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Welcome! kuribod.com is the personal website of Sam Divinagracia (that's me!) with the intent of placating demands of his family to know every detail of his life. if you've stumbled upon this site by accident, through random typing, banging of forehead against keyboard during a very frustrating debugging episode, or were forced by someone to come here, the owner of this site (that's me again!) would like to extend his sympathy, but would like to make it clear that he is not responsible for any insanity or religious conversion or both that may arise because of the said visit. the owner would also like to point out that he does not usually talk in the 3rd person. really, he does not. kidding (: . welcome to my site! this is my semi-blog... it is my hope that this site will aid you, my dear friends, to understand a little bit about my ministry at Grace International School, and maybe help you in your prayers for Grace, for Thailand, or for me. If you have any questions about me, about Grace, about Christianity, or anything that comes to mind (except cats) please send me an email: sam@kuribod.com ____________________________
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| 7/7/2007 |
| new blog |
| my website is not accessible from china, so amy and i are have a new blog: http://misoandadobo.blogspot.com/ |
there are a total of (61) comments |
| 4/18/2007 |
| us |
we're getting married! |
there are a total of (9) comments |
| 4/8/2007 |
| easter |
christ is risen! happy easter everyone! |
there are a total of (4) comments |
| 3/18/2007 |
| the two-edged sword |
| my friend and former colleague walt demoss (walt demoss for president!) was here the last few days, and he spoke at chapel on friday. sidenote: the near-converging of the two centers of the universe (kirby and walt) came very close to creating a black hole here at grace, which would have had catastrophic effect to the ten-baht ice cream inventory. the black hole was averted when walt was steered away from kirby by eric by giving him free coupons to something. walt is honorary dutch, and can't resist. back to chapel, walt was talking about his experience at moody bible institute in chicago, how he had an epiphany of sorts in the last months he was there. he was in a class, spiritual formation i think, and they were all arguing about theology, huffing and puffing and flexing their intellectual theological muscles (can you lose your salvation or not, according to hebrews chapter 6?) and he was reading hebrews and something struck him which i think i will write here so that i can say that i wrote something clever even if it wasn't from me. the verse goes "For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from its sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account." what struck walt, and it struck me too after he said it, was he felt that they were dissecting the word of God, like they were dissecting an animal. like most things in life, we got it backwards.. if you dissect a cute bunny, it will cease to be cute, and it'll be dead to boot. let me make it even more gruesome, because i am a blood and gore type person. if i examine my friend roberto to the very core, innards and all, i will probably learn a lot about roberto, how his internal organs work, and what kind of junk he has eaten. but i'll never have a relationship with him. it struck me hard because i was deep into theology for a while, but never really had a good reason why except that it made me look good. there was a time when i wanted to learn more about God, but the more i got into theology the more confused i have become, and more arrogant. it became harder and harder for me to accept other people and hear other point of views. mind you i am not saying that theology is not important, it is very important and it still is to me, but i think the motive matters a lot, and it could even be argued that it matters more. as donald miller says, to know Jesus is to have a relationship with him, not a powerpoint presentation. relationships are sometimes illogical, messy, emotional, imprecise, but it's the only way you get to know the person as a whole. going back to the verse from hebrews, the word is sharper than a two-edged sword. it is alive. it is used to examine us, not the other way around. the word is meant to cause us to change our mind (repent), because it exposes where we have erred. it is God's provision to us, to help us be who we are supposed to be - completed (telos) sons and daughters of God, through Christ. |
there are a total of (20) comments |
| 3/2/2007 |
| thoughts, and more |
i have come to give you life, and to show you how to live it. because i would rather die when justice is bought and sold just like weapons of war - derek webb, my enemies are men like me so amy and i were talking this evening, and i mentioned to her that i updated my blog, and it got my sister worried for some reason. curious, she went to my site and read, and i got a "what?!" from her. see, i never really understood why my sister got worried in the first place, then amy pointed out to me that my post made it sound like i am having a nightmare of a time in preparing for the wedding, and that she is made to sound like the crazy psycho wedding monster... to which i said , "yes of course" and threw my head back in nefarious laughter. kidding. i honestly didn't mean it that way. my friends can attest to my weird sense of humor, and seriously, i was poking fun at myself. planning the wedding itself is not too bad. it's not exactly a walk in the park with all the details to be taken cared of, but i think we're both managing it well (with the help of amy's amazing family :)). some people are getting nervous that we haven't done this or that (yes, mother, i will get you the address) but i think the esential things are set. all in all, amy and i can't wait to get married, and it's not going to be a fancy wedding. we'll have fun. and a barbeque for the reception. it's going to be great! going back to my previous post on hebrews and the sermon, one would note that a lot of jesus' teachings are counter cultural, counter-intuitive. turn your other cheek, go another mile. after miraculously feeding the mutitudes in the gospel of john, and people wanting more, his disciples left him when he told them that they have to eat his flesh in order to truly live, to satisfy that hunger that no food can quench. sometimes, people just want to see miracles. in hebrews, the author goes to length about why we should follow christ, giving a brief synopsis who christ really is. in the sermon, jesus tells us what to do, right after he was tempted in the desert. in my head, it's all interconnected, and i have a hard time organizing my thoughts, and sometimes it helps to write this down, so i will write this down here. more often than not, we are slaves to our flesh. on the very basic level, we eat when we are hungry, drink when we are thirsty. add a little more complication like society and culture, we need social acceptance, need to feel like we are succeeding in life. we work, to feed ourselves and our family, and sometimes, to show off. and for us who believe in Christ, who try to follow him, we are still (more often than not) motivated by the need to satisfy the cravings of the flesh, even in our worship. at least i am. for example, i find myself trying to please an audience of my peers when i do something good, instead of doing it because it is good. i want to feel accepted, i want to feel important, i want people to like me. when i play the guitar to lead worship, i find myself praying not to mess up so that people will like the way i play the songs. nothing wrong with wanting people to like you, i think God put that desire and other desires for a purpose. i can't imagine marrying amy and not wanting her to like me. of course i'd want her to like me. and i'd want to be important to her, i want her to accept me, and there's nothing wrong with that. it only becomes dangerous when we use those kind of desires and the satisfaction of those desires before or in place of the satisfaction that we could and should only get from God. more to follow... |
there are a total of (70) comments |
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