How do we become Christians?

I think it was about a year ago when my childhood mate Joshua introduced a YouTube video to me. It was an hour long sermon preached by Paul Washer (from HeartCry Missionary Society) in a 2002 youth evangelism conference in the US. It was a shocking message, but to be more exact, a controversial one. In that sermon, he addressed errors in American Evangelism and taught Matthew chapter 7.

Today, I watched that sermon again for the second time, on the bus. This time around I fully understood what he preached. But now I am more troubled than ever, because what he says is so controversial that I don't know if I can believe him. If you were to google his name, you would even find a website claiming that he is a false prophet who teaches "Lordship salvation". In the sermon, he goes against what is now the mainstream way of evangelism, and challenges what he believes to be a single major heresy in American Evangelism. My mind is now in a state of confusion, of uncertainty, and of trepidation because if what he preaches is true, then many churches in the world might be wrong.

What I'm concerned about revolves around the primary question of "how do we become Christians?" Well you might say that's easy. From young, and in Sunday school, we were all taught that as long as we sincerely prayed a prayer to invite Jesus Christ into our hearts, then we are Christians, and our lives would be transformed. That means, we have believed in Christ and received salvation.

But according to Paul Washer, this is a heresy. I quote him from his sermon: "The greatest heresy in the American evangelical and Protestant church is that if you pray and ask Jesus Christ to come into your heart, He will definitely come in." THIS is shocking. If what he teaches is true, then so many churches would be wrong! I was brought up taught that I became a Christian by praying a pray asking God to enter my life. But Washer says that we become Christians through first repenting from our sins and then a transformation of our lives. Furthermore, he says that this repentance must be continual and not one-off. He says that it is a misbelief that one single prayer will grant us salvation... and that many who claim to be Christians are actually not Christians, they lead a life no different from the world, and will go to hell. Seeing the larger picture, he also claims that our view of Christianity today is based more on a culture formed from what's written on Christian t-shirts and modern Christian music than on the word of God.

I don't know, I'm confused and my mind is in a whirl as I type this. On Hillsong CDs, in the lyrics booklet, there will usually be this small section which says something like if you want to become a Christian, then pray this prayer acknowledging that Christ died for our sins and then ask Him to enter your life, and you are now a Christian. So am I supposed to believe that all this is not true salvation? Is everything I knew all wrong gospel?

Then those who claim that he preaches "Lordship salvation" and thus is a false prophet argues that the Word of God clearly teaches that a person is saved by FAITH ALONE in Christ. They say the Bible always speaks of repentance TOWARDS GOD, and not from sin, thus Washer is wrong... So I'm really confused. Who is right? How do we gain salvation? Through a simple sincere prayer, or through repentance from sin?

Perhaps the best answer is always from the Word. I'm no expert when it comes to Christian theology, but I know that any doubt will be addressed by the infallible Word of God. So I'll be studying the Bible for answers, and praying that God would reveal the truth to me in His timing :)

ACR / DNG converter update

HOORAY!! The folks over at Adobe has finally updated Camera Raw to version 5.2, supporting 7 new camera models, including the Panasonic Lumix LX3!

Finally, I will be able to shoot RAW on my LX3 and process the files in my preferred raw converter! ACR 5.2 is a free update available immediately at Adobe's website.

This plug-in for Photoshop adds RAW support to these following camera models too: Canon EOS 5D Mark II, Canon PowerShot G10, Panasonic DMC-G1, Panasonic DMC-FX150, Panasonic DMC-FZ28, Panasonic DMC-LX3 and Leica D-LUX 4.

Update (29 Nov 08): ACR 5.2 will ONLY work with Photoshop CS4 and NOT older versions of CS. The latest version of ACR is 4.6 for CS3.

I'm really upset

I didn't feel good yesterday... was both upset and angry with my younger sis. Maybe it's true that sometimes I do love things more than people, like my mum tells me... and it's a bad attitude that I need to change.

So yesterday afternoon my sister came back from her class chalet, and the first thing I asked her immediately after coming home was "where's the camera?" (Referring to the new LX3) She told me in a bo-chap way: "it's on the bed la."

So I went to her bed, unzipped the Lowepro Apex case, took out the LX3 and the first thing I noticed was the switch (to change between photo and review mode) was faulty... and not functioning properly. Then I scanned the camera body, cleaned the screen and my heart sank when I saw many many short scratches on the screen, and a paint chip at the bottom. That was when I just lost my cool. I went up to my sis, and began questioning her while she was still bo-chap and watching TV... I was really super pissed then, and started scolding and shouting at her. I flared up, used some strong words on her... but all she did was laze on the couch, continued to ignore me and pretend I was kicking a fuss out of nothing. What pissed me off was that I specifically told her 2 days ago when she left that if the camera comes back spoilt, I'm going to be mad... and boy I was.

Up to today (the next morning), she has not sincerely apologized to me, and now I have to send in the LX3 for repair by myself, at Bukit Merah. It's not even a month old, and only 2 days of usage with her... now I have to fix the problems she created. It's really distressing... I thought she could be trusted, but oh wells, how much can I trust a 14 year-old huh.

I hope both my sis and I learnt something from this. She should have been more careful with the camera, while me, I should learn how to love people more than things. But for now, I'm thankful for warranty.

Why LX3 over G10

The Panasonic LX3 and the Canon G10 are both superb cameras in their own way. These are high-end point-and-shoot cameras aimed at photographers who need a pocket camera to complement their dSLR. But I got a LX3 over the G10. It's my first Lumix, and I'm extremely pleased with my purchase.

Here's why I chose the LX3 over the G10:

1) The G10 shoots at 15 megapixels, while the LX3 shoots at only 10. I do not need that extra resolution, as I will never be printing images from a pocket camera to such as huge size. Those extra pixels will only serve to slow down my post-processing with the larger file size. Besides that, 15MP crammed onto such a tiny sensor is going to have its consequences. The pixel pitch is much smaller than the LX3's, and therefore, noise performance is slightly worst than the LX3's. But with both these cameras, anything above ISO 800 is only for emergency.

2) The LX3 is smaller in size than the G10. If I'm going to buy a compact camera, it better be small enough to carry around, thus my choice with the LX3. The G10 is heavier and heftier, but the advantage is it offers better grip (obviously).

3) The LX3 is cheaper than the G10, by about $100.

4) The LX3 has a wider and faster lens than the G10. On 35mm equivalent, the LX3 has a 24-60mm f2.0-2.8 lens, while the G10 has a 28-140mm f2.8-4.7 lens. An f2 lens, coupled with image stabiliser, will mean I can get faster shutter speeds on the LX3 than on the G10, and this is just what I need in low-light situations. Furthermore, the 24mm wide angle is an advantage when taking group shots, and is nice to have in landscape photography too. The compromise is that the LX3 only has a 2.5X optical zoom, and doesn't have as far a reach compared to the Canon. But that's fine for me: most of the time I'm doing wide-angle stuff. Your decision will vary according to your shooting needs.

5) LX3 does incredibly good HD video (1280x720 @ 30fps). The G10 on the other hand only does mediocre 640x480 video. The downside is that video on the LX3 is stored as Quicktime motion JPG, which is an aging format, and file sizes tend to be huge. But still, the quality is stunning!

6) LX3 has a switch dedicated to changing aspect ratios - 4:3, 3:2 or 16:9. The cool thing is that in any aspect ratio, the same angle of view is maintained. As a result, you make the most of the sensor's area, getting similar pixel counts in all modes.

7) The LX3 has some really cool scene modes, notably the film grain mode, which simulates B&W film images, and also the pinhole mode, which simulates pinhole images with strong vignetting.

8) The LX3 shoots up to ISO 3200; the G10 only goes up to a max of ISO 1600. Sadly, ISO 3200 on the LX3 is anything but usable. Still, it's an advantage over the Canon.

You Are Here (The Same Power) - Hillsong London

A simply amazing amazing track from Hillsong London's latest release, "Hail To The King". This is the full version of the song including the verse and chorus - the version on "This Is Our God" contains just the bridge.

Everyone knows Hillsong (Australia), but Hillsong London is a group that definitely shouldn't be neglected too, because of such songs like this. It has very very powerful lyrics that speak directly to the heart... but most of all, it is inspired from the word of God, which says that the same power that conquered the grave lives in our very being, and with that nothing is impossible through God.



I was crazy enough to get the lyrics and figured out the chords... the key is in C:


I want to get this soon!

Darn!

Now my younger sister has a faster, cooler laptop than me!