Fears of blogging

On further reflection, perhaps because of medical training which makes one particularly paranoid about things that could go wrong, my greatest fear in blogging would be that my words were one day used against me.

It sounds strange to say it as it seems a little egotistical to think I could be one day become important enough that what I wrote actually mattered, but it is a fear nonetheless.

At the extreme end of the spectrum is someone like Obama for which there are countless websites (okay, like A.W. Tozer said, nothing is infinite apart from God, so I looked it up and google has 9,420,000 hits for barack obama) of which most are quoting what he has said.

It’s a scary thought. So one day, what you are typing could be used against you, for example if you were trying to become the first Chinese president of the United States.

Sounds far-fetched right? hahah

Anyway, where was I?

Okay, so it’s possible, that one day, you’ll be quoted (Notice how I changed from “I” to “You”, a subtle change, but I think goes to show how fearful I actually am about this whole unlikely but possible scenario). Eg “Do you remember saying that “blogging is a ‘scary thought’, and now you are encouraging people to blog?? Do you remember? Cos I sure do, I googled you, and found this page on wordpress dated november etc etc”.

For me personally, the reality of publicly blogging in my own name is possibly more scary as patients could get a hold of my personal beliefs, which could be considered counter-therapeutic, or misconstrued. Though unlikely, it may even be possible that someone may wish to harm me in some way and and write emotionally scarring comments like “that was such a stupid post”. <ed: alright that was a bit tongue in cheek, but a little bit of humour was felt necessary by the writer>

Just in case you’re wondering, there is actually no “ed” or editor – it’s just me editing myself.

The really crazy about the whole fear thing is that the reality is that about 4 people may accidentally stumble upon the average blog, as there are apparently millions of these things and only millions of people (and then only thousands of days for these millions of people to surf the net). So it’s almost like ill-conceived fear, or at least, what they say in CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy), “worst case scenario” thinking.

Now going back to a biblical view of this all, God says that “perfect love casts out fear”. Now of course the context is not about blogging and more about salvation, but it stands to reason that fears are generally from a pervasive feeling that we should all be punished for something.

Perhaps there is underlying guilt in me that I am doing something wrong by blogging, and hence the fear rises. Yet I’m pretty sure blogging is not ethically, morally or legally wrong in itself. So where does the fear come from?

Maybe, until I know for sure that this is something I’m supposed to do, then I’ll be at complete peace. Until then, I’m signing out as…

The Hesitant Blogger.

Study smart, tips for University exams (especially medical school), preparing and passing an exam within 12 days

DISCLAIMER: the following tips are for people who want to pass with efficient use of time and effort, not get a high distinction. Generally this method should apply to most subjects, but mainly those that require lots of memorisation (like in med school), and not a lot of technical skill (like calculus!) that requires practise. You need to have some understanding on the subject matter for this method to work.

So, got an exam coming up in about 2 weeks? I think this method should help you pass, even if you don’t know much about the topic, if you are an average to above average uni. student.

I’ve done my fair share of exams in my life and have developed this approach to tackle even the most difficult of those exams. In retrospect, I do not think that I had a very Godly attitude about study earlier, and have since repented, however, this method is still very useful and I sincerely hope it helps you to pass your exams!

What does NOT work (at least for me)

1. Rewriting my own notes to help me “remember”  (unless they are condensed to point form aka the “SMALL SOURCE”)

2. Reading and re-reading a big textbook

3. Reading from more than one or two sources (unless again, it is to create the “SMALL SOURCE”.

4. Listening to audio sources of information

Basic rules:

1. You can only remember a finite amount within a certain period of time (in this case 2 weeks!)

2. Memory requires association

3. Memory gets distorted with similar bits of information, that is not quite the same! (like two textbooks on the same topic)

4. University courses generally present us with WAY more information than we will ever need or remember.

5. You learn when you have RECALLED, if you don’t RECALL, you didn’t remember.

3 DAYS

1. CREATE Your ONE “SMALL SOURCE”- it must be brief but comprehensive

You have to decide at this late stage, WHAT you are going to memorise by (see rules #1 and #4):

a) Read previous exam papers to see what they are asking

b) What did the lecturers say?

c) Last year’s students, what did they learn from?

Possible sources :

a) Preferably a “pocket version” of the “big textbook”. (Like in pathology we had the “big robbins” and the “little robbins”. ADD little notes from lecture notes/other sources if needed, but it must all be in ONE book.

Remember memory requires association? The physical book and spatial location of information can be helpful when you are recalling data. Anything associative will help. Multiple sources give you memory INTERFERENCE amnesia and you can’t recall that fact clearly.

b) Lecture notes (+ additions from the pocket version textbook/other sources if needed). GET the lecture notes from a fellow student if you have skipped too many lectures, they are important to know what to focus on.

Big is not better. The shorter the better. READ the big one for UNDERSTANDING, but tidy up your SMALL SOURCE.

3 DAYS

2.MAKE THAT SMALL SOURCE INTO LISTS (you can write the lists on the pages) – eg. you have a paragraph in your small version book which you make into 5 words under that heading.

3 DAYS

Make MNEMONICS for everything you can-

This sounds ridiculous, but believe it works and I still remember stuff I had mnemonics for back in 3rd year med school (more than 11 years ago I think!)

1.Use whatever EXISTING mnemonics you know/in the book/lecturer told you to save you the hassle of creating your own

2. First letters of words created into a poem or word (eg DIGFAST for symptoms of mania), write this in your small source in the appropriate place. Draw pictures, use different coloured pens, stick sticky labels. WHATEVER helps you to remember. (your exam is now only a few days away!)

3. Visualise the word and associate with the heading (eg someone digging quickly who is manic)

4. RECALL the meaning of your mnemonic.

3 DAYS

Now keep recalling (say it out or write it down) and correcting yourself on all the mnemonics as you go through your “Small source”

Over and over again (this is where rote learning is useful because you’ve got the associations).

Work out where you are making mistakes and target those specficially (eg. DIGFAST is for mania but I keep forgetting what ‘A’ stands for – maybe you need some extra memory jogger – like stick a “to list” with the word “activities” on it, on your SMALL SOURCE page on mania).

Notice where your mnemonics are overlapping, eg. you’ve got ‘A” standing for about 5 different words and you get them mixed up, TIDY up your mnemonic to DEAL with it OR, just ROTE learn your way through this problem.

If you do the above, you should have learned enough to pass (maybe not brilliantly, but at least give it a good go), your exam!

In later posts, I’ll give some concrete examples of the above concepts.

God bless and all the best with your upcoming exam!

How to pass TEE English, write a decent essay!

How to structure a TEE/TER English essay and pass your English exam!

If you’re doing badly in English (year 10-12), it’s probably because you have little idea about how to structure an essay.

My own story is that I was averaging about 93% (In year 12) in English based upon assignments, then in my first semester school exam, I got 63%. I went to talk to the head of department in English, and what I got told was that it was a pretty good mark, so why worry?

Thanks to God, I had a change of English teacher (I owe this all to a lady by the name of Mrs Blair) who gave me this simple formula, and by the end of Year 12 TEE etc, I obtained a 90% average and was in the top .5% of the state.

As you can probably tell, I don’t have a huge vocabulary and am not particularly sophisticated in writing, so if I can do well, so can you!

What your (not so good) English teacher never told you

It’s so easy, but unfortunately nobody ever told you. Of course I’m generalising, occasionally you get Mrs blair to be your English teacher, but most of the time, it’s vague or silent teaching (“Why don’t you all watch this movie while I step outside for a few minutes”).

Follow this general template, and you’ll do better. It applies to English essays for Year 10-12 basically. Applies to any sort of text – including novels, short stories, movies, articles.

Most English essay questions have essentially the same components just phrased differently.

What your English teacher will probably help you with is that they will discuss various themes and techniques from your text but usually in a haphazard and difficult to understand way. Do pick up on what themes/techniques they think are important, especially if you’re writing an essay for them!

Let’s take an example.  Say the first scene for the movie “Sound of Music”

So if you remember, there’s lots of beautiful scenery and then suddenly this woman starts singing “the hill’s are alive!!!”

Scene	Audience/Reader Response	Techniques	Theme
1. (when you’re writing essay, describe nicely what each scene is about) Memorise QUOTES and specific scenes from each of your texts that illustrate what you’re trying to say.	We sympathise with Maria	Selection of Detail/Characterisation	One should not be bound by societal expectations, but should fulfill personal preferences. (Or something like that!!)
	We feel happy and uplifted, again we associate this happiness with this lady.	Music
	Feeling of movement/freedom	Camera angles, lots of panning
2	Emphasises feeling of constriction compared the the relative freedom of the outdoors.	Juxtaposition

I’ve just brought up a few techniques and the responses we have to them. Note that they all point to one “theme”.

1. So get a pen and paper, draw four columns and start filling out the boxes with what you can think of. Go through a few scenes and within each scene, think about which techniques are being used, WHY (as in what is the response the director/writer is trying to get from you), and then how that ties into one of the main “themes” of the text.

THEME = A sentence (not one word!) that describes WHAT is MESSAGE the author is trying to get across.

Remember that ONE word is not a theme. Eg. “racism” is not a theme. A theme may be “Racism is destructive to the global community”. Be specific.

2. Once you’ve finished that then you need to structure your essay.

Introduction :

Generally you answer the question broadly- eg. yes,  techniques have been used by the author to portray the theme.

Next, you describe the major themes.

Then structure your paragraphs something like this :

“<Technique> was used widely in <name of text>. For example, (very important to give examples!), in <scene>, <technique> was used <describe the technique> which lead to the audience <response>. This reinforced the sense that <theme>”

Next paragraph :

“This theme <theme> was also emphasised in <scene 2>. In this scene, <technique> was used, leading the audience to <Response> because <give a reason maybe>. Another technique <technique>, was used when <describe>, further causing the audience to <response>. “

Next paragraph : (tie into the last technique)

“This technique <technique> was also widely used in other scenes to induce different responses. For example, “

ETC ETC.

You get the gist?

You can divide the essay into : Theme 1, theme 2, theme 3 with the other 3 components under those headings, or divide the essay into Technique 1,2,3 with the other 3 components under those headings or mix it up.

Just make sure that you join the ideas together!

It’s very simple. Just try it!

3. At the end of the essay, just reiterate what you’ve said by summarising your main points.

Most 45 minute essays only have time for about 6 paragraphs all together including the intro and ending. So make sure you explore each theme/technique/example/audience  response well with sufficient description.

That’s how you write a good essay!

Let me know how you go!

I’ll write about how to write comparison essays next blog. Essentially it’s exactly the same except you have two texts to work with!

Example

examples are based on the first scene.

Ringing of the bell and next scene in the convent.

Making disciples

The great commission is to “make disciples of all nations”. (Matthew 28:19)

Perhaps one of the problems with many evangelistic efforts by the church of Christ is that we are asking people to make, but have not actually ensured that they ARE disciples first.

Like produces like. If you’re not a prayerful, Godly person, and you go ahead and “disciple” someone, what do you think will happen? Are you expecting that the person you are “discipling” to become prayerful and Godly?

A worldy person can only teach someone else to become worldly. A lazy christian will at best encourage someone else to be lazy.

The second issue is that in “making”, Jesus meant to show by example (as opposed to creating with your hands). Jesus discipled his disciples by example.

Again, what is the point of telling someone to come to prayer meeting,, if you are not a prayerful person? Or telling a new convert to read the bible, when you do not love the word of God?

The man who loves the word and is prayerful will, by his example as well as his word, encourage others to do likewise.

We must therefore be Christians who are worth imitating. Just like parents who role model how to say thank you by actually saying thank you to others, only disciplees can be disciplers.

Faithfulness

Jesus said if you’re faithful with a “little”, then you will be faithful with a lot.

Being trustworthy with money in God’s eyes is the “little” thing. Money is like a test, and if you can pass it, then you get to be in charge of more important things.

Unfortunately many Christians think that being faithful with a “lot” means being faithful with lots of money. Although that could be partly true (God may ask you to steward more money), I think Jesus’ point is that if you can’t even be trusted with money, how can you be trusted with the souls of man?

It’s like if you were asked by a stranger to cash in a $10 000 but you forgot and then the cash got stolen, do you think that the stranger would let you look after their precious 2 year old daughter? (the answer is no in case you’re wondering) The daughter is more precious than the money, so you didn’t pass the test. It is also unlikely that that stranger would ask you to cash another cheque for them again.

God therefore, is like the man who gives you cash to bank in. We then have the job of making sure the cash arrives safely at the bank. Unfortunately we often spend the money on the way and have too little to bank in, or forget the entire mission altogether! I’m not saying that every dollar needs to be given to the church, but every dollar must be accounted for in a way that glorifies God because that’s what the money was for in the first place.

Faithful with little, means that if you’re claiming overtime, you don’t cheat on 5 minutes. If you are claiming tax rebates, you don’t say used it 50 percent of the time for work when you actually used it 5%.

If you’re wondering why God hasn’t used you to touch anyone’s lives, it may be because you haven’t been a good steward with the small stuff.

Happiness

Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before me”.

If you think about the next 24 hours, what are you looking forward to most?

I think that this question draws out what truly brings us happiness, and this will determine the quality of our happiness (and therefore whether joy exists in our hearts).

If the most exciting hope of our day is not the presence of God, then we have idols, and as you know, idols can take the shape of anything, or anyone.

Now of course, God can fill our day and our entire lives, so that if I’m watching a sunrise with my wife (a sunset is much more likely!), then God’s presence is there with us making the whole sunrise a holy event.

Yet in that event, there may be three important elements – the sunrise, the wife, and God’s presence. If it is the sunrise that I love the most, then I’ve idolised the sun (sad huh?). If it’s time with my wife, then it’s my wife who has become my idol. If it is God being with me, then I have put him as first.

What makes me happy

Colossians 3 “Set your heart on things above and not below”

The thing about happiness is that what makes you happy will be the same thing that makes you sad. Furthermore, the degree to which things make you happy will be the degree to which they make you sad. So if you are happy about earning lots of money, you will be sad if you earn less. If you are extremely happy you are earning lots of money, you will be extremely sad if you earn less.

With this money illustration, it then follows that the amount of money will then probably correlate with your happiness. I.e. A few thousand more a year, a bit more happiness and vice versa.

The problem with this sort of happiness is that it’s temporary, and conditional. It also drives you (if you believe that happiness is the driving force of everyone), to get more of whatever makes you happy. Hence your thoughts will be full of that thing, and your actions will follow, and unfortunately, this could be all for the wrong thing.

If you ask yourself today, what makes you really happy right now? You will find the thing that you have set your heart on.

Similarly, if you ask yourself, what makes you really sad right now? You will find the thing that you did not get that you have set your heart on.

Are these things heavenly or “from below”?

May all that makes us happy or sad be the same things that move the heart of God.

Self-control

“Self-control” – This term seems to be an oxymoron. It would seem natural that one would be in control of oneself. I mean, if there is one “self”, then there must be only one will that controls anything, and if there is one will, then there must only be one will controlling, hence it’s a wonder why this term exists in the English language at all!

My computer dictionary tells me that self-control is an ability to “control one’s own actions”. The thesaurus suggests that terms like “discipline” and “self-mastery”, and “restraint” are similar words. Which begs the question, what on earth does it mean to master oneself or control oneself?

Certainly the western world in the 21^st century does not emphasise much on self-control. The world encourages us all to give into all of our desires – have what we want and then want more than we have. There is little acknowledgement that a person’s will needs to be controlled at all,and in fact, the will is exalted as being powerful and god-like. If you will strong and long enough, you can get it. So why control the “self” at all?

The bible shed lights on this curious term, reminding us that the “self” is in fact evil in nature, not good, like some people think. If you ever want evidence of this, just see what happens to a child who is not given any guidance. The child becomes a little monster, and is “out of control”. Ah hah! So what exactly went “out of control” and what are they supposed to control…? The self.

So we must accept that the self, should be controlled. Romans 7 talks about how the flesh wars against the Spirit, wanting to do what we actually don’t want to do.

If the world is right… ie., the self is great and needs no particular control (unless of course it somehow impinges on other’s people’s “rights”), then why all this talk of “self-control”? The bible gives a clear answer to this question. The sinful self wants what is evil, while the Spirit in us (for those who have accepted Jesus as Lord) wants what is good.

Don’t let the world fool you into believing that there now exists no such thing as good and evil, your “self” must be controlled by the Spirit of God (Romans 8).

Emptied to be filled

Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit”

It’s a curious thing that many Christians sing and pray “fill me”, yet have little desire to be filled. I know that because despite singing a particular song, I have at times lacked any desire to be filled.

Yet even in the times that I have genuinely wanted some filling (notice the “some”!), my heart has been in no position to receive any of the Spirit.

The simple reason is that if I lack any desire to be emptied, I cannot be filled. As Ephesians 5:18 says “Do not get drunk on wine” – if I’m filled with the wine of the world, I’m already full of something.

If I choose to hold on to anger, I cannot be filled with love. If I choose to be full of pride, I cannot have humility, and if I choose to hold onto lust, I cannot have purity.

The fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control” (Gal 5:22). The opposite of these are (probably something like) hate, hopelessness, unrest, impatience, badness, malice, unfaithfulness, harshness and self-indulgence.

Hence to be filled with the Spirit we would need to be emptied of the flesh.

In my life, I have often self-indulged. For example, during these holidays, there is ample opportunity to indulge in :

1. food
2. movies
3. doing nothing
4. spending money
5. drawing attention to myself (by being loud and silly in public places – not that I would ever do that… (: )
6. sleeping late, waking late
7. blogging

If I want to be “filled with the Spirit”, that would mean “filled with self-control”, and furthermore, knowing that God is actually infinite, then this “self-control” is actually infinite control of oneself. To be filled with infinite control of myself, I would need to get rid of those things that make me self-indulgent. Hence, some or all of those things listed above must be brought into line so that I am emptied of this, that my heart may be filled with the spirit of self-control.

In practical terms, I sometimes have to declare a “Holy fast” (as God commanded in the book of Joel). If you’re finding that you don’t seem to be getting filled with the Spirit, it’s probably because you’re full of something else, and fasting from that is a good start.

The infinite God

I’ve been really missing the fellowship at my local church, and have joined my brother in law’s cell group just for the past two weeks. It’s really not the same as being at home, and there’s so much that I’ve taken for granted over the years.

We’ve been attending MSI (morning star international) where the music is PHENOMENAL (basically like from israel’s CD). Interestingly the whole pastor’s family serves in the music team (all four of them!) and Ing actually knew them when they were really young. I think I may have showed you their CD before. The word is a little difficult in that I need to listen through an interpreter through a wireless headset. Pretty cool though. but I’m so hungry for the presence of God in a congregation. There’s just something special about congregational worship. There’s nothing like worshipping God in solitude and then coming together with others to worship and adore the living God together.

I’ve been reading “attributes of God” by my main man, AW Tozer, and the first chapter on the infinitude of God really blew my mind away. He gave an illust

okay, so this photo is the wrong way round and kinda irrelevant to the topic, but i like it (: (and I didn't have a photo of a hazelnut)

ration (taken from an ancient christian lady – i.e. like in the middle ages or something) – that if you hold a hazelnut in your hand, and imagine that the entire universe and everything that was created is within that hazelnut (including every person that ever lived etc) then imagine that everything outside of that hazelnut (and inside) represents where God is, then you have a glimpse of the magnitude of God.

God is infinite, not only that, but each of his attributes is infinite – ie. he’s not just a bit holy or a bit Good, or a lot good, he is infinitely Good. The implications are amazing. Think about it. If God is pleased with you because of christ, he is not just smiling, he must be beaming. If he is Good to you, he is SUPERLY Good to you, beyond what you could imagine. He is not just caring towards people, but he is infinitely caring. It’s like a million people all thinking “what is best?” for this person and then the million of them going to try to do everything they can to ensure that the best is given to this person.

If God is just, he is infinitely just. He is so full of justice that whatever happens will be perfectly judged one day, he is Justice. There is no injustice in him. And if he is completely in control of the world situation, he is totally and utterly in control. there is nothing beyond his control even if it may seem to us that it is. He is infinitely powerful enough to be involved with every occurrence.

Thinking about God expands the heart and mind. We spend too much time thinking about the hazelnut and what is inside it, but we should spend more time focusing on the creator. If we did, we would be the “happiest people in the world” (see The attributes of God, AW Tozer).