how would you like to pay? cash, and in full...

ask yourself this question...what is the best house to stay in and the best car to drive? many of us will have various answers...some saying bungalow, semi-d, penthouse, mercs, bmw, ferrari, etc etc.

let me tell you the answer, the best house to stay in, is a fully paid down house. and the best car to drive is a fully paid car. what's the point of paying extremely high installments, find out that you lost your job one day and have everything you own taken away ??? that's the power of credit nowadays, they keep telling you to buy first and pay later. it works only in good times, but once bad times come, it will backfire and you will be the one in trouble.

so remember, try to have as less credit or borrowing as you can. if you can't buy big, just go small first-at least you fully own it!!! try to do everything "cash down"

now, i would like to show you what it means by paying "cash down".....

someone in china decided to buy a new car and they didn't want a loan from the bank, so this is what they did...

these are RMB notes of different denominations all bundled up together

it took these guys more than 2 hours to count the money due to fact that it was in different denominations...

how you wished you had that kind of money and be able to do what these guys did right? well, for your info, all the money you saw was for this little car !!!! (and you thought it was for a mercs or something) well, u know lah, rmb value quite small :-)

the real BATMAN !!!

READ THE TEXT FIRST

Airport Security: What's your Name.

Passenger: Batman

Airport Security: Your real name please

Passenger: My name is Bat-Man

Airport Security: Are you trying to be funny? What is your family name?

Passenger: Superman


Airport Security handcuffs him & puts him into a locked security room

Then they checked his Passport...

how addicted to blogging are you?

and here are my results...ta dah....

64%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

life is like a roller coaster

life is a like a roller coaster, it has it's ups and downs. it sometimes brings joy, it sometimes bring sorrow, it brings confidence but also fear. very seldom do you hear someone saying he/she has the smoothest life ever with no hiccups, no sadness and no worries. in life, there is always road bumps along the way, there are hills and mountains that we have to cross. and during this process, our emotions may swing between high (happy) & low (sad) or high(confident) & low (fear).

many years ago, when life was much simpler than today, the roller coasting of our lives were much simpler. but in today's era, things have changed, many new things has come along the way, thus making the roller coaster in our lives much more sophisticated than it ever was.....like these roller coasters down here:

i dunno if anyone of you realize this, when you are high and mighty up there, things down there becomes small and less exciting, you would usually feel very confident and powerful, not wanting to go down again. but life is life, when there is an up, there definitely is a down...

look at the reaction of the girl...

in the process of going down, many of us have mix reactions, some of us will carry on the excitement becoz they know that they will be going up again (these are usually sanguine people), some will hold on to their dear lives (worrying till death what comes next, has a touch of choleric and melancholic), while some will just sit back and let life takes it course (phlegmatic people)

j

at the end of the day, all of us wouldn't know what comes next in life. but one thing i know, all of us were created for a reason, the God that created us knew us before we were born and He already drew up a lifetime plan for us that was kept a mystery from us (that is the exciting part about it). after all, life would be boring if you already knew everything isn't it.

for those of you out there going through a rough patch, take note that good times will come again, just hang on. sometimes it takes longer because of the sophistications in our lives (just like the roller coaster in the modern era)

toilets...

many of us takes our toilets or toilets around us for granted, we might not realize it, but the toilet plays a very important role in our lives, by that i mean most of our lives. imagine if there were no toilets around us, we would be peeing and shitting all over the place, we wouldn't have the privacy of reading a book/magazine while doing big business.

if someone were to ask anyone one of us a couple of things that we can't afford to not have in our lives, i am pretty sure that "toilet" will not be in the list. most likely, we would say we can't live without our loved ones, handphone, internet, tv, car, friends, etc etc. it's amazing isn't it when you think about how important the toilet is to our lives?

well, i am not gonna dwell too much into this discussion. all i wanna do is show some of you a couple of toilet "samples"...

here we have a typical standard toilet that most of us have, agree?

this particular one would probably give kids nightmares and stops them from going to the toilet anymore, but it is still clean...

this may look like a typical toilet, but i don't understand the 2 chairs next to it. i wonder if the owner of this toilet needs people to accompany him/her during toilet time, or maybe he/she is such a busy person that meetings take place even during toilet time, i leave it to ur imaginations...

this is what happens when dun take care of ur toilets...

i can't imagine doing business in this one...

this one would probably make my big business come out of my mouth rather than my ass....

would you like ur toilet to look like this?

usually when something is important, u will somehow find technology is created to make it better, here is one typical example, this tells u that toilets are important!!!

think what you wanna think about this....i have no comments

even in the desert, or the wild, or forest, etc etc. one of the first things that people think about is toilets...

this is one toilet i dun mind spending time in...

u see, this toilet is done by someone who appreciates it

now that you have seen some toilets, i would like to show you some toilet signs around the world that were created by some very creative people and also people who appreciates toilet...

this one is really cool...

this is the most "x" rated i can get....there are actually more "x" rated ones available, but i think it might offend some people or i might get myself in "hot water" as i know that there are other christian leaders reading this blog...

if you still can't guess which is male and female, then something must be wrong with you !!!

i believe i made my point today about the importance of toilet, hope that some of you are inspired to keep your toilets in mint conditions !!!

PASSION world tour 2008

i know i already blogged this entry last week, but this just to update on what happened...well, the passion concert/mini-conference turned out to be a success with more than 4000 young people from all walks of life attending this event.

the music was great and the speaker too, but the best to me was the testimony of "ashley", though it was a bit long when the speaker had to read from her journal to tell us her story (a span of about 3 months) from being a wild party girl to accepting the Lord and eventually passing away at the tender age of 22, but it was worth every minute and every word, this is one story that i am sure will touch many lives in time to come. read to the end of this entry and you will find ashley's story

well, here are some pics that i "borrowed" from the passion guys...

a lot of people has a lot to say about our city and country, they talk about our politics, our culture, our moral values, our economy, our religions, our struggle as a country, etc etc. above whatever that is said, one thing we can't deny, we do live in a beautiful city that has a lot of future in it (greater things have yet to come) and many things can be done-we need as many hands as possible to make it happen!!!

to me, this pic is a piece of art by itself

hope that these guys will come back again...

like i said, you will find ashley's story here, here it goes:

Ashley Akinns

Hi, I feel kinda weird writing this email. And i doubt if it ever gets to Mr Louie Giglio. I am a Senior at The University of Florida. I got a new roommate this semester and she is a Christian and I have never really been into the whole Christian thing because every pastor or speaker that I have ever listened to didn’t speak in a language I could understand. I have believed in God and Jesus, but never really understood it because the preachers at the church that I have always been forced to go to every Sunday of my life. They speak all high and mighty and I never really felt connected, and I felt like God was only for the perfect people.

Well my roommate went to this Passion Conference over winter break. And she came back and moved into my apt and she was real and genuine about all her Christian stuff, like I have never seen before in a person. She said that God changed her at this conference, so i was like what are you talking about. And she told me. She told me about how God was cool, and how God really wanted a deeper relationship with her, and she wanted to really love God the way he loved her, so of course I was like well huh? She then said you need to listen to Louie talk about God, so I asked who Louie was, and she put on the Indescribable talk, and then we watched the Passport talk. And in the Passport talk you said that Christians do not have to just hope for the best at the end, that they do not have to do enough good stuff. You explained how to get to heaven in a simple way, in a way that I have never heard before. I actually got it, I got it that it is not about being so good, cause I am not a good person. I have screwed up a lot. But then you said grace, and talked about how is was different than other religions. Because God is a loving and a kind God who wants to forgive me. My roommate then explained that he wants to forgive me.

Now for one of the reasons I am thanking you. One, I am now a Christian. And two, my roommate said that she had never really cared about telling others about how much God loved her before she went to this conference. So though I am not sure who will ever read this. Please tell Louie thanks from me, for talking about Christ in a way that a college kid can understand. I know that Jesus has changed my life and as I get ready to graduate college in May, I am gonna be a different person. I am sorry this is kinda rambling but I just had to tell you that I now know about the Grace of God, and I have life for the first time in my 22 years

Ashley

I will never forget the day her message came. And I’m not going to forget last Friday. Waking early for the last day of Thirsty, I happened to see this on my Blackberry and opened it.

Dear Mr. Giglio,

It is with a heavy heart that I send you this email. My daughter is Ashley, she wrote you an email that went on your blog and podcast Well, today May 3rd at 4pm we buried Ashley. She was killed in a car accident late on Sunday night. She lost control of her car and hit a light pole. She was the only car involved and had serious internal bleeding. She died in the arms of my husband at the hospital from unstoppable internal bleeding. But I have hope of seeing my daughter again. I have this hope because after years of praying for her, and watching her live a lifestyle in college that is known as the typical college experience. The last semester of her college career I saw a woman, not a college girl that I have never been more proud to call my daughter. I can point the thanks to you and Chris Tomlin, David Crowder, Matt Redman, and everyone else involved in your Passion Conferences. Ashley fell in love with our Savior over the last 5 months of her life. She was so excited about graduation this week and moving to California to work her first real job. She had a life ahead of her. I miss my beautiful princess more than anything in this world.

But I just felt like you should know that she listened to as many of your talks as she could get her hands on and read your book I am not but I know I am and she was so excited about God and her new found faith. Words alone can not thank you enough. I may never meet you here on earth, but I know that someday I will be able to meet you and give you a hug in heaven, but only after Ash does. Thank you so much for praying for my girl, and your support of her as she was starting her new life. Also thanks for being a man of God who has a passion, and love for college students.

Your vision to share the gospel and getting college students to do the same made all the difference at a funeral today. Instead of being sad and scared for her. We were able to sing praise and worship songs today. Though there will be tears and I am so very heartbroken and crying as I type this, it is only because I will not hold her for so many years. And I will miss her for the rest of my life. I know I have said thank you a lot in this email, but because of you and Christa (Ashley’s roommate) and people at the Bible Study that she was going to she was happier than I have seen her in a very long time. In the email she originally sent you, it said she had life for the first time in her 22 years, and please know she meant every word of that. She lived the last few months serving and loving and learning more about Christ. She will now spend eternity in heaven with Him so one more time thanks. I know this was long and I debated for the last 4 days as to whether or not to write you. I know you are a very busy man, but I also figured you would want to know.

Ashley’s Mom

Anna

By the third line tears were streaming down my face, blurring the words, but not the sudden reality of it all. I had just received an e-mail from Ashley a few days before saying how excited she was to finally be through with college and headed to a “real job” in the Bay Area of California. And now she was gone.

I was crushed, but I found myself pumping my fist in the air, confident that Jesus Christ overwhelmed death and the grave. And just in the nick of time, He reached through the confusion and hopelessness and brought Ashley back to life again. Her mom was kind enough to allow me to share her e-mail and sent a photo of Ashley so we could all put a face with the name that has brought much rejoicing throughout the Passion world in recent months. Anna, please know that you and your family will be in our hearts and prayers as you begin the process of living without the daughter you so deeply love. You will see her again. And with our prayers we are praising God for matchless mercy…mercy that saved the day and carried Ashley safely home.

p/s- if only you guys could read her actual journal, you will definitely be touched !!!