By “imperfect angel” do they mean “fallen angel”? “Demon”? What exactly does “imperfect angel” mean?

All I know is that whatever she (it?) is, I don’t want her memoirs. I try to stay away from fallen angels.

Let’s see…I could study for my TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certification, or I could work on two different Web sites that I’m developing, or I could work on one of my other Web sites that hasn’t been updated in a while, or I could respond to some of the 100+ emails in my Inbox (some of which have been sitting there for months).

Or…I know!! I could waste the entire morning fiddling with my personal blog! I haven’t touched it in months, and it doesn’t really need to be touched now, but messing with it sure beats doing anything productive!

Heck yeah!!

So, after upgrading the software on all my Web sites (at least that was useful) I changed the theme on this blog, and now I’m writing a post–something that I have not done in a long, long time.

The great thing about doing this is that it might cause other people to waste their time too! That’s a very exciting thought.

See, it works like this. Facebook automatically imports all of my posts, so that means that any one of my friends could possibly read this note instead of doing something that THEY need to be doing! It’s exciting. I procrastinate, and my procrastination contributes to the procrastination of others.

“Pass It Along,” as the billboards like to say.

Silliness aside, I did decide to start posting to this blog again. It hasn’t really been updated since the 2008 Presidential election. Of course, this blog looks like it hasn’t been updated in even longer than that, because I deleted all of the political content that I wrote in the 2008 election cycle. (Political commentary in blogs has a way of coming back to haunt you.)

So anyway, the point of all of this is that….there is no point. Except if you’re bored right now, and you’re reading this note, you now know that you can expect more random notes in the future.

Cool, huh?

“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).

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 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?

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”…

…and while we were there I took a self pic for my dear Mum. Yes, I do look out of it, but I was not stoned or drinking the wine. Maybe they put something in my food…

On day 7 (Saturday morning) we did some shopping before we went site seeing. Here are some pics from the market / shopping area.

And then we did some site seeing. There are a couple of points of interest about the pics below. First, all of the skyscrapers that you see were built in the last 15 years. Second, the first couple of pictures were taken at the entrance to the fourth tallest building in the world (we were going to go to the top but we ended up not going since it was too overcast to see anything). Third, the Bund SightSeeing Tunnel is a short train ride that goes under the river. It was too dark for my camera to get good pics, but Jason took some that I might post later with his permission. Fourth, the third picture is a shot of the building that Tom Cruise jumped off of in MI:3, and also of the building that he jumped onto. I forget which is which because I could not see the tops of them. And finally, the statue near the end is a statue of the first mayor of Shanghai.

And finally we ended up our trip to Shanghai with a nice authentic dinner at Applebee’s. Not only was it the nicest Applebee’s that I’ve ever seen, but their fries were better than the fries at Applebee’s here in the States.

And that’s the last of our trip, folks! I stopped taking pictures at this point since it was nothing but packing and airports (well, and one last full body massage…90 minutes with oil and hot towels this time) before we got on the plane home. Thanks to all of you for your support!

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.

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!

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.

And these two pics are from an authentic Chinese Pizza Hut. Mmmm mmm good. Just like America, actually, with a few additions to the menu. The pizza and spaghetti was just like home, though. Oh, and their uniforms were really cool!

And now for some pics of the games. Oh! Before I give the pics of the games, though, I remembered one special pic that I would be very remiss for not posting. It deserves special attention.

This, ladies and gentlemen, readers and family, is a picture of some of the stars of our basketball team. Amazing, isn’t it?

And, finally, here are a few pics from the Chinese restaurant that we ate supper at. They also had cool uniforms, not to mention AWESOME food! I asked the two girls at the entrance of the restaurant if I could take their picture, and I’m pretty sure they said no. But they stood their and smiled so I took their picture anyway. They didn’t yell at me, so I guess it’s all good.

And with that, folks, I’m calling it a night and getting some sleep!