Pamparo in Toronto

Last night, me & my wife were watching a re-run of House where there was a conversation regarding prayer.

The atheist doctor asks, “Do you know why people pray to God”? And she continued to answer her own question by saying, “To let Him know how great He is, although He already knows that”. After a few more dialogs, Dr. House responded with the line, “They pray to their Gods so that they won’t be crushed like bugs”.

In my perspective, the writer got half the conversation right. Yes, we do pray to glorify and praise God even though He already knows that He is great. God enjoys the worship of His people. Unfortunately, the other half does not hold that much ground in Christian views. In the first place, Christians have already secured salvation by grace through faith in Christ. Therefore, there is no need to worry about being crushed like bugs. If anything, it should be the people who don’t believe in God that should be wary of this ever happening.

We, as a family, pray because we are thankful of the fact that in spite of us, we are still given the free gift of salvation. We pray for the many blessings that we receive and even for the trials that he allows to come our way. And above all, we pray to God to guide us to live everyday in line with His purpose and will.

I’m sure that there are many other reasons why people pray. But, because we are afraid is not and should not be one of them!

How about you, why do you pray? Or do you ever pray?

During the time of the prophet Nehemiah, he had a heart to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. In the process of doing so, he and the people of Israel were met with a lot different oppositions that came their way.

Read the the account of the rebuilding of the wall here: Nehemiah 1-7

Like Nehemiah and the people of Israel at that time, trials/criticisms/oppositions will come our way. But we have to act like them when we are faced with these things in our daily lives. Believe that God will be the one fighting for us!

… ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
– Zechariah 4:6

We have to continue to pray and ask God to give us the encouragement to continue. We have to have faith and trust in His words. As Jesus said of faith:

He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.”
– Luke 17:6 (NIV)

“Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, ‘Why could we not cast it out?’ He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
– Matthew 17:19-20 (NIV)

Besides, Nehemiah and the people of Israel managed to re-build the walls, didn’t they? But the most important aspect here is also written in the scriptures.

When all our enemies heard about this, all the surrounding nations were afraid and lost their self-confidence, because they realized that this work had been done with the help of our God.
– Nehemiah 6:16

Have faith my friends, God is in control!

Gabby’s Prayer

God has answered a prayer that my 3-year old son has been asking for ever-since he has learned to talk and had the notion of going to school. That is to go and study at John Fisher Public School. He was officially registered yesterday after getting picked in a lottery because that school is not his ‘official home school’. Nowadays, when he prays before he sleeps, he wants to be alone. Last night he prayed and gave thanks for his admittance for the coming school year. Just to see and hear him grow with the knowledge of God brings tears to my eyes. It has been a real blessing for us!

Voodoo Labs Pedal Power 2 Plus

I won this yesterday afternoon on EBay. It’s used and I may have paid more than what it’s really worth. But I am still very happy because …

1. I am saving over $100 by getting this instead of a new one.
2. It’s my first time winning an item on EBay without using the “Buy Now” feature. It’s shipping today.
3. I was trying to sell some of my gears to generate some cash for this purchase and it seems like I don’t have to part with some of them, at least my Voodoo Labs Sparkle Drive!
4. I would be able to power my Diamond ML (18V) with it and run my Zendrive/Bi-Chorus at 12V each.

Tax Return Fun

I am trying to do our tax returns before the end of RRSP (Registered Retirement Savings Plan) season to see if I need to acquire some more.The trouble is that I have been using Quicktax to do our returns but it only runs on Windows. I had to borrow my cousin’s Macbook with bootcamp. Last night, I spent my time patching the Windows XP. Finally, I managed to install Quicktax, imported my 2007 return and filled-up all the necessary forms. So far so good! With everything claimed (RRSP & Donations), I’m getting a pretty good refund. But I’m the type of guy who would always try to save for a rainy day. I will try to play with how much I can forward for next year and getting some money back as well. Looking at our returns again, I can’t help but recognize how God has been very faithful to us financially. Praise be to God!

My American Std Telecaster vs My Les Paul Studio

They are both priced evenly, stock-pickups, not entry-level guitars and they are both my own guitars. I said that because this is based on my own setup for this guitars and not for any Tele/LP in general. So far I am loving my Tele and been using the LP less frequently. I thought I was being bias because I’ve been using the Tele constantly since I got it. So I used my LP last week during rehearsal and Friday night jam with the real intention of using it on Sunday for worship. My ears just kept looking for that Tele twang and I had to revert back to it. Maybe its because of the type of songs we play or my rig just reacts better with the Tele. Maybe …

Friday Night Jams

I initiated this about a month ago for our church’s worship guitarists. We would come in every Friday to talk about basic theory, gears, techniques and whatever comes to mind like gears (did i say that already). The rest of the night is dedicated to just jamming! So far, it hasn’t fan out like I have envisioned it to be. There are two loyal attendees and that is more than enough encouragement for me to continue on. The plan is to mentor the younger kids and really introduce them to the more seasoned veterans (it doesn’t mean better players) in the worship team. As well as cater to the vets who don’t have a lot of time practicing at home due to some commitments. Also to be able to come in once a week and just let it rip! Let’s see how God will move on this venture. By the way, this is FREE of charge. My reward is being able to plug-in for 2-hours at least once a week!

My Random Thoughts …
Wow! I could have gone on and on about a lot of different things but I am just going to stop now. Next post would be random again … random rhythm guitar techniques and styles that we can use in worship!