CHONGLAND

Isaiah 6

CHONG — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 11:14:30 +0000

Amongst these 13 verses, I was suprised at how many things seemed to strike me.

First off was the seraphim that stood above the Lord who is seated upon the throne. He covers himself with 4 of his 6 wings in the presence of the Lord. How often do we find ourselves coming before the Lord without the same kind of reverence or respect??

Second was what Isaiah says in the presence of the Lord. He is lost; not belonging because he has unclean lips, and so the seraphim cleanses his lips with a burning coal.
Next is the Lord‘s call and Isaiah‘s answer of Here am I! Send me. It’s such a quick response, seemingly without hesitation or thought. Something I, and indeed we, don’t do often.
Lastly is the message the Lord gives to the people, through Isaiah, that they hear but not understand, see but not perceive and have dull hearts.

Bitter-Sweet

The Gate

CHONG — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:11:23 +0000

Last night I got along to the trial gig of The Gate: It’s an experiment. It’s an experience. Some of Sydney’s best music in our backyard.

The premise of The Gate is an occasional event seeking to uncover and showcase some of the bands buried around the North Shore and Western Suburbs at an interesting DIY space in the inner suburbs.

First up on the bill last night was Telafonica. They style their music as “traditional (&non) song structures utilising live instruments, soundmachines and computers” while asserting that “the pop song lyric book is never far from hand“. I wasn’t particularly impressed by the stuff they played. To me it appeared to be an attempt to get as many unusual instruments and sounds as they could and mash them together into something that wasn’t particularly musical. Throw in some seemingly nonsensical or meaningful lyrics and there was the performance. The only real satisfaction I took from them was the pre-produced beats they had which were pretty jazzy and almost funky.

Garage Hymnal was the other act on the bill. Having only really seen them at KYCK twice, I was interested to see how/if they were any different as a performance band rather than a worship band.

They played a number of songs from their three albums, including Father’s World, The Light Has Found Us, Love, Like A River, Child’s Play, I Am, Take My Life and Hallelujah.
Despite the cold of being outside, the band really seemed to have fun with the gig, giving some insights into their writing process amongst other things. The members are all greatly talented musicians. I didn’t notice a great difference in their performance compared to leading worship, which I think was a bit of a shame, as I believe that there should be some kind of segregation of the two. For Garage Hymnal it is a hard line to draw, being a band that was formed to be a worship band.

I’m interested to see how things develop for The Gate down the track. It would be good if they are able to have a wide range of musical stylings as they continue to grow and develop this idea. Being a fairly intimate area though, some kind of a more personal touch would be nice. Last night felt a bit stand-offish having people from all sorts of places in attendance.

Redoak dinner

CHONG — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 09:35:23 +0000

During my time working in the city one of the great experiences has been gathering together with my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ to share in a meal. Lately it seems as though this has happened less frequently as the global financial crisis has hit and as my St Paulian counterparts have moved away from working in the city.

Another difficulty has been the limited time in which we are able to meet together, with people having to include travelling to the location of choice. As a result, dinner one evening was suggested, yet met with little enthusiasm. Adri was keen, being one who wasn’t often able to make it to the lunch meets since she worked fairly out of the way, and so tonight I met up with her and Simon to have dinner at the Redoak Brewery.

We met after work and opted to dine in the bar over the restaurant due to the price of the meals. We gentlemen opened with an Aussie Ale. Simon opted for the Tajima Wagyu, tomato and Root Vegetable Pie, Adri chose the Steak Sandwich on damper roll with homemade beer and tomato relish and hand-cut chips and I settled on the 9″ Redoak Pizza topped with Cinnamon and black tea smoked chicken, roasted pumpkin, salsa verde and Swiss cheese and roquette with Redoak Hand-Cut Chips. The meals were satisfactory, but not great…

Post dinner I settled in with a Blackberry Wheat Beer, not sure what exquisite beer Guthers enjoyed, I’m sure he’ll mention it here…, as we retired to the more comfortable loungey chairs… Despite the intriguing desserts on the menu, we decided that a cheaper alternative was required and so we left the Redoak in search of some form of frozen goodness.

After searching underneath the QVB to find places closed, we surfaced to find Passionflower. Simon had Chocolate Hazelnut, Adri went with the Strawberry Swirl and I gave up one of my favourites: Jaffa for Lychee Rose. The benefits of being a student even came into play to the tune of 10%, thank you Moore College!!!

All in all a pleasant evening with a lovely and extremely attractive couple, one that would welcome numerous repetitions. Love youse both!!

Bye Bye Banker

CHONG — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:18:03 +0000

Long time readers may recall that mid last year I applied for a ministry position within a church that I wasn’t successful in attaining.

I’m happy to announce that starting the 6th of April I shall be employed by St Paul’s Carlingford as an Office Administrator/Receptionist.

The position has been available since the end of January and I’d been strongly encouraged to apply. After gathering together my resume and reference from work I put my application in on the 16th of February. I managed to grab a half day off on the 26th of February for my interview, just shy of heading up to Men’s Katoomba Convention.

Last Wednesday I got the call from my new boss, offering me the job!! After signing my letter of offer, I submitted my resignation to the bank, giving 3 weeks notice of my final days work.

It’s been an interesting time working for the NAB. I’ve definitely learnt a great deal and been stretched in my abilities. I’m a little sad to see the end of it, but definitely glad to be moving on, especially into administrative ministry.

I’m very thankful to God for His provisions in my career and it’s development, and to all those that have been praying for me about this work and the path that it’s taken.

Moore College – Community Chapel

CHONG — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:42:47 +0000

This year has seen a number of changes come about in my life; a few which I will expound on at a later date, I’ve started studying at Moore College. I’m undertaking a Diploma of Bible & Ministry via part-time study which , this semester, entails 3 hours of lecture on Thursday nights at the Cathedral School.

My first unit is New Testament 1A with Peter Bolt lecturing us through the Gospel of Mark, with the view of equipping us with a foundation for New Testament study. Last week we also had Bill Sallier, as guest lecturer, jog us through the Gospel of John.
The class has roughly 20 people in it of varied experience and personalities, and it’s interesting relating to them. This is the third week, and so far it’s been quite an enjoyable time.

One of the down-sides of studying part time in this manner is that we tend to miss out a bit on the culture that Moore College offers. They definitely are inclusive of the part-timers, however work commitments tend to get in the way of involvement.

This morning I was fortunate enough to get the morning off of work as a half day RDO and head along to community chapel, joining in with the saints to sing praises to God, share in prayer, meet some international students and hear Richard Chin: Director of AFES Australia preach from Psalm 98.

Richard’s sermon highlighted some things about songs and singing that I hadn’t realized or thought about before:

Israel sang often as a form of rejoicing after they had been rescued by God. This ‘New Song‘ that they sung was featured 9 times in the bible, and each time was about the character of God that He reveals to us; His righteousness, His steadfast love and His faithfulness, in saving us.
This ‘New Song‘ was and is not limited to the saints only. ALL the peoples of the earth are to sing OUR song, that is inclusive of those that will face God’s wrath. He points out that this is a call to evangelism, to save those that will face judgement and the wrath of God. This ‘New Song‘ is to be sung by ALL CREATION. The seas roaring and all that is contained within it, the rivers clapping and mountains singing for joy.
This ‘New Song‘ is also about God coming to judge the earth, about His righteous judgement to come. Richard pointed to the fact that the word Hallelujah is only mentioned 4 times in the New Testament (in Revelation 19). Out of those 4 times, judgment is the context in which they are mentioned.

How many times do we sing Hallelujah in our modern day hymns and choruses?? How much more should we be singing Hallelujah about the judgement to come, and the salvation that we receive in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Chapel ended with an old hymn by Charles Wesley; Lo, He Comes with Clouds Descending, sung to a new tune by one of the Moore College students. I’m hoping to get the music and get some congregational singing of it in action.

Hometown Glory

CHONG — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:55:33 +0000

I really love the lyrics of Hometown Glory by Adele. Whilst travelling home on the train from class, I’m currently listening to the High Contrast Remix as played by London Elektricity on his Radio1 Essential Mix in November 2008; lyrics slightly edited from the track:

Round my hometown
Memories are fresh
Round my hometown
Ooh the people I’ve met
Round my hometown
Memories are fresh
Round my hometown
Ooh the people I’ve met

I like it in the city when the air is so thick and opaque
I love to see everybody in short skirts, shorts and shades
I like it in the city when two worlds collide
You get the people and the government
Everybody taking different sides

Round my hometown
Memories are fresh
Round my hometown
Ooh the people I’ve met
Round my hometown
Memories are fresh
Round my hometown
Ooh the people I’ve met

So Long Summer

CHONG — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 04:15:17 +0000

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I last wrote here. The month of February has been seemingly long and extremely busy. Here’s a run-down on what has happened, with a view to potentially blog happenings at a later date:

Graceat6 launched
My sister Anna married Arthur
Con Campbell gave an intro to Colossians
Growth Groups started for the year
I turned 30
Moore College
The Hurt Locker
Mens Katoomba Convention
One Night Only with Way Out West and John Digweed

I’m currently in the process of re-theming CHONGLAND again. This year should hopefully see an upgrade to HTML5 & CSS3 in the code as well as a mobile site for you iPhone users.

Graceat6

CHONG — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 02:10:00 +0000

Last night, the 31st January 2010, we stepped into a new era as our church launched afresh as Graceat6, complete with a new website [graceat6.com].

It’s an exciting time and we had a large number of people gathered together, new and old, to mark the occasion. What is changing is the feel of the service and how we go about being a part of the body of Christ.

Our Mission statement reads:
Real with God
Real with Each Other
Real with The World

Each week we will be meeting together for a meal, reading & learning from the bible, praying and singing together.

We’ll be hearing Mike preach from Luke 19-24 as a lead up to Easter. We’ve also been given a helpful daily reading guide with questions to ponder. It’s available to view and download on the website if you’re keen to follow along as well. It’s a great tool for those that find it difficult to commit to reading, thinking, and praying through passages in the bible and will hopefully instil some great reading habits.

I’m interested to see how things pan out, how we meld together in love and service with each other, and how, if at all, the dynamics of our church change.

p.s. I had a small video cameo in the growth groups video, which you can see on the website under partners -> growth groups.

JMC – Monday Morning

CHONG — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 07:30:22 +0000

This morning at JMC, Andrew Barry spoke to us from Judges 1 & 2.

The book of Judges speaks of the Judges that God raises up as a result of Israel crying out to God after they’re punished by God when they have done wrong in His sight. These Judges are not like Judge Judy or Judge Reinhold, rather they are like Judge Dredd; come to bring judgement. The book is set just after the Israelites have come out of slavery in Egypt and into the promised land.
God tells them that they are to make an impact on the world, and they are not to make pacts with the world.

The Israelites entrance into the promised land, Canaan was full of great expectations; They had been in slavery in Egypt for hundreds of years, crying out in misery, wandering the desert for 40 years, but the entrance was not as grand nor as easy as they expected. Their leader Joshua had died and they had no king. They took only a part of the country, not all of it, as they couldn’t drive out all those that possessed it. The promised land in Exodus 3: 6-8:

⁶ And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
⁷ Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, ⁸ and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

was not fully conquered, they were confined to the hill country. This was a tragedy in their eyes, and would have driven the Israelites to tears as they were reading this….

The greater tragedy was one of their hearts: that the next generation of Israel did not know the Lord, instead, they turn to the Baals and Asherah/Ashtaroth as it says in Judges 2: 10-14:
¹⁰ And all that generation also were gathered to their fathers. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel.
¹¹ And the people of Israel did what was evil in the sight of the Lord and served the Baals. ¹² And they abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed down to them. And they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They abandoned the Lord and served the Baals and the Ashtaroth.

We see that Canaan made a stamp on the Israelites, rather than the Israelites making a stamp on the land of Canaan. The Israelites adopted the world view of their neighbours, adopting rituals and principals.
We are to similarly make a stamp on the world, but we so often adopt their principals, and sometimes their rituals. Our world view is often naturalistic, secular or materialistic, living as practical atheists; operating with the world view of our neighbours and turning our backs on God.

God sent these Judges as a wake up call, who saved the people (Israel) out of harms way, and as long as the judge lived, the people worshipped God, but when the judge died, the people turned back to the ways of the land: Judges 2: 18 & 19

¹⁸ Whenever the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the Lord was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. ¹⁹ But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways.

So what is the relevance of this book of Judges today?? Christians have made many great conquests, with countries like China and Africa seeing massive growth in Christianity. But then we have limitations: we get criticised by the media alot, and it feels like an uphill battle. The heart of the church is where we see the biggest failure; we have come to take God for granted. We see God’s people not living as God’s people. Our church life doesn’t translate to other parts of life, we are called to forsake all others, to follow God, to trust Him and worship Him, we are to make a stamp on the world, not the world on us.

January Ministry Conference 2010

CHONG — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 05:46:06 +0000

This week I’m at January Ministry Conference [JMC] instead of work. Andrew Barry is speaking on Judges, and Con Campbell is speaking on 2 Timothy. Apart from that the days are spent looking at the Bible through various strand groups and looking at other practical areas of life through electives.

Again I will blog through the days as we go, so check back regularly for updates as we move through the week.

Happy New Year

CHONG — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:55:30 +0000

I’m standing at town hall awaiting a train to take me home to a nice cleansing shower and my cosy bed.

My night was spent at Chinese Laundry to hear UK DJ Danny Howells. His set tonight was good, but not great, having plenty of nice tracks, especially those of the funky bouncy progressive variety, but it was missing that spark that binds a set together making it flow on a proverbial journey.

Tonight was the first time I was able to test out my leg on the dancefloor after my knee reconstruction 4 months ago. I had a great boogie towards the start of the night before the crowds started to fill up the space around the dancefloor. Everything seemed to flow smoothly giving little to no pain, which was good. The only thing that seemed to be lacking was stamina, mainly in my calves and soles of my feet. As usual there were plenty of looks, stares and giggles, some of them appreciative and others in jest, along with the occasional request for pills…

The crowd tonight was a big mix; probably 1/3 was there for the DJs and got into it well, the other 2/3s seemed out of place or to not be enjoying themselves. There were plenty of beautiful girls fluttering about, dressed to impressed. It was tough not to continually look at them and cross the dangerously thin line of appreciating beauty and lust.

2nd Christmas Party

CHONG — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:52:13 +0000

I’m on my away home on the train after the second of 3 Christmas parties that were on offer for me this year. We were treated to grace The IVY ballroom thanks to the NAB business bank.

There was a variety of hors d’oeuvres on offer, from mini pies topped with avocado, smoked salmon on crackers, spring rolls and mini bruchetta to name a few and I’ve been drinking Boags all night long, about 5 or 6 in the span of 3 hours… Free stuff is great, but over-indulgence is never far away.

The third Christmas party is tomorrow night at The Italian Village in The Rocks. I’m not going along for a number of reasons; it’s $50, we went there last year for our Christmas party and the food was pretty average.

Where the Wild Things Are

CHONG — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 08:12:00 +0000

I went to see Where the Wild Things Are this afternoon all by my lonesome. I read the picture book as a child, as I’m sure most people have. The movie adaptation was really good and enjoyable, bringing a smile to my face as I relived the story.

The movie really gives you a connection with Max; you feel for him as he runs away, as he screams and shouts, and as he feels for the ‘Wild Things‘. The characters of the ‘Wild Things‘ were pretty interesting, a few of them are strong and well developed, whilst others were very weak and could have potentially been left out. The imagery within the film is absolutely breathtaking, I absolutely loved the scenery that it was placed in, amazing glimpses of the world that we live in, places I wish I was able to get away to.
There’s plenty of humor thrown in amongst the drama and action of the film, and the story is well fleshed out considering the original book being a fairly short picture book.

I felt very much like Max whilst watching this film today, having a pretty crappy weekend, I just wanted to run away to another world, some place where people would recognise me, look to me for things, care for me and share things with me. A place where I could go wild and run about and be free. I don’t know why, but I feel so alone in this world, even when people are about… It’s one thing to continually serve people, but how do we go about being served ourselves?? Surely it should be a two way street…

1st Xmas party

CHONG — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:15:05 +0000

I’m on my way home on the train after my first Christmas party of the season, this one being for my section. We knocked off around 5 and slowly made our way over to The Basement in dribs and drabs for pre-dinner drinks…

At about 6:45 we made our way up to Aesops Greek Restaurant for dinner, where we were bundles in with 5 or 6 other Christmas parties and a ladies’ 36th birthday. The food was pretty average and seemingly sparce, but surprisingly filling. We ate bread with Taramosalata and Tzatziki (dips) and Greek Salad, Moussaka, Calamari, Souvlakia, and Roast Lamb. The service was just as bad with drink orders going wrong, and questionable beer labels, either being overdue or not yet bottled yet according to the printed labels.

After dinner there was a bit more inter party interaction with a Zorba complete with plate smashing before the retro tunes came on for a dance. After a little while of sitting and watching, it was time for me to go.

I found it pretty appalling as I was sitting there with the guys whilst they were picking out the attractive girls in the room, how little regard they have for their wives or girlfriends, and how disrespectful they were to these girls in the way they were talking about them. I’m ashamed to say that, in my mind, I had already picked these girls out as physically attractive and ones to watch for the evening… It’s amazing how, as Christians, we can so easily fall in line with the world. I think it’s a fine line between appreciating beauty and lust, and we must tread it very carefully, avoiding it if possible.

Twosday Night

CHONG — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:21:47 +0000

Last night I was a busy butterfly floating around a number of places and peoples.

After arriving home from what seemed to be the longest day at work, (Christmas period days will be much worse) I dropped around to see newlyweds Geoff and Tiff at their pad. It’s a very spacious place with a pristine 70s feel to it. I got to catch up with Geoff in the old person smelling granny flat before shooting off to dinner and Bible study at The Flat.

We had the pleasure of hearing from overseas partner Stephen Shead who has been living and teaching in Chile for the last 3 years with his family. We heard about how they live and work over there, how their children find it with school, about CEP (Centre for Pastoral Studies) and their church and bible study groups. Stephen led us through a few passages:
Colossians 3:12 – 17
¹² Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, ¹³ bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. ¹⁴ And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. ¹⁵ And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. ¹⁶ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. ¹⁷ And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

And Colossians 4:2-4
² Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. ³ At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. ⁵Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. ⁶ Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.
Here we looked at reasons why we have Bible study, kind of the fruits that would come out of it, and how we are to conduct ourselves during and as a response to it.

We then looked at Psalm 1
¹Blessed is the man
who walks not in the counsel of the wicked,
nor stands in the way of sinners,
nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
² but his delight is in the law of the Lord,
and on his law he meditates day and night.
³ He is like a tree
planted by streams of water
that yields its fruit in its season,
and its leaf does not wither.
In all that he does, he prospers.
⁴ The wicked are not so,
but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
⁶ for the Lord knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

This Psalm talks of the wicked man and the righteous man, but we can also think of them as the foolish man and the wise man respectively.
From the 3 passages we see that bible study is both head knowledge and heart knowledge aka feelings, but it is also actions. This was something that was a bit lacking in Chile where the bible studies are called bible courses and it’s very much about getting the right answer as opposed to exploring the text, sharing lives with one another through experiences and struggles, and praying with and for each other. Whilst Stephen said that we were lucky to have such an opportunity here, I did get a feeling that we could still be doing more; whilst we do these things, we tend to still hold back a bit in our sharing, almost in a sense of lacking passion and love for one another.

Finally after Bible study I went to Physical Training for some push-ups and core/ab work. It was a little disappointing that the only people there were Geoff and I, but we still did what we were there to do: get fit and pray.

CHONGLAND

Isaiah 6

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