He's still on the throne

Church has gone through some tough times in the last few months. I've seen and heard some things that have been disappointing to say the least. A few months down the track, it's sad to see that the scheming has continued and that there continues to be people doing all they can to destroy the fellowship between bretheren. The more I hear about such things, the more it saddens my heart and the more I know it saddens God's heart too.

I have had to keep reminding myself that the battle faced is a spiritual one and as such, should be dealt with spiritually. Evil cannot be repayed by evil. The unforgivable need to be forgiven. And Rowena needs heaps of grace from God to try to make that happen. It's so very tempting to hold a grudge (especially if it seems to be well-deserved), but it's so very wrong. I know it in my head, but I am still trying to live it through my heart.

As saddening as the situation can be, I have to admit, most of the time I have been pleasantly distracted with serving God - and through this I have been reassured (many times) that God is still with our church. He is still on the throne, He is still in control. Our church continues to keep serving the Lord as fervently as ever (if not, more fervently). God's blessings continue to shower upon His people, and have extinguished the fiery darts that had been hurled our way. Though the church has been attacked on several fronts, she continues to be strengthened by the grace of God. God is doing a great work in our church.

It has been a joyous step in my faith to see God work in His church, teaching her, protecting her, blessing her, prospering her, and helping her overcome her trials. He truly loves His church and will continue to defend her jealously. And the best thing is - this ain't gonna change! He will, and always will, still be on His throne. God is awesome!

my attempt at being miss fix-it

I haven't blogged for a while now and the reason will be explained in this post.

For a few months now, my computer has been a bit temperamental. Sometimes when I turned on the computer, it would fail to boot up and instead started beeping incessantly. When it did this, it would sometimes turn on normally after I had turned it off and then turned it back on again, but a few weeks ago, it seemed as though the beeping was there to stay.

I asked Google and my brothers what I should do, and discovered that the reason for such an occurrence was due to a build up of dust in the computer. So operation de-dust began. First step, opening the computer. After undoing a whole heap of screws, that in the end, did not need to be undone, and re-screwing them in, I discovered there was one large screw on the computer that could be undone by hand. I unscrewed the large (and quite obvious screw). The side of the computer could then be slid away quite easily. First der-brain moment overcome.

I was now confronted with a whole bunch of electrical looking things - wires, green boards with metal bits on them and two fans. Which one do I take out and how does one go about removing it to clean it anyway? Enter my brother. After fiddling around with some levers and internal brackets, the fan came out and I proceeded outside to begin cleaning.

Second der-brain moment - blowing into the fan thing and then getting dust all over my face. I soon learned to blow and then quickly snap upwards to avoid another face-full of dust. It's really amazing to see how much dust gets into one of these little babies. Incredible. When I was satisfied with my de-dusting attempts, I then went back into the house and tried to re-insert the fan.

This took a fair while, but was done eventually.

Now for the moment of truth. I plugged everything in, braced myself for more beeping (meanwhile making sure I didn't have a cricket bat or something I could bash the computer up with - the beeping can be quite frustrating you know), and then switched the power on.

NO BEEPING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Whoooooooooohooooooo! I started yelling at the computer! Take that fool! I beat you this time! Whooooooooo! Yeah!

Minutes passed and the screen remained black. This isn't cool. The computer seemed to be running, the fan was working beautifully, the light on the computer was on, and most importantly, the brain-numbing beeping had ceased. But the screen was black, the keyboard lights weren't on, and yep, not even the mouse light had switched off. The forecast did not look good. Not good at all.

Now the computer couldn't be switched off as well. It was mocking me. I unplugged the power cord and felt a strange sense of anger, frustration and a little satisfaction all at the same time.

I consulted Google again. Google advised me (through other unfortunate souls who had encountered the same situation) that I had most likely touched something I shouldn't have touched and had therefore killed my computer. I had given it the touch of death. Third der-brain moment. Miss Fix-it had failed miserably. The computer was beyond repair.

I sat there for a few minutes in disbelief and then sulkily walked outside to watch TV. I could count on the TV to turn on at least.

So now the computer resides in it's normal spot, but the familiar hum that used to keep me company in my room is now long gone. I will have to take the old girl to someone who knows what they're doing to see if there's any hope for her.

In the meantime, I'm stuck with all the reject computers in the Cheng household that nobody uses cos they're too slow. So gay.

don't diss the bald guy

This passage in 2 Kings I thought was funny. The naughty kids in Bethel tried to make fun of Elisha as he passed through...

2 Kings 2:23-24 And he went up from thence unto Bethel: and as he was going up by the way, there came forth little children out of the city, and mocked him, and said unto him, Go up, thou bald head; go up, thou bald head. And he turned back, and looked on them, and cursed them in the name of the LORD. And there came forth two she bears out of the wood, and tare forty and two children of them.

And then got ripped up by some angry Mama bears... Moral of the story. Don't call people names. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will cause a bear to rip you up!