michael Newdow mounted the now-infamous legal challenge
against Congress for inserting the phrase "under God" in the pledge in 1954,
and against the Elk Grove Unified School District for
its policy to have teachers lead students in reciting the pledge in class.

Newdow filed the case on behalf of his 8-year-old, whom he told the
Associated Press he is raising as an atheist.

"It's my parental right to keep the government off my child," AP
quoted Newdow as saying.

In the suit, Newdow claims that his daughter is injured when she is
compelled to "watch and listen as her state-employed
teacher in her state-run school leads her classmates in a ritual proclaiming
that there is a God, and that our's [sic] is 'one nation under God.'"

But Pastor Chuck Smith of Calvary Chapel in Costa Mesa, Calif.
contends Newdow's argument is fraudulent. According to Smith,
the second-grader and her mother, Sandra Banning, not only attend Calvary
Chapel at Laguna Creek in their home town of Elk Grove,
Calif., but Banning teaches Sunday School there.

"The little girl, as I understand, was never offended by 'under God'
because she does believe in God," Smith told
WorldNetDaily. "I understand when the decision came down, the little girl
came home and said to her mother, 'Well momma, I guess we
can't say under God anymore,' and then she decided she could say it under
her breath and no one would know the difference,'" said Smith.

Court records show Newdow and Banning embroiled in a custody battle
over the daughter. Calls to both were not returned.

"I believe people need to know the truth," said Smith. "I think we
need to know the agenda of the liberal court, that they
would make a decision predicated on the little girl being offended when, in
fact, she never was. ... They made a decision without
delving into the truth of the story. It would appear to me they don't want
the truth of the story, but rather they want a
hypothetical case upon which to make the decision."

According to the Justice official, Newdow had to show standing in the
case by showing that he's been injured. He did so by
asserting his daughter has been injured and he has an interest in directing
her education as a parent. Judge Alfred Goodwin wrote in
the majority opinion, "Newdow has standing as a parent to challenge a
practice that interferes with his right to direct the
religious education of his daughter."

Could the case be considered a fraud, as Pastor Smith suggests?
According to the Justice official, it would be fraud only if
Newdow said something knowingly false.

Fox News reports Newdow admitted that his 8-year-old daughter
voluntarily says the pledge along with her classmates in an
interview following the ruling.

"This is more about me than her. I'd like to keep her out of this,"
Fox quoted Newdow as saying.

But Smith and other pastors throughout California are determined to
keep the girl's reported love for God front and center by
mounting a publicity campaign to win the case in the court of public
opinion.

"The daughter has said she disagrees totally with what the father is
doing," Pastor Wiley Drake of First Southern Baptist
Church of Buena Park told WorldNetDaily. "I'm upset and I hope there will be
others who are upset. It's time for God lovers to stand
up and fight the God haters."

As WND reported, Drake led a hundred demonstrators in a four-hour
rally outside of Judge Goodwin's Pasadena house last week to
protest the court ruling. Drake plans a similar event outside Judge Stephen
Reinhardt's Marina Del Rey, Calif. home on Saturday.
Reinhardt joined Goodwin in the 2-1 decision.

"Reinhardt is a renegade judge and his wife is Ramona Ripston, the
executive director of the ACLU in Southern Calif.," said
Drake. "The ACLU has always tried to get rid of God."

Boy Beaten over Bible Study

I must say, this is the kind of thing that humbles me. It humbles me because if a pastor could fall into something like this, then surely I can as well. It is very easy for a Christian to take on the robe of self-righteousness but we all have to remember what Jesus wrote in the dirt, ""If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." (John 8:7)

Often times, I still feel like an outsider looking in at Lumps. There are just some things that my brothers in Christ at Lumps do/don't do/have done that kind of bother me I guess. It has alot to do with the fact that sometimes, some will literally ignore me; almost as if I'm not there. I get excluded quite a bit. It bugs me. I need to put these things to rest in my heart for if they continue to bother me, I will lose focus on what's really important. Pray for me.

Oh I forgot to mention that my friend KL introduced praise dance music to me before he left to return to Michigan. The group's called EPraise and their album's pretty cool. I ordered it a couple days ago and am now anxiously awaiting its arrival.

Ok, at lunch today, I attended the armageddon study based upon the Time Mag Article at PG&E. Yes, we here at PG&E have a monthly bible study. Basically we discussed three passages Matthew 24:3-14, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 which I've taken the libery of listing down below along with a short commentary.

Matthew 24:3-14
3As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately. "Tell us," they said, "when will this happen, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?"
4Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, 'I am the Christ,[1] ' and will deceive many. 6You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. 7Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8All these are the beginning of birth pains.
9"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. 10At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, 11and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, 13but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

According to Randy Walker, bible study lead, this passage is the one passage that may have predicted something like 9/11 and the times that followed but even then it is pretty sketchy. (this is in response to a poll in the mag that stated some people (25%) believed that the bible predicted 9/11) Here, we see wars (Afghanistan), rumors of war (Israel)... but not much of the other signs. Perhaps false prophets in terms of muslim false prophets. We pretty much concluded that there isn't a specific place in the bible that decisively predicted 9/11. There was some suggestion that New York could have been represented metaphorically by the city of Babylon in Revelation 18 but most of those present didn't think it did. (I didn't only because Babylon is destroyed when "She has become a home for demons and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every detestable bird.", Rev. 18:2, and I know that we have brothers and sisters in NY right now, plus NY is hardly destroyed or "brought to ruin")

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10
6God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you 7and give relief to you who are troubled, and to us as well. This will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels. 8He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power 10on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

Here we talked about the quote from the Time Mag which says "They're asking people to believe that we have a God who simply can't wait to zap a Christian flight crew out of jets so they crash? You can't believe in a God who would do this kind of thing." (p. 44) Basically, people's misconception of a lovey dubby God (a Santa Claus type God). And we reiterated that our God is a just God, one who will judge all at the end times and throw many into the Lake of Fire.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18
1Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, 2for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. 3While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
4But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. 5You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. 6So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. 7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. 9For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. 10He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. 11Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Here we discussed our attitude toward the Lord's coming which I think most of us agreed that we should be both hopeful and mournful. Hopeful for the Kingdom of God, hopeful for the day in which we stand in the Lord's house...but mournful for those whom we love that will be left behind, those who will be thrown into the lake of fire. We also concluded that we should be mindful but we should not let signs of armageddon distract us from our faith, love, and hope. These things should not distract us from encouraging one another and building each other up...growing in our faith.

Ok folks, I'm definitely chipper, energetic and ready to go today!

I very much dislike the new Yahoo! format. I can't find sports...finance..any of the sections that I regularly use...

So yeah, been hanging with my bro KL who's back from Michigan. We drove around on Wednesday Night (7/3) just visiting people, doing the Denny's hopping thing. Went to the one at El Cerrito to meet with some Cal guys we know and then went to the J-Town one to hang with some guys we know who finished bible study (and subsequently went to a Korean bar which is kinda weird). 4th of july, Hung out with lumps folks for fireworks along the wharf which was cool. I have to admit though...at times, I still feel like an outsider at lumps. Goes with the territory I suppose. Friday night- took my Mom out to dinner at Cafe For All Seasons which is a great restaurant in my opinion. The pasta there is quite good....and lite on the stomach so you don't feel food coma afterwords. Saturday morning, had an awesome prayer meeting. My uncle came out and led worship... which may be a bit strange since he's not a part of lumps but he's my spiritual mentor so I lean on him when I need help. MY, LM, DC, DS, KY, AF, JC, CL, TC, JW all showed up, shared, and prayed earnestly. It was a really edifying experience for me. Then, afterwords I met with my friend AL who isn't saved, my buddy KL, and CW, a sister who's friends with both AL and KL at Peet's in West Portal for two reasons. One because AL has been going through difficult times with her ex/soon to be ex/boyfriend (she's been trying to break it off for 6 months now but it has been really difficult due to a lot of things, some manipulative, imo, by the ex) and I wanted to spend some time with her and make her more comfortable around my fellow brothers & sisters in Christ and I. Secondly, because I was organizing a surprise birthday party for KL with his Mom and I had to get him out of the house so that they could get the food ready and all the surprise guests could arrive at the home stealthily. Suffice it to say, it was really fun chatting with AL, CW, and KL. I had the Cafe Freddo drink at Peet's for the first time and I really didn't like it. Peet's is really strong coffee. No wonder they provided it at Deloitte. The surprise birthday party afterwords was awesome too as KL was totally surprised. Afterwords, chatted with AL about all sorts of stuff and caught Minority Report. All in all a good week.