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swang77
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Name: Steve
Country: United States
State: California
Metro: Orange County
Birthday: 4/2/1977
Gender: Male
Interests: Trying new foods (preferably hole-in-the-wall Mexican or burger joints); chillin' at the ballpark on a warm, though breezy, summer day; travelling to dangerous, mosquito-infested locales where no one understands a word I'm saying; reading memoirs of marginalized people or books on spiritual struggles and redemption; mastering the perfect game and home run swing on MVP Baseball 2006; jogging amidst awe-inspiring backdrops and realizing that God and creation are bigger than all of this; meeting and being inspired by passionate, visionary people of God
Expertise: gang signs
Occupation: Retired
Message: message meEmail: email me
Yahoo:  stevewang370
Jabber: SKYPE: wang_hengchih
Member Since:
4/28/2005
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| But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have... | | |
| John 4:31-34
"Meanwhile his disciples urged him, 'Rabbi, eat something.' But he said to them, 'I have food to eat that you know nothing about.' Then his disciples said to each other, 'Could someone have brought him food?' 'My food,' said Jesus, 'is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.'"
John 6:25-41, 48-59
"When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, 'Rabbi, when did you get here?' Jesus answered, 'I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.' Then they asked him, 'What must we do to do the works God requires?' Jesus answered, 'The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.' So they asked him, 'What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.' '
Jesus said to them, 'I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.' 'Sir,' they said, 'from now on give us this bread.' Then Jesus declared, 'I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.' At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, 'I am the bread that came down from heaven.' ...
'I am the bread of life. Your forefathers ate the manna in the desert, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which a man may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.' Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, 'How can this man give us his flesh to eat?' Jesus said to them, 'I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your forefathers ate manna and died, but he who feeds on this bread will live forever.' He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum."
Deuteronomy 8:3
"He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD."
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| "At issue here is the question: 'To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?' Many of my daily preoccupations suggest that I belong more to the world than to God. A little criticism makes me angry and a little rejection makes me depressed. A little praise raises my spirits, and a little success excites me. It takes very little to raise me up or thrust me down. Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves. All the tie and energy I spend in keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me. "As long as I keep running about asking: 'Do you love me? Do you really love me?' I give all power to the voices of the world and put myself in bondage because the world is filled with 'ifs.' The world says: 'Yes, I love you if you are good-looking, intelligent, and wealthy. I love you if ou have a good education, a good job, and good connections. I love you if you produce much, sell much, and buy much.' There are endless 'ifs' hidden in the world's love. These 'ifs' enslave me, since it is impossible to respond adequately to all of them. The world's love is and always will be conditional. As long as I keep looking for my true self in the world of conditional love, I will remain 'hooked' to the world--trying, failing and trying again. It is a world that fosters additions because what it offers cannot satisfy the deepest craving of my heart. "'Addiction' might be the best word to explain the lostness that do deeply permeates contemporary society. Our addictions make us cling to what the world proclaims as the keys to self-fulfillment: accumulation of wealth and power; attainment of status and admiration; lavish consumption of food and drink, sexual gratification without distinguishing between lust and love. These addictions create expectations that cannot but fail to satisfy our deepest needs. As long as we live within the world's delusions, our addictions condemn us to futile quests in 'the distant country,' leaving us to face an endless series of disillusionments while our sense of self remains unfulfilled. In these days of increasing addictions, we have wandered far away from our Father's home. The addicted life can aptly be designated life lived in 'a distant country.' It is from there that our cry for deliverance rises up." - from "The Younger Son Leaves" in The Return of the Prodigal Son by Hnri Nouwen | | |
| when i was young, i was able to cry on the spot. i would think about some unbearably sad possibility--usually overly morbid in nature--and the tears would well up almost instantaneously. i felt like i was quite gifted in this way and believed that i could've gone into the dramatic arts if i wasn't so painfully shy. somewhere, this ambition left me.. but not before i put it to the test in an open casting call during college, where, despite impersonating barney from the simpsons when instructed to act drunk and even more so butchering an attempt to say my lines while pretending the building was on fire (for whatever reason i thought that this meant simply saying my lines really fast), i secured a role with one line and a zoom in on my hands holding a dictionary. this is all an aside from the actual point, which is simply to say that emotions are harder to come by now. i think that i'm sad. i think that's a usual response to the holidays especially when they are spent alone--not literally because i was, in fact, surrounded by family, but in the sense of not having someone by my side, deflecting inevitable questions and sharing in the burden of familial obligations. back to the point: knowing sadness and experiencing sadness are quite different and, right now laying sprawled out on my bed, i'm resorting to listening to everything but the girl, hoping that emotion will well up, hoping to feel something of pain and loss and loneliness.. rather than just being numb. i really do love these cheesy songs. | | |
| "Everything I once held dear
I count it all as lost..." -- again from "Lead Me to the Cross" | | |
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