But if that's what it takes to praise You Jesus...

This isn't a serious blog...but I thought this was interesting (ambiguous).
I was reading Psalm 24 the other day and then I read this...

Psalm 24:3-6
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD ?
Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not lift up his soul to an idol
or swear by what is false. [a]
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD
and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, O God of Jacob. [b]
Selah

I instantly realized that Chris Tomlin based his song Give Us Clean Hands, on this song. I was like woah....haha but yeah...

Isn't it kinda weird how I knew the song before I knew this verse. I mean I don't know...I guess it kinda goes to show how I don't read the Bible as much as a "normal Christian" would/should, =/ but yeah anyways, I like how Chris Tomlin uses scripture in his songs =]

hmm...interesting...

I'd say for the past couple days I haven't been able to sleep properly.
It's not because I am used to sleeping late. But just because I don't feel like it...
Like I know I need to sleep early, I was planning to today, but I guess...I don't know, even though I'm really sleepy, I just don't feel like sleeping.

I guess I just have a lot of stuff on my mind lately...

Along with sleeping problems, I've been having a hard time concentrating. It's been hard talking to other people, especially when talking about theological stuff. I just feel like I can't comprehend what they are trying to say. Like this John Piper book, When I Don't Desire God: How to Fight For Joy. I got back to reading it the other day and decided to start over so I could understand the book better. But I just ended up getting more confused. I couldn't even comprehend the words, that I have already comprehended.

Especially in Bible studies, when Matt Chung is leading, I can't comprehend what he's saying sometimes. Fearful fear? what? And also during prayer requests, sometimes I can't catch too easily what they're saying. I really have to try hard to understand....

Or just talking to Brendon and Joe. Sometimes I would ask them something and they would say something that appears to be on topic, however doesn't have much to do with what I asked. I mean it's not their fault. I think it's mine, because I am so out of it. I just get confused even more. And sometimes I would ask my pastor some questions and I would just get confused even more. I don't know how what he said really applies to my question. I guess because they aren't blunt with their answers. They make me try to answer my own question by presenting Biblical truth. And all I have to do is apply these truths and definitions.

It's really late right now, but I don't really care. I am just staring at my screen aimlessly......

What's going on...

So I just got back from the freshmen beach trip. It is summer time so I guess we're not really freshmen anymore, but rather incoming sophomores. (Some people, such as Vincent, call us "Freshmores")

The people who went were Wilkin, Suzie, Cheryl, Angel, Eunkyu Lee (haha), Minsung, Vincent, Jarren, Mikey, Albert, and me. Pictures taken from Cheryl Tam, Wilkin Cheung, and Vincent Ho. I hope you all don't mind, tee hee thanks guys! hahaha =D

We went to Virginia Beach. It was relaxing and stressful at the same time. I am actually really tired right now and was throughout the whole trip. During car rides I would basically just fall asleep. And if no one is talking to me, I become so sleepy. The only reason I was able to stay awake all the time was because I was always busy doing stuff and going through constant interactions with other people. I am so sleepy right now typing. I feel like I am in a college lecture room right now...

Anyways, I'll just run through what we did:
-------------------------------------
Friday: (I only know these times because it was part of the itinerary and anyways I have good memory for small things, especially social things =P)
7:40am: Alarms go off
7:50am: Wake up finally
8:40am: Wilkin picks me up and Albert is already in the car, we pick up Vincent (he smiles before entering the car like always), we head towards the university
9:30: Arrive at university, meet Mikey at stamp
Later: Angel and Jarren arrive...we all go get number 2 from the Mcdonalds menu haha except Wilkin and Mikey...then Cheryl and Suzie arrive. Then we distribute snacks that we each individually bought and take a while to get ready to leave XD

I rode with Cheryl and Suzie and then Jarren and Mikey rode with Angel and then Albert and Vincent rode with Wilkin.
We drove for quite some time (until 2?) until we all decided to go use the bathroom at a truck stop haha. Then we drove for an even longer time...I don't know exactly but I think we all went to use the bathroom again at some other place...? maybe for gas?

We finally got to our destination at like around 6? So it was like 7 hours of driving because of traffic, there was a 7 mile back up and we were thinking about taking local routes the last 30 minutes, but it took like two more hours because we were supposed to arrive at 3:50 according to the GPS...We checked in and everything and decided to go eat dinner since we haven't eaten all day and walked around the boardwalk, or not boardwalk but the beach/beach stores/beach restaurants...

We ate at some place with American food. Me and Vincent got philly cheese steaks and mozzarella sticks...each stick was worth one dollar...haha amazing, what a rip off...Jarren ate our leftovers...haha after already eating so much in Angel's car on the way to the beach.

Then we walked around and saw some guy playing with fire in the street. He was trying to do a magic show, but I thought of him more as a comedian because his tricks weren't all that great.
We also saw some people doing open air preaching. They were holding up signs that were telling people to repent. However there was no one there listening or stopping. Not even we did.

Then we went to a haunted house. I wasn't too scared about it. But then I went in and it was only me, Vincent, and Mikey. It was really dark, I was actually scared, I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. There were no strange noises I can't remember, but there were weird pictures. It was mostly just weird pictures and statues. Occasionally a puff of air or splash of water, or some random loud noise. It was so dark, I was walking into walls. I originally started walking slow because I heard there were going to be people trying to separate us? And also I kept hearing screams, I was really scared and in anticipation the whole time for something REALLY scary. I was walking really fast towards the end and me and Vincent realized that there was nothing scary at all. Even the scary voices that the workers did...honestly the quality of the intercom was bad, like it was probably the same as a school intercom or even like the ones from McDonalds asking to take my order. "ooOooOo may I take your order?" I'd say the workers could have done way more to scare me, but they were fooling around too much. What a waste of $7, however it was funny to see Vincent get mad at Mikey for clinging onto his shirt and being scared. Mikey ripped a hole in Vincent's shirt.

After that we went to go walk on the beach. The atmosphere was really nice. Especially the water was warmer than normal and I just liked how it was dark and the light from the stores were shining onto the beach. It was just cozy. Surrounded by light from stores and light from sky, at the same time being dark? Actually I don't remember if I saw many stars, but I admired the atmosphere created by the store lights. It seemed that the massive sea wasn't a sea of darkness and mystery, rather it was a protecting front from the rest of the world...if that makes sense. We would just stand at the shore and feel the waves a little bit pulling us deeper into the sand. We then took pictures by an unoccupied (vacant?) lifeguard seat haha.

Later on we went to Häagen-Dazs and some of us ate some milkshakes and smoothies. Mikey order one for me and him and then we were all just talking so much like about food and stuff (how Angel worked at Yogiberry) that he almost didn't pay haha. Awkward...

We all then went back to the hotel and took showers. We then played mahjong and Lee and Minsung finally arrived. We hung out for a bit until 3:30 am...learning and playing mahjong...
-------------------------------------
Saturday:
We woke up around 5 am...or maybe it was 5:30 and had like two hours of sleep. I felt like I had slept for four hours, but Vincent and a couple other people kept saying how they felt like they felt like they just closed their eyes and then had to wake up. I didn't want to say anything about how much rest I felt I got...haha



I rode with Wilkin and it was really tough to find parking, we missed the sunrise. However, we found a really nice spot where it was really open and it was basically just us on the beach. I liked being able to see the sun without having my eyes hurt. The beach was nice too, there were not that many waves and it is always nice just feeling the water on my feet. The sky was beautiful =] Clouds always remind me of paintings...weird huh...how ironic, just goes to show how "civilized" we are...

We then all went to head back to sleep. We first went to get free complimentary breakfast and then me, Vincent, and Mikey stayed at the breakfast place of the hotel and just talked about how we were incoming sophomores. We then went back to our rooms. Jarren and Minsung were fast asleep in our rooms and me and Vincent couldn't go back to sleep so we just watched TV and played cards. Jarren and Minsung woke up soon enough.

Get this...these two people were the first ones to sleep. Minsung, because he was tired from driving, kept saying, "oo mann o mann" when he arrived haha but yea I don't blame him. Jarren wanted to sleep because he didn't feel like playing mahjong. So Jarren and Minsung went to sleep first as in not 3am, then they didn't want to wake up for the sunrise, so they slept even more. Jarren was boasting, "Man I got 6 hours of sleep while on vacation!" They went to go eat breakfast before it closed. Me and Vincent then just watched TV and did whatever. I think we were watching videos on my iTouch. Jarren and Minsung then arrived and Minsung went back to sleep. He didn't want to sleep though, but he couldn't do anything because everyone was sleeping.

Me, Vincent, and Jarren decided to talk about things like different preachers, such as Benny Hinn, different denominations such as Pentecostal and different ideas about Calvinism vs Arminianism. Jarren stated that depending on what you believe, you can be restricted by how much you can grow...with the basis that there are not many good, strong Arminian preachers.

By the time everyone woke up, we all decided to meet and do a devotional time. It lasted somewhat long. Jarren talked about many analogies about sin and the sand, walking away from sin. We then talked about open air preaching. I think we talked about our spiritual walks and many people that I talked to recently told me that they have been "spiritually dry." I'm not too sure about what that exactly means.

Then we went to Five Guys. Yes, again another burger/American greasy food place...we all got our food and then we all prayed together before eating. It thought it was nice...language and culture dominated our discussions. The whole time I was learning how to say phrases like, "what did you order?" "what are you ordering?" in cantonese.

A nice part of our trip...after we finished eating, a lady by the name of Kathy Goodman or Cathy Goodman? She came up to us and gave us a napkin with writing on it.

"May God bless you young people richly! Always...always! follow Christ regardless of the cost!"

Jarren caught eye of it and me and him rushed out to go find her. Wilkin came behind too and ran with us. We saw her before she got into her car and she immediately closed her door and walked up to us. It was kind of weird...She seemed to have the expression, "Oh here they are...they came to find me..." I am glad Jarren is one of those talkative people because I wouldn't have known what to say to her. But Jarren simply just told her more about ourselves and KCM. She seemed really interested in us, but I can say, it didn't seem she was too enthusiastic about meeting us. She simply just asked questions as if she was asking for directions, "so what college are you guys from? (so I make a right here and then pass two lights?)" I'm just calling it like it is. But she did say some encouraging words (and these said with more enthusiasm). She told us how important it is for us to keep our faith. She encouraged us stay strong in our faith and told us that without a doubt, there will be tough times in our lives, because it is hard to live. She told us that she was observing us, the way we waited for each other to pray, the way we conducted ourselves. She said that we are not the "typical group". And she said she sensed that we were real christians rather than "christians." She even made the 'quote gesture' with her two fingers when she said "christians." haha I thought it was nice of her to encourage us, and yet kinda stressing, or burdening, or I don't know. Just knowing that there are going to be tough times. It isn't something good to hear...in a way...but I always knew anyways we were going to suffer for Christ and face hardship to help refine and sanctify us.

Then after we headed towards the beach. In the car I just kept practicing my cantonese with Vincent. We finally got parked and paid $20 to park somewhere for the whole day...amazing, again I use it to say, "man what a rip off." In the car was me, Angel, Wilkin, and Vincent. We all decided to go through all the stores. I don't know why, but we spent an hour just looking through stores and seeing whatever was being sold. We saw this one place where everything changes color when exposed to UV rays, or the sun...that was kinda cool. Then Suzie kept calling and telling us to meet her. So we finally headed off to the beach. We all had to pee though.. so we went to hotels and peed.

The beach wasn't as fun as I hoped. We just went in the water for about 40 min and the rest of the time we played games on the beach. We played mafia (amazingly Minsung was mafia for all three rounds) and some noun game me, Wilkin, Angel, and Vincent learned at Chesed. Playing in the water was really fun. I like swimming through the waves. It is almost like flying sometimes...We played with Lee and his board. We were playing some slap game, with the board as our table.

The highlight of the beach:

There's nothing else to say...haha
Just in case this video got deleted. Basically we buried people in sand. We buried Mikey and then Jarren tried to attract some seagulls by throwing a trail of bread to Mikey. It was just funny because Mikey couldn't do anything about it. He was stuck. It was just funny haha. He was trying to get out and kept yelling, "JARREN JARREN! Not funny guys, NOT funny."

We then decided to leave the beach and go back to the hotels. We all took showers, I think, and then met up to eat dinner. We all bought and brought so much food, we decided not to waste the ramen and just eat them there in the hotel. We used coffee makers to like get the hot water, and some of us went downstairs to get hot water. There were a lot of like wafers and crackers to eat too. I was playing with my cellphones ability to play beats haha.

After dinner/rest, we decided to just play some games. Lee was kinda disappointed because he wanted to go out because he missed the previous day traveling on the beach. But oh well...haha...we played first scategories, which is a game Cheryl brought. It was fun to see the weird things we came up with. Me and Angel ended up winning with 31 points after like 5 rounds. WEEEE everyone was surprised because we came up with the weirdest things for each category XD.

Next came charades, which was fun and loud. Me, Mikey, Wilkin, Angel, and Lee vs Vincent, Cheryl, Minsung, Suzie, and Jarren. And these are the respective pairs for people who had to act. When it was my turn to act, so was Vincents. When it was Mikeys, it was Cheryls etc. Albert was like coming up with words for us. He came up with a lot of good ones like Genghis Kahn hahaha that Angel had to act out. Albert was amazed at how quick we were at getting things. Everytime he was like, "What?! How did you guys get it so fast?"

Next game was this post-it game. It reminds me of The Office when they had post-its on their foreheads and they had to ask yes or no questions to figure out what noun was written on their foreheads. Well anyways, it was really interesting and challenging. The funniest one was probably Minsung. He asked, "is mine an animal?" It was a seagull, but then next time he had to ask a question he was like, "mine's an animal right? Oh I know what it is, seagull" haha it was funny because he had such confidence it was seagull after only knowing it was an animal. Another funny one was Suzie's. She had Pooh and she couldn't figure it out. She was asking, "mine is a bear? a fictional bear? a popular cartoon bear? is yellow and wear's a red shirt...I can't figure it out" haha another funny thing was when people would ask a question, some of us would pretend to be hesitant...haha cracks me up..
Example: Jarren has Snorlax
Jarren: Is mine a pokemon?
Everyone: YES
Me: ehh well...ehh I dont kno..ehh..it could be...I mean sometimes...I guess...eh most likely...ehh
Me and Lee: hahahaha

haha just because it's annoying to have an answer like that when you ask a yes or no question. Isn't that annoying? It just confuses you about what yours is. Me and Lee were doing that to throw people off and make them wonder. Even if its an obvious yes, we were cracking up because we would throw people off. But then of course we told them we were just joking. haha

After that night the hotel room was really dirty, so I changed into sleeping clothes and did some cleaning. After that we ended up sleeping around 3am. We all decided not to go see sunrise because we were all tired.
---------------------------------
Sunday:
I slept with Minsung both nights, but when I woke up on Sunday, Minsung was gone. He had to leave early so he wasn't there. I had the bed all to myself. Then Jarren called and woke me up at 9. I told him to wake me up so we could go get breakfast. So we did. We went downstairs and there were so many people. I didn't want to bring up a lot of food because it would make me look like a jerk haha. So I only brought enough food for me and Vincent. Mikey and Jarren on the other hand brought soo much food. haha we left some leftovers when we checked out XD.

We were trying to leave the hotel at 11 so we thought about having devotions and breakfast around 10 10:30ish. So we anticipated that everyone would take forever to wake up so we decided to wake up everyone around 9:30. Everyone started getting pissed off at me hahahaha XD I just got so disappointed. But I can't blame them, they were tired. I was just pissed off kinda too because I mean I was awake. I woke up earlier than them and everything. I guess I was getting mad because they were getting mad at me. But anyways I decided to read Psalm 73. Then I decided to just rest and think about life and I think I ended up falling asleep because Lee was telling me to go sleep on the bed. But then I was telling him I was thinking.

We all ended up meeting at like, I forgot...haha but yea I ate some waffles and biscuit with sausage in between and a bunch of snacks. Then Lee wanted to try the noodles that I bought. Apprently they were filipino. So me, Lee, and Wilkin took my noodles and went down to fill them with water. The rest of the time we were just watching TV. I forgot what they were watching, I think Jarren got excited about ESPN that morning because he shouted it. So I guess they were watching some ESPN related stuff.

It was like 11:40 when we checked out. We all decided to go to the beach for Lee since he wasn't able to walk around as much. I rode with Angel, Vincent, and Jarren. Vincent brought his fm adapter so we listened to Jarren's iTouch. Since it was Sunday...haha...we listened to a sermon by Francis Chan titled The Resurrection: So What? I really like this sermon because it says,

"I just wanna ask everyone a question right now and I want you to all think about it, I don't want you to just nod your head and immediately respond. I want you to think about it. And the question is this: would you want to know the truth about God...even if...it's completely different from what you currently believe?"

Longest pause ever haha then me, Angel, Jarren, and Vincent started talking and were wondering if it was paused. But really...think about it

Would you want to know the truth about God...even if...it's completely different from what you currently believe?

Francis Chan also says this:

"I refuse to believe in it...you refuse? What if it's true? I still refuse to believe in it...you know why....most people's belief systems are based upon desire and not truth...every once in a while there'll be a person who pursues truth, absolute truth, and you can tell those people because they end up believing some things they don't want to believe"

These are just the points that really stood out to me.

We all then arrived on the beach and went through all the stores. Me, Vincent, Angel, and Wilkin did this the previous day, but we did it again with everyone else. We didn't stay that long and decided to go and head on our way. Hmm did I talk about every single ride? XD well anyways on this ride, it was nothing big, we just listened to music, like praise songs and Vincent's sleep mix on his itouch. It was kinda funny because Vincent needed to hold his itouch a certain way the whole time and he was trying to sleep, but he couldn't because if he fell asleep, there would be static in the speakers..haha so he just ended up awake. And then Jarren would be falling asleep too and randomly make comments while we were talking haha.

We ended up going to Burger King...yes...another...fastfood/american food place...
Hmm I forgot what we were talking about there haha but I was practicing my cantonese again. I remember me, Wilkin, and Vincent ordered Angry what's it called? But whatever it was, it was "angry" haha

We then left and were thinking about going to some outlets to go shopping, but it was taking forever, so we just ended up going straight to Honey Pig (gooldwegi).

It was cool, on the way to Honey Pig it was me, Vincent, Angel, and Mikey. We were talking about convictions. And I guess we came to the conclusion that its all about the person who has the conviction. Taking music as an example, if a person is not paying attention to the lyrics, then the song doesn't mean anything. But yeah, maybe I'll save this for another post XD I need to reorganize my thoughts. But yeah, it was cool because we were all talking about it together.

Ok..last part of the trip...haha
We finally arrived at Honey Pig. The inside reminded me of a lot dramas. Like when people go out to eat or go out on dates in the street. That's what it looked like. I guess that's what they were going for. It was like as if we were eating in the streets. It felt kinda dirty and the bathroom too reminded me of those bathrooms in the movies like when the characters are at gas station in the middle of nowhere. But yeah, I don't know what we ate, but Lee ordered. The people there made a mistake with our order, and then Lee was like talking to them and then it seemed like they were getting mad at Lee, but he said that no they weren't mad. Haha I don't know exactly, I mean I don't understand Korean XD.
But yeah, the food was good. It seemed like it wasn't a lot, but at the same time it felt like it was a lot. I don't know why I just said that. But anyways I got extremely full, and I felt bad when we got extra rice bowls. *shakes head* Everytime I'm with Wilkin, Vincent, and Angel, they always make me finish all the food. But anyways, yeah I ate like an extra half of a rice bowl. Something that I liked there was how they gave us like these huge lettuce kinda leaves. They would be like twice the size of our hands. Anyways, I would put meat and sauces and rice, and then I would fold it so that it was kinda like a burrito? or some kinda wrap. But yeah, it was good and apparently we're supposed to just stuff the whole thing in our mouth at once. I thought that was cool haha and then the meat was hot and it would like burn the inside of my mouth, that was not cool. But yeah, I think that was my favorite part of the experience, even though those lettuce leaves were all wet and my hands always got wet. It was definitely messy too (esp. if not eating it in one bite).

Ok so now it was like really late. I think it was 8 or 9 but now we were on our way home. I rode with Lee, Vincent, Albert, and Wilkin. In the car we were just playing this game, kinda like 20 questions. The nouns that me and Vincent had to guess were like stomachache? and thunder? Something weird like those. Yeah, it was a nice fun game to play...relaxing...I really like driving at night. Well I like to be in someone's car at night. It is just so like nice, you can see all around you, but no one can see you. The dashboard is right in front of you and glowing and you can just look around and see all the lights.

Wee, I am finally done with this post. I was thinking about like making it longer with reflections on the bottom. That was the original plan, but I'll save those for other blog posts. This one is long enough!!!

Psalm 73
1Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.
3 For I envied the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.
4 They have no struggles;
their bodies are healthy and strong. [a]
5 They are free from the burdens common to man;
they are not plagued by human ills.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
they clothe themselves with violence.
7 From their callous hearts comes iniquity [b] ;
the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.
8 They scoff, and speak with malice;
in their arrogance they threaten oppression.
9 Their mouths lay claim to heaven,
and their tongues take possession of the earth.
10 Therefore their people turn to them
and drink up waters in abundance. [c]
11 They say, "How can God know?
Does the Most High have knowledge?"
12 This is what the wicked are like—
always carefree, they increase in wealth.
13 Surely in vain have I kept my heart pure;
in vain have I washed my hands in innocence.

O Father...
These wicked people. Why do they get to have what they want. All the time. Why does everything seem to work out for them. They are not miserable. I am miserable. Lord Father, even my christian brothers and sisters. They continue doing things that I don't think are right. But they think there's nothing wrong with it? Why, Father? Why can't I do those things? Why am I given the convictions...even after they hear my convictions, they just say, "o." They don't think its necessary. But Lord, every pastor says its necessary. Every book out there says its necessary. So why not these friends of mine?
O Lord why do they prosper. Why when I do the right thing and they do the wrong thing, they prosper. I'm here Lord trying to do all the things you told me to do. It is so tempting to slip and just do what my fellow Christian brothers are doing. It is so tempting to just do what they are doing.
O Lord how long do I have to endure this hardship. How long will this go on? What can I do? Whatever I do, I will just get heartbroken. I will lose something. Every path leads to pain. What can I do? Pain follows me wherever I go.
How about my Christian brothers? They seem to be happy all the time. And I know Lord that perhaps they are not happy deep down. But I can't think that way anymore. Who am I kidding? They are happy Lord. They are. So why can't I?
Why does every situation turn out that way? Not every situation turns out that way?

²¹ When my heart was grieved
and my spirit embittered,

²² I was senseless and ignorant;
I was a brute beast before you.

²³ Yet I am always with you;
you hold me by my right hand.

O Lord, when things go against me, I forget so easily. I forget You Father. I forget that You are next to me, crying with me, looking at me with compassion telling me, "Henrik hold on...hold on...hang in there..."

Lord give me strength to stay faithful. Lord help me to remember You. May I no longer be sorrowed by things of this Earth, but by things that break Your heart.

²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you?
And earth has nothing I desire besides you.

²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
but God is the strength of my heart
and my portion forever.

²⁷ Those who are far from you will perish;
you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.

²⁸ But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.

Lord, draw me close to You. Hear my prayer...

So...basically this is a freewrite...(well aren't all blogs freewrites)

But meaning to say, I don't really have that much to say about this topic. I am simply recording this down because mainly it is something like a 'click' a 'realization'...if you will...(hahahaha I sound like an intellectual)

It is like the same as when I realized that every person is selfish. I used to think like, "but how about some non-christians who do good?" and I came to the realization that non-christians aren't EVER doing anything "good." Most (all haha) of the time they are doing it for themselves, for their own glory. I have to question WHY they do those things, if not for God...then for themselves? If not for themselves...then for their friends...BUT why for their friends? because their friends make them happy...because their friends do something for THEM...so basically its for themselves...

Anyways that's not the point of this post...

I was really confused today with the laws of the Old Testament.
Basically there's three:

Judicial(Civil), Ceremonial, and Moral.

I am sorry that I don't have time to discuss this in further depth as to why they are fulfilled by Jesus and the extent of their fulfillment...

I was really confused because like we don't acknowledge civil and ceremonial laws because Jesus fully fulfilled them not because He abolished it, but because He fulfilled it. Get it?
We don't fill the cup anymore, why? not because Jesus destroyed it, but because he filled it already. Is that a good analogy? Please correct me if there is a better analogy. The basis that Jesus did not come to abolish but to fulfill is found in

-----------------
Matthew 5:17-20

Christ Came to Fulfill the Law

¹⁷"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. ¹⁸For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. ¹⁹ Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
------------------

I think I got the analogy...

So pretend God wanted a drink and in order to go to heaven you need to give Him your drink. Now the cup symbolizes the law. We cannot keep the law, or we cannot fill the cup in order to obtain salvation because there are holes, caused by our sin. Every good deed we do just ends up leaking out, like instantly. Within one second it is empty again. So Jesus comes along and offers to fill the cup. When we accept, He doesn't destroy the cup saying, "God isn't thirsty anymore we don't need to give Him the drink anymore. We don't need the law anymore." Otherwise God is still thirsty. So instead, He fills the cup. He fills it so much to overflowing (grace abounds, my cup overfloweth Psalm 23:5) that the rate at which water exits the cup is so much less than the rate at which water enters the cup. Rate in > Rate out...dv/dt is now positive. Now you have a full cup that you can give to God. So when you go to God, He can drink and let you into heaven.
---------------------

But yea, to paraphrase, in other words? we don't keep the civil and ceremonial laws, but we keep moral laws. So I was confused what this means "we keep" such and such laws. What does this mean? Because we do not need to keep laws to obtain salvation.

We no longer have to obey civil and ceremonial laws yes? but then that means, we have to obey moral laws? Hold up..."we HAVE to obey moral laws?" "HAVE TO"

This is what was confusing for me because we don't have to obey moral laws either. Yes I know that doesn't sound right. But it's true isn't it? We are saved by faith and not by works. We don't have to obey...hmm it does sound weird. We don't have to obey God..what? So does that mean we can continue sinning? May it never be...

----------------
Romans 6:1-4 (NIV)
¹What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don't you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
----------------

Well anyways the main point of the post...
When we say we observe/acknowledge/keep the moral law. Matt put it as the analogy that these are the laws that we look at to become more like Christ.

We don't observe them for salvation but for sanctification

This whole post can be summed up with the last sentence...or the second to last. HAHA

Matt Chung's analogy:
Oh God loved me so much and Jesus loved me so much to die for my sins. I am so grateful. How do I become more like Christ? Moral laws okay!

This analogy makes sense, since we don't observe the civil and ceremonial laws to become more like Christ. Right? Except they do have some moral law behind them. We still observe moral law.
----------------------

It was just confusing because it seems like there are two ideas are on different planes. Different modes. Comparison of different fruit. It gets confusing. And to clarify things we should set up some definitions.

Speaking of definitions, what does it mean "to become more like Christ." I mean we don't want to become like God right, because that is the first sin. Trying to become like God. But trying to become more like Christ as in. To bear the fruits...

---------------------
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

--------------------

Wait what does the last part mean? "Against such things there is no law"
Ahhhh man...There is not law against such things?
Inputs? I'm just going to publish this now since I've postponed posting it too long XD