Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Over the weekend
Quite an exciting weekend, must say.
Woke up on Saturday morning (or was it afternoon?) to Audrey's SMS. Actually, woke up right before the SMS. I didn't even need to read it to know what's the contents - company for the rest of the day.
Finally caught "The Exorcism of Emily Rose". Been wanting to since the preview, but owing to the fact that I'm not the "1st choice" for my friends as a movie date, and not wanting to watch it myself (I swear, it being a semi-scary show has nothing to do with it), I had to sit on my arse and wait for a date to come a-knocking. Heh.
The surprise was Hon Seng actually was willing to watch it. Haha. Audrey claims that he was covering his eys for half the show, but I can't be sure since she was sitting between us and I was concentrating on the show. Oh well... At least he came, that should be a good start. The 2 of them are fast becoming my regular dates for Saturday afternoons/evenings.
After the show we wandered around pondering over dinner. I HATE deciding what to eat for dinner. HATE. GAH. What's worse is that the fact that I'm a guy means that in the future I would be expected to be full of ideas for dining venues while dating my girlfriend. Maybe I ought to be thankful that I'm not attached yet. But, yeah, I'm the eat-anything-also-can and don't-eat-also-can kinda person. Anyway, coffee > food ANYDAY.
We ate at Burger King.
Went Paragon shopping with their mom after eating. I had nowhere to go so I tagged along anyway. Upon rendezvousing with her, the 2 females proceeded to shop at the lingerie section. Now, being the sensitive new age guys in the 21st century like we are, we would have been more than willing to tag along, offering tips and advice from our point of view (which is really what fanciful lingerie is all about, isnt it? Us guys' view-ing?), and then ultimately carrying out our divinely-pre-determined job of carrying women's shopping bags. But they shooed us off anyway. With a wave of an arm (or two) Hon Seng and I were relegated to prowling around the mall in our bored selves. We visited some CD shop and ate some ice-cream, and that's about it. Lo and behold, when we went back they were still at the same section. Go figure.
After more (mind-numbing) shopping they were finally done, thank the stars. And so we parted ways. Just as I was exiting the building somebody tapped me on the shoulder as I walked by. Shit. I started thinking of all sorts of excuses for being caught by a security guard at 1030pm with unpaid-for lace underwear in my backpocket that I could not resist back in Metro. I tried to run, but he had an iron grip. The sort that whisperes to you, "Run and I'll crack your shoulder blades." The sort that spoke of 2 years of insane canoeing and dragonboating training at NJC. Relief! My underwear secret was safe after all! And who should be with Zhi Wei but Jason, the 2 gay buddies, I mean, good friends. And a third person, as then unidentified. The three of them together looked suspiciously like the aftermath of a ménage à trois. For a split second (maybe about 0.2s) I felt a surge of jealousy within me, of being left out of whatever excitement these three had before bumping into me. I remembered the lace underwear in my backpocket and reminded myself that I was a straight, heterosexual guy who likes girls, thank the stars.
(Joke, for those who left their sense of humour at the door. Not the heterosexual part, though.)
So we walked around looking for coffee, as any sane gathering of 4 guys would do. Settled at some weird place in Cineleisure, and chatted over drinks of this and that. It was a pleasant surprise to bump into Zhi Wei. He hasn't changed much at all. We left at around 12, I think.
Sunday I decided to visit Lin Jin's church, which Zhi Wei is also visiting at. That smart guy told me the wrong church, which resulted in me being a good 30 minutes late.
This brings me to my next topic, churches. For those of you who are not particularly interested in my religious ramblings, it's time to blog-surf somewhere else.
I don't feel as strongly against female pastors/elders now compared to about 2 months ago. Since then I've read more, learnt more, and prayed more. In short, I can accept that the Bible is not at it's clearest when touching on this topic, but I put forth that I would still prefer not to see a female pastor/elder, and that is why I will not return to Hope for now, among other reasons.
Visiting Life Presbyterian Bible Church led me to ponder over many things. I did not feel 100% comfortable throughout the service, but it did led me back to the sort of "plainer and simpler things" that I was searching for.
Am I against having service in an auditorium instead of a proper (I use this term loosely) church? Nope.
Am I against the use of modern instruments during worship? Nope.
Am I against the majority of sermons being targetted at the unsaved rather than the saved? Nope.
I will direct what I am against at Hope, since I am familiar with it. I hope you Hope-ers don't take it personally, as these are merely my opinions.
I am against the excessive (mis)use of tongues. It is extremely distracting, and serves no purpose in the way it is used currently in Hope. Speaking in tongues is not stringing nonsensical consonants and vowels together. I cannot believe that all the instances of tongues in Hope is divinely inspired, and I repent for all the times that I have "spoken in tongues" just because I have been told to, and because everyone else is doing it. Is is possible that the entire congregation has the gift of Tongues? Maybe. Is it probable? Not.
I am against what I personally feel is a non-condusive environment for worship in Hope. This is a personal opinion, yet it is not unfounded. The atmosphere created by the band during worship and praise is just too crazy. It is definately not what I would consider meaningful worship. Whatever happened to fear of the Lord? I look at videos of praise and worship concerts and I feel disgusted. A rock band calling itself Christian leading 40,000 people in noise-making is not worship. We can sing and dance and create as much noise as we want, but don't call it worship, because it isn't.
I am against the "mega church" idea that Hope is trying to emulate. No, wearing "We're not going for numbers" on your lips in and out does not make it true. Numbers, attendence, growth in quantity, that's what I see. I see shallowness, lack of knowledge and understanding, and unwillingness to pursue them. Simple issues, they have no answer for. Controversial issues, they dodge.
Gosh, this is turning into some sort of a rant against Hope. I have a good bit more to say, but I think I'll skip them for now.
Somehow my mood is worse after the ranting. GAH,
Arbitrary-encouragement-for-A-level-students.
{/5:27 PM}
me
