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KingKong
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Name: Justin
Country: United States
State: Hawaii
Birthday: 3/14/1985
Gender: Male
Interests: chillin and yeah... chillin. Bass, guitar, video games, chillin, uke, chillin, soccer, surfing, chillin
Expertise: yup .............................well no........ umm....... hmm.................. i know a lot about......... yeah....
Occupation: Student
Industry: Education/Research
Message: message meEmail: email me
Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/28/2002
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| It has been some time since I've sat down to write. I don't know why, but the medium of writing has always been therapeutic to me, and for some reason writing on xanga amplifies that therapy. Despite the fact that no one really reads this anymore, perhaps it's just the desperate hope that someone somewhere is actually silently empathizing that makes it appealing. Except for the rare comment or e-prop, (especially these days with the advent of facebook), there is no trace left if someone chances upon this blog. Thus whether this entry is read or unread, the result from my perspective is the same allowing the freedom of assumption. I may assume that there is or is not an audience, whichever happens suit my fancy.
I was just reading the last entry I wrote, a poem that I had forgotten about, the first two lines of which are actually the main concept for a song that I wrote. Ironically I wanted to write down the lyrics for that song in this entry. I write these lyrics down as a publication of sorts, although I doubt anyone will actually read this, which brings me back to the point of my first paragraph. Since I have the words memorized, it doesn't make sense for me to write the lyrics down for myself. Therefore I must be publishing for the sake of my readers, but in their absence I still desire to write the lyrics out, and my motivation is selfish. ha ha ha, such silly inconsequential and cyclic argumentation. It is remeniscent of philosophy. heh heh, that reminds me of Socrates saying that a man who finds a good wife becomes happy while a man who doesn't becomes a philosopher.
Anyway this is the song:
Praise 'Em
Though my heart be beat and burdened
Though my mind be fearful and furtive
I will worship you through tears
I will praise you through my fears
Let your name be heard
Let it rise up throughout the Earth
You reign forever
You rule in power
You're my Deliverer
My one Redeemer
Let your name be praised
Let your name be praised
Lying awake I can't sleep all night
Feeling like I'm in a constant fight
But in my bed I remember you
There's no storm you can't see me through
Let your name be heard
Let it rise up throughout the Earth
You reign forever
You rule in power
You're my Deliverer
My one Redeemer
Let your name be praised
Let your name be praised
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| I will praise you through my fears
I will worship through my tears
In Darkest day or blackest night
There's no way I'll give up the fight
I may fall six times and again
but I'll rise up, reach for your hand
You are God who is more than enough
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| Wow, it's been some time since I last wrote in Xanga. Actually it's been some time since I've written period. I'm not sure I remember how to write anymore. Unfortunately I feel like my English abilities have regressed over the year that I've been here in Japan, while my Japanese hasn't improved as much as I had hoped. That's alright though, because I have the rest of my life to improve.
This week Wednesday marks the beginning of finals for me. Although it's finals season my friend, who will remain anonymous for his protection from xanga zombies, recently introduced me to the television series "Heroes." He has the entire first season on his computer and the other day I spent about three hours in his room along with another friend, who also shall remain nameless, watching successive cliff-hanger episodes of the addicting series. The friend who introduced me to the series was introduced to an addicting boxing anime in a previous final season at his home university.
Having experienced such a traumatic experience, spending excessive hours watching an addicting series while attempting to study for finals and suffering sleep deprivation, one might expect that this friend would be kind enough to refrain from subjecting me to the same pain. However, thankfully, he didn't have such consideration. And yes, I know that "thankfully" seems out of place considering that I was just complaining about being subjected to sleep-stealing television series watching, but actually I quite enjoy it. Well, it's sort of a love-hate relationship.
On an unrelated note, I heard once that the secret to successful blog writing is to write something that will change your reader's lives. That could be some incredible revelation or insight, or you could be providing valuable information or perhaps instruction concerning some sort of skill. Thus I began thinking that maybe I should write something significant, and in fact before I ever heard that secret of blog writing, there was a short period where I sought out to write only profound entries that were rich in meaning. However, most people don't even read this, so it hardly matters if I just ramble on about daily occurrences and casual musings like I usually do. Nevertheless, from time to time I do like to write something deep or share an epiphany that I've had. Today's just not really one of those days.
After saying all that, I would like to mention a topic that crossed my mind as I was falling asleep last night, which may or may not change your life just slightly. I was recently asked how I hear from God, because I mentioned that hearing God's voice is important to me, especially when it comes to decisions that have heavy implications in my life. It wasn't the first time I was asked the question, but I don't really have a prepared answer or anything, so it's sometimes hard to clearly quantify exactly how God speaks to me.
In my experience, God doesn't speak in an audible voice, although there are people who have heard God's audible voice on rare occasions. One occasion that I recall was during the Columbine shooting, when the brother of martyr Rachel Scott heard God tell him where to go. I find that the way I heard from God is similar to most other people I know who hear from Him, though. The most frequent way is when after praying and asking about a particular matter I will read something in the bible that becomes alive and undeniably answers my question. This makes sense since the bible says that in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the word was God. It also says that the word is living and active, sharper than a double-edged sword that judges the thoughts and attitudes of man. Thus having an encounter with the bible is really having an encounter with God, and in fact God speaks through his word all the time for those who read it carefully.
Concerning hearing God through His word, there are at least two ways into which this matter can be divided. First there is the literal word taken in faith, comprehending the character of God as revealed in the text. As in any book there is a literal meaning from the diction, and there is also the connotation that is understood through various contextual clues. All these are present in the bible, and understanding this could be considered as one part of hearing from God since the bible is His message to us.
However, there is another way that God speaks through His word that I began to allude to earlier, and that is when the word itself becomes alive. There is a question upon your heart that perhaps you haven't even uttered, but when you read a single sentence suddenly you cannot proceed past it, but your heart is seized. Or maybe you petition God for an answer and then you read a random page in the bible that turns out not to be random at all, but your answer could not be clearer.
Another way in which it is common to hear from God is in a still small voice. This is heard frequently during prayer, especially when after spending some time praying we stop to listen to what God's opinion on things might be. Often times God's thoughts are not thoughts that we would normally have or would even like to acknowledge, but they cannot be easily shaken once they're heard, and somehow we understand their validity. Furthermore, these thoughts will always coincide with what the bible says, since God is always in agreement with Himself. He doesn't change, but remains perfect forever. Neither does He lie, for He is incapable of lying.
That still small voice is difficult to explain to someone who hasn't heard it before. And it's not always easy to hear since we usually have so many of our own thoughts in the way. Furthermore we tend to ignore God or give up on hearing from Him when answers aren't immediate, but often effort is necessary to clear the refuge that blocks us from hearing clearly. I also feel like people think I'm crazy when I tell them that I hear from God. Either that or they think that I'm just deluding myself into thinking I'm hearing Him when actually I'm only hearing my own thoughts.
Those thoughts sometimes enter my own head too, but last night I was thinking about prophecy, and I realized that this has something to do with a simple explanation of hearing God. Simply stated, prophecy is hearing God on behalf of someone else. It is amazing to me how a person who knows nothing about me can prophecy about details that shouldn't be known to them. Of course, they don't know everything, but God speaks what he wants to be heard. After hearing from God for myself that I should become a teacher, I've had people prophecy over me on several occasions that I had a special calling and ability to teach. I didn't mention anything about this to these people beforehand, and I had never even met one of the guys who said this.
When I think about prophecy, it's really a simple thing. God will place a thought, or a single word or phrase into your mind concerning a person. Or maybe it's a picture or a visceral feeling, but whatever form it comes in, God uses the person prophesying to convey something to the person in question. Sometimes it seems easier to hear God on behalf of someone else, but when I think of hearing from God as simply prophesying over myself, it makes it a lot easier for me to understand. He has a word, phrase, thought, picture, or feeling to give to me that I might convey it to my own heart.
The craziest way I heard from God, however, is through the television. He also speaks through other people in our lives, but I don't want to write anymore about either because I've been writing for a while. Okay, shoots.
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| As requested, here's a real weblog entry.
Yesterday I participated in an international concert/contest. It was a little more elaborate than I had anticipated. First of all, it wasn't at Yoyogi Koen as I had originally thought, but rather at a nearby complex, the same complex that was used to accommodate Olympic contestants when the Olympics was held in Japan. The facility was very spacious and the theater that we performed in was larger and more beautiful than anywhere I've played in before.
The performers were all very talented and quite eclectic, causing me to wonder how we, three goof balls playing "drop" were allowed to play. Ha ha, it was pretty funny. My favorite performer was this Chinese girl playing the kyoto (not the koto, but it's Chinese ancestor) and singing something or other in Chinese. There was also this pair from Laos playing these funny looking wooden monotoned wind instruments dancing in circles. One of them did a weird head stand toward the end too, all while continuing to play his mono-flute.
Anyway, it was a lot of fun, I got two free meals, and at the end almost everyone won some sort of prize. Along with the Chinese girl I mentioned earlier, we won a prize for being most "rhythmical" and they gave us these bags of super random prizes. Ha ha, it was so funny. There was like a toothbrush, two blankets, two pairs of girls pants and a skirt, a 5kg bag of really high quality rice, some sake, this really girly handbag with fur and fake jewels embedded in it. Heh heh. We also received a denshi jisho worth like a hundred fifty dollars though. The best thing we got were these cool cardboard containers to hold the certificates verifying that we won something. The containers were cylindrical and covered with fake snake skin. It was also quite entertaining to take the cap on and off.
So that briefly sums up my experience yesterday without getting into all of the little details. I was really blessed to be able to participate in such an interesting event. After talking with one of the coordinators, I found out that this event takes place only about once every three years, so for me to be here and to be able to play in the one year that I'm here in Japan is providential. Praise 'em.
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| something... de gozaimasu
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