Daniel Shih - Achieving Life

There's a Bible verse that I've been thinking about a lot recently and it comes from John chapter 10. As Jesus explains in his sermon that he is the good shepherd, he says,

I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full

(John 10.10)

I've been thinking about it a lot because it strikes me that there are ways in which we may have life. There's having life, and then there's having life to the full. There's living as if each day is another day closer to an inglorious end and then there's living as if each day is another day closer to the beginning of something beautiful. Basically, you can live as if life didn't matter or as if it had supreme meaning.

There are two ways to live. One is without purpose, and one is with eternally significant purpose. (Camus was wrong. One cannot imagine Sisyphus happy)

My name is Daniel Shih and today I am here in Sydney, Australia because I have life to the full. I have it because Jesus came to earth, died my death on the cross, stood in my place in the judgment of my sins, and called me to faith in him, bridging the chasm between my sinful self and the God of the universe. To me, life to the full means these things:

It means that the object of my greatest pursuit is eternally significant. I have chosen to throw all of myself into attaining one thing and that is to glorify God. In all that I labor, I seek to make Jesus look good. To have life to the full means that this end that I chose to strive for is more important than any other end anyone on this earth can possibly adopt. There is nothing that anyone on this planet seeks that can be more glorious.

It means that I can pursue anything that I want without guilt. There are many other things in this life that I want besides to preach the gospel to others. I want to play Chopin's Ballade #1 in Gminor. I want to live in a Manhattan studio apartment. I want to own a weeping willow tree by a stream. I want to visit Greece. I want to be in a Coldplay cover band. I want to be ambidextrous at throwing a frisbee. I want to get married and have a daughter named "Sue". I want to break my previous record of building a 30-pound burger. I want to go one-on-one against a wolf.

Having life to the full means I can go after all the other things I want out of life without fear or guilt. This used to be a big problem for me. For most of my life (and I've been a Christian for most of my life) I had difficulty understanding why it was that Christians can have nice things.. It took me a long time to understand that the evil was not in the things, but in the attitude.

Ultimately, a sign of deep spiritual maturity is the ability to guiltlessly enjoy earthly treasures in the context of God's gifts. The pursuit of academic excellence; a successful business; an art or work of art painstakingly perfected; the companionship of a girlfriend or boyfriend; the satisfaction of beating a video game; the elation that comes from achieving an athletic goal. All these things are gifts. They feel good because they're supposed to feel good. Our Father knows how to give gifts. He knows that we like fish better than snakes or stones. And those who are confident in that truth can truly enjoy life. In the end, those who are gripped with the goodness of God, who are confident in the security of their true, eternal, secure, heavenly treasure; they will not be afraid of going after what they desire.

This is who I am. I am a son of God, endlessly pursuing God's renown. And I am a creature of God, created with gifts and passions and desires. I pursue them so that the one who made me will look good. This is what I ultimately desire with my music and with my involvement in cross.transmission: that when people see my skill, experience the music I create, and observe the dedication and determination with which I pursue the perfection of my craft, that God will be praised. And in doing so, I find utmost satisfaction and joy because this is what I consider living life to the full.

For his glory,
-Daniel Shih

Introducing! *drum roll*......

Wiley T! Will He Tee?

He's the lamest of the bunch (that's right!), a heck of a drummer (not really) and can't make his own lunch (not true).

Glad that you all (who are reading this, yes you) can be a part of this shambling journey of ours as we venture through the lives that we live within the scopes of God's uberliciously awemazing plan.

So as far as introductions go, let's go b2b, Back To Bass-Ix.

I'm Asian, I grew up in a place fondly known by the residents (and to the ire of non-residents, and even some residents) as "The Shire". As things go in "The Shire" Asian's are a rarity especially 10 odd years ago. So really, bit of a banana, yellow on the outside white on the inside.

What do I do? I'm a student at the University of NSW, studying a Bachelors of Commerce/Economics. Hoping get rid of the Economics part for Good. But I believe I have to improve my grades before being able to do so. Hummm.

What else? Hobbies? I'm a geek to the max, not quite a nerd coz I ain't smart n all, I don't diligently study. But when you play Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, and Video Games dating back to the late 80's and early 90's and wear shirts pertaining to video games. That's intense geek right there. (All in my humble or not so humble opinion).

I love my music, instruments I play albeit not well are Drums/Percussion, Bass and Piano. If I had the time/money/dedication I wouldn't be surprised if I chose to launch myself into learning every instrument conceived by mankind. But that would kinda be meaningless, also impractical. Let's leave it at that.

More importantly. I follow this guy, He's awesome and I think everyone should get to know Him too because that's just how awesome He is. He's done some crazy junk that I could only ever dream of doing (not that I would want to, because as I am, that's just impossible, and probably plain wrong). And because of this guy I can be joyful in this dark, desolate world amidst my fears, failures and sorrows.

Who is this guy? Jesus Christ :P

Yeah, so I'm Christian, been that way for methinks 2 and a bit years n counting. Go to a Church in Burwood called Gracepoint and my passion is seeing people come to know Him and grow in Him.

erm, what else do normal people put into blog introductions feels like I've written alot already. Da Shih, Roy, Ronnie, help me out a lil' guys :P

http://demonchicken.wordpress.com/

That's my old blog with some junk on it, I haven't updated it for 4 months at least. Feel free to check it out, that might give you an insight into the way my mind rolls. Now that I look back at it. Gee, what a silleh blog. But hey, I am silleh. :]

Anyways, guess that's all from me. I'll definitely be posting stuff up periodically here too, whether it be things I learn, things that have been happening and other junk.

I pray that the stuff I write will be edifying and that it'll encourage you and brighten your day.

Cheers y'all

Will

Musings of a Wasabiiwu

So it’s finally begun… it’s been ‘much delayed’ but hey, here we are, live and ready to infect the internet with our music and musings.

I’m Roywu and I play the guitar and whatever random iPhone music apps I can get my hands on. Rather than bore you all to death with my life story, I’m just going to provide everyone with a seemingly neverending list of things I enjoy/commit to/ponder/promote/dislike/etc instead…

Roywu loves cheese.

Roywu has an unhealthy craving for delay effects in every song cross.transmission plays.

Roywu is a bible-believing Christian. He accepted Jesus as his Lord and Saviour in 2006 at a Christian youth event called RICE - ironically 90% of the attendance were Asian. He goes to a church called Gracepoint Burwood, a place where by God’s grace, he has come to know so many wonderful people whom he loves and cherishes. He is constantly amazed that despite his own weaknesses, despite his constant rebellion and struggles with sin, God still loves him and continues to transform his life.

He occasionally wonders if foods will taste the same when blended.

Roywu can't walk in a straight line ever since he fell down 2 flights of stairs whilst seeking a toilet in a KFC in Hong Kong.

Roywu is a self-confessed movie junkie. Having watched countless movies over the years, here is a tiny sample of his experiences: He's shed a tear in 'The Green Mile', wanted to try a Big Kahuna Burger after watching 'Pulp Fiction', is still having nightmares from 'Event Horizon', and forever regrets watching 'Cinderella Story'.

Roywu thinks capes should come back into fashion. Especially the ones of the Dracula variety.

Dan Shih, Will, and Roywu once short-circuited the church's power by plugging 2 fans, 4 amps, and a laptop into a single outlet.

Roywu really dislikes the colour yellow.

He has recently discovered the art of folding T-Shirts.

Roywu is constantly on the lookout for new and creative music. From the age of 12, he has been exposed to the incredible sounds of rock. He once spent a whole day reading the entire article (and related pages) on Rock Music on Wikipedia. From Indie to Acid Jazz, from Prog to Funk, there's been a song for every situation and moment in his life.

He thinks music is an amazing gift from God. That the sounds, tones and melodies we hear can translate into the many emotions we feel, is a beautiful testament to the intricacy and magnificence of God’s creation.

I pray that this blog will be an encouragement to all who read it. That through our reflections, our music, and our lives, we can help you see the glory of God and everything that He's done through His son Jesus.

Dear readers,

Thanks for stumbling upon our blog! Cross.transmission is a project started by a group of musos from GracePoint Church. The four of us (Roy Wu, Will Tam, Ronnie Chiu, Dan Shih) started jamming together early in 2010 for fun, and we started realizing more and more that God has given us an amazing opportunity to glorify him through our gifts! Our hope for the cross.transmission project is to use the media available to us (this blog and our music) to build up God's people and to reach God's world with the gospel. We want people to be excited about Jesus, and we want our music to reflect that.

In this blog, you will find our reflections about God, the Christian life, and music. We hope that our writings will edify you, cause you to fall in love with Jesus even more, and drive you to pursue him in speech, in life, in love, in faith, and in purity with ever-increasing passion and vigor!

Our first four posts will introduce each of the four members in brief.

For God's Glory,
-Cross Transmission