03/26/01: Ring Boy, Father's Lessons

Hi,

It was sad to see UCLA lose to Duke in basketball. However, Duke is one of
my favorite teams, so I hope they win the championship. They looked
awesome. I also watched the Academy Awards. I'm glad that Crouching Tiger
won best foreign picture and some of the other awards. It was good to see
many of the Asians in the film business recognized for their work.

Phil Lin was visiting LA with his adorable daughter Charissa. Steve,
Winnie, Charles, Genevieve and I had dinner with them. I'll post the
digital pictures I took to the BCEC alumni club on Yahoo tomorrow, so
please take a look. Charissa is extremely bright and curious. She even
took a few pictures on my camera, and used the calculator function on my
Visor (she can count).

Last week's puzzle is: "We have a bottle of wine approximately
three-fourths full. We want to leave an amount of wine in the bottle equal
to exactly half of the total capacity of the bottle. How can we do it
without using anything to help us?" Phil Lin is the only person to send in
an answer, which was correct. The book answer is: "Place the bottle
horizontally and let the wine gradually pour out until the horizontal
surface of the wine is at the middle of the bottle, as shown in the
illustration."

This week's puzzle is: "A man was sleeping in a hotel. In the middle of
the night, he woke up and could not go back to sleep. He picked up the
phone and called someone. As soon as he hung up, he fell sound asleep. He
did not know the person he was calling. Why did he call that person?

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could have a romance
with any fictional character, who would it be?"

Anna Man forwarded the humor piece. The inspirational piece comes from
John Piper's book, "A Godward Life", which I am currently reading. It's
pretty good.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
______________________________________________

Ring Boy

A little boy was in a relative's wedding. As he was coming down the aisle
he would take two steps, stop and turn to the crowd (alternating between
bride's side and groom's side).

While facing the crowd, he would put his hands up like claws and roar. So
it went, step, step, "ROAR," step, step, "ROAR," all the way down the
aisle. As you can imagine, the crowd was near tears from laughing so hard
by the time he reached the pulpit.

The little boy, however, was getting more and more distressed from all the
laughing, and was also near tears by the time he reached the pulpit.

When asked what he was doing, the child sniffed and said, "I was being the
Ring Bear."
_________________________________

Ten Lessons I Learned From My Father
>From John Piper's book, "A Godward Life"

Honoring My Father in His Eightieth Year

When my father invited me to speak at his nonretirement "retirement"
banquet at age eighty, I did not have to pray about it. There was no
question about the Lord's will. A son will say yes and honor his father.
I told the guests that these are the things I would say at my father's
funeral, but now it is a high honor and joy to say them in his hearing.
And now I get to publish them for others to read, even while he lives and
ministers. May his honor spread. God has been good to me.

1. When things don't go the way they should, God always makes them turn for
good.

Romans 8:28 was a prominent as John 3:16 in our home. I learned it from
the lips of my father: God works all things together for good for those who
love him and are called according to his purpose. This laid the foundation
for my life. This is the way God is. Life is hard. God is sovereign.
God is good.

2. God can be trusted.

My father never murmured at the providence of God, not even when God took
my mother at age fifty-six. The loss was immense. The crying was long.
But God was never doubted. "In God I have put my trust, I shall not be
afraid. What can man do to me?" (Psalm 56:11)

3. People are lost and need to be saved through faith in Jesus.

My father was an evangelist. His traveling absence from two-thirds of my
life carried one main message to me: Hell is real and terrible, and Jesus
is a great Savior. Mother never hinted that the absence of my father was
anything but a glorious privilege for us to support. It never entered my
mind to resent it. Nor does it today.

4. Life is precarious, and life is precious. Don't presume that you will
have it tomorrow, and don't waste it today.

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment"
(Hebrews 9:27 KJV). I heard my father say these words many times while
preaching. They were frightening words to me, and good for me. "Do not
boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth"
(Proverbs 27:1). He knew - and therefore, I knew - too many stories of
young people killed before they were ready to meet God. It was a serious
world to grow up in.

5. A merry heart does good like a medicine, and Christ is the
heart-satisfier.

My father was and is the happiest man I have ever known. In a sermon
called "Saved, Safe and Satisfied," he said, "He is God. When you fully
trust Him you have all that God is and all that God has. You cannot be
otherwise than satisfied with the perfect fullness of Christ." For all the
passion of heaven and hell, it was the happiest home I have ever known.

6. A Christian is a great doer and not a great don'ter.

We were fundamentalists - without the attitude. We had our lists of
things. But that wasn't the main thing. God was the main thing. And God
was worth everything.

7. The Christian life is supernatural.

Christian living is not possible without the Holy Spirit, and he comes in
answer to prayer. There is not a night in my memory that my family did not
pray together when I was growing up.

8. Bible doctrine is important, but don't beat people up with it.

He groaned over schools and grandmothers who split what the Bible holds
together: Speak "the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Truth and love. A
good marriage. Keep it together, son.

9. Respect your mother.

If you want to see Daddy angry, let me sass my mother. "Honor her" is what
God commands. And Daddy knew the price she paid to let him go away. Woe
to the son who spoke a demeaning word to this great woman.

10. Be who God made you to be and not somebody else.

If you are short, form a ball team called "Little Potatoes but Hard to
Peel". He never pressured me to be a pastor. Seek the will of God above
all, son. And be what God made you to be.

I write with deepest affection. Thank you, Daddy.

03/19/01: Babies, Chef's Instructions

Josh,

I had a great time this past weekend skiing at June Mountain with people
from my young adult group at church and our other friends. However, my
friend Eddie Liu broke his collar bone yesterday. So, please pray for his
recovery and that the Lord would give him the strength to handle this
situation. Thanks for your prayers and for praying for the items that I
mentioned last week!

A friend of mine Theresa Yuan is the VP of Business Development at Flavor
Software. Her company just launched a new MP4 player. MP4 is the next
generation rich media experience (more advanced than MP3). Their Flavor
Player is like having Napster, MTV, a DVD player, and access to the
Internet all wrapped up in one MP4 file. Please download it for free at:

http://www.flavorsoftware.com

For those of you in LA, if you are interested in entrepreneurship and
networking with others who are, I would like to invite you to attend a
monthly entrepreneurial dinner that I'm organizing for the Anderson Alumni
Association. Our guest speaker will be Bob Waldorf, founder and former CEO
of Idea Man, Inc. Bob's talk will be on "The Art of Selling". I'm sure
that you will really enjoy his talk.

Date: Tuesday, March 27th, 2001
Place: Daily Grill
Map: http://www.smartpages.com/home/dailygrill3
Address: 100 N La Cienega Blvd # 120 (Beverly Connection)
Los Angeles, CA 90048
Phone: (310) 659-3100
Time: 7 - 9 PM
Cost: $25 - $30

If you want to come, please RSVP at:

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?QC0BAV736MQK0JNRVCX3TRLJ
______________________________________________

Last week's puzzle is: "A doctor has a brother who is an attorney in
Alabama, but the attorney in Alabama does not have a brother who is a
doctor. How can this be?" Answer: The doctor is a woman.

This week's puzzle (slightly harder) is: "We have a bottle of wine
approximately three-fourths full. We want to leave an amount of wine in
the bottle equal to exactly half of the total capacity of the bottle. How
can we do it without using anything to help us?"

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could physically
transport yourself to any place in the world at this moment, where would
you go?"

Anna Man and Jenny Feng forwarded the humor and inspirational pieces,
respectively.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
______________________________________________

Babies

A second grader came home from school and said to her mother, "Mom, guess
what? We learned how to make babies today." The mother, more than a
little surprised, tried to keep her cool. "That's interesting," she said,
"How do you make babies?" "It's simple," replied the girl. "You just
change 'y' to 'i' and add 'es'."
_________________________________

Chef's Instructions

Which are you?

A daughter complained to her father about her life and how things were so
hard for her. She did not know how she was going to make it and wanted to
give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seemed as one
problem was solved a new one arose.

Her father, a chef, took her to the kitchen. He filled three pots with
water and placed each on a high fire. Soon the pots came to a boil. In
one he placed carrots, in the second he placed eggs, and the last he placed
ground coffee beans.

He let them sit and boil, without saying a word.

The daughter sucked her teeth and impatiently waited, wondering what he was
doing. In about twenty minutes he and turned off the burners. He fished
the carrots out and placed them in a bowl. He pulled the eggs out and
placed them in a bowl. Then he ladled the coffee out and placed it in a
bowl.

Turning to her he asked. "Darling, what do you see?"

"Carrots, eggs, and coffee," she replied.
He brought her closer and asked her to feel the carrots.
She did and noted that they were soft.
He then asked her to take an egg and break it.
After pulling off the shell, she observed the hard-boiled egg.
Finally, he asked her to sip the coffee.
She smiled as she tasted its rich aroma.

She humbly asked. "What does it mean Father?"

He explained that each of them had faced the same adversity, boiling water,
but each reacted differently.

The carrot went in strong, hard, and unrelenting. But after being
subjected to the boiling water, it softened and became weak.

The egg had been fragile. Its thin outer shell had protected its liquid
interior.
But after sitting through the boiling water, its inside became hardened.

The ground coffee beans were unique however.
After they were in the boiling water, they had changed the water.

"Which are you," he asked his daughter.
"When adversity knocks on your door, how do you respond?
Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean? "
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

How about you? Are you the carrot that seems hard, but with pain and
adversity do you wilt and become soft and lose your strength?

Are you the egg, which starts off with a malleable heart? Were you a fluid
spirit, but after a death, a breakup, a divorce, or a layoff have you
become hardened and stiff. Your shell looks the same, but are you bitter
and tough with a stiff spirit and heart?

Or are you like the coffee bean? The bean changes the hot water, the thing
that is bringing the pain, to its peak flavor reaches 212 degrees
Fahrenheit. When the water gets the hottest, it just tastes better.

If you are like the bean, when things are at their worst, you get better
and make things better around you .

When people talk about you, do your praises to the Lord increase?
When the hour is the darkest and trials are their greatest, does your
worship elevate to another level?

How do you handle adversity? Are you a carrot, an egg, or a coffee bean?

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

II Corinthians 4:8-9 - We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed;
we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast
down, but not destroyed.

"The greatest part of our happiness or misery depends on our disposition
and not our circumstances."

03/12/01: Urgent Prayer Requests

Josh,

This week, instead of having a humor and inspirational piece, I'm going to
ask all of you to pray for a few very urgent prayer requests and please
forward these to your friends. Thanks!

-Josh.

1. From Janet Chan, who sent this on Sunday morning:

Dear Josh,

I'm sister Janet, who goes to your father's church in Bayside, Queens. I
have an urgent prayer request that I would like to share with you and I
hope you can share also with others. We just received word this morning
that my husband Tony Chan's grandfather is hospitalized with massive
interior bleeding and in near death condition. We were planning to visit
him in Yangzho, China next month to comfort him in his battle against
cancer and tell him about Jesus Christ. Now today we greatly need and
appreciate your prayers for Mr. Chan senior and his family in China. Thank
you and God bless you.

Janet

2. From Cynthia Fong [who worked at an orphanage in Hong Kong]:

Pray for baby Andrew

>From: "Amy Glentzer"
>Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 02:16:06 -0800
>
>Hey Cynthia. I've just spent the day in ICU with Andrew.
>He's not well at all. He's in very critical condition and things
>are looking worse. I'll go again tomorrow and sit with him. Any
>changes and I'll let you know. Please pray for a miracle - pray for
>me too. I'm feeling pretty hopeless.
>Thanks,
>AMY

3. From Frank Goon:

Josh,

Can you forward this to as many people as possible?

I just got an email from a friend. The snow storm that passed through the
northeastern region has caused hazardous driving conditions. My friend's
roommate (Lisa) ... her sister and mom got into a car accident 3/6. It's
very serious. Lisa's sister and mom are in the hospital. Lisa's mom ...
they don't know if she will live.

Can you please pray from Lisa's family?! They live in DC area.

Thanks,
Frank

03/05/01: Knowing Women, Ice Cream

Hi,

Did you watch the "Mole" on TV? I really enjoyed this show, especially the
next to last episode. The final three contestants were each locked in a
hotel room. The only way they could get out was to solve puzzles and used
clues in their rooms, but the clues were to help their teammates to get out
of their rooms. I would have loved to been in this situation with two
friends, and try to work together to get out. I was thinking, perhaps one
day, a group of us can take some vacation to a new country, and half of us
would create the same type of logic challenges for the other half, and vice
versa. I think that would be tremendously fun.

I also wondered if I would have done well in the "Mole", or if I would have
been a good mole if I were picked. Let me know if you think you would have
been a good mole. Just being on the show would have been great. You get
to travel all over France and Spain, trying to solve interesting puzzle and
accomplish team tasks.

I am helping to organize a ski trip to June Mountain for my young adult
group at church, from Friday, March 16th to Sunday, March 18th. We have a
few more spaces available. The cost for the food and lodging is only $70.
Let me know ASAP if you're interested in joining us, and I'll send you more
details.

Many of you really enjoyed the weekly newsletter when it contained logic
puzzles. I finally bought a book with more of these things. From now on,
every week, I'll add a logic puzzle to the weekly emails. The book is
"Quick-to-Solve Brainteasers" by J.J. Mendoza Fernandez.

This week's puzzle is: "A doctor has a brother who is an attorney in
Alabama, but the attorney in Alabama does not have a brother who is a
doctor. How can this be?"

This week's thought provoking question is: "If you could ensure that your
child has one experience that you have had yourself, what would you want it
to be?"

Anna Man and Cherry Lu forwarded the humor and inspirational pieces,
respectively.

Enjoy!

-Josh.
______________________________________________

Things You Should Know About Women

Women love to shop. It is the one area of the world where they feel like
they're actually in control.

Women especially love a bargain. The question of 'need' is irrelevant; so
don't bother pointing it out. Anything on sale is fair game.

Women never have anything to wear. Don't question the racks of clothes in
the closet; you 'just don't understand'.

Women need to cry. And they won't do it alone unless they know you can hear
them.

Women will always ask questions that have no right answer, in an effort to
trap you into feeling guilty.

Women love to talk. Silence intimidates them and they feel a need to fill
it, even if they have nothing to say.

Women need to feel like there are people worse off than they are. That's
why soap operas and Oprah Winfrey-type shows are so successful.

Women hate bugs. Even the strong-willed ones need a man around when there's
a spider or a wasp involved.

Women can't keep secrets. They eat away at them from the inside. And they
don't view it as being untrustworthy, providing they only tell two or three
people.

Women always go to public rest rooms in groups. It gives them a chance to
gossip.

Women can't refuse to answer a ringing phone, no matter what she's doing.
It might be the lottery calling.

Women never understand why men love toys. Men understand that they wouldn't
need toys if women had an 'on/off' switch.

Women think all beer is the same.

Women keep three different shampoos and two different conditioners in the
shower. After a woman showers, the bathroom will smell like a tropical rain
forest.

Women don't understand the appeal of sports. Men seek entertainment that
allows them to escape reality. Women seek entertainment that reminds them
of how horrible things could be.

If a man goes on a seven-day trip, he'll pack five days worth of clothes
and will wear some things twice; if a woman goes on a seven-day trip she'll
pack 21 outfits because she doesn't know what she'll feel like wearing each
day.

Women brush their hair before bed.

Women are paid less than men, except for one field: Modeling.

Women are never wrong. Apologizing is the man's responsibility, 'It's there
in the Bible'. Hmmm, who was it that gave Adam the apple?

Women do not know anything about cars. 'Oil-stick, oil doesn't stick?'

Women have better restrooms. They get the nice chairs and red carpet. Men
just get a large bowl to share.

The average number of items in a typical woman's bathroom is 437. A man
would not be able to identify most of these items.

Women love cats. Men say they love cats, but when women aren't looking, men
kick cats.

Women love to talk on the phone. A woman can visit her girlfriend for two
weeks, and upon returning home, she will call the same friend and they will
talk for three hours.

A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage,
answer the phone, read a book, or get the mail.

Women will drive miles out of their way to avoid the possibility of getting
lost using a shortcut.

Women do NOT want an honest answer to the question, 'How do I look?'

PMS stands for: Permissible Man-Slaughter (or at least men think it means
that). PMS also stands for Preposterous Mood Swings and Punish My Spouse.

The first naked man a woman sees is 'Ken'.

Women will make three right-hand turns to avoid making one left-hand turn.

'Oh, nothing,' has an entirely different meaning in woman-language than it
does in man-language.

Lewis Carroll's Caterpillar had nothing on women.

Women cannot use a map without turning the map to correspond to the
direction that they are heading.

All women are overweight by definition; don't agree with them about it.
Women always have 5 pounds to lose, but don't bring this up unless they
really have 5 pounds to gain.

If it is not Valentine's Day and you see a man in a flower shop, you can
probably start up a conversation by asking, 'What did you do?'

Only women understand the reason for 'guest towels' and the 'good china'.

Women want equal rights, but you rarely hear them clamoring to be let into
the draft to cover the responsibilities that go with those rights. All
women seek equality with men until it comes to sharing the closet, taking
out the trash, and picking up the check.

If a man ticks off a woman she will often respond by getting a fuzzy toilet
cover which warms their rear, but makes it impossible for the lid to stay
up thus it constantly gets peed on by the guys (which gets them in more
trouble).

Women never check to see if the lid is up. They seem to prefer taking a
flying butt leap towards the bowl and then chewing men out because they
'left the seat up' instead of taking two seconds and lowering it
themselves.

Women can get out of speeding tickets by pouting. This will get men
arrested.

Women don't really care about a sense of humor in a guy despite claims to
the contrary. You don't see women trampling over Tom Cruise to get to
Gilbert Gottfried, do you?

It's okay for women to dance with each other, but you don't see men dancing
together.

Women will spend hours dressing up to go out, and then they'll go out and
spend more time checking out other women. Men can never catch women
checking out other men; women will always catch men checking out other
women.

The most embarrassing thing for women is to find another woman wearing the
same dress at a formal party. You don't hear men say, 'Oh-my GOD, there's
another man wearing a black tux, get me outta here!'
_________________________________

Ice Cream

Last week I took my children to a restaurant. My six-year-old son asked if
he could say grace. As we bowed our heads he said, "God is good. God is
great. Thank you for the food, and I would even thank you more if Mom gets
us ice cream for dessert. And Liberty and justice for all! Amen!"

Along with the laughter from the other customers nearby I heard a woman
remark, "That's what's wrong with this country. Kids today don't even know
how to pray. Asking God for ice-cream! Why, I never!" Hearing this, my son
burst into tears and asked me, "Did I do it wrong? Is God mad at me?" As I
held him and assured him that he had done a terrific job and God was
certainly not mad at him, an elderly gentleman approached the table.

He winked at my son and said, "I happen to know that God thought that was a
great prayer." "Really?" my son asked. "Cross my heart," the man replied.
Then in a theatrical whisper he added (indicating the woman whose remark
had started this whole thing), "To bad she never asks God for ice cream. A
little ice cream is good for the soul sometimes."

Naturally, I bought my kid's ice cream at the end of the meal. My son
stared at his for a moment and then did something I will remember the rest
of my life. He picked up his sundae and without a word, walked over and
placed it in front of the woman. With a big smile he told her, "Here, this
is for you. Ice cream is good for the soul sometimes; and my soul is good
already."

The End