Josh’s Thoughts

Today I was reading in the Gospel of John and I came across this verse:

“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God [Jesus Christ] who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.” (John 1:18, NASB)

Another translation puts it like this:

“No one has ever seen God. But God the only Son [Jesus Christ] is very close to the Father, and he has shown us what God is like.” (John 1:18, NCV)

As I pondered this verse I thought about two things. First, I was reminded that the only way to know God is through revelation. What I mean is this: God does not exist inside of our universe. He created the universe, and He exists outside of it. We, being inside the universe, can know nothing about God except what He chooses to reveal to us.

The Bible teaches that the ultimate revelation of God is found in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was God in human form (Matt. 1:23; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1, John 1:14; Philippians 2:5-6; Col. 1:15-17; Col. 2:9). The Book of Hebrews says that:

“The Son reflects the glory of God and shows exactly what God is like.” (Hebrews 1:3a, NCV)

So if the Bible is accurate—and I believe it is for reasons that I will not go into here—then the only way to truly know who God is and what He is like is to examine Jesus Christ. And the best way to examine Jesus Christ is to read the four gospels that describe Him: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

I must admit that I often forget to spend time in the gospels. I find myself reading other parts of the Bible. Reading any part of the Bible is good, of course, but it is easy to ignore the gospels and to forget what Jesus Christ is really like. But Christianity is nothing without Jesus Christ. Remove Jesus and all you have is a set of rules and guidelines. In other words, if you remove Jesus then all you have is religion. And Christianity was never meant to be about religion, it was meant to be about relationship.

Speaking of Christianity, the second thing that I was reminded of today is how sad it is that people judge Christianity by looking at Christians. Let’s face it: We Christians mess up. A lot. And we’ve messed up Christianity all throughout history.

This is why I encourage non-Christians to not judge Christianity by the Christians. Judge Christianity by Jesus Christ. I will be the first one to admit that atrocities have been committed in the Name of Christ. For the first 300 years Christians were pacifists, but starting with Augustine of Hippo’s concept of “just war” Christians started happily killing each other and everyone else. I will be the first to stand up and denounce the murder of Muslims and Jews by so-called Christians.

Today we still have activist Christians calling for bloodshed in the Name of Christ. In addition to that, thanks to the idea of “cheap grace”, the West is filled with Christians who no longer have any concept of discipleship. In other words, the West is filled with people who call themselves Christians but bear no fruit of the Spirit (and bearing fruit of the Spirit is the evidence of being a Christian) (cf. Gal. 5:19-26).

Again, I will be the first to stand and denounce the actions of Christians throughout history and the un-Christ-like actions of Christians today.

I will confess: If I just had other Christians to look at then I would not be a Christian. For that matter, if I just had myself to look at then I would not be a Christian. God knows that I’ve made plenty of mistakes. I can only pray that none of them have turned people away from Christ.

But the reason I am a Christian is not because of other Christians and not because of any innate goodness in myself. No, I am a Christian because of Jesus Christ.

So, to return to John 1:18, if you are a non-Christian, please do not judge Christianity by the Christians. Judge Christianity by Jesus Christ. For He truly “reflects the glory of God and shows exactly what God is like” (Heb. 1:3).

My friend Zhou Li Ming (Jessica) also sent me these different scenic pictures from different parts of China:

My friend Zhou Li Ming recently sent me these pictures. She took them in Yun Nan province while on vacation. They are beautiful pictures, she is a great photographer!

This is Jessica (Zhou Li Ming) and I at English Corner at one of the universities in Shanghai, where we met:

Pics from Yun Nan Province

These pictures were sent to me by a friend named Zhou Li Ming (her English name is Jessica). I met her in English Corner at one of the universities. She is in the picture below.

These pictures were taken in Su Zhou city, which Jessica says is close to Shanghai. They are very pretty, so I wanted to share them. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Yes, I do look like a cave man in the above pic =P. The stubble trimmer’s battery ran down, what can I say?

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Hey, folks! As promised, here are the final pics from the last few days. As I mentioned before, on day 6 I only took a few pics because I was not with the main group. On day 7 we went site seeing and I took some pics, but unfortunately many of them did not come out well because it was dark and rainy.

These first two pictures are from the university that we played ball at on the first day. I re-visited the university on day 6 to meet my friend who is the Mandarin teacher. I took these two pictures while we were walking out of the university.

In the first one you will notice that there are some flowers at the base of the statue. Those were put there by someone because that day was a Chinese holiday. I forget the name of the holiday, but the purpose of it was to honor one’s ancestors. The second picture is just a random picture of an area of the campus that I missed seeing on the first day.

My teacher friend and I met up with the main group for lunch on day 6, and we ate at KFC (KFC is very popular in China). I took the following two pics on the way to KFC. This little girl was playing peek-a-boo with someone inside. I tried to catch her face but she kept playing shy and dodging the camera.

That night we ate dinner at a fancy Chinese restaurant called the “Shanghai Uncle”…

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Hey folks! Sorry that I was not able to post pics for the last couple of nights. Last night I was packing, and the night before that I was just exhausted. The Internet connection over there is so slow that it was taking me until about 1 a.m. each morning to upload the pics.

Anyway, I’m sitting here in O’hare right now and my flight is about to start loading so I gotta pack up. I’ll post the rest of the pics and some more about the trip tomorrow, so please don’t stop reading yet!

For now I just wanted to let everyone know that we’re home safe and sound (well, we’re about to be anyway), and that it was a great trip.

Hey folks! Just a quick note to let everyone know that everything is going smoothly! I do not have any pics *yet* from today because I am going to use the pictures that were taken by one of the guys in our group, who happens to be a professional photographer.

I did not get pics today because I was not with the group except for supper. I met a Mandarin teacher a few days ago and she has been looking for someone to help her develop a Web site. So we met today and I helped her put together a Web page, and then I got a free 1 hour lesson in Mandarin in exchange. Woohoo!

Speaking of Mandarin, she’s coming by tomorrow to give me a book that she uses with her students. She said if I will read it then she will go through it with me via voice chat over the Internet and give me lessons. I can’t wait!

I hope you guys have a good night, and I’ll do my best to post the pics from today by tomorrow night. Either way, I’ll have more pics tomorrow.

G’nite!

Ni hao! It’s almost 11:30 Shanghai time right now, and I’m exhausted after a long day on my feet. So I’m not going to write much in this post; I’m just going to post some pics instead. We went to a university campus today and played ball and then went out to eat with some new friends. After that we spent the evening at something called English Corner. It’s a square in the university where people from all over the city come to practice their English. It’s something that’s done every night. If you’re a native English speaker then you’re in high demand, for obvious reasons. So we all made lots of friends and acquaintances. It was very exciting and the people here are just incredible.

With that said, here’s some pics! The first set is from the campus. It’s very beautiful and quiet. It’s amazing how you can be right in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of Shanghai (and it is very noisy) and then step just a few hundred feet into the campus and it all fades away. I could definitely go to school here!

Oh, and English Corner is held at the base of the statue of Chairman Mao. I say that to give you guys some perspective on where we were. The basketball games were held in an open court just a few hundred meters away.

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Well, I gotta say that today was just a blast. It’s the day that I’ve enjoyed the most, and for a whole lot of different reasons. Mainly for the people that I met. I made some new friends today and was able to spend a lot of time talking to them. I’m making lots of Chinese friends, and learning Mandarin little by little. I’m up to at LEAST 5 or 6 words now. But hey, I gotta start somewhere, right?

Speaking of Mandarin, the vocabulary is surprisingly easy (much easier than English) but it’s the pronunciations that are hard to learn. The pronunciation of words in Mandarin is much more important than in English, because (for many words) if you pronounce it incorrectly then it becomes a completely different word. I found that out today when two friends (Kevin and Tony, below) were trying to teach me to say “I like to watch films” in Mandarin. When I tried to pronounce one of the words I ended up saying “wash bowel.” They got a good laugh out of that. Ahhh well…that’s me…always the comedian.

Anyway, after shopping we went to eat at an authentic American diner. I mean that seriously. It was nice to have a taste of home (in the form of meatloaf and french fries) for lunch. Here’s a few shots of the little side area that the diner was in. It was really pretty and quiet. It was almost like a little back alley in the French Quarter in New Orleans.

I don’t have many pictures from today since I spent most of the day shopping and then talking with people. I will close out this post with a few pics that I took of Times Square when walking back to the hotel tonight. I hope all you Americans have a good day…it’s time for this white Chinese boy to hit the sack!

Well, today has definitely been a great day! We made some great new friends. Initially Shanghai can be a little overwhelming because it is so busy and fast-paced. Imagine New York City with basically no traffic rules and you have an idea of what it’s like on the street. Just like New York City, people here do not make eye contact or acknowledge each other. The general rule seems to be that you get to where you’re going as fast as you can and try to not get run over while you’re on your way.

Today, though, I saw a different side of the people here. We went to a park about a mile from our hotel. It is very peaceful and quiet, and we were able to strike up conversations with quite a few people. Some spoke English very well and some barely spoke English at all. One thing that they all had in common, though, was that they were interested in us and interested in America.

I’m going to post some pictures of the park and some of the ballgame, and then I’m going to try to do something a little bit different: I’m going to post a couple of videos. I took them with my digital camera so the quality is not the best, but it’s still very decent. I’ll give descriptions of each video. But first, some pictures from the park.

Oh, and to Mom and Grandma: I had someone take a picture of me ;). Here it is just for you guys! It’s at a place in the park named Hope Fountain.

And now for the pics of the park!

And now here are some pics from the pick-up games that the guys played in the park…

And the girls as well…

And then we finished the night off with supper in a coffee shop. As you can tell, we were all a bit tired by this point ;). Well, I was actually feeling pretty good, but the people who played basketball all evening were feeling tired for some strange reason.

As a matter of fact, they were feeling so tired that they decided we would all just take taxis back to the hotel. Now THAT was an experience! Woohoo!! Imagine playing a game that was a combination of bumper cars and chicken; meaning that you want to get as close to you can to another person while trying to force your way through traffic and you see who backs off first. That’s the way the roads are here. It was great!!! I’d pay to do it again in a heartbeat! It was better than Disney World!

Well, it looks like I’m going to have to wait till I get back to the States to upload the videos. I’m having trouble getting them to upload from here. I’m not sure why. So I guess with this I’ll call it a night. Good morning to you all, and good night to me!