some thoughts from today's Bible reading...

"And when they came out of the boast, immediately the people recognized Him, ran through that whole surrounding region, and began to carry about on beds those who were sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment.  And as many as touched Him were made well."  Mark 6:54-56

I thought it was very interesting that the first thing people did when they heard Jesus had arrived was to bring the sick for Jesus to heal.  This tells me that Jesus had a reputation for being a healer.  I would have thought Jesus would have been famous for His deep sayings, His revolutionary parables, His stand against the religious leaders of the day.  And He probably was.  But at least in this region, the people came to Jesus because they knew He was (is, and always will be) the Healer, the One to heal all.

Another I thought pretty interesting was in Exodus 15:26:

"....'If you diligently heed the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians.  For I am the Lord who heals you."

What are these commandments and statutes?  I realized that I couldn't have been the ten commandments at this point in time, because they weren't given until Exodus 19, three chapters later.  hmmm...

in other news, another wk of sch has passed, which means it's 2 more weeks to midterms, 3 more weeks to fall break i.e. the end of the first half of fall semester.  the leaves are starting to fall off trees, and while it's still relatively warm, the sun is starting to set earlier.  the dark times are ahead of us...

I was reading Exodus 15 for part of my daily reading of Scripture today.  The song that the Israelites sang after God had triumphed over the Egyptians was beautiful.  It dawned on me that the only problem was their praise came after the victory had happened.  They could only praise God when they could see their victory.

It is no wonder, then, that just 3 days later they were complaining against Moses/God again at the waters of Marah.  They needed to see their deliverance before they could praise God.  They are like some people we know, who praise God when they see His Providence in a past trial, yet fret and worry over the current one.

That's not the kind of life I want to live.  If I only praise God after I see my victory, life would be a constant "oscillation" between joy and sorrow.  I don't want that- I want to be joyful continually!  I want to be like King Jehoshaphat, who praised God even while his giants stood before him.  He who praises God before the trial always praises Him.  and always wins.

sry i know i haven't updated for very long... been busy.  or no urge to blog.  sch has been ok, mat331 has been particularly challenging, maybe i'm just being to perfectionistic with math.  yeah... and i haven't been sleeping all that well, maybe it's because i'm subconsciously stressed by math.  just pray for me ok?  :)

apart from that everything's been fine.  i've been doing some origami in my free time.  particularly interested in making polyhedra, but not that good at it.  the last thing i completed was a level 1 menger sponge (u can check out what that is on wikipedia) made out of 72 sonobe modules (u can find out what that is on wikipedia too).  not very well constructed, but a feat nontheless.

have a good wk!

i realized that i haven't posted up what classes i'm taking this semester, so i guess i'll do that right now....

MAT322: Algebra with Galois Theory
Group theory, field extensions, splitting fields, the main theorem of Galois theory, cyclotomic extensions, Kummer extensions, solvability by radicals.

Great class so far, although we are moving quite fast.  Taught by Nicholas Katz, who's pretty famous.  From wikipedia: "He played a significant role as a sounding-board for Andrew Wiles when Wiles was developing in secret his proof of Fermat's last theorem".

MAT331: Analysis II: Complex Analysis
Study of functions of a complex variable, with emphasis on interrelations with other parts of mathematics. Cauchy's theorems, singularities, contour integration, power series, infinite products. The Riemann zeta function and the prime number theorem. Elliptic functions, theta functions, Jacobi's triple product and combinatorics. Proof that every positive integer is the sum of four perfect squares. This course is the second semester of a four-semester sequence, but may be taken independently of the other semesters.

Interesting subject, taught by Elias Stein, who's famous enough to have a wikipedia page of his own.  Also won the Wolf Prize in Mathematics in 1999.  Problem sets are extremely challenging, though.

ECO310: Microeconomic Theory: A Mathematical Approach
This course presents the economic theory of individual and firm behavior using mathematical tools including calculus. The course will emphasize applications of microeconomic theory to consumer choices, output and production of firms, market interaction and equilibrium.

Boring.  Only taking it because it's kinda required for certain things that I might want to do in the future.

ECO362: Financial Investments
This course surveys the field of investments with special emphasis on the valuation of financial assets. Issues studied include how portfolios of assets should be formed, how to measure and control risk, how to evaluate investment performance and how to test alternative investment strategies and asset pricing models.

Looks to be an interesting class.  Taught by Burton Malkiel, the author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street".  Looking forward to learning more of this stuff as I got interested in the subject over the summer.

ELE201: Inroduction to Electrical Signals and Systems
An introductory overview of techniques used to process information-carrying signals, with a view towards understanding some of the key ideas and methods responsible for the revolution in information technology. The course deals with various aspects of how information (text, audio, image, video, etc.) is acquired, stored, distributed, and analyzed. Examples are drawn from a wide range of real systems and applications such as CD's, television, computers, telephony, and the internet.

Taught by a professor with whom I took another course last semester.  Very clear in his presentation.  The material looks to be quite interesting, the labs are pretty fun too (toying around with matlab).

So all in all it's shaping up to be an exciting semester.  As you can probably guess from my course selection, I'm going to major in math while looking at some economics as a form of applied mathematics.  Excited!

the first wk of classes have ended, and so far it's been ok.  the full load of work hasn't come yet, so i'm enjoying life while i can still afford to.  thursday night was spent watching 3:10 to yuma for free!  sponsored by the student government.  was a pretty good show, russell crowe is such a great actor.

ytd was a day where i saw the grace of God placing me in the right place and right time, twice (at least).  this wk new jersey transit was giving students free rides, so i really wanted to make a trip down to new york.  as im on manna's praise team this yr it means that i won't be able to make trips on the weekends as often, so if i didn't make use of this opportunity to go down, i have no idea how long it would be before i would make a trip down there.  i msged albert late on thursday night to see if he was free for dinner on fiday.  in the morning he replied me saying that he was going to watch a live taping of showtime at apollo theater, and that he happened to have one more ticket, and asked if i was interested.  the timing to go down was just abt perfect.  showtime was pretty interesting.  i think 4 of us (albert me and 2 of his friends) were the only asians in the whole theater.... great experience nonetheless.  the way black pple express themselves is so different from white pple, it was definitely an eye-opener.  dinner at a tapas restaurant, walked a little in columbia university before heading back.

i showered when i got back and just i entered my room, my phone rang.  ben was calling back to answer my sms earlier.  turned out that a couple of my friends were hanging out, just talking.  so i joined them, and had a pretty good conversation.  the timing of his call was absolutely perfect :)

Why are you cast down, O my soul?
And why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God;
For I shall yet praise Him.
The help (Yeshua) of my countenance and my God.   - Psalm 43:5

by the way i'm not particularly down or anything, this is just the verse that stood out to me in today's Bible reading, partly because this exact same verse appears in a similar manner twice in the preceding psalm.  it's interesting that the psalmist is talking to himself here, much like how we think to ourselves in our head.  it's almost as if he's trying to convince his mind to believe the later part of the verse.

i like the phrase "the help of my countenance" as well.  the salvation of my face.  i know that right now there are things that make me happy and things that make me sad.  but this verse says that God is the salvation of my face!  that hey, no matter what happens, i can still be joyful and put on a big smile because my hope is in the Lord.

in other things, classes started tomorrow.  nothing much going on yet, but work should pick up once actual lessons start (i.e. no going through the syllabus and answering misc qns) and problem sets come.

Commit your way to the LORD,
Trust also in Him,
And He shall bring it to pass.    -Psalm 37:5

I encountered this verse today in my daily Bible reading, and what struck me was how the word "commit" is translated in the marginal rendering.  In my mind, committing my way to the Lord is like saying "God I trust you to prosper me" like He's a lucky charm, then go on and do my own thing, trying to figure out what I want to do with my life.

The marginal rendering translates "commit" as "roll off onto".  Roll your way off onto the LORD.  Don't fret about it, don't keep thinking and questioning what direction your life should be taking.  Roll those cares over to the Lord, and He'll take care of it.  That comforts me so much.  Doesn't matter what I think I should be doing, or what I am doing, but I should just roll over my way onto the Lord, just like how I roll over my cares, and He'll bring whatever He holds for me to pass.

pardon the lack of updates.  i've been in pton since monday night, many things have happened.  more or less over jetlag, which is gd.  will be going to uncle craig's tonight so that we can move my stuff down tomorrow.

monday night:
dinner at peter's house.  great homecooked food, and conversation as well.  rest of night spent unpacking

tues:
walmart in the morning, just to get some stuff.  don't really remember what else happened.

wed:
bball at night!  fun fun.

thu:
kiat chuan came over!  went for the orange key tour, wandered around fine hall, had dinner in the newly renovated dining halls.  worship prac, then arch sing at 10-12!  funfun.

fri:
more worship prac.  going to uncle craig's tonight.

very concise update.  sch starting again on monday, expect to be pretty busy, so may not be able to update often.  in the meantime God bless and stay healthy!

it has been a great way to end off my short stay in singapore.  in the last 2-3 wks i've felt greatly uplifted by the Lord, to see past my negative expectations of the future and to His cross and His love for me.  hope is the confident expectation of good, and hope doesn't disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts (Rom 5:5).

it was gd to see old cg friends today, just to catch up a little before i leave, to share and sow into each other's lives.  my heart is warmed whenever i look at all of them, all grown up and mature in the things of God.  still remember the times, perhaps 2 years ago when the j3s came in.  they've really grown spiritually, and now they're touching lives in other cgs and institutions.  amazing stuff.

ok i'm flying off tomorrow, so everyone, have fun, enjoy life, and i'll see you soon!

pastor darren's message, i believe, was directed at me.  not to say that it wasn't for other pple as well, but his sermon spoke directly to my situation and what i needed in my life.  looking back i feel that a lot of the struggles that i faced was because i didn't do the one thing needful, i didn't spend enough time listening to the Word.

how i'm going to put the Word first place, i dont know.  i know struggling is not a gd strategy to put it first- i tried that last yr.  God is my strength :)