Soisauce001's Xanga

Eulogy of www.xanga.com/soisauce001

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:02:17 GMT

Man this blog has served me well over the years.. It's really helped me mature as a blogger, thinker, theologian, and culture watcher.. As I look back and some of my old entries, I remember those different stages in my life.

For the past 3 months I've been debating if I should kill my xanga or not.. Part of the reason I loved being a part of the xanga community was because most of my VOH family was on it.. More than anything, I love the community of reader/blogger relationships that have been built by this..

But with the growing Web 2.0, I'm beginning to realize that integration is extremely important and Xanga as a blogging site is not very flexible.. I belong to multiple communities on the web and they all integrate and play nice with each other, but xanga is like in its own little bubble (Sorta like the church.. JP!)..

As well, I realized that as a leader in my church I need to lead.. Not just in spiritual and moral matters but I believe in cultural matters as well. What I see happening with many in my church is that they are sticking to a Web 1.0 mentality and I believe the culture is moving to Web 2.0 mentality (I'll write about this later) and for the church to stay in an old paradigm will be damaging to its witness..

So I'm leaving this xanga community to enter into the world of Web 2.0 in hopes to meet people where they're at and begin build more communities of shared ideas.. This is sort of mirroring my real life right now that it's kinda scarey..

With that said.. Thank you xanga community.. Thank you for your comments.. you're e-props.. your love and support..

You can find me at my new/old blog : http://jonathanhochan.com .. That's it! Come check it out.. If you have a RSS feed read, feel free to subscribe..

Good bye my xanga community!.

RIP www.xanga.com/soisauce001 12/28/2002 - 10/24/2008

Steeple Chaser, WHAT?!? It's about the NING!

Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:45:54 GMT

So today in Ministry and Culture we talked about Technology and the use of it.. Everything that was said resonated with me and I feel like someone was giving voice to what I've been DYING to say for so long.. Anyways, my prof. showed me NING..

View my page on VOHEMO

Is it Really A Debate About Rights?

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 07:41:42 GMT

California Family Code Section 297.5

297.5.  (a) Registered domestic partners shall have the same rights,
protections, and benefits, and shall be subject to the same
responsibilities, obligations, and duties under law, whether they
derive from statutes, administrative regulations, court rules,
government policies, common law, or any other provisions or sources
of law, as are granted to and imposed upon spouses.

Why this out cry of equal rights? It looks like equal right are already given to domestic partners. So in the immortal words of the Joker, "Why So Serious!"

Tent City Ontario

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 04:49:09 GMT

Go to google maps and look up

Jefferson Street and Cucamonga Avenue in Ontario, California..

Click the street view..

Why I Support and Hate Prop 8 At The Same Time + What I Believe is the Right Response

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:13:28 GMT

Lord have a mercy on us, sinners. If left to ourselves, apart from your grace, we would remain powerless and hopeless in our sin.

This is going to be a tough entry to write. This is going to raise some eyebrows and piss some people off but I write this seriously out of love. Love for God, love for the elect, love for the lost and love for the homosexual community.

I've been having a hard time fully supporting Prop 8 and I wasn't sure why. Biblically, critically, and morally, I see the necessity of this proposition but something was holding me back pastorally. I've been wrestling with this for a couple of days now and this essay is the sum of my thoughts. Why I support and hate Prop 8 at the same time.

I. Why I support Prop 8

With the political season coming to a climax, talks about Prop 8 have been ever increasing. Prop 8 is a Proposition in California that will make a Constitutional Amendment that defines marriage as between one man and one woman. Prop 8 comes as a response to several activist judges who allowed same sex marriage in California, despite an early proposition (Prop 22) that the people passed saying that marriage is defined between one man and one woman. Prop 8 is suppose to protect the sanctity of marriage.

We live in a society that believes that morality is relative. I personally, do not believe they are relative. I believe in an objective moral standard. I believe that objective moral standard is found in the character of God reflected in the laws and commandments he gives. The Bible is clear that the practice of homosexuality is a sin. I believe it is a sexual sin like every other sexual sin. It is as much a sin as looking a pornography and having premarital sex. My Biblical and moral convictions prevent me from supporting same sex marriage. It is on these same Biblical and moral grounds that I support Prop 8.

As well, there is a philosophical reason (critical reason) why I support prop 8. Throwing out my Biblical and moral convictions, lets look at this whole scenario. Some are arguing that people should be allowed to marry who ever they want as long as it does not hurt anyone.. Furthermore, they might argue that it is wrong for Moral Conservatives to impose their morality on others.. These arguments fail and are typical of the relativistic society we live in.. To say it is wrong for moral conservatives to impose their morality on others is a moral judgment that the person stating this is imposing on the moral conservatives. On this grounds alone, same sex marriage does not have a strong foothold because the sword cuts both ways.

Secondly, simply from a stand point of the the law I think Prop 8 should be upheld. Lets just say that if we don't use Biblical convictions to be the standard, what is our standard of right and wrong, strictly from a law point of view.. We live in a democracy and so it would be ultimately, the will of the people.. What is the will of the people on the issue of same sex marriage??? In 2000, Prop 22 was voted on and with 61% of the vote supporting the prop, it passed.. This proposition prevent the recognition of same-sex marriage in California but on May 15, 2008 4 Judges overturned that proposition, GOING AGAINST THE WILL OF THE PEOPLE.. This is not how a democracy should be run.. Anybody whose ever stayed awake long enough in a US Government Class knows that these judges overstepped their boundaries.. The will of the people spoke and the will of the people must be upheld..

If I haven't made it clear.. I support prop 8, so anyone who wants to accuse me of being against prop 8 or saying that I am legitimizing a homosexual lifestyle, I am not. Along with supporting prop 8, I also hate prop 8.

II. Why I hate Prop 8

I am about to walk on some slippery grounds that might get me in trouble but I'm ok with that.. I hate prop 8.. I really do.. Why? I believe that it's bring out the worst in the church, namely hypocrisy.. Before I give my reasons let me drops some Bible bombs..

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others. “You blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they are full of robbery and self-indulgence. “You blind Pharisee, first clean the inside of the cup and of the dish, so that the outside of it may become clean also.
“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. “Even so you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. - Matthew 23:23-27

“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye." - Luke 6:42

This is Jesus' description of hypocrisy.. My prayer is that His words would ring in our hearts as we approach this political season.

I hate Prop 8 because it is bringing the worst out of the church.. It is bringing hypocrisy out of many believers.. Prop 8 is the protection of the Sanctity of Marriage but the church that I love, has done more to rape the Sanctity of Marriage than I believe the homosexual agenda.. I use the word "rape" because I can not think of a word to describe the ravaging that "Christians" have done to the Sanctity of Marriage.

In America, half of all marriages end in divorce.. In the church a conservative estimate is that nearly one third of all marriages in the church end in divorce.. Sanctity of Marriage..

In the church... 50% of all Christian men and 20% of all Christian women are addicted to pornography... Sanctity of Marriage...

Premarital Sex among Christians is on the rise.... Sanctity of Marriage

Cohabitation among Christians are on the rise.... Sanctity of Marriage

The Sanctity of Marriage has been under attack long before the homosexual agenda came on board.. To simply demonize the homosexual community and the homosexual agenda and not to look in-house, is the a epitome of the definition of hypocrisy..

Prop 8 is bringing the worse out of the church.. The blood of guilt is as much in our hands as it is in the hands of those who advocate same-sex marriage.. To stand and at rally's and prayer meetings, and to repent for the sins of the homosexual community while not repenting of the sins of the church is to utter the prayers of the Pharisees:

“The Pharisee stood and was praying thus to himself, ‘God, I thank Thee that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax-gatherer. ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ " - Luke 18:11-12

We have ALL sinned.. We Have ALL fallen short of the glory.. Read Romans 2:1.. We are all guilty..

To stand and say I am going to make a stand for righteousness while swimming in a pool of sin is hypocrisy.. To claim that we are going to stand up for the truth of the Word and yet treat the word of God with such neglect and abuse is hypocrisy..

I hate prop 8 because it is bringing out the worst in the church that I love..

III. What I believe the right response should be..

Repentance... Prayer meetings and rallies... They all should be filled with the cries of repentance from the church.. How dare we stand and claim that we are the defenders of the sanctity of marriage when in fact we've done just as much to attack the sanctity of marriage?? How dare we demonize the homosexual community without seeing the real sinners that we are?? How dare we claim righteousness by our stance on prop 8 and not on faith??? How dare we claim to love the truth but bemoan sound exegesis.. It is not an us versus them.. It is an ALL OF US (Gay, straight, Christian, athiest.. etc) and HIM and we ALL stand guilty.. All followers of Christ, we must be in a place of repentance for allowing this battle over marriage to even come to this..

Grace... Believers should be praying for the grace to support this prop.. Our hypocrisy alone should disqualify us from making any judgments on this issue.. We need to repent and ask for God's graces to vote.. Pray that he would not hold our hypocrisy against our vote because ultimately we're voting against ourselves.. Condemning ourselves with this vote..

Vote... Support Prop 8 not based on YOUR moral worthiness but on His Moral Worthiness..

Humility... I don't even know what this is going to look like if prop 8 passes.. I do know that the church must take a posture of humility towards the homosexual community.. On one hand we must be obedient to the convictions that God placed in us and on the other hand we're just as guilty.. .We must walk in humility.. Everyone is talking about the ramifications if Prop 8 does not pass.. What about the ramifications if it does? The schism between the homosexual community and the church will be all the more wider.. We must walk in humility.

Pray... Prayer is not twisting God's arm.. Prayer is listening to his voice and aligning ourselves with His will.. Not just our will and his will but our attitudes and His attitude.. His love and our love.. His Wisdom and our Wisdom.. We must pray for His will to be done.

If prop 8 passes.. If there is not a sense of bittersweetness, we've missed it..

Lord, have mercy on us.
Hosanna. Lord save us.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? - Romans 2:1-4

Some Thoughts From Romans + Re-Highlighted

Mon, 20 Oct 2008 05:52:22 GMT

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
       For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
       Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
       Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
       Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.
    You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?
       But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God “will give to each person according to what he has done.” To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow evil, there will be wrath and anger. There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile; but glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For God does not show favoritism.

I'm About to Get Political

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:10:43 GMT

I had a nice talk with Jane yesterday.. She's really a cool chick and has a lot of passion for what she believes in. Anyways, in the middle of our conversation she began to tell me that I have a reputation of being "liberal." I was really taken aback by that because I don't think I'm liberal at all. Theologically, I'm a 5-point Calvinist who holds firms to the 5 Sola's. That's hardly liberal..

I asked her what she meant and she mentioned that some think that I'm going to vote for Obama.. I don't think I ever said that. I think she was making reference to one of my earlier blogs where I basically said that Christians should not vote for a person simply because that person is good at pandering to the evangelical base.

I'm not a pastor yet and I might be wrong, but I think it might be safe if I said who I was going to vote for.

I am not going to vote for Barack Obama... There are two major issues that I can not in good conscience support.. I'm sure you've heard it over and over again but my moral and biblical convictions won't allow me to... but I will say I do like the democratic party as it pertains to social justice and the poor and needy.

So who does that leave me.... Guess what? I'm not going to vote for John McCain either.. This is my point in my other blog entry.. There are more than TWO moral ISSUES in play.. It's just that traditional evangelicalism has limited to only TWO.. I ask, what about the poor? What about unethical business practices that are taking advantage of third world countries? What about the war? To me these are all moral issues as well... As I read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, it seems to me that the issue of the poor, the widow, and the orphans are major issues for God. So the way I see it.. I can't morally or biblically support John McCain and the republican base.

So who am I going to vote for? Third Party...

My point: The first and second time I voted, I based my vote on only two issues and I totally turned a blind eye to the multiple issues that exist. This year... there are way too many other moral issues involved.. I can not in good conscience, vote for a leader who supports these things.

You don't have to vote the way I'm voting.. But please think about ALL the issues.. That is all..

PS.. Kids should not be able to talk about who they'd vote for.. If they had their way, Hannah Montana would be president.. JP..

We've Used Up All Our Words

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:11:46 GMT

"For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."

Can we really justify an "us versus them" mentality? Why can't it be an "us and Him" mentality? In the latter, we stand guilty.. In the former we fake freedom.

We've used up all our words... Where is the radical compassion?

Glamour

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:54:08 GMT

I caught this great video from TED about glamour..

I was going to write a commentary of this.. But I think I'm just going to throw out a question: How does this relate to the Kingdom of God and the Mission of God? Should Christianity be glamorous (according to her definition of glamour)?

OMG: Free Bible Study Tool

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 04:54:31 GMT

I've been asked how I study the Bible.. Generally this is how it goes:

1. Read, Read, Read
2. Observation Questions
3. Historical/Culture Research
4. Grammatical Research (word studies and what not)
5. Structural Analysis (Trying to find the flow of the argument)

Step 5 is probably the most "enlightening step" of the study because the text begins to come alive. In the past I've done it by making a structure outline but I've been learning a new way of doing it called, "arcing." It's really GOOD..

So if you're interesting in learning how to do Arcing Exegetical Studies.. There's this new web site that will teach you and allow you to arc.. Check it out..

http://www.biblearc.com

Ps. John Piper recommended!

An Example of Arc Exegesis: 1 John 1:5-10

This took me about half an hour to do.

Vs. 5 is an introduction sentence. It seems as if John really wanted to make it a point that God is light. This is probably in response to the Gnostic Teaching that God is malicious.

P1: In this section there are two IF/THEN statements. One negative and one positive. The first has to do with walking in the darkness and the second one has to do with walking in the light.
If we walk in the darkness: we lie and don't practice truth
If we walk in the light: We have fellowship with one another AND we've been cleansed

P2. This has three IF/THEN statements. Two negative and one positive. All three has to do with the how a person deals with sin.
If we say we have no sin THEN we are deceive and we have no truth
If we confess or sin THEN we are forgiven AND Cleansed
IF we say we have not sinned THEN God's word is not in us.

Main Point: Two fruits/proofs/results/evidences of a believer. One is the way a person lives life (walks) and the second is the way a person deals with sin.