William Chong

Now that I’m married, I’ve decided to join forces with my new wife and set up a new online home together.

Our new website is:

http://www.chongsworship.com

I’ll still keep this site as a professional portfolio for the future, so check back once in a while to see what I’m up to personally.

Don’t forget to update your RSS and subscription links! Thanks for reading!

- William

Finally, a breather in life!

I’m pretty much settled in my new flat now. We’ve just finished a really cosy get-together with Paperclip, our weekly dose of friendship and camaraderie. And it seems like everyone didn’t mind too much sitting on the floor and eating pizza and wedges around a coffee table!

I like this place. It’s very warm, easy-to-clean, and well-lit. Nice clean walls, bedroom gets morning sun every day. I’m close to all the things that are important to me: family, friends, church.

Not-so-good things: an unevenly spaced set of stairs leading up to the entrance; some doors don’t close properly; there’s a bit of a drip over the entraceway when it rains heavy.

But then, good or bad, I remind myself: I don’t deserve any of this. God is a gracious and merciful provider. And in less than two weeks I get the humble privilege of sharing it with my best friend and lover. How awesome. Soli deo gloria.

“Great is Thy Faithfulness
Great is Thy Faithfulness
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed Your hand has provided
Great is Your faithfulness Lord unto me.”

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Good Old Bulletin Bloopers « Worthily Magnify.

Hilarious stuff via Jamie Brown! (Sorry for the lack of updates… those of you who know me know why…!)

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This list of emergency phone numbers is printed out, and pinned up at my workstation:

When in sorrow…………………………………………………………call John 14 
When men fail you……………………………………………………call Psalm 27 
When you have sinned…………………………………………….call Psalm 51 
When you worry…………………………………………………call Matthew 6:19-34 
When you are in danger………………………………………….call Psalm 91 
When God seems far away……………………………………..call Psalm 139 
When your faith needs stirring…………………………………call Hebrews 11 
When you are lonely and fearful……………………………..call Psalm 23 
When you grow bitter and critical………………………….call I Corinthians 13 
When you feel down and out………………………………….call Romans 8:31 
When you want peace and rest……………………………..call Matthew 11:25-30
When the world seems bigger than God……………….call Psalm 90 
When you want Christian assurance………………………call Romans 8:1-30 
When you leave home for labor or travel……………….call Psalm 121 
When your prayers grow narrow or selfish……………….call Psalm 67 
When you want courage for a task………………………..call Joshua 1 
When you think of investment and returns…………….call Mark 10 
If you are depressed………………………………………………….call Psalm 27 
If your pocketbook is empty……………………………………..call Psalm 37 
If you are losing confidence in people…………………….call I Corinthians 13 
If people seem unkind……………………………………………….call John 15 
If discouraged about your work……………………………….call Psalm 126 
If self pride/greatness takes hold……………………………..call Psalm 19 
If you want to be fruitful……………………………………………call John 15 
For understanding of Christianity……………………….call II Corinthians 5:15-19 
For a great invention/opportunity…………………………..call Isaiah 55 
For how to get along with fellow men…………………….call Romans 12 
For Paul’s secret to happiness……………………………call Colossians 3:12-17 
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ALTERNATE NUMBERS: 
For dealing with fear………………………………………………….call Psalm 347 
For security………………………………………………………………….call Psalm 121:3 
For assurance……………………………………………………………..call Mark 8:35 
For reassurance………………………………………………………….call Psalm 145:18 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~PLEASE NOTE:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Emergency number may be dialed direct. No operator assistance is necessary.
All lines to Heaven are open 24 hours a day! 
 

I hope you find it useful!

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From the Herald this morning:

 

Twangs of the ukulele will be heard in Auckland next weekend, as hundreds of schoolchildren take part in the BNZ Ukulele Festival.

Around 900 children got together in the shape of their favourite instrument at Mt Smart Stadium to help promote the festival on Saturday.

Up to 5000 people are expected to turn out to this year’s event – now in its third year – where various local and international ukulele artists will perform. [...]

Event manager Richard Thorne said the festival was born out of an initiative where primary school children learn how to play the ukulele rather than the recorder.

When I was in primary school there were recorder orchestras and everyone had a recorder of every colour. In hindsight I probably would have gotten a headstart on my guitar playing if they let us learn the ukulele at primary school age.

Though you have to feel sorry for the recorder teachers as they slowly get squeezed out…

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“Unless the LORD builds the house, whose who build it labour in vain.” King Solomon (Psalm 127:1)

Today, Cheryl and I signed our very first rental agreement.

With our wedding less than 3 months away, we decided it would probably be easier to make living arrangements at a different time to the madness of wedding preparations. And since Kim’s going back to Malaysia for a holiday in December, it presents a good opportunity to start moving things into our new home.

Here’s a brief Q&A session (yes, this is a new writing style called self-interviewing), for those who are curious:

Q: Ooo a house! Where?
A: We went for a 2-bedroom unit that’s pretty close to amenities, bus stop, and slightly easier access to the motorway. It’s nice and homely, gets pretty good sun, and has a single garage below us. It’s close to Howick and to family and friends we love and care about. Rent was at a good price for a location in Howick.

Q: Did you look long and hard for a place?
A: God’s been a great provider. We started seriously looking about 2 weeks before, but have been checking the market out in the Eastern suburbs for about a year now. We were able to find one we both liked in a matter of days (chalk that up to a blessed provision). After praying and asking around for advice (e.g. concerns and issues), we were told by the landlord: “It’s yours if you want it.”

Q: Aren’t you getting married in February? Or are you moving in together first?
A: I’d plan to move in first on my own, and Cheryl would move in once we’re married.

Q: I wanna rent too. What’s the market like out in these here parts?
A: Rental prices seem to have actually fallen slightly over the past year, but may pick up now with the economy straggling upwards again. We called and enquired about 10 different properties, Streetviewed about 15, and visited a couple that looked like potentials on paper. Not all were as beautiful as their Trademe photos…

Q: Why rent? Isn’t it a great opportunity to buy?
A: Yup, if you have a big deposit in your bank account ready to go (we don’t), and you know you’re putting your roots down in a particular place for 20 years (we don’t know). For now we’re content to rent and see where it goes from there.

Q: Why not just stay with your parents and save up your rent money?
A: As much as we love our parents and where we live, I think God knew what he was talking about when He said: “A man shall leave his father and mother, and be joined to his wife” (Gen 2:24). Some people we talked to shared their experience of starting out fresh and gaining a new understanding and insight (e.g. how to make your groceries go further when you’ve run out of money that week). Others told stories of conflicts arising from living with your parents as a married couple and running into difficulties asserting leadership of one’s home – who is the head of the house when you have a young husband and his father or father-in-law there? These are hard questions to resolve, particularly in my case when I’m a Christian and my dad is not.

Q: Can I stay at your place? Like in case I get locked out of my house and stuff?
A: Sure! I’ll look for a sofabed on Trademe right now!

If you’re curious feel free to ask more questions. Then again you may not really care! Whatever your disposition, it’s an exciting time for us. Your thoughts and prayers are appreciated!

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Written hundreds of years ago by the Puritans in frontier America. Ever-so-relevant in 2009.

SOVEREIGN GOD,
Thy cause, not my own, engages my heart,
and I appeal to thee with greatest freedom
to set up thy kingdom in every place where Satan reigns;
Glorify thyself and I shall rejoice,
for to bring honour to thy name is my sole desire.
I adore thee that thou art God,
and long that others should know it, feel it,
and rejoice in it.
O that all men might love and praise thee,
that thou mightest have all glory from the intelligent world!
Let sinners be brought to thee for thy dear name!
To the eye of reason everything respecting the conversion of others
is a dark as midnight,
But thou canst accomplish great things;
the cause is thine,
and is to thy glory that men should be saved.
Lord, use me as thou wilt,
do with me what thou wilt;
but, O, promote thy cause,
let thy kingdom come,
let thy blessed interest be advanced in this world!
O do thou bring in great numbers to Jesus!
let me see that glorious day,
and give me to grasp for multitudes of souls;
let me be willing to die to that end;
and while I live let me labour for thee
to the utmost of my strength,
spending time profitaby in this work,
both in health and in weakness.
It is thy cause and kingdom I long for, not my own.

O, answer thou my request!

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Come on everyone and celebrate! You know you’ve missed the regular musings of a genuine artist (since the start of fulltime work and life, sadly my musings don’t carry as much cultural weight). Dennis has resurfaced on a new website, and as with the continual reinventing we frequently do in life, there’s no trace of past reincarnations on D’s new online hangout. A quote:

I’m usually not one of those people who likes to keep re-cleaning their slate – I like my history, all the good and the bad, and I like seeing my own progression. But I think there’s a difference between coming to terms with your own history, and broadcasting that history to the world. That period of broadcasting is over.

I can agree with Dennis in that social media has given an unprecedented paper trail of my life. The start of my journey as a Christian coincided with the beginning of my blogging experience, and when I read back on old posts and thoughts it’s a rare glimpse and proof of ongoing sanctification and the work of Christ in my life. But like Dennis, these older blogs are now archived away in a memory (and perhaps a USB flash drive) – sorry for you rampant Googlers!

Check him out here: http://www.helpsendbobo.com/

Google have released a new “Dashboard” feature that lets you see what information they store about you:

https://www.google.com/dashboard/

You’ll either be unnerved by the Big Brother-ness of it all, or just shrug your shoulders and life goes on.

All you conspiracy theorists fire away… e.g. Google will be the new Antichrist…

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This is for all you Lord of the Rings fanatics out there, some brilliant work from xkcd:

http://xkcd.com/657/large/

The diagram’s scarily accurate (also includes other stories like Star Wars and Jurrasic Park) and must have taken a lot of work to draw!

Incidentally J.R.R. Tolkien was good friends with C.S. Lewis, and was an influence in his conversion to Christianity. Also, the Lord of the Rings is steeped with mythology and allegory: one could compare the struggles of the Christian life to Frodo’s journey as a ringbearer, or draw parallels to Aragorn and Jesus as returning Kings. Obviously the Christian themes and messages are much more overt in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia (here’s a satire that points this out).

From an interview with Colin Duriez, author of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis: The Gift of Friendship:

What Tolkien did was help Lewis see how the two sides, reason and imagination, could be integrated. During the two men’s night conversation on the Addison Walk in the grounds of Magdalen College, Tolkien showed Lewis how the two sides could be reconciled in the Gospel narratives. The Gospels had all the qualities of great human storytelling. But they portrayed a true event—God the storyteller entered his own story, in the flesh, and brought a joyous conclusion from a tragic situation. Suddenly Lewis could see that the nourishment he had always received from great myths and fantasy stories was a taste of that greatest, truest story—of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ.

So Tolkien brought the imagination right into the center of Lewis’s life. And then, through a gradual process, with the example of Tolkien’s Silmarillion tales and Lord of the Rings before him, Lewis learned how to communicate Christian faith in imaginative writing.

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