“There is apparently a profound inability in humans to stick to a straight line when blind-folded, or when there is no fixed point–no sun, no moon, no mountain-top to guide them.” (1:55)

Wow. How profound this is. Think about how we are spiritually blind without Jesus the light of the world opening our eyes and guiding us.

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

Now here’s finally scientific evidence showing that what you behold, you become.

In one way, that’s why many long-married couples do look somewhat alike.

In another way, that’s also why fans dress like their idols, mimic their behaviors, and continue to lose who they really are and become exact replicas of their idols. As the Psalmist said in Psalm 115:4-8:

“But their idols are silver and gold,
made by human hands.

They have mouths, but cannot speak,
eyes, but cannot see.

They have ears, but cannot hear,
noses, but cannot smell.

They have hands, but cannot feel,
feet, but cannot walk,
nor can they utter a sound with their throats.

Those who make them will be like them,
and so will all who trust in them.”

The Scriptures tell us that when we behold idols, we become like them–dehumanized and lifeless. But when we behold Jesus, the archetype of the new humanity, we will become increasingly like Him (2 Cor 3:18) and more and more “truly human”. Beholding Jesus restores our humanity. Beholding anything else takes away our humanity.

In The Lord of the Rings, Gollum’s obsession with the Ring actually caused changes in his physical appearances, uglified him, and drove him to insanity.

What are you currently beholding in your life? Take a good look at the mirror and you’ll probably know.

Ancient Greeks called this universal force, this universal ordering principle, this wisdom and reason that held everything together and kept the universe running like a clockwork — the “Logos”, or literally the “Word”.

Strangely enough, the bible also describes not something, but actually someone who holds everything together in the universe: “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible… all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” (Colossians 1:16-17)

Who is this person who embodies all the fundamental forces in nature?

The Gospel of John in the Bible reveals to us who this Logos, this Word, this Unifying Field Force is: “In the beginning was the Unified Field Force, and the Unified Field Force was with God, and the Unified Field Force was God. Through the Unified Field Force all things were made; without which nothing was made that has been made… And the Unified Field Force became flesh and blood and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:1-3, 14, in a contemporary paraphrasing inspired by Darrell Johnson)

This unified field force, the life force of the universe, once came as a person, as someone whom you and I can relate to. This person is known as Jesus. Jesus IS the unified field force. He is the Logos, the Word, the life force of the universe. In him all things hold together.

And Christmas is about his arrival, the day when we first came to know this unified field force that held everything together in the universe in an intimate and tangible way. Not through mathematical equations, but through touch, dialogue, and understanding.

So Christmas is not just about eating and drinking, being merry and happy. It is neither just about giving gifts to one another and learning how to share our love. It is to behold the wonder of how the universe’s life force once “moved into the neighborhood”, lived among us common people, and showed us the meaning of life, and what grace and truth is.

And that is the true meaning of Christmas.

You may or may not believe it. It’s totally up to you. But at least that is what Christians have been telling the world for the past two millenniums. So please don’t water the meaning of Christmas down to just some warm fuzzy holiday feelings. It is much more than that.

So do enjoy your champagne, but when you can’t keep your head up, try to ponder what is keeping your head from falling off your body. Something has been always holding you together.

Related posts:

1. Paradoxes of Christmas
2. Christmas tree full of irony

We should watch this every Sunday before our church services begin so that we can have our perspectives properly adjusted in order to appreciate the kind of God we are worshiping. Not to mention God is not just as big as the universe, but utterly beyond all of space-time.

“What are mere mortals that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (Ps. 8:4)

Trillions from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

Architecture from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

Information from MAYAnMAYA on Vimeo.

BBC Horizon – Do I Drink Too Much?

Part one, two, three, four, five, six

Alcohol is by far the most widely used drug – and a dangerous one at that. So why are so many of us drinking over the recommended limits?

Why does alcohol have such a powerful grip on us? How much of our relationship with this drug is written in our genes? What are the real dangers of our children drinking too young?

Addiction expert John Marsden, who likes a drink, makes a professional and personal exploration of our relationship with alcohol. He undergoes physical and neurological examinations to determine its impact, and finds out why some people will find it much harder than others to resist alcohol. Even at the age of 14 there may be a way of determining which healthy children will turn into addicts.

John experiments with a designer drug being developed that hopes to replicate all the benefits of alcohol without the dangers. Could this drug replace alcohol in the future?

What I am perplexed about is that I know far more than a handful number of Christians (and very committed ones too) who admit that they “love” drinking and really enjoy that “buzz”. Not just drinking occasionally, but almost habitually. I personally like the slight sedating effect when I have a pint of beer or two, but I dislike that tipsy feeling that starts to make me feel disoriented and out of control.

Now how does the habit of drinking relate to the Christian life? Where do you draw the line between moderate use and unconscious addiction? Is the habitual use of alcohol comparable to the use of drugs? Is there a difference or not?

How do we make sense of the use of alcohol in the Bible? What about the biblical imagery of having an abundant flow of wine in the eschatological kingdom? All of this remains an interesting area for investigation and debate.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ7jQXXwV6c

(H/T: Rob Haskell)

Earlier this year, I wrote a research paper for my History of Christianity II class, showing the juxtaposition of early 18th century Deism and Evangelical Revivalism. I proved that those self-acclaimed rational Deists were actually very irrational and emotional, and Evangelicals like Wesley and Edwards were much more rational and persuasive in their apology.

Apparently, the Qohelet in the book of Ecclesiastes is right: “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” (Eccl. 1:9)

Those who are interested in my paper may read it here:
A Comparison and Contrast of Deism and Methodism

DIY Project from Make Magazine: Use a 2-Liter bottle as a 50 watt light bulb hack
(Btw, the water bottle vs. light bulb comparison beginning at 2:00 is really amazing.)

Inspired by this, here are 3 steps for Christians to become the Light of the World (Matt 5:14-16):

1. Be filled
2. Be bleached
3. Be hung

Just let the light shine through you.

Related posts:

1. Auxiliary Spirit

[See post to listen to audio]

參考資料：

1. 第五節「光照在黑暗裡，黑暗卻不接受光。」的「接受」，原文 katalambano 的 active voice 意即 “to seize/grasp with hostile intent”，有惡意地捉住、找住、控制、箝制的意思。若果是用 middle voice (但這裡卻不是)，才有 “to comprehend, to grasp with your mind” 的意思。
2. R. Alan Culpepper 的文章 “The Pivot of John’s Prologue” [New Testament Studies 27 (1980)] 是眾多研究這段經文的 chiastic structure 最 convincing 的一個。若你有點兒 obsessed with chiasm，每次見到都會有少少毛管棟，請看這裡。
3. 有興趣研究「時間」上有趣的問題的話 (例如大爆炸之前有冇之前、時間所引伸出來的哲學問題等)，可參考加拿大科學作家 Dan Falk 的書 In Search of Time: Journeys Along a Curious Dimension (放心，這本書不是 technical 的書，是寫給一般讀者的。)
4. Darrell W. Johnson 這四篇「道成肉身」嘅講道係我聽咁多解約翰福音第一章最令人聽後感到心裡火熱嘅講道。極力推介。

Recently, a Massachusetts school district evacuated a school bus full of 10-year-olds after a stray peanut was found on the bus floor.

Do these safeguards seem a little, well, nuts? Harvard professor Dr. Nicholas Christakis thinks so. One of Christakis’s children attends school in the district that ordered the bus evacuation, and the episode prompted the physician and social scientist — best known for his work on the social “contagiousness” of characteristics such as obesity and happiness — to write a commentary, published in the British Medical Journal, questioning whether these so-called precautions are snowballing into something more like a societal hysteria……

A study of 86,000 Jewish children living in the U.K. and in Israel, cited by Christakis in his article, revealed that those who had more exposure to peanuts earlier in life were less likely to become allergic later on. In the U.K., where peanuts are an infrequent part of the diet, nearly 2% of the children studied developed allergies; in Israel, where peanuts are a common part of diet from infancy onward, only 0.17% of children had a nut allergy.

Read the full article

I’m glad someone is starting to speak up against this craziness. The more we humans try to control our environment, our bodies, and our food, the more we are enslaved by them.