Third Day - Thief

"I am a thief, I am a murderer
Walking up this lonely hill
What have I done? I don't remember
No one knows just how I feel

and I know that my time is coming soon.

It's been so long. Oh, such a long time
Since I've lived with peace and rest
Now I am here, my destination
guess things work for the best

and I know that my time is coming soon

Who is this man? This man beside me
The one they call the King of the Jews
They don't believe that He's the Messiah
But, somehow I know it's true.

And they laugh at Him in mockery,
and beat Him till he bleeds
They nail Him to the rugged cross,
and raise Him, they raise Him up next to me

My time has come, I'm slowly fading
I deserve what I receive
Jesus when You are in Your kingdom
Could You please remember me

and He looks at me still holding on
the tears fall from His eyes
He says I tell the truth
Today, you'll live with Me in paradise

and I know that my time is coming soon
but I know paradise is coming soon."

Westside 101 in a sentense 2: Identity => Security

My only source of security lies in my identity as a child of God through Christ.

Westside 101 in a sentense 1: Christian Life = Attractive Life

Christ's life attracted people to himself, so I should strive to live my life in a way which attract the people around me, and thus attract people to God.

Courtesy of Sister K...

"The gospel came to the Greeks and they turned it into a philosophy.
The gospel came to the Romans and they turned it into a system.
The gospel came to the Europeans and they turned it into a culture.
The gospel came to the Americans and they turned it into a business."

-Stuart McAllister

New blog(spot)

Decided to transfer from Xanga because Xanga was practically featureless unless you pay for premium account. Luckily I did this before I got too many posts.

Introduction

At the 05-06 CCF retreat I ended up sharing an analogy between mathematical infinite-ness and our perception of divine intervention, titled "The Infinities", during candlelight time. People really seemed to like it but I wasn't planning on sharing one during the 06-07 retreat as I really didn't learn anything particular awesome in class that term and I actually didn't want to sound like a nerd EVERY year at retreat (Yes, Angela ended up just calling me a nerd straight up "This is SOOOO nerdy!!" :P ).

However, as I witnessed our dear sister Maxine giving her life to Christ, I realized that on this weekend God was out to smash all the impossibilities that I had attributed to CCF over the years. This reminded of another interesting tidbit I remembered from stats class on the fallacy of mathematical impossibility. Hence the 06-07 piece, "The Impossible Choice".

Seems like I'm going to end up giving one of these at every retreat (really I only have one more to attend as I have one more year here). At least now I have more incentive to pay attention in class lol.

The Impossible Choice

If I asked a group of people to pick a decimal number between 0 and 1, how many do you think would choose a half, 0.5? At least a few right? But here's the interesting part, what is the actual mathematical probability that anyone would choose 0.5?

The probability of an event happening is defined as the number of times that event can happen in a given scenario (in this case just 1, for picking 0.5 when asked) divided by the total number of events that could result from that given scenario*. So how many numbers could be possible answers when people are asked to pick a decimal number between 0 and 1? If you've read my previous analogy "The Infinities", you would know that the answer is infinity, as there are infinitely many decimal numbers to choose from between 0 and 1 (0.1, 0.12, 0.123, etc.).

Thus the probability that someone would answer 0.5 is in fact 0 (1 over infinity) from the previous definition. Therefore, mathematics tells us that there is absolutely no chance that someone would pick 0.5. However, as agreed before, surely someone would pick 0.5. It would seem then that anyone could achieve the mathematically impossible just by choosing the obvious answer.

And isn't that is exactly the type of faith that God asks of us? One that fails to be defined by the realm of possibilities, making choices that seemingly require us to achieve the impossible. Forgiveness over vengeance, service over status, selfless-ness over self-centred-ness, purity over sin, faith over doubt. But God tells us that by choosing Christ, the obvious choice, each and everyone of us shall achieve those and other impossibly great things with God, through God, and for God.

All you have to do, is pick 0.5.

*for the mathematically inclined, the correct term for an event is outcome, and the proper term for scenario is event. The original math terms seemed a little counter intuitive, so I changed them.