MOVED

alright.. i'm bored of blogspot liaos.. shifted to

whit3fang.wordpress.com

tata!

Human wildlife conflict

been a long time since i last blogged..

well.. FYP is over... working on a tropical conservation biology module case study now...

was looking for pictures to show some effects of human wildlife conflict.. when i came across the picture above...

the picture was taken by a camera trap... the tiger was missing one of its front paw... people at WWF believe that it could be a result of the tiger chewing off its front paw in a desperate attempt to escape a snare trap...

i was angry.. and sad when i read this..

studying about conservation this semester was really saddening and heart wrenching... to see the depravity and the selfishness of humanity.. and yes.. i don't exclude myself from it also... to read about the destruction that we have brought upon the earth... i feel sad and yet hopeless... i feel sad that we have so utterly destroyed all that God has entrusted to us...

i guess everytime i think about all these... i look forward even more to Christ's second coming.. when He will expel all the evil in this world.. when His children will live together in harmony.. without pain.. without sorrow.. without tears....

though people have questioned if there will be animals in heaven.. or maybe even the new earth.. i really hope that there will be.. and somehow i believe that there will be .. coz God declared all of them good.. when He first made us all...

well.. for now... pls DO NOT buy animal skin products... really..

YOU DON'T NEED THOSE SKIN AND FUR.. BUT THE ANIMALS DO....

Xmas lightings 2007

was going through the archives.. saw the pics that i took for Dec 2005's Christmas.. and realised that i've yet to put up the pics for Dec 2007's x'mas lightings!!.. haha.. so here they are... must say that i was quite disappointed with the lightings this year.. really dull...

Christmas tree outside of Plaza Singapura~

Cute teddy bear~

the three with the mission to capture x'mas lightings... wei ye.. hui lin + me~ =)

nice lights on the inside of PS

nice snowflakes along orchard road.. i know i need a new cam and better skills... bleaps...

decorations inside Centrepoint... very dull... very boring..

somewhere near heerens...

trying to make my pictures look more interesting.. hahaha... =)

nice geese~

geese with toy soldier~

angels!

nice teddy bears on display at taka...

the huge Christmas tree inside ngee ann city...

ballerina outside wheelock... looks quite out of place..

pretty lights inside wheelock...

somewhere near tanglin mall....

this has nothing to do with xmas.. haha.. it's just some fountain outside a hotel which i tot was quite interesting...

the decor at tanglin mall.. too bad we went after xmas.. didn't catch it when it was covered in foam.... heh heh...

haha.. not bad.. we walked from PS all the way to tanglin mall.. and back to orchard mrt...

but the lightings are really quite bad... i miss the xmas decor in sydneY! very very very interesting... bleaPs...

The Goal of God's love may not be what you think it is - John Piper

" a rather long article by John Piper.. do take some time to read it... rather thought provoking... =)"

Do people go to the Grand Canyon to increase their self-esteem? Probably not. This is, at least, a hint that the deepest joys in life come not from savoring the self, but from seeing splendor. And in the end even the Grand Canyon will not do. We were made to enjoy God.

We are all bent to believe that we are central in the universe. How shall we be cured of this joy-destroying disease? Perhaps by hearing afresh how radically God-centered reality is according to the Bible.

Both the Old and New Testament tell us that God's loving us is a means to our glorifying him. "Christ became a servant ... in order that the nations might glorify God for his mercy" (Romans 15:8-9). God has been merciful to us so that we would magnify him. We see it again in the words, "In love [God] destined us to adoption ... to the praise of the glory of His grace" (Ephesians 1:4-6). In other words, the goal of God's loving us is that we might praise him. One more illustration from Psalm 86:12-13: "I will glorify your name forever. For your lovingkindness toward me is great." God's love is the ground. His glory is the goal.

This is shocking. The love of God is not God's making much of us, but God's saving us from self-centeredness so that we can enjoy making much of him forever. And our love to others is not our making much of them, but helping them to find satisfaction in making much of God. True love aims at satisfying people in the glory of God. Any love that terminates on man is eventually destructive. It does not lead people to the only lasting joy, namely, God. Love must be God-centered, or it is not true love; it leaves people without their final hope of joy.

Take the cross of Christ, for example. The death of Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of divine love: "God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). Yet the Bible also says that the aim of the death of Christ was "to demonstrate righteousness, because in the forbearance of God he passed over the sins previously committed" (Romans 3:25). Passing over sins creates a huge problem for the righteousness of God. It makes him look like a judge who lets criminals go free without punishment. In other words, the mercy of God puts the justice of God in jeopardy.

So to vindicate his justice he does the unthinkable - he puts his Son to death as the substitute penalty for our sins. The cross makes it plain to everyone that God does not sweep evil under the rug of the universe. He punishes it in Jesus for those who believe.

But notice that this ultimately loving act has at the center of it the vindication of the righteousness of God. Good Friday love is God-glorifying love. God exalts God at the cross. If he didn't, he could not be just and rescue us from sin. But it is a mistake to say, "Well, if the aim was to rescue us, then we were the ultimate goal of the cross." No, we were rescued from sin in order that we might see and savor the glory of God. This is the ultimately loving aim of Christ's death. He did not die to make much of us, but to free us to enjoy making much of God forever.

It is profoundly wrong to turn the cross into a proof that self-esteem is the root of mental health. If I stand before the love of God and do not feel a healthy, satisfying, freeing joy unless I turn that love into an echo of my self-esteem, then I am like a man who stands before the Grand Canyon and feels no satisfying wonder until he translates the canyon into a case for his own significance. That is not the presence of mental health, but bondage to self.

The cure for this bondage is to see that God is the one being in the universe for whom self-exaltation is the most loving act. In exalting himself - Grand Canyon-like - he gets the glory and we get the joy. The greatest news in all the world is that there is no final conflict between my passion for joy and God's passion for his glory. The knot that ties these together is the truth that God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Jesus Christ died and rose again to forgive the treason of our souls, which have turned from savoring God to savoring self. In the cross of Christ, God rescues us from the house of mirrors and leads us out to the mountains and canyons of his majesty. Nothing satisfies us - or magnifies him - more.

Immanuel

Immanuel
by Max Lucado

The King walked over and reached for the book. He turned it toward Lucifer and commanded, "Come, Deceiver, read the name of the One who will call your bluff. Read the name of the One who will storm your gates."

Satan rose slowly off his haunches. Like a wary wolf, he walked a wide circle toward the desk until he stood before the volume and read the word:

"Immanuel?" he muttered to himself, then spoke in a tone of disbelief. "God with us?" For the first time the hooded head turned squarely toward the face of the Father. "No. Not even You would do that. Not even You would go so far."

"You've never believed me, Satan."

"But Immanuel? The plan is bizarre! You don't know what it's like on Earth! You don't know how dark I've made it. It's putrid. It's evil. It's..."

"IT IS MINE," proclaimed the King. "AND I WILL RECLAIM WHAT IS MINE. I WILL BECOME FLESH. I WILL FEEL WHAT MY CREATURES FEEL. I WILL SEE WHAT THEY SEE."

"But what of their sin?"

"I will bring mercy."

"What of their death?"

"I will give life."

Satan stood speechless.

God spoke, "I love my children. Love does not take away the beloved's freedom. But love takes away fear. And Immanuel will leave behind a tribe of fearless children. They will not fear you or your hell."

Satan stepped back at the thought. His retort was childish. "Th-th-they will too!"

"I will take away all sin. I will take away death. Without sin and without death, you have no power."

Around and around in a circle Satan paced, clenching and unclenching his wiry fingers. When he finally stopped, he asked a question that even I was thinking. "Why? Why would You do this?"

The Father's voice was deep and soft. "Because I love them."

Merry Christmas

love calvin and hobbes simply for their friendship... reallie reallie sweet.... =)

updates

the other day i was just telling Pei Xin that i'm very weird when it comes to blogging...

while most people stop blogging during exams.. i had the most number of blog entries during exam period..

and while most people blog alot alot after exams... i stopped blogging.. haha...

anyways.. dun have much photos these days... just my hermit crabs.. haha..


this is tiny.. died liaos.. apparently she may be an aquatic hermit crab.. so didn't survive in the lab.. and yup.. this is how a hermit crab looks like without her shell

this is weeny! the spider hermit crab.. she can scale walls! =)

Meshach XY* laid some eggs on 5 Dec... put them in the seawater from marine aquarium.. and some of them hatched.. these are the hatchlings.. but they're all dead.. weren't moving..

these are the eggs.... all released to the sea liaos... hopefully some of them survives.. bleahs...