We shall not be mastered by sin

There has been many adventurous ups and downs with Jesus since the beginning of this year. That said, my spiritual walk with God dipped quite a bit after coming back from a YEP recce trip to Sri Lanka. I'm not sure why too. But many praises to God, for He keeps sending friends along the way to lend some spiritual support. Guess I'm on the amazing race with Jesus again after a 2 week struggle. Recently, I have the chance to talk to this sister on a few Chrisitian themes, ranging from simple faith to our church distinctives. I suppose she got me interested on the notion of grace and works. I switched my QT focus from psalms and proverbs to more contemporary themes in the NT, and was prompted to look into 1 corinthians.

Somehow, this verse captured my attention:

1 Cor 6:18-20"Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body."

This verse ends Paul's warning on sexual immorality in chapter 6, and is parallel to an earlier verse that says "everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything" (v12).

In a way, verse 12 summarizes the freedom that a believer is entitled to in the New Testament. In fact, the verse is repeated again in chapter 10 verse 23, when Paul talks explicitly about the freedom that Christians are entitled to by the covenant of Christ.

Perhaps, when we are given the 'freedom' to play with sins that come in shades of gray - that feeling of anger, to tell a white lie, a quick look at lewd movie posters or ads - we tend to use it to our own advantage; we are unable to say 'No' to sins.

But Titus 2:11-12 promises us that "for the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions..."

Indeed, the discipline to say 'No' to sins is crucial if we desire to have an intimate relationship with God. But how do we master the discipline to say 'No'? Do we follow the laws written down, or simply claim the promise of grace that will lead us to an inner strength to say 'No'? By grace, it means that we do not have to do anything at all!

Romans 6:12-14 says that "Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires... for sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace." I looked into my NIV study bible, and it says that this verse does not mean that I'm freed from all moral authority. I have indeed been freed from the law; for law provides no enablement to resist the power of sin; laws entails a certain condemnation for the sinner; for it is only through the laws that he is made aware of his sins. On the other hand, grace enables, and gives us that positive freedom to discipline ourselves.

I suppose the bottomline is not to abuse this grace, which usually happens when one does not have a true experience of the reality of Jesus Christ, or does not press hard enough to seek Him. By seeking him, it does not mean that we are 'working' our salvation towards Jesus, but rather preparing ourselves to enjoy the banquet with Him when we are in heaven.

Through our faith in Christ, we are already sanctified; set apart for God. This is sometimes known as positional sanctification. But because of the holy spirit that is working in us through the positional sanctification, we cannot not do anything about our lives to discipline our spiritual walk. It is not so much of us working our spiritual discipline, but trusting in the holy spirit to continue to renew our being, otherwise known as progressive sanctification.

Thus, this is why although Paul has much to criticize about the immorality of the Corinthians, he still called them 'sanctified' (chapter 1, verse 2), because of their positional sanctification. It is their progressive sanctification that Paul is concerned, and it something that God is concerned in our modern society where vices and virtues are becoming indistinct and ambivalent. Like what Paul says in 1 Cor6:20, that we are not our own, we were bought at a price. I am not my own simply because I've been redeemed by the death of Jesus. All that He requires me to do, is to honor Him with my life.

How to write essays in a deceptive manner.

All USP students in NUS would have gone through a basic writing module on how to write proper essays. After which, you can visit the writing centre to say hi to the writing assistants, or ask them for more help when your essay does not seem to make any sense. While the folks in writing centre are well trained to spot your motives and thesis, they usually do not give any advice (unless you bribe them with milo) on how to turn on the sex appeal of essays. Thus, while a good essay will give you...say a B+, writing it with style will push you to an A-, or an A.

While my own works are not fantastic, I have learnt a few tips that can be deployed in times of desperation.

1) Be your professor's friend, not just a student. Legend has it that a professor in NUS gave a student an F for her 20% essay. Yet, she managed to get an A grade for her final results. The bottom line is to be nice and friendly, and make sure he is someone up there in the department, not some senior lecturer. SMS him once in a while. Your friendship will come in handy when you realised your 15 page essay is due the next day, and you are stuck with the first sentence.

2) After securing the friendship, it is time to impress him with bourgeois ideas. Most professors are discrete neo-marxists who believe in the proletarian cause but like to use bourgeois language in their lecture delivery. Cross breed whatever that you have learnt in class with bourgeois ideas, such as art, film, high end cultures, religions and apply such hybridisation in a bourgeois manner in your essays.

3) What are bourgeois essays without bourgeois language? At every single possible opportunity, use bourgeois words in your essays.

i.e. 'sine qua non' instead of 'prerequisite', 'coup de grace' instead of 'strategy', 'weltanschaunng' instead of 'worldview', 'caveat' instead of 'warning'... you get the idea...

4) While we are limited in knowledge, it does not stop us from eluding a sense of knowing everything, by embodying key philosophical characters in every single essay.

Example - From a Hobbesian perspective, the state's Confucius ethos was nothing but a Machiavellian attempt, and a Gramscian coup de grace (refer to point 3), to subvert our Foucaldian gaze into a neo-Marxist alignment.

Okie...it is a nonsense statement...but if every statement can embody 500 years of eastern and western philosophy, the prof might just be tempted to give a plus in your grade.

5) Your prof usually marks his paper at night. He is tired and deprived, and the last thing he wants is to have confusing thesis. Therefore, the strategy is to summarize what you have written, in your second last paragraph. Forget what writing tutors said about the dangers of summarizing, fact of the matter is, it works most of the time. But I say, the second last paragraph, because you want to save the last paragraph for some twist and turns which leaves him unable to sleep through the night.

6) Dichotomize your thesis, contradict the dichotomy using words like 'within' and 'without', antithetical etc. Make the thesis sound more complicated than it really is. But of course, make sure you are not entangled in the process.

7) If all else fails, refer to point 1. That could be the only way out.

Asian Values and Vices - Who decides your cultural ethos?

Tourism is a cause and consequence of globalization, for it entails an increase in the movement of people across boundaries, such that the thesis and antithesis of polarizing cultures and identities create new synthesis of countercultures. However, the global upsurge of tourism becomes political when the state employs different strategies to construct an artificial but favourable image for global consumerism. Subsequently, it dictates the cultural evolution of local communities, through a ceaseless reduplication of signs, images and simulations which effaces the distinction between the image and reality (Baudrillard). As a result, the globalization of tourism practices a form of social tyranny on cultures that are not aligned with the national image.

While globalization has played a large part in influencing tourism and economic developments, it has the potential to wither away Singapore’s genuine elements and original character. The consequence of this withering effect is that Singaporeans have become lost and disenchanted, to the extent that it undermines the national identity of Singapore. As Singaporeans become entrapped between images and identities, should nation branding takes precedence over nation building or vice versa?

The endorsement of the casino reflects the government's intentional effort to suit tourism policies along capitalistic lines, since it will create jobs and generate the economy. However, the cultural identity that the government tries to project to the world - such as the idea of an "Instant Asia", or concepts of multiracialism, - means that tourism projects are correlated to the process of nation-building.

Consequently, the tourist is treated with an “alternating reality” of Singapore - it is oriental yet cosmopolitan, mystique yet modern, rooted yet ephemeral. However, the Singaporean suffers from a sense of disenchantment. In the vein of Jean Baudrillard and Benedict Anderson, the casino reveals a fact that we are living in a world of hyperreality, imagined communities, and a consumer society characterised by shallowness and self-gratifying enjoyment of inauthenticity.

Nevertheless, if any positive extrapolation can be drawn from the casino, it is that we are finally living in a post modern age, where cultural construction is determined not by the state, but by the walterschaunng of the individual. The CMIO legacy by the British will be slowly eroded away by the state's own indeterminancy of his cultural directions. To begin with, their appeal to Confucius values is a Foucaldian archetype and Machiavellian attempt to prevent Singaporeans from realizing his true Self, in order to prevent potential destablising political orders. Secondly, it remains a fallacy why we are always framing ourselves against a distant China whenever the state talks about Speak Mandarin campaigns or Asian values, when we are living so close to our Malay neighbours in a Malay archipelago.

Fact of the matter is, China is an economic behemoth, and the state cannot afford to cut off any linkages with China. This is why the Muslims' appeal against the state has fallen on deaf ears. The Malay archipelago has no bearings on the economic pursuits of Singapore, Singapore remains the Leviathan in the Malay archipelago, and has the capacity to over ride cultural sentiments.

If Malaysia and Indonesia are the new economic super powers - more powerful than US, China or India - one would be sure that the state will not give a go ahead to the casino, in order not to mess with the cultural ethos of the Malay archipelago.

That said, there is no Asian Values, Confucian values, need to speak Mandarin in a state that practices ideological hegemony for economic gains. Choices of life pursuits and moral discipline are left to the Self, and virtues would be pursued not as an end, but as a mean.

View from the other side

I was wondering for a moment, if I should pass the camera to you, and see reality from your perspective. But it means that you probably would not capture what I want you to see, or worse, capture images that are not meant to be seen. Perhaps, that is why I choose to keep the camera, and hide behind the lense; to see you from afar, framing the picture the way it should be. But the picture remains merely an image, and image can never be reality. Reality, at best, can paint a mirage for the thirsty and down trodden, but he knows that oasis remains an infinite distance away. And because he is drifting between images and mirages, smokes and screens, he must make the decision to escape reality at all cost, lest he'll never wake up in the unforgiveable sphere of reality.

Welcome to pseudo philosophy

Once in a while, we tend to deviate from social norms to pursue a life of aesthetics that is less travelled. It could be in response to a sudden enlightenment, or maybe just the need to differenciate oneself from the rest.

Strictly speaking, I have no idea how this new blog will evolve. To begin with, I think the template is disgusting. I'll probably do something about it after my exams.

But I know that space time is of no concern when everything in cyber space is a deconstruction of thy self. Thus, I will take my time, to implement an overarching theme in this blog.

Maybe it will center around issues that are fundamental to my humanity - religion, philosophy, political science, arts. For the last one, it is quite bull shit to say that I am an arty fart. Fact of the matter is, I'm not. I'm still a very science person in the way I think. In the veins of Descartes, I am a rationalist.

Still, I hope this blog will evolve to deal with issues of deviance, counter cultures, antithesis, and synthesis. And maybe the reader will get a better sense of the person that I am, the struggles that I do have, and the dreams that I usually subsume within all thoughts and practicalities.

Not making sense? It's ok.

I usually don't.